Andrew Jackson and His Effect on American Democracy

If you were to ask someone on the street which president of these United States had the largest and longest-lasting legacy on the way it is run today, you’d probably hear the same few names. Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson. Reading out from the list of men we carved into a mountain in South Dakota. But, few understand the lasting traditions set by a slightly more obscure president. Not one who helped write the Declaration of Independence, but who fought the British as a teenager in the Carolinas. Despite neither being in the court of King Louis to secure French aid nor being a delegate at the Constitutional Convention, Andrew Jackson managed to so radically change the nation during his eight-year tenure as president that it is a shame that what most people remember him for is solely the short-term effects of his greatest infraction. The lasting effects and traditions of the Jackson Administration outweigh many of those set by more-attributed presidents and are still felt in our modern nation today, making him one of the most impactful presidents upon our nation.

The United States in the early nineteenth century was very different from today. The country was far more republic than democracy, and that was on purpose. Candidates were chosen from “among the party elite” which was “largely comprised of propertied and educated gentry,” rather than by the people. Popular vote had little say in electing the president as the number allowed to vote was small, and voter turnout was smaller yet. Unlike the six presidents that came before him, Jackson had earned his notoriety from the recent War of 1812, not from the Revolution. General Jackson was popular among the populace, and he was a firm believer in the will of the people. He threw his gambit in the election of 1824, hoping to win office off the back of his fame from the war. America had entered a one-party system at the time after the demise of the Federalist Party, and the Democratic-Republicans ruled the country unopposed as the sole national-level party. There were four nominees for the presidency: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William Crawford, and Henry Clay. Jackson handily led the popular vote, but no single candidate won the Electoral College. Thus, the vote went to the House of Representatives, as had been decided in the twelfth amendment. Clay, knowing he was a lesser candidate and had little chance of winning the election, had his supporters instead vote for Adams, who then promptly won. Just days into Adams’s presidency, Clay was controversially made Secretary of State, Adams’s old position under the previous president.

This infuriated Jackson, who saw it as the political elite awarding Clay for his support to consolidate power and vowed to get back at Adams. The Adams faction appealed to the industrial north, who wanted government interventionism in the economy and foreign tariffs to promote their goods. Jackson’s support mainly came from the agricultural South. So, the Jacksonian clique set about a scheme to make Adams’ presidency look bad and boost their own support. The Jacksonians in congress would pass a tariff so high, Adams would be forced to veto it. The North would see it as Adams backing out of his promises of protective tariffs, and so Jackson could gain support from conflicted northerners. This plot was not the first political scheme, but was the largest of its time and would set a precedent of political maneuvers to come.

Then, the unthinkable happened, which would go to precipitate the rest of Jackson’s political career: Adams simply signed the tax into law. While this made Adams look better to some of his northern supporters, he enraged the rest of the nation and especially the South. He used his newfound popularity to rail against the political establishment, as he saw it too entrenched and undemocratic, having let unpopular Adams into office. This political strategy, now known as populism, would become very influential, and the traditions of American populism would begin with Jackson’s struggle against Adams. Jackson’s populist appeal and ‘anti-establishment’ doctrine is even exploited to this day, by politicians such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders running on campaigns of personality, popularity, and anti-elitism.

Another precedent set by Jackson was the recreation of the two-party system. The election of 1824 had only a single party: the Democratic-Republicans. This was the result of the collapse of the Federalist Party a decade earlier after the disastrous Hartford Convention. Under President James Madison, the president before Adams, the nation entered the Era of Good Feelings, under which there was only one national-level party. This was the only time in the nation’s history where there wasn’t effectively a two-party system. And, the party’s unity wouldn’t last long. Because of the controversy between Jackson and Adams following the election, Jackson’s supporters left and formed the Democratic Party, while Adams’s supporters reorganized into what would become the Whig Party. After a tumultuous couple decades of handing power back and forth between these two parties, the Whig Party would dissolve, making way for the Republican Party to come out on top as the opponent of the Democratic Party. And thus, Jackson’s dispute with John Quincy Adams led directly to the creation of the two-party system that we have today.

Jackson would win the Election of 1828 with a landslide victory. He proved his popularity by beating Adams 178-83, over twice as many electoral votes as his rival. And then, being the ambitious anti-elitist he was, he did something no president had done before: he relieved many of the former administration from their roles, to be filled with Jackson’s supporters. Before, presidents had often kept those who had previously held the office in their positions. But, Jackson was determined to oust the political elite, and, as he saw, give power back to the people. After all, the people had wanted him and his policies in office, so by inaugurating allies he saw himself as aiding their will and bringing democracy to more positions of government. This brought, among other things, partisanship into all of Washington, for many of those he replaced were well-respected and dutious and their sudden removal incited the opposition, even when it did come out that indeed some from Adams’s payroll were siphoning money out of the government. In modern days, this so-called ‘spoils-system’ is a nearly universal practice for American presidents to bring their own cabinet members to replace the former administration’s, but Jackson was the first to bring this practice into the federal executive.

The aforementioned Tariff of Abominations was extremely upsetting to southern farmers, as the immense import tax aided the north at the expense of the south. The south scrambled for solutions, and one man claimed to have it: John C. Calhoun. The firebrand from South Carolina, he had previously served as congressman and secretary of war. Now, he was Jackson’s Vice President. And, though they ran in the same party, their opinions differed in one key area: that of state’s rights. Calhoun was a firm believer in the sovereignty of the states, while Jackson believed that the federal government was a necessary check on their power. Thus, when their differences in belief became unbearable, Calhoun resigned his vice presidency, became a senator for his home state the next day, and set about working on laws of nullification.

