Andrew Jackson's mistakes?

Question

How could the Jacksonian Democracy have been bad? What bad things happened because of it?

Please help.
THanks

Answer 1

Spoils system
When Jackson became President, he implemented the theory of rotation in office, declaring it "a leading principle in the republican creed."[8] He believed that rotation in office would prevent the development of a corrupt bureaucracy. In addition, Jackson's supporters wanted to give the posts to fellow party members, as an incentive to continue and support of the party, and as a reward to strengthen party loyalty. In practice, this meant replacing federal employees with friends or party loyalists.[9] By the end of his term, Jackson had dismissed less than twenty percent of the original federal employees.[10] While Jackson did not start the "spoils system", he did indirectly encourage its growth for many years to come.


Opposition to the National Bank
Main article: Second Bank of the United States
As president, Jackson worked to take away the federal charter of the Second Bank of the United States (it would continue to exist as a state bank). The second Bank had been authorized, during James Madison's tenure in 1816, for a 20 year period. Jackson opposed the national bank concept on ideological grounds. In Jackson's veto message (written by George Bancroft), the bank needed to be abolished because:


Democratic cartoon shows Jackson fighting the monster BankIt concentrated an excessive amount of the nation's financial strength into a single institution
It exposed the government to control by "foreign interests"
It served mainly to make the rich richer
It exercised too much control over members of the Congress
It favored Northeastern states over Southern and Western states
Jackson followed Jefferson as a supporter of the ideal of an "agricultural republic" and felt the bank improved the fortunes of an "elite circle" of commercial and industrial entrepreneurs at the expense of farmers and laborers. After a titanic struggle, Jackson succeeded in destroying the bank by vetoing its 1832 re-charter by Congress and by withdrawing U.S. funds in 1833.

The bank's money-lending functions were taken over by the legions of local and state banks that sprang up. This fed an expansion of credit and speculation. At first, as Jackson withdrew money from the Bank to invest it in other banks, land sales, canal construction, cotton production, and manufacturing boomed.[11] However, due to the practice of issuing notes that were not backed by gold or silver reserves, there was soon rapid inflation and mounting debts by the states.[12] Then, in 1836, Jackson issued the specie circular, which required that government lands be bought in hard specie. Because banks lacked hard specie to issue in return for notes, many of them collapsed.[13] This was a direct cause for the Panic of 1837, which threw the national economy into a deep depression. The commercial progress of the nation's economy was noticeably dented by the resulting failures, and it took years to recover from the damage.


1833 Democratic cartoon shows Jackson destroying the devil's BankThe U.S. Senate censured Jackson on March 27, 1834 for his actions in defunding the Bank of the United States; the censure was later expunged when the Jacksonians had a majority in the Senate.


Nullification crisis
Main article: Nullification crisis
Another notable crisis during Jackson's period of office was the "nullification crisis," or "secession crisis," of 1828 – 1832, which merged issues of sectional strife with disagreements over tariffs. Critics alleged that high tariffs (the "Tariff of Abominations") on imports of common manufactured goods made in Europe made those goods more expensive than ones from the northern U.S., thus raising the prices paid by planters in the South. Southern politicians thus argued that tariffs benefited northern industrialists at the expense of southern farmers.

The issue came to a head when Vice President John C. Calhoun, in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest of 1828, supported the claim of his home state, South Carolina, that it had the right to "nullify"—declare illegal—the tariff legislation of 1828, and more generally the right of a state to nullify any Federal laws which went against its interests. Although Jackson sympathized with the South in the tariff debate, he was also a strong supporter of a strong union, with considerable powers for the central government. Jackson attempted to face down Calhoun over the issue, which developed into a bitter rivalry between the two men. Particularly infamous was an incident at the April 13, 1830 Jefferson Day dinner, involving after-dinner toasts. Jackson rose first and voice booming, and glaring at Calhoun, yelled out "Our federal Union: IT MUST BE PRESERVED!", a clear challenge to Calhoun. Calhoun glared at Jackson and yelled out, his voice trembling, but booming as well, "The Union: NEXT TO OUR LIBERTY, MOST DEAR!"[14] The next year, Calhoun and Jackson broke apart from one another, the first time a US President and US Vice-President had ever done so, and Calhoun resigned in 1832 to serve as a US Senator in South Carolina as well.

In response to South Carolina's threat, Congress passed a "Force Bill" in 1833, and Jackson vowed to send troops to South Carolina in order to enforce the laws. In December 1832, he issued a resounding proclamation against the "nullifiers," stating that he considered "the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed." South Carolina, the President declared, stood on "the brink of insurrection and treason," and he appealed to the people of the state to reassert their allegiance to that Union for which their ancestors had fought. Jackson also denied the right of secession: "The Constitution...forms a government not a league.... To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States is not a nation."[15]

The crisis was resolved when Jackson sent warships to Charleston, South Carolina, and enforced Congress acts through the Force Bill.

Passage of the Force Bill depended on the vote of Henry Clay. Clay would finally yield to those urging him to save the day. He introduced a plan to reduce the tariff gradually until 1842, by which time no rate would be more than 20%. The Compromise Tariff of 1833 was to be a resolution to the Nullification Crisis. On March 1, 1833, Congress passed the Force Bill and the compromise tariff and Jackson signed both. The South Carolina Convention then met and rescinded its nullification ordinance. The Force Bill was then nullified because Jackson no longer had a need for it. Henry Clay had saved the day.


