Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), seventh president of the United States, symbolized the democratic advances of his time. His actions strengthened the power of the presidential office in American government.

When Andrew Jackson emerged on the national scene, the United States was undergoing profound social and economic changes as the new, postrevolutionary generation pushed forward in search of material gain and political power. Jackson was a classic example of the self-made man who rose from a log cabin to the White House, and he came to represent the aspirations of the ordinary citizen struggling to achieve wealth and status. He symbolized the "rise of the common man." So total was his identification with this period of American history that the years between 1828 and 1848 are frequently designated the "Age of Jackson."

Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in Waxhaw country, which straddles North and South Carolina. His father, who died shortly before Andrew's birth, had come with his wife to America from Ireland in 1765. Andrew attended several academies in the Waxhaw settlement, but his education was spotty and he never developed a taste for learning.

After the outbreak of the American Revolution, Jackson, barely 13 years old, served as an orderly to Col. William Richardson. Following one engagement, Jackson and his brother were captured by the British and taken to a prison camp. When Jackson refused to clean an officer's boots, the officer slashed him with a sword, leaving a permanent scar on his forehead and left hand. Jackson was the only member of his family to survive the war, and it is generally believed that his harsh, adventuresome, early life developed his strong, aggressive qualities of leadership, his violent temper, and his need for intense loyalty from friends.

After the war Jackson drifted from one occupation to another and from one relative to another. He squandered a small inheritance and for a time lived a wild, undisciplined life that gave free rein to his passionate nature. He developed lifelong interests in horse racing and cock-fighting and frequently indulged in outrageous practical jokes. Standing just over 6 feet tall, with long, sharp, bony features lighted by intense blue eyes, Jackson presented an imposing figure that gave every impression of a will and need to command.

After learning the saddler's trade, Jackson tried school-teaching for a season or two, then left in 1784 for Salisbury, N. C., where he studied law in a local office. Three years later, licensed to practice law in North Carolina, he migrated to the western district that eventually became Tennessee. Appointed public prosecutor for the district, he took up residence in Nashville. A successful prosecutor and lawyer, he was particularly useful to creditors who had trouble collecting debts. Since money was scarce in the West, he accepted land in payment for his services and within 10 years became one of the most important landowners in Tennessee. Unfortunately his speculations in land failed, and he spiraled deeply into debt, a misadventure that left him with lasting monetary prejudices. He came to condemn credit because it encouraged speculation and indebtedness. He distrusted the note-issuing, credit-producing aspects of banking and abhorred paper money. He regarded hard money—specie—as the only legitimate means by which honest men could engage in business transactions.

While Jackson was emerging as an important citizen by virtue of his land holdings, he also achieved social status by marrying Rachel Donelson, the daughter of one of the region's original settlers. The Jacksons had no children of their own, but they adopted one of Rachel's nephews and named him Andrew Jackson, Jr.

When Congress created the Southwest Territory in 1790, Jackson was appointed an attorney general for the Mero District and judge advocate of the Davidson County militia. In 1796 the northern portion of the territory held a constitutional convention to petition Congress for admission as a state to the Union. Jackson attended the convention as a delegate from his county. Although he played a modest part in the proceedings, one tradition does credit him with suggesting the name of the state: Tennessee, derived from the name of a Cherokee Indian chief.

In 1796, with the admission of Tennessee as the sixteenth state of the Union, Jackson was elected to its sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. His voting record revealed strong nationalistic tendencies. The following year he was elected U.S. senator but he soon resigned to become judge of the Superior Court of Tennessee. His decisions as judge were described by one man as "short, untechnical, unlearned, sometimes ungrammatical, and generally right." He resigned from the bench in 1804 to devote himself exclusively to his plantation, where he later built a graceful mansion called the "Hermitage," and to his other business enterprises, including boatbuilding, horse breeding, and storekeeping.

Military Career

By the beginning of the War of 1812, Jackson had achieved the rank of major general of the Tennessee militia. He and his militia were directed to subdue the Creek Indians in Alabama who had massacred white settlers at Ft. Mims. At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) Jackson inflicted such a decisive defeat that the Creek's power to wage war was permanently broken. During this engagement Jackson's men acknowledged his toughness and indomitable will by calling him "Old Hickory."

When the U.S. government heard rumors of an impending British penetration of the South through one of the ports on the Gulf of Mexico, Jackson was ordered to block the invasion. Supposing that New Orleans was the likeliest point of attack, he established a triple line of defense south of the city. After several minor skirmishes and an artillery bombardment, the British attacked in force on Jan. 8, 1815, and were decisively defeated. Over 2,000 British soldiers, including their commanding general, perished in the battle, while only 13 Americans were killed. It was a stupendous victory. Jackson became a national hero overnight, for he had infused Americans with confidence in their ability to defend their new liberty.

Florida Territory

When the war ended, Jackson returned to his plantation. However, he soon resumed military duty to subdue Indian raids along the southern frontier emanating from Spanish Florida. In a series of rapid moves he invaded Florida, subdued the Seminole Indians, extinguished Spanish authority, and executed two British subjects for inciting Indian attacks. Despite an international furor over this invasion, President James Monroe defended Jackson's actions and prevailed upon Spain to sell Florida to the United States for $5 million. Jackson served as governor of the Florida Territory briefly, but he was highhanded, was antagonistic to the Spanish, and tried to exercise absolute authority. He quit in disgust after serving only a few months.

These exploits served to increase Jackson's popularity throughout the country, alerting his friends in Tennessee to the possibility of making him a presidential candidate. First, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in October 1823. Then, the following year four candidates sought the presidency, each representing a different section of the country: Jackson of Tennessee, William H. Crawford of Georgia, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, and Henry Clay of Kentucky. In the election Jackson won the highest plurality of popular and electoral votes, but because he did not have the constitutionally mandated majority of electoral votes, the issue of selecting the president went to the House of Representatives. Here, on the first ballot, John Quincy Adams was chosen president. Adams's subsequent selection of Clay as his secretary of state convinced Jackson that a "bargain" had been concluded between the two to "fix" the election and cheat him of the presidency. For the next 4 years Jackson's friends battered the Adams administration with the accusation of a "corrupt bargain." In the election of 1828 Jackson won an overwhelming victory. During the campaign Martin Van Buren of New York and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina joined forces behind Jackson, and out of this coalition emerged the Democratic party. Supporters of Adams and Clay were now called National Republicans.

"Old Hickory" as President

Jackson's presidential inauguration demonstrated the beginning of a new political age as thousands of people swarmed into Washington to witness the outdoor inauguration, then poured through the White House to congratulate their hero, nearly wrecking the building in the process. Jackson appointed many second-rate men to his Cabinet, with the exception of Martin Van Buren, his secretary of state.

An initial estrangement between Jackson and his vice president, John C. Calhoun, soon grew worse because of their obvious disagreement over the important constitutional question of the nature of the Union. During a Senate debate between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, Hayne articulated Calhoun's doctrine of nullification (that is, the right of a state to nullify any objectionable Federal law). Although Jackson was politically conservative and a strong advocate of states' rights, he was also intensely nationalistic, and he regarded nullification as an abomination. At a dinner commemorating Thomas Jefferson's birthday, Jackson found the opportunity to express his feelings. When called upon to deliver a toast, he is said to have looked straight at Calhoun and said, "Our Federal Union. It must be preserved."

The final break between Jackson and Calhoun occurred when it was disclosed that, earlier, as secretary of war in James Monroe's Cabinet, Calhoun had sought to censure Jackson for his invasion of Florida. In self-defense, Calhoun gave his side of the controversy in a newspaper statement and ended by arguing that Van Buren had deliberately sought his downfall in order to eliminate him as a presidential rival. Van Buren there-upon resigned from the Cabinet, thus forcing the resignation of the remaining members, which gave Jackson the opportunity of reconstituting his Cabinet and ridding himself of Calhoun's friends. Later, however, when Jackson made Van Buren U.S. minister to Great Britain, confirmation of this appointment resulted in a tie vote in the Senate, and Calhoun, as vice president, gained a measure of revenge by voting against it. This action prompted Jackson to insist on Van Buren as his vice-presidential running mate in the next election.

Bank War

The presidential contest of 1832 involved not only personal vindication for Van Buren but also the important political issue of the national bank. The issue developed because of Jackson's prejudice against paper money and banks and because of his contention that the Second Bank of the United States (established in 1816) was not only unconstitutional but had failed to establish a sound and uniform currency. Moreover, he suspected the Bank of improper interference in the political process. Jackson had informed the Bank's president, Nicholas Biddle, of his displeasure in his first message to Congress back in December 1829. Following this, Biddle, at the urging of Henry Clay and other National Republicans, asked Congress for a recharter of the Bank 4 years before it came due. In this way the issue could be submitted to the people during the 1832 election if Jackson blocked the recharter.

