To the Numbskull who tried to say Jackson was called a Jackass by his Political Opponents and not because he was a Bigot, and a Racist?
His Political Opponents were ABOLISHIONISTS! Jackson was Genocidal towards Indians and Oppressive towards Slaves, and his Policies put in Place by him and The Democrat Party who held The Majority in CONGRESS to HALT THE PHASING OUT OF SLAVERY IN THE US LEAD TO THE CIVIL WAR!
ANDREW JACKSON IN PROCLAMATION REGARDING NULLIFICATION
By the time he was elected president, Jackson was a wealthy slave owner. His slaves were the source of his wealth, and when he died, over 150 slaves were working his plantation, The Hermitage, and other properties. Like many wealthy plantation owners, he was a slave trader as well as an owner—he bought and sold slaves throughout his lifetime.
The future prez was known for using the whip on "rebellious" slaves, and in 1804, he offered a $50 reward in the newspaper for a runaway slave and "ten dollars extra, for every hundred lashes any person will give him, to the amount of three hundred" (
source). In 1821, he ordered his nephew to give a female slave 50 lashes if she persisted in "putting on some airs" (
source).
During Jackson's presidency, abolitionist sentiment was growing in the north.
These abolitionists were more radical than their earlier counterparts; they wanted slavery ended immediately and sent constant petitions to Congress about it. They flooded southern post offices with anti-slavery literature. Jackson allowed postmasters to refuse to deliver the abolitionist literature—he even encouraged Congress to pass a bill prohibiting its distribution. The Senate eventually passed a bill prohibiting postmasters from detaining the mail, but it didn't do anything to prevent the southern states to nullify that law.
In 1835, the slavery issue popped up again when abolitionists pressed Congress about making slavery illegal in the District of Columbia and federal territories. The feds couldn't do anything about the states, but what about in federal territories like D.C.? The upshot was a
"gag rule" passed in 1836 that prohibited the topic of abolition of slavery in the U.S. to even come up on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Yep, that really happened.
Jackson had spent much of his military career in battle against the Creek and Cherokee tribes in Georgia and Alabama. In 1814, after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend that killed 800 Indian warriors, he forced them to sign a treaty in a land grab that opened up about 23 million acres of Indian-held land for white settlers. It got him a promotion to Major General of the U.S. Army. When he invaded Florida in 1817 while chasing runaway slaves, he burned Seminole villages along the way and forced the tribes into a reservation in the center of the state.
Between 1814 and 1824, General Jackson arranged nine of the Indian treaties that annexed tribal lands in the east in exchange for lands in the west. The tribes had little choice in the matter if they wanted to retain what lands they could and avoid being attacked by white settlers (
source). Residents of the southeast U.S. would get their land to plant cotton (on the backs of slaves, of course), and the Indian nations would live in bliss—far, far away from them.
Yeah, how'd that work out?
It didn't get any better when Jackson became president.
Since the founding of the Republic, Indian tribes had always been viewed by the federal government as a major obstacle to westward expansion, but earlier presidents hadn't done much about it. Andrew Jackson would change that.
As the population of the south grew, settlers pressured the federal government to get rid of the tribes residing there so they could plant cotton. Jackson supported the appropriation of tribal territories; he stood by as Georgia overruled a Supreme Court decision that acknowledged the Cherokee as a sovereign nation who were entitled to their lands. Jackson was alleged to have said, "Chief Justice John Marshall has made his decision, let's see him try to enforce it" (
source).
In May, 1830, after three months of Congressional debate, Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act, which forced relocation of the tribes west of the Mississippi in exchange for their land within the boundaries of the states. In his annual address to Congress, Jackson said:
It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages.
Andrew Jackson in Proclamation Regarding Nullification
