History UsefulNotes / AndrewJackson

Jackson was first featured on the $20 bill in 1928; he will be replaced by UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman sometime between 2016 and 2020.

[[quoteright:271:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Andrew_Jackson_9337.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:271:''[[BookDumb "It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word."]]'']]

One of the most distinctive personalities to occupy the presidency, Jackson was noted for his nearly uncontrollable temper and his occasional lapse into violence. UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson witnessed Jackson's early political career as a Senator during his time as UsefulNotes/JohnAdams' Vice President; while he agreed with Jackson's politics, he described him as pretty unintelligent and called him "a dangerous man." Jefferson could only begin to understand. Jackson's marriage to Rachel Donelson Robards was considered bigamous since her divorce was not officially completed at the time of their wedding. Jackson believed his political opponents' use of this as an issue in the very nasty 1828 presidential campaign resulted in her death before his inauguration, and he never forgave his enemies for this. He was famously defensive of Rachel, even [[BerserkButton going into a duel against a judge who insulted her]]. [[Website/{{Cracked}} He was in many duels, the number of which varies depending on what source you consult; some say 13, while others rank the number somewhere in the hundreds, both of which are entirely too many times for any reasonable human being to stand in front of someone who is trying to kill them with a loaded gun.]] He stopped when he was voted into office. When Jackson became a Senator, one of his foes from his duels was also in the Senate. The man had shot him, and he still had the bullet in his body. He soon got it out and even gave it to the man who shot him as a sort of peace treaty. When ever he'd get hemorrhages in his arm, he'd ask his servants for a razor and a bowl and cut them open to let them bleed out. Recent examinations of his body have shown that he suffered from lead poisoning (probably from those duels) which even reached into his skull, which possibly describes some of his more unusual behavior.

[[caption-width-right:271:[[BookDumb It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.]]]]

->"''Up until 1829 all of our presidents had been aristocratic, dignified, educated, and presidential... and then came Andrew Jackson.''"

'''Andrew Jackson''' (March 15, 1767–June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States of America, serving from [[UsefulNotes/AntebellumAmerica 1829 to 1837]], right after UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams and right before UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, and was the first president from the Democratic Party. He was also a living testament to how {{Badass}} a man can be; no future president was near as badass until UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt came to office.

* BlessedAreTheCheesemakers: New York dairy farmers gifted him with a 1,400 pound block of cheddar cheese in 1835. In 1837 he threw a party inviting the public to eat it.
-->[[Series/TheWestWing "Andrew Jackson, in the main foyer of his White House had a big block of cheese. ...The block of cheese was huge--over two tons and it was there for any and all who might be hungry."]]

His LastWords were purported to be either "Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we shall all meet in Heaven... I want to meet you all, white and black, in Heaven" or "I hope to meet you all in Heaven. Be good children, all of you, and [[CrazyPrepared strive to be ready when the change comes]]." Unfortunately [[HisNameIs he failed to mention what "the change" was]]. If you don't think Andrew Jackson's LastWords were memorable enough, after he died someone asked one of his servants if they thought Andrew Jackson had gone to heaven. To which the servant replied: "If General Jackson wants to go to heaven, [[LikeABadassOutOfHell who's going to stop him?]]"

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Andrew_Jackson_9337.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[BookDumb It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.]]]]

