History Of The Campaign Finance

From the very first elections held in the United States, there has always been a strong link between money and politics. During the first elections in the late 1700’s you had to be a white male landowner over the age of 21 in order to vote, meaning that you had to have money in order to have your vote counted. It seems today that we cannot go a day with out seeing campaign finance in the media, whether or not it is through advertisements for politicians in the media or asked to donate money to help let your favorite candidate win. Because campaign finance has always been on the back burner of political issues, there has hardly been any change to the large influence money has over the election process and politicians. While money has it’s

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

The right of free speech granted to all citizens in the first amendment, the necessity of funding expensive political campaigns, and the fact that small donations make a candidate responsive to the needs of their constituents, all make any restrictions on campaign financing unneeded and onerous. Congress should strike down any bills attempting to reform this essential part of the U.S. election process. Any further restrictions on donations to political campaigns will prove detrimental to the United States functioning system of elections by limiting individuals’ freedom of speech, making our candidate’s campaigns underfunded and unresponsive to the needs of the American people.

‘Despite several attempts to regulate campaign finance, money increasingly dominates the U.S. Electoral process and is the main factor contributing to a candidates success’ Discuss (30 marks)

Andrew Jackson ran for president during the 1824 election. Due to the Corrupt Bargain, Jackson lost to Quincy Adams. However, the next election, Jackson won. When he took office, the Spoils System would take place. Government officials when George Washington was president had been fired because they did not have the same views as Andrew Jackson. In addition, he set up a Kitchen Cabinet of informal advisors to assist him. In 1833, Jackson vetoed the Bank Bill because he felt like the bank only benefitted the wealthy residents. This veto and all of his other vetoes, he would veto more bills than all the presidents before him would. During his presidency, he would use a lot of power while changing the view of a president.

Furthermore, Jackson’s presidency was characterized by use of the spoils system and the systematic rotation of officeholders. These stipulated that federal jobs were strictly given to loyal Democrats and that federal offices could be held for only one term. While these practices were meant to emphasize equal political opportunities and build party loyalty, they inherently promoted government corruption. In fact, the power that Jackson wielded by trading federal positions for party loyalty both overextended his executive power and practiced the same corrupt bargaining of office that the Democrats accused John Quincy Adams of in the election of 1824. Thus, the Jacksonian democrats dealt clear detriments and hypocrisies to the system of popular democracy that they so strongly advocated, despite their encouragement of universal white male suffrage and participation in office.

Andrew Jackson changed how the people of his time viewed politics. When Jackson was elected in 1828, he saw himself as someone who represented the common man. He owned a farm, but not a huge plantation, and he had no formal education or a college degree. As a result of Jackson being elected as president, politics became very popular in the middle and lower classes. Jacksonian Democracy was the emergence of popular politics and showed that the government was no longer just for the wealthy elite. Jacksonian Democracy of the 1820s and 1830s led to a sense of equality between all social classes of American citizens, and prompted Jackson to terminate the Bank of the United States that had been seen as a bank of the wealthy. In the same way, office holding positions were opened to every white male, which created a shift to the government being for the common man.

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States. His presidential term was from March 4, 1829 to March 4, 1837. Jackson was not about banks. Jackson hated the idea of the Second Bank charter renewal. One of Jackson’s famous quotes was; “The Bank… is trying to kill me, but I will kill it.” Jackson’s opinion of the Bank of the United States was that it was dangerous to the liberty of the people. Jackson’s opposition to banks became like an obsession. In 1832, Jackson vetoed the bill calling for an early renewal of the Second Bank’s charter even though the renewal was still possible when the charter expired in 1836. In order to prevent that from happening, Jackson set out to reduce the Bank’s economic power. Jackson acted against the advice of many congressional committees and several cabinet members. On October 1, 1833, Jackson announced that federal funds would no longer be deposited in the Bank of the United States. Jackson began placing the

