Transcript The Age of Jackson & The Rise of the Common Man


Era of Good Feelings continued?
• Election of 1824
 end of secret Congressional caucuses in selection of
candidates
 Jackson receives more electoral and popular votes
than Adams, Clay, and Crawford, but not a majority
 House
chooses Adams because of Clay's
support
• Clay a rival of Jackson in the West
• Adams and Clay agreed on American System
• Jackson's followers accused Clay & Adams of a "Corrupt
Bargain" when Clay was named Secretary of State (the
road the Presidency was through the SoS)

Plagued with accusations of stealing the election
• Appointed Henry Clay as Secretary of State
• Unable to effectively see his programs pass
 Wanted to create a national university
 Wanted to create observatories
 Wanted fair treatment of Native Americans

Jackson's election in 1828 signaled rise of common man
• Elected by western farmers and eastern workers
• Property qualifications for voting eliminated in most states
• Changing nature of political campaigns
 Rallies, slogans, songs, issues and Picnics
• Jackson's inauguration symbolic of new age
 Jackson who coined the phrase "To the victor go the spoils,"
 use of the Spoils System, political patronage, Limited role of federal
government
Jackson viewed himself as the spokesman of the people
 “In
1835, a farmer in Oswego County, New York,
honored Andrew Jackson with a fourteen-hundredpound Cheddar. It sat, aging, in the White House
lobby for two years before Jackson scheduled a levee,
or public reception, on Washington’s birthday. Guests
polished off the cheese in two hours. Friends of
Jackson’s successor, Martin Van Buren, hoped to
make mammoth cheeses an annual tradition, but it
ended abruptly after visitors ground curds into the
East Room carpet.” (PARTISANS BIG CHEESE by Blake Eskin
Issue of 2004-09-27 Posted 2004-09-20)
 Indian
policy
• Worcester v. Georgia (1832) ruled that Indians were not
subject to the laws of a state. Jackson refused to enforce
ruling
• Trail of Tears--Cherokees and other Indian tribes in
Southeast U.S. forced to march 1200 miles to
Oklahoma territory
 Nullification
Crisis--South Carolina 1832
• South Carolina stated its opposition to tariff in 1832 which
continued high rates of Tariff of Abominations (1828)
• Jackson appealed to people of South Carolina to obey
national law, obtained authority from Congress (Force
Act) to enforce laws any way necessary, and worked out
a compromise tariff:
 1832-1842 gradual reduction in
the tariff to the 1816 level.
 Jackson
opposed re-charter of the Bank
because banks
• Were seen as tools of the rich oppressing the poor
• Foreclosed mortgages on farmers
• Restricted the issuance of paper money by state
banks
• Biddle made a number of loans to anti-Jackson
politicians

In 1832 United States President Andrew Jackson ignited
controversy by vetoing a new charter for the Bank of the
United States. This political cartoon, “The Downfall of
Mother Bank,” appeared the same year.


Jackson removed government deposits and placed them in
local (pet) banks, destroying the bank
Wildcat banks created in wake of U.S. Bank's failure
• Money in circulation increased 300%
• Loans made increased 400%
• Inflation rose as loans were made to land speculators
• Sales of western land increased from 4 million acres in 1832
to 20 million acres in 1836




States borrowed vast sums for internal improvements, increasing
state indebtedness
Jackson distributed federal government surpluses to states, which
stimulated spending and inflation
To check the inflationary spiral, Jackson issued the specie circular
which required gold and silver for land purchases.
Panic of 1837 resulted when
• English bankers called in loans to states and investors
• Gold supplies were depleted, preventing banks from making
payments and forcing failures