A N D R EW JA C K S O N S

P R ES ID EN C Y
1829-1837

JA C K SO N IA N D EM O C R A C Y
In the 1800s, more Americans
gained the right to vote and
became more involved in
government.
White males no longer had to
land to vote.
own
Many called this democratic
expansion, Jacksonian
Democracy, after Andrew
Jackson, because he fought
for the common man and
by mean
the people.
rule
Did this
that everyone
had a voice in government?

JA C K SO N IA N D EM O C R A C Y

Jacksons supporters were common men:

farmers, frontier settlers, and southern
slaveholders.
They compared him to president Adams:
born rich
graduated from Harvard University
son of a former President
out of touch with everyday people
Supporters of Adams called themselves
Republicans.

Jackson and his followers

began a new political party
called the Democratic Party.

TH E SPO ILS SYSTEM & TH E K ITCH EN

B
Jackson
CA
IN ET rewarded many of his supporters by giving
them government jobs, whether they were
qualified for the position or not. Many presidents
since have done the same, and this practice has
come to be know as the Spoils System
Another new practice of Jacksons was the use of
what would come to be known as his Kitchen
Cabinet.
Jackson relied on a group of
advisors who met in the White
House kitchen.

Every president now has a group

of advisors known as his cabinet.
Jacksons official cabinet included
men like future president Martin
Van Buren.

Martin Van Buren

8TH President of the U.S.

TH E TA R IFF O F
One
of the
first O
challenges
faced by
A President
B
OM
INJackson
ATI
N
S
was the debate over
protective tariffs.
North:
South: In
Manufactu
favor of low
rers were
tariffs,
in favor of
because they
high tariffs
imported
to protect
most of their
their
manufactured
businesses
goods
from
foreign
In 1828, Congress passed a tariff with
competitio
record
high rates, Angry Southerners called
n.
5
the law The Tariff of Abominations.

P rotective Tarif f
United States:
$1.00 per yard

Great Britain:
$.75 per yard
Adding a tax to foreign goods will keep citizens
from buying those goods.

TH E N U LLIFIC ATIO N C R ISIS

John C. Calhoun, Jacksons Vice President,

was from South Carolina.

He believed in States Rights, and thought

that the states should have the right to
nullify, or cancel, any federal law they
considered unconstitutional.
The debate became known as the
Nullification Crisis.

A young John C.
Calhoun

Older John C.

TH E N U LLIFIC ATIO N C R ISIS

Calhoun said that states had the right to rebel
against the government if they felt their rights
had been violated.
In 1832, congress passed a second tariff,
which led South Carolina to declare the 1828 &
1832 tariffs, null and void.
John C. Calhoun resigned from office and urged
South Carolina to secede from, or leave, the
President
Jackson was strongly
Union.
against nullification, and
warned that he would use the
military to enforce federal laws
if needed.
Fortunately, it never came to
this. Thanks in large part to
the efforts of Henry Clay, who
The Great
wrote a compromise pleasing
Compromiser Henry 8

TH E 2 N D B A N K O F TH E U N ITED STATES
President Jackson and many states were
against the creation of the Second Bank of the
U.S.
In the case of McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supreme
Court under John Marshall ruled that the bank of the
United States was indeed constitutional and supported
the idea that federal law was superior to state law.
President Jackson vowed
to kill the Bank of America,
because he believed it to
be a device of the rich to
become richer.

TH E IN D IA N R EM O VA L A C T
Under pressure from President Jackson, Congress
passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

This authorized the removal of all Indians living East

of the Mississippi to Indian Territories in present day
Oklahoma.

IN D IA N R EM O VA L A C T
Indian tribes who heard of the horrific removals that
were taking place, resisted in various ways.
Some like Black Hawk and his Sauk Tribe
of Illinois, fought U.S. forces with varying
degrees of success.

Black Hawk

Others like Sequoya, of the Cherokee

Nation, believed that they could prevent
conflict by adopting white culture. He
would even go so far as to create the 1st
writing system used by any Indian tribe.

Sequoya

TH E TR A IL O F TEA R S

All was lost when gold was discovered on Cherokee

lands in Georgia.
The Cherokee were
forced off their
lands, and onto an
800-mile march to
Oklahoma.
Because almost
one fourth of the
people on this
march died of
hunger and
disease, the march
would forever be
known as, The

Click to play video

K IN G A N D R EW

When Jackson was elected

he was seen as the
president of the common
man., because of his
modest beginnings and
personality.
However, many did not
appreciate his forceful
manner, nor his actions in
events such as the
Nullification Crisis or the
Indian Removal Act.
His critics in the Whig party
portrayed him as a tyrant,
and more of a king than a
president.