by Jon Meacham
16 with the added benefit Peterson, Great Triumvirate, 170–71, is a good summary of Benton’s concerns.
17 one of the most significant Feller, Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics, 112–36; see also Herman Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate on the Nature of the Union: Selected Documents (Indianapolis, 2000), ix–xv.
18 twenty-one of the nation’s forty-eight senators Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate, ix.
19 “seems to have metamorphosed” Ibid.
20 filled the two galleries Hunt, ed., First Forty Years of Washington Society, 309–10. See also Peterson, Great Triumvirate, 175.
21 a dais flanked by four gray marble columns Author’s observation of Old Senate Chamber at the Capitol. See also “The Old Senate Chamber,” Office of the Curator, January 1992.
22 Lewis kept tabs Parton, Life, III, 282.
23 Benton denounced Foot’s resolution Feller, Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics, 112–13. See also Benton, Thirty Years’ View, 130–33.
24 “The whole country may be” Remini, Daniel Webster, 317.
25 the remark about the South Ibid.
26 “Yankees were never in great credit” Jervey, Robert Y. Hayne and His Times, 222.
27 “Viewing the United States” Ibid., 223.
28 Webster was a floor below Remini, Daniel Webster, 317–18.
29 “my court papers” Ibid.
30 “The fruits of our labor” Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate, 8.
31 “Sir, I am one of those” Ibid., 10.
32 Webster grew grim Remini, Daniel Webster, 318.
33 time to “calculate the value of the Union” Peterson, Great Triumvirate, 173.
34 windy winter Tuesday Hunt, ed., First Forty Years of Washington Society, 309.
35 thought of Cooper’s threats Peterson, Great Triumvirate, 173.
36 “They significantly declare” Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate, 24.
37 “I am a Unionist” Ibid.
38 Hayne replied to Webster Ibid., 35–79. Hayne was not terse.
39 there were reports that the vice president Wiltse, John C. Calhoun, II, 60. (Wiltse writes that he doubts this actually happened.)
40 Hayne “was deficient” Samuel M. Smucker, The Life, Speeches and Memorials of Daniel Webster (Chicago and New York, 1859), 70.
41 “His dark and deeply-set eyes” Ibid., 86.
42 “It is a kind of moral” Hunt, ed., First Forty Years of Washington Society, 310.
43 dressed in a Revolutionary blue coat Smucker, Life, Speeches and Memorials of Daniel Webster, 86. In Smucker’s telling, on the morning of what was to become known as Webster’s Second Reply to Hayne, “the House of Representatives was deserted. Nearly all the members hastened to the Senate-chamber.… The place itself was illustrious and solemn; for it was the central spot of the whole earth for high and grave discussion in reference to human freedom; and it had been hallowed by the labors and the eloquence of the fathers and heroes of the Republic” (ibid., 85).
44 He stood to Calhoun’s left The United States Senate Historical Office; I am grateful to Donald A. Ritchie, associate historian, for showing me Webster’s desk.
45 a glorious Rembrandt Peale portrait Author’s observation, the Old Senate Chamber.
46 “I have not allowed myself” Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate, 143–44.
47 shocked silence Remini, Daniel Webster, 329.
48 “Mr. Webster,” a colleague said Ibid.
49 Hayne disagreed Ibid.
50 That night at the White House Ibid., 332–33.
51 usual Wednesday levee Marquis James, Andrew Jackson: Portrait of a President (Indianapolis, 1937), 128.
52 wasted no time Remini, Daniel Webster, 332–33.
53 “I felt as if everything” Ibid., 329.
54 “Been to the Capitol, Major?” Parton, Life, III, 282.
55 Webster’s achievement Peterson, Great Triumvirate, 179–80, is particularly good on this. Paul C. Nagel, One Nation Indivisible: The Union in American Thought, 1776–1861 (Westport, Conn., 1980), is also a wonderfully illuminating study of these issues.
56 in some ways invented Peterson, Great Triumvirate, 179–80. See also Remini, Daniel Webster, 328–31.
57 offered to die for a nation Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate, 331.
58 “Sir … should the cupidity” Ibid.
59 paid a call on Adams Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 210.
