Crises During The Presidency Of Andrew Jackson
Essay, Research Paper
Crisiss during the presidential term of Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was a really influential adult male during the 1800 & # 8217 ; s. Events that took topographic point during his two-term term of office as President called upon his expertness on the Constitution. These events had a major impact on the state at that clip. He had to confront obstructions that presidents before him had non faced, but there was besides one that was an old issue that was being reopened. This was the contention over the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States. The other major obstructions were the nullification contention and the intervention of the Cherokee Nation.
The nullification contention started before Jackson came into office. In the twelvemonth before Jackson had taken office, Congress had passed a duty for the declared intent of protecting northern makers and business communities. Southerners thought that the industrialisation of the North would take to the ruin of the southern agricultural economic system. They named the duty the & # 8220 ; Tariff of Abominations & # 8221 ; ( Coit 11 ) . Vice-President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina led the motion of people who thought that & # 8220 ; a combined geographical involvement should non be able to ignore the general public assistance and turn an of import local involvement to its ain net income & # 8221 ; ( Coit 12 ) . Calhoun was non for the sezession of South Carolina so he tried to believe of a replacement. He borrowed an thought evolved by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and 1799. The thought was nullification. Nullification, as Calhoun viewed it,
the right of a & # 8220 ; individual province to veto, within its ain boundary lines, a federal jurisprudence that it deemed unconstitutional-subject to the ulterior blessing of at least one 4th of the provinces. If such blessing was non extroverted, the province should, if it wished, be allowed to splinter from the Union & # 8221 ; ( Coit 12 ) . The South knew that nowhere in the Constitution was Congress given the express right to enforce a duty whose intent was merely to protect industry. Up to that point, President Jackson & # 8217 ; s position was unknown. But that all changed at a Jefferson Birthday dinner. Most of the toasts had been printed up beforehand and were nullificationist. So Jackson rose, looked at Calhoun and stated, & # 8220 ; Our Union. It must be preserved & # 8221 ; ( Coit 16 ) . Calhoun knew he had to believe of a rejoinder so he stood and said, & # 8220 ; The Union-next to our autonomy most beloved & # 8221 ; ( Coit 16 ) . From this the public inferred that Jackson & # 8217 ; s position was that he was against nullification. A twelvemonth subsequently Jackson asked Congress to take down the duties, to do the South happy. Congress did so, but it was non plenty for South Carolina. A month subsequently a particular convention met at the province capital and nullified the United States duty Acts of the Apostless of 1828 and 1832. Jackson ran for reelection that twelvemonth without Calhoun and won. He declared, & # 8220 ; The Constitution. . . forms a authorities, non a conference & # 8221 ; ( Coit 17 ) . He besides stated that to invalidate a jurisprudence was & # 8220 ; incompatible with the being of the Union, & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; to state that any State may at pleasance secede. . . is to state that the United States is non a state & # 8221 ; ( Coit 17 ) . He meant that nullification or sezession would be an act of war. He besides stated in his celebrated announcement to the South Carolinians, & # 8220 ; The regulation is founded. . . on the unusual place that anyone State may non merely declare an act of Congress nothingness, but prohibit its executing ; that they may make this systematically with the Constitution ; that the true building of that instrument permits a State to retain its topographic point in the Union and yet be bound by no other of its Torahs than those it may take to see constitutional & # 8221 ; ( Commager 188 ) . This clearly shows
that Jackson thought that nullification was illegal harmonizing to the Constitution, and any effort to ordain it was a rebellious act of lese majesty. The Constitution wasn & # 8217 ; t specific on either side of the issue, but Jackson manipulated the significance of it good to sound like he was right and nullification was illegal. After hearing Jackson, most of America was on his side.
