Elected as seventh president in 1829 and reelected for the 2nd term until 1837, he was marked by both democratic triumphs and racist tragedies during his presidency.
Jackson expanded the powers of the presidency in ways that none of his six predecessors had. He was the first president to come from the common people, not from an educated elite. He was the first to build what was recognized as a political party. He was also the first to maintain a large circle of private advisers –what was called his Kitchen Cabinet-- to help him make policy.
During his presidency, he showed him as the most contradictory of men. He brought America into a country that professed a love of democracy but on the other hand created society to live with inequality that was prone to racism and intolerance.
Jackson was a sentimental man who rescued an Indian orphan on a battlefield to raise in his home, however he was also the president responsible for the removal of Indian tribes from their ancestral lands.
In terms of life-career path, Jackson had completed track. Born as a son of Scots-Irish immigrants, he became a practicing lawyer, a public prosecutor, a U.S attorney, a delegate to the founding Tennessee Constitutional Convention, a U.S congressman, a U.S senator, a judge of the state Superior Court, and a major general.
He was the hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans in 1815, the victory that transformed him into a fabled figure, and finally brought him to the White House.
This book writes the long journey of Jackson whose portrait marks the current $20 US Dollar banknote.
“I was born for a storm,” Jackson once said, “and a calm does not suit me.” This was to prove what kind of character he had. He liked to live in an arena despite it being rough and tiring. Yes, he was an American lion.
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Serpong, 10 Jan 2026
Titus J.
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