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Founder
of Spoils system
JACKSON,
ANDREW
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Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) |
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7th President of the United States
Vice President: John C. Calhoun (1829-1832); Martin
Van Buren (1833-1837)
Born: March 15, 1767, Waxhaw area, on North Carolina-South Carolina border
Nickname: "Old Hickory"
Religion: Presbyterian
Marriage: August 1791 (2nd ceremony, January 17, 1794),
to Rachel Donelson Robards (1767-1828)
Children: None
Career: Lawyer, Soldier
Political Party: Democrat
Writings: Correspondence of Andrew Jackson (7 vols.,
1926-1935), ed. by J. S. Bassett and J. F. Jameson
Died: June 8, 1845, Nashville, Tennessee
Buried: The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee
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Andrew Jackson's exposure to mercury and lead: poisoned president?
Historians have suggested that US president Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) experienced lead and mercury poisoning following
his therapeutic use of calomel (mercurous chloride) and sugar of lead (lead acetate). To evaluate these claims,
we performed direct physical measurement of 2 samples of Jackson's hair (1 from 1815, 1 from 1839). Following pretreatment
and acid digestion, mercury was measured using cold vapor generation techniques, while lead levels were measured by electrothermal
atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Mercury levels of 6.0 and 5.6 ppm were obtained from the 1815 and 1839 hair specimens,
respectively. Lead levels were significantly elevated in both the 1815 sample (mean lead level, 130.5 ppm) and the 1839 sample
(mean lead level, 44 ppm). These results suggest that Jackson had mercury and lead exposure, the latter compatible with symptomatic
plumbism in the 1815 sample. However, Jackson's death was probably not due to heavy metal poisoning.
Hair of President Jackson reveals his poor health
Andrew Jackson, the
USA’s seventh president, was one of the nations sickest men to
hold that high office, according to various historical accounts. New research, chemically analyzing two samples
of Jackson’s hair dated 1815 and 1839, now confirms that elevated levels of mercury and lead in the statesman’s
system were largely responsible for his many years of poor health and erratic behavior.
The results of a recent study,
headed by Ludwig Deppisch, MD, a professor of pathology at Northeastern Ohio University’s College of Medicine, proves
that sugar of lead, and calomel (a compound of mercury and chlorine) – both commonly found in 19th century “snake
oil” elixirs – were the major cause of the president’s digestive ailments, excessive salivation, headaches,
hand tremors, dysentery and loss of teeth. Jackson also suffered additional exposure to lead from two bullets lodged in his
body – one near his heart and one in his shoulder – from disputes settled with pistol duels. However, Dr. Deppisch’s
study did not find the lead and mercury levels in Jackson’s hair to be sufficiently high enough to cause his death,
as some historians have suggested.
Tony Guzzi, assistant curator at The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home in Nashville,
Tennessee said, “We have several samples of Jackson’s hair. Admirers often requested a lock, and he would just
cut one off and send it to them.” An account left by one person who visited the retired statesman at his home in 1844
relates, “ . . . we were each given a lock of Jackson’s hair, which we received with eagerness, and it will be
kept as a rich legacy by each of us.” Over the years, some of the locks of hair were returned to The Hermitage by descendents
of the original recipients.
The Hermitage provided two hair samples for testing with the Department of Environmental
and Toxicologic Pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. The first sample was from 1815, the
year of Jackson’s victory at the Battle of New Orleans, the second was from 1839, toward the end of Jackson’s
life — two periods when Jackson was taking a lot of medicine.
It was Dr. Deppisch’s task to interpret the
test results and compare them to written historical accounts. “The 1815 hair sample showed particularly elevated lead
levels,” says Dr. Deppisch. “One of Jackson’s doctors liked to give sugar of lead to both Andrew and his
wife Rachel. They not only ingested it, but used it to bathe their skin and eyes.” Jackson also took massive amounts
of calomel as a purgative – a treatment now regarded as homicidal.
The 1839 hair sample shows that lead levels
had dropped, perhaps indicating Jackson’s realization that some of the medicines were not helping. But Jackson’s
well-documented, unpredictable behavior was almost certainly due to mercury poisoning. Historians record his “thundering
and haranguing,” “pacing and ranting” — at one moment in a towering rage, in the next moment laughing
about the outburst.
“Jackson did act bizarrely on occasion,” says Dr. Deppisch, “but what is truly
amazing, is that for all his illnesses and the problems caused by medicines, Andrew Jackson lived a long life.” He died
at the age of 78, on June 8, 1845, probably of chronic renal failure.
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