Although the bank bill passed Congress rather handily, Jackson vetoed it in a strong message that lamented how "the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes." This veto message broadened presidential power because it went beyond strictly constitutional reasons in faulting the bill. By citing social, political, and economic reasons, Jackson went beyond what all his predecessors had considered the limit of the presidential veto power.

In the 1832 election Henry Clay, running against Jackson on the bank issue, was decisively defeated. Jackson interpreted his reelection as a mandate to destroy the Bank of the United States. He therefore directed his secretary of the Treasury to remove Federal deposits and place them in selected state banks (called pet banks). Biddle counterattacked by a severe contraction of credit that produced a brief financial panic during the winter of 1833/1834. But Jackson held his ground, Biddle was finally forced to relax the pressure, and the Bank of the United States eventually collapsed. With the dispersal of government money among state banks and, later, with the distribution of surplus Federal funds to individual states, the nation entered a period of steep inflation. Jackson unsuccessfully tried to halt the inflation by issuing the Specie Circular (1836), which directed specie payments in the purchase of public land.

At the beginning of his second term, Jackson informed Congress of his intention to pay off the national debt. This goal was achieved on Jan. 1, 1835, thanks to income the Federal government received from land sales and tariff revenues. Jackson also advocated a policy of "rotation" with respect to Federal offices. In a democratic country, he declared, "no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another." He was accused of inaugurating the spoils system, but this was unfair for, actually, he removed only a modest number of officeholders. Jackson also advocated moving Native Americans west of the Mississippi River as the most humane policy the government could pursue in dealing with the Native American problem. Consequently he signed over 90 treaties with various tribes, in which lands owned by Native Americans within the existing states were exchanged for new lands in the open West. Jackson's veto of the Maysville Road Bill as an unwarranted exercise of Federal authority was widely interpreted as an expression of his opposition to Federal aid for public works.

Nullification Ordinance

Jackson also sought to modify tariff rates because they provoked sectional controversy. The North advocated high protective rates, but the South considered them a way of subsidizing northern manufacturers at the expense of southern and western purchasers. With the passage of the Tariff of 1832, South Carolina reacted violently by invoking Calhoun's doctrine of nullification. At a special convention in November 1832, South Carolina adopted the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void and warning the Federal government that if force were used to execute the law, the state would secede from the Union. In response to this threat, Jackson issued the Proclamation to the People of South Carolina that blended warning with entreaty, demand with understanding. "The laws of the United States must be executed," he said. "Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execution deceived you…. Disunion by armed force is treason."

Meanwhile a compromise tariff was hurried through Congress to reduce the rates schedule over a 10-year period, while another bill was passed giving Jackson permission to use the military to force South Carolina to obey the laws. The state chose to accept the compromise tariff and repealed its nullification ordinance, thereby averting a national crisis. Jackson's actions during the controversy were masterful. Through the careful use of presidential powers, by rallying the public to his side, alerting the military, and offering compromise while preparing for possible hostilities, he preserved the Union and upheld the supremacy of Federal law.

Foreign Affairs

Jackson also exercised forceful leadership in his relations with foreign nations, and he scored a number of notable diplomatic victories. He obtained favorable treaties with Turkey, Cochin China, and Siam (the first United States treaties with Asiatic powers), and he was also able to reopen American trade with the British West Indies. Furthermore, he forced France into agreeing to pay the debts owed to American citizens for the destruction of American property during the Napoleonic Wars. However, when the French chamber of deputies failed to appropriate the money to pay the debt, Jackson asked Congress to permit reprisals against French property in the United States. The French interpreted this as a deliberate insult, and for a time war between the two countries seemed unavoidable. The French demanded an apology, which Jackson refused to give, although in a message to Congress he denied any intention "to menace or insult" the French government. France chose to accept Jackson's disclaimer as an apology and forthwith paid the debt; thus hostilities were avoided.

At the end of his two terms in office, having participated in the inauguration of his successor, Martin Van Buren, Jackson retired to his plantation. He continued to keep his hand in national politics until his death on June 8, 1845.

Further Reading

The most scholarly, but not the most interesting, study of Jackson's life is John Spencer Bassett, The Life of Andrew Jackson (2 vols., 1911; new ed. 1916). More colorful is Marquis James, The Life of Andrew Jackson (1938), but its analysis of Jackson's character is superficial. James Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson (3 vols., 1860), is old but extremely valuable, particularly since it was researched among many people who actually knew Jackson. A brief biography is Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson (1966).

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., is generally sympathetic to Jackson in The Age of Jackson (1945), while Glyndon G. Van Deusen in The Jacksonian Era (1959) and Edward Pessen in JacksonianAmerica (1969) are more critical. See also Harold Coffin Syrett, Andrew Jackson: His Contributions to the American Tradition (1953), and Leonard D. White, The Jacksonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1829-1861 (1954). For the elections of 1828 and 1832 see Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., History of American Presidential Elections, vol. 1 (1971). □

Jackson, Andrew 1963-

PERSONAL

Born September 11, 1963, in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada; father, a military chaplain; mother, a high school music teacher. Education: Studied at Canada's National Theatre School, Banff School of Fine Arts, McMaster University, CAST Canada, and York University.

Addresses:

Publicist—Bill Wanstrom, Wanstrom and Associates, 970 Queens St. E., Suite 98154, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4M 1J8.

Career:

Actor and voice performer. Spent four years at Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ontario, Canada, 1987-90. Appeared in commercials for Crispy Crunch Light chocolate bars and Saturn automobiles; actor or voice performer for dozens of other commercials. Also worked as casting director.

Member:

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Screen Actors Guild, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists, Canadian Actors' Equity Association, Union of British Columbia Performers.

Awards, Honors:

Jean A. Chalmers Award, most promising newcomer, Stratford Festival, 1987, for Troilus and Cressida; Cabbagetown Short Film and Video Festival Award, best actor, 2007, for My Father's an Actor.

CREDITS

Television Appearances; Series:

Dr. Stephen Hamill, All My Children, ABC, 1991-93.

Joen Futing, Family Passions (also known as Macht der leidenschaft), CTV, 1993.

Opening credits narrator, Earth: Final Conflict (also known as EFC, Gene Roddenberry's "Earth: Final Conflict," Invasion planete Terre, and Mission Erde: Sie sind unter uns), syndicated, between 1997 and 2002.

Vanaver Mainwairing, a recurring role, Wind at My Back, CBC, 2000-2001.

Danny Hullstrom, a recurring role, The Collector, City TV, between 2004 and 2006.

Television Appearances; Miniseries:

Dirk Von Schelburg, The Last Don II (also known as Mario Puzo's "The Last Don II"), CBS, 1998.

Kevin, Cover Me, CBC, 1999.

Buddy Parker, "High Hopes," Taken (also known as Steven Spielberg Presents "Taken"), Sci-Fi Channel, 2002.

Walt Ashley, Category 6: Day of Destruction, CBS, 2004.

Morgan, Steklo (also known as Glass), 2005.

Johnson, Sea-Wolf, 2008.

Roger Deakins, XIII, NBC, 2008.

Television Appearances; Movies:

Mr. Battering Ram, Peeping Tom, Comedy Central, 1991.

Barry, Twists of Terror (also known as Primal Scream), Showtime, 1996.

Sixty-Six, Specimen, Sci-Fi Channel, 1996.

Boris Kalichoff, Breach of Faith: Family of Cops II (also known as Family of Cops II), CBS, 1997.

Paul O'Neill, Joe Torre: Curveballs along the Way, Showtime, 1997.

Don Tragle, Blackjack (also known as John Woo's "Blackjack"), USA Network, 1998.

Sergeant Andrew Scott/GR 13, Universal Soldier: Brothers in Arms, Showtime, 1998.

Ryan Steele, Catch a Falling Star, CBS, 2000.

Officer John McCrane, Scared Silent, Lifetime, 2002.

Adam Hamilton, Deadly Betrayal (also known as Tahison mortelle), Lifetime, 2002.

Adam Ruane, My Brother's Keeper (also known as Brother's Keeper), USA Network, 2002.

Nick Whitehall, We'll Meet Again (also known as Mary Higgins Clark's "We'll Meet Again" and Mary Higgins Clark: Nous nous reverrons), PAX, 2002.

Guy Mabley, Try Seventeen (also known as All I Want), Starz, 2002.

Elton, The Book of Ruth, CBS, 2004.

Master Burton, Merlin's Apprentice (also known as Merlin), Hallmark Channel, 2006.

Television Appearances; Pilots:

Raymond Mitchell, Bermuda Grace, NBC, 1993.

Adam, Adam II, and Jake Adaman, Millennium Man (also known as No Escape—Der Kampf mit der bestieu), UPN, 1999.

Jonathan Clayton, Tarzan, The WB, 2003.

