Andrew Jackson Fuck Yeah

geneseelibby:

May 30, 1806 – Future U.S. president Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel.

[Miss Grace Stockman with President Andrew Jackson’s dueling pistols, at the National Museum], 1926

via LOC

Welcome Home, Mr. President: Presidential Home Retrospective: A Pennsylvania Yankee in King Andrew's Court

presidentialhouses:

IIn which the author reminisces about previous presidential house visits. This post describes my fifth visit in 2009.

If James Monroe is Bill Pullman in Sleepless in Seattle, then Andrew Jackson is Clint Eastwood, specifically Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. He’s mean, he’s tough, he doesn’t suffer fools, he’s really unstable, and yet you kind of like him. Intellectually, I realize that Andrew Jackson had a lot of unsavory qualities and made many damaging decisions, but I find myself admiring many aspects of his personality.

By the age of fourteen he was already orphaned and in the militia during the Revolutionary War. He was captured by the British and ordered to clean a British commander’s boots, and his refusal won him a saber slash to the forehead. Thus began Andrew Jackson’s intense hatred of the British, which would spur him on to major victories against the British during the War of 1812. His campaigns during the war also demonstrated his undeniable leadership ability. During the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson led a ragtag group of militia men and pirates to victory against superior British forces. Getting this group of misfits not to kill each other would have been impressive; leading them to victory is almost miraculous.

Andrew Jackson continued to live a miraculous life— miraculous in that it was a miracle he survived it. In a time when a toothache could kill you, Jackson survived a slew of incidents that would have easily ended in death for almost anyone else. Many of these near death experiences stemmed from problems in his love-life. When Jackson fell in love with and married a young divorcee named Rachel Robards, it later turned out she wasn’t quite as divorced as she had thought. At the time, only a man could petition for divorce, so Rachel had to rely on her estranged, jealous husband to grant her a divorce. Everything eventually got sorted out, but the damage was done. When a man named Charles Dickinson published some unsavory comments about Mrs. Jackson in a newspaper and finished his statement with a challenge to a duel, Jackson accepted, despite knowing Dickinson was a deadly shot. Jackson let Dickinson shoot first, and took a bullet to the chest that could never be removed because it was too close to his heart. He then raised his pistol, aimed, and fired, shooting Dickinson dead. All told, Jackson engaged in as many as 44 duels over his lifetime. In his old age, he quipped that he “rattled like a bag of marbles.”

I can’t help but admire that sort of toughness, so I was excited to visit The Hermitage, his home for over 40 years. We arrived in Nashville on a sweltering midsummer day. Even with the almost unbearable heat the visitor center was crawling with people. Walking into his stately plantation, I expected to enter an inner sanctum of machismo. Surely the house would positively reek of the tough life of our illustrious seventh president.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The walls were covered in narrative wallpaper based on classical myths which the tour guides assured us was authentic multiple times. While I can appreciate this as a feat of historic preservation, the Hermitage was home to the second most horrifying wallpaper I have ever seen (first place goes to a home in historic Deerfield, MA that depicted the death of Captain Cook at the hands of Hawaiian cannibals. Seriously.) A vast majority of the items in the house were original, which the tour guides are very proud of, as well they should be. 

The house was large, spacious, and quite feminine. This was no doubt the influence of his daughter-in-law, whose tastes ran towards the expensive. Jackson and his wife adopted three children: Andrew Jackson, Jr., the the son of her sister (his twin stayed with his birth parents), a Native American boy named Theodore about whom little is known, and an orphaned Creek boy with the best name ever, Lyncoya Jackson. He also served as the guardian to eight other children. I never thought of Jackson as a family man, but standing in the Hermitage, you can imagine the laughter of children sailing in from the backyard. 

