The Invincible Duff Green: Whig of the West (review)

In this lengthy, well-written volume W. Stephen Belko uses a wealth of primary sources to explore the life and influence of one of Jacksonian America's most important political figures. Duff Green was for a time a key member of Andrew Jackson's inner circle. He later broke with the president during Jackson's feud with John C. Calhoun and even later promoted the annexation of Texas and the western expansion of the United States in general. During his lifetime Green took part in many of the great events that shaped early America. He fiercely opined on the major issues of his day and traveled in circles that allowed him to associate with the most prominent personalities of his era. Because Jackson and Calhoun cast such long shadows over the first half of the nineteenth century, historians have tended to overlook Green's contributions, which is why this work is significant. For Belko, Green was not just an important player in Jacksonian politics. He embodied Jacksonian America. As the author points out early on, Duff Green "was the quintessential Jacksonian American. He epitomized everything that came to symbolize Jacksonian politics, society, and economy: boisterous, dynamic, democratic, restless, innovative, controversial" (p. 5).

The book is arranged chronologically in six sections that include a total of twenty-five chapters. The first section deals with Green's early life and his maturation as a politician, which coincided with the rise of Andrew Jackson as a national political figure and the emergence of issues that would become fundamental tenets of Jacksonian politics. The next deals with Green as a Jacksonian partisan who, as a leading newspaper editor, did much to help Jackson get elected. Green became a vital member of the president's kitchen cabinet and through his political connections benefited from federal patronage. The author goes on to describe Green's excommunication from the Jacksonian inner circle, his relationship with Calhoun, his criticism of the expanding powers of the federal government under Jackson, and his role in the emergence of the Whig Party. Belko discounts previous interpretations of Green as little more than a Calhoun lackey, easily led to positions supporting nullification and slavery. Instead, he portrays his subject as an independent westerner dedicated to his own ideals, a leader rather than a follower who influenced great events as an active participant. The author also offers a balanced assessment of Green's faults, which at times seemed to blunt many of his successes. Never one to tread likely, Green was arrogant, self-absorbed, and generally unable to fathom the possibility that he could ever be wrong about anything. While he excelled in many areas and was certainly a man of political substance, "his abrasive and presumptuous personality detracted from these accomplishments and gave them a negative connotation. He was his own obstacle to greatness" (p. 446). The final section of the book focuses on Green's career as a diplomat, a businessman, and as one of the nation's leading proponents of Manifest Destiny. The author sees 1850 as a climactic year for both the United States and Duff Green. It marked what some considered the true end of the Jacksonian period and the beginning of a volatile decade that would end in civil war. Though Green would survive the Civil War and most of Reconstruction, 1850 also marked the beginning of Green's decline as an influential national figure.

Belko has produced an outstanding book, both in substance and style. It sheds light on one of the Jacksonian period's most influential characters whose contributions to the era are too often ignored. Anyone with an interest in Jacksonian America or United States history in general would do well to take notice of this fine work.