2018-07-26 Andrew Jackson - H.W. Brands (c)2005

From 1754 to 1763 the British and French fought for territory on the then frontier employing rival Indian nations in the fight. When the British won, their erstwhile allies became enemies. Pontiac from Fort Detroit foresaw doom from the expanding English settlements and waged a war of extreme terror and cruelty wherever he could. He was defeated by smallpox, much of it intentionally introduced, as much as by arms. Whites and Indians were in mortal fear of one another.

In the very early 1600's King James invited Scots lowlanders to move in to Northern Ireland to help suppress the savage Irish. As the Irish never gave up the fight and famine struck, many immigrated to western Pennsylvania, then Virginia and the Carolinas. Jackson's family migrated from just outside Belfast to the Carolina border where some of their kin had preceded them. Land title at that time was an uncertain business. Who owned what was often an open question. Before he was born, Jackson's father died while clearing land. His family joined nearby relatives where he was raised a backwoods hardscrabble boy with very little schooling.

When the western wars against the French and then Pontiac subsided the Americans looked forward to expanding, but the British didn't want the security expense involved and banned westward expansion. When the British started levying new taxes to pay for its army in America, the colonists first resisted, then rebelled. The British sought to quash the resistance with a divide and conquer strategy exploiting the natural divisions in the colonies. The South was more royalist, particularly in the tidewaters. The British army was led by men who gave no quarter and took no prisoners. Terror and a lack of mercy or compassion characterized their attitude. Surrender for them was an invitation to massacre.

In 1780 the British moved to occupy Jackson's area. They were contemptuous of the locals and dealt brutally with them. They confiscated and destroyed property at will. Jackson, at 13 yoa, fought as a scout. He was captured and when refusing the humiliation of being forced to clean a British officer's muddy boots, was nearly killed by a sward blow. His character was largely formed by the months of fighting and enduring the privations then in store for prisoners of war.

His mother, Elizabeth, traveled to his prison and secured his and his brother's release in a prisoner exchange. The brother died 2 days after arriving home. Andrew had contracted chicken pox at the prison that manifest itself on his return. He took months to recover. Meanwhile his mother took on a 160 mile journey to free some other relatives from another British prison, but contracted cholera and died leaving Andrew an orphan.

In December 1782 the British withdrew from Charleston and Jackson went there to claim a small inheritance left him by a Scottish uncle. He gambled this away in short order and learned somewhat of a lesson from that debacle. Then he taught school for a bit before deciding on a career as a lawyer.

In September 1783 the British gave up its claims on the American colonies, but retained Canada while Spain held Florida. The inland Indians prepared for trouble now that the restraining influence of the British was gone.

In the early 1780's North Carolina ceded what is now Tennessee back to the United States as it was too unmanageable. The residents gathered to form the state of Franklin, named after the founder most interested in the West. The effort was lost in the confusions wrought by the new Constitution and was soon forgotten. At 21 yoa Jackson was appointed attorney general for the western territory of North Carolina. He traveled to the frontier town of Nashville to begin his career.

Jackson moved to Cumberland Kentucky and boarded with a local woman, Rachel, estranged from her husband. Divorce was difficult then and the couple reunited. When the husband's jealous streak resurfaced, Jackson stood him down, but soon moved out. Jackson was valued as a militia man in a dangerous region where settlers were killed by Indians every week or two. The husband again left and filed for divorce. Jackson and Rachel eloped to Spanish territory and returned married, but eventually discovered here divorce hadn't been finalized till two years later. So with prompting, they married legally 3 years after the fact. The scandal faded and was forgotten until Jackson's run for president caused it to resurface.

When congress separated Tennessee away from North Carolina and into the western territories, Jackson's job holding as attorney general evaporated. On pointing this out he was hired on as attorney general for the southwestern territories. This position being part time, he began trading in goods and land to earn a living. Slaves were part of the economy and were used as payment when money was lacking. Jackson first acquired a slave as part of a land deal. As time went on he came to buy and sell slaves as he did goods and land. He didn't leave any indication he had moral reservations about it. He was a slave holder rather than a trader. His primary strategy for gaining wealth was to buy new land cheap and wait for development and new settlers to increase its value.

The French revolution came to drive a wedge into American politics. The Federalists including Hamilton, Washington and Madison sided with the British in feeling an instinctive revulsion for the excesses of the French terror. Franklin, who died before the outcome became clear and Jefferson were more sympathetic to the anti aristocratic revolutionaries. The Federalists tended to represent northern merchant interests, the anti Federalists, or Republicans, were stronger among the landed gentry of the South.

