An Appraisal of Jackson
Many volumes have been devoted to Andrew Jackson and probably many more will be written. He looms bigger and bigger in perspective. Andrew Jackson was absolutely and rigidly honest.
He was absolutely without fear, having not only superb physical courage but moral courage of the same degree.
He was intensely patriotic, and having been cradled in the Revolution in which as a boy he took part, he was imbued with the underlying spirit of that conflict, and carried that spirit throughout his life and expressed it in his acts.
He agreed with Thomas Jefferson’s construction of the fundamental purposes of government and became an active, dynamic exponent of Jefferson’s democratic ideals; for example, believing in the doctrine of special privileges to none, with his first message to Congress he began the fight against renewal of the charter of the United States Bank, then grown into a great financial and political power, and continued until he finally destroyed that beneficiary of privilege.
He had what might be called a dominating personality, inspiring a devoted and confident following, as is the case with a leader who always knows just where he is and why he is there; he had an iron will which surmounted difficulties and mastered his own physical infirmities.
He had at times a violent temper, but it was always subject to his will.
He had the power of forming quick, comprehensive, and just judgment, and the faculty of putting judgment once formed into immediate execution.
In manner he was considerate and scrupulously courteous, being called by one writer the most polite gentleman in the world.
The rare devotion of his friends and those nearest in contact to him gives attestation to a warm and kindly nature, probably nothing giving stronger evidence of this nature than the letters of fatherly advice written from the White House to his youthful ward, Hutchins.
His messages are among the strongest papers of all the Presidents, breathing lofty statesmanship and patriotism inspiring to all who read.
His two terms as President marked a distinct advance in popular government, and ushered in a new era.
No appraisal of Jackson could be complete without inclusion of reference to the military phase of his remarkable career. His military genius was little short of marvelous. It aimed at and achieved success in every campaign he commanded. It gives him rank as one of the greatest generals of our history. It was conspicuously and gloriously displayed in saving the Republic at a critical hour. But that military genius was never exercised except for his country’s defense, being subordinated at all times to high conception of his country’s good. If, on the other hand, he had loved military glory for that glory’s sake, if he had been of the Man-on-Horseback type, that genius and his powers of leadership might have carried him far in the lists of the world’s military chieftains. We are told that Napoleon Bonaparte, during the hundred days of his return from Elba, studied Jackson’s defense of New Orleans.