Section 1: Jacksonian Democracy. The election of 1824 featured three favorite sons, candidates supported by their home states rather than a national party.

THE AMERICAN JOURNEY:

CH. 10: THE AGE OF JACKSON

Section 1: Jacksonian Democracy

THE ELECTION OF 1824 The election of 1824 featured three

favorite sons, candidates supported by their home states rather than a national party.Henry Clay of KentuckyAndrew Jackson of Tennessee John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts (son

of John Adams) Jackson won the most popular votes, but

no one received a majority, over 50%. Jackson did receive the plurality, the

largest single share (99 of 162).

THE ELECTION OF 1824 The Twelfth Amendment says that when

no candidate receives a majority, the House of Representatives selects the president.

Adams and Clay made a secret deal.Clay used his influence as Speaker of the

House to persuade the House not to vote for Jackson.

Adams was elected, and he named Clay as secretary of state.

But this “corrupt bargain,” along with unpopular policies (stronger navy, larger government) made John Quincy Adams a very unpopular president.

THE ELECTION OF 1828 By 1828, there were two parties.

Democratic-Republicans supported Jackson and supported states’ rights and smaller government. They were generally frontier people, immigrants,

and city workers.National Republicans supported Adams

and supported stronger government, a national bank, and road-building. They were generally farmers and merchants.

This campaign featured an extreme amount of mudslinging, attempts to ruin the other candidate’s reputation.

THE ELECTION OF 1828 This was also the first use of slogans,

buttons, and rallies, all of which became permanent parts of campaigning.

Jackson ended up winning in a landslide, an overwhelming victory.56% of the vote, 178 electoral votes John C. Calhoun switched parties to become

Jackson’s vice president (he was Adams’s V.P.).

JACKSON’S PRESIDENCY Jackson was immensely popular,

especially with small farmers and craftsmen.He seemed like “a man of the people.”He was a patriot.He was a war hero.He worked hard from poverty to wealth.

Jackson had gained his popularity during the War of 1812.He defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle

of Horseshoe Bend and the British at the Battle of New Orleans.

His troops called him “Old Hickory” because he was as tough as a hard hickory tree.

JACKSON’S PRESIDENCY Jackson promised “equal protection and

equal benefits” for all Americans. (This actually meant all white males.)Still, the property requirements to vote

began to loosen, and many white males finally got to vote.

Democrats favored democracy, and they sought to break up the bureaucracy, a system in which nonelected officials carried out laws. Jackson replaced many nonelected officials

with his supporters.Some accused Jackson of acting as a tyrant.

JACKSON’S PRESIDENCY Jackson and his supporters responded

that “to the victors belong the spoils.” In other words, since Jackson won, he and his

supporters earned the right to the benefits.The process of replacing government

employees with the winning candidate’s supporters is called the spoils system.

Another change was the abandoning of the caucus system.Under the caucus system, political

candidates were chosen by special committees of Congress.

Under Jackson, nominating conventions of state delegates replaced the Congressional committees.

THE TARIFF DEBATE In 1828, Congress placed a tariff, a fee on

imported goods, on all goods from Europe. This encouraged Americans to buy American. The North loved the tariff—it caused people to

buy their goods. The South hated it—the South had little

manufacturing, and it meant higher prices. Vice President John C. Calhoun argued that

the South had the right to nullify (cancel) a federal law states disagreed with. Some Southerners called for the South to

secede. Do states have the right to secede if they

disagree with the federal government?

NULLIFICATION? SECESSION? Calhoun said it this way: Either the states

decide what’s constitutional, or the Supreme Court and Congress will always tell states what to do.He argued that since the federal government

was a creation of the states, states can break away.

Senator Daniel Webster loudly declared that nullification and secession were appalling.

In 1830 Jackson finally made his view known: he declared the Union must be preserved. In 1832 Calhoun won election to Senate and

resigned as Jackson’s vice president.

NULLIFICATION CRISIS Eventually John C. Calhoun and South

Carolina became President Jackson’s biggest enemies.

In 1832, Jackson and Congress passed a new, lower tariff to appease the South.But the South Carolina legislature passed the

Nullification Act, refusing to pay the “illegal” tariffs of 1828 and 1832 and threatening secession.

Eventually Henry Clay and President Jackson struck a deal for a lower tariff with S.C.Calhoun and S.C. claimed victory, saying

they’d forced a revision of the tariff, but they also realized a state couldn’t secede without a fight.

THE AMERICAN JOURNEY:

CH. 10: THE AGE OF JACKSON

Section 2: The Removal of Native Americans

INDIAN RELOCATION The Native Americans of Georgia faced a

large problem when white settlers began to move onto their land.

Many wanted the tribes moved west of the Mississippi River to free up the good Southern soil for white farmers. Jackson supported the calls for relocation.

In 1830, Congress OK’d the Indian Removal Act.Congress paid Indians to move west. In 1834 Congress created the Indian Territory

in modern-day Oklahoma.

