Prof. Boerner's Explorations

by Gerald Boerner

Today we start our examination of the characteristics of the photo paper that you will use in your inkjet printer. Not all inkjet printers will print on all surfaces of media and some types of media require certain types of ink that are only found in specific printers. Thus, we have a situation where the printer, ink and paper must be carefully selected.

Add to this quandary the whole issue of the permanence of the ink used in inkjet printers, we have a very important set of choices that must be made by the photographer when choosing his/her inkjet printing setup. This is the chief reason that many photographers only use their inkjet printers for proofing, not for final images. Professional quality images require the more expensive printers that use the more expensive inks.

Fortunately, for most people, including the casual photographer, the decision is much easier. Most inkjet photo printers are capable of producing adequate output for the photo album, scrapbook and home display photos. It is only when we get into the high-end, fine art printing that we encounter the complication..  GLB

“It’s called a pen. It’s like a printer, hooked straight to my brain.”
— Dale Dauten

“The darkroom is just the means to an end.”
— Kim Weston

“For me the printing process is part of the magic of photography. It’s that magic that can be exciting, disappointing, rewarding and frustrating all in the same few moments in the darkroom.”
— John Sexton

“I never stopped photographing. There were a couple of years when I didn’t have a darkroom, but that didn’t stop me from photographing.”
— Imogen Cunningham

“When I’m about ready to press the cable release on the View camera, I’ve tried to anticipate some of the challenges I’m going to encounter in the darkroom.”
— John Sexton

“Eventually, if you had a printer that is IPP compliant, that printer will have a Web address and anyone around the world who can get on the Internet can print to that URL.”
— Robert Palmer

“It was amazing to watch him in the darkroom at an advanced age, still get excited when the results were pleasing. He still struggled like we all do in the darkroom and he struggled behind the camera, and when he had a success he was beaming.”
— John Sexton

“I’m pretty selective. I generally edit the contact sheets and then do work prints. Because I have my own lab and printers, I can afford the luxury of going through the contact sheets for black-and-white, making up work prints, seeing them big, and honing them down.”
— Herb Ritts

Note:
This posting is intended for the educational use of photographers and photography students and complies with the “educational fair use” provisions of copyright law. For readers who might wish to reuse some of these images should check out their compliance with copyright limitations that might apply to that use.

GLB

Choosing a Photo Printer: Characteristics of Paper

An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that reproduces a digital image by propelling variably-sized droplets of liquid material (ink) onto a page. Inkjet printers are the most common type of printer and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large and expensive professional machines.

The concept of inkjet printing dates back to the 19th century and the technology was first developed in the early 1950s. Starting in the late 1970s inkjet printers that could reproduce digital images generated by computers were developed, mainly by Epson, Hewlett-Packard and Canon. In the worldwide consumer market, four manufacturers account for the majority of inkjet printer sales: Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Epson, and Lexmark.

Key Issue: Preservation of the Print

Preservation of document, pictures, recordings, digital content, etc., is a major aspect of archival science. It is also an important consideration for people who are creating time capsules, family history, historical documents, scrapbooks and family trees. Common storage media are not permanent, and there are few reliable methods of preserving documents and pictures for the future.

Paper/prints (photos)…
Color negatives and ordinary color prints may fade away to nothing in a relatively short period if not stored and handled properly. This happens even if the negatives and prints are kept in the dark because the ambient light is not the determining factor, but heat and humidity are. Because color processing results in a less stable image than traditional black-and-white processing, black and white pictures from the 1920s are more likely to survive into the long term future than those color films and photographs from the last 20 or 30 years. The cause of the color degradation is the result of the dyes used in the color processes.

Color prints made on most inkjet printers look very good at first but they have a very short lifespan, measured in months rather than in years. Even prints from commercial photo labs will start to fade in a matter of years if not processed properly and stored in cool, dry environments.

Black and white photographic films using silver halide emulsions are the only film types that have proven to last for archival storage. The determining factors for longevity include the film base type, proper processing (develop, stop, fix and wash) and proper storage. Early films were coated onto a nitrate base material which was prone to combustion if stored in uncontrolled temperatures, Nitrate was replaced with acetate-base films. The acetate films have now been discovered to outgass acids (also referred to as vinegar syndrome). Acetate films were replaced in the early 1980s by polyester film base materials which have been determined to be more stable that nitrate and acetate base films.

Inkjet Paper

Inkjet paper is a special fine paper designed for inkjet printers, typically classified by its weight, brightness and smoothness, and sometimes by its opacity.

Inkjet paper is made from high quality deinked pulp or chemical pulps and requires good dimensional stability, no curling or cockling, good surface strength, and surface smoothness. Sufficient and even porosity is required to counteract spreading of the ink. For lower quality printing, uncoated copy paper will suffice, but higher grades require coating. The traditional coatings are not widely used for inkjet papers. For matte inkjet papers, it is common to use silica as pigment together with polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH). Glossy inkjet papers can be made by multicoating, resin coating, or cast coating on a lamination paper.

