Chapter 10 Open Stax U.S. History 1

1. HIST 2111
Chapter 10: Jacksonian Democracy, 1820-1840

2. Context
• By the 1820s, many Americans embraced majority rule, and rejected
elite ideas of virtue, learning, and family lineage
• Politicians appealed to resentments, fears, and passions of ordinary
citizens to win elections
• Andrew Jackson was charismatic and known as a fighter and defender
of American expansion

3. The Decline of Federalism
• After the election of Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republicans were
more powerful
• The Federalist party gradually decline; after 1816, the Federalists never had
another presidential candidate
• Code of deference: prior to the 1820s, the practice of showing respect for
individuals who had distinguished themselves through accomplishment or
birth (a natural aristocracy)
• George Washington was known as virtuous. For ex., fictional story of the
cherry tree
• All the early presidents, except for John Adams, were members of Virginia’s
elite slaveholder aristocracy

4. Democratic Reforms
• The spirit of democratic reform – belief that all white men had the
right to participate in elections (universal manhood suffrage)
• Before the 1820s, most states only allowed white male property
owners and or taxpayers the right to vote
• States began to reduce restrictions on voting:
• The right to vote was expanded to include many more white males
• However, free African Americans could seldom vote in the North, and
women and Native Americans could not vote at all

5. Party Politics and the Election of 1824
• Martin Van Buren and New York’s “Bucktail” Republican faction: gain
political power by cultivating loyalty to the will of the majority
• For example, they opposed the Erie Canal project until it became
popular
• They revised New York’s constitution with a system of direct elections
regarding the selections of local officials
• Spoils System: the political system of rewarding friends and
supporters with political appointments
• New voters held regional interests and voted on them
• Now, a popular vote mattered in the presidential election

6. Party Politics and the Election of 1824
• The election of 1824: 5 candidates (all Democratic-
Republicans)
• William H. Crawford, John Quincy Adams, Henry
Clay, and later, Andrew Jackson (no significant
political record, but was the most popular man in
the country/military hero). Jackson was elected to
the Senate in 1823
• In the end, Jackson received more popular votes
than the others, but no candidate won enough
electoral votes to become president. So, the House
of Representatives had to elect the next president,
again:
• Jackson was Clay’s most dangerous political rival in
the West, so, Clay threw his support behind
Adams.
• Adams won and named Clay as his secretary of
state; Jacksonians were outraged and labeled this
as a “corrupt bargain”

7. The Presidency of John Quincy Adams
• Secretary of State Henry Clay championed the American System: the
program of federally sponsored roads and canals, protective tariffs, and a
national bank
• High tariffs to bolster domestic manufacturing: tariffs of 1816 and 1824
• Tariff of Abominations: a federal tariff introduced in 1828 that placed a
high duty on imported goods in order to help American manufacturers,
which southerners viewed as unfair and harmful to their region
• The South imported far more manufactured goods than the North, which
made the tariff fall most heavily on the South. It also felt that the federal
government was taking steps to hurt it. Some in the South feared that
slavery would soon be attacked.

8. The Campaign and Election of 1828
• The election of 1828 legitimized political parties: Anti-Jackson forces were
Whigs, and Jacksonians were Democrats (the oldest political party in the
nation)
• John Quincy Adams and the National Republicans vs Andrew Jackson and
the Democratic Republicans
• Adams had the support of most remaining Federalists while Jackson
appealed to a broad coalition, and was known as the common man
• The election became personal. Adams was accused of waste and
extravagance, and Jackson was called a murderer - and his wife was labeled
a bigamist (the couple assumed incorrectly that her first husband had
divorced her). After Mrs. Jackson read the accusations against her, she
collapsed and died soon after
• Jackson won the election and 56% of the popular vote

9. Scandal in the Presidency
• Revelations of widespread fraud: $300,000 was missing from the Treasury Department
• Jackson then removes almost 50% of appointed civil officers – Jackson handpicked their
replacements
• Rotation in office: replacement of officials with party loyalists, which resulted extreme corruption
• Called the ‘spoils system’
• Jackson’s good friend, John Eaton, had an alleged affair with Peggy O’Neale, and married her as
soon as her husband died. The wives of other cabinet members led by Mrs. Calhoun, refused to
accept her.
• Jackson, upset over his wife’s death (persecuted by his opponents’ gossip), demanded Mrs. Eaton
be accepted by the women. Calhoun’s wife pressured Calhoun not to accept Mrs. Eaton. The
widower and Secretary of State Martin Van Buren then became close to the shunned Eatons,
ingratiating himself to Jackson.
• Jackson names Van Buren as his preference to succeed him in the White House, ending Calhoun’s
chances.
• Jackson relies on his ‘kitchen cabinet’ – informal group of advisors, including Van Buren

10. The Nullification Crisis
• Vice President - John Calhoun of
South Carolina
• He blamed South Carolina’s economic
stagnation on the tariff of 1816
• Developed the theory of nullification:
that the federal government only
existed at the will of the states and
that a state could declare a national
law void. States were the final
authority on the constitutionality of
federal laws
• This idea received support in South
Carolina, but it did not help Calhoun.
Other southern states saw it as
extreme.

