Andrew Jackson Donelson

Andrew Jackson Donelson (1799-1871) was a lawyer, diplomat and American politician .

Nephew and faithful right-hand man of the president Jackson, it contributed to the emergence of the Democratic party (years 1830 - 1840) and played a big role in the annexation of the Texas and the entry of this State in the Union (1845).
Éloigné of the Democratic party after 1852, it joined the American Party of which he was the unfortunate candidate with the vice-presidency at the time of the election of 1856.

Biography

Origins and formation (1799-1824)

Born the August 25th 1799 with Nashville (Tennessee), Andrew Jackson Donelson is the son of Samuel and Mary Donelson as well as the grandson of John Donelson, a pioneer cofounder of this ville.
After the death of his/her father (1804) and the remarriage of his mother, Andrew J. Donelson was accommodated with the hearth of his/her paternal aunt, Rachel Donelson Jackson (1767-1828), and husband of this one, the colonel Andrew Jackson.
Left second the military academy of West Point (1820), Donelson was during two years the aide-de-camp of his/her uncle, then major general, following the campaign conducted by this last against the Séminoles of Florida. Donelson made then studies of right to Lexington (Kentucky), before being registered at the bar of Nashville (1823-24).
Quelques month later, on September 16th, 1824, it married Emily Tennessee Donelson (1807-1836), a raised cousin, like him, by Jackson.

The right-hand man of the president Jackson (1824-1837)

Donelson assisted his/her uncle at the time of the presidential campaigns of 1824 and 1828.

At the time of the first poll, which opposed four applicants democrat-republicans to the succession of James Monroe, Jackson had only one relative majority. The arbitration of the Room of the representatives as well as the desistance from Henry Clay in favor of John Quincy Adams then supported the election of this last at the expense of Jackson.
This fratricidal fight within the party democrat-republican involved a separation between the National-republicans (which will constitute later the core of the party Whig) of Adams and the Démocrates of Jackson. This competition, which structured the American political life of 1824 to 1852, leads in 1828 to the revenge of Jackson, elected official at the end of rough a campagne.
Faithful right-hand man of his/her uncle, Donelson became the private secretary of the seventh president of the United States. The wife of the new president, exhausted by the intrigues of the countryside, died of an heart attack on December 22nd, 1828, a few weeks before the making of pouvoir.
Emily Donelson, niece of the president and wife of Andrew J. Donelson, were thus brought to ensure the role of First Lady at the time of the stay of his/her uncle the White House (1829-1837).
The agreement between Donelson and Jackson was however tarnished during more than one year following l'" Business Petticoat " (1830-1831), Emily being united with the wives of the members of the government to ostracize one of them, Peggy Eaton. This intrigue having been founded on scandalous rumors similar to those which had been right of the health of his wife, Andrew Jackson took the defense of Eaton and disgraced several of his/her collaborators. Protected by its family tie, Donelson preserved its post of private secretary however, while Emily ends up being reconciled with its oncle.
It is at that time that Donelson made build a beautiful manor of style Greek Revival (1834-36) on its field of Poplar Grove (renamed Tulip Grove after 1842) which it had inherited his/her father and who was very close to the Hermitage of Jackson, in Tennessee, where it had grandi.
Assisted since 1834 by a daughter-in-law of the president, Emily died in 1836 of tuberculosis, leaving four infants.

Militant activity and diplomatic missions (1837-1849)

At the end of the mandate of his/her uncle, Donelson returned in Tennessee while continuing to support the party of his/her uncle, in particular while writing, at the time of the local and national polls, the leading articles in favor of the candidates démocrates.
In 1841, Donelson remaria with another cousin, Elizabeth Randolph, with which it had eight enfants.
Named " charged with affaires" to Texas by the president Tyler (November 1844), Donelson came to end from the local reserves and, thanks to its friendship with Sam Houston, it prepared successfully the annexation of the republic texanne then its entry in the Union (1845).
In 1844, Donelson played a determining role in the nomination of James Knox Polk with the democratic candidature. Elected official chair, Polk rewarded Donelson since 1846 by appointing it ambassador for the United States in Prussia. He was évincé of this station in 1849 under the terms of the system of the skins invented by his uncle, the democratic candidate having been beaten by Whig Zachary Taylor at the time of the election of 1848.

Democratic party with the movement Know-Nothing (1851-1856)

In 1851, Donelson became the editor of the Union , a democratic newspaper of Washington. However, while the sectionnalism upset an American political scene soon marked by the collapse of the Whig party, Donelson entered in conflict with several factions of the Democratic party, the incentive thus to leave this party in 1852.
The departure of Donelson of the party created around his/her uncle is perhaps less explained by political reasons why by a certain opportunism, the nephew of Jackson having wished to benefit from the recombining of the political scene américaine.
The latter, which was going to lead in 1856 to a new confrontation bipolar (and always current) between Démocrates and Républicains, had allowed the emergence of the American Party, a political party nativist based on the rejection of the catholic immigrants (primarily Irish and German) by the Know-Nothings protestants.
Donelson was thus brought to present itself to the presidential election of 1856 as a fellow candidate of the supported candidate by American Party and the remains of the party Whig, the former president whig Millard Fillmore.
Having gained only eight Great Electors, Fillmore and Donelson were, far behind the Republicans, largely beaten by the democratic tandem Buchanan - Breckinridge.

Political end of a career and retirement (1858-1871)

After having sold Tulip Grove, Donelson settled in 1858 with Memphis (Tennessee), where it took share with the local political life by forsaking the national stakes in spite of its engagement in the Constitutional Union Party , a new political party consisted old Whigs and old Know-Nothing around the will to preserve the unit in spite of the debate on the esclavage.
At the time of the American Civil War, which saw his/her younger brother, Daniel Smith Donelson (1801-1863), to serve the South as a general, and who cost the life of two of his sons, Donelson was overpowered by the two camps bélligérants.
For the period of Rebuilding, it shared its life between its house of Memphis and its plantation of the the Mississippi, where it complained, as testify the written letters with his wife to them, to have to remunerate the former slaves.

He died on June 26th, 1871 in Peabody Hotel of Memphis and was buried with the cemetery of Elmwood.

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