PROFF

' P R.Q , "ISTCN

ier0

21 43 Satel0 - r

rrrK

,40-0,2,

/14

1*; j

I blush for my country when I see such things,

and I often tremble with apprehension that our

Constitution will not long withstand the current

which threatens to overwhelm it . . .

—Benjamin B. French, September 1828

• • • • •

; •••• V, • •

Andrew Jackson speaking to a crowd after his election. Politics in the olden time— General Jackson, President-elect, on his

way to Washington.

d fr.4/6e4) e4 • GN T -Y ,,,,,r757.71:::k,___

,,,t"w t:::::_a..:,,..:.::,......711.17 21,180£1.

V016.

------31..

IN Is.L.a DOUDINOIT: uUtSti r iTITOti oy

TM: COE

7 A.154tilt::,;.: V::::11.‘ITI:v1;:t.\ P.., Ni

n"Ca'o:“")4'41./.44.;

7::::'7,..;: :::: ''''.4:::::..'a.%

..1 ,n,,

s ; /;71::....

::Li:.1„.., ..ietx.:xxvu.r.„......:1„,...V,..

.11,,,,, b;rp, ..' ..., tx. a

-T.,1.....

t;t% •; T... W:4'

HOW DID suffrage expand between 1800 and 1840?

WHAT STEPS did Andrew Jackson take to strengthen the executive branch of the

federal government?

WHO WERE Andrew Jackson's most important opponents and what

did they support?

‘,. ‘,011s Ii .041

HARRISON I. TYLER %lid no tolts ■

Wit ■ 4 the v ■■■ • Itbout

THE LOG-CABIN, hW,A.f i_a_thiV_Sjav 71 tn.

WHAT WERE the main issues of the campaign of 1840?

WHAT ROLE did newspapers and pamphlets play in American

popular culture in the first half of the

nineteenth century?

1 1 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY

1824-1840

268 CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

AMER

CAN COMMUN

T

ES

A Political Community Replaces Deference with Democracy

PHILADELPHIA HAD LONG BEEN A STRONGHOLD OF CRAFT

associations for skilled workers. Their organizations, and their parades and celebrations, were recognized parts of the urban community. Groups of master craftsmen marching in community parades with signs such as "By Hammer and Hand All Arts Do Stand" not only demonstrated pride in their craft but also asserted their importance to the community as a whole. Pennsyl- vania enfranchised all men who were taxpayers in 1776, enabling many of Philadelphia's skilled workers to vote, but they were will- ing to follow the leadership of the city's political elite. This was the accepted rule of republican government as understood by leaders such as Thomas Jefferson: an independent and virtuous people willingly deferred to wealthy and enlightened leaders who would govern in the public interest. In reality, most states limited the vote to property owners, and so many ordinary men had little choice but to accept the decisions of the wealthy.

By the 1820s, the lives of workers in Philadelphia had changed. As the Market Revolution transformed the economy, many skilled workers lost their independence and became wage earners in factories owned by others. Members of urban workers' associations realized that their own economic interests were different from those of the owners. In other states, where many men gained the vote for the first time in the 1820s, a similar process of identifying common interests at odds with the traditional political elite was also under- way. The spread of universal manhood suf- frage marked the transition from traditional deferential politics to democracy.

In 1827, the British-born shoemaker William Heighton urged his fellow workers in Philadelphia to band together under "the banner of equal rights" and form their own political party to press for issues of direct concern to , work- ingmen, including the ten-hour day, free public education for their children, the end of imprisonment for debt, and curbing the powers of banks. "Surely we, the working class, who consti- tute a vast majority of the nation . . . have a right to expect [that] an improvement in our individual condition will be the natural result of legislative proceedings."

Heighton saw in the rising tide of universal manhood suf- frage the possibility of reaching his overarching aim of "eco- nomic democracy." In response to his new vision of majority

rule, the Philadelphia Working Men's Party was formed in 1828 and elected a slate of local officials as well as voting for Andrew Jackson for president. Andrew Jackson, who was so untradi- tional that at first national politicians did not take him seriously as a candidate, perfectly personified the new democratic mood and its animosity toward what was often termed "the monied aristocracy."

Thus, when a committee of the Philadelphia Working Men's Party attacked the banking system in 1829, Andrew Jackson paid attention. Their report decried the control by wealthy men of banks and of the paper money each bank issued (there was no national government-controlled currency until 1862), conclud- ing: "If the present system of banking and paper money be per- petuated, the great body of the working people must give over all hopes of ever acquiring any property." This fear of the threat to democracy from a moneyed aristocracy was common among vot- ers in rural areas of the South and West as well as in urban areas. Jackson not only understood this public resentment, but he also shared it. In 1832 he had Philadelphia's workers and others in mind when, speaking for "the humble members of society—the

farmers, mechanics and laborers," he refused to renew the charter of the Bank of the United

States and thereby instigated the events that we call the Bank War.

The Philadelphia Working Men's Party did not last very long. Too small and too narrowly focused to have wide

appeal, it was quickly absorbed into Jack- son's Democratic Party, with most of its spe-

cific demands unmet. Nevertheless, its brief history is significant for marking the end of tradi-

tional ideas about a unitary local political community and the transition to the more diverse and contentious community of competing interests that has characterized American democracy ever since. But it also set some limits. Politicians were quick to note that most Americans were uncomfortable with President Jackson's use of the language of class warfare in his veto mes- sage. Henceforth, whatever the competing interests might be, appeal to resentment alone was rarely successful. Rather, politi- cians sought to create national coalitions of voters with similar interests, creating new and more democratic political communi- ties than had existed before.

Bank War The political struggle between President Andrew Jackson and the supporters of the Second Bank of the United States.

IMAGE KEY for pages 266-267

a. A $5 note of the Second Bank of the United States.

b. Andrew Jackson speaking to a crowd

after his election.

c. A Cherokee Indian newspaper, Cherokee Phoenix.

d. An old, antique Bible bound in leather with a gold cross on the cover.

e. A portrait of Andrew Jackson by Thomas Scully.

f. Political cartoon showing Andrew

Jackson destroys the Second Bank of

the United States.

g. Americans endured poverty and unemployment by drinking, begging, and rioting in the streets of a city

during the 1837 Specie Panic.

h. A banner for William Henry Harrison

and John Tyler features political slogans

of the Log Cabin campaign above the date of the rally.

I An 1841 issue of the Crockett Almanac.

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 # 269

THE NEW DEMOCRATIC POLITICS

IN NORTH AMERICA

rip he early years of the nineteenth century were a time of extraordinary growth and change, not only for the United States but for all the coun- tries of North America as well. Seen in continental perspective, the Amer-

ican embrace of popular democracy was unusual. Elsewhere, crises over popular

rights dominated.

STRUGGLES OVER POPULAR RIGHTS: MEXICO, THE CARIBBEAN, CANADA

In 1821, after eleven years of revolts (see Chapter 9), Mexico achieved its indepen- dence from Spain. Briefly united under the leadership of Colonel Agustin de Itur- bide, Mexico declared itself a constitutional monarchy that promised equality for everyone—peninsulares, criollos, mestizos, and Indians alike. But because Spanish colonial rule had left a legacy of deep social divisions, the initial unity was short- lived. Iturbide reigned as Emperor of Mexico for little more than a year before he was overthrown by a military junta and later executed as a traitor. A series of weak presidents repeatedly invoked emergency powers and relied on the army, as they attempted to revive a faltering economy and reconcile the differences between the centralists—the vested interests of clergy, large landowners, and the military—and the federalists, largely criollos and mestizos, who hoped to create a liberal repub- lic modeled on the American one. The unresolved issue of elite versus popular rule continued to undermine the hope for unity, popular rights, and stable govern-

ment in an independent Mexico. The independence of Haiti in 1804 (see Chapter 9) set the pattern for

events in many other Caribbean islands in subsequent years. Independence destroyed the sugar industry, for freed slaves asserted their popular rights by refusing to perform the killing labor demanded of them on sugar plantations. The British Caribbean islands were racked with revolts, the largest occurring on Barbados in 1816 and on Jamaica in 1831. In response the British Parliament abol- ished slavery in all British colonies in 1834. As in Haiti, sugar production then plunged. The economic collapse that followed emancipation destroyed the polit- ical authority of local white elites, forcing the British government to impose

direct rule. Still a third crisis of popular rights occurred in British North America. In

1837, both Upper and Lower Canada rebelled against the limited representative government that the British government had imposed in the Constitutional Act of 1791. By far the most serious revolt was in predominantly French Lower Canada, where armed uprisings were brutally suppressed by British troops. In 1840, Britain abolished the local government of Lower Canada and joined it to Upper Canada in a union that most French Canadians opposed and in which they were a minority.

In comparison to these experiences, the rapid spread of suffrage in the United States and the growth of a vibrant but stable democratic political cul- ture seemed all the more extraordinary. But after a brilliant start, in the

1850s the United States, like its neighbors, foundered on a basic sectional dif- ference—slavery—that not even political democracy could reconcile (see

Chapter 15).

