Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States, an American Soldier and General, and a statesman who served in both houses of Congress. Jackson served eight years as the President and was known as a “man of the people.” Sounds like a great presidency, right? Not necessarily; Jackson would go on to become a bit of a controversial President. Andrew Jackson has good and bad written to his name. From making Native Americans walk to their new homes to preventing a civil war to creating a new political party, Jackson has a lot under his name and people’s opinion on the seventh President still go back and forth to this day.
After the War of 1812 was over a major battle in New Orleans occurred. This battle should never have taken place, however this event made Andrew Jackson famous for an astonishing victory over the British. In 1824 Jackson runs for president against John Quincy Adams. The war hero, Jackson, clearly won the campaign by popular vote. But he did not receive two thirds of the total electoral vote.
This victory, along with wounds from his participation in the Revolutionary War, gave him the popular support he needed for a strong presidency. Although Jackson lost in his first attempt at the Presidency, he quickly learned from his mistakes and won the election of 1828 by 95 electoral votes (Norton, 359). During his administration Jackson was faced with many key issues, of which the Nullification crisis is an example. This was a crisis over the doctrine of nullification, which was being strongly pushed by South Carolina. According to this doctrine, the state had the right to nullify government legislature that was inconsistent with its own.
In 1822 the Tennessee Legislature nominated him for president and the following year he was elected the U.S. senate. He also nearly won the presidential campaign of 1824. However as a result of the "corrupt bargain" with Henry Clay, he ended up losing. In 1828 Andrew Jackson became the seventh President to the United States. Instead of the normal cabinet made up by the president, he relied more on an informal group of newspaper writers and northern politicians who had worked for his election.
He did not win the 6th presidency because of a deal that was made between Adams and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, during the election of 1824. When Jackson won the presidency in 1828 it made him the first president to come from an area west of the Appalachians and also the first to become president from being voted in by the people. Although he was an amazing general in the Tennessee and U.S. Armies he was also prosperous in the role of President of the United States. Being a General brought him significant amounts of fame and a nickname “Hickory”.
It held the White House all the way through 1829 when Andrew Jackson became president. Jackson’s election marked a new direction in American politics. He was the first westerner elected president, indeed, the first president from a state other than Virginia or Massachusetts. He boldly proclaimed himself to be the "CHAMPION OF THE COMMON MAN" and believed that their interests were ignored by the aggressive national economic plans of Clay and Adams. Democratic party that centered upon three chief qualities closely linked to Jacksonian Democracy.
Andrew Jackson first ran for president in 1824. His original attempt failed due to the popularity and victory of his opponent John Adams. He later claimed his own presidential victory in the election of 1829, gaining a majority of votes from the west and the south who were his great supporters. Jackson was first considered a president of the people because he supported the common man and nationalism.1 Jackson proved this belief through particular times in his presidency. He firmly believed that the Government should be restricted and become the “simple machine in which the constitution created';.1 He had a strong yet stubborn personality and for the most part began his presidential career as a well liked man.
Five months after the campaign, Lincoln was reelected and the Confederacy was conquered. a) Lincoln's chances for reelection seemed impossible to the public and to Lincoln himself; no president had been reelected other than Andrew Jackson and more importantly, Lincoln was undermined by extensive disapproval of his handling of the war. The Union was disappointed with Lincoln's faulty strategies and by his assertion of the Emancipation Proclamation. The antislavery forces of the Republican Party noticed Lincoln's vulnerability and started trying to find new candidates, in the end they settled for John C Fremont, an enemy of Lincoln's. The National Unity Party (formerly known as the regular Republican party) chose Lincoln as the first ballot during the convention and a war general named Andrew Jackson as their second.
The nomination of Lincoln showed a growing power of the Midwest, and perceived more a reasonable on slavery than the early front runner, Senator William H. Seward of New York. John Bell of Tennessee was nominated by a Constitutional Union Party that was formed to conserve the nation but strong only in the upper South. Lincoln and the Republicans denied any intent with slavery in the states where it existed, they stood firm against the extension of slavery into the territories. Lincoln won the election of 1860, but Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell together received a majority of the votes. “Douglas had broad-based support but won only in one state” (Bialy, 2007, p384).
The Jacksonian Period from 1824 to 1848 has been characterized as the era of the “common man.” Jackson’s election to presidency was based on the fact that he himself did not come from a wealthy background so in return, during his presidency he openly advocated for the rights of the “common man”. Although the era did not always stay true to its name, both economic aspects and reform movements caused the Jacksonian period to mostly live up to its characterization as "the era of the common man.” To begin with, in order to fully comprehend the question being asked one must have an understanding of Jacksonian principles as well as who Andrew Jackson was. Jacksonian Democracy is defined as "the political movement toward greater democracy for the common man." In and of itself the definition applies to "the common man" so from the start there is a principle that Jackson will promote as president that lives up to the period's characterization. Jackson was born in 1767 in Waxhaw, South Carolina, to Scotch-Irish immigrants.