The Papers of Andrew Jackson. Volume 10: 1832 ed. by Daniel Feller, Thomas Coens, and Laura-Eve Moss (review)

The Papers of Andrew Jackson is the gold standard of historical documentary editing. Under the direction of Sam B. Smith, Harold D. Moser, and now Daniel Feller, the project has produced ten volumes in a projected series of seventeen. The work under review is the fourth volume of Andrew Jackson's presidential years, with each year published in a separate volume. It includes all known correspondence to and from Jackson as well as state papers, various drafts and memorandums, and financial and legal documents from the year 1832. The papers are arranged chronologically, and the informative headnotes that preface many of the documents provide context. Each document is annotated to include provenance, persons named, and appropriate bibliographical and archival references. The index is carefully constructed and thorough.

In addition to the published letters and documents, the volume includes in the front matter an abbreviated chronology of the year and a comprehensive chart of official presidential papers with citations indicating where they appear in James D. Richardson's A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897 (10 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1896), the Journal of Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, and the United States Congressional Serial Set, as well as the page numbers if published in Volume 10 of The Papers of Andrew Jackson. The front matter also provides a record of Jackson's connection with the Donelson family. The editors include a comprehensive calendar at the back of the volume, which lists all published and unpublished papers that year, along with their provenances and brief annotations describing their contents. Overall, an immense amount of research and effort has been concentrated in this volume.

A few topics, many from previous years, occupy a considerable portion of the volume. Among those were Jackson's ongoing feud with Vice President John C. Calhoun. After Calhoun broke the tie vote in the Senate to deny Martin Van Buren's appointment as minister to Britain, the president wrote John Coffee that the vice president was "one of the most base hypocritical & unprincipled villains in the United States" (p. 37). Jackson obsessively sought evidence that Calhoun had acted against him over his 1818 Florida incursion. Eventually Calhoun resigned the vice presidency, and Van Buren assumed his place.

Indian removal is another major theme. The volume includes Jackson's correspondence with tribal representatives who were either resisting or implementing relocation. The letters lay bare the callousness of the process as well as Jackson and his political allies' self-justification. This correspondence shows Jackson's involvement in working out the details of removal while insisting that his policy was "wise & humane" (p. 656).

The year 1832 was crucial in other areas as well. Jackson received a bill from Congress renewing the charter of the Bank of the United States on July 4 and returned his veto on July 10. Documents in the volume on the bank controversy include several drafts of the veto message by Jackson and his assistants. Of course, many letters and documents illuminate the nullification controversy and Jackson's response to South Carolina's gambit, including multiple drafts of the president's proclamation. It is easy to oversimplify Jackson's positions on these issues, but the documents in this volume demonstrate that his positions were developed carefully over time and were not rash and impulsive.

Interestingly, the papers do not include much about slavery or race. Jackson seems to have spent more time thinking about his horses than his slaves. In one interesting letter, more than a hundred citizens protested the "long standing" custom of "employing free blacks as Messengers and servants in the different Offices of Government" while there were many white persons who would "gladly accept these situations" (p. 150). The letter is endorsed by Jackson: "Made known to...