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Andrew Jackson #2
Andrew Jackson, Volume 2
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First published January 1, 1981
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March 15, 2021
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked book #1 in this trilogy, despite a few concerns. So I was unpleasantly surprised that I didn't like book #2 nearly as much.
In fact, for about the first 1/3rd of this book, I really didn't like it at all. While Remini seemed to strive to be balanced and objective in his approach to Jackson in the first book, he seemed to start this book with full-on hero worship. Or should I say "Hero" worship, since he uses "The Hero" (shorthand for "The Hero of the Battle of New Orleans") as a second reference for Jackson dozens, if not hundreds, of times throughout the book. Presumably he meant it as a way to not have to write "Jackson" over and over again, replacing it with "Old Hickory," "The General," "The President," etc., but I just found the use of "The Hero" to be somewhat grating and not conducive to objectivity.
But that's just a surface-level complaint. I also thought Remini went way overboard in accusing the Monroe administration - and James Monroe himself - of corruption and malfeasance ("the greatest fraud in the nation," he writes of President Monroe, "sat in the executive mansion in Washington.") The purpose of demonizing Monroe seems to serve to portray Jackson as the savior of reform and liberty, who was poised to ride to the rescue and do what his predecessors could, or would, not.
In that regard, he also does not have much good to say about John Quincy Adams either, particularly when it comes to his election as president, in a process that Remini believes was completely fraudulent. Jackson earned more popular and electoral votes, but not a majority, so the House was left to decide, which it did for Adams. "More Americans wanted Andrew Jackson as their president than anyone else. That fact was contemptuously dismissed," Remini writes. "That was corruption to shake the constitutional system to its foundations." In truth, as unseemly as the process and the "corrupt bargain" might have been, the Constitution provides for this very mechanism to select a president when no one obtains a majority of the vote. The House's role is not to rubber-stamp the candidate who got a plurality of the vote. So Adams's election was not something to "shake the constitutional system to its foundations" - despite what you think of the outcome, it was the very definition of constitutional.
And in the mudslinging campaign of 1828, in which Jackson and Adams faced off again, the mud seems to have been slung mostly in one direction, according to Remini's telling - Jackson bears the brunt of it, while the charges leveled against Adams get scant mention.
Once Jackson becomes president later in the book, Remini's narrative settles in to something that has more resemblance to his previous book - a detailed, objective telling that recounts Jackson's successes but doesn't hesitate to call him out for his faults and mistakes. Remini acknowledges that Jackson's first Cabinet was "among the worst... in the 19th century" and calls Jackson out for his stubbornness throughout the Eaton Affair. Remini acknowledges the criticism of Jackson's rotation in office principle, which was an unfortunate precursor to decades' worth of the spoils system, which was just as corrupt as the system it replaced. Nonetheless, Remini ultimately concludes that Jackson's motives and actions were correct.
While Remini offers harsh criticism of the terrible humanitarian impact of Jackson's Indian removal policy, I couldn't help but get a sense of "he doth protest too much" when reading it. As harsh as his criticism is, it seems somehow perfunctory and insincere, because he goes on to credit Jackson for facing the issue and acting when others would not, and making the best decisions possible to resolve an impossible situation.
And, once again, as in the first book, Remini does not address Jackson's attitudes toward slavery, even going so far as to euphemistically refer to Jackson's slaves as "servants."
That's not to say the whole book is without its merits. The descriptions of Jackson's relationships with Martin Van Buren and with his Vice President John Calhoun are very well-done, as is the description of his wife Rachel's death. And Remini's ultimate conclusion that Jackson transformed the presidency, becoming actively involved in issues and legislation as opposed to deferring to Congress, is strong. "He was becoming the head of the government, not simply an equal partner," he observes.
I'm not sure why Remini seemed to go overboard in disparaging Jackson's political opponents instead of being as objective toward them as he strove to be toward Jackson himself. For that, this was not as strong a book as book #1 was. I'll soon know how book #3 compares.
In fact, for about the first 1/3rd of this book, I really didn't like it at all. While Remini seemed to strive to be balanced and objective in his approach to Jackson in the first book, he seemed to start this book with full-on hero worship. Or should I say "Hero" worship, since he uses "The Hero" (shorthand for "The Hero of the Battle of New Orleans") as a second reference for Jackson dozens, if not hundreds, of times throughout the book. Presumably he meant it as a way to not have to write "Jackson" over and over again, replacing it with "Old Hickory," "The General," "The President," etc., but I just found the use of "The Hero" to be somewhat grating and not conducive to objectivity.
But that's just a surface-level complaint. I also thought Remini went way overboard in accusing the Monroe administration - and James Monroe himself - of corruption and malfeasance ("the greatest fraud in the nation," he writes of President Monroe, "sat in the executive mansion in Washington.") The purpose of demonizing Monroe seems to serve to portray Jackson as the savior of reform and liberty, who was poised to ride to the rescue and do what his predecessors could, or would, not.
In that regard, he also does not have much good to say about John Quincy Adams either, particularly when it comes to his election as president, in a process that Remini believes was completely fraudulent. Jackson earned more popular and electoral votes, but not a majority, so the House was left to decide, which it did for Adams. "More Americans wanted Andrew Jackson as their president than anyone else. That fact was contemptuously dismissed," Remini writes. "That was corruption to shake the constitutional system to its foundations." In truth, as unseemly as the process and the "corrupt bargain" might have been, the Constitution provides for this very mechanism to select a president when no one obtains a majority of the vote. The House's role is not to rubber-stamp the candidate who got a plurality of the vote. So Adams's election was not something to "shake the constitutional system to its foundations" - despite what you think of the outcome, it was the very definition of constitutional.
