Andrew Jackson and His Era

“Jacksonian Democracy”

• 1790-1840s, state’s changed voting laws:
  • state constitutions lowered/abolished property requirements
  • by 1840, suffrage for most white men
  • electoral college elected by popular vote
  • free black men disenfranchised
• transformed US politics
  • first modern party organizations
  • national coordination, local organizing and mobilization
  • courting the popular vote
  • rhetoric (especially partisan newspapers)
  • entertainment, alcohol, coercion
  • patronage, “spoils”, bribes
  • politics and elections often chaotic and violent

Andrew Jackson and the “Jacksonian Democracy”

• controversial, but a symbol of the era
• Jackson was among the first to understand and exploit changes in politics
  • charismatic persona:
  • rugged individualist, indian fighter
  • populism: an advocate for the “common man”
  • key founder of the democratic party
  • first modern US political party
• frightened most traditionalist elites