Jackson And The Trail Of Tears

For the next four years, the split in the Democratic-Republican Party
between the supporters of Jackson and of Adams grew wider. Jackson
claimed to represent the “common man.” He said Adams represented a
group of privileged, wealthy Easterners.

In 1838, federal troops commanded by General Winfield Scott rounded
up about 16,000 Cherokees and forced them into camps. Soldiers took
people from their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.Over
the fall and winter of 1838–1839, these Cherokees set out on the long journey
west. Forced to march in the cold, rain, and snow without adequate
clothing, many grew weak and ill. One-fourth died.
This harsh journey of the Cherokee from their homeland
to Indian Territory became known as the Trail of Tears.

In 1830, Congress passed THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT to authorize the government to negotiate treaties that would force Native Americans to move west.

The rise in the money supply made each dollar
worth less. As a result, prices rose. Inflation, which is an increase in
prices and decrease in the value of money, was the outcome. To fight
inflation, Jackson issued an order that required people to pay in gold or
silver for public lands.

Jackson’s inauguration began a new political era. In his campaign, he
had promised to reform government. He started by replacing many
government officials with his supporters. This practice of giving government
jobs to political backers became known as the spoils system.

For 12 years, a brilliant Cherokee named Sequoya (sih KWOY uh) tried to
find a way to “teach the Cherokees to talk on paper like the white man.”
In 1821, he reached his goal. Sequoya invented a writing system for the
Cherokee language without ever having learned to read or write in any
other language.

Martin Van Buren, was elected president
in 1836. Within a few months after Van Buren
took office, a panic—a widespread fear about the state
of the economy—spread throughout the country. It
became known as the Panic of 1837.

A band of Seminoles led by OSCEOLA hid in the Everglades and used guerrilla tactics to defeat the U.S. Army.

He promised to look out
for the interests of common people. He also promoted the concept of
majority rule. The idea of spreading political power to all the people and
ensuring majority rule became known as Jacksonian democracy.

Yet tariffs forced them
to pay high prices for manufactured goods. Southerners felt that
the economic interests of the Northeast were determining national
policy. They hated the tariff and called it the Tariff of Abominations.

He supported
the need for a strong central government and became something of a
hero to the nation’s young people. He spoke out against sectionalism.
But Calhoun’s concern for the economic and political well-being of his
home state of South Carolina, and the South in general, later caused
him to change his beliefs.

Under the treaties, Native Americans would be moved to an area that covered what is now Oklahoma and parts of Kansas and Nebraska. This area came to be called Indian Territory.

When the government tried to
get its money from the state banks, the banks could not
pay. The banks defaulted, or went out of business. A
depression, or severe economic slump, followed.