JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY

• “Democratizing” Politics– Jefferson believed ordinary citizens could

be educated to determine what was right– Jackson believed they knew what was

right by instinct– new western states drew up

constitutions that eliminated property qualifications for voting and holding office

– they opened many more offices to election rather than appointment

– only in Delaware and South Carolina did legislatures continue to choose presidential electors

– this period saw final disestablishment of churches and beginning of free-school movement

– officeholders came to regard themselves as representatives and leaders, and appealed more openly and intensely for votes; this empowered the party system that exists today

• 1828: The New Party System in Embryo – Jackson believed that he had been cheated

out of the presidency in 1824, and he began campaigning for 1828 almost immediately after Adams’s selection by the House of Representatives

– in campaign of 1828, Jackson avoided taking a stand on issues

– both sides resorted to character assassination

– voters turned out in far greater numbers than four years earlier, and they chose Jackson

• The Jacksonian Appeal– some historians point out Jackson was

neither a democrat nor a friend of the underprivileged

– he owned a large plantation and many slaves

– nor was Jackson quite the rough-hewn frontiersman he sometimes seemed; his manners and life-style were those of a southern planter

– his supporters liked to cast him as the political heir of Jefferson, in many ways Jackson more closely resembled the more conservative Washington

• The Spoils System – Jackson’s policy appeared revolutionary

since there had not been a major political shift in many years

– Jackson offered the principle of rotation as an underpinning of his policy

– he believed the duties of public officials were so simple that anyone could perform them

– rotating offices would permit more citizens to participate in tasks of government and prevent the development of an entrenched bureaucracy

• President of All the People

– Jackson conceived of himself as direct

representative of people and

embodiment of national power

– he vetoed more bills than all of his

predecessors combined, yet he had

no desire to expand federal authority

at the expense of the states

• Sectional Tensions Revived

– Jackson steered a moderate course on

issues dividing the sections, urging a

slight reduction of the tariff and

“constitutional” internal

improvements

– he proposed that surplus federal

revenues be “distributed” to the

states

– however, if the federal government

distributed its surplus revenues, it

could not reduce the price of public

lands without going into debt

– in the Senate, Webster successfully

blocked a West-South alliance based

on cheap land and low tariffs

• Jackson: “The Bank . . . I Will Kill It!”

– Jackson won reelection in 1832, partly

based on his promise to destroy second

Bank of the U.S.

– Marshall declared its constitutionality and Landon Cheves established it on a sound footing, the Bank of the U.S. flourished

– Cheves’s successor, Nicholas Biddle, realized that the Bank of the U.S. could act as a rudimentary central bank

– he attempted to use the institution to

control credit and compel local banks to

maintain adequate reserves of specie

– at the same time the nation had an

insatiable need for capital and credit

– some bankers chafed under Biddle’s

restraints

– regional jealousies also came into play, as

did distrust of chartered corporations as

agents of special privilege

• Jackson’s Bank Veto– opposition to the Bank remained unfocused

until Jackson brought it together

– Biddle drew closer to Clay and Webster, who hoped to use the bank issue against Jackson

– Clay and Webster urged Biddle to ask Congress to renew Bank’s charter early

– the bill passed Congress, and Jackson vetoed it

– after his reelection, Jackson withdrew government funds from Bank

– faced with withdrawal of so much cash, Biddle contracted his operations

– he further contracted credit by presenting all state bank notes for conversion into specie and limiting his own bank’s loans

– money became scarce, and a serious panic threatened

– Pressure mounted on Jackson, who refused to budge

– eventually, pressure shifted to Biddle, who began to lend freely; the crisis ended

• Jackson Versus Calhoun– Calhoun coveted the presidency,

moreover, personal animosities separated him from Jackson

– the two men were not far apart ideologically except on the paramount issue of the right of a state to overrule federal authority

– like most westerners, Jackson favored internal improvements, but he preferred that local projects be left to the states

– he vetoed the Maysville Road Bill because the route was wholly within Kentucky

• Indian Removals– Jackson also took a states’ rights

position in the controversy between the Cherokee Indians and Georgia

– he pursued a policy of removing Indians from the path of white settlement

– Some tribes resisted and were subdued by troops

– the Cherokee attempted to hold their lands by adjusting to white ways

– in spite of several treaties that seemed to establish the legitimacy of their government, Georgia refused to recognize it

– Georgia passed a law declaring all Cherokee laws void and the Cherokee lands part of Georgia

– in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Marshall ruled that the Cherokee were “not a foreign state” and therefore could not sue in a federal court, but in Worcester v. Georgia, he ruled that the state could not control the Cherokee or their territory

– Marshall also overturned the conviction for murder of a Cherokee named Corn Tassel on the ground that the crime had taken place in Cherokee territory

– Jackson backed Georgia and insisted that no independent nation could exist within U.S.