And in the mudslinging campaign of 1828, in which Jackson and Adams faced off again, the mud seems to have been slung mostly in one direction, according to Remini's telling - Jackson bears the brunt of it, while the charges leveled against Adams get scant mention.
Once Jackson becomes president later in the book, Remini's narrative settles in to something that has more resemblance to his previous book - a detailed, objective telling that recounts Jackson's successes but doesn't hesitate to call him out for his faults and mistakes. Remini acknowledges that Jackson's first Cabinet was "among the worst... in the 19th century" and calls Jackson out for his stubbornness throughout the Eaton Affair. Remini acknowledges the criticism of Jackson's rotation in office principle, which was an unfortunate precursor to decades' worth of the spoils system, which was just as corrupt as the system it replaced. Nonetheless, Remini ultimately concludes that Jackson's motives and actions were correct.
While Remini offers harsh criticism of the terrible humanitarian impact of Jackson's Indian removal policy, I couldn't help but get a sense of "he doth protest too much" when reading it. As harsh as his criticism is, it seems somehow perfunctory and insincere, because he goes on to credit Jackson for facing the issue and acting when others would not, and making the best decisions possible to resolve an impossible situation.
And, once again, as in the first book, Remini does not address Jackson's attitudes toward slavery, even going so far as to euphemistically refer to Jackson's slaves as "servants."
That's not to say the whole book is without its merits. The descriptions of Jackson's relationships with Martin Van Buren and with his Vice President John Calhoun are very well-done, as is the description of his wife Rachel's death. And Remini's ultimate conclusion that Jackson transformed the presidency, becoming actively involved in issues and legislation as opposed to deferring to Congress, is strong. "He was becoming the head of the government, not simply an equal partner," he observes.
I'm not sure why Remini seemed to go overboard in disparaging Jackson's political opponents instead of being as objective toward them as he strove to be toward Jackson himself. For that, this was not as strong a book as book #1 was. I'll soon know how book #3 compares.
October 17, 2013
http://bestpresidentialbios.com/2013/...
“Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Freedom (1822-1832)” is the second of three volumes in Robert Remini’s series on Andrew Jackson. This volume was published in 1981 and the series was completed in 1984. Despite the significant historical scholarship and refreshing lucidity it offers, Remini’s series is no longer frequently read. However, in 1988 Remini published a single-volume abridgment of the series which maintains a relatively vigorous following.
Remini was a historian and professor at the University of Illinois and authored several biographies during his forty-year literary career (of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren, among others). He was named historian of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005 and was asked to author a narrative history of that legislative body. His resulting work “The House: The History of the House of Representatives” was published in 2006. Remini died earlier this year at the age of 91.
This volume of Remini’s series covers the ten-year period which includes Jackson’s national political ascendancy, his contentious defeat for the presidency in 1824 by John Quincy Adams, his successful presidential campaign in 1828 and his first presidential term. Early in the volume, Remini lays the groundwork to prove the case that the Monroe and Adams administrations created an unprecedented level of corruption within the federal government.
His effort is reasonably, but not entirely, convincing. He successfully demonstrates the existence of widespread, systemic corruption but is less convincing in attributing it directly to Monroe or Adams. This “Era of Corruption” underpins his central thesis that by running for the nation’s highest office, the virtuous General Jackson was responding to a public “call” to rescue the nation from the malfeasance of the very wealthy and the most politically powerful.
Remini does a remarkable job of constructing an interesting, wonderfully penetrating and occasionally provocative narrative of the seventh president. I came away from this volume (and its predecessor) with a far more complete and coherent understanding of Jackson than I developed by reading about him in earlier biographical works by Marquis James and Arthur Schlesinger. Remini not only dissects Jackson’s actions within the context of his personality and worldview, but also wonderfully describes Jackson’s complex network of friends and political allies.
Consistent with his treatment of Jackson in the first volume, there can be no mistake while reading this volume that Remini is favorably disposed toward his primary subject. In fact, although Remini’s Jackson is heroic but deeply flawed, the author has been accused of seeing the world “too much from Jackson’s point of view.” But this criticism is one of shading; Remini’s critiques of Jackson are too frequent and often too searing to leave the reader with an unrealistic, saintly image of Andrew Jackson.
Overall, the second volume of Robert Remini’s series on Andrew Jackson was nearly as outstanding as the first. Though the description of some of the political issues facing President Jackson occasionally became a bit dense (and sometimes felt too lengthy) the book as a whole was well-paced, extremely approachable and quite engaging. This volume on Andrew Jackson was excellent and is well worth reading even without the benefit of the first or third volumes.
Overall rating: 4¼ stars
“Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Freedom (1822-1832)” is the second of three volumes in Robert Remini’s series on Andrew Jackson. This volume was published in 1981 and the series was completed in 1984. Despite the significant historical scholarship and refreshing lucidity it offers, Remini’s series is no longer frequently read. However, in 1988 Remini published a single-volume abridgment of the series which maintains a relatively vigorous following.
