United States History Student Edition

Andrew Jackson’s supporters gathered outside the White House, hoping to shake hands with a president who seemed to be just like them. Drawing Conclusions Why do you think most American voters of the time would identify with a candidate from humble beginnings?

electors. Women still could not vote or hold political office. African Americans and Native Americans had few rights of any kind. Democrats wanted to further open the government to the people. They were concerned that the federal government had become a bureaucracy (byuh•RAH•kruh•see), a system in which nonelected, sometimes incompetent, officials carry out laws. Soon after taking office in 1829, Jackson fired many federal workers and replaced them with his supporters. This practice of incoming presidents replacing current government employees with their supporters is called the spoils system . Jackson’s supporters also abandoned the unpopular caucus system, in which top party leaders chose the party’s candidates for office. Democrats began using nominating conventions (NAHM•ih•nayt•ing kuhn•VEN• shuhnz), meetings in which delegates from the states choose the party’s presidential candidate. This system allowed many more people to participate in the selection of candidates. The Tariff Debate A tariff is a tax on imported goods. A high tariff on European manufactured goods made those imported goods more expensive. This

encouraged Americans to buy American-made goods, which helped Northeastern factory owners. Southerners disliked tariffs. They had a profitable trade selling their cotton to Europe. They feared that taxing European goods might hurt this trade. In addition, tariffs meant higher prices for the goods they bought from their European trading partners. In 1828, Congress had passed a very high tariff law. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina claimed that any state had the right to nullify, or refuse to obey, a federal law if the state believed it to be unconstitutional. President Jackson disagreed. He feared that nullification would destroy the Union. In 1830, at a Washington dinner marking Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, Jackson chose to make his feelings on nullification known. He offered a toast. Looking directly at Calhoun, the president declared, “Our Union! It must be preserved!” Answering Jackson’s challenge, the vice president rose with a toast of his own: “The Union, next to our liberty, most dear.” To make his meaning clear, Calhoun added, “It can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the states.” Not long after Jackson and Calhoun faced off at the dinner, Congress passed the Maysville Road bill to construct a road in Kentucky.

bureaucracy a rule-governed, hierarchical system in which nonelected officials carry out laws spoils system the practice of incoming presidents replacing current government employees with their supporters nominating convention a meeting in which delegates choose a party’s candidate tariff a tax on imported goods Political and Geographic Changes 307 PHOTO: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-970; TEXT: (1)United States Senate Historical Office. John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President (1825-1832). Washington, D.C.: United States Senate, 2019; (2)In Victor, Orville James. The History, Civil, Political and Military, of the Southern Rebellion: From Its Incipient Stages to Its Close. New York: James D. Torrey, Publisher, 1861.