Andrew Jackson's Controversial Decisions

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Andrew Jackson made more controversial decisions than most presidents during his time in office. He had his successes and failures as president of the United States and he left a lasting impact on American politics. Overall, his decisions were popular due to American idealism at the time. He was, after all, considered "the people 's president.”

One of Andrew Jackson’s successes as president was the spoils system. The term came from the phrase by New York senator William Marcy who said, “To the victor belong the spoils.” The spoils system replaced old party government positions with new winning party voters, even if they weren’t qualified in some occasions. The system was a success because it unified the government. It was also meant to basically
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history. Andrew Jackson wasn’t exactly famous for his love of Native Americans. The Indian removal act is seen as both good or bad depending on who you ask but one thing that no one can deny is that it was cruel. The act was signed into law on May 28, 1830. It gave Jackson the right to push the Native Americans into land west of the Mississippi such as Oklahoma. Most people today would argue that it was immoral but due to the demand of land and “manifest destiny” back then, it was probably the most popular thing Jackson did during his presidency. “Manifest Destiny” is a phrase created by John L. O’ Sullivan, basically describing the widely held belief that White people in the U.S. essentially had the right to do as they saw fit with whatever they came across in America because God specifically gave them the land. Manifest destiny immensely influenced the decision to forcibly remove the natives from their homes even after they sued in a U.S. court and got a ruling in their favor. After a supreme court judge named John Marshall made a famous ruling stating that the Natives didn’t have to go anywhere because of a treaty they had signed. Andrew Jackson said, “Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”, referring to the army Jackson was about to use. Under the Indian removal Act the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole, were uprooted in the span of 1831 to 1838, these five tribes were known as the five …show more content…
On september 10th, 1833 Jackson said that he was shutting down the second bank. He then took all the money out so the bank then became a shell of what it used to be. Jackson hated how the bank was biased to the industrial part of the U.S. since it had ties to the manufacturing and he resented the amount of power the bank had in the economy. So as soon as he took office he ordered an investigation into the constitutionality of the bank. He argued that the bank represented “the rich oppressing the common man.” The supreme court ruled the bank constitutional. Jackson didn’t pay much attention to that though because he destroyed the bank without officially destroying it by taking all the money out and then redistributing it to the state banks. This plan failed because they didn 't have enough to supply everybody. This ended up being a terrible move, driving inflation rates incredibly high and eventually leading to the panic of 1837, which was a deep economic depression that lasted into the 40’s. One of the things that led to the panic is Jackson’s mistrust of the bank’s ability to control commerce. His mistrust led him to trying to go back to using gold and silver as means of payment which didn’t turn out so well.

Jackson changed American politics in a few different ways. One of these ways was by strengthening the sense of nationalism in the country. By wiping out the United States’ debt

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