Jackson & # 8217 ; s rough intervention of Indians needed backup from the Constitution, or else he would look like a autocrat. Jackson thought advancement was inevitable and the Indian land was needed to convey civilisation to those countries. Twelve million Whites were more of import than & # 8220 ; a few thousand barbarians & # 8221 ; ( Pessen 318 ) . The chief Indians being persecuted were the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, and the Chickasaws. They lived in the South. Defenders of these folks said that the policy of white husbandmans holding the right to take the land of the barbarian was O.K. every bit long as they were barbarian, but these folks were non savage. They were skilled in the art of white civilisation. Many had intermarried with white married womans, lived in white adult male & # 8217 ; s houses, and had adopted the white adult male & # 8217 ; s frock. The Cherokee Nation had built roads, schools, and churches, they had even invented their ain written linguistic communication. Some even owned slaves. They thought that they were protected by rights given to them by pacts with the United States.
The province of Georgia refused to acknowledge any particular quality about the Cherokees except that they were red work forces and the fact that they owned land which the white work forces wanted. In 1829 the Georgia legislative assembly passed a jurisprudence widening its authorization over the Indian district within the boundary lines of the province. Then, a Cherokee named Corn Tassel, killed another Cherokee in the district. He was taken before a Georgia tribunal, found guilty, and so sentenced to be hanged. The Cherokee Nation appealed to United States Supreme Court on the evidences that Georgia lacked legal power. The instance was named Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court at that clip was John Marshall. The attorney for the Cherokee Nation was William Wirt, who had antecedently been passed over for the occupation of U.S. Attorney General by Jackson because he distrusted Wirt on Indian remotion. When Jackson found out that Wirt was their attorney, he denounced him as & # 8220 ; wicked & # 8221 ; ( Coit 44 ) . The tribunal responded to the instance by continuing the rights of the Indians against the province, and that they were dependent upon the federal authorities. Still Georgia disregarded the Supreme Court, and went in front and executed Corn Tassel. There was another instance, Worcester v. Georgia, arising in Georgia in 1829. It grew out of Georgia jurisprudence prohibiting Whites to shack among Indians without licences. Several missionaries, one of whom was named Worcester, appealed to the Supreme Court after their apprehension for go againsting the jurisprudence. Chief Justice John Marshall once more decided against Georgia by saying that the Cherokees constituted a definite political community over which the Torahs of Georgia had no legal force. But once more Georgia denied the authorization of the Court and its sentence. Jackson refused to implement the determination. He did so because he knew that the people in the South and the West would non digest its enforcement. His reaction to these
determinations showed that he was for states’ rights every bit much as he was for patriotism. Jackson’s refusal to implement these determinations in favour of the provinces was seen by states’ rights people as a mark of acceptance of nullification. It gave them the thought that he was in favour of provinces invalidating Torahs merely if he besides shared in their disfavor for the unbearable Torahs. Now he was utilizing the Fundamental law to turn out his point in an about opposite mode than the manner he used it in the nullification crisis. He used the fact that the Constitution wasn’t particular on that issue to pull strings it the manner he desired. Equally long as he made the people happy, he didn’t create much resistance. It was the same manner with the following issue, the constitutionality of the Second Bank of the United States.
President Jackson made it his mission to destruct the Second Bank of the United States. The Second Bank of the United States was chartered by Congress in 1816. The charter was supposed to run for 20 old ages. The capital stock of it was assigned at 35 million dollars, fifth part was from the federal authorities, and the remainder was from the populace. It was a cardinal bank designed to modulate the recognition and currency operations of the state. It was supposed to supply stableness to the economic system, tighten recognition, and prevent an surplus of paper money. The Bank was declared constitutional in the Supreme Court instance of M & # 8217 ; Culloch v. Maryland. In this instance Maryland tried to revenue enhancement the Bank out of being. Its Baltimore teller, James M & # 8217 ; Culloch refused to pay. So the province sued and the instance went to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Marshall said, in a consentaneous determination, that the Bank was constitutional and that it was unconstitutional for the province to revenue enhancement the Bank. He said that since it was an agent of the national authorities, the province could non restrict the state & # 8217 ; s activity by the usage of the taxing power. He said this because, in his words, & # 8220 ; the power to revenue enhancement involves the power to destruct & # 8221 ; ( Coit 148 ) . By stating this he meant that a province could non impede what the national authorities was seeking bash. This strengthened the power of the cardinal authorities. And besides took off some of the rights of the provinces. Presumably, Jackson should hold been happy with this, given his stance on nullification, but he was non. He thought that the bank operated for the benefit of the rich few instead than the many hapless people. The bank was against soft money, which was what westerners yearned for. They needed the inexpensive flow of paper money and easy recognition to maintain their farming economic system up and running. He thought that it was a monopoly. He thought that it was independent of the people and had the agencies to invalidate economic development. He besides thought that it often interfered in political relations. The Bank made the right loans to the right congresswomans at
the right times, one of whom was Daniel Webster. Nicholas Biddle was the caput of the Bank of
the United States. He was improbably good at pull offing fundss and the kind, but he was inept at political relations. He is ill-famed for stating that he could destruct province Bankss and make a depression. This angered many people and found him many enemies. He still thought he had adequate power to acquire the Bank rechartered. The Bank was up for a recharter in 1836, but its protagonists decided to seek it four old ages early, which coincidently was an election twelvemonth. The Bank & # 8217 ; s protagonists were trusting that Jackson would either allow the Bank measure base on balls, or veto it. If he vetoed it, they would hold an issue to contend him on in the approaching election.
