President
Andrew Jackson has a longstanding reputation as being the “people’s president”. He was known for being very democratic. Some believe, however that he may not have
been as democratic as his reputation represents him to be, and that he did not advocate
as much for “the people” as he was credited for. His controversial actions caused many people
to have opposing views on whether Jackson was indeed the “people’s president”.
One
action that Andrew Jackson took that can be seen as democratic was he fought
against the national bank to protect the Americans from being exploited. To fight against the banks, Jackson used the
power of the veto to reject a bill that would renew the bank’s charter. Jackson said that “the rich and powerful too often
bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes”1. The wealthy people could unfairly use the
bank to their advantage. The bank controlled
the economy of the country since it gave out loans. A lot of people depended on the bank and it
practically had “a monopoly of the foreign and domestic exchange”1. Jackson believed the banks had too much power
and that corporations, a new type of business, used the banks to become wealthy. These corporations were just anonymous machines
out to make money. Jackson wanted the
bank destroyed because “great evils to our country…might flow from such a
concentration of power in the hands of a few men irresponsible to the people”1. He felt that the few wealthy people in
control of the bank would inevitably use the bank to take advantage of the
poorer people that they did not care about.
A
prominent and wealthy senator named Daniel Webster was disgusted at Jackson’s
decision to veto the bill that would renew the bank’s charter. He believed this decision was very undemocratic. He said that “It manifestly seeks to inflame
the poor against the rich”2.
It would just turn the poor against the wealthy and the wealthy against
the poor and cause problems and fighting.
It also “sows…the seeds of jealousy”2. He thought it would cause people to just hate
each other and the poorer class to become jealous of the wealthy class.
 |
General Jackson Slaying the Many Headed Monster |
This
political cartoonist agrees with Jackson’s decision to destroy the bank. He depicts the bank as a monster with many
heads. These heads are the wealthy
people in charge of the bank as well as the corporations using the bank to
their advantage. Jackson is shown
destroying this evil and malicious monster, the bank. The cartoonist depicts Jackson defending the
people and would agree that Jackson is the “people’s president”.
Andrew
Jackson should not completely be considered the “people’s president” because he
made a lot of mistakes, but he should be acknowledged for often defending “the
people”. Instead of giving certain jobs
in the government to well qualified people, he tried to reward people who
helped him win office, by giving them these positions, which is known as the
spoils system. This system of changing
the people in office appeared to Jackson a loyal and considerate thing to do,
but unfortunately in one case, it did not work, as one of the people he trusted
and gave a position to, stole a huge sum of money. Jackson also claimed to be a father to the Native
Americans, but he never truly defended them; instead, he made these people
leave their homes. But, he was the “people’s
president” when he used the power of the veto to fight for the people and he
fought against the bank which was only helping the wealthy and large corporations. Andrew Jackson tried to be the “people’s
president”, but certainly made some mistakes during his term.
1 James D Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of
the Presidents, 1789-1902, 1905.
2Daniel Webster, July
11, 1832.
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