Download John Quincy Adams - Sunny Hills High School

The Age of Jackson
The New Democracy and
the Election of 1824
• New attitudes about
democracy led to more
people respecting the
“Common Man”.
• Being a Federalist “high brow”
was a taint by 1820.
• Politicians were catering to the
westerners and the boasting of
being “born in a log cabin.”
• The sign of true leader was
being a military commander.
Davy Crockett
• Davy Crockett was
elected to Congress
because he was a
sharpshooter and
claimed to have killed
over a hundred bears
in a year.
The New Democracy
was based on universal
white manhood
suffrage.
Increase in Political
Involvement
• The Panic of 1819 was blamed on
the eastern banking establishment.
• The south was fearful of the
Missouri Compromise.
• Both led to increased voter
interest.
• In the 1820 election the Republicans
did not bother with a nominating
caucus in Congress and Monroe ran
unopposed.
• By the 1824 the Republican Party
had begun to splinter into factions,
and the nominating caucuses were
seen to favor the wealthy and
powerful.
Various factions nominated their
favorite sons.
• “Old Republicans” of states rights
and economic protection ran
William Crawford of Georgia.
• People condemned Crawford as
being under the control of
Congress, crying “the people must
be heard!”
William
Crawford
• New England
states endorsed
John Quincy
Adams.
• John C. Calhoun
was nominated
by South
Carolina - he
dropped out to
run for vice
president.
• Those
advocating the
American
System
nominated
Henry Clay.
• Westerners and
advocates of
increased
democracy
nominated war
hero Andrew
Jackson.
Election Results
• Jackson got the highest
popular vote but failed to
get a majority of the
electoral votes.
“The Corrupt Bargain”
• The Constitution calls for the House of
Representatives to choose from among
the top three candidates if none gets a
majority in the Electoral College.
• Henry Clay (out of the running) as
Speaker of the House had enormous
influence over the contest.
• William Crawford, who had
a stroke, was too sick to be
president.
• Clay disliked Jackson - saw
him as unfit.
• Jackson was upset with Clay
over comments Clay had
made about Jackson’s forays
into Florida.
• Although Clay and Adams were
totally different personally, they
agreed politically.
• Clay met with Adams and
threw all his support behind
Adams.
John Quincy Adams
1824 - 1829
• John Quincy Adams was chosen
to be the sixth president of the
United States.
• Three days after the election
Adams announced that Henry
Clay would be his Secretary of
State.
Jackson supporters called
this a “Corrupt Bargain” and
immediately begin
organizing for the 1828
election
President John Quincy
Adams.
• Adams refused to allow
spoilsmen to take over offices
in the government.
• Advocated a strong nationalistic
program of internal
improvements – including
roads, canals and a national
university and observatory.
• Working people thought
these costs were
extravagant.
• The need to continue the
tariff upset the South.
• Adams’ wish to deal fairly
with the Cherokee Indians
upset the people of Georgia
and the westerners wanting
more land.
The Tariff of Abominations -1828
• The Tariff of 1824 raised
duties from 23 to 37% but textile manufactures
wanted it to go higher.
• Jackson supporters pushed duties
to a record high 45% in 1828
and added a tariff on wool
imports - believing New
Englanders would vote against.
• They voted for it – even a bad
tariff is better than no tariff.
Political Reversal
• Webster of New England
supported the tariff.
• John C. Calhoun of S.C. and
others from the South called it
the “Tariff of Abominations.”
Underlying the protest
against the tariff were
southern fears about
federal control over
slavery.
• Slave rebellion in 1822, led by
Denmark Vesey, had increased
fears about emancipation.
• Eli Whitney’s cotton gin and new
lands in Alabama and Mississippi
had caused a boom in cotton.
• The south’s “peculiar institution”
had become a source of southern
nationalism.
The Economic Consequences in the South
• Increases in tariffs to protect manufacturing in
the north led to higher prices everywhere.
• Higher prices in turn led to a decrease in trade –
Americans buying fewer British goods meant the
British would buy less southern cotton.
• The south saw this as unfair and discriminatory.
The South Carolina Exposition
Secretly written by John C.
Calhoun it extended the ideas of
the Virginia and Kentucky
Resolutions.
• Called for the nullification of
the tariff in S. Carolina.
