JACKSON 



tician through circumstance. He was violent 

 and quick in temper and loved a fight for its 

 own sake. 



He was constantly involved in quarrels, and 

 nearly always was firmly convinced of the cor- 

 rectness of his own opinions. Yet he was not 

 arrogant or egotistical, and could be easily in- 

 fluenced by those who understood him. As a 

 boy he had practically no schooling, and had 

 been allowed to run wild ; yet as a man he had 

 dignity and courteous manners, and he could 

 express himself in a vigorous style. He was 

 in many ways typical of the times 'and of the 

 section he represented. He was a frontiersman 

 and not, like his predecessors in the Presidency, 

 an aristocrat trained to govern. His election 

 was significant because it was visible evidence 

 that a new spirit was working in the United 

 States. Jackson was the first President who 

 belonged to the "common people." 



A character as strong as Jackson's was bound 

 to leave a deep impress on American history, 

 and there is good reason for calling his two 

 terms the "reign of Andrew Jackson." He en- 

 tered office practically without fixed political 

 opinions, yet almost every important event 

 of his administration bears the stamp of his 

 personal influence. With the exception of Van 

 Buren, the members of his Cabinet were little 

 more than a committee to carry out his orders. 

 On the other hand, Jackson often accepted 

 advice from his intimate friends (see KITCHEN 

 CABINET), and some of the measures which are 

 most closely associated with his name were 

 really the work of others. Such, for example, 

 was the introduction of the spoils system (see 

 subhead below), which was chiefly the work of 

 Van Buren. It has been said of Jackson that 

 he was not a great President, but that he was 

 a great party President. With Thomas Jeffer- 

 son, Jackson is considered the creator of the 

 Democratic party; if Jefferson may be said to 

 have drawn the plan for the structure, Jackson 

 erected it. 



His Youth and Early Manhood. Andrew 

 Jackson was born on March 15, 1767. The 

 place of his birth is uncertain, the honor being 

 claimed both by North Carolina and by South 

 Carolina. Jackson himself always believed that 

 he was born near Waxhaw Creek, in Lancaster 

 County, S. C., and most of his biographers 

 agree with him. His father, also named An- 

 drew Jackson, was a poor farm laborer, of 

 Scotch-Irish descent, who with his wife emi- 

 grated from Ireland in 1765 and settled on 

 Twelve-Mile Creek, near the border between 



JACKSON 



North and South Carolina. The region was 

 unsurveyed and sparsely settled, and the peo- 

 ple of the neighborhood were not sure in which 

 colony they lived. It is now believed, how- 

 ever, that the Jackson cabin was about a 

 quarter of a mile south of the boundary. 



Andrew Jackson, the father, died in 1767, 

 only a few days before the birth of a son, who 

 was named for him. The Widow Jackson was 

 a well-meaning mother, but she placed little 

 restraint upon her children. Andrew was the 

 youngest of three sons, but he became the 

 undisputed leader of the boys of the neighbor- 

 hood. He indulged his enthusiasm for horse 

 racing and cock fighting, and was always, with- 

 out being malicious about it, ready to fight 

 anybody. His mother died as the result of 

 fever contracted while nursing American sol- 

 diers held prisoners by the British during the 

 Revolutionary War, and his two brothers were 

 killed. Andrew himself, though a lad barely 

 in his 'teens, was once taken prisoner by the 

 British. Several times during the war the 

 British raided the western part of the Caro- 

 linas, chiefly for the purpose of getting recruits 

 and strengthening the Tories in that region. 

 On one of these raids in 1781 a British officer 

 ordered young Andrew to black his boots. The 

 boy, in a fit of rage, refused, whereupon the 

 officer struck him with his sword, wounding 

 him slightly, and then carried him off a -pris- 

 oner. These experiences gave the boy a hearty 

 hatred of the English, which he never lost. 



The death of his mother and brothers left 

 Andrew alone in the world, and for several 

 years he drifted, supporting himself by such 

 work as he could get. In 1784 he began to 

 study law at Salisbury, N. C., and was admit- 

 ted to the bar before he was twenty. In 1788 

 he was appointed public prosecutor for the 

 western district of North Carolina, the region 

 now forming the state of Tennessee. This was 

 a difficult position for a young man of twenty- 

 one, but Jackson's energy and persistence car- 

 ried him over many rough places. He made 

 some enemies and many friends, and soon was 

 one of the best-known men in the region. He 

 also won a wife, in the person of Mrs. Rachel 

 Robards, the daughter of one of Tennessee's 

 pioneer settlers; the marriage took place in 

 1791. 



In Politics and Business. Jackson was a 

 member of the convention in 1796 which 

 adopted a constitution for Tennessee, and in 

 the same year was elected to the House of 

 Representatives, where he distinguished him- 



