This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250.
America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. I turned off news altogether.
I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people. If we got clear facts, maybe we could calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting.
Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America. What's up y'all? Summer's got a different temper.
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Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks. And we return to our American stories. Up next, another installment of our series about us, the Story of America series with Hillsdale College professor and author of the terrific book, Land of Hope, Professor Bill McClay. In eighteen twenty eight a political revolution took place. Andrew Jackson, a political outsider from the frontier, had beaten the son of a president no, the son of a founder.
John Quincy Adams, in a hot, and often vile election. their second showdown. Let's get into the story. Here's Bill McClay. He taught the country a lesson.
He taught Adams a lesson. The hard way. that to be high minded and snobbish was not gonna work with this growing. expanding. and diverse Electorate, often highly imperfectly educated electorate in America.
That was the reality of the thing. It's a reality that's still with us. Mass democracy. requires A discourse, a language, mode of expression that can reach people where they are. Instead of telling them, well, if you want to know what's going on, you got to raise yourself to my level.
You got to go to college, you got to get a degree, you got to learn how to talk like I do. No, you gotta learn how to talk like they do. One symbolic expression of this change was. The inauguration of Jackson in Washington, which was not like the previous affairs that had been decorous. And very much uh high level which will almost liturgical affairs.
Um In this case, the fans of Jackson. Many of them were rather rough-hewn characters. And they were rowdy in their demeanor, they crowded into the city, they lined Pennsylvania Avenue, they came to receptions at the White House. And there are all kinds of stories about them muddying the carpets with their muddy boots and this sort of thing, which are as much myth as truth. But the point is.
this reflected A change, a change in the climate, a change in the climate of American democratic politics. Jackson was a self-made man. If there ever was one. He was a frontiersman. He had a hard life.
He was a fighter. He was a dueler. He'd risen the ladder of American society through sheer force. of his will, his talents, his determination. But never forgetting where he came from, never forgetting He was one of the common people.
and letting them know. He remembered. His roots. As the saying goes, he didn't try to rise above his raising. He was empathic.
Towards ordinary people, towards working class people, strivers who hadn't come as far as he had. but whose objectives were not unlike his. They wanted to be landowners. They wanted to be their own boss eventually. That was the American way of thinking about equality.
They had that element of opportunity, of striving. Jackson brings in a different vision of America. Spur. And it's different from Jefferson. You know, Jefferson.
Was a very Democratic, small D Democratic guy in a lot of ways. And Jefferson was in his own way an anti-elitist. He famously said that a moral issue presented to a plowman and a professor might well be decided better by the plowman. He didn't place Stock in erudition for its own sake. And he did write the words: All men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.
Those were Jefferson's words. And as the country evolved, those words become more and more of a reality. But Jefferson's vision of democracy included. An emphasis on education. And that's, by the way, that's what's never left us.
We have huge faith in the power of education, proper education, to lift people. out of the circumstances into which they were born and improve their lot in life. Jefferson's vision was that the common man needed to be lifted up. by a proper education. and thus he would be able to speak the language of and and engage in debate with those who were more privileged in their their upbringing.
So they wouldn't have to defer. to the well-born. Jackson On the other hand, believe the common man was perfectly well equipped as he was. He didn't need to be raised up. He was perfectly equipped as he was to vote and to govern.
As they were.
So, this great respect for the common man's abilities. Without being tutored. in the direction of democracy. What makes us refer to Jackson as our first populist president.
Now, I'm not going to Take time to try to find the term populism, which has a lot of different definitions. But this is one way of defining it. Populism is a belief in. the power of the people. as they are.
Without vetting, without selectivity, without heredity, without educational credentials, the power of the common person to govern. himself and herself in in a democratic arena than which the there's a level playing field.
So that's one way of looking at populism and populism, is this faith. in the untutored good common sense of the ordinary person. And populism almost always carries with it. A resentment of elites. There's an edge of bitterness often in populism towards.
those who are well born. and this certainly showed itself with Jackson. A lot of what he did as present was to stop things from happening. He was a sort of a like a hockey goalie. No, you're not going to work with me, except he was more aggressive than a hockey goalie.
He'd go up the ice. He used his Vito pen often. More than all the other prior Presidents combined. He was the m President veto. And above all else, the great passion of his presidential career.
was the National Bank. He opposed the National Bank, and he was unwaveringly opposed to its being rechartered. The charter of the bank ran out and would have to be would have to be rechartered. It was it was not established in perpetuity.
So that became the great, we called it the bank war, his war against the bank. Oh, the political cartoonists had so much fun. with this the depicting Jackson and the Bank War. And he was not afraid to openly challenge the Supreme Court. And John Marshall, remember that Burr in the saddle.
imposed uh on Jefferson by Atoms and still Serving as Chief Justice, of the Supreme Court, a Federalist remnant. in this uh C of uh Democrats. And you've been listening to Professor Bill McClay share with us the story of Andrew Jackson, his rise to power, and ultimately to the White House. and the first real populist president. understanding that there's a way to reach this mass democracy and the masses.
And it's not through, well, highfalutin language. It's the language that people use. Jackson, as Professor McClay noted, stopped things. He used his power to block. block legislation time and again more times than any president before him.
When we return, more of the story of the rise of populism in America, the story of Andrew Jackson's presidency continues. Here on our American stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way.
The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q.
This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org.
Flowers fade, cards get tossed, but a personalized song? That lasts forever. Surprise someone you love with a custom song made just for them with Joybox. Visit joybox.studio to get started on your personalized song today. Don't just say I love you, sing it with Joybox.
I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people. If we got clear facts, maybe we could calm down a little.
NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News Reporting for America. And we return to our American stories and our series about us, the Story of America series with Professor Bill McClay, author of the terrific book, Land of Hope.
