John meachams american lion he won at the pulitzer price in 2009 for that book. We want to show you this author presentation now. I am delighted to be here. Ive had on eclectic couple of days, mirroring the history of the last 40 years in the american presidency. Last thursday night, i was standing at the Nixon Library, and now im here. Why not the best . Ultimately. It was almost impossible at the Nixon Library has a replica of the east room and all i could do was not say, my mother was a saint. It was like dork disneyland. It was fabulous. I was sent to summer camp once during the 1980 convention when reagan and ford had their flirt. Never been so angry at my parents. Never recovered, the relationship. Went to i am from chattanooga. For those who not know swaney, its a combination of brideshead and deliverance. Like to set the scene so you know from whence i came. I began this book as just heard, five years ago. Partly because it was the period in which David Mcculloughs wonderful john adams was doing so well, Walter IsaacsonsFranklin Benjamin franklin, and we should cover someone who reps the best of us and the worst course and Andrew Jackson does that. Thieves as much by his vices as his virtues so this you cant have eight in on that warts and all jackson because theyre mostly warts but they are on a man who ultimately capped the kept the possibility of progress alive by preserving the union and want to talk about that and particularly interested in your questions. In 1861, in wintry springfield, the president elect of the United States, tall, skinny guy from illinois, walked through streets of mud and ties this brotherinlaws store at yates and smith, think what the street, the crossstreets. To write his inaugural address. The union was disintegrate egg. The union was at hand, and lincoln called for four documents. Called for a copy of the constitution, called for a copy of henry clays 1850s peach on the compromise, and the called for websters second replay tohand and call for Andrew Jacksons proclamation to the people of South Carolina. Now, lincoln was not to put it mild by, jackson man. Although jackson had given him a job once. He became the postmaster of knew salem, im, in may of 1833. Barks when when lincoln was a guy who might some day get back into politics. But he new that jackson at a molt of ultimate crisis found a way to express the poetry of the American Union and wanted to have that document, that was looking for a point of reference in the past as he embarked 0en a formidable crisis but not unprecedented one. Theodore roosevelt admired Andrew Jacksons instinct for the jugular. He said that no man other than lincoln or washington had left a deeper mark upon in the american culture. Fdr was boredline obsessed with jackson, wasnt quiet Brokeback Mountain but a very odd sort of thing. He i can say because of warm springs and all that. In fact in 1937, fdrs inaugural stan was build in the form of the hermitage on pennsylvania after knew. In 194 , 1 in the midst of horrible frustrations about isolationism, fdr gave a radio address in which he talk about how we had to recover the rugged and courageous spirit of Andrew Jackson. While the threats in jacksons day came from within, ours, fdr say, come from without, and as the enemy powers come ever closer, we have to recover the spirit of jackson to win through in our own time. Harry truman was rivaled fdr in his obsession with president jackson. He had built a courthouse in back in missouri had statue of jackson in front of it. Truman was so interested in getting the exact details right that he drove over to the hermitage to measure jacksons clothes, so it would be exactly correct. This put a bronze of jackson in the oval office and most important i think, he once said that Andrew Jackson was the kind of president who looked after the little fella who had no pull and thats what a president is supposed to do. So, who was this president who looked after the little fella who had no pull . He was the first truly selfmade man to become president. The first six president s all came from the upper echelon, up matily, of american life. This is a man who, by force of will, came from the hills of South Carolina to the pinnacle of power in the young republic. A remarkable feat. At that opinion unprecedented in american life. One of the boys he grew up with in South Carolinayearold later said when we would wrestle with andy, we would throw him once and twice and three times and four times, but he never stay throwed. But Andrew Jackson never stayed throws. Never new his father. An interesting president ial paradigm. President s tend to either come from families with very strong, dominant father figures or none at all. Mccain and obama, you see that. You have the bushes, adams, kennedys in terms of having a father quite present. Jackson, clinton, ford, who did not know their father. What i think that did in the psychology of the young Andrew Jackson, is it gave him the ambition and the noble sense of ambition, to rise to power and come to control as much of the circumstances around him as he possibly could. He was accustomed to being unsettled in his life. He did not have a strong home of his own once his mother died when he was 14. His relatives, bluntly, in South Carolina, didnt seem to pay much attention to him. Now, an evening with an drew jackson was never untaken lightly, when he was older and even when he was younger. He was what we would call now a troubled teen so not particularly popular with kith and kin in South Carolina. So, he learned to depend on himself. I interviewed senator obama in august about these issues, about himself and his own experience, not having a father, and he said, obama said, basically i had to learn how to raise myself. That was an experience that jackson and he shared. A kind of necessary selfreliance because there was no one else to rely on. The reason there was no one else to rely on, his father died before he was born but was the american