•
Calhoun, still a nationalist
and Unionist, sought to
strengthen the Union by
protecting the rights of the
southern minority.
Andrew Jackson
and the
Revolution of 1828
Election of 1828
•Republicans were
split into two
camps.
1.National Republicans backed Adams
2.Democratic Republicans backed Jackson
Jackson and Reform
• Jackson ran a
campaign on the issue
of democratic reform –
“shall the people rule?”
The Campaign of 1828
involved heavy
mudslinging
•Adams was
called a pimp
and gambler.
Pimp Daddy Adams
• Jackson’s
mother was
called a
prostitute.
• Jackson was called an adulterer
and murderer.
The
Bloody
Deeds of
General
Jackson
Rachel Jackson
• Jackson’s wife was
hounded by
accusations of bigamy
all her married life and
the campaign of 1828
ruined her health.
• She died before her
husband took office –
some say she died of a
broken heart.
The
Hermitage
Outcome of the Election
• Jackson won 56% of the
popular vote - 178
electoral votes to Adams
83.
• Revolution of 1828 increased voter turnout and
universal white male suffrage
increased the level of direct
democracy.
President Andrew Jackson
• “Old Hickory”
• Personified the
New West
• Jackson was the
ultimate folk
hero and warrior.
• Indian fighter,
gambler and
dueler – he
epitomized the
western ideal.
• Jackson, nearly
sixty-two years old
on his inauguration
day, would prove to
be one of the most
popular and
powerful presidents
in American history.
• Jackson was
suspicious of a
large federal
government and
Clay’s American
System
Senator Henry Clay
• He believed in
state’s rights but
also the
supremacy of
the federal
government and
the Union.
• He strengthened
the presidency
( he used the veto
12 times) and
institutionalized
the spoils system.
• Under the New
Democracy every man was as
good as the next
– Jackson
believed in
rotation in office.
The Spoils System
• The “selling” of
positions led to
corruption and
scandal.
• Incompetents and
crooks replaced
hard working civil
servants.
"rotation in office . . . will
perpetuate our liberty."
William T. Barry
postmaster general
• Samuel
Swartwout
embezzled a
million dollars as
tax collector of
the port of New
York.
Emerging Strength of
Sectionalism
Cabinet Crises
• Jackson’s cabinet was
mediocre.
• The one real standout was
New Yorker Martin Van
Buren.
Martin Van Buren
• Van Buren, head of
the “Albany
Regency” was a real
politicians politician
– deal maker and
wire puller.
• His enemies called
him the “Little
Magician.”
The Kitchen Cabinet
• Jackson’s group of informal
advisors, the guys that
supposedly really called the
political shots, were called the
“Kitchen Cabinet” by his
political enemies.
• While Jackson was
extremely popular, he
was also one of the
unhealthiest presidents.
• By the time Jackson
reached the White
House, he was worn
down from
tuberculosis, bullet
wounds and dysentery.
Martin Van Buren
John C Calhoun
• A scramble for the position of successor
between Secretary of State Martin Van
Buren and Vice President John C.
Calhoun ensued.
• Jackson’s cabinet was
wrecked in 1831 by this
rivalry and as a result of the
“Eaton Malaria.”
The Eaton Scandal
• Secretary of War
John Eaton married a
local Washington girl
named Peggy O’Neal
- innkeepers daughter
linked by rumor to
scandalous behavior
with the inn’s male
boarders.
Secretary of War
John Eaton
• John Calhoun’s
wife and other
Washington
socialites shunned
and ridiculed Mrs.
Eaton.
Floride Bonneau Colhoun
• Jackson and Van
Buren supported
Mrs. Eaton.
Old Kinderhook Tavern
Van Buren’s Birthplace
Peggy O’Neal Cigar Box
John Eaton
Andrew Jackson in a letter
concerning John Eaton’s duel.
• “Charge your friend to preserve his fire
until he shoots his antagonist through the
brain, for if he fires and does not kill his
antagonist, he leaves himself fully in his
power. … The attack upon Major Eaton,
was in the first place wanton . . . [his
accuser] shows a meanness and cowardice .
. . that induces me to believe that he will not
fight. It may be -- he may rather select me .
. . if my pistol fires, I kill him."
The Cabinet Dissolves
• By 1831 - Van Buren offers
to resign – he didn’t really
mean it.
