Andrew Jackson Dbq

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

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

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