May 28, 2015
John Quincy Adams
MA
Highly qualified but people found him cold and self important
Committed to internal improvements
Less strongly committed to tariffs
Very good friend of Clay
Henry Clay
KY
Speaker of the House
People love him
Strength is compromise
Favored the National Bank, protective tariffs, and a national program for internal improvements - believed it would build the nation and economy
William Crawford
GA
Congressman and Secretary of State
Radical Republicans – distrusted nationalism that developed during John Adams Presidency
Andrew Jackson
TN
Hero of the Battle of New Orleans
Says he is the anti-politician
Wanted government to support the common man
No real platform
Jackson had the most votes but not a majority of electoral votes
Clay got least votes
Crawford is dying and is out of the race
Clay tosses his votes to Adams it is said in exchange for the role job of Sec. of State
Jackson believes it is an example of the powerful controlling the government
Democratic-Republican party splits
1. Democratic – Republican party supports Jackson and becomes the party of the common people
2. National Republican Party becomes a new party and is led by Adams
Jackson says Adams is an aristocrat, upper class, spent to much money on national projects
Adams says Jackson is a barbarian and a savage, that he can barely spell his own name, and ruffian with a furious temper
Jackson wins with the support of urban eastern workers, farmers in the south and the west.
Jackson “Old Hickory” as President
Believes the government should give equal protection and equal benefit for all people
Creates the “Spoils System” – fired everyone in the government and hired his friends. He believed the people in the government were corrupt and needed to be replaced.
For the first time white men who did not own property were able to vote
Share croppers, factory workers and other were able to vote and the thought Jackson was their best bet for a voice in the government
End of private party caucus – where a group of men when into a room and decided who the party would run for president.
Nominating conventions where delegates from each state vote for who will run for President replace it.
Tariff of Abominations 1828
Tariff caused the price of foreign goods sold in the US to increase
Northern View Point: Made European goods more expensive and that made it possible for Northern manufacturing to make a profit.
Southern View Point
The tariff makes the North more powerful and profitable while making goods more expensive in the South
Jackson’s view point
Must not allow the tariff to break the country
The South is suggesting that they will Nullify (refuse the law) the law if it continues.
Jackson does not want the concept of Nullification to take hold in the country.
Jackson's VP (John C. Calhoun) to battle against the "Tariff of Abominations" and in 1828 he states that the Union was an agreement among sovereign states and therefore had the right to nullify any federal law
Nullification Crisis – what if the South refuses to able the law and actually says it is not the law in the South
Jan. 1830 - Senator Daniel Webster counters Senator Haynes’s speech favoring nullification with a 2 day speech tying the Constitution and Union and Liberty
Nullification Crises
Jackson and his Vice-President take different sides
Jackson (from the South) says the law must stand and Calhoun (from the South) says states have the right to decide for them selves if they follow the law.
Jackson “ Our federal union must be preserved”
Calhoun “ The Union next to our liberty, most dear.”
Comprise is reacted but the North and South are working their way toward the Civil War
Calhoun resigns and becomes a senator and Martin Van Burean becomes the VP
S. Carolina nullifies the tariff and threatened to secede
Jackson and Clay create a compromise of the tariff and S. Carolina backs down