ANDREW JACKSON 1829-1837 American Superhero
More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man.
Born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767, he received sporadic education. But in his late teens he read law for about two years, and he became an outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife Rachel.
Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and he served briefly in the Senate. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans.
In 1824 some state political factions rallied around Jackson; by 1828 enough had joined “Old Hickory” to win numerous state elections and control of the Federal administration in Washington.
In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College. He also tried to democratize Federal officeholding. Already state machines were being built on patronage, and a New York Senator openly proclaimed “that to the victors belong the spoils. . . . ”
Jackson took a milder view. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed Government duties could be “so plain and simple” that offices should rotate among deserving applicants.
As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party–the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him.
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and other Whig leaders proclaimed themselves defenders of popular liberties against the usurpation of Jackson. Hostile cartoonists portrayed him as King Andrew I.
Behind their accusations lay the fact that Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command.
The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly. When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him.
Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. “The bank,” Jackson told Martin Van Buren, “is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!” Jackson, in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.
His views won approval from the American electorate; in 1832 he polled more than 56 percent of the popular vote and almost five times as many electoral votes as Clay.
Jackson met head-on the challenge of John C. Calhoun, leader of forces trying to rid themselves of a high protective tariff.
When South Carolina undertook to nullify the tariff, Jackson ordered armed forces to Charleston and privately threatened to hang Calhoun. Violence seemed imminent until Clay negotiated a compromise: tariffs were lowered and South Carolina dropped nullification.
In January of 1832, while the President was dining with friends at the White House, someone whispered to him that the Senate had rejected the nomination of Martin Van Buren as Minister to England. Jackson jumped to his feet and exclaimed, “By the Eternal! I’ll smash them!” So he did. His favorite, Van Buren, became Vice President, and succeeded to the Presidency when “Old Hickory” retired to the Hermitage, where he died in June 1845.
[via: Whitehouse.gov]
FRANCIS MARION 1732-1795 American Superhero
THE SWAMP FOX, colonial American soldier in the U.S. War of
Independence (1775-83), nicknamed by the British commander Colonel Banastre (“Bannister”) Tarleton for his elusive tactics.
Marion’s parents were French Huguenots who lived and farmed along the Santee River. He was the grandson of Benjamin Marion, a native of Poitou, who came to the province in 1690; and the fifth and youngest son of Gabriel Marion, who married Esther Cordes.
Marion gained his first military experience fighting against the Cherokee
Indians in 1759. In 1775 he was elected to the first provincial congress of South Carolina. That same year, with America on the brink of revolution, the congress commissioned him a captain of the newly-formed 2nd South Carolina Regiment. In September 1775 Marion commanded the capture of British forts in Charleston, South Carolina.
Promoted to major in February, 1776, he participated in the defense of Charleston on June 28. Later in 1776 was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and assumed command of the regiment. In October, 1779, he led his command in an unsuccessful assault against Savannah.
In 1780, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln surrendered Charleston to the British, but Marion, with a broken ankle, eluded capture. He slipped away to the swamps, gathered together his band of guerrillas, and then began leading his bold raids. Marion and his irregulars often defeated larger bodies of British troops by the surprise and rapidity of their movement over swampy terrain.
In late 1780 he was appointed Brigadier General of the S.C. Militia. In cooperation with troops under the command of Henry Lee, he raided Georgetown and took Fort Watson and Fort Motte. He went on to support attacks on Augusta and Ninety-Six, S.C.
Near the end of the war, Marion and American General Nathanael Greene joined forces. In 1781 they successfully fought at the Battle of Eutaw Springs and forced the British retreat to North Carolina. For a daring rescue of Americans surrounded by the British at Parkers Ferry, S.C. (August 1781), Marion received the thanks of Congress. He was then appointed a brigadier general, and after the war he served in the senate of South Carolina (1782-90).
While still leader of his brigade, Marion was elected to the senate of South Carolina in 1781. He was reelected in 1782 and again in 1784, after the war had ended. In appreciation for his military service, the state legislature appointed Marion commander of Fort Johnson, in Charleston.
In 1786, he married Mary Esther Videau. The couple had no children and he died at his home “Pond Bluff,” on Feb. 27, 1795. He is buried at Belle Isle, near present day St. Stephens, S.C.
NATHAN HALE 1755-1776 American Superhero
Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut, and educated at Yale. He volunteered for service at the outbreak of the War for Independence, participated in the siege of Boston and was promoted to the rank of captain.
Following the Continental Army’s ouster from Long Island, a pressing need was felt for information about British activities in New York City. In mid-September 1776, Hale volunteered to attempt to secure that intelligence.
Poor planning almost guaranteed the mission’s failure from the beginning. Hale was to act alone rather than as one of several spies dispatched for the same purpose; a multiple effort would have helped to ensure that some member of the team would return to headquarters with the desired intelligence. Further, Hale was handicapped by the absence of Patriot contacts in the city, the failure to plan an effective avenue of escape and by the total lack of reliable communication channels with the American army.
Perhaps the greatest impediment to success was Hale’s nature. He was regarded by his associates as exceedingly forthright and incapable duplicitous action — not characteristics usually associated with successful spies. His physical appearance also worked against him. Hale was said to have a handsome face, but one that bore evidence of powder burns that made him easy to identify.
Despite his friends’ misgivings, Hale departed from the Continental Army at Harlem Heights and traveled to Norwalk, Connecticut. Then, dressed as an unemployed Dutch schoolmaster with his college diploma in hand, he secured passage across the Sound to Long Island. An exact recounting of his activities after this does not exist. He managed to work his way into New York City, gathered some information on the British soldiers there and make preparations for an escape. However, under confusing circumstances, Hale was captured on September 21. His notes and drawings were discovered hidden in his clothes; tragically, he had failed to use invisible ink, a technology available at the time. Forthright to the end, Hale admitted he was a Patriot soldier, an admission that sealed his fate. He had been out of uniform and operated behind enemy lines; under the existing rules of war he was subject to execution without trial. It should be noted that the British officers were especially uneasy about spies at this juncture because of recent fires that had ravaged the city and were thought to have been set by rebel agents.
Hale was hanged the next morning and his body left on display as a warning to the community. Most traditional accounts of his execution cite the words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” as his last. This paraphrase of a line from British writer Joseph Addison’s Cato, a play frequently performed in America, was quoted by one witness to the event. Another noted Hale’s dignified conduct, but did not mention those specific words.
Another matter of some controversy is the identity of the person who named Hale as a spy. Earlier accounts suggest that Samuel Hale, a relative in the employ of the British, may have informed British officers after spotting the ‘schoolmaster’ in a tavern. Recently, however, a contemporary account of these events written by Consider Tiffany, a Connecticut shopkeeper and Loyalist, was obtained by the Library of Congress. In this rendition the finger is pointed at Robert Rogers, a hero of the French and Indian War whose sympathies later were clearly with the British. He is said to have found Hale to be an unconvincing teacher and lured him into his own betrayal, by pretending to be a Patriot spy himself.