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Unit 4
An Era of Expansion
Chapter 12: The Jackson Era
I. Champion of the People
A. A Disputed Election- There were four candidates for President in 1824. Each had
support in different parts of the country.
1. John Quincy Adams came from a famous New England family, the son of Abigail
and John Adams.
a) He was a talented diplomat.
b) He served as Secretary of State under President Monroe.
c) People admired Adams for his intelligence and high morals.
d) Yet to many, he seemed hard and cold.
2. Henry Clay, by contrast, was charming.
a) Speaker of the House of Representatives.
b) In Congress, Clay proved to be a skillful negotiator.
c) Despite his abilities, Clay was less popular than the other candidate from
the West, Andrew Jackson.
3. To most Americans, Andrew Jackson was the "Hero of New Orleans." They also
saw him as a man of the people.
a) Although Jackson owned land and slaves, he had started life poor.
4. William Crawford was favored in the South but he became too ill to campaign.
5. The "corrupt bargain." In the election, Jackson won a majority of the popular
vote, but no candidate won a majority of electoral votes. As a result, the House of
Representatives had to choose the President from among the top three candidates.
a) Clay, who finished fourth, was out of the running. As
Speaker of the House, though, he could influence the results.
b) Clay urged his supporters in the House to vote for Adams.
c) After Adams won, he made Clay his Secretary of State.
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B. An Unpopular President
1. Adams knew that the election had angered many Americans. To "bring the whole
people together," he pushed for a program of internal improvements. His plan
backfired, however, and opposition to him grew.
2. Promoting Economic Growth - Like Alexander Hamilton, Adams thought that
the federal government should promote economic growth.
a) He wanted the government to pay for new roads and canals.
b) These internal improvements would help farmers to transport goods to
market.
c) He suggested building a national university and an observatory for
astronomers.
d) He also backed projects to promote farming, manufacturing, science, and
the arts.
3. As Adams discovered, most Americans objected to spending money on such
programs. In part, they feared that the federal government would become too
powerful.
a) In the end, Congress approved money for a national road and some canals.
It turned down most of Adams's other programs.
4. A Bitter Campaign.
a) 1828 - Andrew Jackson was Adams' only opponent.
b) Jackson supporters attacked Adams as an aristocrat, or member of the
upper class.
c) Adams’ supporters replied with similar attacks. They dubbed Jackson a
"military chieftain." If Jackson were to be elected, they warned, he could
become a dictator like Napoleon Bonaparte.
5. Jackson won the election easily. His supporters cheered this victory for the
common people.
a) By common people, they meant farmers in the West and South and urban
workers in the East.
C. New Views of Democracy
1. During the 1820s, the United States was growing rapidly.
a) New states had been admitted -number of voters increased.
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b) Many new voters lived in the western states between the Appalachians
and the Mississippi. Frontier life encouraged a democratic spirit.
c) In the western states, any white man over age 21 could vote.
d) Eastern states - reformers fought to end the requirement that voters
own land. By the 1830s, they succeeded. Except for Rhode Island, every
eastern state extended suffrage, or the right to vote, to all white men.
2. Despite these reforms, large numbers of Americans did not have the right to
vote.
a) They included women, Native Americans, and most African Americans.
Slaves had no political rights.
b) While more white men were winning suffrage, free African Americans
were losing this right. Most northern states had allowed free African
Americans to vote in the early 1800s. By 1830, only a few New England
states allowed African Americans to vote.
D. New Political Practices - In the 1830s, new political parties grew out of the conflict
between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.
1. Two New Parties.
a) People who supported Adams and his programs for national growth called
themselves National Republicans. (1834- they became known as Whigs)
b) Whigs included most eastern business people, some southern planters, and
former Federalists.
c) Jackson and his supporters called themselves Democrats. Democrats
included frontier farmers as well as factory workers in the East.
2. New ways to choose candidates- In the past, powerful members of each party
held a caucus, or private meeting. There, they chose their candidate. Critics called
the caucus system undemocratic because so few people took part in it.
a) In the 1830s, both parties began to hold nominating conventions.
b) Delegates from the states chose the party's candidate for President.
c) Gave people a more direct voice in choosing future leaders.
3. As parties took shape, a new figure emerged-the professional politician. These
people organized campaigns and worked to get out the vote.
4. The spirit of democracy affected American attitudes toward one another.
a) Americans no longer felt that the rich deserved special respect.