revolution. He lost his mother, he lost his brothers, he believed that his familys blood had consecrated the American Union. He himself was a prison over war. He was hit over the head by a british saber, leaving gash in his head as long and deep as a mans finger through the rest of his life. He used to be a joke about the the british officer who hit jackson really was that good idea after new orleans . One thinks not ultimately. He was id spent a lot of time trying to figure out how did he get his intellectual furniture . The man who had virtually no formal education, almost none. Maybe a year 0 so. Selftaught lawyer, as many people were on the frontier if you look back, where did he spend his time . The spent the most time in this childhood, from babyhood in at the presbyterian Meeting House there at home, and i dont know how many presbyterians are here. I am an episcopalian. There are six of us left. We used to just fight over gin or vodka. Its become more complicated in recent years but we do things relatively quickly. We can get and out fast. My sense of presbyterians is that it was particularly in 18th century, service was not what i would dahl want want to skip breakfast, and just wait for lunch. So, hours and hours and hours on all those endless sundays, he heard the catechism, he had an interesting trick the rest of his life, always used rhetorical questions back and forth. In cat cash catechism form. The bible was hugely important to him. When he was under stress for the rest of his life, he always fell back on images from scripture, when henry clay threw in his lot with john quincy adams, becoming the and made adams president , even though jackson had won the plurality of votes in 1824, another thing that they ultimately regret instantly jackson said clay is the judas of the west and his end will be the same. Not exactly a audacity of hope kind of moment. Talk about all that in a second. Though he saw the world in this, i think, wonderfully epic way that largely grew out of the bible, another Favorite Book was the scottish chiefs, which when you think about braveheart, make goods sense, a heroic story of william wallace. Another book he read and gave to other young men in his family, the letters of lord chesterfield. Remember . This was an age when americans were trying to make themselves into gentlemen. They didnt have much to go on. Chesterfield had written this kind of manners guide, which taught you how to be in the world how to handle yourself, most importantly for our purposes in terms Political Development in only one president who has given his name to an age. Not an age of Theodore Roosevelt, not even on age of lincoln but there is an age of jackson. Was to always control what you feel, and to control how you project what you feel. Whatever you may actually whatever may be going on inside, always present a century serene face to the world. A critical element in jacksons political rise. While he could be a passionate, come pettiest, tell temperment al man. He was the magazinesser of his feelings. You do not be president of the United States with re record he had if your were running around tempermentally and he took advantage of the fact people thought that was his weakness and turned it into a strength. The best one of the best stories about this is during the bank war, delegation came to him to try to plead the case, saying that he, jackson, was wrong, and jackson ranted and raved and spewed and i have this vision of him overturning furniture but the delegation scurried out. The door had barely shot but jackson turn to an aide and said, didnt manage them well . He knew exactly what he was doing. Its a little like yall remember the saturday night live skid where reagan is amiably dopey and then the school child leaves and hes like, all right, lets get to work, a little like that. He rose because he believed in the country, and he believed that its fate would be in the best of hands and he thought his were the best of hands. That is not an uncommon political view. As you may imagine. Except of course for the man in whose library were in. Always tricky that these things. Thefdr a police cal science since franklins fill as tv of the presidency is him in. A lo lot like that. In a good way, which talk about in one second. He became a leader of men through physical force. This is something we dont think about anymore and in 2008, but there are very few men or women who bear the marks of physical bravery anymore in our public life. Actually several of them have connections here. Theres max clearland, theres john lewis, theyre bob dole, theres bob kerry, jackson did john mccain, jackson did, too. He bore the scars of war. During the war of 1812 he received his old hickory name because he refused to leave a single man behind on a march back to tennessee. The doctor wonderfully named dr. , samuel hog, said what are we going to do with the sncc said well put them on the wagon and none shall be left behind and he willed himself through the wilderness. His political rise had minute to do with the sense that the republic in classic terms the republic was a brilliant beginning but that democracy had a troll play. We forget a role to play. The story of philadelphia in 178 and the bill of rights in 179 its not so much about academy ross republicanism. The people had a role to play in the founders vision but a fairly limited one. In jacksons view, the republican structure had created too many corrupting influences to the point where the country was itself in a kind of moral crisis because the channel between the president and the people had become clogged like an artery. The bank on the United States was one. Clergy were other. He loved religious people and was religious himself. Did not like mettling meddling ministers theres nothing new under the sun. He believed that in classic republican thought the virtue of people is what formed the virtue of the country and he wanted to clear out those intermediary institutions and establish