Biography of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. Although often praised as an advocate for ordinary Americans and for his work in preserving the union of states, Jackson has also been criticized for his racial policies, particularly his role in the forced removal of tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands.

Born in the colonial Carolinas in the decade before the American Revolutionary War, Jackson became a frontier lawyer and married Rachel Donelson Robards. He served briefly in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, representing Tennessee. After resigning, he served as a justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1798 until 1804. Jackson purchased a property later known as The Hermitage, and became a wealthy planter, owning hundreds of African American slaves. In 1801, he was appointed colonel of the Tennessee militia and was elected its commander the following year. He led troops during the Creek War of 1813–1814, winning the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The subsequent Treaty of Fort Jackson required the Creek surrender of vast lands in present-day Alabama and Georgia. In the concurrent war against the British, Jackson's victory in 1815 at the Battle of New Orleans made him a national hero. Jackson then led 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, winning a plurality of the popular and electoral vote. As no candidate won an electoral majority, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams in a contingent election. In reaction to the alleged "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Henry Clay and the ambitious agenda of President Adams, Jackson's supporters founded the Democratic Party.

Jackson ran again in 1828, defeating Adams in a landslide. Jackson faced the threat of secession by South Carolina over what opponents called the "Tariff of Abominations". The crisis was defused when the tariff was amended, and Jackson threatened the use of military force if South Carolina attempted to secede. In Congress, Henry Clay led the effort to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States. Jackson, regarding the Bank as a corrupt institution that benefited the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Americans, vetoed the renewal of its charter. After a lengthy struggle, Jackson and his allies thoroughly dismantled the Bank. In 1835, Jackson became the only president to completely pay off the national debt, fulfilling a longtime goal. While Jackson pursued numerous reforms designed to eliminate waste and corruption, his presidency marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the party "spoils system" in American politics. In 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which forcibly removed most members of the major tribes of the Southeast to Indian Territory; these removals were subsequently known as the Trail of Tears. The relocation process dispossessed these nations of their land and resulted in widespread death and disease. In January 1835, he survived the first assassination attempt on a sitting president. Jackson opposed the abolitionist movement and supported restrictions on distribution of anti-slavery tracts. In foreign affairs, Jackson's administration concluded a "most favored nation" treaty with the United Kingdom, settled claims of damages against France from the Napoleonic Wars, and recognized the Republic of Texas.

In his retirement, Jackson remained active in Democratic Party politics, supporting the presidencies of Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk. Though fearful of its effects on the slavery debate, Jackson advocated the annexation of Texas, which was accomplished shortly before his death. Many of his actions proved divisive, and his critics saw him as a demagogue. Jackson has been viewed as a champion for democracy and the common man in the United States. His reputation has suffered since the 1960s, largely due to his anti-abolitionist views and policy of Indian removal. Surveys of historians and scholars have ranked Jackson highly among U.S. presidents, although his ratings have declined in the 21st century.

Early life and education

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, two years earlier. Jackson's father was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, around 1738. Jackson's parental ancestors crossed into Northern Ireland from Scotland after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.When they migrated to North America in 1765, Jackson's parents brought two children with them from Ireland, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764). The family probably landed in Philadelphia. Most likely they traveled overland through the Appalachian Mountains to the Scots-Irish community in the Waxhaws, straddling the border between North and South Carolina. Jackson's father died in February 1767 at the age of 29, in a logging accident while clearing land, three weeks before his son Andrew was born. Jackson, his mother, and his brothers lived with Jackson's aunt and uncle in the Waxhaws region.Jackson's exact birthplace is unclear. In 1824, Jackson wrote a letter saying he had been born on the plantation of his uncle James Crawford in Lancaster County, South Carolina. He may have claimed to be a South Carolinian because the state was considering nullification of the Tariff of 1824, which he opposed. In the mid-1850s, second-hand evidence indicated that he might have been born at a different uncle's home in North Carolina. As a young boy, Jackson was easily offended and was considered something of a bully. He was, however, also said to have taken a group of younger and weaker boys under his wing and to have been kind to them.

Revolutionary War service

During the Revolutionary War, Jackson's eldest brother, Hugh, died from heat exhaustion after the Battle of Stono Ferry on June 20, 1779. Anti-British sentiment intensified following the Waxhaws Massacre on May 29, 1780. Jackson's mother encouraged him and his elder brother Robert to attend the local militia drills. Soon, they began to help the militia as couriers. They served under Colonel William Richardson Davie at the Battle of Hanging Rock on August 6. Andrew and Robert were captured by the British in April 1781 while staying at the home of the Crawford family. When Andrew refused to clean the boots of a British officer, the officer slashed at the youth with a sword, leaving him with scars on his left hand and head, as well as an intense hatred for the British. Robert also refused to do as commanded and was struck with the sword. The two brothers were held as prisoners, contracted smallpox, and nearly starved to death in captivity.Later that year, their mother Elizabeth secured the brothers' release. She then began to walk both boys back to their home in the Waxhaws, a distance of some 40 miles (64 km). Both were in very poor health. Robert, whose state was far worse, rode on the only horse they had, while Andrew walked behind them. In the final two hours of the journey, a torrential downpour began which worsened the effects of the smallpox. Within two days of arriving back home, Robert was dead and Andrew in mortal danger. After nursing Andrew back to health, Elizabeth volunteered to nurse American prisoners of war on board two British ships in the Charleston harbor, where there had been an outbreak of cholera. In November, she died from the disease and was buried in an unmarked grave. Andrew became an orphan at age 14. He blamed the British personally for the loss of his brothers and mother.

Early career

Legal career and marriage

After the Revolutionary War, Jackson received a sporadic education in a local Waxhaw school. On bad terms with much of his extended family, he boarded with several different people. In 1781, he worked for a time as a saddle-maker, and eventually taught school. He apparently prospered in neither profession. In 1784, he left the Waxhaws region for Salisbury, North Carolina, where he studied law under attorney Spruce Macay. With the help of various lawyers, he was able to learn enough to qualify for the bar. In September 1787, Jackson was admitted to the North Carolina bar. Shortly thereafter, his friend John McNairy helped him get appointed to a vacant prosecutor position in the Western District of North Carolina, which would later become the state of Tennessee. During his travel west, Jackson bought his first slave, a woman who was older than him. In 1788, having been offended by fellow lawyer Waightstill Avery, Jackson fought his first duel. The duel ended with both men firing into the air, having made a secret agreement to do so before the engagement.Jackson moved to the small frontier town of Nashville in 1788, where he lived as a boarder with Rachel Stockly Donelson, the widow of John Donelson. Here Jackson became acquainted with their daughter, Rachel Donelson Robards. The younger Rachel was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, who was subject to fits of jealous rage. The two were separated in 1790. According to Jackson, he married Rachel after hearing that Robards had obtained a divorce. Her divorce had not been made final, making Rachel's marriage to Jackson bigamous and therefore invalid. After the divorce was officially completed, Rachel and Jackson remarried in 1794. To complicate matters further, evidence shows that Rachel had been living with Jackson and referred to herself as Mrs. Jackson before the petition for divorce was ever made. It was not uncommon on the frontier for relationships to be formed and dissolved unofficially, as long as they were recognized by the community.

Land speculation and early public career

In 1794, Jackson formed a partnership with fellow lawyer John Overton, dealing in claims for land reserved by treaty for the Cherokee and Chickasaw. Like many of their contemporaries, they dealt in such claims although the land was in Indian territory. Most of the transactions involved grants made under a 'land grab' act of 1783 that briefly opened Indian lands west of the Appalachians within North Carolina to claim by that state's white residents. He was one of the three original investors who founded Memphis, Tennessee, in 1819.After moving to Nashville, Jackson became a protege of William Blount, a friend of the Donelsons and one of the most powerful men in the territory. Jackson became attorney general in 1791, and he won election as a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796. When Tennessee achieved statehood that year, he was elected its only U.S. Representative. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, the dominant party in Tennessee. As a representative, Jackson staunchly advocated for the rights of Tennesseans against Native American tribal interests. He strongly opposed the Jay Treaty and criticized George Washington for allegedly removing Democratic-Republicans from public office. Jackson joined several other Democratic-Republican congressmen in voting against a resolution of thanks for Washington. In 1797, the state legislature elected him as U.S. senator. Jackson seldom participated in debate and found the job dissatisfying. He pronounced himself "disgusted with the administration" of President John Adams and resigned the following year without explanation. Upon returning home, with strong support from western Tennessee, he was elected to serve as a judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court at an annual salary of $600. Jackson's service as a judge is generally viewed as a success and earned him a reputation for honesty and good decision-making. Jackson resigned the judgeship in 1804. His official reason for resigning was ill health. He had been suffering financially from poor land ventures, and so it is also possible that he wanted to return full-time to his business interests.After arriving in Tennessee, Jackson won the appointment of judge advocate of the Tennessee militia. In 1802, while serving on the Tennessee Supreme Court, he declared his candidacy for major general, or commander, of the Tennessee militia, a position voted on by the officers. At that time, most free men were members of the militia. The organizations, intended to be called up in case of armed conflicts, resembled large social clubs. Jackson saw them as a way to advance his stature. With strong support from western Tennessee, he tied with John Sevier with seventeen votes. Sevier, a popular Revolutionary War veteran and former governor, was the recognized leader of politics in eastern Tennessee. On February 5, Governor Archibald Roane broke the tie in Jackson's favor. Jackson had also presented Roane with evidence of land fraud against Sevier. Subsequently, in 1803, when Sevier announced his intention to regain the governorship, Roane released the evidence. Jackson then published a newspaper article accusing Sevier of fraud and bribery. Sevier insulted Jackson in public, and the two nearly fought a duel over the matter. Despite the charges leveled against Sevier, he defeated Roane and continued to serve as governor until 1809.

