President Jackson in Early 1837
Jackson’s Farewell Address March 1837
Andrew Jackson & Letters 1837-43
Andrew Jackson & Letters 1844-45
On 16 January 1837 the United States Senate
voted 24-19 to expunge its censure of Jackson.
On February 11 Chief Justice Taney agreed with Justice McLean’s
6-1 majority opinion
in Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky that state banks had the right to issue paper money.
The next day in Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge Taney and the Supreme Court
upheld 4-3 the right of the Massachusetts legislature to allow the latter bridge
to collect tolls only until 1836 so that technical improvements could make progress.
On March 3 the Judiciary Act of 1837 added two more justices to the
U. S. Supreme Court making nine and two new appeal circuits in the western states.
After Michigan won the struggle with Ohio for the 470 square miles in the Toledo Strip,
the U. S. Congress admitted the free state of Michigan as the 26th state on January 26
to keep the number of slave and free states even.
Jackson from Washington in January wrote this Memorandum
for his close friend Major William B. Lewis:
To write to Major Henry Lee and request him
to state whether when in Tennessee and boarding
with his family at Mr. Wm. Sanders fountain of health,
and preparing is strictures on the address to the public
by Mr. Johnston and others, a committee by those in
support of Mr. J. Q. Adams as President, he did not
have a view of a confidential of mine to Mr. Monroe
then President of the United States, dated in January
1818 on the subject of the situation and affairs in Florida,
and pointing to the course that ought to be pursued there
to give peace and security to our frontier border, and
indemnify our citizens for injuries sustained, etc., etc., etc.,
and in which was pointed out, that these things could
be done without implicating the Government etc.
That it might be intimated or signified to me through any
channel (say John Rhea) that the possession of Florida
would be desirable, etc., and in sixty days it would be
accomplished, and whether he did not see marked on the
margin of said letter book, that Mr. John Rhea’s letter in
reply to his confidential letter had been burnt on the 12th
day of April 1819, as requested by Mr. Rhea at Washington
in January or February 1819, and whether Major Lee did not
express great astonishment that I should have so destroyed,
when I informed it was at the earnest personal request of
Mr. Rhea, and Mr. Rhea stated at the earnest request of
Mr. Monroe, as my health was delicate, and I might die
without destroying that confidential letter, which was strictly
confidential, and I had promised him that as soon as
I reached home, I would burn it, and having so promised
I did burn and made that memorandum on the margin to
show I had complied with my promise, and request the
Major to state the month and year in which he saw my letter
to Mr. Monroe with said entry aforesaid on its margin.1
On January 19 Mexico’s General Santa Anna met with President Jackson
in the White House for dinner, and Jackson offered him 6 million pesos
for recognizing the independence of Texas; but Santa Anna replied that
the Mexican Congress would decide that, and he returned to Vera Cruz on February 23.
On 1 March 1837 the U. S. Congress voted to recognize the republic of Texas,
and they provided funds for a diplomatic mission.
On March 3 President Jackson recognized the Republic of Texas as an independent nation,
and he appointed Alceé La Branche of Louisiana as Chargé d’affaires to Texas.
On 4 March 1837, his last day as President of the United States,
Andrew Jackson delivered this Farewell Address of 15 pages that
reflected on his presidency and the prosperity of the United States.
He commended Indian removal and criticized moneyed power, speculation,
nullification, and abolitionists, but he also recommended ethical and democratic principles:
FELLOW-CITIZENS: Being about to retire finally
from public life, I beg leave to offer you my grateful
thanks for the many proofs of kindness and
confidence which I have received at your hands.
It has been my fortune in the discharge of public duties,
civil and military, frequently to have found myself in
difficult and trying situations, where prompt decision
and energetic action were necessary, and where the
interest of the country required that high responsibilities
should be fearlessly encountered; and it is with the
deepest emotions of gratitude that I acknowledge
the continued and unbroken confidence with which
you have sustained me in every trial.
My public life has been a long one, and I cannot hope
that it has at all times been free from errors;
but I have the consolation of knowing that
if mistakes have been committed, they have not
seriously injured the country I so anxiously endeavored
to serve, and at the moment when I surrender my last
public trust I leave this great people prosperous and happy,
in the full enjoyment of liberty and peace,
and honored and respected by every nation of the world.
If my humble efforts have in any degree contributed
to preserve to you these blessings, I have been more
than rewarded by the honors you have heaped upon me,
and, above all, by the generous confidence with which
you have supported me in every peril, and with which
you have continued to animate and cheer my path
to the closing hour of my political life.
The time has now come when advanced age and
a broken frame warn me to retire from public concerns,
but the recollection of the many favors you have bestowed
upon me is engraved upon my heart, and I have felt
that I could not part from your service without making
this public acknowledgment of the gratitude I owe you.
And if I use the occasion to offer to you the counsels
of age and experience, you will, I trust, receive them
with the same indulgent kindness which you have so
often extended to me, and will at least see in them
an earnest desire to perpetuate in this favored land
the blessings of liberty and equal law.
We have now lived almost fifty years
under the Constitution framed by the sages
and patriots of the Revolution.
The conflicts in which the nations of Europe
were engaged during a great part of this period,
the spirit in which they waged war against each other,
and our intimate commercial connections with every
part of the civilized world rendered it a time of much
difficulty for the Government of the United States.
We have had our seasons of peace and of war,
with all the evils which precede or follow
a state of hostility with powerful nations.
We encountered these trials with our Constitution
yet in its infancy, and under the disadvantages which
a new and untried government must always feel
when it is called upon to put forth its whole strength
without the lights of experience to guide it or the
weight of precedents to justify its measures.
But we have passed triumphantly
through all these difficulties.
Our Constitution is no longer a doubtful experiment,
and at the end of nearly half a century we find
that it has preserved unimpaired the liberties
of the people, secured the rights of property,
and that our country has improved and is flourishing
beyond any former example in the history of nations.
In our domestic concerns there is everything to encourage
us, and if you are true to yourselves nothing can impede
your march to the highest point of national prosperity.
The States which had so long been retarded in their
improvement by the Indian tribes residing in the midst
of them are at length relieved from the evil,
and this unhappy race—the original dwellers in our land—
are now placed in a situation where we may well hope
that they will share in the blessings of civilization and be
saved from that degradation and destruction to which they
were rapidly’ hastening while they remained in the States;
and while the safety and comfort of our own citizens have
been greatly promoted by their removal, the philanthropist
will rejoice that the remnant of that ill-fated race has been
at length placed beyond the reach of injury or oppression,
and that the paternal care of the General Government
will hereafter watch over them and protect them.
If we turn to our relations with foreign powers,
we find our condition equally gratifying.
Actuated by the sincere desire to do justice to every
nation and to preserve the blessings of peace,
our intercourse with them has been conducted
on the part of this Government in the spirit of frankness;
and I take pleasure in saying that
it has generally been met in a corresponding temper.
Difficulties of old standing have been surmounted
by friendly discussion and the mutual desire to be just,
and the claims of our citizens, which had been long withheld,
have at length been acknowledged and adjusted and
satisfactory arrangements made for their final payment;
and with a limited, and I trust a temporary, exception,
our relations with every foreign power are now of the most
friendly character, our commerce continually expanding,
and our flag respected in every quarter of the world.
