Andrew Jackson
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
THE familiar labels "The Age of Jackson" and
"Jacksonian Democracy" identify Andrew Jackson with the era
in which he lived and with the advancement of political democracy. This
honor may exaggerate his importance, but it also acknowledges the
important truth that Jackson significantly contributed to shaping the
American nation and its politics. Just as contemporaneous artists so often
depicted him astride his horse overseeing the battlefield, Jackson
bestrode some of the key currents of nineteenth-century American political
life.
Jackson's presidency began on a sunny, spring-like day, 4 March
1829. Dressed in a simple black suit and without a hat, partly out of
respect for his recently deceased wife, Rachel, and partly in keeping with
traditions of republican simplicity, Jackson made his way on foot along a
thronged Pennsylvania Avenue. From the east portico of the Capitol, he
delivered his inaugural address?inaudible except to those close
by?in which he promised to be "animated by a proper
respect" for the rights of the separate states. He then took the
oath of office, placed his Bible to his lips, and made a parting bow to
the audience. With great difficulty, he made his way through the crowd,
mounted his horse, and headed for the White House and what had been
intended as a reception for "ladies and gentlemen."
What next took place has become a part of American political folklore.
According to one observer, the White House was inundated "by the
rabble mob," which, in its enthusiasm for the new president and the
refreshments, almost crushed Jackson to death while making a shambles of
the house. Finally, Jackson was extricated from the mob and taken to his
temporary quarters at a nearby hotel. "The reign of King
'Mob' seemed triumphant," one cynic scoffed. There
was little doubt that Jackson's presidency was going to be
different from that of any of his predecessors. Daniel Webster put it best
when he predicted that Jackson would bring a "breeze with him.
Which way it will blow I cannot tell."
Webster's uncertainty is readily understandable because Jackson was
a relative newcomer to national politics. Jackson was born on 15 March
1767, in the Waxhaw settlement, a frontier border area between North and
South Carolina, where his early life was marked by misfortune and
misadventure. His Scotch-Irish father had joined the tide of immigrants
seeking improved economic and political conditions in the New World, only
to die after two years, leaving his pregnant wife and two sons. The third
son, whom she named Andrew after her late husband, was born just days
later. As a young man during the Revolutionary War, Jackson also lost both
his brothers and his mother.
Despite these inauspicious beginnings, Jackson received some formal
education at local academies and schools, and following the Revolution, he
left the Waxhaw community to study law with two prominent members of the
North Carolina bar. In the 1780s, after finding little legal work in North
Carolina, he migrated to Tennessee, where he showed the good sense to
identify himself with the BlountOverton faction, a group of prominent men
bound together by politics, land speculation, and, increasingly, financial
and banking interests.
The eager, hardworking, and talented young Jackson soon received a host of
political rewards. He became a public prosecutor, attorney general for the
Mero District, delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention, a
member of Congress, a United States senator, and a judge of the Superior
Court of Tennessee. By the year 1800, he was the leader of the Western
branch of the Blount-Overton faction.
Military positions also came Jackson's way, and he gradually
advanced from his appointment as judge advocate for the Davidson County
militia in 1792 to be elected major general of the Tennessee militia a
decade later. At the same time, he accumulated significant amounts of
property, establishing himself as a member of the Tennessee elite by
purchasing a plantation, first at Hunter's Hill and then, in 1804,
at the Hermitage, near Nashville.
Jackson's enormous military success during the War of 1812,
culminating in the Battle of New Orleans, made him a national hero, and
during the winter of 1821?1822, political friends placed his name
before the country as a presidential candidate in the election of 1824.
His first presidential bid fell short, for in a four-way contest, Jackson
won a plurality of the popular vote but failed to receive an electoral
majority. The decision rested with the House of Representatives, and John
Quincy Adams emerged victorious after receiving the support of Henry Clay.
When Adams appointed Clay as his secretary of state and heir apparent,
Jacksonians alleged a "corrupt bargain." Jackson himself
always believed that the will of the people had been corruptly overturned,
and he denounced Clay as "the
Judas
of the West." Although it is unlikely that Adams and Clay actually
made a secret deal, Jackson had a telling point in that Clay's
action deprived the most popular candidate of the presidency. The incident
strengthened Jackson's conviction that a republic should be based
on the democratic principle of majority, not elite, rule.
Four years later, Old Hickory was vindicated. In the election of 1828, he
received about 56 percent of the popular vote and carried virtually every
electoral vote south of the Potomac River and west of New Jersey. Yet
Jackson's victory was the product of a diverse coalition of groups
rather than of a coherent political party. In addition to the original
Jackson men from the campaign of 1824, there were the followers of New
York's Martin Van Buren and Jackson's vice president, South
Carolina's John C. Calhoun; former Federalists; and groups of
"relief men," who during the Panic of 1819 had bucked the
established political interests by advocating reforms to help indebted
farmers and artisans.
