Andrew Jackson: A Brief History of Old Hickory

By Nicholas L. Vulich

Andrew Jackson has the dubious honor of being the first President to have an assassination attempt made upon his life.

Picture this: Sixty-three year old Andrew Jackson is walking across the Capitol Rotunda. Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter moves to the front of the crowd. He fires two pistol shots into the President.

By luck, both pistols misfire. The aging Jackson charges the attempted assassin, beating him to the ground with his cane.

Jackson was no stranger to death or weapons. In his lifetime he fought three duels, faced down the Creek Indians, and ultimately fought the final battle of the War of 1812 at New Orleans.

Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I feel very much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is one of the most unfit men I know of for the place. He has had very little respect for laws or constitutions, and is, in fact, an able military chief. His passions are terrible. He has been much tried since I knew him, but he is a dangerous man."

During the 1828 Presidential campaign Jackson's opponents took to calling him "jackass." Being the bad-ass he was Jackson liked the idea, and used it as his own for a while. Years later the donkey was adopted as the symbol of the Democratic Party.

This short - 40 - page illustrated guide will tell you all you need to know to understand the Jacksonian Era in America... even if you know absolutely nothing about the South Carolina Nullifiers, the National Bank Crisis, or Indian Removal.

In less than an hour, you'll learn all you need to know to impress your friends about Andrew Jackson, the Battle of New Orleans, the Creek and Seminole Indian Wars, and more... 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Vulich
• Release date: Jan 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507017807

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Andrew Jackson

A Brief History of Old Hickory

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Copyright © 2014 by Nicholas L. Vulich

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Table of Contents

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Table of Contents

Introduction

As a young man

Duels of Andrew Jackson

Early legal career

Marriage to Rachel Donelson

Military service

1824 Presidential election

Death of President Jackson

Further Reading

Introduction

Andrew Jackson has the dubious honor of being the first president to have an assassination attempt made upon his life.

Picture this: Sixty-three year old Andrew Jackson is walking across the Capitol Rotunda. Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter moves to the front of the crowd. He fires two pistol shots into the President.

By luck, both pistols misfire. The aging Jackson charges the attempted assassin, beating him to the ground with his cane.

That may be how it happened.

Another story says Davy Crockett was in the Rotunda that day and tackled the assassin bringing him to the ground.

Jackson’s biographer, James Parton, described the assassin, The prisoner was proved to be a maniac. His name was Lawrence. He was an English house painter, who had been long out of employment. Hearing on all sides that the country had been ruined by the measures of General Jackson, the project of assassinating him had fastened itself in his crazy brain.

Jackson himself believed the man was a tool of his political enemies, and was put up to it by them. Harriet Martineau wrote, When I did go to the White House, I took the briefest possible notice to the President of the ‘insane attempt’ of Lawrence, but the word roused his ire. He protested, in the presence of many strangers, that there was no insanity in the case...He protested that there was a plot, and that the man was a tool...

Jackson was no stranger to death or weapons. In his lifetime he