p. 181





Economic distress and the issue of slavery raised the political stakes in the 1820s and 1830s
Apathy of the Era of Good Feelings led to the strong political parties of the Jacksonian era
1828: The Democrats emerged as a new political party
 By the 1830s, they faced opposition by another party known as the Whigs
This era gave way to stereotypical political campaigns
 Voter turnout rose dramatically from 25% (1824),
50% (1828) to 78% (1840)



Election of 1824
 John Quincy Adams
 Henry Clay
 William H. Crawford
 Andrew Jackson
Parties were unorganized and “fuzzy”

All candidates claimed to be “Republicans”
 John C. Calhoun appeared on both Adams and Jackson’s ticket as Vice President

 Andrew Jackson
 Had the most popular appeal, especially in the West
 Campaigned against corruption and privilege in government
 Polled as many popular votes as his next two rivals combined, but failed to win the majority of electoral votes

p. 182b


Need more than ½ of all electoral votes to win
 In a deadlock, the House of
Representatives chooses who shall be president out of the top 3 (under the
Twelfth Amendment)
 Henry Clay was thrown out of the running, but in his position as Speaker of the House, he presided over the House as they chose the winner

 Clay was in a good position to persuade the House to vote in his favor


Crawford had recently suffered a paralytic stroke
Clay hated “military chieftain” Jackson
 Only candidate left was Adams who had quite a bit in common politically with Clay
 Both nationalists and advocates of the American
System

 Adams won on the first ballot and after winning, announced Henry Clay as his
Secretary of State


Jacksonians angered by the “corrupt bargain”
Thoughts on Clay: “The Judas of the West” and that he “shines and stinks like… a rotten mackerel by moonlight.”
 No evidence of them ever entering a formal bargain
 Clay was a natural choice for Secretary of State and Adams was known for his honesty


John Quincy Adams was very similar to his father, only colder.
 Was more of a closeted thinker than a politician
 One of the most successful secretaries of state, but one of the most unsuccessful presidents
 Was very skilled in foreign affairs
 Had won fewer than 1/3 of the votes and could not win popular support as president and refused to seek it


Views were nationalistic
 People were starting to move back to states’ rights and sectionalism
 Urged Congress to construct a national network of roads and canals
 Proposed a national university and an astronomical observatory
 Public was against the proposals
 Seemed like a waste of money (observatory)
 South afraid it would lead to federal power to control slavery

 Andrew Jackson started his new presidential campaign on February 9,
1825 (The day John Quincy Adams was chosen as president) and continued it noisily for four years
 Even before the election of 1828, the
Republicans had split into two camps
 National Republics (Adams)
 Democratic-Republicans (Jackson)


Jackson zealots cried, “All hail, Old
Hickory”
 Wanted to oust the dishonest Adams and bring Jackson into the presidency to bring about reform
 Mudslinging hit new lows during this time

Adams backers said that Jackson’s mother was a prostitute, his wife was an adulteress, and talked of his numerous duels and his hanging of 6 militamen



Jackson’s men claimed that Adams had purchased a billiard table became “gambling tables” in the “presidential palace”

Mocked Adams’ large federal salaries and accused him of serving as a pimp for the Russian tsar during his time as a minister in St.
Petersburg
Voting day: Electorate split on sectional lines
 Jackson: West and South
 Adams: New England and propertied
Northwest
 Middle Atlantic and Old Northwest divided

 When the popular vote was transferred to electoral votes, Jackson was the unquestionable winner
 Won the electoral count 178 to 83
 Support was lined up by machine politicians in eastern cities in Pennsylvania and New York
 Political center of gravity was shifting from the east toward the mountains

p. 184





Jackson was irritable and emaciated from suffering long-term bouts with dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis, and lead poisoning from two bullets he carried from near-fatal duels
Was born in the Carolinas, early orphaned, and grew up without parental restraints
More interested in fighting than schooling
 Could express himself in writing, but struggled with grammar and spelling
Moved to Tennessee where he became a judge and member of Congress

