Chapter 11
Lecture Outline
The Jacksonian
Era
© 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Andrew Jackson and the National Bank
Setting the Stage
• Jackson and the Nation He Inherited
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America was growing fast
Land was being purchased
Farmers in debt
US now at 24 states/13 million people
AJ candidate for the “common people”
• Appointments and Rivalries
– Believed best to have politicians serve in every branch
of office
– Office holders would come back to previous
occupation
Setting the Stage
• Internal Improvements
– Jackson would embark on a campaign against internal
improvements that only benefited a particular state
– He would continue funding interstate projects.
Nullification
• Calhoun’s Theory
– Support theory of nullification
– Nullification: ability of a state to declare null and void
an act of Congress that is it did not like
– Due to economic impact of South Carolina from Tariff
of 1828
• The Webster-Hayne Debate
– Sharpened divide between North and South
– Led clear path to Civil War
– Debated over theory of Nullification
Nullification
• The Rift with Calhoun
– Separation between 2 on issue of nullification
– Calhoun resigned from VP to take a seat in the
Senate to rep SC
• The South Carolina Ordinance
– Pressed nullification crisis more when it nullified tariffs
of 1828 and 1832
– Also refused federal tax collectors to do their job in
SC
Nullification
• Jackson’s Firm Response
– AJ refused to accept SC’s position
– Claimed policy treason
– Let SC know that he would make sure that the tariffs
be collected
• Clay’s Compromise
– SC was alone against the fed. govt.
– Proposed to slowly reduce the tariff rates until 1842
– Gave SC opportunity to avoid their dilemma
Jackson’s Indian Policy
• Indian Removal
– 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act
– Swapped lands that Indians were currently living in for
federal land west of the MI
– Very few tribes resisted
• The Trail of Tears
– Cherokees of GA required to move out West
– Would lose 9k members of the tribe over their 800hundred mile walk to what is now present-day OK
Jackson’s Indian Policy
The Bank Controversy
• The Bank’s Opponents
– AJ believed only in hard currency (i.e. coins)
– Opposed the Bank of the US
– Supported by many state and local banks
• The Recharter Effort
– Attempted to make this an election issue
– Wanted it to be readopted in 1832 instead of 1836
when charter was due to expire
– AJ vetoed the bill and Congress did not have the
votes to override it
Contentious Politics
• Campaign Innovations
– Election of 1832 was 1st to have a 3rd-party run for
office and 1st to hold a nominating convention to
choose the party’s delegates
– National Repubs chose Henry Clay
– Democrats renominated AJ
– Jackson won 2nd term
• The Removal of Government Deposits
– AJ further deflated power of US Bank
– Stopped all payments and spent all remaining funds
Contentious Politics
• Fiscal Measures
– Without govt. control over US Bank, cheap $
threatened to flood market
– to try and address this, govt. passed series of laws
limiting transactions in certain areas to hard $ only
• Economic Panic in 1837
– Slowdown in GB during mid 1830s would lead foreign
investors to pull their gold and silver out of the
American market
Van Buren and the New Party System
• The Whig Coalition
– National Repubs changed name to the Whigs b/c of
AJ’s “tyrannical” actions
– Whigs= party of the people in GB
• The Election of 1836
– Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren
– Whigs nominates William Henry Harrison
– Van Buren won
Van Buren and the New Party System
• The Panic of 1837
– Widespread by time Van Buren came into office
• An Independent Treasury
– Van Buren called for the creation
– Govt. would control it own funds and not rely on
systems like the Bank of the US
– Won proposal but repealed the the following year
Van Buren and the New Party System
• The “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Campaign
– Democrats tried to paint Harrison as a man willing to
spend his days in a log cabin drinking hard cider
– Plan backfired and made him look like the “man of the
people”
– Won election
Van Buren and the New Party System
Assessing the Jackson Years
• Ideal of republican virtue
– Jackson’s time in office returned to the fed. Govt.
– Gave power back to a centralized govt.
– # of eligible voters trippled
This concludes the lecture
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Chapter 11
The Jacksonian Era
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