Planting career and slavery

In addition to his legal and political career, Jackson prospered as a planter and merchant. He built a home and the first general store in Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1803. The next year, he acquired The Hermitage, a 640-acre (259 ha) plantation in Davidson County, near Nashville. He later added 360 acres (146 ha) to the plantation, which eventually totaled 1,050 acres (425 ha). The Hermitage became a profitable endeavor, with its primary crop being cotton. Like most successful American planters at the time, Jackson used enslaved labor. The cotton cultivated at the Hermitage was planted and picked by slaves. Jackson began with nine slaves, owned as many as 44 by 1820, and later up to 150, placing him among the planter elite. Jackson also co-owned with his son Andrew Jackson Jr. the Halcyon plantation in Coahoma County, Mississippi, which housed 51 slaves at the time of his death. Throughout his lifetime, Jackson owned over 300 African American slaves.Men, women, and child slaves were owned by Jackson on three sections of the Hermitage plantation. Slaves lived in extended family units of between five and ten persons and were quartered in 400 square feet (37 m2) cabins made either of brick or logs. The size and quality of the Hermitage slave quarters exceeded the standards of the time. To help slaves acquire food, Jackson supplied them with guns, knives, and fishing equipment. At times he paid his slaves with money and coins to trade in local markets. Jackson permitted slaves to be whipped if he believed his slaves' offenses were severe enough. At various times he posted advertisements for fugitive slaves who had escaped from his plantation. In an 1804 advertisement, Jackson offered "ten dollars extra, for every hundred lashes any person will give him, to the amount of three hundred". Jackson expressed concern for the slaves' treatment, attempted to keep slave families together, and urged his overseers to treat them with humanity. He believed in a paternalistic idea of slavery, which claimed that slave ownership was morally acceptable as long as owners served as paternal figures for slaves, offering them basic necessities.

Duel and adventure with Burr

The controversy surrounding his marriage to Rachel remained a sore point for Jackson, who deeply resented attacks on his wife's honor. By May 1806, Charles Dickinson, who, like Jackson, raced horses, had published an attack on Jackson in the local newspaper, and it resulted in a written challenge from Jackson to a duel. Since Dickinson was considered an expert shot, Jackson determined it would be best to let Dickinson turn and fire first, hoping that his aim might be spoiled in his quickness; Jackson would wait and take careful aim at Dickinson. Dickinson did fire first, hitting Jackson in the chest. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could not be removed. Under the rules of dueling, Dickinson had to remain still as Jackson took aim and fatally shot him. Jackson's behavior in the duel outraged many in Tennessee, who called it a brutal, cold-blooded killing and saddled Jackson with a reputation as a violent, vengeful man. He became a social outcast.After the Sevier affair and the duel, Jackson was looking for a way to salvage his reputation. He chose to align himself with former vice president Aaron Burr. Burr's political career ended after the killing of Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804; in 1805 he set out on a tour of what was then the western United States. Burr was extremely well received by the people of Tennessee, and stayed for five days at the Hermitage. Burr's true intentions are not known with certainty. He seems to have been planning a military operation to conquer Spanish Florida and drive the Spanish from Texas. To many westerners like Jackson, the promise seemed enticing. Western American settlers had long held bitter feelings towards Spain due to territorial disputes and their persistent failure to stop Indians living in Spanish territory from raiding American settlements. On October 4, 1806, Jackson addressed the Tennessee militia, declaring that the men should be "at a moment's warning ready to march." On the same day, he wrote to James Winchester, proclaiming that the United States "can conquer not only the Floridas [at that time there was an East Florida and a West Florida.], but all Spanish North America." He continued:

I have a hope (Should there be a call) that at least, two thousand Volunteers can be lead into the field at a short notice—That number commanded by firm officers and men of enterprise—I think could look into Santafee and Maxico—give freedom and commerce to those provinces and establish peace, and a permanent barier against the inroads and attacks of forreign powers on our interior—which will be the case so long as Spain holds that large country on our borders.

Jackson agreed to provide boats and other provisions for the expedition. However, on November 10, he learned from a military captain that Burr's plans apparently included seizure of New Orleans, then part of the Louisiana Territory of the United States, and incorporating it, along with lands won from the Spanish, into a new empire. He was further outraged when he learned from the same man of the involvement of Brigadier General James Wilkinson, whom he deeply disliked, in the plan. Jackson acted cautiously at first, but wrote letters to public officials, including President Thomas Jefferson, vaguely warning them about the scheme. In December, Jefferson, a political opponent of Burr, issued a proclamation declaring that a treasonous plot was underway in the West and calling for the arrest of the perpetrators. Jackson, safe from arrest because of his extensive paper trail, organized the militia. Burr was soon captured, and the men were sent home. Jackson traveled to Richmond, Virginia, to testify on Burr's behalf in trial. The defense team decided against placing him on the witness stand, fearing his remarks were too provocative. Burr was acquitted of treason, despite Jefferson's efforts to have him convicted. Jackson endorsed James Monroe for president in 1808 against James Madison. The latter was part of the Jeffersonian wing of the Democratic-Republican Party. Jackson lived relatively quietly at the Hermitage in the years after the Burr trial, eventually accumulating 640 acres of land.

Military career

War of 1812

Creek campaign and treaty

Leading up to 1812, the United States found itself increasingly drawn into international conflict. Formal hostilities with Spain or France never materialized, but tensions with Britain increased for a number of reasons. Among these was the desire of many Americans for more land, particularly British Canada and Florida, the latter still controlled by Spain, Britain's European ally. On June 18, 1812, Congress officially declared war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, beginning the War of 1812. Jackson responded enthusiastically, sending a letter to Washington offering 2,500 volunteers. However, the men were not called up for many months. Meanwhile, the United States military repeatedly suffered devastating defeats.On January 10, 1813, Jackson led an army of 2,071 volunteers to New Orleans to defend the region against British and allied Native American attacks. He had been instructed to serve under General Wilkinson, who commanded Federal forces in New Orleans. Lacking adequate provisions, Wilkinson ordered Jackson to halt in Natchez, then part of the Mississippi Territory, and await further orders. Jackson reluctantly obeyed. The newly appointed Secretary of War, John Armstrong Jr., sent a letter to Jackson dated February 6 ordering him to dismiss his forces and to turn over his supplies to Wilkinson.In reply to Armstrong on March 15, Jackson defended the character and readiness of his men, and promised to turn over his supplies. He also promised, instead of dismissing the troops without provisions in Natchez, to march them back to Nashville. The march was filled with agony. Many of the men had fallen ill. Jackson and his officers turned over their horses to the sick. He paid for provisions for the men himself. The soldiers began referring to their commander as "Hickory," after the very hard wood of the hickory tree, because of his toughness, and Jackson became known as "Old Hickory". After about a month-long march, the army finally arrived in Nashville. His actions earned him respect and praise from the people of Tennessee. Jackson faced financial ruin, until his former aide-de-camp Thomas Benton persuaded Armstrong to order the army to pay the expenses Jackson had incurred.On June 14, Jackson served as a second in a duel on behalf of his junior officer William Carroll against Jesse Benton, the brother of Thomas. On September 3, Jackson and his top cavalry officer, Brigadier General John Coffee, were involved in a street brawl with the Benton brothers. Jackson was severely wounded by Jesse with a gunshot to the shoulder.

Conflicts between white settlers and the Muscogee (Creek) escalated in July of 1813, when an American militia attacked a group of Creek fighters known as the "Red Sticks," so named because they painted their war clubs red, at Burnt Corn Creek. The Red Sticks, led by William Weatherford (also called Red Eagle) and Peter McQueen, had broken away from the rest of the Creek Confederacy, which wanted peace with the United States. They were allied with Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief who had launched Tecumseh's War against the United States, and who was fighting alongside the British. On August 30, the Red Sticks returned to attack a stockade, killing about half of its 500 inhabitants, including hundreds of civilians, both white Americans and non-Red Stick Creeks, in what became known as the Fort Mims massacre. The resulting conflict became known as the Creek War.Jackson, with 2,500 American soldiers, was ordered to crush the Red Sticks. On October 10, he set out on the expedition, his arm still in a sling from fighting the Bentons. Jackson established Fort Strother as a supply base. On November 3, Coffee defeated a band of Red Sticks at the Battle of Tallushatchee, killing at least 186. Coming to the relief of friendly Creeks besieged by Red Sticks, Jackson won another decisive victory at the Battle of Talladega, killing 290 Red Stick Creeks. In the winter, Jackson, encamped at Fort Strother, faced a severe shortage of troops due to the expiration of enlistments and chronic desertions. He sent Coffee with the cavalry (which abandoned him) back to Tennessee to secure more enlistments. Jackson decided to combine his force with that of the Georgia militia, and marched to meet the Georgia troops. From January 22–24, 1814, while on their way, the Tennessee militia and allied Creek were attacked by the Red Sticks at the Battles of Emuckfaw and Enotachopo Creek. Jackson's troops repelled the attackers, but outnumbered, were forced to withdraw to Fort Strother. Jackson, now with over 2,000 troops, marched most of his army south to confront the Red Sticks at a fortress they had constructed at a bend in the Tallapoosa River, "determined to exterminate them." Jackson, together with Lower Creek, Cherokee, and Choctaw allies and outnumbering their opponents by more than 2 to 1, engaged them on March 27 at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. An initial artillery barrage did little damage to the well-constructed fort. A subsequent Infantry charge, in addition to an assault by Coffee's cavalry and diversions by the allied Creeks, overwhelmed the Red Sticks. Jackson sent a group to negotiate the Red Sticks' surrender, but the Red Sticks opened fire, killing one member. American troops slaughtered the remaining warriors. Jackson lost 47 men in the battle, alongside 23 Native American allies. Over 800 Red Sticks were killed. Most were combatants. However, some Creeks trying to flee and women and children were also killed.

After the engagement, Jackson led a scorched-earth campaign of burning villages and destroying supplies. Hundreds of Creek civilians were also killed by Jackson's troops during the conflict, described by some historians as genocidal. The campaign ended three weeks after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend with Red Eagle's surrender, although some Red Sticks such as McQueen fled to East Florida. On June 8, Jackson accepted a commission as brigadier general in the United States Army, and 10 days later became a major general, in command of the Seventh Military Division. Subsequently, Jackson, with Madison's approval, imposed the Treaty of Fort Jackson. The treaty required all Creek, including those who had fought alongside the United States in the war, to surrender 23 million acres (8,093,713 ha) of land to the United States. Most of the Creeks bitterly acquiesced and were forced west.Though in ill-health from dysentery, Jackson then turned his attention to defeating Spanish and British forces. Jackson accused the Spanish of arming the Red Sticks and of violating the terms of their neutrality by allowing British soldiers into the Floridas. The first charge was true, while the second ignored the fact that it was Jackson's threats to invade Florida which had caused them to seek British protection. In the November 7 Battle of Pensacola, Jackson defeated the relatively small British and Spanish forces in a short skirmish. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish surrendered and the remaining British withdrew. Weeks later, Jackson learned that the British were planning an attack on New Orleans, which sat on the mouth of the Mississippi River and held immense strategic and commercial value. Jackson abandoned Pensacola to the Spanish, placed a force in Mobile, Alabama, to guard against a possible invasion there, and rushed the rest of his forces west to defend New Orleans.

Battle of New Orleans

After arriving in New Orleans on December 1, 1814, Jackson instituted martial law in the city, as he worried about the loyalty of the city's Creole and Spanish inhabitants. At the same time, he formed an alliance with Jean Lafitte's smugglers, and formed military units consisting of African-Americans and Muscogees, in addition to recruiting volunteers in the city. Jackson received some criticism for paying white and non-white volunteers the same salary. These forces, along with U.S. Army regulars and volunteers from surrounding states, joined with Jackson's force in defending New Orleans. The approaching British force, led by Admiral Alexander Cochrane and later General Edward Pakenham, consisted of over 10,000 soldiers, many of whom had served in the Napoleonic Wars. Jackson had only about 5,000 men, most of whom were inexperienced and poorly trained.The British arrived on the east bank of the Mississippi River on the morning of December 23. That evening, Jackson attacked the British and temporarily drove them back. On January 1, 1815, both sides engaged in a major artillery barrage. The positions of each side were not changed. The climactic battle took place on January 8. An initial British artillery barrage did little damage to the well-constructed American defenses. Once the morning fog had cleared, the British launched a frontal assault, and their troops made easy targets for the Americans protected by their parapets. Despite managing to temporarily drive back the American right flank, the overall attack ended in disaster. For the battle on January 8, Jackson admitted to only 71 total casualties. Of these, 13 men were killed, 39 wounded, and 19 missing or captured. The British admitted 2,037 casualties. Of these, 291 men were killed (including Pakenham), 1,262 wounded, and 484 missing or captured. After the battle, the British retreated from the area, and open hostilities ended shortly thereafter when word spread that the Treaty of Ghent had been signed in Europe that December. Coming in the waning days of the war, Jackson's victory made him a national hero, as the country celebrated the end of what many called the "Second American Revolution" against the British. By a Congressional resolution on February 27, 1815, Jackson was given the Thanks of Congress and awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.Some have claimed that, because the war was already ended by the preliminary signing of the Treaty of Ghent, Jackson's victory at New Orleans was without importance aside from making him a celebrated figure. However, the Spanish, who had sold the Louisiana Territory to France, disputed France's right to sell it to the United States through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In April 1815, Spain, assuming that the British had won at New Orleans, asked for the return of the Louisiana Territory. Spanish representatives claimed to have been assured that they would receive the land back. Furthermore, Article IX of the Treaty of Ghent stipulated that the United States must return land taken from the Creeks to their original owners, essentially undoing the Treaty of Fort Jackson. Thanks to Jackson's victory at New Orleans, the American government felt that it could safely ignore that provision and it kept the lands that Jackson had acquired.

Enforced martial law in New Orleans

Jackson, still not knowing for certain of the treaty's signing, refused to lift martial law in the city. Citizens, local politicians, and some of Jackson's troops expressed growing displeasure. When some of the Creoles under Jackson's service, registering as French citizens with the French consul Louis de Toussard, asked to be discharged based on their foreign nationality, Jackson ordered all Frenchmen, including Toussard, to depart to no less than 120 miles from the limits of New Orleans. State senator Louis Louaillier wrote an anonymous piece in the New Orleans newspaper challenging Jackson's refusal to release the militia after the British ceded the field of battle. Jackson attempted to find the author and, after Louiallier admitted to having written the piece, he imprisoned him. In March, after U.S. District Court Judge Dominic A. Hall signed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Louaillier, Jackson ordered Hall's arrest. A military court ordered Louiallier's release, but Jackson kept him in prison. He released Hall four miles from the city, which marked the limits of his jurisdiction. Jackson also oversaw the execution of six members of the militia who had attempted to leave. On March 13, news officially reached the city that the peace treaty had been signed and ratified. Jackson immediately lifted martial law, released Louaillier from prison, and allowed the return of those he had exiled. Hall subsequently brought Jackson to trial on charges of contempt of court, and fined him $1,000.

First Seminole War

Following the war, Jackson remained in command of troops on the southern border of the U.S. He conducted business from the Hermitage. He signed treaties with the Cherokee and Chickasaw which gained for the United States large parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. The treaty with the Chickasaw, finally agreed to later in the year, is commonly known as the Jackson Purchase.Jackson would soon find himself embroiled in another conflict in the Floridas. Several Native American tribes, collectively known as the Seminole, straddled the border between the U.S. and Florida. The Seminole, in alliance with escaped slaves, frequently raided Georgia settlements before retreating back into Florida. These continual skirmishes escalated into the conflict now known as the First Seminole War. In 1816, Jackson led a detachment into Florida and at the Battle of Negro Fort destroyed the fort, killing most of the fugitive slaves defending it and a smaller number of allied Choctaw. Jackson was then ordered by President Monroe in December 1817 to lead a campaign in Georgia against the Seminole and Creek. Jackson was again charged with preventing Florida from becoming a refuge for runaway slaves, after Spain promised freedom to fugitive slaves. Critics later alleged that Jackson exceeded orders in his Florida actions. His orders from President Monroe were to "terminate the conflict." Jackson believed the best way to do this was to seize Florida from Spain once and for all. Before departing, Jackson wrote to Monroe, "Let it be signified to me through any channel ... that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished."Jackson invaded Florida on March 15, 1818, capturing Pensacola. He crushed Seminole and Spanish resistance in the region and captured two British agents, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot, who had been working with the Seminole. After a brief trial, Jackson executed both of them, causing a diplomatic incident with the British. Jackson's actions polarized Monroe's cabinet, some of whom argued that Jackson had gone against Monroe's orders and violated the Constitution, since the United States had not declared war upon Spain. He was defended by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Adams thought that Jackson's conquest of Florida would force Spain to finally sell the province, and Spain did indeed sell Florida to the United States in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. A congressional investigation exonerated Jackson, but he was deeply angered by the criticism he received, particularly from Speaker of the House Henry Clay. After the ratification of the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1821, Jackson resigned from the army and briefly served as the territorial Governor of Florida before returning to Tennessee.

Presidential aspirations

Election of 1824

In the spring of 1822, Jackson suffered a physical breakdown. His body had two bullets lodged in it, and he had grown exhausted from years of hard military campaigning. He regularly coughed up blood, and his entire body shook. Jackson feared that he was on the brink of death. After several months of rest, he recovered. During his convalescence, Jackson's thoughts increasingly turned to national affairs. He obsessed over rampant corruption in the Monroe administration and grew to detest the Second Bank of the United States, blaming it for causing the Panic of 1819 by contracting credit. Jackson was a Freemason, initiated at Harmony Lodge No. 1 in Tennessee. He was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee in 1822 and 1823.

