Andrew Jackson
Statue in 2008
Artist	Clark Mills
Year	1852
Type	Bronze
Dimensions	2.4 m × 3.7 m (8 ft × 12 ft)
Location	Washington, D.C.,United States
Coordinates	38°53′58.3″N77°02′11.6″W / 38.899528°N 77.036556°W /38.899528; -77.036556
Owner	National Park Service

Andrew Jackson is a bronzeequestrian statue byClark Mills mounted on a white marble base in the center ofLafayette Square withinPresident's Park inWashington, D.C., just to the north of theWhite House.^[1][2][3] Jackson is depicted dressed in military uniform, raising his hat with his right hand, while controlling the reins with his left hand as his horse rises on its rear legs.  

Other original castings stand inJackson Square in New Orleans, Louisiana, and at the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville, Tennessee.

The statue depictsAndrew Jackson, the general who commanded US forces in theBattle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, and who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. It was commissioned in May 1847, almost two years after Jackson's death atThe Hermitage, his plantation nearNashville, Tennessee, by the Jackson Monument Committee chaired byJohn Peter Van Ness, who died before the statue was completed. Although Mills had never met Jackson and had never seen an equestrian statue, his proposal won the commission ahead ofHiram Powers andRobert Mills. Mills taught himself the technical skills to finalize the design and cast the statue.

Jackson's horse at theBattle of New Orleans was namedDuke. Mills modeled the horse on his own horse, namedOlympus.^[4] Mills trained his horse to pose on its haunches. He also borrowed Jackson's uniform from theU.S. Patent Office, where it was being preserved. He completed a plaster model, and he established a new bronze foundry to produce the casting at his studio on15th Street andPennsylvania Avenue NW, south of theTreasury Building.

Mills produced six castings of the statue of Andrew Jackson until the final one was completed, with ten pieces, six for Jackson and four for the horse.^[5] In his casting, he was assisted by an enslaved apprentice, Phillip Reid, who also assisted Mills with other castings, including the 1860-1862 casting of theStatue of Freedom designed byThomas Crawford which sits atop theUnited States Capitol dome. The casting was completed 1852, making this the first equestrian statue made in the US, and also the first bronze statue cast in the US.

It has been described as the first equestrian statue made with the horse rearing on two legs with no additional support – earlier equestrian bronzes, such asPietro Tacca'sstatue of Philip IV, andÉtienne Maurice Falconet'sstatue of Peter the Great, use the horse's tail as a third support. Tests in 1993 showed that the rear legs have central cores of iron covered with bronze, giving them additional strength and weight to support and counterbalance the suspended parts of the statue.

The statue is about a third larger than life, and weighs about 15 tons. It was installed on a tapering rectangular marble base on a raised circular grassed area with railings on the alignment of the North Portico of the White House and16th Street NW. The narrow face of the marble base, to the west, bears the inscriptions "JACKSON" and "OUR FEDERAL UNION / IT MUST BE PRESERVED", the latter added in 1909 and quoting a toast offered by Jackson at aDemocratic Party banquet in 1830 to celebrate the birthday ofThomas Jefferson. The south face has the inscription "CLARK MILLS".^[6]

The marble base is surrounded by four cannons that Jackson captured from the Spanish atPensacola, Florida in 1818. The original intention has been to cast the statue itself using metal from captured cannons, but the tin content was too high. The metal barrels of the cannons initially rested on the grass for several years, before they were raised on new woodengun carriages, subsequently replaced several times.

The statue was dedicated on January 8, 1853, the 38th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, with procession fromJudiciary Square followed by an address delivered by SenatorStephen A. Douglas to a crowd of 20,000 people, includingPresident Fillmore, Major GeneralWinfield Scott, members of his cabinet and of Congress, the monument committee, and the sculptor.^[7] Cannons from the US Army fired a salute. Mills reputedly quelled concerns about the stability of the statue by throwing himself against the raised front legs of the horse at the dedication: it did not move.

Over time, the landscaping of the square has been simplified. Statues of figures from theAmerican Revolutionary War have been added, one in each corner of the square. In 1891, a statue of the eponymousLafayette after whom the square is named was erected in the south east corner. In 1902, working clockwise, a statue ofRochambeau was added. In 1910, statues ofVon Steuben andKościuszko were erected. The view from the White House is now framed by the bronzeNavy Yard Urns, cast in theWashington Navy Yard and based on the ancientMedici Vase, each mounted on a marble plinth.

