Chapter 10: The Age of Jackson 1824-1844

Question 1

Party Nominating Conventions

Answer 1

Replacement of state legislatures picking candidates
~Party politicians and voters would gather in a large meeting hall to nominate the party’s candidate
~More open to popular participation, hence more democratic

Question 2

Spoils System

Answer 2

Dispensing government jobs in return for party loyalty
~Promoted government corruption
~Andrew Jackson believed in appointing people to federal jobs strictly according to whether they had actively campaigned for the Democratic Party
~Any previous holder of the office who was not a Democrat was fired and replaced by a loyal Democrat

Question 3

“The Corrupt Bargain”

Answer 3

Talks about the election of 1824 and the election of John Quincy Adams
~Jackson won by popular vote but lacked electoral college votes
~Henry Clay used his influences in the House to provide John Quincy Adams with enough votes to win the election
~After President Adams appointed Henry Clay into the Secretary of State position, Jackson and his followers were positive that popular vote had been failed by political maneuvers

Question 4

Henry Clay

Answer 4

Republican party nominee for the Election of 1824
~Used his influence to get John Quincy Adams elected
~Became Secretary of State under his presidency

Question 5

Tariff of 1828

Answer 5

Passed towards the end of John Quincy Adams’ presidency
~Satisfied Northern manufacturers but alienated Southern planters
~Southerners denounced it as a “tariff of abominations”

Question 6

Indian Removal Act (1830)

Answer 6

Forced the resettlement of many thousands of Native Americans
~By 1835 most eastern tribes were moved westward
~Created the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1836 to help the resettled tribes

Question 7

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)

Answer 7

When the Cherokees’ challenged Georgia’s right to force them to move westward
~Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was not a foreign nation with the right to sue in a federal court

Question 8

Worcester v. Georgia (1832)

Answer 8

A second case with representation of the Cherokee Nation

~Supreme Court ruled that the laws of Georgia had no force within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation

Question 9

“Trail of Tears”

Answer 9

1838, the Cherokee Nation was forced by the US Army to leave Georgia, the hardships on the Trail of Tears were so great 4,000 Cherokees died on westward trek

Question 10

Nullification Crisis

Answer 10

The South Carolinan legislature decided that the Tariff of Abominations was unconstitutional
~Nullification Theory: Each state had the right to decide whether to obey a federal law
~President Jackson came up with his own; declared his own position, “our federal Union, must be preserved”

Question 11

John C. Calhoun

Answer 11

First Vice President to Andrew Jackson
~Proposed the idea of Nullification Theory
~Later resigned from office due to the Peggy Eaton affair

Question 12

Proclamation of the People of South Carolina

Answer 12

Passed by President Jackson to deal with the possible nullification and secession of South Carolina
~Stated that nullification and disunion were treason

Question 13

Nicholas Biddle

Answer 13

President of the Bank of the United States
~Ran it effectively
~Sue to his arrogance, contributed to the suspicion that the bank abused its powers and served the intrests of the wealthy

Question 14

Whig Party

Answer 14

A new political party, Henry Clay’s supporters, that resembled the dead Federalist Party
~Favored Clay’s American System, opposed immorality, vice and crime which some blamed on immigrants
~New Englanders, residents of mid-Atlantic and upper-mid-Western states, Protestants of old English stock, middle class urban professionals

Question 15

Roger Taney

Answer 15

Secretary of Treasury under President Jackson
~Aided Jackson in “killing” the national bank
~Transferred funds to various state banks

Question 16

“Pet Banks”

Answer 16

Various state banks that Taney transferred money to after Jackson “killed” the national bank
~Did this by vetoing recharter and stopping funds
~This was the nickname given by Jackson’s critics

Question 17

Specie Circular

Answer 17

Jackson’s attempt to check the inflationary trend
~A presidential order
~It required that all future purchases of federal lands be made in gold and silver rather than in paper bank notes
~Bank notes lost their value and land sales plummeted
~Panic of 1837 AKA economic depression

Question 18

Panic of 1837

Answer 18

An economic depression during Jackson’s presidency
~Bank notes lost value and land sales plummeted
~Many banks shut down

Question 19

Martin Van Buren

Answer 19

Eighth president of the United States, Democratic Party
~Inherited the Panic of 1837 from President Jackson
~Was Vice President to Andrew Jackson

Question 20

“Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Campaign of 1840

Answer 20

The Whig campaign to end the Jacksonian era of Presidency
~Used William Henry “Tippecanoe” Harrison as their likeable candidate
~To symbolize Harrison’s humble beginnings they put log cabins on wheels and traveled from city to city
~Passed out hard cider to voters as well as hats
~Name calling as a propaganda device: Martin Van Ruin