When we last left off, Professor McClay was describing Andrew Jackson's politics. He was an anti-elitist. He hadn't forgotten his roots after all, but And he deposed what we'd call big government today, preferring turnover in our nation's halls of power. Let's return to the story here again as Professor Bill McClay.
Now, like Jefferson. Jackson was a strict constructionist. He did not believe in the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution as a gateway to all kinds of other goodies. He wanted to keep government Limited. he remembered Jefferson's saying That government governs best that governs least.
And that really reflected the sentiments of Jackson. He was Also, a great opponent of what he saw as the alliance of government and business. what we today would call crony capitalism. He would have opposed the growth of what we call today the administrative state. these agencies not accountable to the voters.
Not held accountable to rotation in office, which was a figure that Jackson often used. It was a An approach To service for the public, that he favored that is that nobody should. serve in office for very long. What's important is to move him along so that after three years, people, or whatever period of time you want to rotate into, after that period of time, people start to develop. Roots, they start to develop contacts, they send out tentacles.
It's only human nature.
So move them along before that happens, before they develop a self-interest. in the fortunes of their office, and thereby they'll serve the public interest. That was more important to him. than being experts. He had a really strong aversion To self-proclaimed expertise and expert knowledge.
So there are good aspects of that, and there are bad aspects of that from our present standpoint. But we want to. Uh common person with no knowledge of nuclear physics to run nuclear regulatory agencies? Probably not. But there are many other things where the installation of experts leads to an evisceration of democracy itself.
Really, a fascinating character, and one whose fortunes have gone up and down. in the assessment. Provided to him by historians. One of the things that made his reputation go down, and it stayed down. was his Indian policy.
What to do with the Native American population in this ever-expanding American colossus bent on occupying the entire continent. as an expression of its manifest destiny. He was a man of the people, he was a man of the common man, but he didn't fully extend this empathy. to Native Americans. Whom he feared and also, in some ways, looked down on.
He also rejected their claim that American land was their homeland. To be fair to Jackson, There were a lot of other points of view that were much less humane. than the path that he settled on. Oh. But there were also points of view that were much more humane.
in recognizing that Indians might have some right. their ancestral lands. Um and that uh moving them to territory that was of no current use to the Western European white European population was not necessarily the most humane. approach. His answer was to resettle.
The tribes in the eastern part of the country to land west of the Mississippi River. The Indian Removal Act was signed into law in 1835 and it relocated close to 50,000 Indians. 15,000 more of which would be relocated after Jackson's presidency when the army forced the Cherokees in Georgia. to depart for the Oklahoma territory. along a brutal eight hundred mile path that would become known as the trail of tears.
along which nearly four thousand Indians would lose their lives. One French visitor to America wrote eloquently about the policy of Indian removal. He witnessed it first hand in eighteen thirty one. when he stumbled on by mere chance. A group of Choctaw Indians crossing the Mississippi River near Memphis.
And here is what that Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote. In his epic work. called Democracy in America. It is impossible to conceive the extent of the sufferings which attend these forced emigrations. They are undertaken by a people already exhausted and reduced.
And the countries to which the newcomers betake themselves are inhabited by other tribes. which received them with jealous hostility. Hunger is in the rear, war awaits them, and misery besets them on all sides. In the hope of escaping from such a host of enemies, they separate. And each individual endeavors to procure the means of supporting his existence.
in solitude. and secrecy Living in the immensity of the desert like an outcast. in civilized society. The social tie which distress had long since weakened. is then dissolved.
They've lost their country. And their people soon desert them. Their families are obliterated. The names they bore in common. forgotten.
Their language perishes. and all the traces of their origin disappear. Their nation has ceased to exist except in the recollection of the antiquaries of America and a few of the learned of Europe. I should be sorry to have my reader suppose that I'm coloring the picture too highly. I saw with my own eyes several of the cases of misery which I've been describing.
And I was the witness of sufferings. which I have not the power to portray. As Hockeville ended. this passage. On the subject.
And it ended the first volume. of is amazing book Democracy in America with these words These are great evils. and it must be added that they appear to me to be irremediable. I believe that the Indian nations of North America are doomed to perish. And that, whenever the Europeans shall be established on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
That race of men Will be no more. The Indians had only the two alternatives of war or civilization. In other words, they must either have destroyed the Europeans, or become their equals. That book of Tocqueville's. The two volume Set called Democracy in America.
It may be the greatest study of American life and culture ever written. It captured very good things. and great things about the nation. But it also captured the nation's flaws. I often tell my students if they were to pick one work on America to take to a desert island.
And only that one work. I would still say Democracy in America, published in the 1830s and 1840s in two volumes. would be the choice. Because Tocqueville captures many things about America that are. permanent part of our national character, our makeup.
have not changed. Mm. And one of those elements is the elements of tragedy. and have attended. every stage.
of our development. Every stage of our expansion. Tocqueville was not. an American booster and not an American cheerleader. But he was an astute an objective Observer from the foreign land of France.
In fact, he often entered into his. explorations with Explicitly the thought, how can we in Europe. learn from the American experience, because America, as he saw it, was the vanguard of the future. all nations of the world were going to become democratic. America was leading the way.
So let us look closely at America. he advised and learned from its successes from its failures, from its tragedies, and from its triumphs. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Monty Montgomery, himself a Hillsdale College graduate. And a special thanks to Professor Bill McClay, The Story of Andrew Jackson, the Jacksonian Era. Here on Our American Stories.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage.
Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. Flowers fade. Cards get tossed.
But a personalized song? That lasts forever. Surprise someone you love with a custom song made just for them with Joybox. Visit joybox.studio to get started on your personalized song today. Don't just say I love you, sing it with Joybox.
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