by Jon Meacham
The subject of Jackson was first suggested to me in the summer of 2003 by Jonathan Karp, my former editor at Random House. Jon has been a friend for over a decade, and I have long been the beneficiary of his wisdom and his insightful readings. As always, I am indebted to Evan Thomas, Ann McDaniel, and Sofia and Herbert Wentz for their gifts of friendship and literary and historical counsel. They are unfailing friends.
At Random House, my editor, Kate Medina, was her usual remarkable self—gracious, intelligent, and devoted. Anyone who thinks the art of editing has disappeared has never worked with Kate, whose exacting standards and passion for excellence are at once daunting and thrilling. Gina Centrello is the best of publishers—a champion and a friend. Millicent Bennett, who works for Kate (as we all do, really), appeared in my life one day and I soon realized that I was in the best of hands. Sally Marvin is a formidable force; I cannot imagine publishing a book without her, and thankfully she is charming more often than she is erratic (though that can be, as Wellington reportedly said of Waterloo, a close-run thing). Thanks, too, to Tom Perry, Jonathan Jao, Jennifer Smith, Frankie Jones, Abby Plesser, Robin Rolewicz, Rachel Omansky, Dennis Ambrose, Emily DeHuff, Chuck Thompson, Evan Stone, Vicki Wong, Debbie Aroff, Barbara Fillon, and Carol Poticny for their terrific work and extraordinary patience.
This is my fourth book with the remarkable Amanda Urban; I depend on her instincts and her insights and am grateful that she is my friend. Christopher Buckley once noted that Binky was the only person he would think to call if he were captured by the Taliban, and I completely concur. Thanks as well to Molly Atlas.
At Newsweek, I am fortunate to work both for and with the best in the business. My thanks to Donald Graham, Lally Weymouth, Rick Smith, Dan Klaidman, Mark Miller, Kathy Deveny, and Fareed Zakaria.
As always, my greatest thanks are reserved for Keith, who endured much (not least the stream of secondhand books on subjects ranging from nullification to Nicholas Biddle that came in through the kitchen door) to give me the ways and means to disappear into Andrew Jackson’s White House on and off for five years. In 2003 I knew it was time to finish a project about Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill when I looked over and saw our son, Sam, then an infant, trying to teethe on a copy of The Churchill War Papers. Since then Sam has been joined by two sisters, Mary and Maggie, and this book is dedicated to the three of them in the small but real hope that they will do their part to see that the Republic is, as Jackson would say, always safe.
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS USED
AMVB The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren
AAK Autobiography of Amos Kendall
Heiskell, AJETH, I-III S. G. Heiskell, Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History
Correspondence, I–VI Correspondence of Andrew Jackson
EDT, I and II Pauline Wilcox Burke, Emily Donelson of Tennessee
FPB Elbert B. Smith, Francis Preston Blair
James, TLOAJ Marquis James, The Life of Andrew Jackson
LOC The Library of Congress
Memoirs of JQA, VIII–IX The Memoirs of John Quincy Adams
Messages, II Richardson, comp., Messages and Papers of the Presidents
PHC, IV–VIII The Papers of Henry Clay
PJCC, X–XIII, XXI The Papers of John C. Calhoun
Papers, I–VI The Papers of Andrew Jackson
Parton, Life, I–III James Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson
Remini, Jackson, I–III Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American (I) Empire, (II) Freedom, (III) Democracy
TGPP William M. Goldsmith, The Growth of Presidential Power: A Documented History, I–II
TPA John F. Marszalek, The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House
Epigraphs
1 “The darker the night the bolder the lion” Theodore Roosevelt and Edmund Heller, Life-Histories of African Game Animals (New York, 1914), I, 173.
2 “I was born for a storm” Heiskell, AJETH, III, 166. The quotation is found in a letter from James A. Hamilton to Martin Van Buren. “I have just left the General,” Hamilton wrote. “He said this to me [and] this makes me well. I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me.”
Prologue: With the Feelings of a Father
1 on the second floor Jackson’s work and living space, including his office—the Lincoln Bedroom in the current White House—his study, and his small bedroom suite were all on the second floor, as were the Donelsons’ rooms and the most commonly used family sitting rooms. (William Seale, The President’s House: A History [Washington, D.C., 1986], I, 182–84.)
