Andrew Jackson was the 7th president of the United states. He quickly rose to power after leading the attack of the Creek Indians which gained him popularity as well. With many followers and a few losses at the campaign, he finally became the president of the United states. But some choices he made were questionable and needed to be answered. So how democratic were his choices, did he actually do it for, by, and to the people. I believe not, and its cause of what he did with the National Bank, Spoils System, and Indian Removal. Each of these problems he faced during his terms in office play a big part in our question. The first choice Jackson made was to veto the National Bank. This veto came out of nowhere and made many angry. Backing …show more content…
However harmless this may seem, he wanted to gain favoritism from the lower class by making it seem like he was doing good for them. But he was powering over the whole bank because of his high status, making his actions not democratic. Backing this up and arguing against Jackson's decision, Daniel Webster's response tells us that; "[Jackson’s message] extends the grasp of [the President] over every power of the government..raises a cry that liberty is in danger, at the very moment when it puts forth claims to powers heretofore unknown and unheard of"(Doc B). As Daniel Webster explained, Jackson is abusing his high …show more content…
Through document F, Jackson believes the Indians should be removed by what he calls, "a fair exchange, and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to land where their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual...It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their way and under their own rude [simple] institutions". Jackson believed that it was best for the Indians to get out of the white territory. He thought it would free them from the many white customs and laws so they could be truly free. However, the choice the Indians wanted was to stay. As their chief explains, "But if we are compelled to leave our country, we see nothing but ruin before us. The country west of the Arkansas territory is unknown to us...with whom we have lived in perfect peace for the last forty years…to bid adieu to our homes, our farms, our streams, and our beautiful forests? No...On the soil which contains the ashes of our beloved men we wish to live" (Document G). Speaking for all Indians, they never wanted to leave at all, it would only hinder the work they've made through 40 years of peace. They would have to leave behind all of it just to go and live on worse land than what they already live on. But it’s like they never had a choice in the first place because
Jackson’s voting policies were democratic because they increased the power of the people. In Document 1, the table shows that after Jackson was elected, presidential electors were chosen more and more by the people instead of the legislature. By 1828, the ratio of legislature to people was 2:10. By 1832 and 1836, the ratio changed to 1:11. In line with Document 2, Daniel Webster said that he never saw anything like it, meaning he saw many poor farmers celebrating instead of rich upper class men.
His reasons as to why he tried to veto a national bank were that the wealthy people would try to change how the government runs just because they were selfish (Document 4). Jackson thought that he had the power to veto the bank just because he was the president. Even after Congress passed a bill to re-charter it Jackson attempted to veto it. Daniel Webster replied to Jackson’s letter saying that Jackson was trying to separate the social classes and make them fight against each other (Document 5). This made it seem that freedom was in danger under the head of the government (Document
He thought that many people were entitled and that “spoils belong to victors”. Jackson was ignorant of people below his wealthyness. In Spoils System 2, it states that Jackson does not have a strong feeling about the public officers, and that they should be removed immediately. It says that Jackson wanted to replace the public officials with people that will gain experience. People that have never been experienced with this kind of stuff before.
In vetoing the bank bill, Jackson was protecting democracy since he could see that the bank was only controlled by the rich and wealthy, who are just a small portion of
Jeremy Correll Andrew Jackson DBQ Essay Andrew Jackson was elected as the 7th president of the United States in 1828. He was voted in with the title of being a representative of the Democratic Party. This started the beginning of what is known as the era of the common man. This is when the common people began to have a say in what the government did.
In Jackson's Bank Veto Message, he states that his principal reason for his veto was that he wanted to prevent the existence of monopolies. This is a fine reasoning that also goes along with is political views. The objection to this is that he was warned on how it would be detrimental to the United States economy but still went through with it. It cannot be overlooked that he had to fire two different secretaries until he finally appointed a close friend to agree with him. This is an obvious abuse of power, seeing as he fired two people simply for telling him that his idea would not work.
Andrew Jackson was called was the preferred candidate that the people called him “the people’s president”. Jackson started the political Democrat political party in where he gained the support of the citizens. Robert A. Divine said “His victory four years later, his actions as presi- dent, and the great political party that formed around him refash- ioned national politics in a more democratic mold. No wonder historians have called the spirit of the age Jacksonian Democracy” (229).
The Indian Removal act was not the only way that Jackson showed his anti-democratic views, the way he used the spoils system also demonstrated the opposite of
Jackson saw the bank as unconstitutional and only ran or worked by the wealthy, therefore, he wanted the bank to be destroyed. Therefore, Jackson wanted to veto the renewal of the charter of the second bank of the United States. Daniel Webster’s Reply to Jackson’s Bank Veto Message said “It manifestly seeks to inflame the poor against the rich…resentments of the other classes.” This describes that Jackson preferred the poor people over the rich and the entire nation’s economy. This veto led to the economy collapsing and caused the Panic of 1837.
He disliked the bank so much that he moved all the money to all the state banks he created. In document J, it shows Jackson standing a the constitution which is ripped up to shreds. When you walk all over something you are taking advantage of it and abusing its power and this is what Jackson was doing to the constitution. He is holding veto papers in who hand which stands for vetoing the bank and a scepter in the other. He has a crown on his head that represents as the king because he is forgetting about the people and acting like a kink and a dictator.
In the document “Jackson Battles the Bank”, it shows Jackson fighting off a monster, or the national bank, with a veto stick. Jackson was fighting to destroy the national bank. He wanted to do this because it favored the rich and not the common people. He was fighting for people to have equal rights. Instead of having no bank at all, he came up with the idea to create state banks which wouldn’t be as powerful as the National Bank.
From what I read and what he said, I thought it sounded like he didn’t want to shut down the United States Bank. And then in Document 5, Webster acted like Jackson should put an end to the bank by saying, “It manifestly seeks to inflame the poor against the rich, it wantonly attacks whole classes of the people, for the purposes of turning against them the prejudices and resentment of the other classes.”
One of the biggest thing that Jackson had done as a president was in 1832. Jackson vetoed a bill that would renew the second bank charter early. Jackson stated “I will kill it!”. He said this because he didn’t like the bank at all and he believed that it made the rich richer and the poor poorer. He said in his veto message “It is easy to conceive that great evils to our country and its institutions might flow from such a concentration of power in the hands of a few men irresponsible to the people.”
The first reason why Jackson was democratic is because he vetoed the national bank. In Jackson’s Veto Message to Congress he stated that the national bank was “... almost a monopoly of foreign and domestic exchange…” (Document 4). He did not like that most regular people
One of the most controversial issues during Jackson’s presidency was whether or not a national bank was good for America. Jackson believed that a national bank wasn’t a good idea. Therefore causing him to veto the proposal of a national bank. In a letter responding to Jackson’s veto, Senator Daniel Webster wrote, “It seeks to inflame the poor against the rich, it wantonly attacks whole classes of the people, for the purposes of turning against them the prejudices and resentments of the other classes”(Document A). Having a national bank would most likely benefit the people.