Transcript Chapter 10

Chapter 12
Jacksonian Democracy
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
Prologue: 1819
• Jacksonian Democracy rooted in 2 events:
– Heated debate over Missouri’s admission as a
slave state
– Severe financial collapse led to Americans’
doubt of the market revolution under
Jeffersonian republic
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The West, 1803-1840s
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Louisiana—Jefferson’s “empire of liberty”
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Sacajawea
Time passes
– Americans settle southern part
– Sioux dominate northern part
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The Argument over Missouri
• Slaveholding Missouri applies for admission as a
state
• James Tallmadge, Jr.
– Tallmadge amendments
– “three-fifths” rule
• House opposed to Missouri as a slave state
• Senate in favor of Missouri as a slave state
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The Missouri Compromise
• Maine detached from Massachusetts as a new free
state
• Jesse Thomas and the Thomas Proviso
– No slavery North of 36’ 30” minutes in Louisiana
Purchase area
• Crisis brought out evidence of:
– South’s commitment to slavery
– North’s resentment of southern political power
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The Panic of 1819
• Origins of the Panic of 1819
– Drop in American foodstuff exports
– Easy credit and speculative boom in the U.S.
• Second Bank of the United States
– Langdon Cheves
• Nationwide collapse in the economy
• Rise in unemployment
• Resentment against the Bank of the United States
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Republican Revival
• Republicans called for a Jeffersonian
revival that would limit government power
and guarantee southern rights within the
Union
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Martin Van Buren Leads the Way
• Invented modern, disciplined patronage based
party
• “Era of Good Feelings” in Van Buren’s view
– Led to Federalist state
– Sectional politics
• Salvation was disciplined national party
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The Election of 1824
• William H. Crawford: Candidate of Van Buren and
the Congressional Caucus
• John Quincy Adams: Federalist convert
• Henry Clay: American System
• John C. Calhoun: Vice-President
• Andrew Jackson: the wild card
– Frontier nabob with violent reputation
– Florida
– Popular war hero
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“A Corrupt Bargain”
• Jackson assumes he won 1824 election
• House of Representatives decides
• Clay’s support toward a candidate would
determine the outcome of the Presidential
elections
– Clay offered his support to Jackson, then Adams, in
exchange for appointment as secretary of state
– Jackson refused, Adams accepted
• Reaction very negative and dominated Adams
administration
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Jacksonian Melodrama
• Jackson’s claims that selfishness and intrigue had
corrupted the republic
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Panic of 1819 caused by corrupt Bank of U.S.
National debt a source of corruption
King caucus
Theft of 1824 election
• Individuals can become corrupt and selfish, but
the democratic majority was, by nature, opposed
to corruption and governmental excess
• Republic is only safe when governed by the will
of the majority
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Nationalism in an
International Arena
• Adams’s role in American politics prior to
the Presidency
• Rush-Bagot Treaty (1817) and the BritishAmerican Convention (1818)
• Adams-Onis Treaty (1819)
• Monroe Doctrine (1823)
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Nationalism at Home
• Adams isolated himself and offended
popular democracy
• Proposed ambitious national development
plan
• Easily portrayed as enemy of democracy
and proponent of high taxes and intrusive
government
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The Birth of the Democratic
Party
• Van Buren
– Supports Jackson, but as head of disciplined,
Democratic party committed to Jeffersonian ideals
– Calhoun
– Thomas Ritchie and Virginia Republicans
• Rebuilding Jeffersonian Coalition with the
Democratic Party
– National party committed to states’ rights and minimal
government
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The Election of 1828
• Slander more than debate of public policy
• Adams’s supporters attack Jackson
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Duels and brawls
Coffin handbill
Bigamist with Rachel Donelson Jackson
Strategy backfires, many see Jackson as melodramatic
hero
• High voter turnout and Jackson landslide
• Victory of popular melodrama over cultural
gentility
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A People’s Inauguration
• Rowdy inaugural crowd
• Rachel’s death
• No more King Caucus or Corrupt Bargains
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The Spoils System
• Secretary of State Van Buren
• “Spoils system” or “rotation in office”
• 10% of officeholders replaced
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Jacksonian Democracy and the
South:
