Andrew Jackson

Principle and Prejudice

John M. Belohlavek

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781135012403
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States. Known as "Old Hickory, " he was the first President who championed the rights of the 'common man'. Originally from the frontier, he was known for being rough in speech and mannerisms and his fierce temper. After making his name as a general fighting the Creek Indians in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the British in the Battle of New Orleans, he entered politics, resulting in the creation of the modern Democratic party. However, Jackson is best known today for the harsh stand he took on Indian Removal.

In this concise account, John Belohlavek recounts what made Jackson such a magnetic and controversial figure in his own time. Separating truth from legend, Andrew Jackson: Principle and Prejudice shows how deeply Andrew Jackson's actions and policies as president have affected the modern United States.

Part I

Andrew Jackson

Chapter 1
Youth on the Frontier (1767–1811)

Laughter drowned out the shouts of encouragement as a tall, lean bolt of lightning exploded across the flat open grass, focused on the finish line a quarter mile ahead. At the start, his rival, heavier and more slow-footed, was given a lead of half the course’s distance. This advantage was compromised, however, by the weight of the man he carried on his back! Amidst cheering and merriment, this friendly rivalry played out in 1787 on the North Carolina frontier, and offers significant insight into the subject of this biography. Young Andrew Jackson challenged his friend and fellow law student Hugh Montgomery to race. This common amusement in rural America was frequently enhanced by wagering on the contest. Amazingly, and to the surprise and delight of a number of the bettors, Jackson won by two yards.

This duel was not only a microcosm of the personality and character of the youthful Jackson, but also informs us about the man he would become. By the age of 20, Jackson had grown into the 6 foot 1 inch, 140-pound frame that he maintained throughout his life. Sinewy and strong, his physical energy and courage melded with will power and determination that his rivals underestimated at their peril. Jackson balanced the resilient aspects of his character with a reckless streak that often unnecessarily placed him on life’s edge. Gambling, including cards, horses, and cockfighting, was risky, but he won more often than not. His teenage lust for life included a seemingly insatiable appetite for women and alcohol. He took dancing very seriously, and rarely turned down an invitation to a soirée. The girls were charmed by his elegant manner as well as his sharp features, reddish hair, freckles, and penetrating blue eyes. Historian Robert V. Remini sums up the teenage Jackson by noting that the locals already considered him a “rake.” In two decades, Andrew Jackson had travelled less than one hundred miles from the back country of South Carolina to Salisbury, North Carolina, yet the journey was life-changing. He would never return.¹

The chosen path of Andrew Jackson, based upon his family history, would perhaps appear predictable to a contemporary psychologist or social worker. Jackson never knew his father, and his mother and siblings died when he had barely entered his teens. His Scotch-Irish parents, Andrew and Elizabeth, along with brothers Hugh and Robert, had departed Northern Ireland in 1765, seeking opportunity along the American frontier. They settled into the “Waxhaws,” a western area disputed between North and South Carolina, chosen largely because Elizabeth’s four sisters had already established themselves with their families nearby. The Jacksons worked hard to make their two hundred acres productive, until Andrew died suddenly of unknown causes in March 1767. Painfully, Elizabeth gave birth on March 15 to her third son, named for her husband, just days later.

With no adult male to manage the farm, Elizabeth and her sons were obliged to move in with her sister, Jane Crawford, who lived on a plantation about ten miles distant. The more prosperous Crawfords owned slaves, and their large house easily accommodated the four new additions. Elizabeth paid fourteen pounds in 1770 for the title to their own farm to be placed in her sons’ names, though the boys grew up with Uncle James, Aunt Jane, and their eight children. Jane had become an invalid, so Elizabeth’s presence as active overseer of the upbringing of eleven offspring met the needs of everyone involved.²

Elizabeth determined that Andrew was the brightest of her boys, the chosen one who would receive the best education and become a Presbyterian minister. Accordingly, he benefited from the tutelage of William Humphries at the Waxhaw Church, reading and writing by the age of eight. In a region where literacy was at a premium, young Andrew gained standing for his intelligence. Indeed, he was called upon in the summer of 1776 to read the difficult phrasing of the Declaration of Independence to his eager neighbors. The South managed to avoid the ravages of the American Revolution for the next several years and a persistent Elizabeth kept up the educational pressure on her son, sending him to a classical boarding school where he could learn Latin. A rather apathetic Andrew preferred to spend his time mastering more fascinating and practical pursuits, specifically muskets, horses, and cockfighting. Exhibiting a wiry build and fearless demeanor, he rapidly garnered a reputation among his peers for a hair-trigger temper, shameless cursing, and a willingness to relentlessly fight much larger comrades. In his early teens, Jackson already held an exaggerated sense of honor which he maintained throughout his lifetime. His “shrill” voice and tendency to slobber when he spoke prompted barbs and cruel jests from his peers. Jackson’s response was certain and violent.

