The Age of Jackson

1. The Age of Jackson Themes and Issues of the Jackson Presidency

2. The Rise of a Mass Democracy • 1824-1840 - Participatory Democracy on the Rise • 1824 – 25% of eligible voters cast ballots • 1840 – 78% • Why? • Issues that impacted the average voter: • Panic of 1819 / Panic of 1837 • The Bank • Slavery (Missouri Compromise 1820) • Tariffs • Universal Manhood Suffrage • States (esp. in the west) drop property qualifications for voting • Return of Party Politics • Era of Good Feelings ends…

3. George Caleb Bingham, “Stump Speaking, or the County Canvass” (1853)

4. A “corrupt bargain?” Jackson leads in EV/PV, but no majority Election thrown into the House of Reps H of Reps chooses John Q. Adams Speaker of House Henry Clay later appointed Sec. of State by JQA Election of 1824

5. Parties form in the wake of the Election of 1824 National Republicans Democratic-Republicans (Democrats) Democratics pledge to restore democracy Jackson campaigns as the champion of the “common man” Western; rough hewn “Old Hickory Election of 1828

6. “Old Hickory as President” • First “western” President • Not college educated • An orphan who had achieved success through natural intelligence • War hero – Horseshoe Bend; Battle of New Orleans • Plays himself off as the “common man”, but is a frontier aristocrat who lives in a mansion, owns slaves, etc. • Reflects upward mobility (rises from the masses) • Spoils System (aka, Rotation in Office; Patronage) • Rewards party members with jobs: “To the victor goes the spoils…” • AJ calls it “rotation in office” – bring in the average man; no one has a “right” to a gov’t job • Democratizes the beaurocracy • Abused by urban political machines in NY and Philly as a means of buying loyalty / votes

7. Major Events of the Jackson Presidency • The Nullification Controversy • Tariff of 1828 (Tariff of Abominations) – 50% • Real fears of southerners: • Growing power of national gov’t over states • Decline of southern dominance • Dependency on slave labor • 1798 – Hatian Revolt • 1800 – Prosser Plot • 1822 – Vesey Plot • South Carolina Protest and Exposition (1828) • John C. Calhoun • Compact theory and nullification • Tariff of 1832 • Nullies in S.C. • Response of AJ • Force Bill / “Bloody Bill” • Henry Clay’s compromise bill – Tariff of 1833

8. Bank Controversy • Jacksonian view of the BUS • Symbolized eastern power and wealth • Blamed for Panic of 1819 • An agent of the wealthy • Receives federal deposits (taxpayers money) • Bank stockholders (wealthy) earn interest from these deposits • A threat to democracy • Unelected; unaccountable; tremendous impact on economy & people’s lives • Foreign influence • Corrupt • Loans given to Congressmen and press at low rates

9. BUS recharted in 1816 for 20 years Henry Clay and Daniel Webster want the Bank to be an issue in the ’32 election Jackson vetoes the recharter measure The Bank War

10. Veto Message … the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society the farmers, mechanics, and laborers who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles.