Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region on the border of North and South Carolina. The exact location of his birth is uncertain, and both states have claimed him as a native son; Jackson himself maintained he was from South Carolina. The son of Irish immigrants, Jackson received little formal schooling. The British invaded the Carolinas in 1780-1781, and Jackson's mother and two brothers died during the conflict, and young Andrew Jackson prisoner. When Jackson refused to shine one officer's boots, the officer struck him across the face with a saber.

During his presidency, the United States to gain Florida from Spain. He also founded the “Democratic Republican Party” which is now known as the “Democratic Party” today. He was the first president ever to be the target of an assassination attempt. He was also the first president to be a prisoner of war and be born in a log cabin. He was also the first president to ride a train while in office. He is the only president that has been able to pay off the national debt.

Jackson’s caused and supported the Trail of Tears in which many Native Americans were forced to leave their homes. A quarter of the 20,000 Indians that were removed died on the trail.

Jackson's popularity led to suggestions that he run for president. At first he professed no interest in the office, but by 1824 his boosters had rallied enough support to get him a nomination as well as a seat in the U.S. Senate. In a five-way race, Jackson won the popular vote, but for the first time in history no candidate received a majority of electoral votes. The House of Representatives was charged with deciding between the three leading candidates: Jackson, Adams and Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford. Critically ill after a stroke, Crawford was essentially out, and Speaker of the House Henry Clay (who had finished fourth) threw his support behind Adams, who later made Clay his secretary of state. Jackson's supporters raged against what they called the "corrupt bargain" between Clay and Adams, and Jackson himself resigned from the Senate.

Andrew Jackson won redemption four years later in an election that was characterized to an unusual degree by negative personal attacks. Jackson and his wife were accused of adultery on the basis that Rachel had not been legally divorced from her first husband when she married Jackson. Shortly after his victory in 1828, Rachel died at the Hermitage; Jackson apparently believed the negative attacks had hastened her death. The Jacksons did not have any children but were close to their nephews and nieces, and one niece, Emily Donelson, would serve as Jackson's hostess in the White House.

As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party-the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him.

The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but a Government-sponsored monopoly. Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress.