On 1 January 1821 General Jackson from his Division of the South
Head Quarters at Nashville wrote this letter to President James Monroe:
I received with pleasure your letter by Mr. Somerville
with whom I am much pleased, and doubt not but he will be
very beneficial to our college and the youth of our country.
It affords us much gratification to hear from you
that his demeanor and capacity are good;
for it is by procuring such characters in our college
that we can at all calculate upon its prosperity or utility.
I am by this day’s mail advised that Judge Hall is no more.
From my knowledge of the people of New Orleans,
I know it to be all important that his successor should
be a well tried, firm patriot and strongly attached to
the American interest, whose knowledge of the people
& the laws combined with fitness & legal talent to
carry it into effect should enable him to unite the
happiness of the people with the security of that country.
In Abner L. Duncan Esq. of New Orleans
can be found this suitable character.
I fully experienced in my defense of New Orleans
the energy & capacity of his mind with a
great attachment to his country.
He was a faithful sentinel, & by his firmness
& knowledge of the mixed population rendered
his country & myself important services.
I am actuated in addressing you on this subject by
a sincere regard for the happiness of the people of
that country to whom I feel greatly attached, & I am
confident that by this appointment their happiness &
the interest of our common country will be better promoted
than by conferring the appointment on any other person.
If he is to be appointed,
I have no doubt of his accepting the office.
I see by the papers from the City that it is probable
our Treaty with Spain is ratified by the King & Cortes.
If this should prove to be a fact, and it should be
ratified by the Senate, it would afford me much
pleasure to have the honor to receive the Barrancas
and the Floridas from the Spanish Authorities.
I have a hope that you are unanimously
elected President for the next four years.
I sincerely regret the unpleasant situation in which
the House of Representatives have placed the nation
by the vote respecting the State of Missouri.
Should the House not reconsider the subject,
I shudder for the consequences.
The feelings of the South & West are aroused.
The Eastern & Northern people have fully
unmasked themselves, & if I can judge correctly,
Missouri will not retrograde or humble herself.
What then will be the consequence?
Missouri may seize public property & funds within her limits.
What course will Congress then adopt?
I hope the majority will see the evil of this rash
despotic act & admit the State and prevent the evil.1
Creek delegates on 8 January 1821 ceded some of their
tribal lands in Georgia to the United States.
General Jackson from his Division of the South Headquarters in Nashville
on 12 January 1821 wrote this letter to President James Monroe:
Being advised through a channel that deserves
confidence, that the treaty on the part of Spain is ratified
and on its way to America, and believing notwithstanding
the exertions of a few that it will meet the approbation of the
United States and be ratified by the constitutional authority.
The first is from Major George W. Martin, a young man
of great cleverness, and who has during the Creek War
and the defense of New Orleans done his duty faithfully
in the staff and family of General John Coffee.
He is a young Gentleman of great sobriety, industry and
morality, competent to discharge the duties of the office
of Marshall, for which he asks; or any other in which to
be a good accountant to possess industry, energy and
honesty are necessary qualifications for the incumbent.
I therefore earnestly solicit for him the appointment
of Marshall in the Floridas as soon as
we assume the government thereof.
I can with truth say it cannot be better filled,
either as it regards the Governmental truth or individual
interest, or as it respects the merits of the applicant.
I therefore hope that he may not be neglected.
The other letter is from one of our Circuit Judges,
recommending Doctor Taylor originally from Virginia.
He is a relation of Mr. Madison’s, and from my
acquaintance with him I suppose him worthy of the
recommendation given him by a judge (Alfred Harris).
The Judge is a very worthy man, and in whose
recommendation full credence ought to be reposed.
I am certain that no consideration would induce
him to attach merit to an unworthy individual.
I hope therefore his letter will have the
weight as it respects Doctor Taylor.
I ask for pardon for one observation more
respecting Major Martin and that is, he is needy.
One cause of which is, that from the age of 18 from
1812 until 1815, he was constantly in the field, all his
private interest was neglected, and of course being then
an Orphan without a guardian, his patrimony suffered.
I name this believing it the duty of the Government
whenever an individual has impaired his fortune in
the service of that government, when an opportunity
offers and an office presents itself to be filled, if that
individual is in all respects competent to the duties,
he ought to be preferred to another of only equal
pretensions to qualification, who has rendered no service
to his country nor suffered any privation in its defense.
Knowing and appreciating the services of Major Martin,
I know you will pardon me for this long letter in his favor.2
On January 18 Major General Andrew Jackson met with a
delegation of Cherokees who represented the Creek Path towns.
In his letter to them Jackson concluded:
Friends & Brothers, I never have flattered or deceived
one of my red Brothers—I never tell them lies;
I have not the power to say positively that your request
will be granted, but I say to you, I think it is reasonable
and ought to be granted, and that I will make a faithful
communication of it to your father, the President of the
United States, and use my influence that the reserve you
ask shall be made to you; your happiness and permanent
security require it—the interest of your white Brethren
urges it, from which I conclude it will be granted to you.
I have directed your delegation to Shake you all by the
hand for me as friends & Brothers; and say to you that
I wish the happiness of you & your whole nation.3
Jackson also on January 18 from Nashville wrote this letter
to the United States Secretary of War John C. Calhoun:
On yesterday a deputation of Cherokees from the Creek
path Town consisting of George Fields, Wolfe and Turtle
Fields, handed me the enclosed letter marked A, B, and C.
The paper marked D contains the explanation and talk
delivered me by their confidential agent Turtle Field
and subscribed to by the others, which is also enclosed.
On my return from the Creek frontier last summer,
and passing through the lower part of the Cherokee country,
I found great dissatisfaction prevailed, arising from the
jealousy of Hicks and others, which I believe
I have communicated to you.
When I set out to hold a Treaty with the Choctaws,
I heard that the Path Killer had sent to me a deputation.
They passed my house and finding me not at home,
followed me to the Choctaw nation.
That deputation consisted of part of the
present (viz) George Fields and Wolfe.
They remained with me during the negotiation
with the Choctaws, and appeared very desirous
that the Choctaws should obtain a country adjoining
their Cherokee Brothers on the Arkansas, that
they might aid each other in the day of danger.
Never did they hint their business until
I reached Russelville (Alabama) on my return,
and on the morning when we were to part.
They then informed me of their instructions to consult me,
whether their father the President of the United States
would, upon the terms mentioned in their talk
marked D, and herewith enclosed,
give to them the reservation asked for?
Informing me also, that they had no confidence in Hicks
and others, that their people had not been heard in council,
and for three years had not received any part of the
annuities, and that they were fearful that Dr. Hicks etc.
would at some future day cheat them out of their land.
All of which they wished to make known to their
father the President, and get him to secure them
permanently in the bounds they now ask for.
I then told them that I could make no communication
to their father the President until the chiefs of their
Town would in writing address me on that subject.
When that was done, I would freely make it known through
you to him, and I had no doubt but it would be agreed.
I do believe it to be a reasonable request
and ought to be granted.
It is a small area compared to what their
population entitle them out of the whole
country reserved to the Cherokee nation.
The only good land asked for in the reserve is on
Thompson’s and Brown’s creeks—the distance from
the one to the other is about one and a half miles, and
from Brown’s creek to Short Creek is about one and a half.
The whole reservation does not contain more than
about six thousand acres of good land, the balance
is rock and mountain of the most rugged kind.
I do believe in a political point of view as well as
in justice to these people, their prayer ought to be noticed.
It is inviting Congress to take up the subject,
and exercise its power under the Hopewell Treaty of
regulating all the Indian concerns, as it pleases.
This is a precedent much wanted, that the absurdity in
politics may cease, of a sovereign, independent nation
holding Treaties with these people living within its
territorial limits, acknowledging its sovereignty and laws,
and who, although not citizens, cannot be viewed as aliens,
but as the real subjects of the United States.
If Congress by law will on the terms proposed take up
the subject and give them the grant asked for, it will
give to Georgia and Alabama all the Cherokee lands
not settled upon by those who will petition Congress
at the next session for the right of citizenship.
In short I do believe in a very short time, these people
will offer this part of reserved land to the United States
for land on the Arkansas, and as part of the nation
is now there, good policy will dictate the propriety
of sending all those who do not wish to remain
where they now are as citizens of the United States.
This belief however is bottomed on my opinion merely,
and is to be taken as such.
These people wanting to go to the Arkansas
could not, unless they abandoned their
improvements without compensation.
They now fear the injustice of the upper part of the
nation, and wish to become independent of them and
wish to be in such a situation, that they can remain
where they now are forever, or if they choose, exchange
of their own accord for lands more beneficial to them.
If the real object of the Government is to send all over
the Mississippi that are not disposed to become citizens,
to consolidate our southern population, now is the time
for Congress to take up the subject, allow the grant,
and establish a happy precedent that will establish
hereafter the rule of Legislating for, rather than
Treating with the Indians within our territorial limits.
This will secure to the Indians more justice
and a great saving to the nation.
I have only to add, that I do hope their prayer
may be granted, and the precedent established
of Congress legislating for them.4
President James Monroe in a letter to General Jackson wrote on 24 January 1821:
You will hear from other friends the proceedings
of Congress on the principle of economy,
respecting the reduction of the army.
On that subject there I need say nothing.
We expect daily the treaty from Spain
ceding Florida, ratified by her government.
In that event will you accept the
government of the territory?
The climate will suit you, and it will
give me pleasure to place you in that trust.
Let me hear from you as soon as possible,
as the arrangement must be made, during
the present session of Congress, which will
terminate, as you know, on the 3rd of March.
You declined it when I saw you, but perhaps further
reflection may reconcile the measure to you.5
Andrew Jackson from his Hermitage near Nashville
wrote to President James Monroe on 11 February 1821:
I have the pleasure to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 24 ulto.
I have read in the last papers a full detail of the
proceedings of Congress, and it is with extreme regret
that I find (from the mania for retrenchment) a majority
of the House of Representatives have lost sight of the
safety of our country at home, and its character abroad.
And if this mania is not restrained by the wisdom and
firmness of the Senate, in the event of war our country
must mourn the useless loss of much blood and treasure,
as well as great national disgrace.
If Congress leaves the nation without complete defense,
it at once invites invasion from abroad.
I am pleased to learn that our treaty
with Spain is ratified by her Government.
This with proper means will afford ample
security to the lower Country.
You ask me if I will accept the Government
of this important Territory?
I sincerely thank you for the friendly manner
you have regarded me, and the confidence
you repose in me by this offer.
Actuated from a belief, that my services would not
much avail the public good, nor materially benefit
your administration, I first determined not to accept it;
but from solicitations of my friends at the City
as well as here, strongly urged a conviction that
my acceptance of the appointment would quicken
the organization of the Government, and tend
to draw to that country a respectable population,
I have determined to accept it, provided it will
answer your views, that I may resign as soon as
the Government is organized and in full operation.
If the appointment is given me,
my private concerns will require this course.
My means are not competent to bear the
expenses necessary to execute the Government
of that Territory for any length of time.
My fortune and constitution have already been much
impaired in the service of my country, and although
a prejudiced world may now say, the Seminole
campaign was but a struggle for the present appointment,
yet will I go on, and devote what remains of my strength
to its best interests and in the midst of retirement an
unsullied conscience will bid me pray for its happiness
and raise my feeble voice in its behalf.6
In Washington on 12 March 1821 the Secretary of State John Quincy Adams
wrote this letter to Governor Jackson for the Florida Territory:
By direction of the President of the United States I have
the honor of transmitting to you three Commissions,
1.—As Commissioner to receive possession of the
Provinces of East and West Florida, conformably to
the Treaty between the United States and Spain
concluded on the 22nd of February 1819.
2.—As Governor of the whole Territories
of which possession is to be thus taken.
3.—As Commissioner vested with special and
extraordinary powers, conformably to the stipulations
of the Treaty and to the Act of Congress for carrying
the same into execution; copies of both which are
also among the enclosures with this letter.
