Jacksonland: A Great American Land Grab

by Steve Inskeep

  “write their own State papers” Ibid., p. 373.

  “general expressions of kindness” Ibid.

  “The great difficulty arises from the progress of the Cherokees” Ibid., pp. 272–73.

  “I suspected this bursting forth of Georgia” Adams diary entry, February 12, 1824, ibid., p. 256.

  Chapter Thirteen: The Taverns Were Unknown to Us

  take over part of Florida John Ross et al. to secretary of war, early 1824, cited in Harden, Life of George M. Troup, p. 202.

  “enter into a treaty with the United States” Ibid., pp. 202–3.

  “the day would arrive … prejudice will be removed” Ross et al. to “His Excellency John Q. Adams,” March 12, 1825, reproduced in Troup, Governor’s Message, pp. 127–28.

  A full-color portrait shows Major Ridge McKenney and Hall, History of the Indian Tribes, vol. 2, p. 76.

  “He who slays the enemy in the path” Ibid., p. 77.

  his father loaded the family onto canoes and fled Ibid., p. 78.

  “I shall make you dreadful” Ibid., p. 79; Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, pp. 11–12.

  Ridge killed a white man with a spear Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, p. 15.

  “I came along the top of the mountain” McKenney and Hall, History of the Indian Tribes, vol. 2, p. 77.

  a pistol, a tomahawk, and a spade Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, pp. 37–38.

  Sehoya or Susanna, may have spurred him Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy, p. 28.

  1,141 peach trees … thirty slaves Ibid., pp. 181–83.

  a ferry, a toll road, and a popular trading post Ibid., p. 183.

  tribute totaling $25,000 Major Ridge received $10,000; his son, John Ridge, $15,000. Ibid., p. 171.

  Pathkiller … [and Charles Hicks] had died Anderson et al., Payne-Butrick Papers, vol. 2, pp. 143–44.

  Charles Hicks … had been tutoring Ross on Cherokee history Moulton calls him Ross’s “mentor,” in John Ross: Cherokee Chief, p. 33. Upon Hicks’s death he left Ross papers on Cherokee history, which were still in his possession years later. Anderson et al., Payne-Butrick Papers, Introduction to Vols. 1–3, p. xvi.

  a hundred one-acre lots Cherokee legislative resolution, November 12, 1825, quoted in Woodward, The Cherokees, p. 151. David Gomez, manager of the New Echota historic site, adds that some buyers purchased multiple acres, giving New Echota more the feel of a rural village; interview, September 2014.

  “would be called respectable in Litchfield County” Benjamin Gold to Gold and Vaill, October 29, 1829, reproduced in Gaul, To Marry an Indian, p. 166.

  two floors, one for each branch of the legislature, with simple wooden benches The original structure is long since gone, but a replica stands at the New Echota historic site.

  “From my earliest Boyhood … firmly confirmed” Ross to Andrew Johnson, June 28, 1866, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 2, p. 678.

  In 1810, one Christian mission Conversion figures from McLoughlin, Cherokee Renascence, chart p. 382.

  scholar reported that they did not want to expose tribal divisions Ibid., pp. 391–93.

  1821, when some local chiefs allegedly conspiredIbid., pp. 269–70.

  “Article I, Sec. 1” Cherokee Phoenix, February 21, 1828, p. 1.

  “every expense” John Cocke to John Ross and Major Ridge, October 1827, reprinted in Cherokee Phoenix, May 28, 1828.

  despised the federal practice of calling special meetings Ross to Monroe, March 5, 1819, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, pp. 34–35.

  “We are correctly informed” John Cocke to John Ross and Major Ridge, October 1827, reprinted in Cherokee Phoenix, May 28, 1828.

  “We are sorry to discover” Ross and Ridge to Cocke et al., October 11, 1827, reprinted in Cherokee Phoenix, May 28, 1828.

