Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times

I???m on a mission to read one biography of every president, I???m well aware that the earlier ones do not hold up as models of modern ethics or inclusion, Jackson was not one of the better ones in that respect. I knew that going in. My objections are not with the subject, but with the author.

This book was written in 2005. That???s far too late for a lot of the things that were said. Jackson was described as a kind but firm master to the slaves he owned (I wonder if the slaves saw it that way?) he is described as being definitively not racist toward Native Americans because he adopted and raised a Native American boy (after slaughtering his entire village). Violence between Native Americans and white settlers are portrayed sheerly as aggression by savages toward peace loving civilized European settlers. Indigenous peoples are never - not once! - called Native American, usually Indians is used but once simply as red men. Distinctions between tribes are rarely made. The Trail of Tears is a page and a half followed by ???but really he didn???t have any choice and anyway it???s not like it???s racism??? for three pages. The best? A direct quote from a discussion of the black market in imported slaves ???Purchasers got what they wanted: cheap slaves. Sellers got what they wanted: profits. No one suffered, except perhaps the slaves.???

PERHAPS??? EXCUSE ME???

Like I said, I???ve read lots of these now, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe all owned slaves. Adams pere, while an abolitionist, didn???t come to that stance from a conviction of racial equality. Their biographers did the hard work of calling hypocrisy when needed, using the preferred terms for the subjugated peoples in question, and taking a nuanced look at the triumphs and moral failings of their subjects. This one.... didn???t.

It can be said that Andrew Jackson fought his whole life. He fought the British during the Revolutionary War, then he fought his livelihood after his parents and brother died after the war. He fought others as an attorney to become wealthy and infamous in the state of Tennessee. He then fought various different Native American tribes as a Militia commander. Next, he fought the British again, but this time in the War of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans. As Jackson next battled for President, he fought John Quincy Adams, both in 1824, and 1828. Finally, as President, he fought against the Bank of the United States. He always considered himself a man of the people, wanting to work to their will, or what he thought was best for America. Yet, Jackson is a clear sign that maybe the People do not always make the best decisions.

Jackson's assent to the Presidency begins with the election of 1824 against John Quincy Adams. During this election, the common person could vote on who they wanted president (or at least, the white, male, common person). The popular vote showed Jackson as the clear winner, but the Presidency was still decided by the Electoral College. This race was extremely close, with the Electoral votes finishing as follows: Jackson, Adams, William Crawford, and Henry Clay. But Jackson does not get a majority of the votes, so the top three are brought before the House to be picked, yet Clay is the Speaker of the House. Then Crawford had a stroke and fell out of the running, so now it was down to two men: Adams and Jackson. The votes are tallied, and Clay makes the deciding vote in favor of Adams. Adams then names Clay as his Secretary of State. Even though to this day we have not found actual proof of it, clearly some deal was struck that took Jackson out of the running before the votes were tallied. Jackson was, understandably, upset at this ‘corrupt bargain', and railed against Adams, vowing revenge.

Four years later, with the election of 1828, Jackson was prepared to win, and so were his supporters. They railed against Adam's ineffective Presidency, and when that did not work, they seemingly made things up, saying that Adams had broken the sabbath by buying a pool table to gamble on Sundays. Another popular claim was that Admas had offer the Russian Czar a young American virgin for him. The Adams people fired back at Jackson with numerous accusations, saying everything from the fact that Jackson had killed two men, to his fights with numerous people. The most scandalous accusation was that Jackson and his wife Rachel had lived in sin because they had gotten married while Rachel was technically still married to her first husband. The charge was true, but considering the problems getting marriage and/or divorce documents to all parties involved on what was then the American Frontier, and the speed at which both parties went back and made the divorce official, this was an understandable mistake. And besides, the event was over 30 years old by the time Jackson was running, so Jackson thought that no one would remember it. Yet, as we now know, when one is running for President, nothing is off limits. Once this was discovered, the Adams people railed against Jackson for this, causing much anguish for the former General.

