WEBVTT 1 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:24.399 Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve Episode five and eighteen. 2 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:29.039 The Age of Jackson. The Age of Andrew Jackson was 3 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:31.960 an Arab that was allowed to be honest with you. 4 00:00:32.359 --> 00:00:35.520 There was argument, there was motion. It was a time 5 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:40.000 when American politics finally burst beyond the marbleholes of elites 6 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:45.560 and spilled into American taverns, newspapers, parades, and polling places. 7 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:50.920 It was messy, democratic, and often brutal, an age defined 8 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:54.119 as much by expansion and participation as it was by 9 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:58.640 exclusion and violence. And to understand it we have to 10 00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:02.359 first start not in water Ishington, but on the frontier, 11 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:07.280 where our central figure first makes his name. When Andrew 12 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:10.640 Jackson emerged as a national figure after the War of 13 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:14.400 eighteen twelve, he did so not as a polished statesman, 14 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:18.400 but as a soldier. His victory at the Battle of 15 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:22.879 New Orleans in January five eighteen transformed him into a 16 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:26.480 symbol of American toughness and defiance. Of course, the war 17 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:30.599 itself had ended inconclusively in a draw or an American loss, 18 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:33.760 depending how you want to see it, but Jackson's triumph, 19 00:01:33.959 --> 00:01:37.359 fought after the peace treaty had technically been signed, felt 20 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:41.799 decisive in the public. He became Old Hickory, a man 21 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:46.000 of iron will forged in the frontier hardship Now. Jackson's 22 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.200 appeal lay in part in his story. Born in poverty 23 00:01:50.439 --> 00:01:55.560 on the Carolina Frontier, orphaned young, scarred physically and emotionally 24 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:00.000 by violence, He embodied a narrative many white Americans found irresistible, 25 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:03.840 the self made man who had fought his way upward. 26 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:08.400 In an age when property requirements for voting were falling away, 27 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:12.719 more white men than ever could participate in politics, and 28 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:16.639 many saw Jackson as one of their own. The election 29 00:02:16.759 --> 00:02:20.319 of eighteen twenty eight marked a turning point in American 30 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:26.319 political life. Campaigning was now raucous and personal. Newspapers aligned 31 00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:32.439 openly with parties. Mass rallies, slogans, and symbolic imagery replaced 32 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:37.240 deferential silence. Jackson's supporters painted him as a champion of 33 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:42.360 the people, while his opponents decried him as dangerous, impulsive, 34 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:47.879 and maybe even tyrannical. This was the essence of Jackson 35 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.520 in democracy, the belief that political power should rest with 36 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:55.680 the majority of ordinary white men, not with entrenched elites. 37 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:01.039 Jackson distrust institutions that he believed insulated power from popular control. 38 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:06.280 He celebrated rotation in office what critics called the spoils system, 39 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:10.479 arguing that government jobs should circulate among citizens rather than 40 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:15.759 to simply crystallize into a permanent ruling class. But this democracy, 41 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:18.919 of course, had major boundaries, and they were sharp and 42 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:25.240 well delineated. Women, Native Americans and African Americans free or enslaved, 43 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:32.039 were entirely excluded. Jacksonian democracy expanded participation for some by 44 00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:37.759 hardening exclusion for others. No conflict better reveals Jackson's governing 45 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:40.439 style than his war against the Second Bank of the 46 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:43.960 United States. The Bank War was not a single battle, 47 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:48.199 but it was a long, grinding political campaign, one fought 48 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:52.960 with vetos and speeches, pamphlets and cartoons, bank deposits, and 49 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:57.439 critically banked withdrawals. It was a struggle over money and power, 50 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:01.599 over who controlled the nation's economy and therefore truly spoke 51 00:04:01.639 --> 00:04:06.919 for quote unquote the people. At its center stood Andrew Jackson, 52 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:10.240 wielding the presidency like a weapon, and across him the 53 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:14.719 