I have been assigned to write a brief blog about what we learned about President Andrew Jackson. Jackson was born March 15, 1767 and died one June 8 1845. Jackson had many admirerers and many enemies. Jackson grew up during times of war and instability. He was captured during the American Revolution by the British and suffered many hardships. His entire immediate family died as a direct result of war. Jackson developed a pure hatred for the British.Andrew Jackson worked as a lawyer for many years and was fair and hardworking. He became very well known in 1796 when Tennessee attained statehood, Jackson became the very first U.S. Representative. Within a few short years, Jackson was appointed judge for the Tennessee Supreme Court.During the war of 1812, Jackson served in the military as colonel and after many campaigns against various Indian Tribes, was promoted to Major General. When the British threatend to take over New Orleans, Jackson took over the commands. He was "tough as hickory" on the battlefield but had much adoration from his loyal troops. By the end of the battle, Jacksons 5,000 troops threw of 7,500 British soldiers. The British suffered over 2,000 casualties while Jackson, with his great leadership, only suffered 71 casualties. Jackson became a national hero and won the Thanks of Congress award along with a Gold Medal.In the presidential election of 1824 Jackson was beat by John Quincy Adams in a "corrupt bargain". The election was a tough one, and the electoral votes were split evenly four ways. The House of Representatives were called to decide who would become president. Henry Clay and John Adams made a deal; Clay gave all of his power and support to Adams, and, once Adams was elected, Adams appointed Clay as the Secretary of State. The American voters dissagreed with the result and felt that the "man of the people" had not been elected.Jackson won the election of 1828 and invited the common people to the White House for the inauguration. The White House became so packed witht he poor that it was left in a state of ruin and filth by the end of the night. During his first term of presidency, Jackson vetoed several bills to reorganize the U.S. Banking system. He was also favored for his drive towards equality and broke many barriers that put restrictions on who voted.Jackson won the 1832 election with his popularity among the common people. Jackson greatly supported and helped the progress of the "Spoils System". The Spoils System was a practice among elected officials to give the people who helped win that election (like the voters) government jobs and positions. This was to ensure that more people voted for you, and would remain loyal to you and the party.President Jackson called to get rid of the Electoral College and fought passionately to ammend the constitution to give the People the power to appoint the president and vice president, and to limit the service of the vice president to one term. His actions on the matter are still being considered to this day (according to wikipedia and other sources).Jackson worked to change the way that the U.S. Bank worked. He favored an "Agricultural Republic". Jackosn vetoed the current Bank because he felt that it favored the Northeastern states, and ignored the South and West. He also felt that it only made the rich even richer and more powerful, and that the Bank had too much control over congress. Jackson withdrew large funds from the "Single Institution" and spread the wealth to banks and projects, and towns around the country.In 1835, Jackson reduced the federal debt to only $33,000. He is the only president in history to ever pay off our nations debt (good luck with that one Obama). At first, the economy boomed, however the paper banknotes that were issued were not backed by enough gold and silver and the Panic of 1837 was born. The country fell into a horrible depression for at least five years, and took many more years to make a significant recovery. There were many more notable events that took place in the Jacksonian Democracy, but I will leave those for another time.Personally I think that Jackson was the tough, strong, and basically uncorrupted president that our earlier nation needed. He was a fierce opponent of the British and many came to fear and respect him. I think that John McCain would have been much like Jackson as they were both POW's and friends of the common people.
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