2 the White House Emily Donelson used the term in her correspondence; see Emily Donelson to Mary Donelson Coffee, March 27, 1829, Andrew Jackson Donelson Papers, LOC. According to the Office of the Curator at the White House, “The term ‘White House’ was used as early as May 19, 1809, by Henry Dearborn, a member of President Jefferson’s Cabinet, as a synonym for the Presidency itself. It was used by the Baltimore Whig on November 22, 1810, and a British Minister was using the term in the spring of 1811.” In 1813, Daniel Webster, then a congressman, used the term in his letters, further suggesting the name was in circulation in official circles. (Unpublished document, “Origin of the Name ‘White House,’ ” Office of the Curator, the White House, 1984; see also Frank Freidel and William Pencak, eds., The White House: The First Two Hundred Years [Boston: 1994], 23–24.) I am also grateful to the White House Curator’s Office for kindly giving me a tour of the second floor.
3 in the flickering light of candles and oil lamps Seale, President’s House, I, 173–74. The lamps were fueled largely by lard oil. (William Seale, The White House: The History of An American Idea [Washington, D.C., 1992], 85–86.)
4 was furious and full of fight Parton, Life, III, 460–63. Jackson also made his views clear to General Winfield Scott at a meeting at the White House on November 4, 1832. President Jackson, Scott recalled, “adverted to the certainty that South Carolina would very soon be out of the Union—either by nullification or secession.” Jackson, Scott said, was “patriotically resolved to stand his ground—The Union must and shall be preserved.” (Winfield Scott, Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, LL.D [Freeport, New York, 1970], 234–35.) Jackson’s passion on the question can also be found in his correspondence. See, for instance: Papers, VI, 476–77; Correspondence, V, 2–24; 28–31; 44–46; 56.
5 Four hundred and fifty miles This is the distance as the crow flies from Washington, D.C., to Charleston, South Carolina.
6 radicals were raising an army Richard E. Ellis, The Union at Risk: Jacksonian Democracy, States’ Rights, and the Nullification Crisis (New York, 1987), and two books by William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816–1836 (New York, 1966) and Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776–1854 (New York, 1990), are excellent sources on the nullification crisis (in Road to Disunion, see especially 253–86), as is Freehling’s The Nullification Era: A Documentary Record (New York, 1967). See also Carol Bleser, ed., Secret and Sacred: The Diaries of James Henry Hammond, a Southern Slaveholder (New York, 1988); Chauncey Samuel Boucher, The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina (Chicago, 1916); Richard J. Calhoun, ed., Witness to Sorrow: The Antebellum Autobiography of William J. Grayson (Columbia, S.C., 1990), 109–51; Drew Gilpin Faust, James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A Design for Mastery (Baton Rouge, La., 1985); Daniel Feller, The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815–1840 (Baltimore, 1995), 162–68; Cicero W. Harris, The Sectional Struggle: An Account of the Troubles Between the North and the South, from the Earliest Times to the Close of the Civil War, First Part (Philadelphia, 1902); David Franklin Houston, A Critical Study of Nullification in South Carolina (Gloucester, Mass., 1968); Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (New York, 2007), 395–410; Theodore D. Jervey, Robert Y. Hayne and His Times (New York, 1909); Edward Payson Powell, Nullification and Secession: A History of the Six Attempts Du
ring the First Century of the Republic (New York, 1898); Charles S. Sydnor, The Development of Southern Sectionalism, 1819–1848 (Baton Rouge, La., 1948); Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (New York, 2005); Major L. Wilson, Space, Time and Freedom: The Quest for Nationality and the Irrepressible Conflict, 1815–1861 (Westport, Conn., 1974), 73–93. Wilson wrote: “Liberty and the Union were inseparable goods, in [Jackson’s] view, and the security of the one necessarily involved the preservation of the other’s.” (84). The editions of Niles’ Weekly Register from the period are instructive, too. The Register, founded by Hezekiah Niles, was an early nonpartisan newsweekly that was published from 1811 until 1849. In those years, wrote W. H. Earle, “it was the principal window through which many Americans looked out on their own country and the world. The scope of the work was immense, its circulation was large (the largest in the United States, by some accounts), and its influence was reflected in generous compliments from such readers of the publication as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson.” (W. H. Earle, “Niles’ Register, 1811–1849: Window on the World,” Journal of the War of 1812 and the Era 1800 to 1840 1 [Fall 1996], http://www.nisc.com/factsheets/NR_Window.htm.)
