The Presidency of Andrew Jackson

1. The Presidency of Andrew Jackson January 19, 2011 Adapting Project History

2. C-Span Presidential Leadership Rankings • Public Persuasion • Crisis Leadership • Economic Management • Moral Authority • International Relations • Administrative Skills

3. C-Span-2 • Relations with Congress • Vision/Setting An Agenda • Pursued Equal Justice For All • Performance Within Context of Times

4. C-Span Presidential Leadership Survey (2009, 2000) • Abraham Lincoln 902, 1,1 • George Washington 854, 2,3 • Franklin D. Roosevelt 837, 3, 2 • Theodore Roosevelt 781, 4,4 • Harry S. Truman 708, 5,5 • John F. Kennedy 701, 6,8 • Thomas Jefferson 698, 7,7 • Dwight D. Eisenhower 689, 8,9 • Woodrow Wilson 683, 9,6 • Ronald Reagan 671, 10, 11

5. Presidents, 11-20 • Lyndon B. Johnson 641, 11, 10 • James K. Polk 606, 12, 12 • Andrew Jackson 606, 13, 13 • James Monroe 605, 14, 14 • Bill Clinton 605, 15, 21 • William McKinley 599, 16,15 • John Adams 545, 17, 16 • George H. W. Bush 542, 18, 20 • John Quincy Adams 542, 19, 19 • James Madison 535, 20, 18

6. Presidents, 21-30 • Grover Cleveland 523, 21, 17 • Gerald R. Ford 509, 22, 23 • Ulysses S. Grant 490, 23, 33 • William Howard Taft 485, 24,24 • Jimmy Carter 474, 25, 22 • Calvin Coolidge 469,26, 27 • Richard M. Nixon 450, 27, 25 • James A. Garfield 445, 28, 29 • Zachary Taylor 443, 29,28 • Benjamin Harrison 442, 30, 31

7. Presidents, 31-42 • Martin Van Buren 435, 31, 30 • Chester A. Arthur 420, 32, 32 • Rutherford B. Hayes 409, 33, 26 • Herbert Hoover 389, 34, 34 • John Tyler 372, 35, 35 • George W. Bush 362, 36, NA • Millard Fillmore 351, 37, 35 • Warren G. Harding 327, 38, 38 • William Henry Harrison 324, 39, 39 • Franklin D. Pierce 287, 40, 39 • Andrew Johnson 258, 41, 40 • James Buchanan 227, 42, 41

8. Election of 1828 • Jackson supporters viewed Jackson’s election as an election of the people over the politicians • Panic of 1819 aroused healthy suspicion and skepticism of politicians • Jackson movement part of and stimulated radical egalitarianism • Election of Jackson symbolized growing assumption that one man good as another

9. Inauguration of Jackson • Attracted thousands to Washington to usher in new era of government • Reception practically turned into a riot • Daniel Webster: “I never saw anything like it before…. They really seem to think the country is [to be] rescued from dreadful danger”

10. Washington Hostess on Inauguration • “The Majesty of the People had disappeared, and a rabble, a mob, of boys, Negroes, women, children, scrambling, fighting, romping. What a pity, what a pity! No arrangements had been made, no police officers placed on duty and the whole house had been inundated by the rabble mob. We came too late. The President, after having been literally nearly pressed to death and almost suffocated and torn to pieces by

11. Washington Hostess on the Inauguration 2 • the people in their eagerness to shake hands with Old Hickory, and retreated through the back way or south front and had been escorted to his lodgings at Gadsby’s. Cut glass and china to the amount of several thousand dollars had been broken in the struggle to get the refreshments, punch and other articles had been carried out in tubs and buckets, but had it been in hogsheads

12. Washington Hostess on the Inauguration 3 • it would have been insufficient, ice creams, and cake and lemonade, for 20,000 people, for it is said the number were there, tho’ I think the estimate exaggerated. Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloodied noses and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe--those who got in could not get out by the door again, but had to scramble out of the windows.”

13. Jackson’s Inaugural

14. Jackson’s Inaugural

15. Jackson’s Winning Coalition • States rightists and strict constructionists dislike nationalist policies of Clay and Adams • Bank men, anti-bank men, high and low tariff men • Former Federalists using Jackson’s prestige to re-enter politics • New man in politics--men hoped to use politics to rise on social scale

16. Jackson’s Conception of the Presidency • Few Presidents enter Office with well-developed Conception of Office • Shaped by Own History and Experiences, Personality and Character • Shaped by Demands and Crises Faced while in Office

17. Jackson’s Conception of the Presidency • History: Westerner, Outsider, Military Background and Election of 1824 • Personal: Character and Personality, He was impetuous and cautious, ruthless and compassionate, suspicious and generous. Driven by ambition, he was a skillful, hardheaded political operator.

