Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Presidential Power
Two books I just finished reading recently: John Meacham’s American Lion, a political biography of Andrew Jackson, and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, a study of Lincoln’s presidential leadership. Jackson served as our 7th president from 1829-1837; 24 years later, in 1861, Lincoln was improbably elected our 16th president, and served four years before he was assassinated shortly after his second inaugural.
It was interesting to read these biographies consecutively because in many ways Jackson set the stage for Lincoln. Jackson defined the modern presidency by aggregating power to the White House and away from Capitol Hill; Lincoln masterfully mobilized the power of the presidency to wage a successful Civil War and free the slaves.
Before Jackson, Congress, not the president, was the country’s most important political force. One telling statistic: the first six presidents vetoed a total of nine bills over 40 years; Jackson alone vetoed a dozen. Indeed, George Washington said that he declined to veto many bills he disagreed with out of deference to the legislature. By vetoing so much legislation and allowing his voice trump that of the House and Senate, Jackson recast the presidency – the only position elected by the entire country – as the central figure in American politics.
Jackson also set forth the importance of a united Union, led by a federal government to which states are deferential. During the nullification crisis of 1833 South Carolina tried to repeal a federal tariff that was not to its liking. Jackson’s defense of the Union and dismissal of Carolina’s nullification efforts would later be one of only four documents considered by Lincoln as he crafted his first inaugural address.
In her study, Goodwin hits on her “team of rivals” concept and drives it home throughout the book so that it almost becomes a biography of four: Lincoln, plus three rivals for the presidency who later became integral members of Honest Abe’s cabinet. Yet Lincoln throughout comes across as rather Jacksonian: he has his own Kitchen Cabinet of advisers, but at the end of the day the decisions are his own.
Like Jackson, Lincoln is driven by a central idea: above all the Union must survive; and the president must seize strong executive power to make this happen (from the suspension of habeas corpus to the Emancipation Proclamation fiat).
In its youth, the survival of the Union was a pressing, uncertain question; these two books, taken together, argue that it was a strong presidency more than anything that bound together North, South, and West.
If you had to read just one of these book, pick up Meacham’s Jackson Pulitzer Prize winner. The author’s ability to consistently put Jackson’s acts and accomplishments in perspective, and demonstrate the transformative nature of his presidency, sets his study apart.
