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President Andrew Jackson Born: March 15, 1767 Died: June 8, 1845 Democrat (1828-1836) The John C. Calhoun –First Term Martin Van Buren – Second Term __Thesis__ I believe that Andrew Jackson deserves an A for his term as president. He deserves this grade because of the way that he dealt with the Nullification Crisis and the way he dealt with the Bank of the United States. However, he got a lower grade because of the Trail of Tears. __Goal__ President Jackson had many goals. One of these goals was to keep the Union together. When this Union was threatened in 1832 by South Carolina, he was very upset. This was called the Nullification Crisis. This was caused when the tariff of 1832 was passed and the South Carolinians thought that it was too high. They then decided to defy the government and declare the tariff not valid in South Carolina. Jackson was very angry and crushed this idea by sending a show of military force down to South Carolina. Jackson also sent out a Presidential proclamation against the rebellious state. This goal was carried out well because he laid the tension to rest without many complications. Another goal that Jackson had was to get rid of the Bank of the United States. He had a burning desire to get rid of the Bank because he felt that it was lucratively helping only a few of the Nation’s citizens. The Bank tried to get a recharter passed several years before its charter would actually run out. Unfortunately for the Bank, Congress refused to pass the recharter, and when the actual charter expired, the Bank expired too. Jackson wanted to speed along the process and make sure that the Bank would be broken beyond repair. To do so, Jackson decided to divide up the gold among several smaller pet banks. Several of these banks overran their capital and unfortunately went bankrupt. Jackson also decided to withdraw large sums of money for “Presidential expenses.” This goal was achieved well by Jackson, but maybe not in the best way for the Country. As stated, when the pet banks went bankrupt, many of the Country’s hard-earned dollars were lost. __Relationship with Congress__ Andrew Jackson didn’t have a great relationship with most of his regular cabinet. To remedy this, Andrew Jackson decided to create a board of advisors on the side. This board of advisors was referred to as Jackson’s “kitchen cabinet.” Also, Jackson was a big believer in the “spoils system.” Over his two terms, Jackson replaced a total of about 15 percent of the Federal work force. During Jackson’s two terms, the Democrats were the majority party in both the Senate and the House. One notable legislation passed during Jackson’s presidency, was the tariff that caused the Nullification Crisis(less extreme than the Tariff of Abomination).Another major legislation passed was the Indian Policy that made the Cherokees move west over the Trail of Tears. To some, Jackson was known as the King of Vetoes. Over his two terms as president, he vetoed a dozen pieces of legislation; including the Recharter of the Bank of the United States. Jackson was also the first president to use the Pocket Veto. The twelve vetoes that Jackson used, were more than all of the previous presidents combined! __Most Positive and Negative Decisions__ The most positive action made by Jackson’s administration was probably the way it handled the Nullification Crisis. This was important because the “Nullies” were threatening the Union. If they were left unchecked, or the issue was handled incorrectly, the Nation could have been looking at a Civil War 30 years earlier! It was admirable how quickly and efficiently Jackson and his administration handled the rebellious act. The action with the most negative outcome was when Jackson was trying to move the Cherokees out of Georgia. He had to move these Indians to make room for the settlers who wanted to expand and settle the land. Jackson didn’t want any fights between the settlers and the Indians over the land, and didn’t want anyone to be killed, so he decided to “protect” the Indians by moving them to a patch of land further west. When several of the Indians refused, Jackson sent a military force down to help move along the process. They force-marched the Indians across many miles to the land that they would now have to call their home. Along the way, a quarter of the Indians died. This was a horrible and bloody part in old Hickory’s administration. __Most Influential Decision__ The most influential decision made by Jackson’s administration was to dispel the Bank of the United States. This made it so that more than one bank controlled the majority of peoples’ money. If the Bank hadn’t gone out of business, it probably would almost be like another branch of the government. This is because, even back in the 1800’s, the Bank was gaining power so rapidly, that that was an issue. Everyone uses banks, in the current United States, the average person has many banks to chose from to invest their money in. If the Bank of the United States were still around, this would not be the case. It would make it so that all competition would whither because people would only trust in the stableness of a bank that had been around for so long. That being the case, the Bank could raise its interest rates to an unreasonable amount, and gain complete control of a substantial amount of U.S. citizens. __Conclusion__ President Jackson was one of the best presidents in United States history. Jackson led the nation successfully through a possible separation (Nullification Crisis), and eliminated the bank of the United States.Also, he inspired the Jacksonian Era. Many presidents following Jackson were compared to him and his level of greatness; not many matched up very well. So, even with the Tail of Tears blight on his record, Jackson deserves an A for his wonderful achievements and betterment of the United States of America.

__Bibliography__ DeGregorio, William. __The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents__. Fort Lee: Barricade. 2005 “Andrew Jackson”. eNCyclopedia.7/21/09. http://statelibrary.ncdr.gov/nc/bio/public/jackson.htm