Andrew Jackson Essay

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade April 2001

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Andrew Jackson entered the presidency a national hero out of the West for his heroics portrayed during the War of 1812 and his expedition against the Seminoles in Spanish Florida. A natural leader, he commanded immense loyalty from supporters. No man of his time was at once so loved and so deeply despised. His blunt words and acts forced men to declare themselves, for or against him. Through his actions during the presidency, he changed the nation into a more nationalistic country. Jackson was a man of the people, and he strongly felt that the common man was the power behind government.

To implement the people's will through party government, Jackson reformed federal officeholding. He believed in the spoils system, which was the policy of rotation, so that every four years officials would have to return to "the normal life."� Jackson never called cabinet meetings, relying instead on his Kitchen Cabinet, which was an informal group of advisers whose opinions he valued.

Jackson quickly enlarged the western base of the Democratic Party through his Indian policy. He believed Indians were barbaric and could never become a part of the American society. Jackson first step was to withdraw federal troops protecting the tribes and thus left the native Americans subject to state law. He then pushed through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It offered the southern Indians land west of the Mississippi in exchange for their eastern holdings. Jackson carried out his Indian policy despite two rulings by the Supreme Court (Cherokee Nation v. Georgia & Worcester v. Georgia) upholding Indian rights.

Jackson's most vigorous political offense was his attack on the Second Bank of the United States, one of the key elements of the American System. Jackson did not like the Bank because it hurt the common man,