Further, there were few clear-cut issues dividing the candidates. Instead,
popular attention was captured by a host of scurrilous charges that
dragged the contest down to the level of mud-slinging. Rachel, for
example, was accused of bigamy in marrying Jackson while she was legally
attached to another man. Jackson men, in addition to harping on the
corrupt-bargain charge, accused Adams of pimping for the czar while he was
minister to Russia.
Nevertheless, there were signs even in that campaign of Jackson's
future course. The Jackson men
General Andrew Jackson's victory over the British at the
Battle of New Orleans in 1815 catapulted him to national fame and a
future in politics.
BETTMANN/CORBIS
of 1828 already displayed elements of the political organization that
would emerge during his presidency. Significantly, his followers showed
themselves more adept than the opposition at appealing to the people and
organizing grassroots sentiment. The center of the Jackson campaign was
the Nashville Central Committee, whose key members were Jackson's
earliest and closest associates in Tennessee politics, such as John Eaton,
John Overton, and William B. Lewis. This committee linked together the
numerous state and local Jackson organizations and worked closely with
political leaders in Washington.
The Jackson committees encouraged a more popular and democratic style of
politics by organizing rallies, parades, and militia musters; helping to
sustain Jackson newspapers; and encouraging voters to cast their ballots
for Jackson on election day. This was the first election in which gimmicks
such as campaign songs, jokes, and cartoons were extensively used to
arouse popular enthusiasm. Years before, Jackson's soldiers had
given him the nickname Old Hickory to signify both his toughness and their
affection for him. During the 1828 campaign, his followers ceremoniously
planted hickory trees in village and town squares, and sported hickory
canes and hats with hickory leaves. Hickory poles, symbolically connecting
Jackson to the liberty poles of the revolutionary era, were erected
"in every village, as well as upon the corners of many city
streets." Jackson himself, while avoiding overt electioneering
displays, carefully supervised this political activity.
The election of 1828 also hinted at Jackson's future program. Until
recently, Jackson was rarely considered a man with any coherent political
views. Most accounts treated him as a confused, opportunistic, and
inconsistent politician. Jackson, to be sure, had no formal political
philosophy, but he adhered to certain underlying values and ideas with a
degree of consistency throughout his long political career.
Jackson's philosophy owed much to the teachings of Thomas Jefferson
and to the tradition of republican liberty of the revolutionary
generation. One of the unique products of the American Revolution was the
new and distinctive definition it gave to classical and Renaissance
traditions of republicanism. Revolutionary thinkers taught that liberty
was always jeopardized by excessive power and that a proper balance and
limitation of governmental powers was essential to assure freedom. In
addition, this ideology of republicanism also emphasized that the
character and spirit of the people?what was called public
virtue?were fundamental to maintaining a free society. A virtuous
citizenry was necessary to liberty, and whatever corrupted the people
thereby corrupted their institutions. Rooted in an agrarian, premodern
society, traditional republican thought warned of the competing dangers
inherent in an expansive market economy, such as stockjobbing, paper
credit, funded debts, powerful moneyed interests, a swollen bureaucracy,
and extreme inequality of condition.
During the nineteenth century, Americans accommodated
republicanism's precapitalistic bias to the dramatic changes in
transportation, communication, and economic activity that have been called
the Market Revolution. Especially after the War of 1812, Americans
acknowledged that it was no longer possible or even desirable to maintain
a rigid agrarian social order. They increasingly accepted as beneficial
certain material and moral aspects of a developing economy. Economic
ambition, for example, need not breed only luxury and corruption; it could
also promote industriousness, frugality, and other republican virtues.
Nevertheless, many Americans continued to harbor anxieties that the
emerging world of commerce, banking, and manufacturing endangered the
conditions essential to maintain liberty. In short, the language of
republicanism remained potent throughout the Jacksonian era, but its
diagnosis of the condition of the American republic was subject to
different interpretations.
These ideas left their mark on Jackson. It was evident in his highly
moralistic tone; his agrarian sympathies; his devotion to the principles
of states' rights and limited government; and his fear that
speculation, moneyed interests, and human greed would corrupt his
country's republican character and institutions. At the same time,
he was not a rigid traditionalist. He accepted economic progress, a
permanent and expanding Union with sovereign authority, and democratic
politics. His philosophy, therefore, brought together the not entirely
compatible ideals of economic progress, political democracy, and
traditional republicanism.
