U.S. History

Jacksonian Democracy and the South

There was a final crisis between frontier whites and the eastern woodland Indians. Few Native Americans were left east of the Appalachians: the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws and the Seminoles. They had tenure granted by federal treaties, and they were recognized as sovereign peoples.

Southwestern whites resented Indian policy. They believed the Indians were offensive to white democracy and states' rights. Poorer farmers coveted Indian land. Southerners denied the federal government had authority to make treaties within their states. A lot of the resistance centered in Georgia.

Andrew Jackson agreed that the federal government did NOT have authority to recognize native sovereignty within a state. He offers to remove them west of the Mississippi River. So in 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act.

However, certain cases made it to the Supreme Court:

• Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1830): The Cherokee Indians couldn't sue the state of Georgia because they were not a sovereign people but domestic dependent nations and thus, dependents of the federal government.
• Worcester vs. Georgia (1832): The Supreme Court declared that the state of Georgia's extension of state law over Cherokee land was unconstitutional; however, Jackson overruled this verdict, and it had no effect.

"John Marshall has made his decision: now let him enforce it!"--Andrew Jackson

The Trail of Tears describes the tortuous trek 18,000 Cherokees made to Oklahoma, with 4,000 dying along the way.

The political consequences were many. This violated the Supreme Court decisions (if a President did that nowaday, he would probably be impeached), and it also strengthened Jackson's reputation as an enemy of the rule of law. It reaffirmed the link between racism and white democracy in the South. Also, it announced Jackson's commitment to state sovereignty and limited federal authority.

Southerners and the Tariff

It was known as the Tariff of Abominations by many. It was designed by Martin Van Buren to win votes for Jackson. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina opposed the tariff because:

1. The Missouri debates made them look for ways to safeguard slavery.
2. The Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy of 1822.
3. Federal court decision on black seamen.
4. Talk of gradual emancipation
5. The tariff talk urged the South to trade favors with the Northwest
6. The American System benefited the Northwest and commercial Northeast producers at the expense of the South
7. South could do nothing to block the passage of the law

The South could protect itself from national majorities ONLY if they possessed the power to veto federal legislation within their state. This echoes the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves of 1798-99 and anticipates the 1861 secessionist arguments.

The Nullifiers did not, however, have the support of Jackson, and John C. Calhoun did not become the next president.

"The Union must be preserved!"--Andrew Jackson

William Lloyd Garrison declares war on slavery. There was a slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in 1831.

The Force Bill: empowered Jackson to lead an army into South Carolina to prevent it from nullifying the Tariff of Abominations.

They came up with the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which lowered tariffs over the course of several years.

The "Petticoat Wars"

Peggy O' Neal Timberlake Eaton was the center of the Petticoat Affair. She was the beautiful tavern keeper's daughter, and she married Secretary of War John H. Eaton, but because she did not wait a proper amount of time to mourn for her late husband, who served in the navy, it was incredibly scandalous (I'm really curious as to what our founding fathers would say about the looseness of women today). Because of this, the Jackson Administration shunned and ostrasized her and her husband. The leader of the assault on Peggy was none other than Foride Calhoun--wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun. This split the Administration in half as Jackson supported the Eatons and defended Peggy.

The Peggy Eaton Controversy resolved in ways that favored Van Buren, and she was made official hostess of the White House. Jackson began consulting with an informal group of advisors, the Kitchen Cabinet. Van Buren was the Vice President Candidate in 1832 to replace Calhoun.

There was direct challenge to Van Buren's Democratic Party promise to protect slavery with a disciplined national coalition committed to states' rights. The reformer core of the northern Whig Party (which was made solely to oppose Jackson) was made of middle-class evangelicals. Jacksonian Democrats, however, wanted to keep moral issues out of politics. Abolitionists launched a postal campaign to flood the mail with anti-slavery tracts, and the question of censorship came up. This led to the development of the Gag rule. Any mail that was received, addressing the slavery issue, was tossed out without being opened.

Jacksonians agreed the surest guarantee of safety within the Union is a disciplined Democrat Party, and Calhoun believed that nullification was the answer to how to maintain the Union with slavery. Jacksonians/Democrats insisted that the Union was inviolable. Democrats guaranteed southern rights by uniting northern and southern agrarians.