Biography of Andrew Jackson
Seventh President of the United States
March 15, 1767 - June 8, 1845
Jackson was a lean figure standing at 6 feet, 1 inch tall, and weighing between 130 and 140
pounds on average. Jackson also had an unruly shock of red hair, which had completely grayed
by the time he became president at age 61. He had penetrating deep blue eyes. Jackson was
one of the more sickly presidents, suffering from chronic headaches, abdominal pains, and a
hacking cough, caused by a musket ball in his lung that was never removed, that often brought
up blood and sometimes made his whole body shake. After retiring to Nashville, he enjoyed
eight years of retirement and died at The Hermitage on June 8, 1845, at the age of 78, of
chronic tuberculosis, dropsy, and heart failure.
Andrew Jackson's family moved from Ireland in the 1760's. His parents were of Scottish and
Irish descent.
March 15, 1767 Jackson was born in a log cabin in Waxhaw, South Carolina. His father was
killed shortly before Andrew was born, so his widowed mother raised Andrew and his two older
brothers in the home of a relative.
The year is 1772 and
By age 5, Jackson had learned to read. As a youngster he took turns as a "public reader",
reading newspapers to citizens of his community who could not read - in later years, he
remembered reading the Declaration of Independence when a copy of the document reached
Waxhaw in the summer of 1776.
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When he was thirteen years old he joined the Continental Army as a courier. He and his
brother were captured by the British. Once when he refused to polish the shoes of a British
officer, the officer hit him with a sword and left scars that would remain the rest of his life.
There were inward unseen scars also as a result of the war because he lost his older brother,
and his mother also died during the war as a result of cholera.
In 1782, when he was fifteen years old he received an inheritance from his grandfather in
Ireland, but being young and inexperienced he was unable to handle the windfall and spent
the entire amount in a week’s time!
Jackson marries a married woman? For real.
In 1787 Jackson studied law and became a lawyer at the age of 20. He headed west to
Tennessee to seek his fortune. His destination was Nashville and there he met Rachel Robards,
a young woman who had married at age seventeen and was estranged from her husband. She
thought her husband had obtained a divorce and she and Andrew ran away to Natchez,
Mississippi and married in 1791. Unfortunately, she was mistaken about the finality of the
divorce. They returned home after six months only to find out they were not legally married.
Her husband then sued for divorce on the grounds of adultery, the first such case in the state.
When the divorce was final she and Jackson were married a second time, this time legally in
1794.
Anyone for a duel?
In 1797 Jackson accused Governor John Sevier of taking part in some fraudulent land deals, and
of picking Knoxville to be the state capital so that he could make money from his real estate
investments. This started a feud between the two men, and on one occasion in Knoxville Sevier
insulted Jackson ’s wife. Jackson then challenged Sevier to a duel, which Sevier refused to take
part in.
Sing small Russell Bean
In 1798, while he was presiding judge in a little Tennessee village Jackson arrested Russell
Bean. Bean was parading around the courthouse with a pistol and bowie knife, cursing the
judge, the jury, and everyone else assembled. After the sheriff failed to arrest Bean, Jackson
ordered the sheriff to summon him a posse and he went and confronted Bean. Bean was
arrested and led to jail. Bean was later asked why he gave in to Jackson and he replied when
he looked into Jackson eyes, he saw "shoot." When he looked into the eyes of everyone else in
the crowd, he saw "no shoot," so he said to himself 'It is about time to sing small,' and so I
did."
No duel but what about a caning?
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In 1806 Jackson caned, or beat over the head with a stick, a man named Thomas Swann in a
squabble related to horse racing.
Now we’re dueling
In 1806 a man named Charles Dickinson published a letter in a Nashville newspaper calling
Jackson a “scoundrel” and a “coward.” Jackson challenged Dickinson to a duel. In the duel,
Dickinson shot first and the bullet landed, breaking two of Jackson ’s ribs and lodging two
inches from his heart. Jackson then raised his pistol and fired at Dickson, killing him.
By 1812 the United States declared war on Great Britain. Andrew Jackson was the commander
of the Tennessee militia. Their mission was to defeat the Creek Indian warriors who had sided
with the British. At one point Jackson’s soldiers threatened to mutiny. He said he would kill
them if they left. Previous threats had been carried out, so the mutiny did not occur.
