This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 5 | ← | Archive 10 | Archive 11 | Archive 12 | Archive 13 |
Revolutionary War Service
I deleted final sentence:: He blamed the British personally for the loss of his brothers and mothers. It'd be a good point, but it is cited to Remini 1977 p. 24–25, who seems to be meditating on the loss and hardship Jackson suffered, but not a sense of personal blame. Wtfiv ( talk) 02:13, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
Legal career and marriage
I've added Owsley (1977) as reference. This appears to be well-researched description of the details of the Jackson/Donelson affair. I removed the Kennedy and Ullman (2003) citation. Pages 97-113 are a great read on the political spin of the Jackson's marriage, but its point is different than the citation suggests. Rather, it focuses on the effort by Jackson's partisans to form a "Nashville committee" to construct an alternative narrative to preserve Jackson's reputation against JQ Adams partisans. It argues that Jackson's partisans try to exonerate Jackson by making Robards the "bad guy", though ultimately the Kentucky jury granting the divorce did so based on Robard's ex parte testimony of Rachel's infidelity. Wtfiv ( talk) 23:41, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
Early Career
Added an older source, Clifton (1952) that focuses on Overton and Jackson's relationship. For the rest of the week, non-Wikiworld has caught me. I won't be able to continue my contribution to the trimming until next Tuesday at earliest. But I think I'm done with this section for now. Wtfiv ( talk) 08:13, 15 September 2022 (UTC)
Military Career
In editing this section, I've added a number of studies that focus on specific events within the narrative. Most of these studies agree on the basic facts, but give slightly different perspectives. I've amplified a few areas based on these sources, but the overall section length has been reduced by about 20%.
I've also renamed the section on "Creek Campaign and Treaty" "Red Stick Campaign". This is just a suggestion and if there's no consensus, I can revert it. Many of the sources call it the Creek War, so that name is traditional. The reason I changed it is that the sources make it clear that the Red Stick War was really a Muscogee civil war between a pro-war and pro-peace faction. Jackson was not at war with the majority of the Muscogee (Creeks). They remained at peace with the US, and many served as allies and auxiliaries in the campaign. So calling it the Creek War is misleading. The Wikipedia articles on the topic make this distinction too.
I also kept the name of the Native American confederacy "Creek", as this is the name used in the older sources. My personal preference is changing the confederacy's name from "Creek" to "Muscogee" is more appropriate, since Creek is the name white settlers gave them. (And the article introduces them as Muscogee, putting Creek in parenthesis).
Any thoughts? Wtfiv ( talk) 16:41, 22 September 2022 (UTC)
"Jackson served as the governor for two months, returning to the Hermitage in ill health."He was convalescing from his illness. :-) -- ARose Wolf 14:02, 23 September 2022 (UTC)
Presidency
Philosophy subheading: For now, I've temporarily moved the "Philosophy" subheading to "Personal Life", following up on religion. This is just a holder. Its current location seems problematic. Much of it seems a reflection upon what Jackson accomplished as president, which places it later. I put it in "Personal Life", as "Philosophy" seemed to follow "Religion", but I think this section may be best as part of his legacy describing how he transformed perceptions of the presidency. My thought is that once the presidential narrative has been taken care of, the role and plac of this section will become more clear. Wtfiv ( talk) 00:59, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
Reforms and rotation in office subheading: Deleted a paragraph with interesting facts that don't quite come together in the narrative sequence or internally within the paragraph. If a place emerges where these facts can be integrated into the narrative, I'll put them back.
*There's mention of Jackson's emphasis on removing the electoral college. This is important, but doesn't fit into the "beginning of presidency" timeline In addition, it was only supported by three primary sources (annual addresses). I found additional support in an article discussing Jackson's populism, but that suggest it should go into that section (e.g., philosophy or legacy)
*There's mention of the Maysville Road veto. The veto was important for hemming in Clay politically, but the sources make its theoretical rationale appear post-hoc: the money could be used to pay down the national debt, federal funds shouldn't be used for local internal improvements (a technicality), and an idea that government should pay for issues that support business. This occured in Jackson's first administration, so I'll see if it can fit in, but beyond its role in party politics, it's not clear it plays a large enough role to warrant mention.