Together with the Spanish Ratification of the Treaty,
there was transmitted to the Spanish Minister at this
place a Royal Order to the Captain General and Governor
of the Island of Cuba, for delivering possession of the
Provinces of East and West Florida according to the
stipulations of the second article of the Treaty.
Colonel James G. Forbes has been appointed by the
President Agent and Commissary to deliver this Royal
Order to the Governor of Cuba to concert and arrange
with him the execution of it and to receive any
documents or archives which may be at Havana,
and which are stipulated to be delivered by this article.
A copy of his Instructions is herewith enclosed;
by which you will perceive that he is to deliver
over to you all such documents or archives
as he may receive at Havana.
It is desirable that those relating to each of the two
Provinces should be kept distinct from each other,
and that this Government should be informed
generally of their character and quality.
Colonel Forbes is to take passage at New York
in the United States Sloop of War Hornet, Captain Read;
and on arriving at Pensacola, is to give you
immediate notice, that you may repair thither
to receive possession of that place.
The Hornet is to remain there to escort the
transports in which Spanish officers and troops
and their baggage are to be conveyed to Havana.
The Spanish Minister has expressed a strong wish,
that no troops of the United States may be
introduced into Pensacola or St. Augustine
until after the evacuation by those of Spain.
The object of this request being to avoid any
possible unpleasant altercations between the
soldiers of the two nations, the President thinks it
reasonable to comply with it, unless you should be
of opinion that it will be attended with inconvenience.
In that event he relies that you will take every measure
of precaution which may be necessary to guard against
any such collisions between soldiers; and he trusts with
confidence that in every arrangement for the evacuation,
the utmost delicacy will be observed to avoid everything
which might tend to wound the feelings of any of the
Spanish officers, soldiers, or subjects, who are to remove.
It is the President’s desire that you should appoint
General Gaines or such other officer as you may deem
expedient, to receive possession of St. Augustine;
and that the same Instructions should be
applied to the execution of that service….
The laws of the United States relating to the revenue
and its collection, and those relating to the introduction of
persons of color, being extended by the Act of Congress to
the Territory, the execution of them will be superintended
by officers to be appointed for the several collection districts
to be established by the President conformably to the law.
Your compensation as Governor will be
at the rate of five thousand dollars a year.
As Commissioner for receiving possession
of the Provinces, such reasonable expenses
as may be incurred will be allowed.
Whenever your military command ceases,
your salary as Governor will commence.
In the taking of possession of St. Augustine and
East-Florida, similar proceedings to those relative
to the occupation of West-Florida will be proper.
Both provinces being placed under your direction,
the Proclamation to be issued there will be in your name;
and General Gaines, or such other officer as you may
appoint, will be instructed to consider himself for all the
purposes of the Government subject to your orders.
At the ensuing session of Congress, it is to be
presumed one of the earliest objects of attention
to that body will be to make the further provision
for the Government of these territories.
The President wishes you in the interval to
collect and communicate to this Department
any information relating to the country and its
inhabitants which may be useful to the exercise of
the legislative authority of the Union concerning them.
For the expenses incident to the services herewith
required, you will draw upon this Department.
Strict economy is to be observed in incurring them; and
I have urgently to request the transmission, as early as
possible, of all the accounts resulting from them with the
vouchers necessary for their settlement at the Treasury.7
On 23 March 1821 Secretary of State John Quincy Adams
wrote this letter to Governor Jackson:
By the second article of the Florida Treaty, it is
stipulated that with the Territories of East and West Florida,
the fortifications within the same are ceded and to
be delivered to the United States; but no express
mention is made of the Cannon belonging to them.
By the seventh Article of the same Treaty
it is provided that the United States shall furnish the
transports and escort necessary to convey the Spanish
officers and troops, and their baggage to Havana.
But no mention is made of the transporting of Cannon;
nor is there any express engagement on the part
of the United States to furnish provisions of the
Spanish Officers and Troops on the passage.
It is the opinion of the President, that by a fair
and just construction of the Treaty, the Cannon
belonging to the fortifications are to be considered
as appendages to them, included in the cession,
and are therefore to be left with them.
On the same principle he is of opinion, that with
the transports and escort to convey the Spanish
Officers and troops and their baggage, the
provisions necessary for the passage, are also to be
furnished at the expense of the United States, although
not specially mentioned in the Treaty; and orders have
accordingly been given for the supply of provisions.
It is however possible that the Spanish Governors
of East and West Florida, may upon a different
construction of the Treaty, claim to carry away
the Cannon from the fortifications, because
they are not expressly named in the article.
You will in that case claim that they should be left with the
fortifications, and insist that upon the principle of the other
construction the United States are not bound to furnish
provisions for the passage of the Officers and troops.
You will state that the supply has been ordered in the
confidence, that the benefit of the same liberal Construction
of the Treaty will operate in favor of the United States;
and that if it be not extended to them,
they will have a just claim to be reimbursed
for the expense of supplying provisions.
You will add that as there is no engagement
on their part express or implied, to furnish the
means of transporting the Cannon, they have
made and can make no provision for that purpose.
Should the Spanish Governors allege that their orders
are express, for having the Cannon carried away, you will
leave it to them to make provision for their transportation
and report forthwith the facts to this Department.8
Jackson and his wife Rachel with others left Nashville
on April 14 and reached New Orleans on April 22.
There on the 24th Governor Jackson wrote in a letter
to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams:
I have here met with Major Staunton of the
Quarter-Masters Department, who advises me that
he is without Quartermaster funds for the purpose of
carrying into effect the transportation of the civil and
military officers of Spain from the Floridas as stipulated
under the late treaty with Spain, and informs me that it is
understood by the Quartermaster General, that through
me the funds necessary to carry into effect the stipulation
for transporting the Spanish Troops are to be obtained.
From the perusal of my instructions, it does not appear
that I am authorized to draw upon the State Department
for Quartermaster funds, but will take
upon me the responsibility so to do.
I thought it most advisable to endeavor to raise here
by a draft upon your Department the sum necessary
to meet the expenses of receiving the country and
organizing the Government, fearing that a draft
would not be sold at Mobile or Pensacola.
For this purpose I offered for sale a draft, and found
I could not obtain United States paper for it without a
discount; I therefore directed Major Staunton to apply
to the Branch Bank of the United States, to be informed
whether it would advance upon my draft—it refused.
I then addressed a note to the collector Mr. Chew;
the enclosed is his answer.
I also enclose the statement of Major Staunton, from
which you will discover that without a discount, money
cannot be obtained here on drafts upon the Government.
No delay however shall occur in the transportation of the
Spanish Troops from the want of funds, as far as I can
command them, nor will I ever consent to sell bills on the
Government at a discount to any and more particularly to
the Branch Bank of the United States, in which is deposited
all the revenue of the Government received at this place.
I shall endeavor at Mobile or Pensacola
to raise the necessary funds on drafts.
Should I fail there, I trust upon the receipt of this,
the Government will instruct the Branch Bank to furnish
me with the amount that may be necessary to meet
the expenses that may occur in receiving the Floridas
and organizing the Government thereof.9
Jackson was honored at public dinners in Alabama
at Blakely on May 1 and at Mobile on May 3.
Andrew Jackson resigned his army commission on 1 June 1821.
Governor Jackson wrote on July 17 from Pensacola to Secretary of State Adams:
I have now to inform you that at Ten O’clock of this
day the Province of West Florida with its dependencies etc.
was delivered to me in due form by Don José Callava,
the Commissioner on the part of the King of Spain.
I shall take the earliest opportunity to communicate the
circumstances preceding and attending the surrender;
suffice it to say, for the present that it was accomplished
in the most friendly and harmonious manner,
although at one moment from a misapprehension on
both sides, I did not flatter myself with so happy an issue.
Some Ordinances for the better Government
of the Town and Province, and in fact which
are absolutely necessary have been prepared.
Copies of these, as well as a report of my whole
proceedings as Commissioner for receiving possession
of Florida, will be forwarded to you as soon as possible,
and I am satisfied they will be found strictly within
the powers with which I am clothed by the President.
None of the Officers appointed by the President
for this Province have yet joined me:
whether any of those appointed for East Florida
have arrived, I am not certainly informed.10
General Andrew Jackson on 18 July 1821 from Pensacola
wrote this letter to Brigadier-General John Coffee:
On yesterday I received possession of this place
with the whole of West Florida and its dependencies.
Thrice have I seen the Spanish colors lowered and
the American colors waving over this place, and my
fatigue has been greater this, than at any other period.
I am engaged establishing some rules and
regulations by which a good police may be
established, and the health of the place preserved.
Its police is wretched, the whole town inundated; it has
rained for two months and continues still every day to rain.
The ladies are in good health and spirits, the transports
under convoy of the Hornett are still in view, and the
parting friends, cast a melancholy gloom over the place.
However it will be a momentary thing, and I will have the
pleasure to be enabled to lay the foundation of permanent
happiness to the people, and lasting prosperity to the city.
However I am contented that this will terminate my
political career, and that I will have the pleasure to see
you at your house in all the month of October next, fully
satisfied with the Hermitage to spend the rest of my days.
I am anxious to hear from you to be advised whether any
engagement for my place near you has been made with
General Brahan, if not what you have determined on as
the best plan to be adopted under the act of Congress
and the instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury.11
While Jackson governed Florida from March 1821 to the end of the year,
he promoted cultural events to Americanize Florida that included the Jacksonian
Commonwealth Theatre and the Eagle Tavern that offered baths and a bowling alley.
A printing press arrived in August followed by a library
and reading room with fifty newspapers and periodicals.
Jackson made many appointments but none for personal gain,
though he urged enterprising men to seek wealth in Florida.
William G. D. Worthington aided by Captain John Bell
governed what had been East Florida.
Jackson insisted on no distinction between rich and poor,
and he declared that all freemen had rights including Indians,
though he wanted all 3,899 natives removed from Florida in 1822.
He did not consider the tribes sovereign nations there but treated them as dependents.
Governor Jackson from Pensacola on 26 August 1821
wrote a report to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams that begins:
The enclosed documents will advise you of an
occurrence, painful to me, but unavoidably necessary,
and dictated by the imperious rules of justice,
to save the unprotected orphan from being ruined
by the most cruel oppression by the most corrupt
and wicked combination, I ever investigated.
In the reestablishment and resuscitation of the Judiciary in
West Florida, and from the various distribution of the Judicial
functions, I had indulged the hope, that no cases would
occur to compel me to exercise the Judicial powers with
which I was invested by my commission from the President.
I was well aware that much corruption existed in
Spanish Judicial proceedings, but still my mind was not
prepared to expect such a scene of combined wickedness
and corruption, as has been brought to light by this
investigation, and which the enclosed extracts
taken from the original documents or records,
and certified by the Alcade of Pensacola exhibit.
They relate to the succession or estate of Nicholas
Maria Vidal, who died in this place about the year 1807,
having made his will, leaving persons in this Country
his heirs, but who from that time to this day,
have never received one cent of their inheritance.
It was this case which gave rise to the proceedings alluded
to, marked no. 1, and to which I beg leave to refer you.
The Document no. 2 is an abstract of the whole
proceedings instituted by the heirs for the recovery of the
testamentary papers, and other documents relative to the
estate of their deceased Father, and for the recovery of
which, I was compelled to exercise my Judicial functions
and to take the energetic measures I did, and which were
well warranted by the laws of Spain as well as by those of
the United States; and which could alone have preserved
to the heirs of Vidal, the evidence of their right of property.
Without these records they would have been unable to
compel the House of Inerarity and Forbes, the depository
and debtor of the estate, to do them right and justice.
This act of justice was due to them
by every law human and divine.
By the second article of the late Treaty with Spain,
this right was expressly guaranteed, and under that Article
Col. Callava as the Commissioner of Spain, was bound to
deliver those Documents as the evidence of the right of
property here, at the time of his surrendering the Country,
and with other papers which he did deliver….
