Chapter 6, Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 6, Sellers shows how the increasing degree of democratic disaffection with American political and economic elites leads to the strange elevation of General Andrew Jackson to power. Jackson is an incredibly popular general about whom many myths have spread about his great prowess in battle. Fatherless as a young man, his mother drills a strongly patriarchal ethic into her sons: to always defend themselves, never cry and to fight whenever necessary. Jackson carries this ethic from the playground to the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 and eventually to the White House. While he is an ardent nationalism, his loss of money during the Panic of 1819 leads him to turn strongly against banks, paper money and national elites, making him sympathetic to the cause of the radical democrats.

The Republicans plan to stay in power by uniting planters and farmers...