Andrew Jackson “the Common Man”

Sushmita Das

April 20, 2015

US 1 AP History

Mr. Sorensen- 7th 

                             Andrew Jackson “The Common Man”

        The “common man” was the beginning of The Corrupt Bargain of 1828. A common man is a person particularly from the middle class who is self- made and hardworking man. Jackson can relate to the common man because he grew up as an orphan on the frontier of who was uneducated. He was able to rise through masses and become an important political and military leader even through tough times and hard work. Also, while growing up on the frontier Andrew Jackson was able to battle of dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis, and lead poisoning from two bullets that he carried in his body from near fatal duels. To an extent, the period of the Common Man lived up to its characterization. The period of the Common Man lived up to its characterization because of economic development and politics.

        The period of the Common Man lived up to its characterization by economic development. The Bank of the United States was created in 1791, but President Andrew Jackson saw it as a corrupt association that only benefitted the upper class. So he weakened the impact and power of the bank by vetoing the recharger bill and remove all federal deposits from the vaults of the bank. After he removed the federal deposits from the bank he decided to place them in pet banks which were Pro-Jackson states banks but his efforts backfired because with a sober central bank in control the pet banks began to collapse. As a result President Jackson issued an executive order called the Specie Circular which was a required payment for government land to be in gold and silver.  This would cause the panic of 1837 to happen which brought major financial crisis that would result in economic difficulty for the common man.