P. S. I send you a newspaper containing an Ordinance
“for the better regulation of the Harbor of Pensacola”
and another “regulating the Fees of Justices of the peace,”
both of which have been passed since my last
communication and from my ill health and great press
of business, I send you through the paper enclosed.11
Governor Jackson’s long Talk with Indian Chieftains at Pensacola
was presented on 20 September 1821 and later published.
The first paragraph introduced his talk which began:
On the 18th of September 1821, I was visited in the
Executive Chamber by three chiefs of the Florida Indians,
viz. Blunt, Neamothla and Mulatto King, who through their
interpreter made known to me that the object of their visit
was to be informed what their Father, the President
intended to do with them, that various reports had reached
them, and that Neamothla had been up to see the head man
of the Creek Nation, and that General McIntosh told them
that I would deprive them of all their lands, only giving to
each 640 acres of land for themselves and their families
to live on, Upon which, I gave them the following talk:
Friends and Brothers, I am glad to see you and
to shake you by the hand in friendship and to assure
you that as the hatchet has been buried, your father
the President never wishes to see it again raised.
Your Nation was once led astray by the advice and
counsel of wicked and bad men; the Creek Nation
had listened to the same bad counsel, and in
consequence had brought destruction upon themselves.
Your father the President gave them peace.
McQueen and Francis with a number of Warriors
would not regard this peace; but fled from their Country
and came here, where they adhered to the false
counsel of British Agents and Spanish incendiaries,
and your Nation having pursued the same course,
compelled your Father the President to send his
white children to chastise and subdue you, and
thereby give peace to his children both red and white.
This was four years ago, and all those Indians
who had raised the bloody hatchet, were ordered to
return to the Creek nation and there live in peace,
where they would again be taken by the hand in friendship
by their father, the President, and by him be protected.
I repeat that I am glad to see you in friendship and to
give you assurance that your Father the President has
no other wish than to be in friendship with you,
and that having buried the hatchet with his red children,
he is anxious to have them collected together at
some one point where he can protect them,
either within the limits of your Old Nation the Creeks,
or at such other point where they can be altogether,
and within his power to protect and make them happy.
I give you a plain, straight talk,
and do not speak with a forked tongue.
It is necessary that you be brought together, either within
the bounds of your old Nation and joined in the War against
us, must return to their country, where their chiefs are
willing to receive them, and where they will be protected
by their Father the President, for they cannot be permitted
to settle all over the Floridas and on her Sea Coast.
Your White brethren must be settled there,
to keep from you bad men and bad talks.
I will gladly meet you tomorrow in this room and listen to
your talks and wishes, and give you such information as
you may require, and I possess, and I wish to be informed
where the Red people in the Floridas are settled that
I may make it known to your Father the President,
that he may be enabled to judge of your situation
and point out where you are to be collected together
to insure you protection and that you may be
treated as the rest of his beloved children.
Your former disobedience is forgotten,
and he again receives you as his children.
The Chief replied, that he had heard many rumors,
that he had received no satisfaction until he came to see
me, that he was very glad to hear this talk from me,
and that he believed it to be a straight talk.12
On 4 October 1821 Jackson attended a farewell dinner and a ball.
The next day he wrote a letter to President Monroe that began:
Having organized the Government of the Floridas,
and it being now in full operation, I have determined to take
a little respite from the laborious duties with which I have
been surrounded, and leave the charge necessary, as
Mrs. Jackson is anxious to return home, and the situation
of her health requires that she should pass through the
newly settled country before the inclement weather sets in.
She and my family will leave this on the 7th, and I shall
accompany or overtake them with a view to return,
should it become necessary for the good order of
society here before the meeting of the next Congress.
From the report of Mr. Worthington, charged
with the Government of East Florida, I have
but little doubt that the Government of East Florida
will be well and satisfactorily administered.13
Jackson left Pensacola on October 8,
and he arrived at Nashville on November 7.
Six days later Jackson resigned as Governor of Florida,
but Monroe did not accept it until December 1.
On 22 November 1821 Jackson wrote a seven-page report
to Secretary of State John Q. Adams that included this:
The faith of Treaties, says Vattel is holy and sacred
between nations whose safety and repose it secures,
and he who violates it, at the same time violates the laws
of Nations; and if the people are true to Themselves,
infamy will ever be the fate of him who violates his faith.
By the 2nd Article of the Treaty, which I have quoted,
all Archives and documents relating to the property
and sovereignty of the Country ceded;
was to have been delivered with the Territories.
I would ask then, were not the papers which
were secreted and attempted to be carried away.14
Governor Jackson had written to President Monroe on November 13 about
his wish to resign, and on 31 December 1821 President Monroe wrote this response:
I received some time since your resignation and should
have answered it sooner, had I not wished to retain you
in the service of your Country, until a temporary
Government Should be organized over the Floridas, and
an opportunity be afforded me to appoint your Successor.
On great consideration, especially as I know, that it is
your fixed purpose to withdraw, I have at length determined
to accept it, in which light you will view this letter.
The same sentiments which I have heretofore
entertained of your Integrity, Ability & Eminently
useful services are still cherished towards you.
That you may long live in health & in the affections
of your Country is my most earnest desire.15
On 3 January 1822 Andrew Jackson returned to his Hermitage
and hired Stephen Sharrock to be overseer on his Big Spring farm.
Jackson dismissed Sharrock on February 28,
and Egbert Harris was made the overseer on March 14.
Andrew Jackson from Nashville on 22 January 1822
wrote this letter to President James Monroe:
I have this moment seen the national Intelligencer of the
2nd of this Instant, where it appears that a call has been
made by the house on you for all information relative to the
proceedings against Col. Callava, and all information relative
to the dispute between Judge Fromentine and myself.
I hope and trust, sir, every communication between
Fromentine and me and every proof accompanying them
may be laid before the House and every document relating
to the case of Col. Callava and all communications thereon,
and as I have seen it announced that my resignation
has been accepted of, and I am still without any
information from you or the Secretary of State
upon this subject, the mover of this resolution has
declared that he has brought it forward with the avowed
intention of moving an impeachment against me.
I have to request and do request that my resignation may
not be accepted until after a full and final investigation into
my whole conduct as Governor of the Floridas, and until
after I am advised of the result, as Justice to myself and
country, may make it necessary that I may have it in my
power before I resign, to make an application to Congress.
I have to request that on the receipt of this you will make
it known to Congress that my resignation has not been
accepted of, and at my request will not be, until a full
investigation into my whole conduct as Gov of the Floridas
has gone through and every officer of the Floridas.16
Jackson on 31 January 1822 from his Hermitage wrote
in a letter to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams:
I also include herewith (marked no. 2) for the
information of the President of the United States the
certificate of Mr. Henry Wilson, a man of respectability,
that goes to show the fraudulent practices committed
and committing by the officers of Spain with regard to
land titles in the Floridas, and forcibly adds to the
propriety of adopting the rule I have heretofore
recommended, of appointing none to the office of
commissioners for the adjudication of land titles in Florida,
but those of honesty, integrity, and entirely disinterested.
Should this rule not be adopted,
great frauds will be imposed upon the United States.
My resignation having been accepted, I am very
anxious to have my accounts closed in your Department
with instructions to pay over the public funds remaining
in my hands, and instructed to what date my account
for stationary and post office account should be made
up to, and what directions I am to give to the public
communications I may receive from the Floridas
from Col. Walton and Mr. Worthington.
The public funds in my hands are mostly in the
New Orleans Bank, in deposit—the balance in the
Branch Bank of the state of Tennessee at Nashville
in New Orleans notes, a special Deposit, all which
are available to the Government, and which I am
anxious to receive instructions to pay over.17
Jackson from his Hermitage on February 6 wrote this brief letter
to the retired President Thomas Jefferson:
While Doctor Thomas G. Watkins resided in this state,
there was a considerable difference between him
and myself—which I am informed has operated
much to the Doctor’s prejudice.
He called on me yesterday at my house
for the purpose of reconciliation.
He made such explanations as had induced me to
restore him to the standing occupied in my estimation
before the unpleasant difference took place.
At his request it affords me pleasure
to make this communication.
I am happy to learn from the Doctor that you
continue to enjoy good health in your old age.
That your health and life may long be preserved
for the benefit of society and the literary world
is the fervent wish of your friend.18
Andrew Jackson from his Hermitage on 19 March 1822
wrote this letter to President James Monroe:
I received a few days ago the documents that
accompanied your communication to Congress
on the 28th of January last agreeable to Mr. Whitman’s
Resolution of the 2nd of the same month which
were transmitted to me by Mr. Adams.
After a full and dispassionate examination of those
documents, and particularly those from the pen of Judge
Fromentine, being the first opportunity I have had of seeing
them, I cannot withhold an expression of my surprise at the
manner in which you introduced that subject to Congress
in your Message at the commencement of the Session.
I would not be exercising that candor towards you which
a long and steadfast friendship on my part dictates were
I to withhold from you the state of my feelings on
comparing those documents with that part of your
Message which relates to this particular transaction.
I had a right to believe and did believe before I saw
those singular productions of Judge Fromentine’s that
you were in possession of testimony of a very different
description, which had induced you to express yourself
in the way you did, when you supposed that both of us
had been actuated by equally “pure motives.”
From our long acquaintance, and the friendship that
has always existed between us, I had supposed that
you were sensible that I would not make any statements
that were not founded in fact: but if any doubt had
existed on your mind, from an apprehension that my
communications had been written while under the
influence of great excitement, I should have supposed
the evidence by which these statements were substantiated,
would have satisfied you as to their correctness.
If on this subject it was thought to be necessary
to express an opinion in your Message, Justice,
to all concerned required that it should have
conformed to the facts which had been established.
Here I must be permitted to say, that from the base
falsehoods, slander, and distorted facts contained in those
communications of Judge Fromentine—his continued attempt
to exercise other powers than those delegated to him,
as defined by you and explained by me—his abandoning the
character of Judge and taking upon himself that of a lawyer,
and his reiterated charges that I had usurped powers not
delegated to me by you—and this too after you had
defined his Jurisdiction, and your approbation had been
given to my official acts—he must have been actuated
by other motives, than what he conceived, an honest desire
of discharging the legitimate functions of his office.
This must manifestly appear when the proof is adverted to,
of his acknowledgment, “that he (after seeing my powers &
instructions) had no Jurisdiction except such as grew out of
the two acts of Congress extended over the Floridas,
and that he might as well return to New Orleans.”
I am free to declare to you, that I think much injustice
has been done in that part of your Message alluded to;
and when it was written, Justice as well as friendship
to me required that the facts upon which your opinion
was founded should have been stated, and the documents
have accompanied the message; or if this course was
not deemed proper, the expression of an opinion,
as to mine, and Judge Fromentine’s motives, should have
been withheld altogether from Congress and the nation.
I feel satisfied in my own mind, that the manner in which
your communication to Congress was written, made an
impression in part on the public mind unfavorable to me,
and such as was not authorized by the facts in the case;
I doubt not however, that the publication of
those documents now will remove in
a great degree those impressions.
The manner however in which this transaction was
presented to the nation, has furnished and still will
furnish my enemies and those who are determined
not to be satisfied with a pretext to abuse me.
I have adopted as a rule, through life never to abandon
my friend unless he first abandons me; and never to believe
that my friend acts unjustly towards me or intends to do me
an injury, until an opportunity is afforded for explanation.
It is in this spirit, that this letter is written, and with a
view also of affording an opportunity for explanation,
should it comport with your wishes to give it.
In the meantime my friendly course towards you will
as heretofore be continued until I hear from you upon
this subject, or ample time be afforded for that purpose.
As an evidence of my still entertaining the same friendship
for you, as I always did, I herewith enclose a copy of an
anonymous letter received on the 6th of January last
It had been sent to Pensacola and from thence to Nashville,
where I received it at the time before stated.
I have forwarded it to you, that you may Judge
for yourself of the views and motives of the writer.
