Andrew Jackson Donelson: Jacksonian and Unionist

By Richard Douglas Spence

This richly detailed biography of Andrew Jackson Donelson (1799-1871) sheds new light on the political and personal life of this nephew and namesake of Andrew Jackson. A scion of a pioneering Tennessee family, Donelson was a valued assistant and trusted confidant of the man who defined the Age of Jackson. One of those central but background figures of history, Donelson had a knack for being where important events were happening and knew many of the great figures of the age.

As his uncle's secretary, he weathered Old Hickory's tumultuous presidency, including the notorious "Petticoat War." Building his own political career, he served as US chargé d'affaires to the Republic of Texas, where he struggled against an enigmatic President Sam Houston, British and French intrigues, and the threat of war by Mexico, to achieve annexation. As minister to Prussia, Donelson enjoyed a ringside seat to the revolutions of 1848 and the first attempts at German unification. A firm Unionist in the mold of his uncle, Donelson denounced the secessionists at the Nashville Convention of 1850. He attempted as editor of the Washington Union to reunite the Democratic party, and, when he failed, he was nominated as Millard Fillmore's vice-presidential running mate on the Know-Nothing party ticket in 1856. He lived to see the Civil War wreck the Union he loved, devastate his farms, and take the lives of two of his sons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
• Release date: Apr 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9780826504005

Richard Douglas Spence

Richard Douglas Spence is Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Book preview

Andrew Jackson Donelson

New Perspectives on Jacksonian America

Mark Cheathem, Cumberland University

Beth Salerno, Saint Anselm College

series editors

This series examines the period from 1812 to 1861, spanning the decades when Andrew Jackson was a significant figure both in life and in memory. The chronological definition of the series recognizes the importance of the War of 1812 in elevating Jackson to national recognition and his continued importance, even after his death in 1845, to United States politics and society in the years leading up to the Civil War. But while Jackson gives one name to this period, the alternative titles of early republic, antebellum, and age of association make clear how political, economic, sectional, and organizational movements intersected to shape this critical era. The editors are particularly interested in books that address the democratization of the United States, broadly defined, and the many groups that jockeyed for power and influence in that process.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

John Belohlavek, University of South Florida

Andrew K. Frank, Florida State University

Lorri Glover, Saint Louis University

Ronald A. Johnson, Texas State University

Stephen A. Mihm, University of Georgia

Kirsten E. Wood, Florida International University

ANDREW JACKSON DONELSON

JACKSONIAN AND UNIONIST

RICHARD DOUGLAS SPENCE

Vanderbilt University Press

Nashville

© 2017 by Vanderbilt University Press

Nashville, Tennessee 37235

All rights reserved

First printing 2017

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

LC control number 2016042810

LC classification number E382.1.D57 S64 2017

Dewey classification number 973.5/6092 [B]—dc23

LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2016042810

ISBN 978–0-8265–2163–7 (cloth)

ISBN 978–0-8265–2165–1 (ebook)

Dedicated, in an attitude of gratitude, to my mother, and especially, to my father, who would have read every word.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

Prologue: A Pleasant Stop in Memphis

1. New Lives in that land of promise 1716–July 1820

2. Emily—and a Triumph and a Tragedy August 1820–December 1828

3. The Petticoat War January 1829–August 1831

4. The Rising Politician September 1831–December 1835

5. Death could not extinguish the light of her spirit December 1835–August 1841

6. Elizabeth—and Polk and Texas! September 1841–August 1844

7. The most important mission September 1844–March 1845

8. Donelson will have the honor of this important deed March 1845–July 1845

9. The Fruits of Annexation July 1845–February 1848

10. Märztage February 1848–November 1849

11. If A. J. Donelson does not please the Democratic Party, who can . . . ? December 1849–December 1851

12. An Obstacle to Harmony December 1851–May 1855

13. Fillmore and Donelson! June 1855–November 1856

14. Bitter Twilight November 1856–June 1871

Epilogue: The Family and the Legacy

ILLUSTRATION GALLERY

ABBREVIATIONS

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I should begin by stating that I am not a professional historian. I am, rather, a plant physiologist, but I have been a history nut my entire life. While in graduate school at Texas A&M University back in the 1980s, I decided that in addition to whatever contributions I might make to my scientific profession, I owed it to my love of history to attempt a contribution in the field. In my various readings I kept running across Donelson. I decided to undertake his biography, which at the time seemed not to have been done. So whenever I could, I holed up in the Sterling C. Evans Library poring through dusty books or cranking through rolls of microfilm. My post-doctoral work at Duke University allowed me access to the collections there and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Once I landed at my permanent faculty appointment at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa in 1990, I did my best, despite the challenges of its geographic remoteness, to continue working on the book, in fits and starts as imposed by the demands of my real job. All in all, Donelson has lived with me for over thirty years.

Along the way I was scooped not once but twice. I discovered early on that the late R. Beeler Satterfield had written his PhD dissertation in 1960 on Donelson, which he published as Andrew Jackson Donelson: Jackson’s Confidant and Political Heir (Bowling Green, KY: Hickory Tales, 2000). Then Mark R. Cheathem published his PhD dissertation as Old Hickory’s Nephew: The Political and Private Struggles of Andrew Jackson Donelson (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007). Mark and I have exchanged e-mails and newspaper clippings on Donelson, but to maintain my interpretive independence I did not read either book until I had finished the first draft of mine.

Meanwhile, the Donelsons found me, starting with Lewis R. Donelson, a great grandson of Andrew Jackson Donelson, now 99, the paterfamilias of the Donelson clan and still an active attorney with Baker-Donelson in Memphis. His cousin, Andrew Jackson (Jack) Donelson, MD, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, graciously let me dig through boxes of Donelson family material. I thank them for their support and assistance, and my hope at this writing is that Lewis will yet see the published book.

I would also like to thank Mark Cheathem, the anonymous reviewer, and Vanderbilt University Press for selecting mine as one of the inaugural books of their New Perspectives on Jacksonian America series. Mark’s longtime support is especially appreciated, as he knows that my take on Donelson is frequently very different from his. Thanks to Michael Ames, Joell Smith-Borne, and the rest of the staff at Vanderbilt University Press for patiently guiding me through the publication process.

When I quote Donelson and his contemporaries, I retain their original spellings and orthography, using [sic] and corrective square brackets only minimally to prevent confusion. The strong personality of Andrew Jackson, in particular, shines through his inimitable spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Needless to say, the errors that no doubt remain in this work are my entire responsibility.