In the end, Jackson won, and managed to get the White House, but the personal trials were not over. As Jackson and his wife, Rachel were preparing for Jackson's inaugural address, Rachel Jackson had a heart attack, no doubt from all the stress of the campaign, and died. Andrew Jackson was devastated..

The amount of problems and controversy for Jackson did not stop once he became President. Firstly there was what would come to be known as the Battle of the Petticoats. This was a scandal involving the social status of Margaret Peggy Eaton, the wife of JAckson's Secretary of War John Eaton. She and her husband were being shunned because it had come to light that she and her husband had been married while Margaret had still been married to her first husband. When this development came to light, the wives of the other cabinet members refused to socialize with Margaret. At the time when social status was everything to politicians of the day, this was a devastating development. The problem lasted two years, until Jackson, fed up with the situation, asked for all the cabinet members to resign, which they did. This shows Jackson's inability to effectively manage his cabinet members. With any other situation, Jackson would use his force of will and anger, but here that was of little help, and it made for an embarrassing affair that lasted nearly two years in office.

Perhaps it is because of this scandal, but Jackson began to stop putting trust in his regular cabinet, whom he regularly hired and fired with increasing frequency. He went through 2 Secretaries of War, 5 Secretaries of the Treasury, and 4 Secretaries of State alone. Instead, he came to relay on a batch of political confidants and personal friends for his political advice on what he should do. This informal group of political advisors came to be know as Jackson's ‘Kitchen Cabinet' because they met in the White House kitchen.

Another problem during the first Jackson administration is the Nullification Crisis. This internal political issue arose when Congress passed a tariff on imported goods. Southern planters thought this was an unfair tariff that was skewed toward Northern interests. The planters now had to pay more for goods that they could not produce locally, and other countries would have to pay more for their cotten, meaning that those in the south would have to pay more for goods, and receive less money in return. Those in South Carolina were especially angry, not only voting to not follow the tariff (or ‘nullify' it) , but to also threaten seperating from the union. Jackson was livid at the thought that not only would a state want to basically ignore a tariff from the federal government, but would also threaten to separate from the Union. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed. South Carolina managed to back down after Congress adjusted the Tariff, but this would not be the end of the times that Jackson went to war against something he felt was wrong for the sancinty of the Union.

That would come towards the end of his first term and at the beginning of his second term in office with his battle with the Bank of the United States. This was a bank that Jackson hated because, to him, it represented everything he despised about those who were of the upper elite classes. Jackson believed the bank to be for the privileged and was extremely corrupt, by making loans to influence elections, even calling the Banks Director, Nicholas Biddle, Czar Nicholas. Then, in 1831, wanting to make sure that the Bank received a full renewal of it's charter, Henry Clay and Biddle decided to renew the charter 4 years early, and just months before Jackson would have to be elected for a 2nd term for the 1832 election. They believed that Jackson would never veto the bill to renew the Banks charter because it would put him in a tough spot for reelection. They were wrong. Jackson vetoed the bank, believing that he had fought the many headed serpent that was the Bank of the United States, and won. He used this as his campaign for reelection, saying that he had followed the will of the people, and, far from Clay's and Bidde's hopes, he crushed his political opponent in the election of 1832, easily getting a 2nd term. Then, in order to make sure that Biddle did not try to force him to do anything again, Jackson took the opportunity of Congress being out of session, to move the supply of gold and silver from the Federal Bank to the banks in the States, a move which essentially killed the Bank of the United States.

Once those in Congress had found out what Jackson had done, they were livid, many calling Jackson King Andrew the I, referring to his broad stretch of political power of the executive branch. They also formed what would come to be called the Wig party, meant to oppose Jackson (the name was in reference to the English Whigs, who opposed British Monarchy). Jackson was eventually censured for his actions, being the only president to do so.

