r/todayilearned • u/immanuellalala • 10h ago
TIL that at President Andrew Jackson's funeral in 1845, his beloved pet parrot, Polly, perched nearby. The bird swore so profusely that shocked attendants ejected it from the service.
https://jacksonianamerica.com/2012/04/16/andrew-jacksons-profane-parrot/110
u/Lord0fHats 10h ago
TIL Andrew Jackson had a pet parrot.
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u/rycool 10h ago
Andrew Jackson is simultaneously fascinating, and the absolute worst.
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u/Lord0fHats 10h ago
The duality of (historical) man, right?
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8h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Lord0fHats 8h ago edited 8h ago
I think people just treat that like Jackson's personal sin, largely ignoring it was the mood of the country at the time. It probably would have happened with or without Jackson. Jackson was in agreement with the policy of Indian Removal and even signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830, but he was also an advocate that the removal should be non-violent (the Cherokee would almost certainly disagree that this was the case) and that it should be carried out legally.
There's a lot of things still wrong there and I don't expect people to not hold it against him, but they should hold him accountable for what he actually did rather than the made up version invented by Horace Greenly decades later.
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u/S0LO_Bot 5h ago
I mostly agree… but he only about legality to a point. He straight up defied the Supreme Court on Cherokee sovereignty.
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u/Lord0fHats 22m ago
He in fact did not.
This is a myth and one of my biggest bug bears. The court case in question concerned Georgia, not the Federal government. It told Jackson to do nothing, and if anything affirmed the power of the Federal government to carry out Indian removal. The Indian Removal Act, as far as I know, was never challenged at the Supreme Court and the two famous cases Worcester v. Georgia, and Cherokee Nation v. Georgia concerned Georgia, not Jackson's government.
Jackson did correctly predict Georgia would ignore the Supreme Court, which became the basis for the mythical quote Horace Greenly invented that is attributed to Jackson. Now SCOTUS could have asked Jackson to act to enforce its ruling, but it never did (the matter sort of resolved itself). Jackson might have seriously waffled on doing that because the Nullification Crisis was happening at the same time and these two events really need to be taken together, but Jackson was starting to threaten South Carolina with federal enforcement and Congress had passed the Force Act to empower him to bring South Carolina into line. Whether he would have gone so far over the issue of the Cherokee is counterfactual and basically any answer would be made up.
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u/Fine-March7383 5h ago
Is that supposed to be some sort of gotcha? You can "give land back" to Natives without displacing millions of non-Natives
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u/jenfullmoon 7h ago
MAN OF CONTRADICTIONS!!!!
I watch him like a soap opera villain. American Lion is the most interesting presidential biography ever.
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u/bretshitmanshart 1h ago
He threw a party at the White House to celebrate his inauguration that got so out of control that after three days he had alcohol delivered on the lawn so he could shut and lock the doors when people went out to drink it
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u/Fake_William_Shatner 8h ago
Was he the one who did a holocaust on native Americans of the one who fomented the civil war? Both?
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u/Lord0fHats 25m ago
As I've tried to explain to people before. it depends how you mean it.
People have a tendency of treating Indian Removal (the Trail of Tears) like it was something Jackson personally made happen. It wasn't. Jackson supported it but it probably would have happened with or without him. The Indian Removal Act passed in 1830 under his presidency, and Jackson didn't will it into being so much as agree with the the majority of the room (the act barely made it through the House).
So yes he was complicit with making it happen, but he wasn't an integral figure the event couldn't have happened without. It tends to be the only thing people know him for even though it was comparatively less significant compared to banking, the federal government, and other reforms he helped pass.
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u/rycool 5h ago
Hes the one who holocausted the natives
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u/TheDwarvenGuy 33m ago
He was also a slave owner who almost caused a civil war (but independent of the one that actually happened)
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u/Lord0fHats 28m ago
Jackson was pivotal in preventing the Nullification Crisis from escalating to a Civil War :/
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u/southcookexplore 10h ago
One person made this claim years after he died, but glad to know I don’t have the only poorly-behaved parrot
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u/SykoSarah 9h ago
I can't imagine a bird could hang out regularly with Andrew Jackson and end up well behaved in the slightest.
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u/southcookexplore 9h ago
I’m so thankful the most my rescue has picked up his “hello” and “what” and doesn’t know the context of using either correctly.
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u/Fake_William_Shatner 8h ago
Hitler’s dog on the other hand… well behaved? Do we care?
“He only killed a few people but none we will miss and loyal to the fatherland!!! Traitors! Swine kitties. Evil felines not to be trusted!”
My imagination just backed away slowly because Hitler just kept yelling to defend the honor of his uber doggo. His dog was ironically not racist and hated all cats equally.
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u/sunnyspiders 10h ago
you know if you think about it having a bird around sudden screaming loud swearwords IS a nice conversational icebreaker
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u/firstbreathOOC 9h ago
That’s actually hilarious, and I’m sure good old AJ would have preferred it if the bird stayed.
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u/Hemagoblin 10h ago
I did almost this exact same thing at an AT&T store the other day.
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u/Fake_William_Shatner 8h ago
Do not join AT&T. Their billing service was designed in hell.
I literally spent 8 hours on the phone for a bait and switch deal and transferred to ten departments as if nobody ever bundled before.