These cheering and grateful prospects and these
multiplied favors we owe, under Providence,
to the adoption of the Federal Constitution.
It is no longer a question whether this great
country can remain happily united and flourish
under our present form of government.
Experience, the unerring test of all human undertakings,
has shown the wisdom and foresight of those who formed it,
and has proved that in the union of these States
there is a sure foundation for the brightest hopes
of freedom and for the happiness of the people.
At every hazard and by every sacrifice
this Union must be preserved.
The necessity of watching with jealous anxiety
for the preservation of the Union was earnestly
pressed upon his fellow-citizens by the
Father of his Country in his Farewell Address.
He has there told us that “while experience shall not have
demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be
reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any
quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands;”
and he has cautioned us in the strongest terms against
the formation of parties on geographical discriminations,
as one of the means which might disturb our Union
and to which designing men would be likely to resort.
The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy of
Washington to his countrymen should be cherished
in the heart of every citizen to the latest generation;
and perhaps at no period of time could they be more
usefully remembered than at the present moment;
for when we look upon the scenes that are passing
around us and dwell upon the pages of his parting address,
his paternal counsels would seem to be not merely
the offspring of wisdom and foresight,
but the voice of prophecy, foretelling
events and warning us of the evil to come.
Forty years have passed since this imperishable
document was given to his countrymen.
The Federal Constitution was then regarded by him
as an experiment—and he so speaks of it in his Address—
but an experiment upon the success of which the
best hopes of his country depended; and we all know
that he was prepared to lay down his life,
if necessary, to secure to it a full and a fair trial.
The trial has been made.
It has succeeded beyond the proudest
hopes of those who framed it.
Every quarter of this widely extended nation
has felt its blessings and shared in the
general prosperity produced by its adoption.
But amid this general prosperity and splendid success the
dangers of which he warned us are becoming every day
more evident, and the signs of evil are sufficiently apparent
to awaken the deepest anxiety in the bosom of the patriot.
We behold systematic efforts publicly made to sow the
seeds of discord between different parts of the United States
and to place party divisions directly upon geographical
distinctions; to excite the South against the North
and the North against the South, and to force into the
controversy the most delicate and exciting topics—
topics upon which it is impossible that a large portion
of the Union can ever speak without strong emotion.
Appeals, too, are constantly made to sectional interests
in order to influence the election of the Chief Magistrate,
as if it were desired that he should favor a particular
quarter of the country instead of fulfilling the duties
of his station with impartial justice to all;
and the possible dissolution of the Union has at length
become an ordinary and familiar subject of discussion.
Has the warning voice of Washington been forgotten,
or have designs already been formed to sever the Union?
Let it not be supposed that I impute to all of those who
have taken an active part in these unwise and unprofitable
discussions a want of patriotism or of public virtue.
The honorable feeling of State pride and
local attachments finds a place in the
bosoms of the most enlightened and pure.
But while such men are conscious of their own integrity
and honesty of purpose, they ought never to forget that
the citizens of other States are their political brethren,
and that however mistaken they may be in their views,
the great body of them are equally
honest and upright with themselves.
Mutual suspicions and reproaches may in time create mutual
hostility, and artful and designing men will always be found
who are ready to foment these fatal divisions and to inflame
the natural jealousies of different sections of the country.
The history of the world is full of such examples,
and especially the history of republics.
What have you to gain by division and dissension?
Delude not yourselves with the belief that
a breach once made may be afterwards repaired.
If the Union is once severed, the line of separation will
grow wider and wider, and the controversies which are now
debated and settled in the halls of legislation will then be
tried in fields of battle and determined by the sword.
Neither should you deceive yourselves with the hope that
the first line of separation would be the permanent one,
and that nothing but harmony and concord
would be found in the new associations
formed upon the dissolution of this Union.
Local interests would still be found there,
and unchastened ambition.
And if the recollection of common dangers, in which the
people of these United States stood side by side against the
common foe, the memory of victories won by their united
valor, the prosperity and happiness they have enjoyed
under the present Constitution, the proud name they bear
as citizens of this great Republic—if all these recollections
and proofs of common interest are not strong enough to
bind us together as one people, what tie will hold united
the new divisions of empire when these bonds have
been broken and this Union dissevered?
The first line of separation would not last for a single
generation; new fragments would be torn off,
new leaders would spring up, and this great and glorious
Republic would soon be broken into a multitude of petty
States, without commerce, without credit, jealous of one
another, armed for mutual aggression, loaded with taxes
to pay armies and leaders, seeking aid against each other
from foreign powers, insulted and trampled upon by the
nations of Europe, until, harassed with conflicts and humbled
and debased in spirit, they would be ready to submit to
the absolute dominion of any military adventurer and
to surrender their liberty for the sake of repose.
It is impossible to look on the consequences that would
inevitably follow the destruction of this Government
and not feel indignant when we hear cold calculations
about the value of the Union and have so constantly before
us a line of conduct so well calculated to weaken its ties.
There is too much at stake to allow pride or passion
to influence your decision.
Never for a moment believe that the great body
of the citizens of any State or States
can deliberately intend to do wrong.
They may, under the influence of temporary excitement
or misguided opinions, commit mistakes;
they may be misled for a time by the suggestions
of self-interest; but in a community so enlightened and
patriotic as the people of the United States argument
will soon make them sensible of their errors,
and when convinced they will be ready to repair them.
If they have no higher or better motives to govern them,
they will at least perceive that their own interest
requires them to be just to others,
as they hope to receive justice at their hands.
But in order to maintain the Union unimpaired
it is absolutely necessary that the laws passed
by the constituted authorities should be faithfully executed
in every part of the country, and that every good citizen
should at all times stand ready to put down,
with the combined force of the nation, every attempt
at unlawful resistance, under whatever pretext
it may be made or whatever shape it may assume.
Unconstitutional or oppressive laws may no doubt
be passed by Congress, either from erroneous views
or the want of due consideration;
if they are within the reach of judicial authority,
the remedy is easy and peaceful;
and if from the character of the law, it is an abuse
of power not within the control of the judiciary,
then free discussion and calm appeals to reason and to
the justice of the people will not fail to redress the wrong.
But until the law shall be declared void by the courts
or repealed by Congress no individual or combination of
individuals can be justified in forcibly resisting its execution.
It is impossible that any government can
continue to exist upon any other principles.
It would cease to be a government and be unworthy
of the name if it had not the power to enforce the
execution of its own laws within its own sphere of action.
It is true that cases may be imagined disclosing such a
settled purpose of usurpation and oppression on the part
of the Government as would justify an appeal to arms.
These, however, are extreme cases, which we have
no reason to apprehend in a government where
the power is in the hands of a patriotic people.
And no citizen who loves his country would in any case
whatever resort to forcible resistance unless he clearly saw
that the time had come when a freeman should prefer death
to submission; for if such a struggle is once begun,
and the citizens of one section of the country arrayed
in arms against those of another in doubtful conflict,
let the battle result as it may, there will be an end of
the Union and with it an end to the hopes of freedom.
