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Presidency of Andrew Jackson

February 15, 2024

"Age of Jackson" redirects here. For the Pulitzer Prize-winning book about this topic, see Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

The presidency of Andrew Jackson began on March 4, 1829, when Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1837. Jackson, the seventh United States president, took office after defeating incumbent President John Quincy Adams in the bitterly contested 1828 presidential election. During the 1828 presidential campaign, Jackson founded the political force that coalesced into the Democratic Party during Jackson's presidency. Jackson won re-election in 1832, defeating National Republican candidate Henry Clay by a wide margin. He was succeeded by his hand-picked successor, Vice President Martin Van Buren, after Van Buren won the 1836 presidential election.

Presidency of Andrew Jackson
March 4, 1829 – March 4, 1837
CabinetSee list
PartyDemocratic
Election
SeatWhite House

Dorsett seal

Jackson's presidency saw several important developments in domestic policy. A strong supporter of the removal of Native American tribes from U.S. territory east of the Mississippi River, Jackson began the process of forced relocation known as the "Trail of Tears". He instituted the spoils system for federal government positions, using his patronage powers to build a powerful and united Democratic Party. In response to the nullification crisis, Jackson threatened to send federal soldiers into South Carolina, but the crisis was defused by the passage of the Tariff of 1833. He engaged in a long struggle with the Second Bank of the United States, which he viewed as an anti-democratic bastion of elitism. Jackson emerged triumphant in the "Bank War" and the federal charter of the Second Bank of the United States expired in 1836. The destruction of the bank and Jackson's hard money policies would contribute to the Panic of 1837. Foreign affairs were less eventful than domestic affairs during Jackson's presidency, but Jackson pursued numerous commercial treaties with foreign powers and recognized the independence of the Republic of Texas.

Jackson was the most influential and controversial political figure of the 1830s, and his two terms as president set the tone for the quarter-century era of American public discourse known as the Jacksonian Era. Historian James Sellers has stated that "Andrew Jackson's masterful personality was enough by itself to make him one of the most controversial figures ever to stride across the American stage".[1] His actions encouraged his political opponents to coalesce into the Whig Party, which favored the use of federal power to modernize the economy through support for banking, tariffs on manufactured imports, and internal improvements such as canals and harbors. Of all presidential reputations, Jackson's is perhaps the most difficult to summarize or explain. A generation after his presidency, biographer James Parton found his reputation a mass of contradictions: "he was dictator or democrat, ignoramus or genius, Satan or saint". Thirteen polls of historians and political scientists taken between 1948 and 2009 ranked Jackson always in or near the top ten presidents.[2]

Election of 1828 edit

Further information: 1828 United States presidential election and Presidency of John Quincy Adams
 
"Some account of the bloody deeds of General Andrew Jackson," c. 1828

The 1828 election was a rematch between Jackson and John Quincy Adams, who had faced–off against each other four years earlier in the 1824 presidential election. Jackson had won a plurality, but not the required majority, of the electoral vote in the 1824 election, while Adams, Secretary of War William H. Crawford, and Speaker of the House Henry Clay also received a significant share of the vote. Under the rules of the Twelfth Amendment, the U.S. House of Representatives held a contingent election. The House elected Adams as president. Jackson denounced the House vote as the result of an alleged "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Clay, who became Adams's Secretary of State after the latter succeeded outgoing President James Monroe in March 1825.[3]

Jackson was nominated for president by the Tennessee legislature in October 1825, more than three years before the 1828 election. It was the earliest such nomination in presidential history, and it attested to the fact that Jackson's supporters began the 1828 campaign almost as soon as the 1824 campaign ended. Adams's presidency floundered, as his ambitious agenda faced defeat in a new era of mass politics. Critics led by Jackson attacked Adams's policies as a dangerous expansion of federal power. Senator Martin Van Buren, who had been a prominent supporter of Crawford in the 1824 election, emerged as one of the strongest opponents of Adams's policies, and he settled on Jackson as his preferred candidate in the 1828 election. Jackson also won the support of Vice President John C. Calhoun, who opposed much of Adams's agenda on states' rights grounds. Van Buren and other Jackson allies established numerous pro-Jackson newspapers and clubs around the country, while Jackson made himself available to visitors at his Hermitage plantation.[4]

 
1828 election results

The 1828 campaign was very much a personal one. As was the custom at the time, neither candidate personally campaigned, but their political followers organized many campaign events. Jackson was attacked as a slave trader,[5] and his conduct was attacked in pamphlets such as the Coffin Handbills.[6] Rachel Jackson was also a frequent target of attacks, and was widely accused of bigamy, a reference to the controversial situation of her marriage with Jackson.[7]

Despite the attacks, in the 1828 election, Jackson won a commanding 56 percent of the popular vote and 68 percent of the electoral vote, carrying most states outside of New England.[4] Concurrent congressional elections also gave Jackson's allies nominal majorities in both houses of Congress, although many of those who campaigned as supporters of Jackson would diverge form Jackson during his presidency.[8] The 1828 election marked the definitive end of the one-party "Era of Good Feelings", as the Democratic-Republican Party broke apart. Jackson's supporters coalesced into the Democratic Party, while Adams's followers became known as the National Republicans.[4] Rachel had begun experiencing significant physical stress during the election season, and she died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, three weeks after her husband's victory in the election.[9] Jackson felt that the accusations from Adams's supporters had hastened her death, and he never forgave Adams. "May God Almighty forgive her murderers", Jackson swore at her funeral. "I never can."[10]

First inauguration edit

Main article: First inauguration of Andrew Jackson

Jackson's first inauguration, on March 4, 1829, was the first time in which the ceremony was held on the East Portico of the United States Capitol.[11] Due to the acrimonious campaign and mutual antipathy, Adams did not attend Jackson's inauguration.[12] Ten thousand people arrived in town for the ceremony, eliciting this response from Francis Scott Key: "It is beautiful; it is sublime!"[13] Jackson was the first president to invite the public to attend the White House inaugural ball. Many poor people came to the inaugural ball in their homemade clothes and rough-hewn manners. The crowd became so large that the guards could not keep them out of the White House, which became so crowded with people that dishes and decorative pieces inside were broken. Jackson's raucous populism earned him the nickname "King Mob".[14] Though numerous political disagreements had marked Adams's presidency and would continue during his own presidency, Jackson took office at a time when no major economic or foreign policy crisis faced the United States.[12] He announced no clear policy goals in the months before Congress convened in December 1829, save for his desire to pay down the national debt.[15]

Philosophy edit

Further information: Jacksonian democracy

Jackson's name has been associated with Jacksonian democracy or the shift and expansion of democracy as political power shifted from established elites to ordinary voters based in political parties. "The Age of Jackson" shaped the national agenda and American politics.[16] Jackson's philosophy as president was similar to that of Thomas Jefferson, as he advocated republican values held by the Revolutionary War generation.[17] He believed in the ability of the people to "arrive at right conclusions," and he thought that they should have the right not only to elect but also to "instruct their agents & representatives."[18] He rejected the need for a powerful and independent Supreme Court, arguing that "the Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each or itself be guided by its own opinions of the Constitution."[19] Jackson thought that Supreme Court justices should be made to stand for election, and believed in strict constructionism as the best way to ensure democratic rule.[20]

Administration and cabinet edit

Instead of choosing party leaders for his cabinet, Jackson chose "plain businessmen" whom he intended to control.[21] For the key positions of Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, Jackson chose two Northerners, Martin Van Buren of New York and Samuel Ingham of Pennsylvania.[22] He appointed John Branch of North Carolina as Secretary of the Navy, John Macpherson Berrien of Georgia as Attorney General,[23] and John Eaton of Tennessee, a friend and close political ally, as Secretary of War.[21] Recognizing the growing importance of the Post Office, Jackson elevated the position of Postmaster General to the cabinet, and he named William T. Barry of Kentucky to lead the department.[24] Of the six officials in Jackson's initial cabinet, only Van Buren was a major political figure in his own right. Jackson's cabinet choices were criticized from various quarters; Calhoun and Van Buren were both disappointed that their respective factions were not more prominent in the cabinet, while leaders from the state of Virginia and the region of New England complained about their exclusion.[23] In addition to his official cabinet, Jackson would come to rely on an informal "Kitchen Cabinet" of advisers,[25] including General William Berkeley Lewis and journalist Amos Kendall. Jackson's nephew, Andrew Jackson Donelson, served as the president's personal secretary, and wife, Emily, acted as the White House hostess.[26]

Jackson's inaugural cabinet suffered from bitter partisanship and gossip, especially between Eaton, Vice President John C. Calhoun, and Van Buren. By mid-1831, all except Barry (and Calhoun) had resigned.[27] Governor Lewis Cass of the Michigan Territory became Secretary of War, ambassador and former Congressman Louis McLane of Delaware took the position of Secretary of the Treasury, Senator Edward Livingston of Louisiana became Secretary of State, and Senator Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire became Secretary of the Navy. Roger Taney, who had previously served as the Attorney General of Maryland, replaced Berrien as the U.S. Attorney General. In contrast to Jackson's initial choices, the cabinet members appointed in 1831 were prominent national leaders, none of whom were aligned with Calhoun.[28] Outside of the cabinet, journalist Francis Preston Blair emerged as an influential adviser.[29]

At the start of his second term, Jackson transferred McLane to the position of Secretary of State, while William J. Duane replaced McLane as Secretary of the Treasury and Livingston became the ambassador to France.[30] Due to his opposition to Jackson's removal of federal funds from the Second Bank of the United States, Duane was dismissed from the cabinet before the end of 1833. Taney became the new Secretary of the Treasury, while Benjamin F. Butler replaced Taney as Attorney General.[31] Jackson was forced to shake up his cabinet again in 1834 after the Senate rejected Taney's nomination and McLane resigned. John Forsyth of Georgia was appointed Secretary of State, Mahlon Dickerson replaced Woodbury as Secretary of the Navy, and Woodbury became the fourth and final Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson.[32] Jackson dismissed Barry in 1835 after numerous complaints about the latter's effectiveness as Postmaster General, and Jackson chose Amos Kendall as Barry's replacement.[33]

Judicial appointments edit

Main article: List of federal judges appointed by Andrew Jackson

Jackson appointed six Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.[34] Most were undistinguished.[35] His first nominee was John McLean, a close ally of Calhoun's who had been Adams's Postmaster General. Because McLean was reluctant to make full use of his office's powers of patronage, Jackson delicately removed him from office with an appointment to the Supreme Court.[36] McLean "turned Whig and forever schemed to win" the presidency. Jackson's next two appointees–Henry Baldwin and James Moore Wayne–disagreed with Jackson on some points but were poorly regarded even by Jackson's enemies.[37] In reward for his services, Jackson nominated Taney to the Court to fill a vacancy in January 1835, but the nomination failed to win Senate approval.[35] Chief Justice John Marshall died later that year, leaving two vacancies on the court. Jackson nominated Taney for Chief Justice and Philip P. Barbour for Associate Justice, and both were confirmed by the new Senate.[38] Taney served as Chief Justice until 1864, presiding over a court that upheld many of the precedents set by the Marshall Court.[39] On the last full day of his presidency, Jackson nominated John Catron, who was confirmed.[40] By the time Jackson left office, he had appointed a majority of the sitting members of the Supreme Court, the only exceptions being Joseph Story and Smith Thompson.[41] Jackson also appointed eighteen judges to the United States district courts.

Petticoat affair edit

Main article: Petticoat affair
 
Secretary of War John H. Eaton

Jackson devoted a considerable amount of his time during his early years in office responding to what came to be known as the "Petticoat affair" or "Eaton affair."[42] Washington gossip circulated among Jackson's cabinet members and their wives, including Vice President Calhoun's wife Floride Calhoun, concerning Secretary of War Eaton and his wife Peggy Eaton. Salacious rumors held that Peggy, as a barmaid in her father's tavern, had been sexually promiscuous or had even been a prostitute.[43] Some also accused the Eatons of having engaged in an adulterous affair while Peggy's previous husband, John B. Timberlake, was still living.[44] Petticoat politics emerged when the wives of cabinet members, led by Floride Calhoun, refused to socialize with the Eatons.[43] The cabinet wives insisted that the interests and honor of all American women were at stake. They believed a responsible woman should never accord a man sexual favors without the assurance that went with marriage. Historian Daniel Walker Howe argues that the actions of the cabinet wives reflected the feminist spirit that in the next decade shaped the woman's rights movement.[45]

Jackson refused to believe the rumors regarding Peggy Eaton, telling his cabinet that "She is as chaste as a virgin!"[43] He was infuriated by those who, in attempting to drive the Eatons out, dared to tell him who he could and could not have in his cabinet. The affair also reminded him of similar attacks that had been made against his wife.[46] Though he initially blamed Henry Clay for the controversy over Eaton, by the end of 1829 Jackson had come to believe that Vice President Calhoun had masterminded the dissension in his cabinet.[47] The controversy over Eaton dragged on into 1830 and 1831, as the other cabinet wives continued to ostracize Eaton.[48] Jackson's cabinet and closest advisers became polarized between Vice President Calhoun and Secretary of State Van Buren, a widower who remained on good terms with the Eatons.[49] In early 1831, as the controversy continued unabated, Van Buren proposed that the entire cabinet resign, and the Petticoat Affair finally ended after Eaton stepped down in June 1831.[50] With the sole exception of Postmaster General Barry, the other cabinet officials also left office, marking the first mass resignation of cabinet officials in U.S. history.[51]

Van Buren was rewarded with a nomination to the position of ambassador to Great Britain, but the Senate rejected his nomination.[52] Calhoun, who cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate to defeat Van Buren's nomination, believed that the Senate vote would end Van Buren's career, but in fact it strengthened Van Buren's position with Jackson and many other Democrats.[53] By cultivating the support of Jackson, Van Buren emerged from the Petticoat Affair as Jackson's heir apparent. Three decades later, biographer James Parton would write that "the political history of the United States, for the last thirty years, dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker."[51] Meanwhile, Jackson and Vice President Calhoun became increasingly alienated from one another.[54] Following the Petticoat Affair, Jackson acquired the Globe newspaper to use as a weapon against the rumor mills.[55][56]

Rotation in office and spoils system edit

Further information: Spoils system and Rotation in office

Jackson removed an unprecedented number of presidential appointees from office, though Thomas Jefferson had dismissed a smaller but still significant number of Federalists during his own presidency.[57] Jackson believed that a rotation in office (the removal of governmental officials) was actually a democratic reform preventing nepotism, and that it made civil service responsible to the popular will.[58] Reflecting this view, Jackson told Congress in December 1829, "In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people, no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another."[59][60] Jackson rotated about 20% of federal office holders during his first term, some for dereliction of duty rather than political purposes.[61][62] The Post Office was most strongly affected by Jackson's rotation policy, but district attorneys, federal marshals, customs collectors, and other federal employees were also removed from office.[63]

Jackson's opponents labeled his appointments process a "spoils system", arguing that he was primarily motivated by a desire to use government positions to reward supporters and build his own political strength.[64] Because he believed that most public officials faced few challenges for their positions, Jackson dismissed the need for a meritocratic appointment policy.[65] Many of Jackson's appointees, including Amos Kendall and Isaac Hill, were controversial, and many of those who Jackson removed from office were popular.[66] Jackson's appointment policy also created political problems within his own coalition, as Calhoun, Van Buren, Eaton, and others clashed over various appointments.[67] His appointments encountered some resistance in the Senate, and by the end of his presidency, Jackson had had more nominees rejected than all previous presidents combined.[68]

In an effort to purge the government from the alleged corruption of previous administrations, Jackson launched presidential investigations into all executive cabinet offices and departments.[69] His administration conducted a high-profile prosecution against Tobias Watkins, the Auditor at the Treasury Department during Adams's presidency.[66] John Neal, a friend of Watkins and critic of Jackson, said that this prosecution served to "feed fat his ancient grudge" and was "characteristic of that willful, unforgiving, inexorable man, who was made President by the war-cry."[70] Jackson's approach incorporated patriotism for country as qualification for holding office. Having appointed a soldier who had lost his leg fighting on the battlefield to postmaster, he stated, "[i]f he lost his leg fighting for his country, that is ... enough for me."[71]

He also asked Congress to reform embezzlement laws, reduce fraudulent applications for federal pensions, and pass laws to prevent evasion of custom duties and improve government accounting.[72] Despite these attempts at reform, historians believe Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of an era of decline in public ethics.[73] Supervision of bureaus and departments whose operations were outside of Washington, such as the New York Customs House, the Postal Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs proved to be difficult. However, some of the practices that later became associated with the spoils system, including the buying of offices, forced political party campaign participation, and collection of assessments, did not take place until after Jackson's presidency.[74] Eventually, in the years after Jackson left office, presidents would remove appointees as a matter of course; while Jackson dismissed 45 percent of those who held office, Abraham Lincoln would dismiss 90 percent of those who had held office prior to the start of his presidency.[75]

Indian removal edit

Further information: Indian removal, Indian Removal Act, and Trail of Tears
 
Jackson's Indian Removal Act and subsequent treaties resulted in the forced removal of several Indian tribes from their traditional territories, including the Trail of Tears.

