Jackson Andrew

Jackson, Andrew (1767-1845), seventh President of the United States. He was early left an orphan, and suffered much in his youth. He was taken prisoner in the War of Independence, after the conclusion of which he entered upon his twofold career of lawyer and soldier. He was a member of the convention which framed the Tennessee constitution, became a United States senator in 1797, and a judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court in the following year. He commanded the State militia in the war of 1812, and on December 23,1814, when he had become a general in the United States army, repulsed with great loss the attack of Sir E. Pakenham on New Orleans. In the previous year he had successfully closed the war with the Creek Indians. In 1824 he was a candidate for the Presidency of the United States, and four years later was elected. In 1832 he was re-elected. He was largely influenced by personal friends who held no office and were named "the Kitchen Cabinet," and acted somewhat arbitrarily in vetoing the Bill for the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank in 1832, and in causing its deposits to be withdrawn and placed in the State banks. On the other hand, by his firm conduct towards the advocators of "nullification" (the doctrine that a State has the power to annul a Federal law) he postponed for several years the struggle between them which afterwards broke out on the slavery question.