Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)
President of the United States
and native South Carolinian
JACKSON, Andrew, a Representative and a Senator from Tennessee and 7th President of the United States; born on March 15, 1767; in the Waxhaw Settlement in South Carolina; attended an old-field school; though just a boy, participated in the battle of Hanging Rock during the Revolution, was captured by the British and imprisoned; worked for a time in a saddler's shop and afterward taught school;
studied law in Salisbury, N.C.; was admitted to the bar in 1787; moved to Jonesboro
(now Tennessee) in 1788 and commenced practice; appointed solicitor of the western
district of North Carolina, comprising what is now the State of Tennessee, in 1788;
held the same position in the territorial government of Tennessee after 1791; delegate
to the convention to frame a constitution for the new State 1796; upon the admission
of Tennessee as a State into the Union was elected to the Fourth and Fifth Congresses
and served from December 5, 1796, until his resignation in September 1797; elected as
a Republican in September 1797 to the United States Senate for the term that had
commenced March 4, 1797, and served from September 26, 1797, until his resignation
in April 1798; judge of the State supreme court of Tennessee 1798-1804; engaged in
planting and in mercantile pursuits; served in the Creek War of 1813 as commander
of Tennessee forces; his victory in the Creek War brought him a commission as major
general in the United States Army in May 1814; led his army to victory over the British
in the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815; received the thanks of Congress and a gold
medal by resolution of February 27, 1815; commanded an expedition which captured Florida
in 1817; served as Governor of the new territory in 1821; again elected to the United
States Senate and served from March 4, 1823, to October 14, 1825, when he resigned;
chairman, Committee on Military Affairs (Eighteenth Congress); unsuccessful candidate
for President in 1824; elected as a Democrat President of the United States in 1828;
reelected in 1832 and served from March 4, 1829, to March 3, 1837; retired to his
country home, the 'Hermitage,' near Nashville, Tenn., where he died June 8, 1845;
interment in the garden on his estate. Bio. Source: US Congressional Archives
Portrait, Hall of Presidents, National Portrait Gallery