The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume 7: 1829

The Papers of Andrew Jackson #7

by Andrew Jackson, Daniel Feller (Editor), Harold D. Moser (Editor)

With this seventh volume, The Papers of Andrew Jackson enters the heart of Jackson's career: his tumultuous two terms as president of the United States. The year 1829 began with Jackson fresh from a triumphant victory over incumbent John Quincy Adams in the 1828 campaign, yet mourning the sudden death of his beloved wife, Rachel. In January, having hired an overseer for his Hermitage plantation and arranged for Rachel's tomb, he left Tennessee for Washington. Jackson assumed the presidency with two objectives already fixed in mind: purging the federal bureaucracy of recreant officeholders and removing the southern Indian tribes westward beyond state authority. By year's end he had added two more: purchasing Texas and destroying the Bank of the United States. But meanwhile he found himself diverted, and nearly consumed, by the notorious Peggy Eaton affair--a burgeoning scandal which pitted the president, his Secretary of War John Eaton, and the latter's vivacious wife against the Washington guardians of feminine propriety. This first presidential volume reveals all these stories, and many more, in a depth never seen before. It presents full texts of more than four hundred documents, most printed for the first time. Gathered from a vast array of libraries, archives, and individual owners, they include Jackson's intimate exchanges with family and friends, private notes and musings, and formative drafts of public addresses. Administrative papers range from presidential pardons to military promotions to plans for discharging the public debt. They exhibit Jackson's daily conduct of the executive office in close and sometimes startling detail, and cast new light on such controversial mattersas Indian removal and political patronage. Included also are letters to the president from people in every corner of the country and every walk of life: Indian delegations presenting grievances, distraught mothers pleading help for wayward sons, aged veterans begging pensions, politicians offering advice and seeking jobs. Embracing a broad spectrum of actors and events, this volume offers an incomparable window not only into Jackson and his presidency, but into America itself in 1829.

864 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2007

About the author

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Andrew Jackson, known as "Old Hickory," as an officer in the war of 1812 defeated the British at New Orleans in 1815 and as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837 opposed the bank, strengthened Federal powers, and pursued policies that forced thousands of Native Americans to relocate to the west.

He commanded at the battle in 1815 and served as military governor of Florida in 1821. This polarizing figure, the eponym of the era of democracy, dominated politics in the 1820s and 1830s. His political ambition, combined with the masses of persons, shaped the modern Democratic Party. People nicknamed him for his renowned toughness. Jackson, first and primarily associated with the frontier, based his career in Tennessee.