ANDREW JACKSON: THE MAKING OF AMERICA by Teri Kanefield, Abrams, March 2018, 240p., ISBN: 978-1-4197-2840-2

"[African Americans] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery. . . . He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, which no one thought of disputing, or supposed to be open to dispute; and men in every grade and position in society daily and habitually acted upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in matters of public concern, without doubting for a moment the correctness of this opinion."

--Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the Dred Scott decision (1857)

“In February of 1832, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in the case between the Cherokees and Georgia. The State of Georgia claimed that the United States Supreme Court had no jurisdiction over matters that took place within Georgia’s borders, so Georgia didn’t bother to defend itself in court.

The Supreme Court sided with the Cherokees, declaring Georgia’s law ‘repugnant to the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States’ and therefore void.’

Georgia ignored the Supreme Court on the grounds that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction over matters within its borders. Jackson, as president, was supposed to uphold the law and enforce the Supreme Court’s decision, but he took no steps to do so. In this case, he believed the Supreme Court was wrong. As Jackson read the Constitution, the Indians had no sovereignty in Georgia.

Jackson believed that as president, he was entitled to decide what the Constitution meant. He understood that the Constitution gave the Supreme Court jurisdiction over United States laws, treaties, and the Constitution, but as president he had taken an oath to defend the Constitution. As head of an equal branch of government, he thought his opinion should at least be equal to the Supreme Court.

He actually went further, arguing that, as president, his opinion on Constitutional matters should trump the Supreme Court. His reason? He was elected by the people and represented a majority of voters, while the Supreme Court, with appointed judges serving for life, was the least democratic of the branches, reflecting the opinion of a small handful of men…

When Jackson did nothing to enforce the Supreme Court’s ruling, Georgia took it as a signal to do as they pleased. Within weeks of the court’s decision, Georgia closed Cherokee schools, seized Cherokee farms and land, and distributed them to whites...Cherokee resistance lasted for years--until, at last, harassed and besieged--they were driven from Georgia.”

Author Teri Kanefield has crafted an exceptionally well-researched biography of President Andrew Jackson. Based upon the information presented in this biography, I conclude that Andrew Jackson was a scoundrel. He was an uneducated, abusive, slave-holding, genocidal tyrant who made a career of trampling mores, laws, and the United States Constitution. He might have been best remembered as being responsible for the Trail of Tears, had he not also been the ignoramus who put Roger B. Taney--the author of the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott decision--on the Court.

Donald Trump’s admiration for Andrew Jackson is well known, and as one of his first acts, Trump had a portrait of Jackson hung in the Oval Office. Throughout the book it’s easy to see that these two lying demagogues have many attributes and beliefs in common.

One jaw-dropping aspect of the story involves Jackson’s utter ignorance, as a practicing attorney, of how promissory notes function and how his subsequent aversion to debt and hatred of banks adversely affected the country. A difference between Jackson and Trump is that when Jackson fell into debt, he never short-changed his creditors by declaring bankruptcy. And Jackson would have been aghast at Trump adding over a trillion dollars to the national debt to fund tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations.

Jackson did have one shining moment in his stint as president. He concocted a solution to a constitutional crisis stemming from South Carolina’s interpretation of Constitutional law that the states had the right to nullify any federal statute that they interpreted as unconstitutional. Unfortunately, this contribution was minor compared to the toxic legacy of his two terms in office.

As with the author’s recent biography of Alexander Hamilton, ANDREW JACKSON: THE MAKING OF AMERICA provides amazing insight into our constitutional history and helps us understand the roots of so many persistent American conflicts. It’s a “wow” book that will blow the minds of many an adolescent reader.

Richie Partington, MLIS

Richie's Pickshttp://richiespicks.pbworks.com

https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/

richiepartington@gmail.com