Hermitage March 5th 1844 The Honble John Y. Mason Secretary of the Navy. My dear Sir, Seeing from the public prints, that you have taken charge of the Navy Department, I beg leave to congratulate you & our common country on this occasion - it gives great pleasure to the democracy of our Union as far as I hear & believe. From our present attitude with England - the Oregon question to settle, and the annexation of Texas, it was prudent of the President to place at the head of that Department a man of energy, vigilance, & talents sufficient to look at things as they are, & be prepared with that arm of our national defence. Oregon is ours - Texas ought to have been & now must be, or the safety of the south & west is jeopardized, new orleans insecure, and our revenue destroyed, by smuggling, & in a war with England, her & Texas united, a British force might in ten days from the sabine make a lodgment on the Mississippi, turn our [illegible], possess herself of the command of the navigation of Red River, raise a servile war, capture New Orleans, excite our Indians placed on our western borders to hostilities against us - with these [ancillaries], and her armies from Canada uniting on our west, How much blood & treasure would it take to regain New Orleans, put down the servile & Indian War thus created and supported by Great Britain. There is not an American heart & eye, that should not now be opened to the great security Texas will give to the United States & it ought to be seized with the greatest promptitude. I am very feeble and the theme has hurried me on untill my strength is exhausted. I have been an applicant for a poor orphan boy, the son of a worthy Lady, made a widow & reduced to poverty by a disopated [sic] husband who by his intemperance, brought himself a premature death, leaving a widow & three children perfectly destitute. John Adams (no --- to John Q Adams) is a fine youth, of good moral habits, now 14 years & six months old, and well advanced in education - I had the promise of one of your predecessors, Mr. Henshaw, that he should have the first vacancy that occurred. I bring this orphan boy to your notice for a midshipman's warrant - it is all the favor I ask of the Government - and I solicit it for the orphan. He is a fine material for the Navy & at the age that he must be employed, for indolence begets evil - Will you please say to me can he be employed as a midshipman & when - Accept the assurance of my high respect & esteem Andrew Jackson [Address:] The Honble John Y. Mason Secretary of the Navy Washington D. Columbia [Docket:] Gen. Andrew Jackson