1. Chapter 10 The Jacksonian Era, 1828-1840

2. James Madison This 1783 miniature shows Madison at thirty​­two years old, just four years before he would assume a major role in drafting the Constitution.

3. The presidential “race” of 1824 John Quincy Adams, William Crawford, and Andrew Jackson stride to the finish line (on the left) as Henry Clay lags behind (far right).

4. Jackson and the Nation He Inherited Appointments and Rivalries
Jacksonian Democracy
Jackson and the Nation He Inherited
Appointments and Rivalries
When Jackson was inaugurated, the country was growing at a rapid rate. Land was being purchased and cultivated, and farmers were going into debt to afford it. The United States now had twenty-four states and almost 13 million people. Now Americans would see the market-based economy emerge from the traditional economy of subsistence farming.
Jackson had made a name for himself in the defeat of the British at the Battle of New Orleans. His fame had increased during the Seminole wars as well. The 1824 election, in which he had won a majority of the popular vote but lost the election, put him in the spotlight and made him a candidate for the “common folk.”
Jackson believed that it was best to have politicians serve in every branch of office, instead of career bureaucrats. That way, when the new administration was elected, those appointed in the previous term would return to their previous occupation. Although this was his plan, he would only replace 20 percent of the entire bureaucracy during his terms in office.

5. Andrew Jackson

6. All Creation Going to the White House
In this depiction of Jackson’s inauguration as president, satirist Robert Cruikshank draws a visual parallel to Noah’s Ark, suggesting that people of all walks of life were now welcome in the White House.

7. Jackson’s Indian Policy
Indian Removal
The Trail of Tears
As the population of the United States continued to expand and grow, Native Americans continued to find themselves pushed from one area to another while treaties forbidding such actions were dismissed. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which swapped land that the Indians were currently inhabiting for federal land west of the Mississippi. At this point very few tribes were able to resist.
The Cherokees of Georgia were required to move out west. When they initially resisted on grounds of a treaty with the United States that declared them an independent nation, they did so through legal means. The Supreme Court sided with the Cherokees, but Jackson took no steps to enforce the ruling. The Cherokees would lose 9,000 members of the tribe over their 800-mile walk to the new land.

8. Indian Removal, 1820–1840
Why did Congress exile the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Seminoles, and Cherokees to territory west of Arkansas and Missouri? How far did the tribes have to travel, and what were the conditions on the journey? Why were the Indians not forced to move before the 1830s?

9. Elias Boudinot Cherokees Divided
Elias Boudinot (Gallegina Watie), editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, signed the Indian removal treaty in 1835 and was subsequently murdered.

10. The Trail of Tears
Thousands of Cherokee Indians died on a nightmarish march from Georgia to Oklahoma after being forced from their native lands.

11. Rechartering the Bank
President Andrew Jackson battling the “Hydra-headed” Bank of the United States.

12. The Bank War The Bank’s Opponents The Recharter Effort
Jackson believed that the only acceptable format of money was in hard currency, not paper, which, depending on the whim of the bankers, could be made worthless. He was joined in opposing the Bank of the United States by many state and local banks, which by law were forced to control their paper currency more than they would like.
In an effort to make the recharter of the Bank of the United States an election issue, the banks’ supporters urged that it be readopted in 1832 instead of 1836, when the charter was due to expire. Jackson surprised the supporters by vetoing the bill, and Congress did not have the votes to override it.

13. The Webster-Hayne Debate The Rift with Calhoun
Nullification
Calhoun’s Theory
The Webster-Hayne Debate
The Rift with Calhoun
The South Carolina Ordinance
Calhoun’s state of South Carolina had suffered an economic malaise due, her inhabitants thought, to the protective tariff on goods imported from Europe. The approval of the Tariff of 1828 caused Calhoun to support the theory of nullification, that is, the ability of a state to declare null and void an act of Congress that it did not like.
Since the founding of the colonies, a North-South divide had existed. The Webster-Hayne debate would sharpen that edge and put the United States on the path to civil war. When the Foot Resolution was introduced to restrict federal land sales in the west, Daniel Webster and Robert Hayne engaged in a debate over the theory of nullification and the state’s right to do so.
Although both Jackson and Calhoun were slaveholders, a rift developed between the two on the issue of nullification and Calhoun resigned from the vice-presidency to take a seat in the Senate representing South Carolina.
South Carolina pressed the nullification crisis even more when it nullified the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 and refused to allow federal tax collectors to do their job in the state.

14. John C. Calhoun
During the Civil War, the Confederate government printed, but never issued, a one-cent postage stamp bearing this likeness of Calhoun.

15. South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification
The 1832 ordinance repudiated two federal tariffs designed to protect northern industries. Though armed conflict was avoided, the same tensions that led to nullification would later lead to South Carolina’s secession.

16. Webster Replying to Senator Wayne (1848)
Daniel Webster, the eloquent Massachusetts senator, stands to rebut the argument for nullification in the Webster-Hayne debate.

