Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He rose to fame as a U.S. Army general and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress . His political philosophy, which dominated his presidency , became the basis for the rise of Jacksonian democracy . His legacy is controversial: he has been praised as an advocate for white working Americans and preserving the union of states , and criticized for his racist policies, particularly towards Native Americans . Jackson was born in the colonial Carolinas before the American Revolutionary War . He became a frontier lawyer and married Rachel Donelson . He briefly served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate , representing Tennessee . After resigning, he served as a justice on the Tennessee Superior Court from 1798 to 1804. He purchased a plantation later known as the Hermitage , becoming a wealthy planter who profited off the forced labor of hundreds of enslaved African Americans during his lifetime. In 1801, he was appointed colonel of the Tennessee militia and was elected its commander. He led troops during the Creek War of 1813–1814, winning the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and negotiating the Treaty of Fort Jackson that required the indigenous Creek population to surrender vast tracts of the present-day U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia . In the concurrent war against the British , Jackson’s victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 made him a national hero. He later commanded United States forces during the First Seminole War against the Seminoles and other allied Native groups. This campaign was one of the factors that prompted Spain to negotiate the cession of Florida to the United States, which was finalized in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, in exchange for United States renunciation of territorial claims. He briefly served as Florida ‘s first territorial governor before returning to the Senate. He ran for president in 1824 . He won a plurality of the popular and electoral vote, but no candidate won the electoral majority. With the help of Henry Clay , the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams as president. Jackson’s supporters alleged that there was a ” corrupt bargain ” between Adams and Clay (who joined Adams’ cabinet) and began creating a new political coalition that became the Democratic Party in the 1830s. Jackson ran again in 1828 , defeating Adams in a landslide victory despite issues such as his slave trading and his “irregular” marriage. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act . This act, which has been described as ethnic cleansing , displaced tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands east of the Mississippi River. It resulted in thousands of deaths in what has become known as the Trail of Tears . Jackson faced a challenge to the integrity of the federal union when South Carolina threatened to nullify a high protective tariff set by the federal government. He threatened the use of military force to enforce the tariff, but the crisis was defused when it was amended . In 1832, he vetoed a bill by Congress to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States , viewing the Bank as a fourth branch of government run by the elite . After a lengthy struggle , the Bank was dismantled. In 1835, Jackson became the only U.S. president to pay off the national debt . After leaving office, he supported the presidencies of Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk , as well as the annexation of Texas . Opinions about Jackson are often polarized. Supporters characterize him as a defender of democracy and the U.S. Constitution , while critics point to his reputation as a demagogue who ignored the law when it suited him. Scholarly rankings of U.S. presidents historically rated his presidency as above average. However, in the late 20th century his reputation declined, and in the 21st century his placement in rankings of presidents has fallen. Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region of the Carolinas . His parents, Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Hutchinson, were Scots-Irish colonists and Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ulster , Ireland, in 1765. [ 1 ] Jackson’s father was born in Carrickfergus , County Antrim , around 1738, [ 2 ] and his ancestors had crossed into Northern Ireland from Scotland after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. [ 3 ] Jackson had two older brothers who came with his parents from Ireland, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764). [ 4 ] [ 3 ] Elizabeth had a strong hatred of the British that she passed on to her sons. [ 5 ] Jackson’s exact birthplace is unclear. Jackson’s father died at the age of 29 in February 1767, three weeks before his son Andrew was born; [ 4 ] afterwards, Elizabeth and her three sons moved in with her sister and brother-in-law, Jane and James Crawford.
Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson