The Rise of Jacksonian Democracy: Politics for the People

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 people’s 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. Voting Requirements in the Early 19c

6. 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

7. Outcome of the Election • All 4 candidates came from the Democratic-Republican 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.

8. 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

9. 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 Adams’s biggest headache.

10. 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 Carolina’s desperate 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.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. Reemergence of the 2 Party System • End of the Era of Good Feelings • National Republican • Adams • Democrats • Jackson

14. 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”

15. Andrew Jackson • The common man’s 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.

16. Jackson’s Hatred of the British

17. Jackson’s 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”

18. Jackson’s 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”

19. Peggy Eaton Affair • Senator John Eaton, a close friend of Jackson, had married the widowed daughter of a Washington innkeeper, Margaret (Peggy) O’Neill. The local rumor mill ground out gossip that O’Neill and Eaton had had an affair prior to her husband’s 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 Calhoun’s 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 Calhoun’s resignation and his hatred of Jackson.

20. Jackson’s 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.

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

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. Jefferson Day Dinner • A dinner cleverly 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.

25. Jackson’s Toast • “Our Union: It must be preserved” • Came out against the Doctrine of Nullification

26. Calhoun’s Response • “The Union, next to our liberty, most dear!” • Obviously upset with Jackson’s response