Insight: The Age of Jackson (Chapter 4)

The election of 1824 was between four candidates: John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson. The winner ended up being Jackson, his reign would bring upon a list of events, the majority far more dull and extremist than positive.

            Adams and Clay argued that government power should be used to promote economic development. Out of all four candidates, Jackson was the wild card – he was a wealthy plantation owner, and his fame rested on his military exploits like his victory at New Orleans. Yet, the House of Representatives had to choose a president from among the top go getters, which left Jackson and Adams as main rivals. Adams won for a majority of votes. However, a large part of the American population believed this had been won in a corrupt manner and Jackson planned to win on the next election.

            The election of 1828 was between the National Republicans (Adams and Clay) and the Jacksonian Republicans (Andrew Jackson) – their faceoff was called the second American party system. A faceoff won by Andrew Jackson.

            Andrew Jackson defended the spoil system, which was based on the belief that any intelligent person could perform the duties required in any government position – which made it fair for acquaintances of Jackson to take on these positions based solely on the fact that he knew them. And Jackson also defended the fact that economic issues should not be a priority for the government. He had a deep hatred towards banks, and decided to close the National Bank. Even when the congress passed a motion to avoid this from occurring, Jackson vetoed the decision and continued with its closure.

            The nullification crisis was an event that was managed during Jackson’s presidency. Here, there was a conflict due to tariffs – manufacturers in the South were not in favor of the high tax import in order to encourage manufacturing within the United States, for this mostly favored northerners in profit. Jackson’s solution was the Force Bill – which compelled the state of South Carolina to collect tariff act duties or else troops would be sent. However, Henry Clay opted for a compromise the annulled the Nullification Act and the Force Bill.

            Jackson also used his power to relocate the position of a large number of Native American tribes – he had a prejudice towards them and believed that they would prevent white people from moving west and opening up land for cotton production. They were forced to march west in what was called the Trail of Tears, in which one of every four Cherokees died due to the voyage’s conditions. Furthermore, the money promised to the Cherokees for relocating was short, instead of being given nine million, they were giving six.

            After two terms, Jackson left office. Behind him he left a war on banks, the trail of tears, evidence of a nullification conflict, and his belief upon a spoil system. Certainly a memorable president, whether for good or bad, is entirely subjective.

An image of Andrew Jackson