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Jacksonian democracy is the political movement during the Second Party System toward greater democracy for the common man symbolized by American politician Andrew Jackson and his supporters. The Jacksonian Era lasted roughly from Jackson's 1828 election as president until the slavery issue became dominant after 1850 and the American Civil War dramatically reshaped American politics as the Third Party System emerged. Jackson's policies followed the era of Jeffersonian democracy which dominated the previous political era. When the Democratic-Republican Party of the Jeffersonians became factionalized in the 1820s, Jackson's supporters began to form the modern Democratic Party. They fought the rival Adams and Anti-Jacksonian factions, which soon emerged as the Whigs.
More broadly, the term refers to the era of the Second Party System (mid-1830s–1854) characterized by a democratic spirit. It can be contrasted with the characteristics of Jeffersonian democracy. Jackson's equal political policy became known as "Jacksonian Democracy", subsequent to ending what he termed a "monopoly" of government by elites. Jeffersonians opposed inherited elites but favored educated men while the Jacksonians gave little weight to education. The Whigs were the inheritors of Jeffersonian Democracy in terms of promoting schools and colleges.[1] Even before the Jacksonian era began, suffrage had been extended to (nearly) all white male adult citizens, a result the Jacksonians celebrated.
In contrast to the Jeffersonian era, Jacksonian democracy promoted the strength of the presidency and executive branch at the expense of Congress, while also seeking to broaden the public's participation in government. The Jacksonians demanded elected (not appointed) judges and rewrote many state constitutions to reflect the new values. In national terms they favored geographical expansion, justifying it in terms of Manifest Destiny. There was usually a consensus among both Jacksonians and Whigs that battles over slavery should be avoided.
Jackson's expansion of democracy was largely limited to Americans of European descent, and voting rights were extended to adult white males only. There was little or no progress for African-Americans and Native Americans (in some cases regress).[2]
Jackson's biographer Robert V. Remini argues that Jacksonian Democracy:
Jacksonian Democracy was built on the following general principles:[4]
An important movement in the period from 1800 to 1830—before the Jacksonians were organized—was the expansion of the right to vote to include all white men.[12] Older states with property restrictions all dropped them; no new states had them. The process was peaceful, and widely supported, except in the state of Rhode Island. In Rhode Island, the Dorr Rebellion of the 1840s demonstrated that the demand for equal suffrage was broad and strong. However, the fact that a man was now legally allowed to vote did not necessarily mean he routinely voted. He had to be pulled to the polls, which became the most important role of the local parties. They systematically sought out potential voters and brought them to the polls. Voter turnout soared during the Second Party System, reaching about 80% of the adult white men by 1840.[13]
The Anti-Masonic Party, an opponent of Jackson, introduced the national nominating conventions to select a party's presidential and vice presidential candidates, allowing more voter input.[14] In July 2015 commentator David Brooks said newly announced Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb is a Jacksonian: "He hearkens back to an ancient Jacksonian tradition in American politics. I just don’t think that’s where the life of the Democratic Party is now."[15]
The period 1824–32 was politically chaotic. The Federalist Party and the First Party System were dead, and with no effective opposition, the old Democratic-Republican Party withered away. Every state had numerous political factions, but they did not cross state lines. Political coalitions formed and dissolved, and politicians moved in and out of alliances.[16]
Most former Republicans supported Jackson; others, such as Henry Clay, opposed him. Most former Federalists, such as Daniel Webster, opposed Jackson, although some like James Buchanan supported him. In 1828, John Quincy Adams pulled together a network of factions called the National Republicans, but he was defeated by Jackson. By the late 1830s, the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs politically battled it out nationally and in every state.[17]
The spirit of Jacksonian Democracy animated the party from the early 1830s to the 1850s, shaping the Second Party System, with the Whig Party the main opposition. The new Democratic Party became a coalition of farmers, city-dwelling laborers, and Irish Catholics.[18]
The new party was pulled together by Martin Van Buren in 1828 as Andrew Jackson crusaded against the corruption of President John Quincy Adams. The new party (which did not get the name "Democrats" until 1834) swept to a landslide. As Norton et al. explain regarding 1828:
The platforms, speeches, and editorials were founded upon a broad consensus among Democrats. As Norton et al. explain:
Jackson vetoed more legislation than all previous presidents combined. The long-term effect was to create the modern strong presidency.[21] Jackson and his supporters also opposed reform as a movement. Reformers eager to turn their programs into legislation called for a more active government. But Democrats tended to oppose programs like educational reform and the establishment of a public education system. They believed, for instance, that public schools restricted individual liberty by interfering with parental responsibility and undermined freedom of religion by replacing church schools.
Jackson supported white supremacy, as did nearly every major politician of the day. He looked at the Indian question in terms of military and legal policy, not as a problem due to their race.[22] Indeed, in 1813 he adopted and treated as his own son a three-year-old Indian orphan—seeing in him a fellow orphan that was "so much like myself I feel an unusual sympathy for him."[23] In legal terms, when it became a matter of state sovereignty versus tribal sovereignty, he went with the states and moved the Indians to fresh lands with no white rivals in what became Oklahoma.[24]
Jackson fulfilled his promise of broadening the influence of the citizenry in government, although not without vehement controversy over his methods.[25]
Jacksonian policies included ending the bank of the United States, expanding westward, and removing American Indians from the Southeast. Jackson was denounced as a tyrant by opponents on both ends of the political spectrum such as Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. This led to the rise of the Whig Party.
Jackson created a spoils system to clear out elected officials in government of an opposing party and replace them with his supporters as a reward for their electioneering. With Congress controlled by his enemies, Jackson relied heavily on the power of the veto to block their moves.
One of the most important of these was the Maysville Road veto in 1830. A part of Clay's American System, the bill would have allowed for federal funding of a project to construct a road linking Lexington and the Ohio River, the entirety of which would be in the state of Kentucky. His primary objection was based on the local nature of the project. He argued it was not the Federal government's job to fund projects of such a local nature, and or those lacking a connection to the nation as a whole. The debates in Congress reflected two competing visions of federalism. The Jacksonians saw the union strictly as the cooperative aggregation of the individual states, while the Whigs saw the entire nation as a distinct entity.[26]
In addition to Jackson, his second vice president and one of the key organizational leaders of the Jacksonian Democratic Party, Martin Van Buren, served as president. Van Buren was defeated in the next election by William H. Harrison. Harrison died just 30 days into his term, and his vice president, John Tyler, quickly reached accommodation with the Jacksonians. Tyler was then succeeded by James Polk, a staunch supporter and protege of Jackson, and the last of the true Jacksonian presidents. James Buchanan served in Jackson's administration as Minister to Russia and as Polk's Secretary of State, but he did not pursue Jacksonian policies.
Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Texas, John Quincy Adams, President of the United States
Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Third Party System, Whig Party (United States), Political parties in the United States
Republican Party (United States), Horace Greeley, Infrastructure, President of the United States, John Tyler
Martin Van Buren, John Quincy Adams, South Carolina, War of 1812, James Monroe
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American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Abolitionism in the United States, Democratic Party (United States), Confederate States of America
Alexander Hamilton, American Civil War, Napoleon, War of 1812, Andrew Jackson
Politics, Ronald Reagan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey
War of 1812, Virginia, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Napoleonic Wars