Jacksonian's Viewed Themselves as Guardians of the Constitution, Political Democracy, Individual Liberties, and Equality of Economic Opportunity

The Jacksonian Democrats also viewed themselves as protectors of individual liberty. However, if it interfered with the agenda of the common man, peoples' individual liberty was disregarded. Again, the "Trail of Tears" and the "Indian Removal Act" are examples of times when Jacksonian Democrats were not protectors of individual liberty. Even though the courts ruled that the Indians had their own land and didn't need to follow the state laws in their territory,

Andrew Jackson was a man of action not of philosophy people say. He once was a slave owner before his presidency years. He took up the matter of slavery in only a political aspect. America was supposed to be a land of the free, and yet we have slaves. On July 5, 1852 people gathered in New York to here a speech about Independence Day by an African American former slave Fredrick Douglas. He blamed Andrew Jackson for the spread of slavery in America. He saw him as a hypocritical politician and a hypocritical American. Jackson transformed millions of acres of land that Indians lived on (Indian removal act) in the south into cotton plantations. This probably would have happened without Jackson but he was the heart of this whole idea in making plantations for slaves to work on. Now if he was the man he says he is why would he want more land for African Americans to work on?

There are many who are against Andrew Jackson because he is a hypocrite. An example of this is how Jackson states he is against slavery but still owned slaves. One has to understand that America was founded on hypocrisy. Essentially what Jackson is trying to do is to make compromises on situations so he can support both sides of an argument to represent as many people as possible.

When it came to protecting individual liberties, Jacksonians favored the white male population, but totally ignored others. They wanted to move all of the Indians who lived in the eastern lands to western lands past the Mississippi River. Jackson bolstered their case. Even after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee tribe and its right to remain where it was, Jackson did

Jackson was willing to make the unpopular decision of vetoing the renewal for the national bank and withdraw all the money to get our nation out of debt. Doing this made him very unpopular but Jackson was willing to take the risk to get the nation out of debt. Also when President Jackson became president he brought all of his friends with him, and gave them jobs, even me, using the spoils system. Incase you didn’t know the spoils system is when a president gets elected and he gives all of his friends and associates positions in office. As one of our best presidents Andrew Jackson also paved the road for us to continue on with manifest destiny by moving the Native Americans into Oklahoma so we could move farther west. While this may seem cruel to some he was doing what was best for our people and what he felt was best for the Native American population. President Jackson caringly thought of how the Native Americans would feel about themselves if they were surrounded by civilized people with foreign traditions to them. He was moving them for their own good, seeing as they never wanted to assimilate to our culture. Also, he feared that they would see themselves the way that they are truly seen, as savages, and he did not want to have to force that

The Jacksonian Democrats were very important in the revolutions in political democracy that took place during this period. During this period universal white male suffrage took place and was the first step towards the revolution of the common man in politics. Also, Jackson's acceptance and support of the two-party system helped create a more democratic America in which people with similar views could unite in their support of a singular candidate. Many "working men" of this time period had felt they had been taken advantage of and misrepresented by tyrannical aristocrats who treated them poorly (A). Jackson used this to his advantage with emotionalized speeches exploiting class differences. However, it should be said that during this time period the amount of voters increased dramatically which means that more Americans were involved in American politics (D). Jackson's use of the "Kitchen Cabinet" kept his knowledge of critics and the wants and needs of the people up

Similarly, the Jacksonian age affected the economy both in accordance with the Jacksonian ideal of equal economic opportunity and against it; an executive branch act and a judicial branch decision were made with the intent of favoring the people, but substantial opposition highlighted the negative side effects that undermined the Jacksonian goal. President Jackson represented the executive branch with his bold move of vetoing a bill which proposed a rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States.

In addition to creating a more democratic country, Jackson also tried to establish equal economic opportunity for the people of America. The best example of this is the vetoing of the charter of the Bank of the United States. The bank was a huge monopoly. It was ran by aristocrats, most of which were from England. Nicholas Biddle, who was the president of the bank, often used funds from the bank to lend money to the members of Congress, thus wining their support.

Jackson also gave government jobs to regular people. This was called the spoils system. He appointed people to federal jobs depending on whether they had campaigned for the Democratic Party. Anyone currently in office who was not a democratic was replaced with a democrat. This was called the spoils system because it promoted a corrupt government. He also believed in rotation in office. He wanted to make it possible for more democrats to have government jobs, so he limited a person's time in office to one term. The spoils system showed how one man was no better than another and helped build a strong two-party system.

Nicholas Biddle proved great opposition to President Jackson. He wanted to re-charter the National Bank; however, many people were against Biddle’s decision. This was particularly true of people in the west. They were still wary of a national bank, after the Panic of 1819, which involved mishaps in land speculation. Jackson shared the predominately western opinion that several small banks would be a better service to the nation than one, large bank would. A major problem with a national bank would lie in it’s willingness only to make loans to the wealthy. This would be of no use to the middleclass. Jackson would not allow Biddle to gain any more power than he already had.

In addition to creating a more democratic country, Jackson also tried to establish equal economic opportunity for the people of America. The best example of this is the vetoing of the charter of the Bank of the United States. The bank was a huge monopoly. It was ran by aristocrats, most of which were from England. Nicholas Biddle, who was the president of the bank, often used funds from the bank to lend money to the members of Congress, thus wining their support.

Jackson was a supporter of the working class; he was viewed as a true liberal democratic. The Second Bank appeared to be monopolistic and aristocratic. This did not coincide with Jackson’s views on politics, economics, and society. Jackson did not

Although the “Age of Jackson” wasn’t a time era, which brought forth a great political, social, or economic freedom and equality to the U.S., it did in fact put our country through a metamorphosis in our political lives of the nation. The start of a new presidency (Jackson’s presidency) was accompanied by huge numbers of Hickoryites (Jacksonian supporters) and official hopefuls. Many of these hopefuls were granted their desire of holding office, which is one of the changes brought into Washington by Andrew Jackson.

While there are many notable differences between Jefferson and Jackson, there is one major similarity: their opinions relating to economics. They both firmly opposed a United States Bank that stood in opposition of state banks. Jackson was in favor of state banks and had won a bank war that enabled him to draw out money from the federal standpoint and place these funds into state banks. Jefferson had the same view, as he encouraged state banks. In other words, both Jackson and Jefferson opposed a national bank, and encouraged state banks.

     Jacksonian (Democracy, Society, etc.) is a term used to describe reform during the time of Andrew Jackson’s Presidency. Specifically Jacksonian Democracy refers to “the general extension of democracy that characterized U.S. politics from 1824 to 1828.” Jacksonian Democracy and its support came primarily from the lower classes as a rebellion of sorts apposing the aristocracy. Even though it stressed equality, it was pro-slavery and anti-Indian (not unlike Andrew Jackson). Also there was change in both the political parties and the social reforms. Jackson was seen as a westerner (even though he was from Tennessee) and a president of the common man. This we can see when he married women