...Andrew Jackson: Evil Tyrant or a Hero for the Common Man? Name: _________________________________________________________ Class: ________________ Guiding Question: Our study of Jackson’s presidency will be focused on answering the question: Was Andrew Jackson an evil tyrant who abused presidential power, ruthlessly killed Native Americans and defied the Supreme Court; or was he a proud hero of the common man who sought to bring an end to the power of the wealthy upper class in government? Assignments for the week: You are responsible for reading all of Chapter 12 in the textbook (p. 353-371) by the end of the week. You are also responsible for reviewing this website as homework: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson The Life of Andrew Jackson Video Questions: 1. What incident early in Jackson’s life made him hate the British? Why? 2. Describe Jackson’s early life and social status. 3. List some words that describe Jackson’s character as a young man. 4. What profession (job) did Jackson pursue when he was 18? 5. What happened in Jackson’s first duel? What did it prove about him? 6. Why was Jackson’s marriage controversial? How did this hurt him later? 7. Describe Jackson’s first attempt at serving as a politician in Washington. 8. What happened in Jackson’s second duel? 9. Why did Jackson earn the nickname “Old Hickory”? 10. What was the “Redstick War”? What role did Andrew Jackson play? 11. What did Andrew Jackson do with a young Native American child captured...
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...Andrew Jackson, an American Tyrant. As the president of the United States, Andrew Jackson exercised his power in a cruel, arbitrary, and unreasonable way. This abuse of power makes Andrew Jackson a tyrant. Many of the actions Jackson took as president of the United States prove Jackson was not democratic leader. First, Jackson vetoed congress and abolished the bank of the United States. Second, Jackson used the “Spoils System” to give his party and himself more power. Finally, Jackson removed thousands of Native Americans from their land illegally, and forced them onto unsettled land out west. Andrew Jackson once said, “I cannot be intimidated from doing that which my judgment and conscience tell me is right by any earthly power.” This statement shows Jackson’s attitude was one of a tyrant, not a democratic leader. The Bank of the United States was started in 1816 to restore a sound fiscal condition after the War of 1812. The bank was operated and managed by both private and public officials. The bank provided public services such as transferring government funds around the country and functioning as a depository for the Treasury.(a) The bank had a reputation of being responsible with it’s money and was generally popular among state bankers. The fact the Bank of the United States was popular among it’s competition (State bankers) speaks to how well it was run and the positive impact it had on the economy of America. There was however many Americans that...
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...curse or a blessing? Andrew Jackson ran for president in 1828 and was determined to grant the wishes of the people. Many said he was a tyrant but others debated that idea due to the questionable actions against congress, so was Andrew Jackson a supporter of the people who just wanted to serve them or a tyrant who did thing to only his liking and masked it as something else? Andrew Jackson is a supporter of the people because he always wanted the people to rule evident since his running, helped westward expansion by solving Native American issues, and helped pay national debt. To begin with, Andrew Jackson was a supporter of the people because he always wanted the people to rule. For example, Jackson’s campaign slogan was “Vote for us if you believe...
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...Andrew Jackson: Tyrant or Man of the People? Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, is one of the most studied and controversial presidents in United States history. Whether he was a tyrant or a man of the people is one of the most discussed and debated topics by students of history and politics. He was both and neither, depending on one’s perspective. Throughout his presidency, specific political decisions seem to be in conflict with other political decisions, making it difficult to conclude any general opinion. Jackson is viewed as a tyrant based on the relocation of the Native Americans, his failure to advance the cause of slaves, and his use of the spoils system to advance his policies. Throughout his military...
