AGE OF
ANDREW
JACKSON
Introduction
 1.) How was American politics democratized between
1800 and 1840?
 2.) Why was Andrew Jackson so popular with voters?
 3.) How and why did the Democratic and Whig
parties emerge?
 4.) What new assumptions about human nature did
religious reform leaders of the 1830’s make?
The Rise of Democratic
Politics, 1824-1832
 Introduction
 In 1824, only one political party existed
 Republican
 It was breaking up
 Pressures produced by the industrialization of the Northeast
 The spread of cotton growing in the South
 Westward expansion
 2 new political parties developed
 Democrats
 Whigs
Introduction (cont.)
 Democrats

Kept Jefferson’s distrust of strong federal government

Preferred states’ rights
 Whigs

Favored an active federal govt.

Encourage economic development
 Both Democratic and Whig politicians had to adapt to the
democratic idea of politics as the expression of the will of
the common man
 Rather than “an activity that gentlemen conducted for the
people”
Democratic Developments
 Politics became more democratic
 property qualifications for voting were eliminated
 Written ballots replaced voting aloud
 Appointive offices became elective
 Presidential electors were chosen by the people
 Each party sought to increase its voter base
 Increasing the number of eligible voters in the process
The Election of 1824
 4 Republicans ran for office
 Each represented a faction of the Republican Party
 Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William
Crawford, Henry Clay
The Election of 1824
 Jackson received the most popular and electoral votes
but not a majority
 Therefore, as the Constitution requires, the House of
Representatives had to choose among the three top
candidates (Jackson, Adams, Crawford)
 Clay (who was 4th) used his considerable influence
with Congress to gain the selection of Adams
The Election of 1824
 President Adams in turn appointed Clay as his
secretary of state
 Jackson supporters charged that a “corrupt bargain”
had been made
 That charge hung like a cloud over the Adams
administration
John Quincy Adams as President
 President Adams tried to
encourage economic
growth through federal
internal improvement
projects
 He remained aloof to the
political games of the age
 His programs suffered a
lack of support
 Single-term presidency
The Rise of Andrew Jackson
 Andrew Jackson’s victory
over the British in the
Battle of New Orleans in
1815 made him a popular
hero
 It was a time of “vague but
widespread discontent”
with Washington
 In part because of the Panic
of 1819
The Rise of Andrew Jackson
 Jackson’s position as a political outsider endeared
him to the public and supporters
 Began to build a strong political organization
 Called themselves the Democratic Party
 Also led by Martin Van Buren
 In 1828
 the Democrats nominated Jackson for president
 Those who remained loyal to Adams called themselves
National Republicans and renominated Adams
The election of 1828
 Democrats portrayed Jackson as a man of the people (even
though he was a wealthy farmer)- Common Man
 And they portrayed Adams as the aristocrat
 Jackson won the election with the common-man appeal
 His victory also showed a clear sectional split