The circumstance of my enclosing it to you is sufficient
proof that I have no confidence in the statement it contains.
I never could suspect you, whom I have always
considered one of the most sincere, candid, Just and
impartial men, guilty of such duplicity and hypocrisy.
Could I for a moment entertain such an opinion, I should
deem you unworthy of the high & dignified station you fill.
That you might be enabled to Judge whether your
enemies are within the range of your Cabinet or elsewhere;
and that you might be advised of the conduct and motives
of some of them, friendship has dictated to me the
propriety of sending you a copy of this anonymous letter;
and particularly under existing circumstances.
Justice to Mr. Adams and Mr. Calhoun requires that
I should explicitly state that no suspicion ought to
attach to either of them of having written or of
having any knowledge or agency in writing it.
Their acts so far as I have any Knowledge of them,
will not authorize the belief that they could be
capable of such duplicity and treachery to anyone.
In their official acts with me they have at all times, and on
all occasions manifested a manly, energetic, dignified and
honorable course in all respects worthy of themselves—
worthy of great and enlightened statesmen,
and worthy of the confidence reposed in them.
If in this letter I shall have used any expressions,
that may be calculated to wound your feelings, I hope you
will do me the Justice to believe they were not intended.
I have always since our first acquaintance commenced,
been in the practice of speaking to you in the
language of freedom, and sincerity and hope
that I may be permitted to continue in that
practice, so long as our friendship shall exist.
I will not then disguise the fact, that
my feelings have been excited on this occasion.
Both my Judgement and my conscience, after
a deliberate review of my whole proceedings in Florida,
approve my acts while Governor of that Territory—
and all I ask is that, that Justice may be meted to me
which I am entitled to, and facts warrant.19
The Philadelphia Columbian Observer began publishing
on April 6 with Stephen Simpson as editor.
They published a favorable report on Andrew Jackson
and later would support him for President.
On April 22 the House of Representatives approved a resolution to investigate
the War Department’s contract with corrupt Rip Rap Schoals of Virginia.
Jackson wrote a letter to Col. James Gadsden from his Hermitage
on 3 May 1822, and he discussed politics.
Jackson also took care of other wards, and he was especially proud
of his wife’s nephew Andrew Jackson Donelson who had
graduated second in his class at West Point in 1820.
In a letter to Donelson on 20 May 1822 Jackson advised him:
One of my objects in placing you at Lexington
was that you might become acquainted with the
young gentlemen from various parts of the south
and west—that when you enter into professional life,
which may be a prelude to political; you may be
known—for I will not disguise, I look forward,
if you live, to the time when you will be selected
to preside over the destinies of America.
I therefore wish you for the present
to steer clear of all political broils.
I do not mean that you should be silent on political subjects;
but when you speak on them, do it with reflection embracing
general remarks unless where it may become necessary to
give an opinion, then, if necessary give it agreeable to your
opinion of the subject before you, agreeable to your ideas
of right, and Justice, regardless of consequences, always
keeping in view principles, not men, the public good
separate from individual aggrandizement—constitutional
and legal rights separate from individual views—
in short, measures that will promote the public good,
regardless of individual views or the
aggrandizement of party purposes.20
Jackson insisted on no distinction between rich and poor,
and he declared that all freemen had rights including Indians,
though he wanted all 3,899 natives removed from Florida in 1822.
He did not consider the tribes sovereign nations there but treated them as dependents.
James Parton published his Life of Jackson in three long volumes in 1860,
and on the second page of his third volume he wrote,
The man who contributed most to the
elevation of General Jackson to the presidency
was Major William B. Lewis of Nashville.
General Jackson himself said as much.
From the year 1822 to 1829 the principal
employment of Major Lewis’ leisure hours was
electioneering for General Jackson; and when his
efforts had been crowned with success, he accompanied
the General to Washington and lived with him in the
presidential mansion, sharing the private apartments
of the President, and not infrequently his bed-chamber.
Major Lewis, in most matters political and domestic,
was General Jackson’s second self.
Nothing was done without his cognizance,
and few things without his aid.
Possessed of an ample estate, modest and unaspiring,
the labors of Major Lewis on behalf of General Jackson
were disinterested and voluntary, and his influence
upon the General was at all times salutary.
He almost alone retained to the last the friendship
of General Jackson without agreeing with him
in opinion upon subjects of controversy.21
On 28 June 1822 Jackson in a private letter to Secretary of War Calhoun
and discussed the problem of the Treasury Secretary William Crawford.
Patrick Henry Darby began publishing the Nashville Constitutional Advocate
on 23 July 1822 and would support Jackson for President.
On 27 July 1822 the caucus in the Tennessee House nominated Andrew Jackson
for President, and one week later the state Senate did the same.
On that August 3 Samuel Houston from Murfreesboro,
Tennessee wrote this letter to Jackson:
On this day a resolution has passed the Senate
(unanimously) recommending you as a person the most
worthy & suitable to be the next President of our union.
The expression to you cannot be esteemed by you
anything less than a grateful, an honorable expression
of the feelings of your fellow Citizens.
I am aware of your sensibility on such occasions;
but the crisis requires that something should be done!
The Canker worms have been (already too long) gnawing
at the very core & vitals of our Government, & corruption
stalks abroad without obstruction or apprehension.
You are sensible how long I have been faithless
in the Heads of Department; it was a time
when you hoped better things than corruption.
You had confidence in men, perhaps you have yet.
But if you will allow me to Divine anything,
I will assure you that you have no friendship
to expect from “The Gentlemen of Washington.”
While it was probable that you could or would throw
anything in the scale of either Champion;
hope of that influence & advantage would readily
induce the friendship of either—
You are now before the eyes of a nation;
you have nothing to fear, but everything to expect.
The hopes of men in Washington will be
frost bitten by the bare mention of your name!
Then can it be expected that every effort will not be
used to Guard against the rule of Justice & Truth?
They will strike like the wounded viper;
fall victims of their own poison, rather than
see Integrity (the great enemy of corruption) triumph.
In calculating the rest of the next election, I reflect thus.
You have been your country’s Great Centinel;
at a time when her watchmen had been caught slumbering
on post—Her Capitol had been reduced to ashes.
You have been her faithful guardian, her well tried servant!
This admitted will not the nation look to you again?
Will it not regard your interests, when they are
connected with your own country’s future welfare.
There will be no caucus at the next Congress!
The next President will be the “People’s Choice.”
These matters considered,
I have very little to dread of the result.
As to my own wishes they are only for
the best interests & honor of my country.
You have friends throughout America: each had his sphere,
& each will feel & act from the best motives—
Some one or two Gentlemen quit the house
on the occasion; they will repent it!22
On 7 August 1822 the new Washington Republican and Congressional Examiner
backed John C. Calhoun for Vice President, and they opposed William H. Crawford.
On 7 October 1822 the Masonic Grand Lodge of Tennessee accepted Jackson
as a member, and they elected him Grand Master.
On November 18 a caucus in the Kentucky legislature
nominated Henry Clay for President.
The United States recognized the independence of Mexico on December 12.
During 1822 Jackson at home suffered a breakdown for four months.
His physician had him treated with lead and mercury
which were not known to be toxic then.
Jackson also took care of other wards, and he was especially proud of
Andrew Jackson Donelson who graduated second in his class at West Point in 1820.
Jackson eventually joined the Presbyterian Church of his mother and wife,
and he could be very dogmatic; yet he admired Swedenborg’s concepts of the Deity.
Jackson in January-February 1823
On 8 January 1823 Andrew Jackson was present at a public dinner in Nashville
commemorating the Battle of New Orleans.
On January 10 he wrote this letter to John Coffee:
I have Just received your letter of the 1st. instant
and regret to learn that your two youngest have the
whooping cough, but as it appears here of a mild kind,
trust in God that they will speedily recover from it.
Permit me to recommend a free use of cotton seed tea;
it is the most sovereign and safe
remedy that can be applied.
I never knew it to fail of a happy effect when applied;
the seed must be put in a bag to prevent a mixture of
the lint with the tea, a little bruised, and well boiled.
I regret much the delay of Parson and the hands there;
they are much wanted here to prepare for another crop,
particularly as all their cabins will have to be made
after they come in, as I find it as much as my hands do
here to get firewood, feed the stock & Bale the cotton.
I would thank you to write a line to Mr. Parsons
to leave the crop if it is not housed before this
reaches you, as I wrote him to let Mr. Winston
have it on the shares for picking out—which
I suppose his overseer would not agree to take,
or he would have advised me of his being on the way.
I want him here as I cannot attend
to the hands in inclement weather.
I cannot sell my cotton there to any merchant here on
terms that I think would be doing Justice to my little ward,
have made an agreement with Major George Martin—that
he is to have the cotton, or the proceeds thereof at Orleans,
he being accountable for the exchange at the time the
cotton is sold, or at such exchange as you & him may
think is equitable in the month of March next;
it is now at Nashville at 25 percent premium.
Should cotton rise in price, exchange will decline;
if cotton declines, exchange will still rise.
My object is to contract with the Major on fair terms
so that he will lose nothing, and Justice will
be done to my little ward Hutchings.
I feel a desire from a full exposure of his situation,
and that of his mother & Brother, to let him have the
use of the proceeds of this cotton to the first of June next,
and still longer should it be in my power to let him
have it longer, it will be the means to establish his credit
in Philadelphia for punctuality, and enable him to progress
with his mercantile Views with safety and advantage.
I leave it with you & him to determine
to whom to ship it at New Orleans.
I should prefer to have it sold from on Board the Boat
as the drayage, warfage & storage is a very great
deduction from the present prices; I leave this to you
and him to arrange as the more it neats,
the better for him as well as me, and the sooner
he can use the proceeds the better for him.
The Major will secure the payment.
You have not said whether your assembly has risen.
If it has, Col. Winston is at home and will,
I suppose, be prepared to deliver the negroes,
and in due time take up his notes.
The negroes I have determined to deliver over
to Mr. Nicholson for A. J. Hutchings; you will please
to have them Valued by such men as will be
satisfactory to those I have to account.
I will risk the suit of old Bennett
and endeavor to be prepared to purchase
in the land when sold what has been forfeited.
I hope Col. Winston will be punctual as part of the
money I will need to finally close my accounts here.
I will be happy to hear from you as soon as
you hear from Col. Winston—and can advise me
of the prospects of the payments by him.
I write in haste—will write you again shortly.
Major Martin will be out in a few days.
I hope my cotton will be all ready
by the time he reaches you.
Mrs. J. & myself respectfully present our best wishes
to you Polly & the little ones with our prayers
for their speedy recovery and future health.
I have been spending the 8th by invitation
with our friends in Nashville.
The papers & Major Martin will advise you
of these proceedings.
I note your postscript.
I am happy that Mr. Crawford has but few friends
in Alabama—him & Clay, as I believe, are trying their
individual strength, and the weakest will yield to the
strongest—Mr. Adams & Mr. Clay as you will have seen
are about to enter upon a public contest.
Adams will lay him as low as he had done Jonathan Russell.
I cannot believe that either Crawford or Clay can be brought
into the presidential chair—and if so, I am content—and the
nation will have nothing to fear from faction & intrigue.23
Samuel Houston wrote in a letter from Nashville to Jackson on January 19
that they must be saved from Crawford and Georgia politics.
Houston believed that honest men would not be for Crawford,
and he predicted that Mr. Adams would politically bury Mr. Clay.
Jackson wrote in a letter to John Henry Eaton on 21 January 1823:
I have viewed with pain the present unhappy
difference between the Senate & Executive &
have reason to believe the same feeling general.
To what possible consequences its continuance may lead,
I presume not to say; it is certain but one feeling would
pervade all parties on a harmonious reconciliation
involving neither principle nor prerogative.
I have suggested the mode which in my opinion
should produce that desired object; and have
only to add a hope that the Executive & Senate
concurring in opinion with me, may unite on that ground….