!!RealLife tropes he embodied:
* AppropriatedAppellation: His opponents once called him a "jackass" so he adopted that animal as the mascot of the Democratic party.
* ArchEnemy: He '''fucking loathed''' Henry Clay, who returned the favor. Also he was frequently opposed by Folk Hero DavyCrockett, a man who even helped ''stop a would be assassin'' so that he could eventually kill Jackson himself. (Un?)fortunately a Crockett/Jackson Duel [[WhatCouldHaveBeen never occurred]].
-->"''I have but two regrets. I did not hang John C. Calhoun and I did not shoot Henry Clay.''"
--->-- ''Jackson upon leaving the presidency.''
* AssassinOutclassin: He very nearly beat his attempted killer to death. The ''only'' reason he didn't is he was restrained from doing so.
* {{Badass}}: Beating the crap out of ''his own would-be assassin'', getting in about a hundred duels and surviving every single one, and digging a bullet out of his arm without anesthesia during a Cabinet meeting should definitely qualify him as this.
* BadassBaritone: According to the writing of several of his contemporaries, Jackson had a deep, raspy voice that became absolutely terrifying when he screamed.
* BadassBoast:
** When the Nullification Crisis came around, Jackson promised "if one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find."
** When South Carolinian John C. Calhoun supported his state's threat of secession during the Nullification Crisis, Jackson allegedly threatened him with the following: "John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation, I will secede your head from the rest of your body!".
** During the Battle against the Second Bank, Jackson told his vice-president Martin Van Buren, "The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me but '''I will kill ''it''!'''".
** When informed that the Senate had denied Jackson's appointee, Martin Van Buren, the post of Ambassador to England after John Calhoun voted against the motion, Jackson's response was a loud and furious "By The Eternal, I'll smash them!".
* BadassBookworm: Quite the lawyer.
* BadassGrandpa: He nearly beat a would-be assassin to death with his cane when he was ''67 years old''.
* BadassLongcoat: Was in the habit of wearing a gigantic greatcoat, especially during duels, which had the bonus of hiding how thin he was and sometimes caused his opponents to miss.
* BeamMeUpScotty: Jackson never said "to the victor go the spoils" in reference to the mass replacements of civil servants for Democratic party members. The phrase was actually spoken by Senator William L. Marcy.
** He quite likely never said "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!" in regards to Indian removal either. Marshall's Supreme Court decision in ''Worcester v. Georgia'' set aside the conviction of a white man violating Georgia law regarding political activity, and constrained the states in regard to actions regarding Indian land. The federal government wasn't party to the suit, so there was nothing to enforce, and federal authority over relations with Indian tribes (under which they were subsequently removed) was, then as now, considered paramount.
* BerserkButton: Three. Don't insult his wife, don't tell him banks aren't corrupt institutions, and DON'T insult his integrity.

* BloodKnight: The only reason anyone would willingly choose to stand in front of people shooting at him for ''fun''.
* CaneFu: As demonstrated when he nearly beat his would-be assassin to death with one.
* CassandraTruth: Regarding the Nullification Crisis: "[T]he tariff was only the pretext, and disunion and southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or slavery question."
* TheChessmaster: Believe it or not, yes. The guy often exaggerated his temper in order to cultivate his frontier badass image with the public and scare people into submission. He used his veto addresses to Congress more as messages to the common people. During the Bank War, he also cleverly forced the Bank leaders to resort to tactics which only made them more unpopular. Regardless of how bad most of his policies actually were, Jackson honestly was a strong leader.
* ComplimentBackfire: Jackson hated paper money, so what do we do to remember him? Put his face on the $20 bill. That's right, he's probably rolling in his grave every time you use a $20 bill.
** It gets worse: look at the writing above his portrait. It says "Federal Reserve Note". The Federal Reserve is America's current central bank system.
* CrazyAwesome:
** He had a tendency to come off as totally nuts, especially during his badassery. In his most famous duel, he ''allowed his opponent to shoot him first'', knowing the man would shoot quickly and poorly, and have to reload, giving Jackson ample time to carefully aim and kill the man.
** He refused to remove a bullet in his chest [[Website/{{Cracked}} because he knew that time spent removing the bullet would fall under the category of "time not dueling", Jackson's least favorite category]].
** Andrew Jackson is sent down to the border with Florida to stop over-border raids. What's his solution to the problem? Conquer Florida without permission from the government. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen He also wanted to continue on to Cuba]].
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Any of his badassery counts.
** His earliest known example was when he was ''twelve years old''. A British officer tried to pay him to shine his boots. Jackson refused. The officer slashed Jackson's face with his sword for his insolence. Jackson still refused to shine the boots. That's right, his first battle scars were for saying "screw you and the shoes you walked in on."
** When a man pulled a gun on him while he was President in an attempt to assassinate him, it malfunctioned. The man produced a second gun, which also malfunctioned. Jackson proceeded to ''beat the crap'' out of the would-be assassin with his cane, and ''he'' had to be pulled off ''the assassin''.
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: One of his cabinet secretaries wives had a checkered past and got a lot of crap for it. Jackson defended her honor and fired EVERYONE in his administration who gave her any grief. This was mostly because it reminded him of what happened to his wife Rachel and especially potent since he believed the political smears about her is what ended up killing her.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: It's no secret Jackson loved profanity, and he was good at it too. He was so good at it he learned how to do it in two languages (English and Spanish). Quite possibly the only thing he loved more (other than his wife) was his pet parrot, Pol. Jackson loved that bird so much that Pol was even present at the president's funeral... [[NotInFrontOfTheParrot right up until he started swearing. In two languages.]] The bird was unceremoniously removed.
** He was famous for winning the War of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans, but the [[ShapedLikeItself War of 1812]] officially ended two weeks before the battle. [[MemeticBadass Old Hickory didn't care]]; he took the credit anyways.
* {{Determinator}}: This man didn't let trivial things like getting shot slow him down, kept up his campaign against the Second Bank Of the United States until it was disgraced, and DID NOT back down on his position that secession was illegal.
* DuelToTheDeath: His favorite thing to do, with his wife second and swearing at number three.
* FieryRedhead: And HOW!
* FightingIrish: He was the son of Irish Immigrants and, as noted, loved a good fight.
* FowlMouthedParrot: His beloved parrot Pol, who had to be unceremoniously removed from Jackson's funeral because he started swearing. In two languages.
* FreudianExcuse: Modern examination of his body has revealed that he suffered from lead poisoning for much of his life (possibly from the many bullets inside him?), which explains some of his more... erratic behavior.
* HappilyMarried: To his wife Rachel, to whom he was insanely devoted to...though "insanely" can be applied to everything Jackson ever did.
* HairTriggerTemper: "insane" is listed here because it is listed under his duels and there were a lot of duels.
* HandicappedBadass: By the time he was elected President, he was crippled with respiratory problems, severe arthritis in multiple places, prone to [[IncurableCoughOfDeath coughing up blood]], and had several bullets that were never removed that caused him constant pain. None of this stopped him from being a badass.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With John Coffee, his second in command during the War of 1812 and with UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, his second vice-president and eventual successor.
* HonorBeforeReason: His determination to eliminate the Bank of the United States crashed the economy.
* HotBlooded: [[ExploitedTrope He knew it.]] He would use his temper to get his way even when he wasn't mad.
* IdiotHero: Jackson, though not necessarily stupid, wasn't exactly the brightest man in politics.
* ImmuneToBullets: How does a man get shot so many times and still live?
** During the attempt to assassinate him (the first ever attempt on an American President), the would-be murderer pulled a pair of flintlock pistols at point-blank range. Both misfired. Perhaps the damp weather had something to do with it or [[MemeticBadass perhaps the bullets were afraid of him]].
* ImprobableAge:
** Jackson was all of 12 years old when he joined the American fight for independence.
** He was also 67 years old when he beat his 32 year-old would-be assassin half to death with a cane.
* LikeABadassOutOfHell: After his death, when one of his servants was asked whether he thought Jackson would go to heaven or hell, the servant replied:
--> "If General Jackson wants to go to heaven, who's going to stop him?"
* MadeOfIron: The sheer amount of bullets he got hit with in life should have killed him several times over, including one lodged a few inches from his heart which never got removed. Eventually he survived so much even his enemies would concede bullets simply weren't going to take him down.

