The Age of Jackson

1
The Age of Jackson

• 1824-1840

2
Denmark Vesey

• In 1822 a free black tried to led a slave revolt
  in South Carolina
• Convincing the southern states that their
  peculiar institution was in danger from
  possible slave uprising and northern criticism
• The revolt was quickly suppressed but the fear of
  possible revolts left a legacy in the southern
  states

3
Corrupt Bargain

• The 1824 election1. Andrew Jackson of
  Tennesseewith Calhoun as vice president2. Henry
  Clay of Kentucky3. William H. Crawford of
  Georgia4. John Q. Adams of Massachusetts
• All four were Republicans
• Jackson, who avoided all the issues, gained the
  most popular votes and the most electoral votes,
  but not the necessary majority
• Adams was second in both balloting
• Clay was fourth, the American System was dead

4

• The 12th Amendment said the top 3 vote getters
  would be voted upon in the House
• Crawford suffered a stroke and was basically out
  of the race
• Clay, the Speaker of the House, had been
  eliminated so he supported Adams because he hated
  Jackson
• Adams appointed Clay Secretary of State, the
  usual position before the presidency Jackson
  claimed the election had been rigged
• No evidence was found, but the claim hurt the
  reputation of both men, but the administration
  was hampered before it started

5
Adams

• Adams was very intellectual but lacked the
  ability to play the political game
• Adams proposed new roads and canals, a national
  university, and a national observatory
• The big issues were western land and the tariff
• Southerners approved of the roads and canals
  because they would help commerce, but realized
  that the government would have to continue to
  collect tariffs
• Opponents formed the National-Republicans and
  supported Jackson

6
Tariff of Abominations (1828)

• By 1824 tariffs were often as high as 37, but
  manufacturers wanted more
• Calhoun proposed a new higher tariff (45) on
  imported raw materials like wool hoping New
  Englanders would think the tariff too high and
  vote against it- thus hurting the president
• But New Englanders passed the law
• Southerners called it the Tariff of
  Abominations
• Calhoun paid the political price for the move

7
The South Carolina Exposition

• Southerners sold their products without a tariff
  but purchased products were expensive because of
  the tariff
• In 1828 John C. Calhoun was compelled to write
  anonymously The South Carolina Exposition
  calling for a nullification of the tariff by
  southern states or face the possibility of
  secession but South Carolina was alone in the
  threat

8
Andrew Jackson

• In 1828 there were 24 states and almost 13
  million people the population was doubling
  every 23 years In the election of 1828 Jackson
  was able to turn the people against Adams
• Jackson won the popular vote and the Electoral
  College (178-83) with most support from the
  West and South
• He portrayed himself as the Peoples President
  not an aristocrat he benefited from a
  national sense of democracy

9

• He was nicknamed Old Hickoryby his men and
  although not old aristocracy he lived in a
  mansion and owned slaves
• He was tough, from the west, a folk hero, but he
  also had tuberculosis, malaria, and severe
  headaches
• He let commoners enter the White House during the
  inauguration they broke pottery
• Jacksons critics called it the reign of King
  Mob other simply referred to the era as the age
  of the common man

10
Spoils System

• This was the first election since 1800 that a new
  party held office
• Jackson replaced older, experienced people with
  younger more impetuous people usually friends
  or patrons
• Jackson used the spoils system to reward people
  but often at the cost of experience and knowledge
• However the administration would center on the
  animosity between Vice-President Calhoun and
  Secretary of State Martin Van Buren

11
The Eaton Affair

• Peggy Eaton was the vivacious widow of a whose
  husband had committed suicide after learning his
  wife had had an affair with Tennessee senator
  John Eaton
• She had married Jacksons secretary of war,
  Eaton, shortly before his appointment and quickly
  became the talk of the capital
• Calhouns wife was particularly hurtful and
  continually snubbed Eaton at social functions
• Some other wives were doing the same

12

• Jackson felt sympathy for Peggy Eaton
• Van Buren, a widower, did his best to make Peggy
  feel better
• Jackson turned against Calhoun and closer towards
  Van Buren

13
Maysville Road

• Calhoun supported congressional funds for
  internal improvements
• Van Buren and Jackson had the same constitutional
  issues as Madison and Monroe
• In 1830 the Maysville Road Bill passed Congress
• The bill proposed the spending of funds to
  construct a road from Lexington (KY) to Maysville
  (KY) and was supported by Clay
• The road was intended to link with the National
  Road but was vetoed as being a local project

14
Webster-Hayne Debate (1830)

• The main issue of the debate was states rights
  or federal rights
• In 1829 Senator Foot of Connecticut proposed
  (Foot Resolution) the government restrict the
  sale of public land in the west
• Thomas Benton Hart of Missouri saw this as an
  attempt to prevent potential workers migrating
  westward and thus affecting eastern industry
• Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina saw the issue
  as a chance to solidify the strength of the south
  and west

