Biography of Andrew Jackson, 7th U.S. President

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767–June 8, 1845 and known as Old Hickory), was the son of Irish immigrants and a soldier, a lawyer, and a legislator who became the seventh president of the United States. Known as the first citizen-president, Jackson was the first non-elite man to hold the office. Fast Facts: Andrew Jackson Known For: 7th U.S. President (1829–1837)Born: March 15, 1767 near Twelve Mile Creek on the border between North and South CarolinaParents: Irish immigrants Andrew Jackson and his wife Elizabeth Hutchinson  Died: June 8, 1845 in The Hermitage, Nashville, TennesseeSpouse: Rachel DonelsonAdopted Children: Andrew Jackson, Jr., Lyncoya, and Andrew Jackson Hutchings Early Life Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaw community on Twelve Mile Creek on the border of North and South Carolina. He was the third child, and the first one born in the Americas, of his Irish immigrant parents, linen weavers Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson. His father died unexpectedly before he was born—some stories say he was crushed by a falling tree—and his mother raised he and his two brothers by herself. The Waxhaw community was made up of Scots-Irish settlers and five of Elizabeths married sisters lived nearby, so Elizabeth and her sons moved in with her sister Janes husband James Crawford, and she helped raise Janes eight children. All three of the Jackson boys took part in the American Revolution. Andrews older brother Hugh died of exposure after the Battle of Stono Ferry in 1779. Robert and Andrew witnessed the Battle of Hanging Rock and were captured by the British, catching smallpox while in Camden jail. Learning of their capture, Elizabeth made the trip to Camden and arranged for their release in exchange for some captured British soldiers. Robert died and while Andrew laid in a delirium, Elizabeth went to visit quarantined Waxhaw community members on board a ship in Charleston harbor. She contracted cholera and died. Andrew returned to Waxhaw but no longer got along with his relatives. He was a bit wild, burned through an inheritance, and then left Waxhaw for Salisbury, North Carolina in 1784. There, he studied law with other attorneys and qualified for the bar in 1787. He was appointed public prosecutor in middle Tennessee in 1788, and on the way there, fought his first duel and bought his first slave, a woman not much older than himself. Marriage and Family Jackson became a leading citizen in Nashville and married Rachel Donelson in 1791, who had previously been married. In 1793, the couple learned that her divorce was not yet final, so they repeated their vows again. The charge of bigamy would come to haunt them while Jackson was campaigning for president, and he blamed his opponents for causing the stress leading to her death in 1828. Together the Jacksons had no children, but they adopted three: Andrew Jackson Jr. (the son of Rachels brother Severn Donelson), Lyncoya (1811–1828), a Creek Indian orphan adopted by Jackson after the Battle of Tallushatchee, and Andrew Jackson Hutchings (1812–1841), the grandson of Rachels sister. The couple also took guardianship of several other related and unrelated children, some of whom only lived with them a short while. Legal and Military Career Andrew Jackson was a lawyer in North Carolina and then Tennessee. In 1796, he served at the convention that created the Tennessee Constitution. He was elected in 1796 as Tennessees first U.S. representative and then as a U.S. senator in 1797, from which he resigned after eight months. From 1798–1804, he was a justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court. During his period as a justice, he managed his credit, bought slaves and a new parcel of land, and built The Hermitage, where he would live for most of his life. During the War of 1812, Jackson served as the major general of the Tennessee Volunteers. He led his troops to victory in March 1814 against the Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend. In May 1814 he was made major general of the Army, and on January 8, 1815, he defeated the British in New Orleans for which he was lauded as a war hero. Jackson also served in the 1st Seminole War (1817–1819), during which he overthrew the Spanish governor in Florida. After serving in the military and being the military governor of Florida in 1821, Jackson