From 1821 until his death in 1845 Jackson endured physical pain practically every day of his life. There were two bullets lodged in his body, one of which regularly formed abscesses and produced spasms of coughing resulting in massive hemorrhages. He had also contracted dysentery and malaria for which he periodically poisoned himself by taking large doses of mercury and lead in the form of calomel and sugar of lead. Still, Andrew Jackson would not yield to the infirmities of his pain-wracked body. It, too, must bend to his imperious will.
