The Presidency of Andrew Jackson I.
The Composite Character of Jackson’s Support: From 1825 until 1828 President Adams was under constant fire from the Jackson men. All the changes were rung on the “corrupt bargain” charge, and a variety of sectional and class issues were introduced into the campaign. Jackson’s supporters were a highly diverse group, composed of those who disliked Adams and his program for a variety of reasons. They were a strange mixture of discontented men; they were unanimous on only one thing – their desire to “throw the rascals out.” A. Eastern Working Men: The newly enfranchised, non‐propertied workers of the Eastern cities were critical of the Adams Administration on two grounds 1. They denounced the employees of the federal government as a privileged bureaucracy. Inasmuch as there had been no partisan turnover in the government since 1801, many civil servants had held their jobs for such a long period that they constituted virtually a separate social class, for whom the masses felt little affinity. 2. The anti‐monopoly sentiments of the laborers were expressed in attacks upon special charters and franchise privileges granted by the federal and state governments. The Bank of the United States was a favorite object of denunciation. B. Western and Southern Farmers: These small farmers, many of whom were debtors, opposed the Adams Administration on several grounds. 1. They were suspicious of the official bureaucracy 2. They resented the current public‐land policy, upon which they blamed the activities of the land speculators to whom many of them were financially obligated 3. Many of them were agitating for the removal of the Indians from their lands east of the Mississippi. Adams was regarded as sympathetic with the Indians because he did not approve of the efforts of the State of Georgia to assert jurisdiction over the Cherokees, who occupied their land under treaties with the federal government. 4. The farmers were particularly hostile to the Bank of the United States because of its conservative financial policy. (The debtor farmers of the th
West were inflationists throughout the 19 Century) C. Southern Planters: The tobacco growers of Virginia and the cotton planters of the Deep South charged that Adams and Clay were discriminating against the South through the “American System.” 1. By the late 1820’s the planters were almost unanimously agreed that he protective tariff aided the manufacturers of the North at the expense of the agrarian majority in the country. 2. They also felt that the South was not getting a fair share of the internal improvements for which they were paying indirectly through the high prices that resulted from the tariff. Adams was a confirmed advocate of federal subsidies for such improvements, spending as much as had all his predecessors combined. 3. The nationalism of Adams was unpopular with the planters, who were rapidly moving toward a states’ rights position. II.
The Election of 1828: The anti‐Adams coalition was able to win a smashing victory in the election of 1828. Only in New England was Jackson without substantial support; he carried all the South and West, Pennsylvania, and part of New York. III.
Significance of the Jackson Victory: A. A Variety of Interpretations: It is difficult to evaluate Jackson’s victory, since it meant such different things to different groups of the populace. 1. It was the victory of a popular military hero. General Jackson was a noted Indian fighter, and famous for his spectacular victory over the British at New Orleans in 1815. 2. Andrew Jackson was a symbol of the common man, so his triumph was in a symbolic sense the triumph of the common man. True, he was a common man no longer. He had risen, economically and socially; he had acquired land, slaves and the courtly manners of the Southern planter aristocracy of which he was a leading member by the time of his election. In Tennessee politics, he had allied himself with the conservatives – with the creditor and land‐speculator elements. He was a vigorous supporter of slavery. But he was of humble birth, he had no formal schooling, and he had risen largely through his own exertions. He was the first American President to come from a non‐aristocratic family, the first Presidential success story – log cabin to White House. 3. Jackson’s election was partly a victory for the newly organized political machines in the East – the mobilization of the urban masses by such politicians as Van Buren. 4. To the West, it was a triumph of nationalism, for Jackson was regarded as the representative of that section and its ideals. He was, in fact a strong nationalist by conviction; and his having moved into Tennessee when it was still a frontier state gave him claim to being a Westerner. 5. Many Southern states’ righters thought Jackson was their man. Tennessee was a Southern state, and Jackson was a slaveholding planter aristocrat. As a matter of face, he did hold some states’ rights convictions. 6. The protectionists of Pennsylvania had been persuaded that Jackson was a high‐tariff man, and had supported him on that ground. 7. In contrast, the free traders of the South looked to the new President to support their program. B. The Problem of Democratic Unity: 1. It was apparent as early as 1828 that the emerging Democratic party was confronted with the problem which has vexed it ever since – the composite character of its membership. To reconcile the demands of rural and urban voters, of the Western and Southern farmers and the Eastern machines, was, and is today, a difficult problem. 2. At the outset Jackson had to decide which groups should have the dominant voice in his Administration – the Easter political organizations, whose voice was van Buren, the Southern planters, who were represented by Vice‐
president Calhoun, or the Western farmers, led by Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri. The ideal solution would have been to offer enough to each group to keep all in line, but Jackson succeeded only in part in his attempt to achieve this solution. C. A Comparison of the American and French Party Systems: 1. In France, there are a large number of political parties, no one of which ever achieves a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. As a result, the French executive (the “government”), which is not separate from the national legislature, is always supported by a coalition of parties in the Chamber. When the government takes a stand that displeases some one of the parties which comprise the government coalition, that party is likely to withdraw its support, causing the government to fall. 2. The party situation in the U.S. is generally thought to be quite different from that in France, but actually it is not so different. It is true that there are only two political parties of any significance in America, and that one or the other of these parties always has a majority in Congress (in one or both Houses of Congress) and one of them holds the Presidency. It is also true that one or the other of these two parties always holds the Presidency for four years, regardless of what happens in Congress. But each of our two parties is itself a coalition – albeit a coalition formed before the election rather than after it, as in France. 3. All American Presidents have had trouble, once in office, in holding together the coalition that elected them. The President is certain to do something that antagonizes some element in his supporting coalition; but since he is elected for a fixed term of office, the inevitable alienation of some of his support does not cause his downfall, as it does with the French Premier. However, it is true that American Presidents nearly always lose support in Congress as their term of office proceeds. Jackson’s coalition included protectionists in Pennsylvania, low‐tariff advocates in the South, pro‐public‐
improvement elements in the West, and anti‐public‐improvement elements in the South. Small wonder, therefore, that Jackson had such difficulty in holding his coalition together. As it turned out, some of the dissatisfied elements in his original coalition united to form the opposition Whig party. IV.
