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Andrew Jackson
“I cannot be intimidated from doing that which my
judgment and conscience tell me is right by any earthly power.”
This
quote by Jackson underlies the fact the he was a selfish, tyrannical ruler. He
did not make decisions based on the interests of the whole nation but on his own
personal benefit, in search of self- achievement. Although he was portrayed or
possibly manipulated the citizens to believe that he was a president for the
common man, that was simply not the way he acted. As president, he purposely
ignored the power of the Judicial branch to judge laws, and strengthened the
power of the Executive branch above the limits in the Constitution. He was also
said to be rude and uneducated, which might have led to the reasons why he was
such a power hungry tyrant; but before one makes this harsh judgment they must
first realize the type of life that Andrew Jackson lived. It almost certainly
was the main reason why his thought process was so different from the regular
wealthy, educated earlier presidents.
The third child of Irish immigrants,
he joined the Army when he was only thirteen years old. Although he was young he
had already developed hatred towards the British, because his oldest brother was
killed fighting in the Revolution. Even though Jackson was an exceptional
soldier, both him and his middle brother were captured by British troops. After
their mother pleaded for their release, the boys were set free, but due to the
poor living conditions of the army camp, Jackson’s family was overcome by the
smallpox disease. Leaving him all alone in life. This traumatic time in his life
could have been the start of all his psychological problems.
It seems that
trouble almost always found Jackson. After being a lawyer for only a few years,
an argument with another lawyer in the town led to an insult. Eventually Jackson
challenged the man to a duel. Things did not look good for Jackson\'s opponent
because Jackson was a notoriously good shot, but at the last minute Jackson
offered his enemy some bacon and a joke, and they laughed together. This shows
Jackson had the power to manipulate people. In just a few years of law Jackson,
now eighteen met his soon to be wife, Rachel Robards. There was a small problem
though…Rachel was married. But Jackson being the terrifying man that he was,
played with a huge knife during the divorce trial; this petrified her first
husband, and after a short trail the case was thrown out and Rachel was
divorced. Jackson and Rachel were married in August of 1791; this brought his
spirits up very much. Proof of this is in how he says,
“Heaven will be no
heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.”
Even though Andrew Jackson
had matured a lot by the early eighteen hundreds, his temper was still blazing.
In October 1803, He came across a Tennessee\'s governor, whom happened to be an
old rival; reportedly the governor said something about Rachel Jackson. Without
delay Jackson challenged the governor to a duel, he refused and Jackson put an
announcement in a local paper, calling the man a coward. The humiliated governor
then persuaded a young marksman named Charles Dickinson to offend Rachel and
challenge her husband to a duel. Jackson then met Dickinson in a Kentucky meadow
at dawn. Dickinson being a faster draw, fired first. He hit Jackson in the
chest, a bad wound; but Jackson\'s soon retaliated with a shot to the stomach
that instantly killed his opponent. Dickinson’s bullet was too close to
Jackson\'s heart to be removed by the surgeons back then, and it stayed there
for the rest of his life.
Jackson, getting bored with the farm life and
politics decided he wanted to command an army once again; he led a small
volunteer group south down the Mississippi River. But when the government got
wind of this they sent him back to Nashville, where Jackson promptly got in
another brawl with a rival. This one exploded into a shoot-out among quite a few
men, and Jackson took a bullet to the shoulder. Doctors recommended it be
amputated, but Jackson refused; this bullet, too, remained in him.
These are
just a few examples of how Jackson’s past may have contributed greatly to his
presidency; he had hatred towards many rivals and not to mention the British.
Another soon to be rival on Jackson’s list was
John Quincy Adams; this was
because in the election of 1824, Adams and Henry Clay made what Jackson called
“a corrupt bargain” And this caused Jackson to lose the 1824 election which he
believed he had rightfully earned.
But the election of 1828 was much
different; from the beginning it was personal. Jackson was convinced that he was
the winning candidate for president, and Adams\' backers were horrified at the
thought of a vulgar frontiersman in the White House. The year 1828 brought a
complete and everlasting change to the way presidential elections were done.
This was an extremely offensive election in which Adams\' followers took the
name National Republicans. They published in papers across the country this
filthy and hateful report: General Jackson’s mother was a COMMON PROSTITUTE
brought to this country by British soldiers! She afterward married a MULATTO
MAN, with whom she had several children, of which number General Jackson IS
ONE!!
