Andrew Jackson's Impact On The American Republic

Known affectionately as “Old Hickory” by the men he had once led and fought with, and loved by most Americans, Andrew Jackson was revered at the time of his presidency. Jackson, born in 1767 to only his mother, grew up impoverished and rebellious. At the age of 13 Jackson joined the Revolutionary War and was subsequently captured by the British military. He survived, and sixteen years later he had become a lawyer, had acquired a wife, and became Tennessee 's first representative and senator. However Jackson would always have a love for the battlefield, and it’s in those moments he gained the admiration of the American Republic. During the War of 1812 he had helped get rid of the Creek indian tribe in Alabama, and defended the city of New …show more content…
He believed it was his duty to rid the government of those he deemed aristocrats (Document 6), and wanted to get revenge on those whom he deemed responsible for his wife’s death. The idea behind making the common man more involved seems a very democratic ideal, but the way Jackson went about it was not democratic. One instance is the Eaton Affair, in which his secretary of state John Eaton was accused of marrying a harlot. If true this would defame Jackson’s entire cabinet and his presidency, however instead of ousting them Jackson and Martin Van Buren both defended the Eaton’s to the chagrin of the rest of his cabinet. Because of this Jackson began to rely more heavily on what was deemed his “kitchen cabinet”, a group of men whom he relied on more heavily for advice than those in his actual cabinet. Because of Van Buren’s support of the Eaton’s, Jackson nominated him for running mate in 1832, effectively ending any cooperation between Jackson and his former vice president John C. Calhoun. Jackson believed that John C. Calhoun was partly responsible for the death of his wife, because of the slanderous comments he had made during the 1928 election. Because of this when Calhoun and the state of Virginia tried to nullify a tax they deemed an abomination Jackson threatened to bring an army down to Virginia himself to make them concede. This may seem democratic in that he put the federal government above state government, however it seems that it was really out of vengeance for his wife’s death. Jackson didn’t care about the power of the federal government, in fact as shown in his response to Marshall years before, federal government was below state government on matters of Indian Removal. Jackson’s biggest battle however was the destruction of the 2nd National Bank, which he deemed a monopoly (Document 4). He believed that