Jacksonian Democracy Dbq

Jacksonian Democracy DBQ

Andrew Jackson was one of the most, if not the most, controversial president of all time; he wasn't like any other president prior to his time. During his presidency from 1829-1837, he was a triumph of the common people, which provided wider democracy for more Americans, to a somewhat large extent, yet he took the role of king Andrew to a larger extent. He represented what an actual common person looked like and he protected the common people anyway he could such as creating the Spoils System, Indian Removal act, and vetoing the charter of the 2nd US bank in favor of the common people in favor of the common people. But by doing so, Jackson had to change the way things ran in the office and went against congress and house, thus making him seem like a big tyrant. Although in many common people's eyes he seemed like a great leader, he made changes that no other president tended to do; only kings tended to do.

The Common people loved Andrew Jackson, so when he didn't win the election of 1824, people was devastated. Although everyone voted for Jackson, he didn't win because there weren’t enough voters; this made the house of representatives the people who had the choice. Instead of choosing Jackson, they chose John Quincy Adams. By 1828 almost all white men were allowed to vote compared to before. This allowed the states to have more votes for the states and thus allowing the people to chose the president. (Document 1) Andrew must've been indebted with the common people forever after this, after all he did favor the common people much more than higher intellectuals.

When Jackson was first elected, he had major issues issues to deal with; he faced the problem of the Tariff of 1838, which congress passed under John Adams. This tariff favored the Northern states and weakened the Southerns economy. This is because the taxes in south was too high on exported to goods to Great Britain. This boomed the economy of the Northern states.Jackson was expected to reduce the tariff when he became president. When the Jackson administration didn't do anything about, the more radical side of South Carolina claimed to declare for themselves the tariff null and void. Therefore Jackson sign Tariff of 1832, which reduce taxes which reduce taxes insignificantly. Although not everyone was content, this was one of the this was one of the few examples that Jackson gave of putting in effort to be a great president but failed at it.

Andrew Jackson also created the Spoils System under his presidency. Jackson believed that a rotation in office was actually a democratic reform preventing father-to-son succession of office and made civil service responsible for the popular will. Jackson believed that rotating political appointments would prevent the development of a corrupt bureaucracy. He did this in favor of the common people on behave that they would not be scammed. He did to give Americans an opportunity to participate in government and to get rid of corruption and incompetence. He says so in his letter to congress. (Document 6) He says that in a country where offices are created for the people, no man had more right to the job than another. This was another way he was looked at as a democratic president.

Although Andrew Jackson was very democratic in this way, many opponents of Jackson thought he made the spoils system because he wanted to appoint his friends for the benefit of himself. In many people's eyes he was viewed as a king for this reason, this was another instance where Jackson abused his presidential powers and changed the way the U.S. functioned. Jackson used his image and presidential power to award his loyal Democratic Party followers by granting them federal office appointments. Jackson began appointing many different kinds of people and in one incident chose someone who stole from him; this was called the Swartwout case. (Document 7) Jackson appointed Samuel swartwout as the collector of the Port of New York, which was a very sensitive and important position because 15 million dollars passed through their hands annually. Van Buren tried to warn him that Swartwout was not trustworthy and had criminal tendencies, yet Jackson didn't listen to him. Jackson paid for it big time when Swartwout fled the country with one million dollars; he was royally embarrassed. Since Jackson didn’t follow the government's rule of appointing elite bureaucracy he suffered majored consequences.

Since Jackson had a great connection with the common people, he favored them when he had to either pass or reject a bill. When the Bank of the United States came to an ending Jackson had to choose whether to charter it or demolish it. If he were to charter it he would upset the common people of the south and west, and if he were to demolish it he