As president, Andrew Jackson sought to act as a direct representative of the common man. As a child, he received periodic education, began reading law for about two years, and then became a lawyer in Tennessee as a teenager. Jackson greatly prospered by purchasing and using slaves for common labor, some even considered him a racist. He served a short time in the Senate, became the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and became a Major General in the War of 1812. It was then that Jackson acquired the status of a national hero after the defeat of the British at New Orleans. During Jackson's eight-year presidency in the first half of the 19th century, he was very popular among the people and surprisingly respected for his vigorous leadership skills. People looked to him as the savior of the union. Jackson was both famously and infamously known for his actions in and out of the White House. His reactions and his mind were the inspiration that created Jacksonian democracy, which pervaded American life in the early 1800s. The creation of a two-party...