The Papers of Andrew Jackson

Volume VI, 1825-1828

Edited by Harold D. Moser and J. Clint Clifft

Wyatt C. Wells, Assistant Editor

This sixth volume of The Papers of Andrew Jackson documents the election of
Andrew Jackson, the first westerner and the last veteran of the American
Revolution, to the presidency.

The four years of this volume chronicle the presidential campaign of 1828.
Jackson, winner of the popular vote in 1824 but loser of the election, was
once again the reluctant candidate, called into service by the voice of the
voters. The campaign, one of the longest in American history, pitted Jackson
against the incumbent John Quincy Adams; it was also one of the dirtiest
campaigns in American history.

The brunt of the mudslinging was aimed at Jackson, and it is covered in
detail in this volume. Every aspect of the public and private life of the
fifty-eight-year-old former major general in the United States Army came
under scrutiny, and in both his opponents found him deficient. According to
his detractors, he lacked the moral principles, the temperament, the
education, and the family background requisite for a president of the United
States. In sum, Jackson resembled the “devil incarnate,” to use his own
words. The mudslinging left Jackson livid, anxious for retribution but
constrained by the cause in which he was engaged. The presidential
campaign of 1828, in the minds of Jackson and his supporters, was for the
cause of truth and democracy against corrupt, self-seeking politicians, an
aristocracy of power built upon bargains and dubious political alliances
dedicated to its perpetuation in office.

The four years covered in this volume were some of the most trying in
Jackson’s life, but the one event that hurt Jackson most was the death of his
wife. Until his dying day, Jackson contended that her death had been
hastened by the slanders of his opponents in the campaign. As great as the
loss was for him personally, Jackson nonetheless rejoiced in the results of
the election for, in his eyes, the voice of the people had finally been heard.
Liberty, not power, had triumphed. Reform was at hand, and retribution would
surely follow.

The Editors: Harold D. Moser, former editor of the Correspondence Series,
Papers of Daniel Webster, Dartmouth College, is Research Professor in the
College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

J. Clint Clifft is Assistant Editor with the Jackson Papers.

Wyatt C. Wells is currently Associate Professor at the University of Alabama at Montgomery.

Release Date: July 2002
784 pp. (est.), Illustrations, LC 79-15078
Subject(s): Presidential Studies, American History

Cloth Edition, $70.00s
ISBN 1-57233-174-7

The American Aeneas: Classical Origins of the American Self

John C. Shields

“The breadth, depth, and quality of evidence Shields cites in this study
is impressive and convincing, and the theoretical and historical
couching of the critical paradigms he seeks to establish is warranted,
thorough, and professional. . . . Shields’s postulations are challenging
and even groundbreaking. This corrective to the dominant construction
is long overdue in the fields of American cultural and literary
criticism.”--Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside

In The American Aeneas, John C. Shields exposes a significant
cultural blindness within American consciousness. Noting that the
biblical myth of Adam has long dominated ideas of what it means to be
American, Shields argues that an equally important component of our
nation’s cultural identity--a secular one deriving from the classical
tradition-has been seriously neglected.

The author finds various Early American texts, including pastorals,
pastoral elegies, literary independence poems, tracts on educational
theories, religious discourses, and political writings, laden with
elements of classicism, particularly the myth of Aeneas as depicted by
Vergil. Shields demonstrates that Aeneas, Vergil’s hero of the Aeneid,
was an especially apt figure for New World discourse in that he
epitomized “the sailor who struck out onto dangerous, uncharted seas
in order to discover a new land in which to build a new civilization.
”Shields shows how both the myth of Adam and the myth of Aeneas, in
crossing over to America from Europe, dynamically intermingled in the
thought of the earliest American writers. This rearticulation of the myths
of Adam and Aeneas became peculiarly adapted to the demands of the
American adventure in freedom. Shields argues that uncovering and
acknowledging the classical roots of our culture can allay the American
fear of “pastlessness” that the long-standing emphasis on the Adamic
myth has generated.

The author’s probing analysis sheds new light on the works of such
seminal figures as Edward Taylor, Cotton Mather, Phillis Wheatley,
George Washington, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. But it
does much more than that--it posits a new model for American studies.
“This model,” Shields writes, “is not composed of a single strand which
can only direct the struggle to explore the dimensions of American
culture in a linear fashion--an inevitable dead end. The image of two
strands coming together, intertwining and interconnecting so as to
accommodate virtually infinite possibilities, more accurately captures
the dynamic of Americanness.”

The Author: John C. Shields is professor of English at Illinois State
University. He is the editor of The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley,
has edited several numbers of Style, and has served as an advisory
editor to The Oxford Companion to African American Literature and to
the twenty-three-volume American National Biography. His articles
have appeared in American Literature, Studies in Philology, Studies
in Short Fiction, African American Review, and other publications.

http://sunsite.utk.edu/utpress/mainUTP/y_fw200102/shields.html

September 2001
480 pp., Illustrations

American Literature,
American History

LC 00-012737

Cloth Edition, $45.00s
ISBN: 1-57233-132-1

Early Inns and Taverns of East Tennessee: A Photoessay

Jane Gray Buchanan
Foreword by Baldwin Lee

“A close examination of the work of Jane Buchanan reveals that the
eye of the photographer and the mind of the writer are one.”--from the
Foreword by Baldwin Lee

From the days of earliest settlement through the period when the
stagecoach reigned supreme, the inns and taverns of East Tennessee
played a unique role in the region’s history. The earliest overnight
stopping places in the wilderness country were merely crude cabins.
When the trickle of settlers built up to a flood, however, more elaborate
accommodations arose to meet the demand. By the early days of the
nineteenth century, some of these structures offered amenities
comparable to those found in hostelries on the eastern
seaboard.These oases cared not only for the needs of the traveler but
also those of his horse. Prices for corn, fodder, and pasturage were
posted along with those of food, drink, and lodging for the guests. In
addition, certain “ordinaries” (as they were sometimes called) provided
accommodations for drovers and large pens for livestock being driven
to market.

The tavern of the period, roughly 1780 through 1860, was far from being
the corner bar of today. It was, more often than not, the center of
community life, serving as post office, polling place, and occasionally
as church or courthouse. A general store was frequently operated in
connection with its other functions.

In words and pictures, this book documents nineteen extant early inns
and taverns of East Tennessee. The author/photographer provides
concise descriptions of each structure, including its often fascinating
history. The book’s most captivating feature, however, is its array of
beautiful black and white images of both exterior and interior views.

http://sunsite.utk.edu/utpress/mainUTP/y_fw200102/buchanan.html

Available
82 pp., Illustrations

Tennessee Studies,
Photography

Paper Edition, $9.95t
ISBN: 0-9647748-2-8

March 11, 2002