Andrew Jackson: War Hero or Tyrant?
Andrew Jackson was, and still is a beloved president to many people. The common person might look at our seventh president as a true war hero, when in fact Andrew Jackson was like a tyrant in many ways. He was the reason for about 7,000 Cherokees deaths, and violated many laws. The only reason Andrew Jackson was not impeached was because the senate did not provide a two thirds vote. When Andrew Jackson first came into office there seemed to be a sort of vengeance about him. A main goal of his was to get rid of most of John Adams high ranking officials. He said that they had worked against his election through fraud. Many attorneys, custom officers, land officers, and federal marshals lost their jobs to be replaced by people who had helped Jackson in his campaign for office. Most of the people who got these jobs had little or no experience. Andrew Jackson was a simple country man, and like any simple country man he did not exactly approve of the idea of one national bank. He tried to turn congress against the national bank before he was even president. In 1828 Andrew Jackson lead an investigation against the bank. He once said "The bank is trying to kill me. But I will kill it!" In 1833 Andrew Jackson issued an order that would make the government stop using the national bank, and start using state banks. Only one person in Andrew Jacksons cabinet agreed his name was Roger Taney. Since no one else agreed with Jackson's plan he fired his current secretary of treasure, William Duane and appointed Taney. Taney then secretly took little amounts of money out of the national bank at a time, ordered by Jackson, and put the money in many state banks. These were called "pet banks." This was a violation of the separation of powers. In 1836 President Jackson issued an executive order called specie circular which required the government to pay for its land in gold and silver. This order had many consequences, it made companies run out of business, land sales decreased, and