Structured Academic Controversy

1. Structured Academic Controversy Issues of Jackson Presidency

2. Your role • You will act as a member of Jackson’s “kitchen cabinet” to analyze key issues of his presidency. • “Kitchen cabinet”= close, unofficial advisors to the President • You and a partner will be either “point” or “counterpoint” to argue one side of the issue. • The goal is to debate and then reach a group consensus on what the appropriate policy should be.

3. Please copy on a sheet of paper.

4. Background Information In November 1832 South Carolinians meeting in Convention formally “nullified” federal laws taxing imports, on the grounds that they were unconstitutional and therefore not binding. South Carolina threatened to withdraw from the Union if the federal government attempted to coerce it into submission. It was up to Jackson to resolve the crisis. Instead of reacting in anger, he reminded them that theunion was composed not of states, but of “the people.” Taken from: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/edu/jacksonproclamation.pdf

5. Point/Counterpoint Reading Read your handout and take notes on your position in the corresponding box. Look for main points that support your position. QUIETLY discuss with your partner when done. Make sure it is quiet enough for people to finish reading!

6. Point • Source: John C. Calhoun to Virgil Maxcy, September 11, 1830. Galloway-Maxcy-Markoe Papers, volume 35, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Taken from: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/edu/calhounonnullification.pdf I consider the Tariff, but as the occasion, rather than the real cause of the present unhappy state of things. The truth can no longer be disguised, that the peculiar domestick institution of the Southern States, and the consequent direction, which that and her soil and climate have given to her industry, have placed them in regard to taxation and appropriations in opposite relation to the majority of the Union; against the danger of which, if there be no protective power in the reserved rights of the States, they must in the end be forced to rebel, or submit to have their permanent interests sacraficed, their domestick institutions subverted by Colonization and other schemes, and themselves & children reduced to wretchedness. Thus situated, the denial of the right of the State to interfere constitutionally in the last resort, more alarms the thinking, than all other causes. -John C. Calhoun

7. Counterpoint Fellow-citizens of the United States, the threat of unhallowed disunion, the names of those once respected by whom it is uttered, the array of military force to support it, denote the approach of a crisis in our affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps that of all free governments may depend…the claim was asserted of a right by a State to annul the laws of the Union, and even to secede from it at pleasure… Having the fullest confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional opinion of my duties which has been expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your undivided support in my determination to execute the laws, to preserve the Union by all constitutional means, to arrest, if possible, by moderate and firm measures the necessity of a recourse to force; and if it be the will of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States. --President Andrew Jackson Source: James D. Richardson, ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1896), vol. 2, pp. 655-656. Taken from: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/edu/jacksonproclamation.pdf

8. Point/Counterpoint Presentation Point group will have 3 minutes to present their position. You must talk on topic for the entire three minutes. While point group is talking, counterpoint takes notes on what they hear. When time is up, counterpoint will have 1 minute to repeat what they heard point say. Repeat with reverse roles.

9. Debate You will now have three minutes to debate your position back and forth. Remember, you are trying to convince the other side that your position is correct!

10. Consensus Now it is time to make a decision. Your group will have 5 minutes to come to a consensus and write it down. Consensus means that you come to an agreement about how you will implement your policy. Compromise is okay! Be prepared to share!

11. Instructions Read your background information and take notes. (5 min) Read your position and take notes. Discuss with team. (7 min) Point presents their side. Counterpoint takes notes. (4 min) Counterpoint repeats what they heard point say. (1 min) Counterpoint presents their side. Point takes notes. (4 min) Point repeats what counterpoint said. (1 min) Debate! (4 min) Consensus (6 min) Self-reflection (3 min)

12. Exit Ticket: Partner signup • On your note card, write YOUR NAME at the top. Then number: • Partner 1 • Partner 2 • Partner 3 • Partner 4 • Partner 5 • Partner 6 • HAND IN WHEN DONE!!!!!