What are TWO changes of the Jacksonian Era?
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| Run the eye across the history of the world. Yous detect that at that place are certain cycles, or ages, or periods of time, which have their peculiar spirit, their ruling passion, their bully, characterizing, distinctive movements. He, who embodies in its greatest fullness, the spirit of such an age, and enters with most earnestness into its movements, received the admiration of his contemporaries. And why? because they encounter in him their own epitome. Because, in him is full-bodied the spirit that has burned in their own bosom. Because in him exists, in bodily course, in living flesh and blood, the spirit that gives them life and motility. The spirit of God descended upon the Saviour of the globe in the form of a dove. The spirit of an historic period sometimes descends to future generations in the course of a man, in proportion as an individual concentrates within himself, the spirit which works through masses of men, and which moves, and should move them through the greatest cycles of fourth dimension, in that proportion, he becomes entitled to their admiration and praise. Because his countrymen saw their image and spirit in Andrew Jackson, they bestowed their award and admiration upon him. Washington McCartney, "Eulogy—on the Expiry of Andrew Jackson" The Life of Andrew Jackson |
Jacksonian Democracy: The Emergence of a More Democratic Republic
Today nosotros accept the notion that democracy means that every citizen has a vote, with certain reasonable restrictions such every bit age, registration requirements and so on. In the early on 1800s it was generally accepted that in club to vote, a person needed to have a legal stake in the arrangement, which could hateful holding buying or some economic equivalent. When government under the Constitution began, the people did not vote for presidential electors; U. S. senators were elected past the country legislatures until 1913. Even eligibility to vote for members of the House of Representatives was left to the individual states. Women, Indians and Blacks (whether slave or free) were restricted from voting almost everywhere. When Sam Houston was elected governor of Tennessee in 1828, his friends had to make him a gift of 500 acres of country, which was one requirement for property that function.
The nation's founders believed that "democracy" independent dangerous impulses, but past 1830 the term had become more acceptable and applicable to American institutions. Americans in the 1820s and 1830s gradually lost their fear that democracy would lead to chaos. Each individual was to be given an equal start in life, simply equality of opportunity did not hateful equality of result.
In the decades surrounding the presidency of Andrew Jackson democracy broadened. Many states rewrote their constitutions, gradually eliminating property qualifications, taxpaying for voting, religious qualifications for office, etc. Presidential electors were more and more elected past the people, non the state legislatures; in well-nigh areas the electoral franchise was extended to all free white males. European visitors such as Alexis de Tocqueville noticed the spirit of equality that pervaded the Usa, unlike annihilation known in the One-time World. By the late 1830s, the United States had get a total democracy for adult white males, but inequalities still existed: poor people were notwithstanding poor, and while wealth may non have bought votes directly, it certainly was a prerequisite for whatsoever kind of real power. What was unlike about America was not that the gap between rich and poor had narrowed—indeed, the opposite was probably true—simply that there were few systemic barriers (except for slavery) that prevented people from gaining wealth and power. Notwithstanding limited, the idea of America every bit a land of unprecedented opportunity was non inaccurate in the context of the times. Importantly, equality of opportunity did non necessarily hateful equality of result, a concept with which Americans go on to wrestle in making political choices.
The other major change in the Jacksonian era was the emergence of a solid two-party system. The modernistic Autonomous Political party was founded nether Jackson, and an opposition party—the Whigs—somewhen evolved. When that political party disappeared in the early 1850s, it was soon replaced past the Republican Political party, giving the U.S. the bones political construction that survives to this solar day. Although many issues have inverse since the 1800s, present-solar day Republicans and Democrats accept much in mutual with their ancestors.
The Emergence of the Professional person Politician
Another evolution in the Age of Jackson was that the idea of political service as a sort of noblesse oblige—which was the fashion people like Washington and Jefferson tended to await at it—was gone. Politics for many men became if non a career, then certainly something they pursued because they wanted to, not because they thought they ought to. What rewards they sought are no easier to constitute for that time than they are today—recognition, a sense of power, mayhap financial gain and other factors were no doubt nowadays in those who sought part or regime related jobs, only in any case it became possible to remember in terms of the profession of politics.
John Quincy Adams was probably the man who personified that transition, having served in a variety of public offices for most of his life during a career that went back to his father'south time, but in the election of 1828 he was criticized for that fact: the notion of a professional politician all the same did not sit well with many. Still, many leading public figures of the early on nineteenth century—Martin Van Buren, Henry Dirt, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun and others—were hardly e'er out of office, and their careers were devoted to activities that advanced their political fortunes.
In that location were no professional politicians in the 1700s. Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, and John Adams could be political, but they were non politicians in our sense of the term. They did not derive an appreciable part of their income from public role, nor did they spend much time campaigning for votes. Unlike Jefferson or Washington, who suffered financially from serving in authorities, successful public officials in the subsequently period tended to go out office richer than when they had entered.
The growing federal and state bureaucracies fabricated it possible for ambitious young men to brand politics or government service a career. By the 1830s, Democrats were rewarding their workers with civil service jobs. In return, these bureaucrats "kicked dorsum" a office of their income to the party, which used the funds to finance other campaigns. At the center of each party was a corps of professionals, usually living off the public payroll, whose careers were inextricably tied to the success of the party. Eventually the phenomenon would get known as "auto politics." Martin van Buren's "Albany Regency" was an early example. As one New York political leader confessed, he would vote for a dog if his party nominated one.
