A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, Part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st Term

This is raw, unfiltered Andrew Jackson. Before historians interpreted him, before critics dissected his legacy, there was simply Jackson speaking in his own voice through proclamations, veto messages, diplomatic letters, and public addresses. Volume 2, Part 3 captures his first presidential term from 1829 to 1833, the period when a former frontier general re-made the American executive. Here you will find his inaugural address, his justifications for destroying the National Bank, his letters demanding compliance from Native nations, and his fiery response to South Carolina's nullification threat. These are not softened by editorial interpretation. You see Jackson as he presented himself to the nation: combative, populist, certain. For historians and serious readers of American political history, this compilation offers something rare: access to the documentary record in the president's own words, unfiltered and immediate. The prose is often vivid, occasionally vicious, always revealing of the man who called himself the champion of the common people while overseeing some of the most brutal policies in the nation's history.