Let Butler & Gadsden be arranged as suggested,
and while it will produce this desired result, the Executive &
Senate may rest assured it will give general satisfaction to
the Army and promote the good of the public service.24
Col. Anthony Butler had urged Jackson to run for President in 1815.
Jackson from his Hermitage wrote a letter to Butler on January 13.
General John Coffee on 17 February 1823 wrote:
Col. A. Butler in Louisiana who under Ideas of Hostility to
Crawford wishes to bring Clay into notice in the two states.
I have long known this—but determined to take no part
until now; I have not lisped it—note I have been silent
until Mr. Baldwin of Pennsylvania wrote with great
Frankness to know if elected as President would I serve.
I answered that I never had been an applicant for office
that I never would—that I had never declined rendering
service to my country when required by the unsolicited
voice of my Country & that I never would whatever
might be my own opinion of my deficiency in qualifications.
The people having judged—on this principle I had
always acted, and from which I never would depart—
when called on from any other quarter, the same reply
will be made, and I will not speak until applied to.
You now have my views & course you can use it
as you please—my paper is written over, if any other
explanation is wanted, any of my friends can have it
when applied for in the way expressed.25
Jackson in February arbitrated a mercantile dispute at Gallatin, Tennessee.
Being the ambassador in Mexico was a job that Jackson did turn down,
and he explained why in this letter to President James Monroe on 19 February 1823:
I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt
of your letter of the 30th ult. which has just reached me,
advising of my nomination to and confirmation by the
Senate of the United States as envoy extraordinary
& minister plenipotentiary to Mexico.
I shall always view this as an additional proof
of your friendship towards me, and as a further
proof of my country’s confidence in my integrity
as a public officer, and as such I duly appreciate it,
although I cannot accept the appointment conferred
for several reasons, some of which I will state.
Under the present revolutionary State of Mexico,
caused by the Despotic acts of Iturbide, whose
tyrannical yoke the republicans under Victoria are
endeavoring to shake off, it appears to me that the
appearance of a minister from the United States at
Mexico would prove detrimental to the cause of freedom
in that country, and might aid the Tyrant Iturbide in
riveting the chains of Despotism upon his country.
I never can become the instrument, however
innocently, to aid Tyranny to oppress a people
who of right ought to be free, and whose freedom
is so important to the United States.
Was I to go there my feelings would be so different from the
Emperors, that it would be impossible for our sentiments to
accord, and evil instead of benefit to my country might grow
out of it, and I have made it a uniform rule of my conduct
never to accept a public station where it did appear to me
I could render no benefit to my country—added to this
Mrs. Jackson could not be prevailed upon to go to that
country; to separate again from her for two or more years,
when the interest of my country does not imperiously
call upon me to make this sacrifice, when this trust
can as well, if not better, be performed by another,
all which will I hope be considered by you &
my country sufficient reasons for declining it.
Under all circumstances it is no small gratification to me,
to find from your letter that there is no obligation on me
to accept, otherwise than may be all together in
accordance with my own views and wishes, the
appointment being made without consulting me.
Major Eaton had advised me of your consultation
with him on the subject of nominating me
to the Senate, and your friendly views.
My answer to him will have shown that I fully appreciate
your friendly intentions although I could not accept the
appointment, which he will have made known to you.
I have received a letter from Mr. Poinsette giving his
views of the present disturbed state of Mexico, which
fully confirms other accounts from there and shows the
propriety of the view I have taken of it, and confirms me
in the idea that it might prove detrimental to the
republican interest by sending out a minister under
existing circumstance—and Mr. Poinsette’s ideas,
I think, well worthy of your mature deliberation.26
On 10 March 1823 Jackson from his Hermitage wrote in a letter to John Coffee:
I find from a letter received from our friend
Mr. James Jackson, that he begins to see the
combination of parties between Mr. Crawford & Clay.
The latter, through his friends made great exertions to
obtain a nomination by the Louisiana Legislature, my friend
writes me, when the day came there was but three could
be mustered in his favor, and postponed the meeting.
My friend also writes me, that Governor Carroll
has been writing to some members there, that
Clay will get a unanimous vote in Tennessee.
I mean the first opportunity to show the Governor this letter,
which is all the notice I mean to take of him—his friends
shall also see it—& I suppose the Individuals of Tennessee
will inquire by what right he attempts to give the lie
to the expression of the Legislature of the State—
should the people take up the subject in the south
& the west, as they have in Pennsylvania, they will soon
undeceive Mr. Clay’s friends—if the people of Alabama,
Mississippi & Louisiana follow the example of Pennsylvania,
they will place Clay & Crawford where they ultimately
will be: Dehors the political combat—but their intrigues
are united, and their friends are industrious.27
Jackson also wrote to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams on March 15:
I have received your letter of the 19th ulto,
and with it the commission as Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico.
While I recognize in this act of my Government a further
proof of its approbation of my official conduct heretofore;
and of a continuation of that confidence, still for
various reasons, which have been communicated
in a letter to Mr. Monroe, I cannot in justice to
myself or country consent to act on this mission.
The present unhappy revolutionary state of Mexico;
with an oppressed People struggling for their liberties
against an Emperor whom they have branded with the
epithets of Usurper and Tyrant convinces me that no
minister from the United States could at this period
effect any beneficial treaty for his country,
and of the impolicy of a Republican Representative
at a court, which might be construed as countenancing
the Empire in opposition to a Republic.
The People of Mexico in their honest efforts for
freedom command my warmest sympathies,
and their success is intimately connected with the
ultimate and general triumph of these liberal
principles for which our Revolutionary worthies bled,
and which now form the pride and boast of United America.
With these feelings and wishes and which I believe
to be in unison with my fellow citizens;
you may readily conceive that my situation at Mexico
would be embarrassing to me independent of the
conviction that I was rendering service to my country.
To render service could alone constitute
any motive for again acting in a public capacity.
The President has been kind enough to say that not
having consulted me before he made the nomination
it is not obligatory on me to accept: but that I will not
act as meets my convenience and approbation.
The reasons stated above will show that in consulting my
own feelings I have not been uninfluenced by considerations
connected with the best interests of my country.28
Mexico’s Emperor Iturbide abdicated on March 19
to avoid a civil war and went into exile.
Secretary of War John C. Calhoun from Washington wrote this letter
to Andrew Jackson on 30 March 1823:
Incessant application to official duties since the
commencement of the late session of Congress
compelled me to suspend wholly my private
correspondence, which I hope you will accept
as an apology for not acknowledging your favor
of the 12th December last at an earlier period.
I find few with whom I accord so fully
in relation to political subjects as yourself.
I have a thorough conviction that the noble maxim
of your’s, to do right and fear not is the very basis,
not only of Republicanism, according to its
true acceptation, but of all political virtue;
and that he who acts on it, must in the end prevail.
The political gamblers will fail.
The cause of the Georgian is,
if I mistake not, rapidly declining.
It has no foundation in truth,
and can only be propped by false pretenses.
Should he fail in New York, as I think he must,
he will have not the least prospect of success.
Mr. Clay, I think, is not advancing on this side
of the mountains, though his friends speak
confidently of his strength to the West.
They expect him to be nominated
in Louisiana during this session.
Our news from Europe has been interesting,
and I expect will be still more so by the next arrival.
It is not improbable that a mighty contest has
commenced there not for commerce or territory, but
to crush any vestige of liberty on the continent of Europe.
In its progress it will probably approach our shores, as Cuba
will be involved in all likelihood in the course of events.
That England looks to that Island; and will be ready
to seize on it, if a favorable opportunity offers,
can hardly be doubted, and that such an event
would be full of danger to this union, is not less clear.
I deem the moment important, and do think
the country ought to be prepared for the worst.
Without Cuba our confederacy is not complete; and with it
in the hands of the English, the best line of communication
between the entrance ports would be intercepted.
Say to Col. Gadsden, if you please, that I will write him
in a few days; and that the President has selected him
to treat with the Indians in Florida,
which I hope he may find convenient to accept.
I think his chance of being confirmed as
adjutant general at the next session is good.29
Jackson in April 8-12 presided at a meeting in Nashville
of the Grand Lodge of the Tennessee Masons.
On 30 July 1823 Colonel Gadsden from St. Augustine
wrote in this letter to Andrew Jackson:
I am happy to hear of the prospects in the Political world;
though I do not rely so much on the influence of
newspaper articles as you appear to do.
The men most assailed and with most
justice often succeed politically.
It arises either from the effect of political excitement
which blinds the judgement and induces a population
to follow their leader right or wrong; or from a total
absence of virtue and patriotism in the community.
Those under the latter denomination have been
appropriately designated as Radicals.
Men who are for themselves; who fight under no banner:
who regard not the good of their country
but only look to their individual aggrandizement.
To such Mr. Crawford has appealed and with effect;
for there is no man who in any way contributes to his
elevation that does not expect an equivalent in return.
His friends, with all the disclosures which have
been made, are still confident: vigilant and active.
They have in view their single object: their party
is well organized, and they move in concert.
There is no doubt that the party opposed to Mr. Crawford
could triumph if they were united: but we find them
divided between yourself: Calhoun and Adams.
There ought therefore to be an understanding between
the friends of you three so as ultimately to unite
on the one whose election can be secured.
You are gaining strength daily: and could
the appeal be brought directly to the People
I entertain no doubts of your election.
The politicians however are not so friendly, and for
the obvious reason you have made them no promises.
There is a want of virtue among these men;
I know not however that is peculiar to our country;
we find it everywhere and has been the cause
hitherto of the destruction of governments.30
Secretary of War Calhoun wrote this letter to Andrew Jackson on 31 July 1823:
Such is my confidence in your judgement and character,
that I am always happy to be put in possession of your
views on any point connected with the public interest.
Your knowledge of the Indian character enables you
to speak with great certainty of the probable effect
of any measure on them; and with this impression,
the whole of your suggestions in relation to the
pending treaty with the Indians in Florida, would have
been carried into effect, if there was sufficient time.
As the treaty will be held in September,
it will be impossible to move the troops from
Baton Rouge to Tampa Bay, as you suggest.
I have no doubt that your impression
of a mutual sympathy between the friends
of Mr. Clay and Crawford is correct.
The latter calculating on it, is using all of his art
to persuade the former to withdraw in his favor,
by which means if it can be effected, he hopes to obtain
great additional strength in a Congressional caucus,
to which his hopes are almost exclusively directed.
No one can exceed him in management,
and if the election can be made to depend
on a caucus, he will be formidable.
I do not think that Clay has any strength
on this side of the mountains.
He cannot take Pennsylvania; and has
but a very slender prospect in New York.
His strength, however, and Mr. Crawford’s
combined would require some effort to defeat.
I do hope that we shall never present the example
of coalition, intrigue, or management advancing
any citizen to the highest honor of the country.
The influence of such an example would
be pernicious in the extreme.
If the people can be cheated, they will not be served.
Virtuous servants would be discouraged,
and the unprincipled only would thrive.
In this point of view I consider the crisis
as an all important one.
I cannot doubt the result.
As far as my experience extends, the good sense
and virtue of the people may safely be relied on;
and I feel a confidence that the result of the
present struggle will tend to confirm in a
virtuous political course and repress the opposite.
I will at all times be happy to hear from you.31
From his Hermitage on about 12 August 1823 Andrew Jackson
wrote this letter to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun:
I have had the pleasure to receive your letter of
the 31st Ult., from which I am happy to find you
have given to the Commissioners appointed to Treat
with the Florida Indians all necessary means that was
in the power of the Government to insure success.
This I hope may enable them to concentrate & locate
the Florida Indians at such a point as will promote their
happiness & prosperity and at the same time afford
to that Territory a dense population between them &
the ocean which will afford protection & peace to all.
The result of the investigation in Mr. Cantrell’s case has
terminated as I expected from the facts disclosed,
and although I sincerely regret, that any man in
Mr. Cantrell’s situation should so far forget the golden rule
to do unto others, as he would they should do unto him;
I am happy we have an administration, that
where its officers act improperly, it will apply a corrective.
