They also claimed that the people he put into office had no qualifications. Jackson shot back saying, "To the victor belong the spoils. Jackson also argued that federal jobs weren't offered on a for-life basis and that a little change is a good thing in a government.
Being the old military man, loyalty was everything. Jackson was loyal to the people who helped get him elected, and he wanted people underneath him that were loyal to him. Despite the criticism, only one fifth of the federal employees were replaced. Later on, presidents would make clean sweeps of the executive branch.
Corruption also slid into the government. Some of the men were less-than-honorable yet were given jobs due to their help in the election. One Samuel Swartwout was put in charge of the customs duties at the port of New York. It nearly brought America to civil war before being worked out by compromise.
Congress had raised the tariff significantly in , but wool manufacturers called for an even higher tariff. Jackson and his followers hated the tariff.
They felt it was a tool of the rich to get richer by jacking up prices that the poor would have to pay. The plan backfired and sectional warfare began… New England liked the high tariff since it protected manufacturers. Daniel Webster Mass. Southerners, and Westerners, hated it because it drove up the cost of things that they purchased.
John C. Calhoun SC became the South's main spokesperson. At about the same time, the South also struggled with slave rebellions. Denmark Vesey was a free black who led a slave rebellion in Charleston, SC in It was unsuccessful, but scared the southern whites to what might happen, especially in areas with an almost white-to-black ratio like South Carolina.
Also, Britain was moving toward abolition of slaves. The South felt the pressure and began considering secession and using the tariff as the issue. Calhoun secretly wrote the " South Carolina Exposition " that took the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions to the next level. The Exposition said that the states, such as South Carolina, could nullify or declare null and void the tariff. This was a direct challenge to the federal government. Would the federal government allow states to pick-and-choose the laws they followed?
Or would all federal laws be binding? Still, the principle of nullification was under question. They got the votes and SC officially voted to nullify the federal tariff. SC even threatened secession if Washington tried to impose the tariff over the nullification vote. Andrew Jackson was not a president with whom to bluff or pick a fight. Jackson was the old fighter, dueler, and warrior.
Privately, Jackson threatened to go to SC and start hanging the leaders. With any other president this would just be tough-talk; Jackson, however, just might actually do it. Publicly, he got the military ready. Civil war hung as a real possibility. Henry Clay proposed a compromise which settled the situation. Clay's personal motives were to prevent his foe Andrew Jackson from scoring a victory. Despite debate, the compromise passed and violence was thwarted. Like a true compromise, the "winner" of the nullification crisis was unclear.
South Carolina and the states did not join behind the nullification cause like SC expected. But, South Carolina won in that, all by itself, it succeeded in driving the tariff down.
The federal government won in the sense that it got SC to abide by the tariff Ie. SC repealed its nullification law.
The Trail of Tears Westward expansion meant whites and Indians continued to bump into one another. Problems followed. Since the s, the U. These treaties were a sometimes questionably made and b often overlooked or broken. Indian—White relationships varied… There were attempts to assimilate Indians into white society, notably the Society for Progating the Gospel Among the Indians est.
Some tribes readily adopted white ways they felt beneficial. The Cherokee of Georgia settled down to become farmers; largely accepted Christianity; Sequoyah devised a Cherokee alphabet so they could write; and the tribe soon set up a government with a legislative, executive, and judicial branch. Georgia challenged and revoked the Cherokee's right to rule themselves. The Cherokee appealed to the Supreme Court which supported the Indians, 3 times. Jackson's policy on Indians was clear and simple—Indians and whites couldn't live together peacefully so the Indians were to be removed to the West.
Notably, this was the general consensus of white America at the time. Ironically, Jackson also had a sort of "soft-spot" for the Indians. He felt they needed to be rescued he'd even adopted an Indian and reassured himself that their way-of-life might be preserved out West.
Oklahoma was the appointed " Indian Territory. The military rounded up eastern tribes and drove them westward. Most infamous was the Trail of Tears where the Cherokee were forced to walk from their Georgia home to Oklahoma. The walk was miserable and fatal 4, out of the 15, died. The Bank War Andrew Jackson held the common western view of a distrust in banks. Mainly, he distrusted the B. Jackson's view was that the B.
Jacksonians felt that the rich used "hard money" to keep the common man down. The B. The farmers preferred " soft money " paper money that would lead to inflation, devalue the dollar, and make loans easier to pay off.