Television Appearances; Specials:

Balthazar, The Comedy of Errors, Arts and Entertainment, 1989.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

Parks, "The Initiation," Alfred Hitchcock Presents, NBC, 1987.

General Lafayette, "The Charnel Pit," Friday the 13th (also known as Friday's Curse and Friday the 13th: The Series), syndicated, 1990.

Title role, "Michael Carew," Top Cops, CBS, 1991.

Pallin Wolf, "Darkness," Highlander (also known as Highlander: The Series), syndicated, 1993.

Acton, "Rebellion," Lonesome Dove: The Series, syndicated, c. 1994.

Chris Joworski, "Play: Parts 1 & 2," Sirens, syndicated, 1994.

Hogan, "North," Due South (also known as Direction: Sud), CBS, 1995.

Blade, "Eye of the Dragon," F/X: The Series, syndicated, 1996.

Frank Kelterbourne, "Possession/Man out of Time," Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, syndicated, 1996.

Goliath, "Davey and the Mermaid," The Road to Avonlea (also known as Avonlea and Tales from Avonlea), The Disney Channel, 1996.

The Dynamite Kid, "The Champ," Wind at My Back, CBC, 1997.

Tucker Ricks, "Kennedy Gets a Ride," Fast Track, Showtime, 1997.

Darryl Keenan, "Crime & Punishment," Highlander: The Raven (also known as L'immortelle), syndicated, 1998.

Luc Cassoulet, "The Family Trust," Arli$$, HBO, 1998.

Jaridian, "Between Heaven and Hell," Earth: Final Conflict (also known as EFC, Gene Roddenberry's "Earth: Final Conflict," Invasion planete Terre, and Mission Erde: Sie sind unter uns), syndicated, 1999.

Jaridian, "Gauntlet," Earth: Final Conflict (also known as EFC, Gene Roddenberry's "Earth: Final Conflict," Invasion planete Terre, and Mission Erde: Sie sind unter uns), syndicated, 1999.

Nicholas, "That 70s Episode," Charmed, The WB, 1999.

Colonel Miller, "Fallen Angels" (premiere episode), Amazon (also known as Peter Benchley's "Amazon" and Amazonas—Gefangene des dschungels), syndicated, 1999.

Boris, "Commie Dawkins," Big Wolf on Campus (also known as Le loup-garou du campus), Fox Family Channel, 2000.

Supreme High Councilor Per'sus, "Divide and Conquer," Stargate SG-1 (also known as La porte des etoiles), Showtime, 2000.

Richard Ellis, "Fifty Three Percent Solution," Beggars and Choosers, Showtime, 2000.

Davis, "Legacy," First Wave, Sci-Fi Channel, 2001.

Gniknod, "Confrontation in the Constellation," Los Luchadores, Fox, 2001.

James F. Marshall III, "Payback," Wind at My Back, CBC, 2001.

Jaridian, "The Art of War," Earth: Final Conflict (also known as EFC, Gene Roddenberry's "Earth: Final Conflict," Invasion planete Terre, and Mission Erde: Sie sind unter uns), syndicated, 2002.

Ray Wallace, "Duplicity," Smallville (also known as Smallville Beginnings and Smallville: Superman the Early Years), The WB, 2002.

Jeff Hawkins, "Bob & Carol & Len & Ali," Cold Squad, CTV, 2003.

Danny Taylor, "Evaluate This," Doc, PAC, 2003.

Lipp-Sett, "Double or Nothingness," Andromeda (also known as Gene Roddenberry's "Andromeda"), syndicated, 2003.

Urban Rush, 2003, 2005, 2006.

Kevin Duffman, "Girl Who Signed Wolf," Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, PAX, 2003.

Kevin Duffman, "Bad Hair Day," Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, PAX, 2004.

Lipp-Sett, "The Torment, the Release," Andromeda (also known as Gene Roddenberry's "Andromeda"), syndicated, 2004.

Walter Bradford, "The Best Laid Plans," Life as We Know It, ABC, 2004.

Walter Bradford, "Partly Cloudy, Chance of Sex," Life as We Know It, ABC, 2004.

Walter Bradford, "Secrets & Lies," Life as We Know It, ABC, 2004.

Himself, "White Wine, Cigars, Cake Mixes, Highlights," The Shopping Bags, 2004.

Tim Vogel, "Extreme Aggressor," Criminal Minds, CBS, 2005.

Tomas Bukowski, Terminal City, CBC, three episodes, 2005.

Oliver Beckman, "Five Little Indians," The Evidence, ABC, 2006.

Cyrus Reynolds, "Memory Serves," Kyle XY, ABC Family Channel, 2006.

Cyrus Reynolds, "Overheard," Kyle XY, ABC Family Channel, 2006.

Cyrus Reynolds, "Endgame," Kyle XY, ABC Family Channel, 2006.

David Wright, "Duelling Hotties," Hank William's First Nation, 2006.

Voice of Von Faustien, "Von Faustien," Di-Gata Defenders (also known as Di-Gata, les defenseurs), 2007.

Doug O'Connell, "Ambush," The Dead Zone (also known as Stephen King's "Dead Zone"), USA Network, 2007.

The Art of Building Bodies, 2008.

Guest on Canadian talk shows.

Television Work; Episodic:

Additional voices, "Other Victories," Beast Wars: Transformers (animated; also known as Beasties, Beasties: Transformers, and Transformers: Beast Wars), 1999.

Film Appearances:

Corky, State Park (also known as Heavy Metal Summer), Atlantic Releasing, 1990.

Donald, Red Blooded American Girl, Prism Pictures, 1990.

Title role, Shadow Builder (also known as Bram Stoker's "Shadowbuilder"), Sterling Home Entertainment, 1997.

Voices of Romeo and old stage actor, Pippi Longstocking (also known as Pippi Laangstrump and Pippi Langstrumpf), 1997.

Billy, Held Up, Trimark Pictures, 1999.

Malcolm, Bombmakers (short film), Lucky Bastard Films, 2002.

C. Klein, Fade to Black (short film), Herbal T Joint Productions, 2002.

Voices of mental patients, Sound of Pain (short film), Last Breath Films, 2002.

George, The Sea (short film), Palm Pictures, 2003.

Andrew, Conception (short film), CineClix Distribution, 2004.

Man in car, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Warner Bros., 2004.

Father, My Father's an Actor (short film), 2004.

Ives, Edison (also known as Edison Force), Nu Image Films, 2005.

Ian, Sandcastle, Crazy 8s Film, 2006.

Dr. Parker Wickson, Seed, Universal Home Entertainment, 2007.

Stage Appearances:

Ed, Goose Spit, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1987.

Apporodorus, Caesar and Cleopatra, Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1994.

Christian, Cyrano de Bergerac, Citadel Theatre, 1994.

Messenger and first soldier, Beatrice & Benedict (opera), O'Keefe Centre, Hummingbird Centre for the Arts, Toronto, Ontario, 1997.

Nick, Homeward Bound, Neptune Theatre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 2001.

Appeared as understudy for Yasha, The Cherry Orchard, as Balthazar, The Comedy of Errors, as understudy for Krogstad, The Doll's House, as the actor, Intimate Admiration, as Octavius Caesar, Julius Caesar, as servant and understudy for Scandal, Love for Love, as Prince of Aragon, The Merchant of Venice, as Slender, The Merry Wives of Windsor, as messenger, Murder in the Cathedral, as Aschew and understudy for Lacey, The Shoemaker's Holiday, in multiple roles, The Three Musketeers, as Chiron, Titus Andronicus, as Aneas and understudy for Ulysses, Troilus and Cressida, and as outlaw and understudy for Valentine, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, all Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ontario, Canada; appeared as Chet, As Is, Shaw Festival, Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada; as Lennox and understudy for Malcolm, Macbeth, Skylight Theatre; as Clintandre, The Misanthrope, Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada; as Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and as singer and dancer, That's Entertainment, Canterbury Theatre; appeared in productions of Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and Theatre Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.

RECORDINGS

Videos:

Voice of Hatu for English version, Shotoku taishi (also known as Prince Shotoku), 2001.

Video Games:

Voices of Incredible Hulk and Thanos of Titan, Marvel Super Heroes, 1995.

Voice of Dr. Bruce Banner/Incredible Hulk, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, 1997.

Voice of Incredible Hulk, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of the Super Heroes, 1998.

Voices of Lark and warrior, Devil Kings, Capcom Entertainment, 2005.

WRITINGS

Films:

Dialogue for voice actors, Sound of Pain (short film), Last Breath Films, 2002.

ADAPTATIONS

The 2003 film Conception was based on a story by Jackson.

OTHER SOURCES

Periodicals:

Soap Opera Weekly, December 14, 2004, pp. 4, 36.

TV Zone, April, 2007, p. 58.

