Free Custom «Parties from Jackson to Polk» Essay Paper

In the history of America political parties have played a vital role of preserving and enhancing the America’s foundation. Andrew Jackson, an American politician, initiated the Jacksonian Democrats between 1829 and 1841. The main intention was to ensure that the United States principles and Constitution were highly maintained, and enhanced equality in terms of distribution of resources and economic opportunity of citizens. This equality was achieved regardless of the varying classes. Although the outside world may have perceived that the Jacksonian Democracy was focusing on the common citizens rights, the Native Americans were ignored. They were imposed to racial discrimination, inequality in resource distribution and their individual liberty rights were at risk.

During era of President Jackson, the Jacksonian Democracy was in full force. A political movement protected Constitution, as interpretation of constitution was strict. They eliminated the threat that might have harmed the Constitution and its principles. The movement was later to be adopted to be a party—Modern Democratic Party. The President’s fight for upholding the constitution was imminent when he vetoed for the recharter of the Bank of United States. He argued that the process was against the principles of the Constitution and that the public’s interest was at stake if the wealthy businesspersons are left to run the economy. Ideally, the bank of United States was perceived to be a devil that deprived freedom and justice of the common American Citizen (Britanica.com 3).

 

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Jacksonian democracy enhanced the strength of the executive branch and President at the expense of the esteemed Congress. It also sought to broaden the participation of the public in the government activities. As it preceded the Jeffersonian democracy, it adequately demonstrated the contrasting characteristics of the Democratic-Republican Party. Its policy on equal political policy, which was well known as Jacksonian Democracy, ended the monopoly of the few individuals that were described as “ruling elites.” Indeed, the policy focused on capability of all the individuals in the region to lead the country; whether educated or uneducated. The American citizens had equal opportunities of being heard by the society and discrimination was discouraged (Britanica.com 5).

In addition, as Jacksonian democracy preceded Jeffersonian era, it proved vital as most of the rules and laws governing the society were to be demarcated in order to realize a democratic society. As such, there was a demand for electing judges, not appointing them as in the case of Jeffersonian democracy and rewrite the state constitution in an attempt to incorporate the new values in the society. It favored the expansion of geographical boundaries. The Jacksonian Democrats era lasted between 1828 and 1850, from which the Third Party System emerged after reshaping of the American politics (Harris 299).

In changing of America, from Jeffersonian agrarianism to Jacksonian Democracy, Polk commenced his political career, first as a congressman from Tennessee and subsequently as a governor of the state. The political feud that was demonstrated between Polk and John Bell revealed much about the changing socioeconomic landscape of the state. The controversial 1844 Democratic Party convention that resulted in Polk’s presidential nomination is the subject of the United States democratic rights and practices.

As President, Polk involved his cabinet in every significant decision making process. This ensured that a single individual did not undertake the decision making as it would have led to biasness. Polk signaled his intentions immediately upon assuming the presidency in March 1845. Since its independence in 1836, Texas had sought admission to the United States, but Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin van Buren avoided the issue. This was one of the achievements that President Polk initiated upon being accorded the Presidential powers.

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In addition, President John Tyler had extracted from Congress a joint resolution for Texas’s annexation on the eve of the Polk Presidency. Polk could have undone Tyler’s work but did not pursue that course. Instead, Polk, who favored annexation, gained the approval for such action from every cabinet designee prior to the appointment. Immediately after becoming President, Polk dispatched Andrew Jackson Donelson on a mission to pave the road for Texas’s admission into the Union. If the effort failed, Polk could excuse himself for carrying out his predecessor’s congressionally approved policy. If he succeeded, which he did, Polk could claim credit (Korzi 265).

Ideally, the political perception between President Polk and President Jackson was confusing. The voters were left in a dilemma on the sudden change of events. For instance, Polk was brought up under the Jacksonian Democracy. Both Jackson and Polk spearheaded the initiative in which the modern Democratic Party undertook. However, after the fall of President Jackson, Polk claimed that the strategies undertaken by Jackson were discriminative and did not encompass the needs of the citizens. His mandates were to incorporate equality among all the citizens. The first instance was to incorporate Texas State into one of the U.S. states. As such, voters were not able to understand the new philosophies that President Polk had enacted.