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During most of Monroe's administrations 

 there had been only one organized political 

 party, the Republican; the Presidential cam- 

 paign of 1824 was waged largely on the per- 

 sonalities of the candidates, Andrew Jackson, 

 John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and William 

 H. Crawford, all of whom claimed to be Re- 

 publicans. As no candidate received a majority 

 of the electoral vote, the election was thrown 

 into the House of Representatives, in which the 

 adherents of Clay cast their votes for Adams, 

 thus securing the latter's election over Jackson, 

 who had received the largest number of elec- 

 toral votes. Calhoun was chosen Vice-Presi- 

 dent. The election of Adams was followed by 

 a howl from the Jacksonians, who insisted that 

 there had been a "corrupt bargain" between 

 Adams and Clay. All the bitterness which had 

 been held in check for several years now burst 

 forth. So violent did the opposition become 

 that the administration was able to carry out 

 few of its policies. It did, however, spend large 

 sums of money on various internal improve- 

 ments, and it secured the passage of the protec- 

 tive tariff act of 1828, often called the "Tariff 

 of Abominations." This act led to the nullifica- 

 tion controversy a few years later. 



Adams' administration was further note- 

 worthy for rapid immigration to the West, and 

 for the formation of new political parties. The 

 basis of the new parties was largely antagonism 

 between Adams and Jackson; the Adams and 

 Clay faction took the name of National Re- 

 publican party, later changed to Whig, while 

 the Jackson men called themselves Democrats, 

 instead of Democratic-Republicans, as formerly. 

 There was a growing discontent with the Adams 

 administration, with existing political condi- 

 tions and other standards in life. This feeling 

 showed itself in such changes as the substitu- 

 tion of national conventions for the Congres- 

 sional caucus (see page 1239), and particularly 

 in the election of Andrew Jackson as President. 



Jackson and Van Buren. Jackson's Presi- 

 dency, from 1829 to 1837, has often been called 

 his "reign." Certainly his decisive, abrupt 

 character dominated the government, although 

 he was continually fighting to have his way. 

 Two great issues were the rechartering of the 

 Bank of the United States and the enforce- 

 ment of the high tariff laws of 1828 and 1832. 

 South Carolina's threat to secede if these laws 

 were enforced led to the famous nullification 

 controversy, a feature of which was the great 

 debate between Daniel Webster and Robert Y. 

 Hayne (see NULLIFICATION). Jackson was op- 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



posed to the Bank of the United States; he 

 vetoed a bill renewing its charter, made the 

 Bank the chief issue of his campaign in 1832, 

 and was triumphantly reflected President. 

 Martin Van Buren was chosen Vice-President. 

 Indian wars in Georgia and Florida gave much 

 trouble during the second administration (see 

 SEMINOLE; OSCEOLA; CHEROKEE), and the Black 

 Hawk War had to be checked in the West. 

 Jackson also introduced the "spoils system" 

 into national politics (see CIVIL SERVICE). 



Jackson's successor was Van Buren, his friend 

 and supporter, who continued his opposition to 

 the Bank of the United States and finally re- 

 placed that institution with the independent 

 treasury system of to-day (see TREASURY DE- 

 PARTMENT). Van Buren was unfortunate in be- 

 ginning his administration under the shadow of 

 the great panic of 1837, precipitated by Presi- 

 dent Jackson's specie circular of 1836, which 

 ordered land agents to accept only gold and 

 silver in payment of public lands. This order, 

 following an era of over-expansion, of "wild- 

 cat" banks and still wilder internal improve- 

 ments, brought large sums of paper money to 

 the East, where many banks simply closed 

 their doors without a struggle to redeem the 

 depreciated paper. See WILDCAT BANKS. 



Rise and Decline of the Whigs. Chiefly as 

 the result of the financial and industrial de- 

 pression which followed, Van Buren became in- 

 creasingly unpopular, and in the election of 

 1840, known as the "log-cabin and hard-cider 

 campaign," was defeated for reelection by Wil- 

 liam Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate. In 

 this election the Liberty party presented the 

 first candidate for President on an antislavery 

 platform. Harrison died a month after his 

 inauguration, and was succeeded by John Tyler, 

 who had been formerly a Democrat. He 

 quickly came into conflict with the Whigs when 

 Congress passed a law establishing a fiscal bank 

 of the United States, modeled on the old bank 

 which Jackson and Van Buren had overthrown. 

 To the surprise of everybody, Tyler vetoed 

 this bill, as he did a second bill which wars 

 drawn up in accordance with his own sugges- 

 tions. It was clear that Tyler at heart was still 

 a Democrat. The Whigs were furious, Tyler 

 was read out of the party, and the entire Cabi- 

 net except Webster resigned. Webster re- 

 mained only to complete the Webster-Ashbur- 

 ton Treaty; then he, too, refused to serve 

 longer. 



Thus deserted by the Whigs, Tyler turned for 

 support to the Democrats, but the Whigs were 



