Good Reads
The Lion in the White House

Who was the first President to deal with a secession crisis started by the perennially troublesome state of South Carolina? If you guessed Abraham Lincoln, you would be wrong. The first chief executive to defeat a threat to the union was the seventh, Andrew Jackson.

In “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House”, Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, takes an interesting look at Jackson, concentrating on his administration rather than on the colorful pre-White House years. This is not to say Meacham gives Jackson’s character short shrift; he persuasively shows how Jackson’s personality shaped his Presidency. An outstanding biography, the book won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize.

Andrew Jackson was a war orphan who grew up destitute. He became a successful lawyer, judge, legislator and soldier, as well as an accomplished street brawler and duelist. Meacham describes how, after being wounded in a duel, he coolly took careful aim at his disarmed opponent, and killed him with one shot. Another luckier opponent, Thomas Hart Benton, subsequently became his lifelong friend and political supporter.

Meacham works hard to counter the myth of Jackson as an ill-tempered hothead, particularly as President. Rather, he portrays Jackson as a calculating risk-taker, who only picked the fights that he could win, doing so by guile, rather than by bluster and threats.

Jackson was the first president from the frontier, who was neither a Virginia aristocrat nor a Boston Brahmin. He was no rube, however, as his plantation home, the Hermitage, outside Nashville attests. He surprised friend and foe alike with his courtly manners and worldly knowledge.

Jackson’s Presidency was defined by two major crises, one of which he instigated. The first was his battle to abolish the Second Bank of the United States, which was a depository for all federal funds, and run as his personal fiefdom by Philadelphia scion, Nicholas Biddle. Jackson viewed the bank, founded by Alexander Hamilton, as being unaccountable and undemocratic. Jackson’s machinations to defund the bank are a fascinating case study in political brinkmanship. Unhappily for the country, Jackson succeeded. It took another three-quarters of a century before the U.S. reestablished its central bank — the Federal Reserve.

The second great moment of his presidency was the “nullification crisis” of 1836. South Carolina had claimed the right to nullify a federal tariff, and any other laws its legislature disapproved. Jackson correctly saw this as an unacceptable challenge to his authority, as well as the federal system of government. Meacham’s description as to how Jackson responded to this threat, with a combination of threatened force, subversion and compromise, is the best part of the book.

The book’s one weakness is the amount of time the author spends on the Eaton affair. John Henry Eaton was Jackson’s close confidante and first Secretary of War. His wife, Margaret, was married to him under questionable circumstances, which scandalized early 19th century Washington, and the couple was never accepted in the capital’s society. Meacham devotes way too much ink detailing the couple’s (mostly self-inflicted) problems, and Jackson’s unceasing efforts to gain them social legitimacy.

That was a sideshow of less importance than other events that occurred during Jackson’s administration. Jackson opened up the Presidency and the government to far more Americans than had participated before. He was reviled as “King Andrew the First,” a dictator. He was the last president elected to a second term before Lincoln, and transformed the office into the “tribune of the people” that it remains today.

The book adds much to our knowledge of Jackson’s character and personality, and demonstrates why Jackson was one of the most important Presidents. More than the face on the $20 bill, Jackson arguably is the most important President not to make it to Mount Rushmore.

– Reviewed by Robert S. Cypher