White House Lectures; Andrew Jackson

It. This program is underwritten by the Ameritech family. A mother tax bill a couple years at its most direct through publishing and other. Communications and Information businesses. Andrew Jackson was the president of the people. Of hickory.

Was their hero. But the moment he was sworn into the presidency he vowed to what he called the majesty of the people. The crowd. Thrilled when absolutely wild and that day symbolically and practically the presidential palace became the house of the people. Pickering was the name given to him by itself and that was about those hottest substances. Everybody. And they the love. And so too did the American people. Who had such a hold. The third in the series of presidential essays. The White House lecture. Andrew Jackson. Born into poverty.

An orphan. And war scarred soldier by age 14 Andrew Jackson would rise to become the American ideal. A distinguished lawyer and judge. A beloved leader of armies and of a nation. His courage on the battlefields of New Orleans made him a hero and restored to his country its spirit pride and self determination. As President Andrew Jackson's extraordinary commitment to preservation of the Union and of the sovereignty of the people would enjoy Him for ever in the hearts of his countrymen. He wanted a strong presidency but not at the expense of representing. The people and so I think that was there then I think the spirit that he brought to it I mention the word exuberance enthusiasm optimism about our country that chauvinist to play so but just a confidence in America that I think excited. The American people. It was.

Tonight. We look back further we turn our thoughts back further into the country's history to a time when the American spirit as we know it was born. We turn to the man who symbolized the spirit of a pioneering nation rough hewn feisty frontiersman and war hero Andrew Jackson and he the son of an Irish linen waver was a 14 year old soldier in the Revolutionary War when he became an orphan. He established a whole set of first first present one a log cabin first born west of the Alleghenies and the first who was neither a Virginian nor an Adams. Andrew Andrew Jackson was the president of the people whole Hickory was their hero. But as I think of the presidency more important in that he was one of them. He knew how to campaign. He came into the steamboat decks and

he greeted the crowds on the hustings and once elected he tried to throw as his office open to the people. Our guide tonight to the spirit of this remarkable leader is the scholar. An historic historical storyteller Robert Remini Professor Remini is a history professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He's won major awards for writing and teaching. And there is no question that he is our nation's foremost Jacksonian scholar. He's written many lively and illuminating books about Jackson including the definitive three volume work biography whose third volume one the American now called the National Book Award for nonfiction. Professor Remini is a scholar and a storyteller. And tonight he'll show off both those skills I trust as he describes the life and times of our seventh president.

And I'm just delighted sir to meet your family who are with you here tonight and to introduce you to our guests and to thank you in advance for what I know will be a treat for all of us. Thank you sir for coming. It seems to me ladies and gentleman that it is most appropriate that we talk about Andrew Jackson in this room because this was his room. This should be called The Jackson. Room. Before he changed it before he breathed life into it it was just an open space there was nothing here. There were some chairs. The pic no painting on the wall. No one had done anything about it. Mrs. Adams hung her home watch. In the hall

and when they had a large crowd the overflow crowd would come here. This man made this room. He changed it he changed the White House inside and out. He changed Washington. And Mr. President he changed the presidency too. He is a remarkable figure. The seventh president of the United States six feet one inch tall standing always at military stiffness even his hair stands at attention. But it gave him two more inches. Incidentally this picture was painted by his good friend a man who lived in the house with him in a room up there on the north side of Earl. And I do think he captures the spirit. Of this man the indomitable spirit of a man the will power.

It was incredible when this was taken. He was he had had a hemorrhage. He hemorrhaged regularly and he did not leave his bedroom for the last six months of his presidency except for three times. He had two bullets in his body. When he became president one was in his chest close to his heart and they never could remove it of course. And that is what caused the periodic hemorrhage. And when they when the hemorrhaging stopped Usually it would take several days. The doctors would then bleed. Until he didn't. In one of the last letters he wrote he said they've taken 72 ounces of blood. And for a man my age I think that is a great deal. The other bullet was in his shoulder.

