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This volume presents full annotated text of five hundred documents from Andrew Jackson's fifth presidential year. They include his private memoranda, intimate family letters, presidential message drafts, and correspondence with government and military officers, diplomats, Indian leaders, political friends and foes, and citizens throughout the country.
The year 1833 began with a crisis in South Carolina, where a state convention had declared the federal tariff law null and void and pledged resistance by armed force if necessary. Jackson countered by rallying public opinion against the nullifiers, quietly positioning troops and warships, and procuring a "force bill" from Congress to compel collection of customs duties. The episode ended peaceably after South Carolina accepted a compromise tariff devised by Jackson's arch-rival Henry Clay. But Clay's surprise cooperation with South Carolina's John C. Calhoun foretold a new opposition coalition against Jackson.
With nullification checked, Jackson embarked in June on a triumphal tour to cement his newfound popularity in the North. Ecstatic crowds greeted him in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and Harvard awarded him a degree. But Jackson's fragile health broke under the strain, forcing him to cut the tour short.
> The year closed with Jackson girding for further battle over the Bank, pursuing schemes to pry the province of Texas loose from Mexico, and trying to stem rampant land frauds that his own Indian removal policy had unleashed against Creek Indians in Alabama. Unfolding these stories and many more, this volume offers an incomparable window into Andrew Jackson, his presidency, and America itself in 1833.
About the author
Daniel Feller is editor and director of
The Papers of Andrew Jackson and Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Assistant editors
Laura-Eve Moss and
Thomas Coens are Research Assistant Professors of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Summary
This volume presents full annotated text of five hundred documents from Andrew Jackson’s fifth presidential year. They include his private memoranda, intimate family letters, presidential message drafts, and correspondence with government and military officers, diplomats, Indian leaders, political friends and foes, and citizens throughout the country.
