4.8 Jackson and Federal Power

election of 1824

• Democratic Republican candidates: John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford, Andrew Jackson

• corrupt bargain - Jackson won popular vote but not majority of electoral college - Henry Clay influenced House of Representatives and pulled out of presidential race

• Adams chosen as president

Adams’ presidency

• asked Congress for money on internal improvement, aid to manufacturing, national university, astronomical observatory

• Tariff of 1828 - passed by Congress to satisfy northern manufacturers, denounced by Southerners as a Tariff of Abominations

Revolution of 1828

• Jackson wins election through Southern discontent and mudslinging

• frontier man, seen as champion of common man

Jackson’s presidency

• protector of common man

• forced resettlement of Native Americans

• nullification crisis

• uses executive powers to stop anti-slavery legislature from being sent through mail

• bank veto

Jackson’s role of the president

• protector of common man

• against federal spending and national debt

• kitchen cabinet of closest advisors more highly regarded than official advisors

• Peggy Eaton Affair - aiding the common woman

  • Jackson tried forcing other cabinet wives to socially accept wife of secretary of war

• Vice President John C. Calhoun resigned, replaced by loyal Martin Van Buren

Jackson and Native Americans

• Indian Removal Act (1830) - forced resettlement of thousands of Native Americans, creation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs

• Cherokee Nation v. Georgia - Georgia and other states required the Cherokee to migrate to the West, Supreme Court ruled that Cherokees were not a foreign nation with the right to sue the federal court

  • Worcester v. Georgia - Supreme Court ruled that Georgia’s laws had no force on Cherokee territory

  • Jackson sided with states, federal court could not enforce without support

• Trail of Tears - U.S. army forced 15,000 Cherokees to leave Georgia, 4,000 died

nullification crisis

• John C. Calhoun’s nullification theory - each state had the right to decide whether to obey a federal law or declare it null

• Webster-Hayne debate (1830) - Senators argue about the right of states to leave the Union

• South Carolina declares Tariff of Abominations unconstitutional and holds convention to nullify Tariff of 1828 and Tariff of 1832

• Jackson tells secretary of war to prepare the military

  • Force Bill - passed to give Jackson the authority to act on South Carolina

  • Proclamation to the People of South Carolina - Jackson states that nullification and disunion are acts of treason

• resolved after Congress lowers tariff

Jackson and the Bank of the United States

• BUS and its president Nicholas Biddle suspected to only serve wealthy

• not rechartered, Jackson believed BUS to be unconstitutional

• Henry Clay convinced Congress to pass recharter bill, vetoed by Jackson

Two-Party System

• Democrats - supporters of Jackson - Jefferson’s old Democratic-Republican Party

• Whigs - supporters of Henry Clay - resembled Hamilton’s Federalists, supported using federal money for internal improvements

Jackson’s second term

• anti BUS - secretary of treasury Roger Taney transferred funds withdrawn from BUS to state banks (pet banks)

• Specie Circular - Jackson tried to stop inflation by requiring future purchase of federal land to be made in specie (gold or silver)

  • value of paper banknotes decline, bank sales plummet

  • Panic of 1837 plunges the country into depression

Martin Van Buren

• elected 1836

• Whigs blamed Panic of 1837 on Democrats due to lack of federal involvement in economy

Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign

• Whig Harrison campaigned using his humble origins and won the election of 1840

• died less than a month, Vice President John Tyler was hardly a Whig

Western Frontier

• Native Americans - temporary respite in the Great Plains, used horses to lead a nomadic life

• the West - promised greater freedom for Native Americans, African Americans, European Americans, Asian Americans

• mountain men - followers of Lewis and Clark in the Rocky Mountain, guides and pathfinders for Oregon and California settlers

• environmental damage and extinction