served in the Senate again from 1823–1825. Running for President In 1824, Jackson ran for president against John Quincy Adams. He won the popular vote but the lack of an electoral majority resulted in the election for Adams being decided in the House. The choice of Adams was popularly known as the corrupt bargain, an undercover deal giving the office to Adams in exchange for Henry Clay becoming secretary of state. The backlash from this election split the Democratic-Republican Party in two. The new Democratic party renominated Jackson to run for president in 1825, three years before the next election, with John C. Calhoun as his running mate. Jackson and Calhoun ran against incumbent John Quincy Adams of the new National Republican Party, a campaign that was less about issues and more about the candidates themselves: the election was characterized as the triumph of the common man over the elites. Jackson became the seventh U.S. president with 54 percent of the popular vote and 178 out of 261 electoral votes. The 1832 presidential election was the first to use National Party Conventions. Jackson ran again as the incumbent with Martin Van Buren as his running mate. His opponent was Henry Clay, whose ticket included vice presidential nominee John Sergeant. The main campaign issue was the Bank of the United States, Jacksons use of the spoils system, and his use of the veto. Jackson was called King Andrew I by his opposition, but he still won 55 percent of the popular vote and 219 out of 286 electoral votes. Events and Accomplishments Jackson was an active executive who vetoed more bills than all previous presidents. He believed in rewarding loyalty and appealing to the masses. He relied on an informal group of advisors called the Kitchen Cabinet to set policy instead of his real cabinet. During Jacksons presidency, sectional issues began to arise. Many southern states, upset over tariffs, wished to preserve states rights to overrule the federal government and when Jackson signed a moderate tariff in 1932, South Carolina felt it had the right through nullification (the belief that a state could rule something unconstitutional) to ignore it. Jackson stood strong against South Carolina, ready to use the military if necessary to enforce the tariff. In 1833, a compromise tariff was enacted that helped mollify the sectional differences for a time. In 1832, Jackson vetoed the Second Bank of the United States charter. He believed the government could not constitutionally create such a bank and that it favored the wealthy over the common people. This action led to federal money being put into state banks, which then loaned it out freely, leading to inflation. Jackson stopped the easy credit by requiring all land purchases to be made in gold or silver—a decision that would have consequences in 1837. Jackson supported Georgias expulsion of the Indians from their land to reservations in the west. He used the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to force them to move, even discounting the Supreme Court ruling in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) that said they could not be forced to move. From 1838–1839, troops led over 15,000 Cherokees from Georgia in a devastating march called the Trail of Tears. Jackson survived an assassination attempt in 1835 when the two derringers pointed at him didnt fire. The gunman, Richard Lawrence, was found not guilty of the attempt by reason of insanity. Death and Legacy Andrew Jackson returned to his home, the Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee. He stayed active politically until his death there on June 8, 1845. Andrew Jackson is considered by some as one of the United States greatest presidents. He was the first citizen-president representing the common man who believed strongly in preserving the union and in keeping too much power out of the hands of the wealthy. He was also the first president to truly embrace the powers of the presidency. Sources Cheathem, Mark. Andrew Jackson, Southerner. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (2013).Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821. New York: Harper Row (1979).Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822–1832. New York: Harper Row (1981).Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833–1845. New York: Harper Row (1984).Wilentz, Sean. Andrew Jackson: The Seventh President, 1829–1837. New York: Henry Holt (2005).

