During Andrew Jackson's presidency, he enacted an abundance of policies such as expanding voting rights, extending the country's borders, and the spoils system, which benefited the common man. The policy of expanded voting rights reflected Jackson's belief that the common white man should be more involved in the democratic process. The westward expansion brought new land, resources, and opportunities for the common man, but had an unfortunate outcome for the native Americans. President Jackson favored the spoils system, which was a system where he rewarded those who were loyal to him. Thus giving the position in government to the common man instead of the wealthy. Andrew Jackson was the image of the common man: he was a slave owner, fought in the revolutionary war, and participated in many battles, had a reasonable amount of education.
Andrew Jackson mistreated the rich and wrote them off. Andrew Jackson shut down the national bank which hurt many of the upper class people's economic status. Andrew Jackson killed thousands of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears. Jackson forced them off their native land and made them travel thousands of miles with only the clothes in their back. Jackson built his own side cabinet and the spoils system which caused America to loose millions of dollars. Andrew Jackson was not democratic in today's standards because he ignored the rich, killed thousands of Native Americans by forcing them off their land, and he built his own government to please
Jackson used slaves for much of his adult life, for helping. He was firm but fair to his slaves. In document A, it shows as he was serving as president he owned about 150 slaves. And as this was taking place he was strongly against abolitionist or people who sought the immediate end of slavery. He thought these people would lead to slave revolts, sectional conflicts which means the north and south would split and possible disunion. Jackson is undemocratic because slaves are
Vetoing is to allow or reject a decision or proposal made by a law-making body. The overall reason Jackson is known to be a tyrant is his abuse of power. The amount of vetoes he confirmed truly justifies the fact that he took advantage of his power. “The Second Bank of the United States was founded in 1816 and had a 20-year charter approved by congress that gave it the power to act exclusively as the federal government’s financial agent.” (Source 4) This is just one of the many examples of Jackson’s vetoes. While Jackson vetoed 12 bills in his time of presidency, other presidents at the time vetoed either none or no more than about 7. At the time, 12 vetoes was quite a lot compared to the other presidents. He had vetoes so many laws because he wanted to be the only person running the government. This is another example of his abuse of power. Overall, his way of presidency and amount of bills he had vetoed, really helps support the fact that he was a
Firstly, one of the goals of the President Andrew Jackson was to give more power to the common person. As President Andrew Jackson wrote in his letter to Dr. Bronough, 1822. He took away the land requirements which led to many more people voting. Previously only landowners were allowed to vote therefore only favoring high-class citizens. The higher class citizens did not like this because it decreased their power to influence the government. Allowing more people to vote was an admirable thing President Andrew Jackson did which is one of the reasons worth remembering him on the twenty dollar bill.
Moreover, Andrew Jackson made a successful effort to change who was eligible to vote. For many years after the Revolutionary War, there were certain requirements a person had to meet in order to be able to vote. During most circumstances you had to be white, male, own property, and pay taxes. Basically the only people trusted to vote were those in a certain social class. One of Jackson 's goals was to abolish these regulations. By 1940, 90% of white men could vote. Women and blacks were completely ignored. The requirements for voting were no longer as strict, and economic status was not a contributing factor.
First most important reason Andrew Jackson was president that considered a democratic because he was elected by people and everyone supported him. According to “Document A”, it shows the Methods of Electing Presidential Electors: 1816 to 1836. In Document A, it shows Andrew Jackson was elected by people and 13 states already allowed the people to elect the electors by 1816. This document A shows Andrew Jackson was elected by people.
In “Jackson Battles the Bank”, Jackson shows that he promotes equal rights because of his destruction of the national bank. The national bank only supported the wealthy, and Jackson believed that we should have banks that also support the farmers and workers. In destroying the national bank, he created state banks that supported the people's’ needs. In “The Nullification Crisis”, Jackson shows that he gave peace and stability to the nation to form a strong democracy. This is because he did not approve of nullification, and wanted to keep the country together as a whole instead of divided states. This promotes peace and stability under one strong leader and people to check his decisions. Since Jackson portrayed his ability to keep the nation peaceful and stable, this made him support democracy. In addition to having peace and stability among the nation, he was able to give equal rights to the people by destroying the national bank into state
The elimination of the National Bank is the final reason I am certain Jackson was a dictator. Jackson went against the Supreme Court “Although the bank was found to be constitutional by the Supreme Court, Jackson was determined to eliminate it.” Proving that, once again, Andrew Jackson went outside his jurisdiction. Jackson was a cause of the Panic of 1837, “The Panic of 1837 was influenced by the economic policies of President Jackson”. Leading me to the conclusion that Jackson's personal opinions caused an economic crisis.
