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 Creek War, he was finally promoted to major general in the regular army. General Jackson emerged as a national hero from the War of 1812, primarily because of his decisive defeat of the British at the Battle of New Orleans. It was during this period that he earned his nickname of, "Old Hickory." Jackson had been ordered to march his Tennessee troops to Natchez, Mississippi. When he got there he was told to disband his men because they were unneeded. General Jackson refused and marched them back to Tennessee. Because of his strict discipline on that march his men began to say he was as tough as hickory.

After several years serving the government of Tennessee, Jackson was later appointed governor of the newly acquired Florida. In accepting this job, Jackson received many responsibilities, such as full military command over Cuba and the ability to suspend any officials not appointed by the President.

Soon after, a weary and tired Jackson returned home to Tennessee. He would later be afflicted with illnesses that would plague him for the rest of his life. However, Jackson would later be nominated for President by the Tennessee legislature. The move was “unprecedented but an appealingly democratic one.” Jackson would later loose the Election of 1824 even though he acquired the majority of the popular and electoral votes. Of a needed 131 votes, Jackson got 99, while his opposition, John Adams and William Crawford, got 84 and 41 respectively.

Andrew Jackson ran again in the Election