The ensuing “Petticoat Affair” led to the resignation of several of Jackson’s Cabinet members but also cemented Jackson’s legacy as a Washington outsider who refused to bend. “Do you suppose that I have been sent here by the people to consult the ladies of Washington as to the proper persons to compose my Cabinet?” he told his critics. Washington society had deemed Eaton scandalous because he – like Jackson – had married his wife under not-so-politically correct circumstances, Stung from his wife’s death, the newly elected President refused to bow to pressure not to appoint his longtime supporter and friend John Eaton as his war secretary. READ MORE: How Jackson tried to save his wife’s honor
Jackson tried unsuccessfully to shield his wife from the negative press about their marriage, while his campaign team tried unsuccessfully to put the matter to rest.Īfter Jackson’s 1828 victory, Rachel Jackson died before her husband could be sworn in. “Jackson’s elopement with the married Rachel Robards was a perfect example of his rampageous personality,” wrote historian Ann Toplovich, summing up the Adams campaign’s assessment of Jackson’s nuptials.Īndrew and Rachel Jackson Kean Collection/Getty Images/MPI/Getty Images) When Jackson decided to run for president against John Quincy Adams in 18, his marriage to a not-quite-divorced-yet woman in the 1790s became fodder for his political opponents. At one point, he even ordered the postmaster general to destroy abolitionist pamphlets mailed to the Southern states, fearing the newsletters could fuel discontent around slavery and spark a civil war. Jackson actively supported pro-slavery policies during his presidency in an attempt to keep the nation together.
Enslaved African-Americans also ran nearly every aspect of everyday life at these large plantations. He owned hundreds of slaves whose labor produced the cash crops from the 1,000-acre Hermitage and his plantation in Alabama. Presidential Places: Andrew Jackson's Hermitage He joined a militia at 13 after his older brother died fighting in the war and served as a courier. He grew up the poor son of Scotch-Irish immigrants in the Carolinas during the Revolutionary War. To those who supported Jackson, he was almost a folk hero, an embodiment of the American spirit. Thousands died on that journey, many from smallpox and cholera. “Forced to leave most of their possessions behind, they witnessed white Georgians taking ownership of their cabins, looting and burning once cherished objects.” “Families were rousted out of their cabins and directed at gunpoint by soldiers,” wrote author and historian Tiya Miles. Infuriated by the ruling, Jackson declared, “ John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”Ī few years later, nearly 17,000 Cherokees were rounded up and forced out of Georgia to present-day Oklahoma on the “Trail of Tears.” Historic images show Native American way of life Jackson win a decisive battle in the War of 1812, fought the new law in the U.S. government to forcibly evict native Americans east of the Mississippi to land west of the Mississippi. President Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act of 1830 allowing the U.S. Jackson believed Westward expansion would keep America a great and strong republic, yet this came at a terrible price for Native Americans. But here’s a look at why Jackson’s legacy is mired in controversy: Department of Treasury selected Jackson as one of about a dozen American presidents and statesmen to adorn U.S. Yet, his humble origins as a poor orphan with little education exemplified the American dream that anyone could become president.īiographer James Parton put it this way: “He was a democratic autocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint.” He’s described by the organization that wants him off the $20 bill as “the slave-trading, Indian-killing seventh President.” It’s no secret that Andrew Jackson’s legacy is complicated. You’ve probably heard about the movement to replace Andrew Jackson’s image on the ubiquitous $20 bill, but why exactly did the United States put him on there in the first place?
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