Andrew Jackson's Presidency And Policies Essay

Andrew Jackson was a man of action not of philosophy people say. He once was a slave owner before his presidency years. He took up the matter of slavery in only a political aspect. America was supposed to be a land of the free, and yet we have slaves. On July 5, 1852 people gathered in New York to here a speech about Independence Day by an African American former slave Fredrick Douglas. He blamed Andrew Jackson for the spread of slavery in America. He saw him as a hypocritical politician and a hypocritical American. Jackson transformed millions of acres of land that Indians lived on (Indian removal act) in the south into cotton plantations. This probably would have happened without Jackson but he was the heart of this whole idea in making plantations for slaves to work on. Now if he was the man he says he is why would he want more land for African Americans to work on?

Therefore, it is apparent that it is the citizen’s job to secure the blessings of liberty. The citizen’s began to take action to secure their blessings of liberty prior to the Nullification Crisis, when they attempted to pass the Tariff of 1828 through Congress in hopes to aid Jackson’s re-election. Due to Jackson’s popularity, he was re-elected even without the help of the tariff. Yet the tariff was passed in 1828, and the citizen’s made a firm effort to nullify the tariff as soon as it was enacted. They believed they had the right to nullify the tariff, which sought their own privileges in liberty. The citizens further pushed for the nullification by trying to pass this though South Carolina’s legislature, but another group of citizens seeking to secure their

The Nullification Crisis of 1832 is one of the crises that would eventually lead to the Civil War. Following the suffering of an economic downturn throughout the 1820s, the United States government passed several new tariffs. When the Tariff of 1828 was passed by the Congress of the United States on May 19, 1828, it sparked the debate over states’ rights and highlighted the growing sectional difference between the South and the North in America.

Jackson began his proclamation by outlining the reasons and reservations that led South Carolina to pass the ordinance. The major concerns for the Southerners were the tariffs. “ I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, have thought proper to issue this my PROCLAMATION, stating my views of the Constitution and laws applicable to the measures adopted by the Convention of South Carolina”

During the late 1820s, John C. Calhoun believed that the tariff of 1816 was responsible for the decline of the South Carolina economy. Calhoun believed that if he developed the Theory of Nullification people in his home state would view him differently. The Theory of Nullification is the idea that states (unions) have the rights to void any law that is created by the government that is seen unconstitutional. States are the foundation of the Union, so they have the power to refuse any unconstitutional laws, and really states usually have the final say. What really caused the Nullification Crisis were many series of Protective Tariffs. Protective Tariffs are taxes placed on imported goods that are from foreign countries and their duty is to raise the price of foreign goods, making them less attractive to consumers protecting them from foreign competition such as; The Tariff of 1816 that placed a 20-25 percent tax on foreign goods, The Tariff of 1824 which placed a 35 percent duty on imported iron, wool, hemp, and cotton, finally the Tariff of 1828 which is also known as the Tariff of Abominations it was the third protective tariff and increased taxes to almost 50 percent.

When Andrew Jackson took office in 1829, he was forced to respond to the growing conflict over tariffs. Vice President John C. Calhoun joined his fellow southerners in protest when Congress passed the Tariff of Abominations. In response to the tariff, Calhoun drafted the South Carolina Exposition and Protest. It urged states to nullify the Tariff of Abominations and used it to argue that since the states created the national government they decided when the national laws apply. Calhoun’s theory was controversial, and it drew some fierce challengers. Many of them were from the northern states that had benefited from increased tariffs. These opponents believed that the American people, not the individual states, made up the Union. Conflict between the supporters and the opponents of nullification deepened. The issue of nullification was intensely debated in the Senate, between Robert Y. Hayne and Daniel Webster. Hayne, senator from South Carolina, defended states’ rights. He argued that nullification gave states a way to lawfully

The 1828 Tariffs, which were taxes on goods imported from other countries, made imported goods more expensive. This new law obliterated the south, because there were no factories only farming, as they were not producers, and slaves were the only sources of income. It instead profitably assisted factories, which were primarily in the north, by reducing British competition in the south causing the abrupt halt on foreign trade and increased market prices. President Jackson felt nullification was necessary, but not the approach that S. Carolina took to it because it was a state. Jackson ignored the Supreme Court in Worchester v. Georgia, but he was in fact a southerner making his “PROCLAMATION, stating (his) views of the Constitution” telling South Carolina, another southern state, that if they tried to nullify those tariffs; then he was all powerful and willing to use military force in order “to defend the patriotism of the people,” and “preserve this bond of our political existence from destruction, to maintain inviolate this state of national honor and prosperity, and to justify the confidence” in going to war for his overall

