Everything that Americans like about themselves, their courage, their resilience, their loyalty, their love for their wives, their hatred of banks comes from Andrew Jackson's life experience.
Everything that Law School Graduates, Europeans and civilized people across the world hate about Americans: the racism, the violence, the defiance of the rule of law, the greed comes from Andrew Jackson. Jackson may not have been the greatest American, but he is THE American.
" Jackson had two brothers, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764). Jackson's father died at the age of 29, three weeks before Jackson was born. During the Revolutionary War, Jackson, at age thirteen, joined a local regiment as a courier. His eldest brother, Hugh, died from heat exhaustion during the Battle of Stono Ferry, on June 20, 1779. Jackson and his brother Robert were captured by the British and held as prisoners of war;they nearly starved to death in captivity.
When Jackson refused to clean the boots of a British officer, the irate redcoat slashed at him with a sword, giving him scars on his left hand
and head, ... the brothers contracted smallpox. Robert died a few days after their mother secured their release, After his mother was assured Jackson would recover,she volunteered to nurse prisoners of war on board two ships in Charleston harbor, where there had been an outbreak of cholera. She died from the disease in November 1781, and was buried in an unmarked grave, leaving Jackson an orphan at age 14.."
Jackson was tall, 6'1'', lean(averaging 140 pounds) with a shock of red hair.
Jackson was a Judge, Governor, Senator from Tennessee, and a father figure to Sam Houston and Davy Crockett. He was a planter, merchant and slave owner.
A self made man, he became rich enough to buy the 640 acre plantation, The Hermitage, with 300 slaves.
Jackson never lost a battle. During the War of 1812, the Red Stick Creeks seeing an opportunity, revolted against the dominance of white men; at Fort Mims, the Creeks massacred 400 men, women and children.
Jackson, with Houston and Crockett, formed an army of Tennessee Volunteers, Choctaw, Southern Creek and Cherokees. They tracked down the Red Stick Creeks at Horseshoe Bend. 800 Creek warriors were killed that day.
Jackson then went to New Orleans; with an army of Tennessee Volunteers, blacks, and pirates, defeated the cream of the British Army,who were fresh from defeating Napoleon at Waterloo.
He then took command of Florida and fought the Seminole.
He was an Indian fighter par excellence.
JACKSON THE LOVER
Rachel Donelson was the great love of Jackson's life, arguably the only person Jackson loved after the death of his mother and brothers.
Their relationship was a true love match, with a minor problem. Rachel was already married to a brute named Lewis Robards, who had the propensity to beat the hell out of her.
Rachel petitioned for a divorce from Robards, however, in the best tradition of American Soap Opera, "there is evidence that Donelson had been living with Jackson and referred to herself as Mrs. Jackson before the petition for divorce was ever made. It was not uncommon on the frontier for relationships to be formed and dissolved unofficially, as long as they were recognized by the community."
Rachel was a bigamist. Though Rachel and Andrew finally, formally married, the charge of bigamy dogged her all her life,upsetting Andrew Jackson. What did an upset Andrew Jackson mean for the community?
JACKSON THE KILLER
For his wife's honor, Jackson fought 13,(THIRTEEN) known duels. "...the controversy surrounding their marriage remained a sore point for Jackson,
who deeply resented attacks on his wife's honor. ...Charles Dickenson, ..insulted Rachel, and on May 30, 1806, he and Jackson fought a duel.
Dickinson shot Jackson in the ribs before Jackson returned the fatal shot; Jackson allowed Dickinson to shoot first, knowing him to be an excellent shot, and as his opponent reloaded, Jackson shot, even as the bullet lodged itself in his chest. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could never be safely removed. Jackson had been wounded so frequently in duels that it was said he "rattled like a bag of marbles."
At times he coughed up blood, and he experienced considerable pain from his wounds for the rest of his life."
During the Campaign for the Presidency in 1828, President John Quincy Adam's campaign brought up Rachel's bigamy.
"Rachel died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, two weeks after her husband's victory in the election and two months before Jackson taking office as President. Jackson blamed John Quincy Adams for Rachel's death because the marital scandal was brought up in the election of 1828. He felt that this had hastened her death and never forgave Adams."
