Global InformationJacksonian democracy information
Jacksonian Democrats | |
|---|---|
| Historical leaders | Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren James K. Polk Thomas Hart Benton Stephen A. Douglas[1] |
| Founded | 1829 |
| Dissolved | 1854 |
| Split from | Democratic-Republican Party |
| Preceded by | Jeffersonian Republicans Old Republicans |
| Merged into | Democratic Party |
| Ideology | Agrarianism Anti-corruption[2] Anti-elitism Civic engagement Jeffersonianism Liberalism[3] Majority rule[4] Manifest destiny Populism Radicalism[5] Spoils system Universal white male suffrage[6] Utilitarianism[4] Factions: • Laissez-faire • Strict constructionism |
| National affiliation | Democratic Party (after 1828) |
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| Jacksonian Era | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1829–1854 | |||
 Andrew Jackson | |||
| President(s) | Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren William Henry Harrison John Tyler James K. Polk | ||
| Key events | Trail of Tears Indian removal Nullification crisis Second Great Awakening Westward expansion Mexican–American War Prelude to the Civil War | ||
Chronology
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| This article is part of a series on the | ||||||||||
| History of the United States | ||||||||||
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Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21 and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, Andrew Jackson and his supporters, it became the nation's dominant political worldview for a generation. The term itself was in active use by the 1830s.[7]
This era, called the Jacksonian Era or Second Party System by historians and political scientists, lasted roughly from Jackson's 1828 presidential election until the practice of slavery became the dominant issue with the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854 and the political repercussions of the American Civil War dramatically reshaped American politics. It emerged when the long-dominant Democratic-Republican Party became factionalized around the 1824 presidential election. Jackson's supporters began to form the modern Democratic Party. His political rivals John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay created the National Republican Party, which would afterward combine with other anti-Jackson political groups to form the Whig Party.
Broadly speaking, the era was characterized by a democratic spirit. It built upon Jackson's equal political policy, subsequent to ending what he termed a monopoly of government by elites. Even before the Jacksonian era began, suffrage had been extended to a majority of white male adult citizens, a result which the Jacksonians celebrated.[8] Jacksonian democracy also promoted the strength of the presidency and the executive branch at the expense of Congress, while also seeking to broaden the public's participation in government. The Jacksonians demanded elected, not appointed, judges and rewrote many state constitutions to reflect the new values. In national terms, they favored geographical expansionism, justifying it in terms of manifest destiny.
There was usually a consensus among both Democrats (Jacksonians) and the Whigs (anti-Jacksonians) that battles over slavery should be avoided.[citation needed]
Jackson's expansion of democracy was largely exclusively limited to White Americans, as well as voting rights in the nation were extended to adult white males only. There was also little to no change, and in many cases a reduction of the rights of non-white U.S citizens, during the extensive period of Jacksonian democracy, spanning from 1829 to 1860.[9]
- ^ Robert Walter Johannsen (1973). Stephen A. Douglas. University of Illinois Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-252-06635-1. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
- ^ Carl Lane, "The elimination of the national debt in 2025 and the meaning of Jacksonian democracy." Essays in Economic & Business History 25 (2012) pp. 67-78.
- ^ Schlesinger, Arthur (1986). The cycles of American history. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-37887-8.
- ^ a b William S. Belko, "'A Tax On The Many, To Enrich A Few': Jacksonian Democracy Vs. The Protective Tariff." Journal of the History of Economic Thought 37.2 (2015): 277-289.
- ^ Eugenio F. Biagini, ed. (2004). Liberty, Retrenchment and Reform: Popular Liberalism in the Age of Gladstone, 1860-1880. Cambridge University Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-521-54886-1. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
... which was one of the recurrent themes in European and in particular American radicalism: Jacksonian democrats were ...
- ^ "Jacksonian Democracy". History.com. History. April 4, 2012. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
More loosely, it alludes to the entire range of democratic reforms that proceeded alongside the Jacksonians' triumph—from expanding the suffrage to restructuring federal institutions.
- ^ The Providence (Rhode Island) Patriot 25 Aug 1839 stated: "The state of things in Kentucky ... is quite as favorable to the cause of Jacksonian democracy." cited in "Jacksonian democracy", Oxford English Dictionary (2019)
- ^ Engerman, pp. 15, 36. "These figures suggest that by 1820 more than half of adult white males were casting votes, except in those states that still retained property requirements or substantial tax requirements for the franchise – Virginia, Rhode Island (the two states that maintained property restrictions through 1840), and New York as well as Louisiana."
- ^ Warren, Mark E. (1999). Democracy and Trust. Cambridge University Press. pp. 166–. ISBN 978-0-521-64687-1.