Many times, people have protested against the actions and/or plans of the man who was then the President of the United States. It usually doesn't happen to a President who has been long dead.
But, nearly 200 years after he was in office, Andrew Jackson remains a polarizing figure.
NOTE: My cutoff date for this project is 1869, the year of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the 1st openly professional baseball team, and the 1st American football game. I had managed to work in references to most pre-1869 Presidents. This was the only way I could think of to do it for either Jackson or his successor, Van Buren.
June 22, 2020: A crowd unsuccessfully attempts to topple the equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, in Lafayette Square, a block north of the White House in Washington, D.C. This was a part of the "Black Lives Matter" protests in the nation's capital over the preceding weeks. Both African-American and Native American activists wanted the statue removed, because of Jackson's actions toward their ancestors.
Former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, a Native American who had switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party during his tenure, defended the monument, advocating for it to remain, but also called for the addition of plaques to explain the complicated history of its subject.
The statue, sculpted by Clark Mills, was dedicated on January 8, 1853, what would have been Jackson's 86th birthday, and was the 1st equestrian (man on horseback) statue in America. Copies of it were dedicated in Jackson Square in New Orleans in 1856, at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville in 1880, and at Jacksonville Landing in Jacksonville, Florida in 1987. There are also statues of him at the State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina; and in front of the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City, Missouri.
Alone among America's 1st 46 Presidents, the birthplace of Jackson is undetermined. It is generally agreed that he was born in the Waxhaws, a rural region straddling what is now the State Line between North Carolina and South Carolina. He had family on both sides of that line, and both States claim him as one of their own. Based on the available evidence, South Carolina appears to be more likely, but we can't be sure.
Just as Barack Obama's enemies would lie and say he was born in Kenya, when it was conclusively proven that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Jackson's enemies said that he wasn't born on American soil at all. Their story was that he wasn't born on any soil, but on a ship traveling from Ireland to America.
It is generally accepted that he was born on March 15, 1767, somewhere in the Waxhaws, and he definitely grew up on the South Carolina side. His father died before he was born, leaving his mother and his brothers desperately poor. He had absolutely no formal education, but was taught to read and write, and he never stopped educating himself: Although he was a rough-hewn country boy, he learned Greek and Latin as well as any lawyer in Boston, Philadelphia, Virginia -- or, given where he was, Charleston, South Carolina.
The War of the American Revolution was hard on the Carolinas. In 1781, he and his older brother Robert were captured by British soldiers. An officer demanded to have his boots polished. Both brothers refused, and the officer struck each with a blow to the head. Both brothers were taken to a prisoner-of-war camp, and contracted smallpox. Both were released because of this, but Robert died.
With this experience, their mother, Elizabeth, nursed American prisoners of war on a prison ship in Charleston, and she contracted cholera, and died. At 14, Andrew Jackson was an orphan with Scots-Irish heritage that was already predisposed to distrusting the British. Now, never having had a father, and having lost both his mother and his brother to the British, he hated them intensely, and had equal hatred for aristocracy and political privilege, which they seemed to symbolize.
He studied law in North Carolina. A friend, John McNairy, recommended they go west, to Tennessee, and practice law there. Both became among the State's founding fathers, and Jackson later appointed McNairy to be a federal Judge. In 1796, just after Congress granted Tennessee Statehood, he was elected one of the State's 1st Congressmen; in 1797, to the U.S. Senate; in 1798, as Justice of the State Superior Court; and in 1801, Colonel of the State Militia.
Four governmental posts in five years? At the time, leaving one office before one's term was up to take on a different office was rather common. The country was young, the Constitutional setup was even younger, and, at this point in the Congress' history, seniority was practically meaningless. Politicians went to the office where they seemed to be needed. This was especially true in newly-admitted States. It would be some time, even in the South, before Congressmen and Senators stayed put for decades.
Jackson married Rachel Donelson, but it turned out that her divorce from her previous marriage wasn't yet final. This scandal, hardly the fault of either of them, would follow them for the rest of their lives. His many public defenses of his wife led to some duels. Most ended peacefully, with each man firing his pistol into the air, and agreeing that the threshold of "honor" had been met. Jackson had done this in 1788, with a North Carolina lawyer and militia officer named Waightstill Avery; and in 1803 with John Sevier, the 1st Governor of Tennessee (the two men were alternately allies and rivals).
But an argument with lawyer Charles Dickinson over a horse race led to Dickinson slandering Rachel, and the duel was on. Since dueling was illegal in most States, but extradition from one State to another was usually difficult, it was agreed to meet across the State Line, in Adairville, Kentucky on May 30, 1806.
