Name: ______Date: ______
Class Notes and Discussion: The Elections of 1824 and 1828
I. The “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824
Review from homework: Why was the election of 1824 called a “corrupt bargain”? Do you think John Quincy Adams really did participate in corrupt behavior? ______
II. Side Note: The Evolution of Major Political Parties
1792FederalistsDemocratic Republicans
1816Death of Federalists
1820Republicans
One Party: Era of
Good Feelings
1825National RepublicansDemocratic-Republicans
(Jacksonian Democrats)
1834Whigs Democrats
1854Republicans
III. The Election of 1828
Jackson’s started his campaign for 1828 early – on February 9, 1825, the day of John Quincy Adams’ election – and it continued for the next four years. Two new political parties had emerged – the National Republicans (Adams), and the Democratic-Republicans (Jackson). The campaign was a messy one, with both sides slinging plenty of mud. Jackson (nicknamed “Old Hickory”), presented himself as a tough frontiersman, even though he was really a wealthy slave-owning planter. He accused Adams of making a corrupt bargain with Henry Clay for the presidency in 1824. Adams’ followers in turn pointed to Jackson’s numerous duels and bloody fights.
On election day Jackson won the South and West, Adams won New England and the wealthy of the Northeast, and the middle states and Northwest were divided. Jackson won the electoral vote with 178 votes to 83.
Workshop: Visiting Andrew Jackson’s Presidential Library
Modern presidents always build a combination museum and library after their presidency. Today let’s imagine that Andrew Jackson has his own presidential library that we are going to visit. You’ll notice that there are a series of “exhibits” hanging around the room. Each deals with an element of Jackson’s presidency. With your group, you will visit each exhibit and complete the tasks at each exhibit. Some tasks will be completed on the back of this page.
Exhibit One: Jackson: The Man Becomes the President
What is your impression of Jackson so far? Do you think he has what it takes to be a good president? Why or why not?
Exhibit Two: The Spoils System
How does his use of the spoils system affect your opinion of Andrew Jackson?
Exhibit Three: The Tariff of Abominations
do you think the tariff was fair to the South? Why or why not?
Exhibit Four: The Nullification Crisis
What do you think of how Jackson responded to the crisis? Was he right to threaten military invasion? Why or why not?
Exhibit Five: Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears
What is your assessment of how Jackson dealt with the Native Americans? Does this affect your opinion of him as a president? Explain.
Exhibit Six: The Bank War
How does this affect your impression of Jackson as a president? Do you think he had the right to veto the bill, or was he taking on too much power? Explain.
Exhibit Seven: The Election of 1832 and the Death of the Bank of the United States
How do Jackson’s actions with regard to the BUS affect your assessment of him as a president? Do you think his actions were justified? Why or why not?
EXHIBIT 1: Brief biography of Jackson:
Jackson was born in the Carolinas. His parents died early, leaving him an orphan. Jackson grew up without parents to restrain him, and as a result he was wild, more interested in brawling and cockfighting than in studying.
As a young man Jackson moved to Tennessee. Even though he did not go to college, he was naturally intelligent, had a strong personality, and was a strong leader. These qualities allowed him to become a judge and a member of Congress. He had a violent temper and got involved in a number of duels, stabbings, and bloody fights.
Jackson had a wide appeal among ordinary people because he had risen from the masses. He was a wealthy slave-owning planter, but he was also a self-made man. When he became president, “Hickoryites” poured into Washington from far away to see Jackson. Jackson made the decision to open the White House to the public for the first time. A huge crowd of shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers poured in, allegedly wrecking the furniture and almost injuring Jackson, who had to sneak out through a side door. They only managed to clear out the White House by bringing out large bowls of spiked punch on the White House lawns.
- He suffered from dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis, and lead poisoning from two bullets that he carried in his body from near-fatal duels.
- He was the first president from the West
- He was only the second president without a college education
Primary Source on Jackson:
In 1824 Thomas Jefferson said of Jackson,“When I was President of the Senate he was a Senator; and he could never speak on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage. His passions are no doubt cooler now . . . but he is a dangerous man.”
