Chapter 12

Corrupt Bargain

Alleged deal between presidential candidates John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to throw the election, to be decided by the House of Representatives, in Adams’s favor. Though never proven, the accusation became the rallying cry for supporters of Andrew Jackson, who had actually garnered a plurality of the popular vote in 1824.

Five Civilized Tribes

Collective appellation of the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw peoples of the American Southeast. Their agricultural practices, receptivity to American missionaries, and relative political cohesion led white Americans to dub them “civilized.”

Spoils System

Policy of rewarding political supporters with public office, first widely employed at the federal level by Andrew Jackson. The practice was widely abused by unscrupulous office seekers, but it also helped cement party loyalty in the emerging two-party system.

Tariff of Abominations

Noteworthy for its unprecedentedly high duties on imports. Southerners vehemently opposed the tariff, arguing that it hurt southern farmers, who did not enjoy the protection of tariffs but were forced to pay higher prices for manufactures.

Nullification Crisis

Showdown between President Andrew Jackson and the South Carolina legislature, which declared the 1832 tariff null and void in the state and threatened secession if the federal government tried to collect duties. It was resolved by a compromise negotiated by Henry Clay in 1833.

compromise Tariff of 1833

Passed as a measure to resolve the Nullification Crisis, it provided that tariffs be lowered gradually, over a period of ten years, to 1816 levels.

Force Bill

Passed by Congress alongside the compromise Tariff of 1833, it authorized the president to use the military to collect federal tariff duties.

Indian Removal Act

Ordered the removal of Indian tribes still residing east of the Mississippi to newly established Indian Territory west of Arkansas and Missouri. Tribes resisting eviction were forcibly removed by American forces, often after prolonged legal or military battles.

Trail of Tears

Forced march of fifteen thousand Cherokee Indians from their Georgia and Alabama homes to Indian Territory. Some four thousand Cherokees died on the arduous journey.

Black Hawk War

Series of clashes in Illinois and Wisconsin between American forces and Indian chief Black Hawk of the Sauk and Fox tribes, who unsuccessfully tried to reclaim territory lost under the 1830 Indian Removal Act.

Bank War

Battle between President Andrew Jackson and congressional supporters of the Bank of the United States over the bank’s renewal. Jackson vetoed the bank bill, arguing that the bank favored moneyed interests at the expense of western farmers.

Anti-Masonic Party

First founded in New York, it gained considerable influence in New England and the mid-Atlantic during the 1832 election, campaigning against the politically influential Masonic order, a secret society. Anti-Masons opposed Andrew Jackson, a Mason, and drew much of their support from evangelical Protestants.

Pet Banks

Popular term for pro-Jackson state banks that received the bulk of federal deposits when Andrew Jackson moved to dismantle the Bank of the United States in 1833.

Specie Circular

U.S. Treasury decree requiring that all public lands be purchased with “hard,” or metallic, currency. Issued after small state banks flooded the market with unreliable paper currency, fueling land speculation in the West.

Panic Of 1837

Economic crisis triggered by bank failures, elevated grain prices, and Andrew Jackson’s efforts to curb over-speculation on western lands and transportation improvements. In response, President Martin Van Buren proposed the “Divorce Bill,” which pulled treasury funds out of the banking system altogether, contracting the credit supply.

Alamo

Fortress in Texas where two hundred American volunteers were slain by Santa Anna in 1836. “Remember the ____” became a battle cry in support of Texan independence.

Goliad

Texas outpost where American volunteers, having laid down their arms and surrendered, were massacred by Mexican forces in 1836. The incident, along with the slaughter at the Alamo, fueled American support for Texan independence.

Battle of San Jacinto

Resulted in the capture of Mexican dictator Santa Anna, who was forced to withdraw his troops from Texas and recognize the Rio Grande as Texas’s southwestern border.

John Quincy Adams

(1767-1848) Son of second president John Adams, John Quincy Adams served as secretary of state under James Monroe before becoming the sixth president of the United States. A strong advocate of national finance and improvement, Adams faced opposition from states’ rights advocates in the South and West. His controversial election-the allegedly "corrupt bargain" of 1824-and his lack of political acumen further hampered his presidential agenda.

Andrew Jackson

(1767-1845) War hero, congressman, and seventh president of the United States. A Democrat, Jackson ushered in a new era in American politics, advocating white manhood suffrage and cementing party loyalties through the spoils system. As president, he dismantled the Bank of the United States, asserted federal supremacy in the nullification crisis, and oversaw the harsh policy of Indian removal in the South.

Denmark Vessey

(ca. 1767-1822) Free black who orchestrated an aborted slave uprising in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1822. Vesey’s plan was uncovered before he could put it in motion, and he and thirty-four accomplices were put to death.

John C. Calhoun

(1782-1850) Vice president under Andrew Jackson, he became a U.S. senator from South Carolina after a public break with the administration. A fierce supporter of states’ rights, he advocated South Carolina’s position during the nullification crisis. In the 1840s and 1850s, he staunchly defended slavery, accusing free-state northerners of conspiring to free the slaves.

Clack Hawk

(1767-1838) Sauk war chief who led the Sauk and Fox resistance against eviction under the Indian Removal Act in Illinois and Wisconsin. Brutally crushed by American forces, he surrendered in 1832 and lived out his days on a reservation in Iowa.

Nicholas Biddle

(1786-1844) Banker, financier, and president of the Second Bank of the United States from 1822 until the bank’s charter expired in 1836.

Henry Clay

(1777-1852) Secretary of state and U.S. senator from Kentucky, he was known as the "Great Compromiser," helping to negotiate the Missouri Compromise in 1820, the Compromise Tariff of 1833, and the Compromise of 1850. As a National Republican, later Whig, Clay advocated a strong national agenda of internal improvements and protective tariffs, known as the American System.

Martin Van Buren

(1782-1862) Jacksonian Democrat who became the eighth president of the United States after serving as vice president during Andrew Jackson’s second term. As president, Van Buren presided over the "hard times" wrought by the Panic of 1837, clinging to Jackson’s monetary policies and rejecting federal intervention in the economy.

Stephen Austin

(1793-1836) American who established the first major Anglo settlements in Texas under an agreement with the Mexican government. Though loyal to Mexico, Austin advocated for local Texans’ rights, particularly the right to bring slaves into the region. Briefly imprisoned by Santa Anna for inciting rebellion, Austin returned to Texas in 1836 to serve as secretary of state of the newly independent republic until his death later that year.

Sam Houston

(1793-1863) President of the republic of Texas and U.S. senator, he led Texas to independence in 1836 as commander in chief of the Texas army. As president of the republic, he unsuccessfully sought annexation into the United States. Once Texas officially joined the Union in 1845, Houston was elected to the U.S. Senate, later returning to serve as governor of Texas until 1861, when he was removed from office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.

Santa Anna

(1794-1876) Mexican general, president, and dictator who opposed Texas’s independence and later led the Mexican army in the war against the United States.

William Henry Harrison

(1773-1841) Hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe and ninth president of the United States. A Whig, won the 1840 election on a "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" campaign, which played up his credentials as a backwoods westerner and Indian fighter. Harrison died of pneumonia just four weeks after his inauguration.