Andrew Jackson & The Seminole (Part 1)

Andrew Jackson

 

Andrew Jackson had a tough childhood in South Carolina. His father had died in a logging accident before Andrew was born. During the Revolutionary war Jackson’s older brother had died of heat exhaustion when he was 12. At 14 he was working for the Continental Army as a porter. Him and his other brother were captured by the British. When Andrew refused to clean the boots of a British officer, the officer slashed at the youth with a sword, leaving him with scars on his left hand and head, as well as an intense hatred for the British. Robert also refused to do as commanded and was struck with the sword. The two brothers were held as prisoners, contracted smallpox, and nearly starved to death in captivity. Later that year, their mother Elizabeth secured the brothers' release. She then began to walk both boys back to their home, a distance of some 40 miles. Both were in very poor health. Robert, who was far worse, rode on the only horse they had, while Andrew walked behind them. In the final two hours of the journey, a torrential downpour began which worsened the effects of the smallpox. Within two days of arriving back home, Robert was dead and Andrew in mortal danger. After nursing Andrew back to health, Elizabeth volunteered to nurse American prisoners of war on board two British ships in the Charleston harbor, where there had been an outbreak of cholera. In November, she died from the disease and was buried in an unmarked grave. Andrew became an orphan at age 14. He blamed the British personally for the loss of his brothers and mother.

After the Revolutionary War, had a few failed jobs as a saddle-maker and a teacher. He later became a lawyer and moved to the small frontier town of Nashville, Tennessee before Tennessee was a state. There he met his future wife Rachel who was his landlords daughter. Rachel was married previously and separated from her husband. Things worked a little differently in the frontier towns and it was common for marriages to be dissolved unofficially, as long as everyone in the community agreed. This would come back to hurt Andrew Jackson and Rachel later on.

In 1788, having been offended by a fellow lawyer, Jackson fought his first duel. The duel ended with both men firing into the air, having made a secret agreement to do so before the engagement.

For now life was good. Andrew was working hard and the newlyweds were happy. Jackson invested in land at a time when Americans were pushing further west and moving to lands outside of the 13 colonies. Jackson served as a Congressman, Senator and a Judge. In 1802, while serving on the Tennessee Supreme Court, he declared his candidacy for major general, or commander, of the Tennessee militia, a position voted on by the officers. At that time, most free men were members of the militia. The organizations, intended to be called up in case of armed conflicts, resembled large social clubs. Jackson saw it as a way to advance his stature.

Andrew Jackson made enough money to buy a 640 acre plantation and hundreds of slaves. A few times his slaves ran away and he advertised awards in the local papers.

“Stop the Runaway… Fifty Dollar Reward. On the 25^th of June, a slave, about 30 years old, six feet and an inch, talks well, will pass for a free man. I have been informed that he has obtained fake documents and a dark coat. He will try to get to Detroit and escape to Canada. The reward is available to anyone who can take him and deliver him to me or secure him in a jail until I can get him. I will give ten dollars extra for every hundred lashes any person will give him up to the amount of three hundred. – Andrew Jackson”

It was around this time that controversy began to surround his marriage. A few rivals used her questionable divorce status to attack Jackson. A man by the name Charles Dickinson, who like Jackson owned racehorses and made bets together, published an attack on Jackson in the local paper. Jackson wrote a response and challenged Dickenson to a duel. Dickinson was considered the best sharpshooter in Tennessee but Jackson couldn’t let the insult to him and his wife go unchecked. So they arranged a time and place. Jackson determined it would be best to let Dickinson turn and fire first, hoping that his aim might be spoiled by it being rushed; Jackson would wait and take careful aim at Dickinson. When the time came, Dickenson was indeed quick on the draw but his aim was not hindered. He hit Jackson in the chest, close to the heart. Under the rules of dueling, Dickinson had to remain still as Jackson took aim and shot and killed him. Jackson's behavior in the duel outraged many in Tennessee, who called it a brutal, cold-blooded killing and saddled Jackson with a reputation as a violent, vengeful man. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could not be removed.

War of 1812

When the war of 1812 broke out, Andrew Jackson was named General and was sent to present-day Alabama to fight the British supported Creek Tribe. The American troops had their own Indian allied in the form of the Cherokee. There was a lot of tension and fear around the pressing white American settlers and the retreating territories of the native Americans. Junaluska was a chief of the Cherokee tribe and fought alongside Jackson. Story goes that Jackson was injured during the conflict and Janaluska saved his life. The soldiers began referring to their commander as "Hickory," after a hickory nut, because of his toughness, and Jackson became known as "Old Hickory".

