Essential Question

Champion of �the “Common Man”?

“King”�Andrew?

OR

Jackson’s Top Ten

10. Andrew Jackson was the first President from a state west of the Appalachian Mountains.

9. Andrew Jackson was the first Tennessean to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

8. Andrew Jackson was the first territorial Governor of Florida.

7. Andrew Jackson was the first person to serve as a U.S. Representative, Senator, and President.

6. Andrew Jackson exercised his veto power 12 times as President, more than all of his predecessors combined.

Jackson’s Top Ten

5. Andrew Jackson was the first President to articulate that as President he represented all the people and the will of the majority must govern.

4. Andrew Jackson helped found and was the first U.S. President to represent the Democratic Party.

3. Andrew Jackson is the only U.S. President to be censured by the U.S. Senate. The censure (official criticism) was cancelled in the last year of his presidency.

Jackson’s Top Ten

2. The first assassination attempt on a sitting U.S. President occurred on January 30, 1835, when Robert Lawrence failed to slay Andrew Jackson.

1. Andrew Jackson was the only President in American History to pay off the national debt and leave office with the country in the black.

What were the democratic

(Egalitarian) trends

between 1800 to 1830?

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• Population shift and West becomes politically powerful
• Jackson appealed to the Common Man because he was one.

voting

1790

WMA 21 yrs. old, educated and property owner…….

Land easy to obtain, property qualifications and education dropped.

Voter Turnout: 1820 - 1860

26.9

57.4

55.4

57.8

80.2

78.9

72.7

69.6

78.9

81.2

The Age of Jackson and the Rise of the Common Man

• The Planter Elite in the South
• People on the Frontier
• State Politicians – spoils system
• Immigrants in the cities.

Jackson’s Faith in the Common Man

• Intense distrust of Eastern “establishment,” monopolies, & special privilege.
• His heart & soul was with the “plain folk.”
• Belief that the common man was capable of uncommon achievements.

Common man cluster

Rise of the Common Man and The New Democracy

Bricklayers�Blacksmith Farmers�Carpenters�The Working Class

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Powerful movement in the country to expand involvement and participation of the common man in democracy.

Land easy to obtain in the West so property qualifications were dropped

Education �not as �important

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• Common Man and the west become politically powerful
• Jackson brought democracy to the �Common man�

Jackson stood for the common man which was most of the population

Other Common Men in US History:

Davy Crockett�Sam Houston

The Rise of a Democratic Society

• European visitors to the U.S. in the 1830s were amazed by the informal manners and democratic attitudes of Americans
• Alex de Tocqueville
• The hero of the age was the “self-made man”

New Democracy

JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRACY

People should be governed as little possible

JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY

Whatever governing needed to be done, it should be done by the common man. “Government by the majority of people; instead of a government governed by the upper class was introduced during Jackson’s Presidency.

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• Property ownership/education not needed to vote
• Growth of political power of the working class
• Increased number of elected officials
• Land easy to get out West
• Ideas of the DOI become important and people saw inequalities in society.

jackson the man

• Born March 15, 1767, on North Carolina/South Carolina border
• Father died when was baby.
• Read a copy of the DOI to the townspeople who were illiterate.
• Hated the British and blamed them for the death of his mother and brother.
• Orphaned at 13, self-educated and no formal education
• Did not care for President Washington
• Called him an “aristo” (short for aristocrat or “upper class, wealthy and rules”)

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Jackson’s First �Hermitage Residence

Born in the Carolinas and moved to Hermitage, Tennessee

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• Emotional, arrogant and passionate.
• Dueled---could drink, smoke, curse and fight with the best of them
• Lawyer, Judge, senator, general and finally President
• First president from the West

Appealed to the Common Man because he was one……

jackson the man

General Jackson’s Military Career

• Defeated the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend in 1814
• Defeated the British at New Orleans in 1815
• Took Florida and claimed it for the US in 1819.
• Loved by his soldiers called him “Old Hickory”

1824, Thomas Jefferson �said of Jackson

“When I was President of the Senate he was a Senator; and he could never speak on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage. His passions are no doubt cooler now….BUT HE IS A DANGEROUS MAN.”

jackson the man

Jackson’s Opponents in 1824

Henry Clay�[KY]

John Quincy Adams�[MA]

John C. Calhoun�[SC]

William H. Crawford�[GA]

• Even with Jackson winning the popular vote, he had to win the electoral vote as well.
• There were 261 total electoral votes and Jackson needed 131 to win the electoral vote and the election.
• Jackson did not receive a majority of electoral votes to win the election.
• Sent to the House of Representatives to choose the president.

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The Election of 1824

• 261 electoral votes and 131 needed to win.

Was there a� “Corrupt Bargain” in the 1824 Election?”