most powerful financial institution in the United States. Now, by 54 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:18.160 the eighteen twenties, the Second Bank of the United States 55 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:21.680 stood at the very heart of America's economy. It had 56 00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:26.000 been chartered by Congress in eighteen sixteen, and it regulated 57 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.920 the nation's currency, restrained what it saw as reckless banks, 58 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:35.839 and provided stability in a rapidly expanding economy. To many merchants, creditors, 59 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:39.480 and politicians, the Second Bank of the United States was 60 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:45.600 considered indispensable. But to Andrew Jackson, the bank was dangerous. 61 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:49.560 He saw it as a symbol of entrenched privilege, a 62 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:55.120 private corporation backed by government power, dominated by wealthy shareholders, 63 00:04:55.439 --> 00:05:00.399 some of them foreign. Jackson's suspicion ran deep and per arsenal. 64 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:03.959 Early in life he had been ruined by debt and 65 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:09.040 speculative finance, and he never forgot about it. To him, 66 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:13.199 paper money, banks and credit just kind of smelled of 67 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:17.639 corruption and manipulation. Jackson believed that the bank did not 68 00:05:17.800 --> 00:05:23.839 merely influence politics, it was actually distorting democracy itself. Now 69 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:26.240 I want to back up for just a quick second here, 70 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:29.800 because it had been disputed, really since the days of 71 00:05:29.879 --> 00:05:33.800 Alexander Hamilton's fights with Thomas Jefferson over whether or not 72 00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:38.000 Congress had the authority under the Constitution to actually create 73 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:41.319 a Bank of the United States, and America is going 74 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:43.079 to go through these throws over and over and over 75 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:45.120 again until we arrived at the Federal Reserve, which is 76 00:05:45.160 --> 00:05:48.480 actually in twenty twenty six currently actually again under attack 77 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:51.720 by a different populist president. So the more things change, 78 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:55.560 sometimes the more things stay the same. Now, well, the 79 00:05:55.600 --> 00:06:00.560 Constitution doesn't expressly say that Congress has the power to 80 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.879 create a bank. It does have the power to regulate 81 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:08.240 interstate commerce, and so the question becomes, does Congress have 82 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:11.839 an implied power to create the bank? Doesn't say it expressly, 83 00:06:11.879 --> 00:06:15.199 but in order to regulate commerce, can you create something 84 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:17.519 that allows you to do so? Let me give you 85 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:21.680 an example of an implied power. Now, certainly Congress has 86 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:25.040 the ability to declare war and to regulate a standing army, 87 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:28.199 but doesn't technically say anywhere in the Constitution that you 88 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:34.160 can create uniforms for your army. Now our uniforms necessary 89 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:36.759 for an army. Some would argue yes, someone I suppose, 90 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:40.199 argue no. And that's the question of can you do 91 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:43.600 something which is implied under the constitution or can you 92 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:47.639 only do things which are expressly stated. It's a debate 93 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:50.120 that we've had since the beginning of this country, and 94 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:52.759 we still have it today. But let's get back to 95 00:06:52.839 --> 00:06:55.959 the Second Bank of the United States. The bank's president, 96 00:06:56.199 --> 00:07:02.279 Nicholas Biddle, was everything Jackson was not. He was refined, aristocratic, 97 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:08.639 and intellectually brilliant, which Jackson wasn't. Biddell believed sincerely that 98 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:12.399 the bank was essential to national prosperity. He viewed himself 99 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:15.839 not as a political operator, but as a steward of 100 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:22.199 economic order and growth. Yet Biddle underestimated Jackson and misunderstood 101 00:07:22.199 --> 00:07:26.560 the mood of the country. The very sophistication that reassured 102 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:31.439 elites alarmed many ordinary Americans. Biddle's confidence in the bank's 103 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:36.560 necessity came across as arrogance in a democracy increasingly suspicious 104 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:42.560 of concentrated power. This was a fatal miscalculation. Now, by law, 105 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.439 the Bank's charter would expire in eighteen thirty six, but 106 00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:50.839 in eighteen thirty two, four years earlier, bank supporters pushed 107 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:54.759 a bill through Congress to renew it. The move was political. 