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Southern Foodways and Culture: Local Considerations and Beyond
Lisa J. Lefler
Selected Papers from the Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Oxford, Mississippi, February 2007
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The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume VII, 1829
Andrew Jackson
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 while in vigorous pursuit of these, 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 here 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, his private notes and musings, and the formative drafts of his 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 matters as Indian removal and the distribution of 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 Andrew Jackson and his presidency, but into America itself in 1829.
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The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume VI, 1825-1828
Andrew Jackson
This sixth volume of The Papers of Andrew Jackson documents the election on Andrew Jackson, the first westerner and the last veteran of the American Revolution, to the presidency.
The four years of this volume chronicle the presidential campaign of 1828. Jackson, winner of the popular vote in 1824 but loser of the election, was once again the reluctant candidate, called into service by the voice of the voters. The campaign, one of the longest in American history, pitted Jackson against the incumbent John Quincy Adams; it was also one of the dirtiest campaigns in American history.
The brunt of the mudslinging was aimed at Jackson, and it is covered in detail in this volume. Every aspect of the public and private life of the fifty-eight-year-old former major general in the United States Army came under scrutiny, and in both his opponents found him deficient. According to his detractors, he lacked the moral principles, the temperament, the education, and the family background requisite for a president of the United States. In sum, Jackson resembled the “devil incarnate,” to use his own words. The mudslinging left Jackson livid, anxious for retribution but constrained by the cause in which he was engaged. The presidential campaign of 1828, in the minds of Jackson and his supporters, was for the cause of truth and democracy against corrupt, self-seeking politicians, an aristocracy of power built upon bargains and dubious political alliances dedicated to its perpetuation in office.
The four years covered in this volume were some of the most trying in Jackson’s life, but the one event that hurt Jackson the most was the death of his wife. Until his dying day, Jackson contended that her death had been hastened by the slanders of his opponents in the campaign. As great as the loss was for him personally, Jackson nonetheless rejoiced in the results of the election for, in his eyes, the voice of the people had finally been heard. Liberty, not power, had triumphed. Reform was at hand, and retribution would surely follow.
Harold D. Moser, former editor of the Correspondence Series, Papers of Daniel Webster, Dartmouth College, is Research Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
J. Clint Clift is Assistant Editor with the Jackson Papers.
Wyatt C. Wells is currently Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Montgomery.
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The Southern Colonial Backcountry: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Frontier Communities
David Colin Crass, Steven D. Smith, Martha A. Zierden, and Richard D. Brooks
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The Papers of Andrew Jackson: Volume V, 1821-1824
Andrew Jackson
This fifth volume of The Papers of Andrew Jackson documents Jackson’s retirement from the military in 1821 and his emergence as the leading presidential candidate in 1824, winning a plurality of popular and electoral votes over John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William H. Crawford, and John C. Calhoun. In the interim, he served a troublesome few months as governor of Florida and thereafter enjoyed a brief retirement at the Hermitage before the Tennessee legislature called him again into service as United States senator.
The tension between Jackson’s longing for retirement and his dedication to public service forms the main theme of this volume. In Jackson’s correspondence during these four years, there are many examples of the rhetorical trademarks of Jacksonian democracy—an almost mystical confidence in the virtue of the common people and a fear of any entrenched elite. Jackson came to view himself as the instrument of a grassroots movement to purify American politics of the corruption of political intrigue and private ambition. As he saw it, his victory would restore the design of the founding fathers, a government reflecting the will of the voters and accountable at all times to the public.
Jackson became a presidential candidate not because he sought the office but because the voters called him to public service. It was a call to root out the corruption that had become rampant in Washington, an evil characterized by scrambling for office rather than concern for the country’s good. At the center of the corruption, in Jackson’s view, was Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford, who would use the congressional caucus and patronage to obtain the presidency in defiance of the will of the people. Once Jackson answered the call, a groundswell of popular support transformed him from a favorite son of Tennessee into the top contender, whose chief goal was to defeat Crawford and to restore thereby the majority will.
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The Papers of Andrew Jackson: Volume IV, 1816-1820
Andrew Jackson
The fourth volume of The Papers of Andrew Jackson, covering the five-year period from 1816 through 1820, documents Jackson’s role as a major general in the United States Army during James Monroe’s first term as president. Already in his early fifties, the Hero of New Orleans had served his country for more than thirty years and, as he repeatedly professed, longed to leave public life.
In general, the two themes of service and honor dominated Jackson’s career and actions and precluded retirement. As the documents reveal, Jackson’s military duties mainly involved establishing and keeping the peace between Indians and whites and protecting the peace won at New Orleans. In fostering domestic peace, Jackson as Indian treaty negotiator secured for the United States millions of acres of Indian land on the southern and western frontiers, forcing the Indians westward and opening the fertile lands for white settlement. Security of the Gulf Coast against foreign invasion remained foremost in Jackson’s mind during these years, and to ward off any foreign threats, Jackson oversaw topographical surveys of the Gulf Coast and the construction of a string of fortifications along the frontier. Jackson’s preoccupation with Gulf Coast security led to one of the most important, and one of the most controversial, decisions of his long career: the invasion of Florida in 1818.
Jackson’s service to his country during these years was distinguished, though not without controversy. Among other questionable actions and a nearly endless array of quarrels, his invasion of Pensacola saddled him with baggage that he never lost. For one faction, the Pensacola affair offered irrefutable proof that he was the “savior” of his country; for another, it was merely additional evidence that he was a “military chieftain.” From mid-1818 through 1820, Jackson’s actions as major general became a chief topic of politics in Washington. To the assaults on his character and honor, Jackson responded with a dogged determination to remain at his post so long as there was any hint of tarnish to his name and reputation.
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The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume III, 1814-1815
Andrew Jackson
This third volume of The Papers of Andrew Jackson documents Jackson’s rise to national prominence through his military leadership in the War of 1812. With the spread of news of his victory over the British forces at New Orleans on January 8, 1815, he became a national hero. Not since George Washington had anyone so captured the heart and imagination of the American people.
Covering two years, 1814-1815, the documents of this volume chronicle Jackson’s roles as Creek Indian fighter, United States army commander, and Indian treaty negotiator, first as one of two major generals in the Tennessee militia, later as commander of the 7th Military District, and, after mid-1815, as one of two major generals in the United States Army and commander of the Southern Division.
The commanding officer that emerges is one supremely devoted to duty, honor, and country, but one whose ability to meet his obligations was hampered by short terms of enlistment, desertions, inadequate supplies and munitions, and occasionally government neglect. Jackson’s intense commitment to his military tasks, especially his decisions to invade Pensacola in the fall of 1814 and to continue martial law in New Orleans in the spring of 1815 after the British withdrawal, caused some concern for Washington. That uneasiness was shortlived, however, and in no way demeaned his military achievements during the Gulf campaign or impeached his reputation.
Jackson’s military obligations during these years dictated a sacrifice of the joys of family and the comforts of home. Yet, the documents reveal a loving and loyal family man, always eager to reunite with the wife and the son he had left at the Hermitage. But the Hermitage Jackson returned to in 1815 was not the same he had left in 1814, nor was he the same man. The farm had suffered neglect in his absence and he was short of cash. Jackson was no longer a regional figure, able to enjoy the peace and quiet of his farm and family. He had become perhaps the most popular man in the country, and his actions in these two years would be subjected to intense scrutiny as he became a leading presidential contender.
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