Andrew Jackson Was Horrible

Alex Kramer

Essay

If there is a definition of the phrase, "Horrible President," the first two words you read are Andrew Jackson. His bad decisions surely outweighed his good by an unknown scale. Put together his violent, forceful attitude with his inability to let things go and you've got a terrible match. People say your actions define who a person is, and his moves as the lead of our country certainly defined him.

Jackson's first mistake was turning a part of our country against us! By raising tariffs the British trade went down. The South was forced to buy expensive goods from the North. Southerners felt as if northerners were becoming rich at their expense. In 1832, South Carolina finally had enough of it. They declared the tariffs nullified and threatened secession if any tax collectors came around. The President's violent attitude caught up with him and he threatened to hang John C. Calhoun and send troops to South Carolina. Finally, in 1833, a Force Bill was passed which said that the army could get involved in the situation now. If Henry Clay did not come up with the compromise of lowering taxes slightly for 10 years, Andrew Jackson would have started the Civil War 30 years early.

Many people would agree that the Indian Removal Act was one of the cruelest things our country has ever done. Guess who was behind that grand scheme. He even pressured the Choctaw to sign a treaty that forced them selves out of Mississippi. For the rest he sent troops to forcibly eradicate the Sauk and Fox from Illinois and Missouri and kicked the Chickasaw out of Alabama and Mississippi. He sent them all out west. The only Indians who put up a fight were the Cherokees. Their case went to the Supreme Court in Worcester vs. Georgia and they won because they were a political community who Georgia was not allowed to take land from. So what does Jackson

...