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...#1 Andrew Jackson: American Ceasar? Andrew Jackson left a permanent imprint upon American politics and the presidency. Within eight years, he combined the form-less coalition of personal followers who had elected him into the country's most durable and successful political party, whose organization and discipline would serve as a model for all others. At the same time, his controversial conduct in office shocked opponents to organize the Whig party. 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 creating one. In eight years, Congress passed only one major law, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, at his command. During this time Jackson vetoed twelve bills, one of these was the first "pocket veto" in American history. The Maysville Road and Bank vetoes stood as enduring statements of his political philosophy. Jackson strengthened himself against Congress by direct links with the voters. His official messages, though delivered to Congress, spoke in plain and powerful language to the people. Reversing to legislative supremacy, Jackson boldly proclaimed himself as the people's leader, their sole defender against special interests and their preferences in Congress. In other ways, too, Jackson expanded the scope of presidential authority. I think Jackson may have given himself too much credit. He forced out members who would...
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...historians portray Andrew Jackson as the champion of the democracy and the common man. Others claim that Jackson was an autocrat who had little sincere regard for the interests of the American people. Which image of Jackson comes closer to being correct? Why? EARN 2 EXTRA CREDIT POINTS TOWARDS YOUR FINAL GRADE. President Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States of America between 1767-1845.He is considered the first President to be democratically elected by Americans, and was the founder of the democratic party, many Americans view Andrew Jackson as champion, while others as an autocrat dew to certain actions and decisions he made during his term...
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...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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...Democracy is where the governments must listen and follow to the wishes of the people or where the majority rules. Andrew Jackson was a man who grew up in a poor family and tried to change his life by studying law. After a while, Jackson was elected Tennessee's first representative in the US. House of Representative since his political career made him an American hero, he was later elected das a president and won after a while. Since he was poor as a kid, he believed that not only rich people should vote, he wanted the common man to vote too.Andrew Jackson was democratic because he changed the methods of electing president from less democratic to more democratic over time and he advocated for the rights of common man to rule, although he agreed...
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...- 1. Andrew Jackson's election greatly influenced a new era in politics in many ways. During Jackson's presidency, the United States was very different than it was during the time of the Revolutionary War. White men were able to obtain suffrage when qualifications for voting by the states was ended. The Jacksonians searched to make economic opportunity within reach for the common many. Because of this, politics changed with the establishment of national conventions, where the leaders of each parties chose the candidates and platforms for their party. Even though there was a lot of effort to democratize opportunity economically for the common man, the elite class of cities remained in control of society and politics. - 2. Jackson disagreed with the federal involvement of the economy. He wanted to lower government spending and vetoed many bills put forward to use federal money. He vetoed a bill to recharter the second bank of the United States because he...
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...“The Reign of King Andrew” President Andrew Jackson might have lived a common man’s youth, but he eventually transformed his life of poverty into that of a king. As Jackson grew older he became a powerful ambitious man and was ready to assert his influence throughout his presidency. Jackson left a memorable legacy with his days in office that included forceful removal of Native Americans, setting off the Spoils System into the American Government, and turning the presidential veto into an executive weapon; making use of it more than any other president before him. One of the most controversial events that occurred during Jackson’s presidency was the “Trail of Tears”. Jackson, a strong oppose of Native American rights, issued the “Indian Removal Act” which ordered for Indian relocation from their homeland to west of the Mississippi River; this relocation was meant to be voluntary, but it was not. In 1832, the Supreme Court mandated that the Cherokee had rights on their own land and did not need to abide by Georgia’s claims for their land. Jackson ignored the ruling and forced the Cherokee along with many other tribes to go relocate west of the Mississippi. Jackson’s decision to do this was considered extremely unconstitutional by many people outside of the Democratic- Republicans. President Jackson was heavily against the Bank of the United States. It had the most power out of any bank in America...
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...people; which occurred before, during, and after Andrew Jackson’s presidency. This name suits the time period fairly well if one is to consider the economic development, changing politics, and various reform movements, that took place within 1824-1848 in a thriving American nation. It was not perfect, yet it was a time of various alteration. Nearing the end of John Quincy Adams’s presidency, the Tariff of 1828 severely crippled the Southern economy. This “tariff of abominations” earned Adams a bad reputation amongst the southerners. It allowed for the Northeast to prosper by protecting them from foreign competition, while the South was stuck...