The Bank & # 8217 ; s power was so strong in the Senate, where it had been introduced, that practically every Senator had received a loan except for Thomas Hart Benton, whom everyone knew couldn & # 8217 ; t be bought. Biddle still thought that the Bank measure would be passed, but Benton came up with a surprise declaration bear downing the Bank with seven misdemeanors of its charter and 15 maltreatments of its privileges. It besides called for an probe within six hebdomads. But the Bank & # 8217 ; s keep on the Senate was excessively great. The Senate passed the measure before the fact-finding commission came back with its consequences. The House passed the measure a couple months subsequently. It was delivered to President Jackson on the Fourth of July. On July 10, he vetoed the measure and wrote a message along with it. He wanted the message to acquire his point across about the bank being a monopoly and that it favored the rich, but he besides wanted it to function as an effectual run papers that would stir work forces & # 8217 ; s Black Marias every bit good as their heads. Then he did something unheard of ; he went against the Supreme Court & # 8217 ; s determination in M & # 8217 ; Culloch v. Maryland, saying, & # 8220 ; To this decision I can non accede & # 8221 ; ( Remini 151 ) , and he besides said that the Congress and the President every bit good as the Court & # 8220 ; must each for itself be guided by its ain sentiment of the Constitution. It is every bit much the responsibility of
the House of Representatives, of the Senate and of the President to make up one’s mind upon the constitutionality of any measure or declaration which may be presented to them for transition or blessing as it of the supreme Judgess when it may be brought before them for judicial determination & # 8221 ; ( Remini 151 ) . In kernel, he was stating that every subdivision of the authorities had to see the constitutionality of everything brought to them in their ain single manner. Since he didn & # 8217 ; t agree with the Supreme Court, he claimed the right to believe and move as an independent member of the authorities. Again, since the Constitution didn & # 8217 ; t advert the apparatus of a national bank, Jackson exploited this and said that it was his occupation to make up one’s mind if it was constitutional or non. He got off with it because it was what most of the state wanted.
President Jackson believed he should utilize his constitutional powers to the fullest bound. Everything he did he thought was in the white people & # 8217 ; s best involvements. When he vetoed more measures than any other president before him, he did it for the populace. When he needed support in political relations, and he couldn & # 8217 ; t acquire much from his co-workers, he would turn to the Constitution and he would pull strings it so the jurisprudence was apparently on his side. Of class it besides helped to be infallible in the public & # 8217 ; s eyes. His policy of oppressing the Indians was atrocious, his devastation of the Bank of the United States finally hurt the citizens, his turning away of sezession was the lone thing that was good for the state. But the people believed him and the Constitution, so to these he could make no wrong.
Coit, Margaret. Volume 4: 1829-1849 The sweep due west: The LIFE history of the United States. Ed. Editors of TIME-LIFE BOOKS. New York: TIME-LIFE BOOKS, 1963
Commager, Henry Steele, erectile dysfunction. Documents of American history. New York: Appleton-Century- Crofts, 1949
Pessen, Edward. Jacksonian America: society, personality, and political relations. Homewood: The Dorsey Press, 1969
Remini, Robert. Andrew Jackson. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. , 1966
