Andrew Jackson was said to be a divergent president in many ways, especially for his unique background compared to the wealthy ones of the previous presidents. He started off as an orphan and made his way up to becoming a general in the military, then became a frontier and started working in office soon later. Jackson’s presidency was held during an age known as the Age of the Common Man where he was determined to always do what was best for the common people and protect them from the powers of the rich and the privileged. With his success as a populist in his own Jacksonian Democracy, Jackson was able to seduce the American people but frighten the political and economic elite. Although Jackson had good intentions with what he wanted to accomplish …show more content…
There were tribes known as the Five Civilized Tribes that lived in the regions of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida. These tribes were the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. They all lived in peace with each other and adopted many cultural ways and customs of the whites. Unfortunately, some Americans believed forcing the tribes, specifically the Cherokees, out of their regions would be a great personal achievement. Georgia was first on the list to seize and to do so the president gave the Cherokees a “choice”. They either moved west to new lands, which were called Indian Territory, where their independence would be respected or they would have to live under Georgia laws, meaning many of their human rights such as voting would be taken away from them. This decision was completely unfair to the tribe since the region was home to them and the new lands were unfamiliar and not at all valuable to them. Jackson soon passed the bill, forcing the Cherokees to march from their homelands all the way west to a portion of the Louisiana Purchase. This march was known as the Trail of Tears where thousands of Cherokees passed away on the journey. This demonstrates how Jackson’s view of the common people was only placed on his white Americans, rather than the natives who were always in the United …show more content…
Congress passed a charter for a Second Bank of the United States, which Henry Clay himself took part in introducing it. Jackson personally thought the bank was unconstitutional and failed to establish an effective currency. Since the recharter meant that the bank would continue for seven more years and his political opponent Clay took part in establishing it, the president had to do something about it. The bank’s president, Nicholas Biddle, continued to try to stabilize the currency, helped state banks through hardship and expanded the nation’s credit for the next few years. However, it concentrated wealth and power within the economy and Jackson was against that power affecting the common people. He ran for reelection and was going against his personal enemy Henry Clay, who was representing the Whig Party. This party strongly supported the Second Bank and so Clay urged Biddle to apply for a new charter. Even though this passed both houses without any trouble, Jackson vetoed it. Jackson soon defeated Clay in the election and began to make his own changes to the bank. He ordered his treasury secretaries to remove federal deposits from the bank and to place them in 23 state banks so that he could destroy the Second Bank. His first and second secretaries refused and faced the consequences, but his third secretary finally agreed. The Second Bank soon became bankrupt and slowly
There were Five Civilized Tribes that lived in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. White people were not happy with the land they were on and Jackson forced them to move to the Great Plains because he believed there would be no conflict with them there. In 1830 Jackson pushed for the Indian Removal Act which allowed Native Americans to move west. In 1790 the federal government recognized the Cherokee as a separate nation which led to Georgia taking their land in 1830. The Cherokee went to the United States Supreme Court and they said they had the right to be on that land but President Jackson did not agree which caused the Trail of Tears.
As the result, Andrew Jackson vetoed the Recharter Bill. He believed the bank held too much power, both politically and economically. Jackson also felt it was unconstitutional. He said that the bank was an exclusive
Watson’s book further describes that Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay mainly had political differences, morals, and characteristics. Although Andrew Jackson- like Henry Clay- was a supporter of increased democracy and economic development, he and his supporters still tended to believe that the growing wealth and power of
government passed the Indian Removal Act which forced members of the of the Five Civilized Tribes -- the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Seminoles from their ancestral lands in the Deep South. This was to make room for white settlers who wanted the rich soil. The tribes along with their black slaves were forcibly marched west of the Mississippi River to the new Indian Territory during the "Trail of Tears" of 1838 and 1839, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Native Americans. Some Native Americans refused to register with the Bureau of Indian Affairs or to allow them to be "removed" to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma during the 1800s. They also refused to decide for the Blacks whether they would relocate or not.