Research on this book began largely as a solitary activity, but I gradually came to realize what every other writer learns—that even writing becomes a communal effort, involving the help of many people at every level. My thanks go to the dedicated staff at all the libraries and archives I have used over the years. Where individuals have been especially helpful in producing a particular source, I thank them in the appropriate citation notes. Special thanks to Marsha Mullin at the Hermitage for providing a number of valuable Donelson materials. Thanks also to Johnny Summer of Bolivar County, Mississippi, who drove me over backroads and cotton fields to show me the rotting lumber pile amid tangled undergrowth that once was Excelsior Place, Donelson’s last plantation home.

The transition from professional to personal thanks begins with Hubert and Debbie Reddin Van Tuyll, both now professors of, respectively, History and Communications, at Augusta University. They are among my oldest friends from graduate school at Texas A&M; they have provided over thirty years of support, advice, good conversation, and no telling how many games of Diplomacy.

Personal thanks go to all the members of my family who have always wondered about my strange interests. Everything that I owe my parents is, I hope, best expressed by the dedication of this book. Who knows, maybe my sisters, Susan Denson and Gail Necker, can find a use for this book in the history courses that they teach. And maybe now my nephews, Jordy and Garrett Denson, who are both years younger than my involvement with Donelson, can understand why Uncle Doug was always such a rich source of obscure knowledge.

Last, there are all the students whom it has been my joy to have taught in classes over the years. It has been my greatest source of professional pride that in more than twenty years as the University Health Professions Adviser, I have had the opportunity to help place so many aspiring and inspiring young people into medical, dental, and other health professional programs, with scores of them now in practice around the country. Special among these is Jose Meza, now an obstetrician/gynecologist in Lawton, Oklahoma. While an undergraduate here years ago he fussed at me constantly to go finish the Donelson book. Since then he and his wife, Sarah, have adopted me into their family, and their six wonderful children (Cassy, Mason, Jacob, Joseph, Emma, and Philip) call me Papa Spence.

Doug Spence

April 2017

PREFACE

Nearly twenty years ago, Jacksonian-era historian Robert V. Remini lamented the dearth of biographies about the period’s politicians. Scholars, in his view, had mostly ignored men such as Andrew Jackson Donelson, John H. Eaton, Felix Grundy, William B. Lewis, and Hugh Lawson White, to name only a few. In recent years, historians have addressed some of these gaps, with Roderick Heller III’s biography of Felix Grundy being a prime example.

With the publication of Doug Spence’s biography of Andrew Jackson Donelson, another individual on Remini’s list has now had not one but two biographies written on him in the past decade. The first, my own Old Hickory’s Nephew: The Political and Private Struggles of Andrew Jackson Donelson (2007), argued that Donelson was a man who was tortured by his inability to live up to the expectations of his uncle and mentor, President Andrew Jackson. Spence takes a different perspective on Donelson. He sees him as someone who largely followed in Jackson’s footsteps, doing his best to adhere to his uncle’s principles, particularly when it came to preserving the Union.

Why does Donelson deserve such attention? It is difficult to find any nonpresident from the Jacksonian period who was involved in so many different, significant political events. Born in 1799, Donelson became one of Andrew Jackson’s many wards. Fresh out of West Point, he traveled to Florida to assist his uncle in his territorial governorship. He then assisted Jackson in his two presidential campaigns of 1824 and 1828. As part of his uncle’s White House, Donelson and his wife, Emily, played a central role in the scandalous Eaton affair that tore apart the president’s first cabinet. Andrew Donelson also helped build the Democratic Party at the local, state, and national levels. One example of his contribution to the Democrats was his significant part in securing James K. Polk’s nomination at the party’s 1844 national convention.

Donelson’s contributions to the Democratic Party earned him respect and, more importantly for his finances, patronage appointments. Donelson served as chargé d’affaires to the Republic of Texas during its annexation phase in the mid-1840s; spent three years in the German states in a ministerial position as they experienced revolution in the late 1840s; and assumed editorial control of the Democratic Party’s Washington Union newspaper as the nation debated slavery, compromise, and disunion in the early 1850s. His most high-profile political position came in the mid-1850s when, having left the Democratic Party, he became the Know-Nothing Party’s vice presidential nominee. Donelson’s lack of success in the 1856 election marked a downward turn in both his public and private lives, as he experienced less political influence, extensive property loss, and significant family suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction years. His death in 1871 ended a public life that spanned nearly the entirety of the Jacksonian era.

Exhaustively researched for over three decades, Spence’s biography offers the opportunity to see Donelson from a different perspective. He emerges as a principled man and politician who understood the era’s strident partisanship and attempted, like Sam Houston and others, to chart a moderate course in order to keep the Union strong. In this engaging account, Donelson’s life provides a window into the republic’s growing pains as it moved from infancy into the torturous maturity that witnessed its disunion.

Mark R. Cheathem

Cumberland University

Prologue

A Pleasant Stop in Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee, was booming in the years following what its citizens often called the War for Southern Independence. The war that had spilled so much blood and wreaked so much havoc across the country in the first half of the 1860s had given way to a somewhat ungracious peace by the second half. The rich produce of the Mississippi Valley once again poured through Memphis, carried by steamboats plying the great river and the railroads snaking overland.

No finer symbol of the prosperity of postwar Memphis existed than the new Peabody Hotel. Lawyer, entrepreneur, and railroad magnate Robert Campbell Brinkley had built it and named it after George Peabody, the London banker who had provided the capital to build Brinkley’s railroad from Little Rock to Memphis. The new hotel was located on the corner of Main and Monroe Streets, just a little south of the main downtown area. A luxurious establishment, the Peabody cost $60,000 to build, an extraordinary sum, and boasted seventy-five rooms with bathrooms, a ballroom, a saloon, a magnificent lobby, and a kitchen and dining room located on the same floor, a revolutionary feature for a Southern hotel. The Peabody opened on February 5, 1869, and soon became the place to be for every luminary living in or traveling through Memphis.¹

One gentleman in particular became a regular patron of the Peabody Hotel. He was a large, fleshy man, standing over six feet in height, about seventy years of age with a florid face ringed by a mass of curling hair. He was the owner of a large cotton plantation that his wife styled Excelsior Place downriver in Bolivar County, Mississippi, and a fine farm, Ingleside, east of Nashville in Davidson County, Tennessee. Travel between the two properties brought him at regular intervals through Memphis. Although he owned a house in the city, he was renting it out, so he stayed at the Peabody. His personal warmth and good humor acted as a magnet for the other patrons in the lobby, the dining room, and the saloon. Years later, one lady recalled that he was the only man whom she had ever met "who could & did smile with his eyes. They sparkled with a keen, yet kindly humor" that delighted her. When he laughed, his ample sides shook.

