Era of the Common Man: Andrew Jackson's America 1820–1840

Introduction: The Era of the Common Man

This paper examines American history between the years of 1820 and 1840. This period followed what historians have labeled the Era of Good Feelings — a time when the nation was consumed with recovering from the War of 1812, which produced a genuinely nationalistic sense of values and unity. The period between 1820 and 1840 carried its own unique label: the Era of the Common Man, presided over by Andrew Jackson, who became known as the President of the Common Man. This paper presents the key characteristics of the era and examines its defining events in order to evaluate whether that label was appropriate — in other words, based on the evidence, was it accurate to call this period the Era of the Common Man, and why or why not?

Last of the Gentry

The nation was founded on the motivations and desires of revolutionaries who fought for the Republic. The original political framework at the foundation of the new nation was based on a "gentry" style of politics. As Welter observes, "The American sense of obligation is exemplified in the development during the Middle Period of an almost obsessive concern with the historic patterns of American politics. During the 1830s and 1840s, political partisans of every hue appealed to the history of American political parties to influence contemporary political choices by relating them to the choices made by the generation of 1776, or that of 1800" (26).

This gentry brand of leadership made its last stand in the election of 1824. As Brulatour explains, "The demise of this system came about when Andrew Jackson lost his initial bid for the Presidency. One of four candidates chosen by congressional caucus, and running as a war hero after his victory in the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson led the other three in popular and electoral votes, but lacked a clear majority. The election went to the House of Representatives, and John Quincy Adams became President in 1824."

The gentry leadership was beginning to age or pass away, and the majority of voters in the United States were beginning to migrate further west, past the Allegheny Mountains. Having lost the election of 1824, Andrew Jackson regrouped and made a concerted effort to secure support from the new so-called "westerners," who had gradually become more than a third of the nation's population.

Jackson built his support on the claim that he was the voice of the common man and that the East Coast gentry was out of touch with the wishes and desires of ordinary people. As Brulatour notes, "The two-party system began to take shape. Former Jeffersonian Republicans became Jacksonian Democrats. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster helped organize the Whigs to resist the power of 'King Andrew.' Eligible voter participation in the presidential races more than doubled, jumping from a mere 27% in 1824 to 58% in 1828, and 80% by 1840. It did not drop below 70% through the end of the century. Voter eligibility restrictions concerning property and tax payment were relaxed, and people pressed for a more open political system."

When the next election came around, Andrew Jackson was a force to be reckoned with and was elected President of the United States. The Era of the Common Man thus began with the president who represented a more democratic base, in the tradition of Jeffersonian politics.

Andrew Jackson and the Common Man

Andrew Jackson was born in South Carolina in 1767 and died in 1845. He holds the distinction of having been elected as the first true Democratic president. In 1844, Nathan Appleton — one of the principal founders of the Waltham mills — argued that the United States was distinguished from Europe by the difference between "labor in action" and "labor in possession," with the latter representing claims made on the European economy by privileged idlers. Similarly, in describing the early career of Patrick Tracy Jackson, John Lowell emphasized that Jackson had been a "working-man" all his life, contrary to the "aristocratic notions" of his youth. As Welter observes, friends of less eminent men of business had little difficulty in envisioning them as men of toil (118).

Jackson's success as the nation's seventh president is demonstrated by his reelection four years later; his overall tenure ran from 1829 to 1837. His platform rested on the claim that he represented the common man, and he pursued his policies aggressively on behalf of ordinary citizens. Although slavery was a significant issue, the main policies he pursued centered on Native Americans and the Second Bank of the United States.

The election of Andrew Jackson was a turning point in American politics. As the first true Democrat elected to the presidency, he drew support from western farmers and eastern workers, signaling that the wealthy oligarchy of Boston and Virginia had lost touch with the masses. New voting rules — most states removed or reduced property qualification requirements — allowed more average citizens to reach the polling booths. To these common voters, Jackson was presented as the representative of a new age, and Jackson himself saw his role as spokesman for those people who needed a new kind of leadership.

Conclusion: Era of the Common Man or Bust?

During Andrew Jackson's time in office, it was in many respects genuinely the Era of the Common Man. The difficulty is that for those who did not fit the era's narrow definition of "common" — Black Americans, Native peoples, and women — the period was marked by sexism, elitism, and racism. As Pessen observes, women's magazines and related literature of the period sought "to convince woman that she had the best of both worlds — power and virtue — and that a stable order of society depended upon her maintaining her traditional place in it. To that end she was identified with everything that was beautiful and holy" (64). The Trail of Tears and political accommodations such as the Missouri Compromise make clear that if you were not the right kind of common man, Jackson's era offered little protection.

Yet measured against the ruling oligarchies and old-world gentry, Jackson did achieve major political and social reforms that benefited farmers, workers, and ordinary citizens, and his presidency has had a lasting influence on American democracy. As Welter notes, corporations were increasingly seen in democratic terms: defenders of manufacturing argued that their workers "worked by the week or piece, as they pleased, usually; and the operatives often made more than the owners. Common hands who were stronger and careful, would in a comparatively short time, be able to buy small farms, or otherwise go into business for themselves" (118).

Land ownership was no longer exclusively the province of the wealthy. Corporations, states, and private citizens all benefited — however temporarily — from the wildcat banking experiment, and the era of population expansion provided ample justification for calling the period between 1820 and 1840 the Era of the Common Man, provided one understands both the genuine democratic advances and the profound injustices that accompanied them.

Works Cited

Brulatour, Meg. Transcendental Ideas: Reform: Social and Political Changes in the Time of Emerson and Thoreau: The 19th Century at a Glance. Ed. Meg Brulatour. Retrieved 21 Nov. 2004, from

Lorence, James J. Enduring Voices: To 1877 the Enduring Voices, a History of the American People. 4th ed., vol. 1. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Pessen, Edward. The Many-Faceted Jacksonian Era: New Interpretations. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 1977.

Welter, Rush. The Mind of America, 1820–1860. New York: Columbia UP, 1975.