Remini was a historian and professor at the University of Illinois and authored several biographies during his forty-year literary career (of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren, among others). He was named historian of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005 and was asked to author a narrative history of that legislative body. His resulting work “The House: The History of the House of Representatives” was published in 2006. Remini died earlier this year at the age of 91.
This volume of Remini’s series covers the ten-year period which includes Jackson’s national political ascendancy, his contentious defeat for the presidency in 1824 by John Quincy Adams, his successful presidential campaign in 1828 and his first presidential term. Early in the volume, Remini lays the groundwork to prove the case that the Monroe and Adams administrations created an unprecedented level of corruption within the federal government.
His effort is reasonably, but not entirely, convincing. He successfully demonstrates the existence of widespread, systemic corruption but is less convincing in attributing it directly to Monroe or Adams. This “Era of Corruption” underpins his central thesis that by running for the nation’s highest office, the virtuous General Jackson was responding to a public “call” to rescue the nation from the malfeasance of the very wealthy and the most politically powerful.
Remini does a remarkable job of constructing an interesting, wonderfully penetrating and occasionally provocative narrative of the seventh president. I came away from this volume (and its predecessor) with a far more complete and coherent understanding of Jackson than I developed by reading about him in earlier biographical works by Marquis James and Arthur Schlesinger. Remini not only dissects Jackson’s actions within the context of his personality and worldview, but also wonderfully describes Jackson’s complex network of friends and political allies.
Consistent with his treatment of Jackson in the first volume, there can be no mistake while reading this volume that Remini is favorably disposed toward his primary subject. In fact, although Remini’s Jackson is heroic but deeply flawed, the author has been accused of seeing the world “too much from Jackson’s point of view.” But this criticism is one of shading; Remini’s critiques of Jackson are too frequent and often too searing to leave the reader with an unrealistic, saintly image of Andrew Jackson.
Overall, the second volume of Robert Remini’s series on Andrew Jackson was nearly as outstanding as the first. Though the description of some of the political issues facing President Jackson occasionally became a bit dense (and sometimes felt too lengthy) the book as a whole was well-paced, extremely approachable and quite engaging. This volume on Andrew Jackson was excellent and is well worth reading even without the benefit of the first or third volumes.
Overall rating: 4¼ stars
January 21, 2018
Volume II of Robert Remini's biography of Andrew Jackson picks up with an enfeebled and exhausted Jackson returning to Tennessee following his brief tenure as territorial governor of Florida. Remini details just how ill Jackson was and how hard he had been on his body. Reading about all of the physical ailments that plagued the man makes one wonder just how he continued living. Truly someone of only the strongest willpower could manage to survive all of his injuries, battle wounds, and deprivations. Regardless of what one may think about Jackson (and there is no shortage of thinks to dislike), anyone who willingly lances into his own arms in order to stop hemorrhaging deserves respect in the physical endurance category.
The Jackson we see here is (somewhat) less mean-spirited and vindictive than when he was younger. Jackson, in some respects but not others, mellowed a bit with age. He was more prone to attack people with his pen than a rifle, although there were still moments when his orneriness got the better of him and he threatened people. Despite this volume covering his election as President in 1828, a profound sense of melancholy hangs over it. Jackson was completely devoted to his wife Rachel. By now very fat, Rachel was in ill health which was not helped by nasty rumors about her running off with Jackson decades before while she was married to another man. These accusations (it is difficult to separate fact from fiction concerning Andrew and Rachel's courtship and early years together, although it seems at least fairly certain that they were not angels) hastened Rachel's deteriorating health, most likely contributing to her fatal heart attack only a few weeks after Jackson was declared the winner. Thus, by the time Jackson departs Nashville for Washington, he is grieving widower who steadfastly refuses to forgive anyone who spoke disrespectfully about his late wife.
While generally favorable to Jackson (Remini tends to make Jackson out to be more a benevolent father figure than a master to his slaves), Remini has no problem taking Jackson to task for his extremely poor Cabinet selection and his even more misguided loyalty to John Eaton, his pick for Secretary of War. Eaton had recently married Peggy Timberlake, who, to put it politely, had a well-known reputation for not being virtuous. This subsequently caused a major scandal in Jackson's administration, for a time derailing his efforts at governmental reform. Jackson foolishly not only stuck by Eaton but admonished his Cabinet and others who shunned Mrs. Eaton. He went so far as to even call a Cabinet meeting just to discuss how the affair and how he expected the other Cabinet members wives' to not shun the Eatons. While Eaton was loyal to Jackson, he was not particularly qualified to hold a Cabinet position in the first place. And, when adding his scandalous – for that time period – marriage (Eaton was a recent widower) to the mix, this was really a poorly made decision to have him be a top member of Jackson's administration.
Remini is fairly balanced when it comes to discussing Jackson's brutal and racist Indian removal policy. While he takes pains to point out that historians have tended to place the bulk of the blame on Jackson's doorstep for the atrocious and inexcusable treatment of Native American tribes, and that this tendency is not quite the whole picture, he does not give Jackson a pass. Jackson, while at times showing some concern for the tribes, adopted the condescending, paternal attitude of white men towards red men that permeated the 19th century, and sadly still exists in pockets today. While Jackson made some effort to be humane towards the chiefs and their peoples, his urgings were always cloaked with thinly-veiled threats that if the Indians did not do as he and the government wished, more heartache and bloodshed would occur for them, and that ultimately they would lose the battle to remain on their native lands. I thought Remini's treatment of this issue is much more nuanced, and also rightly critical of Jackson's actions and attitudes, than his discussion in Volume I about Jackson being a slaveholder.