Within a few minutes a good portion of the crowd would have gathered around him. With the great medallion-like portrait of George Peabody gazing down from the lobby wall, and as he enjoyed smoking cigars, the old gentleman would soon be reminiscing before a respectful, spellbound audience. These were fascinating stories, for over the course of his life he had known and worked alongside many of the great men of the age, traveled to foreign countries, and played an important role in a number of the momentous events of his time. He had always had a knack for being where great things were happening. Indeed, Major Andrew Jackson Donelson had quite a story to tell . . . ²

1

New Lives in that land of promise

1716–July 1820

The Donelson family originated in Scotland, an offshoot of the clan whose name is more commonly spelled Donaldson. The first of the family in America were Patrick Donelson and his grown son, John, who settled in Maryland in 1716. John Donelson’s son, also John, was born sometime between 1718 and 1725. This John Donelson early gave promise of the energy, integrity and executive ability prominent in his after career. ¹

In 1744 the young John Donelson brought his bride, Rachel Stockley, to southwestern Virginia not far behind the frontier of settlement, where they raised eleven children. Over the years he grew prosperous in land and slaves, became a surveyor, justice of the peace, vestryman, colonel of the militia. In 1767, when Pittsylvania County was organized, he was elected a delegate to the House of Burgesses. Nevertheless his attention was directed westward. He helped to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokees, then surveyed the treaty line to open Kentucky to settlement. When war broke out between Britain and the colonies, which ultimately declared their independence as the United States, Colonel Donelson led the Pittsylvania County militia to fight the Cherokees and Shawnees.²

Donelson inspired respect and confidence, being described as rather over the ordinary size of men, slightly inclined to be fleshy. An admiring daughter-in-law recalled him as being large, noble, & dignified in his appearance—well fitted for embassies & negotiations. But with the long absences on the frontier and the economic dislocations wrought by the Revolutionary War, Donelson by 1779 was on the verge of financial ruin. With characteristic energy and fortitude, however, he resolved to rebuild his fortune in "that western world, that Land of promise[,] that Terrestrial Paradice and garden of Eden." ³

Donelson joined two other entrepreneurs, Richard Henderson and James Robertson, to settle the region along the Cumberland River west of North Carolina. Robertson led about two hundred men overland during one of the coldest winters on record to a place on the Cumberland River known as French Lick. Donelson had built an enormous flatboat, which he named Adventure, to carry his family and their possessions, including several slaves. The Adventure led a flotilla of some thirty vessels carrying nearly two hundred men, women, and children. They cast off down the Tennessee River in December 1779 and faced one difficulty after another—smallpox, the rapids of the Muscle Shoals, and harassing Indian attacks that killed some thirty voyagers. Only in April 1780 did the bedraggled survivors reach French Lick, but under the cool leadership of Colonel John Donelson, they had succeeded at what an early historian pronounced as one of the great achievements in the settlement of the West. ⁴

The main settlement at French Lick was named Nashborough. The Donelsons built a stockade ten miles upriver at Clover Bottom. The Cumberland settlers, however, were isolated two hundred miles west of the main line of settlement. Indians raided crops and stock, and killed several people. In 1781 Donelson moved his family to comparatively peaceful Kentucky. Eventually, with the coming of peace and the rudiments of civilization to the Cumberland Valley, North Carolina organized the region as Davidson County. Nashborough became Nashville. Donelson decided to return his family to his Clover Bottom property. In the spring of 1786, he returned from a winter of business in Virginia and North Carolina to find that his family had already departed for the Cumberland under the care of his son John. He set off after them, but along the way he was shot by unknown assailants in the woods. The mystery of who killed him, whether Indians or renegade whites, remained unsolved. Nevertheless, his legacy was clear. As a soldier, surveyor, peacemaker, and pioneer, John Donelson helped to open a continent.⁵

After the colonel’s death, the Widow Donelson, as she became known, established the family at the Clover Bottom stockade. Most of the children, even those who were grown and married, stayed close, although Rachel remained in Kentucky with her husband, Lewis Robards. By 1788, the Cumberland Valley boasted three counties. Considering their distance from the main body of North Carolina inhabitants, the State Assembly that year grouped them into the District of Mero and established a separate court district for them. Appointed attorney general for the Mero District was a tall, wiry, hawk-faced young lawyer with a shock of reddish hair and piercing blue eyes—Andrew Jackson.⁶

Born on March 15, 1767, in the frontier Waxhaws settlement straddling North and South Carolina, Jackson was the posthumous son of an immigrant from Ulster. His life was hard from the start, and his combative nature developed early. Cornwallis’s army swept through South Carolina in 1781, leaving Andrew orphaned, with his mother and two brothers dead, and Andrew scarred by a British officer’s sword. Jackson grew up without control and developed into a power unto himself. At age twenty, he was licensed to practice law in North Carolina. The next year, he was dispatched to the new Mero District. Life on the Cumberland would never be the same.⁷

The young attorney lodged at the Widow Donelson’s stockade, rooming with another young lawyer, John Overton, in a cabin near the main blockhouse. Jackson fit right in with the large, boisterous Donelson clan, and in no time he was one of the household. Complications arose, however, when the widow’s daughter Rachel arrived from Kentucky. Her husband, Lewis Robards, had proved to be a cruel, tyrannical husband. Rachel and Jackson soon fell in love. Subsequent events became, and remain, controversial. Word soon arrived in the Cumberland Valley that Robards had obtained a divorce. Jackson and Rachel married in the autumn of 1791, or so they claimed. Then in December 1793, the shocking news reached the Jacksons that Robards had been granted a divorce from Rachel only in September, on the grounds that she hath and doth Still live in adultery with another man. Overton persuaded Jackson that a second wedding was necessary. The Donelsons and indeed all Nashville society took the episode in stride. Far from becoming social outcasts, the Jacksons became pillars of the Cumberland community. On the personal side, the episode haunted them. Jackson became overly sensitive to any slight on Rachel’s honor, which led him to kill a man in a duel. Rachel steadily withdrew into a pious solemnity with only her husband, her family, a few close friends, and her Bible for comfort.⁸

