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Lot 52
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A. Jackson Free Frank & A.J. Donelson ALS Re: Death of Jackson's "Court Painter" and Battle with J.Q. Adams
A. Jackson Free Frank & A.J. Donelson ALS Re: Death of Jackson's "Court Painter" and Battle with J.Q. Adams
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Description:

Andrew Jackson
Nashville, TN, September 15, 1838
A. Jackson Free Frank & A.J. Donelson ALS Re: Death of Jackson's "Court Painter" and Battle with J.Q. Adams
Archive

An Andrew Jackson free franked cover, together with an autograph letter signed by his nephew, Andrew Jackson Donelson, and hand addressed by Jackson. The free franked address page measures 5.25" x 3.75" (folded) and 12.5" x 7.5" (unfolded), Nashville, undated. Franked "Free Andrew Jackson" and addressed in Jackson's hand to Francis P. Blair Esq., editor of the Globe in Washington, D.C. Also stamped "FREE" in blue ink. Accompanying the free frank is a letter written by Donelson, addressed to Blair in Jackson's hand. 2pp of a bifolium, measuring 7.75" x 9.75", "The Hermitage", Nashville, dated September 15, 1838. Marked "Private", the letter regales the latest in the continuing battle between Jackson and John Quincy Adams, this time in relation to the lost Fulton letter, and shares the news of the death of famed "court painter" Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl. Both the letter and free franked page have flattened folds, with some separations at the folds to the letter. Varying degrees of soiling, wear, and toning. Minor dampstaining to the letter. Some soiling around Jackson's large, bold signature.

Reading in part:
"The Genl sent yesterday to Col. [Benjamin C.] Howard a letter informing him that we had determined to hold no correspondence with Mr. Adams on the subject of the purloined letter, but would leave the whole matter to the committee on Foreign relations. In the letter to Col. Howard he treats Adams & Mayo as on a par in the use they have made of stolen property, and gives the flat contradiction to the assertion that the Florida Treaty was submitted to him before its execution.

You will be surprised to hear that our friend Col. Earl is no more. He died this morning at the Hermitage of congestive fever - was sick but a few days and was not considered as in danger until yesterday when the disease had advanced too far to be checked. I saw him the evening before and talked a good deal with him. He had no apprehension of death, and yielded to its approach without a struggle… The Genl is much afflicted at this unexpected and melancholy event, but I trust will soon be cheerful again.

You will see from our papers that we are getting on pretty well in the way of politics. We are to have a desperate fight, but I must think a successful one. Every effort will be made by our friends to organize the force of the republican party and meet the enemy boldly on the stump…"

From 1837 to the end of his life, Andrew Jackson never ceased to focus on Adams as a hypocrite and traitor, while John Quincy Adams saw Jackson as a lying and ungrateful political enemy. In November 1837, Adams was visited by Dr. Robert Mayo, a disgruntled and eccentric employee of the War Department. Mayo claimed to have had a lengthy conversation in 1830 with Sam Houston, who had outlined plans for a filibustering expedition into Texas, then a province of Mexico. Mayo further claimed to have warned President Jackson in a coded letter of Houston's plans and received a promise to stamp out what was clearly an illegal undertaking. Six years later, Jackson returned Mayo' s letters to him, but inadvertently included a letter to William Fulton, secretary of the Arkansas Territory, outlining Mayo's allegations and asking Fulton to investigate further. Contention then arose about whether the letter to Fulton was a copy or the original - if a copy, Jackson was in the clear and was upholding relations between Mexico and the United States. But if it was the original, then it was likely that Jackson had never contacted Fulton at all and secretly supported his friend Houston' s expedition. Mayo and Adams convinced themselves of the latter proposition, and sought to expose Jackson. Unfortunately for Adams, the original Fulton letter was eventually discovered in Arkansas, and the controversy died down, although not before Mayo sued Blair for libel for the assertion in the Globe that he had "purloined" the letter from Jackson.

Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl (ca. 1785-1838) was an American artist known for his many paintings of President Andrew Jackson. He studied under John Trumbull and traveled for a time in Europe before returning to the United States to launch his own painting career. While making preparations for a painting depicting the Battle of New Orleans, Earl met General Andrew Jackson and visited him at his Tennessee home, The Hermitage, in January 1817. Earl painted portraits of Jackson and his family and became close with the family; he even married Mrs. Jackson's niece, Jane Caffery. Upon his wife's death in 1820, he lived with Jackson at the Hermitage and then at the White House. While at the White House, he painted so many portraits of Jackson that he became known as the "Court Painter" and "the King's painter". Earl returned to Tennessee with Jackson after his second term of office and died at The Hermitage in September 1838.

Andrew Jackson Donelson (1799-1871) was the nephew of Andrew Jackson who came to live with his aunt, Rachel Jackson, and her husband after the death of his own father. He assisted with Jackson's presidential campaigns and served as his private secretary after Jackson won the 1828 presidential election. At the end of Jackson's presidency in 1837, he returned home and remained active in local politics.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.75" x 9.75"
  • Medium: Archive

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