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1301 Lecture 36 Andrew Jackson Part 1 — Transcript

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0:02hey there 1301 well
0:05at this controversial election last time
0:07between john adams john quincy adams
0:10andrew jackson uh nobody got the
0:12necessary number of electoral votes 131
0:16jackson came the closest at 99 but that
0:18was not a majority majorities won 31 of
0:21261 total electoral votes
0:25so
0:26and the election was then decided by the
0:28house of representatives which take out
0:30one vote
0:31and adams wins with 13 states jackson
0:33gets seven crawford four
0:35so adams is the winner and this was uh
0:38done about a month before he was
0:40scheduled to take office so march 4 1829
0:44john quincy adams becomes the new
0:46president of the united states
0:48and
0:49right away his presidency is shrouded
0:51with the controversy of this election
0:54some the jackson people are still
0:55claiming that
0:56he didn't really win that jackson did
0:58jackson did not so you got that going on
1:01now to let your book
1:02page 435
1:05adams supported economic growth of the
1:07country adam supported the american
1:09system
1:10he supported economic growth and he
1:12believed that the constitution
1:14gave the government the power to direct
1:17and encourage this growth through
1:19various projects
1:20if you look at
1:22page 435
1:24the paragraph that starts with
1:27the federal government
1:35the federal government adam stressed
1:37should financing national transportation
1:39system this is internal improvements
1:40that we talked about before
1:43he wanted to create a giant national
1:44university in the capital city of
1:46washington
1:47he supported scientific explorations of
1:50the west he wanted to build an
1:51astronomical observatory and established
1:54the department of the interior to manage
1:56the government-owned lands he challenged
1:58congress to approve
2:00his proposals
2:02however reaction was overwhelmingly
2:04negative
2:06news newspapers charge that adams was
2:09behaving like an aristocratic tyrant
2:12remember the jackson people tried to
2:13portray him as a monarchist
2:16and congress quickly revealed that it
2:17would approve none of his proposals
2:21all right
2:23so he's basically
2:26dead as a president
2:28now he did get one thing through he did
2:29favor
2:31federal funding of the arts and
2:32scientists the sciences federal funding
2:35of the arts and sciences this is in the
2:37constitution by the way article 1
2:39section 8 one of those paragraphs there
2:41the federal government can finance
2:44arts and scientists sciences sorry now
2:47one thing that did get passed was a new
2:49tariff the tariff of 1828
2:52which has been called the tariff of
2:53abominations this is on page uh 436.
2:57tariff of abominations raised tariff
3:00rates now remember a high protective
3:02terror is part of the american system
3:06and
3:07well the south is against of course
3:10northerners kind of favored it
3:12westerners in general were against it
3:14well so it was a very controversial
3:17tariff now this brings us to the
3:19presidential election of 1828.
3:22remember last time in 1824 there were
3:23four candidates
3:25well this time there were only two
3:32john quincy adams ck's second term
3:36and of course the era of new orleans
3:38andrew jackson who's been campaigning
3:40ever since he lost back in 1825.
3:43well
3:44all
3:44right once again during this campaign
3:50the jackson supporters said that adams
3:53wanted was a monarchist he wanted to be
3:55king of america not true they said the
3:58same thing about his father john adams
4:00it was not true
4:02but the jackson people said that first
4:05first casualty of politics
4:07is the truth
4:09and the jackson people said this is an
4:10election between democracy jackson and
4:13aristocracy
4:15adams
4:16jackson was a man of the people had
4:19their best interests at heart adams was
4:21a monarchist an enemy of the people
4:24adams was a parasite
4:27living off of your tax money
4:32he wasn't
4:36jackson harped and harp at the previous
4:38election how it was stolen from him this
4:41would all sound very familiar
4:43he harped at the supposed corrupt
4:45bargain which never took place
4:49jackson was the man of the people he
4:51supported the common man he will have
4:53the interest of the common man at heart
4:57well all right
5:00and of course the atoms people said
5:02jackson was inexperienced
5:05i don't know about that he was a united
5:06states senator for a while
5:08he was a general he's the hero of new
5:10orleans
5:11he said he was a demagogue didn't really
5:13have a program
5:15well unlike the previous election this
5:17one was not in doubt
5:19adams gets
5:2283 electoral votes
5:24uh roughly 510 000 popular votes
5:29zero in there
5:31jackson gets
5:33178 electoral votes he better than
5:35doubles adams's total and about 647
5:40000
5:41popular votes
5:43so jackson is swept into the presidency
5:47all right
5:48jackson wins i remember when we were
5:50talking about the battle of new orleans
5:51i i may have mentioned at the time don't
5:54recall may have mentioned at the time
5:56that one of the results of the battle of
5:58new orleans
6:00it would sweep jackson into the white
6:01house and
6:02well there you go 1828 election
6:05now a little tragedy in jackson's life
6:08uh between in december 1828 after he
6:11wins the election but before he becomes
6:12president his wife died
6:15so his wife never lived to uh
6:18see him become president all right now
6:20for some jackson
6:22some jackson policies
6:28hang on here
6:31[Applause]
6:34jackson policies
6:40first has to do with something called
6:43the spoil system
6:48spoil system in american politics
7:05by the way folks
7:08my cat has decided to join us today
7:12so okay bye-bye