Comparison to Standard Office Paper

 Example cheap uncoated paper
heavily soaked with ink, showing the
back of the paper. The moisture-soaked
fibers swell and revert to their original
shape, showing the mesh belt webbing
used in the paper manufacturing plant.

Standard office paper has traditionally been designed for use with typewriters and copy machines, where the paper usually does not get wet. With these types of paper, moisture tends to wick through the fibers away from the point of contact to form a disk. For an inkjet paper, this spreading results in the ink spreading out in the fibers to form a large smudge, and which lacks pigment intensity.

High-quality inkjet printing with dark, crisp lines requires the paper to have exactly the right degree of absorbency to accept the ink but prevent its sideways spread. Many general-purpose office papers of weights around 21 to 27 lb (80–100 g/m²) have been reformulated so that they can be used equally well with both inkjet and laser printers. However, this category of paper is only suitable for printing text, because the ink load is light.

When paper is manufactured, it is formed from a fiber mat that collects on an open mesh screen, which is then dried and pressed flat and smooth. Large areas of inkjet color, such as found in graphics and photographs, soak the paper fibers with so much moisture that they swell and return to their original shape from before pressing, resulting in a wavy buckling of the paper surface.

Double-sided inkjet printing is usually not possible with inexpensive low-weight copy paper because of bleed-through from one side to the other. Heavier weight paper works better due to the thickness of the fibers limiting bleed-through.

These papers are also unsuitable for photographic work because standard office paper is usually not "white" enough. This results in a poor color gamut and leads to colors being described as "muddy".

For all types of paper, the settings in the printer driver must be adjusted to suit the paper, so that the right amount of ink is delivered.

Inkjet Photo Paper

Photo paper is a category of inkjet paper designed specifically for reproduction of photographs, which is extremely bright white due to bleaching or substances such as titanium dioxide, and has been coated with a highly absorbent material that limits diffusion of the ink away from the point of contact. Highly refined clay is a common coating to prevent ink spread.

The best of these papers, with suitable pigment-based ink systems, can match or exceed the image quality and longevity of photographic gelatin-based silver halide continuous tone printing methods used for color photographs, such as Fuji CrystalArchive (for color prints from negatives) and Cibachrome/Ilfochrome (for color prints from positive transparencies). For printing monochrome photographs, traditional silver-based papers are widely felt to retain some advantage over inkjet prints.

Photo paper is usually divided into glossy, semi-matte or "silk", and matte finishes. The thickness of photo paper varies over a wide range. The lighter weights are not much different from general-purpose office papers as described above, and can be used for all types of printing, although these are the least expensive lowest-quality photo paper.

Photo papers for more critical work are thicker and have advanced coatings, sometimes with quick-drying properties. They can normally only be printed on one side, because only one side has the special coating. There are a few papers suitable for double-sided printing.

Glossy photo paper, which is generally the most popular, has a shiny finish that gives photos a vivid look. It will generally be smooth to the touch and will have some glare to it. Matte photo paper is less shiny and has less of a glare than glossy paper. It is often used to produce superior text results. Matte and glossy prints will typically feel different to the touch, but when displayed under glass their results will often look very similar. To increase the resemblance to oil paintings, papers with an imitation canvas texture are available. Photo papers are usually high-brightness neutral white papers, but a few off-white papers are made.

As in offset litho printing and traditional photographic printing, glossy papers give the highest color density (or D_max), and therefore the widest color gamut. Photo papers vary in their longevity and their color gamut. Ink suppliers often provide color profiles for their ink systems when used with specific papers. Longevity depends on the specific combination of inks and paper. For maximum life, the paper substrate will be "woodfree" (i.e. wood-based but without lignin), or cotton-based, or a combination of the two. Plastic substrates also exist.

Currently there is no official designation of what constitute glossy, semi-matte, etc., although an objective measuring scale is available for the glossiness of papers used in offset litho printing. Leading paper manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Kodak all use their own terms to describe their paper, such as Everyday (HP), Premium High Gloss and Lustre (Epson) and Ultima (Kodak). ECI (www.eci.org)have catogorised papers for proofing simulation of litho papers (type1/2 etc)

Types of Paper Available

Freestyle Photographic Supplies identifies a number of different types of Inkjet papers available. (See the Reference section for the specific link for this site.)

