1824 Presidential Election
4 candidates – all Democratic-Republicans
1.
John Quincy Adams – Monroe’s Sec. of State
• Supported by Northeast
2.
Henry Clay – Speaker of the House
• Supported in Midwest (KY)
3.
Andrew Jackson – TN Senator
• Supported by western farmers – “common man”
4.
William Crawford – Monroe’s Sec. of Treasury
• Supported by Congress & President Monroe
A “Corrupt Bargain?”
• Jackson won the largest share of electoral votes (plurality),
but not the required majority.
– Election thrown to the House of Representatives.
• With Clay in 4thplace, he was excluded from the ballot in
the House of Representatives.
– Clay opposed Jackson (Seminole War issues & threat to American System)
and Crawford (old, recent stroke).
• Clay threw his support behind J.Q. Adams, who was
declared the victor by the House.
– After his victory, JQ Adams nominated Clay as his Sec. of State
• Jackson & supporters FURIOUS – cried “corrupt bargain,”
vowed revenge.
Andrew Jackson Station Activity
• Walk around to each station and read the placards.
• Respond to the questions for that particular station.
• As you go through the stations, evaluate Andrew
Jackson’s legacy—is he better suited for the
nickname “King Andrew” or “A Man of the People?”
A Man of the People
King Andrew
• Acts like a king
• Ignores balance of
powers
• Abuses authority
OR
• Exposes corruption
• Favors policies that benefit
common people
• Believes in fair treatment of
people
Station 1 – J.Q. Adams’ Presidency
• After the 1824 election & the alleged “corrupt bargain”
between now-president John Quincy Adams and nowSecretary of State Henry Clay, Adams became the first
“minority” president, winning fewer than one-third of
the popular vote.
• During Adams’ presidency, the post-Ghent nationalism
that had swept the country began to fade, being
replaced by issues of states’ rights and sectionalism.
• A staunch nationalist, Adams was met with little public
support for his proposed roads, canals, and national
university.
Station 1 – J.Q. Adams’ Presidency
Station 1 – J.Q. Adams’ Presidency
• Southerners in particular were
concerned by federal intervention in
seemingly local affairs of roads and
education. Those in the south
worried that the federal government
might intervene in the “peculiar
institution” of slavery.
• Adams also was hesitant to deal with
the western clamor for Native
American land in Georgia. Adams
attempted to deal fairly with the
Indians, angering many who saw the
process as slow an unresponsive.
Station 2 – The Second Party System
• After the contentious 1824 presidential election,
the Democratic-Republican party splintered into
two camps:
– Democratic Party, led by western-supported Andrew
Jackson
– National Republican Party (later known as the Whig
Party), led by Henry Clay & President Adams
• The split of the Democratic-Republican Party
formally ended the party’s dominance during the
“Era of Good Feelings” and marked the beginning
of the Second Party System.
Station 2 – The Second Party System
Station 3 – The Election of 1828
• After Jackson’s defeat in 1824, he vowed to seek
the presidency again and engaged in a countrywide campaign for four years during Adams’
presidency.
• Jackson’s followers proclaimed Jackson as an
honest, tough frontiersman and champion of
the common man. In reality, Jackson was a
wealthy planter and had made significant sums
of money from slave labor at his plantation in
Tennessee.
Station 3 – The Election of 1828
• The campaign for the 1828 election reached
new lows in terms of political mudslinging.
Supporters of Adams & Jackson traded barbs
and vile attacks at one another.
• Adams’ supporters described Jackson’s mother
as a prostitute and his wife, Rachel, as a
adulteress due to a complication with her
divorce from her previous husband. Jackson was
painted as a confrontational and rash general
who engaged in duels and brawls.
Station 3 – The Election of 1828
• Jackson’s supporters attacked Adams as a gambler who used
the White House as his personal casino after Adams had been
found to have purchased a billiard table and a chess set.
