The 7th President
Some of Andrew Jackson's Major Events
Trail of Tears
Because Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court when they said Georgia could not interfere with the Natives, he allowed the militia to force the Cherokees down to the Oklahoma area. They were going to help the Natives out by feeding them and giving them proper furnishings, but they did not. The winter in which the march went on was very harsh and cold. Tons of Natives died.
Spoils System
Andrew Jackson rewarded his political allies and friends with free government jobs once he became president. To do this, he ended up firing people that were already working there, even if they had been helpful, in order to make room for his friends. In addition, the people hired were not necessarily politically inclined. All of this was viewed as a good thing by some people, but also a bad thing by some. Regardless, Andrew Jackson did it anyways to keep his image as the common-man president and to gain more political allies.
Nullification Crisis
South Carolina was sick of tariffs. Tariffs are taxes on imported goods. The South relied on these goods and had to pay a lot more for them as a result of the tariffs. South Carolina thought that it had State's Rights and could nullify (declare useless) these tariffs. A law was passed that gave the president the power to force South Carolina into submission. Finally, before a civil war broke out, Henry Clay introduced a compromise that lowered the cost of tariffs, but still made them present.
Political Cartoon
Explanation of Cartoon
Andrew Jackson hated the Bank of America because it "favored wealthy people over poor people." He wanted to destroy it. In this political Cartoon, he is attempting to slay the beast, which is the bank. The beast has many heads, which represent all the states fighting to keep the bank. Andrew Jackson is using a cane that has the word veto on it and veto was the power that he used in order to shut the bank down. He also took money out of it illegally but that's not really represented in this picture.
COMMENTS
Squirrel Hands
Hi I'm a Cherokee girl. In my opinion, Andrew Jackson was a terrible president, one of our worst, actually. First of all, it wasn't fair in the first place to allow the militia to force the Cherokee away. They were their own government and deserved respect. What kind of "good president" just turns a blind eye to that? And secondly, they had to march in winter! It was actually one of the worst winters in American history! Thousands of good people died, and that could have been avoided if the government had just given the Cherokee people what they needed.
Internet Troll
CHeeeeeeeeeeseEEEEEEEEsE
Bryan Weir
@Squirrel Hands, true the Trail of Tears was a bad mark on our history, but the guy wasn't 100% bad. Andrew Jackson would not let the South get away with not paying their tariffs like they should. As a Northerner, I think this was very good. It strengthened the power of American businesses, which are the ones we should be worried about, not some foreign company. If the South doesn't have factories, they should just either deal with it or make their own. Tariffs help American businesses, and therefore America as a whole, and I think Jackson did the right thing in this case.