A Brief Biography ofJames Parton, the "father of American biography", writing a few years after Jackson's presidency, was tempted to throw up his hands over Jackson - an apparent bundle of contradictions. It is not just that his friends and enemies see two different men; the very facts make one wonder whether he was pragmatic or dogmatic, a great statesman or a bull in the china shop.
Likewise the "Jackson Era" is bewildering in its complexity. A period of the strangest of strange bedfellows in politics. Of Anti-Masonic Parties and utopian communes. Of theological religious obsession such as most Westerners can hardly conceive today. A nation doubling in size, and moving from the age of wood and animal power to that of iron and steam power. The speed of change was very comparable to that of the 20th century.
Meanwhile, the United States was dividing along regional lines, with the established Northeast and Southeast each trying to put their stamp on the West.
In his early 20s, he went to the territory of Tennessee, not yet a state, where he achieved prominence as a lawyer, moderate-sized plantation owner and judge. By about 30, he had been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives of the new state, and was elected Senator but resigned after one year.
He was appointed, on his return from the Senate, a Superior Court Judge, where he proved capable and flamboyant. While remaining on the bench, he sought and won the position of Major General of the Tennessee militia.
During the War of 1812, he managed - with difficulty due to some enemies he had made - to get into action in important theatres. In between subduing various Indian tribes, he won, in New Orleans by far the greatest American victory in the war. Americans badly needed cheering up after the war, in which much of the Capitol city of Washington was burned by the British.
Jackson, early in the war, became a U.S. Major General - vastly different from a state militia Major General. He continued to have military successes - though in his invasion of Spanish Florida he got the reputation with some people of being a kind of Caesar.
At about this time, the "Hero of New Orleans" was perhaps the most popular man in the country, and he received a "favorite son" endorsement for the presidency from his state of Tennessee. Believing that Washington had become a sink or corruption, he felt called upon to work for the office. To gain credibility, he ran for and won a seat in the Senate. This time, in his maturity, he handled the job well, making a favorable impression on old government hands, many of whom expected a wild man in buckskins. He immediately made peace with Thomas Hart Benton, whom he once said he would thrash in the streets of Nashville, and who, with his brother, left a bullet in Jackson's arm. They became close allies.
Jackson was bitterly disappointed in 1824 by a 4-way race in which he won a substantial plurality, but lost to John Quincy Adams in the house of Representatives.
In 1828, Jackson won a landslide victory. The new Democratic Party, which he helped forge, brought to an end the temporary vacumn of parties in American politics sometimes called the "Era of Good Feelings". They created a new style of political campaign, aimed at the newly enfranchised masses (property requirements for voters were passing from the scene at this time) - with barbeques, parades, identification devices.
On the eve of his inauguration, Jackson was thrown into deep mourning by the death of his wife, whom he believed, with some reason, to have been driven to her grave by scurilous attacks by newspapers of the other side.
The major events of the Jackson presidency included:
Refusal to submit to South Carolina, which said they would "nullify", or not pay, high Federal tarriffs. He rejected the principal they tried to establish that a state could decide on its own whether Federal laws applied to it or not.
The elimination of the Second Bank of the United States; a very dubious move; the bank had done much to provide a stable environment in which business could operate. On the other hand, they were a private monopoly given an enormously priveleged place in the economy, and they did use their influence to try to affect elections.
General strengthening of the presidency. He established the veto as an unqualified prerogative of the presidency. Up til his time there was a notion that the president could only veto a measure on the grounds of its unconstitutionality. Also, the power to freely make and remake the cabinet was established.
He carried on a strong and generally successful diplomacy, getting reparations from countries which had damaged U.S. shipping during the War of 1812.
He did much to help push the Indians to the West of the Mississippi.
His government eliminated the National Debt for the first time. The did a great deal of belt-tightening and elimination of corruption by public officials. Mostly though, they benefited by the massive migration to the West, and consequent profits from the sale of public lands.
He greatly slowed the rate of Federal involvement in internal improvements.
Because of the strong opposition he generated in Congress and elsewhere, a cohesive new party of opposition, the Whigs, was created. Thus for a while, America was given a new two-party system.
The 1832 campaign for Jackson's reelection was fought in the midst of two crises. One was triggered by Jackson's veto of the bill to renew the Bank's charter. It did not have to be renewed intil 1836, and was brought up for renewal in 1832 out of political considerations by Jackson's opposition. The other crisis was South Carolina's pending rebellion. Jackson's Vice President John C. Calhoun, a South Carolinian went into opposition to the administration, and actually resigned before his term ended, to assume a seat in the senate.
Jackson again won by a landslide, with the New Yorker and expert political manager Martin Van Buren.
Van Buren won the Presidency in 1836, but served only one term, growing unpopular when, in 1837 a depression struck, which many blamed on Jackson's slaying of the Bank.
Jackson's mother got the boys released, but his brother died on
the long trip home. The mother later went to tend wounded American
prisoners and was fatally sticken by cholera.
Early Youth (age 15-21)
Jackson, living with neighbors and relatives, managed to finish school,
then teach for a year or two. At 17 he set out to become a lawyer,
acting as clerk for a lawyer in Salisbury, North Carolina, in return
for access to his books (the usual "course of study" in those days).
In his first independent days, living in a tavern with other students, he gained quite a reputation for charisma, and wildness and hooliganism.
The ambitious 21 year old set out to cultivate the imposing bearing of a "gentleman". This entailed, in those days in the South, responding to any grave insult with a challenge to a duel (if the offender was considered a gentleman too), or otherwise with whipping or caning. Indeed Jackson was, that first year, on the dueling ground for reasons unknown. Fortunately both parties, after some discussion, agreed to fire in the air and declare the matter settled.
There were two settled areas in the Western District, the Eastern settlements, around Jonesborough and Knoxville, and the Western section around Nashville. The new public prosecutor had to regularly bushwack through dense forest where hostile Indians might attack. He showed precocious leadership once, leading his older companions out of a trap laid by Indians.
Jackson practiced law for the next 7 years with extraordinary energy. He also married Rachel Donelson Robards, the estranged wife of an abusive husband. Jackson once threatened the husband's life for implying he (Jackson) was dishonoring his wife. Later, Robards went to Kentucky and was thought to have divorced Rachel. Jackson and Rachel were married for two years before finding that the marriage was invalid. They discovered the truth when the divorce did occur, and promptly married a second time. A shrewd lawyer should not have believed in a divorce on the grounds of hearsay, so Jackson was at least guilty of not wanting to know the truth. Despite the circumstances, Jackson was marrying into a very prominent family, and they seemed very much in love during their life together.
While in Congress, Jackson unfortunately co-signed in a land speculation with partners who went bankrupt. He narrowly escaped debtors prison, and retained a lifelong distrust of banks, and paper money, which was involved in the transaction.
Jackson sat in Congress from December 1796 to late spring 1797, and was there when Congress passed a highly flattering farewell resolution for the first president. Jackson voted "nay". He disliked Washington's recent treaty terms with Britain, and thought the federal government remiss in defending the west from Indians.
Jackson's biggest act in that session was to request compensation for some soldiers who had gone on an offensive raid against the Indians. The raid had never been approved by the federal government - but presumably Jackson thought that was the government's mistake. He spoke in a passion and obtained $22,816 for the soldiers.
Jackson had settled in the West, near Nashville. His early political mentor was William Blount, the territorial governor before statehood. John Sevier, a revolutionary war hero, was the first Governor of the state. Sevier was the eastern Tennessee leader.
