Did labor support Andrew Jackson

Answer 1

The labor movement represented by the early 19th Century "working classes" divided in the presidential elections of Jackson's time. Jackson did not cultivate the old "Working Men's" parties. In 1834 he sent federal trooops to suppress a threatened strike on the C&O Canal. Where labor felt they had lost status, they voted Democratic. Where workers felt social mobility worked and they could better themselves, they voted Whig. This was still a time of casting ballots "vive voce" before the secret ballot, so prominent men had influence they would not have later. Some labor became Whigs following their protectionist tariff policies and public schooling and self-improvement movements. In the 1830s labor in cities generally voted for Whigs. Master mechanics could still raise capital to become owners. And the inventions, innovations and operations that led to the "American System" of manufacturing were contributed by the American worker. Public school replaced apprenticeship. But over time, the "industrial working-class" labor became predominantly Jackson Democratic in the 1840s, following their white men's expansionist republic and hard money policies. During the bank crisis, paper notes were easily counterfeited, and working men would most often find their wages paid in worthless bank script. Corporations were "privileged" organizations which required chartering by self-interested majorities in state legislatures. In labor competition, labor were anti-'black', in land competition they were anti-'Indian' as were the Jacksonian Democrats. See Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815-1848, and Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy.