by Jon Meacham
110 declining to take a stand Ibid. For more sympathetic accounts of Marshall’s work in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, see Smith, John Marshall: Definer of a Nation, 516–17; and R. Kent Newmyer, John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court (Baton Rouge, La., 2001), 446–51.
111 by hanging an Indian convicted of murder Ibid., 95–98.
112 “a proper case, with proper parties” Newmyer, John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court, 450. This helped open the way for Worcester v. Georgia the next year, a case treated more fully below.
113 The Cherokee Nation would be back Norgren, Cherokee Cases, 112–33, details the second case.
114 “If it be true” Ibid., 104. Politics was a factor among several in Marshall’s thinking, and Jackson clearly saw the struggle over Indian removal as more of a political than a legal issue. He knew, for instance, that his enemies saw an opening to make a humanitarian case. “I have now a clue to all the maneuvers and secret plans … to produce opposition to my measures, and particularly to the bill for the removal of the Indians,” Jackson said (Correspondence, IV, 269).
115 “No ladies will return with me” Correspondence, IV, 173.
116 rode in his carriage from the Hermitage EDT, I, 241.
117 Emily wept Ibid., 241–42.
118 “Uncle’s last words to me” Emily Donelson to Andrew Jackson Donelson, October 15, 1830, Gertrude and Benjamin Caldwell Collection, The Hermitage.
119 their horses Correspondence, IV, 181.
120 late one night at Knoxville EDT, I, 242.
121 “We travel at the rate” Ibid.
122 “business has greatly accumulated” Correspondence, IV, 181.
Chapter 12: I Have Been Left to Sup Alone
1 took her first steps EDT, I, 254.
2 cross-examined his mother Ibid., 243.
3 “Jackson talks a great deal” Ibid.
4 late on an October Sunday evening Correspondence, IV, 186–88. The letter was dated October 24, 1830.
5 “Major Donelson has informed you” Ibid., 186.
6 “I have often experienced” Ibid., 186–87.
7 Privately Calhoun believed nullification PJCC, XI, 415. Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 86–89, offers a sympathetic view of Calhoun’s position, but it is difficult to reconcile Calhoun’s advocacy of the doctrine and his interest in the preservation of slavery with his oft-stated desire to avoid disunion. “He realized that it was not the tariff but slavery that was at stake,” Wiltse wrote of Calhoun in the 1830 period. “He saw the South as a permanent minority and knew that her only safety lay in her own ability to resist exploitation at the hands of the more populous sections of the Union. If their individual sovereignties could be preserved, the slave states could protect themselves. If the partisan majority in control of the general government were allowed to wield sovereign powers, then the South could continue to exist only on the sufferance of the stronger interest.” And yet he continued to insist that he completely opposed what he called “civil discord, revolution, or disunion.” The implication is that he somehow believed that if the South lost the fight for nullification, and thus lost slavery (which is Wiltse’s logic), then the South would peaceably submit to living in a nation in which it would be, as Wiltse put it, at “the sufferance of the stronger interest.” It seems safest to say that Calhoun’s reluctance to acknowledge the full implications of his doctrine—that nullification was a step toward possible disunion—was based on his national political ambitions. At this juncture being president of the United States still held enormous appeal, much more appeal, for instance, than being president of a breakaway Carolinian republic, or even a larger Southern confederacy (Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 88–89).
8 “I had supposed” Correspondence, IV, 191.
9 proving central in a congressional race EDT, I, 243–44; TPA, 146–48; Satterfield, Andrew Jackson Donelson, 29. Each account reports the accusations slightly differently, with Emily Donelson’s letter, unsurprisingly, dwelling on the offense to her family.
10 saying that Jackson had asked EDT, I, 244.
11 a crowd of about six hundred people Ibid.
12 “informed the people” Ibid.
13 Jackson, she wrote Andrew, “may have used” Emily Donelson to Andrew Jackson Donelson, October 15, 1830, Gertrude and Benjamin Caldwell Collection, The Hermitage.
14 “My Dear husband” Ibid.
15 “I had the great pleasure” Ibid.
16 “I was thinking of you” Ibid.