60 a brother of Robert Livingston Charles Haven Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston (New York, 1864).
61 Livingston had known misfortune Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate, 408. See also Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston, 20.
62 pressed into the arena by his wife See, for instance, Louise Livingston to Edward Livingston, December 23, 1828, Edward Livingston Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
63 among the first … to raise the prospect Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston, 312.
64 multiplicity of issues Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate, 409.
65 “Sir … might not a hearer” Ibid., 410.
66 “For my own part” Ibid.
67 “the necessary and … the legitimate parties” Ibid., 431.
68 “The spirit of which I speak” Ibid., 431–32.
69 “excess of party rage” Ibid., 433.
70 “I am no censor” Ibid.
71 “There is too much at stake” Messages, II, 1515.
72 “We undoubtedly think” Belz, ed., Webster-Hayne Debate, 433–34.
73 “There are legitimate” Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston, 349–50.
Chapter 11: General Jackson Rules by His Personal Popularity
1 Green published a piece in the Telegraph Parton, Life, III, 284.
2 a dinner to take place Ibid., 282–84. For accounts of the evening, its background, and its implications, see also Benton, Thirty Years’ View, 148–49; AMVB, 413–17; Remini, Jackson, II, 233–37.
3 Indian Queen Hotel Remini, Jackson, II, 234.
4 “a nullification affair altogether” Parton, Life, III, 284. The traditional view of the evening as a plot of Calhoun’s is challenged in Richard R. Stenberg, “The Jefferson Birthday Dinner, 1830,” Journal of Southern History 4 (August 1938), 334–45.
5 The dinner, Webster told Clay PHC, VIII, 193.
6 wrote out three different toasts Parton, Life, III, 284.
7 going through the newspapers Ibid.
8 “He said he preferred” Ibid.
9 “glorious stand” AMVB, 414.
10 climbed atop Ibid., 415.
11 “Our Union—it must be preserved” Ibid.
12 “The Union—next to our liberty the most dear” Ibid., 416.
13 “Mutual forbearance” Ibid.
14 “the bustle and excitement” Ibid., 415.
15 might add the word “Federal” Ibid.
16 as the National Intelligencer put it Ibid., 416–17.
17 “That Jackson will be” Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 210.
18 “I seriously apprehend a civil war” William Crawford to Martin Van Buren, May 31, 1830, Martin Van Buren Papers, LOC. Another letter to Van Buren, written in late May 1830, further illustrates the South’s contentious views on the tariff. “Fortunately for South Carolina and for the whole South, she stands in such a situation with so much right upon her side and so much wrong to complain of, that she has no occasion to bully or bluster and has little to do but stand on her sovereignty and say to the Genl. Govt. ‘thus far shalt thou go and no further …’ ” wrote James Hamilton, Jr., from Charleston (James Hamilton, Jr., to Martin Van Buren, May 1830, Martin Van Buren Papers, LOC).
19 Emily’s father died EDT, I, 229–30.
20 been sick for three months Ibid.
21 congressmen “brought forward” AMVB, 320.
22 funding for a sixty-mile Maysville Road Feller, Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics, 136–42. See also AMVB, 314–38, for Van Buren’s account of the administration’s approach to i
nternal improvements; and Parton, Life, III, 285–87.
23 while they were on horseback AMVB, 321.
24 “The road was in Mr. Clay’s own state” Ibid., 320–22.
25 Johnson found Jackson and Van Buren alone Ibid., 323–25. Van Buren’s vivid recollection of the scene perhaps overemphasizes the degree to which the veto was a financial calculation—Jackson’s memorandum stresses his concern for jurisdiction over projects—but it seems accurate in its passion.
26 “General! If this hand” Ibid., 324.
27 memorandum on the veto Correspondence, IV, 139.
28 “I stand committed” AMVB, 324.