The victory of the injured would not secure to them
the blessings of liberty; it would avenge their wrongs,
but they would themselves share in the common ruin.
But the Constitution cannot be maintained nor the Union
preserved, in opposition to public feeling,
by the mere exertion of the coercive powers
confided to the General Government.
The foundations must be laid in the affections of the people,
in the security it gives to life, liberty, character, and
property in every quarter of the country, and in the fraternal
attachment which the citizens of the several States bear
to one another as members of one political family, mutually
contributing to promote the happiness of each other.
Hence the citizens of every State should studiously avoid
everything calculated to wound the sensibility or offend
the just pride of the people of other States,
and they should frown upon any proceedings within
their own borders likely to disturb the tranquility of
their political brethren in other portions of the Union.
In a country so extensive as the United States,
and with pursuits so varied, the internal regulations
of the several States must frequently differ from
one another in important particulars, and this difference
is unavoidably increased by the varying principles upon
which the American colonies were originally planted—
principles which had taken deep root in their social relations
before the Revolution, and therefore of necessity influencing
their policy since they became free and independent States.
But each State has the unquestionable right to regulate its
own internal concerns according to its own pleasure,
and while it does not interfere with the rights of the
people of other States or the rights of the Union,
every State must be the sole judge of the measures
proper to secure the safety of its citizens and promote
their happiness; and all efforts on the part of people of
other States to cast odium upon their institutions,
and all measures calculated to disturb their rights of
property or to put in jeopardy their peace and internal
tranquility, are in direct opposition to the spirit in which
the Union was formed, and must endanger its safety.
Motives of philanthropy may be assigned for this
unwarrantable interference, and weak men may
persuade themselves for a moment that they are laboring
in the cause of humanity and asserting the rights of
the human race; but everyone, upon sober reflection,
will see that nothing but mischief can come from these
improper assaults upon the feelings and rights of others.
Rest assured that the men found busy in this work
of discord are not worthy of your confidence,
and deserve your strongest reprobation.
In the legislation of Congress also, and in every measure
of the General Government, justice to every portion
of the United States should be faithfully observed.
No free government can stand without virtue in the
people and a lofty spirit of patriotism, and if the
sordid feelings of mere selfishness shall usurp the
place which ought to be filled by public spirit,
the legislation of Congress will soon be converted
into a scramble for personal and sectional advantages.
Under our free institutions the citizens of every quarter
of our country are capable of attaining a high degree
of prosperity and happiness without seeking to profit
themselves at the expense of others; and every such
attempt must in the end fail to succeed,
for the people in every part of the United States
are too enlightened not to understand their own rights
and interests and to detect and defeat every effort
to gain undue advantages over them;
and when such designs are discovered it naturally provokes
resentments which cannot always be easily allayed.
Justice—full and ample justice to every portion of the
United States should be the ruling principle of every
freeman, and should guide the deliberations
of every public body, whether it be State or national.
It is well known that there have always been those
among us who wish to enlarge the powers of the
General Government, and experience would seem
to indicate that there is a tendency on the part
of this Government to overstep the boundaries
marked out for it by the Constitution.
Its legitimate authority is abundantly sufficient
for all the purposes for which it was created,
and its powers being expressly enumerated,
there can be no justification for
claiming anything beyond them.
Every attempt to exercise power beyond these limits
should be promptly and firmly opposed,
for one evil example will lead to other measures
still more mischievous; and if the principle of
constructive powers or supposed advantages or
temporary circumstances shall ever be permitted to justify
the assumption of a power not given by the Constitution,
the General Government will before long absorb
all the powers of legislation, and you will have
in effect but one consolidated government.
From the extent of our country, its diversified interests,
different pursuits, and different habits, it is too obvious
for argument that a single consolidated government would
be wholly inadequate to watch over and protect its interests;
and every friend of our free institutions should be
always prepared to maintain unimpaired and in full vigor
the rights and sovereignty of the States and to confine
the action of the General Government
strictly to the sphere of its appropriate duties.
There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on the
Federal Government so liable to abuse as the taxing power.
The most productive and convenient sources of revenue
were necessarily given to it, that it might be able to perform
the important duties imposed upon it;
and the taxes which it lays upon commerce being
concealed from the real payer in the price of the article,
they do not so readily attract the attention of the people
as smaller sums demanded from them
directly by the tax-gatherer.
But the tax imposed on goods enhances by so much
the price of the commodity to the consumer,
and as many of these duties are imposed on articles
of necessity which are daily used by the great body
of the people, the money raised
by these imposts is drawn from their pockets.
Congress has no right under the Constitution to take money
from the people unless it is required to execute some one
of the specific powers entrusted to the Government;
and if they raise more than is necessary for such purposes,
it is an abuse of the power of taxation,
and unjust and oppressive.
It may indeed happen that the revenue will sometimes
exceed the amount anticipated when the taxes were laid.
When, however, this is ascertained, it is easy to
reduce them, and in such a case it is unquestionably
the duty of the Government to reduce them,
for no circumstances can justify it in assuming a power
not given to it by the Constitution nor in taking away
the money of the people when it is not needed
for the legitimate wants of the Government.
Plain as these principles appear to be, you will
yet find there is a constant effort to induce the
General Government to go beyond the limits of its taxing
power and to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people.
Many powerful interests are continually at work
to procure heavy duties on commerce and to swell
the revenue beyond the real necessities of the public
service, and the country has already felt the
injurious effects of their combined influence.
They succeeded in obtaining a tariff of duties bearing most
oppressively on the agricultural and laboring classes of
society and producing a revenue that could not be usefully
employed within the range of the powers conferred upon
Congress, and in order to fasten upon the people this unjust
and unequal system of taxation extravagant schemes of
internal improvement were got up in various quarters
to squander the money and to purchase support.
Thus one unconstitutional measure was intended to be
upheld by another, and the abuse of the power of taxation
was to be maintained by usurping the power of
expending the money in internal improvement.
You cannot have forgotten the severe and doubtful struggle
through which we passed when the executive department
of the Government by its veto endeavored to arrest this
prodigal scheme of injustice and to bring back the
legislation of Congress to the boundaries
prescribed by the Constitution.
The good sense and practical judgment of the people
when the subject was brought before them sustained
the course of the Executive, and this plan of
unconstitutional expenditures for the purposes
of corrupt influence is, I trust, finally overthrown.
The result of this decision has been felt in the
rapid extinguishment of the public debt and the large
accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury,
notwithstanding the tariff was reduced and is now very far
below the amount originally contemplated by its advocates.
But, rely upon it, the design to collect an extravagant
revenue and to burden you with taxes beyond the
economical wants of the Government is not yet abandoned.
The various interests which have combined
together to impose a heavy tariff and to produce
an overflowing Treasury are too strong and have
too much at stake to surrender the contest.
The corporations and wealthy individuals who are
engaged in large manufacturing establishments
desire a high tariff to increase their gains.
