South Carolina, in protest of federal protective tariffs, adopted an Ordinance of Nullification declaring the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void in the state. President Jackson charged that the state was “on the brink of insurrection and treason.” He sent federal military forces to Charleston, but the crisis was resolved with the passage of Henry Clay’s compromise tariff bill in 1833.
The Black Hawk War began when Black Hawk, chief of the Sauk Indians, crossed the Mississippi River to plant corn on the tribe's old fields in Illinois. Capt. Abraham Lincoln and Lieut. Jefferson Davis took part in the conflict. The Sauk surrendered in August, after many older men, women, and children were massacred in Wisconsin while carrying white flags.
Samuel Colt introduced the “six-shooter,” the first handgun with a revolving barrel.
President Andrew Jackson signed Henry Clay’s compromise Tariff of 1833, which reduced duties on imported goods, and the Force Act, which authorized the use of military force to enforce the federal tariff.
Concerned with President Andrew Jackson’s use and abuse of presidential power, a coalition of anti-Jackson political parties merged to form the Whig Party.
The US Senate voted to censure Andrew Jackson for removing government deposits from the Bank of the United States. Legislators accused the President of having “assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws.” The Senate expunged the censure in 1837.
Texas declared that its “connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic.”
After thirteen days of fighting Mexican troops defeated the Texans at the Alamo, a former San Antonio mission defended by both Texans, including the frontier heroes David Crockett and James Bowie, and a number of Tejanos. Almost all of the Alamo’s defenders were killed in battle or executed immediately afterward. The battle inspired the motto “Remember the Alamo!” which Texan troops invoked in the Battle of San Jacinto, the deciding battle of the Texas Revolution.
The Panic of 1837 began when state banks collapsed as a result of speculation and the issuance of paper money inflation. The Bank of the United States failed and widespread economic distress and depression ensued for five years.
14,000 Cherokees were forcibly removed from western Georgia and southeastern Tennessee and marched down the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. Some 4,000 died en route.