Jacksonian Era- Unit 7
• How did the growing spirit of equality
change voting rights in the 1820s?
• Why was there a dispute over the
election of 1824?
• Why was John Quincy Adams an
unpopular President?
• What new political parties developed?
1
The Growing Spirit of Equality
Affected Voting Rights
• The United States was growing rapidly.
• Many new states were in the west, between
the Appalachians and the Mississippi.
• Frontier life encouraged a democratic spirit.
• This democratic spirit was reflected in the
voting laws.
2
The Growing Spirit of Equality
Affected Voting Rights
• More people gained suffrage, or the
right to vote. In western states, any
white man over age 21 could vote.
• In eastern states, reformers worked to
expand suffrage. By the 1830s, most
eastern states had dropped the
requirement that voters own land.
3
The Growing Spirit of Equality
Affected Voting Rights
Suffrage Expands
• More white men are eligible to vote
• Property qualifications for voters end
• Voter turnout is nearly 80 percent in
1840 election
4
The Growing Spirit of Equality
Affected Voting Rights
Political Parties Change
• The caucus system ends
• Nominating conventions are held to
choose presidential candidates
5
The Growing Spirit of Equality
Affected Voting Rights
The “Common Man” Rises
• The spoils system lets ordinary citizens
participate in government
• Ideas about social classes change
6
Dispute Over the Election of 1824
The Candidates
• John Quincy Adams, with support in
New England
• Henry Clay, with support in the West
• Andrew Jackson, with support in the
West
• William Crawford, with support in the
South
7
Dispute Over the Election of 1824
The Election
• William Crawford became too ill to campaign.
• Andrew Jackson won the popular vote.
• No candidate won a majority, or more than
half, of the electoral vote. The election went
to the House of Representatives.
• The House named John Quincy Adams
President.
8
Dispute Over the Election of 1824
Hard feelings
In the electoral vote, Henry Clay had
finished last, so he was out of the running
when the election went to the House. He
was Speaker of the House. He urged House
members to vote for Adams. Later, Adams
named Clay his Secretary of State. Jackson
and his supporters said that Adams and
Clay had worked together to steal the
election.
9
John Quincy Adams Was an
Unpopular President
Adam’s Plan
How Most Americans
•The federal government
Reacted
should promote economic • These programs
growth. It should pay for
cost too much
roads and canals to help
money.
farmers transport goods to
• These programs
market.
would make the
•The government should
federal government
promote the arts and
too powerful.
sciences by building a
national university and an
observatory.
10
John Quincy Adams Was an
Unpopular President
What Jackson
Supporters Said
• Adams had made a
“corrupt bargain” in
the 1824 election.
• Adams was a
member of the upper
class, not a common
person like farmers of
the South and West.
What Adams
Supporters Said
• Jackson was a
dangerous “military
chieftain.”
• If Jackson won the
election, he could
become a dictator like
Napoleon.
11
• The two new political parties developed
more democratic ways for choosing
candidates for President.
– They got rid of the caucus, or private
meeting, for choosing candidates.
– Instead, each party began to hold a
nominating convention, where delegates
from the states chose the party’s
candidate.
12
Jackson in the White House
• What qualities helped Andrew Jackson
succeed?
• What was the spoils system?
• Why did President Jackson fight the Bank
of the United States?
13
Andrew Jackson
• Strong-willed
• Tough
• Studied law and set up a successful law
practice
• Became wealthy buying and selling land
• While still in his twenties, was elected to
Congress
• Won national fame for his achievements in
the War of 1812
14
Andrew Jackson
•
•
•
•
•
Complex
Quick temper
Ability to inspire and lead others
A man of his word
A champion of the common people
15
The Spoils System
• When he took office, Jackson fired
many government employees and
replaced them with his supporters.
• Critics accused Jackson of rewarding
Democrats for helping to elect him
instead of choosing men who were
qualified.
16
The Spoils System
• Jackson said he was serving democracy by
letting more citizens take part in government.
He felt that ordinary Americans were capable
of doing government jobs.
• A Jackson supporter explained, “To the
victor belong the spoils.”
• The practice of rewarding supporters with
government jobs became known as the
spoils system.
17
The Spoils System
• Jackson rewarded a number of
supporters with Cabinet jobs. Few of
them were qualified, however. So
Jackson relied on unofficial advisers.
He met with them in the White House
kitchen. The group became known as
the “kitchen cabinet.”
18
President Jackson vs. the Bank of
the United States
• The Bank of the United States had great
power because it controlled the loans made
by state banks. President Jackson thought
the Bank was undemocratic. He felt that
Bank president Nicholas Biddle used the
Bank to benefit the rich.
• Whigs persuaded Biddle to try to renew the
Bank’s charter before the 1832 election. They
thought that if Jackson vetoed the bill to
renew the charter, he would anger voters and
lose the election.
