By "the foremost Jacksonian scholar of our time" (New York Times), the critically acclaimed and most concise biography of Andrew Jackson that takes a comprehensive look at the political, personal, and military life of the seventh president of the United States. This brief biography focuses more on the political career of Andrew Jackson than on his military heroism at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. It nevertheless provides an overview of the martial events that made Jackson's rise to the presidency possible. Robert Remini is widely touted as one of the great historians of the Jacksonian era, and Andrew Jackson is his most accessible book on the period's most intriguing figure. "The best biography of Andrew Jackson available. It summarizes adequately the best of the old scholarship while at the same time branching off to offer significant new interpretations of crucial points." -- "Library Journal""In this concise and well-written biography Robert V. Remini has a more ambitious objective than merely recounting the life of a famous man.He portrays the President not as a symbol of the age nor a personification of proletarian striving, but as a shrewd and able politician, a pioneer in using the office of the presidency for both national and narrowly partisan purposes.His account is persuasive and well documented." -- "Political Science Quarterly""Remini, an old hand at unraveling the politics of this era, writes with assurance and cuts through hoary legends.A stimulating reassessment." --" Choice" Professor Remini, already a recognized authority on the Jacksonian period, has written the best biography of Andrew Jackson available. It summarizes adequately the best of the old scholarship while at the same time branching off to offer significant new interpretations of crucial points. By "the foremost Jacksonian scholar of our time" (New York Times), the critically acclaimed and most concise biography of Andrew Jackson that takes a comprehensive look at the political, personal, and military life of the seventh president of the United States. Robert V. Remini is professor of history emeritus and research professor of humanities emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and historian of the United States House of Representatives. He is the winner of the National Book Award for the third volume of his study of Andrew Jackson, and he lives in Wilmette, Illinois. Andrew Jackson By Robert V. Remini Perennial Copyright © 1999 Robert V. Remini All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-06-080132-8 Chapter One A Roaring, Rollicking Fellow The election had been as filthy as presidential elections are ever likely to get. It set a record for character assassination scurrility, and unspeakable vulgarity. Both men seeking the high office paid a fearful price for their ambition. One of them, the sixty-year-old Andrew Jackson, watched in agony as his wife reeled under the assaults upon her character that daily spewed forth from the public prints. One day, as he sat in his home in Tennessee reading a newspaper, he spotted a paragraph that had a neatly-drawn hand pointing to the opening words. As he scanned the first line he paled; then, in a sudden, uncontrolled burst of emotion he broke down in tears, and his body shook with grief. His wife, Rachel, entered the room at that moment and, seeing his distress, asked him what was wrong. Jackson pointed to the offending newspaper. "Myself I can defend," he said. "You I can defend; but now they have assailed even the memory of my mother." Rachel picked up the paper and stared at the incredible words. "General Jackson's mother was a common prostitute," it read, "brought to this country by the British soldiers! She afterward married a mulatto man, with whom she had several children, of which number General Jackson is one!!!" It may seem strange that General Andrew Jackson, hero of the War of 1812 and the courageous soldier boy of the American Revolution, could respond with tears to the lying words of a vicious newspaper editor. It would have been more characteristic had he stood up and roared his rage, summoned the vile penman to the field of honor, and there avenged his mother's name with a well-placed bullet; for Jackson did have a monumental temper, which when could hurl itself with fearful fury against those who displeased him. When he chose; he could flood a room with the gorgeous sounds of Anglo-Saxon expletives. But on this occasion Jackson did not rail or rant; he wept. And this sudden change from the expected was what many of his contemporaries remembered when they later tried to catch his personality on paper and describe it to others. His was not an obvious, Simple, or easy character to analyze. It was full of sharp contrasts, angular twists, and sudden turns. He was impetuous and cautious, ruthless and compassionate, suspicious and generous. He was driven by ambition-a skillful, hardheaded political operator, enamored of power, and dee