• Eaton resigns first and others
in the cabinet follow.
• Calhoun’s letters regarding
Jackson’s actions in the Seminole
War came to light under
mysterious conditions leading to
further troubles between Jackson
and his vice-president.
• This leads Jackson to
choose Van Buren as his
successor.
• Calhoun eventually
resigned as vicepresident and returned to
South Carolina.
• Calhoun lost
his Nationalist
and Unionists
feelings and
became the
south’s
champion of
Nullification.
The Maysville Road Veto
• Sectionalist differences and antinationalism are clear in the veto
of the Maysville Road bill.
• Jackson vetoed Clay’s road bill
on the basis of State’s Rights.
Webster - Haynes Debate
• With New Englanders
desperate to halt western
expansion, Connecticut
Senator Samuel Foot
introduced a resolution
restricting western land sales.
• Thomas Hart
Benton of
Missouri, the
champion of
westward
expansion,charged
that the Northeast
wanted to slow
western growth.
• Robert Hayne of
South Carolina
rose to support
Benton – he
ended up
defending the
south against the
Tariff of
Abominations.
• His real goal was to debate
state’s rights versus federal
power – he praised Calhoun
and his South Carolina
Exposition.
Daniel Webster
• Daniel Webster,
of New
Hampshire, in
his first reply to
Hayne, argues
for Union and
federal power.
• Haynes and Webster
continue to argue the
nature of the Constitution.
• Webster in his second reply,
answers with “the greatest
oration” in history – he claims
that the people, not the states,
had framed the Constitution without obeying the laws the
Constitution is just a “rope of
sand.”
“Should our Union fall into pieces, which these
doctrines may cause to happen, I fear to see
"States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; ... a
land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, ... in
fraternal blood!" Let us not have "Liberty first and
Union afterwards", but "Liberty and Union, now
and for ever, one and inseparable!”
• Both sides felt they won
the debate - the Foot
Resolution was tabled.
Where did Jackson Stand?
• Jackson makes a toast at a
party - “Our Federal
Union - it must be
preserved.”
•
John C. Calhoun counters
with - “The Union - next
to our liberty, the most
dear.”
•Calhoun resigned
the vice-presidency
in 1833.
Nullification Crisis
• The Tariff of Abomination
still had the south stirred up.
• South Carolina legislature was
split between Nullifiers and
Unionist (submission men).
• Back in Washington, Congress
passed the Tariff of 1832 lowering the tariff back to 35%
- approximately the level of
1824.
• State elections in 1832
put a 2/3rds majority of
nullifiers in state
legislature – they called
for a special convention.
• South Carolina
convention declared the
tariff null and void in the
state.
• The Convention called for
military measures to uphold
the nullification and declared
their intent to secede if
Washington attempted to
collect the duties by force.
• Jackson privately swears
to go personally to
Carolina and hang the
first nullifier he could
find.
• Jackson sends federal troops
to reinforce the federal forts
in Carolina.
• Jackson makes a declaration
that “each secession destroys
the unity of a nation.”
• South Carolina, in
defiance of “King
Andrew,” raises a
volunteer army to repel an
“invasion.”
KING
ANDREW I
• Jackson asks Congress for
a force bill to enforce the
tariff.
• Henry Clay passes a
compromise tariff which
which reduce the tariff by 10%
over eight years.
• Congress also passes the Force
Bill.
• Carolina backs down
after voting to nullify
the force bill.
The Bank Crisis
• Jackson shared the west’s
mistrust of the “moneyed
monster,” the
monopolistic Bank of the
United States.
Nicholas Biddle and the
Second Bank of the United States
• Henry Clay, seeking the
nomination of National
Republicans in the 1832
election - schemed to have the
Senate re-charter the bank four
years early in 1832.
• Vice president Van Buren
distrusted Nicolas Biddle
the head to the BUS and
backed Jackson’s
opposition.
• Jackson vetoed the bank bill
- he declared it to be
unconstitutional (despite
McCulloch v. Maryland.).
• Jackson rode a wave of popular
sentiment against the eastern
establishment to an overwhelming
victory against Clay for reelection.
Election of 1832
Anti-Masons
• First nominating convention
was held by the Anti-Masonic
party.
• The Anti-Masons were antisecret society, anti-Jackson and
evangelical protestant.
