Talking Points- Jacksonian Democracy Chapter #13: The Rise of a Mass Democracy, 1824-1840

 

 “Debates still swirl around the period’s central figure, Andrew Jackson, who rose to fame in 1815 in the Battle of New Orleans and later served two terms as President, aggressively defending average Americans against moneyed institutions. Was Jackson good or bad for America?  A savoir of the people or a reckless autocrat? Democracy’s champion or lawbreaking white supremacist? This book suggests Jackson had many deep flaws, but there was also much to admire about him, including the strengthening of presidential power essential for maintaining the American union in a time of escalating sectional crises. His shortcomings reflected the era, as did those of other great leaders from Jefferson to Lincoln. But understanding Jackson, perhaps more that most leading Americans of his time, requires an ability to resist either vilification or veneration, to see the man whole – his failings as well as his successes”

 David S. Reynolds

Waking Giant - America in the Age of Jackson  

AP FocusDevelopments at the grassroots level prepared the way for democratic changes at the federal level after Jackson took office. There was a widespread belief in the principle of equality (for the white male majority) – or more precisely, equality of opportunity during the “Age of Jackson”

Review: What was historic about the election of 1800? What role did the 12th Amendment play in the election of 1824?   

  The Jacksonian C.U.S.P (1828)The election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 initiates a new and more democratic era in American political and social history. A "cusp" can be defined as a point of transition (as from one historical period to the next). The age of the common man - CAUCUS system is replaced by conventions;   UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE; POPULAR elections REVIEW Mnemonic devices  

 #1. "King Caucus" ( closed door meeting of congressional party leaders) – Jeffersonian members of Congress met in caucus to nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates. This will be replaced by national nominating conventions By 1832 South Carolina is the only state using the caucus system to select candidates #2. Universal male suffrage – New western states had liberal voter qualifications and the trend towards universal male suffrage took hold elsewhere 

Master race suffrage in the South (limited to select group of rich slave owners) NY (1821) rescinds property for whites and raised it for Blacks $250/3 years of residency Any state added to Union after 1819 DID NOT allow black suffrage By 1865 only 5 of 35 states allowed black suffrage

  #3 Popular elections (and Presidential campaigning) By 1832, in most states, voters, rather than the state’s legislators chose a state’s slate of presidential electors.  

  

During President Andrew Jackson’s open  house inauguration in 1829   , a horde of 20,000 celebrants forced President Jackson to flee to a nearby hotel while his aides filled washtubs with orange juice and whiskey to lure the mob out of the overrun White House and onto the lawn 

   The Maysville Road veto (May 27, 1830) President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill which would allow the Federal government to purchase stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, which had been organized to construct a road linking Lexington and the Ohio River, the entirety of which would be in the state of Kentucky. Its advocates regarded it as a part of the national   Cumberland Road   system . Congress passed a bill in 1830 providing federal funds to complete the project. Jackson vetoed the bill on the grounds that federal funding of intrastate projects of this nature was unconstitutional. He declared that such bills violated the principle that the government shouldn't be an economic affair. Jackson also pointed out that funding for these kinds of projects interfered with the paying off of the national debt.

 

 

The Battles of President Andrew Jackson  

Battle #1 Vice-President John C. Calhoun and the Tariff issue

http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/57543#i0,p16,d1 

 Tariff Details  

 REVIEW   Calhoun’s Tariff of 1816  The South believed that the development of a home market would help the U.S. economy which would benefit everyone…the protection – especially in the textile industry – led to the beginning of the factory system. This was made possible thanks to two developments:#1 system of interchangeable parts – Eli Whitney#2 system of all the work done in one building was developed by Lowell    

  Tariff of Abominations   VIDEO (Tariff of 1828)  raised the tariff on imported manufactured goods. The tariff protected the North but harmedthe South; South said that the tariff was economically discriminatory and unconstitutional because it violated state's rights. It passed because New England favored high tariffs.   REVIEW STATES RIGHTS South Carolina Exposition and protest (nullification) Vice-President Calhoun anonymously published the essay South Carolina Exposition, which proposed that each state in the union counter the tyranny of the majority by asserting the right to nullify an unconstitutional act of Congress. It was written in reaction to the Tariff of 1828, which he said placed the Union in danger and stripped the South of its rights. South Carolina had threatened to secede if the tariff was not revoked; Calhoun suggested state nullification as a more peaceful solution. 1833 - The Force Bill authorized President Jackson to use the army and navy to collect duties on the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. South Carolina's ordinance of nullification had declared these tariffs null and void, and South Carolina would not collect duties on them. The Force Act was never invoked because it was passed by Congress the same day as the Compromise Tariff of 1833, so it became unnecessary. South Carolina also nullified the Force Act.

  

 The Election of 1832

 

Jackson will be re-elected – he will defeat Henry Clay and what was left of the Republicans

 

  Andrew Jackson (Democrat) ran for re-election with V.P. Martin Van Buren. The main issue was his veto of the re-charter of the U.S. Bank, which he said was a monopoly. Henry Clay (Whig), who was pro-Bank, ran against him The Anti-Masonic Party nominated William Wirt. This was the first election with a national nominating convention. Jackson won - 219 to Clay's 49 and Wirt's 1. The Masons were a semi-secret society devoted to libertarian principles to which most educated or upper-class men of the Revolutionary War era belonged. The Anti-Masons sprang up as a reaction to the perceived elitism of the Masons, and the new party took votes from the Whigs, helping Jackson to win the election.   

Battle #2 The Bank of the United States

(start video at 2:51 for Bank Issue) 

 http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1618820  Jackson used his veto power extensively. He vetoed more bills in his term of office than all the previous presidents put together. Jackson was also the first to use the pocket veto, a delaying tactic in which the President does not sign a bill within ten days of the end of the Congressional term, preventing it from becoming law.  Veto message: 1832 - Jackson, in his veto message of the re-charter of the Second Bank of the U.S., said that the bank was a monopoly that catered to the rich, and that it was owned by the wealthy and by foreigners.

 

    

Battle #3 Native Americans

  Cherokee Nation v. Georgia: 1831 - The Supreme Court ruled that Indians weren't independent nations but dependent domestic nations which could be regulated by the federal government. Worchester v. Georgia; Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1832 - The Supreme Court decided Georgia had no jurisdiction over Cherokee reservations. Georgia refused to enforce decision and President Jackson didn't support the Court. “ John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” By 1836 – Bureau of Indian Affairs had been established under the Dept. of War 

 Cherokee Indian removal, "Trail of Tears" A minority of the Cherokee tribe, despite the protest of the majority, had surrendered their Georgia land in the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. During the winter of 1838 - 1839, troops under General Winfield Scott evicted them from their homes in Georgia and moved them to Oklahoma Indian country. Many died on the trail; the journey became known as the "Trail of Tears". 

  The removal included many members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations, among others in the United States, from their homelands to Indian Territory (eastern sections of the present-day state of Oklahoma). The phrase originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831.[ Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease and starvation en route to their destinations. Many died, including 4,000 of the 15,000 relocated Cherokee. 

 Andrew Jackson's Presidency   in 3 minutes