17 “Is Major L[ewis] still at the President’s house?” Ibid.
18 “Mary Lewis is here” EDT, I, 245.
19 young Jackson “sometimes” Ibid., 243.
20 In South Carolina in these October weeks Freehling, Prelude to Civil War, 212–18.
21 not enough votes in the legislature Ibid., 218.
22 “I have always looked” Freehling, ed., Nullification Era, 100.
23 passed six resolutions related to nullification Boucher, Nullification Controversy, 104–7.
24 Monday morning, October 25, 1830 Correspondence, IV, 189.
25 of “intimations” from the Eaton camp Ibid.
26 “You have decided the question” Ibid., 192.
27 nor a familiar face across the way Ibid.
28 plagued by headaches Ibid.
29 Jackson replied on Saturday, October 30 Ibid., 193–94.
30 “my dear Andrew” Ibid., 194.
31 asked Andrew to remain Ibid.
32 then they would part Ibid.
33 he wrote again in the autumn dusk Ibid., 195–96. We can fix the hour of composition from a detail in an ensuing letter. Writing of this particular note the next day, Donelson said: “What I wrote yesterday evening was done by twilight …” (ibid., 197).
34 “In your house” Ibid., 195.
35 linking the present question with the first great test Ibid.
36 It was almost midnight Ibid., 196. This note of Jackson’s is dated “11 o’clock p.m.”
37 “My dear Andrew, for so I must still call you” Ibid.
38 “You were my family, my chosen family” Ibid.
39 Andrew saw he had been imprecise Correspondence, IV, 196–97.
40 Power and affection were at stake Here is just one example. This is the paragraph Jackson wrote after telling Donelson he should leave after Congress adjourned: “I have found for upwards of a year that you appeared to be estranged from me, and entirely taken up with strangers, but what I most regretted was your constant melancholy, and abstraction from me, which under my bereavements made my tears to flow often. I pray you cheer up, my tears are dried. When you leave, whatever cause I have to regret or complain, you will carry my friendship with you, and my prayers for your happiness, and that of your amiable family … [the] two little cherubs, Jackson and Rachel, who I can never cease to love” (ibid., 194).
41 “evidence of hostility to me” Ibid., 202.
42 who wrote to reassure him that all would be well EDT, I, 254.
43 “Still, I think you” Ibid.
44 Emily went a step further Ibid., 260.
45 “I would be willing” Ibid.
46 briefly noted in his diary Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 245.
47 on a cold September morning Nagel, John Quincy Adams, 335.
48 “not the slightest desire” Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 240.
49 Louisa … had even threatened Nagel, John Quincy Adams, 335.
50 hours of reflection Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 245.
51 relief from his trials Ibid., 246–47.
52 “My return to public life” Ibid., 246.
53 “the faithless wave of politics” Ibid., 243.
54 “My election as President” Ibid., 247.
55 the founding editor of a new administration newspaper Parton, Life, III, 333–39, covers the founding of the Globe. See also FPB, 45–61, and Culver H. Smith, The Press, Politics, and Patronage: The American Government’s Use of Newspapers, 1789–1875 (Athens, Ga.,
1977), 119–35. Jeffrey L. Pasley, “The Tyranny of Printers “: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (Charlottesville, Va., 2001), 390–99, is a good account of the Jacksonian newspaper world. As Pasley wrote: “Andrew Jackson’s presidency marked a major turning point in the history of newspaper politics. Understanding exactly the role that newspaper editors played in his campaigns, Jackson amply expressed his gratitude to the network of editors that supported him, not only by doling out printing contracts but also by appointing at least seventy editors to federal offices and allowing several key editors to play crucial roles in his administration” (ibid., 390).
56 had run his newspaper Cole, A Jackson Man, 59.
57 with the help of Blair Ibid., 72.
58 what Jackson called “the true faith” Correspondence, IV, 212. The context was Jackson’s urging John Coffee to subscribe to the new paper in a letter dated December 6, 1830.
59 Kendall was a critical figure Harriet Martineau, Retrospect of Western Travel (Armonk, N.Y., 2000), 52–54. This edition of Martineau’s work was edited by Daniel Feller; I highly recommend his fine introduction.
60 “I was fortunate enough” Ibid., 54.
61 Born in Virginia in 1791 FPB, 3.
62 converted to Jacksonian politics Ibid., 25.
63 “I wish you to stand just as I do” Amos Kendall to Francis Preston Blair, October 2, 1830, Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
64 With Kendall doing the wooing The history of the founding of the paper became a source of controversy later on when Kendall and Blair got into a dispute. See Smith, The Press, Politics, and Patronage, 122–26.
65 “Now, I want you to prepare” Amos Kendall to Francis Preston Blair, August 22, 1830, Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
66 “about five feet ten inches high” Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, I, 62.
67 The journey from Kentucky FPB, 42–43.
68 Lewis took one look at him Parton, Life, III, 337.
69 Blair was swept away by Jackson’s charm Ibid., 337–38.
70 Invited that very first night Ibid.
71 “abashed and miserable” Ibid., 338.
72 took Blair by the arm Ibid.
73 Francis Preston Blair would now fight any battle FPB, 46, makes a similar point: “On this note began Blair’s undying love for Andrew Jackson.”
74 Andrew Donelson was to take the president’s annual message Parton, Life, III, 339. Donelson was an early topic of conversation between Blair and Jackson. “There’s my nephew, Donelson,” Jackson told Blair. “He seems to be leaning toward the nullifiers.” Such a charge was unfair to Andrew, who was dedicated to Jackson and to Jackson’s philosophy, if not, obviously, to all of Jackson’s appointees and social demands. If Jackson truly believed Andrew to be a nullifier, or even a serious sympathizer with the Southern cause, he would have banished Andrew long, long before, for then Andrew would have been a traitor to the country, not just a serial inconvenience. The rest of the conversation with Blair rings more true, including a warning to watch Andrew with care. “I raised him. I love him. Let him do what he will, I love him. I can’t help it. Treat him kindly, but if he wants to write for your paper, you must look out for him.” It is also possible that Lewis, a rival of Donelson’s, was the source of the anecdote for Parton; Lewis clearly gave Parton other details about the evening (ibid., 337).
75 writing editorials after nightfall in lead pencil FPB, 63.
76 he attacked nullification Messages, II, 1079–80. It was subtle but unmistakable: “It is beyond the power of man to make a system of government like ours or any other operate with precise equality upon states situated like those which compose this Confederacy; nor is inequality always injustice” (ibid.). Jackson addressed extreme feelings in his discussion of conflicting interests between states and regions in which he sounded notes similar to those struck by Edward Livingston earlier in the year and echoed Van Buren’s toast at the Jefferson birthday dinner. His critics saw it differently. “There are avowals in [the message] that would drive a king of France from his throne and that would undoubtedly have cost John Quincy Adams an impeachment,” Richard Rush of Pennsylvania wrote Henry Clay (PHC, VIII, 315).
77 “It is an infirmity of our nature” Ibid., 1086–87.
78 told the readers of the Globe FPB, 60.
79 attractive to “certain men, who, like Caesar” Ibid.
80 passed the holiday “soberly yet agreeably” EDT, I, 264.
81 Donelson excused himself Ibid., 265.
82 quoting a poem Ibid., 266.
83 had lost a great deal of weight Ibid., 270.
84 “like a spectre” Ibid.
85 scolded Andrew Ibid.
86 “Although your letters” Ibid.
87 “Although we have been visited” Correspondence, IV, 226–27.
88 “is an old man of 66 years” George Wilson Pierson, Tocqueville and Beaumont in America (New York, 1938), 663. The letter is dated January 20, 1831. Beaumont was more impressed with the secretary of state. Of an evening spent at the Livingstons’, he reported: “I mingled my square dances and waltzes with most interesting conversations with Mr. Livingston on the penitentiary system and especially on capital punishment, passing thus from the serious to the pleasant.… It’s absolutely a European salon, and the reason is simple: all the members of the diplomatic corps gathered in Washington set the tone; French is the common language, and you would believe yourself in a Paris Salon” (ibid., 665). The letter was dated January 22, 1831.