a more direct channel to himself as president and the people, believing that would create a more justice and stronger society. As we talk about briefly, dont know what it is about people, democratic nominees from my native state, manage to win and then lose, it happened in 1824, happened in 2000. Were working on it as a state. Bill frist is worried all the time about this. Think that if it he believed jackson believed in the country was slipping into corruption in 1824. Once the election was decided by the house of representatives and not by the people, he became obsessed with it. He began running for president shortly after the evening of the of 9th of february in 1825. A wonderful thing of jackson in the white house, monroes white house, adams and clay have cut their deal well, thats little strong adam has become president and clay is on his dui becoming secretary of state. Im sure there was no connection. The vetting process by the way for secretary of state then was much easier. Mrs. Clay did not have to talk about her trips to dubai as far as we know. This is going to be great. A story that will not end. Why did we have to have the election . Campaign was just great. So jackson goes to the white house, he has a woman on each arm, and he approaches john quincy adams. The son of a president. One of most brilliant men in the country. Had been europe an diplomat from the time he was eight forwardment every advantage. Jackson had no advantage. Adams couldnt speak to him. He just stood stock still. Heres Andrew Jackson, out of nowhere, who simply says, as you can see, mr. Adams, ive given my arms to the fair but i hope you are well, sir. And moves on. Brilliantly at this point, he has become the noble loser, and adams has become some of a sour winner. That dynamic wouldnt change until 1828 when jackson won a decisive victory, and endured in a remarkable personal tragedy in those intervening months. He had married in 1799 the love otherwise his life. Rachel there what a slight complicating factor. She was robrds and not mrs. Donaldson. Details, details. There was some confusion as happened in those years not entirely uncommon about when the divorce was final. So jackson marries rachel, and what was okay in 1799 or so, was not so great 30 years later. Morals had changed. Mappers changedded. And most importantly, jackson now had ferocious political enemies who would use anything they could to fight him. And they used his wife. She was call the bigamies and a whore, said he was unfit to up a occupy such a place as the wife of the president of the these cumulative stress of the attack she knew about them caught up with her, jackson believed, and the collapsed on 17th of december in 1828 and died in december. So midway through the transition. It was a great tragedy and crisis of jacksons life. They buried her on christmas eve, 1828. And afterward he went back in to the hermitage and said, if i could have my way, i would stay here and never leave the woman whom we have just left in the garden but i am now president elect of the United States and i will good and do my duty. He blamed henry clay for it. He came ultimately to blame john c. Calhoun for a lot of this, as you all may know he later said his only two regrets in public life were he did not hang calhoun and shoot clay. Again, i just hate this partisanship in washington now, dont you . Just terrible. People are so mean on cable. Just nothing like it. I was actually were in georgia so i can tell the story. Was actually sitting on the set when your former governor and senator, zell miller, challenged Chris Matthews to a duel and i was saying, hand to god, i swear. Was signature between Andrea Mitchell and joe scarborough, and we all went because chris will do it. He would go have been happy to go out there particularly during sweeps week. Like to think ive been part of the two great dueling stories in modern political history. God, that was a night. He later expressed those regrets, but he dedicated himself to his job in a way that to the presidency in a way that perhaps if rachel had been alive he may not have been able to do that as much as he did. Clearly saw this as a drama of redemption. He was going to show his enemies, he was going to do everything he could to save the country. He believed he had to rescue the country from what dan all webster once said was some threadful danger, and really believed this. He. Saw him as the champion of the common man. As long as the common man was white and a man. This is an important point well talk about more in a second. But one of the things that makes him so relevant for us is his vision of the relationship between the government, the private sector, the financial sector, and the people. In 1832, when he was vetoing the bank of the United States, after Martin Van Buren walked in one night and jackson is lying there two bullets in him, cant keep anything down. Drinks gin because of his health thats what tell my doctor. And van buren is, terrified, and jackson rise up and says, the bank, mr. Van buren is trying to kill me but i will kill it, and he did. He did it with a veto message that id like to read just a little bit of because you could hear this literally this afternoon. Heres what jackson said. It is to be regretted the rich and powerful too often bend the axe of government the irselfish purposes. Distincts in society will always exist under every justice government. Equality of talent of education or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. The full enjoyment of gifts of heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy and very tour, every man is equally entitled to protection by law but when he laws undertake to add to alland just advantages, art fishing drinks, the grant title, gratuities and expressive rivers to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society, the farmers, mechanics and laborers who have neither the time nor means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to compla