Prelude to the Age of Jackson

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Prelude to the Age of Jackson

• John Quincy Adams and the Challenge of a New
  Political Order, 1824-1829

2
1824 Election

• 4 candidatesAndrew Jackson, William Crawford,
  Henry Clay, and John Quincy Adams
• End of Caucus System
• Beginning of Mass Politics
• Henry Clay and the American System
• Corrupt Bargain

3
Adams Presidency

• Personality not suited for more democratic times
• Ambitious platforminternal improvements,
  national university, scientific
  explorationsdoomed by personality and politics

• Struggled both with domestic politicsIndians in
  Georgiaand foreign policywith Great Britain and
  Mexico
• Tariff of 1828 was especial imbroglio

4
Manufacture of a PresidentTariff of 1828

• To get Jackson elected, Calhoun proposed a really
  high tariff, assuming it would fail
• Tariff ended up passing and south and west blamed
  JQA for it
• Calhoun shuffled and drafted South Carolina
  Exposition and Protest.
• Tariff issue insured Jacksons election but
  illustrated potential volatility of Jacksons
  cabinet and the peculiar nature of political
  discourse in the emerging Second Party System

5
Election of 1828

• Much mudslinging on both sides
• Jackson wins easily178 to 83 in electoral
  college
• Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson diedJackson
  blamed his political enemies for her death he
  considered slanderers to have murdered her

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Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson
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Epitaph on Rachels TombHere lie the
remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of President
Andrew Jackson, who died on the 22d of December,
1828, aged 61. Her face was fair her person
pleasing, her temper amiable, her heart kind . .
. . A being so gentle and so virtuous, slander
might wound but could not dishonor. Even death,
when he tore her from the arms of her husband,
could but transport her to the bosom of her
God.May God Almighty forgive her murderers. .
. . I never can. Andrew Jackson
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Hermitage Tomb
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Coffin Handbill
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Jacksonian Democracy

• More eligible voters more elective offices
• All but two states (Delaware and South Carolina)
  had adult male suffrage by 1828.
• Successful politicians had to appeal to the
  Common Man