Also, the sources don't agree on the percentage of civil servants impacted by the rotation system. Ellis (who minimizes its impact) puts the number at 20%. Latner (who also minimizes its impact) and Howe (who emphasizes its impact) put it at 10%. I chose the lower number and added "about" to reflect these numbers are just estimates. Either number makes the point that only a minority of civil service positions were impacted. Wtfiv ( talk) 21:04, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
Indian Removal Act subheading: This wound up being not being a trim, but a reorganization of the material. I tried to retain most of the original, but reorganized it and supplemented it with 11 new sources focused on the topic, many from peer-reviewed journals. By my count, this reorganization is two words longer than the original. My hope is the gain in thematic organization and narrative structure compensates for this subheading not contributing to reduced article size. (At least it didn't significantly increase it either!) And given the size of the discussion of the impact of the Indian Removal Act on the talk page here, the topic does demand to be addressed in this article. I've tried to discuss its origin, implementation, and impact. The impact is discussed both in terms of how it affected Native Americans, but on how it also affected his popularity among white Americans. Hopefully, this will help frame its discussion in the legacy section. Wtfiv ( talk) 21:02, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
I've also found this interesting information in the Encyclopedia of American Indian Removal edited by Daniel F. Littlefield Jr., James W. Parins, who I assume wrote the introduction, from which I quote (please forgive my hypocrisy in posting these, since I'm always complaining about walls of text on talk pages. Google lens works wonders.;-)
Carlstak ( talk) 05:49, 29 September 2022 (UTC)Dona L. Akers has recently argued that Indian removal cannot be understood unless scholars incorporate the psychological and spiritual ramifications involved. Removal resulted in total despair, a social death that resulted from the Indians' physical removal from their ancient homelands.
Native Americans recognized the inhumanity of removal before the arrival of American soldiers, and the events on the Trail of Tears confirmed many of their worst fears...
In fact, they found members of the Native American Church performed better on some of the neuropsychological tests than other Navajos who do not regularly use peyote.
Carlstak I appreciate the continued editing. Please note that I stopped after "Nullification Crisis". I plan to wrap up the bank war next, so I have touched "Foreign affairs" subheading or beyond. Your editing of these later sections will help guide me as I trim, but I hope you don't mind if some of the work you have done in "Foreign Affairs" and beyond may disappear as I do the trim. If you are concerned, please let me know and I'll try and tread carefully. Wtfiv ( talk) 03:39, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
Put Bank Veto and Election of 1832, Removal of deposits and censure, and Panic of 1837, under one subheading, called Bank War as they form a single conceptual narrative about the politico-financial aspects of Jackson's presidency. Moved this subheading to follow Nullificiation. So now the order of the three major issues in Jackson's presidency is Indian Removal Act, Nullification, and Bank War. This makes description of what occured in the Election of 1828 easier, as issues from the Indian Removal Act and Nullification, which impacted the religion have already been given context. Wtfiv ( talk) 17:51, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
Nullification subheading: This is a basic trim and reorganize. Added more sources that look at the issue in more detail. Most important detail added is that Jackson needed tariff money. It averaged about 90% of the federal income each year. Sources addressing the issues added. Wtfiv ( talk) 09:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
Attack and assassination attempt subheading: Renamed Physical assault and assassination attempt to match descriptions. Trimmed to a single paragraph using SandyGeorgia's suggestion in talk as the starting point. One source that describes the assassination in detail added. Wtfiv ( talk) 09:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
Foreign Affairs Focused narrative on Spoilation claims on Jackson. Removed role of Rives This is the focus of Remini, but the specialized source, Thomas (1976), which came out before Remini tells a similar tell but makes it clear that other members of Jackson's administration gave advice. (Interestingly, it seems to me most more recent sources rely on Remini, but in this case, if there is an influence, it goes the other way: Remini's wrap up on the topic in the chapter is markedly similar to Thomas's.) Also, this removes Rives's picture, whose presence is strange in the article. There are many people who had a huge influence on Jackson and were major players. Rives is important but probably in the middle of the pack, so it was a bit odd that the only one to get a picture and for an entire section. (Maybe interesting pictures of the French spoilation affair are hard to come by?)