A more detailed look at these different types of papers will illustrate just how many choices there are for the photographer, including:

• Canvas…
  Real canvas with an inkjet emulsion for photographic printing in inkjet printers.
• Double-Sided Papers…
  Inkjet papers in this category feature inkjet emulsions on both sides for creating portfolios, greeting cards and presentations.
• Dye Compatible…
  These papers will yield superior results with Dye based printers such as Epson Stylus Photo 870, 890, 900, or 1280. They do not have the instant dry emulsions necessary for use with pigment or pigmented based printers.
• Fine Art Papers…
  These papers are categorized as “fine art” as the base used in their manufacture is the same as the papers used by fine art printmakers, painters and other types of artists the world over. Used with pigment or pigmented based inkjet printers they offer your best chance at archival permanence.
• General Purpose Papers…
  Inexpensive papers used for proofs, photos, presentations, text and letters.
• Greeting Cards/Card Size…
  Inkjet papers sized for greeting cards, postcards, invitations, etc.
• Pigment Compatible…
  These papers are compatible with Pigment or Pigmented ink printers such as Epson Stylus Photo 2000P, 2200, R2400, R800 or R1800. They generally feature fast or instant dry emulsions and can also be used for Dye based printers.
• Rolls…
  Inkjet paper in roll format for use in printers that have roll paper feed capability
• Specialty inkjet…
  Inkjet material that is not paper such as Overhead Transparency Material (OHP), Polyester Glossy White Film, or Iron On transfer material.

Qualities of Inkjet Photo Paper

 About.com provides a good guide to the different features that you will find in Inkjet Photo Papers available in the present marketplace. Check out the full article and its references via the link in the Reference section below.

The variety of photo quality inkjet papers can seem overwhelming. However, there are really only five main differences in all these papers with four of these playing a critical role: brightness, weight, caliper, and finish.

Learn how to choose the right paper for your needs based on these criteria and see how a few different types of paper stack up against each other:

• Opacity…
  How see-through is the paper? The higher the opacity, the less that printed text and images will bleed through to the other side. This is especially important for double-sided printing. Inkjet photo papers have a relatively high opacity (94-97 usually) compared to ordinary inkjet or laser papers so bleed-through is less of a problem with these papers.
• Brightness…
  How white is white? In terms of paper, there are many different levels of whiteness or brightness. Brightness is expressed as a number from 1 to 100. Photo papers are usually in the high 90s. Not all papers are labeled with their brightness rating; therefore, the best way to determine brightness is simply to compare two or more papers side-by-side.
• Weight…
  Paper weight may be expressed in pounds (lb.) or as grams per square meter (g/m2). Different types of paper have their own weight scale. The bond papers which include most inkjet photo papers are found in the 24 to 71 lb. (90 to 270 g/m2) range. Terms such as heavyweight do not necessarily indicate a heavier paper than other comparable papers as you will see in the Weight comparison.
• Caliper…
  Photo papers are heavier and thicker than typical multi-purpose papers. This thickness, known as caliper, is necessary to accommodate the greater ink coverage typically found in photos. Typical inkjet paper caliper may be anywhere from a thin 4.3 mil to a thick 10.4 mil paper. Photo paper is usually 7 to 10 mils.
• Gloss Finish…
  The coating on photo papers give your printed photos the look and feel of photographic prints. Because the coating keeps the paper from readily absorbing the ink some glossy papers dry slowly. However, quick-dry gloss finishes are common today. The finish may be described as high gloss, gloss, soft gloss, or semi-gloss, each reflecting the amount of shine. Satin is a less shiny coated finish.
• Matte Finish…
  Images printed on photo matte papers appear soft and non-reflective, not shiny. Matte finish papers are not the same as regular inkjet finish papers. Matte finish photo papers are thicker and are specially formulated for photos. Many matte finish papers are printable on both sides.

References:

Background and biographical information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Wikipedia: Printers (Computing)…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_Printer

Wikipedia: Inkjet Printers…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkjet_printers

Wikipedia: Media Preservation…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_preservation

Wikipedia: Inkjet Paper…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkjet_paper

Web Sites and Blogs:

Freestyle Photographic Supplies: Inkjet Papers…
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/c3000-Inkjet-Papers

About.com: “Before You Buy Inkjet Photo Paper”…
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/paper/bb/inkjetpaper.htm

Brainy Quote: Darkroom Quotes…
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/darkroom.html

by Gerald Boerner

We are starting today with a series of postings that will examine the likely nominees for the Supreme Court vacancy that will result from the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens in June. Interestingly, most of the leading candidates are women, and women of extensive legal experience. We will be interested to see whether the expediency of getting the nominee confirmed will overshadow the selection of the most prepared, most experienced, and most appropriate person for that position..  GLB

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
— Thomas Jefferson

“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.”
— Abraham Lincoln

“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.”
— George Washington

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”
— Winston Churchill

“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.”
— Albert Einstein

“America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”
— Barack Obama

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Supreme Court Candidates: Elena Kagan

President Barack Obama has made one appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, that of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Associate Justice David H. Souter. Sotomayor was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 6, 2009. He will additionally have the opportunity to fill the vacancy created by John Paul Stevens, who has announced his intention to retire at the end of the court’s term in June 2010. Speculation has also focused on the potential retirement of 77-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Court demographics

Demographic considerations have played into the appointment of Supreme Court justices since the institution was established. Starting in the twentieth century, these concerns shifted from geographic representation to issues of gender and ethnicity.

