Download Andrew Jackson March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845 Andrew Jackson was

Andrew Jackson
March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845
Andrew Jackson was once quoted as saying, “I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not
fit to be President.” But he did in fact go on to be the seventh President of the United States. Charles Hammond
wrote: "Ought a convicted adulteress and her paramour husband be placed in the highest offices of this free and
Christian land?" After gaining fame in the War of 1812, Jackson was nicknamed “Old Hickory” by his troops
because of his aggressiveness on the battlefield. Jackson’s attitude toward life was “if you disagree with me “watch
out” and also “don’t talk bad about my wife.” Jackson got into a lot of duels because of this and actually killed a
person once.
Some important issues of the time before his presidency were the Second National Bank of The United
States, the Indians, and many wars that he fought in and commanded troops. Some of the wars that he fought in were
the American Revolution, the 1st Seminole War, and the War of 1812. In the American Revolution, he and his
brother served as couriers for the continental army. He then gained much fame after he overthrew the French
Governor of Florida in the 1st Seminole War. In the War of 1812, he was a Major General and defeated the British at
the “Battle of New Orleans” were he was lauded as a hero.
I think the most important event in Andrew Jackson’s life was his fight against The Second National Bank
of the United States. In this event, he felt the bank was only helping the rich upper class of America and could be
too easily controlled by a foreign power. By the early 1830s, President Jackson had come to thoroughly dislike the
Second Bank of the United States because of its fraud and corruption. President Jackson then had an investigation
done on the bank which he said established “beyond question that this great and powerful institution had been
actively engaged in attempting to influence the elections of the public officers by means of its money.” Although its
charter was bound to run out in 1836, Jackson wanted to "kill" the Second Bank of the United States even earlier.
Jackson is considered primarily responsible for its demise, seeing it as an instrument of political corruption and a
threat to American liberties. The head of the Second Bank during Jackson's presidency, Nicholas Biddle, had
decided to seek an extension of the bank's charter four years early, in 1832. Henry Clay helped to steer the rechartering bill through Congress, but Jackson then vetoed it.