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2.  How was political participation changing in the Age of Jackson?  Why did political parties emerge to their modern form?  How were interpretations of constitutional government challenged during the Age of Jackson?  Jackson Champion of Democracy or Rascal in the White House?

3.  New Republic Magazine, Jan. 2014  “A piece of news that would delight John C. Calhoun: In the coming weeks the South Carolina Senate will consider legislation that is purported to nullify the implementation of Obamacare.”

5.  What was it?  Who liked it? Why? Who didn’t like it? Why?  Describe the view of the Constitution/United States held by those that supported the tariff?

6.  What was this?  What was his argument?  Who supported it?  What view of the Constitution/United States did it have?  Explain this John C. Calhoun quote: o “I never use the word ‘nation’ in speaking of the United States. I always use the word ‘union’ or ‘confederacy.’ We are not a nation, but a union, a confederacy of equal and sovereign states.” 1849 1820

7.  Did he support the tariff?  How did he react to South Carolina?  What was the Force Bill?  What was his view of the Constitution/United States related to this?  What one sentence from Andrew Jackson’s “Nullification Proclamation” best summarizes it?  Explain these “Jefferson Day” toasts: o Jackson: “To Our federal Union: It must be preserved.” o Calhoun: “To the Union, next to our liberty most dear.”

8.  What was this?  How was it a compromise?  Describe the view of the Constitution/United States implied here?

9.  As president of the U.S., Jackson faced one of the first major challenges to his authority (power as leader of the nation) with the Nullification Crisis.  In 1828, Congress passed a law that raised the tariffs, or taxes, on imported goods (items brought into the U.S. from other countries).  By passing these tariffs on foreign goods, manufacturers and factory owners in the United States would make more money—people would buy goods made in the U.S. because they were cheaper than foreign goods that had the tariff (extra tax on them).

10.  These tariffs helped factory owners in the U.S. to make more money—it was strongly supported by the North.  In the South, however, people called this the Tariff of Abominations (terrible horror). For Southerners, this meant that if they wanted to buy foreign goods, they would have to pay more money!  It also meant that this would hurt their trade with other countries, and many states in the South relied on trading their cotton to survive. Southerners were angry that this law only helped the North. They believed this was an abuse of national government power and it ignored their needs. VS.

11.  John C. Calhoun, the Vice President, agreed with southern states. He believed in states’ rights—that states should have more power than the national government—and he suggested that southern states declare this law “nullified” or invalid (this mean that Southerners would not obey this new law on tariffs).  To avoid more conflict, President Jackson agreed to lower the tariff. But Southerners in the state of South Carolina were still not happy—they wanted to get rid of the law.

12.  But Southerners in the state of South Carolina were still not happy—they wanted to get rid of the law.  Led by Calhoun, the people of South Carolina declared their state’s right to “nullify” any national law that hurt their state.  South Carolina even threatened to secede—break away from the United States—if the national government tried to enforce the new tariff law.

13.  President Jackson would not accept this threat—he asked Congress to pass the Force Bill which declared that he would use the federal (national) army to enforce the tariff.  He also lowered the tariff even further to make Southerners happy. With the threat of the U.S. army, and with the lower tariff, South Carolina backed down and the nullification crisis ended.