Jacksonian+Democracy+(1829-1841)

=PRESIDENCY = =REFORMS/ISSUES = =WHIGS = =VAN BUREN =
 * **JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY (1829-1841)**
 * __Start of Jacksonian Democracy[[image:30a.jpg width="277" height="377" align="right" link="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/treasures_of_congress/Images/page_9/30a.jpg"]]__
 * Election of 1824
 * Candidates (all of Jefferson’s Party: Democratic Republicans, but with slightly different views)
 *  William H Crawford: Georgia Republican
 *  supported by Martin Van Buren and his friends
 * John Quincy Adams: New England National-Republican
 * son of Federalist president and Secretary of State under Monroe
 * Henry Clay: Kentucky Democratic-Republican
 *  proponent of American System of protective tariffs, centralized banking, and government sponsored internal improvements
 *  Andrew Jackson: Tennessee Democratic Republican
 *  military hero from the war of 1812, known to act without orders and had a reputation for violence [[image:800px-electoralcollege1824-large.png width="545" height="401" link="http://www.rickandsusanna.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/800px-electoralcollege1824-large.png"]]
 * The Corrupt Bargain
 * Jackson had won the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, but because he had not won a majority, the vote went to the House of Representatives. Henry Clay had enough support that if his supporters supported JQA or Jackson, that candidate would win the election. Henry Clay knew that he didn’t have much of a chance on winning the election himself, so he decided to try to barter a high office in the White House. Clay offered, first to Jackson who refused and then to Adams who agreed, to tell his supporters to support that candidate in return for the appointment as Secretary of State.
 * Reaction to the Corrupt Bargain dominated the Adams administration
 * Jacksonian Melodrama
 * Jackson thought something had gone wrong with the republic
 *  corrupt power
 *  corrupt Bank of the United States
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> swindlers
 * __Presidency of Andrew Jackson__
 * Strong leader with a violent temper
 * Petitioned for the “common man”
 * Vetoed more bills than any president before him
 * “kitchen cabinet” –Jackson’s board of advisors who were not an official board but a group of men he looked to for advice
 * [[image:1828PresElect.jpg width="421" height="330" align="left" link="http://www.historycentral.com/elections/1828State.html"]]
 * Election of 1828
 * Andrew Jackson (Democrat) vs. John Adams (Republican)
 * An election that relied heavily on slander on one’s opponent
 * Slander followed Jackson and his marriage with Rachel Donelson (Adams tried to discredit Jackson by saying he stole Rachel form another man)
 * Jackson won easily with the greater voter turnout than the election of 1824
 * Birth of Party Politics
 * Occurred just before the election of 1828
 * Often associated with the Birth of the Democratic Party that would continue the states rights and limited government positions of the Jeffersonian Republicans
 * Democratic Party for agrarian program, states rights, minimal government involvement, ensure democracy, continuation of slavery and preservation of the Union
 * Jacksonian Philosophy
 * Jackson was in power at the height of the market revolution, and being a champion for the common man he perused an agrarian republic (though still a supporter of commerce)
 * Jackson’s main goals were to champion for the common man
 * Common Man
 * During the Age of Jackson (1824-1844) middle class white males began voting in large numbers, hence the common man
 * Jackson promised to transform politics to help the common man
 * All of Jackson’s reforms helped the “common man” in some way
 * Jackson did this because he himself was somewhat of a common man coming from a middle class family, hence his connection to the hardships the common man suffered
 * Some of Jackson reform policies that directly benefited the common man were:
 * Universal male suffrage
 * The nominating of party candidates by politicians and voters (nominating conventions)
 * Popular election of the president- voter’s choose state’s presidential electors
 * The Bank War and the killing of the second National Bank through a veto by Jackson
 * Spoils System
 * [[image:andrewjacksoninauguration.jpg width="507" height="407" align="right" caption="Jackson's Inauguration" link="http://www.usconstitution.com/$so$1/andrewjacksoninauguration.jpg"]]
 * Spoils System
 * The Spoils system is a term used to describe the action of the president rewarding his supports with government jobs
 * This was very popular with the election of Andrew Jackson
 * Martin Van Buren who supported Jackson was appointed secretary of state
 * Jackson replaced many able bodies office holders with his friends or family who were not so able bodied and claimed he was attempting to rid the government of people who believed they would be holding office for life
 * Jacksonian Reforms/Issues
 * Indian Removal Act (1830)
 * “Five Civilized tribes” lived in the south making up the Cherokee nation
 * they had adopted many “civilized” customs such as a written language and government
 * they considered themselves an independent entity
 * When gold was found in the land of the Cherokee nation they were forced off the land by the Indian Removal Act (1830)
 * The act forced the resettlement of many Native Americans west
 * They were aided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Several court cases arose as the Cherokees tried to challenge Georgia for forcing their removal
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
 * The Cherokees were not a foreign nation and did not have the rights to sue
