Thesis: Both Jacksonian economic policy and westward movement in America were indicative of the development of democracy between 1820 and 1840. It was in this antebellum era that the United States, with economic and sectional changes, made effects to comply democratic politics and make changes should the country’s founding philosophy be led astray. Nowhere was the democratic ideal depicted in the body of a man than in President Andrew Jackson.
Elected as one of the more popular presidents of the early nineteenth century, the people’s choice of Jackson as a man who appealed to the interests and experiences of a cast majority reflected the democratic process on an honest scale. While its beauty and pure form remained generally housed in elections of the time, the democracy employed by Jackson, particularly in his economic politics, should also be viewed as a contribution to its early development in America.The pinnacle of Jackson’s economic dilemma found spiteful ground on the question of what to do about the Bank of the United States. The national bank itself had been established by somewhat democratic in the battle between sound economic standing Hamiltonians and limited government advocating Jeffersonians of the early 1800’s. Jacksonianism, which could be best characterized as Jefferson’s Republicanism thirty years later also, sought to limit the power of the federal government in hopes to secure more involvement of the states, and this the people, in the political process.
Jackson held that the bank was not necessary, and that is was, moreover, not needed in a democratic America. Its operation often favored big business interest and stomped out farmers and westerner to who Jackson appealed. Though it may seem that his position against the bank was self-politically motivated, Jackson had democracy in truth close to his heart. By doing away with the national bank, which later caused the panic of 1837, the president hoped to eliminate unfair practices to the majority of people in the country.
Finally, the ensuing economic problems resulting from Jacksonian policy presented a test to the democracy one again. Alleviating the problems would be the challenge of a new administration. The advancement of democracy and the need for it when crisis occurs was also evident in the movement west several Americans made between 1820 and 1840. The romantic, yet tragic take of rugged individualism is perhaps the notion of rule for the people, by the people in unique form.Several Americans made the move west in hopes of establishing better lives, another American ideal comparable to the aims of a democratic society. Subsequent land legislation and the westerners own initiatives at establishing and implementing the practice of self government were example of democracy in action.
Local self-rule was particularly characteristics of this in that settlers often times took it upon themselves to set up democratic rules for living because there remote locations placed them at a disadvantage for receiving the federal end of democracy outright.Despite a prospering new region found and nourished by western settlement to further the development of democracy, a backward-step was taken on the notion that all people should have a voice in government. This pitfall is best exemplified in the punitive attitude the U. S. government retained toward the American Indians. Frontier disturbances and harsh government politics stripped the Indians of their land and culture and did little to further the idea of universal democracy.
If examining the development of said cause is the key, such mistakes served to provide lessons on the manner in which effective democracy should not behave. Both Jacksonian economic policy and the American westward migration hold positive and negative aspects of life in a democratic society. The successes demonstrate primarily the act of establishing one of the world’s most unique societies. Democracies failures, though tragic, were precedents set out as tools for furthering understanding on the philosophy that embraces the heart of America.
