This week in class, we went over one of America's most notorious presidents, Andrew Jackson. We discussed three major topics that happened during his time served as president: The Bank War, The Indian Removal, and the Spoils System. My group was assigned the Bank War. During the Bank War, Jackson was outraged for several reasons at the Bank of the United States.
One of the many reasons that Jackson was angry at the government was because he felt that the bankers had too much power themselves. They were able to manipulate the government and the people according to how they wanted it, making them very selfish and a nuisance for the people. Jackson instead wanted several smaller banks as opposed to having one large bank, but the government opposed. Jackson insanely believed that destroying up the bank would be a good idea, but thankfully ruled that option out soon after. Near the end of Jackson's first term, the government passed a bill extending the banks charter. They calculated that Jackson would have to sign the bill, otherwise, he would be seen as an extremely irresponsible president. In the end, Jackson still rejected the bill. This instance gives Jackson the seemingly positive role of the people's president, pushing the boundaries in order to give the poor people and equal chance and redistributing money to several different banks to eliminate the imbalance of power.
In the two other instances of the Indian Removal and the Spoils system, Jackson felt he was doing the Native Americans a favor by essentially forcing them out of their homeland out west - where the environment was nothing like the environment they were once in - in order to protect them from being pushed out by the rising cities and towns in the east and northeast. This seemed like a genius plan to Jackson, but cost many Native Americans their life in the process. In the Spoils System situation, Jackson liked the idea of giving people jobs within the government to people who supported him and were loyal to him. So, Jackson, ignoring the warnings that he received from other people of authority, hired Samuel Swartwout as the Collector of the Port in New York. Swartwout, having past criminal tendencies, managed to steal exactly $1,222,705.09. Jackson's opponents doubled over laughing at the horrible yet ridiculously clumsy mistake Jackson had just made.
In conclusion, I feel that Jackson had good intentions, yet failed to recognize the massive potential for mistakes that each of his decisions held. I do not believe that Jackson deserves the title of people's president because of this.
Jackson's Spoils System Mistake
Jackson's Letter Regarding Indian Removal
Jackson's Bank War
