The Aftermath and Jacksonian Ideology
The aftermath of the war of 1812 saw a dramatic shift in American politics and ideology as America saw its ideological system begin to dramatically shift for the first time in its history. The war made Andrew Jackson a household name and using this momentum he decided to expand his political career and he became a very popular statesman and senator, until he decided to run for president, which he won.
The Jacksonian ideology would quickly take hold across the country and it differed quite a bit from the Revolutionary ideology. One major difference was the Jacksonian ideology catered a lot more towards the common man and during his presidency Jackson made it a point to extend the ability to vote to all white men in the nation regardless of financial status and place in society. This differs from the Revolutionary ideology due to the right to vote being limited to the wealthy social elites of the US and barring anyone else.1 The focus of the common man was one of the central themes of the Jacksonian ideology.
Also in the near aftermath of the war, many of the old values of the revolution started to die out and the Jacksonian ideals poured in, for example expansionist ideals as manifest destiny would become another major factor and argument in American politics,2 and to a lesser degree the Native American question as well, which would eventually lead into the trail of tears.
Many of the Jacksonian policies can be attributed to the increase of American nationalism during and following the war. Also during this period the powers of the president were significantly increased and centralized and in turn they didn’t have to cooperate with congress as much.3 Economic factors also had key differences as the Revolutionaries had a much more centralized banking system and the Jacksonians distrusted it and Jackson throughout his presidency would gradually take power away from the banks which ultimately backfired as it was a big contributing factor to the panic of 1837.4
1Ashworth, John. 1980. “The Jacksonian as Leveller.” Journal of American Studies 14 (3): 407–21. https://doi.org/10.2307/27553891.
2“Unshackling America : How the War of 1812 Truly Ended the American Revolution : Randall, Willard Sterne, Author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” 2017. Internet Archive. 2017. https://archive.org/details/unshacklingameri0000rand/page/456/mode/2up.
3 Ashworth. 10
4 Ashworth. 10