The Age of Jackson

1
The Age of Jackson

• Jackson and Van Buren years

2
Eaton Affair

• Peggy Eaton
• Daughter of tavern keeper
• 1st husband may have committed suicide
• Allegedly over her affair with TN senator John
  Eaton
• Married him
• He became sec of war
• Reminds Jackson of gossip about beloved Rachel
• He believes it killed her
• Wives of cabinet members snub Peggy
• Van Buren charming, accompanies her to functions
• Floride Calhoun biggest snob in Eaton Malaria

3
Eaton (2)

• Jackson thought Calhoun trying to coerce him to
  abandon John Eaton
• To disgrace AJ for having appointed him
• Van Buren leaked info
• Sec St Calhoun, (then sec war under Monroe)
  favored censuring AJ for 1818 raid into FL
• AJ feels betrayed!

4
Egalitarianism Jackson style

• ty not for blacks, Indians or women
• Partly due to freed blacks heading north, taking
  jobs
• Segregation for freed blacks- the rule, w/
  persecution, anti black riots
• Justified preventing blacks abolitionists
  breaking down color barrier (poor whites would
  sink further)
• Jackson coalition depended on shared white racism
  ability to avoid slave issue
• Believed indians barbaric impediments to
  progress, expansion.
• Just humane policy moving them west to area of
  horned toads rattlesnakes
• 1830 Indian Removal Act

5
Indian Removal

• 1825 GAs fraudulent treaty ceded most Creek
  land to state
• Adams denounced
• GA based Rt to land grab on unviability of
  States Rights
• JQA backed down 2 avoid armed conflict
• 1828 GA moves against Cherokees
• To avoid Creeks fate, Cherokee adopt
  Constitution 1827
• Declared selves sep nation w/ sovereignty over
  land
• GA put Cherokee under state law nullified cons
• Prohibited Indian testimony against whites
• Gold discovered

6
Indian Removal Act 1830

• Appropriated 500,000 for removal
• 1830 GA law- whites get residency there
• 1832 few are left
• 1838 Cherokee trail of Tears
• AJ forced treaty on them gave up GA land for
  land in Indiana
• 5 mill for moving them
• 12,000 walked the thousand mile trail of tears
• Victims of cruelty, scorn pilfering of whites
  along way
• ¼ died en route, dead of winter

7
1832 Black Hawks War Sauk Fox Indians

• IL WI
• Frantic attempt of Inds to reach W bank MS
• Ends in slaughter of 500 men, women, children by
  white troops w/ Sioux allies
• Participants
• Lincoln
• Jeff Davis

8
Seminoles

• Held out in swamps of FL
• 7 yrs
• 1835-42 longest Indian war in US history
• Leader Osceola captured under flag of truce
• During negotiations
• Resistance continued

9
Opposition to Jacksons removal policy

• Eastern reformers
• Protestant missionaries
• Came w/n 3 votes of defeating Removal bill in
  house

10
Cherokee Nation v. GA 1831Worcester v GA 1832

• Ct rules GA violated US Const in extending
  jurisdiction over Cherokees
• Marshall defines Indian tribes as dependent
  domestic nations
• Subject only to authority of federal gov
• Supreme Ct is powerless to enforce rulings
• Jackson ignores takes states rights position
• Mutters courts can try to enforce that

11
Nullification

• Most sensitive issue involving power of national
  gov
• Tariffs
• Issue majority rule, Jackson is a Nationalist
• Cost some southern support for Dems
• Tariffs 1st 1816
• 1824 up
• 1828 up 50 (tariff of abominations)
• Contrived to win northern support for Jackson?
• Loudest outcry SC Old cotton state
• Loosing pop to west in 1820s
• Cotton prices still low s. panic 1819
• Tariffs seen as unconst extension of national
  power over states
• Prelude to enforced emancipation?
• SC only state w/ Af-Am majority

12
Nullification, (2)

• Slave concentrations in marshes, tidal flats s.
  of charleston
• Low country district of huge rice plantations
• Summer months blacks outnumber whites 101
• Slave rebellions narrowly averted 1822 1829
• Planters fear agitation fed by N. abolitionists
• 1831 Nat Turner Revolt
• VA 55 whites slain before Turner caught
• Nullification safety valve

