Chapter 7 Section 3 The Age of Jackson

Big Ideas MAIN IDEA Andrew Jackson’s policies spoke for the common people but violated Native American rights. WHY IT MATTERS NOW The effects of land losses and persecution faced by Native Americans in the 1800’s continue to be reflected in their legal struggles today.

Expanding Democracy Changes Politics ELECTION OF 1824 Andrew Jackson vs. John Quincy Adams. Andrew Jackson received the more popular votes than any other candidate. No candidate won the required amount of electoral votes: 131 House of Representatives would vote to determine a winner.

Tensions Between Adams & Jackson ELECTION OF 1824 Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay Personally disliked Jackson Felt that Jackson wasn’t qualified to be President Clay persuaded congressmen to vote for John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams would receive a majority of the votes in the House and won the Presidential Election of 1824.

Tensions Between Adams & Jackson: continued Jacksonians (followers of Jackson), accused Adams of stealing the presidency. John Q. Adams: appointed Henry Clay as his Secretary of Andrew Jackson and his followers LEFT the Republican Party and formed the Democratic-Republican Party: the present day Democrats. During the next four years Jackson did whatever he could to sabotage Adam’s policies.

Democracy & Citizenship From 1824-1828 voting requirements were eased in most states. Many more individuals (poor white males) were now eligible to vote. In 1824, approximately 350,000 white males voted while in 1828 over 1 million voted in the presidential election.

Jackson’s New Presidential Style Expansion of voting rights meant that political leaders had to be able to sympathize with the common citizen. Jackson’s grass roots upbringing and belief in the common man enabled him to win the election of 1828 with ease.

Jackson’s Appeal to the Common Citizen Jackson labeled John Quincy Adams an intellectual elitist and out of touch with the typical American. Jackson would win the election of 1828 by a landslide..

Jackson’s Spoils System Upon taking office, Jackson fired 10% of all federal government employees who were appointed during other president’s terms. Jackson gave jobs to his friends and political allies to reward them. Jackson’s friends became his primary advisors. This practice became known as the spoils system.

The Removal of Native Americans Many Native American tribes in the south-east adopted typical white-American culture. (government, court system, a written constitution modeled after the US, newspaper, etc.) 5 Civilized Tribes: (Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Creek, and Chickasaw) occupied large areas of valuable land in Georgia, North & South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. White miners, businessmen, and planters wanted land that Native Americans were living on.

Civilized Tribes

Forced Removal of Native Americans

Indian Removal Act of 1830 Jackson: only solution to the Native American issue was to force them to move to lands in the west. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act: federal government provided funds to negotiate treaties that would force the 5 tribes to move west. President Jackson believed the removal policy was ‘generous’ because it would enable Native Americans to maintain their way of life. 90 treaties were signed with many Native American tribes in return for their homeland.

Trail of Tears Jackson pressed the Choctaw to sign a treaty that required them to move from their homeland in Mississippi. In 1831, he ordered US troops to forcibly remove the Sauk & Fox from their lands in Alabama & Mississippi. Cherokee Nation tried used the US legal system to attain ‘equal rights’ Chief Justice Marshall initially felt that the Cherokee Nation had no federal standing: “it was neither a foreign nation, nor a state, but rather a ‘domestic dependent nation’.”

Trail of Tears: continued Cherokee: teamed up with Samuel Austin Worcester to fight the Indian Removal Act in the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in favor of the Cherokee. Marshall ruled that the United States had no right to forcibly take the land of the Cherokee nation. President Jackson refused to obey the Supreme Court’s decision.

Trail of Tears: continued Federal agents signed a treaty with a small group of Cherokee leaders who were willing to leave their land. (Those Cherokee leaders would be assassinated by other Cherokee) October 1838, US Army troops began forcing the Cherokee to travel from Georgia to the new Indian territory in Oklahoma. The 800 mile trip was mostly on foot. During the trip, government officials stole money, livestock, etc. Over 25 % of the entire Cherokee tribe died on route to Oklahoma. The event would be known as the ‘Trail of Tears’.