Unit 4: Social Transformation

Lesson 4: Jacksonian Democracy: Rise of the Modern Political Party

Republican Party• “Era of Good Feeling”• Reality: – Issues divided the party • Sectionalism:

– MO Compromise (1820)

• Role of govt. in the economy after the Panic of 1819

– Party was splitting into factions• National Republicans: strong national govt., govt.

support of the economy – Clay’s American System

• Democratic-Republicans: states’ rights

Election of 1824• Exposed cracks in Republican Party: – Traditionally, a caucus (a meeting of congressional party

leaders) chose the party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates. • “Death of King Caucus”

– Most Republican congressmen refused to take part (elitist)– Other candidates did not defer to the caucus’s choice

– 5 Republicans ran for president representing different factions of the party and sections of the country • William Crawford (South, states’ rights)• John C. Calhoun (South)• John Quincy Adams (North, national)• Henry Clay (West, national)• Andrew Jackson (West, states’ rights)

Election of 1824: Corrupt Bargain • Jackson won most popular and electoral votes,

BUT he did not have the majority needed to become president.

• 12th Amendment: when no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the House picks the president from the top 3 vote getters.– Jackson, Adams, and Crawford

Election of 1824: Corrupt Bargain

• Henry Clay, Speaker of the House and no longer in the race (he finished 4th), threw his support behind Adams making him president.

• Adams later named Clay secretary of state, traditional stepping stone to the presidency, leading to allegations of a “corrupt bargain” – Tainted Adams’s presidency – Gave popular support to Jackson

JQ Adams Administration (1825-1829)

• Proposed nat’l govt. lead economic development: – Est. national university and nat’l observatory – Implement Clay’s American System • “Tariff of Abominations” (1824): protective tariff

JQ Adams Administration (1825-1829)

• Mostly failed b/c:– Economic development programs now unpopular • Panic of 1819 had been caused by the 2nd BUS• Many thought programs created “special privilege”

– republican political style » “The spirit of improvement is aboard upon the earth. . . .

While foreign nations less blessed with . . . freedom . . . Than ourselves are advancing with gigantic strides in the career of public improvement, were we to slumber in indolence or fold up our arms and proclaim to the world that we are palsied by the will of our constituents, would it not . . . Doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority.”

Election of 1828

• Campaign began in 1824 with the Corrupt Bargain – Jackson (democratic faction) vs. Adams

(national republican faction)

• Martin Van Buren, “Little Magician”, managed Jackson’s campaign– Created the first modern political party:

• National organization that mobilized votes• “Disciplined”: enforced unity among party

members in govt. office

– Used experience creating a political machine at the state level NY: Albany Regency

Election of 1828

• Van Buren on political parties:– “We must have party distinctions . . . if [they are]

suppressed, geographical divisions founded on local interests, or what is worse prejudices between free and slaveholding states will inevitably take their place. Party attachment in former times furnished a complete antidote for sectional prejudices by producing counteracting feelings.”

Election of 1828

• Van Buren’s strategy:– Built a nat’l “coalition” to amass enough votes • Advocate policies that appealed both to northern

farmers and workers and to southerners – Against govt. economic development

» Northerners threatened by industrialization» Southerners threatened by protective tariffs

– Record of hostility towards Native Americans» Southerners and westerners

Election of 1828

• Strategy (cont.)– Tapped into new democratic culture:• “Democratic” Party • Portrayed Jackson as a “common man” and Adams as

an aristocrat.– Adams’ supporters charged that Jackson was illiterate

backwoods hothead backfired» Spun as attributes of the common man

• Mobilized voters: rallies, torchlight parades, barbecues

Election of 1828

• “Mudslinging” – Jackson called a murderer and

adulterer • “Ought a convicted adulteress and

her paramour husband be placed in the highest office of this free and Christian land?”

– Roll of the press

Election of 1828

• Jackson’s win made possible by the ↑ democracy– Voter turnout doubles

• Sectionalism:– Jackson: West and South– Adams: Northeast

Reign of King Mob