Did Andrew Jackson think the earth was flat?

Question

You will occasionally see references to the possibility that Andrew Jackson believed the earth was flat. One source for this claim is a well-respected history of the period by Edward Pessen:

[James] Parton passed on the report that Nicholas Trist had been told by a member of Jackson's family that "the General did not believe the World was round." (source)

I know that Jackson had little formal education, but it's still shocking that a head of state in the 19th century would doubt that the world was round. Is it possible to confirm whether Jackson was a flat-earther? I see several ways to approach this question, though there may be others.

Did Jackson make any other statements on the shape of the earth?

• Straightdope members note that John Quincy Adams was willing to support John Cleves Symmes' proposed journey to the center of the earth through a hole in the North Pole, but Andrew Jackson halted it. If the earth were flat, then Symmes' journey would be nonsense. Of course, it was nonsense anyway--but do we know why Jackson quashed the project?

Did Jackson ever approve or discuss westward sea voyages to Asia? Did he ever discuss Russian colonization of Alaska?

• If Jackson ever sent a trade, diplomatic, or military mission to Asia, he likely would have talked to someone who could confirm that, yes, if you sail west you reach Asia. Alternately, did he ever discuss Russian claims on the west coast? I know how concerned he was by other European footholds in America, so I'd imagine he had thoughts on Russia-- and Russia's presence there doesn't make much sense if the earth were flat.

Does James Parton have a reputation for embellishing facts in his other works?

• The evidence is hearsay, but I see no reason why a member of Jackson's family or Trist would lie about this. Trist, who was Jackson's private secretary, is reported to have been loyal to Jackson. On the other hand, the popular biographer James Parton may have had incentive to play up Jackson's reputation as an uneducated soldier. If Jackson was not actually a flat-earther, then I'd guess that Parton was the weak link. Then again, Trist lived until 1874 and so would have the opportunity to rebut any false attributions made to him.

Answer 1

The way that was phrased should be ringing bells right off the bat. The USA has a long and proud history of having tall tales (iow: outrageous lies) made up about opposing politicians. As a man who split and refounded the Democratic Party, and the first President from a "western" state, Andrew Jackson had more than the typical share of political opponents.

Here's how James Parton himself put it in his forward to his Jackson biography:

For many months I was immersed in this unique, bewildering collection, reading endless newspapers, pamphlets, books, without arriving at any conclusion whatever. If any one, at the end of a year even, had asked what I had yet discovered respecting General Jackson, I might have answered thus: “Andrew Jackson, I am given to understand, was a patriot and a traitor. He was one of the greatest of generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. A writer brilliant, elegant, eloquent, without being able to compose a correct sentence, or spell words of four syllables. The first of statesmen, he never devised, he never framed a measure. He was the most candid of men, and was capable of the profoundest dissimulation. A most law-defying, law-obeying citizen. A stickler for discipline, he never hesitated to disobey his superior. A democratic autocrat. An urbane savage. An atrocious saint.” So difficult is it to attain information respecting a man whom two thirds of his fellow citizens deified, and the other third vilified, for space of twelve years or more.

Answer 2

Almost nobody thought the Earth was flat by the 19th century. Even as early as Columbus, the argument was not that the Earth was round, but that it was small enough to go to India from Spain (it wasn't). The ancient Greek mathematician Eratosthenes was able to calculate the circumference of the earth with relatively good accuracy i.e. not flat. Columbus used Eratosthenes measurements and others' to convince the Spanish royalty that the Earth was smaller than it was. It was only after the new world was discovered that people began to be accused of being "flat-earthers" as just an unfounded insult to generally mean uneducated or outdated.