“In May 1838, an army of 4,000 regulars and 3,000 volunteer soldiers under command of General Winfield Scott marched into the Indian country and wrote the blackest chapter on the pages of American history”(Document 5). This quote is from a soldier who witnessed firsthand some of the worst things the government did to Native Americans, the Cherokee specifically. The Cherokee are a Native American tribe who lived in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tenesee. They were known as one of the “Five Civilized Tribes”, since they quickly adapted to American culture through the ways of practicing Christianity, farming their land, adapting a written language, among other customs common in American culture. Despite this, they were moved off their land
The presidency of Andrew Jackson, from 1829 to 1837, has been widely regarded as a pivotal period in our American history, marked by both popular admiration and fierce opposition. During the election of 1828, Jackson’s legacy as the “Champion of the Common Man'' to protect the rights of the common people against the elitists resonated with the increasing democracy of many Americans. Jackson’s actions as president, however, sparked controversy from his opponents who only saw a tyrant monarch set to harm the constitutional order. While acknowledging the positive aspects Jackson made to his legacy, the negative consequences on the common man posed a challenge to the development of an equitable society. The Jacksonian Era, denoted by its mixed
The era of Andrew Jackson which was nicknames the era of the “common man” certainly lived up to its name. As the seventh President of the United States, Jackson had a major effect on the life of the common man, in such a way that the life of the common man would never be the same again. Jackson’s aim, after the manner in which he was defeated in the Presidential Election of 1824, despite receiving more popular votes than John Quincy Adams who took on the office, was to reduce the power and the authority of the elite. When he came into power after the 1828 election Jackson began to carry out his proposals. Jackson expanded the voting right to all men, in accordance with the Declaration of Independence of 1776 which declared that “all men are created equal” instead of just the elite.
In May of 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed The Indian Removal Act into law.32 This law allowed the president to grant lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for tribal lands within State borders. Few Natives moved peacefully, most resisted the new relocation policy.35 Approximately 125,000 Natives of the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ – Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole and Cherokee, lived on the millions of acres in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida.36 As new settlers were flooding into the United States, prime farm land was coveted by them.37 Georgia passed laws limiting Native Peoples sovereignty and rights and the Natives used the courts to regain their rights.38 In a few cases, such as Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
Andrew Jackson presidency focused a lot on small government and pleasing the common man. He attempted to shut down national banks to make government smaller. Jackson also enforces things like the Indian Removal Policy, which strengthened the bond between Jackson and the common man. Jackson was the first and only president to make the country debt too. All of these impacted are government today very much as well as other governments around the world.
Andrew Jackson was one of the greatest presidents who made very difficult decisions for our country. Although his choices were not always the popular decision, he made choices that were always promoting democracy. The things that make a good democracy are: giving people a say in government, having a good leader that you can trust to make wise decisions, peace and stability between each country and other states, and having equal power in the government (checks and balances). Andrew Jackson came into office with a popular vote and great support. His supporters viewed him as a man of the people.
Brittany Randall-Neppl APUSH Period 6 Mr. Kloster 12/19/2014 Andrew Jackson: Champion of the Common Man or Tyrant Andrew Jackson was born into a common life but overcame his mediocre beginnings to become a powerful politician; in 1828 he was elected president of the United States. However, he abused this position of power and made several choices that were detrimental to the welfare and rights of the American people. Jackson implemented the spoils system on a national scale and had unofficial members of his cabinet who did not have to answer to Congress. After South Carolinians were upset by the Tariff of 1832 he was angry toward those who did not agree with it. He also destroyed the National Bank and authorized the Specie Circular.
Andrew Jackson, being a tyrant, abused his power in his time of presidency. He was the 7th president, but before Jackson’s presidency, he had no political experience. One of the only things that really qualified him was the hardships he went through when he was younger. His father had died while Jackson was young and Jackson received the reputation as a “self-made man”, or an independent man.
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.”
Jackson as well contemplated whether the bank benefited the “common people.” He argued that the wealthy and elite economically benefited more from the national bank than compared to the rest of the public or “common people.” After Jackson saw all perspectives of the national bank he chose to deny the bill to recharter the second national bank. So Andrew Jackson used his highest executive power to overrule the supreme court and the Congress on their decision to pass the bill of rechartering the bank. This veto is a demonstration of how he analyzed the effects and the removal of the bank, and how he made a decision based on the welfare of the Unites States rather than vetoing based on his own personal
During Andrew Jackson’s presidency, he was not the best president. Some might consider him the worst. Most of Jackson’s actions during his presidency were deemed unconstitutional and illegal but were allowed due to the people’s support for Jackson. His plans for America didn’t include women, blacks or Indians. Jackson replaced all the Cabinet members with his selection friends, also known as the “Kitchen Cabinet”.