HOW DID suffrage expand

between 1800 and 1840?

myhistd4ylab Review Summary

RHODE ISLAND UNORGANIZED

TERRITORY

3. !WO (1818

CONNECTICUT NEW JERSEY

ELAWARE

MARYLAND

MISSOURI (1821)

ARKANSAS TERRITORY/

ALABAMA

MISSISSIPPI; (1819),

(1817)

LOUISIANA (1812)

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

TEXAS

VERMONT MAINE ,

NEW HAMPSHIRE

SSACHUSETTS

lip270 CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 THE EXPANSION AND LIMITS OF SUFFRAGE

Before 1800, most of the original thirteen states had limited the vote to property owners or taxpayers, thereby excluding about half of the white male population. Westward expansion changed the nature of American politics by undermining the traditional authority structures in the older states and supporting democracy in the newer states (see Map 11.1).

Most of the new states extended the right to vote to all white males over the age of twenty-one. Vermont led the way in 1791, followed by Kentucky in 1792. Tennessee (1796) and Ohio (1803) entered with low taxpayer qualifica-

FLORIDA TERRITORY

Gulf of Mexico

People per square mile

More than 90 18 to 90 2 to 18 Fewer than 2

OHIO New state after 1800 (1803)

MAP 11.1 Population Trends: Westward Expansion, 1830 Westward population movement, only a trickle in 1800, had become a flood by 1830. Between 1800 and 1830, the U.S. white and African Ameri-

can population more than doubled (from 5.3 million to 12.9 million), but the trans-Appalachian

population grew tenfold (from 370,000 to 3.7 million). By 1830, more than a third of the nation's

inhabitants lived west of the original thirteen states.

WHO WERE the western settlers and why did they leave the East?

THE GRO WTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 . 271

tions that approached universal suffrage. By 1820, most of the older states had followed suit. The War of 1812 was an important impetus to change in many states, for the propertyless men called up for militia service in that war ques- tioned why they were eligible to fight but not to vote. By 1840, more than 90 per- cent of adult white males in the nation could vote. And they could vote for more officials: governors and (most important) presidential electors were now elected by direct vote, rather than chosen by small groups of state legislators).

Universal white manhood suffrage, of course, was far from true universal suffrage: the right to vote remained barred to most of the nation's free African American males and to women of any race. Only in five New England states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island) could free African American men vote before 1865. In the rest of the northern states, the right of free African American men to vote was restricted to only the most affluent property own- ers. Free African American men were denied the vote in all of the new western states as well. The constitutions of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and (later) Oregon—attempted to solve the "problem" of free African Americans by simply denying them entry into the state at all. Of course, all free black men were prohibited from voting in the slave states of the South.

What accounted for this nearly universal denial of voting rights to free black men? Racism accounted for much of it, an attitude that was strengthened by the backlash against the extremely controversial abolitionist movement of the 1830s and 1840s (see Chapter 13). In addition, as party lines hardened, northern Democ- rats, the party most closely aligned with the slave South, opposed enfranchising African American men who were almost certain to vote for their opponents. Above all, it was a sign of the growing influence that the southern slave system cast over

all of American politics In contrast, the reason for the denial of suffrage to white women stemmed

from the patriarchal belief that men headed households and represented the inter- ests of all household members. Even wealthy single women who lived alone were con- sidered subordinate to male relatives and denied the right to vote. Although unable to vote, women of the upper classes had long played important informal roles in national politics. At the local level as well, women—often the wives of leading citizens—were accustomed to engaging informally in politics through their benev- olent groups. These groups, often church related, had since colonial times not only provided charity to the poor but also raised money to support basic community institutions such as schools, churches, and libraries, in effect setting community pri-

orities in the process. Although the extension of suffrage to all classes of white men seemed to

indicate that women had no role in public affairs, in fact women's informal involvement in politics grew along with the increasing pace of political activity. At the same time, however, as "manhood" rather than property became the qualification for voting, men began to ignore women's customary political activ- ity and to regard their participation as inappropriate, an attitude that politi- cally active women increasingly resented.

THE ELECTION OF 1824

The 1824 election marked a dramatic end to the political truce that James Mon- roe had established in 1817. Five candidates, all of them members of the Repub- lican Party, ran for president in the elections of 1824: William H. Crawford of Georgia, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Henry Clay of Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, and John C. Calhoun of South Car- olina, who withdrew before the election, to run for vice president. Jackson, a

QUICK REVIEW

Suffrage

• By 1840 over 70 percent of adult white males could vote.

• African American men were allowed to vote in only five New England states.

• The right to vote was denied to women of any race.

QUICK REVIEW

Expansion of the Franchise

• Opposition to land ownership as qualification for voting.

• Demands that all white men be treated equally.

• As political rights for white men expanded, political opportunities shrank for women and free black people.

5

11

16

14

1

051 26

28 3 ,, 7

24

15

8

7 8 15

Ni- 4 ..,_._8 8

...-2 . ,,,,, I

1 2

3

ATLANTIC

PACIFIC OCEAN

OCEAN

Gulf of Mexico

Nonvoting territories

Electoral Vote (%)

Popular Vote (%)

Andrew Jackson 99 153,544

(38) (43)

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 84 108,740 (32) (31)

William H. Crawford 41 46,618

(16) (13)

Henry Clay 37 47,136 (14) (13)

MAP 11.2

The Election of 1824 The presidential vote of 1824 was clearly sectional. John Quincy Adams carried his native New England and little else, Henry Clay carried only his own state of Kentucky and two adjoining states, and Crawford's appeal was limited to Virginia and Georgia. Only Andrew Jackson moved beyond the re- gional support of the Old Southwest to wider appeal and the greatest number of electoral votes. Because no candidate had a majority, however, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, which chose Adams.

WHAT ROLE did political parties play in the election of 1824?

1

272 • CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

latecomer to the race, was at first not taken seriously because his record as a legislator was lackluster and his political views unknown. He was not a member of the elite political group that had made up the governing class since 1790. However, owing to his national reputa- tion as a military leader, Jackson won 43 percent of the popular vote and 99 electoral votes—more than any other candidate. The runner-up, John Quincy Adams, won 31 percent of the popular vote and 84 electoral votes. But neither had an electoral majority, leaving it up to the House of Representatives, as in the election of 1800, to pick the winner.

After some political dealing, Henry Clay threw his support to Adams, and the House elected Adams presi- dent. This was customary and proper: the Constitution gave the House the power to decide, and Clay had every right to advise his followers how to vote. But when Adams named Clay his secretary of state, the traditional stepping- stone to the highest office, ackson's supporters promptly accused them of a "corrupt bargain." Popular opinion, the new element in politics, supported Jackson. John Quincy Adams served four miserable years as president, knowing that Jackson would challenge him, and win, in 1828 (see Map 11.2).

THE NEW POPULAR DEMOCRATIC CULTURE

Mass campaigns—huge political rallies, parades, and candidates with wide "name recognition," such as mil- itary heroes—were the hallmarks of the new popular democratic culture. So were less savory customs, such as the distribution of lavish food and (especially) drink at polling places, which frequently turned elections into rowdy, brawling occasions. The spirit that moti- vated the new mass politics was democratic pride in

10-2 John Quincy Adams, A "Corrupt Bargain" or Politics

as Usual? (1824)

participation. And as the election of 1824 showed, along with the spread of universal male suffrage went

a change in popular attitudes that spelled the end of the dominance of small political elites. New national parties that superseded sectional interests were beginning to emerge and to succeed, they had to appeal to the interests of a diverse range of voters.

A print revolution helped to democratize politics by spreading word far beyond the nation's cities about the parades, protests, and celebrations that became a basic part of popular democracy. The print revolution had begun in 1826, when a reform organization, the American Tract Society, installed the country's first steam-powered press and rapidly turned out 300,000 Bibles and 6 million reli- gious tracts. The greatest growth, however, was in newspapers that reached a mass audience. The number of newspapers soared from 376 in 1810 to 1,200 in 1835. This rise paralleled the growth of interest in politics, for most newspapers were pub- lished by political parties and were openly partisan. Packed with articles that today would be considered libelous and scandalous, newspapers were entertaining and popular reading, and they rapidly became a key part of democratic popular culture.

co° \clz.

1 I 1 1

?N N Ncb 1cb

P e

rc e

n t

o f V

o te

r T

u rn

o u t

100

80

60

40

20

Year

Figure 11.1 Pre—Civil War Voter Turnout The turnout of voters in presidential elections more than doubled from

1824 to 1828, the year Andrew Jackson was first elected. Turnout surged to 80 percent in 1840, the year the Whigs triumphed. The ex- tension of suffrage to all white men, and heated competition between

two political parties with nationwide membership, turned presidential

election campaigns into events with great popular appeal.

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11

2 73

This well-known painting by George Caleb Bingham, Stump Speaking, shows a group of men (and boys and dogs) of all social classes brought together by their common interest in politics.

George Caleb Bingham (American 1811-1879), "Stump Speaking," 1853-54. Oil on canvas, 42 1/2 x 58 in.

Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Bank of America.

