During Andrew Jackson's presidency in the 1820s-1830s, his supporters, known to the U.S. as Jacksonians Democrats, had four main goals. They tried to act as guardians of the United States Constitution, attempted to provide political democracy, strived to protect and promote individual liberty for all, and tried to give equality of economic opportunity. Unfortunately, Jacksonians did little to guard the constitution of the United States, and only provided political democracy to the extent of free white landowning males. Ironically, the same constitution that they protected stated that "...All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.. ...view middle of the document...
By vetoing the senate's new bank charter, in which a fourth of the stock is held by foreigners and the rest by a few of America's richest citizens, Jackson and his followers helped keep any one individual from becoming too powerful or too involved with the nation's funds(Document B). When Harriet Martineau, a British author, visited the United States in 1834, she admired the way in which every person was financially well-informed and noted how well educated the people were as well(Document D). This is due to Jackson's good use of America's money.Since they mostly favored the common man, the Jacksonians didn't do such a good job of upholding a democratic political view of themselves. According to Daniel Webster, Jackson and his people seeked to inflame the poor people against the rich and wantonly attacked the higher classes of people, for the purpose of turning against them the prejudice and the resentment of the lower classes(Document C). Political Democracy failed to spread throughout America because most of the citizens were prejudice against blacks and also because common people were the ideal people in the eyes of the government. Riots were caused by people of different social statuses. In August 22, 1834, a rampage broke out due to racial tension and in April 10 of that same year there was a riot that involved people of different social statuses(Document E). Though the Jacksonian Democrats claim to have guarded many things, they only helped out the United States of America by providing an equal economic opportunity for all.Bibliography: James A. Henretta, America's History, Vol. 5