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II. Jackson in the White House
A. Tough as Hickory
1. Andrew Jackson's inauguration in 1829 reflected this spirit of equality.
a) For the first time, thousands of ordinary people flooded the capital to
watch the President take the oath of office.
"It was a proud day for the people. General Jackson is their
own President."
2. Jackson showed his toughness during the American Revolution. At age 13, he
joined the Patriots but was captured by the British.
a) When a British officer ordered the young prisoner to clean his boots,
Jackson refused.
b) The officer slashed the boy's hand and face with a sword. Jackson bore
the scars of that attack all his life.
3. A Self-Made Man - As a young man, Jackson studied law in North Carolina.
a) Later, he moved to Tennessee, where he set up a law practice. b) He
became wealthy by buying and selling land.
c) While still in his twenties, he was elected to Congress.
d) Jackson won national fame during the War of 1812.
4. Jackson's nicknames told something about his character.
a) The Creeks called him Sharp Knife.
b) His own men gave him another name-old Hickory- he was hard and tough
as the wood of a hickory tree.
B. The Spoils System
1. After taking office, Jackson fired many federal employees. He replaced them
with his own supporters. Although most other Presidents had done the same,
Jackson did it on a larger scale.
a) Critics complained that Jackson was rewarding Democrats who had
helped elect him. He was not choosing qualified and experienced men,
they said.
b) Jackson replied that he was fulfilling a goal of democracy by letting more
citizens take part in government.
c) He felt that ordinary Americans could fill government jobs.
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2. A Jackson supporter explained the system another way.
"To the victor belong the spoils"
a) Spoils are profits or benefits.
b) From then on, the practice of rewarding supporters with government jobs
became known as the spoils system.
3. Jackson rewarded some supporters with Cabinet jobs. Only Secretary of State
Martin Van Buren was truly qualified for his position.
a) Jackson seldom met with his official Cabinet. Instead, he relied on advice
from Democratic leaders and newspaper editors.
b) Because Jackson met with them in the White House kitchen, the group
became known as the kitchen cabinet.
C. The Bank War - President Jackson waged war on the Bank of the United States. He
thought that it was too powerful.
1. The Bank had great power because it controlled loans made by state banks.
a) When the Bank's directors thought that state banks were making too
many loans, they limited the amount these banks could lend.
b) The cutbacks angered farmers and merchants who borrowed money to buy
land or finance new businesses.
2. Jackson and other Democrats saw the Bank as undemocratic.
a) Although Congress had created the Bank, it was run by private bankers.
b) Jackson especially disliked Nicholas Biddle, president of the Bank since
1823.
c) He came from a wealthy Philadelphia family.
d) He was well qualified to run the bank but Jackson believed that Biddle
used the Bank to benefit only the rich.
e) He also resented Biddle's influence over certain members of Congress.
3. Biddle and other Whigs worried that the President might try to destroy the
Bank. Two Whig senators, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, thought of a way to
save the Bank and defeat Jackson at the same time.
a) The Bank's charter was not due for renewal by Congress until 1836. But
Clay and Webster wanted to make the Bank an issue in the 1832 election.
They convinced Biddle to apply for renewal early.
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b) The Whigs believed that most Americans supported the Bank. If Jackson
vetoed the bill to renew the charter, they felt sure that he would anger
voters and lose the election.
c) Clay pushed the charter renewal bill through Congress in 1832.
4. In an angry message to Congress, Jackson vetoed the Bank bill.
Jackson gave two reasons for his veto.
a) First, he declared the Bank unconstitutional, even though the Supreme
Court had ruled in the Bank's favor. Jackson believed that only states, not
the federal government, had the right to charter banks.
b) Second, Jackson felt that the Bank was a monster that helped the rich at
the expense of the common people.
5. As planned, the Whigs made the Bank a major issue in the election of 1832.
a) They chose Henry Clay to run against Andrew Jackson.
b) Jackson won a stunning victory. The common people had supported
Jackson and rejected the Bank.
6. Without a new charter, the Bank would have to close in 1836. Jackson did not
want to wait.
a) He ordered Secretary of the Treasury Roger Taney to stop putting
government money in the Bank.
b) Instead Taney deposited federal money in state banks.
c) They became known as pet banks because Taney and his friends
controlled many of them.
d) The loss of federal money crippled the Bank of the United States.
e) Its closing in 1836 would contribute to an economic crisis.