7 the first step, Jackson believed, toward secession In 1828, the South Carolina legislature had published its Exposition and Protest against the tariff. “Secretly authored by Vice President John C. Calhoun, the exposition argued the right of a sovereign state to declare null and void any federal law that the state deemed unconstitutional,” writes Daniel Feller. “Calhoun conceived nullification as a peaceable check upon the national government’s abuse of its powers. But his doctrine invited naked state defiance of federal authority, leading perhaps to secession (the withdrawal of the state from the Union) and even civil war” (Feller, Jacksonian Promise, 162). In the opinion of Daniel Walker Howe, “Taken as a whole, the South Carolina Exposition is an impressive argument on behalf of an unworkable proposition. (In an America where nullification prevailed, there might be scores of federal statutes whose operation was suspended in various states, while each awaited resolution in an endless succession of constitutional conventions.)” (Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 398.) In The Rise of American Democracy, Sean Wilentz writes: “The only cure for majority despotism, Calhoun argued, was to recognize the undivided sovereignty of the individual states that, he asserted, was anterior to the Constitution. Just as the federal government could annul any state law ruled binding, so aggrieved states could void, within their borders, any federal law they deemed unconstitutional.… Calhoun would always insist nullification was not secession, which was literally true. But in seizing on the theory of original state sovereignty, he offered a theoretical justification for both nullification and secession” (Wilentz, Rise of American Democracy, 320).
8 “I expect soon to hear” Correspondence, V, 3. The quotation is from a January 13, 1833, letter to Vice President–elect Martin Van Buren.
9 musing about arresting Freehling, Prelude to Civil War, 2; Parton, Life, III, 447, 474. As noted below, Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton also provides evidence that such a threat was in the air, quoting an exchange between Henry Clay and Delaware senator John M. Clayton: Clay’s “friend from Delaware [Mr. John M. Clayton] said to [Clay] one day—these South Carolinians act very badly, but they are good fellows, and it is a pity to let Jackson hang them” (Thomas Hart Benton, Thirty Years’ View; or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850 [New York, 1871], 1, 342).
10 stood six foot one Reda C. Goff, “A Physical Profile of Andrew Jackson,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 28 (Fall 1969), 303–4.
11 Over a midday glass of whiskey Parton, Life, III, 462.
12 pounded a table Ibid.
13 “By the God of Heaven” Ibid.
14 “When everything is ready” AAK, 631.
15 “It is nothing more nor less” Ellis, Union at Risk, 93. Italics in quotations reflect emphasis in the original throughout unless otherwise noted.
16 “the dissolution of the American confederacy” Richard Wellesley [Marquis Wellesley] to Sir Henry Halford, February 23, 1833, Halford Manuscripts, Record Office for Leicestershire.
17 Dispatching troops and a warship Parton, Life, III, 460–61. General Winfield Scott was to lead them. (Scott, Memoirs, 235.)
18 earned him the nicknames “Old Hickory” Parton, Life, I, 373–86.
19 “Nothing but blood will satisfy the old scoundrel” P. M. Butler to James H. Hammond, December 18, 1832, James H. Hammond Papers, LOC. Barnwell’s report is cited in the text of Butler’s letter to Hammond.
20 the immediate issue was money Ellis, Union at Risk, 41–46; Freehling, Prelude to Civil War, 47–48; Parton, Life, III, 433–34.
21 ultimately about slavery Ellis, Union at Risk, 189–98, is an intelligent and measured account of the links between nullification, states’ rights, and slavery. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War, 134–76, is also cogent and convincing. Ellis’s conclusion: “In short, in certain very important ways the nullification crisis marked the beginning of a new era. For a definite result of the crisis was the emergence of a forceful and determined pro-slavery interest in politics, better organized and more articulate than any other group that had risen to the defense of the peculiar institution. There are strong constitutional and ideological ties between the nullifiers and their supporters in 1832–33 and the fireaters of 1860–61 since both groups advocated states’ rights as a device to protect the rights of minorities”—in this case, the minority was the slaveholding class. “More so than any other event that occurred in the half-century or so following the adoption of the United States Constitution, the nullification crisis created the concepts and some of the political conditions that eventually led to the Civil War” (Ellis, Union at Risk, 198). See also Freehling, Prelude to Civil War, 127–28, 256–59.