11. The Nullification Crisis
• Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina called for the slowing of growth of
the West as a way for the East to keep its political and economic power
• Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster argued that this was an attack
against the integrity of the Union and challenged the former to a debate
regarding state’s rights v. national power
• Hayne defended nullification
• Webster delivered his “Second Reply to Hayne” stating “Liberty and Union:
now and forever, one and inseparable!”
• Both men wanted Jackson’s opinion:
• Jackson gives his thoughts at the annual Democratic Party banquet in
honor of Jefferson. He stated that the Union must be preserved, while
looking directly at Calhoun

12. The Nullification Crisis
• 1832
• South Carolina was angry over a tariff bill that offered them no relief from
1828’s tariff
• The state held a convention and voted to nullify the tariff and forbade the
collection of duties within the state
• Senator Hayne was elected as governor and Calhoun replaced him in the
Senate
• Jackson argued that nullification was treason. He strengthened federal
forts and sent a warship to Charleston
• Jackson proposed a bill (the Force Bill) to authorize the president to use
military power to make sure acts of Congress were obeyed
• No other states came to South Carolina’s defense

13. The Nullification Crisis
• Senator Henry Clay averted a crisis through compromise: lower the tariff
gradually so by 1842 it would reach the same level as 1816 (the Compromise
Tariff of 1833)
• His and Jackson’s bills passed on the same day and Jackson signed both
• The South Carolina convention repealed the nullification of tariffs but it nullified
Jackson’s bill as a symbolic act
• Calhoun claimed victory because nullification had forced the tariff to be revised.
• The Nullification Crisis demonstrated the growing tensions in American
democracy: an aggrieved minority or elite, wealthy owners of enslaved peoples
taking a stand against the will of a democratic majority, an emerging sectiononal
divide between South and North over slavery; and a clash between those who
believed in free trade and those who believed in protective tariffs to encourage
the nation’s economic growth

14. The Bank War
• The Bank of the U.S. was established in 1791 but its charter expired in 1811
• Congress did not renew the charter at that time, and in 1816, created a new national bank, the
Second Bank of the United States
• Its charter was set to expire in 1836
• More than 200 banks existed and all issued paper money with no standard value
• Nicholas Biddle ran the Bank from 1823 on and had put the institution on a sound and prosperous
path
• But, many Americans, including Jackson, were determined to destroy it
• “soft-money” and “hard-money” factions
• Soft-money advocates were largely state bankers and their allies and did not like the Bank
because it restrained state banks from issuing notes freely. They believed in rapid economic
growth and speculation
• Hard-money advocates believed that the coin was the only safe currency and condemned all
banks that issued banknotes, state or federal. They embraced older ideas of ‘public virtue’ and
looked with suspicion on expansion and speculation

15. The Bank War
• Jackson supported hard-money and said that he would not renew the charter of
the Bank of the U.S. (set to expire in 1836)
• Biddle started granting favors to influential men, especially Daniel Webster (he
named Webster the Bank’s legal counsel and director of the Boston branch)
• Webster enlisted the support of Henry Clay. Clay, Webster, and others convinced
Biddle to apply to Congress for a recharter bill in 1832, 4 years before it was due
to expire
• Congress passed the recharter bill and Jackson vetoed it
• The Bank’s supporters in Congress failed to override the veto and the Bank
question emerged as the paramount issue of the 1832 election (as Clay hoped)
• Clay ran for president as the unanimous choice for the Whigs but the ‘Bank War’
did not provide him with the winning issue he thought it would
• Jackson and Van Buren won with 55% of the popular vote and 219 electoral votes

16. The Bank War
• Jackson referred to the Bank as a ‘monster’ and was determined to destroy it; he weakened it by
removing the government’s deposits from it
• His secretary of the treasury refused to do so because he believed it would destabilize the
financial system so Jackson fired him. The replacement procrastinated and was fired as well
• The 3rd secretary (Roger B. Taney, the attorney general) followed Jackson’s order
• He put the government’s deposits in a number of state banks, and, in response, Biddle called in
loans and raised interest rates, stating that without government deposits, the Bank’s resources
were stretched too thin
• This resulted in a short recession!
• Supporters of the Bank petitioned Washington to urge the recharter for the Bank
• Jacksonians blamed the recession on Biddle and refused. Biddle carried his contraction of credit
too far and had to reverse himself to appease the business community, his hopes of winning a
recharter died
• Jackson won a considerable political victory, but the country was left with a fragmented and
chronically unstable banking system that plagued the economy for many years

