How Democratic was Andrew Jackson?

Andrew, Jackson was born in 1767 between North and South Carolina. Although he was a president, his life didn’t start with wealth. Jackson grew up poor, and his father died a few days before his birth. His fighting instincts made Jackson not an easy child to raise, and his mother struggled to do so. At only 13, he was captured during the revolutionary war, and he was severely injured. Before he returned from the revolutionary war, his mother passed away. When Jackson was elected as a democratic president he promised to listen to the people.

A democracy is a nation where the people who make the decisions. Even though he believed in democracy, some people saw him as a tyrant or a king rather than the democrat he had promised. How democratic was Andrew Jackson? Very.

To start, the national bank was affected and had effect Andrew Jackson’s democracy. Andrew Jackson sent a veto message to congress in 1832, in which he stated, “It is easy to conceive that great evils to our country... might flow from such a concentration of power in the hands of a few men irresponsible to the people.” (Document 4) This statement proves that Jackson cares for the people because he didn’t want the majority of the people to be tricked into choosing wrongly. The citizens might be fooled because the powerful and the wealthy will persuade them due to their power. Jackson listened to the people and sent the message. In a photograph president Jackson is presented as a king standing on top of a torn Constitution. (Document 3) This speculation of him is falsely portrayed because he made the veto to defend not only himself, but he protected the other political leaders and the citizens. He made the veto to give people a fair chance to not be fooled. Again Andrew Jackson helps the

people choose correctly and not be falsely persuaded by people of power. These documents prove Jackson listens to the people and acts because of them.

Next, our Native American neighbors are being forced to move west, and their population has drastically decreased. Jackson sees this problem, listens to the people, then acts accordingly. He sends a message to congress to help spread this word. In President Jackson’s message he declared, “Setting apart an ample district west of the MississippI... be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it...” (Document 8) He reacts to the effect our neighboring nations by creating a peaceful way to deal with them. If Jackson had not of done this act the Indian tribes may have gone extinct because of our poor realization. Andrew Jackson told, “We wish to live in the land of our fathers. We have a perfect and original right to remain without interruption or molestation...” (Document 9) This acknowledgment allows for us to understand that Jackson will settle for peace and protect our neighbors.

Lastly, the spoils system can prove that Andrew Jackson was democratic in a few ways. The spoils system was a system where if you had been loyal to the president and were with their political party then you often worked with them. Some people say that he would choose people to work with him just because they treated him nicely and with respect. But this assumption is not true at all. The letter to congress he wrote reads, “no one man has any more... right to (government jobs) than another.” (Document 6) When Jackson says this he means that no bias opinions were used on choosing a public officer because the qualifications and duties were “so plain and simple...” Although lots of citizens disagree that he did not make biased decisions, he stuck with what he felt and what the people wanting when choosing this. Opposing opinions bring up the collector of the Port of New York. Andrew Jackson had to elect a collector for the Port of New York and decided on his long-time supporter, Samuel Swartwout. Swartwout, “absconded with $1,222,705.09.” (Document 7) Samuel had obviously been a bad choice for collector as President Jackson had soon realized. Jackson had had a flavored opinion on Swartwout, but he didn’t realize it. Samuelson had been a supporter since the beginning, and whether President Jackson knew it, he favored Samuel. He quickly learned his mistake and fixed it accordingly. This was one mistake that had occurred, but will never happen again.

Andrew Jackson’s presidency can viewed upon from many perspectives in many ways. He made majority of his decision based on the people’s viewpoints and opinions. In order to be democratic, the person must listen to the people. Andrew Jackson performed this action very well throughout his presidency, and it accomplished a lot. His decision making was unbiased as well as his use of the spoils system. He accordingly acted to issues like the Native Americans whilst continuing to follow what citizens of the United States wanted. Andrew Jackson was not the most democratic president out there but, very few presidents can accomplish as much as he did. Andrew Jackson’s presidency was very democratic.

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