Indian Removal Act edit

Prior to taking office, Jackson had spent much of his career fighting the Native Americans of the Southwest, and he considered Native Americans to be inferior to those who were descended from Europeans.[76] His presidency marked a new era in Indian-Anglo American relations, as he initiated a policy of Indian removal.[77] Previous presidents had at times supported removal or attempts to "civilize" the Native Americans, but had generally not made Native American affairs a top priority.[78] By the time Jackson took office, approximately 100,000 Native Americans lived east of the Mississippi River within the United States, with most located in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin Territory, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida Territory.[79] Jackson prioritized removing Native Americans from the South, as he believed that the Native Americans of the Northwest could be "pushed back."[80] In his 1829 Annual Message to Congress, Jackson advocated for setting aside land west of the Mississippi River for Native American tribes; while he favored voluntary relocation, he also proposed that any Native Americans who did not relocate would lose their independence and be subject to state laws.[81]

A significant political movement, consisting largely of evangelical Christians and others from the North, rejected Indian removal and instead favored continuing efforts to "civilize" Native Americans.[82] Overcoming opposition led by Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen, Jackson's allies won the passage of the Indian Removal Act in May 1830. The bill passed the House by a 102 to 97 vote, with most Southern congressmen voting for the bill and most Northern congressmen voting against it.[83] The act authorized the president to negotiate treaties to buy tribal lands in the east in exchange for lands farther west, outside of existing state borders.[84] The act specifically pertained to the "Five Civilized Tribes" in the Southern United States, the conditions being that they could either move west or stay and obey state law.[85] The Five Civilized Tribes consisted of the Cherokee, Muscogee (also known as the Creek), Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Indians, all of whom had adopted aspects of European culture, including some degree of sedentary farming.[86]

Cherokee edit

 
Jackson painted by Earl, 1830

With Jackson's support, Georgia and other states sought to extend their sovereignty over tribes within their borders, despite existing U.S. treaty obligations.[87] Georgia's dispute with the Cherokee culminated in the 1832 Supreme Court decision of Worcester v. Georgia. In that decision, Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for the court, ruled that Georgia could not forbid whites from entering tribal lands, as it had attempted to do with two missionaries supposedly stirring up resistance among the tribespeople.[88] The Supreme Court's ruling helped establish the doctrine of tribal sovereignty, but Georgia did not release the prisoners.[89] Jackson is frequently attributed the following response: "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." Remini argues that Jackson did not say it because, while it "certainly sounds like Jackson...[t]here was nothing for him to enforce."[90] The court had held that Georgia must release the prisoners, but it had not compelled the federal government to become involved. In late 1832, Van Buren intervened on behalf of the administration to put an end to the situation, convincing Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin to pardon the missionaries.[91]

As the Supreme Court was no longer involved, and the Jackson administration had no interest in interfering with Indian removal, the state of Georgia was free to extend its control over the Cherokee. In 1832, Georgia held a lottery to distribute Cherokee lands to white settlers.[92] Under the leadership of Chief John Ross, most Cherokee refused to leave their homeland, but a group led by John Ridge and Elias Boudinot negotiated the Treaty of New Echota. In return for $5 million and land west of the Mississippi River, Ridge and Boudinot agreed to lead a faction of the Cherokee out of Georgia; a fraction of the Cherokee would leave in 1836. Many other Cherokee protested the treaty, but, by a narrow margin, the United States Senate voted to ratify the treaty in May 1836.[93] The Treaty of New Echota was enforced by Jackson's successor, Van Buren; subsequently, as many as 4,000 out of 18,000 Cherokees died on the "Trail of Tears" in 1838.[94]

Other tribes edit

Jackson, Eaton, and General John Coffee negotiated with the Chickasaw, who quickly agreed to move.[95] Jackson put Eaton and Coffee in charge of negotiating with the Choctaw tribe. Lacking Jackson's skills at negotiation, they frequently bribed the chiefs in order to gain their submission.[96] The Choctaw chiefs agreed to move with the signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. The removal of the Choctaw took place in the winter of 1831 and 1832, and was wrought with misery and suffering.[96] Members of the Creek Nation signed the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832, allowing the Creek to either sell or retain their land.[97] Conflict later erupted between the Creek who remained and the white settlers, leading to the Second Creek War.[98] The Creek uprising was quickly crushed by the army, and the remaining Creek were escorted across the Mississippi River.[99]

Of all the tribes in the Southeast, the Seminoles proved to be the most resistant to mass relocation. The Jackson administration reached a removal treaty with a small group of Seminoles, but the treaty was repudiated by the tribe. Jackson sent soldiers into Florida to remove the Seminoles, marking the start of the Second Seminole War. The Second Seminole War dragged on until 1842, and hundreds of Seminole still remained in Florida after 1842.[100] A shorter conflict broke out in the Northwest in 1832 after Chief Black Hawk led a band of Native Americans across the Mississippi River to their ancestral homeland in Illinois. A combination of the army and the Illinois militia drove out the Native Americans by the end of the year, bringing a close to the Black Hawk War.[101] By the end of Jackson's presidency, nearly 50,000 Native Americans had moved across the Mississippi River, and Indian removal would continue after he left office.[102]

Nullification crisis and the tariff edit

Main article: Nullification crisis

First term edit

In 1828, Congress had approved the so-called "Tariff of Abominations", which set the tariff at a historically high rate.[103] The tariff was popular in the Northeast and, to a lesser extent, the Northwest, since it protected domestic industries from foreign competition.[104] Southern planters strongly opposed high tariff rates, as they resulted in higher prices for imported goods.[103] This opposition to high tariff rates was especially intense in South Carolina, where the dominant planter class faced few checks on extremism.[105] The South Carolina Exposition and Protest of 1828, secretly written by Calhoun, had asserted that their state could "nullify"—declare void—the tariff legislation of 1828.[106] Calhoun argued that, while the Constitution authorized the federal government to impose tariffs for the collection of revenue, it did not sanction tariffs that were designed to protect domestic production.[107] Jackson sympathized with states' rights concerns, but he rejected the idea of nullification.[108] In his 1829 Annual Message to Congress, Jackson advocated leaving the tariff in place until the national debt was paid off. He also favored a constitutional amendment that would, once the national debt was paid off, distribute surplus revenues from tariffs to the states.[81]

 
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina

Calhoun was not as extreme as some within South Carolina, and he and his allies kept more radical leaders like Robert James Turnbull in check early in Jackson's presidency. As the Petticoat affair strained relations between Jackson and Calhoun, South Carolina nullifiers became increasingly strident in their opposition to the "Tariff of Abominations."[109] Relations between Jackson and Calhoun reached a breaking point in May 1830, after Jackson discovered a letter that indicated that then-Secretary of War Calhoun had asked President Monroe to censure Jackson for his invasion of Spanish Florida in 1818.[104] Jackson's adviser, William Lewis, acquired the letter from William Crawford, a former Monroe cabinet official who was eager to help Van Buren at the expense of Calhoun.[110] Jackson and Calhoun began an angry correspondence which lasted until July 1830.[111] By the end of 1831, an open break had emerged not just between Calhoun and Jackson but also between their respective supporters.[112] Writing in the early 1830s, Calhoun claimed that three parties existed. One party (led by Calhoun himself) favored free trade, one party (led by Henry Clay) favored protectionism, and one party (led by Jackson) occupied a middle position.[113]

Believing that Calhoun was leading a conspiracy to undermine his administration, Jackson built a network of informants in South Carolina and prepared for a possible insurrection. He also threw his support behind a tariff reduction bill that he believed would defuse the nullification issue.[114] In May 1832, Representative John Quincy Adams introduced a slightly revised version of the bill, which Jackson accepted, and it was passed into law in July 1832.[115] The bill failed to satisfy many in the South, and a majority of southern Congressmen voted against it,[116] but passage of the Tariff of 1832 prevented tariff rates from becoming a major campaign issue in the 1832 election.[117]

Crisis edit

Seeking to compel a further reduction in tariff rates and bolster the ideology of states' rights, South Carolina leaders prepared to follow through on their nullification threats after the 1832 election.[118] In November 1832, South Carolina held a state convention that declared the tariff rates of 1828 and 1832 to be void within the state, and further declared that federal collection of import duties would be illegal after January 1833.[114] After the convention, the South Carolina Legislature elected Calhoun to the U.S. Senate, replacing Robert Y. Hayne, who had resigned to become that state's governor. Hayne had often struggled to defend nullification on the floor of the Senate, especially against fierce criticism from Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts.[119]

In his December 1832 Annual Message to Congress, Jackson called for another reduction of the tariff, but he also vowed to suppress any rebellion.[120] Days later, Jackson issued his Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, which strongly denied the right of states to nullify federal laws or secede.[121]Jackson ordered the unionist South Carolina leader, Joel Roberts Poinsett, to organize a posse to suppress any rebellion, and promised Poinsett that 50,000 soldiers would be dispatched if any rebellion did break out.[122] At the same time, Governor Hayne asked for volunteers for the state militia, and 25,000 men volunteered.[123] Jackson's nationalist stance split the Democratic Party and set off a national debate over nullification. Outside of South Carolina, no Southern states endorsed nullification, but many also expressed opposition to Jackson's threat to use force.[124]

Democratic Congressman Gulian C. Verplanck introduced a tariff reduction bill in the House of Representatives that would restore the tariff levels of the Tariff of 1816, and South Carolina leaders decided to delay the onset of nullification while Congress considered a new tariff bill.[125] As the debate over the tariff continued, Jackson asked Congress to pass a "Force Bill" explicitly authorizing the use of military force to enforce the government's power to collect import duties.[126] Though the House effort to write a new tariff bill collapsed, Clay initiated Senate consideration of the topic by introducing his own bill.[127] Clay, the most prominent protectionist in the country, worked with Calhoun's allies rather than Jackson's allies to pass the bill.[128] He won Calhoun's approval for a bill that provided for gradual tariff reductions until 1843, with tariff rates ultimately reaching levels similar to those proposed in the Verplanck bill. Southern leaders would have preferred lower rates, but they accepted Clay's bill as the best compromise they could achieve at that point in time.[129] The Force Bill, meanwhile, passed both houses of Congress; many Southern congressmen opposed the bill but did not vote against it in an effort to expedite consideration of the tariff bill.[130]

Clay's tariff bill received significant support across partisan and sectional lines, and it passed 149–47 in the House and 29–16 in the Senate.[131] Despite his intense anger over the scrapping of the Verplanck bill and the new alliance between Clay and Calhoun, Jackson saw the tariff bill as an acceptable way to end the crisis. He signed both the Tariff of 1833 and the Force Bill into law on March 2.[132] Simultaneous passage of the Force Bill and the tariff allowed both the nullifiers and Jackson to claim that they had emerged victorious from the confrontation.[133] Despite his earlier support for a similar measure, Jackson vetoed a third bill that would have distributed tariff revenue to the states.[134] The South Carolina Convention met and rescinded its nullification ordinance, and, in a final show of defiance, nullified the Force Bill.[135] Though the nullifiers had largely failed in their quest to lower tariff rates, they established firm control over South Carolina in the aftermath of the Nullification Crisis.[136]

Bank War and 1832 re-election edit

Further information: Bank War and 1832 United States presidential election

First term edit

 
1833 Democratic cartoon shows Jackson destroying the devil's Bank

The Second Bank of the United States ("national bank") had been chartered under President James Madison to restore an economy devastated by the War of 1812, and President Monroe had appointed Nicholas Biddle as the national bank's executive in 1822. The national bank operated branches in several states, and granted these branches a large degree of autonomy.[137] The national bank's duties included storing government funds, issuing banknotes, selling Treasury securities, facilitating foreign transactions, and extending credit to businesses and other banks.[138][137] The national bank also played an important role in regulating the money supply, which consisted of government-issued coins and privately issued banknotes. By presenting private banknotes for redemption (exchange for coins) to their issuers, the national bank limited the supply of paper money in the country.[137] By the time Jackson took office, the national bank had approximately $35 million in capital, which represented more than twice the annual expenditures of the U.S. government.[138]

The national bank had not been a major issue in the 1828 election, but some in the country, including Jackson, despised the institution,[139] The national bank's stock was mostly held by foreigners, Jackson insisted, and it exerted an undue amount of control over the political system.[140] Jackson had developed a life-long hatred for banks earlier in his career, and he wanted to remove all banknotes from circulation.[139] In his address to Congress in 1830, Jackson called for the abolition of the national bank.[141] Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a strong supporter of the president despite a brawl years earlier, gave a speech strongly denouncing the Bank and calling for open debate on its recharter, but Senator Daniel Webster led a motion that narrowly defeated the resolution.[142] Seeking to reconcile with the Jackson administration, Biddle appointed Democrats to the boards of national bank branches and worked to speed up the retirement of the national debt.[143]

Though Jackson and many of his allies detested the national bank, others within the Jacksonian coalition, including Eaton and Senator Samuel Smith, supported the institution.[138] Despite some misgivings, Jackson supported a plan proposed in late 1831 by his moderately pro-national bank Treasury Secretary Louis McLane, who was secretly working with Biddle. McLane's plan would recharter a reformed version of the national bank in a way that would free up funds, partly through the sale of government stock in the national bank. The funds would in turn be used to strengthen the military or pay off the nation's debt. Over the objections of Attorney General Taney, an irreconcilable opponent of the national bank, Jackson allowed McLane to publish a Treasury Report which essentially recommended rechartering the national bank.[144]

Hoping to make the national bank a major issue in the 1832 election, Clay and Webster urged Biddle to immediately apply for recharter rather than wait to reach a compromise with the administration.[145] Biddle received advice to the contrary from moderate Democrats such as McLane and William Lewis, who argued that Biddle should wait because Jackson would likely veto the recharter bill. In January 1832, Biddle submitted to Congress a renewal of the national bank's charter without any of McLane's proposed reforms.[146] In May 1832, after months of congressional debate, Biddle assented to a revised bill that would re-charter the national bank but give Congress and the president new powers in controlling the institution, while also limiting the national bank's ability to hold real estate and establish branches.[147] The recharter bill passed the Senate on June 11 and the House on July 3, 1832.[140]

When Van Buren met Jackson on July 4, Jackson declared, "The Bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me. But I will kill it."[148] Jackson officially vetoed the bill on July 10. His veto message, crafted primarily by Taney, Kendall, and Andrew Jackson Donelson, attacked the national bank as an agent of inequality that supported only the wealthy.[149] He also noted that, as the national bank's charter would not expire for another four years, the next two Congresses would be able to consider new re-chartering bills.[150] Jackson's message ended on a sharp note that Remini says "almost sounded like a call to class warfare":[151]

when the laws undertake to add ... artificial distinctions ... to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers — who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government.

Jackson's enemies castigated the veto as "the very slang of the leveller and demagogue", claiming Jackson was using class warfare to gain support from the common man.[140] Whig leader Daniel Webster denounced the veto message on the Senate floor.[152]

It manifestly seeks to influence the poor against the rich. It wantonly attacks whole classes of the people, for the purpose of turning against them the prejudices and resentments of other classes. It is a State paper which finds no topic too exciting for its use, no passion too inflammable for its address and its solicitation.

1832 election edit

In the years leading up to the 1832 election, it was unclear whether Jackson, frequently in poor health, would seek re-election.[153] However, Jackson announced his intention to seek re-election in 1831.[154] Various individuals were considered as possible Democratic vice presidential nominees in the 1832 election, including Van Buren, Judge Philip P. Barbour, Treasury Secretary McLane, Senator William Wilkins, Associate Justice John McLean, and even Calhoun. In order to agree on a national ticket, the Democrats held their first national convention in May 1832.[155] Van Buren emerged as Jackson's preferred running mate after the Eaton affair, and the former Secretary of State won the vice presidential nomination on the first ballot of the 1832 Democratic National Convention.[53][156] Later that year, on December 28, Calhoun resigned as vice president, after having been elected to the U.S. Senate.[157][b]

In the 1832 election, Jackson would face a divided opposition in the form of the Anti-Masonic Party and the National Republicans.[159] Since the disappearance and possible murder of William Morgan in 1827, the Anti-Masonic Party had emerged by capitalizing on opposition to Freemasonry.[160] In 1830, a meeting of Anti-Masons called for the first national nominating convention, and in September 1831 the fledgling party nominated a national ticket led by William Wirt of Maryland.[161] In December 1831, the National Republicans convened and nominated a ticket led by Henry Clay. Clay had rejected overtures from the Anti-Masonic Party, and his attempt to convince Calhoun to serve as his running mate failed, leaving the opposition to Jackson split among different leaders.[159] For vice president, the National Republicans nominated John Sergeant, who had served as an attorney for both the Second Bank of the United States and the Cherokee Nation.[162]

 
1832 election results

The political struggle over the national bank emerged as the major issue of the 1832 campaign, although the tariff and especially Indian removal were also important issues in several states.[163] National Republicans also focused on Jackson's alleged executive tyranny; one cartoon described the president as "King Andrew the First."[164] At Biddle's direction, the national bank poured thousands of dollars into the campaign to defeat Jackson, seemingly confirming Jackson's view that it interfered in the political process.[165] On July 21, Clay said privately, "The campaign is over, and I think we have won the victory."[166]

Jackson, however, managed to successfully portray his veto of the national bank recharter as a defense of the common man against governmental tyranny. Clay proved to be no match for Jackson's popularity and the Democratic Party's skillful campaigning.[167] Jackson won the election by a landslide, winning 219 electoral votes, well over the 145 needed.[168] Jackson won 54.2 percent of the popular vote nationwide, a slight decline from his 1828 popular vote victory. Jackson received 88 percent of the popular vote in states south of Kentucky and Maryland, while Clay received no votes in Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi.[169] Clay received 37% of the popular vote and 49 electoral votes, whereas Wirt received 8% of the vote and seven electoral votes.[168] The South Carolina legislature awarded the state's electoral votes to states' rights advocate John Floyd.[170] Despite Jackson's victory in the presidential election, his allies lost control of the Senate.[171]

Removal of deposits and censure edit

See also: Censure of Andrew Jackson

Jackson's victory in the 1832 election meant that he could veto an extension of the national bank's charter before that charter expired in 1836. Though a congressional override of his veto was unlikely, Jackson still wanted to ensure that the national bank would be abolished. His administration was unable to legally remove federal deposits from the national bank unless the Secretary of the Treasury issued an official finding that the national bank was a fiscally unsound institution, but the national bank was clearly solvent.[172] In January 1833, at the height of the Nullification Crisis, Congressman James K. Polk introduced a bill that would provide for the removal of the federal government's deposits from the national bank, but it was quickly defeated.[173] Following the end of the Nullification Crisis in March 1833, Jackson renewed his offensive against the national bank, despite some opposition from within his own cabinet.[174] Throughout mid-1833, Jackson made preparations to remove federal deposits from the national bank, sending Amos Kendall to meet with the leaders of various banks to see whether they would accept federal deposits.[175]

