Ch. 7.3 The Age of Jackson
Essential Questions
1. Why did the common citizen relate to Andrew Jackson?
2. Did President Jackson handle the Native American situation
correctly?
Could he have handled it differently?
• 3. Who do you think he was really trying to help? Why?
Andrew Jackson
Section Objectives
1. Describe the tension between Adams and Jackson; describe
the expansion of suffrage.
2. Explain Jackson’s spoils system and his appeal to the common
citizen.
3. Summarize the effects of the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
1. Expanding Democracy Changes Politics
Andrew Jackson- was the chief political opponent to John Quincy
Adams in the election of 1824.
VS.
• Jackson appealed to the common citizen.
• Jackson would become one of the most influential Presidents in
United States history.
A. Tension Between Adams and Jackson
• Election of 1824
• Jackson won the popular vote
but didn’t have enough electoral
votes.
• The vote went to the House
of Representatives.
• Henry Clay convinces the House to vote for
Adams
• Adams wins and elects Clay his secretary of
state.
• Jacksonians believed Adams had struck a bargain
with Clay.
• Who are
Jacksonians?
• Democratic Republican Party formed by
angry
• Jacksonians.
The equivalent to the Democratic Party today.
B. Democracy and Citizenship
During Adams presidency fewer states had property qualifications
for voting.
• Expanded voting rights
• Why do you think expanded voting rights is going to be good for
Jackson?
• Free African Americans and women still could not vote.
2. Jackson’s New Presidential Style
• Jackson is good at speaking to the
common citizen.
• He was a national hero after his
victory in the Battle of New Orleans.
• He portrayed himself as a man of
humble origins.
• Expansion of voting rights helped
Jackson win the election of 1828
because more common citizens
could vote.
A. Jackson’s Spoils System
• Spoils System- Replacing leaders of the
previous government with your own.
• “To the victor goes the spoils”
• Benefited his friends, political allies, and
the Democratic Republican Party.
3. Removal of Native Americans
• Five civilized tribes
• Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw
Creek, and Seminole
• Occupied Georgia, North and South
Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and
Tennessee
• Problem- Many white planters
and miners wanted this land.
• What can Jackson
do?
A. Indian Removal Act of 1830
• Indian Removal Act- The federal
government provided funds to
negotiate treaties that would force
Native Americans to move west.
• Jackson believed assimilation
could not work.
• He also believed it would take to many
troops to keep the area clear of white
settlers.
Indian Removal Act
B. The Cherokee Fight Back
• Worcester v. Georgia
• Chief Justice John Marshall
rules in favor of Worcester
and the Cherokee.
• Cherokee recognized as a
political community.
• President Jackson
ignored the ruling.
C. Trail of Tears
• Occurred in 1838 during Martin Van
Burans presidency.
• Trail of Tears- Journey the Cherokee
tribe took from Georgia to the Indian
territory in Oklahoma.
• ¼ of the Cherokee people died on this
journey.
Trail of Tears