Andrew Jackson’s Presidency
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Andrew Jackson’s Presidency
Andrew Jackson was the seventh US president who served from 1829 to 1837 (Berkin et al. 2011). Personally, I would have voted for him because of his great personality, influence, patriotism and champion for the rights of common Americans. As a fundamental moralist, President Andrew’s actions were focused on ending corruption in public offices through enactment of federal laws on embezzlement. He believed in executive supremacy as he gave many presidential directives on national matters, especially the threat to use military action to bar the imminent secession of South Carolina (Berkin et al, 2011). He created and increased the federal pensions, especially the service pensions for war veterans.
President Jackson strengthened the Democratic Party through his shrewd and authoritative nature. In his campaigns he advocated for the rule of law and democracy through involvement of the common people in political affairs and advocating for the rotation in office to ensure every person’s right to hold presidential office (Berkin et al, 2011). He is the first president to invite commoners in the White House during his inauguration party. Jackson was a true patriot who advocated for good morals and hard work rather than corrupt easy money.
However, his presidency was mired with a few controversial issues despite having many positive attributes. The forced removal of Native Indians from their land through the Indian Removal Act was inhuman and unnecessary (Berkin et al, 2011). Jackson did this to expand the American territory to the west and south. His preference for hard money (silver and gold) led to the destruction of the second American Bank, which advocated for modernization of the economy and stimulated the banking and manufacturing sectors. These two controversies led to the birth of the Whig party which saw such actions as tyrannical.
Led by the first opposition leaders William Henry Harrison and Henry clay of Ohio and Kentucky, respectively, the Whig Party supported congress supremacy rather than the executive supremacy popularized by Jackson (Berkin et al, 2011). They also rejected the “spoils system” of awarding plum governments’ jobs to political loyalist. They also favored modernization of the economy and banking to encourage manufacturing ad industrialization. They earned support from entrepreneurs, planters, importers and Protestants. At the time, I would have supported the Whig party agenda since it was more realistic based on the changing world of economy and politics.
References
Berkin, C., Miller, C., Cherny, R., & Gormly, J. (2011). Making America: A History of the United States (Vol. 1). Scarborough: Nelson Education