Discuss Andrew Jackson's major beliefs regarding the common man, the presidency, and the proper role of government in the nation's economy.

Andrew
Jackson came from a relatively humble background and played it up at every opportunity. It
became the defining component of his public image right throughout his political career. Jackson
presented himself as a man of the people, fighting for the interests of the little guy against
the wealthy East coast banking and commercial elite. This largely explains Jackson's implacable
hostility towards any kind of Federal Bank. He believed that such an institution existed only to
make the banking elite richer and more powerful, while at the same time making life hard for the
farmers and small businessmen who formed the bedrock of his electoral support.

Jackson, like the Jeffersonian he was, was a firm believer in the primacy of states'
rights. He believed in the radical decentralization of power that was the main ideological
inheritance of American republicanism. This meant that he was deeply...