The story of Texas was interesting, particularly breadcrumbs regarding the relationship between Houston and Jackson. Two sources imply that they were in league to pry Texas from Mexico. Avintage source, Stenberg (1934),follows a convuluted paper trail to argue for collusion. Haley (2002)'s biography of Sam Houston shows how close Houston and Jackson were. Haley argues that Houston was one of Jackson's right-hand men and may even have been [Filibuster (military)|filibustering]] when he went to Texas But Haley points out that the evidence he could find is circumstantial. (Stenberg provides a good argument Jackson covered his tracks to avoid political fallout.) Interesting topic, but too circumstantial for inclusion in the article, in my opinion. (I was tempted to add Stenberg because the article points out that Jackson's interest in Texas is as early as 1824, but I didn't want to add another vintage source.) Wtfiv ( talk) 17:51, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
Anti-Slavery Tracts subheading. Changed this to Slavery. The issue is bigger, and here it seemed that the article was roughly following Latner's organization, he calls the section it is addressed in Slavery as well. This was not a trim, but an increase of over 100%. I figured that instead of addressing the "too long" template, I'd address the "white bias" template instead. It seemed a full treatment of the issue needed to be addressed. The idea is to give Jackson's view, but to give a larger perspective on the role slavery played in Jackson's presidency. I added the "gag rule", which came at the very end of his presidency, and mentioned that the Nat Turner rebellion happened during his administration. Remini discussion of Jackson's solution to the anti-slavery tracts is slightly different than the one that had been mentioned, possibly shedding a different light on Jackson's style of running the country. I organized it to follow the "Foreign Affairs", as the Texas slavery issue is a good segue to slavery in general. Also, the Foreign Affairs and Slavery topics feel a little to be structured in terms of conceptual summation and their place in the presidential timeline is secondary. Wtfiv ( talk) 22:52, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
Judicial Appointments subheading. Trimmed this according to Rjensen's suggestions above. The focus is on Taney. The undistinguished appointments can be viewed by clicking the main article. Wtfiv ( talk) 23:29, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
States Admitted subheading. Left the same except for some minor prose tweaks. Wtfiv ( talk) 23:29, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
This draft of the Presidency section is done for now. (Besides all the micro-putzing, of course.) Wtfiv ( talk) 23:29, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
Later life and death (1837–1845) and Personal Life
These two sections are mainly straightforward trims. The biggest change is the temperament subheading, which adds a vintage, but excellent source. It adds a bit more detail that confirms and condenses many of the points made in the core biographies used here, and adds another dimension. The source may be useful in the discussion of Jacksonian democracy. The overall reduction of these two sections is about 30%.
Hi John! You had mentioned you'd be open to copy editing this article. I've just finished with the the biography sections (i.e., the sections between the lead and the legacy) and I was wondering if you have the time and energy to put your talents to work cleaning this up. I've done a first-pass trim, but there are still weeds that need plucking. You are used to my ability to torture prose, so it shouldn't be too bad on your side, and I think Joan of Arc shows we can do a pretty good job together. And who knows, maybe it'd be fun to do. Please let me know, and if you are game, please just jump in and go at it!
I'm removing the template from the top of this article, as per WP:WTRMT. I came to this article when it was submitted for consideration in a FAR review was requested based on the article not meeting WP:NPOV The request was made by FinnV3 Below I'll mention how I addressed the concerns and ping the editors whose opinion the issue was attributed. I've pinged FinnV3, but the account hasn't been active since August.
common manand the
working class. This has been removed from the lead, and the history of how common man was integrated into working class in relation to Jackson has been addressed in the " Jacksonian Democracy" section of the article.
advocate for democracyis a problem. This has been addressed. The issue of Jacksonian Democracy and its problem with race is directly addressed in the last paragraph of the " Jacksonian Democracy" section. Attributions of Jackson as a defender of democracy are in the " Andrew Jackson#Historical Reputation" section but are discussed in the context of Jackson as a controversial figure and balanced by negative comments.