Jackson ordered Secretary of the Treasury William Duane to remove existing federal deposits from the national bank, but Duane refused to issue a finding that the federal government's deposits in the national bank were unsafe. In response, Jackson replaced Duane with Roger Taney, who received an interim appointment. Rather than removing existing deposits from the national bank, Taney and Jackson pursued a new policy in which the government would deposit future revenue elsewhere, while paying all expenses from its deposits with the national bank.[176] The Jackson administration placed government deposits in a variety of state banks which were friendly to the administration's policies; critics labeled these banks as "pet banks."[177] Biddle responded to the withdrawals by stockpiling the national bank's reserves and contracting credit, thus causing interest rates to rise. Intended to force Jackson into a compromise, the move backfired, increasing sentiment against the national bank.[178] The transfer of large amounts of bank deposits, combined with rising interest rates, contributed to the onset of a financial panic in late 1833.[179]

When Congress reconvened in December 1833, it immediately became embroiled in the controversy regarding the withdrawals from the national bank and the subsequent financial panic.[180] Neither the Democrats nor the anti-Jacksonians exercised complete control of either house of Congress, but the Democrats were stronger in the House of Representatives while the anti-Jacksonians were stronger in the Senate.[181] Senator Clay introduced a measure to censure Jackson for unconstitutionally removing federal deposits from the national bank, and in March 1834, the Senate voted to censure Jackson in a 26–20 vote.[182] It also rejected Taney as Treasury Secretary, forcing Jackson to find a different treasury secretary; he eventually nominated Levi Woodbury, who won confirmation.[32]

Led by Polk, the House declared on April 4, 1834, that the national bank "ought not to be rechartered" and that the depositions "ought not to be restored." The House also voted to allow the pet banks to continue to serve as places of deposit, and sought to investigate whether the national bank had deliberately instigated the financial panic.[183] By mid-1834, the relatively mild panic had ended, and Jackson's opponents had failed to recharter the national bank or reverse Jackson's removals. The national bank's federal charter expired in 1836, and though Biddle's institution continued to function under a Pennsylvania charter, it never regained the influence it had had at the beginning of Jackson's administration.[184] Following the loss of the national bank's federal charter, New York City supplanted Philadelphia (the national bank's headquarters) as the nation's financial capital.[185] In January 1837, when the Jacksonians had a majority in the Senate, the censure was expunged after years of effort by Jackson supporters.[186]

Rise of the Whig Party edit

Further information: Whig Party (United States) and Second Party System
 
Henry Clay of Kentucky

Clear partisan affiliations had not formed at the start of Jackson's presidency. He had supporters in the Northwest, the Northeast, and the South, all of whom had different positions on different issues.[187] The Nullification Crisis briefly scrambled the partisan divisions that had emerged after 1824, as many within the Jacksonian coalition opposed his threats of force, while some opposition leaders like Daniel Webster supported them.[188] Jackson's removal of the government deposits in late 1833 ended any possibility of a Webster-Jackson alliance and helped to solidify partisan lines.[189] Jackson's threats to use force during the Nullification Crisis and his alliance with Van Buren motivated many Southern leaders to leave the Democratic Party, while opposition to Indian removal and Jackson's actions in the Bank War spurred opposition from many in the North. Attacking the president's "executive usurpation," those opposed to Jackson coalesced into the Whig Party. The Whig label implicitly compared "King Andrew" to King George III, the King of Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution.[190]

The National Republicans, including Clay and Webster, formed the core of the Whig Party, but many Anti-Masons like William H. Seward of New York and Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania also joined. Several prominent Democrats defected to the Whigs, including former Attorney General John Berrien, Senator Willie Person Mangum of North Carolina, and John Tyler of Virginia.[190] Even John Eaton, the former Secretary of War, became a member of the Whig Party.[191] Beginning in December 1833, voting behavior in Congress began to be dominated by partisan affiliation.[190] By the time of the 1836 presidential election, Whigs and Democrats had established state parties throughout the country, though party strength varied by state and many of Jackson's opponents in the Deep South eschewed the Whig label.[192] While Democrats openly embraced partisanship and campaigning, many Whigs only reluctantly accepted the new system of party politics, and they lagged behind the Democrats in establishing national organizations and cross-sectional unity.[193] Along with the Democrats, the Whigs were one of the two major parties of the Second Party System, which would extend into the 1850s.[191] Calhoun's nullifiers did not fit neatly into either party, and they pursued alliances with both major parties at various times.[194]

Panic of 1837 edit

Further information: Panic of 1837
 
A New York newspaper blamed the Panic of 1837 on Andrew Jackson, depicted in spectacles and top hat.

The national economy boomed after mid-1834 as state banks liberally extended credit.[195] Due in part to the booming economy, Jackson paid off the entire national debt in January 1835, the only time in U.S. history that that has been accomplished.[196][197] In the aftermath of the Bank War, Jackson asked Congress to pass a bill to regulate the pet banks.[198] Jackson sought to restrict the issuance of paper banknotes under $5, and also to require banks to hold specie (gold or silver coins) equal to one fourth of the value of banknotes they issued. As Congress did not act on this proposal by the end of its session in March 1835, Secretary of the Treasury Woodbury forced the pet banks to accept restrictions similar to those that Jackson had proposed to Congress.[199]

The debate over financial regulation became tied to a debate over the disposition of the federal budget surplus and proposals to increase the number of pet banks. In June 1836, Congress passed a bill that doubled the number of pet banks, distributed surplus federal revenue to the states, and instituted Jackson's proposed bank regulations. Jackson considered vetoing the bill primarily due to his opposition to the distribution of federal revenue, but he ultimately decided to let it pass into law. As the number of pet banks increased from 33 to 81, regulation of the government's deposits became more difficult, and lending increased. The growing number of loans contributed to a boom in land prices and land sales; the United States General Land Office sold 12.5 million acres of public land in 1835, compared to 2 million acres in 1829.[200] Seeking to curb land speculation, Jackson issued the Specie Circular, an executive order that required buyers of government lands to pay in specie.[201] The Specie Circular undermined the public's trust in the value of paper money; Congress passed a bill to revoke Jackson's policy, but Jackson vetoed that bill on his last day in office.[202]

The period of good economic conditions ended with the onset of the Panic of 1837.[203] Jackson's Specie Circular, albeit designed to reduce speculation and stabilize the economy, left many investors unable to afford to pay loans in gold and silver. The same year there was a downturn in Great Britain's economy, resulting in decreased foreign investment in the United States. As a result, the U.S. economy went into a depression, banks became insolvent, the national debt increased, business failures rose, cotton prices dropped, and unemployment dramatically increased.[203] The depression that followed lasted until 1841, when the economy began to rebound.[196][204]

Other domestic issues edit

 
BEP engraved portrait of Jackson as President

Internal improvements edit

In the years before Jackson took office, the idea of using federal funding to build or improve internal improvements (such as roads and canals) had become increasingly popular.[205] Jackson had campaigned against Adams's support for federally funded infrastructure projects, but, unlike some states' rights supporters, Jackson believed that such projects were constitutional so long as they aided the national defense or improved the national economy.[206] The National Road was one of the major infrastructure projects worked on during Jackson's presidency, and his tenure saw the National Road extended from Ohio into Illinois.[207] In May 1830, the House passed a bill to create the Maysville Road, which would link the National Road to the Natchez Trace via Lexington, Kentucky. With the strong support of Van Buren, Jackson vetoed the bill, arguing that the project was too localized for the federal government to become involved. Jackson further warned that government expenditures on infrastructure would be costly and threatened his goal of retiring the national debt. The veto shored up Jackson's support among pro-states' rights "Old Republicans" like John Randolph, but angered some Jacksonians who favored internal improvements.[208]

Despite the Maysville Road Veto, federal funding for infrastructure projects increased substantially during Jackson's presidency, reaching a total greater than all previous administrations combined.[206] Because of a booming economy and high levels of federal revenues, the Jackson administration was able to retire the national debt even while spending on infrastructure projects increased.[209]

Slavery controversies edit

A slaveowner himself, Jackson favored the expansion of slavery into the territories and disapproved of anti-slavery agitation. Though slavery was not a major issue of Jackson's presidency, two notable controversies related to slavery arose while he was in the White House. In 1835, the American Anti-Slavery Society launched a mail campaign against the peculiar institution. Tens of thousands of antislavery pamphlets and tracts were sent to Southern destinations through the U.S. mail. Across the South, reaction to the abolition mail campaign bordered on apoplexy.[210] In Congress, Southerners demanded the prevention of delivery of the tracts, and Jackson moved to placate Southerners in the aftermath of the nullification crisis. Abolitionists decried Postmaster General Amos Kendall's decision to give Southern postmasters discretionary powers to discard the tracts as a suppression of free speech.[211]

Another conflict over slavery in 1835 ensued when abolitionists sent the U.S. House of Representatives petitions to end the slave trade and slavery in Washington, D.C.[212] These petitions infuriated pro-slavery Southerners, who attempted to prevent acknowledgement or discussion of the petitions. Northern Whigs objected that anti-slavery petitions were constitutional and should not be forbidden.[212] South Carolina Representative Henry L. Pinckney introduced a resolution that denounced the petitions as "sickly sentimentality", declared that Congress had no right to interfere with slavery, and tabled all further anti-slavery petitions. Southerners in Congress, including many of Jackson's supporters, favored the measure (the 21st Rule, commonly called the "gag rule"), which was passed quickly and without any debate, thus temporarily suppressing abolitionist activities in Congress.[212]

Two other important slavery-related developments occurred while Jackson was in office. In January 1831, William Lloyd Garrison established The Liberator, which emerged as the most influential abolitionist newspaper in the country. While many slavery opponents sought the gradual emancipation of all slaves, Garrison called for the immediate abolition of slavery throughout the country. Garrison also established the American Anti-Slavery Society, which grew to approximately 250,000 members by 1838.[213] In the same year that Garrison founded The Liberator, Nat Turner launched his slave rebellion. After killing dozens of whites in southeastern Virginia across two days, Turner's rebels were suppressed by a combination of vigilantes, the state militia, and federal soldiers.[214]

U.S. Exploring Expedition edit

 
USS Porpoise, a brig ship laid down in 1835 and launched in May 1836; used in the U.S. Exploring Expedition

Jackson initially opposed any federal exploratory scientific expeditions during his first term in office.[215] Jackson's predecessor, President Adams, had attempted to launch a scientific exploration of the ocean in 1828, but Congress was unwilling to fund the effort. When Jackson assumed office in 1829, he pocketed Adams' expedition plans. However, wanting to establish a presidential legacy similar to that of Jefferson, who had sponsored the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Jackson decided to support scientific exploration during his second term. On May 18, 1836, Jackson signed a law creating and funding the oceanic United States Exploring Expedition. Jackson put Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson in charge of planning the expedition, but Dickerson proved unfit for the task, and the expedition was not launched until 1838.[215] One brig ship, USS Porpoise, later used in the expedition; having been commissioned by Secretary Dickerson in May 1836, circumnavigated the world and explored and mapped the Southern Ocean, confirming the existence of the continent of Antarctica.[216]

Copyright edit

On February 3, 1831, Jackson signed the Copyright Act of 1831, which had four main provisions:

  1. Extension of the original copyright term from 14 years to 28 years, with an option to renew the copyright for another 14 years
  2. Addition of musical compositions to the list of statutorily protected works (though this protection only extended to reproductions of compositions in printed form; the public performance right was not recognized until later)
  3. Extension of the statute of limitations on copyright actions from one year to two
  4. Changes in copyright formality requirements.[217]

Administrative reforms edit

Jackson presided over several reforms in the executive branch.[218] Postmaster General Amos Kendall reorganized the Post Office and successfully pushed for the Post Office Act of 1836, which made the Post Office a department of the executive branch. Under Commissioner Ethan Allen Brown, the General Land Office was reorganized and expanded to accommodate the growing demand for public land. The Patent Office was also reorganized and expanded under the leadership of Henry Leavitt Ellsworth. After his request to divide the State Department into two departments was rebuffed, Jackson divided the State Department into eight bureaus. Jackson also presided over the establishment of the Office of Indian Affairs, which coordinated Indian removal and other policies related to Native Americans. By signing the Judiciary Act of 1837, Jackson played a role in extending the circuit courts to several western states.[219]

States admitted to the Union edit

Two new states were admitted into the Union during Jackson's presidency: Arkansas (June 15, 1836)[220] and Michigan (January 26, 1837).[221] Both states increased Democratic power in Congress and voted for Van Buren in 1836.[222]

Foreign affairs edit

Further information: History of U.S. foreign policy, 1829–1861
 
Jackson's Minister to France William C. Rives successfully negotiated payments that France owed the U.S. for damages caused by Napoleon.

Spoliation and commercial treaties edit

Foreign affairs under Jackson were generally uneventful prior to 1835.[223][224] His administration's foreign policy focused on expanding trade opportunities for American commerce.[225] The Jackson administration negotiated a trade agreement with Great Britain that opened the British West Indies and Canada to American exports, though the British refused to allow American ships to engage in the West Indian carrying trade.[226] The agreement with Britain, which had been sought by previous presidents, represented a major foreign policy success for Jackson.[227] The State Department also negotiated routine trade agreements with Russia, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and Siam. American exports (chiefly cotton) increased 75%, while imports increased 250%.[228] Jackson increased funding to the navy and used it to defend American commercial interests in far-flung areas such as the Falkland Islands and Sumatra.[229] According to Jonathan Goldstein, the Jackson presidency was the first to actively promote export and import opportunities with Asia. Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury, diplomat Edmund Roberts and several navy commodores took the lead. The Navy landed Marines in Sumatra and the Fiji islands to punish attacks on American merchant ships. The Navy charted hazardous Pacific zones. the State Department sent Roberts to conclude treaties to protect American trade.[230]

A second major foreign policy emphasis was the settlement of spoliation claims.[231] The most serious crisis involved a debt that France owed for the damage Napoleon had done two decades earlier. France agreed to pay the debt, but kept postponing payment. Jackson made warlike gestures, while domestic political opponents ridiculed his bellicosity. Jackson's Minister to France William C. Rives finally obtained the ₣ 25,000,000 francs involved (about $5,000,000) in 1836.[232][233] The Department of State also settled smaller spoliation claims with Denmark, Portugal, and Spain.[228]

Recognition of Republic of Texas edit

Jackson believed that Adams had bargained away rightfully American territory in the Adams–Onís Treaty, and he sought to expand the United States west. He continued Adams's policy of attempting to purchase the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, which Mexico continued to rebuff. Upon gaining independence, Mexico had invited American settlers to that underdeveloped province, and 35,000 American settlers moved to the state between 1821 and 1835. Most of the settlers came from the Southern United States, and many of these settlers brought slaves with them. In 1830, fearing that the state was becoming a virtual extension of the United States, Mexico banned immigration into Coahuila y Tejas. Under Mexican rule, the American settlers became increasingly dissatisfied.[234]

In 1835, American settlers in Texas, along with local Tejanos, fought a war for independence against Mexico. Texian leader Stephen F. Austin had sent a letter to Jackson pleading for an American military intervention, but the United States remained neutral in the conflict.[235] By May 1836, the Texians had routed the Mexican military, establishing an independent Republic of Texas. The new Texas government sought recognition from President Jackson and annexation into the United States.[236] Antislavery elements in the U.S. strongly opposed annexation because of slavery's presence in Texas.[237][238] Jackson was reluctant to recognize Texas, as he was unconvinced that the new republic would maintain its independence from Mexico and did not want to make Texas an anti-slavery issue during the 1836 election. After the 1836 election, Jackson formally recognized the Republic of Texas, and nominated Alcée Louis la Branche as chargé d'affaires.[228][239]

Attack and assassination attempt edit

 
Richard Lawrence's attempt on Jackson's life, as depicted in an 1835 etching

On January 30, 1835, the first attempt to kill a sitting president occurred just outside the United States Capitol. When Jackson was leaving through the East Portico after a funeral, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter from England, aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. Lawrence then pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired, possibly due to the humid weather.[240] Jackson, infuriated, attacked Lawrence with his cane, and others present restrained and disarmed Lawrence.[241] Lawrence said that he was a deposed English king and that Jackson was his clerk.[242] He was deemed insane and was institutionalized.[243] Jackson initially suspected that a number of his political enemies might have orchestrated the attempt on his life, but his suspicions were never proven.[244]

Presidential election of 1836 edit

Main article: 1836 United States presidential election
 
1836 electoral vote results

Jackson declined to seek a third term in 1836, instead throwing his support behind his chosen successor, Vice President Van Buren.[245] With Jackson's support, Van Buren won the presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention without opposition.[246] Representative Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky and former Virginia senator William Cabell Rives were both nominated for vice president. Southern Democrats, as well as Van Buren, strongly preferred Rives, but Jackson strongly preferred Johnson. Again, Jackson's considerable influence prevailed, and Johnson received the required two-thirds vote after New York Senator Silas Wright prevailed upon non-delegate Edward Rucker to cast the 15 votes of the absent Tennessee delegation in Johnson's favor.[246][247]

Van Buren's competitors in the election of 1836 were three members of the newly established Whig Party, still a loose coalition bound by mutual opposition to Jackson's Bank War.[247] The Whigs ran several regional candidates in hopes of sending the election to the House of Representatives, where each state delegation would have one vote and the Whigs would stand a better chance of winning.[248] Senator Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee emerged as the main Whig nominee in the South. White ran against the Force Bill, Jackson's actions in the Bank War, and Van Buren's unpopularity in the South. William Henry Harrison, who had gained national fame for his role in the Battle of Tippecanoe, established himself as the main Whig candidate in the North, although Daniel Webster also had the support of some Northern Whigs.[249]

Van Buren won the election with 764,198 popular votes, 50.9 percent of the total, and 170 electoral votes. Harrison led the Whigs with 73 electoral votes, while White received 26, and Webster 14.[250] Willie Person Mangum received the 11 electoral votes of South Carolina, which were awarded by the state legislature.[251] Van Buren's victory resulted from a combination of his own attractive political and personal qualities, Jackson's popularity and endorsement, the organizational power of the Democratic Party, and the inability of the Whig Party to muster an effective candidate and campaign.[252]

Historical reputation edit

 
Equestrian statue of Gen. Jackson, Jackson County Courthouse, Kansas City, Missouri, commissioned by Judge Harry S. Truman

Jackson remains one of the most studied and controversial figures in American history. Historian Charles Grier Sellers says, "Andrew Jackson's masterful personality was enough by itself to make him one of the most controversial figures ever to stride across the American stage." There has never been universal agreement on Jackson's legacy, for "his opponents have ever been his most bitter enemies, and his friends almost his worshippers."[1] He was always a fierce partisan, with many friends and many enemies. He has been lauded as the champion of the common man, while criticized for his treatment of Indians and for other matters.[253] According to early biographer James Parton:

