Undemocratic Andrew Andrew Jackson was the 7th U.S. president, he grew up between North and South Carolina in the lower class. His father passed before he was born and after serving in war at the age of 13 his mother passed also. Jackson embodied a strong mental state even with everything that happened to him, giving him the nickname “Old Hickory.” After marrying his wife Rachel Donelson he got involved in land speculation, farming and slave ownership. Jackson was elected in 1828 and got involved in 3 different events that proved him to be undemocratic, Native American Removal, spoil systems, and vetoing the National Bank. One reason Jackson was undemocratic is his involvement in Native removal. He forced the Natives to leave their land. Instead of giving them a say in where they go they got sloppy options that basically sum up to become a slave or die. According to an …show more content…
A spoil system is the practice of a successful politician giving public office to its supporters, meaning it’s giving power to those who would be beneficial to them. In doing this Jackson unevened the power. Democracy is a way of governing which depends on the will of the people, which is the opposite of what Jackson was doing with spoil systems. Jackson wanted to appoint Samuel Swartwout to office. Though secretary of State, Van Buren tried to warn Jackson of Swartwout’s “criminal tendencies,” “The Life of Andrew Jackson” by Robert V. Remini reads, “Unfortunately, Jackson refused to listen. He liked Swartwout because he had been an early supporter…and so he went ahead with the appointment.” Jackson ended up losing $1,222,70.09 to Swartwout. Jackson only chose him because he was a supporter thinking it would be beneficial to have someone already on his side in power. These actions were not democratic and do not stand for what Jackson speaks. He says one thing and goes with another. This is why he was an undemocratic
To begin with, President Jackson knew that before he could input any of his desired policies he had to have a fresh new start in his government. He sincerely felt that Congress wasn’t representing the American people he was always concerned about. At the start of his presidency, he got rid of senior federal officeholders that had previously served under several presidents. He replaced these officials with his own Democratic supporters. This way of selecting people for government jobs came to be called the “spoils system”.
Then, Swartwout stole 15$ million dollars from Jackson. Of course, this hurt the economy. In this situation, Jackson was not thinking about the nation and what's best for it. This also ties in with “Spoils System document 2” because this document talks about giving men less time in office. He felt like getting rid of time in office, Jackson also called time in office “plain and simple.”
Jackson received harsh criticism for acting without the consent of Congress since he had gone beyond the scope of his constitutional authority. During this era of his reign, he is behaving as though he is the king and is obstructing every other thing. Jackson was the first president to declare that the president is the most important democratically elected official in the country and to greatly expand executive power. Furthermore, Jackson had engaged in the Spoils System and Rotation of Officeholders during his presidency. The Spoils System addressed a method of having favoritism towards a person or group.
It was Jackson who coined the phrase "To the victor go the spoils," and the spoils system of politics was born. Jackson vetoed more bills than all previous Presidents combined. States Rights was a volatile issue until Jackson threatened to send federal troops into states that would not collect tariffs. Jackson used these monies to close the Second Bank and pay off the National
Andrew Jackson paved his way to the top by serving in both the House and Senate. Gained recognition as a war hero after serving in the War of 1812. He laid the framework of democracy by endeavoring to make America superior, but the ways he handled the National Bank, Spoil System, and Indian Removal made Andrew Jackson develop into a non-democratic. One way that illustrates how Jackson is non-democratic is supported by the situation that occurred for the National Bank. To begin with, Jackson sent a veto to congress discussing the bank.
This shows that Jackson was an autocratic leader. He followed the patronage and exercised power. This is also shown in the Spoils System document 3. Jackson appointed Samuel Swartwout to the office. However, Van Buren knew that Swartout had criminal tendencies.
Another thing that Jackson did during his authoritarian rule he used the spoils system and replaced many of his advisers with friends. The spoils system was choosing only people you knew and putting them into governing positions. This was very bad for the nation as this would not help the nation for the better, and would hurt them more than anything. (TCI 14)3 You may have thought that Jackson being so Assertive and Authoritarian helps him to be such a great leader, but his using things such as military force and forgetting the checks and balances doesn’t help him and made him more of a tyrant than a president. For these reasons, this is another reason why Andrew Jackson was a very horrible
He just wanted the native americans to move to a different area so that they could take over their previous land. Also, in Indian Removal Document 3, it says that Jackson did not care if some of the tribes went extinct, which clearly shows the exercise of absolute authority. Although all of the other documents show a clear ignorance of others, democratic behavior is shown in Document 4 of Indian Removal. Jackson mainly shows the idea of autocratic behaviors throughout his presidency.
Some may say that Andrew Jackson was a man who only did what he did for America, but was it really for America? The first point we can make about how evil Jackson was what he did to the Cherokee. When the Georgia territory struck gold, the governing body there wanted the Cherokee off the land so they can dig. Jackson agreed with Georgia state. He went to the Supreme Court to issue a Native American Removal Act but the Justices believed that the act was unconstitutional.
“Jackson’s opponents called the practice of rewarding political supporters with jobs the spoils system.” (Hart, 2005). Andrew Jackson started the trend of electing their cabinet members, also called the spoils system. Andrew Jackson made the president job like the most powerful job. Jackson also used many exploits involving the military, including when he created the force bill which allowed him to use the military to force southerners to pay tax.
Andrew Jackson was seen as a common man the voice of the people by some. By others he was King Andrew, trampling the constitution and instigating tyranny. Jackson’s presidency impacted democracy, through his use of the veto power, and his claim of Clay creating a “corrupt bargain”, which is not a turning point for a rise in democracy despite him giving white male suffrage. During Jackson’s use of executive power weakened voice of the people.
Because of these infringements on the rights of the people, Andrew Jackson was not a champion of the common man; the nickname “King Andrew,” from his opponents was accurate. When he was elected president, Andrew Jackson felt that he needed to remove John Quincy Adams’ appointees from office. To him, the clear answer was to replace them with his own followers and friends, creating a government where only one political party was effectively represented by presidential appointments. This use of the spoils system put people who were not qualified in powerful positions simply as a reward for supporting Jackson. He also had thirteen unofficial members in his cabinet to advise him.
This title gave him a boost on reasons of why he should become president. Other than that, Jackson should not have been elected president, for he made many inexpert and wrong decisions such as the Indian Removal. Andrew Jackson was considered a tyrant because of his removal of the Native Americans, overuse of vetoing, and the general fact that he just
Jackson ignored the Supreme Court. He continued forcing indians out the west. This journey is known as the Trail of Tears. One-fourth of indians died from this journey. Just because Jackson was put on the $20 bill doesn’t mean he did not do bad things.
President Andrew Jackson was most famously known for being the army general in the War of 1812 and as the seventh president of the United States. Some argue that he is a national hero, but others claim he is a disgrace to society. Going into his presidency, he was a big supporter and advocate for the common man. Andrew Jackson is a hypocrite. Although Jackson claimed to support the common man, he is a hypocrite because he vetoed the bill to re-charter the Second Bank which caused inflation to surge, implemented the Tariff of 1832, and put into place the Specie Circular which eventually led to the Panic of 1837.