EXHIBIT 2: The Spoils System
Spoils System (Definition) = Rewarding your political supporters by giving them public offices. Comes from the saying “to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy.”
Jackson and the Spoils System
Jackson used the spoils system on a large scale to reward the people who had helped him get elected. He defended it by saying that any upstanding American was qualified for public office, so he might as well put new people (his people) into the offices.
SCANDAL!!!
The spoils system naturally led to some shady deals. Men who had openly bought positions by contributing large amounts of money to Jackson’s campaign were appointed to high office. Some of these men were very poorly qualified for the positions, and some were crooks. For example, Samuel Swartwout was given the post of collector of the customs (import taxes) of the port of New York. Nine years later he fled for England, taking more than a million dollars of government money with him.
EXHIBIT 3: Tariff of Abominations
A tariff is a tax on imported goods. The government used tariffs to protect American industries against competition from European manufactured goods. Northerners were in favor of tariffs because tariffs helped their industries. Southerners were against tariffs because it meant they had to pay higher prices for manufactured goods.
While Adams was still president, Jackson’s followers had promoted an extremely high tariff bill in Congress. They thought that it would be defeated and would make Adams look bad, but it passed and Adams signed it into law. Jackson was left with the VERY unpopular tariff to deal with.
Southern states protested loudly. In South Carolina flags were lowered to half-mast. Southerners believed that the tariff discriminated against them. They felt like the tariff protected the Northern industries by making the South pay the price. Southerners were also afraid that federal tariffs might lead the way to more federal government interference in state matters, especially slavery.
South Carolina protested the loudest. In 1828 their legislature published a pamphlet called the South Carolina Exposition, written by John C. Calhoun. It said that the tariff was unjust and unconstitutional. It suggested that the states should nullify the tariff – declare it null and void within their state borders.
EXHIBIT 4. The Nullification Crisis
The Tariff of 1828, which set a high tax on imported goods, upset the South in general and South Carolina in particular. The tariff protected Northern American industries from competition from Europe, but at the same time it hurt the South by forcing them to pay higher prices for manufactured goods. South Carolina responded to the tariff by suggesting that Southern states nullify it, or declare it void (cancel it) within their borders.
Congress passed a new tariff in 1832 that was lower, but South Carolina was not satisfied. They called for a special convention to vote on nullification, and the majority voted to nullify the tariff. They declared the tariff null and void within South Carolina. They also threatened to take South Carolina out of the Union (Secede) if Jackson and the federal government tried to make them pay the tax. In private, Jackson threatened to invade South Carolina and hang the nullifiers. He started preparing an army.
The “Great Compromiser,” Henry Clay, decided to make another compromise. He convinced Congress to pass a bill that would reduce the tariff by ten percent over a period of eight years. To save face, though, Congress also passed the Force Bill, which gave the president the power to use the army and navy if he had to in order to collect the taxes. South Carolina didn’t have the support of the other Southern states, so it backed down.
5. Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears
The official policy of the U.S. toward Native Americans from Washington’s administration was to recognize the tribes as separate nations and acquire land from them only through formal treaties. The American government violated its treaties with the Indians again and again, though, especially as white settlers began to push westward.
Although many tribes resisted white settlers with violence, others tried to adapt to white ways. The Cherokees of Georgia, for example, made huge efforts. They abandoned their seminomadic life for settled farm life and the idea of private property. Many converted to Christianity. In 1808 the Cherokee National Council developed a written legal code, and in 1827 it created a written constitution that provided for executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Some became wealthy cotton planters and turned to slaveholding. The Cherokee, along with the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, were called the “Five Civilized Tribes” by whites.
In 1828 the Georgia legislature declared the Cherokee tribal council illegal and took control over Indian affairs and Indian lands. The Cherokee appealed this move to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld the rights of the Cherokee in THREE separate cases, stating that Georgia’s actions were unconstitutional. But President Jackson refused to recognize the Court’s decision. He supposedly said, “John Marshall has made his decision; now let HIM enforce it.”
