Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln

Andrew Jackson

The presidency and legacy of Andrew Jackson

One of the prominent hero of his time, a man of passion and an expansionist, Andrew Jackson had been part of the democratic movement. Jackson's two terms as president, (1829-37) were the beginning of a new era in American politics, marked by the participation of the masses and the strengthening of presidential power. Jackson introduced the democratic politics of the border, facing the big capitalists and the business world, whose speculative activity and political influence had always distrusted, this battle culminated in the president's decision to end the privileges Bank of the United States as the central bank. He also pushed the American nation-building, for example, by expelling the Indians west of the Mississippi.

Although his legal education was meager, Jackson knew enough to practice law on the border. Since it was not a distinguished family, he had to make his career by his own merits, and soon he began to thrive in rough-and-tumble world of frontier law. Most actions have grown out of disputed land-claim, or assault and battery. In 1788 he was appointed Senior Counsel in the western zone, and held the same position in the territorial government of Tennessee after 1791.

Discussion

Andy Jackson's political legacy is the populist American Democratic Party or Jacksonian Democracy. This involved the expanding of suffrage (voting) rights to poor or common people (mostly farmers) and the extensive use of federal patronage employment (giving government jobs to political party supporters). Such radical egalitarian democracy made the Jacksonian Democratic Party the party of the people as opposed to the more elitist or aristocratic Federalist and Whig (later republican) parties. Jackson as U.S. president further advanced the cause of common folk by ending the official national bank and putting government funds into various private state banks. He furthered population expansion into the Western frontier, benefiting average U.S. farmers but displacing Native American Indian tribes. He advocated more power in the federal government and offended the nullification Southern Democrats who wanted states rights over national legislation.

Conclusion

Though Jackson returned as a hero to the American people, his actions prompted international condemnation and brought the U.S. to the brink of war with Spain. Jackson's invasion of Spanish territory and its abuses and murders (the Indians called him Sharp Knife) created an international incident. However, the Secretary of State John Quincy Adams defended Jackson and warned Spain that they should ...