Andrew Jacksons Presidency - Essay Example

Andrew Jackson's Presidency Introduction Andrew Jackson’s presidency is one of the most memorable terms in the history of the USA presidency, not because there was much for the country to pride in during his term, but because it was a period that was marked with political upheavals and economic strains that threatened to bring the economy of the country to its knees. He seemed to have entered the presidency with a sense of reform, or may be revenge; which did not do any good to the Americans, both the natives and the white settlers (Andrew Jackson, n.p.). The most notable facts about his presidency, which are the fundamental of this discussion include the fact that; First, Andrew Jackson’s treatment of the Native Americans was unethical, inhumane, and against the common values of the United States. The native Indian Americans faced one of their toughest times during his presidency, considering that he had embarked on a mission to dispossess the Native Americans of their land from the East of the Mississippi river to relocate them to the west, and this is a decision that he acted on most swiftly and decisively (Benson, 22). Thus, by the end of his term in presidency, he had managed to displace the natives from their motherland, to present day Oklahoma, through a forceful eviction that eventually came to be known as the ‘Trail of tear’ (Heckscher, n.p.). Secondly, Andrew Jackson’s policies were responsible for an economic meltdown in the United States and restricted economic growth for the country, since he adopted economic policies that were fundamentally flawed such as the closure of the Second Bank of the United States, eventually leading the country to a future economic crisis (Buchanan, 165). Thirdly, Andrew Jackson’s political actions were unjust, unconstitutional and created strains between the federal government and the states they presided over, thus leading to a political discontent in the country, at a time when peace was the most important thing in the country, having moved out of previous wars and conflicts that had threatened to completely tear the country apart. Therefore, in a nutshell, Andrew Jackson’s presidency was a cancer on the United States, and prevented the federal government from growing as a whole, during his time in office. Analysis of Andrew Jackson's Presidency The most memorable and horrific aspect of Andrew Jackson’s presidency was his treatment of the Native Americans. President Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act (1830), which then gave the president powers to negotiate the removal treaties with Indian nations, by transferring them from the regions they previously inhabited as their homeland, through legalizing the transfers and providing for the funding of the transfer process (Buchanan, 166). This move has largely been termed by the human right commentators as amounting to ethnic cleansing, through dispossessing the native Indians of their motherland in the East of Mississippi, and transferring them forcefully to the western side; the present day Oklahoma (Andrew Jackson, n.p.). While the passage of the Removal Act was meant to be a channel through which peaceful treaties would be entered into, between the Indian Nations and the federal government, Andrew Jackson resulted to the forceful eviction of the Natives, after it became clear that they were not willing to give up their ancestral lands (Cole, 72). The forceful eviction was extremely dehumanizing, especially since President Andrew Jackson Sent 7,000-armed troops specifically to remove the Cherokee tribe, which had proved to be a bit more resistant in signing a transfer treaty that would displace them from their motherland (Benson, 27). This move was extremely bad, considering that the only reason President Jackson implemented the forceful transfer of the Natives, was to have the white settlers expand their farms, so that their cotton farming and slave economy would continue to flourish, at the expense of the comfort of the Natives, who were not seen to contribute much to the economy. Considering that there were historical hostilities between the Natives and the white settlers since the beginning of the colonization of the USA, the white settler feared the presence of the Natives, and thus needed to be completely segregated from them, a move that President Jackson implemented with vigor, regardless of the welfare of the Natives (Andrew Jackson, n.p.). The failure to mind the wellbeing of the Natives in the process of evicting and transferring them from their homeland to the western side of the Mississippi river impacted negatively on the Natives, a concept that was later known as the Trail of Tears due to the fact that 4,000 Indians died from disease, starvation and exposure in the course of their relocation, which eventually saw only a substantial percentage of the Natives survive the forcible transfer and settle on the western side of the river (Buchanan, 165). Despite the fact that the previous presidents had advocated for the transfer of the Natives from their ancestral homelands, it is President Jackson who activated the political and the military process, perhaps as a way of revenge for the previous war encounters he had with the Native Indians, in the course of his military career (Jackson and Harold, 62). After Cherokees, other groups submitted willingly to relocation, since the other civilized Native tribes had no choice but to submit to the eviction demands, considering that they had seen how the Cherokee had been treated due to expressing resistance to the planned eviction. After the brutal eviction of the Cherokee out of their homeland, who were used as the model of the removal, the rest of the Native tribes were eventually transferred to the western side of the Mississippi river, with the Seminole being removed in 1832, followed by the Creek who were removed in 1834, and then the finally the Chickasaw were removed in 1837 (Benson, 31). After the whole forceful eviction exercise was through, President Jackson had overseen the relocation of over 45,000 Native Americans, while a sizeable percentage had already perished through the eviction and transfer process, allowing the white settler to take possession of the good lands that were previously the ancestral lands of the Native Indian Americans (Cole, 77). The effect of the forceful eviction of the Native American tribes was not only felt by the Natives alone, but the same had a far reaching effect on the welfare of the United States as whole, considering that the whole exercise used 68 million dollars of U.S. money to buy land for Indians while the U.S. was in debt, thus further aggravating the economic strain of the country (Buchanan, 165). In addition, more money was spent to implement the military operations that saw the forceful transfer of the natives, adding to the already financial constraint the country was facing. However, most notable is the fact that; the eviction process did not only affect the Native Indian Americans, but also affected most of the Freed African Slaves, who were also evicted from the eastern side of the Mississippi river, to make the region a predominantly white settlers’ region (Smalley, 11). Secondly, Andrew Jackson’s