Jackson turned down an offer to run for governor of his home state, but accepted John Overton's plan to have the legislature nominate him for president. On July 22, 1822, he was officially nominated by the Tennessee legislature. Jackson had come to dislike Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, who had been a critic of Jackson in Monroe's cabinet, and he hoped to prevent Tennessee's electoral votes from going to Crawford. Yet Jackson's nomination garnered a welcoming response even outside of Tennessee, as many Americans appreciated his opposition to banks. The Panic of 1819 had devastated the fortunes of many, and banks and politicians seen as supportive of banks were unpopular. With his growing political viability, Jackson emerged as one of the five major presidential candidates, along with Crawford, Adams, Clay, and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. During the Era of Good Feelings, the Federalist Party had faded away, and all five presidential contenders were members of the Democratic-Republican Party. Jackson's campaign promoted him as a defender of the common people and as the one candidate who could transcend sectional divisions. On the major issues of the day, most prominently the tariff, Jackson expressed centrist beliefs, and opponents accused him of obfuscating his positions. At the forefront of Jackson's campaign was combatting corruption. Jackson vowed to restore honesty in government and to scale back its excesses. As a war hero, Jackson was popular with ordinary people, and he benefited from the expansion of suffrage among white males that followed the conclusion of the War of 1812.In 1823, Jackson reluctantly allowed his name to be placed in contention for one of Tennessee's U.S. Senate seats. The move was independently orchestrated by his advisors William Berkeley Lewis and U.S. senator John Eaton in order to defeat incumbent John Williams, who openly opposed his presidential candidacy. The legislature narrowly elected him. His return, after 24 years, 11 months, 3 days out of office, marks the second longest gap in service to the chamber in history. Although Jackson was reluctant to serve once more in the Senate, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. Eaton wrote to Rachel that Jackson as a senator was "in harmony and good understanding with every body," including Thomas Hart Benton, now a senator from Missouri, with whom Jackson had fought in 1813. Meanwhile, Jackson himself did little active campaigning for the presidency, as was customary. Eaton updated an already-written biography of him in preparation for the campaign and, along with others, wrote letters to newspapers praising Jackson's record and past conduct.Democratic-Republican presidential nominees had historically been chosen by informal Congressional nominating caucuses, but this method had become unpopular. In 1824, most of the Democratic-Republicans in Congress boycotted the caucus. Those who attended backed Crawford for president and Albert Gallatin for vice president. A Pennsylvania convention nominated Jackson for president a month later, stating that the irregular caucus ignored the "voice of the people" in the "vain hope that the American people might be thus deceived into a belief that he [Crawford] was the regular democratic candidate." Gallatin criticized Jackson as "an honest man and the idol of the worshipers of military glory, but from incapacity, military habits, and habitual disregard of laws and constitutional provisions, altogether unfit for the office." After Jackson won the Pennsylvania nomination, Calhoun dropped out of the presidential race and successfully sought the vice presidency instead.In the presidential election, Jackson won a plurality of the electoral vote, taking states in the South, West, and Mid-Atlantic. He was the only candidate to win states outside of his regional base, as Adams dominated New England, Clay took three western states, and Crawford won Virginia and Georgia. Jackson won a plurality of the popular vote, taking 42 percent, although not all states held a popular vote for the presidency. He won 99 electoral votes, more than any other candidate, but failed to reach a true majority of 131. With no candidate having won a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives held a contingent election under the terms of the Twelfth Amendment. The amendment specifies that only the top three electoral vote-winners are eligible to be elected by the House, so Clay was eliminated from contention. Jackson believed that he was likely to win, as Crawford and Adams lacked his national appeal, and Crawford had a debilitating stroke that made many doubt his physical fitness for the presidency. Clay, who as Speaker of the House presided over the election, saw Jackson as a dangerous demagogue who might topple the republic. He threw his support behind Adams, who shared Clay's support for federally funded internal improvements such as roads and canals. With Clay's backing, Adams won the contingent election on the first ballot. Furious supporters of Jackson accused Clay and Adams of having reached a "corrupt bargain" after Adams appointed Clay as his Secretary of State. "So you see," Jackson growled, "the Judas of the West has closed the contract and receive the thirty pieces of silver. [H]is end will be the same." After the Congressional session concluded, Jackson resigned his Senate seat and returned to Tennessee.

Election of 1828 and death of Rachel Jackson

Almost immediately, opposition arose to the Adams presidency. Jackson opposed Adams's plan to involve the U.S. in Panama's quest for independence, writing, "The moment we engage in confederations, or alliances with any nation, we may from that time date the down fall of our republic." Adams damaged his standing in his first annual message to Congress, when he argued that Congress must not give the world the impression "that we are palsied by the will of our constituents."Jackson was nominated for president by the Tennessee legislature in October 1825, more than three years before the 1828 election. It was the earliest such nomination in presidential history. Adams's presidency foundered, as his ambitious agenda faced defeat in a new era of mass politics. Critics led by Jackson attacked Adams's policies as a dangerous expansion of Federal power. New York Senator Martin Van Buren, a supporter of Crawford in 1824, emerged as one of the strongest opponents of Adams's policies, and he settled on Jackson as his preferred candidate. Van Buren was joined by Calhoun, who opposed much of Adams's agenda on states' rights grounds and was nominated with Jackson in the election. Van Buren and other Jackson allies established numerous pro-Jackson newspapers and clubs around the country, while Jackson avoided campaigning but made himself available to visitors at his Hermitage plantation. In the election, Jackson won a commanding 56 percent of the popular vote and 68 percent of the electoral vote. The election marked the definitive end of the one-party Era of Good Feelings, as Jackson's supporters coalesced into the Democratic Party and Adams's followers became known as the National Republicans.As was the custom at the time, neither candidate personally campaigned, but their political followers organized campaign events and wrote articles in the press. The campaign was heavily personal. Jackson was labelled a slave trader who bought and sold slaves and moved them about in defiance of higher standards of slaveholder behavior. A series of pamphlets known as the Coffin Handbills were published to attack Jackson, one of which revealed his order to execute soldiers at New Orleans. Another accused him of engaging in cannibalism by eating the bodies of American Indians killed in battle, while still another labeled his mother a prostitute and his father a mulatto. Rachel Jackson was also a frequent target of attacks, and was widely accused of bigamy, a reference to the controversial situation of her marriage with Jackson. Jackson's campaigners retaliated by claiming that while Minister to Russia, Adams had procured a young girl to serve as a prostitute for Emperor Alexander I. They also stated that Adams had a billiard table in the White House and that he had charged the government for it.Rachel had been under extreme stress during the election, and often struggled while Jackson was away. She began experiencing significant physical stress during the election season. Jackson described her symptoms as "excruciating pain in the left shoulder, arm, and breast." After struggling for three days, Rachel died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828. A distraught Jackson had to be pulled from her so the undertaker could prepare the body. He felt that the abuse from Adams's supporters had hastened her death. Rachel was buried at the Hermitage on Christmas Eve. "May God Almighty forgive her murderers, as I know she forgave them," Jackson swore at her funeral. "I never can."

Presidency (1829–1837)

Philosophy

Jackson's name has been associated with Jacksonian democracy or the shift and expansion of democracy with the passing of some political power from established elites to ordinary voters based in political parties. "The Age of Jackson" shaped the national agenda and American politics. Jackson's supporters portrayed him as an advocate for the "common man" against a "corrupt aristocracy." Jackson's philosophy as president was similar to that of Jefferson, advocating republican values held by those of the Revolutionary War generation who called themselves American patriots. Jackson took a moral tone, with the belief that agrarian sympathies, and strong states rights with a limited federal government, would produce less corruption. He feared that monied and business interests would corrupt republican values. When South Carolina opposed the tariff law, he took a strong line in favor of nationalism and against secession.Jackson believed in the ability of the people to "arrive at right conclusions." They had the right not only to elect but to "instruct their agents & representatives." Office holders should either obey the popular will or resign. He rejected the view that the Supreme Court should be powerful, independent, and able to make binding decisions, arguing that "the Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each or itself be guided by its own opinions of the Constitution." Jackson thought that Supreme Court justices should be made to stand for election, and believed in strict constructionism as the best way to ensure democratic rule. He called for term limits on presidents and the abolition of the Electoral College. According to historian Robert V. Remini, Jackson "was far ahead of his times–and maybe even further than this country can ever achieve."

Inauguration

Jackson departed from the Hermitage on January 19 and arrived in Washington on February 11. He then set about choosing his cabinet members. Jackson chose Van Buren as expected for Secretary of State, Eaton of Tennessee as Secretary of War, Samuel D. Ingham of Pennsylvania as Secretary of Treasury, John Branch of North Carolina as Secretary of Navy, John M. Berrien of Georgia as Attorney General, and William T. Barry of Kentucky as Postmaster General. Jackson's first choice of cabinet proved to be unsuccessful, full of bitter partisanship and gossip. Jackson blamed Adams in part for what was said about Rachel during the campaign, and refused to meet him after arriving in Washington. Therefore, Adams chose not to attend the inauguration.On March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson became the first United States president-elect to take the oath of office on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. In his inaugural speech, Jackson promised to respect the sovereign powers of states and the constitutional limits of the presidency. He also promised to pursue "reform" by removing power from "unfaithful or incompetent hands." At the conclusion of the ceremony, Jackson invited the public to the White House, where his supporters held a raucous party. Thousands of spectators overwhelmed the White House staff, and minor damage was caused to fixtures and furnishings. Jackson's populism earned him the nickname "King Mob."

Reforms and rotation of offices

In an effort to purge the government of corruption, Jackson launched presidential investigations into all executive Cabinet offices and departments. He believed that appointees should be hired on merit and withdrew many candidates he felt were lax in their handling of monies. He believed further that the federal government had been corrupted and that he had received a mandate from the American people to purge such corruption. Jackson's investigations uncovered enormous fraud in the federal government, and numerous officials were removed from office and indicted on corruption charges, including personal friend of John Quincy Adams and Treasury Fourth Auditor Tobias Watkins. In the first year of Jackson's presidency, his investigations uncovered $280,000 stolen from the Treasury, and the Department of the Navy was saved $1 million. He asked Congress to reform embezzlement laws, reduce fraudulent applications for federal pensions, pass revenue laws to prevent evasion of custom duties, and pass laws to improve government accounting. Jackson's Postmaster General Barry resigned after a Congressional investigation into the postal service revealed mismanagement of mail services, collusion and favoritism in awarding lucrative contracts, as well as failure to audit accounts and supervise contract performances. Jackson replaced Barry with Treasury Auditor and advisor Amos Kendall, who went on to implement reforms in the Post Office Department.

