Duff Green, the principal propagandist for and later the principled antagonist of Andrew Jackson, helped set the stage for the Civil War when he switched allegiance to the Great Nullifier John C. Calhoun, to states' rights, and to the Southern cause. Labeled a "firebrand of faction" and an "ambassador of slavery," Green aspired to be "the servant of the people" and "the advocate of truth and justice," forcefully arguing for independence in politics and journalism during the "Dark Ages" of the partisan press.

Green was born on 15 August 1791 near Versailles in Woodford County, Kentucky, to William and Lucy Ann Marshall Green. His mother's cousin, Humphrey Marshall, had been opposed in politics by Henry Clay. "The prejudice thus created had, doubtless, its influence upon the estimate which I afterwards formed of Mr. Clay's conduct and character," Green wrote in 1866. He was sent to a neighborhood school when he was...