 Had a violent temper and was engaged in numerous duels, stabbings, and bloody frays
 First president from the West
 First president nominated in a formal party convention (1832)
 Second president without a college education (Washington was the first)

 Had risen from the masses, but was not one of them
 Held many prejudices


Was a frontier aristocrat (lived in one of the finest mansions in America) and owned many slaves
Many “Hickoryites” traveled to see him inaugurated (White House was open to the multitude)--“inaugural brawl)

p. 185

 Many conservatives saw his inauguration as the end of the world“King Mob”
 Jacksonian vulgarity replaced Jeffersonian simplicity
 Traditionalists were afraid that this would lead to a fate similar to that of the French
Revolution

 Took part in the spoils system on a large scale by rewarding political supporters with public office
 Secured a stronghold in New York and
Pennsylvania
 Jackson defended the spoils system on democratic grounds and that the routine of office was simple enough for anyone to learn (“all men are created equal”, “every man is as good as his neighbor”)



Spoils system was less about qualifications and more about rewarding old cronies

Question asked was not, “What can he do for our country?” but instead, “What has he done for the party?”
Scandal erupted when those who bought their political office were appointed to high office
 Some were incompetent, illiterate, and even crooks


 Samuel Swartwout was given the post of collector of customs and eventually fled to
Britain leaving his accounts more than a million dollars short
Spoils system suffered many abuses, but it also cemented the loyalty to party ideals that became important in the emerging two-party order
 Promise of patronage gave Americans a reason to pick a party and stick with it no matter what




Jackson was left with the tariff issue (one of
John Quincy Adams biggest headaches)
In 1824, they had raised the tariff significantly, but wool manufacturers wanted higher barriers
Jacksonites promoted a high-tariff bill, expecting it to be defeated in Congress, but was passed to their surprise- The Tariff of 1828
 Southerners, high consumers with little manufacturing of their own, were hostile to tariffs, especially this “Black Tariff” and “Tariff of Abominations”
 Several southern states held formal protests and SC flags were half-mast

 Southerners believed that the tariff discriminated against them and favored the
Yankees


Sold their cotton in an unprotected world market had to buy expensive manufactured goods from Yankee and middle state producers who were heavily protected by tariffs
Was also an easy scapegoat for the hard times in the Old South


Growing anxiety in the South over possible federal interference of the institution of slavery



The congressional debate over the Missouri
Compromise helped light fire to those anxieties
Made deeper by an abortive slave rebellion in
Charleston in 1822 led by a free black named
Denmark Vesey
South Caroline knew British West Indies were getting pressure from London to end slavery
 Feared that American abolitionist would use it as an argument to end it as well



South felt that the tariff was the perfect time to make an argument against federal encroachment on states’ rights
South Caroline led the protest against the
“Tariff of Abominations”
 Vice President, John C. Calhoun, secretly authored a pamphlet entitled “South Carolina
Exposition” that was published by the state legislature in 1828

Bluntly and explicitly proposed that the states should nullify the tariff (declare it null and void within their state borders)




Stage was set for a showdown

South Carolina “nullies” tried to get 2/3 vote in the legislature, but were blocked by a minority of
Unionists
Congress passed a new, somewhat lower Tariff of 1832, but still not low enough to satisfy the southern demands
South Caroline was ready for drastic action


Nullies won a majority in the state election of 1832 and called a special convention
Met in Columbia and declared the existing tariff null and void in their state and threatened to withdraw from the Union if Washington tried to collect dutries by force

 President Jackson was the wrong president to mess with
 Privately threatened to invade the state and hang the nullifiers



Publicly dispatched naval and military forces and issued a ringing proclamation against nullification
Governor Robert Hayne, of South Carolina, responded with a counterproclamation
If civil war was to be avoided, one side would have to surrender or both would have to compromise




Senator Henry Clay stepped in as conciliator
 Pushed through a compromise bill that would gradually reduce the Tariff of 1832 by about
10% over eight years, to the mildly protective level of 1816
South Carolina welcomed the opportunity to remove themselves from danger
 Received no support from any other southern states and were met by Unionists in their own states
 Civil war from within and invasion from without was looming
Convention met again in Columbia and repealed the ordinance of nullification