The new politics placed great emphasis on participation and party loyalty. One way for ordinary citizens to show their loyalty was to turn out for parades, which derived from processions like those of Philadelphia artisans' associations in earlier times. Political pro- cessions were huge affairs, marked by the often spontaneous par- ticipation of men carrying badges and party regalia, banners and placards, and portraits of the candidates, accompanied by bands, fireworks, and the shouting and singing of party slogans and songs. The political party provided some of the same satisfactions that popular sports offer today: excitement, entertainment, and a sense of belonging. In effect, political parties functioned as giant national men's clubs. They made politics an immediate and engrossing topic of conversation and argument for men of all walks of life. In this sense, the political party was the political manifestation of a wider

social impulse toward community (see Figure 11.1).

THE ELECTION OF 1828

The election of 1828 was the first to demonstrate the power and effectiveness of the new popular democratic culture and party sys-

tem. With the help of Martin Van Buren, his campaign manager,

Andrew Jackson rode the wave of the new democratic politics to

PACIFIC OCEAN

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Gulf of Mexico

ANDREW JACKSON (Democrat)

178 647,2 (68) (56)

508,064

(44)

1

8 7

16

8 20 15

28 X88 16 5 -,—

3 Wilk 'N 63 Oar'

Nonvoting I territories

Electoral Vote

(%)

Popular Vote (%)

John Quincy Adams

(National Republican)

83

(32)

274

CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 0824-1840

Politics, abetted by the publication of inexpensive party newspapers, was a great topic of conversation among men

in early nineteenth-century America, as

Richard Caton Woodville's 1845 paint-

ing Politics in an Oyster House suggests.

Richard Caton Woodville, "Politics in an Oyster

House," 1848. Oil on canvas. The Walters Art

Museum, Baltimore.

Democrats Political party formed in the 1820s under the leadership of Andrew Jackson; favored states' rights and a limited role for the federal government.

the presidency. Voter turnout in 1828 was more than twice that of 1824. Jackson's party, the Democratic Republicans (they soon dropped "Repub- licans" and became simply the Democrats), spoke the language of democ- racy, and they opposed the special privilege personified for them by President John Quincy Adams and his National Republican (as distin- guished from the earlier Jeffersonian Republican) Party. Neither Jack- son nor Adams campaigned on his own—that was considered undignified. But the supporters of both candidates campaigned vigorously, freely, and negatively. Jackson's supporters, playing on popular resentment of a wealthy political elite, portrayed the campaign as a contest between "the democracy of the country, on the one hand, and a lordly purse-proud aristocracy on the other." In their turn, Adams's supporters depicted Jack- son as an illiterate backwoodsman, a murderer (he had ordered the exe- cution of deserters in the Tennessee militia), and an adulterer (apparently unwittingly, he had married Rachel Robards before her divorce was final).

Jackson won 56 percent of the popular vote (well over 80 percent in much of the South and West) and a decisive electoral majority of 178 votes to Adams's 83. The vote was interpreted as a victory for the com- mon man. But the most important thing about Jackson's victory was the coalition that achieved it. The new democratically based political system

worked together to elect him. Popular appeal, which Jackson the military hero certainly possessed, was not enough to ensure victory. To be truly national, a party had to create and maintain a coalition of North, South, and West. The Democrats were the first to do this (see Map 11.3).

MAP 11.3 The Election of 1828 Andrew Jackson's victory in 1828 was the first success of the new national party system. The coalition of state parties that elected him was national, not regional. Although his

support was strongest in the South and West, his ability to carry Pennsylvania and parts of New York demonstrated his national appeal.

TO WHAT extent was Andrew Jackson a "popular" president?

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11

2 75

THE JACKSON PRESIDENCY

A ndrew Jackson's election ushered in a new era in American politics, an era that historians have called the "Age of the Common Man." Jackson himself, however, was no common man: he was a military hero, a rich slave owner, and an imperious and decidedly undemocratic personality. "Old Hickory," as Jackson was affectionately called, was tough and unbending, just like hickory itself, one of the hardest of woods. Yet he had a mass appeal to ordinary people, unmatched—and indeed unsought—by earlier presidents. The secret to Jackson's extraordinary appeal lies in the changing nature of American society. Jackson was the first to respond to the ways in which westward expansion and the extension of the suffrage were changing politics at the national as well as the local and state levels.

A POPULAR PRESIDENT Jackson was born in 1767 and raised in North Carolina. During the American Revolution, he was captured and beaten by the British, an insult he never for- got. As a young man without wealth or family support, he moved west to the fron- tier station (fort) at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1788. There he made his career as a lawyer and his considerable wealth as a slave-owning planter. He first became a national hero with his underdog win against the British in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. In the popular mind, his fierce belligerence came to symbolize

-=111111111111=11.111.=' WHAT STEPS did Andrew Jackson

take to strengthen the executive

branch of the federal government?

myhistihilab Review Summary

10-4 Andrew Jackson, The "Commoner" Takes Office (1828)

pioneer independence. The fact that he had little political experi- ence, which would have made his nomination impossible under the traditional system of politics, was not a hindrance in the new

age of popular politics. On March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as pres-

ident of the United States. Jackson himself was still in mourning for his beloved wife Rachel, whose recent death he attributed to

the slanders of the campaign. But everyone else was celebrating. The small community of Washington was crowded with strangers, many of them Westerners and common people who had come espe- cially for Jackson's inauguration. Jackson's brief inaugural address was almost drowned out by the cheering of the crowd, and after the ceremony the new president was mobbed by well-wishers. The same unrestrained enthusiasm was evident at a White House reception, where the crowd was large and disorderly (see Seeing History). This was the exuberance of democracy in action. It marked something new in American politics. Indeed, Jackson's administration was dif- ferent from all those before it.

A STRONG EXECUTIVE The mob scene that accompanied Jackson's inauguration was more than a reflection of the popular enthusiasm for Old Hick- ory. It also signaled a higher level of controversy in national pol- itics. Jackson's personal style quickly stripped national politics of

the polite and gentlemanly aura of cooperation it had acquired during the Era of Good Feelings. Jackson had played rough all his life, and he relished controversy. His administration (1829-37) had plenty of it. Andrew Jackson dominated his administration. Except for Martin Van Buren, whom he appointed secretary of

state, he mostly ignored the heads of government departments

IIP Some Account of some of the Bloody Deeds OF

GENERAL JACKSON.

I I I 1 I I ..............,...,_,..,.......„,.....,., ..............„....... . ,..1..̂ Ztirt= 17.r....T...."'...= ..2...........: rz..,

=2V.. 7=t-,,=-1:

•"1 .r. gliaS.7 "'-zscalt54 t,-.7/11.5.. .,

1 ......,.... _

t±.7;tr'. '.r ,.....=1. ......."= ''' grerFla.... '. .1.....;•••••• . ... ... N............ ,n,.4.-- Y.

.110 0 'al

T171 1. ra. .x. '.. ."' ...017.4.:"

...aar■T=ST::: :qt... ... ....... "'lig:4,7qm. izsois..=1,1:17 Z...

Z.X1......=:%"..... I: =IT ..g.S.=

• "an.' 7,74.44,1" ."` "... "." S...U.tr. ...rall..... ....

11111

ii 4 .

0 a. I . f _

...t. .r.

Trak:71" xt.4r, -

[7— 7 ,, .1:1:Eil.-172:7. 7-.7;--NCiat -r 7i77-77-.- ^ -. --:5: 7:1-=:71-=:."---.-....4%..„...."''.=-

.,-----==- ='-a" ----Sr-..-arl 'rte" - ..'"` .....:' -.?.. .4-74:74-...--1... -.?-^; ".-= 117:712.--

7.4Zellt.V0 - C. lift .... M.6.V.12:a.etk:

This anti-Jackson "coffin bill" from the election of 1828 accus- es Jackson of murder because he ordered three men executed for desertion during the War of 1812.

QUICK REVIEW

Jackson's Inauguration

• Westerners and common people crowded into Washington for the inauguration.

• Jackson's brief address drowned out by cheering.

• The crowd at the White House was large and disorderly.

co 10-5 Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress (1829)

Nullification Crisis Sectional crisis in the early 1830s in which a states' rights party in South Carolina attempted to nullify federal law.

276 1p CHAPTER!! THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

who made up his official cabinet. Instead he consulted with an informal group, dubbed the "Kitchen Cabinet," made up of Van Buren and old western friends.

Jackson freely used the tools of his office to strengthen the executive branch of government at the expense of the legislature and judiciary. By using the veto more frequently than all previous presidents combined (twelve vetoes compared with nine by the first six presidents), Jackson forced Congress to constantly con- sider his opinions. Even more important, Jackson's "negative activism" restricted federal activity (see Chapter 9). Only his strong and popular leadership made this sharp change of direction possible.

THE NATION'S LEADER VERSUS SECTIONAL SPOKESMEN

Despite his western origins, Jackson was a genuinely national figure. He was more interested in asserting strong national leadership than in promoting sectional com- promise. He believed that the president, who symbolized the popular will of the peo- ple, ought to dominate the government. As he put it in his first annual message, "the first principle of our system [is that] the majority is to govern." This was new. Voters were much more accustomed to thinking of politics in sectional terms. Jack- son faced a Congress full of strong and immensely popular sectional figures. Three stood out: Southerner John C. Calhoun, Northerner Daniel Webster, and West- erner Henry Clay.