But that bullet was put there in a gunfight with the Benton boys Thomas hotbed. The senator from Missouri and his. Brother Jesse the bullet was lodged in his shoulder and. He passed out. Because of the loss of blood at the time. But when he did he turned to the doctor who was attending him and he said you are not to remove my arm. You understand or you are at peril. He was then summoned to go to the creek war and he had to go with his arm in a sling. And he wrote to his wife Rachel and said pieces of bone keep coming out of it. And he sent it back to us as a souvenir. I don't know what's happened to go to those slivers But the the

the bullets began to work with health down into the lower part of his that was all. In 1833 and it gave him a great deal of trouble. And the family felt it and said You can see it you can feel it. It would be so easy to remove it with Call of the surgeon and they can take it out for you. And he said if I do that Henry Clay will make political capital of it in a song the way. He did hate Henry Clay with a passion. It got so bad however that they decided. To do it. And a duck to Harris from Philadelphia was summoned and in his office right over that. Chandelier the Lincoln bedroom which was his office and his cabinet office and there was a water closet next door. The doctor came made the

decision. No anesthesia. Mind you. No anesthesia. And then he squeezed both sides of of of the ward and the bullet fell on the floor. And they picked it up and they said that this bullet for longs to do some of the Benton. And he has a right to it. And Bentley said. Because if it had been 20 years he insisted that by by law Jackson own the book. And they figured the date they said it's only 19. It's your bullet. And he said well in view of the good care that the president has taken of the bullet I'll waive the extra a year. I don't know what happened to it but it's no wonder they called him Old Hickory Hickory was the name given to him by his soldiers and that was about as hard a

substance as anybody knew. And they loved him. And so too did the American people. He had such a hold on they had such affection for him that he was the most popular man in the country more popular than George Washington Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin. Name any one you want and combine them. They couldn't compare to the affection that this man had for the American people they trusted him and he them. And why. Because of the Battle of New War. This country was a free nation. Our freedom had been won in the revolution. Not that you would know it. It was as though England acted as though you didn't win it. You didn't fight. And win battles

to merit your freedom. We gave it to you we were pressed into it because all of Europe had united against us in the league of the neutrality. And they treated us as Jackson said. So come to me just me. As though your freedom is going to be matched away from you at the first opportunity. How Reed needed to have some great victory when people said what about Yorktown. Yorktown is not a victory. Yorktown is a surrender. Or Saratoga. Name one great. Battle and there was not. And so the British press star semen as you know seized the ships and even the French our allies did it. We own most had a war with France the so-called quasar a war with France in the

administration of John Adams. And it was so important for the American people to say to the world we are free we are independent. We are going to maintain it. We have a republic. That's different from yours. We know you hate us because of our experiment in freedom really works. The days of the crowned heads of Europe. Are numbered. We needed to go to war with Great Britain to reassure ourselves that it wasn't a fluke. And we went into that disastrous war of the eight of 1812. It was a mistake from the beginning and the British blockaded our coast invaded the capital burned this building and the capital and you can see the scars still. They should be preserved. Dolly Madison took that picture and the

silverware. I give her a lot of credit for knowing what's important. And they fled. And then they were going to invade from the south in the Gulf of Mexico and there was Old Hickory waiting for them behind a canal. And the British came forward in full regalia. And here was a collection of Tennessee Kentucky. Militia men a colored battalion the High Ridge Indians you name there they were and the British came forward. And the weight of the. Wave after wave of them failed as the Americans fired and. With the soldiers coming behind them fell on top of them.

Until when it was all over and they never reached the ditch Jackson said it looked like the day of the resurrection because the bodies on the lower level that was still alive started to get up. Climb up. They're all stretched up into the air and and Jackson said it looked like people coming out of the crowd. Two thousand British soldiers killed. Wounded captured including the high command and only 12 Americans. People couldn't believe it. That was the victory that proved to the American people we can beat the British and they had just forced Napoleon's abdication and exile. It's before Waterloo. Even the Iron Duke of Wellington said I would like.

