Andrew Jackson

1. Andrew Jackson • The Age of the Common Man • The Symbol of New America • The leader of the Age of Democracy • Hero of the Common Man

2. Context • War of 1812 • Economic Panic of 1819 • Denmark Vesey Slave Conspiracy of 1822 • End of Era of Good Feelings in 1822 • 1820’s - A New Democratic Revolution

3. Context II - Background • Andrew Jackson was the 7th President • Born: March 15, 1767 in Waxhaw, South Carolina. • Third son of immigrant parents from northern Ireland, Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Hutchinson • His father died in a logging accident a few weeks before he was born

4. Andrew Jackson Was in pain much of his adult life from bullets left in his body and from dysentery which frequently drained his strength Was six feet one inches tall, slender of build Described as having a self-assured bearing and a commanding air.

5. Jackson the Military and Political Hero • At 14 Jackson enlisted in the militia during the Revolutionary War, and served as a mounted courier • He was taken prisoner for a few weeks in April 1781, and contracted smallpox during imprisonment. • Grolier encyclopedia: Jackson “was widely acclaimed as the symbol of what the new American thought himself to be--a self-made man, son of the frontier, endowed with virtue and God-given strength because of his closeness to nature, and possessed of indomitable will and moral courage.”

6. Jackson the Hero of New Orleans • First man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate. • A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815. • British losses of almost 2,000 dead and injured. American casualties were 6 killed and 10 wounded Battle Of New Orleans Song!

7. Jackson attempts the Presidency * Had continued Military success in the Seminole War of 1818-1819 which gave him wide name recognition *Election of 1824 - Jackson had 99 electoral votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, Clay, 37. Since there was no majority, the election went to the U.S. House of Representatives. * Clay lobbied for Adams, Adams had won the required vote of 13 states as against 7 for Jackson and 4 for Crawford * Was elected in 1828 and re-elected in 1832

8. His inauguration is famous for the party he thew. A contemporary observed the “motley concourse of people” who rushed to the White House and were seen “upsetting the pails and breaking the glasses. ... Men with boots heavy with mud stood on the satin-covered chairs and sofas” Jackson the PresidentElected in 1828 by a highly organized Jacksonian party

9. Jackson’s Presidency • The National Bank debate - a Government-sponsored monopoly of which Jackson said "is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" Jackson, in vetoing the bank’s recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.

10. History seems to remember Jackson as a symbol of the New Age of Democracy, and as an example of the ”Age of the Common Man." He died June 8, 1845 at the Hermitage near Nashville, Tennessee.

11. So was Jackson the Hero of Democracy? Another perspective As a child, Jackson had a penchant for drooling, which continued all his life. He would often spit excessively when he spoke. He was violent and aggressive. He dislike school and book learning

12. Jackson’s Controversial Wife • Rachel Donelson Robards was the daughter of Jackson’s landlady. • She was unhappily married to Captain Lewis Roberts. • Jackson was immediately in love and they married in 1791 under the belief that Captain Robards had received a legal divorce from the Virginia legislature. • Her first marriage, however was not dissolved until 1793. • Jackson and Robards remarried in 1794, but the charges that Jackson had “stolen” another man’s wife and lived in adultery plagued him his entire life.

13. More Jackson Jackson owned over 100 slaves. He once offered a reward of $50 for a runaway slave plus $10 extra dollars for every 100 lashes “to the amount of three hundred.” He spent large amounts of money on whiskey and horses In 1806 Jackson killed Charles Dickinson, a fellow Nashville lawyer, in a duel

14. Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet • When Jackson became president, he promptly dismissed his opponents from their federal jobs • He replaced them with those who had been loyal to him. This “spoils system” of American politics has now become tradition. This cartoon illustrates a perception of Jackson’s unofficial "Kitchen Cabinet," a group of close friends who advised him.  Historians looking at his presidency have found him to be a poor administrator, to have strong prejudices, and a contempt for expert advice.

15. Political CartoonWhat does this cartoon tell us about perceptions of Jackson? Remember Audience Context Agenda

16. Misuse of Presidential Power? • Jackson vetoed a dozen pieces of legislation more than the first six presidents put together • In Worchester v. Georgia the Supreme Court ruled that the State of Georgia did not have any jurisdiction over the Cherokees • On hearing of the ruling, the President is said to have replied, ‘John Marshall has made his ruling, now let him enforce it.’ • President Andrew Jackson defied the decision of the court and ordered the removal, an act of defiance that established the U.S. government’s precedent for the removal of Native Americans

17. Jackson and Indian Removal • Under orders from President Jackson and in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Army began enforcement of the Removal Act. • The Cherokees were rounded up in the summer of 1838 and loaded onto boats that traveled the Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers into Indian Territory. Many were held in prison camps awaiting their fate. An estimated 4,000 died from hunger, exposure and disease.

18. Legacy of Andrew Jackson • By the late 1830s, the United States had become a full democracy for adult white males – but not anyone else, especially poor, immigrants, and women. • The emergence of a solid two-party system. The modern Democratic Party was founded under Jackson. • Politics for many men became a career

19. Sources ONLINE: http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/bios/07pjack.html http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/bio/public/jackson.htm#Childhood http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/nvsageh/Hist121/Part3/AgeofJackson.htm http://www.boondocksnet.com/editions/bishop/bishop305.html http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/HistoryPage.asp?ID=2 http://americanindian.ucr.edu/discussions/jackson/views.html http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/057_pra3.html TEXT: The American Promise: A History of the United States Making a Nation: The United States and its People Nation of Nations: A Concise Narrative of the American Republic Constructing the American Past Fathers & Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian by Michael Paul Rogin The Age of Jackson, Aurther Schlesinger, Jr. Lecture: “How Common was the Common Man” Kristin Hoganson, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

20. Assignment • Based on the materials presented, in a short paper, create and defend your interpretation of Andrew Jackson. Was he hero of the common man and democracy or not? • Explain why or why not you think he has been misrepresented historically?