How Democratic Was Andrew Jackson Dbq

Jillian Vo
Period 5
How Democratic Was Andrew Jackson?
Andrew Jackson was a much known president, to the point people still wanted him to be president even after he had passed. Although people might think he was a democratic, he wasn’t. Jackson had a brutal childhood, his father died around the time he was born and he wanted to go into the war. After the many battles he has fought in it changed the way he thought. When he returned his mother had died and he was on his own once again. He proceeded with his life when he studied law at 17 years old and after that turned into a lawyer at 21 years old. At the age of 29, he worked for the U.S Senate and the U.S House, but when he got elected president he had the idea to make the real democracy come
He was also rich which meant he owned many slaves and he was the biggest slave owner at the time. Jackson thought democracy was having all the parts of the government listen to what the people have to say, but he completely ignored all of the Native Americans. Document H shows the hate he had against the Native Americans. In his message to the congress it said, “This emigration should be voluntary… if they remain within the limits of the states they must be subject to their laws”. What this means for the Natives is that if they go back to the states they would get in trouble with the law. He forces them to move farther west and basically just kicks them out of their original territory. In Document K it states, “The country west of the Arkansas territory is unknown to us.” Jackson made it a law for having the Native Americans never return to the states even though he wants to treat everyone equal. He’s moving these people into a place their not familiar with and they don’t know where resources are and don’t know who’s out there to communicate
He didn’t follow his own rule of listening to the people when he ignored the comments of the Native Americans, his own Secretary of State, and the government's ideas. Although he did adopt a Native kid named Lyncoya to show his love for the Natives. He only showed love for that one Native, but the other thousands were trapped in an unknown area where they knew nothing to do about and survive. The significance of presidents and democracy is relevant today because presidents now have to follow the same role as presidents in the past. If a president today disrespects the term of democracy, they will be accused and since democracy is what makes the United States so special today, disrespecting democracy is exactly like disrespecting the country today. Also all presidents that do disrespect will go through the same criticisms as