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• If the southern states supported the western
  states they could create an alliance against the
  powerful northern states
• Hayne said the policy which favored one section
  of the country over another section endangered
  the Union
• Daniel Webster of Massachusetts defended the
  federal government by stating that Hayne had
  misunderstood the policy and that it certainly
  did not favor one section over another
• Hayne was now forced to defend the issue of
  states rights

16

• Hayne used the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
  (1798) and the Hartford Convention as examples of
  states rights
• He argued that the Union was a compact and the
  federal government should work for the states
• Webster responded with a nationalistic view of
  the Constitution. If a single state could
  nullify a law the Union would be a rope of sand
• The Constitution created the Supreme Court to
  make decisions of constitutionality
• A state could not nullify a law nor could that
  state leave the Union
• The Foot Resolution was defeated

17

• Jackson said nothing on the issue until the
  Jefferson Day Dinner in Washington
• Jackson made the toast, The Union It must be
  preserved!
• Calhoun made the next toast and promoted states
  rights
• About the same time Jackson saw old reports from
  Calhoun (when he was Secretary of State) that
  wanted to punish Jackson for his actions in
  Florida
• By 1831 Jackson had removed all the supporters of
  Calhoun from his cabinet

18
The 1832 Election

• Jackson agreed to run again in 1832 with Van
  Buren as his vice-president
• South Carolinians still wanted lower tariffs and
  when the tariff of 1832 was passed they gained
  some relief, but the tariffs on cottons, woolens,
  and iron remained high
• The South Carolina legislature became a
  battleground between the nullification supporters
  and the Unionists
• The state adopted the Ordinance of Nullification

19
Ordinance of Nullification

• The Ordinance repudiated the Tariffs of 1828 and
  1832 as unconstitutional
• The state selected Hayne as governor and Calhoun
  to replace him as senator
• Calhoun resigned as vice-president to defend
  nullification
• Jackson stood firm and issued the Nullification
  Proclamation which declared that one state would
  not be allowed to dissolve the Union
• Federal troops were sent to Charleston

20
Force Bill (1833)

• Nullifiers mobilized the militia
• In 1833 the president requested the Force Bill
  authorizing the army to use force against the
  state of South Carolina to enforce federal laws
• Henry Clay arranged for Congress to cut the
  tariff on cotton in half by 1842
• In March the president signed the compromise
  tariff and the Force Bill South Carolina
  rescinded the nullification of the tariffs and
  nullified the Force Bill (token gesture of
  defiance)

21
Indian Removal Act (1830)

• Jackson believed the Indians were savages and the
  country was better without them
• In 1828 Jackson stated the Indians would be
  humanely moved to the west of the Mississippi and
  resettled in the Great American Desert
• In 1830 Congress approved the move
• In 1832 Chief Black Hawk led the Sauk and Fox
  tribes against the resettlement program
• The Illinois militia massacred women and children
  as they fled Jeff Davis and Abe Lincoln were
  involved

22
Indian Policy

• In the south the Seminoles and Creek put up stiff
  resistance
• In 1837 their leader Osceola was captured under a
  flag of truce and died in a federal prison
• By 1842 most resistance had ended

23
The Trail of Tears

• In 1827 the Cherokee adopted a Constitution that
  said they were not subject to another other state
  or nation
• Georgia responded by passing a law saying that by
  1830 the Cherokee would be subject to state law
• In 1831 in the Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia
  Marshall ruled the court lacked jurisdiction
  because the Cherokee were a domestic nation and
  they had a right to their land

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• Jackson did not care what Marshall decreed
• The Cherokees gave up their land for other land
  in the Indian Territory, 5 million, and travel
  expenses
• In 1838 12,000 Indians set out on the Trail of
  Tears
• Only 8,000 survived the march to Oklahoma

25
The Bank

• The other big election issue in 1832 was the
  re-chartering of the Bank of the United States
• Jackson opposed the Bank, but under Nicholas
  Biddle the Bank had done well and prospered
• The Bank was due to be re-chartered in 1836, but
  Biddle could not afford to wait
• In 1832 both Houses passed a new charter but
  without enough votes to prevent a veto
• Jackson vetoed the legislation

26
Election 1832

• 1832 was the first time for a third-party
• The Anti-Masonic party was aimed at creating a
  democracy
• The Anti-Masonic party was first to hold a
  national nominating convention and the first to
  announce a platform
• The party nominated William Wirt of Maryland
• The other parties soon copied the convention
• The National-Republicans nominated Henry Clay

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• The Democratic Party (dropped the Republican)
  endorsed Jackson
• Without a platform the Jackson won easily
  (219-49)
• Wirt only carried Vermont
• South Carolina gave her votes to the governor of
  Virginia
• Jackson saw victory as a mandate against the
  National Bank
• Jackson called the Bank the hydra of corruption
  and claimed federal deposits were not safe
• Jackson focused on removing federal deposits from
  the Bank

