Andrew Jackson Sectionalism Essay

Andrew Jackson had a great reputation before he was president as he was known to be the people’s person and a Great War hero. Additionally, he was from the South, and won the elections by a landslide due to common people voting for him. Sectionalism is the idea of an exaggerated devotion of the interests of a region over those of a country as a whole. Jackson's presidency encouraged sectionalism due to the party’s position on opposing the bank war and also their view on the nullification crisis.

Jackson's presidency encouraged sectionalism because of him opposing the bank war. His sectionalist mindset favored the South as he was from there as he made his political agendas in a way so it favors the South. Andrew Jackson opposed the bank as

The South opposed this, as this gave more power to the federalists, and were scared that the government was going to interfere with slavery, and that would gravely hurt their economy. Furthermore, Jackson argued that the bank supported the wealthy class and they only benefited from this, while the lower economic class wasn't favored at all. However, the North believed that the national bank should be open as that helps the economy of the United States. This is because the Bank would be able to give the government a short term loan to ensure financial stability and promote the economy by additional credit being deployed by the national bank. Jackson barely considered this idea in his mind and vetoed Clay’s bill to recharter the bank, as he believed in sectionalist ideologies and due to this he created pet banks. This was when Jackson stopped depositing federal funds in the National bank instead the money flowed through selected state banks issued for their officers loyalty. This led to the

This issue created even more divide between the North and South, and the government at the time favored the South. This all started by congress passing a new tariff that doubled the rates in 1816. In response, Southerners were mad as this negatively impacted their economy while the North was positively impacted by their industries. This made the southerners' agriculture more expensive due to them depending on British imports. Andrew Jackson's Vice president, John C. Calhoun argued that states had the right to nullify any act of congress that was considered to be unconstitutional, as he wanted to boost the Southern economy, and get rid of congress’s tarif. Henry Clay(person on opposing side) allowed little to no compromise, as a result Clahaoun resigned as Vice president to side with his home country. As expected, Jackson's political interests also aligned with the Southerners, and the plantation workers in the South. He forced and convinced Clay to give them a better compromise. To calm tensions down with the President, Clay passed another tariff in 1833 that lowered rates over a 10 year period. Although the president got his way, and the situation subsided, there was still regional and sectional tension that worsened in the United