66 174
“THE EXECUTIVE [PRESIDENT]WILL SHIELD ITSELF
FROM RESPONSIBILITY IF IT CAN”
93
●
JACKSON, ANDREW. Autograph Letter Signed, to Edward G.W. Butler, express-
ing worry that his friend General Edmund P. Gaines would not be protected by the
“Executive” [President John Quincy Adams] from the attacks of Congress and Georgia
Governor George M. Troup caused by Gaines’s published remarks [on the Indian Springs
Treaty], because his own experience shows that the “Executive” avoids responsibility when
it can, excusing himself from attending his wedding, inviting the newlyweds to visit, and
conveying personal news of friends and relatives. 2 pages, 4to, with integral address leaf; first
and terminal pages silked, some separations at folds (with minor loss to text), minor bleed-
through overall.
Hermitage, 10 November 1825
[1,500/2,500]
“
I had the pleasure to receive your several letters from Georgia & the Creek Nation . . . . I regret that
my friend Genl. Gaines permitted himself to be drawn into a political newspaper controversy with
Gov.T[roup]. However justifiable his conduct may be in this affair, still, it will affordTroup’s friends in
Congress a strong ground to assail the General as a military man—and it is to be tested how far the
Executive will sustain him . . . . I still hope that the Executive will act justly by Genl Gaines, but he
and myself have had sufficient experience to know, unless shielded by positive instructions, the
Executive will shield itself from responsibility if it can, and throw it upon its subordinate . . . .”