“Every good citizen makes his county’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protections while he gives it.” This quote by Andrew Jackson reflects his views as a president, military leader, and American citizen. He was the seventh president of the United States. He was born on March 15,1767 in North Carolina and died on June 8,1845 in Nashville, Tennessee. Over his life, he had many accomplishments; his biggest was becoming president. He was strong military leader and a rousing politician. He held many different political positions before his presidency.
One reason I found Jackson to be an interesting president was because of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This law was passed by congress and signed by Jackson. “An Act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians . . . and for their removal west of the river Mississippi”-authorized the president to negotiate and sign removal treaties in which Indian nations abandoned lands east of the Mississippi in return for unsettled, federal lands west of the Mississippi. The legislation was emotionally contested in Congress and it barely passed. Once enacted, Jackson and the treaty negotiators he appointed “persuaded, manipulated, “and in some cases “coerced” dozens of tribes to sign removal treaties. This to me was inappropriate and selfish on his half.
The Kitchen Cabinet is the second reason I found Jackson to be a bad president. The kitchen cabinet incident was when Jackson was thought to have relied more on informal advisors than on the members of his official Cabinet. When saying Kitchen Cabinet it refers to the group of close, unofficial advisers of President Jackson. Jackson had personally selected these people. Jackson’s “kitchen cabinet” included journalists and editors of influential regional newspapers. Kendall- one of members, would constantly defend the policies of Jackson in The Globe (a published journal).
The third and most important reason I found Andrew Jackson to be a bad president was the “spoil system” that he used. The spoil system was when Jackson would remove political opponents from federal offices and replace them with party loyalists. He would also replace them with voters whom supported him and defended him. This theory ties into the Kitchen Cabinet theory. He could do this because there wasn’t a merit-based civil service system until the 1880’s.
All in all, these 3 incidents stood out to me and that’s why I chose to write this paper in the conclusion of Jackson being a bad president. He did accomplish a few good deeds while in office. However, most of the things he did were unfair, undefined, and would be considered illegal in our current day laws. Most people voting for him were poor and among the others felt he would best protect their individual rights. Andrew Jackson was not a good president, and was eventually shot.
