Chapter 10: Section 1

Chapter 10: Section 1

The Jacksonian Era

Main Ideas

• Democracy expanded in the 1820s as more Americans held the right to vote.

• Jackson's victory in the election of 1828 marked a change in American politics.

• The expansion of voting rights and the election of Andrew Jackson signaled the growing power of the American people.

Expansion of Democracy

• North was changing: small craft people's businesses taken over by large factories and workers.

• South was changing: small farms gave way to large cotton plantations owned by the wealthy.

• The wealthy were elite and the majority of the Americans were falling by the wayside.

• Government seemed to be committed to helping the wealthy.

Expansion of Democracy

• Hoping for change, small farmers, frontier settlers and slave holders rallied behind Andrew Jackson.

• Believed Jackson would defend the rights of the common man and the slave states.

• Voting reforms: many states changed qualifications for voters by granting more white males suffrage.

Expansion of Democracy

• Political parties began holding public nominating convention: where party members choose the party's candidates instead of the party leaders.

• Jacksonian Democracy: The period of expanding democracy in the 1820s and 1830s.

Election of 1828

• Jackson supporters were determined that their candidate would win the 1828 election.

• Jackson supporters formed the Democratic Party to support his candidacy.

• People who backed President Adams began calling themselves National Republicans.

Election of 1828

• Jackson v Adams

• Jackson chose John C. Calhoun as his vice presidential running mate.

The Campaign

• Jackson's campaigners described him as a war hero who had been born poor and rose to succeed through his own hard work.

• Adam's was a Harvard graduate whose father had been the second U.S. president, he was accused of being out of touch with the problems of everyday people.

The Campaign

• Adams supporters said Jackson was hot tempered, crude, and ill-equipped to be president of the United States.

• Jackson won the presidency with a record number of popular votes.

Jackson's Inauguration

• A win for the common people.

• A crowd gathered outside the Capitol as Jackson took his oath of office.

• Crowd took the party to the White House lawn.

Jackson's Inauguration

• Jackson rewarded some supporters with government jobs.

• Spoils system: the practice of giving government jobs to political backers.

• Martin Van Buren: Secretary of State one of Jackson's greatest supporters.

• Kitchen Cabinet: informal group of trusted advisers who sometimes met in the White House kitchen.