Age of Jackson Flashcards
jackson took office
march 1892
jackson campaigned as
a reformer, promising to root out corruption in the government
daniel webster
- national republican senator
- feared jackson would worsen the split in the republican party
jackson’s inauguration
march 4
“man of the people”
- barely finished oath of office, massive crowd
- saw a tidal wave of support
- his rise to office was a new era of american democracy
jackson’s background
- first president west of the appalachians
- frontier life shaped his character
- strong opinions, tough decisions, defensive
jackson’s support came from…
thousands of first time voters
- from 1824-1828, 356k –> 1.1 mil
rise of first time voters?
- older states repealed laws requiring voters to be property holders
- new states (Indiana, Maine) allowed all white adult men to vote
- voters intend of state legislators began choosing presidential electors
patronage
newly elected officials giving government jobs to friends and supporters
jackson & patronage
he made patronage an official policy of his administration
spoils system
- dismissed a little less than 1/5 of all presidential appointees and federal officeholders
- replaced them with Jacksonian democrats
jackson defense for spoils system
- any intelligent person could be a competent public official
- “rotation in office” prevented a small group of wealth, well-connected people from controlling the govt.
- his spoils system contributed to his image as a champion of the common man
jackson & govt.
feared power of fed gov
- attacked politicians & laws he thought were corrupt and would limit liberty
VETO
- restricted federal activity as much as possible
- rejected more than all 6 prev presidents combined
maysville kentucky
- 60 mile road along the ohio river
- southward to the growing city of lexington
- he felt it was unconstitutional for congress to pay for a road entirely in one state
- 1830, jackson vetoed it because he felt the state of kentucky and not the national govt. should build the road
jackson’s federal power irony:
no president did more to increase the power of presidency than jackson
tariff of 1828 accomplsihed what
before jackson’s first term began
- heavy tax on imports to boost american manufacturing
- benefited industrial north but forced southerners to pay higher prices for manufactured goods
tariff of abominations
tariff of 1828
south carolina
- brought back the idea of nullifying or rejecting laws they deemed unconstitutional
- last we saw of this was with with jefferson and madison
state sovereignty
- sc’s nullification threat was based on a strict interpretation of states rights
- theory that states created fed gov so they have the right to nullify its acts or even to seceded from the union
robert hayne (jan, 1830)
- south carolina
- states rights
daniel webster (jan, 1830)
- massachusetts
- defended the union
- attacked hayne’s view
force bill
- 1832, South Carolina declared another passage of tariffs null and void
- threatened to cede…
- jackson believed the state was disregarding th will of the people
- passed the force bill making it difficult for sc to block federal collection of the tariff
- he threatened to send 50k fed troops
north americans status
- most east of the Mississippi River gave up territory and moved west
- the remaining lived mainly in the old northeest and south
- in 1829, gold was found in western Georgia and whites flooded into indigenous lands
five civilized tribes
cherokee, creek, choctaw, Chickasaw, seminole
indian removal act
- 1830
- president gives na lands in part of Louisiana purchase (wild prairie land) (present day Oklahoma) in exchange for their millions of acres
indigenous resistance
- northern groups settled peacefully
- however 5 tribes refused
cherokee assimilation
- more than any other native americans, they adopted white culture
- white farming methods, home styles, clothes, religions, some even married whites
- 1827, they modeled a government after the us
- gold was found and Georgia seized 9 million acres
cherokees brought their case to Supreme Court…
- through a missionary from Vermont, Samuel Austin worcester
worcester v georgia
- Marshall rule Georgia had no authority over Cherokee territory
- Georgia defied the courts decision with jackson’s asking
- court could not enforce decisions–Jackson mocked them for it
trail of tears
1838, us army rounded 15k Cherokees
- forced them to walk on foot for 116 days westward, 1,000 miles to Oklahoma territory
- 1/4 Cherokees died of cold, disease, as they were unable to rest
indian uprising – Illinois territory
fox and Sauk people were driven off their lands
- a warrior named black hawk lead a group of 1k Indians back to fertile land to reclaim their land
- black hawk war
black hawk war
- weakened by hunger and illness
- retreated into Wisconsin territory, where most nas were chased down and killed
florida..!
- white settlers wanted seminoles to abandon their land, most refsued
- 1835, a group of seminoles under a chief of osceola began the second seminole war (the first was where Andrew Jackson invaded florida to end seminole raids)
second seminole war
- war lasted 7 years
- ended after osceola’s capture
- a few hundred seminoles managed to remain in florida, hidden in the evergaldes
defining moment of jackson’s presidency
1832
- he believed the BUS was a “monster” institution controlled by a small group of easteners
- he held it responsible for the panic of 1819 and the following hard times
bus charter
- could only operate until 1836 before congress gave a new charter
- the president, Nicholas Biddle (supported by Henry clay and Daniel Webster) decided to recharter the bank 4 years early
- if Jackson vetoed the bank, the national republicans wanted to use that veto against in the 1832 election
- Jackson said IDGAF! and vetoed the charter. his veto doomed the bank.
