Andrew Jackson Democracy

Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States and founder of the Democratic Party, was elected President in 1828, after he lost in the election of 1824 because of the Electoral College. He was a believer in true democracy, built a party that was representing what the people wanted and did everything he could to close the deep divisions between rich and poor. But he was not always correct in how he acted. In some ways, Andrew Jackson was like Thomas Jefferson: He never really liked the Bank of the United States. When it was time to renew the Bank’s charter, he sent a veto message saying that the Bank needed to be abolished. Jackson thought that it was not a good thing to have the national’s financial strength in a single institution, that the Bank only helped the rich people to become even richer, and that it had too much control over members of the Congress and favored the northeast over the southwest. Jackson was

Jackson’s version of democracy was in fact a democracy. He was not a very wealthy man, he owned a home and some land. Which was more than could be said about most Americans at the time. About ten percent of the Americans living there at that time owned enough land to vote. There was a law, stating that only white males with a good portion of land could vote in the presidential election. Andrew Jackson thought this system was so unfair, he created a new way to govern the citizens of the newly formed United States.

Did Andrew Jackson support the people and their rights? Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States. He vetoed the National Bank because he said that it only supported the rich and was unconstitutional. Also Andrew Jackson set a land territory west of the Mississippi River for the Indian tribes and adopted a little Native American boy who was left from his tribe. How democratic was Andrew Jackson? Democracy is a form of government where the people have a right to assist in the law making process. Andrew Jackson was democratic in many political, economic, and geographic ways.

Jackson tried to destroy the national bank because he thought it only helped out the rich. In regarding the national bank veto Daniel Webster claims “It raises a cry that liberty is in danger, at the very moment when it puts forth claims to powers heretofore unknown and unheard of.... It manifestly seeks to inflame the poor against the rich,”(Document 5). What Webster is saying by this is that he thinks that if we destroy the National bank we will lose all sense of freedom.

One reason why Jackson was not democratic is his use of the spoils system. “King Andrew the first...born to command” (cartoon of Jackson that appeared in the presidential election of 1832). This cartoon shows how he felt like he could do whatever he wanted to further himself. “no one man has any more...right to (government jobs) than another” (Andrew Jackson’s letter to Congress). The spoils system gave government jobs to supporters of the political leader, often leading to fraud and inefficiency. Using power to reward people who are your supporters, rather than due to skill and experience, is wrong. It is also excluding certain people from having a say in the government, and getting what should be theirs, which is not democratic.

Jacksonian Democracy describes the time from when Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States in 1829 till the end of his second term in 1837 (Shi and Tindall, 319). He was the first president that didn’t come from a prominent colonial family. His “common man” background lead him to being a popular political figure among the common people. This lead to him and his supporters forming America’s democratic party. A democracy is a system of government where the people or citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body. Andrew Jackson and his supporters greatly supported the idea of democracy. They wanted the common people of America to have more power when it came to

President Jackson acted undemocratically because of his actions against the national bank. On July 10th, 1832, Jackson sent a bank veto message to congress. The message was sent to remove the US National Bank because it was only helpful for a wealthier class for things like investments. Citizens from wealthier classes were outraged by Jackson’s actions. Former senator Daniel Webster replied to Jackson message saying, “It manifestly seeks to

Unlike previous presidents, Andrew Jackson represented the common men. He and his followers did not support the aristocrats, but instead favored the interests of farmers and urban workers. When they gained power, the Jacksonian Democrats brought about great advances in creating a more democratic and economically equal society.

As multiple advancements resulted in a huge increase in population the old economy was replaced by cash-crop agriculture and capitalist manufacturing. A split between the industrializing, urban North, agrarian, rural South, and the expanding West was forming. The Jacksonians passed the Tariff of 1828, helping western agriculture, and northern manufacturing but was detrimental to the South. Also, Jackson vetoed the US bank’s recharter in 1832. As Andrew Jackson’s veto message (Doc B) explains, he did this because he believed the US bank gave too much power to the wealthy few. Although, this seemed to be a step to increase equality, his replacement state “pet” banks only led to the destabilization of the national currency, and favoritism towards Jacksonian policies. This policy of Jackson was done with good intentions, but like many of Jacksonian economic policies it ended up doing more harm than good.

