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Andrew Jackson - 7th President of the United States
March 4, 1829 to March 3, 1837
Born: March 15, 1767, Waxhaw District, South Carolina
Died: June 8, 1845, Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee (Tuberculosis - 78)
Interred: Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee
61 years old, Lawyer, Presbyterian, Democrat
Parents: Andrew & Elizabeth (Hutchinson) Jackson
Married: 1791 & 1794 to Rachel (Donelson) Robards
Children: None
Also served:
Tennessee Governor
U.S. Congress
U.S. Senate
Vice President:
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina (1829 - resigned)
Martin Van Buren of New York (1833-1837)
Facts:
First President to be shot at while in Office (January 30, 1835 - Capitol Rotunda)
First President to travel by railroad
Made the term "To the victor goes the spoils" popular
The only President to fight in the Revolutionary and War of 1812
The only President to ever be a POW
He paid off the national debt and thus became the only president of a debt-free United States
Married his wife a second time since she believed she was still married during their first marriage
Nickname: "Old Hickory"
Visit the Hermitage , President Jackson's home
President Jackson's First Inaugural Address
President Jackson's Second Inaugural Address
ANDREW JACKSON
Biography
More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man.
Born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767, he received sporadic education. But in his late teens he read law for about two years, and he became an outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife Rachel.
Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans.
In 1824 some state political factions rallied around Jackson; by 1828 enough had joined "Old Hickory" to win numerous state elections and control of the Federal administration in Washington.
In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College. He also tried to democratize Federal officeholding. Already state machines were being built on patronage, and a New York Senator openly proclaimed "that to the victors belong the spoils. . . . "
Jackson took a milder view. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed Government duties could be "so plain and simple" that offices should rotate among deserving applicants.
As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party--the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him.
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and other Whig leaders proclaimed themselves defenders of popular liberties against the usurpation of Jackson. Hostile cartoonists portrayed him as King Andrew I.
Behind their accusations lay the fact that Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command.
The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly. When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him.
Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. "The bank," Jackson told Martin Van Buren, "is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" Jackson, in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.
His views won approval from the American electorate; in 1832 he polled more than 56 percent of the popular vote and almost five times as many electoral votes as Clay.
Jackson met head-on the challenge of John C. Calhoun, leader of forces trying to rid themselves of a high protective tariff.
When South Carolina undertook to nullify the tariff, Jackson ordered armed forces to Charleston and privately threatened to hang Calhoun. Violence seemed imminent until Clay negotiated a compromise: tariffs were lowered and South Carolina dropped nullification.
In January of 1832, while the President was dining with friends at the White House, someone whispered to him that the Senate had rejected the nomination of Martin Van Buren as Minister to England. Jackson jumped to his feet and exclaimed, "By the Eternal! I'll smash them!" So he did. His favorite, Van Buren, became Vice President, and succeeded to the Presidency when "Old Hickory" retired to the Hermitage, where he died in June 1845.
In 1829, Andrew Jackson was the first president inaugurated outside the completed East Portico of the Capitol. Chief Justice John Marshall administering the oath of office to Andrew Jackson. The outdoor venue accommodated members of Congress as well as thousands of well-wishers.
According to a letter dated March 5, 1829 from James Hamilton to Martin Van Buren, this crowd "hailed the Chief with the most enthusiastic applause and greetings."
Joseph Bishop's 1897 Century Magazine article entitled, "Inauguration Scenes and Incidents" provides another account of the proceedings:
"Andrew Jackson's ceremony went smoothly but his post-inaugural celebration is legendary for the unruly mobs that swarmed the White House. In a letter to Martin Van Buren that uses some very disparaging (and objectionable) language, James Hamilton described the festivities as "a regular Saturnalia. The Mob broke in, in thousands...in one uninterrupted stream of mud & filth..."
Four years later, Jackson's second (and far more subdued) inaugural address was held in the Capitol's Hall of Representatives.
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The U. S. Constitution
