Colby Magoon Mr. Mullen US History_CP1 02 May 2023 How Democratic was Andrew Jackson? Did you know that Andrew Jackson was not a democratic ruler? Andrew Jackson has done many non-democratic actions including removing the Native Americans from their homes, having slaves himself, and allowing Starwort to steal millions of dollars from the government funds. It has been discussed by many people that Andrew Jackson was not democratic, and it should not be up for debate because of his actions. One of Andrew Jackson's most horrible actions was removing the Native Americans from their home lands. Andrew Jackson wrote a message to Congress saying that “For it would be cruel as unjust to compel the aborigines to abandon their graves of their fathers …show more content…
Keeping slaves is a despicable action because they are being forced to work against their will under a horrible environment. In the year 1829, Jackson owned 90 slaves, and during the mid 1830s, he owned around 150 slaves. (Document K) However, also during those years Jackson was the president, proving that he supported slavery. Andrew Jackson also tried to cover up the fact that he believed in owning slaves, he did this by offering people of color “via $124 in money and 160 acres of land.” (Document J) if they agreed to become American …show more content…
Putting your friend in charge of important government roles is not democratic because the people have no say in it. To make matters worse, Swartwout had criminal tendencies. According to Robert V. Remini Van Buren allerted the President immediately and warned him that Swartwout's appointment would “not be in accordance with the public sentiment, the interest of the county or the credit of the administration.” Unfortunately, Jackson refused to listen…In time, Swartwout absconded with $1,222,705.09.” (Document G) This quote is important because it shows that Jackson was warned about the poor decision to put Swartwout in charge of the taxes. However, this monumental theft would not have happened if Jackson did not previously veto the National Bank. In Jackson's Veto message to Congress he states, “It is to be regretted that the rich and the powerful would bend the acts of the government to their selfish purposes.” (Document D) Meaning that the rich will be selfish and use it to their advantage, but really all he is trying to do is set the poor against the rich. In Daneil Webster’s reply to Jackson's message he says “It manifestly seeks to inflame the poor against the rich, it wantonly attacks whole classes of the people.” (Document E) Here, Daniel Webster is calling Andrew Jackson out for attempting to set different classes of people against each other for his own