American Minute with Bill Federer
"Old Hickory": A fiery General & President during America's Formative Era
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Beginning in 1606,
England's King James I
transplanted large numbers of
Presbyterians from Scotland
into
Ulster, a province in Northern Ireland.
They were mostly
tenant farmers
who grew
flax
for the
linen industry
and
grazed sheep
for the
wool industry.
In the first half of the 1700s,
Ulster farmers
suffered from
rising rents
and a
famine.
This led to
a great Ulster migration
of over 250,000
Scots-Irish Protestants
to America.
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One of these families was the
Jackson family.
Andrew Jackson's
Scots-Irish parents
emigrated to America two years before his birth, March 15, 1767.
A month before he was born,
his father died
in a
log-hauling accident
in Waxhaw hills of North Carolina.
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Andrew Jackson's
life overlapped
significant periods of American history:
- Colonial Period;
- Revolutionary War;
- new Republic;
- admission of states Vermont, 1791, Kentucky, 1792, Tennessee, 1796, Ohio, 1803;
- Louisiana Purchase, 1803;
- Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806;
- admission of Louisiana, 1812;
- War of 1812;
- settling Northwest Territory;
- admission of Indiana, 1816, Mississippi, 1817, Illinois, 1818, Alabama, 1819,
- acquisition of Florida from Spain, 1819;
- growth of slavery versus anti-slavery sentiments;
- admission of Maine, Missouri Compromise, 1820;
- admission of Missouri, 1821;
- formation of Democrat Party, 1828,
- westward expansion and Indian wars;
- Indian Removal Act of 1830;
- Texas independence, 1836;
- admission of Arkansas, 1836, Michigan, 1837, Florida, 1845;
- financial panic and bank wars; and
- first assassination plot on a sitting U.S. President.
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At age 13,
Andrew Jackson
joined a local militia to fight during the
Revolutionary War.
His eldest brother,
Hugh Jackson,
died during the
Battle of Stono Ferry,
June 20, 1779.
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Andrew
and another brother,
Robert,
were taken prisoner and nearly starved to death.
Robert
contracted smallpox in prison and died.
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A British officer ordered young
Andrew Jackson
to polish his boots.
When
Andrew
refused, the officer drew his sword and slashed him across the head, arm and hand, leaving
Andrew
with permanent scars.
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On May 29, 1780, British forces, numbering 14,000, laid
siege to Charleston, South Carolina.
After six weeks,
American Major General Benjamin Lincoln
surrendered.
Nearly
6,000 Americans were taken captive,
the largest number of Americans taken captive prior to the Civil War.
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Buildings were converted into
prisons,
and many
prisoners
were put on
British starving ships
where they contracted diseases.
Andrew Jackson's mother,
Elizabeth,
along with other women, volunteered to care for the sick American prisoners.
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Tragically,
Elizabeth Jackson
contracted "ship fever" and died, being buried in an unmarked grave.
Andrew Jackson
was an orphan at age 14.
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Jackson
supported and educated himself, eventually becoming a frontier country lawyer,
In 1788, at the age of 21, was appointed prosecutor of the Western District.
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In 1796, at the age of 29,
Jackson
was elected as a delegate to the
Tennessee constitutional convention,
where he is credited with proposing the Indian name
"Tennessee."
Tennessee
citizens elected
Jackson
a
U.S. Congressman,
then
U.S. Senator.
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In 1798,
Jackson
served as a
judge
on
Tennessee's Supreme Court.
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Speculating in land,
Jackson
bought the
Hermitage plantation
near
Nashville
and was one of three investors who founded
Memphis
.
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Conflicts with
Indians
increased, being incited by
British.
The
New Madrid Earthquake
temporarily reversed the flow of the Mississippi River and the
Great Comet of 1811
helped convince Indians to back
Shawnee Chief Tecumseh,
whose name meant "shooting star."
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Indians were armed by the
British
during the
War of 1812.
British
backed
Red Stick Creek Indians massacred 500 Americans
at
Fort Mims, Alabama.
"Red Stick"
in French is pronounced
"Baton Rouge."
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Andrew Jackson
was sent to fight the
Red Stick Creek Indians
at the
Battle of Horseshoe Bend
in 1814.
One of
Jackson's soldiers
was the young
Sam Houston,
who was wounded, but kept fighting.
Another soldier was
Davy Crockett,
who later became a Tennessee Congressman.
Davy Crockett
and
Sam Houston
helped
Texas
gain independence from Mexico.
Another of Jackson's soldiers was
Thomas Hart Benton,
who went on to become one of
Missouri's first U.S. Senators.
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During the
War of 1812,
at the
Battle of Tallasehatchee,
a dead Creek woman was found clutching her living baby.
The other Indian women refused to care for the infant boy, so
Jackson
brought him home and raised him as his son, naming him
Lincoyer.
