Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States of America.
~Waits a moment for that to sink in~
And I'm American so I'm not someone bashing on the USA. I think its time someone brought up someone not so obvious and put it out here in the open next to all the easy choices. Not sure how much of this you will think is evil, or poor personal choices of a man, or stupid government leadership run out of hand.
Jackson is full of contradictions. He fought in the Revolutionary War when he was 13 years old, only later to uses the skills he learned in battle to kill a man over a gambling debt. He led the American army to one of the most surprising victory in its history in the Battle of New Orleans. In the same vein, he also launched an unauthorized invasion of Florida. Jackson owned more than a hundred black Americans, but was also the first great champion of the common white man. Jackson dramatically expanded the United States, yet did so by brutally wresting vast regions of the south from Native Americans. Finally, Jackson, in one of the boldest political strokes in history, founded the Democratic Party, but his enemies viewed him as an American Napoleon. Now I'm not saying here I'm a Republican either. I'm against all Parties for what they do.
My own problem with the founding of the Democratic Party goes back before Andrew Jackson to the first President. George Washington warns against the party system in his farewell address, and so far his words have been true.
The following was part of his Farewell Address Published in The Independent Chronicle ? September 26, 1796
"It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration....agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one....against another....it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption...thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another." ~ George Washington
Andrew Jackson harshly forced Native Americans out of their homes. He started wars with some of the tribes in order to get them to move west, such as the Cherokees, 17,000 of which were forced west by the army. Black Hawk was an Indian Tribe chief, who led a war to keep from moving west, against the Americans. The Native Americans were forced west on the Trail of Tears, where many died. It was a harsh journey, where barely dressed Native Americans often froze to death. This a terrible choice made by our ex-president, Andrew Jackson.
One of Jacksons many other terrible choices was the spoils system. This allowed a president to replace government workers with people who were loyal to the office holder?s political party; whoever they want. This is terrible, because many qualified workers will lose their hard earned jobs. Also, the other half of the country will be ignored, because only one of the two political parties will be able to voice their opinions. Also, the new people will not have the experience that the old workers had, resulting in lower quality work being done by the new workers. Finally, frequent turnovers will result in instability. As soon as someone becomes used to their job, they will be fired and replaced. This is another bad choice as a result of Jackson?s presidency.
