William Jennings Bryan's Influence On Government

The building nation of the United States of America is built on the central idea of having a democracy, in which people are given opportunity, freedom, and equality. Around the late 1820s to 1840s, the United States of America approached a period commonly known as the Jacksonian Era. The Jacksonian Era is often depicted with its democratization of politics and it is tightly associated Jackson’s two-term presidency. The era also featured him as a prominent, unique white man, but most importantly, a figure of the “common man.” Before the Jacksonian Era, Andrew Jackson had been involved in the skewed Election of 1824, which he had just barely lost to his running mates. Later, after redeeming himself by winning two consecutive elections, Jackson

John Thomas Scopes trial began on July 10, 1925, and I watched as the trial unfolded. The famous Clarence Darrow defended Scopes and Williams Jennings Bryan was leading the prosecution. Williams Jennings Bryan had run as the Democratic presidential candidate three times, and he was the fundamentalist hero. After a few days of the trial, many spectators and reporters flocked to Dayton. I watched as the Dayton’s streets became more and more crowded and I saw many preachers with revival tents, who taught how the Theory of Evolution went against the Divine Creation of man.

Andrew Jackson was a soldier, a lawyer, a husband, an orphan, and in his most famous status, the 7th President of the United States. Andrew Jackson was loved by the people, and hated by his political rivals. He pushed the limits of his power as the president, and at the same time restricted it, as to not overstep his place as the voice of the people. Through his terms as president he used his power to protect the rights of the people and to ensure that the United States would prosper. In the following paragraphs his contributions are highlighted and will show just what he did for America and its prosperity.

Prohibition was undertaken to reduce crime, reduce corruption, and solve social problems in America but it failed on all accounts. Prohibition had the exact opposite effect on people than its original purpose was. Instead of removing alcohol from society, Prohibition actually instigated a national drinking spree that held constant until Prohibition was repealed. Felix Von Luckner said, “My observations have convinced me that many fewer would drink were it not illegal” (Von Luckner, 2). He believed that the law against alcohol manufacturing just instigated more drinking. The people during this period in time were so rebellious that they would do the opposite of anything that they were told to do. This had a huge contribution to the failure of Prohibition. Due to the failure of Prohibition, America’s society had fallen spiral to a drinking spree (Batchelor, 1). Many believed that the main cause of the failure of Prohibition was the breakdown of the enforcement agencies. In Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia said, “The Prohibition Enforcement Unit has entirely broken down. It is discredited; it has become a joke…” (La Guardia, 2). The Roaring Twenties’ prosperity was lost due to the failure of the Prohibition Enforcement Unit. If the law was stronger and better enforced, Prohibition could have succeeded. This was very detrimental to society because it showed the

The Prohibition Era of the 1920’s was an infamous time for the United States. However, despite the roar and boom or the twenties, prohibition did little to benefit Americans or the country itself. The ban of the make, transportation, and sale of alcohol only caused an increase in crime and decrease in public health and safety with practically no economic benefit.

The concept of prohibition was nothing new in 1919; it was part of the social reform movement that had been growing for nearly a decade, known as the temperance movement. It was similar to the movements of the middle of the 19th century, but differed from the ecclesiastical “Great Awakenings” that had surged periodically through the American colonies since their settling. Although it diverged in scope from these other movements they still shared a similar connection in goal, that of a “Dry” nation. By 1857, thirteen states had laws prohibiting the selling of alcohol within their borders. Following the Civil War, the desire for reform had lost its luster and a general yearning for normalcy gripped the nation. Thus the drive for alcohol prohibition lost most if not all its steam. However, near the turn of the century, it was once again gaining momentum. The growing middle class of the early 20th century introduced the Republic to a new breed of ideals in the form of the Progressive Movement. The Progressives viewed the power of the states as their platform to accomplish their goals. With strong supporters such as future U.S. President Woodrow Wilson they hoped to meet little or no resistance to their plans for the future and they utilized the law to the

As the world of academics continued to develop and stricter guidelines became more urbanized, a new school of thought under the neoconservatives, a new school of thought based on both democratic and conservative viewpoints. Under the democratic school of Jacksonian historiography is Life of Andrew Jackson, a text written by John Spencer Bassett. In Bassett’s text we continue to look with greater eyes on the shortcomings of Jackson. Bassett argues Jackson’s “lack of education, his crude judgments in many affairs, his occasional outbreaks of passion, his habitual hatred of those enemies with whom he had not made friends for party purposes, and his crude ideas of some political parties.” Bassett continues to say, “All lose some of their infelicity in the face of his brave, frank, masterly leadership of the democratic movement which then established itself in our life. . . . Few American Presidents have better lived up to the demands of the movement which brought them into power.”

