Jacksonian Dbq

Andrew Jackson was the 7th president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He was the first president born west of the Appalachian Mountains and was a common man. The Jacksonian Democrats were followers of Andrew Jackson. Jacksonian Democrats generally viewed themselves as guardians of the constitution, political democracy, individual liberty, and equal, economic opportunity, but I disagree on the fact that they didn't guard the constitution or individual liberty.

Jackson greatly believed himself to protect the constitution, but he didn't in fact do this. While Jackson vetoed the bank to help others who weren't so privileged, he went against the constitution by doing so. Jackson didn't want the states themselves to nullify laws such as the tariff of abomination, so he appeased them by making the tariff more lenient so there would be no retaliation. In Worcester vs. Georgia, the Supreme Court was in the favor of Worcester, and Georgia could not be on Indian grounds without a permit. However, Jackson completely disregarded this and help Georgia gain that land anyway. He didn't care about the Supreme Court at all in this case, and Jackson removing the Indians from their land was definitely unconstitutional.

Jackson definitely guarded political democracy. In fact, he helped create the Democratic party. Harriet Martineau, a British author, talked about her visit to America in 1834: "I had witnessed controversies between candidates for office on some difficult subjects, of which the people were to be the judges." In less than three weeks of her visit, she already saw the Democratic nature of America.

Jackson greatly supported individual rights for white men. He helped form the start of the Democratic party after all. However, this was limited to white men. While they had the freedom to vote, Indians were completely denied that freedom. Jackson also signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830. In order to appease the nature, particularly the south, he wanted to help give us more land, which we've been wanting. But in order to do this, the Indian Removal Act actually pressured the Indians into leaving until they did. This was good for white men but obviously not for Indians.

Jackson greatly protected equality of economic opportunity. In 1829, George Henry Evans was arguing that his class in particular was "more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves." He didn't believe they had the same opportunity as the higher classes in 1829, but this was when Jackson was barely president. In his veto message in 1832, he said, "it is easy to conceive that great evils to our country and its institutions might flow from such a concentration of power in the hands of a few men irresponsible to the people." Jackson saw the bank as unbalanced for the rich and the poor, and so he vetoed it to ensure equal opportunity for economics.

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