JACKSON, ANDREW

Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), the seventh President of the United States, grew to adulthood and public prominence as the emerging nation was undergoing profound social and economic changes. In the wake of those changes Jackson worried about the central government's propensity toward abuse of power and the accumulation of power in the hand of a small political and economic elite. As president, Jackson remained a strident and popular spokesperson for majority rule in the United States. He did, however, exert the power of the presidency over other government branches far more than any president before him, leading to charges that he was primarily interested in personal power. He was denounced as a fraud and an opportunist who nearly wrecked the credit and currency systems of the United States. But Jackson also took issue with members of the privileged elite who sought to use the government for their own selfish purposes and thereby endanger the integrity of democracy in the United States. For many in the United States Jackson came to symbolize the democratic advances of his time.

Andrew Jackson was born in March 1767, in a log cabin, the son of poor Scotch-Irish immigrants. He was orphaned at age 14 and spent his adolescence with his aunt in the frontier areas of the Carolinas. Jackson drifted from one job to another, squandered a small inheritance, and developed a lifelong interest in horseracing and cockfighting. His education was spotty and he never appeared to develop an affinity for formal learning.

In 1784, at the age of 17, Jackson moved to Salisbury, North Carolina, to study law. He worked as a clerk for two years, copying legal documents, running errands, cleaning the office, and reading law books. He finished his law training in the office of Colonel John Stakes, and in 1787 he became an attorney in North Carolina.

Shortly after his law training ended, Jackson moved to the territory that would become Tennessee, and he
was appointed the area's attorney general. While in this position Jackson bolstered his income by selling land to new settlers. He also built a mansion in Nashville called the Hermitage. Later, when Tennessee became the sixteenth state, Jackson represented the state in Congress, but he resigned after only two years in order to be a judge on the superior court of Tennessee.

When the War of 1812 (1812–1814) broke out against Great Britain, Jackson was dispatched by the governor of Tennessee to fight with the Tennessee militia against Creek Indians, who had used the war as an opportunity to attack the Southern frontier. Although he lacked military training and experience, Jackson soon became an excellent general. His leadership qualities emerged and he was highly regarded by other soldiers who gave him the nickname "Old Hickory" as a sign of respect. After leading a spectacular victory over a British invasion of New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1815, Jackson instantly became a national celebrity.

Distinguished as a popular military hero, Jackson was encouraged by his friends to bid for the U.S. presidency. After the War of 1812 ended, however, Jackson only briefly returned to Tennessee before resuming his military position in order to subdue raids carried out by Native Americans from Spanish Florida. After a series of controversial military moves made by Jackson, including the capture of Spanish cities, the United States and Spain negotiated their disputes, and the United States acquired land that would eventually become Florida. In 1821 Jackson become provisional governor of the new territory of Florida, but resigned from the position after only four months.

Upon returning to his home in Tennessee, Jackson was pushed once again to campaign for the presidency. Though he made an unsuccessful presidential run in 1824, losing to John Quincy Adams (1825–1829), Jackson ran again in 1828 and won the presidency at age 61. He rewarded many of his supporters with government jobs—then a common practice in state governments, but essentially new to the federal government. This so-called "spoils system"—where elected officials employed their friends as pay-off for campaign support—tended to guarantee that no appointed federal employee would have a lifetime "right" to his or her job. Jackson believed that this system of replacing staff made the government more democratic.

Jackson's administration was marked by his fight against the Second Bank of the United States, which was a federally chartered institution where government funds were kept. The Bank of the United States used these funds to pay the government's bills, but also to give loans to the public and other banks. It was not directly regulated by the government, but rather led by a board of shareholders, with Nicholas Biddle (1786–1844) as its head. Jackson disliked the bank for economic and political reasons. He felt that its shareholders used the bank's control of much of the money supply to benefit themselves. Jackson also distrusted the issuance of bank notes, which in his own experience led to excessive borrowing and debt. Like many other Americans, Jackson distrusted credit and banks in general, and favored the strict use of specie (coined precious metals).

When the Bank of the United States' charter was brought up for renewal in 1832, Jackson vetoed it. He criticized the bank for failing to establish a "uniform and sound" currency, and began to deposit government funds in other banks. Many of the leaders in the Senate opposed Jackson, and his position on the bank. Nevertheless, Jackson's successful veto of the rechartering of the bank in 1832 was arguably a major reason for his re-election to a second presidential term that same year.

Over the course of its remaining four years of existence, the Second Bank of the United States tried to use its power to force a reconsideration of its charter. It issued far more loans than it could support, helping to trigger a wave of real estate speculation on the frontier. Disturbed, Jackson issued the Specie Circular in 1836. The circular required that all purchases of frontier land, which was owned by the government, be paid for with specie. This stopped the speculation, but also bankrupted many investors who lacked sufficient specie to pay their obligations and helped to trigger a major depression.

Jackson's policy of fiscal restraint helped him accomplish one of his most cherished objectives during his second term: full payment of the national debt. This was the only time up to that point in U.S. history when the nation was free of debt and it was one of Jackson's proudest accomplishments.

As Jackson proceeded through his second term, he frequently used his executive power to veto proposed Congressional legislation. He believed that the president had the right to annul what he deemed harmful to the public interest, a departure from earlier presidents who only vetoed bills they thought were unconstitutional. Using his veto power creatively, Jackson vastly expanded presidential executive power in government.

Also during his second term, a concept called "Jacksonian democracy" emerged as Jackson developed and popularized his own notion of essential democratic elements. He preached about the importance of equality, freedom, and majority rule, and advocated a limited government, fiscal restraint, laissez-faire economics, and support of the individual states in their constitutional sphere of activity.

Throughout his political career Jackson was both a beloved and much-hated figure. During many reform periods in U.S. history Jackson was seen as a hero, and Jacksonian democracy was extolled as one of the great advances in the development of popular government. Yet Jackson was also denounced as a person out for his own political advantage, who mesmerized the public with populist rhetoric and behaved like an autocrat in his role as president.

When Jackson's friend Martin Van Buren (1837–1841) was elected president in 1836, Jackson retired to the Tennessee mansion, the Hermitage. He remained politically active until his death, at the age of 78, in 1845.

See also: Bank of the United States (Second National Bank), National Debt, Spoils System, War of 1812

FURTHER READING

Bugg, James L. Jacksonian Democracy: Myth or Reality. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962.

Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Bank War: A Study in the Growth of Presidential Power. New York: Norton, 1967.

Schlesinger, Arthur M. The Age of Jackson. New York: Book Find Club, 1946.

Sellers, Charles, ed. Andrew Jackson: A Profile. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.

Terrin, Peter. The Jacksonian Economy. New York: Norton, 1969.

Andrew Jackson 1767–1845, 7th President of the United States (1829–37), b. Waxhaw settlement on the border of South Carolina and North Carolina (both states claim him).

Early Career

A child of the backwoods, he was left an orphan at 14. His long military career began in 1781, when he fought against the British in a skirmish at Hanging Rock. He and his brother were captured and imprisoned at Camden, S.C. After studying law at Salisbury, N.C., he was admitted to the bar in 1787 and practiced in the vicinity until he was appointed solicitor for the western district of North Carolina (now Tennessee).

In 1788 he moved west to Nashville. He was prosperous in his law practice and in land speculation until the Panic of 1795 struck, leaving him with little more than his estate, the Hermitage. There, he built (1819–31) a home, on which he lived as a cotton planter during the intervals of his political career. The house, a handsome example of a Tennessee planter's home, with a fine formal garden, was constructed of bricks made on the estate. Jackson married Rachel Donelson before she had secured a legal divorce from her first husband, and though the ceremony was later repeated, his enemies made capital of the circumstance.

He rose in politics, was a member of the convention that drafted the Tennessee Constitution, and was elected (1796) as the sole member from the new state in the U.S. House of Representatives. The next year when his political chief, William Blount, was expelled from the Senate, Jackson resigned and, to vindicate his party, ran for the vacant seat. He won, but in 1798 he resigned. From 1798 to 1804 he served notably as judge of the Tennessee superior court.

War Hero

In the War of 1812 Jackson defeated the Creek warriors, tacit allies of the British, at Horseshoe Bend , Ala. (Mar., 1814) after a strenuous campaign and won the rank of major general in the U.S. army. He was given command of an expedition to defend New Orleans against the British. The decisive victory gained there over seasoned British troops under Gen. Edward Pakenham, though it came after peace had already been signed in Europe, made Jackson the war's one great military hero.

In 1818 he was sent to take reprisals against the Seminole , who were raiding settlements near the Florida border, but, misinterpreting orders, he crossed the boundary line, captured Pensacola, and executed two British subjects as punishment for their stirring up the Native Americans. He thus involved the United States in serious trouble with both Spain and Great Britain. John Q. Adams , then Secretary of State, was the only cabinet member to defend him, but the conduct of Old Hickory, as Jackson was called by his admirers, pleased the people of the West. He moved on to the national scene as the standard-bearer of one wing of the old Republican party.

