For the People?

Andrew Jackson was an individual who rose to power during the United States “Rise to Democracy.” Jackson was widely recognized as “The People President.” This past week we spent classes debating and learning about whether or not he deserved the title “The People’s President.” Our essential question for class was his reputation as “The People’s President well deserved? Why? Or why not? In order to help answer this question we learned about three different situations Andrew Jackson dealt with during his tenure as president, and whether or not his decisions were for the people.

The first system we learned about was the Spoil System which can be defined as a system where a newly elected leader fires many former workers in order to reward supporters who have remained loyal to their campaign. Jackson removed 919 from their jobs to free up space for men who were loyal to him. One of Jackson’s worst mistakes was hiring Samuel Swartwout who was a convicted criminal. Swartwout was appointed as a tax collector and he went on to steal slightly more than 1.2 million dollars. The spoil system did not benefit all of the people, but it only helped a select group of people who were loyal to Jackson. In fact it made about 1,000 people jobless. Next, Jackson played a significant role in the Indian Removal. Jackson felt that it was necessary to force the people of five major Native American tribes west of the Mississippi  River. Jackson went on to force the natives to do so by using violence. Many natives marched on a trail out west where many died and it is now known The Trail of Tears. This decision helped white people in the US because it freed up important land but it ruined the lives of many Native Americans. Finally, the Bank War was when a wealthy banker named Daniel Webster who proposed an idea to help grow banks across the U.S. Jackson vetoed this idea because he did not want the banks to over power the people. This shows that Jackson was for the people because he was afraid of them being taken over by the wealthy and powerful banks. Personally because of these three reasons I would say Jackson showed flashes of being the peoples president but I do not think he deserves the title.

Spoil System

Blueprint for Democracy

This past week in our honors history class we studied the rise of democracy in the United States during 1800s. The United States was one of the earliest democratic states in the world. Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Democracy in the United States gave some people a chance to help decide how the country would be run and who would run it. In England no citizens had any power in deciding who got to rule. There was a king and a queen and their bloodline would remain in power. United States citizens did not have to deal with the same family for fifty or more years if they did not like their political views because they can vote for whom they want.

This chart shows that in 1816 all the states on the chart all voted by legislature and then by 1836 all these states voted by the people except South Carolina. One problem with the early United States democracy was that many states had restrictions on who could vote. Many places had a certain amount of property someone has to own before they can vote. 

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