JACKSON, ANDREW

Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), the seventh President of the United States, grew to adulthood and public prominence as the emerging nation was undergoing profound social and economic changes. In the wake of those changes Jackson worried about the central government's propensity toward abuse of power and the accumulation of power in the hand of a small political and economic elite. As president, Jackson remained a strident and popular spokesperson for majority rule in the United States. He did, however, exert the power of the presidency over other government branches far more than any president before him, leading to charges that he was primarily interested in personal power. He was denounced as a fraud and an opportunist who nearly wrecked the credit and currency systems of the United States. But Jackson also took issue with members of the privileged elite who sought to use the government for their own selfish purposes and thereby endanger the integrity of democracy in the United States. For many in the United States Jackson came to symbolize the democratic advances of his time.

Andrew Jackson was born in March 1767, in a log cabin, the son of poor Scotch-Irish immigrants. He was orphaned at age 14 and spent his adolescence with his aunt in the frontier areas of the Carolinas. Jackson drifted from one job to another, squandered a small inheritance, and developed a lifelong interest in horseracing and cockfighting. His education was spotty and he never appeared to develop an affinity for formal learning.

In 1784, at the age of 17, Jackson moved to Salisbury, North Carolina, to study law. He worked as a clerk for two years, copying legal documents, running errands, cleaning the office, and reading law books. He finished his law training in the office of Colonel John Stakes, and in 1787 he became an attorney in North Carolina.

Shortly after his law training ended, Jackson moved to the territory that would become Tennessee, and he
was appointed the area's attorney general. While in this position Jackson bolstered his income by selling land to new settlers. He also built a mansion in Nashville called the Hermitage. Later, when Tennessee became the sixteenth state, Jackson represented the state in Congress, but he resigned after only two years in order to be a judge on the superior court of Tennessee.

When the War of 1812 (1812–1814) broke out against Great Britain, Jackson was dispatched by the governor of Tennessee to fight with the Tennessee militia against Creek Indians, who had used the war as an opportunity to attack the Southern frontier. Although he lacked military training and experience, Jackson soon became an excellent general. His leadership qualities emerged and he was highly regarded by other soldiers who gave him the nickname "Old Hickory" as a sign of respect. After leading a spectacular victory over a British invasion of New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1815, Jackson instantly became a national celebrity.

Distinguished as a popular military hero, Jackson was encouraged by his friends to bid for the U.S. presidency. After the War of 1812 ended, however, Jackson only briefly returned to Tennessee before resuming his military position in order to subdue raids carried out by Native Americans from Spanish Florida. After a series of controversial military moves made by Jackson, including the capture of Spanish cities, the United States and Spain negotiated their disputes, and the United States acquired land that would eventually become Florida. In 1821 Jackson become provisional governor of the new territory of Florida, but resigned from the position after only four months.

Upon returning to his home in Tennessee, Jackson was pushed once again to campaign for the presidency. Though he made an unsuccessful presidential run in 1824, losing to John Quincy Adams (1825–1829), Jackson ran again in 1828 and won the presidency at age 61. He rewarded many of his supporters with government jobs—then a common practice in state governments, but essentially new to the federal government. This so-called "spoils system"—where elected officials employed their friends as pay-off for campaign support—tended to guarantee that no appointed federal employee would have a lifetime "right" to his or her job. Jackson believed that this system of replacing staff made the government more democratic.

Jackson's administration was marked by his fight against the Second Bank of the United States, which was a federally chartered institution where government funds were kept. The Bank of the United States used these funds to pay the government's bills, but also to give loans to the public and other banks. It was not directly regulated by the government, but rather led by a board of shareholders, with Nicholas Biddle (1786–1844) as its head. Jackson disliked the bank for economic and political reasons. He felt that its shareholders used the bank's control of much of the money supply to benefit themselves. Jackson also distrusted the issuance of bank notes, which in his own experience led to excessive borrowing and debt. Like many other Americans, Jackson distrusted credit and banks in general, and favored the strict use of specie (coined precious metals).

When the Bank of the United States' charter was brought up for renewal in 1832, Jackson vetoed it. He criticized the bank for failing to establish a "uniform and sound" currency, and began to deposit government funds in other banks. Many of the leaders in the Senate opposed Jackson, and his position on the bank. Nevertheless, Jackson's successful veto of the rechartering of the bank in 1832 was arguably a major reason for his re-election to a second presidential term that same year.

Over the course of its remaining four years of existence, the Second Bank of the United States tried to use its power to force a reconsideration of its charter. It issued far more loans than it could support, helping to trigger a wave of real estate speculation on the frontier. Disturbed, Jackson issued the Specie Circular in 1836. The circular required that all purchases of frontier land, which was owned by the government, be paid for with specie. This stopped the speculation, but also bankrupted many investors who lacked sufficient specie to pay their obligations and helped to trigger a major depression.

Jackson's policy of fiscal restraint helped him accomplish one of his most cherished objectives during his second term: full payment of the national debt. This was the only time up to that point in U.S. history when the nation was free of debt and it was one of Jackson's proudest accomplishments.

As Jackson proceeded through his second term, he frequently used his executive power to veto proposed Congressional legislation. He believed that the president had the right to annul what he deemed harmful to the public interest, a departure from earlier presidents who only vetoed bills they thought were unconstitutional. Using his veto power creatively, Jackson vastly expanded presidential executive power in government.

Also during his second term, a concept called "Jacksonian democracy" emerged as Jackson developed and popularized his own notion of essential democratic elements. He preached about the importance of equality, freedom, and majority rule, and advocated a limited government, fiscal restraint, laissez-faire economics, and support of the individual states in their constitutional sphere of activity.

Throughout his political career Jackson was both a beloved and much-hated figure. During many reform periods in U.S. history Jackson was seen as a hero, and Jacksonian democracy was extolled as one of the great advances in the development of popular government. Yet Jackson was also denounced as a person out for his own political advantage, who mesmerized the public with populist rhetoric and behaved like an autocrat in his role as president.

When Jackson's friend Martin Van Buren (1837–1841) was elected president in 1836, Jackson retired to the Tennessee mansion, the Hermitage. He remained politically active until his death, at the age of 78, in 1845.

JACKSON, ANDREW

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