Andrew Jackson: The People's President?

In class we learned about the 7th president of the United States, who has come to be known as "The People's President". But does this title really fit him? To figure this out, we divided into groups and chose a certain aspect of Jackson's presidency to research. My group was assigned the Spoils System. We created a Google slideshow to demonstrate our findings on the topic. Using the information we learned, we were able to come to a conclusion on whether Jackson was in fact a "People's President".

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States. Once he had taken office, many people realized he did not have many characteristics of a leader or a president, as he used to be a drunken gambler. But, he had been a great general in the War of 1812, so this made up for the prior. He is known for three events during his presidency: the Spoils System, the Bank War, and the Indian Removal Act or "The Trail of Tears". The Spoils System was a system devised during the Jacksonian Era, where a candidate would give government positions to his supporters as a reward for helping him win an election, and also as a motive to keep supporting him. As a result, 919 people who had government related jobs were fired to make room for Jackson's supporters. The U.S. Postal Service was hit the hardest, losing 423 postmasters to Jackson's system. The people were selected based on loyalty, rather than competence. There was a major incidence involving the system, where Samuel Swartwout, a man that Jackson had employed to be collector at a port, robbed the U.S. of over 1.2 million dollars. Another aspect of Jackson's presidency was the Bank War. Jackson vetoed the Bank Charter, thinking that the banks were corrupt and they would eradicate small-town businesses and huge companies would take over. This veto sent the economy into collapse, causing the Panic of 1837. The event that Jackson is most likely known for is The Indian Removal Act, where Jackson made several Indian Tribes move west to make room for the U.S. He was mainly answering to the white man's needs, and did not care about the Natives. He even made them march, and in the winter.

Andrew Jackson may have been considered a "People's President", but he only really served a handful of people with each of those aspects. He killed thousands of Indians, only to get more land. In the Bank War, he was trying to save the economy, but launched it into crisis. Also, he removed almost a thousand people from the government to make room for those who supported him. He was not a people's president, as the number of people he harmed far outweighed the number of people he helped.