Jacksonland: A Great American Land Grab (40 page)

“the emotion of revolutionary feeling was aroused in them both”
Rachel Jackson to Elizabeth Kingsley, December 23, 1824, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
,
vol. 5,
p. 456.

“He wears a wig”
Ibid.

“nothing but shew”
Jackson to Coffee, January 23, 1825,
ibid., vol. 6,
p. 18.

“when I have . . . become a little acquainted”
Jackson to William Berkeley Lewis, December 9, 1824,
ibid., vol. 5,
p. 453.

ended an alcohol-lubricated dinner by dancing
Heidler and Heidler,
Henry Clay: The Essential American,
p. 45.

“Whatever he is, is all his own”
Smith to Mrs. Boyd, 1829, Smith,
First Forty Years of Washington Society,
p. 285.

opponents who said they were not authorized by the Constitution
Clay’s accomplishment is summarized in Schlesinger,
Age of Jackson
, pp.
11–12.

“Wonderful energy . . . within the pale of the Constitution”
Clay,
Speeches of Henry Clay,
p. 155.

“did not lose a word”
Smith,
First Forty Years in Washington Society,
p. 145.

Jackson was growing so famous he was mobbed in the streets
Remini describes such scenes in
Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821
, vol. 1,
pp. 374–75.

“pure . . . principle of insubordination”
Clay,
Speeches of Henry Clay,
p. 161.

“dictatorial spirit,” and “utterly irreconcilable”
Ibid.
,
p. 148.

“came and sat a few minutes”
Smith,
First Forty Years in Washington Society,
p. 146.

“Clay is politically damd . . . I wish him to scorch him”
Jackson to William Berkeley Lewis, January 30, 1819, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 3,
pp. 268–69.

“personal vengeance, even to cutting off the ears of some of the members”
National Intelligencer
, March 2, 1819, p. 2.

Jackson mastered his rage. He met Clay for dinner
One such dinner in November 1823 is described in Heidler and Heidler,
Henry Clay: The Essential American,
p. 164
;
another came in February 1824, and is described in
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams
, vol. 6,
p. 258.

“If Louisiana has not voted for Mr Clay he is not in the house”
Jackson to William Berkeley Lewis, December 9, 1824, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 5,
p. 453.

“I should never have aspired to the responsibility”
To John Overton, December 19, 1824,
ibid.,
p. 455.

his supporters reached out to Clay
Clay to Francis Preston Blair, January 8, 1825, does not name names but describes their arguments, Hopkins et al.,
Papers of Henry Clay
, vol. 4,
p. 9.

One was Sam Houston
Parton,
Life of Andrew Jackson,
vol. 3, pp. 57–58. Also John Sloane to Clay, May 9, 1844, in Hopkins et al.,
Papers of Henry Clay,
vol. 10, p. 58.

Buchanan . . . took a similar message directly to Clay
Ibid.
,
pp. 56–57.

“some confidential conversation upon public affairs”
Adams diary entry, January 1, 1825,
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams
, vol. 6,
p. 457.

“choice of evils”
Clay to Francis Preston Blair, January 8, 1825, Hopkins et al.,
Papers of Henry Clay
, vol. 4,
p. 9.

“In the election of Mr Adams”
Ibid.
,
p. 10.

“Too much of a Soldier to be a civilian”
Meigs to Clay, September 3, 1822, ibid.
, vol. 3,
p. 282.

Latin was taught in many schools . . . set up for Indians
Such as the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. Starr,
History of Cornwall,
p. 141.

introduced to Greek and Roman writers while serving as an apprentice
Peterson,
Great Triumvirate,
p. 9.

Caesar’s famous phrase “Veni, vidi, vici”
Clay,
Speeches of Henry Clay,
p. 148.

“gross” . . . “preference would be for me”
Adams diary entry, January 9, 1825, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 6, p. 464.

fifty to a hundred a day
Rachel Jackson to Elizabeth Kingsley, December 23, 1824, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 5,
p. 456.

“I have been interrupted twenty times”
Jackson to William Berkeley Lewis, January 29, 1825,
ibid., vol. 6,
p. 22.

“2 Extra Dinners in Private Parlour”
Account for “Genl Jackson & Lady,” January 1825, ibid., p. 16.

“wager wine”
Ibid.

He’d arrived in Washington with
$2,300
Jackson to John Coffee, January 23, 1825, and February 19, 1825,
ibid.,
p. 35.

“We are all well . . . my advise was nothing”
Rachel Jackson to Mary Purnell Donelson, January 27, 1825,
ibid.,
pp. 20–21.

Jackson slipped on his way up Gadsby’s stairs
Parton,
Life of Jackson,
vol. 3, p. 63.

“Let me rise or fall”
Jackson to John Overton, December 19, 1824, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 5,
p. 455.