Andrew Jackson, I am given to understand, was a patriot and a traitor. He was one of the greatest generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. A brilliant writer, elegant, eloquent, without being able to compose a correct sentence or spell words of four syllables. The first of statesmen, he never devised, he never framed, a measure. He was the most candid of men, and was capable of the most profound dissimulation. A most law-defying law-obeying citizen. A stickler for discipline, he never hesitated to disobey his superior. A democratic autocrat. An urbane savage. An atrocious saint.[254]

In the 20th century, Jackson was written about by many admirers. Arthur M. Schlesinger's Age of Jackson (1945) depicts Jackson as a man of the people battling inequality and upper-class tyranny.[255] From the 1970s to the 1980s, Robert Remini published a three-volume biography of Jackson followed by an abridged one-volume study. Remini paints a generally favorable portrait of Jackson.[256] He contends that Jacksonian democracy "stretches the concept of democracy about as far as it can go and still remain workable. ... As such it has inspired much of the dynamic and dramatic events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in American history—Populism, Progressivism, the New and Fair Deals, and the programs of the New Frontier and Great Society."[257] To Remini, Jackson serves as "the embodiment of the new American...This new man was no longer British. He no longer wore the queue and silk pants. He wore trousers, and he had stopped speaking with a British accent."[256] However, other 20th-century writers such as Richard Hofstadter and Bray Hammond depict Jackson as an advocate of the sort of laissez-faire capitalism that benefits the rich and oppresses the poor.[255]

Brands observes that Jackson's reputation declined after the mid-20th century as his actions towards Indians and African Americans received new attention. After the civil rights movement, Brands writes, "his unrepentant ownership of slaves marked him as one to be censured rather than praised." Further, "By the turn of the present [21st] century, it was scarcely an exaggeration to say that the one thing American schoolchildren learned about Jackson was that he was the author of the Trail of Tears."[258] Starting mainly around 1970, Jackson came under sharp attack from historians for his Indian removal policies. Howard Zinn called him "the most aggressive enemy of the Indians in early American history"[259] and "exterminator of Indians."[260] By contrast, Remini claims that, if not for Jackson's policies, the Southern tribes would have been totally wiped out, just like other tribes—namely, the Yamasee, Mahican, and Narragansett—which did not move.[261]

Despite some criticism, Jackson's performance in office has generally been ranked highly in polls of historians and political scientists. His position in C-SPAN's poll of historians dropped from 13th in 2009 to 18th in 2017. Some associate this decline with the frequent praise Jackson has received from President Donald Trump, who hung Jackson's official portrait in the Oval Office.[262] A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Jackson as the fifteenth best president.[263]

Notes edit

  1. ^ Vice President Calhoun resigned from office. As this was prior to the adoption of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, a vacancy in the office of vice president was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration.
  2. ^ Hugh Lawson White, President pro tempore of the Senate, was first in line in the United States presidential line of succession between December 28, 1832 and March 4, 1833.[158]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Sellers 1958, p. 615.
  2. ^ Feller, Daniel. . Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  3. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 3–4.
  4. ^ a b c Wilentz 2005, pp. 49–54.
  5. ^ Cheathem, Mark (2014). "Frontiersman or Southern Gentleman? Newspaper Coverage of Andrew Jackson during the 1828 Presidential Campaign". The Readex Report. 9 (3). from the original on January 12, 2015.
  6. ^ "The Tsunami of Slime Circa 1828". New York News & Politics. June 15, 2012. from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  7. ^ First Lady Biography: Rachel Jackson March 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine National First Ladies Library. Web. Retrieved February 15, 2016.
  8. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 52–53.
  9. ^ Brands 2005, p. 405.
  10. ^ Boller 2004, p. 46.
  11. ^ http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pinotable.html Inaugurals of Presidents of the United States: Some Precedents and Notable Events. Library of Congress.
  12. ^ a b Cole 1993, pp. 25–26.
  13. ^ Mitgang, Herbert (1992-12-20). "The Transition; A Populist Inauguration: Jackson, With Decorum". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
  14. ^ Edwin A. Miles, "The First People's Inaugural—1829." Tennessee Historical Quarterly (1978): 293–307. in JSTOR
  15. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 54–55.
  16. ^ Latner 2002, p. 101.
  17. ^ Latner 2002, p. 104.
  18. ^ Remini 1984, pp. 338–339.
  19. ^ Remini 1984, pp. 338–440.
  20. ^ Remini 1984, p. 342.
  21. ^ a b Cole 1993, p. 27.
  22. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 27–28.
  23. ^ a b Cole 1993, pp. 29–30.
  24. ^ Cole 1993, p. 238.
  25. ^ Howe 2007, p. 331.
  26. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 26–27.
  27. ^ Latner 2002, pp. 104–5.
  28. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 86–87.
  29. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 88–91.
  30. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 188–189.
  31. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 194, 208.
  32. ^ a b Cole 1993, p. 209.
  33. ^ Cole 1993, p. 239.
  34. ^ Jacobson, John Gregory (2004). "Jackson's judges: Six appointments who shaped a nation (Abstract)". Etd Collection for University of Nebraska – Lincoln. University of Nebraska – Lincoln: 1–355. from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  35. ^ a b Remini 1984, p. 266.
  36. ^ Howe 2007, pp. 331–332.
  37. ^ Remini 1984, p. 268.
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Works cited edit

  • Bates, Christopher G. (2015). The Early Republic and Antebellum America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781317457404.
  • Boller, Paul F. Jr. (2004). Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19516-716-3.
  • Brands, H. W. (2005). Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 1-4000-3072-2.
  • Cole, Donald B. (1993). The Presidency of Andrew Jackson. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0600-9.
  • Ellis, Richard E. (1974). Woodward, C. Vann (ed.). Responses of the Presidents to Charges of Misconduct. New York: Delacorte Press. pp. 61–68. ISBN 0-440-05923-2.
  • Herring, George C. (2008). From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199723430.
  • Howe, Daniel Walker (2007). What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815–1848. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507894-7.
  • Jackson, Andrew (1926). Bassett, John Spencer; Jameson, J. Franklin (eds.). The Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. Vol. 5. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute of Washington. 7 volumes total.
  • Latner, Richard B. (2002). "Andrew Jackson". In Graff, Henry (ed.). The Presidents: A Reference History (3 ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0-684-31226-2. OCLC 49029341.
  • Marszalek, John F. (2000) [1997]. The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press. ISBN 0-8071-2634-9.
  • Meacham, Jon (2008). American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. New York: Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8129-7346-4.
  • Mills, William J. (2003). Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. ISBN 1-57607-422-6.
  • Niven, John (1988). John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union: A Biography. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-1858-0.
  • Ogg, Frederic Austin (1919). The Reign of Andrew Jackson; Vol. 20, Chronicles of America Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  • Olson, James Stuart (2002). Robert L. Shadle (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30830-6.
  • Parton, James (1860a). Life of Andrew Jackson, Volume 1. New York: Mason Brothers. ISBN 9780598848871.
  • Prucha, Francis Paul (1969). "Andrew Jackson's Indian policy: a reassessment". Journal of American History. 56 (3): 527–539. doi:10.2307/1904204. JSTOR 1904204.
  • Remini, Robert V. (1981). Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822–1832. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8018-5913-7.
  • Remini, Robert V. (1984). Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833–1845. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-8018-5913-1.
  • Remini, Robert V. (1988). The Life of Andrew Jackson. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-0618-0788-5. Abridgment of Remini's 3-volume biography.
  • Rorabaugh, W.J.; Critchlow, Donald T.; Baker, Paula C. (2004). America's Promise: A Concise History of the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-1189-8.[permanent dead link]
  • Rutland, Robert Allen (1995). The Democrats: From Jefferson to Clinton. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8262-1034-1.
  • Sabato, Larry; O'Connor, Karen (2002). American Government: Continuity and Change. New York: Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-321-31711-7.
  • Schwartz, Bernard (1993). A History of the Supreme Court. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195-09387-2.
  • Sellers, Charles Grier Jr. (1958). "Andrew Jackson versus the Historians". Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 44 (4): 615–634. doi:10.2307/1886599. JSTOR 1886599.
  • Wilentz, Sean (2005). Andrew Jackson. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-6925-9.
  • Wilentz, Sean (2006). The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-393-05820-4.
  • Zinn, Howard (1980). "7: As Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs". A People's History of the United States. Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.

Further reading edit

Main article: Bibliography of Andrew Jackson
  • Adams, Sean Patrick, ed. A Companion to the Era of Andrew Jackson (2013). table of contents 597pp; topical essays by scholars
  • Cheathem, Mark R. and Terry Corps, eds. Historical Dictionary of the Jacksonian Era and Manifest Destiny (2nd ed. 2016), 544pp
  • Meaccham, Jon. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (2008) online book review
  • Nester, William. The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power, 1815–1848 (2013).
  • Remini, Robert V. ''The Life of Andrew Jackson (1988), short version of 3 volume biography. online book review
    • Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832 (Volume 2, 1998) online book review
    • Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Democracy (Vol 3. 1984) online book review

Specialized studies edit

Further information: Jacksonian democracy § References and bibliography
  • "Andrew Jackson." Dictionary of American Biography (1936) Online
  • Belohlavek, John M. " 'Let the Eagle Soar!': Democratic Constraints on the Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson." Presidential Studies Quarterly 10.1 (1980): 36–50. online
  • Belohlavek, John M. 'Let the Eagle Soar!' The Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson (University of Nebraska Press, 1985)
  • Bolt, William K. Tariff Wars and the Politics of Jacksonian America (2017) covers 1816 to 1861. PhD dissertation version
  • Bugg, James L. Jr. (1952). Jacksonian Democracy: Myth or Reality?. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Short essays.
  • Campbell, Stephen W. "Funding the Bank War: Nicholas Biddle and the public relations campaign to recharter the second bank of the U.S., 1828–1832" American Nineteenth Century History (2016) 17#3 pp 273–299.
  • Cheathem, Mark R. Andrew Jackson, Southerner (2016).
  • Cheathem, Mark R. Andrew Jackson and the Rise of the Democratic Party (2018).
  • Cole, Donald B. Vindicating Andrew Jackson: The 1828 Election and the Rise of the Two-Party System (2010)
  • Garrison, Tim Allen (2002). The Legal Ideology of Removal: The Southern Judiciary and the Sovereignty of Native American Nations. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-3417-0.
  • Goldstein, Jonathan. "For Gold, Glory and Knowledge: The Andrew Jackson Administration and the Orient, 1829–1837." International Journal of Maritime History 13.2 (2001): 137–163
  • Hammond, Bray. "Andrew Jackson's Battle with the 'Money Power'" American Heritage (June 1956) 7#4 online
  • Hofstadter, Richard (1948). The American Political Tradition. Chapter on AJ.
  • Holzer, Harold. The Presidents Vs. the Press: The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media—from the Founding Fathers to Fake News (Dutton, 2020) pp 51–68. online
  • Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (The Oxford History of the United States) (Oxford University Press, 2007), 904 pp.
  • Inskeep, Steve. Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab (2015)
  • Kahan, Paul. The Bank War: Andrew Jackson, Nicholas Biddle, and the Fight for American Finance (2015) ISBN 978-1594162343
  • Opal, J. M. "General Jackson's Passports: Natural Rights and Sovereign Citizens in the Political Thought of
  • Andrew Jackson, 1780s–1820s" Studies in American Political Development (2013) 27#2 pp 69–85.
  • Parsons, Lynn Hudson. The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828 (Oxford University Press, 2009).
  • Opal, J. M. "Andrew Jackson and US Foreign Relations." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History (2018).
  • Thomas, Robert Charles. "Andrew Jackson Versus France American Policy toward France, 1834–36." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 35.1 (1976): 51–64. online
  • White, Leonard D. The Jacksonians: A Study in Administrative History 1829–1861 (1965) how cabinet & executive agencies were reorganized and operated online free

Historiography edit

  • Adams, Sean Patrick, ed. (2013). A Companion to the Era of Andrew Jackson. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Cave, Alfred A. (1964). Jacksonian Democracy and the Historians. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
    • Cave, Alfred A. "The Jacksonian movement in American historiography" (PhD, U Florida, 1961) online free; 258pp; bibliog pp 240–58
  • Cheathem, Mark R. (2011). "Andrew Jackson, Slavery, and Historians" (PDF). History Compass. 9 (4): 326–338. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2011.00763.x.
  • Curtis, James C. (1976). Andrew Jackson and the Search for Vindication. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 9780673393340.
  • McKnight, Brian D. and James S. Humphreys, eds. The Age of Andrew Jackson (2011) seven essays by scholars on historiographical themes

Primary sources edit

  • The Papers of Andrew Jackson Edited first by Sam B. Smith and Harriet Chappell Owsley, and now by Dan Feller, Sam B. Smith, Harriet Fason Chappell Owsley, and Harold D. Moser. (10 vols. 1980 to date, U of Tennessee) online, coverage to 1832.
    • Searchable digital edition online
  • Richardson, James D. ed. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (1897), reprints his major messages and reports.
  • Library of Congress. "Andrew Jackson Papers", a digital archive that provides direct access to the manuscript images of many of the Jackson documents. online

