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Age of Jackson: Crash Course US History #14

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about the presidency of Andrew Jackson. So how did a president with astoundingly bad fiscal policies end up on the $20 bill? That's a question we can't answer, but we can tell you how Jackson got to be president, and how he changed the country when he got the job.

Full Transcript

Age of Jackson Crash Course US History 14

speaker01 00:01:00

Green crash and's? Ha?

speaker01 00:14:00

No, Stan, come on, seriously? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes, that Jackson, Andrew Jackson.

speaker01 00:34:00

Sorry, just had to check my caller. So you'll recall that the initial democracy of the United States wasn't terribly Democratic. Almost all voters were white male landowners. Mr Green Mr Green, that's just radically unfair. Exactly me from the past, between 18 and 2018, 50, this started to change. State legislatures lowered or else eliminated the property qualifications for voting, which allowed many more people to vote so long as they were, you know, both white and male. Mr Green, green I'd be in. Yeah, that seems reasonable. Yeah, from the past quick privilege check.

speaker01 01:03:00

One of the reasons we study history is that you can learn that people like you are not actually at the center of history, even though you know you've been taught that. But anyway, the whole idea of owning land is a prerequisite for voting.

speaker01 01:13:00

Is sort of Jefferson, an individual who works his own land and be truly independent because he doesn't need to rely upon markets to acquire stuff or God forbid wages to give him money with which to buy stuff? No, he makes his own stuff and he doesn't need anybody except for slaves and also women to make shoes and clothes and to cook food and also make children. But in light of the market revolution, the idea of excluding wage workers seemed very outdated. Excluding women and non-sworn people, though, still quite popular. But this defining characteristic of the age of Jackson really had very little to do with Andrew Jackson himself, because by the time he became president in 1829, every state except for North Carolina, Virginia, and Rhode Island had already gotten rid of their property requirements. In fact, that's probably why he got elected, right?

speaker01 01:56:00

So you recall that America's mostly fake victory in the war of 1000 and 812 and the subsequent collapse of the Federalist Party ushered in the era of good feelings, which was another way of saying that there was basic agreement on most domestic policies.

speaker01 02:07:00

The American system was a program of economic nationalism built on one federally financed internal improvements like Ro and canals, what we would now call infrastructure to tariffs to protect new factories and industries, and 3, a national bank that would replace the first Bank of the United States, whose charter expired in 1000 and 811.

speaker01 02:25:00

You'll never guess what we called this second bank unless you guess that we called it the second Bank of the United States, the main supporters of the American system, where our old friend, John CE Calhoun and our new friend Henry Clay both were Jeffersonian Republicans, which isn't surprising because that was the only political party. But it's kind of surprising because the American system had nothing to do with the agrarian republic that Jefferson had championed. But whatever, this was the era of good feeling, so we're going to go with it by the way this nationalism also extended to foreign affairs after Latin America won its independence from Spain. President Monroe made a speech proposing that Europe shouldn't try to retake colonies in the Western Hemisphere, and if they did, we would like do stuff this. So thecall Monroe Doctrine also said that the us would stay out of European wars, that is hilarious, but we did live up to the other end of it. You'll remember that when the British came for the Falkland Islands, we were like, this shall not stand, just kidding. We were like, oh, the last era of good feelings President was John Quinine Adams, who was quite the diplomat and expansionist. He actually wrote the Monroe Doctrine, for instance, but in fact, it turns out that all feelings were not good.

speaker01 03:27:00

There was significant disagreement over three main issues, People that federal government shouldn't invest in infrastructure, like James Madison, who'd initially supported those bills, ended up vetoed one of them. That included a big spending increase to finance roads and canals. Now, the roads and canals did get built, but in the end, most of the financing fell to the states were also big problems with the Second Bank of the United States, which, you know, is why you cannot visit a branch of it these days. But we'll get to that in a minute.

speaker01 03:50:00

And lastly, there was the perennial issue of slavery. In this case, the problems started, as so many problems do in Missouri, so in 1000 and 819 Missouri had enough people in it to become state. But despite the fact that there were already more than 10000 slaves there, a New York congressman named James Talmadge made a motion to prohibit the introduction of further slaves into the proposed state. It took almost two years to work out the John C Calhoun storm that blew up after this. Actually, it took more than that. It took until the end of the Civil War, basically. But in the short run, Missouri was allowed to enter the union as a slave state, while Maine was carved out of Massachusetts to keep the balance of things. But the Missouri Compromise also said that no state admitted above the 3630 line of latitude would be allowed to have slaves, except, of course, for Missouri itself, which, as you can see, is well above the line.

speaker01 04:33:00

Anyway, this solution to westward expansion worked out, provided that you enjoy civil war.