Another brawl
In 1813 Jackson got in a brawl with brothers Jesse and Thomas Hart Benton in the Nashville City
Square and was shot in the arm in the process. All of the doctors on the scene advised him to
have his mangled arm amputated but her refused. The bullet remained in Jackson’s arm for 19
years. Upon its removal, Jackson offered to return to the bullet to Benton who was now a
Senator from Missouri and a supporter of Jackson. Benton declined, saying Jackson had had
the bullet for this long he may as well keep it.
But wait—there is a soft side
In striking contrast to the tragedies inflicted on Native Americans through the policies of
President Andrew Jackson, in 1813 he adopted and raised a Creek Indian boy as his son named
Lancoya. Jackson had a total of 3 adopted sons—the first was Theodore, an Indian about
whom little is known. Andrew Jackson Jr., the son of Rachel's brother Severn Donelson, and
Lyncoya, a Creek Indian orphan adopted by Jackson after the Creek War. Lyncoya died of
tuberculosis in 1828, at the age of sixteen.
The Jacksons also acted as guardians for eight other children. John Samuel Donelson, Daniel
Smith Donelson and Andrew Jackson Donelson were the sons of Rachel's brother Samuel
Donelson, who died in 1804. Andrew Jackson Hutchings was Rachel's orphaned grand nephew.
Caroline Butler, Eliza Butler, Edward Butler, and Anthony Butler were the orphaned children of
Edward Butler, a family friend. They came to live with the Jacksons after the death of their
Battle of Horseshoe Bend
In March 1813, the Upper Creek, who were allied with the British, killed 250 settlers at Fort
Mims, in what is now Alabama. Jackson was ordered to lead a force of 2000 men against them.
His soldiers were poorly trained, and the federal government had again failed to equip him with
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food and supplies. Jackson held his command together by force of will. The decisive battle came
in March 1814 at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River. After allowing the Creek women and
children to cross the river to safety, Jackson wiped out the Creek forces. There were 1000
Creek warriors and not surrendered but all perished. The Tallapoosa River ran red with the
blood of those who had been slaughtered. Sam Houston who fought alongside Jackson
agonized
over
the
events
that
took
place
that
day.
Later he dictated a treaty that forced the Upper Creek to cede 9 million of their 23 million
acres.
(.
Old Hickory
Early in 1813 the governor of Tennessee, Willie Blount, ordered Jackson to New Orleans,
Louisiana. Jackson got as far as Natchez, Mississippi, when the War Department nullified the
order. Jackson was stranded without food, supplies, or equipment for his 2500 soldiers. Instead
of disbanding his command as ordered, Jackson personally led his troops back to Tennessee.
The men admired their leader’s concern for their welfare. They said he was as tough as hickory.
Tough as a hickory stick and with an unbending will. And so Jackson became known as Old
Hickory. Yet there was a soft side to him also. On the march back to Tennessee, he preferred
to walk with the troops and let the wounded soldiers ride on the horses.
Stand your ground in New Orleans
The British were threatening New Orleans. It was here that the last major battle of the War of
1812 would take place. Jackson teamed up with the French privateer and pirate, Jean Lafitte
and the free blacks of New Orleans. He had about 4,500 men and was outnumbered three-toone by the British. The British thought it was going to be easy to defeat the American troops
there, but they were surprised when Jackson and his troops stood their ground. The British
would lose hundreds of men, but Jackson only had 8 soldiers killed and 13 wounded. After 1815
the British left the Americans alone.
Later
Andrew Jackson became a wealthy man. He owned a lot of land he called The Hermitage. He
grew cotton which was worked by over a hundred black slaves. Jackson was the master and
cotton, rice, and tobacco fueled the economy at the time. More land was needed to grow more
cotton. This had devastating consequences for the Indians who lived on the land.
Dirty Politics
In 1824 Jackson aspired to the presidency of the United States, but John Quincy Adams also
wanted to become president. In those years the electoral college chose the president. In the
election of 1824 Andrew Jackson had more popular and electoral votes than Adams, but the
election was thrown into the House of Representatives and John Quincy Adams was elected.
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During this time Rachel's divorce proceedings which had occurred three decades before were
brought out and a smear campaign was underway; one of the dirtiest campaigns in all American
history. The opposition called her "Jezebel". Jackson blamed Henry Clay for all the ugly things
that were being rehashed in hopes of discrediting him, but evidently it backfired and Jackson
was elected by a landslide.
