Success of Presidency of Andrew Jackson in the United States

Running head: HISTORY
History
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HISTORY
This essay will look to discuss about the success of Presidency of Andrew Jackson in the
United States of America. He was succeeded in the Presidential chair by Martin Van Buren on
March 4 in 1829. He was also a soldier in his earlier years. He is regarded as one of the most
controversial presidents of United States. The key question for this essay is overall was the
presidency of Andrew Jackson successful or unsuccessful? He had adopted some very
controversial policies in his reign as the President of the country.1 Those policies and his
indelible mark in country’s history would be debated in this paper.
The first theme of discussion will be st forth on the background of financial policy fixed
by Andrew Jackson and his fight against the National Bank. This was one of the reforms that
took place during Jackson’s presidency between years of 1832 and 1836. This issue began when
a furious political struggle had set in regarding the chartering of National Bank once again. The
existence of National Bank was at stake. The final outcome of this furious struggle was the
extinction of the bank as other banks replaced it. Congress in the Senate wanted to reauthorize
this bank despite it was facing financial difficulties. Andrew Jackson applied his veto power and
stopped the action. According to Daniel Feller, this was one of the most destructive steps as this
made way the path for forming of National Whig and formation of Democratic parties. This step
of Jackson completely devastated the national banking system of USA. Hermitage has also
slammed Andrew Jackson over this issue and declared this was a complete misuse of Presidential
power by Jackson. It can be opined finally Andrew Jackson showed extreme ignorance while
applying his presidential power in this regard. Therefore, this decision of destroying banking
system of USA was a disastrous one.
1 Youtube.com. 2019. "Andrew Jackson Good Evil & The Presidency PBS Documentary 640X360 MP4". Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_0dY6ThjxE.

2HISTORY
In this section, the central theme of discussion is the Nullification Controversy. This was
mainly a sectional political crisis in United States that took place in 1832-33, some years after
Jackson became the president. A huge confrontation took place between Federal Government of
USA and province of South Carolina. South Carolina declared that Tariffs of 1828 and 1832
were completely against the constitution of the state and they nullified those tariffs within their
provincial boundaries.2 The existence of South Carolina was at stake since Federal Government
was given the authority to implement military forces against them in 1833 when Congress passed
the Force Bill in Senate. The Compromise Tariff was passed in 1833 as policies were much
satisfactory for South Carolina.3 Thus, Jackson handled this nullification crisis. Daniel Feller has
opined that the administrative factors were not been handled by Andrew Jackson in a good
manner since he behaved and approached his presidency in a controversial manner not having a
firm hold on his followers. Thus his opponents were able to form a Whig party in this manner.
Hermitage believed that this crisis was the opening phase of the civil war in United States.4
Finally, it can be said that harsh approach towards South Carolina and other southern states led
to a huge fury. This had resulted in civil war afterwards. Jackson could have dealt in softer ways
without applying military forces on South Carolina.
The next discussion theme is the implementation of Indian Removal Act in the year 1830
during the Presidential reign of Andrew Jackson. This act was a complete genocidal affair since
2 Americanyawp.com. 2019. "9. Democracy In America | THE AMERICAN YAWP". Americanyawp.Com.
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/09-democracy-in-america/.
3 Feller, Daniel. 2019. http://ap.gilderlehrman.org/essay/andrewjackson%27s-shifting-legacy.
4 Feller, Daniel. 2019. "Andrew Jackson: Impact And Legacy | Miller Center". Miller Center.
https://millercenter.org/president/jackson/impact-and-legacy.