The Revolution of 1828: A. The Inauguration: Indicative that a political revolution had occurred with the election of Jackson was the scene at the inaugural in March 1829. A new and heterogeneous group of office seekers, favor seekers, and “common men” B.
appeared at Washington to participate in the festivities. The reception at the White House was open to all, and Whig diarists and historians took particular delight in describing the riotous affair. The President: Andrew Jackson was a complex person, a one‐man coalition, full of internal contradictions. He had strong convictions on some issues – e.g., banking – and no apparent convictions on others – e.g., tariff policy. 1. Principles: a. Jackson, following Jefferson, advocated a laissez faire economic policy. He opposed government interference in economic affairs. He was particularly opposed to federal participation in banking, and he ultimately came out against a protective tariff b. Jackson manifested an intense hostility toward monopoly and special privilege. He regarded the Second Bank of the United States as a monopoly which enjoyed special privileges from the government. Therefore, he felt, it was an evil and immoral institution, and must be destroyed. c. Although Jackson was generally popular with the laboring class, as the symbol of coming into his own of the common man, his administrations th
were by no means labor administrations in the 20 Century sense. Rather, they were free enterprise administrations. Jackson was not opposed to anyone’s getting rich; he was just opposed to getting rich through special privilege. d. The Jacksonian principle of noninterference in economic affairs carried over into the Administration of his unfortunate successor, Van Buren. Following the Panic of 1837, America experienced its first severe economic depression, the first one in which urban industrial unemployment became a serious problem. However, Van Buren and his advisers regarded the depression as a natural phenomenon about which the government could do nothing. As a matter of act, the government policy – inaugurated under Jackson – of removing Treasury funds from private banks and putting them in Sub‐treasuries actually made the depression worse. e. Jackson was very inconsistent in his position on constitutional interpretation. He adhered to a strict interpretation in opposing the Bank of the United States and in opposing federal aid to internal improvements, using arguments derived from Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions. But when the South Carolina nullification controversy arose in 1832 – the same year in which Jackson vetoed the act re‐
chartering the Bank of the United States – he used the arguments of Hamilton, Marshall and Webster to affirm federal supremacy in a way that required a loose interpretation of the constitution. C.
D.
2. Program: a. Jackson was a hard money man; he opposed paper money. b. He ultimately came out in favor of a low tariff, but his handling of the entire tariff question had been so inept and vacillating that he had by that time alienated many of his supporters, both Northern and Southern. c. He advocated general incorporation laws, in accordance with his opposition to special privilege of any sort. d. He supported free banking laws, holding that anyone meeting certain minimal state requirements ought to be free to establish a bank. The Cabinet: 1. Few members of the old government aristocracy were invited to participate in Jackson’s Administration. Van Buren was named Secretary of State, and other Cabinet posts were divided among Calhoun’s friends in the South and Jackson’s pals in the West. 2. The unofficial advisers of the President – soon dubbed the “Kitchen Cabinet” – were also representatives of the rising groups in America. Prominent among them were Amos Kendall, a Kentucky journalist, Francis Preston Blair, Sr., of Missouri, and Isaac Hill, a New Hampshire editor. The Spoils System: 1. Washington and Jefferson had both given governmental position to their political supporters, but Jackson’s appointment policy was the first forthright avowal of the doctrine “To the victor belong the spoils.” Many officials were replaced, although the extent of the turnover has been exaggerated by hostile historians. 2. More significant than the number of job changes were the views of the new President concerning the civil service. a. His opposition to a perpetual bureaucracy was expressed in the idea of rotation in office. Short terms of office were regarded as democratic, since they would help to keep officeholders responsive to the popular will. b. Jackson expressed the idea that there was no office at the disposal of the President which could not be run by any American citizen of normal intelligence. c. A new twist was given to the spoils system with the assessing of federal employees to provide funds for the political party, on which, after all, they were dependent for their jobs. 3. The Whigs were shocked at these efforts to build up a political machine within the Administration, and roundly denounced “King Andrew.” But when they finally came into power, in 1841, they used exactly the same tactics. V.
