With this seventh volume, The Papers of Andrew Jackson enters the heart of Jackson's career: his tumultuous two terms as president of the United States. The year 1829 began with Jackson fresh from a triumphant victory over incumbent John Quincy Adams in the 1828 campaign, yet mourning the sudden death of his beloved wife, Rachel. In January, having hired an overseer for his Hermitage plantation and arranged for Rachel's tomb, he left Tennessee for Washington. Jackson assumed the presidency with two objectives already fixed in mind: purging the federal bureaucracy of recreant officeholders and...