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.

A Knight of the White Cross: Writing Style and Setting

G.A. Henty has a very old-fashioned writing style. To me, it’s very different from the authors today. Henty’s books really show how much are language has evolved into what it is now. The way they spoke back then, was much more graceful. Today, we speak very straight forward and we have a lot of slang words. At first, when I started reading these books I would get very frustrated when I couldn’t understand the way they were speaking. But now I kind of just go with it even when I don’t understand it because I know that the book takes place a long time ago and that was how they used to speak. The way this author writes I notice he includes a lot of dialogue and not so much description of the area. Henty does describe things just not as much as I’ve seen other authors do. But, I’m okay with that because there’s been some books that I have read and the author takes pages and pages and pages to describe one room. That’s the type of description that I don’t like because I didn’t want to read the book to just get a description of where it takes place, I also want to stay with the storyline. So, as long as you do good amounts of describing, and sticking to the storyline, you’re an author I would like.

Other than the way they talk in the book, the setting I think is pretty interesting. I would love to just time travel back to that time and take a peek at how it was back then. They had massive ships, elegant clothing, and so much more. No, they didn’t have cell phones and flat screen TVs…..Actually they had no TVs at all. But I still think it would be a great trip to take to get the experience. The one thing that I wouldn’t really want to see is the slavery. Henty showed the struggles of being a slave and I would not want to see that happening because there wasn’t really a lot of equality during that time. But I would want to see the scenery, the people, etc.. There was some pros to that time period, but of course there was some cons. We have that today too.

Picturing the slavery taking place in the book made me cringe. I really hate when people get mistreated. The main character named Gervaise, didn’t like slavery either. He officially became my favorite character because of the way that he treated the slaves. When he was in charge of a ship that had slaves, he took great care of them. Yes they still had to do work, but he made the work more pleasant. For example, when they had to row, Gervaise covered them from the sun so that they don’t have to work in unpleasant conditions. When they got food served they got much better servings. People like Gervaise, were very rare during this time because everybody would treat the slaves like dirt. Actually, I think even dirt got treated better than the slaves sadly. But the reason he acted so nicely to them is because he knew what they were going through. How you ask? Well he actually served as a slave for 2 months under the same harsh conditions. So he was going to try to help the slaves whenever he can.

I would definitely be like Gervaise because I would hate to watch people just like you and me get treated as if they were completely different. Back then they denied the fact that everybody was the same, just different colors. Even today there are some people who deny it. But whether your Straight, Gay, Black, White, Hispanic, etc. We’re all the same and nobody should get treated differently for who they are. Because they can’t change themselves.

Overall Henty’s writing style is still something that I have to get used to because it’s sometimes hard for me to understand compared to the books that I read that take place in the present. But it’s a learning experience and I think I should get introduced to other writing styles.

Bastiat's Concept of the Politics of Plunder

Bastiat reveals all of the aspects of government that nobody pays attention to. He makes you see how much plunder the government actually takes part in. I have always seen taxes as a way for the government to get more money. But where does the money go towards? It’s kind of hard to track that. But it’s mostly going towards the wrong things. Basically, the government is taking the money from the people working and giving it to the people who need jobs. That sounds good at first but is it really? I don’t think so. The people who work are going through tough times because they have families that they need to take care of and yet because of how much the government takes they continue to struggle. I know that nobody should have to struggle when they are working really hard. The people who don’t have jobs should work out their issues, clean up their life, and find a job. That sounds like the right thing to do right? But since the government is supporting them by not having a job, they figure that they can live this way instead without having to work that hard.

Greed, greed, and more greed. That’s all it is. Government will say that they are trying to help the citizens, but that’s a lie. They act like they are the “God” for society and that’s what Bastiat was trying to get across. He made comparisons like for example, the politicians are the gardeners, while society is the trees/plants. I really think the power has gotten to the politicians’ heads. I mean they act like they know better than everyone else but they are just like us. The only difference is that they chose that path to take for their career. They think that they are saviors because they think that they are making the country better and happy all around. But they really couldn’t care less about who is struggling because they are set for life.