Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Primary Documents October 9, 2008

Here are the two latest primary documents are group has discovered on the web. 

The first is a letter written by Henry Clay during the disputed election of 1824, in which Andrew Jackson won more popular and electoral votes than his rivals Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and William Crawford, but was unable to garner the necessary electoral votes to win the majority required for gaining the presidency. Henry Clay's letter, found on a website of digital history available courtesy of the University of Houston and its collaboration with several groups, describes the current situation that the election is in. Clay realizes that the election will go to the House of Representatives, a situation which was unprecedented in American political history. He devises strategies by which he could win, Adams could win, and how Jackson could be victorious. Such a letter shows the closeness of the election of 1824, an election which only delayed the rise of Andrew Jackson by four years. 


The second website is on the Nullification Crisis of 1833, and specifically shows a copy of the Force Act, designed to keep any state in the Union and make them follow the tariff laws, even if they are against them. The document, provided by the Library of Congress, shows the law that Congress passed in order to prevent South Carolina from rebelling against the tariff. Both of these websites, rich in content and in primary sources, provide some good information for anyone studying the Jacksonian period. 

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