13
Anti tariff Nullies

• Roots 1828 SC Exposition Protest
• Calhoun argues
• State acting through pop elected convention has
  sovereign power to declare act of nat gov null
  inoperative
• Once a state nullifies a law its unenforceable
  until ¾ states approve const. amendment
  delegating to national gov power that was
  challenged
• If such passed, nullifying state could leave union

14
Calhoun

• Calhoun orchestrated SC convention nullification
  of Tariff of 1828 1832 (lower)
• Legislation elects R. Hayne Gov Calhoun Sen
• Calhoun resigns as VP to take Senator spot
• GA, AL, MS all refuse to go along (too radical)
• Said customs duties NOT collected in SC after Feb
  1, 33
• Defends doctrine as way of protecting minority
  rights in union dominated by Tyrannical national
  majority
• AJ seems Calhoun as scheming disunionist
• AJ announced intention to enforce tariff
• Privately threatens to hang Calhoun all other
  traitors
• Later regrets he didnt at least hang Calhoun
• Issued Nullification Proc doctrine of Null
  impractical absurdity
• AJ asks 4 (gets) Force Bill
• Sent Gen Winfield Scott to Charleston Harb w/
  troops can have 50k in SC in 40 days
• Worked to get new lower tariff passed (down by
  50) Compromise Tariff of 1833
• Lowered duties 20
• Extends reductions over 20 yrs

15
Final Act of defiance

• Nullifiers nullify the Force Bill
• Calhoun retires to his plantation
• Significance
• AJ estabd principal of national supremacy
  grounded in Will of the Majority
• States rights doctrines remain pop in South
• Many want to limit powers of Natl gov
• Triggers new anti-Jackson coalition in South

16
Webster-Hayne Debate

• SC disliked tariff but waits for election as
  Calhoun will be VP
• New tariff policy likely then
• Late 1829 CT senator tried to restrict land
  sales in W
• Thomas Hart Benton, MO (always calls for lower
  land prices) denounced as sectional attack
• So E can keep cheap labor
• Rbt Hayne, SC takes Bentons side
• Wants to strengthen W/S alliance
• If S supports cheap land in W W will support
  lower tariffs
• Gov endangers Union by imposing hardship on one
  section to benefit another!

17
Webster Hayne (2)

• Webster, MA rebukes Ss who disparage Union
• Lures Hayne into defense of state rights,
  nullification
• Hayne defends SC Exposition
• Union compact of states.
• Fed Gov, their agent, cannot judge its own powers
• Would make powers unltd
• Rather states remain free to judge when gov
  oversteps const. auth.
• Rt of State Interposition (states interpose
  authority over fed law to thwart injustice)
• As full complete now as before Const

18
Webster-Hayne (3)

• Webster from beginning, Rev crusade of united
  colonies not separate
• Sovereignty resides in whole people
• Fed gov, state govs agents
• if a single state could nullify a law of fed
  gov then Union wd be a rope of sand
• Practical absurdity
• Instead const created Sp Ct w/ final
  jurisdiction
• Judicial Review
• Practical outcome of nullification would be
  confrontation (CW)
• Liberty and Union! Now and Forever! One and
  Inseperable!

19
Jeffersons B-day 1830

• Toast
• Jackson Our Union- it must be preserved!
• Calhoun Union, next to Liberty, most dear.

20
Jackson Calhoun rift

• May 12, 1830
• Jackson shown letter confirming Calhoun, Sec War
  in 1818, proposed disciplining Jackson over FL
  invasion
• Flurry of tense letters
• Jacksons last note Understanding you now. No
  further communication w/ you on this subject is
  necessary.
• Jackson names Van Buren as minister to London
• Announced plan to run in 32 w/ VB likely
  successor in 36
• Senate had to approve Calhoun led opposition

21
Bank WarDefining moment in shaping the Dem. Party

• 1832 draft resolution 4 charter renewal
• VETO
• Distrust of banks
• Shortage of gold/silver
• Absence of paper money issued, regulated by fed
  gov
• mostly notes loans by private state banks
• Fluctuate in value based on reputation, credit
  of bank of issue
• Many wild cat (W) banks
• Quick profits- issue notes w/o specie to redeem
• Skipping town b4 being found out