Adams was also accused of having procured a servant girl for
the Russian tsar while serving as Secretary of State.
• On election day, the vote split along regional lines—Jackson’s
support coming from the south and the west, while Adams’
support came from New England. Both candidates split the
middle states.
• The final electoral vote saw Jackson trump Adams by a count
of 178 to 83. Though Jackson won a significant share of votes
in New York and Pennsylvania, his victory marked a shift of
the political center of gravity away from the eastern seaboard
toward the western states.
Station 3 – The Election of 1828
Andrew Jackson was the first
“common man” president – born of
modest means from the west; ended
the “Virginia Dynasty.”
Station 4 – Witnessing Jackson’s Inauguration
• Read the following document in the manila
folder:
– “It Was the People’s Day,” witnessing Jackson’s
inaugural Address, March 4, 1829
Station 5 – Jackson’s Inaugural Address
• Read the following document in the manila
folder:
– Andrew Jackson’s Inaugural Address, March 4th,
1829.
Station 6 – The Spoils System
• Jackson was a strong supporter of the use of the
spoils system, where he rewarded his political
supporters with public office positions.
• Jackson defended the practice as extending the
participation in democracy to the masses. Jackson
strongly opposed the same individuals perpetually
holding office, arguing that it effectively created an
aristocracy.
• Since no new political party had come into the
White House since 1800, Jackson argued there were
plenty of officeholders that needed to be replaced.
Station 6 – The Spoils System
• Jackson did use his power to reward his supporters,
but it did not come without scandal. Some of
Jackson’s strongest campaign donors were
appointed to high office. Men with questionable
qualifications were given positions they were illsuited for.
• One case in particular reeked of suspicion—Samuel
Swartwout. He was appointed as collector of the
customs of the port of New York, despite warnings
of his untrustworthiness. Almost nine years later,
Swarwout left for England with a million dollar
deficit in his public accounts.
Station 6 – The Spoils System
• “In Memoriam—Our Civil
Service As It Was”
Station 7 – The Maysville Road Veto
• As part of “The American System” of
infrastructure improvements that Henry Clay had
trumpeted since Madison’s presidency, roads and
bridges were being increasingly built with federal
funding in the 1820s.
• In 1830, Congress passed a bill that provided
federal funds to complete a stretch of the
envisioned “National Road” project between
Lexington and Maysville, Kentucky.
Station 7 – The Maysville Road Veto
• When the bill came to his desk, Jackson vetoed
it, citing a strict constructionist interpretation of
the Constitution, whereby federal money should
only be spent when carrying out Congress’
enumerated powers.
• Jackson viewed the construction of the road as
an exclusively local matter, and cited that
projects of this nature inhibited paying off the
national debt.
Station 7 – The Maysville Road Veto
The proposed
“Maysville Road” project
Station 8 – The Nullification Crisis
• Since its inception in 1788, the federal government’s
primary source of revenue during the early 1800s was the
collection of tariffs. Not only did these duties provide
government revenue, they were also a vital part of Henry
Clay’s American System to boost American industry.
• Despite the supposed benefits, increasingly higher tariffs
after the War of 1812’s conclusion stoked the issue of
sectionalism in the U.S.
– The north supported higher tariffs because it encouraged
Americans to purchase domestically-produced goods, which
were almost entirely made in New England.
– The south favored lower tariffs because their economy
depended on cotton export, both foreign and domestic.
Higher tariffs reduced foreign imports, thereby lowering the
value of the South’s cotton in foreign markets.
Station 8 – The Nullification Crisis
• In 1828, Congress passed the highest tariff the
country had seen up to that point—averaging over
30% on imported goods. The Southern states, who
despised the increased tariff, branded it the “Tariff
of Abominations” and protested the new rates.
• Led by, of all people, Jackson’s Vice President, John
C. Calhoun (in secret), South Carolina’s legislature
published a pamphlet calling for a reduction in tariff
rates, urging states to nullify the existing tariff.
