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“A TAX ON THE MANY, TO ENRICH A FEW”: JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY VS. THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2015

William S. Belko
William S. Belko*
Affiliation:
Executive Director, Missouri Humanities Council, sbelko@mohumanities.org.
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Abstract

The core concepts underlying Jacksonian Democracy—equal protection of the laws; an aversion to a moneyed aristocracy, exclusive privileges, and monopolies, and a predilection for the common man; majority rule; and the welfare of the community over the individual—have long been defined almost exclusively by the Bank War, which commenced in earnest with the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828. Yet, this same rhetoric proved far more pervasive and consistent when one considers the ardent opposition to the protective system. Opponents of the protective tariff, commencing with the Tariff of 1816 and continuing unabated to the Walker Tariff of 1846, thus contributed directly to the development of Jacksonian Democracy, and, by introducing and continually employing this language, gave to the tariff debates in the United States a unique angle that differed from the debates in Europe.

Type
Symposium: American Political Economy From the Age of Jackson to the Civil War
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 277 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2015 

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