1.
Chief Justice of the United States
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The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices, the eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1789 until 1866, the office was known as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice also serves as a spokesperson for the judicial branch. The Chief Justice leads the business of the Supreme Court and presides over oral arguments, when the court renders an opinion, the Chief Justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the courts opinion. The Chief Justice also has significant agenda-setting power over the courts meetings, in the case of an impeachment of a President of the United States, which has occurred twice, the Chief Justice presides over the trial in the Senate. In modern tradition, the Chief Justice also has the duty of administering the oath of office of the President of the United States. The first Chief Justice was John Jay, the 17th and current Chief Justice is John G. Roberts, Jr. The office was known as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and is still informally referred to using that title. However,28 U. S. C. §1 specifies that the title is Chief Justice of the United States, the title was changed from Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Congress in 1866 at the suggestion of the sixth Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase. Chase wished to emphasize the Supreme Courts role as a branch of government. The first Chief Justice commissioned using the new title was Melville Fuller in 1888, use of the previous title when referring to Chief Justices John Jay through Roger B. Taney is technically correct, as that was the title during their time on the court. The other eight members of the court are officially Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Chief Justice is the only member of the court to whom the Constitution refers as a Justice, and only in Article I. Article III of the Constitution refers to all members of the Supreme Court simply as Judges, the Chief Justice is nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed to sit on the Court by the United States Senate. The salary of the Chief Justice is set by Congress, the Constitution prohibits Congress from lowering the salary of any judge, including the Chief Justice, while that judge holds office. As of 2015, the salary is $258,100 per year, which is higher than that of the Associate Justices. Three serving Associate Justices have received promotions to Chief Justice, Edward Douglass White in 1910, Harlan Fiske Stone in 1941, Associate Justice Abe Fortas was nominated to the position of Chief Justice of the United States, but his nomination was filibustered by Senate Republicans in 1968. Despite the failed nomination, Fortas remained an Associate Justice until his resignation the following year, there have been 21 individuals nominated for Chief Justice, of whom 17 have been confirmed by the Senate, although a different 17 have served
2.
Old Supreme Court Chamber
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The Old Supreme Court Chamber is the room on the ground floor of the North Wing of the United States Capitol. From 1800 to 1806, the room was the half of the first United States Senate chamber, and from 1810 to 1860. Construction on the North Wing began in 1793 with the laying of the cornerstone by President George Washington, although interior work was unfinished, the Senate relocated from Philadelphia in November 1800. The interior of the chamber, including an upper level public gallery, was completed early in 1805. Its completion allowed the Federal government to move to Washington, D. C, the North Wing, as the only completed section of the Capitol, originally hosted both houses of the United States Congress, the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court. In addition to the Chase trial, the chamber was the location of President Thomas Jeffersons inauguration in 1801, however, by 1806, the North Wing was already deteriorating from heavy use and required repairs. The Architect of the Capitol at the time, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the upper half would serve as a new chamber for the Senate, and the lower half would be used for the Supreme Court. In 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first Morse coded message—which read What hath God wrought. —from this room, the size and structure of Latrobes vaulted, semicircular ceiling were virtually unprecedented in the United States. The room is 50 feet deep and 74 feet, eight inches wide, construction began in November 1806 with the gutting of the former two-story Senate Chamber and rooms above it, and lasted until 1810. The process was not without tragedy, when an assistant to Latrobe, John Lenthall, the result was that the unfinished masonry ceiling collapsed crushing Lenthall in the process. Lenthalls death was a setback, not only to construction, but to Latrobes reputation as an architect, which he struggled to rebuild for the rest of his career. The Supreme Court barely had the opportunity to hear cases in the chamber, despite the disaster which left much of the North Wing gutted, the chamber with its vaulted ceiling survived. With safety in mind, however, Latrobe ordered the broken down. Latrobe resigned two years later, and it was under his successor, Charles Bulfinch, that the chamber was completed in 1819, the Supreme Court resided in the chamber for the next forty-one years, until 1860. In that time period, the court arguments on such landmark cases as McCulloch v. Maryland, Gibbons v. Ogden, Dred Scott v. Sandford. Two Chief Justices—John Marshall and Roger Taney—presided over the Supreme Court in the chamber, upon the departure of the Supreme Court to the Old Senate Chamber upstairs in 1860, the chamber was put to use as the Law Library of Congress until 1941. Still existing furnishings in the possession of the United States Capitol were sent to the chamber, by 1975, the chamber was opened to the public and has served as a museum ever since. There are several pieces of artwork in the Old Supreme Court Chamber
3.
Supreme Court of the United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
4.