Prior to the 2008 presidential election, many court watchers suggested that the next president would be under significant pressure to appoint another woman or ethnic minority to the court. The case for naming more women was particularly widespread given the recent retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor and the rapidly changing demographics of the legal community, with women now accounting for about a fifth of all law partners and law school deans, a quarter of the federal bench, and nearly half of all law school graduates. Shortly before the election, for example, NPR reported, "Most observers of the Supreme Court agree about one thing: The next nominee is likely to be a woman". Furthermore, after Obama’s presidential election victory, Hispanic legal interests groups such as the Hispanic National Bar Association began urging Obama to nominate a Hispanic justice.

Given the relative youth of the most recent Republican appointments, it was also noted that Democrats had, "a strong incentive to pick younger justices this time around". Age proved to be an important consideration for Obama, who was "looking for a justice who will be an intellectual force on the court for many years to come". As a result, Obama did not seriously consider candidates such as Jose Cabranes, Amalya Kearse, Diana Gribbon Motz, David Tatel, and Laurence Tribe, all of whom he respected but were older than 65 when Obama was looking to replace David Souter.

Introducing Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan (born: 1960) is the Solicitor General of the United States. She is the first woman to hold that office, having been nominated by President Barack Obama on January 26, 2009, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 19, 2009. Kagan was formerly dean of Harvard Law School and Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law at Harvard University. She was previously a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School. She served as Associate White House Counsel under President Bill Clinton.

Kagan was born to a Jewish family in New York City. After graduating from Hunter College High School in 1977, Kagan earned an A.B., summa cum laude, from Princeton University in 1981, an BCL from Worcester College, Oxford University, in 1983, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1986. She was editorial chairman of the Daily Princetonian and later supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Kagan was a law clerk for Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. She later entered private practice as an associate at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Williams & Connolly.

Academia

Kagan launched her academic career at the University of Chicago Law School. She became an assistant professor in 1991 and a tenured professor of law in 1995.

Her interests focus on administrative law, including the role of the President of the United States in formulating and influencing federal administrative and regulatory law. Her 2001 Harvard Law Review article, "Presidential Administration," was honored as the year’s top scholarly article by the American Bar Association’s Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, and is being developed into a book to be published by Harvard University Press. Kagan has also written widely on a range of First Amendment issues, taking positions generally supportive of free speech rights.

White House

From 1995 to 1999, Kagan served as President Bill Clinton’s Associate White House Counsel and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

1999 judicial Nomination

On June 17, 1999, President Clinton nominated Kagan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to replace James L. Buckley, who had taken senior status in 1996. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican chairman Orrin Hatch scheduled no hearing, effectively ending her nomination. When Clinton’s term ended, she and Allen Snyder were unconfirmed nominees for the D.C. circuit court.

In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated John G. Roberts to the seat to which Kagan had been nominated; Roberts was confirmed in 2003, and was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2005 upon his confirmation as Chief Justice of the United States.

Dean of Harvard Law School

Lawrence Summers appointed Kagan the first female dean of Harvard Law School in 2003. She succeeded Robert C. Clark, who had served as dean for over a decade. The focus of her tenure was on improving student satisfaction. Efforts included constructing new facilities and reforming the first year curriculum, as well as aesthetic changes and creature comforts, such as free morning coffee. She has been credited for employing a consensus-building leadership style, which surmounted the school’s previous ideological discord.

She also inherited a $400 million capital campaign, "Setting the Standard," in 2003. It ended in 2008 with a record breaking $476 million raised, 19% more than the original goal.^[7] Kagan made a number of prominent new hires, increasing the size of the faculty considerably.

Her name was briefly mooted to replace Summers as president of Harvard. During her deanship, Kagan supported a long-standing policy barring military recruiters from campus, because she felt that the military’s Don’t ask, don’t tell policy discriminated against homosexuals.

Solicitor General Nomination

On January 5, 2009, President-elect Barack Obama announced he would nominate Kagan to be Solicitor General. Before this appointment she had limited courtroom experience. She had never argued a case at trial, and had not argued before the Supreme Court of the United States. This is not uncommon, however, as at least two previous Solicitors General, Robert Bork and Kenneth Starr, had no previous appellate experience at the Supreme Court, though Starr served as a Circuit Court Judge prior to acting as Solicitor General.

At her confirmation hearing, Kagan also drew criticism for arguing that battlefield law, including indefinite detention without a trial, could apply outside of traditional battlefields.

