President John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)

Andrew Jackson 1767 - 1845

Henry Clay (1777 – 1852)

William H Crawford 1772 - 1834

• Explain the role of the House of Representatives in the

election of 1824.

• Describe how the 1824 election heightened Jackson’s

populism and increased sectional tension.

• Identify the reasons that the presidency proved difficult for

Adams to manage successfully.

•How do these images of Adams and Jackson represent their different temperaments and

abilities as chief executives.

•How does the image of Jackson embody a new type of American politics?

The pro-Jackson ad on the left alludes to Jackson’s defeat by the “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824. The two

wars mentioned in the ad are the War of 1812 [during which he won the Battle of New Orleans] and the

Seminole War of 1819 in Florida. The pro-Adams ad on the left, shaped like a coffin, tells the story of a

soldier executed during the Creek War [part of the War of 1812].

Video: The Life of Andrew Jackson—The History Channel—2007

• How did the election of 1828 affect Jackson’s personal life?

• Why was Jackson’s ‘southern aristocratic’ background overlooked during the election?

• Describe the historical

importance of the role

of the ‘everyday citizen’

during the 1828

election.

• Identify the possible

dangers of Jackson’s

popular support, both

domestically and

internationally.

Topic: Chapter 13: The Rise of a Mass Democracy (1824 – 1840)

Aim: Explain why Andrew Jackson’s presidency heralded a new type of American politics.

Andrew Jackson’s Inauguration Party

• How did western

migration to the new

states of the South and

Old Northwest lend

itself to a more rough-

and-tumble political

environment than that

of earlier elections?

• How did Jackson

work to maintain

public and political

support for his

presidency after 1828?

Margaret Bayard Smith observed the presidential party with shock, stating “Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses, and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe — those who got in could not get out by the door again but had to scramble out the windows…. The President [was] … almost … torn to pieces by the people in their eagerness to shake hands with Old Hickory…. It was the people's day,… and the people would rule!”

Topic: Chapter 13: The Rise of a Mass

Democracy (1824 – 1840)

Aim:

• Explain how the “spoils system”

established political machines, but

increased distrust of the federal

government.

•Analyze how tariffs revealed deepening

sectional differences.

• Jackson backers promised positions of political

support during election

• Jackson removed 919 officials from

government positions, nearly 10% of the

postings

• post office as the largest department in the

federal government was hit hardest—in one year

423 postmasters were deprived of their positions

• Jackson administration attempted to explain

the purge as reform, but criteria for change

actually loyalty to Andrew Jackson

• new emphasis on loyalty rather than

competence would have a long term negative

effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of the

federal government

1. Presidents after President Andrew Jackson continued the use of the spoils system to encourage

others to vote for them. But by the late 1860s, reformers began demanding a civil service system.

Running under the Liberal Republican Party in 1872, they were harshly defeated by patronage-

hungry Ulysses S. Grant.

2. After the assassination of James Garfield by a rejected office-seeker in 1881, the calls for civil

service reform intensified. The end of the spoils system at the federal level came with the passage of

the Pendelton Act in 1883, which created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to evaluate job

candidates on a nonpartisan merit basis. While few jobs were covered under the law initially, the law

allowed the President to transfer jobs and their current holders into the system, thus giving the

holder a permanent job.

3. The Pendleton Act's reach was expanded as the two main political parties alternated control of the

White House every election between 1884 and 1896. After each election the outgoing President

applied the Pendleton Act to jobs held by his political supporters. By 1900, most federal jobs were

handled through civil service and the spoils system was limited only to very senior positions.

4. The separation between the political activity and the civil service was made stronger with the Hatch

Act of 1939 which prohibited federal employees from engaging in many political activities.

5. The spoils system survived much longer in many states, counties and municipalities, such as the

Tammany Hall ring, which survived well into the 1930s when New York City reformed its own civil

service. Illinois modernized its bureaucracy in 1917 under Frank Lowden, but Chicago held on to

patronage in city government until the city agreed to end the practice in the Shakman Decrees of

1972 and 1983. Modern variations on the spoils system are often described as a “political machine.”