Jackson’s democrats were committed to western expansion, but that meant confrontation with the Native Americans
 125,000 Native Americans lived in the forests and prairies east of the Mississippi in the 1820s
Federal policy toward them varied
 Washington government (1790s) recognized the tribes as separate nations and agreed to acquire land from them through formal treaties
 Indians were determined negotiators, but
Americans routinely violated their own covenants as more whites settlements pushed west



Many Americans felt respect and admiration for the Indians and believed they could be assimilated into white society


Devoted a lot of energy to Christianizing and
“civilizing” them
Many denominations sent missionaries into
Indian villages
 1793: Congress appropriated $20,000 for Indian literacy programs and agricultural instruction
Many tribes violently resisted white encroachment, but some accommodated


 Cherokees of Georgia especially attempted to learn white ways




Composed a written legal code and constitution
Adopted a system of settled agriculture
Vigorously promoted education, using a
Cherokee alphabet devised by the Indian
Sequoyah
Some became prosperous cotton planters and even turned to slaveholding (1300 slaves)
Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and
Seminoles seen as the “Five Civilized Tribes”



1828: Georgia declared the Cherokee tribal council illegal and asserted its own jurisdiction over Indian affairs and lands


Cherokee appealed to the Supreme Court which upheld their rights three times
President Jackson wanted to open up Indian lands to white settlement and refused to recognize the Court’s decisions

“John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”
Jackson proposed a bodily removal (out of obligation to the “injured race”)of the “Five
Civilized Tribes” of the Southwest beyond the
Mississippi



 Emigration was supposed to voluntary because it would be “cruel and unjust to compel the aborigines to abandon the graves of their fathers”
Jackson’s policy was passed by Congress as the Indian Removal Act of 1830
 Led to the forced uprooting of more than
100,000 Indians and countless Indians
(especially Cherokees) died on the notorious
Trail of Tears to the newly established Indian territory (presentday Oklahoma) where they’d be “permanently” free from white encroachment
Bureau of Indian Affairs established in 1836 to administer relations with the Indians




Landhungry “palefaces” continued to push west rapidly and the “permanent” Indian homeland went up in spoke
Sauk and Fox tribes of Illinois and Wisconsin, led by Black Hawk, resisted eviction
 Crushed in the Black Hawk War of 1832 by regular troops, including Lieutenant Jefferson
Davis of Mississippi and by militia volunteers, including Captain Abraham Lincoln of Illinois
Seminoles of Florida, under Osceola, retreated into the swampy Everglades and waged bitter guerilla warfare for 7 years (1835-1845)




Killed some 1500 soldiers
American commander’s deceptive seizure of
Osceola under a flag of truce led to the
Seminoles defeat
Some Seminoles fled deeper into the
Everglades where their descendants still live, but 4/5 of them were moved to Oklahoma, where several thousand survived

p. 187

p. 188



Jackson and his followers distrusted monopolistic banking and overbig business

Had the same prejudice against the “moneyed monster”, the Bank of the United States, as the rest of his western counterparts did
Jackson felt that the power of private banks to issue paper notes as money gave them considerable power over the nation’s economy



The Bank of the United States almost work as another branch of the government


Principal depository for the funds of the government and controlled the nation’s gold and silver
Was a source of credit and stability and useful part of the nations expanding economy
Bank was also a private institution, accountable only to its elite circle of moneyed investors
 Its president, Nicholas Biddle, held immense power over the nation’s financial affairs



Some felt the bank went against the egalitarian ideals of American democracy



This conviction held the deepest source of
Jackson’s opposition
Bank didn’t win anyone over with their foreclosing of western farms
Seemed profit was its main priority
Bank War erupted in 1832 when Daniel
Webster (remember him?) and Henry Clay presented a bill to renew the charter of the
Bank

Wasn’t set to expire until 1836, but Clay wanted it to be an election issue for 1832