Meanwhile, Rachel’s brother Samuel Donelson began to take a position in Cumberland society that was to be expected of a son of Colonel John Donelson. Inspired also by his rising brother-in-law Andrew Jackson, Samuel was licensed to practice law in 1794. They purchased land together and even operated a general store, at least until their creditor in Philadelphia defaulted on his notes. The brothers-in-law took a considerable financial beating, but their public stars continued to rise. When Tennessee achieved statehood in June 1796, Jackson was elected as the new state’s congressman and then, for a brief term, senator. Samuel Donelson was also a coming man. Joseph Anderson, a territorial judge and a man whose good opinion was worth having, considered him to be one of the cleverest young fellows I ever was acquainted with, and whose principles and Mental Virtues do Honor to human nature. Best of all, Samuel soon fell in love. Her name was Mary Ann Michie Smith, but everyone called her Polly.⁹

Her father, Daniel Smith, was a Virginian who was schooled in a little of everything from medicine to law. Like Colonel John Donelson, Smith rose to prominence as a surveyor and militia officer, serving with distinction in Dunmore’s War and surveying the western extension of the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. In 1783 he moved his family to the Cumberland Valley and settled in what became Sumner County. There he built an imposing five-level house whose name, Rock Castle, is all the description needed. In 1790 President George Washington appointed Smith secretary of the Territory South of the River Ohio. Smith drew the first map of the new state of Tennessee and published a book describing its government.¹⁰

When Samuel Donelson met Polly Smith, she was fifteen, fair with blue eyes. They were soon very much in love, but unfortunately, her father objected to the romance. Jackson attempted to intercede on their behalf, but got nowhere. On the night of June 20, 1796, Polly opened her window at a prearranged signal. Samuel waited below with Jackson and a ladder. They rushed to the Jackson home, Hunter’s Hill, where Rachel had arranged for a parson to be present. Jackson begged forgiveness for Polly’s sake, but Smith refused. Others gave the newlyweds their best wishes. Judge Anderson predicted that a Grand Son, will put a period to the old General[’]s pouting. Indeed, the birth of a boy, John Samuel Donelson, the next year, 1797, worked wonders on Smith’s attitude. He gave several slaves to Polly, and to Samuel and Polly together a farm in Sumner County, provided they would move there. This Samuel agreed to do, although he already had a 600-acre tract in Davidson County on which he had intended to settle his new family. He set about clearing the Sumner County land, building a cabin and a mill, and planting an orchard.¹¹

*   *   *

These improvements took time, however, and Samuel and Polly Donelson were still living in the cabin on his Davidson County tract, not far from Hunter’s Hill, when, on August 25, 1799, a second son was born. In honor of Samuel’s brother-in-law, neighbor, occasional business partner, and best friend, the boy was named Andrew Jackson Donelson. He gained, thereby, among other things, the distinction of being the first of countless men who would be named after Andrew Jackson.¹²

The master of Rock Castle eventually saw a grandson named Daniel Smith Donelson, born on June 23, 1801. Samuel’s affairs prospered as his family grew, but he speculated in land purchases beyond his ability to pay for them properly. His debts grew larger, as did the consequent problems. No doubt he trusted that he could untie his knotted affairs, but in July 1804, while visiting the Jacksons at Hunter’s Hill, he fell ill. On July 9, 1804, as can best be guessed, Samuel Donelson died, at about the age of thirty-four.¹³

Polly was left a widow at twenty-three to care for three young boys. Both her father and the large Donelson clan were prepared to do whatever was needed, but ultimately she turned to her husband’s most trusted friend. As Samuel lay on his deathbed at Hunter’s Hill, Jackson promised to look after the boys, and he was appointed executor of the estate. What help Daniel Smith could provide diminished when he departed for Washington, DC, in 1805 as senator from Tennessee. The beneficent disposition you have shown Mr. Donelson’s children gives me very grateful impressions and hopes at some time to make some remuneration, he wrote Jackson in February 1806. I acknowledge your friendship and benevolence to my daughter and her children, he repeated that spring in regard to selling some of Samuel’s property to raise funds. Some parts of Samuel’s affairs were never sorted out completely, and Jackson himself took a great financial loss.¹⁴

John, called Jacky by the family, Andrew, and Daniel became Jackson’s wards, and he and Rachel assumed the major duties of raising them, despite their own financial difficulties. In the fall of 1804, Jackson had to sell Hunter’s Hill and moved to the undeveloped Hermitage property, where he built a two-story blockhouse. He was already or soon became the guardian of the four children of his deceased friend General Edward Butler and the three minor children of Edward’s brother, Thomas. It was clear by now that the Jacksons would never have children of their own. Ultimately, they became parents by adoption. On December 4, 1808, Elizabeth Rucker Donelson, wife of Rachel’s brother Severn, gave birth to twin boys, but she was unable to nurse both babies. Severn and Elizabeth turned one of them over to the Jacksons, who christened the baby Andrew Jackson Jr. All these children were welcomed into the Jackson home, but save for their own Andrew Jr., none more warmly than Samuel Donelson’s. Some of little Andrew Donelson’s earliest memories were of being stowed away for the night in a corner trundle-bed, a pet cat and dog dozing on the hearth, listening to the affectionate Jacksons. Rachel sang sweetly, and took great delight in playing on a piano . . . which Jackson had obtained on one of his Eastern trips. He had a flute and violin, and playing duets was a favorite evening recreation. Little Andrew would drift to sleep listening to an enjoyable if not artistic concert, whose repertoire included the ever popular Money Musk and The Campbells Are Coming. ¹⁵

In keeping with the usual practice of frontier society, Polly Smith Donelson did not long remain a widow. On February 26, 1806, she married James Sanders, a prominent widower of Sumner County. Polly’s sons took an instant dislike to their stepfather. According to a family story, Sanders had acquired a nickname, Jimmy Dry, which he detested. One day, young Andrew cut the stirrups of Sanders’s saddle. When caught, he sassed Sanders and called him Jimmy Dry to his face. Sanders thrashed him. The tragedy of Polly’s marriage to a man whom her sons disliked was that she became increasingly estranged from them. The Donelson boys came to spend most of their time at the Hermitage. This led Sanders once to complain that Jackeye, as he spelled the nickname of the oldest boy, had been for Several Weaks from home contrary to his mother[’]s Orders[.] When Polly Scholded him for Disobeying hur he replied that it was [by] your Orders, Sanders lectured Jackson, Was it prudent to order a Child to Disobey its mother[?] ¹⁶