On June 14, Jackson served as a second in a duel on behalf of his junior officer William Carroll against Jesse Benton. On September 3, Jackson and his top cavalry officer, Brigadier General John Coffee, were involved in a street brawl with the Benton brothers. Jackson was severely wounded by Jesse with a gunshot to the shoulder.

After a brutal military campaign during the Creek War, Jackson oversaw the Creek tribes' terms of surrender. The terms were brutal — The Creek people had to surrender about 23 million acres of their land, which was large enough to "encompass more than half of present-day Alabama and part of Southern Georgia" — to the federal government.

After the successful campaign in Alabama, Jackson and his troops were ordered to defend New Orleans against the British. A peace agreement with the British was signed Christmas Eve 1814 but news took two weeks to get back to America. The British arrived on the east bank of the Mississippi River on the morning of December 23. That evening, Jackson attacked the British and temporarily drove them back. Two weeks later, the British launched a major frontal assault against Jackson's defenses. An initial artillery barrage by the British did little damage to the well-constructed American defenses. Once the morning fog had cleared, the British launched a frontal assault, and their troops made easy targets for the Americans protected by their forts. Despite managing to temporarily drive back the American right flank, the overall attack ended in disaster. The Americans admitted to only 71 total casualties. The British admitted 2,037 casualties. 

After the battle, the British retreated from the area but Jackson put the whole city on lockdown incase they came back. Jackson, still not knowing for certain of the treaty's signing, refused to lift martial law in the city. Citizens, local politicians, and some of Jackson's troops expressed growing displeasure. When some soldiers, who believed the battle to be won, tried to leave and go back home, Jackson had them arrested and shot for desertion. A Louisiana State Senator wrote an anonymous article in the newspaper criticizing Andrew Jackson's declaration of martial law and his refusal to release the militia after the British ceded the field of battle. Two days after the article appeared, the Senator admitted to writing the article, and Jackson ordered the Senator arrest. U.S. District Court Judge Dominic A. Hall signed a letter on behalf of the Senator, and Jackson subsequently ordered Hall's arrest as well. Jackson proceeded with a court-martial of the Senator. The Senator was later exonerated, but Jackson did not release him from jail. Jackson then released Hall and escorted him beyond the city limits, outside the zone of martial law. Jackson told Hall not to return until the war had officially ended. Just two days later, Jackson received official word of the Treaty of Ghent and immediately lifted martial law and released all prisoners.

                Jackson’s victory against the British had come after peace agreements but nobody knew. When the peace agreement reached them so soon after the landslide victory, it felt to all Americans as though it had been the deciding victory. Jackson's victory made him a national hero, as the country celebrated the end of what many called the "Second American Revolution" against the British. Jackson was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. He continued to command the US troops on the southern border but did a lot of it from his home in Tennessee.

The Seminole

Several Native American tribes, collectively known as the Seminole, straddled the border between the U.S. and Florida. The Seminole, in alliance with escaped slaves, frequently raided Georgia settlements before retreating back into Florida. The free slaves to the South encouraged many US slaves to run away and make for Florida which was still a Spanish territory.

Andrew Jackson believed slavery to be the natural place of black people and that if black people were free and equal it would be the downfall of society. He was disgusted with abolitionists and tried to have their pamphlets banned and destroyed.

"I have read with sorrow and regret that such men live in our happy country—I might have said monsters—as to be guilty of the attempt to stir up amongst the South the horrors of a servile war—Could they be reached, they ought to be made to atone for this wicked attempt, with their lives."

Jackson was then ordered by President Monroe in December 1817 to lead a campaign in Georgia against the Seminole and Creek. Jackson was again charged with preventing Florida from becoming a refuge for runaway slaves, after Spain promised freedom to fugitive slaves.

First Seminole War 1816-1819

Escaped slaves had settled into an abandoned British fort in the panhandle called Apalachicola. The Americans named it Negro Fort. The Americans knew of it and knew it was home to many escaped slaves. The Americans worried that it would inspire their slaves to escape to Florida or revolt.

In 1814, General Andrew Jackson led an army to capture the fort. The former slaves had not been trained in the use of the cannon and other heavy munitions, and they were thus unable to defend themselves. From a boat on the river, the American forces used red-hot shot, trying to start a fire. A shot landed in the powder magazine, which ignited, blowing up the fort and killing over 270 people instantly. The Battle of Negro Fort was the first battle of the Seminole Wars. It made Andrew Jackson a hero to all but abolitionists.

