Jackson

Common Man President?Old HickoryBackground

A Democratic AutocratAn Urbane savage, An atrocious SaintSelf made man, slave holder, Indian

oppressor

Common ManExtraordinary ordinary Man?

• He became a symbol of the emerging working class and middle class

• Born in a log cabin• Lived in a mansion• Slave-owner• Never lost his rough manner• No college degree

• Was he an egalitarian?• Equal rights for African Americans, Indians,

women?• He was a frontier aristocrat and most who

served with him were wealthy—so what was the difference?

• Talents and energies• What was their goal?• What/who did he hate?• Who did he champion?• A frugal Jeffersonian—interpreted the

constitution narrowly—vetoed more bills than the total of the preceding presidents

• Maysville Road

• “Kitchen Cabinet”• Peggy Eaton Affair

Jacksonian Democracy

• It is debatable whether Jackson was a major molder the events of the era, or whether he took advantage of the democratic fever of the times, or just a symbol of the times, but his name is linked to the time.

The Rise of Mass Politics

• What did his inauguration look like?• “King Mob”• The Expanding Electorate—What does

democracy expanding look like?

1824-1840

• Politics moved from the wealthy homes to the lower and middle classes.

• 1824-350,000 votes cast for President• 1840-over 2.4 million • Why?

Reasons for Voter Participation

• New state suffrage laws--• Changes in Political parties-- Caucus to Party

Conventions• (Was power really transferred to the people?)• Campaign methods• Improved education• Increase in newspaper circulation

• Dorr Rebellion in RI.• Who was not voting regardless of all this

expanding?

The Legitimatization of Party

• With the growth of an electorate and a growing interest in politics came the need of a two party system—political parties were becoming desirable and even some said essential—Why?

• Democrats and Whigs (opposed absolute monarchy)

Jackson’s theory of Democracy

• “equal protection and equal benefits” to all its white male citizens and favor no region or class over another

• An assault against who?• The Spoils System :To the Victor belongs the

Spoils—established the right of elected officials to appoint their own followers to public office—an established feature of American politics today.

• Rotation of officeholders

3 Major Events in Jackson’s Presidency

• Nullification Crisis• The Removal of the Indians• The National Bank War

Nullification Crisis• Jackson--Was he a Unionist/Nationalists or a States Rights

kind of Man?? Vice President John C. Calhoun• Theory of Nullification-sincethe federal government was thecreation of the states, the statesthemselves had the final say in a law and its constitutionality(what does this sound like?)Published anonymously entitled“The South Carolina Expositionand Protest”

• Tariff of Abomination 1828• Promoted sectional differences• Daniel Webster (Mass.) debated Robert Hayne

(S.C.) on states rights and the nature of the federal Union under the constitution—was the Constitution a compact between states or between the people of the US. If it was a compact made by the states, then each state had the right to interpret it..

• “Our Federal Union-It must be preserved”—Jackson

• “The Union-next to our liberty most dear”—Calhoun

• South Carolina turned up the war of words by declaring the state would nullify the tariff and threatened to secede from the Union if the government tried to collect duties.

• Jackson insisted this was treason• Henry Clay resolves the issue with the

Compromise Tariff of 1833• Force Bill “Bloody Bill”—President could use

military to collect federal tariffs

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=VEPdWLN2fqlFxM&tbnid=F76Av9PCCwFOwM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.georgiaindiancouncil.org/Documents/site_johnross.html&ei=p4BiUqjcBrL62gXG44Eo&bvm=bv.54934254,bs.1,d.b2I&psig=AFQjCNEYjqBh_is2lyuEbVOXyK9x_EdAnA&ust=1382273557383072

The Removal of the Indians• Attitudes went from “noble savages” to simply

“savages-uncivilized and uncivilizable• “Five Civilized Tribes”

• Indian Removal Act 1830-appropreated money to finance federal negotiations with the Indians aimed at relocating them to the West.

• Many tribes were too weak to resist pressure and ceded their land over.

• Not the Cherokees

• Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831-not a nation therefore cannot sue in Court

• Worcester v. Georgia 1832-Georgia cannot force the Native Americans to move west.

• “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”—Jackson

Trails of Tears

• Alternatives to the removal of the Indians--

Jackson and the Bank War

• Bank of the United States: Privately owned, received federal deposits, controlled loans made by state banks and determined the interest rates

• President of the Bank-Nicholas Biddle—represented everything Jackson hated.

• Jackson vetoed the new charter of the bank in 1832

• Bank “Unconstitutional?”• Removed the funds and put them into “Pet

Banks”

Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge1837

• The first court decision that found in favor of the state in challenges that invoked the Contract Clause of the Constitution. This was a sign of the court's shift away from the Marshall Court's nationalism towards state's rights. It fought against the unfairness of implied contracts that would impede economic progress

• If Jackson was consistent on anything, it was his consistency on expanding economic opportunities.

The Changing Face of American Politics

• Whigs—United in opposition of Jackson’spolicies, committed to Clays’American System, and believedin active intervention by the government to change society

Martin Van Buren-The Panic of 1837

• The Killing of the Bank • Specie Circular• Speculation of Western Land

The Log Cabin Campaign of 1840

• Whigs: William Henry Harrison and John TylerPresented themselves as the party of the

common people, slogans “Tippee Canoe and Tyler too”- “Get the Ball Rolling”

Democrats: Martin Van “Ruin”

President John Tyler

• A man with no party