Yet another wall of words, but I wanted to summarize why I'm removing the templates. I also want to thank Carlstak, ARoseWolf, Jr8825 for their active support, and of course, all the watchers, who would let me know if something is amiss! More editing can certainly be done. I think we'll have other editors doing more clean up. And after a break, I'll do a second sweep to catch any prose I've unduly put through the wringer.
Do these changes address the majority of concerns? Wtfiv ( talk) 19:03, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
Wtfiv, you did a fantastic job of incorporating the parts and pieces that I thought were important. Still, many editors felt like forced removal should be there and according to the sources, both terms are equally used. The issue, as brought out by many is that ethnic cleansing and forced removal are not exactly equal terms in definition. That's why a compromise would be the use of both terms. Does that make sense? The personal and cultural side of me is more in agreeance with what you have written. But the objective editor in me says it isn't complete without some form of forced removal (forcibly removed) to be in those sentences. -- ARose Wolf 17:43, 20 October 2022 (UTC)
In terms of further trimming: It's always a challenge to do more, and maybe a little more can be done. But, I'm thinking that it is close to the right size now.
Of course, I'm biased as I am now close to the text, (while gaining respect for the previous work done to get this to featured article status, so I tried a method to obtain a more objective metric. I've listed all the presidents who have achieved featured article status to see where Jackson currently sits. (An aside: I was surprised how few presidents have achieved featured article status.) You'll see by this measure that Jackson fits in at an appropriate size for this category. Interestingly, there's appears to be a rough correlation between importance and controversy and prose size. Given Jackson's place on the landscape, this seems to fit just about right.
President | Words in main body (1000 words) |
---|---|
Ulysses S. Grant | 19.0 |
Ronald Reagan | 18.1 |
Harry S. Truman | 18.3 |
John Adams | 16.7 |
William Howard Taft | 15.4 |
James K Polk | 15.2 |
Warren G. Harding | 15.1 |
Richard M. Nixon | 14.9 |
Andrew Johnson | 14.1 |
Andrew Jackson | 12.6 |
James A. Garfield | 12.3 |
Franklin Pierce | 11.4 |
Grover Cleveland | 10.2 |
Chester A. Arthur | 9.5 |
Rutherford B. Hayes | 9.4 |
Calvin Coolidge | 8.8 |
I find the balance between comprehensiveness but lean prose is hard to achieve. And I may tend toward the former. But given that the narrative of a president is expansive- really two topics in one- not only a biography but a brief summary of the person's impact key issues in a country's history at the time, the longer length of these articles seems appropriate. Wtfiv ( talk) 20:00, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
"Polk defeated Van Buren for the nomination, and Jackson convinced Taylor not to run as an independent by bringing him back into the Democratic Party." This is wrong. "Taylor" should be "Tyler." 96.241.16.150 ( talk) 19:40, 5 December 2022 (UTC)
Yourlocallordandsavior Thanks for catching that image flip. I put the Library of Congress (LOC) information about the flip that you provided directly into both image files so readers and future users of the file will know that that "flipped" is unflipped and the "unflipped" is flipped. According to the LOC, it's not even clear Brady is the photographer. Since LOC lists him should we keep the attribution or remove it? If we remove it, I'll update the images about the attribution. Wtfiv ( talk) 17:29, 6 December 2022 (UTC)
Pardon me, but I'm a bit surprised why there is not a reference to the historical rankings of U.S. presidents for Jackson in the lead. Was there a discussion about this? I just want to know before I try to add it in. ‡ The Night Watch ω (talk) 04:33, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
MrNoobNub2 I've reverted the image swap out to reflect the original image when the article became a featured article. Earl, Jackson's preferred painter, catches the sense of him in the midst of his presidency. The Sully picture is already in the article. Timewise, the placement was ideal: it matches the timeline during the 1824 election when Jackson's populist support was beginning to form. Wtfiv ( talk) 21:27, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
This
edit request to
Andrew Jackson has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Link Martin Van Buren in the Vice President row ThatEpicBanana ( talk) 01:49, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
Mentions this page. FYI. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 13:57, 4 February 2023 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 5 | ← | Archive 10 | Archive 11 | Archive 12 | Archive 13 |
Revolutionary War Service