Ancillary with this development was the disappearance of fundamental political issues—the bodily nature of republican government—from American politics. In the 1790s, politics was intensely ideological, partly because of the influence of the French Revolution and partly because party leaders were intellectuals. The second party system emerged in a nation where it seemed as if that white, Protestant, small farmer and his family unit made upwardly the soul of society and that only their interests should be protected and advanced. There were differences of stance about how this was to exist washed, but those were disputes near means rather than ends.
Because politicians must campaign on something that resembles an issue in lodge to distinguish themselves from their opponents, they created issues. The platonic issue was one that anybody agreed on so that endorsing it would not lose votes. Unfortunately, it was hard to get votes past being for maternity and apple pie, because any opponent would be just as enthusiastic nigh them. However, then, as now, politicians had to take stands, and issues such as those discussed in a higher place—country, internal improvements, tariffs, the Bank—were the focus of political battles. The 2nd best issue was one that was likewise complicated for the average person to understand. The tariff fit that qualification.
In his autobiography, Van Buren recorded an instance of how artfully he used the complexity of the tariff question to befuddle an audience. After his spoken language on the subject, he mingled with the audience and overheard the following conversation:
- "Mr. Knower! that was a very able speech!"
- "Yes, very able," was the answer.
- "Mr. Knower! on which side of the Tariff question was information technology?"
It would be years before the advent of "political scientific discipline" would brand the study of government a formal academic subject. But when we think a professional politicians today, we recall non only of elected officers, but also of lobbyists, lawyers, huge professional person Congressional staffs, millions of government employees, pollsters, and even components of the media who focus exclusively on the political arena. Like virtually of American life, the profession of politics has grown and evolved enormously, but many of its roots tin exist found in the historic period of Jackson
Jackson's Presidency
The dissimilarity betwixt the presidencies of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson is stark. Adams was well educated, worldly, highly articulate and experienced in international affairs. In demeanor he was subtle, diplomatic—if sometimes stuffy or pedantic—and he was perhaps the nearly intelligent and (for his time) all-time educated president in American history. As a Harvard graduate and son of a onetime president, his ancestry were anything merely humble.
Jackson'southward popularity was based on his skills as an Indian fighter and war hero. The Battle of New Orleans was seen equally a victory for the American farmer, affirmed the value of "undisciplined" fighters as opposed to the British regulars, and was thus seen as a triumph of "Americanism." Although when elected president Jackson was a wealthy man of property and a slave owner, his origins were indeed humble. Jackson was a symbol of the new age of democracy—the "age of the common man"—both an average and ideal American who was able to depict support from every department and social class. Jackson could exist mannerly, and he was basically honest; there was never any doubt about his courage, either physical or moral. But he was anything only a thoughtful subtle intellectual. (He had resigned from his first tour in the Senate because he found the countless deliberations too boring.)
Jackson was a charismatic but not intellectual leader; highly intelligent, shrewd and practical. A truthful westerner at eye, and a slave holder, Jackson resented the North and E. On the other hand, he did not buy into the states' rights philosophy that was growing stronger in that era. He had reputation as a hotheaded brawler who never forgave enemies. He was not in a higher place using that reputation to make an impression on people. (In a famous incident in the White House, he patently lost his temper and fumed at some unwelcome guests, who fled in horror. When they had gone, he turned to an aide, grinned and said, "They thought I was mad, didn't they?")
Jackson grew in office of president and fabricated that office more than democratic. He did not act as a "dignified master of state in a higher place politics" merely rather as a political infighter who saw his role every bit protecting the people from the excesses of Congress. His presidency was ane slice of a long struggle over the nature of governmental power and authorization: at which finish of Pennsylvania Artery does the real power reside, in Congress or the White House? Jackson saw the office of President as a protection confronting the power usurpers of the House, the Senate and the Supreme Courtroom.
The Election of 1828
The election of 1828 was more of a "revolution" than that of 1800. Andrew Jackson won by 643,000 votes to Adams's 501,000, 178-83 in electoral higher. Far more than people voted for president than in 1824, every bit us were outset to let the people select presidential electors. The historic period of Jackson was indeed a major democratic revolution and the election of that twelvemonth was testimony to that fact.
The entrada was one of the dirtiest in American history, a serial mudslinging attacks on personalities. John Quincy Adams was accused of "feeding at the public trough," because of his long years of public service. He was called a "pimp" for providing an American girl equally "gift" for the Arbiter of Russia, though, like his begetter, John Quincy was an extremely moral man descended from good quondam Puritan stock. Yet, as he had installed a billiard table in the White Business firm he was charged with turning it into a "gambling den." Meanwhile, Jackson was portrayed as a "drunk," a brawler and an adulterer considering Rachel'south divorce had non been terminal when they first got married. His famous duel with Charles Dickinson as well led to the charge that he was a murderer.
A new two-party system emerged from the election of 1828. From and then on, parties ran their candidates for President and Vice-president together as a ticket. John C. Calhoun was the last man to run for Vice President independently. (He was elected twice, under both Adams and Jackson.)
