A History of the American People

or pro-consul in the South. As such, he had destroyed Indian power there and, in effect,
confiscated their lands. No one objected to that of course. But on March 15, 1818 his troops
began an undeclared war against Spain by invading Florida, which the feeble Spanish garrisons
were incapable of defending. He even promised Monroe, I will ensure you Cuba in a few days' if Washington lent him a frigate-but Monroe refused to oblige. Under pressure from his Secretary of State Adams, an enthusiastic imperialist, Monroe gave Jackson's war against Florida tacit support, though he later denied collusion and said he was sick at the time. In a modern context, of course, Jackson's activities-plainly against the Constitution, which gave the right to make peace or war exclusively to Congress-would have been exposed by liberal-minded journalists. In 1818, the general would have seized such reporters and imprisoned or expelled them, or possibly hanged them for treason. In any case there were no liberal-minded journalists then, at least on Indian or Spanish questions. All were bellicose and expansionary. On February 8, 1819 Congress was happy to endorse the fait accompli by rejecting a motion of censure on Jackson, and the territory was formally conveyed by Spain to the United States on July 17, 1821. Nevertheless, Jackson was not without prominent critics, notably Henry Clay. As part of his opposition campaign against the Monroe administration, Clay accused it of allowing Jackson to behave like a Bonaparte. And when Jackson made it clear he was campaigning for the presidency in 1824, Clay dismissed him as amere military chieftain.' I cannot believe that killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the various, difficult and complicated duties of the First Magistracy,' he wrote. Jackson, he said, wasignorant, passionate, hypocritical, corrupt and
easily swayed by the basest men who surround him.’ Jackson brushed aside these charges at the
time-though he did not forget them: Clay jumped right to the top of his long enemies lists and
remained there till Jackson died-and concentrated on rousing the people.' Jackson may have been a military autocrat but what differentiated him from the caudillos of Latin America, and the Bonaparte figures of Europe, is that he was a genuine democrat. He was the first major figure in American politics to believe passionately and wholly in the popular will, and it is no accident that he created the great Democratic Party, which is still with us. As governor of Florida territory (thanks to his high-handed methods, Florida did not become a state till 1845), Jackson ruled that mere residence was enough to give an adult white male the vote. In more general terms, he said in 1822 that every free man in a nation or state should have the vote since all were subject to the laws and punishments, both federal and state, and so theyof right, ought to be entitled to a vote
in making them.' He added that every state legislature had the duty to adopt such voting
qualifications as it thought proper for the happiness, security and prosperity of the state' (1822). Jackson argued that the more people who had a presidential vote the better since, if Washington was rotten, that gave them the remedy:The great constitutional corrective in the
hands of the people against usurpation of power, or corruption by their agents, is the right of
suffrage; and this when used with calmness and deliberation will prove strong enough-it will
perpetuate their liberties and rights.' Jackson thought the people were instinctively right and
moral, and Big Government, of the kind he could see growing up in Washington, fundamentally
wrong and immoral. His task, as he saw it, was to liberate and empower this huge moral popular
force by appealing to it over the heads of the entrenched oligarchy, the corrupt ruling elite. This
was undoubtedly a clear, simple political strategy, and a winning one, if the suffrage was wide
enough.
It is not clear how far this great innovation in American politics-the introduction of the demos-
was Jackson's own doing or the work, as Clay said, of the unscrupulous men who manipulated
him. His ignorance was terrifying. His grammar and spelling were shaky. The 'Memorandoms'