Notes from the 1820s

1820 – Maine is admitted to the Union as the 23rd state.

 

1821 – Supreme Court case, Cohens v. Virginia, reasserts the federal governments right to overrule state court decisions. Citizens have the right to appeal to a higher judiciary.

 

1821 – Missouri is admitted to the Union as the 24th state.

 

1822 – Mexico becomes independent of Spain. United States recognizes Mexican sovereignty.

 

1822 – Stephen F. Austin leads 300 families south to settle in the northern Mexico province of Texas, on land he inherited from his father, Moses Austin.

 

1822 – The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy opens in Pennsylvania, the first of its kind in the United States.

 

1823 – In a document written by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the U.S. tells European nations that there will be no more colonizing in the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. is not equipped to enforce the newly written Monroe Doctrine.

 

1824 – Bureau of Indian Affairs is organized under the direction of the War Department.

 

1824 – Election of 1824 is decided by congress. Four candidates split the vote. Andrew Jackson and John Q. Adams received the most votes. Speaker of the House, Henry Clay, throws his support for Adams and Kentucky’s votes put Adams in the White House. http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail125.html

 

1825 – In what is referred to as the “corrupt bargain” Jackson claims Henry Clay’s support of Adams came as an exchange for Clay’s appointment to Secretary of State by newly elected John Quincy Adams.

 

1825 – Erie Canal opens for business in New York. Completed at a cost of $7,500.000 it is considered the most important transportation link of its time.

 

1825 – Designed and founded by Thomas Jefferson, the University of Virginia opens its doors for enrollment. Jefferson designed the buildings, wrote much of the curriculum, and helped select the teaching staff for the Charlottesville school.

 

1825 – John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey, invents steam powered locomotive for use on railroad lines.

 

1826 – 50 years (to the day) after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, two former Presidents and statesmen, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die – within hours of one another on Independence Day. Adams lived to be 90 and Jefferson lived to be 83.

 

1826 – Secretary of State Henry Clay and Virginia Senator John Randolph engage in a pistol duel over the 1824 election’s “corrupt bargain”. Both men deliberately miss their opponents and no one was hurt.

 

1826 – James Fenimore Cooper publishes The Last of the Mohicans.

 

1827 – 28-year-old Joseph Dixon opens the first lead pencil factory in the United States.

 

1827 – New York legislature abolishes slavery and 10,000 slaves are freed.

 

1828 – Andrew Jackson is elected president after a hard fought campaign, defeating incumbent John Quincy Adams. Electoral votes: Jackson 178, Adams 83.http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail128.html

 

1828 – Congress approves, and President Adams signs into law, a high protective tariff that southern critics have dubbed the “Tariff of Abominations.”

 

1829 – Unruly mob besieges the White House after the inauguration of Andrew Jackson. So many fans of Jackson converge on the White House that the President is whisked away for his own safety.

 

1829 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (the B & O) begins the first passenger train service in the United Sates. The short stretch of track is only 13 miles long.

 

1830 – Official U.S. census indicates the population has reached 13,000,000.

 

1830 – Under the new law passed by Congress (the Indian Removal Act), several eastern tribes will be forced to relocate on lands west of the Mississippi River.

 

1830 – Joseph Smith starts a new church in Fayette, New York and publishes the Book of Mormon - a translation of a book of golden pages given to him by an angel.

 

1830 – The city of Chicago is plotted on a map at the site of Fort Dearborn. The city will be incorporated in 1833.