108 00:07:55.319 --> 00:07:58.920 Jackson was up for reelection, and his opponents believed he 109 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:01.519 would not dare to vet up such a popular institution 110 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:07.199 in an election year. They were wrong. When the bill 111 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:11.480 reached his desk, Jackson seized the moment. His veto message 112 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:14.639 was not a technical legal document. It was a manifesto. 113 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:18.120 Not only did he veto the bill, but he denounced 114 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:23.399 the bank as unconstitutional, monopolistic, and hostile to liberty. He 115 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:26.519 declared that government should not grant special privileges to the 116 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:30.279 wealthy few at the expense of the many. And Jackson 117 00:08:30.519 --> 00:08:34.360 did something radical. He appealed directly to the voters over 118 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:38.600 the heads of Congress, and so the veto transformed the 119 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:41.759 election of eighteen thirty two into a referendum on the 120 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:45.960 second Bank of the United States. Jackson's opponent, Henry Clay, 121 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:50.919 championed the institution as a pillar of national stability. Jackson 122 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:54.799 cast himself as the defender of democracy against a corrupt 123 00:08:54.919 --> 00:09:02.080 financial elite. Ultimately, the public sided with Jackson decisively. His 124 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:04.840 victory at the polls in eighteen thirty two was as 125 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:08.639 overwhelming as it had been in eighteen twenty eight. To Jackson, 126 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:10.720 it was proof that the people had spoken, and they 127 00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:14.840 had spoken against the bank, and so now he meant 128 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:17.159 not just to veto the renewing of it, but to 129 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:21.320 destroy it completely. In fact, Jackson did not wait for 130 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:25.159 the charter to expire. In eighteen thirty three, he ordered 131 00:09:25.159 --> 00:09:28.200 federal deposits withdrawn from the bank and placed them in 132 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:32.600 selected state banks. His critics derisively call them pet banks. 133 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:37.720 When his Treasury secretary refused, Jackson fired him. When the 134 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:43.120 next secretary hesitated, Jackson fired him too. Only when he 135 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:45.759 found someone willing to do what he wanted did the 136 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:51.000 plan proceed. This was executive power exercise to its absolute limit. 137 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:56.120 Congress protested, The Senate censured Jackson, the first time in 138 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:01.159 US history. Jackson was defiant. He bel leave the president 139 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:03.840 was the direct representative of the people and that the 140 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:09.519 popular will outweighed institutional resistance. Now, Biddle fought back the 141 00:10:09.559 --> 00:10:13.600 only way that he knew how, with money. He tightened credit. 142 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:17.559 He called in loans, and he triggered a financial contraction 143 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:21.240 that meant to prove the bank's necessity. Business has failed. 144 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:26.360 Unemployment rose, but the strategy backfired. Instead of blaming Jackson, 145 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:32.159 most Americans blamed the bank. By eighteen thirty six, the 146 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:35.759 Second Bank of the United States was finished. Its federal 147 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:38.919 charter expired, and it limped on briefly as a state 148 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:44.440 bank before collapsing entirely. Indeed, Jackson had won the bank war, 149 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:50.039 but his victory came at a cost. Without a central bank, 150 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:55.360 to regulate credit. Speculation literally exploded. State banks issued paper 151 00:10:55.399 --> 00:11:00.320 money freely, fueling land bubbles and reckless investment. Just after 152 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:03.720 Jackson left office, the economy crashed into the Panic of 153 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:09.840 eighteen thirty seven, a devastating depression that will haunt his successors. Now. 154 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:13.519 Jackson never accepted responsibility for any of this. He believed 155 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:16.679 the bank's destruction was necessary and just, even if it 156 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:20.879 had been temporarily painful, and the bank wiar permanently changed 157 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:25.919 American politics. It strengthened the presidency, heart and political divisions, 158 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:30.200 and embedded a deep suspicion of centralized financial power into 159 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:35.120 American political