Dickinson was known as the best shooter in Tennessee, and he got a shot off before Jackson could, hitting him in the chest. It was deflected by a button on his coat and his breastbone, and lodged close to his heart. It remained in his body for the rest of his life. According to the dueling code, Dickinson was still required to face a shot from Jackson. That shot went right to the heart, and Dickinson was dead. He was just 25 years old. Jackson's reputation took as much of a hit as he did, but both did live on.
When the War of 1812 broke out, he was commissioned a Colonel in the U.S. Army, and later a Brigadier General and a Major General. (This would be the highest rank awarded in the U.S. Army until the Civil War.) He fought the British, and their Native American allies in the concurrent Creek War, winning the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814, making the State of Alabama possible.
On January 8, 1815, his victory against long odds in the Battle of New Orleans made him a national hero. Seeing that Jackson was every bit as tough as they were -- by this point, he was 48, a year younger than George Washington was at Yorktown, 2 years younger than Napoleon, and carrying a 2nd bullet, in his left shoulder -- his troops gave him the nickname "Old Hickory," and he liked it.
He was a mass of contradictions. If you were loyal to him, he stood by you all the way; but at the slightest hint of disloyalty, you were out of his life. He was a slaveholder, but all reports, including from his surviving slaves, said that he treated them well.
He was not formally educated, but was self-educated and brilliant. He hadn't trained at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point -- of course, he couldn't have, as it wasn't founded until 1801 -- but he was the greatest General the U.S. Army had until the Civil War, when Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman became candidates for that title. He was fabulously wealthy by the standards of his time, but, as a politician, supported the country's poor and opposed what then passed for big business, including big banks. And he was a lawyer, devoted to upholding the law, and yet a killer.
He commanded U.S. troops in the First Seminole War, leading to the annexation of Florida. In 1822, he was returned to the Senate by his adopted home State. In 1824, he ran for President. He finished 1st in both the popular vote and the Electoral Vote -- but didn't get a majority of the Electoral Vote. The House of Representatives had to choose the 6th President of the United States, and it chose John Quincy Adams. Jackson believed the election had been stolen from him through what became known as "The Corrupt Bargain": Henry Clay of Kentucky, then the Speaker of the House, who finished 3rd, swung his votes to Adams, and Adams appointed Clay Secretary of State.
Unlike Donald Trump nearly 200 years later, Jackson was smart about it. Instead of merely whining, or trying an insurrection -- and, as a military commander, he could have done it, but knew that it would be wrong -- he organized his supporters, turning the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson into a new Democratic Party. As Adams' Administration failed, Jackson ran again in 1828, and, this time in a two-horse race, he won easily. This was despite a very dirty campaign, in which both he and his wife were libeled. Rachel died between the election and the Inauguration, and he swore revenge against his enemies, thinking them responsible.
His 1st term was dominated by "The Petticoat Affair." Led by Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun, the wives of Jackson's Cabinet members socially ostracized Secretary of War John Eaton and his wife, Peggy Eaton. Their private history, to put it politely, resembled that of Andrew and Rachel Jackson.
Thinking of Rachel, Jackson took the Eatons' side. Hoping to quell the controversy, Secretary Eaton resigned in 1831, and Jackson ended up firing and replacing every other member of his Cabinet -- except for his Secretary of State, who was a widower, and had stood up for the Eatons. His name was Martin Van Buren. In 1832, running for re-election, Jackson dumped Calhoun from the ticket, and got Van Buren nominated for Vice President. They overwhelmingly beat Clay in the election. Jackson later appointed Eaton to be Military Governor of Florida and U.S. Minister to Spain.
One unintended consequence of all this: Jackson's 2nd Attorney General, and later his 4th Secretary of the Treasury, was Roger Taney. In 1836, Jackson appointed him Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1857, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, Taney ruled that black people were not American citizens, even if born free. Taney died before the abolition of slavery.
But the Taney appointment might not be Jackson's worst decision. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which displaced tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands east of the Mississippi, and resulted in thousands of deaths. It was a horrible thing to do, and Native Americans have hated him ever since. Some won't take a $20 bill, because his picture is on it. They'll take two tens, but not a twenty.
It's worth mentioning, though, that, at the time, while the Indian Removal Act was opposed by such Congressional figures as Clay and Jackson's Tennessee rival, David Crockett (despite his status as a folk hero thanks to a 1950s TV show, he was never called "Davy" in his lifetime), nobody came up with a better idea. And Jackson's justification was that, had the Natives stayed, they would have been wiped out by white men, anyway. That doesn't absolve Jackson, but it does put his choice in perspective.
Jackson faced a challenge to the integrity of the federal union when South Carolina threatened to nullify a high protective tariff set by the federal government. Jackson threatened the use of military force to enforce the tariff, but the crisis was defused when the tariff was amended.