Rachel and Lyncoya both die
But it was a hollow victory for Andrew. His beloved Rachel died of a heart attack in December
of 1828 before Jackson was inaugurated in March of 1829. Lyncoya, his second adopted son
also died in 1828.
Spoils System
His motto seemed to be To the victor belong the spoils, and he certainly employed the "spoils
system". One of his first acts was to fire dozens of federal employees, some who had been
there since the days of George Washington. In their place he appointed people who had
supported him. One such appointment of John Eaton as Secretary of War rocked his
administration when Eaton became involved in an affair with Peggy O'Neal Timberlake. The
effects of the Eaton Affair were so far-reaching that the vice-president and all Jackson's cabinet
resigned before it was over.
Nullification
John Calhoun, Jackson's vice-president favored slavery and asserted that states could disregard
federal law if they deemed the law unconstitutional. He called the theory nullification, the
exercising of state's rights. They tried to get Jackson's support. The Nullifiers at a dinner in 1830
sought his support, but in his words, "Our federal union! It must be preserved!". He would not
tear apart the nation.
Five Civilized Tribes
The term "Five Civilized Tribes" was invented by Euro-Americans to refer to the Choctaws,
Creeks, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Seminoles. Euro-Americans referred to these tribes as
"civilized" because the cultures of these tribes had traditional characteristics that were
misrepresented as evolving from Euro-American contact. They lived in settled towns, were
farmers, and even held elected offices. In addition, members of these tribes frequently
intermarried with Euro-Americans. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, a small class of
elite Native Americans existed. They lived on Euro-American style plantations with large land
holdings and kept slaves. During the 1820s, the Cherokee developed a written alphabet for
their language and regularly published their own newspaper.
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Indian Removal
In 1831 the Choctaw were the first to be removed, and they became the model for all other
removals. After the Choctaw, the Seminole were removed in 1832, the Creek in 1834, then the
Chickasaw in 1837, and finally the Cherokee in 1838.
After removal, some Native Americans remained in their ancient homelands - the Choctaw are
found in Mississippi, the Seminole in Florida, the Creek in Alabama, and the Cherokee in North
Carolina. A limited number of non-native Americans (including African-Americans - usually as
slaves) also accompanied the Native American nations on the trek westward. By 1837, 46,000
Native Americans from these southeastern states had been removed from their homelands
thereby opening 25 million acres for predominantly white settlement. Many Native Americans
suffered from exposure, disease and starvation en route to their destinations. Many died,
including 4,000 of the 15,000 relocated Cherokee.
Nearly 17,000 Choctaws made the move to what would be called Indian Territory and then later
Oklahoma. About 2,500–6,000 died along the trail of tears. Approximately 5,000–6,000
Choctaws remained in Mississippi in 1831 after the initial removal efforts. The Choctaws who
chose to remain in newly formed Mississippi were subject to legal conflict, harassment, and
intimidation. The Choctaws "have had our habitations torn down and burned, our fences
destroyed, cattle turned into our fields and we ourselves have been scourged, manacled,
fettered and otherwise personally abused, until by such treatment some of our best men have
died.” The Choctaws in Mississippi were later reformed as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw
Indians and the removed Choctaws became the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Seminole Resistance in 1832
Unlike the "Trail of Tears" that took place in a single, dreadful moment, in 1838, in which
several thousand Cherokee people were sent on a death march to the West, the removals of
the Seminole people from Florida began earlier and lasted 20 years longer. Just like that other
event, however, the toll in human suffering was profound and the stain on the honor of a great
nation, the United States, can never be erased. The Seminole people - men, women, and
children, were hunted with bloodhounds, rounded up like cattle, and forced onto ships that
carried them to New Orleans and up the Mississippi. Together with several hundred of the
African ex-slaves who had fought with them, they were then sent overland to Fort Gibson
(Arkansas), and on to strange and inhospitable new lands where they were attacked by other
tribes, in a fierce competition for the scarce resources that they all needed to survive.
One white soldier wrote home that, "If the Devil owned both Hell and Florida, he would rent
out Florida and live in Hell!"
Next the Creek Nation in 1834
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The then Chickasaw Indians in 1837
This is by far the least recognized tribe of Native American Indians and one of the Five Civilized
Tribes. Of the almost 5 millions acres they inhabited, by 1920 75% of that had been passed to
the ownership by whites and today Chickasaw only own about 300 acres of tribal land.