17. Whigs
• Those opposed to Jackson’s use of power
referred to him as ‘King Andrew’ and
called themselves Whigs
• Favored the expansion of federal power
and industrial commercial development
• Cautious about westward expansion
• Favored entrepreneurs and institutions
that promoted economic growth
• Tended to be wealthier and came from
aristocratic backgrounds
• Irish and German Catholics tended to
support Democrats
• Evangelical Protestants gravitated toward
the Whigs
• Democrats of the 1830s believed that the
power of the federal government should
be limited, except in working to eliminate
social and economic arrangements that
entrenched privilege and stifled
opportunity
• Protect the rights of states except when
they interfered with economic and social
mobility
• “Honest workers” and “simple farmers”
• Pro-territorial expansion

18. Native Americans in Popular Culture
• Popular culture displayed powerful anti-Indian sentiment
• Art emphasized their supposed ‘savage’ nature

19. The Indian Removal Act
• Jackson described Native Americans as “savage dogs” and “bloodthirsty
barbarians”
• At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, he and his men killed almost 800
Creeks (including women/children) and bridle reins were made with strips
of skin from their corpses; the tip of each Native American’s nose was
removed to count the dead (Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror, Chp 4)
• Most Americans thought that Native Americans were “savages” who
should be removed
• Tribes possessed valuable lands
• The Black Hawk War: 1832-1832, Sauk (Sac) and Fox tribes fought white
settlers. Black Hawk argued that cession of tribal lands was illegal
• American forces attacked them as they tried to surrender, pursued them,
and slaughtered many of them.

20. The Indian Removal Act
• The 5 Civilized Tribes:
• Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw in western Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, and Florida
• By 1830, both states and the federal government worked to accelerate their removal to
the West (the Indian Removal Act)
• The Cherokee tried to stop Georgia by appealing to the Supreme Court. Cherokee Nation
v. Georgia and Worchester v. Georgia supported the tribe’s contention that the state had
no authority to negotiate with tribal representatives, but Jackson repudiated the
decisions
• In 1835, the U.S. government made a treaty with a minority faction of Cherokee that
ceded to Georgia the tribe’s land in return for $5 million and a reservation west of the
Mississippi.
• The majority of 17,000 Cherokee did not recognize the treaty as legitimate
• Jackson sent 7,000 troops under General Winfield Scott to enforce their removal

21. The Indian Removal Act
• 1,000 Cherokee fled to North Carolina to a small reservation in the Smoky Mountains
• The rest were forced to make a long trek to “Indian Territory” (Oklahoma) beginning in the winter
of 1838
• Thousands died and the new reservations were harsh; the survivors referred to the journey as
“The Trial Where They Cried,” the Trail of Tears
• Virtually all the Five Civilized Tribes were forced to go between 1830-1838, with the Choctaw
being the first to go
• The army moved the Creek in 1836, the Chickasaw left in 1837, and the Cherokee the year after
• The Seminole in Florida were able to resist the move, though success was limited. Most moved
west, but some under the chieftain Osceola, staged an uprising in 1835 to defend their lands
• Runaway enslaved peoples joined them (they had been living with the tribe)
• Jackson sent troops to Florida, but the Seminole and African Americans were very skilled at
guerrilla warfare in the Everglades. In 1842, the government abandoned the war, but many of the
Seminole had been killed by then, or forced westward

22. The Indian Removal Act
• By the end of the 1830s, virtually all the important Native American
societies east of the Mississippi had been removed to the West and
the tribes had ceded over 100 million acres to the government
• They received in return about $68 million and 32 million acres in the
less-hospitable lands west of the Mississippi
• They lived divided by tribe into a series of separate reservations, in a
territory surrounded by U.S. forts
• The region’s climate and topography bore little relation to anything
they had known previously

23. Black Hawk’s War
• Some Native Americans actively resisted removal
• The Fox and the Sauk under Sauk Chief Black Hawk moved back
across the Mississippi River to reclaim their ancestral homeland in
northern Illinois
• Settlers panicked and militias and federal troops mobilized
• At the Massacre of Bad Axe, over 200 men, women, and children
were killed by the troops. Some 70 settlers and soldiers died as well

24. Tocqueville and Democracy
• Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat, spent 2 years in the U.S. observing
political changes
• The French government wanted him to study prisons in America (which were
supposed to be more humane than those in Europe)
• He wrote Democracy in America which was a study of American politics and daily
life, cultures, and visions of democracy
• He saw that new elites could rise and fall in America (regardless of background)
• Also noted that democracy had many limits (women, Native Americans, and
blacks)
• He noted that there were also dangers: the tyranny of the majority – which
overpowers the will of minorities and individuals
• His book spread the idea of democracy in France

25. The 1840 Election
• Second party system had taken hold: Democrats and Whigs
• Campaign rallies and emotional propaganda
• Differences in economic policies
• Whigs emphasize that they are the party of the common people and
so did the Democrats
• Whigs picked William Henry Harrison (had killed Tecumseh) and tried
to portray the wealthy Harrison as a man who loved log cabins and
hard cider. John Tyler ran as vice president.
• The weakened Democrats had no effective defense and Harrison won
234 electoral votes to Van Buren’s 60