From 1828, when two-term Democratic president Andrew Jackson was first elected, to Republican Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860, an energetic and frequently rancorous brand of party politics formed part of the American scene.
Andrew Jackson was a military hero, known as an advocate for the interests of the common man, and a strong president. Determined to establish the sovereignty of the federal government over states' rights and the primary importance of the president within the governmental structure, Jackson used his veto power extensively and was known as "King Andrew" by his opponents. Jacksonian democracy — the political agenda expressed during his tenure in office and in Democratic politics up to the Civil War — included putting the Second Bank of the United States out of operation and attempting to return to a hard-money economy, opposing government-supported internal improvements, promoting minimal government, reforming bureaucracy through the introduction of rotation in office, and resisting government involvement in the growing controversy over slavery. Jackson's image as a champion of the people against the rich and corrupt made him tremendously popular. His appeal can be attributed in large part to widespread suspicion and resentment of the centralization of power and wealth in the hands of the elite, who had traditionally held both.
The democratizing impulse behind much of Jackson's program was counterbalanced by his enthusiasm for territorial expansion, his condemnation of abolition, and his culturally accepted disregard of Native American rights. The common man, whom he represented, was not sensitive to the plight of non-white inhabitants of the country. Those committed to abolition and social reform could not support Jackson in good conscience. Moreover, he had other opponents — for example, Southern aristocrats who bristled at his attitude toward states' rights.