Designing politicians will support it to conciliate their favor
and to obtain the means of profuse expenditure for the
purpose of purchasing influence in other quarters;
and since the people have decided that the Federal
Government cannot be permitted to employ its income
in internal improvements, efforts will be made to seduce
and mislead the citizens of the several States by holding out
to them the deceitful prospect of benefits to be derived from
a surplus revenue collected by the General Government and
annually divided among the States;
and if, encouraged by these fallacious hopes,
the States should disregard the principles of economy
which ought to characterize every republican government,
and should indulge in lavish expenditures exceeding their
resources, they will before long find themselves oppressed
with debts which they are unable to pay, and the
temptation will become irresistible to support
a high tariff in order to obtain a surplus for distribution.
Do not allow yourselves, my fellow-citizens,
to be misled on this subject.
The Federal Government cannot collect a surplus for such
purposes without violating the principles of the Constitution
and assuming powers which have not been granted.
It is, moreover, a system of injustice, and if persisted in
will inevitably lead to corruption, and must end in ruin.
The surplus revenue will be drawn from the pockets
of the people—from the farmer, the mechanic,
and the laboring classes of society;
but who will receive it when distributed among the States,
where it is to be disposed of by leading State politicians,
who have friends to favor and political partisans to gratify?
It will certainly not be returned to those who paid it
and who have most need of it and are honestly entitled to it.
There is but one safe rule, and that is
to confine the General Government rigidly
within the sphere of its appropriate duties.
It has no power to raise a revenue or impose taxes
except for the purposes enumerated in the Constitution,
and if its income is found to exceed these wants,
it should be forthwith reduced
and the burden of the people so far lightened.
In reviewing the conflicts which have taken place
between different interests in the United States
and the policy pursued since the adoption of our
present form of Government, we find nothing that
has produced such deep-seated evil as the
course of legislation in relation to the currency.
The Constitution of the United States unquestionably
intended to secure to the people
a circulating medium of gold and silver.
But the establishment of a national bank by Congress,
with the privilege of issuing paper money receivable
in the payment of the public dues, and the unfortunate
course of legislation in the several States upon the same
subject, drove from general circulation the constitutional
currency and substituted one of paper in its place.
It was not easy for men engaged in the ordinary
pursuits of business, whose attention had not been
particularly drawn to the subject, to foresee all the
consequences of a currency exclusively of paper,
and we ought not on that account to be surprised
at the facility with which laws were obtained
to carry into effect the paper system.
Honest and even enlightened men are sometimes misled
by the specious and plausible statements of the designing.
But experience has now proved the mischiefs and dangers
of a paper currency, and it rests with you to determine
whether the proper remedy shall be applied.
The paper system being founded on public confidence
and having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to great
and sudden fluctuations, thereby rendering property
insecure and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain.
The corporations which create the paper money
cannot be relied upon to keep the circulating
medium uniform in amount.
In times of prosperity, when confidence is high,
they are tempted by the prospect of gain or by the influence
of those who hope to profit by it to extend their issues
of paper beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable
demands of business; and when these issues have been
pushed on from day to day, until public confidence is
at length shaken, then a reaction takes place,
and they immediately withdraw the credits they have given,
suddenly curtail their issues, and produce an unexpected
and ruinous contraction of the circulating medium,
which is felt by the whole community.
The banks by this means save themselves, and the
mischievous consequences of their imprudence
or cupidity are visited upon the public.
Nor does the evil stop here.
These ebbs and flows in the currency and these indiscreet
extensions of credit naturally engender a spirit of speculation
injurious to the habits and character of the people.
We have already seen its effects in the wild spirit
of speculation in the public lands and various kinds
of stock which within the last year or two seized upon
such a multitude of our citizens and threatened
to pervade all classes of society and to withdraw their
attention from the sober pursuits of honest industry.
It is not by encouraging this spirit that we shall best
preserve public virtue and promote the true interests
of our country; but if your currency continues as
exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster
this eager desire to amass wealth without labor;
it will multiply the number of dependents on bank
accommodations and bank favors;
the temptation to obtain money at any sacrifice will
become stronger and stronger, and inevitably lead
to corruption, which will find its way into your public
councils and destroy at no distant day
the purity of your Government.
Some of the evils which arise from this system
of paper press with peculiar hardship upon the
class of society least able to bear it.
A portion of this currency frequently becomes depreciated
or worthless, and all of it is easily counterfeited in such
a manner as to require peculiar skill and much experience
to distinguish the counterfeit from the genuine note.
These frauds are most generally perpetrated in the
smaller notes, which are used in the daily transactions
of ordinary business, and the losses occasioned by them
are commonly thrown upon the laboring classes of society,
whose situation and pursuits put it out of their power
to guard themselves from these impositions, and
whose daily wages are necessary for their subsistence.
It is the duty of every government so to regulate its
currency as to protect this numerous class, as far as
practicable, from the impositions of avarice and fraud.
It is more especially the duty of the United States,
where the Government is emphatically the Government
of the people, and where this respectable portion of
our citizens are so proudly distinguished from the
laboring classes of all other nations by their
independent spirit, their love of liberty, their intelligence,
and their high tone of moral character.
Their industry in peace is the source of our wealth
and their bravery in war has covered us with glory;
and the Government of the United States will but ill
discharge its duties if it leaves them a prey
to such dishonest impositions.
Yet it is evident that their interests cannot be effectually
protected unless silver and gold are restored to circulation.
These views alone of the paper currency are sufficient to
call for immediate reform; but there is another consideration
which should still more strongly press it upon your attention.
Recent events have proved that the paper-money system
of this country may be used as an engine to undermine
your free institutions, and that those who desire to
engross all power in the hands of the few and to
govern by corruption or force are aware
of its power and prepared to employ it.
Your banks now furnish your only circulating medium,
and money is plenty or scarce according to
the quantity of notes issued by them.
While they have capitals not greatly disproportioned
to each other, they are competitors in business,
and no one of them can exercise dominion over the rest;
and although in the present state of the currency
these banks may and do operate injuriously upon the habits
of business, the pecuniary concerns, and the moral tone of
society, yet, from their number and dispersed situation,
they cannot combine for the purposes of political influence,
and whatever may be the dispositions of some of them
their power of mischief must necessarily be
confined to a narrow space and felt
only in their immediate neighborhoods.
But when the charter for the Bank of the United States
was obtained from Congress it perfected the schemes
of the paper system and gave to its advocates the position
they have struggled to obtain from the commencement
of the Federal Government to the present hour.
The immense capital and peculiar privileges bestowed
upon it enabled it to exercise despotic sway
over the other banks in every part of the country.
From its superior strength it could seriously injure,
if not destroy, the business of any one of them which
might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed
for itself the power of regulating the
currency throughout the United States.
In other words, it asserted (and it undoubtedly possessed)
the power to make money plenty or scarce at its pleasure,
at any time and in any quarter of the Union,
by controlling the issues of other banks and permitting
an expansion or compelling a general contraction
of the circulating medium, according to its own will.
