The Jacksonian Era

Jacksonian Democracy?

SO THIS HAS BEEN A BIG HISTORICAL TOPIC OF DEBATE. HOW DEMOCRATIC REALLY WAS THIS ERA AND JACKSON HIMSELF. BY OUR STANDARDS, NOT VERY! BUT BY STANDARDS OF THE EUROPEAN WORLD, PRETTY RADICAL. THE JACKSONIANS BELIEVED THAT THE “COMMON” WHITE MAN COULD AND SHOULD “RISE” ECONOMICALLY AND POLITICALLY. PROPERTY QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTING SHOULD BE DROPPED AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY SHOULD BE THERE FOR ALL WHITE MEN TO BECOME INDEPENDENT. THEIR VISION CENTERED ON WHITE MEN AS INDEPENDENT PEOPLE; WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR WERE STILL THOUGHT OF AS DEPENDENT PEOPLE WITHOUT NEED OF RIGHTS, BUT THIS WILL START TO CHANGE SOON; IN FACT, COMMON WHITE MEN GETTING THEIR “FOOT IN THE DOOR” WILL ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO THINK THAT THEY TOO COULD BE INCLUDED IN THE PROMISE OF AMERICA. POLITICAL RIGHTS, HAVING A VOICE, AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE ECONOMICALLY WERE THINGS THAT MANY AMERICANS WANTED. THE NEXT FEW DECADES WILL SEE AFRICAN AMERICANS AND WOMEN TRYING TO CLAIM THEIR OWN PLACE IN MATURING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.

MASS POLITICS

• Expansion of suffrage: dropping property qualifications meant many more voters. This lead to the challenge of getting them involved, especially as we expanded geographically.
• New political styles and parties: political parties developed national, state and local party organizations designed to educate new voters, get out the vote, and recruit candidates for elections. To reach all everywhere required large organizations, newspapers, and a LOT of money! This is the start of what we are familiar with today.
• Patronage: Jackson was criticized for using the “spoils” of his office, the power to appoint people to government jobs in the days before the civil service system. He seemed to appoint people whose only qualification for their job was that they were “friends of Andy.” He reasoned that since he had won election in a landslide, the people wanted him to hire those who supported what he wanted to do. Nevertheless, this lead to charges of corruption against Jackson.

WASHINGTON POLITICS

Sex Scandals

• Election of 1828: a woman’s virtue was used as a political weapon to accuse Jackson of having a bad character and thus being unfit for president. His wife had married him years ago thinking that her divorce was final (it wasn’t; it was fixed, and all was well). The only women spoken of in public places were those of loose morals or worse; Rachel Jackson was in every newspaper in the country. Upon learning of it, she became ill and later died. Jackson, devoted to his wife, blamed Adams and Clay for her death and was passionate about women and their purity being kept out of politics. Unfortunately, he ended up involved in:
• Eaton Affair: Jackson’s friend, Secretary of War John Eaton became involved with a woman named “Peggy” who was married to a man gone at sea a lot. When the husband killed himself, rumors said it was over John Eaton and his wife. They shortly married, increasing the rumors. Peggy Eaton was not received by the wives of other Cabinet officers; the Eatons were not invited anywhere. Jackson became furious, thinking that she was being smeared in the same way that his wife had been. He insisted that the men make their wives host the Eatons. When the wives refused, led by the wife of Vice President Calhoun (Flouride like toothpaste) Jackson became enraged and Flouride went home to South Carolina rather than be forced to meet Peggy. In the meantime, Martin Van Buren, a widower, invited the Eatons and Jackson over and soon was rising in Jackson’s esteem, while Calhoun was falling. Eventually the cabinet became so disfunctional that Jackson was forced to ask for the resignation of the entire group. Not the way to begin your presidency! And who did actually become Jackson’s approved heir to the presidency? Vnn Buren.

Tariff of Abominations: the highest tariff in history,

South Carolina Exposition of 1828: printed anonymously (written by Calhoun), claiming that the tariff was unconstitutional AND that states had a remedy against unconstitutional acts of Congress–nullification! The states could declare the tariff null and void. Of course, this was highly controversial and would be argued later in the Webster-Hayne Debate. Below is Calhoun: he as as intense as he looks here!