Certainly this was not the only thing that Jackson was known for. Indeed, his best know event in office, is also one of the Nation's greatest tragedies. In 1830, Congress passed, and Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act. This act allowed the Federal government to make deals with various Native American tribes for their land east of the Mississippi, for more land to the West. Some tribes left their lands willingly, others fought for their right to stay, but the Cherokee in the boundaries of Georgia, chose a different path. They decided to sue the state, saying that the Cherokee were a independent nation, and did not have to move. It went all the way to the Supreme Court, and they ruled in favor of the Cherokee, saying they did not have to move. But the State of Georgia disagreed, and began massaging people at the border to remove the Cherokee by force if necessary. Eventually, two years later, the state of Georgia forced thousands of Cherokee to go with other tribes West to land given to them by the federal government. The trip was poorly lead and handeed, with ¼ the people dying on the way there, owing to this event getting the nickname, The Trail of Tears. Even though the march itself occurred after Jackson's Presidency, it was still under his watch that nothing was done to uphold the Supreme Court's decision. And many people can attest that apathy, can be sometimes worse than anger/ It remains one of the worst disasters to this day.

There is an old saying that what is right isn't always popular, and what is popular isn't always right. Both sides of the saying could apply to the Jackson Presidency. He sought, for better or worse, to be a President for the people, and he was, whatever that may have cost both him and the nation.
============================================
In the past, I've read some terrible biographies on the Presidents in my quest to read at least one about each of our Commanders in Chief. The last two were by Harlow Guiles Unger, who, I may say, I was not impressed with. To cut a rant short, he tended to write his subjects (James Monroe and John Quincy Adams) with as saint-like a reverence as possible, all the while making up events like he was a 9th grade history student trying to write a essay an hour before it was due. That said, I was expecting a lot more from Brands as I began his book on Jackson. So did this book live up to my expectations? Yes, but with a few caveats.

One of the standout elements of this book is the context that Brands gives on various topics. Where most authors would simply assume that the reader knows certain elements of life in America in the 1800's, Brands does not, and provides interesting tidbits of information surrounding the lives of people at this time. Everything from Tennessee statehood to etiquette during duels is explored here with ample explanation. I learned alot about various different topics that many other authors would not have given time to analyze otherwise. This was a nice departure from most other biographies that I have read, that tend to just stick to their respective person's and little else. This was one of the standout elements of this book, and can be a great reason to read this version of a Jackson biography when compared to so many others.

Another positive is how Jackson is portrayed in this text. While other authors cough Unger cough tend to write their subjects without exploring their more unpleasant aspects, Brands does no such thing. He looks into how Jackson owned slaves in detail, and even explains how many of Jackson's decisions harm the country and caused a nightmare for later Presidents. After nearly two books by Unger, this was a nice change of pace, and represents a balanced look at a complex man.

Yet, this book still has some problems, and I'm going to go back on one of my positives to prove it. For all the good that the context can give to the overall narrative, it does become rather tiresome after a while to read about a political appointee that who could have done with a sentence or two about who he was, when Brands gives him a paragraph or more. This can lead the reader to lose the larger themes at play in favor of the small historical facts Brands displays all too often. .

Another issue is that certain important elements in Jackson's Presidency are barely mentioned, if at all. For example, the fact that Jackson fought against the Bank is given much detail, but the Kitchen cabinet he used as informal advisors, is merely told about, with little detail at all given to the men that made up said cabinet. Also, the all important elections of 1824 and 28 are so briefly mentioned that I had to pause and think ‘That's it?' when I found that Brands had changed topics. Then there are elements of Jackson's personal life. They are almost all but absent. Often, we may see a letter or two, but outside of certain times where it is historically appropriate (say when his wife dies, or when he goes into retirement) we rarely hear about them. This is an element to Jackson the man that is missing and I feel would have given a better understanding to Jackson the President.

Needless to say this biography was one that I felt to be far better than most in terms of its general overview of Jackson's era, and in the life of Jackson himself. Brands manages to present a balanced look at the man, while also providing context to the reader that is welcome. Yet, that context can be filled with seemingly superfluous details. Brands also skipping over Jackson's family, elections, and informal advisers as President makes for a lacking biography overall. For this reason, I give this book a three out of five. I still recommend this if you cannot get your hands on another biography, but you may want to look elsewhere first.