Who Was Andrew Jackson?

   The essential question for our newest topic is, Is Andrew Jackson's long- standing reputations as "the people's president" deserved? To answer this question, my class broke up into three groups to cover topics that Andrew Jackson dealt with. The three topics were the Spoil System, the Indian Removal Act and the Bank War. Each group created a Google slide show and presented their findings to the class. By researching what each topic was, what Jackson did, and how it affected the people we could find out if Jackson really was "the people's president" or not. To answer the essential question, you would have to refer to each of the presentations. For the topic of Spoils Andrew Jackson was certainly not "the people’s president". When he was elected president he instated the spoils system in which he removed people from their current government jobs and instead gave them to people who have helped him get elected. This was disastrous because it took 919 people out of their jobs and replaced them with unqualified people. This did not only affect the 919 people that lost their jobs but the rest of society who had to suffer as well. Jackson's main goal was to protect the people during the Bank War but in the end it only created problems. Jackson wanted to protect the average business man by not letting rich people get too ahead in their businesses, but that only created a divided between the rich and poor. For the Indian Removal Act, Andrew Jackson was "the people's president" for Americans, but was not considerate for other people, such as the Indians. Jackson wanted to move the Indians west so that there was more land for the white people and ensured the Indians that moving west was a good idea for them because other Indian tribes have died out living near white people. The Indians however did not want to leave their native land but Jackson eventually forced them out and law and many died on the march to their new land. All of the presentations my class did helped me answer the essential question. My groups presentation was the spoil system which can be seen below.