18. Jackson and the Spoils System • Jackson believe supporters should be rewarded on grounds of necessity and principle • Entrenched bureaucracy with life tenure viewed as undemocratic not responsive to people • Jacksonians believe in rotation in office • Political offices change hands periodically • give more people opportunity • Government jobs simple anyone could do them • Symbolic influence--US government by and of the people--one man as good as another

19. Banking in the U.S. • Banks played major role in the creation of capital • Capital needed for roads, canals, railroads, steamboats • As well as for land, labor and materials • “Credit has bought our land, made our canals, improved our rivers, cleared our fields, founded our churches, and erected our colleges and schools.”

20. Growth of Banks

21. Bank Notes in Millions

22. Banking as a Political Issue • BUS most important bank--repository of federal funds, largest corporation in country, regulated state banks (in theory) • BUS had been controversial since Hamilton had proposed first BUS • Panic of 1819 alienated large number of Americans from banking and credit system • Widespread feeling that Panic and depression retribution for speculative fever after 1815

23. Deep Suspicion of Banking • Banks--not just BUS---symbolized unsettling transformation of American society from an agrarian to a commercial society • Jacksonian Democrats motley group--some for BUS---others opposed---some for state banks and others opposed to all banks

24. Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) • Brilliant young man from influential Pennsylvania family • Asked by William Clark to write history of Lewis and Clark expedition • Edited leading literary journal in US • President of BUS, 1823-39

25. Nicholas Biddle

26. Nicholas Biddle

27. Biddle and the BUS • Biddle naïve, indiscreet, and arrogant • Asked by US Senate whether BUS ever oppressed state banks • Biddle answered: “There are few banks…which might not have been destroyed by an exertion of the power of the Bank. None have ever been injured. Many have been saved. And more have been, and are, constantly relieved when it is found that they are solvent but are suffering under temporary difficulty.”

28. Presidential Election of 1832 • Biddle miscalculated and requested (on the advice of Henry Clay) a bill to grant new charter for BUS in early 1832 • Believed that Jackson would be forced to sign recharter bill for popular Bank • If Jackson failed to sign, it would be used as campaign issue for Clay’s advantage • Bank recharter bill passed Congress

29. Campaigning Against Jackson

30. First Bank of the United States

31. Second Bank of the United States

32. The Banking Crisis: Jackson’s Veto • BUS Chartered in 1816 for 20 Years • Recharter Bill in 1832 Vetoed by Jackson • Veto Message: Against on Policy Grounds; BUS Unconstitutional; BUS Foster Inequality • Denounced foreign stockholders • Jackson Vetoed 12 Measures in 2 Terms; 6 Predecessors Only Veto 10 Total

33. Jackson’s Message • “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy and virtue,

34. Jackson’s Message 2 • every man is entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society--the farmer, mechanics, and laborers--who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves,

35. Jackson’s Message 3 • have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles.”

36. King Andrew

37. The Monster

38. The Banking Crisis: Withdrawal of Funds • Jackson Fires Secretary of Treasury, William Duane • Replacement, Roger Taney Withdraws Funds from BUS in 1833 • Question: Can the President Fire a Cabinet Member?

39. The Banking Crisis: Congress Versus the President • Senate Critics of Jackson Charge: Executive Usurpation, Boldness, Innovation and Defiance • Resolutions of Censure Pass Senate • “By dismissing the late Secretary of Treasury because he would not, contrary to his sense of his own duty [remove the federal deposits from the Bank of the United States] and by appointing his successor to effect such removal….the President has assumed the exercise of power of the treasury of the United States, not granted to him by the constitution and law, and dangerous to the liberty of the people.”

40. The Banking Crisis: Congress Versus the President • Whig Conception of President • Whig View: President Controls Sword and Congress Controls Purse • Jackson’s Response to Senate: Unauthorized by Constitution, President “the direct representative of the American People....” • Calhoun: “What effrontery, what boldness of assertion! The immediate representative! Why he never received a vote from the American people.” • Standoff Between Congress and Jackson

41. Clay’s Attack on Jackson • Clay: Jackson’s notions of Presidency a military idea, wholly incompatible with free government • “We are the midst of a revolution, hitherto bloodless, but rapidly tending towards a total change of the pure republican character of theGovernment, and to the concentration of all power in the hands of one man…. The eyes and hopes of the American people are anxiously turned to Congress.

42. Clay’s Attack on Jackson (2) • They feel that they have been deceived and insulted; their confidence abused; their interests betrayed; and their liberties in danger. They see a rapid and alarming concentration of all power in one man’s hands. They see that, by the exercise of the positive authority of the Executive, and his negative power exerted over Congress, the will of one man alone prevails, and governs the republic.

43. Censure of Jackson • Jackson censured for “executive usurpation” of power • Deposits not restored to BUS • BUS charter expired in 1836 • Last days of Jackson’s presidency—Senate voted to expunge resolution of censure

44. How Did Jackson Revolutionize the Presidency • Challenged Congress for Control • Saw President as Direct Representative of America People • Ended Tradition of Strong, Independent Cabinet • Short-Lived Revolution • Model for Twentieth Century Presidents