Old Hickory

This is Andrew Jackson.  Jackson was nicknamed Old Hickory, mainly because he was "tough as hickory."  Here the nickname caught up with the age of the subject.  Jackson is a very controversial figure in American History.  He will always be remembered for setting in motion Manifest Destiny, and the subjugation of Indians.  Called Sharp Knife, by Indians, for things like the Trail of Tears.  The trail of Tears occured during his presidency.  Also occurring in his presidency, was the first attempt by the South at Civil War, with Nullification Crisis.  Jackson is important here for Abraham Lincoln, because, Jackson issued his Emancipation on Nullification, which threatened South Carolina with force, if it did not comply and back down. It did.  Andrew Jackson was elected president not in the gentry of a Massachusetts Adams, or a Jeffersonian Dynasty from Virginia.  He's from Tennessee, a product of the frontier, an an orphan.  And it is him, that the terminology of elites, vs. the people really starts to take form.  Next to Trail of Tears, is his war on the Second National Bank, which he felt at that time serviced the well to do, over the common man. Besides Old Hickory, and Sharp Knife, another Jackson nickname was King Andrew.  And it was really in opposition to him, that the two party system structure started emerging, with the founding of the Whig Party, under Henry Clay. Then there is the threat a president makes by using a veto.  Jackson was the first to issue vetoes on a massive scale.  Most presidents in the 19th century were weak one termers, Jackson really is an exception to this, as he was one of the lucky few to win reelection.