Jackson Administrations - Jackson and Congress
Jackson and Congress
Jackson presided over the Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth sessions of Congress, each of which was composed of a majority of Democratic members in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The opposition party, the National Republicans (later the Whigs), was led by figures such as Kentucky senator Henry Clay and Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster. While Jackson's executive decisions did spark much legislative debate, some of it quite heated, he generally prevailed due to the strength of his majority.
When Jackson's majority did not prevail in Congress, his belief in "executive supremacy" was made clear—"King Andrew" defied and dominated Congress as few presidents in history have done. The six presidents before him had exercised the veto a total of 10 times, but Jackson alone wielded it 12 times during his two terms, including seven uses of the "pocket veto." A pocket...[The entire page is 219 words long]
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