History UsefulNotes / AndrewJackson

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 attempt}}s 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, out of fear that Jackson would beat him to death. You read that right. To date, Jackson remains the only President to ever personally subdue his own would-be assassin. 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.

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, out of fear that Jackson would beat him to death. You read that right. To date, Jackson remains the only President to ever personally subdue his own would-be assassin. 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.

Meanwhile, Jackson was also a strong supporter of western expansion, believing that it would provide cheap land for the poor farmers who supported him. When he entered office, there were still several regions in the Southwest occupied by Native American tribes, and up until this point the federal government mostly protected their claims to much of these lands, to the outrage of the pioneers crossing the Appalachians who wanted to settle these areas. Jackson had Congress pass the Indian Removal Act, which granted the federal government more power to negotiate land purchases from tribal governments. However, this quickly turned into the federal government forcing these people off of their ancestral homes and sending them on a long march west to what is now Oklahoma, and it is estimated that around 100,000 American Indians were displaced because of this. While for years history books, which used to be notoriously hateful to Native Americans, ''praised'' Jackson for this, in recent years he has been justly criticized for the policy and his reputation with historians has fallen. Thousands died along the way, and today these policies would probably be labelled ethnic cleansing (it's not genocide, since the idea was not to deliberately kill them). In his defense, he passed these policies in part because he feared that, if the tribes would not move, white settlers would simply massacre them, though this still means Indian removal was good only in comparison to an even worse possibility. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was also created during his presidency. When the Cherokee nation's case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Georgia's state government could not override the tribal rights negotiated with the federal government; Jackson ignored this decision and allegedly declared "Marshall has made his decision, [[BadassBoast now let's see him enforce it!]]" The removal of the Cherokee, which was so brutal that it was called the Trail of Tears, actually happened after Jackson left office, contrary to how most people remember it. Jackson himself had revenge when Marshall died during his second term, and he nominated the pro-Indian removal Roger B. Taney as Chief Justice; you may remember Taney was the Chief Justice who gave the ruling for ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'', making him among the most hated Justices in American history. Speaking of westward expansion, the Texas Revolution, fought by American settlers who settled into northern Mexico but didn't want to follow its rules, happened and was swiftly won and they won their independence. While he was sympathetic to their cause (it was led by Sam Houston, an old comrade of his), he also believed annexing Texas would lead to war with Mexico, and he only recognized their government.

Often considered the last of the Founding Fathers-era Presidents (some assign that status to either UsefulNotes/JamesMonroe or UsefulNotes/JohnQuincyAdams); beginning with Van Buren the remainder of 19th-century Presidents have an air of trivia-question obscurity (with [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln one obvious exception]] [[UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk and some other]] [[UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant borderline cases]]).

Jackson was first featured on the $20 bill in 1928; he will no longer be the only American face to appear on the bill, as UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman will also be printed sometime between 2016 and 2020 (it was originally supposed to be the $10 bill due to [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton Hamilton]] originally not being considered especially important anymore, but [[Theatre/{{Hamilton}} you can guess what changed that mindset]]). Funnily enough, [[{{Irony}} he hated the idea of paper money]] (and would've seen the modern Federal Reserve who the bills are printed for as a revival of his nemesis, the Bank of the United States), and the reason he ended up pictured on it has unfortunately been lost to history. But it's safe to assume he "[[WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce wouldn't have given a shit]]" about this change.

Jackson was first featured on the $20 bill in 1928; he will no longer be the only American face to appear on the bill, as UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman will also be printed sometime between 2016 and 2020 (it was originally supposed to be the $10 bill due to [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton Hamilton]] originally not being considered especially important anymore, but [[Theatre/{{Hamilton}} you can guess what changed that mindset]]). Funnily enough, [[{{Irony}} he hated the idea of paper money]], and the reason he ended up pictured on it has unfortunately been lost to history. But it's safe to assume he "[[WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce wouldn't have given a shit]]" about this change.

