JACKSON, Andrew. Autograph letter signed ("Andrew Jackson"), with AUTOGRAPH FREE FRANK SIGNED ("ANDREW JACKSON"), as President, to Col. Maunsel White, Hermitage, 21 May 1840. 3 pages, 4to, seal tears neatly repaired . JACKSON, A PROFLIGATE SON AND THE LASH OF KING COTTON: "I HAD GREAT FEARS...THAT WE HAD LOST OUR COTTON" Old Hickory makes an embarrassing plea for forbearance to a New Orleans merchant about a sizeable debt owed by Jackson's adopted son, Andrew Jr. "I have been more mortified about the drafts of my son on your House for the $1000 than anything that has happened thro my life, and the sending the note upon Mr. Alsbury was in hopes of Mr. Alsbury being in Orleans, as Mr. Claibourne had advised me he was expected, and that your House might receive the amount of the drafts before my son could get his ginn started and the cotton to market. Tho we had all the material for the running gin prepared here, the lowness of the waters in the fall & winter, & the floating ice afterwards prevented the boat from getting down until late in February. The boat, notwithstanding she had six hands, was 23 days on her passage. The torrents of rain that has fall, I fear has retarded the workmen, 4 in number, in compleating the work. My son is now down at the plantation. He left me under promise that he would remain there until he had the cotton shipped to you. I had great fears at one time that our plantation was flooded & that we had lost our cotton. A letter from our overseer since our son left us informs that all is safe. I therefore hope that he will soon have the cotton in your hands." Failing that, Jackson pledges to sell "the valuable tract of land adjoining the Hermitage" in order to come up with cash. These assurances are somewhat undercut by Jackson's off-hand comment that "I may not be able to live another winter," but he ends on a more optimistic, even defiant note: "I have a good prospect for a cotton crop, notwithstanding the heavy & washing rains & cool weather. I have a fair stand of cotton now in its fourth leaf & we now consider that we are free from killing frosts." Jackson hopes to sell enough cotton to buy linen at 18-20 cents a yard. He hopes, he says, "to place myself beyond the reach of injury by monopolisers..." He had more difficulty placing himself beyond his son's creditors: Andrew Jr. was some $15,000 in debt, and even when his father sold all his Alabama property and much of his Florida holdings to pay the bills, more debts still turned up. "Every Whigg that he was indebted to has either sued or warranted him," the General growled, smelling a renewed political conspiracy against him (quoted in Remini, 3:463). But the severe depression that swept the country between 1837 and 1840 squeezed many a planter, especially the cotton-dependent like Jackson. He had to borrow heavily himself just to maintain his own living expenses during his final years.
JACKSON, Andrew. Autograph letter signed ("Andrew Jackson"), with AUTOGRAPH FREE FRANK SIGNED ("ANDREW JACKSON"), as President, to Col. Maunsel White, Hermitage, 21 May 1840. 3 pages, 4to, seal tears neatly repaired . JACKSON, A PROFLIGATE SON AND THE LASH OF KING COTTON: "I HAD GREAT FEARS...THAT WE HAD LOST OUR COTTON" Old Hickory makes an embarrassing plea for forbearance to a New Orleans merchant about a sizeable debt owed by Jackson's adopted son, Andrew Jr. "I have been more mortified about the drafts of my son on your House for the $1000 than anything that has happened thro my life, and the sending the note upon Mr. Alsbury was in hopes of Mr. Alsbury being in Orleans, as Mr. Claibourne had advised me he was expected, and that your House might receive the amount of the drafts before my son could get his ginn started and the cotton to market. Tho we had all the material for the running gin prepared here, the lowness of the waters in the fall & winter, & the floating ice afterwards prevented the boat from getting down until late in February. The boat, notwithstanding she had six hands, was 23 days on her passage. The torrents of rain that has fall, I fear has retarded the workmen, 4 in number, in compleating the work. My son is now down at the plantation. He left me under promise that he would remain there until he had the cotton shipped to you. I had great fears at one time that our plantation was flooded & that we had lost our cotton. A letter from our overseer since our son left us informs that all is safe. I therefore hope that he will soon have the cotton in your hands." Failing that, Jackson pledges to sell "the valuable tract of land adjoining the Hermitage" in order to come up with cash. These assurances are somewhat undercut by Jackson's off-hand comment that "I may not be able to live another winter," but he ends on a more optimistic, even defiant note: "I have a good prospect for a cotton crop, notwithstanding the heavy & washing rains & cool weather. I have a fair stand of cotton now in its fourth leaf & we now consider that we are free from killing frosts." Jackson hopes to sell enough cotton to buy linen at 18-20 cents a yard. He hopes, he says, "to place myself beyond the reach of injury by monopolisers..." He had more difficulty placing himself beyond his son's creditors: Andrew Jr. was some $15,000 in debt, and even when his father sold all his Alabama property and much of his Florida holdings to pay the bills, more debts still turned up. "Every Whigg that he was indebted to has either sued or warranted him," the General growled, smelling a renewed political conspiracy against him (quoted in Remini, 3:463). But the severe depression that swept the country between 1837 and 1840 squeezed many a planter, especially the cotton-dependent like Jackson. He had to borrow heavily himself just to maintain his own living expenses during his final years.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