President

Jackson rode on a wave of popularity that almost took him into the presidency in the election of 1824. The vote was split with Henry Clay , John Quincy Adams , and William H. Crawford , and when the election was decided in the House of Representatives, Clay threw his influence to Adams, and Adams became President.

By the time of the election of 1828, Jackson's cause was more assured. John C. Calhoun , who was the candidate for Vice President with Jackson, brought most of Crawford's former following to Jackson, while Martin Van Buren and the Albany Regency swung liberal-controlled New York state to him. The result was a sweeping victory; Jackson polled four times the popular vote that he had received in 1824. His inauguration brought the "rabble" into the White House, to the distaste of the established families.

There was a strong element of personalism in the rule of the hotheaded Jackson, and the Kitchen Cabinet —a small group of favorite advisers—was powerful. Vigorous publicity and violent journalistic attacks on anti-Jacksonians were ably handled by such men as the elder Francis P. Blair , Duff Green , and Amos Kendall . Party loyalty was intense, and party members were rewarded with government posts in what came to be known as the spoils system . Personal relationships were of utmost importance, and the social slights suffered by the wife of Secretary of War John H. Eaton (see O'Neill, Margaret ) helped to break up the cabinet.

Calhoun's antagonism was more fundamental, however. Calhoun and the South generally felt threatened by the protective tariff that favored the industrial East, and Calhoun evolved the doctrine of nullification and resigned from the vice presidency. Jackson stood firmly for the Union and had the Force Bill of 1833 (see force bill ) passed to coerce South Carolina into accepting the federal tariff, but a compromise tariff was rushed through and the affair ended. Jackson, on the other hand, took the part of Georgia in its insistence on states' rights and the privilege of ousting the Cherokee; he refused to aid in enforcing the Supreme Court's decision against Georgia, and the tribe was removed.

More important than the estrangement of Calhoun was Jackson's long fight against the Bank of the United States . Although its charter did not expire until 1836, Henry Clay succeeded in having a bill to recharter it passed in 1832, thus bringing the issue into the 1832 presidential election. Jackson vetoed the measure, and the powerful interests of the bank were joined with the other opponents of Jackson in a bitter struggle with the antibank Jacksonians.

Jackson in the election of 1832 triumphed over Clay. His second administration—more bitterly resented by his enemies than the first—was dominated by the bank issue. Jackson promptly removed the funds from the bank and put them in chosen state banks (the "pet banks" ). Secretary of Treasury Louis McLane refused to make the transfer as did his successor W. J. Duane , but Roger B. Taney agreed with Jackson's views and made the transfer (see also Independent Treasury System ).

Jackson was a firm believer in a specie basis for currency, and the Specie Circular in 1836, which stipulated that all public lands must be paid for in specie, broke the speculation boom in Western lands, cast suspicion on many of the bank notes in circulation, and hastened the Panic of 1837. The panic, which had some of its roots in earlier crop failures and in overextended speculation, was a factor in the administration of Martin Van Buren, who was Jackson's choice and a successful candidate for the presidency in 1836.

Retirement

Jackson retired to the Hermitage and lived out his life there. He was still despised as a high-handed and capricious dictator by his enemies and revered as a forceful democratic leader by his followers. Although he was known as a frontiersman, Jackson was personally dignified, courteous, and gentlemanly—with a devotion to the "gentleman's code" that led him to fight several duels.

Jacksonian Democracy

The greatest popular hero of his time, a man of action, and an expansionist, Jackson was associated with the movement toward increased popular participation in government. He was regarded by many as the symbol of the democratic feelings of the time, and later generations were to speak of Jacksonian democracy. Although in broadest terms this movement often attacked citadels of privilege or monopoly and sought to broaden opportunities in many areas of life, there has been much dispute among historians over its essential social nature. At one time it was characterized as being rooted in the democratic nature of the frontier. Later historians pointed to the workers of the eastern cities as the defining element in the Jacksonian political coalition. More recently the older interpretations have been challenged by those seeing the age as one that primarily offered new opportunities to the middle class—an era of liberal capitalism. Jackson had appeal for the farmer, for the artisan, and for the small-business ower; he was viewed with suspicion and fear by people of established position, who considered him a dangerous upstart.

Bibliography

See biographies by M. James (2 vol., 1933–37, repr. 1968), H. Syrett (1953, repr. 1971), J. W. Ward (1955, repr. 1962), R. V. Remini (3 vol., 1977–84), and H. W. Brands (2005); A. M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson (1945); G. G. Van Deusen, The Jacksonian Era (1959, repr. 1963); R. V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Bank War (1967), and ed., The Age of Jackson (1972); R. Latner, The Presidency of Andrew Jackson (1979); A. Burstein, The Passions of Andrew Jackson (2003); J. Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (2008); D. S. Reynolds, Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson (2008).

Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)

Sources

Seventh president of the united states

Background. Andrew Jackson’s parents migrated to South Carolina from northern Ireland in 1765, two years before Jackson’s birth. His father died just before Andrew was born, and the family moved in with relatives. He began life in humble circumstances, was educated briefly in a local school, and joined in the American Revolution before he reached his teens. By the time he was fourteen, the war had claimed the lives of his brothers and mother, leaving Andrew the family’s lone survivor. After the Revolution he decided to study law and in 1788 moved west to Nashville to seek his fortune. Although his resources were limited, he enjoyed the gentlemanly pursuits of horse racing, dueling, and hunting. In Nashville he met and married Rachel Donelson Robards; the couple later discovered that Robards’s divorce decree ending her first marriage had not been officially granted until two years after her marriage to Jackson. They promptly remarried after the divorce, but the circumstances caused a lifelong scandal.

Politician. Jackson prospered from his law practice and land speculation, purchasing his estate, The Hermitage, in 1795. He served as a delegate to Tennessee’s state constitutional convention and opposed amendments that would have required religious oaths for officials. After admission Tennesseans elected Jackson to the United States House of Representatives. He returned to become the major general of the Tennessee militia and played the role of a southern gentleman, planting cotton, managing slaves, and racing horses.

General. The War of 1812 made Jackson a hero. Called on to subdue Indians threatening the old Southwest, Jackson won the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814. For this he was commissioned a major general of the United States and successfully defended New Orleans against the British with a few thousand western volunteers, French settlers, African slaves, and pirates. The victory cemented his military reputation. In 1818 President James Monroe sent Jackson to protect American settlers from Seminoles operating out of Spanish Florida. Jackson exceeded his orders and invaded the territory, attacking several villages and forts, and hanging two British citizens who had supplied the Native Americans. His actions almost led to war with Spain and Britain, but they were popular in the West, and after Spain ceded Florida to the United States, Monroe offered Jackson the territorial governorship.

Candidate. Like all good republicans, Jackson denied that he aspired to higher office, but when the legislatures of Tennessee and Pennsylvania passed resolutions favoring his presidential candidacy in 1824, he did not resist. Claiming he could not ignore the perple’s decision, Jackson ran and won 99 electoral votes and more than 150, 000 popular votes but lost the election in the House of Representatives. The alleged “corrupt bargain” of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay outraged Jackson’s supporters, and the general almost immediately began running for the next presidential election. He organized his followers and built up a grass-roots movement that swept him into office in 1828, in a campaign filled with mud-slinging and personal insults. Adams’s supporters not only targeted Jackson’s reputation as a gambler and duelist but also attacked his relationship with Rachel and accused the two of bigamy, charges which Jackson believed led to her death in December 1828.

Presidency. Jackson’s raucous inaugural celebration was for many a symbol of a change of power from the political elite to the common people. Once in office Jackson revolutionized the presidency. Previously, presidents generally stood above the people and parties. Jackson, however, was a “people’s candidate.” He frequently went over the heads of Congress and communicated directly with the people, to explain and gather popular support for his actions, as he did during the “Bank War.” Jackson also was the first president to accept political parties, though he belived that his party was the only legitimate one.

Strict Construction. Before his election Jackson seemed not to have been an ideologue. As a westerner he was generally inclined toward banks, paper money, and internal improvements, which he supported in the Senate as late as 1823. During his presidency, however, he turned to strict construction of the Constitution. When in 1830 Congress passed an internal improvement bill to fund the Maysville Road in Kentucky, Jackson vetoed it, suggesting that however necessary such an improvement might be, it remained a local matter that should be paid for locally, by the state of Kentucky, rather than the federal government. He likewise spent much of his presidency fighting (successfully) against the Second Bank of the United States, which he considered an unconstitutional concentration of power.