* MoralityChain: His wife, whom he was utterly devoted to, and his much beloved parrot, Pol.
* MuggingTheMonster: As mentioned above, an assassin who went after him found out the hard way how bad an idea that was, and Jackson's security was barely able to keep the President from killing the dope.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Creek Indians called Jackson "Sharp Knife".
* NeverLiveItDown: [[invoked]] A good amount of the duels were from the opponent having insulted Jackson's wife, Rachel, calling her a bigamist because the two got married before Rachel's divorce from her former husband had been completed.
* NotInFrontOfTheParrot: Oh, very much in front of the parrot, resulting in fluent bilingual profanity. It had to be removed from his funeral because it wouldn't stop swearing.
* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: President Action/Iron/and to the common man, President Personable. President Evil to the Native Americans.
* RedBaron: Jackson was nicknamed "Old Hickory" because of his toughness and aggressive personality (not, as popular myth suggests, because he used his hickory wood cane to beat the shit out of people, but that was probably a contributing factor).
* RenaissanceMan: Freedom fighter, hunter, lawyer, duelist, horse breeder and racer, businessman, war general, Governor of Florida and President of the United States of America. Jackson took all these varied professions and made them his bitches.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: He was reported as saying "John Marshall has made his ruling, now let him come to the White House and enforce it." This was in response to him enacting the Indian Removal Act, going over the head of John Marshall (then the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) who had declared that the Indians had rights to their own territory. The fact that Jackson sworn an oath to enforce the Supreme Court's rulings didn't seem to matter.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren was the sensitive guy to Jackson's manly man.
* SirSwearsALot
* TheTysonZone: Admit it, if someone told you that Andrew Jackson did something crazy like, say, try to split the District of Columbia in two in order to create the largest private swimming pool in the world, you would at least flirt with the possibility that he did.
* ValuesDissonance: Many who remembered him as great felt quite differently about the Trail of Tears. Jackson believed that the land the Native Americans held wasn't being properly harvested for its resources and offered the Native Americans the possibility to use the land the right (read: white) way. When the natives politely refused, Jackson kicked them out of their valuable ancestral land and sent them to the far less valuable and comparatively inhospitable Oklahoma, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of natives through disease and exhaustion. Granted, Jackson later regretted his involvement in the deaths of thousands of natives, but he was still responsible for sending thousands of people to their deaths because of his racial prejudices.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: He would have invaded Cuba had he not gotten sick after the Florida campaign.
* YouMakeMeSic: He had notoriously poor spelling

