This next presidential story is crazy from top to bottom and probably sounds like it is straight out of a movie. The easiest way to explain this story is to tell the ending first and go from there. American President Andrew Jackson who was in office from 1829-1837 participated in a duel with Charles Dickinson. Dickinson got the drop on Jackson and shot him in the chest. Clenching his blood-spouting wound and falling to the ground, Jackson managed to get a shot off on Charles and ended up killing his opponent. The president survived his wounds and won the duel.What a crazy scenario it is that the president can go around risking his life in fire fights. This duel would translate in 2016 to Barack Obama rolling up at Mitt Romney's house with his piece and going BANG BANG. Even if times are different today, it is a great thought to imagine presidents that we have became familiar with resolving their arguments with firearms instead of their words. Now to explain the petty conflict which caused this fatal duel between Jackson and Dickinson. President Andrew Jackson (the man on the 20$ bill) was very argumentative and violent and did not like to resolve his issues peacefully. In a strange way his aggressive nature helped his campaign for the American people at the time were extremely violent and war-mongering (and still a bit to this day.) Jackson and Dickinson were rivals for quite a long time. The two southerners were plantation owners and competitive horse breeders which often brought them to odds. Dickinson was eventually fed up with Jackson due to his constant loses against Andrew's superior horses and called him a coward and a equivocator. These insults were mostly brushed off by Jackson but Dickinson had to further escalate the situation. He called Ms.Jackson in what would translate in today's English as a whore and even put a article in a national newspaper calling him a coward. The seventh president of the United States drew the line at getting his public image tarnished and his wife getting her name tarnished and challenged Charles to a duel. It is from tales like these that we are blessed with expressions such as "Talk *s*** get hit."
All these presidents are truly crazy but this man is something else. Its so hard to believe that Jackson would get in a duel over such a petty argument because he was called a coward. A true over reaction in my opinion espicially for someone who is the president of the United States of America! Great blog Chris!
ReplyDeleteThis is a outrageous way to solve a conflict, especially from a president. You would expect the american leader to have a more diplomatic mind to finding solutions. This man resolved to violence because he was called a coward, thats crazy. What is stranger is that the american people rallied behind this violence. What if the president died instead of the other guy? Thank God times have changed.
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