Andrew Jackson's second attempt at being elected President, facing John Quincy Adams yet again for the highest seat in the land, was one of the most bitter elections America had ever (and would ever) seen.
While the standards of the day would not allow either candidate to campaign for themselves, their supporters were sufficiently capable at taking it upon themselves to make this a very personal, very brutal election. Perhaps the most remembered attacks during this campaign centered on the relationship between Jackson and his wife, Rachel.
Adams' supporters accused Jackson of courting a married woman, as Rachel's divorce had not yet been finalized upon their marriage. So great and violent were these attacks, Jackson himself believed, that his wife's health suffered.
After Jackson had achieved his rather easy victory (178 electoral votes to Adams' 83), he was devastated to lose Rachel before ever arriving in the White House. For this loss, he never was able to forgive his political opponents, whom he blamed for her death.
Presidency
Though in the election of 1824 Jackson had seemed to generally agree with John Quincy Adams and the rest of the Jeffersonian Republicans, by the time he actually became President, Jackson's politics had become much more polarized.
From his earliest days in office, Jackson worked to "reform" the executive branch. He attempted to purge the corruption that came with tenure in Washington, and to replace these elements with new and honest beaurocrats. The accusation which was placed against him, however, was that his appointments to key positions throughout the nation were political in nature (this is considered a "spoils" system), and not nearly as "honest" as he made them out to be.
Perhaps as a result of bitterness regarding the 1824 election Jackson proposed a constitutional amendment that would remove the electoral college system from the election process, as well as limit the life of a President to just a single term. Clearly, the amendment never gained any ground, though the 22nd amendment passed in 1947 successfully limited the President to two terms.
Jackson also opposed the "American System" which had been a major part of the Presidency of John Quincy Adams, revolving around the Second Bank of the United States, a high protective tariff, and a system of internal infrastructure improvements - all elements that Jackson opposed.
The Nullification Crisis
The tariff issue, particularly, created one of the most defining elements of Jackson's Presidency. As a result of the tariff, which disproportionately hurt southern agricultural states, America was led into a "nullification" crisis.
Several southern states, particularly south Carolina (the home state of Vice President John C. Calhoun), claimed that they had the right to declare "null and void" the tariff of 1828. As a result of Calhoun's approval of nullification, he and Jackson were split politically.
In 1831, the year before his reelection, Jackson sought to reorganize his cabinet, with help from his Secretary of State (and soon to be Vice President and White House successor) Martin Van Buren.
In 1832, amidst reelection, Jackson got tough with the nullifiers, threatening to send troops into South Carolina in order to enforce the laws. A bill which would allow this action was held up in congress, however, until 1833, when a comprimise tariff was finally passed, at which point South Carolina ended its nullification of the tariff.
The Bank of the United States
Andrew Jackson's opposition to the national bank of the United States (which had been initiated by Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of Treasury under George Washington, and then rechartered byJames Monroe in 1816) is perhaps the domestic issue he is best known for.
Like many Democrats of the day (and following in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson), Jackson believed that a national bank was an inhibitor of freedom and would help the rich more than it aided the poor. Jackson thus sought to abolish the bank and restore private financial institutions and an agriculturally-based economy.
When congress sought to recharter the bank in 1832, Jackson understandably vetoed the bill. The following year, he took his disdain of the bank a step further by withdrawing funds from the bank (as a result of which he was censured by congress).
With no national bank, and with Jackson attempting to invest the bank's money into smaller institutions, and with the sudden realization that paper money and banknotes were no longer backed by the federal government's gold and silver reserves, inflation and debt grew rapidly.
By 1837 Jackson's actions, coupled with several other factors, had driven the nation into financial panic (though by this point his successor, Martin Van Buren, was in office and forced to deal with the consequences), with the collapse of banks and rapid inflation, which devolved into a depression unlike the nation had seen before.
Indian Affairs
Apart from his poor decisions regarding the Bank of the United States, perhaps the most controversial element of Jackson's Presidency was his decision to provide land for Indians in the west. The necessity for this arose when the Indians complained of the states in which they resided were encroaching on their lands. Jackson, however, declared that he had no right to stop this, and that if the Indians wanted rights, they would have to find a home outside of the states.
The Indians, in other words, would have to submit to the authority of the states in which they resided, or move beyond the Mississippi.
While the enforcement of this declaration would not take place until Martin Van Buren was in office (now remembered as the tragic "Trail of Tears"), it was Jackson who was primarily responsible for the policies which led to this action.
Jackson and the Polarization of America
Andrew Jackson is surely one of the most controversial Presidents America has ever seen. While some look at him in a favorable light due to his personality, his honesty and his ability to make difficult decisions. He was successful in lowering the national debt to its lowest levels ever in 1835 (though this was quickly offset by the following depression), and he showed his strength by vetoing more of his opponents bills than all other presidents combined.
While his opponents deride Jackson's decisions as having been utterly detrimental to the American people, there is no doubt that he created an impact.
During his time, Jackson's term was responsible for creating a division in America and opening up the opportunity for a second party to enter the political fray once again. Those who stood behind Jackson became known as Jacksonian Democrats (or simply Democrats), and those who opposed hime took the title of "Whig," which referred directly to the political party in England who opposed the monarch.
The Whigs of America claimed opposition to "King Andrew."
It is somewhat surprising that, dispite this great controversy, with the election of Martin Van Buren in 1836, the American people decided to elect Jackson's hand-picked successor. His popularity has not waned to this day.
References:
Parton, James. "Jackson's First Election as President." Great Epochs in American History.