The most affecting part of the tour was Rachel Jackson’s grave, which is located in the garden next to the house. She died a short time before Jackson’s inauguration, and he believed she was killed by the stress of a messy campaign which prominently featured her checkered past. On her tombstone is a epitaph written by Jackson: “Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her temper amiable, and her heart kind. She delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow-creatures,and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unpretending methods. To the poor she was a benefactress; to the rich she was an example; to the wretched a comforter; to the prosperous an ornament. Her pity went hand in hand with her benevolence; and she thanked her Creator for being able to do good. A being so gentle and so virtuous, slander might wound but could not dishonor. Even death, when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could but transplant her to the bosom of her God.” 

I tend to think of Andrew Jackson as a wild man who lived a rough and tumble life, but The Hermitage showed his gentler side. Jackson may have been capable of extreme violence, but he was also capable of deep love. He may have been known as a dominating presidential personality, but when it came to decorating his home, he deferred to the judgment of the women in his life. Still, I wonder sometimes whether he was tempted to shoot the wallpaper right off the walls. 

robbinglips:

He was so pissed all the time.

Which is why I will one day name my cat Jackson. 

The Devil's Advocate: AJ

robbercar:

My role model, and hero, is a man by the named of Andrew Jackson. Maybe you’ve heard of him? Seventh President of the United States? Legendary badass? Yeah, that guy. He’s my role model.

And no, not because he’s a badass, though he was. The misfiring pistols. The duels. The cane. The racist parrot. He was an unbelievable titan of old.

But that’s not why I respect him as much as I do.

See, Andrew Jackson had a rough life. By the time he was 14, his whole family had died, and he was scarred across his face from a redcoat’s saber. He had just barely survived cholera, the disease that ravaged his family.

But did he give up? Goddamned no, he didn’t. He self-taught himself to be a lawyer, and was an amazing successful self-made man. When he felt the call of duty, he joined the military, and dealt the most decisive victory against the British that the United States had ever achieved. He became General Jackson, American Hero. That’s not hyperbole, that’s not myth. The man was as revered by the common man as Washington was.

And then he ran for the presidency in 1824. A scandal broke about how his wife, Rachel, who Jackson purely adored, was still technically married to her previous husband when Andrew and Rachel wed. Newspapers everywhere called Rachel a “bigamist,” and an “adulterer.” Jackson lost the race for the presidency in 1824, due to JQ Adams wily politicking with Henry Clay. Worse, however, was that the unprovoked personal attacks on Rachel ultimately wore her down, and lead to her death.

Jackson had lost the most important race in his life, and his beloved wife, Rachel, was dead. Jackson would never forgive the newspapers, J.Q. Adams, and anyone who he felt had caused his love’s death. And did he give up, roll over, and accept fate’s cruel machinations? No.

He swore he would do it better. He spent four years speaking against the Corrupt Bargain and J.Q. Adam’s impotent presidency. In 1928, he won, to the rejoicing of the common man. The first ever Man-of-the-People had been elected, and democracy reigned supreme.

Now, just to tie this all back up. Jackson had one of the most heartbreaking and difficult lives. Everyone he loved seemed to die. But not for one second did he stop fighting. He never gave up. He was always sure of every one of his actions, whether it was catastrophic or extremely successful. He knew, in his heart, that what he was doing was for the best. I admire you, Andrew Jackson, because I admire your amazing sense of will, courage, and audacity.

shesxe1ectric:

Andrew Jackson - taken in 1844.

I love old photographs and this one is incredible.

Guys, this picture is 168 years old. One hundred and sixty eight years old.

thelizardisfriendly:

Seriously. 

He asked him for advice on marrying a girl, and we all know what that really means.

coffeesocksannndkitties:

“It’s my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of son of a bitch or another.”

-Malcolm Reynolds

presidentialhouses:

This is part of a series called Presidential Free Association. I post the first word that comes to mind when I hear the name of the president, along with a brief explanation if necessary.

Wild

He fought in 44 duels. He invaded Florida without government permission. His parrot was kicked out of his funeral because it swore too much. He beat a would be assassin into submission with a cane. Wild doesn’t even begin to cover it.