American History I

1. American History I Unit 2 Part 4

2. The election of 1824 • No issue divides the country as deeply as slavery, politics divided along sectional lines • Although Jackson wins the popular vote, John Quincy Adams is nominated for presidency by the House (helped by Henry Clay)

3. Election of 1824 • Candidates • John Quincy Adams (Secretary of State) • Andrew Jackson (Senator, Hero of New Orleans and Seminole Wars) • William H. Crawford (Secretary of the Treasury) • Henry Clay (Speaker of the House)

4. To the House • Jackson wins plurality of popular vote and electoral votes but not the majority needed for presidency • Top three voted on by house – 4th place Clay supports Adams, who wins the vote • Adams appoints Clay as his secretary of state

5. Corrupt Bargain • Jackson and his supporters decry “corrupt bargain” and immediately begin planning 1828 election campaign • Supporters organize a grass roots campaign in each state – founding of modern Democratic Party • 1828 – Jackson wins – “white man’s democracy” – first non-elite and westerner elected president

6. New political divisions following the election of 1824 • Jackson= Jacksonians= Democratic-Republicans=Democrats; emphasize states’ rights and fiscal conservatism • Adams= Nationalists= National Republicans; advocate a more active role for the government

7. J.Q. Adams as President • Adams embraces a Hamiltonian view and seeks to promotes projects beneficial to the national interest

8. Symbol for an Age • “…What was he? He was the embodiment of the true spirit of the nation in which he lived. What did he do? He put himself at the head of the great movement of the age in which he lived…Because his countrymen saw their image and spirit in Andrew Jackson, they bestowed their honor and admiration upon him.”

9. The Fundamental Tenets of Jacksonian Democracy • The Union • Manifest Destiny • Ordinary Americans can do anything • Jackson’s popularity and success were primarily the result of his personality and leadership, rather than expert knowledge of the issues or his genius as an administrator.

10. 1828: Jacksonian Democracy: The New Party System in Embryo • 1828: Adams goes down in one of the filthiest elections in American history • Jackson sweeps the South, West, and Northwest, Adams wins in New England.

11. “democratizing politics” • Ordinary citizens can determine what is right • Parties become powerful institutions • The country evolves into a democracy • Elimination of property qualifications for voting and holding office

12. President of all the people • Jackson conceives of himself as the direct representative of the people and the embodiment of national power • Was the nineteenth century the age of Jackson or was Jackson the creation of the times?

13. The Spoils System • The principle of rotation (rotating offices) • Rhetoric and theory aside; was Jackson successful or should party workers be rewarded with political office after a successful campaign?

14. Sectional tensions revived • The tariff and “constitutional” internal improvements • The nature of the Union: Jackson: individual liberty depends on the perpetuation of the (federal) Union • Jackson: “The Bank…I will kill it!” • Jackson believes that the Second National Bank is unconstitutional despite the Supreme Court; the politician who pushed for renewal of the Bank to provide himself a campaign issue against Jackson was Henry Clay

15. Jackson v. Bank of the U.S. • “The present corporate body…enjoys an exclusive privilege of banking under the authority of the general government, of its favor and support, and as a necessary consequence, almost a monopoly of the foreign and domestic exchange…I cannot perceive the justice…of this course…

16. Jackson v. Bank of the U.S. (con’t) • “…If our government must sell monopolies…let them not be bestowed on the subjects of a foreign government nor upon a…favored class of men in our country.” • Jackson’s most powerful weapon against the Bank of the U.S. was the ability to withdraw government revenues from the bank.

17. Next Round • Bank has time left on its original charter • Jackson orders Treasury to withdraw all the government’s gold and silver reserves and deposit it in state banks • The Senate censures Jackson • Second Bank closes in 1836 – no further national bank will be chartered in American history

18. The Tariff Act • “Tariff of Abominations” – Tariff Act of 1828 – enacted a high protective tariff • Strongly opposed by Southerners, strongly favored by Northeasterners – Why? • South Carolina leads the opposition – becomes embroiled in sectionalism and states’ rights

19. Nullification • VP John Calhoun condemns protective tariffs and promotes the idea of nullification as a protection against an oppressive central government • Nullification – extreme form of states’ rights – the right of a state to hold a convention and nullify an act of Congress and ultimately secede from the union if nullification is not accepted

20. The nullification crisis • South Carolina’s planters object to a new tariff law passed in 1832; duties lowered less then they hope • “The tyranny of the majority” • Jackson ”disunion by armed force is treason” • The Force Bill • South Carolina eventually repeals the Nullification Ordinance; Jackson’s attitude toward nullification was to oppose it because of his devotion to the Union

21. Why didn’t South Carolina secede in 1832?

22. The outcome of the nullification crisis convinces the radical South Carolina planters that nullification and secession could succeed only with the support of other states and that both the protective tariff and the agitation against slavery were examples of tyranny of the majority.

