Reaction: Andrew Jackson - Essay Example

Reaction: Andrew Jackson In the past, when I have thought about past American presidents, the first people to come to my mind were always George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy. I did not know much about the other presidents, so I found learning about Andrew Jackson to be an extremely interesting and informative process. Although perhaps not as famous as some of the American presidents, I have come to understand that so many historical events occurred during his terms.

Two essays that I found to be be extremely helpful in changing my viewpoint on Andrew Jackson were “Andrew Jackson and the Second Bank of the United States” and “Andrew Jackson and the Issue of Indian Removal.”The first essay— “Andrew Jackson and the Second Bank of the United States” focused on the topic of how Andrew Jackson changed the American banking system. The paper was very well written and clear. It provided a lot of significant facts about the destruction of the financial system during this time.

This paper really changed my view on Andrew Jackson because I had no idea as to how involved he was in this whole process. The essay made me see Jackson as a corrupt individual who was greedy and power hungry. In the end, it appears that he was so focused on changing the banking system that he was willing to let the entire economic system take a tumble. The other essay that I felt really impacted my view of Andrew Jackson is “Andrew Jackson and the Issue of Indian Removal.” This essay was also well-written, and it was structured in a format that made it very easy to read and understand.

The author of this essay focused on, the Indian Removal Act, the Seminole Wars, and the Trail of Tears. All of these events revolve around the terrible treatment of the Native Americans and were influenced or agreed to by Jackson to a certain extent. I think this essay really captured both the factual and emotional aspects of this time period. Before this module and before reading this essay, I didn’t fully realize how involved Jackson was in these events. The essay further transformed my view of Jackson, who I now see as heartless and racist, because of how he treated the Native Americans.

These two essays really showed me the type of person that Andrew Jackson was. My reaction, overall, is that I now understand why Jackson isn’t talked about more. I think he is often overlooked because people want to forget or ignore the terrible things that were done during his presidency. Many of America’s darkest moments seemed to occur during his time as the leader of the country. These essays made me see that Jackson was a lot more powerful than I originally thought, and I can’t help but wonder how our world might look today, especially in terms of our financial systems and our relationship with the Native Americans, if he hadn’t been elected president.