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Andrew Jackson
drove the
British out of Pensacola,
November 9, 1814, then left the city in the control of the
Spanish.
He went on to defend
Mobile,
Alabama, then
New Orleans, Louisiana.
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A strict battlefield officer,
Jackson
was described as being "tough as old hickory," leading to his nickname
"Old Hickory."
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Against overwhelming odds,
Andrew Jackson
defeated 10,000
British
at the
Battle of New Orleans
on January 8, 1815.
Aided by
Jean Lafitte's French pirates,
along with
Kentucky and Tennessee sharpshooters,
over 2,000 British were killed or wounded, as compared to only 71 American casualties.
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Considered the greatest American land victory of the war,
General Andrew Jackson
wrote to Robert Hays, January 26, 1815:
"It appears that the unerring
hand of Providence
shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets, when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death."
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In 1817,
President Monroe
charged
Jackson
with stopping
Seminoles
in
Florida
from
raiding into
Georgia,
resulting in the
First Seminole War.
With
Spain
exhausted after
Napoleon's invasion,
and with
Mexico fighting for Independence,
the
Spanish government
agreed to
cede Florida to the U.S.
in 1819 in exchange for payment, according to
John Quincy Adams' Adams-Onís Treaty.
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This led to
Jackson
serving as
Florida's first territorial governor.
The city of
Jacksonville
is named for him.
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Circuit-riding preacher Peter Cartwright
wrote of meeting
Jackson
(Autobiography of Peter Cartwright the Backwoods Preacher,
pp. 192-194):
"I then read my text: 'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?'
After reading my text I paused. At that moment I saw
General Jackson
walking up the aisle; he came to the middle post, and very gracefully leaned against it, and stood, as there were no vacant seats.
Just then I felt someone pull my coat in the stand, and turning my head, my fastidious preacher whispering a little loud, said:
'General Jackson
has come in;
General Jackson
has come in.'
I felt a flash of indignation run all over me like an electric shock, and facing about to my congregation, and purposely speaking out audibly, I said, 'Who is
General Jackson?
If he don't get his soul converted, God will damn him as quick as he would ...'
... Shortly after ... I met the
General
on the pavement; and before I approached him by several steps he smiled and reached out his hand and said:
'Mr. Cartwright,
you are a man after my own heart. I am very much surprised at Mr. Mac, to think he would suppose that I would be offended at you. No, sir; I told him that I highly approved of your independence; that a minister of Jesus Christ ought to love everybody and fear no mortal man. I told Mr. Mac that if I had a few thousand such independent, fearless officers as you were, and a well-drilled army, I could take old England."
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Peter Cartwright
continued:
"General Jackson
was certainly a very extraordinary man ... He always showed a great respect for the Christian religion, and the feelings of religious people, especially ministers of the Gospel. I will here relate a little incident that shows his respect for religion.
I had preached one Sabbath near
the Hermitage,
and, in company with several gentlemen and ladies, went, by special invitation, to dine with the
General.
Among this company here was
a young sprig of a lawyer
from
Nashville,
of very ordinary intellect, and he was trying hard to make an infidel of himself.
As I was the only preacher present, this
young lawyer
kept pushing his conversation on me, in order to get into an argument. I tried to evade an argument ... This seemed to inspire
the young man
with more confidence ...
I saw
General Jackson's
eye strike fire, as he sat by and heard the thrusts he made at Christian religion. At length
the young lawyer
asked me this question:
'Mr. Cartwright
, do you really believe there is any such place as hell, as a place of torment?' I answered promptly, 'Yes, I do.' To which he responded, 'Well, I thank God I have too much sense to believe any such thing.'
I was pondering in my own mind whether I would answer him or not, when
General Jackson
for the first time broke into the conversation, and directing his words to
the young man,
said with great earnestness: 'Well, sir, I thank God that there is such a place of torment as hell.'
This sudden answer made with great earnestness seemed to astonish the youngster, and he exclaimed: 'Why,
General Jackson,
what do you want with such a place of torment as hell?'
To which the
General
replied, as quick as lightning, 'To put such d-----d rascals as you are in, that oppose and vilify the Christian religion' ...
The
young lawyer
was struck dumb, and presently was found missing."
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Jackson's wife, Rachel,
was divorced by her first husband, but she was unaware that he had failed to file the papers, leaving her still legally bound when she married
Jackson.
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Jackson
defended his wife's honor, even challenging slanderers to duel him.
His many duels left him with so many bullet fragments in his body, that they said he "rattled like a bag of marbles" when he walked.
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Jackson
described his
wife
as the most pious person he ever knew.
He wrote to her, December 21, 1823:
"I trust that the god of Isaac and of Jacob will protect you, and give you health in my absence, in him alone we ought to trust, he alone can preserve, and guide us through this troublesome world, and I am sure he will hear your prayers.
We are told that the prayers of the righteous prevaileth much, and I add mine for your health and preservation until we meet again."
