Jackson's Heart: Not A Valentine

 

When looking for meaning in antique quilts we try to read the mind of the maker. 

The standard reaction to a heart-shape image is the theme of romantic love.

 Many mind readers would guess that the block is in a bride's quilt.

DAR Museum Collection

Baltimore album quilt thought to have been made for Betsey Hobbs & William

Harper on the occasion of their marriage in 1848.

https://eyeonelegance.dar.org/node/33

This heart-shaped wreath is indeed in a marriage quilt but the inking is more political and eulogistic than romantic. The inscription quotes former President Andrew Jackson who died in 1845 and above the quote: "Andrew Jackson Heart...Victory At New Orleans January 8th 1815."

An odd allusion but not the only reference to Jackson's Heart.

Another from a Skinner auction.

The album is attributed to Mary Ann Grooms.

https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2509/lots/689

A third block in a set of unfinished blocks in a private collection with a date of 1846 is inked "Gen'l Andrew Jackson's Heart" and "The Hero of New Orleans." It would seem that in the 1840s mourning over the death of the country's 7th President inspired a Baltimore design.

Block in an album, no political reference, signed Gorsuch.

Why a heart? And why would a heart represent a battle at the end of the war of 1812? Andrew Jackson is not a popular favorite today. He's been ranked as the 23rd worst President out of the 45. Some would even ask if Jackson had a heart.
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/presidents-ranked-worst-best/2/

Democrat Jackson's portrait was prominently displayed

in the Oval Office during the last Republican Presidency.

I've been reading Daniel Walker Howe's history of the United States in the first half of the 19th century. What Hath God Wrought was published in 2007. He tells us of Jackson who ran first for President in the 1824 election when the Senator from Tennessee coasted on his fame as the victor of the Battle of New Orleans. (The Battle was hardly decisive as it took place after the war's treaty was signed.)

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"Jackson possessed an appeal not based on issues; it derived from his image as a victor in battle, a frontiersman...a man of decision who forged his own rules. Anyone with a classical education knew to regard such men as potential demagogues and tyrants." Daniel Walker Howe

"He is one of the most unfit men I know," was Thomas Jefferson's opinion of Jackson's qualifications.

"At first the established politicians did not take Jackson's candidacy seriously....Once Jackson's popularity became apparent, his nominators recoiled in horror, but it was too late.... Jackson ....marked the debut of a common and effective tactic...running against Washington [taking] advantage of the unfocused resentments of people who had suffered from the hard times after 1819." Daniel Walker Howe

Jackson in the boots leading the race in an 1824 cartoon

The election system could count no winner among the five candidates in popular vote or the electoral college although Jackson had the advantage in both. Power to choose wound up in the House of Representatives, where skilled politician John Quincy Adams persuaded members to vote for him. Jackson's reaction to losing that vote: He accused Adams and Henry Clay of "A Corrupt Bargain," a slogan describing an election he believed to have been stolen from him. His "Corrupt Bargain" accusation hammered over the next four years won him the office in the next election.

Henry Clay was a Jackson enemy. Here he is doing

some "Plain Sewing," silencing his critic.

Jackson was President from 1829 to 1837.

Today Jackson is best remembered for two important policies with far reaching results: 1) Removal of native peoples from their lands, 2) Dismantling of the National Bank. Results of the Indian Removal policy are well known. His opposition to a federal banking system encouraged unstable, "wildcat"
banks and led to the 1837 financial disaster (The Panic of 1837) after he left office.

(I'd show you some irony----a $20 bill with a portrait of this poor financial planner on it ---but you can't picture a $20 bill in your blog.)

Album from Vintage Blessings

The block might make a good Valentine block (Let's forget about Andrew Jackson.)

From an album associated with Baltimore's Old Otterbein Church

Winterthur Museum Collection, dated 1854

See a preview of Daniel Walker Howe's Pulitzer Prize winning What Hath God Wrought:
https://books.google.com/books?id=TTzRCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=daniel+walker+howe+what+hath+god+wrought&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWzKXp6e38AhWgAzQIHe-6APAQ6AF6BAgHEAI#v=onepage&q=daniel%20walker%20howe%20what%20hath%20god%20wrought&f=false