22
Bank War (2)

• Farmers, workers want to be paid in real money
• Gold silver
• Viewed bankers parasites
• Manipulating getting rich
• Bank of US New Pres- Nicholas Biddle, Phil. PA
• underwrote econ expansion of 1820s
• Charter good thru 36

23
Bank War (3)

• Campaign 32 Clay convinced Biddle to re-charter
  early
• Sure of congress approval
• Jackson couldnt veto in campaign year
• Enemy of sound banking?
• Bank symbol of privileged monopoly
• Deprived Amers of chance to compete ly
• July 10, 1832 AJ vetoed
• Took stand against all new grants of monopolies
  for advancement of few at exp of many

24
Bank War (4)

• Business community lashed out at AJ
• AJ goes into election as champion of people
  against banking aristoc
• Easily beat Clay Natl Repub Party
• Found sec of treasury willing to sign order
  removing fed deposits from bank 33
• Bank reduced to seeking charter from PA as
  private corp
• Gov deposited into pet banks
• Result too much credit triggered buying frenzy
  of W land
• Prices shot up
• 1836 Specie Circular
• Gold silver only for land, etc
• Hard times hit by 37 (Van Buren)

25
Speculative bubble

• Reached greatest extent by 1836
• Burst by Distribution Act-
• Distributed gov surplus to states
• Long time process (removes argument for cutting
  tariff)
• Much surplus comes from sale of W lands
• Alt cut price on land? (W idea)
• Lower tariff? (S idea)
• Surplus used to pay off national debt by Jan 1835
• AJ opposed distribution so surplus LOANED to
  states
• As deposits, never demanded back
• Distributions were taken out of state banks
• State banks had to call in loans to cover
  transfers
• Huge disarray
• Specie Circular issued to stop fraud, cut out big
  speculators, stop extension of notes, credit
• Irony few settlers had specie now at mercy of
  speculators!

26
Boom Bust of 1830s

• Causes
• Mid decade inflation from increased specie
  payments from England, France, MX
• For investments, purchases, esp cotton
• Same time Brit credits let Amers buy w/o
  exporting specie
• Also flow of specie to China ?
• They now take Brit credits to cover growing opium
  imports from Br India
• Therefore specie reserves in US kept pace w/ ??
  in bank notes in spite of reckless banks
• 1836 Brit econ ?
• Brit investments ?
• Demand for cotton ?
• May 1837 VB in- NY banks suspend specie payment
  on notes
• Fear of bankruptcies sets off bank runs
• Brief recovery 38 bad wheat harvests in Eng
• Good harvests return in 39- no imports needed
  same year as bumper crop in US
• Depression ? mid 1840s

27
Van Buren 1836

• Dems 2nd Natl Convention
• Whigs have no conv
• Send up many candidates
• Webster, Hugh White (TN), Wm Harrison (IN)
• Issues in S whigs argue VB soft on anti-slavery
  
• Only White trusted
• VB takes 170 electoral Votes- Old Kinderhook
• Aka Little Magician
• VB no popular base
• Different style reflective, weighed polit
  consequences
• Appeared indecisive
• Seemed to have no bold program
• Inherited financial panic

28
Panic 1837

• Gov land sales up from 4 mil (1833) to 20 million
  (1836)
• Decade of boom business cycle increased
• EZ credit
• Land spec
• Amers pile up debt
• Key foreign trade credit England
• Late 36 Bank of E tightened credit on Br
  merchants in US
• Incr. interest rates, decreased credit lines
  (afraid of specie drain to US) depression in E
  tips over US econ.
• Brit demand for cotton declined
• Price of cotton declined
• No new loans
• US expansion depended on Euro capital

29
Panic (1)

• US wheat crop failed no exports
• Wildcat banks go under
• Gov lost 9 mil in pet banks
• Working class hard hit- fall 1837 1/3 unemp
• Rest take 30-50 pay cuts
• Cost of food, clothes soars
• Churches, voluntary societies sole help for
  indegent
• VB advisors think healthy shake down of
  speculators, bankers not gov job to rescue
  farmers, businesses or provide relief
• To stabilize econ
• Distribution of surplus postponed
• Indep treasury adopted