Jackson wanted, at this time to lead the state militia as its Major General. A Major General was elected by the officers he would command. Governor Sevier set out to prevent Jackson's getting the commission, and Jackson lambasted Sevier for improper interference.
Jackson was elected to the Senate for the 6-year term beginning the winter term of 1797-1798. He defeated a member of the Eastern clique, and the angry exchanges over this nearly lead to a duel.
Of Jackson's senate career, Thomas Jefferson said "When I was President of the Senate, he was 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." Jackson complained of spending the "best hours of every day for seven successive months quiescent in a red morocco chair." The senate at the time was an intimate body of 32 men, mostly of refined bearing and much political experience. The frontier youth was too much out of his element, and soon resigned the Senate.
Once, an accused man stormed out the courtroom cursing the judge and jury and was shortly standing outside flourishing his weapons. When no one dared to arrest the man, Jackson demanded that the sheriff "Summon me". He adjourned the court ten minutes, approached the man with two loaded pistols, and roared "surrender, you infernal villain, this very instant, or I'll blow you through." The man put down his weapons and obeyed meekly. Later the man said he "saw shoot" in Jackson's eyes. (Parton I, 228-229)
An early biographer (Parton I, 227) said that "he maintained the dignity and authority of the bench ... his decisions were short, untechnical, unlearned, sometimes ungrammatical, and generally right." Jackson's nature was to command, but wherever possible to preserve the dignity of all parties, winners and losers. A good make up for a judge.
In 1801, Jackson helped organize the Order of Freemasons in Tennessee. The Masons were a useful organization for a rising man.
On April 1 1803, Justice Jackson campaigned again to be Major General of the Tennessee militia. John Sevier had just completed 3 terms as Governor, and could not serve again for 2 years, by the Tennessee law. He too wanted to be Major General, and thought it only fitting, as he was a Revolutionary War hero. The two men represented the two political factions of Tennessee, and were on bad terms already.
Jackson achieved a tie vote through popularity with the young officers of the militia. The current governor, Roane (of the "Western" faction) swung it to Jackson. Sevier was now incensed at his defeat by such an upstart.
Sevier took some vengeance by having his friends in the state legislature pass a law dividing Tennessee into East and West districts and giving Jackson control of only the West.
More complications ensued. Jackson had, a few years before, discovered evidence of a land fraud operation based in North Carolina. He passed it to the North Carolina governer, who tried to get the Tennessee governor, Sevier, to extradite the parties involved. Sevier refused.
The evidence given Jackson also seemed to implicate Sevier in the scam. Only now did Jackson pass on the evidence against Sevier -- to the new Governor Roane, who would use it to keep himself in office, and Sevier out, in the next election.
Much name-calling ensued, culminating in Sevier telling Jackson, on the street, "I know of no great service you have rendered the country, except taking a trip to Natchez with another man's wife". Jackson responded in outrage and Sevier shouted "Draw".
Then the on-and-off governor of Tennessee, and the state supreme court judge fired at eachother, grazing one bystander. Jackson later challenged Sevier repeatedly until the latter agreed to a duel (after first maintaining Jackson wasn't worthy of a duel with him). Through some blundering, the two met outside the dueling ground, and wound up drawing pistols on eachother again. This lead to cursing, the drawing of a cane and then a sword, a horse running away with the dueling pistols, and the seconds talking the protagonists out of the duel.
Being an officer of the militia was a part-time job; there was some work involved in maintaining supplies, and keeping the men ready to fight, but much less than with a standing army. So Jackson continued for a while as Justice. Following the Louisiana Purchase by Thomas Jefferson in 1803, Jackson was ready to respond to the need to occupy the new territory. He tried to get the (appointive) job of (military or territorial) governor of Louisiana, but was very disappointed when General James Wilkinson was selected.
On July 24, 1804, Jackson resigned from judicial life, and was never a judge or lawyer again. For several years, he was involved in the militia, buying and selling land for profit, and building up a 425-acre plantation called the Hermitage, with perhaps a couple of dozen slaves. He also came near the brink of disaster due to the confusing nature of land dealings at the time.
He had a prize race-horse which made him tens of thousands of dollars. But a racing bet over the horse, Truxton, got him into his most serious duel, in which he killed his antagonist after receiving a bullet that crushed two ribs and lodged two inches from his heart (more on the duel). This duel left him somewhat of a social outcast, for a time, in western Tennessee.
Aaron Burr was in the west, looking for allies in his scheme, and Jackson entertained Burr, and listened to some of his plans. Though he clearly believed nothing traitorous was afoot, he willingly gave Burr assistance in getting boats and good officers.
Some time later, a young man, assuming for the moment that Jackson was thoroughly in on the conspiracy, gave away the fact that they were planning to seize New Orleans, a recently acquired part of the United States, and vital port city.
One key player in this was General James Wilkinson, who had gotten the Luisiana governorship Jackson wanted, and whom Jackson had already disliked.
Jackson was cautious about accusing anyone directly, but wrote a carefully worded letter to President Jefferson offering the services of his militia in case of "insult of aggression made ... FROM ANY QUARTER". It appears to have only puzzled Jefferson.
When the conspiracy was revealed, Jackson defended Burr in court, but condemned Wilkinson, whom he blamed for the illicit aspects of the scheme.
The defence of Burr cost him dearly with Madison (the political heir
of Jefferson). This and the condemnation of Wilkinson caused great
trouble in the War of 1812. Wilkinson was not convicted, and Jackson
had to operate in Wilkinson's military sphere. And President Madison,
of the party of Burr's enemy Jefferson, came to distrust Jackson.
Start of the War of 1812
During the Napoleonic Wars, the U.S. tried, at first, to remain neutral.
This meant the U.S. was trying to carry on trade with some nations
in the French sphere, and since England very much dominated the seas,
it was mainly England with whom the U.S. ran afoul in the area of trade.
England forcibly stopped and boarded many American ships.
They also forced American sailors to serve on British ships, which was
called impressment.
In addition to having these grievances against Britain, many factions in the U.S. were eager to expand and capture parts of Canada, and perhaps also encroach on the territory of Spain, an ally of Britain at the time. Henry Clay and John Calhoun, in congress were loudly in favor of war. James Madison asked congress to declare war, which they did on June 18, 1812.
The administration was very slow to call on Andrew Jackson for reasons noted above. But in October 1812, Jackson's ally, Governor Blount, got a call for 1,500 volunteers to support Wilkinson in the defense of New Orleans. The administration indicated a preference not to have Jackson commanding those troops, but Blount sent him nonetheless. Jackson performed masterfully in moving his men 1,000 miles in brutal winter conditions
Then he received an order to dismiss the troops and return home.
The men were far from home in dangerous Indian territory,
and had Jackson simply dismissed the troops as he was told, they must
have sought for safety by going to Wilkinson, who was nearby.
It seemed like an underhanded way to get Jackson's men without
getting Jackson. This is how Jackson took it, so he was determined
instead to march the troups the several hundred miles home. It was
during this expedition that Jackson got his nickname "Old Hickory".
The Creek War 1813-1814
In August 30, 1813 a faction of the Creek Indian Nation called the
Red Sticks under Red Eagle, slew nearly 250 Alabama settlers in a
brutal manner, resulting in the calling out of two 2,500 man forces,
one under Jackson to punish and stop the Indians. It was feared
that the Indians, in close contact with the Spanish, would begin
a cooperative campaign against the southern U.S.