culture that persists today. It also raised enduring 160 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:40.639 questions can democracy safely restrain economic elites, or does at 161 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:45.960 risk destroying the very institutions that sustained prosperity. In Jackson's mind, 162 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:48.840 the answer had been clear. The bank was a threat 163 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:54.080 to liberty, and liberty however imperfect was worth the risk. 164 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:00.279 But the question of federal authority and the States didn't 165 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:02.600 come to a head in the bank warp. It came 166 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:06.440 to a head in the Nullification crisis of eighteen thirty two. 167 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:13.000 The nullification crisis of eighteen thirty two to eighteen thirty 168 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:16.720 three was the moment when the American Union came perilously 169 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:20.759 close to fracturing, this time not over slavery directly, but 170 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:24.240 over a deeper, and I guess much more difficult question. 171 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:28.919 Who held ultimate authority in the republic. Was the United 172 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:32.440 States a nation of people bound together by a supreme 173 00:12:32.519 --> 00:12:36.360 federal government, or was it a compact of sovereign states 174 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:40.720 free to reject federal law at will. In this confrontation, 175 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:45.080 rhetoric hardened into defiance, and political theory threatened to become 176 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:49.519 civil war. The roots of the crisis lay in economics. 177 00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:53.440 In the early nineteenth century, Congress passed a series of 178 00:12:53.480 --> 00:12:58.320 protective tariffs designed to shield American manufacturers from foreign competition. 179 00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:04.120 These tariffs benefited northern industry, but they enraged Southern planters, 180 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:07.360 who relied on imported goods and the export of cotton 181 00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:12.480 to them. Tariffs raised prices at home and invited retaliation abroad. 182 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:17.159 The Tariff of eighteen twenty eight, denounced in the South 183 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:22.480 as the Tariff of Abominations, became a symbol of federal injustice. 184 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:26.600 No state felt the grievance more acutely than South Carolina. 185 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:31.399 Where economic distress fused with a long tradition of suspicion 186 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:36.159 towards centralized authority. The intellectual architect of the resistance was 187 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:40.679 John C. Calhoun, ironically then serving as Vice President of 188 00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:46.799 the United States. Calhoun anonymously authored the South Carolina Exposition 189 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:51.279 and Protest, arguing that the Constitution was, in its end, 190 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:55.960 a compact or agreement among sovereign states. If the federal 191 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:59.840 government exceeded its delegated powers, a state had the right 192 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:03.600 declare a federal law null and void within its boundaries. 193 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:07.519 Now this was, of course, not just simple theory. It 194 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:12.360 was revolution and this revolutionary doctrine challenged the supremacy of 195 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:15.720 federal law and hinted at the idea that a state 196 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.720 could secede from the Union if it didn't like what 197 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:24.200 it was getting. Calhoun believed nullification was a constitutional safeguard, 198 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:29.440 a peaceful mechanism to protect minority interests. Critics saw it 199 00:14:29.480 --> 00:14:35.639 as legalized rebellion. In eighteen thirty two, Congress slightly reduced 200 00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:39.480 the tariff rates, but not enough to satisfy South Carolina. 201 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:44.480 That November, a specially elected state convention adopted an ordinance 202 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:48.279 of nullification, declaring the tariffs of eighteen twenty eight and 203 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:52.399 eighteen thirty two unconstitutional and unenforceable within the state. After 204 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:57.960 February first, eighteen thirty three, South Carolina then began preparations 205 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:01.600 to resist federal enforcement by fois if it was necessary. 206 00:15:02.279 --> 00:15:08.000 State militias were drilled and unionists were intimidated. This language 207 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.639 of sovereignty now quickly replaced the language of compromise. The 208 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:15.519 crisis was no longer theoretical, it was real and imminent. 