Andrew Jackson’s leadership was the main cause of political conflict in the US in the period 1829-1837. – Discuss

President from 1829 to 1838, Andrew Jackson was the source of much political conflict thanks to a combination of his belligerent personality and his political views and strategy. In some respects other factors were responsible for some of the political confrontations of the period, for example the Nullification Crisis would have occurred whoever was in the White House. However, it is clear that Jackson's leadership was the main source of political conflict leading to incidents such as the Peggy Eaton affair, the Bank War and the Maysville Road veto. At the same time Jackson created a wider political landscape which not only increased US democracy but at the same time created further political conflict, with the Second Party System and the Spoils System developing during his time in office.

Jackson cannot be held completely responsible for the political conflict during the period 1829 to 1837, a number of other factors did play a role. At the time that Jackson became President the USA was far from homogeneous and was becoming even less so with the North industrialising and becoming more committed to protectionist tariffs, at the same time as the South remained agrarian and highly opposed to such measures. At the same time, in the West small, individual farms were becoming the norm and needed very different things to the more well established eastern states with their moneyed elites, industry and plantation agriculture. In this environment political conflict was inevitable and this can be seen in the voting patterns of the period with the North-East generally pro-Whig and the South and West pro-Democrat. On an even lower level the pro-Democrat tendencies of Catholic Irish immigrants led to Protestant immigrants from Ulster and Britain supporting the Whigs. As a result politics was fundamentally tied to pre-existing conflict and not solely down to Jackson's leadership.

Jackson was not always responsible for political conflict in the years 1829 to 1837, a key example of this was the Nullification Crisis. The Nullification Crisis was a response to the "Tariff of Abominations" of 1828, although the Tariff had been partially the result of Jackson's supporters trying to make him appeal to North-Eastern voters, particularly in New York, it was mainly the result of John Quincy Adams Jackson's predecessor who believed in internal improvements and tariffs and was still not satisfied with the bill that was passed, feeling it had not done enough. The Tariff was the source of much consternation in the South, in particular in South Carolina where soil depletion and competition from new cotton lands in new States were harming the economy and in 1832 South Carolina attempted to nullify the tariff. By attempting to nullify a federal tariff South Carolina was undermining the fundamental principles on which the USA was built and forcing the resolution to a far older question as to which truly held the power, federal government or individual state governments. Indeed the fact that Jackson was President, although his antagonism of Calhoun and his belligerent attitude may have exacerbated the crisis, at first delayed the crisis as his known support of State's Rights and high levels of South support made the South Carolinians hope he would support them. Indeed had Quincy Adams won in 1828 it is possible that the crisis would have been even worse as Quincy Adams may have been even less prepared to compromise on the tariff owing to his personal belief in protectionism.

However, Jackson's personality played a major role in causing political conflict in the USA at this time. This is very clear to see in the way that he allowed personal vendettas and opinions to trigger major political crises. One such example is the Peggy Eaton Affair, which would have been a minor squabble had Jackson not personally intervened. Peggy Eaton was the daughter of an innkeeper and the mistress of Jackson's Minister of War who she married very soon after her first husband's death. Calhoun's wife then told the other cabinet wives to ostracise Peggy and Jackson reminded of his own wife's early death which he attributed to personal attacks in the 1928 election took Peggy's side. A combination of the ostracisation of Peggy Eaton and having discovered that in 1818 when Secretary of War, Calhoun had wanted to court-martial him for an unauthorised invasion of Florida made Jackson reorganise his cabinet in 1831, excluding Calhoun's allies leading to renewed conflict as a result of Jackson's personality. The role Jackson personally played in causing political conflict is also clear to see in the veto of the Maysville Road of 1830, a 60 mile road linking the Kentucky towns of Maysville and Lexington, Jackson argued that it was unfair that the Federal Government should finance internal improvements that only benefited one state and so vetoed the bill. However, Jackson had provided funding to internal improvement projects that were just as local and the real reason for the veto appears to be an attack on Henry Clay's own state owing to the animosity between the two. Another key example of the role that Jackson played in bringing about political conflict in the years 1829 to 1837 is the Bank War. Jackson was strongly opposed to banks, particularly the Second Bank of the United States, which had its charter due to expire in 1836. Jackson felt that only gold and silver should form the basis for a currency and believed that Bank funds had been used against him in 1828, as a result when the Bank applied for a new charter in 1832 Jackson vetoed the Bill despite it having passed both Houses of Congress and. its constitutional legitimacy being demonstrated in the 1819 McCulloch vs Maryland case. The future of the bank soon became central to the 1832 campaign, with Jackson commenting "The bank is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" And the Bank being drawn into the election in support of the Whigs. After winning the election Jackson tried to destroy the Bank by withdrawing Federal funds from the Bank, only to be blocked by two treasury secretaries who he replaced until Roger B Taney, as at the time Congress appointed Cabinet ministers this was a divisive issue seen by many as a Jackson using powers he did not have leading Congress to censure him in what became a highly confrontational issue with Jackson labelling Clay as "reckless and as full of fury as a drunken man in a brothel". It is clear that Jackson's belligerent personality was a major cause of conflict in the period 1829 to 1837.

At the same time Jackson was responsible for the creation of an environment that w highly conducive to political conflict. Jackson is rightfully held responsible for bringing an end to what remained of the First Party system and creating the Second Party system, replacing loose party organisations with little grass roots coordination to organised political parties which needed to campaign amongst the wider population which was more engaged in politics than ever before, by 1840 voter turnout stood at 80% of white adult males. In this new environment politics became much more tribal with people becoming more interested in and loyal to their parties. At the same time Jackson introduced what he called "Rotation of Office" and what his opponents labelled as "the Spoils System" whereby political supporters were rewarded for their support with federal appointments, reasoning that "In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another.". This not only led to opposition from the Whigs who saw Jackson as damaging the U.S. But also increased the loyalty to Jackson and his party as his supporters were richly rewarded, by the end of his first four years, Jackson had dismissed nearly 20% of the Federal employees who were working at the start of his first term, replacing them with political appointees from his party. With the United States increasingly factionalised and attached to their different parties with different ideologies political conflict became inevitable.

In conclusion, during the period 1829 to 1837 Jackson played a major role in causing political conflict. Although it is arguable that inherent differences across the US led to some political difficulties, such as the Nullification Crisis of the 1830s, it is clear that Jackson was the main cause of conflict. Jackson personally played a key role in causing political crises as he did over the Peggy Eaton affair, the Maysville Road veto and the Bank War, all of which were fundamentally related to Jackson's personality. At the same time Jackson was also responsible for creating an environment in the USA whereby people were deeply interested and involved in politics and political conflict became ingrained and inevitable, making it clear that Jackson was the main cause of political conflict in the period 1829 to 1837.