Discussion Question 1: Was Andrew Jackson truly a champion of the rights of the people or merely a beneficiary of the nation's new democratic spirit?

Discussion Question 2: What did the "transportation revolution" involve? What was its most important development?

Please explain whether you agree with my classmate response to the above questions and why? (a mininum of 150 words)

Classmate's post

1. I believe Jackson was a beneficiary of the democratic spirit. Jackson, titled the "people's President," used his personal agenda to revoke or revise the plans of the Whigs who led the previous regime. Jackson also ordered the Indians to move west of the Mississippi River and vetoed the bill to re-charter the bank. These acts helped to convince the people that he stood for them, but they did not know that these acts took place based on his personal vendetta's.

2. The transportation revolution involved the national (Cumberland) road, which was the first federally funded interstate system. It stretched from Ohio River back to Maryland. It provided the access to the western territories from the Atlantic. The Erie Canal was another part of the transportation revolution that was constructed in 1826. It stretched from the Great Lakes to the Hudson River. The Eerie Canal was a big part of the invention of Steamboats, which helped improve their exports through New York harbor to the Gulf ports. The last and most important development from the transportation revolution was the invention and construction of the railroad. Starting in the 1830's, the railroad was quicker to build and more cost efficient to maintain than the roads and canals.