AP United States History
Mr. M. Pecot
I. The New Democracy
a) The “Politics of the Common Man”
1. The demise of aristocracy and the rise of democracy in American politics
§ Politicians must appeal to the masses
§ “log cabin” campaigning
§ war heroes and Indian fighters replace the “better sorts” in gov’t
b) Characteristics of the New Democracy
1. Rising voter participation
§ Universal manhood suffrage
- VT 1791; western states
§ Abolishment of property tests for officeholding
§ Increased turnout
- 25% of eligible voters cast ballots in 1824; 50% in 1828; 78% in 1840
2. Modern campaigning (politicking)
§ “get out the vote” drives (banners, buttons, barbeques, and beer!)
3. Reform of “undemocratic” methods
§ Emergence of national nominating conventions to nominate Presidential candidates (v. Congressional Caucuses or voting through state legislatures)
- Anti-Masonic Party 1831
c) Origins of the New Democracy
1. Long-term
§ Egalitarian influence of the Revolution
§ Growth of the market economy (therefore more interest in how tariffs, banks, and internal improvements affect peoples lives)
2. Short-term
§ Panic of 1819
- Workers and farmers blame banking speculation and practices
- Resentment of gov’t granted privileges of banks – seen as unfair…
- Desire to purge land from “corruption” invigorates interest in politics
§ Missouri Compromise (1820)
- Arouses fear that the federal gov’t is “out to get” states rights’
- Control of gov’t (through presidency and congress) becomes a prime goal of white southerners
II. The Election of 1824
a) Candidates
1. Andrew Jackson (TN)
2. Henry Clay (KY)
3. William Crawford (Ga.)
4. John Quincy Adams (Ma.)
b) Results
1. Jackson wins the popular vote, but no clear majority in the Electoral Congress
2. The “Corrupt Bargain”
§ 12th Amendment: House votes among top 3 in case of no majority
§ Henry Clay is 4th, Crawford is dead, so election is between Adams and Jackson
- Clay uses influence as House speaker to sway election to Adams
- Clay is later appointed as JQA’s Secretary of State.
§ Jacksonians cry foul play and start planning for the Election of 1828 immediately.
III. The Adams Presidency (Part II)
a) Characteristics
1. A thinker more than a politician – one of the most successful Secretaries of State, and one of the least effective Presidents
2. First “minority” president (less than 1/3 of the population had voted for him)
3. Refused to oust efficient office workers to create jobs to reward his supporters
4. An ardent nationalism
b) Policy Proposals
1. Internal Improvements with federal dollars
§ Urges construction of roads and canals, creation of a national university, and called for federal support for an astronomical observatory
§ Reaction of citizens
- Most view these proposals as a waste of dollars and an intrusion of the government into state affairs
- Southerners fear costs will mean higher tariffs and fear increasing power of gov’t is a slippery slope toward intrusion in slavery
2. Land policy
§ Favored curbing the wild speculation and unchecked growth
3. Indian policy
§ The Cherokee and Georgia
4. Tariff Policy
§ Tariff of 1824 had raised duties from 23% to 37%
§ Tariff of 1828 increased some tariffs to 45%
- The result of a Jacksonian ploy to drive up tariff rates so high that even New England would vote against them. The ploy fails…
1. Southern reaction and reasons
§ Growing fear of federal intrusion
- More pressing in light of rising abolitionism (GB)
- 1822 Denmark Vessey slave conspiracy
§ Economic issues
- declining economy in South;
- inequity in protection (cotton sold in an unprotected market, manufactures are not)
- Pocketbook issues: tariffs = artificial inflation
2. Protest against the Tariff of 1828
§ South Carolina
- John C. Calhoun’s South Carolina Exposition and Protest.
- The theory of nullification reborn
- Protection against the “tyranny of the majority”
V. The Election of 1828
a) Candidates
1. Jackson v. JQA
b) Issues and Campaigning
1. Centers on the “Corrupt Bargain”
§ “Jackson and Reform”; “Shall the People Rule?”
2. Mudslinging
§ JQA’s supporters:
- call AJ’s mother a prostitute, play up “duels and murders” of AJ, brand AJ as an “adulterer” for marrying a woman (Rachel Robards) whose divorce was not yet official
- Rachel Jackson dies before AJ takes office – he blames it on his enemies’ slander
§ Jackson’s supporters:
- Call JQA a “gambler” (he had purchased a billiard table and a chess set with his own money while in the White House)
- Accused of “pimping” on behalf of a Russian nobleman while he served as minister to Russia.
c) Results
1. Jackson defeats Adams
§ Popular vote: 647,286 to 508,064
§ Electoral: 178 to 83
- Support primarily from west and south, as well as the labor vote in along the seaboard
VI. Andrew Jackson
a) As a personification of the new west:
1. Old Hickory = toughness
2. Reflects western individualism, energy, prejudices
3. Known for his violent temper
§ Duels, stabbings, and other bloody frays
b) As a personification of the new democracy
1. A hero for the common man
§ Poor upbringing
§ First president without a college education since Washington
2. Nominated by party convention, not caucus in 1832
c) As a bundle of contradictions
1. On role of federal gov’t
§ Suspicious of federal government
- seeks to “reduce it to that simple machine which the Constitution created”
- Opposes an active federal role in the economy (e.g., BUS or “The American System”
§ BUT is a strong proponent of federal supremacy and enhances executive power
- Use of veto power: King Andrew I
- Defies Supreme Court orders
VII. Jacksonian Politics
a) The Spoils System
1. Def: rewarding supporters with political offices
2. Rotation in Office as an ingredient of the New Democracy
§ Removal of an aristocratic, bureaucratic, officeholding class
3. Benefits of the Spoils System
b) Assessing Jackson’s use of the Spoils System
1. Not a “clean sweep”
§ Removes only about 1/5 of all officeholders (9,000 of 11,000 keep old jobs)
2. Starts a terrible precedent in politics
§ Insecurity replaces security in political jobs, encouraging able men not to work in gov’t
§ Party loyalty replaces merit as primary test of fitness
§ Scandals
- Purchasing posts with campaign contributions
- Samuel Swartwout
- Customs Collector at Port of New York; first man to steal $1 million from the US Gov’t
§ Encourages the growth of party machines
c) Jackson’s Cabinet
1. The Kitchen Cabinet
§ An unofficial cabinet of advisors who Jackson consulted
§ Consisted of newspaper men who kept Jackson informed on public opinion
§ Influence has been overexaggerated
2. Official Cabinet
§ Collapses in 1831 because of the Eaton Scandal (aka The Petticoat War)
- Secretary of War John H. Eaton marries Peggy O’Neale (a daughter of a boardinghouse keeper who was rumored to have “entertained” guests
- Peggy Eaton snubbed by the Washington ladies, esp. Calhoun’s wife
- Jackson tries to force her acceptance
- Influenced by the Rachel Jackson scandal?
- Results in mass resignations and purgation of Calhounites from the Jackson administration
VIII. The Growing Divide: Nationalism and Sectionalism in Politics
a) Jackson and Internal Improvements
1. Hostility to federal funding of localized roads and canals
2. Veto of the Maysville Road Bill (1830)
§ Part of Henry Clay’s “American System”
§ Road lay entirely within Kentucky
§ A victory for southern/eastern states rights’ advocates (against calls for nationalization of internal improvements in the west)
b) The Webster-Hayne Debate
1. Western growth opposed by easterners
§ Draining population and political power
§ 1829 – New England senator enters a resolution to curb the sale of public lands in the west
2. Sparks a 9-day debate in the Senate which reveals the deep sectional rivalries
§ southern states defend Westerners as a way of forming an alliance against the northeast
§ Webster-Hayne Debate: January 1830
- Robert Y. Hayne (South Carolina)
- Attacks New England’s disloyalty in the War of 1812
- Attacks the “Tariff of Abominations”
- Extolls Calhoun’s doctrine of nullification as the only means of protecting minority interests
- Daniel Webster (New Hampshire)
- Former Federalist; frequent lawyer before the Supreme Court
- Defends New England
- Attacks the doctrine of nullification, arguing that if the Supreme Court did not judge the laws, the nation would be torn apart by revolution
- “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable."
3. The Impact of the Debate
§ 40,000 copies of Webster’s reply were sold
- arguments for Union take hold in many northerners minds (including Abraham Lincoln)
- memorized by school children
c) Calhoun v. Jackson
1. The Jefferson Day toasts (1830)
§ An attempt to lure Jackson into speaking out on behalf of states’ rights
§ AJ “Our Union: It must be preserved!” v. Calhoun “The union, next to our liberty, most dear!”