Intense, dogmatic, and uncompromising, John C. Calhoun of South Car- olina had begun his political career as an ardent nationalist and expansionist in his early days as a War Hawk before the War of 1812. Since the debate over the Missouri Compromise in 1820, however, Calhoun had wholeheartedly iden- tified with southern interests, first and foremost among which was the preser- vation and expansion of slavery.

Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts was the outstanding orator of the age. Large, dark, and stern, Webster delivered his speeches in a deep, booming voice that, listeners said, "shook the world." Webster became the main spokesman for the new northern commercial interests, supporting a high protective tariff, a national bank, and a strong federal government.

In contrast with the other two, Henry Clay of Kentucky, spokesman of the West, was charming, witty, and always eager to forge political compromises. Clay held the powerful position of Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1811 to 1825 and later served several terms in the Senate. Well known for his ability to make a deal—he was known as "the Great Pacificator" (compromiser)—Clay worked to incorporate western desires for cheap and good transportation into national politics. Clay might well have forged a political alliance between the North and the West if not for the policies of President Jackson, his fellow Westerner and greatest rival. Jackson's preeminence thwarted Clay's own ambition to be president.

The prominence and popularity of these three politicians show that sec- tional interests remained strong even under a president as determined as Jackson to override them and disrupt "politics as usual" by imposing his own personal style. Nothing showed the power of sectional interests more clearly than the unprecedented confrontation provoked by South Carolina in Jackson's first term,

the Nullification Crisis.

THE NULLIFICATION CRISIS

The crisis raised the fundamental question concerning national unity in a federal system: What was the correct balance between local interests—the rights of the states—and the powers of the central government? The men who wrote the federal

H

"President's Levee, or all Creation Going to the White House"

U ntil 1829, presidential inaugurations had been small, polite, and ceremonial occasions. Andrew Jackson's popularity, however, brought a horde of well-wishers to Washington for his inaugural. "Thousands and thousands of people, without distinction of rank," reported Washington resident Margaret Bayard Smith, "collected in an immense mass round the Capi-

tol, silent, orderly and tranquil," to watch Jack-

DOES IT matter that the details are not authentic? Why or why not?

son's swearing-in. But afterwards, when the crowd

followed Jackson to an open house at the White

House, says Smith, "what a scene did we witness!

. . . a rabble, a mob of boys, negros, women, chil-

dren, scrambling, fighting, romping. What a pity what a pity." Her consternation was echoed

by many respectable people who feared that "the reign of King Mob" had begun.

This famous illustration of the raucous crowd at the White House reception is by the

British caricature artist Robert Cruikshank. It was probably first shown, along with other pic-

tures, in a London printmaker's window display in 1829, with copies sold for two shillings. For

the British, amusement came from the fact that American democracy so quickly turned into

a rowdy mob, just as the British had always predicted.

Cruikshank was not in Washington at the time of Jackson's inaugural. At best, the details

of the illustration are based on accounts provided to him by others or perhaps simply

invented. Nevertheless, the illustration captures the mood of the celebrating crowd. ■ 7-5zaw, -Wan.

Margaret Bayard Smith, The First Forty Years of Washington Society (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906); Robert Cruikshank, President's Levee,

or all Creation Going to the White House, illustrated in The Playfair Papers (London: Saunders and Otley, 1841).

277

278 CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

Three Great Sectional Leaders. The years

of Jackson's presidency were also notable for the prominence of regional spokesmen, among them John C.

Calhoun (left), who spoke for the South

and slavery, Henry Clay (center) who

spoke for the West, and Daniel Webster

(right), who represented northern busi-

ness. Clay's great personal charm is cap- tured in this 1824 portrait, contrasting with Calhoun's dour expression and

Webster's stern image.

(center) Matthew H. Joulett (1788-1827), "Henry

Clay," c. 1824. Oil on panel. (attr. to Joulett)

(0 Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, USA.

Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787 had not been able to reach agreement on this question. Because the Constitution deliberately left the federal structure ambigu- ous, all sectional disagreements automatically became constitutional issues that carried a threat to national unity.

The political issue that came to symbolize the divergent economic inter- ests of North and South was the protective tariff that placed a duty (or sur- charge) on imported goods. The first substantial tariff was enacted in 1816 after northern manufacturing interests clamored for protection from the ruth- less British competition that followed the War of 1812 (see Chapter 9). As a

group, wealthy southern planters were opposed to tariffs, both because duties raised the cost of the luxury goods they imported from Europe and because they feared that American tariffs would cause other countries to retaliate with tar- iffs against southern cotton. Most southern congressmen, assured that the 1816 tariff was a temporary postwar recovery measure, voted for it. But it was not temporary.

As the North industrialized and new industries demanded protection, tariff bills in 1824 and 1828 raised rates still higher and protected more items. Southern- ers protested, but they were outvoted in Congress by northern and western represen- tatives. The 1828 tariff imposed especially high tariffs on imported textiles and iron. Southern opponents of the tariff insisted that it was not a truly national measure but rather a sectional one that helped only some groups while harming others. Thus, they

claimed, it was unconstitutional because it violated the rights of some of the states. South Carolina, Calhoun's home state, reacted the most forcefully to the

Tariff of 1828. Of the older southern states, South Carolina had been the hardest hit by the opening of the new cotton lands in the Old Southwest, which had drained both population and commerce from the state To these economic woes were added the first real fears about national attitudes toward slavery. South Carolinians, who had always had close personal ties with slave owners in the Caribbean islands, were shaken by the news that the British Parliament, bowing to popular pressure at home, was planning to emancipate all the slaves in the British West Indies. If Con- gress had the power to impose tariffs that were harmful to some states, South Car- olinians asked, what would prevent it from enacting legislation like Britain's,

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 # 279 depriving Southerners of their slaves and, thus, of their livelihood? In this sense, although the Nullification Crisis was about the tariff, it was also about the great- est of all sectional issues, slavery.

The result of these fears was a renewed interest in the doctrine of nullifica- tion, a topic that became the subject of widespread discussion in South Carolina. The doctrine upheld the right of a state to declare a federal law null and void and to refuse to enforce it within the state. Calhoun wrote a widely circulated defense of the doctrine, the Exposition and Protest, in 1828. Because Calhoun was soon to serve as Andrew Jackson's vice president, he wrote the Exposition anonymously. He hoped to use his influence with Jackson, a fellow slave owner, to gain support for nullifi- cation, but he was disappointed.

Where Calhoun saw nullification as a safeguard of the rights of the minority, Jackson saw it as a threat to national unity. The president and the vice president were thus in open disagreement on a matter of crucial national importance. The out- come was inevitable: Calhoun lost all influence with Jackson, and two years later, he took the unusual step of resigning the vice presidency. Martin Van Buren was elected to the office for Jackson's second term. Calhoun, his presidential aspirations in ruins, became a senator from South Carolina, and in that capacity, participated in the last act of the nullification drama.

In 1832, the nullification controversy became a full-blown crisis. In passing the Tariff of 1832, Congress (in spite ofJackson's disapproval) retained high taxes on woolens, iron, and hemp, although it reduced duties on other items. South Car- olina responded with a special convention and an Ordinance of Nullification, in which it rejected the tariff and refused to collect the taxes it required. The state further issued a call for a volunteer militia and threatened to secede from the Union if Jackson used force against it. Jackson responded vehemently, denounc- ing the nullifiers and obtaining from Congress a Force Bill authorizing the federal government to collect the tariff in South Carolina at gunpoint if necessary. Intim- idated, the other southern states refused to follow South Carolina's lead. More qui- etly, Jackson also asked Congress to revise the tariff. Henry Clay, the Great Pacificator, swung into action and soon, with Calhoun's support, had crafted the Tariff Act of 1833.

The Nullification Crisis was the most serious threat to national unity that the United States had ever experienced. South Carolinians, by threatening to secede, had forced concessions on a matter they believed to be of vital economic importance. They—and a number of other Southerners—believed that the res- olution of the crisis illustrated the success of their uncompromising tactics.

CHANGING THE COURSE OF GOVERNMENT

As Martin Van Buren later recalled, Jackson came to the presidency with a clear agenda: "First, the removal of the Indians from the vicinity of the white population and their settlement beyond the Mississippi. Second, to put a stop to the abuses of the Federal government in regard to internal improve- ments [and] Third, to oppose as well the existing re-incorporation of the existing National Bank." As Jackson enacted his agenda, which he believed expressed the popular will, he changed the course of the federal government as decisively as Jefferson had during his presidency (see Chapter 9). But the opposition that Jack- son evoked also revealed the limits of presidential authority in an age of democ- ratic politics.

10-8 President Andrew Jackson's Proclamation Regarding Nullification (1832)

10-9 The Force Bill (1833)

=111 11111111.= WHO WERE Andrew Jackson's

most important opponents and what

did they support?

myhistorylab Review Summary

280 • CHAPTER 11

co 10-6 "Memorial of the Cherokee Nation" (1830)

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

INDIAN REMOVAL

The official policy of the U.S. government from the time of Jefferson's administra- tion was to promote the assimilation of Indian peoples by encouraging them to adopt white ways. To Indian groups that resisted "civilization" or that needed more time to adapt, Jefferson offered the alternative of removal from settled areas in the East to the new Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Following this logic, at the end of the War of 1812, the federal government signed removal treaties with a number of Indian nations of the Old Northwest, thereby opening up large tracts of land for white settlement (see Chapter 9). In the Southwest, however, the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles—remained.

