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American Lion summary

Name: American Lion
Rating: 4.8 (37 reviews)
Author: Jon Meacham

Jon Meacham

Andrew Jackson in the White House

4.8 (37 ratings)

25 mins

Brief summary

American Lion by Jon Meacham is a biography of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States. It offers an inside look at his life, political career, and impact on American history as a whole.

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US Presidents Biographies

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American Lion
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What’s in it for me? Get to know one of the most controversial presidents of all time.

In the presidential television drama The West Wing, the characters celebrate an annual Big Block of Cheese Day. The day is celebrated in honor of President Andrew Jackson, who used to put a two-ton block of cheese in the White House foyer and invite the people to come and partake. It was a time not only for citizens to eat but also to ask questions and share their opinions with the president.

This anecdote about Jackson is telling. Although he has been criticized in modern times for owning slaves and dealing harshly with Native Americans, he was wildly popular in his day. In fact, he was one of the most popular US presidents of all time. His political career was based on being a voice for the common man and protecting their liberty from special interests and corruption – a revolutionary idea at the time.

So let’s dive into the life of the United States’ seventh president, and see how he left his fingerprints on the highest office in the land.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

about Jackson’s tendency to challenge his foes to duels;
how an Army troop he led outmaneuvered a larger British one; and
why his use of the veto changed American politics forever.

Orphaned during the Revolutionary War, Andrew Jackson went on to marry the love of his life and establish himself as a prominent lawyer.

On March 15, 1767, Andrew Jackson was born in the small town of Waxhaw, which straddles the border between North and South Carolina. He grew up with just one parent; not long before his birth, Jackson’s father unexpectedly passed away.

The impoverished childhood that followed was never easy, but Jackson nonetheless spent his youth wrestling with friends and taking classes at a local Presbyterian church. And so life went on until 1779, when the American Revolutionary War reached Waxhaw. The war devastated Jackson’s world. Before the age of 15, his entire family was dead.

First he lost his older brothers. Hugh fell in battle. Both Andrew and his other older brother, Robert, were found by the British and taken as prisoners of war in 1781. Soon after, Robert fell ill with an infection from which he never recovered.

That same year, Jackson’s mother, who was in Charleston taking care of two sick nephews, took ill and passed away. Jackson left Waxhaw and never returned.

Yet by the age of 21, he was rising to fame as a well-known lawyer and courting his soon-to-be wife. He’d acquired his law license in 1787 and quickly built a reputation for himself as a carousing and rowdy, although charismatic, man.

During his first court case, Jackson even challenged the opposing counsel to a duel!

In 1788, he moved to the frontier of the Tennessee territories and became friendly with a well-established family there, the Donelsons. The daughter of the family, Rachel Donelson, was in a difficult marriage at the time and Jackson was happy to protect her from her abusive husband.

Eventually, Rachel petitioned for a divorce and, even before it became official, married Jackson in early 1791. But, despite the romance of the gesture, the choice to wed before the divorce went through would come to haunt the couple later in life.

Before becoming president, Jackson earned a name for himself as a colorful and violent character.

Jackson and Rachel Donelson remarried in 1794, once the confusion surrounding her divorce was settled. The couple was absolutely in love and Jackson went to great lengths to protect her honor, a tendency that sometimes led to violence.

In fact, Jackson was generally a deeply loyal man who’d quickly draw a gun on anyone that said a hurtful thing about his wife or friends. This inclination toward violence came into play in 1803, when Governor John Sevier of Tennessee commented on how Jackson, then a General of the Tennessee militia, had been in a relationship with another man’s wife. The jab resulted in a shootout on a crowded street.

Jackson leveraged his military fame into political currency, taking the presidency.

Following his victory in New Orleans, Jackson was enlisted to battle the Seminole Indians and the Spanish in the Florida peninsula, an important new territory for the American government. In the end, he succeeded in taking Florida, but the battles leading up to this victory were absolute bloodbaths.

Jackson even personally took it upon himself to execute two British subjects, a bold move that angered certain members of congress who saw Jackson as a loose cannon. But regardless of what these men thought, Jackson’s military endeavors put him in the political spotlight, which opened new doors.

Jackson became president at a time when the rights of Southern states was a pressing political issue.

Coming into the White House, Jackson had a laundry list of things he wanted to accomplish. But these plans would be complicated by the fact that the nation was in a precarious position when his first term began in 1829.