However, the Seminole Indians and fugitive slaves continued to resist. At that time, the British held greater disgust toward slavery than the Americans. In May 1814, a British force entered the mouth of the Apalachicola River, and distributed arms to the Seminole and Creek warriors, and fugitive slaves. The British moved upriver and began building a fort. The Americans floated a ship of the coast and flew a British flag. When two Indian chiefs bought the trap and boarded the boat looking for help from the British, they were captured, thrown in prison cells and later hanged.

Fowltown was a Miccosukee village in southwestern Georgia. The land in southern Georgia had been ceded by the Creeks in the Treaty of Fort Jackson, but the Miccosukee did not consider themselves Creek, did not feel bound by the treaty which they had not signed, and did not accept that the Creeks had any right to cede Miccosukee land.  A week later a boat carrying supplies for Fort Scott, under the command of Lt. Richard W. Scott, was attacked on the Apalachicola River. There were forty to fifty people on the boat, including twenty sick soldiers, seven wives of soldiers, and possibly some children. Most of the boat's passengers were killed. When the news reached Washington they were furious. They sent Andrew Jackson to lead an invasion.

Jackson gathered his forces at Fort Scott in March 1818, including 800 U.S. Army regulars, 1,000 Tennessee volunteers, 1,000 Georgia militia, and about 1,400 friendly Lower Creek warriors. On March 15, Jackson's army entered Florida, marching down the banks of the Apalachicola River. The army then set out for the Miccosukee villages around Lake Miccosukee. Old wounds, fevers, and malaria aggravated Jackson's hatred as he threw himself into this “savage and negro war.” He ordered his men to destroy crops, take women and children hostage, and deploy savage dogs. The Miccosukee were driven from their village. The Indian town of Tallahassee was burned and the town of Miccosukee was taken the next day. More than 300 Indian homes were destroyed. Jackson then turned south, reaching Fort St. Marks. At St. Marks Jackson seized the Spanish fort. There they found two Scottish traders who had been supplying the Indians with guns. The Americans hanged them for supplying their enemies weapons. Jackson left St. Marks to attack villages along the Suwannee River, which were occupied primarily by fugitive slaves.40 people were killed and 100 women and children captured. Jackson then went on to capture a loosely defended Pensacola. He boasted to his wife, “the enemy is scattered over the whole face of the Earth, and at least one half must starve and die with disease.”

Interbellum

Holding low importance on Florida and unwilling to defend it, Spain sold Florida to United States for $5 million in 1821. In 1823, the Seminole leaders signed a treaty with the US government that released control of North Florida. It was reported there were about 22,000 Indians, and 5,000 slaves. In 1823, the government decided to settle the Seminole on a reservation in the central part of the territory. The reservation would run down the middle of the Florida peninsula from just north of present-day Ocala to a line even with the southern end of Tampa Bay. The boundaries were well inland from both coasts, to prevent contact with traders from Cuba and the Bahamas. most of the Seminole had gone to the reservation, but were not thriving. They had to clear and plant new fields, and cultivated fields suffered in a long drought. Some of the tribe were reported to have starved to death. The Seminole Indians were observed from the nearby American forts. One of which was Fort Brooke which was in modern day Tampa Bay next to Amalie Arena. Another was Fort King in present day Ocala. Others include Fort Lauderdale, Fort Hamer & Fort Myers.

 

Election of 1824 – The Corrupt Bargain

Andrew Jackson was a hugely popular figure to a lot of western frontiersmen and the common man. The aristocracy looks down on him however, because he wasn’t well educated. Jackson received the most votes and the most electoral votes however he didn’t have a clear majority. Jackson had 41% of the vote and the other 3 men had the remaining 55%. John Quincy Adams, William Crawford and Henry Clay.

Without this majority the House of Representatives get to pick the winner. Henry Clay got eliminated early and as Speaker of the House, convinced his coworkers to vote for John Quincy Adams. (Adams received only 30% of the popular vote to Jackson’s 40%) Once Adams was voted in as President he appointed Henry Clay as Secretary of State. This was seen as proof of a corrupt bargain. It was accused that Adams had given Clay the job in exchange for the decisive vote.

This injustice only added fuel to Jackson’s fire and emboldened his supporters. Jackson would be a thorn in John Quincy Adams side his whole presidency, Jackson declaring the presidency as illegitimate.

John Quincy Adams was sworn in, the first not to swear on the bible. Instead he swore on a book of law. It was the first time a son of a former president had become president themselves. It wouldn’t happen again for another 174 years.

