Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson rose from humble backcountry origins to become a famous military hero and the seventh president of the United States. Many Americans, especially those of the western frontier, honored him as an example of the new, self-made American. Others viewed him as a military leader who used unnecessary brutality and as a president who exceeded his authority and divided his political party.

Youth during the American Revolution

Jackson's parents emigrated to the backwoods of South Carolina from northern Ireland in 1765, and Andrew's father died a few days before his birth. Jackson, who was born on March 15, 1767, was a reckless and quick-tempered boy. He attended some local schools, and could read and write, but he was less educated than any of the U.S. presidents before him.

The American Revolution (1775–83; the war for independence from Great Britain) overshadowed Jackson's youth. In 1779, the thirteen-year-old Andrew and his brother enlisted in the army and were soon captured by the British. During their captivity, both brothers caught smallpox, an infectious disease. The British released them, and they walked 40 miles home, barefoot and coatless. Two days after they arrived, Andrew's brother died. His mother died soon after. At fourteen, Jackson was alone. The hatred he felt for the British remained with him for life.

A young lawyer

After a somewhat wild youth, Jackson decided to study law. Admitted to the bar (licensed to practice law) in 1787, he set out for Tennessee to serve as a prosecuting attorney. He was soon appointed attorney general. Financial successes allowed him to begin building a plantation and to purchase slaves to work on it. He served in the Tennessee state legislature, then briefly as a U.S. senator, and later served six years as a judge in the Tennessee Superior Court.

Jackson married a divorced woman, Rachel Donelson Robard, in 1794, and was a devoted husband. In 1806, a man insulted Rachel's honor. Jackson challenged him to a duel and killed him.

Military career

Jackson began his military career as commander of a group of Tennessee volunteers in the War of 1812 (a conflict between England and the United States over trade issues). In this role, he destroyed a large part of the population of the Creek Indians in Mississippi Territory who had been involved in skirmishes with U.S. troops. Promoted into the regular army, Jackson led a large force against the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. He triumphed in the battle and emerged as the war's greatest hero.

Three years later, Jackson invaded Florida , which at the time was a Spanish territory, in pursuit of Seminole Indians resisting relocation to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma ). Thus began the first of the Seminole Wars (1817–18). Many of Jackson's actions in Florida were questionable. He ordered the execution of two British subjects suspected of aiding the Indians, and his brutal conduct toward Indians earned him a reputation among journalists and politicians as a tyrant and a murderer. But after his campaign, Spain ceded Florida to the United States, which greatly pleased many Americans. Jackson's popularity as a no-nonsense military leader grew.

For a short period in 1821, Jackson served as governor of the Florida Territory. He resigned when the Tennessee legislature chose him for the U.S. Senate. Two years later, he stepped down to make his first bid for the presidency.

Lost election of 1824

In the 1824 election, different factions of the Democratic-Republican Party ran for president. Jackson won the highest number of popular and electoral votes (votes cast by the electoral college , made up of members chosen by each state to elect a president), but he did not have the majority of electoral votes required by the Constitution . Therefore, it was up to the House of Representatives to select a president. When it chose John Quincy Adams (1767–1848; served 1825–29), Jackson was convinced that the election had been fixed. For the next four years, Jackson's supporters made things difficult for the Adams administration, opposing many of its initiatives.

Jackson ran for president again in 1828. In this campaign, his supporters emerged as the new “Jacksonian” Democratic Party . Supporters of Adams were called National Republicans, later to become the Whig Party . Jackson won an overwhelming victory.

The presidency

Jackson's first term was marked by a conflict between him and his vice president, John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) over the issue of nullification, which held that if a state objects to a federal law, it has the right to block the law's enforcement. (See Nullification Controversy .) Calhoun's home state of South Carolina attempted to nullify the tariffs (taxes on imports and exports) of 1828 and 1829; Jackson reacted by calling for military action against South Carolina. It took a compromise tariff to avoid confrontation.

As president, Jackson continued to try to take Indian land, as he had done in the military. He promoted the Indian Removal Act, which was passed by Congress in 1830. The act called for the forced march of thousands of American Indians from their native lands in the Southeast along the “Trail of Tears” into Indian Territory, causing great suffering and death.

Jackson's second term as president was dominated by his campaign to abolish the national bank system, which he felt gave too much power to the federal government and favored the Northeast over the South and West. He forced the removal of federal deposits from the Second Bank of the United States and distributed them among a favored group of state banks. Senate members protested, declaring the president's actions unconstitutional, but he would not budge on the issue. In his last months in office, a national financial crisis resulted from these drastic measures. His critics began to call him “King Andrew,” because they believed he had taken more power than the Constitution allowed a president.

After his presidency, Jackson retired to his estate in Tennessee, the Hermitage, but remained a powerful force in the Democratic Party. He died in 1845.