Democracy in the 19th Century

Thomas Jefferson had mixed emotions about the Louisiana Purchase. On one hand, he knew it would be a grand opportunity, and the United States would be assured free navigation of the Mississippi River. Also, it would double our nation in size and be considered one of the largest, if not the largest, land transaction in history. On the other hand, he was conflicted whether or not to buy the Louisiana Territory because of guidelines set forth in the Constitution. The Constitution did not specifically

While for a majority of the time, Jefferson was a known federalist, but when purchasing the Louisiana territory, he went against his own beliefs. Yet, it was a good decision that he had made. To exemplify, he had made the purchase owing the French $15 million, which ended up being about 3 cents per acre. Moreover, there were many goods and resources that had been within the newfound territory, which they would have never had the chance to exploit if Jefferson had never bought it. Furthermore, this new land helped the American citizens to expand their territory to nearly twice the size then it originally had

Has it ever occured to you how different the United States would be if Jeffferson never purchased the Louisiana Territory? Do you ever imagine the country separated into pieces and not one whole? Was it really important? In 1803 president Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte for $15,000,000. The Louisiana Purchase, which was 828,000 square miles included present day Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Some parts of Minnesota, North & South Dakora, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Louisiana, and parts of Canada which are now the provinces of Alberta & Saskatchewan. This doubled the size of the United States, and because they had no clue what was on this new land, The president sent Meriwether Lewis & William Clark to go on an expedition that lasted two years.

The Jacksonian democracy of the 1820s-1830s is often associated with an expansion of the political influence, economic opportunities, and social equality available to “the common man,” a concept of the masses which President Andrew Jackson and his newly founded Democratic party came to represent. The new administration certainly saw gains for the majority; namely, public participation in government increased to unprecedented levels, and several economic decisions were made to favor the people over monopolies. Beginning with their exaggerated portrayal of the “corrupt” 1824 election however, the Jacksonian democrats also left a legacy of substantial miscalculations

How Democratic Was Andrew Jackson? Democracy is defined as the people having a say in the government, whether it be through representatives or directly. When answering the question “How Democratic Was Andrew Jackson?”, I would say that Andrew Jackson was the embodiment of democracy when it came to the people having a say. During his presidential campaign in 1828 Andrew Jackson’s campaign motto was “Let the people have a say!”

As the Revolutionary War ended, the United States faced a completely new set of challenges. Now the United States had to shift focus from gaining independence from England to gaining their own financial security. The newly formed country had to figure out a way to pay for the war debt incurred by the colonies. In order to do this, the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, convinced congress and the president that a tax on whiskey would be able to provide the revenue needed to repay the debts. However, the tax on whiskey was met with heavy resistance. To Hamilton, the tax was only “a few dollars a year for the average small distillery” but for the Frontiersmen it was an attack on their way of life. The resistance to the tax, the

Most importantly, Thomas Jefferson deeply contradicted his views on land expansion and violated his policy on following the constitution completely. A prime example of this was the Louisiana Purchase, in which Napoleon offered Jefferson the opportunity to purchase all of France's American territory for only $15 million, doubling the physical size of the nation. The French needed the money to fight a war with the British, and Jefferson wanted the mouth of the Mississippi River for America. So, Jefferson "gave the Constitution a close reading" to seek authorization for such a move. Failing to find any, he decided to unconstitutionally take the offer anyway (Doc C). This clearly violated his previous views on such an issue. However, it is obvious that Jefferson made the right decision in the matter, and the American people should be very grateful for Jefferson's

Thomas Jefferson’s ideals were split when it came to the purchase. At first he fought against loose interpretation of the Presidential Powers which were found in the Constitution but also believed that, “if a power could not specifically be found in the Constitution, it did not exist and automatically reverted to the interests of the individual Sovereign States”. (www.shmoop.com/louisiana-purchase-lewis-clark/politics.html) Take into consideration that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence which was very strict with order and anything that dealt with the United States. This thinking was argued multiple times with Alexander Hamilton

“It sows...the seeds of jealousy and ill-will against the government of which its author is the official head” (Daniel Webster’s Reply to Jackson’s Bank Veto Message - July 11, 1832). He is refusing to acknowledge that the government can do any good, and that the power comes from the people; however, the government officials have been elected by the people. “consequence of denying the government the service of an elite bureaucracy in order to serve some idealistic democratic principle” (excerpt from The Life of Andrew Jackson). Democracy is when all people have a fair and equal say in government. In Jackson’s attempts to fulfill his idea of democracy, he was ignoring the peoples representation in government, which was how he got elected in the first

     During the administration of Andrew Jackson, the United States was a nation of change both politically and socially. American society was a society of opportunity. Americans felt that, given a chance, they could make a better life for themselves. This was the era of the common people, the era of democracy. Andrew Jackson appealed to the American people because he stood for values many regarded with favor. However democratic Jackson may seem, he was more tyrant-like than any of his predecessors. His major offerings to the nation included majority rule and a popular presidency, however offered no benefits to women, African Americans, nor Native Americans. Jacksonian Democracy was

Jackson's biggest problem with his 'democracy' was his use of the veto. In the court case Worcester vs. Georgia ruled that Georgia could not remove the Cherokee's from their land. Jackson vetoed this and then went ahead and drove all the Indians out west in what is known as the trail of tears. This is easily an impeachable offense but since his cabinet were his friends and supporters, the proper steps were not taken. As you can see this presidency was not exactly a democracy were everyone's voice was heard.

President Jefferson’s major personal moral dilemma was actually purchasing the territory of louisiana from the french. Jefferson was a strong Democratic-Republican. This party was founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, This party was created in opposition of the federalist party which was led by Alexander Hamilton. The Democratic-Republican party believed that a strong central national government would deplete and completely rid the rights of states. The party strongly disapproved of the national Bank Of The United States stating that the bank was taking away power that belonged to the states. Among many of the views of the Democratic-Republican the strongest belief was to strictly abided by the constitution, so when the opportunity arose to purchase the French owned territory, the constitution did not state whether the government could or could not acquire any new land

When Andrew Jackson was denied presidency in 1824 due to “the corrupt bargain” between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, he was furious at the lack of democracy in the election system. He became determined to institute a new age of genuine democracy in America where the voice of the people wouldim being monarchal, Andrew Jackson was a very democratic president evidenced by his drive to give the people more representation and also his attempted transfer of power from the few to the many.

Jackson’s version of democracy was in fact a democracy. He was not a very wealthy man, he owned a home and some land. Which was more than could be said about most Americans at the time. About ten percent of the Americans living there at that time owned enough land to vote. There was a law, stating that only white males with a good portion of land could vote in the presidential election. Andrew Jackson thought this system was so unfair, he created a new way to govern the citizens of the newly formed United States.

Every since the turn of the 19th century, democracy, the core value and principle of the United Nations, has grown strong in many parts of Europe, North America, Latin America, and East Asia. However, many parts of the world still lay under authoritarian rule, and the change to democracy involves violent demonstrations and protests, riots and even civil wars. These violent transitions towards democracy result in an unstable foundation for the emerging democracies, especially when the country not only has to face the challenge of keeping their new government in check, but also enforce safety measures with subsequent planning to prevent a relapse into chaos and violence. The best option seems to be achieving independence by all means possible.