The period called Jacksonian Democracy lasted from 1828 elections to the 1850s when the question of slavery in national politics became fundamental.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was elected president in 1828. His policies laid out what the young Democratic Party would be. Democrats were low to middle-class men unhappy with the rise of a class that got rich without working on the production of goods, that is, bankers, merchants and speculators.
Jacksonian democracy was characterized by a focus on the ordinary man and by a dislike of bankers, speculation, and aristocracy. It also emphasized equality more than previous Jeffersonian democracy. In this period the right to vote was amplified by eliminating property requirements.