Several significant political issues divided the people at the fourth dimension, amidst them the National Bank and the protective tariff. Jackson managed to avert taking firm positions on whatsoever problems and in fact managed to get on both sides of the tariff question, depending on what role of the country his people were in. This was done past a neb to create a tariff that was supposedly so loftier that it would never pass. It did pass, nonetheless, and became known as the "Tariff of Abominations," which raised a storm of protestation in the South led by John C. Calhoun.
When Jackson won the election, he invited his supporters to Washington to celebrate with them, and they came in numbers. Jackson'south inauguration is famous for the riotous behavior of his followers. Wanting to get a glimpse of their hero, they stormed the White House for the post-inaugural reception, tracking mud everywhere and even continuing on tables to get a meliorate glimpse of their president. The locals complained that "barbarians" had invaded the White House, and the stewards finally saved day by taking the dial bowls outside while the crowd followed. If Jackson's election was a victory for the mutual man, that man was all too common for some.
Jackson saw himself as President of All the People—defender of the "Common Man." A prevailing view since the writing of the Constitution had been an supposition of the natural supremacy of the legislature. Jackson vigorously challenged that supposition. He saw himself as the direct representative of all the people and willingly used his authority on their behalf. He vetoed more than bills than all his predecessors combined, challenging the view that the only grounds for a presidential veto were a bill'due south constitutionality. He expanded the power of his office, but did non favor unlimited power for the national government.
Jackson'south Kitchen Cabinet
Realizing that the appointment of Cabinet members required respect for regional preferences, Jackson yet desired to keep a cadre of close personal advisors at mitt since Washington, despite Jackson'due south feel, was however somewhat alien territory for the Westerner. Besides, he was not a strong administrator, had little respect for experts—political or otherwise—and oft made unwise choices, but as a strong and popular leader he knew how to govern if kept on rails. He assembled what became known as his kitchen cabinet, advisers who would literally assemble in the kitchen of the White House to aid the president codify policy. Members of this informal group included Duff Greenish, editor of U.Due south. Telegraph; Frank Blair of The Globe; and Amos Kendall, known equally Jackson's modify ego. Information technology is well to recall that newspaper men in those times generally operated in the service of their political favorites. Secretary of State Martin Van Buren was as well a member of the group, the but "regular" cabinet member to be so privileged. Jackson's official cabinet was undistinguished, except for Van Buren, and fifty-fifty he had been a political appointment to satisfy northern interests
Jackson rapidly adopted a organization for replacing federal officeholders with his ain supporters, a system his supporters referred to every bit "rotation in office." Opponents derisively dubbed Jackson's process "the spoils arrangement." Yet Jackson saw the process equally beneficial for a commonwealth, as it was intended to inhibit the evolution of an entrenched hierarchy and to allow more than citizens to participate in the routine tasks of government. Although the concept was not calculated to produce efficiency in governmental operations, Jackson felt that the average homo was perfectly capable of doing government piece of work. In fact, about of Jackson's appointees to authorities positions were not common human only rather were drawn from the social and intellectual elites of the time.
Because Jackson viewed himself as a protector of the people's rights against the power of the federal Congress, political relationships in Washington during the Jackson years were stormy. Jackson repeatedly challenged leaders in Congress, and leading senators and congressmen in plow saw Jackson as capricious and overbearing. Clashes betwixt Jackson and the Congress over issues such as the bank, tariffs, internal improvements and other issues were precipitous and deep. Jackson's liberal apply of the presidential veto disturbed some elements in Congress, and his opponents began to refer to him equally "King Andrew." Eventually that opposition cohered into a new political party, the Whigs.
The Peggy Eaton Affair
During Jackson's first term as troubles were exacerbated by a scandal involving a woman. Needless to say it would non be the final fourth dimension in American history that such occurred.
Margaret O'Neale Timberlake Eaton was not the focus of the first sexual scandal in American history, only she was at the center of one of the most interesting ones. Girl of the keeper of a popular Washington tavern and boarding house, where she often charmed the clientele, Peggy was an attractive, vivacious young woman who captured the attention of some of the near powerful men in America, including Senator John Eaton, a shut friend of Andrew Jackson.
As a young woman Peggy had married John Timberlake, a Navy purser who spent considerable time at sea. It was said that his untimely death in a foreign port was a suicide brought nigh by Peggy'due south infidelity, a charge never proven. Whether true or not, Peggy got married once again, this time to John Eaton, whom she had met in her begetter'south institution and who soon became a Secretary of War in Andrew Jackson's chiffonier. Jackson had in fact urged Eaton to ally Peggy to quiet wagging tongues.
Presently later on Jackson'south inauguration information technology became credible that the wives of the other cabinet members did not corroborate of Mrs. Eaton's allegedly lurid past. She was snubbed at White House receptions, and Washington political society refused to accept or return social visits from Mrs. Eaton, and pronounced themselves scandalized that Mrs. Eaton was even invited to participate in polite Washington visitor.
Jackson had known Peggy Eaton for some time and liked her. Perhaps more of import, Jackson had lost his wife, Rachel, just months before his inauguration, and he blamed her death in part on what he saw as slanderous attacks on his ain marriage (the old charge that Rachel and Andrew Jackson had been living in sin.) Always i to accept criminal offence at an attack on his ain personal honour, Jackson naturally sided with Peggy and John Eaton and became furious with the allegations. He fumed: "I did not come here to make a cabinet for the ladies of this place, simply for the nation!"
