Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was a war hero in the war of 1812, defeating British forces at the Battle of New Orleans. He was elected president of the United States in 1828. He considered himself a populist, but this was something of a paradox. He came from humble origins and favored individual liberty, but was a slaver, a persecutor of Indians, and was hostile to Congress.

In 1802, Jackson was appointed a major general of the Tennessee militia during the War of 1812 and interfered with the Creek Civil War on the side of the White Stick Creeks. The Red Sticks were hostile to American expansion and allied with the British. The White Sticks, led by mestizo miccos, were open to involvement with US trade. At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March 1814, Jackson oversaw the killing of some 800 Red Stick warriors and secured 200 million acres in present-day Georgia and Alabama. After this military success, Jackson was promoted to the rank of Major General in the United States Army.

Jackson had no specific instructions. He led his forces into Spanish territory, though the US was not at war with Spain, and captured Pensacola in November 1814 before pursuing British troops to New Orleans. Though outnumbered, Jackson lead 5,000 soldiers to an upset victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans in December 1814, the last major engagement of the War of 1812. He was awarded a gold medal by Congress and dubbed “Old Hickory” by his troops.

Given command of the Army’s southern division, Jackson was ordered back into service against the Seminoles in 1817. He recaptured St. Mark’s and Pensacola from the Spanish and executed two British subjects for secretly assisting the Seminoles. He overthrew the Spanish governor of West Florida, Jose Masot. His actions infuriated Spain, as well as many in Congress and the cabinet of President James Monroe. Spain ceded Florida to the United States under the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 and for several months in 1821, Jackson held the post of military governor of Florida.

In 1822, Jackson was nominated for president by the Tennessee Legislature. He ran for and won election to the US Senate in 1823. He lost his campaign for president in 1824, but the winning campaign of John Adams was widely seen as corrupt, and he won in a landslide in 1828. He was the first president born on the frontier, and residing outside of Massachusetts or Virginia. Inviting the public to attend the inauguration ball, he earned the nickname “King Mob.”

The perception of corruption in the 1824 presidential campaign caused the Democratic-Republican party to split in two. Jackson’s grassroots supporters called themselves Democrats and eventually formed the Democratic party. Jackson was the first president to assert the veto power of the president to curb the authority of Congress. In 1832, he faced challenges from within the Democratic Party, as his vice president John. C. Calhoun lead a faction opposing tariffs that favored Northern manufacturers over Southern planters. The Southern faction resolved to nullify the law and secede from the Union.

In 1830, Jackson signed and implemented the Indian Removal Act, which gave the President power to make treaties with tribes on behalf of Congress. He stood by as Georgia violated a federal treaty and seized nine million acres of Cherokee land, refusing to intervene even after the Supreme Court ruled Georgia’s actions unconstitutional. Instead, he brokered a deal in which the Cherokees would vacate their land in return for territory west of Arkansas. This resulted in the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of 15,000 Cherokees, approximately 4,000 of which died en route from starvation, exposure, and disease.

Jackson died on June 8, 1845, age 78, of lead poisoning from two bullets he’d carried in his chest for years.