Jackson in the interim had gotten his arm shattered by a slug in a shoot-out. Still he waged a very competent war of maneuvers and brutal attacks which crushed the rebellion. Had the rebellion not been stopped, it could have grown widespread, especially with the U.S. under attack from several directions.
The creek war led to Jackson's recognition by Madison's administration as a Major General in the U.S. army, in command of the Seventh Military District, a very big step up from being a state militia Major General. His territory included Louisiana, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Territory.
He was a very competent, extraordinarily driving and decisive general in a war characterized, on the American side, mostly by incompetence and paralysis.
The Creek nation (only a fraction of which had been in rebellion) was essentially crushed. They were forced to cede three fifths of the present state of Alabama and one fifth of Georgia.
It took all of Jackson's relentlessness and sometimes brutality just to keep the force from deserting en masse. One 18-year old soldier rebelled in a sudden wild impulse, drawing his gun on officers who had ordered him back to duty. Jackson ordered the young man, John Woods, shot. This would be used as anti-Jackson propaganda during the Presidential campaigns.
Jesse's brother, future Senator Thomas Hart Benton and presently under Jackson as a Colonel, began a campaign of abusing and berating Jackson for his part in the affair, which lead Jackson to warn that he would horse- whip Thomas the first time he ran across him. When Jackson tried to carry out his threat, things escalated to a gunfight, in which a bullet shattering the bone in Jackson's left arm. All but one doctor consulted recommended amputation, but Jackson refused.
Only in 1831 was the bullet removed, and Jackson jokingly tried to present
it to Benton, one of Jackson's strongest supporters in Congress.
A National Hero - The Battle of New Orleans, Winter 1814-15
In late 1814, the British opened a two-pronged attack on the U.S.
Coming up the Chesapeake, they ran the government out of Washington
City (as it was called then), burned much of the city, including
the White House and the Capitol, and shelled nearby Baltimore.
They also planned to invade from the Gulf of Mexico, where the greatest prize was New Orleans, controlling sea access to the Mississippi, the water-highway of the states. The British commander, Cochrane, felt the area could be taken with minimal forces with the help of the Spanish and Indians.
This was now Jackson's theatre of operations, and he first took the offensive, capturing parts of Spanish Western Floridas, adjacent to New Orleans.
In New Orleans, he set out, with his soldiers and locals, to organize a strong defense against British attack. He dazzled the local society which, expecting a backwoods wild man found him to be a man of poise, relaxed style and charisma.
Jackson called a conference of engineers to find out how best to seal off New Orleans from invasion. As New Orleans was largely surrounded by swamps, one method was to fell huge trees to clog the smaller waterways leading to the city. This was done, but not thorougly enough, so the British did come through in boats.
Jackson also accepted the services of Jean Lafitte, a famous local pirate, and 600 free blacks of New Orleans, and brooked no criticism of the use of the black volunteers.
In the climactic battle, Jackson used some 3,000 men, with carefully dug fortifications, to hold off approximately twice as many British troops who made a massed assault, taking over 2,000 casulties, while the Americans sustained 13 killed, 39 wounded, and 19 missing. The British dead included the top commanders, and the troops fled in a rout.
As it happenned, a treaty was signed, in the Netherlands, before the battle in this age of slow communication. But most Americans heard about New Orleans first. The U.S. had declared war, lost much, fought for the most part incompetently, and had to sign a treaty ratifying the old status quo. The battle was thus an enormous boost to U.S. morale, and was the main personal factor that put Jackson in the White House 14 years later.
It also was a show of strength by a formerly weak-looking nation, increasing the United States' negotiating powers with Spain, Mexico, and Britain in the future.
Jackson maintained martial law in the territory until the official end of the war. He was at first idolized in New Orleans, but lost much of his popularity due to the harshness of his regime, and such acts as jailing a legislator who published a "subversive" article, and a judge who tried to rescind the jailing of the legislator.
The main military activity at that time was the driving of Indians out of lands which white Americans were pouring into, or were about to pour into. Sometimes there was the justification of Indian raids and massacres; sometimes not.
One such affair, the First Seminole War, resulted in U.S. acquisition of Florida.
Spain was fighting a losing battle against revolutions in South America. Florida was mostly a vast swampland, and, being separated from the rest of the Spanish territory, it just caused a dispersal of military manpower. Added to the U.S. however, it would make borders tidier and more defensible, largely preventing, for example, the sort of north-south pincer movement the British tried in 1814.
Also the Seminole Indians straddled the Florida-Georgia border, and they could and did make cross-border raids, retreating to the other side when pursued. Another reason Spanish Florida was seen as a danger by the U.S. was that it contained a fort, inhabited by escaped slaves who, it was felt, encouraged other slaves to run away to its safety. The fort was blown up in 1816, killing 270.
In late 1817, in response to the burning of an Indian village on U.S. territory, Seminoles massacred virtually all on board a transport. (4 men out of 40 escaped, one woman out of seven was spared, and the 4 children on board were all killed).
It appears, in hindsight, that President Monroe (1817-25) somewhat expected Jackson to occupy Florida, and gave him ambiguous signals to that effect - the sort of signals that executives sometimes give their charges when they don't want to be blamed for an action.
Jackson, went into Florida with a couple of thousand men and occupied the fort at St. Marks, in the East, and the fortified town of Pensacola, the center of Spanish rule in Florida. He also had two British subjects (allies of the Indians) hanged.
The Spanish minister demanded evacuation and "suitable punishment" for Jackson. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams' reply berated the Spanish for not restraining the Indians, and included the following: "Spain must immediately [decide] either to place a force in Florida adequate at once to the protection of her territory, ... or cede to the United States a province, of which she retains nothing but the nominal possession, but which is, in fact, ... a post of annoyance to them." This in effect said "Keep the inhabitants of Florida in line, or we'll do it for you."
Behind the scenes, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, and Representative Henry Clay of Kentucky were perturbed. Calhoun was angry over Jackson's communications with the President, bypassing him. All three men had presidential ambitions, and Jackson's popularity threatened their hopes. Adams, however, backed Jackson up.
Since Jackson was eventually sustained, he attributed it somewhat to his Secretary of War, Calhoun. Jackson had to put up with being called before Congress and berated - particularly by Henry Clay (whom Jackson was coming to hate). Four resolutions to censure Jackson failed, however.
Adams negotiated a treaty buying Florida for five million dollars, and also giving the U.S. a very wide corridor in the West to the Pacific.
Jackson then received the military governorship of Florida while it was being integrated as a U.S. territory. He did a good job, while there, of shaping new institutions compatible with integration in the U.S. He did however, as in New Orleans, use some heavy-handed tactics at times.
During retirement in his "Hermitage" in Nashville Tennessee, he was surrounded by loving family and friends, including one or two adopted and several all-but-adopted children.
He also fumed over what he saw as the country's corruption. He felt that public offices were being used widely for private ends. Also banks, including the Bank of the United States (BUS), were issuing credit that they could not back up, at least until 1819 when the BUS severely tightened credit, causing a panic. Jackson had a general distrust of banks and the paper money, which they at that time circulated.
Jackson maintained correspondence with many people in this period, including his old political friends of the "Western Tennessee" faction. They were losing popularity (partly from association with the failed banks). They wanted the extremely popular military hero to run for President and bear them up in the polls.
The "Junto" as Jackson's political colleagues were called, began the campaign for President with Jackson meetings around the country. His popularity was stunning.
