The First Democrat: Andrew Jackson Part 3

Jackson dispatched his brother-in-law and business partner John Donelson to Florida. Donelson went, carrying a letter of introduction from Jackson. There he found—voila!—that many doors were open for him. Jackson and his friends invested heavily in Florida real estate. Later they sold much of that land at many times the price they paid for it. In other words, they made out like bandits.

In five separate treaties between 1816 and 1820, Jackson forced the Indians to give up tens of millions of acres in what would eventually become five American states. In this respect, Jackson is the true architect of the map of the Deep South. We can respect the single-minded determination with which he created what Inskeep calls “Jacksonland” while at the same time deploring the self-serving means that were used to bring it about.

Jackson’s real estate shenanigans became a hot topic in his 1828 presidential campaign. Even earlier, in 1824, his opponents suspected him of profiting from political office but they were unable to produce convincing evidence. By 1828, however, Jackson’s critics had gotten smarter and more determined. Jackson, however, was ready for them. On December 4, 1827, a fire broke out in the building containing Jackson’s financial papers. Conveniently, all the original records of his earlier land dealings were destroyed.

Jackson professed his innocence, and again, no one could prove he was behind the fire. The whole situation, however, bears an uncanny resemblance to Hillary Clinton deleting her emails. Oops! They’re gone! And now we will never have full information about why she set up her private email account and what she wanted to keep out of the official State Department email system. Hillary might have thought she was being original, but Jackson got there first. Just like his twenty-first-century counterpart, Jackson deleted the evidence that his critics might have used to incriminate him.

Source: Hillary’s America. The Secret History of the Democratic Party (2016) by Dinesh D’Souza.