Meanwhile, Jackson was also a strong supporter of western expansion, believing that it would provide cheap land for the poor farmers who supported him. When he entered office, there were still several regions in the Southwest occupied by Native American tribes, and up until this point the federal government mostly protected their claims to much of these lands, to the outrage of the pioneers crossing the Appalachians who wanted to settle these areas. Jackson had Congress pass the Indian Removal Act, which granted the federal government more power to negotiate land purchases from tribal governments. However, this quickly turned into the federal government forcing these people off of their ancestral homes and sending them on a long march west to what is now Oklahoma, and it is estimated that around 100,000 American Indians were displaced because of this. While for years history books, which used to be notoriously hateful to Native Americans, ''praised'' Jackson for this, in recent years he has been justly criticized for the policy and his reputation with historians has fallen. Thousands died along the way, and today these policies would probably be labelled ethnic cleansing (it's not genocide, since the idea was not to deliberately kill them). In his defense, he passed these policies in part because he feared that, if the tribes would not move, white settlers would simply massacre them, though this still means Indian removal was good only in comparison to an even worse possibility. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was also created during his presidency. When the Cherokee nation's case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Georgia's state government could not override the tribal rights negotiated with the federal government; Jackson ignored this decision and allegedly declared "Marshall has made his decision, [[BadassBoast now let's see him enforce it!]]" The removal of the Cherokee, which was so brutal that it was called the Trail of Tears, actually happened after Jackson left office, contrary to how most people remember it. Jackson himself had revenge when Marshall died during his second term, and he nominated the pro-Indian removal Roger B. Taney as Chief Justice; you may remember Taney was the Chief Justice who gave the ruling for ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'', making him among the most hated Justices in American history. Speaking of westward expansion, the Texas Revolution, fought by American settlers who settled into northern Mexico but didn't want to follow its rules, happened and was swiftly won and they won their independence. While he was sympathetic to their cause (it was led by Sam Houston, an old comrade of his), he also believed [[{{Foreshadowing}} annexing Texas would lead to war with Mexico]], and he only recognized their government.

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.

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]]. 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, in the words of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'', 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.

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. To date, Jackson remains the only President to ever personally subdue his own would-be assassin. 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.

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 roads 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.

Meanwhile, Jackson was also a strong supporter of western expansion, believing that it would provide cheap land for the poor farmers who supported him. When he entered office, there were still several regions in the Southwest occupied by Native American tribes, and up until this point the federal government mostly protected their claims to much of these lands, to the outrage of the pioneers crossing the Appalachians who wanted to settle these areas. Jackson had Congress pass the Indian Removal Act, which granted the federal government more power to negotiate land purchases from tribal governments. However, this quickly turned into the federal government forcing these people off of their ancestral homes and sending them on a long march west to what is now Oklahoma, and it is estimated that around 100,000 American Indians were displaced because of this. While for years history books, which used to be notoriously hateful to Native Americans, ''praised'' Jackson for this, in recent years he has been justly criticized for the policy and his reputation with historians has fallen. Thousands died along the way, and today these policies would probably be labelled ethnic cleansing (it's not genocide, since the idea was not to deliberately kill them). In his defense, he passed these policies in part because he feared that, if the tribes would not move, white settlers would simply massacre them, though this still means Indian removal was good only in comparison to an even worse possibility. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was also created during his presidency. When the Cherokee nation's case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Georgia's state government could not override the tribal rights negotiated with the federal government; Jackson ignored this decision and allegedly declared "Marshall has made is decision, [[BadassBoast now let's see him enforce it!]]" The removal of the Cherokee, which was so brutal that it was called the Trail of Tears, actually happened after Jackson left office, contrary to how most people remember it. Jackson himself had revenge when Marshall died during his second term, and he nominated the pro-Indian removal Roger B. Taney as Chief Justice; you may remember Taney was the Chief Justice who gave the ruling for ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'', making him among the most hated Justices in American history. Speaking of westward expansion, the Texas Revolution, fought by American settlers who settled into northern Mexico but didn't want to follow its rules, happened and was swiftly won and they won their independence. While he was sympathetic to their cause (it was led by Sam Houston, an old comrade of his), he also believed [[{{Foreshadowing}} annexing Texas would lead to war with Mexico]], and he only recognized their government.

