President Jackson example essay topic
He believed the National Bank was only ruled by the rich and did not help the common man in any way. HE also believed the people running it were corrupt and abused their power. (Doc. #12) When he was elected president he did all he could to destroy the bank. The leader of the bank, Biddle saw the end of the bank was near so with the direction of Henry Clay he tried to re chater the bank even though the charter did not run out until 1836.
Jackson quickly vetoed this re-chartering. Some people began to question how the executive branch had the power to destroy the bank. (Doc#13). It is very hard to override a veto so the plan to re chater the bank was over. Jackson's Next plan was to get rid of the bank completely by letting funds drain and put new federal money in Pet banks. His Secretary of treasury, Mclane would not let him do this so he promoted him and got a new Secretary of treasury who was named Duane.
Jackson did not get Duan's ruling on getting rid of the bank, so when Duane agreed with Mclane he fired Duane and hired Taney. Taney allowed him to use preexisting money in the treasury to pay bills and allowed new money to go into the Pet banks. Then the national bank was destroyed completely. Biddle tried to fight back by tightening credit but when he saw the impact it had on the economy he repealed it. Andrew Jackson acted like a king by single handed ly destroying the bank. During Jackson's presidency he faced many sectional Differences.
The tariff of Abominations was passed and it was destroying the south. John Calhoun, who was Jackson's Vice President, saw what was happening and wrote a book called South Carolinas Exposition and protest. This book stated that if a tariff hurt on section of the country they had a right to nullify it. (Doc#8) South Carolina quickly held an election for a convention.
The convention talked about Nullifying the tariff and keeping a policy of nullification in the south. (Doc. #11) The south believed they had power over congress and thought the president did not know what the tariff was doing to their section. The south also believed Jackson was getting to powerful and the checks and balances were not working. (Doc. #11) Upon hearing this Jackson did not like it.
Even though Jackson was an advocate of state rights he did not believe a state could declare an act of congress void. (Doc. #10) So he sent troops to break up the nullification. Calhoun saw the end of nullification and perhaps his life so he resigned as vice president. Robert Haney gave up his seat in the senate to Calhoun and Haney became the governor of South Carolina. When the troops reached South Carolina the radicals who called for nullification quickly changed their minds and began to call for a restoration of the tariff.
The result of the end of nullification was the tariff compromise that lowered the tariff over a ten-year period. Jackson, being able to break up a situation that almost led to civil war, showed that he could rule like a king and have the power of a king to Pass laws even though they could destroy a section of the U.S. During Jackson's presidency he faced many problems. Two of them were The Sectional issues and the bank. Jackson showed his power to destroy the bank and almost destroy a section of the U.S. showed that he was a modern-day king in 1828-1836..