1832 | Political Events
Political Events
The (First) Reform Act that passes the House of Lords June 4 enfranchises Britain's upper middle class, doubling the number of eligible voters to 1 million after the worst crisis in the nation's political life since 1688. Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd earl Grey, has persuaded William IV to threaten the creation of new peers if landowners in the House of Lords continued to reject the reform bill as they did last year. Pocket boroughs (controlled by single individuals or families) and rotten boroughs (election districts with the same voting power as other districts but with far fewer inhabitants) are abolished, seats are redistributed to create constituencies in the new towns, and mill owners in the Midlands are enabled to agitate more effectively for removal of high tariffs on foodstuffs from abroad (see Ricardo, 1817; Wellington, 1828; Cobden, 1838). Henry "Orator" Hunt has spoken out in the House of Commons to oppose the Reform Bill because it does not grant universal suffrage to all males who have paid taxes, some radicals have argued that he should support any effort to extend the franchise, working-class Britons are disappointed to find that the Reform Act has not given them voting rights (see Poor Law, 1834; Second Reform Act, 1867).
Piedmontese authorities learn in March of plans for a June uprising planned by the Young Italy (Giovine Italia) society started last year by patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, 26, who leads an Italian unification movement. The rising is aborted (see 1834).
Austria's Prince Metternich aborts a German unification movement in July after a gathering of 25,000 at the Hambach Festival in May has toasted France's marquis de Lafayette, now 74, demanded a German republic, and threatened armed revolt. The Six Articles adopted by the German Confederation June 28 at Metternich's insistence impose on every German sovereign the duty of rejecting petitions of his estates that would impair his sovereignty. The Six Articles repudiate the right of estates to refuse supplies as a means of securing constitutional changes, and beginning in July all public meetings are forbidden, edicts against universities renewed, and suspicious political characters placed under surveillance.
Greece becomes a monarchy with the 17-year-old Roman Catholic son of Bavaria's Ludwig I as king (see 1831). Otto I begins a despotic reign that will continue until he is deposed in 1862 (see 1841).
An Egyptian army under the command of the viceroy Muhammad Ali's son (or adopted son) Ibrahim, now 43, marches through Palestine, defeats an Ottoman army at Homs, forces the Bailan Pass, crosses the Taurus River, and gains a final victory December 21 at the Battle of Konya (see 1833).
The aging Algerian resistance leader Mahieddin has his 24-year-old son Abdul-qadir (Abdelkadar) elected in his place in November to harass French occupation forces (see 1830). The young man has gained a reputation for piety and military prowess (see Desmichels Treaty, 1834).
Vietnamese military strategist and government official Le Van Duyet dies at Saigon July 30 at age 69, having served since 1820 as governor of Gia Dinh province.
The "spoils system" in U.S. politics gets its name January 21 in a Senate speech by Sen. William Learned Marcy, 46 (N.Y.), who says that he can see "nothing wrong in the rule that to the victor belong the spoils." Politicians will continue for decades to name cronies to government jobs and dispense favors that will enrich their friends (see Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, 1883).
Revolutionary War heroine Mary L. H. "Molly Pitcher" McCauley dies at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, January 22 at age 77.
The Battle of Velasco that ends June 26 has lasted several days and brought the first bloodshed between Texan colonists and Mexicans (see 1831). The Texans have tried to transport a cannon for possible use against the Mexicans at nearby Anahuac, the Mexicans have run out of ammunition, and the Texans have won the day under the command of Kentucky-born farmer-surveyor Henry Smith, 44, but he has sustained severe wounds, eight to 10 Texans have been killed, and 11 others wounded. The Mexican commander Domingo de Ugartechea has lost five killed and about 15 wounded. George Fisher has begun publishing the liberal newspaper Mercurio del Puerto de Matamoros, and a meeting convenes to address the rising tensions between Mexicans and Texans (see 1833).
Vice President John C. Calhoun's Fort Hill letter of August 28 to the governor of South Carolina gives a closely reasoned classic exposition of Calhoun's theory of state sovereignty (the Doctrine of Concurrent Majority).
The Democratic-Republican Party that has elected every U.S. president since Thomas Jefferson renames itself the Democratic Party. It holds its first national convention at Baltimore in late May and establishes the two-thirds majority requirement for nomination that will be followed by all future Democratic presidential conventions; Andrew Jackson is reelected to a second term with 219 electoral votes against 49 for Henry Clay, 18 for others.
Former U.S. senator Charles Carroll of Carrollton dies at Baltimore November 14 at age 95. The Maryland Federalist was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and has been its sole surviving signatory.
South Carolina legislators hold a state convention November 19 to protest the 1828 Tariff of Abominations and a new tariff law. The Ordinance of Nullification passed by the convention November 24 follows the principles of John C. Calhoun in calling the tariff acts "null, void, and no law" in South Carolina. President Jackson blasts the "nullifiers" in a proclamation issued December 10. Vice President Calhoun was replaced on the November ballot by Martin Van Buren, and he resigns the vice presidency December 28 to take the Senate seat of Robert Y. Hayne, who has withdrawn from the Senate to make way for Calhoun and been elected governor of South Carolina.