By 1779, the British had taken Savannah, Georgia, and the war moved swiftly into South Carolina, where Royal forces threatened Charleston. Captain Robert Crawford officered a Waxhaw militia company, including 16-year-old Hugh Jackson, which rushed into action in defense of the capital. While the battle of Stono Ferry in June was a nominal Redcoat victory, Charleston survived and the casualties were few. Sadly, Hugh was among them, dying soon thereafter of heat and exhaustion.

The British launched a new offensive in the spring of 1780, and on May 12, Charleston fell. Tories loyal to King George III joined with the British forces of Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Cornwallis, and cavalry commander, Colonel Banastre Tarleton, to battle Patriots committed to the rebellion in a civil war that pitted family against family. As Tarleton understated in his memoir of the campaign, “The sentiments of the inhabitants did not correspond with his lordship’s expectations.” The conflict quickly moved to the Waxhaws, where the Redcoats successfully drove the Americans out of South Carolina. Andrew, now 13, and 16-year-old brother Robert, joined the fray, signing up with Major William Davie’s dragoons. This was guerrilla warfare, and Andrew knew the backcountry, rode well, and could shoot. Davie gave him a pistol and made him a messenger. Jackson watched the ebb and flow of combat in the chaotic region, and witnessed his first action on August 6, 1780, as the Americans won a minor victory at Hanging Rock.

Unfortunately for the rebels, a week later Cornwallis crushed General Horatio Gates at Camden. Elizabeth wisely fled with her sons to North Carolina and safety. The British showed little clemency to those civilians sympathetic to the Revolution and little mercy to soldiers who surrendered. The heavy-handed Redcoat treatment of colonials and mangled bodies of wounded Patriots made an enduring impression on the young Jackson.

Throughout the fall and winter of 1780–1781, warfare, erratic and brutal, consumed the countryside. The revolutionaries rallied, successfully challenging the British at King’s Mountain and Cowpens, inflicting heavy casualties at Guilford Courthouse. When Cornwallis pressed on into the interior of North Carolina in February 1781, Elizabeth Jackson determined that she and her boys could return home. Her decision was fraught with danger. The Waxhaws remained a no man’s land lacking courts, laws, or protection. Andrew and Robert rejoined the militia, sniping at the British and their Tory allies in ugly small group contests that continued well into the spring.

Following Jackson’s only skirmish in April, a Tory revealed the whereabouts of the brothers, who sought food and shelter at the home of a local Patriot. Trapped inside with the family, the boys had no choice but surrender. The British trashed the house, destroying furniture and tearing bed linens and clothing to shreds. Seeking total humiliation, the commanding officer ordered Andrew to clean his muddy boots. Jackson defiantly refused, prompting a curse and a blow to the head from the Redcoat’s sword. Fortunately, the boy raised his left arm to defend himself and the sabre glanced off his forehead, inflicting a bloody, nasty gash and a permanent scar that Jackson carried with him for the remainder of his life. Robert was not as lucky. The officer turned to him with the same command. When he similarly refused, the blade cut into his head, leaving a wound that helped end his life.

The British dispatched Andrew, Robert, and twenty other prisoners some forty miles to Camden. They found themselves in a dreadful camp with little food or clothing and no medical attention to their wounds. Smallpox ravaged the site, infecting both Jackson boys. Almost in time, Elizabeth persuaded a local partisan captain to trade his 13 British captives for seven Waxhaw Patriots. Robert was dying, the untreated wound, pox, and malnourishment leaving him unable to walk. He died at home several days later. An emaciated Andrew trekked back barefoot and in rags; somehow he hung on, surviving the pox and a fever that should have been fatal. The toughness and iron will that made Jackson legendary had revealed themselves.³

As her remaining son recovered, Elizabeth departed for Charleston to aid Crawford family members held in horrific conditions aboard a British prison ship in Charleston harbor. Andrew would never see her again. While providing her relatives with much-needed food and supplies, Elizabeth Jackson was struck by cholera and buried in an anonymous grave near the city. Her memory and admonitions both haunted and guided Jackson throughout his life. He remembered her counsel: making and keeping good friends was invaluable, and forgetting an obligation or being ungrateful for a kindness was “a base crime.” Be polite, keep your self-esteem, and avoid quarrels, Elizabeth advised, but always sustain your manhood. Control your temper, and calmly defend your honor. Jackson embraced those tenets, if he did not always follow them. Undoubtedly, his mother was the major influence on his overall attitude toward life, prompting in particular a high regard for women. Only Rachel Donelson would rival Elizabeth in his affection.⁴

As one biographer emphasizes, “Andrew Jackson was now in a situation most perilous to a young man.” He recovered at the home of relatives. At age fourteen, however, he lacked any immediate family or parental control, retaining a sense of honor and pride honed by the war to a razor’s edge. Never particularly fond of his Latin and Greek studies, Jackson abandoned any pretense of pursuing his mother’s clerical dream for a much-preferred, if temporary, life of dissipation. The boy was understandably depressed. He loved working at a relative’s saddle shop, but the Waxhaws held memories of loss, death, and devastation.

