The Life of Andrew Jackson

by Robert V. Remini

One bit of advice Van Buren offered concerned the appointment of the collector of the Port of New York. This was a very sensitive and important position. Some $15 million annually passed through the collector’s hands. If any post needed a man of the highest integrity it was this one. And when Van Buren learned that Jackson intended to appoint Samuel Swartwout to the office he almost collapsed. Not only did Swartwout have criminal tendencies but the Regency detested him. Van Buren alerted the President immediately and warned him that Swartwout’s appointment would “not be in accordance with public sentiment, the interest of the Country or the credit of the administration.” Unfortunately, Jackson refused to listen. He liked Swartwout because he had been an early supporter—unlike Van Buren—and so he went ahead with the appointment. In time, of course, Swartwout absconded with $1,222,705.09. It was a monumental theft. And when his peculations were finally uncovered a few years later, the criminal fled to Europe. Jackson was mortified. “Can he live after this?” the President cried, “or will he cut his throat?” Between Jackson and Van Buren the subject was never mentioned again. “I was too sensible of the extent of his disappointment and mortification to do so myself,” Van Buren later wrote.12 When the scandal broke, Jackson’s opponents doubled over with laughter. All the talk about rooting out corruption in government, they said, and here the greatest theft in the history of the...