Bank war The political dispute over whether to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States. In 1832, Congress voted to recharter the bank but President Andrew Jackson vetoed the measure and the charter expired in 1836. He argued that the Bank was unconstitutional, a dangerous monopoly, and vulnerable to control by foreign investors, 252
Jacksonian democracy A political doctrine, chiefly associated with Andrew Jackson, that proclaimed the equality of all adult white males—the common
Man—and disapproved of anything that smacked of special privilege, such as chartered banks, 248 nullification A doctrine, forcefully articulated by John C. Calhoun in 1828, asserting that a state could invalidate, within its own boundaries, federal legislation the state regarded as unconstitutional, 258 second party system A term for the political contention between the Democratic party, as rejuvenated by Andrew Jackson in 1828, and the Whigs, who emerged in response to Jackson, 260
Specie Circular An edict, issued by President Andrew Jackson in 1836, obliging purchasers of public land to do so with gold coins rather than the paper currency issued by state banks; it caused the speculative boom in real estate to collapse and exacerbated a financial panic the following year, 260 spoils system A term, usually derisive, whereby newly elected office-holders appoint loyal members of their own party to public office, 251 Trail of Tears The name for the 1838 forced removal of Cherokee and other Indians from
Georgia and the western Appalachians to Indian Territory in Oklahoma and nearby regions, 258 Whigs Originally a reference to British politicians who sought to exclude the Catholic Duke of York from succession to the throne in the 1760s; in the United States after the 1830s, it referred to a political party that opposed the Jacksonian Democrats and favored a strong role for the national government, especially in promoting economic growth, 260
World History
