But any further similarity between the two abruptly ends there, because unlike Trump and as you noted, Jackson was a product of a very hardscrabble life and upbringing. Taken prisoner at age 14 during the American Revolution, Jackson had his face slashed by a British Army officer's sword when he refused to shine the officer's boots. It left a lifelong scar on his cheek, and a burning hatred for the British that Jackson nurtured until his dying day.

One crossed the ill-tempered "Old Hickory" at his peril, and at least one man and his family would dearly come to regret it. In 1806, then a former member of the Tennessee State Senate and a practicing member of the bar, Jackson killed fellow plantation owner Charles Dickinson in a duel after the latter accused him of reneging on a horse race bet, and then further insulted his wife Rachel by calling her a bigamist.

In fact, Rachel Jackson was indeed a bigamist, though likely not by knowing choice; she had married Andrew not knowing that her first husband had never finalized their divorce. Still, Andrew seethed at the insult to his wife. Further, the National Review had subsequently published a public statement from Dickinson which accused Jackson of being a "worthless scoundrel," an "equivocator" and a "coward." (Yes, even back then, the National Review's editors never failed to take a swipe at Democrats, whenever given the opportunity.)

His honor and integrity thus publicly impugned, Jackson called out Dickinson in challenge. On May 30, 1806, the two rivals met for their "interview" -- the polite colloquialism of the day with reference to dueling, since the practice was at the time outlawed in many parts of the country, including Tennessee -- at Harrison's Mills in Logan, Kentucky.

At the first signal from their seconds, Dickinson fired and his bullet lodged in Jackson's upper chest, missing his heart. (Critics would later lament in half-jest that Dickinson missed Jackson's heart because his opponent lacked one.) Jackson put his hand over the wound to staunch the flow of blood, and stayed standing long enough to aim and pull the trigger on his gun, only to have it misfire.

Nominally, the etiquette of dueling stipulated that the confrontation was over at that moment. But in a clear breach of longstanding protocol, Jackson immediately re-cocked his gun and took aim at Dickinson again. This time, the gun fired successfully and Dickinson fell mortally wounded, to the obvious consternation and protestations of his seconds, who subsequently complained to local authorities to no avail.

Although Andrew Jackson eventually recovered from the severe gunshot wound, Dickinson's bullet remained lodged inside his chest cavity, causing him chronic pain for the rest of his life. He was never charged in the shooting, and any potential political damage he might have otherwise suffered for the duel was negligible. His opponents in the 1824 and 1828 presidential elections tended to harp more about Rachel Jackson's bigamy, and generally declined to mention her husband's commission of a homicide.