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Andrew Jackson: The Jacksonian Democracy

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The rise of jacksonian democracy, impact on american society, controversies and criticisms.

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The jacksonians, the major parties, minor parties.

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Jacksonian democracy

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Nevertheless, American politics became increasingly democratic during the 1820s and ’30s. Local and state offices that had earlier been appointive became elective. Suffrage was expanded as property and other restrictions on voting were reduced or abandoned in most states. The freehold requirement that had denied voting to all but holders of real estate was almost everywhere discarded before 1820, while the taxpaying qualification was also removed, if more slowly and gradually. In many states a printed ballot replaced the earlier system of voice voting, while the secret ballot also grew in favour. Whereas in 1800 only two states provided for the popular choice of presidential electors, by 1832 only South Carolina still left the decision to the legislature . Conventions of elected delegates increasingly replaced legislative or congressional caucuses as the agencies for making party nominations. By the latter change, a system for nominating candidates by self-appointed cliques meeting in secret was replaced by a system of open selection of candidates by democratically elected bodies.

These democratic changes were not engineered by Andrew Jackson and his followers, as was once believed. Most of them antedated the emergence of Jackson’s Democratic Party , and in New York , Mississippi , and other states some of the reforms were accomplished over the objections of the Jacksonians. There were men in all sections who feared the spread of political democracy , but by the 1830s few were willing to voice such misgivings publicly. Jacksonians effectively sought to fix the impression that they alone were champions of democracy, engaged in mortal struggle against aristocratic opponents. The accuracy of such propaganda varied according to local circumstances. The great political reforms of the early 19th century in actuality were conceived by no one faction or party. The real question about these reforms concerns the extent to which they truly represented the victory of democracy in the United States.

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Small cliques or entrenched “machines” dominated democratically elected nominating conventions as earlier they had controlled caucuses. While by the 1830s the common man—of European descent—had come into possession of the vote in most states, the nomination process continued to be outside his control. More important, the policies adopted by competing factions and parties in the states owed little to ordinary voters. The legislative programs of the “regencies” and juntos that effectively ran state politics were designed primarily to reward the party faithful and to keep them in power. State parties extolled the common people in grandiloquent terms but characteristically focused on prosaic legislation that awarded bank charters or monopoly rights to construct transportation projects to favoured insiders. That American parties would be pragmatic vote-getting coalitions, rather than organizations devoted to high political principles, was due largely to another series of reforms enacted during the era. Electoral changes that rewarded winners or plurality gatherers in small districts, in contrast to a previous system that divided a state’s offices among the several leading vote getters, worked against the chances of “single issue” or “ideological” parties while strengthening parties that tried to be many things to many people.

To his army of followers, Jackson was the embodiment of popular democracy. A truly self-made man of strong will and courage, he personified for many citizens the vast power of nature and Providence , on the one hand, and the majesty of the people, on the other. His very weaknesses, such as a nearly uncontrollable temper, were political strengths. Opponents who branded him an enemy of property and order only gave credence to the claim of Jackson’s supporters that he stood for the poor against the rich, the plain people against the interests.

Jackson, like most of his leading antagonists , was in fact a wealthy man of conservative social beliefs. In his many volumes of correspondence he rarely referred to labour. As a lawyer and man of affairs in Tennessee prior to his accession to the presidency, he aligned himself not with have-nots but with the influential, not with the debtor but with the creditor. His reputation was created largely by astute men who propagated the belief that his party was the people’s party and that the policies of his administrations were in the popular interest. Savage attacks on those policies by some wealthy critics only fortified the belief that the Jacksonian movement was radical as well as democratic.

At its birth in the mid-1820s, the Jacksonian, or Democratic , Party was a loose coalition of diverse men and interests united primarily by a practical vision. They held to the twin beliefs that Old Hickory, as Jackson was known, was a magnificent candidate and that his election to the presidency would benefit those who helped bring it about. His excellence as candidate derived in part from the fact that he appeared to have no known political principles of any sort. In this period there were no distinct parties on the national level. Jackson, Clay, John C. Calhoun , John Quincy Adams , and William H. Crawford —the leading presidential aspirants—all portrayed themselves as “Republicans,” followers of the party of the revered Jefferson . The National Republicans were the followers of Adams and Clay; the Whigs , who emerged in 1834, were, above all else, the party dedicated to the defeat of Jackson.

The great parties of the era were thus created to attain victory for men rather than measures. Once the parties were in being, their leaders understandably sought to convince the electorate of the primacy of principles. It is noteworthy, however, that former Federalists at first flocked to the new parties in largely equal numbers and that men on opposite sides of such issues as internal improvements or a national bank could unite behind Jackson. With the passage of time, the parties did come increasingly to be identified with distinctive, and opposing, political policies.

