The Rise of Jacksonian Democracy

1
Chapter 13

• The Rise of Jacksonian Democracy

2
Politics for the People

• By the 1820s aristocracy was becoming a taint,
  and democracy was becoming respectable.
• Candidates oftentimes came from humble
  beginnings, were from the west or were military
  leaders.
• Politicians now had to bend to appease and appeal
  to the masses.
• Western Indian fighters or militia commanders,
  like Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett, and William
  Henry Harrison, were popular.

3
Jacksonian Democracy

• Whatever governing that was to be done should be
  done directly to the people.
• Property qualifications for voting were all but
  eliminated and voting was based on universal
  white manhood suffrage.
• Nominating conventions replaced the caucus as a
  method of choosing political candidates
• Voter turnout increased

4
Jacksonian Democracy v. Jeffersonian Democracy

• Jeffersonian Democracy believed that capable
  well-educated leaders should govern in the
  peoples interest
• Jacksonian Democracy believed that the people
  should manage government affairs
• Jeffersonian Democracy reflected a chiefly
  agricultural society
• Jacksonian Democracy reflected an agricultural
  and rising industrial society
• Jeffersonian Democracy limited democracy to
  chiefly its political aspects
• Jacksonian Democracy expanded democracy beyond
  political aspects to include social and economic
  factors

5
Election of 1824

• Demo-Repub Andrew Jackson
• War hero from Tennessee
• Demo-Repub John Quincy Adams
• Son of John Adams and Secretary of State under
  Monroe
• Demo-Repub William Crawford
• From Georgia
• Suffered a stroke before election
• Demo-Repub Henry Clay
• Speaker of House from Kentucky
• Political rival of Jackson

6
Outcome of the Election

• All 4 candidates came from the Democratic-Republic
  an Party
• In the results, Jackson got the most popular
  votes and the most electoral votes, but he failed
  to get the majority in the Electoral College.
  Adams came in second in both, while Crawford was
  fourth in the popular vote but third in the
  electoral votes. Clay was 4th in the electoral
  vote.
• According to the Constitution the top three
  Electoral vote getters would be voted upon in the
  House of Representatives.
• The majority (over 50) would be elected
  president.

7
Corrupt Bargain

• Clay was eliminated, but he was the Speaker of
  the House, and since and Clay hated Jackson, he
  threw his support behind John Q. Adams, helping
  him become president.
• Clay was appointed Secretary of the State,
  thinking the office was a stepping-stone to the
  presidency.
• Jackson supporters cried foul play.

John Quincy Adams, left, and Andrew Jackson
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John Quincy Adams

• One of the most successful secretaries of state
  yet one of the least successful presidents.
• Minority president fewer than one-third of the
  voters had voted for him.
• Possessed almost none of the arts of the
  politician
• The tariff of abomination became Adamss biggest
  headache.

9
Tariff of Abominations

• Congress had increased the tariff from 23 to 37
  and then finally to 45.
• Southerners were appalled by the high protective
  tariff because it hurt them more.
• South Carolinas desparate situation
• Crop yield was down because the land was worn out
  from excessive cultivation, while at the same
  time the price for cotton went down at the
  market because western states produced an
  abundant amount.
• Now with the tariff southerners had to pay more
  for manufactured good.
• They also feared the federal intervention on the
  tariff issue would lead to federal intervention
  on the slave issue.

10
Denmark Vesey

• African-American leader. After many years as a
  slave he won (1800) 1,500 in a lottery and
  purchased his freedom. Intelligent and energetic,
  he acquired considerable wealth and influence in
  South Carolina. Using church meetings as a cover,
  he supposedly planned (1822) a slave insurrection
  with the intention of taking over Charleston,
  killing whites, and, if necessary, fleeing to
  Haiti. Accused by informers, Vesey was hanged
  along with 34 slaves.

11
The South Carolina Exposition

• The South Carolina "Exposition", drafted secretly
  by Vice-President John C. Calhoun, was presented
  to the state's House of Representatives on
  December 19, 1828 by a special committee charged
  with formulating a response to the federal
  protective tariff passed earlier that year.
• Argued that states should be able to nullify acts
  of Congress.
• If passed the law would set South Carolina up for
  nullification of a an abolition law.
• The "Exposition" made no direct impact on
  national policy but the theory of nullification
  was strongly asserted and given conceptual
  coherence by Calhoun's efforts.