• They adopted the first formal platforms.
Democrats
• Jackson was re-nominated by the
Democrats in a nominating
convention - made an issue of the
bank.
National Republicans
• National Republicans nominated
Henry Clay - they got funds from
the BUS.
• Henry Clay was crushed - 219 to
49 electoral votes.
Jackson attacks Biddle’s Bank
• With
overwhelming
results of the
election Jackson
felt he had a
mandate to
destroy the
bank.
• Jackson wanted to
remove the federal
treasury from the BUS his cabinet doesn’t agree.
• Jackson got his
Attorney
General Roger
B. Taney to
agree - they
drafted their
reasons.
• Jackson then shuffled his
cabinet - made Taney his
Secretary of Treasury.
• He then began
transferring federal funds
into state banks - called
Jackson’s “pet banks.”
• Biddle reacted by calling in
loans - causes “Biddle’s
Panic.”
• By 1836 these “wildcat”
bank’s currencies were
unstable.
• Jackson and the Treasury
then issued the Specie
Circular - a decree that all
public debt had to be paid
with with hard money.
• The federal government was
then able to liquidate the
national debt and began to
build a surplus from tariffs.
• A bill was passed to
distribute the excess funds to
the states – this led to
inflation, increased
speculation and a new
deficit.
Financial disaster
loomed on the
horizon.
Trail of Tears
• By the 1820s, western
population growth led
to calls for Indian
removal.
The Five Civilized Tribes
• Most of the Indian tribes still
living east of the Mississippi had
begun to assimilate into white
culture.
• Efforts were made by Christian
missionaries to disseminate the
English language and Christian
religion.
The Cherokee
• The Cherokee Indians, like the
other “civilized” tribes – the
Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and
Seminole, had become farmers
living in American style towns
and houses.
• The Cherokee had a
written alphabet
developed by Seqouyah.
• The eighty-five
characters in the
syllabary represent all the
combination of vowel
and consonant sounds
that form the Cherokee
language.
• In 1828 the Georgia legislature
claimed jurisdiction over all
Cherokee lands – the Cherokee
appealed to the Supreme Court.
• Marshall’s Court upheld the
rights of the Indian land claims
in three separate cases –
including Worchester v.
Georgia.
• Jackson refused to abide
by Marshall’s decisions.
• “John Marshall has made
his decision; now let him
enforce it.”
• Jackson proposed removing
the remaining eastern tribes
to west of the Mississippi
River.
• He felt he had to do this to
save the tribes.
• Over 100,000 Indians were
forced to move to the Indian
Territory in present day
Oklahoma.
• Thousands died of starvation
and exposure on the way.
The Trail of Tears
• The Bureau of Indian Affairs was
established in 1836 to oversee the
tribes.
Black Hawk’s War -1832
• The Sauk and Fox
Indians in Illinois
and Wisconsin tried
to resist removal.
• Black Hawk’s War of
resistance was
crushed by Federal
and militia troops.
Osceola’s War 1835 - 1842
• Seminole Indians in
Florida, led by
Osceola, escaped to
the Everglades and
refused to be
removed.
• Osceola was eventually captured
under a flag of truce and hanged.
• Some Seminoles continued to
hide in the everglades -- most
were removed.
• The war was the most costly
Indian war in American history.
The Lone Star Republic
• 1823 - Stephen F.
Austin negotiated a
land grant in Texas
from the Mexican
government.
• 300 American families
followed Austin into the
Brazos territory.
• They agreed to speak
Spanish and practice
Roman Catholicism.
• By 1835 - 30,000
Americans lived in Texas
-- many had GTT one
step ahead of the law.
Davy Crockett
Jim Bowie
• Jim Bowie, Sam Houston and Davy
Crockett were among the adventurers
who took up the cause of Texas liberty.
• Texans quarreled with the
local Mexican authority
over slavery, immigration
and local rights.
• Stephen Austin went to
Mexico City to plead for
leniency and was jailed
by Mexican dictator Santa
Anna.
Antonio
Lopez de
Santa
Anna
• Mexican officials
eliminated all political
rights and raised an army
to suppress all rebellion.
• 1836 - Texans declared their
independence and raised the flag of
the Lone Star Republic, with Sam
Houston in charge of the army.
