American Lion

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography this year went to Jon Meacham, for his study of Andrew Jackson titled, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. It is a concise biography of a complicated figure in American history that is an excellent starting point in trying to understand the man who transformed the American presidency.

As the subtitle states, this is about Jackson in the White House. His early years are dealt with summarily--there is only about a page on the Battle of New Orleans, which made him famous, and one short chapter covers both the 1824 and 1828 presidential elections, which were, respectively, a controversial one (Jackson won the popular vote in 1824, but without an electoral majority he lost the election to John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives) and a nasty one (in 1828, mud was slung viciously on both sides, including charges that Jackson's wife was a bigamist).

Though Jackson's early life is dealt with swiftly, Meacham etches a vivid portrait. Jackson was orphaned at 14, and lost two brothers during the Revolutionary War, as well as being slashed by a Redcoat's sword when he refused to shine the man's boots. A life-long hatred of the British ensued, as did a steel fortitude and a reluctance to back down against any foe. He was from the backwoods of Carolina and then Tennessee, but was also a gentleman, self-educated. He was a lawyer, a judge and a congressman before the War of 1812. I especially liked this quote about his days as a lawyer in Salisbury, North Carolina: "He was the most roaring, rollicking, game-cocking, card-playing, mischievous fellow that ever lived in Salisbury." Or this quote from a woman who knew of him when she heard he was running for president: "What! Jackson up for President? Jackson? Andrew Jackson? The Jackson that used to live in Salisbury? Why, when he was here, he was such a rake that my husband would not bring him into the house."

Indeed, Jackson was considered by many to be a country bumpkin, especially compared to the six presidents who proceeded him, who were all of gentry, either from Virginia or Massachusetts. In many ways he was the first "common man" to be elected President, and he had many enemies, including Henry Clay, and then John Calhoun, who interestingly enough was Jackson's first vice-president.

Meacham covers all of the key elements of Jackson's presidency: Indian removal, the battle to take away the charter of the Bank of the United States, and the nullification crisis. The first of these is indefensible, and was very controversial even at the time, with many against the forced evacuation of the native peoples of the southeast to lands west of the Mississippi (the Trail of Tears, in which many died on the journey, occurred after Jackson left office, but was certainly a result of his policy). The Supreme Court even ruled against Jackson, but he supposedly said of John Marshall's ruling, "He has made his decision, now let him enforce it."

But on nullification Jackson sounds the hero. He was stalwartly for the Union. The issue, on the face of it, was South Carolina's objections to paying Federal tariffs. They decided that a state could choose to ignore federal laws, but Jackson would have none of it. Both sides girded for armed conflict, but a compromise was made. Of course the deeper meaning was slavery, and a civil war was put off by thirty years. This issue prompted South Carolinian Calhoun to resign the vice-presidency (the only man to do so until Agnew).

Aside from these issues, which are known to any history buff, Meacham also incorporates some other factors that weighed heavily on Jackson's presidency, none so more than the Eaton Affair, which in Meacham's telling may have been the most influential set of circumstances he faced. Jackson's Secretary of War, John Eaton, had a wife named Margaret who had questionable morals (supposedly she had a miscarriage while her first husband was at sea--for over a year). The other Cabinet wives refused to have anything to do with her, as did Jackson's niece Emily Donelson, who was de facto First Lady (Rachel Jackson died just before Jackson took office). The ugliness lasted for years, as Jackson was adamant that Eaton and his wife be accepted. Taking his side was his Secretary of State, Martin Van Buren (who was a widower and thus didn't have to withstand any complaints from a wife). Against him was Calhoun, who was very much married. In many ways this affair decided who would be the president after Jackson. As one man said in retrospect, "The political history of the United States, for the last thirty years, dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker." Or, as Adams put it in a letter to his daughter-in-law, "It is the prevailing opinion that Mr. Van Buren is about to scale the Presidency of the United States by mounting upon the shoulders of Mrs. Eaton."

Jackson would have no children of his own, but doted on the children of others, and adopted several, including an Indian boy he found while fighting the Creek Nation. He was extremely close to Emily and Andrew Donelson. But he was a tough son of a bitch, and wasn't called Old Hickory for nothing. He participated in many duels, and carried a bullet in his body from one of them the rest of his life. Jackson was the first president who was the attempt of an assassination. In the days before the Secret Service, he walked out of the House chambers and was faced by a man with two pistols. Both pistols misfired (at odds of 125,000 to 1) and Jackson went after the man with his walking stick. Though sickly throughout his presidency (many often thought he was near death) he managed to hang on through two full terms and another eight years besides, dying at age 78 in 1845.

Jackson was a huge figure in American history. Before him, it was assumed that the greatest power rested with Congress (in fact, they are the subject of Article I of the Constitution, the president is dealt with in Article II). But Jackson changed all that. He was the first to vigorously employ the power of veto--the first six presidents vetoed a total of nine bills; Jackson alone vetoed a dozen. His detractors called him a bloody tyrant, and indeed an entire political party, the Whigs, formed as a means of opposing him. But he was victorious on almost all fronts.

Though this book may leave some a little wanting--Meacham points out that there are more thorough multi-volume biographies out there--where this book succeeds most is presenting Jackson as a man. Love him or hate him or a little of both, he's an important person, and I think Meacham sums it up best in this line: "A figure who could be at once so brilliant and yet so bloody-minded, so tender yet so cold, merits our attention, for the virtues and vices of this single man tell us much about the virtues and vices of our country."