Andrew Jackson

With this seventh volume, The Papers of Andrew Jackson enters the heart of Jackson's career: his tumultuous two terms as president of the United States. The year 1829 began with Jackson fresh from a triumphant victory over incumbent John Quincy Adams in the 1828 campaign, yet mourning the sudden death of his beloved wife, Rachel. In January, having hired an overseer for his Hermitage plantation and arranged for Rachel's tomb, he left Tennessee for Washington. Jackson assumed the presidency with two objectives already fixed in mind: purging the federal bureaucracy of recreant officeholders and removing the southern Indian tribes westward beyond state authority. By year's end he had added two more: purchasing Texas and destroying the Bank of the United States. But meanwhile he found himself diverted, and nearly consumed, by the notorious Peggy Eaton affair--a burgeoning scandal which pitted the president, his Secretary of War John Eaton, and the latter's vivacious wife against the Washington guardians of feminine propriety. This first presidential volume reveals all these stories, and many more, in a depth never seen before. It presents full texts of more than four hundred documents, most printed for the first time. Gathered from a vast array of libraries, archives, and individual owners, they include Jackson's intimate exchanges with family and friends, private notes and musings, and formative drafts of public addresses. Administrative papers range from presidential pardons to military promotions to plans for discharging the public debt. They exhibit Jackson's daily conduct of the executive office in close and sometimes startling detail, and cast new light on such controversial mattersas Indian removal and political patronage. Included also are letters to the president from people in every corner of the country and every walk of life: Indian delegations presenting grievances, distraught mothers pleading help for wayward sons, aged veterans begging pensions, politicians offering advice and seeking jobs. Embracing a broad spectrum of actors and events, this volume offers an incomparable window not only into Jackson and his presidency, but into America itself in 1829.

Drugs and the Future presents 13 reviews collected to present the new advances in all areas of addiction research, including knowledge gained from mapping the human genome, the improved understanding of brain pathways and functions that are stimulated by addictive drugs, experimental and clinical psychology approaches to addiction and treatment, as well as both ethical considerations and social policy. The book also includes chapters on the history of addictive substances and some personal narratives of addiction. Introduced by Sir David King, Science Advisory to the UK Government and head of the Office of Science and Technology, and Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the USA, the book uniquely covers the full range of disciplines which can provide insight into the future of addiction, from genetics to the humanities. Written for a scientific audience, it is also applicable to non-specialists as well.

This sixth volume of The Papers of Andrew Jackson documents the election on 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 the 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.