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ANDREW JACKSON (1767-1845)
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See also:ANDREW See also:JACKSON (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:
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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
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The refusal of the wives of the cabinet and of Mrs Calhoun to See also:accord social recognition to Mrs J
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See also:Eaton brought about a rupture, and in See also:April 1831 the whole cabinet was re-organized
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Van Buren, a widower, sided with the president in this affair and See also:grew in his favour
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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
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The result was that Jackson transferred to Van Buren his support for succession in the presidency
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The relations between Jackson and his cabinet were unlike those existing under his predecessors
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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 . |
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