In 1832, he vetoed a bill by Congress to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States, correctly arguing that it was a corrupt institution. In 1835, Jackson became the only President to pay off the national debt, and the 1st to survive an assassination attempt. When he left office after 2 terms on March 4, 1837, he was still immensely popular, but also widely hated. And he still was both when he died on June 8, 1845.
Photograph taken in 1845, not long before he died.
"Looks like a monkey," he said, being used to flattering paintings.
"Looks like a monkey," he said, being used to flattering paintings.
Four different men who held the Presidency have called Jackson their favorite President: Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Donald Trump. Trump put a portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office. It was suggested that he did so because Jackson was a fellow racist.
What would Jackson have thought of Trump? A big businessman? A dealer with big banks? A draft dodger? A man who treated his wives badly? A crook? A traitor? When he left office, Jackson was asked if he had any regrets. He said, "I regret I was unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun." The distinction being that he considered Clay a common criminal, worthy of being shot; and Calhoun a traitor, where the traditional penalty is hanging.
Many locations in America have been named for Jackson, including the capital of Mississippi; Jacksonville, the largest city (but not the seat of the largest metropolitan area) in Florida; a city in Tennessee, whose name became the title of a hit song by country music legends June Carter & Johnny Cash; the town in Ocean County, New Jersey, where Six Flags Great Adventure, one of the country's leading theme parks, is located, including a frontier theme that Jackson himself might have appreciated; and Jackson Heights, a neighborhood in Queens, New York City. Counties in 21 States have been named for him, including in Missouri, which also has a Hickory County, named for his nickname.
New York City has a high school and an elementary school named for Jackson. Oddly, neither is in Jackson Heights: The high school is in Cambria Heights, and the public school is in Flushing. There are also Andrew Jackson High Schools in Miami and, as you might expect, in Jacksonville, Florida; and in his home State of South Carolina, in Kershaw, in the Waxhaws from whence he came.
Speaking of which: Jackson was the 1st President born in South Carolina, and remains the last one with a connection to it; and the 1st President to represent Tennessee. Van Buren was the 1st President from New York.
The USS President Jackson was an attack transport that served the U.S. Navy from 1941 to 1955. The USS Andrew Jackson was a submarine, in service from 1963 to 1989. A Jackson Highway ran from Chicago to New Orleans, although it has mostly been phased out.
Among the actors who have played Jackson: Lionel Barrymore twice, in The Gorgeous Hussy in 1936, with Joan Crawford as Peggy Eaton, and Lone Star in 1952; Hugh Sothern in The Buccaneer, a film about the Battle of New Orleans and the pirate Jean Lafitte, in 1938; Brian Donlevy in The Remarkable Andrew in 1942; Charlton Heston twice, in The President's Lady in 1953, with Susan Hayward as Mrs. Eaton, and in a 1958 remake of The Buccaneer; Basil Ruysdael in Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier in 1955; Wesley Addy in The Adams Chronicles in 1976; and Kris Kristofferson in Texas Rising in 2015.
In 2008, Michael Friedman created the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a comedic look at the man and the myth. It reached Broadway in 2010, starring Benjamin Walker, who would double down in 2012, taking the title role in the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Jackson's portrait has appeared on the $20 bill since 1928. Since 2016, there has been a plan to replace him on the bill with abolitionist Harriet Tubman. As of June 22, 2022, it hasn't happened yet.
Jackson's 2nd Vice President and successor, Martin Van Buren, was a masterful politician before reaching the Presidency, but not very good in it. He served in the New York State Senate, as his State's Attorney General, as a U.S. Senator, briefly as Governor, and as Jackson's Secretary of State and then Vice President. In 1836, he beat William Henry Harrison for President.
But the Panic of 1837 hit early in his Presidency, and he never recovered. A Second Seminole War didn't help, and his refusal, as an abolitionist, to allow the admission of Texas as a slave State cost him a great deal of support. In 1840, Harrison won a rematch.
Counties are named for Martin Van Buren in Michigan, Iowa, Arkansas and Tennessee. Towns are named for him in 14 States, including, strangely, 12 in Indiana. New York City has a Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village. Only one U.S. Navy ship has been named for him, a schooner launched during his Administration, and in service from 1839 to 1847.
He was played by Charles Trowbridge in The Gorgeous Hussy in 1936, Francis Sayles in Man of Conquest in 1939, and Nigel Hawthorne in Amistad in 1997.
The last surviving member of Jackson’s Cabinet, and also the last of Van Buren's Cabinet, was Amos Kendall, who served as Postmaster General from 1835 to 1840. He lived until 1869.
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June 22, 2020 was a Monday. COVID restrictions were in effect, so there were no sporting events on this historic day.
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