The age of andrew jackson

There are many important men that have made great contributions to the history of North America. There have also been many heroes and leaders that the American public has looked to for answers and comfort. On March 15, 1767 a man by the name of Andrew Jackson was born in North Carolina (State Library). There are many different positions this young man encountered as he lived his life for America. Growing up his father was not part of his life because he had experienced an accidental death before he was born. His mother was a reluctant woman who raised him and his two brothers in the home of her sister. She was a strong independent woman who was the mother of a man who would one day be known as president. When Andrew Jackson was nine years old, the Declaration of Independence was signed. As a young boy he was interested in the army and knew he wanted to be in the leadership position one day. His brothers were also part of the army which made his desire to join more prevalent. At the age of thirteen he joined the Continental Army as a courier. A courier is basically someone who either is a messenger or a person of the army who carries secret weapons or information. This was a great way for him to begin he journey as part of America. Unfortunately his brothers were both killed for different reasons during the Revolutionary war. Andrew Jackson was capture and taken in as a prisoner of war by the British army. He was mistreated by a certain officer and actually held a grudge against this man until his death. At the age of 16, he felt that life began to seem pointless when he returned from the war to only be stricken with the news of his mother’s deathly illness. His mother became ill while working as a nurse on a prisoner ship. After her death he was considered an orphan and he had to live with relatives. Andrew Jackson began his professional career by teaching, but soon fell in love with the idea of practicing law. He went to Salisbury in North Carolina to study law and was admitted into the North Carolina Bar during 1787. Shortly after that he moved to Nashville, TN, which was still a part of North Carolina’s Western District, to begin his career as a prosecuting officer of the Superior Court. While living in Nashville he stayed in the home of the Donelson family. Later he married the daughter of the Donelson family who had previously been married to an abuser named Louis Robards. The daughter’s name was Rachel Donelson. Jackson and Rachel get married on the way to Mississippi to get her away from Robards. When Jackson married Rachel she was not officially divorced from Robards. When everyone found out about this they began to talk bad about her. Soon Jackson found out that everyone was criticizing his new wife and challenged them to duels in which he usually won by shooting them. In June 1796 Tennessee was separated from North Carolina and admitted to the Union as the sixteenth state. Jackson was then elected the new state’s first congressman. The following year the Tennessee legislature elected him a U. S. senator, but he held his senatorial seat for only one session before resigning. After his resignation Jackson came home and served for six years as a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Jackson’s military career continued in 1802 when he was elected major general of the Tennessee militia. Ten years later Tennessee Governor Willie Blount gave him the rank of major general of U. S. forces. In 1814, after several devastating campaigns against Native Americans in the Creek War, he was finally promoted to major general in the regular army. The War of 1812 was the foundation of Jackson’s heroism. The reasoning for this was because of the defeat of the British at the Battle of New Orleans. This is when he was given the nickname ” Old Hickory”. His troops were known for being tough as hickory and so this name tagged along with him from this battle on. In 1824 Andrew Jackson ran for president. This election was considered unique because the presidency had to be decided by the House of Representatives. He did not have enough electoral votes to win the presidency alone. Jackson had three opponents. They were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. In the beginning Jackson seemed to have the presidency won. He had 153, 000 votes, Adams had 148, 000, Crawford had 47, 000, and Clay had 40, 000. One of these men, Adams, was worried about Jackson becoming president. He felt that Jackson did not have adequate education and was not ready to hold the office. Jackson soon felt that he was betrayed by Adams and Clay. Clay was named John Quincy Adam’s Secretary of State which was thought of as a pay off for his votes. The act of Adams appointing Clay the Secretary of State after being elected president, was soon to be known as the Corrupt Bargain. Because of this, Adams became the man with the most votes in the presidency. This is why this election was considered stolen from Jackson by two of his opponents. For the next four years Jackson and his followers criticized the Adams’ Party. Jackson would soon get his revenge by becoming the seventh president by winning the election of 1828 by defeating Adams and later the election of 1832 by defeating Clay. When Jackson was inaugurated he first went after the Bank of the United States which was owned by private investors. Jackson thought Congress did not have the authority to create the Bank in the first place. This