The end of the Jacksonian era: Chapter 13/ section 4/ pages 345-348

The election of 1836 While still in the white house Jackson was so popular that it was believed that he could remain president for a lifetime However, he had used is presidential powers to help ensure that Martin Van Buren would become Americas next president

Whigs A political party that included most of the National Republicans put forth 3 candidates Van Buren won a sweeping victory by promising to walk in Jacksons footsteps Within months, Van Buren ran into many problems

Problems for Van Buren When Jackson allowed the charter of the Bank of the United States run out it went out of business This allowed many smaller banks to begin taking the business They began printing money, more money then they could back up with specie (hard cash in the form of gold or silver)

Easy credit Easy credit helped increase the price of many things, including land As long as prices continued to rise speculators could make a profit Many Americans became speculators, they would buy land on credit

An economic crisis They attempted to control purchase of government land with a doctrine called the Specie Circular which stated all government lands must be bought with hard money Many people could now not afford the land and sales fell, which lowered prices, which caused many people to go broke and loose their land and investment

Problems for banks and businesses When people lost their savings, they began to fear that paper bank notes would loose their value, so they rushed to the bank to cash them in for specie Because people had less money, they bought less stuff, this caused factories to cut back on production and lay off workers

Panic of 1837 Within 3 months of Van Burans time in office the crisis had reached its peak Many banks began to go out of business Although he did not cause the crisis, he did little to prevent it, believing in laize-fair government However, he did persuade congress to establish a treasury

Election of 1840 Before the panic of 1837 most people saw the Whigs as the party of the rich The Whigs wanted to change this image and began looking for a candidate that would represent the “common man” They chose William Henry Harrison who was the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe

Log Cabin Campaigns Harrison was from a rich Virginia family, however, no one had anyway of knowing about his past The Whigs began bombarding voters with the idea of Harrison being a humble Ohio Farmer The Whigs used the image of a log cabin as their symbol for the 1840 election John Tyler was selected as Harrison’s running mate They also used the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”

Death of president Harrison William Henry Harrison caught a cold while giving his inaugural speech, 30 days later he died Tyler became the first vice president to take the presidency after the death of a president He changed the course of history by following a policy of westward expansion known as Manifest Destiny