President Andrew Jackson and His Times Quiz

Answer: He was struck by a British soldier's saber at age 13.

Andrew Jackson and his brother Robert both participated in the Battle of Hanging Rock, South Carolina (August 6 1780) during the Revolutionary War. Andrew was captured during the battle and held prisoner. While in captivity, a British soldier commanded him to shine his boots.

When Jackson refused, the soldier struck Jackson a glancing blow with the broad side of his saber, leaving a cut to the bone on Jackson's left hand raised in defense and his head where the saber made contact.

Answer: The Democratic Party

The original Democratic Party stood for states' rights and minimal centralized government.

Thomas Jefferson, credited by some as the founder of the Democratic Party, formed (with James Madison) the nation's first organized political party in opposition to the central government Federalist Party in 1800. The party was called the "Democratic-Republicans."

However, it was Andrew Jackson who solidified and organized the Democratic Party by his open alliance with newspapers - the primary public media of their day. The designation of the "donkey" as a symbol of the Democratic Party is a purely Jacksonian invention. Although Thomas Nast's cartoon "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" published January 15 1870 in "Harper's Weekly" popularized the "donkey" symbol, it had been used long before in Jackson's and Van Buren's presidential campaigns of the 1820's and 1830's.

In a strange twist of historical irony, both modern political parties now espouse the exact opposite of their original philosophies. The Democrats now stand for a strong central government and the Republicans stand for states' rights.

Answer: Immigrants

Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, emigrated to the United States from northern Ireland in 1765. Leading up to November 2008, President Andrew Jackson is the only first generation American elected President of the United States.

Answer: Lyncoya

Andrew Jackson was reluctant to adopt the Creek Indian orphan Lyncoya and bring him to Tennessee as a part of the Jackson household. He feared his wife Rachel would not accept the boy. Lyncoya died of tuberculosis at "The Hermitage" in 1828 at age 16, only a few months before Rachel Jackson died. The fears that Rachel would not receive Lyncoya into the Jackson household were unfounded as the following letters indicate.

Andrew Jackson letter to Rachel Jackson, Chickesaw Council House September 18 1816: "My Love, I have this moment recd. your affectionate letter of the 8th Instant. I rejoice that you are well & our little son [Andrew Jackson Jr.]. Tell him his sweet papa hears with pleasure that he has been a good boy & learns his Book, Tell him his sweet papa labours hard to get money to educate him, but when he learns & becomes a great man, his sweet papa will be amply rewarded for all his care, expence, & pains-how thankfull I am to you for taking poor little Lyncoya home & cloathing him-I have been much hurt to see him there with the negroes, like a lost sheep without a sheperd..."

By 1824, Lyncoya was an established member of the family.

Washington D.C., U. S. Senate, January 24 1824, To Andrew Jackson Jr: "My dear Son. Your papa has waited two weeks expecting to receive a letter from you informing him how your dear mother is, and your cousin, Andrew J. Hutchings, Lyncoya & all the family....and how health of all our friends are, all these things will be grateful to me,...believe me to be your affectionate father, Andrew Jackson." Postscript. "Tell Ly(n)coya howde for me, and say to him I expect he will be a [good] boy..."

http://www.aradergalleries.com/detail.php?id=2095

Answer: Official Censure by the United States Congress

A steadfast opponent of Jackson, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, spearheaded the effort for censure when Jackson refused to turn over to the Senate documents used at Presidential Cabinet meetings. The Whig Party held an 8 vote majority at that time in the Senate. The vote for censure was 26 to 20.

The effort to expunge this stain on the President's reputation was headed by long-time Jackson supporter Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. The Senatorial elections of 1836 swung the balance of power to the Democrats. When Congress assembled in January 1837, a boisterous crowd of Democratic Senators carried the handwritten Senate Journal of 1834 to the Chamber and had the secretary of the Senate draw black lines around the censure text and enter the words "Expunged by order of the Senate."

Jackson left the Presidency two months later, free of the stain of Henry Clay's politics.

Answer: Running Water

The White House underwent significant renovation and expansion during the 8-year Jackson presidency. Both the North and South Portico were added to the White House structure between 1829 and 1837.

Two springs of water existed on the White House property itself. During 1831 the United States Commissioner of Public Buildings purchased a third spring at the District of Columbia's Franklin Park.

