President Andrew Jackson

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, was the first President to attain office from outside the inner circle of presidential politics and the established procedure for advancement, the first President from the "new" West and from a state other than the original thirteen and the first President to be a self-made wealthy frontier gentleman. The author points out that Jackson used his magnetism to change the presidency. The paper relates that the Jacksonian presidency asserted the independence of the executive from the other two branches of government by making liberal use of the presidential veto, by turning to the party organization to maintain and to extend his power and by reducing the power of the cabinet and patronage.

From the Paper:

"After subduing Florida and serving briefly as governor of that new territory, Jackson moved easily with the changing tides of national politics and in rapid order was, again, United States senator, presidential candidate, party leader, and president-elect, the oldest person thus far elected to that office. Beginning on a chaotic Inauguration Day, the "day of the people," Jackson brought to the presidency a strong, resourceful, and ambitious personality, revealed in a commanding and dignified presence which had both a charismatic ability to charm and an ability to offend. He was clearly in command of the White House and from that day to this has been a controversial figure."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Albert Somit, "Andrew Jackson: Legend and Reality," Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 7 (December 1948): 291-313. Change
• Benson Lee. The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy: New York as a Test Case. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961.
• Dixon Wecter, The Hero in America: A Chronicle of HeroWorship (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1941), p. 220.
• Edward S. Corwin, The President: Office and Powers 1787-1957, 4th rev. ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1957
• James C. Curtis, Andrew Jackson and the Search for Vindication (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976), p. 131.

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