I first became interested in Andrew Jackson from reading a story in Smithsonian magazine. Then, on my way from Virginia to Oklahoma last year, I stopped over at the Hermitage in Tennessee for a few hours. (It was awesome -- they waive the $17 admittance fee for active duty military.)Drawing in his fame as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson was the first truly popular president. Rather than merely "preside" over the nation, he saw himself as the embodiment of the national will, and as such strove to stand up for those who elected him.
With that in mind, he took on a number of issues during his presidency -- for better or worse -- that won him the enmity of the establishment. He fired longstanding office holders and installed loyalists in the bureaucracy ostensibly to assist with his policies of reform (in later administrations this became known as the Spoils System).
Similarly, he used the veto in ways his predecessors had demurred, with more vetos than the first six presidents combined. His determination to fight corruption led him to take on the Second Bank of the United States, first refusing to renew its charter, then withdrawing the governments deposits.
Other matters covered in the book include the fiercely controversial removal of Native Americans from Alabama and Georgia, the Petticoat Affair, the challenge of nullification, the French debt conflict, he and his family's views on slavery, and his spirituality in his later life.On the whole, Andrew Jackson as a man was a mixed bag. He was intesely devoted to his wife and I admire his toughness (he was the first president to have an assasination attempt, and he handled the matter with aplomb).
On the other hand, the stubbornness that led him to achieve great things as president also caused him to be closed-minded on other issues. Though his firm yet savvy stance toward South Carolina ensured the continuance of the Union, his handling of the removal issue and his actions during the Seminole Wars remain tragic blights on the national conscience.
His presidency remains one of the most debated in U.S. history.
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In the wake of the 2016 election, I read several comparisons between Donald Trump and Andrew Jackson. The idea of a populist triumphing over the corrupt establishment fit nicely with his administration's narrative, and there are several psychological similarities -- "the extroversion and social dominance, the volatile temper, the shades of narcissism, the populist authoritarian appeal."
It's worth reading a few, more balanced analyses, though. Here are a couple:
--Donald Trump is not a 21st Century Andrew Jackson, by Mark Cheathem.. Comparing Trump to a man who lived 200 years ago normalizes his only behavior, which we should have been ashamed of.
-Donald Trump and the Legacy of Andrew Jackson, by Steve Inskeep. Trump's intuition in using Twitter mirrored Jackson's adroitness in using newspapers. However, Jackson's 1828 election was a landslide victory for him, while Trump only won because of the mechanics of the Constitution.
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