Chapter 11 Terms and Dates
Dates:
1828- Tariff of abominations goes into effect.
1830- Congress passes the Indian Removal Act.
Andrew Jackson vetoes the Maysville Road Bill.
1831- Supreme Court issues Cherokee Nation v. Georgia decision.
1832- Supreme Court issues Worcester v. Georgia decision.
South Carolina issues ordinance of nullification.
Andrew Jackson vetoes the Bank Recharter Bill.
1833- Congress passes Henry Clay's compromise tariff.
1836- Martin Van Buren is elected president.
1837- Financial panic follows a drop in the price of cotton.
1837-1838- Eastern Indians are forced west on the Trail of Tears.
1840- William Henry Harrison, a Whig, is elected president.
Terms:
Martin van Buren- (p. 418-419) As Secretary of State, he fought against Vice President John
C. Calhoun for position as Jackson's successor. Jackson leaned heavily on him for advice as he
had skill at timing and tactics.
Peggy Eaton- (p. 419-420) The daughter of an Irish tavern owner, Margaret (Peggy) O'Neale
was a widow who's husband apparently committed suicide after learning of her affair with
Tennessee senator John Eaton, Jackson's close friend. She then married Eaton three months
before he became the secretary of war. Floride Calhoun and other cabinet wives objected to her
lowly origins and Ms. Eaton withdrew from the social scene in Washington. Jackson linked this
outrage to Calhoun, to what he called a conspiracy against her and drew even closer to Van
Buren.
Webster-Hayne Debate- (p. 422-424) U.S. Senate debate of January 1830 between Daniel
Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina over nullification and states
rights.
Tariff of 1832- (p. 424-426) This tariff reduced the duties on many items, but the tariffs on cloth
and iron remained high. South Carolina nullified it along with the tariff of 1828. Jackson sent
federal troops to the state and asked Congress to grant him the authority to enforce the tariffs.
Henry Clay presented a plan of gradually reducing the tariffs until 1842, which Congress passed
and ended the crisis.
Force bill- (p.427-428) During the nullification crisis between Jackson and South Carolina,
Jackson asked Congress to pass this bill in 1833, which authorized him to use the army to force
South Carolina to comply with federal law.
Osceola- (p. 428-429) He was the leader of the Seminole nation of Florida who resisted the
federal Indian removal policy through a protracted guerrilla war from 1835 to 1842. In 1837,
Osceola was seized by treachery under a flag of truce and imprisoned at Fort Moultrie, where
he was left to die.
Trail of Tears- (p. 429-432) The Cherokees had fallen back into northern Georgia and western
North Carolina, living on the land given to them in 1791 by a treaty with the U.S. government.
Although, in 1802 Georgia ceded its western land to the federal government on the condition
that the U.S. extinguish all Indian titles within the state. In 1827 the Cherokees made their own
constitution declaring that they are not subjects to any laws or control of other states or nations.
After Jackson's election, on June 1, 1830, Georgia declared that the state law would include the
Cherokees living in the state. In the Supreme Court case, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Chief
Justice John Marshall said that the Court lacked jurisdiction since the Cherokees were their own
"domestic dependent nation". Andrew Jackson did nothing to enforce the Court's decision,
claiming that any treaties with the Native Americans were "an absurdity." The Cherokees then
had no choice but to sign a treaty in 1835, giving up their land in the Southeast in exchange for
tracts in the Indian Territory west of Arkansas, $5 million from the federal gov, and expenses for
transportation. From 1838 to 1839, 15,000 Cherokees were forced to march on the Trail of
Tears to Oklahoma on an 800 mile journey where 4,000 died along the way.
Nicholas Biddle- (p. 432-433) (1786-1844) He was the president of the second Bank of the
United States. In response to Jackson's attacks on the bank, Biddle curtailed the Bank's loans
and exchanged its paper currency for gold and silver. He was hoping to provoke an economic
crisis to prove the bank's importance. In response, state banks began printing paper without
restraint and lent it to speculators, causing binge in speculating and an enormous increase in
debt.
Anti-Masonic Party- (p. 435-436) This party grew out of popular hostility toward the Masonic
fraternal order and entered the presidential election of 1832 as a third party. It was the first party
to run as a third party in a presidential election as well as the first to hold a nomination
convention and announce a party platform.
Pet banks- During Jackson's fight with the national bank, he resolved to remove all federal
deposits from it. To comply with Jackson's demands, Secretary of Treasury Taney continued to
draw on the government's accounts in the national bank, but deposit all new federal receipts in
state banks. The state banks that received these deposits were called "pet banks."
Whig party- (p. 439-440) founded in 1834 to unite factions opposed to President Andrew
Jackson, the party favored federal responsibility for internal improvements; the party ceased to
exist by the late 1850's, when party members divided over the slavery issue.
Spoils System- The term- meaning the filling of federal government jobs with persons loyal to
the party of the president- originated in Andrew Jackson's first term; the system was replaced in
the Progressive Era by civil service.