�The Corrupt Bargain

�

• Henry Clay gives his support to John Adams and the House of Representatives chooses Adams as the President.
• Two weeks later, Adams appoints Henry Clay as his Secretary of State….
• Jackson cries out corruption and calls this the “Corrupt Bargain.”
• Jackson promises he would run again for the Presidency in 1828 and would smash Adams.

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corrupt

The Corrupt Bargain

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Suspicions of a “corrupt bargain” have been strengthened by entries in the diary of John Q. Adams. On January 1, 1825, after a public dinner, he wrote,

“He (Clay) told me (in a whisper) that he should be glad to have with me soon some confidential conversation upon public affairs. I said I should be happy to have it whenever it might suit his convenience.”

In the diary entry for January 9, reads in part,

“Mr. Clay came at six and spent the evening with me in a long conversation explanatory of the past and prospective of the future.”

Exactly a month later, with Clay’s backing, Adams was elected. This happened because Clay was Speaker of the House…..They also hated Andrew Jackson…...

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corrupt1

John Quincy Adams

• One of the ablest men, hardest workers, and finest intellectuals ever in the White House.
• Tried to promote not only manufacturing and agriculture, but also the arts, literature, and science.
• But he lacked the common touch and refused to play the game of politics.
• Most found him cold and tactless.
• Could not build any popular support for his programs.

John Quincy Adams

• Successful as Sec. of State
• Not popular, failed to relate the common man.
• Supported protective tariff, BUS and internal improvements
• Minority president, last of the Federalists and connection with the Founding Fathers….

John Quincy Adams

• The election had united his enemies and was creating a new party system
• Adams, Clay, and the minority became National-Republicans
• Jackson and the majority became the Democratic-Republicans (later just Democrats)

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New parties

AFTER ELECTION OF 1824

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�JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY

Political world changed during the New Democracy. Two new political parties emerge

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NATIONAL REPUBLICANS

1. Adams, Clay and Webster
2. strong national govt.
3. Favored the BUS, tariffs, internal improvements, industry, public schools and moral reforms such as prohibition of liquor and abolition of slavery.
4. Best/privileged run the govt.

DEMOCRATS

1. Jackson and Calhoun
2. Believed in state’s rights and federal restraint in economic and social affairs.
3. Favored the liberty of the individual and were fiercely on guard against the inroads of privilege into the government.
4. Protected the common man.

• End corruption in Washington, D.C.
• Reform and eliminate the National debt
• The People vs. Special Interests
• Against King Caucus

Rachel Jackson

Final Divorce Decree

Election of 1828

Jackson and J. Q. Adams ran against each other for the presidency

One anti-Jackson newspaper declared,

“General Jackson’s mother was a common prostitute, brought to this country by the British soldiers! She, afterwards married a mulatto man with whom she had several children, of which one was Andrew Jackson.”

• Anti-Adams people accused him of hiring a servant girl a visiting Russian ambassador…
• Adams was accused of gambling in the White House.

• One of the worst elections in US History for its “mudslinging.”
• As a result of this, Jackson’s wife Rachel, died of a heart attack just before he became President…He blamed Adams and Clay and never forgave them…..

Jackson in Mourning for His Wife

Tomb of Jackson and his wife.

The Election of 1828

• Why such a difference between the election of 1824 and 1828?
• Population shifts to Western States and South which gives the Common Man more political power
• More men voting in 1828----why?
• Property restrictions and education dropped.
• Jackson appealed to common man because he was one.

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261 total electoral votes and 131 electoral votes to win……

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The Election of 1824

The Election of 1828

• Election of 1824, 355,817 voted.

• Election 1828, 1,155,350 voted.

voting

1790

WMA 21 yrs. old, educated and property owner…….

Several states would drop property qualifications and education…….

Caucus---small group of individuals who would choose a candidate

Convention---members from the political parties nominate a candidate. Eliminated, “King Caucus”

Direct Primary---allow registered voters to participate in choosing a candidate

Which of these would be the most democratic way to nominate a candidate for your party to run against the opposition party for public office?

1790 to 1828

1828 to 1900

Current System Used

Inaugural

• Jackson’s Inaugural was a victory for the Common Man
• Thousands of commoners came to Washington, D.C. to see Jackson inaugurated……

Andrew Jackson as President

Eaton

• Peggy (O’Neal) Eaton was the wife of Jackson’s secretary of war (John Eaton) who was the target of malicious gossip by other cabinet wives
• Jackson became her “champion” and stood up for her because of what happened to his late wife, Rachel….

Eaton

• When Jackson tried to force the cabinet wives to accept Eaton socially, most of the cabinet resigned.
• VP Calhoun resigns and goes back to South Carolina.
• Jackson creates the “kitchen cabinet” which were informal advisers, Jackson’s “good ole boys”.

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