AMERICAN LION

Jon Meacham



The broad majority of the American public’s knowledge of Andrew Jackson likely goes no further than knowing his face is on the $20 bill. Folks with a moderate knowledge of our seventh president likely view him as a hot-headed, grouchy, old man who brawled with everyone from Congress to the national bank to his native South to members of his own administration to anyone else foolish enough to get in his way. There’s some truth to this impression of Andrew Jackson, but Jon Meacham’s excellent “American Lion” reveals a far more complex Andrew Jackson. Meacham dispels the hot-head myth surrounding Jackson. Jackson was a cunning politician who could let his wrath quake with a vengeance. Yet, he was not only persuasive by the sheer force of his titanic will but also through both a political and sincere knack to endear himself to supporters. This book explains the complicated man who was Jackson: the man who initiated the modern perception of the president being the crux of national life; the slaveowner who refused to allow states in his native South to secede; the defender of the people’s rights who banished Indians from the East; the loyal friend who stood so solidly by a rumor-hounded cabinet member and wife that he allowed the issue to form a wedge between the president and his own family. As the sub-title claims, this volume is about “Andrew Jackson in the White House.” Yet, Meacham opens this volume with a prologue that is an excellent essay on Jackson’s life: Andrew lost his father at a young age; the loss forced his mother, Andrew and his two older brothers into the poverty of being cared for by relatives; his brothers died in the American Revolution; by his teen years, Jackson’s mother died; he survived and rose in prominence by sheer force of will and personality; he fought duels; met the love of his life while she was married to another man and apparently married her before her divorce was final; he became a national hero as a military leader in the War of 1812 and the commanding victor in the Battle of New Orleans; he won the popular election in 1824 but lost the White House when the House of Representatives gave the presidency to John Quincy Adams; Jackson returned to win the presidency in 1828 but not without a bitter campaign that claimed he and his beloved Rachel were bigamists; he won the presidency but the strain of the campaign killed Jackson’s wife before he could take office. This campaign scandal and the bitterness of his loss led Jackson to stand solidly with his Secretary of War John Eaton whose wife, Margaret (Peggy), was the subject of gossip and scandal. Meacham tells the story of Andrew Jackson in prose that reads like a novel. Meacham also demonstrates how Andrew Jackson created the mold of not only the modern presidency but the beginnings of the United States we know today.