By the 1840s, Whig and Democratic congressmen voted as rival blocs. Whigs supported and Democrats opposed a weak executive , a new Bank of the United States, a high tariff, distribution of land revenues to the states, relief legislation to mitigate the effects of the depression, and federal reapportionment of House seats. Whigs voted against and Democrats approved an independent treasury, an aggressive foreign policy , and expansionism. These were important issues, capable of dividing the electorate just as they divided the major parties in Congress. Certainly it was significant that Jacksonians were more ready than their opponents to take punitive measures against African Americans or abolitionists or to banish and use other forceful measures against the southern Indian tribes, brushing aside treaties protecting Native American rights. But these differences do not substantiate the belief that the Democrats and Whigs were divided ideologically, with only the former somehow representing the interests of the propertyless.

Party lines earlier had been more easily broken, as during the crisis that erupted over South Carolina’s bitter objections to the high Tariff of 1828 . Jackson’s firm opposition to Calhoun’s policy of nullification (i.e., the right of a state to nullify a federal law, in this case the tariff) had commanded wide support within and outside the Democratic Party. Clay’s solution to the crisis, a compromise tariff, represented not an ideological split with Jackson but Clay’s ability to conciliate and to draw political advantage from astute tactical maneuvering.

The Jacksonians depicted their war on the second Bank of the United States as a struggle against an alleged aristocratic monster that oppressed the West, debtor farmers, and poor people generally. Jackson’s decisive reelection in 1832 was once interpreted as a sign of popular agreement with the Democratic interpretation of the Bank War , but more recent evidence discloses that Jackson’s margin was hardly unprecedented and that Democratic success may have been due to other considerations. The second Bank was evidently well thought of by many Westerners, many farmers, and even Democratic politicians who admitted to opposing it primarily not to incur the wrath of Jackson.

Jackson’s reasons for detesting the second Bank and its president ( Biddle ) were complex. Anticapitalist ideology would not explain a Jacksonian policy that replaced a quasi-national bank as repository of government funds with dozens of state and private banks, equally controlled by capitalists and even more dedicated than was Biddle to profit making. The saving virtue of these “pet banks” appeared to be the Democratic political affiliations of their directors. Perhaps the pragmatism as well as the large degree of similarity between the Democrats and Whigs is best indicated by their frank adoption of the “ spoils system .” The Whigs, while out of office, denounced the vile Democratic policy for turning lucrative customhouse and other posts over to supporters, but once in office they resorted to similar practices. It is of interest that the Jacksonian appointees were hardly more plebeian than were their so-called aristocratic predecessors.

The politics of principle was represented during the era not by the major parties but by the minor ones. The Anti-Masons aimed to stamp out an alleged aristocratic conspiracy . The Workingmen’s Party called for “social justice.” The Locofocos (so named after the matches they used to light up their first meeting in a hall darkened by their opponents) denounced monopolists in the Democratic Party and out. The variously named nativist parties accused the Roman Catholic Church of all manner of evil. The Liberty Party opposed the spread of slavery. All these parties were ephemeral because they proved incapable of mounting a broad appeal that attracted masses of voters in addition to their original constituencies . The Democratic and Whig parties thrived not in spite of their opportunism but because of it, reflecting well the practical spirit that animated most American voters.

Jacksonian Era in the History of US Essay

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The figure of Andrew Jackson in the history of the USA is closely connected with the notion of ‘Jacksonian democracy’ which is based on the principles of the equality in policy.

Nevertheless, today historians argue the most controversial aspects of Jackson’s political activity with paying much attention to the inequality of his actions’ effects for different classes of the American society of the 1830-1840s. To understand the nature of the debates, it is necessary to analyze the most significant political controversies of the period which help to reveal the key divisions among the Americans regarding the development of the nation.

The period of ‘Jacksonian democracy’ is characterized by the formation of the new Democratic Party and by the development of the opposition to it in the form of the Whigs.

There are two contrary visions of the peculiarities of the period which, one the one hand, depend on the opinion that Jackson was inclined to abuse the Executive power and, on the other hand, on the image of Jackson as the protector of the public’s rights, freedoms, and interests against the monopoly of the powerful aristocracy (Ogg, 90-91). Thus, Jackson accentuated the limitation of the federal governmental rights and the opposition to corrupting alliances between the government and business (Meacham).

That is why the central conflicts in the political life of the USA in the 1830s were the problem of protective tariffs and the issue of the National Bank of the United States. The growing dissatisfaction with the protectionist’s system and with the ‘tariffs of abominations’ resulted in the open confrontation of South Carolina to the federal government. Thus, South Carolina passed the nullification ordinance in 1832 (Meacham).

