Andrew Jackson

We all know Andrew Jackson as one of our presidents. But of course like all the rest of them, he didn’t just start there. He was born in 1767. His parents were recent immigrated Scots-Irish farmers. Jackson didn’t really have a set education like you and I have. He worked in a saddle-maker’s shop. But, when he got a little older at the age of 13 he decided with his brother to help as a courier during the Revolutionary War. A courier is someone who transports goods. Unfortunately while he and his brother were helping, they got captured by the British and almost starved to death.

If things couldn’t have gotten worse, right after they were free his brother died. Also, within that year his mother died so he had no close family during this time. After Jackson slowly started to push that war behind him and move on, he decided to study law. He passed the bar exam and started to set up his practice in Jonesborough, North Carolina. Remember, he had no family to guide him so he had to learn all the ropes on his own. But, even though he was on his own he started to become successful. Around 1788-1804 he served in many offices like Senator, Judge, and Congressman. He also earned himself a nickname based off of his personality. That nickname was “Old Hickory” because of his personality of being brave and stubborn.

In 1822 he was elected president. Now you probably assume he won the election since he is counted as one of our presidents. But that is not exactly true. He did become president, just not in this election. John Quincy Adams won the 1822 election but Jackson was determined to beat his opponent in the next one. Because of that determination he did win the next election which was in 1829. He ended up serving 2 terms as president. Crazy enough, his opponents named him “jackass”. Except, that didn’t offend Jackson at all! He actually ended up liking the name so much that he used the donkey as his symbol. Does that sound familiar? Today the Democratic Party’s sign is a donkey. At first, the symbol kind of faded away but later became the sign for that party. I thought that was very interesting because I have always wondered how that sign and the others came to be.

When he was president he was the first to use the veto power. If you don’t know what veto power is, it’s a way for the president to say no to any new laws or bills that are given to him. Everyone can love this new law that was thought of but if the president doesn’t like it, they don’t end up going through with it. Another thing that Jackson accomplished while he was president was the debt issues. As you probably know to this day our country is deep in debt. But Andrew didn’t like that hanging over his head. So he worked very hard to reduce the federal deficit. The United States ended up having no debt when Jackson was finished. 1836 unfortunately, was the last year that the United States had no debt. I wish they could get rid of the debt that we have today but they have accumulated so much I don’t know how they would get it done at this point.

There was actually a democracy named after Jackson that was the Second Party System. It was called the Jacksonian Democracy. This democracy worked and promoted geographical expansion. This more focused on expanding towards the west. This didn’t really sit well with the Native Americans though. But overall I think that he was very successful because he even had a system named after him.

Andrew Jackson has now become one of my favorite presidents especially because of how hard he worked to get rid of the federal debt. Unfortunately, that didn’t last. I also like how determined he was to finish the goals he had in mind. It’s crazy to think that the last year that our country had no debt was in 1836. So if you think about it, the money has been accumulating ever since and the president today isn’t helping the problem. Jackson did marry a lady named Rachel Donelson Robards. He also adopted 3 sons. Jackson’s wife died of a heart attack on December 22^nd, 1828. She was buried on Christmas Eve. Andrew wasn’t really doing well himself but only found out later. He actually had two bullets that stayed in his chest for many years so having them be in that area, they couldn’t do anything to prevent any repercussions that would happen to him. He then died from lead poisoning on June 8^th, 1845. He was 78 years old. But of course, he is still remembered to this day for his success.