209 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:18.559 This was looking very much like a dress rehearsal for 210 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:23.200 civil war. And now, of course, many assumed President Andrew Jackson, 211 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:27.080 who was both a Southerner and a slaveholder, was sympathized 212 00:15:27.080 --> 00:15:31.879 with South Carolina. But they were wrong, and they misunderstood Jackson. Honestly, 213 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:36.559 Jackson despised the concept of nullification. To him, it was 214 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:41.519 treason masquerading as a constitutional principle. In December of eighteen 215 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:44.840 thirty two, Jackson issued his Proclamation to the People of 216 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:49.799 South Carolina, a thunderous defense of the Union. He rejected 217 00:15:49.799 --> 00:15:54.399 the compact theory outright and insisted that the Constitution derived 218 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:59.159 its authority from the people and not from the states. Secession, 219 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:02.639 he warned, was incompatible with liberty and would be met 220 00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:08.519 with military force. Privately, Jackson was even more blunt. He 221 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:12.080 reportedly toasted with John C. Calhoun in the room, our 222 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:18.840 federal union must be preserved. Jackson asked Congress for authority 223 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:22.919 to enforce federal law. The resulting Force Bill empowered the 224 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:26.720 President to use military force to collect tariffs. It was 225 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:31.080 an unmistakable threat. Warships were sent out to Charleston Harbor, 226 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:35.679 and federal troops stood ready. The nation held its breath. 227 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:40.120 For the first time since ratification, a state openly denied 228 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:44.519 federal authority under threat of arms. The crisis quickly exposed 229 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:49.720 how fragile the Union truly was, and how easily constitutional 230 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:56.320 disagreement could become armed conflict. Salvation ultimately came through compromise. 231 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.879 Henry Clay, the great broker of legislative peace, as he 232 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:03.200 will be throughout the years, proposed a gradual reduction of 233 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:07.079 tariff rates over ten years. The Compromised Tariff of eighteen 234 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:11.559 thirty three gave South Carolina a face saving exit while 235 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:17.119 preserving federal authority. South Carolina then repealed its ordinance of nullification, 236 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:22.279 but in a final symbolic act of defiance, it nullified 237 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:27.359 the Force Bill. The immediate crisis was over, that's true, 238 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:34.920 but the constitutional questions definitely remained unresolved. The nullification crisis 239 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:39.720 also set a few dangerous precedents. It affirmed federal supremacy 240 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:44.160 in practice, but it also legitimized the language of state resistance. 241 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:48.759 The doctrine of nullification had failed, but the idea that 242 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:53.799 a state might interpose itself against federal authority did not disappear. 243 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:57.960 For Jackson, the crisis was a victory for the Union 244 00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:02.880 and the presidency. He had demonstrated that popular democracy did 245 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:07.400 not require a weak federal government. For Calhoun, it was 246 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:12.240 a warning Southern interests could not rely on national majorities 247 00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:17.200 for protection. His focus would soon turn toward more directly 248 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:22.960 defending slavery. The crisis of eighteen thirty two to eighteen 249 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:26.720 thirty three did not break the Union, but it revealed 250 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:32.440 the fault lines that would three decades later tear it apart. Yet, 251 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:36.160 what Jackson remains most famous, or I guess infamous for 252 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:41.319 today in American history isn't the nullification crisis, and it's 253 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:49.160 not the Bank War. It is Indian removal. The story 254 00:18:49.160 --> 00:18:52.640 of Indian removal during the Jackson era is one of 255 00:18:52.759 --> 00:18:57.160 law cloaked in the language of progress of democracy, as 256 00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:00.640 we discussed at the beginning of this episode, advance for some, 257 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:06.359 in this case unpropertied white men, while catastrophe unfolded for 258 00:19:06.440 --> 00:19:09.960 others ie just about everyone else. It is a story 259 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:12.680 not of actually sudden violence, as it not been portrayed, 260 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:18.119 but of relentless pressure, both political, military, and legal, that 261 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:22.200 culminated one of the most devastating force migrations in American history, 262 00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:26.920 the Trail of Tears. By the eighteen twenties, the United 263 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:32.000 States was a land constantly obsessed with territory. Cotton cultivation 264 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:35.839 was spreading rapidly across the Deep South, driven by the 265 00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:40.160 invention of the cotton gin and by sustained by enslaved labor. 