This political conflict between the North and the South in America was a serious challenge for the President. However, Jackson showed his firmness and inflexibility while solving the crisis and accentuated the unconstitutional character of the state’s actions because there was a real threat to the state’s integrity (Ogg).

The most acute, but also successful was Jackson’s struggle on the issue of the extension of the National Bank’s activities. The idea of the extension was developed by the opposite Whigs. Nevertheless, concentrating on the dissatisfaction and disappointment of the ordinary investors, farmers, and workers, Jackson transferred the governmental deposits to the local banks, and in 1836 the Second Bank of the United States was closed.

However, the negative effect was that the states’ banks became actively involved in the speculative activities without the control from the centre. The situation in the country became particularly tensed when the economic crisis began in the United States in 1837 (Meacham).

The next controversial aspect of Jackson’s political activity was connected with the issue of the expansion of the state’s territories to the Western coasts and the governmental policy in relation to the Indians. Moreover, this problem was closely associated with the question of slavery and its possible limitations at these new territories. These questions were considered as contrary to the traditional principles of the democracy that is why the Whigs opposed Jackson’s manifests and the idea of such expansion (Satz, 78-79).

There is no single opinion on the question of successes and failures of ‘Jacksonian democracy’. It is possible to state that many of Andrew Jackson’s decisions did not depend on the traditional democratic principles and involved controversial social and political issues as the problem of the Indians. Nevertheless, those Jackson’s actions opposed by the Whigs were actively supported by the public and influenced the further development of the nation.

Works Cited

Meacham, Jon. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White Hous e. USA: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003. Print.

Ogg, Frederic A. The Reign of Andrew Jackson . USA: Qontro Classic Books, 2010. Print.

Satz, Ronald N. American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era . USA: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Print.

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The Expansion of Democracy during the Jacksonian Era

Advisor: Reeve Huston , Associate Professor of History, Duke University ©2011 National Humanities Center

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How did the character of American politics change between the 1820s and the 1850s as a result of growing popular participation?

Understanding.

Between the 1820s and 1850, as more white males won the right to vote and political parties became more organized, the character of American democracy changed. It became more partisan and more raucous, a turn that bred ambivalence and even discontent with politics and the dominant parties.

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• Richard Caton Woodville, Politics in an Oyster House , painting, 1848 (Walters Art Museum)
• Agrarian Workingmen’s Party, New York City, political cartoon , ca. 1830 (Columbia University Libraries)

Find more primary resources on popular democracy between the 1820s and 1850s in The Triumph of Nationalism/The House Dividing .

Click here for standards and skills for this lesson.

Common Core State Standards

• ELA-LITERACY RH.11-12.2 (Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source…)

Advanced Placement US History

• Key Concept 4.1 (IC) (…new political parties arose…)

Advanced Placement Language and Composition

• Analyze graphics and visual images… as alternative forms of text.

The richest document of the three, The County Election is a reasonably reliable depiction of elections of this period. It tells us who participated and who was excluded from election rituals. It illustrates how the parties induced voters to come to the polls and vote for their candidates. They supplied alcohol: note the three stages of inebriation — still conscious in the left corner, about to pass out in the right, and long gone in the center. They engaged in polite persuasion: note the party activist on the stairs tipping his top hat and offering what is probably a pre-printed party ballot to the rural gentleman. But there was also voter-to-voter case-making, unsponsored by the parties but deeply serious nonetheless: note the resolute look and finger-to-the-palm intensity of the solid citizen in the right center. Despite its civic importance and the touch of solemnity imparted by the oath-taking man at the top of the stairs, there is about the whole scene the air of a convivial community gathering, suitable for children and tolerant of stray dogs.

While Bingham’s The County Election offers broad commentary on popular elections, Woodville’s Politics in an Oyster House makes a more concentrated point. It depicts the passionate commitments that party politics stirred up, as exemplified by the figure on the right, but also suggests that not everyone shared those passions. It is worth discussing what the attitude of the figure on the left is toward his companion’s political harangue. The older gentleman stares almost directly at us, seeming to implore us to rescue him from his tedious companion. Here, as in The County Election , a newspaper fuels opinions and stirs emotion.

The Agrarian Workingmen’s Party cartoon was likely published during the 1830 political campaign in New York (the men listed on the flag ran for office that year as candidates for the Agrarian Party, a splinter group of the city Workingmen’s Party). The cartoon depicts two kinds of politics: one the corruption of republican virtue, the other a restoration of it. On the left, a party politician dressed as a wealthy man — note the top hat again — and carrying a bag of money makes a deal with Satan. He asks Satan to “give me one of your favorites — TAMMANY , SENTINEL , or JOURNAL — or the POOR will get their rights. I’ll pay all.” Tammany was the Tammany Society, one of the most powerful Democratic clubs in New York. The Sentinel and the Journal were the newspapers of rival workingmen’s factions that pummelled the Agrarian Party’s political stands. In other words, the devil controls all the opposing parties; they are all his favorites. By turning one — any one — over to the hack, he will insure that the poor will be oppressed. In contrast, on the right, a workingman, raising a ballot, approaches a box carried by Lady Liberty, who holds a pole adorned with a liberty cap, a symbol of revolution and equality.

