Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States and the only president in this nation’s history to have an era named after him. Jackson was a president who cared for his people and did only what he felt was necessary to protect the liberty of his people. Jackson acted as the first “common man” president rather than a king. He was the “champion of the people.” He selected officers best suited to fill the duties and serve their country. He enforced the Indian Removal act only to help gain land for the individual states, and enforced laws to strengthen the nation as a whole.

Jackson's election, also known as the “Era of the Common Man,” marked a new direction in American politics. According to “Jacksonian Democracy and Modern America,” Jackson “believed that [the common man’s] interests was ignored by the aggressive national economic plans of [Henry] Clay and [John Quincy] Adams.” The nation was giving economic elites, the wealthy, special privileges that Jackson did not find fair. So, Jackson and his supporters created a political movement, the Jacksonian Democracy, to help and improve democracy for the common man, like farmers. Also, Jackson was a common man because he supported the practice of the spoils system. During his presidency, he appointed his loyal supporters to public office. In order for “the nation [to] achieve its republican ideals” (“The Presidency of Andrew Jackson”), he believed in the rotation of office among party supporters. Jackson did his best to protect the American people, including the Native Americans when he signed the Indian Removal Act into law.

The Indian Removal Act was not Jackson seeking to hurt the Native Americans, and to destroy their life and culture. He was actually trying to prevent harm to the Native Americans from the white settlers. The Indian removal policy was initially during the Jeffersonian era where Native Americans were murdered by white Americans for their land. In Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832, “Although devoted to states' rights and limited government in Washington, Jackson rejected any notion that jeopardized the safety of the United States. That also included the Indians.” So, Jackson came up with an alternative solution to the killings of the Indians; those who moved would be given new land and compensation for the old land. Jackson was a common man who became the first American president not born to an elite family. He helped give other common man political and economical opportunities.