The Peggy Eaton affair was an American Scandal in the 1830’s that involves members of the cabinet and their wives. Peggy was the wife to the Secretary of War John H. Eaton. Rumors were that they had an affair with Eaton way before her husband had passed on and he used to be away at sea for extended periods of time. After they had got married, the wives of the other cabinet members felt that she was not worth being part of the political, social status as they said she was loose and gave sexual favors to several men outside marriage. President Andrew Jackson had just lost his wife due to a political scandal based on rumors as well and defended the Eaton’s. He had to sustain his honor and felt that cabinet members who could not control and lead their wives and families were not fit for their jobs. Van Buren gave the solution that all cabinet members had to resign to finalize the dispute. Jackson seconded him and asked them all to resign. …show more content…
He enacted the tenure of office act and resulted in hiring and firing people from the cabinet which was named the spoils system. His political opponents thought that Andrew Jackson made his decisions out of his personal emotions and that he was a corrupt president hence the nickname the spoils system which arose from their critical and disrespectful attitudes. Jackson believed in breaking father to son succession in political offices hence enforced rotation of staff to reduce corruption and promote development. His strategy promoted patriotism as he granted official vacancies to those who proved they were working for the country and would do anything for it. This system opened doors to several political offices and endeavors outside the Whitehouse, which lead to the purchase of offices in various regions and political campaigns for various seats due to disinheriting the positions from father to
Just as the title states; “Family Affair”, this story is about a family vacation, but there is someone that is not apart of the Carlton family, Joe Whitlock. Whitlock is not only an uninvited companion to their vacation, but also a criminal who escaped from jail and is on the run. He is a determined, suspicious and fearless man, that they only find out is an escaped prisoner thanks to their young son.
Amazingly, it is not until President Nixon and his involvement in the Watergate scandal that the Teapot Dome scandal finally takes a backseat as being notoriously known for the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. This paper will illustrate how and why one man in the oil industry could so easily manipulate the presidential election of 1920 in order to set up important cabinet appointments that will enable him and a few others, to reap millions. In addition, there will be important points on a select few people and their contribution, not only to the Teapot Dome scandal, but also to the 1920 presidential nominee, Warren G. Harding. Not only did this scandal involve President Harding, but it also included Albert B. Fall, former Senator of New Mexico, Harry Daugherty, Jake Hamon of Oklahoma, along with Secretary of the Navy - Edwin Denby, the founder of Sinclair Oil – Harry Sinclair, and finally, oil tycoon Edward Doheny. This paper will also illustrate how President Harding was a “sitting duck” due to the greed and premeditated planning of just two men.
Andrew Jackson, revered as the first common man to become President, symbolized the average citizen having the opportunity to climb the ranks within America 's democratic system. However, the profits of Jackson 's administration succeed in concealing his immoral procedures and behavior. Jackson 's methods worked accordingly to the reasoning of the father of political science, Machiavelli, who said, “The end justifies the means”. He achiev...
Richard Nixon was president during 1969-1974 and was the first president to resign from office. During this time there was a scandal known as the Watergate Scandal. It was about five men who broke into the watergate building and stole secret documents. They were caught, but some people believe Nixon was involved. He may have even tried to cover up the investigation using bribes.
As soon as Andrew Jackson came into office, he fired 10% of the government’s employees, mainly from the post office, and placed his own supporters into the vacated posts. This may not have been a problem if he replaced these workers with people who were qualified, but the vast majority of Andrew Jackson’s appointments were incompetent. Thus, the government became bloated and less efficient. Andrew Jackson development of a special system to reward his cronies with government jobs without formal training, demonstrates that Andrew Jackson should be remembered as
Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States of America. His terms were served from March 4, 1829 to March 4, 1837. He was a very religious person. Jackson attended church regularly. The president opened his cabinet meetings with a prayer. When he was general, he would say a prayer before battle to his men. Jackson was the first President elected hailing west of the Appalachians. At the time he was the oldest President to be elected into office. Jackson's presidency defined itself in two central points: the “nullification crisis” and the "Bank War." Jackson took office, The "American System" program helped economic development through utilizing transportation subsidies, and through protective tariffs on imports to aid American manufacturers. A lot of Southerners believed these policies promoted Northern growth and that this was at their expense. Jackson slowed down the American System by vetoing road, and canal bills starting with the Maysville Road in 1830. In1832 South Carolina declared the tariff unconstitutional which made it null and void. The state took steps to block tariff collections within its radius. Even though Jackson favored lower tariffs, Jackson acted swiftly to uphold federal supremacy by force, or any means necessary. He declared the Union indivisible. He then branded nullification as treason. Congress reduced the tariff in 1833, defusing the crisis.