In Summer 1823, a series of letters, appeared in a Philadelphia paper, later to be widely circulated in pamphlet form. Signed Wyoming (symbolizing the far Western frontier?) they were mostly written by John Eaton. They talked about the corruption of the time and the need to return to "Republican Virtue". They identified Jackson with the Founding Fathers, promoted him for the Presidency, and gave some sense of Jackson's ideas on how to run the country.
The party system had all but vanished in America. In 1816, Madison was elected President by an electoral vote of 183-34 with 4 abstentions. In 1820 it was 231-1. The old Federalist party, last in office at the beginning of 1801, was fatally wounded due to its association with opposition to the recent struggle with Britain. "Blue-light Federalist", a term of abuse, implied that Federalists had signaled to British ships with blue lights from the New England shores.
The one viable party was know as the "Democratic", "Republican", or "Democratic Republican" party, and sheltered a mixture of tendencies. Those who favored severe limitations on Federal government called themselves "Old Republicans" or "Radicals".
In 1824, a caucus of the democrats in Congress was called to nominate a candidate for President. The idea of a presidential nominating convention was far in the future. The caucus was widely criticized as contrary to democracy, and attendence was extremely low. William Crawford, a "Radical", was nominated though he had just had a severe stroke and could not speak. Three other candidates were put in the field: Jackson, Henry Clay, and John Quincy Adams. Calhoun decided his chances for the presidency were nil that year, and settled for a nearly assured election as Vice President.
The results were: Jackson Adams Crawford Clay Individual Votes 152,901 114,023 46,979 47,217 Electoral Votes 99 84 41 37
In the U.S., if no presidential candidate has a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives chooses from among the top three. Each state casts one vote as a unit. Henry Clay, in last place, was out of the running. But as Speaker of the house, he did much to eke out an extremely narrow victory for Adams. Then Clay was made Secretary of State - prompting Jackson to call him the "Judas of the West" receiving his "thirty pieces of silver", and making "Corrupt Bargain" the campaign cry of the 1828 election. Clay acted on his conviction as well as in self-interest, since Adams' philosophy was most like his. But the result seemed like such a contravention of the voters' intention that it may have ruined his presidential hopes.
One member of this anti-Adams coalition was the Vice President, John C. Calhoun. He wrote an acquaintance in 1826 that the Adams Administration "because of the way it came to power ... must be defeated at all hazards, regardless of its measures". ( Coit (p 160) )
Another faction moving into coalition with Jackson were the 'Radicals' or 'Old Republicans', who were rigidly opposed to centralized government. William Crawford their one-time leader, was in poor health.
Martin Van Buren of New York State, a kind of political manager for the Radicals, quickly formed a strong respect for Jackson, and helped forge the link between his group, and Calhoun and Jackson. Van Buren also favored the creation of strong contending political parties, and became one of the principal architects of the Democratic Party.
Adams hurt his cause in his first State of the Union address. Drawing up an ambitious program of internal improvements, he said he hoped Congress would not give the world the impression "that we are palsied by the will of our constituents". Many felt this went to the heart of Adam's disregard for the will of the electorate.
Senator John Randolph gave voice to the idea of an 'unholy alliance' between Adams and Clay when he spoke of them as the "Puritan and the Black-leg" (refering to two characters in Tom Jones). Adams was a descendant of New England Puritans, and preserved some of their stiff social ideas. This made Clay the "blackleg" or crooked gambler. Clay challenged Randolph to a duel in which Randolph fired in the air, and Clay may or may not have tried to hit Randolph. They parted cordially, having played their roles as Southern "gentlemen".
All of Jackson's high-handed actions as General were brought up. One notable example was the "Coffin Handbill" featuring pictures of 6 coffins, and describing one-sidedly the story of some soldiers that Jackson had court-martialed and executed. Naturally, Jackson's record of dueling made good print for the opposition.
The most remarkable thing about the Jackson's side though was an unprecedented level of political organization. The new democratic organization kept in close correspondence, built a network of party newspapers, and created all sorts of spectacles, parades and identifying devices.
Symbols of "Old Hickory" were everywhere. Large hickory poles erected in town squares or smaller ones attached to signs, steeples, and fore and aft on steam boats. In New York there was a parade a mile long. Hickory brooms also stood for 'Hickory' sweeping out the filth of corruption.
A different sort of campaigning went on in congress, where Jackson supporters played to the Northeastern manufacturing interests by passing high protective tarriffs. Jackson favored tarriffs for raising revenue, if kept within fairly modest bounds, as well as to protect industries vital to the country's defense. Jackson walked a thin line on this matter, saying he was for a "judicious tarriff" and getting some ridicule for this.
The South was adamantly anti-tarriff, and prominent South Carolinians were on the verge of proclaming a right to "Nullify" offensive national laws, with a threat of succession if Washington intervened by force.
Yet they supported Jackson. Why? Southerners must have seen Jackson as the least of two evils against the Adams-Clay aliance. And Adams was the very stereotype of New England with its disdain for the slave states and the poorly educated South and West. The Democratics also expected Vice President Calhoun from South Carolina to wield great influence. Calhoun was secretly very deeply involved with the most extreme anti-tarriff men, the "Nullifiers".
During the campaign, Jackson was mostly out of sight, as was thought proper for a presidential candidate. He was very much involved in the running of the campaign, corresponding with hundreds of local Jackson committees. He did appear at a New Orleans celebration of his victory over the British - the largest public demonstration ever in the US, and unsurpassed for many years.
On election day, in some places, Jackson men marched en masse to the polls, in a celebratory parade. An astonishing fact is that the number of voters counted nearly quadrupled over 1824. Four of the 24 states, including New York, took away property requirements for voting, so that basically all white males could vote. In addition, Jackson was saying "Vote for us if you believe the people should govern". In other words, Democrat meant just what the word implied. Adams' words about not being "palsied by our constituents" certainly reinforced this message.
In December, it had become obvious that Jackson won the election in a landslide. The count was 178 to 83 electoral votes, or 647,276 to 508,064 electoral votes.
Then tragedy struck. Rachel Jackson had heart pains all through 1828. She seemed to lose much of her will to live from what she knew of the vicious press attacks. One exceptionally bad attack, lead to a sharp decline, and death in a matter of days. Supposedly the attack was brought on by shock over a certain political pamphlet, causing her to collapse in hysterics. She died on December 23.
Washington's rooming houses were filled well beyond their normal capacity. Daniel Webster said people came from 500 miles away and seemed to think that the country had been "rescued from some dreadful danger".
The inaugural address was one of the shortest in history. An emminent South Carolinian called it "chaste patriotic ... and dignified", while the Democratic press said it "breathes throughout the pure spirit of republicanism of the Jefferson school". Jackson was praised for his stately composed dignity and elegant bearing. Even Daniel Webster had earlier called Jackson the most "presidential" looking of the presidential aspirants.
The inaugural reception was a riotous affair with thousands attending, and Jackson in need of protection against being crushed to death. Several thousand dollars worth of china and glassware were smashed and finally, to draw the crowd outside, it was necessary to bring the tubs of punch and other refreshments outside. The Argus of Western America said "It was a proud day for the people, General Jackson is their own president", and the Argus called him "plain in his dress, ... unaffected and familiar in his manners...".
It takes a rare man to be seen as "stately and elegant", and at the same time be seen by poor frontier farmers as "one of the people". That was much of the attraction of Andrew Jackson.
The personal make up of Jackson's cabinet was a problem from the start. Vice President John C. Calhoun was intensely ambitious at this stage of his career. He had done much to overthrow Adams, such as setting up Duff Green's Telegraph, the strongest national party organ seen up to the time. It is thought that there was some sort of agreement for Jackson to serve one term, and then support Calhoun for 1832.
He had feeling his influence wane, and his future threatened. The Secretary of State, that stepping-stone to the presidency did not go to Calhoun's ally Virginian Littleton W. Tazewell, as Calhoun wished. Instead it went to Martin Van Buren - as much a Northerner as Adams, also ambitious, and with a reputation for being a political "Magician", or the "Red Fox of Kinderhook".
Meanwhile, Calhoun's political orientation was changing. Before he had been a strong nationalist, but now he was leaning towards the most extreme states rights partisans - the Nullifiers.
> He was the anonymous author of South Carolina's Exposition and Protest, a lawyerly argument claiming the state had a right, under some circumstances, to declare a federal law null and to disregard it. This proclamation, aimed at the recent tarriff bill, was the opening act of the Nullification Crisis. While Calhoun's partisanship was hidden, Jackson's total opposition to such measures was as yet unknown, and he too was seen as a states righter.
Then there was the old business of Calhoun, in 1818, being among those calling for Major General Jackson's disciplining for seizing the Spanish territory of Florida. Robert V. Remini argues persuasively that Jackson was encouraged in this by President Monroe, through broad but indirect hints. Thus Monroe got a fait accompli that lead to Florida's incorporation as a U.S. territory. Jackson, meanwhile "took the heat" when Henry Clay and others had Jackson called before Congress, and Monroe remained silent.
Some believed (and some still believe) Timberlake had killed herself over his wife's infidelity. She was said to have been Eaton's mistress, and in some versions to have carried on affairs with many men, or to have borne children by Eaton. The truth of the matter may never be known.
Washington was quite a small society with elaborate social rituals of one party "calling on" another, and it being a clear insult not to reciprocate. Mrs. Eaton was socially boycotted, with Mrs. Calhoun playing the leading role. Was this a simple matter of aristocratic ladies resenting an "inkeeper's daughter", and perhaps a "loose woman" being put down in the middle of their society?
Calhoun plead the principal that women governed such social matters and he could not, as a gentleman, intervene. This is accepted by Calhoun's biographer, Margaret L. Coit, but doubted by the Jackson scholar Remini. Why would Calhoun have sought to drive Eaton out of the cabinet?
Calhoun had actively sought the presidency since 1820, and looked to have a controlling influence in Jackson's cabinet. The Age of Jackson (Arthur M. Schlesinger 1945) says that except for Van Buren and the "negligible" Postmaster General, Eaton was the only cabinet member not for Calhoun in '32. So, the thesis goes, Calhoun attacked Eaton in his weak spot.
Why should any good have come out of this for Calhoun? With his years in the Senate and 12 years in presidential administrations, he may have seen Jackson - the political newcomer as a man to be easily manipulated. It was Calhoun who had established the Democratic party organ, which wrote matter-of-factly of Calhoun succeding Jackson in '32.
Calhoun may have felt some superiority too, over keeping Jackson in the dark for 10 years as to his role in the uproar over Jackson's actions in Florida, while seeing Jackson maintain an undignified enmity towards others over the old affair. He may have believed the struggle was between him and Van Buren over the "management" of Jackson.
The way in which this all worked out has given rise to another popular theory, which is that Van Buren was the master manipulator behind it all. Van Buren had no wife who would have to chose sides in the war over who to admit in "society". So he could and did give dinners and parties to which Mrs. Eaton was invited. A couple of unmarried foreign ambassadors did likewise, through the Secretary of State's friendly persuasion. This all put the New Yorker in good stead with the president.
Jackson was quite incensed over the slandering of another innocent female, as he saw it, much as his wife had been slandered and driven to her grave (even Jackson's mother was called a "common prostitute" in the campaign).
The ontime frontier brawler and Indian fighter Jackson, and the smooth operating New Yorker Van Buren, were growing very close. They understood eachother. It took little time for Van Buren to see Jackson's political ability and excellant judgement in most matters. He did not dream of "managing" Jackson, or soon abandoned the idea.
Parallel with all this, went the beginnings of confrontation with the South Carolina Nullifiers, and the open break with Calhoun, arising from the Florida business.
The Exposition and Protest, of which Calhoun was the secret author, was delivered to the Senate by South Carolina's senators Robert Y. Hayne and William Smith, and their names were thus included in the preamble of the document.
In January 1829, a famous debate took place in the Senate between Hayne and Daniel Webster. Webster's Second Reply to Hayne was for decades the most celebrated speech in American history, used by schoolboys for practice in declamation.
Webster's "First Reply" maneuvered Hayne into a full-blown defense of the nullification doctrine, and his second reply was a massive rebuttal of it, ending with the melodramatic "I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder ...(nor) to hang over the precipice of disunion to see whether ... I can fathom the depth of the abyss below ... When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorius Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood."
In other words, he drew the conclusion, as many did, that nullification meant ultimate disunion and/or civil war. Certainly the land was to be drenched one day with "fraternal blood".
On April 13, 1830, Jackson cleared up any doubts as to where he stood. This was at an annual celebration of Jefferson's birthday given by those who considered themselves his political heirs. Those with states-rights, nullification, and anti-tarriff sentiments planned to make it a rally for their beliefs. Jackson, attended and, after listening to many toasts by the nullifiers, rose and proclaimed: "Our Union: It must be preserved".
Calhoun made clear their differences with: "The Union, Next to our liberty, the most dear. May we always remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the states and distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the Union."
The nullification agitation continued in South Carolina, though without any landmark events for the next two years, until Congress passed a new tarriff act, signed by Jackson on July 14, 1832.
Meanwhile, the differences between Jackson and Calhoun took on a more personal (or seemingly personal) note. As said before, Calhoun, in Monroe's cabinet, strongly opposed Jackson's seizure of Florida from the Spanish. Furthermore, Jackson assumed at the time Calhoun, the Secretary of War, had supported him, and Calhoun had let the impression stand whether he said anything to promote it or not.
On May 12, 1830, soon after the Jefferson Dinner confrontation, William Crawford, whom Jackson largely blamed for his censure over Florida, got papers into the hand of Jackson that proved Calhoun had proposed Jackson's arrest and punishment over the Florida affair.
Jackson was determined by this time that the nullifier Calhoun should not succede him, and this, which probably only confirmed Jackson's suspicions on the Florida affair, provided a means to way to challenge Calhoun.
Jackson sent the Florida correspondence to Calhoun with a note harshly demanding an explanation.
Calhoun responded in a 52 page letter which began "I cannot recognize the right on your part to call into question my behavior". He implied Jackson was being manipulated by others against Calhoun, as if Jackson were politically naive. The letter heavily implied that Calhoun would soon reveal to the public a conspiracy against him headed no doubt by Van Buren.
The Telegraph, long regarded as the administration's voice, had become a liability, being more loyal to Calhoun than to Jackson. It had even given the impression of Jackson as agreeable with the nullifiers.
So, by December 1830, Jackson, with the aid of his "kitchen cabinet" of private advisors, imported Francis P. Blair from Kentucky to launch The Globe, a purely Jackson newspaper.
On February 17, Calhoun took the self-destructive step of publishing via the Telegraph his recent correspondence with Jackson, with text that implied that it was part of a plot against him headed by Van Buren. It brought out into the open all the embarrassing feuds that had been going on in the cabinet, putting the administration up to ridicule.
