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NDREW JACKSON I

BY
YRUS TOWNSEND BRADY

♦

US Solo, m

^arbarb College Htbrarp

FROM THE

BRIGHT LEGACY

One half the income from this Legacy, which was re-
ceived in 1880 under the will of

JONATHAN BROWN BRIGHT
of Waltham, Massachusetts, is to be expended for books
for the College Library. The other half of the income
is devoted to scholarships in Harvard University for the
benefit of descendants of

HENRY BRIGHT, JR.,
who died at Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1686. In the
absence of such descendants, other persons are eligible
to the scholarships. The will requires that this announce-
ment shall be made in every book added to the Library
under its provisions.

.>-

The True Andrew Jackson

ANDREW JACKSON

From the original portrait by Thomas Sully in possession of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania

The True
Andrew Jackson

By
Cyrus Townsend Brady, LL.D.

Author of « American Fights and Fighters" Series,

*« Commodore Paul Jones," €t Stephen Decatur,"

•'When Blades are Out and Love's Afield,''

*« Woven with the Ship," etc.

With Twenty-Three Illustrations

Philadelphia and London

J. B. Lippincott Company
1906

A^ 5"o/o4y3

J3#

t^^t </<«^*(

Published in March, 1906

To that most useful and
eminent citizen

JOHN D. CRIMMINS

And our fellow members of

The American-Irish Historical Society

I dedicate this appreciation of the greatest

among the many of Irish lineage

who have contributed to the

upbuilding of the

Republic.

Preface

A re-statement of the scope of this Series seems a
necessary preliminary to each successive volume. No
formal biography is contemplated. There has been no
attempt to tell in chronological order the life-story of
any of the persons discussed, although the temptation in
my case — and I presume the same is true of the other
authors in the Series — has been strong to do just that
thing. The volumes of the Series, therefore, are the
result of the exercise of at least one quality which goes
to make a successful book — self-restraint.

To repeat what has already been said elsewhere, here
is an attempt to make a picture in words of a man;
to exhibit a personality; to show that personality in
touch with its human environment; to declare what
manner of man was he whose name is on the title-page.
Not to chronicle events, therefore, but to describe a
being ; not to write a history of the time, but to give an
impression of a period associated with its dominant per-
sonal force, has been my task. To my mind the most
useful of the smaller and earlier biographies of Andrew
Jackson are those by John Henry Eaton and "An Amer-
ican Officer." That is not saying much, however, and
both biographies are very incomplete, as are Kendall's
famous series of papers upon the same subject. In 1859
appeared a comprehensive and exhaustive biography of
Jackson by Mr. James Parton, who was by birth an Eng-
lishman, but who strove earnestly, and with much suc-
cess, to be fair, impartial, and judicious in discussion of
the great mass of material which he so industriously
accumulated and so thoroughly digested.

Parton's book, in the words of Charles Francis

vii

PREFACE

Adams, is ** one of the most picturesque and vivid biog-
raphies in the language/' although the date of its pub-
lication was perhaps too near Jackson's period for
any one living in America to write of him from that
point of detachment necessary to an impartial and
\ I adequate biography. In many instances, too, Parton
^ failed to comprehend the spirit of the age and there-
fore the spirit of the man; for as much as times
are products of men, so men are products of times.
Nevertheless, Parton s biography remains, and always
will remain, the great source of information about An-
drew Jackson. No one can read it without respect and
admiration for Parton as well as for Jackson. Since
its first publication it has been re-issued in greatly ab-
breviated form in "The Great Commanders Series."
The original work was in three volumes of over two
thousand pages ; the abridgment is in one of three hun-
dred. It is greatly to be regretted that this book is
out of print and only to be had occasionally in second-
hand book stalls, for as it first appeared it was more
than a life of Jackson; it was in large measure an
invaluable history of the times. All quotations hereafter
are from the original edition.

Since Parton's biography four others have appeared.
One published in 1882 in the "American Statesmen
Series" is by Professor William Graham Sumner.
Ninety pages of this book are devoted to the first fifty-
four years of Jackson's life, three hundred and seventy
to his political career. The usual biography reverses
these proportions. Professor Sumner's book is a val-
uable study from a certain point of view — antagonistic,
i not to say bitterly hostile! — of Jackson's career as a
President and statesman, and my candid opinion of it is
that it is prejudiced and unfair to a marked degree —
still, it is interesting.

My friend, the much lamented Colonel Augustus C.
viii

PREFACE

Buell, prepared a history of Andrew Jackson in two
handsome octavo volumes of eight hundred pages, which
was published last year shortly after his death. This
book is altogether admirable. It supplements and also
corrects Parton's in a very desirable way. Colonel
Buell in his vocation as a newspaper correspondent was
brought in contact in his earlier years with a number
of people of prominence who had known Jackson. He
interviewed them whenever and wherever he could and
carefully preserved their conversations. One might
think that Parton had exhausted the field, but Buell dis-
covered much that Parton did not know or did not avail
himself of. He has produced a delightful book.

Colonel A. S. Colyaf, of Nashville, is the author of
the latest life of Jackson. He, too, succeeded in un-
earthing much new material, and although he is a special
pleader in behalf of Jackson and fails to discuss certain
aspects of his life, or refer to certain incidents, his
book is interesting and contains much that is of value,
especially in the line of further reminiscences.

In addition to these books the small biography by Pro-
fessor William Garrott Brown, published in 1900, will
be found to contain a clear and impartial resume of
Jackson's career in a brief compass.

These five biographies are necessary to an under-
standing of Jackson. I have pored over them long
and earnestly. I have quoted from them frequently and
beg to acknowledge here my obligation to them. In
addition to these biographies, Mr. Charles H. Peck's
admirable " Jacksonian Epoch " and Professor Ralph C.
H. Catterall's " Second Bank of the United States" — a
lucid, exhaustive, and brilliantly able book— are indis-
pensable. I shall not attempt to enumerate the great
number of auxiliary authorities, as Benton's "Thirty
Years' View," "The American Statesmen Series,"
Schouler's " History of the United States," MacMaster's

PREFACE

"American People," and other valuable general his-
tories of the period; the biographies of contempo-
raries, as Clay, Webster, Calhoun; the personal recol-
lections, like Quincy's and Sergeant's; the diaries, as
those of Adams, Tyler, etc.; the numerous magazine
and other ephemeral articles in newspapers and journals,
which furnish a great mass of material unnecessary to
catalogue in a work of this character.

I have prefixed to the volume an extended chronology
of Jackson's life/ compiled from data which I have
secured from many sources and with much labor. I
have come upon no such chronology — none of any sort,
in fact — in my reading. The reader, and I hope also
the student, will find it of value in assisting him to
comprehend what follows.
f ^May I be forgiven a personal word in closing? Al-
1 though I am now, and for many years have been, a
\ Democrat, I was born and reared under strong Repub-
lican influences. I began the study of Jackson with no
great predisposition to admire him. He was not one of
>• my early heroes — not politically or personally, that is.
) I have carefully examined his career and character from
the point of view of friend and enemy. As will be seen
from my chapter on Jackson's place in our history, I
have become persuaded that he is one of the three great
Presidents in our history ; and that, although he stands
below both of them, as a personality he is quite worthy
of being mentioned in the same breath with George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln. .■■

Cyrus Townsend Brady.
Brooklyn, N. Y., February i, 1906.

Note

In addition to those especially mentioned elsewhere
the author desires gratefully to acknowledge much valur
able assistance in the difficult work of collecting the
illustrations for this book from the following : the Rev.
A. H. Hord, of Philadelphia; Mr. D. McN. Stauffer,
.of New York City; and Colonel A. C. Colyar, Mr.
Robert T. Quarles, secretary of the Department of
Archives and History, and Mrs. Mary C Dorris, regent .
of the Ladies' Hermitage Association, of Nashville,
Tenn.

C T. B.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. — Family and Early Years 25

II. — Lawyer 40

III. — Planter, Storekeeper, and Sportsman 53

IV. — Soldier K. "04

V. — Soldier (Continued) 85

VI. — Soldier (Continued) m

VII. — Personal Appearance, Manners, "Jacksonian

Vulgarity " 133

VIII. — Relations With His Mother and Wife 156

IX. — The Affair of Mrs. Eaton 179

X. — Relations With Children 200

XI. — Pugnacity — Patriotism 207

XII. — Duels and Quarrels 220

XIII.— Speeches and Addresses 250

XIV. — Politician and President 279

XV. — Nullification 320

XVI. — War on the Bank 340

XVII. — Religion— Last Days 366

XVIII.— Jackson's Place in Our History 390

APPENDIX.

A. — On the Birthplace of Andrew Jackson 407

B. — South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification . . 439
C. — The Nullification Proclamation by Andrew
Jackson, President of the United States,

December 10, 1832 443

D. — General Jackson's Farewell Address to the
People of the United States, on Retiring

from the Presidency, March 4, 1837 468

E.— The Last Will and Testament of Andrew

Jackson 492

xiii

List of Illustrations with Notes

PAGE

Andrew Jackson Frontispiece

From the original portrait by Thomas Sully in possession of the His-
torical Society of Pennsylvania.

The Large Log-Cabin, Part of the Original Hermitage . 54

Built in 1804.

Andrew Jackson 64

From the portrait by Colonel R. E. W. Earl in the State Capitol,
Nashville, Tenn.

Andrew Jackson 144

From a miniature copied in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1858, from an
original miniature painted in 1832 and presented by General Jackson
to his wife's namesake, Henrietta Rachel Jackson Armstrong,
daughter of General Robert Armstrong. The copy was made for
Mary A. Armstrong, another daughter of General Armstrong, from
whom it came into possession of Rev. A. H. Hord, great-grandson
of General Armstrong. General Jackson bequeathed his sword to
General Armstrong. The whereabouts of the original miniature is
unknown.

Mrs. Jackson 174

From the portrait by Colonel R. E. W. Earl, painted at The Hermit-
age in 1825.

The Hermitage Garden 176

Fac-simile of Letter from Major-General Andrew Jackson,
U. S. A, to Brigadier-General James Winchester, U. S. A.,
January i, 1807, jn which He is ordered to be in Readi-
ness to Pursue and Arrest Aaron Burr should it be-
come necessary 216

In the possession of Mr. D. McN. Stauffer, Yonkers, New York.

Andrew Jackson 220

From the portrait by J. Vanderlyn in City Hall, New York City,
painted in 1823.

US I OF ILLUSTRATIONS WITH NOTES

Tuv>Mvt H, Benton mt. about 35 232

KuMn 11 painting by Wilson Peale in the Missouri Historical Society.
Kivm " The Life of Thomas Hart Benton," by William M. Meigs.

IUnry Ci.ay in Middle Life 244

From the painting by Dubourjal.

Khont View of Andrew Jackson's Home, The Hermitage . 276

John Quincy Adams 294

From a photograph.

Andrew Jackson 300

From the engraving made in 185a by Thomas B. Welch of the por-
trait by Thomas Sully, then in the possession of Francis Preston
Blair.

The Jackson Medals 316

Medal awarded by Congress in commemoration of Battle of New
Orleans. Medal issued in commemoration of Jackson's Presidency.

John C. Calhoun 320

From a photograph.

Daniel Webster 334

From a photograph.

Driveway to The Hermitage, lined with Cypresses . . . 374

The Main Hall at The Hermitage 376

The unique wall-paper, picturing the story of Telemachus on the
Island of Calypso, was imported from Paris by Jackson.

Room and Bed in which Jackson died 380

Furnished as at that time.

Last Portrait of Jackson fainted a Short Time previous
to his Death 388

From the original by Colonel R. E. W. Earl, in the possession of
Colonel Andrew Jackson, Nashville, Tenn.
xvi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WITH NOTES

Statue of Andrew Jackson by Clark Mills in Lafayette
Square, Washington, D. C 390

Erected in 1853 and unveiled on the thirty-eighth anniversary of the
Battle of New Orleans. This statue was cast at Bladensburg, near
Washington, by Mills himself, from cannon captured in Jackson's
campaigns. He set up a furnace and made the first large bronze
statue in America. In this statue the weight of the various parts is
so distributed that the horse stands poised without additional sup-
port and without the aid of rivet fastenings to the pedestal. The
cost of the statue was fifty thousand dollars, part of which was
donated by the Jackson Monument Association.

Fac-simile of Letter from President Andrew Jackson to
Joel R. Poinsett, December 2, 1832 408

(Now in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)
This letter was written a few days before the issue of the Nullifica-
tion Proclamation, and authorizes the use of force to preserve the
Union. It is one of Jackson's most characteristic letters.

Bust of Andrew Jackson by Hiram Powers in the Metro-
politan Museum of Art, New York 416

Chronology of
The Life of Andrew Jackson

1767. Born in South Carolina — March 15.
1777. Visits Charleston with his Uncle Crawford to handle a
drove of cattle — Summer.

1780. Present at Battle of Hanging Rock — August 6.

1 781. Present at skirmish at Waxhaws Church — April 9.
Is captured and sent to Camden — April 10.
Witnesses Battle of Hobkirk's Hill from prison stockade

— April 25.

Exchanged* — May 10 (?).

Death of Mrs. Jackson at Charleston t — November (?).
1782-3. Visits Charleston to seek his mother's grave — Winter.
1783-4. Teaches school at Waxhaws — Winter.
1784. Begins study of law — fall.

1787. Admitted to Bar of South Carolina — May.

Begins practice of law at McLeanville, Guilford County,

North Carolina — July (?).
Appointed constable and special deputy sheriff — fall.

1788. Appointed "public solicitor" (prosecuting, circuit, or dis-

trict attorney) for the Western District of North Caro-
lina (Tennessee) by Judge McNairy — Spring.

* According to the most trustworthy accounts Jackson was captured the day
after a skirmish at Waxhaws Church. The only skirmish there, which is un-
doubtedly the one referred to, was on April 9, 1781. His mother negotiated his
release with Lord Rawdon at Camden, South Carolina. Lord Rawdon evacu-
ated Camden on May 10, 1781. At the very longest this would only make the
period of Jackson's captivity one month— quite long enough, of course. In
after life Jackson stated that he was in prison about two months. He must
have been mistaken, as is evident.

f I am able to approximate the date of the death of Mrs. Jackson by the fol-
lowing data. When she reached Charleston she found Lord Rawdon gone and
(according to Buell) a Colonel Leslie in command. General Leslie arrived at
Charleston on November 7, relieving General Stuart, according to McCrady.
Mrs. Jackson had an interview with Leslie, visited the prisoners by his permis-
sion, and after a brief stay started for home, dying at the outset of her journey.
As she had left Waxhaws early in the fall, I conclude that she died about the
middle of November.

xix

CHRONOLOGY

Duel with Col. Waightsill Avery — August 12.
Arrives at Nashville— November 2.
1791. Marries (Mrs.) Rachel Donelson Robards at Natchez,
Mississippi — November.
Starts plantation near Nashville.
1792* Leads party against Indians who had attacked Robertson's

Station — May 24. Major of militia (?).
1794. Re-marries Mrs. Robards — January.

1796. Member of Constitutional Convention at Knoxville, where

he named the new State of Tennessee — January 11.
Is elected to National House of Representatives.
Arrives at Philadelphia and takes his seat in Congress —

December 8.
Votes against farewell address of Congress to George

Washington — December ij.
Makes first speech in Congress — December 29.

1797. Takes his seat as senator from Tennessee by appointment

of Governor Sevier, vice William Blount, resigned —
November 22.

1798. Leaves Philadelphia for Nashville and on arrival resigns

from Senate — June.

Goes into mercantile business with John Hutchings at his
plantation, " Hunter's Hill," thirteen miles from Nash-
ville.

Elected Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Ten-
nessee— Fall.

1799. Takes his seat on the Bench — January 8.
First affray with Sevier.

1801. Elected major-general of militia of Tennessee.

1803. Second affray with Sevier.

1804. Resigns from Bench— July 24.

Establishes himself in a new log house at " The Her-
mitage/' a plantation ten miles from Nashville, where
he engages in stock breeding, etc.

Associates with John Coffee in the business firm of Jack-
son, Coffee & Hutchings, general storekeepers, dealers
in stock and produce, boat builders, etc.
1805-6. Entertains Aaron Burr.

1806. Duel with Charles Dickinson — May 30.

1807. Is summoned to Richmond, Virginia, as a witness in the

trial of Aaron Burr. Makes a speech at Capitol Square
denouncing Jefferson and defending Burr.
1807-12. Occupied as a militia commander, planter, sportsman,
etc.
xx

CHRONOLOGY

1812. Quarrelled with Silas Dinsmore — September.

War of 1812. Natchez Campaign. Offers services of
Tennessee Volunteers through Governor Blount — June

25.

Services accepted by Secretary of War— July 11.

Summons field officers to meet at Nashville on Novem-
ber 14.

Musters division at Nashville — December 10.

1813. Starts for New Orleans with division by boat — January 7.
Arrives and camps at Natchez — February 15.

Breaks camp and starts march homeward instead of dis-
banding as ordered by Secretary of War — March 25.

Dismisses Tennessee command at Nashville — May 22.

His vouchers for expenses ordered paid by War Depart-
ment at urgent request of Thomas H. Benton, then in
Washington — June 14.

Severely wounded in affray with the Bentons — Septem-
ber 14.

Creek War. Calls out his division from sick-bed — Sep-
tember 25.

Orders Coffee to Huntsville — September 26.

Division assembles at Fayetsville — October 4.

Takes personal command — October 7.

Marches to Huntsville, thirty-two miles, in one day —
October 12.

Marches south into wilderness — October 19.

Arrives at Thompson's Creek, twenty-two miles, and
builds Fort Deposit — October 22.

Marches further south — October 25.

Arrives on the banks of the Coosa. Builds Fort Strother
— November 2.

Battle of Talluschatches — November 3. Tennesseeans
under Coffee lose five killed and forty-two wounded.
Creek loss two hundred killed and eighty-four captured.

Marches for Fort Strother — November 8.

Battle of Talladega — November 9. Tennesseeans under
Jackson lose fifteen killed and eighty-six wounded;
Creeks lose one hundred and ninety-one killed.

Returns to Fort Strother — November 10.

Attempted mutiny of volunteers at Fort Strother — No-
vember 20 (?).

Attempted mutiny of militia at Fort Strother — November
21 (?).

Third attempt at mutiny — November 23 (?).

xxi

CHRONOLOGY

Fourth attempt at mutiny — December 10.
Dismissal of volunteers in disgrace — December 12.
181 4. Receives reinforcements and marches south again — Jan-
uary 17.

At Talladega — January 18.

At Hillabee Creek — January 19.

At Enotachopco — January 20.

At Emuckfau, eighty miles from Fort Strother — Jan-
uary 21.

Battle of Emuckfau — January 22.

Battle of Enotachopco — January 24. In these two battles
the Tennesseeans under Jackson lost twenty killed and
seventy-five wounded; the Creeks lost one hundred
and eighty-nine killed and an unknown number of
wounded.

Back at Fort Strother — January 29.

Arrival of Thirty-ninth United States Infantry — Feb-
ruary 6.

Executes Private John Wood for mutiny — March 14.

Starts south again — March 18.

Battle of Tohopeka, or Horse-shoe Bend — March 27.
Tennesseeans under Jackson lose fifty-five killed and
one hundred and forty-six wounded. Creeks exter-
minated, losing five hundred and fifty-seven killed, over
two hundred drowned; and missing, probably killed,
over two hundred men. End of war.

Founds Fort Jackson and receives surrender of Weather-
ford, chief of the Creeks — April.

Appointed brigadier-general in United States Army —
April 19.

Troops ordered home — April 21.

Appointed major-general in United States Army, vice
William Henry Harrison, resigned — May i.

Arrives at Nashville — May.

Accepts appointment as major-general in United States
Army — June 20.

Negotiates treaty with Creeks — July 10.

Treaty signed — August 10.

War of 1812. First Florida Campaign. Leaves Fort
Jackson for Mobile — September 12.

Defence of Fort Bowyer by Major Lawrence — Septem-
ber 15.

Arrives Mobile — September 16.

Mutiny at Fort Jackson — September 19-20.
xxii

CHRONOLOGY

Leaves Mobile for Pensacola — November 3.

Invades Spanish territory and seizes Pensacola — Novem-
ber 7.

British evacuate Fort Barrancas — November 8.

Returns to Mobile and sends expedition to Appalachicola
— November 16.

War of 1812. The New Orleans Campaign. Leaves for
New Orleans — November 22.

Arrives at New Orleans — December 1.

British fleet arrives off mouths of Mississippi — Decem-
ber 9-14.

Battle of Lake Borgne — December 14.

Martial law proclaimed in New Orleans — December 16.

British land opposite Bayou Bienvenu — December 22.

Battle of VillerS — December 23. American loss twenty-
four killed, one hundred and fifteen wounded; cap-
tured, seventy-four; total, two hundred and thirteen.
British loss sixty-eight killed, one hundred and forty-
five wounded ; captured, sixty-four ; total, two hundred
and seventy-seven.

Skirmish — December 28. American loss eight killed,
eight wounded; total, sixteen. British loss fourteen
killed, twenty-seven wounded; total, forty-one.

Destruction of the United States schooner " Carolina" —
December 28.
1815. Artillery duel — January 1. British loss five guns captured,
eight disabled; total, thirteen.

Battle of New Orleans — January 8. American loss eight
killed, thirteen wounded; total, twenty-one. British
loss over four thousand, of which eight hundred and
forty-eight were killed and two thousand four hundred
and sixty-eight severely wounded; the remainder cap-
tured. Many slightly wounded not reported.

British break camp and begin retreat — January 18-19.

Embarkation of British completed — January 27.

Execution of six Tennessee militiamen convicted of
mutiny at Mobile — February 21.

Article by Louis Louallier urging resistance to Jackson's
authority appears in Louisiana Gazette — March 3.

Arrest of Louallier — March 5.

Jackson served with a writ of habeas corpus by Judge
Hall— March 5.

Arrest of Judge Hall — March 5.

Martial law in New Orleans abrogated — March 13.

xxiii

CHRONOLOGY

Summoned by a bench warrant to appear before Judge

Hall — March 24.
Fined one thousand dollars for contempt of court Fine

paid — March 24.
Mrs. Jackson joins her husband in New Orleans —

April 19.
Leaves New Orleans for home — April 26.
Arrives at Nashville — May 15.
At Washington, D. C — November 17.

1817. Seminole War. Second Florida Campaign. Ordered to

Florida frontier — December 26.

1 81 8. Writes President Monroe that if desired he can take pos-

session of Florida in sixty days — January 6.
Receives orders — January 11.
Leaves Nashville — January 22.
March of Tennessee volunteers — January 31.
Arrives at Fort Scott — March 9.
Takes St. Mark's— April 7.
Hangs Chiefs Hillis Hago (Francis) and Himollomico—

April 8.
Trial of Arbuthnot and Ambrister — April 27-28.
Execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister — April 28.
Seizes Pensacola a second time — May 24.
Leaves Pensacola for Nashville — May 31.
Arrives at Nashville — June.

1819. Leaves for Washington — January 4.
Arrives at Washington — January 27.

House of Representatives sustains Jackson's course in
Florida on all counts by decisive vote — February 10.

Senate committee report (adverse) ordered laid on the
table by vote of thirty-one to three — February 25.

Visits Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, for public
receptions, banquets, etc. — January and February.

Returns to Washington — March 2.

Leaves for Nashville — March 9.

Banquet at Nashville — April 6.

1820. Negotiates treaty with Choctaws — October 20.

1821. Leaves Nashville for Florida via New Orleans — April 18.
Arrives at New Orleans — April 27.

Resigns from the army — May 31.

Resignation accepted. Honorably discharged — June 1.*

* All Jackson's biographers say, or intimate, that Jackson resigned from the
army. In this connection I call attention to the following communication from

x*iv

CHRONOLOGY

Appointed governor of Florida — March 10*

Arrives in the vicinity of Pensacola — June 17.

Takes possession of Florida for the United States —

July 17.
Farewell address to the army (dated Montpelier, Alabama,

May 31) promulgated with proclamation against orders

of General Jacob Brown, commander-in-chief of the

United States Army — July 21.
Dispute with ex-Governor Callava — September.
Resigns as governor of Florida — October.
Returns to Nashville — November 3.

1822. Suggested for the Presidency by newspapers in different

parts of the country — (various dates).
Formally nominated for President by the Legislature of

Tennessee — July 20.
Elected United States senator from Tennessee — October.
Takes seat in the Senate — December 5.

1823. Further Presidential discussion during the year.
Appointed minister to Mexico— January 27.

Declines appointment as minister to Mexico—March 15.

1824. Presented with Washington's telescope and pistols — Jan-

uary 1.
Guest of honor at grand ball given by John Quincy

Adams, Secretary of State — January 8.
More seriously considered for the Presidency — Spring.
Nominated by the Legislature of Pennsylvania — March 5.
Received medal voted by Congress — March 17.
Receives plurality of electoral votes, but fails of election

to the Presidency — November-December.

1825. Defeated for election to Presidency in House of Repre-

sentatives by John Quincy Adams, who receives vote
of thirteen States against seven for Jackson and four
for Crawford — February 9.

Major-General F. C. Ainsworth, U. S. A., military secretary, War Department,
Washington, D. C, under date of July ax, 1905: " Nothing has been found of
record to show that Andrew Jackson tendered his resignation as a major-gene-
ral in the United States Army. This officer was honorably discharged the ser-
vice, as major-general, June 1, 1821, under the act of Congress, approved March
2, 1821." The act of Congress referred to was one reducing the army.

* His latest biographers state that his resignation was accepted July 21 and
the day after, July 22, he was appointed governor of Florida ! This is cer-
tainly a mistake. The Department of State informs me that his appointment was
dated March 10 ; therefore he received the appointment while still a major-gen-
eral in the army.

XXV

CHRONOLOGY

Charges Clay with corrupt bargain to promote election
with Adams — February 14.

Leaves for home — March.

Denounces Administration — July.

Resigns United States Senatorship and is formally re-
nominated for the Presidency by the Legislature of
Tennessee — October.

1826. Promises wife to join church at close of political career.

1827. Active political campaigning by friends.

1828. Revisits New Orleans — January 8.

Elected President of the United States — November-
December.
Death of Mrs. Jackson — December 22.

1829. Goes to Washington — January 17.
Announces Cabinet — February 26.
First inaugural address — March 4.

Begins correspondence with Reverend Doctor Ely about

Mrs. Eaton — March 23.
Interview with Reverend Doctors Ely and Campbell about

Mrs. Eaton — September 1.
Cabinet meeting with Doctors Ely and Campbell about

Mrs. Eaton — September 10.
Pays especial social honors to Mrs. Eaton — Fall and

Winter.
Friends of administration embroiled with United States

Bank over conduct of Mason, president of Portsmouth,

New Hampshire, Branch — Summer and Fall.
First annual message — December 8.

1830. Jefferson's birthday dinner. Offers famous toast "Our

Federal Union ! it must and shall be preserved" —

April 13.
Breaks with Vice-President Calhoun — May 13.
Secures payment of Danish indemnities — May 27.
Vetoes various internal improvement bills — May 27-31.
Secures settlement of West India trade question with

Great Britain — October 5.
Second annual message — December 6.
Concludes treaty with Choctaws — December 9.

183 1. Recommends removal of Southern Indians to the West

(Indian Territory) — February 22.
Dissolves Cabinet — April 7 to June 22.
Negotiates treaty with France for payment of spoliation

claims — July 4.
Third annual message — December 6.
xxvi

CHRONOLOGY

1832. Treaty with France ratified — February 22.

■*--— Vetoes the bill to recharter the United States
Bank— July 10.
Reelected for Presidency — November-December.
Vetoes internal' improvement bills — December 6.
Issues Proclamation against Nullification of South
Carolina — December 10.

1833. Special message declaring purpose to use force against

South Carolina and invoking cooperation of Congress
(Force Bill) — January 16.

Signs Clay Compromise Tariff Bill — February.

Second inaugural address — March 4.

Assaulted by Lieutenant Randolph — May 6.

Tour through New England — Spring.

Receives degree of LL.D. from Harvard College — June 26.

Reads paper to Cabinet declaring purpose to remove gov-
ernment deposits from the United States Bank — Sep-
tember 18.

Appoints Taney Secretary of the Treasury, vice
duane, removed, and orders deposits withdrawn
from the United States Bank — September 23.

Orders public moneys deposited in various State banks —
September 26.

Refuses to send paper read to Cabinet, September 18, to
Senate — December 12.

Fifth annual message — December 4.

Vetoes Land Bill — December 4.

Transmits to Senate various Indian treaties.

1834. Formally censured by Senate for removing public de-

posits from the United States Bank — March 28.
Formally protests to Senate against censure — April 15.
Treaty with Cherokees — June 23.
Sixth annual message — December 1.

1835. Celebrates payment of the national debt with grand ban-

quet— January 8.

Attempted assassination by man named Lawrence — Jan-
uary 30.

Threatens France and directs American minister, Living-
stone, to leave France if French Chambers do not make
appropriation to pay French spoliation claims accord-
ing to treaty — February 24.

Special message to Congress concerning the non-payment
of the French spoliation claims — February 25.

Publishes order concerning death of Lafayette— June 21.

xxvii

CHRONOLOGY

Directs postmaster at Charleston, South Carolina, not to
forward abolition documents — August 4.

Seventh annual message, dealing vigorously with French
spoliation claims — December 7.

1836. Special message refusing to apologize to France for lan-
~** guage of message of February 25, 1835, and urging

preparations for war — January 15.
Accepts mediation of Great Britain in affair with France

— February 22.
Announces to Congress payment of French spoliation

claims — May 10. *~

Issues famous specie circular — July 11.
Eighth annual message — December 5.

1837. Expunging resolution passed in Senate removing cen-

sure of 1834 — January 17.
Issues Farewell Address to the Nation — March 4.
Returns to the Hermitage.
1839. Joins the Presbyterian Church.

1843. Makes his last will and testament — June 7.

1844. Urges election of Polk.

1845. Dies, six p.m., Sunday — June 8.

Burial by the side of his wife at the Hermitage, near
Nashville, Tennessee — June 10.

The True
Andrew Jackson

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

Andrew Jackson, saddle^, school-teacher, lawyer,
congressman, senator, judge, merchant, planter, sports-
man, soldier, President, and for many years the political
dictator of his country, was born early in the morning
of the fifteenth of March, 1767 — where?

Parton alleges that he first saw the light in the log
cabin of one George McKemey (which Parton spells
McCamie), his uncle by marriage. Parton further de-
clares that this cabin was situated in a settlement known
as the Waxhaws, about one-quarter of a mile north of
the boundary line between the two Carolinas. The
Waxhaws settlement, so called from the name of the
Indian tribe which had once lived there, was situated
on Waxhaw Creek, about a hundred and sixty miles
northwest of Charleston. It lay partly in North and
partly in South Carolina.

Whether Jackson was born in North or South Caro-
lina is a question which has been furiously argued.
Buell strives to reconcile the different opinions by
stating that at the time of Jackson's birth the Mc-
Kemey house was believed by everyone to stand on
South Carolina territory, but that a survey subsequent
to the Revolution disclosed the fact that it was in North
Carolina. Sumner, Colyar, and Brown, all following

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Parton apparently, accredit Jackson to North Carolina,
as do most of the encyclopaedias.

Jackson himself, to the end of his life, believed that
he was by birth a South Carolinian, and so stated fre-
quently. I think he was correct in his belief; conse-
quently to South Carolina I accord the honor of his
birth. The question is discussed at great length by
Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., in a paper prepared for this
volume, which appears as Appendix A. I respectfully
refer the reader to this brilliant essay, which to me is
conclusive.

Andrew Jackson was the posthumous child of an
Irish immigrant of the same name, who arrived in this
country in 1765 with his wife, Elizabeth Hutchinson,
and two boys, Robert, aged two, and Hugh, a baby of
five months. One of the elder Jackson brothers had been
a soldier under Braddock, Wolfe, and Amherst. He had
also spent part of his service in North Carolina. It
was due to his representations that the Jackson family
concluded to emigrate. On the ship which carried An-
drew Jackson, Senior, and his family were several of
his relatives, among whom may be mentioned the Craw-
ford family, one of whom, like George McKemey, had
married a sister of Mrs. Jackson. These people all
settled about the primitive log Presbyterian church in
the Waxhaws territory.

Few communities have given so many great and use-
ful men to the nation as this handful of poor Irish.
McCready says : " At the Waxhaws, the father of John
Calhoun first settled; there, too, Andrew Pickens [gen-
eral in the Revolution] met Rebecca Calhoun, whom he
married. At the Waxhaws grew up William Richard-
son Davie, the distinguished partisan leader of the
Revolution, governor of North Carolina and minister
to France, the founder of the University of North Caro-
lina. From the same community came Calhoun's great

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

rival, the great Georgian, William H. Crawford; so
that from this people came three of the greatest men of
their times, — Jackson, Calhoun, and Crawford, — men
upon and around whom turned the national politics of
their day and whose antagonisms convulsed the whole
country. To these must be added William Smith, judge
on the State Bench and United States senator, whose
State Rights antedated Calhoun's, and who was twice
voted for as Vice-President in the Electoral College,
and Dr. John Brown, one of the first professors of the
South Carolina College and the founder of the Presby-
terian church in Columbia, a schoolmate of Jackson,
who rode with him when they were boys in their teens
under Davie and Sumter at Hanging Rock. From the
Waxhaws, too, came Stephen D. Miller, a man of great
power in his day and generation in society, at the bar,
and in the councils of his country. James H. Thorn-
well, an eminent divine and orator, president of the
South. Carolina College, and J. Marion Sims, a sur-
geon of world-wide fame, and in his department doubt-
less the greatest of his time.,,

It seems probable that Andrew Jackson, Senior, was
the poorest and most improvident of the lot, for he
had no money with which to buy land and was forced
to content himself with a claim on Twelve-Mile Creek,
a branch of the Catawba. His tract was poor in char-
acter and situated disadvantageously some seven miles
from the better provided members of the party about
the church. His struggle with the wilderness was a
short one, for after two years of arduous toil he died,
early in March, 1767.

The Jackson family, poor and humble as it was in
America, was even more humble and obscure in Ire-
land, although when the father of our immigrant died
he left a small sum of money to his grandson, the sub-
ject of this biography. It is known that they came from

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Carrickfergus, a town near Belfast, in the Province of
Ulster. It has been found impossible to trace them back
for more than two generations. The origin of the
family is utterly unknown even in tradition. Jackson's
great-grandfather was once bailiff of the Assize Court,
once member of the Town Council, and several times
foreman of the Grand Jury, which proves that he was
at least respectable, as the legacy referred to above,
three hundred pounds, indicates thrift in the family,
but where he came from, or what his origin, no one
has yet been able to discover. One thing is certain,
there is no evidence whatsoever that there was any
Scottish blood in them at all, and the pleasant fiction
that because they belonged to the Presbyterian Church
they were therefore not pure-blooded Irish may be
courteously but firmly dismissed. Whatever justifica-
tion there may be for the hybrid term Scotch-Irish
there is no evidence that Jackson represented the
alleged mixture that comes under that curious name.

"We here," wrote the Mayor of Belfast, Ireland,
after Jackson became President of the United States,
" are as proud of General Jackson as you in America
possibly can be. This region has produced not a few
great men, but none as eminent as he. We always
speak of him as ' the great Irish President of the United
States/ and in our toasts at public dinners his name is
seldom omitted. Though our investigation as to his
lineal ancestry here has not been very successful, yet
you may rest assured that the ties of common nation-
ality by which we hold him in our esteem and our
affection are hardly less strong than those of blood
kin. You may in fact say, as we all do, that Andrew
Jackson is the descendant of North Ireland at large and
its most illustrious son."

If we judge from his qualities, Jackson was distinctly
Irish. He never recognized or admitted any Scottish

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

blood in his veins. He was a member of the Hibernian
Society of Philadelphia, which he joined in 1819. He
did not hesitate to describe himself as of Irish origin
on several occasions. For instance, on the twenty-
second of June, 1833, he spoke as follows at a reception
given him by the Charitable Irish Society in Boston :

" I feel much gratified, sir, at this testimony of re-
spect shown me by the Charitable Irish Society of this
city. It is with great pleasure that I see so many
of the countrymen of my father assembled on this occa-
sion. I have always been proud of my ancestry and of
being descended from that noble race, and rejoice that
I am so nearly allied to a country which has so much
to recommend it to the good wishes of the world;
would to God, sir, that Irishmen on the other side of
the great water enjoyed the comforts, happiness, con-
tentment, and liberty that they enjoy here. I am well
aware, sir, that Irishmen have never been backward in
giving their support to the cause of liberty. They have
fought, sir, for this country valiantly, and I have no
doubt would fight again were it necessary, but I hope
it will be long before the institutions of our country
need support of that kind. Accept my best wishes for
the happiness of you all."

Andrew Jackson, Senior, was a linen weaver, as had
been his father. Elizabeth Hutchinson's father followed
the same trade. Tradition has little to tell us about the
character of Andrew and not much about that of Eliza-
beth, but it is evident from such incidents as have been
.unearthed regarding Jackson's mother that she was a
woman of unusual strength of character and courage.
It is generally the case that a great man has origin in a
great mother. His relations to her will be discussed later.

Jackson could never speak of his father without visi-
ble emotion. Francis P. Blair used to relate that some
years before he became President, he tried tg locate

*5>

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

exactly his father's grave at Waxhaws, with the inten-
tion of placing there a suitable memento, but it could
not be distinguished from other unmarked mounds in
the old churchyard. " I have heard him," said Mr.
Blair, " remark that his father died like a hero in
battle, fighting for his wife and babes — fighting an up-
hill battle against poverty and adversity such as no one
in our time could comprehend. When asked if he had
ever visited the scenes of his birth and childhood/' pur-
sued Mr. Blair, " he would say ' No ! I couldn't bear
to. It would suggest nothing but bereavement, grief,
and suffering of those dearest to me. I couldn't stand
it. It would break me down.' "

When Andrew Jackson, Senior, died he left his wife
with two little boys and practically no property. He
had not proved up his claim and there is no evidence in
the records of land transfers that he ever owned a foot
of ground. Mrs. Jackson, then in the last stages of
pregnancy, was unable to work the farm. Her brother-
in-law, Crawford, had an invalid wife. He was a
man of considerable substance, well-to-do for the time
and community, and to him she determined to repair,
with the idea that when her health was restored she
could take the place of her ailing sister in the Crawford
household. On the way she stopped over night — of
necessity — at the McKemey house, and there Andrew,
Junior, was born. She was well enough to travel in
three weeks, a rather long convalescence for a frontier
woman of that period. Leaving Hugh in the McKemey
home, she journeyed to the Crawford place with Robert
and the infant Andrew. She received a warm welcome.
The household affairs were turned over to her, greatly
to the relief of her ailing sister and her husband.

Elizabeth Jackson was evidently a woman of some
education, for when Andrew was five years old she
began to teach him to read and write. It is stated that

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

he received more thorough mental training than either
of his brothers, because Mrs. Jackson designed him for
the Presbyterian Church. However, the two boys who
were with her fared much alike, and the education of
both of them was of a higher order than that of the
boys surrounding them.

At seven young Andrew was sent to an old-field
school. " An old-field is not a field at all, but a pine
forest. When crop after crop of cotton, without rota-
* tion, has exhausted the soil, the fences are taken away,
the land lies waste, the young pines at once spring up,
and soon cover the whole field with a thick growth of
wood." On the principle that if it was good for nothing
else it would do for educational purposes, the surround-
ing farmers would devote such fields to school buildings
of the rudest character.

The author of " Georgia Scenes" describes an edifice
of this kind : " It was a simple log pen, about twenty
feet square, with a doorway cut out of the logs, to
which was fitted a rude door made of clapboards and
swung on wooden hinges. The roof was covered with
clapboards also, which were retained in their places by
heavy logs placed on them. The chimney was built of
logs diminishing in size from the ground to the top,
and overspread inside and out with red clay and mor-
tar. The classic hut occupied a lovely spot, over-
whelmed by majestic hickories, towering poplars, and
strong-armed oaks. ... A large three-inch plank (if
* it deserve that name, for it was wrought from half a
tree's trunk entirely with the axe), attached to the logs
by means of wooden pins, served the whole school for
a writing-desk. At a convenient distance below it, and
on a line with it, stretched a smooth log, resting upon the
logs of the house, which answered for the writers' seat."
Such a school was carried on in a way as primitive
as were its appointments. " An itinerant schoolmaster

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

presents himself in the neighborhood," writes Parton,
" the responsible farmers pledge him a certain number
of pupils, and an old-field school is established for the
season. . . . Reading, writing, and arithmetic were all
the branches taught in the early day. Among a crowd
of urchins seated on the slab benches of a school like
this, fancy a tall, slender boy, with bright blue eyes,
a freckled face, an abundance of long, sandy hair, and
clad in coarse, copperas-colored cloth, with bare feet
dangling and kicking — and you have in your mind's eye
a picture of Andy as he appeared in his old-field days in
the Waxhaws settlement."

At nine Jackson was transferred to Mr. David Hum-
phries' Academy, which was established in the centre of
the Waxhaws settlement, near the church. He attended
this Academy for at least three years arid possibly stud-
ied another year at Queen's College, Charlotte, at that
time the most ambitious educational institution in tte
vicinity. He says himself that he attended school untik
he was fourteen years of age. *j^

He was not a well-educated man. His acquirements ^V
were confined to the ordinary English branches, in none \ ■
of which was he proficient. Once in a while a Latin
word or pfrrase appears in his writings, but there is no
evidence that he knew anything about the classics. His
grammar was poor and he disliked the study, although
he was always fond of geography. " He never learned
to spell correctly, though he was a better speller than
Frederick II., Marlborough, Napoleon, or Washington.
Few men of his day, and no women, were correct spel-
lers"— thus Parton. Still he was probably slightly better
educated than the majority of backwoods children with
whom he was thrown.

After the death of his mother he taught school in the
winter of 1782-3, at the age of sixteen. In 1784 he
began the study of law at Salisbury, North Carolina,

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

with Spruce McKay, a lawyer of some local reputation.
While President he was reminded by a friend from
Salisbury that he had formerly lived there. " Yes," he
replied, " I was but a raw lad then, but I did the best
I could." Quite Jacksonian! He always did the best
he could; there was no lack of thoroughness about
him.

After remaining with this lawyer for a year and a half,
he continued his studies with Judge John Stokes and
was admitted to the bar of North Carolina in the spring
of 1787. That completed his formal pursuit of learning.
It by no means, however, ended his education. While
he never was a bookish man, he was too shrewd and too
'keen in intellect, as well as too ambitious, not to be
aware of the value of knowledge. A man of affairs, he
studied men. The active quickness of his mind enabled
him in the course of his long life to acquire much in-
formation, and few were the situations in which he
found himself where he was obliged to confess ignorance
or to blush for lack of information. It would never have
occurred to him that he was ignorant, anyway! Gen-
erally, whatever the emergency, he was able to rise to
the measure of it, and if he did not dominate it, at least
he made a fairly respectable attempt at it. By observa-
tion and attrition he became one of the best informed
men of his time on those subjects which interested him,
as law, military tactics, politics, farming, horse breeding,
and the like. As a statesman and a financier, however,
there was much to be desired in his character. Although
he never became a good speller, his grounding must
have been thorough to have enabled him to build so
well upon it. As a writer, and more especially as a
speaker, he was clear, cogent, forceful, ready, and not
infrequently eloquent. After he became President
Harvard College conferred upon him the honorary de-
gree of Doctor of Laws.

3 33

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

His boyhood experiences were strenuous in the ex-
treme and gave a further twist to his natural Celtic
dislike to the British. On the twenty-ninth of May,
1780, Colonel Tarleton, with his rangers, fell upon four
hundred American Continentals and militiamen, mainly
^ Virginians, under Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Buford,
and what has been called the " Massacre of the Wax-
haws" ensued. The history of the resulting conflict is
a confused one up to a certain point. Tarleton out-
generalled Buford and by false information caught him
at a decided disadvantage. An attack was delivered by
the British to which a mere nominal resistance was
made. There is a dispute as to these premises, but what
followed is clearly established. Buford and his men
surrendered and were butchered in cold blood after they
had thrown down their arms. One hundred and thirteen
were killed and one hundred and fifty severely wounded.
Fifty were taken prisoners and the remainder escaped,
many of them wounded. After the departure of Tarle-
ton the wounded were received by the settlers, as many
of them as could get in being cared for in the church.
Foremost among those engaged in taking care of the
wounded were Elizabeth Jackson and her two younger
sons.

The little lad of thirteen, as he moved about among
the sufferers in attendance upon his mother, received
a lesson in British cruelty which was indelibly im-
printed upon his boyish mind. The Jackson family was
staunchly patriotic. Hugh, although only seventeen, had
been a regularly enlisted trooper in Major Davie's
famous partisan legion. At the battle of Stono, on the
twentieth of June, 1779, although seriously ill at the
time and under orders to retire, he had insisted upon
taking his place in the fighting line and had died soon
after the battle from a relapse brought about by his
efforts,

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

It being vacation time, Robert and Andrew attached
themselves as supernumeraries to Major Davie's dra-
goons during the summer of 1780. I suppose that the
boys may have been allowed to help out with the horses
or do other chores by the free riders of the gallant
little band. Davie said afterwards that Jackson acted
as his mounted orderly — a responsible position for a lad.
I am sure that the two youngsters were there with their
mother's consent in view of her well-known patriotism
and devotion to her adopted country. Her intense an-
tagonism to England and English rule is another evi-
dence that she at least was not Scottish.

At any rate, both boys were present at the famous
little battle of Hanging Rock oft the sixth of August,
where Sumter and Davie captured the British camp, dis-
lodged the British forces from their position, looted the
camp, and would have put the redcoats to utter rout
had not Sumter's men got out of hand when they got
at the drink in the tents. After four hours of varying
fighting the Americans withdrew, leaving the ruined
camp in possession of the British, who reoccupied it on
their heels. Theoretically it was a victory for the de-
fenders; practically it was a defeat.

History is silent as to what part the Jackson boys took
in the fighting. But little, I imagine. At any rate, they
were there, and they remained with Davie for some
little time thereafter. Davie was one of the best partisan
leaders of the Revolution. His fame has been somewhat
obscured by the greater lustre which attaches to the
names of Marion, Sumter, and Pickens, but he was a
soldier who was never surprised or defeated. This
young graduate of Princeton disposed of all his property
to equip and maintain his celebrated legion of hard
fighters. At the Hanging Rock affair his were the only
troops that did not break out into mutinous disorder
and excess. All that Jackson ever learned by experience

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

of the art of war, until he took command as a major-
general, he learned from William Richardson Davie, and
some of the glory of the pupil should accrue to his first
instructor. By recalling one's own boyhood it is easy
to realize what an abiding impression this experience
made on the young trooper. Jackson remembered Davie
with the keenest admiration, and in after life often
referred to him in the highest terms as a soldier and as
a man.

After the disastrous defeat of Gates at Camden Mrs.
Jackson, who had previously temporarily abandoned her
home and plunged into the wilderness with her boys
rather than take the compulsory oath of allegiance to
Great Britain, once more retired from the Waxhaws
and took up her residence with another relative named
Wilson, four miles from Charlotte. She returned to
the Waxhaws in February, 1781.

While at the Wilsons' Andrew paid for his board by
doing what New England people call " chores." He
brought in wood, "pulled fodder," picked beans, drove
cattle, went to mill, and took the farming utensils to be
mended. Respecting the last-named duty there is a
striking reminiscence. " Never," Dr. Wilson, who was
a playmate of the stranger, would say, " did Andrew
come home from the shops without bringing with him
some new weapon with which to kill the enemy. Some-
times it was a rude spear, which he would forge while
waiting for the blacksmith to finish his job. Sometimes
it was a club or a tomahawk. Once he fastened the
blade of a scythe to a pole, and, on reaching home, began
to cut down the weeds with it that grew about the house,
assailing them with extreme fury, and occasionally utter-
ing words like these: 'Oh, if I were a man, how I
would sweep down the British with my grass-blade !' "
He found something better than a "grass-blade" with
which to " sweep them down" later on !

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

Andrew was subsequently concerned in one or two
trifling skirmishes with the Tories, and in the inter-
necine conflict which raged so hotly through the Caro-
linas, was finally made prisoner with his brother by a
detachment of the enemy, which surprised the settlement
at Waxhaws.

On a rumor of the approach of a party of British some
fifty men had gathered in the Waxhaws. church. Cap-
tain Coffin, who commanded the assailants, deceived the
defenders by covering his advance with a party of
Tories who posed as friends. After a hot little struggle,
in which the Jackson boys took part, the Americans
were dispersed. Eleven were subsequently captured and
the rest killed or wounded. The commander of the
Waxhaws men was Jackson's cousin, Lieutenant Craw-
ford. The Jackson boys, who were among those taken,
received further illustrations of what was to be ex-
pected under the gentle regime of the redcoats when
Lieutenant Crawford's house was pillaged and his chil-
dren and wife, with a baby at her breast, were treated
with shocking indignities. It was to this period that
tradition refers the anecdote, which is certainly true,
that a British officer commanded young Andrew Jackson
to black his boots. The boy refused, stating that he
was a prisoner of war, and demanded the treatment of
one. Instead of respecting this hardy declaration the
brutal officer struck the boy with his sabre. Andrew
threw up his hand, but did not completely ward the blow,
for both head and arm were badly cut and the scars of
this ferocious attack he carried with him to his grave.

Failing with Andrew, the Britisher made the same
request of Robert and got the same plucky, defiant
answer. He meted out the same punishment, too. The
two boys, with other prisoners, were hurried to Cam-
den and interned in the stockaded prison there. Small-
pox broke out and raged virulently. Robert Jackson

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

came down with it. Andrew at first was spared.
During their captivity the battle of Hobkirk's Hill was
fought, in which Lord Rawdon rather ingloriously de-
feated General Nathanael Greene. The stockade in
which the boys were confined was on a hill on the out-
skirts of Camden. From this hill a plain view of the
American troops as they advanced was had. Realizing
that there would be a battle, Jackson spent the night in
making a hole in the stockade with an old razor which
was used for cutting meat. Through this hole he wit-
nessed the fighting the next morning. It was his second
and last lesson in practical soldiering. Thereafter he
was to give, not receive, instruction in that department
of human endeavor.

Elizabeth Jackson, greatly distressed at the deten-
tion of her two small but doughty boys,, prevailed upon
a local militia captain, who had made some Tories
prisoners, to allow her to try to effect an exchange. She
journeyed to Camden, saw Lord Rawdon, and succeeded
in making the exchange, including, of course, many
others, for whose release she stipulated, with her sons.
Robert was so far gone with the dread disease that he
had to be held on his horse. Mrs. Jackson rode one
horse, supporting him on another. There were but two
horses available, and young Andrew, although the small-
pox had already stricken him, plodded behind them on
foot, forty miles, to the rude home on the Waxhaws. A
few days after their arrival Robert died — like his oldest
brother, a patriotic little martyr to his country's service
— and Andrew came near to following his example.
They might better have resisted the disease had not
their systems been enfeebled by the frightful neglect
and starvation to which they had been subjected.

English oppression had removed two of the family
of four, and it was only after a hard struggle that Eliza-
beth Jackson saved the life of her remaining son. She

FAMILY AND EARLY YEARS

was destined to lay down her own life for the cause she
loved. There were a number of prisoners confined in
the hulks at Charleston. Among them were many of the
Waxhaws people, some of whom were related to the
Jackson-Crawford connection. So soon as she could
leave Andrew this heroic woman determined to journey
to Charleston to do what she could for her fellow-
settlers and relatives who were suffering and dying unT
cared for and unheeded. Perhaps she volunteered be-
cause she could better be spared than mothers of larger
families. Leaving Andrew to the care of his relatives,
the Crawfords, in the fall of 1781, with two other de-
voted women she went down to Charleston — tradition
has it " on foot," although this is not likely — laden with
such rude provision for the comfort of the prisoners as
the settlement could muster.

After she discharged her errand she caught the ship
fever — which was the name then given to yellow fever
— and died near Charleston after a brief illness — the
third martyr in the family. She was buried hastily with
other victims of the plague, and although in after years
Jackson sought earnestly to find her grave, he never
succeeded in locating the spot where she was laid away.
No wonder Jackson hated the English !

After her death the lonely little orphan left the
Crawfords and went to live with another uncle, Joseph
White, where he worked some time as a saddler, taught
school, visited Charleston, and spent his legacy reck-
lessly. Fortune, however, had better things in store for
the young Irish-American than the making of harness
or the squandering of patrimony in idle pleasure. It
was not long before he began the study of law, was
admitted to the bar, and subsequently removed to his
future home across the mountains in Tennessee.

LAWYER

Jackson's specific profession in life was law. He
practised privately for a short time, then for several
years was public prosecutor, or what is now called dis-
trict attorney, for Tennessee. After an intermediate
experience as congressman and senator from the new
State he was elevated from the latter office to the
Supreme Court of Tennessee. After he resigned from
the bench to devote himself to planting and trade he
never resumed the practice of law. Of legal knowledge
Jackson had little. It was his salvation that probably
most of the practitioners of his time and locality were
not much better off than he. There were great lawyers
in the United States in those days, — never have there
been greater, indeed, — but there were few of them west
of the Allegheny Mountains. Those who flourished
there came after Jackson's career at the bar.

As a personality Jackson was head and shoulders over
any of his contemporaries. He possessed three qualifi-
cations for the then dangerous office of public prose-
cutor, without which he would have been a total failure.
They were a dauntless courage, an inflexible deter-
mination, and sound common-sense. Except when his
prejudices were awakened by insults or injuries, fancied
or otherwise, to himself or his friends, or to those
whose circumstances gave them a claim on his chivalric
nature, he was eminently fair and just. There are no
reports of the Tennessee courts until after the close of
Jackson's terms of office. Unfortunately, none of his
decisions as judge has been preserved, consequently no
one ever refers to him for the establishment of a pre-

LAWYER

cedent or the decision of a nice point of law. Yet no
man seems to have questioned his impartiality on the
bench. He was so fiercely assailed in after life, his every
action was so keenly scrutinized, and everything that
possibly could be turned to his disadvantage was so
openly proclaimed, that the absence of any general
charge of injustice Or inefficiency is conclusive proof
that he made a wise and upright judge.

To be a district attorney then was to take one's life in
one's hand. It is not a pleasant situation now, and it
entailed most serious risks in primitive days. The
breaker of law often had public sentiment on his side.
The laws were harsher in those days, and for that reason
it was more difficult to enforce them. Jackson, however,
was equal to the situation. Before he had been a month
in Nashville he had issued over seventy writs to delin-
quent debtors and had brought them to a speedy trial.

As Fiske says : " Amid such a turbulent population
the public prosecutor must needs be a man of nerve
and resource. Jackson proved himself quite equal to the
task of introducing law and order in so far as it de-
pended upon him. 'Just inform Mr. Jackson/ said
Governor Blount, when sundry malfeasances were re-
ported to him ; ' he will be sure to do his duty, and the
offenders will be punished.' "

Colonel Putnam, of the Tennessee Historical Society,
states that " The records of the Quarter Sessions Court
of Davidson County, the county of which Nashville is
the capital, show that at the April term, 1790, there were
one hundred and ninety-two cases on the two dockets
(Appearance docket and Trial docket) and that Andrew
Jackson was employed as counsel in forty-two of them.
On one leaf of the record of the January term, 1793,
there are thirteen suits entered, mostly for debt, in every
one of which Andrew Jackson was employed. At the
April term of the same year he was counsel in seventy-

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

two out of one hundred and fifty-five cases. In most
of these he was counsel for the defence. At the July
term of the same year he was employed in sixty cases
out of one hundred and thirty-two. In the four terms
of 1794 there were three hundred and ninety-seven cases
before the same court, in two hundred and twenty-eight
of which Jackson acted as counsel. And during these
and later years he practised at the courts of Jonesboro
and other towns in East Tennessee."

Colyar had unearthed a note in the court records of
Sumner County, Tennessee, at Gallatin, to the effect that
in a certain case the court "Thanks Andrew Jackson
for his brave conduct." Here follows the explanation
of the words.

" Judge Guild, who was admitted to the bar at Gal-
latin in 1825, hunted up two men who had been mem-
bers of the county court at the time referred to and
from them learned the following:

" ' That there was a gang of bullies in the county,
who on public days got up fights and committed other
offences and then bullied the court and refused to be
tried ; that up to the time Jackson went there as attor-
ney-general the justices holding the court had been
dominated by these bullies ; that Jackson had full infor-
mation before he came of the condition ; that he came
on horseback, hitched his horse, and came into court,
which had already been opened, and, getting his docket,
looked over the cases, and the first thing he did was to
call one of the cases in which the defendant had refused
to be tried ; that the defendant came up and said he was
not going to be tried/

"Judge Guild's remembrance was that the old men
who had been on the bench at. the time said that Jack-
son in a mild way remonstrated with the man about his
case and told him that the case had to be tried; that
the defendant used offensive language and said no

LAWYER

court could try him ; that thereupon Jackson pulled his
saddlebags out from under the table and took out two
large pistols — such as travellers carried — and laid them
on the table. The bully grabbed at the pistols, and the
struggle between him and Jackson led to a general fight.
The good citizens, inspired by the courage* of young
Jackson, fell in and whipped the whole crowd. Jackson
and his man having fallen out of the door, Jackson held
to him and brought him back and tried him, and when
it was all over the court ordered the clerk to put on
the minutes Judge Guild assured me he had seen:
' The Court thanks Andrew Jackson for his brave con-
duct.' "

When Jackson became judge he was equally fearless
and determined. Parton thus writes of his famous epi-
sode with Colonel Harrison : " In the fall of 1803, while
Jackson was on his way from Nashville to Jonesboro,
where he was about to hold a court, he was informed
by a friend who met him on the road that a combination
had been formed against him, and that on his arrival at
Jonesboro he might expect to be mobbed. He was
sick at the time of an intermittent fever, which had so
reduced his strength that he was scarcely able to sit on
his horse. But on hearing this intelligence he spurred
forward and reached the town, but so exhausted that he
could not dismount without help. Burning with fever,
he lay down upon a bed in the tavern. A few minutes
after a friend came in and said that Colonel Harrison
and 'a regiment of men' were in front of the tavern,
who had assembled for the purpose of tarring and
feathering him. His friend advised him to lock his door.
Jackson rose suddenly, threw his door wide open, and
said, with that peculiar emphasis which won him so
many battles without fighting, —

" ' Give my compliments to Colonel Harrison, and
tell him my door is open to receive him and his regiment

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

whenever they choose tQ wait upon me, and that I hope
the colonel's chivalry will induce him to lead his men,
not follow them/ "

" The ' regiment/ either because they were ashamed
to harm a sick man or afraid to attack a desperate one,
thought better of their purpose and gradually dispersed.
Judge Jackson recovered from his fever, held his court
as usual, and heard nothing further of any hostile de-
signs at Jonesboro."

On one occasion the sheriff was ordered to bring a
desperate criminal into the court. When he reported
that he was unable to arrest the man, Jackson descended
from the bench, directed the sheriff to summon him,
received the summons, walked out into the street and
apprehended the man, marched him into the court, re-
sumed his seat on the bench, and there sentenced him
for punishment^ He was quite willing then, as always,
to do everting himself.

Jackson was one of the few Presidents of the United
States who had been on both sides of the bar — i.e., both
as prosecutor and prosecuted. During the New Orleans
campaign, after the defeat of the British, a citizen of the
town, Louis Louaillier, published an article in the
Louisiana Gazette claiming that peace had been restored,
although it had not been officially proclaimed, that the
British had departed, and that martial law — which
Jackson had declared and established without warrant
of the constitution but for the great good and benefit
of the citizens — should be abrogated immediately; ac-
cordingly he urged resistance to Jackson's authority in
case he did not at once annul his proclamation. Louail-
lier evidently did not know the temper of the man whom
he was attacking, for Jackson promptly ordered him
under arrest, his justification being the very procla-
mation by which martial law had been established, as
follows :

LAWYER

"The Major-General Commanding assumes every responsi-
bility that may attach to this prpceedfag. Martial law can only
be justified by the necessity of the case. The Major-General
proclaims it at his own risk 'and upoa his sole responsibility
not alone to the Government, but to individuals. It is a meas-
ure unknown to the Constitution and laws of the United States.
The effect of its proclamation is to abrogate for the time being
the authority of the civil law ; to bring all persons resident in
the district comprised by it within the purview of martial law ;
so that all those in that district capable of defending the coun-
try are subject to such law by virtue of the proclamation and
may be tried by its provisions and methods during its continu-

Judge Dominick A. Hall, of the United States Court,
granted a writ of habeas corpus requiring the production
of Louaillier before him immediately. Jackson dealt
with this situation as promptly as he had with the other.
He issued the following order to Colonel Arbuckle,
which was at once carried out: \^.f.

" New Orleans, March 5th, 181 5,

" Seven o'clock p.m.
"Headquarters Seventh Military District,

" Having received proof that Dominick A. Hall has been
aiding and abetting and exciting mutiny within my camp, you
will forthwith order a detachment to arrest and confine him,
and report to me as soon as he is arrested. You will be vigi-
lant; the agents of our enemy are more numerous than was
expected. You will be guarded against escapes.

"A Jackson, Major-General Commanding."

After Judge Hall was arrested, he and Louaillier were
both exiled from the United States ! " I have thought
proper," said the general, " to send you beyond the limits
of my encampment, to prevent a repetition of the im-
proper conduct with which you have been charged. You
will remain without the lines of my sentinels until the
ratification of peace is regularly announced, or until the
British shall have left the southern coast."

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Jackson certainly had no hesitation whatever in
standing by his own proclamation. When he said a
thing he meant it, and other people got involved in
difficulties by failing to understand that. They soon
learned that they were dealing with a man who never
took a position in which he was not prepared to go to
the last limit to sustain his course, right or wrong
though it might be. He was like Lord Say and Seal in
that.

When he was finally persuaded that peace had been
declared — and it was eminently proper for him to take
no ex-parte statements or opinions to that effect, but
only official notice, especially with the British forces still
on the coast — he, of course, abrogated martial law and
restored the community to the operation of the civil law
and the jurisdiction of the civil courts. This was Judge
Hall's opportunity.

The angry judge at once issued a summons for the
summary general couched in the following terms :

" That the said Major-General Andrew Jackson show cause,
on Friday next, the 24th March instant, at ten o'clock a.m.,
why an attachment should not be awarded against him for con-
tempt of this court, in having disrespectfully wrested from the
clerk aforesaid an original order of the honorable the judge of
this court, for the issuing of a writ of habeas corpus, when
issued and served, in having imprisoned the honorable the
judge of this court, and for other contempts, as stated by the
witnesses."

Jackson immediately obeyed the summons. He is
pictured usually as a haughty, irascible, undisciplined
man, who respected little but his own will, yet in this
instance he showed that he possessed other more ad-
mirable qualities. He was the savior of New Orleans,
the victor of the most remarkable battle of his time, a
man whose authority had been absolutely unquestioned ;
who had acted as he believed — and as I for one believe —

LAWYER

with abundant justification; who was being subjected
to a petty personal persecution for an official action
which the circumstances rendered necessary. No doubt
he could have dismissed Judge Hall's summons with
contempt. There was no power in Louisiana or in the
southern part of the United States to have brought him
to that court had he been unwilling to go. The soldiers
were devoted to him, and so were the citizens. Yet he
went without hesitation. Eaton thus describes the
scene :

" On that day General Jackson appeared in court, at-
tended by a prodigious concourse of excited people. He
wore the dress of a private citizen. Undiscovered
amidst the crowd, he had nearly reached the bar, when,
being perceived, the room instantly rang with the shouts
of a thousand voices. Raising himself on a bench, and
moving his hand to procure silence, a pause ensued. He
then addressed himself to the crowd ; told them of the
duty due to the public authorities; for that any im-
propriety of theirs would be imputed to him, and urged,
if they had any regard for him, that they would, on
the present occasion, forbear those feelings and expres-
sion of opinion. Silence being restored, the judge rose
from his seat, and remarking that it was impossible nor
safe, to transact business at such a moment and under
such threatening circumstances, directed the marshal to
adjourn the court. The general immediately interfered
and requested that it might not be done. ' There is no
danger here; there shall be none — the same arm that
protected from outrage this city, against the invaders of
the country, will shield and protect this court or perish
in the effort.'

" Tranquillity was restored and the court proceeded to
business. The district attorney had prepared, and now
presented, a file of. nineteen questions to be answered
by the prisoner. ' Did you not arrest Louaillier?' ' Did

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

you not arrest the judge of this court?' ' Did you not
say a variety of disrespectful things of the judge ?' ' Did
you not seize the writ of habeas corpus?' These nine-
teen interrogations the general utterly refused to answer,
to listen to, or receive. He told the court that in the
paper previously presented by his counsel he had ex-
plained fully the reasons that had influenced his conduct.
That paper had been rejected without a hearing. He
could add nothing to that paper. ' Under the circum-
stances/ said he, ' I appear before you to receive the
sentence of the court, having nothing further in my
defence to offer.'

" Whereupon Judge Hall pronounced the judgment
of the court. It is recorded in the words following :

" ' On this day appeared in person Major-General Andrew
Jackson, and, being duly informed by the court that an attach-
ment had issued against him for the purpose of bringing him
into court, and the district-attorney having filed interroga-
tories, the court informed General Jackson that they would be
tendered to him for the purpose of answering thereto. The
said General Jackson refused to receive them, or to make any
answer to the said interrogatories. Whereupon the court pro-
ceeded to pronounce judgment, which was, that Major-General
Andrew Jackson do pay a fine of one thousand dollars to the
United States/ "

The fine was paid then and there.

Few things are more creditable to Jackson than his
action in this connection. It is interesting to note that
the fine was afterwards refunded to the general by the
United States government. Thus his original course
was approved by the authorities. The whole incident
was a lucky one for Judge Hall, for it rescued his name
from an oblivion from which nothing else in his c&reer
would have saved him.

Once again in his life Jackson faced a writ of habeas
corpus and refused to obey it. When he was made
governor of Florida and after the cession of that terri-

LAWYER

tory to the United States, he came into a collision with
Callava, the retiring Spanish governor. A woman, a
mulattress, claimed to be one of the heirs of the estate
of a man named Vidal who had left considerable
property. She said she was unable to establish her
claim because the Spanish governor, Callava, refused
to allow her access to certain papers belonging to her
which he retained in his possession.

That was enough for Jackson. A woman — even a
black one — in trouble appealed to him as no one else
could. He sent Callava a peremptory demand for the
papers. When the Spanish governor claimed that they
were not his personal property, that he was simply the
custodian of them and refused to give them up, Jackson
actually clapped him in jail! He put him in the local
calaboose and then sent one of his aids to open the gov-
ernor's boxes and get out the papers, which, by the way,
utterly failed to substantiate the claims of the woman,
for investigation disclosed the fact that so far from
anything being due her from the Vidal estate, she was
indebted thereto.

Judge Elijius Fromentin, of Louisiana, an apostate
French Roman Catholic priest, who had been ap-
pointed United States judge of Florida, issued a writ
of habeas corpus for Callava, to which Jackson paid no
attention whatever. The action made a great stir at the
time. Callava and the Spanish government carried the
affair to Washington. Jackson was sustained in his
disregard of the writ for the reason that Congress had
only extended the revenue laws to the new territory, and
the only law which obtained in other matters was the
old Spanish law which did not provide for a writ of
habeas corpus — a point to which Jackson had given no
thought whatever, although it turned out so luckily in
his favor. The Spanish government was soothed by a
sort of apology — not tendered by Jackson I — for the
4 49

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

arrest of the former governor — who was released so
soon as Jackson had examined the papers, by the way
— and thus the matter ended. As usual, although he
had behaved outrageously towards the unfortunate
Spanish official, Jackson got off scot-free.

Wherever Jackson went he managed to get into diffi-
culties. If there was any fighting against the enemy to
be done, he could work off his energy and temper in
that direction, but failing that safety-valve, his pugnacity
involved him in all sorts of trouble. He generally did
the right thing in the wrong way, or if he did it in the
right way, he would throw such color over his action or
his words as to exasperate those who did not believe
as he.

He was once offered the mission to Mexico. He de-
clined it, which was within his power, but he went
further than that. He published a letter in the Mobile
Register in which he stated his reasons for declining.

" These reasons were a reflection on the administra-
tion, because they showed cause why no mission ought
to be sent. The letter was calculated to win capital out
of the appointment at the expense of the administration
which had made it."

Monroe was his good friend and considered the pro-
priety of appointing him minister to Russia. Before
making out the appointment he consulted with Jefferson.
Jefferson and Jackson were both Democrats, and the
Democratic party, in accordance with its fluctuation of
opinion, swore impartially by either or both — and still
so swears! — but no two men were ever so tempera-
mentally, and I may add politically, diverse as Jackson
and Jefferson. Jefferson responded to Monroe's in-
quiry in the following vigorous and emphatic language,
" Why, good God, he would breed you a quarrel before
he had been there a month !"

Jackson fully reciprocated Jefferson's poor opinion of
50

LAWYER

him. Q Senator Allen says : " Then he had always dis-
liked Jefferson from the first, from the time when he
(Jackson) went to Congress for Tennessee in 1796. He
said he saw but little of Jefferson then, but got better
acquainted with him the next year,twhen he was in the
Senate, with Jefferson as presiding officer. ' Officially/
said Jackson, * he was all that could be wished, but in
personal intercourse he always left upon you the im-
pression of want of candor, sincerity, and fidelity. He
could not conceal his timidity A He was much more sen-
sitive to Federalist criticism than to that of his own
party. He seemed to think he owned his party anyhow,
and his ambition seemed to be to win over the Federals.
I really believe/ exclaimed Jackson, ' that he seriously
cherished the foolish hope that he might sometime be
elected President without opposition, as Washington had
been!'"

Notwithstanding this, Jefferson on one occasion pre-
sided at a banquet to do honor to Jackson, after his.
military fame had become so great, and toasted him
in the most handsome and magnanimous manner. Jef-
ferson was an old man at the time, however, and per-
haps the mellowness of age made him more charitable
than he would have been in earlier life.

Jackson must have had in his bearing a great deal of
the dignity and impressiveness we like to associate with
the bench if the following testimony from Senator Ben-
ton can be accepted. " The first time that I saw General
Jackson was at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1790 — he on
the bench, a judge of the then Supreme Court, and I
a youth of seventeen, back in the crowd. He was then
a remarkable man, and had his ascendancy over all
who apprehended him, not the effect of his high judi-
cial station, nor of the senatorial rank which he had held
and resigned; nor of military exploits, for he had not
then been to war; but the effect of personal qualities,

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

cordial and graceful manners, hospitable temper, eleva-
tion of mind, undaunted spirit, generosity, and perfect
integrity.^ In charging the jury in the impending case,
he committed a slight solecism in language which grated
on my ear and lodged in my memory without derogating
in the least from the respect which he inspired, and
without awakening the least suspicion that I was ever to
be engaged in smoothing his diction."

By the way, in 1808 Benton was fined one dollar for
swearing in open court, which shows that the forensic
manner of the time was not quite what it should have
been, at least in the case of so accomplished a man as
the great senator from Missouri.

111

PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, AND SPORTSMAN

Like many men of action, Jackson's fondest desire
was for a retired, quiet life on his plantation, especially
after the close of his military career. That desire was
rarely realized. He was a rich man for his day, per-
haps the richest man in Tennessee, and, other things
being equal, could have ordered his life according to
his fancy. In the Hermitage he had one of the finest
plantations in the State or out of it. Although various
things embarrassed him somewhat after his retirement
from the Presidency and compelled him to borrow
money and pledge his crops, his circumstances were
easy and he never suffered from lack of means. His
generosity was unbounded to all who had any claim
upon him. Fortune and the demands of his countrymen
never permitted him to enjoy his rural life for any
extended period of time. He was generally in office of
some sort which necessitated his absence from Nashville,
near which his home was situated. He was not only
a prosperous planter, but a successful merchant as well.
He associated himself at various times with different
partners and dealt in general merchandise.

Sparks, in his " Memories of Fifty Years," charges
Jackson with having been in early life a dealer in slaves.
His remarks on this charge are rather naive, since he
accompanies them with many controverting statements
and with very little establishing testimony. Whom are
we to believe if not the affidavits of Jackson's friends,
who strenuously denied the charge? Yet I suppose
there may be some ground of truth for it. Jackson may

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

have sold slaves that had come into his possession in
various ways, as other planters had done from time to
time, but that he was a slave-dealer in the recognized
sense of the word is not true. In the first place, the
universal testimony is that no man was ever kinder to
his slaves than Jackson. The relation between them
and him was that of a patriarchal type, which was not
infrequent in the South and which constituted the best
defence of slavery that could be made. Master and
slaves at the Hermitage were devoted to one another.
Fierce, haughty, irascible as he sometimes was, Jackson
was always kind to the poor and dependent.

" Everybody told us," writes Parton, " that General
Jackson's slaves were treated with the greatest hu-
manity, and several persons assured us that it would
not surprise them if in a short time their master, who
already had so many claims on the gratitude of his
fellow-citizens, should attempt to augment it still more
by giving an example of gradual emancipation to Ten-
nessee, which would be the more easily accomplished,
as there are in this State but seventy-nine thousand
slaves in a population of four hundred and twenty-three
thousand, and from the public mind becoming more in-
clined than formerly to the abolition of slavery."

Before he built the Hermitage, which was a mansion
for those days, and is still a spacious and commodious
residence, Jackson and his wife lived in log cabins, the
capacity of which was limited and the facilities for enter-
tainment meagre, yet the hospitality of the general and
his wife was unbounded. Thus Parton :

" In an establishment so restricted, General Jackson
and his good-hearted wife continued to dispense a most
generous hospitality. A lady of Nashville tells me that
she has often been at the Hermitage in those simple old
times, when there was in each of the four available
rooms not a guest merely, but a family, while the young

PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN

men and solitary travellers who chanced to drop in dis1
posed themselves on the piazza, or any other shelter
about the house. ' Put me down in your book/ said
one of General Jackson's oldest neighbors, 'that the
general was the prince of hospitality; not because he
entertained a great many people, but because the poor,
belated pedlar was as welcome as the President of the
United States, and made so much at his ease that he felt
as though he had got home/ "

" The general used in those years to ride in a carriage
drawn by four handsome iron-gray horses, attended by
servants in blue livery with brass buttons, glazed hats,
and silver bands. ' A very big man, sir/ remarked one
of the aged waiters of the City Hotel of Nashville. ' We
had many big men, sir, in Nashville at that time, but
General Jackson was the biggest man of them all. I
knew the general, sir ; but he always had so many people
around him when he came to town that it was not often
I could get a chance to say anything to him. He didn't
used to put up at our house. No, sir; the old Nash-
ville Inn was General Jackson's house. He was a
mighty quick man, sir; used to step around lively.'
Thus, Washington, for thirty-five years waiter in the
City Hotel."

The views of the old waiter are interesting and accu-
rate. According to Bernard Shaw, waiters are men of
much more acumen than those who simply are fed —
fancy! Jackson was a very great man and a marvel-
lously active one, yet he was never an early riser when
at home. It was his custom then to breakfast between
eight and nine — a fashionable enough hour now, but
very late in those days.

Originally he had been what Parton describes as " an
impetuous eater, fond of a liberal table and accustomed
to take freely and largely of whatever good things were
before him. He was one of these long, thin men who

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

ply a vigorous knife and fork all their days and never
grow fat." Illness, brought about by his campaigning
and fighting, caused him to grow constantly more care-
ful and abstemious in his diet as he grew older. After
dinner he and his wife were accustomed to sit by the
fire, both taking a few leisurely and dignified pulls at
_their long reed tobacco-pipes.

" For a week," writes Aaron Burr, who certainly
knew the outward marks of good-breeding and refine-
ment as well as any man on earth, " I have been
lounging at the house of General Jackson, once a lawyer,
after a judge, now a planter ; a man of intelligence, and
one of those prompt, frank, ardent souls whom I love
to meet."

The poor were as welcome as the rich. It must not
be inferred that Jackson loved the poor any more than
he did the rich, or vice versa, but he was the first of
the Presidents of the United States who was really
Democratic in practice as well as in theory. He esti-
mated a man by his mental and moral worth, not by his
manners. Yet there was no man who has filled the
Presidential chair who was more courtly in bearing,
more distinguished in manner, or more genuinely filled
the measure of high breeding than Andrew Jackson.
Strange as it may seem to the casual who are attracted
by such antitheses as " Jefferson simplicity" and " Jack-
son vulgarity," there is no doubt that Jackson was as
polished a gentleman as, let us say, Chester A. Arthur,
for instance. The vulgarity charge in connection with
Jackson is just about as true as the charge of sim-
plicity in connection with Jefferson.

As a storekeeper Jackson made money. He was the
most honest of men. His credit was the highest in
the land. When banks were unable to secure money
Jackson could get it on his personal unsecured note from
anybody who had it. When he first entered business

PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN

he sold a piece of land to a Philadelphia capitalist whose
reputation was very high. Jackson took notes in pay-
ment for his land, discounted them, and bought goods
with the proceeds. The man who had given the notes
failed entirely. Jackson found himself minus his land
and liable for the amount of the notes. He paid every
dollar of the obligation and by economy and shrewdness
recouped his fortune. According to Parton :

" Sometime in 1838 or 1839 a gentleman in Ten-
nessee became involved and wanted money; he had
property and owed debts. His property was not avail-
able just then, and off he posted to Boston, backed by
the names of several of the best men in Tennessee.
Money was tight, and Boston bankers looked closely at
the names. ' Very good/ said they ; ' but — but — do you
know General Jackson ?' ' Certainly/ ' Could you get
his endorsement?' 'Yes, but it is not worth a tenth as
much as either of those gentlemen whose names I offer
you/ ' No matter : General Jackson has always pro-
tected himself and 'his paper, and we'll let you have the
money on the sfwwfth of his name.' In a few days
the paper with his 'Signature arrived. The moment these
Boston bankers saw the tall A and long J of Andrew
Jackson, our Tennessean said he could have raised a
hundred thousand dollars upon the signature without
the slightest difficulty."

Several times he pledged his personal property to pay
bills incurred in military movements for the State and
for the United States. In every instance, so high was
his credit, he had no difficulty in obtaining the money.
As his property accumulated he gradually withdrew
from mercantile business. "The tradition is," says
Parton, "that, after some years of storekeeping, Jack-
son sold out to Coffee, taking notes payable at long
intervals in payment for his share; that Coffee floun-
dered on awhile by himself and lost all that he had in

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

the world; that, afterwards, Coffee gave up the busi-
ness, resumed the occupation of surveying, prospered,
and married a niece of Mrs. Jackson; that, on the
wedding-day, General Jackson did the handsome and
dramatic thing — brought out Coffee's notes from his
strong box, tore them in halves, and presented the
pieces to the bride with a magnificent bow. Which
latter incident has the merit of being entirely prob-
able, for his generosity to the relatives of his wife was
boundless." Thereafter he devoted himself to his
plantation.

