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ALS as president, one page both sides, 8 x 9.75, August 25, 1831. Addressed from Washington, a handwritten letter marked “Private” and sent to Samuel Bradford, in part: “I have just recd your kind letter of the 23d instant & hasten to reply that you have acted wisely in not giving to Mr Sampson my benevolent expression with regard to his child named for me. He would believe it was intended as a means of…his abuse – when in fact, it was an expression resulting from my determination at no time here after or under any circumstances to give him office, and under this feeling, tho’, I despised the course of the father, and perceived him entirely devoid of principle, or truth, that to his child called for me, who was said to be in poverty…Therefore, it was wise of you not to say any thing to Sampson on the subject – let him take his course. Mr Sampson must be in fault as it regards your offering him the situation of Dept. Collector…for I assure you, you nor no other individual ever were authorized by me to make such a proposition to him. You have more charity for Mr Sampson than I have, for I do not believe he thinks half he states to be true. He knows them to be totally false. The best way is to let him pass without any notice whatever, and he will sink into oblivion.” In fine condition, with tape repairs to the left edge.
Jackson wrote this private letter only months after a major reorganization of his first administration. In the spring of 1831, Secretary of War John Eaton, Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, Secretary of the Treasury Samuel D. Ingham, and Secretary of the Navy John Branch left the cabinet, with Attorney General John M. Berrien following in June; Lewis Cass subsequently became secretary of war and Edward Livingston secretary of state. The recipient, Samuel Dexter Bradford (1795–1865), was a Massachusetts lawyer and writer who maintained a correspondence with Jackson over a period of years. His collected Works of Samuel Dexter Bradford, LL.D., published in 1858, devotes a separate section to his “Correspondence with President Jackson.” The present letter concerns an apparent offer of government employment to “Mr Sampson,” which Jackson emphatically disavows, insisting that neither Bradford “nor no other individual” had been authorized to make such a proposition and reiterating his determination not to give Sampson an office by concluding, “The best way is to let him pass without any notice whatever, and he will sink into oblivion.”
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