The end of the Jacksonian era:
Chapter 13/ section 4/ pages 345-348
The election of 1836
• While still in the white house Jackson was so
popular that it was believed that he could
remain president for a lifetime
• However, he had used is presidential powers
to help ensure that Martin Van Buren would
become Americas next president
Whigs
• A political party that
included most of the
National Republicans
put forth 3 candidates
• Van Buren won a
sweeping victory by
promising to walk in
Jacksons footsteps
• Within months, Van
Buren ran into many
problems
Problems for Van Buren
• When Jackson allowed the
charter of the Bank of the
United States run out it went
out of business
• This allowed many smaller
banks to begin taking the
business
• They began printing money,
more money then they could
back up with specie (hard
cash in the form of gold or
silver)
Easy credit
• Easy credit helped increase the price of many
things, including land
• As long as prices continued to rise speculators
could make a profit
• Many Americans became speculators, they
would buy land on credit
An economic crisis
• They attempted to control purchase of
government land with a doctrine called the
Specie Circular which stated all government
lands must be bought with hard money
• Many people could now not afford the land
and sales fell, which lowered prices, which
caused many people to go broke and loose
their land and investment
Problems for banks and businesses
• When people lost their savings, they began to
fear that paper bank notes would loose their
value, so they rushed to the bank to cash
them in for specie
• Because people had less money, they bought
less stuff, this caused factories to cut back on
production and lay off workers
Panic of 1837
• Within 3 months of Van Burans time in office
the crisis had reached its peak
• Many banks began to go out of business
• Although he did not cause the crisis, he did
little to prevent it, believing in laize-fair
government
• However, he did persuade congress to
establish a treasury
Election of 1840
• Before the panic of 1837
most people saw the
Whigs as the party of the
rich
• The Whigs wanted to
change this image and
began looking for a
candidate that would
represent the “common
man”
• They chose William Henry
Harrison who was the
hero of the Battle of
Tippecanoe
Log Cabin Campaigns
• Harrison was from a rich Virginia family, however,
no one had anyway of knowing about his past
• The Whigs began bombarding voters with the
idea of Harrison being a humble Ohio Farmer
• The Whigs used the image of a log cabin as their
symbol for the 1840 election
• John Tyler was selected as Harrison’s running
mate
• They also used the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler
too”
Death of president Harrison
• William Henry Harrison
caught a cold while giving
his inaugural speech, 30
days later he died
• Tyler became the first vice
president to take the
presidency after the death
of a president
• He changed the course of
history by following a policy
of westward expansion
known as Manifest Destiny