Newspaper Article

A Commoner's Rowdy Ride To the White House

Lowenstein, Roger

2005

Overview

Always, geography was determinative of [Andrew Jackson]'s politics. Mr. Brands reminds us that in the early 19th century, the central divide in America was still between East and West, not North and South. While the federal government struck treaties that ceded land to Native Americans, Jackson was more interested in security and territory for the ever-increasing white population. The first commoner to reach the White House, Jackson was essentially elected as a democratizer to complete the Revolution begun by Virginia planters. Unfortunately, even as president, he was unable to outgrow his Westernism. He declined to enforce a Supreme Court decision defending the rights of Cherokees to remain in Georgia. And despite -- or perhaps because of -- his limited knowledge of economics, Jackson sought to destroy the Second Bank of the United States, setting off a war with the bank president and ultimately a national financial panic. Jackson's ability to inspire troops, his fortitude and his courage cannot be disputed, nor can his popularity with ordinary citizens. It is fair to say that he synthesized his frontier background and hatred of British royalty into a more democratic style than that of his predecessors. But as Mr. Brands concedes, it was an emotional synthesis, not truly thought out. Despite his devotion to the Union, Jackson never accepted the primacy of the Supreme Court over the legislative and executive branches, exposing an intellectual shallowness. His biographer makes the case for Jackson as a tribune of ''the people,'' a predecessor of Lincoln, but a case that Jackson was a dangerous demagogue, a general-turned-president with Napoleonic leanings, could be made as well.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times / Biographies / Books-titles / Brands, H W / Jackson, Andrew (1767-1845) / Nonfiction