Jackson, Andrew | Writing as Governor of Florida regarding Native American affairs

Jackson, Andrew

Autograph letter signed ("Andrew Jackson") to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, suggesting a plan to contain Native Americans on the islands of Florida Bay

1 page (248 x 203 mm), Nashville, 6 December 1821. Integral address leaf with small seal hole, old folds. 

Jackson suggests a plan to contain Native Americans on the islands of Florida Bay

"In reference to the point which I designated as most fit to concentrate the Florida Indians, I am happy also to have your Concurrence,  it certainly is the most eligible for that object within the Floridas. If the Government should determine on this arrangement, I would suggest the propriety of dividing the 4th Regiment of Infantry and establishing on Battal[io]n at Tampa Bay to prevent all illicit intercourse with the Indians from the Islands."

After resigning his military commission on 1 June 1821, Andrew Jackson accepted the appointment as the first governor of Florida, but was disappointed in the post and resigned less than six months later. Congress authorized a territorial government in 1822, officially designating Florida a territory of the United States. 

Not in The Papers of Andrew Jackson, and evidently unpublished.  

PROVENANCE:

Frank T. Siebert Library, his sale, Sotheby's New York, 28 Oct 1999, lot 621