This lesson is divided into two parts, both accessible below. Three images with accompanying close reading questions provide analytical study. An optional follow-up assignment enhances the lesson. The teacher’s guide includes a background note, the image analysis  with responses to the close reading questions, and an optional follow-up assignment. The student’s version, an interactive PDF, contains all of the above  except the responses to the close reading questions and the follow-up assignment.

Teacher’s Guide

From the 1820s through the 1850s American politics became in one sense more democratic, in another more restrictive, and, in general, more partisan and more effectively controlled by national parties. Since the 1790s, politics became more democratic as one state after another ended property qualifications for voting. Politics became more restrictive as one state after another formally excluded African Americans from the suffrage. By 1840, almost all white men could vote in all but three states (Rhode Island, Virginia, and Louisiana), while African Americans were excluded from voting in all but five states and women were disfranchised everywhere. At the same time, political leaders in several states began to revive the two-party conflict that had been the norm during the political struggles between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans (1793–1815). Parties and party conflict became national with Andrew Jackson’s campaign for the presidency in 1828 and have remained so ever since. Parties nominated candidates for every elective post from fence viewer to president and fought valiantly to get them elected.

The number of newspapers exploded; the vast majority of them were mouthpieces for the Democratic Party or the Whig Party (the National Republican Party before 1834). Accompanying the newspapers was a flood of pamphlets, broadsides, and songs aimed at winning the support of ordinary voters and teaching them to think as a Democrat or a Whig. Parties also created gigantic and incredibly effective grass-roots organizations. Each party in almost every school district and urban ward in the country formed an electoral committee, which organized partisan parades, dinners, and picnics; distributed partisan newspapers and pamphlets, and canvassed door-to-door. In this way the parties got ordinary voters involved in politics, resulting in extremely high voter participation rates (80–90%). Even more than in the earlier period, parties were centrally coordinated and controlled. They expected their leaders, their newspapers, and their voters to toe the party line. Once the party caucus or convention had decided on a policy or a candidate, everyone was expected to support that decision.

The Democrats, National Republicans, and Whigs were not the only people creating a new kind of democracy, however. Several small, sectional parties promoted a way of conducting politics that was quite different from the practices of the major parties. The Workingmen’s Party, for example, organized in the major northeastern cities and in dozens of small, industrial towns in New England. Workingmen’s parties were part of the emerging labor movement and were made up primarily of skilled craftsmen whose trades were being industrialized. In addition, a growing movement of evangelical Christians sought to reform society by advocating temperance, an end to prostitution, the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, and more.

The two paintings and the cartoon offered here capture the passion, tumult, and divisions that came to characterize American democracy at this time.

George Caleb Bingham (1811–79) was one of the most successful and important American artists of the early nineteenth century. Born in 1811 to a prosperous farmer, miller, and slaveowner in western Virginia, Bingham knew prosperity but also experienced economic hardship when his father lost his property in 1818 and again when his father died in 1823. While he was a cabinet-maker’s apprentice, Bingham began painting portraits for $20 apiece and, by 1838, was beginning to acquire a reputation as an artist. During the 1840s he moved to St. Louis, the largest city in the West, where he pursued a successful career as a portrait artist. In 1848 he was elected to the Missouri General Assembly and later held several appointive posts. With gentle humor The County Election captures the arguing, the campaigning, and the drinking that accompanied the masculine ritual of voting in mid-nineteenth century rural America.

Richard Caton Woodville (1825–55) was born in Baltimore. His family hoped he would become a physician, and he did undertake medical studies in 1842. However, by 1845, when he traveled to Germany to train at the Dusseldorf Academy, he had abandoned medicine to pursue a career as an artist. Although he spent the rest of his life in Germany, France, and England, he devoted himself to re-creating his native Baltimore on canvas. With humor akin to that of Bingham, Politics in an Oyster House depicts a “conversation” between a young political enthusiast and a skeptical old-timer. As in The County Election , the political realm is exclusively masculine, for the oyster house is a male-only pub.

The Workingmen’s Party cartoon illustrates disillusionment with and dissent from the sharply divisive politics of the age. It suggests that the corruption of both the Whigs and the Democrats will lead to the oppression of the poor.

For each image, before posing the content-specific questions listed below, we recommend that you have students conduct a general analysis using the following four-step procedure.