America’s history is rich and full of countless heroes, scandals, and incredible stories. Perhaps one of the most interesting of those stories is that of Andrew Jackson’s. To some, he was a hero, but to others, he was their worst enemy. Being raised in the mountains of the Carolinas, he became the first “backcountry president” of the United States (Wilentz, 13). His fame, though, began years before his presidency.

Andrew Jackson once stated that the government should offer, “Equal protection and equal benefits” to all its white male citizens. During his presidency, he demonstrated his belief by changing politics, economic development, and reform movements to be more suited toward the “common man.” Based on such evidence the Jacksonian Period has lived up to its characterization as the era of the “common man.” Jackson, the face of the Democratic Party in the 1830’s, celebrated honest and simple workers and contrasted them to corrupt forces of established wealth. These views contrasted from those of the Whigs, who favored the expansion of the federal government and was strongest among merchants and manufactures in the Northeast.

Andrew Jackson was such a popular president in the history of the United States that he was still getting votes for the presidency fifteen year after he died! Though born to be a soldier, Jackson was elected President of the United States in 1828 and again in 1832 after the electoral system and Henry Clay had cost him the presidency in 1824. His mantra was that the voice of the People must be heard. Historians connect Jackson to a new spirit of democracy that swept over the United States during the early 1800s and this era of “common man” marked a new stage for American democracy where average people began to have a say in the workings of their government. The term democratic is defined as “of, relating to, or supporting democracy or its principles”

The image of a “common man” becoming president was undoubtedly different than the types of men the country had grown accustomed to having as president, but nevertheless a step in the right direction. Though the Jacksonian Democrats did not necessarily achieve their goals in benefiting the people, they paved the way for more humble and authentically American presidents to run for office. Campaigning in order to appeal to the “common man” became, for lack of a better phrase, more common, and voting became an activity that both the rich and the poor participated in. William Henry Harrison is an immediate president that took this idea into account. Even though the Jacksonian Democrats failed at standing up for the common man during their own era, they definitely influenced the way politics worked for the years that

No man at any point had so intense an effect on the psyches and spirits of his peers as did Andrew Jackson. No other man at any point ruled an age traversing such a variety of decades. Nobody, not Washington, Jefferson, of Franklin, at any point, held the American individuals in such aggregate accommodation.

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president, serving from 1829-1837. Nicknamed "Old Hickory," he left an indelible imprint on the nation that extends beyond his face adorning the twenty dollar bill. Jackson split the preexisting Republican Party into the Whig and Democratic Parties, establishing the dual-party structure that exists today. He was the first president who came from a rural, deep Southern background (he was born in the rustic woods of South Carolina) and his impoverished country upbringing informed his presidential policies. As someone who also captained the premier national political position, Jackson is responsible for bringing the experience and voice of the common man to the federal government. This essay will explore three of the most salient aspects of Jackson's presidency: the Nullification Crisis of 1832, the National Bank episode of 1833-34, and the treatment of American Indians and slaves.

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this," Albert Einstein. (Internet, quotes on Prohibition, page 1)

Jackson conversely championed, as Edward Pessen put it, the common ‘white’ man and was distrustful of the Jeffersonian natural aristocracy. Jackson was known to have had a simple rural background, the first president to be known by a nickname and the first President to have achieved the most prestigious office in America without rising through high office at Washington. All these factors strengthened the idea that his democracy favoured the common man, something the Jeffersonian could not claim. To Jacksonians, the country’s future lay in the hands of the common ‘white’ man, an idea supported through the fact that “the percentage of [the] eligible population that voted...[averaged] sixty-nine percent…Hence, from Jackson forward presidents could claim…they were the representatives of the people”. Countering the claim that Jackson favoured the common