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Lot 40
Henry Lee Aides Jackson in Denying Reported Criticism of Kentucky
Description:

Henry Lee Aides Jackson in Denying Reported Criticism of Kentucky

Fewer than two weeks after losing the contingent election for president in the House of Representatives, Senator Andrew Jackson had to respond to accusations that he had insulted the state of Kentucky. In this letter to the editors of the Daily National Intelligencer, Henry Lee, the disgraced son of Revolutionary War cavalry officer and former Governor of Virginia Light-Horse Harry Lee and older half-brother of future Confederate General Robert E. Lee, asked that they reprint correspondence between Kentucky Congressmen and U.S. Senator Andrew Jackson regarding a comment that Jackson allegedly made. The editors reprinted this letter the following day over the signature "L" and the requested correspondence, together with the editorial note added here after the two letters.

[ANDREW JACKSON.] Henry Lee IV, Autograph Letter Signed, to Joseph Gales Jr. and William W. Seaton, March 22, 1825, Washington, D.C.; published in Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), March 23, 1825, 2:2. 1 p., 8" x 9.75". General toning; some loss on upper left edge, not affecting text; glued to scrapbook page; some staining from glue.

Complete Transcript
to the editors
Messrs Gales and Seaton will oblige me by inserting in their paper of tomorrow from the Kentucky Gazette, the correspondence of the 22nd Feby last, between four of the Kentucky representatives in the late Congress and Genl Jackson. Taken in connection with the spurious dialogue* lately published in the Nashville Whig, it needs no comment.
H. Lee
22nd March 1825
I do not wish my name to appear unless it be necessary.

[Endorsement by Joseph Gales Jr.:]
min leaded
*This Dialogue we have not noticed, because, in the shape in which it appeared, its authenticity is denied. It is contained in a letter from a person, whose name is withheld, who related it as having taken place between himself & Gen. Jackson at Washington, in the State of Penna, on his way to the Seat of Govt last fall.—Editors.

Historical Background
The following letters are the correspondence that Lee wanted the editors of the Daily National Intelligencer to reprint:
"House of Representatives,
"February 22d, 1825.
"Sir: In a late number of the Argus of Western America, you are represented to have said, at Lexington, on your way to this city, in November last, upon the authority of Mr. William T. Willis, that 'forty thousand muskets would be required to rectify the politics of Kentucky.' The undersigned, having supported your election in the House of Representatives, and believing you incapable of making the remark imputed to you, deem it a duty to afford you an opportunity of contradicting the report, if untrue, for the satisfaction of all who, at any stage of the Presidential contest, took an interest in your success.
"With sentiments of respect, we are your most obedient servants,
"ROB'T P. HENRY
"T. P. MOORE,
"J. T. JOHNSON,
"C. A. WICKLIFFE.
"Gen. Andrew Jackson, / Senate Chamber.

"Washington City,
"February 22, 1825.
"Gentlemen: Your letter of to-day is received, and has been read with something of surprise. I did not use the expression which you quote, 'that forty thousand muskets would be required to rectify the politics of Kentucky,' nor any expression like it. My stay at Lexington was a short one, and, during the time, I have no recollection of speaking at all about the local affairs of your state. It is a subject about which I should not feel myself at liberty to interfere. As to Mr. William T. Willis, I have no recollection of him, nor do I believe I ever had an acquaintance with him. It is scarcely possible that, sharing as I did the politeness and hospitality of the citizens of Lexington, I should venture to insult them by so unkind a remark. I did not; it has no resemblance of me; for, if so, then indeed might I be considered 'a military chieftain,' as has been charged.
"I am, with great respect, your most ob't servant,
"ANDREW JACKSON.
"Messrs. Rob't P. Henry, / T. P. Moore, / J. T. Johnson, / C. A. Wickliffe."