The other banking institutions were sensible of its strength,
and they soon generally became its obedient instruments,
ready at all times to execute its mandates;
and with the banks necessarily went also that numerous
class of persons in our commercial cities who depend
altogether on bank credits for their solvency and means
of business, and who are therefore obliged, for their
own safety, to propitiate the favor of the money power
by distinguished zeal and devotion in its service.
The result of the ill-advised legislation which established
this great monopoly was to concentrate the whole
moneyed power of the Union, with its boundless means
of corruption and its numerous dependents,
under the direction and command of one acknowledged
head, thus organizing this particular interest as one body
and securing to it unity and concert of action throughout
the United States, and enabling it to bring forward upon
any occasion its entire and undivided strength to support
or defeat any measure of the Government.
In the hands of this formidable power, thus perfectly
organized, was also placed unlimited dominion
over the amount of the circulating medium,
giving it the power to regulate the value of property
and the fruits of labor in every quarter of the Union,
and to bestow prosperity or bring ruin upon any city
or section of the country as might best comport
with its own interest or policy.
We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed power,
thus organized and with such a weapon in its hands,
would be likely to use it.
The distress and alarm which pervaded and agitated
the whole country when the Bank of the United States
waged war upon the people in order to compel them
to submit to its demands cannot yet be forgotten.
The ruthless and unsparing temper with which whole cities
and communities were oppressed, individuals impoverished
and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly
changed into one of gloom and despondency
ought to be indelibly impressed on the memory
of the people of the United States.
If such was its power in a time of peace,
what would it not have been in a season of war,
with an enemy at your doors?
No nation but the freemen of the United States
could have come out victorious from such a contest;
yet, if you had not conquered, the Government would
have passed from the hands of the many to the hands
of the few, and this organized money power from its
secret conclave would have dictated the choice
of your highest officers and compelled you
to make peace or war, as best suited their own wishes.
The forms of your Government might for a time have
remained, but its living spirit would have departed from it.
The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by the
bank are some of the fruits of that system of policy which
is continually striving to enlarge the authority of the Federal
Government beyond the limits fixed by the Constitution.
The powers enumerated in that instrument do not confer
on Congress the right to establish such a corporation as the
Bank of the United States, and the evil consequences which
followed may warn us of the danger of departing from the
true rule of construction and of permitting temporary
circumstances or the hope of better promoting the public
welfare to influence in any degree our decisions upon
the extent of the authority of the General Government.
Let us abide by the Constitution as it is written, or amend
it in the constitutional mode if it is found to be defective.
The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not,
be sufficient to prevent Congress from again chartering
such a monopoly, even if the Constitution did not
present an insuperable objection to it.
But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that
eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty,
and that you must pay the price
if you wish to secure the blessing.
It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your
States as well as in the Federal Government.
The power which the moneyed interest can exercise,
when concentrated under a single head and with our
present system of currency, was sufficiently demonstrated
in the struggle made by the Bank of the United States.
Defeated in the General Government, though same class
of intriguers and politicians will now resort to the States
and endeavor to obtain there the same organization
which they failed to perpetuate in the Union;
and with specious and deceitful plans of public advantages
and State interests and State pride they will endeavor
to establish in the different States one moneyed institution
with overgrown capital and exclusive privileges sufficient
to enable it to control the operations of the other banks.
Such an institution will be pregnant with the same evils
produced by the Bank of the United States, although its
sphere of action is more confined, and in the State in which
it is chartered the money power will be able to embody
its whole strength and to move together with undivided
force to accomplish any object it may wish to attain.
You have already had abundant evidence of its power to
inflict injury upon the agricultural, mechanical, and laboring
classes of society, and over those whose engagements
in trade or speculation render them dependent
on bank facilities the dominion of the State monopoly
will be absolute and their obedience unlimited.
With such a bank and a paper currency the money power
would in a few years govern the State and control its
measures, and if a sufficient number of States can be
induced to create such establishments the time will soon
come when it will again take the field against the
United States and succeed in perfecting and perpetuating
its organization by a charter from Congress.
It is one of the serious evils of our present system of
banking that it enables one class of society—
and that by no means a numerous one—by its control
over the currency, to act injuriously upon the interests
of all the others and to exercise more than
its just proportion of influence in political affairs.
The agricultural, the mechanical, and the laboring classes
have little or no share in the direction of the great
moneyed corporations, and from their habits and the
nature of their pursuits they are incapable of forming
extensive combinations to act together with united force.
Such concert of action may sometimes be produced
in a single city or in a small district of the country
by means of personal communications with each other,
but they have no regular or active correspondence with
those who are engaged in similar pursuits in distant places;
they have but little patronage to give to the press,
and exercise but a small share of influence over it;
they have no crowd of dependents about them who hope
to grow rich without labor by their countenance and favor,
and who are therefore always ready
to execute their wishes.
The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer
all know that their success depends upon their own
industry and economy, and that they must not expect
to become suddenly rich by the fruits of their toil.
Yet these classes of society form the great body
of the people of the United States;
they are the bone and sinew of the country—
men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights
and equal laws, and who, moreover, hold the great mass
of our national wealth, although it is distributed in moderate
amounts among the millions of freemen who possess it.
But with overwhelming numbers and wealth on their
side they are in constant danger of losing their fair
influence in the Government, and with difficulty
maintain their just rights against the incessant
efforts daily made to encroach upon them.
The mischief springs from the power which the moneyed
interest derives from a paper currency which they are able
to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive
privileges which they have succeeded in obtaining in the
different States, and which are employed altogether for
their benefit; and unless you become more watchful in
your States and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst
for exclusive privileges you will in the end find that the
most important powers of Government have been given
or bartered away, and the control over your dearest
interests has passed into the hands of these corporations.
The paper-money system and its natural associates—
monopoly and exclusive privileges—have already struck
their roots deep in the soil, and it will require all your
efforts to check its further growth and to eradicate the evil.
The men who profit by the abuses and desire to perpetuate
them will continue to besiege the halls of legislation in the
General Government as well as in the States, and will seek
by every artifice to mislead and deceive the public servants.
It is to yourselves that you must look for safety and the
means of guarding and perpetuating your free institutions.
In your hands is rightfully placed the sovereignty
of the country, and to you everyone placed
in authority is ultimately responsible.
It is always in your power to see that the wishes of the
people are carried into faithful execution, and their will,
when once made known, must sooner or later be obeyed;
and while the people remain, as I trust they ever will,
uncorrupted and incorruptible, and continue watchful
and jealous of their rights, the Government is safe,
and the cause of freedom will continue
to triumph over all its enemies.
But it will require steady and persevering exertions
on your part to rid yourselves of the iniquities and mischiefs
of the paper system and to check the spirit of monopoly
and other abuses which have sprung up with it,
and of which it is the main support.
So many interests are united to resist all reform
on this subject that you must not hope the conflict
will be a short one nor success easy.
My humble efforts have not been spared during
my administration of the Government to restore the
constitutional currency of gold and silver, and something,
I trust, has been done toward the accomplishment of this
most desirable object; but enough yet remains
to require all your energy and perseverance.
The power, however, is in your hands, and the remedy
must and will be applied if you determine upon it.