Union. Though Jackson believed in small government, his brand of strict construction included the free use of government power to reduce “corruption” and other sources of power that infringed on the people’s liberty. In addition to fueling his fight against the bank, this ideology led Jackson to resist any attempts by states to usurp the powers of the federal government, lest the states then oppress their people. The most obvious case was South Carolina’s attempt to nullify the federal tariff of 1828. Led by Vice President John C. Calhoun, South Carolina developed a theory that the Constitution was a compact between the states, not the people, and that the states could thus choose unilaterally to disregard federal laws within their borders. Jackson was aware of Calhoun’s ideas; at an 1830 Jefferson Day celebration, in Calhoun’s presence, Jackson had challenged him by proposing the toast, “Our Federal Union, it must be preserved.” When South Carolina called a nullification convention and voided the 1828 tariff, as well as an 1832 tariff, Jackson had Congress respond with a Force Bill, giving him the authority to use federal troops to collect the tariff in South Carolina. Jackson also threatened personally to lead federal troops into the state and hang any traitors who refused to abide by federal law. The crisis passed when Henry Clay and Calhoun worked out a compromise tariff in 1833.

Later Life. Jackson’s actions as president helped solidify party lines and brought a new party system into being. Jackson retired in 1837 to The Hermitage, leaving the presidency to his chosen successor, Martin Van Buren. His economic policies helped bring about a serious financial panic in 1837, which Van Buren was left to manage. Jackson died in 1845 and was buried in a garden plot next to Rachel.

Sources

Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821 (New York: Harper & Row, 1977);

Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822–1832 (New York: Harper & Row, 1981).

Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845), seventh president of the United States, founder of the Democratic party.Born in Waxhaw, South Carolina to Scotch‐Irish immigrants, Jackson fought as a boy in the Revolutionary War, studied law, and in 1788 moved west to Nashville. In 1791, he married Rachel Robards, believing that her divorce had been finalized. When this proved incorrect, they were remarried in 1794. Malicious rumors relating to the contretemps followed Jackson throughout his career. After serving as a Tennessee prosecutor, judge, congressman, senator, and militia general, he won fame in the War of 1812 with smashing victories against the Creek Indians in 1814 and against the British at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815.

His triumph at New Orleans, which eventually acquired an almost mythical coloring, gave Jackson a heroic stature unrivaled since George Washington's. In 1818, he pursued Seminole Indians into Spanish Florida, creating an international incident. Appointed military governor of Florida (1821), he again served in the Senate in 1823–1825. In a confused, four‐candidate presidential race in 1824, Jackson led the popular and electoral vote but lost in the House of Representatives to John Quincy Adams through the machinations of Henry Clay. Jackson challenged Adams again in 1828 and defeated him. The campaign introduced new vote‐getting techniques but also exhibited a sectional pattern, with Jackson sweeping the South and West. In 1832, Jackson easily defeated Henry Clay.

Elected president more for his patriotic persona than his largely unformed political views, Jackson carved out a policy while in office and in doing so shaped his diffuse electoral coalition into an organized political party. He replaced many government officials on partisan grounds, inaugurating the so‐called spoils system. Serving his core southwestern constituency, he condemned abolitionism, advocated cheaper public lands, and strong‐armed Indian tribes into removing west of the Mississippi. In a confrontation between Georgia and the Cherokee Nation, Jackson backed state authority against tribal sovereignty and refused to protect Indians' treaty rights despite a ruling by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.

Jackson's presidency defined itself in two central episodes: the nullification crisis and the “Bank War.” Jackson took office amid mounting sectional acrimony over the American System, a program of fostering economic development through protective tariffs and transportation improvements, policies that many southerners condemned as promoting northern growth at their expense. Jackson curbed the American System by vetoing congressional transportation subsidies (most famously the Maysville Road in 1830) on constitutional grounds and urging a lower tariff. When South Carolina, led by John Calhoun, declared the 1828 tariff null and void in 1832, and prepared to resist its collection, Jackson acted quickly to uphold federal supremacy, by force if necessary. In a ringing proclamation he declared the country indivisible, and nullification tantamount to treason. With Jackson's blessing, Congress lowered the tariff in 1833, and South Carolina backed down.

Another element in the American System was the Bank of the United States, a privately managed institution chartered by Congress to provide a stable currency and handle the government's finances. Following Thomas Jefferson, Jackson deemed a national bank dangerous and unconstitutional. In 1832, he vetoed a bill engineered by bank president Nicholas Biddle (1786–1844) to renew its charter, scheduled to expire in 1836. His veto message counterposed the virtuous plain people against the bank's privileged stockholders. The following year, he transferred the federal government's deposits to selected state‐chartered banks, triggering a brief financial panic and prompting the Senate to censure him in 1834. Undeterred, Jackson launched a broader assault against all forms of government‐granted special privileges, including corporate charters. His Farewell Address in 1837 warned of the insidious “money power.” After his presidency, Jackson retired to the Hermitage, his cotton plantation near Nashville, where he died.

Jackson's Bank War and its populistic, egalitarian rhetoric provided the platform and vocabulary for the emerging Democratic party. (His policies also arguably helped trigger the Panic of 1837, which deepened into a severe depression.) By casting himself as the people's tribune against the moneyed elite and their tools in government, he introduced an enduring theme in American politics. Jackson exercised executive powers vigorously, defying Congress, vetoing more bills than all his predecessors, and frequently reshuffling his cabinet.

Jackson's political philosophy adapted Jeffersonian precepts to a developing democratizing society. Combining energetic nationalism and attacks on privilege with laissez‐faire and limited government policies, Jackson appealed simultaneously to the longing of many Americans for a purer republic and to their ambition for a more open future. Strong‐willed and sharp‐tempered, a fierce patriot and rabid partisan, Jackson himself was always controversial. For him, politics was personal, whether the opponent was Henry Clay, John Marshall, John Calhoun, or Nicholas Biddle. A cabinet crisis erupted in 1829 when the wife of Vice President Calhoun ostracized Peggy Eaton, the daughter of a Washington innkeeper and wife of Jackson's secretary of war. Jackson defended Peggy, and the resulting controversy helped push Calhoun into opposition and open the way for Martin Van Buren, Jackson's 1832 running mate to win the presidency in 1836.

Andrew Jackson was both a champion and symbol of democracy, the first westerner and self‐made man to achieve the presidency, yet also a wealthy slaveholder. The preeminent public figure between Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, he dominated and gave his name to an era.
See also Antebellum Era; Bank of the United States, First and Second; Depressions, Economic; Federal Government, Executive Branch: The Presidency; Indian History and Culture: From 1800 to 1900; Indian Wars; Monetary Policy, Federal; Roads and Turnpikes; Seminole Wars; Veto Power.

Bibliography

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. , The Age of Jackson, 1945.
John William Ward , Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age, 1955.
Edward Pessen , Jacksonian America, rev. ed., 1978.
Robert V. Remini , Andrew Jackson, 3 vols., 1977–1984.
Harry L. Watson , Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America, 1990.
Charles Sellers , The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1991.
Daniel Feller , The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815–1840, 1995.

Daniel Feller

JACKSON, ANDREW

Andrew Jackson achieved prominence as a frontiersman, jurist, and military hero, and as seventh president of the United States. His two administrations, famous for ideologies labeled Jacksonian Democracy, encouraged participation in government by the people, particularly the middle class.

Jackson was born March 15, 1767, in Waxhaw, South Carolina. In 1781, Jackson entered the military, fought in the Revolutionary War, and was subsequently taken prisoner and incarcerated at Camden, South Carolina. After his release, he pursued legal studies in North Carolina and was admitted to the bar of that state in 1787.

Jackson relocated to Nashville in 1788 and established a successful law practice. Three years later, he married Rachel Donelson. When it was subsequently discovered that Mrs. Jackson was not legally divorced from her previous husband, Jackson remarried her in 1794 after her divorce became final. His enemies, however, used the scandal to their advantage.

Jackson began his public service career in 1791 and performed the duties of prosecuting attorney for the Southwest Territory. He attended the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796 and entered the federal government system in that same year.

As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Jackson represented Tennessee for a year before filling the vacant position of senator from Tennessee in the U.S. Senate during 1797 and 1798.

Jackson embarked on the judicial phase of his career in 1798, presiding as judge of the Tennessee Superior Court until 1804.

During the war of 1812, Jackson returned to the military and was victorious at the Horseshoe Bend battle in 1814. He conquered the British at New Orleans at the close of the war, which resulted in national recognition as a war hero.

In 1818, Jackson was involved in a military incident that almost catapulted the United States into another war with Great Britain and Spain. Dispatched to the Florida border to quell Seminole Indian uprisings, Jackson misunderstood his orders, took control of the Spanish possession of Pensacola, and killed two British subjects responsible for inciting the Indians. Spain and Great Britain were in an uproar over the incident, but Secretary of State john quincy adams supported Jackson. The incident added to Jackson's popularity as a rugged hero.

Jackson sought the office of president of the United States in 1824 against henry clay, John Quincy Adams, and William Crawford. No single candidate received a majority of electoral votes, and the House of Representatives decided the election in favor of Adams. Four years later, Jackson defeated the incumbent Adams and began the first of two terms as chief executive.

