President Andrew Jackson: A Conflict of Interest Essay

Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States of America, can be debated as either a good president or bad president. But if one were to weigh out the positives and negatives of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, one would realize that his positives outweigh his negatives for a variety of historic facts. Andrew Jackson was a good president because he represented the majority of America’s people by being a common, prevented a civil war when South Carolina threatened to secede from the nation, and because he technically found or instigated the two major parties used in America today (Democratic and Republican). Many Jackson oppositionists despise him because of he is a hypocrite, however America was founded on hypocrisy so as an

Another reason why Andrew Jackson’s presidency was different was because of his attack on the Bank of the United States. In 1832, Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill to recharter the bank. Jackson believed the bank had an unfair advantage over the other banks. The national bank would get all the federal tax revenues instead of the state or private banks. Also the bank’s president, Nicholas Biddle would extend loans to the men in the congress at lower rates of interest than he would do to regular people. Because Jackson thought the bank was unjust he took away its federal charter and the bank became a state bank. Jackson appointed a secretary of treasury after his reelection in 1832. The secretary of treasury placed all government funds in certain state banks, otherwise known as the pet banks. The national bank became the Philadelphia bank for a while until it went out of business.

Was Andrew Jackson the democratic figure our great nation needed in the mid 1800’s? From 1828 to 1836, Andrew Jackson served as president in the United States of America. During that time, the country was torn in half due to controversies such as the eviction of the national bank, the Indian Removal, and the spoils system. Although some people believed Jackson was fair to the common man, Jackson acted undemocratically during his presidency because he was not fair to everyone and only listened to his supporters.

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.

Jackson firmly believed in quality of economic opportunity, which he showed several times throughout his presidency. He believed the national bank helped the wealthy elite and that state banks would help the common man more. Also by

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.

Nicholas Biddle proved great opposition to President Jackson. He wanted to re-charter the National Bank; however, many people were against Biddle’s decision. This was particularly true of people in the west. They were still wary of a national bank, after the Panic of 1819, which involved mishaps in land speculation. Jackson shared the predominately western opinion that several small banks would be a better service to the nation than one, large bank would. A major problem with a national bank would lie in it’s willingness only to make loans to the wealthy. This would be of no use to the middleclass. Jackson would not allow Biddle to gain any more power than he already had.

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.

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

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).

When Jackson came to power in 1829 he promised much, advocating equality, democratic change, morality in government and true representation. However Jackson's success or failure as a president is shown by what he actually did. The thesis of this essay is that despite the variety of issues faced by Jackson he didn't actually bring about much change. This could be interpreted as failure but his legacy as a strong president, as a symbol of US democracy, and also the devotion of the people to him, does perhaps counter the failings. Failure might constitute not meeting one's promises but Jackson's ambiguity and inconsistency on many issues make it hard to judge his performance. I would not say he was completely successful or unsuccessful but

The Jacksonian economic policy held a major effect on our government developing into a democracy. The economic policy held many factors which benefited to the change. One of the first factors that the policy held, is how Andrew Jackson tried to kill the National Bank when he was in office. Jackson did not

The belief of president Jackson’s political views was that the government would only benefit the rich. He made it his goal to change this, and he sure did have success! His views, which were shared by his supporters, prompted the founding the Democratic Party. Another belief of his political views was that he did not like the idea of nullification. Nullification is basically where states don’t have to follow federal laws, when South Carolina threatened to break up the country, he sent the U.S. army to stop it from happening. Going back to the fact that Jackson was so into the wars that were happening so he joined. At age 13, he joined the patriots, but was captured by the British. Jacksonś nicknames told something about his character and history. The Greeks called him sharp knife, and his own men called him another. They called him Old Hickory. Once Jackson became president, he fired a bunch of federal employees. He replaced them with his own supporters. Yes most presidents do that, but President Jackson fired more and hired more than other presidents. People complained that he was only choosing people who had helped elect him, and that the people he was choosing weren’t

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

The economic development in this time period was severely harmed by Jackson when he went after the Second Bank of the United States. He, and soft-money and hard-money groups disliked the bank’s policies and tried to stop the bank from renewing their charter. So 1832, when Congress passed the renewal of the charter for the Bank, Jackson and his followers happily vetoed it. But soon afterwards, after Jackson took federal money out of the Bank, forcing it to close in 1836, the economic conditions turned for the worse. The common man was left with an unstable banking system that was run by irresponsible state banks that would have no accountability. There were other economic problems with the common man at this time, such as Jackson’s specie circular. This was formed after Jackson inquired whether state currency was worth what the hard currency was. Since he believed in hard-money, he distrusted the banknotes and wanted people to pay the government only in gold or silver coins for public land payments. This executive order in 1836 put the common man in a financial crisis. Van