Unit 4 - Period Review (Part B)
Part B - The Age of Jackson
The presidential election of 1824 brought an end to the postwar political tranquility. With five regional candidates running, no one received an electoral majority. In a decision by the House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams was elected president after gaining support from Henry Clay, a rival candidate. Andrew Jackson, who had won a plurality of the popular vote, claimed a “corrupt bargain“ between Clay and Adams had denied him the presidency. Adams spent four difficult years in the White House, living with the corruption charge and trying to implement his program of economic nationalism.
Jacksonian Democracy
Andrew Jackson won a presidential rematch with John Quincy Adams in 1828. His inauguration in 1829 marked the beginning of Jacksonian democracy which, in part, represented a return to the principles of Jefferson. Jacksonians glorified individualism, declared war on privilege, vowed to restrain the federal government, and promoted states’ rights—all this with an eye to the interests of southern and western farmers.
In the sprit of egalitarianism, most states abandoned their property requirements for voting and the percentage of eligible voters that participated in elections skyrocketed. Jackson spoke for southern, agrarian interests whose political voices had been muted in the 1820s. While Jacksonians claimed to protect democracy from the forces of corruption and privilege, their vision was rather narrow by present-day standards. Women, blacks, and Native Americans were not part of Jackson’s coalition, and his policies actually worked against their political and economic interests.
Jackson’s attack on the forces of political and economic privilege centered on the battle to recharter the National Bank in 1832. The Second Bank was an effective economic institution that provided a depository for federal funds, promoted a sound currency, and regulated “wild cat“ banks around the nation. On the other hand, the Bank was unpopular in the West where it was viewed as a tool of the eastern mercantile elite. Jackson vetoed the recharter bill on the grounds that the Bank benefited only the rich and was an unconstitutional federal intrusion into the affairs of the states. He also realized that Henry Clay and Nicholas Biddle proposed the recharter as the centerpiece of a plan to deny him another term.
Challenges to Jackson
After vetoing the Bank, Jackson removed all government funds and placed them into “pet banks,“ that is, state banks with Democratic Party connections. These banks helped finance a real estate boom that resulted in a five-fold increase in the sale of land. In order to dampen the resulting inflation, Jackson approved the Specie Circular in 1836, which cooled prices but also helped cause the Panic of 1837.
The tariff of 1828 also created a major crisis during Jackson’s presidency. Although a defender of states’ rights and low tariffs, Jackson would not accept South Carolina’s defiance of federal tariff law in 1832 and 1833. The crisis had been brewing since 1828, when the Tariff of Abominations was enacted and South Carolina issued Exposition and Protest. The tariff rose to an all-time high, and South Carolina declared a right to nullify the tax, which it deemed to be unconstitutional. John C. Calhoun, the leader of the nullification movement, drew heavily on Madison’s and Jefferson’s Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of the 1790s and on the compact theory of government.
Andrew Jackson challenged South Carolina’s refusal to collect the tariff. He asked Congress to authorize a Force Bill to coerce the nullifiers. Unable to win over other southern states to the cause, Calhoun sought a compromise. In 1833, Henry Clay provided a bill that gradually lowered the tariff in exchange for repeal of Jackson’s Force Bill.
Jackson accepted the compromise and credit for preserving the Union. He realized, however, that the real issue was not the tariff but the South’s growing fear of federal power in regulating its way of life. He predicted that future conflicts would emerge.
Indian Removal
Andrew Jackson continued a policy of Indian removal that began in the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Jackson wanted to eliminate the tribes living east of the Mississippi River, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. He made Indian removal his top priority in his first message to Congress. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which eventually resulted in the exchange of one hundred million acres of Indian lands east of the Mississippi in return for thirty-two million acres in Oklahoma and $68 million in cash payments. Through a series of treaties, 45,000 Native Americans were transported west, with the most tragic exodus occurring in 1838 during the Trail of Tears.
The Whigs and Panic of 1837
Jackson’s use of presidential power and especially his numerous vetoes prompted the rise of a second party system. The opposition to Jackson took the name Whigs, in reference to those in England who had opposed the tyranny of the British crown. Whigs believed in economic expansion through an activist government, with a program that included recharter of the National Bank and support for the American System’s protective tariffs and internal improvements.
Jackson retired in 1837, and Martin Van Buren, his hand-picked successor, moved into the White House. The Panic of 1837 struck almost immediately and destroyed Van Buren’s presidency. By 1840, with the economy still flattened, the nation selected its first Whig president, William Henry Harrison. Tragically, Harrison died only one month after his inauguration, and Vice President John Tyler took over. As a life-long Democrat, Tyler was an ersatz Whig. “His Accidency“ rebuffed Henry Clay, vetoed the National Bank bill, and refused to raise the tariff. By the end of Tyler’s term, his entire Cabinet had resigned, and the House of Representatives explored his impeachment.