Essay 8-B: Andrew Jackson and Universal Male Suffrage In The Early 1800s

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner

Reflecting on the 1829 inauguration of the first president to not come from either Virginia or Massachusetts, Washingtonian Margaret Bayard Smith observed, “It was the People’s day, the People’s President, and the People would rule.” Andrew Jackson, son of the Carolina frontier, shaped by his own brutal adolescent experiences during the American Revolution, would create the dynasty of the common man (and woman). Power would shift from the hands of the well-born (John and John Quincy Adams) and well-educated (Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) and find refuge in the rough hands of a ferocious warrior, a violent man overflowing with passion and a vision for an executive branch controlled by “the People,” spreading opportunity and wealth to previously excluded Americans.

Accompanying the new president, grieving for his beloved Rachel, to the nation’s capital steps in March 1829, were men and women who were not shaped by genealogy, education, or inherited wealth. As the sun peeked out that March day, it became apparent to the common men and women of America that it was a new age. Jackson, the Hero of New Orleans, a battle fought in 1815 after the Treaty of Ghent had formally ended the War of 1812, confirmed in his inaugural address that authority was now reallocated. A new dynasty of the common man and woman was unveiled that chilly March day. Its architect was a rough Carolinian, a hero who imprinted his name and style on an era. Government would now be controlled by people like Andrew Jackson.

Jackson, the creator of the new dynasty of the common man and woman, swept Indigenous People westward. Even when the Cherokee Indian Nation won a landmark United States Supreme Court case in 1830 (Worcester v. Georgia), the president accelerated the pace of Indian Removal. In his judgment, the First Americans were impediments to growth; a favorable Supreme Court decision for the Cherokee meant nothing to Jackson. Barriers, impediments, were to be removed in what historian Arthur Schlesinger called in his Pulitzer Prize-winning study “the Age of Jackson.”

Similarly, Jackson’s 1832 battle over the renewal of Nicholas Biddle’s Bank of the United States sharply proved to be a barrier to financial opportunities for the common men and women. The president called the bank an “octopus” and a “monster.” He vowed to slay the monster and did just that, replacing the power of the Bank of the United States with smaller financial institutions, “pet banks,” sprinkling opportunities among the people. Confirming the need to terminate the Bank of America was Biddle’s close alliance with our foe Great Britain. To Jackson, it must be the Bank of the United States.

The president, despite his southern heritage and Tennessee residence, endorsed a protective tariff that benefitted the industries of the North. Jobs and opportunities became the president’s mantra. Manufacturing opportunities would be created in places like New York and Massachusetts, despite criticism from the agricultural South, which was led by Vice President (later Senator) John C. Calhoun. Even when the South “nullified” the protective tariff, Jackson advocated a compromise that strengthened the industries of the North while not abandoning the cotton-producing states. To Jackson, the American economy was multi-faceted and balanced; it should not have only regional benefits. A strong industrial base was good for the country as a whole.

During the Age of Jackson, the winds of the Civil War were kept at bay. The pro-slavery adherents would not yet go to war with the abolitionists in the 1830s. Publications such as David Walker’s 1829 “The Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World” and William Lloyd Garrison’s 1832 “The Liberator” inflamed the public, but Jackson successfully navigated the churning seas between the pro- and anti-slavery adherents. Even the 1832 bloody slave insurrection led by Virginia’s Nat Turner would not ignite a race war. Because of his strength and judgment, there would be no Civil War during Jackson’s eight years in power.

The common men and women followed “the Hero of New Orleans” into a new political party: the Democrats. It drew vitality from Americans moving westward (despite the plight of the Indigenous People), a fairer banking system that coalesced after the death of the “octopus,” a truly national economy that developed the industrial North while not forsaking the agricultural South, and the potent leadership of Jackson himself. Unfortunately, this hero’s successors were uneven in their abilities to nurture the dynasty of the common man and woman and tumbled within a generation into a catastrophic conflict that cost 750,000 lives and created social, economic, and political upheaval that still manifests itself.

Dr. Edward Lee is a 41year veteran of the university classroom. He has won several awards for his exemplary teaching, including a Presidential Citation in 1996 for his pioneer work with distance education. He is the author or co-author of 22 books, including 4 about America and the conflict in Vietnam. His commentary has appeared on Fox News, CNN, NBC News, and National Public Radio. He is the past president of the South Carolina Historical Association. He served as an elected official in South Carolina for 22 years, and Governor Henry McMaster awarded Dr. Lee the Order of the Palmetto last year in recognition of his service to the people of South Carolina.

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