Antebellum America, Democracy, and Centered on Andrew Jackson

One last shot at making a civilization where people could live in ideal harmony was with the Utopian communities. These experiments were alternatives to the nation's economy. They made "utopias" of which the nation would hopefully imitate. The leaders of these communities started them with incredibly ambition, yet never gained much fruit from their labor. The common man was just not interested. Although they did portray the idealism and hopefulness that described this time, they would ultimately fail.
This time was controlled by the common man. The common man would realize its power and not only name its own president in Andrew Jackson, but also incite many reforms. Jacksonian democrats ended up to be, above all, outstanding propagandists. They were able to portray themselves as defenders of the common man, while they usually were wealthy and common man appointees were often corrupt. They also tried to further reform movements but ended up thinning economic opportunity. Although often supporters of states' rights (i.e. the bank issue), they also were strong nationalists (i.e. South Carolina nullification). Jacksonians strived to preserve the unifying principles that the Constitution contained, but acted in contempt of it when they asserted the overwhelming power of the executive branch. …