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III. A Strong President
A. The Tariff of Abominations - In 1828, Congress passed the highest tariff in the
nation's history.
1. The new law benefited northern manufacturers by protecting them from foreign
competition.
a) Southern planters, were hurt by the tariff.
b) An abomination is something that is hated.
2. Vice President John C. Calhoun led the South's fight against the tariff.
a) He claimed that states had the right to nullify, or cancel, a federal law
that it considered unconstitutional.
b) The idea of a state declaring a federal law illegal is called nullification.
c) Calhoun raised a serious issue. Did states have the right to limit the power
of the federal government?
3. Daniel Webster disagreed.
a) If states had the right to nullify federal laws, the nation would fall apart.
B. The Vice President Resigns
1. Calhoun and other southerners expected Jackson to support their view. After
all, Jackson had been born in the South and had lived in the West.
a) Jackson thought preserving the Union was more important.
b) Because Calhoun disagreed with Jackson, he resigned from the office of
Vice President.
c) He was then elected senator from South Carolina.
d) Martin Van Buren became Jackson's Vice President in 1833.
C. Challenge From South Carolina
1. As anger against the tariff grew in the South, Congress took action. In 1832, it
passed a new tariff that lowered the rate slightly.
a) South Carolina was not satisfied. It passed the Nullification Act,
declaring the new tariff illegal.
b) It also threatened to secede, or withdraw, from the Union if challenged.
2. Jackson supported a compromise tariff proposed by Henry Clay.
a) The bill would lower tariffs.
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b) Jackson asked Congress to pass the Force Bill. It allowed him to use the
army, if necessary, to enforce the tariff in South Carolina.
c) Calhoun gave in and agreed to Clay's compromise tariff.
d) South Carolina repealed the Nullification Act.
3. The Nullification Crisis passed. However, sectional tensions between the North
and South would increase.
D. New Threats to Native Americans
1. Indian nations in the Southeast. By the 1820s, only about 125,000 Indians still
lived east of the Mississippi. Many belonged to the Creek, Chickasaw, Cherokee,
Choctaw, and Seminole nations.
a) The Indians wanted to live in peace with their white neighbors. Their
land, however, was ideal for growing cotton.
b) To the land hungry settlers, the Indians stood in the way of progress.
2. Jackson sided with the white settlers.
a) At his urging, the government set aside lands beyond the Mississippi and
then persuaded or forced Indians to move there.
b) Jackson believed that, such a policy would open up land to white settlers.
It would also protect Native Americans from destruction.
3. The Cherokee Nation. Few Indians wanted to move. Some, like the Cherokee
nation, had adapted to the customs of white settlers.
a) The Cherokees lived in farming villages.
b) They had a constitution that set up a republican form of government.
c) Sequoyah, a Cherokee, created a written alphabet for his people. Using
Sequoyah's letters, Cherokee children learned to read and write.
d) The Cherokees used their alphabet to publish a newspaper.
4. A legal battle. In 1828, Georgia claimed the right to make laws for the
Cherokee nation.
a) The Cherokees went to court to defend their rights. They pointed to
their treaties with the federal government that protected their rights and
property.
b) Led by Chief Justice John Marshall, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of
the Cherokees. It declared Georgia's action unconstitutional.
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5. Jackson stepped in. In the Nullification Crisis, he defended the power of the
federal government. In this case, he backed states' rights.
a) Georgia had the right to extend its authority over Cherokee lands, he
said.
c) The President refused to enforce the Court's decision.
E. A Tragic March
1. In 1830, Jackson supporters in congress pushed through the Indian Removal
Act.
a) Under it, Native Americans were forced to sign treaties agreeing to move
west of the Mississippi.
2. The Cherokees held out longest. Then in 1838, the United States Army forced
them to leave at gunpoint.
a) The Cherokees trekked hundreds of miles into lands they had never seen
before.
b) They had little food or shelter.
c) Thousands perished during the march, mostly children and the elderly. In
all, about one fourth of the Indians died.
d) The Cherokees' long, sorrowful journey west became known as the Trail
of Tears.
3. The Seminoles Resist. Led by Chief Osceola, they fought the United States
Army.
a) The Seminole War lasted from 1835 to 1842.
b) It was the costliest war waged by the government to gain Indian lands.
c) The Seminoles were defeated. BY 1844, only a few thousand Native
Americans remained east of the Mississippi River.
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IV. Jackson's Successors- A weary Andrew Jackson retired from office after two terms.
