Webb on Jackson

A defense of a President recently treated as indefensible:
A product of the Scots-Irish migration from war-torn Ulster into the Appalachian Mountains, his father died before he was born. His mother and both brothers died in the Revolutionary War, where he himself became a wounded combat veteran by age 13.... like other plantation owners such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, owned slaves...

As president, Jackson ordered the removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi to lands west of the river. This approach, supported by a string of presidents, including Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, was a disaster, resulting in the Trail of Tears where thousands died. But was its motivation genocidal? Robert Remini, Jackson’s most prominent biographer, wrote that his intent was to end the increasingly bloody Indian Wars and to protect the Indians from certain annihilation at the hands of an ever-expanding frontier population. Indeed, it would be difficult to call someone genocidal when years before, after one bloody fight, he brought an orphaned Native American baby from the battlefield to his home in Tennessee and raised him as his son.

Today’s schoolchildren should know and appreciate that Jackson’s July 1832 veto of legislation renewing the charter of the monopolistic Second National Bank prevented the creation of a permanent aristocracy in our country... Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Vernon Louis Parrington called this veto “perhaps the most courageous act in our political history.”

Just as significantly, in November 1832, South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union. Jackson put a strong military force in position... Wisely, South Carolina did not call Jackson’s bluff, and civil war was averted for another 28 years.
Once again, I'm sorry to see that Webb didn't do better in the primary. This willingness to stand up for those normally told to shut up and sit down is refreshing.

7 comments:

Elise said...

I'm glad Mr. Webb mentioned Jackson's inclusion of free blacks in his forces at the Battle of New Orleans. I just finished reading How I Accidentally Joined the VRWC by Harry Stein. In speaking of what isn't taught these days about American history, he points out that some of what isn't taught even has "legitimate multicultural themes" and offers the 1815 Battle as an example:

Andrew Jackson forged perhaps the most diverse coalition in the history of warfare.: Americans, French, blacks, Spanish, Seminole Indians, Tennessee riflemen, Creoles, pirates, coming together to thrash the world's greatest military force.

I was educated back when American history was taught "old school" and I didn't realize the breadth of his coalition. I have, however, always had a fondness for Andrew Jackson ever since I read a (probably novelized) biography of his wife back in high school. An interesting and admirable man and I'm glad Mr. Webb's account makes that clear - and was published where it will be widely read.

douglas said...

Well, Webb may have a re-entry to the race. I'm hearing people talking about him as a potential VP to Trump, and they say calls have been made...

Grim said...

That, combined with my theory that Republicans should impeach Trump at the first sign of misbehavior, would be kind of awesome.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

We remember only those bits of our history that come down our conveyor belt.

douglas said...

Ha! Grim, yeah, that would be something.

This makes me think of Chesterton's parable of the fence. If I get in a discussion with someone who is approving of it, about the removal (or demotion to the back) of Jackson, I think asking what someone knows about Jackson would be an appropriate response to their enthusiasm for his demotion/removal.

Joel Leggett said...

Grim,

Thanks for posting that. With all the depressing political news lately, the recent attacks on a man that has been revered in my family for generations has only added insult to injury. Thank you.

Grim said...

You're welcome, Joel.