Although Gales and Seaton chose not to reprint the "dialogue," other newspapers did. The extract, which Lee here characterizes as a "spurious dialogue," purportedly appeared in the Nashville Whig and supposedly came from "an officer, formerly in the Southern Army, to a gentleman in this town" [Nashville]. It recounts a conversation the author had with Jackson in November 1824 in Washington, Pennsylvania. Though opposed to Jackson's election, the author congratulated Jackson on his probable success in the House of Representatives. According to this account, Jackson replied, "I'll tell you how it is my friend H——, I now find myself urged on by a popular current: where it will leave me when the tide shall subside, I cannot tell, nor do I much care. But Sir, it is not in the human heart to resist it." Jackson also insisted that "I felt most indignant at the efforts of some partizan newspapers and what I thought their ill-advised zeal on my behalf.... I anticipated the clamour that would be raised against me, on account merely of my military services, and also of my utter want of experience in the cabinet of the civilians." In this account, a letter from a "great leading character" of New York convinced Jackson that he should "arouse the West in my behalf, before another aspirant in that quarter [Henry Clay], an implacable personal enemy, should by uniting artifice with popularity, secure it to himself." In perhaps the most remarkable passage, Jackson reportedly said, "I have little faith in the stability of Republics. They fall an easy prey to the passions of ambitious rivals for power."

The editors of the Richmond Enquirer published the "extraordinary article" but declared that if it was not "an absolute forgery," "no such conversation could have taken place." When they learned of it from the Richmond Enquirer, the editors of the Nashville Whig denied having published the letter, and the Richmond Enquirer pronounced it a "fabrication" on March 22.

Henry Lee IV (1787-1837) was born in Stratford, Virginia, the son of Major-General Henry "Light-Horse Harry Lee III (1756-1818) and Matilda Lee. He was educated at the Washington Academy in Lexington, Virginia, and the College of William & Mary. He represented Westmoreland County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1810 to 1813. He served as a major in the 36th U.S. Infantry during the War of 1812 and saw action on the Canadian border. In 1817, he married Anne Robinson McCarty, with whom he had one child who died in a tragic accident at age two. In 1822, Lee began an affair with his wife's younger sister, Elizabeth, who was his ward at the time. When the scandal was discovered the McCarty family sued to remove Lee as the trustee of Elizabeth's inheritance, but he had misappropriated it for the upkeep of Stratford Hall Plantation, which had been the Lee family home for six generations. When Lee attempted unsuccessfully to marry Elizabeth to an unscrupulous suitor, the resulting scandal forced Lee to sell Stratford Hall, though Elizabeth McCarty lived there from 1829, when her husband bought the plantation in a court sale, until she died in 1879. Meanwhile, Henry Lee's wife, Annie Lee, had become addicted to morphine and fled to Tennessee, where she was often a guest of Andrew Jackson. Henry Lee followed his wife, and Andrew Jackson helped him begin to rehabilitate his personal and political life. In 1824, Lee published The Campaign of 1781 in the Carolinas, a history of his father's military exploits. With the help of John C. Calhoun and John Marshall, he obtained a position in the post office in 1825. He also began writing a history of the War of 1812. Lee began writing articles in support of Jackson in the 1828 presidential campaign and began a campaign biography of Jackson. When Jackson was elected president in 1828, Lee helped draft his first inaugural address. President Jackson appointed Lee as consul to Algeria in April 1829, and Lee took up the dangerous post. When the Senate learned of the appointment in March 1830, they voted unanimously to recall "Black-Horse Harry" Lee, as he had come to be known. Lee then traveled abroad, settling in Paris, France, where began writing a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. He published the first volume in 1834 but never finished the second planned volume. He was forced to sell his wife's slaves in 1835, but he could still not pay his debts before his death of influenza in January 1837.

National Intelligencer (1800-1870) was a prominent newspaper published in Washington, DC. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson, then vice president and a candidate for the presidency, persuaded Samuel Harrison Smith, the publisher of a Philadelphia newspaper, to open a newspaper in Washington, the new capital. Smith began publishing the National Intelligencer, & Washington Advertiser three times a week on October 31, 1800. In 1809, Joseph Gales Jr. (1786-1860) became a partner and took over as sole proprietor a year later. From 1812, Gales and his brother-in-law William Winston Seaton (1785-1866) were the newspaper's publishers for nearly fifty years. From 1813 to 1867, it was published daily as the Daily National Intelligencer and was the dominant newspaper of the capital. Supporters of the administrations of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, Gales and Seaton were the official printers of Congress from 1819 to 1829. From the election of Andrew Jackson to the 1850s, the National Intelligencer was one of the nation's leading Whig newspapers, with conservative, unionist principles.

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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