The Papers of Andrew Jackson

📖 The Scoop

V. 8. This eighth volume of Andrew Jackson s papers presents more than five hundred documents, many appearing here for the first time, from a core year in Jackson s tumultuous presidency. They include Jackson s handwritten drafts of his presidential messages, private notes and memoranda, and correspondence with government officials, Army and Navy officers, friends and family, Indian leaders, foreign diplomats, and ordinary citizens throughout the country. In 1830 Jackson pursued his controversial Indian removal policy, concluding treaties to compel the Choctaws and Chickasaws west of theMississippi and refusing protection for the Cherokees against encroachments by Georgia. Jackson nurtured his opposition to the Bank of the United States and entered into an escalating confrontation with the Senate over presidential appointments to office. In April, Jackson pronounced his ban on nullification with the famous toast to Our Federal Union, and in May he began an explosive quarrel with Vice-President John C. Calhoun over the latter s conduct as secretary of war during Jackson s Seminole campaign of 1818. Also in May, Jackson delivered his first presidential veto, stopping federal funding for the Maysville Road and declaring opposition to Henry Clay s American System. In July, Jackson s refusal to use his pardoning power to save an Irish-born mail robber from the gallows provoked a near-riot in Philadelphia. By the end of the year, Jackson was preparing for his reelection campaign in 1832. Meanwhile the sex scandal surrounding Peggy Eaton, wife of the secretary of war, lurked throughout, dividing Jackson s cabinet, sundering his own family and household, and threatening to wreck the administration. Embracing all these stories and many more, this volume offers an incomparable window not only into Andrew Jackson and his presidency but into 1830s America itself. V. 9. This volume presents more than five hundred original documents, many newly discovered, from Andrew Jackson s third presidential year. They include Jackson s private memoranda, intimate family letters, and correspondence with government and military officers, diplomats, Indians, political friends and foes, and ordinary citizens throughout the country. In 1831 Jackson finally cleared his contentious Cabinet, reluctantly accepting the resignations of Martin Van Buren and John Eaton and demanding that the other members follow. But in the aftermath, animosities among them boiled over, as Eaton sought duels with outgoing secretaries Samuel Ingham and John Berrien. The affair ended with gangs of armed high-government officers stalking each other in the Washington streets, and with Ingham publicly accusing Jackson of countenancing a plot to assassinate him. Meanwhile, Jackson pursued his feud with Vice-President John C. Calhoun, whom he had come to view as the diabolical manipulator of all his enemies. Enlisting a favorite Supreme Court justice to gather evidence, Jackson crafted an exposition, intended for publication, that leveled nearly fantastic charges against Calhoun and others. Through all this, the business of government ploughed on. Jackson pursued his drive to remove the Cherokees and other Indians west of the Mississippi and to undercut tribal leaders who dared resist. To squelch sectional controversy, Jackson moved to retire the national debt and reduce the tariff, while reiterating his ban on nullification and his opposition to the Bank of the United States. Nat Turner s Virginia slave revolt in August drew a quick administration response. By year s end, the dust over the Cabinet implosion was settling, as Jackson prepared to stand for reelection against his old nemesis Henry Clay. Embracing all these stories and many more, this volume offers an incomparable window not only into Andrew Jackson and his presidency but into America itself in 1831. V. 10. This volume presents more than four hundred documents from Andrew Jackson s fourth presidential year. It includes private memoranda, intimate family letters, drafts of official messages, and correspondence with government and military officers, diplomats, Indians, political friends and foes, and ordinary citizens throughout the country. The year 1832 began with Jackson still pursuing his feud with Vice President John C. Calhoun, whom Jackson accused of secretly siding against him in the 1818 controversy over Jackson s Seminole campaign in Florida. The episode ended embarrassingly for Jackson when a key witness, called on to prove his charges, instead directly contradicted them. Indian removal remained a preoccupation for Jackson. The Choctaws began emigrating westward, the Creeks and Chickasaws signed but then immediately protested removal treaties, and the Cherokees won what proved to be an empty victory against removal in the Supreme Court. Illinois Indians mounted armed resistance in the Black Hawk War. In midsummer, a cholera epidemic swept the country, and Jackson was urged to proclaim a day of fasting andprayer. He refused, saying it would intermingle church and state. A bill to recharter the Bank of the United States passed Congress in July, and Jackson vetoed it with a ringing message that became the signature document of his presidency. In November, Jackson, with new running mate Martin Van Buren, won triumphant reelection over Henry Clay. But only days later, South Carolina nullified the federal tariff law and began preparing for armed resistance. Jackson answered with an official proclamation that disunion by armed force is treason. The year closed with Jackson immersed in plans to suppress nullification and destroy the Bank of the United States. Embracing all these stories and many more, this volume offers an incomparable window into Andrew Jackson, his presidency, and America itself in 1832. V.11 This volume presents full annotated text of five hundred documents from Andrew Jackson's fifth presidential year. They include his private memoranda, intimate family letters, presidential message drafts, and correspondence with government and military officers, diplomats, Indian leaders, political friends and foes, and citizens throughout the country.The year 1833 began with a crisis in South Carolina, where a state convention had declared the federal tariff law null and void and pledged resistance by armed force if necessary. Jackson countered by rallying public opinion against the nullifiers, quietly positioning troops and warships, and procuring a "force bill" from Congress to compel collection of customs duties. The episode ended peaceably after South Carolina accepted a compromise tariff devised by Jackson's arch-rival Henry Clay. But Clay's surprise cooperation with South Carolina's John C. Calhoun foretold a new opposition coalition against Jackson.With nullification checked, Jackson embarked in June on a triumphal tour to cement his newfound popularity in the North. Ecstatic crowds greeted him in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and Harvard awarded him a degree. But Jackson's fragile health broke under the strain, forcing him to cut the tour short.Meanwhile Jackson pursued his campaign against the Bank of the United States, whose recharter he had vetoed in 1832. Charging the Bank with political meddling and corruption, Jackson determined to cripple it by removing federal deposits to state banks. But Treasury secretary William John Duane refused either to give the necessary order or resign. In September Jackson dismissed him and installed Roger Taney to implement the removal. Jackson's bold assumption of authority energized supporters but outraged opponents, prompting Clay to introduce a Senate resolution of censure.The year closed with Jackson girding for further battle over the Bank, pursuing schemes to pry the province of Texas loose from Mexico, and trying to stem rampant land frauds that his own Indian removal policy had unleashed against Creek Indians in Alabama. Unfolding these stories and many more, this volume offers an incomparable window into Andrew Jackson, his presidency, and America itself in 1833. --

Genre: Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads of State (fancy, right?)