Andrew Jackson Dbq Essay

Cordaveous brown
Dr. Dallin
American civilization 150
4/7/15
Andrew Jacksons print on America

President Andrew Jackson, considered by some to be the greatest American President during his American presidency term, but some of his actions sparked a lot of controversial thoughts. President Jackson accomplished much for America, most of President Jackson’s accomplishments where positive but along the way president Jacksons committed a great deal of wrong that lead to president Jackson negative view of himself. Among President Jackson’s disputed decisions was the handling of the nullification crisis, President Jackson veto of the bank recharter bill, and the Indian removal policy. Andrew Jackson is one of the greatest United States presidents
Nullification is the state’s right to nullify within its borders a law passed by Congress or a proclamation of the President. The Nullification Crisis was a fierce political battle between Jackson and Calhoun. John C. Calhoun, a War Hawk, spearheaded the wave of nullification, beginning in South Carolina. Calhoun believed in stronger state governments, whereas Jackson argued that nullification was treason and its supporters were traitors1. South Carolina started to question Congress after a law was passed that limited US imports, an action thought to have ruined much of the foreign market. This led Calhoun to the belief of nullification, since the government consisted of a creation of the states, then the states themselves should have the right to declare a federal law null and void within that particular state.2 To fight for the cause, Calhoun resigned as Jackson’s vice president. Calhoun, together with the people of South Carolina, further pursued the theory of nullification and pushed for its acceptance. South Carolina finally began to threaten to secede from the Union, as Andrew Jackson had been declaring nullification an act of treason and petitioning Congress to use military force to suppress this uprising. As the final straw, Jackson introduced his nullification proclamation, which came from President Jackson’s
According to Sean Wilentz, the Indian Removal “has, in recent historical writing, become the great moral stain on the Jacksonian legacy, much as it was to Christian humanitarian reformers in 1829 and 1830 a policy, supposedly, that aimed at the ‘infantilization’ and ‘genocide’ of the Indians.”6 Many Americans were against this legislation because they believed that Americans were taking the rights of Indians and treating them as slaves. The removal came from the threat Native Americans gave. They wanted to be able to have their own constitution, separating them from the US. One of Jackson’s biggest fears was that “sovereign Indian nations would prove easy prey for manipulation by hostile foreign powers.”7 To Jackson, all Indians were inferiors to whites, and the Indian removal Act was an act that would give land to white settlers. He argued that the legislation would provide land for white citizens, improve security against foreign invaders and encourage the civilization of the Native Americans. Andrew Jackson even argued in one speech, this "will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the government and through the influences of good