ABSTRACT
Clay's pleasant dream of a paternalistic prosperity for America got its first rude awakening from General Jackson and his motley following of western equalitarians and eastern proletarians. The American masses, and in particular the nationalistic West, had espoused the principle of democracy, and interpreted it in terms of political equalitarianism —a principle that had inspired a fanatical hatred in the breasts of old Federalists. The dramatic career of Andrew Jackson, was determined by a speculative temperament and founded on a critical examination of diverse systems of society and politics, was shaped in large measure by prejudice and circumstance. The evils entailed on America by the Jacksonian revolution were many, but they cannot properly be charged against Andrew Jackson. Lincoln was a better democrat than Jackson, for he would rather persuade than drive. Lincoln stripped away all the protective coloring of lies that politicians use and appealed to the honesty of plain men.
