2008 book by Jon Meacham
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House is a 2008 biography of Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, written by Jon Meacham. It won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, with the prize jury describing it as "an unflinching portrait of a not always admirable democrat but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life".
Meacham wrote "American Lion" drawing in part on previously unavailable documents, including letters, diaries, memorabilia, and accounts from Jackson's intimate circle that had been largely privately owned for 175 years. Much of the correspondence was found in archives at the Hermitage, Jackson's estate in Nashville, Tennessee. "American Lion" is not a full-scale account of Jackson's entire life or political career, but rather focuses on his presidency and his domestic arrangements in the White House.
"American Lion" focuses a great deal on the Bank War, the federal tariff on imports, and the Petticoat affair, during which Meacham claimed "the future of the American presidency was at stake". Meacham believed Jackson represented the best and worst of American character, citing his simultaneous capacity for kindness and cruelty. Of all the early U.S. presidents and Founding Fathers, Meacham believed Jackson was "the most like us", and had the strongest influence on the modern presidency. In writing "American Lion", Meacham said he sought not to whitewash Jackson or "all his sins, which are enormous", such as his support of slavery and Indian removal.
"American Lion" received generally positive reviews. It was included on "The New York Times Book Review"'s list of 100 Notable Books of 2008, and was ranked one of the best books of 2008 by "The Washington Post"'s "Book World". Critics praised Meacham's writing, the depth of research, Jackson's riveting story, and the placement of Jackson's legacy in a modern context. Mixed or negative reviews accused Meacham of portraying Jackson too positively or spending too much time on political scandals. The book has reportedly been read by U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, and praised by such figures as Vice President Mike Pence, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill O'Reilly, Jon Stewart, Eric Cantor, and Tim McGraw.
In 2015, HBO announced it was working on a television miniseries adaptation of "American Lion" starring Sean Penn as Andrew Jackson, but the project stalled after the departure of director Phillip Noyce over reported disagreements with Jackson's depiction.
Synopsis.
"American Lion" opens just after Andrew Jackson's victory in the 1828 United States presidential election. Author Jon Meacham writes about the viciousness of the election and the death of Rachel Jackson immediately afterward, which Jackson blames on his attacks by his political enemies during the campaign. The book then touches upon Jackson's early life, including his birth in the Waxhaws region of the Carolinas and his family life. It briefly covers his marriage to Rachel, legal career, move to Nashville, Tennessee, and his military career, particularly his role in the Battle of New Orleans and the part it played in elevating his reputation. The book then segues into the beginning of his political career, his rivalries with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, and his loss in the 1824 presidential election despite winning the popular vote, which Jackson regarded as a "corrupt bargain" by his political enemies.
Returning to Jackson's presidency, Meacham defines patronage, the Bank War, the nullification crisis, Indian removal, clerical influence in politics, internal improvements, and respect abroad as the questions that would define Jackson's White House years. Meacham wrote that, to many in established Washington, Jackson's arrival "signaled the destruction of the rule of the nation in an atmosphere of geniality and gentility". By contrast, Meacham wrote that Jackson felt the country was "suffering from a crisis of corruption (in) the marshaling of power and influence by a few institutions and interests that sought to profit at the expense of the whole". According to the book, Jackson felt the President should "use his powers with a firm hand", whereas his foes thought of Congress as the government's center of gravity. Meacham wrote that Jackson's most enduring conviction was that, as President, he was acting selflessly in the interest of the nation and of its mass of citizens, and that his own will was the same as the will of the country. Meacham wrote: "No institution, he argued, should stand between the people and the presidency. ... No president had spoken in such a way before."
Meacham focuses a great deal on Jackson's determination to end the Second Bank of the United States, which was presided over by Nicholas Biddle, and which Jackson believed had been manipulated by Clay to assist with John Quincy Adams's election to the presidency in 1824. Jackson regarded the bank as a fundamentally corrupt institution and "the embodiment of unfair privilege". The book highlights Biddle's challenge to Jackson in pressing for recharter and his attempt to use the influence of the Bank to harm his reelection. It covers Jackson's veto of the charter, attempts by Biddle and Clay to see the veto overridden, and ultimately the decision by the United States House of Representatives in 1834 not to override the veto, ensuring the Bank would not be rechartered.
The book also discusses Jackson's role in the removal of Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi River. Meacham wrote: "Jackson believed in removal with all his heart, and by refusing to entertain any other scenario, he was as ferocious in inflicting harm on "a" people as he often was in defending the rights of those he thought of as "the" people." As the book recounts, Jackson was not compelled by treaties signed and assurances previously provided to Native Americans; he did not believe that they had title to the land, and he would not tolerate what he felt were competing sovereignties within the nation. It details Jackson's support for the successful passage of the Indian Removal Act, which would ultimately lead to the Trail of Tears.
