Did the spoils system make Andrew Jackson a hero or tyrant?
1 Answer
A tyrant to the democratic process. and a hero to the populists that had elected Andrew Jackson.
Explanation:
The positions in the government had been given to members of the elite before the election of Andrew Jackson. The previous administration had justified the appointment of the elite of which they were a part on the basis of that the elite were the most qualified to run the government.
When Andrew Jackson won the election he fired most of the existing employees of the federal government. Andrew Jackson then appointed his friends and supporters to the positions in the federal government.
The complaint was that the people he appointed were not qualified for the positions that they were appointed to in the federal government. This complaint was valid Jackson did not consider qualifications only loyalty to himself and his policies. These were the actions of a tyrant.
However removing the monopoly the elite had acquired on bureaucracy of the federal government, made the Andrew Jackson a hero to the common people. What Andrew Jackson did was a balance to the previous abuses of the democratic process of the past. The way Andrew Jackson did this was the action of a tyrant.