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During his Presidential campaign, the vicious personal attacks on his wife brought her so much stress that she suffered a stroke and died.
Her last words before collapsing were: “I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to live in that palace in Washington.”
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Rachel
was buried Christmas Eve, 1828, on the Hermitage estate, dressed in the inaugural gown she would have worn in Washington.
Weeping profusely, Jackson said:
“I know it’s unmanly, but these tears are due her virtues. She has shed many for me ... In the presence of this dear saint, I can and do forgive my enemies. But those vile wretches who have slandered her must look to God for mercy."
Jackson
stated:
"Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there."
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Three months later,
Jackson
was sworn in as the
7th President,
March 4, 1829.
In his 2nd Inaugural Address,
Andrew Jackson
stated:
"It is my fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our Republic to the present day ...
that He will ... inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from danger."
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Andrew Jackson
is considered the founder of the modern
Democrat Party.
Like many Presidents,
Jackson
has detractors, as he made both
positive
and
negative
decisions
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A recent example of such is
Democrat President Bill Clinton.
He was impeached in 1998 for perjury in a sexual scandal and introduced the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" sexual policy in the military, yet he
balanced the budget,
reduced welfare recipients,
and signed the
Defense of Marriage Act
--
defining marriage as one man and one woman.
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Andrew Jackson,
the
first Democrat President,
had
negative
and
positive
aspects.
He supported slavery of Africans and signed the infamous Indian Removal Act -- a big government solution disregarding Indian sovereignty;
yet he
paid off the national debt
-- the only President ever to do so, and curtailed the power of globalist-type bankers in
The Bank War.
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The Bank War
began when
Nicholas Biddle
sought to have his
Second Bank of the United States
gain monopoly
control over the nation's financial system.
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Twenty percent of the bank was owned by foreign investors.
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Andrew Jackson
withdrew Federal funds out of the
Second Bank of the United States
and vetoed a renewal of its charter, stating in 1832:
"Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence, it would be more ... dangerous than the naval and military power of the enemy ..."
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He continued:
"Some of the powers ... possessed by the existing bank are unauthorized by the Constitution, subversive of the rights of the States, and dangerous to the liberties of the people."
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Andrew Jackson
told his Vice-President Martin Van Buren:
"The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it."
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On May 6, 1833,
Jackson
was on his way to lay the cornerstone for the monument to George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington.
Stopping at Alexandria, Virginia,
Robert Randolph
came up and struck the President, then ran away.
He was chased down by those accompanying the President, including writer
Washington Irving,
but
Jackson
refused to press charges.
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Then, on January 30, 1835, following a funeral in Washington,
Richard Lawrence
approached
Jackson
and fired two pistols at him at point blank range, but both misfired, possibly due to a fog dampening the gunpowder.
Davy Crockett
wrestled the assailant down.
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Senator Thomas Hart Benton
wrote how the incident:
"... irresistibly carried many minds to the belief in
a superintending Providence,
manifested in the extraordinary case of two pistols in succession -- so well loaded, so cooly handled, and which afterwards fired with such readiness, force, and precision -- missing fire each in his turn, when leveled eight feet
at the President's heart."
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King William IV of England
heard of the incident and expressed his concern.
President Jackson
wrote back, exclaiming:
"A kind
Providence
had been pleased to shield me against the recent attempt upon my life, and irresistibly carried many minds to the belief in
a superintending Providence."
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Since
Andrew Jackson's wife had died
before he took office, his nephew's wife,
Emily Donelson,
served as the
unofficial First Lady.
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When
Emily Donelson
died suddenly,
President Jackson
wrote to her husband,
Colonel Andrew Jackson Donelson,
December 30, 1836:
"We cannot recall her, we are commanded by our dear Saviour, not to mourn for the dead, but for the living ...
She has changed a world of woe for a world of eternal happiness, and we ought to prepare as we too must follow ... 'The Lord's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'"
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On March 25, 1835,
Andrew Jackson
wrote in a letter to Ellen Hanson:
"I was brought up a rigid Presbyterian, to which I have always adhered.
Our excellent Constitution guarantees to everyone freedom of religion, and charity tells us (and you know Charity is the real basis of all true religion) and charity says judge the tree by its fruit.
All who profess Christianity believe in a Savior, and that by and through Him we must be saved ..."
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Jackson
concluded:
"We ought, therefore, to consider all good Christians whose walks correspond with their professions, be they Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist or Roman Catholic."
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On JUNE 8, 1845,
"Old Hickory"
died.
Jackson
had stated, referring to the Bible:
"That book, Sir, is the Rock upon which our republic rests."
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During the War of 1812,
General Andrew Jackson
penned his 2nd Division Orders, March 7, 1812:
"Who are we? and for what are we going to fight?
Are we the titled slaves of George the third? the military conscripts of Napoleon the great? or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar?
No,
we are the free born sons of America;
the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world;
and
the only people on Earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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