Although Adams and his supporters tried there hardest to corrupt
Jackson’s chances at becoming president, Jackson received three times the amount
of electoral votes that Adams did, thus making him the President of the United
States. Once in office Jackson immediately showed signs of bad leadership by
using the Spoils System, which is where his put his friends into his Cabinet. In
his 1st Inaugural Address he says, ”In the performance of a task thus
generally delineated I shall endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents
will insure in their respective stations able and faithful cooperation.”
This shows that right from the start Jackson was perhaps lying, this is
to be believed because Jackson put his friends in office to override the
Democrats rather than to equal the two parties out. Then the next big issue, the
Bank War came. In which he destroyed the national bank, and again due to much
evidence, Andrew Jackson’s actions as president were mainly based on his
personal feelings. Jackson already hated the national bank before his
presidency. As a former, wealthy land entrepreneur, he had lost huge amounts of
money because of the national bank in the 1790’s. As a result, he refused to recharter the bank when Henry Clay proposed it in 1832. Even though it was
passed through Congress, Jackson vetoed it claiming that it was unconstitutional
when it had already been declared constitutional by the Marshall in 1819 during
the McCulloch vs. Maryland case. This was one of many vetoes made by Jackson
under the executive branch. The National Republicans, who were now called the
Whigs, thought they could use the issue of vetoes against Jackson in the
election of 1832, but their plan backfired and Jackson won the election by a
huge margin. In his 2nd Inaugural Address, Jackson states, “So many
events have occurred within the last four years which have necessarily called
forth- sometimes under circumstances the most delicate and painful- my views of
the principles and policy which ought to be pursued by the General Government
that I need on this occasion but allude to a few leading considerations
connected with some of them.”
This again shows that he feels he has the
ability to overpower the rest of the United States Government. In his second
term Jackson faced many issues such as the Tariff of Abominations and
nullification acts, which he forced Congress to pass acts, again proving he felt
he had a higher power over the rest of the government, and abusing his power by
forcing Congress to pass acts. But by far the main issue during Jackson’s second
term was the Indian issue, in which Jackson used his power to support the
removal of the Cherokee Indians. This was a foolish move on Jackson’s part
because his reputation rested upon his cold-blooded slaughter of Native
Americans at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, where Jackson\'s militia killed over
800 Creeks, shooting them down \"like dogs,\" in the Creek War of 1814. Many
Americans started to believe that Jackson was prejudice.
Even before the
removal issue, there was already much conflict between Americans and the
Indians. As America was expanding and settlers were moving west, they were
intruding the Indians’ land. Before these invasions; however, treaties were made
not permitting anyone to push the Indians out of their land in Georgia. Jackson
completely agreed with the treaties but when Georgia disobeyed the government
and invaded the Indians, he denied and ignored what was taking place. The
Indians who had been guaranteed land by the United States even appealed in
court. And even though the ruling was in favor of the Indians, Georgia continued
to defy the ruling. But Jackson did not put in an effort to mend this dilemma.
In fact Georgia and Jackson even ignored the Supreme Court ruling, Jackson made
the United States army gather roughly 15,000 soldiers and forced the Cherokee
Indians to move westward. This lengthy and horrific journey was what the
Cherokees called the
Trail of Tears. During this about one out of every four
Indians died due to disease or lack of food. Another thing that outraged the
Indians were that the American government, mainly Jackson promised the Indians
nine million dollars for their relocation, but after the torturous journey was
completed Jackson and his government took six million dollars out for the
relocation costs.
Jackson abused his power as president by exceeding his
limits and allowing his personal happiness and emotions influence his decisions
that may have affected him positively but affected the rest of the United States
in a negative way; which was unbelievably selfish. He left the nation with
confusion and failures instead of contributing to it, achievements. Jackson once
said,
“I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way;
but I am not fit to be President.”
I do not think he realized how right
he was.
Bibliography
1. Cayton, Andrew, Perry, Elisabeth I.
and Allan M. Winkler. American Pathways to the Present. Needham: Prentice Hall,
1995
2. Kunhardt, Phillip B, Phillip III and Paul. “Andrew Jackson the
7th president.” The American President. (April 9, 2000): Online. Internet. May
2, 2001
3. Jackson, Andrew. “First Inaugural Address.” Inaugural
addresses of the Presidents of the United States. (1989): p.3
4.
Jackson, Andrew. “Second Inaugural Address.” Inaugural addresses of the
Presidents of the United States. (1989): p.2
5. Zinn, Howard. ”As Long
as the Grass Grows or Water Runs ” A Peoples History of the United States: 1492
to Present. New York City: Harper Collins, 1999
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