set seven

What is legitimacy of partisanship?

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How did Jackson feel about and treat Native Americans?

Andrew Jackson's desire to serve the interests of the common man did not extend to African and Indians. It was during his administration that the policy of "removal" (forcing Indians to move to lands west of the Mississippi River) became the official federal strategy. By 1838, the policy of relocation had essentially cleared the natives from the southeastern lands east of the Mississippi River. The Cherokee were the last to go, being forced to leave most of their possessions behind, including their livestock. Their "Trail of Tears" extended 1,200 miles, from Georgia to present-day Oklahoma. Jacksonianism appears as a political impulse tied to slavery, the subjugation of Native Americans, and the celebration of white supremacy—so much so that some scholars have dismissed the phrase "Jacksonian Democracy" as a contradiction in terms.

Laissez-faire

Complementing a strict construction of the Constitution, the Jacksonians generally favored a hands-off approach to the economy as opposed to the Whig program sponsoring modernization, railroads, banking and economic growth.

Partisanship

Government action based on firm allegiance to a political party

The meaning of Jacksonian democracy

Jacksonian democracy -- a 19th-century political philosophy in United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21, and restructured a number of federal institutions. There was little or no progress (and in some cases, a regression) for the rights of African Americans and Native Americans during the extensive period of Jacksonian Democracy, spanning from 1829 to 1860. Originating with the seventh president, Andrew Jackson, and his supporters, it became the nation's dominant political worldview for a generation. The term itself was in active use by the 1830s. This era, (or Second Party System) lasted roughly from Jackson's 1828 election as president until slavery became the dominant issue in 1854 and the political repercussions of the American Civil War dramatically reshaped American politics. It emerged when the long-dominant Democratic-Republican Party became factionalized around the 1824 United States presidential election. Jackson's supporters began to form the modern Democratic Party. His political rivals John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay created the National Republican Party, which would afterward combine with other anti-Jackson political groups to form the Whig Party.

Strict constructionism

Like the Jeffersonians who strongly believed in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, Jacksonians initially favored a federal government of limited powers. Jackson said that he would guard against "all encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty". However, he was not a states' rights extremist—indeed, the Nullification Crisis would find Jackson fighting against what he perceived as state encroachments on the proper sphere of federal influence. This position was one basis for the Jacksonians' opposition to the Second Bank of the United States. As the Jacksonians consolidated power, they more often advocated expanding federal power, presidential power in particular.

Bank War Background

The Bank War refers to the political struggle that developed over the issue of rechartering the Second Bank of the United States (B.U.S.) during the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837). The affair resulted in the shutdown of the Bank and its replacement by state banks. The goal behind the B.U.S. was to stabilize the American economy by establishing a uniform currency and strengthening the federal government. Pro-B.U.S. National Republicans regarded the Bank as a stabilizing force in the economy due to its unique ability to smooth out variations in prices and trade, extend credit where needed, supply the nation with a sound and uniform currency, provide helpful fiscal services for the treasury department, facilitate long-distance trade, and prevent inflation by regulating the lending practices of state banks. Jacksonian Democrats cited a long list of criticisms in opposing the Bank. According to them, the B.U.S. favored merchants and speculators at the expense of farmers and artisans, owned excessively large amounts of material resources, appropriated public money for risky private investments and interference in politics, and conferred economic privileges on a small group of stockholders and financial elites, thereby violating the principle of equal opportunity. Some found the public-private creation to be unconstitutional, and that the institution's charter violated state sovereignty. To them, the Bank symbolized corruption while threatening liberty.

Expanded Suffrage

The Jacksonians believed that voting rights should be extended to all white men. By the end of the 1820s, attitudes and state laws had shifted in favor of universal white male suffrage and by 1856 all requirements to own property and nearly all requirements to pay taxes had been dropped.

What significance did King Andrew and the Rise of the Whig have?

The Whig Party, which had been created to oppose Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party, benefitted from the disaster of the Panic of 1837. The Whig Party had grown partly out of the political coalition of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. The National Republicans, a loose alliance concentrated in the Northeast, had become the core of a new anti-Jackson movement. But Jackson's enemies were a varied group; they included proslavery southerners angry about Jackson's behavior during the Nullification Crisis as well as antislavery Yankees. After they failed to prevent Andrew Jackson's reelection, this fragile coalition formally organized as a new party in 1834 "to rescue the Government and public liberty." Henry Clay, who had run against Jackson for president and was now serving again as a senator from Kentucky, held private meetings to persuade anti-Jackson leaders from different backgrounds to unite. He also gave the new Whig Party its anti-monarchical name. At first, the Whigs focused mainly on winning seats in Congress, opposing "King Andrew" from outside the presidency. They remained divided by regional and ideological differences. The Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Martin Van Buren, easily won election as Jackson's successor in 1836. But the Whigs gained significant public support after the Panic of 1837, and they became increasingly well-organized. In late 1839, they held their first national convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Manifest destiny

This was the belief that Americans had a destiny to settle the American West and to expand control from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and that the West should be settled by yeoman farmers. However, the Free Soil Jacksonians, notably Martin Van Buren, argued for limitations on slavery in the new areas to enable the poor white man to flourish—they split with the main party briefly in 1848. The Whigs generally opposed Manifest Destiny and expansion, saying the nation should build up its cities.

spoils system/patronage

patronage was the policy of placing political supporters into appointed offices. Many Jacksonians held the view that rotating political appointees in and out of office was not only the right, but also the duty of winners in political contests. Patronage was theorized to be good because it would encourage political participation by the common man and because it would make a politician more accountable for poor government service by his appointees. Jacksonians also held that long tenure in the civil service was corrupting, so civil servants should be rotated out of office at regular intervals. However, patronage often led to the hiring of incompetent and sometimes corrupt officials due to the emphasis on party loyalty above any other qualifications.