From humble beginnings, in 1767, Andrew Jackson worked his way up to wealth and national prominence. Jackson became involved in politics as a child during the Revolutionary War when he worked as a courier for the revolutionary cause. Andrew Jackson was known as the president of the 'common man.' Under his rule, American democracy flourished as never before but the economy and the Native American population suffered at his hands because of the election of 1828, the bank war, and lastly Jackson's Indian policy.
Jackson is most remembered for his performance in the Battle of New Orleans, during which he led his troops to victory over the British after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed and hostilities had officially ended. Andrew Jackson is an example of somebody who followed the American dream. Jackson owned a plantation as well as slaves and believed that Native Americans are inferior to white people.
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The presidential election of 1828 pitted John Quincy Adams against Andrew Jackson. Adams was the candidate of the National Republicans, while the party that arose around Jackson became known as the Jacksonian Democrats, or simply, Democrats. Observers of the 1828 presidential election witnessed the first truly national political campaigns. Naming himself the “man of the people,” Jackson campaigned on an anti-elitist platform that attacked the eastern elites and Congressional land policies. Though Adams retained the support of New England, Jackson swept the South and West.
Consistent with his anti-elite sentiments, Jackson was a fierce opponent of the Bank of the United States, which he insisted was run by and for the eastern banking and manufacturing elites. Jackson was definite that the Bank of the United States operated in direct conflict with the interests of the common man. Jackson was reelected in 1832, he made it his personal mission to shut the bank down. As a nonstop result of the series of policies enacted by Jackson for the explicit purpose of weakening the Bank of the United States, the country was thrown into financial turmoil, and an economic recession hit in 1837.
Jackson early on established himself as a champion of the white settler against the interests of Native Americans. As president, Jackson instituted his pro-white sentiment in a series of policies that peaked with the forced removal of Native Americans from their native lands. In 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the forced relocation of Indian tribes from their ancestral territories in the East and South to lands west of the Mississippi River. These involuntary relocations became known as the “Trail of Tears.” Those who resisted were compelled to either go into hiding or suffer violence at the hands of the US Army and white settlers keen on enforcing vigilante justice.
Andrew Jackson had great achievements as president that are still recognized today such as how his presidency marked a transition between a republic and a democracy. On the other hand, he had many shortcomings, and the economy and the Native American population suffered at his hands because of the election of 1828, the bank war, and lastly Jackson's Indian policy.
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