The American Journey: Ch. 10: The Age of Jackson

1. The American Journey:Ch. 10: The Age of Jackson Section 1: Jacksonian Democracy

2. The election of 1824 • The election of 1824 featured three favorite sons, candidates supported by their home states rather than a national party. • Henry Clay of Kentucky • Andrew Jackson of Tennessee • John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts (son of John Adams) • Jackson won the most popular votes, but no one received a majority, over 50%. • Jackson did receive the plurality, the largest single share (99 of 162).

3. The election of 1824 • The Twelfth Amendment says that when no candidate receives a majority, the House of Representatives selects the president. • Adams and Clay made a secret deal. • Clay used his influence as Speaker of the House to persuade the House not to vote for Jackson. • Adams was elected, and he named Clay as secretary of state. • But this “corrupt bargain,” along with unpopular policies (stronger navy, larger government) made John Quincy Adams a very unpopular president.

4. The election of 1828 • By 1828, there were two parties. • Democratic-Republicans supported Jackson and supported states’ rights and smaller government. • They were generally frontier people, immigrants, and city workers. • National Republicans supported Adams and supported stronger government, a national bank, and road-building. • They were generally farmers and merchants. • This campaign featured an extreme amount of mudslinging, attempts to ruin the other candidate’s reputation.

5. The election of 1828 • This was also the first use of slogans, buttons, and rallies, all of which became permanent parts of campaigning. • Jackson ended up winning in a landslide, an overwhelming victory. • 56% of the vote, 178 electoral votes • John C. Calhoun switched parties to become Jackson’s vice president (he was Adams’s V.P.).

6. Jackson’s presidency • Jackson was immensely popular, especially with small farmers and craftsmen. • He seemed like “a man of the people.” • He was a patriot. • He was a war hero. • He worked hard from poverty to wealth. • Jackson had gained his popularity during the War of 1812. • He defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the British at the Battle of New Orleans. • His troops called him “Old Hickory” because he was as tough as a hard hickory tree.

7. Jackson’s presidency • Jackson promised “equal protection and equal benefits” for all Americans. • (This actually meant all white males.) • Still, the property requirements to vote began to loosen, and many white males finally got to vote. • Democrats favored democracy, and they sought to break up the bureaucracy, a system in which nonelected officials carried out laws. • Jackson replaced many nonelected officials with his supporters. • Some accused Jackson of acting as a tyrant.

8. Jackson’s presidency • Jackson and his supporters responded that “to the victors belong the spoils.” • In other words, since Jackson won, he and his supporters earned the right to the benefits. • The process of replacing government employees with the winning candidate’s supporters is called the spoils system. • Another change was the abandoning of the caucus system. • Under the caucus system, political candidates were chosen by special committees of Congress. • Under Jackson, nominating conventions of state delegates replaced the Congressional committees.

9. The Tariff Debate • In 1828, Congress placed a tariff, a fee on imported goods, on all goods from Europe. • This encouraged Americans to buy American. • The North loved the tariff—it caused people to buy their goods. • The South hated it—the South had little manufacturing, and it meant higher prices. • Vice President John C. Calhoun argued that the South had the right to nullify (cancel) a federal law states disagreed with. • Some Southerners called for the South to secede. • Do states have the right to secede if they disagree with the federal government?

10. Nullification? Secession? • Calhoun said it this way: Either the states decide what’s constitutional, or the Supreme Court and Congress will always tell states what to do. • He argued that since the federal government was a creation of the states, states can break away. • Senator Daniel Webster loudly declared that nullification and secession were appalling. • In 1830 Jackson finally made his view known: he declared the Union must be preserved. • In 1832 Calhoun won election to Senate and resigned as Jackson’s vice president.

11. Nullification Crisis • Eventually John C. Calhoun and South Carolina became President Jackson’s biggest enemies. • In 1832, Jackson and Congress passed a new, lower tariff to appease the South. • But the South Carolina legislature passed the Nullification Act, refusing to pay the “illegal” tariffs of 1828 and 1832 and threatening secession. • Eventually Henry Clay and President Jackson struck a deal for a lower tariff with S.C. • Calhoun and S.C. claimed victory, saying they’d forced a revision of the tariff, but they also realized a state couldn’t secede without a fight.

12. The American Journey:Ch. 10: The Age of Jackson Section 2: The Removal of Native Americans

13. Indian Relocation • The Native Americans of Georgia faced a large problem when white settlers began to move onto their land. • Many wanted the tribes moved west of the Mississippi River to free up the good Southern soil for white farmers. • Jackson supported the calls for relocation. • In 1830, Congress OK’d the Indian Removal Act. • Congress paid Indians to move west. • In 1834 Congress created the Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma.