John Adams
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John Adams was an American patriot who served as the second President of the United States and the first Vice President. He was a lawyer, diplomat, statesman, political theorist, and, as a Founding Father and he was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and closest advisor Abigail. He collaborated with his cousin, revolutionary leader Samuel Adams, Adams was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, where he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, as a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and acquired vital governmental loans from Amsterdam bankers. Adams was the author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which influenced American political theory. Adamss credentials as a revolutionary secured for him two terms as President George Washingtons vice president and also his own election in 1796 as the second president. In his single term as president, he encountered fierce criticism from the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party, led by his rival Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army, the major accomplishment of his presidency was a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamiltons opposition. Due to his strong posture on defense, Adams is often called the father of the American Navy and he was the first U. S. president to reside in the executive mansion, now known as the White House. In 1800, Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts and he eventually resumed his friendship with Jefferson upon the latters own retirement by initiating a correspondence which lasted fourteen years. He and his wife established a family of politicians, diplomats, Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. He died on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Modern historians in the aggregate have favorably ranked his administration, John Adams was born on October 30,1735 to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two brothers, Peter and Elihu. Adams birthplace was then in Braintree, Massachusetts, and is preserved at Adams National Historical Park, Adams mother was from a leading medical family of present-day Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a Congregationalist deacon, a farmer, a cordwainer, the Deacon also served as a selectman and supervised the building of schools and roads. Adams often praised his father and recalled their close relationship, though raised in modest surroundings, Adams felt an acute responsibility to live up to his familys heritage of reverence. Journalist Richard Brookhiser wrote that Adams Puritan ancestors believed they lived in the Bible, England under the Stuarts was Egypt, they were Israel fleeing
5.
Alexander Hamilton
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Alexander Hamilton was an American statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the author of the economic policies of the George Washington administration. He took the lead in the funding of the debts by the Federal government, as well as the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs. His vision included a central government led by a vigorous executive branch. This was challenged by Virginia agrarians Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who formed a rival party and they favored strong states based in rural America and protected by state militias as opposed to a strong national army and navy. They denounced Hamilton as too friendly toward Britain and toward monarchy in general, Hamilton was born out of wedlock in Charlestown, to a married mother of British and French Huguenot ancestry and a Scottish father. His father, James A. Hamilton, was the son of laird Alexander Hamilton of Grange. Orphaned as a child by his mothers death and his fathers abandonment, Hamilton was taken in by an older cousin and he was recognized for his intelligence and talent, and sponsored by a group of wealthy local men to travel to New York City to pursue his education. Hamilton attended Kings College, choosing to stay in the Thirteen Colonies to seek his fortune, discontinuing his studies before graduating when the college closed its doors during British occupation of the city, Hamilton played a major role in the American Revolutionary War. At the start of the war in 1775, he joined a militia company, in early 1776, he raised a provincial artillery company, to which he was appointed captain. He soon became the aide to General Washington, the American forces commander-in-chief. Hamilton was dispatched by Washington on numerous missions to convey plans to his generals, after the war, Hamilton was elected as a representative to the Congress of the Confederation from New York. He resigned to practice law, and founded the Bank of New York, Hamilton was among those dissatisfied with the weak national government. He led the Annapolis Convention, which successfully influenced Congress to issue a call for the Philadelphia Convention in order to create a new constitution, Hamilton became the leading cabinet member in the new government under President Washington. These programs were funded primarily by a tariff on imports, to overcome localism, Hamilton mobilized a nationwide network of friends of the government, especially bankers and businessmen, which became the Federalist Party. A major issue in the emergence of the American two-party system was the Jay Treaty and it established friendly trade relations with Britain, to the chagrin of France and the supporters of the French Revolution. Hamilton played a role in the Federalist party, which dominated national. In 1795, he returned to the practice of law in New York and he tried to control the policies of President Adams
6.
Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he was elected the second Vice President of the United States, Jefferson was primarily of English ancestry, born and educated in colonial Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law and he became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nations first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System, as President, Jefferson pursued the nations shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the countrys territory, as a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. Jeffersons second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U. S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory. Jefferson mastered many disciplines, which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and he was a proven architect in the classical tradition. Jeffersons keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society and he shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. He was well versed in linguistics and spoke several languages and he founded the University of Virginia after retiring from public office. He was a letter writer and corresponded with many prominent and important people throughout his adult life. His only full-length book is Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson owned several plantations which were worked by hundreds of slaves. Most historians now believe that, after the death of his wife in 1782, he had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. Various modern scholars are more critical of Jeffersons private life, pointing out the discrepancy between his ownership of slaves and his political principles, for example. Presidential scholars, however, consistently rank Jefferson among the greatest presidents, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13,1743, at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent and was born a British subject and his father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen, his mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of a friend who had named him guardian of his children, the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757, his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph. Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello and he assumed full authority over his property at age 21
7.
