Andrew Jackson was one of America’s toughest presidents. He earned the well-deserved epithet “Old Hickory” from his men during the War of 1812. He was not necessarily a nice person. As a general, he eagerly hanged his men for disciplinary infractions at the drop of a hat. He was also the only American president to have made his wealth primarily as an active wholesale slave dealer. That was a career considered disreputable even by many slave owners. However, one thing Jackson was good at was kicking ass and taking names. Below are some interesting facts about Jackson the badass.
A Badass From an Early Age
Andrew Jackson began his ass kicking career during the American Revolution, when he enlisted in his local militia at age thirteen. A year later, a fourteen-year-old old Jackson defiantly refused to shine a British officer’s shoes. He got slashed with a sword across his face and hand as a result. That left the future president with a burning hatred of the British. He paid them back in spades at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. There, forces led by Jackson killed, wounded, and captured about 2500 British, while suffering only 300 casualties of their own.
Andrew Jackson was a prickly cuss who was easily offended, and would just as soon kill you as look at you. When not leading men into combat or slaughtering Redcoats by the hundreds, he could often be found out back dueling with somebody who had said the wrong the thing in his presence. Dueling, as in ritually face off against somebody with loaded pistols, take aim, and open fire at a given signal. He did that not once, or twice, but many, many times. The total number of Jackson’s duels is unknown, but estimates range from a low of thirteen to more than a hundred.
The Dangerous Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson’s most famous duel occurred in 1806, when he got into a tiff with a man named Charles Dickinson. Dickinson was reputed to be the best pistol shot in the country, but that did not stop Jackson from calling him out. At the duel, Jackson stood stock still, and allowed Dickinson to take the first shot. Dickinson took aim, and put a bullet in Jackson’s chest, wounding but not killing him. Jackson recovered, took aim, and pulled the trigger, but the pistol stopped at half cock. By the rules, that did not count as a shot. So as a horrified Dickinson waited, Jackson cleared the pistol, then took deliberate aim once more, and fired a shot that mortally wounded his adversary.
Jackson recovered from his wound and went on to greater things, but Dickinson’s bullet remained in his chest for another nineteen years. By the time he was elected president in 1828, Jackson’s reputation as a seriously dangerous dude to tick off had been so well established, that only a madman would try to assault him. However, America never had a shortage of madmen, and as seen below, one of them became the first to attempt a presidential assassination by taking a shot at Jackson.
The President Who Almost Beat His Would-be Assassin to Death
Richard Lawrence, a house painter, was in the habit of angrily muttering to himself about Andrew Jackson. On January 30th, 1835, he was seen sitting in his shop, cackling to himself, before he suddenly got up and exited, with the exclamation: “I’ll be damned if I don’t do it!” The “it” was killing Jackson, which Lawrence tried to do by ambushing the president outside the Capitol building. In those days, America’s chief executives routinely went about unescorted and unprotected. It was thus not difficult for Lawrence to wait with loaded pistols behind a pillar, and take a shot at Jackson’s back when he passed by.
The pistol misfired. Lawrence pulled out a second pistol and tried another shot, only to get another misfire. By then, Jackson had noticed what Lawrence was up to, and was understandably ticked off. Although 67-years-old at the time – a pretty old man by the day’s standards – an enraged Jackson fell upon the much younger Lawrence, and proceeded to bludgeon him with his cane. The would-be assassin was probably saved from getting beat to death by people in the vicinity, who intervened to restrain the president and hustle Lawrence off into custody. As it turned out, Jackson did not Secret Service protection – which did not exist back then – from an assassin. Instead, it was his would-be assassin who needed protection from Old Hickory.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Davis, Burke – Old Hickory: A Life of Andrew Jackson (1977)
History Halls – Abraham Lincoln: Hall of Fame Wrestler
Live Journal – Andrew Jackson, Man of Honor