When a convention gathered in Nashville to draw up a constitution and to petition for statehood, Jackson, not yet 30 yoa, proved himself popular with the delegates. He traveled to the nation's capitol to hear Washington's 2nd farewell address and protested it as symbolic of kingship. His draft constitution met with approval by Jefferson. Jackson's rival was John Sevier who obtained Washington's appointment as governor of the western territory ceded by North Carolina. Sevier was popular for championing the territory's interests against North Carolina. He was elected Governor when Tennessee incorporated. As governor he frustrated Jackson's ambitions to lead the militia. The matter would likely have led to a duel as Sevier had maligned Jackson's character behind his back in the process, but Jackson wasn't yet important enough to address their dispute in that manner.

In 1798 with little warning, Jackson quit the Senate and went home. Most likely he was enraged and disgusted with the petty politics of the office. Jefferson would later express distress at the idea of Jackson as President. He viewed Jackson as a man full of rage with little regard for law.

The governor, Sevier, soon offered Jackson a judgeship which he took. He lacked the temperament of a judge who follows the law rather than his gut, but that was in keeping with the time and place.

In 1802 the command of the Tennessee militia came open and both Jackson and Sevier ran for it. The result was a tie broken in Jackson's favor by the new governor who happened to also be an old friend and classmate.

Sevier and Jackson became more angry with each other until Sevier insulted the honor of Jackson's wife. This was too far and a challenge to duel was laid down. After much negotiating and inveighing each other with accusations of cowardice they met and had a kind of mock impromptu fight which both left with slighted pride, but Jackson won by being more committed to a decisive outcome.

Napoleon was planning to shore up his American holdings, but his troops suffered a great loss to yellow fever en route to putting down a revolt in Haiti. In 1803 he sold Louisiana to the United States for $50 million. Aaron Burr was VP at the time, but seeing the animosity of his president and members of both parties he ran for governor of New York in 1804. He lost mostly due to maneuverings by Alexander Hamilton. After killing Hamilton in a duel he fled west where anti Federalist sentiment was strong and enlisted Jackson in his schemes to drive Spain completely out of the Americas. Jackson (and many others) came to suspect Burr of plotting to secure Louisiana as a nation that he himself would head. Jefferson suspected as much as well, but was preoccupied dealing with the Barbary pirates and their British allies who were seizing American cargo and impressing American sailors. In 1807 Jefferson finally attended to Burr's treason and had him arrested after a long manhunt throughout the west. After two escapes Burr was finally brought to trial in Richmond.

At Burr's treason trial Jefferson pursued him ceaselessly and let his co conspirator, Wilkerson, off the hook. This rubbed Jackson the wrong way.

Back in Tennessee, Jackson acquired the nation's finest race horse as the sport was becoming popular there. His horse did well, but he got into a spat with another owner and wound up killing him in a duel.

When the British frigate Leapard forcibly boarded the American Chesapeake just off the coast to recover American soldiers that had escaped impressed service, the outrage was widely felt. Jefferson was slow to act though as America was still weak. The whole affair was disheartening as American business was still disposed to resupply British warships for profit.

Starting out farming, Jackson owned about 10 slaves in 1805. As his business grew he got up to 100 by 1829. He could be cruel, but usually wasn't extremely so. He had trouble with cruel overseers and everyone seems to have. In the early days he didn't disavow his slave trading, but as the national sentiment changed, he distanced himself from his past. He sensed his career as a national politician would be hampered by a reputation of having traded in slaves in his past.

In 1808 the Jacksons adopted one of a new set of twin nephews by his wife Rachel's sister. At 41 he was old for a father of that time and spoiled the child as older parents often do.

As tensions on the frontier mounted Jackson wrote Jefferson for support of his militia. In particular he was wary of the charismatic Indian leader, Tecumseh. Regarding the militia, "The poor always made the best soldiers. In the day of danger, the wealthy enjoy too much ease to court danger."

As hostilities between Indian and settler escalated, so did Jackson's determination to avenge Indian atrocities against the Indians as a nation, guilty and innocent alike. In the meantime, Madison and congress declared war on Britain for its piracy on the seas and its incitements of the Indians. Jackson took up the call with relish, urging an atmosphere where reserve and caution, anything but heartfelt revenge would not be tolerated. He prepared his men to march south to defend New Orleans. They drifted down river and upon arriving were ordered back home by the War Department. Jackson marched them back to Nashville and was lauded for standing by his men.

At Horseshoe bend Jackson mounted his final attack against the half breed Wetherford and his band in reprisal for the massacre at Ft. Simms. Thereafter the western territory was white man's land. Just as Jackson won his small but significant victory, Napoleon was suffering defeat in Russia, his ambition for European and world hegemony drying up. The British thus free of the French treat turned its guns back on America. A 1200 man force arrived in Washington DC and burned its government buildings.

After Jackson's victory at Horseshoe bend he was hard on both friend and enemy Indian alike. He charged the friendlies with tolerating the enemies and reduced their land holdings. The Indians had little choice but to acquiesce.

