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JACKSON, ANDREW (1767-1845)
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See also:JACKSON, See also:ANDREW (1767-1845) , seventh See also:president of the See also:United States, was See also:born on the 15th of See also: In See also:India these animals are hunted with foxhounds or greyhounds, and from their cunning and See also:pluck
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legislative See also:act, however, had only authorized the courts to determine whether or not there were sufficient grounds for a divorce and to See also: In 1813 he exchanged shots with See also: H. See also:Crawford and See also: A new See also:generation was growing up under new economic and social conditions. They See also:felt great confidence in themselves and great independence. They despised tradition and Old See also:World ways and notions; and they accepted the Jeffersonian dogmas, not only as See also:maxims, but as social forces—the causes of the material prosperity of the See also:country. By this generation, there-fore, Jackson was recognized as a man after their own See also:heart. They liked him because he was vigorous, brusque, uncouth, relentless, straightforward and open. They made him president in 1828, and he fulfilled all their expectations. He had 178 votes in the electoral college against 83 given for Adams. Though the See also:work of redistribution of offices began almost at his inauguration, it is yet an incorrect See also:account of the matter to say that Jackson corrupted the civil service. His administration is rather the date at which a See also:system of See also:democracy, organized by the use of patronage, was introduced into the federal See also:arena by Van Buren. It was at this time that the Democratic or Republican party divided, largely along personal lines, into Jacksonian Democrats and See also:National Republicans, the latter led by such men as Henry Clay and J. Q. Adams. The administration itself had two factions in it from the first, the See also:faction of Van Buren, the secretary of state in 1829–1831, and that of See also:Calhoun, See also:vice-president in 1829–1832. The refusal of the wives of the cabinet and of Mrs Calhoun to See also:accord social recognition to Mrs J. H. See also:Eaton brought about a rupture, and in See also:April 1831 the whole cabinet was re-organized. Van Buren, a widower, sided with the president in this affair and See also:grew in his favour. Jackson in the meantime had learned that Calhoun as secretary of war had wished to censure him for his actions during the See also:Seminole war in Florida in 1818, and henceforth he regarded the South Carolina statesman as his enemy. The result was that Jackson transferred to Van Buren his support for succession in the presidency. The relations between Jackson and his cabinet were unlike those existing under his predecessors. Having a military point of view, he was inclined to look upon the cabinet members as inferior See also:officers, and when in need of See also:advice he usually consulted a See also:group of personal See also:friends, who came to be called the " See also:Kitchen Cabinet." The See also:principal members of this clique were See also: It is probable that Jackson's advisers in 1828 had told him, though erroneously, that the bank had worked against him, and then were not able to See also:control him. The first See also:message of his first presidency had contained a severe reflection on the bank; and in the very height of this second campaign (July 1832) he vetoed the re-charter, which had been passed in ' The See also:charge was freely made then and afterwards (though, it is now believed, without See also:justification) that Clay had supported Adams and by influencing his followers in the house had been instrumental in securing his election, as the result of a bargain by which Adams had agreed to pay him for his support by appointing him secretary of state. the session of 1831-1832. Jackson interpreted his re-election as an approval by the See also:people of his war on the bank, and he pushed it with energy. In See also:September 1833 he ordered the public deposits in the bank to be transferred to selected See also:local See also:banks, and entered upon the " experiment " whether these could not act as fiscal agents for the See also:government, and whether the See also:desire to get the deposits would not induce the local banks to adopt See also:sound rules of currency. During the next session the Senate passed a See also:resolution condemning his conduct. Jackson protested, and after a hard struggle, in which Jackson's friends were led by Senator Thomas Hart Benton, the resolution was ordered to be expunged from the record, on the 16th of January 1837. In 1832, when the state of South Carolina attempted to " nullify " the See also:tariff See also:laws, Jackson at once took steps to enforce the authority of the federal government, ordering two war vessels to See also:Charleston and placing troops within convenient distance. He also issued a See also:proclamation warning the people of South Carolina against the consequences of their conduct. In the troubles between Georgia and the See also:Cherokee Indians, however, he took a different stand. Shortly after his first election Georgia passed an act extending over the Cherokee country the civil laws of the state. This was contrary to the rights of the Cherokees under a federal treaty, and the Supreme Court consequently declared the act void (1832). Jackson, however, having the frontiersman's contempt for the See also:Indian, refused to enforce the decision of the court (see See also:NULLIFICATION; GEORGIA: See also:History). Jackson was very successful in See also:collecting old claims against various See also:European nations for spoliations inflicted under See also:Napoleon's See also:continental system, especially the See also:French spoliation claims, with reference to which he acted with aggressiveness and firmness. Aiming at a currency to consist largely of specie, he caused the See also:payment of these claims to be received and imported in specie as far as possible; and in 1836 he ordered See also:land-agents to receive for land nothing but specie. About the same time a law passed