Jacksonian Democracy Essay

Since the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence became “one of the most important American state papers, cited repeatedly by political leaders, activists, and commentators in the United States and in the wider world” (Kazin 142). It was prepared to create not only a democratic political system independent of the British Empire but also a democratic culture of equal liberty and social equality. “Enlightenment-era natural law” as one of the “major strains of early modern Anglophone political thought” can be observed in the document (144). According to this philosophy any individual possesses rights innately. The Americans based their Declaration on “the violations of their rights and liberties that had occurred in the previous

two to three years” (145). The sentences in this document have performed as the building blocks of American democracy. Its second sentence reads, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” At the time it was declared and until a long time after that Native Americans, people without property, women and especially black slaves were not considered equal to white male owners. Statements such as this, in fact, became the goal and the ideal of U.S. democracy toward which the American society initiated its gradual movement.
On September 17, 1787 the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established to “secure the Blessings of Liberty” to people of the United States. It gave huge percentage of the population the right to vote. Although it ignored women, slaves and African-Americans, it was a huge step toward creating a democratic society in its own context. On September 25, 1789, a packet of 12 constitutional amendments was sent to the states. “When Virginia finally ratified on December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights officially became part of the Constitution” (Feldman 68). The amendments limited governmental power and protected basic rights and liberties of citizens. “Over time, these amendments came to be known collectively as the Bill of Rights, and their adoption is generally portrayed as a critical concluding act in the story of constitutional reform that began with the Federal Convention of 1787” (Kazin 34). According to the Bill the government could not deprive a citizen of life, liberty, or property without “due process of law.” It “guaranteed that the new national government could not limit free speech, interfere with religious worship, deny U.S. citizens the right to keep or bear arms, force the quartering of troops in private homes, or allow homes to be searched without proper search warrants” (Berkin et al. 196-197). It represented the democratic will of the new nation.
Jeffersonian democracy was a leading political movement in the United States from the 1790s to the 1820s. Led by President Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), it was a movement for more democracy in the government. Jefferson himself was not a political philosopher. He borrowed the ideas included in the movement from such philosophers as Montesquieu (1689–1755), Voltaire (1694–1778), and Plato. The most influential philosopher was the English thinker John Locke (1632–1704). Jeffersonian Democracy underscored the “natural” rights of men, the role of government, and the separation of church and state. As explained in his Inaugural Address Jefferson was an advocate of religious freedom, freedom of the press and other constitutional protections. During his terms (1801–1809) Jefferson protected civil liberties and minority rights. Jefferson also committed his presidency to limiting the size of the federal government. He believed that a weaker central government would increase people’s power and lead to a more democratic society. It was the result of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. According to this political outlook, a government’s power comes from people and it is supposed to protect their rights. People may and should overthrow the government when it fails to do so. This political philosophy supported the separation of church and state; according to Jeffersonian democracy the intermingling of the two would result in the corruption of both.
The Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the House of Representatives on February 4, 1793 by a vote of 48–7 with 14 abstaining. Eight days later, the Act was approved by Congress. Although the Article four of the U.S. Constitution granted the slave masters the rights to recapture slaves who fled to free states, “the Fugitive Slave Law included new and harsher provisions mandating the participation of northern states and individuals in the recapture process and curtailing the rights of alleged fugitives to prove they were not runaways” (Kazin 492). Many, either white or black, reacted to this Act, especially in the North. Some states even passed personal-liberty laws to allow fugitive slaves to appeal their case in a court. The “underground railroad” was established in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act. “The term Underground Railroad can be traced to about 1830, when a slaveholder traveling through Ohio with his slaves saw them all escape their bondage and complained that one of them had “gone off on an underground road” (Mancall et al., 5: 397). It was neither underground nor a railroad; it was, in fact, a system in which African-American slaves from the South escaped to places of safety in the North or in British North America. Those involved with system employed railway vocabulary such as stations and conductors to describe how it worked. It was underground because its activities had to be carried out in secret, using darkness or disguise. The runaway slaves were secretly helped, fed and kept by abolitionists and sympathetic Northerners, black and white. Abolitionist Robert Purvis (1810–1898) of Philadelphia becomes its unofficial president.
“Age of Jacksonian Democracy” and the “Era of the Common Man” lasted from the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) until the slavery issue became dominant after 1850.

Several subsequent presidents, Martin Van Buren (1782–1862), William Henry Harrison (1773–1841), John Tyler (1790–1862) and James Knox Polk (1795–1849), were influential in the era. Symbolized by Jackson and his supporters, Jacksonian democracy was a political movement toward greater rights for the common man. The movement followed Jeffersonian democracy. Jacksonian democracy was more radical than Jeffersonian democracy. Jackson called himself the “champion of the common people”. Jacksonian democracy fought any signs of aristocracy in the nation. Prior to the Jacksonian democracy, only male property owners were eligible to vote in many states. The law made it possible for the rich to control everything. During the Jacksonian era, “the common man, freed from the restraints of property qualifications, participated in increasingly larger numbers and thereby shaped both politics and parties” (Fredriksen vii). In the new era, the suffrage, almost everywhere, was extended to all white male adult citizens. As the result of the civil rights reforms, the secret written ballot also became almost universal. Jackson was also in favor of direct voting of officials and judges. In contrast to the Jeffersonian era, that advocated a weak government as a means of creating a more democratic society, Jacksonian democracy supported strong presidency and executive branch. However, the latter strongly advocated the public's participation in government. Jackson believed that Congress represented the interests of the wealthy; therefore, he tried to decrease the power of Congress. Meanwhile, he increased the power of the presidency as the representative of the common man. As the president, he increased the use of the veto to defeat the Congress. It was Jackson, indeed, who officially stated for the first time that “The

President is the direct representative of the American people” (qtd. in Wolosky 370).
Nat Turner (1800–1831) led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831. It was called the Nat Turner's Rebellion or the Southampton Insurrection. It turned out to be the deadliest slave rebellion in American history. Nat Turner was not only after his own freedom but to abolish the entire tyrannical system of slavery and unshackle African Americans from the bounds of white tyranny. He became a religious preacher and believed that he had been selected by God to free enslaved people from oppression. Rebel slaves, led by Nat Turner, murdered some sixty whites, children among them. Harris believes that the revolt “marked the turning point in the black struggle for liberation” and that “only a cataclysmic act could convince the architects of a violent social order that violence begets violence” (Harris 46). The rebellion was effectively suppressed within a few days. Widespread fear among the whites was the immediate outcome of the revolt. White militias tried to retaliate against slaves. In total, the state executed fifty-six blacks accused of being involved in the uprising. But in the hysteria of aroused fears and anger in the days following the rebellion many non-participant slaves were also punished. Militias and mobs killed at least 100 blacks, and possibly up to 200, many of whom had nothing to do with the uprising. Although the state legislature of Virginia considered abolishing slavery, in a close vote it decided to reinforce slavery through prohibiting the movement, assembly, and education of slaves. Across the South, state legislatures passed new laws to support a repressive policy against black people, slave and free.