Our society has been much demoralized by our paper
banking system, and its corrupting influence has been no
where felt more seriously & banefully than in this Country.
The result of this enquiry will be
beneficially felt in a moral point of view.
Mr. Crutcher is a very honest man, and the only
reason why I did not suggest his appointment was
that he was Treasurer of the State, & our constitution
declares that no individual shall hold two lucrative offices
at one & the same time; and I did believe if the letter
of the state constitution in his appointment & acceptance of
Mr. Dun, knowing him to be an honest man and in no wise
connected with banks, he lives about a mile or a mile
& half from Nashville, acted for many years sheriff
& has always settled his public accounts promptly.
I much regret to see the Gloom that hangs over the
affairs of Spain, but I trust her leaders may be faithful
to the constitution, & if so, all bribery of the holy alliance
cannot put out the spark of freedom there lighted.
The Castilian spirit will shortly electrify the whole
nation and unite them; if this happens, from
Mina’s position the French army must be destroyed.
I rejoice to see the independent spirit that pervades
the Cortes, should they be able to keep up the spirit of
resistance three months longer, the Spanish nation will
be safe, the Tyranny & oppression of its enemies
will unite them and rouse the spirit of the nation to a
successful resistance—but Should I be mistaken,
should the Spanish nation succumb to the will of its invaders,
we must prepare for defense; we will not be left in the
peaceful & undisturbed enjoyment of our liberties.
America has given birth to civil liberty, and from it
the whole globe will ere long be electrified unless
the combined efforts of the Despots in Europe can
extinguish it in America as well as elsewhere.
The King & nobility of England in heart & wishes unite
with the other despots, and will only give aid to Spain
when coerced by the strong current of Public opinion there.
Should Spain be prostrated, it is not Cuba alone but South
& North America that will be placed in a critical situation,
and we ought to prepare for defense; Cuba should not be
permitted to fall into the hands of any European power.
Our aid can prevent it, and we ought not to
hesitate on this subject; it is too closely allied
to our own safety and prosperity as a nation.
The view I gave you of the understanding of
Mr. Clay & Mr. Crawford’s friends, I thought
was correct, but the former will not openly now
withdraw in favor of Mr. Crawford, and if he was,
he could not strengthen the latter in the west.
Mr. Crawford can have no hope of success but in a
congressional caucus, and even then the western
people could not be brought to act in concert with it.
I do believe that a Congressional caucus would destroy
the election of any man whose name is before the nation.
Mr. Clay has no chance of being elected as it is believed
by the best informed, and Mr. Crawford has no interest
that can benefit him west of the mountain.
I have great reliance on the good sense & virtue
of the people, and I hope with yourself that coalition
intrigue & management will never place a citizen
in the highest office in the gift of the people to bestow.
But from the exertions that have been & are still making
in favor of Mr. Crawford, we have a right to believe that
coalition & intrigue are stalking abroad through our land
with manly strides & the whole exertions of the virtuous
portion of the people will be required to put it down;
in their exertions I have full confidence at present, and
therefore feel satisfied that Mr. Crawford with all his intrigue
& patronage that the Treasury has afforded him cannot
succeed, and this will be a happy result for the nation.
But although I have great confidence in the virtue
of the people, still from local precedents we have
a right to fear that the people in some parts have
become degenerate & demoralized; in the county
in which I live one of the most flagitious characters
of his day has been returned to represent us in the
State Legislature, once a fugitive from justice.
This was owing to his wealth & to the Bank influence;
arguing from thence, what might not the influence
of the Patronage of the Treasury produce.
A straightforward course, taking virtue &
independence for our guide, leaving the people
to themselves, uninfluenced by anything but
their own reason, & they will always decide right.
I hope they will in the next Presidential election.32
On August 30 the Nashville Bible Society elected Jackson their Vice President.
Quaker Benjamin Lundy from Greenville, Tennessee had begun publishing
Genius of Universal Emancipation in January 1821.
On 4 September 1823 he wrote this letter to General Andrew Jackson:
As we have no personal knowledge of each other,
and having for my part very few acquaintances
in the section of country in which thee resides,
I am under the necessity of introducing myself preparatory
to stating the object of my troubling thee with this letter.
I am the editor of a periodical work entitled the
“Genius of Universal Emancipation” published
in this place and devoted exclusively to the subject
of negro slavery as it exists in this Republic.
This subject is of a nature purely political;
and in treating upon it I conceive it to be my
duty to take into view the whole scope of
general politics in which the nation is concerned.
It will therefore follow, of course, that the election
of civil officers in the higher departments of the
government comes fairly within the limits marked
out by the rules of propriety for me to take an
active part, if I shall consider it necessary to do so.
But I am no factionist; I proceed upon independent
principles; and if I know myself, have nothing
but the good of my country in view.
Let the world go as it will, I wish to see justice done
on every hand, believing that this alone will preserve
us as a nation amid the agonizing pangs and convulsive
throes of corrupted, diseased, and expiring Empires.
It is understood that thee will be a candidate for the
Presidential chair of the United States at the next election.
And as I consider it a matter of great importance
that our chief magistrate be a man who is disposed
to use his influence in bringing about a gradual
abolition of slavery in every part of the Republic,
I would be glad if it is not inconsistent with thy views,
to know thy sentiments on the subject.
I am not about to make any promises of efficient support,
etc. even if thee should satisfy me on this point;
but I will just observe that influential persons in some parts
of the country (free states) have requested me to inform
them whether thee is or is not a friend of universal liberty;
and could I be authorized to state that thee would be
inclined to aid in carrying this principle fairly into effect,
it would make a powerful diversion in thy favor.
The present is a time of internal
and external tranquility with us.
It is a very favorable period for bringing into view,
and putting in practice those great and fundamental
principles of genuine republicanism which though deemed
of vital importance by the founders of our government,
were considered too nearly allied to political perfection to
be carried completely into effect ere the mass of the people
had more generally emerged from the gloom of prejudice,
or their minds freed from the trammels of clerical
superstition and the shackles which a system of monarchy
and oligarchy contained, had riveted upon them.
In conclusion, I will observe that I have not
committed myself on the Presidential question
and shall wait with anxiety for a letter from thee.
Please to favor me with a line by mail as soon as possible,
stating thy views on the subject above mentioned and
signifying thy pleasure as to their being made public
and in what shape; by so doing you will oblige Him.33
On September 18 the United States commissioners persuaded Seminoles
to sign
the Moultrie Creek Treaty that recognized their central portion of the Florida peninsula.
The Tennessee Legislature on 1 October 1823
elected Andrew Jackson a United States Senator.
On October 5 from his Hermitage Jackson wrote
this letter to Brigadier-General John Coffee:
It will, I have no doubt, astonish you to hear that I
have been elected senator, but I can assure you
it has astonished me as much and a circumstance which
I regret more than any other of my life on several
accounts, not having anticipated such an event, I am
unprepared to leave home, and my feelings and wishes all
conspired to remain at home; but it was thought expedient
by my friends that my name should be brought out.
The vote stood 35 for, 25 against me.
Every intrigue that could exist and
indeed corruption was resorted to.
My name was brought forward 4 days before the election,
and this after all the pledges by Williams’ friends could be
obtained in his favor against Mr. Rhea and Miller, and after
it was found neither could be elected, bringing my name
forward under such circumstances was hazarding much,
still it succeeded, and I am a Senator against my wishes and
feelings, but from my political creed as promulgated to the
committee of Pennsylvania, I am compelled to accept.
My friends sent for me three times, the last messenger
was General Coleman with whom I went and reached
there in the night, preceding the election;
but I neither visited nor conversed with a member except
when visited and the conversation introduced by them.
The whole Crawford interest was there convened
from every quarter of the state with Col. Cannon
etc. etc. etc. at their head.
Many members voted against me who openly declared
they would have voted for me before they became
pledged by promise to Col. Williams; poor Giton was
threatened to be burned in effigy, weakly also, but I
prevailed upon the leading characters to put a stop to it.
How cruel it was for Col. Williams finding his friends
thus situated, and a vote for him contrary to the instructions
of their constituents would politically prostrate them,
that he did not like Mr. Rhea withdrawing, how much
more magnanimity would have been shown by him,
to have withdrawn than to urge his friends to prostrate
their own political standing to elevate his.
Now he and theirs are all prostrate.34
On 10 October 1823 Jackson from his Hermitage
wrote this letter to President James Monroe:
The first intimation I have had of the late act of
Congress was derived from the extract of a letter
from Judge Brakenridge from Pensacola of date
12th of September 1823 and herewith enclosed.
If the claims are for cattle taken or used by my army
either in 1814 or 1818, they are groundless and fraudulent,
which is only to be established by proof.
They are such as ought not to be admitted or paid without
an opportunity on behalf of the United States to be heard.
The accounts admitted by the Department produced
by the Cherokees and incorporated into the Cherokee
Treaty which has been shown to have originated in
fraud certainly ought to have put Congress on guard,
and have prevented such a law as alluded to by
Judge Brakenridge from having been passed.
If the claims are dated in 1814, it will be easy to show
that the cattle seized by my Troops were trailed from
Alabama to the Perdido and there overtaken, all of
which were claimed by our citizens or stolen from them
by the Indians at the instigation of the Spaniards.
Antwine Collins then Spanish contractor, and
Captain Boyles were seized on suspicion and held
in custody until I marched on Pensacola and found the cattle
by Col. Henry Dyer with a detachment as before stated.
A few of these cattle were slaughtered on
our return march, their marks and brands
preserved, and the contractor ordered to pay
the Individuals for the cattle thus slaughtered.
This was reported to me to have been done and the Balance
by orders to the quartermaster delivered to the owners
who attended and proved their property in the cattle.
On my March in 1818 from Fort Gadsden to Pensacola
on the East Bank of the Escambia, two Spaniards
who were met at the head of the Bay by that name
collected us a few cattle, which were slaughtered
by orders to the quartermaster and paid for.
On the East side of the Escambia we were met
with supplies, and Col. George Gibson joined me,
who can vouch for the payment of every particle
of supplies obtained while in Florida.
It is passing strange that where claims are
exhibited by our own citizens with what Just scrutiny
they are investigated, but when exhibited by
Indians or Spaniards, admitted without an
opportunity of investigation by those concerned,
and the United States thereby defrauded out of thousands.
The object of this hasty letter is to request that
you notify the Secretary of the Treasury of the
frauds upon which these accounts are founded,
that they may be suspended until a full inquiry
shall be had into the Justness of these claims.
I am determined that an inquiry shall be had.
I bestowed much Labor to investigate the frauds committed
by the Cherokees in the comments incorporated in the
Treaty, had them forwarded with a request that the
Testimony should be laid before Congress without avail.
Col. Gibson is in the city.
Col. Gadsden’s Testimony with Captain King, Williamson
Elliott Dyer, Brady and Mitchell with many others can be
procured; I enclose a certificate of Col. Robert Butler.35
On 28 November 1823 Jackson from Staunton, Virginia
wrote in a letter to his wife Rachel:
I have been greeted by the people wherever
I have halted, to avoid much of this was one reason
why I took the stage, & even then in many places
on the way side were collections who hailed &
stopped the stage to shake me by the hand.
This through Virginia I did not calculate on—although
tiresome & troublesome still it is gratifying to find
that I have triumphed over the machinations of my
enemies & still possess the confidence of the people.
Were you only with me I could be satisfied—
but should providence once more permit us to meet,
I am solemnly resolved with the permission of heaven
never to separate or be separated from you in this world.36
On 2 December 1823 President James Monroe in his Annual Message
to Congress proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine advising European powers
not to interfere in the western hemisphere.
The next day Jackson arrived in Washington, and he took his seat on December 5.
On the 9th he was appointed to the Senate committees
on the military and foreign affairs.