"Every man who has been in office a few years believes he has a life estateinit, a vested right. This is not the principle of our government. It is rotation of office that will perpetuate our liberty."
—Andrew Jackson

During his first administration, Jackson relied on a group of informal advisers known as

the Kitchen Cabinet. The unofficial members included journalists and politicians, as opposed to the formal cabinet members traditionally involved in policymaking. He also initiated the spoils system, rewarding dutiful and faithful party members with government appointments, regardless of their qualifications for the positions. Many of Jackson's intimate associations did not include members from the traditional families associated with politics, and public dissatisfaction came to a head with the marriage of his Secretary of War John Eaton to the provincial Margaret O'Neill. The social politics employed by cabinet members and their wives, particularly Vice President and Mrs. john c. calhoun, caused much upheaval in the Jackson cabinet, and the eventual resignation of Eaton.

Calhoun and Jackson disagreed again in 1832 over a protective tariff, which Calhoun believed was not beneficial to the South. Calhoun initiated the policy of nullification, by which a state could judge a federal regulation null and void and, therefore, refuse to comply with it if the state believed the regulation to be adverse to the tenets of the Constitution. Calhoun resigned from the office of vice president after South Carolina adopted the nullification policy against the tariff act, and Jackson requested the enactment of the Force Bill from Congress to authorize his use of militia, if necessary, to enforce federal law. The Force Bill proved to be solely a strong threat, because Jackson sympathized with the South and advocated the drafting of a tariff compromise. Henry Clay was instrumental in the creation of this agreement, which appeased South Carolina.

The most significant issue during Jackson's term was the controversy over the bank of the united states. The bank became a topic in the 1832 presidential campaign and continued into the second administration of the victorious Jackson.

The charter of the bank expired in 1836, but Henry Clay encouraged the passage of a bill to secure its recharter in 1832. Jackson was against the powerful bank and overruled the recharter. He proceeded to transfer federal funds from the bank to selected state banks, called "pet banks," which significantly diminished the power of the bank. Secretary of Treasury Louis McLane refused to remove the funds and was dismissed; similarly, the new treasury secretary, W. J. Duane, also refused. Jackson replaced him with

roger b. taney, who supported Jackson's views and complied with his wishes. In response to this loyalty, Jackson subsequently nominated Taney as a U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1836.

In 1836, Jackson faced another financial crisis. He issued the Specie Circular of 1836, which declared that all payments for public property must be made in gold or silver, as opposed to the previous use of paper currency. This proclamation precipitated the economic panic of 1837, which ended Jackson's second term and extended into the new presidential administration of martin van buren.

Jackson spent his remaining years in retirement at his estate in Tennessee, "The Hermitage," where he died on June 8, 1845.

further readings

Ellis, Richard E. 2003. Andrew Jackson. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

Magliocca, Gerard N. 1999. "Veto! The Jacksonian Revolution in Constitutional Law." Nebraska Law Review 78 (spring): 205–65.

Remini, Robert V. 1998. Andrew Jackson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)

Sources

General, governor, and president of the united states

Symbol . Even before he became the nation’s seventh president, Andrew Jackson was a living, breathing symbol of the West. As a youth fighting in the Revolutionary War, a frontier lawyer and jurist, a plantation parvenu, a military leader, and, finally, as president, Jackson’s life had a tremendous effect on the nation’s Westward expansion.

Planter-Politician . Born in the North Carolina backcountry to a family of Irish immigrants, Jackson’s childhood was interrupted by the American Revolution. Although he was only thirteen, he was captured and imprisoned by the British; all but one member of his immediate family died from war-related causes. With no family to turn to, the ambitious and troubled Jackson decided to study law and move to North Carolina’s western district (now Tennessee). The rough-hewn lawyer made friends quickly and began a political career as a delegate to Tennessee’s constitutional convention and the new state’s first elected congressman. He even served for a few months as a U.S. senator before returning home to take a seat on the state supreme court. By 1800 the young jurist had purchased several slaves and a plantation near the bustling town of Nashville.

Military Career. Jackson’s true calling was the military. As commander of a group of Tennessee volunteers in the war of 1812, he decimated the Creek Indians in Mississippi. Promoted into the regular army, Jackson led a much larger force against the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, an engagement fought after a peace treaty was signed in Europe. Jackson emerged as the war’s greatest hero. Three years later he invaded Florida to chastise the Seminoles. Despite significant controversy over his actions there—he ordered the execution of two British subjects suspected of aiding the Indians—President James Monroe named Jackson military governor of Florida in 1821.

“Old Hickory.” The governor’s reputation as an opponent of British tyranny and as a soldier who helped open millions of acres of Indian lands to white settlement made him a popular man (to many whites) in the West, a region of growing political importance in the 1820s. After a brief return to the Senate, Jackson, known as “Old Hickory,” ran for president in 1824. With tremendous Western support, he won a popular plurality but fell short of the majority necessary to claim victory. As mandated by the Constitution, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, where Jackson lost the election to John Quincy Adams. Claiming publicly that the election was stolen from him as the result of a “corrupt bargain,” Jackson and his supporters built a massive coalition of Western expansionists, Southern slaveholders and Northern farmers and artisans. He won the election of 1828 in a landslide.

An Eventful Presidency . As president, Jackson held himself up as an opponent of established wealth, federally backed internal improvements, and moral reforms such as abolitionism. He also pursued a program that ruthlessly forced removal of Indians from east of the Mississippi to less-fertile land the federal government labeled Indian territory. Although Jackson refused to annex the Republic of Texas in 1836 for fear of igniting the slavery issue, he squarely set the nation on a course of geographic expansion. His career and rise to power in many ways exemplified and gave shape to the history of westward expansion in the United States.

Sources

Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833–1845 (New York: Harper & Row, 1984);

Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832 (New York: Harper & Row, 1981);

Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of Empire, 1767-1821 (New York: Harper & Row, 1977).

Jackson, Andrew (b. Waxhaw, S.C., 15 Mar. 1767; d. near Nashville, Tenn., 8 June 1845), president of the United States, 1829–1837. During his two terms, President Andrew Jackson made six appointments to the high court, more than any other president except George Washington, William Howard Taft, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Though Jackson took account of such traditional criteria as geography and public service, he calculated the political gain to be realized through his selections. In nominating John McLean of Ohio, a presidential aspirant popular in the West, Jackson extracted from him a promise not to seek the presidency in return for a place on the Court. Jackson thereby shelved a potential rival. Politics also figured in Jackson's other Court nominations. In 1830 he selected Henry Baldwin, a Pennsylvania congressman who had helped deliver that state to Jackson in 1828. James M. Wayne (1835), Philip P. Barbour (1836), and John Catron (1837) had also rendered valuable political service to the president. Jackson's most controversial nominee, however, was Roger B. Taney of Maryland. Taney as secretary of the treasury had played a crucial role in Jackson's attack on the Second Bank of the United States. Senate Whigs and disaffected Democrats thwarted Taney's first nomination in 1835. Jackson refused to make another appointment, however, and when Chief Justice John Marshall died on 6 July 1835, the president had not one but two positions to fill. In December he nominated Philip P. Barbour, a strong states' rights Democrat from Virginia, to replace Gabriel Duvall and Taney to fill Marshall's post. The Senate agreed to the selections only after three months of wrangling.

Jackson's appointees dominated American constitutional development down to the Civil War, and some historians even argue that they, especially Taney in Dred Scott (1857), contributed to the war's coming. Yet like most of the justices that he appointed, Jackson's view of the Court and constitutional law blended states' rights and nationalism. He was pragmatic though assertive; he pushed his criticism of the Court when it was effective and backed off when it was not. He was also determined to use his office to shape the nation's destiny without being encumbered by the other branches. Jackson used the appointment process to impress his political views on the Court but also claimed that as the tribune of the people he was obliged to interpret the Constitution as he understood it. In his veto of the act rechartering the Second Bank of the United States in 1832, Jackson argued for strict construction of the Constitution and asserted a departmental theory of constitutional interpretation. He held that each of the branches of government had the right and duty to interpret the Constitution independently of the other branches. No previous president, not even Thomas Jefferson, had ever gone so far in claiming that the Court's opinions could be ignored.

Yet Jackson's hostility to the Court had limits. He allegedly remarked, following the Supreme Court's decision in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), that “ John Marshall had made his decision, now let him enforce it” (see Cherokee Cases). Jackson did not make that statement (although he did nothing to stop Georgia from defying the Court's decision) and he never asserted an inherent prerogative to disregard judicial decisions. He merely wanted equality among the branches of government in matters of constitutional interpretation.

See also Selection of Justices; Judicial Power and Jurisdiction.

Bibliography

Henry J. Abraham , Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court, 2d ed. (1985).

