Andrew Jackson's First Inaugural Address in Maryland Newspaper

ANDREW JACKSON

Published by Baltimore, Maryland, 1829

About this Item

Newspaper. Niles Weekly Register, March 7, 1829. Baltimore, Maryland: Hezekiah Niles & Son. 16 pp. (17-32), 6 1/4 x 9 7/8 in. "As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending."Andrew Jackson's election in 1828 over incumbent John Quincy Adams marked an end to the "Era of Good Feelings," as Jackson's supporters became the Democratic Party, while those who supported Adams became the National Republicans. In March 1829, Jackson became the first president to take the oath of office on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. His inaugural address promised to respect the rights of states and the constitutional limits on the presidency. During Jackson's two terms, he concluded about seventy treaties with Native Americans in the South and Northwest that initiated a policy of Indian removal to lands further to the west.Also central to Jackson's administration was the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833, in which South Carolina declared the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional and therefore null in that state. Although supportive of states' rights, Jackson insisted on the supremacy of federal law. Congress passed a lower tariff acceptable to South Carolina and also a Force Bill, authorizing the president to use military force against South Carolina. The state backed down, and both sides claimed victory, but the issues remained until the Civil War, three decades later.The end of Jackson's first term and his second term were dominated by the Bank War, Jackson's opposition to the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836. After Congress passed a bill in the summer of 1832 to recharter the Bank, Jackson vetoed it, declaring that the Bank supported the wealthy at the expense of the common man. In the election that fall, Jackson won in a landslide over Henry Clay.Jackson's war on the Bank, which involved transferring federal monies to state banks, was one of the factors, along with reckless speculation in land and railroads, that led to the Panic of 1837 shortly after Jackson left office.Excerpts:"In administering the laws of Congress, I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms." (p28/c2)"The management of the public revenue-that searching operation in all governments-is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because it will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt-the unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real independence-and because it will counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy, which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to engender." (p28/c2)"Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending; . (See website for full description).

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Andrew Jackson's First Inaugural Address in Maryland Newspaper
• Publisher: Baltimore, Maryland
• Publication Date: 1829
• Binding: Softcover
• Illustrator: Niles' Weekly Register
• Condition: Fine
• Book Type: Newspaper
• Seller catalogs:
  • Inaugural & State of the Union Addresses
  • Newspapers