I deleted final sentence:: He blamed the British personally for the loss of his brothers and mothers. It'd be a good point, but it is cited to Remini 1977 p. 24–25, who seems to be meditating on the loss and hardship Jackson suffered, but not a sense of personal blame. Wtfiv ( talk) 02:13, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
Legal career and marriage
I've added Owsley (1977) as reference. This appears to be well-researched description of the details of the Jackson/Donelson affair. I removed the Kennedy and Ullman (2003) citation. Pages 97-113 are a great read on the political spin of the Jackson's marriage, but its point is different than the citation suggests. Rather, it focuses on the effort by Jackson's partisans to form a "Nashville committee" to construct an alternative narrative to preserve Jackson's reputation against JQ Adams partisans. It argues that Jackson's partisans try to exonerate Jackson by making Robards the "bad guy", though ultimately the Kentucky jury granting the divorce did so based on Robard's ex parte testimony of Rachel's infidelity. Wtfiv ( talk) 23:41, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
Early Career
Added an older source, Clifton (1952) that focuses on Overton and Jackson's relationship. For the rest of the week, non-Wikiworld has caught me. I won't be able to continue my contribution to the trimming until next Tuesday at earliest. But I think I'm done with this section for now. Wtfiv ( talk) 08:13, 15 September 2022 (UTC)
Military Career
In editing this section, I've added a number of studies that focus on specific events within the narrative. Most of these studies agree on the basic facts, but give slightly different perspectives. I've amplified a few areas based on these sources, but the overall section length has been reduced by about 20%.
I've also renamed the section on "Creek Campaign and Treaty" "Red Stick Campaign". This is just a suggestion and if there's no consensus, I can revert it. Many of the sources call it the Creek War, so that name is traditional. The reason I changed it is that the sources make it clear that the Red Stick War was really a Muscogee civil war between a pro-war and pro-peace faction. Jackson was not at war with the majority of the Muscogee (Creeks). They remained at peace with the US, and many served as allies and auxiliaries in the campaign. So calling it the Creek War is misleading. The Wikipedia articles on the topic make this distinction too.
I also kept the name of the Native American confederacy "Creek", as this is the name used in the older sources. My personal preference is changing the confederacy's name from "Creek" to "Muscogee" is more appropriate, since Creek is the name white settlers gave them. (And the article introduces them as Muscogee, putting Creek in parenthesis).
Any thoughts? Wtfiv ( talk) 16:41, 22 September 2022 (UTC)
"Jackson served as the governor for two months, returning to the Hermitage in ill health."He was convalescing from his illness. :-) -- ARose Wolf 14:02, 23 September 2022 (UTC)
Presidency
Philosophy subheading: For now, I've temporarily moved the "Philosophy" subheading to "Personal Life", following up on religion. This is just a holder. Its current location seems problematic. Much of it seems a reflection upon what Jackson accomplished as president, which places it later. I put it in "Personal Life", as "Philosophy" seemed to follow "Religion", but I think this section may be best as part of his legacy describing how he transformed perceptions of the presidency. My thought is that once the presidential narrative has been taken care of, the role and plac of this section will become more clear. Wtfiv ( talk) 00:59, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
Reforms and rotation in office subheading: Deleted a paragraph with interesting facts that don't quite come together in the narrative sequence or internally within the paragraph. If a place emerges where these facts can be integrated into the narrative, I'll put them back.
*There's mention of Jackson's emphasis on removing the electoral college. This is important, but doesn't fit into the "beginning of presidency" timeline In addition, it was only supported by three primary sources (annual addresses). I found additional support in an article discussing Jackson's populism, but that suggest it should go into that section (e.g., philosophy or legacy)
*There's mention of the Maysville Road veto. The veto was important for hemming in Clay politically, but the sources make its theoretical rationale appear post-hoc: the money could be used to pay down the national debt, federal funds shouldn't be used for local internal improvements (a technicality), and an idea that government should pay for issues that support business. This occured in Jackson's first administration, so I'll see if it can fit in, but beyond its role in party politics, it's not clear it plays a large enough role to warrant mention.