266 00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:46.519 White settlers poorered westward, and state governments, especially in Georgia, Alabama, 267 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:50.480 and Mississippi, looked hungrily at native lands that stood in 268 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:54.920 the way of expansion. Five native nations in the Southeast, 269 00:19:55.240 --> 00:20:02.079 the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole, occupied millions of acres. 270 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:05.839 These were not nomadic societies. By an he stretched the imagination. 271 00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:11.680 They farmed, traded, published their own newspapers, adopted written constitutions, 272 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:16.599 and in some cases owned enslaved people themselves. But to 273 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:20.920 the white Americans, this only sharpened the resentment civilization. They 274 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:24.240 believed had not erased Native claims to the land, it 275 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:28.039 had simply made them competitors. And into this moment stepped 276 00:20:28.119 --> 00:20:32.079 Andrew Jackson, the man who, of course, entire career, as 277 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:34.559 I mentioned at the very beginning of this episode, had 278 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:39.640 been forged on the frontier. That was his identity. Jackson 279 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:43.319 had fought Native nations as a general and governed former 280 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:47.440 Native lands as a territorial administrator. He didn't see Indian 281 00:20:47.480 --> 00:20:51.759 removal as cruelty. He saw it as an inevitability. To him, 282 00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:57.000 Native peoples could not coexist alongside American expansion, one side 283 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:01.640 he believed had to give way. In eighteen thirty, Jackson 284 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:05.680 pushed through Congress the Indian Removal Act. The law authorized 285 00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:10.200 the federal government to negotiate treaties exchanging Native lands east 286 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:13.480 of the Mississippi River for territory in the west what 287 00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:18.400 would later become the state of Oklahoma. Supporters framed removal 288 00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:22.799 as humane. They spoke of protecting Native nations from extinction 289 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:27.039 by relocating them beyond the reach of settlers. Jackson himself 290 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:31.319 claimed that removal would be voluntary and beneficial. Of course, 291 00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:35.400 in reality it was neither. The vote in Congress was close, 292 00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:38.599 actually revealing the deep unease on the issue over at 293 00:21:38.599 --> 00:21:42.440 the time, but once passed, the machinery of removal began 294 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:47.279 to grind forward with terrifying momentum. Nowhere was the conflict 295 00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:50.559 more visible than in Georgia, where gold had been discovered 296 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:55.000 on Cherokee land. The state moved aggressively, extending its laws 297 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.960 over Cherochoe territory, dissolving the tribal government and seizing land. 298 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:04.279 The Cherokee fought back, not with weapons this time, but 299 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:08.119 with the law. They appealed to the Supreme Court, asserting 300 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:13.279 their sovereignty. In Worcester versus Georgia in eighteen thirty two, 301 00:22:13.799 --> 00:22:16.960 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Georgia's 302 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:21.680 actions were unconstitutional and affirmed that Native nations were distinct 303 00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:26.680 political communities. That decision should have protected the Cherokee, but 304 00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:31.880 it did not. Jackson refused to enforce the ruling, whether 305 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.519 or not he actually uttered the infamous line that is 306 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:38.240 now attributed to him. Quote John Marshall has made his decision. 307 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:42.759 Now let him enforce it. End quote. His actions spoke clearly. 308 00:22:43.640 --> 00:22:48.240 Federal power would not be used to defend Native sovereignty. Instead, 309 00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:53.039 it would be used to dismantle it. Federal agents pressed 310 00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:57.880 Native leaders designed removal treaties, often negotiating with small factions 311 00:22:58.200 --> 00:23:03.480 rather than legitimate governments. Promises of compensation and protection were 312 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:08.319 made and then routinely broken. Some Native nations did ultimately 313 00:23:08.359 --> 00:23:13.160 resist militarily. The Seminole fought a brutal guerrilla war in Florida. 