• Visual Inventory: Describe the image, beginning with the largest, most obvious features and proceed toward more particular details. Describe fully, without making evaluations. What do you see? What is the setting? What is the time of day, the season of the year, the region of the country?
• Documentation: Note what you know about the work. Who made it? When? Where? What is its title? How was it made? What were the circumstances of its creation? How was it received? (With this step you may have to help students. Refer to the lesson’s background note for information.)
• Associations: Begin to make evaluations and draw conclusions using observations and prior knowledge. How does this image relate to its historical and cultural framework? Does it invite comparison or correlation with historical or literary texts? Do you detect a point of view or a mood conveyed by the image? Does it present any unexplained or difficult aspects? Does it trigger an emotional response in you as a viewer? What associations (historical, literary, cultural, artistic) enrich your viewing of this image?
• Interpretation: Develop an interpretation of the work which both recognizes its specific features and also places it in a larger historical or thematic context.

George Caleb Bingham, The County Election , oil on canvas, 1851–1852 (St. Louis Art Museum)

2. How did Bingham explain the enormous popular participation in politics? What drew so many people into politics? The political parties offered drink, food, fellowship, and the opportunity to discuss issues of the day. They distributed pamphlets and broadsides.

3. Why might elections in rural areas have become important social gatherings? They would be a reason for those in rural areas to gather. General farm work took up much of the time, and an election was a reason to take a break from farm work and catch up with the community. The fact that elections occurred on a regular schedule for the most part helped as well.

4. How important were political candidates, issues, and party loyalties? They became important as more people were able to vote. As the parties worked to build their constituency they expected those of their party to be loyal to the party line.

5. How engaged are the voters? They are engaged, including drinking (several have had more than enough to drink), accepting a broadside or sample ballot, and discussing the issues of the election.

6. Who are the men in the top hats? What are they doing? How does Bingham portray them? How do they relate to ordinary voters? The men in the top hats are probably working for a party trying to garner support. They are portrayed as polite strangers who are trying to engage and encourage voters through discussion and distributing pamphlets or sample ballots.

7. What do you think Bingham’s attitude toward elections was? His attitude was that the election was a community gathering for a purpose. There is a suggestion of certified business conveyed by the man at the top of the stairs, so the viewer does not forget that the election is official. But in general the tone is that of a friendly community gathering that welcomes all potential voters.

8. Did he see them as serious exercises of democracy, as farce, or as something in between? He saw them as something in between. There is indeed a serious exercise of democracy as speech appears to be free, but there are also focused attempts at persuasion (coercion?) by those working for the party.

9. What was his attitude toward the electorate? Did he see voters as serious well informed men or as manipulated dupes? He saw voters as well informed, listening to party members and discussing issues with their fellow voters.

Politics in an Oyster House

Richard Caton Woodville, Politics in an Oyster House , oil on fabric, 1848 (Walters Art Museum)

12. What might the open curtain symbolize? It might symbolize that this could have been a private table where the two men could have discussed issued in private. That the curtain is open could symbolize that the issues or discussion expanded beyond the normal limits of conversation. It also could imply that the man on the left is wanting to leave.

13. What sort of people are the men in the painting? What do their clothes tell us? Why has Woodville dressed the young man entirely in one color? What is the significance of their difference in age? The younger man is wearing his top hat indoors, giving the impression of a young, perhaps inexperienced man on the go. By dressing him in one color the viewer focuses more on his apparent harangue than his clothing. The older man on the left appears to be dressed more appropriately, with color, and he conveys experience and possible affluence.

14. What is the man on the right doing? How much does he care about politics? How does Woodville signal his passion? What is the source of his arguments? The man on the right is conveying his passionate argument, and he cares very much about politics. His body language leaning forward conveys his passion. He’s using his hands to convey his message and signal his passion and clings to the newspaper from which his arguments are drawn.

15. How does the man on the left feel about his companion’s political arguments and passion? Do you think he agrees or disagrees? Does he care? The man on the left is a bit apathetic, conveying that he has either heard this before or doesn’t care. His facial expression asks the viewer to save him from this speech.

Agrarian Workingmen’s Party cartoon

Upper left: “We are in favour of Monarchy, Aristocracy, Monopolies, Auctions, laws that oppress the Poor , Imposture and the rights of the rich man to govern and enslave the Poor man at his will and pleasure, denying the Poor the right to redress, or any participation in political power.”

Satan: “Take any, my dear Friend, they will all help you to grind the WORKIES [workingmen]!!”

Box in Satan’s hand: “Ballot Box”

Man in top hat: “My Old Friend, give me one of your favourites — TAMMANY — SENTINEL , or JOURNAL , or the POOR will get their rights. I’ll pay all.”

