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ANDREW JACKSON

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the USA. He was born in 1767 and died in 1845. He began his military career at the early age of thirteen at the Battle of Hanging Rock; occupations of a miscellaneous nature followed, and in 1788 he was public prosecutor in the western district of North Carolina, now Tennessee. He was in 1796-1797 the first Congressman from the State of Tennessee, and in 1797-1798 was US Senator. From 1798 to 1804 he was a Judge of the State Supreme Court. His life as a planter, not infrequently chequered with disputes and duels, was broken by the War of 1812. Jackson, 'Old Hickory', as he was called, commanded the Southwestern troops against the Creeks, whom he overwhelmed at the Horse-Shoe Bend of the Tallapoosa, on March the 27th, 1814. He was made a major-general, stormed Pensacola, and held New Orleans against Pakenham's invasion. The sweeping victory, on January the 8th, 1815, of his riflemen over the flower of the Peninsular army, made Jackson for all time an American hero of the country in general and of the Democratic party in particular. General Jackson's actions in Florida, the capture of St. Marks in 1818, and summary execution of two British subjects, led to considerable discussion.

He was appointed Governor of Florida in 1821, and became US Senator in 1823. In 1824 he received ninety-nine electoral votes for President, but was beaten in the House of Representatives. Elected in 1828 over the President, he entered office in 1829, the first Representative of the new West and of the masses. In his Cabinet, outside of Van Buren, there were few names of note; Jackson's real advisers were a coterie of practical politicians, Lewis, Amos Kendall and others of the so-called 'Kitchen Cabinet'. In 1831 he reorganized his Cabinet, and the next year was re-elected over Clay. The chief features of his eight years, 1829-1837, were his vigorous opposition to nullification and to the United States Bank, his censure by the Senate, his introduction of the " Spoils System," his settlement of the French spoliation dispute, and his 'Specie Circular' of 1836. After his retirement he continued to be regarded as the leader of the party, and died at the 'Hermitage', near Nashville. Jackson was of heroic character, but headstrong, arbitrary, vindictive and subject to the influence of politicians.
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