Of these, the Cherokees took the most extensive steps to adopt white ways. Their tribal lands in northwestern Georgia boasted prosperous farms, businesses, grain and lumber mills, and even plantations with black slaves. Intermarriage with whites and African Americans had produced an influential group of mixed-bloods within the Cherokee nation, some of whom were eager to accept white ways. Schooled by Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and Moravian missionaries, the Cherokees were almost totally literate in English.

Despite the evidence of the Cherokees' successful adaptation to the domi- nant white culture, in the 1820s, the legislatures of Georgia, Alabama, and Missis- sippi, responding to pressures from land-hungry whites, voted to invalidate federal treaties granting special self-governing status to Indian lands. Because the federal government, not the states, bore responsibility for Indian policy, these state actions constituted a sectional challenge to federal authority. In this instance, however, unlike the Nullification Crisis, the resisting states had presidential support. Living up to his reputation as a ruthless Indian fighter, Jackson determined on a federal policy of wholesale removal of the southern Indian tribes.

In 1830, at President Jackson's urging, the. U.S. Congress passed the hotly debated Indian Removal Act, which appropriated funds for relocation, by force if necessary. When Jackson increased the pressure by sending federal officials to nego- tiate removal treaties with the southern tribes, most reluctantly signed and prepared to move. The Cherokees, however, fought their removal by using the white man's weapon—the law. At first they seemed to have won: in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcesterv. Georgia (1832), ChiefJustice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokees, though not a state or a foreign nation, were a "domestic dependent nation" that could not be forced by the state of Georgia to give up its land against its will. Ignor- ing the decision, ackson continued his support for removal.

Although some Seminole bands mounted a successful resistance war in the Florida Everglades, the majority of Seminoles and members of other tribes were much less fortunate: most of the Choctaws moved west in 1830; the last of the Creeks were forcibly moved by the military in 1836, and the Chickasaws a year later. And in 1838, in the last and most infamous removal, resisting Cherokees were driven west to Oklahoma along what came to be known as the "Trail of Tears." A 7,000-man army escorting them watched thousands (perhaps a quarter of the 16,000 Cherokees) die along the way (see Map 11.4).

Indian removal was a deeply divisive national issue. President Jackson's sweep- ing policy undoubtedly expressed the opinion of most Southerners and Western- ers. But northern opinion, led by Protestant missionaries and reform groups, was strongly opposed. Among the groups mobilized in protest were members of female benevolent societies who had a direct interest in the issue, for they had long raised money to support missionary activities aimed at assimilating, not removing, Amer- ican Indians. Now, they joined together to organize the first national female peti- tion drive. A surprised Congress was deluged by women's petitions against removal,

Indian Removal Act President Andrew Jackson's measure that allowed state officials to override federal protection of Native Americans.

Trail of Tears The forced march in 1838 of the Cherokee Indians from their homelands in Georgia to the Indian Territory in the West.

FLORIDA TERRITORY

SEMINOLES 832

MEXICO

Mobile

New Orleans° 0(."

CHEROKEES

CHICKASAWS CREEKS

32 GEORGIA AMA

TEXAS LOUISIANA

KENTUCKY

NORTH CAROLINA Nashville

MISSOURI

00°

OKEES SOUTH 1835 • New Echota CAROLINA

CREEKS AND SEMINOLES

CHOCKTAWS

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Gulf of Mexico

Ceded lands and dates of treaties

I I Indian reservations 4— Routes of Indian removal

Boundaries of 1830 I I

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 # 281

OHIO INDIANA

ILLINOIS VIRGINIA

MAP 11.4 Southern Indian Cessions and Removals, 1830s Pressure on the five major southern Indian peoples—the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles—that began during the War of 1812 culminated with their removal in the 1830s. Some groups from every tribe ceded their southern homelands peacefully and moved to the newly established Indian Territory west of Arkansas and Missouri. Some, like the Semi- noles, resisted by force. Others, like the Cherokees, resisted in the courts, but finally lost when President An- drew Jackson refused to enforce a Supreme Court decision in their favor. The Cherokees, the last to move, were forcibly removed by the U.S. Army along the "Trail of Tears" in 1838.

WHAT GROUPS supported the Indian Removal Act?

many with hundreds of signatures (670 from Pittsburgh alone). In the end, the protest failed, but by the barest of margins: the Indian Removal Act passed the House of Representatives by only 3 votes (out of 200).

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS

Because Jackson was a Westerner, his supporters expected him to recognize the nation's urgent need for better transportation and to provide federal funding for internal improvements, especially in the West. Jackson's veto of the Maysville Road Bill of 1830 was, therefore, one of his most unexpected actions. Jackson refused to allow federal funding of a southern spur of the National Road in Kentucky, claim-

ing it should be paid for by the state. Jackson argued that federal funding for extensive and expensive transportation measures was unconstitutional because it infringed on the "reserved powers" the Constitution left to the states.

Internal improvements were a part of Clay's American System (which had been supported by the Monroe and Adams administrations) that envisaged the national government as planner and administrator of a coordinated policy to encour- age economic growth and foster the development of a national market. But since 1816, it had proved impossible to propose a nationally funded transportation plan

QUICK REVIEW

Georgia and the Cherokees

Georgia stole land of Creek Indians in 1825.

• Georgia moved against Cherokees in 1828, stripping them of all legal rights.

♦ Stage was set for Indian Removal Act.

282

CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

that satisfied everyone. Repeatedly, disappointed claimants for federal funds accused each administration of favoritism and corruption. Jackson ended most of the debate over internal improvements by refusing federal funds for all but the most obviously interstate projects (such as the National Road).

But the country still needed a basic infrastructure of roads, canals, and rail- roads to tie the national economy together. Without federal funding and plan-

ning, the initiative passed to private developers, who turned to individual states. States and towns, especially in newly populated areas of the West, competed in giving land, subsidies, and other forms of encouragement to road, canal, and railroad companies to provide transportation to their particular localities.

FEDERAL AND STATE SUPPORT FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

At the same time that funding for internal improvements passed to the states, a series of decisions by federal courts asserted broad federal powers over interstate com- merce. The effect of these decisions, contradictorily, was to vastly encourage com- mercial enterprise by limiting the regulatory power of the states at the same time that they were putting up most of the money for the new transportation network.

By preventing states from interfering with interstate commerce, the courts encour- aged development by assuring entrepreneurs the freedom and security to operate in the risky new national market. Two key decisions were handed down by ChiefJus- tice John Marshall (who had been on the bench since 1801). In Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), the Supreme Court prevented states from interfering in contracts, and in Gibbonsv. Ogden (1824), it enjoined the State of New York from giving a monop- oly over a steamboat line to Robert Fulton, inventor of the vessel. Although Fulton's invention was protected by a federal patent, its commercial application was not. A decision handed down by Marshall's successor, Roger Taney, Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837), again supported economic opportunity by denying a monopoly.

At the state level, another crucial commercial protection was the passage of laws concerning incorporation of businesses that had grown too large for individ- ual proprietorship, family ownership, or limited partnership. Businesses that needed to raise large amounts of capital by attracting many investors found the contractual protections provided by incorporation to be essential. The protection investors wanted most was limited liability—the assurance that they would lose no

more than what they had invested in a corporation if it were sued or went bank- rupt. The net effect of state incorporation laws was to encourage large-scale eco- nomic activity and to hasten the commercialization of rural areas, both crucial aspects of the Market Revolution (see Chapter 12).

THE BANK WAR

In the case of internal improvements, Jackson rejected, on behalf of popular democracy, the notion of coordinated economic planning by the government. His rejection set up the conditions for a speculative frenzy. Precisely the same result occurred in his epic battle with the Second Bank of the United States.

In 1816, Congress had granted a twenty-year charter to the Second Bank of

the United States. The Bank was owned by private investors, with the U.S. government holding only one-fifth of the shares. But its most important function was the control it exercised over state banks. Because state banks tended to issue more paper money than they could back with hard currency, the Bank always demanded repayment of its loans to them in hard currency. This policy forced state banks to maintain adequate

reserves and restricted speculative activities. In times of recession, the Bank eased the pressure on state banks, demanding only partial payment in coin. Thus, the Bank acted as a currency stabilizer by helping to control the money supply.

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 283

In this political cartoon, Jackson destroys the Second Bank of the United States by withdrawing gov-

ernment deposits. As the Bank crashes, it crushes the director Nicholas Biddle (depicted as the

Devil), wealthy investors (with moneybags), and the newspaper editors (surrounded by paper) who

opposed Jackson on this issue.

The concept of a strong national bank controlled by wealthy investors, not

the federal government, was supported by the majority of the nation's merchants

and businessmen. Nevertheless, the Bank had many opponents. Both western farm-

ers and urban workers had bitter memories of the Panic of 1819, which the Bank

had caused (at least in part) by sharply cutting back on available credit. Many ordi-

nary people believed that a system based on paper currency would be manipulated

by bankers—the "monied aristocracy"—in selfish and dangerous ways.

