What is your opinion of the philosophy, or more specifically, the Jacksonian Democrats and Jackson themselves?
He was a jackass. What more is there to say? Other than his 'democracy' was a tad bit lacking in 'democratic features'.
I'm guessing this is homework help... Jackson was an ardent supporter of state's rights and a proponent of a very federal system and very presidential president. But in practice, he was the opposite of all those things. The Democrats who rallied to Jackson did so not because they had a cohesive ideology, but because the first party system was utterly inadequate (produced the corrupt bargain) and Jackson personally demanded their participation. The opposition (Whigs) wasn't united by a cohesive political ideology either, but rallied around Clay, and were only made serious competitors because of the Bank War. The ideology of the parties developed over time, and was driven by competition for popular support, with each party taking the polar opposite stance of its opponent. While at first a non-issue, the spoils system became a hallmark of the second party system. Initially it was used as a means of cementing party support, but would later become significantly less political. Popular democracy in general developed in the second party system, and Jackson himself was probably the biggest individual instigator behind the trend.
Jackson is my favorite US president and I'd rank him as among the top three presidents we've had, but the second party system, including the Democrats, I'm not a big fan of.
I'm not sure where I'd place him, over all I think he was pretty good. My top two are Jefferson and Cleveland, what were your top two beside Jackson?
I'd put him in the top... twelve, just because of his more than slight abuse of presidential powers, and the fact he is the sole cause of the crisis of 1848 (i think it was).
I don't really know about his good points, but having read about his bad points I'm astounded he made it onto the twenty dollar bill.
