Unit 9 - Maddox US1H

Significant westward move

Political unity in era of good feelings starts to break down → westerners are adamant to have their voice heard

Election of 1824

• Calhoun withdrew to run for VP

• Jackson had majority but not over 50% of popular votes so went to house

• Henry Clay, Jackson’s rival, is the Speaker so tries to remove Jackson

• John Quincy Adams becomes president and he makes Henry Clay, Secretary of State

Corrupt Bargain

Jackson feels like election was stolen

• JQA comes into presidency without majority of popular or electoral votes

JQA’s presidency

Irony is that his negotiation skills aren’t needed

• has a vision of federal funded canal projects, fund science projects, and protective tariffs

• Tariff of abominations

• South Carolina Exposition and Protest

Tariff of Abominations (1828)

• tries to push through a protective tariff → south keeps denying approval

• JQA tries to persuade the South by giving special interests(LOGROLLING)

• Puts so many incentives that the tariff was way too pricey

South Carolina Exposition and Protest

• Calhoun (VP) gets behind Tariff of Abomination → severely puts South in debt

• Calhoun writes a protest → makes it anonymous, but everyone knows he wrote it

• Defends the right of the people of the state to not follow tariffs → whispers of NULLIFICATION DOCTRINE

Election of 1828

• ugly and mud-slingy

• Jackson’s wife was getting brought up due to sordid affairs

• JQA is considered aristocracy since his dad was President (Jackson and Clay are focused on bringing him down even thought they are both enemies)

• Jackson wins majority of popular AND electoral votes

Era of the Common Man

• Jacksonian politics empower other branches, like economics → champion of average people

• Frontier in spirit → challenges should be overcome on your own

Jackson’s story

• little formal education → mom taught him how to read

• Only one who could read in his town

• Developed a hatred towards banks and Indians

• Became a Tennessee circuit judge → known for strict standards and immense discipline

• Goes from dirt floor to White House → PERSONIFICATION OF AMERICAN DREAM

Democratization of Politics

• states have now let public vote for their electors (except North Carolina and Delaware)

• EVERY white man can vote

• Shifts away from a caucus to a nominating system for choosing candidates → political parties instead of Congress

• Political parties are now starting rallies to campaign for office

• Name recognition is now more important than connections

American Tract Society

Puts a steam engine on the newspaper maker → political party newspapers blow up

Spoils system

Andrew Jackson is accused of a spoils system

• says that long term positions in government leads to entrenchment → rotation is beneficial

• Others argue that people with experience is better

• JACKSON BELIEVES IN THE COMMON MAN

• he refuses to suck up to the wealthy people

Kitchen Cabinet

apart from Jackson’s regular cabinet, he would seek additional council from another group

Jackson’s actions on slavery

• Jackson was able to not affiliate with slavery

• Irony of his enemy, Henry Clay, handling it with the Missouri Compromise

Webster-Hayne Debates

• issue of land reform→senate affair

• one aspect of Andrew Jackson presidency that he had no big role, but was a big part of his presidency

• Turned into a sectional issue→ especially important to westerners

• Moved from a debate with governors to the senators

Squatters

someone who occupies a property without the legal right to do so, meaning they don't own it, rent it, or have permission to be there

Thomas Hart Benton (Governor of Missouri)

• advocated for squatter’s rights

• Squatters should have the right to bid first on the land they already improved

• Would gradually decrease land price

Samuel Foote (governor of Connecticut)

• countered Thomas Hart Benton’s stand on land reform

• Countered with a proposal that would limit land in west

Robert Hayne (Senator of South Carolina)

• objects to any restrictions of federal land → accused East of trying to stifle western migration to keep their dominance

• Push for cheaper land

• Connected the South and West by saying Eastern manufacturers robbed them both: robbed South with Tariff of Abominations and West with pricier land

• Problem starts when he links land reform to the tariff question of nullification

Robert Hayne’s controversial statements

• the federal government was experiencing a surplus of money

• Linked land reform to ability of nullification

Daniel Webster (Senator of Massachusetts)

• renowned as one of the country’s best senators

• Focuses on how nullification would break the country

• Shifts the debate to maintaining the Union

• Accuses the South since nullification was their idea

Webster’s second reply to Hayne

• every Congressman gathered into the Senate to hear this pivotal speech (House couldn’t reach quorum)

• Takes on Hayne’s position that states can deny federal orders → harps on preserving country

• Seems like state rights are treasons → Southerners hoping for nullification were treasonous!!!

After effects of Webster-Hayne Debates

• price of land did not drop but squatters have more rights

• Southern nullifies are trying to figure out how to become respectable in the eyes of the nation → Webster called them treasonous

Jefferson Dinner

leaders of the county gathered to celebrate his birthday

• nullifiers plan to link nullification to Jefferson when toasts are made(Kentucky Resolution)

• Calhoun wrote 18 toasts and passed them to people but people were waiting to see what the president would respond to his vice president

Jackson V. Calhoun → Jefferson Dinner

• Jackson stand up and says that the federal union must be preserved

• Calhoun says “union next to our liberty is dear”

• Calhoun and Jackson have history due to the court marshalling

• Both of their stances were now brought into question

• Rivalry is apparent

Marseille Road Veto

• road bill from Maysville, Kentucky to Lexington, Kentucky

• Andrew expressed his distaste to federal funded infrastructure

• Andrew Jackson sets distinction between intrastate and interstate in the Constitution

Intrastate

In one state

Interstate

In multiple states

Indian Removal Act

• natives were on prime cotton land

• Cherokee took up white ways due to the white’s enforcement

• 2 years earlier, Georgia passed a law saying Cherokee laws were null

• This act states that Cherokee had to move out of Georgia to Oklahoma

Cherokee V. Georgia (1831)