Kagan was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 19, 2009, by a vote of 61 to 31. She made her first appearance in oral argument before the Supreme Court on September 9, 2009, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Possible Supreme Court Nomination

Long before the election of President Barack Obama, Kagan was the subject of repeated speculation that she might be nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States if a Democratic president were elected in 2008. This speculation greatly increased on May 1, 2009, when Associate Justice David H. Souter announced his intention to retire from the court at the end of June 2009. It was speculated that her new position as Solicitor General could increase Kagan’s already much discussed chances to be nominated, since solicitors general have often been considered potential nominees to the Supreme Court in the past. On May 13, 2009, the Associated Press reported that President Obama was considering Kagan, among others, for possible appointment to the United States Supreme Court. On May 26, 2009, however, President Obama announced that he was nominating Sonia Sotomayor to be the next United States Supreme Court Justice. On April 9, 2010, Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he would retire as soon as the Court finished its current caseload in late June or July, triggering a new round of speculation around Kagan as a possible nominee to the bench.

A Perspective

The Huffington Post recently posted an article on Elena Kagan and her status in the nomination competition for a Supreme Court nomination. Check out the full article from the link in the Reference section below.

Elena Kagan, President Obama’s solicitor general, is rapidly emerging as a frontrunner to replace retiring Chief Associate Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan is widely praised as an accomplished and intelligent attorney, but is far more conservative than Stevens and could shift the political dynamic of the high court.

Conservatives are responding favorably to the potential of a Justice Elena Kagan while liberals worry that, by choosing her, the administration would miss the opportunity to elevate a genuine progressive.

John Manning, a conservative professor at Harvard Law School, where Kagan served as dean, told HuffPost that he would firmly support a Kagan nomination. Professor Charles Fried, a Reagan administration solicitor general, also said that he’d support a Kagan pick.

"She is a supremely intelligent person, really one of the most intelligent people I have encountered, and I have met a lot of them, as one does in this business. She is very adroit politically," said Fried. "She has quite a strong personality and a winning personality. I think she’s an effective, powerful person and a very, very intelligent person, and a very hardworking and serious person."

Fried served on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1995-1999 and is now at Harvard Law School. He said that Republicans would be well-advised to get behind her, but may decide to oppose just for the sake of opposition.

"Let’s put it this way: she should be [backed by Republicans]. But it depends on the politics," he said. "Republicans may just decide that: ‘We’re going to say no to what Obama comes up with the first time and we’ll come up with a reason why after we’ve decided that we’re going to say no.’ I can’t predict that that’s what they’ll do or not. But she should be, she should be."

Fried has known Kagan for years and said he may even have had her as a student. He first met her when she was a visiting professor at Harvard. He was on the board that approved her for tenure and also on the selection committee that tapped her to be dean.

References:

Background and biographical information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Wikipedia: Elena Kagan… 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan

Wikipedia: Barak Obama Supreme Court Candidates…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_Supreme_Court_candidates

Other Web Sites:

The Huffington Post: “Elena Kagan Emerging as Supreme Court Front-Runner…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/09/elena-kagan-emerging-as-s_n_532319.html

Brainy Quote: Justice Quotes…
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/justice.html

by Gerald Boerner

Andrew Jackson, soldier, legislator, governor, judge, and President of the United States was the first president to be born in a log cabin. He fought the British in the War of 1812 and led the American forces to victory in the Battle of New Orleans (after the signing of the peace treaty). He was affectionately known as Old Hickory to his men. His service to the country received mixed reviews due to his support of slavery and taking of Indian lands in the East. But he served two terms a President and survived an assassination attempt. He set the model to the new American democrat.  GLB

“Americans are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission.”
— Andrew Jackson

“All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.”
— Andrew Jackson

“Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.”
— Andrew Jackson

“Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free governments.”
— Andrew Jackson

“I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.”
— Andrew Jackson

“Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.”
— Andrew Jackson

“Every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives to individual enterprise increased power and furnishes to all the members of our happy confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and support.”
— Andrew Jackson

“As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.”
— Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson: Old Hickory

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). He was military governor of Florida (1821), commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans (1815), and eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy. A polarizing figure who dominated American politics in the 1820s and 1830s, his political ambition combined with widening political participation, shaping the modern Democratic Party.

His legacy is now seen as mixed, as a protector of popular democracy and individual liberty for white men, checkered by his support for slavery and Indian removal. Renowned for his toughness, he was nicknamed “Old Hickory.” As he based his career in developing Tennessee, Jackson was the first president primarily associated with the American frontier.

