[388]  He has been represented as a statesman who substantially advanced the spirit of democracy[389]and upheld the foundations of American constitutionalism,[390] as well as an autocratic demagogue who  crushed political opposition and trampled the law.[391][392]
In the 1920s, Jackson's rise to power became associated with the idea of the "common man".[393] This idea defined the age as a populist rejection of social elites and a vindication of every person's value independent of class and status.[394] Jackson was seen as its personification,[395] an individual free of societal constraints who can achieve great things.[396] In 1945, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.'s influential Age of Jackson redefined Jackson's legacy through the lens of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal,[397] describing the common man as a member of the working class struggling against exploitation by business concerns.[398]
In the twenty-first century, Jackson's Indian Removal Act has been described as ethnic cleansing:[399] the use of force, terror and violence to make an area ethnically homogeneous.