7th United States President. When he threw his hat in the ring and decided to run for the Presidency, Andrew Jackson, the "Hero of New Orleans," was the most popular man in the country and even received a "favorite son" endorsement from Tennessee delegates.

Detractors had a field day after his marriage to href="https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19468&pt=Rachel%20Jackson"Rachel Donelson, seizing on a marriage technicality to tarnish both their images.

He was born to poverty-stricken Scottish-Irish immigrants literally on the border between North and South Carolina. His father died in a logging accident before his birth, and his mother raised the family alone. He joined the Continental Army as a courier at age thirteen. Andrew was taken prisoner by the British. Because of his ill treatment, Jackson harbored a bitter resentment towards the British until his death.

With his mother and both brothers deceased, Andrew was a complete orphan at the age of fourteen. He was apprenticed to a saddle maker. Still a young man, he went to the territory of Tennessee achieving prominence as a lawyer. He became a judge and was the owner of a moderate-sized plantation.

When Tennessee became a state, he became a member of the United States House of Representatives, then was elected Senator.

He sought and won the position of Major General of the Tennessee militia. He led troops against the Indians in both the Creek War and the First Seminole War. During the War of 1812, he gave the Americans a much-needed victory at New Orleans, giving the country a moral boost just after Washington, D.C. was burned by the British on August 24, 1814.

To win the Presidency, Jackson defeated Adams for his first term and then defeated Henry Clay to claim a second term. Rachel Jackson died a few weeks before her husband's inauguration, and Jackson blamed her early death on stress caused by detractors zeroing in on the supposed immorality of his marriage.

The new President believed in a strong Presidency and a strong Union. This belief brought him into open opposition with Southern legislators. In order to clear millions of acres of land from Indians, he signed the Indian Removal Act which gave them land west of the Mississippi in exchange for land east of the river. The Indians' migration has become known as the "Trail of Tears."

During his administration, Arkansas and Michigan were admitted to the Union. He survived an assassination attempt fending off his attacker with his cane.

After leaving the White House, he retired to his home near Nashville which he and Rachel had named The Hermitage. From a small cabin, it was expanded, remodeled, and rebuilt into a spacious plantation house. Jackson's health deteriorated, exacerbated by a bullet lodged near his heart. He received the bullet in a duel, but it had never been removed. He died at the Hermitage at age 77.

Thousands attended his funeral. Burial was beside Rachel in a tomb he had designed and constructed. Visiting her grave each evening was one of Jackson's daily rituals in his declining years. Andrew and Rachel Jackson did not have any children, but adopted a nephew of Rachel's and gave him the name of Andrew Jackson, Jr. The plantation was willed to him, but his debts forced the sale of the property to the State of Tennessee. The Hermitage today is open to the public, a restored historic site.

There are two disputed birthplaces: The 360-acre Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster, South Carolina, has an historic marker and also a bronze sculpture recognizing the spot. Waxhaw, North Carolina, located just across the state border from Andrew Jackson State Park and has a restored house and an historic marker. Following a visit to family in South Carolina, Elizabeth Jackson gave birth to Andrew. It is unknown whether she made it home or stopped at the home of South Carolina relatives along the way. Jackson himself believed he was born in South Carolina, and North Carolina did not claim to be his birthplace until 15 years after his death. Washington, D.C. has a huge bronze equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, cast from a bronze cannon captured in his last campaign against the Spanish. It has graced Lafayette Park since 1853.