Chapter 7Section 3

The Age of Jackson

Chapter 7 Section 3

MAIN IDEA Andrew Jackson’s policies spoke for the

common people but violated Native American rights.WHY IT MATTERS NOW

The effects of land losses and persecution faced by Native Americans in the 1800’s continue to be reflected in their legal struggles today.

Expanding Democracy Changes Politics

ELECTION OF 1824

Andrew Jackson vs. John Quincy Adams.

Andrew Jackson received more popular votes than any other candidate.

No candidate won the required amount of electoral votes: 131

House of Representatives would vote to determine a winner.

Tensions Between Adams & Jackson

ELECTION OF 1824

Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay Disliked Jackson Thought he wasn’t qualified to be President

Clay persuaded congressmen to vote for John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams received a majority of votes in the

House and won the Presidential Election of 1824.

Tensions Between Adams & Jackson: continued

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phWJtTkDwxY

Jacksonians (followers of Jackson), accused Adams of stealing the presidency.

John Q. Adams: appointed Henry Clay as his Secretary of State Jackson and his followers LEFT the Republican Party and

became Democratic-Republicans: the present day Democrats.

During the next four years Jackson did whatever he could to sabotage Adam’s policies.

Democracy & Citizenship

From 1824-1828 voting requirements were eased in most states.

Poor white males were now eligible to vote.

In 1824, approximately 350,000 white males voted while in 1828 over 1 million voted in the presidential election.

Jackson’s New Presidential Style

Expansion of voting rights meant that political leaders had to be able to sympathize with the common citizen.

Jackson’s grass roots upbringing and belief in the common man enabled him to win the election of 1828 with ease.

Jackson’s Appeal to the Common Citizen

Jackson labeled John Quincy Adams an intellectual elitist and out of touch with the typical American. Jackson would win the election of 1828 by a landslide..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jm42AS9tko

Jackson’s Spoils System

Jackson fired 10% of all federal government employees who were appointed during other president’s terms.

Gave jobs to his friends and political allies to reward them.

His friends became his primary advisors. This practice became known as the spoils system.

The Removal of Native Americans

Many Native American tribes in the south-east adopted typical white-American culture. (government, court system, a written constitution modeled

after the US, newspaper, etc.)

5 Civilized Tribes: (Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Creek, and Chickasaw)

occupied large areas of valuable land in Georgia, North & South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

White miners, businessmen, and planters wanted land that Native Americans were living on.

Forced Removal of Native Americans

Indian Removal Act of 1830

Jackson’s only solution was to force Natives to move west

Congress passed the Indian Removal Act: federal government provided funds to negotiate treaties

that would force the 5 tribes to move west.

Jackson believed the removal policy was ‘generous’ because it would enable Native Americans to maintain their way of life.

90 treaties were signed with many Native American tribes in return for their homeland.

Trail of Tears

Jackson pressed the Choctaw to sign a treaty that required them to leave Mississippi.

1831- ordered US troops to forcibly remove the Sauk & Fox from their lands in Alabama & Mississippi.

Cherokee Nation tried to use the US legal system to attain ‘equal rights’

Chief Justice Marshall initially felt that the Cherokee Nation had no federal standing: “it was neither a foreign nation, nor a state, but rather a ‘domestic dependent nation’.”

Trail of Tears: continued

Cherokee: teamed up with Samuel Austin Worcester to fight the Indian Removal Act in the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in favor of the Cherokee. Said the United States had no right to forcibly take the

land President Jackson refused to obey the Supreme Court’s

decision.

Trail of Tears: continued

Federal agents signed a treaty with a small group of Cherokee leaders who were willing to leave their land.

October 1838 - US Army troops began forcing the Cherokee to travel from Georgia to the new Indian territory in Oklahoma.

The 800 mile trip was mostly on foot. During the trip, government officials stole money, livestock, etc.

Over 25 % of the entire Cherokee tribe died on route to Oklahoma.

The event would be known as the ‘Trail of Tears’.