Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson Biography

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, a plantation on a large tract of land near present-day Charlottesville, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence; also, he was third U.S. president, was a leading figure in America’s early development. During the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson served in the Virginia legislature and the Continental Congress and was governor of Virginia. He later served as U.S. minister to France and U.S. secretary of state, and was vice president under John Adams.

Jefferson, who thought the national government should have a limited role in citizens’ lives, was elected president in 1800. Slavery was a contradictory issue in Jefferson’s life. Although he was an advocate for individual liberty and at one point promoted a plan for gradual emancipation of slaves in America, he owned slaves throughout his life. In 1775, with the American Revolutionary War recently under way, Jefferson was selected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

Although not known as a great public speaker, he was a gifted writer and at age 33, was asked to draft the Declaration of Independence. In the presidential election of 1796, Jefferson ran against John Adams and received the second highest amount of votes, which according to the law at the time made him vice president. Jefferson ran against Adams again in the presidential election of 1800, which turned into a bitter battle between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson defeated Adams. Jefferson died at age 83 at Monticello on July 4, 1826, Jefferson was buried at Monticello. However, due to the significant debt the former president had accumulated during his life, his mansion, furnishing and slaves were sold at auction following his death. Monticello was eventually acquired by a nonprofit organization, which opened it to the public in 1954.Jefferson remains an American icon. His face appears on the U.S. nickel and is carved into stone at Mount Rushmore.

Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, in the Waxhaws region on the border of North and South Carolina. Born in poverty, Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) had become a wealthy Tennessee lawyer and rising young politician by 1812, when war broke out between the United States and Britain. His leadership in that conflict earned Jackson national fame as a military hero, and he would become America’s most influential–and polarizing–political figure during the 1820s and 1830s. After narrowly losing to John Quincy Adams in the contentious 1824 presidential election, Jackson returned four years later to win redemption, soundly defeating Adams and becoming the nation’s seventh president (1829-1837). As America’s political party system developed, Jackson became the leader of the new Democratic Party. A supporter of states’ rights and slavery’s extension into the new western territories, he opposed the Whig Party and Congress on polarizing issues such as the Bank of the United States. Andrew Jackson was like no other president before him. The previous presidents had one thing in common, they were all part of the founding fathers or in John Quincy Adam’s case was the son of a founding father.

However Jackson was a plantation owner from the west who had no connections with the government. He also had different views from other presidents that made his presidency unique. Two things that separated Andrew Jackson’s presidency from previous presidencies were he reached out to the common people and he was disapproving of the Bank of United States. For a while, his legacy is discolored by his part in the migration of Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi. Between the years of 1829 and 1837 is when President Andrew Jackson was an office. Many people recognize him from the twenty-dollar bill. Andrew Jackson has had a major impact on Tennessee history. Andrew Jackson had dominated the first half of the nineteenth century. An Addition, General Jackson became a national hero after his defeat of British troops at the almost impossible to win battle of New Orleans. Jackson was so tough on his men that he earned the name “Old Hickory”. As a matter of fact, the two football teams on different sides of the Carolina’s where Jackson grew up play the “ Old Hickory Classic” to decide which county gets to adopt Jackson as from that home county. Andrew Jackson had many friends but also many enemies. This was true throughout his life even during the elections and years in politics. Andrew Jackson ran for president in 1824. This election is commonly referred to as the “Stolen Election”, because Jackson won the popular vote but was unable to gain a majority in the electoral vote. So congress decided who would be the president. Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845, at the age of 78. The cause of death was lead poisoning caused by the two bullets that had remained in his chest for several years. He was buried in the plantation’s garden.

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