His mantra was that the voice of the People must be heard. Jackson was reelected president in
He used the veto rights extensively, putting his arbitrary will above the Congress and the states. One of the most prominent political newspapers, White House Insiders, has expressed their concern that “the Congressmen have been complaining about President Andrew Jackson’s use of executive power to overturn legislative decisions. According to the congressional records, Jackson has vetoed over 900 bills. 100 times more bills vetoed than in George Washington or John Adams’s periods.” Horrible! Think about this. We can’t know for exact which bills he vetoed, except for the bank charter, but it’s a fair guess to say that among the 900 bills, many would benefit our country. For example, it could be tobacco protective laws, or international trading custom rules, or improved domestic transportation systems. But, what bills did Jackson pass instead? The Tariff of Abomination, the Force Act, and the Specie Circulation! Andrew Jackson has rejected everything that could potentially help the country grow and people have better lives, but enforced unconstitutional laws to inflict us, his people! If we didn’t stop the executive power from growing stronger and eating up the congressional and states’ power, our country would turn into a perfect copy of the British monarchy. The monarchy that our ancestors had bleeded to fight against. What’s the difference between a “President of People” who can run
As democratic, both believed that individual states should have more control over their own governments than the federal government over all the people. Jefferson and Jackson, although they reached a high level in the government, came from different backgrounds affecting their democratic ideology as they came into power. First of all, Jefferson was born into a wealthy family in Virginia, meanwhile Jackson was born far from the capital, in the Waxhaw’s border region in a common man’s family. Jefferson attended the William and Mary College, meanwhile Jackson went to “Old-school” field. This was the base for their belief of common man: Jefferson engaged with the idea that the common man, the individual farmers and the small agrarians groups were the spine of the economy, contrary to the other political parties’ beliefs. He was named the first representative of the common man. He thought that excluding this people from the society was not the right way and damages the reputation of the country as “equal”. Although he thought that they were important, he acknowledge that these people without education were unfit and incapable of being the leaders of the young-free nation, and that is why during these times, unless they owned land, white men could not vote. Jackson took this belief a more radical way. Being denominated as the second
Jackson believed that a smaller government would do more good than a large one. At this time the second National Bank was being constructed, but Jackson put an vetoed the charter which stopped the bank. The national banks took power away from the smaller communities to help the wealthy. Also there was Henry Clay who came up with the American System to try better
This was appealing to the common people because Jackson was more like the common man: born in poverty and brought himself up to become a wealthy lawyer. Also, Jackson appealed to the eye of many colonists because he was a war hero in the War of 1812. Jackson was very popular in many states and when he arrived the town folks would set up big festivals to celebrate Jackson. When Jackson was elected president one of the first things he changed was the gatherings or parties at the White House. Jackson wanted the White House to be welcomed to everyone who helped him make it into presidency. Many of the elite saw this as disrespectful and these parties brought down the elegance of the White House. Jackson did not care about the elites opinion of him; he cared about opinions of the common people because after all they were who elected
He followed through with what he said he would do. Mr. Jackson was the first president that was not born into wealth or from the east (U.S.History, 2016)He did not like the idea of having a private bank to house Federal funds and have unnecessary authority over interest rates (Wulf, 2006). Jackson was the first president to veto on policy grounds, rather than constitutionality, as he vetoed the bill authorizing the Second Bank of the United States destroying it altogether, as he thought it would ruin the country (Wulf, 2006). Mr. Jackson also started the Spoils System, which controlled the employment of federal workers because he thought some federal workers were not loyal to him (Wulf, 2006). The family farm was Jackson’s idea of a strong American economy, so he passed the Indian Removal Act, forcing the Native Americans from their land, opening it up for farms to flourish (Wulf,