Sold – In an Unpublished Letter to His Neice, Jackson Defines His Presidency

I will put nullification and American systems down, & restore the administration to the original reading of the Constitution.

Andrew Jackson bestrode his era like a colossus, so much so that it is called the Age of Jackson. His principle accomplishment (and legacy) is widely considered the rise of Popular Democracy. At his inauguration in 1829, to make the statement that the government now belonged to the people, the White House was thrown open to everyone, with frontiersmen standing elbow to elbow with prominent citizens.

There were two main pillars to Jackson’s policy as president, and both were anchored by the U.S. Constitution. The first was opposition to Henry Clay’s American System, which he saw as unconstitutional Federal government intervention in local affairs. The System included a national bank to foster commerce, and Federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other internal improvements to encourage and develop profitable markets for manufactures and agriculture. Jackson ended the bank of the United States and blocked Clay’s entire program of internal improvements.

The second was maintenance of the primacy of the Federal over the state governments, and opposition to nullification and secession. The crisis came over the question of tariffs, or Federal taxes on imports. Tariffs had a two-fold purpose: they made foreign goods more expensive and thus protected and promotedmAmerican industry, which ensured the domestic production of goods necessary for national defense and security; and they were the Federal government’s main source of revenue to fund its operations and to pay the national debt. The North preferred high tariffs because most American industry was located there and tariffs meant jobs and prosperity, while the South opposed those, as they raised the cost of living there to no benefit; Southerners insisted that tariffs to protect business were unconstitutional. The Tariff of 1828 was hated in the South and its representatives sought the new president Jackson’s aid to repeal it. Jackson vowed to pursue “a middle and just course” on the tariff, and instead he favored a revised bill that failed to meet Southern demands, but was passed and signed by him in 1832. In response the South Carolina legislature met in Charleston on November 19, 1832, and the delegates approved an Ordinance of Nullification, which declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were null and void and that after February 1, 1833, it would be illegal for the U.S. government to enforce the payment of import duties within the limits of South Carolina. The convention further warned that any use of force against the state would provide grounds for secession. The head of the nullifiers was Jackson’s own vice president, John C. Calhoun, who resigned his office and assumed a seat in the U.S. Senate on
December 28, 1832. Meanwhile, in response, on December 10, Jackson issued his Nullification Proclamation, which stated nullification was “incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.” As soon as the New Year of 1833 came in, Jackson planned to act strongly to foil this potential secession. He ordered the U.S. Army to prepare for military action and warned a South Carolina congressman that ‘if one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find.”

Mary Eastin was the niece of Jackson’s wife, Rachel Donelson Jackson, and she spent much time at the Hermitage where Jackson doted on her and invited her to meet the important people who came to visit him. She was also great friends with Emily Donelson, wife of Jackson’s aide and nephew Andrew Jackson Donelson.

So when the Donelsons came to the White House with uncle Jackson, where Emily would act as First Lady, Mary came as well. Lucius J. Polk was a cousin of future president James K. Polk, and he had met Mary at the Hermitage. He took the stage for Washington and proposed; she accepted. On the evening of April 10, 1832, President Jackson led Mary Eastin up the length of the East Room to an altar where she and Polk were married. The couple then returned to Tennessee.

From there she wrote Jackson and his new vice present Martin Van Buren words of congratulations on their victory in the November 1832 presidential election. Autograph Letter Signed as President, Washington, “January 2nd – with the joys of the season – 1833,” to Mary, summing up his motivations, intentions, and core policies in what is what of the most important and powerful letters of Jackson we have ever seen. “The enclosed letter being handed me to enclose to you reminds me of your note of congratulations to Mr. Van Buren & myself. I will convey yours to him when I have time to write him. For those to myself, I sincerely thank you. But my dear Mary, the opposition will not be quiet, but by the continuation of my course of ‘taking truth & principle for my guide & the public good my end’, I trust under the auspices of a kind Providence I will put nullification and American systems down, & restore the administration to the original reading of the Constitution. My dear Mary, I beg that you will not let your spirits droop under your melancholy truth, made known to your aunt, I cannot help congratulating you and Mr. Polk in advance upon what I hope and trust in God will be a joyful one to all of your friends & particularly to my friend Major Polk to whom present me kindly. Affectionately yours, Andrew Jackson.”

The integral free frank is still present, signed by Jackson, with its Washington, January 2 postmark, and address panel addressed to “Mrs. Mary Polk, to the care of Mr. Lucius Polk, Columbia, State of Tennessee.”

We obtained this letter directly from the Donelson/Polk descendants. It is unpublished and is previously unknown; it has never before been offered for sale.

There are so many facets of compelling interest in this letter: Jackson’s determination to “put down” the insurrectionist nullification, defeat the American System, adhere to the “original” intent of the Constitution, be guided by principle, and act with “public good” his goal. We are pleased to have discovered it and to bring it to you.