This inevitably led to the nullification crisis, when South Carolina’s courts declared the tariff unconstitutional and therefore couldn’t be enforced in the state. Jackson, while opposed to his old tariff and promising a newer less-harsh one, was infuriated by his former Vice President’s actions, predicting that “nullification… leads directly to civil war and bloodshed.” Indeed, Calhoun would threaten secession against the Jacksonian government, and Jackson would respond that he had every intent to militarily squash the state’s independence, should push come to shove.

This was a very important precedent because, while he did not act upon his threats, as the situation resolved peacefully, the same could not be said for a later president. Twenty eight years after South Carolina threatened the nuclear button, they would resolve to finally push it. When Abraham Lincoln was elected as president, several states seceded before he even took office - South Carolina being the first. Lincoln knew his presidency would be a defining moment in the nation’s history, as never before had secession been faced so openly. So he searched for a precedent, someone he could model his early presidency off of to give him guidance in the time of trouble. And he used Jackson’s policies against the secession of South Carolina as his guide. Instead of taking their secession lying down, he resolved to fight because, as he said, secession “was fully discussed in Jackson’s time, and denied...” Thus, despite Lincoln being most famous for fighting the Civil War, he was simply following the precedent set by Jackson.

Another way that Jackson had an effect on American democracy is how he changed the Electoral College. Nowadays, each state has a vote, and the winning candidate wins the entire state’s votes in the Electoral College. But, the Electoral College didn’t always function as such. It was originally intended to allow states to vote how they chose; however some states opted to allow their citizens to vote on where its votes went. But, during the period of Jacksonian democracy, a number of states amended their constitutions to allow the people to vote on the president, thus leading to the system of the Electoral College we have today because of Jackson’s popularity and policies.

One of the very first political controversies in the nation’s history was that of the national bank. It was heavily debated during the first presidencies over its constitutionality. Washington established it; Jefferson abolished it; Madison reestablished it. It was one of the largest questions of the early days of the republic: should the country have a government-run monopoly on banking? Hamilton, advisor to Washington, was its champion, claiming its necessity to the function of a state. However, Jefferson saw it as unconstitutional, and giving too much power to the federal government. After all, what would stop the federal government from increasing its own power by going and printing more money? Madison, though originally ideologically aligned with Jefferson, would end up rechartering the bank in order to pay for the War of 1812. The Second Bank of the United States was set up to come into recharter every few years, and unfortunately for its supporters it came for recharter during the term of one of its largest critics. Considering himself a Jeffersonian by principle, he held many of the third president’s views and values on constitutionality at his core. Jackson cut a deal with the bank’s president, Nicholas Biddle, where Jackson would overlook the bank’s existence as long as the bank cut its political activities. But, instead of keeping his promise to the president, Biddle went behind Jackson’s back and teamed up with Henry Clay to recharter the bank without Jackson’s reforms.

This infuriated Jackson, proving to him how corrupt the bank actually was, and he decided to wage war upon the bank. When the recharter application landed on his desk, he vetoed it, to the dismay of the Whig camp. He would continue to battle the bank, withdrawing its funds and giving them to state-level banks throughout his ‘war.’ Finally, during the last year of his presidency, the bank collapsed as its charter finally ran out. And thus the question of the national bank was settled for the last time. Though ending the national bank is often considered part of Jefferson’s legacy, as he was Jackson’s model for doing such, without Jackson’s efforts his would have been for naught; thus it is by Jackson’s hand that we have no national bank today.

Jackson’s most memorable and controversial legacy is his dealings with the American Indian population. But, in order to understand both his reasons for the Trail of Tears and effects of his decision, one must understand the causes of his historic decision. During his time as a general in the War of 1812, it is noted that he defeated and massacred tribes that allied with the British. Some of the tribes after the war, understanding the futility of inflexibility and attempting to salvage their people, began to settle down and ‘Americanize.’ Abandoning tribal lifestyles for more ‘civilized’ ways of living, they hoped to coexist peacefully with the Americans. Indeed, intermarriage was not uncommon, and some American Indians even owned slaves. These acculturated tribes grew in power and the Cherokee even adopted a constitution and sought sovereignty. This alarmed the state of Georgia, where most of the Cherokee lived, and the Georgia state legislature nullified their constitution. When Jackson came into presidency, there was an argument among politicians on the subject of the American Indians. One camp proposed that the natives should stay and further westernize; the other argued that they be moved and readopt their old way of life to make way for white settlers.

Unfortunately for the tribes, Jackson fell under the latter camp, and argued that moving the tribes to preserve their culture was the more ‘humane’ option. Jacksonians in the senate and congress passed - with much opposition - the Indian Removal Act, and Jackson signed the law into effect. Though Jackson stated that he intended the law to be voluntary and up to the tribes, this was not enforced and the tribes often were bribed, harassed, and cheated into being moved against their own will. After thousands of lost lives, most of the tribes would end up resettled in Oklahoma, which is where many remain today. Thus, because of Andrew Jackson’s ‘humane’ policies, Oklahoma remains a state with much American Indian heritage and culture.

Thus it is clear that Andrew Jackson was the most influential president on how the nation is today. He set precedents carried out by presidents to this day; it is due to his popularity and feuds that we have a two-party system today, almost two hundred years later; he affected the way of life of the American Indian populations by enabling one of the worst atrocities against them; and he weighed his opinion on state’s rights. It is due to him that the legacy of Jefferson, one oft-championed as the most influential president, is kept. And, above that, it is due to his decisions, fiery speeches, and arguments with John C Calhoun that Abraham Lincoln was able to call upon earlier judgement to put down southern secession in the civil war, making Lincoln’s most-influential event dependent upon his earlier predecessor Jackson.