To have fought the Americans. It would have been an honor. Never again did the American people really feel that they had to prove to themselves or anybody else that they were free they were independent they were sovereign and they were to be respected or else. And they owed it all to this man and they never forgot it. Even when he was dead they were voting for him. In the crisis of 1860 61. In Lincoln's election the nation is headed for secession and civil war. People went to the polls as voters summon this man back do your duty we know you hate your word and save your nation. I think if you have any sense of what the Persian war has done for the American people recently Mr. President you will

have. A good idea of how the American people adore this man and nothing too good for him. Including the presidency. Oh Michael what they said what can them What credentials does the head. Have. He kills the Indians. The British the Spanish. Nothing else. Said one man. If Emily Jackson can be president then anybody can. And I guess that's what his life is about. The democratization of this country and despite all he defeated John Quincy Adams he later said that Adams belonged in a mental hospital. Adams said he couldn't. Spell his own name. He could. It was other people's names he had trouble. With. Under

single page the one name or one word can be spelled three or four different ways. But there is really power in the line. And so they made him the president of the United States and as President Bush has pointed out after the ceremony he got on his horse and rode back to this. Palace. AS. Associate Justice. The story called it and they mobbed the place. And poor Jackson was caught in the circular room. That's what they called it the circular room it's the Blue Room. And he was pinned against the wall. He couldn't braid everybody wanted to shake this man's hand to touch him. And finally they said we have got to get him back to safety. And they had him climb through the window and they took him back to his hotel and they made a mess of this house this barren.

Empty space had three tables with food. And. Lemonade and orange punch laced with whiskey. And they fought over it. They stood on the chairs on the sofas and Senator how muttons said here was this black woman sitting majestically on a sofa with a jelly in her hand and a gold spoon as she sat watching the mayhem going on and enjoying this delicious repast and the area what took them 10 days to finally move back here. So they could clean up the mess. And he wanted. And the public buildings commission wanted a great triumphant house and city for him.

And they went to him and they said what would you like. What do you want. Done. Now this is the period of Greek Revival. And Jackson had a passion for calling this. Enormous Greek columns. And he wanted a portico. With collars. Put on the north side of the building. You can't believe how an interesting and really architectural ie nothing. This house was before that great North Fork. Put up. Jackson actually spoke with the committee and they agreed that starting in March 18 29 they would erect. On the outside of the house this new. Portico. And. It was finished by September. Turning to the rest of the outside he.

Put a new fence up on the north side. He widened the entrance. His carriage could not get through carriage by the way later on was made from the from Old Ironsides the the timber. It was a gift of the year citizens of New York and he introduced ornamental shrubs. The year in the magnolia trees that you find on the grounds are supposedly planted there by him and in memory of his wife Rachel who tragically died a month after he was alive. They had there been much scandal connected with their marriages you know. When he went out there to Tennessee he fell in love with Rachel Donaldson and he married her. Unfortunately she was already married to another man. That is no way to get yourself elected president of the United States. I can assure you that at least not in the

19th century. And he of course blamed those scoundrels those villains who had. A sort of she died of a heart attack and Henry Clay was the worst. He was the basest meanest scoundrel that. Ever. The defile the image of his God. And we clearly didn't much care for Andrew Jackson either. And between Henry Clay. And Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun. The great triumvirate in the Senate they took to cutting up Andrew Jackson in the Congress rather regularly. But presidents have that problem with Congress every so often. Supposedly when Jackson was dying somebody came to him and said Mr.. President. General is there anything you have left undone. And he thought a moment and he said yes there are two things I didn't shoot

Henry Clay and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun. The year. The columns became such an obsession with him that when the Treasury building burned in 1833 somebody had the horrible idea of putting the new one on the South Lawn of the White House. And not only that making it so big that they would put the state department of the Treasury. They wore Navy. And the other the office of the attorney general. Can you see a collection of bureaucrats in one building such as that. Jackson vetoed it. And they came up with the next idea which was a. Laugh We had Square. He vetoed that. And they said Well where will we put it. And you all know the story. He walked out to 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue with with his cane stuck in the ground he