On February 21, the new Globe labeled Calhoun's diatribe "a firebrand wantonly thrown into the [Democratic] party". It greatly lowered, rather than raising, Calhoun's public esteem, and Jackson concluded "[Green and Calhoun] have cut their own throats and destroyed themselves in a shorter space of time than any two men I ever know".
With Calhoun self-mutilated, Van Buren could afford to be out of the public eye. Indeed it was the only thing for him, as much of the public would otherwise see him, in his Secretary of State position, as the triumphant manipulator - just as Calhoun claimed, and the party would be split between Anti-Calhoun and anti-Van Buren wings.
Van Buren had been accompanying Jackson on his daily exercize rides (after first taking riding lessons). On such a ride, Van Buren says he suggested to Jackson the way out of his dilemma. Van Buren would resign, and the rest of the cabinet would be pressured to follow suit.
Jackson would be freed from the "Eaton Malaria", as some called the affair, yet give no satisfaction to the Calhoun allies, who would also have to leave. Nor would it look like a triumph of a Van Buren faction, which Congress would have rejected, but a neutral disolution of an incompatible team.
The embarrassing Mr. Eaton, the troublesome Calhoun allies in the cabinet, and the perceived "magician" left the cabinet together.
The resignations took place in April 1831, followed by an ugly brawl in the Washington newspapers, which would have been worse were it not during Congress' adjournment. Ingham and Branch, two ousted Calhoun allies, labeled it all a plot by "the Magician", and broadcast to the world all the charges of promiscuity against Peggy Eaton. Eaton counterattacked and defended his wife's (and his own) honor. He also, after demanding and not getting "explanations" from Ingham, challenged him to a duel and, not given this "satisfaction" from Ingham, threatened and harrassed Ingham until he left town.
Nothing like this decimation of a president's cabinet had happenned before, and it was seen as a constitutional crisis. By weathering it Jackson set the precedent that a president could exercize such control over members of his cabinet. There was a sense for a while that the Jackson administration was destroyed, but it passed.
Jackson had his new cabinet in place (though unratified) when congress reconvened. The next year and a half were the most eventful of his eight years in power.
So whether the appointments were due to a need to replace corrupt officials, or to reward ones party-workers, the opposition worked hard at resisting them, and in many cases succeded.
In 1829-30, there were two major legislative events. The Indian Removal Act forced many Indian tribes to resettle beyond the Mississippi. Jackson was very much behind this bill. It was a cruel measure which caused thousands of deaths by starvation and disease, either along the "Trail of Tears", or in the new territories which were sometimes barren, and an any event strange and unfamiliar territory to the resettled tribes. The best that can be said for Jackson is that the only viable alternative was to leave matters in the hands of the states, and that might not have produced any better result.
The other legislative event was major because of the precedent it set. Jackson vetoed a bill to build the "Maysville Road" to Maysville Kentucky, on the ground of its being a project to benefit only the state of Kentucky, and hence not a project for the national government. This was the first of Jackson's controversial vetoes.
The 1830-31 session of congress is not known for any major accomplishment. Part of the reason is, perhaps, that Calhoun's many followers were neither allied to the administration, nor ready to go into open rebellion. Also, Henry Clay, who could galvinize the opposition had gone into retirement when Adam's defeat ended his cabinet career.
All of this changed in the 31-32 session. Not only did Clay return to the Senate, but in December 1831 the National Republicans nominated him for the presidency. Andrew Jackson too, had a much stronger cabinet, free of bickering, which could help organize and promote his program.
Clay returned to the national spotlight feeling pessimistic about his chances against Jackson. His main hope seems to have been to bring a measure to Congress that would put the administration in an embarrassing position.
Early in this session, Clay proposed a modification of the tarriff, lowering it, but leaving the protective elements in. This would have, by lowering revenues, have put off Jackson's intended repayment of the national debt by nearly a year. If Jackson vetoed it, he would disappoint the northern states, like Pennsylvania, whose votes he needed. If he approved it, with its strong affirmation of the protective principal; i.e. that the government was entitled to pass tarriffs on imports, whose primary intent was to protect the American manufacturers of the same items, this would drive a very strong wedge between Jackson and all of his Southern supporters, who wanted freedom to choose between American (Northern) goods and European goods.
Unfortunately for Clay's chances, Congress passed a bill making a moderate reduction of both protecitive tarriffs and pure revenue-raising tarriffs, which Jackson could sign without a total alienation of the South.
At this time there was no government issued paper money. Any bill of paper "money" was actually an I.O.U. from a particular bank "redemable as specie"; specie meaning gold or silver. A puzzling question to the economic novice might be "Why wouldn't everyone convert any paper he had to gold or silver; certainly trusting a bank to redeem it some day had the disadvantage of uncertainty when compared to getting your gold or silver today. Banks did have crises of confidence leading at times to their collapse, or "suspension of payment" in specie.
However that may be, the existence of paper money has been credited with greatly increasing the amount of commerce that could go on. One example of how banking could greatly facilitate commerce is as follows: A farmer wants to buy a farm for $1000. While the farmer can't immediately produce $1000, the banker deems him a "good risk" i.e. concludes that, over time, he will be able to supply the $1000, and something additional ("interest") to make it worth while for the banker to risk his money. So the banker provides the man with a paper or papers that the bank warrants to be redeemable for the $1000, and the man signs a contract to return $1000 plus interest to the bank over time - which the procedes of the farm will allow him to do. The consequence if he doesn't will be that land is forfeited to the banker.
As long as the bank enjoys trust, the papers supposed to be worth $1000 will be accepted by the former owner of the land, who may either save them, deposit them in a bank, or redeem them.
Had it been necessary for the farmer to carry a pile of gold to the seller, it is quite likely that the bank would not have had it on hand.
Perhaps what I'm saying is too obvious, or on the other hand, it may be largely wrong.
One function of the BUS, which most historians say it performed well (though Jackson didn't think so) was to maintain the stability of all the circulating currency. Under normal conditions it was believed, and the rule generally held good, that a bank should have immediate access to "specie" worth one fifth the value of the bills it put into circulation. This was thought, and generally proved, sufficient for the bank to be able to redeem the claims that would be made on it. In theory, everyone could try to redeem their bills on the same day so that even a "solid" bank, by these standards would be unable to fulfill its pledge, but under normal circumstances this did not happen. However, a bank that had immediate access to only a tenth or a twentyeth of the specie value of its circulating bills was a real danger to itself and to its clients. The BUS would try to detect such situations in the making, and when detected, would buy up large quantities of the paper of the offending bank, and present them for redemption. Thus the bank which tried to lend far more money than it could reliably stand behind might be put in embarrassing straights which would stop them from such activities.
One result of this was that the bank had two kinds of enemies. One kind was exemplified by Jackson and Thomas Hart Benton; i.e. those who basically considered gold and silver the only legitimate form of currency. The other class of enemies were bankers, or their business partners, who were kept by the BUS from involvement in risky schemes (which they probably thought they were entitled to attempt).
There were also quite legitimate causes for concern about the BUS. It did enjoy an advantage over other banks; and for this, it paid little price of accountability to the government. Also, with its unaccountability and great money-power, it could in effect bribe candidates or occupants in office, or buy newspapers to campaign for those friendly to its interests. When its existence was threatened, in the 1832 election year, it did these things on a large scale.