Jackson proposed to remove the eastern tribes (the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles) beyond the Mississippi. The move was supposed to be voluntary, but Jackson’s policy led to the forced migration of more than 100,000 Indians. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which put the idea into law. All Indian tribes east of the Mississippi were to be moved to the west. In the following decades, countless Indians died on forced marches to the new Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma).
Sauk and Fox Native Americans from Illinois and Wisconsin, led by Black Hawk, resisted removal. They were crushed in 1832 by U.S. troops, including Captain Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. In Florida the Seminole Indians fought a guerilla war for seven years. Their spirit was broken in 1837, when an American army commander used a flag of truce to capture their leader, Osceola.
Primary Source on Indian Removal:
One survivor of the Indians’ forced march in 1838-1839 on the “Trail of Tears” to Indian Territory remembered,“One each day, and all are gone. Looks like maybe all dead before we get to new Indian country, but always we keep marching on. Women cry and make sad wails. Children cry, and many men cry, and all look sad when friends die, but they say nothing and just put heads down and keep on toward west . . . . She [his mother] speak no more; we bury her and go on.”
6. The Bank War
Jackson’s Hatred of the Bank of the United States
Why did Jackson hate the BUS? No bank in the United States had more power than the BUS. In many ways it acted like a branch of government. It was where the government’s money was kept, and it controlled much of the nation’s gold and silver. As Hamilton had intended, it served as a source of credit and stability, and it was a useful part of the nation’s economy.
BUT the BUS was a private institution. It was not accountable to ordinary people, but to an elite circle of private wealthy investors. Its president, Nicholas Biddle, held a huge amount of power over the nation’s financial affairs. To some people, the bank went against the core ideals of American democracy. It didn’t help matters that the bank foreclosed on many western farms during the Panic of 1819.
The Bank War started in 1832 when Henry Clay introduced a bill in Congress to renew the BUS’s charter, which would mean that the BUS would continue to exist for another twenty years. The election was getting close, and Clay, who was planning to run against Jackson, hoped that the bill would work in his favor. If Jackson signed it, he would alienate his faithful following of western farmers. If he vetoed it, he would lose the support of the wealthy and influential groups in the East.
Jackson responded by vetoing the bill. He said the bank was a monopoly and was unconstitutional. Of course, the Supreme Court had earlier declared it constitutional in McCulloch v. Maryland, but Jackson seemed to think the executive branch was superior to the judicial branch.
Jackson’s veto not only got rid of the bank bill, but also greatly increased the power of the presidency. All previous vetoes had been made on strictly constitutional grounds. Even though Jackson claimed he was vetoing the bank bill on constitutional grounds, it was clear that he was really doing it because he personally found it harmful to the nation. In effect, he was claiming for the president alone a power equivalent to two-thirds of the votes of Congress. Subsequent presidents followed in Jackson’s footsteps.
7. The Election of 1832 and the Death of the BUS
The Election of 1832
Henry Clay went up against Jackson in the election of 1832. An interesting feature of the election was that, for the first time, a third party ran a candidate. The third party was the Anti-Masonic party, which opposed the influence of the Masonic order, a secret society. The Anti-Masons appealed to American suspicions of secret societies, which were condemned as elite and privileged. Jackson was a Mason, so the group was also anti-Jackson. Henry Clay was overly confident. He had huge funds for his campaign, including $50,000 from the Bank of the United States. But Jackson, still popular with the masses, easily defeated Clay by an electoral vote of 219 to 49.
The Death of the Bank of the United States
Without a renewal of its charter, the BUS was set to expire in 1836. Jackson refused to let it die in peace, however. Jackson wanted to remove all federal funds from the bank, which would kill the bank. Even Jackson’s closest advisors were against this move, seeing it as unnecessary and possibly unconstitutional. Jackson plowed ahead, however. The bank was dead. The death of the BUS left a financial hole in the U.S. economy and started a cycle of booms and busts. Without a central bank in control, smaller banks began to flood the country with paper money, leading to inflation.
Jackson tried to fix the economy in 1836. The money had become so unreliable, especially in the West, that Jackson authorized the Treasury to issue a Specie Circular – a decree that required all public lands to be purchased with “hard” (metallic) money. This slammed the breaks on the economy, helping to contribute to a financial panic and crash in 1837.