Jackson, Andrew, General, seventh president of the United States, was born at Waxhaw on the southern border of North Carolina, March 15, 1767. His father, an immigrant from the north of Ireland, died a few days before Andrew's birth, and his mother and brother succumbed to the hardships of the revolutionary war. After being admitted to the bar at Salisbury, North Carolina, Andrew removed in 1788 to Nashville, then a frontier settlement, and was appointed public prosecutor. In 1791 he married Mrs. Rachel Robards, daughter of Colonel John Donelson, supposing that she had been divorced from her former husband. But the divorce not being legally granted until 1793, Jackson had the marriage ceremony repeated. These circumstances furnished material for malignant attacks, and the irritable Jackson fought several duels, in one of which, after he had a rib broken, he killed his antagonist. In the new state of Tennessee Jackson was a leading man; after helping to frame its constitution, he became its representative in congress in 1796, its United States senator in 1797, and a judge of its supreme court in 1798. This position he held until 1804, when he resigned. He gave some support to Aaron Burr's half-revealed schemes of conquest in the south-west, and when Burr was tried at Richmond in 1807 was still his steadfast partisan.
When war was declared against Great Britain in 1812, Jackson, being major-general of the state militia, offered his services and led 2500 men to Natchez, but General Armstrong, the new secretary of war, ordered him to disband them. Jackson, however, marched them in a body back to Nashville, where soon afterwards, in an affray with Colonel T. H. Benton, he was severely wounded. With his fractured arm still in a sling, the general took the field in September 1813 against the Creek Indians in Alabama. This campaign, in which his military genius was first effectively displayed, was closed by a decisive victory at the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River, March 27, 1814. Henceforth he was familiarly called 'Old Hickory.' On May 31 he was made major-general in the regular army, and appointed to command the department of the South. Pensacola in Spanish Florida being then freely used by the British as a base of operations, Jackson took the responsibility of invading Spanish soil, stormed Pensacola, and when the British fleet withdrew marched to New Orleans, which was threatened by Sir E. Pakenham with 12,000 veterans. Jackson made his chief defence 4 miles below the city, where, along a ditch extending from a swamp to the Mississippi, he constructed earthworks. On January 8, 1815, under cover of a fog, Pakenham tried to carry these works by direct assault, but within half an hour the British were repulsed with a loss of 2600 men, including their commander, while the American loss was but 8 killed and 13 wounded. This battle was remarkable not only for the unprecedented disparity of loss, but for the fact that it was fought after the treaty of peace had been signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814.
In 1818 Jackson again invaded Florida, severely chastised the Seminoles, and executed Arbuthnot and Ambrister, convicted by court-martial, on very slight evidence, of inciting the Indians to war. After the purchase of Florida Jackson was its first governor, but soon resigned, and in 1823 he was again elected to the United States senate. In the next year as a candidate for the presidency he had the highest popular vote, but not a majority. The choice was, therefore, made by the House of Representatives from the three highest candidates, and J. Q. Adams was selected; but when he appointed Henry Clay secretary of state, Jackson and his friends alleged that a bargain had been made, transferring Clay's votes to Adams. In 1828 Jackson was elected, having 178 electoral votes out of a total of 261. The first president from beyond the Alleghanies, he was a typical product of the new democratic era—fearless, honest, but prompt to decide everything for personal reasons. A striking feature of his policy was the sweeping removal of minor officials and filling their places with his partisans. This system was aptly described by Senator W. L. Marcy in 1831: 'To the victor belong the spoils.' Jackson's first cabinet was broken up in consequence of his characteristic but futile effort to compel social recognition of Secretary Eaton's wife by the families of the other secretaries. The second cabinet was in the main composed of abler men. Martin van Buren, who had been secretary of state, was nominated minister to England, but after he had gone abroad his confirmation was defeated in the senate by the casting vote of Vice-president Calhoun. This strenuous advocate of state sovereignty was now openly opposed to Jackson, as was shown at a banquet in 1830, when the president gave his famous toast—'The Federal Union—it must be preserved,' and the vice-president responded with another—'Liberty—dearer than the Union.' Congress readjusted the tariff in 1832, retaining the protective system which had prevailed since the peace of 1815, and against which South Carolina had protested as unconstitutional and oppressive. On November 24, 1832, its state convention adopted an ordinance of nullification. President Jackson's proclamation, prepared by Edward Livingston, who had succeeded Van Buren as secretary of state, ably argued the whole question, and declared a firm determination to execute the laws and preserve the Union. Under the leadership of Clay, congress adopted a compromise tariff in March 1833, and South Carolina repealed its ordinance.
The president's veto power was much more freely used by Jackson than by his predecessors. His most memorable veto was that of a bill to renew the charter of the United States Bank, which became the chief issue in the presidential campaign of 1832. Jackson, having obtained 219 electoral votes out of 286, resolved to destroy the bank by removing the government deposits. Two successive secretaries of the treasury refused to do so, but a third who was not confirmed by the senate issued the order. The senate censured this act as usurpation, but Jackson had a closing triumph when the censure was expunged on January 16, 1837. In his administration the national debt was fully paid in 1835, and the surplus revenue which accumulated was ordered to be distributed to the several states. In foreign affairs Jackson won credit by enforcing the claims for the spoliations committed by French vessels during the wars of Napoleon. In 1831 France by treaty agreed to pay $5,000,000, but afterwards delayed payment. The president then recommended to congress to seize French vessels to make up the amount, and France after a protest paid the claim. Jackson's second term having expired on March 4, 1837, he retired to private life at the Hermitage, near Nashville, whence he still watched with keen interest the great political movements of the time. He died at the Hermitage, June 8, 1845.
The most complete biography is by James Parton (3 vols. New York, 1860). For Jackson's administration, T. H. Benton's Thirty Years' View, and Von Holst's and other histories of the United States should be examined. See also the Life by W. G. Sumner, in the 'American Statesmen' (1882), and that by Dyer (1891).