Details
JACKSON, ANDREW, President. Autograph letter signed ("Andrew Jackson") as Governor of Florida Territory, to Captain Richard Keith Call, Hermitage, [near Nashville, Tennessee], 4 July 1821. 2 1/2 pages, 4to, 250 x 205mm. (10 x 8 in.), address panel on page 4 in Jackson's hand, a few small holes in second leaf (just catching a few letters).
JACKSON PONDERS THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND DAMNS THE "YELPERS AND LITTLE CURS...ALWAYS BARKING AT THE ARMY"
A typically strongly worded letter, written on Independence Day, complaining about the reduction of the army and the explosive and acrimonious debates over the question of Missouri's admission to the Union: "...I have just read [Secretary of War] Calhoun's report of a plan for the reduction of the army. It...will put down the Yelpers, and little curs, who have been always barking at the army. You will be pleased with it when you see it. The house of Representatives has rejected Missouri, the Senate has admitted it, Eaton has done himself much credit by an amendment which is said produced the admission by the Senate. Should not the house reconsider its vote, Missouri will, I expect, sequester the property of the U.S. and hold it for their own use, untill it is invited into the Union by Congress. This is the only course she can adopt as an Independent State, unless she returns to her Territorial government again. This would be a course too humble for a free people to submit to..." The rest of this lengthy letter concerns Jackson's attempt to intercede on the behalf of Captain Call with Thomas Kirkman, a wealthy businessman and the father of Mary Kirkman, whom Call sought to marry. "...For this purpose I went to Nashville...but [Kirkman] had not...returned home...Be assured your reputation as a man of honor, will never want a defender where I am, so long as you continue to conduct yourself as you have done since I first knew you..." Call did marry Mary in 1824 at the Hermitage, Jackson's plantation, upon which Kirkman promptly disowned her.
JACKSON PONDERS THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND DAMNS THE "YELPERS AND LITTLE CURS...ALWAYS BARKING AT THE ARMY"
A typically strongly worded letter, written on Independence Day, complaining about the reduction of the army and the explosive and acrimonious debates over the question of Missouri's admission to the Union: "...I have just read [Secretary of War] Calhoun's report of a plan for the reduction of the army. It...will put down the Yelpers, and little curs, who have been always barking at the army. You will be pleased with it when you see it. The house of Representatives has rejected Missouri, the Senate has admitted it, Eaton has done himself much credit by an amendment which is said produced the admission by the Senate. Should not the house reconsider its vote, Missouri will, I expect, sequester the property of the U.S. and hold it for their own use, untill it is invited into the Union by Congress. This is the only course she can adopt as an Independent State, unless she returns to her Territorial government again. This would be a course too humble for a free people to submit to..." The rest of this lengthy letter concerns Jackson's attempt to intercede on the behalf of Captain Call with Thomas Kirkman, a wealthy businessman and the father of Mary Kirkman, whom Call sought to marry. "...For this purpose I went to Nashville...but [Kirkman] had not...returned home...Be assured your reputation as a man of honor, will never want a defender where I am, so long as you continue to conduct yourself as you have done since I first knew you..." Call did marry Mary in 1824 at the Hermitage, Jackson's plantation, upon which Kirkman promptly disowned her.