Andrew Jackson had a plethora of innumerable downs and ups throughout his life and presidency like saving a Native American child and also the cause of an assassination of a tribe of Native Americans. I do believe that the actions throughout his life have lead me to come to the conclusion that he is a villian. However, many do believe that all the goods actions Jackson did overweigh the villainous deeds. The examples of Jackson's evil and criminal deeds he did are as follows. Jackson to the people was considered a self centered, hostile, and uncaring person. A certain event when Jackson was hostile was when he decided to assassinate a whole tribe of Native Americans. Jackson decided to be uncaring by thinking that the government was corrupt …show more content…
Jackson was self centered by not listening to his advisors. He would make decisions by what he thought was best for the people and the state. These examples are just a small piece of Jackson's evil ways. Jackson did a multitude of evil things, but the ones that we remembered are how he decided to treat and handle the Indians, his decision to make the spoil system, and how he was self centered. When handling the Indians, Jackson was very cruel. He despised the Indians so much he made an act called the Indian Removal Act. Which forced the Indians to leave the entire country. He told them that they would be removed either willingly or by force. The Indians decided not to leave. So he told soldiers to capture them so they could be removed by force. This lead to the crisis of the Trail Of Tears. Along the way of the trail 4,000 died from the hostile and horrible conditions of disease and exhaustion. Also, he had wooden structures that were made for the Indians to stay in. These structures were unhealthy and unsanitary. There were no doors or windows. So the cold air would blow into the houses and cause people to become sick and die. One of Jackson's soldiers said this “ This is the cruelest work I have ever done.” Jackson’s was a big
There are many who are against Andrew Jackson because he is a hypocrite. An example of this is how Jackson states he is against slavery but still owned slaves. One has to understand that America was founded on hypocrisy. Essentially what Jackson is trying to do is to make compromises on situations so he can support both sides of an argument to represent as many people as possible.
For instance, he promoted slavery. He was extremely against abolition. He owned nearly 150 slaves, who he treated very poorly. There was once an incident of him offering rewards to anyone who would capture and torture runaway slaves. He also kicked Indian people off of their land in order to obtain the cotton fields that resided upon it. These actions made people think and feel differently about Jackson. Also, before Andrew Jackson became the President, he disobeyed orders that he was given, which resulted in tragic events. A couple examples of this is when he was given the orders to invade Florida. He was told to only capture runaway slaves, instead he took the opportunity to completely take over the territory and killed whole villages of Seminole people. He also went against a Supreme Court ruling and violently forced thousands of Cherokee Indians off of their territory by arresting them, and threatening to kill them if they did not leave. As a result of this, nearly 5 thousands Cherokee people were killed. Finally, Jackson basically ignored women's rights. He only supported the common man. The common man includes farmers, poor citizens, frontier settlers, and southern slaveholders. He never really commented on the issue. Therefore, there were no acts on women’s rights until later during another
Jackson did not serve for the people of America, Jackson served to change America how he believe it should be run. By ignoring the government Jackson acts more like a king than a president. Jackson went against Supreme Court decision and removed Indians from their land. As Jackson said in his Second Annual Message to Congress Jackson commented that, “the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation” (Doc E). Indians on the land that Jackson forcibly removed them from was delegated as their land by the Supreme Court. By going against the Supreme Court, Jackson did not act presidentially. Also, The removal of Indians resulted in countless Indian deaths and resulted in violence. Another example of Jackson attending to his own agenda was the issue of nullification and South Carolina. Jackson had a personal bias against John C. Calhoun, and threatened him when Calhoun exclaimed that South Carolina would leave the union if Jackson didn’t allow South Carolina to lower or rid of the tariff on imported
Andrew Jackson, born on March 15,1767 was the 7th president of the United States, who was a self made man, rising to money and power. He is viewed as a controversial historical figure in American history between being a hero or villain. Andrew Jackson is a villain due to his controversial decisions during his presidency, such as the spoils system, the nullification crisis, the Second Bank of the United States, and lastly the most impactful decision, the Indian Removal Policy. Jackson may have been seen as the common man leader,and did many things to benefit the people, but that can not justify his unacceptable actions.
This quote by Jackson underlies the fact the he was a selfish, tyrannical ruler. He did not make decisions based on the interests of the whole nation but on his own personal benefit, in search of self- achievement. Although he was portrayed or possibly manipulated the citizens to believe that he was a president for the common man, that was simply not the way he acted. As president, he purposely ignored the power of the Judicial branch to judge laws, and strengthened the power of the Executive branch above the limits in the Constitution. He was also said to be rude and uneducated, which
Andrew Jackson is a villain for many reasons. Andrew Jackson is a villain because his enemies claimed he behaved more like a dictator or king than a democratically elected president. Also, Andrew Jackson treated to bad Native Americans because he had certain ideas about who were included in the people.He never considered Native Americans as potential citizens, and he was one of the largest slave-owners in Tennessee at the time of his election. Enemies of jackson claimed he behaved more like a dictator or king than a democratically elected president.
Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States was he a hero or a villain? While there were some questionable choices Jackson made in his life. There are many reasons people consider Andrew Jackson a hero. The first and foremost reason is his military service to the country. Andrew Jackson’s actions would also lead to the expansion of the United States into Florida. Andrew Jackson as the president was known as the president of the “Common Man” and he lowered the national debt to a record low. Andrew Jackson was an honest man stood up for his beliefs of what was right that is what makes him a hero.
Jackson was willing to make the unpopular decision of vetoing the renewal for the national bank and withdraw all the money to get our nation out of debt. Doing this made him very unpopular but Jackson was willing to take the risk to get the nation out of debt. Also when President Jackson became president he brought all of his friends with him, and gave them jobs, even me, using the spoils system. Incase you didn’t know the spoils system is when a president gets elected and he gives all of his friends and associates positions in office. As one of our best presidents Andrew Jackson also paved the road for us to continue on with manifest destiny by moving the Native Americans into Oklahoma so we could move farther west. While this may seem cruel to some he was doing what was best for our people and what he felt was best for the Native American population. President Jackson caringly thought of how the Native Americans would feel about themselves if they were surrounded by civilized people with foreign traditions to them. He was moving them for their own good, seeing as they never wanted to assimilate to our culture. Also, he feared that they would see themselves the way that they are truly seen, as savages, and he did not want to have to force that
Andrew Jackson has gone down as one of the best presidents in United States history and that’s because he did many great things to improve the United States. Throughout his presidency he constantly abused his power as the president and did many things that expanded the powers of the president. One of the biggest things that President Jackson did while in office was pass the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was when Jackson forced all the Indians to move to the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, while the Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional. Many of the Indians went peacefully, but many of the Indians also decided to protest and take it to the Supreme Court (Darrenkamp). While the court did side with the Indians Jackson and Congress forced the Indians to give up their land. The federal troops were called in to escort the Indians to their new land. Fifteen thousand Indians were forced to move and while on their way about a third of the Indians died, and this event became to be known as the Trail of Tears (Darrenkamp). Jackson had
In conclusion, Andrew Jackson violated many laws and caused countless deaths, he has proved to
Jackson also gave government jobs to regular people. This was called the spoils system. He appointed people to federal jobs depending on whether they had campaigned for the Democratic Party. Anyone currently in office who was not a democratic was replaced with a democrat. This was called the spoils system because it promoted a corrupt government. He also believed in rotation in office. He wanted to make it possible for more democrats to have government jobs, so he limited a person's time in office to one term. The spoils system showed how one man was no better than another and helped build a strong two-party system.
Even though Jackson was very successful during his presidency, there were some events in history that really showed his “weaknesses”. Jackson was classified as a lunatic. He was feared by many, especially his opponents. Due to his temper and poor decisions, Jackson did not mind to go to war for what he believed in or did not care to remove anyone against him. He was a real savage, and I feel the country at this time of period needed this type of mentality in the presidency. A negative event that took place during his term was the Trail of Tears, which was the forced removal of Native Americans from their homeland, resulting in the death of thousands of people. He also promoted slavery and he himself owned many and showed cruelty towards them. Andrew Jackson was stubborn and only cared about himself, but I do believe he
Jackson did not have the characteristics of a great president. First of all, he was notorious for being to rash and impetuous. As a military leader, he often disobeyed direct orders (Florida campaign), and acted on instinct rather than reason. He also had many enemies among colleagues, including John Calhoun, John Quincy Adams,
Why Andrew Jackson was bad! By Katie Buerkel Some people think that Andrew Jackson was a great president but my opinion is that he was not. He did not like the U.S. bank and he wanted the Indians land. My opinion was that Jackson was selfish President that likes things his way.
Jackson strongly hated the Native Americans; just seeing what he did to the two Seminole chiefs in Florida defies his hatred towards this group of people. Jackson claimed that they were in America’s way, causing him to move various tribes of the East Coast. One of them was the well-known Cherokee tribe, who strongly opposed the decision, because they already adapted the American culture. Their opposition was taken to the Supreme Court, where it was decided that the Cherokees can stay. Andrew Jackson showed no sympathy and ignored the court’s decision and exterminated them from the East Coast to the West Coast on a winter season; the journey that we call today the Trail of Tears, because of the death of many during the travel.