Chapter 11 Flashcards
Spoil system
The term- meaning the filling of federal government jobs with persons loyal to the party of the president- originated in Andrew Jackson’s first term; the system was replaced in the progressive era by civil service.
Martin Van Buren
During president Jacksons first term, he served as Secretary of State and minister to London. He often politically fought Vice President John Calhoun for the position of Jacksons successor. A rift between Jackson and Calhoun led to Van Buren becoming Vice President during Jacksons second term. In 1836, Van Buren was elected president, and he inherited a financial crisis. He believed that the government should not continue to keep its deposits in state banks and set up an independent treasury, which was approved by congress after several years of political maneuvering.
Peggy Eaton Affair
The wife of John Eaton, president Jacksons secretary of war, was the daughter of a tavern owner with an unsavory past. Supposedly her first husband had committed suicide after learning that she was having an affair with John Eaton. The wives of members of Jacksons cabinet snubbed her because of her lowly origins and past. The scandal that resulted was called the Eaton affair.
Webster-Hayne debate
US Senate debate of January 1830 of US- Canadian border disputes in Maine, New York, Vermont, and in the Wisconsin territory (now northern Minnesota)
Tariff of 1832
This tariff act reduced the duties on many items, but the tariffs on cloth and iron remained high. South Carolina nullified it along with the tariff of 1828. President Andrew Jackson sent federal troops to the state and asked congress to grant him the authority to enforce the tariffs. Henry Clay presented a plan of gradually reducing the tariffs until 1842, which congress passed and ended the crisis
Force bill
During the nullification crisis between president Jackson and South Carolina, Jackson asked congress to pass this bill, which authorized him to use the army to force South Carolina to comply with federal law.
Osceola
He was the leader of the Seminole nation who resisted the federal Indian removal policy through a protracted guerilla war. In 1837 he was treacherously seized under a flag of truce and imprisoned at fort moultrie, where he was left to die
Trail of tears
Cherokees own term for their forced march, 1838-1839, from the southern Appalachians to Indian lands (later OK); of 15,000 forced to March, 4,000 died on the way
Nicholas Biddle
He was the president of the second bus. In response to president Andrew jackson’s attacks on the bank, Biddle curtailed the bank’s loans and exchanged its paper currency for gold and silver. He was hoping to provoke and economic crisis to prove the bank’s importance. In response, state banks began printing paper without restrain and lent it to speculators, causing a binge in speculating and an enormous increase in debt.
Anti- Masonic party
This party grew out of popular hostility toward the Masonic fraternal order and entered the presidential election of 1832 as a third party. It was the first party to run as a third party in a presidential election as well as the first to hold a nomination convention and announce a party platform.
Pet banks
During president Jacksons fight with the national bank, Jackson resolved to remove all federal deposits from it. To comply with Jacksons demands, secretary of treasury Taney continued to draw on governments accounts in the national bank. But deposit all new federal receipts in state banks. The state banks that received these deposits were called pet banks.
Whig party
Founded in 1834 to unite factions opposed to president Andrew Jackson, the party favored federal responsibility for internal improvements; the party ceased to exist by the late 1850’s, when party members divided over the slavery issue