said Put the damn thing that the book. And put columns on it. With the board take a look of that pile doesn't belong in Imperial Rome. And this was to commemorate Jacksonian democracy. But Andrew Jackson Lee I think if you go around Washington and you see a building that's an old building with columns on it was put up in the Jacksonian period. Everybody said look what he's done to Pennsylvania Avenue. He's ruined the access from the Capitol through to the White House. Actually that is not so. The Axis had already been ruined by George Washington. He pulled the house off the axis when it was being designed for reasons I'm not quite sure. Maybe he didn't want to look at the. The Congress but actually what Jackson did was to provide a triumphant

terminus to that great street and for the first time America damn ised. It was just a muddy road. Before. The other interesting thing I think that he did is he brought running water. To the White House. They had never had running water before and they tried to purify it. No I hadn't. And that was important because cholera was a real problem and for the president to have clear water it was quite extraordinary. He he was told You'll be more comfortable with running water. We just hope the man is at the pump when you want the water you go down. There was a tap and you would turn it on. They finally then built a bathing room. And they had. A couple. Of burners to heat the water. And so they were able to Bay's income thanks to this man. He had an

Orangery. I'm not that that's what he called it he called it a hot house for plants that were outside. I should mention. But before we start to talk about his changes in the inside of the house that because his wife was dead he brought with him. His to his ward and nephew and Secretary Andrew. Jackson Donaldson and his wife Emily Donal's. And she served as as first lady she was a woman a young woman in her 30s but she was used to running a large household that a year or she said she was going to try to make the year the household that this house a model for American women. And she had four babies in the White House and she was quite good. She did not actually run. The running was turned over to Antwon due

east and his wife. And we have an account of the household staff. Who really taking care of what. And the staff included a house steward and a housekeeper. And that was that. Mr. and Mrs. Is it your Easter a butler and then under Butler a doorkeeper the doorkeeper was one of his slaves. Man by the name of Patrick who would always warn people when they were coming in where there was a good idea to see him. He would say I don't think you want to go up and they said no. Do you like to put your finger in the flame of a candle he said. Do not go up. There was an odd man a cook an assistant cook two scholar is a housemaid a staff maid to laundry maids two messengers a valet a coachman and a footman. And this did not include of course God in a stable hands and

porters and the like. He paid his cook thirty five dollars during a month. During the summer and $45 during a congressional session. The first thing he wanted to do was to build a a wine cellar. There had been none. I couldn't believe that. Mr Jefferson wouldn't. This was right under the State Dining Room. And is that it is now in that room. And there were. Shelves for four whine. And hard with hard liquor ale and beer. And you should see how much liquor they consumed in the Jackson White House. I'm sure that is no longer true. But. On January the 13th this might interest you. 1834 he purchased 20 baskets of champagne. One

barrel of gin he rather liked. You're. Very discriminating man I might come in one barrel of brandy two hogsheads of Clarett. One half pipe of sherry. And a pole. He then bought a half barrel of ale a dozen baskets of London porter and a dozen baskets of old port wine. In May. He purchased five and a half barrels of ale. Three dozen baskets of London porter. You wonder who is drinking it at. All. And two gallons of whisky during the congressional sessions he would purchase bottles of Chateau Margaux and chateau love feet. And when he went on vacation at the Rip Raps he took gin whiskey brandy Madeira wine pale Cher sherry and champagne. But he was not averse to signing a temperance statement with James Madison

and John Quincy Adams. That said being satisfied from observation and experience as well as for a medical testimony that odd in spirit as a drink is not only needless but hurtful. And that the entire disuse of it would tend to promote the health. The virtue and the happiness of the community. We therefore. Hereby express our conviction that should the citizens of the United States and especially all young men and that's capitalized discontinue entirely the use of it. They would not only promote their own personal benefit but the good of the country. But as I said at the opening this was the room. Where they really wanted to show what Jacksonian democracy was all about. Now in addition to his ward and and and her at his his ward's wife he brought an old friend by the name