Jackson also flexed his political muscles to fight for the common man against business interests and against what he saw as federal interference in state issues. He vetoed bills which would build bills and canals if they we only built in a single region of the country (one bill he vetoed would build a national road only in the state of Kentucky), though he did sign them if they benefited the country as a whole. Since not as much money was being used to build such infrastructure, it was used to pay off the national debt - that is right, ''all'' of it, making him the only President to leave office without the country in debt. What angered Jackson most, though, was the existence of the Bank of the United States, which was set up to keep the national economy under control, prevent rapid inflation, and promote economic growth. However, the government had little control over the Bank and its president, Nicholas Biddle, essentially used it as a monopoly to help his wealthy friends and government allies keep power to themselves. Jackson (not wrongly) claimed the Bank also promoted the interests of the wealthy Northeast at the cost of the poor, the frontiersmen, and the South. Henry Clay, now in the Senate and widely seen as Jackson's opponent for reelection, tried to use this issue in the run-up to the election of 1832 and passed through Congress an early recharter of the Bank, believing that if Jackson vetoed it he would lose the election. [[DidntSeeThatComing However]], Jackson really did veto it to the delight of the common man he represented, and he beat Clay in another electoral landslide. In his second term, Jackson removed government deposits from the Bank to make sure it was powerless and put them into small frontier banks, which led to a boom in land speculation in the western states. To make sure prices would not rise too fast, he gave an executive order requiring that all purchase of federal lands must be paid for in silver or gold. This actually did not help matters, leading to a stinging banking panic just after he left office, and without the Bank to keep things under control, it eventually turned into a deep recession. While most historians do agree that the Bank was largely corrupt (Biddle actually used government funds to donate money to the pro-Bank Clay's campaign), the general consensus is that the Bank needed reform and not destruction; the wave of banking panics from the Bank's end in 1836 to the strengthening of the Federal Reserve System under UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt a century later were thus uncontrollable, and many suffered in the resulting recessions--the men Jackson was trying to help. However, the recession began after Jackson left office, and he thus escaped blame very narrowly.

* MemeticBadass: Not as famous in pop culture as [[UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt a certain other badass president]], but people still make videos about him. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SupNaQeJrq0]]

* ArchEnemy: He '''fucking loathed''' Henry Clay, who returned the favor. Also he was frequently opposed by Folk Hero DavyCrockett, a man who even helped ''stop a would be assassin'' so that he could eventually kill Jackson himself. (Un?)fortunately a Crockett/Jackson Duel never occurred.

* He's played by Creator/CharltonHeston in the 1953 film ''Film/ThePresidentsLady''.

* ArchEnemy: He '''fucking loathed''' Henry Clay, who returned the favor. Also he was frequently opposed by Folk Hero DavyCrockett, a man who even helped ''stop a would be assassin'' so that he could eventually kill him himself. (Un?)fortunately a Crockett/Jackson Duel never occured.

* ArchEnemy: He '''fucking loathed''' Henry Clay, who returned the favor.

'''Andrew Jackson''' (March 15, 1767–June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States of America, serving from [[AntebellumAmerica 1829 to 1837]], right after UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams and right before UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, and was the first president from the Democratic Party. He was also a living testament to how {{Badass}} a man can be; no future president was near as badass until UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt came to office.

* '''{{Badass}}''': '''And how!''' Beating the crap out of ''his own would-be assassin'', getting in about a hundred duels and surviving every single one, and digging a bullet out of his arm without anesthesia during a Cabinet meeting should definitely qualify him as this.

* AppropriatedAppelation: His opponents once called him a "jackass" so he adopted that animal as the mascot of the Democratic party.

->''"Up until 1829 all of our presidents had been aristocratic, dignified, educated, and presidential... and then came Andrew Jackson."''

