...Andrew Jackson’s effect in the American politics Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, is one of the most important and significant presidents in the history of the United States. As a vice-president and president (1824 to 1832) he reshaped and redirected the course of American expansion and democracy. Jackson believed the president is the direct representative of the people. He was the man of action and shrewd politician. He knew how to manipulate men and could be affable or abusive or abusive as the occasion demanded.(nation of nations, 2005 ) Andrew Jackson came to personify the new democratic culture. Through his forceful leadership he significantly expanded the powers of the presidency. Jackson threatened to use force against South Carolina when it tried to nullify the federal tariff using john c. Calhoun’s theory of nullification that is that a state convention could nullify a federal law. He vetoed a bill to recharter the second bank of the United States and destroyed the bank by removing its federal deposits. He called for legislation to remove native peoples west to of the Mississippi voiding treaties found legitimate by the Supreme Court during the winter months of 1835-36 to ensure the greatest suffering to these peoples. One quarter of the tribal people died in transit to Oklahoma during this move. Jacksonian era went through the deep and rapid changes. The revolution in markets brought both economic expansion and periodic depressions as its citizens competed...
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...Discuss the cultural shift in America during the Jacksonian era, including the rise of the middle class/"common man." What was Andrew Jackson's philosophy of government and how did this impact the office of the presidency. How would you describe the meaning of "Jacksonian Democracy," and Andrew Jackson's relationship to it? In addition to the class readings, please watch the posted video clip (The Presidents) on the course homepage and discuss it in your response. Question 2 Andrew Jackson left a permanent imprint upon American politics and the presidency. Within eight years, he melded the unstructured coalition of personal followers who had elected him into the country's most durable and successful political party, an electoral machine whose organization and discipline would serve as a model for all others. At the same time, his controversial conduct in office galvanized opponents to organize the Whig party. The Democratic Party was Jackson's child; the national two-party system was his legacy. Jackson's drive for party organization was spurred by his own difficulties with Congress. Unlike other famously strong Presidents, Jackson defined himself not by enacting a legislative program but by thwarting one. In eight years, Congress passed only one major law, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, at his behest. During this time Jackson vetoed twelve bills, more than his six predecessors combined. One of these was the first "pocket veto" in American history. Jackson strengthened...
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...v. Georgia to try and save their land from southern prospectors and farmers and in 1832 the Cherokee Nation won their land but it quickly followed by a implementation of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. In the Treaty of Echota in 1835, the United States purchased the remainder of the Cherokee land for five million dollars and Indians of all tribes were force marched west of the Mississippi river by 1838. Andrew Jackson offered only one piece of advice in 1835 to the Indians and it was this protection from Georgia lies west of the Mississippi river. Manifest Destiny With the reign of King Andrew and Martin Van Buren, an anti-Jackson political party grew and named themselves The Whig. In 1836, The Whig’s were given the prime opportunity to destroy Jackson and Van Buren, since the nation was falling into a depression at the time, The Whig’s sought out Henry Clay, but others seen it differently and convinced the party that William Henry Harrison would be the prime candidate to beat King Andrew. Harrison won the president election with the help of The Whig portraying him as a frontiersman and a supporter of westward expansion, into the Oregon territory. References Berkin;Miller;Cherny;Gormly;Egerton, C;C;R;J;D. (2011). Making America: a history of the united states. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage...
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...and Jackson was such that when the first Democratic National Convention was held Calhoun and Jackson broke from each other politically and Van Buren replaced Calhoun as Jackson's running mate. After Jackson was victorious in being elected a second time, Jackson asked Congress to pass a Force Bill that would allow for the use of military force to enforce the tariff, but it would not be passed until Clay agreed to a lower Compromise Tariff. The Force Bill and Compromise Tariff passed on March 1, 1833, and Jackson signed both. The Force Bill would ultimately be rendered unnecessary as the South Carolina Convention would meet and rescinded its nullification ordinance. Jackson's administration would act more favorably when it came to other nations, creating a fair treaty with Great Britain, settling up with France over damages during the Napoleonic Wars, and accepting the Republic of Texas. His presidency would scared by his signing the Indian Removal Act, which sent most of the Native American tribes in the South to what is now Oklahoma. The relocation process cause many deaths and sickness to drastically affect the Indians. This, along with his personal ownership of slaves would stain Jackson's reputation. After Jackson would leave office he would continue to be a part of Democratic Party politics, supporting the presidencies of Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk. With all things considered, Jackson is believed by most historians to be one of our most successful president. When we...