Jackson was trying to prevent another Panic of 1819 from happening again by using his power to veto this law to help his campaign for president in 1832 and his farm followers. Jackson faced another issue with the Nullification Crisis when South Carolina voided the tariff of 1828 that caused economic issues for them. Jackson was a believer in Democracy and the ideas of Thomas Jefferson where the states decided if they obeyed a certain law. However, Jackson realized the importance of the tariff to protect American industries from cheap foreign imports by using force and his political power to enforce the tariff on South Carolina. In order to protect the economy of the United States, Jackson had to disobey his own ideas of democracy and letting the people decide to become a tyrant and abuse his

This caused a crisis in the United States in 1832-1833 when South Carolina continued to nullify tariff acts issued by the federal government under the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Jackson released a Nullification Proclamation that took away a states’ right to nullify any federal law. After this Proclamation, Jackson sent ships to South Carolina to collect the tariffs. This message is seen as an act of preserving the Union because Jackson was trying to prevent a state from seceding. He worked to strengthen the federal government to prevent any state from seceding from the Union, preserving

At this time, Jacksonian Democrats had dubbed themselves guardians of the United States Constitution. Andrew Jackson himself did his best when it came to acting like a guardian of the United States Constitution, but for the most part he only upheld it when it benefitted him, his popularity, or was in accordance to his own beliefs. In 1832, President Jackson signed the Tariff of 1832 into law. This tariff was to compromise for the Tariff of 1828, and it gained the support of most northerners and half of the southerners in Congress. South Carolina, however, was not pleased with the reduction and declared, through the Nullification Ordinance, that the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 be nullified in South Carolina because they were unconstitutional. When the vice president at the time John Calhoun voiced his support for

South ‘Carolina took this writing and tried to disobey the laws by gathering up the congress men of the state. In result leading to all congress men to agree and repeal the tariffs of 1828, (making a statement that the slave states can prevent the future abolition of slavery). In addition to this uproar, President Andrew Jackson believed it was important to keep the Union in peace, so he enforced the bill of 1832, (presidential powers to enforce federal law), and sent out troops and navies, along with he himself to collect the tariffs in the Southern states. Upon arrival, President Jackson talked to the planters and compromised with them by saying that they have to continue paying the tariffs, but over time, each year the amount of tariffs

Prior to Jackson election, Congress passed a highly protective tariff, which people called the "The Tariff of Abominations." Calhoun decided to anonymously author a pamphlet called "Exposition and Protest" for the South Carolina House of Representatives. The document said that the Tariff of 1828 was unconstitutional and it would encourage states to defy the law. Jackson soon began to suspect that his vice president was the one to blame for writing that pamphlet. Pretty much by 1831, Calhoun was publicly supporting the right to nullify laws, which this had turned him into an enemy of Jackson. The 1832 law lowered the tax rate to 35%, but it still wasn’t enough for the South. The Ordinance of Nullification declared that the tariffs of 1828

Throughout years many of President Jackson’s followers caused great deals of problems towards domestic problems. They were always trying to implement problems so that President Jackson could solve them. For example, the Indian Removal act, force all of the Native Americans that once lived on the land own by white men. They were forced to move west of the Mississippi river were the land wasn’t all that good. All the Indian were furious that they were being kicked out of their home land, many American were also protesting because it wasn’t right. This later on became known today as the “Trails of Tears”.

This made it so there was more competition for the cotton, but with the tariff the South had to trade with the north due to the tax that was imposed by the tariff. This ended up giving the North a better deal on cotton, which hurt the South, because they could not sell it for as much due to the lack of a foreign market for it. Another tariff that the South didn’t like was the Tariff of 1828, also known as the Tariff of Abomination. This lead to the Nullification Crisis by South Carolina, because they did not want the tariff, and the point of the tariff was to benefit northern industrialists. In document E it says, “’Nullification’ movement in South Carolina was entirely directed against the tariff.” This is because it hurt South Carolina and the South. The Southern State believed in a state sovereignty and because of that South Carolina believed that they had the right to nullify this tariff and could even threaten to secede. This starts to show how Southern states will secede if they believe that they are being treated unfairly, and that laws are made to benefit the only the North. The South was against the Tariff of Abomination, and because of that they felt like that they were being treated unfairly. Document G is a speech by Jefferson Davis where he says that a state has the right to go against the government if they feel that they are justified. This is because he believed in state sovereignty, which South

This idea of nullification, in which a state could declare an act of Congress unconstitutional, did not go away. In 1832, trouble arose surrounding the passage of a national tariff. South Carolina, led by John C. Calhoun, passed the Ordinance of Nullification. They claimed that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and threatened to form a new independent government if the Federal government tried to force the implementation of the tariff. In response, President Jackson asked Congress