In fact, he was the foundation for the formation of the modern Democratic Party. British visitor to the United States Harriet Martineau described this in Document D (Society in America), “I had witnessed the controversies between candidates for office on some difficult subjects, of which the people were to be the judges.” Furthermore, when Jackson first entered office, he used the “spoils system,” or rotation of major governmental officeholders, as a legitimate use of political democracy. He supported his veto of the Bank charter, although unconstitutional, by pointing out that the Bank directors were not chosen democratically. Instead, as Document B (paragraph 3) illustrates, the government chose five directors and the a few, wealthy citizen stockholders chose the remaining 25. These directors were obviously not chosen in a democratic manner; and when Jackson “killed” the Bank, he also got rid of this undemocratic election process. Yes, Jackson did make sure to protect white male suffrage, but rather than conferring with the popularly elected officials, he listened mainly to the advice of close friends and unofficial advisers, also known as his “Kitchen Cabinet,” including Amos Kendall and Francis P. Blair. This almost defeated the purpose of popular elections. Although he protected political democracy in the above manners, Jackson

Andrew Jackson, whose presidential term lasted from 1829-1837, was the first president to ever be chosen by the people to lead. Because he was not born into a rich family, people felt that they could relate to him better. He too preferred supporting the common public over the wealthy aristocrats. During Jackson’s period in office he was able to shift the majority of power in the United States to farmers and small businesses in the western part of the country. Jackson vetoed many bills in order to benefit common people and also created the spoils system to balance out his cabinet. Like Jefferson, Jackson was extremely opposed to the Bank of the U.S., believing that it would only make the wealthy even

Andrew Jackson established the precedence of campaigning due to the fact that eligible voters skyrocketed immediately prior to the election of 1828. This five-fold increase in voters created the need to campaign to these more common men. This had never been done before and infuriated the remaining founding fathers; they believed that, like Washington, you got nominated then elected by your merits and then served your terms. Jackson was not a great statesman with experience as a diplomat or a secretary to a president. Instead he was a general with some unresolved anger issues; thus after a "corrupt bargain" kept him out of office in 1824 he immediately began preparing for the next election. He decried the

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).

Although the election had not been associated with strong party affiliations, John Quincy Adams supporters started referring to themselves as National republicans and Andrew Jackson’s Democratic Republican. Andrew Jackson service served him well and resulted him in winning both popular and electoral votes in the election of 1828. The election of 1832, was the first time both parties would hold nominations conventions. At the time the election nominations were not made by the congress like before, but by the state legislatures instead. The election itself was served more as a referendum for the bank issue than electing a president. State banks and western businessmen continued to criticize the bank as an instrument of federal control and of eastern commercial interest. In 1832, Senator Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson was running for president. Although Clay persuaded the banks president, Nicholas Biddle, to apply early for rechartering, congress passed the renewal, but Jackson vetoed it and used it as a main issue for his campaign. In 1836, Jackson removed all federal funds from the bank, the Second bank of the United States ended its operations as a national institution. In 1836, Jackson removed all federal funds from the bank. The second party system was basically the Democrats vs the Whigs. During Jacksons presidency, the Republican party split into two opposing parties. The party government is

What did Webster tell Jackson after he abolished the bank? “You need to take a chill BILL.”At the age of 13, Andrew Jackson participated in the Revolutionary War and then returned home to the death of his mother, and experienced life as an orphan. As the years went on, Jackson became less violent and at the age of 17 he started to study law. This level of education, lead him to becoming Tennessee 's first representative at the age of 29. After one year, Jackson was the elected and before he knew it, he was the U.S senate. After the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson was considered a national war hero and his political career or status was well known. Jackson lost the presidential election of 1824, and ran again in the election­ of 1828 with hopes to become president and produce a democratic nation. This raises the question, “How democratic was Andrew Jackson?” Democracy, is often defined as socially or politically equal. Andrew Jackson was ultimately undemocratic because of his imbalanced treatment toward the Indians, his blind judgment when making important decisions, ­­­­­ and his consistent hypocritical behaviors.

With the upcoming presidential election, it has been interesting to learn about things as they are actually happening in our country today. Among the many issues that surround the race to the office, financing the presidential election seems to be a major topic that is always in the public eye.      There are many different views on how the election should be financed but it is hard to tell how far government funding and donations can go before democracy is left behind.