Schooling began for Jacky and Andrew in the spring of 1807 at a local school taught by William Ballard, but in January 1808, Jackson sent them to a school in Nashville. George M. Deaderick, a Nashville merchant and banker, assured Jackson that he was happy to board your little sons—a revealing mistake. Jacky’s, Andrew’s, and later Daniel’s schooling evidently proceeded on a normal course, aside from the disputes between their possessive uncle and officious stepfather. Jackson remained on good terms with their grandfather, however. In a typical letter, he assured Smith that your little grandsons are learning well, and, often speak of you. When staying at Rock Castle, the boys enjoyed the use of Smith’s library, one of the best in the West.¹⁷

All this time, relations between the United States and Great Britain were deteriorating. Finally, in June 1812, Warhawks in Congress goaded President James Madison into asking for a declaration of war. Like thousands of Westerners, Jackson had been waiting years for war. Forty-five now, his shock of red hair was fading to gray, but he was still scarecrow-thin and ramrod-straight. As major general of the Tennessee state militia, he filled mail pouches to Washington with promises to march his force anytime, anywhere, to fight the British, the Indians, or the Spanish. Finally, the secretary of war ordered Jackson, now as major general of the United States Volunteers, with 1,500 men to assist in the defense of New Orleans.

A considerable number of them were Donelsons, or related to them by blood or marriage. Lieutenant Stockley Donelson Hays, son of Rachel’s sister Jane and her husband Robert Hays, was quartermaster general. In command of the cavalry regiment was Colonel John Coffee, who in 1809 had married Mary, a daughter of Captain John and Mary Purnell Donelson. Over six feet tall with a robust physique, Coffee was quiet, modest, and dependable. He was in many ways the antithesis of the volatile Jackson, who fully appreciated his qualities and reposed a special confidence in him. Coffee’s steadying influence grew to become, in Jackson’s life, second only to Rachel’s. There were others in Jackson’s command worthy of notice. William B. Lewis, a neighbor, served as quartermaster. William Carroll was brigade inspector. Thomas Hart Benton, whose rough, burly exterior disguised a sharp intellect, was aide-de-camp.¹⁸

Jackson’s command got no farther than Natchez in January 1813 when orders curtly ended his mission, but his admiring soldiers observed that he was as tough as hickory wood, and thus they bestowed on him an everlasting nickname—Old Hickory. The reputation that he had gained was soon tarnished by his involvement in a quarrel between William Carroll, Thomas Hart Benton, and Benton’s brother, Jesse. In Nashville one day accompanied by Coffee and Stockley Donelson Hays, Jackson happened upon the Bentons. A bloody brawl erupted. Jesse shot Jackson in his left arm and shoulder. Hays stabbed Jesse seriously, and Coffee pistol-whipped Thomas. Jackson was still on his sickbed when shocking news reached Nashville. The Creek Indians had massacred the settlers at Fort Mims, Mississippi Territory. Still weak with his arm in a sling, Jackson led his troops out to crush the Creek Nation. The climax came on March 27, 1814. In the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Jackson’s troops annihilated the Creeks. The Madison administration, happy to find a general who could win battles, promoted Jackson to major general in the US Army.¹⁹

Old Hickory and his victorious army were welcomed home to Nashville in May 1814. Jackson was escorted to the courthouse by the arrangements committee. Congressman Felix Grundy made a speech. Lined up on the steps as a sort of honor guard were the students of Cumberland College dressed in their college habit. Among that number of the best and brightest of Tennessee youth stood Andrew Jackson Donelson, now almost fifteen. Pride in his uncle swelled inside him, with none cheering more lustily than he. Cumberland College served as both a finishing school for the young gentlemen of Tennessee and a preparatory school for those who would go on to a university. One of Andrew’s schoolmates was Edward George Washington Butler, a fellow ward of Old Hickory. Another was John Bell; over the next half-century their careers would often intersect, for better or worse.²⁰

Jackson gave as much attention to the Donelson boys as he could during his frequent absences and pressing duties. Andrew Jackson Donelson is authorised to draw on me at Nashville, Tennessee[,] for such sums of money, as may be necessary to meet his wants, which will be duly honored & paid, he directed during a respite in the Creek campaign. In November 1814, a man who was interested in buying land near Nashville spoke to Daniel Smith, who recommended a tract that once belonged to Samuel Donelson, provided that Jackson, as legal guardian of the boys and executor of the estate, would take responsibility for the sale. It was strange that Smith, now retired from the Senate with comparatively little to do, would thus impose on a man who was charged with defending half of the United States from imminent invasion.²¹

Following a quick, and unauthorized, thrust into Spanish Florida to dislodge the British from Pensacola, Jackson marched his small army westward to thwart a major British attempt to capture New Orleans. On January 8, 1815, his backwoodsmen routed a British army of veterans who had defeated Napoleon, gaining the greatest victory of the war. The news raced across a country that was demoralized by defeat that included the sack of Washington. Hard on the heels of Jackson’s triumph came word from across the Atlantic Ocean that a peace treaty had been signed in Ghent. To Americans, the two events became indelibly linked. Andrew Jackson was more than just Old Hickory now. He was the Hero of New Orleans, the savior of his country.²²

As Jackson relaxed at the Hermitage after the war, he gave thought to the future of his family. Andrew Donelson, for one, was growing into a fine young man—tall, strongly built, with a tumble of dark hair and ruddy complexion. He was graduated from Cumberland College in the spring of 1816. His proud uncle decided that his talents deserved the finest university education that the country could provide. The place for Andrew was the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Edward Butler had already matriculated there, following his own graduation from Cumberland College. Surely, securing an appointment for another ward should prove to be no problem for the Hero of New Orleans.²³

*   *   *

When Andrew Donelson left the Hermitage, bound for West Point on or shortly after January 12, 1817, he traveled with Major John Henry Eaton, a former member of Jackson’s staff who was on his way to Philadelphia to oversee the publication of a biography of the Hero of New Orleans. Young Donelson carried a letter from Jackson introducing him to General Joseph G. Swift, chief engineer of the US Army and superintendent of the US Military Academy. This youth is young and inexperienced, Jackson informed Swift, but possessing an amiable disposition—from which I trust & hope he will conduct himself with such propriety as will not only merit your Esteem & friendship, but that of his professors & fellow students. ²⁴

A wintry coat of snow blanketed Washington, DC, when Eaton and Andrew arrived on February 1, but they were nevertheless disappointed at the sight. The District of Columbia was still a sparsely populated tract of forest, field, and swamp. The avenues of the city were unpaved and, at this time of year, seas of muck. Moreover, Washington still showed the scars of the British raid in 1814. The Capitol, President’s Mansion, and most other public buildings had been burned. Reconstruction was under way, but President Madison was living out the last weeks of his term of office in an unusual eight-sided house called the Octagon. Congress sat in a temporary brick hall. Still, Eaton and Andrew took in all the sights. Congress, they decided, was deadly dull. They remained in town only for the opportunity & honor of attending one of Dolley Madison’s famous levees.²⁵