'''Andrew Jackson''' (March 15, 1767 -- June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States of America, serving from [[AntebellumAmerica 1829 to 1837]], right after UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams and right before UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, and was the first president from the Democratic Party. He was also a living testament to how {{Badass}} a man can be; no future president was near as badass until UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt came to office.

He was born on the border between North and South Carolina - his birthplace (maybe 18 miles south of Charlotte) can be placed at one of two cabins standing scant yards apart, one on each side of the border. His father died before Jackson was born. At the age of 12, Jackson served in the Patriot militia under Col. Davies during the American Revolution. During the war, he and his brothers were captured and confined in disease-ridden quarters; this led to the deaths of his brothers and also of his mother who tended to them when they were sick. After the war, Jackson had no immediate family left alive, so he was taken in by a judge in Salisbury, North Carolina. This judge was himself one of the few survivors of a battle/massacre known at the time as the Waxhaw Massacre, now more commonly called Buford's Defeat, where he had been left for dead with over twenty wounds. Under his tutelage, Jackson studied law. Jackson then moved to western North Carolina (which later became Tennessee), married, and began a political career.

This all took place during an era of rapid change in the United States. The Industrial Revolution began to really get going in the years after the War of 1812 and the small businesses of the post-independence years were giving way to large factories, resulting in previously self-reliant farmers and craftsmen being forced to turn to "wage slavery" to make a living. Meanwhile, thanks to the spread of the cotton gin, the rise of large slave plantations in the South began, forcing out many farmers and slaveholders. Additionally, the federal government enacted policies to help spur economic growth and modernization, policies which were often perceived as being pro-Northern and pro-wealthy. Horrified to see their way of living change right before their eyes, the common people made demands for populist reforms, such as an end to federal aid to businesses, universal white manhood suffrage, and expansion west to provide land for farmers and settlers. Jackson, now a wealthy plantation owner but sympathetic to their plight, openly sided with the little guys against big business and big government, and he rode this populist wave to a national political career. Jackson ran for the presidency in 1824 and won a plurality of the popular vote, but, in a very confusing election in which three other people ran, he did not have enough votes to win the White House, so the matter went to the House of Representatives. There, the Speaker of the House HenryClay, who was fourth place in the presidential race and a sworn enemy of Jackson, used his political influence to swing the House vote narrowly in favor of John Quincy Adams, who then became President. Outraged at this "corrupt bargain" of Washington insiders, Jackson and his supporters formed the Democratic Party and announced he would run again in 1828, and Jacksonians in Congress stopped most of Adams' policies from passing. The 1828 election, however, was just Adams against Jackson, and Jackson, benefiting from perceived corruption and incompetence in the Adams administration and from commoners in the Southern and frontier states gaining the vote, easily won in a landslide.

Jackson also flexed his political muscles to fight for the common man against business interests and against what he saw as federal interference in state issues. He vetoed bills which would build bills and canals if they we only built in a single region of the country (one bill he vetoed would build a national road only in the state of Kentucky), though he did sign them if they benefited the country as a whole. Since not as much money was being used to build such infrastructure, it was used to pay off the national debt - that is right, ''all'' of it, making him the only President to leave office without the country in debt. What angered Jackson most, though, was the existence of the Bank of the United States, which was set up to keep the national economy under control, prevent rapid inflation, and promote economic growth. However, the government had little control over the Bank and its president, Nicholas Biddle, essentially used it as a monopoly to help his wealthy friends and government allies keep power to themselves. Jackson (not wrongly) claimed the Bank also promoted the interests of the wealthy Northeast at the cost of the poor, the frontiersmen, and the South. Henry Clay, now in the Senate and widely seen as Jackson's opponent for reelection, tried to use this issue in the run-up to the election of 1832 and passed through Congress an early recharter of the Bank, believing that if Jackson vetoed it he would lose the election. [[DidntSeeThatComing However]], Jackson really did veto it to the delight of the common man he represented, and he beat Clay in another electoral landslide. In his second term, Jackson removed government deposits from the Bank to make sure it was powerless and put them into small frontier banks, which led to a boom in land speculation in the western states. To make sure prices would not rise too fast, he gave an executive order requiring that all purchase of federal lands must be paid for in silver or gold. This actually did not help matters, leading to a stinging banking panic just after he left office, and without the Bank to keep things under control, it eventually turned into a deep recession. While most historians do agree that the Bank was largely corrupt (Biddle actually used government funds to donate money to the pro-Bank Clay's campaign), the general consensus is that the Bank needed reform and not destruction; the wave of banking panics from the Bank's end in 1836 to the strengthening of the Federal Reserve System under UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt a century later were thus uncontrollable, and many suffered in the resulting recessions - the men Jackson was trying to help. However, the recession began after Jackson left office, and he thus escaped blame very narrowly.

