Jun 21, 2018 - Sale 2483

Sale 2483 - Lot 138

Price Realized: $ 8,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
ON THE LEGITIMACY OF THE SEMINOLE WARS & SPAIN'S DUPLICITY JACKSON, ANDREW. Autograph Letter Signed, to Senator John H. Eaton, expressing his hopefulness that Congress may "consult the safety of our country by seizing on such points as will give us a lasting security," declaring that, if ordered, he would "soon give an emphatic explanation to the infidelity of Spain by seizing again the strongholds in Florida," and requesting a reply on matters concerning the presentation of letters and documents to the Senate. 3 pages, 4to, written on two sheets; short separation at fold in first leaf repaired, remnants of prior mounting along right edge of terminal page. "Hermitage" [Nashville], 28 December 1819

Additional Details

". . . I am happy to find, that on the Florida question the members of Congress begin to feel like Americans--and I hope, by a firm & just course they will save our national character, and not only do justice to our citizens, but consult the safety of our country by seizing on such points as will give us a lasting security. . . .
"I reciprocate the idea . . . of abandoning all temporizing policy through fear of the Holy Alliance. It is time to be just to ourselves, as well as to be just to others--maintain our rights at all hazards--by which alone our nation will be respected abroad and we can enjoy a lasting peace with foreign powers. I deprecate the idea of waiting longer for explanation from unfaithful Spain. Can we receive a minister from that power under present circumstances without compromitting in some degree our national character? Under the bad faith of Spain . . . the only good explanation . . . is from the mouth of American cannon. . . . [B]efore I would see our growing republic truckle to Spain or the whole united European world, I would make the attempt to busy myself in defense of our national rights--and if my government orders it, will soon give an emphatic explanation to the infidelity of Spain by seizing again the strongholds in Florida. . . . [T]he key to the commerce of the west ought to be ours--it is the Gibraltar of the south-west, and if ever possessed by a maritime power will embargo the mouth of the Mississippi when its possessor pleases. By occupying the whole extent of Louisiana, it will aid our South American neighbors, and soon bring from Spain an explanation of her duplicity and perfidy to us that will be durable and lasting. . . .
". . . I wish to be judged agreeable to facts, not falsehoods--& the mode proposed of presenting the letter to the president of the Senate with the documents--would, as I believe, never be read. I hope ere long to hear from you on this subject. . . ."
Published in the appendix to James Parton's The Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 2, Boston, 1888.