After excavating cistern reservoirs for each spring (one at the Treasury Department, a second at the State Department and a third at the White House) plans were developed for transportation of water through metal pipes to a central location at the White House.

From the central White House reservoir, pump "attendants" manually pumped water from an underground storage cistern to the upper floors of the building.

The system began operation in May 1833.

Answer: Arkansas (1836) and Michigan (1837)

Delegates in Jackson's neighboring state, Arkansas, voted 46 to 4 on January 30 1836 to request admission from Congress as the 25th state. The state was admitted less than 5 months later on June 15 1836.

It was planned by Jackson in early 1836 to admit Michigan as the 26th state in the same year, thus preserving the one "free state," one "slave state" Compromise of 1820. This was the first test of the Compromise - no states had been admitted since 1821.

On the same date that Arkansas was admitted to the Union, Jackson signed a congressional bill that defined Michigan's borders as a proposed state. The bill gave the proposed new state the upper 2/3 of the Michigan Peninsula in exchange for its relinquishing the "Toledo Strip" in a dispute with the State of Ohio.

Michigan balked. Jackson's well-timed plan became a political embarrassment. In September 1836, 49 elected delegates from 27 Michigan counties rejected the Congressional requirement to settle the "Toledo Strip" controversy prior to statehood. However, with considerable influence from Washington, the delegates met again and on December 14 1836 acquiesced to the new borders of Michigan and resolved its "war" with Ohio.

Jackson signed the Congressional authorization bill admitting Michigan to the Union as the 26th state on January 26 1837 - only 6 weeks before he left office.

Answer: Roger Brooke Taney

The longest serving Chief Justice, John Marshall (1801-1836), was succeeded by the second longest serving Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney (1836-1864). Their interpretations of the Constitution were diametrically opposed to one another. The Marshall court stood for a strong central government and the Taney court for the rights of the individual states.

The judicial legacy of Roger B. Taney rests largely on his decision in the "Dred Scott vs. Sandford" case of 1857. It gave to individual states the right to interpret federal laws governing the practice of slavery.

He was a much greater jurist than this one decision indicates.

Taney lived to swear in Abraham Lincoln as the 16th President of the United States in 1861. Later, Lincoln reportedly issued an arrest warrant (never executed) on grounds of treason after Taney's circuit court decision "Ex parte Merryman" against Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.

Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan (Term: 1877-1911), a champion of Post-Reconstruction civil rights, came into possession of the inkwell and pen previously used by Chief Justice Taney in writing the Dred Scott decision. With the historic implements in his possession, Harlan wrote his blistering minority dissent to the Supreme Court decisions of 1883 that negated the constitutionality of the 1875 Civil Rights Act.

http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_journal/04_a03.html

Answer: The Jackson Magnolias at the White House South Portico

The overall design of the President Andrew Jackson $20 bill began its life in 1928. Since then, the obverse of the portrait contained a view of the White House from the South Portico. The view included the Jackson Magnolias, planted in 1829 reportedly in memory of his wife Rachel.

In 1998, the obverse of the bill was completely changed. The South Portico view was removed and the collonaded North Portico of the White House became the featured view, thus completely eliminating the Jackson Magnolias from the bill.

The change was not made without good reason. Both the North and South Portico of the White House were added during Jackson's presidency. After 70 years of displaying the South Portico on the bill, it was, to some, a refreshing numismatic change to see the North Portico view with its collonades and majestic elms. Ironically, since the 1998 design change, the large elm to the right of the White House North Portico on the bill was destroyed during a windstorm on the weekend of June 23 2006. It exists now only on the $20 bill itself.

The Jackson Magnolias, by contrast, still stand tall and proud at the South Portico.

Answer: New Orleans, Louisiana

The equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C., the first equestrian statue ever erected in the United States, was dedicated on January 8 1853 and is located near the White House.

Three years later, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana erected its copy of the Mills sculpture on February 9 1856 in Jackson Square near the St. Louis Cathedral and The French Quarter. In the War of 1812, Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans against a vastly superior British army.

At the centennial celebration of the City of Nashville, Tennessee on May 20 1880, a second copy of the Mills sculpture was erected on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol. Jackson's impressive home, The Hermitage, is also located in Nashville.