Kermit L. Hall

Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845), 7th President of the U.S. (1829–37), was born in the backwoods country of South Carolina, and at the age of 13 participated in Revolutionary War battles. He was admitted to the bar in North Carolina (1787), in a western district that is now a part of Tennessee. He helped draft the constitution of Tennessee (1796), and served in Congress as a representative (1796–97) and a senator (1797–98), later becoming a judge of the state supreme court and major general of the state militia. He took the side of Burr in the latter's trial for treason (1807), and retired to private life on his plantation until 1812.

The following year he led the militia in the defeat of the Creek Indians at Talladega and at Horseshoe Bend in 1814, and then became a major general in the U.S. army, capturing Florida and commanding the defense of New Orleans against the British. His spectacular victory in the Battle of New Orleans, although fought after the peace was signed, made him the hero of the War of 1812, and for it he was celebrated in literature in his own time, such as Samuel Woodworth's ballad “The Hunters of Kentucky” (1826) and two plays bearing the same title, The Eighth of January, respectively by Richard Penn Smith (1829) and G.W.P. Custis (1834).

In 1818 Jackson again entered the military service, exceeding his orders in quelling the Seminole Indian rebellion, so that the U.S. became involved in serious troubles with Great Britain and Spain. He was nevertheless appointed military governor of Florida (1821), a post which he soon resigned. Considered the leading representative of the frontier spirit, Jackson was again elected to the U.S. Senate (1823–25), and in 1824 was a candidate for the presidency. His opponents were J.Q. Adams, W.H. Crawford, and Henry Clay; though Jackson received the largest number of electoral votes, there was no majority, and a congressional poll gave the election to Adams.

In 1828, however, Jackson was swept into power by a popular vote based on his personal influence, expansionist policies, and advocacy of a protective tariff. He opposed Calhoun's doctrines of states' rights and nullification, but also opposed the centralization of power represented by the Bank of the United States. His stand pleased the backwoods people who suspected banks as privileged institutions, and, despite a dictatorial attitude and his spoils system, he was reelected by a large majority (1832). His destruction of the Bank and his policy of distributing government funds among state banks helped cause the financial panic of 1837, which he left to his successor, Van Buren. This and other aspects of his policies alienated former supporters, who formed the Whig party, which was victorious in 1840. He spent his last years at his Tennessee home, The Hermitage. Besides being the subject of many histories, e.g. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s The Age of Jackson, he often figures in fiction, Winston Churchill's The Crossing and Meredith Nicholson's The Cavalier of Tennessee being among the romances in which he plays a part. An episode in his youth was dramatized by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings as First Flight.

Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845), War of 1812 general and seventh president of the United States.Jackson first experienced war at thirteen, fighting in the Battle of Hanging Rock, South Carolina (6 August 1780). Subsequently captured, he remained uncooperative and was slashed by a British officer, creating an antipathy as permanent as the scar on his face. Jackson's entire family perished in the Revolutionary War.

In 1788, Jackson moved to western North Carolina (now Tennessee), where he served as a field‐grade officer in the Tennessee militia and was elected, 1802, as major general—a post considered second only to that of the governor. In 1813, he commanded the Tennessee troops sent to subdue the Creeks in present‐day Alabama. After several minor victories that significantly weakened the Indians, Jackson delivered a devastating blow at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, 27–28 March 1814.

Thereafter, Jackson was given a major generalship in the U.S. Army and put in charge of the Gulf Coast region. He seized Spanish Pensacola in the fall of 1814 and then marched to New Orleans to counter a British invasion. After a series of largely successful preliminary engagements, on 8 January 1815 he and his troops won the main Battle of New Orleans, one of the severest defeats ever suffered by a British army. Jackson emerged a national hero.

Retaining his major generalship after the war, Jackson in 1818 pursued Indians into Spanish Florida and again occupied Pensacola. The Monroe administration reluctantly supported him, using the conquest to force Spain to sell the Floridas to the United States. Jackson resigned his commission in 1821. Except while acting as commander in chief during his presidency, he never held another command.

Jackson was a superb general. Although unschooled in theory, he was a competent tactician and strategist. He thoroughly prepared for battle and acted quickly and resourcefully to take the war to the enemy and to catch him by surprise. Among his greatest assets as a leader was an indomitable will, which earned him the nickname “Old Hickory” in 1813 when he continued to campaign despite a nearly crippling case of dysentery. He expected the same devotion to duty from others. During the War of 1812, he sanctioned the hanging of seven militiamen for disobedience or desertion, and jailed several New Orleans officials (including a federal judge) who challenged his decision to continue martial law after the British had left. Jackson often inspired fierce loyalty in officers and enlisted men alike; even his critics followed him into battle, if only because they feared him more than the enemy.

Jackson was the first westerner to become a national military hero. Like few of his contemporaries, he demonstrated a talent for commanding militia and volunteers no less than regulars, and showed equal skill in conducting conventional operations against European regulars and unconventional warfare against Indians.
[See also Commander in Chief, President as; Native American Wars: Wars Between Native Americans and Europeans and Euro‐Americans; Seminole Wars.]

Bibliography

Robert V. Remini , Andrew Jackson, 3 vols., 1977–84.

Donald R. Hickey

Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845) U.S. Army major general and 7th president of the United States (1829–37), born in the Waxhaw Settlement, South Carolina. At the age of thirteen Jackson participated in the Revolutionary War, probably as a courier, and was captured by the British. He later settled in Tennessee, where he practiced law and eventually entered politics. In 1796 he was elected to represent the new state of Tennessee in the U.S. Congress. His legislative record there, and during a brief term in the Senate the following year, was undistinguished. He returned to Tennessee, where he engaged in land speculation and commercial trade. During the War of 1812, Jackson, who had been elected major general of the Tennessee militia, proved himself an excellent general and military leader, earning the sobriquet “Old Hickory” from his soldiers. He crushed the Creek Indians, stripping them of their lands in present-day Alabama and Georgia. His subsequent checking of a British invasion of New Orleans (1815) made him a national hero. Jackson went on to defeat the Seminoles in Florida, a move that led to its acquisition from Spain. Elected to the Senate for the second time in 1823, he lost his first bid for the presidency in 1824, when the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, and John Quincy Adams emerged the victor. (Jackson had received both a popular and electoral plurality, but not the required electoral majority.) Preparatory to a second bid in 1828, Jackson and his friends formed an organization that became the Democratic party. Jackson's brand of democracy advocated equality of opportunity and belief in the sovereignty of the people. He was swept to victory. One blotch on Jackson's record was the Indian Removal Act, which called for the removal of the Cherokees to territory beyond the Mississippi, to an area that is now Oklahoma. The implementation of this measure in 1838—known as the Trail of Tears—is one of the greatest tragedies the United States has inflicted on a minority population.

Jackson was the first president to veto legislation for other than constitutional reasons, thereby expanding presidential power. He was known as a man with a mean and vicious temper whose outbursts frequently led him into duels and gunfights.

Smith, Andrew Jackson (1815–97) Union army officer, born in Pennsylvania. Smith held several routine postings in the U.S. Army and he served in the Mexican War (1846–48). When the Civil War broke out, he was in California, where he served briefly before becoming chief of cavalry to Gen. Henry W. Halleck, with whom he served in Mississippi. He also fought with Gen. William T. Sherman in the unsuccessful attack at Chickasaw Bayou and held a command during the Vicksburg campaign (1863). He accompanied Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks on an ill-fated expedition up the Red River ,and his steady performance on that mission won him promotion to lieutenant colonel of the 5th Cavalry. He helped clear the way for Sherman's advance on Atlanta and led capably in other engagements as well, and was brevetted major general in the regular army.

Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845) Seventh US president (1829–37). Jackson became a national hero in the War of 1812 when he defeated the British at New Orleans (1815). Jackson's popular appeal narrowly failed to defeat John Quincy Adams in the 1824 presidential election. His supporters built the basis of the new Democratic Party and Jackson was elected with John C. Calhoun as his vice president in 1828. Jackson faced staunch opposition from the establishment and set up a spoils system of political appointments. Calhoun resigned over the nullification issue, and Jackson faced further conflict over states' rights, the expansion of the frontier and the tariff. His second term (1832–37) was marked by his trenchant opposition to the Bank of the United States.

Jackson ♂ Transferred use of the surname, meaning originally ‘son of Jack’ and in modern times sometimes bestowed with precisely this meaning. In the United States it has also been used in honour of President Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), the Confederate general Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson (1824–63), and more recently the painter Jackson Pollock (1912–56).

Pet form: Jacky.

Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845) US general and Democratic statesman, 7th President of the USA (1829–37). After waging several campaigns against American Indians, he defeated a British army at New Orleans (1815) and successfully invaded Florida (1818). As President, he replaced an estimated 20% of those in public office with Democrat supporters, a practice that became known as the spoils system.