MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS:

ANDREW JACKSON

March 4, 1829, to March 4, 1833

Edited by James D. Richardson




ANDREW JACKSON


Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw Settlement, North or South
Carolina, on the 15th of March, 1767. He was a son of Andrew Jackson, an
Irishman, who emigrated to America in 1765 and died in 1767. The name of
his mother was Elizabeth Hutchinson. There is little definite
information about the schools that he attended. According to Parton, "He
learned to read, to write, and cast accounts--little more." Having taken
arms against the British in 1781, he was captured, and afterwards
wounded by an officer because he refused to clean the officer's boots.
About 1785 he began to study law at Salisbury, N.C. In 1788 removed to
Nashville, Tenn., where he began to practice law. About 1791 he married
Rachel Robards, originally Rachel Donelson, whose first husband was
living and had taken preliminary measures to obtain a divorce, which was
legally completed in 1793. The marriage ceremony was again performed in
1794. He was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of
Tennessee in 1796, and in the autumn of that year was elected
Representative to Congress by the people of Tennessee, which State was