America’s Misunderstood Presidents, Part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1829-1837

 

Andrew Jackson, our sixth president, is considered by most to be the most consequential president between Jefferson and Lincoln. In his time he was lauded as “The Hero of the People,” the champion of “the common man” in an age of expanding political democracy. He took bold action on a number of fronts—resulting in titanic fights with Congress and the courts over the tariff, banking, internal improvements, and Indian policy. Encompassing all of these is Jackson’s effect on the presidency itself, through which the balance of power within the federal government was permanently altered  expanding the power of the Executive Branch.