REFORM AND DEMOCRACY 77 



lation through which, by stages beginning in 

 1833, the tariff was so reduced that the protect 

 ive features entirely disappeared. The slave 

 holders whose system exemplified the extreme 

 of curtailment of personal liberty thus proved 

 the successful champions of a policy that in 

 sured the fullest freedom in respect to property. 

 The failure of protectionism was a feature of 

 the era of Andrew Jackson. It is with good 

 reason that this President s name has become 

 descriptive of a period of American history. 

 Jacksonian democracy designates a psycholog 

 ical phase in the growth of the republic. It was 

 the phase in which a people became fully aware 

 of its freedom, unity, and power, and began to 

 strive, with pathetically crude and ineffective 

 means, to make a useful application of these 

 qualities. Jackson was the first President from 

 west of the Appalachian Mountains. With him 

 began the conspicuous influence of the Missis 

 sippi valley in the American Government. That 

 vast region was by 1830 making great strides 

 in population and prosperity. Steam trans 

 portation on its innumerable rivers and lakes 

 gave a great stimulus to settlement and trade. 

 The social type still remained, however, that of 

 the frontier, slightly refined, and this was the 



