Download The Age of Jackson

The Age of Jackson
President Andrew
Jackson defined a
period of American
history.
Path to the Presidency
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Served in the army during the Revolutionary
War
Practiced law in Tennessee, became a
successful land speculator, and served in a
variety of government offices, including the
House of Representatives and the Senate
Served in the War of 1812, nicknamed “Old
Hickory”
Became nationally famous as the “Hero of
New Orleans”
Path to the Presidency
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In 1824 he ran for president and won the
popular vote, but not a majority of the electoral
votes.
John Quincy Adams won the House of
Representatives’ vote and became president in
the “corrupt bargain” with Clay
Jackson and his supporters remade the old
Democratic-Republican Party into the
Democratic Party.
Path to the Presidency
Quincy Adams and his supporters became the
National Republicans.
 Jackson was a popular war hero—“a man of
the people.”
Important Changes in Voting:
 In the 1820s voting restrictions in many
states—such as the requirement for property
ownership—were being lifted, allowing poor
men to become voters.
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Election Day
See the painting --
“Jacksonian Democracy”
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Jackson won the support of ordinary, hardworking
Americans
Politicians and campaigns would increasingly attempt
to appeal to all the people, not just small elites
Such political power exercised by ordinary
Americans became known as Jacksonian
Democracy.
Spoils system: rewarding supporters by giving them
positions in the government.
King Mob
Vermont Voter’s Oath
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“You solemnly swear (or affirm) that
whenever you give your vote or suffrage,
touching any matter that concerns the State of
Vermont, you will do it so as in your
conscience you shall judge will most conduce
to the best good of the same, as established by
the Constitution, without fear or favor of any
person”
The spoils system
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“rotation in office” of government officials and
employees
take government out of a small governing class
At its worst, this new system amounted to
rewarding party members with jobs
In fact, the idea was not really new nor did it
lead to much corruption
The Indian Removal Act
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Five major Native American groups lived in the
southeastern United States: the Cherokee, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek.
White Americans called them the “five civilized
tribes” because many of them had adopted aspects of
European and American culture.
Many white Americans viewed them as inferior.
Farmland was becoming scarce in the East, and white
settlers coveted the Indians’ lands
The Indian Removal Act
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Indian Removal Act (1830): called for the
relocation of the five nations to an area west of
the Mississippi River called Indian Territory,
now present-day Oklahoma.
The U.S. Army marched the Choctaw, the
Creek, and the Chickasaw west, hundreds of
miles, to Indian Territory.
Many died on the long trek due to exposure,
malnutrition, and disease.
The Trail of Tears
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Worcester v. Georgia (1832): The Supreme Court
ruled against Georgia, denying it the right to take
Cherokee lands.
To get around the Court’s ruling, government
officials signed a treaty with Cherokee leaders who
favored relocation.
The Cherokee were herded by the U.S. Army on a
long and deadly march west.
Of the 18,000 Cherokee forced to leave their homes,
about 4,500 died on the march, which became known
as the Trail of Tears.
The Second National Bank
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The Second Bank of the United States accepted
deposits from the US government
Established in 1816 and given a 20-year charter
Opponents (including Jackson) thought that the
Constitution did not give Congress the authority to
create the bank.
Opponents recognized that state banks were more
inclined to make loans to poorer farmers in the South
and West—the very people who supported Jackson.
Jackson destroys the Second National
Bank
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By contrast, they viewed the bank as an
institution devoted to the interests of wealthy
northern corporations
In 1832, Jackson vetoed the bill to
extend the Bank’s charter
 In 1833, Jackson issued an executive
order ending deposits of US funds
into the bank
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Election of 1832
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Jackson easily defeated Clay, the
National Republican candidate
The Whig Party was formed by Daniel
Webster and Henry Clay as a result of the
conflict over the bank – became the chief
political rival to the Democratic party
until the Civil War