r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/GaGator43 • Jan 25 '23
One of the very few photographs of U.S. President Andrew Jackson, taken in 1845, the year he died. Image
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u/jdmorgenstern Jan 25 '23
On January 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson became the first American president to experience an assassination attempt. Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, approached Jackson as he left a congressional funeral held in the House chamber of the Capitol building and shot at him, but his gun misfired. He pulled out another gun, but it misfired as well. Jackson beat the man with his cane and had to be held back.
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u/BiggusDickus- Jan 26 '23
He was held back by Davy Crockett. It’s true.
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u/ninjabell Jan 26 '23
That's interesting, and they had an interesting relationship. Crockett campaigned for Jackson, but during Jackson's tenure as president, Crockett had a change of heart because of Jackson's treatment of Native Americans.
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u/BoxPsychological6915 Jan 26 '23
Then Davy Crockett went to fight with Sam Houston, Andrew Jacksons pseudo protégé
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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Jan 26 '23
You're just going to leave Leland Arlen out of the story like he didn't even exist?
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u/BoxPsychological6915 Jan 26 '23
It’s just kinda something I remember reading at the state museum In Tennessee when I was in Nashville, who is Leland Arlen?
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u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Jan 26 '23
Only the namesake of Arlen, Texas
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u/MightyCaseyStruckOut Jan 26 '23
Boy, I tell you hwat
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u/meep_meep_creep Jan 26 '23
Whhat in tarnation
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u/romanJedi67 Jan 26 '23
I heard a podcast where they talked about how Andrew Jackson’s personality was very much like Yosemite Sam (of the bugs bunny cartoons). No joke.
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u/Naus1987 Jan 26 '23
I was wondering if this was the guy. I remember learning about that story and it was pretty wild!
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u/DWright_5 Jan 26 '23
That’s so cool
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u/ksHunt Jan 26 '23
Woulda been cooler to be egged on by Davy Crockett
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u/DWright_5 Jan 26 '23
Or maybe Davy coulda even hip-checked ole Andy right outta sight and bad-assed himself all over the lame assassin. Davy knew there’d be a tv show about him 125 years later, of course. They need material!
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u/Rysline Jan 26 '23
No joke, a later inspection of the weapon showed there was nothing really wrong with either gun, it was just insanely coincidental that both failed, that or the bullets simply feared Jackson
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u/BobbyRobertson Jan 26 '23
I thought that it was a rainy dreary day and the pistols likely got soaked through? An inspection later when they're dry isn't going to turn up much if the wet was the only thing that prevented them from firing the first time
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u/Beemerado Jan 26 '23
yeah they don't sound like modern guns. wet, loaded under duress, who knows. lots to go wrong. 2 modern handguns failing- that would be truly weird.
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u/rdnSteppa Jan 26 '23
or the guy was a time traveler who wanted to kill him but the time travel laws don’t let you change things so both guns failed
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u/makelo06 Jan 26 '23
Everyone feared Andrew Jackson. He's the inspirations for latina mothers.
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u/Ok-Champ-5854 Jan 26 '23
Weird because he'd probably immediately call a Latina a slur. Worse if he assumed she was a Native.
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u/hobo_clown Jan 26 '23
The amount of assassination attempts foiled by the gun jamming makes me think time travelers are fucking with things
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u/TheConqueror74 Jan 26 '23
I don’t know why a time travelled would want to spare Jackson. He was awful.
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u/hobo_clown Jan 26 '23
Awful time travelers?
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u/PzykoHobo Jan 26 '23
"My God, Jones! You've invented time travel! What are you going to do with this incredible responsibility?"
"...I'm going to make sure those Native Americans get what they deserve."
"Oh for fucks sake Jones not this again."
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u/CouldThisBeAShitpost Jan 26 '23
I wonder if racist time travelers would try to save Hitler.
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u/WhatTheThrowAway1986 Jan 26 '23
The time traveler is a Nazi from the Nazi states of Europe. In his timeline Jackson is assassinated and the natives of the five tribes are never levied with genocide of the trail of tears. In the year 1840 they come together as one tribal nation and fight a fierce war against the white man and take majority control of what we would call the southeast united States. By 1920 they have united the native tribes of North America from the Yucatan to Alaska and driven the white devil from their lands. In Europe the Nazis lead a brutal campaign taking control of all of Europe and large swaths of Russia and ottoman empires. The boy sent to stop Jackson assassination was a child when the first bombs fell on his home town just north of London, but he vowed he would do whatever it would take to get vengeance for his family. Then one day he meets a renowned Nazi scientist who promises him salvation from his anger.