James Monroe
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James Monroe was an American statesman who served from 1817 to 1825 as the fifth President of the United States. Monroe was the last president among the Founding Fathers of the United States as well as the Virginian dynasty, born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Monroe was of the planter class and fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was wounded in the Battle of Trenton with a ball to his shoulder. After studying law under Thomas Jefferson from 1780 to 1783, he served as a delegate in the Continental Congress. He took a part in the new government, and in 1790 he was elected to the Senate of the first United States Congress. He gained experience as an executive as the Governor of Virginia and rose to prominence as a diplomat in France. During the War of 1812, Monroe served in roles as Secretary of State. As president, he sought to ease tensions, embarking on a tour of the country that was well received. As nationalism surged, partisan fury subsided, and the Era of Good Feelings ensued, until the Panic of 1819 struck, and a dispute over the admission of Missouri embroiled the country in 1820. Monroe supported the founding of colonies in Africa for freed slaves that would form the nation of Liberia, whose capital. His presidency concluded the first period of American presidential history before the beginning of Jacksonian democracy, following his retirement in 1825, Monroe was plagued by financial difficulties. He died in New York City on July 4,1831 and he has been ranked in the aggregate by scholars as the 16th most successful president. James Monroe was born on April 28,1758, in his parents house located in a area of Westmoreland County. The marked site is one mile from the community known today as Monroe Hall. The James Monroe Family Home Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and his father Spence Monroe was a moderately prosperous planter who also practiced carpentry. His mother Elizabeth Jones married Spence Monroe in 1752 and they had several children and his paternal great-grandfather Patrick Andrew Monroe emigrated to America from Scotland in the mid-17th century. In 1650 he patented a large tract of land in Washington Parish, Westmoreland County, also among James Monroes ancestors were French Huguenot immigrants, who came to Virginia in 1700. First tutored at home by his mother Elizabeth, between the ages of 11 and 16, the young Monroe studied at Campbelltown Academy, a run by Reverend Archibald Campbell of Washington Parish
8.
John Quincy Adams
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John Quincy Adams was an American statesman who served as a diplomat, United States Senator, member of the House of Representatives, and was the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican and he was the son of President John Adams and Abigail Adams and thus contributed to the formation of the Adams political family. Adams shaped U. S. foreign policy using his ardently nationalist commitment to U. S. republican values, as a diplomat, Adams played an important role in negotiating key treaties, most notably the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. As Secretary of State, he negotiated with Britain over the United States northern border with Canada, negotiated with Spain the annexation of Florida, historians generally concur that he was one of the greatest diplomats and secretaries of state in American history. Adams was elected president in a close and controversial four-way contest in 1824, as president he sought to modernize the American economy and promote education. Adams enacted a part of his agenda and paid off much of the national debt, however he was stymied time and again by a Congress controlled by opponents, and his lack of patronage networks helped politicians sabotage him. He lost his 1828 bid for re-election to Andrew Jackson, after leaving office, he was elected as U. S. Representative from Massachusetts in 1830, serving for the last 17 years of his life with greater acclaim than he had achieved as president, animated by his growing revulsion against slavery, Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power. Adams predicted the Unions dissolution over slavery, and in such a case, historians have in the aggregate ranked Adams as the 21st most successful president. John Quincy Adams was born on July 11,1767, to John Adams and he was named for his mothers maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, after whom Quincy, Massachusetts, is named. Young Adams was educated by private tutors – his cousin James Thaxter and his fathers law clerk and he soon began to exhibit his literary skills in 1779, when he initiated a diary which he kept until just before he died in 1848. The diary comprised an unprecedented fifty volumes, representing one of the most extensive, much of Adams youth was spent accompanying his father overseas. He accompanied his father on diplomatic missions to France from 1778 until 1779, Adams acquired an education at institutions such as Leiden University. He matriculated in Leiden on January 10,1781, for nearly three years, beginning at the age of 14, he accompanied Francis Dana as a secretary on a mission to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to obtain recognition of the new United States. He spent time in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark and, in 1804, during these years overseas, Adams became fluent in French and Dutch and became familiar with German and other European languages. Though Adams enjoyed Europe, he and his family decided he needed to return to the United States to complete his education and he entered Harvard College, graduated in 1787 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and was elected by Phi Beta Kappa. Adams, mainly with the influence of his father, had excelled in studies and reached fluency in Latin. Upon entering Harvard he had already translated Virgil, Horace, Plutarch, after graduating from Harvard, he studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, Massachusetts from 1787 to 1789
9.