Jackson gained 42 percent
Figures here calculated from Jenkins and Sala, “Spatial Theory of Voting and the Presidential Election of 1824,” Table, 1, p. 1160.

“With regard to the Presidency”
Jackson to Chandler Price, January 9, 1825, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson,
vol. 6,
p. 11.

“should this unholy coalition prevail”
Letter reprinted in
National Intelligencer
, February 4, 1825.

have turned upon me . . . think imp[lies] guilt”
Clay to Francis Preston Blair, January 29, 1825, Hopkins et al.,
Papers of Henry Clay
, vol. 4,
p. 46.

“open and sincere”
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, vol. 2,
p. 24.

“determined opposition”
Adams diary entry, February 11, 1825,
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams,
pp. 506–7.

Clay hesitated, sensing the danger, but accepted
Heidler and Heidler,
Henry Clay: The Essential American,
p. 184.

“such a bare faced corruption . . . his end will be the same”
Jackson to Lewis, February 14, 1825, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 6,
p. 29.

Chapter Sixteen: We Wish to Know Whether You Could Protect Us

“The walls,” she wrote, “are entirely covered”
: Trollope cited in Wilkins,
Cherokee Tragedy,
pp. 173–74.

“noble and warlike . . . simplicity”
Ibid.

“Our heads have become white”
Wilkins,
Cherokee Tragedy,
p. 163.

“Our hearts have been with you always”
Ibid.

commissions totaling $25,000
Ibid.

“Friends and Brothers . . . limits of Georgia”
McKenney to John Ross et al., March 12, 1825, reproduced in Troup,
Governor’s Message,
p. 121.

“It would seem from the enquiry . . . unchangeable”
Ross et al. to McKenney, March 12, 1825, ibid.

“essentially inferior”
“I fear there is too much foundation”
Adams diary entry, December 21, 1825,
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams
, vol. 7,
p. 89.

“small, solitary inn”
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, vol. 2,
pp. 30–31.

“The coolness of the night”
Ibid.
,
p. 45.

“balls, displays of artificial fire-works, and entertainments”
Ibid.
,
p. 48.

the great man was saluted with cannon fire from Fort Moultrie
Ibid.
,
p. 56.

Army engineers were finally planning a new fortress
A National Park Service paper says it was proposed in 1805 and construction began in December 1828. Ferguson, “An Overview of the Events at Fort Sumter, 1829–1991,” p. 5.

pervasive emotion: “fear”
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, vol. 2,
p. 52.

Denmark Vesey was plotting a slave insurrection
. An account of the plot is found in Robertson,
Denmark Vesey.

One measure decreed that when ships docked
Freehling,
Road to Disunion
, vol. 1,
p. 254.

“insubordination” was “paramount” to “all laws” and “all constitutions”
Reid,
Origins of the American Civil War,
p. 53.

“scaffolding, scaffolding, Sir—it will come away when the building is finished”
Peterson,
Great Triumvirate,
p. 257.

sleeping in the only house that had a roof
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, vol. 2,
p. 39.

They sold their stake in South Carolina for $5,000
Moulton,
John Ross, Cherokee Chief,
pp. 15–16.

unlimited funds from the treasury
Harden,
Life of George M. Troup,
p. 298.

family Bible recorded their flight
Ibid.
,
p. 2.

“to stand to your arms” . . . “fanatics”
Troup, May 23, 1825,
Governor’s Message,
pp. 7–8.

Horses pulled them on a kind of parade float
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, vol. 2,
p. 58.

“La Fayette mania . . . the
nations jest
”
Wood,
Mary Telfair to Mary Few,
pp. 51, 54.

“a civilized speck lost in the yet immense domain”
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, vol. 2
,
p. 70.

Once the party had to cross a stream
Ibid.
,
p. 79.

“[Hamley’s] countenance became somber”
Ibid.
, vol. 2,
p. 73.

the president . . . concluded that the men acted as agents for Georgia
Adams diary entry, December 20, 1825,
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams
, vol. 7,
p. 87.

a bribe of
$2,000 . . . “Nobody shall know it”
Letter is copied in Anderson et al.,
Payne-Butrick Papers
, vol. 2, pp. 195–96.

offered $10,000 and five square miles
Troup, May 23, 1825,
Governor’s Message
,
pp. 7–8.

“We are happy to inform you that the
‘long agony is over’”
Ibid.
,
pp. 71–72.

instructions on
how to send $2,000 that Troup had promised
Ibid.
,
p. 74.

“If [critics of the treaty] should attempt”
Ibid.
,
p. 87.

Contact with white men was destroying the Creeks
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, vol. 2,
p. 75.

He might have burned to death
An account of the killing is in Wilkins,
Cherokee Tragedy,
p. 165.