30
Panic (2)

• Cotton main security for most US banks,
  mercantile firms
• Result chain reaction contracting credit,
  falling prices
• Investors rush to convert notes to specie
• Banks suspend payment
• Panic hits New Orleans, Mar. 37 ? NY banks by May
• Panic drags down whole econ
• Bankruptcies are up investment capital down,
  business down
• States stop all construction/ slash budgets
• 9 states in S W defaulted on bonds
• Unemployment up ? mass protest meetings in E
• Fear of revolution
• Brief recovery 38 another round credit
  contraction -gt depression ? 43
• N.E. unemp ? 20 (unheard of)
• Many farmers, planters fled W 2 avoid creditors

31
Election 36

• Dems charged w/ starting depression
• Opponents Whigs- blame AJs destruction of bank
• Gov interference in econ
• Undermined business confidence
• AJ forcing pet banks to replace small denom bank
  notes w/ hard made it worse
• Issued Specie Circular large blocks land, only bt
  w/ specie
• to break spec frenzy
• May have helped spread panic by req transfer 2 W
  of specie when E banks strapped
• Low reserves cant meet demand on bank notes

32
Dem POV

• Removing fed fm nat bank protects people fm
  paper aristocrats in banking business
• Policy contradicts Dem idea of ltd gov
• Shifted to state banks ? had to regulate or be
  accused of creating little monsters
• Only way out break connection between gov
  banking

33
Independent Treasury system

• The gov deals w/ NO banks
• Treasury does business in gold silver only
• T stores reserves in regional vaults (sub
  treasury)
• Proposed 1837
• Approved 1840 after more bank failures
• Result prolonged depression
• Specie locked in vaults unavailable 4 loans,
  expansion of credit
• Reduced money supply
• Put ?pressure on prices
• Repealed in 1 yr
• Restored 1846

34
Other issues of VB term

• Petitions to abolish slave trade in DC
• Canadian insurrection Maine border dispute
• Malaise due to economy

35
Election 1840

• Log Cabin Hard Cider campaign
• Whigish Jacksonian military hero Wm H Harrison
• Battle of Tippecanoe v Shawnees
• Gov of IN
• Anti-Masons like him
• Tyler for VP brings in states rights wing
• Baltimore Republican printed upon condition of
  his recvg pension of 2k and a barrel of cider,
  Gen Harrison wd no doubt consider to w/d
  pretentions. Spend days in a log cabin on banks
  of the OH
• Whigs seized symbols to show Harrison as man of
  modest means

36
Harrison

• One of first families of VA
• Lived in large farmhouse
• Log cabins rolled thru streets w/ barrels of
  cider
• Huge victory balls rolled through highways to
  symb snowballing support
• Placards, emblems, campaign buttons, floats,
  effigies, rallies newspaper The Log Cabin used
  Jacksonian techniques to discredit VB
• Showed him as aristocrat (really had humble
  start)
• Van Van is a used up man

37
OK

• From newspaper fad 1830s creating comical
  abbreviations
• GTDHD give the devil his due
• OW oll wright
• OK oll correct
• Dems picked up OK for Old Kinderhook start OK
  clubs
• Whigs said OK was AJs creative spelling insist
  he marked state papers this way
• Whig cider barrels get marked OK

38
Impact of Jackson Yrs

• Voter turn out up from 26 1824 to 78 in 1840
• Whig historians say AJ created spoils system
• Revisionists paint him as author of new democ
• Post revisionists frontier nabob
• AJ supporters intended to return to
  Jeffersonian Repub of ltd gov no alliances w/
  bus (corruption) allow free enterprise
• How Jeffersonian was Jackson?

