Jacksonian Democracy and the Bank War
One of the things that made Andrew Jackson unique and contributed to the style and tone of the new political age was his commitment to the idea of democracy. By democracy, Jackson meant majoritarian rule. "The people are the government", he said, "administering it by their agents; they are the Government, the sovereign power". In his message to Congress he announced his creed: "The majority is to govern," he declared; and he repeated this commitment at every opportunity. He felt that the electorate should select all its officials in Washington, starting with the President. Jackson advocated a single term of either four or six years for the chief executive and he proposed this change to Congress. Jackson also felt that Senators should be elected to four-year terms by the people, not by the state legislatures. He would even have the electorate select its federal judges for terms of seven years which indicated his commitment to rotation of......
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Approximate Pages: 3 (260 words per double-spaced page) |