economic policies led to a great depression and a bank system that would never fully recover. The negative effect of the Andrew Jackson’s presidency was significantly felt on the economic front, where President Jackson took over money lending functions of the National Bank and put them in hands of local banks, through an argument that the bank had concentrated too much fiscal power on a single institution (Jackson and Harold, 59). Further, in rescinding the 20-year contract that the National Bank had signed, President Jackson argued that operation of the bank exposed the country to control by foreign interests, while serving to enrich the riche, and exercising so much power over the congress, making it lose its political muscle to influence the economy of the country (Andrew Jackson, n.p.). This move greatly increased credit and speculation of the bank system by citizens, through increased activities such as land sale, cotton farming and manufacturing, since the local and the state banks had been granted the responsibility previously held by the National Bank, causing the economy to boom, and a subsequent shortage of gold used to exchange for the notes previously held by the National Bank (Wilentz, 44). The result was a panic crisis that arose in 1837, which significantly depressed the economy of the country, which then took the economy very long to recover. In 1836 Andrew Jackson passed the Specie Circular, an act, which requires buyers of governmental territories to use gold or silver, but the banks did not have sufficient gold to exchange for the notes (Heckscher, n.p.). The demand for the Specie significantly increased, and eventually the banks, which did not have enough gold or silver to exchange for their notes instantly, collapsed. The overall consequence of this move was that 48% of banks collapsed after the bill was passed (Buchanan, 165). The specie Circular was a direct cause of the crisis of 1837 which was a national depression, considering that the collapse of close to 50% of the local and state banks in the country, coupled with the lack of sufficient fiscal control from the National Bank which had already been closed, resulted to the depression of the economy (Benson, 36). This saw the unemployment rate in the country reach a high of 25%, while the economy lost its ability to recover due to the lack of appropriate fiscal measures and the depression lasted for seven years, characterized by a complete collapse of the USA economy, the first in the peacetime (Cole, 41). Thirdly, Jackson used his political policies to create an unjust government environment, which ultimately resulted in far reaching strains and political consequences. The major unconstitutional and unjust move by President Jackson was the introduction of the Spoil system, which entailed the rotation of the political office appointees, which the President Jackson abused through using it as an opportunity for the President to replace federal employees with friends or party loyalists (Andrew Jackson, n.p.). While implementing the Spoil system in the guise of averting the development of bureaucracy of corruption in the offices, it was a move that impacted negatively on the employment rights especially of the government employees, of whom, by the end of his presidency, 20% of federal employees had been dismissed (Jackson and Harold, 68). In their place, the government employees were replaced by men who were not knowledgeable and had no previous experience in their positions, eventually rendering the effectiveness and efficiency of running government operations significantly declined (Wilentz, 41). The other major unconstitutional and unjust action that was committed by President Jackson is the introduction of the Nullification Act, which resulted to creation of strife between the southern farming sector and the northern manufacturing sector, through the creation of a tariff disagreement (Buchanan, 166). The disagreement arose in the form of the Southern States, which were predominantly farming states, arguing that the increment on tariffs for importation of goods from the European market served to benefit the Northern manufacturing states, while making the price of such commodities high for the Southern States (Cole, 56). Eventually, the arguments over high tariffs between the federal government and Southern states led to the attempt to break away from the U.S. by South Carolina, an occurrence that caused further strains between states, and also between leading officials in Jackson’s party, and before the stalemate could be resolved, Jackson’s Vice-President, Secretary of State and Secretary of war had all resigned (Andrew Jackson, n.p.). The disagreements between the southern states and the federal government over the tariff move, saw President Jackson attempt to send troops into South Carolina, in an effort to regain their state government, but the acts were not passed by congress, owing to the dangers of disintegration of the union of the United States that was posed by such a move (Smalley, 17). Conclusion Andrew Jackson’s presidency was marked with political upheavals and economic strains that threatened to bring the economy of the country to its knees. The fundamental flaws that President Jackson brought about included the treatment of the Native Americans in unethical and inhumane manner, against the common values of the United States. In addition, he introduced policies that were responsible for an economic meltdown in the United States, which restricted economic growth for the country, eventually leading to the country’s future economic crisis. Further, Andrew Jackson’s political actions were unjust, unconstitutional and created strains between the federal government and the states they presided over, thus leading to a political discontent in the country that threatened to completely tear the country apart. Thus, needless to say, Andrew Jackson’s presidency prevented the federal government from growing as a whole, during his time in office. Works Cited Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil & the Presidency, 2007. Retrieved: November 30, 2013. from http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/glossary/ Andrew Jackson: Themes; Indian Removal, 2007. Retrieved: November 30, 2013. from http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/themes/indian_removal.html Benson, Lee. The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy: New York as a Test Case. New York: Atheneum, 1961. Print. Buchanan, John. Jackson's Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters. New York: John Wiley & Son, Inc., 2001. 165-166. Print. Cole, Donald B. The Presidency of Andrew Jackson. Lawrence, Kan: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1993. Print. Heckscher, Jordan. Andrew Jackson: A Resource Guide, Library of Congress. Retrieved: November 30, 2013. from http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/jackson/ Jackson, Andrew, and Harold D. Moser. Papers: 7. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2007. Print. Smalley, Ruth. An Interview with Andrew Jackson Seventh President of the United States. Johnson City, Tenn: Overmountain Press, 2001. Print. Wilentz, Sean. Andrew Jackson. Times Book, 2005. Print. Read More