Document 2
…Until the Jacksonian movement the common people seemed to have been content to have the
upper classes rule. But by 1828 the psychology of the plain people toward their government had
changed, and they wished for direct participation in the government and for the elevation of a
man of their choice into the presidency. In that year the common men came to the polls,
demagogic [emotional] oratory flourished, party slogans, party workers and organizers who had
an eye on the plums of office got out the vote. The campaign was personalized. This new type
of democracy, composed of the farmers of the West, the yeomen [landowning farmers] and small
planters of the South, and the labor vote of the North, was violently partisan and had little
interest in the protection of intellectual liberty or the rights of minorities, which had ennobled
[elevated] the brand of democracy that Jefferson had advocated. It was a rough and tumble
movement that resulted in the elevation of pushing, mediocre men to office. Their leader
Andrew Jackson, had a personality that was autocratic instead of being truly democratic, and he
lacked an interest in fundamental social reforms.…
Source: Clement Eaton, A History of the Old South, The Macmillan Company, 1966
According to Clement Eaton, who became involved in the democratic process during the
Jacksonian Era?
According to Clement Eaton, what is one way campaigns changed starting in 1828?