Ongoing Issues with the Spoils System

South Carolina’s Response to the Tariffs

•Protectionist tariff in the United States

•passed as a reduced tariff to remedy the conflict created by the tariff of 1828

•still deemed unsatisfactory by southerners and other groups hurt by high tariff rates. Southern

opposition to this tariff and its predecessor, the Tariff of Abominations caused the Nullification Crisis

involving South Carolina

•tariff was later lowered down to 35 percent, a reduction of 10 percent, to pacify these objections.

Alexis de Toqueville

• Southerners sold their cotton and other products without tariffs, while the products

that they bought were heavily tariffed.

• Tariffs led the U.S. to buy less British products and vice versa, but it did help the

Northeast prosper so that it could be more of the South’s products.

• John C. Calhoun secretly wrote “The South Carolina Exposition” in 1828, boldly

denouncing the recent tariff and calling for nullification of the tariff by all states.

• However, South Carolina was alone in this nullification threat, since Andrew Jackson

had been elected two

Bank of United StatesJackson and his followers distrusted monopolistic banking and oversized

businesses as a threat to state power—Bank of the United States

(BUS).

In 1832, Henry Clay, pushed for the rechartering of the BUS four years early

in an attempt to lose the support of the manufacturers of the East or

alienate his followers—but West held more power

The recharter bill passed through Congress easily, but Jackson demolished in

a scorching veto that condemned the BUS as unconstitutional (despite

political foe John Marshall’s ruling that it was okay), and anti-

American.

The veto amplified the power of the president by ignoring the Supreme Court

and aligned the West against the East.

Brickbats and Bouquets for the Bank

Topic: Jackson and the Trail of Tears

Aim: To what extent was President Andrew Jackson directly responsible for

the Trail of Tears?

What does this image of Chief John Ross

from the late 1800s tell you about

connections between American and

Cherokee culture?

Cherokee Clans Taken from a manuscript

prepared by J.P. Evans in 1835: "There are

no natural boundaries to their clans; the

subjects of different clans being mingled.

Those of the same clan are considered as

belonging to the same family. In fact this

relationship seems to be as binding as the ties

of consanguinity. An Indian can tell you

without hesitating what degree of relationship

exists between himself and any other

individual of the same clan you may see

proper to point out. A man and woman of the

same clan are not allowed to become man and

wife. This appearance of ancient custom is

yet prevalent to some extent, and the

disregard of it disgusting in the eyes of

many."

The Cherokee nation

interacted with the

United States as a

sovereign nation, with

its own capital, New

Echota, a constitution

and a Cherokee

Supreme Court.

problem:

1. white resentment of

the Cherokee had been

building and reached a

pinnacle following the

discovery of gold in

northern Georgia.

2. the U.S. government

ultimately decided it

was time for the

Cherokees to be

"removed"; leaving

behind their farms,

their land and their

homes.

The Trail of Tears

Worcester vs. Georgia, 1832 and Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia –The U.S. Supreme Court

ruled for Georgia in the 1831 case, but in Worcester vs. Georgia, the court affirmed Cherokee

sovereignty. President Andrew Jackson defied the decision of the Supreme Court.

1. The U.S. government used the Treaty of New Echota in 1835 to justify the removal. The

treaty, signed by about 100 Cherokees known as the Treaty Party, relinquished all lands east

of the Mississippi River in exchange for land in Indian Territory and the promise of money,

livestock, various provisions, tools and other benefits.

2. The Cherokee were rounded up in the summer of 1838 and loaded onto boats that

traveled the Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers into Indian Territory. An

estimated 4,000 died from hunger, exposure and disease.

http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/

History/TrailOfTears/Default.aspx

http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/indians/cherok

ee/trail_of_tears.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Land_

Lotteries