Station 8 – The Nullification Crisis
• Congress responded with the Tariff of 1832, which
included reduced duties on some imports, but fell far
short of southern demands.
• In response, South Carolina’s legislature mustered a
two-thirds vote and declared the federal tariff to be null
and void within South Carolina. Going further, the
legislators threatened to pull South Carolina out of the
Union if federal officials attempted to collect the duties.
• Jackson, infuriated, prepared to send the military to
South Carolina. Seeking to avoid a civil war, Henry Clay
gathered support in Congress for a compromise Tariff of
1833 that gradually lowered tariff rates over a 10 year
period.
vs.
Station 8 – The Nullification Crisis
Station 9 – Native American Relations
• Although Jacksonian Democrats eagerly sought to expand
westward, there was still a significant portion of land east
of the Mississippi River that was Native American territory.
• In the 1790s, the federal government recognized the tribes
as separate nations and agreed to acquire land from them
through formal treaties. Despite agreements, Americans
routinely redrew treaty line after treaty line as settlement
pushed westward.
• Several Native American tribes made efforts to partly
adopt American customs and traditions, including
representative government. As a result of this, the
Cherokee, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and the
Seminoles became known as the “Five Civilized Tribes.”
Station 9 – Native American Relations
• Despite their efforts to “civilize,” settlers sought to push
the Native Americans from their land. In 1828, the state of
Georgia asserted its own jurisdiction over Indian affairs
and lands.
• The Cherokee appealed this move all the way up to the
Supreme Court, and in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the
Marshall-led court upheld the rights of Native Americans.
• Seeking to support his constituency, Jackson responded to
Marshall & the Court’s decision by stating “John Marshall
has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”
Station 9 – Native American Relations
• In an effort to provide organized resettlement,
Jackson supported a bill to relocate the Native
Americans in the eastern part of the U.S.
• In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act,
providing for the transplant of all Native American
tribes east of the Mississippi River.
• During the fall & winter of 1838-1839, more than
one-fourth of all Cherokee who made the 800-mile
journey to Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma
perished along what came to be known as the Trail
of Tears.
Station 9 – Native American Relations
Station 10 – The Bank War
• Part of Jackson’s Democratic platform was opposition toward
the national bank. Since the Panic of 1819 and foreclosure of
western farms, the Second Bank of the United States had
generated much animosity among westerners and
southerners.
• Due to the Bank’s power over the national economy and
precious metals (gold and silver), Jackson, and his supporters,
saw the private institution as more directed toward its wealthy
investors than to the people.
• The Bank’s president, Nicholas Biddle, held immense—and
many argued unconstitutional—influence over the nation’s
economic affairs. Enemies of the bank claimed it was a “hydra
of corruption,” a serpent that grew new heads whenever old
ones were cut off.
Station 10 – The Bank War
• In 1832, Daniel Webster and Henry Clay proposed to
renew the charter of the Bank of the United States, partly
to make it a campaign issue that Clay could endorse.
• Despite passing Congress, Jackson vetoed the charter bill
and declared the bank unconstitutional and monopolistic,
despite the bank being allowed under the ruling of
McCullough v. Maryland more than a decade prior.
• Jackson’s veto marked a shift in the use of the presidential
veto—he claimed argued he vetoed the bill because he
personally found it harmful to the nation.
Station 10 – The Bank War
• After defeating Clay in the election of 1832, Jackson
claimed he had a mandate from the American public to rid
the country of the Bank.
• Jackson made plans to siphon government funds out of
the Bank and into state banks that were loyal to the
Democratic Party (nicknamed pet banks).
• After these wildcat banks flooded the country with paper
money that was becoming increasingly worthless, Jackson
authorized the Treasury to issue a Specie Circular in 1836,
which required all public lands be purchased with gold or
silver to stop the speculative boom.
Station 10 – The Bank War