External links edit

February 15, 2024
presidency, andrew, jackson, jackson, redirects, here, pulitzer, prize, winning, book, about, this, topic, arthur, schlesinger, presidency, andrew, jackson, began, march, 1829, when, andrew, jackson, inaugurated, president, united, states, ended, march, 1837, . Age of Jackson redirects here For the Pulitzer Prize winning book about this topic see Arthur M Schlesinger Jr The presidency of Andrew Jackson began on March 4 1829 when Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as President of the United States and ended on March 4 1837 Jackson the seventh United States president took office after defeating incumbent President John Quincy Adams in the bitterly contested 1828 presidential election During the 1828 presidential campaign Jackson founded the political force that coalesced into the Democratic Party during Jackson s presidency Jackson won re election in 1832 defeating National Republican candidate Henry Clay by a wide margin He was succeeded by his hand picked successor Vice President Martin Van Buren after Van Buren won the 1836 presidential election Presidency of Andrew Jackson March 4 1829 March 4 1837CabinetSee listPartyDemocraticElection18281832SeatWhite House John Quincy AdamsMartin Van Buren Dorsett sealJackson s presidency saw several important developments in domestic policy A strong supporter of the removal of Native American tribes from U S territory east of the Mississippi River Jackson began the process of forced relocation known as the Trail of Tears He instituted the spoils system for federal government positions using his patronage powers to build a powerful and united Democratic Party In response to the nullification crisis Jackson threatened to send federal soldiers into South Carolina but the crisis was defused by the passage of the Tariff of 1833 He engaged in a long struggle with the Second Bank of the United States which he viewed as an anti democratic bastion of elitism Jackson emerged triumphant in the Bank War and the federal charter of the Second Bank of the United States expired in 1836 The destruction of the bank and Jackson s hard money policies would contribute to the Panic of 1837 Foreign affairs were less eventful than domestic affairs during Jackson s presidency but Jackson pursued numerous commercial treaties with foreign powers and recognized the independence of the Republic of Texas Jackson was the most influential and controversial political figure of the 1830s and his two terms as president set the tone for the quarter century era of American public discourse known as the Jacksonian Era Historian James Sellers has stated that Andrew Jackson s masterful personality was enough by itself to make him one of the most controversial figures ever to stride across the American stage 1 His actions encouraged his political opponents to coalesce into the Whig Party which favored the use of federal power to modernize the economy through support for banking tariffs on manufactured imports and internal improvements such as canals and harbors Of all presidential reputations Jackson s is perhaps the most difficult to summarize or explain A generation after his presidency biographer James Parton found his reputation a mass of contradictions he was dictator or democrat ignoramus or genius Satan or saint Thirteen polls of historians and political scientists taken between 1948 and 2009 ranked Jackson always in or near the top ten presidents 2 Contents 1 Election of 1828 2 First inauguration 3 Philosophy 4 Administration and cabinet 5 Judicial appointments 6 Petticoat affair 7 Rotation in office and spoils system 8 Indian removal 8 1 Indian Removal Act 8 2 Cherokee 8 3 Other tribes 9 Nullification crisis and the tariff 9 1 First term 9 2 Crisis 10 Bank War and 1832 re election 10 1 First term 10 2 1832 election 10 3 Removal of deposits and censure 11 Rise of the Whig Party 12 Panic of 1837 13 Other domestic issues 13 1 Internal improvements 13 2 Slavery controversies 13 3 U S Exploring Expedition 13 4 Copyright 13 5 Administrative reforms 13 6 States admitted to the Union 14 Foreign affairs 14 1 Spoliation and commercial treaties 14 2 Recognition of Republic of Texas 15 Attack and assassination attempt 16 Presidential election of 1836 17 Historical reputation 18 Notes 19 References 19 1 Works cited 20 Further reading 20 1 Specialized studies 20 2 Historiography 20 3 Primary sources 21 External linksElection of 1828 editFurther information 1828 United States presidential election and Presidency of John Quincy Adams nbsp Some account of the bloody deeds of General Andrew Jackson c 1828The 1828 election was a rematch between Jackson and John Quincy Adams who had faced off against each other four years earlier in the 1824 presidential election Jackson had won a plurality but not the required majority of the electoral vote in the 1824 election while Adams Secretary of War William H Crawford and Speaker of the House Henry Clay also received a significant share of the vote Under the rules of the Twelfth Amendment the U S House of Representatives held a contingent election The House elected Adams as president Jackson denounced the House vote as the result of an alleged corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay who became Adams s Secretary of State after the latter succeeded outgoing President James Monroe in March 1825 3 Jackson was nominated for president by the Tennessee legislature in October 1825 more than three years before the 1828 election It was the earliest such nomination in presidential history and it attested to the fact that Jackson s supporters began the 1828 campaign almost as soon as the 1824 campaign ended Adams s presidency floundered as his ambitious agenda faced defeat in a new era of mass politics Critics led by Jackson attacked Adams s policies as a dangerous expansion of federal power Senator Martin Van Buren who had been a prominent supporter of Crawford in the 1824 election emerged as one of the strongest opponents of Adams s policies and he settled on Jackson as his preferred candidate in the 1828 election Jackson also won the support of Vice President John C Calhoun who opposed much of Adams s agenda on states rights grounds Van Buren and other Jackson allies established numerous pro Jackson newspapers and clubs around the country while Jackson made himself available to visitors at his Hermitage plantation 4 nbsp 1828 election resultsThe 1828 campaign was very much a personal one As was the custom at the time neither candidate personally campaigned but their political followers organized many campaign events Jackson was attacked as a slave trader 5 and his conduct was attacked in pamphlets such as the Coffin Handbills 6 Rachel Jackson was also a frequent target of attacks and was widely accused of bigamy a reference to the controversial situation of her marriage with Jackson 7 Despite the attacks in the 1828 election Jackson won a commanding 56 percent of the popular vote and 68 percent of the electoral vote carrying most states outside of New England 4 Concurrent congressional elections also gave Jackson s allies nominal majorities in both houses of Congress although many of those who campaigned as supporters of Jackson would diverge form Jackson during his presidency 8 The 1828 election marked the definitive end of the one party Era of Good Feelings as the Democratic Republican Party broke apart Jackson s supporters coalesced into the Democratic Party while Adams s followers became known as the National Republicans 4 Rachel had begun experiencing significant physical stress during the election season and she died of a heart attack on December 22 1828 three weeks after her husband s victory in the election 9 Jackson felt that the accusations from Adams s supporters had hastened her death and he never forgave Adams May God Almighty forgive her murderers Jackson swore at her funeral I never can 10 First inauguration editMain article First inauguration of Andrew Jackson Jackson s first inauguration on March 4 1829 was the first time in which the ceremony was held on the East Portico of the United States Capitol 11 Due to the acrimonious campaign and mutual antipathy Adams did not attend Jackson s inauguration 12 Ten thousand people arrived in town for the ceremony eliciting this response from Francis Scott Key It is beautiful it is sublime 13 Jackson was the first president to invite the public to attend the White House inaugural ball Many poor people came to the inaugural ball in their homemade clothes and rough hewn manners The crowd became so large that the guards could not keep them out of the White House which became so crowded with people that dishes and decorative pieces inside were broken Jackson s raucous populism earned him the nickname King Mob 14 Though numerous political disagreements had marked Adams s presidency and would continue during his own presidency Jackson took office at a time when no major economic or foreign policy crisis faced the United States 12 He announced no clear policy goals in the months before Congress convened in December 1829 save for his desire to pay down the national debt 15 Philosophy editFurther information Jacksonian democracy Jackson s name has been associated with Jacksonian democracy or the shift and expansion of democracy as political power shifted from established elites to ordinary voters based in political parties The Age of Jackson shaped the national agenda and American politics 16 Jackson s philosophy as president was similar to that of Thomas Jefferson as he advocated republican values held by the Revolutionary War generation 17 He believed in the ability of the people to arrive at right conclusions and he thought that they should have the right not only to elect but also to instruct their agents amp representatives 18 He rejected the need for a powerful and independent Supreme Court arguing that the Congress the Executive and the Court must each or itself be guided by its own opinions of the Constitution 19 Jackson thought that Supreme Court justices should be made to stand for election and believed in strict constructionism as the best way to ensure democratic rule 20 Administration and cabinet editThe Jackson cabinetOfficeNameTermPresidentAndrew Jackson1829 1837Vice PresidentJohn C Calhoun1829 1832none a 1832 1833Martin Van Buren1833 1837Secretary of StateMartin Van Buren1829 1831Edward Livingston1831 1833Louis McLane1833 1834John Forsyth1834 1837Secretary of the TreasurySamuel D Ingham1829 1831Louis McLane1831 1833William J Duane1833Roger B Taney1833 1834Levi Woodbury1834 1837Secretary of WarJohn Eaton1829 1831Lewis Cass1831 1836Attorney GeneralJohn M Berrien1829 1831Roger B Taney1831 1833Benjamin Franklin Butler1833 1837Postmaster GeneralWilliam T Barry1829 1835Amos Kendall1835 1837Secretary of the NavyJohn Branch1829 1831Levi Woodbury1831 1834Mahlon Dickerson1834 1837Instead of choosing party leaders for his cabinet Jackson chose plain businessmen whom he intended to control 21 For the key positions of Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury Jackson chose two Northerners Martin Van Buren of New York and Samuel Ingham of Pennsylvania 22 He appointed John Branch of North Carolina as Secretary of the Navy John Macpherson Berrien of Georgia as Attorney General 23 and John Eaton of Tennessee a friend and close political ally as Secretary of War 21 Recognizing the growing importance of the Post Office Jackson elevated the position of Postmaster General to the cabinet and he named William T Barry of Kentucky to lead the department 24 Of the six officials in Jackson s initial cabinet only Van Buren was a major political figure in his own right Jackson s cabinet choices were criticized from various quarters Calhoun and Van Buren were both disappointed that their respective factions were not more prominent in the cabinet while leaders from the state of Virginia and the region of New England complained about their exclusion 23 In addition to his official cabinet Jackson would come to rely on an informal Kitchen Cabinet of advisers 25 including General William Berkeley Lewis and journalist Amos Kendall Jackson s nephew Andrew Jackson Donelson served as the president s personal secretary and wife Emily acted as the White House hostess 26 Jackson s inaugural cabinet suffered from bitter partisanship and gossip especially between Eaton Vice President John C Calhoun and Van Buren By mid 1831 all except Barry and Calhoun had resigned 27 Governor Lewis Cass of the Michigan Territory became Secretary of War ambassador and former Congressman Louis McLane of Delaware took the position of Secretary of the Treasury Senator Edward Livingston of Louisiana became Secretary of State and Senator Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire became Secretary of the Navy Roger Taney who had previously served as the Attorney General of Maryland replaced Berrien as the U S Attorney General In contrast to Jackson s initial choices the cabinet members appointed in 1831 were prominent national leaders none of whom were aligned with Calhoun 28 Outside of the cabinet journalist Francis Preston Blair emerged as an influential adviser 29 At the start of his second term Jackson transferred McLane to the position of Secretary of State while William J Duane replaced McLane as Secretary of the Treasury and Livingston became the ambassador to France 30 Due to his opposition to Jackson s removal of federal funds from the Second Bank of the United States Duane was dismissed from the cabinet before the end of 1833 Taney became the new Secretary of the Treasury while Benjamin F Butler replaced Taney as Attorney General 31 Jackson was forced to shake up his cabinet again in 1834 after the Senate rejected Taney s nomination and McLane resigned John Forsyth of Georgia was appointed Secretary of State Mahlon Dickerson replaced Woodbury as Secretary of the Navy and Woodbury became the fourth and final Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson 32 Jackson dismissed Barry in 1835 after numerous complaints about the latter s effectiveness as Postmaster General and Jackson chose Amos Kendall as Barry s replacement 33 Judicial appointments editMain article List of federal judges appointed by Andrew Jackson Jackson appointed six Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States 34 Most were undistinguished 35 His first nominee was John McLean a close ally of Calhoun s who had been Adams s Postmaster General Because McLean was reluctant to make full use of his office s powers of patronage Jackson delicately removed him from office with an appointment to the Supreme Court 36 McLean turned Whig and forever schemed to win the presidency Jackson s next two appointees Henry Baldwin and James Moore Wayne disagreed with Jackson on some points but were poorly regarded even by Jackson s enemies 37 In reward for his services Jackson nominated Taney to the Court to fill a vacancy in January 1835 but the nomination failed to win Senate approval 35 Chief Justice John Marshall died later that year leaving two vacancies on the court Jackson nominated Taney for Chief Justice and Philip P Barbour for Associate Justice and both were confirmed by the new Senate 38 Taney served as Chief Justice until 1864 presiding over a court that upheld many of the precedents set by the Marshall Court 39 On the last full day of his presidency Jackson nominated John Catron who was confirmed 40 By the time Jackson left office he had appointed a majority of the sitting members of the Supreme Court the only exceptions being Joseph Story and Smith Thompson 41 Jackson also appointed eighteen judges to the United States district courts Petticoat affair editMain article Petticoat affair nbsp Secretary of War John H EatonJackson devoted a considerable amount of his time during his early years in office responding to what came to be known as the Petticoat affair or Eaton affair 42 Washington gossip circulated among Jackson s cabinet members and their wives including Vice President Calhoun s wife Floride Calhoun concerning Secretary of War Eaton and his wife Peggy Eaton Salacious rumors held that Peggy as a barmaid in her father s tavern had been sexually promiscuous or had even been a prostitute 43 Some also accused the Eatons of having engaged in an adulterous affair while Peggy s previous husband John B Timberlake was still living 44 Petticoat politics emerged when the wives of cabinet members led by Floride Calhoun refused to socialize with the Eatons 43 The cabinet wives insisted that the interests and honor of all American women were at stake They believed a responsible woman should never accord a man sexual favors without the assurance that went with marriage Historian Daniel Walker Howe argues that the actions of the cabinet wives reflected the feminist spirit that in the next decade shaped the woman s rights movement 45 Jackson refused to believe the rumors regarding Peggy Eaton telling his cabinet that She is as chaste as a virgin 43 He was infuriated by those who in attempting to drive the Eatons out dared to tell him who he could and could not have in his cabinet The affair also reminded him of similar attacks that had been made against his wife 46 Though he initially blamed Henry Clay for the controversy over Eaton by the end of 1829 Jackson had come to believe that Vice President Calhoun had masterminded the dissension in his cabinet 47 The controversy over Eaton dragged on into 1830 and 1831 as the other cabinet wives continued to ostracize Eaton 48 Jackson s cabinet and closest advisers became polarized between Vice President Calhoun and Secretary of State Van Buren a widower who remained on good terms with the Eatons 49 In early 1831 as the controversy continued unabated Van Buren proposed that the entire cabinet resign and the Petticoat Affair finally ended after Eaton stepped down in June 1831 50 With the sole exception of Postmaster General Barry the other cabinet officials also left office marking the first mass resignation of cabinet officials in U S history 51 Van Buren was rewarded with a nomination to the position of ambassador to Great Britain but the Senate rejected his nomination 52 Calhoun who cast a tie breaking vote in the Senate to defeat Van Buren s nomination believed that the Senate vote would end Van Buren s career but in fact it strengthened Van Buren s position with Jackson and many other Democrats 53 By cultivating the support of Jackson Van Buren emerged from the Petticoat Affair as Jackson s heir apparent Three decades later biographer James Parton would write that the political history of the United States for the last thirty years dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr Van Buren touched Mrs Eaton s knocker 51 Meanwhile Jackson and Vice President Calhoun became increasingly alienated from one another 54 Following the Petticoat Affair Jackson acquired the Globe newspaper to use as a weapon against the rumor mills 55 56 Rotation in office and spoils system editFurther information Spoils system and Rotation in office Jackson removed an unprecedented number of presidential appointees from office though Thomas Jefferson had dismissed a smaller but still significant number of Federalists during his own presidency 57 Jackson believed that a rotation in office the removal of governmental officials was actually a democratic reform preventing nepotism and that it made civil service responsible to the popular will 58 Reflecting this view Jackson told Congress in December 1829 In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another 59 60 Jackson rotated about 20 of federal office holders during his first term some for dereliction of duty rather than political purposes 61 62 The Post Office was most strongly affected by Jackson s rotation policy but district attorneys federal marshals customs collectors and other federal employees were also removed from office 63 Jackson s opponents labeled his appointments process a spoils system arguing that he was primarily motivated by a desire to use government positions to reward supporters and build his own political strength 64 Because he believed that most public officials faced few challenges for their positions Jackson dismissed the need for a meritocratic appointment policy 65 Many of Jackson s appointees including Amos Kendall and Isaac Hill were controversial and many of those who Jackson removed from office were popular 66 Jackson s appointment policy also created political problems within his own coalition as Calhoun Van Buren Eaton and others clashed over various appointments 67 His appointments encountered some resistance in the Senate and by the end of his presidency Jackson had had more nominees rejected than all previous presidents combined 68 In an effort to purge the government from the alleged corruption of previous administrations Jackson launched presidential investigations into all executive cabinet offices and departments 69 His administration conducted a high profile prosecution against Tobias Watkins the Auditor at the Treasury Department during Adams s presidency 66 John Neal a friend of Watkins and critic of Jackson said that this prosecution served to feed fat his ancient grudge and was characteristic of that willful unforgiving inexorable man who was made President by the war cry 70 Jackson s approach incorporated patriotism for country as qualification for holding office Having appointed a soldier who had lost his leg fighting on the battlefield to postmaster he stated i f he lost his leg fighting for his country that is enough for me 71 He also asked Congress to reform embezzlement laws reduce fraudulent applications for federal pensions and pass laws to prevent evasion of custom duties and improve government accounting 72 Despite these attempts at reform historians believe Jackson s presidency marked the beginning of an era of decline in public ethics 73 Supervision of bureaus and departments whose operations were outside of Washington such as the New York Customs House the Postal Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs proved to be difficult However some of the practices that later became associated with the spoils system including the buying of offices forced political party campaign participation and collection of assessments did not take place until after Jackson s presidency 74 Eventually in the years after Jackson left office presidents would remove appointees as a matter of course while Jackson dismissed 45 percent of those who held office Abraham Lincoln would dismiss 90 percent of those who had held office prior to the start of his presidency 75 Indian removal editFurther information Indian removal Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears nbsp Jackson s Indian Removal Act and subsequent treaties resulted in the forced removal of several Indian tribes from their traditional territories including the Trail of Tears Indian Removal Act edit Prior to taking office Jackson had spent much of his career fighting the Native Americans of the Southwest and he considered Native Americans to be inferior to those who were