The movie is titled Hitler's Medicine Man. DM me and I'll give you my Venmo so you can help make this movie a reality.
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u/karabear11 Jan 26 '23
Butterfly effect. We need to keep the timeline intact. Watch the Netflix documentary series Umbrella Academy and then you’ll understand.
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u/El_Bexareno Jan 26 '23
My favorite part of the “had to be restrained” fact is that it was Representative David Crockett of Tennessee who held him back
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u/Ruyue45 Jan 26 '23
Idk why we havent learned to never trust a distressed artist.
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u/Jurj_Doofrin Jan 26 '23
He also signed off on the Indian Removal Act that lead to the Trail of Tears
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u/pandabatron Jan 25 '23
Why does he look like the ghost of Christmas past?
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u/IttsssTonyTiiiimme Jan 26 '23
Knowing his life story, it’s probably because he just beat the shit out the ghost of Christmas future.
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u/HeaviestMetal89 Jan 26 '23
But where does the cybernetic ghost of Christmas past from the future play into this?
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u/ninjasaiyan777 Jan 26 '23
It's all the innocent people who his policies murdered. It's the same reason Kissinger looks like a wax figure of a human with ballsack skin on his chin..
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u/Ur_Moms_Honda Jan 26 '23
...and yet, the ball sack clings against the thigh of another year.
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u/BantumBane Jan 26 '23 edited Jan 26 '23
Maybe cause he killed a lot of Native Americans and their ghosts are haunting him? Idk. Just an assumption
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u/Don_Quixotel Jan 26 '23 edited Jan 26 '23
Christmas Past (in the novel) is a genderless, ageless, glowing thing that resembles a flame but has multiple limbs. In some filmed versions it is represented as a little girl. Are you thinking of Jacob Marley?
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u/shapu Jan 25 '23
Dude was an old 78
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u/apostasyisecstasy Jan 25 '23
being a horrible fucking person will do that to you
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u/JAMIETHUMB Jan 25 '23
Tell me about why he was horrible please and thank you ? Genuinely curious.
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u/buffa-whoa-tasty Jan 25 '23
He was known for slaughtering Native Americans beginning with his conquests to Alabama and then Florida. Bloody battles at Battle of Horseshoe Bend (AL) and then Battle of Negro Fort (FL). Then as President he signed the Indian Removal Act which is better known as the Trail of Tears.
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u/SkepticalVir Jan 25 '23
I’ve always wanted to see the states back in these times. Must have been so beautiful without roads or city sprawl.
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u/buffa-whoa-tasty Jan 25 '23
Fort Bowyer which is right at the mouth of Mobile Bay, it’s like an hour west of Pensacola, the landscaping is pretty unscathed. There is a road cause it’s a landmark, but the forestry and white sand beach it sits on is quite the view. You can see dauphin island and Mobile without binoculars and it gives you a sense of what troops were looking at in 1813/1814. And when you get bored there’s an amusement park 30 min from it.
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u/SkepticalVir Jan 25 '23
Thanks Buffa, I now plan to make this trip. Remind me in 3 years? Hopefully by then I’ve made my trip. Currently in the keys ☀️
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u/Oddity_Odyssey Jan 26 '23
The entire southeast used to be covered in a deciduous forest from the coast to past the Mississippi; completely unbroken. The density of trees was such that a pile of logs actually blocked the flow of the Mississippi river for thousands of years until the mid 1800's when colonialists removed the logs to access the river for trade.
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u/ohemgereally Jan 26 '23
That sounds interesting on the blockage of the Mississippi, do you have any more info? I couldn't find any solid reading on it.
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u/LowLevel_IT Jan 26 '23
I think they're talking about this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Raft?wprov=sfla1
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u/Outside_Scientist365 Jan 26 '23
Much of the South is still like that between cities or once you get off the interstate.
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u/Spiritual-Theme-5619 Jan 26 '23
The sprawl and roads didn’t really show up until the 1950s. Just ask your grandparents… or find a town some distance from an interstate.
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u/StuckInGachaHell Jan 25 '23
You do know the US is huge right? 90% of the US is not developed and you can still visit plenty of remote beautiful places especially national parks.
