andrew jackson research paper

Following a brilliant military career that brought him to national attention and set in motion the “Old Hickory” legend, Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828. From the beginning, he stamped the highest office with his wildly individualistic character, feuding bitterly not only with enemies but his own cabinet, calling for sweeping reforms in government, and committing to a strong union while at the same time effectively terminating the Bank of the United States. A champion of the common man who nonetheless remains a contentious figure in human rights, Jackson encompasses America’s contradictions unlike anyone else, and left the presidency forever changed.

This fully annotated and searchable XML-based archive collects Jackson’s papers in one powerful online resource and is interoperable with Rotunda editions covering the most important personages of the nation’s early history.

Rotunda editions were established by generous grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the President’s Office of the University of Virginia

Portrait of Andrew Jackson by Ralph E. W. Earl, ca. 1834 Credit: Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, Nashville, TN

National Historical Publications & Records Commission

The Papers of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson by Thomas Sully (attributed). Courtesy U.S. Senate.

University of Tennessee

Additional information at http://thepapersofandrewjackson.utk.edu/

A comprehensive edition of the papers of Andrew Jackson (1767 –1845), seventh President of the United States, serving 1829-1837. Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) and the British at the Battle of New Orleans (1815). As president he dismantled the Second Bank of the United States and initiated forced relocation and resettlement of Native American tribes from the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River. His enthusiastic followers created the modern Democratic Party. The 1830–1850 period later became known as the era of Jacksonian democracy. The NHPRC also funded a microfilm edition gathered from 600 public and private repositories around the world that supplements the Andrew Jackson documents reproduced in National Archives microfilm publications and the Jackson papers assembled and microfilmed in the Library of Congress Presidents’ Series in 1967. 39 reels, 343-page guide.

Ten volumes completed of a planned 17-volume edition.

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The Rise of Andrew Jackson: Myth, Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Politics

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William K. Bolt, The Rise of Andrew Jackson: Myth, Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Politics, Journal of American History , Volume 106, Issue 3, December 2019, Pages 759–760, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaz566

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After he completed the three-volume Life of Andrew Jackson (1984), Robert V. Remini drafted a biography on Henry Clay. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler have reversed the process. After finishing a work on Clay, the Heidlers have turned their attention to Jackson. In The Rise of Andrew Jackson , the Heidlers analyze Jackson's rise from obscurity to his election as the seventh president of the United States.

Jackson rose to prominence as a result of the efforts of his supporters, whom the Heidlers dub Jacksonites. This group differed from Jacksonians in that Jacksonians concerned themselves with policy victories and Jacksonites cared only about winning elections. Jacksonites saw the Hero of New Orleans as a means to advance their own political fortunes. These men found ways to link Jackson to ordinary Americans because they, like Jackson, and the mass of people “did not know it was uncouth to go to the first party of the season, but they did know something about paying bills and keeping promises” (p. 142). Jacksonites created a campaign organization that responded to smears against Jackson. Any attack on Jackson was an attack on them all. “There is freedom of speech here but if any man says anything agin Andy Jackson we send daylight through him,” one Jackson supporter announced (p. 180). In their efforts to avenge Jackson's defeat in the House of Representatives in 1825, Jacksonites mythologized Jackson and ushered in a form of modern politics.

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The papers of Andrew Jackson

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Andrew Jackson: Impact and Legacy

Andrew Jackson left a permanent imprint upon American politics and the presidency. Within eight years, he melded the amorphous coalition of personal followers who had elected him into the country's most durable and successful political party, an electoral machine whose organization and discipline would serve as a model for all others. At the same time, his controversial conduct in office galvanized opponents to organize the Whig party. The Democratic party was Jackson's child; the national two-party system was his legacy.

Jackson's drive for party organization was spurred by his own difficulties with Congress. Unlike other famously strong Presidents, Jackson defined himself not by enacting a legislative program but by thwarting one. In eight years, Congress passed only one major law, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, at his behest. During this time Jackson vetoed twelve bills, more than his six predecessors combined. One of these was the first "pocket veto" in American history. The Maysville Road and Bank vetoes stood as enduring statements of his political philosophy.