Early Life and Career

Andrew Jackson was born to Presbyterian Scotch-Irish colonists Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, on March 15, 1767, approximately two years after they had emigrated from Ireland. Jackson’s father, Andrew Jackson, Sr., was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in Ireland around 1738. He married Elizabeth, sold his land and emigrated to America in 1765. The Jacksons probably landed in Pennsylvania and made their way overland to the Scotch-Irish community in the Waxhaws region, straddling the border between North Carolina and South Carolina. Jackson had two brothers: Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764). Andrew Jackson, Sr., injured himself while lifting a log and died February 1767, aged only 29. The house that Jackson’s parents lived in is now preserved as the Andrew Jackson Centre and is open to the public. Three weeks after his father’s death, Andrew was born in the Waxhaws area. He was the youngest of the Jacksons’ three sons. His exact birth site was the subject of conflicting lore in the area. Jackson claimed to have been born in a cabin just inside South Carolina.

Jackson received a sporadic education in the local “old-field” school. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson, at age thirteen, joined a local regiment as a courier. His eldest brother, Hugh, died from heat exhaustion during the Battle of Stono Ferry, on June 20, 1779. Andrew and his brother Robert Jackson were captured by the British and held as prisoners of war; they nearly starved to death in captivity. When Andrew refused to clean the boots of a British officer, the irate redcoat slashed at him with a sword, giving him scars on his left hand and head, as well as an intense hatred for the British. While imprisoned, the brothers contracted smallpox. Robert died a few days after their mother secured their release, on April 27, 1781. After Jackson’s mother was assured Andrew would recover, she volunteered to nurse prisoners of war on board two ships in Charleston harbor, where there had been an outbreak of cholera. She died from the disease and was buried in an unmarked grave in November 1781. Jackson was orphaned by age 14. Jackson’s entire immediate family had died from hardships during the war for which Jackson blamed the British.

Jackson was the last U.S. President to have been a veteran of the American Revolution, and the second president to have been a prisoner of war (Washington was captured by the French in the French and Indian War).

In 1781, Jackson worked for a time in a saddle-maker’s shop. Later, he taught school and studied law in Salisbury, North Carolina. In 1787, he was admitted to the bar, and moved to Jonesborough, in what was then the Western District of North Carolina and later became Tennessee.

Though his legal education was scanty, Jackson knew enough to be a country lawyer on the frontier. Since he was not from a distinguished family, he had to make his career by his own merits; soon he began to prosper in the rough-and-tumble world of frontier law. Most of the actions grew out of disputed land-claims, or from assaults and battery. In 1788, he was appointed Solicitor of the Western District and held the same position in the territorial government of Tennessee after 1791.

In 1796, Jackson was a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention. When Tennessee achieved statehood that year, Jackson was elected its U.S. Representative. In 1797, he was elected U.S. Senator as a Democratic-Republican. He resigned within a year. In 1798, he was appointed a judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court, serving until 1804.

Jackson refusing to clean
a British officer’s boots
(1876 lithograph).

Besides his legal and political career, Jackson prospered as a slave owner, planter, and merchant. In 1803 he owned a lot, and built a home and the first general store in Gallatin. In 1804, he acquired the Hermitage, a 640-acre (2.6 km²) plantation in Davidson County, near Nashville. Jackson later added 360 acres (1.5 km²) to the farm. The plantation would eventually grow to 1,050 acres (425 ha). The slaves that Jackson owned did the hardest work on the plantation. The primary crop was cotton, grown by enslaved workers. Jackson started with nine slaves, by 1820 he held as many as 44, and later held up to 150 slaves. Throughout his lifetime Jackson would own as many as 300 slaves.

Jackson was a major land speculator in West Tennessee after he had negotiated the sale of the land from the Chickasaw Nation in 1818 (termed the Jackson Purchase) and was one of the three original investors who founded Memphis, Tennessee in 1819 (see History of Memphis, Tennessee).

Military Career

War of 1812

Jackson was appointed commander of the Tennessee militia in 1801, with the rank of colonel.

During the War of 1812, Tecumseh incited the “Red Stick” Creek Indians of northern Alabama and Georgia to attack white settlements. Four hundred settlers were killed in the Fort Mims Massacre. In the resulting Creek War, Jackson commanded the American forces, which included Tennessee militia, U.S. regulars, and Cherokee, Choctaw, and Southern Creek Indians.

Jackson defeated the Red Stick Creeks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. Eight hundred “Red Sticks” were killed, but Jackson spared chief William Weatherford. Sam Houston and David Crockett served under Jackson in this campaign. After the victory, Jackson imposed the Treaty of Fort Jackson upon both the Northern Creek enemies and the Southern Creek allies, wresting twenty-million acres (81,000 km²) from all Creeks for white settlement. Jackson was appointed Major General after this action.

The Battle of New Orleans.
General Andrew Jackson stands
on the parapet of his makeshift
defenses as his troops repulse
attacking Highlanders, as imagined
by painter Edward Percy Moran
in 1910.

