President Andrew Jackson As "Common" as they Get.

Essay by rodrigoHigh School, 10th gradeA+, November 2004

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President Andrew Jackson

As "Common" as they Get.

Rodrigo Palacios

U.S. History I

Ms. Schalla

January 15th, 2004

Andrew Jackson was one of America's greatest presidents. A difference between him and his predecessors, was his pursuit to truly represent the American common man. Through this essay, it will be exposed that although the majority of his policies represented this strong principle, a few others made this intention somewhat unclear.

As president, Jackson widely introduced the spoils system. This consisted in the removal of his suspected political opponents who held public office and the replacement of these with his supporters. Jackson was sometimes criticized for this for it was argued that his selection of new office holders contained many who lacked qualifications. Jackson´s view on this was that at such simple occupation as politics were, any man was as good as other. In this tenet his support for the common people is obvious, for he practices the removal of men who have had power for long and substitutes them with regular folk, thus giving the average man a role the country's administration.

Indian removal as well, was a policy in which his genuine endorsement of the simple being was prooved. The reason to this is that it was majorly the agriculturist's concern to obtain the lands occupied by the natives. Naturally, being a backwoods man himself, Jackson added himself to this cause. President Jackson had the belief that the Indians were primitive peoples that were blocking the westward movement of "civilization". The decision was made that the natives would be pushed out to lands west of the mississippi, where they would be "better off" away from whites. During his terms, either by bribe, persausion or brutality, giant strides towards Indian relocation were made, granting the American farmer the...