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A national hero out of the West, a natural leader, and a nationalistic symbol, Andrew Jackson had most certainly proved himself to be the first peoples president. Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States, and was the first to gain office by a direct appeal to the mass of voters. Focusing on both the highs and the lows of his two terms in office, from 1829 - 1837, the issues that are of main concern are states' rights, nullification, the tariff, and Indian removal and banking policies; these all are controversies that brought forth strong rivalry over his years of presidency. He was known for his iron will and fiery personality, and his strong use of the powers of his office that made his years of presidency to be known as the Jacksonian Democracy. Andrew Jackson grew up on the frontier. All the presidents who preceded him had come from the Eastern seaboard.
The country was now expanding westward, and Jackson represented this movement. He was born in a log cabin on March 15, 1767, joined the army at age 13, and was orphaned at the age of 14. Young Jackson had an intense hatred for the English and a great loyalty to America. He fought in the American Revolution and was taken prisoner. He was still a boy of 16 when he was finally liberated from the British pen at Charleston.
This sequence of tragic experiences fixed in Jacksons mind a lifelong hostility to Great Britain. After the end of the U. S. War of Independence, he studied law in an office in Salisbury, N. C. , and was admitted to the bar of that state in 1787. There he became a member of a powerful political faction led by William Blount.
He was married in 1791 to Rachel Donelson Robards. Jackson served as delegate to Tennessee in the 1796 Constitutional convention and a congressman for a year (from 1796 - 97). He was elected senator in 1797, but financial problems forced him to resign and return to Tennessee in less than a year. Later he served as a Tennessee superior court judge for six years starting in 1798. In March 1812, Jackson issued a call to be ready for an attack on Canada. Next, he was a Major General in the Tennessee Militia; here he was ordered to march against the Creek Indians (who were pro-British in the war of 1812).
His goal was achieved at Horseshoe Bend in March of 1814. Eventually he forced all Indians from the area. The victory was so decisive that the Creeks never again menaced the frontier, and Jackson was established as the hero of the West. Jackson was given the nickname "Old Hickory. " In August 1814, Jackson moved his army south the Mobile to capture the Spanish post at Pensacola.
The motive was to prepare the way for U. S. acquisition of Florida, then a Spanish possession. The battle traveled from Pensacola to New Orleans, where Jackson marched his army overland early in December. Jacksons forces inflicted a decisive defeat upon the British army and forced it to withdraw. News reached Washington at a time when morale was low, and a few days later, new of the signing of a peace treaty between the U.
S. and Great Britain at Ghent reached the capital. The twin reports brought joy and relief to the American people and made Jackson a hero of a substantial part of the country. In 1822 the Tennessee Legislature nominated him for president and the following year he was elected the U.
S. senate. In the presidential campaign of 1824, Jackson lost due to a corrupt bargain between John Quincy Adams, the defeating president, and Henry Clay, speaker of the House. Over the next four years the current administration built a strong political machine with nationalistic policies and a lack of concern of states rights.
The election of 1828 is commonly regarded as a turning point in the political history of the U. S. The victory of Jackson indicated a westward movement of the center of political power. Andrew Jackson became the seventh President to the United States. Instead of the normal cabinet made up by the president, he relied more on a group of close friends who became known as the Kitchen Cabinet. John C.
Calhoun became Vice President, and Martin Van Buren of New York became secretary of state. Van Buren was the only Cabinet officer who belonged to the Kitchen Cabinet. Others included editors and journalists of influential pro-Jackson newspapers. President Jackson also developed the system of "rotation in office. " This was used to protect the American people from a development of a long-standing political group by removing long-term office holders. However, this only applied to about twenty percent of the government employees. Jackson supported Georgia in its effort to deprive the Cherokee nation of its land.
Jackson claimed that he had no power to oppose the application of sovereignty of any state over all who may be within its limits. The Cherokee appealed to the Supreme Court, and in Worcester vs. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled against Georgia. He claimed that the federal government had exclusive control over Native American lands.
This decision was ignored. Within a few years most of the Cherokee were removed in a 800 -mi forced march, during which thousands of them died. In 1834 the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) was created as a permanent homeland for the Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi River. By the end of Jacksons second administration the army had forcefully moved most of these eastern tribes to their new home.