Webster-Hayne Debate: January of 1830, Senator Daniel Webster of MA pushed Senator Robert Hayne of SC into a defense of slavery and nullification. Hayne was speaking for Calhoun and declared the constitutionality of nullification. Webster responded that Southerners in making threats over the tariff were “calculating the value of the Union,” deciding to leave if they money wasn’t good enough. Nullification was treason that would result in “civil war.” Hayne argued Calhoun’s idea of “compact theory:” that the states were the ones who created the union and the constitution. If the states could bring themselves into the union, then they could also take themselves out; if they could make the Union in the beginning, they could also later break it. Webster directly refuted this, responding that it was all of the people of the U.S. who had created the union and constitution; therefore no state or group of states could break it up. These arguments will be used 30 years later in the debates over Southern secession. Although he didn’t think so, Webster seems to have had a premonition of the horrible civil war that was to come. He concluded with ideals he said were held by every “true American heart, Liberty AND Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”

Jefferson Birthday Dinner: Later in April President Jackson weighed in on this important debate. Looking at Calhoun, he offered a toast, “Our Federal Union: it must be preserved!” Everyone was stunned, seeing it as a direct repudiation of Calhoun and his ideas. In response, Calhoun offered “Our Federal Union: next to our Liberty most dear!” This made it clear that union was important to Calhoun, but his first value was liberty; that if necessary he would choose liberty over union. He went home to South Carolina and lead the state into a great political crisis. Some historians believed that we could have had a civil war much earlier if this crisis had not been averted.

Nullification Crisis 1832-33: Under Calhoun, South Carolina nullified the federal tariff, enraging Jackson who saw this as a direct insult to him as President. Privately wanting to hang Calhoun, he asked Congress to pass the Force Bill, allowing him to use force to put down rebellion in South Carolina. Fortunately the Great Compromiser Henry Clay stepped in to avoid conflict, negotiating a deal where Congress would gradually lower the tariff and South Carolina would repeal its nullification law. But just to show their defiance and belief in nullification, the state legislature then nullified the Force Bill!

Some later critics said that when Calhoun lost on nullification, he then created a conspiracy to lead a secession movement for the next 30 years. In 1860 some said that Lincoln should put down the secessionists as decisively as Jackson had the nullifiers. Others said that if Jackson had really put down the nullifiers, we would not be on the eve of a secession crisis in 1860. While there was no conspiracy, Calhoun did believe that the south had to protect the institution of slavery and hoped that he could do this remaining in the union. When he died in the 1850s Calhoun was depressed, believing that secession was inevitable to protect slavery.

Indian Removal: knowing the history of settlement and Native Americans, Jackson believed that settlers in the southeast would move into Indian lands and Indians would be killed. The only way to prevent this was to move them beyond white settlement to what will become Oklahoma. Of course this violated their land rights upheld by the Supreme Court, and the journey during the winter became known as the Trail of Tears due to the number of deaths along the way, Although supported by most white Americans, Jackson is criticized the most today for this decision.

Bank War: another example of Jackson’s emotions and lack of knowledge causing problems. He hated the head of the 2nd Bank of the U.S. and didn’t want an elite eastern banking sector expanding manufacturing. He resolved to kill the bank and succeeded, replacing it with his “pet bank” scheme, a disaster that would have to be replaced. 

The South

COTTON

• brokers/factors as bankers
• lack of transportation

WHY:

• profitability of cotton
• investment in land and slaves
• values: culture of leisure, gentry lifestyle

SOCIETY: THE PLANTER CLASS

• ¼ of whites were slave owners, the great majority owning 5 or less (see chart below)
• Planter class—new rich determined to keep their status: 20 slaves got you into this group
• Risky business, instability
• determination to defend status
• Avoid “work,” admiration of military (States gave honorary military titles for this reason; check out the KFC website and read about “Col. Sander” (not a real colonel)!)
• Honor—dignity and authority, manhood were associated with command over others; the more you commanded, the more respect you gained. This included planters and military leaders.
• Lady—right of protection, duty to obey; active producers, little education. only the extremely wealthy would not do some kind of productive work on the plantation.

