•
– John Quincy Adams (Mass)
– Henry Clay (Kentucky)
– William H. Crawford (GA)
– Andrew Jackson (Tenn.)
•

• Andrew Jackson wins the popular vote, but fails to secure a majority of the electoral vote
• The House of Representatives must now choose the
President.
• Henry Clay is eliminated, but he is also Speaker of the
House
• Clay uses his influence in the House to elect John
Quincy Adams on the first ballot.
• John Quincy Adams makes Henry Clay his Secretary of
State
• Supporters of Jackson call this the “Corrupt Bargain”

• Son of John Adams
• Secretary of State under Monroe
– Good record in foreign affairs
• Nationalist
– Met with resistance on infrastructure, road improvements
• “Minority President”
• Refuses to get rid of efficient office holders for his supporters
• Tried to stop speculation in public domain, instead of opening land
• Tries to deal fairly with Indians, while whites want them removed from the land

•
•
– “Tariff of Abominations”
– Northern businesses like it – protects them
– Southern Farmers hate it – they must pay higher prices, foreign countries buy less cotton
– South Carolina: publish The South Carolina Exposition encouraging nullification

John Quincy Adams
• National Republicans
• Supporters view him as:
– Independent
– Aristocratic
– Puritanically moral
• Opponents view him as:
– Corrupt
• Political Mudslinging
– Adams wont get involved, but his supporters will
– Call Jackson’s mother a prostitute
– Call Jackson’s wife an adulteress
Andrew Jackson
• Democratic-Republicans
• Supporters view him as:
– Rough-hewn frontiersman
– Champion of the common man
• Opponents view him as:
– No frontier farmer, wealthy planter
– Lived in luxury, had slaves
• Political Mudslinging
– Criticize Adams for having gaming tables and gambling furniture in the “presidential palace”
– Criticize him for his large federal salaries
– Accuse him of serving as a pimp for the Russian tsar
Outcome of the Election:
Jackson carries the West and South, Adams takes New England, split the middle states.
Jackson wins electoral vote 178 to 83

• From Tennessee, 1 st President from the West
• Violent temper
• Involved in duels, stabbings, fights
• No college education
• Frontier aristocrat
• Owned slaves
• Live in a mansion
• Hero of the common people
• Military Background
– Battle of Horseshoe Bend
– Battle of New Orleans
– Florida

• Tariff of 1832: take away the worst parts of the Tariff of
Abominations but is still very protective and seemed permanent
– Nullies = South Carolinians who try to nullify the tariff, blocked by Unionists
– Rule the Tariff of 1828 and 1832 UNCONSTITUTIONAL
– Jackson threatens to invade the state and hang the Nullies
• Tariff of 1833: Henry Clay creates this as a compromise.
Tariffs would be reduced by 10% a year over 8 years
• Congress passes the Force Bill “Bloody Bill” giving the
President the authority to use the army and navy if needed to collect tariff duties.
– South Carolina meets again to repeal the order of nullification, nullify Force Bill
• Hero is Henry Clay

•
– Not a new system, but introduced on a large scale by Jackson
– Jackson argues for bringing in new blood
– The more you do for the party, the better position you get
– The system many times led to scandal since posts were often bought with campaign contributions

• Jackson is committed to westward expansion
• 125,000 Native Americans live east of the Mississippi River
• 1790’s: recognized as separate nations, land acquired through treaties
– White many times violated treaties as they moved west
• Assimilation/Civilizing: Thought that Native Americans could change their way of life and fit into white society
– Many tribes resist
– Cherokees (GA) abandon seminomadic ways and adopt settled agriculture/private property
• Sequoyah: Cherokee alphabet
• 1808: Cherokee National Council writes a legal code
• 1827: Adopt a written constitution (three branches)
• Some are prosperous cotton planters with slaves
• Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles

• 1828: Georgia legislature declares the Cherokee tribal council illegal and asserts its own jurisdiction over
Indian affairs and land
• The Cherokee appeal to the Supreme Court
• The Supreme Court rules in favor of the Cherokee
• President Jackson refuses to recognize the Court’s decision:
– “ John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it”
– Jackson proposes a bodily removal of the Cherokees,
Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles to areas west of the Mississippi River

• Indian Removal Act: 1830
– Provided for the forced transplanting of all tribes east of the Mississippi River
• Sauk, Fox, Seminole resist removal and are eventually defeated and moved.
• Trail of Tears
– 1838-1839
– US Army forces 15,000 Cherokee from their land to the
Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
– Poor conditions, weather, supplies
– 116 day journey
– 4,000 die

• Jackson doesn’t like the BUS because he feels it is too powerful
– Private institution, that is only accountable to investors (elitist)
– President of BUS Nicholas Biddle holds too much power over the economy of the nation
– Foreclosed on western farms (hurts Jackson’s supporters)
• 1832: Daniel Webster and Henry Clay try to renew the charter of the BUS which is to expire in 1836
– Want to make the BUS an election issue in 1832
– If Jackson signs the bill he would alienate his western supporters, if he vetoes it he alienates the wealthy in the East
• Recharter bill is passed through Congress and Jackson VETOES it.
– Jackson calls the bank unconstitutional, even though McCulloch v. Maryland said it was constitutional
– “The Bank… is trying to kill me, but I will kill it.”
– Amplifies the power of the President
– Jackson claimed he vetoed it because it was harmful to the nation

•
– Third Party: Anti-Masonic Party
• Jackson is a Mason, so really an anti-Jackson party
– Nominating conventions used to name candidates
• Adopt platforms, publicize positions
– Clay has plenty of monetary support and the newspapers
– Jackson appeals to the masses and sweeps the West,
South, Pennsylvania, NY, and even parts of New England
•
•

• Jackson feels that he now has a mandate from the voters to stop it. He also feels Biddle might try to manipulate the BUS.
• 1833: Jackson removes federal deposits from BUS
– No more deposits, shrink existing deposits
– “Biddle’s Panic”- BUS calls in loans to create a minor financial crisis, showing the need for the Bus
• “Pet” Banks
– Jackson places funds in several dozen state banks
– Chosen because they support Jackson (Pet)
• Financial Problems caused
– Vacuum in the American economy, cycle of booms and busts
– Pet banks and “wildcat” banks flood the market with paper money, which is unreliable
– Specie Circular (1836): Jackson issues a decree saying that all public lands must be purchased with hard/metal currency (gold/silver)
– Stops speculation, leads to financial panic and crash of 1837

• Jacksons opponents who view him as iron fisted, call him “King Andrew I”
• Why Whigs: Opposition party in England in
18 th Century
• Attract:
– Supporters of Clay’s American System
– Southern states offended by Jackson’s views on nullification
– Northern industrialists and merchants
– Evangelical protestants aligned with the Anti-
Masonic party
• Views:
– Conservative, yet progressive in support of active government programs and reforms
– Call for internal improvements (Canals, railroads, telegraph lines)
– Support prisons, asylums, public schools
– Support Market Economy (Manufacturing-
North, Agriculture-South, banks everywhere)
– Claim to be defenders of the common man
– Democrats= corruption

Martin Van Buren- Democrats
• “Appointed” to be the successor by Jackson
• Considered a “Yes” man
• Promised to “tread generally” in the footsteps of Jackson
• Jackson rigs the nominating convention to ensure Van
Buren is the nominee
William Henry Harrison- Whigs
• Whigs original strategy is to nominate several candidates to that no one gets the majority
• Election would be decided in the House where Whigs might have a chance
• End up nominating Harrison who was the General and hero of the Battle of
Tippecanoe
Outcome:
• Close election in the popular vote and electoral vote
• Martin Van Buren elected 170-124