Senator Andrew Jackson on 1 January 1824 went to a
general reception provided by President James Monroe.
On January 10 Jackson was visited by the
Cherokee delegate Major Ridge to Washington.
On the 16th the Maine Legislature nominated John Quincy Adams for President.
Jackson had a church built by his Hermitage,
and Pastor William Hume of Nashville helped dedicate the church.
On 6 February 1824 Senator Jackson
wrote from Washington to his wife Rachel:
I have this evening received your kind
and affectionate letter of the 19th January.
It gives me great pleasure to learn that the church is
finished, and the good man Mr. Hume has dedicated it;
I hope it will be a means of uniting the neighborhood
in the bonds of Christian benevolence and friendship, and
that we may obtain a pastor imbued with all the Christian
Virtues, who will show us by his walks & conversation
that the welfare of the little flock is his chief care.
Then truly the laborer will be worthy of his hire;
& I trust as good Christians, we will freely yield it to him.
It is pleasing to me that my friend
Eaton’s letter has reached you.
Rely on it; he is among the most worthy of the human race.
Our friend Call, Eaton & myself are the only occupants of
one half the house of our worthy and amiable hostess
Mrs. Oneals & her charming family; I say Hostess because
the house is kept under her name from the pecuniary losses
of her husband Mr. Oneal, who is a good & worthy man.
We are as comfortable as we could be
under my separation from you.37
On February 14 the Congressional caucus overwhelmingly endorsed
William H. Crawford for President.
Jackson in a letter to John Coffee on February 15 reported from Washington:
I do assure you the applications for office here are many,
& I am so much disgusted with the want of energy in some
of the Departments—that I hate to press any man in whose
independence & Virtue I have confidence, finding as I have,
that everything is carried by intrigue & management;
promises are made often & not complied with,
and this gives rise to murmurs & dissatisfaction.
In short sir, all things here appear to bend
to the approaching Presidential election.
It is now a contest between a few demagogues
and the people, and it is to be seen whether a minority
less than one fourth of the whole numbers of Congress
can coerce the people to follow them; or whether the
people will assume their constitutional rights and put down
these Demagogues, who say our course is necessary;
for if you leave the election to the people, they will
elect a certain Individual who is obnoxious to us.
This, my dear Sir, is as much as to say the
people are incapable of self-government;
and yet they call themselves Democratic Republicans.
You will see the Resolutions of the Citizens of Baltimore
on the 13th, the evening before the caucus was to be
held here; they are strong & speak the language of
freemen, who are Determined to maintain their rights
& perpetuate their republican form of Government.
The caucus was held last night;
the whole number who attended was sixty-six.
Crawford got sixty-two Votes present and two by proxy;
both sick absent and one perhaps dead….
I do assure you I am wearied already with
the life of a Legislature; but would you believe it,
that I have become a perfect Philosopher.
It is true when I see the scenes of Intrigue
& management that is going on here;
my honest indignation arises within me.
I look forward & heave a sigh for the Liberties
of my country, which must be destroyed
by a continuation of such a course.
I still have confidence in the people, that they will preserve
their Liberty by exercising their constitutional rights.
The 4th of next month the delegation chosen to meet
in convention to make an electoral ticket in Pennsylvania
will unmask their strength; Maryland, New Jersey,
North & South Carolina, Ohio will follow her;
& it is believed by many; Virginia will not dare to
separate from her; time will unfold the verity of this.38
On 22 February 1824 Senator Jackson wrote
in a letter to William Berkeley Lewis:
Your letter of the 7th instant was this morning received.
The vacancy in the Senate by the death of one of the
Clerks (who was sick when I arrived) has been filled by
the Secretary of the Senate who by law has the appointment
of his subordinate clerks; your friend has not presented
me your letter; when he does, it will be duly attended to.
I have duly noted your remarks on the subject
of your Politics in Nashville, &c &c &c.
Mr. Crawford’s friends have become desperate and will
do anything—their motto, the end is worthy of the means.
Their minority caucus has recoiled upon their own heads,
and the unanimity of Pennsylvania
has defeated all their plans.
I refer you to the newspapers for
the current news of the day.
Wonder not if you see the attempt
made to make me a Federalist.
The proof, a letter I wrote Mr. Monroe in 1816 or 17.
You no doubt recollect it.
It was copied by you; I wrote to bring into the
War Department Col. Drayton who served
throughout the late war—by some means.
Mr. Monroe’s letter in answer to mine & my answer
has got into their hands; Mr. Monroe says by stealth,
& I have no doubt but all my private letters
are also in their hands.
But one thing I know, that the opinions expressed
are the true Republican course—and men, call them
what you will, who risk life, health, and their all in
defense of their country are its real support & are
entitled to share the offices of the Government.
Col. Drayton was said to be a Federalist before the war.
I can say truly of such, that we are all Federalists;
we are all Republicans, and I would to God we had
less professions and more acts of real patriotism.
I am truly crowded with various business….
I had not influence enough to obtain the
mission to Mexico for our friend General Stokes.
As soon as I found we could not succeed with General
Crabb, I threw my weight in the General’s scale.
I am disgusted with the manner & means
all things are carried on here.
When I was told that General Stokes could not be appointed
because he dissipated sometimes at a card table,
I then tried Mr. Baldwin with as little effect as any other.
Governor Edwards of Illinois is before the Senate.39
President James Monroe on 22 February 1824
wrote in a letter to Senator Jackson:
At the time that I was about to form an administration,
I communicated freely with some members of Congress,
who had cooperated with me in the war,
and in whom I had perfect confidence.
I also corresponded with some other friends at a distance.
It was natural at that time that I should communicate
to those near me the opinions of distinguished
characters at a distance, as having weight in
my decision as to the arrangement.
But I have no recollection of giving any copy
of my views on the subject to anyone.
The copy in question, if correct, must be resorted
to for unfriendly purposes, and in breach of
confidence and has probably been purloined.
I recollect writing you a letter in answer to yours
recommending Colonel Drayton in which I concurred with
you in the great result, that the President ought to be the
head of this nation, rather than of a party, but thought that
that result could only be brought about by time considering
the circumstances in which we were then placed.
By perusing your letters, I find that you essentially
concurred with me in that sentiment, although you
inclined to the opinion that such men as Col. Drayton,
who had given such proofs of patriotism and devotion
to the cause of the country, ought to be considered as
having a just claim to the confidence of the Government,
and in fact to be considered as Republicans.
The copy of this letter I have not been able to find,
nor do I recollect ever seeing it, or your letters
till within a few days past, since the year 1817….
I have done what I could to moderate and put down
party spirit, believing that by so doing, I gave the best
support in my power to our republican government.
It can only be put down by the republican party,
and while that party is in power by a magnanimous policy.
Persecution would keep the federal party,
which at one time was in certain members of it,
a monarchical one, alive, and give it force.40
On February 28 the Nashville Republican began publishing
and endorsed Jackson for President.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that only the federal government
had jurisdiction over interstate commerce on March 2.
Two days later the Pennsylvania Convention of Democratic Republicans
at Harrisburg nominated Andrew Jackson for President.
Secretary of War John C. Calhoun had been running for President.
At this point he suspended his presidential campaign,
though he continued to run for Vice President.
On March 13 the British and Americans signed a convention to suppress
the slave trade, but it was not ratified by the United States Senate.
Congress on 16 March 1824 presented Jackson
with a gold medal for his service in the War of 1812,
and on that day Jackson wrote this letter to President James Monroe:
Receiving this emblem of the approbation of my country
from you, who were an efficient & active agent of our
Government in those scenes of difficulty & danger to
which it refers, gives me peculiar pleasure.
It brings to my recollection on the Tocsin of war being
sounded, that patriotic ardor which brought Voluntarily
to the field thousands of the brave yeomanry of our
country to support its Eagles & to protect our frontier
from the ruthless savage & the inroads of a British foe.
In the name of those patriotic officers & soldiers,
who so bravely seconded my Views in the day of Battle,
privation & peril; & who contributed to bring about the
happy results to which you refer, I receive this emblem
of approbation which the Representatives in Congress
assembled have conceived me worthy to possess.
That at a period the most critical & alarming,
I should have been the humble means to harmonize
the discordant materials of every nation & Tongue;
& so to unite them, as to make a successful defense
of the city of New Orleans against a superior,
well organized Veteran force; & to preserve it
from pollution & Ravage by an infuriated British soldiery
is remembered as one of the proudest moments of my life.
This emblem reminds me of the gratitude we should
feel to a kind providence for those happy results.
May you pass through & retire from the administration
of the Government with the full approbation of your
country that has hitherto accompanied you.
May you be blessed in retirement with all the comforts
heaven can bestow, & when life is finished,
be raised to a happy immortality beyond the grave.41
Jackson from Washington on March 28 wrote
an optimistic letter to Brigadier-General John Coffee.
On 31 March 1824 the candidate Jackson
wrote in a letter to William Berkeley Lewis:
On the subject of Mr. Calhoun I have no doubt myself,
but his friends acted agreeable to his understanding &
instructions; & that he is Sincere in his wishes.
Some have doubted this, but I have not,
and I can give you when we meet, reasons
that will convince you I cannot be mistaken.
As far as his friends to the South have acted,
it is conformable to this; & I have no doubt
but both the Carolinas will unite in my support.
You have seen the result of Pennsylvania.
New York is coming out, and it is said some
of the New England States; a few weeks will
give us the result of the movement of New York.
If Crawford is not supported in that state,
I have but little doubt but he will be dropped,
and from what you will see in the National Intelligencer
of this morning, Mr. Clay taken up.
I have no doubt if I was to travel to Boston where
I have been invited that it would insure my election;
but this I cannot do.
I would feel degraded the balance of my life.
If I ever fill that office, it must be
the free choice of the people.
I can then say I am the President of the nation,
and my acts shall comport with that character.42
The House of Representatives approved the Tariff bill on April 16.
Senator Andrew Jackson from Washington wrote about his view of tariffs
in this letter to Littleton H. Coleman on April 26:
You ask my opinion on the Tariff.
I answer that I am in favor of a judicious examination and
revision of it; and so far as the tariff bill before us embraces
the design of fostering, protecting and preserving within
ourselves, the means of national defense and independence,
particularly in a state of war, I will advocate and support it.
The experience of the last war ought to teach us a
profitable lesson, and one never to be forgotten.
If our liberty and republican form of government,
procured for us by our revolutionary fathers, are worth
the blood and treasure, at which they were obtained,
it surely is our duty to protect and defend them.
Can there be an American patriot, who saw the privations,
dangers, and difficulties experienced for the want of the
proper means of defense during the last war, who would
be willing again to hazard the safety of our country,
if embroiled; or to rest it for defense on the precarious
means of national resource to be derived from commerce
in a state of war with a maritime power, who might
destroy that commerce to prevent us obtaining the
means of defense, and thereby subdue us?
I hope there is not; and if there is, I am sure he
does not deserve to enjoy the blessings of freedom.
Heaven smiled upon and gave
us liberty and independence.
That same Providence has blessed us with the means
of national independence, and national defense.
If we omit or refuse to use the gifts which he has extended
to us, we deserve not the continuation of his blessings.
He has filled our mountains and our plains with minerals—
with lead, iron, and copper; and given us climate
and soil for the growing of hemp and wool.
These being the grand materials of our national defense,
they ought to have extended to them adequate and fair
protection, that our own manufactories and laborers may
be placed on a fair competition with those of Europe,
and that we may have within our country a supply of
those leading and important articles so essential in war.
Beyond this I look at the Tariff with an eye to the
proper distribution of labor and to revenue;
and with a view to discharge our national debt.
I am one of those who do not believe that a national debt
is a national blessing, but rather a curse to a republic;
inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the
administration a moneyed aristocracy
dangerous to the liberties of the country.
This Tariff—I mean a judicious one—
possesses more fanciful than real danger.
I will ask what is the real situation of the agriculturist?
Where has the American Farmer a market
for his surplus product?