28

• Jackson removed Secretary of the Treasury McLane
  from the cabinet for disagreeing and replaced him
  with Attorney-General Roger Taney who shared
  Jacksons fear of the Bank
• Taney started putting federal money in state
  banks or pet banks as they became known
• Biddle tried to stop the moves and show how
  important the Bank was by stopping loans
• However Biddle started a spree of wild
  speculation and the opening of wildcat banks with
  little or no worth
• Jackson instructed the Treasury to issue the
  Specie Circular allowing only hard currency for
  land contributing to the Panic of 1837

29
Whigs

• Jacksons opponents joined together to form the
  Whigs because it symbolized an anti-monarchy
  movement. Many people now referred to Jackson as
  King Andrew I
• The first signs of political power came when
  Clay, Calhoun, and Webster all joined forces in
  1834 to challenge Jacksons banking policies
• They were conservatives who wanted internal
  improvements and a market economy

30
Election of 1836

• Jackson selected Martin Van Buren as his
  successor
• Many believed this was simply Jacksons attempts
  to serve a third term
• The Whigs were unable to nominate a single
  candidate and instead nominated several based on
  region hoping to send the election to the House,
  where they might have a chance
• Van Buren, the Little Magician barely won in
  the popular vote, but comfortably in the
  Electoral vote (170-124)

31
Martin Van Buren

• Van Buren was of Dutch ancestry and the first
  president born in the United States
• He was so skilled at politics that he earned the
  nickname Little Magician
• Much of his success was owed to his association
  with Jackson and when he took office it appeared
  as if Jackson had remove the two biggest problems
  the bank and nullification
• But Jacksons economic policies also caused the
  Panic of 1837

32
Panic of 1837

• The British economy in the 1830s witnessed a
  severe downturn the price of cotton dropped
• British bankers cut back on investing in America
• A failure of the wheat crop in 1836 caused many
  farmers to liquidate
• Pet banks simply went out of business
• Nearly one-third of the workforce was unemployed
• The Whigs proposed higher tariffs and an
  expansion of credit, but Jacksons policy was to
  leave the economy alone

33

• Van Buren did not believe he was responsible for
  fixing the problem, but he did create the
  Divorce Bill
• He tried to divorce the government from banking
  by creating an independent treasury
• The plan was to keep government money safe and at
  the same time reducing the available credit
• Even supporters did not fully endorse the idea
• The plan passed in 1840, was repealed in 1841 by
  the Whigs after the election, reenacted in 1846
  and eventually became part of the Federal Reserve
  System in the early twentieth century

34
Texas

• As Americans looked for land they were drawn to
  Texas which belonged to Spain
• The land had been given to Spain by the United
  States as part of the 1819 agreement to acquire
  Florida
• In 1823 the Mexican government allowed Stephen
  Austin to take 300 families to settle the area
  but there were certain rules the settlers had to
  follow
• The Americans basically ignored these requirements

35

• Adventurers like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie went
  to Texas along with Sam Houston
• The settlers soon conflicted with the Mexican
  authorities over slavery, religion, and states
  rights (Mexico had ended slavery in 1830)
• In 1833 Austin went to Mexico City to meet with
  the dictator General Santa Anna, who threw Austin
  in jail for eight months
• In 1835 Santa Anna marched his army into Texas to
  suppress the troublemakers
• In 1836 Texas declared independence and names
  Houston commander-in-chief
• The Mexicans trapped over 100 Texans led by
  William Travis, at the Alamo in San Antonio

36

• All the Texans including Bowie and Crockett were
  killed in the battle
• Houston took what was left of the Texas army and
  retreated
• Months later at San Jacinto the Texans surprised
  the Mexican army and in a matter of minutes
  completely defeated the Mexicans
• Santa Anna was captured and he signed two
  treatiesa) the Mexican army would withdrew from
  Texasb) the Rio Grande was the southwestern
  border of Texas
• When he was released he repudiated the treaties

37

• Public opinion in America favored the Texans but
  the government could not open support the
  rebellion
• In 1837 the Texas government petitioned for
  annexation into the Union, but the request was
  rejected because of the slavery question
• To admit Texas was to increase slavery

38
Election of 1840

• Van Buren was the Democratic candidate. The
  Whigs united and nominated William Henry Harrison
  from Ohio John Tyler of Virginia was his
  running mate
• The Whigs published no platform
• A Democratic editor published a story saying
  Harrison was too old and he should retire to a
  log cabin and a barrel of old cider
• Portraying Harrison as a poor western farmer
  alienated western farmers who turned to the Whigs
• The Whigs adopted the idea of a hard working
  honest farmer as symbols for their campaign

39

• The slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler too quickly
  gained momentum
• Harrison barely won the popular vote but easily
  won the electoral vote (234-60)
• 31 days after the inauguration Harrison died of
  pneumonia- the shortest presidential term
• Clearly the people had chosen democracy over
  aristocracy and from 1840 onward politicians
  would have to solicit the support of the masses
• Also by 1840 there were two very distinct
  political parties

40

• Democrats supportedstates rightsfederal
  restraint
• Whigs supportedNational bankProtective
  tariffsInternal improvements(later the
  abolition of slavery)