Jackson viewed himself, above all else, as a representative of the people, someone who could advocate for the rights of the common man against special interests. However, the country was facing pressing issues – namely, rising tensions surrounding the rights of states.

Jackson faced other difficult issues like the allocation of federal funds and the resettlement of native people.

So Jackson assumed office amid a raging battle over states’ rights. But that wasn't the only issue he had to deal with. At the time, the nation was still expanding westward, and there was the matter of how infrastructure, like roads and canals, was to be paid for.

When it came to the latter issue, the most pressing question was: Will the federal government pay for the canals and roads that need to be built, or will these costs be passed on to individual states? To this, Jackson had a clear answer.

Many of the major issues of Jackson’s first term were overshadowed by the ongoing Eaton scandal.

By challenging the established powers, speaking out against corruption and insisting on using his veto power, Jackson was redefining what it meant to be president of the United States. He was showing people that the president was much more than a figurehead intended to maintain the status quo.

But not everyone was thrilled about the growing power of the president. Especially concerned were the politicians who’d grown accustomed to Congress acting as the main political force in Washington. And such people were constantly attempting to devise ways of limiting Jackson’s power.

In a bold move, Jackson cleaned house and began focusing on the nullification crisis.

Of course, Jackson couldn’t ban his family from the White House for very long. He spent many lonely days and nights in 1830 while the Donelsons were in Tennessee. He knew he needed a plan to unify his administration and eradicate this distracting feud and yet still remain loyal to his friend.

In the end, it was Martin Van Buren who had the answer: he suggested to Jackson that he wipe the slate clean by bringing in a whole new cabinet. Both Van Buren and Eaton agreed to step down so that Jackson could let other members go and assemble a new administration that would actually function.

During his second term, Jackson successfully challenged the power of the US Bank.

While issues like tariffs and states’ rights would always plague Jackson, his popularity with voters remained steady. As a result, he won a second term in office in 1832.

But just how committed was Jackson to the voting public?

During his second term, Jackson was reprimanded by the Senate and faced two assassination attempts.

Jackson’s battle against the Bank of the United States was a bold move and it provoked a bold response. As a result of his actions, his opponents pushed for the Senate to issue a formal censure of Jackson, charging him with overstepping his powers as president.

People like Senator Henry Clay thought that Jackson’s work to strengthen the office of the president was destroying the founders’ vision of American democracy. A vote was taken, and censure – essentially a reprimand which would remain on the Senate record books – was approved: twenty-six for; twenty against.

Jackson’s final challenges were preserving his legacy and handling a dispute with France.

Although he was the first US president to have assassination attempts made on him, Andrew Jackson remained wildly popular throughout his time in office. And, while he may have revolutionized the role of the president during his two terms, he was positive he hadn’t done anything unconstitutional or deserving of Senate censure.

So, to ensure his legacy was left unblemished, at least in the Senate records, he formally challenged the censure. In his response to the reprimand, entitled “Protest,” Jackson reiterated that he acted solely in the interest of the people and their liberty. Though Henry Clay and Jackson’s former vice president, John Calhoun, opposed lifting the censure, another Senate vote was taken in 1837 and it was removed.

Andrew Jackson’s legacy is controversial, but nobody denies the impact he made.

Andrew Jackson wasn’t without his flaws. But he left a lasting impression on American politics, even if his vision was too limited to advocate human rights for Native Americans or slaves.

There’s no question that he changed politics forever. Indeed, Jackson’s biggest detractor, Henry Clay, was so upset by Jackson’s empowerment of the presidency that he established a new political party. It was called the Whig Party, named after those in Britain who stood against the monarchy.

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What is American Lion about?

American Lion (2008) tells the story of Andrew Jackson, America’s seventh president. These blinks describe Jackson’s rise from poverty to the White House, and how he transformed the presidency from a relatively symbolic position into a powerful vehicle for representing the interests of the people.

Best quote from American Lion

The first six American presidents combined used the veto nine times; Jackson used it 12 times.

—Jon Meacham

Who should read American Lion?

Historians and students of history
Anyone interested in American politics
Fans of a good biography

About the Author

Jon Meacham is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of numerous best sellers, including Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power and Franklin and Wilson. In addition to writing, he teaches at Vanderbilt University and the University of the South.

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Biography & Memoir Politics

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