The Opinions of Judge Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson spent 6 years as a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court before entering into his first retirement. In that capacity, he presumably produced some number of judicial opinions. I don't think anyone's taken a systematic look at these, which is too bad, because I suspect they might reveal a lot about Jackson, or about efforts to construct a new legal order in the early Republic, or both.

Just throwing this out there as a potential legal history project for any of the would-be legal academics I know. No need to thank me in the acknowledgments - cash gifts will suffice.

UPDATE: This may be more difficult than I initially supposed.

Rulings were not generally recorded in Tennessee until after Jackson had left the bench, and only five of his written decisions have ever been located. Most sources credit Jackson with having the proper temperament, if not the scholarship, to preside over the state's courts. According to Parton, "Tradition reports that he maintained the dignity and authority of the bench, while he was on the bench; and that his decisions were short, untechnical, un-learned, sometimes ungrammatical, and generally right."

See generally.