John c. Calhoun
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Reemergence of the 2 Party System

• End of the Era of Good Feelings
• National Republican
• Adams
• Democrats
• Jackson

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Election of 1828

• National Republicans John Q. Adams
• Democrats Andrew Jackson
• Jackson had support from the West and South,
  while New England liked Adams.
• The political center of gravity was shifting
  west.
• Victory for the common man
• Revolution of 1828

14
Andrew Jackson

• The common mans president
• Rugged individualist
• Westerner and Indian fighter
• Had no formal education
• First president from the west
• Andrew Jackson battled dysentery, malaria,
  tuberculosis, and lead poisoning from two bullets
  lodged in his body from duels.
• Jackson used the power of the presidency on many
  occasions. He ignored the Supreme Court and used
  the veto 12 times, compared to a combined 10
  times by his predecessors.

Andrew Jackson is depicted on the U.S. 20 bill.
15
Jacksons Hatred of the British
16
Jacksons Use of the Spoils System

• The practice of giving appointive offices to
  loyal members of the party in power.
• Jackson replaced incumbent officeholders with
  members of his own party.
• To the victor go the spoils

17
Jacksons Cabinet

• Jackson had a mediocre cabinet
• Secretary of State Martin Van Buren as an
  exception.
• Rarely met with his formal cabinet.
• Met with an informal group of advisors that were
  dubbed the Kitchen Cabinet

18
Peggy Eaton Affair

• Senator John Eaton, a close friend of Jackson,
  had married the widowed daughter of a Washington
  innkeeper, Margaret (Peggy) ONeill. The local
  rumor mill ground out gossip that ONeill and
  Eaton had had an affair prior to her husbands
  death. The Cabinet wives, led by Mrs. John C.
  Calhoun, were scandalized and refused to attend
  events when she was present.
• Jackson was not pleased with this tempest,
  remembering how deeply his late wife had been
  hurt by scandal-mongering. He resented Calhouns
  inability to control his wife and was
  disappointed when Martin Van Buren alone among
  the Cabinet officers defended the Eatons. In
  1831, Eaton and Van Buren resigned their offices,
  putting pressure on the other members to do
  likewise. These resignations gave Jackson the
  opportunity to appoint Cabinet officers who were
  loyal to him rather than Calhoun.
• Led to Calhouns resignation and his hatred of
  Jackson.

19
Jacksons Veto of the Maysville Road Bill

• The Maysville Road bill provided for the federal
  government to buy 150,000 in stock in a private
  company to fund a 60-mile road connecting the
  towns of Maysville and Lexington, an extension of
  the Cumberland and National Roads. The U.S.
  Congress passed the bill, with a 102 to 86 vote
  in the House of Representatives
• Jackson vetoed the bill, arguing that federal
  subsidies for internal improvements that were
  located wholly within a single U.S. state were
  unconstitutional. Following this veto were six
  additional vetoes of internal improvement
  projects, including roads and canals.
• This dealt a blow to the American System of Henry
  Clay.

20

• Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and
  Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina participated in
  this famous debate of January 19-27, 1830.

21
Robert Hayne

• Hayne blamed the Tariff of 1828 for economic
  difficulties in South Carolina.
• Southern politicians hoped to forge a sectional
  alliance to repeal the tariff. If westerners and
  southerners could agree to vote for the Doctrine
  of Nullification and cheap federal land, both
  regions would benefit economically.

22
Daniel Webster

• Daniel Webster, for New England, insisted that
  the people and not the states had framed the
  Constitution, and decried nullification.
• He pleaded for the Union, ending with Liberty
  and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.
• Indirectly came out against the Doctrine of
  Nullification.

23
Jefferson Day Dinner

• A dinner cleaverly put together by southerners
  hoping to influence Jackson into supporting the
  Doctrine of Nullification.
• Jefferson was a states rights supporter and had
  used a form of the Doctrine of Nullification with
  his Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions that
  declared the Alien and Sedition Acts null and
  void.

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Jacksons Toast

• Our Union It must be preserved
• Came out against the Doctrine of Nullification

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Calhouns Response

• The Union, next to our liberty, most dear!
• Obviously upset with Jacksons response