Respecting General Jackson's mode of dealing, we/
have agreeable information. " A cool, shrewd man of I
business," remarked Dr. Felix Robertson, a venerated/
citizen of Nashville (who was the first boy born in Nash-
ville and who remembered Jackson since 1800). "He
knew the value of an article. He knew his own mind.
Hence, he was prompt and decided. No chaffering, no
bargaining. ' I will give or take so much ; if you will
trade, say so, and have done with it ; if not, let it alone/
A man of soundest judgment, uttefly ljonest, naturally
honest; would beggar himself to pSy a debt, and did
so; could not be comfortable if he thought he had
wronged anyone. He was swift to make up his mind,
yet was rarely wrong ; but whether wrong or right, hard
to be shaken. Still, if convinced that he was in the
wrong, no man so prompt to acknowledge and atone.
He was a bank hater from an early day. Paper money
was an abomination to him, because he regarded it in
the light of a promise to pay that was almost certain,
sooner or later, to be broken. For his own part, law
or no law, he would pay what he owed; he would do
what he said he would."

"•■• Jackson was not only a farmer, but a breeder of fine
horses as well. Next to his books on military tactics
those on horses were his favorite study. He did much

ly \
id
id /

PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN

by importing blooded sires and carefully breeding them
to produce that high quality which the horses of Ken-
tucky and Tennessee have never lost.

Being a horseman, he was naturally a sportsman. He
entered his horses freely in every race and meet which
took place in his vicinity and generally won. The
ostensible cause of his quarrel with Dickinson was a
horse-race. He was fond of every kind of sport preva-
lent in that day. As a boy, while a law student at Salis-
bury, one of his contemporaries writes : " Andrew Jack-
son was the most roaring, rollicking, game-cocking,
horse-racing, card-playing, mischievous fellow, that ever
lived in Salisbury." Add to this such expressions as
these: " he did not trouble the law-books much;" " he
was more in the stable than in the office ;" " he was the-
head of all the rowdies hereabouts." /And the following
discreditable pranks throws a peculiar light on the man-
ners and customs of the free and easy period :

" The dancing-school resolved to give a Christmas
ball, and Andrew Jackson was appointed to serve as one
of the managers thereof. There were living at that time
in Salisbury two women of ill-repute, a mother and
daughter, Molly and Rachel Wood — women notoriously
dissolute — a by-word in the county of Rowan. Jack-
son, who was excessively fond of a practical joke, sent
these two women tickets of admission to the ball, 'to
see what would come of it/ as he said. On the even-
ing of the ball, lo! the women presented themselves,
flaunting in all the colors of the rainbow. Some con-
fusion ensued. The dancing was suspended. The
ladies withdrew to one side of the room, half giggling,
half offended. Molly and Rachel were soon led out and
the ball went on as before. In the course of the even-
ing, when it came out that Jackson had sent them invita-
tions, the ladies took him to task, upon which he humbly
apologized, declaring that it was merely a piece of fun,

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

and that he scarcely supposed the women would have
the face to make their appearance ; and if they did, he
thought the ladies would take it as a joke." The ladies
forgave him more easily than some modern readers of
the story will, yet this, it must be remembered, took
place when Jackson was still little more than a boy.

Parton says that " Jackson played cards, fought cocks,
ran horses, threw the ' long bullet' (a cannon-ball slung
in a strap and thrown as a trial of strength), carried off
gates, moved outhouses to remote fields, and occasionally)
indulged in a downright drunken debauch. But he was I
not licentious nor particularly quarrelsome." Except}
for the " debauch," which is disputed by some authori-
ties, these practices were those that usually obtained
among the young men of the time and some of them
were harmless enough.

According to Parton, during his sojourn in Charles-
ton the following incident occurred : " He had strolled
one evening down the street, and was carried into a
place where some persons were amusing themselves at
a game of dice, and much betting was in progress. He
was challenged for a game by a person present, by
whom a proposal was made to stake two hundred
dollars against a fine horse on which Jackson had
come to Charleston. After some deliberation he ac-
cepted the challenge. Fortune was on his side; the
wager was won and paid. He forthwith departed,
settled his bill next morning, and returned to his
home. ' My calculation/ said he, speaking of this
little incident, ' was that, if a loser in the game, I would
give the landlord my saddle and bridle, as far as they
would go towards the payment of his bill, ask a credit
for the balance, and walk away from the city ; but being
successful, I had new spirits infused into me, left the
table, and from that moment to the present time I have
never thrown dice for a wager.' "

PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN

This personal testimony may be depended upon abso-
lutely. Whatever else he might have been, Jackson was
the most truthful of men ; he scorned a lie and hated a
liar. Mistaken he might be, his remembrance at fault
possibly, but wilfully deceiving, never. Such a state-
ment as that quoted is impeachable.

"Nashville increased very rapidly both in numbers
and wealth after the new century began," writes the
virtuous and voluminous Parton. " It became a gay
and somewhat dissipated place. Billiards, for example,
were played to such excess that the game was sup-
pressed by act of the legislature. The two annual races
were the two great days of the year. Cards were played
wherever two men found themselves together with
nothing to do. Betting in all its varieties was carried on
continually. Cock-fights were not infrequent. The
whiskey bottle — could that be wanting?

" In all these sports — the innocent, the less innocent,
and the very bad, Andrew Jackson was an occasional
participant. He played billiards and cards, and both for
money. He ran horses and bet upon the horses of
others. He was occasionally hilarious over his whiskey
or his wine when he came to Nashville on Saturdays.
At the cock-pit no man more eager than he."

There were gentlemen of the first respectability living
at Nashville in Parton's day who remembered seeing
him often at the cock-pit in the publfc square adjoining
the old Nashville Inn, cheering on his favorite birds
with loudest vociferation. "'Hurrah! my Dominica!
Ten dollars on my Dominica !' or ' Hurrah ! my Berna-
dotte ! Twenty dollars on my Bernadotte ! Who'll take
me up? Well done, my Bernadotte! My Bernadotte
for ever/ "

Colonel Avery thus relates : " On the third of July,
1809, I rode from Rutherford Court-House to Nash-
ville. I saw there the general in a character new to me.

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

He had made a main of cocks with Patton Anderson,
to be fought on the Fourth for six hundred and forty
acres of land. Whatever General Jackson did was the
fashion. His influence over young men was unbounded.
Cock-fighting was, accordingly, the order of the day.
I passed ox-carts and wagons loaded with chickens.
They were arriving by boats, too, from up and down
the Cumberland. General Jackson was on the main, but
the fighting by amateurs continued. On the third after-
noon of the fighting, I think, when I went to the pit
with George W. Campbell, a chicken of the General's,
after being cut down, revived, and, by a lucky stroke,
killed his antagonist. Upon this I heard Jackson say to
Campbell :

" ' There is the greatest emblem of bravery on earth.
Bonaparte is not braver V

" They were drinking quantities of mint-julep. I re-
mained at the pit long enough to see large sums of
money and several horses change hands. I suppose it
was ennui, or want of excitement, made him do it.
I never heard of him fighting chickens before or after
this occasion, though he may have done it."

And another contemporary exclaimed when it was
proposed to nominate him for the Presidency : " What !
Jackson up for President! Jackson! Andrew Jackson!
The Jackson that used to live in Salisbury? Why, when
he was here he was such a rake that my husband would
not bring him into the house. It is true, he might have
taken him out to the stable to weigh horses for a race,
and might drink a glass of whiskey with him there.
Well, if Andrew Jackson can be President, anybody
can!" Which shows how mistaken sometimes is the
contemporary judgment.

Yet it is well established that after the War of 1812
he was never seen at a cock-pit and very seldom at the
race-track, although he never lost his love for horses,

PLANTER, STOREKEEPER, SPORTSMAN

Sumner, who cannot be accused of partiality, writes :
" Jackson was above every species of money vice ; he
was chaste and domestic in his habits; he was tem-
perate in every way; he was not ambitious in the bad
sense. Judge McNairy speaks of General Jackson as
being less addicted to the vices and immoralities of
youth than any young man with whom he was ac-
quainted; that he never knew of his fighting cocks or
gambling, and as for his being a libertine, as has been
charged, the judge says he was distinctly the reverse
of it. ' The truth is, as everybody here well knows, Gen-
eral Jackson never was fond of any kind of sport, nor
did he indulge in any except occasionally for amusement,
but horse-racing. This his friends are willing to admit,
but even this he has quit for many years. I believe ever
since the year 1810 or 1811/ " ~

I suppose the discrepancies in what has been recorded
arise from the fact that the things Jackson may have
enjoyed and delighted in during his youth, he gradually
abandoned as he grew older ; at any rate, the testimony
to his manly qualities in his mature years is abundant.

SOLDIER

The military career of Andrew Tackson undoubtedly
made him the most prominent figure in thehistorv of
the United States between Washington and. Lincoln.
The Creek War, the War of 1812, and tH6 Sertiinble
War afforded him opportunities for the display of
talents, military ana personal, which amounted to
genius The opening ot the s^(!Uiid decade of the nine-
teenth century found him obscure and for national
purposes unknown or unconsidered. Its close left him
tRe dominant personality of his age. From that position
which he attained he never derogated. He remained the
greatest man of his times. The same qualities which
made him great as a soldier distinguished him in his
after life. The same defects which he exhibited as a
soldier marred his subsequent career ; but in his life the
good overbalanced the ill, and with the lapse of years the
latter is well-nigh forgotten.

In the popular understanding Jackson's fame as a
soldier rests solely upon tne tsattie ot isiew Orleans.
That was a remarkable battle. We can safely go farther
and say that it was a unique battle, such an one as had
never Tiappened be tore and certainly will never happen
again. JBut it would have been a most remarkable
thing if from half an hour oi fierce fiflhtinff at lon^
range inthe Delta "f *V ^Mississippi na<r»""h1 fly*
subsequent career of Andrrw JarHmi It was the
salient, the culminating, ^ratlirr of *i nil'^^y^gducation
"IrTtiTe hard schodTofltctiial pvppjiVn^ whir^*^afjMlH
the popular attention upon him, and which, conse-

ANDKKW JACKSON

From the portrait by Colonel R. E. \V. Earl in the State Capitol,
Nashville, Tenn.

SOLDIER

quently, has stood for all that went before. Yet it by
no means represents Jackson's military career, nor was
the famous pattle ot the eighth of lanuarV the most con-
evincing demonstration of his ability as a soldier — quite
th&xonixary.

Jackson was elected major-general of militia in the
State ot lennessee in 1801 at the age of thirty-four.
His military experience prior to that time had been
practicall^-nil. He took part in an Indian expedition
on a very small scale in the spring of 1792, when he
commanded a small body of fifteen men pursuing some
Indians who had ravaged Robertson's Station. One of
his companions describes him as "bold, dashing, fear-
less, and mad upon his enemies.,, Buell says that he
was at that time a major of militia. No one else
attributes that rank to him, and Buell qualifies his
statement later on, by saying that prior to his appoint-
ment as major-general he had enjoyed no military ex-
perience whatsoever. Whether he was a titular major
or not, the latter statement is indubitably correct.

Jackson was elected by one vote. His principal com-
petitor for the office of major-general was the famous
John Sevier, the hero of a hundred fights, a veteran and
approved soldier. It was an inexpressible humiliation
to old John Sevier to be beaten by in unknown young
man who had never set a squadron in the field, what-
ever his courage and other qualities for command might
be. The vote that elected Jackson was the deciding one
of Governor Roane.*

In after years the position of major-general of mili-
tia was a subject for burlesque, and the gorgeously
apparelled paper soldiers who filled the office were the
butts of the wits of the time. It is different to-day. A

* It is interesting to speculate upon thi consequences to this
country of a change in that one votcJ__^.
< S — —" "~55

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

major-general of the National Guard is usually at least
a respectable soldier with well-understood duties and a
zealous desire to discharge them. He has the adminis-
tration and the training of that force of the nation upon
which, when we are compelled to use the final argument
of republics as well as of kings, we must rely for de-
fence. In Jackson's day the position was even more
honorable"and its duties more important and more oner-
ous than they are now. Every man in Tennessee was
more or less of a soldier. At least, it cannot be gain-
said that he was of necessity a man-at-arms. The most
precious possession of the pioneer was his rifle. By
it he preserved his life, procured his food, and insured
his liberty. Indians were always troublesome, and the
new commonwealths to the west lived rifle in hand,
finger on trigger.

At the time of Jackson's election he was also chief-
justice of Tennessee. Consequently he was not at first
able to devote to the duties of the office that time and
attention which he gave to them after he resigned from
the bench in 1804, when his military career became his
chief consideration. Yet from the beginning Tackson
was a real and not a play soldier. The pomp and cir-
cumstance of glorious war were conspicuous by their
absence, but thy true spirit of th^ soldier was always in
evidence. His military career lasted until 1821. He *
was thus a soldier ior a score of years, thirteen aslnajor-
general of militia, eiffM as major-g-eneral in the regular
army of the United States. In these twenty years he
participated as commander in no less tnan nve distinct
^campaigns! He fought seven pitrhefl battles, which
were contested with bravervand skill on thTpart ot' nis
opponents and were carried out with equal bravery
and skill by his command, battles which were marked
by sanguinary lefocitv and desperate fnnragp. Many
of them were small contests, like some of Washington's

SOLDIER

in the Revolution, but they were, nevertheless, impor-
tant. In addition to New Orleans, another one, Tallus-
chatches, in which all the contestants on one side were
killed to a man, was unique. Not only did Jackson fight
these seven battles in person, but his lieutenants and the .;
men under his command fought four more, of which
he was the animating spirit, although not in actual com-

' mafld 6h the heldT"

Hejought in three wars, the Creek, the War of 1812,
and the Meminme. 1 wo n? his campaigns were practi-
cally bloodless, one of no importance, the other of great
value. Before he ever saw a British soldier he had
demonstrated his splendid fighting ability. The Creefr
War was to Jackson what the Algerine War was to the
American navy — a school. What he had learned in
fighting that splendid face of Indians, than which no
tribe that has ev6f roath^d the forfest glades h^ hem
IfTQfe" Skilful, inuie determined, and more heroic— I
except not even the Iroquois, the Ottawa^ thf tm»t Pp^
the Sfotix, ui the Cheyenne, — enabled him to fleshJiis
maiden sword arid to gain that confidence begot of
experience, — experience ot victory, be it remembered, —
which renderetTtfie British an easv""maxk>

"x In 1814, after two years of warfare," Winfield
Scott records in his autobiography that there were but
two books of tactics (one written in French) in the
entire army on the Niagara frontier; and officers and
men were on such a dead level of ignorance that he
had to spend a month drilling all the former, divided
into squads, in the school of the soldier and school of
the company.

Jackson is popularly regarded as a rangh-an^-ready —
backwoods soldier who knew how +9 fipfof anr* 1lH^e —
else. Scott is justly considered a^ a ™nc+ *"'pkiy *"*"-
cated and accomplished captain. Yet in Jackson's

TT5f5fy"at the Hermitage H the most 'thumbed hooks-."
~" ! ' 67

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

gaiH fty|Tr Blair, " were a translation of French army
regulations and mifilary tactics, two or three English
bOTteroh similar subjects, TttSTOTteS Of the Campaigns
ot Marlborough and Prince Eugene, and several pam-
\ phlets concerning certain campaigns of the Revolution."
These bftpk* hfld evidently been studied With cArerno
mean preparation for aiTAmerican soldier 01 that day.

It may aTscTbe mentioned that many of Jackson's friends
were old Revolutionary veterans, some ot whom had
enjoyed the benent ot Baron von Steuben's instructions

Tn the school ot a soldier. IJome of them had learned
tactics under Greene ^ncL Morgan and strategy under
~~ Washington. Therefore we are not justihefl in the in-
ference fBat the troop? TaHcsnn ]et\ wprp mprp untrained,
unorganized mobs, who were herded in*™™* dlKct,nyjrrir
the other much like cattle, whose only redeeming virtue
was ability to shpof straight f^ ftp mark This, however,
coupled with a courage that will not quail, is no mean
groundwork on which to build successful campaigning.
It is probable that Jackson and the man who most
nearly approaches him in native military ability during
the war, William Henry Harrison, who also acquired
his fame west of the Alleghenies, were quite as accom-
plished soldiers in the refinements of the art of war as
Winfield Scott or Jacob Brown, who were the only
conspicuous examples of ability produced by the sea-
board States.

It is no part of my task to recount the history of
Jackson's campaigns. This has been done in extenso
with great skill by many biographers, old and new.
Reference has been made to some of the works, and
further reference will be made to others, where the
student of military affairs may find explicit information
in detail. T sh^ll only strive to show wfraf fr*H li a
soldier Jackson was by discussing his characteristics
and peculiarities as exhibited in his campaigns.

n- /

at
I? I

SOLDIER

Generally speaking, three things go to make a com-
mander— strategy, tactics, and courage! Strategy de^li
witfi the movements preliminary to action— battle, that
_is; tactics with the conduct of the iofce after the battle^
is joined Everybody but the coward knows what
courage is — perhaps the coward knows it better than
anybody else, by exclusion. There are also many other
things of less importance which go to make up the
~ soldier and wmch contribute to make up the commander.
1 shall first consider Jackson as a captain rather than as
a soldier. — —

He Ead little or no opportunity for the display of
grand strategy, in put two of his five campaigns did
he meet with resistance stout enough to develop or
render necessary any strategic concepts — the/>fffr War
and the .New Orleans campaign. TEeXreeks opposed
to him mustered at least two thousand fighting men —
" Red Sticks," so called from a little baton they carried
as a sign of affiliation and to distinguish them from
friendly Creeks.

These Indians were no mean antagonists for anv
man! Thev had attained to a higher degree of civili-
zation than anv of the fighting Tnriian tribes nn the con-
_Jjrif.nt, before or since. Many of them lived on planta-
tions ancfowned slaves. They had much acreage under
high cultivation. They lived in villages of comfortable
log cabins. Their principal men were half-breeds.
Many of them spoke and read English. Thry hnri n
genius for warfare, and did not, disdain pitched battles

With the whites. I hey cam* nut in fflP T^" *nA *™*gk»

boldly. Their courage was beyond praise. They were
not defeatecTand the war w*s no* «™^/* "^i1 they ^ere
literally exterminated.

" They defeated the Americans/' Pickett, in his " His-
tory of Alabama," says, "at Burnt Corn* and com-
pelled them to make a precipitate retreat. They reduced

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Fort Mims * after a fight of five hours and exterminated
its numerous inmates. They encountered the large
force under Coffee at Talluschatches and fought till not
one warrior was left, disdaining to beg for quarter.
They opposed Jackson at Talladega, and, although sur-
rounded by his army, poured out their fire and fled not
till the ground was almost covered with their dead.
They met Floyd at Autosse * and fought him obsti-
nately, and again rallied and attacked him a few hours
after the battle, when he was leading his army over
Haydon's Hill. Against the well-trained army of Clai-
borne they fought at the Holy Ground * with the fury
of tigers, and then made good their retreat across the
Alabama. At Emuckfau, three times did they charge
upon Jackson, and when he retreated across the Coosa
they sprang upon him, while crossing at Enotachopco,
with the courage and impetuosity of lions. Two days
afterwards a party under Weatherford rushed upon the
unsuspecting Georgians at Calabee * threw the army
into dismay and confusion, and stood their ground in a
severe struggle until the superior force of General Floyd
forced them to fly at daylight. Sixty days after this
Jackson surrounded them at the Horseshoe, and after
a sanguinary contest totally exterminated them, while
not one of them begged for quarter. At length,
wounded, starved, and beaten, hundreds fled to the
swamps of Florida; others went to Pensacola, and,
rallying under Colonel Nichols, attacked Fort Bowyer."
A brilliant record for the red man !

"Thus," adds the same author, "were the brave
Creeks opposed by the combined armies of Georgia,
Tennessee, and the Mississippi Territory, together with

♦Jackson had nothing to do with the battles starred. The
troops engaged there were not under his orders, nor parts of
his command.

SOLDIER

the Federal forces from the other States, besides numer-
ous bands of bloody Choctaws and Chickasaws. Fresh
volunteers and militia from month to month were
brought against them, while no one came to their assist-
ance save a few English officers, who led them to under-
take enterprises beyond their ability to accomplish. And
how long did they contend against the powerful forces
allied against them? ^^m thf* W^-v-seventh of July.
1813, to the last of December, 1814. In every engage-
ment with the Americans the force of the Creeks was

gfeatly ihfelloi in nunibei, mept at Jburnt Corn and
ton Mims." " "—

TVlacMaster bears the following testimony to their
civilization :

" The hunting-grounds of the Creeks had once
stretched across Georgia, but by treaties, first with
Georgia and then with the United States, the bounds had
been narrowed, till in 1800 they were the Tennessee
River, the western half of Georgia, and the present
State of Mississippi. Over them, as agent for the
United States, presided at that time Benjamin Hawkins.
He had been appointed in 1796, had labored unremit-
tingly for their good, and had done much to give them
what little civilization they possessed. Following out
the policy of the Government, he had taught them how
to plough and sow, raise crops, spin cotton, and had
persuaded them to adopt a sort of national organization
for the purpose of preserving peace and enforcing law.
His success was not as great as could have been wished.
Nevertheless, while they clung tenaciously to their old
habits of hunting, they dwelt in villages and owned
farms, cattle, slaves, and knew the use of the humbler
implements of agriculture/'

To meet this united and determined foe Jackson had
a constantly changing body of volunteers and militia; _,
men who were enlisted for short terms and about whose

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

term of service there was always a dispute. They were
as unruly and as difficult to manage "pTany gn1(|i^r^ that
ever wore out the life of a commander. Jackson at the
beginning uf Llie campaign rose from a sick-bed to take
charge. Most of the time he carried his left arm in a
sling from an open wound. He had two slugs in his
shoulder, the result of his duel with the Bentons.
During his service in the field he was also afflicted with
dysentery so severely that the only position he could
assume with any degree of comfort was to sit stride of
a chair with his face upon his arms, which rested on
the back of it. It is almost impossible to imag1*"* *"c
physical condition. He was thin to the point of emacia-
tion; Even when his wound partially healed he' was
j TTOt able to wear the weight of the heavy epaulet of his
rank upon his left shoulder. Nothing sustained him but
his indomitable will. Armies might come and armies
migrht gY), hijt they could not alter his determination. As
Parton well says:

" The reader isr therefore to banish from his imagina-
tion the popular figure of a vignrmic warriflr fpll'^p"^
in the pride of hfe ^feng-th nprm a fierv charter, and
put in thg plan* nf it a slight, attenuated form, a yel-
lowish, wrinkled face, the dark-blue eyes of which were
the only features that told anything of the power and
quality of the man. In great emergencies, it is true.

his will was master, compelling hisTmpahed budy to
execute all its resolves. But the reaction was terrible
sometimes, days of agony and prostration following an
hour of anxiety and exertion. He gradually learned, in
some degree, to manage and control his disease. But
all through the Creek War and the New Orleans cam-
paign he was an acute sufferer, more fit for a sick-
chamber than the forest bivouac or the field ofbattle.
There were times, and critical times too, when it seemed
impossible that he could go on. But, at the decisive

SOLDIER

moment, he always rallied, and would do what the de-
cisive moment demanded."

He took the field on the seventh of October, jftTfl, and
kept it amid the fluctuations of the trnnps iin^j] ]U*y nf
the following year, when he returned to Nashville,
having completely blotted out the Creeks and terminated
the war. Like all great soldiers, he attracted to him a
body of heroic and splendid subordinates. Every one
of them, almost, had gone back home during the course
of the war at one time or another, many of them sent
by Jackson on recruiting or other business for the
army, but he himself stayed at the front.

It may seem far-fetched, but as I view it, his position
reminds me not a little of that of Washington in 1776-
1777, when he was struggling perhaps more desperately
to keep his army together than to fight the British. Yet
the individuals who composed Jackson's armies were
men of extraordinarily high character. Testimony to
that is abundant. Benton, who commanded one of the
regiments on the abortive expedition to Natchez in 1812,
thus refers to them :

" They represented almost every family of note in
Middle and West Tennessee. Forty years have passed
since I saw them. But I see them plainer than then.
The rolls of this Republic's honor are full of their names.
They have become governors, legislators, jurists, minis-
ters of the Gospel, great and successful planters, capi-
talists, leaders of industry. They have helped to hew
new States out of what was wilderness then. Their
pioneer fathers and heroic mothers wrested the new
West from savage hands. They defended it. Their
own sons, but a year or two ago [Benton said this at a
"Jackson Day" dinner, January 8, 1852] tore from
the grasp of Spanish bigotry the fairest of our realms !
What splendid fellows they were ! Tall, straight, broad-
shouldered, deep-chested young men, hardly one of them

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

over thirty. We read of Sparta, Rome, and Macedon.
Let us grant that all their men were truly what their
classic epics say of them. Then let us wait for the
coming of some new Homer to sing the Volunteers of
Tennessee."

These qualities, however, are not inconsistent with
shocking — on occasion — insubordination, which_ in
several instancesTSecame downright mutiny I I have
observed that a loosely drawn contract and agreement
admitting of two constructions is as provocative of
quarrel and misunderstanding and as deleterious in its
results as a half-truth, which, indeed, "it greatly resem-
bles ; and it is a fact that Jackson invariably acted under
one construction of law when his dire need warranted
him in assuming, and the volunteers and militia in-
variably tried to act on another, differing as widely as
was possible from their general. Another cause of the
refractory conduct of the volunteers was due to thexom-
missariat, which was wretchedly managed. The men
were jU^ajES-Jiungry jtflrf.l ill ptovnfleS^ JJ n/*as has
b^n^^thily^servedbvjh^ qt^\^\ *4 cnTPWcj ^-»m
""5rmy fiehtsTgfHfjores. jon]jts belly/* it also obeys on
ISq same usefuT member 1 The highest evidence that
the moil modefn "army of the day presents of its effi-
ciency is exhibited by the Japanese medical and sub-
sistence departments.

JThese Tennesseans w<Tft half starYfif* *'m* anf* time
again! Whenever there was any fighting to do they
were all right, but at other times they were generally
all wrong. That they were not fighting all the time with
the enemy rather than wrangling among themselves was
not the fault of their commander. Ammunition and
food he was always struggling for. Roosevelt gives,
perhaps, a juster estimate of these soldiers and their
captain than Benton did :
x "Accustomed to the most lawless freedom, and to

SOLDIER

giving free rein to the full violence of their passions,
defiant of discipline and impatient of the slightest re-
straint, caring little for God and nothing for man, they
were soldiers who, under an ordinary commander, would
have been fully as dangerous to themselves and their
leaders as to their foes. But Andrew Jackson was of
all men the one best fitted to manage such troops. Even
their fierce llUliii-es quailed betore the ungovernable fury
of a spirit greater than their own; and their sullen,
stubborn wills were bent at last before his unyielding
temper and iron hand. Moreover, he was one of them-
selves; he typified their passions and prejudices, their
faults and their virtues; he shared their hardships as
if he had been a common private, and, in turn, he always
made them partakers of his triumphs. They admired his
personal prowess with pistol and rifle, his unswerving
loyalty to his friends, and the relentless and unceasing
war that he waged alike on the foes of himself and his
country. As a result, they loved and feared him as
few generals have ever been loved or feared ; they
obeyed him unhesitatingly ; they followed his lead with-
out flinching or murmuring, and they ever made good
on the field of battle the promise their courage held out
to his judgment."

The picture of their final submissiveness is a little
highly colored, perhaps, but true enough in the main.
NflLJess than four times in the Creek War did the troops
under him break out in open mutiny. In quelling these
successive disturbances and in brin^in^ the subordinate
tr6dps to terms, Tackson showed his qualities as. per-
Tiaps, in no otV*- way The militia and volunteers were
Efferent bodies. When the volunteers, conceiving with
some show of right that their term of service was over,
broke out in open revolt and attempted to march home-
ward, they found their path barred by the militia, who,
with loaded guns, waited only the order of the indomi-

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

tabic commander to fire upon their comrades. The
volunteers were quite equal to dealing with the militia
alone, but not with the militia plus Jackson! That
mutiny was nipped in the bud.

The next day, however, in obedience to a singular
but understandable influence, the militia reflected that
if they had not acted as they had in obedience to their
commander, the volunteers would have been on their
way home and that they had good color for following
them. This prospect so inflamed their imagination that
they determined to break away and go home in their
turn. But Jackson was equal to the emergency. He
now paraded the volunteers in front of the militia —
and those who were threatened the day before were only
too glad to measure out some of the medicine they
had received to their former enemies! It was a huge
joke, and Jackson displayed great adroitness in his
manipulation of his antagonistic units. He was fond of
a joke of that kind and greatly enjoyed it.

Later on the volunteers, now fully persuaded that
their term of enlistment had expired, made another at-
tempt to abandon the field. Jackson had been reen-
forced, and the volunteers found the rest of his army
commanding their position, every rifle charged, cannon
loaded, artillerists with smoking matches in their hands,
and the general on horseback, a.stern and ruthless figure
which they could not face. Having mastered them thor-
oughly, bent them to his will, Jackson let them go with
a stinging rebuke, under which they writhed and against
which they vainly protested for the rest of their natural
lives.

At one period of the campaign, when the troops were
actually starving, " Jackson, with the utmost cheerful-
ness of temper, repaired to the bullock-pen, and of the
offal there thrown away provided for himself and staff
what he was pleased to call and really seemed to think

SOLDIER

a very comfortable repast. Tripes, however, hastily
provided in a camp, without bread or seasoning, can only
be palatable to an appetite very high whetted ; yet this
constituted for several days the only diet at headquar-
ters, during which time the general seemed entirely
satisfied with his fare."

Their subsequent condition, however, was more than
mere flesh and blood could bear, and even the iron
Jackson, who lived on acorns when the tripe gave out, —
he surrendered his own private stores to the sick and
wounded after the first battle and thus afterwards had
no other subsistence than the meanest private, — declared
that if supplies did not reach them in two days the army
could march home, with the distinct understanding that
if provisions were met on the way it should come back.
Provisions were met on the way. The army refreshed
itself and deliberately proceeded on its march homeward.
Jackson galloped in front of it, barred its way, sprang
from his horse, rested his rifle across the saddle, — he
only had the use of one arm, — and in a blazing fury
threatened to kill the first man that made a step. Parton
thus describes the affair :

" I can fancy the scene — Jackson in advance of Cof-
fee's men, his grizzled hair bristling up from his fore-
head, his face as red as fire, his eyes sparkling and
flashing; roaring out with the voice of a Stentor and
the energy of Andrew Jackson, ' By the immaculate
God! I'll blow the damned villains to eternity if they
advance another step !' "

On one occasion, when deserted by everybody, he
lifted up his hands and exclaimed, " If only two men
will remain with me, I will never abandon this post!"
Captain John Gordon instantly exclaimed, " You
have one, General. Let us see if we cannot find an-
other." By hard persuasion one hundred and nine men
agreed to remain with him.

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Jackson was keenly aware of the value of discipline.
the necessity of it in any military enterprise, especially
in such a force as he commanded, as the following pre-
liminary orders will show :

"We will commence the campaign by an inviolable attention
to discipline and subordination. Without a strict observance
of these, victory must ever be uncertain, and ought hardly be
exulted in, even when gained. To what but the entire disre-
gard of order and subordination are we to ascribe the disasters
which have attended our arms in the North during the present
war? How glorious will it be to remove the blots which have
tarnished the fair character bequeathed us by the fathers of
the Revolution! The bosom of your general is full of hope;
He knows the ardor which animates you, and already exults in
the triumph which your strict observance of discipline and
good order will render certain."

For the police of his camp he announced the following
order :

" The chain of sentinels will be marked, and the sentries
posted, precisely at ten o'clock to-day.

" No sutler will be suffered to sell spirituous liquors to any
soldier, without permission in writing from a commissioned
officer, under the penalties prescribed by the rules and articles
of war.

"No citizen will be permitted to pass the chain of sentinels,
after Fetreat beat in the evening, until reveille in the morning.
Drunkenness, the bane of all orderly encampments, is positively
forbidden, both in officers and privates ; officers under the pen-
alty of immediate arrest; and privates, of being placed under
guard, there to remain until liberated by a court-martial.

" At reveille beat, all officers and soldiers are to appear on
parade, with their arms and accoutrements in proper order.

" On parade, silence, the duty of a soldier, is positively com*
manded.

" No officer or soldier* is to sleep out of camp, but by per*
mission obtained."

This, which is preserved by Eaton, does not bear out
the " undisciplined-mob" theory 1

SOLDIER

Perhaps in nothing is his iron determination shown
so clearly as in the execution of Private John Wood, a
mutinous soldier. Wood had been tried and convicted
of mutiny on the field, — practically in the face of the
enemy, — and in spite of every plea, against every ap-
peal, Jackson ordered the sentence to be carried out.
He was accused of inhumanity and reckless disregard
of life for this action. This is what he says about it
himself. It affords a complete yindicatfofTof his course
angTadequately reveals the character ofjhejnan. For |
ajfhis fiercft +*»*"per r his blazing energy, his frightful
language, onjpccasion, as we shall see later, he^SHOe.
as tender as a woman.

JJ . . . JNothing else could be so grievous to me as the
necessity of putting to death one of my own soldiers. It
was with great difficulty and after two sleepless nights
of consideration that I was able to decide upon inflict-
ing the full sentence of the court-martial. At first my
inclination was to commute the sentence to flogging,
branding with the letter D, and drumming out of camp.

" But I had to reflect that the camp had been torn to
pieces by mutiny once before, and now/unless sternly
checked aT the_startr it mig*»tf anri HnnhtWc would,
again spreaTai^become general. The volunteers and
militia hacTgot the idea that a citizen of the State, tem-
porarily under arms, could not be^subjected to capital
punisliifleul under military law. Unfortunately, my mis-
taken leiltettcy with the former mutineers had given
grotnida for ouch a belief. — 1 liaU^eardJhfi^reproach
llial it was ^necessary for me to use oneJhaLLjoL-my
aiinv tu keep Lhe other "TiaTTin Qrifer— anf^ really, there
had been luu much UUflTjyt^- saying.

"This Was what determined me to sign the order for
Wood's execution. It was witnessed by the whole army
— all but one man. That one was myself. I not only
did not attend, but rode far enough from camp in the

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

other direction to be out of hearing when the fatal shots
were fired. . . .

" It certainly was the best. But it was a fearful
ordeal to me. I hope it may never be repeated."

In exactly thp sarqp spirit just after New Orleans he
ordered the execution of six other Tennessee militiamen
Who hacfHfreen convicted of mutiny and sentenced to
qeatn Dy a duIy"constituted court-martial. It is a poor
commander who cannot master his own men, and unless
lie can enfoi-c^ Obedience at home he d'mi ifpmi-hnpe
to win victories abroad. The circumstance is, of course,
deplorable, and, as the war was practically over when
these six men were executed, Jackson might have ad-
mitted them to mercy. But legally and morally he
cannot be censured for the execution, even though we
wish it had not taken place. The lesson was a salutary
one, and Jackson had suffered enough from rebellion
and insubordination to make him resolute^and deFer-

mined to put such things down always and everywhere
with a strong hand — not the least ot his great charac-
teristics as a captain, and die leaSQIl W&S hot lost for
' the future, either Volunteers, militia, and other irregu-
lars need suctTteSchmgl " " """" "~—""~ '

Jackson did not believe that the only good Indian was
a dead Indian, and the Indians themselves respected and
admired him, even those who fought against him, as
they respected few others. Major Lewis bears testi-
mony to the fact that " the general was always in-
finitely more patient and conciliatory in dealing with
Indians than with white men, and he would good-
naturedly listen to their long harangues and humor their
petty caprices to the limit when, had they been white
men, their speeches might have been cut short and
\their caprices dashed aside by a peremptory order."
j His remarks about the treaty which closed the Creek
War exhibit his feelings :

SOLDIER

" Yes, yes ; it is good — as far as it goes. But none
of these treaties can last more than a score of years.
The white race will by that time demand access to
every acre east of the river (meaning the Mississippi),
and they will have it, too. Nothing can stop them. I
feel sorry for the Indians. If the English would let
them alone they wouldn't make much trouble. They
can lay all their misfortunes at the door of England."

After one of the engagements the story goes that " a
young warrior who was brought in badly wounded to
the surgeons said, as they were dressing his wounds,
' Cure him, kill him again/ The general, who was
standing by, assured him that he had no such intention.
He recovered and was afterwards taken home by Jack-
son to Tennessee, where he learned a trade, married a
colored woman, and established himself in business.
Jackson's course towards a little Indian baby captured
in the field will be referred to later. -^

In general, in spite of their mutinies, the soldier!*
loJSOuSrr ^ie understood tiiem, sympathized witl
them, encouraged themr and, above all, constantly led
TKetn to victory! A sp1Hipr will fnrgrjye anything to a
successful commander — a fighter. To a restless and
Tmtfrtng energy he uniterTsWplpRs vigilance and genu-
ine military genius. Prompt to attack whenever the
chance ottered itself? seizing with ever-ready grasp the
slightest vantage ground, and nevpr giving »p a font
~oi earth that he could keep^JSe yet had the patience
to play a defensive game when it so suited him, and
with LuiisuiMiiiuft^jskill he always followed out the >

scheme of warfare that was best adapted to his wild '»
soldiery/'

The Creek War made no little stir in America and
the story of Jackson's brilliant campaign even penetrated /
to England, where years after the Duke of Wellington/
was pleased to express himself in terms of high appro-'

6 81

■a

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

bation concerning it. That great soldier told Major
Donelson at a dinner-table in London when the latter
i was on his way to Germany, to which country he had
I been appointed American minister, " that he had care-
I fully read the history of General Jackson's Creek cam-
\paign; and if he had never done anything else, this
\ would have made Jackson one of the great generals of
j the world." *Ji

A brief wftrr1 ahnnt Jackson's battle tactics is here in
order. In the first place, until the final day at New
Orleans, hejwas always on the otf ensive except at the
battle of Enotachopco. Before the Creeks realized the
proximity of his army he ordered Coffee to strike them
at Talluschatches. Excepting the arrival of a reen-
forcement, he left his sick and wounded at Fort Strother
to go to the rescue of friendly Creeks beleaguered at
Talladega. On the march he heard that the reinforce-
ments had been diverted. A weaker commander would
have retired to his base at _ once. Jackson pushed on,
realizing that the best protection tohis rear would Be a
vigorous offence against the enemy.
• His fighting tactics were exceedingly effective. At
Talladega he made a. feint with a small force, which fie^
promptly withdrew as the CreeksTharged. The Indians

found themselves n^fflanWeH as they ramp nnpanJ When

thev retrgatH they were attacked in the rear by Coffee's
cavalry and surrounded. At Emuckfau Jackson built
fires some distance in front of his line, gradually with-
drawing his men from the vicinity of them. When the
savages sought to rush his camp at night, he coolly
waited until they came between his men and the firelight

1 *I put this testimony in italics to emphasize it that it may
lnot escape the attention of those who think Jackson's success
lrests upon a combination of good luck, reckless audacity, and
(the blundering of his enemies.

SOLDIER

and shot them down in easy view. At Enotachopco,
where circumstances forced him to return to his base of
supplies, he conducted a most masterly retreat in the
presence of a superior offensive force. On this strenu-
ous day one company became disorganized; Jackson's
personal efforts on the field saved the day.

The Creeks had not dreamed that any army could
penetrate the difficult country in which they made their
home. They considered themselves secure in their
wooded mountain fastnesses. " So rapid were Jackson's
marches," says Eaton, " that not untrequently was he
in the neighborhood!

re they had re-
ceived any intelligence of his approach; injiririjtion to
"this was attached to him the quality" that few generals .
, ever possessed in ahigher degree, of inspiring firm-*"*
tieSs-ia-hia- lauk^^KjljiiakingL-t^ timid brave. An
enfire

confidence oi success,
vicioiy, and a, fearlessness an

a full assurance of

_ __ ^rHgreg^d of danger,

wete the feelings^disptayedJx^L himself in all difficult

situations, and those feelings he possessed the happy

"faculty of inspiring to others and oi dirrusmg through

"Ins armv?*" "~ ^

The battle of Tohopeka, which broke the Creek power
forever, was a tactical masterpiece.31' The Creeks had
fortified the neck oi iiorse bhoe Bend, enclosed by a
deep and unfordable river. Jackson deployed his main
body before the breastwork and, engaging it with his
artillery, made a demonstration in force to amuse the
Indians while he sent Coffee to surround the Bend.
Some of Coffee's friendly Creeks swam the river and,
like Gulliver with the Blefuscan Navy, towed the canoes
of the tribe across the stream. Coffee ferried his men
across therein, set fire to the Indian village, advanced

* For an account of this battle, see my book, " American
Fights and Fighters Series — Border."

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

to assail their rear, while Jackson converted his feint
into a real attack and stormed the breastwork. The In-
dians died fighting. It was all on a small scale, of
course, but it could not have been better done. No ruse
or stratagem seemed to escape the general and the com-
mendation of the great Duke was fully warranted.

SOLDIER (CONTINUED)

Jackson's splendid campaigning won him an appoint-
ment hrst as brigadier-general in the regular army,
^wfrfcfr, before it could be accepted, was changed to
maJQr-ffeneral. vice William Henrv Harrison, resigned.
As major-general of regulars Jackson promptly invaded
bpanish territory without warrant of law or specific
authority from his superiors. Yet Pensacola had been
used by the British openly as a base from which to
incite the Indians to war on the frontiers. In fact, the
promises of England — which she did not keep, by the
way — were at the back of the Creek uprising. Spain
could not — or, better, she would not — preserve her neu-
trality, and Jackson high-handedly marrhpri tn T^ca.
cola, seized it, and then expelled the British commander
of the small British garrison at Fort Barrancas and

OCCUpied tliq yrnrlc

He said to Eaton in after years that " if I had received
any hint that such a course would have been winked at
by the government, it would have been in my power to
have captured the British shipping in the bay. I would
have marched at once against Barrancas and carried it,
and thus prevented any escape ; but, acting on my own
responsibility against a neutral power, it became essen-
tial for me to proceed with more caution than my judg-
ment or wishes approved, and consequently important
advantages were lost which might have been secured."

While there was no legal justification for this course
there was abundant moral justification. Jackson's view-

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

point regarding the assumption of responsibility in an
emergency may be learned from a quotation from his
famous letter to Governor Blount, of Tennessee, regard-
ing the calling out of an additional force without warrant
of law : " Believe me, my valued friend, there are times
when it is highly criminal to shrink from responsibility,
or scruple about the exercise of our powers. There are
times when we must disregard punctilious etiquette and
think only of serving our country." These were prin-
ciples he invariably acted upon with a sincerity and
devotion beyond question. Jackson may have been,
and it must be admitted he sometimes was, mistaken,
t>ut n^nnf qn^stjons the sincerity of his patriotism or
his profound conviction that his action was for the
besE Indeed, his ends were almost always thos£ that
sfiould be pursued by a devoted lover of his country,
although his methods would frequently not bear scru-
tiny. With him the end invariably justified the means,
— he made it do so, — and that is not a safe maxim even
in the case of noble ends.

In the two Florida campaigns Jackson was right in
principle, as he usually was, but wrong in method, as
was frequently the case. Yet perhaps no diplomatic
representations would have been effective, at least in
their long-drawn-out course they would not have
brought about any immediate adjustment of the in-
tolerable situation which, so long as the then present
conditions existed, placed the peace and safety of the
frontier in constant jeopardy. The judgment of his
contemporaries sustained him in his action and with
substantial propriety.

The Pensacola campaign was succeeded by that of
New Griping l^he problem of the defence of New
Orleans was a grave one. General Wilkinson, who, with
all his ignominious meanness, was a regular veteran
who had been trained in a good school, wrote that " to

SOLDIER

defend New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi
against a dominant naval force and six thousand veteran
troops, rank and file, from the West India station, the
following force is indispensable: Four of the heaviest

national Vessels ;_|0rty gnnhnats tn mount pigfitppn and

twenty-four pounders; six steamboats for transporta-
tion, 6adl to hold four hundred men £tid a mongrs
•piuvisiuiis; fuui Stout radeaux, each to mount two
twenty-four pounders; ten thousand regular troops;
four thousand five hundred militia.

The iorce at Jackson's disposal when he reached the
city on the hrst of December. i8i4T was practically
nothing^ He organized the most nondescript and heter-
ogeneous annyttul evei fought Under the American
flag;. There were United States rggulars, Creole militia,
New Orleans volunteers, including men of every ste-
tion and class and nationality, — French, Spanish, Ger-
man, insh, and so on, — free men of color, pirates from
Barataria, of the |amous_hand of the La Fittes ; dra-
goons from Mississippi. Choctaws from Alabama, and
sailors from everywhere: but the bone and sinew of
his force were the riflemen ot. Tennessee, and k*"-
tucky under g11^ ^m>er,s as r^flfe^ — Carroll, and
Adair.

Every language under the sun was spoken in that
camp. Jackson knew none but English, but he knew
that well enough and was sufficiently expressive and
explicit in it to make his men understand him by in-
stinct, as it were. Besides, he had the help of Edward
Livingstone, one of the most accomplished men of his
time, and a numerous and efficient staff of regulars and
volunteers. It is no small part of Tacks^n,g famp that
he welded together and made sufficient for his purpose
and obedient to his will such a motley crowd as that.
It was most unpromising material, but he made of it an

army— even the British^ aHmittwl *w lat^r

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

To oppose this motley array the British brought to
N.ew Orleans the flower of Wellington's army. They
had distinguished themselves in t^^ Jamnti^ campaigns
Ofl the Spanish Peninsula against the marshals of Na-
" poleun. — Napier thus aptly characterized them:
— ""For what Alexander's Macedonians were at Arbela,
Hannibal's Africans at -Cannae, Caesar's Romans at
Pharsalia, Napoleon's Guards at Austerlitz — such were
Wellington's British soldiers at this period. . . . Six
years of uninterrupted success had engrafted on their
natural strength and fierceness a confidence that made
them invincible."

""General Jackson, however, was not daunted by any
consideration of the troops he had to face. Witness this
quotation from Buell : " In 1832 a work called ' The
Military Memoirs of the Duke of Wellington' was pub-
lished in London, and a copy found its way into the
hands of Mr. Blair, then editor of the Globe. Mr. Blair
showed it to the President — or gave it to him to read —
and called his attention particularly to a remark ascribed
to the duke concerning the quality of his army in Spain.
The remark was : ' That was the best army ever seen.
It was an army that could go anywhere and do any-
thing." Mr. Blair suggested that the troops composing
the army — or some of them — on a famous occasion sig-
nally and disastrously failed to make good the duke's
boast. 'Well, Blair/ said Jackson after a moment's
deliberation, 'J. never pretended that I had an army that
"could go anywhere and do anything/' but at New
Orleans 1 had a lot of fellers that could fight more ways
and kill more times than any other fellers on the fapgnf
the earth V"

As an observing Southern woman put it, " All these
Tennesseans are mild and gentle, except when they are
excited, which is hard to do; but when they are once
raised, it is victory or death."

SOLDIER

Next to the Tennesseans the most important factor in
Jackson s operations was the naval J orce under Master
Commandant Daniel T. Patterson, seconded bv Lieu-
tenants Henly and Thomas Ap-Catesby Jones. The
utmost Harmony existed between Jackson and Patterson.
This naval officer's services are not estimated at their
true value by historians, by the way, and he is not
justly appreciated by our people. And the way Jackson
made use of his sea power Wflfi nv^^y

While reorganizing his forces and hurrying Coffee
and Carroll — whom he had rather mistakenly sent up
the river — with their riflemen to the front, Jackson put
the city under martial law, a situation unknown to the
Constitution but eminently congenial to a man of Jack-
son's stamp and decidedly necessary under the then
conditions. " Born and brought up among the lawless
characters of the frontier, and knowing well how to deal
with them, Jackson was able to establish and preserve
the strictest martial law in the city without in the least
quelling the spirit of the citizens."

New Orleans was the only campaign in which oppor-
tunity tor strategy was given Jackson. At j?ng-]jsh R^nH
he placed a iorcq in Kor^; Hiilip to command thft rJVfrr
another one was placed in TTnrf; .St. John at rhpf-M*n-
teur at the entrance to Lake Ponchartrain. Thus he
covered his.rieft* aTlr* 1*ft flankfi ag ^"»H as he fon1Hf a_
check to the British advance from either direction.
And then he strove to meet the situation with flir'™1*
energy. ___

10 Colonel Overton, commanding Fort Philip, he
gave positive orders that he must hold the fort while a
man remained alive to point a gun. The officer obeyed
orders to the letter and gallantly repulsed a formidable
attack from the river later in the campaign. To General
Coffee he wrote : " You must not sleep until you reach
me, or arrive within striking distance. Your accustomed

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

activity is looked for. Innumerable defiles present them-
selves where your services and riflemen will be all-im-
portant. An opportunity is at hand to reap for yourself
and brigade the approbation of your country." To
General Winchester, who commanded at Mobile : " The
enemy will attempt, through Pass Huron, to reach you ;
watch, nor suffer yourself to be surprised; haste, and
throw sufficient supplies into Fort Bowyer and guard
vigilantly the communication from Fort Jackson, lest it
be destroyed. Mobile Point must be supported and
defended at every hazard. The enemy has given us a
large coast to guard; but I trust, with the smiles of
Heaven, to be able to meet and defeat him at every
point he may venture his foot upon the land." He sent
a steamboat to General Carroll to hasten his descent of
the river, and a despatch concluding, " I am resolved,
feeble as my force is, to assail the enemy, on his first
landing, and perish sooner than that he shall reach the
city."

Partji£Jiis--aaMal--force he placed on Lake Borgne,
the rest on the Mississippi below the city. Thus he
cuveied b6th torts from the water as well as he could.
Tfie British landed at Bayou iiienvenu, having captured
the gunboats on Lake Borgne after a desperate resist-
ance on the part of the Americans. Roughly speaking,
the British landed midway between the two forts which
masked Jackson's flanks. Three distinct battles were
_fought before the determination oi the campaign. Qne
on the twenty-third of December, one on the first of
January, and one on the eighth nf JannsLcy-. Thprp Wi»ri>T
besides, numerous skirmishes and smaller affairs hotly
contested with bloody results. The British had no
sooner landed and flnfr wifh™ ^frikinpr ^istanre of the
city than Jackson attacked them. The attack was a
strategic conception of the fi^t maffri,*tnde. The British
had imagined ~that they would have little difficulty in
—& " "

SOLDIER

seizing the city. " I shall eat my Christmas dinner in
New Orleans/' * said Admiral Cochrane on the day oT
the landing. The remark was repeated by a prisoner to
(jenerarjackson, who said : " Perhaps so, but I shall
have the honor of presiding at that dinner. They ad-
vanced as tar as the Villere plantation and halted. In-
stead of waiting their advance Jackson in person' led
every soldier he had at hand to attack thefE Coffee's
riflemen had ioined him, fortunately, and his numbers
Were about equal to those of the "British.

ine attack was delivered at dusk and the battle raged
far into the night. The losses on both sides were about
equal. The British remained in possession of the field,
the Americans withdrew. Technically it was a drawn
battle, actually it was the cause of the subsequent British
defeat. Jackson's genius as a soldier is best exhibited
by this battle^which 1 have ventured to call the Rattle
ot Villere. for it paralyzed the British advance. They
could not conceive that anything less than confidence
begot of overwhelming superiority in numbers could
have induced Tackson with his raw trpnpg tn attarlr

veteran soldiery in the open. The British halted then
and there until the bulk ofjheir armv could be brought
up and they could, aFtHe}Tsupposed, engage on more
equal terms. '

John Van Buren, the briP*^c attorney-general of
New York, said, in an eulogy of Jackson delivered after
the general died : " This battle saved New Orleans. It
was, too, in the judgment of the military men, a mas-
terly movement. The enemy till then h^d hf*n 1,n-
molested; they had reason to expert a fripnHly rprpp-
tion; tlie next day they wpuld hayp ^y^n^ on

* I have observed that similar boasts as to proposed festivi-
ties have often be made by would-be conquerors — e.g., Buller,
Kuropatkin, etc.

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Now Orleans. The night assault on the twenty-third
chocked and drove them back — it taught them respect
for the American arms, and led them to overestimate
the number of our forces. It came upon them at night,
in a strange land, unexpected, and when but a part of
their forces were landed. It carried confusion and
panic into their ranks, and dispelled the terror of their
invincibility; and although the brilliant victory of the
first of January, and the total and memorable rout of
the eighth, finally expelled the invaders, they but com-
pleted and perfected what the master-stroke of the
twenty-third had so well begun. The forces of the
British vastly exceeded those of the attacking party;
and this fact strongly illustrates the natural and intui-
tive skill of General Jackson in the art of war. It was
the maxim of Napoleon, the great master of this science,
that an inferior force should never wait to be attacked;
for, by advancing, they either fall with all their strength
on a single point when they are not expected, or meet
the opposing columns on the advance, when bravery
gives the victory — or, in his own nervous language,
'C'est une affaire de tetes de colonnes od la bravoure
seule decide tout J "

Jackson's dashing tactics in this battle were on a level
with his brilliant strategy, iie used the u Carolina," an
armed schooner, with consummate skill. She dropped
down the river, anchored opposite the British camp, and
deliberately opened fire at practically pointblank range,
her broadsides of grape doing much execution. Mean-
while, Jackson had brought every available soldier down
the river. Leading over half his force in person, he fell
upon the British left, driving them from the shelter of
the levee. Coffee, who was to do the same thing on
the right, lost his way in the swamps, was delayed by
their impassable condition, and instead of falling on the
flank struck the British in front. If Coffee had been

SOLDIER

able to carry out his part of the programme — and no
blame is attached to him for his failure — it is possible
that the British detachment might have been put to utter
rout.

Jackson's withdrawal *rnrn fllp fi^H wa<t anntW evi-
dence of ffood tactics. He realized that at the present
stage ot' the battle nothing could be gained by prolong-
ing it. He divined that the blow he had dealt the
British would paralyze their offensive efforts for the
time being, so he brought off his force in good order and
put the men to work behind the old Rodriguez Canal,
which he had selected as his first line of defence. The
badly mauled British did not dare attack him. He had
ample leisure to build a strong fortification of logs filled
in with earth and mud of the Delta on the north side
of the canal, which extended from the river to the
swamp; the right resting on the river, protected by an
outwork, while the impassable swamp effectually cov-
ered the left.

With the " Carolina" and the " Louisiana," a small
corvette, he kept up a constant and galling fire on the
British camp. He also cut the levee below his position
in the hope of flooding out the enemy, but the river was
low and the only result was the filling of the bayous, thus
rendering the British boat transportation easier. The
British complained of the fire he kept up on the picket
line. The practice is, I believe, deprecated in so-called
civilized warfare, but conditions here were different and
Jackson allowed his backwoodsmen and Indians to make
the picket line as unhealthy for the redcoats as they
could. These episodes are trifling, hut they rortainly
impaired the nerve and undermined the morale of the
British army. Instead of a triumphant march to New
Orleans, they found themselves impotently subjected to
a most galling rifle and artillery fire. On his redoubt
Jackson had assembled every piece of artillery he could

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

gather together — truly a miscellaneous collection of
cannon; indeed, quite like his army.

After a time the British succeeded in sinking the
valiant little " Carolina" and driving the " Louisiana" to
a point where she could no longer annoy them. They
then advanced their own artillery and signalized the
opening of the New Year by a furious duel with great
guns in which the honors were decidedly with the
American cannoneers. Pakenham, Wellington's brother-
in-law, who had finally arrived and taken command,
then decided upon a direct assault in force on the Ameri-
can line. It was a foolish proceeding, it must be ad-
mitted. Pakenham has been terribly censured for his
course and Jackson's qualities as a general have been
sneered at because Pakenham showed such bad judg-
ment. It would have been easy, say the critics, for
Pakenham to cross the river, turn Jackson's entrench-
ments, march up opposite the city, recross the river,
force Jackson to fight a battle in the streets or abandon
it. An interesting programme but not so simple as it
seems, perhaps! At any rate, it was possible for
Pakenham to flank Jackson out of his strong defensive
position, although whether the rest of the campaign
would have proceeded as indicated is a question. But
Pakenham made the not uncommon mistake of the
British officer in America, from Braddock down, of
despising his enemy. He did not dream of the possi-
bility of a repulse. He knew nothing of the quality of
the American riflemen. Had he survived the battle he
would have been the most surprised man on ejuth.
"Who would have thought it?" muttered poor Brad-
dock in his death agonies, and the words might well
have been Pakenham's.

The river opposite Jackson's right had been hastily
fortified and was held by a small, inefficient force under
a thoroughly incapable commander. A^ detachment of

94 """""^

SOLDIER

British under Colonel Thornton,- ~the^ ablest English
soldier present, apparently, had no difficulty in clearing
these men out of their works at the point of the bayonet
and seizing Patterson's water battery, made up of the
guns which had been landed from the " Louisiana."
Jackson's failure strongly to fortify and hold this point
under a competent commander is the one military mis-
laKeThat he made. The omission, or failure, might have
had most serious consequences. But one mistake in all
— liis fighting and campaigning does not damn him as a
captain, miQ few generals there are who ran show-fewer
blunders.

The attack on the eighth of January resulted in an
appalling slaughter of the British. The Americans
Tost eight killed and thirteen wounded. The British
lost three thousand and twenty-six in killed and
wounded, of whom about three thousand were struck by
rifle bullets, the balance of casualties being due to artil-
lery fire. The attack on the main redoubt was an abso-
lute failure. None of the British touched the redoubt
except a small party under Colonel Rennie on the ex-
treme right, who were killed to a man as they mounted
the parapet. The success across the river was negatived
by the defeat on the east bank.*

Of the four British generals in the battle, Paken-
ham and Gibbs, the second in command, were killed;
Keane was severely wounded, while Lambert, who com-
manded the reserve, which was not engaged, alone
escaped.

The British had had enough. They embarked in ships
and sailed away on the seventeenth of January to cap-
ture Fort Bowyer at Mobile Bay. The campaign was
over. Mr. Charles Francis Adams has the following

* For an account of the battle, see my book, " American
Fights and Fighters Series— Revolutionary."

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

lucid comment to make on the strategy of the cam-
paign.*

" Possibly it might by some now be argued that, had
Pakenham thus weakened his force on the east side of
the river by operating, in the way suggested, on New
Orleans, and Jackson's flank and rear on the west side,
a vigorous, fighting opponent, such as Jackson unques-
tionably was, might have turned the tables on him
for thus violating an elementary rule of warfare — the
very rule, by the way, so dangerously ignored by Wash-
ington at Brooklyn. Leaving his lines, and boldly
taking the aggressive, Jackson, it will be argued, might
have overwhelmed the British force in his front, thus
cutting the column operating west of the river from the
fleet and its base of supplies — in fact, destroying the ex-
pedition. Not improbably Pakenham argued in this
way; if he did, however, he simply demonstrated his
incompetence for high command. Failing to grasp the
situation, he put a wrong estimate on its conditions.
It is the part of a skilful commander to know when to
secure results by making exceptions to even the most
general and the soundest rules. Pakenham at New
Orleans had under his command a force much larger
— in fact, nearly double — that confronting him. While,
moreover, his soldiers were veterans, the Americans
were hardly more than raw recruits; but, like the
Boers of to-day, they had in them good material and
were individually accustomed to handling rifles. As
one of the best of Jackson's brigadiers, General Adair,
afterwards expressed it, ' Our men were militia without
discipline, and if once beaten, they could not be relied
on again.' They were, in fact, of exactly the same tem-
per and stuff as those who were stampeded by a volley
and a shot at Bladensburg ; and the principle of military
morale thus stated by General Adair was that learned by

* From " Lee at Appomattox and Other Papers." By per-
mission of Houghton, Mifflin Co.

SOLDIER

Washington on Long Island. Troops of a certain class
when once beaten cannot be relied on again. They are
not seasoned soldiers. The force Pakenham had under
his command before New Orleans was, on the other
hand, composed of seasoned soldiers of the best class.
In the open field, and on anything approaching equality
of position, he had absolutely nothing to fear. He might
safely provoke attack; indeed, all he ought to have
asked was to tempt Jackson out from behind his breast-
works on almost any terms. So fully, moreover, did
he realize this that he hesitated to divide his command,
overestimating Jackson's numbers and aggressive ca-
pacity. Had he done so, he would hardly have ventured
to assail Jackson in front. On the contrary, Pakenham's
trouble lay not in overestimating, but in underestimating
his adversary. He failed to operate on what were cor-
rect principles for the conditions which confronted him,
not because he was afraid to do so, but because he did
not grasp the situation.

" In case, then, dividing his commnad, Pakenham had
thrown one-half of it across the river to assail New
Orleans in force, so turning Jackson's rear, and then
with the other half hold his position on the east bank,
keeping open his communications with the British fleet,
the only possible way in which Jackson could have taken
advantage of the situation would have been by leaving
his lines and attacking."

Even in spite of Pakenham's blundering it is not fair
tr/take rhp rrgnir, trom lackson. In this connection
further remarks from Mr. Adams are pertinent: I

" Jackson on this occasion evinced one of the highest
and rarest attributes of a great commander; he read
correctly the mind of his opponent — divined his course
of action. The British commander, not wholly imper-
vious to reason, had planned a diversion to the west
bank of the river, with a view to enfilading Jackson's
lipcs, and so aiding the proposed assault in front. As
7 97

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

this movement assumed shape it naturally caused Jack-
son much anxiety. All depended on its magnitude. If
it was the operation in chief of the British army, New
Orleans could hardly be saved. Enfiladed, and threat-
ened in his rear, Jackson must fall back. If, however,
it was only a diversion in favor of a main assault
planned on his front, the movement across the river
might be checked, or prove immaterial. As the thing
developed during the night preceding the battle, Com-
modore Patterson, who commanded the American naval
contingent on the river, became alarmed, and hurried
a despatch across to Jackson, advising him of what was
taking place and begging immediate reenforcement. At
one o'clock in the morning the messenger roused Jack-
son from sleiep, stating his errand. Jackson listened
to the despatch, and at once said : ' Hurry back and
tell Commodore Patterson that he is mistaken. The
main attack will be on this side, and I have no men
to spare. General Morgan must maintain his position
at all hazards/ To use a vernacular but expressive
term, Jackson had ' sized' Pakenham correctly — the
British commander could be depended upon not to do
what a true insight would have dictated and the occa-
sion called for. He would not throw the main body
of his army across the river and move on his objective
point by a practically undefended road, merely holding
his enemy in check on the east bank. Had he done so,
he would have acted in disregard of that first principle
both in tactics and strategy which forbids the division
of a force in presence of an enemy in such a way that
the two parts are not in position to support each other;
but, not the less for that, he would have taken New
Orleans. An attack in front was, on the contrary, in
accordance with British military traditions and the re-
cent experience of Bladensburg. * He acted, accordingly,
as Jackson was satisfied he would act. In his main
assault he sacrificed his army and lost his own life, sus-
taining an almost unparalleled defeat ; while his partial
movement across the river was completely successful,

SOLDIER

so far as it was pressed, opening wide the road to New
Orleans. A mere diversion, or auxiliary operation, it
was not persisted in, the principal attack having failed.
Jackson would have had to attack on their own ground
had he found himself compelled on the eighth of Janu-
ary to leave his lines and assume the aggressive, as the
only possible alternative to a precipitate retreat and thfc
abandonment of New Orleans. Certainly, that day An-
drew Jackson was under great obligations to Edward
Pakenham."

There is a disposition in spite of this to attribute
Jackson's success to luck and British bad tactics and
stupidity. Roosevelt covers this point most admirably.*
I quote his illuminating remarks together with the notes
that accompany them:

" Jackson, adopting that mode of warfare which best
suited the ground he was on and the trdops he had
under him, forced the enemy always to fight him where
he was strongest, and confined himself strictly to the
pure defensive — a system condemned by most European
authorities,! but which has at times succeeded to admira-
tion in America, as witness Fredericksburg, Gettysburg,
Kenesaw Mountain, and Franklin. Moreover, it must
be remembered that Jackson's success wa£ in no wise
owing either to chance or to the errors of his adversary. J

* From " The Naval War of 1812." By permission of G. P.
Putnam's Sons.

t Thus Napier says (vol. v, page 25) : " Soult fared as most
generals will who seek by extensive lines to supply the want
of numbers or of hardiness in the troops. Against rude com-
manders and undisciplined' soldiers, lines may avail; seldom
against accomplished commanders, never when the assailants
are the better soldiers." And again (page 150), "Offensive
operations must be on the basis of a good defensive system."

t The reverse has been stated again and again with very great
injustice, not only by the British, but even by American writers
(as, e.g., Professor W. G. Sumner in his " Andrew Jackson as

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

As far as fortune favored either side, it was that of the
British ; * and Pakenham left nothing undone to accom-
plish his aim, and made no movements that his experi-
ence in European war did not justify his making. There
is not reason for supposing that any other British gen-
eral would have accomplished more or have fared better
than he did.f Of course, Jackson owed much to the
nature of the ground on which he fought; but the
opportunities it afforded would have been useless in
the hands of any general less ready, hardy, and skilful
than Old Hickory.,,

a Public Man," Boston, 1882). The climax of absurdity is
reached by Major McDougal, who says (as quoted by Cole
in his " Memoirs of British Generals," ii, page 364) : " Sir
Edward Pakenham fell, not after an utter and disastrous de-
feat, but at the very moment when the arms of victory were
extended towards him," and by James, who says (ii, 338),
"The premature fall of a British general saved an American
city." These assertions are just on a par with those made by
American writers, that only the fall of Lawrence prevented the
" Chesapeake" from capturing the " Shannon."

British writers have always attributed the defeat largely to
the fact that the Forty-fourth Regiment, which was to have led
the attack with fascines and ladders, did not act well. I doubt
if this had any effect on the result. Some few of the men with
ladders did reach the ditch, but they were shot down at once,
and their fate would have been shared by others who had been
with them; the bulk of the column was ever able to advance
through the fire up to the breastwork, and all the ladders and
fascines in Christendom would not have helped it. There will
always be innumerable excuses offered for any defeat; but on
this occasion the truth is simply that the British regulars
found they could not advance in the open against a fire more
deadly than they had before encountered.

*E.g., the unexpected frost made the swamps firm for them
to advance through; the river being so low when the levee
was cut, the bayous were filled, instead of the British being
drowned out ; the " Carolina" was only blown up because the
wind happened to fail her, bad weather delayed the advance
of arms and re-enforcements, etc., etc

t " He was the next man to look to after Wellington." (Cod-
rington, i, 339.)

100

SOLDIER

Of COUrse, neither Jftrlronrt nnr Pnlrnnhotn fn11nwpH

the recognized rules of strategy. One succeeded, one
tailed. To^disregard conventionalities is a dangerous 2*£~
procedure. On the part of a great man it frequently J****
brings success. On the part of a commonplace man it
usually results in failure. Jackson and Pakenham were
cases in point.

Adams says again, " The really great military com-
mander, as in the case of Napoleon in his earlier days,
effects his results quite as much by ignoring all recog-
nized rules and principles as by acting in obedience to
them. At New Orleans, Jackson had no right to suc-
ceed; Pakenham had no excuse for failure. The last
brought defeat on his army, and lost his own life, while
proceeding in this way of tradition and in obedience to
accepted principles of strategy; the former achieved
a brilliant success by taking risks from which any rea-
sonably cautious commander would have recoiled."

But it takes greatness to attempt that from which
" arly reasonably cautious commander would have re-
coiled^' and it is an evidence of genius to succeed in
such an endeavor^,

£jpr did Jackson blindly stake everything on his posj-
tioiu^He had two different lines of entrenchments be-
tween the Rodriguez Canal and JNew OrlearisTfo which
he could have retired without difficulty should it have
been necessary. Nor did the capture of New Orleans
appear to him as decisive of the campaign, for he was
quite prepared to destroy the city absolutely rather than
let it fall into the hands of the British. He knew what
the great strategists of modern times have sought to
inculcate, that fleets and armies, not places, are the
legitimate objects of campaigns, and that so long as he
had an army in being there could be no effectual con-
quest of Louisiana. The British might possess them-
selves of the ruins of New Orleans, but so long as Jack-

IOI

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

son held his army intact they would have to follow him
and fight him sooner or later.

" It was not Marmont," he said to Eaton, " that be-
trayed the Emperor, it was Paris. He should have done
with Paris what the Russians did with Moscow — burnt
it, sir, burnt it to the ground, and thrown himself on the
country for support. So / would have done, and my
country would have sustained me in it." And many
years after the battle General Jackson told the same
man that " if he had been driven from his position, he
would .have burned the city and retreated up the river,
fighting over every inch of the ground."

During the course of the battle Jackson, who was ill
and found great difficulty in remaining on horseback,
walked up and down the line on foot. Walker in his
" Campaign of New Orleans" preserves this anecdote
of his demeanor :

" Jackson's first glance when he reached the line was
in the direction of Humphrey's battery. There stood
his right arm of the artillery, dressed in his usual plain
attire, smoking that eternal cigar, coolly levelling his
guns and directing his men.

" ' Ah !' exclaimed the general, ' all is right. Hum-
phrey is at his post, and will return their compliments
presently/

" Then, accompanied by his aide, he walked up and
down to the left, stopping at each battery to inspect its
condition, and waving his cap to the' men as they gave
him three cheers, he observed to the soldiers, —

" ' Don't mind these rockets, they are mere toys to
amuse the children/ "

Satisfied that the right would take care of itself, and
realizing that the main attack was ugpn ftis "Fft foe
stationed himself there with his staflL. When the British
charge spent itseli unavailingly and the Highlanders,

102

SOLDIER

who made the supreme effort, halted, reeled, and stag-
gered back, there was a natural impulse along the
American lines to leave the entrenchments and charge
the British. The opportunity was tempting, yet Jackson
had the good sense and nerve to refuse. As it is one
of the few instances liT which he was conspicuous for
self-restraint it ought to be noted. He absolutely nega-
tived the importunate plea of one of his officers for per-
mission to deliver a countercharge.
~ " My reason for refusing/' he said afterwards to
Eaton, " was that it might become necessary to sustain
him, and thus a contest in the open field be brought on.
The lives of my men were of value to their country
and much too dear to their families to be hazarded
where necessity did not require it ; but, above all, from
the numerous dead and wounded stretched out on the
field before me, I felt a confidence that the safety of
the city was most probably attained, and hence that
nothing calculated to reverse the good fortune we had
met should be attempted.,,

Buell relates the following incident of his treatment
of an unauthorized movement on the part of a young
subaltern, which, if it had not been checked, might have
led to disaster.*

" Young Robert Polk, ensign of his uncle's company,
a curly-headed youth of nineteen or twenty, sprang upon
the breastwork, and the bright blade of his Indian toma-
hawk glittered above his bare head as he yelled : ' Come
on, boys! Follow me! Let's charge 'em. Let's get
among 'em !'

" ' Down, sir, down!' roared Jackson in the voice of a
mad bull. ' Back to your post!'

" Young Robert Polk jumped down off the parapet !

"Jackson fumbled with his hands about his waist.

*From "History of Andrew Jackson." By permission of
Charles Scribner's Sons.

103

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

As if surprised, he found he had on no belt or side arms
of any kind — only the cane in his hand. In a half-
helpless sort of way, he turned to his aide-de-camp,
' Kindly lend me your pistols for a moment, Captain/

" Captain Butler took two heavy rifled pistols from
his belt and handed them to his chief.

" ' Now/ said Jackson in a voice that no one ever
forgot who heard it, and with a wicked glint in his great
gray eyes, ' I'll shoot the first man who dares go over
the works ! We must have order here!9

" There was order."

Incidentally this episode throws rather an interesting
and curious light upon this supposed fire-eater,
breathing blood and destruction, spitting out curses
and anathemas. We are surprised to see him walking
up and down the lines quietly in the midst of fierce
battle with no other weapon than a cane and forced to
borrow a pair of pistols from a staff officer in an
emergency. This is a picture of him which artists who
love to depict him on horseback, cocked hat, drawn
sword, and so forth, do not seem to have realized and
which is infinitely more dramatic and thrilling than their
imaginings.

As the British trumpets flared out the charge through
the fog Major Butler, his aide, thus records the gen-
eral's action:

" ' That is their signal for advance, I believe/ he
said. He then ordered all of us down off the parapet,
but stayed there himself, and kept his long glass to his
eye, sweeping the enemy's line with it from end to
end. In a moment he ordered Adair and Carroll to pass
word along the line for the men to be ready, to count
the enemy's files down as closely as they could, and each
look after his own file-man in their ranks ; also that they
should not fire until told, and then to aim above the
cross-belt plates."

104

SOLDIER

Throughout the whole campaign he did not spare
himself! Colyar writes: >rThe anxiety and excitement
produced by the mighty object before him were such as
overcame the demand of nature, and for four days and
four nights he was without sleep and was constantly
employed. His line of defence being completed on the
night of the twenty-seventh, he, for the first time since
the arrival of the enemy, retired to rest and repose.
Edward Livingstone, in careless, familiar conversation,
used to say ' three days and three nights.' ' Nor during
these days/ the same gentleman was accustomed to say,
' did the general once sit at a table or take a regular
meal. Food was brought to him in the field, which he
would oftenest consume without dismounting/ When
Mr. Livingstone, fearful of the consequences of such
unremitting toil upon a constitution severely shattered,
would remonstrate with him and implore him to take
some repose, he would reply : ' No, sir ; there's no
knowing when or where these rascals will attack. They
shall not catch me unprepared. When we have driven
the red-coated villains into the swamp, there will be
time enough to sleep/ " As always he had gone to
the front and had stayed there until the campaign was
finally decided, sustained, as usual, by that indomitable
will.

The result of his campaign was amazing. As Parton
puts it: "The victory occurred at a happy time. It
finished the war in glory. It restored and inflamed the
national, self-love. And whoever does that in an emi-
nent degree remains for ever dear to a nation — becomes
its Wellington, its Jackson!" Henry Clay, one of the
commissioners to treat for peace, thus summed up the
effects of the British defeat; when the news of the
victory reached him in Paris he said, " Now, I can go to
England without mortification/'

But it was not until later years that its full signifi-
es

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

cance was appreciated. Jackson himself had no mis-
apprehensions about it, but few others appreciated it,
and it has been preserved for a present day historian —
Colonel Augustus C. Buell, whose discussion of the
matter in his last book is one of the most illuminating
and valuable contributions to our history — so to put it
that even the unwilling may understand. The popular
idea is that the Battle of New Orleans having been
fought after peace was declared, was a perfectly useless
slaughter of no value in determining the issue of the
war ; and save for the exploitation of our skill with the
rifle, and the demonstration of ability of the backwood
general and his soldiers, served no purpose whatsoever
except that of ministering to our national vanity. For
which petty end the terrible slaughter of the hapless
British soldier cannot be justified by the most callous
observer.

These conclusions, which prevail widely to-day, are
all wrong. So far from being a useless slaughter, the
JBattle of New Orleans was the m65t ffflparatnTand de-
cisive fought on this continent between Yorktown and

^liettysourg. Andrew lackson contributed to the tuture
of his country in a degree only surpassed by Washing-
ton, Who founded ft', and Lincoln, wh6 preserved it.
For to Andrew Jackson is "due the vital fact that the
western boiiridafy ot the united States is the Pacific
and not the Mississippi.

" This is quite sufficient to immortalize him, to win him
a place among"""RTP- 1ijjj1hu,i. nf thp hpnefartnrs and
patriots of America. For this service we can forgive
him much. For what would the country now be with
Canada in possession of the Great West, with the red
flag of England facing the stars and stripes on opposite
4janks of the Father of Waters? Buell has preserved
this conversation which he heard from Governor Wil-
liam Allen, of Ohio, who was a party to it :

1 06

SOLDIER

" Near the end of General Jackson's second adminis- !
tration, and shortly after the admission of Arkansas to ;
the Union, I, being Senator-elect from Ohio, went to
Washington to take the seat on March 4th. \

" General Jackson — he always preferred to be called ;
General rather than Mr. President, and so we always
addressed him by his military title — General Jackson in-
vited me to lunch with him. No sooner were we seated
than he said, ' Mr. Allen, let us take a little drink to the
new star in the flag — Arkansas !' This ceremony being
duly observed the general said, ' Allen, if there had been
disaster instead of victory at New Orleans, there never ; X
would have been a State of Arkansas/

" This, of course, interested me, and I asked, ' Why
do you say that, General?'

" Then he said, ' If Pakenham had taken New Or- \
leans, the British would have claimed that the treaty of
Ghent, which had been signed fifteen days before the
battle, provided for restoration of all territory, places,
and possessions taken by either nation from the other
during the war, with certain unimportant exceptions ?

" ' Yes, of course/ he replied. ' But the minutes of
the conference at Ghent as kept by Mr. Gallatin, repre-
sent the British commissioners as declaring in exact
words :

" t " We do not admit Bonaparte's construction of the
law of nations. We can not accept it in relation to any
subject-matter before us."

" ' At that moment/ pursued General Jackson, ' none
of our commissioners knew what the real meaning of
these words was. When they were uttered, the British
commissioners knew that Pakenham's expedition had
been decided on. Our commissioners did not know it.
Now, since I have been Chief Magistrate I have learned
from diplomatic sources of the most unquestionable
authority that the British ministry did not intend the
treaty of Ghent to apply to the Louisiana Purchase at
all. The whole corporation of them from 1803 to 181 5
— Pitt, the Duke of Portland, Greenville, Perceval, Lord

107

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Liverpool and Castlereagh — denied the legal right of
Napoleon to sell Louisiana to us, and they held, there-
fore, that we had no right to that territory. So you
see, Allen, that the words of Mr. Goulburn on behalf
of the British commissioners, which I have quoted to
you from Albert Gallatin's minutes of the conference,
had a far deeper significance than our commissioners
could penetrate. Those words were meant to lay the
foundation for a claim on the Louisiana Purchase en-
tirely external to the provisions of the treaty of Ghent.
And in that way the British government was signing a
treaty with one hand while with the other behind its
back it is despatching Pakenham's army to seize the
fairest of our possessions.