The Alamo
• William Barrett Travis
stalled the 6000 man
army of General Santa
Anna for 13 days at the
Alamo -- before being
killed along with all 200
of his men.
"I am determined to sustain myself
as long as possible and die like a
soldier who never forgets what is
due to his own honor and that of his
country — VICTORY OR DEATH."
-- Lt. Colonel William Barrett Travis
February 24, 1836
The Battle for the Alamo
Remember the Alamo
• Included in the dead were Jim
Bowie and Davy Crockett.
• The Mexican army later killed 400
Texans after they had surrendered
at Goliad.
Words of a Survivor
“The soldiers, who stood at about three paces
from us, leveled their muskets at our breasts.
Even then we could hardly believe that they
meant to shoot us; for if we had, we should
assuredly have rushed forward in our
desperation, and, weaponless though we
were, some of our murderers would have met
their death at our hands.”
• Sam Houston further delayed
confrontation with Santa
Anna by retreating eastward
to the Buffalo Bayou near
present day Houston.
• April 21, 1836 -- Houston’s 900 man
army, crying “Remember the Alamo!”
and “Remember Goliad!,” attacked the
Mexican forces at San Jacinto during
their siesta.
The Battle of San Jacinto
The San Jacinto Battlefield
• The Mexican army was defeated
and Santa Anna was captured
and forced to sign treaties
recognizing the Republic of
Texas and the border of the Rio
Grande.
The Capture of Santa Anna
General
Sam
Houston
The Raven
The Lone Star Republic
Texas Seeks Statehood
• Texas petitions the U.S. to be
annexed as a new state.
• Northern abolitionists
opposed the increase in slave
territory.
• Many accused the south of
conspiracy to increase the land of
the Southern “slavocracy”
• Most Texans had come from the
South and Southwest.
• Jackson refused to
support the annexation
during the election year of
1836.
Election of 1836.
• Jackson’s followers
officially took the
name Democrats.
Anti-Jackson forces formed
the Whig party, it included
• supporters of Clay’s American
System.
• Southern State’s-Righters.
• Northern industrialists and
merchants.
• Evangelical Protestants.
• Whigs decided to run many
“favorite sons” to divide the
vote and send the election
into the House of
Representatives.
• The leading Whig
candidate was
William Henry
Harrison.
• The Democrats ran
Jackson’s handpicked successor
Martin Van Buren.
• The popular vote was close
but the electoral count was
170 to 73 in favor of Van
Buren.
Jackson
photographed by
Matthew Brady -two months
before Jackson’s
death in 1845.
President Van Buren
• Major statesman and
diplomat.
• Experienced
politician and
“spoilsman”
• Above average
intelligence and
training.
• He had a hard time filling the shoes
of Andrew Jackson.
• He also inherited the many
enemies and problems of Jackson.
Panic of 1837
• Causes:
• Over-speculation
• Jackson’s Bank War and
Specie Circular.
• Failure of the wheat crop, led
to high grain prices.
• Bank failure in Europe.
• Effects:
• Bank failures in the U.S. including “pet banks”
• Prices fell, businesses failed,
unemployment rose.
• Whigs proposed active
government involvement to end
the panic.
• Van Buren followed Jackson’s
ideal of limited federal
involvement.
• Van Buren suggested a “Divorce
Bill” creating an independent
Treasury system - taking federal
money out of the economy.
• The Independent Treasury
Bill was passed in 1840 but
was repealed by the Whigs
after one year, then revived
in 1846.
Election of 1840
• Democrats renominate the
incumbent Van Buren
despite the taint of
economic recession.
Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too
• Whigs return to “Old
Tippecanoe” - William
Henry Harrison and
chose as his running
mate John Tyler of
Virginia.
• Whigs publish no platform and run
Harrison as a backwoods hero born in a log cabin and raised on
hard cider.
• Harrison was from the FFV’s, his
father signed the Declaration of
Independence, and he owned one
of the largest estates in the west.
• Van Buren was portrayed as an
eastern aristocrat and intellectual out of touch with the common
man.
• The popular vote was close but the
electoral count was 234 to 60 in
favor of Harrison.
• The vote reflected a protest against
the recession and the impact of
political hoopla over solid debate.
• The Jacksonian era gave rise to the
American two-party system, both
of which at the time were catch-all
groups with diverse interests.