Post-Script 
Even after he left the White House in 1837, Andrew Jackson continued to play a direct role in the war. At the Hermitage in Nashville he received copious military reports, and in response he fired back a steady stream of memoranda to Washington. He had hoped that Jesup would finally bring the conflict to a close. Now, the whole affair was dispiriting. As he wrote to Secretary Poinsett,
"It has been a disgraceful war to the american character, and its army."
Jackson left office burdened by the agony of the conflict. The Army's failure haunted him for the rest of his days. The promise of freedom to the blacks could hardly have lightened his mood. As early as 1816, Jackson had vowed "to put an end to an evil of so serious a nature" as existed in Florida. That evil had been the freedom of the Black Seminoles. Jackson had tried to crush the rebels, yet in one foreign invasion, one illegal slave raid, and two organized wars, he had failed. He could not quell their spirit of rebellion. He could not defeat
them.
  
Sources:
Jackson 2: 241, 5: 468ff, 522, Remini 3: 312.
©
Part 2, War: l |