Henry Clay was Jackson’s leading rival for the presidency in 1832 and he felt he had set him up in a trap
 Felt that if Jackson signed the bill, he would alienate his loyal followers, but if he vetoed it then he would lose the presidency to Clay
The bill skidded through Congress, but was vetoed by Jackson stating it was
“unconstitutional” and ignoring the Supreme
Court’s decision upholding that it was constitutional in McCulloch v. Maryland




Jackson’s veto amplified the power of the presidency
 If the legislative and executive branches were partners in government, then the president was unmistakably the senior partner
Clay’s political instincts continued to fail him
 Clay arranged to have thousands of copies of the veto message printed as a campaign document, but was blind to its political appeal to the common people
Bank issue was a leading issue in the presidential election of 1832



Clay and Jackson were the leading figures in the election of 1832


Jackson supporters again raised hickory poles and shouted “Jackson Forever: Go the
Whole Hog!”
Clay supporters called for “Freedom and
Clay”

His opponents “whispered” about his dueling, gambling, and fast living
For the first time, a third party entered the election, the newborn Anti-Masonic party who opposed the influence and secrecy of the
Masonic Order




They were energized by the mysterious disappearance and probably murder of a New
Yorker who was threatening to expose the
Masons’ secret rituals in 1826
Were potent in the middle Atlantic and New
England states
Appealed to Americans’ democratic suspicions of secret societies


Jackson was a Mason, so this party could also be called an Anti-Jackson party
Also attracted support from evangelical
Protestants for moral and religious reforms




New novelties to the presidential election in
1832
 The calling of national nominating conventions to name candidates
 Anti-Masons and National Republicans adopted formal platforms, stating and publicizing their positions on the issues
Clay and the National Republicans held a lush
$50,000 campaign (much from the Bank of the
United States bank loans and newspaper backing)
Jackson easily defeated Clay 219 to 49




Bank of the United States was due to expire in
1836
 Jackson felt he had had mandate from the voters for its complete extermination and feared that Biddle would find a way to reinstate its charter before it expired
Jackson proposed to remove all of the federal deposits from the Bank to leave it dry
 Even his closest advisors opposed this idea and
Jackson reshuffled his cabinet until he found a secretary of treasury that would do as he wished
Biddle attempted to call in his loans to avoid a financial crisis“Biddle’s Panic”




The death of the Bank of the United States bank left a financial vacuum in the nation’s economy and started a cycle of booms and busts
Surplus federal funds went into several dozen pro-Jackson state banks“pet banks”
“Pet banks” and “Wildcat banks” flooded the country with unsound paper money and nothing to stop them

 Jackson tried to rein in the economy the year that the bank closed, 1836

“Wildcat” currency was unreliable, especially in the
West, so Jackson authorized the Treasury to issue a
Specie Circular- a decree that required all public lands to be purchased with “hard” or “metallic” money
 Slammed the brakes on the speculative boom
 Led to a financial crash in 1837




1828: Democratic-Republicans of Jackson were simply called Democrats
Jackson’s opponents coalesced into the Whigs

Had dubbed Jackson “King Andrew I” and wanted to recollect the idea of American opposition to a monarchy
The Whig Party
 Contained many diverse elements
 Main cement that held them all together was their hatred for Jackson and his “executive usurpation”



First emerged in the Senate when Clay,
Webster, and Calhoun joined forces in 1834 against Jackson’s bank policies
Rapidly evolved into a potent national political force by attracting all of those opposed to
Jackson and all of those who felt alienated by him

Supporters of Clay’s American System

Southern states’ righters
 Larger northern industrialists and merchants
 Evangelical Protestants associated with the
Anti-Masonic party

 Whigs viewed themselves as conservatives, but were progressive in their support of active government programs and reforms




Called for internal improvements vs. boundless territorial acquisition
Welcomed the market economy (gained support from manufacturers in the North, planters in the
South, and merchants & bankers in all sections
Absorbed the Anti-Masonic party and blunted the Democratic appeal to the common man
Portrayed Jackson and his successor, Martin
Van Buren, as imperious aristocrats, and the
Democrats as the party of cronyism and corruption




