Time for a history lesson. This is badass Americans with your host, Kay. Our spotlight today is Andrew Jackson, 7th president of the United States. What makes him so badass and great? He chose to and represent the common man. He started law in his late teens and was an outstanding young lawyer. He was a fighting man, he got into a lot of brawls and once killed a man in a duel because that man made as slur against Jacksons wife. He was a major general in the War of 1812 and became a national hero after defeating the British at the Battle of New Orleans. He fought monopolistic banks. The banks but fought back but The bank, Jackson told Martin Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it! He of course won. On one occasion, he challenged a man named Charles Dickinson to a duel, (the reason behind it wasnt important, not to us and certainly not to Jackson), and Jackson was even kind enough to give Dickinson the first shot. Were gonna go ahead and repeat that: In a duel with pistols, Jackson politely volunteers to be shot at first. Dickinson happily obliged and shot Jackson, who proceeded to shake it off like it was a bee sting. When Jackson returned the favor, Dickinson was not so lucky. A man named Richard Lawrence approached Jackson with two pistols both of which, for some reason, misfired. With the possibility of an assassination taken off the table, Jackson proceeded to beat Lawrence near death with his cane until Jacksons aides pulled him off the assassin. The guns were inspected afterward and it was discovered that they were in perfect working order, leading some historians to believe that it was an odds-defying miracle that Jackson survived. 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! Ill 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. He had a pet parrot, he taught it to curse. During Jacksons funeral they had to remove the bird because he kept cursing. Here is a quote attributed to the Rev. William Menefee Norment, who was presiding at the service, and found in Volume 3 of Samuel G. Heiskell’s Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History: “Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house.” The Rev. Norment goes on to report that the presidential parrot was “excited by the multitude and … let loose perfect gusts of ‘cuss words.’” People were “horrified and awed at the bird’s lack of reverence.”
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:06:19 +0000
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