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Legacy

Jackson's legacy is controversial and polarizing. His contemporary, Alexis de Tocqueville, depicted him as the spokesperson of the majority and their passions. He has been variously described as a frontiersman personifying the independence of the American West, a slave-owning member of the Southern gentry, and a populist who promoted faith in the wisdom of the ordinary citizen. He has been represented as a statesman who substantially advanced the spirit of democracy and upheld the foundations of American constitutionalism, as well as an autocratic demagogue who crushed political opposition and trampled the law.

In the 1920s, Jackson's rise to power became associated with the idea of the "common man". This idea defined the age as a populist rejection of social elites and a vindication of every person's value independent of class and status. Jackson was seen as its personification, an individual free of societal constraints who can achieve great things. In 1945, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. 's influential Age of Jackson redefined Jackson's legacy through the lens of Franklin D. Roosevelt 's New Deal, describing the common man as a member of the working class struggling against exploitation by business concerns.

In the twenty-first century, Jackson's Indian Removal Act has been described as ethnic cleansing: the use of force, terror and violence to make an area ethnically homogeneous. To achieve the goal of separating Native Americans from the whites, coercive force such as threats and bribes were used to effect removal and unauthorized military force was used when there was resistance, as in the case of the Second Seminole War. The act has been discussed in the context of genocide, and its role in the long-term destruction of Native American societies and their cultures continues to be debated.

Jackson's legacy has been variously used by later presidents. Abraham Lincoln referenced Jackson's ideas when negotiating the challenges to the Union that he faced during 1861, including Jackson's understanding of the constitution during the nullification crisis and the president's right to interpret the constitution. Franklin D. Roosevelt used Jackson to redefine the Democratic Party, describing him as a defender of the exploited and downtrodden and as a fighter for social justice and human rights. The members of the Progressive Party of 1948 to 1955 saw themselves as the heirs to Jackson. Donald Trump used Jackson's legacy to present himself as the president of the common man, praising Jackson for saving the country from a rising aristocracy and protecting American workers with a tariff. In 2016, President Barack Obama 's administration announced it was removing Jackson's portrait from the $20 bill and replacing it with one of Harriet Tubman. Though the plan was put on hold during Trump's presidency, President Joe Biden 's administration resumed it in 2021.

Jackson was historically rated highly as a president, but his reputation began to decline in the 1960s. His contradictory legacy is shown in opinion polls. A 2014 survey of political scientists rated Jackson as the ninth-highest rated president but the third-most polarizing. He was also ranked the third-most overrated president. In a C-SPAN poll of historians, Jackson was ranked the 13th in 2009, 18th in 2017, and 22nd in 2021.