Jackson, Andrew (1767-1845), seventh president of the United States. He was born March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaw Settlement, near the border of the two Carolinas, and died June 8, 1845, at his home, the Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee. He called himself a native of South Carolina, but James Parton has shown that the Jackson cabin stood a quarter of a mile within the north Carolina border. He had little education. At the age of thirteen he joined the Continental army to expel Cornwallis from the state. At the close of the Revolutionary War he entered an office and read a little law. He was naturally a rollicking, bold spirit, well fitted to lead frontiersmen in politics and in war. He was a man of hasty temper. He fought several duels and killed one man. He settled in western Carolina, now the state of Tennessee. In 1796 he was sent to Congress as the representative of the new state. He opposed Washington's administration, and was one of the few who refused to vote for a resolution of commendation on the latter's retirement from the presidency. Tennessee sent him back to the Senate and made him a judge of the state supreme court. He retired from politics for a time and engaged in planting. When the war of 1812 broke out he led the Tennessee militia against the Creeks who had been incited to take up the British side. The Indians called him "Sharp Knife" and "Pointed Arrow." His soldiers called him "Old Hickory." Near the close of the war, he was sent to the Gulf. He defeated the British at Mobile and captured Pensacola. He then marched to New Orleans, which he proceeded to fortify by constructing rifle works from the Mississippi River eastward to an inlet of the Gulf. He distributed his force of mountaineers skillfully and ordered them not to fire until they could see the white of the enemy's eyes. General Pakenham, the British commander, attacked with 12,000 troops, but was repulsed with a loss of 2,600 men. Jackson, behind breastworks, lost but eight. The battle was fought Jan. 8, 1815, fifteen days after the treaty of peace had been signed; but it made Jackson none the less a popular hero. In 1824 he was a candidate for the presidency against Adams, Crawford, and Clay. There being no majority in the College of Electors, the election went to the House of Representatives where Adams was chosen. Jackson's friends were much embittered because Henry Clay, one of the candidates, was made secretary of state. Four years later Jackson was again a candidate, and was this time successful. The party cry was raised, "To the victors belong the spoils." Jackson's predecessors in office had removed but seventy-four officeholders. Jackson removed 690 Federalists in order to make room for his own supporters. One of the important measures of Jackson's administration was his refusal to extend the charter of the United States Bank. Jackson ordered a removal of the national funds, $10,000,000, from this institution, thus helping to bring on a financial panic in the next administration. He was an honest, patriotic, inflexible, passionate man. He had great confidence in the common people, and a distrust of the bankers and the merchant class, particularly the New Englanders, which amounted well nigh to hatred. He was not a well informed man, but he had an iron will, and may very possibly have accomplished what a man of more liberal education would have failed to do. See SEMINOLES; CREEKS; CALHOUN; NULLIFICATION; CHEROKEE; BLACK HAWK; CIVIL SERVICE; TENNESSEE; PRESIDENTS.