Because Jacksons Native American policy opened more land to settlement, most Westerners supported it with enthusiasm. Jackson also made his mark in foreign affairs. He scored two diplomatic triumphs, one with Britain and one with France. These ended long-standing disputes with the two countries. Since the end of the American Revolution, Great Britain had restricted American trade. The restrictions included high import duties and bans on certain goods.
All U. S. presidents had tried, using both diplomacy and retaliation, to regain free access to this prosperous overseas market. When Jackson came into office, neither power was allowing direct West Indies trade with the other.
In 1830, Jackson and Van Buren succeeded in getting a treaty that opened American ports to British shipping, duty free, in exchange for similar rights in the British West Indies. Jackson also restored relations between France and the U. S. During the Napoleonic Wars, France had attacked American ships trading with its enemy, Britain, even though the United States remained neutral in that conflict. France, who had agreed to pay damage claims in 1831, did not pay its first two installments by 1834. Jackson asked Congress to authorize the confiscation of French holdings in the United States.
As a result, the French government indignantly discontinued diplomatic relations, but Jackson stood firm. Finally, in 1836, France gave in. She paid four overdue installments, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored. Jackson opposed renewal of the charter of the Second Bank of the United States. He did not make the Second Bank of the United States into an issue of his election in 1828. However he decided the bank, which was chartered in 1826, had failed to provide a stable currency, and had favored the Northern states.
Few loans were granted to the southern and western areas because they were a larger risk and the bank didn't see it in its interest to make such a gamble with its money. Also, in his mind the bank was in violation on the Constitution. When Jacksons enemies pushed a bill through congress granting the banks re-charter, Jackson vetoed the bill. In his second term, Jackson decided to withdraw government money from the bank to pay current expenses and to deposit future government revenues in selected state banks, or pet banks.
This virtually took away the power Nicholas Biddle's power as president of the Second National Bank. The increase in loans from the state chartered banks caused a land boom and gave the federal government a surplus. It also brought on the use of paper currency that was issued by the state banks. Jackson prohibited the use of paper money to buy federal land or pay federal debts. On July 11, 1836, Jackson issued his Specie Circular. It directed government agents to accept only gold and silver coin for the sale of land.
In the election of 1832, the candidates were chosen by party conventions for the first time. Jackson had 219 electoral votes to Clays 49. Martin Van Buren became vice president with Jackson. The history of the Democratic Party is outlined from this convention. The supporters of the bank called themselves the National Republicans. They nominated Henry Clay for president and John Sergeant, a member of the banks legal staff, for vice president.
The second election was centered on the bank issue. Before Jacksons second term in office began, nullification became an issue again. South Carolina was not satisfied when in 1832 Congress passed a tariff similar to the 1828 Tariff of Abominations. When the nullification forces gained control of the state in the election of 1832, they called a convention to deal with the tariff. In reply, South Carolina adopted a resolution declaring the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void and prohibiting the enforcement of either within its boundaries after Feb. 1, 1833. South Carolina also threatened to secede from the Union if the federal government tried to collect the tariff duties in the state.
Although Jackson was a champion of states rights, he stood firm behind the supreme powers of the federal government in this struggle. He spoke against nullification. On March 1, 1833, Congress sent to Jackson two bills. One reduced tariff duties on many items. The other, known as the Force Bill, empowered the president to use the armed forces to enforce federal laws. South Carolina accepted the tariff but nullified the Force bill.
Jackson had preserved the Union, but nullification remained a great question. By 1836 Jackson was weak from tuberculosis and had no thought of seeking a third term. However, he continued to ensure that the party nominated Van Buren as his successor. The last day of Jacksons presidency was as much a personal triumph as his first.
Thousands came, not to see the new president but to bid good-bye to their beloved hero. Andrew Jackson was in fact the first "peoples president. " This comes from his youth in a frontier territory and his "people qualities" which helped him to be more in touch with the people of the United States. Therefore, the people of the United States took a more active role in the Government. Jackson's strengthening of the powers of the presidency is the biggest influence to this day. His policies, nonetheless, strengthened the new American nationalism. Jackson was a man of the people, and he strongly felt that the common man was the power behind government.
Thus, he changed the nation into a more nationalistic country. Bibliography:
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