John J. Crittenden
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John Jordan Crittenden was a politician from the U. S. state of Kentucky. He was also the 17th governor of Kentucky and served in the state legislature, although frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the U. S. presidency, he never consented to run for the office. During his early career, Crittenden served in the Kentucky House of Representatives and was chosen as speaker on several occasions. With the advent of the Second Party System, he allied with the National Republican Party and was a fervent supporter of Henry Clay and opponent of Democrats Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. He was returned to the Senate in 1842, serving until 1848, Taylor was elected, but Crittenden refused a post in his cabinet, fearing he would be charged with making a corrupt bargain, as Clay had been in 1825. Following Taylors death in 1850, Crittenden resigned the governorship and accepted Millard Fillmores appointment as attorney general, as the Whig Party crumbled in the mid-1850s, Crittenden joined the Know Nothing Party. After the expiration of his term as general, he was again elected to the U. S. Senate. In December 1860, he authored the Crittenden Compromise, a series of resolutions and constitutional amendments he hoped would avert the Civil War, one of Crittendens sons, George B. Crittenden, became a general in the Confederate Army, another son, Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, became a general in the Union Army. The elder Crittenden was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1861, however, he criticized many of the policies of President Abraham Lincoln and the U. S. Congress, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the admission of West Virginia to the Union. He continued to work for reconciliation of the states throughout his time in office and he declared his candidacy for re-election to the House in 1863, but died before the election took place. John Jordan Crittenden was born September 10,1787, near Versailles and he was the second child and first son of Revolutionary War veteran John Crittenden and his wife Judith Harris. John and Judith Crittenden had four sons and five daughters, all, on his fathers side, he was of Welsh ancestry, while his mothers family was French Huguenot. His father had surveyed land in Kentucky with George Rogers Clark, two of Crittendens brothers, Thomas and Robert, became lawyers, while the third, Henry, was a farmer. Crittenden began a college preparatory curriculum at Pisgah Academy in Woodford County and he was then sent to a boarding school in Jessamine County. Among his classmates were Thomas Alexander Marshall and Francis P. Blair, Crittenden became especially close friends with Blair, and later political differences did little to diminish their friendship. After a year at boarding school, Crittenden moved to the Lexington, Kentucky and he began his tertiary studies at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. During his brief tenure there, he studied mathematics and belles-lettres, Crittenden was dissatisfied with the curriculum at Washington College and matriculated to the College of William and Mary
10.
Andrew Jackson
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Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837 and was the founder of the Democratic Party. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson served in Congress, as president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the common man against what he saw as a corrupt aristocracy and to preserve the Union. Jackson was born in 1767 somewhere near the border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson acted as a courier, at age 13, he was captured and mistreated by the British. He moved to Tennessee and practiced as a lawyer, in 1791, he married Rachel Donelson Robards. The couple later learned that Rachels previous husband had failed to finalize their divorce, Jackson served briefly in the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate. Upon returning to Tennessee, he was appointed a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court, in 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, and was elected its commander the following year. He built the Hermitage plantation in 1804, in 1806, he killed a man in a duel over a matter of honor regarding his wife. He led Tennessee militia and U. S. Army regulars during the Creek War of 1813-1814, Jackson won a decisive victory in the War of 1812 over the British army at the Battle of New Orleans, making him into a national hero. Because Spanish Florida was a refuge for blacks escaping slavery, who allied with the Seminole Indians, Jackson invaded the territory in 1816 to destroy the Negro Fort. He led an invasion in 1818, as part of the First Seminole War, resulting in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. Jackson briefly served as Floridas first Territorial Governor in 1821, Jackson was nominated by several state legislatures to be a candidate for president in 1824. Although he earned a plurality in both the electoral and popular vote against three major candidates, Jackson failed to get a majority and lost in the House of Representatives to John Quincy Adams, Jacksons supporters founded what became the Democratic Party. He ran again for president in 1828 against Adams, building and expanding upon his base of support in the West and South, he won in a landslide. He blamed the death of his wife, Rachel, which occurred after the election, on the Adams campaigners, as president, Jackson faced a threat of secession by South Carolina over the Tariff of Abominations, which Congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union or to nullify federal law. The Nullification Crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and Jackson threatened the use of force if South Carolina attempted to secede. Jackson believed strongly in majority rule and he supported direct election of senators and abolition of the Electoral College, believing that these reforms would provide average citizens with greater power