Jackson “appointed” Martin Van Buren as his successor in 1836
Jackson was too old and ailing to consider a third term, but felt he could effectively run that term through Van Buren
 Rigged the nominating convention and made sure
Van Buren got the nomination, though Jackson’s supporters weren’t wildly enthusiastic about him
Whigs had problems nominating a single candidate and chose to run several prominent
“favorite sons” from different regions, hoping to scatter the vote and through the election into the House of Representatives



Leading Whig “favorite” son was General
William Henry Harrison (hero of the Battle of
Tippecanoe)
The scheme of the Whigs failed and Van Buren entered the presidency


Popular vote: 765,483 to 735,795
Electoral vote: 170 to 124 (votes for all of the Whigs combined)



Martin Van Buren was the first president to be born under the American flag

“a first-class second-rate man”


An accomplished strategist and spoilsman
A statesman of wide experience in both legislative and administrative life
Van Buren fell victim to a series misfortunes that he had no control over


Incurred resentment of many Democrats for being “handed” the presidency
Was mildmannered and didn’t fit the military boots of his predecessor




Inherited Jackson’s position and enemies, but not his popularity
Four years were filled with trouble and toil
 1837: Rebellion in Canada over political reforms
(and mostly unregulated immigration from the
U.S.) led to ugly incidents along the border that threatened war with Britain
 Anti-slavery agitators in the North were in full cry, condemning among other things the prospective annexation of Texas
Inherited the makings of a depression and had to devote much of his time trying to fight the panic

 Panic of 1837 was a symptom of the financial sickness at the time


Main Cause: Speculation prompted by the mania of get-rich-quick-ism
Speculators were doing “land-office business” on borrowed capital (currency) of “wildcat” banks
 Spread to canals, roads, railroads, and slaves
 Other Causes: Jacksonian finance (Bank of the United States and Specie Circular), collapse of 2 British banks, and failures of wheat crops

 Hardship was everywhere:
 People were storming warehouses
 American banks were collapsing (including
“pet banks”)
 Commodity prices dropped
 Sales of public lands fell off
 Customs revenues dried out
 Factories closed doors
 Unemployed filled the streets



Whigs came forward with proposals for active government remedies for the economy’s ills:
 Expansion of bank credit


Higher tariffs
Subsidies for internal improvements
Van Buren would not agree to this and tried to fix things with the “Divorce Bill”
 Believed that some of the financial problems came from injecting federal funds into private banks and that the government should divorce it from banking altogether

 By establish a so-called private treasury, the government could lock its surplus money in vaults
 Government funds would then be safe, but would also be denied to the banking system as reserves and shriveling up available credit resources
 The bill was never very popular, fellow
Democrats only supported it lukewarmly


Whigs condemned it because it took away their hopes for a revival of the Bank of the United
States
Independent Treasury Bill was passed in 1840 and repealed the next year by the Whigs and then reenacted by the Democrats in 1846



The U.S. continued to covet Texas after abandoning it to Spain while acquiring Florida in 1819
Spanish were trying to populate the unpeopled area, but before they could do that, the
Mexicans won their independence
 New regime in Mexico City concluded arrangements in 1823 for granting a huge area of land to Stephen Austin, with the understanding that he would bring 300
American families in Texas
 Immigrants were to be Roman Catholic and upon settlement, become Mexicanized



The two stipulations were largely ignored
 Hardy Texan pioneers stayed very much American and resented the “foreign” government
Texas Americans numbered about 30,000 by
1835


Most were law-abiding, God-fearing people, but some were criminals who caused the phrase “G.T.T” to come about
Some notable inhabitants included: Davy Crockett
(former Congressman and famous rifleman), James
Bowie (inventor of the bowie knife), and later Sam
Houston (former Tennessee governor)



Pioneers in Texas were not easy to push around and friction between the Mexicans and
Texans rapidly increased


