Jacksonian Era DBQ

After the Era of Good Feeling’s developments in agriculture, commerce and industry settled in America, a shift power from the elite into the middle and lower classes began in the 1820’s and 1830’s. This was personified by the empowerment of the Jacksonian Democrats. Jacksonian democrats believed that they were guardians of the Constitution and that they upheld its principles and defended its ideals of a democratic society. They were strict interpreters of the Constitution and supported a government that represented its entire people, not just the wealthy. In their minds, it was important that all white men have the right to vote, not just the rich white men. They believed that they protected individual liberty and held Locke's natural rights in high esteem. They believed that they propagated economic opportunity. Upward mobility was what America was known for, and they believed that was one of the better aspects of America and should be preserved at all costs. However, although the Jacksonian Democrats were viewed as guardians of the Constitution and promoters of political and economic equality based on the instilled European standards that deemed the equality of polit

ical power and economic opportunity between white men as radical, they did not truly give equality to all peoples such as the American Indians, slaves and women or develop economic systems to favor a true democracy.

There is truth in the belief that the Jacksonian Democrats worked to give equal opportunities to American citizens. However, the Democrats only saw white males as citizens of America. They failed to see America as the melting pot that the constitution intends it to be. A melting pot where everyone has the same opportunities. However, compared to the rest of the western world, America, led by the Jacksonian Democrats, was more advanced and democratic than any other state in Europe.

With the introduction of the American public to a subsequent economic depression during the Panic of 1819, much of the public’s fear and suspicions blamed the bank, an institution not under popular control, for the depression because it had called in its loans on short notice. Jackson shared the same opinions stating, “It is easy to conceive that great evils to our country and its institutions might flow from such a concentration of power in the hands of a few men irresponsible to the people,” (DOC B). Jackson also had a history of misgivings with banking and paper money after he dealt with bankruptcy when he accepted bank notes that later depreciated in value. The democrats believed the bank was a monopoly that allowed great economic rights to only a select, privileged group, and the matter should be resolved by popular control. “When a long train of abuses and usurpations take place…it is their right, it is their duty to use every constitutional means to reform the abuses of such a government, and to provide new guards for their future security,” argued George Henry Evans in “The Working Man’s Declaration of Independence,” (DOC A). Evans, a Jacksonian Democrat, wrote the document in a similar fashion to the Declaration of Independence justifying Jackson’s future actions with the bank. Democrats further argued in favor of Jeffersonian strict constitutional views declaring that since the bank wa

Some topics in this essay:
Jacksonian Democrats, Declaration Independence, DOC Indeed, South Carolina, American Indians, Democrats Jacksonian, DOC Jackson, River Indians, South Carolinian, Daniel Webster, jacksonian democrats, economic opportunity, seemingly tyrannical, melting pot, political economic, democrats believed, national bank, american indians, guardians constitution, popular control,