In the video documentary we watched it discussed Andrew Jackson and his journey to and through part of his presidency. Which began in the election of 1824 where the candidates among Andrew Jackson were John Q. Adams, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. For the first time no one candidate received a majority of electoral votes so the House of Representatives selected the president. The first candidate removed from the running was Henry Clay who then went to support John Q. Adams to help him win which in the end he did.
However the following election of 1828 Jacksonian Democrats campaigned in any way they could to ensure Jackson won the presidency the second time around. They held rallies and conventions where tons of people came and cheered for Jackson all while drinking and having a good time. These rallies helped spread the word that the people could choose the president and that is exactly what happened.
Jackson’s wife Rachel Jackson was put in the paper labeled as an adulteress because she was living with Andrew before her previous divorce had been finalized. Which caused the women of Washington not to like her. Henry Clay had planned this “attack” on Jackson during the election in hopes it would convince the people not to vote for him. Unfortunately for Clay Jackson won but sadly not long after Rachel died of a heart attack. Jackson was very broken about her death and even went as far as blaming Clay and Adams for it.
One of the first orders of business as president were to fire quite a bit of federal workers, more so than any president before him. The new people he hired had some scandals in their past. Particularly John Eaton, Andrew’s secretary of war. He had been friendly with a lady by the name of Peggy Eaton before they were married which sparked rumors that Peggy wasn’t exactly faithful to her husband before John. He died at sea and almost immediately Peggy married John. Rumors stirred that Peggy’s first husband killed himself because word had got to him that she was unfaithful. The social gathering hosted by politicians wives were typically a place to discuss politics and form alliances. The wives of the politicians however didn’t approve of Peggy Eaton and her scandalous past so they began forcing their husbands to boycott every event Peggy Eaton was invited to and because of this it was pretty much impossible to handle politics. Jackson was reminded of the attacks on Rachel when he saw the way the ladies of Washington treated Peggy so he dedicated years of defending her spending more time on that than any other issue. To put an end to the scandal John Eaton and other members of the cabinet resigned so Jackson could replace them with men not caught up in a scandal.
John C. Calhoun was obsessed with protecting slavery. There was a decline on slave owners because of the tax on cheap cloth used to clothe slaves. Calhoun was very determined to eliminate the tax and protect slavery so he promoted nullification which means each state has the right to disregard federal laws it considers unconstitutional. The south was for nullification the north was against but, it wasn’t until Jefferson’s birthday celebration did the nation find out what fellow slave owner president Jackson’s view was. Jackson made a toast saying ”Our federal union it must be preserved”. Everyone was shocked. Calhoun and Jackson stopped speaking after that. South Carolina formally nullified the tax on cheap cloth and stated that if the government did anything about it then South Carolina would withdraw from the union. Jackson then released a proclamation stating that if South Carolina withdrew then they’d be responsible for tearing apart the country. Shortly after Henry Clay made a compromise bill, Jackson signed it South Carolina abided by it and civil war was averted.
1830 Jackson had approval for the Indian Removal Act which stated that Indians living East of the Mississippi could be moved West of the Mississippi. Indians had hoped that if they had listened to Jefferson when he advised them to embrace the way white people lived, then they wouldn’t have to worry about moving West. So that’s what they did they put on European clothing, learned to read and write, held town meetings, had a mayor, etc. and they still had to go because they were in Georgia. Two Christian missionaries brought a case to the Supreme Court that challenged Georgia’s jurisdiction over the Cherokee Indians and the Supreme Court ruled in the Cherokee’s favor. However Jackson encouraged Georgia to ignore it on the grounds of the Cherokee weren’t really a nation. Only based on the color of their skin thousands of Indians were evicted from their homes by American soldiers and forced to walk the Trail of Tears. They weren’t allowed to take things with them just the clothes they were wearing. The Cherokees labeled Jackson as “jackson the Devil” for all the cruel things he put their people through.
