First Political Party System

A.
The first political party system includes the Federalists v. Democratic Republicans. The Federalists, led by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, believed in a strong national government. They wanted to create a Constitution. They argued that government power should be used to promote economic development through a national bank. Democratic-Republicans, were led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They supported a weaker national government. They feared that federal involvement in the economy would benefit only a few wealthy northeasterners, and they thought that agriculture should still be the country's economic source. The second party system which included the Democrats v. Whigs differs from the first political party. Whigs, led by
John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster, believed that government power should be used to enhance social and cultural improvements. They also believed that public institutions like schools and hospitals could increase education and improve the health of people. The Democrats favored a smaller national government. Democrats encouraged the removal of Native Americans in order to open western lands to white migrants. These two party systems were different but they were also similar in some ways. Both of these systems would be ran by one particular president or leader. Also both systems included a two party system or two sides for people to vote for. Both party systems were looking to expand America both by land and power.

B.

Reform movements are a key characteristic in the antebellum period.
The reform movements were centered on democratic ideas. One powerful and widespread movement in antebellum America was the fight for women’s rights. Many citizens called for the right by women to vote and the equality of women. They wanted women to have the freedom and equality that men do and as well as the right to vote. Also the invention of the cotton gin helped the cotton movement. The South increased the use of slavery in many states, which led to the reform movements started by those opposing slavery. Due to the Second Great Awakening, many people led a powerful movement against slavery called the abolitionist movement. This movement would eventually force people in the south to stop using slaves and find another way of making money from crop production. Another reform movement they were focused on was education. They wanted to have public school educations which first started in Massachusetts. They wanted to produce a better educated generation that would help them in the
future.

C.

A cause of the Civil War was that the Union and the Confederates developed their economies differently.
The Confederate economy was for the most part agrarian while the Union followed along the lines of an industrialized economy. These different economies fostered different lifestyles that led to different political and social views. These situations further enhanced the tension between the Union and the Confederates. Along with the other issues the issue of slavery and the rights of the states was the primary cause of the Civil War. Slavery was deeply encouraged into Confederate society and tied to the agrarian economy. The issue of whether or not states had the right to choose if they wanted to have slaves or not was debated by Congress. The Compromise of 1850 helped in adding the tension between the states. It first made California part of the United States. Then it gave the new territories but not the states, the right to decide whether or not they should have slaves. The Compromise of 1850 made many of the Union states, who wanted to have greater political control,
angry.

D.

Reconstruction after the devastation of the American Civil War was considered a failure due to the failure of what many people wanted which was to mix the colored people and white people back into society both equally and fairly. Politically, the government did convince Confederate states to rejoin the Union. The Freedmen's Bureau was underfunded which caused most of free slaves to stay uneducated and still in the Confederate states. There was no land reform, meaning slaves were put into a sharecropping system and did not own their own farms, which might have made them more independent, equal and successful. The Black Codes and other laws restricting former slaves left African-Americans unprotected and subject once again to working for whites involuntarily. The effort of Reconstruction was cut off after only 12 years, leaving the economy of the Confederacy still bad and its population largely living in poverty.