In the campaign of 1828, Jackson's sentiments distinguished him
from Adams. While Adams viewed an active and positive government as
promoting liberty, Jackson preferred to limit governmental power and
return to the path of Jeffersonian purity. The comparison was by no means
perfect. Jackson intended no states' rights crusade, and he
dissatisfied some idealists, particularly in the South, by endorsing some
tariff protection and the distribution of any surplus revenue back to the
states. Yet it was evident that, compared to his opponent, Jackson would
qualify federal activity. He considered his victory a moral mandate to
restore "the real principles of the constitution as understood when
it was first adopted, and practiced upon in 1798 and 1800." His
specific program was to become clear only as his presidency unfolded.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A short, highly interpretive biography of Andrew Jackson emphasizing his
psychological impulses is James C. Curtis,
Andrew Jackson and the Search for Vindication
(Boston, 1976). The best modern biography of Jackson is a three-volume
work by Robert V. Remini:
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767?1821
(New York, 1977),
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822?1832
(New York, 1981), and
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833?1845
(New York, 1984). On the influence of republican ideology on
Jackson's presidency, consult Richard B. Latner,
The Presidency of Andrew Jackson: White House Politics,
1829?1837
(Athens, Ga., 1979), and Harry L. Watson,
Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America
(New York, 1990). For a different view of Jackson's presidency,
see Donald B. Cole,
The Presidency of Andrew Jackson
(Lawrence, Kans., 1993). Drew R. McCoy,
The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1980), explains the complexity of republican
thinking in an earlier era.
Historians have long debated the meaning of Jacksonian politics. Marvin
Meyers,
The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief
(Stanford, Calif., 1957), is in many respects the most successful
interpretation of Jacksonianism. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,
The Age of Jackson
(Boston, 1945), still offers a vivid portrait of the democratic
qualities of Jacksonian politics. Charles Sellers,
The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815?1846
(New York, 1991), is a learned and comprehensive account of Jacksonian
America's confrontation with the market revolution.
On the political issues of Jackson's presidency, Matthew A.
Crenson,
The Federal Machine: Beginnings of Bureaucracy in Jacksonian America
(Baltimore, 1975), places Jackson's administrative actions in a
broad social framework. Daniel Feller,
The Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics
(Madison, Wis., 1984), thoroughly examines the political and sectional
dimensions of this issue. On Indian policy, Michael Paul Rogin,
Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the
American Indian
(New
York, 1975), is both insightful and controversial in its psychological
orientation. Ronald N. Satz,
American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era
(Lincoln, Nebr., 1974), is an excellent analysis of the many aspects of
Indian removal. Anthony F. C. Wallace,
The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians
(New York, 1993), provides a brief and useful introduction to the
process of Indian removal.
Jackson's banking and financial policy is critically examined in
Bray Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War
(Princeton, N.J., 1957). John M. McFaul,
The Politics of Jacksonian Finance
(Ithaca, N.Y., 1972), is more favorable to Jackson, while Peter Temin,
The Jacksonian Economy
(New York, 1969), places economic events in an international and
theoretical context. William W. Freehling,
Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina,
1816?1836
(New York, 1966), is a model historical study of this crisis. Richard
E. Ellis's excellent study,
The Union at Risk: Jacksonian Democracy, States' Rights, and
the Nullification Crisis
(New York, 1987), argues the strength of nullification. Daniel Walker
Howe,
The Political Culture of the American Whigs
(Chicago, 1979), perceptively explores the values and thinking of the
Whig opposition, while Merrill D. Peterson,
The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun
(New York, 1987), contains a wealth of information about
Jackson's leading opponents.
Two essays that argue that Jackson and the Democratic party tilted
toward the South and slavery are Richard H. Brown, "The Missouri
Crisis, Slavery, and the Politics of Jacksonianism," in
South Atlantic Quarterly
65 (1966), and Leonard L. Richards, "The Jacksonians and
Slavery," in Lewis Perry and Michael Fellman, eds.,
Antislavery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists
(Baton Rouge, La., 1979). Robert V. Remini,
The Legacy of Andrew Jackson: Essays on Democracy, Indian Removal, and
Slavery
(Baton Rouge, La., 1988), provides a useful correction to this view.
Russel B. Nye,
Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy,
1830?1860,
rev. ed. (East Lansing, Mich., 1964), remains an excellent study of the
mail and petition controversies as well as other slavery-related issues.
William W. Freehling,
The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776?1854
(New York, 1990), contains numerous insights about slavery and
politics. Two other studies of southern locales show how Jacksonian
politics operated on a smaller scale: J. Mills Thornton III,
Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800?1860
(Baton Rouge, La., 1978), and Harry L. Watson,
Jacksonian Politics and Community Conflict: The Emergence of the
Second American Party System in Cumberland County, North Carolina
(Baton Rouge, La., 1981).
Jackson's foreign policy receives careful attention in John M.
Belohlavek,
"Let the Eagle Soar!": The Foreign Policy of Andrew
Jackson
(Lincoln, Nebr., 1985). Also useful are William H. Goetzmann,
When the Eagle Screamed: The Romantic Horizon in American Diplomacy,
1800?1860
(New York, 1966), and Paul A. Varg,
United States Foreign Relations: 1820?1860
(East Lansing, Mich., 1979).
Recent works include Robert V. Remini,
Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars
(New York, 2001).
Further reference sources can be found in Robert V. Remini and Robert O.
Rupp,
Andrew Jackson: A Bibliography
(Westport, Conn., 1991).