Also, the sources don't agree on the percentage of civil servants impacted by the rotation system. Ellis (who minimizes its impact) puts the number at 20%. Latner (who also minimizes its impact) and Howe (who emphasizes its impact) put it at 10%. I chose the lower number and added "about" to reflect these numbers are just estimates. Either number makes the point that only a minority of civil service positions were impacted. Wtfiv ( talk) 21:04, 24 September 2022 (UTC)
Indian Removal Act subheading: This wound up being not being a trim, but a reorganization of the material. I tried to retain most of the original, but reorganized it and supplemented it with 11 new sources focused on the topic, many from peer-reviewed journals. By my count, this reorganization is two words longer than the original. My hope is the gain in thematic organization and narrative structure compensates for this subheading not contributing to reduced article size. (At least it didn't significantly increase it either!) And given the size of the discussion of the impact of the Indian Removal Act on the talk page here, the topic does demand to be addressed in this article. I've tried to discuss its origin, implementation, and impact. The impact is discussed both in terms of how it affected Native Americans, but on how it also affected his popularity among white Americans. Hopefully, this will help frame its discussion in the legacy section. Wtfiv ( talk) 21:02, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
I've also found this interesting information in the Encyclopedia of American Indian Removal edited by Daniel F. Littlefield Jr., James W. Parins, who I assume wrote the introduction, from which I quote (please forgive my hypocrisy in posting these, since I'm always complaining about walls of text on talk pages. Google lens works wonders.;-)
Carlstak ( talk) 05:49, 29 September 2022 (UTC)Dona L. Akers has recently argued that Indian removal cannot be understood unless scholars incorporate the psychological and spiritual ramifications involved. Removal resulted in total despair, a social death that resulted from the Indians' physical removal from their ancient homelands.
Native Americans recognized the inhumanity of removal before the arrival of American soldiers, and the events on the Trail of Tears confirmed many of their worst fears...
In fact, they found members of the Native American Church performed better on some of the neuropsychological tests than other Navajos who do not regularly use peyote.
Carlstak I appreciate the continued editing. Please note that I stopped after "Nullification Crisis". I plan to wrap up the bank war next, so I have touched "Foreign affairs" subheading or beyond. Your editing of these later sections will help guide me as I trim, but I hope you don't mind if some of the work you have done in "Foreign Affairs" and beyond may disappear as I do the trim. If you are concerned, please let me know and I'll try and tread carefully. Wtfiv ( talk) 03:39, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
Put Bank Veto and Election of 1832, Removal of deposits and censure, and Panic of 1837, under one subheading, called Bank War as they form a single conceptual narrative about the politico-financial aspects of Jackson's presidency. Moved this subheading to follow Nullificiation. So now the order of the three major issues in Jackson's presidency is Indian Removal Act, Nullification, and Bank War. This makes description of what occured in the Election of 1828 easier, as issues from the Indian Removal Act and Nullification, which impacted the religion have already been given context. Wtfiv ( talk) 17:51, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
Nullification subheading: This is a basic trim and reorganize. Added more sources that look at the issue in more detail. Most important detail added is that Jackson needed tariff money. It averaged about 90% of the federal income each year. Sources addressing the issues added. Wtfiv ( talk) 09:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
Attack and assassination attempt subheading: Renamed Physical assault and assassination attempt to match descriptions. Trimmed to a single paragraph using SandyGeorgia's suggestion in talk as the starting point. One source that describes the assassination in detail added. Wtfiv ( talk) 09:40, 29 September 2022 (UTC)
Foreign Affairs Focused narrative on Spoilation claims on Jackson. Removed role of Rives This is the focus of Remini, but the specialized source, Thomas (1976), which came out before Remini tells a similar tell but makes it clear that other members of Jackson's administration gave advice. (Interestingly, it seems to me most more recent sources rely on Remini, but in this case, if there is an influence, it goes the other way: Remini's wrap up on the topic in the chapter is markedly similar to Thomas's.) Also, this removes Rives's picture, whose presence is strange in the article. There are many people who had a huge influence on Jackson and were major players. Rives is important but probably in the middle of the pack, so it was a bit odd that the only one to get a picture and for an entire section. (Maybe interesting pictures of the French spoilation affair are hard to come by?)