"American Lion" also highlights Jackson's feelings on what he called the "absurd and wicked doctrines of nullification and secession", and his confrontation with the state of South Carolina regarding the issue of nullification after the state declared the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional and therefore void within the state's boundaries. Meacham described the nullification crisis as "perhaps the most delicate mission of his life – how to preserve the Union without appearing so tyrannical and power-hungry that other Southern states might join with South Carolina, precipitating an even graver crisis that could lead to the secession of several states." The book covers Jackson's support of the Force Bill, which authorized the President to use military forces against South Carolina if necessary, as well as the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which ultimately ended the crisis.
Finally, the book focuses on Emily Donelson's role as White House hostess and de facto First Lady of the United States. Meacham wrote: "Family life was crucial to Jackson, who had known so little of it growing up, and Emily ensured that the White House was a sanctuary for him." The book also discusses the Petticoat affair, during which Jackson's Secretary of War John Eaton was socially ostracized due to his wife Peggy Eaton's perceived moral failings and lack of sexual virtue. The scandal generated considerable chaos and controversy during Jackson's administration, during which Jackson felt, according to Meacham, that "to acknowledge the Eatons was to side with Jackson; to snub the Eatons was to oppose Jackson". Meacham wrote that Jackson's interpretation of the Petticoat affair was that he was "acting for the common democratic good", while aristocratic elites were acting against him out of jealousy of his power in Washington. The book highlights how Martin Van Buren endeared himself to Jackson by siding with him during the scandal, and how the Petticoat affair led to resignations from Jackson's cabinet that sparked "a national debate over Jackson's first three years of leadership and whether he should have another term".
Following the conclusion of Jackson's two terms, "American Lion" ends with a brief synopsis of his post-presidential life, including Emily Donelson's death, and Jackson's own death in 1845.
Writing and sources.
Jon Meacham was the editor of "Newsweek" magazine at the time that "American Lion" was released. It was the third book he wrote, following ' (2003) and ' (2006). Jonathan Karp, an editor at Random House, was the first to suggest Andrew Jackson as a subject to Meacham. The book took about five years to write, with Meacham drawing in part on previously unavailable documents, including letters from Jackson's intimate circle that had been largely privately owned for 175 years. Meacham said he was "surprised, delightfully so" by the number of new sources that emerged in the course of his research, which he said "provide hitherto unknown details about a lost world that foreshadowed and shaped our own".
Most of the previously unpublished correspondence was found in archives at the Hermitage, Jackson's estate in Nashville, Tennessee. Among them were unpublished letters in the Benjamin and Gertrude Caldwell Collection, which were housed at the Hermitage. Meacham was also given access to a private collection of letters kept by Mrs. John Lawrence Merritt, as well as John Donelson's collection at Nashville's Cleveland Hall. This Cleveland Hall collection included unpublished diaries, and about 60 to 70 previously unreleased letters, including several from Andrew Donelson and Andrew Jackson Jr. Meacham described the Cleveland Hall, Merritt, and Caldwell letters in particular as "critical" to his book.
The Merritt letters included new details about Emily Donelson's role in the life of the White House, as well as the fact that John Henry Eaton considered resigning from Jackson's administration in the spring of 1829. Meacham said this was particularly notable because, had he resigned, it might have preserved John C. Calhoun's viability as a presidential successor to Jackson and changed the course of Jackson's first term. The Merritt and Caldwell letters also shed new light on the central role Emily and Andrew Donelson played in the early lives of Andrew and Rachel Jackson, and included allusions to such important issues during Jackson's presidency as the tariff, nullification, the Bank War, and the efforts by those seeking to succeed Jackson in 1836.
The Donelson letters offered details about the harshness of partisan politics of the 1830s, life in the White House and the Jackson circle in the South, and the extent of slave trading in Jackson's family during the White House years. They also "examine how Jackson's deliberations on the crucial issues of the day played out against this background of weddings, births, and White House frolics". While writing the book Meacham developed a relationship with the Donelson family, which helped gain an immediacy in writing about events of the early 1800s. Meacham said: "My lens was, 'What was it like to walk through those hallways?' This is the first time we've known what it was like to live in the White House in Andrew Jackson's time."
Meacham was also given access to the private collection of letters and memorabilia held by Scott Ward, a descendant of Andrew Jackson Jr. living in Atlanta. Among those letters was the reply of Thomas Marshall to the last letter of Jackson's life. Other sources for "American Lion" included unpublished letters and diary entries from the papers of John Quincy Adams and his wife Louisa, as well as letters from British, Dutch, and French diplomatic archives, which provided observations on the political and social scenes of Washington, D.C. Among these was a note from Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley discussing the risk of the union's collapse during the crisis of nullification. Meacham also accessed letters from Treasury Secretary Samuel Ingham detailing a near gunfight with John Henry Eaton. Maria Campbell shared with Meacham "The Memoirs of Mrs. Eliza Williams Chotard Gould", a private and unpublished account by Campbell's great-great-great-grandmother which included eyewitness accounts of Jackson in New Orleans just before and after his military victory over the British.
Meacham received guidance from several historians during the course of writing "American Lion", including Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the author of "The Age of Jackson"; Sean Wilentz; and Daniel Feller, editor of "The Papers of Andrew Jackson" and author of "The Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics" and "The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815–1840". Meacham also acknowledged the influence Jackson scholars James Parton and Robert V. Remini had over his work