Chapter 11: The Jacksonian Era

Setting the Stage

• Andrew Jackson

• Born in 1767

• Didn’t come from a prominent colonial family

• Father died before he was born

• Engages in guerrilla warfare during the Revolutionary War and got caught

• Hated Brits

• Attorney in Tennessee

• Got wealthy being a militia officer

• Slaver-owner (pro-slavery)

• “Age of common man”

• Engaged in quarrels and duels

• Has 2 bullets in him

• 7th president

• Inauguration: rode a horse drawn carriage

• Presidential Goals

• Economic and social equality (never met)

• The Bank of the United States (B.U.S.)

• Hated the rich

• Wanted to lower taxes, reduce government spending, shrink the federal bureaucracy, pay off federal debt

• Destroy the 2nd Bank of the United States

• Spoils system: the wholesale removal of federal employees

• Martin van Buren

• Secretary of state

• 8th president

• John C. Calhoun

• Determined to defend slavery

• Vice president during Jackson’s first term

• Peggy Eaton Affair

• John Eaton (close friend of Jackson) married Margaret (Peggy) O’Neale

• Believed that Peggy cheated on her first husband

• (1830) The Maysville Road Bill

• Got vetoed by Jackson

• Allowed the government to buy stock in a 60mi long road from Maysville, Kentucky to Lexington (Clays home town)

• Allowed Jackson to take a swipe at Clay (likely opponent)

Nullification

• Andrew Jackson determined to strengthen the executive branch

• Nullification crisis centered in South Carolina

• The Tariff of 1828 also known as the Tariff of Abominations

• Calhoun’s South Carolina Exposition and Protests: written in opposition to the new tariff

• Webster-Hayne debate

• Congress sharpens the lines between state rights and the Union + provoked a national crisis

• Senator Robert Y. Hayne (South Carolina) → government endangered the Union by imposing any policy that would cause a hardship on one section of the nation to benefit another

• Senator Daniel Webster defended the East → denied the east had ever shown restrictive policies towards the west and he lured Hayne to defending states’ right and upholding nullification

• “South Carolina’s defiance of federal sovereignty is nothing more than resistance by force - it is a disunion by force - it is a secession by force - it is Civil War” ~Webster

• Calhoun

• Union must be preserved

• Got fired because he asked Monroe to punish Jackson after Jackson’s unauthorized invasion of Florida

• Jackson names van Buren to be ambassador to England

• Tariff of 1832: Tariff on cloth and iron

• The South Carolina Ordinance: 

• Nullified/repudiated the federal tariff acts of 1828 and 1832

• Forbade federal agent to collect federal tariffs after 1 February

• 1833

• Robert Hayne (governor) + Calhoun (Senator)

• Jackson: nullification = treason

• (1833) Force Bill: allowed Jackson to use the army to compel compliance with federal laws in South Carolina

Jackson’s Indian Policy

• Jackson hated Indians

• Indian Removal Act (1830): authorized the president to give federal land west of the Mississippi River in exchange for the land they currently occupied in the East + South

• Illinois + Wisconsin Territory: 

• Black Hawk War

• Sauk + Fox tribes

• South

• Seminoles and Cherokees

• Osceleola was a seminoles leader who was seized by the treachery under the flag of truce, imprisoned and died at Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor

• Cherokees

• Civilized, close to white civilizations

• Georgia pushed to the northern end of Georgia and western South Carolina

• Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831): MArshall ruled that the court had no jurisdiction of the cherokees (because they were a domestic dependant nation)

• Worcester v Georgia (1832): Marshall held that the Cherokee nation was a distinct political community within which Georgia law had no force

• Trail of Tears: 17,000 Cherokees marched from Georgia to Oklahoma

The Bank Controversy

• 1st Bank of the United States expired in 1811

• 2nd Bank of the United States renewed in 1816

• Local banks feared national bank

• Hard Money: only gold and silver

• NIcholas Biddle

• Incharge/managed the Bank of the United States

• Grew the Bank of the United States

• Bank Wars (10 July 1832): Jackson vetoed the ill because of banks monopoly powers that benefit the rich and powerful

• “Hydra-headed monster of corruption” ~Jackson

Contentious Politics

• The Anti-Masonic Party: hostility towards the Masons (fraternal order and private society)

• Mason

• Included George Washington and Ben Franklin

• Jackson and Henry Clay

• William Morgan (Mason): disappeared

• Pet Banks: 23 banks that benefited from federal deposit

• Distribution Act: distribution of government surplus funds to states

• Tariff of 1833: South → lower tariff

• Specie Circular: hard money required in land sales of public lands

• Whigs Party

• Hated Jackson (King Andrew I)

• Protestants were attracted

• Election of 1835: Martin van Buren (8th president) against Daniel Webster, Hugh Lawson White, and William Henry Harrison

• Van Buren: Dutch

• Panic of 1837

• drop in price for American cotton

• Unemployment soared

• Independent Treasury Act (18 July 1840)

• A private treasury for the government

• Government has own vaults

• William Henry Harrison (9th president): Ohio soldier and politician from a prominent Virginia family

• Whig Campaign for Harrison

• “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”

• Tippecanoe = Harrison

• John Tyler for Vice President

• “Log Cabin and Hard Cider”

Assessing the Jackson Years

• More people involved with politics

• Unrestrained entrepreneurial activities ⇒ new centers of economic power → independent government regulations

Timeline:

• 1767: Jackson born

• 1811: First B.U.S. expired

• 1816: 2nd B.U.S. renewed

• 1828: The Tariff of of 1828 (The Tariff of Abominations)

• 1830: 

• The Maysville Road Bill

• Indian Removal Act

• 1831: Cherokee Nation v Georgia

• 1832: 

• Tariff of 1832

• Worcester v Georgia

• Bank Wars

• 1833: 

• The South Carolina Ordinance

• Force Bill

• Tariff of 1833

• 1835: Election year

• 1837: Panic of 1837

• 1840: Independent Treasury Act

Chapter 12