Election of 1828

By the next election, tensions were even higher. However, this was the first election where non-landowning men could vote. The working class were now a voting group and Andrew Jackson appealed to them greatly. Andrew Jackson sold himself as a hardworking common man. All six presidents previous presidents had come from wealthy families in either Massachusetts or Virginia. Andrew Jackson was an outsider from the Tennessee frontier. His campaign slogan was “Don’t vote for John Quincy Adams who can write, vote for Andrew Jackson who can fight!”

John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were rivals again. John Quincy Adams held himself up as an educated man, the son of a former president and a popular representative of Massachusetts. He described Andrew Jackson as "A barbarian who could... hardly could spell his own name..." Jackson was called a Jackass multiple times and to spite this insult he chose the donkey as his campaign mascot. As the first democrat, this symbol has stuck to this day. Also at that time, the word Democracy was a word of mockery. Many prominent members of the government saw it as a bad thing to let just any man vote. They believed voting should be reserved by the wealthy landowning men. Imagine their horror that today minorities and women can vote. Democracy was seen as “mob rule”.

Jackson also came under heavy attack as a slave trader who bought and sold slaves and moved them about in defiance of modern standards of morality. This made him unpopular in the north but very popular in the south and out west. The Coffin Handbills pamphlets attacked Jackson for his courts-martial, execution of deserters and massacres of Indian villages, and also his habit of dueling. "One might as well make a sailor of a cock, or a soldier of a goose, as a President of Andrew Jackson.” Jackson's violence was his strength and weakness. Many thought of him as a tough and manly guy, but some knew that his anger left potential for conflict, controversy and humiliating the position of president. "I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me." He once proclaimed.

Once again, Andrew Jackson’s marriage to a woman who was already married was a much talked about scandal.  "Ought a convicted adulteress and her paramour husband be placed in the highest offices of this free and Christian land? Said one newspaper. Jackson’s wife, Rachel was personally attacked in many newspapers and nicknamed the “American Jezebel”. She became extremely stressed with social anxiety. She often complained of chest pains.

Jackson’s campaign fired back with made up accusations that while John Quincy Adams was Minister to Russia, he sought to find women to be prostitutes for the Emperor of Russia. It was all a lie but meant as payback. However, the criticism of his marriage to Rachel continued.

Finally, on December 2^nd, 1828, Andrew Jackson was declared the Seventh President of the USA!

Tragically, 20 days later, Jackson’s wife, Rachel, died of a heart attack. Her husband’s victory had only served to increase her anxiety of more media attention and criticism. A distraught Jackson had to be pulled from her so the undertaker could prepare the body. He felt that the abuse from Adams's supporters had hastened her death and never forgave him. Rachel was buried at the Hermitage on Christmas Eve. "May God Almighty forgive her murderers, as I know she forgave them," Jackson swore at her funeral. "I never can."

 

Jackson Presidency

When Jackson was inaugurated as President, Adams felt it better to keep his distance since the election was so hotly contested and Jackson held him partially responsible for the death of his wife. It was the first time an outgoing president had skipped the inauguration of his successor since his father skipped the inauguration of Jefferson 27 years earlier. An outgoing president wouldn’t do this again for another 41 years.

After being inaugurated, Andrew Jackson invited the general public to celebrate with him at the White House. His victory had been because of the riff-raff and common man and not the aristocracy. He wanted the common man to celebrate with him. People poured into Washington, DC from all around and headed straight for the White House which had been ordered to open it’s doors to everyone. Andrew Jackson had been a celebrity among the common man who felt alienated from the wealthy and educated classes that had held the office for so long. Everyone wanted to meet, congratulate and celebrate Andrew Jackson’s victory. Everyone that is except for the aristocracy and establishment politicians. They made themselves scarce and didn’t attend the party. The revelers drank and danced. They broke expensive furniture and stained expensive rugs. China vases were smashed. Jackson didn’t especially care and saw it all as symbols of the wealthy and powerful. Jackson met the adoring public but when the White House got a little too crowded and he climbed out of a window to leave.

This disorder earnt him the name “King Mob” by his opponents.

Once in power he tried to cut back on government spending. He also called for the abolition of the Electoral College which he believed stifled true democracy and put too much control in establishment politicians. It had been the electoral that cost him the election first time around when he held the popular vote.

 

Petticoat Affair

A Lesson in Compassion

For the frontiersman, military general and over-round tough guy, the most challenging moment of his presidency was the “Petticoat Affair.” (A petticoat being an woman’s “underdress”)

Within Washington DC, politicians lived with their families. One politician was John Eaton, the new US Senator from Tennessee and a life-long friend of Andrew Jackson. John Eaton’s wife Peggy had been married previously at the age of 17, to a man 22 years older than her. He was an alcoholic and a gambler. John Eaton became acquainted with Peggy and her husband and tried to help with the families debts. Eaton got much of their debts forgiven and got Peggy’s husband a well paying job in the US Navy. However, when John and Peggy fell in love while her husband was gone it all began to look very suspect. When Peggy’s husband died it fueled the rumors that he had committed suicide (Medical examiners would conclude that it was actually pneumonia.)