39
Jefferson JacksonCompared (Hofstatder)Backgrou
nds

• Jefferson

• Jackson

• Born in Carolinas to widow
• Dad died few months before
• 13 enlisted in Rev War
• 14 captured, tortured by Brits
• Lost family in war-
• Bro killed in action
• Mother died of prison fever (typhus)
• Inherited farm sized plot of land NC
• Education sparse
• Apprentice to saddle maker 6 mo
• School teacher 6 mo
• Inherits 300 from Irish relative
• Moved to Charleston- gambled, studied law
• _at_20 admitted to bar NC
• Moved to Nashville
• Repd creditors, helped collect debts
• Other lawyer in town repd debtors
• Wked up to local aristoc, land, slaves

• VA aristocracy
• Mom Jane Randolph
• Father died when TJ 14
• Inherits 2700 acres
• Bondsmen
• As adult 10K acres, 100-200 slaves
• Ed William Mary, excelled
• VA Gentry, requisite 4 politics
• 24 admitted to bar
• 26 House of Burgesses (6 yrs)
• 29 married
• Studied whole life sciences, religions,
  languages, agri, mechanics, engineering

40
POV before presidency

• Jefferson

• Jackson

• Belief in code duello
• Response to insult of honor call out
• Duelled w/ Charles Dickinson over horse race
• D missed Js heart by inches bc of greatcoat
• Bullet lodged in ribs
• J fired gun wouldnt go off
• Fired again, stayed on feet till D pronounced
  dead
• Duel w/ Sen B Hart- later friends
• Tried to return bullet- running joke

• War gov VA during Rev till age 38
• Retired death of wife drove him back to work
• 1785-89 min to France (post Franklin)
• Bcms anti-industrialist
• Angered by Engs exploit. Of workers Frances of
  peasants
• Confirms Republican views
• Pro agrarian head of pop faction
• For propertied intersts

41
POV before pres (2)

• Jefferson

• Jackson

• Wants Amer econ to be agri based
• Minimize factories, cities, workers
• Believes majority of men rise to top for profit,
  power
• Believes checks balances vital to survival of
  gov
• Considered Federalist best work of practical
  principals of gov written
• Objections to const
• No Bill of Rts
• Allowance of more than one term for pres
• Saw future founded on propertied class in
  propertied nation

• Known for firey temper quick loud opinions
• Fit Frederick Jackson Turners ideal of fronteir
  society self made man
• Solicitor at 22
• _at_23 US Atty
• 29 congressman
• 30 senator
• 31 justice of Sp Ct of Tn
• Jobs symbol of status to AJ
• Active in militia, rep as Indian fighter
• Land speculator
• Nat hero B. of New Orleans
• Rode national wave of increased suffrage

42
On banks

• Jackson

• Disapproved of pop demand in Panic 1819 for laws
  to prevent imprisonment for debt
• Lost land fortune mortgaged to national bank
• Opposed banks, public debts, paper money, high
  tariffs, fed. Internal improvmts
• 1796 sold thousands acres to merchant,
  speculator for notes
• Used to supply new general store
• he went under defaulted on notes, left AJ
  liable for all debts
• Had to sell off estate, slaves
• Business failed, sold to partners
• Took 19 yrs to pay off debts- till 1815
• Saved 22k, bought new estate panic hit
• Opposed 2 yr suspension of debt repayment then
  pop
• By 1824 prosperity- issues caucus, Battle of
  New Orleans

• Jefferson

• Anti banks as support for merchant class and
  industry

43
Presidency

• Jefferson

• Jackson

• Fear of his atheism unfounded
• Tried to pay off Hamilton based debts in 16 yrs
  kept system
• Reduced gov expenses
• Abolished excise duties
• Attacked judiciary, esp through Burr trial no
  real effect on it
• Thru LA purchase, widened agri expansion
• No attempt to open up male suffrage
• Tried to heal rift in parties
• Laissez-Faire policy toward businesses
• Pacifist stayed out of Napoleonic wars
• Used economic sanctions embargo

• Expansion of democ liberated captialism ? rise
  of industrialism in E
• settlement of W
• Typical American now a capitalist
• Opposed to Biddles bank
• Small businessmen in E
• State banks
• Land speculators
• AJ vetoed bank recharter- said bank was not
  constitutional gave industry a monopoly
• Re-elected, w/d gov from banks
• Wild cat banking grew
• Principle of business w/o privilege
• Hero to middle class want unltd expanding
  opportunity

44
After Presidency

• Jefferson

• Jackson

• Resumed States Rights pov
• Regrets Federalist turn Republican party took

• Returned to private life w/ enthusiasm
• Stayed pro-expansion of small businessmen