Transcript The Age of Jackson

The Age of
Jackson
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Age of Jackson
• 1824-1836
• First president elected after expansion of
voting rights allowed people to vote who
didn’t own property
• Claimed to represent the “common man”
• Jacksonian Democracy – Idea of
spreading political power to all the people
and ensuring majority rule
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Age of Jackson
• Introduced the spoils system – practice of giving
government jobs to political backers
• Vetoed the National Bank
• Inflation – Banks issued too much paper money
• Jackson required that people pay in gold or
silver for public lands
• Panic of 1837 – people took their paper money
to the banks for gold or silver; banks ran out
• Depression – Severe economic slump followed
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Jacksonian Democracy
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Majority Rules
Rise of the common people
Increased power of the president
Modern Democratic Party – Jackson was
the leader of the Democratic Party
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Indian Policies
• Jackson supported removal policy of Indians
from land desired by American citizens
• Indian Removal Act – 1830
• Jackson defied a Supreme Court ruling in
Worcester v Georgia to stop the removal of
Cherokee Indians from Georgia
• Government negotiated treaties that required
Native Americans to relocate West
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Trail of Tears
• Forced removal of Cherokee Indians from
native lands to Indian Territory west of
the Mississippi
• Whites invaded their homeland and they
had to sign treaties exchanging their land
for land in the West
• Were moved into what is now Oklahoma
and parts of KS and NE
• Came to be called Indian Territory
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Trail of Tears
• Fall 1831 – Choctaw and others removed
and relocated to Indian Territory
• Fall and Winter 1838-1839 Trail of Tears
• 16,000 Cherokee Indians forced to move
• Could take nothing with them
• Cold, rain, snow
• ¼ died
• Known as the Trail of Tears
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Tariffs and Sectionalism
• Southern states – Agriculturally based economy,
generally opposed tariffs because of the rise in cost of
imported goods they were forced to purchase using
revenue from foreign cotton sales
• It was costing Southern plantation owners too much to
get their tools and supplies from overseas
• Northern states – Economy was based on industry,
generally supported high tariffs to protect their products
• For Northern merchants tariffs made their products
cheaper than foreign goods
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Tariff of Abominations
• 1828 Congress passed bill that raised the
tariffs on raw materials and manufactured
goods
• South had to sell their cotton at low prices
to be competitive
• Called it Tariff of Abominations
• Abomination is a hateful thing
• Hit South Carolina hard
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Nullification Crisis
• S. Carolina began talking about leaving
the Union
• John C. Calhoun (Jackson’s VP) passed
the doctrine of nullification
• A state had the right to nullify, or reject, a
federal law that it considered
unconstitutional
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Nullification Crisis
• Doctrine of nullification led to wide debate
in the Senate
• Jackson opposed doctrine, but did not
want SC to secede, so he asked Congress
to reduce the tariff
• SC stayed in the Union
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In conclusion…
• Major issues in Jackson’s Presidency:
• Policy toward Native Americans
• White settlers wanted Native American
lands
• Jackson proposed Indian Removal Act of
1830
• Thousands of Native Americans removed to
Indian Territory
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In conclusion…
• Major Issues of Jackson’s Presidency:
• Conflict over States’ Rights
• Sectional differences developed
• Jackson supported strong central
government
• South Carolina threatened to secede over
tariff issue, but compromise reached
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In conclusion…
• Major issues of Jackson’s Presidency:
• War on the Bank of the United States
• Second Bank of the United States had
economic and political power
• Jackson opposed bank and vetoed renewal
of its charter
• Bank driven out of business, but Jackson’s
policies eventually led to inflation and
depression
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