He, and the B. The goal was to have Andrew Jackson veto it as expected and therefore give himself a political black eye. The thought was that Jackson would be in a lose-lose situation… If he vetoed it…the North would be angry and would not vote for his re-election.
If he signed it…the South and West would be angry because he'd gone to Washington and "sold them out" to big business. Either way, he'd be in trouble come election time in Congress passed it and Jackson vetoed the B.
Jackson again appealed to the common man and urged them to "Go the whole hog. The election also brought some political firsts. All helped move America in a more democratic direction. The new things were… The emergence of a third party, the Anti-Masonic Party. The Masons or Freemasons were and still are a secret society. Due to its secret nature, questions, mystery, and a skeptical air swirled around them.
The use of national nominating conventions. This meant that the people of each party nominated their candidate, not the "big whigs" in a backroom choosing a candidate for the people. The use of a printed party platform. This was done by the Anti-Masonic Party when they printed their positions on the issues. This would become the norm for all parties. The voting was anti-climatic. Jackson was loved by the people and easily won, to 49 in the electoral vote.
Burying Biddle's Bank Jackson could've waited until and the B. So… Jackson started withdrawing money from the B. The overall result was bank chaos, and often, bank foreclosure. Ironically, the common man, whom Jackson set out to defend, often lost his farm in the bank confusion. Even though Jackson was largely at fault for the turmoil, from the common man's perspective, the B.
The Birth of the Whigs Jacksonians, officially the "Democratic-Republicans," began calling themselves simply the "Democrats. A second party also formed, the Whig Party. The Whigs were a very diverse group, but they generally… Disliked Jackson this was the main tie that bound them. Liked Henry Clay's American System, especially its internal improvements building roads, canals, etc.
By this time, the "Era of Good Feelings" was over with its one political party and America had a two-party system of politics. The Election of "King Andrew" was still very popular and he, in effect, chose his successor and the next president— Martin Van Buren as the Democratic candidate. The Whig Party was disorganized due to its infancy and hodge-podge make-up. They nominated a favorite son candidate from each section in hopes of splitting the electoral vote, preventing anyone from getting a majority and winning, and thus throwing the election into the House of Representatives like in Jackson was the people's president, a common guy himself.
Van Buren was very smart, crafty, experienced, and effective, but he lacked the "people's touch" and personality of a Jackson. Problems were brewing for Van Buren… In , in Canada, a rebellion caused turmoil along the border.
Van Buren played the neutral game between Canada and Britain which gained no friends. Anti-slavery folks in the North were upset because the idea of annexing Texas, a slave land, was being tossed around.
And worse yet for Van Buren, the economic situation was beginning to crumble. Depression Doldrums and the Independent Treasury There's an irony with Martin Van Buren: he benefited from his close tie with Jackson by being elected president, but he was hurt by Jackson as well as he a inherited Jackson's enemies and b was brought down by the economic chaos Jackson had begun.
In , an economic downturn struck called the Panic of This was the second such downtown of the s. Its causes were: Over-speculation, especially in land, but also in other get-rich-quick schemes like canals, roads, railroads, and slaves.
Over-speculation, as always, was the main cause of the recession. Andrew Jackson's bank policies and resultant chaos also aided the Panic of Jackson's " specie circular " hurt as well. This was a decree by Jackson that all debts were to be paid only in specie gold or silver but not worthless bank notes paper money.
The debtors didn't have specie and therefore went bankrupt; banks then went bankrupt as well. The failure of crops helped the Panic. All of these things "set up the dominoes" so to speak, and then… …the first domino was the failure of two major banks in England and the reverberations across the ocean. Many banks went under.
Many farmers lost their farms. The Whigs formed a plan… They proposed expanding bank credit, higher tariffs, and money for internal improvements. President Van Buren disliked wasteful government spending and halted such plans. Van Buren's response was through the " Divorce Bill " which said the government should "divorce" itself from banking altogether.
This bill set up an "independent treasury" where extra government money would be kept in vaults not in the banks. This would give the government stability independent of the whims of the banking world. The Divorce Bill went on a roller-coaster ride: it was controversial, passed, was repealed by the Whigs, then reenacted 6 years later. It did serve as a first step toward the modern Federal Reserve System. Gone to Texas Americans, especially southerners hungry for more cotton land, were eyeing Texas.
