"He cannot control his Natural Passion"

Having discussed Polk, who can resist mentioning Old Hickory, Andrew Jackson himself, Polk's political mentor? Polk was called "Young Hickory" by both admirers and despisers. Both of them were "Scots-Irish", Protestants from Northern Ireland whose families came orginally from the British borderlands; and both of them were North Carolinians who emigrated to Tennessee.

One of the best popular historians around is John Buchanan. That's what I think having read his The Road to Guilford Courthouse, which chronicles the southern campaign of the American Revolution. Buchanan now has a book out entitled Jackson's Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters . I haven't read it, but from what I can gather, it doesn't seem the most PC of books. Buchanan seems to be of the opinion that all them thar Indians needed some killin', and by gar! That thar Jackson, he war the one t'do it! He also contends that the settling of what we now think of the "Deep South" but was then the "Southwest" was the real drama of western expansion; everything else was relatively easy...and I am bound to say that I agree with that premise.

For a very different take on Old Hickory, I am looking forward to getting a hold of Andrew Burstein's The Passions of Andrew Jackson. Burstein wrote to what is my mind the most perceptive and fundamentally decent book on Thomas Jefferson, The Inner Jefferson: Portrait of a Grieving Optimist. It is a book without any hagiography of the old Dumas Malone "Mr. Jefferson" School or any of the pious umbrage that recent scholars seem to enjoy wallowing in whenever they discuss Jefferson. And it is beautifully written, as well. The Passions of Andrew Jackson should be a good summer read.

"He cannot control his Natural Passion" was, by the way, Jefferson's assessment of Jackson after Old Hickory had dinner at Monticello. It is hard to imagine, for Jefferson, a more fundamental and serious criticism. Read Burstein to find out why.