Andrew Jackson's inauguration was perhaps one of the purest moments
of American democracy. As Jackson had run for president as a candidate
for the ordinary man, ordinary men from across the country traveled
to Washington to see their candidate elected president. They crowded
the capital unlike any inauguration before. Fifteen thousand watched
as Jackson received the oath of office, and then most observers
crammed into the White House to observe their house of government.
Jackson, with the help of Revolutionary War veterans, had to fight
his way through the crowd to get to his carriage after the ceremony.
While he had originally planned to greet the well-wishers informally,
the throngs grew too large and Jackson fled from the White House
to Gadsby's Hotel, where he spent the night. The celebration lasted
well into the night at the White House, where Presidential servants
had to carry ice cream and tubs of wine onto the lawn to attract
people out of the mansion.
When Jackson arrived at the trashed White House the next morning,
he set about furthering his agenda. He selected Martin Van Buren
as Secretary of State, Samuel D. Ingham as Treasury Secretary,
John Eaton as head of the War Department, and John Branch as head
of the Navy Department. With the exception of Van Buren, Jackson's
cabinet officers were not, to put it mildly, first- rate–likely
an intentional move designed to ensure Jackson's dominance over
his advisors. Jackson also kept an unofficial group of advisors,
nicknamed the "Kitchen Cabinet," composed of friends from Tennessee,
newspaper editors, and other supporters.
Jackson set about dismantling the patronage system, a
system aptly summarized by one of its supporters as "to the victor
goes the spoils." Many government positions were appointed by the
President or other public officials as a way to reward loyal party
supporters. Jackson believed that such a system opened up the government
to "incompetent hands." The alternate system he supported, though,
did not go so far as to grant tenure to civil service employees–as
future Presidents would–but instead advocated rotation of the jobs
so that no one person would hold a position forever. Unfortunately,
despite the high promises Jackson made early on, he only replaced
nine percent of federal employees during his eight years as President–a
figure that included retirements, deaths, and transfers.
In his first message to Congress, Jackson laid out an
ambitious set of goals: eliminating the national debt, rotating
government jobs, evening out tariffs, removing Indians west of
the Mississippi, and reforming the Second Bank of the United States.
All seemed simple tasks on the surface but contained issues fraught
with pitfalls. Jackson felt that eliminating the debt would allow
the government to distribute the budget surplus to the States and
bolster businesses across the country. As for the tariff, Jackson
had to walk delicately. The Tariff of 1828, passed by Jackson supporters,
had divided the nation: Northerners felt tariffs were necessary
to protect their manufacturing, but Southerners saw them as an
unfair subsidy to the North at the South's expense. Jackson, at
this point, was unwilling to weigh in one way or the other, and
merely referred the issue to Congress for further study.
Perhaps the strangest element of Jackson's platform was
his stance on Indian removal. Considering that his national fame
came largely from his own Indian fighting, Jackson's desire to
save what remained of the Indian culture and move them west to
a permanent area beyond the Mississippi struck many as strange.
He claimed such a move would be voluntary he said, but would allow
the Indians to reestablish their nations out on the frontier.
The prime issue for Jackson remained the Second Bank of
the United States, although he tried to bury it in his message,
referring to it only for seventeen lines. Given Jackson's previous
financial problems with credit, he distrusted banks and especially
disliked the Second Bank's vast influence on financial policy ever
since it helped start the Panic of 1819. The Bank's charter would
have to be renewed by Congress in 1836, and Jackson had serious
concerns about the constitutionality of some of the provisions
in the charter.
Jackson's first major dispute revolved around the tariff
issue. South Carolina, the home state of Jackson's vice president,
John C. Calhoun, had adopted Calhoun's opinion that a state had
the right under the Constitution to nullify a treaty or tariff
made by the federal government if the federal policy caused damage
to that state. South Carolina had only resisted nullifying the tariff
because state officials believed Jackson would remedy it. Other
great minds of the period, however, disagreed with the interpretation:
Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina
had a heated debate about the subject on the Senate floor. Jackson believed
in states' rights up to a point, but did not believe that states should
jeopardize the Union. At a party to honor Thomas Jefferson's birthday,
both sides stood ready. Looking straight at Calhoun, Jackson raised
a toast to "Our Federal Union, It Must be Preserved." Calhoun shot
back a rambling toast to states' rights. The dispute proved to be
the beginning of the end for the President and Vice President.
Jackson had long suspected that Calhoun had supported
the drive in James Monroe's cabinet to censure Jackson for his
actions in Florida. However, he had never acted on his suspicion
because he had needed Calhoun's support to win the White House.
After his election, Jackson sent Calhoun a copy of a letter the
Vice President had earlier written supporting the censure along
with a note asking for an explanation. Calhoun responded with a
fifty-two-page letter that left no doubt in Jackson's mind that
Calhoun was a "villain."
As Vice President Calhoun had a habit of saying too much
and running his mouth, President Jackson figured Calhoun would
eventually do something self-destructive himself. Indeed, it did
not take long. On February 17, 1831, Calhoun published a pamphlet
of the correspondence between the two men over Jackson's censure–enraging
Democrats across the capital. Calhoun had publicly embarrassed
the President, the leader of the party, and in doing so, Calhoun
signed his own political execution order. Jackson wanted to respond
to the attack, but his advisors stopped him: let Calhoun hang out
to dry.
Van Buren offered Jackson a way out: the Secretary would
tender his resignation and Jackson would appoint Van Buren minister
to England, making it seem like a promotion. Eaton would also resign and
Jackson would ask everyone else to resign as well. Calhoun's supporters
could thus be removed from the Cabinet in one fell swoop. Eaton
submitted his resignation first, Van Buren second, and then Jackson
demanded the same from the rest of his Cabinet. Calhoun and his
friends were gone from the Democratic Party, and Jackson could
turn his attention to more important matters.