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...Jacksonian Democrats helped to create a more democratic America and because of this, believed to be many things, some real and some fictional. In most cases they perceived themselves as defenders of equal economic opportunity, even though they occasionally put their own interests before those of the people. They also thought of themselves as guardians of political democracy, while using class differences to their advantage to bring support. Jacksonian Democrats felt that they were the protectors of the Constitution and of individual liberties but many times they put their rivalry with the Northeastern industry and Whig politics before these ideals. While Jacksonians correctly viewed themselves as guardians of political democracy, equal economic opportunity, and individual liberty, they were often more interested in developing these concepts rather than protecting them. Jackson was a strong opponent of the unequal and aristocrat dominated economic structure in most of America. He was very against the Bank of America because he believed it to have a monopoly on banking and felt that it was owned and run unjustly by wealthy aristocrats who were not always true Americans (B). It must also be noted however, that while the Bank of America was undoubtedly corrupt (Nicholas Biddle was known to have given sums of money to close friends, and was also known to regularly bribe newspapers and similar media.) it also did what it was supposed to do very well. It provided money and credit...
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...The Native Americans of North America lived for hundreds of years in peace. However, Andrew Jackson’s vision of the United States did not include everyone. As a military leader and as President, Jackson and his followers had no intention of including women in political life, to combat slavery, or give any rights to the Native Americans. Jackson pursued a policy of removing Indian tribes form their lands, which resulted in the Trail of Tears, a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States. Many factors during Jackson’s presidency contributed to the political, social, and economic climate of the United States. Jackson had very little political trouble with his policy of removing the Native Americans. Most of his supporters were from the southern and western states that favored a plan to remove all the Indian tribes to lands west of the Mississippi. This relocation would make room for settlers. “There was “Five Civilized Tribes” involved- the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee. “(White 1). In 1831 members of the “Five Civilized Tribes”: decided to use the US Supreme Court to combat Jacksonian policies. The Cherokee Nation asked for an injunction, claiming that Georgia’s state legislation had created laws designed to annihilate the Cherokees as a political society. Andrew Jackson had many supporters because he was freeing up land that would be given to the “common man” who was more...
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...The Reach of the Three-Fifths Clause (from Gary Wills, ''Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power) 1. The effect of the clause was that slave states always had more than one-third more seats in Congress than their free population warranted; hence-- 1793—47 instead of 33 1812—76 instead of 59 1833—98 instead 73 2. Between 1788 and the Compromise of 1850 slaveholders controlled: a. the presidency for 50 years b. the speaker’s chair in the House for 41 years c. the chairmanship of House Ways and Means Committee for 42 years 3. The only men to be reelected president—Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe—were all slaveholders 4. Eighteen of 31 Supreme Court justices were slaveholders 5. Southerners controlled the patronage in federal positions—e.g., 57% of the high civil service positions under Adams, 56% under Jefferson, 37% under Jackson 6. Many of Jefferson’s actions and concerns were specifically designed to maintain Southern numerical strength in the political system through the “slave power” (the power of south to control American politics through the 3/5 clause a. survey of the West b. Louisiana purchase c. fear of Burr’s detaching part of the Southwest from the Union d. University of Virginia—a place where southerners could send their best and brightest, rather than to Yale or Harvard where they might hear too much criticism of southern slavery 7. Slavery...
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...government, banking, and the law? Jackson’s attitude towards democracy was strong. He formed the Democratic party or the “Jacksonian Democracy.” This promoted the strength of the presidency and executive branch at the expense of Congress while seeking to widen the participation of the public’s participation in government dilemmas. He didn’t want monopolies controlling the people and disliked the banks and wanted to “kill them” believing they were devices to cheat the common people. 2. Explain how Jackson’s actions with the Bank of the United States and the Specie Circular damage the U.S. economy? What did Martin Van Buren do that caused even more damage? President Andrew Jackson refused to renew the charter of Second Bank of the United States which resulted in the withdrawal of government funds from the bank. Martin Van Buren was largely blamed for the panic also. Van Buren's refusal to use government intervention to address the crisis such as emergency relief and increasing spending on public infrastructure projects to reduce unemployment according to his opponents, contributed further to the hardship and duration of the depression that followed the panic. 3. Explain the Cherokee Removal and the part Jackson played. With the Georgia gold rush coming in and countless complaints the United States began the removal of all the Indians to Oklahoma. After demanding both political and military action on removing Native American Indians from the southern states of America...
