Andrew Jackson was a national hero for his defeat of the British at New Orleans in
the War of 1812. He was born in what is today Lancaster County, South Carolina, and later moved to what is now Nashville,
Tennessee. In 1796, after serving as a delegate to Tennessee's first Constitutional Convention, Jackson was the first person
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of Tennessee. The following year, he won a seat in the U.S. Senate
but soon resigned for personal and financial reasons. From 1798 to 1804 he served as a superior court judge in Tennessee,
and then retired to live the life of a country gentleman.
When war broke out in 1812, Jackson returned to public life as a military leader and rose to the rank of
major general. His 1815 defeat of the British at the Battle of New Orleans won him widespread fame; he became the South's
great hero and was affectionately known as "Old Hickory." After serving briefly as governor of Florida when it was admitted
as a new U.S. territory in 1821, Jackson returned to the Senate and in 1824 ran for president against Henry Clay, John Quincy
Adams, and William Crawford. The House of Representatives decided the election in favor of Adams, because no candidate had
an electoral majority. Jackson possessed the largest popular vote, but he narrowly lost the election despite his supporters'
charges of a "corrupt bargain" between the Clay and Adams adherents. Four years later, Jackson was elected to the first of
two terms as the seventh president of the United States.
Beloved by his supporters as a champion of the common man, Jackson met with controversy during both of his
terms. A principal topic early in his administration was nullification, as South Carolinians threatened to nullify federal
tariffs they found oppressive–-or secede if not permitted to do so. The president made clear that he stood firmly for
the Union, and he fought hard to pass a tariff act to resolve the issue. The debate over nullification and states' rights
continued into the 1832 presidential campaign, and only eased the following year with the passage of a compromise tariff engineered
by Henry Clay.
Jackson's long fight against a bill to recharter the Bank of the United States was also a source of political
conflict during the 1832 campaign. His anti-bank stance appeared democratic to voters, however, and Jackson was elected to
a second term, defeating Henry Clay, who supported a national financial institution. Jackson, who wanted to ensure the demise
of the bank, subsequently withdrew federal monies and deposited them in state banks, an action thought to have contributed
to the economic Panic of 1837. In addition, Jackson would later receive criticism when thousands of Native Americans were
forced to relinquish their land and relocate to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
A strong chief executive who expanded the power of the presidency, Jackson also exerted significant influence
over the Democratic Party. After dictating his choice of a successor (Martin Van Buren), Jackson retired to his country home,
the Hermitage, near Nashville. He died there in 1845.
