Jacksonian Era Terms

• Jackson, John Q.
• Adams, Henry Clay, and William Crawford all ran for the same party.  None got a majority so the house decided
• between Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. 
• Adams was elected

• Clay was made Adams’s
• secretary of state.  Jackson’s followers
• found this to be an even bigger insult than the election of Adams although he did not have the previous electoral majority before voting went to the house.

• A French aristocrat
• who visited America and was surprised by the equality. 
• He wrote a book about the democratic rights of American citizens that he found amazing

The movement to challenge the old balance of power and the Eastern elites and to fight for the west and the disenfranchised.

The right to vote.  Before 1824 it had property restrictions, was then opened to all white males

• Thomas Dorr and followers challenged the outdate Constitution of Rhode Island that disenfranchised over half of adult white males. 
• They drafted a new one and started a new government, creating, for a short time, two governments in Rhode Island. 
• Dorr eventually surrendered

Adams beat John Quincy Adams to become President

Political faction led by Martin Van Buren.  They said that institutionalized parties were beneficial to democracy

• Jackson thought that office in government was too often seen as a species of property. 
• He argues that offices should go to the qualified, not those who were perceived as deserving or qualified. 
• Spoils system was the right of elected officials to appoint their own followers to public office.

Presidential nominations were normally decided by an exclusive congressional caucus, Jackson and his followers moved to national party conventions

Vice president to Andrew Jackson, the two eventually grew to hate each other

• Calhoun sought to aid his home state of South Carolina when they rebelled against the tariff and threatened secession. 
• He proposed that if a state found a law to be unconstitutional, they could nullify it.  Each state would then have to vote on the
• law. 
• If ¾ of the states voted for the law, it would become a constitutional amendment. 
• If the required majority was not met, the law would be void. 
• If it was met, the state with the initial complaint could give up or secede from the United States

• South Carolina farmers hated the tariff of 1816. 
• The tariff of 1828 slightly increased that tariff and grew to be called the “tariff of abominations” in the south.

• The governor of New York who was known as a political genius. 
• Was appointed Secretary of State by Jackson. 
• Had a strong influence on Jackson.

• The name for the unofficial circle of Allies who gave advice to Jackson. 
• Van Buren was the only Kitchen Cabinet member who was also an official cabinet member.

• Peggy was the daughter of a tavern keeper.  Jackson and Senator Eaton had stayed at the tavern. 
• She and Eaton had an affair and got married. 
• Eaton was named Secretary of War shortly after. 
• The other cabinet wives refused to accept Peggy but Jackson insisted. 
• Calhoun and his wife refused but Van Buren and his wife immediately made friends.

• Hayne and Webster argued over Western land sales and the tariff. 
• Hayne gave a speech about the perceived northeast tyranny of which the South and West were victims.
• Webster responded with a long speech that was quoted for years to come. 
• Turned into a debate over national power.

• A dinner in honor of Thomas Jefferson. 
• Jackson gave a speech during which he stared at Calhoun and intimidated him

A bill authorizing military action to enforce acts of Congress

• Henry Clay arranged that he tariff would be lowered to 1816 levels by 1842. 
• This saved Calhoun from a conflict of interests between South Carolina and Jackson.

• Some people considered the Natives to be of a noble nature but without any civilization. 
• This eventually progressed in some regions to the view of Natives as just savages. 
• And they did not want to live in close proximity to them.

The consolidation of many small Native tribes into larger, more unified tribes.

• Black Hawk led Native tribes that refused to honor agreements that would cede Illinois land to theUnited States. 
• Black hawk led 1,000 men into Illinois. 
• America responded with strong attacks and captured Black Hawk

• Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw tribes lived in the South near Georgia. 
• They had a written language and a formal constitution. 
• Jackson approved efforts to relocate them to the West

• The Removal Act would remove the civilized tribes and relocate them to the West. 
• Many tribes did give up their lands for small fees

• Cherokee Nation went to the Supreme Court against the Removal Act.
• Court refused to hear the case

• Worcester argues against a Georgia law requiring permission to enter Cherokee territory.
• Marshall invalidated the law on the grounds that only the federal government had that right.

• Western reservation given to Natives who fled to North Carolina. 
• Indian Territory later became Oklahoma

• Natives were forced by armed forces to walk absurd distances to get to the reservations in the west. 
• Over 1/8th died due to the terrible conditions and long walking hours

Act that officially created the new Indian Territory in the West

• Seminoles in Florida refused to relocate. 
• Federal government spent $20,000,000 and lost 1,500 soldiers to guerilla warfare in the everglades. 
• The fight was given up in 1842 when most, butnot all, of the Seminoles were either killed or relocated

• Vetoed a bill for a Kentucky road saying that it was unconstitutional because the road lay entirely within Kentucky 
• Therefore was no interstate commerce so it could not be federally subsidized.