Andrew Jackson was the first "people’s president”. His humble frontier heritage and heroic title won support throughout the nation. Jackson was in touch with the common man and had respect for him. This for once, allowed the “people” to have a more dominant role in government, which is something that America prides itself upon today. However, this “people’s president” presidency was plagued with controversy. Andrew Jackson accomplished a great number of things during his two terms as president, however, some of his actions were quite questionable.
Andrew Jackson’s early life is what made him so beloved, at first. He exemplifies an American frontier virtue of a self-made man. Considering where Jackson came from, it was a miracle that he climbed
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Another controversy of Andrew Jackson’s presidency sparked when Jackson became extremely strict with South Carolina. Though Jackson was known for strongly supporting states’ rights, however, Jackson confronted South Carolina when they decided not to allow federal tariffs. In 1832, South Carolina declared the federal tariffs passed in 1828 and 1832 null and void and prohibiting the federal tariffs in South Carolina. While urging Congress to lower the high tariffs, Jackson wanted a strong Union with the same laws, and he obtained authority to order federal armed forces to South Carolina to enforce federal laws. South Carolina backed down to Jackson, and allowed the high federal tariffs down. President Jackson earned credit for preserving the Union. This did not cause controversy, it was what happened next that lead to such a controversial problem in Jackson’s presidency. In contrast to his strong stand against South Carolina, Andrew Jackson took no action after Georgia had claimed millions of acres of land that had been guaranteed to the Cherokee Indians. Jackson disregarded that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled Georgia had no authority over Native American tribal lands. Jackson did not allow South Carolina to do as they please with federal tariffs, however, Georgia was able to do whatever they wanted when it came to taking over the Cherokee Indian’s land. Which is why this became such a controversial issue in Jackson’s presidency. Moveover, when the Cherokees signed a treaty, …show more content…
Jackson appealed so well to many of the citizen of the United States, because he came from such a humble background and made the people believe he wanted to help everyone and use his democracy to get citizens more involved of the government. However, taking a look back in history it almost seemed that Jackson did many strategic things in order to gain more power. By closing the national bank Jackson was able to chose where the funding would be dealt out to. Moveover, when Jackson made sure South Carolina paid their tariffs in order to keep control over the country, which seemed fine until he did not get strict with Georgia. This shows Jackson wanted the expansion into the Western parts, which is one of the reason that circulates as to why Jackson did not like the national
Although those who were against him often considered him “King Jackson”, he still believed in the common man and did everything to try and support the people. During his presidency he was strongly against the idea of acquiring a national bank due to his belief that the bank would be ran through the rich, which would harm the common people of his nation. (Inside Gov) During Jackson’s presidency, he managed to lift the landowning requirement for
He set up “pet banks” in order to actively try to take the bank down. It took many years for Jackson to successfully dismantle the Bank of the United States, and in 1833 he finally destroyed it. Today, a bank where the federal government is controlling it is non-existent. This major change is due to Andrew Jackson’s persistence in successfully dismantling the institution. Overall, the elimination of the National Bank marked a turning point in American political life because it gave the Federal government less power and more power to the
South Carolina eventually declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832, were null within their jurisdiction. Furthermore, they threatened that if federal officers tried to forcibly collect the tariffs, they would secede from the Union. This shows that Jackson was not democratic because he obviously was not following the will of all Americans, just the ones who made the most money. The Northern aristocrats were taken care of, but
Jackson had a great vision of running the country from a common man’s perspective but failed to oversee beyond this perspective and see the bigger picture. At the start of the new nation, the government was bouncing back and forth wether power should stay with the states or within the central governmetn intself. Jackson followed many of the Jefferson’s idea for government and also belived on states rights. This idea slowly began to change when one of the states, south carolina, began to threat the government of seceden from the union.
He was against a national bank because he believed it directed the nations financial power into a single institution. Jackson also thought that the national bank did not benefit the interest of the common man and that it was mainly run by wealthy people. So basically Jackson chose not to continue the bank,he took money from the bank and put them in state banks. He also tried to decrease inlflation by encouraging to use only gold and silver to buy land but at the end did not benefit the national
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.
President Jackson was named the president of the “common man,” However, the only way this statement is true, is if the “common man,” was a white man. President Jackson was a bigot, he said he was the president of the common man, but his actions differed greatly. Hence, the saying actions are louder than words, and President Jackson's actions truly were louder than words. In fact, he promoted slavery by removing American Indians off their land, so that he could get cotton land for white Americans. Also, He violated the first amendment by ordering Southern postmasters to stop the delivery of anti-slavery literature in the South.
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.
He argued that the bank made the rich richer and didn 't benefit the poor. Jackson believed that the Bank of the United States had too much power over people’s lives. The Bank was dangerous to the common people because their money and lives were controlled by rich bankers that were not elected. (PBS: Jackson). Additionally, the bank only favored the businessmen and rich people of the North, which was where the major industries and manufacturing were.
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.
This is just one of the many examples of Jackson’s vetoes. While Jackson vetoed 12 bills in his time of presidency, other presidents at the time vetoed either none or no more than about 7. At the time, 12 vetoes was quite a lot compared to the other presidents. He had vetoes so many laws because he wanted to be the only person running the government. This is another example of his abuse of power.
Andrew Jackson has been remembered as a ground breaking president, even being put on the $20. President Jackson was a controversial figure, doing many popular and unpopular things in his time. Although he is remembered as a hero from the war of 1812, he also caused the Trail of Tears and tried to destroy the National Bank. As a result, Jackson should not be put on the $20 bill. His actions have caused many misfortune showing that villains do exist.
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.”
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, has done many good and bad things throughout his presidency for the country, however, his actions beg the question, does he deserve to be on U.S currency? Jackson’s actions both good and bad show that he deserves to be on currency. Andrew Jackson deserves to be on U.S currency because of his contributions to expanding the presidency as we know it today, his help to prevent conflict within the nation during the nullification crisis, and his actions during the Bank War. Andrew Jackson, our seventh president made very crucial contributions and further formed what a presidential role looks like today. In Jackson’s “First Inaugural Address,” he lists out the things
Born into a non-aristocratic poor family, somewhere in the Carolina’s on March 14, 1767, was a man named Andrew Jackson. Jackson, also called “Old Hickory” was a very bold proactive man in American history. From being a military hero and founding the democratic party to enacting the trail of tears and dismantling the of the Bank of the United States, the man and his legacy are a prominent topic for scholarly debate. Some believe he was a great president and some believe he was the worse president. But if you look at it from a moral perceptive or in the eyes of a foreigner, Jackson’s legacy was far more villainous than heroic.