Of Scottish-Irish descent, Andrew Jackson was one of the most fascinating and complex presidents in American history. Born three weeks after his father died in the Waxhaw area of the border between North and South Carolina 1767, the young Jackson received a sporadic education but had enough legal training to practice "frontier law" successfully by the time he was twenty-one (Andrew, 2008, p. 2). A military and political career would soon follow. Jackson's tenure as president coincided with the rise of capitalism, the rise of urbanism, enormous social and economic change, and an era of political upheaval. Ultimately many of Jackson's less flattering qualities would be used against him, but at all times his will to lead never dampened. As H.W. Brands (2006) writes, "He was a born leader who couldn't make himself into a follower" (p. 97). This biography will focus on Jackson tenure as president and the character and leadership qualities of America's seventh president.
The life of Andrew Jackson before his two terms of office as President included a military career with service in the War of 1812 and the Seminole Wars (Andrew, 2008). Jackson served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, and for the state of Tennessee a term as a member of the House of Representatives followed by a term as a U.S. Senator (Andrew, 2008). In 1821 he served as 1st Territorial Governor of Florida, before being elected as the 7th President of the U.S. for two terms from 1829-1837 (Andrew, 2008). This was an era when political upheavals in Europe were erupting and the U.S. viewed eliminating the British and Spanish presences from North America as a security measure. Jackson would later make harsh decisions about Native Americans that were founded during the Seminole Wars when he discovered a link to the Indian "issue" was British and Spanish influence. As one biographer notes, in one Seminole raid Jackson "found le...