Andrew Jackson is one of the most intriguing historical figures. He's similar to General William Sherman in the fact of that he is loved by many, and hated by just as many. When it comes to loyalty, many people supported him because he was seen as an "average Joe" just as people nowadays tend to support candidates that are more average, the same was the case back in the time period of Jackson. At the age of 13, he was a courier and was captured by British captors. Later on he was also instrumental in the creation of the state of Tennessee (my current state of residence) He killed a man in 1806, it was due to an issue of honor pertaining to his wife Rachel. He was seen as a rebel and a renegade - a tough guy. He made his living in Nashville TN as a lawyer and was successful, owning slaves and soon building a mansion, The Hermitage. He became a national hero after the Battle of Orleans in the War of 1812, which proved to be a great defeat to the British. After this, he gained the nickname "Old Hickory" due to his toughness. (We actually have an Old Hickory Blvd in Nashville) He ran for president in 1824, but lost to John Quincy Adams, in 1828 he ran again and this time won. Pertaining to polarization, his policies on Native Americans were some of (if not completely) his most polarizing positions. He led the removal of Native Americans in the Indian Removal Act (1830) where it authorized President Jackson to negotiate with the Native tribes in the Southern US for their removal west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral homelands. As you can imagine, many were not happy about this. The Indian Removal Act was popular in the South, where population growth and the discovery of gold on Cherokee land in Georgia had increased pressure on tribal lands. The Cherokee fought the state of Georgia, taking its case to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Georgia could not impose its laws on Cherokee tribal lands in 1832. Jackson used the Georgia crisis to pressure Cherokee leaders to sign a removal treaty. His representatives negotiated the Treaty of New Echota with John Ridge. Ridge was not a recognized leader of the Cherokee Nation, and the document was rejected by most Cherokee as illegitimate. This was ignored and the treaty was later enforced by Jackson's successor, President Martin Van Buren, who ordered 7,000 armed troops to remove the Cherokee to Indian Territory. This abrupt and forced removal resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 Cherokee members on what became known as the "Trail of Tears." During Jackson's tenure as president, more than 45,000 American Indians were relocated to the West and the administration bought about 100 million acres of Indian land for about $68 million.