Andrew Jackson was born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1776. His parents, Scotch-Irish folk, came to America two years before his birth. His mother was widowed while pregnant with him. At age 13, Andrew joined a regiment. He and his brother were both captured and imprisoned together by the British. Their mother got them released, but his brother died on the long trip home. During his independent days, he lived in a tavern with other students. He gained a reputation for charisma, and wildness and hooliganism (Morris, Introduction).After practicing law for a few years in North Carolina, he took up a job as public prosecutor. And after another several years of practicing law, he married Rachel Donelson Robards, the estranged wife of an abusive husband. Andrew also cultivated the imposing bearing of a “gentleman”, which entailed, in those days in the South, a challenge to a duel in responses to any grave insult, or otherwise with whipping or caning (Morris, Introduction). In late 1795, Andrew was on the committee to draft a constitution. He was under some powerful men who made him the first member of the House of Representatives from Tennessee. While in Congress, he co-signed in a land speculation with partners who went bankrupt. Fortunately for him, he escaped debtors prison. He retained a lifelong distrust of banks, and paper money, which was involved in the transaction (Morris, Section 3).In an episode of Jackson’s presidency, he was at war with the Bank of the United States. The Bank of the United States held a monopoly on the deposits of the federal government, which owned one-fifth of the Bank’s stock. The bank provided credit to growing enterprises, issued bank notes which served as a dependable medium of exchange throughout the country, and it exercised a restraining effect on the less well manages state banks. Nicholas Biddle, who ran the Bank, tried to put the institution on a sound and pro...