Their stay in Washington did involve business. The next class entering the military academy would not begin until September. Andrew and Eaton spent several days seeking a warrant letter so that he could begin his studies at the academy immediately upon his arrival. They were shuffled in and out of offices until Eaton enlisted the services of George Washington Campbell, a fellow Tennessean and ex-secretary of the Treasury. Campbell took them to see Secretary of State, and President-elect, James Monroe. They all trooped over to the Octagon to see Madison. It must have been thrilling for Andrew to meet these luminaries, while embarrassing that such important men were cheerfully going to so much trouble for a youth seeking a warrant. But then, not every young man was the nephew, ward, and namesake, all rolled into one, of the Hero of New Orleans. At last young Donelson received notice of his appointment as a cadet in the service of the United States. He was instructed to "repair to the Military Academy at West-point . . . where after having passed an examination, you will receive your warrant." Andrew was already on his way. He and Eaton set out immediately and were in Philadelphia by February 6.²⁶

Back at the Hermitage, Jackson was pleased to hear that Andrew had obtained the warrant and was proceeding to West Point, where you can become acquainted with the rules & regulations of the academy, [and] prepare yourself for your examination. Recalling that Andrew was on his own now, Jackson gave his nephew some fatherly advice. My Dear Andrew, you are now entered on the theatre of the world amonghst stranger[s]. . . . I have full confidence in your Judgment, when ripened with experience [and] . . . in your morality & virtue, I well know, you will part with existance, before you will tarnish your honor, or depart from the paths of virtue & honesty. He then turned to a subject that was certain to be on the mind of a young man: Amonghst, the virtuous females, you ought to cultivate an acquaintance, & shun the intercourse of the others as you would the society of the viper or base charector. I think you may rest satisfied, Eaton assured Jackson, I have seen few young men in my life whose reflections conduct & deportment were as correct. Jackson needed no reassurance. In a recent conversation with grandfather Daniel Smith and Stockley Donelson Hays, each remarked favorably on Andrew’s lack of vices regarding drinking, gaming &c. ²⁷

Donelson stepped off the steamboat at West Point, New York, near the end of March 1817. At the time of his arrival, the academy was still a smallish, spartan affair with only a few buildings and about two hundred cadets. He presented himself to Captain Alden Partridge, the acting superintendent. Partridge welcomed Donelson with great pleasure and granted him the privileges of quartering with the cadets and using the library to prepare for his examination, scheduled for June. In a week or so, Andrew wrote his uncle, in the first of his surviving letters, Since my arrival here I have done little else than acquaint myself with the rules and regulations of the institution, & also with the cadets. ²⁸

Andrew was hardly settled when shocking news arrived from home. His older brother, Jacky, was dead. Following in the footsteps of both grandfathers, John Samuel Donelson had become a surveyor. Late in 1816, he went on a surveying expedition led by W. Purnell Owen into the former Creek country of Alabama. He was attacked by a desperate cough and high fevers and that in the wilderness where medical aid could not be procured in time, Owen recounted, and died on February 22, 1817. This was a shock, to my feelings, Jackson wrote Smith. Prepare the mind of his tender mother for the shock, before you communicate it, & keep from her [the] knowledge, for the present, that he wanted for any thing in his illness. The manner in which Mary Sanders handled the news of Jacky’s death provides a striking example of the distance that had grown between her and her sons. She left it to Smith and Jackson to break the news to Andrew, then waited nearly two weeks before writing herself. Even then, the tragedy merited one sentence in a short letter that was otherwise devoted to trivial family gossip: "You know [sic] doubt my dear Andrew have heard the fatal news of your Brother’s death, that news which has and will be forever a source of regret to your Mother. This is the only known letter between Polly and any of her sons. Any others were apparently very few. Smith was closer to the boys, and more consoling. The young man at West Point was the family’s hope now: One of the principal cares of my life will now be to try to promote your durable welfare." ²⁹

Returning to his studies, Andrew prepared for the entrance examination. He could not have found it to be difficult. Each cadet, previous to his being admitted a member of the Military Academy, read the Rules and Regulations, must be able to read distinctly and pronounce correctly; to write a fair legible hand; and to perform with facility and accuracy the various operations of the ground rules of arithmetic, both simple and compound; of the rules of reduction of single and compound proportion, and also of vulgar and decimal fractions. Donelson’s spelling was already better than that of most of his contemporaries, although he tended to omit apostrophes in possessives and retain British spellings (honour, realise, defence). He had received instruction in Latin and evidently even Greek, probably at Cumberland College, for his grandfather admonished him to follow the strict rules of morality in the New Testament, which you have read in the original language. As easily as he passed the examination, he probably clenched his teeth when he read that "Andrew Donaldson" was formally appointed as a cadet. He would endure countless and varied misspellings of his name his whole life.³⁰

Cadet Donelson entered the military academy precisely at one of the most important points in its history. Partridge had proved to be a martinet and lax administrator, and allowed academic standards to fall. The faculty, which included some first-rate educators, eventually revolted against his erratic policies. In June, while Donelson was busy with entrance examinations, Swift and President Monroe came to investigate. Changes came quickly. Monroe appointed the new superintendent, Brevet Major Sylvanus Thayer. A taciturn Massachusetts Yankee, Thayer was the model of the exacting professional soldier. He instituted reforms that were thorough and far-reaching. He enforced regulations strictly, but he was scrupulously fair. Thanks to Thayer, a cadet boasted, the academy became a great school of military science, and from that date competed with the best in the world. ³¹

Donelson was therefore one of the first victims of Thayer’s new rule that cadets could begin only when the academic year began in September. Still, he did so well on his examinations that he placed in the Third Class, joining Edward Butler. Classes at West Point are numbered by seniority; the upperclassmen are the First Class, while the entering plebes are the Fourth Class. Resplendent in his new gray uniform boasting three rows of gilt buttons, Donelson was described by a classmate as one of the handsomest of the Cadets. ³²

