Jackson’s rise to popularity was aided by the Panic of 1819. In this era, the U.S. was experiencing a financial boom. The Napoleonic Wars in Europe had laid waste to much of the

During the two terms that Jackson served as President, a second party system developed, as there was a growing opposition to Jackson’s tyranny. It began as a gathering of national political leaders opposed to Jackson’s use of power. Denouncing the President as “King Andrew I”, they began to refer to themselves as Whigs, after the party in England that traditionally worked to limit the power of the King. The Democratic Republicans or the Democrats held the federal government. There were vast differences in their programmes. The Democrats believed in limited government power and felt that the rights of the states should be protected unless it interfered with the federal government’s economic and social policy. They supported territorial expansion and tended to attract members of the working class. The Whigs was made up of the Federalists and the National Republicans. They consisted mostly of wealthy New Englanders, people from the upper Midwest and large Southern cotton planters. They favoured businessmen and manufacturers a well as tariff protection for industry. The Whigs supported federally funded internal improvements as well as the national bank.

The campaign for the election of 1824, proved to be very dirty. There was constant mudslinging among the candidates. A favourite tactic was to accuse a rival candidate of corruption in his Cabinet post or of actions damaging to the state or section in question. The election also proved to be interesting in the sense that it would be the last major election whose result was not decided by the Electoral College. When the final ballots were counted, no one had a clear majority. Jackson led with 99 electoral votes while Adams had 84. Crawford and Clay brought up the rear with 41 and 37 respectively. When situations like this occurred, the vote went to the House of Representatives. There, each state delegation would receive one vote. It was at this point that the election really became a political dogfight.

The Jacksonians believed that their large popular and electoral pluralities entitled their candidate to the presidency, and they were enraged when he lost. But they grew angrier still when Adams named Clay his Secretary of State. The State Department was that well-established route to the presidency, and Adams thus appeared to be naming Clay as his own successor. Jackson’s supporters began to speak of the “corrupt bargain” between Adams and Clay. It seemed that both Adams and Clay had made a dreadful political mistake. Adams was doomed to play the role of minority president with the Jacksonians holding a majority vote, vowing to frustrate his presidency. Adams had many plans for the development of the U.S. but by 1826,his presidency was proving to be quite the failure. He faced dissent in Congress and was proclaimed as a leader of patronage and corruption. Throughout this, Jackson remained publicly calm, while planning his strategy for the election of 1828.

Even before the nullification issue had been settled, another controversy occurred that challenged Jackson’s leadership. It concerned the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the U.S. The Second Bank had a virtual monopoly over the country’s credit and currency, as the federal government owned one fifth of its stock. The Bank accepted federal deposits and made commercial loans. It controlled the lending policies of state banks that if left unregulated, caused inflation and exaggerated the business cycle. The Bank’s stabilizing policies won it many supporters, but it did have many opponents: hard money advocates who feared paper money and many state banks that disliked its regulating authority. To some it smacked of special privilege because it held a monopoly on public funds, yet was governed by a handful of rich investors.

Calhoun and Jackson had been having a long-standing quarrel since the

Some topics in this essay:
Bank Bank, South Carolina, Van Buren, John Marshall, White House, Bank Biddle, Jackson Clay, Russia Republicans, Indian Territory, Napoleonic Wars, van buren, south carolina, henry clay, federal government, national republicans, bank bank, white house, electoral votes, adams clay, congress passed, martin van buren, john quincy adams,