Deceased US Presidents
By Dr Khalid Siddiqui
Ohio
7. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837): He was one of the four US Presidents who lost the elections the first time but won it the second time. He was one of the two presidents who lost the elections once but won twice. The other one is Richard Nixon.
He had two different vice presidents during his tenure. He was also one of the four US presidents who remained a widower throughout his tenure. Like Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, he did not have any religious affiliations. He survived two assassination attempts on his life. He is the only US president who had killed a man - Charles Dickinson in a duel.
Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of a national policy of Native American removal which involved the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands. He was also involved in Slave Trade. He bought a large property called The Hermitage near Nashville, Tennessee to grow cotton. It became one of the largest cotton-growing plantations in the state with the help of hundreds of slaves.
Jackson and his wife, Rachel, had no children. After Rachel’s death, for the only time in the US history, two women acted simultaneously as unofficial First Ladies - Emily Donelson and Sarah Yorke Jackson. Both were Rachel’s nieces. Jackson and his wife Rachel were the main subjects of the 1953 movie ‘The President’s Lady’ starring Charlton Heston and Susan Hayward. His photograph appears on the $20 bills. However, because of persistent protests by activists against his racial policies, the Treasury Department has decided to replace his photograph with that of Harriet Tubman. His nickname was Old Hickory.
8. Martin Van Buren (1837-1841): He is the only president of the USA whose mother tongue was not English. It was Dutch. He was the first US president to be born a citizen of the US. He was one of the four US presidents who remained a widower throughout his tenure. His daughter-in-law, Angelica Singleton, took on the role of White House hostess. He was one of the ten US presidents who didn’t win re-election. His nickname was Little Magician. As he could not properly address the economic depression (Panic of 1837), he was also called “Martin Van Ruin”.