In bypassing the Fourth Class, Donelson avoided the introductory courses in English grammar and composition, French, and basic mathematics. The Third Class endured more mathematics—plane and spherical geometry, conic sections, and drawing—and French, which consisted primarily of translating French mathematical and military texts into English, and only secondarily of pronouncing the language tolerably. The cadets’ day was full and rigidly controlled. Reveille woke them at dawn. Summers they drilled until breakfast; during winter, drill was not held. Classes began at eight in summer, nine in winter, until dinner at one o’clock. Classes resumed at two and continued until four, when afternoon drill was held, followed by supper. Lights were extinguished at nine.³³

His uncle had seen to Donelson’s finances, arranging for him to draw on Thomas Kirkman of Philadelphia for any amount of money that he needed. Jackson was not stingy with the funds that he provided. I wish you to oeconomise but . . . you should draw a true distinction, between oeconomy and parsimony, he advised. Time would reveal that Donelson learned the lesson of shunning parsimony only too well. These letters show Andrew Jackson at his best, as an affectionate surrogate father to a young man in whom he saw great potential. You must, nay, will, become a great, good, and usefull member of society. This my son will be an ample reward to me. He wished Andrew to merit by your good conduct the friendship of your fellow students, and by your attention to your duty, and obedience to your superiors, the Esteem and good opinion of all. Rachel wrote, too, assuring Andrew that thus far you meet our highest expectations, and may you go on and prosper in every laudable undertaking is the sincere wish of a Second Mother. With Rachel, exhortations to piety were never lacking. Permit me Andrew as a Mother to drop you a few hints. . . . That is, experience convinces me that pure and undefiled religion is the greatest treasure on earth, and that all the amiable qualities hang on this. ³⁴

Andrew did merit the friendship of his fellow cadets. In addition to Edward Butler, there was Donelson’s roommate, Joshua Baker of Louisiana. He entered the academy at the same time as Donelson, also earned a place in the Third Class, and was soon progressing through courses even faster than his roommate. That fall, Donelson met a plebe, Nicholas P. Trist, a Virginian who would become among his closest friends.³⁵

Donelson’s first year at West Point otherwise proceeded uneventfully. He did so well on the January, then the June, examinations that he ranked second in his class after only one year. The proficiency you have made fills me with delight, Jackson crowed, and is a sure presage, with a continuation of your application that my best hopes will be reallized. Apparently the near-perfect Andrew’s only flaw was a disinclination to write home. Jackson repeatedly chastised him for not writing more often. No doubt classes and drills kept him busy, but Donelson was falling into a slothful habit that later in life could become an avoidance mechanism for a disagreeable task.³⁶

Donelson ended his first year at West Point on the same sad note with which he began it, with a death in the family back home. In the letter breaking the news about Jacky, Smith had noted that neither he nor Grandmother Smith was well. By December 1817, Jackson was alarmed that Smith may not survive the winter, telling Andrew that he is wasting away very fast. Grandfather is in a very low state of health and considerably worse than when you left him, his brother, Daniel, wrote in March 1818. The next day Smith mustered the strength to write a last letter to the grandson of whom he was so proud: Your welfare you may believe I have very much at heart—therefore I give you the best advice I can. He urged Andrew to be remarkably industrious in your studies . . . and also find time to read other useful books—particularly law—the study of which ’tis now almost time for you to commence—and as you truly observe is the surest road to eminence if pursued with perserverance. Smith lingered through the spring, dying on June 16, 1818. Our principal gu[i]de is gone, Daniel sighed. Jackson was untactful enough to comment, I regret my Dr. Andrew that you had not wrote more frequently to your grand father before his death. I am told he repined much at your silence. ³⁷

In September, Donelson advanced to the Second Class, considered to be the most difficult academically, focusing on the physical sciences, engineering, and military drawing. The course in natural and experimental philosophy, as the sciences were still called, covered mechanics, hydraulics, pneumatics, optics, chemistry, magnetism, and astronomy. It was taught by Jared Mansfield, a distinguished physicist specializing in ballistics, and was held to be the most difficult at the academy. Donelson’s class had the dubious privilege of being the first to use the new textbook, A Treatise on Mechanics, Theoretical, Practical and Descriptive, by Olinthus Gregory of the Royal Military Academy. It was at least in English, but so difficult that until he ran hard into the academic rigors of Gregories Mechanics, Donelson was sure that he could graduate in only two years. I shall not as before claim the merit of passing through the last two year[’]s study in one, he apologized to his uncle.³⁸

Donelson had more to worry about than Gregory’s Mechanics, for events soon shook the academy. To the position of commandant of cadets, who trained them in tactics, oversaw their discipline, and issued demerits, Thayer appointed Captain John Bliss. Disagreeable and short-tempered, Bliss verbally or physically abused the cadets for the slightest infraction. Minor but escalating incidents through the fall of 1818 reached a climax on November 22 when Bliss lost his temper at Cadet Edward L. Nicholson, cursing and cuffing him. The other cadets were outraged. Being largely from established or upwardly mobile families, they viewed themselves not as lowly enlisted men but as future officers, and officers were gentlemen. That evening the cadets chose a grievance committee to protest Bliss’s behavior. Donelson described the five cadets who were selected to Jackson as distinguished on the rolls of this Academy, and exemplary in military deportment. The grievance committee composed a petition, which some 180 cadets signed, including Donelson. Afterward, he expressed his feelings to his uncle, in the process going overboard, as is the wont of youth, into a diatribe about having more respect paid to the character and feelings of cadets as gentlemen and expressing outrage over the last deprivation of natural right, atrocious deeds, and oppression. ³⁹

Thayer was not about to tolerate something as unmilitary as the cadets’ actions. He first refused to see the grievance committee, then ordered them to vacate West Point. They were not given time to collect their clothes or any money, but several cadets pitched in to help. Donelson gave them $80 of the $150 that he had recently received from Kirkman. I think you will commend me for this, he wrote his uncle confidently. Once the grievance committee was gone, Thayer then lectured the corps on correct military deportment. The corps refused to stand for this. Another petition was drafted and signed by 145 cadets, including Donelson, protesting Thayer’s actions.⁴⁰

By what rule of justice or Military law, Thayer, has been governed, you may perhaps say, Donelson put to his military uncle, but Thayer’s conduct differs from my idea of a good officer. He did understand the implications and possible results of his actions. I think it therefore advisable that I should have your permission to resign . . . as resistance would be dismissal. Jackson boiled with indignation when he read Andrew’s letters. No man was more sensitive to the demands of honor, nor had he ever cared much for regular army types and procedures. Following orders was necessary to military discipline, but superior officers must always treat junior officers as gentlemen. This Bliss did not do. Jackson gave blanket approval to whatever his nephew decided to do, including you have my permission to resign. Resignation was a proper course in protesting most offenses, but his remedy for an attack on a gentleman’s person was pure Jackson: But if the superior attempts either to strike or kick you, put him to instant death . . . never my son, outlive your honor—never do an act that will tarnish it. ⁴¹