Early in his administration, Jackson hastened to tell Nicholas Biddle, the

director of the Bank: "I do not dislike your Bank any more than all banks." By

1832, Jackson's opinion had changed, and he and Biddle were locked in a personal

conflict that harmed not only the national economy but also the reputations of both

men. Biddle, urged on by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, precipitated the con-

flict by making early application for rechartering the Bank. Congress approved the

application in July 1832. Jackson immediately decided on a stinging veto, announc-

ing to Van Buren, `The bank . . . is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!"

And kill it he did that same July, with one of the strongest veto messages in

American history. Denouncing the Bank as unconstitutional, harmful to states'

rights, and "dangerous to the liberties of the people," Jackson presented himself

as the spokesman for the majority of ordinary people and the enemy of special

privilege. Jackson's veto message was a great popular success, and it set the terms for

the presidential election of 1832. Henry Clay, the nominee of the anti-Jackson

forces, lost the battle for popular opinion. Democrats successfully painted Clay

as the defender of the Bank and of privilege. These were accusations with great

popular appeal. Clay's defeat was decisive: he drew only 49 electoral votes to Jack-

son's 219.

10-7 Andrew Jackson, Veto of the

Bank Bill (1832)

QUICK REVIEW

Jackson and the Bank of the United

States

• Jackson, and most Westerners, distrusted banks.

• Jackson talked about not rechar- tering the Bank of the United States.

• Struggle over future of Bank ended with victory for Jackson.

This figurehead of Andrew Jackson, carved in 1834 for the navy frigate Constitution, cap- tures the unmovable resolve that made Jackson so popular early in his presidency and so reviled during the Bank War. Museum of the City of New York (M52.11).

Whigs The name used by advocates of colonial resistance to British measures during the 1760s and 1770s.

Specie Circular Proclamation issued by President Andrew Jackson in 1836 stipulating that only gold or silver could be used as payment for public land.

284 * CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

Although the election was a triumph for Jackson, the Bank War continued because Jackson decided to kill the Bank by transferring its $10 million in govern- ment deposits to favored state banks ("pet banks," critics called them).

Jackson's refusal to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States had lasting economic and political consequences. Economically, it inaugurated the economic policy known as laissez-faire, where decision-making power rests with com- mercial interests, not with government. Politically, it so infuriated Jackson's oppo- nents that they formed a permanent opposition party. It was from the heat of the Bank War that the now characteristic American two-party system emerged.

WHIGS, VAN BUREN, AND THE PANIC OF 1837

In 1833, as the government withdrew its deposits, Nicholas Biddle, the Bank's director, counterattacked by calling in the Bank's commercial loans, thereby causing a sharp panic and recession in the winter of 1833-34. Merchants, busi- nessmen, and southern planters were all furious—at Jackson. His opponents, only a loose coalition up to this time, coalesced into a formal opposition party that called itself the Whigs. Just as Jackson's own calls for popular democracy had appealed to voters in all regions, so his opponents overcame their sec- tional differences to unite in opposition to his economic policies and arbi- trary methods.

Vice President Martin Van Buren, Jackson's designated successor, won the presidential election of 1836 because the Whigs ran four sectional candidates, hoping their combined votes would deny Van Buren a majority and force the elec- tion into the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, the consequences of the Bank War continued. The reces- sion of 1833-34 was followed by a wild speculative boom, caused as much by foreign investors as by the expiration of the Bank. Many new state banks were chartered that were eager to give loans, the price of cotton rose rapidly, and speculation in western lands was feverish. A government surplus of $37 mil- lion distributed to the states in 1836 made the inflationary pressures worse. Jackson became alarmed at the widespread use of paper money (which he blamed for the inflation), and in July 1836, he issued the Specie Circular, announcing that the government would accept payment for public lands only in hard currency. At the same time, foreign investors, especially British banks, affected by a world recession, called in their American loans. The sharp con- traction of credit led to the Panic of 1837 and a six-year recession, the worst the American economy had yet known.

In neither 1837 nor 1819 did the federal government take any action to aid victims of economic recession. No banks were bailed out, no bank depositors were saved by federal insurance, no laid-off workers got unemployment payments. Nor did the government undertake any public works projects or pump money into the economy. All of these steps, today seen as essential to prevent economic collapse and to alleviate human suffering, were unheard of then. Soup kitchens and char- ities were mobilized in major cities, but only by private, volunteer groups, not by local or state governments. As a result, workers, farmers, and members of the new business middle class suddenly realized that participation in America's booming economy was very dangerous.

Martin Van Buren (quickly nicknamed "Van Ruin") spent a dismal four years in the White House presiding over bank failures, bankruptcies, and massive unem- ployment. Van Buren, who lacked Jackson's compelling personality, could find no remedies to the depression. His misfortune gave the opposition party, the newly formed Whigs, its opportunity.

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-184o CHAPTER 11 • 285

THE SECOND AMERICAN PARTY SYSTEM

T he First American Party System, the confrontation between the Federal-ists and the Jeffersonian Republicans that began in the 1790s, had been widely viewed at the time as an unfortunate factional squabble that threat- ened the common good of the republic (see Chapter 8). By the 1830s, with the expansion of suffrage, attitudes had changed. The political struggles of the Jack- son era, coupled with the dramatic social changes caused by expansion and eco- nomic growth, created the basic pattern of American politics: two major parties, each with at least some appeal among voters of all social classes and in all sections of the country. That pattern, which we call the "Second American Party System," continues to this day.

WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS

There were genuine differences between the Whigs and the Democrats, but they were not sectional differences. Instead, the two parties reflected just-emerging class and cultural differences. The Democrats, as they themselves were quick to point out, had inherited Thomas Jefferson's belief in the democratic rights of the small, independent yeoman farmer. They had nationwide appeal, especially in the South and West, the most rural regions. As a result of Jackson's presi- dency, Democrats came to be identified with independence and a distaste for interference, whether from the government or from economic monopolies such as the Bank of the United States. They favored expansion, Indian removal, and the freedom to do as they chose on the frontier. Most Democratic voters were opposed to the rapid social and economic changes of the 1830s and 1840s.

The Whigs were themselves often the initiators and beneficiaries of eco- nomic change and were more receptive to it. They supported Henry Clay's American System: a strong central government, the Bank of the United States, a protective tariff, and internal improvements. Whigs favored government intervention in both economic and social affairs, calling for education and

=1=1111111== WHAT WERE the main issues of

the campaign of 1840?

myhistoiylab Review Summary

8-13 Davy Crockett, Advice to Politicians (1833)

Second American Party System The basic pattern of American politics of two parties, each with appeal among voters of all social voters and in all sections of the country.

This contemporary cartoon bitterly depicts the terrible effects of the

Panic of 1837 on ordinary people—

bank failures, unemployment, drunk- enness, and destitution—which the artist links to the insistence of the

rich on payment in specie (as Jackson had required in the Species

Circular of 1836). Over the scene

waves the American flag, accompa-

nied by the ironic message, "61st Anniversary of Our Independence."

PACIFIC

OCEAN

Gulf of Mexico

7 4 11

3

9 21

15

15

10

7 7 42 14

30 8

10 23

15

11

5 1 ILANTIC

OCEAN

Nonvoting territories

Electoral Vote (%)

Popular Vote (%)

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 234 1,27

(Whig) (80) (53)

Martin Van Buren 60 1,129,1

(Democrat) (20), (47

MAP 11.5

The Election of 1840 The Whigs triumphed in the election of 1840 by

beating the Democrats at their own game. Whigs could expect to do well in

the commercializing areas of New England and the Old Northwest, but their

adopted strategy of popular campaigning worked well in the largely rural South and West as well, contributing to Harrison's victory. The Whigs' choice of John Tyler as vice presidential candidate, another strategy

designed to appeal to southern voters, backfired when Harrison died and

Tyler, who did not share Whig principles, became America's first vice

president to succeed to the presidency.

WHAT POLICI[ES did Tyler promote? Which did he reject?

286 • CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-184o

social reforms, such as temperance, that aimed to im- prove the ordinary citizen. Many rich men were Whigs, but so were many poorer men who had a democratic faith in the perfectibility of all Americans. The Whigs' greatest strength was in New England and the northern part of the West (the Old Northwest), the areas most affected by commercial agriculture and factory work (see Chapter 13).

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840

In 1840, the Whigs set out to beat the Democrats at their own game. Passing over the ever-hopeful Henry Clay, the Whigs nominated a man as much like Andrew Jackson as possible, the aging Indian fighter William Henry Harrison, former governor of the Indiana Territory from 1801 to

1812. The Whigs reached out to ordinary people with torch- light parades, barbecues, songs, coonskin caps, bottomless jugs of hard cider, and claims that Martin Van Buren, Har- rison's hapless opponent, was a man of privilege and aris- tocratic tastes. Nothing could be further from the truth: Van Buren was the son of a tavern keeper.

The Whig campaign tactics, added to the popular anger at Van Buren because of the continuing depression, gave Harrison a sweeping electoral victory (see Map 11.5).