Jackson enforced the Tenure of Office Act, signed by President Monroe in 1820, that limited appointed office tenure and authorized the president to remove and appoint political party associates. He believed that a rotation in office was a democratic reform that prevented hereditary officeholding and made civil service responsible to the popular will. He argued, "In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another." Jackson believed that rotating political appointments would prevent the development of a corrupt bureaucracy. The number of federal office holders removed by him was exaggerated by his opponents; he rotated only about 20% during his first term, removing some for dereliction of duty rather than for political purposes. Nonetheless, he used his presidential power to award loyal Democrats by granting them federal office appointments.Jackson's implementation of his rotation of office system generated what would later be called the spoils system. Remini writes that because "friendship, politics, and geography constituted the President's total criteria for appointments, most of his appointments were predictably substandard." By contrast, Richard B. Latner states that although a few of Jackson's appointments proved to be disasters, many were excellent.Jackson repeatedly called for the abolition of the Electoral College by constitutional amendment in his annual messages to Congress. On May 27, 1830, Jackson vetoed a bill that would have built a road passing through part of Kentucky. He stated that the project was not sufficiently national in character, while criticizing the practice of the federally funded internal improvements as unconstitutional and likely to either raise taxes or impede the ability to pay the national debt. He supported an act in July 1836 that enabled widows of Revolutionary War soldiers who met certain criteria to receive their husbands' pensions. In 1836, Jackson established the ten-hour day in national shipyards.

Petticoat affair

Jackson devoted a considerable amount of his presidential time during his early years in office responding to what came to be known as the "Petticoat affair" or "Eaton affair." Washington gossip circulated among Jackson's cabinet members and their wives, including Calhoun's wife Floride Calhoun, concerning Secretary of War Eaton and his wife Peggy Eaton. Salacious rumors held that Peggy, as a barmaid in her father's tavern, had been sexually promiscuous or had even been a prostitute. Controversy also ensued because Peggy had married soon after her previous husband's death, and it was alleged that she and her husband had engaged in an adulterous affair while her previous husband was still living. Petticoat politics emerged when the wives of cabinet members, led by Mrs. Calhoun, refused to socialize with the Eatons. Allowing a prostitute in the official family was unthinkable—but Jackson refused to believe the rumors, telling his Cabinet that "She is as chaste as a virgin!" Jackson was also reminded of the attacks that were made against his wife, and these memories increased his dedication to defending the honor of Peggy Eaton.Meanwhile, the wives of Jackson's cabinet members insisted that the interests and honor of all American women was at stake. They believed a responsible woman should never accord a man sexual favors without the assurance that went with marriage. A woman who broke that code was dishonorable and unacceptable. Historian Daniel Walker Howe notes that this was the feminist spirit that in the next decade shaped the woman's rights movement. Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, a widower, was already forming a coalition against Calhoun. Seeing a chance to strike hard, he took the side of Jackson and Eaton.In the spring of 1831, Jackson, at Van Buren's suggestion, demanded the resignations of all the cabinet members except Barry. Van Buren himself resigned to avoid the appearance of bias. In 1832, Jackson nominated Van Buren to be Minister to Great Britain. Calhoun blocked the nomination with a tie-breaking vote against it, claiming the defeated nomination would "... kill him [Van Buren] dead, sir, kill him dead. He will never kick, sir, never kick." Van Buren continued to serve as an important adviser to Jackson and was placed on the ticket for vice president in the 1832 election, making him Jackson's heir-apparent. The Petticoat affair led to the development of an unofficial group of advisors to the President known as the Kitchen Cabinet. Its existence was partially rooted in Jackson's difficulties with his official cabinet, even after the purging.

Indian removal policy

Throughout his eight years in office, Jackson made about 70 treaties with American Indian tribes both in the South and in the Northwest. Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of a policy of Indian removal. Jackson himself sometimes participated in the treaty negotiating process, though other times he left the negotiations to his subordinates. The southern tribes included the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and the Cherokee. The northwest tribes included the Chippewa, Ottawa, and the Potawatomi.Relations between Indians and whites increasingly grew tense and sometimes violent as a result of territorial conflicts. Previous presidents had at times supported removal or attempts to "civilize" Native people, but generally let the problem play itself out with minimal intervention. By Jackson's time, a growing popular and political movement developed wanting action on the issue, and out of this came policy decisions to relocate certain Indian populations. Jackson became an advocate for this relocation policy in what many historians consider the most controversial aspect of his presidency.In his First Annual Message to Congress, Jackson advocated that land west of the Mississippi River be set aside for Indian tribes. On May 26, 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which Jackson signed into law two days later. The Act authorized the president to negotiate treaties to buy tribal lands in the eastern part of the United States in exchange for lands farther west, outside of existing state borders. The act specifically pertained to the Five Civilized Tribes in the South, the conditions being that they could either move west or stay and obey state law, effectively relinquishing their sovereignty.

Jackson, Eaton, and General Coffee negotiated with the Chickasaw, who quickly agreed to move. Jackson put Eaton and Coffee in charge of negotiating with the Choctaw. Lacking Jackson's skills at negotiation, they simply bribed various leaders in order to gain their agreement. The tactics worked, and with the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the Choctaw were required to move. The removal of the Choctaw took place in the winter of 1831 and 1832, and was wrought with misery and suffering. The Seminole, despite the signing of the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832, refused to move. In December 1835, this dispute began the Second Seminole War. The war lasted over six years, finally ending in 1842. Members of the Creek Nation had signed the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832, allowing the Creek to either sell or retain their land. Conflict later erupted between the Creek who remained and the white settlers, leading to a second Creek War. A common complaint amongst the tribes was that the men who had signed the treaties did not represent the whole tribe.The state of Georgia became involved in a dispute with the Cherokee, culminating in the 1832 Supreme Court decision in Worcester v. Georgia. Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for the court, ruled that Georgia could not forbid whites from entering tribal lands, as it had attempted to do in the case of two missionaries supposedly stirring up resistance amongst the tribespeople. The following response is frequently attributed to Jackson: "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." The quote, apparently indicating Jackson's dismissive view of the courts, was attributed to Jackson by Horace Greeley, who cited as his source Representative George N. Briggs. Remini argues that Jackson did not say it because, while it "certainly sounds like Jackson...[t]here was nothing for him to enforce." This alludes to the fact that a writ of habeas corpus had never been issued for the missionaries. The Court also did not ask federal marshals to carry out the decision, as had become standard.A group of Cherokees led by John Ridge negotiated the Treaty of New Echota. Ridge was not a widely recognized leader of the Cherokee, and this document was rejected by some of the tribe as illegitimate. Another faction, led by John Ross, unsuccessfully petitioned to protest the proposed removal. The Cherokee largely considered themselves independent, and not subject to the laws of the United States or Georgia. The treaty was enforced by Jackson's successor, Van Buren. Subsequently, as many as 4,000 out of 18,000 Cherokee died on the "Trail of Tears" in 1838.More than 45,000 people were relocated, primarily to Indian territory in present-day Oklahoma during Jackson's administration, though some Cherokee people walked back afterwards, and others evaded removal by migrating into the Great Smoky Mountains. Another conflict during the Jackson administration was the Black Hawk War which arose after a group of Indians crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S. state of Illinois from Iowa Indian Territory in 1832.

