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The Presidency Of Andrew Jackson Essay Research

The Presidency Of Andrew Jackson Essay, Research Paper


Like any hall of fame, its inductees are the best in whatever


they do, from baseball or football to something like being President.


If you are a member of any hall of fame (including the one for the


Presidents), it means that you have done something special or have a


certain quality about yourself that makes you worthy to be in a hall


of fame. My nominee for the Presidents hall of Fame is our seventh


President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. I’ll go over his


presidency, focusing on both the highs and the lows of his two terms


in office, from 1829-1837. The issues that I’ll focus on are states’


rights, nullification, the tariff, the spoils system, Indian removal


and banking policies; these controversies brought forth strong rivalry


over his years of president. He was known for his iron will and fiery


personality, and strong use of the powers of his office that made his


years of presidency to be known as the “Age of Jackson.”


Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in a settlement on


the border of North and South Carolina. He was orphaned at age 14.


After studying law and becoming a member of the Bar in North Carolina


later he moved to Nashville Tennessee. Their he became a member of a


powerful political faction led by William Blount. He was married in


1791 to Rachel Donelson Robards, and later remarried to him due to a


legal mistake in her prior divorce in 1794.


Jackson served as delegate to Tenn. 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 1804


he retired from the bench and moved to Nashville and devoted time to


business ventures and his plantation. At this time his political


career looked over.


In 1814 Jackson 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.


His victory’s impressed some people in Washington and Jackson was put


in command of the defense of New Orleans. This show of American


strength made Americans feel proud after a war filled with military


defeats. Jackson was given the nickname “Old Hickory”, and was treated


as a national hero.


In 1817 he was ordered against the Seminole Indians. He pushed


them back into Spanish Florida and executed two British subjects.


Jackson instead that his actions were with approval of the Monroe


administration. His actions helped to acquire the Florida territory,


and he became a provisional governor of Florida that same year.


In 1822 the Tennessee Legislature nominated him for president


and the following year he was elected the U.S. senate. He also nearly


won the presidential campaign of 1824 however as a result of the


“corrupt bargain” with Henry Clay. Over the next four years the


current administration built a strong political machine with


nationalistic policies and a lack of concern of states rights. In 1828


through a campaign filled with mud slinging on both sides, Andrew


Jackson became the seventh President to the United States.


Instead of the normal cabinet made up by the president, he


relied more on an informal group of newspaper writers and northern


politicians who had worked for his election. I believe that this made


him more in contact with the people of the United States, more in


contact with the public opinion and feelings toward national issues


President Jackson 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.


His enemies accused him of corruption of civil service for political


reasons. However, I think that it was used to insure loyalty of the


people in his administration. States rights played an important part


in Jackson’s policy’s as president. In the case of the Cherokee


Indians vs. The State of Georgia, two Supreme Court decisions in 1831


and 1832 upholding the rights of the Cherokee nation over the State of


Georgia who had wanted to destroy Cherokee jurisdiction on it’s land


because gold had been found on it, and the state seeing the Indians as


tenants on state land decided to “kick them out”. Chief Justice John


Marshall ruled that Georgia had no jurisdiction to interfere with the


rights of the Cherokee and removal of them would violate treaties


between them and the U.S. Government. However, Jackson, not liking


these decisions was reported of saying “John Marshall has made his


decision, now let him enforce it.” It seems to me like a slap in


Justice Marshall’s face, that Jackson was and always will be an Indian


fighter. I think he just liked pushing around the Indians because he


new that whatever resistance they had was no match for the U.S. army.


To emphasize his point, in 1838 (one year after Jackson left office),


a unite of federal troops rounded up the 15,000 Cherokee who resisted


relocation and remained in Georgia and during the cold and rain of


winter for

ced them to march to their lands in the west, this was known


as the “Trail of Tears” since about 25% of the people died in route of


either disease, starvation, and exposure to the cold. Even though


Jackson wasn’t in office at the time and is not a part of his


presidency, his effluence still existed through his predecessor,


Martin Van Burin.


