Andrew Jackson: Autocrat or Democrat? President Andrew Jackson was an autocratic leader because of the actions within The Spoils System, The National Bank Controversy, and The Indian Removal. Andrew Jackson stole from Native Americans that the nation had been in peace with for almost a half-century, gave office jobs to unqualified thieves, and put social and economic classes against each other, for his own personal benefit. Andrew Jackson displayed autocratic behavior based on Indian Removal Documents one and two. In the Indian Removal document one, there is a map that displays where Native Americans were taken from and where they ended up, depriving them of their home and natural territory. The map shows Native Americans transported anywhere …show more content…
All the while, President Jackson never changed this practice for the benefit of the people. In the Spoils System document one, there is an illustration created in 1877 depicting Jackson riding a pig followed by the caption, “ To the Victors Belong the Spoils”. This was created to show people that when citizens of a nation truly do not get to decide who is in office, the country is doomed to a system of anarchy. The document told people that Andrew Jackson was not trying to give people a chance to share new ideas, just to get enough votes and voices in for him that he could do anything he wanted to. Since the people were not in support of the Spoils System, Jockson would become an autocrat for only wanting to claim ultimate power over the people. Spoils Document three explains how one of the men who was hired via the spoils system, stole one million dollars from the government and it was known as one of the most conniving theft stories yet. The document states that Jackson’s advisors tried to remind him of this thief’s history, but he refused to listen. This act of theft is another example of autocratic power, because Andrew Jackson did not listen to the people or his advisors, then lost one million dollars to a thief in