A minority of Creek warriors broke the enforced agreement with Jackson and took refuge in Spanish Florida. Jackson camped near Pensacola and sent letters to the Spanish garrison there bullying them about harboring the enemy. He succeeded in goading them into a defensive posture. Spain was over extended and unable to defend its claims on Florida. British troops arrived and Jackson called on Louisiana to raise troops. Louisiana demurred claiming its 25 to 1 ratio of blacks to whites gave it no men available to help against the British. They were all needed to tamp down insurrection.

Jackson proposed that the free blacks of Louisiana be recruited to form their own regiment - to be accorded honor and reward equal to whites. This raised an alarm among Louisiana politicians and the proposal was never enacted. As news arrived of the sacking of Washington D.C., the British moved its ships to Pensacola for repair. This was a violation of Florida's neutrality that Jackson could not abide. He bullied the Spanish into surrendering and blowing up their own munitions stores to prevent capture. As it occurred, the British negotiations with John Quincy Adams to end the war were not going well for the Americans. The British defeat at Pensacola could do nothing but improve the American position.

In late summer of 1814 pirates operated freely in the delta around New Orleans. They traded in goods pirated from Spanish vessels and carried on a slave trade made illegal both in the U.S and in Europe by this time. A British warship arrived and offered the pirates a commission in the British Navy or destruction by that same navy. The mission would be to push the Americans back to their assigned borders. The pirate leader Laffete was conflicted whether to chose the British or Andrew Jackson as an enemy.

With the British threatening New Orleans, Jackson declared martial law there (with doubtful authority, but in the spirit of 'might is right'). All feared him and he seemingly out of character rallied the free blacks and their white antagonists to common cause in defense of the city. The blacks were mostly Haitians who had recently gained their independence and feared any rise in European power.

Jackson built a berm when he discovered the approach the British planned for the taking of New Orleans. The undertaking was arduous and unexpected and the British were destroyed when they tried to overwhelm it. The defeatist spirit in New England evaporated on the news. The victory was lopsided, the Americans lost less than 20 min, the British, thousands, presaging the era when machine guns would wreck the old 'gentlemanly' frontal assault en masse. From the commencement of hostilities Jackson had declared martial law. He was slow to return authority to peacetime civilians and had a prominent merchant jailed for demanding civilian rather than military justice while waiting for word of ratification of the peace treaty.

Once civilian rule was restored Jackson amnestied everyone and was feted as a national hero. As was common at the time he suffered repeated intestinal problems, in addition to lead poisoning from the bullets he took in duels.

After his victory in New Orleans Florida looked to Jackson much as Laos and Cambodia looked during the Vietnam war, as a refuge for enemies of the United States by third powers. Much as the United states sought to fight an "invisible" war in Cambodia, Jackson and his President Monroe connived to fight a deniable war in Florida against freebooters and Indians hiding behind the Spanish flag. When an American outpost on American soil was awaiting resupply, the supply boats came under fire passing the Negro fort. The Americans teamed up with a few Seminole slavers and laid siege to the Negro fort. A few shots were exchanged until an American gunboat arrived and lobbed some red hot shot into the fort and hit its magazine. The explosion flattened the fort killing almost everyone in it. The leader was captured and turned over to the Seminoles for execution. An uneasy truce between the Americans and Seminoles followed, but didn't last. Each accused the other of atrocities and massacres of revenge became a way of life. This all occurred under General Gaines while Jackson was newly retired in Nashville. Jackson was drawn to Florida like a moth to flame. He offered plausible deniability to Monroe while he gathered his Tennessee army and marched them to Florida to clean out the lawless harboring there. He rebuilt and rechristened the Negro fort as For Gadston after the army engineer in charge of the rebuilding effort. Then he destroyed the bloody Seminole villages where fresh scalps were kept on display (one was at St. Marks). The Vietnam war with its raised villages and human ear necklaces and steamy jungle and lawless refugees with fickle loyalties seems of a piece with the American-Seminole war in Florida.

Once Jackson had razed the freebooter's strongholds, most notably Billy Bowlegs' he oversaw a trial of two rebel leaders, then overrode the court's sentence of lashings and hard labor for one of them, ordering both be put to death on his authority as he was on his way home. The whole affair was basically on his authority as Monroe wished to preserve deniability to avoid any opprobrium that might follow.

Bad money drives out good. In this case Treasury notes drove gold out of the US and people were loath to trade in them. The twenty year charter for the national bank expired in 1811 with the Republican congress joyously allowing it to die. With the financial crisis concurrent with the war of 1812 these same Republicans resurrected the bank in 1816. Furthermore the Republicans innovated in using tariffs not so much to raise money as heretofore, but as a protectionist device for its members monied interests. With Jackson's victory at New Orleans, the deep south became an engine of wealth for a newly emerging cotton industry fueled by slavery and the new inventions, the cotton gin and for transportation, the steam engine.

In the meantime Jackson was exercising a confrontational style of politics whining of injustice and attacking his enemies to redress it.