-Jackson's Bank War
-Jackson's land policy
-The Indian Removal Act
-The Nullification Crisis

[SLIDE 1]

You'll recall that the American System stemmed from the burst of unified nationalism that followed the War of 1812. It involved a government-sponsored program to balance the nation's agriculture, commerce, and industry, and it consisted of three complementary parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other improvements to develop profitable markets for agriculture. The Second Bank was the second prong of the plan, a national bank that was intended to foster commerce and stabilize the nation's finances.

[SLIDE 2]

Many people were suspicious of the very idea of a national bank. One southerner warned that a Congress that could authorize a bank might also emancipate a slave. Old Republicans like that feared the power of a strong federal government. And then, too, many people blamed the Second Bank's tightening of credit for the Panic of 1819. They believed that the bank existed only to further enrich the wealthy.

[SLIDE 3]

Jackson had promised to reform the government, and he took steps to enact reform in several major areas, one of which was banking. It should be recalled that Henry Clay, a leader of the National Republicans and thorn in the side of Jackson, supported the bank. Despite the Supreme Court having affirmed the constitutionality of the bank a decade earlier, Jackson claimed it was unconstitutional, corrupt, and a danger to American liberties. He ignored Congressional reports about the extent to which the bank had stabilized American currency. The national bank had four more years left on its charter. Jackson wanted to undermine it even before its charter ran out. The bank received the deposits of federal funds and paid the government's debt. It was illegal to simply remove government funds from the bank, but that is what Jackson ordered his Treasury Secretary to do. When that Secretary refused, Jackson simply replaced him, but the replacement also refused. Jackson then turned to his Kitchen Cabinet friend Roger B. Taney to head Treasury, and Taney found a subtler approach. Instead of directly withdrawing the funds, he paid government bills through the Second Bank, but he made all new deposits into favored state banks, known as pet banks, rather than into the Second Bank where the funds were supposed to go.

[SLIDE 4]

Nicholas Biddle, the president of the Second Bank, did what he could to save the bank and force the government to change its policy, but in the end, his efforts failed.

[SLIDE 5]

Jackson's base was amid western farmers. He played to his audience by making it as easy as possible to buy land in the west.

[SLIDE 6]

Making land out west cheap and readily available caused other regions of the country concern. They felt the west already had tremendous influence, and its growing population of voters would give it yet more. Specific regional concerns also played a role.

[SLIDE 7]

The federal government used every ploy to try to get Indian tribes to move west. Some agreed to escape the incessant pressure, accepting promises of payment and other land. Others resisted. When there were differences within a single tribal group, federal Indian agents exploited the factionalism to come to terms with those willing to accept payment. The government then considered the sale or treaty to have been legal on behalf of all the group. John Quincy Adams did believe in westward settlement, and his role in the sad fate of the tribes was not a benign one, but he increasingly wanted Indians treated with at least some measure of fairness. By the end of his life, he was horrified by what had occurred. Andrew Jackson had no such compunctions. 

[SLIDE 8]

Jackson saw no point to treaties with tribes, and he had no humanity in the methods used to remove them from areas desired for white settlement. A great many people died as a result of his resettlement practices; so much so that it is clear that was part of the desired goal.

[SLIDE 9]

You'll recall that Thomas Jefferson had wanted Native Americans to acculturate into white society. The Cherokee had complied. They were one of the five so-called civilized tribes, having adopted acculturation as a survival mode and making every effort to accommodate themselves to European culture as it was present on American soil. Having allied themselves with Jackson in the Creek War, they were able to keep most of their land after the War of 1812, but now all their efforts would do them little good. European Americans wanted their land, not a separate political entity in their midst. When gold is found on Cherokee tribal land, their fate is sealed.

[SLIDE 10]

Two important cases would emerge from the dispute of the Cherokee against the state of Georgia, but at the time they would not help much. Most Cherokee were forcibly relocated west of the Mississippi in a deadly journey that is still known as The Trail of Tears.

[SLIDE 11]

The Supreme Court refused to hear the first case, stating that the Cherokee had no standing to appear in federal court. In the case of Worcester v. Georgia, however, the two missionaries were American citizens, so the Court heard the case. The ruling was that the states had no right to interfere in Indian affairs, which were the sole purview of the federal government. The Court ruled that the Georgia laws were void and ordered the two missionaries released. President Jackson, however, refused to use federal authority to enforce the Court's ruling over the state of Georgia, insisting that the Cherokee had to leave if they wanted to escape Georgia's harassment.

[SLIDE 12]

As occurred repeatedly, a treaty was made with a faction of a tribe, and the rest were made to comply. The Treaty of Echota purchased 8 million acres of Cherokee land for 5 million dollars, significantly less than land was selling for in the west. Cherokee under their leader John Ross continued to fight in court but were forcibly removed to Oklahoma in 1838. Some Cherokee managed to evade relocation and remained in North Carolina. The only tribal group at this stage choosing armed resistance was a group of Seminoles led by Osceola. Their leader was captured in 1837, but some of his followers fought on until 1842, when the U.S. troops withdrew. Although most of the remaining Seminoles moved west, some remained in the Florida Everglades.

[SLIDE 13]

The South had always complained that tariffs unfairly affected its business dealings with Europe. It will be recalled that it was the southerner John C. Calhoun who had concocted the tariff to cause problems for John Quincy Adams. It didn't have the anticipated effect, though, and now the south, and everyone else, had to live with it. Rather cynically, it was also Calhoun who led the protests against it, anonymously at first. Calhoun and Jackson had rather tense relations based on this and other factors. Jackson had learned, thanks to Martin Van Buren, of Calhoun's call to have him censured because of his insubordinate invasion of Florida. Additionally, after Jackson became president, Calhoun and his wife had spawned the Petticoat Affair. This involved Jackson's friend John Eaton, who had married a widow (Peggy) about whom circled considerable gossip. Calhoun's wife convinced the women of Washington's social circle to snub her and her husband. Jackson was furious with Calhoun for allowing this. Van Buren, who was unmarried, managed to steer clear of difficulty in that imbroglio. Then, in 1832, South Carolina legislature voted to nullify the tariff, asserting states' rights. Calhoun resigned the office of the vice presidency and instead led the fight against the tariff in the Senate. The same President Jackson who refused the use of federal troops to enforce federal law in Georgia in defense of the Cherokee, now threatened invasion of South Carolina to enforce federal law there and collect the tariff. Politics and expediency, it seems, influenced Jackson far more than consistency or morality.