The Age of Jackson

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams believed the United States' "proper domain" was the entire continent of North America.
He advocated for a strong, active national government.
In December 1825, Adams proposed federal support for agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, and the arts.
Adams envisioned a national university, astronomical observatory, and naval academy.
He asserted that "liberty is power," arguing the freest nation would become the most powerful.
This view alarmed those with a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Adams's proposals met opposition from those fearing government intervention could undermine individual freedoms.
His administration spent more on internal improvements than his five predecessors combined.
A controversial tariff increase in 1828 further fueled opposition.
Ideas like a national university and the metric system failed to gain traction in Congress.
His vision was ahead of its time, with some proposals unfulfilled even today.

Martin Van Buren and the Democratic Party

Adams's program provided rivals with a tool to mobilize opposition, seen as a challenge to individual liberty and states’ rights.
These themes resonated with Andrew Jackson's supporters, who organized for the 1828 election.
Martin Van Buren played a key role in the campaign.
The 1828 election marked a turning point, illustrating the growing influence of political parties.
Adams, the son of a president, represented the old order, while Van Buren, the son of a tavern keeper, embodied the new political era.
Adams focused on national greatness, while Van Buren understood the importance of political parties.
Van Buren believed political competition provided a check on those in power and offered voters a choice.
He recognized the importance of national parties in counteracting sectionalism.
Party loyalty could help bridge regional divides.
Van Buren aimed to recreate the Jeffersonian coalition, uniting the South's planters with the North's farmers and urban workers.

The Election of 1828

By 1828, Van Buren had built a political apparatus for the Democratic Party.
John Quincy Adams disdained political organization, leading to a weaker campaign.
The 1828 election was deeply personal and scandalous.
Jackson's supporters attacked Adams, accusing him of having mistresses.
They celebrated Jackson's frontier masculinity and derided Adams's intellectual achievements.
Jackson's opponents painted him as a murderer and questioned his wife's morality.
Jackson believed the attacks on his wife contributed to her death.
Nearly all states, except South Carolina, adopted popular voting for presidential electors.
Voter turnout soared to nearly 57 percent, more than double the previous election.
Jackson won decisively, sweeping the South and West, as well as Pennsylvania.
This marked a key moment in the expansion of democracy, with the advent of universal white male suffrage.
Jackson's victory signaled the start of the "Age of Jackson," characterized by populism and increased voter participation.

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was full of contradictions.
Despite little formal education, he could be remarkably eloquent.
He portrayed himself as a champion of the common man but excluded Native Americans and African Americans.
He distrusted banks and paper money and shared the belief that the market revolution was causing moral decline.
Jackson felt that state governments, not the federal government, should play the central role in governing.
He opposed federal attempts to shape the economy or regulate people's personal lives.

The Party System

By the time Andrew Jackson became president, politics had grown into more than just elections—it had become a form of mass entertainment and an important part of daily life for Americans.
Elections for local, state, or national offices happened every year, and millions joined in the parades and rallies organized by political parties.
Politicians became national celebrities with nicknames that reflected their popularity. Jackson was known as "Old Hickory," Henry Clay was "Harry of the West," and Martin Van Buren was called the "Little Magician."
National conventions, where state party leaders gathered to decide on platforms and candidates, became a new way to choose presidential nominees.
Newspapers also played an increasing role in politics. By 1830, nearly 400 newspapers were in print, up from just 90 in 1790.
Jackson relied on his "Kitchen Cabinet," an informal group of advisers, including newspaper editors, to help craft speeches and manage communication between the White House and local party leaders.

Democrats and Whigs (The Second Party System)

Party politics in the Jacksonian era went beyond parades and rallies.
The debates of the time were deeply tied to the market revolution and ongoing conflicts between national and sectional priorities.
Central to these debates were issues like the government's role in banking, tariffs, currency, and infrastructure, as well as the balance of power between federal and state authority.
Although both parties were coalitions with diverse and sometimes conflicting views, their policies were shaped by the market revolution's impact.
Democrats were concerned about the growing divide between rich and poor.
They criticized "nonproducers" like bankers, merchants, and speculators, accusing them of using government connections to gain wealth at the expense of "producers," such as farmers, artisans, and laborers.
Democrats argued that the government should stay out of the economy and avoid granting special privileges to powerful economic interests.
The Democratic Party attracted a mix of aspiring entrepreneurs who opposed government aid to established businesses and many farmers and urban workers wary of new corporate enterprises.
Whigs, on the other hand, supported Henry Clay's American System, which promoted a protective tariff, a national bank, and federal funding for infrastructure projects to guide economic development.
Their support was strongest in the Northeast, the country's fastest-growing region.
Many southern slaveholders backed the Democrats, believing that states' rights protected slavery.
However, the wealthiest plantation owners often supported the Whigs, aligning with northern merchants and industrialists who favored government-driven economic growth.

Public and Private Freedom

The political battles of the Jacksonian era revealed a fundamental tension between competing visions of freedom and the role of government, a theme that has persisted throughout U.S. history.
Democrats, led by Andrew Jackson, championed a view of liberty in which a powerful government posed a direct threat to personal and state freedoms.
In their eyes, a powerful national authority could undermine popular rights and privilege the wealthy elite.
For Democrats, decentralization was key to protecting both private and state freedoms.
Democrats saw the federal government as the primary threat to liberty and blamed it for fostering social inequality through policies that granted special privileges to powerful interests.
Jackson's administration acted on this belief by cutting federal expenditures, reducing tariffs, dismantling the Second Bank of the United States, and rejecting requests for federal funding of infrastructure projects.
By 1835, Jackson achieved a rare feat: the complete elimination of the national debt.
With the federal government stepping back, the states took on greater responsibility for economic development.
They spearheaded ambitious projects like canal and road construction and chartered banks and corporations to support local economies.

Politics and Morality

The contrasting political ideologies of the Democrats and Whigs during the Jacksonian era also shaped their views on individual morality and government intervention in personal lives.
Democrats viewed morality as a private matter, not one that should be enforced by government.
They opposed laws that imposed a unified moral vision on society, such as temperance laws that restricted alcohol consumption or Sunday laws that prohibited certain activities.
For Democrats, the key to freedom was allowing individuals to make their own decisions and pursue their interests without interference, which they saw as the essence of personal liberty.
In contrast, Whigs believed that liberty and government power were mutually reinforcing.