I've realised something interesting.
Andrew Jackson is possibly the single most controversial figure in American history, because he is STILL CONTROVERSIAL TO-DAY, over a hundred and fifty years after his death.
For those of you who may not know, Jackson was a military and political figure in early American history. He was a Senator from Tennessee and Military Governor of Florida, a ( Read more... )
For those of you who may not know, Jackson was a military and political figure in early American history. He was a Senator from Tennessee and Military Governor of Florida, a ( Read more... )
BECAUSE MY FAVOURITE PRESIDENT IS JQA*!
Jackson's victory in 1828 was definitely a loud and clear message that with universal adult free male suffrage, things were not going to go the way that they had previously gone. Ever again. JQA was a Northern aristocrat whose experience was in diplomacy; that sort of person wouldn't be elected again until...well, EVER, actually. Although I think that if JQA hadn't been President he'd be better remembered as one of the greatest American diplomats instead of just 'that guy who became President because Henry Clay took kickbacks'.
Also, Clay was like a freaking cockroach. He was elected to the Senate despite not meeting the Constitutional age requirement, served there twice, entered the House when the Kentucky legislature wouldn't put him back in the Senate, became Speaker IN HIS FIRST YEAR IN THE HOUSE, served as Speaker THREE TIMES, became Secretary of State, entered the Senate again, and then entered the Senate AGAIN, FOR THE FOURTH NON-CONSECUTIVE TIME, before finally dying at the age of seventy-five. HE WOULD JUST NOT STAY DOWN.
Also, Jackson's inauguration. ONE-TON BLOCK OF CHEESE. Enough said.
What do you like about Cleveland, by the way? It's not that I don't like Cleveland, but I've never seen somebody list him as a favourite President.
*aside from Theodore Roosevelt. It's assumed that any time somebody says "my favourite American President is x" where x=/= TR, the words "not counting TR" are implied.
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During his presidency, congress raised a notion to include a literacy test for all incoming immigrants, which was mostly born out of racism but under the guise of "national security". It was supposed to keep out communists. Clevelend vetoed it on the grounds that people who were very literate in Europe were actually more likely to be Communists, considering they could read all the propaganda (as opposed to the typical peasant-farmer-escaping-pogroms).
His last words also really resonate with me, just because they're so fitting- "I have tried so hard to do right." Is he a visionary leader? Not really. Is he controversial? Only in context. But despite that, I feel like this guy was just a fair, decent sort of gentleman who did his best with what he had. I respect that.
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