Jacksonian Democracy

From the late 1820s to the 1830s, there was a strongly democratic presence in the United States government, due to the Presidency of Andrew Jackson. The Democratic Party strived to be “protectors of the Constitution,” by following it strictly, and promising citizens the rights and liberties contained within it, however, this was only partially carried out. The party did work to prevent the federal government from becoming too powerful, as evident in their abolition of the Second National Bank of the United States. However, Daniel Webster accused Jackson of undermining social justice and states’ rights, saying that the majority of states supported the Second National Bank, and the federal government was acting based on their own special interests.

v. Warren Bridge Co.” a trial held in 1837 to settle a dispute between two companies both trying to construct a bridge over the Charles River near Boston. Both companies were owned privately by industrially successful common men. Under the idea of Jacksonian Democrats abiding fully by the Constitution, the government should not have had anything to do with this bridge construction, and let the free market economy take its natural course. However, the way that individual state governments were run and the restraints they had were left unchecked by the federal government. The Charles River Bridge Company independently built a bridge going across the Charles River for pedestrian use, however, the government of Massachusetts issued a charter for the Warren Bridge Company to build a bridge in essentially the same place, but be sponsored by the government (Doc. H). This could have easily just been a method for the government to prove their power and show that their legislation was what mattered most, which Jackson, according to his view of himself, would have considered absurd. When the Charles River Bridge Company took this to court, it eventually ended up in the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Warren Bridge Company, the one whose bridge was endowed by the government. This caused an uprise, because private business owners were worried that in this newly industrialized country, things hadn’t

He and the Democratic Party he brought with him to Congress sought to protect the Constitution, which they strongly believed was the exact way the country needed to be run. The Jacksonian Democrats fought for a smaller and less influential federal government, that shared its powers almost equally with individual state governments and the people in charge of industry. The party upheld these standards partially, but the effects of their actions regarding them, didn’t exactly turn out the way they had intended. Ultimately, the Jacksonians may have had great intentions, but the power and greed that came with having control once it was earned twisted their views slightly, and made them more selfish, and less Democratic. They inspired the creation of new political parties and movements, which criticized them for their hypocrisy, and shaped the way modern Republicans think and act in the world