During the administration of Andrew Jackson, the United States was a nation of change both politically and socially. American society was a society of opportunity. Americans felt that, given a chance, they could make a better life for themselves. This was the era of the common people, the era of democracy. Andrew Jackson appealed to the American people because he stood for values many regarded with favor. However democratic Jackson may seem, he was more tyrant-like than any of his predecessors.
His major offerings to the nation included majority rule and a popular presidency, however offered no benefits to women, African Americans, nor Native Americans. Jacksonian Democracy was in no way democratic. Before Jackson’s time, voters expected public officials to use their own best judgment in electing. Under Jacksonian Democracy, the people came to believe that officials should act according to the demands of the people. To make government respond more directly to the popular will, state and local governments began to fill some positions such as judges, constables, and public surveyors by election rather than appointment.
The terms of office were also shortened so that popular opinion had a more direct effect on the actions of elected officials. Thus, the government under Jackson became the people’s government, although he retained a tight grasp, using his veto often. As new voters made demands on government, they learned the power of political organization. National issues became as much topics of conversation as local issues had always been. As national parties built stronger state and local ties, they began to rely upon a growing number of “professional politicians. ” These changes helped to initiate the spoils system.
This practice of appointing people to government positions based on party loyalty and party service was not an entirely new development, but Jackson was the first to oust large numbers of government employees in order to appoint his followers to office. He argued that there should be a rotation in office. Some believed that the spoils system set a poor precedent. Jackson amplified presidential power by using the veto more than all previous presidents. On the “Women’s Rights” issue, Jacksonian Democracy did nothing to further the female cause. Only in sparse states were women allowed to control property, and nowhere were they allowed to vote.
There were few schools for women and they were assumed subordinate to men. Whereas some women in some states made some strides under Jackson’s rule, Native Americans and African Americans did not. Jacksonian Democracy had nothing to offer these two minorities. Most Americans believed that the area between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, “The Great American Desert,” would provide a permanent Native American reservation. Jackson often spoke about protecting the Native Americans from fraud and of how humane the government’s removal policy was, but the policy as carried out was cruel.
In Georgia, the Cherokee Indians had developed a lifestyle that included schools, mills, and turnpikes. In the 1820’s, under pressure from the state to give up their lands, they wrote a constitution, hired lawyers, and sued in the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall upheld the rights of the Cherokee against Georgia. However, Jackson refused to carry out the decision that ordered Georgia to return Cherokee lands. He is quoted as to have said, “Marshall has made his opinion, now let him enforce it. ” When the Cherokee resisted the governments “generous” offer of lands farther west, Jackson sent in the army.
Forced from their homes to what is now Arkansas and Oklahoma, 4,000 Native Americans died of starvation, disease, or exposure on the march that the Cherokee called the “Trail of Tears. ” This is in no way democratic, but it seems very much like despotism. By 1840, the government had moved the entire Indian population still living east of the Mississippi to reservations. Although most citizens supported Jackson’s Native American removals, a few leaders, like Henry Clay, said that Jackson’s attitude stained the nation’s honor. Religious denominations, especially Methodists and Quakers, also denounced the harsh treatment of Native Americans.
The inhumane and despicable treatment of the Native Americans who turned to the government for help were only further spurned by that same government. There are many documents supporting the belief that Jacksonian Democracy was hardly democratic, including Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, the South Carolinian Legislature’s “Address to the People of The United States,” Jackson’s own message vetoing the recharter of the Bank of the United States, and Edward Everett’s speech before congress regarding the inhumane removal policies of the United States.
All of these documents, as has been aforementioned above, show that Jacksonian democracy was in not democratic. His veto of the recharter of the bank of the United States was only denying the people of an efficient way to fund their living government and to keep their delegates incomes on record. It is apparent that Jackson had a problem with this. Maybe he did not want his spending to be monitored. He says, “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Perhaps “King Andrew I” was not especially wealthy, but he did have power.
With this power he undermined the people and our nation to further his own selfish privileges. He should have followed his own advice. Jackson’s own vice-president, John C. Calhoun, proposed the Nullification issue. It seems that distrust of Jackson’s motives reached up into the lofty tiers of the government. Calhoun wanted to reassert the states rights over Jackson’s maniacal regime out of fear that “King Andrew I” might become a tyrant.
The legislature of Calhoun’s own South Carolina stated this desire quite clearly in the following quote. “We hold, then, that on their separation from the Crown of Great Britain, the several colonies became free and independent States, each enjoying the separate and independent right of self-government . . . ” Andrew Jackson even went against the decisions of the Supreme Court, thus violating the rock on which our government was built, the Constitution. He completely disregarded Marshall’s decree and sent the army in to force the Indians from their native homes in Georgia.
This disgusting display of the broad sword of government is a disgrace to our nation’s legacy. Tocqueville, a foreigner, came to the United States to study American prison reform, but was so disgusted with the way our society was and how our government functioned under Jackson that he changed the focus of his study to an analysis of democracy. He saw democracy by our example as “far from accomplishing all it projects with skill” and that “Democracy does not give people the most skillful government. Jackson’s example of democracy was horrible.
Jacksonian Democracy seems to be a zeugma, two contrasting things put together to make a comparison. Andrew Jackson never had any intention of broadening our democracy, only to make his ends meet. Through the way he treated Native Americans, African Americans, women, and many other minority groups, Jackson showed his ignorance in fulfilling one of the most pressing tasks of the president, to represent the people. To no extent was Jacksonian Democracy democratic.
