general position. In compensation, Monroe made him the first territorial governor of Florida in 1821. Jackson served as the governor for two months, returning to the Hermitage in ill health. During his convalescence, Jackson, who had been a Freemason since at least 1798, became the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee for 1822–1823. Around this time, he also completed negotiations for Tennessee to purchase Chickasaw lands. This became known as the Jackson Purchase. Jackson, Overton, and another colleague had speculated in some of the land and used their portion to found the town of Memphis. In 1822, Jackson accepted a plan by Overton to nominate him as a candidate for the 1824 presidential election, and he was nominated by the Tennessee legislature in July. At the time, the Federalist Party had collapsed, and there were four major contenders for the Democratic-Republican Party nomination: William Crawford, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. Jackson was intended to be a stalking horse candidate to prevent Tennessee's electoral votes from going to Crawford, who was seen as a Washington insider. Unexpectedly, Jackson garnered popular support outside of Tennessee and became a serious candidate. He benefited from the expansion of suffrage among white males that followed the conclusion of the War of 1812. He was a popular war hero whose reputation suggested he had the decisiveness and independence to bring change to how the government was run. He also was promoted as a Washington outsider who stood for all the people, blaming banks for the country's depression. During his presidential candidacy, Jackson relunctantly ran for one of Tennessee's U.S. Senate seats. William Berkeley Lewis and the other U.S. senator John Eaton, who were Jackson's political managers, convinced him that he needed to defeat incumbent John Williams, who openly opposed Jackson. The legislature elected him in October 1823. Jackson was attentive to his senatorial duties. He was appointed chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, but avoided debate or initiating legislation. He used his time in the Senate to form alliances and make peace with old adversaries. Eaton continued to campaign for Jackson's presidency, updating his biography, and writing letters under a pseudonym that were quoted in newspapers around the country and so popular that they were reprinted in pamphlet form—Jackson himself had a part in their composition. Democratic-Republican presidential nominees had historically been chosen by informal congressional nominating caucuses. In