American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham, 2009.
Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans by Brian Kilmeade, 2017.
After months of reading two books, listening to podcasts and watching documentaries, Andrew Jackson is still something of a mystery to me. Perhaps President Trump’s claims to admire and be like Jackson early in his presidency has led me to prejudge Jackson. Jackson is still controversial today; people seem to love him or hate him… like Trump.
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| Trump has a serious man crush on Jackson. |
With the current social justice movements, his historical standing has fallen greatly. His treatment of the Indians was close to genocide, so that alone should have relegated him to the lower rung of presidents years ago. Why didn’t it?
Andrew Jackson was born in South Carolina shortly after his fathers’ death. His mother had to support him and two older brothers primarily by working/living with a variety of extended family. His education was haphazard at best, and as a teenager, he served as a scout/messenger for the American revolution after the death of his oldest brother. When Jackson and his other brother were captured by the British, Jackson took a huge blow to the head and hand when refused to shine the officer’s boots. Eventually, they were ransomed and released but his brother died shortly thereafter. His mother soon died of Cholera nursing injured patriots as well. At the age of 14 he was an orphan and carried a personal hatred and blame for the British all his life.
As a young man he managed to apprentice with a lawyer and pass the bar. He was tall and very thin with thick hair. He was known for lots of drinking, fighting and horse racing. He also participated in duels throughout his life, killing one man and nearly dying from a duel bullet lodged by his heart. He soon moved to Tennessee and met Rachel Donelson. She was separated from her abusive husband and the two of them left for Natchez to get married as it was under Spanish control. Rachel’s ex-husband was officially
granted a divorce six months later on the grounds of her adultery. Jackson and Rachel returned to Nashville and remarried officially. But any reference to this adultery or invalid marriage would send Jackson into a rage for the rest of his life. They never had children of their own but adopted a relative’s child and called him Andrew Jackson, Jr. They were truly devoted to each other and she was one of only a few people who could calm Jackson’s temper. Her large, extended, influential family fueled Jackson’s success.
Jackson specialized in legal maneuvers to defraud Indians of their land and soon grew his own plantation, The Hermitage, to a large size. He made money in land speculation and horse dealing. The Hermitage was manned by 150 slaves, who seemed to have been treated only slightly better than most slaves. Jackson would have slaves whipped for laziness and almost to death for escaping slaves.
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| The Hermitage in Tennessee |
He became Attorney General for Tennessee then a U.S.
Senator. However, he resigned from the Senate after minimal accomplishments
there, claiming he did not like John Adams.
After a brief stint as a state supreme court judge, he became head of
the Tennessee militia. When the War of
1812 began, he often had to provide supplies, salaries and weapons out of his
own pocket, a trait that endeared him to his men, along with his refusal to
ride his own horse while injured troops needed it. However, he was unforgiving to deserters and
had six of his own men executed. His first
major action was against the Creek Indians, a British ally, and with the help
of another branch of Creek Indians, he completed several decisive battles
against them and was then made a Brigadier General in the US Army.
The Battle of New Orleans was the single event that
propelled him to the presidency. He
defended the city against a British invasion with one of the most lopsided casualties
count ever in a battle that only lasted 25 minutes. It was also an irrelevant victory since the
Treaty of Ghent had already been signed and approved but word had not reached
Jackson. Jackson then lead the fight to
remove and control Indians in Florida during the Seminole War. He also just outright seized Florida from the
Spanish, who we were not at war with, doing so without any approval. This
eventually forced Spain to sell it to us.
Jackson returned to Tennessee in poor health but after
months of recovery, became a Senator again.
This was only as a planned stepping stone to the presidential elections
of 1824. While he won the most popular
and electoral votes, none of the candidates had the mandatory electoral count
to win. So the election was decided by
the House of Representatives. Some
political maneuvering caused John Quincy Adams to be selected by the
House and Jackson to lose.
When he ran for
president, the election of 1828 was deeply personal on both sides. Jackson was
a master at using posters and newspapers for his benefit. He portrayed himself
as a hero and just like the common man, an outsider against corrupt Washington
elites. John Quincy Adams portrayed
Jackson as a murderer (killing in duels and executing troops) and a vile slave
owner. But the harshest rhetoric was
about Jackson’s wife being an adulterer and their marriage being invalid. This infuriated Jackson and was very
stressful on Rachel, who didn’t actually want him to run. Three weeks after his victory she died of a
heart attack. Jackson was distraught and
vowed revenge on those he felt murdered her.
Jackson’s inauguration was a famous drunken mob crashing the
White House. He soon initiated the
spoils system, replacing almost all political posts with his cronies, many
corrupt and incompetent. Jackson also
had to deal with the nullification crisis when South Carolina claimed it could
ignore any federal law it did not like, threatening to leave the Union. Jackson defended the Union and placated them
with a decrease in tariffs. Jackson also eventually was able to destroy the
National Bank.
Jackson is infamous for signing the Indian Removal Act to
strip everything east of the Mississippi from Indians and leading to the Trail
of Tears. He had zero concern for the
Indians but wanted plantation land for southern whites. 45,000 Indians were
removed and up to 20,000 died, kicked off land they held legally with binding
treaties.
One scandal that practically crippled his first term revolved around the refusal of Washington society to accept the wife of his secretary of defense, John Eaton. Strong evidence exists that Peggy Eaton was having an affair with Eaton while her first husband was alive and stationed out of town while in the Navy. They married quickly after her first husband's death. Jackson defended Peggy Eaton like she was his own wife Rachel, and would not deal with anyone who would not accept her, including his own niece Emily who functioned as his First Lady. It split his cabinet and eventually led him to fire them all in one swoop. He soon formed a Kitchen Cabinet of informal advisors he relied on. His stubbornness in defending a woman of questionable morals to the detriment of the entire government was bizarre and shows his stubbornness and refusal to change course.
For his second term, Jackson switched to Martin Van Buren as
his vice president in the 1832 election.
He won in a landslide. The end of
his second term was greatly marred by the Panic of 1837, caused partially by
his closure of the National Bank. He handpicked his successor, Van Buren, and
then the president after that, Polk.
Jackson’s health remained poor for his presidency and most of his life after that. He continued to have massive political pull until his death, pushing for the annexation of Texas.
He died of heart failure in 1845 at the age of 78 at home surrounded by
his large extended family and slaves. He was feisty until the end, claiming his
only regret was not killing Henry Clay or John Calhoun.