JACKSON THE DESTROYER
Up until 1828, the United States was developing into an enlightened nation, if not a democratic one. The Nation, led by aristocrats, was heading toward a policy of Native American assimilation, not genocide. The prime example of the assimilation were the Cherokee in Georgia, landowners and slave owners.
Jackson was not a man of Enlightenment; he was a man of Democracy. Gold was found on Cherokee land, and the Man of Democracy wanted it, for white men.
"Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Jackson's presidency was his policy regarding Native Americans, which involved the ethnic cleansing of several Indian tribes...""
This is what Bloody Andrew Jackson gave to an evolving United States, an American version of the Nazis' Nuremberg Laws.
"after his election he signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830. The Act authorized the President to negotiate treaties to buy tribal lands in the east in exchange for lands further west, outside of existing U.S. state borders... the Removal Act was popular in the South, ... The state of Georgia became involved in a contentious jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokees, culminating in the 1832 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Worcester v. Georgia), which ruled that Georgia could not impose its laws upon Cherokee tribal lands."
Chief Justice John Marshall had stopped Jackson in his tracks, Jackson's response, "Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!"
Jackson defied the Supreme Court of the United States, he would not enforce its edict. American defiance of the Supreme Court was born in that quote.
Over 15,000 Cherokees signed a petition in protest of the proposed removal; 7,000 armed troops were ordered to remove the assimilated Cherokees. This forced removal resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 Cherokees on the "TRAIL OF TEARS."
JACKSON THE FATHER
Jackson did not have a biological son; however, Jackson being Jackson,he took a son. He plucked his son from the bloody remains of a battlefield,an orphaned Creek baby and adopted him as his son. Lyncoya Jackson.
Jackson reminds one so much of those Junta killers in Argentina who adopted the babies of the mothers they tortured to death. " Jackson had planned to have Lyncoya educated at West Point, but he died in 1828, at the age of sixteen."This Blog believes that Lyncoya willed himself to death, just to get away from that towering bigot.
After betraying the Christian treatment of the assimilated Cherokee, he joined the First Presbyterian Church of Nashville.
Jackson was a killer, racist, devoted husband; no American President has ever had more courage than Old Hickory, not even Teddy Roosevelt.
Jackson was a male version of Tubman.
"On January 30, 1835: At the Capitol Building, a house painter named Richard Lawrence attempted to kill President Jackson."
Jackson was chatting, Lawrence walked within 13 feet (4 m) of Jackson, and fired a flintlock pistol at the President."
The pistol misfired.
Lawrence was one of our smarter would be Presidential assassins, he had brought with him another pistol in case the first one misfired (the first great example of American contingency planning). With his second pistol, Lawrence walked up to Jackson, and at point blank range, fired.
The second pistol also misfired.
Jackson then beat the hell out of Lawrence with his walking cane.
Jackson was 63.
It is the seminal genius of John Ford that he understood that his character ETHAN EDWARDS in THE SEARCHERS was really Andrew Jackson.
Ford fathomed the scope and magnitude of the Jacksonian Dilemma imposed by Andrew Jackson on this nation. Every decent man hated and feared him, but....but.....in reality, when you are picking your team to fight some of the greatest warriors in the history of the world(the Comanche,Apaches,Creeks,Seminoles) for land, who are you going to choose? who else but the winner/killer Andrew Jackson aka ETHAN EDWARDS?
There is a scene in THE SEARCHERS, right before the Comanche attack, ETHAN's nephew, 12 year old BEN EDWARDS, is standing guard with his rifle,prepared to fight and die like a man. Little BEN tells his mother he is not afraid, but he does wish for only one thing.
His mother, MARTHA, asks, "What's that Ben?"
Ben answers: "I wish Uncle Ethan was here."
That is it, in a John Ford nutshell; in danger, Americans don't wish for St.George nor Sir Lancelot nor even the Virgin Mary to help, Americans wish for the killer, Andrew Jackson, the Jacksonian Dilemma in the American Psyche.
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Jackson as an old man
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