29 Jackson vetoed the bill and three others Latner, Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 137–38, and Wilentz, Rise of American Democracy, 327–28. Explaining the nuances of the veto, Wilentz wrote: “In the spirit of Jeffersonian strict construction—but also displaying his propensity to placate the South, especially after the rancor over the tariff in 1828—Van Buren urged a veto. Extravagant federal spending on improvements, he reasoned, would turn elections into corrupt appeals to the voters’ narrow self-interest, while opening up new opportunities for congressional logrolling at the public’s expense. Jackson, who had been thinking along similar lines, decided to reject not just the Maysville project but a slew of other federal improvement bills. Yet in his Maysville veto message—written chiefly by Van Buren with the help of a young Tennessee congressman, James K. Polk—Jackson also defended the benefits of a ‘general system of improvement,’ praised state road and canal projects, and supported judicious federal spending on projects of clearly national importance. Having bolstered his Old Republican southern supporters, some of whom were leaning dangerously toward Calhoun’s more extreme states’ rights views, the president, his political circumstances precarious, made clear that he did not oppose all government-aided economic development. He would adhere to that position fairly consistently for the rest of his presidency” (ibid., 328). See also Cole, Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 62–67.
30 “much, and, I may add” Messages, II, 1054.
31 “What is properly national” Ibid.
32 by the end of his second term Ellis, Union at Risk, 24.
33 Noting that “many of the taxes” Messages, II, 1052.
34 “have been cheerfully borne” Ibid.
35 “The veto message” Feller, Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics, 139.
36 vetoed a total of nine bills Patterson, Presidential Government in the United States, 50–56. Jackson, Presidential Vetoes, 15–27, is an excellent discussion of the internal improvement vetoes. See also Edward S. Corwin, The President: Office and Powers, 1787–1984 (New York, 1984), 317–25; Wilson, Division and Reunion, 50; and Goldsmith, Growth of Presidential Power, 329–46; Goldsmith writes: “It would seem that Andrew Jackson’s sure instinct for power dictated an early and dramatic action at the beginning of his administration in order to assert his own authority and to demonstrate that the presidency was a position of leadership as well as a vehicle for administering the will of the legislature. However, the President, under the Constitution, was given a voice in the legislative process, and Jackson (with Van Buren’s approval) was anxious to assert this policymaking role and to put both the Congress and the country on warning that the age and feeble health of the old general would in no way restrict his vigorous pursuit of what he considered were the responsibilities of the President of the United States. Formal constitutional arguments were offered in the veto message, but the intent was political and the objective was the assertion of Jackson’s policies—a sign which marked the beginning of a new and dynamic chapter in the growth of presidential power” (ibid., 345). See also Henry James Ford, Rise and Growth of American Politics: A Sketch of Constitutional Development (New York, 1898), 175–87.
37 “From motives of respect to the legislature” Patterson, Presidential Government in the United States, 50.
38 Watching Jackson veto Maysville Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 230–31.
39 “Jackson was the first President” Patterson, Presidential Government in the United States, 51. Patterson also quotes Levi Woodbury, the Jackson–Van Buren Cabinet secretary who became a justice of the Supreme Court, saying: “The veto power is the people’s tribunative prerogative speaking again through their executive” (ibid., 52).
40 had “asserted that the veto” Ibid., 51.
41 occasionally asked for “something I can veto” Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership (New York, 1960), 84.
42 “We are all shocked” Remini, Henry Clay, 362.
43 could back a constitutional amendment Ibid.
44 “We shall be contending” Ibid.
45 “The veto, I find, will work well” Correspondence, IV, 156. Jackson wrote en route to Tennessee after the veto was announced.
46 “The Great Arbiter of Nations” Prucha, Cherokee Removal, 51.
47 “The people” Ibid.
48 formally entitled “The Bill for an Exchange of Lands” For accounts of the politics of, and the maneuvering over, the removal bill, see Cole, Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 67–74; Parton, Life, III, 279–80; Prucha, ed., Cherokee Removal, 5–28; Satz, American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era, 19–56; Satz, “Rhetoric Versus Reality: The Indian Policy of Andrew Jackson” in Cherokee Removal, Before and After, ed. William L. Anderson, 29–55; and Wallace, Long, Bitter Trail, 65–70.
49 reported out of the Indian Affairs Committee Cole, Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 71.
50 Jackson believed the treaties irrelevant Prucha, Great Father, 192.
51 “the poor Indians” Frelinghuysen, Speech of Mr. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, Delivered in the Senate of the United States, April 6, 1830, on the Bill for an Exchange of Lands with the Indians Residing in Any of the States or Territories, and for Their Removal West of the Mississippi, 27.