"Indian Removal"
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Andrew Jackson's presidency was his policy regarding American Indians.[16] Jackson was a leading advocate of a policy known as "Indian Removal," signing the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830. The Act authorized the President to negotiate treaties to purchase tribal lands in the east in exchange for lands further west, outside of existing U.S. state borders.

Jackson never publicly advocated removing American Indians by force, but he devoted considerable energies to the negotiation of removal treaties. Nearly seventy Indian treaties—many of them land sales—were ratified during his presidency, the most of any administration.


Statue of Andrew Jackson in Nashville, Tennessee.While frequently frowned upon in the North, the Removal Act was popular in the South, where population growth and the discovery of gold on Cherokee land had increased pressure on tribal lands. The state of Georgia became involved in a contentious jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokees, culminating in the 1832 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Worcester v. Georgia) which ruled that Georgia could not impose its laws upon Cherokee tribal lands. Jackson is often quoted (regarding the decision) as having said, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!" Whether or not he actually said it is disputed.[17]

In any case, Jackson used the Georgia crisis to pressure Cherokee leaders to sign a removal treaty. A small faction of Cherokees led by Chief John Ross negotiated the Treaty of New Echota with Jackson's administration. Ross was not a recognized leader of the Cherokee Nation, and this document was rejected by most Cherokees as illegitimate.[18] Over 15,000 Cherokee signed a petition in protest; it was ignored by the Supreme Court.[19] In 1838, 1,600 Cherokee remained on their lands. The terms of the treaty were then enforced by Jackson's successor, Martin Van Buren, who ordered 7,000 armed troops to remove them.[20] This resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 Cherokee on the "Trail of Tears."

In all, more than 45,000 American Indians were relocated to the West during Jackson's administration. During this time, the administration purchased about 100 million acres (400,000 km²) of Indian land for about $68 million and 32 million acres (130,000 km²) of western land. Jackson was criticized at the time for his role in these events, and the criticism has grown over the years. Remini characterizes the Indian Removal era as "one of the unhappiest chapters in American history."[21]


Assassination attempt
On January 30, 1835 an unsuccessful attack occurred in the United States Capitol Building; it was the first assassination attempt made against an American President. Jackson was crossing the Capitol Rotunda following the funeral of a Congressman when one Richard Lawrence approached Jackson and fired two pistols, which both miraculously misfired. Jackson proceeded to attack Lawrence with his cane, prompting his aides to restrain him. As a result, Jackson's statue in the Capitol Rotunda is placed in front of the doorway in which the attempt occurred. Lawrence was later found to be mentally ill, having accused Jackson of preventing him from becoming King of England

Answer 2

Jacksonian Democracy is one of the most important parts and concepts in American history.

We have to go back to 1828, when Gen. Jackson was elected president to put it into perspective. First, a techinical point does become relevant in this instance. The United States is actually a republic, meaning the citizens have to trust the elected officials with input to make most governmental decisions. In Ancient Greece, a simplier society, the people, not government officials made the decisions, by direct vote.

In 1828 America had many great presidents, who had carefully made decisions that in the short run were not popular, but carefully in our country's long-term best interest. Space will only allow me to mention and not discuss these, but please check them out. Among these are President George Washington approving Jay's Treaty and not supporting Citizen Genet of France, President John Adams not going to war over the X,Y,Z Affair, and other cautious thoughtful policies by Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.

All of the men discussed above were well experienced in government, highly educated, and reasonable.

Unfortunately, this can not be said of Andrew Jackson, whose main qualification for president was winning battles in the War of 1812. His knowledge and experience in politics was very little. He really started the process of pandering to the public, on issues of passion. A list follows of his many failures. First, simply because he had lost money in a bank when young, he opposed the Bank of the United States. At that time it was the main instrument for oderly checking our currency. But Jackson had the BUS destroyed, because of a personal dislike of its head Nicholas Biddle. The destruction of the BUS caused many panics, such as 1837, 1857, 1837, 1893, and more. The economic chaos was not really corrected until the Federal Reserve Board was created in the early 1900s. Bad state banking still resulted, but from "Pet Bank," of Jackson's supporters.

Another event was the "Eaton Malaria." A friend of Jackson married a very loose lady Peggy Eaton. When the cabinet wives would not associate with her, the President had the whole cabinet resign! It should have been handled privately, and not directly involved governmental operations.

In rash foreign policy Jackson nearly got the United States in war with France over a totally insignificant matter. He disobeyed the Supreme Court, and his started The Trail of Tears, which forced the Cherokee Indians, who were living peacefuly and properly in their territory, out of their lands.

He set up a "Spoils System," justifying government officeholding on the basis of support to him, and on the grounds it required no kind of special of training.

As a war hero, who acted recklessly from emotion and partisanship, he was in contrast to most of his predecessors. His government set a bad precedent, in encouraging mob, rather than reasoned ruled.

Answer 3

he was horrible to the American Indians evil actually