Jackson strengthened himself against Congress by forging direct links with the voters. His official messages, though delivered to Congress, spoke in plain and powerful language to the people at large. Reversing a tradition of executive deference to legislative supremacy, Jackson boldly cast himself as the people's tribune, their sole defender against special interests and their minions in Congress. In other ways, too, Jackson expanded the scope of presidential authority. He dominated his cabinet, forcing out members who would not execute his commands. In two terms he went through four secretaries of state and five secretaries of the treasury. Holding his official subordinates at arm's length, Jackson devised and implemented his policies through a private coterie of advisers and publicists known as the "Kitchen Cabinet." His bold initiatives and domineering style caused opponents to call him King Andrew, and to take the name of Whigs to signify their opposition to executive tyranny.

Jackson was no deep thinker, but his matured policy positions did bespeak a coherent political philosophy. Like Jefferson, he believed republican government should be simple, frugal, and accessible. He cherished the extinction of the national debt during his administration as a personal triumph. Believing that social cleavages and inequities were fostered rather than ameliorated by governmental intervention, he embraced laissez-faire as the policy most conducive to economic equality and political liberty.

Jackson was both a fiery patriot and a strident partisan. Regarding the national union as indivisible and perpetual, he denounced nullification and secession while reproving policies like the tariff which fostered sectional divisiveness. His aggressive Indian removal policy and his espousal of cheaper western land prices reflected his nationalism's grounding in the southwestern frontier. Jackson's powerful personality played an instrumental role in his presidency. He indulged in violent hatreds, and the extent to which his political positions reflected mere personal animus is still debated. Jackson demonized many of those who crossed him, including John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Bank of the United States president Nicholas Biddle, and Cherokee Indian chief John Ross. Jackson's own character polarized contemporaries and continues to divide historians. Some praise his strength and audacity; others see him as vengeful and self-obsessed. To admirers he stands as a shining symbol of American accomplishment, the ultimate individualist and democrat. To detractors he appears an incipient tyrant, the closest we have yet come to an American Caesar.

Daniel Feller

Professor of History; Editor, The Andrew Jackson Papers University of Tennessee

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Andrew jackson presidency page, andrew jackson essays, life in brief, life before the presidency, campaigns and elections, domestic affairs, foreign affairs, life after the presidency, family life, the american franchise, impact and legacy (current essay).

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New Gig Work or Changes in Reporting? Understanding Self-Employment Trends in Tax Data

Rising self-employment rates in U.S. tax data that are absent in survey data have led to speculation that tax records capture a rise in new “gig” work that surveys miss. Drawing on the universe of IRS tax returns, we show that trends in firm-reported payments to “gig” and other contract workers do not explain the rise in self-employment reported to the IRS; rather, that increase is driven by self-reported earnings of individuals in the EITC phase-in range. We isolate pure reporting responses from real labor supply responses by examining births of workers’ first children around an end-of-year cutoff for credit eligibility that creates exogenous variation in tax rates at the end of the tax year after labor supply decisions are already sunk. We find that ex-posing workers with sunk labor supply to negative marginal tax rates results in large increases in their propensity to self-report self-employment—only a small minority of which leads to bunching at kink-points. Consistent with pure strategic reporting behavior, we find no impact on reporting among taxpayers with no incentive to report additional income and no effects on firm-reported payments of any kind. Moreover, we find these reporting responses have grown over time as knowledge of tax incentives has become widespread. Quantification exercises suggest that changes in taxpayer reporting behavior are a major driver of discrepancies between self-employment trends in self-reported and third-party reported data. Our findings suggest caution is warranted before deferring to self-reported tax data over other data sources when measuring labor market trends.

We are grateful to Katharine Abraham, Dan Black, Naomi Feldman, John Guyton, Lawrence Katz, Elira Kuka, Kara Leibel, Alicia Miller, Bruce Meyer, Jacob Mortenson, Max Risch, Michael Weber, Andy Whitten, Eleanor Wilking, and seminar participants at the Office of Tax Analysis at the US Treasury, the National Tax Association meetings, MIT Sloan, and the Census Bureau for helpful discussions. We thank Emmanuel Saez for providing us with code used to implement the calculations in Chetty, Friedman, Saez (2013) in the restricted-access administrative data. We are grateful to the Russell Sage Foundation and the Sloan Foundation for generous support, and to Reigne Dadey for excellent research assistance. Garin gratefully acknowledges support from the OECD Future of Work Fellowship and from the Sloan Foundation for a post-doctoral fellowship at NBER during which part of this research was conducted. Jackson gratefully acknowledges support from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation for a post-doctoral fellowship at NBER during which part of this research was conducted. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or the official positions of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, or the National Bureau of Economic Research. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

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FTC Announces Rule Banning Noncompetes

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Today, the Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule to promote competition by banning noncompetes nationwide, protecting the fundamental freedom of workers to change jobs, increasing innovation, and fostering new business formation.

“Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism, including from the more than 8,500 new startups that would be created a year once noncompetes are banned,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC’s final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market.”

The FTC estimates that the final rule banning noncompetes will lead to new business formation growing by 2.7% per year, resulting in more than 8,500 additional new businesses created each year. The final rule is expected to result in higher earnings for workers, with estimated earnings increasing for the average worker by an additional $524 per year, and it is expected to lower health care costs by up to $194 billion over the next decade. In addition, the final rule is expected to help drive innovation, leading to an estimated average increase of 17,000 to 29,000 more patents each year for the next 10 years under the final rule.

Noncompetes are a widespread and often exploitative practice imposing contractual conditions that prevent workers from taking a new job or starting a new business. Noncompetes often force workers to either stay in a job they want to leave or bear other significant harms and costs, such as being forced to switch to a lower-paying field, being forced to relocate, being forced to leave the workforce altogether, or being forced to defend against expensive litigation. An estimated 30 million workers—nearly one in five Americans—are subject to a noncompete.

Under the FTC’s new rule, existing noncompetes for the vast majority of workers will no longer be enforceable after the rule’s effective date. Existing noncompetes for senior executives - who represent less than 0.75% of workers - can remain in force under the FTC’s final rule, but employers are banned from entering into or attempting to enforce any new noncompetes, even if they involve senior executives. Employers will be required to provide notice to workers other than senior executives who are bound by an existing noncompete that they will not be enforcing any noncompetes against them.

In January 2023, the FTC issued a  proposed rule which was subject to a 90-day public comment period. The FTC received more than 26,000 comments on the proposed rule, with over 25,000 comments in support of the FTC’s proposed ban on noncompetes. The comments informed the FTC’s final rulemaking process, with the FTC carefully reviewing each comment and making changes to the proposed rule in response to the public’s feedback.

In the final rule, the Commission has determined that it is an unfair method of competition, and therefore a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act, for employers to enter into noncompetes with workers and to enforce certain noncompetes.

The Commission found that noncompetes tend to negatively affect competitive conditions in labor markets by inhibiting efficient matching between workers and employers. The Commission also found that noncompetes tend to negatively affect competitive conditions in product and service markets, inhibiting new business formation and innovation. There is also evidence that noncompetes lead to increased market concentration and higher prices for consumers.

Alternatives to Noncompetes

The Commission found that employers have several alternatives to noncompetes that still enable firms to protect their investments without having to enforce a noncompete.

Trade secret laws and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) both provide employers with well-established means to protect proprietary and other sensitive information. Researchers estimate that over 95% of workers with a noncompete already have an NDA.

The Commission also finds that instead of using noncompetes to lock in workers, employers that wish to retain employees can compete on the merits for the worker’s labor services by improving wages and working conditions.

Changes from the NPRM

Under the final rule, existing noncompetes for senior executives can remain in force. Employers, however, are prohibited from entering into or enforcing new noncompetes with senior executives. The final rule defines senior executives as workers earning more than $151,164 annually and who are in policy-making positions.

Additionally, the Commission has eliminated a provision in the proposed rule that would have required employers to legally modify existing noncompetes by formally rescinding them. That change will help to streamline compliance.

Instead, under the final rule, employers will simply have to provide notice to workers bound to an existing noncompete that the noncompete agreement will not be enforced against them in the future. To aid employers’ compliance with this requirement, the Commission has included model language in the final rule that employers can use to communicate to workers. 

The Commission vote to approve the issuance of the final rule was 3-2 with Commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew N. Ferguson voting no. Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter , Alvaro Bedoya , Melissa Holyoak and Andrew N. Ferguson each issued separate statements. Chair Lina M. Khan will issue a separate statement.

The final rule will become effective 120 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Once the rule is effective, market participants can report information about a suspected violation of the rule to the Bureau of Competition by emailing  [email protected] . 

The Federal Trade Commission develops policy initiatives on issues that affect competition, consumers, and the U.S. economy. The FTC will never demand money, make threats, tell you to transfer money, or promise you a prize. Follow the  FTC on social media , read  consumer alerts  and the  business blog , and  sign up to get the latest FTC news and alerts .

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