Andrew Jackson

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Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States and held the office from 1829-1837 . He holds the distinction of being the first populist president not to come from aristocracy . He is also the first President to marry a divorcee , have his Vice-President resign , use a kitchen cabinet ' of advisors , and use the pocket veto ' to kill a Congress bill . Many people who knew him remarked on his fierceness both in friendship and to opposition

In 1829 , Jackson 's first year in office , he

introduced the spoils system . The spoils system is an informal practice of a political party giving voters government jobs as a reward for working hard to win the election and to keep them working for the party

The spoils system provided the minority with the first evidence of the nature of Jacksonian Democracy . Although Jackson dismissed far fewer government employees than most of his contemporaries imagined and although he did not originate the spoils system , he made more sweeping changes in the Federal bureaucracy than bad any of his predecessors What is even more significant is that he defended these changes as a positive good . At present when the use of political patronage is generally considered an obstacle to good government it is worth remembering that Jackson and his followers invariably described rotation in public office as a "reform " In this sense the spoils system was more than a way to reward Jackson 's friends and punish his enemies it was also a device for removing from public office the representatives of minority political groups that Jackson insisted had been made corrupt by their long tenure . HYPERLINK "http /www .questia .com /PM .qst ?a o d 978533 (Syrett 28

In 1830 , President Jackson vetoed the Maysville Road Bill . This was a bill passed by Congress that allowed the federal government to buy 150 ,000 dollars worth of stock in a private company to fund 60 miles of road connecting the towns of Maysville and Lexington , an

extension of the Cumberland and National Roads . Jackson defended his veto by explaining the he was against federal funds paying for state improvements . He believed it was the states responsibility to pay their own and as a result of the veto , seven additional work projects were cancelled , including roads and canals

In Georgia the Cherokee Indians were being forced to fight for the right to govern their own lands . They claimed the land to be the Cherokee Nation of Indians ' and had retained lawyers to fight those whites who insisted on invading their territory . The Cherokee Nation vs . The State of Georgia ' was eventually placed on the Supreme Court docket . The Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokees were recognized as a "domestic , dependent " nation , and there was nothing in the decision to indicate that the extension of the laws of Georgia over them was valid and constitutional . The decision of March 10 , 1832 , affirmed the status of the Cherokees as a "nation " within...