Nullification crisis

In 1828, Congress had approved the "Tariff of Abominations", which set the protective tariff at a historically high rate to prevent the products of factories in the Northern states from having to compete with lower-priced imported manufactured items from Britain. Southern planters, who sold their cotton on the world market, strongly opposed this tariff, which they saw as favoring northern interests. The South now had to pay more for goods it did not produce locally; and other countries would have more difficulty affording southern cotton. The issue came to a head during Jackson's presidency, resulting in the Nullification Crisis, in which South Carolina threatened disunion.The South Carolina Exposition and Protest of 1828, secretly written by Calhoun, asserted that their state had the right to "nullify"—declare void—the tariff legislation of 1828. Although Jackson sympathized with the South in the tariff debate, he also vigorously supported a strong union, with effective powers for the central government. Jackson attempted to face down Calhoun over the issue, which developed into a bitter rivalry between the two men. One incident came at the April 13, 1830, Jefferson Day dinner, involving after-dinner toasts. Robert Y. Hayne began by toasting to "The Union of the States, and the Sovereignty of the States." Jackson then rose, and in a booming voice added "Our federal Union: It must be preserved!" – a clear challenge to Calhoun. Calhoun clarified his position by responding "The Union: Next to our Liberty, the most dear!"In May 1830, Jackson discovered that while Calhoun was serving as Secretary of War he had asked President Monroe to censure Jackson for his invasion of Spanish Florida in 1818. Thereafter, Calhoun's and Jackson's relationship deteriorated further. By February 1831, the break between Calhoun and Jackson was final. Responding to inaccurate press reports about the feud, Calhoun had published letters between him and Jackson detailing the conflict in the United States Telegraph. Jackson and Calhoun began an angry correspondence which lasted until Jackson stopped it in July. The Telegraph, edited by Duff Green, initially supported Jackson. After it sided with Calhoun on nullification, Jackson needed what would amount to a new house organ for the administration. He enlisted the help of supporter Francis Preston Blair, who in November 1830 established the Washington Globe, which from then on served as the primary newspaper of the Democratic Party.Jackson supported a revision to tariff rates known as the Tariff of 1832, designed to placate the nullifiers by lowering tariff rates. Written by Treasury Secretary Louis McLane, the bill lowered duties from 45% to 27%. In May, Representative John Quincy Adams introduced a slightly revised version of the bill, which Jackson accepted. It passed Congress on July 9 and was signed by the president on July 14. The bill failed to satisfy extremists on either side. In October, the South Carolina legislature voted to call a convention to nullify the tariffs. On November 24, the South Carolina Nullification Convention passed an ordinance nullifying both the Tariff of 1828 and the Tariff of 1832 and threatening to secede if the federal government attempted to enforce them. In response, Jackson sent United States Navy warships to Charleston harbor, and threatened to hang any man who worked to support nullification or secession. On December 28, 1832, Calhoun resigned as vice president, after having been elected to the U.S. Senate. This was part of a strategy whereby Calhoun, with less than three months remaining on his term, would replace Hayne in the Senate, who would then become governor of South Carolina. Hayne had often struggled to defend nullification on the floor of the Senate, especially against fierce criticism from Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts.Also that December, Jackson issued a proclamation against the "nullifiers," stating that he considered "the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed." South Carolina, the president declared, stood on "the brink of insurrection and treason," and he appealed to the people of the state to reassert their allegiance to that Union. Jackson also denied the right of secession: "The Constitution ... forms a government not a league ... To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States are not a nation." Jackson tended to personalize the controversy, frequently characterizing nullification as a conspiracy between disappointed and bitter men whose ambitions had been thwarted.Jackson asked Congress to pass a "Force Bill" explicitly authorizing the use of military force to enforce the tariff. It was introduced by Senator Felix Grundy of Tennessee, and was quickly attacked by Calhoun as "military despotism." Meanwhile, Calhoun and Clay began to work on a new compromise tariff. A bill sponsored by the administration had been introduced by Representative Gulian C. Verplanck of New York, but it lowered rates more sharply than Clay and other protectionists desired. Clay managed to get Calhoun to agree to a bill with higher rates in exchange for Clay's opposition to Jackson's military threats and, perhaps, with the hope that he could win some Southern votes in his next bid for the presidency. The Compromise Tariff passed on March 1, 1833. The Force Bill passed the same day. Calhoun, Clay, and several others marched out of the chamber in opposition, the only dissenting vote coming from John Tyler of Virginia. The new tariff was opposed by Webster, who argued that it essentially surrendered to South Carolina's demands. Jackson, despite his anger over the scrapping of the Verplanck bill and the new alliance between Clay and Calhoun, saw it as an efficient way to end the crisis. He signed both bills on March 2, starting with the Force Bill. The South Carolina Convention then met and rescinded its nullification ordinance, but in a final show of defiance, nullified the Force Bill. On May 1, Jackson wrote, "the tariff was only the pretext, and disunion and southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or slavery question."

Foreign affairs

Addressing the subject of foreign affairs in his First Annual Address to Congress, Jackson declared it to be his "settled purpose to ask nothing that is not clearly right and to submit to nothing that is wrong."When Jackson took office, spoliation claims or compensation demands for the capture of American ships and sailors, dating from the Napoleonic era, caused strained relations between the U.S. and French governments. The French Navy had captured and sent American ships to Spanish ports while holding their crews captive, forcing them to labor without any charges presented. Jackson's Minister to France, William C. Rives, was able to convince the French government to sign a reparations treaty on July 4, 1831, that would award the U.S. ₣ 25,000,000 ($5,000,000) in damages. The French government became delinquent in payment due to internal financial and political difficulties. The French king Louis Philippe I and his ministers blamed the French Chamber of Deputies. By 1834, the non-payment of reparations by the French government drew Jackson's ire. In his December 1834 State of the Union address, he said that the United States was "wholly disappointed" in the French and asked Congress to authorize trade reprisals against France. Feeling insulted by Jackson's words, the French people began pressuring their government not to pay the indemnity until Jackson had apologized for his remarks. In his December 1835 State of the Union Address, Jackson refused to apologize, stating he had a good opinion of the French people and his intentions were peaceful. The French accepted Jackson's statements as sincere and in February 1836, reparations were paid.In addition to France, the Jackson administration successfully settled spoliation claims with Denmark, Portugal, and Spain. Jackson's state department was active and successful at making trade agreements with Russia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Siam. Under the treaty with the United Kingdom, American trade was reopened in the West Indies. The trade agreement with Siam was America's first treaty between the United States and an Asian country. As a result, American exports increased 75% while imports increased 250%. Jackson failed in his efforts to open trade with China and Japan and was unsuccessful at thwarting the United Kingdom's presence and power in South America.Jackson, wishing to expand American borders into the Southwest, attempt to purchase Texas from Mexico for $5,000,000. His efforts failed. The chargé d'affaires in Mexico, Colonel Anthony Butler, suggested that the U.S. take Texas over militarily, but Jackson refused. Butler was eventually replaced. Encouraged by the American government, large numbers of American settlers, many of whom held slaves, entered Texas. Tensions over religion, political instability south of Texas, economic issues, slavery, and efforts by the Mexican government to limit further immigration mounted, and in 1835, the Texas Revolution began when these settlers revolted. By May 1836, they had routed the Mexican military, establishing an independent Republic of Texas. The new Texas government legalized slavery and demanded recognition from President Jackson and annexation into the United States. Jackson was hesitant in recognizing Texas, unconvinced that the new republic could maintain independence from Mexico, and not wanting to make Texas an anti-slavery issue during the 1836 election. The strategy worked; the Democratic Party was held intact and Van Buren was elected president. Jackson formally recognized the Republic of Texas on the last full day of his presidency, March 3, 1837.

Bank veto and election of 1832

The 1832 presidential election demonstrated the rapid development and organization of political parties during this period. The Democratic Party's first national convention, held in Baltimore, nominated Jackson's choice for vice president, Van Buren. The National Republican Party, who had held their first convention in Baltimore earlier in December 1831, nominated Henry Clay, now a senator from Kentucky, and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania. The Anti-Masonic Party emerged by capitalizing on opposition to Freemasonry, which existed primarily in New England. The party nominated William Wirt of Maryland and Amos Ellmaker of Pennsylvania. Clay was, like Jackson, a Mason, attracting some anti-Jacksonians to Wirt.In 1816, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered by President James Madison to restore the United States economy, which had been devastated by the War of 1812. Monroe had appointed Nicholas Biddle as the Bank's executive. Under Biddle, the country had largely achieved economic stability, and the Bank's currency circulated widely. However, Jackson believed that the Bank was a corrupt monopoly. Its stock was mostly held by foreigners, he insisted, and it exerted an unfair amount of control over the political system. Jackson used the issue to promote his democratic values, believing the Bank was being run exclusively for the wealthy. He accused it of making loans with the intent of influencing elections. Jackson’s criticisms were shared by "anti-bank, hard money agrarians" as well as eastern financial interests who resented its restrictions on credit. They maintained that it lent money to wealthy well-connected speculators at the expense of ordinary Americans. In his address to Congress in 1830, Jackson called for a substitute for the Bank that would have no private stockholders and no ability to lend or purchase land. Its only power would be to issue bills of exchange. The address touched off fiery debate in the Senate. Thomas Hart Benton, now a strong supporter of the President despite the street brawl with the Benton brothers years earlier, gave a speech excoriating the Bank and calling for debate on its charter, which was set to expire in 1836. Webster led a motion to narrowly defeat the resolution. Shortly afterward, the Globe announced that Jackson would stand for reelection.Despite his misgivings about the Bank, Jackson supported a plan proposed in late 1831 by McLane, his moderately pro-Bank treasury secretary, who was secretly working with Biddle, to recharter a reformed version of the Bank in a way that would free up funds which would in turn be used to strengthen the military or pay off the nation's debt. This would be done, in part, through the sale of government stock in the Bank. Over the objections of Attorney General Roger B. Taney, an irreconcilable opponent of the Bank, he allowed McLane to publish a Treasury Report which recommended rechartering the Bank.

Clay hoped to make the Bank an issue in the election, so as to accuse Jackson of going beyond his powers if he vetoed a recharter bill. He and Webster urged Biddle to immediately apply for recharter rather than wait to reach a compromise with the administration. Biddle received advice to the contrary from moderate Democrats such as McLane and William Lewis, who argued that Biddle should wait because Jackson, seeing himself backed into a corner, would likely veto the recharter bill before the election. On January 6, 1832, Biddle submitted to Congress petition for the renewal of the Bank's charter. The submission came four years before the original 20-year charter was to end. Biddle's recharter bill passed the Senate on June 11 and the House on July 3. Jackson determined to veto it. Many moderate Democrats, including McLane, were appalled by the perceived arrogance of the bill and supported his decision. When Van Buren met Jackson on July 4, Jackson declared, "The Bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me. But I will kill it." Jackson vetoed the bill on July 10. The veto message was crafted primarily by Taney, Kendall, and Jackson's nephew and advisor Andrew Jackson Donelson. It attacked the Bank as an agent of inequality that supported only the wealthy. The veto was considered "one of the strongest and most controversial" presidential statements and "a brilliant political manifesto."Jackson's political opponents castigated the veto as "the very slang of the leveller and demagogue," claiming Jackson was using class warfare to gain support from the common man. At Biddle's direction, the Bank poured thousands of dollars into a campaign to defeat Jackson, seemingly confirming Jackson's view that it interfered in the political process. Jackson successfully portrayed his veto as a defense of the common man against privileged interests. Clay proved to be no match for Jackson's ability to resonate with the people and the Democratic Party's strong political networks. Democratic newspapers, parades, barbecues, and rallies increased Jackson's popularity. Jackson himself made numerous public appearances on his return trip from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. He won the election by a landslide, receiving 54 percent of the popular vote and 219 electoral votes. Clay received 37 percent of the popular vote and 49 electoral votes. Wirt received only eight percent of the popular vote and seven electoral votes while the Anti-Masonic Party eventually declined. Jackson believed the solid victory was a popular mandate for his veto of the Bank's recharter and his continued warfare on the Bank's control over the national economy.

Removal of deposits and censure

In 1833, Jackson attempted to begin removing federal deposits from the bank, whose money-lending functions were taken over by the legions of local and state banks that materialized across America, thus drastically increasing credit and speculation. Jackson's moves incited agitation. He removed McLane from the Treasury Department, having him serve instead as Secretary of State, replacing Edward Livingston. He replaced McLane with William J. Duane. In September, he fired Duane for refusing to remove the deposits. Signaling his intent to continue battling the Bank, he replaced Duane with Taney. Under Taney, the deposits began to be removed. They were placed in a variety of state banks which were friendly to the administration's policies, known to critics as pet banks. Biddle responded by stockpiling the Bank's reserves and contracting credit, thus causing interest rates to rise and bringing about a financial panic. The moves were intended to force Jackson into a compromise. "Nothing but the evidence of suffering abroad will produce any effect in Congress," he wrote. At first, Biddle's strategy was successful, putting pressure on Jackson. When people came to Jackson to complain, he referred them to Biddle, saying that he was the man who had "all the money." His approach worked. Biddle's strategy backfired, increasing anti-Bank sentiment. At the urging of many in the public as well as a number of his allies, Biddle reversed course.In 1834, those who disagreed with Jackson's expansion of executive power united and formed the Whig Party, calling Jackson "King Andrew I," and named their party after the English Whigs who opposed seventeenth century British monarchy. On March 28, the Whigs passed a motion in the Senate 26–20 to censure Jackson for firing Duane and for removing the deposits. The Senate also rejected Taney as Treasury Secretary. The House however, led by Ways and Means Committee chairman James K. Polk, declared on April 4 that the Bank "ought not to be rechartered" and that the depositions "ought not to be restored." It voted to continue allowing pet banks to be places of deposit and voted even more overwhelmingly to investigate whether the Bank had deliberately instigated the panic. Jackson called the passage of these resolutions a "glorious triumph." It essentially sealed the Bank's demise. The Democrats later suffered a temporary setback. Polk ran for Speaker of the House to replace Andrew Stevenson. After Southerners discovered his connection to Van Buren, he was defeated by fellow-Tennessean John Bell, a Democrat-turned-Whig who opposed Jackson's removal policy.The national economy following the withdrawal of the remaining funds from the Bank was booming and the federal government through duty revenues and sale of public lands was able to pay all bills. On January 1, 1835, Jackson paid off the entire national debt, the only time in U.S. history that has been accomplished. The objective had been reached in part through Jackson's reforms aimed at eliminating the misuse of funds and through his vetoes of legislation which he deemed extravagant. In December 1835, Polk defeated Bell in a rematch and was elected Speaker. Finally, on January 16, 1837, a Jacksonian majority in the Senate led by Benton expunged the censure after years of effort by Jackson supporters.

Attack and assassination attempt

The first recorded physical attack on a U.S. president was directed at Jackson on May 6, 1833. Jackson had ordered the dismissal of Robert B. Randolph from the navy for embezzlement. Near Alexandria, Randolph appeared and struck the President before fleeing. Jackson declined to press charges.On January 30, 1835, the first known attempt to kill a sitting president of the United States occurred just outside the United States Capitol. When Jackson was leaving through the East Portico after the funeral of South Carolina Representative Warren R. Davis, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter from England, aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. Lawrence then pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. Jackson attacked Lawrence with his cane, until others intervened to restrain and disarm Lawrence.Lawrence offered a variety of explanations for the attempted shooting. He blamed Jackson for the loss of his job. He claimed that with the President dead, "money would be more plenty" and that he "could not rise until the President fell." Finally, Lawrence told his interrogators that he was the deposed Richard III of England, dead since 1485—and that Jackson was his clerk. He was deemed insane and institutionalized. Many believed that Jackson had been protected by the same Providence that also protected their young nation. Jackson initially suspected that a number of his political enemies might have orchestrated the attempt on his life. His suspicions were never proven.

Reaction to anti-slavery tracts

During the summer of 1835, Northern abolitionists began sending anti-slavery tracts through the postal system into the South. Pro-slavery Southerners demanded that the postal service ban distribution of the materials, which were deemed "incendiary," and some began to riot. Jackson wanted sectional peace, and desired to placate Southerners ahead of the 1836 election. He fiercely disliked the abolitionists, whom he believed were, by instituting sectional jealousies, attempting to destroy the Union. Jackson also did not want to condone open insurrection. He supported the solution of Postmaster General Amos Kendall, which gave Southern postmasters discretionary powers to either send or detain the anti-slavery tracts. That December, Jackson called on Congress to prohibit the circulation through the South of "incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection."

Panic of 1837

In spite of economic success following Jackson's vetoes and war against the Bank, reckless speculation in land and railroads eventually caused the Panic of 1837. Jackson's transfer of federal monies to state banks in 1833 that caused western banks to relax their lending standards. Two other Jacksonian acts in 1836 contributed to the Panic of 1837: the Specie Circular, which mandated western lands only be purchased by money backed by gold and silver, and the Deposit and Distribution Act, which transferred federal monies from eastern to western state banks and in turn led to a speculation frenzy by banks. Jackson's Specie Circular, albeit designed to reduce speculation and stabilize the economy, left many investors unable to afford to pay loans in gold and silver. The same year there was a downturn in Great Britain's economy that stopped investment in the United States. As a result, the U.S. economy went into a depression, banks became insolvent, the national debt (previously paid off) increased, business failures rose, cotton prices dropped, and unemployment dramatically increased. The depression that followed lasted for four years until 1841, when the economy began to rebound.

Administration and cabinet

Judicial appointments

Jackson appointed six justices to the Supreme Court. Most were undistinguished. His first appointee, John McLean, had been nominated in William T. Barry's place after Barry had agreed to become postmaster general. McLean "turned Whig and forever schemed to win" the presidency. His next two appointees —Henry Baldwin and James Moore Wayne —disagreed with Jackson on some points but were poorly regarded even by Jackson's enemies. In reward for his services, Jackson nominated Taney to the Court to fill a vacancy in January 1835, but the nomination failed to win Senate approval. Chief Justice Marshall died in 1835, leaving two vacancies. Jackson nominated Taney for Chief Justice and Philip P. Barbour for associate justice. Both were confirmed by the new Senate. Taney served as chief justice until 1864. He was regarded with respect during his career on the bench, but his opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford largely overshadows his other accomplishments. On the last full day of his presidency, Jackson nominated John Catron, who was confirmed.

States admitted to the Union

Two new states were admitted into the Union during Jackson's presidency: Arkansas (June 15, 1836) and Michigan (January 26, 1837). Both states increased Democratic power in Congress and helped Van Buren win the presidency in 1836. This was in keeping with the tradition that new states would support the party which had done the most to admit them.

Later life and death (1837–1845)

In 1837, after serving two terms as president, Jackson was replaced by his chosen successor Martin Van Buren and retired to the Hermitage. He immediately began putting it in order, as it had been poorly managed in his absence by his adopted son, Andrew Jackson Jr. Although he experienced ill health, Jackson remained highly influential in both national and state politics. Blamed for causing the Panic of 1837, he was unpopular in his early retirement.As a solution to the panic, he supported an Independent Treasury system, which was designed to hold the money balances of the government in the form of gold or silver and would be restricted from printing paper money so as to prevent further inflation. A coalition of conservative Democrats and Whigs opposed the bill, and it was not passed until 1840. During the delay, no effective remedy had been implemented for the depression. Van Buren grew deeply unpopular. A unified Whig Party nominated popular war hero William Henry Harrison and former Jacksonian John Tyler in the 1840 presidential election. The Whigs' campaign style in many ways mimicked the style that the Democrats used with Jackson. They depicted Van Buren as an aristocrat who did not care for the concerns of ordinary Americans, while glorifying Harrison's military record and portraying him as a man of the people. Jackson campaigned heavily for Van Buren in Tennessee. He favored the nomination of Polk for vice president at the 1840 Democratic National Convention over controversial incumbent Richard Mentor Johnson. No nominee was chosen, and the party chose to leave the decision up to individual state electors.Harrison won the election, and the Whigs captured majorities in both houses of Congress. "The democracy of the United States has been shamefully beaten", Jackson wrote to Van Buren, "but I trust, not conquered." Harrison died only a month into his term, and was replaced by Tyler. Jackson was encouraged because Tyler had a strong independent streak and was not bound by party lines. Tyler quickly incurred the wrath of the Whigs in 1841 when he vetoed two Whig-sponsored bills to establish a new national bank, bringing satisfaction to Jackson and other Democrats. After the second veto, Tyler's entire cabinet, with the exception of Daniel Webster, resigned.Jackson strongly favored the annexation of Texas, a feat he had been unable to accomplish during his own presidency. While he still feared that annexation would stir up anti-slavery sentiment, his belief that the British would use Texas as a base to threaten the United States overrode his other concerns. He also insisted that Texas was part of the Louisiana Purchase and therefore rightfully belonged to the United States. At the request of Senator Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, acting on behalf of the Tyler administration, which also supported annexation, Jackson wrote several letters to Texas president Sam Houston, urging him to wait for the Senate to approve annexation and explaining how much being a part of the United States would benefit Texas. Initially prior to the 1844 election, Jackson again supported Van Buren for president and Polk for vice president. A treaty of annexation was signed by Tyler on April 12, 1844, and submitted to the Senate. When a letter from Secretary of State Calhoun to British Ambassador Richard Pakenham linking annexation to slavery was made public, anti-annexation sentiment exploded in the North and the bill was not ratified. Van Buren wrote the "Hamlet letter," opposing annexation and thus jeopardizing his support in the South. The Whig nominee, Henry Clay, also opposed annexation, and Jackson wanted the Democrats to nominate a candidate who supported it and could therefore gain Southern support. If the plan failed, Jackson warned, Texas would not join the Union and would potentially fall victim to a Mexican invasion supported by the British.Jackson met with Polk, Robert Armstrong, and Andrew Jackson Donelson in his study. He then pointed directly at a startled Polk, telling him that, as a man from the southwest and a supporter of annexation, he would be the perfect candidate. Polk called the scheme "utterly abortive", but agreed to go along with it. At the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Polk defeated Van Buren for the nomination. George M. Dallas was selected for vice president. Jackson convinced Tyler to drop his plans of running for re-election as an independent by promising, as Tyler requested, to welcome the President and his allies back into the Democratic Party and by instructing Blair to stop criticizing the President. Polk won the election, defeating Clay. A bill of annexation was passed by Congress in February and signed by Tyler on March 1.Jackson's age and illness eventually overcame him. On June 8, 1845, he was surrounded by family and friends at his deathbed. Jackson, startled by their sobbing, said, "What is the matter with my dear children? Have I alarmed you? Oh, do not cry. Be good children and we will all meet in Heaven." He died immediately after at the age of 78 of chronic dropsy and heart failure. According to a newspaper account from the Boon Lick Times, "[he] fainted whilst being removed from his chair to the bed ... but he subsequently revived ... When the messenger finally came, the old soldier, patriot and Christian was looking out for his approach. He is gone, but his memory lives, and will continue to live." In his will, Jackson left his entire estate to Andrew Jackson Jr. except for specifically enumerated items that were left to various friends and family members.