14. The Cherokee Nation • The Cherokee Nation refused to move. • In the 1790’s the federal government had recognized the Cherokee people as a separate nation with its own laws. • But Georgia refused to acknowledge them. • The Cherokee sued Georgia (Worcester v. Georgia), a Supreme Court case in which Chief Justice John Marshall sided with the Cherokee. • But Jackson overstepped the Supreme Court. • “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.”

15. The trail of Tears • In 1835, the federal government persuaded a few Cherokee to sign over their land. • But most Cherokee refused and petitioned the government for understanding. • Jackson and the federal government were not persuaded. • In 1838, federal troops under Gen. Winfield Scott removed the Cherokee. • The Cherokee did not fight back, and thousands died on their forced march west through bad weather. • “The Trail of Tears”

16. Native American Resistance • Some Natives did resist, however. • Black Hawk, a Sauk chief, led a force to recapture their homeland in Illinois. • Hundreds were killed, others pursued and slaughtered. • The Seminole people, led by Chief Osceola, teamed up with former slaves to attack white settlers in Florida. • They used guerilla tactics, ambushes and surprise attacks and retreats. • In 1835, they killed most of a force of 110 under Major Francis Dade and outlasted the troops. • The Seminole were the only Native tribe to successfully resist removal

17. The Five Civilized Tribes • In the end, few Natives remained east of the Mississippi. • They had given up over 100 million acres and received 32 million acres and $68 million in return. • The “Five Civilized Tribes” were relocated to present-day Oklahoma. • Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw & Choctaw

18. The American Journey:Ch. 10: The Age of Jackson Section 3: Jackson and the Bank

19. Jackson vs. the Bank • President Jackson had long hated the Bank of the United States. • It was chartered by Congress, but run by wealthy Eastern bankers instead of elected officials. • In 1832, Senators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay asked the president of the Bank, Nicholas Biddle, to help them defeat Jackson’s reelection. • The Bank’s charter was to be renewed in 1836, but Clay and Webster asked Biddle to apply for a new charter in 1832. • They thought the Bank was popular. • If Jackson rejected the Bank charter, he’d be defeated, they figured, and Clay would be elected.

20. Jackson vs. the Bank • Jackson was sick in bed when the charter came to him. • He told his friend Martin Van Buren, “The bank…is trying to kill me. But I will kill it!” • He vetoed(rejected) the charter. • McCulloch v. Maryland had declared that the Bank was constitutional. • But Jackson once again fought the Supreme Court. • Clay and Webster’s plan backfired. • Most people supported Jackson’s veto, and he was reelected in another landslide. • Martin Van Buren was elected vice president.

21. Jackson vs. the Bank • Reelected, Jackson tried again to kill the bank. • He ordered all government deposits withdrawn from the Bank and placed in smaller state banks. • Jackson won his battle—the Bank was dead without government deposits. • However, the death of the National Bank led to economic problems later. • Cartoon, pg. 460

22. Van Buren & the Economy • Jackson did not run a third time, but his vice president, Martin Van Buren, easily won in 1836. • His opposition was the Whig Party, a new party of anti-Jacksonians and former National Republicans. • In 1837, the country fell into a deep depression, a period of low employment and poor business. • “The Panic of 1837”: Land values dropped sharply, investments declined, and banks failed. • What is a “bubble”? • Almost immediately, businesses failed and many Americans lost their jobs. • People were terribly poor and angry.

23. Van Buren & the Economy • Although Van Buren was a laissez-faire president, he did persuade Congress to create a federal treasury in 1840 to combat the depression. • What’s laissez-faire? • Government should interfere as little as possible. • Unlike Jackson, Van Buren believed the government’s money had to be kept somewhere outside private banks to guard against bank crises. • But Van Buren’s own party (Democratic) and many Whigs disagreed with him, and a split formed in the Democratic party. • This gave the Whigs a chance to come to power.

24. The Whigs Come to Power • The Whigs’ candidate, William Henry Harrison, was popular from the Battle of Tippecanoe in the War of 1812. His running mate was John Tyler. • “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!” • Harrison was also portrayed as “a man of the people,” just like Jackson. • He supported small farmers and common people, just like Jackson. • Whigs generally supported a stronger federal government. Whaaa?!

25. The Whigs Come to Power • Harrison won, but he died four weeks after his inauguration. • He gave his 1½-hour inauguration speech in a blizzard and later died of pneumonia. • D’oh! • John Tyler became the nation’s first vice president to gain presidential office after a president’s death. • But Tyler backed mostly Democratic ideas, and the Whig party abandoned him. • Four years later, the Whig party was in disarray. • Democratic candidate James K. Polk won in 1844. • The Whig Party was out of power after only four years. 