Jackson’s service in the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom was conspicuous for bravery and success. When British forces threatened New Orleans, Jackson took command of the defenses, including militia from several western states and territories. He was a strict officer but was popular with his troops. It was said he was “tough as old hickory” wood on the battlefield, which gave him his nickname. In the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, Jackson’s 5,000 soldiers won a victory over 7,500 British. At the end of the day, the British had 2,037 casualties: 291 dead (including three senior generals), 1,262 wounded, and 484 captured or missing. The Americans had 71 casualties: 13 dead, 39 wounded, and 19 missing.

The war, and especially this victory, made Jackson a national hero. He received the Thanks of Congress and a gold medal by resolution of February 27, 1815. Alexis de Tocqueville would later comment in Democracy in America that Jackson “was raised to the Presidency, and has been maintained there, solely by the recollection of a victory which he gained, twenty years ago, under the walls of New Orleans.”

First Seminole War

Jackson served in the military again during the First Seminole War. He was ordered by President James Monroe in December 1817 to lead a campaign in Georgia against the Seminole and Creek Indians. Jackson was also charged with preventing Spanish Florida from becoming a refuge for runaway slaves. Critics later alleged that Jackson exceeded orders in his Florida actions. His directions were to “terminate the conflict.” Jackson believed the best way to do this would be to seize Florida. Before going, Jackson wrote to Monroe, “Let it be signified to me through any channel… that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished.” Monroe gave Jackson orders that were purposely ambiguous, sufficient for international denials.

Military governor Jackson was
sworn in at Plaza Ferdinand VII
in Pensacola, Florida.

The Seminoles attacked Jackson’s Tennessee volunteers. The Seminoles’ attack, however, left their villages vulnerable, and Jackson burned them and the crops. He found letters that indicated that the Spanish and British were secretly assisting the Indians. Jackson believed that the United States would not be secure as long as Spain and the United Kingdom encouraged Indians to fight and argued that his actions were undertaken in self-defense. Jackson captured Pensacola, Florida, with little more than some warning shots, and deposed the Spanish governor. He captured and then tried and executed two British subjects, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot, who had been supplying and advising the Indians. Jackson’s action also struck fear into the Seminole tribes as word spread of his ruthlessness in battle (Jackson was known as “Sharp Knife”).

The executions, and Jackson’s invasion of territory belonging to Spain, a country with which the U.S. was not at war, created an international incident. Many in the Monroe administration called for Jackson to be censured. Jackson’s actions were defended by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, an early believer in Manifest Destiny. When the Spanish minister demanded a “suitable punishment” for Jackson, Adams wrote back, “Spain must immediately [decide] either to place a force in Florida adequate at once to the protection of her territory … or cede to the United States a province, of which she retains nothing but the nominal possession, but which is, in fact … a post of annoyance to them.” Adams used Jackson’s conquest, and Spain’s own weakness, to get Spain to cede Florida to the United States by the Adams-Onís Treaty. Jackson was subsequently named military governor and served from March 10, 1821, to December 31, 1821.

Election of 1824

The Tennessee legislature nominated Jackson for President in 1822. It also elected him U.S. Senator again.

Jackson in 1824, painting
by Thomas Sully.

By 1824, the Democratic-Republican Party had become the only functioning national party. Its Presidential candidates had been chosen by an informal Congressional nominating caucus, but this had become unpopular. In 1824, most of the Democratic-Republicans in Congress boycotted the caucus. Those who attended backed Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford for President and Albert Gallatin for Vice President. A Pennsylvanian convention nominated Jackson for President a month later, stating that the irregular caucus ignored the “voice of the people” and was a “vain hope that the American people might be thus deceived into a belief that he [Crawford] was the regular democratic candidate.” Gallatin criticized Jackson as “an honest man and the idol of the worshippers of military glory, but from incapacity, military habits, and habitual disregard of laws and constitutional provisions, altogether unfit for the office.”

Statue of Jackson as General
in front of Jackson County
Courthouse in Kansas City,
Missouri.

Besides Jackson and Crawford, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and House Speaker Henry Clay were also candidates. Jackson received the most popular votes (but not a majority, and four states had no popular ballot). The Electoral votes were split four ways, with Jackson having a plurality. Since no candidate received a majority, the election was decided by the House of Representatives, which chose Adams. Jackson supporters denounced this result as a “corrupt bargain” because Clay gave his state’s support to Adams, and subsequently Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State. As none of Kentucky’s electors had initially voted for Adams, and Jackson had won the popular vote, it appeared that Henry Clay had violated the will of the people and substituted his own judgment in return for personal political favors. Jackson’s defeat burnished his political credentials, however; many voters believed the “man of the people” had been robbed by the “corrupt aristocrats of the East.”

