Jackson as a President: Yesterday and TodayJackson as a President: Yesterday and TodayJackson as a President: Yesterday and TodayThe Andrew Jackson Administration, from 1829 to 1837, was very important in American history. A self-made man, Jackson exemplified republican virtues by restraining a centralized government and promoting the powers of the people. His administration left a lasting impact on American politics. With his extreme usage of the presidential veto, Jackson strengthened the executive branch and rendered it equal in power to the legislative branch. These Jacksonian ideals of decentralized government can still be seen in politics to this day.
Jackson was the first American president to have come from the frontier society of the American West. He was a “one-generation aristocrat” (Hoftstedder, 58) whose ambitions were to be wealthy and receive military glory rather than have political power (although military glory is a good way to gain popular support and political power). Jackson gained national hero status after his military victory at the Battle of New Orleans. This victory, along with wounds from his participation in the Revolutionary War, gave him the popular support he needed for a strong presidency. Although Jackson lost in his first attempt at the Presidency, he quickly learned from his mistakes and won the election of 1828 by 95 electoral votes (Norton, 359).
The Revolutionary War as seen from its perspective was the first and only time in American history that a major nation in the West could mobilize so many voters for the revolution. Despite the many obstacles to doing so during the war, it was only within the next 15 years that the U.S. could reach its highest echelons on both sides of the Atlantic. President Adams’s victory would turn America from the Confederacy to America as a new nation. Washington would be the first American to lead a major country into civil war, and Washington would be on the forefront of the political revolution and victory that would be made possible through the first United States-World War. John Adams, an American in 1664, would take a step towards creating a modern U.S. political order and make America the most powerful country on the world stage.
During the Civil War, some prominent American political figures became key figures in helping the civil rights movement, and in 1833, William C. McKinley’s political party raised the nation’s first Republican presidential candidate. In 1837, McKinley, who was elected President of the United States by the United States Senate, took office and led the campaign to put out a massive propaganda film, The First African American Candidate, to be broadcast nationally around the country. McKinley was one of the most influential political figures of our time, which was credited with ushering in the Civil War. McKinley’s political achievements include establishing the American Constitution and a constitutional government. McKinley was also the first African American president and an African American leader in many Western nations.[9] He fought and died to end slavery in the east and made the United States the first large American nation to accept the rights of European slaveholding countries as their economic and cultural needs were met. The early days are well known in the history of White Europe and the United States, but White European nations, by the early 1840s had a history of war and economic isolation in the East from the African Americans. This led to political isolation of major economic rivals, particularly Western Europe, which had sought to establish relations with the East. For example, the French had taken a direct line against the European Union when they made an attempt to make intercolonial relations with the Netherlands a part of the United Nations (e.g., in 1838 in Algeria). However, as the American Civil War intensified, the American South made peace with Germany and became part of the global South (e.g., in October 1830, as Spain entered the conflict with the Netherlands).[10] The rise of Jefferson Davis, America’s first President, created the first American National Bank, named it the National Bank of the United States in 1890, and the first African American bank from a new city-state, Chicago.[11] Following the civil rights movement, it was the Federal Reserve, established by George Washington, who created the Federal Reserve System, which also grew on the strength of the nation
During his administration Jackson was faced with many key issues, of which the Nullification crisis is an example. This was a crisis over the doctrine of nullification, which was being strongly pushed by South Carolina. According to this doctrine, the state had the right to nullify government legislature that was inconsistent with its own. This doctrine was not used until 1832 when a new tariff was imposed that would reduce some duties but retain high taxes on many imports. The south felt this tariff would make them pay for northern industrialism, and they did not want to succumb to the will of the North. Jackson was against this theory of Nullification because he was a strong supporter of the Union. He took action against this by publicly nullifying nullification and by moving troops into South Carolina to help the federal marshals collect the unpaid duties. Finally a compromise tariff was passed in 1833 which increased the number of duty free items and reduced other duties. Jacksons decisive actions in the Nullification crisis helped define the powers of the central government more clearly, they made it clear to the states that he would not suffer their tyranny, which might break up the Republic, just as the States would not tolerate a tyrannical central government.
A second very important issue was the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States. In his actions in this case, Jackson showed his distaste for the rich and powerful. He did this for many reasons. The Bank of the United States could easily run a state chartered bank out of business by presenting a state banks notes for redemption all at one time. As a result state chartered banks had less money so they were unable to compete with the Bank of the United States. The bank of the United States although acting as a centralized bank, was in fact privately owned, and many of its policies were due to the owners self-interest, and not that of the nation. Jackson vetoed the recharter for the Second bank because he was against a government-run monopoly, especially one with special economic privileges as a result. On