Andrew Jackson, known by the name Old Hickory was born on 15th March 1767 in Waxhaws South Carolina. He was an American politician, soldier, and lawyer who served as the 7th president of the U.S from 1829-1837. Andrew was the first U.S president from the area west of Appalachians and the first president to enter the office by a direct appeal to masses of voters which is often referred to as “Jacksonian Democracy.”
Andrew Jackson went to Nashville as a political appointee and became a member of the convention in 1796, which created a constitution for Tennessee. In the same year, Andrew was elected as the first representative from the new Tennessee state to the U.S. House of Representatives
In March 1812, when the war with Great Britain was imminent, Andrew Jackson requested 50,000 volunteers to be ready for Canada’s invasion and after the declaration of war in June that year, Jackson offered his services to the United States. He crushed the Creeks in Alabama and he was recognized as a hero of the west.
His military triumphs led to suggestions of becoming a presidential candidate, but he disavowed any interest in politics. However, the campaign to make him president never died and his popularity continued. In the 1828 elections, Andrew defeated Adams by an electoral vote of 178 to 83. He was a very successful president and people referred to him as the voice of the people. He died on 8th June 1845.
Below is a collection of his wise political quotes from his interviews and writings.
Andrew Jackson Quotes
1. “Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.”– Andrew Jackson
2. “If the Union is once severed, the line of separation will grow wider and wider, and the controversies which are now debated and settled in the halls of legislation will then be tried in fields of battle and determined by the sword.”– Andrew Jackson
3. “I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.”– Andrew Jackson
4. “You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.”– Andrew Jackson
5. “But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.”– Andrew Jackson
6. “I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.”– Andrew Jackson
7. “The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer…form the great body of the people of the United States they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.”– Andrew Jackson
8. “The bold effort the present (central) bank had made to control the government … are but premonitions of the fate that await the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it.”– Andrew Jackson
9. “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.”– Andrew Jackson
10. “But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.”– Andrew Jackson
11. “In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority.”– Andrew Jackson
12. “If my humble efforts have in any degree contributed to preserve to you these blessings, I have been more than rewarded by the honors you have heaped upon me.”– Andrew Jackson
13. “Strict duty would require of me nothing more than the exercise of those powers with which I am now, or may hereafter be, invested, for preserving the Union, and for the execution of the laws.”– Andrew Jackson
14. “But if they have other power to regulate the currency, it was conferred to be exercised by themselves, and not to be transferred to a corporation.”– Andrew Jackson
Related: Alexander Hamilton’s Best Quotes
15. “It was settled by the Constitution, the laws, and the whole practice of the government that the entire executive power is vested in the President of the United States.”– Andrew Jackson
16. “Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges… which are employed altogether for their benefit.”– Andrew Jackson
17. “We are beginning a new era in our government. I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond the real necessities of the government.”– Andrew Jackson
18. “In a free government the demand for moral qualities should be made superior to that of talents.”– Andrew Jackson
19. “The brave man, inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country than the coward who deserts her in the hour of danger.”– Andrew Jackson
20. “The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.”– Andrew Jackson
21. “All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.”– Andrew Jackson
22. “Unless you become more watchful in your states and check the spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges you will in the end find that…the control over your dearest interests has passed into the hands of these corporations.”– Andrew Jackson
Quotes from Franklin Pierce – the 14th President of the United States
23. “If they [Mexicans] touch the hair of the head of one of our citizens, tell him [Commodore Dallas] to batter down and destroy their town and exterminate the inhabitants from the face of the earth!”– Andrew Jackson
24. “I have never in my life seen a Kentuckian who didn’t have a gun, a pack of cards, and a jug of whiskey.”– Andrew Jackson
25. “Do they think that I am such a damned fool as to think myself fit for President of the United States? No, sir; I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President.”– Andrew Jackson
26. “Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.”– Andrew Jackson
27. “It was in many ways that he was a genuine man of the people, sharing in large part their prejudices and idiosyncrasies.”– Andrew Jackson
28. “The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country than the coward who deserts in the hour of danger.”– Andrew Jackson
Related: Quotes from Rutherford B. Hayes
29. “The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.”– Andrew Jackson
30. “It was settled by the Constitution, the laws, and the whole practice of the government that the entire executive power is vested in the President of the United States.”– Andrew Jackson
31. “In England the judges should have independence to protect the people against the crown. Here the judges should not be independent of the people, but be appointed for not more than seven years. The people would always re-elect the good judges.”– Andrew Jackson
32. “Every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives to individual enterprise increased power and furnishes to all the members of our happy confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and support.”– Andrew Jackson
33. “Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.”– Andrew Jackson
34. “I am fearful that the paper system will ruin the state. Its demoralizing effects are already seen and spoken of everywhere. I therefore protest against receiving any of that trash.”– Andrew Jackson
35. “Live within your means, never be in debt, and by husbanding your money you can always lay it out well. But when you get in debt you become a slave. Therefore I say to you never involve yourself in debt, and become no man’s surety.”– Andrew Jackson
36. “I do not forget that I am a mechanic. I am proud to own it. Neither do I forget that the apostle Paul was a tentmaker; Socrates was a sculptor; and Archimedes was a mechanic.”– Andrew Jackson
37. “If a warden sees cigarette litter being thrown from a car, they will take the number and trace the owner to send them a fine.”– Andrew Jackson
38. “In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another.”– Andrew Jackson
39. “I carried $5000 when I went to Washington. I returned with barely $90 in our pockets.”– Andrew Jackson
40. “The Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces of silver. . . . Was there ever witnessed such a bare faced corruption in any country before?”– Andrew Jackson
Video: Andrew Jackson Biography
If you want to learn more about Andrew Jackson, this is a very quick and entertaining video – definitely worth a watch!
Summary
Andrew Jackson was the 7th president of the United States and quite a memorable character, for a variety fo reasons. In his retirement, Jackson remained active in Democratic Party politics, supporting the presidency of Martin Van Buren.
Overall, history has had a mixed view of Mr. Jackson. Many of his actions proved divisive, that created both fervent support and strong opposition from many in the country. More recently, President Donald J. Trump (US President from 2016-2020) has been compared to Mr. Jackson – see our collection of the most outrageous Donald Trump Quotes.
Jackson’s reputation has suffered since the 1970s, largely due to his pivotal role in the forcible removal of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands. Some of that negative coverage is coming from a revisionist or changing view of things historically. Surveys of both historians and scholars still rank President Jackson favorably among U.S. Presidents and it is likely that over time his public reputation will improve from the current view.
Related: The Best James Monroe Quotes
Image Credit: US Post Office, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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