descended from Europeans 76 His presidency marked a new era in Indian Anglo American relations as he initiated a policy of Indian removal 77 Previous presidents had at times supported removal or attempts to civilize the Native Americans but had generally not made Native American affairs a top priority 78 By the time Jackson took office approximately 100 000 Native Americans lived east of the Mississippi River within the United States with most located in Indiana Illinois Michigan Wisconsin Territory Mississippi Alabama Georgia and Florida Territory 79 Jackson prioritized removing Native Americans from the South as he believed that the Native Americans of the Northwest could be pushed back 80 In his 1829 Annual Message to Congress Jackson advocated for setting aside land west of the Mississippi River for Native American tribes while he favored voluntary relocation he also proposed that any Native Americans who did not relocate would lose their independence and be subject to state laws 81 A significant political movement consisting largely of evangelical Christians and others from the North rejected Indian removal and instead favored continuing efforts to civilize Native Americans 82 Overcoming opposition led by Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen Jackson s allies won the passage of the Indian Removal Act in May 1830 The bill passed the House by a 102 to 97 vote with most Southern congressmen voting for the bill and most Northern congressmen voting against it 83 The act authorized the president to negotiate treaties to buy tribal lands in the east in exchange for lands farther west outside of existing state borders 84 The act specifically pertained to the Five Civilized Tribes in the Southern United States the conditions being that they could either move west or stay and obey state law 85 The Five Civilized Tribes consisted of the Cherokee Muscogee also known as the Creek Chickasaw Choctaw and Seminole Indians all of whom had adopted aspects of European culture including some degree of sedentary farming 86 Cherokee edit nbsp Jackson painted by Earl 1830With Jackson s support Georgia and other states sought to extend their sovereignty over tribes within their borders despite existing U S treaty obligations 87 Georgia s dispute with the Cherokee culminated in the 1832 Supreme Court decision of Worcester v Georgia In that decision Chief Justice John Marshall writing for the court ruled that Georgia could not forbid whites from entering tribal lands as it had attempted to do with two missionaries supposedly stirring up resistance among the tribespeople 88 The Supreme Court s ruling helped establish the doctrine of tribal sovereignty but Georgia did not release the prisoners 89 Jackson is frequently attributed the following response John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it Remini argues that Jackson did not say it because while it certainly sounds like Jackson t here was nothing for him to enforce 90 The court had held that Georgia must release the prisoners but it had not compelled the federal government to become involved In late 1832 Van Buren intervened on behalf of the administration to put an end to the situation convincing Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin to pardon the missionaries 91 As the Supreme Court was no longer involved and the Jackson administration had no interest in interfering with Indian removal the state of Georgia was free to extend its control over the Cherokee In 1832 Georgia held a lottery to distribute Cherokee lands to white settlers 92 Under the leadership of Chief John Ross most Cherokee refused to leave their homeland but a group led by John Ridge and Elias Boudinot negotiated the Treaty of New Echota In return for 5 million and land west of the Mississippi River Ridge and Boudinot agreed to lead a faction of the Cherokee out of Georgia a fraction of the Cherokee would leave in 1836 Many other Cherokee protested the treaty but by a narrow margin the United States Senate voted to ratify the treaty in May 1836 93 The Treaty of New Echota was enforced by Jackson s successor Van Buren subsequently as many as 4 000 out of 18 000 Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears in 1838 94 Other tribes edit Jackson Eaton and General John Coffee negotiated with the Chickasaw who quickly agreed to move 95 Jackson put Eaton and Coffee in charge of negotiating with the Choctaw tribe Lacking Jackson s skills at negotiation they frequently bribed the chiefs in order to gain their submission 96 The Choctaw chiefs agreed to move with the signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek The removal of the Choctaw took place in the winter of 1831 and 1832 and was wrought with misery and suffering 96 Members of the Creek Nation signed the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832 allowing the Creek to either sell or retain their land 97 Conflict later erupted between the Creek who remained and the white settlers leading to the Second Creek War 98 The Creek uprising was quickly crushed by the army and the remaining Creek were escorted across the Mississippi River 99 Of all the tribes in the Southeast the Seminoles proved to be the most resistant to mass relocation The Jackson administration reached a removal treaty with a small group of Seminoles but the treaty was repudiated by the tribe Jackson sent soldiers into Florida to remove the Seminoles marking the start of the Second Seminole War The Second Seminole War dragged on until 1842 and hundreds of Seminole still remained in Florida after 1842 100 A shorter conflict broke out in the Northwest in 1832 after Chief Black Hawk led a band of Native Americans across the Mississippi River to their ancestral homeland in Illinois A combination of the army and the Illinois militia drove out the Native Americans by the end of the year bringing a close to the Black Hawk War 101 By the end of Jackson s presidency nearly 50 000 Native Americans had moved across the Mississippi River and Indian removal would continue after he left office 102 Nullification crisis and the tariff editMain article Nullification crisis First term edit In 1828 Congress had approved the so called Tariff of Abominations which set the tariff at a historically high rate 103 The tariff was popular in the Northeast and to a lesser extent the Northwest since it protected domestic industries from foreign competition 104 Southern planters strongly opposed high tariff rates as they resulted in higher prices for imported goods 103 This opposition to high tariff rates was especially intense in South Carolina where the dominant planter class faced few checks on extremism 105 The South Carolina Exposition and Protest of 1828 secretly written by Calhoun had asserted that their state could nullify declare void the tariff legislation of 1828 106 Calhoun argued that while the Constitution authorized the federal government to impose tariffs for the collection of revenue it did not sanction tariffs that were designed to protect domestic production 107 Jackson sympathized with states rights concerns but he rejected the idea of nullification 108 In his 1829 Annual Message to Congress Jackson advocated leaving the tariff in place until the national debt was paid off He also favored a constitutional amendment that would once the national debt was paid off distribute surplus revenues from tariffs to the states 81 nbsp John C Calhoun of South CarolinaCalhoun was not as extreme as some within South Carolina and he and his allies kept more radical leaders like Robert James Turnbull in check early in Jackson s presidency As the Petticoat affair strained relations between Jackson and Calhoun South Carolina nullifiers became increasingly strident in their opposition to the Tariff of Abominations 109 Relations between Jackson and Calhoun reached a breaking point in May 1830 after Jackson discovered a letter that indicated that then Secretary of War Calhoun had asked President Monroe to censure Jackson for his invasion of Spanish Florida in 1818 104 Jackson s adviser William Lewis acquired the letter from William Crawford a former Monroe cabinet official who was eager to help Van Buren at the expense of Calhoun 110 Jackson and Calhoun began an angry correspondence which lasted until July 1830 111 By the end of 1831 an open break had emerged not just between Calhoun and Jackson but also between their respective supporters 112 Writing in the early 1830s Calhoun claimed that three parties existed One party led by Calhoun himself favored free trade one party led by Henry Clay favored protectionism and one party led by Jackson occupied a middle position 113 Believing that Calhoun was leading a conspiracy to undermine his administration Jackson built a network of informants in South Carolina and prepared for a possible insurrection He also threw his support behind a tariff reduction bill that he believed would defuse the nullification issue 114 In May 1832 Representative John Quincy Adams introduced a slightly revised version of the bill which Jackson accepted and it was passed into law in July 1832 115 The bill failed to satisfy many in the South and a majority of southern Congressmen voted against it 116 but passage of the Tariff of 1832 prevented tariff rates from becoming a major campaign issue in the 1832 election 117 Crisis edit Seeking to compel a further reduction in tariff rates and bolster the ideology of states rights South Carolina leaders prepared to follow through on their nullification threats after the 1832 election 118 In November 1832 South Carolina held a state convention that declared the tariff rates of 1828 and 1832 to be void within the state and further declared that federal collection of import duties would be illegal after January 1833 114 After the convention the South Carolina Legislature elected Calhoun to the U S Senate replacing Robert Y Hayne who had resigned to become that state s governor Hayne had often struggled to defend nullification on the floor of the Senate especially against fierce criticism from Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts 119 In his December 1832 Annual Message to Congress Jackson called for another reduction of the tariff but he also vowed to suppress any rebellion 120 Days later Jackson issued his Proclamation to the People of South Carolina which strongly denied the right of states to nullify federal laws or secede 121 Jackson ordered the unionist South Carolina leader Joel Roberts Poinsett to organize a posse to suppress any rebellion and promised Poinsett that 50 000 soldiers would be dispatched if any rebellion did break out 122 At the same time Governor Hayne asked for volunteers for the state militia and 25 000 men volunteered 123 Jackson s nationalist stance split the Democratic Party and set off a national debate over nullification Outside of South Carolina no Southern states endorsed nullification but many also expressed opposition to Jackson s threat to use force 124 Democratic Congressman Gulian C Verplanck introduced a tariff reduction bill in the House of Representatives that would restore the tariff levels of the Tariff of 1816 and South Carolina leaders decided to delay the onset of nullification while Congress considered a new tariff bill 125 As the debate over the tariff continued Jackson asked Congress to pass a Force Bill explicitly authorizing the use of military force to enforce the government s power to collect import duties 126 Though the House effort to write a new tariff bill collapsed Clay initiated Senate consideration of the topic by introducing his own bill 127 Clay the most prominent protectionist in the country worked with Calhoun s allies rather than Jackson s allies to pass the bill 128 He won Calhoun s approval for a bill that provided for gradual tariff reductions until 1843 with tariff rates ultimately reaching levels similar to those proposed in the Verplanck bill Southern leaders would have preferred lower rates but they accepted Clay s bill as the best compromise they could achieve at that point in time 129 The Force Bill meanwhile passed both houses of Congress many Southern congressmen opposed the bill but did not vote against it in an effort to expedite consideration of the tariff bill 130 Clay s tariff bill received significant support across partisan and sectional lines and it passed 149 47 in the House and 29 16 in the Senate 131 Despite his intense anger over the scrapping of the Verplanck bill and the new alliance between Clay and Calhoun Jackson saw the tariff bill as an acceptable way to end the crisis He signed both the Tariff of 1833 and the Force Bill into law on March 2 132 Simultaneous passage of the Force Bill and the tariff allowed both the nullifiers and Jackson to claim that they had emerged victorious from the confrontation 133 Despite his earlier support for a similar measure Jackson vetoed a third bill that would have distributed tariff revenue to the states 134 The South Carolina Convention met and rescinded its nullification ordinance and in a final show of defiance nullified the Force Bill 135 Though the nullifiers had largely failed in their quest to lower tariff rates they established firm control over South Carolina in the aftermath of the Nullification Crisis 136 Bank War and 1832 re election editFurther information Bank War and 1832 United States presidential election First term edit nbsp 1833 Democratic cartoon shows Jackson destroying the devil s BankThe Second Bank of the United States national bank had been chartered under President James Madison to restore an economy devastated by the War of 1812 and President Monroe had appointed Nicholas Biddle as the national bank s executive in 1822 The national bank operated branches in several states and granted these branches a large degree of autonomy 137 The national bank s duties included storing government funds issuing banknotes selling Treasury securities facilitating foreign transactions and extending credit to businesses and other banks 138 137 The national bank also played an important role in regulating the money supply which consisted of government issued coins and privately issued banknotes By presenting private banknotes for redemption exchange for coins to their issuers the national bank limited the supply of paper money in the country 137 By the time Jackson took office the national bank had approximately 35 million in capital which represented more than twice the annual expenditures of the U S government 138 The national bank had not been a major issue in the 1828 election but some in the country including Jackson despised the institution 139 The national bank s stock was mostly held by foreigners Jackson insisted and it exerted an undue amount of control over the political system 140 Jackson had developed a life long hatred for banks earlier in his career and he wanted to remove all banknotes from circulation 139 In his address to Congress in 1830 Jackson called for the abolition of the national bank 141 Senator Thomas Hart Benton a strong supporter of the president despite a brawl years earlier gave a speech strongly denouncing the Bank and calling for open debate on its recharter but Senator Daniel Webster led a motion that narrowly defeated the resolution 142 Seeking to reconcile with the Jackson administration Biddle appointed Democrats to the boards of national bank branches and worked to speed up the retirement of the national debt 143 Though Jackson and many of his allies detested the national bank others within the Jacksonian coalition including Eaton and Senator Samuel Smith supported the institution 138 Despite some misgivings Jackson supported a plan proposed in late 1831 by his moderately pro national bank Treasury Secretary Louis McLane who was secretly working with Biddle McLane s plan would recharter a reformed version of the national bank in a way that would free up funds partly through the sale of government stock in the national bank The funds would in turn be used to strengthen the military or pay off the nation s debt Over the objections of Attorney General Taney an irreconcilable opponent of the national bank Jackson allowed McLane to publish a Treasury Report which essentially recommended rechartering the national bank 144 Hoping to make the national bank a major issue in the 1832 election Clay and Webster urged Biddle to immediately apply for recharter rather than wait to reach a compromise with the administration 145 Biddle received advice to the contrary from moderate Democrats such as McLane and William Lewis who argued that Biddle should wait because Jackson would likely veto the recharter bill In January 1832 Biddle submitted to Congress a renewal of the national bank s charter without any of McLane s proposed reforms 146 In May 1832 after months of congressional debate Biddle assented to a revised bill that would re charter the national bank but give Congress and the president new powers in controlling the institution while also limiting the national bank s ability to hold real estate and establish branches 147 The recharter bill passed the Senate on June 11 and the House on July 3 1832 140 When Van Buren met Jackson on July 4 Jackson declared The Bank Mr Van Buren is trying to kill me But I will kill it 148 Jackson officially vetoed the bill on July 10 His veto message crafted primarily by Taney Kendall and Andrew Jackson Donelson attacked the national bank as an agent of inequality that supported only the wealthy 149 He also noted that as the national bank s charter would not expire for another four years the next two Congresses would be able to consider new re chartering bills 150 Jackson s message ended on a sharp note that Remini says almost sounded like a call to class warfare 151 when the laws undertake to add artificial distinctions to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful the humble members of society the farmers mechanics and laborers who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government Jackson s enemies castigated the veto as the very slang of the leveller and demagogue claiming Jackson was using class warfare to gain support from the common man 140 Whig leader Daniel Webster denounced the veto message on the Senate floor 152 It manifestly seeks to influence the poor against the rich It wantonly attacks whole classes of the people for the purpose of turning against them the prejudices and resentments of other classes It is a State paper which finds no topic too exciting for its use no passion too inflammable for its address and its solicitation 1832 election edit In the years leading up to the 1832 election it was unclear whether Jackson frequently in poor health would seek re election 153 However Jackson announced his intention to seek re election in 1831 154 Various individuals were considered as possible Democratic vice presidential nominees in the 1832 election including Van Buren Judge Philip P Barbour Treasury Secretary McLane Senator William Wilkins Associate Justice John McLean and even Calhoun In order to agree on a national ticket the Democrats held their first national convention in May 1832 155 Van Buren emerged as Jackson s preferred running mate after the Eaton affair and the former Secretary of State won the vice presidential nomination on the first ballot of the 1832 Democratic National Convention 53 156 Later that year on December 28 Calhoun resigned as vice president after having been elected to the U S Senate 157 b In the 1832 election Jackson would face a divided opposition in the form of the Anti Masonic Party and the National Republicans 159 Since the disappearance and possible murder of William Morgan in 1827 the Anti Masonic Party had emerged by capitalizing on opposition to Freemasonry 160 In 1830 a meeting of Anti Masons called for the first national nominating convention and in September 1831 the fledgling party nominated a national ticket led by William Wirt of Maryland 161 In December 1831 the National Republicans convened and nominated a ticket led by Henry Clay Clay had rejected overtures from the Anti Masonic Party and his attempt to convince Calhoun to serve as his running mate failed leaving the opposition to Jackson split among different leaders 159 For vice president the National Republicans nominated John Sergeant who had served as an attorney for both the Second Bank of the United States and the Cherokee Nation 162 nbsp 1832 election resultsThe political struggle over the national bank emerged as the major issue of the 1832 campaign although the tariff and especially Indian removal were also important issues in several states 163 National Republicans also focused on Jackson s alleged executive tyranny one cartoon described the president as King Andrew the First 164 At Biddle s direction the national bank poured thousands of dollars into the campaign to defeat Jackson seemingly confirming Jackson s view that it interfered in the political process 165 On July 21 Clay said privately The campaign is over and I think we have won the victory 166 Jackson however managed to successfully portray his veto of the national bank recharter as a defense of the common man against governmental tyranny Clay proved to be no match for Jackson s popularity and the Democratic Party s skillful campaigning 167 Jackson won the election by a landslide winning 219 electoral votes well over the 145 needed 168 Jackson won 54 2 percent of the popular vote nationwide a slight decline from his 1828 popular vote victory Jackson received 88 percent of the popular vote in states south of Kentucky and Maryland while Clay received no votes in Georgia Alabama or Mississippi 169 Clay received 37 of the popular vote and 49 electoral votes whereas Wirt received 8 of the vote and seven electoral votes 168 The South Carolina legislature awarded the state s electoral votes to states rights advocate John Floyd 170 Despite Jackson s victory in the presidential election his allies lost control of the Senate 171 Removal of deposits and censure edit See also Censure of Andrew Jackson Jackson s victory in the 1832 election meant that he could veto an extension of the national bank s charter before that charter expired in 1836 Though a congressional override of his veto was unlikely Jackson still wanted to ensure that the national bank would be abolished His administration was unable to legally remove federal deposits from the national bank unless the Secretary of the Treasury issued an official finding that the national bank was a fiscally unsound institution but the national bank was clearly solvent 172 In January 1833 at the height of the Nullification Crisis Congressman James K Polk introduced a bill that would provide for the removal of the federal government s deposits from the national bank but it was quickly defeated 173 Following the end of the Nullification Crisis in March 1833 Jackson renewed his offensive against the national bank despite some opposition from within his own cabinet 174 Throughout mid 1833 Jackson made preparations to remove federal deposits from the national bank sending Amos Kendall to meet with the leaders