Jacksonian Democracy

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Jacksonian Democracy and the Bank War

One of the things that made Andrew Jackson unique and contributed to the style and tone of the new political age was his commitment to the idea of democracy. By democracy, Jackson meant majoritarian rule. “The people are the government”, he said, “administering it by their agents; they are the Government, the sovereign power”. In his message to Congress he announced his creed: “The majority is to govern,” he declared; and he repeated this commitment at every opportunity. He felt that the electorate should select all its officials in Washington, starting with the President. Jackson advocated a single term of either four or six years for the chief executive and he proposed this change to Congress. Jackson also felt that Senators should be elected to four-year terms by the people, not by the state legislatures. He would even have the electorate select its federal judges for terms of seven years which indicated his commitment to rotation of office as a means of democratizing the government. (Schlesinger pp.314, 402-406)

Jackson’s argument for the principle of “rotation of office” was the argument of democracy. Offices exist to serve the people, no one has a special claim to office, and there are no elites, therefore, removal from office is not intrinsically wrong. So when the people elect a new President, it is only right that he be given the opportu...

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