is where Jackson used one of his dozen vetoes but, the bank’s congressional supporters did not have enough votes to override him. The Bank ceased to exist when its charter expired in 1836, but even before that date the president had weakened it considerably by withdrawing millions of dollars of federal funds. Jackson thought the B. U. S. was unconstitutional and a danger of free elections; because he knew the people were stealing money from the B. U. S. Jackson began to weed out the thieves from the B. U. S. Jackson believes it is wrong to steal, but if someone needs to be killed you should go ahead and kill them. Jackson also felt that the bank was operating for the benefit of the upper class people and at the expense of the working people. While investigating the bank he found that the treasury agents had been stealing. Because of this there was $280, 000 that had been stolen. Another thing that Jackson did was he conducted the Spoil System. The Spoil System is when the president comes in and fires the entire presidential staff from the previous president. In the first year of his presidency, Jackson reduced the naval expenses by one million just by catching the crooks. After dealing with the bank, Jackson looked forward to the Native Americans. Jackson’s record regarding Native Americans was not good. He viewed them as savages and neglected women and children. Although he felt this way, Jackson himself adopted an Indian boy named Lincoyer. Before, Jackson had led troops against them in both the Creek War and the First Seminole War. During his first administration the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830. The act offered the Indians land west of the Mississippi in return for evacuation of their tribal homes in the east. About 100 million acres of traditional Indian lands were cleared under this law. One of the most depressing things to happen was when he ignored a Supreme Court ruling which decided that Georgia did not have any jurisdiction over the Cherokees. He ignored this ruling when he and the state of Georgia evicted the Cherokees and moved them west. A march of Indians moving west occurred after his presidency, but its origins can be traced back to Jackson. In 1838 17, 000 Cherokee Indians were forced to march west in horrible conditions. This march was known as the ” Trail of Tears”. More than 25% of the Indians that had to make this journey to Oklahoma died before even arriving. Jackson believed in a strong presidency and he vetoed a dozen pieces of legislation. This fact seems so far fetched because he vetoed more than the first six presidents put together. Jackson also believed in a strong Union and this belief brought him into open opposition with Southern legislators, especially those from South Carolina. South Carolina thought the 1832 tariff signed by President Jackson was too high. Later, South Carolina legislature passed an Ordinance of Nullification, which rejected the tariff and declared that the tariff was invalid in South Carolina. Jackson was as far from being a States’ Righter as it was possible to be and issued a presidential proclamation against South Carolina. Congress supported Jackson’s position on the issue and a compromise tariff was passed in 1833. In 1836 Taney succeeded John Marshall as chief justice. One of Taney’s early rulings gave permission for states to restrict immigration, while another destroyed a transportation monopoly in Massachusetts. With this it established for the first time the principle in U. S. law that the public good is superior to private rights. But Taney is best known for his pro-slavery position in the Dred Scott case in 1857. Chief Justice Taney authored the majority opinion which refused to recognize that Congress had the authority to ban slavery in territory areas. In addition he said Blacks were ” inferior” beings who had ” no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” So far Jackson had led the country as good as he knew how. He had those who followed him and those who disagreed with him. While president, both times, his health was not perfect. There were points during his presidency that he felt he would not be able to complete his term as planned. To his surprise, he was able to remain president for the full eight years without any interruptions. When he retired he felt the best place to go to for the retirement was the Hermitage near Nashville, TN. In 1837, he returned home where he and his late wife Rachel, had once lived. This home had once been a small cabin, but with all of Jackson’s success it had developed into a large plantation. Jackson did not have the will power to completely step down out of the political view after retiring. He helped his successor, Martin Van Buren, in his campaign for presidency. Jackson was also a large part in the annexation of Texas and was a dear friend to future president James K. Polk. Unfortunately Mr. Andrew Jackson died after being extremely sick on June 8, 1945. Andrew Jackson is seen as an important figure in the history of the United States. Overall the American people liked this man as their president and leader. He was a loyal man who was mostly out for the good of everyone. He followed his beliefs along with his closest political partners. In his early years as an adult he didn’t feel his life would ever amount to anything. With his strong determination he went on to be one of the most remembered presidents that the United States had ever seen.