Most Important Event Of Jacksons Presidency example essay topic

Andrew Jackson was born on March 15th, 1767 at a settlement near the Crawford's Branch of Wax haw Creek in South Carolina (1). His parents, Andrew Jackson, and Elizabeth Hutchinson immigrated to America two years prior to his birth, in 1765 (1). Unfortunately, his father died only a few days prior to Andrew's birth. Jackson lived a long and interesting life, full of many achievements, financial, military and political to die at an old age of 78 in 1845. At only 13, Jackson, along with his brother joined a regiment to serve as a mounted courier in the American Revolution (2). His hotheadedness showed at even this early age, when after being captured by the British he was nearly killed by an officers sword for refusing to polish his boots (1).

Jackson's mother managed to get both him and his brother out of captivity, but they had both came down with smallpox while being held and his brother died on the trip home (1). His mother passed away from cholera soon after that while she was nursing wounded p. o. w. 's. During the next few years Jackson lived with friends and relatives and went on to finish school and become a teacher. At the age of 17, after teaching for a few years, Jackson decided to become a lawyer and had accomplished his goal by the age of 20 (2).

In 1791, Jackson got married to Rachel Donelson Robards, who at the time was married to a very abusive husband by the name of Lewis Robards. Andrew and Rachel believed that she was granted a legal divorce, but found out 2 years later that she was still married to Andrew, got the divorce and got married once again (1). Jackson lived in Tennessee when the territory finally reached the 60000 person mark to become a state. He not only participated in the drafting of their constitution, but was also the first man from Tennessee to sit in the congress (2). It was late 1796 to mid 1797 when he had to leave his position because of financial difficulties (2). These financial difficulties had to do with a deal he that went when his partners went bankrupt (1).

Jackson blamed this misfortune on banks, and paper money in general, which played a great role in his presidency. He was also elected to the senate in 1797, but quickly resigned to become elected to the superior court of Tennessee. In 1803, Jackson went after what he really wanted, while still maintaining his job as a judge. He once again applied for the position of Major General of the Tennessee militia, and this time, got it. In July of 1804, Jackson retired from the job position and spent the next few years building up his wealth as well as his 450 acre plantation that went by the name of "Hermitage". Jackson continued to serve as the Major General of the Tennessee militia until in 1813 was promoted to the post of Major General of the national army for his achievements in the Creek war where he led an army of 2500 troops against the Creek Indians that had killed 250 Alabama settlers.

(1) He was a harsh general, once ordering one of his soldiers shot for refusing to get back to his duties. (1) Jackson's opponents would continue to use this act against him in their political campaigns for many years to come. One of the things Jackson is well known for is the battle of new Orleans that took place in 1814. In late 1814, the British started a huge attack on the United States. They took over the capitol city, burning up the white house as well as capitol, and planned to also attack New Orleans, which was defended by Jackson and an army of 3000.

Jackson successfully protected New Orleans, holding off 6000 British troops, and killing over 2000 while loosing less then a 100 of his own. (1) He then remained the in New Orleans until the end of the war. Jackson's next important military accomplishment came during the Seminole war, which eventually resulted in the American getting Florida. The Seminole Indians resided on Spanish land in what is now Florida.

After an incident where the Indians killed American men and women on a traveling on a transport. In response to this, Jackson was sent into the territory with a couple of thousand troops, since the Spanish were doing nothing about it. The Spanish were not happy about this, but America did not step back and this ordeal ended in the U.S. buying Florida for 5 million dollars, and Jackson was appointed governor of the land, while it was being added to the union. He served as a governor for 11 months and retired to his plantation due to health problems. Jackson's political career picked up once again when he ran for presidency in 1824. Although he won over John Quincy Adams in the electoral college receiving 99 votes over Adams' 84, because no one candidate had the majority of the votes the decision was left to the congress which voted in Adams' favor.

Jackson was very unhappy about this to say the least, especially since Henry Clay, the speaker of the house was made Secretary of State after pushing for his win. (1) Jackson called this deal a corrupt bargain and would use this against Adams in the 1828 election (3, p. 180). The election of 1828 was a different story. Jackson received more than twice the votes that Adams did and started his first term of presidency. Jackson was a very popular president which was demonstrated right away when his inauguration ceremony brought so many people to the white house that they eventually had to carry the food and drink outside to prevent the house from getting destroyed.

(3, p. 182) A horrible tragedy happened just at this time, as Jacksons wife died from heart problems that he blamed on the slandering media, but this did not stop him from doing his job. Jackson's presidency came during the very important time of westward expansion when the federal government needed a strong leader to keep up with the quickly growing country. Jackson, or "Old Hickory" as he was nicknamed was the right man for the job. Jackson often contradicted himself in his ways and while he was very supportive of a strong federal government, he was very reluctant to give money to the states for improvements by vetoing bills such as the Maysville Road Bill in 1830. Another great milestone in Jacksons presidency was the nullification crisis of 1828, where South Carolina declared a tariff law passed by the congress null, and was not going to obey it. Jackson would hear of no such thing and doing so would be called treason and the tax would be collected violently if necessary.

