The Election of 1828
Rachel
In many ways, Jackson’s election of 1828 was the first true smear campaign in American history, thus beginning a very recognizable tradition. It was also a campaign that brought to the fore the relationship of liberty and power. Jackson's campaign was a grassroots campaign, complete with buttons, pamphlets, and paraphenalia.
Adams was the effete Easterner. Jackson, the outlaw.
The Coffin Handbill, by John Binns , Philadelphia printer:
When Jackson won the election in 1828, map, he did so over John Quincy Adams, the incumbent and son of a founding father, John Adams. It was a classic match-up of establishment versus outsider, aristocracy versus everyman. For Jackson’s inauguration, the capital was flooded with an unprecedented influx of well-wishers. Observers compared the throngs to the “inundation of the northern barbarians into Rome” and spoke of their lives “without deference to fashion.” Jackson himself shook 10,000 hands.
The Peggy Eaton Affair
Indian Removal |
Sequoyah Language |
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Jackson's Address to Congress
The Kitchen Cabinet
Jackson and the Bank: Killing the Monster
The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly. When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him.
Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. "The bank," Jackson told Martin Van Buren, "is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" Jackson, in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.
Tariffs, States' Rights, and Nullification
Without union our independence and liberty would never have been achieved; without union they never can be maintained. ... The loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union.
Andrew Jackson, Second Inaugural Address, 1833
Jackson vetoed twelve bills, more than all of his predecessors combined. It was consistent with his goal to strengthen the role of the presidency, and in support of his principles to limit the role of the national government in designing and controling economic activities.
Jackson met head-on the challenge of John C. Calhoun, leader of forces trying to rid themselves of a high protective tariff. Ironically, Calhoun had been Jackson's VP during most of his first term.
When South Carolina undertook to nullify the tariff, Jackson ordered armed forces to Charleston (The Force Act) and privately threatened to hang Calhoun. Violence seemed imminent until Clay negotiated a compromise: tariffs were lowered and South Carolina dropped nullification.