What where the consequences of Jackson's economics policies?

Answer 1

Andrew Jackson believed that planters, farmers, laborers, and mechanics were the "chosen class". He viewed industrialization as essential to the American economy, and saw the Bank of the United States as a monopoly of the rich. He was a firm believer in the use of "hard money" which means he was all about using gold and silver coins opposed to bank notes. He even went as far as to remove all of the federal government's funds from the Bank of the U.S. and put them in state banks which led to fall of the Bank. Four years before the Bank's charter was expired, the president of the Bank, Nicholas Biddle, put in for a new charter to expand the life of the bank, and although Congress approved his request Jackson vetoed it. The bank failed, and that led to the Panic of 1837.

His other economic policies led to the "Trail of Tears" where thousands of Native Americans from Georgia were forced to march to Oklahoma reservations with hundreds of them dying along the way. Looking back on this dark time in American history, it could almost be considered genocide of the Cherokee people.

Answer 2

1.) By helping kill the Bank of the United States, he effectively neutered any chance to moderate the Economic Cycle of booms and busts until after the Federal Reserve was established after the Depression. It also put the power in local and state banks - who often played less conservatively with their funds, which lead them to a stream of bank failures whenever the economy had a downturn.

2.) The spoils system, which Jackson meant to use to prevent bureaucratic entrenchment, ended up making every Federal jobholder beholden to political figures, which effectively increased corruption and often meant that jobs were held by political favorites, rather than anyone with actual skill. This system would later especially harm the Indians - as the various government contracts related to Indians were supplying horribly substandard product, which in turn led to Indian unrest...which lead to more Indian fighting.

3.) Jackson was not *against* the Indians - but he obviously understood that you couldn't have pockets of Indian land surrounded by white settlers, without an endless stream of problems where Federal troops would be forced to mediate between white squatters and Indians. It was very hard to expect Federal troops to fire on white squatters (who were violating the law) to protect Indian land rights.

By relocating Indians off Eastern land, he effectively ended the cycle of land speculation that had gripped the Eastern States since before the Revolution - where squatters and politicians were constantly trying to lay claims to land that was obviously Indian land, betting that the Government would enforce it. With most Indians tossed out except for those that had reservation, it gave a great deal of stability.

4.) Jackson's efforts to crush the Federalists helped the Democrats push for lower tariffs in 1832 and 1833, which greatly helped foreign trade, until Whigs passed a tariff act in 1842 (the Black Tariff) that knocked international trade with the US in half.