Andrew Jackson's Spoils System

Before he was president, Andrew Jackson was a respected military leader, gaining glory at the Battle of New Orleans to end the War of 1812. Because of his toughness in battle, never backing down when the odds were against him, he became known as “Old Hickory”. He is also known as the “Common Man”. Before Jackson, most presidents had been born into wealthy families, had the best educations, and were part of the “elite” or upper class. Jackson, however, was born in a log cabin in the Appalachian Mountains to a poor farming family. His parents died while he was young and he became an orphan. His childhood was difficult, but with hard work and determination, he rose from his meager to become a rather wealthy lawyer and landowner. The rise
It’s probably not surprising after his defeat in 1824, that one of the first policies he challenged was the Electoral College. He believed the president should be elected by the majority of popular vote not electoral vote. He never succeeding in changing that, but he did create a new system known as a spoils system. This is a practice of rewarding supporters with government jobs. In other words, if you help me get elected I will give you a comfy government job with a big paycheck! Jackson argued it was a way to provide average citizens a chance to participate in government. The idea sounds good, but in reality, it doesn’t work so well. For instance, Jackson replaced several highly experienced government officials with many of his inexperienced friends and supporters. This put men in charge of important jobs they were not trained to do. While many politicians still use the spoils system to reward, and maybe even “buy”, the support of influential people, it is looked down upon as a corrupt
One of the first things he did was a controversial veto. The National Bank had long been debated between Federalists and Anti-federalists. The Supreme Court had put what should have been an end to the debate when it deemed the bank as constitutional. Jackson had never liked the idea of the federal government running a bank because he feared they would take advantage of the people in order to make themselves rich. Well, when the charter for the bank came up for renewal, Congress passed a bill to renew it. However, Jackson vetoed it and closed the bank. This was seen as an abuse of his power because the Supreme Court had already ruled that the bank was constitutional and could be used by the government, yet Jackson closed it