how were Teddy Rosevelt and Andrew Jackson similar in the way in which they used the power of the presidency?

Question

to achieve policy goals?

Answer 1

Both were pretty brash and bold in their use of power. I don't know much about Roosevelt, but Andrew Jackson was a piece of work. He was from South Carolina and spent some of his early adulthood in Tennessee, and was a rather tenacious army commander before he became president. When he did, he went around appointing his supporters to office and dismissing previous appointments. He also did a few other questionable things, one of the biggest being his use of the veto. I believe he vetoed more bills than all the other presidents before him combined. He vetoed bills for somewhat questionable reasons as well. He used his veto on a bill that proposed to build a road in Kentucky not because he disagreed with the road, but because he felt that Kentucky--not the federal government--should build it.

Jackson was also pretty supportive of expansion, and refused to enforce a Supreme Court decision in favor of expansion. When the state of Georgia demanded the Cherokees to leave their land, the Native Americans took it before the supreme court, and Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Georgia had no right to remove the Cherokees. When Jackson heard of the decision, he stepped out of the position of president (supposed to enforce Supreme Court rulings) and is reported to have said, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!"

As for Teddy Roosevelt, I believe he was relatively the same way--really gung ho about getting things done the right way. As for other similarities, both served in the military and were frontiersman. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

There were several similarities in Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson as president. Both were strong chief excectivies, who had followed weak or relatively weak presidents. McKinley, Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, and U.S. Grant largely deferred to Congress. Jackson's predecessors, John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson did not have such a strong view of the presidency as Jackson. Jackson was the first president to really use the veto. Both men had been military heroes. TR known as a "Rough Rider" in Cuba and Gen. Jackson for the Battle of New Orleans.

A more careful analysis will show the two differed significantly however. Roosevelt gave firery speeches, but worked well with people and was reasonable. He had a constructive legacy of busting some trusts but not being an enemy of Wall Street and business. TR left a constructive legacy of conservation, food and drug regulation, and labor reform. Without really much rashness he strengthened our navy, "spoke softly and carried a big stick," and of course had the Panama Canal built. Roosevelt was culltured, highly intelligent, and wrote an excellent history of the American West.

Andrew Jackson was a very different man. While Roosevelt was athletic and an able boxer, Jackson fought several duels and killed a man. Jackson could be rash, petty, and vindictive. He was very ignorant about economics. Because he had a personal aversion to banks and Nicholas Biddle, he had the Bank of the United States destroyed. This wreaked havoc on the American economy as the central mechanism for handling the currency was dissolved. As a result there was a panic of 1837, and continual panics until the creation of the Federal Reserve Board under President Wilson. Jackson saw himself as destroying a great monster, the BUS, under Nicholas Biddle whom he despised. No good came from the destruction of the BUS. It just made the American economy less efficient and banking carried on less effectively under "Pet Banks," who were Jackson's supporters who personally benefited from the BUS' destruction, although the nation did not.

Other reckless acts by Jackson can be cited. In a really strange incident he championed the cause of the wife of a cabinet member, Peggy Eaton. At best Eaton was a very loose woman. When the cabinet members wives, led by Mrs. John C. Calhoun, would not socialize with her, he forced the cabinet to resign! This folly, which never would have occurred under TR, is called "The Eaton Malaria." Jackson almost brought the United States into war with France over an extremely trivial matter. Defying the Supreme Court and humanity, Jackson was mainly responsible for the Cherokee Indian removal from Georgia, and "The Trail of Tears."

Jackson did ably stand up to the South Carolina secessionists and John C. Calhoun. Old Hickory could politically compromise, such as on the tariff. Also, the idea of a "Spoils System," under Jackson is a great exaggeration. He used rhetoric that caused criticism, but in reality the government office turnover was about the same under him, as under his predecessors.

In closing, Jackson was not incompetent, but he lacked the vision and constrtuctiveness of TR.

Answer 3

Teddy would typically go around the White house turning off all the appliances. Andrew, on the other hand, did not have much power in the way we think of it today. HIstorians agree, though, that Andrew would not likely have been as scrupulous in his conservation of power and was notorious for leaving candles burning throughout the East wing and the oval office. There is one story, that he almost burned down the senate due to his forgetfulness!