Jacksonian Era- Unit 7

Jacksonian Era- Unit 7

• How did the growing spirit of equality change voting rights in the 1820s?

• Why was there a dispute over the election of 1824?

• Why was John Quincy Adams an unpopular President?

• What new political parties developed? 1

The Growing Spirit of Equality Affected Voting Rights

• The United States was growing rapidly.• Many new states were in the west, between

the Appalachians and the Mississippi.• Frontier life encouraged a democratic spirit.• This democratic spirit was reflected in the

voting laws.

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• More people gained suffrage, or the right to vote. In western states, any white man over age 21 could vote.

• In eastern states, reformers worked to expand suffrage. By the 1830s, most eastern states had dropped the requirement that voters own land.

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Suffrage Expands

• More white men are eligible to vote

• Property qualifications for voters end

• Voter turnout is nearly 80 percent in 1840 election

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Political Parties Change

• The caucus system ends• Nominating conventions are held to

choose presidential candidates

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The “Common Man” Rises

• The spoils system lets ordinary citizens participate in government

• Ideas about social classes change

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Dispute Over the Election of 1824

The Candidates

• John Quincy Adams, with support in New England

• Henry Clay, with support in the West• Andrew Jackson, with support in the

West• William Crawford, with support in the

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The Election

• William Crawford became too ill to campaign.• Andrew Jackson won the popular vote.• No candidate won a majority, or more than

half, of the electoral vote. The election went to the House of Representatives.

• The House named John Quincy Adams President.

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Hard feelings

In the electoral vote, Henry Clay had finished last, so he was out of the running when the election went to the House. He was Speaker of the House. He urged House members to vote for Adams. Later, Adams named Clay his Secretary of State. Jackson and his supporters said that Adams and Clay had worked together to steal the election. 9

John Quincy Adams Was an Unpopular President

Adam’s Plan How Most Americans Reacted

• These programs cost too much money.

• These programs would make the federal government too powerful.

•The federal government should promote economic growth. It should pay for roads and canals to help farmers transport goods to market.•The government should promote the arts and sciences by building a national university and an observatory. 10

John Quincy Adams Was an Unpopular President

What Jackson Supporters Said

• Adams had made a “corrupt bargain” in the 1824 election.

• Adams was a member of the upper class, not a common person like farmers of the South and West.

What Adams Supporters Said

• Jackson was a dangerous “military chieftain.”

• If Jackson won the election, he could become a dictator like Napoleon.

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• The two new political parties developed more democratic ways for choosing candidates for President.– They got rid of the caucus, or private

meeting, for choosing candidates. – Instead, each party began to hold a

nominating convention, where delegates from the states chose the party’s candidate.

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Jackson in the White House

• What qualities helped Andrew Jackson succeed?

• What was the spoils system?

• Why did President Jackson fight the Bank of the United States?

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Andrew Jackson

• Strong-willed• Tough• Studied law and set up a successful law

practice• Became wealthy buying and selling land• While still in his twenties, was elected to

Congress• Won national fame for his achievements in

the War of 1812

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Andrew Jackson

• Complex

• Quick temper

• Ability to inspire and lead others

• A man of his word

• A champion of the common people

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The Spoils System

• When he took office, Jackson fired many government employees and replaced them with his supporters.

• Critics accused Jackson of rewarding Democrats for helping to elect him instead of choosing men who were qualified.

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The Spoils System

• Jackson said he was serving democracy by letting more citizens take part in government. He felt that ordinary Americans were capable of doing government jobs.

• A Jackson supporter explained, “To the victor belong the spoils.”

• The practice of rewarding supporters with government jobs became known as the spoils system.

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The Spoils System

• Jackson rewarded a number of supporters with Cabinet jobs. Few of them were qualified, however. So Jackson relied on unofficial advisers. He met with them in the White House kitchen. The group became known as the “kitchen cabinet.”

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President Jackson vs. the Bank of the United States

• The Bank of the United States had great power because it controlled the loans made by state banks. President Jackson thought the Bank was undemocratic. He felt that Bank president Nicholas Biddle used the Bank to benefit the rich.

• Whigs persuaded Biddle to try to renew the Bank’s charter before the 1832 election. They thought that if Jackson vetoed the bill to renew the charter, he would anger voters and lose the election.