52 “Mr. President, if we abandon” Ibid., 28.
53 created a “Quaker panic” in Pennsylvania Cole, Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 72.
54 “without the slightest consultation” Frelinghuysen, Speech of Mr. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, Delivered in the Senate of the United States, April 6, 1830, on the Bill for an Exchange of Lands with the Indians Residing in Any of the States or Territories, and for Their Removal West of the Mississippi, 5.
55 Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi Ibid., 17.
56 to be known as “the Democracy” Wilentz, Andrew Jackson, 103.
57 “General Jackson rules by his personal popularity” Memoirs of JQA, VIII, 215.
58 complained of “the spirit of party” Prucha, ed., Cherokee Removal, 24–25.
59 a Jacksonian congressman from Alabama Ibid., 25.
60 “Now what can we do” Ibid.
61 the bill passing 28 to 19 Cole, Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 72.
62 Wilson Lumpkin of Georgia Ibid.
63 attacking his people as “atheists” Ibid.
64 “the treaties of this Government” Register of Debates in Congress, 21st Congress, First Session, VI, 1830, 997.
65 had “shocked the public feeling” Ibid., 998.
66 “was to be a government” Ibid., 1000.
67 “The eye of other nations” Ibid., 1015.
68 After much back-and-forth Cole, Presidency of Andrew Jackson, 73–74.
69 Shortly before four o’clock Margaret’s letter to Jackson in reply to the invitation her husband brought home was written at four p.m. EDT, I, 231.
70 “Circumstances, my dear General” Correspondence, IV, 145.
71 “I ask to say to you” Ibid.
72 “I have spoken” Ibid.
73 Jackson gave Andrew the letter Ibid., 195.
74 “You have not forgotten the note” Ibid.
75 a passionate note for the president’s files Ibid., 145.
76 would leave for Tennessee EDT, I, 233.
77 “embarrassments that yet attend us” Ibid., 234.
78 “The Secretary of War and fa
mily” Ibid.
79 Jackson admitted that “there has been” Correspondence, IV, 146.
80 “very popular” Ibid., 161.
81 insisted on going to the Mansion Ibid., 194–95.
82 he had “expected you and Emily” Ibid.
83 a formidable element of Nashville society Correspondence, IV, 173.
84 “a combination” refused Correspondence, IV, 164.
85 Emily and Andrew’s “folly and pride” Ibid., 165.
86 “My duty is that my household” Ibid.
87 “My connections have acted very strangely” Ibid., 165.
88 “affairs [are] so bad” Ibid.
89 a large barbecue in the Eatons’ honor Correspondence, IV, 167.
90 At 3:30 on the afternoon Ibid.
91 a crowd of five hundred Ibid.
92 Jackson was delighted “to shake hands” Ibid.
93 “The ladies of the place” Ibid.
94 “That my Nephew and Niece” Ibid.
95 A letter from Rebecca Branch EDT, I, 237.
96 the bargain was struck Ibid., 240–41.
97 “General Coffee has” Correspondence, IV, 168.
98 Emily changed her mind EDT, I, 241.
99 “I shall have no female family” Correspondence, IV, 170.
100 “Whether Mr. Donelson will or will not” Ibid.
101 only the Chickasaws actually came James, TLOAJ, 550–51.
102 Helped along by bribes Wallace, Long, Bitter Trail, 76–77.
103 the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek Prucha, Great Father, 216–18.
104 ratified the exchange Ibid., 215.
105 “Our doom is sealed” Ibid., 218.
106 it fell to the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville Ibid.
107 the first of two critical cases Norgren, Cherokee Cases, 98–111, is an excellent account of the litigation, its background, and its implications.
108 better described as “domestic dependent nations” Ibid., 101.
109 the government had long acted Ibid. Norgren wrote: “In spite of the dozens of international treaties agreed on by the United States and various Indian nations, Marshall concluded that the Cherokee did not constitute a foreign nation.” It was, Norgren argued, a “procedural sleight of hand” (100–1).