Quotes of American History: Andrew Jackson on Financial Speculators

"The failures that are now taking place are amongst the stock-jobbers, brokers, and gamblers, and would to God, they were all swept from the land!" - Andrew Jackson

General Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States and the first to hail from the Democratic Party.

As evidenced by the quote above (found in The Age of Jackson, p.109), Jackson saw himself as a representative of the common man and as an enemy of the privileged class. He advocated for an elimination of restrictions to the vote based on property or wealth. Nothing exemplifies his hatred of the elite more than his war against the Second Bank of the United States, which he succeeded in destroying. This was perhaps the most dominant political issue of the 1830s.

Jackson is also the man responsible for the brutality of the Trail of Tears, which was declared expressly unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The decision in this case was completely ignored by President Jackson, giving life to the notion that he was a wanton demagogue when at his worst.