314 00:23:13.960 --> 00:23:18.680 Others tried to negotiate survival. The Cherokee split bitterly as 315 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:21.200 a small group signed the Treaty of a Chodah in 316 00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:25.240 eighteen thirty five, agreeing to removal without authorization from the 317 00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:29.680 tribal government, and then that treaty ultimately became the legal 318 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:35.359 pretext for expulsion. In eighteen thirty eight, after Jackson had 319 00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:38.359 now left office, but under the authority of the policies 320 00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:41.559 he had put in motion, US troops rounded up Cherokee 321 00:23:41.559 --> 00:23:46.559 families at gunpoint. Homes were looted, fields were abandoned. Thousands 322 00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:50.920 were quickly herded into stockades. The forced march West began 323 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:56.079 in freezing conditions. Disease spread, food was scarce. The officials 324 00:23:56.200 --> 00:23:59.200 who were supposed to be managing the march were woefully corrupt. 325 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:03.559 Children and elders died among the roads, in camps, and 326 00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:06.960 in shallow graves. By the time the journey was over, 327 00:24:07.400 --> 00:24:11.440 roughly one quarter of the Cherokee population, about four thousand people, 328 00:24:11.640 --> 00:24:17.880 were all dead. Similar tragedies unfolded for other nations. Collectively, 329 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:21.680 these removals became known as the Trail of Tears, a 330 00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:24.960 phrase that captures only a fraction of the suffering that 331 00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:29.720 was endured. This was not an unintended consequence of the policy. 332 00:24:30.359 --> 00:24:36.119 It was, frankly a predictable outcome. Now. Jackson, throughout his life, 333 00:24:36.279 --> 00:24:40.160 never wavered in his defense of Indian removal. He believed 334 00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:42.759 he acted in the nation's interest and even in the 335 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:47.160 interest of the Native peoples themselves. History has rendered a 336 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:52.960 harsher verdict. Indian removal was, to many, state sponsored ethnic cleansing, 337 00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:57.400 carried out through law, coercion, and ultimately force. It expanded 338 00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:01.880 American democracy and economic opportunity unity for white settlers, while 339 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:06.759 annihilating Native sovereignty and communities across the Southeast. The Jackson 340 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.559 era celebrated the will of the people, but Indian removal 341 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.319 forces us to ask which people and at what cost. 342 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:17.359 The Trail of Tears stands as one of the clearest 343 00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:20.960 reminders that American expansion was not only a story of 344 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:26.279 opportunity and growth. It was also a story of dispossession, suffering, 345 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:29.880 and lives erased, all in the name of progress. We're 346 00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:33.160 going to see a very similar phenomenon in the imperialistic 347 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:36.880 era in Europe. By the time Jackson left office in 348 00:25:36.920 --> 00:25:41.880 eighteen thirty seven, the United States was transformed. Politics was louder, 349 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:45.160 it was much more participatory, and it was much more partisan. 350 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:48.519 The presidency was stronger, it was more personal, and it 351 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:52.400 was more powerful. Ordinary white men now felt a new 352 00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:56.079 sense of ownership over the republic. But the costs had 353 00:25:56.119 --> 00:26:02.519 been immense. Democracy had been expanded unevenly. Economic instability followed 354 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:07.160 the destruction of the bank. Native nations were shattered, enslaved 355 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:10.960 people remained bound in chains, even as the language of 356 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:15.519 liberty echoed more and more loudly. The age of Andrew Jackson, 357 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:18.079 of course, was not simply the story of one man. 358 00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:21.000 It was the story of a nation wrestling with who 359 00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:24.920 counted as the people, How power would be wielded and 360 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:27.759 what democracy was willing to sacrifice in its own name. 361 00:26:28.359 --> 00:26:32.079 It left a legacy that still shapes American politics today, 362 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:37.839 populist energy, executive assertiveness, and a democracy forever struggling with 363 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:42.680 the limits of its promises. Now next week we're actually 364 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:46.119 going to go back across the pond to Europe and 365 00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:49.359 catch up with affairs there as the eighteen thirties to 366 00:26:49.400 --> 00:27:05.160 eighteen forties become a raucous affair, indeed own the world.