speaker01 04:38:00

So Thomas Jefferson, who, by the way, was still alive, which gives you some context for how young the nation truly was, wrote that the Missouri Compromise was, quote, like a fire bell in the night that awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once the death knell of the Union, eventually almost. But in the short term, it did mean the rise of political parties. So America was becoming more if there was only one political party that Democratic spirit had nowhere to go.

speaker01 05:04:00

Fortunately, there was a tiny little magician named Martin Van Buren. They really did go on.

speaker01 05:08:00

The little magician, by the way, also the red fox of Kinder Hook. But we remember him as the worst hairy, the president. So despite having been president of the United States Van Buren is arguably more important for having invented the Democratic Party. He was first to realize that national political parties could be a good thing. So I mentioned that Martin Van Buren was known as the Little Magician. And I know this sounds a little bit silly. I think it's telling.

speaker01 05:28:00

You see Van Buren was only the second American president with a well-used nickname, and the first was his immediate predecessor, Andrew Jackson, or Old Hickory. Why does this matter? Well, when you're actually having to campaign for office, as all presidential candidates did after the of 18008, 28, and you're trying to appeal to the newly enfranchised common man, what better way to seem like a regular guy than to have a nickname? I mean, if you think this is crazy, just think of the nicknames of some of our most popular presidents, honest Abe, the bull moose, the Gipper, even our lesser known president said nicknames, young, handsome, frank, old, rough and ready.

speaker01 06:02:00

Big Steve, James Buchanan, and I am not making this up, Was old public functionary you going to vote for? Oh, I think the old public functionary, he seems competent as it happens, he wasn't by now.

speaker01 06:14:00

You're probably wondering where does Andrew Jackson fit into all of this? When we last caught up with Jackson, he was winning the Battle of New Orleans shortly after the end of the War of 1812, he continued his bellicose ways fighting Indians in Florida, although he was not actually authorized to do so, and became so popular, popular from all of his Indian killing, that he decided to run for president in 1824. Election of 1824 was very close, and it went to the house where John Quinine Adams was eventually declared the winner, and Jackson denounced this as a corrupt bargain, so in 1828 ran a much more negative campaign one of his campaign slogans was vote for Andrew Jackson who can fight, not John Quinine Adams who can write. Adams supporters responded by arguing that having a literate president wasn't such a bad thing, and also by accusing Jackson of being a murderer, which, given his frequent habit of dueling, massacring he sort of was so as you can see the quality of discourse in American political reigns, has come a long way anyway, Jackson won, Jackson ran is the champion of the common man, and in a way he was, I mean, he had little formal schooling and in some ways he was the AR alls, self-made man Jackson's policies defined the new Democratic Party, which had formerly been known as the Jeffersonian Democratic Republicans.

speaker01 07:21:00

So who were these new Democrats will generally they tended to be lower to middle class men, usually farmers, who were suspicious of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. That was one of the results of the market revolution. And they were particularly worried about bankers, merchants and speculators who seemed to be getting rich without actually producing anything. Stop me if any of this sounds familiar. This vision probably would have carried the day, except a new party arose in response to Jackson's election.

speaker01 07:46:00

The Whigs? No, Stan, the Whigs, yes, the American Whigs took their name from the English Whigs, who were opposed to absolute monarchy. The American Whigs thought that Andrew Jack was grabbing so much power for the executive branch that he was turning himself into King, so the Whigs were big supporters of the American system and its active federal government, you know, tariffs, infrastructure, etc. The greatest support was in the Northeast, especially from businessmen and bankers who benefited from those tariffs and the stability provided by a national bank. And they also thought the government should promote moral character because that was necessary for a person to act as a truly independent citizen. So Jackson's policies must have been pretty egregious for them to spawn an entirely new political party. What did he actually do as president?

speaker01 08:28:00

Let's go to the Thought Bubble, let's start with nullification.

speaker01 08:30:00

So in 18828 Congress passed the tariff of 1000 and 828 because they were not yet in the habit of marketing their bills via naming them with funny acronyms. Jackson supported this in spite of the fact that it benefited manufacturers. The tariff raised prices on imported manufactured goods made of wool and iron, which enraged South Carolina because they'd put all their money into slavery and none into industry, unlike Northerners who could avoid the higher prices by manufacturing sweaters and pants and such at home. South Carolinians would have to pay more, they were so angry.

speaker01 09:00:00

Korea, this tariff of abominations, that the South Carolina legislature threatened to nullify it. Jackson didn't take kindly to this affront to federal power, but South Carolina persisted, and when Congress passed a new tariff in 1000 and 830 two-two 1 that actually lower the duties, the Palmetto State's government nullified it. Jackson responded by getting Congress to pass the Force Act, which authorized him to use the Army and Navy to collect taxes. A full blown crisis was averted when Congress passed a new tariff in 1833 and South Carolina relented. This smelled a bit of dictated ship, armed tax collectors and all, and helped to cement Jackson's.

speaker01 09:35:00

Reputation as a tyrant, at least among the Whigs. And then we have the Native Americans.

