Chapter 11: The Growth of Democracy
(AKA The Age of Jackson)
Mr. Logan Greene
AP United States History
West Blocton High School
Chapter Objectives
• What made Andrew Jackson so popular
among ordinary Americans?
• How were free black people and women
disenfranchised in the 1820’s and 1830’s?
• What social, political, and economic
events led to the creation of the Whig
party?
• How did the Whigs come to dominate
American politics?
• What did the Whigs achieve while in
power?
Egalitarianism
(that means equality)
• In 1816 Congress voted itself a pay
raise
• Unsurprisingly the public boiled
with outrage
• In the next election over 70% of
incumbents are voted out
• The public was growing disillusioned
with the idea of elite white males
deciding their fate
Egalitarianism
• In the 1820’s the idea of property
ownership being a requirement to vote
began dying out
• The idea of all white men being equal
became the paramount ideal behind
politics
• However, this led to Women and Free
Blacks being disenfranchised
• Laws were passed disallowing women and
blacks the right to vote on the idea that
women were to weak and emotional and
blacks to unintelligent and lazy
Second Great Awakening
• The Second Great Awakening was a
religious revival that swept the
country in the 1820’s and 1830’s
• It was led by the Methodist and
Baptist faiths and pushed for
evangelical beliefs of emotion and a
personal attachment to God
• Began to break down some bounds
against slavery and women as it
quietly preached equality
Jacksonianism
• Jacksonians built upon the issues with
authority seen in the secular and
religious revivals
• Jackson’s defeat in 1824 with the
controversial “Corrupt Bargain”
actually bolstered Jackson’s popularity
with the people
• Jackson, from his humble beginnings in
the West and his storied military past,
seemed like the perfect new leader
John Quincy Adam’s
Presidency
• Due to the controversy and
suspicion surrounding the election
Adams starts with a difficult
position
• His Presidency never gets off the
ground despite his nationalist vision
of internal improvements
• By 1828 Adams was looked upon with
disdain
The Election of 1828
• Bolstered by the new style of
politics and emotion and with help
from Martin Van Buren running a
nationwide campaign Jackson won
easily
Jackson in Office
• Jackson’s election brought the common
man happiness and elation as thousands
showed up to his inauguration
• Jackson began the “spoils system” in
which party officials and supporters are
rewarded with government jobs
• Jackson immediately began taking apart
Henry Clay’s “National System” of Banks,
Tariffs, and Internal Improvements that
tied the country together into one market
Indian Removal
• Jackson’s darkest legacy is his treatment of
Native Americans
• Jackson made no secret of his disdain for Indians
• The five civilized tribes of the Southeast (Creek,
Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Seminole)
controlled millions of acres and pressure to
remove them had been building
• Georgia tried to forcibly take Cherokee land in
1825 so the Cherokee sued them
• Despite Chief Justice John Marshall supporting
them Jackson ordered the Indian Removal Act
• This led to forced marches like the Trail of
Tears and by 1835 virtually all Eastern Natives
had been moved West to reservations
The Nullification Crisis
• Although Jackson was a States’ Rights
advocate the Nullification Crisis proved
one should not challenge his authority
• In South Carolina the low country
planters challenged the power of the
federal government concerning
protective tariffs and their damaging
effects on the Southern economy
• Nullification was the idea that state
could nullify a federal law if it did not
agree
The Nullification Crisis
• South Carolina so disagreed with the
Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 that, led by John
C. Calhoun, they voted to nullify them
and refused to enforce them
• Jackson, angered by the actions of his
former VP, passed the Force Act which
stated the Federal Government could
militarily enforce its policies in the states
• Jackson’s threat worked but he
compromised by lowering the tariff rates
as well
The Bank War
• Jackson despised the National Bank and
the idea of the economy being so
centralized
• On July 10, 1832 Jackson vetoed the rechartering of the Bank of the US
• This bold move actually improved
Jackson’s standing for the election in
November and he won re-election
• Jackson’s policy was dangerous for the
economy and it eventually broke down in
1837…..when his sucessor Martin Van
Buren was in office
The Panic of 1837
• Martin Van Buren was Jackson’s
hand picked successor and rose to
the Presidency with the election of
1836
• Jackson’s destruction of the Bank
of the US led to the Panic of 1837
and the economic collapse of the US
as Cotton prices fell
• Van Buren had no answer to the
issue
Independent Treasury
• The opponents of the Jacksonian Democrats
came together to attack the party due to the
Panic of 1837
• Known as the Whigs they blamed the entire
incident on Jackson’s destruction of the Bank of
the US and favored a strong national
government
• The Specie Circular by Jackson in 1836 had
stated that only Gold and Silver could be used
for public land purchases combined with the
Independent Treasury System this took the
Government out of the economy entirely
Slavery
• By the 1830’s outside of the south the
nation was turning against slavery as a
whole
• Newspapers like The Liberator pushed
for abolition (ending of slavery)
• The South converged together and
attacked the abolitionists with Gag Rules
(laws that silenced abolitionists)
• Van Buren’s quiet condoning of this
portrayed him and the Democratic party
as the party of the South
The Whigs
• The Whigs inaugurated the Second
Party System of competition between
them and the Democrats
• The Whigs were essentially antidemocrats who pushed for stronger
national government and economic
strength
• The Whigs rode military hero William
Henry Harrison to the Presidency in
1840 with John Tyler as his VP
The Whigs in Power
• Harrison vowed to work with the Party
while in office
• Sadly for him he died soon after assuming
office
• John Tyler, unlike Harrison, refused to
work with Whig leaders and seemed to
attach more to Jackson’s views vetoing a
new bank
• Clay desperately tried to pass his
American System reforms but to no avail
against Tyler’s vetoes
The Election of 1844
• In 1844 the election pitted the Democrat
James K. Polk versus the Whig Henry Clay
(again…)
• Polk’s campaign focusing on annexing
Oregon and Texas fired up the nation and
he won a close victory
• Before the end of his term Tyler was able
to broker the annexation of Texas as a
last stab at the Whigs who had disowned
him
Chapter Objectives
• What made Andrew Jackson so popular
among ordinary Americans?
• How were free black people and women
disenfranchised in the 1820’s and 1830’s?
• What social, political, and economic
events led to the creation of the Whig
party?
• How did the Whigs come to dominate
American politics?
• What did the Whigs achieve while in
power?