Last but not least, the Cherokee had to go in 1838
Tensions between Georgia and the Cherokee were brought to a crisis by the discovery of gold
near Dalonegha, GA, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush. Hopeful Gold Speculators began
trespassing on Cherokee Land. When Georgia moved to extend state laws over the Cherokee
lands in 1830, the matter went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
(1831), the Marshall court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was not a sovereign and
independent nation, and therefore refused to hear the case. However, in Worcester v. Georgia
(1832), the Court ruled that Georgia could not impose laws in Cherokee territory, since only the
national government — not state governments — had authority in Indian affairs.
With the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the U.S. Congress had given Jackson authority to
negotiate removal treaties, exchanging Indian land in the East for land west of the Mississippi
River. Jackson used the dispute with Georgia to put pressure on the Cherokees to sign a
removal treaty.
An armed force of 7,000 made up of militia, regular army, and volunteers under General
Winfield Scott were sent out to round up about 13,000 Cherokees into concentration camps at
the U.S. Indian Agency near Cleveland, Tennessee before being sent to the West. Most of the
deaths occurred from disease, starvation and cold in these camps. Their homes were burned
and their property destroyed and plundered.
Farms belonging to the Cherokees for
generations were won by white settlers in a lottery. After the initial roundup, the U.S. military
still oversaw the emigration until they met the forced destination. Private John G. Burnett
later wrote, "Future generations will read and condemn the act and I do hope posterity will
remember that private soldiers like myself, and like the four Cherokees who were forced by
General Scott to shoot an Indian Chief and his children, had to execute the orders of our
superiors. We had no choice in the matter."
Letter from Private John Burnett from Tennessee
In the year 1828, a little Indian boy living on Ward creek had sold a gold nugget to a white
trader, and that nugget sealed the doom of the Cherokees. In a short time the country was
overrun with armed brigands claiming to be government agents, who paid no attention to the
rights of the Indians who were the legal possessors of the country. Crimes were committed that
were a disgrace to civilization. Men were shot in cold blood, lands were confiscated. Homes
were burned and the inhabitants driven out by the gold-hungry brigands.
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Notable Cherokees
Chief Junaluska was personally acquainted with President Andrew Jackson. Junaluska had taken
500 of the flower of his Cherokee scouts and helped Jackson to win the battle of the Horse
Shoe, leaving 33 of them dead on the field. And in that battle Junaluska had drove his
tomahawk through the skull of a Creek warrior, when the Creek had Jackson at his mercy.
Chief John Ross sent Junaluska as an envoy to plead with President Jackson for protection for
his people, but Jackson’s manner was cold and indifferent toward the rugged son of the forest
who had saved his life. He met Junaluska, heard his plea but curtly said, "Sir, your audience is
ended. There is nothing I can do for you." The doom of the Cherokee was sealed. Washington,
D.C., had decreed that they must be driven West and their lands given to the white man, and in
May 1838, an army of 4000 regulars, and 3000 volunteer soldiers under command of General
Winfield Scott, marched into the Indian country and wrote the blackest chapter on the pages of
American history.
Chief John Ross, Cherokee
Men working in the fields were arrested and driven to the stockades. Women were dragged
from their homes by soldiers whose language they could not understand. Children were often
separated from their parents and driven into the stockades with the sky for a blanket and the
earth for a pillow. And often the old and infirm were prodded with bayonets to hasten them to
the stockades. Chief Junaluska who had saved President Jackson’s life at the battle of Horse
Shoe witnessed this scene, the tears gushing down his cheeks and lifting his cap he turned his
face toward the heavens and said, "Oh my God, if I had known at the battle of the Horse Shoe
what I know now, American history would have been differently written."
Berry’s Ferry
In the winter of 1838 the Cherokee began the thousand-mile march with scant clothing and
most on foot without shoes or moccasins. The march began in Red Clay, Tennessee, the
location of the last Eastern capital of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee were given used
blankets from a hospital in Tennessee where an epidemic of small pox had broken out. Because
of the diseases, the Indians were not allowed to go into any towns or villages along the way;
many times this meant traveling much farther to go around them.[30] After crossing Tennessee
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and Kentucky, they arrived in Southern Illinois at Golconda about the 3rd of December 1838.
