King Andrew the First

This cartoonist illustrates the controversy of President Andrew Jackson's "abuse" of the veto. A veto is a right given to the president, that the first 6 presidents only used a total of 10 times and Jackson by himself used 12 times. Seven of those 12 were pocket vetoes, meaning instead of addressing the bill Jackson just let the bill die on his desk with out writing a statement on it. Jackson used some of these vetoes not because he didn't believe in the bills, but for political gains. The veto was meant to be used only when a President truly believed the bill will not benefit our country. But Jackson used it for more than just that, and for his pocket vetoes he didn't bring any reasons forward for the bills dismissal. The cartoon shows Jackson as the king because the cartoonist must have felt that the President wielded all the power. Though the President could not pass any bill he wanted to, he could stop any bill from being passed. In a democratic country the cartoonist must have felt like they were ruled in a similar fashion to a monarchy. I think that Jackson represented many democratic ideals and brought democracy further for the individual person, but overall he still retained all the power with the veto. He deserves the "people's president" reputation because he did bring the people more power and expanded their right to vote. But technically the people vote for their congressmen and senators, and the statesmen are the one who may not consider Jackson the "statesmen's president" because Jackson used the veto for freely and with out consideration.