Andrew Jackson

7th United States President. When he threw his hat in the ring and decided to run for the presidency, Andrew Jackson the “Hero of New Orleans” was the most popular man in the country and even received a “favorite son” endorsement from Tennessee delegates. Detractors had a field day after his marriage to Rachel Donelson seizing on a marriage technicality to tarnish both their images. He was born to poverty stricken Scottish-Irish immigrants literally on the border between North and South Carolina. His father died in a logging accident before his birth and his mother raised the family alone. He joined the Continental Army as a courier at age thirteen. Andrew was taken prisoner by the British. Because of his ill treatment, Jackson harbored a bitter resentment towards the British until his death. With his mother and both brothers deceased, Andrew was a complete orphan at the age of fourteen. He was apprenticed to a saddle maker. Still a young man, he went to the territory of Tennessee achieving prominence as a lawyer, became a judge and was the owner of a moderate sized plantation. When Tennessee became a state, he became a member of the US House of Representatives, then elected Senator. He sought and won the position of Major General of the Tennessee militia. He led troops against the Indians in both the Creek War and the First Seminole War. During the War of 1812, he gave the Americans a much needed victory at New Orleans giving the country a moral boost just after Washington was burned by the British. To win the presidency, Jackson defeated Adams for his first term and then defeated Clay to claim a second term. Rachel Jackson died a few weeks before her husband’s inauguration and Jackson blamed her early death on stress caused by detractors zeroing in on their supposed immorality of his marriage. The new President believed in a strong presidency and a strong Union. This belief brought him into open opposition with Southern legislators. In order to clear millions of acres of land from Indians, he signed the Indian Removal Act which gave them land west of the Mississippi in exchange for land east of the river. During his administration Arkansas and Michigan were admitted to the Union. He survived an assassination attempt fending off his attacker with his cane. After leaving the Whitehouse, he retired to his home near Nashville which he and Rachel had named The Hermitage. From a small cabin it was expanded, remodeled and rebuilt into a spacious plantation house. Jackson’s health deteriorated acerbated by a bullet lodged near his heart received in a duel but never removed. He died at the Hermitage reaching the age of 77. Thousands attended his funeral. Burial was beside Rachel in a tomb he had designed and constructed. Visiting her grave each evening was one of Jackson’s daily rituals in his declining years. Andrew and Rachel Jackson did not have any children but adopted a nephew of Rachel and gave him the name of Andrew Jackson, Jr. The plantation was willed to him but his debts forced the sale of the property to the State of Tennessee. The Hermitage today is open to the public, restored and is an historic site. The two disputed birthplaces: The Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster South Carolina: The 360 acre park has a historic marker, also a bronze sculpture recognizing the spot. Waxhaws, North Carolina: Located just across the state border from the Andrew Jackson State Park has a restored house and a historic marker. Washington DC has a huge bronze equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson cast from a bronze cannon captured in his last campaign against the Spanish. It has graced Lafayette Park since 1853.