19
President Jackson vs. the Bank of
the United States
• When the bill to renew the Bank’s charter
reached the President, he vetoed it. First, he
said the Bank was unconstitutional. Second,
he felt that the Bank helped aristocrats at the
expense of the common people.
• The Whigs brought up the Bank issue in the
election of 1832, but Jackson won a stunning
election victory anyway.
• Jackson ordered the Secretary of the
Treasury to stop putting federal money in the
Bank of the United States. The bank closed
20
Native Americans Are Forced From
Their Homeland
• The Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw,
Cherokee, and Seminole nations lived
in the Southeast. Settlers wanted the
Indian’s land for growing cotton.
• President Jackson sided with the
settlers. The federal government set
aside lands beyond the Mississippi and
had begun to persuade or force Indians
to move to land that had been set
aside.
21
Native Americans Are Forced From
Their Homeland
• In Florida, the Seminole Indians resisted
removal. From 1817 to 1818, they fought the
United States Army in a conflict known as
the first Seminole War.
• The second Seminole War lasted from 1835
to 1842.
• The third Seminole War ended in 1858. The
Seminoles were finally defeated. The federal
government forced most Seminoles to leave
Florida.
22
Native Americans Are Forced From
Their Homeland
• Congress passed the Indian Removal
Act in 1830. It forced many Native
Americans to move west of the
Mississippi.
• The United States Army drove more
than 15,000 Cherokees westward.
Thousands perished during the march.
The long, sad journey west became
known as the Trail of Tears.
23
Native Americans Are Forced From
Their Homeland
• Georgia claimed the right to make laws for
the Cherokee nation. The Cherokees went to
court, arguing that their treaties with the
federal government protected their rights
and their property. When the case reached
the Supreme Court, the Court agreed that the
Constitution protected the Cherokees.
• President Jackson refused to enforce the
Court’s decision. In the Cherokee case, he
backed states’ rights.
24
New Political Parties
National Republicans,
known as Whigs
• People who supported
Adams and his
programs for national
growth became known
as Whigs.
• Wanted the federal
government to spur the
economy.
• Supporters included
eastern business
people, some southern
planters, and former
Federalists.
25
Democrats
• Jackson and his
supporters called
themselves
Democrats.
• Supporters included
the common
people—frontier
farmers and eastern
factory workers.
26
The Tariff Crisis and the
Nullification Act
In 1828, Congress passed the highest tariff
in the history of the nation. Southerners
called it the Tariff of Abominations.
– Northern manufacturers favored the tariff,
which protected them from foreign
competition.
– Southern planters were against the tariff. It
raised the cost of the manufactured goods
they bought from Europe.
27
The Tariff Crisis and the
Nullification Act
Vice President John C. Calhoun fought against the
tariff by introducing the idea of nullification.
– Calhoun claimed that a state had the right to nullify,
or cancel, a federal law that it considered
unconstitutional.
– Daniel Webster attacked the idea of nullification. He
said that the Constitution united the American people,
not just the states. If the states could nullify federal
laws, the nation would fall apart.
28
The Tariff Crisis and the
Nullification Act
Congress passed a lower tariff in 1832, but
South Carolina was not satisfied. The
state passed the Nullification Act,
declaring the new tariff illegal.
29
The Tariff Crisis and the
Nullification Act
– South Carolina also threatened to secede,
or withdraw, from the Union.
– Jackson asked Congress to pass the
Force Bill. It allowed the President to use the
army to enforce the tariff. South Carolina
reacted by repealing the Nullification Act.
30
The Tariff Crisis and the
Nullification Act
The Nullification Crisis had been a quarrel
over states’ rights, or the right of states
to limit the power of the federal
government.
31
Martin Van Buren and Hard Times
• Martin Van Buren faced the worst economic crisis the
nation had known— the Panic of 1837.
• The federal government sold off millions of acres of
land in the West.
• Speculators borrowed money from state banks to buy
up the land. To make the loans, state banks printed a
lot of paper money.
• To slow down the wild buying, he ordered that anyone
buying public land had to pay with gold or silver.
• Buyers rushed to the banks to exchange paper money
for gold and silver, but many banks did not have
enough and had to close down.
32
Martin Van Buren and Hard Times
• The panic became worse when cotton prices fell.
• Cotton planters had borrowed money to plant
crops. When prices fell, they could not repay
their loans. As a result, more banks failed.
• The nation plunged into a deep economic
depression, a period when business declines
and many people lose their jobs. Many people
blamed Van Buren.
33
The Campaigns of 1840
The Democrats and Martin Van Buren
vs. the Whigs and William Henry
Harrison
– Harrison traveled across the land, making
speeches and greeting voters.
– Both parties held rallies, banquets, and
entertainment.
34
The Campaigns of 1840
– Both parties engaged in mudslinging, or
the use of insults to attack an opponent’s
reputation.
– In the campaign, both parties used namecalling, half-truths, and lies.
Harrison won the election. However,
soon after taking office, he died of
pneumonia. John Tyler became
President.
35