Upon learning that he had inherited the equivalent of $40,000 from his grandfather in Scotland, Jackson made his way in December 1782 to vice-filled Charleston. The capital offered numerous venues to refine his gambling skills and to take a young man’s money. Within weeks, he lost it all at drink, cards, cockfighting, horses, and, most easily, dice.

Seemingly without remorse, but with a new attitude that gave him purpose, Andrew returned to the Waxhaws. He had inherited the family farm and two hundred acres would provide a good income. Working behind a plow, however, had little appeal. He turned again to formal study, and even taught school. Yet the life of the mind seemed unrewarding, so Jackson decided to try his hand at the law. A career at the bar might actually suit him. He had the intelligence to comprehend the legal system and added even greater skills of verbal sparring and persuasion. Jackson knew the values and mindset of the frontiersman, and the courtroom, like the battlefield, allowed him to use his instincts.

With no traditional law school nearby, in December 1784, at age 17, Andrew traveled the 75 miles to Salisbury, North Carolina, to study with Spruce McCay. For the next two years he learned the rudiments of the profession, at least enough to pass the bar exam. Jackson was never one to let academics interfere with developing his social skills and advancing his position. Parties, dances, drinking, and gambling consumed a goodly amount of time in Salisbury, as he developed a reputation as a charismatic and ambitious young man of genuine promise. Although the presidential Jackson appears somewhat stiff and humorless, the teenage Jackson reveled in riotous behavior and practical jokes. When outhouses were moved, signs in the town disappeared, or tavern fights erupted, the locals knew in which direction to cast the blame. Jackson managed the Christmas ball for the community and invited two single women, Molly and Rachel Wood, to attend. This seemed a harmless, even a warm-hearted gesture given the season, but since the Woods were prostitutes, their appearance scandalized the town. Jackson had struck again.

After two years, he grew restless, departed Salisbury, and wandered about the region until the spring of 1788. The garrulous young lawyer made numerous friends, including John McNairy, elected as a judge in the western district of North Carolina—soon to become the state of Tennessee. McNairy offered his comrade steady work as a public prosecutor. With few real options, Jackson accepted a position that was high in risk and low in financial reward. Jackson and several friends rode west, but halted in Jonesborough for the summer when it became apparent that they could not arrive in Nashville for the commencement of the court session. First impressions mattered. Jackson moved with dispatch to establish his reputation as a gentleman and assert his honor. He purchased Nancy, a female slave approximately his own age, to demonstrate wealth and position. Slavery had assumed an irresistible foothold in Tennessee, and gained ground rapidly in the 1790s. Jackson, unlike some of his contemporaries in the early republic, was not conflicted about the moral or economic value of slavery. His upbringing and desire for material success encouraged a belief in black inferiority.⁵

Jackson’s first duel resulted from an exchange of words in the courtroom with Waightstill Avery, a veteran lawyer whom Andrew had earlier sought out as a mentor in North Carolina. Circumstances at the time had dictated Avery’s refusal to add the young Jackson as a student, but Andrew likely took the rebuff personally. When Avery insulted the sensitive Jackson publicly in the courtroom, a challenge was issued immediately. They wisely recognized, however, that the affront hardly merited risking their lives and the ensuing duel resulted in both men shooting their guns in the air. Honor had been served.⁶

In October 1788, Jackson made his way to Nashville, an area recently settled and lying in the heart of the Cumberland River Valley. The tightly knit village numbered only 200 people, but had a courthouse, businesses, and a distillery. Violence was all too present on the frontier. Pioneer John Donelson had been killed in 1785, perhaps by Indians or white outlaws. His widow, children, including daughter Rachel, and relatives remained among the most prominent citizens in the small community. Jackson and fellow lawyer John Overton desperately needed a place to stay, so they boarded with the Donelsons about 10 miles out of town. The family welcomed both the added income and two more guns in the event of an Indian attack.

Jackson could not help but notice the vivacious brown-haired, brown-eyed Rachel, a high-spirited beauty of his own age. Alluring and easy to talk to, she was among the best dancers and horsewomen in the county. Unfortunately, in 1785, Rachel had wed a wealthy Kentuckian, Lewis Robards. His jealousy, hot temper, and infidelities, however, put the marriage on a rocky path. Three years later, she fled Harrodsburgh to find refuge with her family in Nashville. This incident was only the first of a disastrous series of movements spanning the next two years, with both Rachel and Lewis travelling frequently between Kentucky and Tennessee in an effort to save their relationship.

Jackson no doubt observed the family drama play out in the Donelson household with considerable interest, but he had a career and reputation to build. Progress on the frontier meant expansion and the obstacles seemed numerous and powerful. The Indians proved a dogged enemy, especially for the new federal government under the Constitution, which l...