Andrew Jackson is one of the most well-known Presidents in history. His time as president changed America and Western Civilization as a whole. Though he has been criticized for both his domestic and foreign policies, Andrew Jackson should be remembered as a man who brought about liberal capitalism to America. Andrew Jackson was born on March 15 th , 1767 somewhere near the border between North and South Carolina (Schlesinger 1). Andrew Jackson grew up in poverty, with no formal education.
Andrew Jackson was not always Andrew Jackson; he went by several names growing up until Andrew Jackson was officially his name at age 14 (Schlesinger 4). He had many siblings which were either older than him or younger than him, but Andrew was definitely the oldest son of his parents (Schlesinger 7). Andrew had to act as a fatherly figure to some of his younger siblings because their father died while they were still young. Andrew’s mother raised her children on her own without help from anyone else, so Andrew had to work while he was still young to help support the family.
Andrew Jackson did go to school, but he could not stay in school because Andrew had to work so Andrew only attended school for less than a year (Schlesinger 13). Andrew was an entrepreneur when he was young, which meant that Andrew bought and sold goods. Andrew sold many different things while Andrew was still young including eggs, chickens, sheep, and ginseng (Schlesinger 20). Andrew definitely became very well-off when it came to wealth, but Andrew also gained much in experience in dealing with people.
Jackson felt the need to join the army in 1791 at age 24. Andrew Jackson would be able use his experiences from working with the militia to help him become a good military commander later on in life (Dershowitz 40). Andrew Jackson fought against the Native Americans during the Indian Wars as a Lt. Colonel in 1791 to 1792 (Dershowitz 40). Andrew Jackson was assigned Andrew Jackson’s first command of troops on November 7 th , 1791, and Andrew Jackson held Andrew Jackson’s first battle with Andrew Jackson’s troops on December 9 th , 1791 (Dershowitz 40).
The conflict ended very quickly after Andrew Jackson lost 8 soldiers and 1 militiaman while Andrew Jackson only killed 3 Indians for a total of 5 casualties (Dershowitz 40). In March 1794, Andrew decided to resign from his military position because Andrew did not feel like he had enough power within the government to make any difference nor did Andrew feel like he had enough support from Andrew Jackson’s superior (Schlesinger 52-53). Andrew then went home to Andrew Jackson’s family plantation and farm, The Hermitage .
Andrew was a very successful farmer and Andrew also had many slaves who took care of Andrew Jackson’s financial affairs (Schlesinger 55). Andrew built Andrew Jackson’s wealth through farming and by receiving payment for Andrew Jackson’s military service. Andrew started his political career in 1796 as a delegate from Tennessee to the United States House of Representatives. Andrew served only 1 term at the House because Andrew was not reelected mainly because Andrew did not have enough money or power to sway people into voting for him (Schlesinger 70-71).
In March 1801, Andrew an elector for President with no intentions of Andrew Jackson running for president, but Andrew Jackson’s name was thrown into the ring because Andrew Jackson wanted to be in Andrew Jackson’s party’s good graces (Schlesinger 74). Andrew had no intentions of becoming Andrew Jackson’s Vice President, but Andrew eventually accepted Andrew Jackson’s nomination. Andrew became Andrew Jackson’s full-time job after he started campaigning and traveling with Andrew Jackson to different cities throughout America.
They went everywhere during their campaign including New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Andrew would usually stay in these states for a few days and then move on somewhere else and this continued until they were able to get enough votes to win (Schlesinger 97). Only 3 presidents have ever been elected by Andrew Jackson’s popular vote. Andrew Jackson did not have Andrew Jackson’s own family with Andrew Jackson when Andrew was campaigning, so Andrew stayed in boarding houses or traveled with Andrew Jackson (Schlesinger 102).
Andrew would often be gone for weeks at a time if Andrew had to go long distances before returning to Andrew Jackson’s family plantation. Andrew’s wife died in 1828 when Andrew was 65 years old and that affected him very much because they were together for 40 years (Dershowitz 241). She died just before Andrew became President, which made the campaign even tougher on him than it already was proving just how close of friends he and his wife really were (Dershowitz 243).
He still won anyway though like Andrew Jackson always did. Andrew Jackson was not Andrew Jackson’s real name either, Andrew Jackson was Andrew Jackson’s mother’s maiden name (Dershowitz 184). Andrew became Andrew Jackson’s job in March 1829 and Andrew served two terms as Andrew Jackson’s president. Andrew became successful in many areas during Andrew Jackson’s presidency such as better treatment of Indians and immigrants, more government reforms for the people and more benefits for veterans (Schlesinger 591-592).
One of the most controversial things that Andrew did though during Andrew Jackson’s presidency was taking away Native Americans’ land in order to expand America into the West (Schlesinger 611). Andrew also made great strides in foreign policy because he worked on making peace with Britain after Andrew Jackson’s War of 1812 (Schlesinger 594). Andrew was Andrew Jackson’s first Democratic President and Andrew also crushed Andrew Jackson’s critics without question because Andrew thought that Andrew Jackson had more important things to do than spend Andrew Jackson’s time with Andrew Jackson’s critics (Schlesinger 615-616).
Andrew dealt with the Nullification Crisis during Andrew Jackson’s presidency in which South Carolina threatened to secede from America if Andrew did not back down on tariffs. Andrew completely demolished this attempt at secession by threatening force against any state that tried to secede (Schlesinger 1529-1530). Two states were added into the Union while Andrew was president, Arkansas and Michigan (Dershowitz 297).
The biggest thing Andrew did though was Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act which Andrew passed in 1830 which advocated Andrew Jackson’s removal of Indians from Andrew Jackson’s land to allow Andrew Jackson’s farmers and ranchers to use the land instead. This caused a big controversy with Andrew because Andrew had great respect for Native Americans (Dershowitz 297). Andrew eventually signed this act but regretted it later on after 18,000 Cherokees were forced onto what is known as “The Trail of Tears” where they died by the thousands during their journey (Dershowitz 297-298).
