Details
HOUSTON, Samuel (1793-1863), First President of the Republic of Texas. Autograph letter signed ("Sam Houston") as Governor of Tennessee, a retained draft of a letter to Colonel John Campbell, Nashville, 15 May 1828. 3 1/3 pages, 4to (7 13/16 x 9 13/16 in.), browned, nearly separated along one fold without loss, minor holes along folds affecting a few letters of text.
SAM HOUSTON ENDORSES JACKSON AND VEHEMENTLY ATTACKS JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, WHO "WOULD REJOICE AT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A THRONE--RAISED ON THE RUINS OF OUR SACRED CONSTITUTION"
An impassioned letter of vivid political invective in which Governor Houston strongly states his views on John Quincy Adams's administration and the approaching election of 1828. Adams had obtained the White House in 1824 by what many regarded as a corrupt bargain; his chief opponent, Andrew Jackson, had tallied a majority of the popular vote (42 over Adams (32, Henry Clay (13 and William Crawford (13; because none of the four candidates garnered a majority of the electoral votes, the election was thrown into the House, where Clay, the candidate who polled the fewest electoral votes, finally agreed to throw his support behind Adams, allegedly in return for the post of Secretary of State. Adams won the presidency, but Jackson and his supporters vilified Clay as "the Judas of the West," and the supposed bargain would become a key issue in the election of 1828.
A year before he resigned the governorship and three years before he settled in Texas, Houston, a reluctant Jackson supporter, writes to Campbell about the upcoming election of 1828: "I thank you, for the news which you have given me of the Central committee of Richmond...I am satisfied, that nothing but death, will prevent the Old Chief's [Jackson's] election to the Presidency, and, I do believe his success is necessary to the preservation of our free government!" Houston launches a stinging attack upon Adams's administration: "I am no enthusiast! Look at the contingent fund of the government! Corruption, it increases a pace, and has become the highway to preferment under the present Dynasty! [Henry] Clay is bankrupt (I am told) by thousands."
Reporting a recent anti-Jackson address, Houston voices his conviction that Adams represented a New England faction antithetical to republican government: "Adams, has always been a Monarchist at heart; and believe me this is no time to make him a convert to the freedom of the press,--he has smarted too keenly under its lash, for him to become its advocate! This is no time for the administration to support curtailment of Executive patronage, it would much rather extend it! Adams would be rejoiced at the establishment of a throne--reared, on the ruins of our sacred constitution--he would hope to sit upon that throne! and, if it were possible to be so, he would be as weak, despotic, unjust and cruel, as any Prince that ever sat upon a throne, even, if he were the meanest of the Bourbons!" Houston asserts that Democracy must prevail: "Virtue, and Liberty, resides in the people, and in the constitution--This is the anchor of safety! "Braintree's Heir" [Adams] can only flourish in a soil of corruption, watered by the streams of patronage." He concludes with a humorous commentary on Jackson: "I have recently seen the "Old Chief"-- he looks like Jackson, and lives like [Cin]cinnatus--his health is good, and he is expected in Nashville, today or tomorrow."
In keeping with Houston's shrill rhetoric, the presidential campaign of 1828 was dominated by vicious ad hominen attacks whose bitterness far exceeded that of any previous presidential race. Adams was depicted in the Democratic press as a monarchist who had procured American girls for the Tsar while on diplomatic station, while Adams's partisans accused Jackson of illegal executions of soldiers guilty of minor offenses and branded him an adulterer for having lived with Rachel Jackson before her divorce from a previous spouse was finalized. With the western states and New York solidly backing Jackson, Adams failed to win a second term. Clay would never entirely shake the tarnish of having traded his electors for a Cabinet post.
SAM HOUSTON ENDORSES JACKSON AND VEHEMENTLY ATTACKS JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, WHO "WOULD REJOICE AT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A THRONE--RAISED ON THE RUINS OF OUR SACRED CONSTITUTION"
An impassioned letter of vivid political invective in which Governor Houston strongly states his views on John Quincy Adams's administration and the approaching election of 1828. Adams had obtained the White House in 1824 by what many regarded as a corrupt bargain; his chief opponent, Andrew Jackson, had tallied a majority of the popular vote (42 over Adams (32, Henry Clay (13 and William Crawford (13; because none of the four candidates garnered a majority of the electoral votes, the election was thrown into the House, where Clay, the candidate who polled the fewest electoral votes, finally agreed to throw his support behind Adams, allegedly in return for the post of Secretary of State. Adams won the presidency, but Jackson and his supporters vilified Clay as "the Judas of the West," and the supposed bargain would become a key issue in the election of 1828.
A year before he resigned the governorship and three years before he settled in Texas, Houston, a reluctant Jackson supporter, writes to Campbell about the upcoming election of 1828: "I thank you, for the news which you have given me of the Central committee of Richmond...I am satisfied, that nothing but death, will prevent the Old Chief's [Jackson's] election to the Presidency, and, I do believe his success is necessary to the preservation of our free government!" Houston launches a stinging attack upon Adams's administration: "I am no enthusiast! Look at the contingent fund of the government! Corruption, it increases a pace, and has become the highway to preferment under the present Dynasty! [Henry] Clay is bankrupt (I am told) by thousands."
Reporting a recent anti-Jackson address, Houston voices his conviction that Adams represented a New England faction antithetical to republican government: "Adams, has always been a Monarchist at heart; and believe me this is no time to make him a convert to the freedom of the press,--he has smarted too keenly under its lash, for him to become its advocate! This is no time for the administration to support curtailment of Executive patronage, it would much rather extend it! Adams would be rejoiced at the establishment of a throne--reared, on the ruins of our sacred constitution--he would hope to sit upon that throne! and, if it were possible to be so, he would be as weak, despotic, unjust and cruel, as any Prince that ever sat upon a throne, even, if he were the meanest of the Bourbons!" Houston asserts that Democracy must prevail: "Virtue, and Liberty, resides in the people, and in the constitution--This is the anchor of safety! "Braintree's Heir" [Adams] can only flourish in a soil of corruption, watered by the streams of patronage." He concludes with a humorous commentary on Jackson: "I have recently seen the "Old Chief"-- he looks like Jackson, and lives like [Cin]cinnatus--his health is good, and he is expected in Nashville, today or tomorrow."
In keeping with Houston's shrill rhetoric, the presidential campaign of 1828 was dominated by vicious ad hominen attacks whose bitterness far exceeded that of any previous presidential race. Adams was depicted in the Democratic press as a monarchist who had procured American girls for the Tsar while on diplomatic station, while Adams's partisans accused Jackson of illegal executions of soldiers guilty of minor offenses and branded him an adulterer for having lived with Rachel Jackson before her divorce from a previous spouse was finalized. With the western states and New York solidly backing Jackson, Adams failed to win a second term. Clay would never entirely shake the tarnish of having traded his electors for a Cabinet post.