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President Jackson vs. the Bank of the United States

• When the bill to renew the Bank’s charter reached the President, he vetoed it. First, he said the Bank was unconstitutional. Second, he felt that the Bank helped aristocrats at the expense of the common people.

• The Whigs brought up the Bank issue in the election of 1832, but Jackson won a stunning election victory anyway.

• Jackson ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to stop putting federal money in the Bank of the United States. The bank closed

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Native Americans Are Forced From Their Homeland

• The Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Seminole nations lived in the Southeast. Settlers wanted the Indian’s land for growing cotton.

• President Jackson sided with the settlers. The federal government set aside lands beyond the Mississippi and had begun to persuade or force Indians to move to land that had been set aside.

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• In Florida, the Seminole Indians resisted removal. From 1817 to 1818, they fought the United States Army in a conflict known as the first Seminole War.

• The second Seminole War lasted from 1835 to 1842.

• The third Seminole War ended in 1858. The Seminoles were finally defeated. The federal government forced most Seminoles to leave Florida.

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• Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. It forced many Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi.

• The United States Army drove more than 15,000 Cherokees westward. Thousands perished during the march. The long, sad journey west became known as the Trail of Tears.

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• Georgia claimed the right to make laws for the Cherokee nation. The Cherokees went to court, arguing that their treaties with the federal government protected their rights and their property. When the case reached the Supreme Court, the Court agreed that the Constitution protected the Cherokees.

• President Jackson refused to enforce the Court’s decision. In the Cherokee case, he backed states’ rights.

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New Political Parties

National Republicans, known as Whigs

• People who supported Adams and his programs for national growth became known as Whigs.

• Wanted the federal government to spur the economy.

• Supporters included eastern business people, some southern planters, and former Federalists.

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Democrats • Jackson and his supporters called themselves Democrats.

• Supporters included the common people—frontier farmers and eastern factory workers.

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The Tariff Crisis and the Nullification Act

In 1828, Congress passed the highest tariff in the history of the nation. Southerners called it the Tariff of Abominations.– Northern manufacturers favored the tariff,

which protected them from foreign competition.

– Southern planters were against the tariff. It raised the cost of the manufactured goods they bought from Europe.

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Vice President John C. Calhoun fought against the tariff by introducing the idea of nullification. – Calhoun claimed that a state had the right to nullify,

or cancel, a federal law that it considered unconstitutional.

– Daniel Webster attacked the idea of nullification. He said that the Constitution united the American people, not just the states. If the states could nullify federal laws, the nation would fall apart.

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Congress passed a lower tariff in 1832, but South Carolina was not satisfied. The state passed the Nullification Act, declaring the new tariff illegal.

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– South Carolina also threatened to secede, or withdraw, from the Union.

– Jackson asked Congress to pass the Force Bill. It allowed the President to use the army to enforce the tariff. South Carolina reacted by repealing the Nullification Act.

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The Nullification Crisis had been a quarrel over states’ rights, or the right of states to limit the power of the federal government.

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Martin Van Buren and Hard Times• Martin Van Buren faced the worst economic crisis the

nation had known— the Panic of 1837.• The federal government sold off millions of acres of

land in the West. • Speculators borrowed money from state banks to buy

up the land. To make the loans, state banks printed a lot of paper money.

• To slow down the wild buying, he ordered that anyone buying public land had to pay with gold or silver.

• Buyers rushed to the banks to exchange paper money for gold and silver, but many banks did not have enough and had to close down.

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Martin Van Buren and Hard Times

• The panic became worse when cotton prices fell.• Cotton planters had borrowed money to plant

crops. When prices fell, they could not repay their loans. As a result, more banks failed.

• The nation plunged into a deep economic depression, a period when business declines and many people lose their jobs. Many people blamed Van Buren.

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The Campaigns of 1840

The Democrats and Martin Van Buren vs. the Whigs and William Henry Harrison– Harrison traveled across the land, making

speeches and greeting voters.– Both parties held rallies, banquets, and

entertainment.

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The Campaigns of 1840

– Both parties engaged in mudslinging, or the use of insults to attack an opponent’s reputation.

– In the campaign, both parties used name-calling, half-truths, and lies.

Harrison won the election. However, soon after taking office, he died of pneumonia. John Tyler became President.

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Documents

Jacksonian Era- Unit 7