Essay on EIBE Self Reflection Assignment - 952 Words

ï‚ · A new idea which arose from the scenario process and which challenged or developed your thinking in new ways The EIBE scenario process was for me a new way of mixing the logical prediction with wild imagination. This is a new mixture and a new way of thinking for an engineer which usually relies on the structured logical way of thinking only. The scenario is basically a collection of new ideas that is based on present facts leading to future imaginary - yet logical - sequence of actions, all tied up with a hidden thread of logic. In order to develop the scenario of Uzbekistan, it was necessary to do a research on the characteristics of this country, including different areas describing the life in Uzbekistan. One of the new ideas†¦show more content†¦I believe it would be good to meet and have a discussion with one of these Non-Denominational Muslims to understand the way they see their religion. ï‚ · A brief critique of the scenario process as undertaken by your group which could be either observations about the process in terms of what part(s) of it did or did not work well and why you think this is, or a discussion on the working/behaviour of the group throughout the process Before starting the EIBE course, it was thought that this would be a pure business subject focusing on the international trade area and international trade treaties and general rules. However, it turned to have a different objective, which has a wider spectrum than only business, it turned to be covering all aspects of life that might affect the business practices in the environment under study. Then came the assignment, at the beginning it was very interesting and challenging to try to think about how it is possible to develop a future scenario about a country which we almost have no information about. Step by step, the picture started to become clearer, and the scenario process components started to show their integrated value. It was an excellent idea to have the trial session to develop

Comments About the Sona of President Aquino 2011 free essay sample

Crab Leader In the State of the Nation Address of President Noynoy Aquino last week what i liked most about his speech is the way he addressed the Filipino people. He addressed the people as his ‘bosses’, and in all humility he regarded all his achievements for the past year as the achievements of the country, his and the Filipino People’s achievements. He always use ‘nagawa natin’ at ‘atin’ throughout his speech. This shows how he sees his position not just as a powerful position, but a privilege to represent the country and serve the people. This mind set gives me hope, that he would serve better than the previous officials who have been drowned in the corrupt system. I liked best the way he presented his SONA as ‘makamasa’. He used Filipino, but in the best way possible. He opted not to use english like how the previous president Arroyo did. But i liked it because by doing so, he was able to capture the attention of everyone, not just those who are educated. He was able to get the attention of even the poorest of the poor because the language he used did not hinder them from understanding; but at the same time because of his correct manner of speaking, his educated way of addressing, and his strategy of using facts and figures in his speech, he was also able to capture the eyes and ears of the middle and upper class. My friends and i are actually living statements. I find this year’s SONA more effective and striking than the previous year’s. It actually got my attention and made me believe that there’s hope for this country, hope for progress, and hope that corruption will be erradicated in the system. The main problem in this country is not the resources, nor the skills of the people, but that of corruption. And the president was right in addressing this issue and attacking all the problems right through the roots. Throughout his SONA, he constantly uses ‘wang-wang’ and stresses his struggles to fight against it. He is brave and direct in addressing corruption. He was specific in his examples and i think this is a good way of waking up the officials who are abusive of their power. His example about the abuse in traffic by the officials, inclucing their ‘padrino and alipores’ was a simple way of showing how much he hates corruption even in its simplest form. He was right in saying the officials ‘imbis na maglingkod, ay naghahari’, because it is a reality in our country. Those who run for office mostly are interested in the power, not in what they can do for the country. They are more focused on their personal benefits rather than the common good. If we want a better society, this mentality should change. Next to attacking ‘wang-wang’, the thing i liked best about his achievements was the housing for the police and the military. He was right in saying that it’s really difficult to say no to ‘pagdedelihensiya’ when your family is struggling for money. We all know that the police and military don’t really earn much, and in our Filipino culture of having lots of children, and making wives just as housewives, it surely won’t be enough to support the whole family. Providing housing for them will give them no excuse to resolve to corruption. It’s similary to the case of the criminals who resolve to stealing because of extreme hunger. If only they are provided with food or a sustainable job as a source of income, then i’m sure that most of them will not even consider stealing as an