– eventually, the U.S. forced about 15,000

Cherokee to leave Georgia for lands in

Oklahoma; about 4,000 died on the way

• The Nullification Crisis– South Carolina’s planters objected to a

new tariff law passed in 1832 that lowered duties less than they had hoped

– they also resented northern agitation against slavery

– radicals in the state saw the two issues as related (both represented the tyranny of the majority), and they turned to Calhoun’s doctrine of nullification as a logical defense

– Jackson believed that if a state could nullify

federal law the Union could not exist

– South Carolina passed an ordinance of

nullification prohibiting collection of tariff

duties in state and voted to authorize the

raising of an army

– Jackson began military preparations of his

own

– in a presidential proclamation, he warned

that “disunion by armed force is treason”

– Congress compromised by reducing the tariff and by passing a Force Bill granting the president additional authority to enforce the revenue laws

– Sobered by Jackson”s response and professing to be satisfied with the token reductions of the new tariff, South Carolina repealed the Nullification Ordinance

– South Carolina attempted to save face by nullifying the Force Act

• Boom and Bust– an increased volume of currency

caused land prices to soar– proceeds from land sales wiped out the

government’s debt and produced a surplus

– alarmed by the speculative mania, Jackson issued a Specie Circular, which required purchasers of government land to pay in gold or silver

– demand immediately slackened, and prices sagged

– speculators defaulted on mortgages, and banks could not recover enough on foreclosed property to recover their loans

– people rushed to withdraw their money in the form of specie, and banks exhausted their supplies

– panic swept the country

– numerous factors caused such swings in the economic cycle, but Jackson’s policies exaggerated them

• Jacksonianism Abroad– Jackson’s exaggerated patriotism led him

to push relentlessly for the solution of minor problems, and he did achieve some diplomatic successes

– Great Britain agreed to several reciprocal trade agreements, including one that finally opened British West Indian ports to American ships

– France agreed to pay compensation for damages to American property during the Napoleonic wars

– when the French Chamber of Deputies refused to appropriate the necessary funds, Jackson sent a blistering message to Congress asking for reprisals against French property

– Congress wisely took no action, which led Jackson to suspend diplomatic relations with France and order the navy readied

– the French government finally appropriated the money

• The Jacksonians– Jacksonian Democrats included rich

and poor, easterners and westerners, abolitionists and slaveholders

– if it was not yet a close-knit national organization, the party agreed on certain basic principles: suspicion of special privilege and large business corporations, freedom of economic opportunity, political freedom (at least for white males), and conviction that ordinary citizens could perform tasks of government

– Democrats also tended to favor states’ rights

– Jacksonians supported opportunities

for the less affluent (such as public

education) but showed no desire to

penalize the wealthy or to intervene

in economic affairs to aid the

underprivileged

• Rise of the Whigs– Jackson’s opposition remained less

cohesive and dissident groups began to call themselves Whigs

– those who could not accept the peculiarities of Jacksonian finance or had no taste for the anti-intellectual bent of the administration were drawn to the Whigs

– the Whigs were slow to develop an effective party organization

– in 1836, they relied on a series of favorite son candidates in an effort to throw the election into the House of Representatives

– the strategy failed to defeat Jackson’s handpicked successor, Martin Van Buren

• Martin Van Buren: Jacksonianism Without Jackson– Van Buren approached most

problems pragmatically– he fought the Bank of the U.S. but

opposed irresponsible state banks as well

– while favoring public construction of internal improvements, he preferred state rather than national programs

– Van Buren had the misfortune to take office just as the Panic of 1837 hit

– just as the country recovered from the Panic of 1837, cotton prices declined sharply in 1839

– state governments defaulted on their debts, which discouraged investors

– a general economic depression lasted until 1843

– Van Buren did not cause the depression, but his policies did nothing to help

– his refusal to assume any responsibility for the general welfare has led at least one historian to argue that the Whigs, not the Democrats, were the “positive liberals” of the era

– the depression convinced Van Buren that he needed to find some place other than the state banks to keep federal funds

– he settled on the idea of removing the government from all banking activities

– the Independent Treasury Act called for the construction of government-owned vaults to store federal revenues; all payments to government were to be made in hard cash

– the plan was economically irresponsible, but system worked reasonably well for many years, thanks to a lucky combination of circumstances

• The Log Cabin Campaign– the depression hurt the Democrats, but it

did not cause Van Buren’s defeat in 1840

– Whigs were better organized than four years earlier, and they stole the Democrats’ tactics by nominating a popular general and shouting praises of the common man

– they contrasted simplicity of William Henry Harrison with the suave Van Buren

– huge turnout elected Harrison by

large margin; less than a month after

his inauguration, Harrison fell ill and

died

– with the succession of John Tyler,

events took a new turn, one that

would lead to civil war