After the Election of 1828, what did Jackson do to government employees?

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the key points of the ballot of 1828
• Explain the scandals of Andrew Jackson's commencement term in office

A turning point in American political history occurred in 1828, which witnessed the election of Andrew Jackson over the incumbent John Quincy Adams. While democratic practices had been in ascendance since 1800, the twelvemonth too saw the farther unfolding of a democratic spirit in the U.s.. Supporters of Jackson called themselves Democrats or the Democracy, giving nascency to the Autonomous Party. Political authority appeared to balance with the bulk as never earlier.

THE Entrada AND Election OF 1828

The biting rivalry between Andrew Jackson and Henry Dirt was exacerbated by the "corrupt bargain" of 1824, which Jackson made much of during his successful presidential campaign in 1828. This drawing, published in the 1830s during the debates over the future of the Second Bank of the Us, shows Clay sewing up Jackson's mouth while the "cure for calumny [slander]" protrudes from his pocket.

During the 1800s, democratic reforms made steady progress with the abolitionism of property qualifications for voting and the birth of new forms of party organization. The 1828 campaign pushed new democratic practices even further and highlighted the divergence between the Jacksonian expanded electorate and the older, exclusive Adams mode. A slogan of the day, "Adams who tin can write/Jackson who can fight," captured the contrast betwixt Adams the aristocrat and Jackson the frontiersman.

The 1828 entrada differed significantly from before presidential contests because of the party organisation that promoted Andrew Jackson. Jackson and his supporters reminded voters of the "corrupt bargain" of 1824. They framed information technology every bit the work of a small grouping of political elites deciding who would lead the nation, interim in a self-serving way and ignoring the volition of the majority. From Nashville, Tennessee, the Jackson campaign organized supporters around the nation through editorials in partisan newspapers and other publications. Pro-Jackson newspapers heralded the "hero of New Orleans" while denouncing Adams. Though he did not wage an election campaign filled with public appearances, Jackson did give i major campaign speech in New Orleans on January 8, the anniversary of the defeat of the British in 1815. He as well engaged in rounds of word with politicians who came to his domicile, the Hermitage, in Nashville.

At the local level, Jackson'southward supporters worked to bring in as many new voters every bit possible. Rallies, parades, and other rituals further broadcast the message that Jackson stood for the common man confronting the corrupt aristocracy backing Adams and Clay. Democratic organizations called Hickory Clubs, a tribute to Jackson's nickname, Old Hickory, as well worked tirelessly to ensure his election.

In November 1828, Jackson won an overwhelming victory over Adams, capturing 56 percent of the pop vote and 68 percent of the balloter vote. As in 1800, when Jefferson had won over the Federalist incumbent John Adams, the presidency passed to a new political party, the Democrats. The election was the climax of several decades of expanding democracy in the United States and the end of the older politics of deference.

Visit The Hermitage to explore a timeline of Andrew Jackson's life and career. How do you lot think the events of his younger life afflicted the trajectory of his political career?

SCANDAL IN THE PRESIDENCY

Amid revelations of widespread fraud, including the disclosure that some $300,000 was missing from the Treasury Department, Jackson removed about 50 percent of appointed civil officers, which allowed him to handpick their replacements. This replacement of appointed federal officials is called rotation in office. Lucrative posts, such equally postmaster and deputy postmaster, went to political party loyalists, peculiarly in places where Jackson's support had been weakest, such as New England. Some Democratic newspaper editors who had supported Jackson during the campaign too gained public jobs.

Jackson'due south opponents were angered and took to calling the practice the spoils organization, subsequently the policies of Van Buren'due south Bucktail Republican Party. The rewarding of political party loyalists with government jobs resulted in spectacular instances of corruption. Peradventure the most notorious occurred in New York City, where a Jackson appointee made off with over $1 million. Such examples seemed proof positive that the Democrats were disregarding merit, education, and respectability in decisions most the governing of the nation.

Peggy O'Neal was and so well known that advertisers used her image to sell products to the public. In this anonymous nineteenth-century cigar-box lid, her portrait is flanked by vignettes showing her scandalous past. On the left, President Andrew Jackson presents her with flowers. On the right, 2 men fight a duel for her.

In improver to dealing with rancor over rotation in function, the Jackson administration became embroiled in a personal scandal known as the Petticoat matter. This incident exacerbated the sectionalization betwixt the president's team and the insider course in the nation'south capital, who found the new arrivals from Tennessee defective in decorum and propriety. At the center of the storm was Margaret ("Peggy") O'Neal, a well-known socialite in Washington, DC. O'Neal cut a hit effigy and had connections to the republic's most powerful men. She married John Timberlake, a naval officer, and they had three children. Rumors abounded, however, most her involvement with John Eaton, a U.S. senator from Tennessee who had come to Washington in 1818.

Timberlake committed suicide in 1828, setting off a flurry of rumors that he had been distraught over his married woman'due south reputed infidelities. Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake married presently after, with the full blessing of President Jackson. The so-called Petticoat affair divided Washington society. Many Washington socialites snubbed the new Mrs. Eaton every bit a adult female of low moral grapheme. Among those who would take nothing to do with her was Vice President John C. Calhoun'due south married woman, Floride. Calhoun fell out of favor with President Jackson, who defended Peggy Eaton and derided those who would non socialize with her, declaring she was "as chaste as a virgin." (Jackson had personal reasons for defending Eaton: he drew a parallel betwixt Eaton's treatment and that of his late married woman, Rachel, who had been subjected to attacks on her reputation related to her first marriage, which had concluded in divorce.) Martin Van Buren, who defended the Eatons and organized social gatherings with them, became close to Jackson, who came to rely on a group of informal advisers that included Van Buren and was dubbed the Kitchen Cabinet. This select group of presidential supporters highlights the importance of political party loyalty to Jackson and the Democratic Party.

Section Summary

The Autonomous-Republicans' "corrupt bargain" that brought John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to function in 1824 also helped to button them out of office in 1828. Jackson used it to highlight the cronyism of Washington politics. Supporters presented him as a truthful man of the people fighting confronting the elitism of Clay and Adams. Jackson rode a wave of populist fervor all the mode to the White Business firm, ushering in the ascendency of a new political political party: the Democrats. Although Jackson ran on a platform of clearing the corruption out of Washington, he rewarded his own loyal followers with plum authorities jobs, thus standing and intensifying the cycle of favoritism and corruption.

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Review Questions

1. What were the planks of Andrew Jackson's entrada platform in 1828?
2. What was the significance of the Petticoat affair?

Answers to Review Questions

1. Jackson campaigned as a human being of the people, intent on sweeping away the corrupt aristocracy by undoing the "corrupt bargain" of Adams'south election, making new federal appointments, and elevating officials whose election actually reflected the will of the majority of voters.
2. The Petticoat thing divided those loyal to President Jackson from Washington, DC, insiders. When Washington socialite Peggy O'Neal'south husband committed suicide and O'Neal then married John Eaton, a Tennessee senator with whom she was reportedly unfaithful to her married man, Jackson and those loyal to him defended Peggy Eaton against other Washington, DC, socialites and politicians. Martin Van Buren, in particular, supported the Eatons and became an important figure in Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet" of select supporters and directorate.

Glossary

Kitchen Chiffoniera nickname for Andrew Jackson'south breezy grouping of loyal advisers

rotation in officeoriginally, only the arrangement of having term limits on political appointments; in the Jackson era, this came to mean the replacement of officials with party loyalists

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-ushistory1os2xmaster/chapter/the-rise-of-american-democracy/

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