23. Foreign policy • Reciprocal trade arrangements with Britain • France agrees to compensation

24. The Jacksonians • Rich & poor, westerners & easterners, slaveholders & abolitionists • Rise of the Whigs (Jackson’s opposition)

25. Democratic Party • Supporters of Jackson – rich and poor, a national party • Heart of ideology – the conflict between the producing and non-producing classes – taps into the fears of those caught up in the market revolution

26. Whigs • Opposed to Jackson and the Democrats – the second national party • For the next two decades strong competition between the two parties with a clear choice for the American voters

27. Democrats Small government Government should protect rights of all Small farmers, workers, Catholics, immigrants Whigs: Active government Government should help business and reform society Business, large planters, Protestants the Jacksonians v. the Whigs

28. Martin Van Buren • Van Buren takes office just as the panic of 1837 hits • The depression hurts the Democrats • The Whigs better organized in 1840

29. The Trail of Tears

30. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 • The first important bill enacted under Jackson’s guidance • Jackson takes a states’ rights position in the controversy between the Cherokee Indians and Georgia

31. The Five Civilized Tribes • The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole • Why were they removed?

32. The “usual” justification: • Indians were not using their land properly, moreover, they kept out those who could put it to proper use

33. Greed and philanthropy (Limerick) • White people were not greedy and mean-spirited, Indians were the greedy ones keeping so much land to themselves! • Land liberated for its proper use!

34. The acculturation of the Five Civilized Tribes • A written alphabet, a newspaper, • Indians: Americans were nomads! • Indians: the unfortunate victims of progress

35. Philanthropy goes even further • After all, the Indian policies were in the Indians’ interest! • But was their decline really inevitable?

36. Indian removal would benefit both settlers and Indians • Indians liberated from savagery • Settlers able to acquire Indian lands • President Jackson: Progress should not be held up!

37. Indian Policy • Reflected western concerns • Wants to remove all Indians to west of the Mississippi to “preserve” Indian life and culture • Real reason – 100,000 Indians occupy 100 million acres of land east of the Mississippi • Plan – exchange public lands in the west for Indian lands in the east, pay transportation and compensation costs and provide limited assistance

38. Georgia and the Cherokees • State government wants Cherokees off land in north Georgia (prime farmland and some gold found) • US Supreme court rules in favor of the Cherokees • Jackson continues to support Georgia’s efforts

39. Trail of Tears • Indian Removal bill barely passes over objections of moral reformers in Congress • Most tribes refused to leave their homes (recognized by treaty) • Jackson sends the army to round them up and send them to Indian territory

40. The Indian Removal Act • Called for the creation of an Indian Territory (which later became the state of Oklahoma) • The federal government supposed to provide transport, food, and some tools to ease the transition of the Indians to their new homes

41. Cherokee take their complaint to the U.S. Supreme Court • Georgia declares all Cherokee laws void and their land parts of Georgia • Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831): The tribe not subject to state laws • Jackson: “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!”

42. Jackson compared Indian removal To white westward migration Jackson: “How many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the West on such conditions?”

43. The Trail of Tears: • “one of the greater official acts of inhumanity and cruelty in American history” • “the wise, humane, and undeviating policy of the government in this the most difficult of all our relations foreign or domestic”

44. The Trail of Tears • An 800-mile journey of sickness, misery, and death • 18,000 Cherokee removed from their homeland • 4,000 died along the way

45. Final thoughts • Age of Jackson was a pivotal period, transitioning from the Early Republic to the era of Manifest Destiny • Saw the rise of mass democracy and the modern party system • To some, Jackson was a popular hero (New Orleans and Florida) and a common man – not an elite • To others, he was a tyrant grasping for power • And for the Indians of the east, his policies led to tragedy

46. “To populate is to govern” • Spain, and later Mexico, initiate an immigration program designed to bring settlers to Texas • They intend to attract Americans and European immigrants as well as Mexican migrants

47. They marked Spain’s presence in Texas They attempted to convert the Natives Military forts and garrisons They defended the missions and helped keep the local economies going and expanding Missions Presidios

48. Stephen F. Austin • Contract between the Spanish government and Moses Austin to settle Americans in Texas (1821) • Stephen F. Austin assumes his father’s contract

49. The overwhelming majority of emigrants to Texas were citizens of the United States who possessed the resources necessary to take advantage of Mexico’s offer • The “Old Three Hundred” settle in San Felipe on the Brazos River, led byStephen F. Austin • Slavery not prohibited, indeed some of the Old Three Hundred brought slaves with them to Texas

50. Stephen F. Austin: • “no one will be received as a settler, or even be permitted to remain in the country longer than is absolutely necessary to prepare for a removal who does not produce the most unequivocal and satisfactory evidence of unblemished character, good morals, sobriety, industrious habits, and he must also have sufficient property to begin with either as a farmer or mechanic besides paying for his land. No frontiersman who has no other occupation than that of a hunter will be received- no drunkard, no gambler.” • “The Roman Catholic is the established religion of the Mexican nation and the law will not allow of any other in the Colony.”