Chapter 13
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A.P. U.S. History Notes
Chapter 13: “The Rise of Jacksonian Democracy”
~ 1824 – 1830 ~
Politics for the People
When the Federalists had dominated, democracy was not respected, but by the 1820s, it was widely appealing.
Politicians now had to bend to appease and appeal to the masses, and the popular ones were the ones who claimed to be born in log cabins and had humble backgrounds.
Those who were aristocratic (too clean, too well dressed, too grammatical, to highly intellectual) were scorned.
Western Indian fighters and/or militia commanders, like Andrew Jackson, Davy Crocket, and William Henry Harrison, were quite popular.
Jacksonian Democracy said that whatever governing that was to be done should be done directly to the people.
Called the New Democracy, it was based on universal manhood suffrage.
In 1791, Vermont became the first state admitted to the union to allow all white males to vote in the elections.
While the old bigwigs who used to have power sneered at the “coonskin congressmen” and the “bipeds of the forest,” the new democrats argued that if they messed up, they messed up together and were not victims of aristocratic domination.
Nourishing the New Democracy
The flowering the political democracy was in part caused the logical outgrowth of the egalitarian ideas that had taken root in colonial times.
The steady growth of the market economy also nourished it.
More and more people understood how banks, tariffs, and internal improvements affected the quality of their lives.
The panic of 1819 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820 also helped it grow.
In the panic of 1819, overextended banks had called back their debts, and often, farmers unable to pay up lost their farms while the bankers didnt have to lose their property because they simply suspended their own payments, and the apparent favoritism caused outcry.
The problem with Missouri had aroused Southern awareness to how the North could try to crush their slavery once and for all.
During the Jacksonian era, voter turnout rose dramatically, as clear political parties developed and new styles of politicking emerged.
In 1824, only ј of all eligible voters voted, but that numbered doubled 4 years later.
Candidates increasingly used banners, badges, parades, barbecues, free drinks, and baby kissing in order to “get the vote.”
Now, more members of the Electoral College were being chosen directly by the people rather than be state legislatures.
Since secret meetings now became unpopular, presidential nominations by congressional caucus emerged predominantly.
Briefly, nominations were made by some of the state legislatures, but by 1831, the first of the circuslike national nominating conventions were held.
The Adams-Clay “Corrupt” Bargaining.
In the election of 1824, there were four towering candidates: Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, Henry Clay of Kentucky, William H. Crawford of Georgia, and John Q. Adams of Mass.
All four called themselves Republicans.
In the results, Jackson got the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, but he failed to get the majority in the Electoral College. Adams came in second in both, while Crawford was fourth in the popular vote but third in the electoral votes. Clay was 4th in the electoral vote.
By the 12th Amendment, the top three Electoral vote getters would be voted upon in the House of Reps. and the majority (over 50%) would be elected president.
Clay was eliminated, but he was the Speaker of the House, and since Crawford has recently suffered a paralytic stroke and Clay hated Jackson, he threw his support behind John Q. Adams, helping him become president.
When Clay was appointed Secretary of the State, traditional stepping-stone to the presidency, Jacksonians cried foul play.
John Randolph publicly assailed the alliance between Adams and Clay.
Evidence against any possible deal has never been found, but both men flawed their reputations.
A Yankee Misfit in the White House
John Quincy Adams was a man of puritanical honor, and he had achieved high office by commanding respect rather than by boasting great popularity.
During his administration, he only removed 12 public servants from the federal payroll, thus refusing to kick out efficient officeholders in favor of his own, possibly less efficient, supporters.
In his first annual message, Adams urged Congress on the construction of roads and canals, proposed for a national university, and advocated support for an astronomical observatory.
Public reaction was mixed: roads were good, but observatories werent important, and Southerners knew that if the government did anything, it would have to continue collecting tariffs.
With land, Adams tried to curb overspeculation on land, much to Westerners anger, even though he was doing it for their own good, and with the Cherokee Indians, he tried to deal fairly with them and the state of Georgia successfully resisted federal attempts to help the Cherokees.
The Tricky “Tariff of Abominations”
In 1824, Congress had increased the general tariff from 23% to 37%, but wool manufactures still wanted higher tariffs.
In the Tariff of 1828, the Jacksonians schemed to drive up duties to as high as 45% while imposing heavy tariffs on raw materials like wool, so that even New England, where it was needed, would vote the bill down and give Adams another political black eye.
However, the New Englanders spoiled the plan and passed the law (amended).
Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun reversed their positions from 1816, with Webster