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Andrew Jackson ranks among the most controversial presidents of all time -- and he's surely one of my favorite to learn about. I came across this article that has a few "interesting facts" about Jackson:
On another thread, I made comments about Jackson's hate of Indians and his shameful Trail of Tears and got torn into as being an anti-American and hateful person.
I still think of Charlton Heston and what a hero they made of him.
His face should be taken off the $20 bill. His life was saved in battle by the Cherokees. He was an honorary member of their tribe. He promised them loyalty for all time. Then he shafts them by taking their land. White people went into Indian houses while they were eating dinner and threw them out of their own homes! The Cherokees assimilated quickly, had a prosperous nation, a newspaper, grist milles, etc. They lived very well, were industrous, all of which made their land valuable to whites. Jackson sent them on a death march (in winter) to a barren land. To him they were just ignorant savages.
Not covered in the linked list is the fact that Andrew Jackson was the only US president to kill someone outside of war.
May 30th, 1806, Jackson met in a duel and killed a rival Tennessee horse breeder, Charles Dickinson. Dickinson had charged Jackson with welching on a bet, and also mocked the legitimacy of Jackson's marriage. Them was fightin' words for the volcanic tempered Jackson.
In the duel, Dickinson fired first and hit Jackson in the chest near his heart. The tough as nails Jackson stayed on his feet, took aim and pulled the trigger. The pistol misfired. A debate broke out among the seconds as to whether this counted as Jackson's shot or not, and while they were talking, Jackson recocked his pistol and shot Dickinson dead.
Andrew Jackson did what needed to be done to open the Southron states up for White and Black settlement. If it were so bad why did many of the Five Civilized Tribes side with the Confederacy during the war. I am just saying if he did not do what he did I might not be alive today because my ancestors may have never settled the deep south.
Also Andrew Jackson completely eliminated the national debt. Grant the following years we fell into a economic panic but still. He is the only president to ever completely pay off the national debt.
I find it ironic that the author of the piece left out the Nullification Crisis, which was Jackson's most positive accomplishment as POTUS. His defiance of the Supreme Court and the removal of the Cherokee was plainly shameful as factoryrat stated. Two of Jackson's other "accomplishments", particularly the introduction of the "spoils system" and the destruction of the Bank of the United States, negatively impacted the country for decades afterward. It was no accident that the Pendleton Act was passed in 1883, 2 years after President James Garfield was assassinated by a disappointed job seeker. Furthermore, because it lacked a central bank to control currency and the money supply, the US continually suffered from spectacular boom-and-bust cycles pretty regularly from 1837 until 1929. It was only with the monetary measures, including giving more power to the Federal Reserve, instituted in response to the Great Depression that business cycles in the US ceased resembling an "extreme" roller coaster ride (until 2008, which resulted, in part, from relaxation of federal oversight of the banking system).
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