Chapter 10: The Age of Jackson

The iconoclastic Andrew Jackson follows the staid Adams and shatters prior precedents for electability and government operations in the capital. Jackson has no inherited wealth or social stature. His father dies early and he is left to run a small farm on the Tennessee frontier to care for his mother and siblings. He serves in the militia during the Revolutionary War at age fourteen, then picks up enough schooling to form a law practice, which leads to wealth and a term in the U.S. Congress.

After fighting multiple duels and buying his own plantation, he volunteers for the War of 1812 and wins national fame by defeating the British in 1815 at New Orleans. Jackson’s election in 1824 opens the presidency to a “log cabin man of the west,” another military leader, and one ready to exercise vast executive power on behalf of what he sees as best for the nation. Jackson achieves his goals and also reforms the Democrat Party in his own image.

• Above all else preserve and protect the sacred Union;
• Secure the vote for all citizens;
• Open new land for settlers in the southeast by removing the native Tribes;
• Shut down the federal bank and funnel government money to state banks;
• Ensure the “real value” of the currency by fighting inflation;
• Pay off the Federal Debt; and
• Build the Democrat Party for ongoing control in DC. 

In 1834 he also confronts the first secession threat when his own Vice-President, John C. Calhoun, launches the Nullification Crisis whereby South Carolina refuses to collect “unfair tariffs” on cotton imports. Jackson responds “Our Federal Union, it must be preserved,” and ends the impasse with a “Force Bill” which promises to send US Military troops in to arrest vigilante agents.