Andrew Jackson’s Presidency Nullification Conflict and the National Bank

Nullification Conflict 1816: Congress passed a protective tariff. 1824: An even larger tariff was passed. This bothered the South, because they relied on exporting crops to European countries. They feared a similar tariff could be placed on them by Europe. Also, they felt that the tariff was giving Northern manufacturers the ability to raise their prices simply to increase profits, not for protection. 1828: An even higher tariff was passed. Southern states were mad because they were unable to stop the passage of this tariff since the West had sided with the North. Southerners called this the TARIFF OF ABOMINATIONS

The Southern states were led by South Carolina. John Calhoun, the Vice President of the US, had secretly written a pamphlet called the “South Carolina Exposition.” This said that the southern states should declare the tariffs unconstitutional and therefore “nullify” the tariff in their states. This idea came from the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions that had been written in opposition to the Sedition Acts. This led to the “Webster-Hayne Debate in the Senate.

President Jackson said that the tariff would be enforced. In 1832, Congress passed another even higher tariff! This is the last straw for the South South Carolina passed the “Ordinance of Nullification,” which said that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void. They also said that if the US government tried to collect the tariff in SC after Feb. 1, 1833, the state of SC would secede. Vice President Calhoun resigned and delivered this message to Congress.

Jackson replied that he would “crush SC” and any other state that tried to join them. To avoid bloodshed, Henry Clay got Congress to pass the Compromise of This gradually lowered the tariff rates back to the 1816 level.

National Bank Controversy Jackson opposed the Bank of the United States. He felt it was controlled by a group of wealthy Easterners who were using it to become even wealthier. Jackson also claims the bank is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court disagreed in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland. Many farmers and common people were on Jackson’s side, because they didn’t like the bank’s lending policies.

Jackson decided to make the National Bank the major issue in the Presidential election of He tells the people to vote for Clay (Republican) if they want to keep the bank and vote for Jackson (Democrat) if they want to get rid of the bank. When Jackson won the election, he killed the Bank of the US by taking all the government’s money out of the bank. He placed the government’s money in a number of state banks. These were nicknamed “pet banks.”