While I am thus endeavoring to press upon your attention
the principles which I deem of vital importance in the
domestic concerns of the country, I ought not to pass over
without notice the important considerations which should
govern your policy toward foreign powers.
It is unquestionably our true interest to cultivate the most
friendly understanding with every nation and to avoid by
every honorable means the calamities of war,
and we shall best attain this object by frankness
and sincerity in our foreign intercourse,
by the prompt and faithful execution of treaties,
and by justice and impartiality in our conduct to all.
But no nation, however desirous of peace,
can hope to escape occasional collisions with other powers,
and the soundest dictates of policy require that we should
place ourselves in a condition to assert our rights
if a resort to force should ever become necessary.
Our local situation, our long line of seacoast, indented by
numerous bays, with deep rivers opening into the interior,
as well as our extended and still increasing commerce,
point to the Navy as our natural means of defense.
It will in the end be found to be the cheapest and most
effectual, and now is the time, in a season of peace and
with an overflowing revenue, that we can
year after year add to its strength without
increasing the burdens of the people.
It is your true policy, for your Navy will not only protect
your rich and flourishing commerce in distant seas,
but will enable you to reach and annoy the enemy
and will give to defense its greatest efficiency
by meeting danger at a distance from home.
It is impossible by any line of fortifications to guard every
point from attack against a hostile force advancing from
the ocean and selecting its object, but they are
indispensable to protect cities from bombardment,
dockyards and naval arsenals from destruction,
to give shelter to merchant vessels in time of war
and to single ships or weaker squadrons
when pressed by superior force.
Fortifications of this description cannot be too soon
completed and armed and placed in a condition
of the most perfect preparation.
The abundant means we now possess cannot be applied
in any manner more useful to the country,
and when this is done and our naval force sufficiently
strengthened and our militia armed we need not fear
that any nation will wantonly insult us
or needlessly provoke hostilities.
We shall more certainly preserve peace when it is
well understood that we are prepared for War.
In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting
counsels, I have brought before you the leading principles
upon which I endeavored to administer the Government
in the high office with which you twice honored me.
Knowing that the path of freedom is continually beset
by enemies who often assume the disguise of friends,
I have devoted the last hours of my public life
to warn you of the dangers.
The progress of the United States under our free
and happy institutions has surpassed the most
sanguine hopes of the founders of the Republic.
Our growth has been rapid beyond all former example
in numbers, in wealth, in knowledge, and all the useful arts
which contribute to the comforts and convenience of man,
and from the earliest ages of history to the present day
there never have been thirteen millions of people
associated in one political body who enjoyed so much
freedom and happiness as the people of these United States.
You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad;
your strength and power are well known throughout
the civilized world, as well as the high
and gallant bearing of your sons.
It is from within, among yourselves—
from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed
ambition and inordinate thirst for power—
that factions will be formed and liberty endangered.
It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors
may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves.
You have the highest of human trusts
committed to your care.
Providence has showered on this favored land blessings
without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of
freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race.
May He who holds in His hands the destinies of nations
make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed and
enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands and sleepless
vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the
great charge He has committed to your keeping.
My own race is nearly run; advanced age and
failing health warn me that before long
I must pass beyond the reach of human events
and cease to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs.
I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty
and that He has given me a heart
to love my country with the affection of a son.
And filled with gratitude for your constant and unwavering
kindness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell.2
During over 18 years after his presidency at his Hermitage Jackson while suffering
from declining health corresponded by mail with several men.
From Smithland, Kentucky Jackson wrote in a letter to President Martin Van Buren:
I have conversed with many of our friends fully and
freely about you and your administration—they all
are delighted with your inaugural address and say
if you carry that out, you will be sustained by the
whole Republican Democracy of the union….
I left Mr. Falls, the Jacksonville printer in Mississippi with
several others, who are concerned with the great ones,
whose business there was to have the treasury order
suspended and the public lands pressed into the market.
By the speculators was the 15,000,000 Bank chartered,
its bills issued payable in New York without any funds
there to redeem them, and I hear since my arrival here
that, that mammoth bubble has blown up many strong
houses in New Orleans broke, and I expect it is the
forerunner of a very general bankruptcy among the
speculators, some of whom left Washington in great haste,
while others remained to press you and the Secretary of the
Treasury to suspend the Treasury order, to all which I tell
you, as your sincere friend, that if you do, until after a full
examination by a strictly confidential and honest agent, into
the real condition of the Banks, your revenue will be lost
by the breaking of the deposit Banks, for rely on it, when
directors are so much involved in speculation are so deeply
indebted to the Banks, they will return to the Secretary of
the Treasury notes of other Banks as cash, when those
banks are unable to redeem their paper in specie.3
Jackson from his Hermitage on 30 March 1837
wrote a longer letter to President Van Buren:
I reached home on the 25th instant somewhat
improved in strength, but with a very bad cough,
increased by cold taken on board the Steam Boat….
I cannot close without drawing your attention again to
the safety of the deposit Banks of the west and south
the planters of the south west are deeply indebted and
are paying the merchants, brokers, and Banks at the
rate of 30 percent for money—this I get from a
creditable source, hence the press for more Banks.
The railroad Bank of 15,000,000 has already failed,
a large House in New Orleans has also failed;
some say for six, others for ten millions.
Let the Secretary of the Treasury look to this
and have the Banks well examined.
I fear when he does, he will find in many but little specie,
but a large amount called cash or specie in notes of specie
paying Banks, entered as cash and specie,
and if those Banks were called on to pay their notes,
they must stop paying specie.
The Treasury order is popular with the people everywhere
I have passed, but all the speculators, and those largely
indebted, want more paper; the more it depreciates,
the easier they can pay their debts, and all such care
but little about the success of your administration and
what becomes of the revenue—but I tell you, should
any of the Deposit banks fail, it will shake your
administration to its center—prudence would,
as it seems to me, await the memorials from the people,
the working classes, before it would be safe to suspend it.
The people are paying now, as I am informed a discount
of from 5 to 10 percent on the Banks’ bills for cash—
our Nashville Banks issue no notes payable at their own
counter, and their bills are much under par;
these hints are submitted for your safety and mature
reflection and that of the Secretary of the Treasury.4
On 24 April 1837 President Van Buren wrote in this letter to Andrew Jackson:
I have, as I am sure I could safely do, trusted
to your knowledge of my situation for my apology
for not having sooner acknowledged the receipt
of your friendly and very interesting letters.
It is, I hope, unnecessary to say that their
contents have been duly appreciated.
My situation has been one of peculiar delicacy and
difficulty, but all will, I hope, go well in the end.
You cannot form an adequate idea of the
dreadful state of the money market in New York.
The enclosed letter from our friend Phelps
(which please to destroy as he meant it to be confidential)
will throw some light upon the matter.
The accounts by today’s mail are in the same strain,
and no man can fancy where it is to stop.
To make the matter worse, everything that political
desperation can accomplish is done to make the
distresses of the country subservient to party politics.5
The Panic of 1837 began with a run on the banks on 10 May 1837,
and the depression continued with a deflation on wages and prices until 1844.