The story of Texas was interesting, particularly breadcrumbs regarding the relationship between Houston and Jackson. Two sources imply that they were in league to pry Texas from Mexico. Avintage source, Stenberg (1934),follows a convuluted paper trail to argue for collusion. Haley (2002)'s biography of Sam Houston shows how close Houston and Jackson were. Haley argues that Houston was one of Jackson's right-hand men and may even have been [Filibuster (military)|filibustering]] when he went to Texas But Haley points out that the evidence he could find is circumstantial. (Stenberg provides a good argument Jackson covered his tracks to avoid political fallout.) Interesting topic, but too circumstantial for inclusion in the article, in my opinion. (I was tempted to add Stenberg because the article points out that Jackson's interest in Texas is as early as 1824, but I didn't want to add another vintage source.) Wtfiv ( talk) 17:51, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
Anti-Slavery Tracts subheading. Changed this to Slavery. The issue is bigger, and here it seemed that the article was roughly following Latner's organization, he calls the section it is addressed in Slavery as well. This was not a trim, but an increase of over 100%. I figured that instead of addressing the "too long" template, I'd address the "white bias" template instead. It seemed a full treatment of the issue needed to be addressed. The idea is to give Jackson's view, but to give a larger perspective on the role slavery played in Jackson's presidency. I added the "gag rule", which came at the very end of his presidency, and mentioned that the Nat Turner rebellion happened during his administration. Remini discussion of Jackson's solution to the anti-slavery tracts is slightly different than the one that had been mentioned, possibly shedding a different light on Jackson's style of running the country. I organized it to follow the "Foreign Affairs", as the Texas slavery issue is a good segue to slavery in general. Also, the Foreign Affairs and Slavery topics feel a little to be structured in terms of conceptual summation and their place in the presidential timeline is secondary. Wtfiv ( talk) 22:52, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
Judicial Appointments subheading. Trimmed this according to Rjensen's suggestions above. The focus is on Taney. The undistinguished appointments can be viewed by clicking the main article. Wtfiv ( talk) 23:29, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
States Admitted subheading. Left the same except for some minor prose tweaks. Wtfiv ( talk) 23:29, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
This draft of the Presidency section is done for now. (Besides all the micro-putzing, of course.) Wtfiv ( talk) 23:29, 1 October 2022 (UTC)
Later life and death (1837–1845) and Personal Life
These two sections are mainly straightforward trims. The biggest change is the temperament subheading, which adds a vintage, but excellent source. It adds a bit more detail that confirms and condenses many of the points made in the core biographies used here, and adds another dimension. The source may be useful in the discussion of Jacksonian democracy. The overall reduction of these two sections is about 30%.
Hi John! You had mentioned you'd be open to copy editing this article. I've just finished with the the biography sections (i.e., the sections between the lead and the legacy) and I was wondering if you have the time and energy to put your talents to work cleaning this up. I've done a first-pass trim, but there are still weeds that need plucking. You are used to my ability to torture prose, so it shouldn't be too bad on your side, and I think Joan of Arc shows we can do a pretty good job together. And who knows, maybe it'd be fun to do. Please let me know, and if you are game, please just jump in and go at it!
I'm removing the template from the top of this article, as per WP:WTRMT. I came to this article when it was submitted for consideration in a FAR review was requested based on the article not meeting WP:NPOV The request was made by FinnV3 Below I'll mention how I addressed the concerns and ping the editors whose opinion the issue was attributed. I've pinged FinnV3, but the account hasn't been active since August.
common manand the
working class. This has been removed from the lead, and the history of how common man was integrated into working class in relation to Jackson has been addressed in the " Jacksonian Democracy" section of the article.
advocate for democracyis a problem. This has been addressed. The issue of Jacksonian Democracy and its problem with race is directly addressed in the last paragraph of the " Jacksonian Democracy" section. Attributions of Jackson as a defender of democracy are in the " Andrew Jackson#Historical Reputation" section but are discussed in the context of Jackson as a controversial figure and balanced by negative comments.
