Andrew jackson biography papers
Home / Political Leaders & Public Figures / Andrew jackson biography papers
The year 1832 began with Jackson still pursuing his feud with Vice President John C. Calhoun, whom Jackson accused of secretly siding against him in the 1818 controversy over Jackson’s Seminole campaign in Florida. By year’s end he had added two more: purchasing Texas and destroying the Bank of the United States. Administrative papers range from presidential pardons to military promotions to plans for discharging the public debt.
In the field he quickly established himself as an uncommonly bold and imaginative organizer of men and resources. Nat Turner’s Virginia slave revolt in August drew a quick administration response. By year’s end, the dust over the Cabinet implosion was settling, as Jackson prepared to stand for reelection against his old nemesis Henry Clay.
Embracing all these stories and many more, this volume offers an incomparable window not only into Andrew Jackson and his presidency but into America itself in 1831.
The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume VIII, 1830
Andrew Jackson
This eighth volume of Andrew Jackson’s papers presents more than five hundred documents, many appearing here for the first time, from a core year in Jackson’s tumultuous presidency.
The Bank retaliated by curtailing its business, setting off a commercial crisis and a political frenzy.
The mudslinging left Jackson livid, anxious for retribution but constrained by the cause in which he was engaged. In sum, Jackson resembled the “devil incarnate,” to use his own words. He was not yet the Hero of New Orleans. An appendix includes important information previously unavailable.
During the years to 1803, Jackson demonstrated substantial entrepreneurial talent and a remarkable degree of resourcefulness, qualities that stood him in good stead throughout his career.
Jackson pursued his drive to remove the Cherokees and other Indians west of the Mississippi and to undercut tribal leaders who dared resist. Their letters, as well as exchanges between Jackson and Tennessee statesmen William Blount and John Sevier, his wife Rachel, and the countless neighbors and friends with whom he associated, shed light on Jackson’s temperament and priorities in a variety of situations.
It presents full texts of more than four hundred documents, most printed here for the first time. The Choctaws began emigrating westward, the Creeks and Chickasaws signed but then immediately protested removal treaties, and the Cherokees won what proved to be an empty victory against removal in the Supreme Court. They include Jackson’s private memoranda, intimate family letters, and correspondence with government and military officers, diplomats, Indians, political friends and foes, and ordinary citizens throughout the country.
In 1831 Jackson finally cleared his contentious Cabinet, reluctantly accepting the resignations of Martin Van Buren and John Eaton and demanding that the other members follow.
Once an admired leader of Nashville life, he found himself nearly ostracized as a result of killing Charles Dickinson in a duel and unwisely associating with Aaron Burr in his western adventure. They include his private memoranda, intimate family letters, presidential message drafts, and correspondence with government and military officers, diplomats, Indian leaders, political friends and foes, and citizens throughout the country.
The year 1833 began with a crisis in South Carolina, where a state convention had declared the federal tariff law null and void and pledged resistance by armed force if necessary.
Enlisting a favorite Supreme Court justice to gather evidence, Jackson crafted an exposition, intended for publication, that leveled nearly fantastic charges against Calhoun and others.
Through all this, the business of government ploughed on.