Election of 1828

Jackson resigned from the Senate in October 1825, but continued his quest for the Presidency. The Tennessee legislature again nominated Jackson for President. Jackson attracted Vice President John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren, and Thomas Ritchie into his camp (the latter two previous supporters of Crawford). Van Buren, with help from his friends in Philadelphia and Richmond, revived the old Republican Party, gave it a new name as the Democratic Party, “restored party rivalries,” and forged a national organization of durability. The Jackson coalition handily defeated Adams in 1828.

During the election, Jackson’s opponents referred to him as a “jackass.” Jackson liked the name and used the jackass as a symbol for a while, but it died out. However, it later became the symbol for the Democratic Party when cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized it.^[24]

The campaign was very much a personal one. Although neither candidate personally campaigned, their political followers organized many campaign events. Both candidates were rhetorically attacked in the press, which reached a low point when the press accused Jackson’s wife Rachel of bigamy. Though the accusation was true, as were most personal attacks leveled against him during the campaign, it was based on events that occurred many years prior (1791 to 1794). Jackson said he would forgive those who insulted him, but he would never forgive the ones who attacked his wife. Rachel died suddenly on December 22, 1828, before his inauguration, and was buried on Christmas Eve.

Inauguration

Jackson was the first President to invite the public to attend the White House ball honoring his first inauguration. Many poor people came to the inaugural ball in their homemade clothes. The crowd became so large that Jackson’s guards could not hold them out of the White House. The White House became so crowded with people that dishes and decorative pieces in the White House began to break. Some people stood on good chairs in muddied boots just to get a look at the President. The crowd had become so wild that the attendants poured punch in tubs and put it on the White House lawn to lure people out of the White House. Jackson’s raucous populism earned him the nickname King Mob.

Election of 1832

In the 1832 presidential election, Jackson easily won reelection as the candidate of the Democratic Party against Henry Clay, of the National Republican Party, and William Wirt, of the Anti-Masonic Party. Jackson jettisoned Vice President John C. Calhoun because of his support for nullification and involvement in the Petticoat affair, replacing him with longtime confidant Martin Van Buren of New York.

Family and Personal Life

Daguerreotype of Andrew Jackson
at age 77 or 78 (1844 or 1845).

Shortly after Jackson first arrived in Nashville in 1788, he lived as a boarder with Rachel Stockley Donelson, the widow of John Donelson. Here Jackson became acquainted with their daughter, Rachel Donelson Robards. At the time, Rachel Robards was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, a man subject to irrationa fits of jealous rage. Due to Lewis Robards’ temperament, the two were separated in 1790. According to Jackson, he married Rachel after hearing that Robards had obtained a divorce. However, the divorce had never been completed, making Rachel’s marriage to Jackson technically bigamous and therefore invalid. After the divorce was officially completed, Rachel and Jackson remarried in 1794. However, there is evidence that Donelson had been living with Jackson and referred to herself as Mrs. Jackson before the petition for divorce was ever made. It was not uncommon on the frontier for relationships to be formed and dissolved unofficially, as long as they were recognized by the community.

The controversy surrounding their marriage remained a sore point for Jackson, who deeply resented attacks on his wife’s honor. Jackson fought 13 duels, many nominally over his wife’s honor. Charles Dickinson, the only man Jackson ever killed in a duel, had been goaded into angering Jackson by Jackson’s political opponents. In the duel, fought over a horse-racing debt and an insult to his wife on May 30, 1806, Dickinson shot Jackson in the ribs before Jackson returned the fatal shot; Jackson allowed Dickinson to shoot first, knowing him to be an excellent shot, and as his opponent reloaded, Jackson shot, even as the bullet lodged itself in his chest. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could never be safely removed. Jackson had been wounded so frequently in duels that it was said he “rattled like a bag of marbles.” At times he would cough up blood, and he experienced considerable pain from his wounds for the rest of his life.

Rachel died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, two weeks after her husband’s victory in the election and two months before Jackson taking office as President. Jackson blamed John Quincy Adams for Rachel’s death because the marital scandal was brought up in the election of 1828. He felt that this had hastened her death and never forgave Adams.

References

Other Events on this Day:

• In 1606…
  Kin James I of England charters the London Company to establish settlements in North America.
• In 1781…
  In South Carolina, young Andrew Jackson is part of a Patriot militia band ambushed by the British.
• In 1849…
  Walter Hunt of New York City patents the safety pin.
• In 1925…
  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is published.
• In 1942…
  The Japanese begin the Bataan Death March, a brutal 90-mile forced march of Filipino and American soldiers on the Bataan Peninsula to POW camps.

Dates and events based on:

William J. Bennett and John Cribb, (2008) The American Patriot’s Almanac Daily Readings on America. (Kindle Edition)

Background information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Wikipedia: Andrew Jackson… 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson

Brainy Quote: Andrew Jackson Quotes…
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andrew_jackson.html