TR3.5

Antebellum Intro

Huxley Marvit 2021-11-21 Sun 17:42

#flo #inclass

1 Antebellum!

How did Andrew Jackson change what is viewed as democratic? How did Andrew Jackson change the definition of democracy?

How did the political medium shift due to the emergence of "party politics" shift the trajectory of democracy? (ability? types of legislation?)

analysis of policies as emergent property within a medium medium shift change successful policies

mass democracy!

How did the political medium shift due to the emergence of "party politics" shift the trajectory of democracy?

when policies become about swaying the masses, how does that change their behavior / policies?

How did the medium shift to "party politics" change what types of policies got implemented?

How did Andrew Jackson change the role of the president?

or, much more simply, Why was Andrew Jackson so polarizing? ## outlining

andrew jackson and the shift into party politics.

  • who was andrew jackson
    • ideals
    • how he got elected
  • what he did
    • spoils system
    • dictatorship things
      • vetos
      • nullification crisis
  • impacts: shift into party politics
    • loyalty to party instead of loyalty to person
      • spoils system
    • increased power of president -> increase importance of the common man
      • led into the "age of the common man"
        • shoot up in voter participation
    • change in political tactics to sway the common man
      • slander!
      • polarization!
      • appealing to the common man to get elected

Andrew Jackson was a very important political figure. He had a lot of massive impacts, but one of his largest is how he shifted the very framework that politics operate in. He shifted America into the system of "Party Politics." To understand how this happened and what this means we first have to understand who Jackson actually is.

WHO WAS ANDREW JACKSON

  • Boy Soldier during the American revolution
    • Slash on his head from being captured by the British
    • Continued as a warrior,
    • got very popular because of it
  • ended up running for president
  • Represented himself as
    • a fighter, more importantly
    • a man of people, not of the elite.
    • slash symbolized how he pulled himself up from his bootstraps
  • ran for president in 1824
    • Campaigning to the common people, Andrew Jackson won the popular vote
      • and he also got the most electoral votes
    • but since he ran against three other guys, he actully didn't get the majority
      • and the constitution requires a majority of electoral votes
    • this means, that the decision goes to the house of representatives
      • they vote, and president john quincy adams gets elected
      • and adams makes henry clay his secretary of state.
      • henry clay was the speaker of the house of representatives
      • kinda fishy…
  • corrupt bargain!
    • supporters were in outrage
  • 1828, jackson ran again, and he did it differently this time.
    • slander, mudslinging
    • changed politics into the idea of "running for president" and self promotion instead of "standing for president"
  • andrew jackson won, by a lot
    • inagural brawl,
      • essentially, being the champion of the common man, he opened the doors to the white house and offered them food and drinks
      • trashed the whole place
  • spoils system
    • "to the victor go the spoils"
      • spoils being, federal jobs
    • he started replacing a bunch of the people in the federal jobs with his supporters
  • increased the power of the president
    • used more vetoes than any president ever before him
      • vetoed on political grounds instead of constitutional ones like it was used prior
    • nullification crisis
      • big problem with tarrifs and such,
      • jackson ended up passing something called the force act
        • which allowed him to use armed forces to collect taxes
  • people were very afraid of tyranny,
    • they actully called him king andrew the first,
    • also afraid more specificaly of
      • tyranny of the majority, which jackson actully wanted

IMPACTS

  • through his campaigning and his presidency, he shifted us into "party politics"
    • means loyalty to a party, instead of to a particular person or a set of ideologies
  • spoils system,
    • where you are incentivised to stay with your party and make your party win, so you can reap the spoils.
  • increased the power of the president,
    • president was elected by the common man,
    • increased the importance of the common man
      • called the "age of the common man"
        • shoot up in voter participation
  • change in political tactics
    • because they needed to sway the common man
    • the way they do this,
      • slander and mudslinging
      • polarization
      • appealing to the common man
  • changes the types of polices that parties are presenting the favor the people they want votes from
    • changes entirely how we think about politics
    • all because of andrew jackson.

1.0.1 sources

1.0.2 annotes

  1. the tyranny of the majority

    talks about elevation of the common man due to the advent of politiclal democarcy in the 1820s specter of popular opression get's 'raised anew'

    • idea of democracy is founded on the idea that
      • wisdom of many men united is more than of one alone
    • if one man with omnipotence is bad, then why isnt the same thing true for a majority?
    • lack of a garuntee against tyranny
    • tyranny of majority more dangerous than tyranny of a monarch
    • tyranny of the majority acts on wills!
    • "in america the majority draws a formidible circle around thought."
    • cannot confuse stability with force

    Communicates the fear of the tyranny of majority. Argues that, since tyranny from a single man is rejected, tyranny from multiple shouldn't be treated differently. Says that America has no guarantee against tyranny, and that tyranny of the majority is more dangerous than conventional tyranny as it acts on wills instead of just actions. Creates a sense of impending doom due to the tyranny of the majority.

    From Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop, ed., Democracy in America. Copyright (c) 2000 by the University of Chicago Press. Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press.

  2. The Election of 1836
    • depicts the election as a (fist)fight, in a comic

1.1 ##### South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification (1832)

1.1.1 annotated bib

Andrew Jackson and the Age of Democratic Revolution (2005). Gives background on Andrew Jackson, but more importantly communicates nuanced modern day perspectives of Andrew Jackson. Talks about Jackson's early life and rise to power, namely the slash on his head. Explores supposed paradoxes in Jackson's actions.

*The Tyranny of the Majority. Source: From Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop, ed., Democracy in America. Copyright (c) 2000 by the University of Chicago Press. Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press.* Communicates the fear of the tyranny of majority. Argues that, since tyranny from a single man is rejected, tyranny from multiple shouldn't be treated differently. Says that America has no guarantee against tyranny, and that tyranny of the majority is more dangerous than conventional tyranny as it acts on wills instead of just actions. Creates a sense of impending doom due to the tyranny of the majority.

The Election of 1836. Source: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Uses a comic to depict the election as a fistfight, and communicates the relationships between the different candidates.

*South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification (1832). Source: Paul Leicester Ford, The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States (New York: Henry Holt, 1898), 150-152.* South Carolina's response to the tariffs. Gives explanation of why Jackson had to pass the force act, and how he was viewed as a dictator.