Christian Luu

APUSH Gray

10/19/10

A1

In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States of America

over John Quincy Adams, winning 178 electoral votes as opposed to Adams' 83.

Jackson would be remembered as a President who took the power of the executive

branch to new extremes, but some of those extremes would leave his memory as a man

of questionable morals. Although Andrew Jackson worked hard to maintain the unity of

the United States, his actions regarding the Trail of Tears and the Bank War tainted his

legacy.

During his presidency, Andrew Jackson used his power to enable expansion of

the United States further into the Louisiana Territory, at the plight of the Native

American nations that had lived there since before British settlement, some of who had

even made the effort to assimilate into American culture. The "Five Civilized Tribes" that

had been moved were the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek and Seminole tribes,

all of which were relocated into "Indian Nation," which would eventually become known

as Oklahoma and Kansas. The Cherokees had taken their appeals to Supreme Court,

which upheld the Indian rights on three separate occasions. Despite having the support

of Supreme Court Justice, John Marshall, Jackson disregarded the rulings, berating,

"John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it." asserting the power of

the Executive branch. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which allowed

the government to forcibly move 100,000 Native Americans that had then lived East of

the Mississippi River to the recently-established Indian Territory.

Just before the election of 1832, Nicholad Biddle and Henry Clay attempted to
renew the charter of the Bank of the United States, four years earlier than necessary, in

order to place a political hurdle in Andrew Jackson's way to getting re-elected. Jackson

had made it clear that he did not support the Bank of the United States, because he felt

it created a monopoly and had an unconstitutional amount of power. He also favored

the use of gold and silver, rather than paper money. The bank also foreclosed on many

western farms in an effort to turn a profit, rather than to serve the public. Clay wanted to

send the bill to Jackson and thought that whether or not he would sign it, he would lose

supporters. If Jackson were to veto the bill, he would lose the vote of the more wealthy

citizens in the East, and if he were to pass it, he would alienate his numerous

supporters in the West. However, even though Jackson vetoed the bill, he lost a

minimal amount of followers. Jackson then proceeded to remove federal deposits from

the bank in 1833, in order to destroy the bank for good, and placed the deposits in

several "pet banks," which were privately-owned. In doing so, Jackson had created a

problem for the American Economy: the "pet banks" and the even smaller "wilcat banks"

printed a surplus of their own paper money, creating the Panic of 1837.

Andrew Jackson's good intentions ultimately were twisted by the events of the

Trail of Tears and the Bank War. These two events would add to his legacy as a

powerful President, and an imperfect man.