Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, was born the Waxhaw territory, lying between North and South Carolina on March 15, 1767. Jackson was the third child of Scotch-Irish parents. His father died as the result of a logging accident just a few weeks before Andrew was born. Jackson's mother, Elizabeth Hutchison Jackson, was regarded as a very independent woman. After her husband's death, she raised her three sons at the home of one of her relatives.

The Declaration of Independence was signed when Andrew was nine years old. When he reached the age of thirteen he joined the Continental Army, enrolled as a courier. The Revolution took a toll on the Jackson family. All three boys saw active service. One of Andrew's older brothers, Hugh, died after the Battle of Stono Ferry, South Carolina in 1779, and two years later Andrew and his other brother Robert were taken prisoner for a few weeks in April 1781. While they were captives a British officer ordered them to clean his boots. The boys refused, the officer struck them with his sword and Andrew's hand was cut to the bone. Because Jackson received such harsh treatment while being a prisoner, Jackson harbored a bitter resentment towards the British until he died.

After the war Jackson taught at a school briefly, but he was not fond of it and decided to practice law instead. In 1784 he went to Salisbury, North Carolina where he studied law for several years. He was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in September 1787 and the following spring began his public career with an appointment as prosecuting officer for the Superior Court in Nashville, Tennessee.

In June 1796 Tennessee was separated from North Carolina and admitted to the Union as the sixteenth state. Jackson was soon afterward elected as the new state's first congressman. The following year the Tennessee legislature elected him as an U.S. senator, but he held his senatorial seat for only one session before resigning. After his resignation Jackson came home and served for six years as a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Jackson's military career, which had begun in the Revolution, continued in 1802 when he was elected major general of the Tennessee militia. Ten years later Tennessee Governor Willie Blount gave him the rank of major general of U.S. forces. In 1814, after several devastating campaigns against Native Americans in the Cr...

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...s issues dealing with Native Americans and slaves also appealed to some. Jackson wanted to move all Native Americans west of the Mississippi River. The Democratic Party, however, was deeply rooted in the South. Because of this fact, they silently supported slavery. Jackson’s issues were highly accepted by the “common people”, even though Jackson himself was a rich man. His issues were aimed toward the common people, which happened to be the group that held him in the highest regard as a national hero.

The electoral campaign of Andrew Jackson in 1828 was won using the popularity instead of the politics of the presidential candidate. Even though Jackson discussed only a few issues, his campaign managers represented him as being impartial on every question, while varying his approach to further please the audience. Though the compelling issues of the day were raised by the press and talked about by speakers across the country, voters learned little or nothing of Jackson’s stand on issues. The Democrats won the hearts of the American people through the skillful leadership of Jackson’s managers, who played upon his reputation as a military hero and an incorruptible man of the people.