of William Lee Lewis and the painter. Ralph Earl and Howes them on the second floor. And he gave Louis a job in the treasury. Department during Not much of anything but tending to the problems here in the house. And he turned over to him and assigned him the task of making this a triumphant expression of the people and the way they did it was quite extraordinary. It's it was regal. Jackson liked that touch of the regal there with the ensign's was an odd way. And they they had. Spokes of sunshine rays radiating. Around the entrance and twenty four stars on it emblematic of the 24 states in the union at that time

there were 24 when he became president there were 26 when he left. He brought in Michigan and. An Arkansas but this was empty. There were four. Fireplaces with wooden temporary mantles. And what they did then was to introduce decorated old wooden beams and paneling throughout and then put a lemon color French imported wallpaper that on the borders had. A blue. Cloth the velvet and the windows. There was Grecian drapery. There were yellow curtains and blue or royal blue. The cornices had a row of stars. You'll always find stars with them. And on top Eagles Jackson like eagles and

stars and field and gold. They put on the ceiling three enormous sunbursts in plaster of paris and hung huge chandeliers the chandeliers each cost over a thousand dollars and each gender leader held 18. Oiled. Birds. They were later to be converted to gas and then around the walls there was conses of. Of. Lamps holding five. Oil lamps. The floor was copper did with a Belgian carpet and tables were brought in that were. A richly decorated. Wooden on the bottom and Egyptian black marble on top.

The fireplaces were given in black Egyptian marble and they said when the lights were all turned on that the sheen of the curtain the black marble against the yellow wall paper and the many surfaces of gilt metal and the explosions of sunbursts made it Jackson's own room. And it was here that he would. Receive. The people in regular leather case. And then he would sit on the on the throne. Actually it was a large chair and the gentlemen and ladies would come forward and shake his hand curtsey to him and show their respect. They had a great many of these levees and one of the. The most important changes to that he he made was to use the State Dining Room. I don't believe any previous

president had used the State Dining Room which is at the. West End. Actually at the end of this corridor there was a grand staircase and that was where the foot of the staircase the family used to go up to their rooms. Jackson had three rooms on the southwest side a sitting room a dressing room and a year. A bedroom. And he used two rooms here. His. Office and then an audience room that was. Right next door. He decided to use the year. The state dining room for formal dinners and he hired a very good Belgian chef by the name of Joseph of the lingerie who made excellent pastries. Jackson like the pastries Jackson was given by this very generous Congress

$50000 to decorate this house which was a great deal of money and he used 10000 on this room alone. You should have seen at the pictures of it it's all gone they demolished it in 1850. More's the pity. He had in the in the room 20 spittoons Washington was horrified. Not the object you understand. The number of. All these Westerners coming the spittoons cost 60 cents each. I thought the price wars are extremely interesting and you might be near Jackson. Note if you will notice had kept very good accounts for example. Seven pounds of ham and one sheep's head. Cost sixty one dollar and sixty two and a half cents. Twenty three pounds of flour cost a dollar fifty. Sixty eight cents for steak

milk and eggs they don't say how much. Sixty eight cents. A dollar for chickens and ducks. Fifty cents for veal and chicken. Nineteen cents for fish 12 cents for bread. But a bottle of ketchup cost a dollar. As did a gallon of whiskey. He kept. Pretty good. Records. The. The rest of the money was used to buy the equipment needed to run the house and he purchased from the Russian minister. A silver service for thirty six persons for four thousand three hundred and eight dollars and eighty two cents and Washington was aghast at the cost of it. But later it was decided that it was a very good buy. He also bought a four hundred and forty

piece dinner set of French porcelain and you can see it for fifteen hundred dollars. He bought a 400 and 12 piece dessert set for a thousand dollars and he also bought the richest cut crystal China. Cut glass silks porcelains silver furniture 24 the chairs were re-upholstered for this room. And for some of us. The man really knew how to live and like to do it well even though he was indeed the people's president. He loved the people he truly did all of his presidential messengers reign with that sentiment of popular rule. The people he said. There the majority rules and they knew it.