THE WHIG VICTORY TURNS TO LOSS: THE TYLER PRESIDENCY

Although the Whig victory of 1840 was a milestone in Amer- ican politics, the triumph of Whig principles was short- lived. William Henry Harrison, who was sixty-eight, died of pneumonia a month after his inauguration. For the first time in American history, the vice president stepped up to

the presidency. John Tyler of Virginia, quickly nicknamed "His Accidency," was a former Democrat who had left the party because he disagreed with Jackson's auto- cratic style. The Whigs had sought him primarily for his sectional appeal and had not inquired too closely into his political opinions, which turned out to be anti-Whig as well as anti-Jackson.

President Tyler vetoed a series of bills embodying all the elements of Henry Clay's American System: tariffs, internal improvements, a new Bank of the United States. In exasperation, congressional Whigs forced Tyler out of the party, and his entire cabinet of Whigs resigned. To replace them, Tyler appointed former Democ- rats like himself.

WHAT ROLE did newspapers and

pamphlets play in American popular

culture in the first half of the

nineteenth century?

myhistd Review Summary

AMERICAN ARTS AND LETTERS

adj ackson's presidency was a defining moment in the development of an Amer- ican identity. His combination of western belligerency and combative indi- vidualism was the strongest statement of American distinctiveness since

Thomas Jefferson's agrarianism. Did Jackson speak for all of America? The Whigs did not think so. And the definitions of American identity that were beginning to emerge in popular culture and in intellectual circles were more complex than

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 287

OVERVIEW The Second American Party System

First organized to elect Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1828. The Democratic Party spoke for Jeffersonian democracy, expansion, and the freedom of the "common man" from interference from government or from financial monopolies like the Bank of the United States. It found its power base in the rural South and West and among some northern urban workers. The Democratic Party was the majority party from 1828 to 1860.

Organized in opposition to Andrew Jackson in the early 1830s. Heir to Federalism, the Whig Party favored a strong role for the national government in the economy (for example, it promoted Henry Clay's American System) and supported active social reform. Its power base lay in the North and Old Northwest among voters who benefited from increased commercialization and among some southern planters and urban merchants. The Whigs won the elections of 1840 and 1848.

Democrats

Whigs

the message coming from the White House. Throughout the nation, however, there was a widespread interest in information and literature of all kinds. The Age of the Common Man would prove to be the period when American writers and painters found the national themes that allowed them to produce the first dis- tinctively American literature and art.

POPULAR CULTURES AND THE SPREAD OF THE WRITTEN WORD

Newspapers and pamphlets fostered a variety of popular cultures. For western readers, the Crockett almanacs offered a mix of humorous stories and tall tales. In New York City, the immensely popular "penny papers" (so called from their price) that began appearing in 1833 fostered a distinctive urban culture. These papers, with lurid headlines such as "Double Suicide" and "Secret Tryst," fed the same popular appetite for scandal as did other popular publications. Throughout the country, religious literature was still most widely read, but a small middle-class audience existed for literary magazines and, among women especially, for senti-

mental magazines and novels. Accompanying all these changes in print communication was an invention

that outsped them all: telegraph. The impact of this revolutionary invention, the first to separate the message from the speed at which a human messenger could travel, was immediate. The timeliness of information available to the individual, from important national news to the next train's arrival time, vastly increased. Dis- tant events gained new and exciting immediacy. Everyone's horizon and sense of

community were widened.

CREATING A NATIONAL AMERICAN CULTURE

In the early years of the nineteenth century, eastern seaboard cities actively built the cultural foundation that would nurture American art and literature. Philadelphia's American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, boasted a distinguished roster of scientists. Culturally, Boston ran a close second to Philadelphia. Southern cities were much less successful in sup- porting culture. Charleston had a Literary and Philosophical Society (founded

in 1814), but the widely dispersed residences of the southern elite made urban cultural institutions difficult to sustain. Thus, unwittingly, the South ceded

cultural leadership to the North.

myhist4ylab Overview: The Second American Party System

QUICK REVIEW

William Henry Harrison of Ohio

0 Untainted by association with Bank of the United States, Masonic Order, or slaveholding.

♦ Hero of War of 1812.

• Selected John Tyler of Virginia as his running mate.

\n it •

1 ill i NV l-

kt, i a No a ir ..., . - r,'„ - 6. t Aliq

• mow. .A. r

-= --” 4. -..'w--- 7- 1 ' 5Eft, ‘,i . g "..,.- •., -- _ I 10, v, l

/_-

.S0 'Ai

thin

tlnl

IlliL

LILKARY OF TILE ATOM :SUM.

10-11 Alexis de Tocqueville, A French Traveler Reports on American Society (1835)

QUICK REVIEW

The Print Revolution

♦ 1826: American Tract Society installs first steam-powered press in the United States.

Greatest growth was in newspapers.

♦ Newspapers and pamphlets fos- tered a variety of popular cultures.

288 CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

9-10 James F. Cooper, Notions of the Americans (1840)

The Boston Athenaeum was one of Boston's leading cultural institutions. The library, shown in this engraving, was probably the finest in the country in the early nineteenth century.

The cultural picture was much spottier in the West. A few cities had civic cul- tural institutions, and some transplanted New Englanders maintained connections with New England culture. A group of pioneers in Ames, Ohio, for example,

founded a "coonskin library" composed of books purchased from Boston and paid for in coonskins. But most pioneers were at best uninterested and at worst actively hostile to traditional literary culture. This was neither from lack of literacy nor from a failure to read. Newspaper and religious journals both had large reader- ships in the West: the Methodist Christian Advocate, for example, reached 25,000 peo- ple yearly (compared with the North American Review's 3,000 readers). The frontier emphasis on the practical was hard to distinguish from anti-intellectualism.

Thus, in the early part of the nineteenth century, the gap between the intel- lectual and cultural horizons of a wealthy Bostonian and a frontier farmer in Michigan widened. Part of the unfinished task of building a national society was the creation of a national culture that could fill this gap. For writers and artists, the challenge was to find distinctively American themes.

Of the eastern cities, New York produced the first widely recognized Amer- ican writers. In 1819, Washington Irving published The Sketch Book, thus immor- talizing Rip Van Winkle and the Headless Horseman. Within a few years, James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking novels (of which The Last of the Mohicans, pub-

lished in 1826, is the best known) achieved wide success in both America and Europe. Cooper's novels established the experience of westward expansion, of which the conquest of the Indians was a vital part, as a serious and distinctive American literary theme.

It was New England, however, that claimed to be the forge of American cultural independence from Europe. As Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed in 'The Ameri- can Scholar," a lecture he delivered in 1837 to the Harvard faculty, "Our day of depen- dence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close."

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11 • 289

CHRONOLOGY

1819 Dartmouth College v. Woodward

1821 Mexican independence from Spain

1824 Gibbons v. Ogden

John Quincy Adams elected president by the House of Representatives

1826 First American use of the steam-powered printing press

1828 Congress passes "Tariff of Abominations"

Andrew Jackson elected president

John C. Calhoun publishes Exposition and Protest anonymously

1830 Jackson vetoes Maysville Road Bill

Congress passes Indian Removal Act

1832 Nullification Crisis begins

Jackson vetoes renewal of Bank of the United States charter

Jackson reelected president

1833 General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna elected president of Mexico

1834 Whig Party organized

British abolish slavery in their Caribbean colonies

1836 Jackson issues Specie Circular

Martin Van Buren elected president

1837 Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge

Revolts against Britain in Upper and Lower Canada

Ralph Waldo Emerson first presents "The American Scholar"

Panic of 1837

1838 Cherokee removal along the "Trail of Tears"

1840 Whig William Henry Harrison elected president

Act of Union merges Upper and Lower Canada

1841 John Tyler assumes presidency at the death of President Harrison

ARTISTS AND BUILDERS

Artists were as successful as novelists in finding American themes. Thomas Cole, myhistciylab who came to America from England in 1818, painted American scenes in the style Exploring America: American Art of the British romantic school of landscape painting. Cole founded the Hudson River school of American painting, a style and subject matter frankly nationalis- tic in tone.

The western painters—realists such as Karl Bodmer and George Catlin as well as the romantics who followed them, like Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran—drew on the dramatic western landscape and its peoples. All these painters found much to record and to celebrate in American life.

The haste and transience of American life are nowhere as obvious as in the architectural record of this era, which is sparse. The monumental neoclassical style (complete with columns) that Jefferson had recommended for official build- ings in Washington continued to be favored for public buildings elsewhere and by private concerns trying to project an imposing image, such as banks. But in gen- eral, Americans were in too much of a hurry to build for the future, and in balloon-frame construction they found the perfect technique for the present. Balloonframe structures—which consist of a basic frame of wooden studs fastened with crosspieces top and bottom—could be put up quickly, cheaply, and without the help of a skilled carpenter. Covering the frame with wooden siding was equally simple, and the resultant dwelling was as strong, although not as well insulated, as a house of solid timber or logs.

290 CHAPTER 11 THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840

CONCLUSION

Andrew Jackson's presidency witnessed the building of a strong national party system based on nearly universal white manhood suffrage. Section-alism and localism seemed to have been replaced by a more national consciousness that was clearly expressed in the two national political parties, the Whigs and the Democrats. The Second American Party System created new demo- cratic political communities united by common political opinions and often mo- bilized by common political resentments.