of various banks to see whether they would accept federal deposits 175 Jackson ordered Secretary of the Treasury William Duane to remove existing federal deposits from the national bank but Duane refused to issue a finding that the federal government s deposits in the national bank were unsafe In response Jackson replaced Duane with Roger Taney who received an interim appointment Rather than removing existing deposits from the national bank Taney and Jackson pursued a new policy in which the government would deposit future revenue elsewhere while paying all expenses from its deposits with the national bank 176 The Jackson administration placed government deposits in a variety of state banks which were friendly to the administration s policies critics labeled these banks as pet banks 177 Biddle responded to the withdrawals by stockpiling the national bank s reserves and contracting credit thus causing interest rates to rise Intended to force Jackson into a compromise the move backfired increasing sentiment against the national bank 178 The transfer of large amounts of bank deposits combined with rising interest rates contributed to the onset of a financial panic in late 1833 179 When Congress reconvened in December 1833 it immediately became embroiled in the controversy regarding the withdrawals from the national bank and the subsequent financial panic 180 Neither the Democrats nor the anti Jacksonians exercised complete control of either house of Congress but the Democrats were stronger in the House of Representatives while the anti Jacksonians were stronger in the Senate 181 Senator Clay introduced a measure to censure Jackson for unconstitutionally removing federal deposits from the national bank and in March 1834 the Senate voted to censure Jackson in a 26 20 vote 182 It also rejected Taney as Treasury Secretary forcing Jackson to find a different treasury secretary he eventually nominated Levi Woodbury who won confirmation 32 Led by Polk the House declared on April 4 1834 that the national bank ought not to be rechartered and that the depositions ought not to be restored The House also voted to allow the pet banks to continue to serve as places of deposit and sought to investigate whether the national bank had deliberately instigated the financial panic 183 By mid 1834 the relatively mild panic had ended and Jackson s opponents had failed to recharter the national bank or reverse Jackson s removals The national bank s federal charter expired in 1836 and though Biddle s institution continued to function under a Pennsylvania charter it never regained the influence it had had at the beginning of Jackson s administration 184 Following the loss of the national bank s federal charter New York City supplanted Philadelphia the national bank s headquarters as the nation s financial capital 185 In January 1837 when the Jacksonians had a majority in the Senate the censure was expunged after years of effort by Jackson supporters 186 Rise of the Whig Party editFurther information Whig Party United States and Second Party System nbsp Henry Clay of KentuckyClear partisan affiliations had not formed at the start of Jackson s presidency He had supporters in the Northwest the Northeast and the South all of whom had different positions on different issues 187 The Nullification Crisis briefly scrambled the partisan divisions that had emerged after 1824 as many within the Jacksonian coalition opposed his threats of force while some opposition leaders like Daniel Webster supported them 188 Jackson s removal of the government deposits in late 1833 ended any possibility of a Webster Jackson alliance and helped to solidify partisan lines 189 Jackson s threats to use force during the Nullification Crisis and his alliance with Van Buren motivated many Southern leaders to leave the Democratic Party while opposition to Indian removal and Jackson s actions in the Bank War spurred opposition from many in the North Attacking the president s executive usurpation those opposed to Jackson coalesced into the Whig Party The Whig label implicitly compared King Andrew to King George III the King of Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution 190 The National Republicans including Clay and Webster formed the core of the Whig Party but many Anti Masons like William H Seward of New York and Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania also joined Several prominent Democrats defected to the Whigs including former Attorney General John Berrien Senator Willie Person Mangum of North Carolina and John Tyler of Virginia 190 Even John Eaton the former Secretary of War became a member of the Whig Party 191 Beginning in December 1833 voting behavior in Congress began to be dominated by partisan affiliation 190 By the time of the 1836 presidential election Whigs and Democrats had established state parties throughout the country though party strength varied by state and many of Jackson s opponents in the Deep South eschewed the Whig label 192 While Democrats openly embraced partisanship and campaigning many Whigs only reluctantly accepted the new system of party politics and they lagged behind the Democrats in establishing national organizations and cross sectional unity 193 Along with the Democrats the Whigs were one of the two major parties of the Second Party System which would extend into the 1850s 191 Calhoun s nullifiers did not fit neatly into either party and they pursued alliances with both major parties at various times 194 Panic of 1837 editFurther information Panic of 1837 nbsp A New York newspaper blamed the Panic of 1837 on Andrew Jackson depicted in spectacles and top hat The national economy boomed after mid 1834 as state banks liberally extended credit 195 Due in part to the booming economy Jackson paid off the entire national debt in January 1835 the only time in U S history that that has been accomplished 196 197 In the aftermath of the Bank War Jackson asked Congress to pass a bill to regulate the pet banks 198 Jackson sought to restrict the issuance of paper banknotes under 5 and also to require banks to hold specie gold or silver coins equal to one fourth of the value of banknotes they issued As Congress did not act on this proposal by the end of its session in March 1835 Secretary of the Treasury Woodbury forced the pet banks to accept restrictions similar to those that Jackson had proposed to Congress 199 The debate over financial regulation became tied to a debate over the disposition of the federal budget surplus and proposals to increase the number of pet banks In June 1836 Congress passed a bill that doubled the number of pet banks distributed surplus federal revenue to the states and instituted Jackson s proposed bank regulations Jackson considered vetoing the bill primarily due to his opposition to the distribution of federal revenue but he ultimately decided to let it pass into law As the number of pet banks increased from 33 to 81 regulation of the government s deposits became more difficult and lending increased The growing number of loans contributed to a boom in land prices and land sales the United States General Land Office sold 12 5 million acres of public land in 1835 compared to 2 million acres in 1829 200 Seeking to curb land speculation Jackson issued the Specie Circular an executive order that required buyers of government lands to pay in specie 201 The Specie Circular undermined the public s trust in the value of paper money Congress passed a bill to revoke Jackson s policy but Jackson vetoed that bill on his last day in office 202 The period of good economic conditions ended with the onset of the Panic of 1837 203 Jackson s Specie Circular albeit designed to reduce speculation and stabilize the economy left many investors unable to afford to pay loans in gold and silver The same year there was a downturn in Great Britain s economy resulting in decreased foreign investment in the United States As a result the U S economy went into a depression banks became insolvent the national debt increased business failures rose cotton prices dropped and unemployment dramatically increased 203 The depression that followed lasted until 1841 when the economy began to rebound 196 204 Other domestic issues edit nbsp BEP engraved portrait of Jackson as President Internal improvements edit In the years before Jackson took office the idea of using federal funding to build or improve internal improvements such as roads and canals had become increasingly popular 205 Jackson had campaigned against Adams s support for federally funded infrastructure projects but unlike some states rights supporters Jackson believed that such projects were constitutional so long as they aided the national defense or improved the national economy 206 The National Road was one of the major infrastructure projects worked on during Jackson s presidency and his tenure saw the National Road extended from Ohio into Illinois 207 In May 1830 the House passed a bill to create the Maysville Road which would link the National Road to the Natchez Trace via Lexington Kentucky With the strong support of Van Buren Jackson vetoed the bill arguing that the project was too localized for the federal government to become involved Jackson further warned that government expenditures on infrastructure would be costly and threatened his goal of retiring the national debt The veto shored up Jackson s support among pro states rights Old Republicans like John Randolph but angered some Jacksonians who favored internal improvements 208 Despite the Maysville Road Veto federal funding for infrastructure projects increased substantially during Jackson s presidency reaching a total greater than all previous administrations combined 206 Because of a booming economy and high levels of federal revenues the Jackson administration was able to retire the national debt even while spending on infrastructure projects increased 209 Slavery controversies edit A slaveowner himself Jackson favored the expansion of slavery into the territories and disapproved of anti slavery agitation Though slavery was not a major issue of Jackson s presidency two notable controversies related to slavery arose while he was in the White House In 1835 the American Anti Slavery Society launched a mail campaign against the peculiar institution Tens of thousands of antislavery pamphlets and tracts were sent to Southern destinations through the U S mail Across the South reaction to the abolition mail campaign bordered on apoplexy 210 In Congress Southerners demanded the prevention of delivery of the tracts and Jackson moved to placate Southerners in the aftermath of the nullification crisis Abolitionists decried Postmaster General Amos Kendall s decision to give Southern postmasters discretionary powers to discard the tracts as a suppression of free speech 211 Another conflict over slavery in 1835 ensued when abolitionists sent the U S House of Representatives petitions to end the slave trade and slavery in Washington D C 212 These petitions infuriated pro slavery Southerners who attempted to prevent acknowledgement or discussion of the petitions Northern Whigs objected that anti slavery petitions were constitutional and should not be forbidden 212 South Carolina Representative Henry L Pinckney introduced a resolution that denounced the petitions as sickly sentimentality declared that Congress had no right to interfere with slavery and tabled all further anti slavery petitions Southerners in Congress including many of Jackson s supporters favored the measure the 21st Rule commonly called the gag rule which was passed quickly and without any debate thus temporarily suppressing abolitionist activities in Congress 212 Two other important slavery related developments occurred while Jackson was in office In January 1831 William Lloyd Garrison established The Liberator which emerged as the most influential abolitionist newspaper in the country While many slavery opponents sought the gradual emancipation of all slaves Garrison called for the immediate abolition of slavery throughout the country Garrison also established the American Anti Slavery Society which grew to approximately 250 000 members by 1838 213 In the same year that Garrison founded The Liberator Nat Turner launched his slave rebellion After killing dozens of whites in southeastern Virginia across two days Turner s rebels were suppressed by a combination of vigilantes the state militia and federal soldiers 214 U S Exploring Expedition edit nbsp USS Porpoise a brig ship laid down in 1835 and launched in May 1836 used in the U S Exploring ExpeditionJackson initially opposed any federal exploratory scientific expeditions during his first term in office 215 Jackson s predecessor President Adams had attempted to launch a scientific exploration of the ocean in 1828 but Congress was unwilling to fund the effort When Jackson assumed office in 1829 he pocketed Adams expedition plans However wanting to establish a presidential legacy similar to that of Jefferson who had sponsored the Lewis and Clark Expedition Jackson decided to support scientific exploration during his second term On May 18 1836 Jackson signed a law creating and funding the oceanic United States Exploring Expedition Jackson put Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson in charge of planning the expedition but Dickerson proved unfit for the task and the expedition was not launched until 1838 215 One brig ship USS Porpoise later used in the expedition having been commissioned by Secretary Dickerson in May 1836 circumnavigated the world and explored and mapped the Southern Ocean confirming the existence of the continent of Antarctica 216 Copyright edit On February 3 1831 Jackson signed the Copyright Act of 1831 which had four main provisions Extension of the original copyright term from 14 years to 28 years with an option to renew the copyright for another 14 years Addition of musical compositions to the list of statutorily protected works though this protection only extended to reproductions of compositions in printed form the public performance right was not recognized until later Extension of the statute of limitations on copyright actions from one year to two Changes in copyright formality requirements 217 Administrative reforms edit Jackson presided over several reforms in the executive branch 218 Postmaster General Amos Kendall reorganized the Post Office and successfully pushed for the Post Office Act of 1836 which made the Post Office a department of the executive branch Under Commissioner Ethan Allen Brown the General Land Office was reorganized and expanded to accommodate the growing demand for public land The Patent Office was also reorganized and expanded under the leadership of Henry Leavitt Ellsworth After his request to divide the State Department into two departments was rebuffed Jackson divided the State Department into eight bureaus Jackson also presided over the establishment of the Office of Indian Affairs which coordinated Indian removal and other policies related to Native Americans By signing the Judiciary Act of 1837 Jackson played a role in extending the circuit courts to several western states 219 States admitted to the Union edit Two new states were admitted into the Union during Jackson s presidency Arkansas June 15 1836 220 and Michigan January 26 1837 221 Both states increased Democratic power in Congress and voted for Van Buren in 1836 222 Foreign affairs editFurther information History of U S foreign policy 1829 1861 nbsp Jackson s Minister to France William C Rives successfully negotiated payments that France owed the U S for damages caused by Napoleon Spoliation and commercial treaties edit Foreign affairs under Jackson were generally uneventful prior to 1835 223 224 His administration s foreign policy focused on expanding trade opportunities for American commerce 225 The Jackson administration negotiated a trade agreement with Great Britain that opened the British West Indies and Canada to American exports though the British refused to allow American ships to engage in the West Indian carrying trade 226 The agreement with Britain which had been sought by previous presidents represented a major foreign policy success for Jackson 227 The State Department also negotiated routine trade agreements with Russia Spain the Ottoman Empire and Siam American exports chiefly cotton increased 75 while imports increased 250 228 Jackson increased funding to the navy and used it to defend American commercial interests in far flung areas such as the Falkland Islands and Sumatra 229 According to Jonathan Goldstein the Jackson presidency was the first to actively promote export and import opportunities with Asia Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury diplomat Edmund Roberts and several navy commodores took the lead The Navy landed Marines in Sumatra and the Fiji islands to punish attacks on American merchant ships The Navy charted hazardous Pacific zones the State Department sent Roberts to conclude treaties to protect American trade 230 A second major foreign policy emphasis was the settlement of spoliation claims 231 The most serious crisis involved a debt that France owed for the damage Napoleon had done two decades earlier France agreed to pay the debt but kept postponing payment Jackson made warlike gestures while domestic political opponents ridiculed his bellicosity Jackson s Minister to France William C Rives finally obtained the 25 000 000 francs involved about 5 000 000 in 1836 232 233 The Department of State also settled smaller spoliation claims with Denmark Portugal and Spain 228 Recognition of Republic of Texas edit Jackson believed that Adams had bargained away rightfully American territory in the Adams Onis Treaty and he sought to expand the United States west He continued Adams s policy of attempting to purchase the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas which Mexico continued to rebuff Upon gaining independence Mexico had invited American settlers to that underdeveloped province and 35 000 American settlers moved to the state between 1821 and 1835 Most of the settlers came from the Southern United States and many of these settlers brought slaves with them In 1830 fearing that the state was becoming a virtual extension of the United States Mexico banned immigration into Coahuila y Tejas Under Mexican rule the American settlers became increasingly dissatisfied 234 In 1835 American settlers in Texas along with local Tejanos fought a war for independence against Mexico Texian leader Stephen F Austin had sent a letter to Jackson pleading for an American military intervention but the United States remained neutral in the conflict 235 By May 1836 the Texians had routed the Mexican military establishing an independent Republic of Texas The new Texas government sought recognition from President Jackson and annexation into the United States 236 Antislavery elements in the U S strongly opposed annexation because of slavery s presence in Texas 237 238 Jackson was reluctant to recognize Texas as he was unconvinced that the new republic would maintain its independence from Mexico and did not want to make Texas an anti slavery issue during the 1836 election After the 1836 election Jackson formally recognized the Republic of Texas and nominated Alcee Louis la Branche as charge d affaires 228 239 Attack and assassination attempt edit nbsp Richard Lawrence s attempt on Jackson s life as depicted in an 1835 etchingOn January 30 1835 the first attempt to kill a sitting president occurred just outside the United States Capitol When Jackson was leaving through the East Portico after a funeral Richard Lawrence an unemployed house painter from England aimed a pistol at Jackson which misfired Lawrence then pulled out a second pistol which also misfired possibly due to the humid weather 240 Jackson infuriated attacked Lawrence with his cane and others present restrained and disarmed Lawrence 241 Lawrence said that he was a deposed English king and that Jackson was his clerk 242 He was deemed insane and was institutionalized 243 Jackson initially suspected that a number of his political enemies might have orchestrated the attempt on his life but his suspicions were never proven 244 Presidential election of 1836 editMain article 1836 United States presidential election nbsp 1836 electoral vote resultsJackson declined to seek a third term in 1836 instead throwing his support behind his chosen successor Vice President Van Buren 245 With Jackson s support Van Buren won the presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention without opposition 246 Representative Richard M Johnson of Kentucky and former Virginia senator William Cabell Rives were both nominated for vice president Southern Democrats as well as Van Buren strongly preferred Rives but Jackson strongly preferred Johnson Again Jackson s considerable influence prevailed and Johnson received the required two thirds vote after New York Senator Silas Wright prevailed upon non delegate Edward Rucker to cast the 15 votes of the absent Tennessee delegation in Johnson s favor 246 247 Van Buren s competitors in the election of 1836 were three members of the newly established Whig Party still a loose coalition bound by mutual opposition to Jackson s Bank War 247 The Whigs ran several regional candidates in hopes of sending the election to the House of Representatives where each state delegation would have one vote and the Whigs would stand a better chance of winning 248 Senator Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee emerged as the main Whig nominee in the South White ran against the Force Bill Jackson s actions in the Bank War and Van Buren s unpopularity in the South William Henry Harrison who had gained national fame for his role in the Battle of Tippecanoe established himself as the main Whig candidate in the North although Daniel Webster also had the support of some Northern Whigs 249 Van Buren won the election with 764 198 popular votes 50 9 percent of the total and 170 electoral votes Harrison led the Whigs with 73 electoral votes while White received 26 and Webster 14 250 Willie Person Mangum received the 11 electoral votes of South Carolina which were awarded by the state legislature 251 Van Buren s victory resulted from a combination of his own attractive political and personal qualities Jackson s popularity and endorsement the organizational power of the Democratic Party and the inability of the Whig Party to muster an effective candidate and campaign 252 Historical reputation edit nbsp Equestrian statue of Gen Jackson Jackson County Courthouse Kansas City Missouri commissioned by Judge Harry S TrumanJackson remains one of the most studied and controversial figures in American history Historian Charles Grier Sellers says Andrew Jackson s masterful personality was enough by itself to make him one of the most controversial figures ever to stride across the American stage There has never been universal agreement on Jackson s legacy for his opponents have ever been his most bitter enemies and his friends almost his