Andrew Jackson was elected the seventh president of the United States on March 4th, 1829. Jackson rose to his military heroism and the fact that he was man who had begun his life from scratch to end up at the top. After being voted in power, President Jackson believed that there was a dire need to extend suffrage rights to all white men. This move by Andrew Jackson was meant to remove the image that the United States was a classist society. Instead of using wealth as the set parameter to determine whether a man could vote, skin color became the determinant. However, Jackson failed to acknowledge the fact that the United States was not only made up of white men. He failed to extend suffrage rights to women and African Americans who were also part of the American society during his presidency.
The second national development that took place during Andrew Jackson’s presidency was the fact he carried on the idea of the Manifest destiny. The United States, under President Andrew Jackson continued to expand westwards. Among the populations that were affected by this expansion were Native Americans. The Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830 and was accented by President Andrew Jackson. This Act was meant to force all the Native Americans tribes that resided in the land west of the Mississippi. This legislation called for Native Americans to cooperate with the federal government during this eviction. President Andrew Jackson argued that Native Americans would move to areas located to the east of the Mississippi but would be protected by the federal government which would provide federal troops so as to ensure that the migrating Indian tribes were safe during their migration. However, the fact remains that thousands of Native Americans continued to die as the different tribes continued to be displaced from the areas that were to the West of the Mississippi In fact, the continued expansion of the United States caused the Native Americans to be confined in reserves while some of the Native Indian tribes were completely killed or died due to diseases subjected to them by the troops that executed the expansion operations.
The third important political development that happened during Andrew Jackson’s presidency is the fact that all the political parties that existed when he was voted to office were disbanded and he put in their place a new party which he named the Democratic Party (Ward 31). This party is still existent within the United States even to date. Andrew Jackson created the Democratic party so as to offer substantial opposition to the National Republican Party which was the only formidable party at the time. Therefore, President Andrew Jackson can be accredited for being the pioneer of the Democratic Party in the United States. The formation of the Democratic Party by Andrew Jackson helped him to clinch the presidential seat for the second term in that all the small parties that had been disbanded unified to form one strong Democratic Party.
The other important national development that took place during Andrew Jackson’s presidency is that Jackson took advantage of the presidential powers to veto bills in Congress. The reason why President Andrew Jackson opted to veto most of the bills in Congress is the fact that most of Congress was occupied by representatives who belonged to the National Republican party. Therefore, it was difficult for any of Andrew Jackson’s bill to make it through the floor of the house. This prompted President Andrew Jackson to come up with what he termed to as the Spoils System. Critics have argued that President Andrew Jackson used the Spoils System to make sure that most of his friends secure top jobs in the country as well as political positions in government. Under the Spoils system, President Andrew Jackson argued that there should be a system where officials in federal offices should undergo a form of rotation (Kennedy 185).This rotational system benefited President Andrew Jackson in that he was able to put most of the people who were loyal to him in federal offices. President Andrew Jackson justified the Spoils system by arguing that federal officials who were ineffective could not be allowed to be in their positions for a long time. According to him, this meant that government services would be more effective at the federal level due to the newly introduced Spoils System.
One of major economic national development that happened during the presidency of Andrew Jackson is the fact that he was able to completely pay the U.S. national debt in 1835. This made President Andrew Jackson to be the first president in the entire history of the United States to be in a position to completely repay the national debt. It was in 1835 that the US national debt reached an all-time low of $ 33733.05(Remini 180). Scholars argue that this is the lowest value that the U.S. national debt has ever reached since the inception of the first U.S. fiscal budget in the year 1791. However, it is important to note that Andrew Jackson’s economic achievement was short lived in that the United States faced a huge economic recession between 1837 and 1845 which means that Martin Van Buren took up the presidency of the United States while the country was in the midst of an economic turmoil.
President Andrew Jackson is also known for his repeal of the Federal Bank Charter. President Andrew Jackson argued that the abolishment of the federal bank was necessary because it created a situation where all federal financial wealth was concentrated in one place which exposed the country to financial risk due to lack to diverse financial institutions. Andrew Jackson also argued that the Federal bank made the United States vulnerable to foreign market forces in terms of currency exchange. In addition Jackson felt that by having a single federal institution which concentrated the country’s financial wealth in one place, the wealthy people in the society could continue increasing their wealth while the poor people would continue remaining poor due to the lack of diverse financial sources that could allow a power man to establish him or herself. Andrew Jackson also felt that the idea of a federal bank concentrated on the legislature. Clearly, Andrew Jackson benefitted from the presidential veto powers to preserve the power of the executive and to prevent the creation of a strong legislature.
In addition, it was during Andrew Jackson’s presidency that the Coinage Act of 1834 was passed. This Act maintained that gold and silver were to become the major trading coinage. The repercussion of this Act was that it reduces the value of silver in relation to gold. This caused those people who were in possession of silver to incur some loss. However, overall effect that many people opted to change their gold to minted money and resulted in the increased reduction of silver in conducting transactions.
In conclusion, Andrew Jackson’s presidency coincided with important changes in American politics some of which Jackson benefited from. Some of the national developments that took place in the 1830’s include increased suffrage rights for white men, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the creation of the Democratic Party, the establishment of the Spoils system which put most of Jackson’s friends in government, and the reduction of the national debts to an all-time low of $33733.05.
Works Cited
Kennedy, David M. The Brief American Pageant: A History of the Republic. Boston,
Massachusetts: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Remini, Robert, V. Andrew Jackson. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009. Print.
Ward, John William. Andrew Jackson: symbol for an age. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1962. Print.