The political machinations of Jackson's Cabinet are covered in great detail. While the discussion probably could have been edited better (do we really need to know every move that Martin Van Buren, John Eaton, and others, made?), the narrative does not bog down for too long. Jackson, the dominant man of the era, remains at the center of it all, being the undisputed man in charge. Remini ends this volume with Jackson vetoing the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States, and being re-elected President in 1832. Although Remini is still a little too pro-Jackson for my tastes (for example, on page 391 he writes that the American people reelected him because they “...had confidence in his leadership because he stood for morality and virtue in government...”), this is a satisfactory follow-up to Volume I.
Grade: B
The Jackson we see here is (somewhat) less mean-spirited and vindictive than when he was younger. Jackson, in some respects but not others, mellowed a bit with age. He was more prone to attack people with his pen than a rifle, although there were still moments when his orneriness got the better of him and he threatened people. Despite this volume covering his election as President in 1828, a profound sense of melancholy hangs over it. Jackson was completely devoted to his wife Rachel. By now very fat, Rachel was in ill health which was not helped by nasty rumors about her running off with Jackson decades before while she was married to another man. These accusations (it is difficult to separate fact from fiction concerning Andrew and Rachel's courtship and early years together, although it seems at least fairly certain that they were not angels) hastened Rachel's deteriorating health, most likely contributing to her fatal heart attack only a few weeks after Jackson was declared the winner. Thus, by the time Jackson departs Nashville for Washington, he is grieving widower who steadfastly refuses to forgive anyone who spoke disrespectfully about his late wife.
While generally favorable to Jackson (Remini tends to make Jackson out to be more a benevolent father figure than a master to his slaves), Remini has no problem taking Jackson to task for his extremely poor Cabinet selection and his even more misguided loyalty to John Eaton, his pick for Secretary of War. Eaton had recently married Peggy Timberlake, who, to put it politely, had a well-known reputation for not being virtuous. This subsequently caused a major scandal in Jackson's administration, for a time derailing his efforts at governmental reform. Jackson foolishly not only stuck by Eaton but admonished his Cabinet and others who shunned Mrs. Eaton. He went so far as to even call a Cabinet meeting just to discuss how the affair and how he expected the other Cabinet members wives' to not shun the Eatons. While Eaton was loyal to Jackson, he was not particularly qualified to hold a Cabinet position in the first place. And, when adding his scandalous – for that time period – marriage (Eaton was a recent widower) to the mix, this was really a poorly made decision to have him be a top member of Jackson's administration.
Remini is fairly balanced when it comes to discussing Jackson's brutal and racist Indian removal policy. While he takes pains to point out that historians have tended to place the bulk of the blame on Jackson's doorstep for the atrocious and inexcusable treatment of Native American tribes, and that this tendency is not quite the whole picture, he does not give Jackson a pass. Jackson, while at times showing some concern for the tribes, adopted the condescending, paternal attitude of white men towards red men that permeated the 19th century, and sadly still exists in pockets today. While Jackson made some effort to be humane towards the chiefs and their peoples, his urgings were always cloaked with thinly-veiled threats that if the Indians did not do as he and the government wished, more heartache and bloodshed would occur for them, and that ultimately they would lose the battle to remain on their native lands. I thought Remini's treatment of this issue is much more nuanced, and also rightly critical of Jackson's actions and attitudes, than his discussion in Volume I about Jackson being a slaveholder.
The political machinations of Jackson's Cabinet are covered in great detail. While the discussion probably could have been edited better (do we really need to know every move that Martin Van Buren, John Eaton, and others, made?), the narrative does not bog down for too long. Jackson, the dominant man of the era, remains at the center of it all, being the undisputed man in charge. Remini ends this volume with Jackson vetoing the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States, and being re-elected President in 1832. Although Remini is still a little too pro-Jackson for my tastes (for example, on page 391 he writes that the American people reelected him because they “...had confidence in his leadership because he stood for morality and virtue in government...”), this is a satisfactory follow-up to Volume I.
Grade: B
January 3, 2020
Part of why I enjoy the Remini trilogy is that, in this book, you get such an old-school perspective on Jackson. In this day and age, his policy on Indian Removal is seen as the climactic, legacy-ruining move that it deserves - but why did people view him as a hero in prior eras (right up until the 70's)? Why was Jackson seen as such a strong executive and excellent president for so long? Should we really throw out the baby with the bathwater?
This book begins to answer those sorts of things. Remini poses Jackson as a reformer which, if the analysis of Monroe is to be believed, seems pretty legit. Clay's treachery in the election of 1824 is front and center, and Jackson seems the only answer to his puffing. In response to an aristocratic, single-party machine that was unstoppable, Jackson placed the course of American politics into the hands of the voters and helped expand the definition of 'voter' to white men who didn't own land.
I run the risk of getting into a political argument if I even start trying to explain Remini's view on the Trail of Tears or the Bank War, so I'm not going to try. Just suffice it to say that if any historian has a raging boner for Jackson, it's this guy.
