tired
Over the course of those 78 years he had accomplished much. Born in North Carolina and based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson had been a lawyer, a politician, a general, the 7th President of the United States, and in his twilight years an elder statesman. As an army general he defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, and the British at the Battle of New Orleans in the following year. He believed that the election of 1824 had been stolen from him through a "corrupt bargain" and undeterred he won the next two elections. As president he dismantled the Second Bank of the United States and forced the relocation and resettlement of Native American tribes from the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River.
Jackson was nicknamed "Old Hickory" because of his toughness and aggressive personality. His temper caused him to fight in duels. Some were fatal to his opponents and some left him with lead in his body that he carried for the rest of his life. He was a wealthy slaveholder and he fought politically against what he denounced as a closed, undemocratic aristocracy, adding to his appeal to the common man. He expanded the spoils system during his presidency to strengthen his political base.
Jackson supported a small and limited federal government. He strengthened the power of the presidency, which he saw as spokesman for the entire population. He was supportive of states' rights, but during the Nullification Crisis, declared that states do not have the right to nullify federal laws. Strongly against the national bank, he vetoed the renewal of its charter and ensured its collapse.
Jackson remained influential in both national and state politics after his presidency ended. He retired to his home in Nashville known as "The Hermitage" in 1837. Jackson remained a firm advocate of the federal union of the states, and rejected any talk of secession. "I will die with the Union", he always insisted. He continued to play Kingmaker in the Democratic Party, first engineering the election of his Vice-President Martin Van Buren. But when Jackson's monetary policies led to a depression (or "panic" as they called it in those days) that took place on Van Buren's watch, Van Buren became a one-term president. Jackson was pleased when another protege of his became President in 1844: James K. Polk. But he would not live to see much of Polk's Presidency. Jackson was one of the more sickly presidents, suffering from chronic headaches, abdominal pains, and a hacking cough, caused by a musket ball in his lung that was never removed, that often brought up blood and sometimes made his whole body shake. He died at The Hermitage on June 8, 1845, at the age of 78, of chronic tuberculosis, dropsy, and heart failure.