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...Andrew Jackson’s historical legacy is one covered with controversy, with historians and others taking the position of either high praise, or high negativity with no medium - people either like him or loathe him, there’s no in-between. Following Jackson’s death in 1845, he has acquired several accolades that could be used to determine whether he had an impact on history during his presidencies. Firstly, he appears on the $20 bill, one of only a few influential historical figures who have also made it on the American currency - the fact that he shares such an exclusive position alongside the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, all indisputably influential and important figures in American history, means that he must have had a successful presidency. Secondly, he ranks fifth in the all-time most influential presidents list, which is high praise indeed considering there has been 43 other presidents. This essay will aim to examine the positives and negatives of Andrew Jackson’s presidencies and whether he is deserving of his historical legacy which places him fifth in the all time most influential presidents. Jackson was the first man of so called ‘low birth’ to be elected as President. Jackson, having failed to win the 1824 election despite winning the plurality of the popular and electoral vote, and infuriated by Clay and Adam’s ‘Corrupt Bargain’, came back stronger for his running in the 1828 election. By this election, white men of all backgrounds...
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...In the early eighteen hundreds, Native American troubles became apparent in the west, mainly between Indiana's tyrant of a governor, William Henry Harrison, and the Shawnee tribe with insulting ways of payment and battle methods. But of course with the reign of Shawnee chief Tecumseh, and brother Tenskwatawa, these tactics tumbled. In 1809, while the Shawnee chief was out on an enlisting voyage. Harrison grouped several Native American tribes to talk about the Treaty of Fort Wayne. Upon finding out, Tecumseh left his tribe in hopes to find and negotiate friendly relations with other tribes. William Harrison saw this advantage over the Shawnee tribe and attacked. With total loss of forty Native Americans, the Americans won the two-hour-long...
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...being allowed to speak for themselves. She felt that they were awed into silence by wealth and power and was under tyranny and cruel oppression 2. She doubt the sincerity of the Christian beliefs of the factory owners because they talk benevolence in the parlor, compel their help to labor for a mean and paltry pittance in the kitchen. They manifest great concern for souls of the heathen in distant lands and care for nobody else besides their own. 52. Immigrants Arriving in New York City 1. The tone the reporter adopted regarding the immigrants is hostile because of how he describes the immigrants and how they looked. He described them having degraded faces with many stamps of inferiority. 2. The aspirations the reporter thinks are uppermost in the immigrant’s minds is hope, freedom, and a chance to work, and food to the laboring man. 53. A Woman in the Westward Movement 1. Moving west altered tradition expectations of women’s roles by proving that they could endure rough conditions from moving west. They were left to be lonely and the burdens of pioneer life. 2. Mrs. Noble’s main complaints about her situation on the frontier was carrying her infants and not being able to sleep because of thinking about wild beasts. She also had to cook in the open air instead of in a log house. She doesn’t regret having moved to Michigan because it was a better location than New York. 54. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar” 1. Emerson felt...
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...though Christopher Columbus claimed to have discovered the Americas in 1492, it was already inhabited some fifteen to twenty thousand years prior. The glaciers were reduced because of global warming and this gave the nomadic hunters access to the core of the North American continent. Amazingly, this contributed to their food supply abundantly and this produced a swift population growth. More changes became evident in the environment which included a new food source such as fish, nuts and berries. These Native Americans, known as Paleo-Indians, adjusted and propelled forward. Because they were exposed to a new food source they discovered how to cultivate certain plants. At this stage, the Agriculture Revolution was born and this significantly altered the Native American culture. With a more stable food source these Indians became docile and established. This also helped in establishing stable villages and eventually led to some type of government which included elders and leaders. The Eastern Woodland Cultures did not practice agriculture first and foremost but supplemented their food chain with hunting and fishing. They had settled in the northern region along the Atlantic coast. The Algonquian-speaking Natives resided from North Carolina to Main and spoke many different dialects depending on the region they were associated with. Furthermore, most Native American hierarchy was established in their culture through kinship. Surprisingly, many of the Native Americans...
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