COMMENTARY | The seventh President of the United States was known as “Old Hickory” for good reasons.
Andrew Jackson was a fighter from the day he was born. His father had been killed in an accident before reaching 30 and it was on the way home from his burial, that his mother gave birth to Andrew in a wilderness between North and South Carolina. He was only 13 in joining in the American Revolutionary War where he was proud to serve with his two brothers. One brother died in battle and Andrew and his remaining brother were taken prisoners. While starving and suffering from exposure to smallpox, Andrew was attacked with a sword by a British officer after the boy refused to shine his shoes. The scars from this event, and the death of his brother soon after their release, created a hatred for the British.
When his mother went to the aid of American prisoners suffering from cholera, she died too, leaving Andrew an orphan. He became an Indian fighter and as a soldier was famous for the Battle of New Orleans. He fought duels and killed his rivals for the crime of insulting him or questioning his integrity. Jackson was a planter who owned hundreds of slaves .Somehow he still found time to be both a Representative and a Senator from Tennessee.
Jackson was elected President in 1828, with ideas about keeping a small and limited government, while at the same time lifting the executive power of the Presidency. He saw himself as a spokesman for all Americans. Later on his supporters would found the Democratic Party. As the President, Andrew Jackson was most famous for two accomplishments, one of which he so proud of that he requested it mentioned on his tombstone. He was vehemently opposed to the national bank which he considered a corrupting influence which allowed foreign interests too much power in the affairs of the country. He destroyed the bank by vetoing the renewal of their charter and died happy about it.
By 1830, a significant number of frontiersmen who had fought in Indian Wars were in favor of the total extermination of the native tribes. Jackson had previous experience in negotiating for Indians to move further west. Indian removal was part of the platform in both his Presidential campaigns. After a disagreement between the state of Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court over gold on Cherokee lands, Jackson brought about a removal treaty which was enforced by his successor, Martin Van Buren. The forced migration of the Indians to the west of the Mississippi River became known as “The Trail of Tears.”
Andrew Jackson was the first President to be targeted by an assassin and survived because both of the pistols misfired. While Davey Crockett and several of the Presidential entourage wrestled with the insane intruder, “Old Hickory” went after him with a cane. Despite numerous wounds from battles and carrying a bullet next to his heart from a duel. Andrew Jackson lived to an age of 78. His reputation was a legend in the USA and many Americans took his life as a sign that God was on the side of the young country.
Because of the controversial “Trail of Tears” with all the suffering and loss by the Native Americans, he is remembered less fondly by them. The story does remain as a testament to the power of an American President with an army to enforce his will.
