Details
JACKSON, ANDREW, President. Autograph letter signed ("Andrew Jackson") to Benjamin F. Butler, Hermitage, 29 April 1844. 2 pages, 4to, 255 x 200mm. (10 x 8 in.), small seal hole at center fold (not affecting text), several small dampstains (affecting about 10 lines of text). [With:] Autograph free frank ("Free Andrew Jackson") on integral address leaf addressed in Jackson's hand to "Benjamin F. Butler Esqr City of Newyork State of Newyork."
FORMER PRESIDENT JACKSON PREDICTS "WE WILL GET TEXAS & HAVE A LASTING PEACE WITH MEXICO"
From retirement, Andrew Jackson comments on the pending annexation of Texas and Martin Van Buren's post-presidential political career: "...From what I learn of the Texean Treaty from a friend, it is such a one as you suggested, a field left open for a friendly adjustment with Mexico by treaty...We will get Texas & have a lasting peace & friendship with Mexico, & put the entrigues of Great Britain at distance. [Henry] Clay has lost much popularity in New Orleans. My friend...Mr. Scott writes me from there that Clay will loose [sic] Louisiana, and I have recd from N[ew] Y[ork] assurances that Clay's stand against the annexation of Texas will loose him every South & Western state. You may say to Mr. Van Buren he will get them all, if he is the nominee of the Baltimore convention, of which I have heard no one doubt..."
In September 1836, citizens of Texas voted nearly unanimously in favor of annexation to the United States, and one of Jackson's last acts as President was the appointment of a chargé d'affaires to Texas. While President, Van Buren declined to consider annexation and the issue remained dormant until President Tyler, in April 1844, submitted a treaty to the Senate proposing the annexation of Texas, the measure Jackson comments on in the present letter. Martin Van Buren was re-nominated for President in 1848, after failing to secure re-election in 1840, and ran not as a Democratic candidate, but on the Free Soil party ticket. Once again, Van Buren ran an unsuccessful race against General Zachary Taylor.
FORMER PRESIDENT JACKSON PREDICTS "WE WILL GET TEXAS & HAVE A LASTING PEACE WITH MEXICO"
From retirement, Andrew Jackson comments on the pending annexation of Texas and Martin Van Buren's post-presidential political career: "...From what I learn of the Texean Treaty from a friend, it is such a one as you suggested, a field left open for a friendly adjustment with Mexico by treaty...We will get Texas & have a lasting peace & friendship with Mexico, & put the entrigues of Great Britain at distance. [Henry] Clay has lost much popularity in New Orleans. My friend...Mr. Scott writes me from there that Clay will loose [sic] Louisiana, and I have recd from N[ew] Y[ork] assurances that Clay's stand against the annexation of Texas will loose him every South & Western state. You may say to Mr. Van Buren he will get them all, if he is the nominee of the Baltimore convention, of which I have heard no one doubt..."
In September 1836, citizens of Texas voted nearly unanimously in favor of annexation to the United States, and one of Jackson's last acts as President was the appointment of a chargé d'affaires to Texas. While President, Van Buren declined to consider annexation and the issue remained dormant until President Tyler, in April 1844, submitted a treaty to the Senate proposing the annexation of Texas, the measure Jackson comments on in the present letter. Martin Van Buren was re-nominated for President in 1848, after failing to secure re-election in 1840, and ran not as a Democratic candidate, but on the Free Soil party ticket. Once again, Van Buren ran an unsuccessful race against General Zachary Taylor.