Thomas Jefferson
American History
10/24/12
Between Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson I would say that Andrew Jackson was a better president to the people. Jackson was a president that was for the people and tried to do everything he could to help them. He also wanted to give the people more power and more of a voice in Washington. One way he tried to do that was by replacing the old officeholders (most were families that had been in place for generations) with new ones. The new officeholders weren’t just your typical wealthy men, in fact, they were the complete opposite. Jackson chose people who weren’t esteemed business men but rather ordinary Americans. Jackson also helped to change the way our presidential candidates from each party are chosen. He felt that before the change, when they were picked by congressional caucus, it showed favoritism toward the wealthy male because that was the stereotypical image of power back then. In order to make it more fair for the people, Jackson came up with the idea of having political conventions for each party, which is the system that is still in place today. Jackson felt that by doing it this way and holding a convention for the people that the “power would arise directly from the people, not from the aristocratic political institutions such as the caucus.” By using the Spoils System and coming up with holding political conventions it did just as Jackson had hoped and it “did serve to limit the power of the two entrenched elites-permanent officeholders and the exclusive party caucus.” These are just two of the things Jackson did to help the people. Overall, I feel that Jackson was a better president to the people because his policies seemed to help them out more and he not only wanted, but he also tried to give them more of a
10/24/12
Between Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson I would say that Andrew Jackson was a better president to the people. Jackson was a president that was for the people and tried to do everything he could to help them. He also wanted to give the people more power and more of a voice in Washington. One way he tried to do that was by replacing the old officeholders (most were families that had been in place for generations) with new ones. The new officeholders weren’t just your typical wealthy men, in fact, they were the complete opposite. Jackson chose people who weren’t esteemed business men but rather ordinary Americans. Jackson also helped to change the way our presidential candidates from each party are chosen. He felt that before the change, when they were picked by congressional caucus, it showed favoritism toward the wealthy male because that was the stereotypical image of power back then. In order to make it more fair for the people, Jackson came up with the idea of having political conventions for each party, which is the system that is still in place today. Jackson felt that by doing it this way and holding a convention for the people that the “power would arise directly from the people, not from the aristocratic political institutions such as the caucus.” By using the Spoils System and coming up with holding political conventions it did just as Jackson had hoped and it “did serve to limit the power of the two entrenched elites-permanent officeholders and the exclusive party caucus.” These are just two of the things Jackson did to help the people. Overall, I feel that Jackson was a better president to the people because his policies seemed to help them out more and he not only wanted, but he also tried to give them more of a