• 8 th President
• Experienced: Senator,
Governor of NY, Secretary of
State, VP
• Resented by Democrats who felt he became
President through the political machine of Jackson
• Mild mannered
• Inherits Jackson’s enemies
• Becomes President during economic depression

• Depression is beginning when Jackson is in office, but becomes a major issue during Van
Buren’s Presidency
• Causes:
– Speculation in western lands
– Unstable currency of the “wildcat "banks
– Specie Circular
– High grain prices (from failures of wheat crops)
– Failure of two British banks cause British investors to call in foreign loans
• Impact on the U.S.
– American banks collapse
– Commodity prices drop
– Sales of public lands fall
– Customs revenues dry up
– Factories close, unemployment rises
• Whigs solution: expand bank credit, raise tariffs, subsidize internal improvements
• Van Buren wants to keep the government out of the economy
– Divorce Bill: the government would divorce itself from banking altogether
• Thought problems were caused by putting federal funds in public banks
• Wants to create an independent treasury where surplus government funds could be locked away
• Government funds would be safe and denied to the banking system, credit resources would shrink
– 1840: Independent Treasury Bill is passed, repealed the next year by Whigs
• Reenacted by Democrats in 1846, becomes the Federal Reserve

• Americans want to move into the Texas territory
• Mexico has gained independence from Spain and owns the territory
• Mexico gives Stephen F. Austin (Empressario- land agent) a grant of land for 300 families
– Conditions:
• Must convert to be Roman Catholic
• Families must be Mexicanized
• Slavery is NOT permitted
• These conditions are ignored, and Americans resent the
“foreign” government
• By 1835: about 30,000 Texan-Americans
• Famous settlers: Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Sam Houston
• Mexican dictator Santa Anna begins to raise an army to enforce the conditions and Mexican rule

• 1836: Texas declares independence (Lone Star)
– Sam Houston: commander in chief
• Santa Anna and 6,000 men sweep into Texas and surround the Alamo (old mission, turned into a fort in present day San Antonio)
• Battle of the Alamo:
– Santa Anna and his men surround a group of Texans at the Alamo
– After 13 day siege all Americans wiped out
– Increases American opposition
– The dead become legends, “Remember the Alamo”
• Sam Houston the defeats the Mexicans and capture Mexican President Santa Anna force to to:
• Agree to withdraw all Mexican troops
• Recognize the Rio Grande as the Southwestern border of Texas
• American response:
– Texans had won independence with American men and supplies
– American government is supposed to stay neutral, it’s an independent territory
– American public opinion favors the Texans
– Jackson recognizes the Lone Star Republic, Texans want a union with the U.S.
– Texas asks for annexation in 1837, North is reluctant because Texas would become a
Slave state

Martin Van Buren- Democrats
• Running for a 2 nd term
• Democrats view of Harrison:
– Old Farmer
– Collecting a pension
– Lived in a log cabin
– Had a barrel of hard cider
– These views insult the West
– All of these views are wrong
William Henry Harrison- Whigs
• Whigs call Van Buren “Martin Van Ruin”
• Blame the party in power for their troubles
• Harrison is viewed as someone who could get the votes
– Success at Tippecanoe and Thames
• Had few issues and enemies
• John Tyler runs as his VP
• Publish no political platform
• “Farmer of North Bend” who left his cabin to drive corruption from the
“Presidential Palace”
• Log Cabins and Hard Cider
• Call Van Buren an aristocrat
• Win the Western vote
Harrison wins the election 234-60

• Triumph of democracy over aristocracy
• Common man moves toward the center of politics
• Two party system after the Era of Good Feelings
– Democrats
• Liberty of individual
• Guard against “privilege” in government
• States rights, federal restraint
• Draw support from humble, common people
– Whigs
• Natural harmony of society, value of community
• Oppose leaders who seek self interest
• Favor National Bank, protective tariffs, internal improvements, public schools, moral reforms
• Draw support from the wealthy