Meanwhile, Jackson was also a strong supporter of western expansion, believing that it would provide cheap land for the poor farmers who supported him. When he entered office, there were still several regions in the Southwest occupied by Native American tribes, and up until this point the federal government mostly protected their claims to much of these lands, to the outrage of the pioneers crossing the Appalachians who wanted to settle these areas. Jackson had Congress pass the Indian Removal Act, which granted the federal government more power to negotiate land purchases from tribal governments. However, this quickly turned into the federal government forcing these people off of their ancestral homes and sending them on a long march west to what is now Oklahoma, and it is estimated that around 100,000 American Indians were displaced because of this. While for years history books, which used to be notoriously hateful to Native Americans, ''praised'' Jackson for this, in recent years he has been justly criticized for the policy and his reputation with historians has fallen. Thousands died along the way, and today these policies would probably be labelled ethnic cleansing (it's not genocide, since the idea was not to deliberately kill them). In his defense, he passed these policies in part because he feared that, if the tribes would not move, white settlers would simply massacre them, though this still means Indian removal was good only in comparison to an even worse possibility. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was also created during his presidency. When the Cherokee nation's case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Georgia's state government could not override the tribal rights negotiated with the federal government; Jackson ignored this decision and infamously declared "Marshall has made is decision, [[BadassBoast now let's see him enforce it!]]" The removal of the Cherokee, which was so brutal that it was called the Trail of Tears, actually happened after Jackson left office, contrary to how most people remember it. Jackson himself had revenge when Marshall died during his second term, and he nominated the pro-Indian removal Roger B. Taney as Chief Justice; you may remember Taney was the Chief Justice who gave the ruling for ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'', making him among the most hated Justices in American history. Speaking of westward expansion, the Texas Revolution, fought by American settlers who settled into northern Mexico but didn't want to follow its rules, happened and was swiftly won and they won their independence. While he was sympathetic to their cause (it was led by Sam Houston, an old comrade of his), he also believed [[{{Foreshadowing}} annexing Texas would lead to war with Mexico]], and he only recognized their government.

Jackson was first featured on the $20 bill in 1928; he will no longer be the only American face to appear on the bill, as UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman will also be printed sometime between 2016 and 2020. Funnily enough, [[{{Irony}} he hated the idea of paper money]], and the reason he ended up pictured on it has unfortunately been lost to history.

* 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 for the UsefulNotes/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 the Trail of Tears 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 it's 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.]]

[[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 wurd."]]'']]

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

* He is a major character (though not the protagonist) in the Literature/TrailOfGlory series by EricFlint. Flint has mentioned that Jackson is wonderful to have as a character, since whatever he makes him do, the real-life Jackson did something just as outrageous. The characterisation feels very true to life.

Jackson was first featured on the $20 bill in 1928; he will no longer be the only American face to appear on the bill, as UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman will also be printed sometime between 2016 and 2020. Funnily enough, [[Irony he hated the idea of paper money]], and the reason he ended up pictured on it has unfortunately been lost to history.

Jackson was first featured on the $20 bill in 1928; he will no longer be the only American face to appear on the bill, as UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman will also be printed sometime between 2016 and 2020. Funnily enough, he hated the idea of paper money, and the reason he ended up pictured on it has unfortunately been lost to history.

* 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 UsefulNotes/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.]]
* He's played by Creator/CharltonHeston in the 1953 film ''Film/ThePresidentsLady'' and the 1958 film ''The Buccaneer''.

->''"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.

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 UsefulNotes/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 was first featured on the $20 bill in 1928; he will no longer be the only American face to appear on the bill, as UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman will also be printed sometime between 2016 and 2020.

[[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."]]'']]