• Cherokee try to sue Georgia

• case is immediately thrown out

• Cherokees brought their case to SCOTUS as a foreign nation

• SCOTUS doesn’t consider them as a foreign nation

Worcester V. Georgia (1832)

• Cherokees try to bring their case against to SCOTUS

• Marshall rules that in Cherokee territory, Georgia laws DO NOT apply

Corn Tassel

• a Cherokee accused of murdering another Cherokee

• Instead of applying Cherokee law, Corn Tassel is applied to Georgia law

• Marshall says this is unconstitutional but Jackson supports Georgia

• JACKSON SAYS MARSHALL HAS MADE HIS DECISION, NOW LET HIM ENFORCE IT

• Corn Tassel is hanged

Trail of Tears (1838)

• happens 2 years after Jackson leaves so Van Buren is president

• Removes 50,000 Cherokee from Georgia to Oklahoma

• Even made them shoot their own resistors

The Bank War

The national bank is not scheduled to be rechartered until 1836 but Jackson vetoed the bill to recharter the bank

Jackson’s argument against the national bank

• undermines state banks

• Unconstitutional

• Only benefits northern manufacturers

Pet banks

Jackson tells Taney to withdraw money from the national bank and put it in different state and private banks

Roger B. Taney

Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of Treasury

Nicholas Biddle

He’s in charge of the national bank

During the pet banks time, biddle calls in more loans to exaggerate the money

• loss of money for the people

Czar Nicholas

Nickname for Nicholas Biddle

Jackson blames him for the loss of money of the people

Flush Times

• inflation starts to happen due to surplus from Bank Wars

• Money comes in quickly from places like land sales and king cotton

• Land prices soar so land speculation happens but only works if land prices keep increasing

Argument of distribution of surplus

• Henry Clay wants to use money for infrastructure

• Jackson is against infrastructure so just distributed it to the states to use

Specie Circular

• issues this executive order because he wants to slow down the economy

• Reduce paper currency and replace it with gold and silver

• Have to pay for land in gold and silver

King Andrew

Whigs give this name to Andrew Jackson because they see him as tyrannical

Specie Circular Effect

banks had issued more notes than gold and silver, so they can’t honor their promises

• re-emergence of a panic time

• Nobody can buy land, so land price decreases

• Land speculators are now in debt

Whigs’ name

Jackson was looking similar to King George and the Whigs were against him, so they inherited the name

Whigs

the only thing they have in common is their hate for Jackson

• Re-emergence of two political parties

Conscious Whigs

Anti-slavery Whigs

• So many opposing views in one party

Leading figure of Whigs

Henry Clay

Whigs’ Beliefs

• internal improvements

• Nationalism > Sectionalism

• National bank

• Leading social reformers

favorite sons strategy

• going to run two regional candidates to prevent Van Buren from getting a plurality but not a majority

Election of 1836

• Van Buren runs as Jackson’s heir apparent and winds against Whigs

• Welcomes in with panic from Specie Circular → 1/3 of New York City is unemployed, and winters were brutal

Divorce Bill

• Van Buren stops giving surplus to states

• Access to government dollars were causing banks to overheat

• WHIGS WERE PISSED!!!

Independent Treasury System (1840)

Take the federal money out of the economy and set it aside in the Treasury until government needs to use it

• Whigs want banks but Democrats want treasury

• Goes back and forth depending on what party gets elected

Caroline Affair

• Deals with a quarrel with Great Britain that breaks out on Canadian border

• Loyal British Canadians seized a US ship, the Caroline, and set it on fire in the Niagara Falls

• Later, a drunk bragged about burning a ship and the US citizen within it

• Wanted to go to war over this, but seized the drunkard

Whigs’ lacking qualities

• Clay and Webster were great speakers, but not leaders

• Whigs only lasted 20 years because their only commonality was hate for Jackson

• Whigs were tiptoeing on the conversation around land expansion

• Issue of slavery would divide them

Election of 1840

• nicknamed, “Martin Van Ruin”

• Whigs try to out-Jackson Jackson by putting William Henry Harrison for name recognition since he’s a war hero

• Whigs already have New England support, so get West support by putting Harrison up for President and John Tyler for Vice President from the south

Harrison’s death

• Harrison gives second longest inauguration speech in rain

• 3 days later he dies from pneumonia

President John Tyler

• was WH Harrison’s vice president but becomes president after his death

• Whigs have a candidate that truly has Democratic beliefs but just detests Andrew Jackson

Log cabin and hard cider campaign

Democrats make mistake of labeling WH Harrison as a simple man (even tho he lived in mansions) but he owns it with speeches in front of log cabins and would serve hard cider

National Bank V. Independent Treasury

• Henry Clay is trying to get rid of the independent treasury system but Tyler agrees with it

• Vetoes national bank as well

• Even though Tyler kept Harrison’s cabinet, they all left due to lack of Whigs beliefs

• Webster still stays on as Secretary of State but leaves later

• Clay wants to ban Tyler from party since he’s a man without a party

John C. Calhoun reappears

• when Webster quits, Calhoun is called to the Secretary of State

• Yet Tyler is ineffective as President since he has no following from a party

Distribution Act

• Henry Clay wants to give federal surplus to states that Van Buren stopped with the Divorce Bill

• Ulterior motive is he wants to raise tariffs

• If he wants to increase tariffs, he first has to deplete surplus funds

• Tries to get West on board but they’re too focused on land reform

Pre-emotion Act of 1841

• allowed squatters to buy land at $1.25 without going through action

• Clay launched this to appeal to the West

Tariff Bill of 1841

South wants to out safety valve on Pre-emption Act

• would stop distributing surplus if tariffs were at 25% and greater

Tariff Act of 1842

increased import duties on a wide range of goods, particularly those from Britain, to protect American industries and raise revenue