APUSH
Darnell
DBQ:
Jacksonian Democrats are Guardians of the Constitution?
Directions:
Your answer to the following question must be based on the accompanying documents and your
understanding of the historical era. In your essay, you should refer to relevant historical facts and
developments not mentioned in the documents, as well as ideas found in the documents. As you
analyze each document, take into account both the source and author’s point of view/perspective/bias.
In no case should documents simply be summarized. You must incorporate a minimum of 6 documents
into your essay in order to receive maximum points.
Historical Background:
Jacksonian Democrats viewed themselves as “the guardians of the United States Constitution.” They
believed the Democratic-Republicans (and the short-lived National Republicans) strayed from the
Jeffersonian belief that the role of the federal government was to protect individual rights and had
adopted a more Hamiltonian view of using government to empower the wealthy capitalist class. They
pledged to increase political democracy, protect individual liberty, and secure equality of economic
opportunity.
Essay Prompt:
In light of the following documents and your knowledge of the 1820s and 1830s, to what extent do you
agree with the Jacksonians’ view of themselves as “guardians of the Constitution”?
Specifications:
The Usual 
Due: December 6th for ALL Classes
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Document A
Source: Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America. (1835)
“Amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing
struck me more forcibly than the general equality of condition among the people. I readily discovered
the prodigious influence which gives a peculiar direction to public opinion, and a peculiar tenor to the
laws: it imparts new maxims to the governing authorities, and peculiar habits to the governed.”
Document B
Source: Sarah Grimke. Legal Disabilities of Women. (1838)
“There are few things which present greater obstacles to the improvement and elevation of women to
her appropriate sphere of usefulness and duty, than the laws which have been enacted to destroy her
independence, crush her individuality; laws which, although they are framed for her government, she
has had no voice in establishing, and which rob her of some of her essential rights.”
Document C
Source: John C. Calhoun. Fort Hill Address. (1831)
“The great and leading principle is, that the General Government emanated from the people of the
several States, forming distinct political communities, and acting in their separate and sovereign
capacity, and not from all the people forming one aggregate political community . . . the Constitution of
the United States is, in fact, a compact, to which each state is a party . . . This right of . . . nullification . . .
I conceive to be the fundamental principle of our system . . .”
Document D
Source: Andrew Jackson. Bank Veto Message. (1832)
“Is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to
our country? . . . Every monopoly and all exclusive privileges are granted at the expense of the public . . .
It is not conceivable how the present stockholders can have any claim to the special favor of the
Government.”
Document E
Source: Theodore D. Weld. Slavery As It Is. (1839)
Reader, you are empanelled as a juror to try a plain case and bring in an honest verdict. The question at
issue is not one of law, but of fact—“What is the actual condition of slaves in the United States?” A
plainer case never went to a jury. Look at it. TWENTY-SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND persons in this
country, men, women, and children, are in SLAVERY. Is slavery, as a condition of human beings, good,
bad, or indifferent? We submit the question without argument.”
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Document F
Source: Henry Clay. Addressing Congress. (1826)
“[Indians are] essentially inferior to the Anglo-Saxon race . . . and their disappearance from the human
family will be no great loss to the world.”
Document G
Source: Grolier’s Presidential Election Results
Election Year
Candidate
Electoral Votes
Popular Votes
Popular %
1824
Jackson
J. Q. Adams
Crawford
Clay
99
84
41
37
153, 544
108,740
46,618
47,136
42
32
13
13
1828
Jackson
J. Q. Adams
178
83
647,292
507,730
56
44
1832
Jackson
Clay
Floyd
Hart
219
49
11
7
688,242
473,462
….
101,051
54.5
37.5
….
8
1836
Van Buren
Harrison
White
Webster
Magnum
170
73
26
14
11
764,198
549,508
145,352
41,287
….
51
37
9
3
….
1840
Harrison
Van Buren
234
60
1,275,612
1,130,033
53
47
U.S. Population
9,638,453
12,866,020
17,069,453
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Document H
Source: Frank Weitenkampf, ”King Andrew the First,” 1833
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