American History

Thomas Jefferson was the third president (18011809) of the United States of America Andrew Jackson was the seventh president (18291837).  Both Presidents are important figures in the History of the United States and Jefferson not simply because he was the primary writer for the Declaration of Independence. 

The Indian removal program was a program that was extremely controversial initiated by Jefferson and supported and finally brought into law by Jackson.   Jeffersons plan was to allow the Native Indians to remain east of the Mississippi as long as they became assimilated with white Americans.  The idea was that they gave up their traditional lifestyles for a more European culture.

The expectation was that this would mean they would become dependant economically concerning trade with white Americans and therefore willing to give up desirable land for white American settlement and for agricultural purposes in exchange for goods.    The Indian Removal program was also a major part of Jacksons presidency.  After his 1828 election he signed the Removal Act bringing it into law in 1830.  The act enabled the president to negotiate treaties to purchase lands further east, lands that were outside of the then existing borders of the US state borders further west.

With respect to the Federal Reserve, Thomas Jefferson gave a warning, stating
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. 2
Andrew Jackson, vetoed legislation in 1831, which would have extended the charter of the Second Bank of the United States. In 1833, he announced that the U.S. Treasury would no longer deposit federal funds at the bank. Like Jefferson, Jackson warned that allowing a central bank to hold sway, by manipulation of the nations currency, would push the people into a world of perpetual debt, while enriching the fortunes of a small minority of people. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank, in 1913, that is exactly what has happened.

Both presidents also had major events occurring during their presidencies.  During Jeffersons second administration the Tripolitan War concluded.  The war had seen a newly created U.S. Navy fighting their first engagements.  President Jefferson despite his misgivings of Congresses rights to buy land sent expeditions to explore the Louisiana Territory and bought Louisiana in 1803.  This purchase doubled the size of the United States of America.  

President Jackson is the only President in the history of the United States to have paid off the national debt.  In 1835 he managed to reduce the debt to 33,733.05 the lowest it had ever been since the beginning of the nation 3. 

The Nullification Crisis occurred during Jacksons presidency involving claims that the Tariffs on 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and consequently was null and void within South Carolina.  President Jackson asked congress to pass a Force Bill which would enable and authorize the use of military force to enforce the tariff.  He declared the state of South Carolina was on the brink of treason he said The Constitution... forms a government not a league... To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States is not a nation.

Both presidents left legacies and both presidents go down in the history of the United States of America as men of influence.   Both men had successes and failures as head of a foundling nation and both men had policies that were controversial.  Andrew Jacksons legacy is mixed, he was a protector of democracy and liberty yet supported the Indian Removal Program and supported slavery.   He was the first President to be involved in the American frontier. Jefferson was a Founding Father of the Nation a primary writer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America and for those alone will stand in history as one of the greatest Presidents in the history of the United States of America.