The Jackson Era

1
The Jackson Era

• Chapter 11

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Off and Running

• The Election of 1824
• Monroe declines to run for 2nd term
• 4 candidates for presidency

James Monroe
3
William H. Crawford

• former congressman from GA
• limited federal government
• strong state powers
• defended slavery
• poor health weakened his chances

4
Andrew Jackson

• -Tennessee
• not a Washington politician
• war hero of 1812
• raised in poverty
• spoke for the little people

5
Henry Clay

• -Kentucky
• Speaker of the House
• Fought for internal improvements, high
  tariffs
• wanted a strong national bank

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John Quincy Adams

• -Massachusetts
• Son of former President John Adams
• wanted to shift economy from farming to
  manufacturing

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• Jackson, Clay and Adams were Favorite Son
  candidates.
• Their states backed them, not the national party.

8
Playing with Numbers

• Jackson received largest number of popular votes.
• No candidate received a majority (gt1/2) of the
  electoral votes
• Jackson won 99 electoral votes, a plurality
  (largest, single share)

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• Clay and Adams plan a scheme
• Clay will use his influence as Speaker of House
  to sway votes towards Adams.
• In return, Clay to be named Sec. of State

10

• Jackson accuses men of making a corrupt bargain
  
• Adams appoints Clay secretary of state

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ELECTION NUMBERS

• Candidate Electoral Popular House
• Vote Vote Vote
• Jackson 99 153,544 7
• Adams 84 108,740 13
• Crawford 41 41,618 4
• Clay 37 47,136 0

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Adams Presidency

• Corrupt bargain cast a shadow over the presidency
• He wanted policies that ran against popular
  opinion
• Wanted a stronger navy
• Wanted federal government to direct economic
  growth
• Congress turned down many of his proposals

14
Election of 1828 Republican Party Divides

• Democratic-Republicans
• -supported Jackson
• -favored states rights
• -mistrusted strong central government
• -immigrants, laborers, frontiersmen were
  democrats

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National-Republicans

• -supported Adams
• -wanted a strong central government
• -supported federal measures like road building,
  and Bank of the US (helps to shape the
  economy)
• -merchants, successful farmers were Republicans

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New Kind of Campaign

• Both parties resorted to mudslinging
• Ruining the others reputation with insults
• Jacksons camp
• -accuses Adams of betraying interests of the
  people.
• -released handbills calling him unholy and
  having selfish ambition
• Slogans, rallies, buttons, B-B Qs became a new
  element to campaigns

17

• Adams camp
• -created a vicious song against Jackson telling
  about embarrassing incidents in his life.
• -told of Jacksons involvement in an execution
  of soldiers who deserted in War of 1812.
• -Adams called him a barbarian and a savage

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Jackson Wins!

• He receives most of the votes in the frontier
• Receives many votes from the South
• His policy of states rights helped
• John C. Calhoun South Carolina (Adams VP)
  switched parties and ran as Jacksons VP
• They won by a landslide (overwhelming victory)
• 56 of the popular vote
• 178 electoral votes

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Jacksonian Democracy

• Background on Jackson
• Born in a log cabin
• parents were poor farmers
• they died before he was 15
• He fought with the Patriots as a teenager
  during the American Revolution
• Elected to congress from Tennessee

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• became famous in War of 1812
• defeated Creek Nation in Battle of Horseshoe
  Bend
• victory at Battle of New Orleans
• Called Old Hickory because he was as tough as
  a hickory stick
• Popular with the common man because of his
  success story

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• Between 1824 1828 57 of white males were
  voting from 37 earlier
• White male sharecroppers, factory workers etc.
  allowed to vote
• By 1840 80 of white males could vote, no women,
  African Americans or Native Americans

22

• Jackson fired many government workers and
  replaced them with his supporters
• He said that a new set of government employees
  would be good for democracy

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• Supporter of Jackson said To the victors belong
  the spoils
• The practice of replacing government employees
  with the candidates supporters became known as
  the spoils system

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Electoral Changes

• Caucus system abandoned
• - where major political candidates were chosen
  by committees made up of members of congress
• Replaced by nominating conventions
• - where delegates from the states select the
  parties candidate
• Allowed more voter input

25

• 1st democratic national party convention held in
  1832 in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Drew delegates from each state
• Nominate candidate who could gather 2/3rds of
  vote
• Jackson won the nomination

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T is for Tariff

• Tariff a fee paid by merchants who imported
  goods
• Jackson faced a tariff crisis
• -1828 congress passed high tariff on
  manufactured goods from Europe

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• Manufacturers in NE liked it
• -made US goods more desirable
• -Southerners opposed.
• They traded cotton for
• European manufactured goods.

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S is for South or Secede

• Southerners were outraged over tariffs
• VP Calhoun argued that a state or group of states
  had a right to nullify (cancel) a federal law it
  felt was unconstitutional
• Some southerners wanted to secede (break away)
  from the US and form their own government

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Where does everybody stand?

• Webster/Hayne debate
• Daniel Webster-defends the constitution says
  that nullification could only mean the end of the
  union

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• Robert Hayne-defends the idea that states had a
  right to nullify acts of the federal government
  and even to secede

31

• Andrew Jackson-Southerners hoped he would side
  with them however at a dinner party he said Our
  federal government must be preserved

32

• John Calhoun-
• defender of states rights. After the
  Presidents comments, he wins election to the
  senate to defend states rights and resigns as
  VP.

