I’m taking a Jacksonian America class right now. I’m not a historian and this will probably be removed but I know a little bit about it!

Before Andrew Jackson became president, America underwent the Market Revolution which completely changed the way the workforce was organized. Before, everyone participated in subsistence living and all products were manufactured in the home. The type of system of manufacturing was called The Guild System. There was a master craftsmen, who was this patriarchal figure that was (as the name suggests) the master of his craft. He knew all the secrets of his trade and was extremely skilled in crafting his product. Silversmithing is a good example of one of the trades that required highly skilled master craftsmen. Master craftsmen were also in charge of training journeymen who were young men destined to learn the secrets of the trade. All of them, along with young children called apprentices lives in the master craftsmen’s house and carried out their work. As you can imagine, the relationships that developed were familial. Additionally, master craftsmen and journeymen were highly respect in their communities.

This all changed with the coming of the Transportation and Industrial Revolution. New factories for mass production meant that this old way of living was no longer profitable or efficient. Master craftsmen transformed into bosses of manufacturing operations and journeymen turned into employees on the assembly line. These jobs were extremely dull and didn’t pay as much since it didn’t require much skill to put a peg in a hole. Robbed of their respect, independence, homes, and sense of community, the journeymen devolved into the poorer working class. While the Market Revolution was an extremely progressive time in history, not everyone benefitted from it, in fact some suffered.

However the progress churned on and many people were in support of such changes, including those in politics. The Federalist Party is gone by this point, but they were the party who support these types of market changes including placing a high tariff on imported goods to protect domestic industry, they backed the federal support of internal improvements, and the establishment of a Bank of the United States. Democratic Republican, Henry Clay was a staunch supporter of these changes and introduced the American System which included all three points I mentioned above. Andrew Jackson was against these changes. He felt internal improvements, which would hasten the pace of progress, and the establishment of a Bank were corrupt because it meant more wealth into fewer hands.

All of this came to head in the Election of 1824. It was a toss up between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams. While Jackson had the majority of the popular vote and the electoral vote, he did not posses the plurality of electoral votes. This meant that the decision of “kingmaker” lay with Henry Clay. Clay was also running for president but by this point he was out. Clay gives the the vote to Adams and in return Adams gives Clay the Secretary of State position, a position that has been traditionally the stepping stone to the Presidency. Everyone is in an uproar and began calling this event the corrupt bargain, believing its corrupt for the president to be able to name his successor. In short, this idea of “corruption” in the government mobilized Jackson to organize the Democratic Party with the help of Martin Van Buren and he takes the Presidency in 1828. In retrospect it’s a bit ironic that this is how Jackson mobilized himself considering he introduces the spoils system into American Politics, but I digress.

Andrew Jackson was often called the hero of the common man and the reason he was so popular is because he was fighting the market forces that were impoverishing so many in the lower classes. Jackson refused to gun internal improvements because he felt the sped up market changes. He fervently believed that the changes did not benefit the majority and that they only benefitted a small number of elite. He believed that those like Henry Clay were fighting in the government for the benefit of the elites and at the expense of the people. To him this was refuting the virtue established by the founding fathers and was defined as corruption.

Andrew Jackson’s fight against corruption comes to a climax during the Bank War. At this point (1816-1832) the bank was regulating the U.S economy. It gave the country a universal currency, served as the bank for the federal government, and ensured that other banks were distributing notes with the currency to back it up. Yet, the bank was controlled by a very elite group of people and sometimes they have benefits to its supporters in Congress. Jackson absolutely hated the bank. He saw it as the symbol of corruption and sought to take it down. He believed that use of paper currency was irresponsible and wanted to convert paper into an all metal currency. Clay and the owner of the bank, Nicholas Biddle, decide to pass the banks recharter bill 2 years early in an effort to humiliate Jackson. They didn’t think he would actually veto the bill since the bank was at the center of the US economy. Well, he does and completely does away with the Bank of the United States.

To answer your last question, I would say no, Jackson did not purge the government of corruption. After the Bank is no more, Jackson creates what were called pet banks, pull all federal funds of the Bank, and deposits the funds into the pet banks. Holding the governments money is an extremely lucrative business. He ends up assigning party supporters, like Roger Taney, to control these banks and they make a lot of money of them. Furthermore, the number of banks increased rapidly and produced even more paper money than before which eventually leads to the Panic of 1837. During this whole process, Jackson creates the two party system and the spoils system. While he might have legitimate in his intentions, he arguably introduced the potential for more corruption into the government than what previously existed.

Hopefully I answered your question and I’m not wrong in any of this! If I am, feel free to let me know. I’m a history major with a great love for the subject and would hate to be giving out misinformation!

Edit: I got my info from the book Liberty and Power by Harry Watson.