Interesting Facts About Andrew Jackson

Started by doublejm1, November 17, 2013, 04:00:18 PM

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doublejm1

Andrew Jackson ranks among the most controversial presidents of all time -- and he's surely one of my favorite to learn about. I came across this article that has a few "interesting facts" about Jackson:

http://socyberty.com/history/interesting-facts-about-andrew-jackson-3/

The article neglects to mention a few key issues that defined his presidency, including the South Carolina Nullification Crisis.

What else do you feel is missing?

kopema

''It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.''

- Justice Robert H. Jackson

kit saginaw

Quote from: doublejm1 on November 17, 2013, 04:00:18 PM
What else do you feel is missing?

How he got distracted-by, and bogged-down in Washington DC's gossipy wife-circles.  He was faithful, but I think he meddled in everyone-around-him's marriages.  I can't think of a proper analogy... St. Patrick, maybe. There've been historical warriors and leaders from every country who seemed to occupy their idle time matchmaking and love-counseling vis a vie armchair psychiatry.  It's a DNA thing.



 

Dan

I read about Andrew Jackson and his spoils system right before I went to Boy's state about 26 years ago. The gist of it is that he would get other political leaders to support him by promising them sweet appointments. He was the innovator in that respect in American politics. For example, you could dangle an ambassadorship to someone if they threw their name behind yours. It's so common place in politics today that no one really thinks about it but Jackson was the man who really brought it out as an American political standard.

Anyway, when I went to Boy's State I did this same thing. I was running for county commissioner against this guy who eventually went on to get elected to lead our party at the state level. He gave this amazing speach and had all these fans cheering him on. But what I did was going around to all the other groups, find the slackers who didn't want to put in any effort but also didn't want to go home and say they had done nothing. I told them as county commissioner I would have the power to appoint people to many sweet positions that no one was running for and I would give this one or that one to anyone who supported me. Using this tactic, I bought all the votes I needed before we ever gave our speaches. So after this guy gives this great speach, I stand up and stay "vote for me". That was my whole speach. And when I beat the other guy he couldn't believe it.

I was too much of a slacker myself to take it any further but it was a valuable lesson in politics that all started with Mr Andrew Jackson.
If you believe big government is the solution then you are a liberal. If you believe big government is the problem then you are a conservative.