This book begins to answer those sorts of things. Remini poses Jackson as a reformer which, if the analysis of Monroe is to be believed, seems pretty legit. Clay's treachery in the election of 1824 is front and center, and Jackson seems the only answer to his puffing. In response to an aristocratic, single-party machine that was unstoppable, Jackson placed the course of American politics into the hands of the voters and helped expand the definition of 'voter' to white men who didn't own land.
I run the risk of getting into a political argument if I even start trying to explain Remini's view on the Trail of Tears or the Bank War, so I'm not going to try. Just suffice it to say that if any historian has a raging boner for Jackson, it's this guy.
June 9, 2017
The second volume of this Jacksonian series is as full of details and anecdotes as the first and paints a clear, and not always flattering, picture of the 7th president.
Two issues I have with Mr. Remini's work:
* He severely downplays the issue of slavery in relation to Jackson and the US overall, occasionally referring to enslaved individuals as "servants" which hides their true condition.
* The issue of Georgia and the Supreme Court in relation to the Native American removal is dismissed with a sentiment of "well there's nothing Jackson could have done" as a state purposely ignored and SCOTUS decision. This is a patently false concept since in later chapters Jackson doesn't hesitate to prepare to use military force against South Carolina for their ideology of nullification in regards to the Tariff of 1832. Jackson shows that ignoring legislation that he supports has repercussions while decisions he does not should be ignored.
Two issues I have with Mr. Remini's work:
* He severely downplays the issue of slavery in relation to Jackson and the US overall, occasionally referring to enslaved individuals as "servants" which hides their true condition.
* The issue of Georgia and the Supreme Court in relation to the Native American removal is dismissed with a sentiment of "well there's nothing Jackson could have done" as a state purposely ignored and SCOTUS decision. This is a patently false concept since in later chapters Jackson doesn't hesitate to prepare to use military force against South Carolina for their ideology of nullification in regards to the Tariff of 1832. Jackson shows that ignoring legislation that he supports has repercussions while decisions he does not should be ignored.
September 11, 2020
Andrew Jackson ruled the 1830s and everyone else was just trying to catch their breath. This second book in the three volume set reveals how Andrew Jackson won the 1828 presidential election in a landslide and transformed the nation. Jackson is credited with a few things, some of them not great, but mostly for pushing forward an understanding of the US president as the representative of all the people. This is a model that every president after Jackson desired to state whenever they were striving for their agenda to come to fruition. Jackson is a magnetic personage, being a profligate spender in the White House, hosting people of all stripes and desiring to know the people of America that elected him. He was also stubborn as hell. He minimally utilized his much ballyhooed Kitchen Cabinet. He made his mind up and went with it. Reading about Jackson's first term informs greatly my understanding of our modern presidency, and their connection to the people.
December 22, 2021
Excellent work. I thought at first it started out rather mundane, but soon was into it. Robert Remini is a very thorough researcher and though I was not particularly fond of Andrew Jackson, I have come to respect his values and his intellect. He had a remarkable mind and though he was not an "educated" man he had a way to explain his ideas and concepts about what was right for the Country and how to go about achieving those goals. He had a natural intellect and almost always got others to see his side of issues. He was certainly not perfect, but he was for the common man and they loved him. He suffered physical pain much of his life, and his sheer will carried him through many difficult times. He had his enemies, but he also had those who would do everything they could to support him in his presidency.
October 12, 2021
3.75 stars for some exaggerated conclusions by author Remini.
This volume II of III continues the appealing conversational writing style and I am surprisingly pleased with Remini’s harsh criticism of AJ when appropriate (his ruthless Indian policy and hypocrisy in choosing friends over competence for his first term cabinet). One doesn’t often find biographers willing to do this rather than gloss over their subjects’ warts.
Overall, Remini admires and respects AJ dispute the flaws and certainly makes clear that AJ was a ‘force’ in American history.
This volume II of III continues the appealing conversational writing style and I am surprisingly pleased with Remini’s harsh criticism of AJ when appropriate (his ruthless Indian policy and hypocrisy in choosing friends over competence for his first term cabinet). One doesn’t often find biographers willing to do this rather than gloss over their subjects’ warts.
Overall, Remini admires and respects AJ dispute the flaws and certainly makes clear that AJ was a ‘force’ in American history.
October 22, 2022
This book is superb. Robert Remini has written the best biography for Jackson. I cannot wait to read volume three. In this book Remini documents much of the corruption and self-dealing that occurred during the so-called “Era of Good Feeling.” Remini makes the argument that Jackson was the first reformer in American politics and was an intellectual heir of Thomas Jefferson. Where I disagreed with Remini was that I thought that he portrayed Jackson’s Indian removal in too sympathetic of a light. I don’t mind him presenting the argument, but I would have appreciated how much stronger rebuttal.
Read
February 25, 2024Suffers from an academic’s need to have a novel thesis. The defense of that thesis (that the era of good feeling was the first era of rampant corruption in American politics, and that Jackson was a successful reformer of that corruption) suffers from lack of evidence, bizarre internal contradictions (he wasn’t a spoilsman, only a reformer, except the myriad of spoils jobs he gave out), and are not really convincing.
However, the hat Jackson is wearing in the cover of this book is excellent.
However, the hat Jackson is wearing in the cover of this book is excellent.
