The Jackson Era

Jackson Era

The years in between in 1824 and the 1840s are known as the Jackson Era. This is an important time in Presidential and political history because it began a lot of traditions, policies, and laws that are considered to be normal in today's politics. In 1824, the Presidential elections for the 6th President of the United States were being held. Although there were four main candidates, only two are infamous for this particular election, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson won the popular vote of the people, but after the electoral votes were being distributed among the four candidates running, neither candidate received the necessary amount to win the Presidency, so it was up to the House of Representatives to elect a President. Although Jackson had won the most electoral votes and had won the popular election, Adams was elected President because he was close friends with Henry Clay who was not only a member of the House of Representatives and had sway in how the election would turn out, but also because he would be named Secretary of State and would be a step closer to becoming President himself (McGraw-Hil, pp.334-336).

During this time period, the Republican party divided into two: the Democratic-Republicans (which advertised themselves to represent the people) and the National Republicans (which were supporters of government and bank regulations). In 1828 though, everything changed. Jackson won the Presidential election by a "landslide, with 56% of the popular vote and 178 electoral votes" (McGraw-Hill, p.336). This is what was the beginning of the Jackson Era. Jackson appealed to the everyday man. He was an entrepreneur, war hero, who came from a humble background of poverty, and made himself into someone that other people could admire and see as a role model. It was this that made the public so attracted to him and his politics (McGraw-Hill, p.337). Since Jackson was trying to help those who he thought deserved more rights, he was an influence in allowing more White men to vote in Presidential elections, by removing the property ownership requirement to vote, so that more common folk like farmers, sharecroppers, and factory workers would be allowed to vote (digitalhistory.uh.edu). This in return, would also provide him with more people to vote for him.

Jackson was the first President to change his federal workers to people that he wanted to work for him. He thought that in order for democracy to be fair, it was necessary to make everyday people into individuals who could work and influence the government system (digitalhistory.uh.edu). He also made the electing process more democratic by having conventions where he had representatives from every state nominate a presidential candidate to represent their individual parties. This would provide a more accurate representation of who the people themselves saw as President.

Jackson also had great influence on the economic situation of that era. In order for Americans to start to buy more American goods, Jackson wanted to pass a tariff on all English goods. Although this meant that America would get more of their things sold and purchased, it also meant that Americans had to pay more for necessary goods that came from abroad (McGraw-Hill, p.338). This angered the South who owned property and were most affected by the rise in these tariffs. This was the beginning of the Nullification Act. This act was made as a compromise to steadily reduce the tariff placed throughout the years, but also made the Force Act, which in turn secured that states could not leave the Union just because they disagreed with federal policy, as many states threatened to do in this case (McGraw-Hill, p.339).

As an unfortunate consequence, Jackson was also responsible for passing the Indian Removal Act, which forced Native Americans out of their land so that more land would be available for Americans who wanted to keep expanding West. The result of this act was the Trail of Tears where thousands of Native Americans died while being forced out of their land (Mc-Graw Hill, pp.341-347).