Jackson’s spoils system opened government positions to only his supporters and he had little tolerance for
Andrew Jackson is one of the most controversial presidents. Many regard him as a war hero, the father of the Democratic Party, an inspiring leader, and a spokesman for the common man. While there is plenty to praise about the seventh president, his legacy is tarnished by his racism, disregard for the law of the land, cruelty towards the Native Americans, and ruthless temper. Jackson was an intriguing man who was multi-faceted. One must not look at a singular dimension, and cast judgment on him as a whole. To accurately evaluate one of the most complex presidents, it is crucial to observe Jackson from all possible angles. Prior lifestyle, hardships in life, political ideology, lifestyle of the time, political developments, and his character
Jackson’s inauguration was extremely different from any past presidencies. A rowdy mob of office seekers went insane on the day of the inauguration. Many people wanted to call it enthusiasm, but the real truth was that Jackson’s supporters had been promised high political positions in return for their support, or the “Spoils System”. These promises were honored right after Jackson entered is presidency. 919 officials were removed from government positions, taking away nearly 10 percent of all government positions. The hardest changed organization in the federal government was the post office. It was the largest department in the federal government, and in one year, 423 workers were deprived of their positions, and many of them had records of good service (American 1). This shallow effect in order to achieve presidency would be considered clever and witty, if it weren’t for the fact that Jackson was employing his supporters, who were mostly lower to middle class (considering that he was “the common man”, and so were his supporters). If the Spoils System had taken place with people of a more educated rank, then Jackson could’ve had a support system, while employing his political friends to higher ran...
During Richard Nixon’s presidency, there were multiple events that changed politics, the presidency, and the media forever. The Watergate Scandal was one of the biggest political events in history. Five men broke into an office building that stored thousands of confidential documents containing plans for the Democratic side of the upcoming election. This caused one of the most explosive media outbreaks in American history, and certainly changed investigative journalism and the presidency forever.
Jackson used his power as President to further his belief in a limited federal government. He accomplished this by vetoing any bill which he deemed to be either hindering the common man's rights, or expanding the federal government's power. Ironically though, in trying to limit governmental control, Jackson increased the President's power by vetoing more bills than the previous six presidents combined. These vetoes helped earn him the nickname "King Andrew I."
Jackson was very loyal to his friends especially those who helped him get into office. To reward his friends, he removed experienced officeholders and replaced them with his political friends or followers. This system is known as the spoils system. By Jackson using this system, he is guilty for undermining the economy and politically motivated action. By Jackson putting his friends in the office, meant that he had chance of winning the next election. Using this system also put the economy in danger because of the corruption and inefficiency in the office. Jackson is guilty of this charge because he replaced good working men for his party friends who do nothing to benefit the
The Watergate Scandal was political problem that occurred in the United States during the 1970s. On June 17, 1972 a break in occurred at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon's administration attempted cover up of its involvement. In the morning of June 17 1972, a couple of burglars were caught and arrested inside the of the Democratic National Committee, located at the Watergate building in Washington D.C. this was no ordinary robbery. The robbers were connected to the United States president Richard Nixon re election campaign, and they were caught trying to wiretap the phones. The robbers who tried to wiretap the phones were not successful. more robbers broke into the Watergate building with a new microphone, but a guard noticed that they broke the locks on the doors. The guard called the police as soon as possible, they showed up and caught the crooks red handed and took the to jail. it was not completely clear that the crooks were connected to the president Richard Nixon. There were suspicions that they were connected to nixon because detectives found the white house phone number in the spies junk. In later came that the president was not telling the truth. a few days after the break in president nixon provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in “hush money” to the spies/burglars. Then president Nixon and his aides established a plan to instruct the Central Intelligence Agency to impede the fbi's investigation of the crime. this was a bigger crime the the break in at Watergate this was abuse of presidential power and deliberate obstruction of justice. The watergate scandal was about president nixon and a few secret agents trying to steal secret government i...
When Jackson was first elected, he removed many high ranking government officials from office. The Miller Center reports, “Jackson claimed to be purging the corruption, laxity, and arrogance that came with long tenure, and restoring the opportunity for government service to the citizenry at large through "rotation in office." The open positions created by this had to be filled with somebody. Though Jackson did not pick the most worthy people for the job, instead, he chose people who had helped him win the election and some of his friends to join him in the government. This practice, called the spoils system was very unfair and took away jobs from worthy people to help Jackson push his own personal agenda. Most of the individuals he hired were extremely unqualified too. One of these individuals, Samuel Swartwout, whom Jackson had left in charge of the collections from the New York City customhouse, where half of the government's annual revenue was collected, ran away with over $1 million that he stole while working his position. Jackson's’ spoils system caused corruption because of its partisan manipulation. By hiring people who agree with him, Jackson was more easily able to pass his ideas into
Andrew Jackson had many significant contributions to the democratic state of the country. One of those contributions, as stated in document B, was Jackson’s victory of the 1928 Presidential election. What this election did was accelerate the transfer of power from the national elite to the common-man; the universal-white-men now had a larger role in the government. As the graph in document A shows, the methods of electing Presidential electors before Jackson’s Presidency was for-the-most-part dominated by state legislature, it was during Jackson’s administration by which the people were electing Presidential electors. As President, Jackson sought to rid the government of all its corrupt officials. This is backed up by the information in document D, which states that Jackson believed that the offices should be rotated every four years and filled by the people. The same document states that Jackson believed the president should serve a single term of no more than four or six years; the senators should have similar constraints with subjection to removal. All of this was fueled by his theory that there was more to be gained with the rotation of office holders that the long continuance of them and that office were not created to give certain men support rather than help the people, as ex...