A Short History of the United States for School UseChanning, Edward
History
A Short History of the United States for School Use
Channing, Edward
United States -- History
302. The Spoils System.--Among the able men who had fought the
election for Jackson were Van Buren and Marcy of New York and Buchanan
of Pennsylvania. They had built up strong party machines in their
states. For they "saw nothing wrong in the principle that to the victors
belong the spoils of victory." So they rewarded their party workers with
offices--when they won. The Spoils System was now begun in the national
government. Those who had worked for Jackson rushed to Washington. The
hotels and boarding-houses could not hold them. Some of them camped out
in the parks and public squares of the capital. Removals now went
merrily on. Rotation in office was the cry. Before long Jackson removed
nearly one thousand officeholders and appointed political partisans in
their places.
[Sidenote: The North and the South. _McMaster_, 301-304.]
303. The North and the South.--The South was now a great
cotton-producing region. This cotton was grown by negro slaves. The
North was now a great manufacturing and commercial region. It was also a
great agricultural region. But the labor in the mills, fields, and ships
of the North was all free white labor. So the United States was really
split into two sections: one devoted to slavery and to a few great
staples, as cotton; the other devoted to free white labor and to
industries of many kinds.
[Sidenote: The South and the tariff, 1829.]
[Sidenote: Calhoun's "Exposition."]
304. The Political Situation, 1829.--The South was growing richer
all the time; but the North was growing richer a great deal faster than
was the South. Calhoun and other Southern men thought that this
difference in the rate of progress was due to the protective system. In
1828 Congress had passed a tariff that was so bad that it was called the
Tariff of Abominations (p. 231). The Southerners could not prevent its
passage. But Calhoun wrote an "Exposition" of the constitutional
doctrines in the case. This paper was adopted by the legislature of
South Carolina as giving its ideas. In this paper Calhoun declared that
the Constitution of the United States was a compact. Each state was a
sovereign state and could annul any law passed by Congress. The
protective system was unjust and unequal in operation. It would bring
"poverty and utter desolation to the South." The tariff act should be
annulled by South Carolina and by other Southern states.
[Illustration: DANIEL WEBSTER, 1833.]
[Sidenote: Hayne's speech, 1830.]
[Sidenote: Webster's reply to Hayne.]
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