July 4th Special: Andrew Jackson Part 3

Welcome to the third installment of the four-part July 4th special on Andrew Jackson, here on the Mugshots blog. Last post, Jackson's election campaigns of '24 and '28 were discussed, as well as the nasty slurs thrown at his wife by the competition. Now read on to find out about his actual presidency.
________

As the common man’s president, Jackson fought adamantly against the Second National Bank. He feared that the Bank was run by crooked fat cats (my words, not his, though I'm certain that's what he'd say today) who just wanted to take the people’s money and land, and that the Bank also favoured the North over the West and South. So, when the charter for the Bank’s continuation came to his desk, Jackson vetoed it, instead opting for the Specie Circular, which required that land payments be issued in specie (gold or silver coinage); this led for the demand in gold and silver, eventually culminating in the Panic of 1837, a depression from which it took years to totally recover. While Jackson’s plan was certainly full of his best intentions, good intentions do not necessarily make for the best policies.

In order to bring in some money for the government to execute its plans and reduce the national debt (which Jackson did very well, though it stayed low only briefly), Jackson supported tariffs, or taxes on imports. The North was the center of industry at the time, whereas the South the center of agriculture. Foreign manufactured products could be sold in the nation for less than what the North was selling them, and therefore domestic factories would typically receive less bu. These tariffs in particular (aka the “Tariff of Abominations”) meant that the South would either have to pay more for their imported manufactures or simply buy the Northern-made goods, both options irritating the Southerners, even leading some of them to believe that Jackson was leaning towards supporting the North.

One state, in particular, decried the tariffs, leading to the event known as the Nullification Crisis. South Carolina threatened so much as to secede from the Union, and refused to pay the taxes. John C. Calhoun, Jackson’s then-vice president, wrote up the nullification doctrine, which essentially said that if a state found a federal law or action unconstitutional, the state could do away with it. However, the nullification doctrine was unconstitutional in itself, as it would essentially override the concept that the federal law is the supreme law of the land. Jackson, himself, opposed this: if the people didn’t like something the federal government did, they wouldn’t have voted for those particular representatives. However, the state voted and approved of the idea of nullification, and Calhoun resigned as vice president to help South Carolina and its cause.

Jackson was obviously not thrilled with all these events, so he used executive “muscle power”, getting Congress to pass the “Force Bill” which allowed him to enforce the tariffs. However, Clay’s Compromise Tariff, which lowered the tariffs on some products and eliminating them on others, was able to get South Carolina to repeal the nullification ordinance. What could have happened, South Carolina’s total secession and possible secession of other states, even eventual civil war, was held off for another thirty years thanks to the actions of Jackson and Clay.

Jackson’s image as the Indian fighter was brought up once more during the dilemma between Georgia and the Cherokee tribe living there. The Cherokee had a good bit of land, some of it rich with gold deposits, and Georgia wanted it for its white settlers, so the state decided to perform a mass eviction of the natives. In the Supreme Court case Worcester v. Georgia, it was ruled that Georgia had no right to do such a thing, as the state of Georgia had no jurisdiction over Cherokee lands. Jackson, however, supported Georgia’s decision in removing the Cherokee. Georgia was able to gain the support of a Cherokee removal treaty, the Treaty of New Echota, from a few unofficial Cherokee leaders. Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act, which funded the movement of the Cherokee from their current position in Georgia to a reservation in Oklahoma; this process would take place during the next administration, that of Martin van Buren, a close ally of Jackson.
________

If anything seems odd about this post, when I was putting this in, the text formatting started acting odd. The same thing goes for the previous post. Next post will wrap up the July 4th special, thusly wrapping up AJ's story. If you have any questions, comments, etc., feel free to comment on this post or e-mail me at metal_enthalpy@yahoo.com. You may also send me your (coffee) mugshots at the same address.