Old Hickory

Nashville, Tennessee

Competition Level:

Club

Gender Division:

Men

Notes:

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). Born in what is now the border between North and South Carolina, Jackson served in the militia during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he returned home to serve as a country lawyer, and in 1796 played a role in the founding of the state of Tennessee. Subsequently elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and then to the U. S. Senate, Jackson was in 1801 appointed colonel in the Tennessee Militia. During the War of 1812, Jackson won important victories at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and then at the Battle of New Orleans. After the war was over, Jackson's army transferred to Florida where they deposed the Spanish garrison that guarded the peninsula. This led directly to the Adams–Onís Treaty, which formally transferred Florida from Spain to the United States. Nominated for president in 1824, Jackson narrowly lost to John Quincy Adams. In anticipation of a rematch with Adams, Jackson's supporters then founded what became the Democratic Party. Nominated again 1828, Jackson won a decisive victory against Adams in an election so negative that his wife Rachel Jackson died of a stroke late in the campaign due to attacks against her.[1] His struggles with congress were personified in his personal rivalry with Henry Clay, whom Jackson deeply disliked, and who led the opposition (the emerging Whig Party). As president, he faced a threat of secession from South Carolina over the "Tariff of Abominations" which congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his immediate successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union, or to nullify federal law. The crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and Jackson threatened the use of military force if South Carolina (or any other state) attempted to secede. Congress attempted to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States several years before the expiration of its charter, which he opposed. He vetoed the renewal of its charter in 1832, and dismantled it by the time its charter expired in 1836. Also, as westward American settlement came increasingly into conflict with several Indian tribes, the crisis building since before the American Revolution was addressed when congress passed and Jackson enforced the Indian Removal Act, which relocated several tribes to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).[2] Though he faced and defeated Henry Clay in the 1832 Presidential Election, and opposed Clay generally, Jackson's presidency also saw a substantial expansion of "internal improvements" (federal spending on new infrastructure) under Clay's American System.[1] Jackson's presidency also saw the development of the spoils system, the complete payoff of all federal debt, and the first assassination attempt on a president (which Jackson fought off himself).[3] Jackson left office following the election of his vice president Martin Van Buren as president in 1836. Though his involvement in politics continued as he guided the Democratic Party against the Whigs, and even played a role in the election of James K. Polk as president in 1844, he spent the rest of his life in Tenessee and died in 1845.