Jackson in a fairly long letter on May 12 wrote to President Van Buren:
I knew well before the Treasury circular was issued,
the combined movements of Biddle and the whole
aristocracy to back the deposit Banks—the first
step was to throw into New Orleans a large amount
of the bills of the old United States Bank and sell
them on a credit so as to fall due last December.
This was done to the amount of three and a half million
to drain the specie from the deposit Banks, and to fall due
while the Legislature was in session, bring on a pressure,
and obtain from them a Branch to his Bank etc. etc.
preparatory to the operation of breaking the state deposit
banks, and thereby produce a pressure and open the
way to the re-charter of his Bank as the National Bank.
The combination between him and the Bearings, now is to
drain us of specie and break our Deposit Banks and then
a charter for a national Bank; and for this purpose Bell and
Payton, through the Republican and Banner of Nashville,
are trying to get the Banks to suspend specie payment….
I am told today by General Armstrong that the Planters
Bank of Mississippi is broke and has refused the payment
of a Treasury draft—tell this to Mr. Woodbury,
and let him look well to the Government deposits….
You see the Whigs have me protested for
$6000 and ruined by “endorsing for a relation
concerned in land speculation for $300,000 in
the Bank of Yateman and Woods and Co.
This is Calhoun’s slang in the Senate, a baser
calumny never was invented, and some of
Calhoun’s satellites or himself has raised it.
I have not drawn a bill on anyone for
twenty years for any sum whatever.
I have not in my life endorsed for
anyone in Yatemans and Co. Bank.6
President Van Buren wrote to Andrew Jackson on May 23, and
Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury sent a confidential letter to Jackson on June 4.
Jackson wrote a longer letter to Van Buren on June 6 to discuss the financial disaster.
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote to Jackson on 3 July 1837 and also
on 28 May 1838, 4 September 1840, 24 April 1841,
28 April
and October 13 in 1843, 4 January 1844, and 1 January 1845.
Jackson wrote to President Van Buren again on 7 August
and 14 September in 1837 about the problems with the banks.
Major William B. Lewis from Washington on 6 October 1839 wrote a long letter
to his friend Jackson on politics, and Jackson wrote back a long response on October 19.
Lewis wrote again to Jackson on November 5 and included
a private letter from Lewis Cass who had been Secretary of War for five years
and was currently the ambassador in France.
President Van Buren on 2 February 1840 addressed Jackson as a General,
and he noted that Senator Henry Clay was supporting
General William Henry Harrison for President.
Harrison and John Tyler teamed up and easily defeated
Van Buren in the 1840 Presidential election.
Van Buren reflected on the loss in a letter to Jackson on November 10.
Jackson to console Van Buren two weeks later wrote:
The democracy of the United States have been
shamefully beaten, but I trust, not conquered.
I still hope there is sufficient virtue in the unbought
people of this union, to stay the perjury, bribery, fraud, and
imposition upon the people by the vilest system of slander,
that ever before has existed, even in the most corrupt days
of ancient Rome, who will unite and by their moral force
check this hydra of corruption in its bud, or our republican
system is gone, and the Federalists’ doctrine will be verified,
“that the people are incapable of self Government,” and
that they must be governed by corruption and fraud.
I do not yet despair of the Republic, although the
scenes of corruption at our late elections are now so
palpable and so general, that unless soon met by the
Indignant frowns of the virtuous portion of the whole
community, and all those who have been engaged in
these monstrous scenes of fraud, perjury and imposition
upon the unsuspecting portion of the people, hurled from
their confidence, we will be ruled by the combined
money power of England and the Federalists of this Union.
But I trust still in the virtue of the great working class,
that they will rally and check at once this combined corrupt
coalition and on their native dunghills set them down.7
On 4 March 1841 Jackson wrote a letter to Martin Van Buren
on his last day as President, and he advised,
When you have leisure in your retirement, please write
and give me the views of the people of New York, etc. etc.
I have no doubt but Governor Polk will carry this state at
our approaching Election next fall by a handsome majority,
and that we will have a democratic assembly.8
On 20 September 1842 President John Tyler from Virginia
concluded in a letter to Andrew Jackson:
Reared as I had been in the Republican school,
I very soon discovered that nothing short of a total
abandonment of most warmly cherished political
opinions could shelter me from the virulent abuse
of the then dominant party, but the question between
Country and Party was that which was presented to me,
and I could not hesitate in making the decision.
That I was correct in my determination the
approbation which you have been kind
enough to express, most fully assures me.
The plaudits of the multitude have now received the
endorsement of the sage in his closet, and I shall with
renewed resolution continue to do battle under the
principles which distinguished our republican forefathers,
believing that it is only by doing so that the blessings of
civil liberty can be handed down to a remote posterity.
The letter addressed to you by the Grandson
of General Kosciusko and by you enclosed to me,
has been handed over to the Secretary of War
for enquiry into the nature and justice of the claim.
I shall at all times experience a lively
satisfaction in hearing from you, and shall
be flattered in receiving from you any suggestions
relative to the conduct of public affairs.9
On 31 January 1843 Sam Houston from Washington wrote a
long letter to his friend Andrew Jackson and concluded:
When the mass of a nation becomes either slavish in spirit
or corrupt in principle, the friends of Liberty are silenced.
To you General, I feel myself vastly indebted for many
principles, which I have never abandoned through life.
One is a holy love of country, and a willingness
to make every sacrifice to its honor and safety!
Next a sacred regard for its constitution and laws
with an eternal hostility and opposition to all Banks!
Now, Sir, I beseech you to feel assured that no policy,
expediency, fear, or whim shall ever cause a departure
from these principles, but that I will cherish them while
life endures, or I am capable of feeling one grateful
emotion for your many acts of affectionate kindness
to me, under all circumstances and in every
vicissitude of life in which you have known me!
I will not close this long letter without assuring you that
I entertain confidence in the speedy success of Texas,
if I am sustained in carrying out a wise policy—To live
within our means—act defensively—cultivate our rich land—
raise a revenue from import duties—make and keep peace
with the Indians, and if possible, get peace with Mexico.10
On 16 February 1844 President John Tyler
wrote this short letter to Andrew Jackson:
Dear Sir, I take great pleasure in enclosing a copy
of the Act for your relief from the fine imposed by
Judge Hall, which passed the two Houses and was
immediately approved by myself in the same instant
that the Committee presented it to me.
Strongly impressed with the justice of the measure,
I did not hesitate in my annual message at the
opening of the last session of Congress to urge
it upon that body, and it has afforded me no
ordinary satisfaction to affix to it my approval.
Permit me, my dear Sir, to present you my
cordial congratulations at this act of justice,
and this new evidence of the high estimate
which your country places upon your valuable
services at a time when the stoutest hearts entertained
serious apprehensions for the safety of New Orleans.
Nothing is now left upon her judicial records to sully in any
degree the glory of the memorable defense of that City.
That you may live long to enjoy the constantly
increasing tokens of public esteem is my sincere prayer.11
Also on February 16 Sam Houston from Washington, Texas
wrote a 4-page letter to Andrew Jackson that begins:
Venerated Friend, Your several favors of the last
month have reached me safely and with expedition;
I have given all the attention to their contents which
your views as well as the subject matter itself demanded.