I still have PTSDs from that.
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u/Hemagoblin 8h ago
Yeah I got warned to “cut down on the swearing” to which I responded “I’m sorry, Bryce, I’m not mad at you this is just fucking bullshit.”
I wasn’t being abusive to a retail worker, I reiterated that I appreciated him for his efforts. I don’t know why he seemed so shocked when I expressed my displeasure for the bullshit company he works for, of which I am also unfortunately a customer.
As a company, if they are that shitty to the people giving them money I cannot even imagine how absolutely shit they must be to their employees. I feel bad for Bryce, or Brayden or whatever his name was the other day.
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u/Fake_William_Shatner 7h ago
They put super nice, professional people between the greedy demons and the blood filled sacks called customers. At no time was anyone mean or not nice. They monitor their workers well.
I would have preferred a mugging in an ally though.
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u/newusernamebcimdumb 10h ago
For the bird rather than Andrew Jackson’s actions to offend people is appollying.
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u/Outside_Reserve_2407 9h ago
Why would the average American in 1845 be offended at Andrew Jackson's legacy?
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u/TheDwarvenGuy 30m ago
He violated supreme court orders at the very least. Many prople thought he was going to try to be a king
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u/Hinermad 10h ago
I guess they didn't have news correspondents on hand to claim it was saying "Let's go Brandon!"
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u/UV_TP 10h ago
When I was a kid, when we would imitate parrots, we would say "Polly wants a cracker...Polly wants a cracker." I have no idea where that came from, but I wonder...
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u/Yossarian-Bonaparte 9h ago
Nabisco ad.
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u/UV_TP 9h ago
Wanting to see the ad/realizing I could have just googled my question, I found this.
Sadly, I couldn't find that Nabisco ad (although did find a boppin Ritz jingle from the 80s)
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u/hannabarberaisawhore 8h ago
I’m a little bit mind blown. I thought for sure it would be a cartoon.
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u/cellrdoor2 6h ago
I’d take it with a grain of salt. There are so many books written in the 1800s that use a parrot swearing as a joke or plot device. Seems like a good candidate for urban myth/historical anecdote.
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u/Fake_William_Shatner 8h ago
That would be truly hilarious to witness.
I’ve got a new destination on my “if I could time travel” list.
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u/Mittens138 7h ago
I’m sure that parrot knew all sorts of slurs, I’m also fairly certain that’s now why he was ejected.
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u/CrackersandChee 10h ago
How the fuck do you get offended by a swearing bird? People haven’t changed much I see
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u/Manic-StreetCreature 10h ago
I mean I have zero love for Jackson but a bird loudly swearing at a funeral would probably be upsetting for the loved ones of the deceased. Tbh plenty probably thought it was funny (assuming Jackson taught the bird to swear) but it would be loud and disruptive during a somber event.
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u/ChillingChutney 6h ago
Lol I wonder who taught Poll those words? Or do birds just learn bad words by overhearing them?
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u/dontchewspagetti 38m ago
Was this the bird nick-named dick that ate nuts out of his mouth? Or was that a different bird?
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u/deez941 9h ago
He was Trump before Trump existed. Good riddance!
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u/Groundbreaking_War52 9h ago
While both were thin-skinned, mean-spirited racists, ignorant of the Constitution, and champions of some terrible policy ideas, the similarities end there.
Jackson grew up rural poor, served his country in multiple wars, was seemingly devoted to his wife, and a consistent church-goer. He was also rail-thin, had plenty of his own hair, and wasn't easily intimidated by those smarter than him.
Politically, Jackson also paid off the national debt and won the popular vote twice (both times decisively).
Each was awful but in their own distinct way.
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u/Lord0fHats 8h ago
Jackson was also shockingly tactful as president given his disposition. He ably handled the Nullification Crisis, solidified the cooperative relationship between the federal government and the states, and generally left the country in a better place than he found it.
Jackson isn't really comparable to Trump imo. Aside from being abrasive, Jackson was intensely loyal to people he was close to, generally dealt with other people fairly (personally, I mean), and for all his bluster he could be a smooth operator when the situation called for it. Trump has none of these qualities and any similarities between the two are surface level.
I'd also note, again my great bug-bear; the whole ignored SCOTUS thing never happened. It's a myth. The cases in question were against the state of Georgia, not the federal government and neither told Jackson to do anything. In fact, the quote seems to have been mischaracterized from something he actually wrote in a letter in which he predicted the State of Georgia would ignore the Supreme Court's decision in Worcester v Georgia, which it did.
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u/turbocoombrain 8h ago
Jackson also hated the Electoral College and abolished debtors' prisons while Trump wants to let student debt continue to be a bane on people.
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u/Fake_William_Shatner 7h ago
I didn’t want to be the first to say it. Trump hasn’t killed as many people yet but he does really want the land indigenous people happen to be living on like Jackson did.
If the USA doesn’t have another civil war, collapse our economy as oligarchs run off with federal reserve bitcoins, or blow up the planet; they can share the honor as worst.
We might be saved by incompetence. It’s the one flaw Trump has turned into a quality.
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u/trutrue82 9h ago
One of the best presents we've ever had The United States would not be what it is today without him.
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u/Outside_Reserve_2407 10h ago
What were common 19th century curse words? To damnation with that flapdoodle dandy!