Letter threatening Jackson's life determined to be written by father of man who killed Lincoln

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 1/25/9 | Katie Freeman

[SmithL]

Dismissed for 175 years as a fake, a letter threatening the assassination of President Andrew Jackson has been found to be authentic. And, says the director of the Andrew Jackson Papers Project at the University of Tennessee, the writer was none other than Junius Brutus Booth, father of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Dan Feller and his staff solved the mystery of the July 4, 1835, letter to Jackson. The story of their investigation will be featured this summer on PBS' "History Detectives."

The letter, which addressed Old Hickory as "You damn'd old Scoundrel," demanded that Jackson pardon two prisoners named De Ruiz and De Soto who had been sentenced to death for piracy in a high-profile trial of the day.

"The trial of them and the other pirates had been a national news story. It was heavily covered," Feller said.

Pardon the pirates, the letter writer demanded, or "I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping."

London-born Junius Brutus Booth was a famous Shakespearean actor and a manic public figure. He had three sons in the theater, including John Wilkes Booth, who later would murder President Lincoln in April 1865 at Ford's Theatre in Washington.

"(Junius) Booth was well-known for acting up, acting out, as well as acting," Feller said.

Most historians believed that someone else wrote the letter and forged Booth's name. Jackson's own clerks filed the letter as "anonymous."

America's seventh president had become accustomed to threats, according to Robert V. Remini, author of the biography "Andrew Jackson" and history professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"It wasn't a crime to threaten the life of the president back in Jackson's time," Remini said.

[SmithL]

For generations, presidential scholars assumed this threatening letter that President Andrew Jackson got in 1835 was a hoax. While the letter bore the signature of acclaimed actor Junius Brutus Booth, father of John Wilkes Booth, researchers suspected it was a forgery. But now with help from the Andrew Jackson Papers Project at the University of Tennessee, scholars have verified that Booth did indeed write the letter.

[SmithL]

fyi

[OneWingedShark]

I found it very informative.
Especially the following: “It wasn’t a crime to threaten the life of the president back in Jackson’s time,” Remini said.

[deannadurbin]

Wow. Politics was even more cut throat back then than in our own time. We are general wusses compared to these old guys. ;)

[IMissPresidentReagan]

Boy, that Booth family was sure hard to please when it came to Presidents. hehe.

I kid, I kid.

All in all, this was an interesting historical “event”. Thank you very much for posting.

[arrogantsob]

Bipartisian killers I see.

[Zack Attack]

Jackson was pretty much a badass from what I’ve read. Not someone I’d want to threaten.

[Peter Horry]

Junius Brutus Booth is thought to reside, so to speak, at the Dock Street Theater in Charleston, SC. Perhaps he would be willing to authenticate the letter, be careful I understand he was subject to drunken rages.

[Star Traveler]

I just posted this on another thread and thought it might be interesting here, too (since I just saw this one...)...

---

Assassinations and Attempts from the beginning of the Republic to now...

—

Andrew Jackson — January 30, 1835

Abraham Lincoln — February 23, 1861

Abraham Lincoln — April 14, 1865; died April 15, 1865

James A. Garfield — July 2, 1881; died September 19, 1881

William McKinley — September 6, 1901; died September 14, 1901

Theodore Roosevelt — October 13, 1912

Franklin D. Roosevelt — February 15, 1933 (one month before being sworn in for his first term in office)

Harry S. Truman — November 1, 1950

John F. Kennedy — December 11, 1960

John F. Kennedy — April 2, 1961 (reported assassination attempt, increased security)

John F. Kennedy — November 22, 1963; died same day

Richard Nixon — February 22, 1974

Gerald Ford — September 5, 1975

Gerald Ford — September 22, 1975

Jimmy Carter — May 5, 1979

Ronald Reagan — March 30, 1981

George H. W. Bush — April 13, 1993

Bill Clinton — September 12, 1994

Bill Clinton — October 29, 1994

George W. Bush — February 7, 2001

George W. Bush — September 11, 2001

George W. Bush — May 10, 2005

[SmithL]

Yeah. Jackson is one of my favorite Democrats:

Andrew Jackson's Duel with Charles Dickinson

[Alter Kaker]

Jackson was pretty much a badass from what I’ve read. Not someone I’d want to threaten.

A man named Richard Lawrence tried to assasinate Jackson. Both his pistols misfired at point-blank range. Jackson took out his cane and started beating his would-be assasin.

Don't mess with Andy Jackson.