Andrew Jackson was a hard-bitten military man who made a name for himself as a lawyer on the lawless frontier of Tennessee. He fought 13 duels over the course of his life. This was mostly in response to the very messy and underhanded presidential race of 1828, where Jackson’s political opponents attacked his wife, Rachel, accusing her of being an adulterer and a prostitute who slept with African slaves.
Rachel was deeply grieved by the insults levied against her, and died about a month before Jackson’s inauguration of a heart attack. Jackson never forgave his political opponents for what he saw as causing Rachel’s death.
The only man Jackson ever killed in a duel was Charles Dickenson, who was nationally famous for being the best duelist in the United States (with 26 successful duels to his credit).
Dickenson had earlier accused Jackson’s wife for adultery in 1806, which enraged Jackson into declaring a duel with him. Dickenson was the faster shot and got his round off before Jackson even lifted his pistol (although by some accounts, Jackson actually let him shoot first). The bullet missed Jackson’s heart by inches. Jackson, still standing, slowly raised his pistol while Dickenson was reloading and fired the fatal shot.
The bullet was so close to his heart that it could not be safely removed. In fact, Jackson had been shot so many times in duels and had so many bullets lodged in his body that it was joked that he “rattled like a bag of marbles”.
Jackson was a tough ass ‘ole sum’ bitch, that’s for sure.
I say that if a candidate doesn’t like a negative add…forget this “debate” bullshit…shoot the son-of-a-bitch…
Jackson would certainly approve…
Mufasa[/quote]
Great post Mufasa, Jackson is one of my favorite Presidents!
[quote]CornSprint wrote:
Excellent presentation. I absolutely 110% agree with his sentiment that there needs to be this source (at least a more accessible one) or else polarization will only continue to get worse…[/quote]
Polarization has ALWAYS been part of American politics. ALWAYS. You can go clear back to the days of the Federalists and anti-Federalists of the late 18th century. The acrimony and division was downright palpable. You can continue on to the Jackson administration and then to the Civil War and so on and so forth.
Some of you history ignoramuses (not necessarily referring to CornSprint) need to spend more time studying history. American politics is not supposed to be all about “coming together and making things happen for the American people…blah, blah, blah…”[/quote]
Absolutely a fair point-I was actually beaten to the punch about the Jackson election but there are plenty of other equally heinous examples through our history. My sentiment is just that I think if there were a way to reduce this spirit (historical or not), it would be better for actually getting things done.
Even if people remained polarized, if there were a way to at least educate people on why the beliefs of the other side aren’t evil/moronic/etc I think there would be a lot more compromise in government. Disagreement with understanding isn’t a problem, disagreement with ignorance is. Not saying that everybody is ignorant or this is new, just saying that it seems to be a problem in the demonization of the other side.
While Push brings up a good point…about the polarization of our Public discourse…they tended to GET THINGS DONE. (with one huge exception above and below).
I was reminded of that when I was watching “60 Minutes” tonight. When the Founders were working out the specifics of how they would officially become Independent of the largest power in the World…they didn’t always agree. Hell…they would threaten each other with fireplace pokers; yell, scream and curse at each other…all the time being under the threat of them and their families being hung for treason. The same when forming the Constitution…and the list goes on and on.
IMO… when that Discourse failed, (among other reasons) we were plunged into a Bloody Civil War.
I would hope that our Country would not have to go through something similar in order to just get things done.
