Posted on 01/04/2005 10:19:09 PM PST by RWR8189
Alexander Hamilton wasn't the only major American political figure to take part in a mortal duel. Two years after Aaron Burr killed Hamilton in Weehawken, N.J., Andrew Jackson stood 10 paces from a lawyer named Charles Dickinson after Dickinson had said something unflattering about Jackson's wife. The first shot struck Jackson in the shoulder, breaking two ribs before lodging close to his heart. Losing blood but still standing, Jackson took steady aim and shot Dickinson dead.
Jackson would live for another four decades with that bullet in his chest, personally taking part in some of America's bloodiest Indian wars, leading an unauthorized invasion of Spanish Florida and inspiring a generation of Americans seemingly hell-bent on expanding their empire from sea to shining sea. To Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton, Jackson is the quintessential American political figure. He is also Exhibit A in their argument that America's story is one of war and empire-building, not freedom and democracy.
"Describing Jackson's character as democratic barely scratches its surface," they write in "The Dominion of War." "His was a brutish world in which freedom and violence were so inextricably intertwined that those who prospered did so . . . because they were tough enough to strike at potential enemies before they could land the first blow."
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Oops, it should be "America: Just another imperial power?" in the parentheses.
Jackson was a great American. Thats why the modern effete liberals hate him.
Wasn't he a Democrat?
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