" ' You can also see, my dear William/ said the old
general, waxing warm (having once or twice more
during the luncheon toasted the new star), ' you can also
see what an awful mess such a situation would have
been if the British programme had been carried out in
full. But Providence willed it otherwise. All the
tangled web that the cunning of English diplomats could
weave around our unsuspecting commissioners at Ghent
was torn to pieces and soaked with British blood in half
an hour at New Orleans by the never missing rifles of
my Tennessee and Kentucky pioneers. And that ended
it. British diplomacy could do wonders, but it couldn't
provide against such a contingency as that. The
British commissioners could throw sand in the eyes of
ours at Ghent, but they couldn't help the cold lead that
my riflemen sprinkled in the face of their soldiers at
New Orleans. Now, Allen, you have the whole story.
Now you know why Arkansas was saved at New Or-
leans. Let's take another little one/ "

It is indubitably true that if the British had succeeded
in "cfaleating Jackson and seizing Loulilaxiar they would
have held It, treaty to the contrary notwithstanding. As
Jackson said, the commissioners did not know the sig-
nificance of Mr. Goulburn's words, " We do not admit

1 08

SOLDIER

Napoleon's construction of the law of nations. We
cannot accept it in relation to any subject-matter before
us." They all suspected an ulterior design, although
they could not fathom it. Had Fakenftam~freen suc-
cessful, had Jackson failed, it is as clear as anything

— Ldii be llul we should have had to accept the Mississippi
as the westenTboundary of the United 3iates.-0E-else

light the tsrmsh again for it. It is singular that it has

been reserved for Mr. Buell, over sixty years after the
battle — he first published the Allen interview in 1875
and it did not attract the attention then that it did when
it appeared in his biography of Jackson, published last
year — to bring out this point so clearly that it has now
become one of the accepted facts of our history. The
whole chapter concerning it may be studied with great
profit in Mr. Buell's book.

It is with pfrnliar hnppini?rgg thnt T rrnffirm that the
preservation to his country of that great and magnifi-
cent territory beyond the Mississippi is due to the skill
and determination and conspicuous ability oi that great
backwoodsman. A share of the honor for these results
must be "accorded William Henry Harrison. For had
Proctor and Tecumseh been successful, I believe it
would have been absolutely impossible to have driven
the British from the northwest territory they had seized,
and the cross of St. George would have waved forever
from the Rocky Mountains to the Golden Gate.

Jackson passionately disliked the English, and his
inveterate animosity cost them dear. " He had heredi-
tary wrongs to avenge on the British, and he hated them
with atl implacable tury that was absolutely devoid of
feaf.M Parton, the Englishman, says : " He cherished
that intense antipathy to Great Britain which distin-
guished the survivors of the Revolution, some traces of
which could be discerned *in the less enlightened parts
of the country until within these few years. [It may still

109

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

be discerned even among the enlightened. — C. T. B.]
In these respects, he was the most AmHcan o* Ameri-
cans— an embodied Dedaialiou oi Independence — the
Fourth of July incarnate I" To him was vouchsafed
the supreme satisfaction of thwarting one of the most
gigantic projects ever conceived by a British Cabinet,
struggled for by .British diplomacy, ^"gh<- for by fhr
British army, and I am confident that never has there
been a man on eanh whr> *nnlr greater pleasiireariH
satisfaction out of a success than AHtTW Ja^W^*1 d*d
at New Orleans. It was some compfnfintifr1 for thf»
loss of his mother and his brothers and fa's pwn hmtal
treatmentirT the "Revolution. And besides all this,
Tackson was Irish enough— notJScQtcft-J — to be exceed-
ingly glad oi the humiliation nf the hereditary enemy
-oLhisj*ace.

SOLDIER (CONTINUED)

Jackson's only other campaign was against the Semi-
noles in Florida in 1818. Florida was still a Spanish
possession. From a military stand-point the campaign
is uninteresting! JNo battles worthy of the name were
fought. Jackson seized the country with practically no
resistance. The Seminoles were defeated on several
occasions, with no loss to his white troops, jaclcson
had no legal right, 01 course, to invade Florida again.
although the Semipoles at fbp incfigofinn t\i British
agents were using Florida as a base from which to war
upon the border settlements oi the United States. The
feeble Spaill^h guveininenl piulesied vainly against this
breach of neutrality, but a country which cannot keep
order within its own borders, and which permits its citi-
zens, or denizens, to make war on their own account
upon a friendly nation has no reasonable ground for
complaint if such disorder is kept down by force, even
though its own territory be invaded for the purpose.

The only episode of any note brought out by the cam-
paign is the execution of a Scottish trader named Ar-
buthnot and an ex-British marine officer named Am-
brister. Jackson captured the ringleaders among the
Indians, two chiefs named Hillis Hajo, or Francis, and
Himollomico, and hanged them. They richly deserved
their fate, but I am unable to find any warrant of law
for their summary execution without trial or the observ-
ance of other legal forms.

Francis, a handsome man who spoke English and
Spanish, who had been created a brigadier-general — in

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

the Colonial Establishment! — by the English while on
a visit to England, requested that he might be shot like
a man instead of being hanged like a dog. When this
was reported to the general the request was refused.
" No," said he, " let him hang. I will be more merciful
to him than he was to poor Scott and the soldiers and
women of the Fourth !"

A boat containing forty soldiers of the Fourth United
States Infantry, with seven soldiers' wives and four
little children, all under the command of Lieutenant
Scott of the Seventh United States Infantry, had been
captured on the Appalachicola River on the thirtieth of
November, 1817. In revenge for the seizure of Fowl-
town, the Seminole stronghold, the Indians attacked this
boat from ambush.

" Lieutenant Scott and nearly every man in the boat
were killed or badly wounded at the first fire. Other
volleys succeeded. The Indians soon rose from their
ambush and rushed upon the boat with a fearful yell.
Men, women, and children were involved in one hor-
rible massacre, or spared for more horrible torture.
The children were taken by the heels and their brains
dashed out against the sides of the boat. The men
and women were scalped, all but one woman, who
was not wounded by the previous fire. Four men
escaped by leaping overboard and swimming to the
opposite shore, of whom two only reached Fort Scott
uninjured. Laden with plunder, the savages reentered
the wilderness, taking with them the women whom they
had spared. In twenty minutes after the first volley was
fired into the boat, every creature in it but five was
killed and scalped or bound and carried off."

J. B. Rodgers, one of Jackson's officers, adds further
details of this desperate, bloody, and forgotten affair:
" Himollomico was a savage-looking man of forbid-
ding countenance, indicating cruelty and ferocity. He

112

SOLDIER

was taciturn and morose. He was the chief that cap-
tured Lieutenant R. W. Scott, with forty men and seven
women, about the first of December, 1817, on the Appa-
lachicola. The lieutenant with his whole party (except
one woman retaken by General Jackson in the April
following) were almost inhumanly massacred by order
of Himollomico. Lieutenant Scott (as described by
the woman prisoner) was tortured in every conceivable
manner. Lightwood slivers were inserted into his body
and set on fire, and in this way he was kept under
torture for the whole day. Lieutenant Scott repeatedly
begged and importuned the woman that escaped the
slaughter to take a tomahawk and end his pain. But
' No/ said she, ' I would as soon kill myself/ All the
while Himollomico stood by, and with a fiendish grin
enjoyed the scene.

" Mr. Hambly told him when they were about to
hang him that General Jackson would not let him be
shot, but would hang him like a dog and disgrace him,
and reminded him of how he had treated Lieutenant
Scott and his party.

" The woman said that the Indians severed the breasts
of every woman of the party from the body, then
scalped and tomahawked them — six in number. She,
being the seventh, was taken and claimed by a young
Indian warrior. He treated her very kindly and made
her wait on him, and on the march during the day she
rode his pony. She was retaken from the Indians in
the April thereafter, between St. Mark's and Suwannee,
by the friendly Indians and some Tennesseans, who
killed twenty or thirty of the Indians, taking about
ninety prisoners, with a large number of cattle."

frfe wonder these two wretches were hanged out of
hand 1 jThe other executions were different atfairs. Ar-
BtlfHnot and AmDrister were captured at St. Mark's on
the Appalachicola. These two men were tried by a
— Or— 113

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

court-martial presided over by General Gaines and in-
cluding officers of rank and experience. They were
found guilty of inciting the Indians to warfare on the
United States and sentenced to death. Arbuthnot was
hanged and Ambrister shot, Jackson, of course, ap-
proving the act.

A strict construction of the law of nations did not
warrant the execution. Jackson was perfectly clear in
his own mind as to the legality of his action. In the
order for the carrying out of the sentence of the court
he declared it to be " an established principle of the
law of nations that any individual of a nation making
war against the citizens of any other nation, they being
at peace, forfeits his allegiance and becomes an outlaw
and a pirate."

This is a half truth. Such persons undoubtedly for-
feit their allegiance and cannot demand the protection
df their government, but they do not thereby become
outlaws and pirates, at least not when civilized warfare
is under consideration — that is, warfare between civil-
ized nations; else Lafayette, Von Stuben, Kosciusko,
and De Kalb were all pirates and outlaws because they
served the United States in the war of the Revolution!
According to Jackson, if England had caught any of
them she might have executed them out of hand! Of
course, the Creeks and Seminoles were not civilized
nations, and perhaps in Jackson's mind that fact added
to the supposed enormity of the actions of Arbuthnot
and Ambrister. Jackson, by his summary execution of
Francis and Himollomico, showed that he did not intend
to accord belligerent rights to the savages, and he evi-
dently put the two Englishmen in the same class in spite
of his specious affirmation of a false principle of inter-
national law. The evidence looked at from the present
does not seem to warrant the guilt of Arbuthnot, who
was only a trader. Nor is it very convincing in the case

114

SOLDIER

of Ambrister, who, however, had no ostensible business
in the country.

On the whole, I must admit that, coldly considered,
Jackson was not warranted in his action. His course
was made the subject of bitter and determined attack
on three grounds : first, that neither of the culprits was
guilty; second, that if they were guilty, they were not
deserving of death; third, if they were deserving of
death, Jackson had no power to inflict it. As to this,
it must be remembered that they were tried by a duly
constituted court-martial, according to military law, and
were heard in their own defence. It is rather a serious
thing for a historian writing years after an event to
reverse a judgment rendered under such circumstances.
This is not merely my own opinion, but that of one
of the most distinguished historians of the age with
whom I have corresponded on a similar question. I am,
however, prepared to admit that the justice of the
whole proceeding is open to doubt, and I have not given
General Jackson the benefit of the doubt in passing a
judgment upon him.

Before dismissing the subject we may note these
significant facts. The British government acquiesced
in the execution, and the British government is re-
markable among the nations of the world for the spirit
and ability with which it protects the rights of citi-
zens wherever they are impugned. The fact that the
British government did nothing should be abundant
evidence that it had no case. Richard Rush, our then
minister to England, says, " The opinion formed (in
a cabinet council) was that the conduct of these in-
dividuals had been unjustifiable and, therefore, not call-
ing for the special interference of Great Britain.,,

Congress specifically approved of Jackson's course
after a long and acrimonious debate over resolutions of
censure of his action, in which Henry Clay was the

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

leader of the anti- Jackson party. The following is the
final vote of the Committee of the Whole in the House
of Representatives on the question:

" Does the Committee disapprove the execution of
Arbuthnot and Ambrister? It does not. Ayes, 54;
noes, 90.

" Shall a law be drafted prohibiting the execution of
captives by a commanding general? There shall not.
Ayes, 57; noes, 98.

"Was the seizure of Pensacola and the capture of
Barrancas contrary to the Constitution? It was not.
Ayes, 65; noes, 91.

" Shall a law be drafted forbidding the invasion of
foreign territory without the previous authorization of
Congress, unless in the fresh pursuit of a defeated
enemy? There shall not. Ayes, 42; noes, 112.

" So the Committee of the Whole sustained General
Jackson on every point. Jackson triumphed — Jackson
always triumphed."

Similar resolutions of censure introduced in the
Senate were laid on the table by a practically unanimous
vote. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, in one
of the ablest papers in American diplomacy, defended
and justified the execution, although Calhoun and others
of the Cabinet wished to disavow it. Jackson, there-
fore, was sustained by all branches of the government
and by the people, but he was not sustained until the
opposition had exhausted its capacity for argument to
have his action condemned. Jackson himself had no
doubt as to his course. As to that, Ben Butler in his
eulogy on Jackson spoke to the following effect : " ' My
God would not have smiled on me/ was his character-
istic remark when speaking of this affair to him who
addresses you, ' had I punished only the poor, ignorant
savages, and spared the white men who set them on/ "

The Reverend Doctor Van Pelt, who was a fellow-
116

SOLDIER

passenger with Jackson on a steamer bound for New
York after the close of the campaign, records the fol-
lowing conversation between the old general and a rash
interlocutor :

" Some of the people here at the North, General, think
you were rather severe in altering the sentence of Am-
brister and ordering him to be shot," said the man.

A spark in a powder-flask! The general turned
quickly towards the audacious utterer of this blasphemy,
looked at him sharply for a moment, rose to his feet, and
began at the same moment to talk and pace the floor.

" Sir," he exclaimed, " that matter is misunderstood !
In the same circumstances I would do the same thing
again. The example was needed. The war would not
otherwise have ended so speedily as it did. The British
government has not complained. The Spanish govern-
ment does not complain. It is only our own people who
are dissatisfied. Why, sir, those men were British sub-
jects. If the execution was unjust, why has not the
British government remonstrated? No, sir, they were
spies. They ought to have been executed. And I tell
you, sir, that I would do the same again."

The people of the United States were not dissatisfied.
Jackson's enemies and political opponents, of whom
there were not a few, made a great to-do over the mat-
ter, but nothing came of it. Niles' Register well ex-
plains the popular opinion in the following paragraph:

" The fact is that ninety-nine in a hundred of the peo-
ple believe General Jackson acted on every occasion for
the good of his country, and success universally crowned
his efforts. He has suffered more hardships and en-
countered higher responsibilities than any man living in
the United States to serve us, and has his reward in
the sanction of his government and the approbation of
the people."

This was the last episode of importance in his military
117

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

career. Estimates as to his character and services as
a soldier are now in order.

Parton writes: "The success of General Jackson's
military career was due to three separate exertions of
his will. First, his resolve not to give up the Creek
War when Governor Blount advised it, when Coffee
was sick, when the troops were flying homeward, when
the general was almost alone in tfie wilderness. Second,
his determination to clear the English out of Pensacola.
Third, and greatest of all, his resolution to attack the
British whenever and wherever they landed, no matter
what the disparity of forces. It was that resolve that
saved New Orleans. And it is to be observed of these
measures that they were all irregular, contrary to pre-
cedent, ' imprudent' — measures which no council of war
would have advised, and no Secretary of War ordered ;
measures which, failing, all the world would have
hooted at — which, succeeding, the world can never
praise enough."

Roosevelt, no mean authority in the premises, thus
characterizes him: "Andrew Jackson, who, with his
cool head and quick eye, his stout heart and strong
hand, stands out in history as the ablest general the
United States produced, from the outbreak of the Revo-
lution down to the beginning of the Great Rebellion."

Eaton, who knew him long and intimately, has this
to say : " Few generals had ever to seek for order
amidst a higher state of confusion, or obtained success
through more pressing difficulties. . . ." Major La-
tour, a United States engineer officer, who was on Jack-
son's staff, testifies that "the energy manifested by
General Jackson spread, as it were, by contagion, and
communicated itself to the whole army. I shall add
that there was nothing which those who composed it did
not feel themselves capable of performing if he ordered
it to be done. It was enough that he expressed a wish,

118

SOLDIER

or threw out the slightest intimation, and immediately
a crowd of volunteers offered themselves to carry his
views into execution."

The late John Fiske pays him this splendid tribute:
"Throughout the whole of this campaign, in which
Jackson showed such indomitable energy, he suffered
from illness such as would have kept any ordinary man
groaning in bed ; besides that, for most of the time his
left arm had to be supported in a sling. His pluck was
equalled by his thoroughness. Many generals after vic-
tory are inclined to relax their efforts; not so Jackson,
who followed up every success with furious persistence,
and whose admirable maxim was that in war 'until all
is done, nothing is done/ "

And Parton quotes Thomas H. Benton as follows :
" For it was the nature of Andrew Jackson to finish
whatever he undertook. He went for a clean victory or
a clean defeat." Jackson is often considered as a self-
willed, obstinate man, willing to take no advice and to
listen to no one. Eaton contradicts that impression and
writes of him : " No man is more willing to hear and to
respect the opinions of others; and none where much
is at stake, and to conflict with his own, less disposed to
be under their influence. He has never been known
to call a council of war whose decisions, when made,
should shield him from responsibility or censure. His
council of war, if doubting himself, was a few officers
in whom he fully confided, whose advice was regarded,
if their reasons were conclusive; but these not being
satisfactory, he at once adopted and pursued the course
suggested by his own mind."

One blot on his military record, or perhaps one
quality which dimmed his military fame, was his de-
termination to follow his own instincts without regard
to the wishes or commands of his superiors.. True, his
instincts were generally correct, -^ut his lack of knowl-

119

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

edge and experience frequently led him to undertake
the right thing in the wrong way and brought him to
a disobedience of his superiors which, had the situation
been reversed, he would have put down with ruthless
determination. He was a good commander but a poor
subordinate. One reason for that is, he had never been
trained to obey. His whole experience as a soldier
had been in supreme command. He had not worked
himself up to that happy position by long and toilsome
service in lower grades. Since he had never learned
subordination, he did not appreciate the necessity of
submission to higher authority, although he thoroughly
realized the necessity of obedience, and exacted it in the
sternest way from those whom fortune placed under
him.

In his first abortive campaign, when he led the Ten-
nessee volunteers to Natchez and was there ordered to
disband them by the Secretary of War, he flatly dis-
obeyed the order, refused to allow Wilkinson, then in
command, to interfere with his plans, commandeered
wagons and supplies, and marched his men back to
Nashville, justifying himself in the following language :
"As between an open defiance of the orders of my
superior, the Secretary of War, and my duty to the
private soldier who put himself under me, I shall risk
all the consequences of being dishonored and losing my
entire estate and much more. I shall take care of my
men and carry them back home."

Nor did he hesitate to draw bills of exchange on the
government for the expenses of his return march, guar-
anteeing them by his own private fortune. Wilkinson
had no option but to dishonor the drafts when they
were presented, and Jackson took them up without hesi-
tation, although to do so was to impoverish him. He
would have been a ruined man had not Benton suc-
ceeded in getting the government to honor his drafts,

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SOLDIER

The successful soldier usually sustains a very intimate
and personal relationship to his officers and men. Al-
though he may be the sternest of disciplinarians, as far
removed from contempt-breeding familiarity as the stars
in their courses, and as immovable in his decisions as
fate itself, he must know when to condescend. Jackson
was a past master in the art of mingling with his sol-
diers. In that he was not unlike Napoleon with his
grenadiers. I have culled from various sources several
anecdotes illustrating this trait in his character which
will lighten this picture of Jackson the stern soldier.

" When the little army set out from Natchez for a
march of five hundred miles through the wilderness
there were a hundred and fifty men on the sick-list, of
whom fifty-six could not raise their heads from the
pillow. There were but eleven wagons for the con-
veyance of these. The rest of the sick were mounted on
the horses of the officers. The general had three excel-
lent horses, and gave them all up to the sick men, him-
self trudging along on foot with the brisk pace that
was usual with him. Day after day he tramped gayly
along the miry forest roads, never tired, and always
ready with a cheering word for others. They marched
with extraordinary speed, averaging eighteen miles a
day, and performing the whole journey in less than a
month, and yet the sick men rapidly recovered under the
reviving influences of a homeward march. ' Where am
I?' asked one young fellow who had been lifted to his
place in a wagon when insensible and apparently dying.
'On your way home!9 cried the general merrily; and
the young soldier began to improve from that hour, and
reached home in good health.

" The name of ' Old Hickory' was not an instan-
taneous inspiration, but a growth. First of all, the re-
mark was made by some soldier, who was struck with
his commander's pedestrian powers, that the general

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THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

was ' tough.' Next it was observed of him that he was
as ' tough as hickory.' Then he was called ' Hickory.9
Lastly, the affectionate adjective 'Old' was prefixed,
and the general henceforth rejoiced in the completed
nickname, usually the first-won honor of a great com-
mander."

Every great soldier is nicknamed, at least every great
soldier that is loved by his men, and few are the soldiers
who are, or become great — paradoxical as it seems —
without that love from those they lead. Waldo Jackson
once alluded to this fact as follows :

" The pleasant raillery which is the very zest of life
when played off by one gentleman upon another was,
unfortunately, practised upon a captain of a company in
the New Orleans campaign, who took it in high dud-
geon. In imitation of the names of Indian chiefs, his
men called him Captain Fiat-Foot. He remonstrated
against it to General Jackson, who pleasantly remarked,
4 Really, Captain, it is difficult getting along with these
gay young fellows ; but so long as they toil at the lines
with such vigor, and fight the enemy with such courage,
we officers must overlook a little innocent levity. Why,
Captain, they call me Old Hickory, and if you prefer
my title to yours, I will readily make an exchange.' The
captain retired, proud of the title of Captain Fiat-
Foot."

Here is an anecdote of Eaton's which harks back to
Marion, of whom a similar incident was told, as of many
another starving captain.

" In the Creek campaign a soldier one morning, with
woe-begone countenance, approached the general,
stating that he was nearly starved, that he had nothing to
eat, and could not imagine what he should do. He was
the more encouraged to complain from perceiving that
the general, who had seated himself at the root of a tree,
waiting the coming up of the rear of the army, was

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SOLDIER

busily engaged in eating something, he knew not what.
The poor fellow was impressed with the belief from
what he saw that want only attached to the soldiers, and
that the officers, particularly the general, were liberally
and well supplied. He accordingly approached him
with great confidence in being relieved. Jackson told
him that it had always been a rule with him never to
turn away a hungry man when it was in his power to
relieve him. ' I will most cheerfully/ said he, ' divide
with you what I have/ and, putting his hand in his
pocket, drew forth a few acorns, on which he had been
feasting, adding that it was the best and only fare he
had. The soldier seemed much surprised, and forthwith
circulated amongst his comrades that their general was
actually subsisting upon acorns, and that they ought,
hence, no more complain."

To know his men, to give them a sense of personal
relationship to him, is a highly desirable quality in a
commander. As proof of this Colonel Butler said : " It
was astonishing to see how many men — private soldiers
— the general could tell by name. He knew almost
every Tennessean and at least half the Kentuckians.
His manner with them was easy; a modern general
would call it familiar. Still, he was dignified, and they
all seemed to understand him. I remember him rallying
one of the young Robertsons — grandson of the old pio-
neer. Robertson was quite young. He belonged to
Polk's company [of Carroll's command. — C. T. B.].
'Joe/ said the general, 'how are they using you?
Wouldn't you rather be with Aunt Lucy (meaning his
mother) than with me?'

" ' Not by a d — d sight, General/ young Joe stoutly
replied. ' But I wouldn't mind if Aunt Lucy was here
a little while.' Jackson laughed, patted the boy on the
shoulder, and said, ' Stick to 'em, Joe. We'll smash
h — 1 out of 'em, and then you can go home to Aunt

123

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Lucy/ This was one of the many similar scenes that
morning — or at any time when he went along the lines."

And Buell records the following : " A few days after
the battle, while the army yet lay in the Chalmette lines
awaiting the pleasure of the British force still in camp
on Villere's plantation, a well-built youth, about nineteen
or twenty years old, belonging to Carroll's command,
was on sentry post at the breastwork, pacing up and
down with a long rifle carelessly thrown over his right
shoulder. General Jackson came along in his usual way,
on foot, inspecting the lines. Seeing this boy on duty,
the general stopped and talked with him two or three
minutes in a familiar way, and finally handed him a
letter, which the young fellow read and then handed it
back to the general, who resumed his tour of inspec-
tion.

" The regular officer, who had witnessed the inter-
view, went to the youthful soldier and asked his name.

" ' My name is Hays, sir.'

" ' You seem to be acquainted with the general.'

" ' Oh, yes, sir. He is my uncle — that is, you know,
my uncle up home in Tennessee !'

" The officer, amused, asked :

" ' Your uncle, up home in Tennessee, you say ; and
what is he here?'

" ' Oh, here he is the general, sir I'

" To further inquiries the boy responded that he was
the youngest son of Mrs. Jackson's sister, Mrs. Hays,
and that he had lived a good part of his boyhood at
the Hermitage with * Uncle Jackson and Aunt Rachel/
He then explained to the officer that the letter General
Jackson showed him was f rom ' Aunt Rachel' and con-
tained some messages from his own family. Finally,
the officer remarked ; * And so you are General Jack-
son's nephew and a private soldier here. I wonder that
he doesn't do better by you?'

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SOLDIER

" ' Well, sir, that doesn't make any difference to him.
So long as I'm here with a gun, he's satisfied !' "

So, it is evident, was young Hays !

Nor was there ever a commander more quick to
recognize merit in his subordinates nor more willing to
make generous public acknowledgment of it. On the
twenty-fifth of January, when he dispatched Colonel
Hayne, his inspector-general, to Washington with his
report of the operations around New Orleans, after
specifically requesting him to commend by name to the
Secretary of War on Jackson's behalf a number of
officers who had distinguished themselves, lest he should
have unwittingly omitted any he includes in his order
to Hayne the following paragraph :

"Any officers whose merit you may have noticed; and no
doubt there are many such, you will be proud to do justice to,
and, for God's sake, entreat the Secretary of War not to yield
too much, in time to come, to recommendations of members
of Congress* He must be sensible of the motives from which,
for the most part, such recommendations proceed, and events
have too often and too sadly proved how little merit they
imply."

After that, on the thirtieth of January, Jackson had
spent "many hours in drawing up a general order — a
permanent roll of honor — which was a source of lasting
happiness to many brave men and their friends. In this
document every corps which had served during the
siege, every commanding officer, every subaltern who
had distinguished himself, the physicians, the general's
aids and secretaries, several privates and unattached
volunteers, were mentioned by name and honored with
a few words of generally well-discriminated compliment.
The officers who had fallen in action received also a
kindly tribute. This paper contained seventy names.

* A thing all Secretaries have to fight against
125

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Hundreds of the descendants of the men thus distin-
guished still cherish it with gratitude and pride.,,

Two days after Hayne's departure, in order that the
temporary contingent of citizens of his command might
not feel slighted, he addressed a most generous letter
to Nicholas Girod, the mayor of New Orleans, in which
he referred in the most complimentary manner to the
patriotism and self-sacrifice and devotion to the public
good which had been displayed by the mayor and citi-
zens during the operations. He wrote :

" I anticipate with great satisfaction the period when the
final departure of the enemy will enable you to resume the or-
dinary functions of your office and restore the citizens to their
usual occupations — they have merited the blessing of peace by
bravely facing the dangers of war. I should be most ungrate-
ful or insensible if I did not acknowledge the marks of confi-
dence and affectionate attachment with which I have personally
been honored by your citizens; a confidence that has enabled
me with greater success 'to direct the measures for their de-
fence, an attachment which I sincerely reciprocate, and which
I shall carry with me to the grave."

In general his relation with the citizen volunteers was
very pleasant. Recognizing the difference between them
and the others, he handled them with an adroitness and
tact which he did not feel it necessary to employ in the
case of his Tennesseans or the regular soldiers. The
citizen soldiers constantly wanted to leave the front
when no fighting was going on, to go back home to
visit their families, to attend to their business — there
were a thousand pretexts which afforded them excuse
for asking the general's permission. He did not leave
the lines himself and he rarely allowed anyone else to
visit the city. The general's dexterous management
was never more apparent than in the following episode,
told by Edward Livingston :

" Even those fathers of families whom Major Planche
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SOLDIER

commanded found it hard to get permission to go to
town for an hour or two. Some of them were a whole
week at the lines without seeing their families. Nay,
the gentlemen volunteers who surrounded the general's
person, and over whom he had no military authority,
discovered that he had taken them at their word very
literally and expected them to set an example of endur-
ance and diligence. It may have been on this Christmas
Day that a pretty scene occurred between the general
and Louis Livingston (a fine, gallant youth of sixteen,
the son of Edward Livingston) which shows at once
the delicacy and firmness of Jackson.

" ' May I go to town to-day, General ?' asked the
young man, who had been complimented with the title
of captain.

" ' Gf course, Captain Livingston/ replied the general,
' you may go. But ought you to go ?'

" The youth blushed, bowed, saluted, and, withdraw-
ing without a word, returned to his duty."

Mr. Vincent Nolte, a foreigner residing in New Or-
leans at the time, who had fought bravely enough and
who afterwards published a book of interesting remi-
nisences, in which he showed that he was not well
affected towards Jackson, had a difficulty with him re-
garding a settlement for cotton and blankets which the
general had appropriated for the use of his army. The
general had agreed to pay for anything he took at the
price current on the day he took it. Nolte had a num-
ber of blankets, and as blankets were scarce, the price
on the day the blankets were seized was very high.
He was paid accordingly, and made no demur about
accepting the money. Of course, the shipment of cot-
ton had ceased during the campaign and cotton was a
drug on the market. Its price was very low. When
the British had gone and things had resumed their
normal state the price of cotton rose rapidly. Mr.

127

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Nolte desired to be paid for his cotton at the after-war
price. In other words, he wanted to take advantage of
the high price on both commodities. This is the way,
according to Mr. Nolte, the general settled him :

" I called on the General. He heard me, but that was
all. ' Are you not lucky to have saved the rest of your
cotton by our defence ?' he asked.

" i Certainly, General, as lucky as others in the city
whose cotton had also been saved. But the difference
between me and the rest is that none of the others have
anything to pay and I have to bear all the loss."

" ' Loss P exclaimed the general. ' Why, you have
saved all P

" I saw that an argument was useless with so stiff-
necked a man, and remarked to him that I only wanted
compensation for my cotton, and that the best compen-
sation would be to give me precisely that had been
taken from me and of the same quantity.

" To this the general replied that he liked straight-
forward business, that my proposition was too compli-
cated, that to adopt it would be to compel him to go
into the market as a buyer, etc. He wound up by say-
ing: ' You must take six cents (a pound) for your cot-
ton/ [The price on the day it was seized — it was now
worth nine times as much. — C. T. B.] I endeavored to
resume the argument. He cut me off with : ' I can say
no more. It is done P ' Then, assuming an entirely
different tone, he said, ' Come, come, now, Mr. Nolte,
we have been soldiers together! Let's take a glass of
whiskey and water. You must be d — d dry with all
your arguing/

" Then, though many were waiting to see him in the
next room, he began talking in a pleasant way about
what he termed 'our efforts and sacrifices to defend
the country/ the ' grand success that had crowned our
efforts/ etc., etc., and wound up by saying that ' a

128

SOLDIER

little loss on cotton was nothing compared to the honor
of having borne a creditable part in such achieve-
ments/ " It was a pity for his own fame that Mr.
Nolte did not take the same view.

An imperious man himself, Jackson loved a man of
like temper. A steamboat captain had been ordered to
do a certain thing and had flatly disobeyed his com-
mands in order to insure the safety of some women and
children who had been committed to his charge. Jack-
son sent for him post haste, determined to call him to
account for his defiance, which had been open, not to say
flagrant. When the man of the river presented himself
before the general " the latter, fiercely eyeing him, in a
voice husky with intense passion, made the inquiry, —

" ' By , Captain Shreve, dare you disobey my

orders?9 "

" ' Yes, by , / dare!9 was the vehement reply of

the undaunted captain.

" Jackson could not repress the expression of surprise
which spread itself over his face at the unexpected reply
of the daring captain, and, in a tone of voice consider-
ably milder than his first inquiry, bade Shreve explain
his conduct. Upon the explanation being given, Jackson
dismissed him, simply saying that he had forgotten his
promise to the citizens, whose wives and children Cap-
tain Shreve then had upon his vessel."

Although he had no love for the British, two instances
of his generous treatment of his enemies may be cited.
The following is his account of the restoration of Gen-
eral Keane's sword. " Major-General Keane, having
lost his sword in the action of the eighth of January,
and having expressed a great desire to regain it, valuing
it as the present of an esteemed friend, I thought proper
to have it restored to him, thinking it more honorable to
the American character to return it, after the expression
of these wishes, than to retain it as a trophy of victory.
9 129

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

I believe, however, it is a singular instance of a British
general soliciting the restoration of his sword fairly lost
in battle.,,

So much for his dealings with the general. Here is
what he wrote to General Lambert after the evacuation
concerning some British soldiers who had been pris-
oners :

" Some of my officers under a mistaken idea that deserters
were confined with prisoners, have, as I have understood, made
improper applications to some of the latter to quit your ser-
vice. It is possible they may have in' some instances succeeded
in procuring either a feigned or a real consent to this effect;
the whole of the transaction, however, met my marked repre-
hension, and all the prisoners are now restored to you. But
as improper allurements may have been held out to these men,
it will be highly gratifying to my feelings to learn that no in-
vestigation will be made, or punishment inflicted, in conse-
quence of the conduct of those who may, under such circum-
stances, have swerved from their duty."

General Lambert assured Jackson in his reply that no
investigation should be made into the conduct of the
returning troops, and applauded the humanity of the
request.

In his campaigns Jackson was served by some im-
mortal men. Among them were Coffee, Carroll, Hous-
ton, and Crockett.* Crockett and Jackson differed in
after years, but the other three remained his staunchest
friends to the end. In the trying times at Fort Strother,
in the Creek War, when all men were deserting him,
they showed their mettle. Said Carroll : " I will go
back to the frontiers and say Jackson wants soldiers/'
Said Coffee : " I will make a captain's company, and
lead it, of officers whose men have left them." Colyar
calls attention to this touching little episode :

* See my books, " American Fights and Fighters — Bor-
der" and "The Conquest of the Southwest," for some ac-
count of Crockett and Houston.

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SOLDIER

"... One day when the great warrior had come to
be President of the United States and in the White
House, he sat down at his table, pulled his hat over
his eyes, and wrote :

" Sacred to the Memory of

GENERAL JOHN COFFEE,

Who departed this life

7th day of July, 1833,

Aged 61 years.

"'Asa husband, parent, and friend, he was affectionate, ten-
der, and sincere. He was a brave, prompt, and skilful general;
a distinguished and sagacious patriot; an unpretending, just,
and honest man. To complete his character, religion mingled
with these virtues her serene and gentle influence and gave him
that solid distinction among men which detraction cannot sully,
nor the grave conceal. Death could do no more than to remove
so excellent a being from the theatre he so much adorned in
this world to the bosom of God who created him, and who
alone has the power to reward the immortal spirit with ex-
haustless bliss/ "

Crockett is widely known as the author of that famous
aphorism, " Be sure you're right, then go ahead." In
the following little episode, which may well be true,
Colyar ascribes the origin of the saying to Jackson him-
self. " General Moore was a young captain in Jack-
son's army. He had a company from Fayetteville in
which was Davy Crockett, an awkward, boy-like soldier.
General Moore said his company became somewhat in-
subordinate in idleness, and he made known to his men
that he would not remain captain of a company that
would not obey his orders, and he was going to put the
facts before the general and ask him what to do. And
when he started to the general's headquarters, Davy
Crockett blabbed out that he was going along and see
what the old general said. So he and his private called
on the general ; he had made known his trouble, when
the general said to him :

131

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" ' Captain, I have but little to say to you. It is this :
Don't you make any orders oil your men without ma-
turing them, and then you can execute them, no matter
what it costs ; and that is all I have to say/ But when
they got back to the company the men were anxious to
"know what the general said, and Crockett thus spoke,
' The old general told the captain to be sure he was
right, and then go ahead.' " The phrase certainly is
thoroughly Jacksonian.

To sum up, as a strategist, a tactician and a fighter,
as a disciplinarian and a leader of men, this " Back-
woods Soldier" — name applied to him in derision! —
had no cause to blush when contrasted with the most
accomplished officers of his time. His opportunities
were limited, his resources small, his operations, save in
one instance, insignificant ; but he showed his qualities
just as thoroughly and just as decisively as if he had
commanded greater armies and fought larger battles.
Carlyle says, " You may paint with a very large brush
and not be a great painter after all;" and the con-
verse is equally true — you may paint with a small brush
upon a small piece of canvas and yet produce a
masterpiece. /From what Jackson did and the way he
did it, I think it quite proper to accord him a high \
place among the truly great soldiers of his country./

132

VII

PERSONAL APPEARANCE, MANNERS, " JACKSONIAN
VULGARITY"

The popular impression of Jackson's appearance, his
manners, and bearing, is about as erroneous as popular
impressions usually are. No doubt his nicknames have
conduced to perpetuate the almost universal error into
which posterity has fallen, and it is singular that the
popular opinion should prevail so obstinately in view of
the abundant evidence to the contrary that is on record.

Because Jackson was a Democrat, when to be a
Democrat was synonymous with being a man of the
very plain people, it has become almost a universal belief
that he was a vulgarian, and that " Old Hickory" and
the " Backwoods General," with the attributes which
ordinarily accompanied such appelations, aptly char-
acterized his appearance and his manners.

Sumner says : " One can easily discern in Jackson's
popularity an element of instinct and personal recogni-
tion by the mass of the people. They felt ' he is one
of us/ ' He stands by us.' * He is not proud and does
not care for style, but only for plenty of what is sound,
strong, and good/ ' He thinks just as we do about
this/ The anecdotes about him which had the greatest
currency were those which showed him trampling on
some conventionality of polite society, or shocking the
tastes and prejudices of people from ' abroad/ In truth,
Jackson never did these things except for effect, or
when carried away by his feelings, but his adherents
had a most enjoyable sense of their own power in sup-
porting him in defiance of sober, cultivated people, who

i33

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

disliked him for his violence, ignorance, and lack of
cultivation.'*]

Peck writes: "The prevailing and potential idea of
Jackson was that he was ' of and for the people/ and
it was prodigiously aided by the criticism that he was
without training, and on that account barbarously unfit
for President. Nor was the popular notion of him
wrong. He was thoroughly homespun. Despite his
martial bearing and the belligerent vigor of his adminis-
tration, he was accessible and unaffected. To all but
his declared enemies he was sincerely cordial and win-
ning. His advanced age and later experience had sub-
dued and improved his manner. He was in all things
entirely direct : and such a man is necessarily free from
cant and pretension."

The Presidents of the United States up to Jackson's
advent were among the finest gentlemen of their time.
They were products of aristocratic Virginia or of no
less aristocratic New England. They were mainly
college-bred and had enjoyed the best society of the age
in which they lived in Europe and America. Jackson
had experienced none of these advantages. He had
lived his life on the frontier amid the rudest and most
primitive conditions, yet no one could be more courtly,
or more gracious, or more gentle in his bearing on
occasion, especially in the society of women.

There is something about the Celtic race which
differentiates it from other peoples, and among these
setting-apart characteristics is a certain urbanity, an old-
world courtesy, which you will find in even the com-
monest and plainest Irishmen. They have the outward
politeness of the Parisian with the addition of a heart,
which the Parisian lacks. Their politeness is not merely
superficial, but innate, and Jackson had this to the full.
There was a touch of knight-errantry about the man,
too. He was willing and anxious to espouse the cause

134

PERSONAL APPEARANCE

of any woman in distress. It may be stated here that
he was the purest and most continent of men in an age
in which less value was set upon these things by con-
temporaries than in the present. More will be said on
this subejct in a chapter concerning his relations to the
other sex. Judge Overton writes :

" In his singularly delicate sense of honor, and in
what I thought his chivalrous conception of the female
sex, it occurred to me that he was distinguishable /from
every other person with whom I was acquainted."

The first description of his appearance that I have
come across is from the pen of Mrs. Susan Smart, who,
when she was a little girl, met him in the highway one
September afternoon in 1780, when he was but thirteen
years old. She describes him as " a tall, slender, ' gang-
ling fellow/ legs long enough almost to meet under the
pony he was riding; a damaged, wide-brimmed hat
flapping down over his face, which was yellow and
worn; the figure covered with dust; tired looking, as
though the youth had ridden till he could scarcely sit
on his pony." He was the forlornest apparition that
ever revealed itself to her eyes during the whole of her
life. She ran out on the road and hailed him. He
reined in his pony, when the following brief conversa-
tion ensued between them :

She. — " Where are you from ?"

He.— " From below."

She. — "Where are you going?"

He.—" Above."

She.— 1 Who are you for?"

He.—" The Congress."

She — " What are you doing below?"

He. — " Oh, we are popping them still."

She (to herself). — "It's mighty poor popping such
as you will do, anyhow." (Aloud) "What's your
name?"

135

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

He. — " Andrew Jackson."

One of the earliest descriptions we have of his ap-
pearance comes from an aged servant in the family
of Judge McCay, of Salisbury, who saw him often, and
who briefly remarks that "Jackson was a fair-com-
plexioned young man, with long, sandy hair— one of
the most genteel young men of the place."
*" Another woman, Mrs. Anne Rutherford, who knew
him well, thus describes him : " He was always dressed
neat and tidy and carried himself as if he were a rich
man's son. The day he was licensed he had on a new
suit, with broadcloth coat, ruffled shirt, and other gar-
ments in the best of fashion. The style of powdering
the hair was still in vogue then ; but he had his abun-
dant suit of dark-red hair combed carefully back from
his forehead and temples and, I suspect, made to lay
down smooth with bear's oil. He was full six feet tall
and very slender, but yet of such straightness of form
and such proud and graceful carriage as to make him
look well-proportioned. In feature he was by no means
good-looking. His face was long and narrow, his feat-
ures sharp and angular, and his complexion yellow and
freckled. But his eyes were handsome. They were
very large, a kind of steel-blue, and when he talked to
you he always looked straight into your own eyes. I
have talked with him a great many times and never saw
him avert his eyes from me for an instant. It was the
same way with men. He always looked them straight
in the eye as much as to say, ' I have nothing to be
ashamed of and I hope you haven't.' This and the
gentle manner he had made you forget the plainness of
his features. When he was calm he talked slowly and
with very good-selected language. But if much ani-
mated by anything, then he would talk fast and with a
very marked North-Ireland brogue, which he got from
his mother and the Crawfords who raised him — all of

136

PERSONAL APPEARANCE

whom grew to maturity in the old country. But either
calm or animated, there was always something about
him I cannot describe except to say that it was a pres-
ence, or a kind of majesty I never saw ill any other
young man."

Parton refers to him when he had just entered his
twentieth year as follows " He had grown to be a tall
fellow. He stood six feet and an inch in his stockings.
He was remarkably slender for that robust age of the
world, but he was also remarkably erect; so that his
form had the effect of symmetry without being sym-
metrical. His movements and carriage were singularly
graceful and dignified. In the accomplishments of his
day and sphere he excelled the young men of his own
circle, and was regarded by them as their chief and
model. He was an exquisite horseman, as all will agree
who ever saw him on horseback. . . . Into the secrets
of forest and frontier life Jackson was early initiated.
He was a capital shot and became a better one by and
by. ' George/ his favorite servant in after years, used
to point out the tree in which he had often seen his
master put two successive balls into the same hole. His
bodily activity was unusual. He was a young man of a
quick, brisk, springing step, with not a lazy bone in his
body; and though his constitution was not robust, it
was tough and enduring.

" He was far from handsome. His face was long,
thin, and fair; his forehead high and somewhat nar-
row; his hair, reddish-sandy in color, was exceedingly
abundant and fell down low over his forehead. The
bristling hair of the ordinary portraits belong to the
latter half of his life. There was but one feature of
his face that was not commonplace — his eyes, which
were of a deep blue, and capable of blazing with great
expression when he was roused. Yet, as his form
seemed fine without being so, so his face, owing to the

i37

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

quick, direct glance of the man, and his look of eager
intelligence, produced on others more than the effect
of beauty. To hear the old people of Tennessee, and
particularly the ladies, talk of him, you would think he
must have been an Apollo in form and feature."

A lady of Nashville — Mrs. K. — thus writes of him
after he had taken his seat on the bench in 1808 : " It
was in 1808, when I was a girl of sixteen, that I first
saw General Jackson. It was in East Tennessee, at
the house of Captain Lyon, whose family myself and
another young lady were visiting. We were sitting at
work one afternoon when a servant, who was lounging
at the window, exclaimed, ' Oh, see what a fine, elegant
gentleman is coming up the road!' We girls ran to
the window, and there, indeed, was a fine gentleman,
mounted on a beautiful horse, an upright, striking fig-
ure, high jack-boots coming up over the knee, holsters,
and everything handsome and complete. He stopped
before the door and said to a negro whom he saw
there :

" ' Old man, does Captain Lyon live here?'

" The old man gave the desired information.

" ' Is he at home ?' inquired the stranger.

" He was not at home.

" ' Do you expect him to-night ?'

"'Yes, he was expected at any moment/ The old
man was waiting to take his horse.

" ' Well, my good boy/ continued the stranger, ' I
have come to see Captain Lyon ; and, as he is coming
home to-night, I will alight and walk in/

" The old negro, all assiduity and deference, led the
horse to the stable, and the stranger entered the house,
where we girls were sitting as demurely as though
we had not been peeping and listening. We all rose
as he entered the room. He bowed and smiled as he
said:

138

PERSONAL APPEARANCE

" ' Excuse my intruding upon you, ladies, in the ab-
sence of Captain Lyon. I am Judge Jackson. I have
business with Captain Lyon and am here by his invita-
tion. I hope I do not incommode you.'

" We were all captivated by this polite speech and the
agreeable manner in which it was spoken. Soon after
Captain Lyon entered, accompanied by two officers of
the army, one of whom was Doctor Bronaugh. We
had a delightful evening. I remember Jackson was full
of anecdote, and told us a great deal about the early
days of Tennessee. Doctor Bronaugh, as it happened,
sat next to me and paid me somewhat marked attention.
The party broke up the next morning, and we saw Judge
Jackson ride away on his fine horse, and all agreed that
a finer-looking man or a better horseman there was not
in Tennessee. Years passed before I saw him again. I
was a married woman, though he knew it not. He
recognized me in a moment, and so well did he remem-
ber the incidents of this evening that the first salutations
were no sooner over than he said, laughing, —

" ' Well, Miss , how is that handsome young

officer who was so attentive to you at Captain Lyon's?'

" ' General/ said I, ' permit me to present to you my
husband, Captain K.'

" Not another word was said about the handsome
young officer."

In his book, " Jackson and New Orleans," Mr. Alex-
ander Walker, of Louisiana, thus pictures him : " The
chief of the party, which was composed of five or six
persons, was a tall, gaunt man, of very erect carriage,
with a countenance full of stern decision and fearless
energy, but furrowed with care and anxiety. His com-
plexion was sallow and unhealthy; his hair was iron
gray, and his body thin and emaciated, like that of one
who had just recovered from a lingering and painful
sickness. But the fierce glare of his bright and hawk-

139

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

like eyes betrayed a soul and spirit which triumphed
over all the infirmities of the body. His dress was
simple and nearly threadbare. A small leather cap pro-
tected his head, and a short Spanish blue cloak his body,
whilst his feet and legs were encased in high dragoon
boots, long ignorant of polish or blacking, which reached
to the knees. In age he appeared to have passed about
forty-five winters — the season for which his stern and
hardy nature seemed peculiarly adapted/'

And this is Eaton's description : " In the person of
General Jackson is perceived nothing of the robust or
elegant. He is six feet and an inch high, remarkably
straight and spare, and weighs not more than a hundred
and forty-five pounds. His conformation appears to dis-
qualify him for hardship; yet, accustomed to it from
early life, few are capable of enduring fatigue to the
same extent or with less injury. His dark-blue eyes,
with brows arched and slightly projecting, possess a
marked expression, but when, from any cause, excited
they sparkle with peculiar lustre and penetration. In
his manners he is pleasing — in his address commanding ;
while his countenance, marked with firmness and de-
cision, beams with a strength and intelligence that
strikes at first sight. In his deportment there is nothing
repulsive. Easyi affable, and familiar, he is open and
accessible to all. Influenced by the belief that merit
should constitute the only difference in men, his atten-
tion is equally bestowed on honest poverty as on titled
consequence. No man, however inconsiderable his
standing, ever approached him on business that he did
not patiently listen to his story and afford him all the
information in his power. His moral character is with-
out reproach, and by those who know him intimately
he is most esteemed. With him benevolence is a promi-
nent virtue. He was never known to pass distress with-
out seeking to assist and relieve it.

140

MANNERS

" It is imputed to him that he derived from his birth
a temper irritable and hasty, which has had the effect to
create enemies and involve him in disputes. In a world
like this exemption from fault is not expected — to a
higher destiny is perfection reserved! For purposes
wiser than men can conjecture has it been ordained that
vice and virtue shall exist together in the human breast,
tending, like the happy blending of light and shade in a
picture, to reflect each other in brighter contrast. Some
of the foibles and imperfections, therefore, which
Heaven mingles in the composition of man are to be
looked for, and must be found with every one. In Jack-
son, however, these defects of character exist to an ex- ,
tent limited as with most men, and the world is in error
in presuming him under a too high control of feeling
and passion. A fixed devotion to those principles which
honor sanctions peculiarly attaches to him and .renders
him scrupulously attentive to his promises and engager-
ments of every description. Preserving system in his
transactions, his fiscal arrangements are made to cor-
respond with his resources, and hence his every en-
gagement in relation to such subjects is met with marked
punctuality, not for the reason that he is a man of
extraordinary wealth, but rather because he has method,
and, with a view to his resources, regulates properly
his balance of trade.

" No man has been more misconceived in character.
Many on becoming acquainted with him have been
heard to admit the previous opinions which have been
entertained and to admit how great has been their mis-
take. Rough in appearance — positive and overbearing in
manner, are what all upon a first introduction expect to
find ; and yet none are possessed of milder manners or
of more conciliating address. The public situations in
which he has been placed, and the circumstances which
surrounded him, are doubtless the cause that these opin-

141

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

ions have become so prevalent; but they are opinions
which an acquaintance with him tends speedily to re-
move."

The "American Officer" * in his admirable little life of
Jackson says : " He is deeply versed in the science of
human nature — hence he is rarely deceived in the confi-
dence he reposes in his friends, and knows well how to
detect his enemies. The first he loves, and sets the last
at defiance. In the discharge of official duties, he
imparts dignity to the office and secures respect to him-
self— in the circles of private life, he is affable without
descending to low familiarity.

" In his person he is above the ordinary height, ele-
gantly formed, but of very spare habit. But ' toil has
strung his nerves, and purified his blood/ and he can
bear any fatigue within the power of human endurance.
The features of his face have that striking peculiarity
which immediately attracts attention. His large, dark-
blue eyes are settled deep under prominent arching
eyebrows, which he can clothe in frowns to repel an
enemy and dress in smiles to delight his friends — his
whole person shows that he was born to command."

Shortly after Jackson's arrival at New Orleans to
undertake the defence of the place he called upon the
Livingston family. Madame Livingston was one of the
most elegant and accomplished women in America.
This is the way her husband describes his wife's first
interview with Jackson : " The general appeared in the
full-dress uniform of his rank — that of a major-general
in the regular army. This was a blue frock coat with
buff facings and gold lace, white waistcoat and close-
fitting breeches, also of white cloth, with morocco boots
reaching above the knees. To my astonishment this
uniform was new, spotlessly clean, and fitted his tall,

♦Colonel James Gadsden.
142

MANNERS

slender form perfectly. I had before seen him only in
the somewhat worn and careless fatigue uniform he
wore on duty at headquarters. I had to confess to
myself that the new and perfectly fitting full-dress
uniform made almost another man of him.

" I also observed that he had two sets of manners ;
one for the headquarters, where he dealt with men
and the problems of war; the other for the drawing-
room, where he met the gentler sex and was bound
by the etiquette of fair society. But he was equally at
home in either A When we reached the middle of the
room the ladies rose. I said, ' Madame and Mademoi-
selles, I have the honor to present Major-General Jack-
son, of the United States Army.'

" The general bowed to madame and then right and
left to the young ladies about her. Madame advanced
to meet him, took his hand, and presented him to the
young ladies severally, name by name. Unfortunately,
of the twelve or more young ladies present— all of
whom happened to be French — not more than three
could speak English ; and as the general understood not
a word of French — except, perhaps, ' Sucre bleu!9 gen-
eral conversation was restricted.

"However, we at once sought the table, where we
placed the general between Madame Livingston and
Mademoiselle Choutard, an excellent English scholar,
and with their assistance as interpreters he kept up a
lively all-round chat with the entire company. Of our
wines he seemed to fancy most a fine old Madeira, and
remarked that he had not seen anything like it since
Burr's dinner at Philadelphia in 1797, when he (Jack-
son) was a senator. I well remembered that occasion,
having been then a member of Congress from New
York and one of Burr's guests.

" ' So you have known Mr. Livingston a long time?'
exclaimed Mademoiselle Choutard.

143

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" ' Oh, yes, Miss Choutard/ he replied, ' I had the
honor to know Mr. Livingston probably before the
world was blessed by your existence !'

"This was only one among a perfect fusillade of
quick and apt compliments he bestowed with charming
impartiality upon Madame Livingston and all her pretty
guests.

" When the dinner was over he spent half an hour
or so with me in my library, and then returned to the
drawing-room to take leave of the ladies, as he still had
much work before him at headquarters that night.
During the whole occasion the ladies, who thought of
nothing but the impending invasion, wanted to talk
about it almost exclusively. But he gently parried the
subject. The only thing he said about it that I can
remember was to assure madame that while possibly
British soldiers might get near enough to see the church
spires that pointed to heaven from the sanctuaries of
their religion, none should ever get even a glimpse of
the inner sanctuaries of their homes. I confess that I
more than once marvelled at the unstudied elegance of
his language and even more at the apparently spon-
taneous promptness of his gallantry.

" When he was gone the ladies no longer restrained
their enthusiasm. ' Is that your savage Indian fighter?'
they demanded in a chorus of their own language. ' Is
this your rough frontier general? Shame upon you,
Mr. Livingston, to deceive us so! He is a veritable
preux chevalier!' And I must confess that madame
was as voluble in her reproaches as any of the young
ladies. I was glad to escape in a few minutes, when
I went to join the general at headquarters, where we
were busy until two a.m. with the preliminary work
of the campaign."

Parton has another version of the effect produced
upon the company by Jackson's personality which he

144

ANDREW JACKSON

From a miniature copied in 1858 from
an original (whereabouts now unknown)
painted in 1832. Copy in possession of
Rev. A. H. Hord

MANNERS

received from a lady who was present : " He rose soon
from the table and left the house with Mr. Livingston.
In one chorus the young ladies exclaimed to their
hostess :

" ' Is this your backwoodsman ? Why, madame, he is
a prince !' "

Parton also says : " Before leaving New Orleans
General Jackson presented his friend Livingston with a
miniature of himself, accompanying the gift with a note
expressive of his appreciation of his aide-de-camp's ser-
vices to himself and to the cause. This miniature, still
in perfect preservation, is the earliest portrait of the
general nbw in existence. It is so unlike the portraits
familiar to the public, that not a man in the United
States would recognize in it the features of General
Jackson. Abundant, reddish-sandy hair falls low over
the high, narrow forehead and almost hides it from
view. The head is long, which Mr. Carlyle thinks one
of the surest signs of talent. Eyes of a remarkably
bright blue. Complexion fair, fresh, and ruddy. A
mild, firm, plain, country face. He wears the full uni-
form of a major-general of that day — blue coat with
stiff upright collar to the ears, epaulets, yellow vest with
upright collar and gilt buttons, ruffled shirt. The minia-
ture reminds you of a good country deacon out for a
day's soldiering. The still, set countenance wears what
I will venture to call a Presbyterian expression.

" The general did not forget the little daughter of his
friend Livingston, but sent her a little brooch in a little
note, both of which, I have heard, she still preserves.
She wondered much, it is said, that the general should
think of her in the hurry and bustle of his departure."

When Aaron Burr was at the height of his popu-
larity in the West he was the guest of Jackson at the
Hermitage. A grand ball was given in his honor, and
this is how Parton describes the advent of Burr and
10 145

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Jackson : " There are still a few persons living at Nash-
ville who remember this famous ball; remember the
hush and thrill attending the entrance of Colonel Burr,
accompanied by General Jackson in the uniform of a
major-general ; and how the company lined the sides of
the room, and looked intently on while the courtliest
men in the world made the circuit of the apartment,.
General Jackson introducing his guest with singular
grace and emphasis. It was a question with the ladies
which of the two was the finer gentleman."

I presume there is no doubt as to the elegance of
Burr's manner or the charm of his personality, and that
Jackson could even approach him is remarkable. Here
is another testimonial as to how the people of Nashville
loved their hero. " Mr. Monroe visited Nashville
during his Presidency, when General Jackson figured
conspicuously among those who welcomed and escorted
the President. At the grand ball given him at Nashville
General Jackson and Mr. Monroe entered the ballroom
arm-in-arm, the general in his newest uniform, tower-
ing far above the little President. On the other side of
the President walked General Carroll, who was also a
man of lofty stature. ' Ah !' whispered one of the
ladies present, ' how our general does surpass everyone
— how he does throw everyone into the shade !'— a senti-
ment that was most cordially assented to by all of the
little circle to whom it was addressed."

And here is another feminine view of him after he
was elevated to the Presidency : " The general's ap-
pearance has so often and correctly been described, that
it would seem almost unnecessary to touch upon it here;
but it will do no harm to give my impressions of him.
Picture to yourself a military-looking man, above the
ordinary height, dressed plainly, but with great neat-
ness; dignified and grave, — I had almost said stern, —
but always courteous and affable, with keen, searching

146

MANNERS

eyes, iron-gray hair, standing stiffly up from an expan-
sive forehead, a face somewhat furrowed by care and
time and expressive of deep thought and active intellect,
and you have before you General Jackson who has lived
in my memory for thirty years."

Niles in his famous Weekly Register thus describes
him : " In society he is kind, frank, unaffected, and
hospitable, endowed with much natural grace and polite-
ness, without the mechanical gentility and artificial,
flimsy polish to be found in fashionable life."

Daniel Webster says of him at the time when he was
first a candidate for the Presidency : " General Jack-
son's manners are more presidential than those of any
of the candidates. He is grave, mild, and reserved. My
wife is for him decidedly. He is a true man and will
do good to his country in that situation."

Goodrich, in his " Recollections," thus places the gen-
eral in contrast with John Quincy Adams, who certainly
by birth and breeding was entitled to be ranked with
the aristocracy of the land, whatever coldness of man-
ner he may have assumed. The reference is to the first
meeting between the two, when Adams, who had re-
ceived less electoral votes than Jackson, had been elected
President over his leading competitor by the House of
Representatives because not one of the candidates re-
ceived a majority.

"I shall pass over other individuals present, only
noting an incident which respects the two persons in the
assembly who most of all others engrossed the thoughts
of the visitors — Mr. Adams, the elect ; General Jackson,
the defeated. It chanced in the course of the evening
that these two persons, involved in the throng, ap-
proached each other from opposite directions, yet with-
out knowing it. Suddenly, as they were almost together,
the persons around, seeing what was to happen, by a sort
of instinct stepped aside and left them face to face.

147

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Mr. Adams was by himself; General Jackson had a
large, handsome lady on his arm. They looked at each
other for a moment, and then General Jackson moved
forward, and, reaching out his long arm, said : ' How
do you do, Mr. Adams? I give you my left hand, for
the right, as you see, is devoted to the fair. I hope you
are very well, sir/ All this was gallantly and heartily
said and done. Mr. Adams took the general's hand
and said with chilling coldness, ' Very well, sir ; I hope
General Jackson is well!' It was curious to see the
Western planter, the Indian fighter, the stern soldier,
who had written his country's glory in the blood of the
enemy at New Orleans, genial and gracious in the
midst of a court, while the old courtier and diplomat was
stiff, rigid, cold as a statue! The "personal character
of these two individuals was, in fact, well expressed in
that chance meeting; the gallantry, the frankness, and
the heartiness of the one, which captivated all; the
coldness, the distance, the self-concentration of the
other, which repelled all."

Another view of the situation more favorable to the
New Englander is also preserved by Parton : " General
Jackson, we were pleased to observe,,, wrote an editor
present, " was among the earliest of those who took
the hand of the President, and their looks and deport-
ment towards each other were a rebuke to that bitterness
of party spirit which can see no merit in a rival and
feel no joy in the honor of a competitor."

In truth, Jackson was quite equal to any social situa-
tion in which he found himself. Writes Elson : " He
was not in the least overawed in the presence of the
great audience that now stood before him ; his manner
revealed no tendency to cringe, nor was it marred with
a taint of bravado. ' His manner was faultless/ writes
Thompson, who was not his political friend, in his
' Recollections of Sixteen Presidents/ ' not strained,

148

MANNERS

but natural. There was no exhibition of pride or os-
tentation— no straining after effect or false show/ The
ceremonies over, a great public reception with refresh-
ments was held at the White House, and the rabble had
full sway. They trampled the fine carpets with their
muddy boots, stood on chairs and upholstered furniture,
and among other things smashed an immense costly
chandelier. ' Let the boys have a good time for once
in four years/ said Jackson — and nothing he ever said
gives a deeper insight into the cause of his popularity."
Yet society was not always pleasant to Jackson. Wit-
ness the following in his own words written on the
sixteenth of March :

" Yesterday being my birthday, and having entered upon my
fifty-eighth year, I had a few friends to dine with me, and the
evening was spent agreeably. Thus I have entered my fifty-
eighth year. How I may end is for Providence to decide. To-
day, at eleven o'clock a.m., I was notified by the President to
attend him, that he might present me with the medal voted by
Congress on the twenty-seventh of February, 1815. Accord-
ingly, attended by Major Eaton, General Cobb, and Mr. E.
Livingston, I waited upon him, when, in the presence of the
heads of the department, the ladies of the heads of the depart-
ments, the ladies of the Executive head, cum multis alios [so
in the original], in due form and pomp it was presented. Of
all things I hate to speak of myself, and these parades and
pomps are most disagreeable to me ; you will see it all printed ;
and to that I refer you."

" Many years afterwards Josiah Quincy, member of a
committee to receive President Jackson on his visit to
Boston, was in like manner astonished at his urbanity
and grace. He had the dignity that goes with entire
simplicity of nature, and the ease that comes from un-
consciousness of self," says John Fiske.

There is another side to the picture. Gallatin's
famous remark about his appearance when he came first
to Washington as the representative of Tennessee has

149

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

been often quoted and has as often been disputed ; and
Jefferson's allegation that Jackson never finished a
speech because he would get so choked with rage that
he was unable to articulate distinctly cannot be passed
over. Various attempts have been made to disprove or
discredit or explain away these statements. In view of
the testimony already given they are not of great im-
portance. However, that the other side may have its
hearing I append Sumner's comment on Gallatin's state-
ment, and whatever else he is, Sumner is no great
admirer or friend of Jackson.

" Gallatin recalled him years afterwards as ' a tall,
lank, uncouth-looking personage, with long locks of
hair hanging over his face; and a cue down his back
tied in an eel-skin ; his dress singular, his manners and
deportment that of a rough backwoodsman.' Jefferson
said of him in 1824: 'When I was President of the
Senate he was a senator, and he could never speak on
account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen
him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage.'
There is, however, ample testimony that Jackson, later
in life, was distinguished and elegant in his bearing
when he did not affect roughness and inelegance, and
that he was able to command encomiums upon his man-
ners from the best bred ladies in the country." lv

One of the charges oftenest brought against Jackson
was that of vulgarity, nor can it be denied that in
many of the public functions in the White House in
Jackson's time a shocking degree of license prevailed
when aforetime these affairs had been characterized by
the highest dignity and decorum. Nor can Jackson be
freed from responsibility therefor. Mrs. Martha J.
Lamb corroborates Elson, quoted- above, and shows that
the disgraceful practices of the beginning continued
throughout Jackson's two terms:

" President Jackson, towards the close of his adminis-
150

"JACKSONIAN VULGARITY "

tration, abolished supper-tables at the ' drawing-rooms/
which had hitherto been a special feature of such enter-
tainments. The growing population and the vast
crowds attending them rendered the custom of offering
refreshments unsupportable, and it has never since been
resumed. It is said that on the occasion of one levee,
Sir Charles Vaughan [the British minister] rolled up
to the palace in full court dress to pay his respects to
the President, but he saw such a crowd of all sorts
and descriptions pushing into the Executive Mansion
that he called out roughly to his coachman to drive
home, ' This is too democratic for me !' "

And in this connection these citations from Sargent's
" Recollections" are pertinent. Sargent professes to be,
and I have no doubt he was, an eyewitness to what he
describes : " The President was literally pursued by a
motley concourse of people, riding, running, helter-
skelter, striving who should first gain admittance into
the Executive Mansion, where it was understood that
refreshments were to be distributed. The halls were
filled with a disorderly rabble scrambling for the re-
freshments designed for the drawing-rooms ! the people
forcing their way into the saloons, mingling with the
foreign ministers and citizens surrounding the Presi-
dent. China and glass to the amount of several thou-
sands of dollars were broken in the struggle to get at
the ices and cakes, though punch and other drinkables
had been carried out in tubs and buckets to the people.

" A profusion of refreshments had been provided.
Orange-punch by barrels full were made; but, as the
waiters opened the door to bring it out, a rush would
be made, the glasses broken, the pails of liquor upset,
and the most painful confusion prevailed. To such a
degree was this carried, that wine and ice-creams could
not be brought put to the ladies, and tubs of punch were
taken from the lower story into the garden to lead off

151

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

the crowd from the rooms. ... It was mortifying to
see men, with boots heavy with mud, standing on the
damask-satin-covered chairs and sofas."

" The President was visited at the palace by immense
crowds of all sorts of people, from the highest and most
polished down to the most vulgar and gross in the
nation. I never saw such a mixture. The reign of
King Mob seemed triumphant." *

Of course, the laxity should never haVe been allowed,
and when it is considered it is abundant justification for
the term, " Jacksonian vulgarity." But it must be borne
in mind that Jackson himself — personally, that is — was
not a vulgar man, as the misleading phrase seems to
imply, and that he allowed reprehensible practices de-
liberately. It will be seen that Jackson was the Presi-
dent of the people, the plain, common people, in a sense
in which no previous President had been, and that fact
and that peculiar relationship in which he fancied he
stood to the democracy — " the unwashed and unter-
rified" — seemed to him to require a suspension of the
rules. A grave mistake, for the more the ordinary
social barriers are levelled the more necessity for de-
corum.

I close this chapter with a reminiscence of Jackson
for which Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston was authority:
"The late Harriet Lane Johnston," said a New York
woman who was an intimate friend of the former mis-
tress of the White House, " having lived so long with
her statesman uncle, James Buchanan, had many inter-
esting reminiscences of him and his times. One of

* Scenes similar in character, if not so great in extent, have
been enacted, not once but many times, in modern social
functions in Washington and elsewhere, I have been credibly
informed. And it is impossible to imagine anything more vul-
gar and disgraceful than the modern mobs attracted to churches
by " fashionable" weddings, and even funerals !

152

"JACKSONIAN VULGARITY"

them which she was fond of relating was an incident
told to her by Mr. Buchanan of the social career of
General Jackson while he was President. Mr. Bu-
chanan was in the United States Senate at the time.

"As Mrs. Johnston related the incident, a famous
Baltimore lady, one of the leaders in society of that
day and related to an English family of title and dis-
tinction, had spent a long time in England during Jack-
son's administration, her family connections admitting
her to the inner circles of aristocratic and royal society.
George IV was then King, and a short time before this
lady left England to return to America she was pre-
sented to him. He confided to her a message to Presi-
dent Jackson which he requested her to deliver in
person.

" The reputation his political enemies had made for
Jackson was such that the lady was most unfavorably
impressed, never having met the rugged old soldier. In
fact, the idea of 'Jacksonian vulgarity' was quite the
popular one, and there were many stories of the general's
offensive application of it in his social as well as business
contact with visitors.

" Consequently this high-bred message-bearer from
the King of England was very much disinclined to a
personal interview with this President of boorish repu-
tation, but, having undertaken to carry out the wishes
of the King, she determined to undergo the trial, pre-
pared to be greatly shocked at what she might see and
hear. Being well acquainted with James Buchanan,
she begged him to accompany her on her mission and
introduce her to the President.

" ' My uncle escorted the lady to the White House/
Mrs. Johnston related merrily, ' and leaving her in the
reception-room he went to the President's room to ar-
range for the interview.

" ' He found the President alone. His face was cov-
iS3

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

ered with a bristling beard of several days' growth. He
was wearing a dressing-gown which was very much
soiled and greatly the worse for past service. He was
smoking an old clay pipe.

" ' It was a disheartening moment for Mr. Buchanan,
for to present the refined and elegant lady to the Presi-
dent of the United States in such attire seemed to him
but little better than a national disgrace. He told the
President about the distinguished woman who had come
to seek an introduction to him, on an errand from the
King of England, and made bold to say, —

" ' " But, General, you ought not to see her without
making an appropriate toilet."

" ' The grim old soldier took his pipe out of his
mouth, stretched himself to his full height, shot a fiery
look at his audacious social prompter from beneath his
shaggy eyebrows, and exclaimed with some forceful ad-
juncts of language that may as well not be repeated.

" ' " Buchanan, I knew a man once who succeeded
admirably in getting along simply by minding his own
business !"

" ' He told my uncle to go back and wait with the
lady and he would see her presently. Mr. Buchanan
returned to the reception-room arid awaited the Presi-
dent's coming in a torture of suspense.

" ' In a remarkably short time General Jackson en-
tered the room. He was neatly shaven and in plain but
correct attire. A more courtly and dignified appearance,
my uncle said, could not well be imagined, and he was
so astounded at the change in Jackson's appearance and
manner that he almost forgot what he was there for.

" ' He introduced the lady, however, and retired to
await the termination of the interview, which, from what
she said to him, he felt that she was eager to make
as short as possible. He was, therefore, surprised when
more than an hour had passed and she was still talking

154 •

"JACKSONIAN VULGARITY"

with the man she had dreaded to meet as one but little
better than a wildcat.

" / She appeared at last, escorted to the door by the
President. Mr. Buchanan said she was positively
radiant. He handed her into her carriage, and asked
her what she thought of the grim and much-abused
Jackson.

(* " ' " I am captivated !" she replied. " I never so en-
joyed an hour. I have been at all the courts of Europe,
and I can truly say that at none of them have I ever seen
a man who in elegance of manners could excel General
Jackson. While intensely dignified, they were so kind
that my dread disappeared in an instant, and before I
knew it I was captivated. It will never do for anyone
to charge General Jackson with vulgarity in my presence
again !"

v " ' As long as my uncle lived/ Mrs. Johnston was
wont to say, ' he delighted to relate, which he did always
with great relish, and particularly if it gave him oppor-
tunity to rebuke any ill-natured reference to Jacksonian
vulgarity, what befel him and his apprehensive com-
panion from that interview with Andrew Jackson/ "

155

VIII

RELATIONS WITH HIS MOTHER AND WIFE

A fair deduction as to a man's private character may
be made more easily, perhaps, by examining into his
relations with women, and, incidentally, with children,
than in any other way. So many men of great abilities,
of brilliant talents amounting to genius, who have done
the State some service in their time, and whose public
careers are deservedly held in honored remembrance
have failed to attain to a moral stature corresponding,
on account of their relations with women. Genius is
usually said to be over-sexed, and transcendent ability,
unless it manifests itself in an asceticism the product of
a rare constitutional coldness, indifference to women, or
an enforced subjugation of natural desire by an im-
perious will, is usually associated with a deeply sensuous
nature. Heat is a more efficient instrument than cold,
The earth was molten before the Ice Age and will be
again, perhaps. Your truly great are rarely adiaphorous
to the opposite sex. Witnesses in history to the truth
of this are abundant. Environment, customs of times,
an understandable disposition to overlook the errors of
greatness, and a certain tendency on the part of great-
ness to consider itself superior to laws of simpler lives
have brought about such a state of affairs as is not
pleasant to contemplate in the lives of many great men.
Especially is this true in foreign countries where educa-
tional ideas differ from ours, where habits and customs
sometimes abhorrent to us prevail, and where life is
accordingly much more complex and infinitely less
simple than in our own. Yet in our own country there
are many cases in point.

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MOTHER AND WIFE

Jackson, however, was the purest of men. From his
youth up no woman's cheek ever burned with shame at
the thought of him. Towards women and children, and
in general towards those weaker than himself, he was
gentleness, consideration, and kindness itself. He had
a respect for women the depth of which can hardly be
exaggerated. It was not a respect acquired by mental
effort. It was not born of any bitter experience. It
did not spring from any revulsion of feeling towards a
bad woman. It was an ingrained part of. his nature. It
was developed, as such things always are developed,
first by the example and teaching of a good mother, and
next by long and intimate association with a good wife.
The man who has experienced but one of these good
things is but half a man.

Jackson was singularly blessed in both relationships,
as a son and as a husband. His memory of his mother
was as sweet as it was profound, as affectionate as it
was abiding. Although she died when he was still aj
small boy, she had sufficiently impressed herself upon ,
his consciousness for him never to forget her. Sense ]
of family relationship was very deep in Jackson.

Jackson could never speak of his father without visi-
ble emotion. " Francis P. Blair used to relate that some
years after he became President he tried to locate exactly
his father's grave at Waxhaws, with the intention of
placing there a suitable memento, but it could not be
distinguished from other unmarked mounds in the old
churchyard. ' I have heard him/ said Mr. Blair, ' re-
mark that his father died like a hero in battle, fighting
for his wife and babies, fighting an uphill battle against
poverty and adversity such as no one in our time could
comprehend. When asked if he had ever visited the
scenes of his childhood/ pursued Mr. Blair, ' he would
say, " No ! I couldn't bear to. It would suggest nothing
but bereavement, grief, and suffering of those dearest

iS7

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

to me. I couldn't stand it. It would break me
down!"'"

His father died before he was born, yet what he felt
for him was but faint compared to his regard for his
mother.

Mrs. Elizabeth Lee, a daughter of Frank P. Blair,
was often, as a girl, a guest at the Hermitage and
at the White House. " Once," she writes, " when copy-
ing a letter for him I protested against his spelling
which three different ways on one page and wanted him
to alter it, but he would not, and said laughingly that
he could make himself understood, and that as I was
a copyist, I had better spell it as I found it; then he
added more seriously that at the age when most people
learn to spell he was working for his living and helping
the best of mothers."

Well does Parton say : " He deeply loved his mother,
and held her memory sacred to the end of his life.
He used often to speak of the courage she had displayed
when left without a protector in the wilderness, and
would sometimes clinch a remark or an argument by
saying, ' That I learned from my good old mother.' "

He once said, in speaking of his mother to General
Eaton, " One of the last injunctions given me by her
was never to institute a suit for assault or battery or
for defamation ; never to wound the feelings of others,
nor suffer my own to be outraged; these were her
words of admonition to me; I remember them well,
and have never failed to respect them ; my settled course
through life has been to bear them in mind, and never
to insult or wantonly to assail the feelings of anyone;
and yet many conceive me to be a most ferocious animal,
insensible to moral duty, and regardless of the laws
both of God and man."

Nearly thirty-four years after his mother's death,
while he was disbanding the army with which he had

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MOTHER AND WIFE

won the battle of New Orleans, on the fifteenth of
March, 1815, which happened to be his birthday, he was
celebrating the anniversary in camp with three members
of his staff, Majors Eaton and Lewis and Captain But-
ler. During the festivities his mind reverted to his
mother, and of her he spoke to them as follows :

" Gentlemen, how I wish she could have lived to see
this day. There never was a woman like her. She
was as gentle as a dove and as brave as a lioness. Al-
most her last words to me when about to start for
Charleston on the errand of mercy that cost her life
were : ' Andrew, if I should not see you again, I wish
you to remember and treasure up some things I have
already said to you: In this world you will have to
make your own way. To do that you must have friends.
You can make friends by being honest, and you can
keep them by being steadfast. You must keep in mind
that friends worth having will in the long run expect
as much from you as they give to you. To forget an
obligation or be ungrateful for a kindness is a base
crime — not merely a fault or a sin, but an actual crime.
Men guilty of it sooner or later must suffer the penalty.
In personal conduct be always polite, but never obsequi-
ous. No one will respect you more than you esteem
yourself. Avoid quarrels as long as you can without
yielding to imposition, but sustain your manhood always.
Never bring a suit at law for assault or battery or for
defamation. The law affords no remedy for such out-
rages that can satisfy the feelings of a true man. Never
wound the feelings of others. Never brook wanton out-
rage upon your own feelings. If ever you have to vin-
dicate your feelings or defend your honor, do it calmly.
If angry at first, wait till your wrath cools before you
proceed.'

" Gentlemen, her last words have been the law of
my life. When the tidings of her death reached me I at

i59

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

first could not believe it. When I finally realized the
truth I felt utterly alone. At that moment I had not a
relation in the world of close kin by the name of Jack-
son. The Crawfords, in whose house I grew up, had
been kind to me, but, after all, they were not my own
and I was not their own. I was grateful to them be-
yond expression but did not love them. Besides, I was
almost fifteen years old and felt that I could not rea-
sonably burden them longer. Yes, I was alone. With
that feeling I started to make my own way. The death
of all my relations had made me heir to part of the estate
of my deceased grandfather, Hugh Jackson, of Carrick-
fergus ; but that was small, not over three hundred or
four hundred pounds sterling, and it was tied up in
Charleston in the hands of the administrator, Mr. Bar-
ton, at whose house my mother died. It did me little
good, because I was not prudent with it when it came to
me. As things turned out, I might about as well have
been penniless, as I was already homeless and friendless.
The memory of my mother and her teachings were, after
all, the only capital I had to start in life with, and on that
capital I have made my way."

"These few precepts in thy memory !" the general
might have added if he had been familiar with the wise
advice of old Polonius.

It was a fortunate thing for General Jackson that he
had such a capital on which to make his way. And his
love for his mother made him respect all women. So
patent and open was his regard for women, merely be- 1
cause they were women, that all women who came in!
contact with him admitted the charm of the man. Fiske I
says " One of the most winsome features of Jackson's
character was his sincere and chivalrous respect for
women. He was also peculiarly susceptible to the feel-
ing of keen sympathy for persons in distress/' the last
being the natural corollary of the knight-errantry of

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MOTHER AND WIFE

the first. Indeed, Jackson reminds me in many ways of
a knight-errant. Swift to take up anybody's quarrel,
eager to redress anybody's wrongs, anxious to espouse
anybody's cause that seemed to crave a defender, — and
more often than not without due examination as to the
merits of the question at issue,— all he needed was a
sword and spear, and possibly a Rosinante !

That he had such a tendency to respect and serve all
women is undoubtedly due to his mother's influence and
training. She must have been a remarkable woman to
have left so great an impress in so short a time. Per-
haps had she lived she might have moderated and re-
I strained him and have prevented some of the extrava-
v^gant courses into which he was frequently led. After
his mother the feminine influence to which this phase of
his character is most due was that of his wife. Yet his
marriage introduced him to more troubles than any
other act in his impetuous life : troubles entirely due to
his own lack of care, to his haste, to his invariable habit
of doing what he liked without counting the cost or
without considering the consequences. His desire to
achieve a thing usually made him more or less indif-
ferent to the method. More often than not the end
justified the means, although I do not wish to be mis-
understood as implying that he used that maxim in the
popular sense. According to his lights, he was always
the man of honor and the gentleman. But if he saw
anything to be done, he went about it without regard
to the ordinary course of procedure and did it — some-
times unconsciously doing more damage by the way
than he hoped or intended to repair.

Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson was as pure and
sweet a woman as ever lived, yet there was a cloud
upon her marriage title, at least in the minds of her
enemies — Jackson's enemies, rather — which was never
removed, and the cruel and brutal attacks upon her in
ii 161

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

the campaign which brought Jackson to the Presidency
brought her to the grave. Most of the duels that Jack-
son fought — the serious ones, that is — were in defence
of his wife's reputation. The one offence which he
could neither condone, forget, nor forgive was an asper-
sion upon her character.

He had a fierce and bloody affray with Senator Ben-
ton in which he was severely wounded, yet the quarrel,
which was a foolish one, was afterwards composed.
The two became the warmest friends. Benton was the
great defender of Jackson's policy in the Senate, and
without him the thorny path of the overbearing Presi-
dent would have been a still more difficult one to tread.
The services that Benton performed for Jackson can
hardly be overestimated ; still, Jackson would have died
rather than have accepted any service from Benton or
have taken his hand in friendship or bestowed the least
notice upon him, had the Benton quarrel been like
Dickinson's and some other quarrels, about the reputa-
tion of Mrs. Jackson. That was, to the fierce, stern
soldier, who was at the same time a tender and ardent
lover, the unpardonable sin against his affections.

When Jackson went to Nashville he boarded at the
house of a widow named Donelson, who had been the
wife of one of the famous pioneers of Kentucky. With
Mrs. Donelson lived her daughter Rachel, " a black-
eyed, black-haired brunette, as bold and handsome a lass,
the best story-teller, the sprightliest company, the most
dashing horse-woman, as lived in the western country."
Rachel Donelson was married to Lewis Robards. Ro-
bards was away most of the time and was a man of
intensely jealous disposition. He and his wife were
very unhappy. Among other objects of suspicion Ro-
bards included Jackson, although there was not the
slightest evidence that the conduct of Mrs. Robards and
Jackson had been anything other than highly exemplary.

162

MOTHER AND WIFE

So insane was the husband's jealousy that he applied
for and received from Virginia, which then had legal
jurisdiction over what is now Tennessee, a decree of
divorce. At that time divorces were granted only by
the Legislature upon proof of adultery. That is, the
act of the Legislature granting a divorce did not become
operative until the conditions under which it was granted
had been established — i.e., until the crime had been
proved ; so that the mere passage of the act did not in
itself constitute a divorce, and the divorce so decreed
did not become operative until the crime had been proved
before a court.

Jackson and Mrs. Robards seem to have been under
some misapprehension as to the law, or else the infor-
mation they received was not accurate, for they sup-
posed, since the decree had been granted, that Robards
had actually secured the divorce and that Mrs. Robards
was legally free. It seems to have been so given out,
and it is more than hinted that Robards himself, per-
haps in despair of obtaining the required proof in any
other way, spread the report broadcast. At any rate,
after a brief courtship, Jackson and Mrs. Robards were
married at Natchez, Mississippi, in November, 1791.
No doubt Jackson, who was deeply in love, was very
anxious to get married, and no doubt Mrs. Robards, who
reciprocated his affections, was equally anxious. There
is no doubt, either, that the marriage was a suitable one
and advantageous for both young people. Yet it was
criminally careless of Jackson to have gone through a
marriage ceremony with the young woman without
making himself absolutely certain that she had a right
to enter into marriage with him. The blame of the
false position in which Mrs. Robards found herself rests
entirely upon Jackson's shoulders, and the ensuing
trouble is due absolutely to him. Jackson was a law-
yer, and it was his business to know the law ; nor could

163

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

he have been unaware of that well-known principle that
ignorance of the law is no excuse. Nevertheless, it is
obvious that Jackson was at first fully persuaded of the
legality of his marriage with Mrs. Robards and that her
husband had actually secured a divorce instead of what
only amounted to a permissive decree.

Robards had been extremely adroit in playing his
game. So soon as his wife's marriage to Jackson was
announced he found no difficulty in proving his main
contention, which, by the way, would have been im-
possible before, and by the terms of the legislative en-
actment he at once got his divorce. Thereupon the
whole unedifying story came out, of course. Jackson
hastened to rectify his carelessness by at once remarry-
ing Mrs. Robards, in January, 1794, so that thereafter
she was legally — as it is not a stretch of the truth to say
she had before been morally — his wife. Yet try as he
might, he had always to fight against scandal, which
was invariably busy with his wife's fair name. Natur-
ally, although he did not admit it, he realized that he
only was responsible for the situation, and he was ever
ready to defend her at the pistol's point.

His quarrel with Sevier came to a head because
Sevier said slightingly that he did not know anything
Jackson had done to distinguish himself but run away
with another man's wife. His famous duel with Dick-
inson, one of the most dramatic and thrilling encounters
in early American history, which abounds with such
affairs, was ostensibly due to other causes, a difference
about a race-horse, political antagonism, and so on;
really it arose from his resolve to punish Dickinson for
certain slighting remarks he had made about his wife.
Dickinson, young, able, and ambitious, saw in Jackson a
political rival whose control of the situation in Tennes-
see barred him from preferment, and he wished to re-
move the man who stood in his way. These motives

164

MOTHER AND WIFE

were sufficiently patent in the politics of that day to
foster Dickinson's determination to kill Jackson, and the
old slander against Mrs. Jackson was invoked to provide
a cause. But Dickinson's resolution was nothing to that
of the man who faced him. Jackson was determined to
kill Dickinson because Dickinson had slandered his wife.
In discussing the arrangements for the coming duel with
his second, General Overton, Jackson said he would sus-
tain Dickinson's fire, as he knew that his antagonist was
a quick shot and he could not cope with him in speed.
" How," asked General Overton, " if he wounds you
seriously, even mortally, will you return his fire?" " I
will hit him," said Jackson with that fierce determina-
tion characteristic of him, " if he shoots me in the
brain." This is not bravado or gasconade, it is simply
an evidence of his intensity of purpose — and we can
hardly escape the conclusion that he would have hit
Dickinson even with a bullet in his brain !

Dickinson did fire first, struck Jackson in the breast,
but such was the iron control of the man that he gave
no sign of the dangerous wound he had received, for he
deliberately raised his pistol and mortally wounded
Dickinson. He then actually turned and walked away
from the spot out of sight of the dying man, not until
then disclosing the fact that he also was terribly
wounded. He never got over that wound either. Years
after, in Washington, Parton relates this incident:

" The hall lamp of the hotel having been extinguished,
the general went stumbling upstairs to his apartment in
the dark. Upon reaching the top, he supposed that he
had yet to ascend one stair, and made an awkward step
forward and nearly fell. The viscera which had been
displaced by Dickinson's ball and falsely healed were
again severed from the breastbone and the internal
wound thus reopened. The general staggered to his
room, and lay for more than a week quite disabled.

165

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

He had several attacks of bleeding at the lungs, and
remained subject to such attacks during the rest of his
life. Many times he was brought by them to the verge
of the grave, and the affection was probably aggravated
by his mode of treating it. When threatened with an
attack, he would lay bare his arm, bandage it, take his
penknife from his pocket, call his servant to hold the
bowl, and bleed himself freely. Often, indeed, during
his Presidency he performed this operation in the night
without any assistance."

The wedded life of the Jacksons was, nevertheless, a
very happy one, and the home they built after they had
grown older was one of the most delightful in the State,
" Mrs. Jackson was a famous housewife and delightful
hostess. By this time she was past forty; short in
stature, stout, matronly, rosy in complexion, and inde-
scribably winning in manner and conversation. Never
was the Hermitage without a guest, and most of the
time it was crowded. Jackson and his wife carried the
old-fashioned Southern hospitality to an extreme. They
did not wish their guests to be simply visitors, but made
them temporary members of the family." There was
lots of merriment and fun of a homely sort, pleasant to
recall, in the Hermitage, while the famous couple were
still young, which would have made a real hermit hold
up his hands in horror but which the inmates greatly
enjoyed.

" It is pleasant, too, to know that Mrs. Jackson was
fond of, and excelled in, the hearty diversions of the
frontier, particularly in the vigorous, old-fashioned
dances. She was a short and stout woman. The gen-
eral was tall and slender. The spectacle is said to have
been extremely curious when they danced a reel to-
gether, which they often did, a reel of the olden time
that would shake to pieces the frequenters of modern
ballrooms. The time came when she imbibed opinions

166

■i

MOTHER AND WIFE

which placed a ban upon diversions which are both inno-
cent and preservative of innocence. But in earlier
years she was a gay, merry, natural, human being ;
happy herself, and a source of happiness to all around
her.,,

Parton preserves this pleasing little anecdote of the
democratic regime at the Hermitage : " Before the
evening devotions began the wife of the general over-
seer entered the apartment. Mrs. Jackson rose and
made room for her on the sofa upon which she had her-
self been sitting, and treated her with as much con-
sideration as though she had been a lady of the first
distinction. The wife of the doctor of divinity lifted
her orthodox eyebrows at this proceeding and addressed
to the lady who sat next to her an inquiring stare. ' Oh,
yes/ whispered the lady thus interrogated, ' that is the
way here: and if she had not done it, the general
would/ "

With advancing years came a waning of Mrs. Jack-
son's charms. She grew short in stature, stout in form,
and florid in complexion, in spite of her dark eyes. Her
dark hair became threaded with gray. " The benignity
of her expression/' says Benton, " was indescribable ;
but it was no more than the radiation of her goodness.
Providence had denied her offspring of her own, but
she was a mother to all who knew her. She was, of all
women ever created, the wife for the man who was
her husband. My memory of her covers a period of
twenty-five years, from my earliest visit to Nashville
until her death. In her house I felt at home next to
that of my own mother. She lived more for others and
less for herself than anyone I have known.

" When she came to Robertson's Station, or ' French
Salt Spring/ in 1780, at the age of thirteen, with her
father, Colonel John Donelson, she was literally the
pioneer girl of the Cumberland Valley. To her last

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THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

hour she was the pioneer woman. Her frankness, her
sincerity, her benevolence, her charity, her patience, and,
above all, her simple piety, survived all the storms of
her husband's career, all the adulations that success
showered upon him and her. She lived to see him
elected President, but not to share with him the honors
or the burdens of that great office. I have sometimes
thought that General Jackson might have been a more
equable tenant of the White House than he was had she
been spared to share it with him. At all events, she was
the only human being on earth who ever possessed the
power to swerve his mighty will or soothe his fierce
temper."

Yet, as Parton says : " It is remarkable that General
Jackson, though himself an adept in drawing-room arts
and at home in elegant society, was blind to the homely
bearing and country manners of his wife. He put great
honor upon her at New Orleans, in all companies, on
all occasions, giving proof to the world that this bonnie
brown wife of his was to him the dearest and the most
revered of human beings. The ladies of the city soon
gathered around her and made much of her. Among
other marks of regard they presented her with that valu-
able but rather showy set of topaz jewelry which ap-
pears on her person in the portrait that hangs still in
the parlor of the Hermitage. To the general, also, the
ladies presented a valuable diamond pin. ' The world
heaps many honors upon me/ he said to the ladies, ' but
none is greater than this/ "

The general's devotion to Mrs. Jackson, proverbial as
it was at home, had never been so constantly or so
lavishly exhibited as in the stately affairs of polished
New Orleans. Debonair as he had been in his asso-
ciation with the Creole belles, he never missed an op-
portunity to demonstrate that he considered the short,
stout, beaming matron at his side the perfection of her

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MOTHER AND WIFE

sex and far and away the most charming woman in the
world. Even the cynical Nolte, who so far forgot the
chivalry naturally to be expected of a brave soldier and
a noted duellist as to indulge in some rather amusing
comments upon " Lady Jackson's" appearance on the
dancing-floor, was constrained to say that the " general's
devotion to his simple-mannered and homely-gaited
spouse showed in him a quality that his official bearing
led few to suspect. It was much remarked that, what-
ever he might be on the battle-field, he must be a model
husband at home.,,

Another contemporary preserves this account of her :
" Side by side by him stands a coarse-looking, stout,
little old woman, whom you might easily mistake for his
washerwoman, were it not for the marked attention he
pays her and the love and admiration she manifests for
him. Her eyes are bright, and express great kindness
of heart; her face is rather broad, her features plain;
her complexion so dark as almost to suggest a mingling
of races in that climate where such things sometime
occur. But, withal, her face is so good-natured and
motherly that you immediately feel at ease with her,
however shy you may be of the stately person by her
side. Her figure is rather full, but loosely and care-
lessly dressed, so that when she is seated she seems to
settle into herself in a manner that is neither graceful
nor elegant. I have seen such forms since then, and
have thought I should like to experiment upon them
with French corsets, to see what they would look like
if they were gathered together into some permanent
shape. This is Mrs. Jackson. I have heard my mother
say that she could imagine that in her early youth, at
the time the general yielded to her fascinations, she
may have been a bright, sparkling brunette; perhaps,
may have even passed for a beauty. But being with-
out any culture, and out of the way of refining in-

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THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

fluences, she was, at the time we knew her, such as I
have described.

" Their affection for each other was of the tenderest
kind. The general always treated her as if she were his
pride and glory, and words can faintly describe her
devotion to him. The Nashville Inn was at the time
filled with celebrities, nearly all warm supporters of the
general. The Stokes family of North Carolina were
there, particular friends of his, and many other families
whose names have escaped my memory. I well recol-
lect to what disadvantage Mrs. Jackson appeared, with
her dowdyfied figure, her inelegant conversation, and her
total want of refinement, in the midst of this highly culti-
vated group, and I recall very distinctly how the ladies
of the Jackson party hovered near her at all times,
apparently to save her from saying or doing anything
which might do discredit to their idol. With all her dis-
advantages in externals, I know she was really beloved.
She was a truly good woman, the very soul of benevo-
lence and kindness, and one almost overlooked her defi-
ciencies in the knowledge of her intrinsic worth and her
real goodness of heart. With a different husband, and
under different circumstances, she might have appeared
to greater advantage; but there could not be a more
striking contrast than in their case. And the strangest
of it all was, that the general did not seem aware of it.

" My father visited them at the Hermitage more than
once. It was customary for the army officers to do
this as a mark of respect to the general, and they fre-
quently remained in their hospitable mansion several
days at a time. The latch-string was always out, and
all who visited them were made welcome and felt them-
selves at home. I remember my father's telling an
anecdote characteristic of Mrs. Jackson which im-
pressed my young mind forcibly. After the evening
meal at the Hermitage he and some other officers were

170

MOTHER AND WIFE

seated with the worthy couple at their ample fireplace.
Mrs. Jackson, as was her custom, lighted her pipe, and
having taken a whiff or two, handed it to my father,
saying, ' Honey, won't you take a smoke ?' "

The following letter from Mrs. Jackson, written from
Washington, shows how far she changed her opinions
with advancing years. She says :

"The present moment is the first I can call my own since
my arrival in this great city. Our journey, indeed, was
fatiguing. We were twenty-seven days on the road, but no
accident happened to us. My dear husband is in better health
than when we came. We are boarding in the same house with
the nation's guest, Lafayette. I am delighted with him. All
the attentions, all the parties he goes to, appear to have no
effect on him. In fact, he is an extraordinary man. He has a
happy talent of knowing those he has once seen. For instance,
when we first came to this house the general said he would go
and pay the marquis the first visit. Both having the same
desire, and at the same time, they met on the entry of the stairs.
It was truly interesting, ^he emotion of Revolutionary feeling
was aroused in them bot* . At Charleston General Jackson saw
him on the field of b?' .ie * — the one a boy of twelve, the mar-
quis twenty-three. -'lie wears a wig, and is a little inclined to
corpulency. He is very healthy, eats hearty, goes to every
party, and that is every night.

" To tell you of this city I would not do justice to the subject
The extravagance is in dressing and running to parties; but
I must say they regard the Sabbath, and attend preaching, for
there are churches of every denomination and able ministers
of the Gospel. We have been here two Sabbaths. The general
and myself were both days at church. Mr. Baker is the pastor
of the church we go to. He is a fine man, a plain, good
preacher. We were waited on by two of Mr. Balche's elders,
inviting us to take a pew in his church in Georgetown, but pre-
vious to that I had an invitation to another. General Cole,
Mary, Emily, and Andrew went to the Episcopal Church.

" Oh my dear friend, how shall I get through this bustle.
There are not less than fifty to one hundred persons calling

* Mrs. Jackson's recollection is certainly at fault in this state-
ment.

171

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

in a day. My dear husband was unwell nearly the whole of
our journey, but, thanks to our Heavenly Father, his health is
improving. Still, his appetite is delicate, and company and
business are oppressive, but I look unto the Lord, from whence
comes all my comforts. I have the precious promise, and I
know that my Redeemer liveth.

" Don't be afraid of my giving away to these vain things.
The apostle says, I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens
me. The play-actors sent me a letter, requesting my counte-
nance to them. No. A ticket to balls and parties. No, not one.
Two dinings ; several times to drink tea. Indeed, Mr. Jackson
encourages me in my course. He recommends it to me to be
steadfast. I am going to-day to hear Mr. Summerfield. He
preaches in the Methodist Church; a very highly spoken of
minister. Glory to God for the privilege! Not a day or night
but there is the church opened for prayer."

During Jackson's second campaign for the Presi-
dency, a campaign which was marked by a bitterness of
personal attack which has hardly been paralleled even
in some of the modern Presidential campaigns which
are within memory, Jackson's marriage to Mrs. Ro-
bards was made the target of an abuse as vile as it
was untrue. For that matter even Jackson's mother
was made the subject of slander.

"The peculiar circumstances of his marriage, long
forgotten, were paraded with the grossest exaggera-
tions, to the sore grief of good Mrs. Jackson and to the
general's unspeakable wrath. The mother, too, of Gen-
eral Jackson was not permitted to rest quietly in her
grave. Mrs. Jackson once found her husband in tears.
Pointing to a paragraph reflecting on his mother, he
said : ' Myself I can defend ; you I can defend ; but now
they have assailed even the memory of my mother.' "

" One of the newspapers which took the lead in these
infamous attacks upon the reputation of Mrs. Jackson
was the National Journal, published in Washington,
which was said to be the especial organ of President
Adams himself. So well satisfied of this was General

172

MOTHER AND WIFE

Jackson, at least, that he refused to call on Mr. Adams
(as it was thought in courtesy he should have done)
when he reached Washington in February, 1829. He
thought that a man who would permit a public journal
which was under his control to assail the reputation of
any respectable female, much less the wife of his rival
and competitor for the first office in the world, was not
entitled to the respect of any honorable man, and he
would not, therefore, go near him. This was the reason
why he did not call upon him, and not from a want of
magnanimity or sense of what was due to the Chief
Magistrate of the nation, as it was alleged by his ene-
mies at the time." As to this opinion, whoever else
may have been guilty, it is certain that no such despic-
able conduct can be charged against Adams, who was
cold as an iceberg, but a gentleman of the most refined
and delicate honor everywhere.

These attacks undoubtedly hastened Mrs. Jackson's
death. Writes Parton : " The health of Mrs. Jackson
continued to be precarious during the whole of this
period. Her disease was an affection of the heart, which
was liable to be aggravated by excitement. She never
approved of the general's running for office, and if now
she wished him to succeed, it was only because she knew
he wished it. Unceasingly she strove to turn his thoughts
to those subjects in which she alone found comfort, which
alone she thought important. She warned him not to
be dazzled nor deluded by his popularity, of which her
good sense as a woman, no less than her opinions as a
Presbyterian, taught her the emptiness. One Sunday
morning, a communion Sunday, in 1826 or 1827, as they
were walking towards the little Hermitage church, she
besought him to dally no longer with his sense of duty,
but, then and there, that very hour, in their own little
church, to renounce the world and all its pomps and
vanities and partake of communion with her. He

173

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

answered : ' My dear, if I were to do that now, it would
be said all over the country that I had done it for the
sake of political effect. My enemies would all say so.
I cannot do it now, but I promise you that when once
more I am clear of politics I will join the church."

The dastardly slanders did more than affect his wife's
health. They embittered Jackson's politics to the last
degree. They engendered a spirit of acrid partisanship,
and I have no doubt were the cause of Jackson's de-
termination to clear out of office every representative of
the party in power whom he could properly or im-
properly remove, and that in large measure the intro-
duction of the so-called " Spoils System" grew out of
the hatred engendered by these savage and degrading
personalities.

The death of Mrs. Jackson was on this wise. Jack-
son's friends in Nashville, having learned the exact
results of the election to the Presidency on December
ii, 1828, determined to give a gala entertainment, in-
cluding a reception, banquet, and ball, on the twenty-
third of the month. Preparations were being hastened
when the news came that Mrs. Jackson was sorely
stricken with heart disease. For sixty hours she suf-
fered excruciating pain, during which the general never
left her side, attending to her, ministering to her,
striving to relieve her with sleepless devotion which
attests the depth of his feeling for her.

She rallied from this seizure and insisted that the
proposed entertainment in honor of her husband's vic-
tory should not be abandoned. On the evening of the
twenty-second, however, she was stricken again by a
more violent attack than the first, in which, after a
period of suffering, mercifully brief, she passed away.
Old Hannah, one of her faithful slaves, has left this ac-
count of her death; which the chronicler thereof has
improved in language at the sacrifice of picturesqueness :

174

MRS. JACKSON

From the portrait by Colonel R. E. W. Earl, painted at
The Hermitage in 1825

MOTHER AND WIFE

" On Monday evening, the evening before the twenty-
third, her disease appeared to take a decided turn for
the better, and she then so earnestly entreated the gen-
eral to prepare for the fatigues of the morrow by having
a night of undisturbed sleep, that he consented, at last,
to go into an adjoining room and lie down upon a sofa.
The doctor was still in the house. Hannah and George
were to sit up with their mistress.

"At nine o'clock the general bade her good-night,
went into the next room, and took off his coat, prepara-
tory to lying down. He had been gone about five
minutes ; Mrs. Jackson was then, for the first time, re-
moved from her bed, that it might be re-arranged for
the night. While sitting in a chair, supported in the
arms of Hannah, she uttered a long, inarticulate cry,
which was immediately followed by a rattling noise in
the throat. Her head fell forward upon Hannah's
shoulder. She never spoke nor breathed again.

"There was a wild rush into the room of husband,
doctor, relatives, friends, and servants. The general
assisted to lay her upon the bed. ' Bleed her/ he cried.
No blood flowed from her arm. ' Try the temple, Doc-
tor/ Two drops stained her cap, but no more followed.

" It was long before he would believe her dead. He
looked eagerly into her face, as if still expecting to see
signs of returning life. Her hands and feet grew cold.
There could be no doubt then, and they prepared a table
for laying her out. With a choking voice the general
said:

" ' Spread four blankets upon it. If she does come
to, she will lie so hard upon the table/

" He sat all night long in the room by her side, with
his face in his hands, ' grieving,' said Hannah, and
occasionally looking into the face and feeling the heart
and pulse of the form so dear to him. Major Lewis,
who had been immediately sent for, arrived just before

175

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

daylight and found him still there, nearly speechless
and wholly inconsolable. He sat in the room nearly
all the next day, the picture of despair. It was only
with great difficulty that he was persuaded to take a
little coffee.

" ' And this was the way/ concluded Hannah, * that
old mistus died ; and we always say, that when we lost
her, we lost a mistus and a mother too; and more a
mother than a mistus. And we say the same of old
master ; for he was more a father to us than a master,
and many's the time we've wished him back again, to
help us out of our troubles/ "

For sixteen hours Jackson watched by the bier of his
wife, " tearless, speechless, almost expressionless.,, Car-
roll, Coffee, Adair, and others of his old companions in
arms, hastening to him, had to restrain him from her
side and almost force him to eat and sleep. Those who
had maligned her so cruelly were filled with remorse
when too late.

According to Colonel Ben Truman : " As the friends
of the dead gathered about to look for the last time
upon her face, General Jackson lifted his cane as if
appealing to Heaven, and by a look commanding silence,
said slowly and painfully and with a voice full of bitter
tears : ' In the presence of this dead saint I can and do
forgive all my enemies. But those vile wretches who
have slandered her must look to God for mercy/ "

Jackson never lost that feeling. Sometime after the
funeral, while kneeling down and arranging the
branches of a rosebush planted near her grave, he
clasped his hands and said in the presence of his
adopted son and others : " She was murdered — mur-
dered by slanderers that pierced her heart. May God
Almighty forgive her murderers, as I know she forgave
them, I never can !" Buell adds sapiently, " He never
did."

176

MOTHER AND WIFE

Friendly papers vied with each other in eulogies.
The Tennessee Republican paid her this beautiful
tribute : " Her pure and gentle heart, in which a selfish,
guileful, or malicious thought never found entrance, was
the throne of benevolence ; and under its noble influence
her faculties and time were constantly devoted to the ex-
ercise of hospitality and to acts of kindness. To feed
the hungry, clothe the naked, to supply the indigent, to
raise the humble, to notice the friendless, and to com-
fort the unfortunate, were her favorite occupations ; nor
could the kindness of her soul be repressed by distress
or prosperity ; but like those fountains which, rising in
deep and secluded valleys, flow on in the forest of
winter and through summer's heat, it maintained a
uniform and refreshing current. Thus she lived; and
when death approached, her patience and resignation
were equal to her goodness; not an impatient gesture,
not a fretful accent, escaped her; but her last breath
was charged with an expression of tenderness for the
man who loved her more than her life, and whom she
honored next to her God."

The remains of Mrs. Jackson were buried at the
Hermitage, where years after her great husband was
laid by her side. The tomb erected over them somewhat
resembles an open summer-house. It is a small white
dome supported by slender pillars of marble. The tablet
which covers Mrs. Jackson bears this inscription, com-
posed by the general himself :

"Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of
President Jackson, who died the 22d of December, 1828, aged
61. Her face was fair ; her person pleasing, her temper amiable,
her heart kind; she delighted in relieving the wants of her
fellow creatures, and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most
liberal and unpretending methods ; to the poor she was a bene-
factor ; to the rich an example ; to the wretched a comforter ;
to the prosperous an ornament; her piety went hand in hand
12 177

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

with her benevolence, and she thanked her Creator for being
permitted to do good. A being so gentle and so virtuous,
slander might wound but could not dishonor. Even death,
when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could but
transport her to the bosom of her God."

" General Jackson never recovered from the shock of
his wife's death. He was never quite the same man
afterwards. It subdued his spirit and corrected his
speech. Except on occasions of extreme excitement,
few and far between, he never again used what is com-
monly called 4 profane language/ not even the familiar
phrase, "' By the Eternal !' There were times, of course,
when his fiery passions asserted themselves ; when he
uttered wrathful words ; when he wished even to throw
off the robes of office, as he once said, that he might
call his enemies to a dear account. But these were rare
occurrences. He mourned deeply and ceaselessly the
loss of his truest friend, and was often guided, in his
domestic affairs, by what he supposed would have been
her will if she had been there to make it known."

Near the close of his second term as President the
Rev. Dr. Van Pelt, of New York, in conversation with
Jackson remarked :

" I hear, General, that you were blessed with a
Christian companion."

"Yes," said the President, "my wife was a pious
Christian woman. She gave me the best advice, and I
have not been unmindful of it. When the people in
their sovereign pleasure elected me as President of the
United States, she said to me, ' Don't let your oppor-
tunity turn your head away from the duty you owe to
God. Before Him we are all alike sinners, and to Him
we must all alike give account. All these things will
pass away, and you and I, and all of us must stand
before God.' " Tears were in his eyes, adds Dr. Van
Pelt, as he said these words.

178

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

Aside from his mother and his wife, the name of
Mrs. Margaret Eaton is more frequently associated with
that of Jackson than is that of any other woman — not,
of course, in any improper sense, his relations to her
being simply those of the ardent champion and the zeal-
ous defender of $ greatly slandered and grossly abused
woman, who was, moreover, the wife of one of his most
intimate friends.

Women have not played a large part in American his-
tory so far, and as a rule — to which there are excep-
tions— only the bad ones have played any considerable
part in the history of the world, save in those few in-
stances where reigning monarchs have been women, as
Elizabeth of England, Catherine of Russia, Maria Teresa
of Austria, and the late Queen Victoria. American mo-
rality was too stern for any woman to play a part behind
a presidential chair like that which Madame de Pompa-
dour, for instance, played behind a throne. But of all
women who have influenced political affairs Mrs. Eaton
stands first. Her influence was not due to force of char-
acter, or to consecration of life, or to devotion to ideals, as
was the influence of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, Frances Willard, or Clara Barton, to state some
modern instances, but to circumstances which brought
her in contact with Jackson in a way which particularly
appealed to his chivalrous nature. His regard and re-
spect for the other sex have already been noted. No
knight-errant was ever more prompt to succor and de-
fend assailed femininity than he, and a petticoat in dis-

179

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

tress always awakened most enthusiastic devotion. He
was never happier than when he was fighting for a
woman, and rarely did he appear to better advantage
either.

It seems that there lived in Washington for a long
time prior to Jackson's election to the Presidency one
William O'Neal, a man of humble extraction, indifferent
manners, and no social position, but withal possessing
a large, foreseeing ambition for his daughter. He kept
a private hotel, or large boarding-house, much patron-
ized by members of Congress and others who belonged
to the more permanent residents of the capital, as dis-
tinguished from the casual and transient visitors to
Washington. His daughter Margaret, familiarly
known as Peg, or Peggy O'Neal, a bright, vivacious,
well-educated young woman, pretty and petite in person
and pleasing in manner, naturally was a great favorite
among the guests at her father's hostelry, General and
Mrs. Jackson among them. She was a fearless and im-
prudent young woman, careless always, but immoral
never. The social circle in which her lines were cast
was much beneath her merits. Her father had educated
her out of it, but was unable to provide her with any
other. It is probable that many of the men with whom
she came in contact treated her with that degree of
familiarity which a certain kind of men usually make
use of in similar circumstances — did make use of in
those days more frequently than they would do now.
For instance, note the following:

Jackson writes to Lewis, after the Eaton affair had
reached its most acute stage, giving details of an incident
that had occurred four years before, in 1824, when Mrs.
Timberlake, as she then was, asked his protection against
a certain General Call; she, Call, Jackson, and Eaton
being at the time all inmates of her father's hotel.
" Call's plea in justification may be omitted," says Sum-

180

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

ner, but it can be imagined. "I," writes Jackson " gave
him a severe lecture for taking up such ideas of female
virtue unless on some positive evidence of his own, of
which he had acknowledged he had none, only informa-
tion— and I enforced my admonition by referring him
to the rebuff he had met with, which I trusted for the
future would guard him from the like improper conduct.
... I then told you, and have since repeated, that I had
never seen or heard aught against the chastity of Mrs.
Timberlake that was calculated to raise even suspicion
of her virtue in the mind of anyone who was not under
the influence of deep prejudice or prone to jealousy —
that I believed her a virtuous and much injured female/'

Consequently there was a great deal of gossip about
the pert, witty, audacious, and reckless Miss O'Neal —
gossip, there is no doubt, for which any adequate
foundation or real justification was lacking. Of course,
she had no social position whatever; but that did not
exempt her from the comments of her sex, however
highly placed the individual members thereof were.
And it must be admitted, in feminine justification, that
the women of Washington society could only have heard
about Peggy O'Neal from the men ! In course of time
the fascinating Miss Peggy married a purser (pay-
master) in the navy named Timberlake, who was evi-
dently not troubled by the damaging rumors current.
By him she had several children. Timberlake was not
much of a man, — her friends thought that the charming
Peggy had greatly demeaned herself by marrying him,
— and he finally committed suicide in despair over his
inability to control his appetite for liquor. The end of
his life came while on a cruise in European waters,
during which he had been absent from home several
years.

Jackson's friend and former comrade, Major Eaton,
whose first wife had been a connection of Jackson's,

181

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

married the widow in January, 1829, after consulting
Jackson as to the propriety of his action. "Jackson,
having learned of the scandal but disbelieving it, said
to Eaton, 'Your marrying her will disprove these
charges, and restore Peg's good name/ The general
treated with violent contempt the persons, some of them
clergymen, ' whose morbid appetite/ he wrote to the
Rev. Dr. Ely, ' delights in defamation and slander/
Burning with anger at those who dared in the recent
canvass to malign his own wife, now dead, he defended
with chivalrous resolution the lady whom his own wife,
' to the last moment of her life believed ... to be an in-
nocent and much-injured woman/ Even Mrs. Madison,
he said, ' was assailed by those fiends in human shape/
When protests were made against Eaton's appointment
to the Cabinet, Jackson savagely cried, ' I will sink or
swim with him, by God !' "

It is probable that the gossip of which Mrs. O'Neal-
Timberlake-Eaton had been once the subject would have
died down had not Jackson appointed Major Eaton his
Secretary of War, thus giving his wife a high position
in the official society of the capital. The families of the
Vice-President and of the Secretaries of the Treasury
and Navy and the Attorney-General promptly and posi-
tively refused to receive Mrs. Eaton.

It cannot be denied that Jackson had received ample
warning as to the position official society would take
with regard to Mrs. Eaton. His selections for the
Cabinet were announced in the Telegraph several days
before his inauguration. Lewis, who was an eye-witness
to the episode, writes the following account of the re-
ceipt of the news which will illustrate the opinion preva-
lent in society, and in official and military circles.

" On the following evening [after the newspaper an-
nouncements] he received a call from Colonel Towson,
a gallant and distinguished military officer, and at that

182

THE AFFAIR OF MRS.. EATON

time the paymaster-general of the United States arjjiy.
The parlor, as usual, was crowded, and the colonel find*-
ing there was no chance of speaking to the genial
privately, asked if there was any room in which; he
could have a private interview with him for a few
minutes.

" ' Certainly/ the general said, and invited him into
his bedchamber.

" He opened the door and begged the colonel to walk
in, but when he got to the door and saw me seated at a
table, writing, he drew back.

"'Come in/ the general repeated, 'there is no one
here but Major Lewis, and between him and me there
are no secrets/

" The colonel then came in, and he and the general
seated themselves near the fireplace. I had no wish
to listen to their conversation, but as the room was
small, and they spoke in their usual tone of voice, I could
not help hearing every word they said ; and as the gen-
eral did not propose I should leave the room, I con-
tinued to write on, as I knew he was anxious that the
writing upon which I was engaged, should be finished
in time for that night's mail. After being seated, the
colonel remarked that he saw published in the Telegraph
of that morning ' a list of names of the persons that you
propose, general, it is said, to bring into your Cabinet/

" ' Yes, sir/ he replied, ' those gentlemen will com-
pose my Cabinet/

" ' There is no objection, I believe, personally, to any
of them/ said the colonel, 'but there is one of them
your friends think it would be advisable to substitute
with the name of some other person/

" ' Which of the names do you refer to, Colonel?' he
inquired.

" ' I mean that of Mr. Eaton/ he said.

" ' Mr. Eaton is an old personal friend of mine/ the
183

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

general remarked. ' He is a man of talents and experi-
ence, and one in whom his State, as well as myself, have
every confidence. I cannot see, therefore/ he added,
' why there should be any objection to him/

" ' There is none, I believe, personally, to him/ the
colonel said, ' but there are great objections made to his
wife/

" ' And pray, Colonel, what will his wife have to do
with the duties of the War Department ?' asked the gen-
eral.

" ' Not much, perhaps/ said the colonel, ' but she is a
person with whom the ladies of this city do not asso-
ciate. She is not, and probably never will be, received
into society here, and if Mr. Eaton shall be made a
member of the Cabinet, it may become a source of
annoyance to both you and him/

" ' That may possibly be so/ he said, ' but, Colonel,
do you suppose that I have been sent here by the people
to consult the ladies of Washington as to the proper
persons to compose my Cabinet? In the selection of its
members I shall consult my own judgment, looking to
the great and paramount interests of the whole country,
and not to the accommodation of society and drawing-
rooms of this or any other city. Mr. Eaton will certainly
be one of my constitutional advisers, unless he declines
to become a member of my Cabinet/ "

The action of Colonel Towson was not singular, for
from the same reasons that he put forth, great efforts
were made to induce Jackson to change his mind and
make another appointment. The women of Washington,
for one thing, could not look with equanimity upon the
entrance of a tavern-keeper's daughter into Washington
society, even if there had been nothing alleged against
her character.

After the appointment, when the storm that had been
so long brewing broke, Jackson, with his usual per-

184

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

tinacity, ran down the different scandals until he finally
localized them under two heads: one, that something
like a year after Timberlake departed on his European
voyage, Mrs. Eaton had undergone a premature ac-
couchement ; the other, that before her marriage to him
she and Eaton, who was then a United States senator
from Tennessee, had visited New York and other cities,
registering at hotels as man and wife. There were all
sorts of subsidiary charges, one, for instance, being to
the effect that Mrs. Eaton told her children by Mr.
Timberlake that their name was legitimately— or illegiti-
mately!— Eaton; for Eaton was their real progenitor,
while Timberlake was merely their putative father.

With unwearied zeal, Jackson, having thus reduced
the gossip to something tangible, now traced these
stories to their authority, the Reverend Doctor Camp-
bell, a Presbyterian minister and pastor of the church
which Jackson and his wife had been accustomed to
attend. Doctor Campbell, who seems to have been a
rather poor specimen of clergyman, had formally
brought the question of Mrs. Eaton's alleged miscon-
duct to the President through a friend of his, the
Reverend Doctor Ely, of Philadelphia. Jackson had it
out with Messrs. Ely and Campbell. He went at it with
thoroughness, and amassed proofs of the falsity of the
slander which were exhaustive and convincing to him-
self and, I may add, to posterity. He exploded posi-
tively the accusations and proved them to be lies beyond
peradventure. The correspondence he conducted would
fill a volume. The following excerpts from a letter he
wrote to Doctor Ely are sufficiently indicative of his
thoughts :

" Washington, March 23, 1829.
" Dear Sir : Your confidential letter of the eighteenth instant
has been received in the same spirit of kindness and friendship
with which it was written.

185

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" I must here be permitted to remark that I sincerely regret
you did not personally name this subject to me before you left
Washington, as I could in that event have apprised you of the
great exertions made by Clay and his partisans, here and else-
where, to destroy the character of Mrs. Eaton by the foulest
and basest means, so that a deep and lasting wrong might be
inflicted on her husband. I could have given you information
that might at least have put you on your guard with respect to
anonymous letters containing slanderous insinuations against
female character. If such evidence as this is to be received,
I ask, where is the guarantee for female character, however
moral — however virtuous T . . . Would you, my worthy friend,
desire me to add the weight and influence of my name, whatever
it may be, to assist in crushing Mrs. Eaton, who, I do believe,
and have a right to believe, is a much injured woman, and
more virtuous than some of her enemies? . . . Mr. Eaton has
been known to me for twenty years. His character heretofore,
for honesty and morality, has been unblemished; and I am
now, for the first time, to change my opinion of him because
of the slanders of this city? ...

" You were badly advised, my dear sir, when informed ' that
Mrs. Jackson, while in Washington, did not fear to put the seal
of reprobation on such a character as Mrs. Eaton.' Mrs. Jack-
son, to the last moment of her life, believed Mrs. Eaton to be
an innocent and much injured woman, so far as relates to the
tales about her and Mr. Eaton, and none other ever reached
her or me. ... In 1823 I again visited the city in the character
of senator from Tennessee, and took lodging with Mr. Eaton
at Major O'Neal's, when and where I became acquainted with
Mr. and Mrs. Timberlake. I was there when Mr. Timberlake
left this country for the Mediterranean and was present when
he took leave of his wife, children, and family. He parted with
them in the most affectionate manner, as he did also with
myself and Mr. Eaton. Between him and the latter gentleman
there appeared to be nothing but friendship and confidence
from the first time I saw them at Major O'Neal's, until the
day of his departure. From the situation and proximity of the
rooms we occupied there could not have been any illicit inter-
course between Mr. Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake without my
having some knowledge of it ; and I assure you, sir, that I saw
nothing, heard nothing, which was calculated to excite even the
slightest suspicion. Shortly after Mr. Timberlake left Wash-
ington for the Mediterranean, I was told in great confidence
that it was rumored in the city that Mr. Eaton and Mrs. Tim-

186

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

berlake were too intimate. I met it, as I meet all slanders, with
a prompt denial, and inquired from what source this rumor
came, and I found it originated with a female against whom
there was as much said as is now said against Mrs. Eaton.
This report came to the ear of Mrs. Jackson through the same
channel, but to the day of her death she believed it to be a base
slander, as I do at this day. . . .

• " When Mrs. Eaton visits me (she has not done so since the
fourth) I shall treat her with as much politeness as I have
ever done, believing her virtuous, as least as much so as the
female who first gave rise to the foul tale, and as are many of
those who traduce her. As to the determination of the ladies
in Washington, I have nothing, nor will I ever have anything,
to do. with it. I will not persuade or dissuade any of them
from visiting Mrs. Eaton, leaving Mrs. Eaton and them to
settle the matter in their own way; but I am told that many
of the ladies here have waited on her. . . ."

The matter was finally carried into the Cabinet at a
special meeting in which the Reverend Doctors Camp-
bell and Ely were present. After an animated session
all present save the two clergymen appeared to be con-
vinced of Mrs. Eaton's innocence. For one thing,
it was at last agreed by everybody that Eaton had not
misconducted himself with Mrs. Timberlake, as was
charged, but that seemed to make no difference in the
situation of his wife.

Jackson did more than disprove the charges against
his young friend. He endeavored, after having rehabili-
tated Mrs. Eaton in his own eyes, to force recalcitrant
society to take her up. Here he failed. Although he
was ably seconded by Postmaster-General Barry's
family, by Secretary Van Buren, who was a widower,
and by one or two of the foreign ministers who were
not blessed with womankind in their families, he was
unable to bring the recusants to terms. There was one
power which Jackson could not coerce — that was the
prejudice of woman. The more successfully Jackson
proved the innocence of Mrs. Eaton, the more resolute

187

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

were the women of his official family not to recognize
her — perhaps because he had proven them wrong! At
any rate, in spite of everything that he could do, Mrs.
Eaton continued to be slighted publicly.

Jackson even met with rebellion in his own household,
for Mrs. Donelson, who had been installed as mistress
of the White House, joined the opposition and was sent
back to Nashville in disgrace, although she did return
penitent some six months later and extended the olive-
branch to the unfortunate lady, who had become ad
interim, so far as Jackson could compass it, the hostess
of the White House and " the first lady of the land/'

So acute were the social difficulties that, on one occa-
sion, the wife of the Dutch minister, Huyghens, posi-
tively refused to sit by Mrs. Eaton, actually withdrawing
from a dinner in the most pointed manner rather than
so demean herself. Jackson was so angry that he was
with difficulty dissuaded from sending her husband
home for the insult.

This affair created a coolness between Jackson and
those members of his Cabinet whose wives and daugh-
ters had refused to bow to the Presidential will. The
men themselves had no hesitation in extending courtesies
to Mrs. Eaton, but they said, and the position is under-
standable, that they could not, or would not, coerce their
wives ; they declared, furthermore, that social and politi-
cal affairs were not necessarily on the same basis, and
there they rested.

Now, beginning with Parton, a great many people
have come to the solemn conclusion that the Cabinet
was subsequently — shall I saw dissolved? — on account
of this Eaton affair. Parton boldly affirms that "the
political history of the United States for the last thirty
years dates from the moment that Van Buren, to pla-
cate his chief, called upon Mrs. Eaton." Even Buell
declares that the incident influenced the whole history

188

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

of Jackson's two administrations and its effects cropped
out from 1826 to 1837. This is a sample of the way in
which the romantic and dramatic episode is seized upon
and given undue value. It is a sample of the tortuous
methods by which historians, even the best of them,
disdain the really open and natural explanation of a fact
and search for something dark and mysterious to explain
that which is so plain that he who runs ought to be
able to read.

The best thing in Colonel Colyar's interesting book is
his thorough demolition of this idea. Cabinet changes
in previous administrations had not been infrequent, but
they were slow, gradual, and easily explainable. Over
a year after the Eaton embroglio Jackson's Cabinet, with
the exception of Postmaster-General Barry, who had
been recently elevated there and for whose retention
there were especial reasons, suddenly resigned. Van
Buren and Eaton led, Branch, Berrien, and Ingham fol-
lowed. A new Cabinet was at once appointed. Van
Buren exchanged places with the minister to England.
After an interval Eaton was appointed governor of
Florida and thence sent to Madrid as minister to Spain.
Branch, Berrien, and Ingham were left unprovided for
by the administration.

The opportunity to couple this dissolution of the Cabi-
net with the position the families of the several members
had taken with regard to Mrs. Eaton was too good for
the historical gossips to lose. There are people — I dare
say the majority — who believe to this day that the one
was the cause of the other. Now, I shall not go so far
as to say that the Eaton affair may not have contributed
in some degree to the retirement of Branch, Berrien, and
Ingham, but that it was the cause of it I deny.

It is well known that Jackson, with his strong preju-
dice in favor of Mrs. Eaton, viewed with extreme dis-
favor the course of the families of the three Secretaries,

189

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

and that he visited this displeasure upon these three men,
although his own experience with them in this very
matter should have shown him how futile would have
been the attempt on the part of the Secretaries to make
their wives associate with the condemned one.

It is also known that no Cabinet meetings were held
for a long time and that there was an entire lack of
cordiality and cooperation between the President and
his Cabinet. It may be surmised that Jackson, under
the circumstances, would have been pleased to have had
the resignations of these gentlemen tendered to him long
before, but the very fact that they held office and did
not tender their resignations goes to show that the situa-
tion was not so acute as has been pictured. Why, then,
did the Cabinet officers resign. In the first place, it was
suggested to them by Jackson himself, who managed
the whole affair with delightful adroitness. Why was
the suggestion made? For another cause entirely — his
rupture with Calhoun, the Vice-President.

To explain that break we must hark back to Jackson's
conduct in that Florida campaign in which he invaded
Spanish territory and executed Arbuthnot and Am-
brister. It will be recalled that Jackson's course was
the subject of severe censure, and that he attempted to
justify himself for his invasion by the statement that
Monroe while President had authorized him to do so
through a letter to one Rhea. Monroe denied this on
his dying bed. Rhea and Jackson both asserted it.
Neither Monroe nor Jackson would lie. This leaves the
issue with Rhea. In justice to Rhea, Jackson claimed to
have seen the letter. Nobody can explain this matter
satisfactorily now.

At any rate, Monroe's Cabinet, with the exception of
Adams, wished to disavow Jackson's action, and Calhoun
even went so far as to propose the arrest of Jackson.
In some way Jackson received the impression that Craw-

190

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

ford, of Georgia, was the man who had proposed his
arrest and that Calhoun had been his defender in the
Cabinet. Consequently Jackson hated Crawford and
was grateful to Calhoun. Crawford, an old, broken
man, defeated in his aspirations for the Presidency, en-
feebled by a paralytic stroke from which he never
recovered, filled with bitter enmity towards Calhoun for
causes which do not enter into this discussion, about
this time informed Jackson by letter that Calhoun, who
was then Vice-President, had been that member of the
Cabinet who had proposed Jackson's arrest. A cor-
respondence between Jackson and Calhoun at once took
place. The following quotation from Jackson's last
letter to him sufficiently indicates the character of the
dispute.

" Motives are to be inferred from actions, and judged by our
God. It had been intimated to me many years ago that it was
you, and not Mr. Crawford, who had been secretly endeavoring
to destroy my reputation. These insinuations I indignantly
repelled, upon the ground that you, in all your letters to me,
professed to be my personal friend, and approved entirely my
conduct in relation to the Seminole campaign. I had too ex-
alted an opinion of your honor and frankness to believe for
one moment that you could be capable of such deception.
Under the influence of these friendly feelings (which I always
entertained for you) when I was presented with a copy of Mr.
Crawford's letter, with that frankness which ever has, and I
hope ever will, characterize my conduct, I considered it due to
you, and the friendly relations which , had always existed
between us, to lay it forthwith before you, and ask if the state-
ments contained in that letter could be true. I repeat, I had a
right to believe that you were my sincere friend, and, until now,
never expected to have occasion to say of you, in the language
of Caesar, Et tu, Brute f The evidence which has brought me
to this conclusion is abundantly contained in your letter now
before me."

This affair broke all relations between the President
and the Vice-President. Calhoun had looked upon

igi

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

himself — and perhaps with justification — as the legiti-
mate successor to the Presidency when Jackson retired,
as it was believed he intended to do after one term of
office. Calhoun was shrewd enough to perceive that
if his ambitions were to be realized he must have the
support of Jackson. Consequently he had cultivated
amicable relations with the President. The Crawford
letter was a bolt from the blue. Jackson never forgave
an enemy. Rarely did he forget a friend, an enemy —
never! To have won his friendship, to have posed as
his supporter, all these years, when in the critical mo-
ment of his life he had been opposed to him tooth and
nail — but secretly ! — this absolutely swept away the last
vestige of respect or friendship the President had enter-
tained for the Vice-President and destroyed any possible
future associations.

The Crawford letter was dishonorable in the extreme.
It revealed a Cabinet secret which no one else had dis-
closed. Crawford, if he had been himself, probably
would never have resorted to such an expedient to ruin
his rival, although his hatred of Calhoun was virulent.
Calhoun finally realized that it was impossible to fight
against Jackson, backed as he was by such a popularity
as no President ever had attained to. At one stroke the
hopes of the great South Carolinian were blasted. He
sank from a figure of national prominence to that of the
leading representative of a single State, and a State dis-
cordant at that. After Jackson got through with him
he was no longer a Presidential possibility. It is more
than suspected that some of Calhoun's nullification spirit
may have arisen from his recognition of that fact.

Calhoun, with a singular lade of dignity — he should
have refused to discuss the situation opened in such a
way — did his best to explain the circumstances, but his
explanations did not avail with the uncompromising
Jackson. He proceeded to put an effectual check on

19a

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

Calhoun's aspirations. Lewis, who of all men knew the
truth, wrote :

" It has been frequently stated that this quarrel had
its origin in the Eaton affair. This is a mistake. That
the latter was the occasion of much excitement, as well
as great bitterness of feeling, there is no doubt, but of
itself it would not have caused a separation between the
general and Mr. Calhoun. It is also true that nearly all
those who exerted themselves, first to prevent Mr.
Eaton's appointment as a member of the Cabinet, and
afterwards, having failed in that, to drive him out of
it, were the friends of Mr. Calhoun."

Branch, Berrien, and Ingham were staunch friends
and supporters of the Vice-President. Jackson could
not endure the idea of having them in the Cabinet. Yet
their friendship with Calhoun was not a sufficient ex-
cuse for him to dismiss them summarily. They must
be induced to resign. Van Buren and Eaton were Jack-
son's friends. If they resigned from the Cabinet volun-
tarily Jackson would have an excuse for asking or at
least suggesting the resignations of the others, in order
completely to reorganize his Cabinet on harmonious and
homogeneous lines. It is probable that at this time Van
Buren was promised Jackson's influence in succession to
him for the Presidency.

Eaton was anxious to get out of the Cabinet. Genial,
hospitable, and kind-hearted, he was disgusted with the
atrocious calumnies that had been heaped upon his
unfortunate wife, and he bitterly resented the social
ostracism to which she had been subjected. He was
more than willing to resign — indeed, anxious to do so.
Both these men were glad to smooth the way for Jack-
son. Van Buren and Eaton resigned, and their resigna-
tions were accepted in extremely flattering letters by the
President. And they were both taken care of.

Almost immediately after, the three other members of
13 193

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

the Cabinet placed their resignations in the hands of the
President. The way this was brought about may be
understood by the correspondence between the President
and the Secretary of the Navy, which I have selected as
the shortest and most convincing of the various inter-
changes of letters:

" Washington, April 19, 1831.

" Sir : In the interview which I had the honor to hold with
you this morning, I understood it to be your fixed purpose to
reorganize your Cabinet, and that as to myself it was your wish
that I should retire from the administration of the Navy
Department.

" Under these circumstances I take pleasure in tendering to
you the commission which, unsolicited on my part, you were
pleased to confer on me.

" I have the honor to be, with great respect, yours, etc,

"John Branch.

" To the President of the United States."

" Washington, April 19, 1831.

" Sir: Your letter of this date, by your son, is just received
— accompanying it is your commission. The sending of the
latter was riot necessary; it is your own private property, and
by no means to be considered part of the archives of the gov-
ernment. Accordingly I return it.

" There is one expression in your letter to which I take leave
to except. I did not, as to yourself, express a wish that you
should retire. The Secretaries of State and of War having
tendered their resignations, I remarked to you that I felt it to
be indispensable to reorganize my Cabinet proper; that it had
come in harmoniously, and as a unit ; and as a part was about
to leave me, which on to-morrow would be announced, a reor-
ganization was necessary to guard against misapprehension.
These were my remarks, made to you in candor and sincerity.
Your letter gives a different import to my words.

" Your letter contains no remarks as to your performing the
duties of the office until a successor can be selected. On this
subject I should be glad to know your views. I am, very
respectfully, yours,

"Andrew Jackson.

" The Hon. John Branch, Secretary of the Navy."
194

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

"Washington, April 19, 1831.

" Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours
of this date, in answer to mine of the same.

" In reply to your remark that there is one expression in my
letter to which you must except, I would respectfully answer
that I gave what I understood to be the substance of your con-
versation. I did not pretend to quote your language.

"I regret that I misunderstood you in the slightest degree;
I, however, stand corrected, and cheerfully accept the interpre-
tation which you have given to your own expression.

" I shall freely continue my best exertions to discharge the
duties of the department, until you provide a successor.

"I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, your
obedient servant,

"John Branch.

" To the President of the United States."

" Washington, April 20, 1831.

" Sir : Late last evening, I had the honor to receive your
letter of that date, tendering your resignation of the office of
Secretary of the Navy.

" When the resignations of the Secretary of State and Secre-
tary of War were tendered, I considered fully the reasons
offered, and all the circumstances connected with the subject
After mature deliberation, I concluded to accept these resigna-
tions. But when this conclusion was come to, it was accom-
panied with a conviction that I must certainly renew my
Cabinet Its members had been invited by me to the stations
they occupied; it came together in great harmony, and as a
unit. Under the circumstances in which I found myself, I
could not but perceive the propriety of selecting a Cabinet
composed of entirely new materials, as being calculated, in
this respect at least, to command public confidence and satisfy
public opinion. Neither could I be insensible to the fact that
to permit two only to retire would be to afford room for unjust
misconceptions and malignant representations concerning the
influence of their particular presence upon the conduct of public
affairs. Justice to the individuals whose public spirit had im-
pelled them to tender their resignations also required, then, in
my opinion, the decision which I have stated. However painful
to my own feelings, it became necessary that I should frankly
make known to you my view of the whole subject.

" In accepting your resignation, it is with great pleasure that
I9S

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

I bear testimony to the integrity and zeal with which you have
managed the concerns of the navy. In your discharge of all
the duties of your office over which I have any control, I have
been fully satisfied ; and in your retirement you carry with you
my best wishes for your prosperity and happiness. It is ex-
pected that you will continue to discharge the duties of your
office until a successor is appointed.

" I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most
obedient servant,

"Andrew Jackson.

" John Branch, Secretary of the Navy."

In this connection it may be pointed out that Jack-
son's hatred of Clay arose from Clay's course in the
Senate when the resolutions of censure upon him for
his conduct in this campaign — which resolutions Cal-
houn would have undoubtedly supported had he not
been in the Cabinet — were under discussion. Colyar
ably sums up the consequences of the action of Clay and
Calhoun as follows:

11 A recapitulation of the facts may help the student
of history, to whom they are new, to realize their impor-
tance, and such recapitulation is more than justified,
because they are the open door to what is known as the
Jacksonian period. They are the foundation of the life-
time bitterness between Clay and Jackson, breaking up
a friendship as sincere as common ties and a union of
efforts in the War of 1812 could make it. They severed
the relations between Mr. Calhoun and General Jackson,
at the time when one was President and the other Vice-
President, which had been more than friendly. They
shook Washington social life as never before. They
dissolved the President's Cabinet. They made a Jack-
son party and a Calhoun party. They arrayed the forces
for the great fights on the United States Bank and on
the expunging resolutions. They divided the then con-
I trolling Republican party into a Jackson Republican
! party and a National Republican party, with Jackson and

196

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

Clay the respective great leaders; and they finally led
to the organization of the Whig party, that twice elected
a President.

" The facts which I have here given that cannot be
disputed are :

" i. That General Jackson, as a major-general in the
United States army, was sent at the head of an army
into the Spanish territory to do what was necessary to
fight the Seminole Indians and end the war as speedily
as possible.

" 2. That in addition to this general authority Jackson
had, before he went, outlined the policy which should
be pursued in Spanish territory, and the government
agreed to his theory of carrying on the war, and had
Jackson notified that his plan was approved.

" 3. That Jackson did what had been agreed upon and
in the way agreed on.

" 4. Then the Cabinet unanimously censured Jackson
without considering the evidence on which he acted, and
this was done after Jackson refused to agree to a sug-
gestion to change the facts by amending his report so as
to satisfy Spain."

In closing this chapter one or two other references to
Mrs. Eaton may be permitted. In the summer of 1830
she accompanied the Jackson party to Nashville. Ten-
nessee had no scruples about receiving her when vouched
for by her hero and idol, and Jackson with evident satis-
faction writes to Lewis concerning her welcome :

" The ladies of the place [Franklin] had received Mrs. Eaton
in the most friendly manner, and had extended to her that
polite attention due to her. This is as it should be, and is a
severe comment on the combination at Nashville and will lead
to its prostration. Until I got to Tyre Springs I had no con-
ception of the combination & conspiracy to injure & prostrate
Major Eaton — and injure me — I see the great Magicians hand
in all this — and what mortifies me more is to find that this
combination is holding up & making my family the tools to

197

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

injure me, disturb my administration, & if possible to betray
my friend Major Eaton. This will recoil upon their own heads
— but such a combination I am sure never was formed before,
and that my Nephew & Nece should permit themselves to be
held up as instruments & tools, of such wickedness, is truly
mortifying to me — I was pleased to see the marked attention
bestowed upon the Major & his family on their journey hither
and the secrete plans engendered at the city & concluded here
& practised upon by some of my connections have been pros-
trated by the independent & virtuous portion of this com-
munity. . . ."

Buell preserves this little anecdote, which throws a
side-light on Jackson's admiration for the unfortunate
lady : " A favorite boast of Jackson's was that his feet
' had never pressed foreign soil ;' that, ' born and raised
in the United States, he had never been out of the
country/ It is recorded that he one day made this ex-
ultant observation in the presence of Mrs. Eaton, whose
Irish wit prompted her to inquire, ' But how about
Florida, General?'

" ' That's so. I did go to Florida when it was a
foreign country, but I had quite forgotten that fact
when I made the remark.'

" ' I expect, General, you forgot that Florida was
foreign when you made the trip?'

" The general was put hors de combat for a moment,
but soon rallied. * Yes, yes, may be so. Some weak-
kneed people in our own country seemed to think so.'

" ' Oh, well, General, never mind. Florida didn't stay
foreign long after you had been there !'

" This was one of his favorite anecdotes for the rest
of his life. Whenever he related it, he would add:
' Smartest little woman in America, sir; by all odds,
the smartest !'"

Mrs. Eaton survived her husband and all the parties
to this affair, dying in Washington in 1879, in her
eighty-third year. She had triumphed over the gossip

198

THE AFFAIR OF MRS. EATON

which had placed her in such trying positions and lived
and died respected, if not honored. Buell, who knew
her, says that she told him " that the real nature of the
crusade against her was the fact that she was the
daughter of parents who kept a boarding-house" and
that " the assault upon her moral character was a pre-
text." She also added the interesting comment that
" Jackson's defence of her was wholly unsolicited and he
never took counsel with her at any stage of it." I can
well believe that ; he never needed appeal or urging to
undertake a woman's cause. Poor Peggy O'Neal, more
sinned against than sinning she certainly was.

199

RELATIONS. WITH CHILDREN

It has been noted that Jackson was very fond of
young girls and children. " On the bloody ground of
Talluschatches was found a slain mother still embracing
her living infant. The child was brought into camp with
the other prisoners, and Jackson, anxious to save it, en-
deavored to induce some of the Indian women to give it
nourishment. ' No/ said they, ' all his relations are
dead, kill him too/ This reply appealed to the heart
of the general. He caused the child to be taken to his
own tent, where, among the few remaining stores, was
found a little brown sugar. This, mingled with water,
served to keep the child alive until it could be sent to
Nashville, where it was nursed at Jackson's expense
until the end of the campaign, and then taken to the
Hermitage. Mrs. Jackson received it cordially; and
the boy grew up in the family, treated by the general
and his wife as a son and a favorite. Lincoyer was the
name given him by his friend. He grew to be a finely
formed and robust youth, and received the education
usually given to the planters' sons in the neighborhood.
At the proper age the general, wishing to complete his
good work by giving him the means of independence,
took him among the shops of Nashville and asked him
to choose the trade he would learn. He chose the very
business at which Jackson himself had tried his youthful
hand — harness-making. The apprentice now spent the
working days in the shop at Nashville, going to the
Hermitage on Sunday evenings and returning Monday

200

RELATIONS WITH CHILDREN

morning, generally riding one of the general's horses.
The work did not agree with him, and he came back sick
to the Hermitage, to leave it no more. His disease
proved to be consumption. He was nursed with care
and solicitude by good Aunt Rachel, but he sank rapidly
and died before he had reached his seventeenth year.
The general sincerely mourned his loss and often spoke
of Lincoyer as a parent speaks of a lost child."

Yet Boston held Jackson up before children as an
ogre to frighten them into obedience. They used him to
coerce recalcitrant infants evidently, as the following
excerpt from a letter preserved by Fiske indicates : " It
has been pleasant to revise many of my ideas and
opinions ; for my youthful memories go back to the days
when Jackson was like a bogy to frighten naughty
children ! Boston was a place of one idea then."

Like Washington, Jackson was childless, but he made
his own all of the numerous relations of his wife. One
of her nephews, Andrew Jackson Donelson, he adopted
and made his heir, and in general no man ever treated
his wife's relations, old and young, better than Jackson
did.

" Little Andrew was a pet at headquarters. The gen-
eral could deny him nothing, and spent every leisure
moment in playing with him, often holding him in his
arms while he transacted business. One evening, a lady
informs me, some companies of soldiers halted beneath
the windows of headquarters, and the attending crowd
began to cheer the general and call for his appearance —
a common occurrence in those days. The little boy, who
was asleep in an* adjoining room, was awakened by the
noise and began to cry. The general had risen from
his chair, and was going to the window to present him-
self to the clamoring crowd, when he heard the cry of
the child. He paused in the middle of the room, and
seemed in doubt for a moment which call he should

201

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

first obey, the boy's or the citizens'. The doubt was soon
resolved, however. He ran to the bedside of his son,
caught him up in his arms, hushed his cries, and car-
ried him (in his nightgown) to the window, where he
bowed to the people, and at the same time amused the
child with the scene in the streets."

" Besides the young gentlemen, there was always a
young niece or two of Mrs. Jackson's living at the Her-
mitage. They could easily please the general with their
music. Two songs especially delighted him — 'Auld
Lang Syne* and ' Scots Wha ha* wi' Wallace Bled/
When ladies asked him to write something in their
albums he was as likely to write * When I can read my
title clear* as anything else."

To show the tender feelings felt by General Jackson
for the young relatives of his wife, Parton transcribes
part of a letter in which he communicates to a friend the
sudden death of one of the Donelson youths. "The
news," he says, " was a shock to my feelings. On these
children I had built my hopes of happiness in my de-
clining days. They have, somehow, always appeared as
my own. How fleeting sublunary things, and how little
ought they really to be estimated. He is gone — how
I regret his suffering and want of medical aid. But if
he is gone, he has left us this pleasing consolation, that
he has not left a stain or blemish behind ever to bring
a blush in the cheek of his surviving friends. They can
reflect on him with pleasure, while they regret his un-
timely exit. Prepare the mind of his tender mother
for the shock before you communicate it, and keep from
her knowledge, for the present, that he wanted for any-
thing in his illness."

The children of his great friend, Edward Livingston,
were especial pets of his. " The general, calling one day
upon Mrs. Livingston, during the New Orleans cam-
paign, as was often his custom, found her in some con-

202

RELATIONS WITH CHILDREN

cern for the safety of her absent husband. Her little
daughter, too, began to whimper :

" ' When are you going to bring me back my father,
General? The British will kill my father, and I shall
never see my father any more/ said the child, sobbing.

" The mighty man of war stepped down, and, patting
the little girl upon the head, consoled her thus :

" ' Don't cry, my child. If the British touch so much
as a hair of your father's head, Til hang Mitchell!' " *

"Cora Livingston was the belle of Washington in
President Jackson's day. It is pleasant to know that
the grim and steadfast warrior, amid all the hurly-burly
of the siege, found time to love and caress this little
girl and win her heart. She sat in his lap and played
around his high, splashed boots at headquarters while
he was busied in the affairs of his great charge. All
children loved this man, and liked to get very close tS
him and be noticed and fondled by him ; but none loved
him better than this fair child, who saw him first when
he was in his fiercest mood, worn with war, disease, and
care. Nothing could exceed his tenderness to her. For
her sake, and for the sake of those who loved her, he
allowed one poor nag to repose in his stable while every
other serviceable quadruped was hard at work in the
soft mire and cold mist of the Delta."

" The visitor," said one of his contemporaries, " then
could often see the general seated in his rocking-chair,
with a chubby boy wedged in on each side of him and a
third, perhaps, in his lap, while he was trying to read the
newspaper. This man, so irascible sometimes, and
sometimes so savage, was never so much as impatient
with children, wife, or servants. This was very remark-
able. It used to astonish people who came for the first

*A captured British officer and one who had earned the
friendship of the Livingston family.

203

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

time to the Hermitage to find that its master, of whose
fierce ways and words they had heard so much, was,
indeed, the gentlest and tenderest of men. They dis-
covered, in fact, that there were two Jacksons: Jack-
son militant and Jackson triumphant; Jackson crossed
and Jackson having his own way ; Jackson, his master-
ship unquestioned, and Jackson with a rival near the
throne.

" It was astonishing, too, to notice how instan-
taneously he could change from one Jackson to the other.
He was riding along one day with his wife when some
careless wagoners drove their lumbering vehicle against
his carriage, giving the lady a somewhat violent jerk.
Instantly Jackson broke forth in a volley of execrations
so fierce and terrific that the wagoners, who were them-
selves the roughest of the rough, shrunk involuntarily
under their wagon, amazed and speechless. They drove
away without attempting to reply, feeling themselves
hopelessly outdone in their own specialty."

He was one of those rare men who are liked equally
by both sexes. He could get along with any body of men
and win their hearts, but he was never happier than
when with young girls. " One of the traits best known
to those most intimate with him in life, and little sus-
pected by those who knew his character only from the
pages of history, was an exceeding fondness for young
girls and an almost boyish delight in their society.
' They are the only friends I have/ he used to say, ' who
never pester me with their ambitions or tire me with
their advice !' All through his eight years in the White
House there were coteries of bright schoolgirls ; daugh-
ters of his personal friends or of members of his official
household, whose visits he always anticipated with pleas-
ure and enjoyed with youthful zest. Statesmen and
diplomatists were many times left to survey the uninter-
esting walls of the old Executive waiting-room while

204

RELATIONS WITH CHILDREN

the President entertained or was entertained by a home
bevy of misses in their teens downstairs."

Nor did he allow his enmity against a man to include
his children. " My father," writes a Nashville woman,
"once gave a dinner-party to the daughter of Henry
Clay, a visitor then at Nashville. Just as dinner was
about to be announced who should arrive but the gen-
eral and Mrs. Jackson! My poor mother was in con-
sternation, for the general's wrath against Mr. Clay was
notorious. At length, seeing no other course, she went
to General Jackson and frankly stated her dilemma.

" ' Madam/ said the general in his grandest style, ' I
shall be delighted to meet Mr. Clay's daughter.' *

" He entered the drawing-room and greeted the lady
with peculiar warmth. He conducted her to the dining-
room, sat beside her, and paid her the most marked
attentions during the repast. The dinner passed off de-
lightfully, every lady present adoring General Jackson,
and we grateful to him beyond measure.,,

Benton in his "Thirty Years' View" has preserved
the following delightful reminiscence : " He was gentle
in his house, and alive to the tenderest emotions ; and of
this I can give an instance greatly to contrast with his
supposed character, and worth more than a long dis-
course in showing what that character really was. I
arrived at his house one wet, chilly evening in February,
and came upon him in twilight, sitting alone before the
fire, a lamb and a child between his knees. He started a
little, called a servant to remove the two innocents to
another room, and explained to me how it was. The
child had cried because the lamb was out in the cold
and begged him to bring it in, which he had done to
please the child, his adopted son, then not two years old.
The ferocious man does not do that ! and though Jack-

*How Rooseveltian !
205

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

son had his passions and his violence, they were for
men and enemies — those who stood up against him —
and not for women and children, the weak and helpless,
for all whom his feelings were those of protection and
. support."

Well does Sumner say, " This rough soldier, exposed
all his life to those temptations which have conquered
public men whom we still call good, could kiss little chil-
dren with lips as pure as their own."

206

PUGNACITY — PATRIOTISM

The reader will hardly have progressed thus far
without having a very good idea of the temperament
and characteristics of Jackson. That he was fearless,
prompt in action, aggressive, passionate, and intolerant
of contradiction is apparent. He manifested these quali-
ties early and they increased as he grew older.

" I could throw him three times out of four," an old
schoolmate used to say, " but he would never stay
throwed. He was dead game even then, and never
would give up." In seventy-eight years of life this mili-
tary and political Antaeus never learned to. "stay
throwed!'9

There is another story of his youth, of some boys
secretly loading a gun to the muzzle and giving it to
young Jackson to fire off, that they might have the
pleasure of seeing it " kick" him over. They had that
pleasure. Springing up from the ground, the boy, in
a frenzy of passion, exclaimed, " By G — d, if one of
you laughs, Til kill him!"

Colonel Avery records this incident. One of the
buildings in Jonesboro was on fire. There was no
apparatus with which to combat the flames. The blaze
had to be fought with the old-fashioned bucket line.
Jackson, simply by virtue of his innate capacity, as-
sumed charge of the battle with fire. In the midst of
the fighting a drunken coppersmith named Boyd, who
said that he had seen fires in Baltimore, began to give
orders and annoy persons in the line.

207

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" ' Fall into line !' shouted the general.

" The man continued jabbering. Jackson seized a
bucket by the handle, knocked him down, and walked
along the line giving his orders as coolly as before. He
saved the town !" What Boyd thought of the summary
procedure is not recorded. Jackson probably dismissed
the incident from his mind at once. His business, which
he had assumed, was to put out the fire. Woe to any-
one who interfered !

William Henderson wrote of him to Jefferson when
Jackson was being mentioned as governor of Louisiana
Territory : " I view him as a man of violent passions,
arbitrary in his disposition, and frequently engaged in
broils and disputes ... He is a man of talents, and,
were it not for those despotic principles, he might be a
useful man."

Another story by a contemporary for whom Parton
vouches relates that after dinner one day Jackson was
haranguing a multitude from the porch of the tavern
with fearful vehemence, being evidently a little the
worse for drink at the time. One of the opposition,
passing at the moment, took advantage of the oppor-
tunity to express his opinion of something that General
Jackson said by shrugging his shoulders and exclaim-
ing, " Pshaw !" Jackson paused in his speech and
glanced over the crowd, seeking for the utterer of the
contemptuous interjection, exclaiming, " Who dares to

say pshaw to me ? By , I'll knock any man's head

off who says pshaw to me!" The offender discreetly
walked on, and Jackson finished his after-dinner speech
without further interruption.

In truth, the old fighter feared nothing. After the
execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister,>when the whole
country was in a ferment and the Cabinet and both
houses of Congress were talking of censure, Jackson
was urged to do something or say something to mollify

208

PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM

the prevalent excitement, to explain or to gloss over
some of his acts, to shelter himself behind specious argu-
ments, or in some way to turn the gathering storm from
him and prevent it breaking upon his head. The
British Cabinet and the British King were behind the
excitement, and to his timorous advisers Jackson made
this doughty reply : " I am not afraid of monarchs ; I
have done no wrong ; I will make no compromise with
truth ; I will tell it and prove it."

When he was dying and the cause of the Democracy
in a certain section seemed hopeless, a friend sought his
advice as to what was the best course to pursue, the
question being whether the speaker should stand for
office under practically impossible conditions or let the
election go to the Republicans by default. " Stand,"
said the old no-compromise fighter lying on the bed
from which he never arose; "if there are only two
Democrats in the country, let one run for the Legisla-
ture and let the other one vote for him."

Jackson himself defined his position, as he fancied it
to be, with regard to quarrels and differences between
gentlemen — he never had any with women — in the fol-
lowing words : " . . . That I never wantonly sport with
the feelings of innocence, nor am I awed into measures.
If incautiously I inflict a wound, I always hasten to
remove it ; if offence is taken where none is offered or
intended, it gives me no pain. If a tale is listened to
many days after the discourse should have taken place,
when all parties are under the same roof, I always leave
the persons to judge of the motives that induced the
information, and leave them to draw their own con-
clusions and act accordingly. There are certain traits
that always accompany the gentleman and man of truth.
The moment he hears harsh expressions applied to a
friend, he will immediately communicate it, that ex-,
planation may take place, when the base poltroon and
14 209

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

cowardly tale-bearer will always act in the back-
ground. . . "

And even Parton admits that there is another side to
that popularly held concerning Jackson's pugnacity and
choler, for he writes — and it is rather a remarkable ad-
mission for him : " He was a brave young man, without
being in the slightest degree rash. If there ever lived
a prudent man, Andrew Jackson was that individual.
He dared much, but he never dared to attempt what the
event showed he could not do. He was consummately
prudent. We have heard a great deal about his irasci-
bility, and he most assuredly was an irascible man. But
he seldom quite gave up the rein of his anger. His
wrath was a fiery nag, though ; but people who stood
close to him when he was foaming could see that there
was a patent curb in his bridle which the rider had a
quiet but firm hold of. It was a Scotch-Irish * anger, it
was fierce, but never had any ill-effects upon his own
purposes ; on the contrary, he made it serve him some-
times by seeming to be much more angry than he was —
a way with others of the same race. * No man* wrote
an intimate associate of his for forty years, ' knew better
than Andrew Jackson when to get into a passion and
when not.9 Yet for all that he was a most tender-like
and touchy fellow/'

And Mrs. James K. Polk goes very far in the other
direction in the following testimony : " Of some men
you will hear it said that they were either for or against
something. General Jackson was always for something.
Of course, in being for one thing he always must be
against some other thing, its opposite or antithesis. But
the 'being for' was what filled his soul. The being
against was secondary or incidental — necessary and un-
avoidable, as a rule. But nothing ever delighted him

* Again !
210

PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM

so much as to find the thing he was for unopposed.
Everybody will tell you that he liked to fight for fight-
ing's sake. As one who knew him from childhood, one
who when a mere child sat on his knee, in the days
when most of his repute was that of a fighting man,
I tell you he fought, not for fighting's sake, but for
the sake of the cause or the woman he revered and
loved."

Sumner rather aptly puts the extreme of the other
side when he declares that " instead of making peace he
exhausted all the chances of conflict which offered
themselves. He was remarkably genial and gentle when
things went on to suit him and when he was satisfied
with his companions. He was very chivalrous about
taking up the cause of any one who was unjustly treated
and dependent. Yet he was combative, and pugnacious,
and over-ready to adjust himself for a hostile collision
whenever there was any real or fancied occasion."

When we read the chronicles of those border States
and towns it is hard to see how a peaceable, orderly,
law-abiding man could get along at all. The settled
habits of older communities were yet in abeyance, the
social amenities of the present did not then obtain, and
a man had to fight for anything and everything he got,
apparently ; that is, if he amounted to anything. The
" code" with its resulting duel was the principal check
upon the lawless and the overbearing. Be it remem-
bered that even in modern days the chief authority on
the subject counsels the carrying of the " big stick," a
national "big stick," which, of course, implies an in-
dividual "big stick." To be sure, the injunction is
coupled- with advice to tread softly, but it takes a very
soft tread indeed to carry the "big stick" peacefully.
And Jackson, from this point of view, had a very firm
and vigorous footstep, not to say a resounding tread!
Here are two stories which are characteristic,

21 i

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" Now, sir," said the general on one occasion, talk-
ing to another friend, " if any one attacks you, I know
how you'll fight with that big stick of yours. You'll
aim right for his head. Well, sir, ten chances to one
he'll ward it off; and if you do hit him, you won't
bring him down. No, sir" (taking the stick into his
own hands), "you hold the stick so and punch him
in the stomach, and you'll drop him. I'll tell you how I
found that out. When I was a young man practising
law in Tennessee there was a big, bullying fellow that
wanted to quarrel with me, and so trod on my toes.
Supposing it accidental, I said nothing. Soon after he
did it again, and I began to suspect his object. In a
few minutes he came by a third time, pushing against
me violently and evidently meaning fight. He was a
man of immense size, one of the very biggest men I ever
saw. As quick as a flash, I snatched a small rail from
the top of the fence and gave him the point of it full in
the stomach. Sir, it doubled him up. He fell at my
feet and I stamped on him. Soon he got up savage and
was about to fly at me like a tiger. The bystanders
made as though they would interfere. Says I, ' Gentle-
men, stand back, give me room, that's all I ask, and I'll
manage him.' With that I stood ready with the rail
pointed. He gave me one look and turned away, a
whipped man, sir, and feeling like one. So, sir, I say
to you, if any villain assaults you, give him the point
in his belly."

And the other good stick story is still told in Ten-
nessee. A certain ferry across the Cumberland had
been leased for the sum of one hundred dollars per
annum. At a meeting of the trustees of the Academy
General Daniel Smith, a member, remarked, "Why,
that is enough to pay the ferriage of all the trustees
over the river Styx."

"Sticks?" replied Jackson, not understanding the
212

PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM

classical allusion, undoubtedly, " I want but one stick to
make my way."

Here are two other amusing anecdotes: "As Gen-
eral Jackson was riding along the lonely wilderness road
between Nashville and Knoxville one day he was hailed
by two burly wagoners, who ordered him to get out of
his carriage and dance for them. Feigning simplicity,
he said he could not dance without slippers, and his
slippers were in a trunk strapped behind his carriage.
They told him to get his slippers. He opened the trunk,
took out a pair of pistols, and advancing before them
with one in each hand, said, with that awful glare in
his eyes before which few men could stand:

" ' Now, you infernal villains, you shall dance for me.
Dance! Dance!'"

"He made them dance in the most lively manner, and
finished the interview by giving them a moral lecture,
couched in language that wagoners understood, and de-
livered with — energy."