Americans then sent Martin Van Buren, Jackson's friend and Vice President, to the White
House.
A. An Economic Crisis
1. Martin Van Buren was very different from Jackson.
a) He was a politician, not a war hero.
b) Two months after taking office, he faced the worst economic crisis the
nation had known. It was called the Panic of 1837.
2. The panic had several causes. During the 1830s, the government sold millions of
acres of public land in the West. Farmers bought some land, but speculators
bought even more.
a) To pay for the land, speculators borrowed money from state banks,
especially western banks. After the Bank of the United States closed, state
banks could lend money without limit.
b) To meet the demand for loans, state banks printed more and more paper
money. Often, the paper money was not backed by gold or silver. Paper
money had value only if people had trust in the banks that issued it.
3. Before leaving office, Jackson had become alarmed at the wild speculation in
land.
a) He ordered that anyone buying public land had to pay for it with gold or
silver.
b) Speculators and others rushed to state banks to exchange their paper
money for gold and silver.
c) Many banks did not have enough gold and silver and had to close.
4 .The panic spread. More and more people hurried to banks to trade in their paper
money.
a) Hundreds of banks failed, leaving depositors empty-handed.
b) The panic worsened when cotton prices went down because of an
oversupply.
c) With cotton prices low, planters could not repay the loans.
d) As a result, more banks failed. Business slowed, and the nation plunged
into a deep economic depression.
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B. Tough Times
1. In the worst days of the depression, 90 percent of the nation's factories were
closed.
a) Thousands of people were out of work.
b) The panic was not Van Buren's fault, but he was blamed for it.
c) He took little action.
d) Van Buren did try to set up a more stable banking system, but with limited
success.
e) He also cut back on expenses at the White House
f) As the depression dragged on, support for the President fell. Even so, the
Democrats chose Van Buren to run for reelection.
2. The Hero of Tippecanoe. in 1840, the Whigs saw a chance to win the White
House. Learning from the Democrats, they chose a candidate who would appeal to
the common people. He was William Henry
Harrison of Ohio.
a) Harrison was known as the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe.
b) To run for Vice President, the Whigs chose John Tyler.
C. The Log Cabin Campaign
1. Harrison's campaign reflected a new sort of politics that was emerging.
a) Politicians made speeches, and candidates campaigned at rallies and
banquets. Political parties competed for votes by offering exciting
entertainment.
b) Most Americans knew little about William Henry Harrison's stand on the
issues. To appeal to voters, the Whigs focused on his war record.
"Tippecanoe and Tyler too"
2. They also created an image for Harrison as a "man of the people."
a) They presented him as a humble Ohio farmer who had been born in a log
cabin. In fact, Harrison was a wealthy, educated man from Virginia whose
family had owned a large estate.
b) Still, the Whigs made the log cabin their campaign symbol.
3. The Whigs also attacked Van Buren.
a)They blamed "Martin Van Ruin" for the economic depression. "
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b) Both parties used mudslinging, or the use of insults, half-truths, and lies.
A Whig newspaper falsely reported that Van Buren spent "thousands of the
people's dollars" to install a bathtub in the White House.
4. Harrison campaigned across the land, making speeches and greeting voters.
a) Along the campaign trail, Whigs built log cabins to use as their
headquarters.
b) Enterprising merchants sold campaign souvenirs. They offered badges,
handkerchiefs, and even containers of shaving cream with the Tippecanoe
slogan. A popular item was a bottle shaped like a log cabin.
c) Although women could not vote, they campaigned for Harrison.
5. The Democrats responded to Whig attacks with their own name-calling.
a) They accused "General Mum" of not speaking out on the issues.
6. Harrison won the election easily, forcing the Democrats out of the White House
for the first time in 12 years.
D. Whigs in the White House
1. The Whigs had a clear-cut program.
a) They wanted to create a new Bank of the United States and improve
roads and canals.
b) Also, they wanted a high tariff.
2. Just weeks after taking office, President Harrison died of pneumonia.
a) John Tyler became the first Vice President to succeed a President who
died in office.
b) He had once been a Democrat and Opposed the Whig plan to develop the
economy. When the Whigs in Congress passed a bill to recharter the Bank of
the United States, Tyler vetoed it.
c) In response, Tyler's entire Cabinet resigned, except for Daniel Webster.
d) The Whigs then threw Tyler out of their party.
b) Tyler could do little during his term in office.
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