22 “the peculiar domestic institution” John C. Calhoun, Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun (Indianapolis, Ind., 1992), 525. Contemporaries recognized slavery’s centrality. “The truth can no longer be disguised that the peculiar domestic institution of the Southern States … has placed them … in opposite relation to the rest of the Union,” said Calhoun (PJCC, XI, 229).
23 “I am prepared any day” Ellis, Union at Risk, 78–79.
24 It was rumored that excited radicals Parton, Life, III, 459.; see also AAK, 631.
25 readers of the Columbia Telescope Niles’ Weekly Register 43 (September 29, 1832), 78. xviii “I will meet” Correspondence, V, 3.
26 he would do what it took AAK, 635. Kendall wrote: “In his military campaigns he never submitted a decision to a vote in a council of war. He asked the opinion of each member on the case presented, dismissed them, and they knew not what was to be done until his order was issued. He never took a vote in his Cabinet. Questions were submitted and discussed; but, when it came to decision, ‘he took the responsibility.’ Nor was he so proud or self-conceited as to be above seeking information from any one whom he thought capable of giving it, and no President ever had a greater number or more faithful counselors; but, when it came to action, it was still, ‘I take the responsibility’ ” (ibid.).
27 “I have been Tossed” Papers, V, 115. There are several interesting psychological studies of Jackson that explore the connections between his early years and the man (and the leader) he became. See, for instance: Hendrik Booraem, Young Hickory: The Making of Andrew Jackson (Dallas, 2001); Andrew Burstein, The Passions of Andrew Jackson (New York, 2003); James C. Curtis, Andrew Jackson and the Search for Vindication (Boston, 1976); and Michael Paul Rogin, Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian (New York, 1975). I by no means agree with all of these authors’ conclusions, but their arguments repay consideration.
28 “one great family” Papers, VI, 476.
29 “I feel in the depths of my soul” Correspondence, V, 27.
30 “I call upon you in the l
anguage of truth” For the conclusion of the proclamation, see Edward Livingston Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
31 hailed by Harry Truman Margaret Truman, ed., Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman (New York, 1989), 5–6.
32 expanded the powers of the presidency My analysis of the significance of Jackson’s presidency owes much to the following sources: Donald B. Cole, The Presidency of Andrew Jackson (Lawrence, Kansas, 1993); Richard B. Latner, The Presidency of Andrew Jackson: White House Politics, 1829–1837 (Athens, Ga., 1979); and Remini, Jackson, II and III, among others.
There is much healthy and interesting debate about whether Jackson was the first “modern” president. Here, for instance, is Remini on Jackson as he left the White House in 1837: “More than anything else, most commentators agreed, Andrew Jackson had created a new presidential style. To be sure, not everyone liked or admired his style, but they admitted its unique character. To his friends, the Jacksonian presidential style reflected and embodied the popular will, and this identification with the Democracy meant that the President could assume a more appropriate position in a modern society, namely head of state and leader of the nation. Furthermore, to support the President in achieving his program and to help him implement his vision of the future, a party organization grounded in Jeffersonian republicanism had been established on a mass basis and committed to the doctrine that the people shall rule.
“None of the previous Presidents acted upon, much less articulated, the notion that the President was elected by the people of the entire nation. Andrew Jackson established that contention. None previously claimed that the President was ‘more representative of the national will than the Congress.’ Old Hickory did. None argued the superiority of a particular branch of the federal government. None tried to substitute his opinion for that of Congress, except where constitutionality was involved. Jackson did it regularly—or at least where he believed the public good required it. He is, therefore, the first modern President in American history, the first to conceive himself as the head of a democracy” (Remini, Jackson, III, 412). Rogin wrote: “[Jackson’s] internal improvements and Bank vetoes, his nullification proclamation, and his removal of government deposits from the U.S. Bank all asserted unprecedented executive prerogatives and anew theory of political representation. The legislature represented elite interests; the executive embodied the popular will. This doctrine infused life into the nascently bureaucratic federal executive, the informal group of presidential advisers, and the specialized party apparatus. Jackson was the first modern President” (Rogin, Fathers and Children, 267). Cole offers a more measured view: “Many of [Jackson’s] policies looked toward modern America—especially his expansion of foreign commerce, his Indian removal, his administrative reform, and the creation of a patronage system and the Democratic party. In addition, Jackson pointed the way toward the modern presidency by relying on informal advisers, using the press, dramatizing politics, and appealing to the people. He took advantage of the veto and other powers of the chief executive as no president had before.