Box in lower left foreground: “This contains the cause of all the misery and distress of the human family.”

Upper right: “We are opposed to Monarchy, Aristocracy, Monopolies, Auctions, and in favour of the Poor to political power, denying the right of the rich to govern the Poor, and asserting in all cases, that those who labour should make the laws by which such labour should be protected and rewarded and finally, opposed to degrading the Mechanic, by making Mechanics of Felons. Our motto shall be Liberty , Equity , Justice , and The Rights of Man .”

Liberty’s banner [Candidates of the Agrarian Workingmen’s Party, Nov. 1830 election]: “ Register , John R. Soper, Mariner. Assembly , Henry Ireland, Coppersmith; William Forbes, Silversmith; William Odell, Grocer; Micajah Handy, Shipwright; Edmund L. Livingston, Brassfounder; Joseph H. Ray, Printer; Merritt Sands, Cartman; Samuel Parsons, Moroccodresser; Thompson Town, Engineer; Alexander Ming, Senior, Printer; Hugh M’Bride, Cartman. For Lieutenant-governor , Jonas Humbert, Senior, Baker. Senator , George Bruce, Typefounder. Congress , Alden Potter, Machinist; John Tuthill, Jeweller; Thomas Skidmore, Machinist.

Worker: “Now for a noble effort for Rights, Liberties, and Comforts, equal to any in the land. No more grinding the POOR — But Liberty and the Rights of man.”

Box in Liberty’s hand: “Ballot Box”

Agrarian Workingmen’s Party of New York City, political cartoon, ca. 1830 (Columbia University Libraries)

18. What is the politician trying to accomplish? He is making a deal with the devil in order to limit and control the working man.

19. What function does the cartoonist think the parties and their newspapers served? The parties and their newspapers kept the working man from achieving the liberties due to him. They kept monarchies, anarchies, and those who would deny working rights in power. They also kept the working man from achieving political power.

20. What was the cartoonist saying about the character of the Workingmen’s Party? The Workingmen’s Party is directly opposed to the main parties and wants to empower the working man to have control over those laws that directly affect them.

21. Which figure — the workingman or the party politician — did the cartoonist think was the legitimate protector of the accomplishments of the Revolution? He felt the workingman was, since he is working with Mother Liberty.

22. What is the cartoonist saying about the nature of politics as conducted by the major parties? The major parties conduct politics in an evil and dishonest way, making deals with the devil. They are corrupt. The party man has a bag of money in his hand, contrasted with the ballot in the hands of the workingman. Thus the major parties get their power from money rather than the voice of the people (or the ballot).

Ask your students, either in discussion or in a written assignment, to analyze George Caleb Bingham’s Stump Speaking (oil on canvas, 1853-54) in terms of the changes that occurred in American politics between the 1820s and the 1850s.

• How does Bingham’s Stump Speaking reflect changes that occurred in American politics between the 1820s and 1850s?

If you want to bring the discussion into the twentieth century, you can ask students to compare Stump Speaking with Norman Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech (oil on canvas, 1943) from his Four Freedoms series. (The link takes you to the presentation of the painting in the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Picturing America website. It includes an informative note plus useful interpretative prompts that you could apply to both works.)

• Compare and contrast Bingham’s Stump Speaking with Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech . How does the 1943 painting reflect political changes that took place in America a century earlier?
• George Caleb Bingham, The County Election , oil on canvas, 1852. Saint Louis Art Museum, gift of Bank of America, 44:2001. Reproduced by permission.
• Richard Caton Woodville, Politics in an Oyster House , oil on fabric, 1848. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, 37.1994. Reproduced by permission.
• Agrarian Workingmen’s Party of New York City, political cartoon, ca. 1830. Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Edwin Kilroe Ephemera Collection. Reproduced by permission.

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23f. Jacksonian Democracy and Modern America

The presidential election of 1828 brought a great victory for Andrew Jackson . Not only did he get almost 70 percent of the votes cast in the electoral college, popular participation in the election soared to an unheard of 60 percent. This more than doubled the turnout in 1824; Jackson clearly headed a sweeping political movement. His central message remained largely the same from the previous election, but had grown in intensity. Jackson warned that the nation had been corrupted by " special privilege ," characterized especially by the policies of the Second Bank of the United States. The proper road to reform, according to Jackson, lay in an absolute acceptance of majority rule as expressed through the democratic process. Beyond these general principles, however, Jackson's campaign was notably vague about specific policies. Instead, it stressed Jackson's life story as a man who had risen from modest origins to become a successful Tennessee planter. Jackson's claim to distinction lay in a military career that included service as a young man in the Revolutionary War, several anti-Indian campaigns, and, of course, his crowning moment in the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812.