option. A large percentage really just steal because of necessity. The 23 Billion lower interest rate is also impressive, because second to corruption, the greatest problem we probably have is national debt. Every year, instead of rising up from it, ‘lalo lang tayong nababaon’. We have been stuck in the quicksand of our debts, because each year just increases our debts exponentially. This 23 Billion pesos saved from the interest can go a long way in terms of helping our country address its more urgent needs. This, the president says, is due to the upgrade in ratings we received in the stocks exchange. This is impressive, like he says, since the other nation’s ratings are either going down or maintaining its level after the financial crisis. Another accomplishment is the planning of the new powerplant in the luzon grid, expected to materialize by 2014. This will have us have a cheaper source of energy in the country. Because of modernization and industrialization, every single one of us needs electricity as much as we need water and food, and therefore, having a cheaper source would uplift everyone in the country. This is also true with the monorail system that’s planned to be built in our country. With the continuously rising price of gas and transportation cost, a monorail system will not only help the Filipinos maximize their money, but also help the environment as well, due to less polution by cars. The 0-based budgeting is also one way of addressing the problem of corruption. As the president addressed those who are still planning to steal from the goverment, â€Å"huwag ka ng magtangka†. I think this SONA is more of a wake up call to those abusive officials, that it’s already time to stop. For the first time, i’m actually very hopeful for the future of this country under the presidency of Mr. Aquino. I think that he can really make a difference in decreasing, if not totally eliminating corruption in the system. We need someone like him, who is brave enough to confront the infected system. His strategy of addressing corruption in a personal way, as a personal battle against it, really gives light and hope, despite the severity of corruption in our country. Aside from the officials’ corruptions, another thing he addressed is tax evation. He was right in saying that now that corruption is already being fought, there is no reason not to pay the right taxes anymore. It has been a common excuse of many that it is just justifiable to evade task simply because the money will just go to the pockets of corrupt officials. But then i think that if the people can really see progress in the country, then less people will be tempted to evade tax. Right now, tax evation is very rampant and out in the open in our country. Imagine, professionals and self employed people only pay an average of 5,783 pesos per year. This is a really small figure compared to their expected salary, which is surely a lot greater than the 8,500php they claim. â€Å"naman† as our president had said. It’s all too much, too obvious, and i think that after this SONA, people would first think twice before doing something corrupt. Another noteable achievement of the president for the past year is the decline in the imported rice from 1. 3M metric tons to only 660 metric tons this year. This, he said, was due to the useage of a better type of rice grain and good irrigation system that has increased the rice productivity by 15. 6%. A long time ago, the philippines was the rice bowl in Asia, we were the one exporting rice and providing for our neighboring countries, what happened since that time? It’s not that we don’t have the capability and resources, as the past has proven, but it’s because of our system and our means. And by attacking that, we have proven to improve rice productivity, which is a major improvement considering rice is the staple food of the Filipino people. His strong will to fight for what is due the Filipinos was shown in how he address the issue of Spratlys. He was confident in saying that even if we do not want a fight, if we are provoked, then we have no choice but to fight back, because ‘hindi tayo paaapi’ according to him. It brings us hope knowing that we have an able leader who is willful enough to fight for the rights of our country, because if not, then how can we entrust the welfare of all the citizens in this country then? He even cited the story about Filipinos ingenuity about using painted coconuts against canon balls, giving credit to the capability of the Filipinos in fighting. But then compared to China, can we really win? I believe that moderation is necessary in addressing this issue because the world knows that compared with China, we are really nothing, we can never win a war with them if it comes to that, even if we purchase a new war ship or new helicopters. I agree with Mr. Barretto when he said that this issue should be addressed diplomatically and peacefully, and that we should not enrage china because it is surely a decision we will come to regret in the future, because China is a rising power and we need her for our economic progress. The president also has mentioned the decreased cases of car napping in the last 6 months from 1010 cases to 460+ cases this year. He said that he is just unfortunate that the headlines are all about the car napping incidents and not the statistics on how much it has declined compared with the past year. I actually was greatly affected by this because recently i’ve been hearing lots of stories about the car napping incidents, especially in