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Biographies: Jackson, Van Buren, and Harrison
President Andrew Jackson
The election of the seventh President, Andrew Jackson, in 1828 is said
to be the first modern election of our time. It was the first election
where the personalities of each candidate were the issues.
Mr. Jackson attacked John Adam's as "not a man of democracy" and an
aristocrat. Adams attacked Jackson calling him a drunkard and pointed out
that Jackson lived with his wife two years before he married her. Despite
this, Jackson was a great public speaker and captured the popular vote--you
could say voters voted with their heart.
Between the popularity, and strategically campaigning in high
electorial voting states, Jackson won the election. Jackson also promised
to improve expansion westward (which won him some votes, I'm sure)--and he
did--beginning an expansion that would reach it's peak over the next two
presidents also. There were two major reasons which made people expand the
country during Jackson's presidency the silver & gold believed to be in the
areas near Mexico, and also bankers accumulated so much money from material
from the west that money became inflated--which encouraged people to move
west to escape this growing inflation.
Martin Van Buren
Van Buren was the next president who had to face the horrible economic
conditions began during Jackson's presidency. In 1836 Van Buren was
elected president, this time I think voters used their heads and knew Van
Buren was the only candidate really ready to face the economic conditions.
Soon after Van Buren took over there a depression began, This was a
time when virtually everyone was poorer. Many people blamed Van Buren for
the Depression because he was president at the time, but it wasn't really
his fault. Van Buren made a long term solution by creating "The
independent Treasury Bill", which in essence took away the banks dominant
control of the countries money. This might seem insignificant, but helped
people have more control of there country and ultimately led to more
expansion.
William H. Harrison
In the election of William H. Harrison it was again a time when the
characters of each candidate mattered. People generally were mad at the
Democrats at this time and were looking for another president (similar with
Clinton, today). The Whigs (later known as the Republicans), used
Harrison's "War Hero" past to sell him, and said "Harrison preferred life
in a Log Cabin to the White house" (which was very ironic, since Harrison
had never been in a Log Cabin and came from a rich family).
This election proved people could easily vote from their heart above
their head. This election is also used a lot as a chief example of why the
electorial system today doesn't work: Under the popular vote Harrison only
had 53%, but as electorial Harrison clobbered Van Buren with 234 to 60!
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