Congress for distributing among the states some $35,000,000 See also:balance belonging to the United States, the public See also:debt having all been paid. The eighty banks of See also:deposit in which it was lying had regarded this sum almost as a permanent See also:loan, and had inflated See also:credit on the basis of it. The necessary calling in of their loans in order to meet the drafts in favour of the states, combining with the See also:breach of the overstrained credit between See also:America and See also:Europe and the decline in the See also:price of See also:cotton, brought about a See also:crash which prostrated the whole See also:financial, See also:industrial and commercial system of the country for six or seven years. The crash came just as Jackson was leaving office; the whole See also:burden See also:fell on his successor, Van Buren. In the 18th See also:century the influences at work in the See also:American colonies See also:developed democratic notions. In fact, the circumstances were those which create equality of See also:wealth and See also:condition, as far as civilized men ever can be equal. The War of Independence was attended by a See also:grand outburst of See also:political dogmatism of the democratic type. A class of men were produced who believed in very broad dogmas of popular See also:power and rights. There were a few See also:rich men, but they were almost ashamed to differ from their neighbours and, in some known cases, they affected democracy in order to win popularity. After the 19th century began the class of rich men rapidly increased. In the first years of the century a little clique at See also:Philadelphia became alarmed at the increase of the " See also:money power," and at the growing perils to democracy. They attacked with some violence, but little skill, the first Bank of the United States, and they prevented its re-charter. The most permanent interest of the history of the United States is the picture it offers of a See also:primitive democratic society transformed by prosperity and the acquisition of See also:capital into a great republican See also:commonwealth. The denunciations of the " money power " and the reiteration of democratic dogmas deserve See also:earnest See also:attention. They show the development of classes or parties in the old undifferentiated See also:mass. Jackson came upon the political See also:stage just when a wealthy class first existed. It was an industrial and commercial class greatly interested in the tariff, and deeply interested also in the then current forms of issue banking. The See also:southern planters alsowere rich, but were agriculturists and remained philosophical Democrats. Jackson was a man of See also:low See also:birth, uneducated, prejudiced, and marked by strong personal feeling in all his beliefs and disbeliefs. He showed, in his military work and in his See also:early political doings, great lack of discipline. The proposal to make him president won his assent and awakened his ambition. In anything which he undertook he always wanted to carry his point almost regardless of incidental effects on himself or others. He soon became completely engaged in the effort to be made president. The men nearest to him understood his See also:character and played on it. It was suggested to him that the money power was against him. That meant that, to the educated or cultivated class of that See also:day, he did not seem to be in the class from which a president should be chosen. He took the See also:idea that the Bank of the United States was leading the money power against him, and that he was the See also:champion of the masses of democracy and of the See also:common people. The opposite party, led by Clay, Adams, See also:Biddle, &c., had schemes for banks and tariffs, enterprises which were open to severe See also:criticism. The political struggle was very intense and there were two See also:good sides to it. Men like Thomas H. Benton, See also:Edward See also:Livingston, Amos Kendall, and the southern statesmen, found material for strong attacks on the Whigs. The great mass of voters felt the issue as Jackson's managers stated it. That meant that the masses recognized Jackson as their champion. Therefore, Jackson's See also:personality and name became a power on the See also:side opposed to banks, corporations and other forms of the new growing power of capital. That Jackson was a typical man of his generation is certain. He represents the spirit and See also:temper of the See also:free American of that day, and it was a part of his way of thinking and acting that he put his whole See also:life and interest into the conflict. He accomplished two things of great importance in the history: he crushed excessive state-rights and established the contrary See also:doctrine in fact and in the political orthodoxy of the democrats; he destroyed the great bank. The subsequent history of the bank See also:left it without an apologist, and prejudiced the whole later See also:judgment about it. The way is1 which Jackson accomplished these things was such that it cost the country ten years of the severest See also:liquidation, and left conflicting traditions of public policy in the Democratic party. After he left Washing-ton, Jackson fell into discord with his most intimate old friends, and turned his interest to the cause of See also:slavery, which he thought to be attacked and in danger. Jackson is the only president of whom it may be said that he went out of office far more popular than he was when he entered. When he went into office he had no political opinions, only some popular notions. He left his party strong, perfectly organized and enthusiastic on a See also:platform of low See also:expenditure, payment of the debt, no expenditure for public improvement or for See also:glory or display in any See also:form and low taxes. His name still remained a spell to conjure with, and the politicians sought to obtain the assistance of his approval far their schemes; but in general his last years were quiet and uneventful. He died at his See also:residence, " The Hermitage," near Nashville. Tennessee, on the 8th of See also:June 1845. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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