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...Cherokee once lived in the southern Appalachians. In the eighteenth century, they claimed hunting grounds that extended into Kentucky, but they clustered their villages and agricultural fields in the valleys of upcountry South Carolina, western North Carolina, east Tennessee, north Georgia, and northeastern Alabama, they also spoke four mutually intelligible dialects of an Iroquoian. There were ten million Native Americans on this continent when the first non-Indians arrived. Over the next 300 years, 90 percent of all Native American original population was either wiped out by disease, famire, or warfare imported by the whites. Nineteenth century, the United States forced the Cherokee Nation to surrender its homeland and relocate west of the Mississippi witch is the event known as the trail of tears. The term “Trail of tears.” A rough translation of the Cherokee nunna dual tsung, describes the trek of heart broken people to their new homes in the west. The discovery of the new world by European explorers caused endless problems for American Indians, whose homelands were gradually taken from them and whose cultures were dramatically altered, and in some cases destroyed, by the invasion. By the next two centuries more and more white settlers arrived, and the native cultures responded to pressures to adopt the foreign ways, leading to the deterioration of their own culture. During the colonial period Indian tribes often became embroiled in European colonial wars. If they...
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...The Impact of Jacksonian Democracy When Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828, the Democratic Party began to shape a new era. Unlike many presidents before him, he appealed to the masses, or the “common man”. The mission of the Jacksonian Democrats was to amplify the strength of the poor, and decrease the influence and power of the wealthy. Economically, the Jacksonian Democrats benefitted because during this time, transportation was beginning to improve, and therefore commerce was boosted. However, President Jackson was forced to deal with the issue of the National Bank, which he believed held too much power and control over national economy. He also was forced to handle other important issues such as slavery, westward expansion, and sectionalism, and many people would come to dislike him for his opinion on these topics. For these reasons, Jacksonian Democracy impacted politics, national economy, and the status of the Union in both positive and negative ways. Previous to 1828, most of the men who held a high office were wealthy, aristocratic men who were brought up by established parents. These men were always educated, usually having completed college. Jackson was only the second president to take office without a college education, and this is one of the reasons why he appealed so much to all kinds of people, particularly the middle and lower classes. Jackson’s inauguration changed the way people looked at the government. People came from all around...
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...Andrew Jackson was the first president to be born in a log cabin. He was not New England wealthy elite, like his opponent John Quincy Adams. If the electors were appointed by the legislature, he did not have a chance of becoming president. When he ran for president in 1828, the land ownership requirements were taken away for the first time, giving all white adult males the chance to vote. In the words of Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy, “the election was a “revolution” comparable to that of 1800.” (Changes in elections- document 2) The election of 1828 was a more democratic election, therefore electing a more democratic president. Due to the new electoral system, Jackson invented the Spoils System to ‘thank’ his supporters. Being a war hero, Jackson thought that To the Victors belong the Spoils. The ‘spoils’ were not just money though. Jackson rewarded his supporters with government jobs, saying “I submit, therefore, to you consideration whether the efficiency of the government would not be promoted … and integrity better secured by a general extension of the law which limits appointments to four years.” (Spoils System document 2) The Spoils System was related to the National Bank Controversy. Jackson, in an autocratic move, vetoed the National Bank charter, deciding to put money in the banks of states that supported him. National Bank Controversy document 1 depicts Andrew Jackson as an autocratic king, who tore up the Constitution and trampled it beneath his feet. He is...
