Miranda Jean Dec 1^st, 05

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson is the seventh president of the United States. He was born on March 15, 1767 in Waxhaw near the boarder of North and South Carolina.

When Jefferson was 13 he joined the Continental Army as a courier during the American Revolution. Andrew was taken prisoner for a few weeks in April 1781 and was held captive by the British. While Jackson was held captive he contracted smallpox.

After the war Jackson decided to teach, but didn’t like it so much. When he got fed up with teaching Jackson decided to practice law. By 1784, at 17, he went to Salisbury, North Carolina to study law for several years. Andrew was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in September 1787 and in the following spring he began his public career. When Andrew started his career he was a prosecuting officer of the Superior Court in Nashville, Tenn.

In June 1796 Tennessee was separated from North Carolina and admitted to the Union as the 16^th state. Jackson was soon elected the new state’s first Congressman. The following year they elected him a U.S. senator, but he held his senatorial seat for only one session before deciding to resign. Then he served six years as a judge on the Supreme Court for Tenn.

By 1802 Jackson continued his military and was elected major general of the Tenn. Militia. Ten years later Governor Willie Blount gave Andrew the rank of major general of the U.S. forces. In 1814 after several devastating campaigns against the Indians in the Creek War, General Jackson emerged a national hero from the War of 1812 because he decisively defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans. In that period of time he developed the nickname “ Old Hickory”. In 1821 Jackson basically “took” Florida from Spain.

The 1824 election was called the “stolen election”, because Jackson swept the popular vote without getting enough electoral votes to automatically win the presidency. The House of Representatives had to decide who would become president. Jackson’s opponents were Henry Clay of Kentucky, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, and William H. Crawford of Georgia. In the years between 1824-28 Jefferson had problems with all three man especially with Adams. Adams had charged Jackson and his wife of adultery during the 1828 election. John Q. Adams won the presidency. Andrew Jackson then campaigned against Adams for four years. Jackson called Adams victory “The Corrupt Bargain”

In 1828 Andrew Jackson became the seventh president. Jackson was the first president that didn’t come from the aristocracy, was the first to have a vice president resign (John C. Calhoun), was the first to be nominated at a national convention (second term), and was the first to use the “pocket veto” to kill a congressional bill. He also believed in a strong union. During Jackson’s presidency he administrated the Indian Removal Act. The act offered the Indians land west of the Mississippi in return for evacuation of their tribal homes in the east. The Indians called this “The Trail of Tears”. Also during Jackson’s presidency two states were admitted to the union (Arkansas in 1836 and Michigan in 1837).

By 1837 Jackson retired. President Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845.