By now, Thayer had told the War Department his side of the story. Cadets who had been spoiled by Partridge’s laxity had rebelled when Bliss tried to restore discipline and had even acquired the erroneous and unmilitary impressions that they had rights to defend and liberty to intrude their voice and opinions with respect to the concerns of the academy. When the five cadets arrived in Washington, they were ushered into the office of the formidable secretary of war. At age thirty-six, John Caldwell Calhoun of South Carolina was already one of the country’s leading politicians. Tall, gaunt, with a leonine mane of hair and brooding countenance, his most riveting features were his dark, deep-set eyes illuminating the vast, yet remote and inflexible intellect that was his driving force. Cold, forbidding, and intense, Calhoun had the intimidating presence of a gathering thunderstorm. Glaring across his desk at the nervous cadets, he was cool and unsympathetic. He told them only that the president was investigating the matter. Monroe ruled that Thayer’s conduct was satisfactory and approved. Nevertheless, he concluded that Captain Bliss does not appear to have sufficient command of his temper and relieved him of his command. Finally, attributing youth and inexperience as causing their irregular conduct, Monroe ordered that the five cadets be reinstated at the academy. Thayer was the clear winner in the president’s ruling.⁴²

The cadets returned to their books and drills. The winter examinations were held in January 1819, then classes for the spring session began. For Donelson, it was a relief to finish Gregory’s Mechanics and begin the easier Enfield’s Natural Philosophy for the second part of Mansfield’s course. The session was rounded out with a course in military drawing that taught future engineers how to use surveying instruments and draw maps, fortifications, and topographical plans.⁴³

Donelson and Butler soon learned that their guardian was in the East. Seminole Indians had been raiding settlements in Georgia and Alabama using Spanish Florida as a refuge. Never one for diplomatic niceties, Jackson in the spring of 1818 gathered his division, interpreted his vague orders to suit himself, crossed the international border, seized Pensacola, executed two British subjects as spies, and chased the Indians deep into the peninsula. Madrid and London were outraged. In January 1819, Old Hickory appeared in Washington to defend his actions before a congressional inquiry led by a highly vocal critic, Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky. Thayer granted Donelson and Butler the rare privilege of a leave from the Point in February to meet their guardian in New York City, where they became part of his entourage caught up in the celebrations given in Jackson’s honor.⁴⁴

Edward & myself upon our return to West-Point, Andrew afterward wrote to his uncle, found ourselves a little in the rear of our class, and have not a moment to lose between this [time] and the Examination in June. He was unduly pessimistic, for he still stood second in his class and could even have elected to graduate in June, as did his roommate, Joshua Baker, except that he decided, with Jackson’s approval, to spend an extra year to learn the principles of war and Fortification. Indeed, as the spring of 1819 progressed, Donelson’s and Butler’s schoolwork gave them less worry than their financial situation. The country had suffered an economic panic and money became tight. Kirkman informed Jackson that he could no longer meet Donelson’s needs because of his own distress. Jackson was barely able to raise the $100 that his nephew requested above his usual allowance to get him through the year, but promised to raise $200 more.⁴⁵

Before classes began in September 1819, Thayer ordered the cadets on a cross-country march along the Hudson River. Butler was the Cadet Commandant, while Donelson was captain of a company. Stopping at Clermont, home of the statesman Robert L. Livingston, they paid their respects to Janet Livingston Montgomery, widow of General Richard Montgomery, the Revolutionary War hero who had been killed in the American attempt to take Quebec. Shortly after their return, Donelson was captain of a battery that fired a salute to Major General Jacob Brown on his visit to the academy. To Donelson’s mortification, the plebes who were working a six-pounder got out of sequence, the gun fired prematurely, and one of his charges narrowly missed having his head blown off.⁴⁶

Donelson’s last year at the academy included courses in, as he reported to Jackson, Descriptive Geometry, The science of War and Fortification with drawings in Topography & Fortifications. These courses were taught by Claude Crozet, a graduate of the prestigious École Polytechnique and late engineer in Napoleon’s army.⁴⁷

In August 1819, Joshua Baker, now Second Lieutenant Baker of the Artillery Corps, visited the Hermitage while on leave. I need not say to you, Jackson wrote Donelson, the gratification I felt on seeing your name announced so honourably, by the superintendants & staff of the academy. His ambitions for his nephew grew accordingly. I am unwilling [that] you should serve in any other, than the Engineering corps— the elite branch of the army. And he was looking even further, because a junior officer could stagnate in the tiny peacetime army, so in time of peace your mind can be better employed [in a] professional pursuit [other] than in the army. Despite Jackson’s evident pride in his nephew, Andrew still did not write home often enough. He even failed to acknowledge receiving the $100 that Jackson had gone to considerable trouble to scrape up in the hard times of 1819. By November, the Jacksons had gone three months without a letter from their nephew.⁴⁸

Soon there was something to write about. The five cadets of the grievance committee had refused to accept President Monroe’s mild reprimand and took their case to Congress. They still enjoyed the support of the cadets back at West Point, and many in high levels of the government looked on their cause favorably. From Tennessee, Jackson declared that their conduct fully meets my approbation. The petition that they presented to Congress included a number of complaints that they collected from cadets at West Point. The tone of the petition was haughty, and many of the complaints were trivial. Nevertheless, Donelson and Butler signed two of them, and there were reasons why. They were both First Classmen now, stood near the top of their class, and their records were exemplary, so their status leant weight to these documents. Even more, everyone at West Point and many of the officers and officials in the army and War Department were well aware of their relationship to the second-ranking general in the US Army and the most popular man in the country. This, no doubt, became known to members of Congress. By signing these complaints, Donelson and Butler implicitly provided an endorsement by Andrew Jackson. Their only excuse is the zeal of youth. The episode eventually died with a whimper. The House Committee on Military Affairs rubber-stamped Monroe’s original decision and reaffirmed Thayer’s fitness for the station in which he is placed. ⁴⁹

For the cadets, the only good result was the appointment of Captain John R. Bell as commandant of cadets. Bell was popular with his charges but confessed that I dislike a garrison life. He was soon assigned to an exploratory expedition into the Rocky Mountains. On March 19, 1820, the day before his departure, a small committee led by Cadet Donelson waited on him. Donelson read an address in behalf of the Corps of Cadets, Bell recalled, "expressing sentiments