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CHAPTER 13
THE AGE OF
JACKSON
Election of 1824
!  Four candidates… all Republican
!  All nominated in different ways (states,
party caucus)
! John Q. Adams - Sec. of State
! Henry Clay - Speaker of the House
! William Crawford - Sec. of the
Treasury
! Andrew Jackson - war hero, politician
Election of 1824
!  No candidate had a
majority - AJ led the
popular vote
!  Went to the House of
Reps.
Jackson
Adams
Crawford
Clay
!  B/n Crawford, Jackson,
and Adams
!  Clay out of running but
powerful as Speaker
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CORRUPT BARGAIN??
!  Clay hated Jackson
!  rivals in the west and jealous of his popularity
!  Clay & Adams met and Clay gave his support to
Adams
!  Adams won on the first ballot
!  Adams later appoints Clay Secretary of State
! Jackson’s supporters cried “Corrupt
Bargain!!”
John Q. Adams Presidency
!  Less than 1/3 of people voted for
him - a minority president?
!  Refused patronage - lost him
support
!  All his ideas hated… or was it
him?
!  Lots of great ideas
!  Internal improvements, national
university, $ for scientific research
!  Fought with the Gov. of Georgia
over the Cherokee
!  To make sure they were treated
fairly
!  The Governor threatened him and he
backed down
ELECTION OF 1828
!  Jackson’s campaign began in 1824
!  Presented as a hero and a common man (actually a
very wealthy planter)
!  Democratic Republican Party formed to support him
(Democrats)
!  Lots of mud-slinging
!  Jackson - mom a prostitute, wife an adulteress, killer
!  Adams - gambles, rich off of govt., a pimp (literally)
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ELECTION OF 1828 - RESULTS
!  Vote split along sectional
lines
!  Jackson wins South and West
!  Adams win New England
!  Jackson wins electoral
college big (178-83)
!  Showed how political power
was moving west
JACKSON’S PRESIDENCY
Spoils System
!  First time spoils system used on a large scale
!  The practice of giving govt. jobs to supporters
!  AJ thought it good to bring in new blood
! Rotation in Office - everyone deserves a turn
and no one gets complacent
!  Not all were capable… one became the first to
steal $1 million from the govt.
!  Very important to politics today - promotes party
loyalty
Review Question
Why was Andrew Jackson such a personally
powerful embodiment of the new mass
democracy in the 1820s and 1830s?
Would mass democracy have developed
without a popular hero like Jackson?
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JACKSON’S PRESIDENCY
Tariffs
!  Jacksonites proposed a disgustingly high
tariff towards the end of the Adams’ adm.
!  Would not pass and would embarrass Adams
!  Did pass and Jackson had to deal with it
!  “Tariff of Abominations”
!  Very high tariff… hurt the South
!  They sold their cotton and food on the world market
(unprotected)
!  Were still forced to buy American goods at higher than
normal prices
JACKSON’S PRESIDENCY
Tariffs
!  Deeper issues? Slavery??
!  Led to The South Carolina Exposition
!  Said the tariff was unconstitutional
!  Should be nullified
!  South Carolina tried to and failed
!  New legislature elected in 1832 and they nullified
the tariff
!  Threatened to secede if the govt. tried to collect the $
by force
!  Jackson was not one to be bullied and he began to prep
the military
!  Civil War????
Clay to the Rescue…Again
!  Clay proposed the Compromise Tariff of 1833
!  Tariffs would be lowered a total of 10% over a
span of 8 years = 1816 tariff level
!  Force Bill also passed
!  Authorized the Prez to use military force to
collect customs duties if needed
!  South Carolina withdrew their nullification of the
Tariff… but nullified the Force Bill
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Review Question
Why did Calhoun and the South see the
Tariff of 1828 as such an abomination
and raise threats of nullification over it?
JACKSON’S PRESIDENCY
Native Americans
!  Jackson wanted expansion… good for the west
!  Meant had to deal with Indians
!  Assimilation or Extermination
!  1828 Georgia Legislature declared authority over
Cherokee lands and affairs
!  Cherokee fought this before Supreme Court 3 times.. won
all 3 times
!  Jackson refused to enforce the decisions
!  Jackson the came up with a third option… forced removal
Indian Removal Act - 1830
!  Moved 100,000 Native
Americans
!  All tribes east of the
Mississippi River
!  Trail of Tears
!  Thousands die en route
!  Supposed to be free from
white encroachment
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JACKSON’S PRESIDENCY
Native Americans
!  1836 - Bureau of Indian Affairs created
!  In Illinois and Wisconsin the Sauk & Fox
resisted removal - Black Hawk War
!  Seminole Indians waged a 7-year guerilla
war in Florida
!  Their leader Osceola was taken prisoner under
a flag of truce… led to their defeat
!  Many moved to Oklahoma
Election of 1832
!  Jackson v. Clay
!  Two westerners
!  Two big firsts
Vs.