" That curious tobacco-box story," writes Parton, " is
still often told in Tennessee, and, probably founded on
truth, if not wholly true, illustrates the same trait. The
incident occurred at Clover Bottom on the great day of
the races, when the ground was crowded with men and
horses. It was customary for the landlord of the tavern
there to prepare a table in the open air, two hundred
feet long, for the accommodation of the multitude
attending. On the day alluded to, several races having
been run, there was a pause for dinner, which pause
was duly improved. The long table was full of eager
diners, General Jackson presiding at one end, a large
number of men standing along the sides of the table
waiting for a chance to sit down, and all the negroes of
the neighborhood employed as waiters who could look
at a plate without its breaking itself. A roaring tornado
of horse-talk half drowned the mighty clatter of knives

213

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

and forks. After the dinner had proceeded awhile it
was observed by General Jackson and those who sat
near him that something was the matter near the other
end of the table — a fight, probably. There was a rust-
ling together of men and evident excitement. Now,
' difficulties' of this kind were so common at that day,
whenever large numbers of men were gathered together,
that the disturbance was little more than mentioned, if
alluded to at all, at Jackson's end of the table, where
sat the magnates of the race. At length some one in
passing by was heard to say, in evident allusion to the
difficulty, —

" ' They'll finish Patten Anderson this time, I do ex-
pect.'

"The whole truth flashed upon Jackson, and he
sprang up like a man galvanized. How to get to the
instant rescue of his friend! To force a path through
the crowd along the sides of the table would have taken
time. A moment later and the tall general might have
been seen striding towards the scene of danger on the
top of the table, wading through the dishes, and caus-
ing hungry men to pause astounded with morsels sus-
pended in air. As he neared the crowd, putting his
hand behind him into his coat-pocket — an ominous
movement in those days and susceptible of but one in-
terpretation— he opened his tobacco-box and shut it
with a click so loud that it was heard by one of the
bystanders.

" ' I'm coming, Patten !' roared the general.

" ' Don't fire !' cried one of the spectators.

" The cry of don't fire caught the ears of the hostile
crowd, who looked up and saw the mad general
striding towards them with his right hand behind him
and slaughter depicted in every lineament of his coun-
tenance. They scattered simultaneously, leaving An-
derson alone and unharmed !"

214

PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM

Some further incidents of Jackson's pugnacity may
be found in the chapter upon his duels.

The characteristic above all others, however, that dis-
tinguished Jackson was his patriotism. I do not be-
lieve that any man ever born under the American flag
had more love for his country than Jackson. As has
been pointed out, he was the first real President of, or
from, the people, and they idolized him with a devotion
which has been accorded to no other man. The amusing
story that for years after his death the backwoods dis-
tricts continued to vote for him is typical of the adora-
tion with which he was viewed. Yet there is no record
that he ever overstepped the prerogatives of his office or
that he ever took advantage of his popularity for his own
ends. On the contrary. It is true that his was a per-
sonal government. His Cabinet in some degree re-
sembled a military staff. The Secretaries were expected
to carry out their chief's orders, and advice was not to
be tendered unless demanded, and cautiously even then.
But this did not arise from any Napoleonic dream of
supreme authority, — any tending towards Caesarism, to
use a term which American political habit has made
understandable, — but from a high sense of personal
responsibility in the mind of Jackson, not to any body
of statesmen, or to any self-constituted organization,
but to the whole people, who had elected him with
an enthusiasm and a unanimity with which they had
voted for no other President before and have voted for
few Presidents since. He felt himself personally respon-
sible to the people, and from his point of view that re-
sponsibility could only be discharged by himself alone.
Never in our history have the Cabinet officers cut so
little of a figure as in Jackson's two administrations.
If they were not ready to do absolutely what he wished,
he removed them and appointed others who would,
repeating the process if necessary ; but no one has ever

215

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

suggested that he was actuated by any but the most
patriotic motives.
, When he was alarmed by the threat of the Burr expe-
X dition he wrote to Governor Claiborne these prophetic
words : " I love my country and my government. I hate
the Dons ; I would delight to see Mexico reduced ; but
I will die in the last ditch before I will yield a foot to
the Dons or see the Union disunited. This I write for
your own eyes and for your own safety; profit by it,
and the ides of March remember." It was undoubtedly
his true patriotism that made him take the stand he took
in the nullification troubles, discussed later.

And it is easy to see how and why Jackson loved his
country. He suffered for it during the most impression-
able part of his life. He fought for it while he was yet
a boy. In a sense he was born into manhood with it
It takes trial, danger, struggle, to develop the highest
patriotism. It should not be so. The patriotism of
peace should be as great as that of war. The civic
demand upon the virtues of the sons and daughters of
the commonwealth should be as great and as compelling
as the martial demand, but in times of peace men are
apt to forget what the flag stands for, and it is not
until it is actually assailed that men realize the measure
of devotion to it. The insidious attacks upon our liber-
ties involved in certain modern political methods evoke
but a languid response, but let any one haul down the
American flag and we are ready to " shoot him on the
spot!" The men who have fought for their country
love it best. The battle which closes many eyes and
; stills many hearts, yet opens the eyes and quickens the
souls of those who survive. As man and boy Jackson
had fought for his country. He had grown up with it.
He had seen it develop from a handful of struggling,
disunited, heterogeneous, antagonistic political organi-
zations into a great, rapidly-growing state, a homeo-

216

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PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM

geneous nation, with infinite possibilities before it. His J
ambition always was to serve it, to develop it) And
Jackson cherished a healthy hatred of Great Britain as
the natural enemy of the United States which begot a
corresponding regard for what Great Britain had so
persistently opposed and antagonized. Had Jackson
been President when the question was up for final de-
cision, the northwest boundary would never have been
settled by the compromise which deprived us of what
is now British Columbia, which was justly our own.
The line would have been 54°4o' or there would have
been a fight indeed.

When Lafayette visited the Hermitage General Jack-
son handed a certain pair of pistols to the Frenchman
and asked him if he recognized them : " Lafayette, after
examining them attentively for a few minutes, replied
that he fully recollected them to be a pair he had pre-
sented in 1778 to his paternal friend, Washington, and
that he experienced a real satisfaction in finding them
in the hands of one so worthy of possessing them. At
these words the face of ' Old Hickory' was covered with
a modest blush, and his eyes sparkled as in a day of
victory.

" ' Yes, I believe myself to be worthy of them/ ex- \
claimed he in pressing the pistols and Lafayette's hands J
to his breast, ' if not from what I have done, at least '
for what I wished to do for my country.' "

The venerable Mr. Niles in his famous Register had
this to say regarding Jackson's patriotism : " General
Jackson is a more extraordinary person than has ever
appeared in our history. Nature has seldom gifted man
with a mind so powerful and comprehensive, or a body
better formed for activity or capable of enduring greater
privations, fatigue, and hardships. She has been equally
kind to him in the quality of his heart.

" General Jackson has no ambition but for the good of
217

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

his country; it occupies the whole of his views to the
exclusion of all selfish or ignoble considerationsl-
Cradled in the War of the Revolution, nurtured amid
the conflicts that afterwards took place between the
Cherokee Indians and the Tennesseans, being always
among a people who regard the application of force
not as the ultima ratio re gum, but as the first resort
of individuals, and who look upon courage as the
greatest of human attributes, his character on this
stormy ocean has acquired an extraordinary cast of
vigor — a belief that anything within the power of man
to accomplish we should never despair of effecting,
and a conviction that courage, activity, and perse-
verance can overcome what tp an ordinary mind would
appear insuperable obstacles. In society he is kind,
frank, unaffected, and hospitable, endowed with such
natural grace and politeness, without the mechanical
gentility and artificial, flimsy polish to be found in
fashionable life/*

This discussion cannot be better closed than by
.quoting the remarks of Daniel Webster to Thurlow
Weed, who had asked him what was his general esti-
mate of Jackson, his summary of his character as judged
by his career. Mr. Weed, being in New York, chanced
to meet Mr. Webster in the street, and there put the
question to him.

" Mr. Webster replied : ' General Jackson is an h<
est and upright man. He does what he thinks is rig-
and does it with all his might. He has a violent te
which leads him often to hasty conclusions. It
causes him to view as personal to himself the public
of other men. For this reason there is a great differa
between Jackson angry and Jackson in good-huira
When he is calm, his judgment is good ; when angry,
is usually bad. I will illustrate, Mr. Weed, by quoti
Jackson himself. On a certain occasion he advisee

218

PUGNACITY— PATRIOTISM

young friend of his to ' take all the time for thinking
that circumstances would permit, but when the time for
action came to stop thinking !' Now, my observation of
him leads me to believe that he 'stops thinking/ as a
rule, a little too soon, and is apt to decide prematurely
that ' the time for action' has come. These traits have
led him into most of his errors in public life. His
patriotism is no more to be questioned than that of
Washington. He is the greatest general we have,, and, *
except Washington, the greatest we ever had." ^A

Daniel Webster, it must be remembered, was a life-
time political antagonist of Jackson's, although the
enmity between them did not degenerate into the bitter
personal hatred which was engendered between Jackson
and Henry Clay.

219

XII

DUELS AND QUARRELS

Jackson's duels, quarrels, and personal encounters
with different people were too numerous for all of
them to be described in detail in a work of this kind. To
select the most important and characteristic is sufficient.
He began early. When but fifteen years of age, a bully-
ing American officer named Galbraith threatened to
thrash him for some fancied dereliction. Jackson coolly
warned the officer not to attempt to carry out his pur-
poses, for if a hand was laid upon him, he swore, he
would shoot Galbraith dead !

The most famous of his early duels was that with
Colonel Avery. By permission of Mr. F. A. Old, the
author, and of Harper's Weekly, in which the article
appeared, I quote here an original account of the affair:

" The writer has secured from ex- Associate Justice A.
C. Avery, of Morganton, North Carolina, a document
which is of very marked interest. It is a challenge to
a duel sent by General Andrew Jackson to Colonel
Waightstill Avery, the grandfather of ex- Judge Avery.
Both Jackson and Avery were men of the highest
degree of bravery, and, in fact, it has been said that
neither knew what fear was. There are some errors
in spelling in the challenge, and in the date, which
is August 3, 1788. The challenge has a postscript, and,
like the postscript of a woman's letter, it is short, but
one of the most important parts of the document.

"In those days in North Carolina there were large
gatherings at the courts, and the tilts between counsel
were listened to with great eagerness. In this case there

220

ANDREW JACKSON

From the portrait by J. Vanderlyn in City Hall, New York City,
painted in 1823

DUELS AND QUARRELS

was a large audience, and Colonel Avery, who had fig-
ured in the War of the Revolution and in the troubles
with the Indians on the western border, used language
which Jackson took to be insulting. The challenge is
in these words :

"'When a man's feelings & character are injured he ought
to seek a speedy redress; you reed a few lines from me yes-
terday & undoubtedly you understand me. My character you
have Injured ; and further you have Insulted me in the presence
of a court and a larg audience. I therefor call upon you as a
gentleman to give me satisfaction for the same. I further call
upon you to give me an answer immediately without Equivo-
cation and I hope you can do without dinner until the business
is done; for it is consistent with the character of a gentleman
when he Injures a man to make a speedy reparation; therefore
I hope you will not fail in meeting me this day from yr Hbl. St

" ' Yrs.,

" ' Andw. Jackson.

" ' Col. Avery.

" ' P. S. — This Evening after court has adjourned/

" The facts relating to the trouble between Jackson
and Avery were told to Colonel A. C. Avery by his
father, Colonel Isaac T. Avery, who was the only son of
Waightstill Avery. When the latter practised law in
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, he and young
Jackson were well acquainted. Avery was elected, in
1777, the first Attorney-General of North Carolina. He
afterwards married a lady who lived near Newberne,
in Jones County, and soon after this marriage resigned
and settled in Jones, becoming colonel of that county's
regiment of militia. ... At the close of the Revolu-
tionary War Andrew Jackson went to Burke County and
applied to Waightstill Avery to take him as a boarder
at his country home and instruct him as a law student.
Colonel Avery told him he had just moved to the place
and had built nothing but cabins, and could not grant
his request. Jackson went to Salisbury, studied law

221

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

there, and settled at Jonesboro until the new county of
Davidson (with Nashville as the county-seat) was
established, Nashville becoming subsequently the capital
of Tennessee.

" Just before the challenge to fight was sent by Jack-
son Avery appeared in some lawsuit at Jonesboro as
opposing counsel to Jackson, and ridiculed the position
taken by Jackson, who had preceded him in the argu-
ment. Jackson considered the argument insulting and
sent him the challenge. Colonel Avery was raised a
Puritan. He graduated at Princeton with the highest
honors in 1766, and remained there a year as a tutor
under the celebrated Jonathan Edwards and the famous
Dr. Witherspoon, who signed the Declaration of In-
dependence as a representative of New Jersey. Avery
was a Presbyterian and was opposed on principle to
duelling, but he so far yielded to the imperious custom
of the time as to accept the challenge and go to the
field, with Colonel, afterwards Governor, Adair, of Ken-
tucky, as his second.

" After the usual preliminaries he allowed Jackson to
shoot at him, but did not return the fire. Thereupon,
having shown that he was not afraid to be shot at, Avery
walked up to young Jackson and delivered a lecture to
him, very much in the style a father would use in lec-
turing a son. Avery was very calm, and his talk to the
brave young man who had fired at him was full of good
sense, dispassionate, and high in tone, and was heard
with great attention by the seconds of both parties, who
agreed that the trouble must go no farther, but should
end at this point, and so then and there a reconciliation
was effected between these two brave spirits.

" Colonel Avery took the challenge home and filed it,
as he was accustomed to file all his letters and papers,
endorsing it, ' Challenge from Andrew Jackson.' This
endorsement appears upon the back of the paper."

222

DUELS AND QUARRELS

It must be noted that this Avery quarrel was not about
Mrs. Jackson, and that Jackson and Avery were ever
afterwards very good friends. Thus it may be seen that
Jackson's enmities were not invariably inveterate, as has
been alleged; that he was magnanimous when proved
wrong, and that he did not bear malice, nursing a quar-
rel until it became festering hatred.

The embroglio with John Sevier was of a different
character, although, fortunately, the results were equally
bloodless. In 1796 Sevier was elected Governor of Ten-
nessee. He had been major-general of the militia.
Jackson suggested that he resign his military office,
as the governor was ex-officio commander-in-chief, and
allow him to be elected thereto. Even then the young
attorney thought more of military glory than of forensic
triumphs. Sevier refused. A quarrel developed, and
Sevier declined Jackson's challenge on the ground of
his poverty, his numerous family, and because he
claimed that his reputation for courage was so well
assured by his long and brilliant career that he did not
have to fight to maintain it, which was true.

There was no reconciliation between the two men,
and when, sometime afterwards, they met in Knoxville
they at once engaged in an altercation in which Jackson
happened to mention his services to the State. " Ser-
vices !" thundered Sevier contemptuously. " I know of
no great service you have rendered the country except
taking a trip to Natchez with another man's wife!"
" Great God !" cried Jackson, " do you dare mention
her sacred name?" Both men immediately opened fire.
Several shots were exchanged. One bystander was
grazed but no one was severely hurt. The feud slum-
bered on and finally culminated in this farcical manner,
according to Parton:

" The two doughty fighters met at Knoxville in 1803.
A wild altercation ensued, in the course of which, it

223

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

is said, Sevier frequently defied Jackson to mortal com-
bat. They separated at length, and Jackson sent the
governor a challenge, which was accepted ; but as they
could not agree as to the time and place of meeting,
the negotiation ended by Jackson suddenly posting
Sevier as a coward — the absurd act of an angry man.

" In those mad, fighting times there was in vogue,
besides the duel, a kind of informal combat, which was
resorted to when the details of a duel could not be
arranged. A man might refuse the ' satisfaction* of a
duel, and yet hold himself bound to meet his antagonist
at a certain time and place, either alone or accompanied,
and ' have it out' with him in a rough-and-tumble fight
So on this occasion there was an ' understanding' that
the belligerents were to meet at a designated point just
beyond the borders of the State. Jackson was there at
the appointed time, accompanied by one friend. The
governor, accidentally detained, did not arrive in time.
Jackson waited near the spot for two days ; but no irate
governor appearing above the horizon, he determined
to return to Knoxville and compel Sevier to a hostile
interview.

" He had not gone a mile towards the capital before
he descried Governor Sevier approaching on horseback,
accompanied by mounted men. Reining in his steed, he
sent his friend forward to convey to Sevier a letter
which he had prepared during the two days of waiting,
in which he recounted their differences from the begin-
ning, stating wherein he conceived himself to have been
injured. Sevier declined to receive the letter. On
learning this Jackson appeared to lose all patience, and
resolved to end the matter then and there, cost what
it might. He rode slowly towards the governor's party
until he was within a hundred yards of them. Then,
levelling his cane, as knights of old were wont to level
their lances, he struck spurs into his horse and galloped

224

DUELS AND QUARRELS

furiously at the governor. Sevier, astounded at this
tremendous apparition, and intending, if he fought at all,
to fight fairly and on terra firma, dismounted, but in
so doing stepped upon the scabbard of his sword and
fell prostrate under his horse. Jackson, seeing his
enemy thus vanish from his sight, reined in his own
fiery steed and gave time for the governor's friends to
get between them and prevent a conflict. Through the
efforts of some gentlemen in Sevier's party who were
friends of both the belligerents the affair was patched up
upon the spot, and the whole party rode towards Knox-
ville together in amity. Nor was there any renewal of
the combat. The anger of the antagonists and their
friends found vent in newspaper statements, and after
a brief paper war exhausted itself."

Why Jackson permitted the affair to end it is difficult
to understand, for he usually had no mercy towards
any one who aspersed the name of his wife. Sevier was
an old man at the time, however, and possibly the young
fire-eater for once thought that he had done enough.

The most serious in its consequences of Jackson's
duels was that with Charles Dickinson in 1806. Here
again Jackson's enmity against Dickinson was aroused
by his slurs upon Mrs. Jackson. Dickinson apologized
for them, claiming that he was in his " cups" when he
uttered them, but he nevertheless repeated them again
in various insinuating ways. The ostensible cause of
the quarrel was a difficulty about a horse-race com-
plicated by political conditions, during which Jackson
refused the challenge of a certain Thomas Swann, one
of Dickinson's friends; but there is no doubt that at
the bottom Dickinson's slanderous remarks about his
wife had aroused Jackson's hatred and wrath. On the
other side, Dickinson apparently was determined upon
the quarrel because Jackson stood in the way of his
ambitions for political preferment in Tennessee. Dick-
15 225

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

inson was a young man of excellent family and brilliant
parts, who had been born in Maryland but had removed
to Tennessee. The meeting took place on the banks of a
small stream near the Red River, in a sequestered wood-
land glade, in Logan County, Kentucky, a day's ride
south from Nashville. Perhaps the most dramatic and
famous chapter in Parton's delightful biography is that
devoted to this duel. I quote a large part of it, first
inserting the memorandum of agreement between the
two seconds regarding the affair.

" MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT.

" It is agreed that the distance shall be twenty-four feet ; the
parties to stand facing each other, with their pistols down
perpendicularly.

" When they are ready, the single word fir el to be given; at
which they are to fire as soon as they please. Should either fire
before the word is given we pledge ourselves to shoot him
down instantly. The choice of position shall be decided by lot
on the field, as likewise the person to give the word.

" We mutually agree that the above regulations shall govern
the affair of honor impending between General Andrew Jackson
and Charles Dickinson, Esquire.

(Signed) "Thomas Overton (for A. Jackson),

"Hanson Catlett (for C. Dickinson)."

" A tavern kept by one David Miller, somewhat noted
in the neighborhood, stood on the banks of the Red
River, near the ground appointed for the duel. Late
in the afternoon of Thursday, the twenty-ninth of May,
the inmates of this tavern were surprised by the arrival
of a party of seven or eight horsemen. Jacob Smith,
then employed by Miller as an overseer, but now him-
self a planter in the vicinity, was standing before the
house when this unexpected company rode up. One of
these horsemen asked if they could be accommodated
with lodgings for the night. They could. The party
dismounted, gave their horses to the attendant negroes,
and entered the tavern. No sooner had they done so
than honest Jacob was perplexed by the arrival of a

226

DUELS AND QUARRELS

second cavalcade — Dickinson and his friends, who also
asked for lodgings. The manager told them the house
was full, but that he never turned travellers away, and
if they chose to remain he would do the best he could
for them. Dickinson then asked where was the next
house of entertainment. He was directed to a house
two miles lower down the river kept by William Har-
rison. The house is still standing. The room in which
Dickinson slept that night, and slept the night following,
is the one now used by the occupants as a dining-room.

" Jackson ate heartily at supper that night, conversing
in a lively, pleasant manner, and smoked his evening
pipe as usual. Jacob Smith remembers being exceed-
ingly pleased with his guest, and, on learning the cause
of his visit, heartily wishing him a safe deliverance.

"Before breakfast on the next morning the whole
party mounted and rode down the road, that wound close
along the picturesque banks of the stream.

" About the same hour the overseer and his gang of
negroes went to the fields to begin their daily toil, he
longing to venture within sight of what he knew was
about to take place.

"The horsemen rode about a mile along the river,
then turned down towards the river to a point on the
bank where they had expected to find a ferryman. No
ferryman appearing, Jackson spurred his horse into the
stream and dashed across, followed by all his party.
They rode into the poplar forest, two hundred yards or
less, to a spot near the centre of a level platform or
river bottom, then covered with forest, now smiling with
cultivated fields. The horsemen halted and dismounted
just before reaching the appointed place. Jackson,
Overton, and a surgeon who had come with them from
home walked on together, and the rest led their horses
a short distance in an opposite direction.

" How do you feel about it now, General?' asked one
of the party as Jackson turned to go.

" Oh, all right/ replied Jackson gayly ; ' I shall wing
him, never fear/

" Dickinson's second won the choice of position, and
227

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Jackson's the office of giving the word. The astute
Overton considered this giving of the word a matter of
great importance, and he had already determined how
he would give it if the lot fell to him. The eight paces
were measured off and the men placed. Both were
perfectly collected. All the politenesses of such occa-
sions were very strictly and elegantly performed. Jack-
son was dressed in a loose frock-coat, buttoned care-
lessly over his chest, and concealing in some degree the
extreme slenderness of his figure. Dickinson was the
younger and handsomer man of the two. But Jackson's
tall, erect figure, and the still intensity of his demeanor,
it is said, gave him a most superior and commanding air
as he stood under the tall poplars on this bright May
morning, silently awaiting the moment of doom.

" ' Are you ready?' said Overton.

" ' I am ready/ replied Dickinson.

" ' I am ready/ said Jackson.

" The words were no sooner pronounced than Over-
ton, with a sudden shout, cried, using his old-country
pronunciation, —

" ' Fere!'

" Dickinson raised his pistol quickly and fired. Over-
ton, who was looking with anxiety and dread at Jackson,
saw a puff of dust fly from the breast of his coat, and
saw him raise his left arm, and place it tightly across
his chest. He is surely hit, thought Overton, and in a
bad place, too; but no, he does not fall. Erect and
grim as Fate he stood, his teeth clenched, raising his
pistol. Overton glanced at Dickinson. Amazed at the
unwonted failure of his aim, and apparently appalled at
the awful figure and face before him, Dickinson had
unconsciously recoiled a pace or two.

" ' Great God!' he faltered, ' have I missed him?'

" ' Back to the mark, sir !' shrieked Overton, with his
hand upon his pistol.

" Dickinson recovered his composure, stepped forward
to the peg, and stood with his eyes averted from his
antagonist. All this was the work of a moment, though
it requires many words to tell it.

228

DUELS AND QUARRELS

" General Jackson took deliberate aim and pulled the
trigger. The pistol neither snapped nor went off. He
looked at the trigger and discovered that it had stopped
at half cock. He drew it back to its place and took
aim a second time. He fired. Dickinson's face
blanched; he reeled; his friends rushed towards him,
caught him in their arms, and gently seated him on the
ground, leaning against a bush. His trowsers reddened.
They stripped off his clothes. The blood was gushing
from his side in a torrent. And, alas ! here is the ball,
not near the wound, but above the opposite hip, just
under the skin. The ball had passed through the body,
below the ribs. Such a wound could not but be fatal.

" Overton went forward and learned the condition of
the wounded man. Rejoining his principal, he said, ' He
won't want anything more of you, General/ and con-
ducted him from the ground. They had gone a hundred
yards, Overton walking on one side of Jackson, the
surgeon on the other, and neither speaking a word,
when the surgeon observed that one of Jackson's shoes
was full of blood.

"'My God! General Jackson, are you hit?' he ex-
claimed, pointing to the blood.

" ' Oh ! I believe,' replied Jackson, * that he has pinked
me a little. Let's look at it. But say nothing about it
there,' pointing to the house.

" He opened his coat. Dickinson's aim had been per-
fect. He had sent the ball precisely where he supposed
Jackson's heart was beating. But the thinness of his
body and the looseness of his coat combining to deceive
Dickinson, the ball had only broken a rib or two and
raked the breast-bone. It was a somewhat painful,
bad-looking wound, but neither severe nor dangerous,
and he was able to ride to the tavern without much in-
convenience. Upon approaching the house he went up
to one of the negro women, who was churning, and
asked her if the butter had come. She said it was just
coming. He asked for some buttermilk. While she
was getting it for him she observed him furtively open
his coat and look within. She saw that his shirt was

229

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

soaked with blood, and she stood gazing in blank horror
at the sight, dipper in hand. He caught her eye and
hastily buttoned his coat again. She dipped out a quart
measure full of buttermilk and gave it to him. He
drank it off at a draught, then went in, took off his
coat, and had his wound carefully examined and dressed.
That done, he dispatched one of his retinue to Dr. Cat-
lett to inquire respecting the condition of Dickinson and
to say that the surgeon attending himself would be
glad to contribute his aid towards Dickinson's relief.
Polite reply was returned that Dickinson's case was past
surgery. In the course of the day General Jackson
sent a bottle of wine to Doctor Catlett for the use of his
patient

" But there was one gratification which Jackson could
not, even in such circumstances, grant him. A very old
friend of General Jackson writes to me thus :

"'Although the general had been wounded, he did
not desire it should be known until he had left the neigh-
borhood, and had therefore concealed it at first from
his own friends. His reason for this, as he once stated
to me, was, that as Dickinson considered himself
the best shot in the world, and was certain of killing
him at the first fire, he did not want him to have the
gratification even of knowing that he had touched
him.9

" Poor Dickinson bled to death. The flowing of blood
was stanched, but could not be stopped. He was con-
veyed to the house in which he had passed the night and
placed upon a mattress, which was soon drenched with
blood. He suffered extreme agony, and uttered horrible
cries all that long day. At nine o'clock in the evening
he suddenly asked why they had put out the lights. The
doctor knew then that the end was at hand; that the
wife, who had been sent for in the morning, would not
arrive in time to close her husband's eyes. He died five
minutes after, cursing, it is said, with his last breath
the ball that had entered his body. The poor wife hur-
ried away on learning that her husband was ' danger-
ously wounded,' and met, as she rode towards the scene

230

DUELS AND QUARRELS

of the duel, a procession of silent horsemen escorting a
rough emigrant wagon that contained her husband's
remains."

Buell disputes certain statements in Parton's account
while in the main agreeing with it. He also quotes
from General Overton's narrative and declines to admit
Dickinson's famous remark, " Great God, have I missed
him?" Nor does he think it probable that Jackson's
pistol stopped at half cock and that the weapon had to
be re-cocked before it was discharged at the waiting
Dickinson. These are not matters of much moment.
The facts of the duel stand substantially as they have
been narrated. Parton says :

" To the day of his death, General Jackson preserved
the duelling-pistols with one of which he had slain the
hapless Dickinson. That very pistol was lying on the
mantel-piece of his bedroom during those last years of
his life. To a gentleman who chanced to take it up
one day the general said, in the most ordinary tone of
conversation, * That is the pistol with which I killed
Mr. Dickinson/ "

Buell states that ex-President Andrew Johnson in con-
versation with him branded this story as a " damned
lie," and that Johnson declared that when Jackson was
asked about the pistols he would reply, " They are those
used in the Dickinson affair." Johnson declared that
he had heard Jackson say this many times. Buell also
calls attention in a note to the following statement by
Colonel W. H. H. Terrell in his " History of Noted
Duels:"

" Dickinson lived through the day and until a few
minutes to ten that night. Jackson's ounce ball had
lacerated his intestines beyond hope of cure. In fact,
his endurance of the wound fourteen hours was a marvel
of physical strength and fortitude. Ninety-nine out of
a hundred men would have died at once from the shock

231

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

and paralysis of such a wound. So far as the pain was
concerned, he bore it without flinching, but bitterly
cursed his ill-luck almost with his last breath. He re-
mained conscious to the last, and the first intimation he
gave of collapse was his question to the doctor, € Why
do you put out the candles?' thereby indicating that his
vision had failed. His last moments, however, were
soothed by a report, brought to him from Harrison's,
that General Jackson had been shot through the breast
and was sinking rapidly. He died fully believing that
his antagonist must soon follow him to the tomb."

Possibly the most interesting of Jackson's many en-
counters was the affray — it can hardly be called a duel
— with Thomas and Jesse Benton. Jesse Benton chal-
lenged Jackson's old friend and comrade in arms Car-
roll for some cause feminine with which we have
nothing to do save to note that Carroll seemed to be in
the wrong. Carroll asked Jackson to be his second.
The general declared that he was done with duelling
and did not desire to accept the office. However, as
representing Carroll, he saw Jesse Benton and tried to
compose the quarrel, going so far as to induce Carroll
— who was the aggressor — to sign an apology which
Jackson dictated. Although the apology was complete
and ample and should have been satisfactory, Benton
finally refused to accept it, persuaded thereto by one
Ervin, a brother-in-law of Dickinson, who was mixed
up in the affair as the friend — and evil genius— of Jesse
Benton.

Jackson was doubly angered by the interjection of the
Dickinson family and by Jesse Benton's Refusal to
accept the apology in the terms Jackson had presented.
Benton, urged by the Dickinson faction, finally de-
manded that Carroll publicly acknowledge himself a liar.
Jackson saw no way to prevent a meeting after that.
Jesse Benton was wounded through his posterior region.

232

THOMAS H. BENTON ^ET. ABOUT 35

From a painting by Wilson Peale in the Missouri Historical Society.
From " The Life of Thomas Hart Benton," by William M. Meigs

DUELS AND QUARRELS

The affair would have been settled had not the wits
of the day made great fun of Benton.

The Dickinson faction seized the opportunity pre-
sented to try to get Jackson put out of the way. There
was no man in Tennessee who stood a better chance in
an encounter with Jackson than Thomas H. Benton.
They busily and successfully fomented discord between
the former friends. Benton at the time was absent in
Washington — partly on Jackson's business, by the way !
— and he hurried home full of rage and threats. Parton
got the story of the whole affair from Colonel Coffee,
who was a participant in the subsequent melee, and I
here insert it.

" Back from Washington came Colonel Benton, burst-
ing with wrath and defiance, yet resolved to preserve
the peace, and neither to seek nor fly the threatened
attack. One measure of precaution, however, he did
adopt. There were then two taverns on the public
square of Nashville, both situated near the same angle,
their front doors being not more than a hundred yards
apart. One was the old Nashville Inn (burnt three
years ago) at which General Jackson was accustomed
to put up for more than forty years. There, too, the
Bentons, Colonel Coffee, and all of the general's pecu-
liar friends were wont to take lodgings whenever they
visited the town, and to hold pleasant converse over a
glass of wine, and to play billiards together — a game
pursued with fanatical devotion in the early days of
Nashville. By the side of this old inn was a piece of
open ground, where cocks were accustomed to display
their prowess and tear one another to pieces for the
entertainment of some of the citizens.

" The other tavern, the City Hotel, flourishes to this
day. It is one of those curious, overgrown caravansaries
of the olden time, nowhere to be seen now except in the
ancient streets of London and the old towns of the
Southern States — a huge tavern, with vast piazzas, and

233

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

interior galleries running around three sides of a quad-
rangle, story above story, and quaint little rooms with
large fireplaces and high mantels opening out upon
them; with long, dark passages, and stairs at unex-
pected places ; and carved wainscoting, and gray-haired
servants, who have grown old with the old house, and
can remember General Jackson as long as they can
remember their own fathers.

" On reaching Nashville Colonel Benton and his
brother Jesse did not go to their accustomed inn, but
stopped at the City Hotel to avoid General Jackson, un-
less he chose to go out of his way to seek them. This
was on the third of September. In the evening of the
same day it came to pass that General Jackson and
Colonel Coffee rode into the town and put up their
horses, as usual, at the Nashville Inn. Whether the
coming of these portentous gentlemen was in conse-
quence of the general's having received a few hours
before an intimation of the arrival of Colonel Benton is
one of those questions which must be left to that already
overburdened individual — the future historian. Per-
haps it was true, as Colonel Coffee grinningly remarked,
that they had come to get their letters from the post-
office. They were there — that is the main point — and
concluded to stop all night. Captain Carroll called in
the course of the evening, and told the general that an
affair of a most delicate and tender nature compelled
him to leave Nashville at dawn of day.

" * Go, by all means/ said the general. * I want no
man to fight my battles.'

" The next morning, about nine, Colonel Coffee pro-
posed to General Jackson that they should stroll over
to the post-office. They started. The general carried
with him, as he generally did, his riding-whip. He
also wore a small sword, as all gentlemen once did,
and as official persons were accustomed to do in Ten-
nessee as late as the War of 1812. The post-office was
then situated in the public square on the corner of a
little alley, just beyond the City Hotel. There were,
therefore, two ways of getting to it from the Nashville

234

DUELS AND QUARRELS

Inn. One way was to go straight to it, across the angle
of the square; the other, to keep the sidewalk and go
around.

« *

x 6

* i

a- 8

-Nashville Inn.

" Our two friends took the short cut, walking leisurely
along. When they were about midway between their
inn and the post-office Colonel Coffee, glancing towards
the City Hotel, observed Colonel Benton standing in the
doorway thereof, drawn up to his full height, and look-
ing daggers at them.

" ' Do you see the fellow?' said Coffee to Jackson in
a low tone.

" ' Oh, yes/ replied Jackson without turning his head,
* I have my eye on him/

"They continued their walk to the post-office, got
235

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

their letters, and set out on their return. This time,
however, they did not take the short way across the
square, but kept down the sidewalk, which led past the
front door at which Colonel Benton was posted. As
they drew near they observed that Jesse Benton was
standing before the hotel near his brother. On coming
up to where Colonel Benton stood General Jackson sud-
denly turned towards him, with his whip in his right
hand, and stepping up to him, said :

" ' Now, you d — n rascal, I am going to punish you.
Defend yourself/

" Benton put his hand into his breast pocket and
Seemed to be fumbling for his pistol. As quick as light-
ning, Jackson drew a pistol from the pocket behind him
and presented it full at his antagonist, who recoiled a
pace or two. Jackson advanced upon him. Benton
continued to step slowly backward, Jackson close upon
him, with a pistol at his heart, until they had reached
the back door of the hotel and were in the act of turning
down the back piazza. At that moment, just as Jack-
son was beginning to turn, Jesse Benton entered the
passage, raised his pistol, and fired at Jackson. The
pistol was loaded with two balls and a large slug. The
slug took effect in Jackson's left shoulder, shattering it
horribly. One of the balls struck the thick part of his
left arm and buried itself near the bone. The other
ball splintered the board partition at his side. The shock
of the wounds was such that Jackson fell across the
entry and remained prostrate, bleeding profusely.

" Coffee had remained just outside meanwhile. Hear-
ing the report of the pistol, he sprang into the entry,
and, seeing his chief prostrate at the feet of Colonel
Benton, concluded that it was his ball that had laid
him low. He rushed upon Benton, drew his pistol,
fired, and missed. Then he 'clubbed* his pistol, and
was about to strike when Colonel Benton, in stepping
backward, came to some stairs of which he was not
aware and fell headlong to the bottom. Coffee, think-
ing him hors du combat, hastened to the assistance of
his wounded general.

236

DUELS AND QUARRELS

" The report of Jesse Benton's pistol brought another
actor on the bloody scene — Stokely Hays, a nephew of
Mrs. Jackson and a devoted friend to the general. He
was standing near the Nashville Inn when he heard the
pistol. He knew well what was going forward, and
ran with all his speed to the spot. He, too, saw the
general lying on the floor weltering in his blood. But,
unlike Coffee, he perceived who it was that had fired
the deadly charge. Hays was a man of giant's size and
a giant's strength. He snatched from his sword-cane
its long and glittering blade, and made a lunge at Jesse
with such frantic force that it would have pinned him
to the wall had it taken effect. Luckily the point struck
a button and the slender weapon was broken to pieces.
He then drew a dirk, threw himself in a paroxysm of
fury upon Jesse, and got him down upon the floor.
Holding him down with one hand, he raised the dirk
to plunge it into his breast. The prostrate man seized
the coat-cuff of the descending arm and diverted the
blow, so that the weapon only pierced the fleshy part
of his left arm. Hays strove madly to disengage his
arm, and in doing so gave poor Jesse several flesh
wounds. At length, with a mighty wrench, he tore his
cuff from Jesse Benton's convulsive grasp, lifted the
dirk high in the air, and was about to bury it in the
heart of his antagonist when a bystander caught the up-
lifted hand and prevented the further shedding of blood.
Other bystanders then interfered ; the maddened Hays,
the wrathful Coffee, the irate Benton, were held back
from continuing the combat, and quiet was restored.

" Faint from loss of blood, Jackson was conveyed to
a room in the Nashville Inn, his wound still bleeding
fearfully. Before the bleeding could be stopped two
mattresses, as Mrs. Jackson used to say, were soaked
through, and the general was reduced almost to the last
gasp. All the doctors in Nashville were soon in attend-
ance, all but one of whom, and he a young man, recom-
mended the amputation of the shattered arm. ' I'll keep
my arm/ said the wounded man, and he kept it. No
attempt was made to extract the ball, and it remained

237

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

in the arm for twenty years. The ghastly wounds in
the shoulder were dressed, in the simple manner of the
Indians and pioneers, with poultices of slippery elm, and
other products of the woods. The patient was utterly
prostrated with the loss of blood. It was two or three
weeks before he could leave his bed.

"After the retirement of the general's friends the
Bentons remained for an hour or more on the scene of
the affray, denouncing Jackson as an assassin, and a
defeated assassin. They defied him to come forth and
renew the strife. Colonel Benton made a parade of
breaking Jackson's small-sword, which had been
dropped in the struggle and left on the floor of the
hotel. He broke it in the public square, and accom-
panied the act with words defiant and contemptuous,
uttered in the loudest tones of his thundering voice.
The general's friends, all anxiously engaged around the
couch of their bleeding chief, disregarded these demon-
strations at the time, and the brothers retired, victorious
and exultant.

" On the days following, however, Colonel Benton
did not find the general's partisans so acquiescent. ' I
am literally in hell here,' he wrote shortly after the fight;
' the meanest wretches under heaven to contend with —
liars, affidavit-makers, and shameless cowards. All the
puppies of Jackson are at work on me; but they will
be astonished at what will happen, for it is not them,
but their master, whom I will hold accountable. The
scalping-knife of Tecumpsy is mercy compared with
the affidavits of these villains. I am in the middle of
hell, and see no alternative but to kill or be killed ; for
I will not crouch to Jackson; and the fact that I and
my brother defeated him and his tribe, and broke his
small-sword in the public square, will forever rankle m
his bosom and make him thirst after vengeance. My
life is in danger ; nothing but a decisive duel can save
me, or even give me a chance for my own existence;
for it is a settled plan to turn out puppy after puppy
to bully me, and when I have got into a scrape to have
me killed somehow in the scuffle and afterwards the

238

DUELS AND QUARRELS

affidavit-makers will prove it was honorably done. I
shall never be forgiven having my opinion in favor of
Wilkinson's authority last winter; and this is the root
of the hell that is now turned loose against me/

" Shortly after the affray Colonel Benton went to his
home in Franklin, Tennessee, beyond reach of 'Jack-
son's puppies/ He was appointed lieutenant-colonel in
the regular army, left Tennessee, resigned his commis-
sion at the close of the war, emigrated to Missouri, and
never again met General Jackson till 1823, when both
were members of the Senate of the United States. Jesse
Benton, I may add, never forgave General Jackson, nor
could he ever forgive his brother for forgiving the gen-
eral. Publications against Jackson by the angry Jesse,
dated as late as 1828, may be seen in old collections of
political trash.

" Perhaps in fairness I should append to this narra-
tive Colonel Benton's own statement of the affray as
published in the Franklin newspaper a day or two after
the colonel returned home. The version of the affair
given in this chapter is General Coffee's. I received it
from an old friend of all the parties, who heard General
Coffee tell the story with great fulness and care, as
though he were giving evidence before a court. Coffee,
of course, would naturally place the conduct of General
Jackson in the most favorable light. Benton, hot from
the fray when he wrote his statement, could not be ex-
pected to know the whole or the exact truth. He seems,
for example, to have left Nashville with the impression
that Jackson was not hurt at all, but had feigned a
wound in order to escape one. And, indeed, it may be
remarked here, as well as anywhere, that neither the eyes
nor the memory of one of those fiery spirits can be
trusted. Long ago, in the early days of these inquiries,
I ceased to believe anything that they may have uttered,
when their pride or their passions were interested, unless
their story was supported by other evidence or by strong
probability. It is the nature of such men to forget what
they wish had never occurred, to remember vividly the
occurrences which flatter their ruling passion, and tin-

*39

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

consciously to magnify their own part in the events of
the past. Telling the truth is supposed to be one of the
easy virtues. What an error ! It is an accomplishment
that has to be toiled for as heroes toil for victory, as
artists toil for excellence, as good men toil for the good
of human kind. When Shakespeare said that to be an
honest man is to be one man picked out of ten thousand,
he uttered an arithmetical as well as a moral truth.

" But here is Colonel Benton's statement, which is,
perhaps, as true as Coffee's, and is certainly as true as
Colonel Benton could make it at the time of writing,
six days after the fight :

" ' Franklin, Tennessee, September 10, 1813.

" ' A difference which had for some months been brewing be-
tween General Jackson and myself produced on Saturday, the
fourth inst., in the town of Nashville, the most outrageous affray
ever witnessed in a civilized country. In communicating the
affair to my friend and fellow-citizens I limit myself to the state-
ment of a few leading facts the truth of which I am ready to
establish by judicial proofs.

" ' 1. That myself and my brother, Jesse Benton, arriving in
Nashville on the morning of the affray, and knowing of General
Jackson's threats, went and took lodgings in a different house
from the one in which he staid on purpose to avoid him.

41 ' 2. That the general and some of his friends came to the
house where we had put up, and commenced the attack by
levelling a pistol at me, when I had no weapon drawn, and
advancing upon me at a quick pace, without giving me time to
draw one.

" ' 3. That seeing this, my brother fired upon General Jackson
when he had got within eight or ten feet of me.

" ' 4. That four other pistols were fired in quick succession,
one by General Jackson at me, two by me at the General, and
one by Colonel Coffee at me. In the course of this firing Gen-
eral Jackson was brought to the ground, but received no hurt.

" ' 5. That daggers were then drawn. Colonel Coffee and
Mr. Alexander Donaldson made at me, and gave me five slight
wounds. Captain Hammond and Mr. Stokely Hays engaged
my brother, who, still suffering from a severe wound he had
lately received in a duel, was not able to resist two men. They
got him down, and while Captain Hammond beat him on the

240

DUELS AND QUARRELS

head to make him lie still, Mr. Hays attempted to stab him,
and wounded him in both arms as he lay on his back, parrying
the thrusts with his naked hands. From this situation a gen-
erous-hearted citizen of Nashville, Mr. Summer, relieved him.
Before he came to the ground my brother clapped a pistol to
the breast of Mr. Hays to blow him through, but it missed fire.

" ' 6. My own and my brother's pistols carried two balls each,
for it was our intention, if driven to arms, to have no child's
play. The pistols fired at me were so near that the blaze of the
muzzle of one of them burnt the sleeve of my coat, and the
other aimed at my head at a little more than arm's length
from it

" ' 7. Captain Carroll was to have taken part in the affray, but
was absent by the permission of General Jackson, as he had
proved by the general's certificate, a certificate which reflects
I know not whether less honor upon the general or upon the
captain.

" ' 8. That this attack was made upon me in the house where
the judge of the district, Mr. Searcy, had his lodgings 1 Nor
has the civil authority yet taken cognizance of this horrible
outrage.

" ' These facts are sufficient to fix the public opinion. For
my own part, I think it scandalous that such things should take
place at any time; but particularly so at the present moment,
when the public service requires the aid of all its citizens. As
for the name of courage, God forbid that I should ever attempt
to gain it by becoming a bully. Those who know me, know full
well that I would give a thousand times more for the reputation
of Croghan in defending his post, than I would for the repu-
tation of all the duellists and gladiators that ever appeared
upon the face of the earth.

0 ' Thomas Hart Benton.' "

Coffee is certainly mistaken in one particular. It
was Thomas H. Benton's bullet that wounded Jackson,
not that of his brother Jesse, and both Benton and Jack-
son were fully persuaded of the fact.

The consequences of the duel were serious enough,
but they might have been much more so. A man of
less indomitable will and courage than Jackson would
never have been able to make the Creek campaigns while
suffering from such a wound, and without the Creek
16 241

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

campaigns there would have been no New Orleans, and
without New Orleans there would have been no eight
years as President of the United States ! Never through
the period of active service could Jackson bear the
weight of the heavy bullion epaulet of his rank on his
wounded shoulder. We have seen that Jackson suffered
from the wounds received from Dickinson and Benton
practically all his life.

But Jackson and Benton were not destined to continue
enemies. As Roosevelt says, " Benton was as forgiv-
ing as he was hot-tempered, and Jackson's ruder na-
ture was at any rate free from any small meanness or
malice.,, When Jackson came back to the United States
Senate in 1822 he and Benton were soon reconciled.
Benton's own words well describe the termination of the
quarrel: "Well/' wrote the Missourian in a contem-
porary letter, " how many changes in this life ! General
Jackson is now sitting in the chair next to me. There
was a vacant one next to me, and he took it for the ses-
sion. Several senators saw our situation and offered
mediation. I declined it upon the ground that what had
happened could neither be explained, recanted, nor de-
nied. After this we were put on the same committee.
Facing me one day, as we sat in our seats, he said to me,
' Colonel, we are on the same committee ; I will give you
notice when it is necessary to attend.' (He was chair-
man and had the right to summon us.) I answered,
' General, make the time suit yourself ; it will be con-
venient for me to attend at any time.' In committee we
did business together just as other persons. After that
he asked me how my wife was, and I asked him how his
was. Then he called and left his card at my lodgings —
Andrew Jackson for Colonel Benton and lady; forth-
with I called at his and left mine — Colonel Benton for
General Jackson. Since then we have dined together at
several places, and yesterday at the President's. I made

242

DUELS AND QUARRELS

him the first bow, he held forth his hand, and we shook
hands. I then introduced him to my wife, and thus civil
relations are perfectly established between us. Jackson
has gained since he has been here by his mild and con-
ciliatory manner."

They would never have been reconciled had the cause
of their difficulty been related to Mrs. Jackson. Years
afterwards Benton said, in answer to a question from
Dr. John S. Moore, of St. Louis: " Yes, I had a fight
with Jackson. A fellow was hardly in the fashion then
who hadn't. But mine was different from his other
fights. It was not about Aunt Rachel. It could not
have been, of course, because I never would have pro-
voked him on that subject. As it was, / ascertained that
his skill with the pistol was overrated, did not hurt him
seriously, and on the whole made him like me better
after the fight than he ever did before. But if it had
been about Aunt Rachel he never would have forgiven
me.

Jackson and Clay were bitter enemies. Colonel Butler
once tried to effect a reconciliation between them, urging
that as Jackson had forgiven Benton's bullet he might
also pardon Clay's tongue. Says Buell : " General Jack-
son looked his beloved old aide-de-camp of New Orleans
straight in the eye for a full minute. Then he said,
slowly and gently: 'William, my dear old friend, you
don't understand the difference. There wasn't any
poison on Benton's bullet ! It was honest lead !' "

I do not know what Jackson would have done without
Benton, or how he would have accomplished the tre-
mendous tasks to which he set himself without his
brilliant assistance. In all his fights in the Senate of
the United States Benton was his most devoted advocate,
sometimes his only defender. The great enemy of
privilege, the great apostle of hard money, whose public
name was " Old Bullion," who was no unworthy antago-

243

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

nist to Webster, Clay, and Calhoun, was one of the
principal factors in Jackson's successful Presidential
careers. When the old hero lay a-dying at the Her-
mitage he pulled the head of Lewis down to him and
almost with his last breath whispered, "Tell Colonel
Benton that I am grateful in my dying moment."

Once in the Senate Henry Clay delivered himself
thus with regard to Benton :

" There are some peculiar reasons why I should not
go to that senator for my views of decorum in regard to
my bearing towards the chief magistrate, and why he is
not a fit instructor. I never had any personal encounter
with the President of the United States, I never com-
plained of any outrages on my person committed by
him. I never published any bulletins respecting his
private brawls. The gentleman will understand my allu-
sions. I never complained that while a brother of mine
was down on the ground, senseless or dead, he received
another blow. I have never made any declarations like
these relative to the individual who is President. There
is also a singular prophecy as to the consequences of the
election of this individual which far surpasses in evil
foreboding whatever I may have ever said in regard to
his election. I never made any prediction so sinister,
nor made any declaration so harsh, as that which is con-
tained in the prediction to which I allude. I never de-
clared my apprehension and belief that if he were elected
we should be obliged to legislate with pistols and dirks
by our side."

And to him Benton made the following dignified
reply :

" It is true, sir, that I had an affray with General
Jackson, and that I did complain of his conduct. We
fought, sir, and we fought, I hope, like men. When the
explosion was over there remained no ill-will on either
side. No vituperation or system of petty persecution

244

HENRY CLAY IN MIDDLE LIFE
From the painting by Dubourjal

DUELS AND QUARRELS

was kept up between us. Yes, sir, it is true, that I had
the personal difficulty which the senator from Kentucky
has had the delicacy to bring before the Senate. But
let me tell the senator from Kentucky there is no ' ad-
journed question of veracity ' between me and General
Jackson. All difficulty between us ended with the con-
flict, and a few months after it I believe that either party
would cheerfully have relieved the other from any peril,
and now we shake hands and are friendly when we
meet/'

Jackson had told Carroll that he was done with duel-
ling, but he had not then come in contact with Henry
Clay. If ever Jackson hated a man, he hated Henry
Clay.

"During his Presidency, when a particularly bitter
phrase of Clay's in the Senate was reported to him, he
exclaimed, ' Oh, that I had off these robes of office !' He
said no more. ' I am perfectly sure/ concluded Colonel
Butler, 'that Jackson never for a moment was sorry
that he killed Charles Dickinson. And I am equally cer-
tain that he died sorry because he never got a chance to
kill Henry Clay.' "

Clay advocated the resolution of censure for Jack-
son's removal of the government deposits from the
United States Bank in a great speech, and, says Parton :
" It was after reading this speech that General Jackson
exclaimed : ' Oh, if I live to get these robes of office
off me, I will bring the rascal to a dear account/ "

When he was urging Jackson unavailingly to forgive
Clay General Butler said that he never saw exactly such
an expression on a human face as Jackson exhibited
when he made that famous remark about Benton's
" honest lead." " It demonstrated to him that the only
manner in which the general wished to meet Mr. Clay
face to face was at ten paces, and that he never to his
dying day would consent to meet him otherwise. Gen-

245

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

eral Butler further observed that Clay was peculiarly
constituted in that respect. He was quick enough to
take personal offence at the words of others, but he could
not see why his own, uttered in what he considered
purely and legitimately political debate, should be mor-
tally resented, as Jackson resented them."

It has been seen that Jackson was not only an abso-
lutely fearless man, but he was a man of iron nerve as
well. He once said in answer to an inquiry : " . . . that
he never had a tremor in his hands in his life ; that his
nerves were like steel bars."

The only way to stop him was to kill him. In one of
the Indian affairs in which he engaged he nearly lost
his life in an adventurous feat. He made this charac-
teristic and contemptuous remark to one of the by-
standers who congratulated him upon his narrow escape
and expressed the hope that his life might not be
jeoparded again : " A miss is as good as a mile. You
see how near a man can graze danger."

On this subject reference may be made to two other
episodes in Jackson's career. Parton describes the
cowardly assault upon the President on May 6, 1833,
committed by a naval officer who had been cashiered
for cause:

"At Alexandria, where the steamer touched, there
came on board a Mr. Randolph, late a lieutenant in the
navy, who had been recently dismissed the service.
Randolph made his way to the cabin, where he found
the President sitting behind a table reading a news-
paper. He approached the table, as if to salute the
President.

" ' Excuse my rising, sir/ said the general, who was
not acquainted with Randolph. s I have a pain in my
side which makes it distressing for me to rise.'

" Randolph made no reply to this courteous apology,
but appeared to be taking off his glove,

246

DUELS AND QUARRELS

" ' Never mind your glove, sir/ said the general, hold-
ing out his hand.

" At this moment Randolph thrust his hand violently
into the President's face, intending, as it appeared, to
pull his nose. The captain of the boat, who was stand-
ing by, instantly seized Randolph and drew him back.
A violent scuffle ensued, during which the table was
broken. The friends of Randolph clutched him, and
hurried him ashore before many of the passengers knew
what had occurred, and thus he effected his escape.
The passengers soon crowded into the cabin to learn if
the general was hurt.

" ' Had I known/ said he, ' that Randolph stood before
me, I should have been prepared for him, and I could
have defended myself. No villain/ said he, ' has ever
escaped me before, and he would not had it not been
for my confined situation/

" Some blood was seen on his face, and he was asked
whether he had been much injured?

" ' No/ said he, ' I am not much hurt ; but in endeav-
oring to rise I have wounded my side, which now pains
me more than it did.'

" One of the citizens of Alexandria, who had heard of
the outrage, addressed the general and said, ' Sir, if
you will pardon me, in case I am tried and convicted, I
will kill Randolph for this insult to you in fifteen
minutes !'

" * No, sir/ said the President, ' I cannot do that. I
want no man to stand between me and my assailants,
and none to take revenge on my account. Had I been
prepared for this cowardly villain's approach, I can
assure you all that he would never have the temerity
to undertake such a thing again/ "

I cannot discover that anything was ever done to this
ex-officer to punish him for his disgraceful and offen-
sive conduct.

247

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

On the thirtieth of January, 1835, a futile attempt
was made to assassinate Jackson. Parton thus relates
the incident :

" On that day the President, the Cabinet, both Houses
of Congress, and a concourse of citizens assembled in
the hall of the House of Representatives to take part in
the funeral ceremonies in honor of a deceased member of
the House from South Carolina. After the usual solem-
nities a procession was formed to escort the body to the
grave. The President, near the head of the procession,
accompanied by Mr. Woodbury and Mr. Dickinson, had
crossed the great rotunda of the Capitol, and was about
to step out upon the portico, when a man emerged from
the crowd and, placing himself before the President at
a distance of eight feet from him, levelled a pistol at
his breast and pulled the trigger. The cap exploded
with a loud report without discharging the pistol. The
man dropped the pistol upon the pavement and raised
a second, which he had held in his left hand under his
cloak. That also missed fire. The President, the instant
he comprehended the purpose of the man, rushed furi-
ously at him with uplifted cane. Before he reached him
Lieutenant Gedney, of the navy, had knocked the assas-
sin down, and he was immediately secured and taken
to jail. The President, boiling with rage, was hurried
into a carriage by his friends and conveyed to the White
House. For some days his belief remained unshaken
that the man had been set on to attempt his destruction
by a clique of his political enemies.

" The prisoner was proved to be a maniac. His name
was Lawrence. He was an English house painter, who
had been long out of employment. Hearing on all sides
that the country had been ruined by the measures of
General Jackson, the project of assassinating him had
fastened itself in his crazy brain."

Miss Harriet Martineau, then travelling in the United
248

DUELS AND QUARRELS

States, reports an interesting interview she had with
the general upon this subject in these terms : " When I
did go to the White House, I took the briefest possible
notice to the President of the ' insane attempt' of Law-
rence, but the word roused his ire. He protested, in
the presence of many strangers, that there was no in-
sanity in the case. I was silent, of course. He pro-
tested that there was a plot, and that the man was a
tool, and at length quoted the Attorney-General as his
authority. It was painful to hear a chief ruler publicly
trying to persuade a foreigner that any of his constitu-
ents hated him to the death, and I took the liberty of
changing the subject as soon as I could. The next
morning I was at the Attorney-General's and I asked
him how he could let himself be quoted as saying that
Lawrence was not mad. He excused himself by saying
that he meant general insanity. He believed Lawrence
insane in one direction ; that it was a sort of Ravaillac
case. I besought him to impress the President with this
view of the case as soon as might be."

This attempt at assassination naturally evoked the
greatest demonstration of loyalty and affection on the
part of the people of the United States for their hero
and their idol.

249

XIII

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

No man in Jackson's time could hold office without
being a speechmaker. Some of the most persistent and
successful office-holders of the present have never made
a speech, — and it may be that for this mainly have they
continued to hold office! — but in Jackson's day it was
different. The stump speech was the recognized means
whereby men acquired power and office among their
friends. Communities were smaller, it was easy for a
man who sought the suffrages of his fellow-citizens to
know all his constituents personally, and it was neces-
sary for the office-seeker to be ready to discuss every-
thing with everybody at any time.

The stump speech is not the highest form of oratory,
to be sure, and the people to whom it is addressed are
not usually of such a character as to call forth anything
extraordinary. But upon the facility developed by the
practice there was built a capacity for public speaking
in the higher walks of life, and for the enjoyment
thereof in all stations, which has largely passed away.
Congress was the great debating society of the nation.
Oratory was at a premium. Now it is at a discount,
its place being taken by the fine art of manipulation;
persuasion by word of mouth has given place to subtle
management and other things which go under darker
names; but until the period of the Civil War oratory
was supreme. That there were giants in those days is
no idle statement: Great were the speakers and states-
men of the Jacksonian period — and, by the way, that
term, which is now universally employed, serves better

250

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

perhaps than any other evidence to indicate the domi-
nance of Jackson's personality in political affairs while
he lived, for among many great men who have honored
the Presidential chair he is the only one who has given
his name to an epoch, although I should not be surprised
if future historians write of the " Roosevelt period."

One reason why the name of Jackson was given to a
period by practically unanimous agreement was because
he effected in one sense a partial revolution in that he
abolished the senatorial caucus and gave a new meaning
to the words " popular government," a meaning which
had never before been apparent. The aristocracy of the
country was, during his administration and by virtue of
his influence, displaced from that position of authority
which it had held since Washington's day. The people,
the whole people, in which, of course, the plain, the
humble, the inconsidered, predominated, for the first
time administered the government through their idol,
their apotheosis, if I may use the word. The truth is
that the said idol administered it himself, but both he
and the people were firmly convinced that it was admin-
istered by and for the people as never before. Such an
extraordinary change, the introduction of what may be
called a new phase into the practice of government,
naturally created a new epoch.

The leading figures of this period, and I give them in H
the order of their ability as I see it, were Daniel Web- J
ster, Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, John Quincyj
Adams, John G Calhoun, and Martin Van Buren. And/
there were many others of scarcely less prominence, as
Paul Hamilton Hayne, William H. Crawford, John Ran-
dolph, and Nicholas Biddle, besides a host of lesser
lights, including several future Presidents of the United
States, in Congress and out of it. Everyone of these v
men was an orator ; one of them, at least, ranks among ]
the greatest speakers that the world has ever listened /

251

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

to. None of them had ever been a soldier. The name
of no one is identified with any great military exploit,
yet the fame of each is exceedingly high. They will be
remembered so long as the government endures for their
qualities, their acts, and their sayings.

Practically all of these men were Jackson's superiors
in education, in culture, and in abilities of various kinds,
but as a personality, a compound of qualities directed by
a single mind, subservient to a single will, devoted to
a single idea — love of country — Jackson was above them
all. It is no idle compliment, no makeshift phrase, to call
that period in which they lived and labored, struggled
and fought, the Jacksonian Epoch. He dominated it.

Everyone of them was a better speaker than Jackson,
but his abilities as a talker are neither to be disdained
nor despised. He had had abundant exercise in address*
ing his fellow-citizens in his early practice before the
Tennessee courts. More, perhaps, depended upon an
ability to speak convincingly and persuasively with
sound, good common-sense than upon knowledge of law
in the practice of those days. Jackson was not only a
fearless, resolute prosecutor, but he was a successful at-
torney in his own private practice. He had more cases
committed to his charge than any other member of the
bar, a sure indication of successful pleading. As a judge
he was obliged to speak often, and did it always to the
point. One of the chief duties of a militia officer was to
talk to the soldiers, and although his proclamations to
the army are somewhat bombastic, — sometimes quite in
the Napoleonic vein ! — there is a ring back of them that
shows the manner of man he was and which profoundly
appealed to his constituents. In campaigning for vari-
ous political offices he held he naturally talked much.
Blair, who heard him often, has this to say of his
forensic methods :

" He was not then or ever afterwards what is com-
252

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

monly termed an orator. But he was a fluent, forceful,
and convincing speaker. When he addressed a body of
men, whether jury, convention, or political mass-meet-
ing, he talked to them. He did not orate. He had none
of the arts of oratory, so called. His voice, though
strong and penetrating, was untrained. He had no idea
of modulation, but let his inflections follow feelings,
naturally, as he went along. About the only gestures he
knew were the raising of both hands to indicate rever-
ence or veneration, the spreading of both arms wide out
to indicate deprecation, and the fierce pointing of his
long, gaunt forefinger straight forward, like a pistol, to
indicate decision, dogmatism, or defiance. And," pur-
sued the venerable Mr. Blair, " candor compels me to say
that he used that forefinger more than any other limb
or member in his gesticulation.

" His vocabulary was copious, and he never stood at
loss for a word to express his sense. When perfectly
calm or not roused by anything that appealed to his
feelings rather than to his judgment, he spoke slowly,
carefully, and in well-selected phrase. But when ex-
cited or angry, he would pour forth a torrent of rugged
sentences more remarkable for their intent to beat down
opposition than for their strict attention to the rules of
rhetoric— or even syntax.

" But in all situations and mental conditions his dic-
tion was clear and his purpose unmistakable. No one
ever listened to a speech or a talk from Andrew Jackson
who, when he was done, had the least doubt as to what
he was driving at."

Schouler says: "In conversation he interested,
whether he convinced or not, being clear, earnest, and
straight to the point both in thought and expression;
and while no question admitted of two sides to his mind,
his own was fearlessly grasped. As his speech was
sagacious and incisive in spite of slips in grammar or

353

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

mispronunciation, so he could write with powerful effect,
though no scholar in the true sense, and in personal con-
troversy he was one to be feared. His state papers en-
gaged able minds in and out of his Cabinet, yet the direc-
tion of thought, the statement of policy, the temper of the
document, were his own. Others might elaborate the
argument for him or polish and arrange the composition,
but, after all, his was the central thought, and he would
flourish over the paper with a rapid pen, and a huge one,
until sheet after sheet lay before him glistening with ink
and glowing with expression, as though it were written
in his heart's blood. That there were misspelt words to
be corrected, or awkward sentences to be trussed up
afterwards by his secretary, is not to be denied. In
short, Andrew Jackson fed little upon books and much
upon experience with unconventional life and human
nature; but he had what is essential to eminence in
either case, a vigorous intellect and a strong will."

In this connection the following story, for which Par-
ton vouches, is very characteristic and amusing:

" General Jackson, as his associates remember, had
certain peculiarities of pronunciation to which he always
adhered. For example, he would pronounce the word
development as though it were written devil-o^^-ment,
with a strong accent upon the ope. One day during his
Presidency he so pronounced it when in conversation
with a foreign minister, who, though not English, had
been educated in England and plumed himself upon his
knowledge and nice pronunciation of the English lan-
guage. ' Devil-0/>*-ment/ said the general with em-
phasis. The ambassador lifted his eyebrows- slightly,
and in the course of a sentence or two took occasion to
pronounce the word correctly. The President, seeming
not to remark his excellency's benevolent intention,
again said ' devil-o/>*-ment ;' whereupon the fastidious
minister ventured once more to give the word its proper

234

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

accent. No notice was taken of the impolite correc-
tion.

" ' I repeat it, Mr. / continued the President ;

' this measure is essential to the devil-0^£-ment of our
resources/

" ' Really, sir/ replied the ambassador, * I consider the
de-w/-opment of your country ' with a marked ac-
cent upon the veL

" Upon this the general exclaimed, ' Excuse me, Mr.

. You may call it de-w/-opment if you please ; but

J say devil-o^tf-ment and will say devil-o^^-ment as long
as I revere the memory of good old Doctor Waddell V "
Doctor Waddell, upon whom this interesting pronuncia-
tion is fathered, was a famous preacher to whom Jack-
son often listened when a young man.

Jackson was subpoenaed to Richmond as a witness in
the trial of Aaron Burr in June, 1807. While in Rich-
mond news was received of the outrageous attack of the
British 50-gun ship " Leopard" on the American frigate
" Chesapeake," 36. The whole nation was terribly
humiliated by this affair, and Jackson, as a bitter hater
of the British, felt it more keenly than anyone. He
expected a declaration of war, and after waiting for
some time, finding that nothing would be done by Jef-
ferson, whom he despised as a dilettante, a doctrinaire,
and a temporizer, he determined upon a rather unusual
course.

He published an announcement in a Richmond paper
to the effect that "General Andrew Jackson, of Ten-
nessee, would address the people from the steps of the
State-House after adjournment of the court." Jackson
had not done anything particularly striking or brilliant
which would have caused him to be regarded with any
great amount of interest by the people, or that would
render his pronouncements important enough for them
to be looked for with eager curiosity. The great

25s

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

achievements of his career were still before him, yet the
famous duel with Dickinson had brought him into some
notoriety, to which his connection with Burr had added,
and his peculiar personality as exhibited during his
three weeks' stay in Richmond had rendered him rather
a notable figure.

Therefore when the appointed time arrived a large
part of the population of the town was present to hear
what he had to say. It is safe to say that none of them
left after he began his extraordinary harangue. He
spoke extemporaneously for over an hour, his subject
being the supineness of Mr. Jefferson and the outrage
upon our national flag, but he soon got off on other
issues, the principal one being Jefferson himself.

Unfortunately, no report of this speech was made,
but some notes were taken by a journalist present, one
Thomas Ritchie. When these were afterwards pub-
lished when Jackson was running for the Presidency he
said that they were fair as far as they went, although
they didn't go far enough. Some idea of the character
of this speech can be gathered from these notes :

" Mr. Jefferson has plenty of courage to seize peace-
able Americans by military force and persecute them
for political purposes. But he is too cowardly to resent
foreign outrage upon the Republic. Here an English
man-of-war fires upon an American ship of inferior
force, so near his capital that he can almost hear the
guns, and what does he do? Nothing more than that
his friends say he will recommend to Congress a bill
laying an embargo and shutting our commerce off from
the seas. If a man kicks you downstairs you get re-
venge by standing out in the middle of the street and
making faces at him ! . . .

"This persecution was hatched in Kentucky. The
chicken died and they are trying to bring it to life again.
Some think the object of the person that hatched it in

.256

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

Kentucky was malice. I prefer to think it was overzeal
of a weak tool in the hands of a cowardly master. The
man in Kentucky had his orders from the man in Wash-
ington, just as the men here have their orders from the
same source. Mr. Jefferson can torture Aaron Bun-
while England tortures our sailors. This grand State
[Virginia] is full of good Republicans [Democrats], and
many of them may not like to hear such sentiments about
their own great man. Whatever he does or fails to do
is right in their eyes, no matter how cruel to Americans,
or how dastardly towards the English. But the East
is different from the West. Out there the political air
is pure. Here in the East I sometimes think the Fed-
eralists have maHe the political air we breathe stink so
that weak-stomached Republicans find it necessary to
turn skunks to save their own nostrils.

" A year ago or more I gave at a dinner to Aaron
Burr in Nashville the toast ' Millions for defence ; not
a cent for tribute/ They change that tune on this side
of the mountains. Here, it seems to me, ' Millions to
persecute an American ; not a cent to resist England !'
Shame on such a leader ! Contempt for a public opinion
rotten enough to follow him !"

Mr. Ritchie thus comments upon the scene :

" He spared none. His style of speaking was rude
but strong. It was not the polished oratory Eastern
audiences were accustomed to hear, but the sturdy blows
of some pioneer's axe felling i giant in the forest. ' He
can talk as well as he can shoot/ said a bystander in
my hearing, evidently in reference to the duel with
Dickinson. ' Yes/ said the bystander's companion, ' and
he talks as if he was ready to shoot now !'

" He sowed the seeds of duel broadcast. He gave at
least three men ample grounds for demanding satisfac-
tion. Two of them were there and heard him. One of
them, Jo Daviess, was known to be a duellist, The
J7 *tf

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

other, Mr. Wirt, was thought to be a man of spirit and
courage. The third man he attacked, General Wilkin-
son, was not present, though in the city, and he soon
knew every word Jackson had said about him; such
expressions as ' double-traitor ;' or ' a man who betrays
his country first and then perjures himself about it after-
wards;' 'a pretended soldier who dishonors his flag
and an officer who disgraces his commission ;' and ' let
us pity the sword that dangles from his felon's belt, for
it is doubtless of honest steel.' Wilkinson was a noted
duellist. Many thought it certain that he, and perhaps
Jo Daviess also, would call Jackson to account. But no
one molested him. Probably none emulated the fate of
Charles Dickinson. He concluded his speech in these
words :

" ' There is an old saying that a workman is known
by his tools. This is as true as Holy Writ. If you
want to know what kind of a workman Thomas Jeffer-
son is, look at James Wilkinson, Jo Daviess, and Wil-
liam Wirt ! Like master, like man. But at least two of
these men differ from their master in one thing: Wil-
kinson, base and treacherous as he is, and Daviess, weak
and irresponsible as he may be, have both shown cour-
age in the presence of danger. Jefferson has never had
that occasion, because he has always been cunning
enough to keep out of harm's way !' "

Thirty years afterwards Jackson told Governor Allen,
of Ohio, that in making this speech he had in view two
well-defined purposes: one to let the East know what
the West thought of Jefferson's timid, tortuous, pusil-
lanimous policy in general, the other to sound the key-
note of the new movement which might give other States
a chance for the Presidency besides Virginia and Massa-
chusetts.

Jackson disliked and despised Jefferson. " Officially,"
he said, " Jefferson was all that could be wished, but in

258

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

personal intercourse he always left upon you the im-
pression of want of candor, sincerity, and fidelity." He
could not conceal his contempt for the man. " I really
believe," said Jackson, " that he seriously cherishes the
foolish hope that he might sometime be elected President
without opposition, as Washington had been." Now
these remarks are very interesting. In the first place,
Jackson was entirely confident that he was competent to
— and did in fact then and there— express the opinion of
the entire West concerning Jefferson. In the second
place, there seems to be a gleam of purpose regarding
the Presidency, which would be more evident were there
not abundant testimony to the fact that in later years
Jackson declared that he neither desired nor hoped for
that office.

Since Jackson believed Jefferson to be insincere, vacil-
lating, and timid, he naturally despised him, for he was
the very antithesis of these qualities. There never was
a more sincerely honest, resolutely determined, abso-
lutely fearless man, than Jackson.

The speech referred to made some stir, but it seems
to be considered by most of his biographers simply as a
dramatic incident in his life. I regard it differently.
I think the foundation of the present Democratic party
practically dates from that Richmond address of Andrew
Jackson. Jefferson and Jackson are the two Democrats
by which the party of to-day swears. Political parties
find no difficulty in swearing by antitheses at times!
However that may be, Jackson is the undoubted ex-
ponent of the Democracy of to-day. The difference
between Jackson and Jefferson is the difference between
theory and practice largely. As Congressman William
Randolph Hearst aptly puts it :

" Had the Hamiltonian scheme prevailed, this Repub-
lic would have become a monarchy in all but name within
the lifetime of the men who had signed the Declaration

259

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

of Independence. But the democracy of the country
asserted itself, a peaceful political revolution occurred,
and Jefferson was selected by the people to represent the
people as President of the United States. He gave
Democratic battle to the undemocratic confederated
wealth and prejudice of his time. He redeclared the
equality of men, preached an eternally true doctrine
that in our Republic the people, whatever their short-
comings, are the safest depository of power, the best
guardian of their own interests. The people reelected
Jefferson to the Presidency by a majority so overwhelm-
ing that the Federalists— educated, able, and brilliant in
leadership as they were — perished as a party. That
historic landslide made it known forever that the people,
and not mere property, have the right to rule in this
Republic. But it is a right that to be preserved must be
constantly reasserted and fought for.

" By 1828 the elements which in every age appropriate
privileges had encroached again. It seemed as if the
able and acquisite few were once more intrenched be-
yond serious danger of overthrow. Under the Presi-
dency of John Quincy Adams, paternalism — the aristo-
cratic theory that good government is a boon bestowed
by those above upon those below — was in the ascendant,
but the people rose again, and in a second political revo-
lution reestablished pure democracy and selected An-
drew Jackson to administer it."

Yet the position of the people in Jefferson's time dif-
fered radically from that they assumed in Jackson's
period, just because Jefferson shrank from the extreme
application of his theories and Jackson did not.

We have seen some of Jackson's addresses and
speeches to his soldiers during his campaigns. Before
the beginning of the Creek War he published the fol-
lowing address :

" We are about to furnish these savages a lesson of
260

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

admonition ; we are about to teach them that our long
forbearance has not proceeded from an insensibility to
wrongs or an inability to redress them. They stand in
need of such warning. In proportion as we have borne
their insults and submitted to their outrages, they have
multiplied in number and increased in atrocity. But the
measure of their offences is at length filled. The blood
of our women and children recently spilled at Fort
Mimms calls for our vengeance; it must not call in
vain. Our borders must be no longer disturbed by the
warwhoop of these savages and the cries of their suf-
fering victims. The torch that has been lighted up must
be made to blaze in the heart of their own country. It
is time they should be made to feel the weight of a
power which, because it was merciful, they believed to
be impotent. But how shall a war so long forborne and
so loudly called for by retributive justice be waged?
Shall we imitate the examples of our enemies in the
disorder of our movement and the savageness of our
disposition? Is it worthy the character of American
soldiers, who take up arms to redress the wrongs of an
injured country, to assume no better models than those
furnished them by barbarians? No, fellow-soldiers;
great as are the grievances that have called us from our
home, we must not permit disorderly passions to tarnish
the reputations we shall carry along with us. We must
and will be victorious; but we must conquer as men
who owe nothing to chance, and who, in. the midst of
victory, can still be mindful of what is due to humanity.
"We will commence the campaign by an inviolable
attention to discipline and subordination. Without a
strict observance of these, victory must ever be uncer-
tain and ought hardly be exulted in, even when gained.
To what but the entire disregard of order and subordina-
tion are we to ascribe the disasters which have attended
our arms in the North during the present war? How

261

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

glorious will it be to remove the blots which have tar-
nished the fair character bequeathed us by the fathers
of our Revolution? The bosom of your general is full
of hope. He knows the ardor which animates you, and
already exults in the triumph which your strict observ-
ance of discipline and good order will render certain."

And just before the final march on Horseshoe Bend he
issued this brief and ringing address :

" You have, fettow^citlzens, at length penetrated the
country of your enemies. It is not to be believed that
they will abandon the soil that embosoms the bones of
their forefathers without furnishing you an opportunity
of signalizing your valor. Wise men do not expect;
brave men do not desire it. It was not to travel unmo-
lested through a barren wilderness that you quitted your
families and homes, and submitted to so many priva-
tions; it was to avenge the cruelties committed upon
your defenceless frontiers by the inhuman Creeks, in-
stigated by their no less inhuman allies; you shall not
be disappointed. If the enemy flees before you, we will
overtake and chastise him; we will teach him how
dreadful, when once aroused, is the resentment of free-
men."

After the battle of New Orleans at a great service, a
Te Deum in the Cathedral in that city, he made the
following response to the address of the Abbe Dubourg.
Just prior to his entrance he had been presented with a
laurel crown:

" Reverend sir," began the general with an imperial
bow, " I receive with gratitude and pleasure the sym-
bolical crown which piety has prepared; I receive it in
the name of the brave men who have so effectually
seconded my exertions for the preservation of their
country — they well deserve the laurels which their coun-
try will bestow.

" For myself, to have been instrumental in the de-
262

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

liverance of such a country is the greatest blessing that
Heaven could confer. That it has been effected with so
little loss — that so few tears should cloud the smiles of
our triumph, and not a cypress leaf be interwoven in the
wreath which you present — is a source of the most
humble enjoyment.

" I thank you, reverend sir, most sincerely for the
prayers which you offer up for my happiness. May
those your patriotism dictates for our beloved country be
first heard. And may mine for your individual pros-
perity, as well as that of the congregation committed to
your care, be favorably received. The prosperity, the
wealth, the happiness of this city will then be commen-
surate with the courage and other qualities of its in-
habitants."

Upon his return to Nashville he was there received
and addressed by the citizens, Mr. Felix Grundy being
their mouthpiece, and the students of Cumberland Col-
lege. To Mr. Felix Grundy he said :

" Sir, I am at a loss to express my feelings. The
approbation of my fellow-citizens is to me the richest
reward. Through you, sir, I beg leave to assure them
that I am this day amply compensated for every toil and
labor.

" In a war forced upon us by the multiplied wrongs of
a nation who envied our increasing prosperity, important
and difficult duties were assigned me. I have labored to
discharge them faithfully, having a single eye to the
honor of my country.

"The bare consciousness of having performed my
duty would have been a source of great happiness, but
the assurance that what I have done meets your appro-
bation enhances that happiness greatly.

" I beg you to believe, my friends and neighbors, that
while I rejoice with you in the return of peace, and
unite my prayers with yours for its long continuance,

263

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

it will ever be my highest pride to render you my best
services when nations, mistaking our peaceful disposi-
tion for pusillanimity, shall insult and outrage those feel-
ings and rights which belong to us as an independent
nation."

To the students of the college he thus replied :

" Young Gentlemen : With lively feelings of pride
and joy I receive your address. To find that even the
youth of my country, although engaged in literary pur-
suits and exempt from military duty, are willing, when
the voice of patriotism calls, to abandon for a time the
seat of the muses for the privations of a camp, excites
in my heart the warmest interest. The country which
has the good fortune to be defended by soldiers animated
by such feelings as those young gentlemen who were
once members of the same literary institution you now
are, and whom I had the honor to command, will never
be in danger from internal or external foes. Their good
conduct on many tryifig occasions will never be for-
gotten by their general.