October 7, 2024
Remini goes to great pains to redeem Andrew Jackson. He highlights the corruption of the Monroe administration, and builds a case that Indian Removal was a best case solution. Jackson is a controversial figure who has been on the losing side of history. However, Remini makes the case that his policies and party organization set an indelible imprint on American politics.
September 29, 2022
However battered and worn the outer shell of the man appeared to his friends and neighbors upon his return to the Hermitage in 1821, the cold steely blue eyes reassured them that enormous vitality still throbbed within that shrunken hulk.
October 25, 2017
Book two was even better then book one. God detail on first term. Great pace. Looking forward to book three.
January 24, 2025
Great biography of a transformative presidency
January 28, 2025
I really enjoyed this second volume of a three part trilogy which covers Jackson’s election and first term. Very readable history and a great paced narrative.
October 18, 2025
In the second volume of Remini’s three part series he explores Jackson’s initial defeat for the presidency in the 1824 election and his first term as president following his election in 1828. Remini states in the introduction that this is a revisionist history in support of a thesis, in that he interprets Jackson’s first term as a fight against entrenched corruption that started with Monroe’s administration.
The first quarter of the book details elements of this corruption and posits that John Quincy Adam’s election was a product of that corruption. Remini makes his case by citing that Jackson had won the popular vote and the most electoral votes, but not a majority; so the final decision was left up to the House of Representatives. It was here that Henry Clay and JQA conceived their “corrupt bargain” (in the words of Jackson’s party), and subsequently maintained Clay’s American System policies that included strong protection for New England manufacturing at the expense of Southern and Western interests. The thesis seems unconvincing since this scenario was predicted by the Founding Fathers and a provision for this very thing was laid out in the constitution, so the election of Adams need not be about corruption necessarily.
Rather, the reaction to JQA’s election indicates that America was at an inflection point between the vision that (most) of the Founding Fathers had laid out and the vision that 1820’s Americans had for themselves. Namely, America was changing from the idea of a republic governed by a class of virtuous aristocrats to one elected by a democracy of majority rule with an expanding electorate. Indeed, many of the Founding Fathers probably would have, and some did, nod their heads in approval when the House of Representatives chose Adams over Jackson, as the representatives should be wiser and more judicious than the common voter and thus avoid the election of a popular demagogue. To the founders this result would be an indication that their system was working!
Incidentally, Jefferson was not actively involved in the formulation of the Constitution (with the small exception of some correspondence with Madison) and had a much more democratic view of how the country should to be governed. In this regard, Jackson’s vision of America was much more in line with Jefferson’s, while JQA’s election was more indicative of the Federalist vision of Washington, his father John Adams, and Hamilton. Remini makes the point that the election of 1824 was actually a continuation of the debate between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans at the close of the century, yet he still asserts that the election was the result of corruption rather than the result of competing visions. On the other hand, while I don’t agree with Remini’s thesis about the corruption charge I do still find it valuable because it most likely aligns with how Jackson saw himself, and perhaps how many Americans also saw their state of affairs at that time.
When Jackson prevails in his second run for the presidency he immediately purges the government of any perceived corruption by firing and replacing around one third of the government positions. Historians have often explained this as the advent of the “spoils system” in which the newly elected president has the mandate and right to place their own people in government positions, but Remini’s “revisionist” perspective denies this as being the main thrust of Jackson’s appointments and instead suggests it was motivated by ridding the government of corruption.
One admirable achievement that Jackson brought to his early administration was his hypersensitivity to government waste and his keen eye for any inefficiency or impropriety in government spending. He was able to slash a huge amount of government waste, although an unfortunate appointment in New York’s customs office undid a lot of those savings after his appointee embezzled over a million dollars.
At the close of the book Remini explores the battle of the Bank recharter and ends the volume with the veto.
The second volume was not as strong as the first outstanding volume, but it is still very good. The first volume did not carry the defense of a thesis like it does in this second volume and Remini’s regular reference to his own thesis throughout the book gets a little distracting. In the preface of the third volume Remini admits to the strangeness of proposing a thesis in a biography, but he also points out that this biography is being written not only about Jackson but also in response to the historiography of Jackson. I do think he captures Jackson’s motivations correctly as well as the culture surrounding him at the height of his power, so the thesis can be overlooked while still providing a rigorous accounting of Jackson’s life.
The first quarter of the book details elements of this corruption and posits that John Quincy Adam’s election was a product of that corruption. Remini makes his case by citing that Jackson had won the popular vote and the most electoral votes, but not a majority; so the final decision was left up to the House of Representatives. It was here that Henry Clay and JQA conceived their “corrupt bargain” (in the words of Jackson’s party), and subsequently maintained Clay’s American System policies that included strong protection for New England manufacturing at the expense of Southern and Western interests. The thesis seems unconvincing since this scenario was predicted by the Founding Fathers and a provision for this very thing was laid out in the constitution, so the election of Adams need not be about corruption necessarily.
Rather, the reaction to JQA’s election indicates that America was at an inflection point between the vision that (most) of the Founding Fathers had laid out and the vision that 1820’s Americans had for themselves. Namely, America was changing from the idea of a republic governed by a class of virtuous aristocrats to one elected by a democracy of majority rule with an expanding electorate. Indeed, many of the Founding Fathers probably would have, and some did, nod their heads in approval when the House of Representatives chose Adams over Jackson, as the representatives should be wiser and more judicious than the common voter and thus avoid the election of a popular demagogue. To the founders this result would be an indication that their system was working!
