In the second volume of his 1860 biography of Andrew Jackson, James Parton printed as an appendix a letter written by Jackson to John Henry Eaton on December 28, 1819. Parton explained that he’d learned of the letter, then in the possession of Edward M. Thomas of Washington, D.C., too late to integrate it properly into his narrative. In the letter, Jackson vents his frustration at Spain’s delay in implementing the Adams-Onís Treaty and suggests seizing not only Florida from Spain but Texas as well. In its worldwide search for Jackson documents conducted in the 1970s and ’80s, the manuscript of the letter was not located by the Papers of Andrew Jackson and Parton’s text was not included in Volume 4 of the Papers, published in 1994. In 2008, the project was delighted to learn that original manuscript had surfaced and was auctioned by Swann Galleries on March 18, 2008 (Sale 2139, lot 163).