Moreover, Andrew Jackson greatly facilitated the transfer of power from “the few” to “the many” in the US. In Jackson’s Bank Veto Message to Congress in July of 1832, he stated that the rich were monopolizing the country’s domestic exchange by “bending the acts of government to their selfish purposes.” (Document 4). Jackson argued that with so much money and power, the corrupt rich were influencing the government to allow them domination over the many people who could not match their authority. The few, selfish rich citizens felt no duty or responsibility to their country so they committed great evils to promote their own status. For this reason, Jackson wanted the Bank of the United States vetoed so that this corruption could be ended at once and the rich would not be able to use the Bank for their egotistic intents. The BUS had been standing since Alexander Hamilton proposed it in the early 1800s, so it was outlandish for Jackson to propose its veto, but he was truly doing it for the people. The following day after Jackson’s message, Daniel Webster issued a reply to it. In his reply, Webster claimed that Jackson was controlling the poor and arousing them against the rich (Document 5). While this does seem like an immoral action for one to

     During the administration of Andrew Jackson, the United States was a nation of change both politically and socially. American society was a society of opportunity. Americans felt that, given a chance, they could make a better life for themselves. This was the era of the common people, the era of democracy. Andrew Jackson appealed to the American people because he stood for values many regarded with favor. However democratic Jackson may seem, he was more tyrant-like than any of his predecessors. His major offerings to the nation included majority rule and a popular presidency, however offered no benefits to women, African Americans, nor Native Americans. Jacksonian Democracy was

In addition to creating a more democratic country, Jackson also tried to establish equal economic opportunity for the people of America. The best example of this is the vetoing of the charter of the Bank of the United States. The bank was a huge monopoly. It was ran by aristocrats, most of which were from England. Nicholas Biddle, who was the president of the bank, often used funds from the bank to lend money to the members of Congress, thus wining their support.

With the Jackson administration into office, the Second Bank of the United States became threatened. President Jackson had a private prejudice that wasn’t party policy (Schlesinger 74). He hated banks, all banks, but he especially hated the Second Bank of the United States. He viewed all bankers as “little more than parasites who preyed upon the poor and honest working people of America” (Roughshod 2). The reason for his hatred most likely stemmed from his near ruin as a businessman (land speculator, merchant, and slaver trader) when in the 1790s he accepted some bank notes that turned out to be worthless. From then on, he never trusted anything but hard money, or specie (Roughshod 2).

In both the years leading up to Andrew Jackson’s time in office and the years following it, we have never had a president quite like Jackson. With his victory in the Election of 1828, the Age of Jackson began. Supporters of the president were skilled at emotionalizing issues and rallying the support of the South and the West. Jackson claimed to be a “common man” and a guardian of Democracy, working to protect individual freedoms. However, he made a lot of enemies along the way, including the Nationalist Republicans, the Whigs, and the Anti-Masons. Jackson acted more like a dictator and didn’t usually listen to the people, which blatantly went against one of the most important values of democracy. In fact, Jackson wasn’t Democratic at all, as

Democracy in the United States became prominent in the early to mid 19th century. Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States, was inaugurated in 1829 and was best known as the person who mainstreamed democracy in America. Because he came from a humble background, he was the “genuine common man.” (Foner, pg. 303) He claimed he recognized the needs of the people and spoke on behalf of the majority [farmers, laborers]. However, critics of Jackson and democracy called him “King Andrew I” because of his apparent abuse of presidential power [vetoing]. These critics believed he favored the majority so much that it violated the U.S. constitution, and they stated he was straying too far away from the plan originally set for the