Ranking the Presidents #13

ANDREW JACKSON (D) - 1829-1837

In many ways, by today's standards, the 13th President would be a racist jerk, but I'm trying to put them all in their time. He was a Revolutionary War veteran as a teenager, also a prisoner of war, and also orphaned by the war, granting him a lifelong hatred of the British.

In the War of 1812, after 400 settlers were killed by the Red Stick Creek Indians at the Fort Mihms Massacre, Jackson led his troops and gained decisive victories all over the West. Even though he had South Creek, Cherokee, and Choctaw Indians under his command, it led him to generally despise Indians.

In 1824, Jackson ran for President. He won the popular and electoral vote, but since they weren't enough to give it to him outright, the election was decided by the House of Representatives, who gave it to John Quincy Adams. And so for the rest of his life, he hated Adams.

He railed against Adams for four years and ran again in 1828. Martin Van Buren revived the old Republican party and renamed it the Democratic party. Andrew Jackson joined him, and when his opponents called him a jackass, Jackson took pride in it and used the jackass as a symbol of his candidacy (and remains to this day as the Democratic animal.) Jackson won decisively.

Jackson fought hard and failed to get rid of the Electoral College. He fought to reduce the debt and he did so. He fought for Indian removal. He was a big believer in manifest destiny, and while many were for extermination, Jackson did most of this through negotiations and treaties, pushing the Indians further west. His main battle though was against the Second Bank of America. He felt it made the rich richer and the country more beholden to the select few who controlled the banks. He vetoed its creation in 1832. But the distribution of money-lending from national to local banks led to inflation and then a depression in Jackson's last year, which lasted several years.

Jackson shaped American history on the battlefield, and he did a pretty good overall as President. He saw himself as the common-man hero standing up against the fat-cats of business and the elitists of Congress, and the victor against both.