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
 * Laws of Georgia has no force within the Cherokee territory
 * Jackson declared “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”
 * The Cherokees were still forced to leave Georgia along the “trail of tears” as they faced many hardships
 * 4000 died on the path west
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Nullification Crisis
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Tariff of 1828 aka Tariff of Abominations
 * Raised the tariff
 * South Carolina legislature found this unconstitutional and thus nullified the law
 * Calhoun’s nullification theory allowed states to decide whether or not to follow federal laws
 * The president however stated that nullification and disunion were treason, preventing them from nullifying the tariff
 * However Congress did respond by lowering the Tariff, one which South Carolina complied with
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Webster-Hayne Debates
 * Daniel Webster (Massachusetts) did not believe that the states had the rights to defy or leave the union, where as Robert Hayne (South Carolina) believed that the states should have more rights
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Economic
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Bank veto
 * Jackson believed that the Bank of the U.S. was unconstitutional
 * Despite Nicholas Biddle’s efforts, Jackson vetoed the bank-recharter bill
 * Jackson stated the bank was a private monopoly that only benefited the wealthy
 * This crisis occurred during the 1932 election, where Jackson’s main opponent was Henry Clay
 * Clay lost the election as the majority believed that the bank was a “hydra of corruption”
 * Jackson, with Treasurer Roger Taney consequently moved the funds to different state banks often known as “pet banks”
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);"> Specie Circular
 * In order to decrease inflation Jackson passed the Specie Circular
 * This required that purchases of federal land must be in gold and silver instead of banknotes
 * However the banknotes lost their value causing the nation to recess into a depression, the Panic of 1937
 * __Whigs[[image:whig.jpg align="right" link="http://bentley.umich.edu/research/guides/politics/parties/images/whig.jpg"]]__
 * Two-Party System
 * Whigs were supporters of Henry Clay, Jackson’s main rival
 * Birth of the Whig Party
 * Coalesced in 1834 from opposition to Jacksonian Democrats.
 * The Old National Republican coalition became the new Whig Party, joined by southerners who resented Jackson after the nullification crisis
 * Cause: mainly Jackson’s war on the national bank
 * The Whigs resembled Hamilton’s Federalist Party
 * Issues
 * Abolition
 * Northern Whigs
 * Other issues
 * Position
 * Favored Henry Clay’s American System
 * Opposed vice and crime, which many blamed on immigrants
 * Support came from…
 * New Englanders, residents of the Mid-Atlantic, upper-upper-mid-western states
 * Protestants of old English stock and middle class urban professionals
 * The Election of 1836
 * First election with Whig involvement
 * An unusual strategy
 * The Whig’s adopted a strategy in which 3 candidates from 3 different regions were nominated in hopes that the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives
 * fail, Martin Van Buren (D) wins
 * William Henry Harrison
 * War hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe
 * Election of 1840
 * Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!
 * John Tyler was Harrison’s running mate
 * The “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Campaign
 * The Whigs were in a strong position to win due to disillusionment with Van Buren’s presidency
 * Harrison’s “humble” lifestyle constituted the Whig campaign; Van Buren was pictured as living in luxury at the public’s expense.
 * “Van Ruin”
 * Death of the Whig Party
 * The Election of 1852
 * the Virginian takes a national view, rather than a Southern view
 * General Winfield Scott is nominated
 * angers southerners, many switch to Democratic Party, allowing Franklin Pierce to win the election
 * Other Causes
 * Unanimous vote of northern Whigs in Congress against the Kansas-Nebraska bill
 * never able to recover influence in south
 * __Martin Van Buren[[image:Martin_Van_Buren.jpg align="left" link="http://members.tripod.com/%7ECARIART/Martin_Van_Buren.jpg"]]__
 * Election of 1836
 * Jackson persuaded Democrats to nominate Martin Van Buren
 * Secretary of State, then VP for Jackson, known for practical politics
 * Whigs nominated 3 candidates from 3 different regions (hoped to bring election into House of Representatives)
 * William Henry Harrison (West)
 * Daniel Webster (New England)
 * Hugh Lawson White (South)
 * Van Buren received support from all regions (58% electoral vote), while the Whigs were badly split
 * Trail of Tears
 * Cherokee nation’s migration from Georgia to Oklahoma after having to give up their land east of the Mississippi
 * 15,000 moved, 4000 died
 * forcibly removed by US Army because of their refusal to a settlement in 1835 which opened land from their territory to the whites
 * result of Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830 in order to give whites more land
 * Bureau of Indian Affairs created in 1836 to assist relocation
 * previous ruling of Worcester v. Georgia (1832) where it was declared that the Cherokees were not subjugated to Georgia state laws
 * Panic of 1837
 * financial panic as banks began closing that led to an economic depression until 1843
 * one cause: Jackson’s opposition to re-chartering of the national bank
 * banknotes’ face value much more than value of specie
 * Whigs blamed the Democrats b/c of their laissez-fair policy which called for little gov’t involvement in the economy