So the reality of Southern life was that only 25% of whites owned slaves, of those most of them owned less than 5 (working class). The planter class (20+ slaves) was an extremely small group of a small group of slaveowning whites. Yet this very small elite held most of the wealth and the political power in the south for generations. This is not democracy! The only way to move up was to get land and slaves in order raise cotton. But with demand rising with southwestern expansion, the price of land and slaves was rising dramatically. The reality was that the vast majority of white Southerners were poor and they would stay that way.

POOR WHITES: TWO TYPES OF EXTREMELY POOR PEOPLE

• All were yeoman farmer, no education (planters don’t want competition for power)
• One: Hill people & subsistence agriculture: in the mountains people grew food for themselves, not cash crops unsuited to the climate. They did not own slaves. Very poor “hillbillies.”
• Isolated from commercial cotton economy
• Two: Other small farmers in cash crop areas dependent on planters. They try to grow a little cotton to get ahead and dream of making it someday (they won’t). They are dependent on big planters for:
• Gins, market transportation, credit during growing seasons
• Household economy: everyone in the poor family works, children not attending school (no schools)

FREE BLACKS

This is a dangerous time for free blacks, as abolition is on the rise in the north and slave owners are more defensive about slavery. Also, with the value of slaves rising rapidly, bounty hunters roam the south in search of escaped slaves and sometimes take free people. Watch 12 Years a Slave for extra credit to learn more.

SLAVERY

“Black Slavery”

Effects of Slavery: new internal slave trade from upper, eastern states like Virginia to the new cotton lands of the southwest. Many families will be broken up during this period. Freeing slaves (manumission) goes way down, as slaves are too valuable and people need money. Notice in the slave auction poster above that people can now rent slaves! Why do you think that is?

Questions About Slavery: raised by historians

• Was slavery profitable? (or the most profitable labor system)
• Was slavery benevolent? (were master kindly father figures taking care of slaves)
• Were there viable slave family & social institutions or was slavery so terrible that people were just completely degraded into childlike robots?
• How do you think today’s historians answer these questions? We know much more after the Civil Rights movement encouraged historians to go back and look at black primary sources. Two are below: A Depression era WPA interview (these are online) of former slaves, and a military pension record of a black Civil War veteran. What do you learn from these about the slave experience?

Why was the woman above so afraid that she would be sold off at the end of the Civil War? Could it be because this had happened to her parents from Virginia in the pre-war demand for labor in Arkansas?

This veteran is probably testifying in the 1880s-90s to get a pension and widow’s benefits for his wife. Where is his marriage record?

Benjamin Manson’s Deposition in Veteran Pension File on Slave Marriage

SOUTHERN JUSTIFICATIONS FOR SLAVERY: FROM 1830S ON HIGHLY DEFENSIVE OF SLAVERY

• Biblical: there was slavery in the Bible
• Historical: the great civilizations of the ancient world had slaves, implying to be great that we should too
• Legal: slavery was recognized and protected in the Constitution (it was!). The strongest rationale: if you want to abolish slavery, you will need an amendment to the Constitution. Remember, it takes 2/3 of both House and Senate, then 75% of states. If fifty percent of our states are slave states, it will never happen, right? A BIG problem for abolitionists.
• Scientific: phrenology and other “pseudo-scientific” justifications for racial inferiority. This one said you can know about people’s traits and intelligence by shape and bumps on the head. Guess whose head shapes were deemed inferior?

George Fitzhugh: black slavery v. northern wage slavery. The leading spokesman for the south on slavery, he argued that slavery was a positive good (not the necessary evil that some older southerners had believed). In fact, he argued, the northern “wage” labor system was crueller than southern black slavery. People were being injured or killed in early industrial accidents, they lost jobs, homes, were hungry, poor, and died prematurely (all true). Have you seen the film Gangs of New York? He argued that Southern slave owners took care of their slaves for a lifetime, providing food, shelter, medical care etc. for all. Generally true, but it’s hard to argue poor Irish workers in the north would rather be slaves in the south! Plus slavery was horrible for anyone enslaved. Regardless, southern owners continued to assert the worth of their system and vigorously defended any attack on slavery, especially as their profits increased