Key Concept 4.1: The United States began to develop a modern democracy and celebrated a new national culture, while Americans sought to define the nation’s democratic ideals and change their society and institutions to match them.
I. The nation’s transition to a more participatory democracy was achieved by expanding suffrage from a system based on property ownership to one based on voting by all adult white men, and it was accompanied by the growth of political parties.
I. The nation’s transition to a more participatory democracy was achieved by expanding suffrage from a system based on property ownership to one based on voting by all adult white men, and it was accompanied by the growth of political parties.
A) In the early 1800s, national political parties continued to debate issues such as the tariff, powers of the federal government, and relations with European powers.
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B) Supreme Court decisions established the primacy of the judiciary in determining the meaning of the Constitution and asserted that federal laws took precedence over state laws.
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C) By the 1820s and 1830s, new political parties arose — the Democrats, led, by Andrew Jackson, and the Whigs, led by Henry Clay — that disagreed about the role and powers of the federal government and issues such as the national bank, tariffs, and federally funded internal improvements.
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D) Regional interests often trumped national concerns as the basis for many political leaders’ positions on slavery and economic policy
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Key Concept 4.1: The United States began to develop a modern democracy and celebrated a new national culture, while Americans sought to define the nation’s democratic ideals and change their society and institutions to match them.
II. While Americans embraced a new national culture, various groups developed distinctive cultures of their own.
II. While Americans embraced a new national culture, various groups developed distinctive cultures of their own.
A) The rise of democratic and individualistic beliefs, a response to rationalism, and changes to society caused by the market revolution, along with greater social and geographical mobility, contributed to a Second Great Awakening among Protestants that influenced moral and social reforms and inspired utopian and other religious movements.
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B) A new national culture emerged that combined American elements, European influences, and regional cultural sensibilities.
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C) Liberal social ideas from abroad and Romantic beliefs in human perfectibility influenced literature, art, philosophy, and architecture.
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D) Enslaved blacks and free
African Americans created
communities and strategies
to protect their dignity and
family structures, and they
joined political efforts aimed
at changing their status.
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Key Concept 4.1: The United States began to develop a modern democracy and celebrated a new national culture, while Americans sought to define the nation’s democratic ideals and change their society and institutions to match them.
III. Increasing numbers of Americans, many inspired by new religious and intellectual movements, worked primarily outside of government institutions to advance their ideals.
III. Increasing numbers of Americans, many inspired by new religious and intellectual movements, worked primarily outside of government institutions to advance their ideals.
A) Americans formed new voluntary organizations that aimed to change individual behaviors and improve society through temperance and other reform efforts.
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B) Abolitionist and antislavery movements gradually achieved emancipation in the North, contributing to the growth of the free African American population, even as many state governments restricted African Americans’ rights. Antislavery efforts in the South were largely limited to unsuccessful slave rebellions.
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C) A women’s rights movement sought to create greater equality and opportunities for women, expressing its ideals at the Seneca Falls Convention.
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