Jackson's election marked a new direction in American politics. He was the first westerner elected president, indeed, the first president from a state other than Virginia or Massachusetts. He boldly proclaimed himself to be the " champion of the common man " and believed that their interests were ignored by the aggressive national economic plans of Clay and Adams. More than this, however, when Martin Van Buren followed Jackson as president, it indicated that the Jacksonian movement had long-term significance that would outlast his own charismatic leadership.

Van Buren, perhaps even more than Jackson, helped to create the new Democratic party that centered upon three chief qualities closely linked to Jacksonian Democracy. First, it declared itself to be the party of ordinary farmers and workers. Second, it opposed the special privileges of economic elites. Third, to offer affordable western land to ordinary white Americans, Indians needed to be forced further westward. The Whig party soon arose to challenge the Democrats with a different policy platform and vision for the nation. Whigs' favored active government support for economic improvement as the best route to sustained prosperity. Thus, the Whig-Democrat political contest was in large part a disagreement about the early Industrial Revolution. Whigs defended economic development's broad benefits, while Democrats stressed the new forms of dependence that it created. The fiercely partisan campaigns waged between these parties lasted into the 1850s and are known as the Second Party System , an assuredly modern framework of political competition that reached ordinary voters as never before with both sides organizing tirelessly to carry their message directly to the American people.

A new era of American politics began with Jackson's election in 1828, but it also completed a grand social experiment begun by the American Revolution. Although the Founding Fathers would have been astounded by the new shape of the nation during Jackson's presidency, just as Jackson himself had served in the American Revolution, its values helped form his sense of the world. The ideals of the Revolution had, of course, been altered by the new conditions of the early nineteenth century and would continue to be reworked over time. Economic, religious, and geographic changes had all reshaped the nation in fundamental ways and pointed toward still greater opportunities and pitfalls in the future. Nevertheless, Jacksonian Democracy represented a provocative blending of the best and worst qualities of American society. On the one hand it was an authentic democratic movement that contained a principled egalitarian thrust, but this powerful social critique was always cast for the benefit of white men. This tragic mix of egalitarianism, masculine privilege, and racial prejudice remains a central quality of American life and to explore their relationship in the past may help suggest ways of overcoming their haunting limitations in the future.

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Contrasting Jeffersonian vs. Jacksonian Democracy

While similar in nature, there are several major differences in Jeffersonian democracy vs Jacksonian democracy.

Jeffersonian democracy and the Jeffersonian beliefs and ideals behind them reigned supreme in the United States from Thomas Jefferson’s victory in the important election of 1800 until John Quincy Adams’ presidency in the election of 1824 .

When Andrew Jackson won the election of 1828 , he brought with him an altered set of beliefs and ideals that are now referred to as Jacksonian democracy.

Jackson’s victory ushered in the “ Jacksonian Era ” or the “Era of the Common Man” and dramatically reshaped the nation during a period of intense change.

Executive vs Legislative Power

Aristocracy vs common man, economic values.

• Educational value

4 Key Differences of Jeffersonian vs Jacksonian Democracy

There are four key differences between Jeffersonian democracy vs Jacksonian democracy: their views on executive vs legislative power, the aristocracy vs the common man, economic values, and education.

Andrew Jackson considered himself a Jeffersonian in nature, which is why the two belief systems are generally very similar.

The main differences between the two arose when these beliefs were put into practice. Jeffersonian presidencies in effect were very different from the presidencies of the Jacksonians.

One of the major differences between Jeffersonian vs Jacksonian democracy was in how they interpreted the Constitution and executive versus legislative powers.

Jeffersonians’ beliefs included strict constructionism, meaning they interpreted the Constitution as it was written. This interpretation generally limited the powers of the federal government, giving more power to the individual states. 1

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison penned the 1798 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions summing their views on states’ rights over federal power.

Jefferson and Madison certainly made exceptions to their beliefs while president: Jefferson during the Louisiana Purchase and Embargo Act of 1807 and Madison backing the Second National Bank of the United States and Tariff of 1816 .

However, Jeffersonians generally deferred to Congress and the legislative branch to make federal policy, using the executive branch to help influence direction.

Jacksonians, on the other hand, ran on a platform of states’ rights activism, though they eagerly expanded federal power, particularly in the executive branch, once in office. In the Nullification Crisis of 1832 Jackson outright rejected South Carolina’s claim of state authority over federal authority.

Jackson used the executive veto more than any other previous president, using it to override Congress and expand executive authority.

He almost single-handedly destroyed the Second National Bank of the United States in the Bank War of 1832 and ignored the Supreme Court’s ruling in the significant Worcester v. Georgia case.

Jeffersonians and Jacksonians had very different visions on federal power.

Both Jefferson and Jackson believed that government should operate in favor of the common man versus the aristocracy.