17. The Verdict of the People
George Caleb Bingham’s painting depicts a socially diverse electorate, suggesting the increasingly democratic politics of the mid–nineteenth century.

18. 1832 Election Campaign Innovations
The election of 1832 was the first presidential election to have a third-party candidate run for office. It was also the first national election to hold a nominating convention to choose the party’s delegates. The National Republicans chose Henry Clay and the Democrats renominated Jackson. Jackson would win a second term.

19. Response to South Carolina
Jackson’s Firm Response
Clay’s Compromise
Unwilling to accept South Carolina’s position in the crisis, Jackson proclaimed such a policy treasonous and informed the people of the rebellious state that he would ensure that the tariffs be collected.
South Carolina found itself alone against the might of the federal government. No other state had joined with the nullification plan. Henry Clay would end the crisis with a proposal to gradually reduce the tariff rates until This would give South Carolina the opportunity to escape its dilemma.

20. The Removal of Government Deposits Fiscal Measures Boom and Bust
Contentious Politics
The Removal of Government Deposits
Fiscal Measures
Boom and Bust
In his second term, Jackson further deflated the power of the Bank of the United States. He was unable to disband it outright, but he could control the funds being sent to it. Jackson halted all payments to the bank and spent the remaining funds that it had on deposit.
Without the fiscal control of the Bank of the United States, cheap money threatened to flood the market. To curtail this, the government passed a series of laws limiting transactions in certain areas to hard money only.
An economic slowdown in Great Britain in the mid-1830s would lead foreign investors to pull their gold and silver out of the American market. This in turn caused an economic panic in 1837.

21. The New Whig Party The Whig Coalition The Election of 1836
Due to what the National Republicans viewed as Jackson’s “tyrannical” actions, they changed their name to the Whigs, which was the party of the people in Great Britain.
In 1836, the Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren for the presidency and the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison. Van Buren won.

22. Andrew Jackson

23. Second Two-Party System Idea of Republican Virtue
Jackson’s Legacy
Second Two-Party System
Idea of Republican Virtue
Jackson’s time in office returned to the federal government the Jeffersonian approach of centralized government, one of as limited national intrusion as possible. Also during this time, the number of eligible voters tripled. Jackson’s election embodied the increased political power of the “the people,” however, it was limited to a “white men’s democracy.”
Jackson’s presidency also saw the emergence of a new party system of Whigs and Democrats.

24. Martin Van Buren
Van Buren earned the nickname the “Little Magician.”

25. An Independent Treasury
The Eighth President
The Panic of 1837
An Independent Treasury
By the time Van Buren came into office, the economic panic had become widespread.
To try to control the investment and expenditures of government funds, Van Buren called for the creation of an independent treasury, in which the government would control its own funds and not rely on a semiprivate bank system, akin to the Bank of the United States. The proposal would win approval, but it would be repealed the next year.

26. The “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Campaign
The 1840 Campaign
The “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Campaign
In 1840, the Whigs would once again nominate William Henry Harrison for the presidency and the Democrats would once again nominate Van Buren. In an attempt to make Harrison appear uninterested and unattached to the American people, the Democrats tried to paint him as a man willing to spend his days in a log cabin drinking hard cider. This plan backfired, making Harrison appear to be a man of the people, and he won the election.

27. William H. Harrison

28. The Election of 1840
Why did Van Buren carry several western states but few others? How did the Whigs achieve a decisive electoral victory over the Democrats? How was their strategy in 1840 different from their campaign in 1836?

29. John Tyler

30. Internal Improvements
Jackson As President
The Eaton Affair
Internal Improvements
Jackson, unaccustomed to the political infighting in Washington, D.C., soon found himself entwined in a political war between his vice-president, John C. Calhoun, and secretary of state Martin Van Buren. The first battle came over the wife of Jackson’s secretary of war, John Eaton. Peggy Eaton had married John Eaton only three months after her first husband committed suicide. Calhoun’s wife refused to socialize with Mrs. Eaton due to her unsavory past. Van Buren used this rift to grow closer to Jackson.
Jackson would embark on a campaign against internal improvements that only benefited a particular state. He would continue funding interstate projects.

31. Uncle Sam’s Pet Pups! Uncle Sam’s Pet Pups!
A woodcut showing William Henry Harrison luring “Mother Bank,” Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren into a barrel of hard cider
While Jackson and Van Buren sought to destroy the Bank of the United States, Harrison promised to reestablish it, hence his providing “Mother Bank” a refuge in this scene.

32. Jacksonian Treasury Note
A parody of the often-worthless fractional notes issued by local banks and businesses in lieu of coins. These notes proliferated during the panic of 1837, with the emergency suspension of gold and silver payments. In the main scene, Martin Van Buren, a monster on a wagon driven by John C. Calhoun, is about to pass through an arch labeled “Wall Street” and “Safety Fund Banks.”