Abstract
For more than one hundred years Andrew Jackson has been to writers of American history an exciting, inspiring, controversial, or shameful figure - according to the varying beliefs of those many writers. This writer, in recent issues of this Quarterly, has reexamined Jackson’s Florida career in two articles which were suggested by several previously unpublished Jackson letters. Several new letters coming to light have suggested a more detailed look at some of the ground covered in those earlier articles, specifically, the sources of hostility between Jackson and the last Spanish governor of West Florida, Jose Callava. Some historians have looked upon that hostility as stemming from Jackson’s inherent rascality; to others this was an inevitable product of his explosive temperament and frontier crudity. There is no denying the heat of his temper and its frequent manifestations, but this writer is inclined to deny that he was a rascal at heart or that he was the crude hillbilly some writers portray. Rather, let us dwell or the factors which conspired to inflame the feelings of both Jackson and Callava and brought on their collision, resulting in the throwing of the governor into the common jail at Pensacola at midnight under Jackson’s direct orders. These factors were: misunderstandings, several tedious delays, personal hardships, and cultural differences, as well as numerous petty annoyances.
Recommended Citation
Doherty, Jr., Herbert J.
(1955)
"Andrew Jackson vs. the Spanish Governor,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 34:
No.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol34/iss2/5
