Table of Contents Introduction 6 Chapter One An Adventurous Life 10 Chapter Two Shaking Up the Establishment 26 Chapter Three The American System and Abolitionism 36 Chapter Four The Bank War 48 Chapter Five Westward Expansion and American Indian Removal 60 Chapter Six Foreign Affairs and Jackson’s Legacy 74 Timeline 91 Source Notes 93 Glossary 96 Selected Bibliography 98 Further Information 99 Index 101
Introduction It was March 4 1837 and Andrew Jackson was no longer president of the United States After eight years in office he’d just handed over the presidency to his loyal vice president Martin Van Buren The festivities exhausted seventy-year-old Jackson whose health was failing He planned to stay at the White House for a few days afterward gathering his strength for the journey home to Tennessee This wood engraving depicts President Martin Van Buren’s inauguration in the US Senate chamber 6
The White House in Jackson’s time The next day while Jackson rested a few friends stopped by to visit him Among them were Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton and Frank Blair a newspaper publisher and a member of Jackson’s informal circle of advisers The men reminisced about Jackson’s presidency They talked about what Jackson had accomplished and someone asked Jackson if he had any regrets Only two Jackson supposedly replied I regret I was unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C Calhoun Why would a president say such a thing about his colleagues in Congress In modern times if such a remark by the president were made public it would likely bring instant condemnation 7
