4.8: Jackson and Federal Power
4.8: Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates about the role of the federal government from 1800 to 1848.
In the last set of notes, we went over the spread of democracy and the splitting of the Democratic-Republicans and now, we’re going to be analyzing the presidency of Andrew Jackson and federal power.
In brief, after the Election of 1824, the Democratic-Republicans split into two parties: the National Republicans and the Democrats. The Democrats were led by Andrew Jackson and were similar to the old Democratic-Republicans and Anti-Federalists under Thomas Jefferson. They favored limited federal power, free trade, local rule, and agricultural interests. They were against monopolies, high tariffs, and the National Bank. The National Republicans became the Whigs, led by Henry Clay, and were similar to the old Federalist party. They supported a strong central government, demonstrated by Clay’s American System, and favored urban interests and large industries.
Andrew Jackson and Tariffs
So now let’s talk about the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Jackson supported the spoils system, meaning that when he became president, he filled his office with his supporters instead of the most qualified people, allowing him to control the government that was under him. The moment his presidency started, the role of federal power became a major topic of controversy throughout it.
To put it simply, when Jackson was about to become president, the Tariff of 1828 was passed by John Quincy Adams that increased taxes on imported goods, which greatly hurt Southerners who relied on these goods. Jackson's vice president, John C. Calhoun, who was from the South, opposed the tariff and called it the Tariff of Abominations. He wrote the South Carolina Exposition & Protest, which proposed the Doctrine of Nullification. This doctrine suggested that a state could nullify a federal law if it deemed it unconstitutional. South Carolina ignored another tariff in 1832, which led to Jackson passing the Force Bill in 1833. This gave him the power to use military force to enforce the tariffs in South Carolina if they kept ignoring them. In the end, South Carolina backed down and both sides negotiated a reduction to the tariffs, which also established that states couldn’t nullify all federal laws, called the Compromise Tariff of 1833.
The National Bank
The National Bank was a subject of many debates involving federal power. When the Second Bank of the United States needed to be rechartered in 1832 after causing several state banks to fail in the 1830s, Jackson vetoed it and decided to distribute federal funds meant for the National Bank to the 23 state banks instead. This helped him win reelection in 1832 but it also caused the state banks to start printing too much paper money. To combat this, Jackson issued the Specie Circular in 1836, which required all federal land purchases to be made with gold or silver instead of paper money. Eventually, the overprinting led to the Panic of 1837, causing wages to drop, people to lose their jobs, and banks to go bankrupt, leading to many Americans falling into debt with worthless paper money.
Indian Removal
Now let’s talk about one of the most significant events in Jackson’s presidency: Indian Removal. As had happened numerous times before, Americans wanted more land for agriculture and expansion, so they expanded westward. This led to conflicts with Native Americans. In 1830, Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, mandating that Native Americans east of the Mississippi be relocated to the Oklahoma territory west of the river. The act was passed after gold was discovered in the Cherokee Nation in Georgia. Although the Supreme Court had ruled in Worcester v. Georgia that Georgia had no right to interfere with the Cherokee Nation, the Treaty of New Echota was signed in 1835, officially exchanging Cherokee lands for reservation lands west of the Mississippi. This led to the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of the Cherokees in 1838. Many of them died from disease or starvation on the way. Some Cherokees resisted and eventually settled on a reservation in western North Carolina, forming the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians.
During Jackson’s presidency, Clay’s American System had authorized the federal construction of roads and canals but despite this, it was still controversial between political parties. For example, the Whigs, his party, saw this construction as a necessary part of connecting the nation while Democrats, Jackson’s party, saw it as an overreach of federal power and unconstitutional.
The Presidency of Martin Van Buren
After Jackson’s presidency ended, Martin Van Buren became the eighth president after the Election of 1836. Right as it began, the Panic of 1837 occurred, as described earlier. Although the main problem was the overprinting of money, he refused to convert paper money to gold or silver. His presidency was filled with border disputes with Canada and although Congress offered troops and money in case a war broke out, Van Buren refused to go to war. Additionally, the Republic of Texas, which had recently won independence from Mexico, wanted to be annexed by the United States. But Van Buren refused to annex Texas, fearing that it mess with the balance of free and slave states, similar to what happened with Missouri’s admission in 1820. In the end, when the Election of 1840 arrived, Van Buren failed to win a second term.