Jackson came into office believing that the bank, in its current form, was a menace and that something had to be done about it. Though bold when committed to a course, he did not, tend to rush into things. And there is good reason to suppose he might have only set out to constrain rather than destroy the bank, if the other side had shown a will to compromise.
For his second cabinet, he had even appointed Louis MacLane, who was pro-bank, secretary of the treasury. And his message to Congress at the start of the 1831-2 was conciliatory. The opposition could not know this for sure though, and could well be supposed that Jackson considered war on the bank an unpopular issue, and meant merely to keep out of the debate until after the election, (almost surely his last) when he might, with perhaps even more allies in Congress, to kill the bank.
In 1836, the bank would die, or cease to be national bank, if not rechartered by congress. Clay, Webster, and others convinced Nicholas Biddle, the bank's President that it could be rechartered in 1832 with the present congress, and Jackson's need (so they though) to avoid the issue in order to be re-elected. But Clay and Webster indicated they could not be so sure of the recharter (and they might lose interest in the matter) if it were put off until after 1832.
If Jackson did veto the bill, he might lose the critical votes of Pennsylvania, the home of the bank, and other states with a strong commercial interest. Or, as Biddle might see it, as least bring in a veto-proof majority in Congress for the bank.
Roger B. Taney, Jackson's Attorney General said "Now as I understand the application at the present time, it means in plain English this - the Banks says to the President, your next election is at hand - if you charter us, well - if not, beware of your power".
Probably this move, understood just as Taney put it, convinced Jackson that no compromise could be made with the bank.
An odd anti-Jackson combination was taking shape in Congress. The proponents of Tarriffs and of the U.S. as a nation with national transportation projects, joined their most extreme ideological opponents, headed by Calhoun. The most extreme of these, including Calhoun, claimed a state's right to declare federal laws (especially tarriffs) Null, and secede from the Union if the Union sought to force them to comply.
The first major act of these "strange bedfellows" was, in January 1832, the rejection of Martin Van Buren for Ambassador to Great Britain. He had been appointed in the congressional recess and served since the summer. He been a fine secretary of state. No one could doubt he was well qualified for the job. The action seemed like little more than the National Republican's indulgence of Calhoun's personal feud with Van Buren. In fact a tie vote was artificially contrived so that Calhoun could exercize the Vice-president's right of breaking such ties. This only made it easy for Jackson to have Van Buren, rather than Calhoun, as Vice President in his next term.
In January too, a formal proposal was made to recharter the bank. Administration forces in Congress did all they could to obstruct its passage, or buy time, while the administration press worked on public oppinion. They launched an investigation into the bank, turning up much pressure exerted on journalists and politicians. In June the recharter bill passed both houses, and soon after, Jackson vetoed the bill, and accepted it as an election issue. When Van Buren returned from Europe, after several weeks of visiting following the news of his Senate rejection, he found a haggard Jackson declaring "The bank, Mr. Van Buren is trying to kill me but I will kill it".
The veto message was a stirring campaign document, one of the most powerful ever, though some have said it smacked of demagogy, or class warfare. Part of it went "...when the laws undertake to add to ... make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society - the farmers, mechanics, and laborers ... have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government". That is about as demagogic as it gets, and very mild indeed by modern standards.
The constitutional justification of the veto, contained in the message, is generally considered poor. Jackson was still hedging a bit, not quite asserting that the Constitution unconstitutionally gives the president the right to veto a bill. He was still rationalizing his veto on the grounds that he considered the Bank unconstitutional, despite the Supreme Court's ruling to the contrary. A modern president would avoid the issue of constitutionality as beside the point.
Biddle compared Jackson's veto message to "the fury of a chained panther biting at the bars of his cage ... a manisfesto of anarchy, such as Marat or Robespierre might have issued to the mobs". And he and his allies were well satisfied that it would prove Jackson's undoing. This only proved how little they understood the electorate.
Political Anti-Masonism may have also represented an attempt to harness the growing anti-elitism, and as it happenned, both major candidates for president were or had been high in the Masonic order. The Masons do seem to have been a kind of social network of great use to the climber in society. It did seem to many that politicians and judges who were Masons were letting alleged conspirators off easily.
The Anti-Mason candidate, Wirt was close in principals to Henry Clay, the National Republican candidate, and regretted having to run against Clay. The Anti-Masons, in fact, drew heavily from the ranks of National Republicans. Some Anti-Masonic and National Republican strategists felt the two parties needed eachother to beat Jackson, and tried to get both parties to nominate the same man for president. Clay could have renounced the Masons and run with the Anti-Masonic party, as many did. Clay scorned the Anti-Masons, and would not approach them, though entertained some hopes that Wirt might send support his way.
The two parties remained separate, and the National Republicans nominated Clay for president in December. The Democratic party also held a convention almost half a year later, in May. They made Van Buren the Vice Presidential candidate, and Jackson's candidacy was taken for granted.
The Jackson Democrats continued to weld together a most impressive organization, and the Democratic press worked overtime to sway public oppinion against the bank. They also continued the parades, glee clubs, Hickory pole raisings and other morale-boosting ploys for the party. The bank reprinted and distributed speeches of Clay and Webster, and even Jackson's Veto Message, which they erroneously though was bad for Jackson. The bank also used more or less outright bribery, such as loans to journalists and politicians. At any rate, newspapers, living on ads paid for by conservative businessmen, were 2/3 - 3/4 in favor of the bank.
In the end, Jackson won 55 percent of the popular vote, and 219 electoral votes to Clay's 49 and Wirt's 7. John Floyd of Virginia got South Carolina's 11 votes.
On October 22 1832, the South Carolina legislature declared a convention on November 19, to decide whether the state would, according to Calhoun's formula, Nullify the new tarriff. The convention did declare the law null in South Carolina, by a vote of 136 to 26.
Actually, they said the law will become "null", and "no law" after February 1, allowing two months to work out a compromise. The South Carolina legislature also took Robert Y. Hayne out of the Senate and made him governor, replacing a more radical nullifier, while Calhoun resigned the Vice Presidency to replace Hayne in the Senate. This all suggests they were looking for a way out the tight spot they had put themselves in.
On December 11, 1832, Jackson published a proclamation giving strong constitutional arguments, written by the Secretary of State Livingston, "... I consider then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed".
It ended in a stong plea and threat which was mostly pure Jackson: "Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent [the execution of the laws] deceived you; they could not have been deceived themselves... Their object is disunion. But be not deceived by names. Disunion by armed force is treason. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If you are, on the heads of the instigators of the act be the dreadful consequences; on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the punishment. On your unhappy State will inevitably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon the Government of your country... I adjure you ... to retrace your steps."
Most of the nation responded to this with wild enthusiasm. Jackson claimed he could have 100,000 men on the side of the Union in a matter of weeks. Still, the South Carolina legislature authorized its Governor to call a draft, and appropriated $200,000 for arms. Jackson's actual military moves were on a fairly large scale, but careful, and calculated to avoid confrontation while negotiations went on.
Meanwhile a battle went on in Congress. Jackson was skillfully wielding threats and promises. On January 8, the administration submitted a bill, known as the Verplanck bill after one of Van Buren's allies, which cut the tarriff in half over two years. On the 16th Jackson also sent to Congress the "Force Bill" (often called the "Bloody Bill"), to get Congressional approval for deploying the military to put down armed rebellion. It was another ringing Jacksonian propaganda document, and made Jackson the "first and only statesman of the early national period to deny publicly the right of succession (Remini, Life... p246)".