THE CHEROKEE NATION The Cherokee Nation refused to move.

In the 1790’s the federal government had recognized the Cherokee people as a separate nation with its own laws.

But Georgia refused to acknowledge them. The Cherokee sued Georgia (Worcester v.

Georgia), a Supreme Court case in which Chief Justice John Marshall sided with the Cherokee.

But Jackson overstepped the Supreme Court.“John Marshall has made his decision. Now

let him enforce it.”

THE TRAIL OF TEARS In 1835, the federal government

persuaded a few Cherokee to sign over their land.But most Cherokee refused and petitioned

the government for understanding. Jackson and the federal government were

not persuaded. In 1838, federal troops under Gen. Winfield

Scott removed the Cherokee.The Cherokee did not fight back, and

thousands died on their forced march west through bad weather.

“The Trail of Tears”

NATIVE AMERICAN RESISTANCE Some Natives did resist, however.

Black Hawk, a Sauk chief, led a force to recapture their homeland in Illinois. Hundreds were killed, others pursued and

slaughtered.The Seminole people, led by Chief Osceola,

teamed up with former slaves to attack white settlers in Florida.

They used guerilla tactics, ambushes and surprise attacks and retreats.

In 1835, they killed most of a force of 110 under Major Francis Dade and outlasted the troops.

The Seminole were the only Native tribe to successfully resist removal

THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES In the end, few Natives remained east of

the Mississippi.They had given up over 100 million acres and

received 32 million acres and $68 million in return.

The “Five Civilized Tribes” were relocated to present-day Oklahoma.Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw &

Choctaw

THE AMERICAN JOURNEY:

CH. 10: THE AGE OF JACKSON

Section 3: Jackson and the Bank

JACKSON VS. THE BANK President Jackson had long hated the Bank

of the United States. It was chartered by Congress, but run by wealthy

Eastern bankers instead of elected officials. In 1832, Senators Daniel Webster and Henry

Clay asked the president of the Bank, Nicholas Biddle, to help them defeat Jackson’s reelection.The Bank’s charter was to be renewed in 1836,

but Clay and Webster asked Biddle to apply for a new charter in 1832.

They thought the Bank was popular. If Jackson rejected the Bank charter, he’d be

defeated, they figured, and Clay would be elected.

JACKSON VS. THE BANK Jackson was sick in bed when the charter

came to him.He told his friend Martin Van Buren, “The bank…

is trying to kill me. But I will kill it!”He vetoed (rejected) the charter.

McCulloch v. Maryland had declared that the Bank was constitutional.But Jackson once again fought the Supreme

Court. Clay and Webster’s plan backfired.

Most people supported Jackson’s veto, and he was reelected in another landslide.

Martin Van Buren was elected vice president.

JACKSON VS. THE BANK Reelected, Jackson tried again to kill the

bank.He ordered all government deposits withdrawn

from the Bank and placed in smaller state banks.

Jackson won his battle—the Bank was dead without government deposits.However, the death of the National Bank led to

economic problems later.Cartoon, pg. 460

VAN BUREN & THE ECONOMY

Jackson did not run a third time, but his vice president, Martin Van Buren, easily won in 1836.His opposition was the Whig Party, a new

party of anti-Jacksonians and former National Republicans.

In 1837, the country fell into a deep depression, a period of low employment and poor business.“The Panic of 1837”: Land values dropped

sharply, investments declined, and banks failed.What is a “bubble”?Almost immediately, businesses failed and

many Americans lost their jobs.People were terribly poor and angry.

VAN BUREN & THE ECONOMY

Although Van Buren was a laissez-faire president, he did persuade Congress to create a federal treasury in 1840 to combat the depression.What’s laissez-faire?

Government should interfere as little as possible.Unlike Jackson, Van Buren believed the

government’s money had to be kept somewhere outside private banks to guard against bank crises.

But Van Buren’s own party (Democratic) and many Whigs disagreed with him, and a split formed in the Democratic party.

This gave the Whigs a chance to come to power.

THE WHIGS COME TO POWER

The Whigs’ candidate, William Henry Harrison, was popular from the Battle of Tippecanoe in the War of 1812. His running mate was John Tyler.“Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!”Harrison was also portrayed as “a man of the

people,” just like Jackson.He supported small farmers and common

people, just like Jackson.Whigs generally supported a stronger

federal government.

Whaaa?!

THE WHIGS COME TO POWER

Harrison won, but he died four weeks after his inauguration.He gave his 1½-hour inauguration speech in a

blizzard and later died of pneumonia. D’oh!

John Tyler became the nation’s first vice president to gain presidential office after a president’s death.

But Tyler backed mostly Democratic ideas, and the Whig party abandoned him.Four years later, the Whig party was in disarray.Democratic candidate James K. Polk won in

1844.The Whig Party was out of power after only four

years.