He did not believe for example that anybody should be appointed to office. They should be elected and periodic Lee come before the American people. That included Supreme Court judges because he didn't believe the Supreme Court had the right to decide on the constitutionality of question of a question. And that's the end of it. He felt he had as much right to do it and so did the Congress because he said to allow four men because the Supreme Court consisted of seven. It would be five persons today four men to decide what 15 million people can do under their constitutional form. It is not democracy. Call it what you will. It's not democracy. It's oligarchy. It's the rule by the elite by the few. And I don't care how wise they

supposedly are. The wisdom of the people is always so much better and the prior to the civil war not even Henry Clay believe the Supreme Court had that. Final right. This is something that developed. I should like. Good. As the final thrust to show what this man did to the presidency he really revolutionized it. He drove the great triumvirate mad with his with his ideas. In all the presidential terms from Washington through Adams through Jefferson Madison and Monroe and John Quincy Adams the total number of vetoes presidential vetoes added up to nine. This man. Vetoed a total of 13 times and he used the pocket veto for the first time. And all previous

presidents believe that the only time a president may veto is if he thinks the bill is unconstitutional. He has no business vetoing for any other right. Jackson did not believe that Jackson believed that if he thought it was not in the public interest he had the right to veto. And his great bank vetoed the veto that killed the second bank of the United States cited constitutional reasons but it cited other reasons as well. It meant so the Henry Clay in a powerful speech arguing against it that he has begun and then issue authority of veto. He sets back and says I'm going to veto any legislation you pass unless you come to me first and find out if I like it or not. And you don't have that right Mr. President. We are the legislature. We initiate.

You will by your interpretation become a partner in the legislative process. What it means of course is that he has become as Daniel Webster who also denounced. He has become a two thirds president because no presidential veto had ever been overturned. It was as difficult to overturn a presidential veto it as it was to amend the Constitution and it meant from there on in the leaders of Congress had to come and learn the presidential will. Before they wrote. It. That is a considerable amount. Of power. And another change that he made was one that. Also troubled the carvers. They felt that any man appointed to office requiring senatorial

confirmation could not be removed without senatorial consent. What goes in with our with our approval goes out with our approval and when previous presidents wanted to get rid of the. Cabinet offices they didn't like they arranged it so that they resign. Not this man. He fired his secretary of the treasury the secretary of the Treasury doesn't even report by law to the president he reports by law to the Congress. Then I don't know what it is today but he Jackson said every officer. Is under my authority. And Henry Clay then went to the Congress and said we should impeach this man. But the House of Representatives are filled with Democrats. You know Democrats. And they're not going to move against this first Democratic. Pardon

the expression Mr. President the President. So we in the Senate must initiate a proceeding that we don't have that constitutional right. So what we'll do is we'll see. And they passed in the Senate the only time in our history they censured the president of the United States. And it really troubled. So he rode a protest in which he said I had the representative of all the people inferring although he didn't say that you are not. And I am their Tribune and I am responsible to them. It meant what he was saying is I am the head of this government. Somebody has got to be. I'm not your equal. I'm the first and I've got a two thirds head start. With. Or

can you imagine how that killed Henry Clay. You know the rope story is you know I was over they polarized him in the Senate but there was that the at the end of Jackson's term. One of the great things Thomas hotbed who was now his friend. And who allowed the bullet. To remain in Jackson he got that century. Repudiated and removed from from the records. And of course Calhoun said the Constitution says the Senate shall keep a record. How can you keep a record if you're going to tear pages out. But that's what they did. That's what he did and he went out in glory with the American people as the president has said. I should mention one thing. As one of his great contributions he paid the national debt.

USA law. Everyone was determined to do it. He said that was his great object. The 60 million dollars we owed. That was a lot of money. And he used that veto again and again to strike down legislation that he thought was improper. And of course he. He put down nullification. He is the first president to state that this union is indivisible. It is perpetual. You once you enter it you can never get out. Secession is not possible. Abraham Lincoln Lincoln took all of the ideas out of his proclamation to the people of South Carolina when he tried to tell the south that they could not succeed. This is a man too who articulated. One of the last

levees he had was the so-called cheese Levy. There was a man in New York who had a huge cheddar cheese made just for Andrew Jackson. It took a hundred and fifty cows working five days solid. To provide the curd that went into this 440. In diameter cheese two feet thick and twenty four horses fifteen hundred pounds of it to the White House with a band around it that said our union must be preserved. And for two years it was cured out there and the whole way. They said you could smell it for miles. And then on Washington's birthday February the 22nd he invited all the people of Washington to come and sample the cheese. They went through it in two hours.