You are fully aware that every circumstance in which
you feel a deep interest, or whatever concerns you
individually, awakens in me emotions of the liveliest regard.
It is natural to suppose that the subject of the annexation
of Texas to the United States has commanded the
most profound deliberation of which I am capable.
Heretofore the demeanor of the United States
towards us has been such as to discourage any hope
which the friends of the measure might entertain.
Our situation also has been peculiar and difficult.
I have found myself surrounded with internal
difficulties as well as external dangers.
It was my duty as Executive to have an eye
to every emergency which might possibly arise.
My situation might have excused or even justified
a compromise on my part with the hope of securing
for my country a respite from existing calamities.
I am happy to assure you however, that I have incurred
no committal prejudicial to her interests or my own honor.
I am free to take any action which her future welfare
may require, and be perfectly vindicated from any
imputation of bad faith towards any nation or individual.
This assurance may appear strange to you; for I assure
you it is even surprising to myself that the necessities of
our circumstances had not suggested some hazardous
measure for their alleviation or improvement.
So far as I am concerned or my hearty
cooperation required, I am determined upon
immediate annexation to the United States.
It is not the result of feeling; nor do I believe
that the measure would be as advantageous
to Texas, if she had permanent peace, as it is
indispensably necessary to the United States.
Texas with peace could exist without the United States;
but the United States cannot without great hazard to
the security of their institutions, exist without Texas.
The United States are one of the rival powers of the earth,
and from their importance as well as the peculiarity of their
institutions and the extent of their commercial relations,
they must expect at no distant day wars, the object
of which will be to prevent their continuance,
if possible, as a nation.12
Andrew Jackson on 1 March 1844 wrote in a letter to
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President of the Republic of Mexico:
Being solicited by letters from at least One Hundred
of the most respectable of the citizens of this country to
address to you on behalf of the prisoners from Texas,
now confined at Perote in Mexico, I have ventured to do
so relying upon your forbearance and kindness to excuse
me if I transcend the delicacy which belongs to the subject.
I beg you to be assured that any suggestions which
I may make will be consistent with the highest veneration
for your character as an individual, as a General, and as
President of the Republic of Mexico: and they would not
be offered to you if I did not believe their adoption would
contribute to the security of the high standing which
you already enjoy in the opinion of all civilized nations.
It is not my province to inquire into the
existing relations between Mexico and Texas.
It is enough for me to know that Texas has been
acknowledged by several of the European nations
and by the United States, and that in this enlightened
era all the Christian world is interested in the
alleviation of the treatment of prisoners.
These prisoners it is alleged are ironed and held to work
with the convicted of crime in the streets of your cities.
Statements to this effect appear in the public
journals and are generally credited.
It is also said on the same authority that Texas has
passed a law to raise an army to be marched into
Mexico to take prisoners to be held as hostages,
thus commencing a system of retaliation that cannot
but end disastrously to both nations, and against the
spirit of which the civilized world must enter its protest.
In view of such information and such results pardon me,
General, for making the following suggestions.
It is stated that the prisoners taken at St. Antonio
were attending a court and were non-combatants.
If so, international law distinguishes between them and
those who were taken with arms in their hands at Mier—
it permits the treatment of the latter as prisoners of war,
but it shields the former from such treatment and inculcates
in its place the practice of humanity and protection.
In respect to both classes of prisoners, could you not issue
an order liberating them on their parole of honor, and
charging Texas only with the expense of keeping them?
It seems to me that such an order would be
justified by the facts, and that it would be
regarded as an evidence of liberality and
greatness that would be honorable and flattering
not only to your individual fame, but to that of Mexico.
If in the face of such a step the prisoners taken at Meir
should again be taken in arms, their lives would be justly
forfeited: and if Texas should then persist in her threatened
invasion to capture prisoners for retaliation, she will be
in the wrong, and the civilized world will frown upon her.
This suggestion is offered in the spirit of frankness and
friendship under the belief that if adopted, it will increase
your fame in the eyes of the good and brave of all nations.
I am aware, however, that it is a delicate one at this time,
because Texas is in the attitude of menace,
and the circumstances may be varied by
facts of which I have no knowledge.
Determine upon it as you may, it comes from your friend,
and one who wishes to see the sphere of
your usefulness extended and preserved.13
Andrew Jackson on 29 June 1844 wrote
this letter to the presidential candidate James K. Polk:
I have this moment received your letter of the 24th
instant with Col. C. Johnson’s of the 21st enclosed,
and though I am truly very unwell, I hasten to answer
and return Col. Johnson’s letter herewith enclosed.
While I thank you for the perusal of C. J. letter, I assure
you it was not necessary to put me upon my guard.
In my reply to Col. Benton’s first letter to me in which
he adverted to my toast—“The Federal Union must be
preserved,” among other things, I said to him, the
Federal Union must be preserved, and to do this
effectually and permanently, Texas must be
reannexed to the United States, the laws of the Union
extended forthwith over the Oregon, which would
place this Federal union on as permanent basis as
the Rocky mountains and preserve our Glorious Union
and our Republican System as long as time lasted.
I found from his letter, that his hatred to
Calhoun and his Jealousy of the growing
Popularity of Tyler had deranged him.
I undeceived him in all, had a sincere desire to preserve
him if I could politically, but I am now convinced that it
was him and some others that led Van Buren into his
unfortunate Texas position—more when I see you.
Nothing but a mass meeting should be held.
You will perceive I have estopped Benton
or any others from believing that you or I
could countenance nullification or disunion.
Every letter I get gives us Joyful news.
You will get 20 states at least, and your
one-term principles I think will get you 22.
The Texan question must be kept
up with energy and firmness.
P. S. Every Democrat must put his face against
any meeting of Disunion or nullification.
We must and will have Texas with
and in our glorious Union.
The Federal union must be preserved.14
Notes
1. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume V 1833-1838
ed. John Spencer Bassett, p. 445.
2. Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908, Volume III,
ed. James D. Richardson, p. 292-308.
3. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume V 1833-1838, p. 465-466.
4. Ibid., p. 466, 467.
5. Ibid., p. 479.
6. Ibid., p. 482, 483-484.
7. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume VI 1839-1845 p. 83-84.
8. Ibid., p. 92.
9. Ibid., p. 167-168.
10. Ibid., p. 189-190.
11. Ibid., p. 260.
12. Ibid., p. 260-261.
13. Ibid., p. 268-269.
14. Ibid., p. 298-299.
Andrew Jackson to 1812
Andrew Jackson & Wars 1813-15
Andrew Jackson & Indian Wars 1816-20
Andrew Jackson 1821-24
Andrew Jackson 1825-28
President Jackson in 1829
President Jackson & Indians 1829-36
President Jackson in 1830
President Jackson in 1831
Jackson’s Veto & Banks in 1832
President Jackson in 1833
President Jackson in 1834
President Jackson in 1835
President Jackson in 1836
Andrew Jackson 1837-45
Andrew Jackson Summary & Evaluation
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