Andrew Jackson Tribute

Description

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837.

Before his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress.

Jackson’s legacy is controversial. He has been praised as an advocate for working Americans and preserving the union of states, and criticized for his racist policies, particularly towards Native Americans. His political philosophy became the basis for the Democratic Party.

Jackson was born in the colonial Carolinas before the American Revolutionary War. He became a frontier lawyer and married Rachel Donelson Robards. He briefly served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, representing Tennessee. After resigning, he served as a justice on the Tennessee Superior Court from 1798 until 1804. Jackson purchased a plantation later known as the Hermitage, becoming a wealthy planter who profited off the forced labor of hundreds of enslaved African Americans during his lifetime. In 1801, he was appointed colonel of the Tennessee militia and was elected its commander. He led troops during the Creek War of 1813–1814, winning the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and negotiating the Treaty of Fort Jackson that required the indigenous Creek population to surrender vast tracts of present-day Alabama and Georgia. In the concurrent war against the British, Jackson’s victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 made him a national hero. He later commanded U.S. forces in the First Seminole War, which led to the annexation of Florida from Spain. Jackson briefly served as Florida’s first territorial governor before returning to the Senate. He ran for president in 1824. He won a plurality of the popular and electoral vote, but no candidate won the electoral majority. With the help of Henry Clay, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams as president. Jackson’s supporters alleged that there was a « corrupt bargain » between Adams and Clay and began creating a new political coalition that became the Democratic Party in the 1830s.

Jackson ran again in 1828, defeating Adams in a landslide despite issues such as his slave trading and his « irregular » marriage. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act. This act, which has been described as ethnic cleansing, displaced tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands east of the Mississippi and resulted in thousands of deaths. Jackson faced a challenge to the integrity of the federal union when South Carolina threatened to nullify a high protective tariff set by the federal government.

He threatened the use of military force to enforce the tariff, but the crisis was defused when it was amended. In 1832, he vetoed a bill by Congress to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States, arguing that it was a corrupt institution. After a lengthy struggle, the Bank was dismantled. In 1835, Jackson became the only president to pay off the national debt. After leaving office, Jackson supported the presidencies of Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk, as well as the annexation of Texas.

Contemporary opinions about Jackson are often polarized. Supporters characterize him as a defender of democracy and the U.S. Constitution, while critics point to his reputation as a demagogue who ignored the law when it suited him. Scholarly rankings of U.S. presidents historically rated Jackson’s presidency as above average. Since the late 20th century, his reputation declined, and in the 21st century his placement in rankings of presidents fell.

Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region of the Carolinas. His parents were Scots-Irish colonists Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Hutchinson, Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ulster, Ireland, in 1765.^[1] Jackson’s father was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, around 1738,and his ancestors had crossed into Northern Ireland from Scotland after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Jackson had two older brothers who came with his parents from Ireland, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764).Elizabeth had a strong hatred of the British that she passed on to her sons.

Jackson’s exact birthplace is unclear. Jackson’s father died at the age of 29 in February 1767, three weeks before his son Andrew was born; afterwards, Elizabeth and her three sons moved in with her sister and brother-in-law, Jane and James Crawford. Jackson later stated that he was born on the Crawford plantation, which is in Lancaster County, South Carolina, but second-hand evidence suggests that he might have been born at another uncle’s home in North Carolina.

When Jackson was young, Elizabeth thought he might become a minister and paid to have him schooled by a local clergyman.He learned to read, write, and work with numbers, and was exposed to Greek and Latin,^[9] but he was too strong-willed and hot-tempered for the ministry

Jackson and his older brothers, Hugh and Robert, served on the Patriot side against British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Hugh served under Colonel William Richardson Davie, dying from heat exhaustion after the Battle of Stono Ferry in June 1779.

 After anti-British sentiment intensified in the Southern Colonies following the Battle of Waxhaws in May 1780, Elizabeth encouraged Andrew and Robert to participate in militia drills. They served as couriers, and were present at the Battle of Hanging Rock in August 1780.

Andrew and Robert were captured in April 1781 when the British occupied the home of a Crawford relative. A British officer demanded to have his boots polished. Andrew refused, and the officer slashed him with a sword, leaving him with scars on his left hand and head. Robert also refused and was struck a blow on the head.

 The brothers were taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Camden, South Carolina, where they became malnourished and contracted smallpox. In late spring, the brothers were released to their mother in a prisoner exchange.

Robert died two days after arriving home, but Elizabeth was able to nurse Andrew back to health.

Once he recovered, Elizabeth volunteered to nurse American prisoners of war housed in British prison ships in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. She contracted cholera and died soon afterwards.

The war made Jackson an orphan at age 14 and increased his hatred for the values he associated with Britain, in particular aristocracy and political privilege.

After the American Revolutionary War, Jackson worked as a saddler,briefly returned to school, and taught reading and writing to children. In 1784, he left the Waxhaws region for Salisbury, North Carolina, where he studied law under attorney Spruce Macay.

He completed his training under John Stokes, and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in September 1787.^[26] Shortly thereafter, his friend John McNairy helped him get appointed as a prosecuting attorney in the Western District of North Carolina, which would later become the state of Tennessee. While traveling to assume his new position, Jackson stopped in Jonesborough. While there, he bought his first slave, a woman who was around his age.

He also fought his first duel, accusing another lawyer, Waightstill Avery, of impugning his character. The duel ended with both men firing in the air.

Jackson began his new career in the frontier town of Nashville in 1788 and quickly moved up in social status.

 He became a protégé of William Blount, one of the most powerful men in the territory.

 Jackson was appointed attorney general of the Mero District in 1791 and judge-advocate for the militia the following year. He also got involved in land speculation, eventually forming a partnership with fellow lawyer John Overton.

Their partnership mainly dealt with claims made under a « land grab » act of 1783 that opened Cherokee and Chickasaw territory to North Carolina’s white residents.

Jackson also became a slave trader, transporting enslaved people for the interregional slave market between Nashville and the Natchez District of Spanish West Florida via the Mississippi River and the Natchez Trace.

While boarding at the home of Rachel Stockly Donelson, the widow of John Donelson, Jackson became acquainted with their daughter, Rachel Donelson Robards. The younger Rachel was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, and the two were separated by 1789.^[38] After the separation, Jackson and Rachel became romantically involved,^[39] living together as husband and wife.

Robards petitioned for divorce, which was granted in 1793 on the basis of Rachel’s infidelity. The couple legally married in January 1794. In 1796, they acquired their first plantation, Hunter’s Hill, on 640 acres (260 ha) of land near Nashville.

Jackson became a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, the dominant party in Tennessee. He was elected as a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796.

 When Tennessee achieved statehood that year, he was elected to be its U.S. representative. In Congress, Jackson argued against the Jay Treaty, criticized George Washington for allegedly removing Democratic-Republicans from public office, and joined several other Democratic-Republican congressmen in voting against a resolution of thanks for Washington.

He advocated for the right of Tennesseans to militarily oppose Native American interests.The state legislature elected him to be a U.S. senator in 1797, but he resigned after serving only six months.

In early 1798, Governor John Sevier appointed Jackson to be a judge of the Tennessee Superior Court.^[49] In 1802, he also became major general, or commander, of the Tennessee militia, a position that was determined by a vote of the militia’s officers. The vote was tied between Jackson and Sevier, a popular Revolutionary War veteran and former governor, but the governor, Archibald Roane, broke the tie in Jackson’s favor. Jackson later accused Sevier of fraud and bribery.Sevier responded by impugning Rachel’s honor, resulting in a shootout on a public street.

 Soon afterwards, they met to duel, but parted without having fired at each other.