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Sticks and Stones

• Southerners anger builds
• A new, lower tariff is passed by congress
• It did not appease the south

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• South Carolina state legislature passed the
  nullification act declaring it would not pay
  the illegal tariffs.
• They threatened to secede if the feds interfered
  with them

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• Jackson thinks they have gone mad
• Henry Clay proposes a bill to greatly lower the
  tariff.
• Jackson supports it.
• Jackson persuaded Congress to pass the force
  bill which allows the President to use military
  force to enforce the law.

36

• South Carolina accepted the compromise tariff
• Jackson sent a strong message that the federal
  government would not allow a state to go its own
  way without a fight

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Whose land is it anyway?

• A few background facts
• -large s of Native Americans still lived in
  eastern part of US
• - GA, MS, FL, AL had valuable land that was held
  by the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and
  Seminoles
• -

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• -areas west of the MS river were dry and
  unsuitable for farming.
• -settlers wanted Native Americans to be
  relocated west of the MS river so valuable land
  would be available for them
• -President Jackson supported this idea.

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Indian Removal Act of 1830

• Act allowed government to pay Native Americans to
  move west
• Federal officials were sent to negotiate treaties
  with them
• Most accepted payment and agreed to move
• 1834 congress created the Indian Territory
  (present day Oklahoma) for them

40
Indian Removal Act

• Indian Territoryarea of land containing most of
  present-day Oklahoma

Map of Indian Territory
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• Cherokee nation in GA refused.
• 1790s GA had recognized them as a separate
  nation with its own laws
• They sued the state government eventually went
  to Supreme Court (Worcester v. Georgia)
• Chief Justice John Marshall ruled GA had no right
  to interfere with Cherokee nation

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the Cherokee nation is a distinct community,
occupying its own territory,in which the laws of
Georgia have no force. --Chief Justice John
Marshall
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John Marshall has made his decision now let him
enforce it. --Andrew Jackson
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The Trail of Tears

• 1835 a few Cherokee signed a treaty giving up
  their land
• 17000 refused to honor the treaty
• They wrote a protest letter to the government and
  people of the US

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• 1838 General Winfield Scott and 7000 troops came
  to remove them from their homes
• They were told if they did not go peacefully they
  would have to go by force

46

• Cherokee leaders knew fighting would only lead to
  their end and gave in
• Brutal weather, sickness claimed thousands of
  Cherokee lives on the way. Their sadness and
  death gave it the name- trail of tears

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Some fought back

• 1832 the Sauk Chieftain Black Hawk led the Sauk
  and Fox people back to Illinois, their homeland

• Met by militia
• Killing hundreds of the Native Americans the
  militia chased the remaining ones over the border
  into Iowa.
• US troops pursued the retreating Indians and
  slaughtered them

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Seminole Wars

• Pressured to sign treaties in the early 1830s to
  sell land
• Chief Osceola and his people refused to leave
• Decided to go to war against US instead
• Joined with group of runaway African Americans

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• Used guerilla tactics (surprise attacks)
• By 1842 more than 1500 of 10000 American soldiers
  had died
• Government gave up and let them remain in FL
• Though many Seminole had died or been captured
  and sent west
• Only a few scattered groups lived east of the MS

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Money, Money, Money, Money,

• Jackson thought the Bank of the US was an
  organization of wealthy Easterners where ordinary
  people had no control
• The bank held ALL of the governments money
• It controlled much of the countrys money supply

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• Bank was originally chartered by Congress
• Now run by private bankers, not elected officials
• President of bank, Nicholas Biddle, opposite of
  Jackson

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• Jackson said the bank favored the rich and hurt
  the poor.
• Jackson withdrew all of the government money from
  the bank. By 1836, the bank closed its doors.

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New blood in the White House

• Jackson does not run for 3rd term in 1836
• Democrats select Martin Van Buren New York as
  candidate
• Whigs- a new political party emerged.

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• With Jacksons support, Van Buren wins
• -Economic depression sets in- panic of 1837
• -land values drop, investments decline
• -banks fail, people lose confidence in the
  economy thousands lose jobs
• -poor cant pay rent or buy food

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• Panic of 1837 leads to economic depression
• Result of Jacksons policies
• Van Buren blamed and defeated in election of 1840

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• Van Buren believed in a laissez-faire
  government- it should interfere as little as
  possible in the nations economy.
• Lasted 6 years, people turned against VanBuren

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Washington flipped its Whig

• 1840 presidential election
• William Henry Harrison- hero of War of 1812
  (defeated Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe)
• Ran against Van Buren. He represented the Whig
  party

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• John Tyler- a planter from VA was his running
  mate
• Their slogan was Tippecanoe and Tyler too

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• They adopted a log cabin as their symbol to
  show people that they were a man of the people
  even though they came from wealthy backgrounds
• Called the log cabin campaign

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• Harrison won by a wide margin
• Harrison was the 1st Whig president 4 weeks
  after taking office, he died of pneumonia.

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Tyler Steps In

• John Tyler was the 1st VP to take office of
  President at a death
• -Tyler had been a democrat before he became a
  Whig
• -disagreed with many Whig policies
• -strong supporter of States rights
• -vetoed several bills sponsored by the Whigs
• -Whig leaders eventually expel him from their
  party

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• Whigs could agree on parties goals. More than
  not they voted on things according to their
  sections (north, south, etc) caused too much
  division
• 1844 James Polk becomes President (non Whig)

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Procession of Presidents

• George Washington 1789-1797
• John Adams 1797-1801
• Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809
• James Madison 1809-1817
• James Monroe 1817-1825
• John Quincy Adams 1825-1829
• Andrew Jackson 1829-1837
• Martin VanBuren 1837-1841
• William H. Harrison 1841
• John Tyler 1841-1845
• James Polk 1845-1849