Clashed on views of slavery, immigration, and local rights
Slavery was particularly touchy because Mexico had emancipated its slaves in 1830 and prohibited importation in Texas, as well as further colonization by the troublesome
Americans
 Texans refused to honor this: Kept their slaves and kept transporting more into the area
1835: Mexican dictator, Santa Anna, wiped out all local rights and raised an army



Early 1836: The Texans raised their Lone Star flag and declared their independence with Sam
Houston as Commander in Chief
Santa Anna with 6000 men stormed into Texas and trapped a band of nearly 200 Texans at the
Alamo in San Antonio


Wiped them out to one man after a 30-day siege
A short time later, a band of about 400 surrounded and defeated American volunteers, butchering them as pirates


Among them were Davy Crockett and and Jim
Bowie who became legendary in death
“Remember the Alamo”

p. 196



Scores of Americans armed themselves and rushed to aid the Texans

General Sam Houston’s army retreated to the east, luring Santa Anna to San Jacinto (present-day
Houston)
 Mexicans numbered 1300, Americans 900
April 21, 1836: Sam Houston turned and wiped out the pursuing force and captured Santa
Anna
 Santa Anna was forced to sign two treaties agreeing to withdraw Mexican troops and to recognize the Rio
Grande as the extreme southwestern boundary of
Texas

p. 194



Once released, Santa Anna dubbed the whole agreement illegal because it was extorted under duress
 Put the U.S. government in a sticky situation

The government’s weak enforcement of neutrality laws allowed American men and supplies to leak across the border and aid the Texans
 American public opinion, favorable to the Texans, left the federal authorities unable to act
 Before he left the presidency in 1837, Jackson recognized the Lone Star Republic
Texans wanted not just recognition, but to be unionized with the U.S.

 Texas officially petitioned for annexation in
1837, however there was still the slavery issue
 Anti-slavery crusaders in the North were against annexation and felt the whole thing was a scheme by the South to bring a new slave state to the Union
 This was plausible because many of the Texan inhabitants had come from slave states of the South and Southwest
 Scholars have concluded that it was just part of the inevitable westward movement
 Regardless, Texas admission to the Union would mean enlarging American slavery



Martin Van Buren renominated by the
Democrats in 1840, but without enthusiasm
The Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison who was believed to be the biggest vote getter
(rather than Clay or Webster)





His views on issues were not widely known
Chosen for being issueless and enemyless
John Tyler was selected as his vice presidential running mate
Pushed no official platform
A Democratic editor foolishly played up
Harrison’s appeal to the common man (West)



The whole Whig campaign was a bunch of hoopla (full of untruths)

“Tippecanoe and Tyler too!”
 Harrison won
 Popular Vote: 1,275,016 to 1,129,102
 Electoral Vote: 234 to 60
Voters had to choose between economic visions of how to deal with the nation’s first major depression


Whigs- Expand and stimulate the economy
Democrats- Retrenchment and end to highflying banks and aggressive corporations

 Election of 1840 showcased two major changes in American politics since the Era of
Good Feelings
 First Change: Triumph of a populist democratic style
(less emphasis on aristocrats; commonality was power)




Second Change: The formation of a vigorous and durable two-party system
 With Jefferson accepting so many Federalist programs, they were never truly two-parties
 Parties were seen before as being injurious to the health of the republic
By 1840, parties had come of age thanks to
Jackson’s tenacity
Both the Democrats and Whigs grew out of
Jeffersonian republicanism and each laid claims to different aspects of it



Jacksonian Democrats glorified the liberty of the individual and against “privilege” in government

Clung to states’ rights and federal restraint in social and economic affairs
Whigs glorified natural harmony of society and the value of community


Berated leaders whose appeals to self-interest fostered conflict among individuals, classes, or sections
Favored a renewed national bank, protective tariffs, internal improvements, public schools, and moral reforms such as prohibition and slavery

 Commonalities of the parties:
 Massbased “catch-all” parties


Socially diverse
Geographically diverse
 All things will come to a head in the
1850s when the topic of slavery rears its ugly head again