  “It is true there is no palace” John Cocke to John Ross and Major Ridge, October 1827, ibid.

  “We do not understand the idea” Ross and Ridge to Cocke et al., ibid.

  “As to the four taverns spoken of we assure you that they were unknown to us” Ibid.

  “In giving you this definitive reply” Ross and other Cherokee legislators to Cocke et al., ibid.

  Interlude: Hero’s Progress, 1824–1825

  Chapter Fourteen: Liberty, Equality, and True Social Order

  “walking and talking … and coughing” Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society, p. 146.

  “At an early hour the galleries” Argus of Western America, January 5, 1825, p. 1.

  women had been granted a rare dispensationNational Intelligencer, December 11, 1824, p. 3.

  “A great number of additional seats”Argus of Western America, January 5, 1825.

  contested vote, 90–69 National Intelligencer, December 11, 1824, p. 3.

  “General La Fayette entered the House” Argus of Western America, January 5, 1825, p. 1.

  “Few of the members who compose this body” Clay speech reprinted in Argus of Western America, January 5, 1825.

  Jackson was in Washington that December He arrived on December 7. Jackson to William Berkeley Lewis, December 8, 1824, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 5, p. 453.

  “the forests felled” Argus of Western America, January 5, 1825, p. 1.

  estimated at fifty thousand Unknown, Life of Lafayette, p. 127.

  an article on Lafayette appeared inTuscumbian, September 8, 1824, p. 3.

  “the Oriental languages” … “Rhetoric and Eloquence” … “the useful arts” Levasseur, Lafayette in America, vol. 1, pp. 40–41.

  “immense and splendid cut-glass chandelier” Unknown, Life of Lafayette, p. 151.

  Vanderbilt boats … Northeast Corridor Stiles, Commodore, p. 70.

  “three hundred weavers … one hundred and fifty butchers” Unknown, Life of Lafayette, p. 154.

  “the thunder of a cannon a thousand times repeated”: Levasseur, Lafayette in America, vol. 1, p. 107.

  “houses, trees and animals” Ibid., p. 96.

  “without resting one day” Jackson to William Berkeley Lewis, December 8, 1824, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 5, p. 453.

  “My dear husband was unwell nearly the whole of our journey” Rachel Jackson to Elizabeth Kingsley, December 23, 1824, ibid., p. 456.

  “is in better health than when we came” Ibid.

  a Pawnee chief, in full headdress, observing the proceedings The House historian describes the chief as Pawnee. Office of the Historian and Clerk of the House, “Old Hall of the House of Representatives,” History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives, history.house.gov.

  “continued devotion to liberty” Levasseur, Lafayette in America, vol. 2, p. 15.

  “your consistency of character” Argus of Western America, January 5, 1825, p. 1.

  “very evidently affected” Ibid.

  “Well may I stand firm and erect” Ibid.

  $50 REWARD Ibid.

  A proposal for a tax … was defeated, 33–30 Ibid.

  between “rash” abolitionists and those who found slavery a “blessing” Clay, Speech of the Hon. Henry Clay Before the American Colonization Society, January 20, 1827.

  Chapter Fifteen: Clay Is Politically Damd

  “paralyzed all the electoral ardour” Levasseur, Lafayette in America, vol. 2, p. 23.

  “been able to restrict … ambitious and designing” Ibid.

  secretary of state preparing to sleep with the common passengers Ibid., pp. 161–62.

  “I had never thought the probability of my election sufficient” Adams diary entry, December 15, 1824, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 6, p. 443.

  “Pennsylvania Hospital for Sick and Insane Persons” Adams diary entry, October 4, 1824, ibid., p. 423.

  the experience had not reformed him in any way Levasseur, Lafayette in America, vol. 1, p. 154.

  “vice and guilty lives … and scorn” Adams diary entry, October. 4 1824, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 6, p. 423.

  “the emotion of revolutionary fee
ling 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, v
ol. 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.