But, Texas was foreign land and therefore had to be approached with caution. Jeffersonian Restraint Jefferson pardoned those who were serving time under the Sedition Act, and in , he enacted a new naturalization law that returned the years needed for an immigrant to become a citizen from 14 to 5.
He also kicked away the excise tax, but otherwise left the Hamiltonian system intact. The new secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, reduced the national debt substantially while balancing the budget. By shrewdly absorbing the major Federalist programs, Jefferson showed that a change of regime need not be disastrous for the exiting group. Chief Justice John Marshall, a cousin of Jefferson, had served at Valley Forge during the war, and he had been impressed with the drawbacks of no central authority, and thus, he became a lifelong Federalist, committed to strengthening the power of the federal government.
Marbury v. He had been named justice of peace for D. In , Jefferson tried to impeach the tart-tongued Supreme Court justice, Samuel Chase, but when the vote got to the Senate, not enough votes were mustered, and to this day, no attempt to alter the Supreme Court has ever been tried through impeachment. Jefferson, a Reluctant Warrior Jefferson had a natural fear of a large, strong, standing military since such a military could be turned on the people. So, he reduced the militia to men, and navies were reduced a bit to peacetime footing.
The small, mobile gunboats used in the Tripolitan War fascinated Jefferson, and he spent money to build about of them these boats might be zippy and fast, but they did little against large battleships.
The years eventually showed building small ships to be a poor decision. Then, in , the Spaniards at New Orleans withdrew the right of deposit guaranteed by the Pinckney Treaty of Such deposit privileges were vital to the frontier farmers who floated their goods down the Mississippi River to its mouth to await oceangoing vessels. These farmers talked of marching to New Orleans to violently get back what they deserved, an action that would have plunged the U.
The decision to sell Louisiana was also because Napoleon needed cash to renew his war with Britain. The Louisiana Purchase was finalized on April 30, Jefferson had a dilemma, since the Constitution said nothing about purchasing foreign land, but on the other hand, this deal was simply too good to pass up!
After considering an amendment, Jefferson finally decided to go through with the deal anyway, even though nothing in the Constitution talked about land purchases. Jefferson had been a strict interpreter of the Constitution, but he was now using a loose interpretation. Federalists, normally loose interpreters, took a strict interpretation and opposed the purchase.
This was the biggest bargain in history averaging 3 cents per acre. Louisiana in the Long View The purchase created a precedent of acquisition of foreign territory through purchase. In the spring of , Jefferson sent William Clark and Meriwether Lewis to explore this new territory.
In , Burr was arrested for treason, but the necessary two witnesses were nowhere to be found. The Louisiana Purchase was also nurturing a deep sense of loyalty among the West to the federal government, and a new spirit of nationalism surged through it. A Precarious Neutrality In , Jefferson won with a margin of electoral votes to 14 for his opponent, but this happiness was nonexistent because in , Napoleon had deliberately provoked Britain into renewing its war with France.
As a result, American trade sank as England and France, unable to hurt each other England owned the sea thanks to the Battle of Trafalgar while France owned the land thanks to the Battle of Austerlitz , resorted to indirect blows.
In , London issued the Orders in Council, which closed ports under French continental control to foreign shipping, including American, unless they stopped at a British port first. Likewise, Napoleon ordered the seizure of all ships, including American, which entered British ports. Impressment illegal seizure of men and forcing them to serve on ships of American seamen also infuriated the U. In , a royal frigate the Leopard confronted the U. When the American commander refused, the U. In an incident in which England was clearly wrong, Jefferson still clung to peace.
His belief was that the only way to stay out of the war was to shut down shipping. Also, the U. The Embargo Act of late forbade the export of all goods from the United States to any foreign nation, regardless of whether they were transported in American or foreign ships.
The net result was deserted docks, rotting ships in the harbors, and Jefferson's embargo hurt the same New England merchants that it was trying to protect. The commerce of New England was harmed more than that of France and Britain. Farmers of the South and West were alarmed by the mounting piles of unexportable cotton, grain, and tobacco. Illegal trade mushroomed in , where people resorted to smuggling again. Thus, economic coercion continued from to , when war struck.
Even Jefferson himself admitted that the embargo was three times more costly than war, and he could have built a strong navy with a fraction of the money lost.
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