Personal life

Family

Numerous children lived with the Jackson family at one time or another. These included the two Creek children the Jacksons called Charly or Charley and Theodore. The Jacksons adopted two boys — Andrew Jackson Jr., the son of Rachel's brother Severn Donelson, and Lyncoya, a Creek orphan adopted by Jackson after the Battle of Tallushatchee. Lyncoya died of tuberculosis on July 1, 1828, at age sixteen.The Jacksons acted as guardians for eight other children. John Samuel Donelson, Daniel Smith Donelson, and Andrew Jackson Donelson were the sons of Rachel's brother Samuel Donelson, who died in 1804. Andrew Jackson Hutchings was Rachel's orphaned grand nephew. Caroline Butler, Eliza Butler, Edward Butler, and Anthony Butler were the orphaned children of Edward Butler, a family friend. They came to live with the Jacksons after the death of their father.Because of Rachel's death, Rachel's niece Emily Donelson, wife of Andrew Jackson Donleson, to serve as hostess at the White House. The President and Emily became estranged for over a year due to the Petticoat affair. They eventually reconciled and she resumed her duties as hostess. Sarah Yorke Jackson, the wife of Andrew Jackson Jr., became co-hostess of the White House in 1834. It was the only time in history when two women simultaneously acted as unofficial First Lady. Sarah took over all hostess duties after Emily died from tuberculosis in 1836.

Temperament

Jackson's quick temper was notorious. Biographer H. W. Brands notes that his opponents were terrified of his temper: "Observers likened him to a volcano, and only the most intrepid or recklessly curious cared to see it erupt. ... His close associates all had stories of his blood-curdling oaths, his summoning of the Almighty to loose His wrath upon some miscreant, typically followed by his own vow to hang the villain or blow him to perdition. Given his record—in duels, brawls, mutiny trials, and summary hearings—listeners had to take his vows seriously."On the last day of his presidency, Jackson admitted that he had but two regrets, that he "had been unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun." On his deathbed, he was once again quoted as regretting that he had not hanged Calhoun for treason. "My country would have sustained me in the act, and his fate would have been a warning to traitors in all time to come," he said. Remini expresses the opinion that Jackson was typically in control of his temper, and that he used his anger, along with his fearsome reputation, as a tool to get what he wanted.

Religious faith

In 1838, Jackson became an official member of the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Both his mother and his wife had been devout Presbyterians all their lives, but Jackson himself had postponed officially entering the church in order to avoid accusations that he had joined only for political reasons.

Legacy

Historical reputation

Jackson remains one of the most studied and controversial figures in American history. There has never been universal agreement on Jackson's legacy; in 1958, historian Charles Grier Sellers wrote that "his opponents have ever been his most bitter enemies, and his friends almost his worshippers."James Parton was the first man after Jackson's death to write a full biography of him. Trying to sum up the contradictions in his subject, he wrote:

Andrew Jackson, I am given to understand, was a patriot and a traitor. He was one of the greatest generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. A brilliant writer, elegant, eloquent, without being able to compose a correct sentence or spell words of four syllables. The first of statesmen, he never devised, he never framed, a measure. He was the most candid of men, and was capable of the most profound dissimulation. A most law-defying law-obeying citizen. A stickler for discipline, he never hesitated to disobey his superior. A democratic autocrat. An urbane savage. An atrocious saint.

Jackson's anti-establishment beliefs have been a frequent feature of commentary. Historian Stephen F. Knott has described Jackson as "populist to the core". In Democracy in America, Jackson's contemporary Alexis de Tocqueville accused him of cultivating opposition to the central government and mistrust of federal power, and enforcing his views by force without respect for institutions and the law. Jackson's political opponents described Jackson as a demagogue and several modern historians have argued in support of this assessment, highlighting Jackson's tendency to personalize policy disputes and treat them as existential threats, his engagement in autocratic behaviour, use of outsider rhetoric, deployment of accusations and lies as a political tactic, and incitement of violence against opponents, particularly abolitionists.More sympathetic views of Jackson's populism depict him as a man of the people battling inequality and upper-class tyranny, such as in Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.'s Age of Jackson (1945). Jackson's combination of majority rule, equality and limited government continues to hold popular appeal in America. Historian Robert Remini, writing mainly in the late 20th century, painted a generally favorable portrait of Jackson, contending that Jacksonian democracy "stretches the concept of democracy about as far as it can go and still remain workable" and inspired many later developments in American politics, such as "Populism, Progressivism, the New and Fair Deals, and the programs of the New Frontier and Great Society." Other 20th-century writers such as Richard Hofstadter and Bray Hammond depict Jackson as an advocate of the sort of laissez-faire capitalism that benefits the rich and oppresses the poor.Throughout most of the 20th century, Jackson was widely celebrated as a defender of the interests of the "common man" against political elites. In recent decades, this view has fallen out of favor among historians, who have emphasized Jackson's racialized and exclusionary conception of civic rights. Jackson's reputation has suffered since the 1960s as his actions towards Indians and African Americans received new attention. After the civil rights movement, Brand writes, "his unrepentant ownership of slaves marked him as one to be censured rather than praised." Jackson's actions towards the Native American people have been widely characterized as ethnic cleansing. Howard Zinn called him "the most aggressive enemy of the Indians in early American history" and "exterminator of Indians." Historian Richard B. Latner says that although Jackson had sincere "humanitarian concerns" toward Indians, his actions were "laced with an ethnocentrism and paternalism that devalued Indian culture and advances." He argues that Jackson "considered the tribes as obstacles to the progressive spread of a superior civilization." "By the turn of the present [21st] century," Brands writes, "it was scarcely an exaggeration to say that the one thing American schoolchildren learned about Jackson was that he was the author of the Trail of Tears." Conversely, in 1969, Francis Paul Prucha argued that Jackson's removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from the hostile white environment in the Old South to Oklahoma probably saved their very existence. Remini also maintains that if not for Jackson's policies, the Southeastern tribes would have been annihilated.Jackson's performance in office compared to other presidents has generally been ranked in the top half in public opinion polling. His position in C-SPAN's poll dropped from 13th in 2009, to 18th in 2017, and to 22nd in 2021.

Depictions

Jackson has appeared on U.S. banknotes as far back as 1869. Most recently, his image has appeared on the U.S. $20 Federal reserve note beginning in 1928. In 2016, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced his goal that by 2020 an image of Harriet Tubman would replace Jackson's depiction on the front side of the $20 banknote, and that an image of Jackson would be placed on the reverse side, though the final decision will be made by his successors.Numerous counties and cities are named after Jackson. Memorials to Jackson include a set of four identical equestrian statues by the sculptor Clark Mills in different cities. Equestrian statues of Jackson have been erected elsewhere. There is a bust of Andrew Jackson in Plaza Ferdinand VII in Pensacola, Florida. A 1928 bronze sculpture of Andrew Jackson is in the U.S. Capitol Building as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection.Jackson and his wife Rachel were the main subjects of a 1951 historical novel by Irving Stone, The President's Lady, which told the story of their lives up until Rachel's death. The novel was the basis for the 1953 film of the same name starring Charlton Heston as Jackson and Susan Hayward as Rachel.Jackson has been a supporting character in a number of historical films and television productions.

See also

List of presidents of the United States on currency

Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps

Notes

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Works by Andrew Jackson at Project Gutenberg

Works by or about Andrew Jackson at Internet Archive

Works by Andrew Jackson at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

White House biography

The Papers of Andrew Jackson at the Avalon Project

The Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson

---

Write your comment about Andrew Jackson

Your Name:

Your Comment:

Submit your comment

---