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...If I had lived in the 1820s, I probably wouldn't have voted for Andrew Jackson, because he made many bad decisions while in office. I looked through all the positive and negative things from his presidency to make my decision on whether he proved his good or showed his bad. I concluded that there were more con’s during his presidency than pros. Some of which included the Indian Removal Act which turned into a compromise, Bank war and debt, and lastly the spoil system and nationalism. As Jackson presidency grew and as he produced new ideas some of which didn’t work out for the best. Jackson was known for expanding voting rights, so he believed that the government should be run by the common people and they finally had a chance even if they didn’t own a plot of land. One of his biggest actions was vetoing a bill calling for an early renewal of the Second Bank’s charter, but the charter still could of be renewed. As this was shared he decided to decrease the bank's economic power. In 1833, federal funds would no longer be taken into the Bank of the United States. Instead, he placed them into various banks. The bank supported rich men and not the hardworking men which didn’t make sense at the time. Andrew wasn't a very fair president. He gave hundreds of federal jobs to his supporters in the first months of his presidency as a reward for working toward victory being president. This was also known as the spoil system. Jackson was almost considered being a king which in this case...
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...Multiple Protagonists and No Concise Antagonist Result in a Heartfelt Film The 1997 Steven Spielberg film, Amistad, the Hollywood strategy of having multiple protagonists in one film is exercised to perfection. This situation happens many of times in movies. But the fact that it happens in Amistad is noteworthy due to the fact this movie, a movie about the happenings of the trial after a slave mutiny aboard a Spanish transatlantic slave ship, contains a protagonist that was neither aboard the ship, nor is he black. The other protagonist in the movie was a slave on the ship, and a good portion of the movie depicted his plight both during the mutiny and during the trial that made the audience want to be on his side throughout the film. There is no clear cut antagonist in this film. Is it the nation of Spain who wants its “property” back? Could it be the two Spaniards that were the only surviving “victims” of the mutiny? Or better yet could it be the finders of the ship La Amistad? No, in fact the antagonist is actually an establishment. The first thirty minutes or so of Amistad starts out with the mutiny that takes place aboard the ship La Amistad. This dramatic scene shows vivid detail in attempt to bring the audience into the realm of the ship. Here the audience is introduced to Cinque, the leader of his tribe, who in the opening moments of the film uses his bloody hands to meticulously pick the lock to his shackles during a mid-ocean storm. It starts with...
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...The Amistad was a international complex court case which involved four countries: Cuba, Spain, Great Britain, the United States; I am going to include Sierra Leone as a 5th, because although no government officials intervened on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case, this was their native land. In my opinion, including Sierra Leone, Africa also humanizes the experience to serve as a reminder that this is more than a case about property rights and human cargo. In 1839 a group of natives from Sierra Leone, Africa were abducted and shipped to Havana, Cuba to be sold into slavery. Of those abducted, fifty-three of them were purchased by two Spaniards, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes, hoping to take them to plantations in Puerto Principe; the lot purchased included 49 adults and 4 children and the Amistad was the name of the ship chartered to transport the now slaves [1]. Ruiz and Montes knew that they were breaking the law even when preparing to transport the slaves because they sought to transport them at night since they were unsure as to whether or not the ship with be searched by the British [1]. The initial capture and transport of the individuals violated international Spanish law because the international slave trade had ended some years earlier based on a treaty between the Spanish and the British [1]. The British often did more to enforce the law than the Spanish, which led to conflict between the two. The British complained that not only were the Spanish not doing their...
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...King Mob, for his big inauguration party. Sharp Knife, for his strict, unfeeling ways of dealing with the Indians. Old Hickory, for his strict ways of commanding soldiers under him. King Jackson, to his political enemies. Whatever you call him, even though he was our seventh president, he was the first in many ways. Unlike other presidents, born into privilege and money, Jackson was born into poverty on the western frontier. This greatly influenced his goals once he got into presidency. Jackson ran as the common man, and had a strong distrust of wealthy Northeasterners, which would cause him many conflicts in his later years. Jackson was a shoo-in for the election of 1828, because he was a war hero, and because of the campaign “Corrupt Bargainer vs Military Chieftan”. He ran with John C. Calhoun, who had switched political parties to campaign with him. When Jackson was elected, he relied heavily on the advice of his buddies in Tennessee. So much so that he fired the entire previous president’s government workers and put his supporters there instead. Adhering to Jackson was the Democratic Party, and the National Republicans (Whigs) against him. Disposing of the unpopular caucus system, and the practice of nominating committees came in. This system was popular with Jackson’s supporters because of the fact he was the ‘common man’ and this system could get yeomen into office as well as rich politicians. Jackson also supported states’ rights, a characteristic that gained him...
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