Book Review
| Publication year | 2021 |
| Pages | 91 |
84 CBJ 91. BOOK REVIEW
Volume 84, No. 1, Pg. 91
MARCH 2010
In John Wayne's production of The Alamo, there is a scene where Davy Crockett (played by Wayne) asks a San Antonio woman to write him a fictional letter, in Spanish, from Santa Anna, ordering Crockett and his Tennesseeans to leave Texas because it is not their fight. The woman reads the letter in English and concludes with, "Signed, Generalissimo Miguel de Lopez de Santa Anna, ruler of Mexico." One of Crockett's men then says, "Fella sort of fancies himself, doesn't he? Sure has a high-sounding name." And another says, "Who do he think he am, Andy- By God!- JACKSON?"
On March 6, 1836, the day the Alamo fell to Santa Anna, Andrew Jackson was beginning his last year as President of the United States. Jackson was a frontier lawyer before he became a war hero and presidential contender. After he was elected in 1828, he became the first President who was not a Virginian or an Adams. He was the first President from a state (Tennessee) that was not one of the original thirteen. In American Lion, Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, concentrates on Jackson's years as President. Much of the narrative in American Lion comes from letters to and from Jackson and other contemporary figures. Meacham also uses newspaper reports and speeches in the U. S. Senate by Daniel Webster, Robert Hayne, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.
The "riot" that took place at the White House at Jackson's first inauguration on March 4, 1829 was probably the result of Jackson's failure to call upon the defeated John Quincy Adams and Adams's refusal to attend Jackson's inauguration. Adams had defeated Jackson in the 1824 election when the House of Representatives chose Adams even though Jackson received more (but not a majority of the) electoral votes. Henry Clay, who came in fourth, was Speaker of the House and threw his support to Adams. Like his father in losing to Jefferson, John Quincy Adams was bitter about losing to Jackson. Like his father, Quincy Adams did not attend his successor's inauguration, and left the White House without any instructions to the staff of how of proceed. Jackson himself left the party early and went to Gadsby's Hotel because he was exhausted. Vice President John Calhoun then took over as host...
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