“infinitely rather”
Adams diary entry, December 21, 1825, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 7, p. 89.

“commit suicide”
Ibid., p. 106.

“the most momentous message I have ever sent to Congress”
Adams diary entry,
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams
, vol. 7, p. 221.

the first white settler in Tennessee
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America,
vol. 2, p. 512. Also
Niles’ Weekly Register
, May 28, 1825.

“having in view the same object”
Henry Baldwin to Jackson, April 11, 1825, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 6,
p. 58.

“I believe myself worthy of them”
Levasseur,
Lafayette in America,
vol. 2, p. 157.

Part Five: Inaugurations, 1828–1829
Chapter Seventeen: We Are Politically Your Friends and Brethren

and increasingly afterward became its own self-confident creation
Among those identifying 1828 as a year of division is David Reynolds, in
Waking Giant,
p. 238.

$1,500 toward establishing the newspaper and a National Academy
Wilkins,
Cherokee Tragedy,
p. 187.

he paid bills from his own pocket
Ross described giving the paper’s editor funds in a letter on November 4, 1829, Moulton,
Papers of Chief John Ross
, vol. 1,
p. 176.

thirteen colonies supported 37 newspapers . . . 1828 there were 802
All figures from the U.S. Post Office Department, as recorded by Simmonds, “Statistics of Newspapers in Various Countries,” pp. 120–22.

cheap “penny papers” . . . would vastly expand newspaper circulation
Reynolds,
Waking Giant
¸ pp. 240–41.

Henry Clay once loaned an editor $1,500
The editor was Amos Kendall, who later went over to Andrew Jackson. Cole,
A Jackson Man¸
p. 89.

a year and a half’s worth of issues
According to Marsha Mullin, chief curator, the Hermitage. A receipt for 17 subscription payments is in Moulton,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, May 1825, vol. 6, pp. 66–67.

first black-owned and black-operated newspaper
Bacon, “The History of
Freedom’s Journal
,” p. 1.

Samuel Worcester . . . obtaining the necessary equipment
Bass,
Cherokee Messenger,
pp. 78–79. Also Malone, “The Cherokee Phoenix: Supreme Expression of Cherokee Nationalism,” p. 165.

“Murder . . . not heard of the circumstances”
Cherokee Phoenix
, March 26, 1828, p. 3.

leaving the suspect “unmolested”
Ibid., April 3, 1828, p. 2.

He was acquitted
Ibid., June 11, 1828, p. 2.

“Subscribers who can only read the Cherokee language”
Ibid., April 10, 1828.

population conservatively estimated at thirteen thousand . . . 46,700 hogs
Ibid., May 14, 1828, p. 3.

“shall lay violent hands . . . to her consent”
Ibid., p. 1.

“
Resolved by the National Committee
”
Ibid., April 24, 1828, p. 1.

“I stood on Cape Montserado . . . degradation of the Africans”
Ibid., March 6, 1828, p. 3.

receive copies of about a hundred other papers
Perdue, ed.,
Cherokee Editor: The Writings of Elias Boudinot,
p. 16.

“may very properly be regarded as something new”
United States Telegraph
, March 17, 1828.

religious journals that were the era’s most widely read publications
Hershberger, “Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition,” p. 18.

a well with a windlass built into the porch
Harriett Gold to Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, January 7, 1831, Gaul,
To Marry an Indian,
p. 172.

“Our water is so sweet & pure”
Ibid.

“The Editor of this paper regrets”
Cherokee Phoenix
, April 8, 1829, p. 2.

the printer . . . A Methodist
Elias and Harriett Boudinot to Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, January 23, 1829, Gaul,
To Marry an Indian,
p. 161.

“What is an Indian?”
Boudinot’s 1826 speech is quoted in Gabriel,
Elias Boudinot,
p. 3.

“long lost tribes of Israel”
Boudinot,
Star in the West,
p. iii.

“Latin, Greek . . . removal of the tribe to the West”
Starr,
History of Cornwall,
p. 141.

“rash presumption & disobedience”
Gaul,
To Marry an Indian,
p. 91.

Harriett’s own brother lit the fire
Ibid.
,
p. 1.

one-fourth of the entire Cherokee Nation had at least some white ancestry
Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick,
New Echota Letters,
pp. 84–85.

“I remain your Indian Brother”
Elias and Harriett Boudinot to Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, January 23, 1829, Gaul,
To Marry an Indian,
p. 161.

“AN IMITATION INDIAN”
Cherokee Phoenix
, July 2, 1828, p. 3.

“electioneering”
letters
Ibid., July 23, 1828, p. 2.

“Presidential Election”
Ibid
.
, December 3, 1828, p. 2.