The presidency of Jackson forever changed politics in this country. A French political thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, visited Jacksonian America and declared it to be the most democratic country in the world. People now demanded that politicians turn to them for support rather than the wealthy interests, and every presidential hopeful since Jackson left office has tried to convince the voters that he is really one of them. They catered to common votes and their prejudices, and even rejected the clothing and style of the wealthy even though most of them were monetarily well-off. This also led to the dumbing-down of politics, which in its own way was a form of style over substance. Jackson's enemies, taking the hint, began to use more populist language during their campaigns, signifying the changing times. His political opponents, led by Henry Clay, formed the Whig Party to challenge the Democrats and their leader, taking their name from the anti-monarchy Whig Party of the UK to signify their fight against "King Andrew." Widely popular, Jackson could have easily won a third term, but, growing old and not in great health, he decided to honor the then-unofficial two term tradition, instead helping his second term Vice President and greatest political adviser, UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, win the party ticket and the presidency in 1836. Retiring to his plantation, Jackson mostly avoided active participation in politics during his last few years, instead preferring to give advice to his fellow Democrats. Andrew Jackson's only regrets about his presidency were that he didn't shoot Henry Clay and that he didn't hang John C Calhoun. [[Website/{{Cracked}} That's right. In a life rich with murdering people for little-to-no reason, Jackson's only regret was that he didn't kill quite enough people.]] People like Calhoun, who [[YouHaveFailedMe was Jackson's vice president]].[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke The Nullification Crisis of 1832-33]], which nearly started UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar thirty years early, might've had something to do with it.[[/note]] Arkansas and Michigan were added to the Union during his presidency.

--> "I have but two regrets. I did not hang John C. Calhoun and I did not shoot Henry Clay."
-->-- ''Jackson upon leaving the presidency.''

* BadassBoast:

** When South Carolinian John C. Calhoun supported his state's threat of seccesion during the Nullification Crisis, Jackson alledgedly threatened him with the following: "John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation, I will secede your head from the rest of your body!".

* BlessedAreTheCheesemakers: New York dairy farmers gifted him with a 1400 pound block of cheddar cheese in 1835. In 1837 he threw a party inviting the public to eat it.

* ComplimentBackfire: Jackson hated paper money, so what do we do to remember him? Put his face on the $20 bill. That's right, he's probably rolling in his grave every time you use a $20.

** During the attempt to assassinate him (the first ever attempt on an American President), the would-be murderer pulled a pair of flintlock pistols at point-blank range. Both misfired. Perhaps the damp weather had something to do with it or [[MemeticBadass perhaps the bullets were afraid of him.]]

!!Depictions in popular media

** Andrew Jackson turned out to be the key to unlocking Axel and Zex's memories of the original timeline, when [[spoiler: time started to get fucked and [[Series/TwentyFour Jack Bauer]] ended up on the twenty-dollar bill.]]

----

Jackson also flexed his political muscles to fight for the common man against business interests and against what he saw as federal interference in state issues. He vetoed bills which would build bills and canals if they we only built in a single region of the country (one bill he vetoed would build a national road only in the state of Kentucky), though he did sign them if they benefited the country as a whole. Since not as much money was being used to build such infrastructure, it was used to pay off the national debt - that is right, ''all'' of it, making him the only President to leave office without the country in debt. What angered Jackson most, though, was the existence of the Bank of the United States, which was set up to keep the national economy under control, prevent rapid inflation, and promote economic growth. However, the government had little control over the Bank and its president, Nicholas Biddle, essentially used it as a monopoly to help his wealthy friends and government allies keep power to themselves. Jackson (not wrongly) claimed the Bank also promoted the interests of the wealthy Northeast at the cost of the poor, the frontiersmen, and the South. Henry Clay, now in the Senate and widely seen as Jackson's opponent for reelection, tried to use this issue in the run-up to the election of 1832 and passed through Congress an early recharter of the Bank, believing that if Jackson vetoed it he would lose the election. [[DidntSeeThatComing However]], Jackson really did veto it to the delight of the common man he represented, and he beat Clay in another electoral landslide. In his second term, Jackson removed government deposits from the Bank to make sure it was powerless and put them into small frontier banks, which led to a boom in land speculation in the western states. To make sure prices would not rise too fast, he gave an executive order requiring that all purchase of federal lands must be paid for in silver or gold. This actually did not help matters, leading to a stinging banking panic just after he left office, and without the Bank to keep things under control, it eventually turned into a deep recession. While most historians do agree that the Bank was largely corrupt (Biddle actually used government funds to donate money to the pro-Bank Clay's campaign), the general consensus is that the Bank needed reform and not destruction; the wave of banking panics from the Bank's end in 1836 to the strengthening of the Federal Reserve System under FranklinDRoosevelt a century later were thus uncontrollable, and many suffered in the resulting recessions - the men Jackson was trying to help. However, the recession began after Jackson left office, and he thus escaped blame very narrowly.