They said everybody was there. To where is it. Even diplomats and Congressman all you heard was cheese all you smelled was cheese. The carpets were slippery with cheese the pockets were filled with the stuff the very ad for a half a mile around was permeated. With the aroma of cheese. Mobs. Thought it was one of the greatest levees of. War in Washington's history. He went home. Everybody thought he was dying after that one last hemorrhage. They thought he was going to be the first president to die in office. And miraculously he recovered. And they said it was a miracle. And one of his servants said you know he just decided he wasn't going. And he lived nine years. Long after he

left the presidency and when he died he turned to his servants and he said I hope I meet you all in heaven. Black and White and expired and one man turned into a one of the servants and said Do you think General Jackson has gone to heaven. And the servant thought a minute and said if General Jackson wants to go to heaven who's going to stop him it was. Thank you very little. This has been. The most serious presidential Loesser. Interview with

WXXI as Bill. Here's President Bush comments on the series. The administration of Andrew Jackson. Mr. President why did you choose to do Jackson as the third in your presidential series when he was one who believed deeply in democracy. He believed in a strong presidency. Ironically I say ironically because there's been a lot of debate about that in recent times. He asserted the power of the presidency. As he read it under the Constitution and really was the first that made very clear that he was head of the government. He was energetic exuberant and quite a person. Is that why you chose him because he was a strong president. Well yes and we want to we had Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt in the first two of this presidential series we wanted to go back in history a little bit. He lived in an exciting time a time of expansion there for our country. But I. I think today is a time for a certain optimism.

A certain exuberance and present to the president. I think. I. Came across as believing the same thing way back then. Do you think that was one of his greatest accomplishments expanding the Union. Well I think it is an ache an accomplishment that in some people's minds it eclipses others. I happen to think as I look at our onerous national death that he was the one that paid off the national debt not personally but I mean he he paid it off and he wasn't so interested in expansion. Did he risk the what he felt was the stability of the Union by trying to annex Texas so the record heat. He lives in a period of expansion believed in it but not at any cost is the way I'd phrase it so he. Said that the union was first with him even preserving the union or strengthening the Union later on.

Others would come and feel exactly the same way about it. He does something very important South Carolina tried to secede amid the attempted secession and he notified that attempt do you think that not a creature of the Union to preserve the union and I mean I'd sum it all up in those words. Abraham Lincoln of course as we know. Some of some Remember Lincoln for freeing the slaves only but Lincoln's. His. His whole thing was preserve the union and I think the same thing is true that Jackson is the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. Mr. President Andrew Jackson enjoyed great popularity. Did that popularity help him at all when he became president. Well I'm sure it did he failed in his first bid for the presidency but he was persistent. It started right in the end and determined to win again. But there's no question about that that it helped because I think both. I think it was a hero and he was a true national hero.

Had a feel for the. People. Every president I'm sure. Has felt that he has a feel for the people. But he wanted the people involved. The other steroid that I that I like took place eight years later in August successor Martin Van Buren as Old Hickory strode to the podium. The crowd went wild in Thomas Hart Benton described the moment. For once the rising. Is eclipsed by the setting sun for the cries such as power never commanded nor man and power. Received. This program is only with me. Why do you Mary take. The mother text Bill

company and its mobile directory publishers and other fish and information businesses. Born into poverty and often and war scarred soldier by age 14 Andrew Jackson would rise to become the American ideal. A distinguished lawyer in Judge a beloved leader of army.

And of a nation. As President Andrew Jackson's extraordinary commitment to preservation of the Union and of the sovereignty of the people would enshrine him forever in the hearts of his countrymen. The third in a series of presidential essays the White House lecture. Andrew Jackson.