Jackson’s Program for Western and Southern Farmers: The Indian‐Removal Policy: 1. The Indians were no longer a military problem; the task of the Administration was to get them off the lands in the Northwest and South which were desired by white settlers. 2. The situation was particularly critical in the South, where the Five Civilized Tribes – Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles – were abandoning their tribal ways and settling down to become cotton farmers. The continuing efforts of Georgia to assert jurisdiction over the Cherokees eventually brought a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Indians, but Jackson and the Georgia government cavalierly ignored Chief Justice Marshall’s decision. 3. The solution to which Jackson resorted was an acceleration of the removal policy which had been launched in 1825 by President Monroe. The Indians were coerced or persuaded to cede their land east of the Mississippi and move to the “Great American Desert,” where a permanent reservation was established. By 1841 all the tribes had been removed but the Seminoles, who offered resistance and were exterminated except for the handful who found refuge in the Everglades of Florida. The Black Hawk War of 1812 was a feeble gesture of protest on the part of some of the Indians being removed from Illinois. B. Internal Improvements: 1. Jackson had less success in satisfying his farmer constituents in the matter of federal subsidies for internal improvements. The Adams‐Clay program of aid for roads and canals had been popular in the West, and Jackson had not specifically committed himself on it during the campaign. 2. The Maysville Road bill – a Congressional appropriation for a 70‐mile road to connect several Kentucky towns, including the home town of Henry Clay, with the Ohio River – was vetoed by Jackson, in 1830, on the ground that improvements of a purely local nature could not constitutionally be subsidized by the federal government. (However, Jackson signed more such bills than he vetoed.) 3. The Maysville Road veto won some support for Jackson in the South, but it cost him heavily in those portions of the West which were particularly in need of roads and canals. 4. Jackson realized that the states needed financial support for their internal improvements projects. To circumvent the constitutional argument against direct subsidies, he proposed that as soon as the federal government got out of debt, its surplus revenues should be distributed among the states. In 1836 the U.S. became, for the only time in its history, debt‐free, and the distribution scheme was enacted by Congress. Only a little money was passed out, however, before the Panic of 1837 wiped out the surplus. A.
C.
Public Land Policy: 1. There was considerable division of opinion concerning the proper disposition of the public domain. The Western farmers argued for a generous land policy that would encourage settlement, on the ground that the public domain was of no value to the nation until it was brought under cultivation. Eastern manufacturers, on the other hand, feared that a cheap‐
land policy would drain off workers from the cities and force up wages. 2. Jackson favored a generous land policy, supporting a number of pre‐
emption acts to permit squatters on various portions of the public domain to buy farms at the minimum price before the lands were offered at auction. D. The Bank of the United States: 1. By the time of Jackson, Nicholas Biddle’s Bank of the United States was a villain in the eyes of the poor people almost everywhere. In the West it was hated because it curbed the inflationary practices of the state banks. Eastern workers viewed the bank as a financial monopoly quite inconsistent with the tenets of democracy. 2. Consequently, Jackson’s war on the bank was popular. The majority of the people approved his recommendation against re‐chartering the bank and his veto of the re‐chartering act which was pushed through Congress by Clay. In the election of 1832, in which the bank was a major issue, the voters gave the same verdict. Jackson’s withdrawal of federal funds from the bank, beginning in 1833, was widely approved, and when the bank’s national charter expired, in 1836, the “common man” felt that he had achieved another victory. VI.
Jacksonian Democracy: A. Political Features: Jackson’s followers advocated universal manhood suffrage and opposed nomination of candidates by caucus. They were hostile to the idea of government by specialists and experts, believing that a specialized bureaucracy tends to lose touch with the people. They advocated frequent rotation in office. Running along with this opposition to government by specialists was a thread of hostility to intellectuals which has continued in popular American politics from Jackson’s day down to ours. There was, in face, an element of demagoguery, of appeal to the emotions rather than to the intellect, in Jacksonian democracy. The Whigs at first denounced this tendency, but learned rapidly how to turn out some very effective demagoguery on their own behalf, as in the campaign of 1840. B. Jackson’s Conception of the Presidency: Jackson felt himself to be the representative of the whole nation and the chief protector of the constitution, superior even to the Supreme Court. He used the veto power liberally. His enemies accused him of acting like a king, and for that reason took the name “Whig,” from the name of the English party opposed to the king. New Democracy Which of the following were manifestations of the New Democracy: Put a line through the ones that do not describe the New Democracy 1.
Universal manhood suffrage 2.
Property qualifications for voting 3.
King numbers (many participate in democracy) 4.
Silver buckled knee breeches 5.
Government by the Masses 6.
Competition for public favor by candidates for public office 7.
Election of candidates with scanty formal education to high public office 8.
Naming of presidential electors by state legislatures 9.
National nominating conventions 10. Presidential nominations made by congressional caucus 11. Dignity of the common man 12. Outcome of the presidential election of 1828 13. Westward movement of the center of political gravity 14. Large‐scale use of the spoils system as a method of filing appointive public office