7:17uh spoil system in american politics
7:19there's a phrase that says to the victor
7:20good spoils
7:22in in american politics uh the party
7:25candidates that win party that wins
7:28they then reward their loyal party
7:31workers their loyal supporters with nice
7:34cushy high-paying government jobs
7:38nice cushy high-paying government jobs
7:39the winning candidates the winning party
7:42does this it was very routine back in
7:44those days in american politics and
7:46presidents up to this point have been
7:48taking advantage of this spoils system
7:57and
7:58you didn't to get these jobs you didn't
8:00necessarily have to know anything about
8:01the job
8:04well jackson
8:08he didn't like the spoil system
8:13he wanted to replace it with what he
8:15called a rotation system
8:24this is on page 447 of the book to
8:27dislodge the corrupt
8:29spoil system
8:31jackson launched a policy he called
8:33rotation in office whereby he replaced
8:35many federal officials with his
8:36supporters government jobs belong to the
8:39people
8:40he believed not to career bureaucrats
8:44democracy he believed thrived when newly
8:46elected officials appointed new
8:48government officials
8:49so he wants to get rid of all these
8:51government office holders
8:53but he can't just fire him without a
8:55reason
8:56well he comes up with a reason
9:00he believed
9:02or at least he said
9:04that the longest you should hold a
9:06government job is four years the longest
9:10you should hold a government job was
9:11four
9:12years
9:15after that you become corrupt
9:17i don't know you're sitting there in
9:19your government job and you know years
9:21one two three four go by and you're just
9:22fine and you're doing your job and then
9:25at one second past four years all of a
9:27sudden
9:29oh i am correct now
9:32no
9:33four years by the way
9:35the same number of years a president
9:37serves
9:38what jackson wants to do is get rid of
9:40those people who were appointed by adams
9:43and other presidents and replace him
9:45with his own replace them with his own
9:49people so he comes up with this this
9:52self-serving excuse
9:54four years is the longest you can stay
9:55in a government job because beyond that
9:57you become corrupt
10:00you should no longer hold that job
10:03remember that
10:04four years as long as you should hold a
10:06government job so he fires about 2 000
10:09people
10:10under this
10:11idea of his
10:13and
10:13replaces the spoil system with his
10:15rotation system
10:16and so he fires about 2 000
10:19government job holders replaces them
10:21with his own people and that's the only
10:22reason he's doing this he wants his
10:24people in
10:25all right so he's then able to to uh
10:29reward his loyal workers his supporters
10:35with these government jobs
10:37all right
10:38now
10:39land policy
10:41land policy
10:51remember americans are moving west in
10:53large numbers
10:54moving west
10:56and like we've seen before
10:58a government surveyors are going out
11:00west
11:01and surveying the land
11:04dividing it up into the into the
11:05townships and the sections and then and
11:07then the land is sold at government
11:09auction
11:10well all right
11:11now
11:13jackson had
11:14two
11:15land policies here one was called
11:22graduation it had nothing to do with
11:24education by the way
11:26graduation so land is sold at these
11:28government auctions but sometimes
11:30uh inferior quality land went unsold
11:35you know the the auctioneer would say we
11:36begin the bidding at whatever the
11:38minimum price was at the time a dollar
11:3925 two dollars whatever it was
11:41and people would start bidding on it
11:44well sometimes this inferior quality
11:46land would not sold would not sell
11:49so jackson's idea under graduation was
11:52to gradually lower the price of that
11:54inferior quality lamp you know let's say
11:57the minimum uh price was a dollar twenty
11:59five an acre let's just say it's 1.25
12:02and it doesn't sell
12:03well you try to sell it again at the
12:04next auction at say a dollar an acre
12:08if it still doesn't sell maybe lower the
12:10price to 85 cents an acre it doesn't
12:12sell lower to 50 cents still doesn't
12:14sell lower 25 cents
12:16lower to one cent an acre
12:18and if it still doesn't sell yeah give
12:20it away for free
12:23graduation you gradually lower the price
12:25until you sell it or simply give it away
12:28and again this inferior quality land
12:29could be swamp land could be a lot of
12:31rocks a lot of tree stumps on it things
12:33like that low quality soil that sort of
12:36thing
12:37all right so that's the first thing
12:39graduation gradually lower the price of
12:41inferior quality land
12:42the second program preemption
12:51like i said the government surveyors are
12:52going out
12:54uh to this to these areas surveying the
12:56land dividing it into the townships and
12:58the sections
13:00well sometimes when they went out to
13:01this land to survey
13:03they would already find people living
13:05there these people were known as
13:06squatters
13:08these squatters did not buy the land
13:11they did not
13:12they did not legally own the land they
13:14just went out there found a plot of land
13:16they liked
13:18and settled there squatted their
13:20squatters
13:21well
13:22the government surveyors would go out
13:24there and basically throw these people
13:25off the land well jackson didn't like
13:27that
13:28so he developed this idea of preemption
13:31now under the preemption policy if these
13:34government surveyors came across these
13:36squatters
13:37they would give the squatters the first
13:39chance to buy the land not they'd have
13:42to go to the auction the squatters would
13:44be given first chance to buy the land
13:47at whatever the minimum price was at the
13:48time
13:49if the squadron agreed to buy the land
13:52okay
13:53done deal so you buy the land to land
13:55yours however if the squatters chose not
13:58to buy the land then they would have to
14:00move and chances are the surveyors would
14:02come across them again
14:04and they would make them the same offer
14:06all right so
14:07graduation and preemption couple of
14:09jackson's
14:10land policies
14:13now regarding internal improvements
14:18jackson
14:21was not against internal improvements
14:23remember internal improvements as part
14:24of the american system
14:26jackson is not against internal
14:28improvements
14:30but he believes a couple of things
14:35hang on a second
14:41he did not believe in the federal
14:43government paying for these internal
14:45improvements especially if they were
14:47within the confines of one state
14:50he didn't want the federal government
14:51paying for these internal improvements
14:53he wanted to
14:54reduce government spending balance the
14:56budget
14:58those things economically
15:00he did not believe the federal
15:01government paying for these internal
15:02improvements
15:04he believed
15:05that if the federal government paid for
15:07these internal improvements
15:09that would bring corruption corruption
15:12it would lead to a government so
15:14powerful
15:17i go back he feared that such government
15:20spending on these internal improvements
15:21would bring corruption
15:23and wasteful
15:24spending it would lead to a government
15:27so powerful it would endanger the
15:28liberties of the people
15:30see he believed if the government paid
15:32for these projects then there would be
15:33strings attached to it the government's
15:36going to give these states money
15:38to pay for these internal improvements
15:40but all kinds of strings are attached
15:41the the federal government is going to
15:43tell the states
15:44well in order to get this money you have
15:46to do this and this and this and this
15:48which would lead to a more powerful
15:49government that could destroy the
15:51liberties of the states and the people
15:53and we see this today
15:55government projects or schools
15:58government gives money to public schools
16:00but there are strings attached
16:02government projects in schools they're
16:04stringent tax you want the money for
16:05these projects schools
16:08you have to do it the way the federal
16:09government tells you to do it which may
16:11not be the best way for your school but
16:13that's the way it has to be done
16:15because otherwise you don't get the
16:17money
16:19all right
16:20so jackson had a solution to this
16:22instead of the government
16:24paying for these projects within these
16:26states
16:27under jackson's plan the government
16:30would give the money to the states
16:33you know under the original internal
16:34improvement plan the federal government
16:37would fund an internal improvement that
16:38the federal government wanted
16:40so the federal government tells the
16:42states all right this is what we wanted
16:43this is the internal improvement we want
16:45in your state
16:46and here's the money for it and the
16:48money can't be used for anything else
16:50just that what we say could be used for
16:53jackson said no we're not going to do it
16:55that way anymore
16:56we're going to give the money the
16:57federal government is now going to give
16:59the money to the states
17:00that money now becomes the property of
17:02the states and the states can use it for
17:05whatever internal improvements they want
17:08say well what's the difference the
17:10money's still coming from the federal
17:11government yes it is
17:13but under jackson's plan
17:15the government is giving the money to
17:17the states
17:19and the states can use it for whatever
17:21projects they feel are best
17:23not for a project that has been
17:25mandated
17:27to them by the federal government
17:30all right so internal improvements
17:36okay look
17:40these next issues involving jackson
17:45are going to take some time
17:49by the way
17:50i try not to go over 25 minutes on these
17:52videos because if i do
17:54for some reason the video camera splits
17:56them
17:57and also they become two different
17:59videos so i have to stay like under 25
18:01minutes
18:02and we're at about
18:0418 minutes now
18:06so these next uh issues regarding
18:08jackson
18:10are going to take some time although i
18:11will say this right now
18:13in my view andrew jackson is the closest
18:16thing we've had to a dictator as
18:18president of the united states the
18:20closest thing we've ever had to a
18:21dictator i mentioned this before
18:25if the
18:26constitution agrees with something with
18:29jackson jackson wants to do jackson
18:31wants to do something as president the
18:33constitution agrees with him on this or
18:35he agrees with the constitution then
18:36over andrew jackson is mr constitution
18:39i i want to do this as president and i
18:41have the constitution on my side
18:43however
18:45if jackson wants to do something
18:47that goes against the constitution
18:50well then the constitution be damned
18:51oops can i see that i just did
18:54constitution be damned
18:56if andrew jackson wants to do it
18:59andrew jackson is going to do it and if
19:01the constitution doesn't say that he can
19:03do it so what he's good
19:05he's going to do it anyway
19:08it's going to do excuse me going to do
19:10it anyway
19:11so like i said if the constitution
19:13agrees with him he's missed a
19:14constitution
19:16if he goes against the constitution who
19:18cares the constitution be damned i'm
19:20andrew jackson this is what i want to do
19:22and by god i'm going to do it and we'll
19:25see that in these next
19:28three items that will come up which will
19:29be next time so we'll see you then bye

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