* In ''Okla Hannali'', a rare historical novel written by science fiction author RALafferty, Andrew Jackson figures in the background during the first half of the book. Though not part of the narrative directly he is depicted as an outright villain, and the author blames him not only for laying the seeds of for the AmericanCivilWar but for [[TheChessmaster deliberately enacting the Indian removals in the winter]] so that as many Indians as possible could die of exposure. This makes sense in context of the story as the book deals largely with the build-up to the TheTrailOfTears and its aftermath, and centers on vignettes from the life of a Choctaw 'Mingo' called Hannali Innominee and his family. Because the book's prose is a blend of non-fiction and oral history its difficult to say which are facts and which are opinions of the author. [[SignatureStyle All of this is on par with Lafferty's usual style.]]

It is enough to say that nothing short of death would have stopped Jackson, and bullets just weren't going to work. The first two assassination attempts on an American President were against him. The first time, in 1833, a man he dismissed from the Navy ran up to the President and struck him, but Jackson's friends chased him away. Then, in 1835, another attempt happened outside of the Capitol Building. An unemployed Englishman, Richard Lawrence, whipped out two pistols and fired, but both of them misfired for some reason even though they were both in perfect condition. Jackson then went up to him and started beating him with his cane until his advisers held him back. You read that right. Lawrence was eventually declared insane (''he thought he was Richard III'') and institutionalized; for some reason, Jackson was not. This was possibly the first time the argument of "he was too insane to know what he was doing so we shouldn't kill him or anything" was used to keep someone out of prison, so that's interesting.

** BadassBaritone: According to the writing of several of his contemporaries, Jackson had a deep, raspy voice that became absolutely terrifying when he screamed.
** BadassBoast:
*** When the Nullification Crisis came around, Jackson promised "if one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find."
*** When South Carolinian John C. Calhoun supported his state's threat of seccesion during the Nullification Crisis, Jackson alledgedly threatened him with the following: "John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation, I will secede your head from the rest of your body!".
*** During the Battle against the Second Bank, Jackson told his vice-president Martin Van Buren, "The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me but '''I will kill ''it''!'''".
*** When informed that the Senate had denied Jackson's appointee, Martin Van Buren, the post of Ambassador to England after John Calhoun voted against the motion, Jackson's response was a loud and furious "By The Eternal, I'll smash them!".
** BadassBookworm: Quite the lawyer.
** BadassGrandpa: He nearly beat a would-be assassin to death with his cane when he was ''67 years old''.
** BadassLongcoat: Was in the habit of wearing a gigantic greatcoat, especially during duels, which had the bonus of hiding how thin he was and sometimes caused his opponents to miss.
** RedBaron: [[CaneFu Old Hickory]]
** HandicappedBadass: By the time he was elected President, he was crippled with respiratory problems, severe arthritis in multiple places, prone to [[IncurableCoughOfDeath coughing up blood]], and had several bullets that were never removed that caused him constant pain. None of this stopped him from being a badass.
** LikeABadassOutOfHell: After his death, when one of his servants was asked whether he thought Jackson would go to heaven or hell, the servant replied:
--> "If General Jackson wants to go to heaven, who's going to stop him?"

* [[MadeOfIron Made Of Hickory]]: The sheer amount of bullets he got hit with in life should have killed him several times over, including one lodged a few inches from his heart which never got removed. Eventually he survived so much even his enemies would concede bullets simply weren't going to take him down.

* [[invoked]]NeverLiveItDown: A good amount of the duels were from the opponent having insulted Jackson's wife, Rachel, calling her a bigamist because the two got married before Rachel's divorce from her former husband had been completed.