The first was to take away . . . printing press
John Macpherson Berrien to Jackson, June 25, 1830, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 8,
p. 392.

Chapter Eighteen: This Is a Straight and Good Talk

“serene and mild” . . . “an immense concourse of spectators”
Niles’ Weekly Register
, vol. 36, 1829, p. 28.

“The barrier that had separated the people”
Smith,
First Forty Years of Washington Society,
p. 294.

“carriages, wagons and carts” . . . “women and children, black and white”
Ibid.

had to be wedged out of the house
Meacham American Lion, p. 62.

“the present season is sacred to sorrow”
Jackson to Francis P. Blair et al., January 1, 1829, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 7
,
pp. 3–4.

“It pleased God to take her from this world”
Jackson to Katherine Duane Morgan, January 3, 1829,
ibid.,
p. 5.

“abandon your just grief”
Edward Livingston to Jackson, January 3, 1829,
ibid.,
p. 6.

“I have this day got my dear Mrs. J Tomb”
Jackson to Coffee, January 17, 1829,
ibid.,
pp. 12–13.

inventory of ninety-five slaves
Ibid., pp. 8–10.

“Every one of the public men”
Smith,
First Forty Years of Washington Society,
p. 259.

“Shoot the damned rascal!”
Truth’s Advocate and Monthly Anti-Jackson Expositor
, April 1828, pp. 121–27.

A special edition of the
Kentucky Reporter
:
A tattered copy of it is found in Dyas Collection—John Coffee Papers.

“a degraded female . . . National morals”
Truth’s Advocate and Monthly Anti-Jackson Expositor
, January 1828, p. 4.

“the planters of the South”
Howe, What Hath God Wrought, pp. 279–80.

one Caleb Atwater of Ohio
Atwater to Jackson, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
,
vol. 7,
pp. 44–45.

“The curse of God will afflict a Sabbath-breaking nation”
Charles Coffin to Jackson, January 21, 1829,
ibid.,
pp. 16–17.

“distinguish himself as a patriot”
From Ezra Stiles Ely to Jackson, transcribing a note from Beecher,
ibid.,
p. 21.

“decent pretext”
H. M. Breckenridge to Jackson, February 4, 1829, ibid., pp. 29–30.

“I . . . shall be the last to cry out treason”
Draft of inaugural address, undated, ibid.,
p. 76.

“First, the removal of the Indians”
Van Buren,
Autobiography,
p. 275.

“No Indian, and no descendant”
Cherokee Phoenix
, December 3, 1828, p. 3.

“expulsion”
Ibid., p. 2.

“The course pursued by Georgia”
Jackson to Overton, June 8, 1829, Owsley et al.,
Papers of Andrew Jackson
, vol. 7,
pp. 270–71.

“Friends & Brothers . . . hear his counsel”
Jackson to the Creek Indians, March 23, 1829, ibid., pp. 112–13.

“I return herewith the resolutions”
Ross to the National Committee, October 29, 1828, Moulton,
Papers of Chief John Ross
, vol. 1,
p. 145.

only an oblique mention of his dead child
He referred only to “the sudden manner in which I was called home,” Ross to Lewis Ross, October 30, 1828,
ibid.

“the present U.S. agent . . . does not . . . inspire . . . confidence”
Ross to Jackson, March 6, 1829,
ibid.,
p. 157.

“the tribe established an independent government”
John Eaton to Ross, April 18, 1829, ibid., pp. 162–63.

“the soil shall be yours, while the trees grow or the streams run”
Jackson quoted in ibid.

“much longer than desired or anticipated”
Ross to Jeremiah Evarts, May 6, 1829, ibid., p. 164.

“What will be the result”
Ibid.

Chapter Nineteen: The Blazing Light of the Nineteenth Century

“Gentlemen . . . : I send for your paper”
National Intelligencer
, August 1, 1829.

“I shall not agree with the present Executive”
Ibid.

Evarts was the one who helped to have a press sent from Boston
Bass,
Cherokee Messenger,
pp. 78–79.

“I could hear some words distinctly . . . ; but could not keep the connexion”
Evarts to Henry Hill, March 5, 1829, cited in Oliphant,
Through the South and West with Jeremiah Evarts in 1826,
p. 50.

“a direct collision between the national and state authorities”
Evarts quoted in ibid.
,
p. 49.

“No relief can be hoped”
Evarts, March 10, 1829, quoted in ibid.
,
p. 53.

“they may be copied into semi-weekly papers, if their Editors see fit”
National Intelligencer,
August 1, 1829. Tracy,
Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq.,
p. 33.

“the greatest kindness . . . shall have passed away”
National Intelligencer
, August 5, 1829.

“There sat Evarts, in a plain rustic garb”
Tracy,
Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq.,
p. 11.

“In my leisure moments”
Ibid., p. 33.