Incidentally, Jefferson was not actively involved in the formulation of the Constitution (with the small exception of some correspondence with Madison) and had a much more democratic view of how the country should to be governed. In this regard, Jackson’s vision of America was much more in line with Jefferson’s, while JQA’s election was more indicative of the Federalist vision of Washington, his father John Adams, and Hamilton. Remini makes the point that the election of 1824 was actually a continuation of the debate between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans at the close of the century, yet he still asserts that the election was the result of corruption rather than the result of competing visions. On the other hand, while I don’t agree with Remini’s thesis about the corruption charge I do still find it valuable because it most likely aligns with how Jackson saw himself, and perhaps how many Americans also saw their state of affairs at that time.
When Jackson prevails in his second run for the presidency he immediately purges the government of any perceived corruption by firing and replacing around one third of the government positions. Historians have often explained this as the advent of the “spoils system” in which the newly elected president has the mandate and right to place their own people in government positions, but Remini’s “revisionist” perspective denies this as being the main thrust of Jackson’s appointments and instead suggests it was motivated by ridding the government of corruption.
One admirable achievement that Jackson brought to his early administration was his hypersensitivity to government waste and his keen eye for any inefficiency or impropriety in government spending. He was able to slash a huge amount of government waste, although an unfortunate appointment in New York’s customs office undid a lot of those savings after his appointee embezzled over a million dollars.
At the close of the book Remini explores the battle of the Bank recharter and ends the volume with the veto.
The second volume was not as strong as the first outstanding volume, but it is still very good. The first volume did not carry the defense of a thesis like it does in this second volume and Remini’s regular reference to his own thesis throughout the book gets a little distracting. In the preface of the third volume Remini admits to the strangeness of proposing a thesis in a biography, but he also points out that this biography is being written not only about Jackson but also in response to the historiography of Jackson. I do think he captures Jackson’s motivations correctly as well as the culture surrounding him at the height of his power, so the thesis can be overlooked while still providing a rigorous accounting of Jackson’s life.
October 1, 2016
The Course of American Freedom builds on the excellent job Remini began with the Course of American Empire, picking up the torch and continuing to tell the story of Jackson's fascinating political career.
This volume (2 of 3) focuses on Jackson's first term as U.S. president (1829-1833), looking at a complex array of issues such as the president's banking, tariff, and Indian removal policies. Jackson's justifications for his treatment of large numbers of Indians-that he was moving them from their ancestral homelands for their own good-demonstrates that justifying their actions in hindsight is nothing new when it comes to politicians.
The situation with Secretary of War Eaton and his supposedly promiscuous wife was a situation I've read about in a previous Jackson biography, but it really demonstrates the insane depths of pettiness that can be sunk to during campaigns. This book examines Jackson's policy of reform, which in his mind consisted of ridding Washington of men he viewed as lifelong bureaucrats. Remini explains how this policy, while good in theory, came to institute a spoils system of government whereby incoming administrations award their loyal supporters with cabinet posts of their own. This is an issue of the evolution of American history that I would like to read more about.
Underlying Jackson's actions during his first term was his belief that he--not the legislative branch-was the genuine "voice of people", and this volume leaves the impression that Jackson greatly expanded the executive branch (a natural extension of Jackson's view of himself as a 'man of the people' and his identification with democracy).
The Course of American Freedom is a great work for anyone with a love of American history, and is highly informative when it comes to figuring out how our federal government has come to embrace some of the traditions we observe today.
This volume (2 of 3) focuses on Jackson's first term as U.S. president (1829-1833), looking at a complex array of issues such as the president's banking, tariff, and Indian removal policies. Jackson's justifications for his treatment of large numbers of Indians-that he was moving them from their ancestral homelands for their own good-demonstrates that justifying their actions in hindsight is nothing new when it comes to politicians.
The situation with Secretary of War Eaton and his supposedly promiscuous wife was a situation I've read about in a previous Jackson biography, but it really demonstrates the insane depths of pettiness that can be sunk to during campaigns. This book examines Jackson's policy of reform, which in his mind consisted of ridding Washington of men he viewed as lifelong bureaucrats. Remini explains how this policy, while good in theory, came to institute a spoils system of government whereby incoming administrations award their loyal supporters with cabinet posts of their own. This is an issue of the evolution of American history that I would like to read more about.
Underlying Jackson's actions during his first term was his belief that he--not the legislative branch-was the genuine "voice of people", and this volume leaves the impression that Jackson greatly expanded the executive branch (a natural extension of Jackson's view of himself as a 'man of the people' and his identification with democracy).
The Course of American Freedom is a great work for anyone with a love of American history, and is highly informative when it comes to figuring out how our federal government has come to embrace some of the traditions we observe today.
November 3, 2014
Andrew Jackson is certainly one of the more interesting presidents, though I cannot forgive him for his treatment of the Indians. This book, part of a three-volume biography, covers his 1824 loss to John Quincy Adams, his election in 1828, and his first term in office.