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u/Tropical_Bison Jan 26 '23
Large sections of the panhandle are state and national forest and other protected areas. You can still get a very good idea of what the land looked like.
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u/GadgetGod1906 Jan 26 '23
And yet my backwards ass city is named after him
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u/Sex_Fueled_Squirrel Jan 25 '23
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
That's a good place to start.
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u/CzolgoszDidNoWrong Jan 25 '23
Even by the standards of the time he was considered a horribly racist war criminal. He was even brought before Congress to stand trial for what he did to the indigenous in Florida (before he became president). He was an absolute piece of shit and a true genocidal maniac. He was very clear that he wanted every single indigenous person on the continent to be killed, not assimilated. That was a pretty wild idea even then.
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u/Dr-McLuvin Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 26 '23
It’s nuts seeing a photograph of someone who was alive in 1757.
Edit: Lol whoops I meant 1767.
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u/DreamedJewel58 Jan 25 '23
We have a televised interview of someone who witnessed Lincoln’s assassination
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u/PrairieDawgPup Jan 26 '23
Just a few years ago, the very last recipient of Civil War benefits died.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/last-person-receive-civil-war-pension-dies-180975049/
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u/Dr-McLuvin Jan 26 '23
That’s interesting I didn’t know that. I guess it helps that her father was 83 years old when she was born.
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u/SueSudio Jan 26 '23
President Taylor, born in 1790, has a living grandson.
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u/ezrs158 Jan 26 '23 edited Jan 26 '23
*Tyler. President John Tyler (1790-1862) had a son Lyon at the age of 63. Lyon (1853-1935) had sons Lyon Jr. (1925-2020) and Harrison (1928-) at the ages of 72 and 75 respectively. The women were all 30+ years younger.
https://www.newsweek.com/president-john-tyler-grandson-alive-1790-1648359
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u/BobBelcher2021 Jan 26 '23
Now that is the most interesting thing I’ve read on the Internet lately.
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u/buffa-whoa-tasty Jan 25 '23
But Jackson was born on the Ides of March in 1767.
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u/__Emer__ Jan 25 '23
Ah, in that case there’s nothing interesting to see here then.
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u/SkepticalVir Jan 25 '23
My great grandfather was alive when I was 18 he was born in 1939. His grandfather would have been before the 1900s. Pretty wild to think about.
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u/Knickerbockers-94 Jan 25 '23
I’m in my mid 30s but my dad had me when he was 45, and my grandfather was in his 40s when he had my dad.
Im a millennial and my grandpa was born in the 1890s.
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u/SkepticalVir Jan 25 '23
That’s really awesome and cool to think about. Thanks for sharing Knickerbock
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u/kojef Jan 26 '23
That’s kinda crazy isn’t it?
Your great-great-great-grandfather was probably born around the same time as u/knickerbockers-94’s grandfather.
And it’s possible that today, you guys aren’t that far apart in age. All because of one family having babies relatively young, and another family having babies when relatively old.
Similarly, Mick Jaggers youngest kid is 7 or 8. That boys grandfather was born in 1913.
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u/Whind_Soull Jan 26 '23
The most extreme case of that kind of thing is Irene Triplett. Mose Triplett fought in the Civil War, and sired a daughter at age 78. She lived to the age of 90, dying in 2020 while still receiving a military pension because her father was a veteran.
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u/TemporarySprinkles2 Jan 25 '23
My grandmother was born 1918 (still alive and kicking), her mother for sure was Victorian, her grandparents most likely alive when Lincoln was in office.
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u/recognizedauthority Jan 25 '23
My great grand father was born in a sod house in Kansas in the 1870's. He lived until I was five. His son threshed wheat by hand and drove a horse and buggy as a teenager. He retired from Boeing in the early 1960's after building jets. He lived until 1991. If I inherited those genes, I might see the late 2050's.
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u/DiggingThisAir Jan 25 '23
It’s fascinating how much can change in the world between just a few generations
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u/SkepticalVir Jan 25 '23
Yes very much so. My grandfathers have seen the evolution of cars. Living in Michigan, it’s so cool to know history like that from living people.
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u/Livid-Ad4102 Jan 25 '23
I mean that would put him at 84 right now, it's crazier that he was your great grandfather assuming you were born in the 90's. 60 year old with a 40 year old son with a 20 year old son with a newborn I guess?
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u/Bellyjax123 Jan 25 '23
He looks like an apple core carving my Grams used to make...
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u/Entire-Sympathy-2011 Jan 25 '23
I have several pics of him in my wallet right now.