The statue of Jackson faced a bronzestatue of Thomas Jefferson that was installed on the White HouseNorth Lawn in 1847, until Jefferson's statue was returned to the U.S Capitol in 1874. There have been proposals, particularly in the early 20th century, to move Jackson's statue and swap it with Mill's 1860equestrian statue of George Washington inWashington Circle, to reunite Washington with the other the Revolutionary War generals in Lafayette Square, and give the statue of Andrew Jackson more space. These proposals have been resisted on the grounds of the historical importance of the statue of Andrew Jackson and the desire to keep it in its original location.

A crowd unsuccessfully attempted to topple the statue on June 22, 2020, during theGeorge Floyd protests.^[9] Former U.S. Senator of Colorado,Ben Nighthorse Campbell, an American Indian, defended the monument, advocating for it to remain and called for the addition of plaques that, according to him, explained and focused on the complicated history of Andrew Jackson in his proposal.^[10]

Several days later, theUnited States Department of Justice (DOJ) charged four men with destruction of federal property for allegedly trying to bring down the statue. The Justice Department alleged that a videotape showed one of the men breaking off and destroying the wheels of the cannons located at the base of the statue as well as pulling on ropes when trying to bring down the statue.^[11] The Justice Department also alleged that a man videotaped trying to topple the Jackson statue had, a few days earlier, participated in the destruction of the 1901Albert Pike Memorial statue near Washington'sJudiciary Square.^[12]

The statute was vandalized with the words "Expect Us" onColumbus Day, Monday, October 11, 2021. Protestors had been chanting "respect us or expect us" in response to protesting against theLine 3 pipeline inMinnesota that runs through lands owned byAmerican Indian tribes who were concerned that the pipeline could spill and ruin the land they use to farm.^[13]

Mills made two other castings of the statue. One was dedicated in February 1856 atJackson Square inNew Orleans, Louisiana.^[14]

A second was dedicated on May 20, 1880, on theTennessee State Capitol grounds, inNashville, Tennessee, commissioned by the Tennessee Historical Society to celebrate to city's centennial .^[15] Mills attended both dedications: the one in Nashville was his last public event before his death in 1883.

A third was dedicated inJacksonville, Florida in 1987, nearJacksonville Landing. It was cast by theModern Art Foundry ofLong Island City, New York.^[16]

• 
  The original statue stands at the center of Lafayette Square, just to the north of the White House
• 
  Statue in Washington, D.C.
• 
  Statue in New Orleans, Louisiana
• 
  Statue in Nashville, Tennessee
• 
  Statue in Jacksonville, Florida

• Statue of Andrew Jackson (U.S. Capitol)
• List of public art in Washington, D.C., Ward 2
• List of sculptures of presidents of the United States
• Presidential memorials in the United States
• Horses of Andrew Jackson

• Equestrian Statue of General Andrew Jackson, Lafayette Park, Washington, Issue 2 ofPresident's Park notes: Statues, National Park Service, 2001
• Andrew Jackson Statue, Lafayette Square, The White House Historical Association
• Four Salutes to the Nation: The Equestrian Statues of General Andrew Jackson, The White House Historical Association
• Images of America: Lafayette Square, Lonnie J. Hovey, Arcadia Publishing, 2014,ISBN 1467122033, p.14-16
• Andrew Jackson Memorial, Histories of the National Mall
• "A Toast to the Union", Andrew S. Keck,Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. Vol. 71/72, pp. 289–313
• Andrew Jackson Statue, DC Historic Sites
• Clark Mills and the Jackson Equestrian Statue (1853–1856), The Historic New Orleans Collection
• Jackson Lays the Cornerstone for Jackson Statue (1840), New Orleans Architectural Tours

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAndrew Jackson sculpture (Lafayette Square).

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• 1852 sculptures
• Artworks in the collection of the National Park Service
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• Equestrian statues in Washington, D.C.
• Monuments and memorials in Washington, D.C.
• Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.
• Outdoor sculptures in Washington, D.C.
• Sculptures of men in Washington, D.C.
• Statues of Andrew Jackson
• Equestrian statues in Louisiana
• Equestrian statues in Tennessee
• Vandalized works of art in Washington, D.C.

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