The situation deteriorated to the point where it became a difficult even for Jackson'southward cabinet to bear its regular business, so preoccupied were the members with the Eaton affair. Martin Van Buren, Jackson's Secretary of Land, was a widower and therefore safe from wifely criticism of Mrs. Eaton. Van Buren could therefore afford to be kind to Peggy, which gratified Jackson. Finally, every bit a way out of the "Eaton malaria," Van Buren offered to resign and suggested that the rest of the cabinet do so also. Jackson gratefully accepted his offer and promised to assistance Van Buren, which he did, naming him Ambassador to Great Britain.
There was more to this story, notwithstanding. The attack on Mrs. Eaton had been led past Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun had been elected vice president both in 1824 and 1828 and had run separately from Jackson, and old animosities between Jackson and Calhoun dating dorsum to Calhoun's tenure as Secretary of State of war under President Monroe, when Jackson was chasing Indians in Florida, resurfaced when Secretary Eaton discovered evidence in State of war Department files. Van Buren's appointment to the Court of St. James had to be canonical past the Senate, and because of growing opposition to Jackson's policies in the Senate, the vote for approval turned out to be a tie. Vice President Calhoun, presiding over the Senate, was thus able to cast the deciding vote against Van Buren. Henry Dirt, a savvy politician himself, remarked to Calhoun that he had destroyed an ambassador simply created a Vice President.
And then information technology was. In 1832 Andrew Jackson asked Van Buren to bring together him on the Democratic Party ticket equally his running mate and candidate for vice president. Jackson and Van Buren were elected, and Van Buren succeeded President Jackson in the election of 1836. Thus the Peggy Eaton affair, the story of a woman scorned, rather than remaining a low-level scandal, altered the course of American political history, not the first time nor the terminal in which a woman would play that role.
Peggy's colorful life did non end in that location. Some years later John Eaton died, leaving his widow a pocket-sized fortune. Only she was not destined to live a quiet retirement—at age 61 she married 20-one year old Antonio Buchignani, her granddaughter's dancing instructor and deeded all her belongings to him. Less than a year subsequently he eloped to Italy with her granddaughter, and Peggy was forced to piece of work equally a dressmaker to support herself. She died in 1879 and is cached in Oak Loma Cemetery in a grave next to that of John Eaton, whose proper noun she reclaimed. At her funeral a big floral piece of white roses sent by President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes was placed on Peggy's grave.
In her ain autobiography Peggy Eaton wrote, "My likes and dislikes are not small. The fact is I do non believe I ever did exactly similar or dislike everyone. I think they always hated everybody I did non dearest and always loved everybody I did not hate."
The literature on Margaret O'Neale Timberlake Eaton Buchignani Eaton is considerable.
States' Rights versus Marriage: Daniel Webster's Spousal relationship Address
The result of "Union" does non resonate with Americans today because we take it for granted. During the early on 19th century, the thought of Union was for many Americans very much like our current feelings of patriotism, what many Americans feel on the 4th of July, or when they chant "U.Southward.A." at an international sports event, or when the nation is successful in some significant effort. Just the idea of "America," was not universally shared in those times, every bit regional loyalties often outweighed national feelings. Robert East. Lee famously refused control of the federal armies at the commencement of the Civil War, saying he could non raise his sword confronting his "country"—Virginia.
Yet people like John Marshall felt strongly about the pregnant of the Wedlock. When reflecting or his service during the American Revolution, he recalled it as an feel "where I was confirmed in the habit of considering America as my country and Congress as my regime." Nathan Unhurt's famous dying declaration, "I just regret that I accept but one life to lose for my country," expresses the aforementioned sentiment. During the Civil War President Lincoln thanked soldiers for offering their lives in the service of "this dearest Union of ours."
The idea of Union was very stiff among Americans, especially in the North. In 1861 thousands of young northern men and boys went off to fight for the concept of the Spousal relationship. Prior to the Civil state of war, the prime number articulator of that idea was Daniel Webster.
In 1830, when South Carolina was contemplating nullification of the "Tariff of Abominations" and mayhap even secession, a debate arose in United States Senate over the use of public lands. Westerners were arguing substantially a country sovereignty position with regard to federal lands, and S Carolina Senator Robert Hayne entered the debate on the side of the Due west, hoping to gain an ally for South Carolina's states' rights position.
Calling himself a Unionist, Daniel Webster deftly turned the fence from one over western lands and the tariff to an argument on states' rights versus national sovereignty. Rejecting the charge that the eastern states, including his native New England, had attacked Southern or Western interests, Webster rejected Haynes's merits that a state had the right to interpose itself between the federal government and its ain citizens and expounded upon the significant of the United states of america Constitution. Asking rhetorically whose Constitution information technology was, Webster Stated:
It is, sir, the people's Constitution, the people'south government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. The people of the The states take alleged that this Constitution shall exist the supreme law. We must either admit the proposition or dispute their say-so.
