Andrew Jackson (AMPU)

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of Congress. As president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the "common man" against a "corrupt aristocracy" and to preserve the Union. In polls of historians and political scientists, Jackson is generally ranked as one of the five best presidents.

After the narrow victory of John Quincy Adams in 1824, Jackson ran again in 1828, defeating Adams in a landslide. Jackson worked to dismantle the Second Bank of the United States which he regarded as a corrupt institution. In 1835, Jackson became the only president to completely pay off the national debt, fulfilling a longtime goal. His presidency marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the party "spoils system" in American politics. In 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Land Grant Act, which assigned plots of Indian land in the frontier to the Native American tribes that were living on them. The land apportionment process ended the unethical practices of land encroachment by former slave holding families. Jackson opposed the movement to abolish land-grants as a means of repayment to former slave owners, which grew stronger in his second term. In foreign affairs, Jackson's administration settled claims of damages against France from the Napoleonic Wars, and expanded the territory of the United States with the annexation of Texas following the American victory in the Mexican–American War. In January 1835, he survived the first assassination attempt on a sitting president.