Posted on 02/28/2025 7:56:00 PM PST by RandFan
Jackson set the standard for the most tumultuous presidential term ever — at least until now.
He took office on March 4, 1829, as the self-described champion of “the common man,” declaring he was out for revenge against the “hungry rats” from the outgoing administration of President John Quincy Adams.
Jackson quickly replaced the Adams-appointed U.S. ambassador to Colombia, fellow 1812 war hero Gen. William Henry Harrison, who had been there only a few weeks after a months-long trip.
Then Jackson turned to federal workers. Everyone in government “from the highest officer to the lowest clerk, was filled with apprehension,” wrote socialite Margaret Bayard Smith, who had known presidents since Thomas Jefferson. One troubled Treasury Department worker “from mere fear of removal, cut his throat from ear to ear,” the National Daily Intelligencer reported. Another article said a bureaucrat “went raving crazy.”
Washington was a city of about 19,000 people. The President’s House and the Capitol were connected by dirt streets with no streetlights. Most congressmen stayed at boardinghouses along Pennsylvania Avenue, Donald B. Cole wrote in his 1993 book “The Presidency of Andrew Jackson.” Prominent visitors stayed at John Gadsby’s new four-story National Hotel. The word on the street was about job cuts.
In his first year, Jackson cut 20 percent of the 11,000 federal jobs in a government overseeing 24 states, Sen. John Holmes of Maine said in Congress in 1830. Jackson removed “more officials in one year than all preceding presidents had in the previous forty,” Cole wrote.
“The most disagreeable duty I have to perform is the removals & appointments to office — There is great distress here,” wrote Jackson, who turned 62 on March 15. The president made 68 appointments in the first nine days alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
With thousands “working” at home, “cuts” aren’t going to paralyze anything.
President Jackson was also the only President to ever pay off the national debt, plus he abolished the then version of the Federal Reserve Bank [Second Bank of the United States]...
Indeed, if one is looking for a past President to compare President Trump with, Andrew Jackson is pretty much the one and only choice ...
I’m glad you pointed that out 😂
If The Old Hickory was tough as hickory and Trump is as tough as him. Everyone better get out of the way. Period!
Andrew Jackson has always been the best comparator for Donald Trump. Surprised the comparison hasn’t been made more often before this. Well, I suppose it’s because Jackson was the first true Democrat, and maybe the media didn’t want to make that comparison. But the overall vibe was very similar.
I’m an expert on Jackson. He was an Alpha of the time, as is Trump, but his mission was technically much simpler; kill, fight, destroy natives, French, all enemies, violently.
Is the 93’ book described in the article the best one on him?
“Best”? I wouldn’t know. My expertise comes from the national park Interpretive Officer expertise I gathered for a film documentary I produced.
RFan (love you, BTW), search “BATTLE OF HORSESHOE BEND with Wes Studi”. Not my best work, but you might like it... I hope... 😎
I will check it out for sure and I’m interested in that book.
By the way, how often is a history article Front Page’d? He’s a very interesting president and character.
Thank you Jim for educating all of us!
“Indeed, if one is looking for a past President to compare President Trump with, Andrew Jackson is pretty much the one and only choice ...”
Good one. They both survived assassination attempts and Trump could be faced with a nullification crisis. I look for Trump to settle it the same way.
Hey bozos when ya gonna turn the wapo around and make it great again? We are waiting for your changes to take place- jump on the Trump train pal and do something useful for the us instead of being a war left partisan hack all the while sir.
>> thought it said: Andrew Jackson ‘paralyzed’ Washington with cats...
That’s funny, I thought the same thing!
Apparently, GOD has decided that the One Nation Under God could use another Andrew Jackson. :-)
Yeah, and I suppose MSN wants people to believe the cuts by Jackson where evil.
The cuts do SOUND GREAT! And I was pleased to read there has been precedent of a few deep cuts by courageous leaders like Trump and Jackson.
Man of the people. Yes, it’s true.
... as a I read today about the $12 billion the Navy got paid to build a submarine while no one in Washington can remember any launching ceremony because the submarine was NEVER built. Outrageous!
Thanks for sending us the great articles, RANDFAN!
. “The political history of the United States, for the last thirty years,” Parton wrote in 1860, “dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton’s knocker.”
Thats pretty funny, right there...[re: The Petticoat Affair]
Anyone seeing any paralyzation? I thought so. Cant paralyze anything with a work force that IS paralyzed from the get go
Trump has/had? Andrew Jackson portrait in the Oval Office
-
-
-
-
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14391275/oval-office-decor-donald-trump-andrew-jackson-ronald-reagan.html
President Donald Trump has already shuffled around some of the decor in the Oval Office since taking office, but one significant change could symbolize a major change in his direction as president.
Trump featured a portrait of famous populist president Andrew Jackson in a prominent place in the Oval Office when he first took office in January as it sat above a smaller portrait of the nation’s first president George Washington.
The two portraits were hung above the famous ‘Bronco Buster’ bronze sculpture by Frederic Remington to the right of the Resolute Desk.
The prominent location of the portrait marked Trump’s return to the Oval Office, as numerous comparisons between the two fiery populist presidents were written.
But by February, the twin portraits of Jackson and Washington were replaced by a large portable of former President Ronald Reagan.
Jackson was a combative president who defies the courts raised tariffs and destroyed the national bank and the patronage system.
Reagan embraced global free market economics and a global foreign policy that confronted the Soviet Union with a peace through strength philosophy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.