" It is a source of particular satisfaction to me that
you duly appreciate the merits of those worthy and
highly distinguished generals — Carroll and Coffee.
Their example is worthy imitation ; and from the noble
sentiments which you on this occasion express, I enter-
tain no doubt that if circumstances require, you will
emulate their deeds of valor. It is to such officers and
their brave associates in arms that Tennessee, in mili-
tary achievements, can vie with the most renowned of
her sister States.

" That your academic labors may be crowned with the
fullest success, by fulfilling the high expectations of
your relatives and friends, is the ardent and sincere wish
of my heart.

" Receive, my young friends, my prayers for your
future health and prosperity.,,

264

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

After he reached the Hermitage a number of his
friends and neighbors assembled informally and con-
gratulated him, and to them he made this brief address :

"The warm testimonials of your friendship and re-
gard I receive, gentlemen, with the liveliest sensibility.
The assurance of the approbation of my countrymen,
and particularly of my acquaintances and neighbors, is
the most grateful offering that can be made me. It is
a rich compensation for many sacrifices and many labors.
I rejoice with you, gentlemen, on the able manner in
which the sons of America, during a most eventful and
perilous conflict, have proved themselves worthy of the
precious inheritance bequeathed to them by their fathers.
They have given a new proof how impossible it is to
conquer freemen fighting in defence of all that is dear to
them. Henceforward we shall be respected by nations
who, mistaking our character, had treated us with the
utmost contumely and outrage. Years will continue to
develop our inherent qualities, until, from being the
youngest and the weakest, we shall become the most
powerful nation in the universe.

" Such is the high destiny which I persuade myself
Heaven has reserved for the sons of freedom.

" I rejoice also with you, gentlemen, at the return of
peace under circumstances so fortunate for our fame and
our interest. In this happy state of things the inex-
haustible resources of our country will be unfolded, and
the greatness for which she is designed be hastened to
maturity. Amongst the private blessings thence to be
expected I anticipate, with the highest satisfaction, the
cultivation of that friendly intercourse with my neigh-
bors and friends which has heretofore constituted so
great a portion of my happiness."

After the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister in
the Florida campaign, while in Baltimore, a banquet was
tendered him by some of his friends and admirers who

265

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

resented the various attacks that were being made upon
him. The toast of the evening was as follows : " An-
drew Jackson — who, like the Carthaginian warrior,
passed the prohibitive bounds of an enemy to close with
him at home ; and, like Hannibal, victorious on the field,
destined to be assailed in the Senate/'

Amid enthusiastic cheering Jackson rose and in a
faltering voice gave forth the following: " What I have
done," said he, " was for my country. Conscious that
the first object of my heart has ever been to advance our
prosperity and happiness, to receive the approbation of
my fellow-citizens is to me a source of the highest grati-
fication. It is the proudest reward of a soldier. Not
only my public acts, but my private character has been
assailed. I have been charged with personal, mercen-
ary views in occupying Florida. I scorn to answer so
degrading an accusation ; it is as base as it is absurd,
and could only originate in bosoms destitute of every
manly virtue. I have no fear but my country will do me
justice."

During the same period New York presented him with
the freedom of the city, and Jackson made this graceful
reply to Mayor Colden :

" Sir, the distinguished honor which the Common
Council of the city of New York has conferred by my
admission as a freeman of their city is to me a source of
the highest gratification, and will ever be recollected with
feelings of the warmest sensibility. To be associated
with those who have been distinguished for their patri-
otism and zealous attachment to the republican prin-
ciples of our government is the most exalted station of
an American citizen. The approbation you have been
pleased to express of my humble efforts in the field com-
mands my grateful acknowledgments ; for those senti-
ments I am indebted to the bravery of the troops I had
the honor to command.

266

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

" In what I have done for my country, had I erred in
the discharge of my official duty, that error would have
originated in the warmth of my devotion to her interest
and a misapplication of the means best calculated to
promote her happiness and prosperity. But to find that
my conduct has been sanctioned by my government, and
approved by my fellow-citizens, is a source of happiness
unequalled in the occurrences of my life; for the
proudest honor that can grace the soldier, and the
richest reward which he can receive for the fatigue,
perils, and privations of his profession, is the approba-
tion of a grateful country."

Yet Jefferson says that he never finished a speech
that he began. He would get so choked with passion
and rage as to be compelled to sit down! Jefferson
must have been dreaming, and it is evident that he had
no more love for the practical applicator of his theories
than the said applicator had for the timid theorist.
Jackson was not only a speaker, but a writer as well.
His state papers contain some of the most brilliant and
able productions in American records. One at least
rises to a magnificent height. They will be considered
in due course.

In conversation, as has been noted, Jackson was^
shrewd, humorous, and racy. He was nearly as good
a story-teller as President Lincoln, according to the
testimony of those who knew him intimately. His wide
experience of men and manners provided him with a
rich fund of anecdote. Most of those stories have been
unavoidably lost. Means for preserving such things in
Jackson's time were limited, and men in general seemed
not to be awake to the value of small details in enabling
a true estimate of character to be arrived at. Great
biographers sometimes disdain detailed information
anyway. I have read many biographies of dif-
ferent Americans, sometimes in search of a description

267

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

of their personal appearance only to find them put
down as " handsome," " imposing," " dignified/* or
what not, without the slightest information as to the
color of an eye, the shape of a head, or the length of
a nose.

Some few instances of the general's repartee have
been gathered by Buell and Parton. To one who
expressed the opinion that in the dispute between Adams
and Jackson there was a misunderstanding or a mis-
apprehension, since neither of the contending parties
would misrepresent a fact, and who said to him, " Mr.
Adams is a man of infinite method; he is generally
accurate, and in this instance it appears that he is sus-
tained by his diary," Jackson replied: "His diary!
Don't tell me anything more about his diary ! Sir, that
diary comes up on all occasions— one would think that
its pages were as immutable as the laws of the Medes
and Persians! Sir, that diary will be the death of
me!"

In 1845 Polk selected James Buchanan for Secretary
of State. To this selection Jackson vigorously ob-
jected. Polk justified himself by pointing out that
Jackson had himself appointed Buchanan minister to
Russia during his first term. Polk confidently thought
that this statement constituted an unanswerable argu-
ment, but the general audaciously turned the tables on
him by rejoining:

" Yes, I did. It was as far as I could send him out
of my sight, and where he could do the least harm ! I
would have sent him to the North Pole if we had kept
a minister there !"

Mrs. Jerome Bonaparte, of Baltimore, she who had
been Miss Patterson, once said to him while he was
President, " General, there must be a sensation of ex-
alted pride in feeling that you hold the place once
held by Washington."

268

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

" Yes, Madam," he replied in his most distinguished
manner, with courtly bow and winning smile, " it is a
sensation not unlike that which a gentleman must feel
when he is honored by the society of Napoleon Bona-
parte's sister-in-law."

In this case I fear Jackson was guilty of one of the
duplicities of courtesy, for he was never a particular
admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte. When Miss Vaughan,
the niece of the British minister, said to him:

" Mr. President, you and General Washington enjoy
a unique fame. No one else has ever defeated my
countrymen."

" That, my dear lady, is because we are descended
from your countrywomen," he replied, quick as a flash
and suave as a knight of the Round Table.

In June, 1833, he visited Boston, where he was given
a great reception. "The crowning glory of the day
was his trip to Cambridge. There the general surveyed
with rapt interest the site of the camp where Wash-
ington's army assembled in 1775. Standing on the
spot where the old headquarters flagstaff stood, he
took off his hat, raised his right hand, and said : ' Let
us be reverent here. This is the spot where our people
first gathered in full force under a great commander to
defend their rights. Let us in silence raise our right
hands to the memory of Washington and his patriot
army, with the single thought that our right hands
shall ever keep the liberty theirs gained !' "

" Few eyes were dry," said John Quincy Adams,
commenting afterwards on this scene.

On this occasion Harvard College conferred upon
him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Buell thus de-
scribes the scene:

"Francis Bowen, leader of the Class of 1833, on
behalf of the college boys, pronounced the salutatory in
Latin. In the exordium he said : ' Harvard welcomes /

269

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Jackson as President. She embraces Jackson the
Patriot/ Wild applause greeted this phrase — cheers
from the people, college yells from ' the boys.' The
general turned to Levi Woodbury and asked him to
translate it. * You're a college man, Woodbury/ he
said, ' my Latin is a little rusty. All I can make out is
something about patriots/

" Mr. Woodbury, who was a graduate of Dartmouth
and a thorough classical scholar, gave an accurate trans-
lation of Bowen's phrase. ' A splendid compliment, sir,
a splendid compliment/ said Jackson. ' But why talk
about as live a thing as patriotism in a dead language ?'

" After the ceremony the undergraduates were all
introduced to the President. As each one took the dis-
tinguished guest's hand he addressed him by his new
title, ' Doctor Jackson/ to the infinite edification and
amusement of the grizzly old warrior. He then made a
brief address of thanks and farewell. ' I shall have to
speak in English, not being able to return your com-
pliment in what appears to be the language of Harvard.
All the Latin I know is E. Pluribus Unumf 'At which/
says Mr. Woodbury, 'there was even louder and
longer applause than that which greeted Mr. Bowen's
happy phrase ; but this was probably because the people
could understand General Jackson's Latin better than
they could Mr. Bowen's."

From Josiah Quincy's " Figures of the Past" I ex-
cerpt another account:

" The exercises in the chapel were for the most part
in Latin. My father [Josiah Quincy, president of Har:
vard University. — C. T. B.] addressed the President
[Jackson] in that language, repeating a composition
upon which he somewhat prided himself, for Doctor
Beck, after making two verbal corrections in his manu-
script, held it to be as good Latin as a man need write.
Then we had some more Latin from young Mr. Francis

270

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

Bowen, of the senior class, a gentleman whose name has
since been associated with so much fine and weighty
English. There were also a few modest words pre-
sumably in the vernacular, though scarcely audible,
from the recipient of the doctorate.

" But it has already been intimated that there were
two Jacksons who were at that time making the tour
of New England. One was the person whom I have
endeavored to describe, the other may be called the
Jackson of comic myth, whose adventures were minutely
set forth by Mr. Jack Downing and his brother humor-
ists. [Jack Downing was a New York merchant,
Charles A. Davis, who wrote a series of letters to the
papers purporting to give an account of the journey,
as if he were a correspondent with the Jackson party.
There was, of course, not a word of truth in the ridicu-
lous but witty nonsense that he perpetrated, although it
mightily amused the readers thereof, and much of it is
funny now. — C. T. B.] The Harvard degree, as be-
stowed upon this latter personage, offered a situation
which the chroniclers of the grotesque could in no wise
resist.

" A hint of Downing was seized upon and expanded
as it flew from mouth to mouth, until at last it has
actually been met skulking near the back door of his-
tory in a form something like this: General Jackson,
upon being harangued in Latin, found himself in a posi-
tion of immense perplexity. It was simply decent for
him to reply in the learned language in which he was
addressed, but, alas! t$ie Shakespearian modicum of
* small Latin' was all that Old Hickory possessed, and
what he must do was clearly to rise to the situation and
make the most of it. There were those college fellows
chuckling over his supposed humiliation, but they were
to meet a man who was not to be caught in the classical
trap they had set for him. Rising to his feet just at the

271

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

proper moment, the new Doctor of Laws astounded
the assembly with a Latin address in which Dr. Beck
himself was unable to discover a single error. A brief
quotation from this eloquent production will be suffi-
cient to exhibit its character: ' Caveat emptor; carpus
delicti; ex post facto; dies ire; e pluribus unutn;
usque ad nauseam; Ursa Major; sic semper tyrannis;
quid pro quo; requiescat in pace/ Now this foolery
was immensely taking in the day of it, and mimics were
accustomed to throw social assemblies into paroxysms
of delight by imitating Jackson in the delivery of his
Latin speech. The story was, on the whole, so good
as showing how the man of the people could triumph
over the crafts and subtleties of classical pundits that
all Philistia wanted to believe it. And so it came to
pass, as time went on, part of Philistia did believe it,
for I have heard it mentioned as an actual occurrence by
persons who may not shrink from a competitive exami-
nation in history whenever government offices are to be
entered through that portal."

Adams characterized the conferring of this degree as
" a sycophantic compliment," and spitefully and most
unjustly wrote in his diary, "As myself, an affec-
tionate child of our Alma Mater, I would not be present
to witness her disgrace in conferring her highest liter-
ary honors upon a barbarian who could not write a
sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own
name."

Neither spelling nor grammar were Jackson's points,
but, nevertheless, Adams's venomous charge is grossly
exaggerated.

"They are welcome, sir," said Jackson himself on
one occasion, referring to a fear lest someone should get
access to his private papers through a servant whom
he insisted in retaining, " to anything they can get out
of my papers, They will find there, among other things,

272

•SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

false grammar and bad spelling ; but they are welcome ^
to it all, grammar and spelling included. Let them
make the most of it. Our government, sir, is founded
upon the intelligence of the people; it has no other
basis ; upon their capacity to arrive at right conclusions
in regard to measures and in regard to men; and I
am not afraid of their failing to d6 so from any use »
that can be made of anything that can be got out of myJ
papers." ^

Before this visit to Boston he had been honored with
a parade in New York. He refused to be driven in a
carriage, saying that he wanted a horse that it took a
man to ride. He was a daring and splendid horseman,
but in this instance he got a fierce, unruly animal, which,
as he was not properly bitted and as his rider had no
spurs, Jackson had great difficulty in controlling. The
violent efforts he made brought on another of those
hemorrhages which he had so often experienced from
the result of his old duel wound.

After leaving Boston the Presidential party went on
to New Hampshire. With them went Senator Isaac
Hill, who has left some interesting reminiscences of
the journey. Jackson was received by a committee at
the State capital and to them he made the following
remarks :

" It gives me great pleasure to visit the State and
greet the fellow-citizens of John and Molly Stark/'
Then he told them that he had the pleasure of being
with President Monroe at the White House when he
signed the special act of Congress granting a pension
of sixty dollars a month to General Stark. " I was
major-general commanding the southern division then,"
he said, " and called on the President to talk over the
Indian troubles, which led to what some people call my
unauthorized invasion of Florida the next year." (Pro-
longed applause.) "While we were talking, Mr.
18 273

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Gouverneur (Monroe's private secretary) brought in
some enrolled bills, and the one to pension General
Stark was the first in the packet. The President looked
at it, handed it to me, and asked, with a twinkle in his
eye: 'Do you recommend the approval of this bill,
General ? I mean not in your present capacity as major-
general, but as a Revolutionary soldier and comrade of
General Stark?' I assured him I did — in both capaci-
ties— and he at once signed the bill." (Tremendous
applause.)

Hill had arranged at Concord for a number of Revo-
lutionary veterans to meet Jackson. Among them was
one Jonathan Wells, of Amoskeag, eighty-nine years
old, the patriarch of the party. He had served with
Paul Jones when he captured the "Drake" and the
" Serapis" in the " Ranger" and the " Richard." After
a careful inspection of the President the aged man spoke
to him as follows :

Gin'ral, you remind me a good deal of old Com-
modore (meaning, of course, Jones) except you're some
bigger'n he was; and from what I've heard and read
about you, you're a good deal like him too — in par-
ticular about the English! And I want to tell you,
Gin'ral, that you and him gave them English the two
d — dest lickings they ever got!'

" The General's eyes were full of tears. ' Gentlemen,'
he said, as soon as he could find voice, 'that is the
most flattering compliment ever paid me, and I've en-
joyed a good many!' He then declared that he could
not sufficiently control his feelings to make a speech to
them. But he had each of them run his finger along a
furrow on the left side of his head, concealed by his
thick hair. ' That is my certificate of service in the
Revolution,' he said ; ' that scar is proof that I refused
to black a British officer's boots when I was a prisoner
of war!'"

274

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

Apropos of the present revival of interest in Jones
this statement, which Jackson made to Blair, and which
Buell has preserved, is of abiding interest:

" The whole corporation of admirals in naval history,
sir, were not equal to Paul Jones! They surrendered
when their ships began to sink. But he just began
to fight, sir, at that moment ! I have read Colonel Sher-
burne's book about him, with his own letters. [Pub-
lished in 1825.] The English called him a pirate. I
venture to say that they held opinions of me at times
not much different. He was the Washington of our
navy; Father of his Country on the sea!"

I close this chapter by inserting the interesting and
amusing correspondence between Jackson and Commo-
dore Elliott anent the sarcophagus of Severus, which
seems to have escaped the notice it merits from its un-
conscious humor at the hands of most of his historians.
I quote it from a curious volume published in 1846, enti-
tled " Monument to the Memory of Andrew Jackson,
containing Twenty-five Eulogies and Sermons Delivered
on the Occasion of his Death." If Elliott had possessed
the sense of humor that most sailors enjoy he would
never have made so preposterous an offer, especially to
a man like Jackson. The reply of the old hero closes,
it will be noticed, with a touching tribute to his wife
and a moving affirmation of his Christian faith. And
the whole correspondence took place but a few months
before his death.

" Washington City, March 18, 1845.

"My dear General: Last night I made something of a
speech at the National Institute, and have offered for their
acceptance the sarcophagus which I obtained at Palestine,
brought home in the ' Constitution/ and believed to contain the
remains of the Roman Emperor, Alexander Severus, with the
suggestion that it might be tendered you for your final resting-
place. I pray, you, General, to live on in the fear of the Lord;

275

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

dying the death of a Roman soldier, an emperor's coffin
awaits you.

"I am truly your old friend,

" Jesse D. Elliott.

"To General Andrew Jackson."

" Hermitage, March 27, 1845.

" Dear Sir: Your letter of the eighteenth inst, together with
the copy of the proceedings of the National Institute, furnished
me by their corresponding secretary, on the presentation by you
of the sarcophagus for their acceptance, on condition it shall be
preserved, and in honor of my memory, have been received,
and are now before me.

" Although laboring under great debility and affliction, from
a severe attack from which I may not recover, I raise my pen
and endeavor to reply. The steadiness of my nerves may per-
haps lead you to conclude my prostration of strength is not so
great as here expressed! Strange as it may appear, my nerves
are as steady as they were forty years gone by, whilst, from
debility and affliction, I am gasping for breath.

" I have read the whole proceedings of the presentation by
you of the sarcophagus and the resolutions passed by the board
of directors, so honorable to my fame, with sensations and
feelings more easily to be conjectured than by me expressed
The whole proceedings call for my most grateful thanks, which
are hereby tendered to you, and through you to the president
and directors of the National Institute. But with the warmest
sensations that can inspire a grateful heart, I must decline
accepting the honor intended to be bestowed. I cannot consent
that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for
an emperor or king. My republican feelings and principles
forbid it; the simplicity of our system of government forbids
it. Every monument erected -to perpetuate the memory of our
heroes and statesmen ought to bear evidence of the economy
and simplicity of our republican institutions and the plainness
of our republican citizens, who are the sovereigns of our glo-
rious Union, and whose virtue it is to perpetuate it True
virtue cannot exist where pomp and parade are the governing
passions ; it can only dwell with the people — the great laboring
and producing classes that form the bone and sinew of our
confederacy.

" For these reasons I cannot accept the honor you and the
president and directors of the National Institute intended to

276

I ,iTl'4 1^ L^BBN^

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SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

bestow. I cannot permit my remains to be the first in these
United States to be deposited in a sarcophagus made for an
emperor or king. I again repeat, please accept for yourself,
and convey to the president and directors of the National In-
stitute, my most profound respects for the honor you and they
intended to bestow. I have prepared a humble depository for
my mortal body beside that wherein lies my beloved wife,
where, without pomp or parade, I have requested, when my
God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid, for both of
us there to remain until the last trumpet sounds to call the
dead to judgment, when we, I hope, shall rise together, clothed
with that heavenly body promised to all who believe in our
glorious Redeemer, who died for us that we might live, and by
whose atonement I hope for a blessed immortality.

"I am, with great respect,

" Your friend and fellow-citizen,

" Andrew Jackson.

" To Com. J. D. Elliott, United States Navy."

" Navy Yard, Philadelphia, April 8, 1845.

" Gentlemen : The interest which the National Institute has
been pleased to take in the eventual bestowment of the remains
of the honored Andrew Jackson in the sarcophagus which I
brought from abroad and deposited in your institute makes it
my business now to communicate to you a copy of his letter of
the twenty-seventh ultimo, lately received, on that subject.

" With sentiments so congenial to his strict republicanism —
and in accordance, indeed, with the republican feelings common
to ourselves — he takes the ground of repugnance to connecting
his name and fame in any way with imperial associations.

" We cannot but honor the sentiments which have ruled his
judgment in the case, for they are such as must add to the
lustre of his character. We subscribe to them ourselves; and
while we yield to their force, we may still be permitted to con-
tinue our regard to the enduring marble, as to an ancient and
classic relic — a curiosity in itself, and particularly in this coun-
try, as the first of its kind seen in our Western Hemisphere.

" From it we would deduce the moral, that, while we should
disclaim the pride, pomp, and circumstance of imperial
pageantry, as unfitting our institutions and professions, we
would sedulously cherish the simpler republican principle of
reposing our fame and honors in the hearts and affections of
our countrymen.

277

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" I have now, in conclusion, to say that, as the sarcophagus
was originally presented with the suggestion of using it as
above-mentioned, I now commit it wholly to the institute as
their own and sole property, exempt from any condition.

"I am, very respectfully, yours, &c,

" Jesse Duncan Elliott.
" To the President and Directors of the National Institute at

Washington"

278

XIV

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

Of all the temptations that have come to me in the
literary field, that which would fain move me to write
a history of Jackson's administration is the hardest to
be resisted. Indeed, in preparing this book the hard
thing has been to determine, not so much what, as
what not, to write.

No other man who ever occupied the Presidential
chair had so strenuous a time of it as Jackson. No man
ever fought harder for what he believed to be right
during his tenure of office than he. To no man except
Lincoln were such grave questions submitted for adju-
dication. In one instance — Nullification — Jackson was
enabled to render the greatest public service of any
President prior to 1861. On the other hand, during his
regime, and with him actively participating, was estab-
lished a most pernicious practice — the Spoils System —
which debauched the administration of public affairs
for nearly three-quarters of a century, and from which
enlightened public opinion has but slowly been able to
disentangle them.

Midway between this great service and its balancing
disservice, the most conspicuous achievement in his
whole career, save the New Orleans campaign and his
Nullification position, was his war on the Second Bank
of the United States. I think it is now generally ad-
mitted that the elimination of that bank and the doing
away with the financial system associated with it has
been beneficial on the whole. In books people — authors,
historians! — still rise up full of sound and fury and

279

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

denounce Jackson's course as iniquitous, notwithstand-
ing their somewhat reluctant but still undoubted ap-
proval of the end at which he aimed. Outside of books,
however, the matter is settled. No one can predicate
the future, but it seems certain that the system which de-
pended upon the establishment and maintenance of
such a bank will probably never again prevail in the
United States. Efforts to charter a similar institution
have been made several times — not in recent years, how-
ever— but always unavailingly. Were the bank in ex-
istence now in this age of graft (I sometimes wonder
if it is such an age of graft as the hue and cry would
fain persuade us) it is appalling to think what a source
of corruption such a colossal monetary monopoly in
alliance with the government, and to a certain extent
under its legislative and executive control, would be.
Yet other countries maintain similar financial institu-
tions and manage to exist with them with probably as
much honesty in their administration of affairs as there
is in ours.

Aside from Nullification, the Spoils System, and the
War on the Bank, there were minor occurrences in Jack-
son's administration for which he should, and does, re-
ceive great credit. Through him was enforced the pay-
ment of the spoliation claims by France, although his
methods were shockingly undiplomatic, and by a mes-
sage to Congress in which he threatened to use force
unless payment was made at once he affronted the whole
French nation and seriously jeoparded the settlement
he meant to further ! France had delayed payment un-
duly and " it seemed to Jackson that this state of things
called for spirited action. Moreover, Livingston wrote
a very important despatch from Paris, in which he said
that there was a disposition in France to wait and see
what the (President's) message would be; also that
the moderate tone of the United States up to this time

280

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

had had a bad effect. ' From all this you may imagine
the anxiety I shall feel for the arrival of the President's
message. On its tone will depend, very much, not only
the payment of our claims, but our national reputation
for energy.' " The national reputation for energy did
not suffer in Jackson's hands ! The message was suffi-
ciently peppery in its tone to exceed Livingston's fondest
expectations — and no doubt greatly dismayed him.

It was only by accepting the mediation of England
and thus giving the French people time to see that
such a paper as Jackson's did not absolve them from
the payment of their just and formally acknowledged
debts that the matter was amicably settled at last. And
Jackson was not any too happy in the thought that he
owed anything at all to England, either. As usual, in
this matter he had a right end in mind, to bring about
which he went at it in the wrong way. However, the
great fact in the popular mind was that he did things.
In common but expressive phrase, Jackson " got there."
The American people love the ability to do things, " to
get there," more than almost any other quality in man —
or woman, for that matter !

Jackson ascribed his success to his " perseverance in
the demands of justice, and took occasion to admonish
other powers, if any, inclined to evade those demands
that they would never be abandoned."

Again, the question of trade between the United
States and the British West Indies had been a source
of irritation and dissatisfaction ever since the establish-
ment of the nation. Jackson brought this question to
a happy issue and established proper trade, relations
which have subsisted until this day.

The setting apart of the Indian Territory and the
translation of the southern Indians thereto also took
place under Jackson's auspices.

It is not pretended that the Indians were treated with
281

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

absolute fairness. So far as I can learn, after much
study of our Indian affairs, absolute justice has rarely
characterized the course of the United States, but this
was perhaps the best — certainly the most feasible —
method of dealing with the question, which was at one
time so acute that the State of Georgia defied the
Supreme Court, which had decided against it in a case
involving the rights of the Creek nation. The itnperium
in itnperio maintained by the Creeks within the sover-
eign state of Georgia presented an intolerable state of
affairs.

The enforcement of the decision of the court rested,
properly enough, with the Executive. Jackson, who
liked neither Marshall, the Chief- Justice, nor the court's
view of the matter, did nothing. " John Marshall has
pronounced his judgment/' he chuckled, " now let him
enforce it, if he can!" Quite a different position did
the President take when another State defied him, as
representing the United States.

Jackson's course in checking the disposition of Con-
gress to appropriate money to make indefinite and ex-
pensive internal improvements at the public expense un-
doubtedly stopped an infinite number of jobs and set a
mark for succeeding administrations. On the tariff
Jackson was a limited protectionist, tending towards
lower duties, a tariff for revenue only, and ultimately to
free trade.

" ' The tariff might/ Jackson declared, ' be constitu-
tionally used for protective purposes ; but the deliberate
policy of his party was now plainly intimated. In his
first message he ' regretted that the complicated restric-
tions which now embarrass the intercourse of nations
could not by common consent be abolished/ In another
message he wrote that 'as long as the encouragement
of domestic manufactures' was 'directed to national
ends ... it should receive from him a temperate but

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

steady support/ But this must be taken in connection
with another statement in the same paper to the effect
that the people had a right to demand * the reduction of
every tax to as low a point as the wise observance of
the necessity to protect that portion of our manufactures
and labor, whose prosperity is essential to our national
safety and independence, will allow/ "

While in the Senate during his second term he had
written :

" It is well known that I am in favor ... of en-
couraging by a fair competition the manufacture of the
national means of defence within ourselves, and not to
depend in time of 'war to procure those means from the
precarious source of commerce, which must always be
interrupted by war, and, as in the last war, could not
be obtained, and when obtained it was at a war price,
to the great injury of the treasury. I am for pursuing a
plan that will insure our national defence and national
independence, encourage our agricultural portion of the
community, and with it manufactures and commerce
as handmaids of agriculture, and look to the tariff —
after these objects are obtained — with an eye to revenue,
to meet and extinguish our national debt. This is my
course; my conscience tells me it is right, and I will
pursue it."

In the case of Texas, Jackson brought about its
recognition, and ardently favored its incorporation in
the Union, for which he was in large measure responsi-
ble ; and he cannot be held guiltless of participation in
the outrageous bullying to which Mexico was subjected
by the United States.* "I determined," he wrote to
Lewis, "to use my influence, after the battle of San
Jacinto, to have the independence of Texas acknowl-

* For a comprehensive description of this national iniquity see
my book, The Conquest of the South West.

283

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

excluding Delaware, South Carolina, Maine, New York,
Maryland, and Tennessee, where the votes were cast
by the Legislatures or by districts, the popular vote was
648,273 for Jackson to 508,064 for Adams. Jackson
got only one vote from New England, from a Maine
district where the vote was, Jackson, 4223; Adams,
4028. In Tennessee Jackson received 44,000 to 2000
for Adams. In Pennsylvania, 100,000 to 50,000 for
Adams. Apropos of the Keystone State, Adams sneer-
ingly referred to Pennsylvanians as people " whose
fanatical passion for Andrew Jackson can be compared
to nothing but that of Titania, Queen of the Fairies,

for Bottom after his assification.'
In i8», with South Carolina

alone voting by Legis-
lature, Jackson received 707,000 votes; Clay, 329,000;
Wirt, 255,000. In deep disgust Wirt declared his belief
that Jackson could have been reelected for life if he had
wished. On the other hand, Sumner writes : " There
was some talk of a third term for Jackson, but it never
grew strong. The precedents were cited against it
Jackson's bad health and Van Buren's aspirations were
perhaps stronger objections. Adams says that Jack-
son had 'wearied out the sordid subserviency of his
superiors.' That is not at all improbable." As to that
last fling, Jackson was more strongly entrenched than
ever before in the popular favor on the day he left the
Presidency ; and, what is more, ever since his death he
has been growing stronger in both the critical and the
popular estimation.

Parton maintains that in these contests " nearly all the
talent, nearly all the learning, nearly all the ancient
wealth, nearly all the business activity, nearly all the
book-nourished intelligence, nearly all the silver-forked
civilization of the country, united in opposition to Gen-
eral Jackson, who represented the country's untutored
instincts." This is another one of those general state-

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

ments which are so hard to combat, although they are
by no means true.

What did Jackson himself think of the Presidency?
Naturally, a man could not be as prominent as Jackson,
nor do the things which Jackson had done, nor be at-
tacked as Jackson was attacked, nor defend himself as
Jackson had defended himself, without being considered
for President; and, notwithstanding much vociferous
testimony to the contrary, in some respects Jackson was
an ideal candidate. Lloyd Bryce in the American Com-
monwealth says, " Firmness, common-sense, and, most
of all, honesty, and honesty aJjQgejdljiu^gi^ per-
sonal interest, are the qualities which the country
chiefly nee3s in the first magistrate." This is almost a
description of Jackson so far as it goes. And then he
was a military hero, the greatest and most conspicuous
in the country, and Americans have ever loved the suc-
cessful soldier. Scott, among those who have aspired to
it, is the only successful soldier who has failed of attain-
ing the Presidency, unless it be Hancock, who is hardly
great enough to come under the designation.

Beside all this, Jackson "was in accord with his
generation. He had a clear perception that the toiling
millions are not a class in the community, but are the
community. He knew and felt that government should
exist only for the benefit of the governed; that the
strong are strong only that they may aid the weak;
that the rich are rightfully rich that they may so com-
bine and direct the labors of the poor as to make labor
more profitable to the laborer. He did not comprehend
these truths as they are demonstrated by Jefferson and
Spencer, but he had an intuitive and instinctive percep-
tion of them. And in his most autocratic moments he
really thought that he was fighting the battle of the
people and doing their will while baffling the purposes
of their representatives." The people finally came to

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THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

think so too, and they think it more and more as time
dims the rancor of party hatreds and enables the human
mind, so prone to prejudice, to see clearly and accu-
rately and to decide without bias.

But Jackson neither sought nor desired the Presidency
at first. Modesty was not the general's strong point,
and yet he was quite decided that his talents did not run
in that direction. Judge Breckinridge, Jackson's sec-
retary in Florida, thus refers to Jackson's own opinion
of himself: "I shall never forget the evening (in Pen-
sacola, 182 1 ) when, in the presence of Mr. Henry Wil-
son and some other gentlemen, he took up a New York
newspaper in which he was mentioned as a probable can-
didate for the office of President of the United States.
After reading it he threw it down in anger. ' Do they
think,' said he, ' that I am such a d — d fool as to think
myself fit for President of the United States? No, sir;
I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of
men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President.'
We were silent, but all gave him credit, as I afterwards
found, for this proof of good sense. He had resolved
to retire from public life and pass the remainder of his
days in peace and quiet on his farm."

William B. Lewis, who knew Jackson better than any
of his friends and contemporaries, said : " When Jack-
son was fighting the battles of his country, and ac-
quiring for himself and it imperishable glory, he never
once thought, as I verily believe, of reaching the Presi-
dency. He did not dream of such a thing — the idea
never entered his imagination. All he aimed at or de-
sired at the time was military renown, acquired by
patriotic services. This he prized far above all civil
fame, and does even now, if I know anything of the
feelings of his heart. He was naturally and essentially
a military man."

A member of the Tennessee Legislature wrote Jack-

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

son a letter proposing his nomination, closing with this
sentence, " All we want is the belief that you will per-
mit your name to be used." To which the general
replied : " I have earnestly to request my friends, and
beg of you, not to press me on an acceptance of the ap-
pointment. If appointed, I could not decline, and yet,
in accepting it, I should do great violence to my wishes
and my feelings. The length of time I have passed in
public service authorizes me to make this request, which
with my friends, I trust, will be considered reasonable
and proper."

His friends were not to be denied, however, and
through their efforts he was placed actively in nomina-
tion. Concerning his part in the course of events there-
after he wrote thus to Captain Donelson : " In this con-
test I take, no part. I have long since prepared my
heart to say with heart-felt submission, ' May the Lord's
will be done/ If it is intended by Providence that I
should fill the Presidential chair, I will submit to it
with all humility, and endeavor to labor four years with
an eye single to the public good, imploring the guidance
of Providence in all things. But be assured, it will be
an event that I have never wished nor expected. My
only ambition was to spend the remainder of my days
in domestic retirement with my little family. It has
turned out otherwise, to my great annoyance."

His position, apparently, was not desirous, but recep-
tive. I do not mean this in the ordinary sneering sense
in which a public man is now said to be in a receptive
condition. I explain it in his own words to Colonel
Wilson: "That General Jackson's course requires
neither falsehood nor intrigue to support it. He has
been brought before the nation by the people without
his knowledge, wishes, or consent. His support is the
people. And so long as they choose to support him,
as to himself he will not interfere. Hs will neither
19 389

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

resign his pretensions, intrigue, nor combine with any
man nor set of men, nor has he ever combined or in-
trigued."

In February, 1824, he wrote as follows to Major
Lewis :

"The Presidential question begins to agitate the
minds of the people much., The attempt of a small
minority of the members of Congress to get up a caucus
and force public opinion to take up a particular candi-
date will still agitate it more, and I trust will eventuate
in prostrating the caucus system altogether. Should the
people suffer themselves to be dictated to by designing
demagogues who carry on everything by intrigue and
management, they cannot expect to see their present
happy government perpetuated. It must sink under the
scenes of corruption that will be practised under such
a system; and, in time, open bribery may, and I have
no doubt will, be resorted to to obtain a seat in a Presi-
dential chair if the people do not assume their rights of
choosing a President for themselves.,,

And again he writes later to the same : " I have no
doubt if I was to travel to Boston where I have been
invited that it would ensure my election. But this I
cannot do. I would feel degraded for the balance of
my life. If I ever fill that office it must be the free
choice of the people. I can then say I am the Presi-
dent of the nation, and my acts shall comport with that
character."

After the election and the choice of Adams by the
House of Representatives he emphatically re-stated his
position to Samuel Swartwout in the following words:
" I did not solicit the office of President ; it was the
frank and flattering call of the freemen of this coun-
try, not mine, which placed my name before the nation.
When they failed in their colleges to make a choice, no
one beheld me seeking, through art or management, to

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POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

entice any representative in Congress from a conscien-
tious responsibility to his own, or the wishes of his /
constituents. No midnight taper burnt by me; no
secret conclaves were held; nor cabals entered into to
persuade any one to a violation of pledges given or of
instructions received. By me no plans were concerted
to impair the pure principles of our republican institu-
tions, nor to prostrate that fundamental maxim, which
maintains the supremacy of the people's will. On the
contrary, having never in any manner, either before the
people or Congress, interfered in the slightest degree .
with the question, my conscience stands void of offence,
and will go quietly with me, regardless of the insinua- I
tions of those who, through management, may seek an
influence not sanctioned by integrity and merit.,,

In his own opinion of his unfitness for the Residency
— which he got bravely over before very long! — Jack-
son was sustained by the opinions of a great many
public men. Indeed, the unanimity with which they
regarded him as an impossible occupant of the executive
chair, and the publicity they gave to their feelings; was
perhaps one of the reasons why he changed his mind as
to his own unfitness. Clay was the principal antagonist
of Jackson and the chief advocate of Adams's election
by the House. He had before expressed his opinion of
Jackson and did not hesitate to do so unreservedly at
this period:

"As a friend of liberty, and to the permanence of
our institutions," he wrote to Francis Brooks, " I can-
not consent, in this early stage of their existence, by
contributing to the election of a military chieftain, to
give the strongest guaranty that the republic will march
in the fatal road which has conducted every other re-
public to ruin." So again he wrote to Blair : " Mr.
Adams, you know well, I should never have selected,
if at liberty to draw from the whole mass of our citi-

291

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

zens, for a President. But there is no danger in his
elevation now or in time to come. Not so of his com-
petitor, of whom I cannot believe that killing two thou-
sand five hundred Englishmen at New Orleans quali-
fies for the various difficult and complicated duties of
the chief magistracy." These were his honest opinions.
How could he vote to make Jackson President?

As to the charge that Jackson was a military chief-
tain, the general closes his letter to Swartwout with
this famous defence : " I became a soldier for the good
of my country. Difficulties met me at every step, but I
thank God it was my good fortune to surmount them.
The war over, and peace restored, I retired to my farm
to private life, where, but for the call I received to the
Senate of the Union, I should have contentedly re-
mained. I have never sought office or power, nor have
I ever been willing to hold any post longer than I could
be useful to my country, not myself; and I trust I
never shall. If these things make me one, I am a
' military chieftain/ "

Gallatin thus contributed his meed of dispraise.
" Andrew Jackson was an honest man, and the idol of
the worshippers of military glory, but from incapacity,
military habits, and habitual disregard of laws and con-
stitutional provisions, entirely unfit for the office of
President."

Senator Mills wrote of him that " he was considered
extremely rash and inconsiderate; tyrannical and des-
potic in his principles. A personal acquaintance with
him has convinced many who had these opinions that
they were unfounded. He is very mild and amiable in
his disposition, of great benevolence, and his manners,
although formed in the wilds of the West, exceedingly
polished and polite. Everybody that knows him loves
him, and he is exactly the man with whom you (his
wife) would be delighted. ... He has all the ardor

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POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

and enthusiasm of youth and is as free from guile as an
infant. ... A personal acquaintance with him has dis-
sipated all my prejudices. . . . But with all General
Jackson's good and great qualities, I should be very
sorry to see him President of the United States. His
early education was very deficient, and his mode of
thinking and habits of life partake too much of war
and military glory."

And Jefferson did not hesitate to contribute to the
chorus of detraction : " I feel very much alarmed at
the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He
is one of the most unfit men I know of for the place.
He has had very little respect for laws or constitutions,
and is, in fact, an able military chief. His passions are
terrible. He has been much tried since I knew him,
but he is a dangerous, man." On the other hand, Jack-
son's courtly bearing won for him all the ladies. Web-
ster wrote : " General Jackson's manners are more
Presidential than those of any of the candidates. He is
grave, mild, and reserved. My wife is for him de-
cidedly." Adams, the Gadfly statesman, referred to him
as " a barbarian and savage who could scarcely spell his
name."

The enmity between Jackson and Clay arose from
Clay's attempt to have Jackson censured in Congress
for that famous Florida campaign. Clay, in his speech,
tried to avoid any suspicion of personal animosity. " I
must cheerfully and entirely," he said, " acquit General
Jackson of any intention to violate the laws of the
country or the obligations of humanity. I am per-
suaded from all I have heard that he considered himself
as equally respecting and observing both." And again :
" I hope not to be misunderstood ; I am far from inti-
mating that General Jackson cherished any designs in-
imical to the liberty of the country. I believe his inten-
tions to be pure and patriotic." Yet his peroration was

293

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

as intense as though Jackson had been engaged in con-
spiracy and treason.

Jackson, however, was not mollified or placated by
these expressions. The attack was ill-advised. It
proved the most calamitous and far-reaching of Clay's
political mistakes. " The rage and disgust of the gen-
eral," says Parton, "when he read the speech were
extreme. The long feud between General Jackson and
Mr. Clay dated from the delivery of this speech. Jack-
son never hated any man so bitterly and so long as he
hated Henry Clay."

Thereafter he and Clay were the most inveterate
enemies. That Clay failed to realize his lifelong ambi-
tion to the Presidency was entirely due to Jackson.
Clay added fuel to the fire of hatred engendered be-
tween them by bringing about the election of Adams
by the House of Representatives. By the Constitution
only the three candidates receiving the highest number
of votes could be voted for by the House. Clay's vote
was exceeded by those of Jackson, Adams, and Craw-
ford. Naturally, Clay threw his influence and vote to
Adams and secured his election. Adams appointed
Clay his Secretary of State, and so far as he could
approved of him as his successor when he should retire.

Jackson became so convinced that the election of
Adams and the appointment of Clay was the result of a
corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay that he re-
peated the charge everywhere and believed it to the day
of his death, although it was thoroughly disproved
eventually. Clay's preference for Adams was natural
and understandable. Clay was shrewd enough to see
that, for one thing, Adams would never be such a rival
as Jackson would be. As Clay was a good fighter, so
he was a good hater. He was a natural, human man,
and he had no more love for Jackson than Jackson had
for him. Why should he have voted for Jackson ?

294

JOHN QU1NCY ADAMS
From a photograph

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENf

Adams publicly delivered himself thus concerning the
charge of corrupt bargaining: " Prejudice and passion
have charged Mr. Clay with obtaining office by bar-
gain and corruption. Before you, my fellow-citizens, in
the presence of your country and Heaven, I pronounce
that charge totally unfounded. This tribute of justice is
due from me to him, and I seize with pleasure the oppor-
tunity afforded me of discharging the obligation."

Jackson's tendency, it must be admitted, was to be-
lieve ill of those whom he hated. It is not statesman-
like, but it is human, although deplorable. He was
not convinced by the repeated denials and disclaimers.
With Clay it was a case of " Give the devil a bad name/'
for " it was, moreover, a fixed idea in the general's
mind that the secret originator of the calumnies against
Mrs. Jackson was no other than Mr. Clay. Mr. Clay
solemnly denied and completely disproved the charge,
but he could never remove that fixed idea from the soul
of General Jackson."

Jackson's administration might be characterized as a
long, bitter fight with Clay, in which " Harry of the
West" came out second best. If Andrew Jackson had
not been on the scene, I think there is little doubt that
Clay would have become President of the United States.
Clay's famous statement that " I would rather be right
than be President" may be taken with a grain of salt.
At any rate, he never was President and he was fre-
quently wrong, although I do not for a moment believe
that Jackson's opinion of him was justified.

Jackson's hatred of Clay was so intense that when he
became President he could not wait a second to relieve
him from office. Carl Schurz calls attention to the
following : " On March 4, just before he went to the
Capitol to take the oath of office, he put into the hands
of Colonel James A. Hamilton, of New York, his
trusted adherent, a letter running thus :

295

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" ' Sir : You arc appointed to take charge of the Department
of State, and to perform the duties of that office until Governor
Van Buren arrives in this city.

" ' Your obedient servant,

" ' Andrew Jackson/

A strange proceeding! Colonel Hamilton's account of
what then took place is characteristic: 'He (General
Jackson) said, " Colonel, you don't care to see me
inaugurated ?" " Yes, General, I do ; I came here for
that purpose." " No ; go to the State House, and as
soon as you hear the gun fired, I am President and you
are Secretary. Go and take charge of the department." '
Colonel Hamilton did as directed, and the moment the
gun was fired the danger that Clay might still exercise
any influence in the State Department was averted from
the country."

Four years after he had retired from the Presidency
he wrote thus of Clay to the Nashville Union:

"Sir: Being informed that the Hon. Henry Clay, of Ken-
tucky, in his public speech at Nashville yesterday alleged that
I had appointed the Hon. Edward Livingston Secretary of State
when he was a defaulter, and knowing him to be one, I feel
that I am justified in declaring the charge to be false. It is
known to all the country that the nominations made by the
President to the Senate are referred to appropriate committees
of that body, whose duty it is to inquire into the character of
the nominees, and that if there is any evidence of default, or
any disqualifying circumstances existing against them, a rejec-
tion of the nomination follows. Mr. Livingston was a member
of the Senate from the State of Louisiana when he was nomi-
nated by me. Can Mr. Clay say he opposed the confirmation of
his nomination because he was a defaulter? If so, the journals
of the Senate will answer. But his confirmation by the Senate
is conclusive proof that no such objection, if made, was sus-
tained, and I am satisfied that such a charge against him could
not have been substantiated.

" I am also informed that Mr. Clay charged me with appoint-
ing Samuel Swartwout collector of the port of New York,
knowing that he had been an associate of Aaron Burr. To this

296

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

charge it is proper to say that I knew of Mr. Swartwout's
connection with Aaron Burr, precisely as I did that of Mr.
Clay himself, who, if the history of the times do not do him
great injustice, was far from avoiding an association with Burr
when he was at the town of Lexington in Kentucky. Yet
Mr. Clay was appointed Secretary of State, and I may say,
confidently, with recommendations for character and fitness not
more favorable than those produced to me by the citizens of
New York in behalf of Mr. Swartwout. Mr. Clay, too, at the
time of his appointment to that high office, it will be recollected,
was directly charged throughout the Union with having bar-
gained for it, and by none was this charge more earnestly made
than by his present associates in Tennessee, Messrs. Bell and
Foster.

"Under such circumstances how contemptible does this
demagogue appear when he descends from his high place in
the Senate and roams over the country retailing slanders
against the living and the dead"

To this communication Clay made an immediate re-
ply, giving a correct outline of his speech, and asserting
that he had spoken of General Jackson and his measures
only in proper and becoming terms. "With regard,"
he concluded, "to the insinuations and gross epithets
contained in General Jackson's note, alike impotent,
malevolent, and derogatory from the dignity of a man
who has filled the highest office in the universe, respect
for the public and for myself allow me only to say
that, like other similar missiles, they have fallen harm-
less at my feet, exciting no other sensation than that of
scorn and contempt.

" The only line of policy clearly foreshadowed when
Jackson took the oath of office was 'to reward his
friends and punish his enemies/ and this he relentlessly
pursued, whether the victim was treated with anger or
courtesy."

The second campaign of Jackson for the Presidency
has been noted as one conducted with peculiar virulence.
Bitter personalities of a character which have more

297

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

than once disgraced our Presidential campaigns since
then, but which it is fondly hoped are now eliminated
forever, were indulged in. We have seen how Jackson's
wife was attacked. It must be admitted that some of
the Jackson papers were not slow to make rejoinders
in kind.

Jackson himself was subjected to every kind of per-
sonal abuse. His duels were recalled to public atten-
tion. Even in those times large and influential numbers
of our citizens sternly reprobated resorting to the code,
but it was the practice, nevertheless, of a great majority
of gentlemen, especially in the South, and most people
thought then, and think now, none the less of Jackson
because he did defend his wife's honor at the pistol
point. Yet he was openly called a murderer for this
and for his military executions. As an evidence of the
ability with which Jackson's campaign was carried on
I note the following rejoinder to that charge:

" But there was a paragraph of two or three lines/
which was set afloat in the Jackson newspapers in the
course of the summer, that probably did as much as all
their publications to remove the impression made on the
average voter by the case of the six militiamen and the
executions in Florida. This was the paragraph :

" ' Jackson coolly and deliberately put to death upward of
fifteen hundred British troops on the eighth of January, 1815,
on the plains below %New Orleans for no other offence than that
they wished to sup in the city that night.'

" This was a crushing and blinding argument. For
those who could not read it, there was another, which
was legible to the most benighted intellect. In every
village, as well as upon the corners of many city streets,
was erected a hickory pole. Many of these poles were)

298

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

standing as late as 1845, rotting mementoes of the de-
lirium of 1828."

Now in the systematic effort which has been made
to belittle Jackson, it is stated that he was by no means
the choice of the people ; that there was nothing what-
ever spontaneous about his nomination and election;
that the people were manipulated by a band of expert
politicians, who for selfish ends desired to see Jackson
President; that the general himself was a mere child,
a puppet, in the hands of those managers; that the
apparent popularity of Jackson was not real; and,
lastly, that if left to themselves the people would have
left Jackson to himself. Such a charge is not un-
common. I recall modern instances where Presidents
have been elected by overwhelming, majorities, in which
the same claim has been made. Such a statement is an
insult to the intelligence of the American people and
argues an exiguous mind in the maker of it.

Now it is quite true, perhaps, that the four-pronged
silver forkers were in the main against the general, and
that those who used steel with two tines and sometimes
exploited the knife-blade as a shovel were for Jackson.
Yet you cannot write an indictment of fatuous folly,
expressed in an utter inability to know what they want,
against seven hundred thousand people. I have no
doubt that Jackson's campaigns were ably managed.
So were those of Cleveland, McKinley, or Roosevelt,
but I question very much whether management in politi-
cal campaigns has a great deal to do with elections,
after all. I am sometimes of the opinion that in most
of the Presidental elections the winning candidates
would have been elected by substantially the same votes
they received if the election had been held on the day
after nomination. What a relief — financial, mental,
journalistic — it would be if some such course could be
brought about, by the way. Of course there are cases

299

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

where the elections happen to be closely contested, where
little things, as Dr. Burchard, may turn the scale, but,
generally speaking, this is not so.

Parton, who is frequently right in his conclusions or
deductions and is almost invariably so in his facts or
premises, wisely says: "Respecting the character of
Andrew Jackson and his influence, there will still be
differences of opinion. One fact, however, has been
established: during the last thirty years of his life he
was the idol of the American people. His faults, what-
ever they were, were such as a majority of the Ameri-
can citizens of the last generation could easily forgive.
His virtues, whatever they were, were such as a ma-
jority of the American citizens of the last generation
could warmly admire. It is this fact which renders him
historically interesting. Columbus had sailed; Raleigh
and the Puritans had planted; Franklin had lived,
Washington fought, Jefferson written; fifty years of
democratic government had passed ; free schools, a free
press, a voluntary church, had done what they could to
instruct the people; the population of the country had
been quadrupled and its resources increased tenfold;
and the result of all was, that the people of the United
States had arrived at the capacity of honoring Andrew
Jackson before all other living men. People may hold
what opinions they will respecting the merits or de-
merits of this man ; but no one can deny that his invin-
cible popularity is worthy of consideration; for what
we lovingly admire, that, in some degree, we are."

Exactly! If Jackson was a knave or a fool, then
pretty much all Americans were to be included in the
same categories.

As Colyar puts it : " The most real issue in the Presi-
dential contest of 1828 was one which was not stated
at the time nor generally perceived. The question was
whether * universal suffrage/ so called, was to have any

300

ANDREW JACKSON

From the engraving made in 1852 by Thomas B. Welch of the portrait
by Thomas Sully, then in the possession of Francis Preston Blair

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

practical effect in the United States. Down to that
period in the history of the republic the educated few
had kept themselves uppermost. Cabinets, Congress-
men, Legislatures, governors, mayors, had usually
been chosen from the same class of society as that from
which governing men of Europe are chosen. Public
life was supposed to require an apprenticeship as much
as any private profession. In short, the ruling class in
the United States, as in all other countries, was chiefly
composed of men who had graduated at colleges and
had passed the greater part of their lives on car-
pets. . . . The sceptre was about to be wrested from
the hands of those who had not shown themselves
worthy to hold it. When they felt it going, however,
they made a vigorous clutch, and lost it only after a
desperate struggle."

Jackson's election, therefore, was in a certain sense a
rebellion, the result of a struggle on the part of the
plain people, then, as always, in the great majority, to
exercise their functions of citizenship as they had never
been exercised before. The Democratic party was the
creation of a revolution. It had to come sooner or later,
and it was fortunate for the United States that it came
when it did and that it had Andrew Jackson for its
protagonist.

" The old Federal party was the rich man's party ;
the new Democratic party was the poor man's party;
and of all the various differences between them, this
was the most real and essential one." " The Democratic
party speedily split in two wings under the leadership
respectively of the great Tennessean and his great rival
of Kentucky," says Schouler, "and never did popular
parties opposed to one another respond to personal
guidance so heartily as those which now grew up under
the leadership of those fierce combatants, always at
variance with each other, Clay and Jackson — the one

3oi

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

combining popular elements too intelligent and opinion-
ated not to show signs of jealous dissension, the other
having a blind democracy for a nucleus so dense, so
devoted, and withal so carefully disciplined that rivalry
was kept low and political mutiny punishable, as though
by martial law." Outside of the Jackson and Clay

1 Democrats there was for a time little else considered in

\ the way of political parties. The Federalists were dead
at last, and beyond resuscitation apparently.

Yet Jackson was the very man who had dispatched to
President Monroe the following sapient peace-instilling
proposition about party feeling. I am afraid the general
was slightly inconsistent at times : "... in every sec-

\ tion party and party feeling should be avoided. Now is
the time to exterminate the monster called party spirit.
By selecting characters most conspicuous for their pro-

f bity, virtue, capacity, and firmness, without any regard
to party, you will go far to, if not entirely, eradicate

j those feelings which, on former occasions, threw so
many obstacles in the way of government, and perhaps

\ have the pleasure and honor of uniting a people hereto-
fore politically divided. The chief magistrate of a great
and powerful nation should never indulge in party feel-
ings. His conduct should be liberal and disinterested,
always bearing in mind that he acts for the whole and
not a part of the community. By this course you will
exalt the national character and acquire for yourself a
fname imperishable as monumental marble. Consult no
party in your choice ; pursue the dictates of that un-
erring judgment which has so long and so often bene-

| fited our country and rendered conspicuous our rulers.
These are the sentiments of a friend. They are the feel-
ings— if I know my own heart — of an undissembled
patriot."

Jackson was so overwhelmingly elected in 1828 and
again in 1832 that it is idle to ascribe his election to

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POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

anything but himself. The years between his rejection
by the House of Representatives and his election by the
people materially changed his views. " Could I but
withdraw from the scenes that surround me to the
private walks of the Hermitage, how soon would I be
found in the solitary shades of my garden, at the tomb
of my dear wife, there to spend my days in silent sor-
row, and in peace from the toils and strife of this life,
with which I have been long since satisfied. But this is
denied me. I cannot retire with propriety. When my
friends dragged me before the public, contrary to my
wishes and that of my dear wife, I foresaw all this evil,
but I was obliged to bend to the wishes of my friends,
as it was believed it was necessary to perpetuate the
blessings of liberty to our country and to put down
misrule. My political creed compelled me to yield to
the call, and I consoled myself with the idea of having
the counsel and society of my dear wife; and one term
would soon run around, when we would retire to the
Hermitage and spend our days in the service of our
God."

During that first term, however, he became as anxious
for the office as any one, although, having been vindi-
cated by his first election, he had originally contemplated
but one term. When he resigned from the Senate he
referred with approbation to a proposed amendment to
the Constitution of the United States limiting the
power of the President in the selection of members
of Congress for government position in the follow-
ing terms : " I would impose a provision rendering any
member of Congress ineligible to office under the general
government during the term for which he was elected
and for two years thereafter, except in cases of judicial
office." Yet he appointed more members of Congress
than any of his predecessors and fought tooth and nail
for a second term, or would have had it been necessary.

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THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Truly an office looks differently as it is viewed from out
or in, and many a man is changed radically and finds
his opinions must be completely reversed, to say nothing
of his plans, after some honor has been thrust upon him.
Finding himself involved in controversies, with un-
settled affairs hangipg over him, he was compelled to
stand for reelection.

As to the charge that after his election Jackson was
a puppet in the hands of astute politicians, his so-called
" Kitchen Cabinet" of unofficial but paramount advisers,
it seems to be too absurd to require refutation, for if
there ever was a man who was an autocrat in the Presi-
dential chair, who did what he pleased, whether his
friends or advisers liked it or not, it was Jackson.
Schouler has discriminatingly pointed out this difference
between Jackson and Jefferson. " No President ever
ruled these United States in times of peace with a per-
sonal supremacy so absolute as the two great chieftains
of our democracy, Jackson and Jefferson, though in
methods and character they were so little alike. The one
! was a born manager of men, the other a stern dictator ;
the one philanthropic to the socially oppressed, the other
a hater rather of the social oppressor; each, however,
influenced by love of country, which was a ruling pas-
sion, by constitutional restraints somewhat independ-
ently interpreted, and, in later life at least, by an uncon-
scious bias to the side of the South whenever slavery was
threatened with violence by Northern agitators. This
last in Jefferson weakened his practical efforts in the
anti-slavery cause, though he was anti-slavery in senti-
ment to the end; in Jackson, who thought himself no
worse for being a master, if a kind one, it stimulated
the determination to make his section strong enough to
hold out against the abolitionists, for abolitionists and
nullifiers were all hell-hounds of disunion. Jefferson
had gently manipulated Congress ; Jackson ruled in de-

3<M

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

fiance of it, and by arraying the people, or rather a
party majority, on his side against it, until the tone of
his message, if not really insolent, was that of con-
scious infallibility."

He goes on to say that " Jackson's attitude towards
Congress was a singular one, such as no other President
ever maintained. He did not flatter the legislature and
at the same time lead it gently in the direction desired ;
still less did he wait patiently for its free will to be
manifested. As its course pleased or displeased him,
he would show anger, defiance, delight, but passive he
could not be. Yet he gained great influence over it;
and this was by always holding before Congress and
himself the idea that he stood with the people behind
him, determined to fulfil the people's wishes, and to
punish in their name whoever dared oppose their will."

During his famous dispute with the Senate over its
censure of his removal of the government deposits from
the Bank of the United States he was asked to transmit
to the Senate a paper he had read before his Cabinet
explaining his action. Jackson kept his paper and
transmitted this haughty reply instead :

" The Executive is a coordinate and independent
branch of the government equally with the Senate, and
I have yet to learn under what constitutional authority
that branch of the legislature has a right to require of
me an account of any communication, either verbally or
in writing, made to the heads of departments acting as
a Cabinet Council."

While not a conceited man in the unpleasant sense
of the term Jackson was profoundly sure, not only that
he was right, but that he would succeed in making
everybody else believe so. During his first term of
office he went on an excursion on a steamer down the
Chesapeake. " The boat was a crazy old tub, and the
waves were running high. An aged gentleman on
20 305

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

board exhibited a good deal of alarm. ' You are un-
easy/ said the general to him ; ' you never sailed with
me before, you see.' " Once " in allusion to his early
history, he quoted Shakespeare's sentiment, ' There is a
tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood,
leads on to fortune.' 'That's true, sir,' said he with
emphasis, ' I've proved it during my whole life.' "

As Parton says, " Jackson had that kind of assurance
of safety and success which Caesar had in his fortunes
and Napoleon in his star."

Concerning the charge that he was a pawn moved at
pleasure by the astute members of his " Kitchen Cabi-
net," Lewis, Hill, Kendall, Duff Green, Blair, and so
on, — men who held no offices or who were in subor-
dinate positions but who were Jackson's chief friends
and counsellors, — Schouler says :

" Jackson ruled by his indomitable force of will, his
tenacity of purpose, courage, and energy. He did not
investigate or lean upon advice, but made up his mind
by whatever strange and crooked channels came his
information, and then took the responsibility. Experi-
ence made him rapid rather than rash, though he was
always impulsive; and he would dispatch the business
which engaged his thoughts, and that most thoroughly.
Though stretched on the bed of sickness, he held the
thread of his purpose where none could take it from
him; his will rallied and beat under the body. He
decided affairs quickly, and upon impulse more than
reflection; but his intuitions were keen, often pro-
found, in politics as well as war. His vigor as an
Executive at his time of life was truly wonderful. He
left nothing in affairs for others to finish, betrayed no
sign of fear or timidity, shrank from no burden how-
ever momentous, but marched to the muzzle of his
purpose, and, like an old soldier, gained half the ad-
vantage in a fight by his bold despatch and vigor. The

306

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

night march and surprise were points he had learned in
Indian warfare; and were it war or politics, he car-
ried out what he had fixed upon with constant intre-
pidity. This intrepidity went with a conscious sense of
duty; for, though a Cromwell in spirit, Jackson's am-
bition was honestly to serve his country. Loyalty to
the Union, sympathy with the American common people,
were the chief impulses of his being, for all he loved
power; and hence a majority was almost sure to sus-
tain him. Courage and directness the people admire in
any man, and a sordid or usurping nature they are apt
to discover. Jackson had the Midas touch, which could
transmute whatever he handled, if not into solid gold,
at least into a substance of popularity. And yet no
servant of the ballot-box felt less the need of courting
popularity or of waiting for public opinion to bear his
plans forward. Lesser statesmen might be exponents,
but he led on, leaving the public to comment as it
might" " " ■

So thoroughly his own was his policy that, according
to Sumner, he considered his reelection in 1832 "a
triumphant vindication of him in all the points in which
he had been engaged in controversy with anybody, and
a kind of charter to him % as representative, or rather
tribune, of the people to go and govern on his own
judgment over and against everybody, including Con-
gress. His action about the Cherokee Indians, his atti-
tude towards the Supreme Court, his construction of his
duties under the Constitution, his vetoes of internal im-
provements and the bank, his defence of Mrs. Eaton,
his relations with Calhoun and Clay, his discontent with
the Senate — all things, great and small, in which he
had been active and interested were held to be covered
and passed upon by the voice of the people in his reelec-
tion." Well, not quite; for, as Sumner continues:
" We may test this theory in regard to one point, the

307

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

bank. The Legislature of Pennsylvania on the second
of February, 1832, within eight months of the election
of Jackson, at which Jackson got three-fifths of the
vote of Pennsylvania, instructed the senators and repre-
sentatives in Congress from that State, by a unanimous
vote in the Senate and by 77 to 7 in the House, to
secure the recharter of the bank."

Some of the reasons for Jackson's popularity have
been given and others are apparent. He was integrity
personified. In his own words, he entered upon his
duties determined "to ask nothing that is not clearly
right, and to submit to nothing that is wrong." From
the conclusions at which he arrived, oftentimes by a
wide jump, he was never to be driven by popular an-
tagonisms : " I care nothing about clamors, sir, mark
me!" he declared. "I do precisely what I think just
and right."

" With the same freedom as though he were deciding
what fields of his farm should be ploughed, he simply
applied his common-sense, so far as he could with his
acute personal prejudices, to the various subjects that
arose or were forced upon him. No one thought him
venal, and few thought he had moral obliquity. Hence,
however violent and vindictive he might be, a large
majority of the people believed him honest and well
meaning, and his dreadful independence, directness,
and force prompted them equally to believe that he fully
understood what he was about and was sufficiently right
in his course."

A German visitor to America in a curious book,
" Aristokratie in America," reports a conversation be-
tween two senators who were attempting to explain
Jackson's popularity. They said he acted upon two
maxims, " Give up no friend to win an enemy," and
" Be strong with your friends and then you can defy
your enemies." Jackson was certainly loyal to his

308

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

friends and equally a good hater of his enemies, but
that he acted entirely on these principles cannot be main-
tained. It would rob him of the credit of any disin-
terested action for his country's good. Did he crush
the United States Bank because Biddle was his enemy?
Did he take his stand on nullification because Calhoun
was his enemy? If Calhoun had been his friend, would
he have allowed the nullifiers to run their course un-
checked? If Clay had been his friend, would he have
allied himself with the United States Bank? Benton
was once his bitter enemy and nearly killed him. Did
he allow that enmity to shape his course forever?
While in the army he quarrelled bitterly with General
Scott over military questions. So much so that a duel
was thought inevitable. When he went to Washington
on his second senatorial term the following peaceful
correspondence took place between the two doughty
warriors.

" Sir," wrote Scott, " one portion of the American
community has long attributed to you the most dis-
tinguished magnanimity, and the other portion the
greatest desperation in your resentments — am I to con-
clude that both are equally in error? I allude to cir-
cumstances which have transpired between us, and
which need not here be recapitulated, and to the fact
that I have now been six days in your immediate
vicinity without having attracted your notice. As this
is the first time in my life that I have been within a
hundred miles of you, and as it is barely possible that
you may be ignorant of my presence, I beg leave to
state that I shall not leave the District before the morn-
ing of the fourteenth instant."

" Sir," replied Jackson, " your letter of to-day has
been received. Whether the world are correct or in
error as regards my 'magnanimity* is for the world
to decide. I am satisfied of one fact, that when you

309

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

shall know me better, you will not be disposed to harbor
the opinion that anything like ' desperation in resent-
ment' attaches to me. Your letter is ambiguous; but,
concluding from occurrences heretofore that it was
written with friendly views, I take the liberty of saying
to you that whenever you shall feel disposed to meet
me on friendly terms, that disposition will not be met
by any other than a corresponding feeling on my part."

I can hardly understand that mental state which per-
sistently seeks for hidden motive — generally in the hope
of finding a low one — for every action, although the
apparent cause is so easily discerned that it is almost
impossible to overlook it, and so adequate that it requires
a deal of argument to get around it. Suspicion is a
mental state which is not uncommon, it would seem. I
cannot* see why great men and their actions should
not be estimated, whenever it is possible, by what ap-
pears on the surface. For instance, Schouler, who tried
hard to be impartial, says that Jackson's mind "was
incapable of that mature and impartial investigation
which alone enables one to reach just conclusions, and
impulse controlled his decision. But Jackson's intuitions
were keen; a glance of his searching eye told him
more of a man than volumes of testimony; and yet
intuition will lead astray. His want of political in-
formation was compensated by native sagacity; and
the great secret of his success consisted in keeping the
common people, the majority, constantly by his side."

Now Schouler admits that Jackson was possessed of
keen intuitions and great native sagacity. The infer-
ence is that his intuitions often led him to a just con-
clusion and that his native sagacity usually controlled
his decision. If he reached just conclusions, why say
that they were the result of intuition and native sagacity
and deny that Jackson was capable of mature and
impartial investigation?

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POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

Parton cuts loose from facts with this bold assertion :
" It was the habit of General Jackson's mind to at-
tribute the conduct of his opponents to the lowest mo-
tives from which that conduct could be imagined to
proceed." If that were true and Jackson were alive
now, he could say that his biographers had learned to
estimate him in the same way. Sumner continues the
attack as follows: "Jackson's modes of action in his
second term were those of personal government. He
proceeded avowedly, on his own initiative and respon-
sibility, to experiment, as Napoleon did, with great
public institutions and interests. It came in his way to
do some good, to check some bad tendencies, and to
strengthen some good ones; but the moment the his-
torian tries to analyze these acts, and to bring them,
for the purposes of generalization, into relations with
the standpoint or doctrine by which Jackson acted, that
moment he perceives that Jackson acted from spite,
pique, instinct, prejudice, or emotion, and the influence
exerted sinks to the nature of an incident or an acci-
dent."

Oh, hardly ; and that statement depends on the mind
of the "historian," does it not? Let us examine that
charge a little. According to Sumner, Jackson was the
meanest and most contemptible of men. Was there no
feeling of honor, patriotism, or the public good in Jack-
son's mind? What a reflection on the intelligence of
the American people! If for eight years they idolized
a man who acted merely from "spite, pique, instinct,
hatred, prejudice, or emotion" in the greatest crises
which have faced the American people between the
Revolution and the Civil War, the overruling power
of Providence — if Sumner be correct — was never more
signally exhibited, since Jackson, although it is alleged
he acted from those unworthy motives, generally acted
right!

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Says Fiske with clearer view : " Now in the case of
Andrew Jackson, while he was not versed in the history
and philosophy of government, it is far from correct to
say that there was nothing of the statesman about him.
On the contrary, it may be maintained that in nearly all
of his most important acts, except those that dealt with
the civil service, Jackson was right*

Of course, Jackson made mistakes. What President
has not? Frequently the methods he used were not in
consonance with the uprightness of the end at which
he aimed, as has been seen. But the sweeping statement
that he acted invariably from unworthy motives is an
evidence of the extreme into which prejudice can lead
historians. Schouler slightly inclines towards Jackson,
but takes middle ground, as usual. Is the middle
ground supposed to be the impartial and correct position
merely because it is " middle" ?

" Strong in all his traits of character, his vices as well
as his virtues, Jackson's public example was one of
positive good and positive evil — a mixture of brass and
clay. There could be nothing negative about him.
What he purposed, that he put his hand to and bore it
safely through. His mind moved rapidly, and with an
almost lightning-like perception he had resolved the
point while others were deliberating; and, right or
wrong, he was tenacious of his conclusion, and fought
to have his way like one who felt it shame not to win.
There was no twilight of dubiety about him ; he knew,
and knew earnestly ; and within the steel horizon which
bounded his vision he could pierce the circumference in
all directions. As his intellect admitted of no half-
truth, so did his nature revolt at bargains and com-
promises such as Clay, his mortal enemy, was an adept
at arranging ; but with him it was to conquer or die on

* Italics mine.
312

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

every occasion, win a clean victory or endure a clean
defeat."

The most reprehensible act in Jackson's whole career
was his opening the way for the introduction of the
Spoils System. Since the establishment of the govern-
ment, appointed officials, especially those, of minor im-
portance, had enjoyed practically a life-tenure of office,
dependant, of course, upon good behavior. The higher
the rank and dignity of the office the more frequent the
changes that took place, but even then the rule generally
obtained. The number of changes made by all the
Presidents prior to Jackson did not exceed seventy-five,
of whom five were defaulters and two were removed
for cause. Although there were frequently radical dif-
ferences between successive Presidents, it never seems
to have occurred to anyone that differences of opinion
about public questions were grounds for the removal of
government employes until Jackson's term. Accus-
tomed as we have been of late years, until the slow
growth of a sentiment for civil-service reform, to the
sweeping changes in office with every change of the
party in power, we perhaps regard Jackson's action as
equally drastic and thorough. On the contrary, by the
testimony of Benton, he removed only about four
hundred — one out of every sixteen — postmasters, and
the total number of removals among all employes of
the government from all causes was less than seven
hundred! Nor was Jackson ruthless in the removals,
although they undoubtedly caused much suffering, the
report of which has, no doubt, been greatly exaggerated.
Rogers preserves the following anecdote in his recent
life of Benton :

" The collector at Salem was General Miller, a Fed-
eralist, whom Jackson had marked for dismissal. He
had nominated his successor. Benton heard this news
with great agitation and approached the President at

313

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

once, asking if he knew who this General Miller was.
He did not.

" ' He is the hero of Lundy's Lane/ said Benton.

" ' The man who, when asked to take a battery, said,
"nitty"?'

" ' The very man/

" ' By the Eternal !' shouted Jackson as his fist came
down on the table, ' that man shall be in office as long
as Jackson is President/ and the order for dismissal was
at once revoked."

It was not so much the number of officeholders Jack-
son turned out as the fact that he introduced the prac-
tice which, by a perfectly understandable natural law,
grew with every succeeding administration, until each
successive change of party witnessed the introduction
of an entirely new set of employes from the highest to
the lowest; and all parties since Jackson's day must
share in the odium of the practice.

Now, bad as was this action of Jackson's, — worse in
its consequences than in itself, — there was some excuse
and some explanation for it. The bitterness engendered
and manifested in his Presidential campaigns has been
alluded to. This created a feeling of intense enmity
between the dominant political parties that extended to
the humblest members thereof, and government em-
ployes and officials took part in the campaign as they
had never done before. Jackson, who had been assailed
in his tenderest points, knew this, and he came to re-
gard everyone who belonged to the opposite party as
personally responsible for the calumnies of which he,
his wife, and even his mother had been made victims.
Yet he solemnly declared to Dr. Edgar, his spiritual
adviser, only six weeks before his death, that during
his Presidency " he had turned but one subordinate out
of office by an act of direct, personal authority, and he
was a postmaster. Dr. Edgar expressed his astonish-

314

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

ment at this statement, when the general repeated it
with emphasis and particularity."

That, I have no doubt, is true, but it is misleading,
for it is beyond contradiction that Jackson knew and
approved of the changes and removals which were
taking place around him. It may confidently be assumed
that had he not sanctioned them they never would have
taken place. The famous declaration of the principle
in politics that " to the victors belong the spoils" did not
originate with Jackson. Governor Marcy of New York
was the author of that doctrine in a famous speech of
which I quote a paragraph :

" It may be, sir, that the politicians of New York are
not so fastidious as some gentlemen are as to dis-
closing the principles on which they act. They boldly
preach what they practise. When they are contending
for victory, they avow their intention of enjoying the
fruits of it. If they are defeated, they expect to retire
from office; if they are successful, they claim, as a
matter of right, the advantages of right, that to the
victor belongs the spoils of the enemy.,,

Jackson never considered himself a politician. If,
as it is used in modern days, the word implies an ability
to control elections for selfish purposes and for per-
sonal ends, then Jackson's view of himself was correct.
If by a politician, however, we mean a man who is able
to bring about any result he desires for the good, as he
sees it, of his fellow-citizens, through his influence with
them, then Jackson was the most consummate politician
of his period.

Not only was he a politician, but he might rightly be
characterized as a political boss. He named and brought
about the election of his successor, and although the
party he both fathered and advocated was afterwards
defeated by Harrison, yet he was the moving cause in
the election of Polk. Jackson was not a politician in the

3i5

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

sense that he was a manipulator and creator of a
machine as the word was used in New York, yet he did
not hesitate to express his admiration* for the methods
used and the success which attended their use, to secure
the control of the; Empire State by the Democratic party.
" I am no politician," he said one day to a young New
Yorker, " but if I were a politician, I would be a New
York politician."

Van Buren, whom he appointed Secretary of State,
was an especial object of friendship and admiration on
the part of the general. It was Van Buren who had
drafted the resolution giving the thanks of New York
"to Major-General Jackson, his gallant officers and
troops, for their wonderful and heroic victory." Par-
ton characterizes Van Buren, " like the party of which
he was the leader," as having "learned his principles
from Thomas Jefferson and his tactics from Aaron
Burr. This remark explains both his career and his
party's." This is very unjust to a President who was
the only one in the long line of chief executives between
Jackson and Lincoln who is thought worthy of inclusion
in the category of American statesmen. Of course, in
such wholesale appointings as took place in Jackson's
term many incompetent and some dishonest officials were
given berths. Of that Schouler has this to say : " The
vicious character of so many of Jackson's appointments
to office one should ascribe chiefly to haste, his political
ignorance, and the peculiar instinct which guided his
selection. He was honest and upright in the general
endeavor to give to his countrymen a high and noble
administration, and in most points of general policy he
showed a rare sense in dealing with men and events,
such as his enemies could not easily appreciate."

Parton sums up the whole unfortunate affair rather
deftly as follows: "At whose door is to be laid the
blame of thus debauching the government of the United

316

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

States? It may, perhaps, be justly divided into three
parts. First, Andrew Jackson, impelled by his ruling
passions, resentment and gratitude, did the deed. No
other man of his day had audacity enough. Secondly,
the example of the politicians of New York furnished
him with an excuse for doing it. Thirdly, the original
imperfection of the governmental machinery seemed to
necessitate it. As soon as King Caucus was overthrown, ^
the spoils system became almost inevitable, and, perhaps,
General Jackson only precipitated a change which,
sooner or later, must have come.,, Right in every par-
ticular, gentle biographer !

Jackson left the Presidency probably with greater
feelings of satisfaction than any man before or after
him ever entertained in laying down his great office.
" I saw," says Benton, " the patriot ex-President in the
car which bore him off to his desired seclusion. I saw
him depart with that look of quiet enjoyment which
bespoke the inward satisfaction of the soul at ex-
changing the cares of office for the repose of home."
He had succeeded in everything he had undertaken —
save in the social war which he had waged on the
women of Washington in behalf of Mrs. Eaton. He
had overthrown the most powerful personal and political
enemies that had ever combined to thwart a Presidential
will. He had brought about the ruin of the greatest
official institution of the century. He had preserved the
Union and prevented a civil wan He went out of office
with a popularity vastly greater than he had when he
went in. Buell sums up the good work of his admin-
istration as follows:

" Looking back through his eight years in the Presi-
dency, he saw some things well done, some half done,
others still to be done. Among the things well done
were the destruction of a huge chartered monopoly to
which the government had lent its power and prestige

3i7

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

for the enrichment of the few — the Bank of the United
States, which he had forced to a plane no more for-
midable than that of a Pennsylvania corporation. A
civil service of fungous growth upon the body politic,
aristocratic, oligarchical, self-perpetuating, and modelled
in servility after that of England, had been rooted out
and an American, democratic, and free-for-all system
substituted in its place.* A heresy threatening to strike
at the vitals of our national existence had been put
down ; not, indeed, so thoroughly eradicated as he could
wish, but as thoroughly as all the elements with which
he had to deal would permit. The Indians, an ever-
growing tumor so long as they held territory and semi-
independent sovereignty within the boundaries of States,
had been peacefully removed to a reservation in the far
West, where they could be happy in their own way and
be free from the wiles and pitfalls of the white men — at
least for many years or even generations to come.
These, with many other things of minor import, had
been well done."

The things that he had left partly done and things *
that had not been done at all were inconsiderable com-
pared to those above cited ; they referred to the tariff,
the currency, the Texas-Mexican question, and the
Oregon boundary dispute. He had accomplished more
in his eight years of office than any other President
before him, and he had left the future administration
of affairs in the hands of the man of his choice.

On March 2, 1837, he wrote to Trist, " On the fourth
I hope to be able to go to the Capitol to witness the
glorious scene of Mr. Van Buren, once rejected by the
Senate, sworn into office by Chief- Justice Taney, also

♦Which a more enlightened public sentiment is in turn
" rooting out" in favor of a properly constituted civil-service
system.— C. T. B.

3i8

POLITICIAN AND PRESIDENT

being rejected by the factious Senate." Sumner says:
" The election of Van Buren is thus presented as an-
other personal triumph of Jackson, and another illus-
tration of his remorseless pursuit of success and ven-
geance in a line in which anyone dared to cross him.
This exultation was the temper in which he left office.
He was satisfied and triumphant. Not another Presi-
dent in the whole list ever went out of office in a satis-
fied frame of mind, much less with a feeling of having
completed a certain career in triumph."

On his retirement he published an able, interesting,
and in parts a most pathetic farewell address, which I
have included in its entirety with other valuable papers
in the Appendix. He had spent all of his salary in the
duties of his office and had been forced to borrow money
to eke it out. His household expenses were large, his
hospitality of the true Southern variety, lavish and un-
stinted, and his generosity to his old friends and com-
rades-in-arms was without limit.

