Andrew Jackson And Sectionalism Essay

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In his decision to wage war on the Second Bank of the United States in 1833, Andrew Jackson became unsuccessful in balancing national and sectional interests. The Second Bank of the United States was created in 1816 in response to the First Bank of the United States, which was widely successful in keeping the unity of the states and liquidating the national debt. Getting rid of the national bank would hurt the unity of the nation, stability of the debt within each state and the economy as well. Jackson’s war on the bank also caused sectionalism in the states with the creation of a new political party, the Whig Party, who were opposed to Jackson’s policies. The idea of having no national bank interested Jackson because he believed the bank to be unconstitutional and thought the bank policies favored the wealthy over average people, so this caused more sectionalism between people who supported this idea and people who did not support this idea. The First Bank of the United States and the Second …show more content…

In opposition to the liquidation of the national bank, the Whig Party was formed. Led by Henry Clay, the Whigs opposed Jackson’s decisions because they found them unconstitutional. They did not agree with his ignoring of the decisions of the Supreme Court, which had ruled in McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819 that the rules of the national bank would be upheld because it was, in fact, constitutional. In saying that he had a supreme power, the nation became divided in their agreement with Jackson and the Whig Party was created to oppose Jackson. These different ideologies caused further divide within the states. The American people were already divided in their stance about whether or not the bank was constitutional and having a president who deemed it unconstitutional and an entire party of people who didn’t, that further caused sectionalism in the

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