Before I report on this book, I feel like I should tell you that I grew up in Nashville, specifically Old Hickory. We lived practically next door to Andrew Jackson elementary, and I have been to the Andrew Jackson's home The Hermitage more times than I can count. I have taken a walking tour of downtown Nashville, and sat in his pew in the Downtown Presbyterian Church. My parents eat Sunday lunch from time to time in the gift shop on the grounds of The Hermitage, and my husband mountain bikes on Saturdays with Rachel Donelson's (Jackson's wife) great great great great nephew. It is all rather incestuous, but I find that to be typically the case with all things Nashville. When Meacham described the wall paper in the main hall at the Hermitage, I could see it as clearly as I can see most familiar things from my childhood in my mind's eye. It is all I can say by way of explanation.
There are things about Andrew Jackson that I find highly attractive. I love it that he adopted Lincoya after a battle with the Creek nation, sending him home to the Hermitage to be raised as his own. I love it that he refused to clean the boots of a British officer during the revolution, which earned him a saber scar across the face. I love it that when at odds of 125,000 to one BOTH of his assassin's pistols misfired, he attacked (at the age of 68) before anyone else. I am proud of him for disregarding the moral complications of his friend Eaton's wife and keeping his as a friend and an advisor. My favorite is that Andrew Jackson gave Abraham Lincoln his first government job as postmaster.
I cannot disregard that he was the first President to come from outside the Washington circle. He was our seventh president, and he booted out John Quincy Adams for his office. He opened up the White House for his inauguration in an attempt to appear egalitarian, but it was embarrassment and a disaster with drunks galore. He did not have one living blood relative by the time he moved into the White House, and as much as he tried to arrange his wife's family about him, he was often very much alone.
Also, however, it is important to address the Trail of Tears, which was more than terrible. (It was admirably addressed in Charles Frazier's 13 Moons.) If I were to judge, I would say that Jackson's serious antipathy for the American Indians nations began at Fort Mims, where Jackson was sent to quell an attack by the Creek Indians (pgs 30-31). The atrocities committed were almost unreadable for me. Jackson responded to the Fort Mims situation, after others had refused. Jackson, unlike the other that had refused, felt obligated to respond, though he was seriously injured (absolutely his own fault, however, I'll tell you all about it later). Respond he did, and though the uprising was generally over when he arrived, he retaliated. His retaliation ended a year later with the cessation of 23 MILLION acres of Creek land (most of Alabama and some of Georgia), and the famous Battle of Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans. But in a rather bizarre twist of fate, he found and adopted the infant Lincoya whom he raised as his own.
Though you hear much of the love story between he and Rachel and the scandal that followed, the scandal was apparently a rather common thing at a time when information was only available by post and the post was not always that often in what was then the frontier. Next, Andrew was rarely at home with Rachel, as he rarely said no to a call for help or to defend a friend. He wrote great letters, and I do think that he thought of Rachel as his rock and considered her family his own. He just wasn't around very much; he was a fighter and an adventurer, not so much a husband.
Finally, the serious injury that I mentioned above was the result of a RIDICULOUS loss of temper. He had a heard a rumor that the Benton brothers were speaking ill of a friend of Jackson's (no one remembers who the "friend" was) and Jackson decided to attack. He ran into the Benton brothers at a hotel downtown in Nashville, Jesse and Thomas, brandished a whip, then pulled a gun. Jesse shot Jackson first and then John Coffee (friend of Jackson's) pushed Thomas down the stairs. Then one of Rachel's nephews (who just happened to be there) tried to kill Jesse (probably the sharpest tool in that shed) with a knife, just because he thought he should probably be on Jackson's side.
Jackson (quite his own fault) sustained the worst injury and bled through two mattresses. When told his arm would have to be amputated, he said "I'll keep my arm". Jackson kept his arm, was delivered back home to Rachel at the Hermitage, and stayed there for only a month before getting the call to Fort Mims and responding immediately. He refused to allow Thomas Benton to hate him over the whole affair, and in later years, Benton was one of his closest friends. Meacham says this of Jackson, "He knew how to make amends when he had to and possessed enough charm to turn longtime enemies into new friends."
You know, when I read John Adams by David McCullough, I wasn't conflicted when I finished. John Adams lived his life in such a way that there is not one element that you couldn't respect. Adams was well educated, his temper was only lost to righteous causes and never violently, he had the same friends his whole life.
Jackson is different; his flaws are myriad and just terrible. His kindnesses are equally overwhelming. His resolve is unparalled, he would have resigned his post as president rather than allow a bank that he thought took advantage of working men or allow cessation of any part of our country. He was the least educated president to that point, John Quincy Adams was appalled at his election. Jackson never even attempted to follow the establishment. He followed Jackson. When his niece and nephew tried to socially cut the wife of his friend, Jackson sent them home to Nashville and lived in Washington alone rather than give in to their judgement. When Abraham Lincoln was writing his inaugural address, he first asked for everything written by Jackson.
So, I don't know what to say other than that you have to read this book. If you can have an idea of this man, Meacham gives that. But, I wonder if anyone really knew Jackson. I wonder if everyone tiptoed around knowing that while he was quite charming, and his feats were rather amazing, he might decide to whip you or pull a gun no matter how close a friend or family you thought you were. A Nashville legend goes that a visitor after the death of Jackson asked a slave on the property if Jackson had gone to heaven to which the slave replied, "If the General wants to go, who's going to stop him". Everyone must have thought that about him. He didn't free any slaves, by the way. He did say on his death bed, that he would see them all in heaven regardless of color. Nice, but hardly adequate.
Pics are of the cover of the book and John Quincy Adams at his most disgusted. It is my favorite picture of him. Who has the best Bio of John Quincy by the way? He spoke Russian in the 1700's, for the Love of Mike.
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