Rising to the full height of his oratorical power, Webster claimed at the conclusion of his lengthy address that he could not contemplate life without the Marriage. Referring to the American flag, "the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, he rejected notions of "Liberty outset and Union afterwards," but staked his claim firmly upon, "that other sentiment, beloved to every true American heart,—Freedom and Marriage, now and for ever, one and inseparable!" It was said that ladies fainted and stiff men wept at the power of the Divine Daniel's words.
A young Whig politician in Illinois no doubtfulness read Webster's famous oration. Abraham Lincoln subsequently incorporated the concept of "regime of the people, by the people, for the people" into his Gettysburg Address.
Jackson and Calhoun
Although Jackson was a Democrat and Daniel Webster a National Republican and later a Whig, they did agree on the thought of Union. Standing poles apart from both was Vice President John C. Calhoun. Secretary of State Martin Van Buren and Calhoun began in a clash over who was to be the heir apparent to Jackson, a position Van Buren easily attained every bit Calhoun moved farther and farther to usa' right position. Calhoun needed that position to keep strength in South Carolina, while Van Buren had a comfy political base of operations in New York. Jackson was not totally unsympathetic to states' rights issues, but felt Calhoun and South Carolina went far too far afield in nullification of the tariff in 1832. The fact that that Floride Calhoun, John C.'s wife, had been one of the leaders of the assaults on Peggy Eaton did not assist Calhoun'southward position in the least.
In the midst of the controversy over country'southward rights, Jackson and Calhoun both attended an annual Jefferson Day dinner on April 15, 1830. When the time came for offering toasts, Jackson raised a glass and looked directly at the South Carolina delegation and proclaimed, "Our Union, it must be preserved!" Apparently riled by Jackson'southward pointed jibe (Martin van Buren claimed that Calhoun spilled his vino as he arose) Calhoun glared back at the President and declared, "The Wedlock, adjacent to our freedom almost dear! May we all remember that it can just be preserved past respecting the rights of the states and distributing as the benefit and burden of the Marriage!"
Thereafter John C. Calhoun became the leading spokesman for the Southern states rights position. Equally such, his hopes for ever gaining the White House nearly disappeared. When Secretary of War John Eaton uncovered records in the war Department revealing that Calhoun had been disquisitional of Jackson during the latter's foray in Florida in 1818, the rift betwixt Calhoun and Jackson became permanent. Martin Van Buren replaced Calhoun as vice president during Jackson's 2nd term.
Jackson and the Depository financial institution
Under President Nicholas Biddle the Second Depository financial institution of the United States recovered from its issues associated with the Panic of 1819 and was well-managed and acted as a central bank. It monitored the lending policies of state banks which, if left unregulated, were likely to crusade inflation and exaggerate concern cycle swings. The Bank's stabilizing policies had stiff support, specially among eastern hard-coin advocates who feared paper money, simply it did have opponents, and country banks more often than not disliked its regulating authority. To some the National Bank smacked of special privilege because it held a monopoly of public funds, withal was governed by a handful of rich investors.
Jackson came into office suspicious of the Bank of the U.s. and made vague threats against it. With the backing of supporters in Congress, Bank President Biddle asked Congress to recharter the Banking concern in 1832, iv years before the old lease was due to elapse. Henry Clay took upwardly the Bank'south cause as a political tactic, hoping that congressional approval of the Bank would embarrass Jackson. Jackson's opponents and Bank supporters idea that if Jackson vetoed the banking company nib it would cost him the election. If Jackson's veto were overridden, the Bank would be guaranteed boosted life.
Jackson was no fool: he alleged war on the "monster" corporation, which he was convinced violated the key principles of a democratic club. He vetoed the Bank recharter nib on the grounds that the Depository financial institution was unconstitutional, despite Marshall's Supreme Courtroom decision to the contrary, and chosen on the people for support. Jackson also claimed he vetoed the Banking concern lease because it violated equality of opportunity, and Congress upheld the veto. Clay and Jackson took their statement to the public in the election of 1832 where Jackson's victory spelled doom for the Bank.
The Bank supporters and Jackson opponents badly misjudged both Jackson and people'south attitudes toward the Banking concern. After the election Jackson said, "The Bank tried to kill me, only I will impale it!" He showed his opponents no mercy and proceeded to destroy the Bank by withdrawing the authorities'due south coin and depositing it into selected land banks (called "pet banks"). Biddle then used his powers as a central banker to bring on a nationwide recession, which he hoped would exist blamed on Jackson. That ploy failed, but Jackson's destruction of the Banking concern cost him support in Congress, specially in the Senate, where fears of a dictatorship began to emerge.
Jackson, like Jefferson, was very hostile to banks. He once told Biddle, "It'south not this bank I don't similar, it's all banks." He didn't understand that the purpose of the National Bank was to prevent the very thing he was concerned about—speculation of the kind that had led to the infamous "South Sea Bubble," which ruined many investors. Banks made money by manipulation, Jackson thought. There had been early attempts to politicize the banking concern, and Jackson believed the pro-banking company people were his political enemies. More on the Bank.
The Election of 1832
The Presidential election of 1832 pitted Andrew Jackson confronting National Republican Henry Clay. (The Whig political party would grade from the remnants of the onetime National Republican Political party during Jackson'southward second term.) The primary issue of the ballot was the National Depository financial institution, discussed above. Jackson's opponents who sought to use the bank as an result to unseat him found that their program backfired.
A secondary issue was Jackson'due south veto of the Maysville Road Pecker in 1830. The bill would have provided federal funds to construct a road from Maysville to Lexington, Kentucky. Jackson's veto message, drafted by Secretarial assistant of Land Martin van Buren, stated that federal funds could properly be used simply for projects "of a general, not local, national, not Land," character. He likewise took upshot with providing funds to a private corporation:
A class of policy destined to witness events like these cannot be benefited by a legislation which tolerates a scramble for appropriations that have no relation to whatever general organization of comeback, and whose good furnishings must of necessity exist very limited. Congressional opponents of the bill had included future president James K. Polk of Tennessee, a staunch Jackson support later known as "Young Hickory."
The consequence of the election was a huge victory for Jackson, the people's homo, despite charges that Jackson saw himself as "Male monarch Andrew" who could veto annihilation he did not like. The election also spelled the end of Henry Clay's National-Republican Party. Jackson and van Buren got 688,242 popular and 219 balloter votes to Clay'due south 530,189 popular and 49 electoral votes. Minor parties took some anti-Jackson votes away from Clay.
Jackson and the Tariff: The Nullification Controversy
The nullification controversy of 1832 was a major milestone in the national argue over federal versus state potency. Coming at a time when agitation over slavery and other issues that tended to carve up the country along sectional lines was growing, the nullification controversy brought the states rights fence into sharp focus.
The root of the problem of protective tariffs is that they are almost by definition designed to assist certain segments of the economy. In the era in question, the country was distinctly divided forth economical lines. Because a large percentage of Southern capital letter was put into land, cotton, and slaves, less capital was available for industrial for manufacturing enterprises, since in that volatile flow in history they such investments were far riskier than cotton fiber, the prime resource of the booming textile industry. Economists accept determined that a reasonable expectation for return on investments in cotton was 10% per annum, an excellent return at whatever time. But because the cotton S did not produce much in the fashion of farm equipment, tools or other manufactured goods, they were dependent upon manufactured appurtenances produced mostly in the north or in foreign countries.
Loftier protective tariffs on manufactured goods, designed to aid American manufacturing, had the outcome of raising prices on goods purchased throughout the country, only needed most heavily in South. Support for manufacturing interests was strong in the North, where the population had grown faster, meaning that there were more members in the House of Representatives from the Due north than from the South. Thus loftier protective tariffs were regularly passed.
In 1828 Andrew Jackson's supporters proposed a very high tariff nib that would allow Jackson to look friendly toward manufacturing in the North, while in the S his supporters could claim that the proposed tariff was so loftier that it would never laissez passer, and that they therefore had nil to worry about. But then the tariff did pass after all. Vice President John C. Calhoun (left) of Due south Carolina anonymously wrote an "Exposition and Protest" of the Tariff of 1828, which became known as the "Tariff of Abominations." When a tariff bill passed again in 1832, because information technology was still too loftier to suit the needs of Southern agricultural interests, the State of South Carolina decided to nullify the tariff. They took their action very deliberately, calling a special convention and passing an "Ordinance of Nullification" that claimed not only that the tariff was not enforceable in South Carolina, but that any attempt to enforce information technology past land or federal officials would not be permitted within Due south Carolina.
The Ordinance stated that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 "are null, void, and no police, nor bounden upon this state, its officers, or citizens; and all promises, contracts, and obligations made or entered into, or to be fabricated or entered into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed by said acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in affirmance thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and void."
South Carolina's ordinance placed the land on a collision form with President Andrew Jackson. Although Jackson was from Tennessee, and thus a Southerner (and slave possessor), he was withal much more a nationalist than an advocate of states' rights. To Jackson, the notion that a country could nullify a federal constabulary, and that it could furthermore forbid him from exercising his constitutional duty, which is to "see to it that the laws are faithfully executed," was too much. Jackson issued his own Proclamation to the People of Southward Carolina in which he called their nullification ordinance an "impracticable absurdity." He said:
I consider, then, the ability to annul a law of the United States, assumed by 1 state, incompatible with the beingness of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized past its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the dandy object for which it was formed.
Congress supported Jackson past passing a Force Beak which explicitly authorized him to use whatever force was necessary to enforce the law in Southward Carolina. (The Force Bill was more symbolic than real, as Jackson already had authority to enforce the law under the Constitution.) Meanwhile, Henry Clay set nearly getting a compromise tariff through Congress, and South Carolina, realizing that support for its position was weak, and not willing to push button the fight whatsoever further, relented and repealed its Ordinance of Nullification. Simply then equally slap in the face to President Jackson, information technology nullified the Force Bill, which was of no effect since the bill had get moot upon S Carolina'due south repeal of the Ordinance of Nullification.
Larger Pregnant of the Nullification Crisis. The nullification controversy is important because of its focus on the issue of states' rights. Nigh historians believe that behind South Carolina's nullification of the tariff was a deeper concern over the slavery question. The abolitionist movement was gathering steam, and there was fright throughout the S that somehow the federal authorities might move to abolish slavery. Nullification of the tariff and so was seen by some every bit a test case as to whether or not nullification was viable. President Jackson's reaction and the back up from Congress suggested that nullification could not exist sustained. The side by side logical stride, therefore, in opposing federal authorization within a state was the act of secession. Indeed the Ordinance of Nullification had concluded by stating that of strength were used confronting South Carolina, "the people of this state will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all farther obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other states and will forthwith proceed to organize a carve up government, and to practice all other acts and things which sovereign and independent states may of right exercise." South Carolina exercised that choice almost 30 years later every bit the beginning state to secede from the Union following Abraham Lincoln'due south election in 1860.