(4, p. 150) Possibly the most important event of Jacksons presidency however was the Bank War. Jackson, not having any trust in banks after his misfortune some years back, set out to destroy the Second Bank of the United States. This Bank held a lot of the government money and controlled inflation by regulating money flow to smaller, state banks. Jackson proceeded to take all of the government money out of the bank, to which the bank responded by calling in most of its debts and seriously stunting the economy in the following few years. (3, p. 189-190) Jackson went on to win another election in 1832 and after serving this term, he retired once again to his plantation where he died peacefully in his home on June 8th of 1845. Jackson affected the growth of the nation in more ways than one during this important western expansion era.

Some were good, while others were not. Some came during his 8 years as a president while others happened before he stepped into the office. One of the latter, which actually continued well into his presidency was his hostility towards the Indians. As the nation grew, the need for land became greater and greater, and Jackson more than willing to take this land from the Indians. A good example would be the Creek war, where Jackson defeated the creeks, killing thousands and forcing them to sign a treaty giving up most of their land. During his presidency, Jackson pushed through congress a bill that would prove to be the most deadly for the Indians.

This act was called the Indian removal act and gave government funds for relocating Indians, using force if they failed to comply (3, p. 188). This resulted in the relocation of tens of thousands of Indians from their land to reservations. Many Indians died before they even got to the reservations, and even when they did, the land was often infertile and the climate wrong to continue the lifestyle the previously led. As horrible as this was, the fact of still remains that his actions helped the expansion of the nation by opening up a lot of new land for settlers. In addition to taking land from the Indians, Jackson also participated in the American purchase of Florida from the Spanish, extending the border further south and providing better access to the west of the pacific. During this period, technology was developing very quickly as well, and with huge technological advances in travel, with roads, canals and railroads, which let people and goods travel much more quickly, these lands got filled up quicker then they were obtained.

Even though Jackson contributed a great deal to getting new land for the nation, he also contributed to some setbacks in the building of the nations transportation system. A good example of this was his vetoing of the Maysville Road Bill in 1830. The bill was asking the federal government for money to build a branch of the national roadway in Kentucky. The people of the state were not happy about this, but Jackson stood by his decision saying that this sort of funding should be left to the state. (3, p 182) On one hand, Jackson wanted a strong central government, to unify the nation as a nation instead of just a pack of weakly bound states. This was the reason he was son unforgiving during the nullification crisis, when South Carolina refused to obey to the new tariff laws scared that if they charge foreign traders more, they might in return charge greater tariffs on their cotton.

Jackson saw this as a threat to the wholeness of the nation and told South Carolina he would see it as treason if they failed to comply. He especially believed in a strong president and acted like one, using his veto power more then all of the previous presidents combined (3, p. 182). When it came to funding state operations on the other hand, he believed that the federal government should have nothing to do with it and funding things such as roadways was to be left up to the states themselves. This was also the original intent of the writers of the constitution who never meant the federal government to get as bloated as it is today. In another strong move that influenced the growth of the nation in a negative way, Jackson declared war on the Second Bank of United States. This bank served an important purpose in the United States economy at the time.

There was no national currency, and although gold and silver coins were still widely used, banks in different states printed their own paper currency that they then loaned out. If the bank was loaning out way more then it had ability to pay back, the second bank of united states would ask for a repayment of its loans in hard currency, which made the small banks make sure they had enough money at all times (3, p 189). The bank also held 10 million dollars of the federal government money, giving it political power as well. Jackson did not like that. He had a hatred for banks that he developed many years back when his partners in business went bankrupt, for which he blamed the bank and paper money system. He vetoed the rechartering bill for the bank and went on to withdraw all government funds from it (4, p. 171-175).

The owners of the bank responded by asking back for all its commercial loans. The recession that followed was short, and was then followed a great rise in economy. New local banks as well as foreign investors were giving out even more loans then before. Paper currency was being used left and right which made Jackson unhappy and resulted in him passing an act that said that anyone buying land from the government had to pay in hard money which was impossible for most people since they bought land on money borrowed from the banks and this money was paper. (4, p. 188) This led a 6 year long recession which stunted the growth of the nation instead of bettering it as Jackson was hoping. In his 78 years of life, Jackson managed to accomplish a great deal of things.

From his early war experience at 13, to becoming a lawyer, to seats in both the house and the senate, to leading both state and national armies and of course his 2 terms as president, he played a big role in the development of this country in his period. Although not all of these achievements were positive, overall, he helped steer and shape this nation and it's government to where it is today.

Bibliography

1). Hal Morris. From Revolution to reconstruction. 3-6-2003 (2).
Grolier Presents, The American Presidency Copyright (c) 2000 Grolier Incorporated.
All rights reserved. (3). John Mack Faragher, Mari Jo Buhl e, Daniel Czitrom, Suzan H. Armitage. Out of Many - A history of the american people. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: prentice hall, 2002 (4).
Richard B. Later. The presidency of Andrew Jackson. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1979.