Andrew Jackson biography

During the First Seminole War, in 1817, Jackson and his troops captured Pensacola, Florida (then a Spanish territory), and overthrew West Florida Governor José Masot, who had been secretly assisting the Indians in the war. Spain later ceded Florida to the United States by the Adams-Onis Treaty, and Jackson was named Florida's military governor, a post that he held from March 1821 to December 1821.

Political Success

In 1822, Jackson was re-elected to the U.S. Senate, and in 1824, state factions rallied around him and a Pennsylvania convention nominated him for the U.S. presidency. Though Jackson was the most popular candidate, he lost the election when the House of Representatives chose his opponent, John Quincy Adams. The decision, an alleged deal to give Adams the election in exchange for Henry Clay's secretary of state seat, became known as the Corrupt Bargain. The negative reaction to the House's decision resulted in Jackson's renomination for the presidency in 1825, three years before the next election. It also split the Democratic-Republican Party in two.

Jackson won the presidential election of 1828 by a landslide, with John C. Calhoun as his vice-presidential running mate. Jackson's opponents nicknamed him "jackass,' a moniker that Jackson took a liking to—so much that he decided to use the symbol of a donkey to represent himself. Though the use of that symbol died out, it would later become the emblem of the new Democratic Party.

Jackson was the first president to invite the public to attend the inauguration ball at the White House, which quickly earned him popularity. The crowd that arrived was so large that furniture and dishes were broken as people jostled one another to get a look at the president. The event earned Jackson the nickname "King Mob."

U.S. Presidency

Jackson did not submit to Congress in policy-making, but was the first president to assume command with his power to veto. He believed in giving the power to elect the president and vice president to the American people by abolishing the electoral college, garnering him the nickname the "people's president." He also implemented the theory of rotation in office, which became known as the spoils system.

Perhaps his greatest feat as president, Jackson became involved in a battle with the Second Bank of the United States, a theoretically private corporation that actually served as a government-sponsored monopoly. Jackson openly displayed his hostility toward the bank, vetoing its re-charter bill and charging it with disproportionate economic privilege. The American public supported his views on the issue, and in 1832, Jackson won his re-election campaign against Henry Clay; he won his second term with 56 percent of the popular vote, and nearly five times as many electoral votes.

Despite his popularity and success, Jackson's presidency was not without its controversies. One particularly troubling aspect of it was his dealings with Native Americans: Though Jackson had negotiated treaties and removal policies long before his presidency, historians often lay blame with him for sufferings such as the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation westward of an estimated 15,000 Cherokee Indians.