Culturally, American writers and artists began to establish a distinctive Amer- ican identity in the arts. But as the key battles of the Jackson presidency—the Nul- lification Crisis, Indian removal, and the Bank War—showed, the forces of sectionalism resisted the strong nationalizing tendencies of the era. Equally clear- ly, popular political opinion, once aroused, was not always as controllable as politi- cians may have wished. As the next chapter will show, economic developments in the North were beginning to create a very different society and electorate from that of the slave South or the rural West.

REV EW QUESTIONS 1. What reasons might a person of the 1820s and 1830s give for opposing

universal white manhood suffrage? Suffrage for free African American men? For women of all races?

2. Opponents believed that Andrew Jackson was unsuited in both political experience and temperament to be president of the United States, yet his presidency is considered one of the most influential in American history. Why?

3. Both the Nullification Crisis and Indian removal raised the constitutional issue of the rights of a minority in a nation governed by majority rule. What rights, in your opinion, does a minority have, and what kinds of laws are necessary to defend those rights?

4. Why was the issue of government support for internal improvements so controversial? What is the appropriate role for government in economic development?

5. What were the key differences between Whigs and Democrats? What did each party stand for? Who were their supporters? What were the links between each party's programs and party supporters?

6. What distinctive American themes did the writers, artists, and builders of the 1820s and 1830s express in their works? Are they still considered American themes today?

myhistdrylab Flashcard Review

KEY TERMS Bank War (p. 268) Democrats (p. 274) Indian Removal Act (p. 280) Nullification Crisis (p. 276)

Second American Party System (p. 285) Specie Circular (p. 284) Trail of Tears (p. 280) Whigs (p. 284)

THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY, 1824-1840 CHAPTER 11

RECOMMENDED READING Anne M. Boylan, The Origins of Women's Activism: New York and Boston 1797-1840

(2002). How and why the first women's volunteer associations were formed and their political influence.

Bray Hammond, Banks and Politics in America (1957). The classic study of the Bank War and its consequences.

Patrick J. Jung, The Black Hawk War of 1832 (2007). An up-to-date study of one of the last Indian wars in the eastern United States.

Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the Unit- ed States (2000). A survey that examines the reasons for continual limits on the franchise.

Simon Newman, Parades and the Politics of the Street (1997). Examines how festive culture became an expression of popular political culture.

Robert Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Source of American Freedom (1981). An ac- count of Jackson's White House years by his major biographer.

Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (1995). An engrossing study of the effects of the democ-

ratization of politics.

Harry L. Watson, Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America (1990). An excellent overview of Jacksonian politics.

Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (2005). A massive

new political study that traces the different histories of "city" and "coun-

try" democracy.

mYtli§thIp.Pb For study resources for this chapter, go to www.myhistorylab.com and choose Out of

Many, Teaching and Learning Classroom Edition. You will find a wealth of study and review

material for this chapter, including pretests and posttests, customized study plan, key-term review flash cards, interactive map and document activities, and documents for analysis.

291

V Henry Clay

/62-

I

Jacksonian Democracy and American Politics

H istorians have referred to the years of Jackson's presidency as the Age of the Common Man and the Rise of Democracy. Perhaps this does carry a little too much elaboration with it, but the time of Andrew Jackson was a period of great ferment and change. The Second Great Awakening was stirring

the religious and reform values of American citizens. The rise of

the second two party system was creating both conflict and con-

frontation in American politics. The issues of national tariffs and

slavery were beginning to divide the states and the slow move-

ment toward civil war was becoming clearly apparent.

John Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay and the elec-

tion of 1824 comprise a turning point in U.S. politics. With a

field of four candidates, the election for president was thrown

to the U.S. House of Representatives where Henry Clay was the

TO WHAT degree was the election of 1824 a turning point in American political history?

Considering the role of the common man,

changes in party operations and campaign

tactics, and the growing influence of political

patronage, how did the events initiated in that

election change American politics between

1824 and 1840?

AS USUAL? ( 1 8 24)

9TH. . . . Mr. Clay came at six, and spent the evening with me in a long conversation explanatory of the past and prospective of the future. He said that the time was drawing near when the choice must

be made in the House of Representatives of a President from the three candidates presented by the electoral colleges; that he had been much urged and solicited with regard to the part in that transaction that he should take, and had not been five minutes landed at his lodgings before he had been applied to by a friend of Mr. Crawford's, in a manner so gross that it had disgusted him; that some of my friends also, disclaiming, indeed, to have any authority from me, had repeatedly applied to him, directly or indirectly, urging considerations personal to himself as motives

to his cause. He had thought it best to reserve for sometime his determination to himself: first, to give a decent time for his own funeral solemnities as a candidate; and, secondly, to prepare and predispose all his friends to a state of neutrality between the three candidates who would be before the House, so that they might be free ultimately to take that course which might be most conducive to the public interest. The time had now come at which he might be explicit in his communication with me, and he had for that purpose asked this confidential interview. He wished me, as far as I might think proper, to satisfy him with regard to some principles of great public importance, but with- out any personal considerations for himself. In the question to come before the House between General Jackson, Mr. Crawford, and myself, he had no hesitation in saying that his preference would be for me. ■

Charles Francis Adams, ed. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, 12 Volumes (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1875)

Speaker of the House and had heavy influence upon the vote

of the members of that chamber. After Adams was elected over Jackson, who had

the largest share of popular votes, Adams appointed Clay as the Secretary of

State, then seen as a stepping stone to the presidency. Jackson's supporters

immediately screamed "corrupt bargain" and the campaign of 1828 was under-

way before Adams was even inaugurated. Jackson's people coalesced into the

Democratic party. Adams' followers became the National Republicans, later

evolving into the Whigs ■

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, A "CORRUPT BARGAIN" OR POLITICS

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES AND POLITICAL PARTIES, 1788-1840

IN THE slightly more than fifty years covered in this list, some parties flourished and some died. Some parties rose up to replace earlier parties and some changed into a new political alliance with a different name and evolved political goals.

1788 George Washington — No Party Designation John Adams — No Party Designation

1792 George Washington — No Party Designation John Adams — No Party Designation George Clinton — No Party Designation

1796 John Adams — Federalist Thomas Jefferson — Democratic-Republican Thomas Pinckney — Federalist Aaron Burr — Democratic-Republican

1800 Thomas Jefferson — Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr — Democratic-Republican John Adams — Federalist Charles C. Pinckney — Federalist

1804 Thomas Jefferson — Democratic-Republican Charles C. Pinckney — Federalist

1808 James Madison — Democratic-Republican Charles C. Pinckney — Federalist George Clinton — Democratic-Republican

1812 James Madison — Democratic-Republican Dewitt Clinton — Federalist

1816 James Monroe — Democratic-Republican Rufus King — Federalist

1820 James Monroe — Democratic-Republican John Q. Adams — Independent Republican

1824 John Q. Adams — Democratic-Republican Andrew Jackson — Democratic-Republican William H. Crawford — Democratic-Republican Henry Clay — Democratic-Republican

1828 Andrew Jackson — Democratic John Q. Adams — National Republican

1832 Andrew Jackson — Democratic Henry Clay — National Republican William Wirt — Anti-Masonic John Floyd — National Republican

1836 Martin Van Buren — Democratic William H. Harrison — Whig Hugh L. White — Whig Daniel Webster — Whig W.P. Mangum — Whig

1840 William H. Harrison — Whig Martin Van Buren — Democratic.•

.4( William Learned Marcy (1786-1857).

American political

leader. Steel

engraving, 19th

century.

SENATOR WILLIAM MARCY

SENATOR WILLIAM Marcy gave the name "spoils system" to the practice of awarding political office to the supporters of your own party once you had won control of either state or federal government. His famous statement on the floor of the U.S. Senate: "When they are contending for victory, they avow the intention of enjoying it. If they are defeated, they expect to retire from office. If they are successful, they claim as matter of right the advantages of success. They see nothing wrong in the rule that to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy." This principal had been used heavily in the states of New York and Pennsylvania where Marcy engaged brutally in applying the practice. It was not until Jackson's election in 1828 the spoils system was intro- duced at the federal level. Previous presidents had been cir- cumspect in removing federal office servers from their jobs. Washington had removed only 9 in two terms; Adams had removed 9 in one term. After the Federalists were defeated in 1800 and the Democratic Republicans took office, Jefferson refused to utilize the spoils system and removed only 39 federal office holders in two terms. Madi- son then dropped only 5 in two terms, Monroe removed only 9 in two terms, and John Q. Adams fired only 2 in one administration. This changed in 1829 when Jackson removed a total of 734 federal office holders in a single year of his first administration. The age of the spoils system had arrived. The Democrats clearly used the spoils system to their advantage. How did the other political parties respond to this concept?

ANDREW JACKSON, STATE OF THE UNION MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 8, 1829

...The duties of all public officers are, or at least admit of being made, so plain and simple that men of intelligence may readily qualify themselves for their performance; and I can not but believe that more is lost by the long continu- ance of men in office than is generally to be gained by their experience. I submit, therefore, to your consideration whether the efficiency of the Government would not be pro- moted and official industry and integrity better secured by a general extension of the law which limits appointments to four years ■