Here the starving Indians were charged a dollar a head (equal to $21.83 today) to cross the river
on "Berry's Ferry" which typically charged twelve cents, equal to $2.62 today. They were not
allowed passage until the ferry had serviced all others wishing to cross and were forced to take
shelter under "Mantle Rock," a shelter bluff on the Kentucky side, until "Berry had nothing
better to do". Many died huddled together at Mantle Rock waiting to cross.
Those who did not go
There were some exceptions to removal. Perhaps 100 Cherokees evaded the U.S. soldiers and
lived off the land in Georgia and other states. Those Cherokees who lived on private,
individually owned lands (rather than communally owned tribal land) were not subject to
removal. In North Carolina, about 400 Cherokees, known as the Oconaluftee Cherokee, lived on
land in the Great Smoky Mountains owned by a white man named William Holland Thomas
(who had been adopted by Cherokees as a boy), and were thus not subject to removal. Added
to this were some 200 Cherokee from the Nantahala area allowed to stay in the Qualla
Boundary after assisting the U.S. Army in hunting down and capturing the family of the old
prophet, Tsali. (Tsali faced a firing squad.) These North Carolina Cherokees became the Eastern
Band of the Cherokee Nation.
William Holland Thomas (February 5, 1805 – May 10, 1893) was Principal Chief of the Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians (the only white man ever to be a chief of the Cherokees[1]) and an
officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
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Thomas’ father drowned shortly before his son's birth. As a teen, Thomas was employed by US
Congressman Felix Walker as a clerk at a trading post in Qualla Town. Thomas signed a threeyear contract in return for $100, board, and clothing. He quickly became friends with the
Cherokees, learning their language, and was adopted into the tribe by Chief Yonaguska, who
gave him the Cherokee name “Will-usdi” (“Little Will”). In about 1820 Felix Walker was forced
to close his stores; since he was unable to pay Thomas what he owed him, he gave him a set of
law books. At the time there were no bar exams, and anyone who read law was allowed to
practice. Thomas became well-versed in frontier law and in 1831 was asked by Yonaguska to
become the Cherokees’ legal representative.
Cherokee get an alphabet
Sequoyah (Ssiquoya), as he signed his name,(c. 1770 – 1843), named in English George Gist or
George Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of
a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. This was the only time
in recorded history that a member of a non-literate people independently created an effective
writing system. After seeing its worth, the people of the Cherokee Nation rapidly began to use
his syllabary and officially adopted it in 1825. Their literacy rate rapidly surpassed that of
surrounding European-American settlers.
Sequoyah’s original Cherokee syllabary
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Jackson in order to further the expansion of the frontier west supported the Indian Removal Act
in 1830. The Cherokee Indians liked to live a harmonious way of life, and many of them
embraced the white man's way according to Jefferson's advice to them, but they still had to
move. The Supreme Court ruled in the Cherokee's favor, but Jackson said to ignore it. Ironically
these same people had fought with Jackson. The removal of the Cherokees, known as The Trail
of Tears is a low point in American history. In Georgia they had to leave houses and could only
take the clothes on their backs. More than 2,000 of them died on the trail. They referred to the
president as "Jackson the Devil".
Election of 1832
The election of 1832 was a landmark in American history because the candidates were chosen
by party conventions for the first time. The Jacksonians chose Martin Van Buren to run for vice
president with Jackson. The history of the Democratic Party is traced from this convention.
The supporters of the bank called themselves the National Republicans. They nominated Henry
Clay for president and John Sergeant, a member of the bank’s legal staff, for vice president.
They accused “King Andrew” of seeking dictatorship over Congress.
The election was centered on the bank issue, and Jackson won a second term easily. He had 219
electoral votes to Clay’s 49. William Wirt, who ran on the Anti-Masonic Party ticket, received 7
votes, and South Carolina gave all 11 of its electoral votes to its states’ rights candidate, John
Floyd. The popular vote was 687,502 for Jackson, 530,189 for Clay, and 33,108 for Wirt.
Oklahoma
In 1834 the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) was created as a permanent homeland for the
Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi River. By the end of Jackson’s second
administration the army had forcefully moved most of these eastern tribes to their new
“home.” The Black Hawk War of 1832 and the Seminole War that was renewed in 1835
represented the last efforts of the eastern Native Americans to retain their ancestral lands.
