Autographs
Andrew Jackson Authorizations First “Federal” Penitentiary
ANDREW JACKSON (1767-1845). Seventh President of the United States (1829–1837), a Politician and Army General who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814), and the British at the Battle of New Orleans (1815).
March 13, 1832-Dated, Historic Manuscript Document Signed, “Andrew Jackson” as President, 1 page, measuring a large 10” by 14”, Washington, Choice Extremely Fine. America’s first Federal penitentiary was opened in 1832, and here Jackson, pursuant to: “an Act of Congress passed on the 5th day of March 1829 entitled: “An Act Concerning the government and discipline of the Penitentiary in the District of Columbia” appoints the first “Inspectors of the Penitentiary,” Thomas Carberry, James Dunlop and William O’Neal. Land was purchased just north of the arsenal in 1826 for the first Federal penitentiary. Excepting some barely perceptible separations repaired on blank verso with small pieces of archival tape, this beautiful document for display. The original embossed official Paper Wafer and Wax Seal is fully intact and has a massive vivid deep brown 5.75 inch-long signature, “Andrew Jackson.” An important, historical document for Crime and Punishment related collectors that has outstanding vivid eye appeal for display.
The history of criminal sanctions in the United States, up into the 19th century, is short and sweet: a miscreant was either fined, whipped, shamed, sent on down the road, or hanged.

Jails were used only for those awaiting trial or punishment. The very idea of prolonged incarceration for criminal offenders didn’t make its appearance on the American scene until the early 1800s - at which point the Jacksonians took it up as their own.

A period of confinement, they argued, should be used to rehabilitate, and to this end proposed prisons structured as a model society, in which discipline and order would reign and so inculcate habits of obedience.