Yet another wall of words, but I wanted to summarize why I'm removing the templates. I also want to thank Carlstak, ARoseWolf, Jr8825 for their active support, and of course, all the watchers, who would let me know if something is amiss! More editing can certainly be done. I think we'll have other editors doing more clean up. And after a break, I'll do a second sweep to catch any prose I've unduly put through the wringer.
Do these changes address the majority of concerns? Wtfiv ( talk) 19:03, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
Wtfiv, you did a fantastic job of incorporating the parts and pieces that I thought were important. Still, many editors felt like forced removal should be there and according to the sources, both terms are equally used. The issue, as brought out by many is that ethnic cleansing and forced removal are not exactly equal terms in definition. That's why a compromise would be the use of both terms. Does that make sense? The personal and cultural side of me is more in agreeance with what you have written. But the objective editor in me says it isn't complete without some form of forced removal (forcibly removed) to be in those sentences. -- ARose Wolf 17:43, 20 October 2022 (UTC)
In terms of further trimming: It's always a challenge to do more, and maybe a little more can be done. But, I'm thinking that it is close to the right size now.
Of course, I'm biased as I am now close to the text, (while gaining respect for the previous work done to get this to featured article status, so I tried a method to obtain a more objective metric. I've listed all the presidents who have achieved featured article status to see where Jackson currently sits. (An aside: I was surprised how few presidents have achieved featured article status.) You'll see by this measure that Jackson fits in at an appropriate size for this category. Interestingly, there's appears to be a rough correlation between importance and controversy and prose size. Given Jackson's place on the landscape, this seems to fit just about right.
President | Words in main body (1000 words) |
---|---|
Ulysses S. Grant | 19.0 |
Ronald Reagan | 18.1 |
Harry S. Truman | 18.3 |
John Adams | 16.7 |
William Howard Taft | 15.4 |
James K Polk | 15.2 |
Warren G. Harding | 15.1 |
Richard M. Nixon | 14.9 |
Andrew Johnson | 14.1 |
Andrew Jackson | 12.6 |
James A. Garfield | 12.3 |
Franklin Pierce | 11.4 |
Grover Cleveland | 10.2 |
Chester A. Arthur | 9.5 |
Rutherford B. Hayes | 9.4 |
Calvin Coolidge | 8.8 |
I find the balance between comprehensiveness but lean prose is hard to achieve. And I may tend toward the former. But given that the narrative of a president is expansive- really two topics in one- not only a biography but a brief summary of the person's impact key issues in a country's history at the time, the longer length of these articles seems appropriate. Wtfiv ( talk) 20:00, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
"Polk defeated Van Buren for the nomination, and Jackson convinced Taylor not to run as an independent by bringing him back into the Democratic Party." This is wrong. "Taylor" should be "Tyler." 96.241.16.150 ( talk) 19:40, 5 December 2022 (UTC)
Yourlocallordandsavior Thanks for catching that image flip. I put the Library of Congress (LOC) information about the flip that you provided directly into both image files so readers and future users of the file will know that that "flipped" is unflipped and the "unflipped" is flipped. According to the LOC, it's not even clear Brady is the photographer. Since LOC lists him should we keep the attribution or remove it? If we remove it, I'll update the images about the attribution. Wtfiv ( talk) 17:29, 6 December 2022 (UTC)
Pardon me, but I'm a bit surprised why there is not a reference to the historical rankings of U.S. presidents for Jackson in the lead. Was there a discussion about this? I just want to know before I try to add it in. ‡ The Night Watch ω (talk) 04:33, 1 December 2022 (UTC)
MrNoobNub2 I've reverted the image swap out to reflect the original image when the article became a featured article. Earl, Jackson's preferred painter, catches the sense of him in the midst of his presidency. The Sully picture is already in the article. Timewise, the placement was ideal: it matches the timeline during the 1824 election when Jackson's populist support was beginning to form. Wtfiv ( talk) 21:27, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
This
edit request to
Andrew Jackson has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Link Martin Van Buren in the Vice President row ThatEpicBanana ( talk) 01:49, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
Mentions this page. FYI. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 13:57, 4 February 2023 (UTC)