Andrew Jackson Jr. (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American politician who was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He was the first president to be a Democrat[1] and is on the twenty dollar bill. His nickname was "Old Hickory". He forced many Native Americans to leave their homeland so white people could live there, and many died and contracted diseases. This was called the Trail of Tears. He was also the first president to ride in a train.
Early life
Andrew Jackson was born in Waxhaws in the Carolinas on March 15, 1767.
Jackson studied law as a teenager and passed the bar exam at age 20.[2]
As a boy Andrew was a messenger for the Continental Army. The British caught him and mistreated him.
He was the first U.S. president who was not born into a rich family. He was not a rich man and did not have a college education. He moved to Tennessee and became a politician.
Military
During the War of 1812, he became a general and won the Battle of New Orleans which made him very famous. He joined the war because of childhood trauma that he had endured during the Revolutionary War; both his mother and his brother died during the war, and Jackson blamed the British and wanted to avenge his late loved ones.
Marriage
In 1791, he fell in love with Rachel Donelson Robards. They went through a marriage ceremony. However, the marriage was not legal because she had not been granted a divorce from her first husband. Therefore, they married legally three years later. They had no children, but they adopted several. He became rich and owned a large plantation.
Andrew Jackson reorganized the Democratic Party and was its leader.
In 1828, he defeated John Quincy Adams in the Presidential Election of 1828, he became president on March 4, 1829, aged 61, and four years later, aged 65, he was inaugurated for a second term as president. In the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833, South Carolina declared secession from the United States. Jackson threatened war, and then compromised.
In January 1835, aged 67, Jackson was almost assassinated when an unemployed painter wanted to shoot him but both his guns jammed.[3] He is the first president to have had an attempted assassination.[3]
In 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which allowed the U.S. government to violently force the Native Americans to move from their land and go west. Many Native Americans were killed and the path they walked to get to the west was called the Trail of Tears.
Andrew Jackson was against the national bank of the United States because he felt that banks and their banknotes were for rich and powerful people and did not serve the interests of the common man. The national bank expired during Jackson's presidency. Jackson chose not to continue the bank.
On March 4, 1837, aged 69, Andrew Jackson finished his second term. After that, vice-president Martin Van Buren was elected president and continued many of the things Jackson did. Jackson was a big influence on other Democrats during the 1800s. He died on June 8, 1845 in Nashville Tennessee at age 78 due to tuberculosis.
Legacy
Jackson's legacy among historians is mixed and heavily debated. Some have liked him because he was against aristocrats, bankers, businessmen, the British Empire, cities, and paper money, and in favor of ordinary country people. Some have disliked him for the same reasons and because he was in favor of war and against Indians.