It is worth reading South Carolina's Ordinance of Nullification and Andrew Jackson's announcement to understand the depth of the arguments on both sides. Jackson'south argument carried the twenty-four hours, only for many Southerners the result of states' rights was still an open up question. (See Appendix)
Cherokee Indian Removal
Without much dubiousness the ugliest event in the Jackson years was the removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia to reservations located westward of the Mississippi River. Andrew Jackson had built much of his reputation as an Indian fighter during the Creek Wars, only historians have not called him an Indian hater. He respected Indians as worthy enemies, but when the state of Georgia clashed with the Cherokee, there was niggling uncertainty that Jackson would come down on the side of Georgia.
The Cherokee had previously been recognized every bit a nation with laws and customs of their own. They had washed much to try to arrange themselves to the white culture, fifty-fifty translating the New Testament into the Cherokee language. But an 1828 Georgia law declared that the land had jurisdiction over Indian Territory, and when gold was discovered on Indian land, and Indians sought legal relief to agree onto their property, and the outcome came to the Supreme Court in Worcester v. Georgia. The Supreme Court said that Georgia laws had no force on Cherokee country, but sent no marshals to Georgia to enforce their conclusion. Jackson defied the court, maxim that "the decision of the supreme courtroom has fell still built-in."
Still trying to hold onto their land the Cherokee over again sought legal relief and brought the example of Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Marshall clearly sympathized with the Cherokee position:
"If courts were permitted to indulge their sympathies, a instance meliorate calculated to excite them can scarcely be imagined. A people in one case numerous, powerful, and truly contained, found by our ancestors in the quiet and uncontrolled possession of an aplenty domain, gradually sinking beneath our superior policy, our arts, and our arms, have yielded their lands by successive treaties, each of which contains a solemn guarantee of the residue, until they retain no more than of their formerly extensive territory than is deemed necessary to their comfortable subsistence. To preserve this remnant the present application is made."
Unfortunately, Marshall took an uncharacteristically strict view of the Constitution and claimed that the Cherokee did not have the legal right to sue in the United States Supreme Courtroom:
"If it be true that the Cherokee Nation have rights, this is non the tribunal in which those rights are to be asserted. If information technology be true that wrongs have been inflicted and that still greater are to be apprehended, this is not the tribunal which can redress the past or preclude the hereafter."
Since there was no other court save that of public opinion and humanity, in which the Cherokee would similarly have enjoyed little success in those times, the Cherokee were eventually forced to leave Georgia and settle in Indian country, at present the state of Oklahoma.
Jackson felt that the Indians would be better off "out of the style" and settled his policy on "voluntary emigration west of the Mississippi." Although the removals conducted under the control of the The states Army were mostly peaceful, thousands of Cherokee were removed along the "Trail of Tears" to the West. Provisions for the Indians en route were scant, and weather condition conditions including frozen rivers led to the decease of many along the fashion. Some of the tribes resisted, and fighting occurred from fourth dimension to time, but the majority of the Cherokee and other tribes were settled, much confronting their will, in the trans-Mississippi territory.
| President Andrew Jackson's Message to Congress 'On Indian Removal' (1830) |
| President Jackson was concerned about the rapid expansion of the nation westward, which would plainly bring almost more contact with Indians. The Indian Removal Act of May 28, 1830, justified the removal policy, and Jackson prepare forth his position on the bug in his message to Congress of December 6, 1830. The Indian Removal Act was passed to open for settlement those lands all the same held by Indians in states east of the Mississippi River, primarily Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Northward Carolina, and others. Jackson alleged that removal would "incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier." Clearing Alabama and Mississippi of their Indian populations, he said, would "enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and ability." White inhabitants of Georgia were specially anxious to take the Cherokees removed from the state because golden had been discovered on tribal lands. Violence was commonplace in Georgia, and in all likelihood, a portion of the tribe would have been decimated if they had not been removed. |
| Removal of the Indian tribes continued across Jackson's tenure as President. The most infamous of the removals took place in 1838, two years after the end of Jackson'south final term, when the Cherokee Indians were forcibly removed past the military. Their journeying w became known equally the "Trail of Tears," because of the thousands of deaths along the manner. |
| Jackson on Cherokee Indian Removal |
Ascension of the Whigs—all those opposed to "King Andrew"
President Jackson keep to spar with opponents in Congress throughout his 2nd term. In 1833, feeling that he had a mandate to deal with the banking company as a event of his reelection in 1832, Jackson ordered the secretarial assistant of the treasury to announce that public funds would no longer be deposited in the Bank of the United States. Past the stop of 1833, 23 state banks had been designated as depositories of federal funds, and the first funds had been transferred to a depository financial institution in Philadelphia. When the Senate called for papers dealing with Jackson's decision on the bank, Jackson refused to submit them, claiming "executive privilege,"—the notion that Congress had no right to need that he account for his private dealings with his Cabinet.
