2004-4-14
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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.
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As we reported in our last program, Andrew Jackson became
president of the United States in March, eighteen-twenty-nine.
Thousands of his supporters came to Washington to see him sworn-in.
Many were there, however, only to get a government job. They
expected President Jackson to turn out all the government workers
who did not support him in the election. The Jackson people wanted
those jobs for themselves.
VOICE TWO:
Most of the jobs were in the Post Office Department, headed by
Postmaster General John McLean. McLean told Jackson that if he had
to remove postmasters who took part in the election, he would remove
those who worked for Jackson...as well as those who worked for the
re-election of President John Quincy Adams. Jackson removed McLean
as Postmaster General. William Barry of Kentucky was named to the
position. Barry was willing to give jobs to Jackson's supporters.
But he, too, refused to take jobs from people who had done nothing
wrong.
VOICE ONE:
Many government workers had held
their jobs for a long time. Some of them did very little work. Some
were just too old. A few were drunk most of the time. And some were
even found to have stolen money from the government. These were the
people President Jackson wanted to remove. And he learned it was
difficult for him to take a job away from someone who really needed
it.
VOICE TWO:
One old man came to Jackson from Albany, New York. He told
Jackson he was postmaster in that city. He said the politicians
wanted to take his job. The old man said he had no other way to make
a living. When the president did not answer, the old man began to
take off his coat. "I am going to show you my wounds," he said. "I
got them fighting the British with General George Washington during
the war for independence." The next day, a New York congressman took
President Jackson a list of names of government workers who were to
be removed. The name of the old man from Albany was on the list. He
had not voted for Jackson. "By the eternal!" shouted Jackson. "I
will not remove that old man. Do you know he carries a pound of
British lead in his body?"
VOICE ONE:
The job of another old soldier was threatened. The man had a
large family and no other job. He had lost a leg on the battlefield
during the war for independence. He had not voted for Jackson,
either. But that did not seem to matter to the president. "If he
lost a leg fighting for his country," Jackson said, "that is vote
enough for me. He will keep his job." Jackson's supporters who
failed to get the jobs they expected had to return home.
VOICE TWO:
Next, the president had to deal
with a split that developed between himself and Vice President John
C. Calhoun. The trouble grew out of a problem in the cabinet. Three
of the cabinet members were supporters and friends of Calhoun. These
were Treasury Secretary Samuel Ingham, Attorney General John
Berrien, and Navy Secretary John Branch. A fourth member of the
cabinet, Secretary of State Martin van Buren, opposed Calhoun. The
fifth member of the cabinet was Jackson's close friend, John Eaton.
Eaton had been married a few months before Jackson became president.
Stories said he and the young woman had lived together before they
were married. Vice President Calhoun tried to use the issue to force
Eaton from the cabinet. He started a personal campaign against
Mister Eaton. Calhoun's wife, and the wives of his three men in the
cabinet, refused to have anything to do with her. This made
President Jackson angry, because he liked the young woman.
VOICE ONE:
The split between Jackson and Calhoun deepened over another
issue. Jackson learned that Calhoun -- as a member of former
President James Monroe's cabinet -- had called for Jackson's arrest.
Calhoun wanted to punish Jackson for his military campaign into
Spanish Florida in eighteen-eighteen. Another thing that pushed the
two men apart was Calhoun's belief that the rights of the states
were stronger than the rights of the federal government. His
feelings became well-known during a debate on a congressional bill.
VOICE TWO:
In eighteen-twenty-eight, Congress had passed a bill that --
among other things -- put taxes on imports. The purpose of the tax
was to protect American industries. The south opposed the bill
mainly because it had almost no industry. It was an agricultural
area. Import taxes would only raise the price of products the south
imported. The south claimed that the import tax was not
constitutional. It said the constitution did not give the federal
government the right to make a protective tax. The state of South
Carolina -- Calhoun's state -- refused to pay the import tax.
Calhoun wrote a long statement defending South Carolina's action. In
the statement, he developed what was called the "Doctrine of
Nullification." This idea declared that the power of the federal
government was not supreme.
VOICE ONE:
Calhoun noted that the federal government was formed by an
agreement among the independent states. That agreement, he said, was
the Constitution. In it, he said, the powers of the states and the
powers of the federal government were divided. But, he said, supreme
power -- sovereignty -- was not divided. Calhoun argued that supreme
power belonged to the states. He said they did not surrender this
power when they ratified the Constitution. In any dispute between
the states and the federal government, he said, the states should
decide what is right. If the federal government passed a law that
was not constitutional, then that law was null and void. It had no
meaning or power.
VOICE TWO:
Then Calhoun brought up the question of the method to decide if a
law was constitutional. He said the power to make such a decision
was held by the states. He said the Supreme Court did not have the
power, because it was part of the federal government. Calhoun argued
that if the federal government passed a law that any state thought
was not constitutional, or against its interests, that state could
temporarily suspend the law. The other states of the union, Calhoun
said, would then be asked to decide the question of the law's
constitutionality. If two-thirds of the states approved the law, the
complaining state would have to accept it, or leave the union. If
less than two-thirds of the states approved it, then the law would
be rejected. None of the states would have to obey it. It would be
nullified -- cancelled.
VOICE ONE:
The idea of nullification was debated in the Senate by Daniel
Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina. Hayne
spoke first. He stated that there was no greater evil than giving
more power to the federal government. The major point of his speech
could be put into a few words: liberty first, union afterwards.
Webster spoke next. He declared that the Constitution was not the
creature of the state governments. It was more than an agreement
among states. It was the law of the land. Supreme power was divided,
Webster said, between the states and the union. The federal
government had received from the people the same right to govern as
the states.
VOICE TWO:
Webster declared that the states had no right to reject an act of
the federal government and no legal right to leave the union. If a
dispute should develop between a state and the federal government,
he said, the dispute should be settled by the Supreme Court of the
United States. Webster said Hayne had spoken foolishly when he used
the words: liberty first, union afterwards. They could not be
separated, Webster said. It was liberty and union, now and forever,
one and inseparable.
VOICE ONE:
No one really knew how President Jackson felt about the question
of nullification. He had said nothing during the debate. Did he
support Calhoun's idea. Or did he agree with Webster. That will be
our story next week.
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VOICE TWO:
You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Frank
Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A
NATION can be heard Thursdays.