" I returned home," he writes to Mr. Trist, " with just
ninety dollars in money, having expended all my salary
and most of the proceeds of my cotton crop; found
everything out of repair ; corn, and everything else for
the use of my farm, to buy; having but one tract of
land besides my homestead, which I have sold, and
which has enabled me to begin the new year (1838)
clear of debt, relying on our industry and economy to
yield us a support, trusting to a kind Providence for
good seasons and a prosperous crop."

319

NULLIFICATION

South Carolina, which led the great Secession
movement in 1860-61, had previously, in 1832, passed
an ordinance nullifying certain acts of Congress relating
to the tariff and formally declaring its intention to leave
the Federal Union in case any attempt was made by the
United States to enforce the act or to coerce the State.*

There have always been two opinions about the right
of a State to secede from the Federal Union. Probably
there are two opinions now, although the question has
become purely academic since the settlement of the
Civil War. Yet, considered as an abstract question of
constitutional interpretation, there is probably as much
to be said on one «ide as on the other. Nor in our his-
tory have threats of secession been confined to South
Carolina or other Southern States. Some of the good
old New England States had indicated secession as a
possible final alternative long before South Carolina
advocated it. However, the attempt is natunflly more
closely associated with South Carolina than with any
other State of the country, for South Carolina tried it,
once alone and a second time as the leader of a band
of " wayward sisters." In the first instance the ques-
tion at issue was the tariff, while in thfe second the
preservation of slavery was the inducing cause.

In the first attempt the firmness of Jackson, coupled
with the compromising spirit of Congress, saved the
Union and postponed ultimate decision of the mooted

* The Ordinance of Nullification is printed in full in the
Appendix.

320

JOHN C. CALHOUN
From a photograph

NULLIFICATION

point. In the second case the question was finally settled
by the arbitrament of force. In 1832 South Carolina
considered herself unjustly discriminated against by a
tariff bill which had recently become a law, and rather
than stand that, solemnly resolved to be a republic by
herself. The great advocate of nullification was Cal-
houn. The preserver of the Federal Union was Jackson.
These were the two protagonists of a tremendous drama
interesting in every feature of it.

The first act was played in 1830 on the thirteenth of
April, Jefferson's birthday, the occasion being a sub-
scription dinner to honor the memory of the founder of
the Democratic party. Jefferson had been dead four
years. Jackson, of course, attended the dinner. As
was usual in those days, there was a long string of
regular toasts and then the guests were urged to volun-
teer sentiments. The regular toasts smacked terribly
of Nullification and Secession, although the South Caro-
lina nullifying ordinance was still in the womb of the
future. It was well known to Jackson that this would
be the case, and he had carefully prepared himself and
had attended the dinner with a deliberate purpose to
meet the issue.

Courtesy enjoined that the opportunity for the first
volunteer toast should be given the guest of honor,
the President of the United States. At the conclusion
of the regular toasts, therefore, the President, who had
been a keen observer of all that had happened and an
interested listener to the various sentiments which had
been exploited, rose to offer his own. So flagrant and
outspoken had been the spirit of the meeting that many
guests, unwilling to countenance Nullification and its
inevitable corollary, Secession, had left the banqueting
hall. Wiser ones, imagining that the President would
not let the situation pass unchallenged, had remained.
They had their reward.

21 32*

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

The hush that fell over the assemblage as the tall,
spare form of the Chief Magistrate of the nation rose
in its place was painful. Straightening himself to his
full height, he raised his hand and, looking Calhoun,
the unfortunate presiding officer, directly in the face,
with a sharp, keen glance, said with all the emphasis of
his soul, in that crisp, harsh tone characteristic of him
when he was intensely moved :

"our federal union! it must and shall be pre-
served !"

The effect of this deliverance was appalling. It was
as if a company of soldiers trotting gayly across an open
plain towards a forest glade were met by a sudden
volley from a masked battery. The shock to the com-
pany was volcanic. Men sat or stood and stared, while
Jackson, as a sign that the toast was to be quaffed
standing, lifted his glass higher. The company got to
its feet in some fashion and with varying emotions, as
they were for or against nullification, gulped down wine
and sentiment. Jackson added no other words to his
ringing phrase. After the toast was drunk he sat down
triumphantly, conscious that he had said enough. He
had.

Calhoun waited until the guests were seated again
and then endeavored to stem the tide which had settled
so strongly against him by proposing a counter toast.
Hill, who was present, thus described the scene :

"A proclamation of martial law in South Carolina
and an order to arrest Calhoun where he sat could not
have come with more blinding, staggering force. All
hilarity ceased. The President, without adding one
word in the way of a speech, lifted his glass as a notice
that the toast was to be quaffed standing. Calhoun
rose with the rest. His glass so trembled in his hand

322

NULLIFICATION

that a little of the amber fluid trickled down the side.
Jackson stood silent and impassive. There was no re-
sponse to the toast. Calhoun waited until all sat down.
Then he slowly and with hesitating accent offered the
second volunteer toast :

" ' The Union! Next to our liberty the most dear.9

" Then, after half a minute's hesitation, and in a
way that left doubt as to whether he intended it for
part of the toast or for the preface to a speech, he
added, —

" ' May we all remember that it can only be pre-
served by respecting the rights of the States and by
distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the
Union/ "

Benton, in his " Thirty Years' View," writes : " I was
a subscriber to the dinner and attended it, and have no
doubt that the mass of the subscribers acted under the
same feeling. There was a full assemblage when I
arrived, and I observed gentlemen standing about in
clusters in the anterooms, and talking with animation
on something apparently serious, and which seemed to
engross their thoughts. I soon discovered what it was
— that it came from the promulgation of the twenty-
four regular toasts, which savored of the new doctrine
of nullification; and which, acting on some previous
misgivings, began to spread the feeling that the dinner
was got uj to inaugurate that doctrine and to make
Mr. Jefferson its father. Many persons broke off and
refused to attend further, but the company was still
numerous and ardent, as was proved by the number of
volunteer votes [toasts? — C. T. B.] given, — above
eighty, — in addition to the twenty-four regulars, and the
numerous and animated speeches delivered — the report
of the whole proceedings filling eleven newspaper col-
umns. When the regular toasts were over the President
was called upon for a volunteer and gave it — the one

323

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

which electrified the country and has become historical:
' Our Federal Union ! It must be preserved !' This
brief and simple sentiment, receiving emphasis and in-
terpretation from all the attendant circumstances and
from the feeling which had been spreading since the
time of Mr. Webster's speech [in the debate with Hayne.
— C. T. B.], was received by the public as a proclama-
tion from the President to announce a plot against the
Union and to summon the people to its defence. Mr.
Calhoun gave the next toast, and it did not at all allay
the suspicions which were crowding every bosom. It
was this: 'The Union, next to our liberty the most
dear. May we all remember that it can only be pre-
served by respecting the rights of the States, and dis-
tributing equally the benefit and burthen of the Union/
This toast touched all the tender parts of the new
question — liberty before union — only to be preserved —
State rights — inequality of burthens and benefits. These
phrases, connecting themselves with Mr. Hayne's speech
and with proceedings and publications in South Caro-
lina, unveiled Nullification as a new and distinct
doctrine in the United States, with Mr. Calhoun for
its apostle, and a new party in the field of which he
was the leader. The proceedings of the day put an
end to all doubt about the justice of Mr. Webster's grand
peroration, and revealed to the public mind the fact of
an actual design tending to dissolve the Union.

" Mr. Jefferson was dead at that time and could not
defend himself from the use which the new party made
of his name— endeavoring to make him its founder — and
putting words in his mouth for that purpose which he
never spoke. He happened to have written in his life-
time, and without the least suspicion of its future great
materiality, the facts in relation to his concern in the
famous resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, and
which absolved him from the accusation brought against

324

NULLIFICATION

him since his death. He counselled the resolutions of
the Virginia General Assembly; and the word nullify,
or nullification, is not in them, or any equivalent word ;
he drew the Kentucky resolutions of 1798; and they
are equally destitute of the same phrases. He had
nothing to do with the Kentucky resolutions of 1799, in
which the word 'Nullification,9 as the ' rightful remedy/
is found, and upon which the South Carolina school
relied as their main argument, and from which their
doctrine took its name. . . . These testimonies absolve
Mr. Jefferson : but the nullifiers killed his birthday cele-
brations! Instead of being renewed annually in all
time, as his sincere disciples then intended, they have
never been heard of since ! and the memory of a great
man — benefactor of his species — has lost an honor which
grateful posterity intended to pay it, and which the
preservation and dissemination of his principles require
to be paid."

Buell says : " The contrast between the terse, quick
sentiment of General Jackson and the labored deliver-
ance of Calhoun was almost painful. It was the dif-
ference between the crack of a rifle, and an old musket
flashing in the pan. That Calhoun had been taken by
surprise and thrown completely off his feet was ap-
parent to all, and to none so painfully as to his friends
or colleagues. The incident itself was quickly over.
Other volunteer toasts followed in due succession, but
there was no more zest. The company — more than a
hundred at the start — dwindled to thirty within five
minutes after Calhoun sat down."

After Calhoun took his seat Jackson deliberately and
disdainfully rose from his place, walked over to where
Colonel Benton sat and engaged him in conversation, as
if the further proceedings had no more interest for
him or anyone. Once before Jackson had played a
somewhat similar part and in Tammany Hall. In 1819

32s

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

he dined with that society. The Democratic party —
known then as the Republican party! — in New York
was then divided into two hostile factions, — it generally
was and is so divided, — one of which was under the
leadership of Martin Van Buren, the other of De Witt
Clinton. Tammany loved Van Buren and hated Clinton.
Knowing nothing of Van Buren then and greatly ad-
miring the governor, Jackson deliberately toasted Clin-
ton, to the great dismay of his entertainers. The New
York Evening Post, reporting the scene, says that
" When the general left the table, which he did directly
afterwards, his air and manner seemed to say, ' There,
d — n you, take that !' " And we can imagine that some-
thing of the same feeling must have been in the bosom
of the old warrior, which his bearing would naturally
express, after his explosion at the Jefferson dinner —
doubtless on occasion Jackson could be very aggra-
vating in his words and demeanor, especially to his
enemies.

Before considering Jackson's further course in the
more serious nullification troubles I wish to call atten-
tion to the variant recensions of his famous toast.
Benton in his " Thirty Years' View" said it was : " Our
Federal Union: It must be preserved." He was evi-
dently giving his own recollection of it long after it was
spoken, arid he seems to have been followed by nearly
everyone who has discussed the episode since he wrote.
Major Lewis is quoted in Parton as follows :

" This celebrated toast, ' The Federal Union — It must
be preserved/ was a cool, deliberate act. The United
States Telegraph, General Duff Green's paper, published
a programme of the proceedings for the celebration in
the issue of the day before, to which the general's atten-
tion had been drawn by a friend, with the suggestion
that he had better read it. This he did in the course of
the evening, and came to the conclusion that the celebra-

326

NULLIFICATION

tion was to be a nullification affair altogether. With this
impression in his mind he prepared early the next morn-
ing (the day of the celebration) three toasts, which he
brought with him when he came into his office, where he
found Major Donelson and myself reading the morning
papers. After taking his seat he handed them to me and
asked me to read them and tell him the one I liked
best. He handed them to Major Donelson also with
the same request, who, on reading them, agreed with
me. He said he preferred that one for himself for the
reason that it was shorter and more expressive. He
then put that one into his pocket and threw the others
into the fire. That is the true history of the toast the
general gave on that Jefferson birthday celebration in
1830, which fell among the nullifiers like an exploded
bomb!"

Buell, on the contrary, writes it as I have set it down.
He gives in an interesting note a brief discussion of the
origin of the phrase and its meaning, and has deliber-
ately chosen his version on the authority of Mr. F.
P. Blair, who was undoubtedly familiar with the state-
ments of both the other authorities quoted and who
evidently deliberately called attention to the change. I
quote a portion of Buell's note :

" The phrase was not extempore. He had deliberated
over it for days beforehand. He had submitted several
forms to excellent judges of phraseology. Benton,
Kendall, Isaac Hill, and Major Lewis were skilled and
practical writers, masters of dialectics and, acute in
' shades of meaning.' And they all had approved his
own preference for the form he used. Other phrases,
, framed but discarded, were: 'Our Union! Let us
preserve it!' 'The Federal Union! It must be pre-
served !' ' The Union of our fathers ! Their sons must
defend it !' ' The Union of the States ! Perfect and
imperishable/ All these were considered and finally set

327

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

aside in favor of ' Our Federal Union ! It must and
shall be preserved !' "

On the whole I am inclined to agree with Buell in
his acceptance of Blair's version. This account makes
the phrase stronger, for one thing, and Jackson was a
man always to choose the strong course and the strong
word. On that trip to Boston referred to he was met at
the city line by a committee and a local orator, who
greeted him at the triumphal arch which had been
erected for his entry with an address closing with this
brief but perfervid doggerel of his own composition :

" And may his powerful arm long remain nerved
Who said, 4 The Union, it must be preserved.' "

" Sir," was the laconic reply of the President, in a
voice equally fervent, " it shall be preserved as long
as there is a nerve in this arm !"

The toast at the banquet was the keynote of his whole
subsequent course. When he was invited to visit
Charleston on July 4 of the next year, 183 1, in his letter
of reply he wrote as follows :

" If he (Jackson) could go, he said, he trusted to find
in South Carolina ' all men of talent, exalted patriotism,
and private worth/ however divided they might have
been before, ' united before the altar of their country
on the day set apart for the solemn celebration of its in-
dependence— independence which cannot exist without
union, and with it is eternal. The disunion sentiments
ascribed to distinguished citizens of the State were, he
hoped, if, indeed, they were accurately reported, 'the
effect of momentary excitement, not deliberate design/ "

f~"When South Carolina translated her threats into
action Jackson was equally prompt and determined. To

; an old comrade in arms, General Sam Dale, who had

; been his courier, he spoke freely concerning the sit-

'l\ 328

NULLIFICATION

; General Dale, if this thing goes on, our coun- \
try will be like a bag of meal with both ends open. J
Pick it up in the middle or endwise, and it will run out]
I must tie the bag and save the country. . . . Sam, you
have been true to your country, but you have made
one mistake in life. You are now old and solitary, and
without a bosom friend or family to comfort you.
God called mine away. But all I have achieved — fame,
power, everything — would I exchange if she could be
restored to me for a moment/ The iron man trembled
with emotion, and for some time covered his face with
his hands, and tears dropped on his knees. . . . ' Dale,
they are trying me here ; you will witness it, but, by the
God of heaven, I will uphold the laws.' I understood
him to be referring to nullification again, his mind evi-
dently having recurred to it, and I expressed the hope
that things would go right.

" ' They shall go right, sir/ he exclaimed passionately,
shivering his pipe upon the table. . . ." ^x

He did more than express himself in conversation. \
He issued a proclamation to South Carolina and the j
United States which is among the most brilliant of our
state papers. Roosevelt thus characterizes it : " It is
one of the ablest, as well as one of the most important,
of all American state papers. It is hard to see how
any American can read it now without feeling his
veins thrill." In it Jackson rose to the measure of true
greatness beyond all dispute. In it he surpassed every
other act of his life, even the battle of New Orleans.

People have attempted to belittle Jackson's ability to
write. They have said that everything of value in his
letters and papers was written by somebody else. The
same charge was made against Washington, back of
whom Hamilton was supposed to be. It was repeated in
the case of Lincoln with regard to the assistance of
Seward. The truth is, the more the careers of these

329

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

men are studied, the more their own personality looms
large, and whatever is of greatness in their writings is
now generally admitted to be due to themselves rather
than to another. It is so of Jackson and Livingston.
Parton says this about the writing of the paper :

" He went to his office alone, and began to dash off
page after page of the memorable proclamation which
was soon to electrify the country. He wrote with
that great steel pen of his, and with such rapidity that
he was obliged to scatter the written pages all over the
table to let them dry. A gentleman who came in when
the President had written fifteen or twenty pages ob-
served that three of them were glistening with wet ink
at the same moment. The warmth, the glow, the pas-
sion, the eloquence of that proclamation were produced
then and there by the President's own hand.

" To these pages were added many more of notes and
memoranda which had been accumulating in the Presi-
dential hat for some weeks, and the whole collection was
then placed in the hands of Mr. Livingston, the Secre-
tary of State, who was requested to draw up the procla-
mation in proper form. Major Lewis writes to me:
' Mr. Livingston took the papers to his office, and in the
course of three or four days brought the proclamation
to the general and left it for his examination. After
reading it he came into my room and remarked that
Mr. Livingston had not correctly understood his notes —
there were portions of the draft, he added, which were
not in accordance with his views and must be altered.
He then sent his messenger for Mr. Livingston, and,
when he came, pointed out to him the passages which
did not represent his views, and requested him to take
it back with him and make the alterations he had sug-
gested. This was done, and the second draft being
satisfactory, he ordered it to be published. I will add
that before the proclamation was sent to press to be

330

NULLIFICATION

published I took the liberty of suggesting to the general
Whether it would not be best to leave out that portion
to which, I was sure, the State-rights party would par-
ticularly object. He refused.

" ' Those are my views/ said he with great decision of
manner, ' and I will not change them nor strike them
out/ "

On the other hand, Schouler says : " This proclama-
tion, making an admirable state paper, was the joint
composition of the President and his Secretary of State.
Jackson dashed off the document hastily sheet after
sheet, with the big steel pen which he used to flourish
so vigorously, and then handed it to Livingston for a
more perfected finish. Livingston, who appears to have
elaborated the constitutional argument, gave the instru-
ment more dignity of expression. The general style in
consequence was too chastened to be Jacksonian, and,
what was of more moment, the reasoning asserted the
national or central authority more broadly than Jackson
himself would have done; but his earnest expression
gave to the paper, and more especially towards its close,
a strain of natural eloquence whose pathos, broken by
ejaculations, is tender and sincere. Livingston in old
age, with his plain dark clothes, white cravat, well-
shaven face, peaceful dark eyes, and a general expres-
sion of courtesy and benevolence, was the image of
moderation and propriety, while Jackson flashed fire to
the last."

Thus Schouler ascribes the larger share of the credit
to Livingston, although he is unable to deny to Jackson a
great part in the preparation — to wit, its earnestness, its
eloquence, its pathos, etc.

Sumner, pursuing his usual course of disparaging
Jackson to the very last limit, says unhesitatingly that it
was written by Livingston. Fiske also says that it was
written by Livingston, although in an editorial note he

33i

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

calls attention to the statement of Mrs. Elizabeth B.
Lee, who writes : " My father said to me that the Nulli-
fication Proclamation as first drafted by General Jackson
was a far more able paper than the polished substitute
based on it and written by Mr. Livingston and adopted
by the President."

McLaughlin in his life of Cass says : " On Decem-
ber ii appeared his [Jackson's] celebrated proclamation,
full of earnest, pathetic pleading, strong assertion, and
profound argument. Verbally it belongs to Livingston,
but it is filled with the spirit of Jackson. On that hang
his claims to grateful remembrance." And Roosevelt
dodges the question of authorship — strange course for
him — by saying : " Some claim it as being mainly the
work of Jackson, others as that of Livingston; it is
great honor for either to have had a hand in its pro-
duction."

The message was enthusiastically received and added
greatly to Jackson's hold on the people. Writes Schurz
in his life of Clay : " All over the North, even where
Jackson had been least popular, the proclamation was
hailed with unbounded enthusiasm. Meetings were held
to give voice to the universal feeling. In many South-
ern States, such as Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee,
Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, and
even Virginia, it was widely approved as to its object,
although much exception was taken to the ' Federalist'
character of its doctrines."

On the other hand, this is the course of the famous
and eccentric John Randolph, according to Henry
Adams, his biographer : " When the President's famous
proclamation, ' the ferocious and bloodthirsty proclama-
tion of our Djezzar,' appeared he was beside himself
with rage. ' The apathy of our people is most alarming,'
he wrote. ' If they do not rouse themselves to a sense
of our condition and put down this wretched old man,

332

NULLIFICATION

the country is irretrievably ruined. The mercenary
troops who have embarked for Charleston have not dis-
appointed me. They are working in their vocation,
poor devils! J trust that no quarter will be given to
them.9 "

South Carolina and her nullifiers received the procla-
mation with defiance. The governor issued a counter
proclamation. Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency
to occupy a seat in the Senate to be in a position to fight
the battle there.

The spirit of the message may be gained from two
brief excerpts. I do not quote from it at greater length
because it is included in its entirety in the Appendix:
" I consider the power to annul a law of the United
States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the
existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the
letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, in-
consistent with every principle on which it was founded,
and destructive of the great object for which it was
formed. . . ."

" The laws of the United States must be executed.
I have no discretionary power on the subject — my
duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution.
Those who told you that you might peacefully prevent
their execution deceived you. . . . Their object is dis-
union, and disunion by armed force is treason."

Will it be thought improper if I here strongly urge
a careful perusal of the whole proclamation upon my
readers ?

Jackson backed up his proclamation by preparations
to enforce it should South Carolina not recede from
her recalcitrant position. He sent a naval force — Far-
ragut being one of the officers thereof — to Charles-
ton harbor and ordered General Scott to get troops
ready to enter South Carolina if necessary. Jackson's
proclamation was dated the twelfth of December,

333

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

1832. The Ordinance of Nullification was to take
effect on the first of February, 1833. The President was
ready for the nullifiers, but at the appointed time South
Carolina extended the enacting clause, pending hoped-
for Congressional action ; and before anything further
was done Congress, under the leadership of that Great
Compromiser, Clay, passed a Tariff Bill tending to
placate the irate Southerners. Webster was against the
Compromise, as was Jackson, and it was only passed
by the aid of Calhoun, who awoke to the difficulty of
South Carolina's position — and the danger of his own
— and earnestly sought a practicable way out of the
dilemma by which the State could in some measure
" save its face."

Congress was singularly inconsistent, for it had
previously, at Jackson's request, passed what was called
a Force Bill to enable him to apply coercion effectively
to the State should it persist in its course. The new
Tariff Bill was an undoubted concession. Many his-
torians think that Jackson should have vetoed this bill
and have allowed South Carolina to try the experiment
of seceding. They have contended that his signing
of a bill of which he could not entirely approve was an
act of weakness. It has been said that if the Secession
experiment had been tried then, when South Carolina
was alone, it would have been settled for all time and
the Civil War would have been rendered impossible.
That is as it may be, of course. No one then foresaw
the Civil War. Jackson was confronted with the neces-
sity of signing or crushing South Carolina. He had
expressed his own views clearly, demonstrated his wil-
lingness to use force, and there could be no question
whatever of his ability to coerce South Carolina. He
could have precipitated a bloody conflict and have over-
run that State. To his credit, he held his hand. And
let his action be remembered by those who say that he

334

DANIEL WEBSTER
From a photograph

NULLIFICATION

never did hold his hand, that, having power, he invari-
ably abused it.

I do not consider his course in any sense a sign of
weakness — rather of magnanimity. When power re-
frains from the exercise of force to gain an end, why is
it that so often it is regarded as weakness ? I have seen
it stated that Grant did not ask for Lee's sword and that
he proposed his generous terms at Appomattox because
he knew that these were the only terms that Lee would
have accepted, and that Lee's strength induced a weak-
ness on the part of Grant! Of course, this is an ex-
treme statement, but I have heard it made. If true,
its effect would be to take away any magnanimity on the
part of Grant. The folly of that is easily demonstrated.
What else could Lee have done then but accept Grant's
terms, whatever they might have been? He could not
even have died at the head of his troops then; his
brave army was so reduced, his enemies were so over-
whelmingly superior in numbers and equipment, every-
thing but courage, that they could have seized the last
remains of the Confederacy with their bare hands!
Jackson's signature to the compromise tariff act evi-
denced his strength, not his weakness.

South Carolina thereafter rescinded its ordinance,
claiming, as may be imagined, a technical victory, but,
nevertheless, all the honors of the contest rested with
Jackson. It was the most conspicuous public service
that any President rendered between Washington and
Lincoln. Webster's great speech in reply to Hayne and
Jackson's great deeds came close together. It is idle to
say the one did not influence the other. Perhaps Web-
ster's speech did more to clarify and unite public
thought, which had before considered these matters but_
vaguely, than anything which took place, but,fas~l?iske
well says in one of his most brilliant periods:

" After all, it was only Mr. Webster's speech ; it did
335

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

not create a precedent for action. It was something
which a Federal executive might see fit to follow or
might not. But from the moment when President Jack-
son said in substance to the nullifiers, ' Gentlemen, if
you attempt to put your scheme into practice, I shall con-
sider it an act of war and shall treat it accordingly/
from that moment there was no mistaking the signifi-
cance of the action. It created a precedent which, in the
hour of supreme danger, even the puzzled, reluctant,
hesitating Buchanan could not venture to disregard.
The recollection of it had much to do with setting men's
faces in the right direction in the early days of 1861 ;
and those who lived through that doubting, anxious time
will remember how people's thoughts went back to the
grim, gaunt figure, long since at peace in the grave,
and from many and many a mouth was heard the prayer,
' Oh, for one hour of Andrew Jackson ! ' "

According to Woodrow Wilson : " The President
acted as everyone who really knew him knew that he
would act. Opposition itself would in any case have
been sufficient incitement to action ; but now the tonic
of the election was in his veins. The natural straight-
forward, unhesitating vigor of the man dictated what
should be done. ' Please give my compliments to my
friends in your State/ said the imperious old soldier
to a member of the House from South Carolina who
asked his commands, ' and say to them that if a single
drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the
laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I
lay my hand on engaged in such treasonable conduct
upon the first tree I can reach/ No one doubted that
he meant what he said. Before South Carolina's con-
vention met he had instructed the collector of the
port at Charleston to collect the duties, resistance or no
resistance, and when the Ordinance of Nullification
reached him he replied to it with a proclamation whose

336

NULLIFICATION

downright terms no man could misread. For a little
space he argued, but only for a little. For the most part
he commanded."

Jackson always declared that Calhoun was a traitor
and should have been treated as one. To the clergyman
who received him into the Presbyterian Church before
his death, who asked him what he would have done
with Calhoun and the other nullifiers if they had kept
on, he replied : " ' Hung them, sir, as high as Haman.
They should have been a terror to traitors to all time,
and posterity would have pronounced it the best act of
my life/

" As he said these words he half rose in bed, and all
the old fire glowed in his old eyes again."

" In his last sickness he again declared that, in re-
flecting upon his administration, he chiefly regretted that
he had not had John C. Calhoun executed for treason.
' My country/ said the general, ' would have sustained
me in the act, and his fate would have been a warning
to traitors in all time to come.' "

Jackson had a poor opinion of Calhoun. He said that
he was the only man from South Carolina that he had
met who was a coward. This was bitterly unjust, for
the great nullifier never was a coward. In a letter to
Lewis he thus referred to him :

" I was aware of the hostility of the influential char-
acter aluded to [Calhoun] — I sincerely regret the course
taken by Hamilton & Hayne — The people of South
Carolina will not, nay cannot sustain such nullifying
Doctrines. The Carolinians are a patriotic & highminded
people, and they prize their liberty too high to jeopar-
dize it, at the shrine of an ambitious Demagogue,
whether a native of Carolina or of any other country —
This influential character in this heat, has led Hamilton
& Hayne astray, and it will', I fear, lead to the injury of
Hamilton & loose him his election — But the ambitious
22 337

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Demagogue aluded to, would sacrifice friends & coun-
try, & move heaven & earth, if he had the power, to
gratify his unholy ambition — His course will prostrate
him here as well as everywhere else — Our friend Mr.
Grundy says he will abandon him unless he can satisfy
him that he has used his influence to put down this
nulifying doctrine, which threatens to desolve our happy
uqion."
] This alleged ignorant, prejudiced man, as some of his
I biographers would fain have us believe him to be, per-
[ haps had a clearer view of the future than anyone else.
I When South Carolina again convulsed the country with
I secession Charles Sumner read in the Senate from a
I letter Jackson wrote on the first of May, 1833, *n which
1 these striking words occurred : " Take care of your nul-
lifies ; you have them among you ; let them meet with
the indignant frowns of every man who loves his coun-
! try. The tariff, it is now known, was a mere pretext
... and disunion and a Southern Confederacy the real
\ object. The next pretext will be the negro or slavery
^question/ "

Buchanan, who was President when next the matter
came up, was a vastly different man from Jackson. Ac-
cording to Rhodes, when Stephen A. Douglas arrived
at Washington in 1857 to attend the sessions of Con-
gress he called on the President to discuss the matter, —
i.e., the proposed course of the Southern slaveholding
States. " The radical difference between the two be-
came apparent. When Buchanan said he must recom-
mend the policy of the slave power, Douglas said he
should denounce him in open Senate. The President
became excited, rose, and said, ' Mr. Douglas, I desire
you to remember that no Democrat ever yet differed
from the administration of his own choice without being
crushed. Beware of Tallmage and Reeves.'

" Douglas also rose and in an emphatic manner re-
338

NULLIFICATION

plied, ' Mr. President, I wish you to remember that
General Jackson is dead/ "

Jackson was indeed dead, and Buchanan could not fill
his shoes. It took Abraham Lincoln to do that, and
could there be higher praise for Jackson?

339

XVI

WAR ON THE BANK

The Second Bank of the United States was, as its
name indicates, the successor, after an interregnum, of
a similar financial institution founded in 1791 by Alex-
ander Hamilton, the charter of which had expired in

181 1. It owed its origin to the disasters of the War of

1812. On the tenth of April, 1816, it was chartered at
a time when the financial machinery of the government
was almost at a standstill and it was considered a neces-
sity. The government was a stockholder in the bank —
which also kept the government deposits — to the extent
of seven millions of dollars. The President of the
United States appointed five of the twenty-five directors.
" The government's connection was considered essen-
tial," says Professor Catterall, "because the bank was
to be intimately associated with the finances, was to keep
the public deposits and to transfer the public funds,
was to pay pensions and to receive the government dues
from the collectors. The power of appointing directors
was held to be peculiarly fitting, because only so could
an upright administration of the bank be assured."

The opinion of the bank's advocates concerning its
relation to the government and the functions of the
government directors is well expressed in the following
note from Dallas to Calhoun: "The National Bank
ought not to be considered simply as a commercial bank.
It will not operate upon the funds of the stockholders
alone, but much more upon the funds of the nation. Its
conduct, good or bad, will not affect the corporate credit
and resources alone, but much more the credit and re-

340

WAR ON THE BANK

sources of the government. In fine, it is not an institu-
tion created for the purposes of commerce and profit
alone, but much more for the purposes of national policy,
as an auxiliary in the exercise of some of the highest
powers of the government. Under such circumstances
the public interests cannot be too cautiously guarded.
. . . The right to inspect the general accounts of the
bank may be employed to detect the evils of a mal-
administration ; but an interior agency in the direction
of its affairs will best serve to prevent them."

The bank was not established until after seven at-
tempts during two years of almost constant endeavor.
Its final charter closely resembled that of the First Bank
of the United States and the project which Madison had
vetoed in January, 1815. Sumner admits that the char-
ter "contained a great many faults which affected its
career." Benton declared that Calhoun was the de-
cisive agent in securing the charter, and Calhoun him-
self admitted it in these words: "I might say with
truth that the bank owes as much to me as to any other
individual in the country, and I might even add that, had
it not been for my efforts, it would not have been
chartered."

The bank thus established had a stormy and unequal
career, in accordance with the policy, ability, and honesty
of its successive presidents and managers. Yet its ser-
vices to the nation were undoubtedly very great. Gal-
latin maintained that the bank was, under the con-
ditions then prevalent, the only means to insure "a
sound currency" and " a just performance of contracts."

When Nicholas Biddle took hold of it in 1823 it had
been brought out of a period of depression and weakness
by President Cheves, whose conservatism, however, was
so great as to defeat the purposes for which it was
chartered. Under the Biddle regime it at first pros-
pered exceedingly. According to Catterall: "The

34i

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

period of 1823-28 was one both of conservative and of
successful banking on the part of the Bank of the United
States; the affairs of the institution were carefully
managed; it extended its dealings considerably; it
checked the tendencies of the State banks to do un-
sound business ; it put an end to most of the depreciated
State-bank currencies; it was fairly popular; its deal-
ings with the government were on the best footing;
it gave the nation a better currency than the country
ever before had; and it had finally reached the point
in public opinion where it was considered necessary for
the uses both of the government and the people."

According to Adams: "The principal advantages
derived from the Bank of the United States . . . are,
therefore, first and principally, securing with certainty
a uniform and, as far as paper can, a sound currency ;
secondly, the complete security and great facility it af-
fords to the government in its fiscal operations ; thirdly,
the great convenience and benefit accruing to the com-
munity from its extensive transactions in domestic bills
of exchange and inland drafts." To these advantages
must be added the fact that the bank did secure the
resumption of specie payments — its greatest service.

Now the bank — of which I am not writing a history,
be it remembered — had always been a subject of bitter
and determined opposition. In the first place, it was a
monopoly. Since it was practically the only monopoly
of the times, the amount of opposition that is now dis-
tributed against a great many monopolies was concen-
trated upon it. Furthermore, it was a monopoly created
by the government directly and in which the govern-
ment was financially interested to the extent of its stock
and its deposits. It was a monopoly over which the
government exercised a certain control through Con-
gress and through the government directors. It was
without doubt a money-making institution. At least,

342

WAR ON THE BANK

that was its intent, and those private individuals who
bought the stock to the extent of twenty-eight million
dollars did so in the expectation of receiving a proper
return for their investments, nor can anyone blame them
for that hope. Of course, if the bank declared any
dividend on its stock, the government shared in that
dividend to the extent of the stock it held. Neverthe-
less, government funds were associated with ppvate
funds and government facilities were afforded private
individuals to make money — of course, at the public
expense, as every other bank makes it, the business
facilities to the public and the government being con-
sidered a fair return for the profits received from the
public.

The bank, therefore, in Democratic eyes, tended to
create a privileged class by the aid of the government.
Although there is little evidence that the bank did exert
any political influence at that time, the possibilities of
such a misuse of the opportunities of this official financial
alliance with the government were so apparent that the
conclusion that the bank did or would take such a posi-
tion was inevitable. As Professor Catterall says, in his
clear, explicit, impartial, and altogether admirable dis-
cussion, which no student of the financial history of this
interesting period can afford to overlook : " Democracy,
devoted to the principle of equality, is opposed to all
forms of privilege, and to none more than to a monetary
monopoly. When it is recollected that the Bank of the
United States was at that time the one great monopoly
in the country, and that against it were directed all the
passionate opposition and fear which to-day fall upon
banks, railroad companies, and trusts, its dangers from
the rising power of that fierce Democracy which with
Andrew Jackson swept over the country may be faintly
measured. The Democracy was positive that the bank
was a menace to the political and social interests of the

343

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

United States ; that it made the ' rich richer and the
poor poorer ;' that it depressed the weak and made ' the
potent more powerful,' that it accentuated the differ-
ences of society, creating on the one hand a powerful
aristocracy, and on the other hand an impotent and
beggarly proletariat. These opinions were especially
prevalent in the West, where Democracy was most
powerful. . . . Inextricably linked with the Democratic
opposition was the ceaseless hostility between rich and
poor, the envy and hatred of the man who has nothing .
for the man who has much, the ill-will which the debtor
eternally cherishes for the creditor ; all the social argu-
ments directed against the bank gathered force and pas-
sion from this feeling and at the same time added to it."

From the date of the establishment of the bank, then,
a persistent and implacable resentment, largely due to
the opposition of the State banks in the newer commu-
nities, had spread throughout certain sections of the
country, principally in the West.

" Thus the earliest Constitution of Indiana, adopted in

1816, had prohibited the establishment of the branch
of any bank chartered outside the State. In February,

1817, Maryland laid a tax of fifteen thousand dollars
upon any bank settled in that State under any but a State
charter, and in December Georgia imposed an annual
' tax of thirty-one and a fourth cents on every hundred
dollars of bank stock operated upon or employed within*
the State, a resolution of the legislature in November,

1818, declaring that this tax 'was only intended to
apply* to branches of the Bank of the United States. . . .
The first Constitution of Illinois, framed in August,
1818, prohibited the existence of any but State banks
within the State. In December North Carolina laid an
annual tax of five thousand dollars upon the branch at
Fayetteville ; in January, 1819, Kentucky imposed the
largest tax of all, compelling each of the branches to pay

344

WAR ON THE BANK

sixty thousand dollars yearly, and the next month Ohio
rivalled Kentucky by enacting that the tax in that State
should be fifty thousand dollars upon each branch. Even
in Pennsylvania, the supposed stronghold of the bank,
the legislature warmly discussed the policy of a tax, and
in 1819 petitioned Congress to take steps to amend the
Constitution so as to confine national banks to the Dis-
trict of Columbia. The subject was also debated in the
legislatures of Virginia and South Carolina, and De
Witt Clinton, of New York, urged action upon the legis-
lature of that State;" and resolutions against the con-
stitutionality of the bank were introduced in the legis-
lature of South Carolina in 1828.

As representing the people of the United States, and
as being thoroughly imbued with the Democratic prin-
ciples outlined above, Jackson was always opposed to
the bank. Furthermore, he believed that Congress had "
no power to charter such a bank. In other words, that
it was unconstitutional. Madison and Gallatin had taken
the same position when it was first established, but had
gradually changed their opinions. Perhaps it would be
fairer to say that, perceiving the benefits that accrued to
the country from the establishment of the bank, they
had allowed their opposition to the institution on con-
stitutional grounds to be quieted in view of the ends
achieved.

Thus Peck : " It had performed important functions
in the finances of the government and the country by
supplying a sound and uniform currency, facilitating
exchanges, aiding in the collection and custody of the
public revenues, and in various operations of the
Treasury. Hence Gallatin, the ablest financier of the
period, deemed it of great moment that the bank should
be continued, particularly in view of the possibility of
war. Its termination would cause a large export of
specie to pay the foreign stockholders, and would pro-

345

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

duce for a long time a serious contraction of the cur-
rency, besides a deterioration in the character of the
inevitable issue of the State banks."

If Jackson was persuaded in his mind that the bank
was unconstitutional, the services that it had rendered,
or could render, would not mollify his antagonism in the
slightest degree. Jackson was not unmindful of the
services of the bank, however, as will be seen from the
following letter to Nicholas Biddle, the president
thereof : " I was very thankful to you for your plan of
paying off the debt sent to Major Lewis. I thought it
my duty to submit it to youN I would have no difficulty
in recommending it to Congress, but I think it right to
be perfectly frank with you. I do not think that the
power of Congress extends to charter a bank ought of
the ten-mile square. ... I have read the opinion of
John Marshall, who I believe was a great and pure mind
— and could not agree with him — though if he had said
that it was necessary for the purposes of the national
government there ought to be a national bank I should
have been disposed to concur."

Catterall says that Jackson's opposition to the bank
was at bottom " not personal, but based upon constitu-
tional and social opinions. The bank was in Jackson's
opinion unconstitutional and, as a powerful privileged
monopoly, dangerous to society." In other words, he
antagonized the bank because it was so organized as to
offer government privileges to a certain favored class
in which the whole people could not share. " He was
convinced that some form of a bank was convenient,
and perhaps necessary for carrying on the financial
operations of the government, and in this message
he argued for one with provisions which would not
conflict with the Constitution as he understood the Con-
stitution."

His feelings grew the longer he considered it and the
346

WAR ON THE BANK

harder he fought against it, nor is there the slightest
evidence that subsequent reflection ever changed him.
He said to Dr. Van Pelt near the close of his adminis-
tration : " We have the best country and the best insti-
tutions in the world. No people have so much to be
grateful for as we ; but, ah, my reverend friend, there
is one thing I fear will yet sap the foundation of our
liberty — that monster institution, the Bank of the United
States."

Nor was his opposition to the bank a thing of sudden
growth. Before the break with Clay he had been a
warm admirer of the brilliant Kentuckian, and he even
declared that ... it was the perusal of Mr. Clay's
speech against the recharter of the United States Bank
in 1811 that convinced him of the unconstitutionality
and impolicy of a national bank.

Throughout Jackson's first term the public opposition
to the bank also increased. Professor Catterall reduced
it to five causes, " the widespread belief that the bank
was unconstitutional, the hostility of the States, the
opposition of State banks, the rise of the Democracy,
and the envy and hatred which the poor always feel for
the rich."

He points out that " the support of the bank would
spring from the realization of its usefulness to the gen-
eral public — its services in supplying a sound currency,
in managing the business of the treasury efficiently and
cheaply, and in furnishing tanking accommodations at
a reasonable rate. But these were virtues hidden from
the vulgar, and could never be made apparent to them
because of the abstruseness and involved nature of finan-
cial discussions. The bank's hold on popular favor was,
consequently, of the most tenuous kind; as Webster
said, popular prejudice once aroused was 'more than
a match for ten banks;' and it was certain that in a
conflict with a popular President the bank had not the

347

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

faintest hope of success. That it failed to realize this
was its error and its misfortune."

The course of events which precipitated the ruin of
the bank may be briefly indicated. According to the
term of the act which created it, the charter of the bank
had still four years to run when the foes of Jackson in
Congress, led by Clay, who had changed his opinion,
passed a bill rechartering it and sent it to the President
on July 4, 1832, for his veto or approval, just before
his election for a second term. Some of the supporters
of the bank felt that it was a mistake to apply for a
recharter so long before the expiration of the existing
one, but Nicholas Biddle, president of the bank, thought
otherwise. Biddle was " a man of eminent tact, concilia-
tory in temper, versatile, untiringly industrious, quick
of apprehension and quick to act, strong-willed, and
tenacious of his own opinions. His prominent fault was
the possession of an over-sanguine temper. On the
whole, it would have been difficult to secure a more
capable man for the position." The officials of the great
organization were in sympathy with the efforts of their
president, for the " vast majority of the bank's officers
and directors were drawn from the ranks of the party
hostile to Jackson, not because the bank supported this
party, but because most of the business men were un-
friendly to Jackson, and the officers and directors had to
be selected from the ranks of the business men" — thus
Catterall.

Biddle, Clay, Webster, and their followers, the advo-
cates of the bank, fancied that it was so firmly en-
trenched in the good opinion of the public that if Jack-
son vetoed the recharter bill he would be defeated in the
approaching election and that Clay accordingly would
be elected President. On the other hand, it was argued
that if Jackson allowed the bill to become a law, one of
the ends aimed at would be achieved — namely, the per-

348

WAR ON THE BANK

petuation of the bank — and Jackson would be forced to
stultify all his messages and declarations of opposition,
which might bring about the end hoped for — his defeat.

" The opinion was firmly held by the Clay men that
application at that time would defeat Jackson. If he
vetoed the bill, he would lose Pennsylvania ; if he failed
to veto, after his past position, he would lose many
Southern and Western votes. These were the deter-
mining political considerations with the National Re-
publicans, and it was the belief in the influence of the
former upon Jackson which gave the bank a hope,
though but a slender one, that the President would yield.
Yet this very motive for acting must draw down upon
the bank condemnation, for the act determined by it
inevitably linked the destiny of the corporation with that
of a political party, making the question of recharter
one to be decided by political rather than by business
considerations."

The advocates of theAbank thought they had the old
warrior between the two horns of a dilemma. They
did not understand his character. " When Jackson was
told that his enemies hoped to force him to assent to
the bill in fear lest he should lose the vote of Pennsyl-
vania he said : ' I will prove to them that I will never
flinch; that they are mistaken when they expected to
act upon me by such considerations.' " Certainly Jack-
son acted upon higher grounds than the bank party did
in this instance. He promptly vetoed the bill on the
following grounds, as summarized by Sumner :

" The veto was sent in July ioth. The reasons given
for it were: (i) the bank would have a monopoly for
which the bonus was no equivalent; (2) one-fifth of the
stockholders were foreign; (3) banks were to be al-
lowed to pay to the Bank of the United States in branch
drafts, which individuals could not do ; (4) the States
were allowed to tax the stock of the bank owned by their

349

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

citizens, which would cause the stock to go out of the
country; (5) the few stockholders here would then
control it; (6) the charter was unconstitutional; (7)
the business of the bank would be exempt from taxation ;
(8) there were strong suspicions of mismanagement in
the bank ; (9) the president could have given a better
plan ; ( 10) the bank would increase the distinction be-
tween rich and poor." *

Some passages of the veto message are worth ponder-
ing; even though they have become trite to-day, they
were unhackneyed then, and, as Peck justly observes,
they " probably had greater effect on the popular mind
than was produced by the merely organizative parts of
the document."

" Distinctions in society will always exist under every
just government. Equality of talents, of education, or
of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions.
In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the
fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every
man is equally entitled to protection by law. But when
the laws undertake to add to these natural and just
advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratui-
ties, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and
the potent more powerful, the humble members of
society, the farmers, mechanics, and laborers, who have
neither the time nor the means of securing like favors
to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice
of their government. There are no necessary evils in
government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it
would confine itself to equal protection, and, as heaven
does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and
the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified
blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide
and unnecessary departure from these just principles.

"Nor is our government to be maintained or our
Union preserved by invasion of the rights and powers

350

WAR ON THE BANK

of the several States. In thus attempting to make our
general government strong, we make it weak. Its true
strength consists in leaving individuals and States as
much as possible to themselves; in making itself felt,
not in its power, but in its beneficence ; not in its control,
but in its protection; not in binding the States more
closely to the centre, but leaving each to move unob-
structed in its proper orbit. . . ,

" I have now done my duty to my country. If sus-
tained by my fellow-citizens, I shall be grateful and •
happy; if not, I shall find in the motives which impel
me ample grounds for contentment and peace. In the f
difficulties which surround us, and the dangers which
threaten our institutions, there is cause for neither dis- *
may nor alarm. For relief and deliverance let us firmly
rely on that kind Providence which, I am sure, watches
with peculiar care over the destinies of our Republic,
and on the intelligence and wisdom of our countrymen.
Through His abundant goodness, and their patriotic de-
votion, our liberty and Union will be preserved."
Again, quoting Catterall upon the result of the veto:
" In the campaign which immediately followed the
bank was the paramount issue, and it was soon evident
that the veto, instead of providing a Congressional ma-
jority of two-thirds for the bank, had lifted Jackson to
the summit of popularity, for the election closed with
his overwhelming triumph, two hundred and nineteen ' f
electoral votes being cast for him against forty-nine for
Clay. As Biddle had clearly foreseen, the victorious
general accepted the result as a distinct approval of his
veto and a mandate to complete the work so nobly
begun. He was justified in so regarding it. Biddle had
committed a monstrous error with his eyes wide open —
he had applied for a recharter at a moment which pre-
cipitated the question into politics. The bank war began
at that point. Thenceforth the bank acted, not as a

35i

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

business corporation should act, but as a body possess-
ing political functions and created for political pur-
poses; it divided the Democratic party into bank and
anti-bank factions, and drove Jackson to the wall. It
is no wonder, therefore, that Jackson was infuriated and
determined to crush the bank. Had he failed to act as
he did, he would have been inconsistent and lacking in
moral courage — he would not have been Andrew Jack-
son."

Now it is alleged that Jackson's antagonism to the
bank arose from the opposition of his friends and himself
to the course pursued by Mason, the president, and the
directors of the branch bank at Portsmouth, N. H.,
whom Biddle refused to remove and whose conduct he
justified in spite of the strenuous urging of the New
Hampshire faction of the Jacksonian party, which
Mason had antagonized. It has been argued many
times with great vehemence that the hostility of Jackson
arose from this incident; that he was cleverly played
upon by his friends with this motive for their action,
and that the whole tremendous financial struggle arose
over this trifle. Even Sumner seems to countenance the
charge, by implication at least. As to that, Catterall has
this to say :

" In making public his objections to the bank Jackson
is not to be censured. His act was not the result of the
Portsmouth quarrel, for it had been determined upon
before that episode; nor did it spring from the belief
that the bank was opposed to him politically, for he had
been persuaded that this was not the case* He was
convinced that the bank was unconstitutional and dan-
gerous to republican institutions, and therefore he only
fulfilled his duty by speaking out. If criticism is to be
offered at all, it must be directed against his presump-

* Italics mine.— C. T. B.
352

WAR ON THE BANK

tion in daring to dictate while he was completely igno-
rant of banking and monetary affairs. Nevertheless, he
was fair to the bank, willing to hear reason, willing to
consult the opinions of Lewis, Hamilton, and Nicholas
Biddle, as well as those of Hill, Taney, and Amos
Kendall. . . .

" The war was now waged openly between Jackson
and Biddle and Clay. Schurz says in his life of Clay
that he ' and his friends were still in good spirits. The
veto, they thought, would severely shock the sober sense
of the people, and in effect be Jackson's death warrant.
Nicholas Biddle wrote to Clay that he was " delighted
with it" Anti-Jackson newspapers found the veto mes-
sage "beneath contempt" and advised that it be given
the widest possible publicity. So it was, and with a
startling result' "

Biddle had some of the qualities of Jackson. "He
was a man of intense energy, autocratic in temper, and
possessing supreme confidence in his own judgment.
It was inevitable that he should rule and not merely
reign, and the proofs that he did rule are observable
everywhere." But when it came to a fight he could
not rule Jackson. He lacked the terrible persistence
of his great antagonist, and I fear he lacked some of
the stern, unbending, uncompromising, honesty of the
older man. In any long-continued struggle between
the two men the end could be predicted almost with
certainty.

Jackson's overwhelming reelection was naturally re-
garded by him as a complete popular approval of his
purpose. The President, convinced that the people were
with him and that he was absolutely right, now resolved,
as the surest way to ruin the bank, to remove the govern-
ment deposits from it. Ingham had been succeeded as
Secretary of the Treasury by Duane. When Jackson
directed Duane to remove the deposits, conceiving that
23 353

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

the President had no constitutional power to issue such
a command and that the result would be disastrous to
the country, Duane refused. Jackson thereupon re-
quired his resignation and Duane courageously declined
to tender it, insisting that he must be removed. Jack-
son, when he made up his mind to do a thing, was
not to be balked, and he thereupon dismissed Duane on
September 23, 1833, and appointed in his place Taney,
who was of a more pliable nature and who agreed with
him. Taney at once began removing the deposits.
Lewis asked Jackson what he should do if Congress
should pass a joint resolution directing the restoration
of the deposits.

" ' Why/ said he, ' I would veto it'

" ' . . . Under such circumstances, General/ I re-
marked, ' suppose they should be able to carry the reso-
lution over your veto? What then would you do? If
you refuse to permit the Secretary to do it, the next
step on the part of the House would be to move an im-
peachment, and if Congress have the power to carry
this resolution through in defiance of the veto power,
they would be able to prosecute it to a successful termi-
nation/

" ' Under such circumstances/ he replied, elevating
himself to his full height and assuming a firm and digni-
fied aspect, ' then, sir, I would resign the Presidency and
return to the Hermitage/ "

Duane has recorded in dialogue form the following
interesting conversation between himself and the Presi-
dent which throws much light upon the methods and
characteristics of the general :

" Secretary. — ' I have at length waited upon you, sir,
with this letter/

" President.— ■' What is it?'

" Secretary. — ' It respectfully and finally makes
354

WAR ON THE BANK

known my decision, not to remove the deposits or
resign/

"President. — 'Then you do not mean that we shall
part as friends Y

" Secretary. — ' The reverse, sir, is my desire ; but I
must protect myself.'

" President. — ' But you said you would retire if we
could not finally agree/

" Secretary. — ' I indiscreetly said so, sir ; but I am
now compelled to take this course/

" President. — ' I have been under an impression
that you would resign, even as an act of friendship
to me/

" Secretary. — ' Personal wishes, sir, must give way.
The true question is, which must I observe, my promise
to execute my duty faithfully, or my agreement to
retire,, when the latter conflicts with the former/

"President. — 'I certainly never expected that any
such difficulties could arise between us, and I think
you ought still to consider the matter/

" Secretary. — ' I have painfully considered it, and
hope that you will not ask me to make a sacrifice. All
that you need is a successor, and him you may have at
once/

" President. — ' But I do not wish to dismiss you. I
have too much regard for yourself, your family, and
friends to take that course/

" Secretary. — ' Excuse me, sir, you may only do now
what you said in your letter of the twenty-second of
July it would be your duty to do if I then said I would
not thereafter remove the deposits/

" President — ' It would be at any time disagreeable
to do what might be injurious to you/

" Secretary. — ' A resignation, I think, would be more
injurious. And permit me to say that the publication
in yesterday's Globe removes all delicacy. A worm if
trodden upon will turn. I am assailed in all the leading
papers of the administration, and if my friend, you will
not tie up my hands/

355

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" President. — ' Then, I suppose, you mean to come
out against me.'

" Secretary. — * Nothing is further from my thoughts.
I barely desire to do what is now my duty, and to
defend myself if assailed thereafter.'

" (Here the President expatiated on the late dis-
closures in relation to the bank, the corruptibility of
Congress, etc., and at length, taking a paper from his
drawer, said:)

" President. — ' You have been all along mistaken in
your views. Here is a paper that will show you your
obligations, that the executive must protect you.'

" Secretary. — ' I will read it, sir, if such is your wish,
but I cannot anticipate a change of opinion.'

"President. — 'A secretary, sir, is merely an execu-
tive agent, a subordinate, and you may say so in self-
defence.'

" Secretary. — ' In this particular case Congress con-
fers a discretionary power, and requires reasons if I
exercise it. Surely this contemplates responsibility on
my part.'

"President. — 'This paper will show you that your
doubts are wholly groundless.'

"Secretary. — 'As to the deposits, allow me, sir, to
say my decision is positive. The only question is as
to the mode of my retirement.'

" President. — ' My dear Mr. Duane, we must sepa-
rate as friends. Far from desiring that you should sus-
tain any injury, you know I have intended to give you
the highest appointment now in my gift. You shall
have the mission to Russia. I would have settled this
matter before, but for the delay or difficulty' (as I un-
derstood the President) ' in relation to Mr. Buchanan.'

" Secretary. — * I am sincerely thankful to you, sir, for
your kind disposition, but I beg you to serve me in a
way that will be truly pleasing. I desire no new station,
and I barely wish to leave my present one blameless,
or free from apprehension as to the future. Favor me
with a written declaration of your desire that I should

356

WAR ON THE BANK

leave office, as I cannot carry out your views as to the
deposits, and I will take back this letter' (the one I
had just presented).

" President. — ' Never have I had anything that has
given me more mortification than this whole business.
I had not the smallest notion that we could differ/

" Secretary. — ' My principles and opinions, sir, are
unchanged. We differ only about time. You are for
acting now ; I am for waiting for Congress/

" President. — ' How often have I told you that Con-
gress cannot act until the deposits are removed/

" Secretary. — * I am unable, sir, to change my opinion
at will upon that point/

" President. — ' You are altogether wrong in your
opinion, and I thought Mr. Taney would have con-
vinced you that you are/

" Secretary. — ' Mr. Taney, sir, endeavored to prevail
on me to adopt his views, but failed. As to the de-
posits, I barely desired a delay of about ten weeks/

" President. — ' Not a day — not an hour; recent dis-
closures banish all doubt, and I do not see how you
can hesitate/

" Secretary. — ' I have often stated my reasons.
Surely, sir, it is enough that were I to act, I could
not give reasons satisfactory to myself/

" President. — ' My reasons, lately read in the Cabinet,
will release you from complaint/

" Secretary. — ' I am sorry I cannot view the subject
in the same light/

" Our conversation was further extended, under vary-
ing emotions on both sides, but without any change of
opinion or decision. At length I retired, leaving the
letter/'

So much for plucky Duane !

The action of the President and his new Financial
Secretary was a staggering blow to the bank. The re-
sponse of its friends was prompt and vigorous. The
Senate refused to confirm Taney as Secretary of the

357

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Treasury, although, since his appointment had been a
recess one, the mischief done could not be undone.
Jackson had his revenge later by appointing Taney
Chief -Justice of the United States.

The Senate had once refused to confirm his appoint-
ment of Isaac Hill to a minor office, but Jackson had
the satisfaction of seeing Hill elected a member of the
very body which had rejected him. It had refused to
confirm Van Buren as minister to England, and Jackson
had made the rejected nominee the Vice-President of
the United States and the Senate's presiding officer, and
subsequently President of the United States.

The Senate did more than reject Taney — it explicitly
condemned Jackson. Clay introduced the following
resolutions :

"Resolved, (i) That the President, in the late ex-
ecutive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has
assumed upon himself authority and power not con-
ferred by the Constitution and the laws, but in deroga-
■ tion of both. (2) That the reasons assigned by the
i Secretary for the removal are unsatisfactory and insuffi-
| cient."

The second resolution was passed immediately and
the first on March 28. Jackson protested against the
Senate action, sending to that august body a long and
able document giving the reasons for his protest, which
the Senate refused to receive, entertain, or spread on its
records : the character of this protest may be realized
from the following excerpts :

" It is due to the high trust with which I have been
charged ; to those who may be called to succeed me in
it ; to the representatives of the people, whose constitu-
tional prerogative has been unlawfully assumed ; to the
people of the States ; and to the Constitution they have
established ; — that I should not permit its provisions to
be broken down by such an attack on the executive

358

WAR ON THE BANK

i
department without at least some effort 'to preserve, /

protect, and defend them/ With this view, and for the /
reasons which have been stated, I do hereby solemnly j
protest against the aforementioned proceedings of the J
Senate, as unauthorized by the constitution ; contrary toi
its spirit and to several of its express provisions jpSfltP^"/
versive of that distribution of the powers of government
which it has ordained and established ; destructive of the
checks and safeguards by which those powers were in-
tended, on the one hand, to be controlled, and, on the
other, to be protected ; and calculated by their immediate
and collateral effects, by their character and tendency,
to concentrate in the hands of a body not directly amen-
able to the people a degree of influence and power
dangerous to their liberties and fatal to the Constitution
of their choice.

" The resolution of the Senate contains an imputation
upon my private as well as upon my public character ;
and as it must stand forever on their records, I cannot
close this substitute for that defence which I have not
been allowed to present in the ordinary form without
remarking that I have lived in vain if it be necessary to
enter into a formal vindication of my character and pur-
poses from such an imputation. In vain do I bear upon
my person enduring memorials of that contest in which
American liberty was purchased — in vain have I since
perilled property, fame, and life in defence. of the rights
and privileges so dearly bought — in vain am I now,
without a personal aspiration, or the hope of individual
advantage, encountering responsibilities and dangers
from which, by mere inactivity in relation to a single
point, I might have been exempt — if any serious doubts
can be entertained as to the purity of my purposes and
motives. If I had been ambitious, I should have sought
an alliance with that powerful institution which even
now aspires to no divided empire. If I had been venal,

359

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

I should have sold myself to its designs. Had I pre-
ferred personal comfort and official ease to' the perform-
ance of my arduous duty, I should have ceased to
molest it. In the history of conquerors and usurpers,
never, in the fire of youth, nor in the vigor of manhood,
could I find an attraction to lure me from the path of
duty; and now I shall scarcely find an inducement to
commence their career of ambition when gray hairs and
a decaying frame, instead of inviting to toil and battle,
call me to the contemplation of other worlds, where con-
querors cease to be honored, and usurpers expiate their
arimes.
\J^" The only ambition I can feel is to acquit myself to
Him to whom I must soon render an account of my
stewardship ; to serve my fellow-men, and live respected
and honored in the history of my country. No; the
ambition which leads me on is an anxious desire and
a fixed determination to return to the people, unim-
paired, the sacred trust they have confided to my charge ;
to heal the wounds of the Constitution and preserve it
from further violation ; to persuade my countrymen, so
far as I may, that it is not in a splendid government,
supported by powerful mondpolies and aristocratic es-
tablishments, that they will find happiness or their liber-
ties protection, but in a plain system, void of pomp, pro-
tecting all, and granting favors to none— dispensing its
blessings like the dews of heaven, unseen and unfelt,
save in the freshness and beauty they contribute to pro-
duce^ It is such a government that the genius of our
people requires — such an one only under which our
States may remain, for ages to come, united, prosperous,
and free. If the Almighty Being who has hitherto sus-
tained and protected me will but vouchsafe to make my
feeble powers instrumental to such a result, I shall an-
ticipate with pleasure the place to be assigned me in
the history of my country, and die contented, with the

360

WAR ON THE BANK

belief that I have contributed in some small degree
to increase the value and prolong the duration of Ameri-/
can liberty.

" To the end that the resolution of the Senate may not
be hereafter drawn into precedent, with the authority of
silent acquiescence on the part of the executive depart-
ment ; and to the end, also> that my motives and views
in the executive proceedings denounced in that resolu-
tion may be known to my fellow-citizens, to the world,
and to all posterity, I respectfully request that this
message and protest may be entered at length on the
journals of the Senate."

The Senate had exceeded its prerogatives undoubtedly
in passing the resolutions. If Jackson did anything un-
constitutional, the proper remedy was an impeachment
by the House, which would be heard by the Senate.
Should the House agree with the Senate on the uncon-
stitutionality of Jackson's action and should it present
him for trial to the Senate, the Senate would be in the
position of a judge who passed judgment in the shape
of a public censure prior to the trial of the case before
him! In other words, it is never competent for the
Senate to censure a President, for the Senate, in case
the President should be brought to trial, is the sole and
only judge of his actions. Benton, who was Jackson's
great defender and advocate through all of the contests
in which he and the Senate became involved, at once
moved that the resolution be expunged.

At that time Jackson's party in the Senate was in
the minority and nothing could be done, but with every
passing year the Jacksonians grew in strength, and
finally, just before the close of his last term of office,
after a spirited and acrimonious debate, amid scenes of
the most intensely dramatic nature, Benton succeeded in
having the offending resolution expunged.

" The administration had a majority in the Senate in
361

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

1836, but Benton says that a caucus was held on ex-
punging. The resolution, which was passed by a vote of
twenty-four to nineteen, directed that black lines should
be drawn around the record on the journal of the
Senate, and the words ' Expunged by order of the
Senate, this sixteenth day of January, 1837/ should be
written across it.* It was a real personal victory for
Jackson. The Senate had risen up to condemn him for
something which he had seen fit to do, and he had suc-
cessfully resented and silenced its reproof. It gratified
him more than any other incident in the latter part of
his life. . . . The day after the resolution was expunged
leave was refused in the House to bring in a resolution
that it was unconstitutional to expunge any part of any
record of either house.,, Yet there are other instances
of expunging on record.

So delighted was Jackson that he gave a banquet to
those who had voted for the expunging resolution, and
although he was ill at the time and unable to be present,
he managed to welcome the guests and then left Benton
in the chair. It was his last, and perhaps his greatest,
triumph over Henry Clay.

The Bank of the United States, unable to obtain a
recharter, and having been ruthlessly severed from any
connection with the government, was chartered as a
State bank of Pennsylvania and dragged on a miserable
existence for a short time, in which everything that was
vicious and bad in banking was finally exhibited in its
conduct. At the time Jackson first attacked it, as has
been said, it was probably not guilty of political manipu-
lation. When it fought for its life against the redoubt-
able assaults of the President the same innocence of the

* The resolution was passed at 3.30 a.m. on January 17th,
after a continuous session of great length, which was, I pre-
sume, considered as a part of the session of the previous day,
January 16th.— C. T. B.

362

WAR ON THE BANK

charge could not be maintained, naturally. Jackson not
only ruined the bank, but he crushed Biddle, who died
of a broken heart in comparative disgrace, which he
scarcely merited.

Jackson, although he was strong for hard money and
specie payments, had no adequate substitute to propose
for the institution he had destroyed. He had no finan-
cial system worthy of the name to substitute for that of
the bank. He could destroy, but he could not create, and
the subsequent financial crisis through which the United
States passed in Van Buren's term must certainly be
laid at his door. According to Woodrow Wilson :

"The President had a very sturdy and imperative
sense of right and honesty in all money matters. He
believed gold and silver to be 'the true constitutional
currency* of the country, he said. He demanded of the
pet banks that they should keep specie enough to cover
at least a third of their circulation, and that they should
issue no notes of a lower value than twenty dollars.
He increased the output of the mints and tried by every
means to force coin into circulation. He had no idea of
letting the country try again the fatal experiment of an
irredeemable paper currency if he could prevent it ; and
when he saw the fever rising in spite of him he tried a
remedy as drastic and wilful as his destruction of the
Bank of the United States. Speculation and hopeful
enterprise had had an extraordinary effect upon the sale
of the public lands. In 1834 the government had re-
ceived less than five millions from that source. In 1835
the sum sprang up to more than fourteen millions, and
in 1836 to nearly twenty-five millions; and the money
poured in, not, of course, in gold and silver, but in the
depreciated currency of innumerable unknown banks.
The Treasury was forbidden by statute to receive any
notes but those of specie-paying banks ; but things had
by this time already come to such a pass that no man

363

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

could certainly or safely distinguish the banks which
really kept a specie reserve from those which only pre-
tended to do so. On July n, 1836, accordingly, by the
President's command a circular issued from the Treas-
ury directing the land agents of the government to
accept nothing but gold or silver in payment for public
lands. Again, as in the case of the bank, the President's
advisers drew back and disapproved; but again he
assumed the full authority and responsibility of his
sovereign office, and delivered his blow without hesita-
tion or misgiving. ^^

" The effect was to shatter the whole fabrje'of credit.
But the consequences did not disclose themselves at
once. General Jackson had retired from public office
and Mr. Van Buren had succeeded him in the Presi-
dency (March, 1837) before the inevitable day of dis-
aster and collapse had visibly come."

In his war against the bank Jackson acted certainly
with courage and equally, I believe, from a sincere de-
sire to promote the public weal. He did not believe in
the existence of such a bank, and people to-day do not
believe in it. As Parton says: "With regard to the
war upon the Bank of the United States, every one is
glad the bank was destroyed, but no one can admire the
manner or the spirit in which the war was waged. At
the same time, it is not clear that any other kind of
warfare could have been successful against an institution
so rooted in the country as that was."

Other methods, however, might have been devised
and the end achieved by more conservative means.
Schouler says : " Let us freely grant that our warrior-
magistrate believed in his heart the worst of his intem-
perate accusations; that his zeal td exterminate the
bank was patriotic; that he drew to himself all the
functions of sovereignty, while Congress was scattered,
for dealing this unexpected blow so as to do his people

364

WAR ON THE BANK

a benefit, and not for wreaking a personal vengeance;
that he honestly thought that unless he struck at once
he would be borne down by the friends bought by the
unrighteous mammon. Let us concede, too, against
some powerful reasoning to the contrary, that the real
discretion in changing the deposits at this time rested
rightfully under the law in the President himself, and
not in the Secretary, his appointee; for turn them as
we may, all the executive departments are branches of
one vine, and who could have blamed President Jackson
for removing one Secretary and appointing another to
execute his purpose had the bank been actually in-
solvent and the deposits at that moment in jeopardy?"

Yet the bank was not insolvent at the time nor were
the deposits in jeopardy. As Benton said : " Certainly
the great business community, with few exceptions,
comprising wealth, ability, and education, went for the
bank, and the masses for General Jackson." Well, the
masses and Jackson — or should I reverse the order? —
had their way.

In conclusion, as we have often found in the case of
Jackson, I think he was wrong in his means of accom-
plishing the right end. He saw before him something
which he greatly desired to accomplish for the public
good, and he overrode everybody and everything in
order to bring it about. He dealt with it as he would
deal with an enemy in a military campaign. He gen-
erally did deal with antagonists or opposition of any
kind in that manner ; and he did not compass his great
desire or bring about his ends by the methods* of a
statesman, to which title he could lay much claim, or
the ways of a financier, which no stretch of admiration
could characterize him as being.

365

XVII

RELIGION — LAST DAYS

General Jackson was a thoroughly religious man
during the greater part of his life, and during the period
that elapsed between his Presidency and his death he
became a communicant member of the Presbyterian
Church. This was a step for which he had long been
prepared, but which he had delayed taking lest un-
worthy motives, as for political effect, should be ascribed
to him if he took it while in office or a candidate for
office. Now, when I say he was a religious man I do
not mean that his religion was at first of the active
personal sort; on the contrary, it was originally inter-
mixed with worldliness to an excessive degree.

Parton relates the following anecdote:

" After his wife had joined the church the general,
in deference to her wishes, was accustomed to ask a
blessing before meals. The company had sat down at
the table one day when the general was telling a warlike
story with great animation, interlarding his discourse,
as was then his custom, with a profusion of expletives
most heterodox and profane. In the full tide of his
narration the lady of the house interrupted her lord,
' Mr. Jackson, will you ask a blessing?' Mr. Jackson
stopped short in the midst of one of his most soldier-
like sentences, performed the duty required of him, and
then instantly resumed his narrative in the same tone
and language as before."

In the beginning his religion was like that blessing,
interspersed with much that was heterodox and profane.
But he was never a mocker or a Laodicean. As he

366

RELIGION— LAST DAYS

grew older he grew more reverent inwardly — he had
always been reverent outwardly. To Dr. Shaw, a friend 1
of his old age, he stated that " for thirty-five years I
before my election to the Presidency I read at least
three chapters of the Bible every day, which is far more j
than any of my detractors could say with truth of their^/
own conduct in this respect." It is also more than most
of his biographers, including his present-day detractors,
could say with truth !

I said he was outwardly reverent. /This is the geri-"|
eral's own opinion of the quality of reverence, which,'
like that of mercy, is not strained by the iteration of too
frequent usage, as expressed to Mr. Blair and recorded
by Buell. Aaron Burr was under discussion, and Jack-
son declared that " ' Burr came within one trait of the
most exalted greatness/

" ' What was that?' asked Mr. Blair.

" ' Reverence, sir, reverence/ replied the general
solemnly. ' I don't care how smart or how highly edu-
cated or how widely experienced a man may be in this
world's affairs, unless he reveres something and be-
lieves in somebody beyond his own self he will fall short
somewhere. That was the trouble with Bum I saw
it when I first met him in Philadelphia in 1796. I was
a raw backwoodsman, but had sense enough to see
through men a good deal smarter than I could ever
hope to be myself. I liked him and for many things
admired him. But I never could get over that, one
impression that he was irreverent. And that was what
stood in his way. I remember reading away back
yonder how he said, when he read Hamilton's farewell
letter, that " it sounded like the confession of a penitent
monk." I thought then, Blair, that if I had killed a man
as he had killed Hamilton, even if I had thought such
a thing, I would leave it for somebody else to say. In
the inner circles of my friends I have once or twice

367

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

spoken of Mr. Dickinson's character as I knew it to be,

. but never publicly or for the world to hear or read.

Yes, Blair, a man must revere some thing or, no matter

how smart or brave he is, he will die as Burr died in

i New York the other day, friendless and alone."

I do not think anyone could better explain the reason
I for the utter failure of Burr's career than Jackson did,
; for Burr, reverenced nothing, he was not even true to
Jiimself ./ Jackson was always careful to observe out-
ward religious duties, as going to church. " Without
ever being a ' Sabbatarian/ he was an observer of the
day of rest and a church-goer. On Sunday mornings
he would say to his guests, ' Gentlemen, do what you
please in my house ; / am going to church.' "

Of course, his chief reason for church-going at first
may have been to please his wife — many a man goes to
church for that and is the better for it too— but he
liked to hear sermons and did not object if sometimes
they were directed against himself. In the reminis-
cences of Peter Cartwright, who was a famous back-
woods Methodist preacher of Jackson's earlier days,
he tells how he was once preaching in a Presbyterian
church.

When he got started in his sermon, with the preacher
in charge sitting behind him, General Jackson came in
at the door — the church crowded and the aisles packed
— and stopped for a moment, not seeing his way. He
says at that time the preacher in charge touched his
coat-tail and said to him in a whisper, " General Jack-
son has just come in." He says at that time he felt
somewhat indignant and blabbed out, " What is that
if General Jackson has come in? In the eyes of God
he is no bigger than any other man ; and I tell General
Jackson now, if he don't repent and get forgiveness
for his sins, God Almighty will damn him just as quick
as he would a Guinea nigger."

368

RELIGION— LAST DAYS

Far from being offended, Jackson enjoyed the
preacher's frankness and spoke thus to him :

" ' Mr. Cartwright, you are a man after my own
heart. I am very much surprised at Mr. Mac, to think
he would suppose that I would be offended at you.
No, sir ; I told him that I highly approved of your in-
dependence; that a minister of Jesus Christ ought to
love everybody and fear no mortal man. I told Mr.
Mac that if I had a few thousand such independent,
fearless officers as you were, and a well-drilled army,
I could take old England !' "

" General Jackson was certainly a very extraordinary
man," continues the worthy preacher. " He was, no
doubt, in his prime of life a very wicked man, but he
always showed a great respect for the Christian religion
and the feelings of religious people, especially ministers
of the gospel. I will here relate a little incident that
shows his respect for religion.

"I had preached one Sabbath near the Hermitage,
and, in company with several gentlemen and ladies,
went, by special invitation, to dine with the general.
Among this company there was a young sprig of a
lawyer from Nashville of very ordinary intellect, and
he was trying hard to make an infidel of himself. As I
was the only preacher present, this young lawyer kept
pushing his conversation on me in order to get into
an argument. I tried to evade an argument, in the
first place considering it a breach of good manners to
interrupt the social conversation of the company; in
the second place I plainly saw that his head was much
softer than his heart, and that there were no laurels to
be won by vanquishing or demolishing such a com-
batant, and I persisted in evading an argument. This
seemed to inspire the young man with more confidence
in himself, for my evasiveness he construed into fear.
I saw General Jackson's eye strike fire as he sat by
24 369

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

and heard the thrusts he made at the Christian religion.
At length the young lawyer asked me this question, —

" ' Mr. Cartwright, do you really believe there is any
such place as hell as a place of torment Y

" I answered promptly, ' Yes, I do.'

" To which he responded, ' Well, I thank God I have
too much good sense to believe any such thing P

" I was pondering in my own mind whether I would
answer him or not, when General Jackson for the first
time broke into the conversation and, directing his
words to the young man, said with great earnestness, —

" ' Well, sir, I thank God that there is such a place
of torment as hell P

" This sudden answer, made with great earnestness,
seemed to astonish the youngster, and he exclaimed, —

" ' Why, General Jackson, what do you want with
such a place of torment as hell V

" To which the general replied as quick as lightning, —

" ' To put such d — d rascals as you are in, that oppose
and vilify the Christian religion/

" I tell you, this was a poser. The young lawyer
was struck dumb, and presently was found missing. "

Parson Craighead, another famous frontier preacher,
was once accused of heresy. Says Parton : " At nine
o'clock in the evening the parson rose to reply to the
accusation. His address was, perhaps, the longest, and,
to a man like Jackson, certainly the least interesting
ever delivered in Tennessee. After the first hour the
large congregation began so rapidly to melt away that
by eleven o'clock there were not fifty persons in the
church. The eager parson, however, kept sturdily on
stating his points and arranging his texts, regardless of
the empty pews; for there sat General Jackson in
the middle of the church bolt upright, with his eyes
fixed intently upon the speaker. Midnight arrived.
There were then just four persons in the church — the

370

RELIGION— LAST DAYS

party from the Hermitage and the lady to whom the
reader is indebted for this story. The general still
listened, with a look of such rapt attention that he
seemed to produce upon the speaker the effect of a
large assembly. ' I was dying to go/ said my in-
formant, ' but I was ashamed to be outdone by General
Jackson, who was more fit to be in bed than anyone
who had been present, and so I resolved to stay as long
as he did, if I dropped asleep upon the floor.' The
parson wound up his discourse just as the clock struck
one. General Jackson went up to him as he descended
the pulpit and congratulated him heartily upon his
triumphant vindication.

" * The general would have sat till daylight/ said the
lady ; ' I saw it in his eye/ "

Later in his career to a certain foreign minister who
sought the President's advice as to the appointment of
a young man of Jackson's acquaintance, an employe of
the State Department, as his secretary, the President
remarked : " I advise you, sir, not to take the man.
He is not a good judge of preaching." The astonished
minister observed that the objection needed explana-
tion. Perhaps he failed to see the connection. " I am
able to give it," said the general promptly, and he thus
continued : " On last Sabbath morning I attended
divine service in the Methodist Episcopal church in
this city. There I listened to a soul-inspiring sermon
by Professor Durbin, of Carlisle, one of the ablest
pulpit orators in America. Seated in a pew near me
I observed this identical young man, apparently an
attentive listener. On the day following he came into
this chamber on business, when I had the curiosity to
ask his opinion of the sermon and the preacher. And
what think you, sir? The young upstart, with con-
summate assurance, pronounced that sermon all froth
and Professor Durbin a humbug ! I took the liberty of

37i

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

saying to him, ' My young man, you are a humbug
yourself, and don't know it !' And now," continued the
old man solemnly, " rest assured, dear sir, that a man
who is not a better judge of preaching than that is unfit
to be your companion. And besides," he added
shrewdly, " if he were the prodigy the Secretary of
State represents him to be, he would be less anxious
to confer his services upon you — he would rather be
anxious to retain them himself."

And to Captain Donelson he wrote during his first
term in the Presidency:

" My dear wife had your future state much at heart. She
often spoke to me on this interesting subject in the dead hours
of the night, and has shed many tears on the occasion. Your
reflections upon the sincere interest your dear sister took in
your future happiness are such as sound reason dictates. Yes,
my friend, it is time that you should withdraw from the tur-
moils of this world, and prepare for another and better. You
have well provided for your household. You have educated
your children, and furnished them with an outfit into life
sufficient, with good management and economy, to build an
independence upon. You have sufficient around you to make
you and your old lady independent and comfortable during
life; and, when gone hence, perhaps as much as will be pru-
dently managed; and if it should be imprudently managed,
then it will be a curse rather than a blessing to your children. I
therefore join in the sentiments of my deceased and beloved
wife, in admonishing you to withdraw from the busy scenes of
this world, and put your house in order for the next, by laying
hold of ' the one thing needful/ Go, read the Scriptures. The
joyful promises it contains will be a balsam to all your trou-
bles, and create for you a heaven here on earth, a consolation
to your troubled mind that is not to be found in the hurry and
bustle of this world."

I venture to insert here a charming letter he wrote
during the last year of his administration to Mrs. Emily
Donelson, the wife of his secretary:

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RELIGION— LAST DAYS

" Washington, November 27, 1836.

" My dear Emily : Your kind and acceptable letter of the
eleventh instant was received on the twenty-third, whilst I
was confined to my bed by a severe hemorrhage from the
lungs, which threatened a speedy end to my existence, but, with
sincere thanks to a king Providence, who holds our existence
here in the hollow of His hand, I have so far recovered as to
be able to write you this letter, to acknowledge the receipt of
yours, and to offer to Him who made us my most sincere and
hearty thanks for His kindness to you in restoring you to
health again, and with my prayers for your perfect recovery,
and that you may be long spared to superintend the bringing
up and educating of your dear children, and be a comfort to
your dear husband, who has a great solicitude about you, and
great anxiety to speedily return to you; but my sudden attack
has detained him.