- he justified his action as protection of the rights of ordinary citizens
bank supports vs jackson
- bank supporters underestimated jackson
- he won re-election in 1832 by a huge margin
- the national Republican Party never recovered from this stunning defeat
- they would join several other anti-Jackson groups to form the Whig party (2 years later)
jackson’s successors
- jackson chose not to run for a third time due to poor health
- his VP Martin van buren ran and won
- he was a clever political who wanted to modernize the democratic party (was jackson’s Secretary of State)
van buren vs jackson
- van buren lacked the popularity
pet banks
- Jackson begun withdrawing federal funds from the bank and depositing them in various ‘pet banks’
- these printed and lent paper money recklessly
specie circular
- he was force to declare fed gov would only accept gold and silver for payment for public lands
- this weakened the pet banks and caused the panic of 1837
panic of 1837
- occurred during van buren’s first year in office
- thousands of americans lost their jobs and urban poverty mushroomed
- prolonged by a second panic in 1839…depression dragged onto 1840
William Henry harrison
- taking a lesson from the democrats success with Jackson, the whigs chose a military hero (William Harrison) as their candidate
- they hoped to win by a voiding major issues and relying on his popularity
- more than 80% of voters passed votes to end the depression
- he defeated van buren and then died.1 month of pneumonia after
John tyler
- harrison’s VP
- southern democrat who supported states rights
- he angered his party by taking a public stand against president Jackson
- whigs wanted Tyler to draw southern votes away from van buren but never expected him to assume presidency
- he blocked a LOT of the whig program (including the revival of a national bank)
- whigs abandoned him, and he experienced political deadlock with no support from either party
kitchen cabinet
- most controversial aspect of the spoil system
- unofficial advisers that held meeting in the White House kitchen
- trumped jackson’s actual cabinet
- when Jackson reorganized the cabinet it gave a largely diminished role
pocket veto
- he made 12 vetos
- dismantled the bus (free banking era)
Jackson contradictions
- contradicted a series of improvement projects he later approved to boost his popularity
- if a public works project would work for him and the Democrats, he was for it; if it promised to benefit his opponents, he was against it.
- political expediency > principle
whig party
opponents rallying around common hatred of Jackson
- dominance of democrats and whigs
- return of the first party system
- officially formed in 1834 and revived DR vs Fs.
- countered every move Jackson and democrats made
- the name was a reference tot he British party who opposed the English monarchy (they called Jackson king Andrew i)
morality of society
whigs believed the class warfare of the Jacksonians were divisive and harmful to the nation, and that the government should take a central role in improving the morality of society (social initiatives like prison reform & alcohol prohibition). They believed the unchecked territorial expansion of the Manifest Destiny should be discouraged.
tariff of 1828
- highest tariff, 50%
- protect wool interest from euoprean competition and called it tariff of abominations
- 95% of them believed it would ruin the south and destroy the union
South Carolina exposition and protest
- drafted anonymously by vp John calhoun
- echoed claims about tariffs unconstitutionality
- insisted states didn’t give up sovereignty when joining the union
- when he drafted this, majority of sc legislature was opposed to nullifciation
- 5,000 copies of the exposition printed, protest to us state, no stronger action was taken
- when he took no action they called for nullification
sc withdrew
1860
1833 state convention
an ordinance was issued declaring a state could nullify
- Jackson condemned them both
- they both began making military prepartions
- compromise reached in 1833 when congress passed a tariff that lowered the rate to 20%
sc deadline
As the February deadline approached, SC extended it. Both the House and the Senate approved their compromise tariff. Congress also passed Jackson’s bill authorizing the use of force to collect the tariff. 47 representatives and 1 senator voted against it – however many critics walked out rather than voting.
tariff act of 1833 & force bill
both signed on march 2
- afterwards, another state convention in sc met
- march 15, convention vote 153:4 to withdraw ordinance of nullifcation
- they also adopted an ordinance nullifying the force bill
compromise tariff of 1833
- lowered the rate to 20%
biddle’s angeda
- he countered jackson’s move about pet banks by calling in loans, hoping the economic pain would make america demand a recharter
- this backfired, people began blaming the banks contract of credit
- more people supported Jacksons claim that the bank would harm ordinary people
trade and intercourse act (1790)
- regulating interaction with Indians, meant to make it the responsibility of federal gov rather than states1
1803 displacement
- us gov created a policy to move Indians west of the Mississippi River
- gained ground during the presidency of Andrew Jackson
- enticing indigenous communities to trade their land for sovereign territory
1830…congress passed the indian removal act
- granted the prez power to negotiate agreement with indigenous tribes
- provided 500,000 to carry out removal
- 100,000 Indians were relocated over the next two decades
‘illegitimate govt’ –> Cherokee nation vs georgia
- John ross and major John ridge created a new constitution for the Cherokee nation
- establish a self-governing nation independent or on par with the us
- rejected as illiegitimate by georgia
- Cherokee argued their laws were attempting to control activities on their land which violated rights & treaties
- us Chief Justice John Marshall ruled the fed court did not have jurisdiction over the case bc Cherokee nation was not a legitimate foreign state
1830 georgia legislature
enacted “an act to prevent the exercise of assumed and arbitrary power by all persons, under pretext of authority from the Cherokee Indians.” The law prohibited “white persons” from residing in the Cherokee Nation territory without an express license from the state permitting them to do so.
Samuel worcester
- continually was arrested for violating the law of white people not being in Cherokee nation territory
- he was sentenced to 4 years
- worcester sued the state of Georgia
worcester v georgia
1832
- court recognized NA sovereignty
- they had the right to exist free from he states unconditional intrusion
- despite the unambiguous ruling, Georgia legislature ignored the decision
- Jackson refused to force Georgia to enforce the courts decision
- essentially demanded Cherokee fall under Georgia jurisdiction or relocate
creeks 1814 war
- Jackson defeated
- they ceded 2 million acres of land