* In ''Okla Hannali'', a rare historical novel written by science fiction author RALafferty, Andrew Jackson figures in the background during the first half of the book. Though not part of the narrative directly he is depicted as an outright villain, and the author blames him not only for laying the seeds of for the AmericanCivilWar but for [[TheChessmaster deliberately enacting the Indian removals in the winter]] [[CompleteMonster so that as many Indians as possible could die of exposure]]. This makes sense in context of the story as the book deals largely with the build-up to the TheTrailOfTears and its aftermath, and centers on vignettes from the life of a Choctaw 'Mingo' called Hannali Innominee and his family. Because the book's prose is a blend of non-fiction and oral history its difficult to say which are facts and which are opinions of the author. [[SignatureStyle All of this is on par with Lafferty's usual style.]]

The presidency of Jackson forever changed politics in this country. A French political thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, visited Jacksonian America and declared it to be the most democratic country in the world. People now demanded that politicians turn to them for support rather than the wealthy interests, and every presidential hopeful since Jackson left office has tried to convince the voters that he is really one of them. They catered to common votes and their prejudices, and even rejected the clothing and style of the wealthy even though most of them were monetarily well-off. This also led to the dumbing-down of politics, which in its own way was a form of style over substance. Jackson's enemies, taking the hint, began to use more populist language during their campaigns, signifying the changing times. His political opponents, led by Henry Clay, formed the Whig Party to challenge the Democrats and their leader, taking their name from the anti-monarchy Whig Party of the UK to signify their fight against "King Andrew." Widely popular, Jackson could have easily won a third term, but, growing old and nit in great health, he decided to honor the then-unofficial two term tradition, instead helping his second term Vice President and greatest political adviser, UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, win the party ticket and the presidency in 1836. Retiring to his plantation, Jackson mostly avoided active participation in politics during his last few years, instead preferring to give advice to his fellow Democrats. Andrew Jackson's only regrets about his presidency were that he didn't shoot Henry Clay and that he didn't hang John C Calhoun. [[Website/{{Cracked}} That's right. In a life rich with murdering people for little-to-no reason, Jackson's only regret was that he didn't kill quite enough people.]] People like Calhoun, who [[YouHaveFailedMe was Jackson's vice president]].[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke The Nullification Crisis of 1832-33]], which nearly started UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar thirty years early, might've had something to do with it.[[/note]] Arkansas and Michigan were added to the Union during his presidency.

This all took place during an era of rapid change in the United States. The Industrial Revolution began to really get going in the years after the War of 1812, and the small businesses of the post-independence years were giving way to large factories, and previously self-reliant farmers and craftsmen were forced to turn to "wage slavery" to make a living. Meanwhile, thanks to the spread of the cotton gin, the rise of large slave plantations in the South began, forcing out many farmers and slaveholders. Additionally, the federal government enacted policies to help spur economic growth and modernization, policies which were often perceived as being pro-Northern and pro-wealthy. Horrified to see their way of living change right before their eyes, the common people made demand for populist reforms, such as an end to federal aid to businesses, universal white manhood suffrage, and expansion west to provide land for farmers and settlers. Jackson, now a wealthy plantation owner but sympathetic to their plight, openly sided with the little guys against big business and big government, and he rode this populist wave to a national political career. Jackson ran for the presidency in 1824 and won a plurality of the popular vote, but, in a very confusing election in which three other people ran, he did not have enough votes to win the White House, so the matter went to the House of Representatives. There, the Speaker of the House HenryClay, who was fourth place in the presidential race and a sworn enemy of Jackson, used his political influence to swing the House vote narrowly in favor of John Quincy Adams, who then became President. Outraged at this "corrupt bargain" of Washington insiders, Jackson and his supporters formed the Democratic Party and announced he would run again in 1828, and Jacksonians in Congress stopped most of Adams' policies from passing. The 1828 election, however, was just Adams against Jackson, and Jackson, benefiting from perceived corruption and incompetence in the Adams administration and from commoners in the Southern and frontier states gaining the vote, easily won in a landslide.

* FairForItsDay: He wanted to remove the Indian tribes because they would get killed in wars against white settlers. Contrast Henry Clay who said the extinction of Indians would be no great loss.
** He certainly wasn't fair for his time on the issue of slavery. The British abolished slavery four years into his term; his pre-presidency career was SLAVE-TRADER. An abolition movement was already in full swing at the time In the United states.

** He refused to remove a bullet in his chest[[Website/{{Cracked}} because he knew that time spent removing the bullet would fall under the category of "time not dueling", Jackson's least favorite category]]