Andrew Jackson:A man for the people or

a dictator?

Vocabulary to be discussed before background essay:

• Suffrage- the right to vote

• Spoils System- rewarding your political supports with jobs Example: Ms. Cline gives President Obama 1 million dollars. He nominates her to be the next Secretary of Education.

Election of 1824

1.According to the map, who had the most electoral votes? Popular votes?

2.Based on this, who should have won the election?

3.Did he? Look at the background essay, paragraph 2.

Election of 1828

1. Who ran in the election of 1828?

2. Who won? What evidence is there to support that?

3. Draw the conclusion between the change in suffrage (voting) laws and Andrew Jackson’s victory.

HINT—see background essay paragraph 1 and the second to last paragraph

The whole of the preceding day, immense crowds were coming into the city from all parts, lodgings could not be obtained, and the newcomers had to go to George Town…I was told the Avenue and adjoining streets were so crowded on Tuesday afternoon that it was difficult to pass… No arrangements had been made [and] no police officers placed on duty and the whole house had been inundated by the rabble mob… The President, after having been literally nearly pressed to death and almost suffocated and torn to pieces by the people in their eagerness to shake hands with Old Hickory, had retreated through the back way or south front and had escaped to his lodgings at Gadsby's. Cut glass and china to the amount of several thousand dollars had been broken in the struggle to get the refreshments, punch and other articles had been carried out in tubs and buckets… Source: Margaret Bayard Smith's Eyewitness Account of Jackson's Inauguration (1829)

March 4, 1829 –Inauguration Ceremony

Document 7On election day, in some places, Jackson supporters marched en masse to the polls, in a celebratory parade. An astonishing fact is that the number of voters counted nearly quadrupled over 1824. Four of the 24 states, including New York, took away property requirements for voting, so that basically all white males could vote. In addition, Jackson was saying "Vote for us if you believe the people should govern". In other words, Democrat meant just what the word implied. In December, it had become obvious that Jackson won the election in a landslide. The count was 178 to 83 electoral votes, or 647,276 to 508,064 electoral votes.

Source: http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/andrew-jackson/the-1828-presidential-election.php

Vocabulary•Tariff- tax

•Nullification- to declare something null, void, not follow, cancel out

•Abomination-hated, dreadful, beyond awful

•Sectionalism- putting the interests of a region ahead of the country as a whole (I am a Southerner, not American or I am from Texas, not the United States)

1.Which region voted for the tariff?

2.Which region was against the tariff?

3.How did this lead to sectionalism?

4.What happens when a nation is divided?

Video Link

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulQJCLFP3Rc•

Document 2 Source: President Jackson's Proclamation Regarding Nullification (1832)

The ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible right of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitutional, and too oppressive to be endured, but on the strange position that any one State may not only declare an act of Congress void, but prohibit its execution—that they may do this consistently with the Constitution—that the true construction of that instrument permits a State to retain its place in the Union, and yet be bound by no other of its laws than those it may choose to consider as constitutional… But reasoning on this subject is superfluous, when our social compact in express terms declares, that the laws of the United States, its Constitution, and treaties made under it, are the supreme law of the land; and for greater caution adds, "that the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." Look, for a moment, to the consequence. If South Carolina considers the revenue laws unconstitutional, and has a right to prevent their execution in the port of Charleston, there would be a clear constitutional objection to their collection in every other port, and no revenue could be collected anywhere; for all imposts must be equal.

Document 3 Source: South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification (1832)

We, therefore, the people of the state of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United States, ……An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports,”….., are unauthorized by the constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers or citizens; and all promises, contracts,and obligations, made or entered into, or to be made or entered into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed by said acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in affirmance thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and void.

Worcester Vs. Georgia

Supreme Court said Cherokees could stay on their land.

BUT Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act and made the Cherokees move west anyway

Document 4

It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages.The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it promises to the Government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.

Source: President Andrew Jackson's Message to Congress 'On Indian Removal' (1830)

Document 5

The soldiers came and took us from home, they first surrounded our house and they took the mare while we were at work in the fields and they drove us out of doors and did not permit us to take anything with us not even a second change of clothes, only the clothes we had on, and they shut the doors after they turned us out. They would not permit any of us to enter the house to get any clothing but drove us off to a fort that was built at New Echota. They kept us in the fort about three days and then marched us to Ross’s Landing. And still on foot, even our little children, and they kept us about three days at Ross’s Landing and sent us off on a boat to this country (Skin Bayou Claim 258) .

Source: Oloocha, the Widow of Sweetwater, for whom Sweet Water Creek in Douglas County, Georgia is named, described her round up from the Etowah District near Carroll County, Georgia, in her 1842 Claim

The reason for this was that the nation had become a refuge for thieves, murderers, old Tories of the Revolution, and men who had left their wives and children and taken up with Indian squaws. The Indians could not correct these evils, and it was necessary for the State to extend her laws and protect herself.

Document 6

Source: June 18, 1838 | Cedartown, Ga. Rev. William J. Cotter

Trail of Tears

Based on this quote, how does Andrew Jackson feel about the Second National Bank?

What is your evidence to support your answer?

Does this quote push you to one side or the other in terms of Jackson being a man of the people or a dictator? Why or why not?

1. How does this cartoon portray President Jackson?

2. What is your evidence to support this?