Andrew Jackson Downfall

On November 5, 1835 America mourned the loss of their seventh president, Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s two term service to his nation had great influence, and his death left the nation he held so close in shambles. Jackson’s cause of death is widely speculated. Some maintain that his death was caused by two bullets in his body giving his lead poisoning. However, most, including the majority of the staff here at the South Carolina Leader, believe that John C. Calhoun is to blame for Jackson’s passing.

Born in 1767 in Waxhaw, South Carolina, Andrew Jackson was a child of Scotch-Irish immigrants. Shortly before Jackson’s birth, his father, who was also his namesake, passed away, leading to his mother moving Andrew and his brothers into a home with

The Tariff of 1828, more commonly known as the Tariff of Abominations, aimed to protect northern and western agricultural products from foreign competition via a protective tariff. Up until 1830, Jackson had yet to take an official stance on the idea of nullification, the idea that states can declare Supreme Court rulings as unconstitutional. Calhoun supported nullification before and after Jackson made a speech that emphasized the preservation of the union of all else. Jackson even went so far as cutting off Calhoun and removing his allies from the cabinet after Jackson found out about documents written by Calhoun against him. The social tensions in addition to the major conflict between the two over nullification grew to be too much for Calhoun to handle. He resigned from Jackson’s cabinet in 1832, and took his seat in the Senate where was able to repeatedly defend South Carolina’s pro-nullification

Anger built and built within both of them, but more so in Calhoun thanks to Jackson having bigger things to worry out. Calhoun’s primary focus became Jackson, and how enact his revenge. Calhoun decided the only solution was to take Jackson entirely out the equation. After a plethora of persuasion, Calhoun managed to get his wife to agree to befriend Peggy Eaton. This gave Calhoun the access to Jackson he desired, and every time the Eatons lunched with the Calhouns he convinced them to take some leftovers back to Jackson as a peace offering. What the Eatons did not realize was the food was tainted with Polonium, a radioactive poison that kills slowly and inevitably. He used a small enough amount to pass by any inspection, but no testing was done because of Calhoun’s assumed good intentions. Jackson becoming a household name was initially thanks to his status as a military hero. His life was one full of many conflicts, from losing his family one after the other as a child to arguing with his vice president to the point of his resignation. However, we here at the Leader would not wish murder on anyone, much less a president whose legacy gifted the United States with our modern two party system. A man of honor and virtue, the staff of the South Carolina Leader wish his family well, and hope the proper consequences are enacted on