Quezon City. And i’ve had thoughts that the Philippines is more and more becoming a dangerous place to live, what with the many crimes happening here and there. What i failed to realize was that maybe it is indeed improving, like how the president claims it has, that maybe the cases of corruption, human trafficking, and other issues have improved significantly. This i think is a good sign, although we aim for the total eradication of these crimes, we all know that this is not possible all at once. And i think that the first step is to first decrease it significantly, and that’s what we have now. Another pressing concern in our country is unemployment. Lots of Filipinos are either unemployed or underemployed, based on studies made. And i liked the stragegy being employed by the president about matching job availability with education. Although in the idealistic world, each one should study his or her interest and land a job that he or she would enjoy doing, this is not always achievable, because of financial concerns. Also, we all know that most work not for the job but for the salary it can provide. It’s a reverse process where the people just learn to appreciate their work afterwards. Because of this fact, it is a better strategy to match the demand of jobs to the direction of education. This will ensure the employment of the graduates, and will surely uplift poverty in our country. As the president has mentioned, unemployment rate was down to 7. 2% from 8% last year. This strategy is a good way of addressing job mismatch, and the issue of underemployment. Also, he mentioned about the 1. 3Million people that were provided with livelihood for the past year. As the president had said â€Å"walang tatangkilik sa Pilipino kung isang kahit isang tuka lamang sila†. And this is really true. How can we expect the Filipinos not to give in to brain drain, if it’s their survival that is at stake? How can we expect the Filipinos to think about the common good, and what’s best for the economy, if he and his family is not able to eat three times a day? The root cause of all these problems is poverty, and attacking poverty in our country will surely solve lots of problems. The synchronizing of the ARMM election to the national election is also one of the best achievements he has. This is i think one of the response to the Maguindanao Masacre during the time of President Aroyo. He was right in saying that this election being separate from the national election poses more opportunities for corruption, as was proven by history. As he had revealed, 80% fo reimbursements from ARMM was from cash advances that are not properly accounted for. It always happens that the people in power use their position just to remain in power and acquire wealth for himself. They do not anymore serve the people, but rather just use the resources as campaign again for the next election. And issues about vote buying, ‘dagdag bawas’, and other cheating in elections has been happening in ARMM for the past years, and nobody was addressing this problem, until now. Towards the end of his speech, he mentioned that people say that he’s taking corruption too personally, and he said it’s really true because fighting corruption is personal to him, and so is doing what’s right. And i admire him for that. He is probably the first president to ever directly address corruption, and the first one who is brave enough to actually expose the corrupt system of our goverment. As an examply he even cited the spendings of pagcor of 1 Billion pesos just for coffee. And it’s true how funny everything is. He said that even at 100php per cup, it would mean that they had consumed 10Million cups of coffee. This is a good example of how shameless the officials have been the past years, just because no one is brave enough to confront them and expose them. But then now, with the president’s strong campaign against corruption, surely, it will make these corrupt officials think twice. Completely eradicating corruption is not that easy, and i don’t expect it to be achieved in a year or even during the term of President Aquino, but then these efforts of the president will go a long way, because atleast, corruption will not be as much and as shameless as before. Appointing Conchita Morales, former associate chief justice, and instructing her to file charges against the corrupt officials is one step in eliminating the parasites in office who have been continuously stealing money from the people for the past years. As the president closed his speech, he said, ‘itigil na ang utak alimango’. And this is exactly what each of us should do. We should not just pull each other down, but rather help each other for the good of our country as a whole. We cannot expect just the leaders to do their part, we should do our part too. As head of our country, he can indeed do a lot in addressing corruption and other pressing issues, but then he can only do so much, all the officials can only do so much. What we need to do is unite as a nation, both the officials and the common citizens, towards the direction of economic advancement. We have all the resources we need, we have all the skills and the people, and now we have an able leader to lead us, the only thing we need now is the right attitude towards change. This SONA has indeed given me hope, that maybe, our country is not hopeless afterall, that maybe, just maybe, with this strong leader, we can do away with our crab mentality and fight corruption,and beginning there, move forward towards the right direction.