Andrew Jackson: Autocrat or Democrat? Andrew Jackson was an autocrat because he executed actions that benefited him and not the people. Andrew Jackson was an autocrat because of “Indian removal doc 1”, the map, and “Indian removal doc 2”, the “Memorial of the Cherokee nation.” The map showing the long trails that the native Americans had to take proved that Andrew Jackson was an autocratic leader because the trails tortured the people and did not benefit them. When an action harms people or is not the common will of the people, it makes that action non-democratic. The “Memorial of the Cherokee nation” claimed the Native Americans did nothing wrong and they would lose all of their memories if they were transferred to an unfamiliar place. This proves the move was against the Native people’s will. When an action harms people or is not the common will of the people, it makes that action non-democratic. …show more content…
The cartoon by Thomas Nast was created to show that the spoils system was corrupt. The definition of an autocratic leader is “a person invested with or claiming to exercise absolute authority.” Corruption is usually used so that the leader always gets their way, so the spoils system made Andrew Jackson an autocratic leader. In the advice that Van Buren gave to Andrew Jackson, it stated that the person Jackson wanted to appoint would be bad for the people. The reason Jackson wanted to appoint the person was because that person supported him in his campaign. Eventually, The person ended up stealing a monumental amount of money. This proves that the corrupt spoils system made Andrew Jackson an autocrat because his supporter only harmed the people so appointing him was