Age Of Jackson Dbq Analysis

The Age of Jackson, from the 1820's to the 1830's, was a period of American history full of contradictions, especially in regard to democracy. The period saw an increase in voter participation, nominating committees replaced caucuses, and electors began to be popularly elected. Yet, all of these voting changes affected only a minority of the American people; White, Anglo-Saxon males. So, though one can easily tell that these males were gaining true liberty and equality, the millions of women, blacks, Native Americans, immigrants, and other minorities in America continued to languish in a society that limited their rights. During the Age of Jackson, a southern plantation owner himself, enslavement of Blacks was at a new high in America. At the
What's more is that Jackson was not even completely true to his ideals. Jackson defied his democratic ideals so much that he gained the nickname King Andrew I from his political opponents. They called him hypocritical, and for good reason. In Daniel Webster's answer to Jackson's bank veto message (Doc. C), Webster claims that the message "raises a cry that liberty is in danger, at the very moment when it puts forth claims to powers heretofore unknown and unheard of.” However, it is very true that Jackson expanded his power radically while supposedly protecting democracy and equality. Jackson instated the spoils system to get his supporters into as many governmental positions as possible. He consistently used his unauthorized "Kitchen Cabinet" for advice instead of his real
The plight of free Blacks and immigrants during the Age of Jackson is demonstrated by their tendency to riot. Commenting on the constant riots in the cities caused by prejudice and jealousy, Philip Hone wrote in his diary (Doc. E) that "dreadful riots between the Irish and the Americans have again disturbed the public peace." Some time later, in 1834, he wrote "The spirit of riot and insubordination... has made its appearance in... Philadelphia, and appears to have been produced by causes equally insignificant—hostility to the blacks and an indiscriminate persecution of all whose skins were darker than those of their enlightened fellow citizens." This document clearly points out the obvious lack of equality, liberty and democracy in Jacksonian America. Yet it doesn't even mention slavery. Jackson, a slaveholder himself, was no abolitionist. Jackson even supported the 1836 "Gag Rule" which automatically tabled abolitionist petitions to Congress. . In 1831, Nat Turner's famous Rebellion, one of many slave rebellions of the period, struck