JACKSON 



3096 



JACKSON 



United States Senator from Tennessee in 1823, 

 but resigned in 1825 and thereafter threw all 

 his energies into opposition to the Adams ad- 

 ministration. Almost from the day of Adams' 

 inauguration, Jackson kept in view the next 

 Presidential election. In 1828 he had his re- 

 venge, and was elected President by an electo- 

 ral vote of 178 to 83 for Adams. Calhoun, who 

 was Vice-President under Adams, was reflected. 



His Administration, 1829-1837. The eight 

 years during which Jackson was President re- 

 flect with considerable accuracy the character 

 of the man. The administration, it has been 

 said, was "distinctly one of conflict," and when 

 Jackson was not engaged in some political 

 struggle he was upsetting traditions and con- 

 ventions of every kind. This does not mean 

 that the acts of the administration, which in- 

 cluded the introduction of the spoils system, 

 the Nullification controversy, and the fight 

 against the Bank of the United States, cannot 

 be regarded as constructive. 



The Spoils System. One of the first indica- 

 tions of Jackson's policy was the removal of 

 most of the government officials, even to post- 

 masters in small villages and customs inspec- 

 tors. Jackson's motives were not dishonor- 

 able; he believed that the government had 

 become "bureaucratic," and consequently aris- 

 tocratic, and felt that to substitute his own 

 partisans was merely to make the government 

 democratic. The slogan of the President's par- 

 tisans was "To the victors belong the spoils." 

 Quite aside from Jackson's honesty of purpose, 

 he made the fatal mistake of appointing to 

 office many persons whose only recommenda- 

 tion was that they were Jackson Democrats. 



In the forty years which elapsed between 

 the inauguration of Washington in 1789 and 

 the inauguration of Jackson, only seventy-four 

 government employees had been dismissed, and 

 all of these for good reasons. During the first 

 twelve months of his administration Jackson 

 dismissed over 2,000 employees, with scarcely 

 an exception because they belonged to the 

 political opposition. It is not fair to say that 

 Jackson wilfully corrupted the civil service, 

 but it is quite correct to say that he intro- 

 duced into the Federal government the system 

 which William L. Marcy and Van Buren had 

 already perfected in the state of New York, 

 a system in which the privilege of appointing 

 officeholders was made one of the chief func- 

 tions of government. It is true, therefore, 

 that Jackson was the first President to build 

 a political "machine" on the basis of patron- 



age, and he fastened on the United States a 

 system which bred corruption for half a century. 



The Tariff and Nullification. In 1828, shortly 

 before the close of John Quincy Adams' ad- 

 ministration, Congress passed a law providing 

 a high protective tariff. This law, called the 

 "Tariff of Abominations," was especially dis- 

 liked in the South, where it was felt that high 

 duties on foreign manufactured goods would 

 lead to discrimination against American cotton 

 and other raw products. The act was resented 

 particularly in South Carolina, but it caused 

 indignation throughout the South and led to 

 the first clear statement of the doctrine of 

 nullification (which see). This statement was 

 made in 1830 by Robert Y. Hayne, Senator 

 from South Carolina, in the course of the fa- 

 mous debate with Webster. The Webster- 

 Hayne debate, in which slavery, nullification 

 and the true meaning of the Constitution were 

 discussed with impassioned eloquence, is nota- 

 ble in the Constitutional history of the United 

 States. 



Two years later, in 1832, Congress passed 

 another high-tariff law. The South Carolina 

 legislature at once declared this law and the 

 tariff law of 1828 unconstitutional, therefore 

 "null and void," and threatened to secede 

 from the Union if any attempts should be 

 made to collect customs duties in accordance 

 with these acts. Jackson was personally op- 

 posed to such high-tariff laws, but he prepared 

 to execute the laws tiy force. He ordered 

 troops to be concentrated at a convenient dis- 

 tance from Charleston, sent two warships to 

 Charleston harbor, persuaded Congress to pass 

 the Force Bill, and in a stinging proclamation 

 warned the people of South Carolina not to 

 resist the law. Vice-President Calhoun re- 

 signed his office, was at once elected to the 

 Senate by the South Carolina legislature, and 

 in fiery speeches defended the state and 

 tained its right to nullify and to secede, 

 hostilities seemed unavoidable, when a comi 

 mise tariff was arranged, chiefly through 

 efforts of Henry Clay, "the great pacific 

 Jackson's vigorous actions, however, temi 

 rily halted the excessive states-rights m( 

 ment. See FORCE BILLS. 



The Fight against the Bank. Jackson's op- 

 position to the Bank of the United States was 

 not economic, but political. He was persuaded 

 that the "money power" of the United States, 

 led by the bank, was preparing to crush him, 

 and that he was the champion of the "common 

 people." In his first message to Congress Jack- 