Given the toxic nature of today’s politics, I’m always struck by the fact that it was just as bad back in the day. One passage I highlighted:
“Although Jackson suffered the worst of the personal abuse that so disfigured this vicious campaign, John Quincy Adams did not escape unscathed. Democrats frequently responded to verbal filth in kind. In a campaign biography of Old Hickory published by Isaac Hill of New Hampshire and entitled ‘Brief Sketch of Life, Character and Services of Major General Andrew Jackson,’ President Adams was accused of pimping while minister to Russia. Supposedly he procured an American girl for Tsar Alexander I. That Hill would publish this extraordinary story or anyone believe it is a frightful commentary on American politics in 1828. But the canard was widely believed and circulated. In the west the Democrats mocked the President as ‘The Pimp of the Coalition’ whose fabulous success as a diplomat had at last been explained.
“Some National Republicans countered by circulating the report that ‘General Jackson’s mother was a COMMON PROSTITUTE, brought to this country by British soldiers. She afterward married a MULATTO MAN, with whom she had several children, of which number General JACKSON IS ONE!!!’ When Old Hickory read this notice it is reported that he burst into tears.
“Adams was also pilloried for conducting himself like a king and implementing the doctrine that ‘the few should govern the many.’ ‘We disapprove,’ clucked the Democrats, ‘the kingly pomp and splendor that is displayed by the present incumbent.’ Other reports accused him of religious bigotry, alcoholism, Sabbath-breaking, and a string of other moral and ethical delinquencies. Adams responded in the quiet of his study, pouring out this bitterness and hurt in the secret pages of his diary. He called his tormentors ‘skunks of party slander.’”
Given the toxic nature of today’s politics, I’m always struck by the fact that it was just as bad back in the day. One passage I highlighted:
“Although Jackson suffered the worst of the personal abuse that so disfigured this vicious campaign, John Quincy Adams did not escape unscathed. Democrats frequently responded to verbal filth in kind. In a campaign biography of Old Hickory published by Isaac Hill of New Hampshire and entitled ‘Brief Sketch of Life, Character and Services of Major General Andrew Jackson,’ President Adams was accused of pimping while minister to Russia. Supposedly he procured an American girl for Tsar Alexander I. That Hill would publish this extraordinary story or anyone believe it is a frightful commentary on American politics in 1828. But the canard was widely believed and circulated. In the west the Democrats mocked the President as ‘The Pimp of the Coalition’ whose fabulous success as a diplomat had at last been explained.
“Some National Republicans countered by circulating the report that ‘General Jackson’s mother was a COMMON PROSTITUTE, brought to this country by British soldiers. She afterward married a MULATTO MAN, with whom she had several children, of which number General JACKSON IS ONE!!!’ When Old Hickory read this notice it is reported that he burst into tears.
“Adams was also pilloried for conducting himself like a king and implementing the doctrine that ‘the few should govern the many.’ ‘We disapprove,’ clucked the Democrats, ‘the kingly pomp and splendor that is displayed by the present incumbent.’ Other reports accused him of religious bigotry, alcoholism, Sabbath-breaking, and a string of other moral and ethical delinquencies. Adams responded in the quiet of his study, pouring out this bitterness and hurt in the secret pages of his diary. He called his tormentors ‘skunks of party slander.’”
February 12, 2013
The second volume of Robert Remini's Jackson trilogy hits the ground running- through a tangled mass of political rancor and acrimonious debate.
Remini's short and punchy introduction is the clearest and most incisive part of his sprawling book; the scene he sets is a refrain of the theme he has highlighted many times throughout this multivolume biography, namely "Jackson was a populist, a democrat and intensely devoted to the ideals of republicanism. Liberty was his guiding principle, democracy his ethos."
These are broad, relatively uncontroversial positions to hold, in that they are a matter of historical record. Remini makes generous use of that record, both in Jackson's words and his contemporaries. What Remini does not show effectively is the opposition to Jackson's worldview. A good amount of paper is spent detailing the several philosophical battles, but these all seem to be waged between Jackson and a revolving cast of vaguely-defined, aristocratic establishment politicians.
Jackson himself, of course, is always good for an exciting anecdote, and Remini usually is pretty effective in using them to illustrate Jackson's larger ideology. But because that ideology is so well covered throughout the book, and indeed throughout the book preceding it, the point is wearyingly belabored.
Jackson's campaign against the Nicholas Biddle and the U.S. Bank is a major conflict, posing as it does the centralization that Jackson so disliked against the man's fierce affinity for the common man.
I don't know if I'm not doing enough of the comprehension work myself, expecting Remini to spell out too much that should be obvious. 700-plus pages of complicated information badly wants the occasional timeout to explain itself after the dozenth twisty event in half as many pages. I do know that I found this book dizzyingly hard to follow, fast-paced when it should have been slow and slow when it ought to have been fast.
I hope in the final volume, as Jackson's life winds down, that so will the pace and arcane complexity of this account. Remini has amassed a huge amount of material. Now if he would only mould it into a readable narrative.
August 9, 2011
Another reviewer here said we need "more leaders like Jackson today." It could be argued that we just had one. Jackson pretty much did as he pleased, what ever he thought was right, labeling those who opposed him as enemies of the people. He greatly expanded the scope now accepted as being within the executive branch of government. His great skill as a politcian enabled him to get away with it, so perhaps what we need are political leaders like him.
November 28, 2016
Very Topical. Well written and not overwhelming. Captures complexity of character without being fawning or hypercritical from modern perspective.
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