Nevertheless, the marriage of John Eaton to Peggy was a controversial topic in DC. They married 9 months after her husband’s death, at a time when it was improper to mourn for such a short period of time. The Vice-President, John C Calhoun’s wife, lead the wives in an anti-Peggy campaign. Wherever possible, they shunned Peggy at events and failed to invite her to their parties. Since Jackson’s wife died before he took the presidency, he had his daughter-in-law take the first lady role. She too became swayed by the anti-Peggy Eaton drama which caused Jackson to replace her with someone else.

When someone advised Jackson against making Eaton his secretary of war because of Peggy’s reputation, Jackson barked, "Do you suppose that I have been sent here by the people to consult the ladies of Washington as to the proper persons to compose my cabinet?!”

Why do you think Andrew Jackson cared about John & Peggy Eaton so much?

Andrew Jackson’s wife had been a victim of bullying and attacks. Jackson was extra sympathetic to the Eaton’s. We often care more about issues that affect us or we identify with. Parents with autistic children want to spread awareness, people who have had breast cancer want to fundraise for it, people generally care more when it affects them.

Why do you think people care more when they’ve experienced the same unfortunate event?

Relate, remember how they felt. Empathy.

Do you think it’s bad that people generally don’t care unless it has happened to them?

It is. Ideally we can put ourselves vividly into other people shoes. However, it’s not always easy to relate so easily. We cannot engage with every issue that affects the world 100%, we’re going to feel more passionately about somethings than others and it’s often personal experience that makes the difference. Although it’s hard to care about every single issue in the world, it is perhaps possible to have a blanket respect, patience, and understanding of anything that’s troubles another human being. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you know nothing about.” – Plato. Reserve judgement when others are ready to condemn, see gloomy faces for the gloomy situation they’re experiencing and smile, hoping to distract them from their burden. Fight for those who can’t and judge nobody for you don’t know what stressors have made them that way.

This tension among the top politicians in DC was causing trouble. With the country to care for, the top families in control were at odds. It served as a distraction to them all. Jackson’s frustration with the treatment of Mrs Eaton by Mrs Calhoun and her friends caused friction between Jackson and his VP Calhoun. People began to turn against Jackson and favor Calhoun to replace him as president, all on the basis of some family drama.

The Petticoat affair ended friendships and ruined reputations and for the sake of petty scandal and rumors.

1832 – Nullification Crisis

This brings us to the next crisis of the Jackson presidency. From the beginning of US history to today there has always been a struggle between unity as a country and states rights. Individual states have some freedom to make laws in their lands but the national government has the final say. In Jackson’s time the big question was whether or not individual states had the freedom to make null or void, federal taxes. South Carolina was the home state of Jackson’s Vice President who he was quickly falling out with. South Carolina had been more effected by the economic decline than most other states. John C Calhoun and the representatives of South Carolina declared the new taxes unconstitutional and believed that they did not need to obey them. However, the US supreme court ruled that the taxes were indeed constitutional. After the decision, John C Calhoun resigned as VP. After failing to overturn the taxes South Carolina threatened to leave the Union, becoming their own independent country. This caused Jackson to remark, "John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation I will secede your head from the rest of your body."

Jackson responded in the only way he knew how, with a show of force. He wanted to send troops to South Carolina to enforce the taxes. Direct payment rather than bonds would be required, and federal jails would be established for violators the state refused to arrest. However, congress voted to reject the use of force. South Carolina had started training 25,000 men in case they were needed to defend the State’s rights.

The situation would be rescued by Henry Clay, who lost in the election of 1828. He proposed a lesser tax, paid over a longer term. Both the federal government and the state could claim the victory. In his speech ending the debate on the tariff, Clay captured the spirit of the voices for compromise by condemning Jackson's Proclamation to South Carolina as inflammatory, admitting the same problem with the Force Bill, but indicating its necessity, and praising the Compromise Tariff as the final measure to restore balance, promote the rule of law, and avoid the "sacked cities", "desolated fields", and "smoking ruins" he said the failure to reach a final accord would produce. A civil war would be avoided for now.

After Jackson’s presidency, he was asked if he had any regrets about the last eight years, this was his response: “[That] I didn’t shoot Henry Clay and I didn’t hang John C. Calhoun.”