In 1836 a specie circular was issued directing that only gold silver and a express amount of paper would exist accepted for the payment of purchases of public lands. The specie round put pressure on the state banks, known equally "pet" banks. Jackson's banking concern policies eventually contributed to the panic of 1837.
Strange Affairs under Jackson. Through a serial of negotiations Jackson had improved trade relations with Great Great britain during his showtime term. Jackson then began to pursue negotiations regarding claims confronting France left over from the menstruation before the war of 1812. The French regime agreed to pay 25 1000000 francs against those claims, but when the French government failed to make adept on those payments, Jackson threatened reprisals against French belongings. Jackson's blustery linguistic communication offended the French and somewhen all outstanding matters with Great Britain and French republic were settled for the fourth dimension being.
Events in Texas (which volition be covered in a later on chapter) likewise got the attending of Jackson'south administration, and when the contained Republic of Texas made overtures about joining the The states, Jackson demurred, fearing war with United mexican states.
The Election of 1836
By 1836 Jackson's leadership had produced generally united Democratic political party. The party nominated Martin Van Buren equally successor to Jackson who promised to "tread by and large in the footsteps of President Jackson." Although the party had no formal platform it did agree on some general political positions. It tended to be skeptical of businesses and anything perceived every bit special privilege, and information technology mostly conformed to Thomas Jefferson'south positions, including equal opportunity, express national regime, and political freedom, to which Jackson'southward Democrats added the concepts of social equality and religion in the mutual human being. In addition, Democrats were in favor of the Jeffersonian concept of free public education, an idea that was spreading across the nation, far ahead of most of the balance of the world.
Jackson'due south opponents had coalesced into the Whig political party, generally united against whom they saw as "Male monarch Andrew." When the Whigs could not hold on a single candidate, they decided to run multiple candidates in the hope of throwing the election into the House of Representatives, where the Whigs would be able to determine the outcome. The leading candidate was Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, and the Whigs also nominated William Henry Harrison as the candidate to run in the W and Hugh L. White to run as a states' rights candidate in the South. The Whigs' "favorite son" nominating tactic failed, however, and Martin Van Buren succeeded Jackson to the presidency.
Martin Van Buren as President
Equally the first of several presidents and presidential candidates from New York, and the first of Dutch descent, Martin Van Buren had the misfortune to be inaugurated at just about the time when the Panic of 1837 prepare in. Problems had begun with the decrease in state sales brought about past the specie circular, and real estate troubles were followed by issues with stocks and commodity prices, particularly 
cotton in the South. An astute banking crisis, as well resulting from policies of the Jackson administration, caused bank failures and other economic issues. Protests broke out over inflationary prices, and Van Buren's measures failed to halt the economic downturn. As generally happens in times of economic low, the incumbent party was assigned the blame, whether properly or not.
Abolitionist sentiment had begun around 1830 and was getting stronger by the fourth dimension and Van Buren became president. Every bit debates in Congress grew increasingly bitter, Congress eventually adopted a gag dominion requiring that "all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions or papers relating in whatsoever way or to any extent whatever to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery shall, without being printed or referred, be laid upon the table and that no farther action what ever shall be had in that location on." Old President John Quincy Adams, at present a congressman from Massachusetts, argued repeatedly for the right of petition and earned the title "Erstwhile Man Eloquent." (Adams's speech communication earlier the Supreme Court in the Amistad" case was another famous example of his eloquence.)
The presidential campaign of 1840 was 1 of the more colorful in American history and became known as the "Log motel and Hard Cider" entrada. Although Dirt was still a powerful effigy, the convention nominated William Henry Harrison and John Tyler every bit its candidates. Their chief unifying position was still opposition to the Democrats, and Harrison's popularity was based upon his winning the Battle of Tippecanoe. (Thus the slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!") Newspaper ads, parades, rallies and other symbols of the sort which shortly became popular in presidential campaigns, were all part of the scene in 1840, so at that place was little give-and-take of hard bug. The campaign soon degenerated into a mud slinging contest in which wild charges were flung in all directions. The only mature element of the campaign was the fact that two organized political parties were vying confronting each other. Harrison's popular vote margin was well-nigh 150,000 out of ii½ one thousand thousand votes cast, merely his majority in the electoral College was 234 to sixty. Harrison's presidency became the shortest in history, lasting just over 30 days every bit he became ill from delivering his inaugural address during nasty weather and died. Vice President John Tyler succeeded to the presidency, the first vice president to move up to the White Business firm upon the death of a president.
| Toward Greater Understanding: Books on the Jacksonian Era |
| As always, literature on this era of American history is plentiful. Here are some titles by a few of America's finest historians:
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| The spirit of an historic period sometimes descends to future generations in the form of a man. . . in proportion as an individual concentrates within himself, the spirit which works through masses of men, and which moves, and should move them through the greatest cycles of time, in that proportion, he becomes entitled to their adoration and praise. . . Because his countrymen saw their paradigm and spirit in Andrew Jackson, they bestowed their honor and admiration upon him. —Washington McCartney, "Eulogy—on the Expiry of Andrew Jackson" The contempo biography by H.West. Brands is a superb account of Jackson's life and accomplishments. |
Source: https://sageamericanhistory.net/jacksonian/topics/jacksoniandemocracy.html
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