89 “People in France” Ibid., 663.
90 In early 1831 the Globe announced Remini, Jackson, II, 304–5.
91 “The conquering Hero” Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 93.
92 At the time, Adams Remini, The Life of Andrew Jackson, 124.
93 Jackson, who had been aware Papers, VI, 461–63.
94 “I should be blind not to see” PJCC, XI, 173–91, is the full text of Calhoun’s reply to Jackson. The “I should be blind” quotation is on page 189.
95 “He is aspiring” Correspondence, IV, 151.
96 Jackson feigned surprise and outrage Remini, Jackson, II, 306–11, is good on the intrigue surrounding the publication of the Seminole correspondence. 170 “a conspiracy for my destruction” Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 95.
97 “The Globe you will have seen” Samuel D. Ingham to Samuel McKean, February 25, 1831, Samuel D. Ingham Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, University of Pennsylvania.
98 “came out pell mell” Samuel D. Ingham to George Wolf, February 27, 1831, Samuel D. Ingham Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, University of Pennsylvania.
99 “A man who could secretly” Correspondence, IV, 216.
100 went to Meridian Hill to see John Quincy Adams Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 331–32.
101 spent two hours talking politics Ibid., 332–33.
102 dispatched Andrew on Tuesday, March 8 EDT, I, 281.
103 “The adjournment of Congress” Ibid., 280.
104 “As much as I desire you” Ibid., 282.
105 “Recent information from the General” Ibid., 283.
106 “this disgusting petticoat business” Samuel D. Ingham to Samuel McKean, February 25, 1831, Samuel D. Ingham Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, University of Pennsylvania.
107 worried about “the plots, intrigues and calumnies” AMVB, 402.
108 he settled on a plan My account of Van Buren’s role in the Cabinet dissolution is drawn from AMVB, 402–8.
109 a thunderstorm drove them Ibid., 402.
110 “You have possibly saved” Ibid., 403.
111 “We should soon have peace in Israel” Ibid.
112 “the course I had pointed to” Ibid., 404–5.
113 Van Buren jumped up Ibid., 405–6.
114 “Why
should you resign?” Ibid., 406.
115 “it was forthwith agreed” Ibid., 407.
116 “The long agony is nearly over” Royce McCrary, “ ‘The Long Agony is Nearly Over’: Samuel D. Ingham Reports on the Dissolution of Andrew Jackson’s First Cabinet,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 100 (April 1976), 235.
117 Jackson forced him, Berrien, and Branch to resign as well Correspondence, IV, 260–79, covers much of the ensuing action. See also Parton, Life, III, 346–59.
118 For all to resign, he told Ingham John Berrien to Samuel D. Ingham, April 24, 1831, Samuel D. Ingham Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, University of Pennsylvania.
119 “to make up” Samuel D. Ingham to Samuel McKean, May 27, 1831, Samuel D. Ingham Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, University of Pennsylvania.
120 “You must read Tacitus” John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, February 26, 1831, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
121 “You are disgusted” John Quincy Adams to Charles Francis Adams, March 9, 1831, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
122 “The President parts” Thomas H. Clay, “Two Years with Old Hickory,” Atlantic Monthly 60 (August 1887), 193.
123 “My labours have been incessant” Correspondence, IV, 265.
124 telling Emily that he thought EDT, I, 287.
125 news of the Cabinet resignations broke in the Globe Remini, Jackson, II, 315.
126 Vaughan … wrote Viscount Palmerston … that “this day” Charles Vaughan to Viscount Palmerston, April 20, 1831, National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew.
127 Vaughan told London to watch the South Ibid.
128 The Cabinet news Bangeman Huygens to Verstolk van Soelen (minister of foreign affairs), May 13, 1831, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken 1813–1896, Nationaal Archief, Den Haag.
129 “He was near” Bangeman Huygens to Verstolk van Soelen (minister of foreign affairs), May 13, 1831, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken 1813–1896, Nationaal Archief, Den Haag.
130 “false” and “unnatural” Ibid.
131 “to entirely remake” Ibid.
132 “In truth, the only excuse” Hunt, ed., First Forty Years of Washington Society, 318–19.
