Why Was Andrew Jackson Controversial

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In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected the seventh president of the United States. As an accomplished war hero, he was the popular choice of many Americans at the time due to his success at the Battle of New Orleans and conquest of Florida. Although he was elected president for two terms, he proved to make some poor decisions that split America between his supporters and opposition. Andrew Jackson’s opinions and actions on the elite, Native Americans, and expansion of voting rights made him divisive and yet popular, because these topics were very controversial at the time, resulting in gained support from some and dislike from others.

During Jackson’s two presidential terms and in the years prefacing them, voting rights for Americans were …show more content…
When the first settlers came to America it was already populated by natives. As the colonists settled towns and expanded west they pushed the Native Americans further and further west, and in the 1800’s the Americans continued to do so. One major example of Jackson’s actions to remove the natives involved the supreme court case Worcester vs. Georgia. In which a U.S citizen named Samuel Worcester went to court to defend the rights of the Cherokee nation situated in what is now the state of Georgia. The court ruled that the Cherokee were a separate nation and that Georgia laws had no jurisdiction on their land. Despite this ruling Andrew Jackson made no effort to enforce it, being accredited to saying “ Now let [John Marshall] enforce it”. This decision lead to the exile of the Cherokee people, the Trail of Tears, and loss of support from many Americans. Most frontiersman supported the removal of Native Americans as it prevented fighting along the borderland and opened up land to be available for further expansion, but those like Samuel Worcester who saw the acts to be cruel and unconstitutional, saw Jackson as a

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