However, they had different ideas of who should lead the government.

Jeffersonians believed that a “natural aristocracy” would rise from the men most capable of leading the nation. All men were not equal in this regard, and those that proved worthy were the ones best able to lead in government.

To his credit, Jefferson believed in free public education to give every man equal opportunity to demonstrate these abilities. Those that excelled were the most qualified and natural leaders.

Jacksonians did not believe in the aristocracy. They instead believed in the “common man” and that all men were qualified to hold office.

This encouraged common men to be politically active and campaign for their rights and beliefs. Jacksonian democracy is typically attributed with the rise in popular participation in government, and Jackson’s promises had much to do with that.

Jackson found many willing volunteers to campaign for him after promising federal employment to his supporters should he win.

This tactic was later referred to as the “spoils system” where thousands of Jackson loyalists filled the federal bureaucracy after his victory.

The varying opinions on the capabilities of the common man further separate Jeffersonians vs Jacksonians.

Jefferson’s vision for the United States was that of a small agrarian republic where the federal government was too weak to dominate state governments and jeopardize individual liberties. 2

An agricultural-dominated society would allow men to own property and be closer to the land. In Jefferson’s view the association between land and virtue was paramount.

Jeffersonians were deeply concerned about the effects of manufacturing on society and resisted attempts to establish a domestic industry. Those who relied upon others to earn their living such as factory workers could be easily manipulated politically.

Jefferson also feared economic dependence on Europe and did advocate for protectionist policies to reduce that dependence.

By Jackson’s time it was generally accepted that manufacturing was here to stay. The War of 1812 had taught the US the importance of having a thriving domestic manufacturing sector and the nation responded accordingly.

That said, Jacksonians advocated for the “common man,” and at the time a vast majority of the commoners in the United States were small farmers.

Jacksonians understood that farmers needed land and the best way to get more land was to grow the republic and expand ever westward. 

Land availability was a major cause of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which opened up huge swaths of former Native American territory in the south.

This is opposed to Jefferson who agonized over the Louisiana Purchase, uncertain of its constitutionality.

A last major difference between Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy was their beliefs in the importance of education.

Their respective beliefs largely arose from their upbringings: Jefferson was a highly-educated intellectual born into the aristocracy while Jackson was an uneducated backwoods frontier commoner.

Jeffersonians believed that all citizens should be educated to be able to best serve their nation. It was considered a citizen’s duty to stay informed on issues of the day, laws that were passed, and the problems facing their representatives.

Free society could only function if all citizens were given equal access to educational opportunities. 3

Jefferson thus believed that education for all men, provided at the public’s expense, would help make it easier for citizens to stay well-informed about their nation and representatives.

Jackson did not share the same view on education, believing it to be relatively unimportant. He proved it himself: a common man could become president with no formal education as a child.

Jacksonians firmly believed that all men were qualified to hold public office, regardless of their upbringing or education level.

They pushed to remove all pre-qualifications for voting such as property requirements and encouraged mass political participation by rewarding followers with highly-coveted federal employment opportunities.

Despite their respective beliefs, public schooling was sporadic and entirely dependent on local communities throughout the 19th century.

To recap, there are four key differences between the beliefs of Jeffersonian democracy and Jacksonian democracy:

• Executive vs Legislative power
• Aristocracy vs the Common man
• Economic values

While scholars tend to focus on the differences between the two philosophies, they share much more in common than their differences would suggest.

Jacksonian democracy was an offshoot of Jeffersonian democracy; the differences were heavily influenced by the personal beliefs of Andrew Jackson. 

Both philosophies would go on to have enormous impacts on the social structure of the United States and influence policies that helped to shape the nation.

While the “common man” made significant gains in suffrage, it is important to note that this often came at the expense of rights for women, free Black men, and Native Americans. In fact, many of these groups saw their rights diminished in the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Eras.

Jeffersonian and Jacksonian principles also helped the institution of slavery to spread and prosper. The divisions within the United States that grew as a result of the issue of slavery would eventually lead to the American Civil War.

To learn more about US history, check out this timeline of the history of the United States .

1) Wiltse, Charles M. “Jeffersonian Democracy: A Dual Tradition.” The American Political Science Review , vol. 28, no. 5, 1934, pp. 838–51. JSTOR , https://doi.org/10.2307/1947407 .

2) Beard, Charles A. “Some Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy.” The American Historical Review , vol. 19, no. 2, 1914, pp. 282–98. JSTOR , https://doi.org/10.2307/1862288 .

3) Hoover, Glenn E. “Jeffersonian Democracy: Its Significance for Our Time.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology , vol. 10, no. 2, 1951, pp. 145–51. JSTOR , http://www.jstor.org/stable/3483834 .

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