Except for cotton, he has neither a foreign or home market.
Does not this clearly prove, when there is no market
either at home or abroad, that there is too much labor
employed in agriculture; and that the channels
for labor should be multiplied?
Common sense points out at once the remedy.
Draw from agriculture this superabundant labor;
employ it in mechanism and manufactures;
thereby creating a home market for your bread stuffs,
and distributing labor to the most profitable account;
and benefits to the country will result.
Take from agriculture in the United States
six hundred thousand men, women and children,
and you will at once give a home market for more
bread stuffs than all Europe now furnishes to us.
In short, sir, we have been too long subject
to the policy of the British merchants.
It is time that we should become a little more americanised;
and instead of feeding the paupers and laborers of England,
feed our own; or else in a short time by continuing our
present policy, we shall all be rendered paupers ourselves.
It is therefore my opinion that a careful and judicious
Tariff is much wanted to pay our national debt and afford
us the means of that defense within ourselves, on which
the safety of our country and liberty depends;
and last, though not least, give a proper distribution
to our labor, which must prove beneficial to the happiness,
independence, and wealth of the community.43
On May 7 Jackson also wrote to William Berkeley Lewis about his tariff principles:
I have Just received yours of the
21st ult. for which I thank you.
Believe me, my Dear Sir, that a man who is Governed
by principle in all his votes is never in Danger.
On the Tariff I am Governed by principle alone.
The articles of National Defense & National Independence,
I will with my vote foster & protect without counting on
cents & dollars; so that our own manufacturers shall stand
on a footing of fair competition with the laborers of Europe.
In doing this, the articles all being of the product of our
own country, tends to promote the agriculturists while it
gives security to our nation & promotes Domestic Labor.
The balance of the bill I look to with an eye
to Revenue alone, to meet the national debt.
These articles of national defense are Hemp, iron,
& coarse woolens and from the experience of the
last war every patriot will Justify me in this course,
and if they do not, my own conscience approves,
& I will follow it regardless of any consequences.
All sections of the country will approve this course, & the
south before long, as well as other quarters of the union.44
The United States Senate with Jackson’s affirmative vote
passed the amended Tariff bill on May 13.
The House and Senate agreed on the Tariff Act of 1824 that became law on May 22.
Two days later the Senate granted Jackson a leave of absence,
and he arrived at his Hermitage on June 4.
The United States War Department took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs on June 17.
Eaton’s revised edition of The Life of Andrew Jackson was released in 1824.
On August 9 the Washington National Journal
began publishing to support John Quincy Adams.
Andrew Jackson wrote in a letter to his friend John Coffee on August 15:
When men standing high in society with a full
knowledge of the villainy of another supports him,
they participate in his crimes by supporting him
and lose their character for honesty.
They by this act disgrace their county and inflict
a wound in the breast of every honest man in
the county and establish a precedent that strikes
at the root of morality, religion & virtue….
The Time will shortly arrive when men thus
acting in support of villains will meet with
the indignant frowns of every honest man.45
Andrew Jackson from his Hermitage wrote this letter to
the Marquis de Lafayette on 10 September 1824:
The Public journals announce your return to the land
where your sword was unsheathed in the cause of Freedom,
where abandoning your ease, your fortune, and your
country, and what was still more dear to youthful minds,
the embraces of conjugal Love, and the magnificence of
the court of Versailles; you embarked in the service of
our infant Republic at a time when its patriotism
(a mere handful of men divided and dispirited) were
retreating before Thirty Thousand British Veteran Troops.
It was under such circumstances that the Heaven born
flame of Liberty and Equal rights animated your youthful
breast, and Taught you that it was more honorable to
become the compatriot of immortal Washington,
than enjoy the most splendid honors of Royalty.
It was under such circumstances that you risked your
fortunes with those of then hopeless America;
but Thank Heaven, America triumphed;
and now with the gratitude of Ten Millions of
Freemen she salutes you as one of the Fathers of her
glorious existence, and as the devoted advocate of
independence and national freedom throughout the world.
Welcome then—Thrice Welcome to her grateful land!—
is echoed from every bosom, and from none with more
pure fervor than from the Patriotic citizens of Tennessee.
I cannot here, Sir, restrain a recurrence to my own
youthful feelings, when your arrival and that of the
Baron de Kalb was announced at Charleston, South Carolina.
It aroused every Patriot from a state of despair to that
of confidence in our bleeding cause, while the shout
of victory or death was sung through the welkin.
It inspired an enthusiasm fitted for such occasions,
and becoming the people who had resolved to be free.
“Believe it, Dear General, one of the happiest moments
of my life, that which enables me to tender you my
grateful feelings on this occasion, which I beg you
to accept with my high respect, friendship, and esteem;
and also present the same to your son.46
Jackson on October 15 honored John H. Easton at a Nashville dinner.
In the election from October 26 to December 2 all four candidates
were in the Democratic-Republican party.
John C. Calhoun ran for Vice President with
Jackson and Adams and got 182 electoral votes.
Andrew Jackson had the most popular votes with 151,309 and 99 electoral votes
and was followed by John Quincy Adams with 122,440 and 84 electoral votes;
Henry Clay had 48,606 and 37 electoral votes,
and William H. Crawford got 41,222 and 41 electoral votes.
Adams noted that because Jackson got all five of Louisiana’s electoral votes,
that helped Crawford get 41 electoral votes to 37 for Clay.
Jackson returned to the Senate on December 7, and two days later
he met with Secretary of State John Quincy Adams.
Because no candidate had a majority of the electoral votes,
according to the 12th amendment to the Constitution,
the election would be moved into the House of Representatives
with each state having one vote.
Henry Clay helped John Quincy Adams defeat Jackson.
Adams made Clay his Secretary of State, and Jackson called it a “corrupt bargain.”
Jackson’s opponents had criticized Jackson
for marrying Rachel several years before she was divorced.
Jackson criticized the United States Bank president Nicholas Biddle
for giving its money to the Adams campaign.
Jackson took his seat in the Senate on 7 December 1824, the day that
President James Monroe in his last annual address to Congress
said this about the situation of the aborigines:
The condition of the aborigines within our limits,
and especially those who are within the limits of any
of the States merits likewise particular attention.
Experience has shown that unless the tribes be civilized
they can never be incorporated into our system
in any form whatever.
It has likewise shown that in the regular augmentation
of our population with the extension of our settlements
their situation will become deplorable,
if their extinction is not menaced.
Some well-digested plan which will rescue them
from such calamities is due to their rights,
to the rights of humanity, and to the honor of the nation.
Their civilization is indispensable to their safety,
and this can be accomplished only by degrees.
The process must commence with the infant state,
through whom some effect may be wrought on the parental.
Difficulties of the most serious character present themselves
to the attainment of this very desirable result
on the territory on which they now reside.
To remove them from it by force,
even with a view to their own security and happiness,
would be revolting to humanity and utterly unjustifiable.
Between the limits of our present states and territories
and the Rocky Mountains and Mexico there is a
vast territory to which they might be invited
with inducements which might be successful.
It is thought if that territory should be divided into districts
by previous agreement with the tribes now residing there
and civil governments be established in each,
with schools for every branch of instruction
in literature and the arts of civilized life,
that all the tribes now within our limits
might gradually be drawn there.
The execution of this plan would necessarily be
attended with expense, and that not inconsiderable,
but it is doubted whether any other can be
devised which would be less liable to that
objection or more likely to succeed.47
Senator Jackson agreed with President Monroe on warning European powers
not to interfere with the new republics in the western hemisphere.
Jackson wrote in a letter to William B. Lewis:
For my part I think it best to prevent them gaining
a foothold upon the Terra firma of the American
continent lest when they might be in possession
of Mexico, their foreign bayonets might make
an attempt to pierce us in the South and the West.48
Jackson visited Secretary of State John Quincy Adams on 9 December 1824.
On December 11 Jackson wrote to his wife Rachel to make sure that
the overseer Mr. Parsons was treating the slaves humanely:
I do not wish my hands labored too hard,
and if you think they are, I know when you
name it to him (Parsons), he will moderate.
I wish them well fed and warmly clothed,
and they will be then contented and happy.
This is my wish.
I do not want them in any way oppressed,
and if they behave well, I am sure Mr. Parsons,
knowing my wishes, will treat them well.49
Jackson was in Washington when on December 19
he wrote in a letter to John Overton:
I have received your kind letter of the 28th Ult.,
& perused it with attention.
You will find from the public Journals before
this reaches you, that the Electoral vote of
Louisiana is not for Mr. Clay, & of course he
does not go into the House as the third highest.
What may be the result of the vote by the
House of Representatives I know not.
I hope my friends will continue to take principle for their
guide; and let me rise or fall upon the rule that the people
have the right to choose the chief executive of the nation,
and a majority of their voices have a right to govern,
agreeable to the declared principles of the Constitution.
Having been supported by the majority of the people,
I can have no feelings on the occasion.
If party or intrigue should prevail and exclude me,
I shall retire to my comfortable farm with great pleasure.
There you know was the height of my ambition;
there is the only contentment for me;
there I could in retirement mingle with my sincere friends.
Should I be selected to preside over the destinies of
this great & growing nation, my best Judgment
shall be employed for its prosperity & happiness.
I am aware of the responsibility of the station, and with my
own consent I should never aspire to the responsibility—
but let the Lord’s will be done—and if placed in the Executive
chair, I shall endeavor with an honest zeal to discharge the
duties of that station & bring to my aid as far as I can
command it, the best Talents & Virtue of this nation.50
Jackson wrote to John Coffee again on 27 December 1824 and discussed
the unusual situation in the presidential election between the four main candidates.
On December 31 the Kentucky legislature urged
their Congressmen to vote for Jackson for President.
Notes
1. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume V, 1821-1824
ed. Harold D. Moser et al., p. 3-4.
2. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume III 1820-1828
ed. John Spencer Bassett, p. 35-36.
3. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume V, 1821-1824, p. 8.
4. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume III 1820-1828
ed. John Spencer Bassett, p. 36-38.
5. Ibid., p. 38.
6. Ibid., p. 38-39.
7. Ibid., p. 42-43, 44.
8. Ibid., p. 44-45.
9. Ibid., p. 49-50.
10. Ibid., p. 104-105.
11. Ibid., p. 112-113, 116.
12. Ibid., p. 118-119.
13. Ibid., p. 122-123.
14. Ibid., p. 136.
15. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume V, 1821-1824, p. 126.
16. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume III 1820-1828, p. 143.
17. Ibid., p. 144.
18. Ibid., p. 145
19. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume V, 1821-1824, p. 160-162.
20. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume III 1820-1828, p. 162.
21. Life of Andrew Jackson by James Parton, Volume III, p. 12.
22. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume V, 1821-1824, p. 211-212.
23. Ibid., p. 233-234.
24. Ibid., p. 243-244.
25. Ibid., p. 249.
26. Ibid., p. 251-252.
27. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume III 1820-1828, p. 192.
28. Ibid., p. 192-193.
29. Ibid., p. 193-194.
30. Ibid., p. 200-201.
31. Ibid., p. 201-202.
32. Ibid., p. 202-203.
33. Ibid., p. 206-207.
34. Ibid., p. 210-211.
35. Ibid., p. 211-212.
36. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume V, 1821-1824, p. 320.
37. Ibid., p. 351.
38. Ibid., p. 357, 358.
39. Ibid., p. 363-364.
40. Ibid., p. 365-366.
41. Ibid., p. 377.
42. Ibid., p. 387.
43. Ibid., p. 398-400 and Life of Andrew Jackson by James Parton, p. 36.
44. Ibid., p. 404.
45. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume III 1820-1828, p. 266.
46. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, A 1789-1908,
Volume II ed. James D. Richardson, p. 261.
47. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832,
Volume II by Robert V. Remini, p. 67.
48. Ibid., p. 66.
49. The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume V, 1821-1824, p. 455.
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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