!  Anti-Mason party nominated their candidate in a
convention
!  The party also adopted a formal platform
!  Jackson won easily even though Clay had a lot of $
!  Some of Clay’s $ came from the Bank of the U.S.
!  Bank was the big issue
Jackson and the Bank War
!  During the election Clay decided to to make the
Bank the issue
!  He proposed to renew the bank’s charter in
1832 even though it wasn’t up until 1836
!  To bait Jackson because he hated it and its leader
Nicholas Biddle
Nicholas
!  Saw it as a tool of the wealthy
Biddle
!  Jackson vetoed the bill - HUGE
!  Not because it was unconstitutional, but he thought it
was a bad idea - huge increase in power for the Prez
!  Jackson took his election as a mandate to destroy
the bank… now
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“The bank tried to kill me,
so I will kill it!”
!  In 1833 Jackson removed all the government’s $ from the Bank
of the U.S.
!  Not at all popular
!  Biddle called in all loans - created a major financial panic
!  The $ was deposited in a number of western banks !  “pet banks”
!  These banks flooded the country with paper $ - became
worthless
!  Also began to give out tons of loans to buy land.. Overspeculation
!  AJ issued the “specie circular”
!  All public land had to be bought with specie (gold or silver)
Review Question
Was Biddle’s Bank a real threat to the
economic welfare of the less affluent
citizens whom Jackson represented, or was
it more important as a symbol of eastern
wealth and elitism?
NEW POLTICAL
PARTY SYSTEM
!  Democrats
!  Followers of Andrew
Jackson
!  Party of the “common
man”
!  Got people excited
about politics again
!  Wanted to get more
involved
!  Still around today
!  Whigs
!  Started by Clay,
Calhoun & Webster
!  Anti-King Andrew I
!  Very diverse
!  States’ rights
!  American Sys.
!  Internal improvements
!  anti-Masons
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Election of 1836
Democrat
Martin Van Buren
Whig
William H. Harrison
Martin Van Buren wins
!  An experienced
politician, strategist,
and spoilsman
!  Hand-picked by AJ
!  Some Dems didn’t like
him
!  Inherited Jackson’s
enemies
!  Inherited AJ’s
economic panic too
Texas
!  Land was given to Stephen Austin by Mexico
!  To lure in settlers
!  Supposed to be Catholic and assimilated into
Mexican culture
!  By 1835 there were 30,000 Americans there
!  Conflict soon arose over the issue of home rule
!  How much power did the Texans have to govern
themselves
!  Slavery, immigration, and other local rights
!  1830 - Slavery had been forbidden
Stephen
Austin
Van Buren’s Presidency
!  Panic of 1837
!  Caused by land speculation again, along with crop failures
and foreign bank closures
!  Banks failed by the hundreds - some had govt. $
deposited in them
!  Whigs called for more credit, higher tariffs, and $ for
internal improvements… sound familiar?
!  Divorce Bill
!  Est. an independent treasury
!  Put money away in vaults so no one could touch it
!  Around, with a short exception, until 1912
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Texas Declares Independence
!  1836 Santa Anna took
away all local rights and
raised an army
!  TX declared independence
!  led by Sam Houston
!  The Alamo
Sam Houston
Santa Anna
!  When word got out of this
many Americans took up
arms to help
!  Houston eventually
captured Santa Anna
Republic of Texas
!  Santa Anna agreed to:
!  Withdraw Mexican
troops
!  Border would be the
Rio Grande
!  Later he took it all
back
!  Texas soon wanted to
be annexed - slavery??
Review Question
Argue for or against: the Texas Revolution
against Mexico was more about the expansion
of slavery into the West than about the rights of
Anglo-American settlers in Texas.
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Election of 1840
!  Van Buren v. Harrison again
!  Harrison was issueless - had no enemies
!  log cabins & hard cider
!  Was a western common man, Van Buren a eastern city
boy causing trouble
!  Lots of hoopla from the Whigs
!  “Tippecanoe, and Tyler too”
!  Harrison wins
Politics never the same since the era of Jackson
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