The Verplanck Bill was rejected by Nullifiers and Clay's pro-tarriff men. Then came a move to save Calhoun's face and take credit away from Jackson. Clay stood up to propose a "Compromise bill", and was seconded by Calhoun. The bill was, in fact, much less of a tarriff reduction (at least until nearly 10 years out) than the administration bill. Clay got a friend in the house to deftly swap his bill for the Verplanck bill and it was quickly passed, taking the administration by surprise. The Senate then passed this bill with the nullifiers perversely lending their support.
Meanwhile the Force Bill had passed in the Senate 32-1, with nearly all the nullifiers having walked out to avoid casting any vote. And on March 1, the Senate passed the "Compromise Tarriff" and the House passed the Force Bill 149-48.
In South Carolina, with such face-saving as the revised tarriff gave them, the legislature rescinded the nullification proclamation against the tarriff. They also declared the Force Bill to be null - a petty act since Jackson no longer had any need for a Force Bill.
Soon after, at this zenith of his popularity, Jackson set out the ensure the demise of the Second Bank of the United States. The Bank's money still gave it enormous power, and Nicholas Biddle was more desparate than ever to preserve the bank, as later events would show.
Jackson had already kicked his pro-bank Secretary of the Treasury, McLane, upstairs to the more prestigious State Department (Livingston was willingly made ambassador to France). McLane's replacement was William J. Duane, at first thought to be amenable to Jackson's bank position. He also said he would resign should he be unable to carry out the President's policy.
In the summer of 1833, Amos Kendall went on a trip around the country looking for banks into which the Federal banking deposits could be deposited should they be withdrawn from the BUS. While some banks were afraid of the BUS's vengeance, or refused on principle to accept the deposits, the trip proved that there were plenty of banks which would agree to hold government funds despite the BUS's wrath. When Jackson told Duane to begin transferring Federal deposits to other banks, however, Duane refused, and would not resign. Jackson dismissed Duane, and he left, establishing another Jackson precedent - the firing, without pretense of resignation, of a cabinet member.
Roger B. Taney then replaced Duane, a man who enthusiastically supported the destruction of the BUS. As the withdrawal of funds went forward, the bank began a severe tightening of funds, restricting loans, and calling in as many debts as it could. The oppinion of Remini, Bowers and others is that this went far beyond anything justified by the reduction in the banks funds, and that the bank in fact deliberately engineered a panic. The panic was real, causing wide-spread loss of jobs, and grinding to a halt of industry.
At first, National Republicans accepted the panic as being caused by the withdrawal of bank funds. As it continued and deepened, the country became more polarized. It was in this period (in 1834) that the National Republicans assumed the name of Whigs, the name, since the 17th century of the English party against an all-powerful king, and for giving the highest authority to Parliament. Thus they labeled Jackson "King Andrew I", and drew political cartoons depicting him as a king, with a scepter labeled "Veto".
Before 1834 was over, however, many former friends of the bank became disgusted at its conduct, and even the governor of Pennsylvania economically aided as it was by the Bank in Philadelphia, denounced the bank. Webster separated himself from the other National Republicans on this issue, spoke out against it (as he had spoked out against Nullification), and became, for a while, a good friend of the Democratic administration.
In the end, the BUS was stripped of the funds which the government had placed in its keeping. It lost its friends, including Clay, and quietly lost its standing as a national bank. It was rechartered as a state bank in Pennsylvania, but only lasted a few years after that.
This helped complicate the greatest foreign crisis of the administration. The U.S. had for many years tried to get reparations from France for damage by the French to American shipping during the Napoleonic Wars. In July 1831, a treaty was finally signed stipulating payment of 25 million francs in siz anual installments.
When the first payment came due, it was found that payment required an appropriation by the French Chamber of Deputies (more or less their Congress or Parliament). And that appropriation had never been made. When this became apparent, early in 1833, Jackson sent Edward Livingston, who had just resigned as Secretary of State, to France to obtain "prompt and complete fulfilment" of the treaty.
Nothing much happenned until the President in his December 3, 1833 address to Congress, expressed his "deep regret" that the terms of the treaty remained unfulfilled. "Should I be disappointed in the hope ... the subject will be again brought to the notice of Congress in such manner as the occasion may require". Three months later, after two months of sitting in committee, the bill to fulfil the treaty was defeated by the Chamber of Deputies 176-168.
The French government declared they would seek a reversal in the next session of the Chamber. As there was to be a summer session, Jackson said he would wait for the result, and report the result to congress when it met in December. But the Chamber declared they would not take up the matter until their winter session; meaning Jackson would have to face Congress with the issue unrevolved.
In his December 1, 1834 message to Congress, Jackson stated "It is my conviction that the United States ought to insist on a prompt execution of the treaty, and in case it be refused or longer delayed take redress into their own hands. After the delay on the part of France of a quarter of a century in acknowledging these claims by treaty, it is not to be tolerated that another quarter of a century is to be wasted in negotiatin about the payment. The laws of nations provide a remedy for such occasions. It is a well-settled principle ... that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt which it refuses or neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to the other... This remedy has been repeatedly resorted to, and recently by France herself toward Portugal under circumstances less questionable".
The French ambassador to the U.S. was recalled, and his counterpart, Livingston, was offerred his passports, though not forced to leave.
In April 1835 the Chamber agreed to pay only if "the Government of France shall have received satisfactory explanations of the Message of the President of the United States ...". This was considered unacceptable, and Livingston withdrew.
Jackson's first response was "It would be disgraceful to explain or apologize to a foreign Government for anything said in a message (to Congress). It is the summit of arrogance in France, and insulting to us as an independent nation to ask it, and what no american will ever submit to".
The Whig-Southern coalition denounced the presidents words as rash, and worse, refused authorization of a moderate amount to be used for armaments should hostilities break out during the congressional recess. This action (by the Senate; the House having made the appropriation) was met with a fierce denunciation by Jackson's old enemy John Quincy Adams (Adams was now serving in the lower House, as he would do til his death in 1848 in the middle of a speech).
In the December 7, 1835 message to Congress, Jackson gave the French their face-saving device. After reviewing the events, and justifying U.S. actions, he said "The conception that it was my intention to menace or insult the Government of France ... unfounded". He also defended his message and denied that any nation had a right to question it. "The honor of my country shall never be stained by an apology from me for the statement of truth and the performance of duty".
Shortly thereafter, the French Chamber of Deputies authorized payment. This established America as entitled to the same respect as European powers. The Whigs, who had hoped to profit from painting Jackson as a reckless warmonger, were badly disappointed.
There were a few smaller diplomatic victories won by an unusual combination of firmness and tact, on the part of Jackson and his excellant Secretaries of State - Van Buren, Livingston, and McLane.
His presidential actions left the presidency much stronger than it had been, and he strengthened the idea of the United States as a nation, rather than a number of states with an agreement to act in concert, which agreement they might renounce some day.
His popularity, and the knowledge of how close he was to Van Buren, gave the latter an easy ride to the White House, though Van Buren, who did not capture the imagination of the masses, later became one of the few Democrats to lose office to a Whig.
He attracted the adoration of some and the hatred of others, as no other president had. He was cheered as a hero wherever he went. He was also the first president to be the target of an assasination attempt, albeit by a madman who thought he was heir to the British throne. The man fired two pistols at Jackson, both of which misfired. Jackson would have taken after the man with his cane had his friends not held him back.
He lived, despite chronic sickness and a bullet in his chest, to be seventy-eight years old, and died peacefully at home on June 8, 1845.