The question of the tariff was a major controversy in the


United States around the years of his Presidency and his strong


support for a unified nation oven states rights would hold the country


together in this national crisis. Jackson had promised the south a


reduction in duties to levels established in 1828, which were


acceptable to southerners as opposed to the higher rates since then.


In 1832 his administration only sliced away a little bit of the


duties, not close to what the south expected he would do. In


retaliation of this insulting lack of concern of the South’s voice in


government, South Carolina acting on the doctrine of Nullification


which stated that the union was made up of the states and that the


states had the right to null or void a law if they didn’t agree with


it, declared the federal tariff laws of 1828 and 1832 invalid and


prohibited collection of tariff’s after February first of 1833.


Jackson’s response to this came on his Nullification Proclamation on


December 10, 1832. He declared his intent to enforce the law and was


willing to seek and agreement in a lowering of tariff’s. In 1833


congress passed a compromise bill which set a new tariff, when the


other southern states accepted the new tariff the threat of S.


Carolina breaking away form the union was brought to a “happy” end.


The Second Bank of the United States was not made into an


issue of his election in 1828 by Jackson. However he decided the bank,


which is not a government bank, but chartered by it in 1826, had


failed to provide a stable currency, and had favored the Northern


states, and few loans were granted to the southern and western areas


because they were a larger risk and the bank didn’t see it in it’s


interest to make such a gamble with it’s money. And in his mind the


bank was in violation on the Constitution. Even though the bank’s


charter wasn’t due to expire until 1836, Jackson’s political enemies


pushed a bill through congress granting the banks re-charter, Jackson


vetoed the bill. The “Bank” issue was a major item in his re-election


in 1832. In his second term Jackson decided to remove federal deposits


from the bank into “pet banks” which virtually took away the power


Nicholas Biddle’s power as president of the Second National Bank,


which left him and anti-Jackson people very upset with what they


called the abuse of his powers. The increase in loans from the state


chartered caused a land boom and gave the federal government a surplus


(which it split up amongst the states), the increase in loans brought


on the use of paper currency that was issued by the state banks,


Jackson prohibited the use of paper money to by federal land or pay


federal debts. This demand for coins called specie led to many bank


failures in the Panic of 1837. I don’t think he knew what he got


himself into when he did this, and could of handled the situation a


little better, but not all the blame should fall on his shoulders,


because it wasn’t his fault the private state-chartered banks issued


the paper money when they didn’t have the specie to back it up.


Jackson’s foreign policy showed a strong interest in making


the French to pay long-overdue spoliation claims and reopening the


British West Indian Trade. Even thought he personally agreed with the


rebellion of Texas against Mexico. He didn’t recognize the Lone Star


republic until the day before he left office in 1837, and left the


problem of Texas annexation to Martin Van Buren. Even though Jackson


switched support form his successor Martin Van Buren to James K. Polk


(probably due to Van Burins failed economic policy). Jackson was a


powerful voice in the Democratic party even after retired. He died on


June 8, 1845 on his plantation, the Hermitage, in Nashville Tennessee.


Andrew Jackson was the first “peoples president.” This comes


from hisyouth in a frontier territory and his “people qualities”


which helped him to be more touch with the people of the United


States, and therefore the people of the United States took a more


active role in the Government. He even went so far as to call himself


the elected representative of all American people. I think that


Jackson’s strengthening of the powers of the presidency are the


biggest influence to this day. He used the power of the veto 12 times


(more times than all of his successors combined). And his use of the


powers of removal and of executive orders made a standard for a modern


American Presidency. I only wish that their was a candidate like that


running for election in ‘96. The closest to someone like Jackson would


of probably been Colin Powel, unfortunately he decided not to run.


When you gave this project, I though Jackson was a mean tempered


Indian fighter who found his way to office because he took over


Florida and defended New Orleans Successfully. But I grew to learn


that he was really a great president and did a lot for the presidency


of the United States of America.

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