South and Southwest for Jackson

New England mostly for Adams
Jackson in Office
 Spoils system
 Jackson immediately fired 1/2 of the civil servants
on the federal payroll
 Most in the Northeast
 Replaced them with supporters
 Jackson did not initiate the spoils system
 He defended it and practiced it
 Frequent rotation in office gave more people a chance to
serve
President Jackson and the
Nullification Crisis
The Tariff of 1816
o
The first tariff in American history passed for protection
o
About 20 to 25 %
o
Not high enough to provide protection
o
It started a protective tariff trend
 Protected northern manufacturers and western farmers from
foreign competition
 But raised the price that southerners had to pay for finished
products
Tariff of 1824
o
Congress increased the tariff significantly, but wool
manufacturers wanted more
o
S.C. leaders didn’t want a higher tariff, they said
European wool owners would punish cotton growers by
paying a lower price for cotton
o
Raised the duty from 25% to 33.3%
o
After this tariff, the price of cotton in Europe fell from
32 cents a pound to 13 cents
Tariff of 1828
o
In 1827 manufactures in the North asked for an even higher
tariff
o
There were protests all over S.C.
o
In 1828 the tariff passed, which raised the duty to 50%
o
Southerners were shocked at the rates, called it the Tariff of
Abominations
o
Calhoun writes The South Carolina Exposition and Protest
secretly because he is still Vice President.
 Argued protective tariffs were unconstitutional
 States had the right to nullify federal laws that violated the U.S.
Constitution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNgIUUD7i-A
Why were the southerners so angry?
o Believed the “Yankee tariff ” discriminated against
them
o Southerners sold their cotton in an unprotected tariff
market, but bought manufactured goods in an
American market heavily protected by tariffs
o The South wanted to protect themselves from the
federal government interfering with state’s rights—
saw the tariff issue as a way to take a stand
Nullifiers vs. Unionists
o
o
o
Calhoun: (States Rights)
•
States created the Federal government.
•
If a state believed the government had passed an
unconstitutional law, then the state could nullify it.
•
The state would not have to obey the law
Webster: (Unionist)
•
The people, not the states, created the Federal government
•
A state could not nullify a law nor secede
How are the above ideas examples of sectionalism?
The Tariff of 1832
• 1832:
 Tariff reduced to 35%
 South was still not satisfied
1832- Ordinance of Nullification
• In 1832 S.C. “Nullifiers”:
•
had enough votes (2/3rds) to nullify the Tariff of
1832
• Nullified with the Ordinance of Nullification
• Calhoun has resigned and now a senator from SC
leading the nullification fight
Jackson’s Response Dec. 1832
 Jackson denounced the state’s defiance
 threatened to use the army and navy to enforce federal laws
•
Said nullification was treason and would use force to collect
the tariffs
•
Congress passed the Force Bill, which gave Jackson the power
to use the army and navy to enforce laws, specifically the
tariffs.
Compromise Tariff of 1833
• Created by Calhoun and Henry Clay
• Attempt to resolve Nullification Crisis
• Gradually reduce tariff rates for next 10
years until they reached 20% (the 1816 tariff
rate) by 1842
South Carolina’s Response
• S.C. accepts the new tariff
• SC rescinded it nullification
• War is avoided
• S.C. repeals the Ordinance of Nullification,
and nullifies the Force Bill
The Bank Veto and the Election of 1832
 Jackson disliked all banks and the issuance of paper money
 He particularly hated the Second Bank of the Untied States

Controlled the nation’s credit

Depository for federal govt. monies

Run by its private stockholders
 “Monied Capitalist”

Little control from the federal govt.

Jackson regarded it as a privileged monopoly
The Bank Veto and the Election of 1832 (cont.)
 In 1832, Nicholas Biddle (pres. of the Second
Bank) applied for its recharter
 The recharter bill passed Congress
 Jackson vetoed it
 Denouncing the bank for making “the rich richer and
the potent more powerful”
The Bank Veto and the Election of 1832 (cont.)
 1832 election

Democrats nominated Jackson and Van Buren for president and
VP

National Republicans nominated Henry Clay
 Clay opposed Jackson’s record
 Clay advocated instead his American System of protective
tariffs, recharting of the national bank, and federally
supported internal improvements
 Jackson won easily
 Jackson was ready to complete his destruction of the
Second Bank
The Bank Controversy and the Second Party
System, 1833-1840
 The War on the Bank
 Jackson quickly tried to bankrupt the Second Bank by
removing govt. deposits
 He distributed them to accounts in state-chartered banks
 The “pet banks” that received the deposits extended much
more credit and issued many more bank notes (paper
money)
 They had no restraints on them from the defunct national bank
 This loosening of credit touched off a period of reckless
economic expansion and speculation, and rapid inflation
The Rise of Whig Opposition
 During Jackson’s 2nd term, the National Republicans
changed their name to Whigs
 Began to attract broader support

Southerners angry over Jackson’s denunciation of nullification

Temperance reformers

Public-school reformers

Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic Protestants

Followers of the Anti-Masonry movement

The commercial community of merchants, manufactures, and
bankers
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beN4qE-e5O8