He is often thought of as one of the most popular presidents. Andrew Jackson was democratic in many ways; he was a supporter of the common people, he helped the “transfer of national power from the country house to the farmhouse” (Document B), and be believed in the power of the people and “that all offices – whether appointed or elected – must ultimately fall under the absolute control of the people” (Document D). By believing and supporting in the people, Jackson won the favor over many americans. During his presidency, Jackson made many statements about offices and how long their terms should be and how they should be elected by the people, rather than by other offices (Document D). This won the favor of the public in many ways, mainly due to the fact that they saw a president who was representing them, rather than only wanting to put themselves into a higher position.
DBQ From the 1820’s to the 1830’s the Jacksonian democrats saw themselves as defenders of the constitution, political democracy, individual liberty, and equality of the economy; however, one can claim that they did not meet all this criteria. In determining whether this political party did exceed all points stated, one must assess the extent to which society benefitted from Jackson’s regime. Politically, they used class differences to their advantage and emotionalized speeches, lacking real intellectual merit, to stir support. Socially, blacks, women, and Native Americans continued to languish in a society that ignored their rights in a time period that is said to have true liberty and equality. Economically, he dominated the economic structure for his beliefs in the Bank of America being run by the wealthy.
Foreign policy is important because it has a lot to do with the trade, technology, and communications of the United States. Also by nations working together global problems can be fixed easier. Equal rights are important to the U.S because it shows that everyone has the same rights including: black people, white people, Asian, men and woman, ect. A bad president would make the economy go down, not believe in equal rights and have a bad foreign policy. The best president in U.S history I believe is Abraham Lincoln.
This was a symbolic period because the rise of President Jackson from backwoods of Carolina to the highest office in the land showed that anyone, no matter the social status, could accomplish what one wanted in America. President Jackson message to Americans helped to jumpstart movements and improve public education, abolished debtors’ prisons, and organized women rights including many other areas that were positive impacted during this period. During Jacksonian American, there were major immigration movements (Zinn, 2005). The story of Jackson and his rise to highest office in the land inspired most immigrants. It should be noted that it was during this period that America experienced market revolution.
Shipler in his essay “Jefferson Is America and America Is Jefferson,” Jefferson represents the most powerful contradiction of American society, because his declaration of individual liberty showed the brilliance of his extraordinary mind but also he claims that black people are inferior. Shipler considers that Jefferson had a deep understanding but at the same time he was such an ignorant person about what was happen, at that time concerning liberty and slavery. Slavery was a contradictory subject in Jefferson’s life. Although he was a defender for individual freedom and at one point he was against of slavery in America, but he owned slaves throughout his life. He was a politician that would speak out about slavery but would still employ slaves for his own use.
Also, he gave elected officials the right to choose their own followers to public office. Jacksonian Democrats also sought “relaxed property qualifications to vote”. Jacksonian Democrats were all about representing the common man, and, since it represented the powerful and wealthy eastern people trumping over poor farmers, they shut down the “Second Bank of The United States”. Populists were also about representing the common man. In fact, they wanted “free and unlimited coinage of silver” to help debtor farmers in the west that had borrowed gold from wealthy western Americans.
That’s why I feel he wanted to be a part of the political abolitionist, the Liberty Party. I believed he felt that was the way to go, to prove that The Constitution was indeed anti-slavery. “The Negros of the South are, in fact, the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. I argued that slavery was the natural and normal condition of the laboring man, white and black, and that slavery for both was right and necessary.”(Oates, page 137.part 18). These were the words of George Fitzhugh, I felt that by him saying that the Negros were the freest people in the world is very contradicting, how can one say that a slave was free, they couldn’t make any decisions for themselves, come and go as they please, let alone not be separated from their
The African Americans were not able to vote because the whites and the government disenfranchised the African Americans; until the 15th Amendment. The African Americans were considered illiterate to the Whites. The 15th amendment states that they could no longer discriminate based on race. Even though this amendment sounded like good news, the Whites still made literacy test and poll taxes that the African Americans had to do even before voting. The African Americans couldn’t run for office either, they still had Democrats and Republicans.
The problem is, to achieve this newfound opportunity Jackson wants to remove thousands of Indians from their settlements and move them to Oklahoma (Roark, 260). If you disregard the lives of all the Indians who were massacred for not leaving when Jackson ordered them to, I guess obtaining new land was a good thing. But it’s a bit hard for me to just ignore that harsh racism. Overall, I believe Jackson was a good President and certainly the most influential Democrat. However, in some instances I think he went too far, such as forcefully making Native Americans leave and some of the comments he made about the issue.
Even inside the borders of our great nation, the Constitution shows that it’s still relevant to the American society. For example, the 27th amendment says that Congressmen and women can’t raise their salary while in office. If this amendment weren’t in place, then our debt wouldn’t be to China; instead it would be to the Congressional Officers of the United State government. Now to reference into foreign countries again; in some countries like South Africa, the right of women’s and colored person’s suffrage isn’t allowed. In other countries like Libya the right to vote is granted to no one because they are either under a dictatorship or the entire country is in mass chaos.