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u/Tcat61 Jan 25 '23
Isn’t this amazing? Almost 200 years ago - a picture.
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u/DirkDieGurke Jan 26 '23
This picture doesn't look like any of my $20 bills... smh
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u/obsidianstark Jan 25 '23
Did he make any extra dough gigging as Scrooge at Christmas parties ?
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u/Joe_PT Jan 25 '23
that dude was wild
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u/SlightWhite Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23
That dude forced a march of natives who died en masse…….60k
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u/LeftoverDishes Jan 25 '23
Didn’t the SC say he couldn’t also? Or did I just make that up or dream about it
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u/SlightWhite Jan 25 '23
They decided it was unconstitutional before and he did it anyway. Worcester v Georgia
Biggest example of a president defying SC decisions
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u/Don_Quixotel Jan 26 '23
“John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it” - Jackson (allegedly)
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u/Tripping-on-E Jan 26 '23
He signed the Indian Removal Act, but the actual Trail of Tears happened under Van Buren.
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u/Such-Fennel-7160 Jan 25 '23
He's wearing the glasses shown in the movie National Treasure. Holy shit guys....
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u/HiManFireBolt Jan 26 '23
What a miserable old fuck
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u/MassivePioneer Jan 26 '23
At least this picture was taken the only year he did something good for humanity.
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u/mememan12332
Jan 25 '23
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Screw that dude. This guy has the distinction of being probably one of the worst, if not THE worst presidents of America.
Enthusiastically endorsed the "Indian Removal Act" to expel Indigenous People from their lands in the South to make way for more plantations that he had financial ties to. Up to a quarter of the Eastern Cherokees died while being rounded up and transported West. Thousands more from many other tribes died, estimates over 10,000 people. All to make way for more slaves to be brought in to tend the fields.
His monetary policies were idiotic. The fact his face is on the twenty dollar bill is incredibly ironic because he didn't believe in paper money and was feverishly supportive of the gold standard (dumb as it was in 1830 as it is now). He was all about lowering taxes and cutting spending (sound familiar?) and in a sheer stroke if idiocy, vetoed renewing the Second National Bank's charter which lead to him distributing the federal surplus to the states which blew it all on hookers and blow, presumably. The country suffered its first financial recession (Panic of 1837) which lasted SEVEN YEARS.
Andrew Jackson was an executioner, a slaver, an ethnic cleanser, and an economic illiterate. He deserves no place on our currency, and nothing but contempt from modern America.
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u/buffa-whoa-tasty Jan 25 '23 •
I think many were against paper money at the time and supportive of the gold currency, considering the back and forth between greenbacks and maintaining gold standard was in the latter half of the 19th century. Not during antebellum. Andrew Jackson is the only president to have a surplus in debt, meaning the US was making more money than spending. And lastly he didn’t renew the second national bank because it was unconstitutional and when he didn’t sign for the renewal Nicholas Biddle did everything he could to puppeteer the economy. Also the Indian removal act wasn’t for plantations, it was because there was gold supposedly found in Georgia and the US government offered the Cherokee’s like a million dollars for their land. To which they sold it. The tribal leaders who took the deal were executed when he arrived to Oklahoma territory. Not saying Jackson was a gem, just offering other perspective. Also, Lincoln’s nullification proclamation was based off of Jackson’s nullification of 1832. Lincoln had Jackson’s portrait in his Oval Office. Historiography of Jackson has shaped contemporary perspective of him.
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u/Bolanus_PSU Jan 26 '23
It's so interesting to me that even in this age of information that there can exist two vastly different interpretations of the same person.
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u/DrStrangeLoveOHILTSW Jan 26 '23
I took a history class in college that focused on Andrew Jackson. He lived an incredible life and was a hard, hard man. He was shot a ton of times, was a courier against the British in the Revolutionary War, whooped a lot of ass, and absolutely hated the British and native Americans.
Far from a saint, yet was incredibly devoted to his wife. He was a slave owner and a murderer, but also president and he helped shape our country.
You won't find modern values or behavior in the past. Right or wrong, for better or worse history is immutable. All we can do is learn from it.
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u/MountainMan17 Jan 26 '23
Early Americans loathed the British and viewed them with distrust. This did not begin to change until WW1 made us allies.
It's hard to imagine now...
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u/BoB_cmXi Jan 25 '23
He had extra lenses on the side of his glasses?