A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term

Excerpt

ANDREW JACKSON

Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw Settlement, North or South Carolina, on the 15th of March, 1767. He was a son of Andrew Jackson, an Irishman, who emigrated to America in 1765 and died in 1767. The name of his mother was Elizabeth Hutchinson. There is little definite information about the schools that he attended. According to Parton, "He learned to read, to write, and cast accounts—little more." Having taken arms against the British in 1781, he was captured, and afterwards wounded by an officer because he refused to clean the officer's boots. About 1785 he began to study law at Salisbury, N.C. In 1788 removed to Nashville, Tenn., where he began to practice law. About 1791 he married Rachel Robards, originally Rachel Donelson, whose first husband was living and had taken preliminary measures to obtain a divorce, which was legally completed in 1793. The marriage ceremony was again performed in 1794. He was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of Tennessee in 1796, and in the autumn of that year was elected Representative to Congress by the people of Tennessee, which State was then entitled to only one member. Supported Thomas Jefferson in the Presidential election of 1796. In 1797 became a Senator of the United States for the State of Tennessee. Resigned his seat in the Senate in 1798; was a judge of the supreme court of Tennessee from 1798 till 1804. After war had been declared against Great Britain, General Jackson (who several years before had been appointed major-general of militia) offered his services and those of 2,500 volunteers in June, 1812. He was ordered to New Orleans, and led a body of 2,070 men in that direction; but at Natchez he received an order, dated February 6, 1813, by which his troops were dismissed from public service. In October, 1813, he took the field against the Creek Indians, whom he defeated at Talladega in November. By his services in this Creek war, which ended in 1814, he acquired great popularity, and in May, 1814, was appointed a major-general in the Regular Army; was soon afterwards ordered to the Gulf of Mexico, to oppose an expected invasion of the British. In November he seized Pensacola, which belonged to Spain, but was used by the British as a base of operations. About the 1st of December he moved his army to New Orleans, where he was successful in two engagements with the British, and afterwards gained his famous victory on January 8, 1815. This was the last battle of the war, a treaty of peace having been signed on December 24, 1814. In 1817-18 he waged a successful war against the Seminoles in Florida, seized Pensacola, and executed Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two British subjects, accused of inciting the savages to hostile acts against the Americans. He was appointed governor of Florida in 1821. In 1823 was elected a Senator of the United States, and nominated as candidate for the Presidency by the legislature of Tennessee. His competitors were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and William H....