speaker01 09:38:00

Much of Jackson's reputation there was based on killing them. So it's no surprise that he supported Southern states efforts to appropriate Indian lands and make the Indians move. This support was formalized in the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which Jackson supported. The law provided funds to relocate Cherokees, chickasaw's Choctaws Creek, and Seminole Indians from their homes in Georgia North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama. In response, these tribes adopted a novel approach and sued the government. And then the Supreme Court ruled that Georgia's actions in removing the Cherokees violated their treaties with the federal government and that they had a right to their land, to which Jackson supposedly responded by saying John Marshall has made his decision. Nell let him in Corsa. So Jackson set the stage for the forced removal of the Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma, but it actually took place in the winter of 1838, 1839 under Jackson successor Van Buren, at least one quarter of the 18000 Indians died on the forced march that came to be known as the Trail of Tears.

speaker01 10:37:00

Boy, thought Bubble, you do know how to end on a downer, but thank you. But Andrew Jackson also changed our banking system, just as today banks were very important to the industrial and mercantile development of the U and at the beginning of Jackson's presidency, American banking was dominated by the Second National Bank, which you'll remember had been established by Congress as part of the American system.

speaker01 10:57:00

It's time for the mystery document. The rules here are simple. When I inevitably fail to guess the author of the mystery document, I get shocked with the shock pen. The powers, privileges, and favors bestowed upon it in the original charter. By increasing the value of the stock far above its par value, operated as a gratuity of many millions to its stockholders, every monopoly and all exclusive privileges are granted at the expense of the public, which ought to receive a fair equivalent. The many millions which this Act proposes to bestow on the stockholders of the existing bank must come, directly or indirectly out of the earnings of the American people. Stay, and I know this one. It is not conceivable how the present stockholders can have any claim to the special favor of government should the Bank's influence become concentrated as it may, under the operation of such an act as this, in the hands of a self elected directory, will there not be cause to tremble for the purity of our elections?

speaker01 11:54:00

It is Andrew Jackson's vetoed the Charter of the SEC Bank of the United States, 1832. Bank leader Nicholas Biddle persuaded Congress to pass a bill extending the life of the second us Bank. For 20 years. Jackson thought that the bank would use its money to oppose his reelection in 1836, so he vetoed that bill. In fact, the reason I knew that was from the vetoed is because it talks about the bank as an instrument to subvert democracy. Jackson set himself up as a defender of the lower classes by vetoed the bank's charter. Now, wiggs took exception to the idea that the president was somehow a more Democratic representative, the people then the legislature, but in the end Jackson's view won out. He used the vetoed more than any prior president, turning it into a powerful tool of policy, which it remains to this day, by the way.

speaker01 12:39:00

So the second Bank of the us expired in 1000 and 830 twos, which meant that suddenly we had no central institution with which to control federal fund.

speaker01 12:46:00

Jackson ordered that money should be dispersed into local banks, unsurprisingly referencing ones that were friendly to him. These so called pet banks were another version of rewarding the Jackson like to call rotation in office. Opponents called this tactic of awarding government offices to political favorites the spoils system. Anyway, these smaller banks proceeded to print more and more paper money because, you know, free money like between 1833 and 1837, the base value of bank notes circulation rose from $10 million to $149 million.

speaker01 13:18:00

And that meant inflation. Initially, states loved all this new money that they could use to finance internal improvements. But inflation is really bad for wage workers and also eventually everyone out of control. Inflation coupled with rampant land speculation eventually led to an economic collapse, the panic of 1837. The subsequent pressure lasted until 1008 43, and Jackson's bank policy proved to be arguably the most disastrous fiscal policy in America American history, which is really saying something.

speaker01 13:44:00

It also had a major effect on American politics because business oriented Democrats became Whigs and the remaining Democrats further aligned with agrarian interests, which meant slavery.

speaker01 13:53:00

So the age of Jackson was more Democratic than any that came before. And it gave us the beginnings of modern American politics. Jackson was the first president to really expand executive power and to argue that the president is the most important democratically elected official in the country. One of the things that makes Andrew Jackson's presidency so interesting and also so problematic is that he was elected via a more Democratic process, but he concentrated more power in the executive in a thoroughly undemocratic way. In the end, Andrew Jackson probably was the worst American president to end up on currency, particularly given his disastrous fiscal policies. But the age of Jackson is still in, and it's worth remembering that all that stuff in American politics started out with the expansion of democracy.

speaker01 14:34:00

Thanks for watching I'll see you next week.

speaker01 14:36:00

Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Miller. The scrip supervisor is Meredith Danko, our associate produce is Danica Johnson, the is written by my high school history teacher Raul Meier and myself, and our graphics team is Thought Cafe If you have libert caption suggestions, please leave them in comments where you can also leave questions about today's video that will be answered by our team of historians. Thanks for crash course, and we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome what?