worshippers 1 He was always a fierce partisan with many friends and many enemies He has been lauded as the champion of the common man while criticized for his treatment of Indians and for other matters 253 According to early biographer James Parton Andrew Jackson I am given to understand was a patriot and a traitor He was one of the greatest generals and wholly ignorant of the art of war A brilliant writer elegant eloquent without being able to compose a correct sentence or spell words of four syllables The first of statesmen he never devised he never framed a measure He was the most candid of men and was capable of the most profound dissimulation A most law defying law obeying citizen A stickler for discipline he never hesitated to disobey his superior A democratic autocrat An urbane savage An atrocious saint 254 In the 20th century Jackson was written about by many admirers Arthur M Schlesinger s Age of Jackson 1945 depicts Jackson as a man of the people battling inequality and upper class tyranny 255 From the 1970s to the 1980s Robert Remini published a three volume biography of Jackson followed by an abridged one volume study Remini paints a generally favorable portrait of Jackson 256 He contends that Jacksonian democracy stretches the concept of democracy about as far as it can go and still remain workable As such it has inspired much of the dynamic and dramatic events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in American history Populism Progressivism the New and Fair Deals and the programs of the New Frontier and Great Society 257 To Remini Jackson serves as the embodiment of the new American This new man was no longer British He no longer wore the queue and silk pants He wore trousers and he had stopped speaking with a British accent 256 However other 20th century writers such as Richard Hofstadter and Bray Hammond depict Jackson as an advocate of the sort of laissez faire capitalism that benefits the rich and oppresses the poor 255 Brands observes that Jackson s reputation declined after the mid 20th century as his actions towards Indians and African Americans received new attention After the civil rights movement Brands writes his unrepentant ownership of slaves marked him as one to be censured rather than praised Further By the turn of the present 21st century it was scarcely an exaggeration to say that the one thing American schoolchildren learned about Jackson was that he was the author of the Trail of Tears 258 Starting mainly around 1970 Jackson came under sharp attack from historians for his Indian removal policies Howard Zinn called him the most aggressive enemy of the Indians in early American history 259 and exterminator of Indians 260 By contrast Remini claims that if not for Jackson s policies the Southern tribes would have been totally wiped out just like other tribes namely the Yamasee Mahican and Narragansett which did not move 261 Despite some criticism Jackson s performance in office has generally been ranked highly in polls of historians and political scientists His position in C SPAN s poll of historians dropped from 13th in 2009 to 18th in 2017 Some associate this decline with the frequent praise Jackson has received from President Donald Trump who hung Jackson s official portrait in the Oval Office 262 A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association s Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Jackson as the fifteenth best president 263 Notes edit Vice President Calhoun resigned from office As this was prior to the adoption of the Twenty fifth Amendment in 1967 a vacancy in the office of vice president was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration Hugh Lawson White President pro tempore of the Senate was first in line in the United States presidential line of succession between December 28 1832 and March 4 1833 158 References edit a b Sellers 1958 p 615 Feller Daniel Andrew Jackson s Shifting Legacy Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Archived from the original on 22 December 2016 Retrieved 21 December 2016 Cole 1993 pp 3 4 a b c Wilentz 2005 pp 49 54 Cheathem Mark 2014 Frontiersman or Southern Gentleman Newspaper Coverage of Andrew Jackson during the 1828 Presidential Campaign The Readex Report 9 3 Archived from the original on January 12 2015 The Tsunami of Slime Circa 1828 New York News amp Politics June 15 2012 Archived from the original on March 23 2016 Retrieved June 1 2017 First Lady Biography Rachel Jackson Archived March 11 2010 at the Wayback Machine National First Ladies Library Web Retrieved February 15 2016 Cole 1993 pp 52 53 Brands 2005 p 405 Boller 2004 p 46 http memory loc gov ammem pihtml pinotable html Inaugurals of Presidents of the United States Some Precedents and Notable Events Library of Congress a b Cole 1993 pp 25 26 Mitgang Herbert 1992 12 20 The Transition A Populist Inauguration Jackson With Decorum The New York Times Retrieved 2009 01 20 Edwin A Miles The First People s Inaugural 1829 Tennessee Historical Quarterly 1978 293 307 in JSTOR Cole 1993 pp 54 55 Latner 2002 p 101 Latner 2002 p 104 Remini 1984 pp 338 339 Remini 1984 pp 338 440 Remini 1984 p 342 a b Cole 1993 p 27 Cole 1993 pp 27 28 a b Cole 1993 pp 29 30 Cole 1993 p 238 Howe 2007 p 331 Cole 1993 pp 26 27 Latner 2002 pp 104 5 Cole 1993 pp 86 87 Cole 1993 pp 88 91 Cole 1993 pp 188 189 Cole 1993 pp 194 208 a b Cole 1993 p 209 Cole 1993 p 239 Jacobson John Gregory 2004 Jackson s judges Six appointments who shaped a nation Abstract Etd Collection for University of Nebraska Lincoln University of Nebraska Lincoln 1 355 Archived from the original on March 30 2016 Retrieved July 18 2017 a b Remini 1984 p 266 Howe 2007 pp 331 332 Remini 1984 p 268 Remini 1984 pp 266 268 Schwartz 1993 pp 73 74 Timeline of the Justices John Catron The Supreme Court Historical Society Archived from the original on January 30 2006 Retrieved October 25 2017 Howe 2007 p 444 Latner 2002 p 107 a b c Meacham 2008 p 115 Marszalek 2000 p 84 Howe 2007 pp 337 339 Cole 1993 pp 38 39 Howe 2007 p 340 Cole 1993 pp 35 36 84 Cole 1993 pp 36 37 Cole 1993 pp 84 86 a b Howe 2007 p 339 Cole 1993 pp 87 143 a b Cole 1993 pp 143 144 Cole 1993 pp 37 38 Meacham pp 171 75 Kirsten E Wood One Woman so Dangerous to Public Morals Gender and Power in the Eaton Affair Journal of the Early Republic 1997 237 275 in JSTOR Cole 1993 pp 41 42 Ellis 1974 p 61 United States President 1839 The addresses and messages of the presidents of the United States from 1789 to 1839 McLean amp Taylor p 344 David Resnick and Norman C Thomas Reagan and Jackson Parallels in Political Time Journal of Policy History 1 2 1989 181 205 Ellis 1974 pp 61 62 Brands 2005 p 420 Howe 2007 p 333 Cole 1993 pp 39 40 Howe 2007 pp 333 334 a b Cole 1993 pp 40 41 Cole 1993 pp 45 47 Cole 1993 pp 74 75 Ellis 1974 pp 65 66 Neal John 1869 Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life Boston Massachusetts Roberts Brothers p 209 Sabato amp O Connor 2002 p 293 Ellis 1974 p 67 Ellis 1974 p 62 65 Mark R Cheathem 2015 Andrew Jackson and the Rise of the Democrats A Reference Guide ABC CLIO p 245 ISBN 9781610694070 Cole 1993 pp 43 44 Cole 1993 pp 68 69 Latner 2002 p 108 Rutland 1995 pp 199 200 Cole 1993 pp 67 68 Cole 1993 pp 109 110 a b Cole 1993 p 56 Cole 1993 pp 69 70 Cole 1993 pp 71 74 Latner 2002 p 109 Remini 1981 p 269 Cole 1993 p 68 Howe 2007 pp 353 354 Remini 1988 p 6 Howe 2007 pp 355 356 412 Remini 1981 pp 276 277 Howe 2007 pp 412 413 Howe 2007 pp 412 415 Howe 2007 pp 415 416 Remini 1984 pp 302 303 Remini 1981 p 271 a b Remini 1981 pp 272 273 Howe 2007 pp 416 417 Remini 1984 pp 303 304 Howe 2007 p 418 Howe 2007 pp 417 418 516 517 Cole 1993 p 102 Cole 1993 pp 116 117 a b Wilentz 2005 pp 63 64 a b Cole 1993 pp 49 54 Cole 1993 pp 153 155 Ogg 1919 p 164 Howe 2007 pp 395 397 Cole 1993 pp 156 Cole 1993 pp 155 156 Howe 2007 pp 340 341 John C Calhoun 7th Vice President 1825 1832 United States Senate Archived from the original on March 3 2016 Retrieved May 7 2016 Cole 1993 pp 90 91 Cole 1993 pp 137 138 a b Cole 1993 pp 157 158 Remini 1981 pp 358 360 Cole 1993 pp 107 108 Howe 2007 pp 400 401 Howe 2007 pp 402 404 Niven 1988 p 192 Cole 1993 p 159 Cole 1993 pp 160 161 Cole 1993 pp 161 162 Cole 1993 p 164 Cole 1993 pp 161 166 Cole 1993 pp 164 170 Meacham 2008 pp 239 240 Cole 1993 pp 168 170 Cole 1993 pp 171 172 Cole 1993 p 173 Cole 1993 pp 172 173 Cole 1993 pp 175 176 Remini 1981 p 42 Cole 1993 pp 173 178 Howe 2007 p 409 Meacham 2008 p 247 Howe 2007 pp 409 410 a b c Howe 2007 pp 374 375 a b c Cole 1993 pp 57 58 a b Howe 2007 pp 375 376 a b c Latner 2002 p 112 Remini 1981 p 302 Remini 1981 pp 303 304 Howe 2007 p 377 Remini 1981 pp 337 340 Meacham 2008 p 201 Remini 1981 p 343 Cole 1993 pp 102 103 Remini 1981 pp 363 366 Remini 1981 pp 366 369 Cole 1993 pp 104 105 Remini 1981 pp 368 369 Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr The Age of Jackson 1945 p 92 Cole 1993 pp 138 139 Cole 1993 p 141 Cole 1993 pp 141 143 Haynes Stan M 2012 The First American Political Conventions Transforming Presidential Nominations 1832 1872 Jefferson North Carolina McFarland amp Company pp 34 36 ISBN 978 0 7864 6892 8 Calhoun resigns vice presidency history com A amp E Television Networks July 28 2019 Originally published February 9 2010 Retrieved October 9 2019 Feerick John D Freund Paul A 1965 From Failing Hands the Story of Presidential Succession New York City Fordham University Press p 86 LCCN 65 14917 As a result of Calhoun s resignation Hugh L White of Tennessee as President pro tempore was placed first in the line of succession and Andrew Stevenson of Virginia as Speaker second a b Cole 1993 pp 140 141 Meacham 2008 p 420 Cole 1993 pp 139 140 Howe 2007 p 384 Cole 1993 pp 145 147 Howe 2007 p 383 Remini 1981 p 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link Primary Sources on Copyright Record Viewer www copyrighthistory org Archived from the original on 2016 02 15 Leonard D White The Jacksonians A study in administrative history 1829 1861 1954 pp 1 84 Cole 1993 pp 237 242 Arkansas Became a State June 15 1836 The Library of Congress Archived from the original on December 9 2016 Retrieved July 4 2017 Michigan Became a State January 26 1837 The Library of Congress Archived from the original on January 10 2017 Retrieved July 4 2017 Remini 1984 pp 375 376 John M Belohlavek Let the Eagle Soar The Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson 1985 John M Belohlavek Let the Eagle Soar Democratic Constraints on the Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson Presidential Studies Quarterly 10 1 1980 pp 36 50 in JSTOR Herring 2008 p 165 Howe 2007 pp 360 361 Herring 2008 pp 167 168 a b c Latner 2002 p 120 Herring 2008 pp 170 171 Jonathan Goldstein For Gold Glory and Knowledge The Andrew Jackson Administration and the Orient 1829 1837 International Journal of Maritime History 13 2 2001 137 163 Herring 2008 p 766 Robert Charles Thomas Andrew Jackson Versus France American Policy toward France 1834 36 Tennessee Historical Quarterly 1976 51 64 in JSTOR Richard Aubrey McLemore The French Spoliation Claims 1816 1836 A Study in Jacksonian Diplomacy Tennessee Historical Magazine 1932 234 254 in JSTOR Wilentz 2005 pp 143 146 Cole 1993 pp 133 134 Ethel Zivley Rather Recognition of the Republic of Texas by the United States The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 13 3 1910 155 256 in JSTOR Frederick Merk Slavery and the Annexation of Texas 1972 Michael A Morrison Slavery and the American West The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny 2000 Hard Road To Texas Texas Annexation 1836 1845 Part Two On Our Own Austin Texas Texas State Library and Archives Commission Retrieved March 11 2017 Grinspan Jon Trying to Assassinate Andrew Jackson American Heritage Project Archived from the original on October 24 2008 Retrieved November 11 2008 Glass Andrew January 30 2008 Jackson escapes assassination attempt Jan 30 1835 POLITICO Archived from the original on April 7 2017 Retrieved May 18 2017 Bates 2015 p 513 Remini 1984 p 229 Remini 1984 pp 229 230 Bathory Peter Dennis 2001 Friends and Citizens Essays in Honor of Wilson Carey McWilliams Rowman amp Littlefield p 91 ISBN 9780847697465 a b Irelan John Robert 1887 History of the Life Administration and Times of Martin Van Buren Eighth President of the United States Chicago Fairbanks and Palmer Publishing Company p 230 Retrieved March 6 2017 a b Richard Mentor Johnson 9th Vice President 1837 1841 Washington D C United States Senate Office of the Historian Retrieved March 7 2017 Nelson Michael 2013 Guide to the Presidency and the Executive Branch CQ Press p 1962 ISBN 9781452234281 Cole 1993 pp 255 256 Presidential Elections history com A E Networks Retrieved March 7 2017 Howe 2007 pp 487 Martin Van Buren Campaigns and Elections Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia 4 October 2016 Retrieved March 7 2017 Sellers 1958 pp 615 634 Parton 1860a p vii a b Wilentz 2005 p 3 a b Langer Emily April 4 2013 Robert V Remini biographer of Andrew Jackson and historian of the U S House of Representatives dies at 91 The Washington Post Retrieved September 29 2017 Remini 1988 p 307 Brands H W 2017 03 11 Andrew Jackson at 250 President s legacy isn t pretty but neither is history The Tennessean Retrieved May 9 2017 Zinn 1980 p 127 Zinn 1980 p 130 Remini 1984 p 574 Wegmann Philip February 17 2017 After Trump Jackson drops on historian s list of best presidents The Washington Examiner Retrieved December 30 2017 Rottinghaus Brandon Vaughn Justin S February 19 2018 How Does Trump Stack Up Against the Best and Worst Presidents New York Times Retrieved 14 May 2018 Works cited edit Bates Christopher G 2015 The Early Republic and Antebellum America An Encyclopedia of Social Political Cultural and Economic History New York Routledge ISBN 9781317457404 Boller Paul F Jr 2004 Presidential Campaigns From George Washington to George W Bush New York Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19516 716 3 Brands H W 2005 Andrew Jackson His Life and Times New York Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group ISBN 1 4000 3072 2 Cole Donald B 1993 The Presidency of Andrew Jackson University Press of Kansas ISBN 0 7006 0600 9 Ellis Richard E 1974 Woodward C Vann ed Responses of the Presidents to Charges of Misconduct New York Delacorte Press pp 61 68 ISBN 0 440 05923 2 Herring George C 2008 From Colony to Superpower U S Foreign Relations since 1776 Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199723430 Howe Daniel Walker 2007 What Hath God Wrought the Transformation of America 1815 1848 Oxford NY Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 507894 7 Jackson Andrew 1926 Bassett John Spencer Jameson J Franklin eds The Correspondence of Andrew Jackson Vol 5 Washington D C Carnegie Institute of Washington 7 volumes total Latner Richard B 2002 Andrew Jackson In Graff Henry ed The Presidents A Reference History 3 ed New York Charles Scribner s Sons ISBN 978 0 684 31226 2 OCLC 49029341 Marszalek John F 2000 1997 The Petticoat Affair Manners Mutiny and Sex in Andrew Jackson s White House Baton Rouge LA LSU Press ISBN 0 8071 2634 9 Meacham Jon 2008 American Lion Andrew Jackson in the White House New York Random House Publishing Group ISBN 978 0 8129 7346 4 Mills William J 2003 Exploring Polar Frontiers A Historical Encyclopedia Vol 1 Santa Barbara CA ABC CLIO Inc ISBN 1 57607 422 6 Niven John 1988 John C Calhoun and the Price of Union A Biography Baton Rouge LA LSU Press ISBN 978 0 8071 1858 0 Ogg Frederic Austin 1919 The Reign of Andrew Jackson Vol 20 Chronicles of America Series New Haven CT Yale University Press Olson James Stuart 2002 Robert L Shadle ed Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in America Westport CT Greenwood Press ISBN 0 313 30830 6 Parton James 1860a Life of Andrew Jackson Volume 1 New York Mason Brothers ISBN 9780598848871 Prucha Francis Paul 1969 Andrew Jackson s Indian policy a reassessment Journal of American History 56 3 527 539 doi 10 2307 1904204 JSTOR 1904204 Remini Robert V 1981 Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom 1822 1832 New York Harper amp Row Publishers Inc ISBN 978 0 8018 5913 7 Remini Robert V 1984 Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy 1833 1845 New York Harper amp Row Publishers Inc ISBN 0 8018 5913 1 Remini Robert V 1988 The Life of Andrew Jackson New York Harper amp Row Publishers Inc ISBN 0 0618 0788 5 Abridgment of Remini s 3 volume biography Rorabaugh W J Critchlow Donald T Baker Paula C 2004 America s Promise A Concise History of the United States Lanham MD Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 0 7425 1189 8 permanent dead link Rutland Robert Allen 1995 The Democrats From Jefferson to Clinton Columbia MO University of Missouri Press ISBN 0 8262 1034 1 Sabato Larry O Connor Karen 2002 American Government Continuity and Change New York Pearson Longman ISBN 978 0 321 31711 7 Schwartz Bernard 1993 A History of the Supreme Court New York Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0195 09387 2 Sellers Charles Grier Jr 1958 Andrew Jackson versus the Historians Mississippi Valley Historical Review 44 4 615 634 doi 10 2307 1886599 JSTOR 1886599 Wilentz Sean 2005 Andrew Jackson New York Henry Holt and Company ISBN 0 8050 6925 9 Wilentz Sean 2006 The Rise of American Democracy Jefferson to Lincoln New York W W Norton amp Company Inc ISBN 0 393 05820 4 Zinn Howard 1980 7 As Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs A People s History of the United States Abingdon on Thames UK Routledge Taylor and Francis Group Further reading editMain article Bibliography of Andrew Jackson Adams Sean Patrick ed A Companion to the Era of Andrew Jackson 2013 table of contents 597pp topical essays by scholars Cheathem Mark R and Terry Corps eds Historical Dictionary of the Jacksonian Era and Manifest Destiny 2nd ed 2016 544pp Meaccham Jon American Lion Andrew Jackson in the White House 2008 online book review Nester William The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power 1815 1848 2013 Remini Robert V The Life of Andrew Jackson 1988 short version of 3 volume biography online book review Remini Robert V Andrew Jackson The Course of American Freedom 1822 1832 Volume 2 1998 online book review Remini Robert V Andrew Jackson The Course of American Democracy Vol 3 1984 online book reviewSpecialized studies edit Further information Jacksonian democracy References and bibliography Andrew Jackson Dictionary of American Biography 1936 Online Belohlavek John M Let the Eagle Soar Democratic Constraints on the Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson Presidential Studies Quarterly 10 1 1980 36 50 online Belohlavek John M Let the Eagle Soar The Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson University of Nebraska Press 1985 Bolt William K Tariff Wars and the Politics of Jacksonian America 2017 covers 1816 to 1861 PhD dissertation version Bugg James L Jr 1952 Jacksonian Democracy Myth or Reality New York Holt Rinehart and Winston Short essays Campbell Stephen W Funding the Bank War Nicholas Biddle and the public relations campaign to recharter the second bank of the U S 1828 1832 American Nineteenth Century History 2016 17 3 pp 273 299 Cheathem Mark R Andrew Jackson Southerner 2016 Cheathem Mark R Andrew Jackson and the Rise of the Democratic Party 2018 Cole Donald B Vindicating Andrew Jackson The 1828 Election and the Rise of the Two Party System 2010 Garrison Tim Allen 2002 The Legal Ideology of Removal The Southern Judiciary and the Sovereignty of Native American Nations Athens GA University of Georgia Press ISBN 0 8203 3417 0 Goldstein Jonathan For Gold Glory and Knowledge The Andrew Jackson Administration and the Orient 1829 1837 International Journal of Maritime History 13 2 2001 137 163 Hammond Bray Andrew Jackson s Battle with the Money Power American Heritage June 1956 7 4 online Hofstadter Richard 1948 The American Political Tradition Chapter on AJ Holzer Harold The Presidents Vs the Press The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media from the Founding Fathers to Fake News Dutton 2020 pp 51 68 online Howe Daniel Walker What Hath God Wrought The Transformation of America 1815 1848 The Oxford History of the United States Oxford University Press 2007 904 pp Inskeep Steve Jacksonland President Andrew Jackson Cherokee Chief John Ross and a Great American Land Grab 2015 Kahan Paul The Bank War Andrew Jackson Nicholas Biddle and the Fight for American Finance 2015 ISBN 978 1594162343 Opal J M General Jackson s Passports Natural Rights and Sovereign Citizens in the Political Thought of Andrew Jackson 1780s 1820s Studies in American Political Development 2013 27 2 pp 69 85 Parsons Lynn Hudson The Birth of Modern Politics Andrew Jackson John Quincy Adams and the Election of 1828 Oxford University Press 2009 Opal J M Andrew Jackson and US Foreign Relations Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History 2018 Thomas Robert Charles Andrew Jackson Versus France American Policy toward France 1834 36 Tennessee Historical Quarterly 35 1 1976 51 64 online White Leonard D The Jacksonians A Study in Administrative History 1829 1861 1965 how cabinet amp executive agencies were reorganized and operated online freeHistoriography edit Adams Sean Patrick ed 2013 A Companion to the Era of Andrew Jackson John Wiley amp Sons Cave Alfred A 1964 Jacksonian Democracy and the Historians Gainesville FL University of Florida Press Cave Alfred A The Jacksonian movement in American historiography PhD U Florida 1961 online free 258pp bibliog pp 240 58 Cheathem Mark R 2011 Andrew Jackson Slavery and Historians PDF History Compass 9 4 326 338 doi 10 1111 j 1478 0542 2011 00763 x Curtis James C 1976 Andrew Jackson and the Search for Vindication Boston Little Brown and Co ISBN 9780673393340 McKnight Brian D and James S Humphreys eds The Age of Andrew Jackson 2011 seven essays by scholars on historiographical themesPrimary sources edit The Papers of Andrew Jackson Edited first by Sam B Smith and Harriet Chappell Owsley and now by Dan Feller Sam B Smith Harriet Fason Chappell Owsley and Harold D Moser 10 vols 1980 to date U of Tennessee online coverage to 1832 Searchable digital edition online Richardson James D ed A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1897 reprints his major messages and reports Library of Congress Andrew Jackson Papers a digital archive that provides direct access to the manuscript images of many of the Jackson documents onlineExternal links editPresidency of Andrew Jackson at Wikipedia s sister projects nbsp Media from Commons nbsp Quotations from Wikiquote nbsp Texts from Wikisource nbsp Textbooks from Wikibooks nbsp Resources from Wikiversity Andrew Jackson A Resource Guide at the Library of Congress Andrew Jackson at the White House Andrew Jackson 1767 1845 at the Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia The Papers of Andrew Jackson at the Avalon Project Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Presidency of Andrew Jackson amp oldid 1207072045, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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