• Jackson got 80% of Southern vote
• How to protect Southern interest in limited
government
– Calhoun: states veto federal legislation
– Van Buren: political party committed to states’
rights within the union
Southerners and Indians
• “Civilized Tribes” sanctioned by federal
government
• Resented by white Southerners as challenge
to states’ rights
• Georgia Governor George Troup’s land grab
• Cherokee Republic
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Indian Removal
• Indian Removal Act of 1830
• John Marshall
– Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1830)
– Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
– “Marshall has made his decision: now let him
enforce it.”—Andrew Jackson
• “Trail of Tears”
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Southerners and the Tariff
• “Tariff of Abominations” (1828)
– Van Buren’s role
• Increases sense of Southern unease
– Diminished cotton exports
– Increased price of imports that the South depended on
– Showed willingness of other agrarian regions to make
deals contrary to interest of slave owning South
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Nullification
• Exposition and Protest (1828)
– Virginia and Kentucky Resolves (1798)
• Jefferson birthday dinner toasts
– Jackson: “our federal union, it must be preserved”
– Calhoun: “the union, next to our liberties, the most
dear”
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Tariff of 1832
South Carolina’s Nullification Convention
Force Bill (1833)
Compromise Tariff of 1833
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The “Petticoat Wars”
• Peggy O’Neal Timberlake Eaton and
Secretary of War John Eaton
• Parallels with Andrew and Rachel
• Floride Bonneau Calhoun
• Widower Martin Van Buren
– Nice to Eaton
– Leaks anti-Jackson letter from Calhoun
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The Fall of Calhoun
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Van Buren and rest of cabinet resign
“Kitchen Cabinet”
New cabinet does not have Calhoun supporters
Van Buren is Jackson’s 1832 running mate and
designated successor
• Calhoun loses
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Petitions, the Gag Rule,
and the Southern Mails
• Jackson and Democrats successfully
opposed moral issues in politics
• “Postal campaign” and petitions
– Postmaster Amos Kendall
– “Gag rule”
• Southerners see disciplined Democratic
Party as guarantor of their interests
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Jacksonian Democracy and the
Market Revolution
• Nostalgic loyalty to Jefferson’s agrarian
republic
• Tried to reconcile Market Revolution to
principles of republic
• Paper money and the American System
were corrupt and anti-republican
• Whigs spring up in opposition to
Jacksonians
The Second Bank of
the United States
• The Bank of the United States exercised
central control over the nation’s monetary
and credit systems
• Millions resented and distrusted the national
bank as a privileged, powerful institution
• Jackson saw the bank as concentration of
power that threatened the republic
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The Bank War
• Clay and the 1832 bank recharter
• Jackson bank veto message
– Bank is special privilege that allows
Northeastern and British merchants to take
Southern and Western wealth
• Election of 1832: pro-Jackson, anti-bank
landslide
• “Pet Banks” and Roger Taney
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The Beginnings of the
Whig Party
• Origin of the name Whig
• “King Andrew I”
• Anti-American System
– Maysville Road veto
• Nicholas Biddle calls in Bank of U.S. loans
• Clay and the Senate Censure of Jackson
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A Balanced Budget
• Budget surplus
– Tariffs brought in more revenue
– Jackson administration spent little
– Sale of public lands brought in more revenue
• National debt paid off 1833
• Deposit Act (1836)
• Specie Circular (1836)
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“Martin Van Ruin”
• Election of 1836
– Whigs 3 candidate sectional strategy
– Van Buren’s national Democratic party wins
• Panic of 1837
– Whigs blame Jackson’s hard money policy and specie
circular
– Democrats blame speculation and paper money
• “Sub-Treasury” (“Independent Treasury”)
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The Election of 1840
• “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”
– William Henry Harrison
– John Tyler
• “Log Cabin Campaign”
• “Martin Van Ruin”
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Two Parties
• Election of 1840
– Signaled the solidification of the second
party system
– Both parties competitive in all regions
– High voter turnout
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Conclusion
• By 1840 American politics was 2 party national
system
– Whigs: the American System
– Democrats: limited government
• 1830-1860: The growth of American economy
became a question of state and local government
actions
• Growing political problems surrounding slavery
• The 2-party system focused national political
debates on economic development, not sectional
issues like slavery
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