Henry Clay called Jackson’s Native American policy a stain on the nation’s honor. However,
Jackson’s antipathy toward these peoples was typical of the frontier settler, and because this
policy opened more land to settlement, most Westerners supported it with enthusiasm.
More dirty politics and a little levity
In 1835 New York Abolitionists started sending pamphlets urging an end to slavery, but a lot of
the mail was burned. Even though it was against the law to tamper with the mail, Jackson
encouraged postmasters to destroy the mail his opponents were attempting to send.
There was a central bank called The Bank of the United States. Jackson didn't trust the bank and
during his second term as president he vetoed a bill to renew the bank's charter, took all the
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money out of the bank and parceled it out to state banks run by his friends.
shows Jackson fighting the "monster bank".
This cartoon
The cartoonists had been portraying Andrew Jackson as a "Jackass" in derision. The donkey
ultimately became the symbol of the Democratic Party. Thomas Nast, a Republican and famous
political cartoonist is generally credited with first designating the political parties with the
Democratic donkey and Republican elephant.
First ever assassination attempt on a U.S. President
On January 30, 1835, President Jackson was nearly assassinated by Richard Lawrence, during a
funeral for Congressman Warren R. Davis of South Carolina. In the United States Capitol
rotunda, Lawrence approached the President and fired his pistol. The gun failed to discharge.
Lawrence drew another gun and attempted to fire again but ironically, the second gun failed to
discharge. Lawrence was tried and found not guilty on grounds of insanity.
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Jackson’s Tomb at The Hermitage in
Jackson Square, New Orleans
Jackson statue by Clark Mills in downtown Jacksonville (one of four
identical statues in the U.S.)
13
Jackson at age 78—1844/1845
The Hermitage in Nashville, TN 350 acres built in 1835
Rachel Robards became Jackson’s wife in
14
Harper’s Weekly Political Cartoon April 28, 1877 by Thomas Nast
Nast is credited with portraying Jackson as a donkey and hence an “ass”
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Donkey and Elephant: The History of these Symbols in Politics
Where did the Democrats and Republicans ever come up with
the animal symbols of the parties we've become accustomed
to? When Jackson ran for president in 1828, his opponents
tried to label him a "jackass" for his populist views and his
slogan, "Let the people rule." Jackson turned it to his
advantage by using the donkey on his campaign posters.
During his presidency, the donkey was used to represent
Jackson's stubbornness when he vetoed re-chartering the
National Bank.
In 1837, the donkey was used in a political cartoon for the first
time to represent the Democratic party, again in conjunction
with Jackson. Jackson was retired, but still considered himself the party's leader. The cartoon,
titled "A Modern Baalim and his Ass," showed Jackson trying to get the donkey to go where he
wanted it to go. (Baalim is a biblical reference to a false god or idol).
Thomas Nast first used the donkey in an 1870 Harper's Weekly cartoon shown above, to
represent the "Copperhead Press" kicking a dead lion, symbolizing Lincoln's Secretary of War
Edwin M. Stanton, who had recently died. Nast intended the donkey to represent an anti-war
faction with whom he disagreed, but the symbol caught the public's fancy and the cartoonist
continued using it to indicate some Democratic editors and newspapers.
Although the elephant had been connected with the Republican party in cartoons that
appeared in 1860 and 1872, it was Nast's cartoon in 1874 published by Harper's Weekly that
made the animal stick as the Republican's symbol. A cartoon titled "The Third Term Panic,"
showed animals representing various issues running away from a donkey wearing a lion's skin
tagged "Caesarism." The elephant labeled "The Republican Vote," was depicting the Republican
vote as running inexorably into a tar pit of inflation and chaos. The Democrats think of the
elephant as bungling, stupid, pompous and conservative—but the Republicans think of it as
dignified, strong and intelligent. The Republicans see the donkey as subborn, silly and
ridiculous but the Democrats claim it is humble, smart, courageous and loveable!
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Notable quotes by Andrew Jackson
"The individual who refuses to defend his rights when called by his Government, deserves to be
a slave, and must be punished as an enemy of his country and friend to her foe."
"The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect
equality."
"The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests."
"As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their
will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of
the press, it will be worth defending."
"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their
selfish purposes."
"One man with courage makes a majority."
"Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there."
"To the victors belong the spoils."
"Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on
equable and lasting terms."
"I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment
that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the
rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office."
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