" I rejoice, my dear Emily, to find your spirits are good, and
that you are able to take exercise daily.' This is necessary to
your perfect recovery; and trust in a kind Providence that in
time you will be completely restored to your health. You are
young, and with care and good treatment will outgrow your
disease, but you must be careful not to take cold this winter,
and as soon as Doctor Hunt's prescription reaches you, I
would advise you to pursue it. The digitalis, I fear, is too
exciting to the pulse.

"The doctor tells me I lost from the lungs, and by the
lancet and cupping, upwards of sixty ounces of blood, which
stopped the hemorrhage without the aid of that potent, but
pernicious, remedy to the stomach, sugar of lead. I am now
mending as fast as I could expect, and if I can keep clear of
taking cold this winter, I hope to be spared, and to return to
the Hermitage in the spring, and again have the pleasure of
seeing you and your dear children, to whom present me affec-
tionately.

"My dear Emily, the chastisement of our Maker we ought
to receive as a rebuke from Him, and thank Him for the
mildness of it — which was to bring to our view, and that it
may be always before us, that we are mere tenants at will here.
And we ought to live daily so as to be prepared to die, for we
know not when we may be called home. Then let us receive
our chastisements as blessings from God; and let us so live
that we may say with the sacred poet:

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THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

•'What though the Father's rod
Drop a chastening stroke,
Yet. lest it wound their souls too deep,
Its fury shall be broke!

- " Deal gently, Lord, with those
Whose faith and pious fear,
Whose hope, and love, and every grace,
Proclaim their hearts sincere.

"I must close with my blessing to you and the children.
May God bless you and all. Emily, farewell Affectionately,

" Andrew Jackson."

In his retirement his thoughts turned more and more
to religion. Parton thus tells the story of the way in
which he finally took the step in the following exquisite
language :

" It was about the year 1839 that Dr. Edgar was first
invited to the Hermitage for the purpose of administer-
ing religious advice to its inmates. Mrs. Jackson, the
amiable and estimable wife of the general's son, was
sick in body and troubled in mind. General Jackson
invited his reverend friend to call and see her, and en-
deavor to clear her mind of the cloud of perplexity and
apprehension which hung over it. In the course of her
conversation with the doctor she chanced to say, in the
general's hearing, that she felt herself to be 'a great
sinner/

" ' You a sinner ?' interposed the general ; ' why, you
are all purity and goodness 1 Join Dr. Edgar's church,
by all means.'

" This remark was considered by the clergyman as
proof that, at that time, General Jackson was ' blind' as
to the nature of true religion. Soon after this inter-
view Mrs. Jackson's anxiety was relieved, and she
waited to join the church only for a suitable oppor-
tunity.'

"Ere long a 'protracted meeting' was held in the
little church on the Hermitage farm. Dr. Edgar con-

374

f i

i i

RELIGION— LAST DAYS

ducted the exercises, and the family at the Hermitage
were constant in their attendance. The last day of th&\
meeting arrived, which was also the last day of the
week. General Jackson sat in his accustomed seat and
Dr. Edgar preached. The subject of the sermon was
the interposition of Providence in the affairs of men,
a subject congenial with the habitual tone of General
Jackson's mind. The preacher spoke in detail of the
perils which beset the life of man, and how often he is
preserved from sickness and sudden death. Seeing
General Jackson listening with rapt attention to his dis-
course, the eloquent preacher sketched the career of a
man who, in addition to the ordinary dangers of human
life, had encountered those of the wilderness, of war,
and of keen political conflict; who had escaped the
tomahawk of the savage, the attack of his country'^
enemies, the privations and fatigues of border warfare^
and the aim of the assassin. 'How is it/ exclaimed\
the preacher, 'that a man endowed with reason and
gifted with intelligence can pass through such scenes
as these unharmed, and not see the hand of God in his
deliverance ?' While enlarging on this theme Dr. Edgar
saw that his words were sinking deep into the general's
heart, and he spoke with unusual animation and im-
pressiveness.

" The service ended, General Jackson got into his car-
riage and was riding homeward. He was overtaken
by Dr. Edgar on horseback. He hailed the doctor,
and said he wished to speak with him. Both having
alighted, the general led the clergyman a little way into
the grove.

" ' Doctor/ said the general, ' I want you to come
home with me to-night.'

" ' I cannot to-night/ was the reply ; 'lam engaged
elsewhere.'

" ' Doctor/ repeated the general, ' I want you to come
home with me to-night.'

" Dr. Edgar said that he had promised to visit that
evening a sick lady, and he felt bound to keep his
promise. General Jackson, as though he had not heard

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RELIGION— LAST DAYS

lutely and in all cases. No man could be received into
a Christian church who did not cast out of his heart
every feeling of that .nature. It was a condition that
was fundamental and indispensable.

" After a considerable pause the candidate said that
he thought he could forgive all who had injured him,
even those who had assailed him for what he had done
for his country in the field. The clergyman then con-
sented to his sharing in the solemn ceremonial of the
morning, and left the room to communicate the glad
tidings to Mrs. Jackson. She hastened to the general's
apartment. They rushed with tears into each other's
arms, and remained long in a fond and silent embrace.

" The Hermitage church was crowded to the utmost
of its small capacity ; the very windows were darkened
with the eager faces of the servants. After the usual
services, the general rose to make the required public
declaration of his concurrence with the doctrines, and
his resolve to obey the precepts, of the church. He
leaned heavily upon his stick with both hands; tears
rolled down his cheeks. His daughter, the fair, young
matron, stood beside him. Amid a silence the most
profound, the general answered the questions proposed
to him. When he was formally pronounced a member
of the church, and the clergyman was about to continue
the services, the long-restrained feelings of the con-
gregation burst forth in sobs and exclamations, which
compelled him to pause for several minutes. The cler-
gyman himself was speechless with emotion and aban-
doned himself to the exaltation of the hour. A familiar
hymn was raised, in which the entire assembly, both
within and without the church, joined with an ecstatic
fervor which at once expressed and relieved their
feelings.

" From this time to the end of his life General Jack-
son spent most of his leisure hours in reading the Bible,
Biblical commentaries, and the hymn-book, which last
he always pronounced in the old-fashioned way, hitne
book. The work known as ' Scott's Bible' was his chief
delight; he read it through twice before he died.

377

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Nightly he read prayers in the presence of his family
and household servants. I say read prayers, for so I
was informed by those who often, heard him do it. But
there has been published a description of the family
worship at the Hermitage which represents the general
as delivering an extempore prayer.

"The Hermitage church, after the death of Mrs.
Jackson and the general's removal to Washington, had
not been able to maintain itself; but the event which
we have just related caused it to be reorganized. At
one of the first meetings of the resurrected church Gen-
eral Jackson was nominated a ' ruling elder/

" ' No/ said he, ' the Bible says, " Be not hasty in
laying on of hands." I am too young in the church
for such an office. My countrymen have given me high
honors, but I should esteem the office of ruling elder
in the Church of Christ a far higher honor than any I

have ever received. I propose Brother and

Brother ' (two aged neighbors)."

Jackson had but little time left in which to show the
strength and sincerity of his conviction and his devotion
to the church, but there is no doubt as to the depth
of them nor of the comfort and peace that came to the
battle-scarred, storm-racked old man in those last years
of his tempestuous life. They were not altogether
happy years from a material standpoint. Van Buren
was beaten in the political field, the speculations of
Andrew Jackson, Jr., his adopted son, turned out badly
at home, and in order to assist him Jackson was forced
to borrow money, which he cheerfully did. In view of
the straits to which the younger Andrew had been
reduced, Jackson made a new and final will bequeathing
everything to him. Lewis thus describes an interview
in which the question of the will was discussed shortly
after it was made:

" It was a beautiful morning in June. ' Come,
Major/ said the general, 'it is a pleasant day, let us

378

RELIGION— LAST DAYS

take a stroll/ He seemed very weak, scarcely able to
walk, and had much difficulty in breathing. After
walking a short distance Major Lewis advised him to
return, but he would not. A second and a third time
the major entreated him to go no further. ' No, Major/
he said, ' I set out to show you my cotton field, and I
will go/ They reached the field at length and sat down
upon a stump to admire its flourishing appearance.
Suddenly changing the subject, the general told his
companion that he had made a new will, leaving his
whole estate unconditionally to his son. Major Lewis
ventured to remonstrate, and advised that a part of the
property should be settled upon Mrs. Jackson and her
children, enough to secure them against want in case
his son's speculations should continue to be unsuc-
cessful.

" ' No/ said the general after a long pause, ' that
would show a want of confidence. If she' pointing to
the tomb in the garden, 'were alive, she would wish
him to have it all, and to me her wish is law/ "

The little episode is interesting as showing the gen-
eral's indomitable resolution to do what he set about
to do at whatsoever cost to himself, and there is a
further evidence in those last days, when his wife had
been dead so many years, of the depth and persistence
of his affection for her.

On May 24, 1845, the last Sunday but two of his
life, "General Jackson partook of the communion in
the presence of his family. He spoke much of the
consolation of religion, and declared that he was ready
for the final summons. 'Death/ said he after the
ceremony was over, ' has no terrors for me. When I
have suffered sufficiently, the Lord will take me to
Himself; but what are my sufferings compared with
those of the blessed Saviour who died on the accursed
tree for me ? Mine are nothing/ "

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THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

Sumner's last bitter words on Jackson, which I print
without further comment, since the spirit in which they
were written is painfully evident, are these : " In his
last years he joined the church, and on that occasion,
under the exhortations of his spiritual adviser, he pro-
fessed to forgive all his enemies in a body, although
it is otherwise asserted that he excepted those who had
slandered his wife. It does not appear that he ever
repented of anything, ever thought that he had been
in the wrong in anything, or ever forgave an enemy
as a specific individual."

The end of his life was now at hand. Let us see
how he met it, and what truly does appear concerning it.
Parton has preserved certain pages of a diary kept by
one William Tyack, whom he describes as being a friend
and employe of the family, in which we are given an
intimate personal account of the last days of the old
hero.

" Wednesday, May 28. — On my arrival I find the ex-
President more comfortable than he has been, although
his disease is* not abated, and his long and useful life
is rapidly drawing to its close. He has not been in a
condition to lie down during the last four months.

" Thursday, May 29. — General Jackson is rather
more comfortable, having obtained from opiates some
sleep. This day he sat awhile to Mr. Healy, who has
been sent by Louis Philippe to paint his portrait. Mr.
Healy told me it was the design of the King of the
French to place his portrait by the side of Wash-
ington, which already hangs in his gallery. Mr. Healy
is commissioned by the king to paint the portraits of
twelve of the most distinguished Revolutionary pa-
triots, to surround those of Washington and Jack-
son. Mr. Healy was enabled to make much progress
in his work to-day; and, as usual, the general re-
ceived many visitors — more than thirty. All were ad-
mitted, from the humblest to the most renowned, to

380

RELIGION— LAST DAYS

take the venerable chieftain by the hand and bid him
farewell. Among the visitors was General Jessup, an
old friend and companion in arms. The meeting of
these faithful and gallant soldiers and servants of the
republic was deeply interesting and affecting. A rever-
end gentleman called to inquire in regard to the gen-
eral's health, his faith, and future hope. The general
said : ' Sir, I am in the hands of a merciful God. I have
full confidence in His goodness and mercy. My lamp
of life is nearly out, and the last glimmer has come. I
am ready to depart when called. The Bible is true.
The principles and statutes of that holy book have been
the rule of my life, and I have tried to conform to its
spirit as near as possible. Upon the sacred volume I
rest my hope to eternal salvation, through the merits
and blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ/

" Friday, May 30. — The general passed a bad night ;
no sleep; extremely feeble this morning. Mr. Healy,
with much exertion on the part of the general, was
enabled to finish the portrait, on which he had labored
with great care. It was presented the general. After
examining it for some minutes, he remarked to Mr.
Healy, ' I am satisfied, sir, that you stand at the head
of your profession. If I may be allowed to judge
of my own likeness, I can safely concur in the opinion
of my family. This is the best that has been taken. I
feel very much obliged to you, sir, for the very great
labor and care you have been pleased to bestow upon
it/ The family were all highly gratified with its faith-
fulness. I consider it the most perfect representation I
have seen, giving rather the remains of the heroic per-
sonage than the full life that made him the most ex-
traordinary combination of spirit and energy, with a
slender frame, the world ever saw.

" At nine o'clock, as is the custom, all the general's
family, except the few who take their turn to watch by
his side, took their leave of him. Each of the family
approached him, received his blessing, bade him fare-
well; kissed him, as it would seem, an eternal good-

381

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

night ; for he would say, ' My work is done for life.'
After his family retires it is touching to witness this
heroic man, who has faced every danger with unyielding
front, offer up his prayer for those whom Providence
has committed to his care ; that Heaven would protect
and prosper them when he is no more — praying still
more fervently to God for the preservation of his coun-
try, of the Union, and the people of the United States
from all foreign influence and invasion — tendering his
forgiveness to his enemies, and his gratitude to God for
His support and success through a long life, and for
the hope of eternal salvation through the merits of our
blessed Redeemer.

" The general exerts himself to discharge every duty,
and with all the anxious care that is possible; but his
debility, and the unremitting anguish he suffers, has
almost extinguished every power except that of his
intellect. Occasionally his distress produces spasmodic
affections; yet in the midst of the worst paroxysm
of pain not a murmur, not even a groan, escapes his
lips. Great and just in life, calm and resigned in
death.

" Saturday, May 30. — The general passed a dis-
tressed night ; no sleep ; extreme debility this morning,
attended with increased swelling of the abdomen and
all his limbs and difficulty of breathing. He said, ' I
hope God will grant me patience to submit to His holy
will. He does all things well, and blessed be His holy
and merciful name/ His Bible is always near him;
if he is in his chair it is on the table by his side ; when
propped up in bed, that sacred volume is laid by him,
and he often reads it. He has no power and is lifted
in and out of his sitting posture in bed to the same
posture in his chair. Nothing can exceed the affection-
ate care, vigilance, and never-ceasing efforts of his pious
and devoted family to administer to his relief; and
yet, in the midst of the affliction which calls for so much
attention and sympathy, kindness and hospitality to
strangers are not omitted.

" June 1. — ' This day/ the general said, ' is the holy

RELIGION— LAST DAYS

Sabbath, ordained by God and set apart to be devoted
to His worship and praise. I always attended service at
church when I could ; but now I can go no more/ He
desired the family to go, as many as could, and charged
them to continue the education of the poor at the
Sabbath-school. This new system of instruction, he
said, which blended the duties of religion with those of
humanity, he considered of vast importance, and spoke
with an emphasis which showed his anxiety to impress it
on the family. Mrs. Jackson and her sister, Mrs.
Adams, regularly attended to their instructions on the
Sabbath. A part of the family went to church. The
general looked out of the window and said : ' This is
apparently the last Sabbath I shall be with you. God's
will be done ; He is kind and merciful.' The general's
look is often fixed with peculiar affection on his grand-
daughter Rachel, named after his wife, so beloved, and
whose memory he has so tenderly cherished. The young
Rachel has all the lovely and amiable qualities for which
the elder Mrs. Jackson was so remarkable.

" Monday, June 2. — The general passed a bad night.
No sleep. An evident increase of water on the chest.
He read many letters, as usual. Some of them from
persons of whom he had no knowledge, asking his auto-
graphs, and making other requests. The letters were
opened by some of his family. Mrs. Jackson or Mrs.
Adams were almost constantly with him. He looked
over them ; those of importance were opened and read.
Among them was one from Major Donelson, charge-
d'affaires to Texas, giving an account of the almost in-
credible proceedings of the British agent, Elliott, to
prevent the annexation of Texas to the United States.
The general said : ' We have made a disgraceful sacri-
fice of our territory (Oregon) ; an important portion
of our country was given away to England without a
shadow of title on the part of the claimants, as has been
shown by the admissions of the English ministers on
referring in Parliament to the King's map, on which
the true boundaries were delineated, and of which they
were apprised when urging their demands.' ' Right on

383

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

the side of the American people, and firmness in main-
taining it/ he continued, ' with trust in God alone, will
secure to them the integrity of the possessions of which
the British government would now deprive them. I am
satisfied that they will assert and vindicate what justice
awards them, and that no part of our territory or coun-
try will ever be submitted to any arbitration but of the
cannon's mouth/

" He felt grateful, he said, to a merciful Providence,
that had always sustained him through all his struggles,
and in the defence of the continued independence and
prosperity of his beloved country, and that he could now
give up his stewardship and resign his breath to God
who gave it, with the cheering reflection that the country
was now settled down upon a firm, democratic basis;
that the rights of the laboring classes were respected
and protected ; ' for/ he added, ' it is from them that
the country derives all its prosperity and greatness, and
to them we must ever look to defend our soil when
invaded. They have never refused — no, sir, and never
will. Give them an honest government, freedom from
their monopolies and privileged classes, and hard money
— not paper currency — for their hard labor, and all will
be well/

"At two o'clock p.m. his distress became suddenly
very great, and the water increasing to an alarming
extent, an express was sent to Nashville, twelve miles,
for surgical aid. An operation was performed by Dr.
Esselman with success; much water was taken from
his abdomen, which produced great relief, although ex-
treme prostration.

" Tuesday, June 3. — Much distress through the night.
Opiates were freely administered, but sleep appeared to
have passed from him. Calm and perfectly resigned to
the will of his Redeemer, he prayed to God to sustain
him in the hour of dissolution.

" At ten a.m. Doctors Robinson and Walters arrived
from Nashville. Doctor Esselman having remained
with the general through the night, a consultation was
held and all that had been done was approved ; and all

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RELIGION— LAST DAYS

that could be done was to conform to the general's tem-
porary wants.

"At four p.m. I left his house for home. He ex-
pressed great solicitude in my behalf, but I was silent;
the scene was too affecting ; and I left this aged soldier,
statesman, and Christian patriot, with all the pious and
hospitable inmates of the Hermitage, without the power
of saying farewell."

Four days after Tyack's departure Jackson died. Dr.
Esselman, who attended him in his last illness, thus de-
scribes his death-bed :

"On Sunday morning," writes Dr. Esselman, "on
entering his room, I found him sitting in his armchair,
with his two faithful servants, George and Dick, by
his side, who had just removed him from his bed. I
immediately perceived that the hand of death was upon
him. I informed his son that he could survive but a
few hours, and he immediately dispatched a servant for
Major William B. Lewis, the general's devoted friend.
Mrs. Jackson informed me that it was the general's re-
quest that in case he grew worse, or was thought to be
near his death, Major Lewis should be sent for, as he
wished him to be near him in his last moments. He
was instantly removed to his bed, but before he could
be placed there he had swooned away. His family and
servants, believing him to be dead, were very much
alarmed, and manifested the most intense grief; how-
ever, in a few seconds reaction took place, and he be-
came conscious, and raised his eyes, and said : ' My
dear children, do not grieve for me; it is true I am
going to leave you ; I am well aware of my situation ;
I have suffered much bodily pain, but my sufferings
are but as nothing compared with that which our blessed
Saviour endured on that accursed cross, that we might
all be saved who put their trust in Him/ He first
advised Mrs. Jackson (his daughter-in-law) and took
leave of her, reminding her of her tender kindness to-
wards him at all times, and especially during his pro-
25 38S

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

tracted illness. He next took leave of Mrs. Adams (a
widowed sister of Mrs. Jackson, who had been a mem-
ber of the general's family for several years) in the
most kind and affectionate manner, reminding her also
of her tender devotion towards him during his illness.
He next took leave of his adopted son in the most
affectionate and devoted manner. He next took leave
of his grandchildren and the children of Mrs. Adams.
He kissed and blessed them in a manner so toujchingly
impressive that I have no language that can do this
scene justice. He discovered that there were two of
the boys absent— one of his grandsons and one of Mrs.
Adams'. He inquired for them. He was informed
that they were at the chapel, attending Sunday-school.
He desired that they should be sent for. As soon as they
came he kissed and blessed them also, as he had done
to those with him. By this time most of his servants
had collected in his room or at the windows. When he
had taken leave of them all, he delivered one of the
most impressive lectures on the subject of religion that
I have ever heard. He spoke for nearly half an hour,
and apparently with the power of inspiration; for he
spoke with calmness, with strength, and, indeed, with
animation. I regret exceedingly that there was no one
present who could have noted down his precise words.
In conclusion he said : ' My dear children, and friends,
and servants, I hope and trust to meet you all in heaven,
both white and black/ The last sentence he repeated—
' botfi white and black/ looking at them with the ten-
derest solicitude. With these words he ceased to speak,
but fixed his eyes on his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson
(who bears the name of his own beloved wife), for
several seconds. What was passing through his mind
at that moment I will not pretend to say, but it did
appear to me that he was invoking the blessings of
' Heaven to rest upon her."

When I think of the end of that life, the storm-tossed
pld warrior entering the haven where he would find that

386

RELIGION— LAST DAYS

rest that had been denied him all his life, I am minded
to voice an ancient prayer which runs, " Let me die the
death of the righteous, and let my last end be like
hisr

As to Jackson's last words, I am inclined to think that
the narrators allowed themselves to fill out, in accord-
ance with their own ideas of his meaning, the broken
sentences of the dying man, which Buell gives as " Don't

cry. Be good. We shall meet ." To me there is

much more that is natural and characteristic in these
words, and there is much more that is suggestive and
beautiful in the long silence that fell upon those old
lips as they strove to voice that uncompleted sentence
than in any graceful period supplied by any one else.
No one ever put words in Jackson's mouth in life, no
one should be allowed to do it in death either. Well,
the sentence was broken and interrupted, but the long
life was roundly finished, complete and well.

Lewis gave another account of that last scene of all
in this strange eventful history to Parton, which I quote
until the end.

Major Lewis arrived about noon. " Major," said
the dying man in a feeble voice, but quite audibly,
"I am glad to see you. You had like to have been
too late."

During most of the afternoon he lay tranquil and
without pain, speaking occasionally to Major Lewis,
who never left his bedside. He sent farewell messages
to Colonel Benton, Mr. Blair, General Houston, and
to other friends not known to the public. At half-past
five, after a long interval of silence, his son took his
hand and whispered in his ear :

" Father, how do you feel? Do you know me?"

" Know you ?" he replied, " yes, I know you. I would
know you all if I could see. Bring me my spectacles."

When his spectacles were brought he said :
387

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

" Where is my daughter and Marian? God will take
care of you for me. I am my God's. I belong to Him.
I go but a short time before you, and I want to meet
you all, white and black, in heaven.,,

All present burst into tears. The crowd of servants
on the piazza, who were all day looking through the
windows, sobbed, cried out, and wrung their hands.
The general spoke again :

"What is the matter with my dear children? Have
I alarmed you? Oh, do not cry. Be good children,
and we will all meet in heaven."

These were his last words. He lay half an hour
with closed eyes, breathing softly and easily. Major
Lewis stood close to his head. The family were about
the bed silently waiting and weeping. George and the
faithful Hannah were present. Hannah could not be
induced to leave the room. " I was born and raised
on the place," said she, "and my place is here." At
six o'clock the general's head suddenly fell forward and
was caught by Major Lewis. The major applied his
ear to the mouth of his friend and found that he had
ceased to breathe. He had died without a struggle
or a pang. Major Lewis removed the pillows, drew
down the body upon the bed, and closed the eyes. Upon
looking again at the face, he observed that the expres-
sion of pain which it had worn so long had passed away.
Death had restored it to naturalness and serenity. The
aged warrior slept.

Two days after he was laid in the grave by the side
of his wife, of whom he had said, not long before he
died, " Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet
my wife there." All Nashville and the country round
about seemed to be present at the funeral. Three thou-
sand persons were thought to be assembled on the lawn
in front of the house, when Dr. Edgar stepped upon
the portico to begin the services. After prayer* had

388

LAST PORTRAIT OF ANDREW JACKSON, PAINTED A SHORT
TIME PREVIOUS TO HIS DEATH

From the original by Colonel R. E. W. Earl in the possession of
Colonel Andrew Jackson

XVIII

jackson's place in our history

" What/' asks Professor William Garrott Brown in
concluding his lucid and comprehensive monograph on
Jackson, " is the rightful place in history of the fiery
horseman in front of the White House ? * The reader
must answer for himself when he has studied for him-
self all the great questions Jackson dealt with. Such a
study will surely show that he made many mistakes, did
much injustice to men, espoused many causes without
waiting to hear the other side, was often bitter, violent,
even cruel. It will show how ignorant he was on many
subjects, how prejudiced on others. It will show him
in contact with men who surpassed him in wisdom, in
knowledge, in fairness of mind. It will deny him a
place among those calm, just, great men who can see
both sides and yet strive ardently for the right side.

" But the longest inquiry will not discover another
American of his times who had in such ample measure
the gifts of courage and will. Many had fewer faults,
many superior talents, but none so great a spirit. He
was the man who had his way. He was the American
whose simple virtues his countrymen most clearly under-
stood, whose trespasses they most readily forgave ; and
until Americans are altogether changed, many, like the
Democrats of the 'twenties and 'thirties, will still ' vote
for Jackson' — for the poor boy who fought his way,
\ step by step, to the highest station ; for the soldier who
! always went to meet the enemy at the gate; for the

♦•Alluding to the equestrian statue of the general at Wash-
ington. It is proper to say that I do not entirely agree with
this estimate, although generally endorsing it. — C. T. B.

390

JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY

President who never shirked a responsibility; for the {
man who would not think evil of a woman or speak ;
harshly to a child. Education and training in statecraft ;
would have saved him many errors ; culture might have '
softened the fierceness of his nature. But untrained,
uncultivated, imperfect as he was, not one of his great
contemporaries had so good a right to stand for Ameri-
can character."

If, in this book, I have done my work well, the intelli-
gent reader who has progressed thus far will have ac-
quired a just conception of the character and career of
Andrew Jackson. In such a case it may be argued that
any further words from me on the subject are unneces-
sary. If, on the other hand, my task has been indiffer-
ently performed, then any comments of mine are not
only superfluous, but impertinent. Therefore shall I
say on, or not ?

In the humble hope that I have been fair and adequate
in my treatment of my great and entrancing subject,
and in the further hope that I have not failed in my
endeavor to "nothing extenuate" on the one hand,
"nor set down aught in malice" on the other, I dare
venture to submit an estimate, brief, I promise you, of
Jackson's place in our history, together with some re-
marks as to our future which must inevitably occur to
every searcher in our past, to every observer of our
present.

It will be universally admitted that we have had at
least two great Presidents in our history, men who
were great personalities and who contributed invaluably
to the welfare of the Republic, Washington and Lin-
coln. Greatness is primarily a matter of character, but
the world measures it usually by results. And that^for
this discussion is a safe standard. If results, then, be'
a test of greatness, another factor must of necessity be
considered in estimating the places of men — opportu-

39i

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

nity. To George Washington and to Abraham Lincoln
great opportunities were presented. Those opportuni-
ties they mastered with splendid results to their country
and to mankind. Others might possibly have done as
well given the same chance, but since the chance was
withheld they may be dismissed from further considera-
tion. Is Andrew Jackson entitled to be mentioned with
these two, either by what he was, or by what he accom-
plished in or out of the Presidency? I think so. He
falls below them both, but he rises above every other
President in the long line.

Let us go back in our history a little and strive right-
fully to place these three men.

When what disputes with the Constitution the honor
of being described as the greatest document ever struck
off at one time by human hand, the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, was spread before the eyes of startled
Europe; in spite of the age-long struggle human lib-
erty— civil, political, and religious liberty, that is — was
in most countries a philosophic dream. Even that
sturdy little Helvetian confederacy was under the domi-
nation of an oligarchy as narrow and as supreme as
that which had swayed for a thousand years the des-
tinies of Venice. There was liberty nowhere on the
surface. There was a passion for it everywhere in
human hearts.

Then it pleased God to bring together in America
such a group of men as few countries have ever assem-
bled at one time within their borders. James Otis, John
Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander
Hamilton, James -Madison, Robert Morris, and Benja-
min Frgtnklin, to think and plan; Nathanael Greene,
Israel Putnam, Anthony Wayne, Daniel Morgan, John
S>tark, Francis Marion, John Paul Jones, Richard Mont-
gomery, Harry Lee, Baron De Kalb, Marquis de
Lafayette, and, in his earlier career, Benedict Arnold,

392

JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY

to do and dare; and as the unifying spirit not only to
direct, but also to lead, and thus to stand supreme among
them all — George Washington. Providence also put a
blundering fool upon a throne, and surrounded him
with venal counsellors and incompetent soldiers, to
equalize the struggle of the few against the many.
Thus the Revolution was fought and won. Thus the
country was established.

There is one significant feature of it It was fought,
won, and established under the leadership and guidance
I might say of an oligarchy, certainly of an aristocracy.
We had no official aristocracy in the country, but unoffi-
cially there were well-established differences in rank
even in democratic New England, where students were
placed in Harvard College in accordance with the social
status of their fathers! With few exceptions the sol-
diers and statesmen of the Revolution were, in the old-
fashioned sense of the word, of the degree of gentlemen.
They came from the best society of their day. True,
they could have done nothing had there not been that
fortuitous concurrence of ideas and the ideal as repre-
sented by the people and the few. True, they could
have accomplished little had not the time been ripe for
such leadership as they could offer; had not the idea
of liberty been already inwrought in the minds of the
people by the slow process of the ages. The under-
standing of this point is of great importance in tracing
our future development. It was the aristocracy of the
land to which was due the establishment of the govern-
ment. Nor by this do I minimize the popular contribu-
tion to the work. That was necessary. Nothing could
have been accomplished without the people. But with-
out the leadership mentioned nothing could have been
done by the people. They were not yet capable of
evolving a leader themselves.

There never was a kinglier man in any land, at any
393

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

time, than George Washington. Wherever such a char-
acter might have appeared his career would have been
a marked one. If he had not been born to the purple,
he would have achieved it. No man is independent of
opportunity. For if, as Shakespeare says, its guilt is
great, so also is its virtue ; but if ever a man were inde-
pendent of opportunity, it was George Washington.

Such an assemblage of qualities as he exhibited has
rarely, if ever, been seen before in a single man ; yet he
was not a demigod. The blood burned in his veins as
prodigally as it beats in our own. He was full of the
joy of life. His passions were as strong as those of
any man. But his character was remarkable for a
purity, an honesty, a dignity, a sanity, a restraint, a
self-control, an ability, and a courage at which succeed-
ing ages have marvelled. The testimony to his qualities
is abundant and unimpeachable. In mind and mien he
was more royal than the king. In my judgment, had
he so desired, he might have been the founder of an
empire and a dynasty, instead of the Father of a
Republic.

In the earlier history of the struggle for human lib-
erty we find that the successive steps were always taken
upon the initiative of the great, the gently-born, the
well-to-do. Hampden was of the rank of gentleman,
as was Cromwell, although he is nearer to an exception
to this statement than any other. The Barons of
Runnymede wresting the Magna Charta were the high
aristocracy of England, and the people without them
would have had no power to move the ineffable John.
The early leaders of the French Revolution — as Mira-
beau! — were of the same high class. Not for a long
time did men like Marat and Barere come to the fore.
The American Revolution was engineered and directed
and assured, I reaffirm, by the aristocracy, the best blood
of the country.

394

JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY

What then! Having achieved their task, Washing-
ton and his fellows deliberately put liberty and its
maintenance into the hands of the people. In the
very nature of things, by the very plans which they
made, by the Constitution itself, the whole power, the
authority of the government, the entire responsibility
for its administration and for its preservation, were
taken out of the hands of the few and put into the
hands of the many.

It is difficult to estimate the importance of that action.
There was no precedent for it. Experience had no word
to say concerning its feasibility. The boldness of the
Declaration of Independence was surpassed by the bold-
ness of the Constitution. The one had stated that all
men were created free and equal, that government de-
rived its just powers from the consent of the governed ;
the other showed that men had the courage to stand by
their assertions. Words are lacking to emphasize the
sublime faith and the noble courage of the Constitution-
makers — again the nation's best! Coldly considered,
it was an experiment of such magnitude that we stand
aghast even in backward contemplation of it. It might
have been such a failure.

It is probable that the experiment never would have
succeeded if the transition had been sharp and abrupt
between the customary and the proposed method of gov-
ernment. The habit of centuries was still strong in
humanity. During the earlier years of the Republic the
people, timid in their own powers, committed its des-
tinies to the same class under whose leadership had
been won its liberty. The earlier Congresses exhibited
a degree of wealth, station, and culture which no suc-
ceeding assemblage of legislators has paralleled.

But the people learned rapidly, and their work jus-
tified the trust reposed in them. Among themselves the
genius for leadership grew and flourished. The first

395

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

President who came from the people was Andrew
Jackson.

f What did he accomplish? He taught the people that
I they must rule; he was the true father of democratic
J government, of government " of the people, for the peo-
ple, and by the people." It is better, in the long run,
that the people should rule themselves badly than that
another should rule them well. Certainly Jackson was
more autocratic than any President who had preceded
him or who followed him, but his autocracy was the
autocracy of the plain people. Carlyle says that Napo-
leon dominated France because he incarnated in himself
the popular ideals and aspirations of France. He ruled
because he was a great Napoleon among a multitude of
little Napoleons. Jackson was the unquestioned ruler
of this country, the idol of its people, because he repre-
sented as few other Americans before him, and not over
many since, the qualities of the American citizen, at
least the qualities the American citizen loved. Not
until then were the people so truly represented by the
executive. And, furthermore, Jackson winning the
Presidency admonished the people that it was not the
perquisite of any favored class or condition of society,
but that the humblest might aspire to it and achieve it
by merit alone. Jackson was the incarnation of a popu-
lar hope, the realization of a popular ambition, he was
to the people a demonstration.

The people had not learned to rule ; they made many
grievous mistakes, of course, and Jackson likewise, but
they made a great step upward when they wrested the
powers of government from the hands of the few and
placed them, where they belong in a republic, in the
hands of the many. It was a great advance from the
theoretical democracy of Jefferson, the philosopher, to
the practical democracy of Jackson, the man of action.
It was by and through Jackson's peculiar combination

396

JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY

of qualities that the people were able to accomplish this /
revolutionary change. That is his first title to greatness.

Opportunity was given to Jackson to render morej
notable service to the country, too, than any President/
save the two mentioned enjoyed. As has been pointed^
out, his ability as a soldier and his characteristics as d
man saved the country west of the Mississippi to the
United States. The value of that service can scarcely
be overstated. During his Presidency the stand he took
on secession has been noted. These, with his settle-
ment of our financial difficulties with France and his
destruction of that eventual source of corruption in
politics, the Second Bank of the United States, are his
secondary claims to our grateful remembrance in asso-
ciation with Washington and Lincoln. And who shall
limit the effect of Jackson's Nullification Proclamation
and his action on the men of sixty-one? How much
were the giants of those days influenced or guided by
what Jackson had said or done?

I quote again that exquisite paragraph from Fiske's
essay on the subject under consideration. " The recol-
lection of it [the Nullification Proclamation, etc.] had
much to do with setting men's faces in the right direc-
tion in the early days of 1861 ; and those who lived
through that doubting, anxious time will remember how
people's thoughts went back to that grim, gaunt figure,
long since at peace in the grave, and from many and
many a mouth was heard the prayer : Oh, for one hour
of Andrew Jackson!"

In the first ninety years of its history the Republic had
demonstrated its right to existence. Its course, save
for the blot on its escutcheon involved in the unjust
war with Mexico, had been highly honorable among
nations. It was not likely that any foreign foe would
ever be able to overwhelm it or impair the stability of
its institutions. With a constantly increasing success

397

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

had been demonstrated the feasibility of a government
administered by, and for the benefit of, the people. The
event had justified the wisdom of the founders. The
world on every hand looked on and took lessons. And
well it might. No single fact in history has been so
pregnant with happiness and welfare to mankind as the
demonstration of democratic government which we
have afforded. The consequences are not yet exhausted.
The political course of the world's history since 1776
has not been backward. Some of us may live to see the
^ day when Russia will become a representative govern-
, ment, when the absolutism of Germany will be an
I archaic fiction, and when kings will be by the grace of
the people, if indeed they be at all. Some day all civil-
ized nations, whatever their outward form of govern-
ment, will be as free as we are, as England and France
are, to-day.

Now a country which may have strength enough to
fight valiantly for its existence against external foes
may yet carry within itself the seeds of its own destruc-
j. tion. In 1861 came the final trial as to whether or not
j the experiment that was begun by Washington, that
I was perpetuated by Jackson, was finally to come to an
* inglorious end. Without passion or prejudice, — cer-
tainly it is too late for that now, — without any feeling
for any section of our country but love and devotion,
without going into the causes of the Civil War, looking
only to the fact that upon its success or failure depended
the existence of the United States, realizing that if one
section could separate from the main body upon ag-
grievement, so also could another, and that one single
separation probably meant the solution of all organic
coherence and the substitution of a number of jealous,
circumscribed, petty, and insignificant States for a great
homogeneous nation, thus involving the utter downfall
of the great idea of the founders of the Republic and

398

JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY

of the Constitution, we can realize the importance of
the conservation of the United States as a nation.

The aristocracy of the country had founded a nation^
and had committed its government to the people. For':/
a generation, with many blunders and mistakes, thef
people had been trying to carry on the government.'
They had met emergencies as they had arisen, but the
supreme test had not yet confronted them, what would
they do in that? No longer did aristocracy dominate.
No longer does it dominate to-day — I use the words in
the old sense of degree ; in the long run the aristocracy
of talent and character will always dominate in the
Republic and elsewhere. Washington had done his
part. Jackson had done his part. Would the people
be equal in the crisis to the obligations of their position ?

Who is responsible for the successful conduct of the
war between the States ? To whom, under God, is due
the perpetuation of the Republic? Many men took
great part, many men deserve well of the nation. Grant,
Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut, and Meade; Stanton,
Sumner, Chase, and Seward. Their services are as
nothing compared to those of Abraham Lincoln. And
he was a man of the people in every sense of the word ;
mark it, a man of the people! The people themselves
had brought forth a man capable of leadership. Out of
the dust of earth did God make this man in His own j*
image. Washington opened the way for Jackson, Jack- j
son blazed the trail for Lincoln, and Lincoln trod sue- j
cessfully upon the path.

Dissimilar these three men were. Washington, born
of the world's great ; the richest, the best bred, the most )
important, the most influential man of his time. Jack- |
son, with the manner and training of a courtier and the J
methods of a backwoodsman. Lincoln, so humble, so
obscure in his origin that it can with difficulty be traced.
Washington, with every grace and charm and character-

399

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

istic that marks the high-bred gentleman ; Jackson, !
charming all he did not affright with his lack of control >
by the grace of his bearing; Lincoln, with few or none *
of these things. The first a prince, the last a peasant,
the one between a compound of both.

Washington's character is not complex. It is simple
and easy to understand — and not the less great and
admirable on that account. Be it remarked in passing,
that he was no English country gentleman, as has been
alleged, but as good an American as Franklin or as
Lincoln himself. Jackson's character and qualities have
been set forth at length.

Lincoln was a creature of contradictions. In person
so homely as when pictured almost to repel, but with
an appeal so powerful and inexplainable that in personal
contact his ugliness was forgotten. Perhaps men near
him caught a glimpse of his soul, unconsciously re-
vealed. A man full of that quaint humor we love to
call American, yet over his face a tinge of sadness as if
tragedy peeped from behind the mask of comedy. A
man whose stories were frequently not repeatable, yet
of a deeply religious nature, a piety as fervent as it
was uncommon, a trust as pervading as it was sincere.
An unlettered man, yet whose beautiful words will live
as long as the language of Shakespeare and the English
Bible shall endure. A man with many failings, who
made many mistakes ; a man with the stain of the soil
whence he sprang clinging to him ; yet with qualities
that enabled him to speak to his fellow-men with the
foresight of a prophet, to accomplish the impossible
with the powers of a king, to pursue his duty with the
serenity of a saint.

As I look back upon our American history, as I view
side by side these three gigantic men towering among
their contemporaries, each ready in the day of need, I
break forth in the words of the ancient prophet, " What

400

JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY

hath God wrought?" The one to found and build a
Republic, to give it a priceless heritage into a people's j
hands ; the second to receive it as of the people himself, j
to save it in a day of lesser emergency and to pass it
on strengthened by his touch; the last to rise in the
crowded hour and say in the words of a greater than
man, " I have finished the work which thou gavest me j
to do. . . . Those that thou gavest me I have kept and I
none of them is lost."

Oh, flag that floats above us, thank God that from
thy blazonry never hath been torn a single star !

I call Washington the founder, Jackson the perpet-1
uater, and Lincoln the preserver of our country. \

So much for the past What of the future? Can we
unlock it with the past's blood-rusted key? On the
threshold of a new century stands the country of Wash-
ington, Jackson, and Lincoln. The United States is
menaced by threatening conditions, confronted by diffi-
cult problems, weighted with grave responsibilities, ex-
ternal and internal. These are the circumstances of
success. To struggle is to live. The law of battle is
the law of life. Well might Alexander weep with no
more worlds to conquer, for then began his decadence.
The country whose need fails to engross its highest
citizenship in its problems, in which the people do not
cheerfully give their best consideration to its questions,
is a country already in a state of decay. Thank God for
all our burdens ! By them we prove our manhood.

For one hundred years we were content to expand
peacefully within our natural limits. Between the seas
we reigned supreme. In the twinkling of an eye we
found ourselves projected, almost without intent, into
the sphere of world politics. Not that we were in a
state of complete isolation before. As with individuals,
so with nations, entire isolation is not possible ; as men
live among men, so nations must live among nations,
26 401

)

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

sustaining certain definite and well-understood relations
with one another, whatever may be the individual desire
to be solitary, alone.

But our concerns with foreign powers and affairs
had been remote and not of especial importance.

To-day we have become a factor in the politics of the
world. In the Chancellaries of Europe the leading ques-
tion in nearly every contingency, — not purely local, —
that arises is, " What will the United States do?" Our
American diplomacy which has honesty for its finesse
and truth for its subtilty — where neither has been in
vogue — takes the lead in public questions. With neither
army nor navy comparable in size to that of other
nations, — although so far as they go unsurpassed, — we
are still the greatest single factor to be reckoned with.

We have said to one-half the world : " This half is
ours. Keep out of it !" Therefore, we have made our-
selves responsible for the welfare, the well-being, and
more especially the well-doing, of that of which we
have assumed to be the warden. How are we dis-
charging that trust? So as to retain the respect of older
powers, on the one hand, and the affection of those
newer nations of which we have assumed the guardian-
ship on the other, or not?

Our flag floats in the sunrise on one hemisphere in
Porto Rico at the same hour that it is gilded by the
sunset in the Philippines on the other. And the end is
not yet. We are about to tear asunder the barrier
which has separated ocean from ocean since God called
the dry land from the deep. This is our position among
the weak and the strong. What is to be the end of our
expansion? Shall we go on? Shall we stand still?
Shall we acquire? Shall we retain?

Never in history did a nation say as we did to Cuba,
" Go, you are free !" Shall we say that some day to our
little brown brethren across the Pacific? Shall we train

.40?

JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY

and try them for that end? Shall we grasp at power
with greedy, rapacious hands? Shall we give way to
vaulting ambition which shall by and by o'erleap itself
and carry us down in its fall?

Shall the Republic continue to stand for honesty and
integrity and the fear of God among the nations? Shall
there be liberty wherever the flag flies, or else the with-
drawal of the flag? Shall we stand eternally for what
Washington founded and Jackson perpetuated and Lin-
coln preserved? Or shall we do some other thing?

There come to our harbors every day a horde of
people from the Old World, following that westward
moving star of empire, seeking their fortunes in this
land of equal opportunity for all, of special privilege
for none. What shall we do with them? What shall
be our position with regard to immigration? How
much of such an influx can our people assimilate?
What quantity of food of that character can the nation
digest? How many foreign people can we turn into
good American citizens without lowering 01 r immortal
standards? How far shall we shut the open door?
What restriction shall we place upon our welcome ?

These are external problems. There are internal
ones, perhaps of greater moment and harder to solve.
Within our borders are millions of black people, an
alien race whose mental habit and temperament differ
from ours even as we are physically at variance. What
shall we do with these people? Believe me, Appo-
mattox simply changed the form of the question. It
settled another question, not that one. Emancipation
solved one problem only to introduce another. That
problem confronts us with a constantly increasing de-
mand, a demand full of menace, fraught with appalling
possibilities. There appears as yet no solution of it.
Education, we fatuously cry, but education is not the
universal resolvent. We cannot educate away the racial

403

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

difference. The welfare of this country depends on the
retention of power by the white race. White and black
in blend make gray, the ruination of the positive and
valuable in both. How shall this be a white man's
country with a white man's government and yet a fit
home for the black man ?

The principle of combination is universally accepted
in the affairs of men. Consolidation, concentration, are
the conditions of success. How far may this consoli-
dation and concentration in the form of capital on the
one hand, and of men on the other, be brought about?
And when brought about what relation shall they sus-
tain to each other? What shall we do with the trusts?
what shall we do with the unions?

Life without law is impossible. Laws are man's ex-
pression of his reading of the will of God. Happy is
the state in which the laws are not only adequate but
observed. How shall we check the general disregard
of law which is so singular a reversion to conditions
long past when every man was a law unto himself?
Long ago the right of private war was done away with.
There is a backward swing of the pendulum of public
opinion. Men have forgot that vengeance is God's
and punishment belongs to the state. How shall we
reassert effectively our determination that the law shall
be administered only by those whom we have charged
with that solemn, that vital duty?

The daily histories of the times, the newspapers, ring
with charge and countercharge of political corruption
in city, State, and nation. We would fain believe that
much of the hue and cry is false, but we know that a
terrible proportion of it is true. The best blood of the
nation is strangely indifferent to the demands of the
hour. For good government there should be a proper
blending of Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln, the first
representing education, culture, refinement, the second

404

JACKSON'S PLACE IN OUR HISTORY

the great, beating heart of the people, the third the sum
of human consecration and toil. It will not do to trust
to the low, the ignorant, and the venal the issues of life
and government. Republics in history have tended to
become oligarchies. Shall we reverse the work of
Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln and submit ourselves
unresisting, indifferent, to an oligarchy of bosses?

There are social problems as pressing. The sanctity
of home life, the holiness of the marriage relation, is
everywhere invaded. The social unit, the family, is being
sundered into disorderly atoms by the growing evil of
divorce. In it we are striking at the children.

There is a growing inclination to excess on the part
of the rich and the well-to-do which is fatal to national
honor, to national honesty. Frugality is to a democracy
what modesty is to a woman. Extravagance is an attri-
bute of empire. The follies of men in high station are
vices when they are translated by men of less degree.
There is a tendency in our midst to become intoxicated
not only with our position in the world, but with our
internal prosperity. How shall we check it ?

Publicity is the safeguard of a Republic. Concealment
is the essence of despotism. How, while conserving the
freedom of the press, shall we also conserve the freedom
of the private citizen, so that his personal affairs with
which the public have no concern shall not be exploited
and misrepresented by unscrupulous newspapers?

These are a few of the things which call to the
patriotism of to-day. Love of country is usually asso-
ciated with the bullet and the bayonet. The call of the
flag is not merely a summons to war, it is a demand
upon every citizen at every moment to do his civic duty
with the same devotion, the same courage, with which
he would answer an appeal to arms. It takes more
resolution, of a higher if of a different order, to grapple
with the questions which I have so briefly outlined, than

40s

THE TRUE ANDREW JACKSON

simply to follow a leader or even to lead ourselves in
the high places of the field.

In what did Washington's greatness lie? In what
did Jackson's greatness lie? In what did Lincoln's
greatness lie? I would not affirm that they were
supreme above all others in any particular field. Wash- ,
ington and Jackson, brilliant soldiers that they were,/
were not the greatest captains that ever set a squadron. \
Lincoln, profoundly politic and farseeing as he was, was
not the greatest statesman that ever outlined a policy.
Indeed, it would be hard to point to any one thing in
which these three, unchallenged, might claim the palm.

They were great because in each of them were
blended a congeries of qualities which made up a per;
sonality far beyond the common lot : a personality th&t
was honest, that was pure, that was unselfish, that was
able, that was devoted to mankind, to the country in
which they all served; a personality which chose duty
and service for its watchwords ; a personality that was
" efficient for the best." When you analyze great men,
as a rule you will find that their greatness lies in that
mysterious thing we call personality, which is made up
of, and is yet disassociated from, special talents. Many
talents go to make genius. To be great there must be
balance and proportion. Without these the most bril-
liant achievement lacks permanence.

We cannot all be great statesmen, great soldiers, great
administrators, — what you will, — but we may all be great
patriots. We can each one of us so direct those qualities
which God has bestowed upon us as to become a per-
sonality whose sole aim and end is the betterment of
men and the service of the state. And for that purpose
it is not idle for me to hold up for emulation the exam-
ple of Washington, of Jackson, or of Lincoln ; for there
is no example too high for us to struggle to attain, not
even the Example of the Cross. .

406

APPENDIX

Appendix A
ON THE BIRTHPLACE OF ANDREW JACKSON

[Note. — This most interesting and valuable paper,
which seems to settle the question, has been especially
prepared for this book by Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., Secre-
tary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina,
and author of numerous historical and genealogical
papers relating to Southern subjects. — C. T. B.]

Of the many mooted questions in American history
that of the birthplace of Andrew Jackson, seventh Presi-
dent of the United States, is one of the most misunder-
stood. During Jackson's lifetime it was almost univer-
sally accepted that he was born in South Carolina, but of
recent years it has come to be believed generally that he
was born in North Carolina. The encyclopaedias and bi-
ographers either state that his birthplace is a matter of
doubt or that it was in North Carolina. But the most
impartial and acceptable evidence all points to a well-
defined spot in South Carolina as his birthplace.

Jackson himself repeatedly declared that he was born
in South Carolina, and his is the best evidence we have,
since his estimable mother died and left behind no
testimony on the subject that has yet been put in evi-
dence or that we know of. Jackson knew his own birth-
place as well as any man knows the spot of his own
birth. He grew up in the neighborhood of his birth.
He was a boy of more than usual intelligence. He lived
with or near his mother until after he had grown up,
and he doubtless discussed every phase of his life with
her, just as all of us who have been so fortunate as to
have had a mother's care from birth to manhood have

407

APPENDIX

done. The date of birth given by Jackson is commonly
accepted as true. Why should the place given by him
be rejected?

It is preposterous to say that a boy of Jackson's cal-
ibre did not know the exact spot of his birth ; that as a
young lawyer, who had been reared in the immediate
vicinity of his birthplace and had known the exact loca-
tion thereof from childhood up and knew every foot
of ground in the vicinity, and knew of the controversies
that had arisen over the boundary line running near his
birthplace, he did not know whether that spot was in
North Carolina or South Carolina ; that the man grown
to maturity and trained in the school of experience and
rich in the highest honors which his country could be-
stow would have asserted so positively on various occa-
sions that he was born in South Carolina unless he knew
whereof he spoke.

What does the law say as to evidence of this sort :

"The facts of birth and age are matters of pedigree upon
which hearsay evidence has been held in many cases to be ad-
missible. So a party may testify to his own age without giv-
ing the source of his information. His age is a fact of which
he may be said to have knowledge based upon family tradi-
tion."— The American and English Encyclopaedia of Law.

" Of course, facts which might be shown by proof of declara-
tions of a person deceased may be shown by the testimony of
the same person living, so that a witness may testify as to who is
his father, or as to his age, although, of course, he cannot know
these matters by personal knowledge." — Alston vs. Alston
(Iowa, 1901), 86 Northwestern Reporter, 57.

We will now proceed to furnish "proof of declara-
tions of a person deceased." What does Jackson say
as to his birthplace ? In a letter, dated at Washington,
December 24, 1830, replying to a letter from J. R.
Pringle, intendant of Charleston, inviting him to visit
Charleston, he says :

" Although it will be gratifying to my feelings, to avail myself
of so favorable an opportunity to visit the emporium of my
native state, I am yet prevented by my official engagements
from designating the period when I can seize it." — Niles* Weekly
Register, xxxix, p. 385.

408

2 4 t^z r* £*?- 6*~. ^_ ^^^

j&u^xZ ^ £€**£ t*+«- <u~*> /£*J*A^> <s*^

4^t br*~~ tU^T A* "- /y^&T*^Z£*_

FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER FROM PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON
TO JOEL R. POINSETT, DECEMBER 2, 1 832
(Now in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania)
This letter was written a few days before the issue of the Nullifi-
cation proclamation, and authorizes the use of force to preserve the
Union. It is one of Jackson's most characteristic letters

•* 64 ^, O^ JU^ A^f /c*^. U*Z2 Au&dz

d t^~ 7***- £+*^ &6~ Z*+«- £e**^ cLj A^-nsuz.

J' <??.

APPENDIX

In a letter to Joel R. Poinsett, of Charleston, South
Carolina, a native-born South Carolinian, dated at
Washington, December 9, 1832, he says :

" If the Union party unite with you, heart & hand in the text
you have laid down, you will not only preserve the Union, but
save our native state, from that ruin and disgrace into which
her treasonable leaders have attempted to plunge her." — Stille's
" Life and Services of Joel R. Poinsett," p. 64.

In his proclamation of December 10, 1832, anent the
" Nullification" Convention of South Carolina (see
Appendix C), he uses this language:

" Fellow-citizens of my native State, let me not only admonish
you, as the First Magistrate of our common country, not to
incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a
father would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain
ruin." — The Charleston Courier, Monday, December 17, 1832.

Again, in a letter to Poinsett, dated at Washington,
January 24, 1833, he says :

" I repeat again, my pride and desire is, that the Union men
may arouse & sustain the majesty of the constitution & the laws,
and save my native state from that disgrace that the Nullifiers
have brought upon her." — Stille's "Life and Services of Joel
R. Poinsett," p. 68.

In a letter to Governor Hammond, of South Carolina,
dated at The Hermitage, January 13, 1843, ^e wrote :

" Conscious as I am of the integrity and propriety of my con-
duct in regard to Judge Hall, it is truly grateful to my feelings
to find the Legislature of my native State, So Carolina, uniting
with the Legislatures of other States in those high and honor-
able feelings of Justice which their resolutions so plainly in-
dicate."— The Sunday News, Charleston, S. C, August 7, 1904.

And, finally, in his last will and testament (see Ap-
pendix E), General Jackson declared that South Caro-
lina was his native State, and took such pains so to
declare, that it really looks as if his last wish was to cut
off controversy on this point. He says :

" the large silver vase presented to me by the ladies of Charles-
ton South Carolina, my native State, with the large Picture rep-

400

APPENDIX

discussed the General's personal history with him per-
haps even more closely than either Reid or Eaton had
done. He was an accomplished engineer and was fa-
miliar with the chartography of his own State. He
tells us that Jackson was a native of South Carolina and
" was born on the fifteenth of March, 1767, at the Wax-
haw settlement, about forty-five miles above Camden;
and was the youngest of three sons." Of Jackson he
also says :

" He was severely wounded by a British officer for indignantly
refusing to clean his shoes, and was confined as a prisoner,
with many others, in the district gaol at the battle of Camden.
With a penknife he cut a hole through the shutter, which was
purposely closed by order of a British officer, that he might
not be a spectator of the action; and at an interval of forty
years he has been heard to describe the relative positions of the
contending armies and the character of the surrounding ground
with a minuteness demonstrating the accuracy of his recollec-
tion and the nicety of even his juvenile observations."

That confirms what was said above about Jackson.
He was a careful and accurate man. He knew all
about where he was born and told his friends and the
world that it was in South Carolina. And his word and
his memory have never been disputed, so far as we have
been informed, by the direct testimony of any one else
who was present at his birth. Colonel Gadsden knew
in 1824 that it was commonly accepted in the Waxhaw
settlement in Lancaster District that Jackson was born
at a certain spot to the left of the public road just north
of Waxhaw Creek in South Carolina; others have left
contemporary printed evidence to the same effect. Why
did not some North Carolinian of Mecklenburg County,
or of Anson County, come out then and correct it?
Why did the North Carolinians wait over thirty years,
until every single contemporary witness was dead, and
then try to controvert contemporary witnesses by hear-
say evidence? Why trust to the treacherous memories
of hearsay witnesses whose evidence is nothing but
vague impression and pure guesswork?

412

APPENDIX

In 1834 a biography of Jackson, by William Cobbett,
appeared. This biography also credits him to South
Carolina. This gave additional publicity to the claim.
The North Carolinians of that day must have been
less intelligent than their children. With publica-
tion after publication crediting Jackson to South Caro-
lina not one of them could discover the error and
correct it. It remained for their children to find it
out after they were all dead, and also after Jackson
was dead.

Jackson's next important biographer was Amos Ken-
dall of Kentucky. He was one of Jackson's closest
personal friends. In fact, he was credited by Jackson's
political opponents during Jackson's occupation of the
office of President with being the "power behind the
throne," and was a member of the little coterie of Jack-
son's personal friends and advisers contemptuously re-
ferred to as the " Kitchen Cabinet." His biography
was published in 1843, and he also credited Jackson to
South Carolina, and published a map fixing the spot in
South Carolina. This work might almost be correctly
termed an autobiography. Why was Kendall's state-
ment not disputed at the time? Because Jackson was
still alive and able to prove its correctness, and the
time was still not far enough off from the date of
happening for interest in the matter to have died out.
It is only after a time has elapsed, after an incident is
closed and interest has died out, that some dreamer or
guesser revives it in an effort to set up new claims to
the hero of the incident.

General Jackson died at "The Hermitage," near
Nashville, June 8, 1845, anc* on the morning of Tues-
day, June 17, The Charleston Courier editorially an-
nounced his death.

The next day the same paper published a sketch of
his life, the opening sentence being:

"Andrew Jackson was born of Irish parents, on the 15th
March, 1767, at the Waxhaw settlement, about forty miles
above Camden, in this State."

413

APPENDIX

On June 27, 1845, George Bancroft, the great his-
torian, delivered an oration on Jackson in Washington,
which was published in Charleston in the same year
under the title : " Funeral Oration on the Death of
General Andrew Jackson/' in which he said:

" South Carolina gave a birth-place to Andrew Jackson. On
its remote frontier, far up on the forest-clad banks of the Ca-
tawba, in a region where the settlers were just beginning to
cluster, his eye first saw the light."

Here was more publicity. Why were these state-
ments not disputed ? Because there was no evidence to
controvert them.

The next evidence we have to corroborate Jackson is
an original document from the archives of the State
of South Carolina, as follows :

"The special committee to whom was referred the Letter of
his Excellency Governor Geddes relating to a Bust of Gen-
eral Andrew Jackson, presented by James Thonaldson, for the
Legislative Library, beg leave to Report, That while they ac-
knowledge the pleasure with which they have received this
present from the gentleman who gave it, they cannot refrain
from availing themselves of this opportunity, to express their
sense of the high merit, and inestimable services, of that In-
dividual, who has identified the heroism of Carolina with
American greatness. If our own State has been tardy in its
expression of gratitude to the Hero of Orleans, it is not be-
cause we have not cherished his character or gloried in his
achievements. We have dwelt with delight on his splendid
career, and while we have seen with unusual pride, a son of
Carolina, with no friend but his merit, and no guide but his
genius, literally cutting with his sword the road to his great-
ness. We have exulted at his lofty position in a variety of
scenes associated with the finest developments of the national
Character. The malignant treachery of the savage, the in-
sidious ambition of Great Britain, the high courage, unyielding
patriotism, and enthusiastic self-devotion of our Western Breth-
ren, all furnished the occasions of his virtue, and the proof
of his merit. He guided the courage, and enlightened the
patriotism, and shared in the devotion of our friends — his
name, with the savage, is the power of the nation — he has
struck the death blow to the daring and dangerous scheme of
our natural enemies. With so many themes of admiration, and
causes of gratitude, in the history of the General, we as Caro-

414

* APPENDIX

linians have a still more happy reason for gratulation, that he,
whose nativity has been the cause of rivalry for contending
States, is acknowledged as our own — Your Committee respect-
fully recommend — that the Bust of Genl. Jackson be kept in
the Library subject to such arrangements, for preserving it, as
the Librarian may think proper

"David Ramsay —

" Chairman."

This report is endorsed:

"Report of the Special Committee to whom was referred a
Letter of Gov. Geddes relating to a Bust of Genl Jackson.
" In the House of Representatives

"Dec. 19: 1820
" Resolved that the House do adopt the Report. Ordd. that
it be printed with the Acts &c: of the present session —

" R Anderson

" C. H. R.
" Agreed to

" To be printed Acts"

There is one very significant passage in that report.
It is where the committee says that there is " a still
more happy reason for gratulation, that he, whose na-
tivity has been the cause of rivalry for contending
States, is acknowledged as our own." Of course he
was so acknowledged. He knew it, and all of his old
neighbors of the Waxhaw settlement knew it. There
were many alive to prove it, and so none denied it —
none that we can find any contemporary statements
from. Bartlett Jones and R. M. Crocket then repre-
sented Lancaster District in the House and John Mont-
gomery in the Senate. Why did they sit there and
allow that report to go unchallenged if their constitu-
ents of the Waxhaw settlement and their neighbors of
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, all knew the
spot where Jackson was born to be in North Caro-
lina? Those three men were much the seniors of any
of those who in later years gave hearsay evidence to
disprove what Jackson and his friends and old neigh-
bors had said in 1820. By their silence they have given
us much better evidence than some who have come
after them have given by much talk.

4i?

APPENDIX

Then why did Thonaldson present the bust to South
Carolina? Why not to North Carolina? And why did
not North Carolina claim it, if it was to be given to
Jackson's native State? Because at that time Jackson
was " acknowledged as our own."

The report, adopted as above, was acted on in the
House, was spread upon the Journal, and was published
in "Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of
the State of South Carolina," passed in December, 1820.
(Columbia, 1821.) It was thus given considerable pub-
licity, and why its significant statement was not chal-
lenged— if incorrect — passeth all understanding. The
committee that made the report consisted of David
Ramsay, John Boykin, Sr., and Christopher P. Pegues.
Mr. Boykin was from Kershaw District, which adjoined
Lancaster District. He knew the people of that district,
and he doubtless had often discussed Andrew Jackson
with them, for that distinguished character had been
a national figure for many years, and his achievements
in the Southwest and in Florida had just brought him
additional fame, and his old neighbors, many of whom
could testify of their personal knowledge as to the time
and exact place of his birth, were doubtless discussing
every phase of his career in South Carolina, just as
people are discussing to-day the birthplaces of distin-
guished Americans now in the public eye. And with
Jackson himself alive to talk and many of his old neigh-
bors alive to confirm or correct him, it seems much
more likely that this committee would have gotten its
facts better than the man who wanted to get them
nearly forty years later, and Mr. Boykin would hardly
have sanctioned such a direct statement at that time
in a public document unless the statement could be
verified.

The next evidence offered is that of J. Boykin, a dis-
tinguished surveyor of that section of South Carolina
which embraces the Waxhaw settlement. About 1820
Mr. Boykin surveyed Lancaster District under a con-
tract with the State of South Carolina. In 1820 he
prepared a map of the district from his survey. On

416

BUST OF ANDREW JACKSON BY HIRAM POWERS IN THE METROPOLITAN-
MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK

APPENDIX

that map Mr. Boykin very distinctly locates " Gen1. A.
Jackson's Birth Place." The map was engraved for
Mills's "Atlas of South Carolina," which was pub-
lished in 1825. That map alone should outweigh every
scrap of contradictory evidence that has been offered.
But it is not claimed that the testimony of the map
is conclusive. It is simply strongly corroborative evi-
dence of the correctness of Jackson's statements as to
his own birthplace — much clearer and stronger than
any evidence that contradicts Jackson. The accuracy
and correctness of Boykin's map is confirmed by a map
delineated in Charleston in 1820 by " Eugene Reilly,
Surveyor and Engineer." This map is in the custody
of the Historical Commission of South Carolina at
Columbia. It does not show from whose survey Mr.
Reilly delineated it, but its lines all agree with Boy-
kin's map. It contains some landmarks that are not on
Boykin's, while Boykin's contains some that are not on
it, but it very distinctly locates " Gen1 : Jackson's Birth-
place" exactly where Boykin locates it.

Boykin was from the adjoining district of Kershaw;
both Lancaster and Kershaw had previously belonged
to Camden District, and Camden was the district seat,
or Court-House town, and all conveyances, wills, or
other papers respecting lands had to be recorded there ;
Boykin made surveys throughout the whole district,
and he was as familiar with the lands and people of
the district as the average country physician is with
the family affairs of the average family in which he
practises his profession; he had every opportunity to
learn from the people of the Waxhaw settlement,
among whom he must have worked for several weeks
when making his survey, and among whom he often
worked professionally, the exact house in which Jack-
son was born, and he had his instruments to guide him
in determining the geographical position of that house.
Again, he had the advantage of numerous boundary-
line surveys that had been started as early as 1764 and
had only terminated in 181 5. Those surveys located
landmarks which enabled Boykin to work with but the
27 4i7

APPENDIX

slightest chance of mistake ; he had, doubtless, the use
of many of the early plats of the locality and he had
probably made others himself of lands in that vicinity,
and his chances of being mistaken as to the location of
so historic a house as that in which so famous a man —
and one whose fame had been so recently added to —
as General Andrew Jackson had been born were much
smaller than those of a person gathering hearsay evi-
dence from uneducated witnesses forty years later. Be-
sides all of that, Boykin was a very careful man. The
late James D. Mcllwain, who surveyed lands in Lan-
caster District for generations and was himself looked
upon as an exceedingly accurate surveyor, has often
been heard to say that when he could get one of Boy-
kin's plats he was sure to have an easy time, and the
writer of this article was told recently by a young sur-
veyor, who had surveyed over the very territory where
Boykin locates Jackson's birthplace, that when he could
not get a plat of former surveys he consulted the maps
in Mills's "Atlas" and always found them accurate. The
same surveyor told the writer that when surveying in
the Waxhaw settlement a few years ago he had had
pointed out to him the spot whereon the house had
stood in which it was alleged that Jackson was born;
that it is now marked by only such signs as one usually
finds on the spot on which an old house has stood, —
crumbled clay, broken pottery, a dirt mound or two, and
rank weeds, — and that he knows from what his in-
struments showed him as to boundary lines and land-
marks that that spot is in South Carolina.

In 1858 one Colonel Davenport, of Virginia, made
the claim that Jackson was born in Virginia, and re-
cently this claim has been revived and proved to the
satisfaction of those who desire to believe the story in
preference to reliable evidence. At the time that Colonel
Davenport discovered that an Andrew Jackson had been
born in Virginia about the time that the greatest of
all Andrew Jacksons was born in South Carolina, and
published his discovery to the world, The Lancaster
Ledger had this to say with regard to the claim;

418

APPENDIX

"The family of Jackson was Scotch,* aad emigrated at an
early period to the North of Ireland. Andrew Jackson, the
father of General Jackson, with his sons, Hugh* and Robert,
left Ireland and landed in Charleston in 1765, and removed to
the Waxhaws, there to reside. Major Robert Crawford, with
others of the Crawford family, came over with him and like-
wise settled in the Waxhaws. Andrew Jackson died shortly
after his arrival in this country, and just before the birth of his
son, Andrew. The latter was born on the fifteenth day of
March, 1767.

" The Jacksons were in rather indigent circumstances, but
Major Crawford was a wealthy man, and by the marriage of
one of his brothers, with the sister of Andrew Jackson's (sr.)
wife's sister, was somewhat of a family connexion, and the
firm and undeviating friend of the Jacksons. From the best
information we can gather, the mother of General Jackson had
left the place where her husband first settled, and at the time
of the birth of her son Andrew was living on a place belong-
ing to Major Crawford, and very near to his place of resi-
dence. In a very short time after that event — the birth of
Andrew — Major Crawford took her to his own house, and it
was her home until her death.

" Major Crawford took good care of his protege, and was
repaid by a filial affection that died only when the old hero
himself ceased to exist The descendants of Major Crawford
are numerous, and the tradition of the family, as to the birth-
place of Jackson, is as we have above related. There are nu-
merous relatives of General Jackson now living in this District
— some of them second cousins— and the tradition among them
is that General Jackson was born in the Waxhaws. This tradi-
tion is not vague and uncertain; it is positive, direct, and is
founded upon information handed down from parents to their
children. There are men and women, now here, and many of
them, who have conversed with persons of undoubted veracity,
who were present at the birth of General Jackson. Some of
those who were present were near relatives, and gave, some
years ago, their testimony to the fact that their distinguished
kinsman was born in the Waxhaws. All the above can be
verified, if necessary, by men and women among us of unques-
tioned characters.

"This is sufficient, we think, to rebut the claim of Colonel
Davenport; but there is further testimony. We refer to the
several lives of Jackson, particularly to that of Kendall. We
believe it was never completed, but several numbers were pub-
lished. This work was dictated by General Jackson himself —
is, in fact, an autobiography — and is authentic In it will be

*An early statement of this absurd claim that Jackson was
not pure Irish.— -C. T. B.

419

APPENDIX

found a statement of the birth of Jackson substantially the
same as above. Also a map of the Waxhaw settlement, on
which is marked 'Jackson's birthplace/ accompanies the first
number.

" But the testimony rests not here. Many years ago, it was
mooted whether General Jackson was born in this State, or
just over the line in North Carolina. Colonel James H. Wither-
spoon, then a prominent citizen of this District and intimate
friend of Jackson's, addressed to him a letter of inquiry as
to his birthplace. The reply of General Jackson was full and
particular. He states that he was born in the Waxhaws in
South Carolina, on a place belonging to Major Crawford. This
letter is now in the hands of James H. Witherspoon, Esq., son
of the late Colonel James H. Witherspoon, to whom it was ad-
dressed. Unfortunately, Mr. Witherspoon is on a summer tour
among the highlands, and we are consequently deprived of the
pleasure of laying it before our readers.

"It is, we think, well established, if General Jackson is to
be believed, that he was born in the Waxhaws. A man ought
to know where he was born. Doubtless General Jackson was,
time and again, informed by his mother and friend, Major
Crawford, where he was born and the exact spot was pointed
out to him. He was well-nigh grown before he left the Wax-
haws, and must have been well informed of its locality.

" In conclusion, we will mention that Martin P. Crawford,
Esq., the grandson of Major Robert Crawford, is now the
owner of an old negro woman, who was a playmate of Jack-
son's in early childhood. Phillis is upwards of ninety years
old, and can point the exact spot on which stood the house in
which General Jackson was born." — The Charleston Mercury,
Saturday, August 21, 1858.

Notwithstanding such direct statements from Jack-
son and such unanimity among his biographers, so late
as i860 another biography was published in which the
most clumsy efforts were made to prove that Jackson
was born in North Carolina instead of in South Caro-
lina. The unskilled workman who prepared this, the
most pretentious life of Jackson (three volumes) that
has yet appeared, was Jarries Parton, and from this
work one would really judge that he had been trained
up in the particular school of historians of which Mason
L. Weems had been a shining example. His patroniz-
ing superiority and his exclusive declarations character-
ize him as a historian who seeks, not for the truth, but
to glorify those of his political faith and belittle those

420

APPENDIX

of opposing faiths.* Parton says (p. 52) : " General
Jackson always supposed himself to be a native of
South Carolina," ..." but it is as certain as any fact
of the kind can be that he was mistaken.,, And then
he furnishes the evidence upon which he bases his con-
clusion that Jackson was born in North Carolina, and,
although that evidence is all hearsay, and of the flim-
siest character, yet it rather corroborates than contra-
dicts the evidence given by Jackson and the two sep-
arate maps prepared in 1820 by Reilly and Boykin.
Although this mass of flimsy evidence has all been
given by Parton to prove that Jackson was born at
the house of his uncle-in-law, George McKemey, and
that that house was in North Carolina, it not only does
not prove either proposition, but, taken in conjunction
with the maps in evidence and carefully compared there-
with, strengthens Jackson's assertion that he was born
in South Carolina.

Parton tells us that Jackson's father, Andrew Jack-
son, and some neighbors named Crawford came from
Ireland to Charles Town in 1765 and pushed up
through the Province to the Waxhaw settlement; that
the Crawfords settled on Waxhaw Creek ; that Andrew
Jackson settled on Twelve Mile Creek, seven miles
away ; that the place was known as " Pleasant Grove
Camp Ground"f and that the particular land once oc-
cupied by the father of General Jackson was still
pointed out by the old people of the neighborhood, and
that it was in what is now Union County, North Car-
olina; that settler Jackson died in the spring of 1767;
that his body was buried in the old Waxhaw church-
yard ; that his bereaved family did not return to Twelve
Mile Creek, "but went from the churchyard to the

* While I agree with Mr. Salley as to Jackson's birthplace,
and to that extent disagree with Parton, I am compelled to
record an emphatic dissent from his estimate of Parton' s book
as a whole.— C. T. B.

fit was not so known in 1765. That is a modern name.
Camp-meetings and camp-grounds were unknown in South Car-
olina in 1765.— A. S. S., Jr.

421

APPENDIX

house, not far off, of one of Mrs. Jackson's brothers-
in-law, George McKemey by name," and that there,
a few nights later, the son, Andrew Jackson, was born,
March 15, 1767, and that this home of McKemey's
was in Union County, North Carolina. In substantia-
tion of these statements he offers the following evi-
dence, gathered by General S. E. Walkup, of Union
County, N. C :

Benjamin Massey, "an old resident of the vicinity," says
he heard Mrs. Lathan, who claimed to have been present at the
birth of Jackson, say : " That she was about seven years older
than Andrew Jackson ; that when the father of Andrew Jack-
son died Mrs. Jackson left home and came to her brother-in-
law's, Mr. McCamie's, previous to the birth of Andrew ; that
after living at Mr. McCamie's awhile, Andrew was born, and
she was present at his birth ; as soon as Mrs. Jackson was
restored to health and strength she came to Mr. James Craw-
ford's, in South Carolina, and there remained."

Observe that Mr. Massey does not say McKemey's
house was in North Carolina, nor does he say that Mrs.
Lathan said it was. But Mr. Massey says that after
Mrs. Jackson had lived at McKemey's "awhile" An-
drew was born. On that point he does not agree with
other witnesses, who say a day or two, at most. He
knew nothing of his own knowledge, and his statements
were based on a conversation had years before with an
old lady who was but seven years old when Jackson
was born.

John Carnes says: "Mrs. Leslie, the aunt of General
Jackson, has often told me that General Jackson was born at
George McCamie's, in North Carolina, and that his mother,
soon after his birth, moved over to James Crawford's, in South
Carolina ; and I think she told me she was present at his birth,
but at any rate, she knew well he was born at McCamie's.'*

This witness displayed the uncertainty which must
necessarily come of trying to testify as to what one has
heard over "thirty-five years before/' He was not
certain Mrs. Leslie had said she was present, but he

422

APPENDIX

was certain that she had said Jackson was born in
McKemey's house in North Carolina and that his mother
afterwards " moved over to James Crawford's, in South
Carolina." It is hardly likely that Mrs. Leslie ever
knew whether McKemey's house was in North Caro-
lina or South Carolina, and it is almost a certainty that
she did not know in which province it stood at the
time of Jackson's birth, for at that time no line had
ever been run out between the provinces at the point
where Jackson was born. It was run out five years
later, but not finally agreed upon until the ratification in
1813 of a convention entered into between commis-
sioners on the part of both States, concluded September
4, 181 3, and that line put the spot whereon Jackson
said he was born in South Carolina.

Massey says that Mrs. Lathan told him that Mrs.
Jackson " came to James Crawford's in South Caro-
lina, and there remained." Carnes says Mrs. Leslie
told him that Mrs. Jackson "moved over to James
Crawford's, in South Carolina." General Jackson said
he was born on a place belonging to Robert Crawford
and near said Robert Crawford's home. The land rec-
ords of South Carolina show that in 1775 six hundred
and fifty acres of land on Waxhaw Creek, running back
to the North Carolina line, were laid out to Robert
Crawford by order of the surveyor-general of South
Carolina and the plat thereof recited that this tract
had been previously granted to Andrew Pickens by
the Governor of North Carolina. This shows that the
people of the neighborhood did not know where the line
was until after 1772, and Pickens had been claiming
under one province and Crawford under another. This
tract covers the point marked on the maps of Boykin,
Reilly, and Kendall as Jackson's birthplace, and on the
official map of the survey made in 1813, agreeable to
the convention entered into by the commissioners of
the two States, July 11, 1808, and subsequently rati-
fied, this place is marked "R. Crawford's." Mills's
map marks the place on Waxhaw Creek " John Craw-
ford" and the South Carolina land records show no

423

APPENDIX

James Crawford holding lands in that vicinity prior to
1785. That these witnesses or General Walkup or
Parton made a slip as to the first name of Jackson's
foster-father is quite evident. But to continue with
Parton's witnesses :

James Faulkner, "second cousin of Gen. Jackson," says:
"That old Mr. Jackson died before the birth of his son, Gen-
eral Jackson, and that his widow, Mrs. Jackson, was quite poor,
and moved from her residence on Twelve Mile Creek, North
Carolina, to live with her relations on Waxhaw Creek, and
while on her way there she stopped with her sister, Mrs.
McCamie, in North Carolina, and was there delivered of
Andrew, afterwards President of the United States ; that he
learned this from various old persons, and particularly heard
his aunt, Sarah Lathe n, often speak of it and assert that she
was present at his, Jackson's, birth ; that she said her mother,
Mrs. Leslie, was sent for on that occasion, and took her, Mrs.
Lathen, then a small girl, about seven years of age, with her,
and that she recollected well of going the near way through the
fields to get there ; and that afterwards, when Mrs. Jackson
became able to travel, she continued her trip to Mrs. Craw-
ford's, and took her son Andrew with her, and there remained."

John Lathan said that he had heard his mother, Mrs. Sarah
Lathan, say often that Andrew Jackson was born at the house
of George McKemey and that she was at the house at the time
of his birth ; that his father had lived and died on Twelve Mile
Creek in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and that soon
after his death Mrs. Jackson left Twelve Mile Creek, North
Carolina, to go to live with Mr. Crawford in Lancaster District,
South Carolina ; that on her way she stopped at the house of
George McKemey, who had married one of her sisters, and
that while there she was taken sick and sent for another sister,
Mrs. Sarah Leslie, mother of the said Mrs. Sarah Lathan, who
lived near McKemey1 s ; that she, then but seven years old,
accompanied her mother across the fields, in the night, to her
aunt's and so was present when Jackson was born ; that soon
after Mrs. Jackson went on to Mr. Crawford's to live.

Mr. Lathan, like Mr. Massey, does not assert that
McKemey's house was in North Carolina, nor does he
say that his mother said it was. The fact is, the boun-
dary line was scarcely known to the people of the

424

APPENDIX

neighborhood at the time of Jackson's birth, and they
knew it with no degree of certainty until after the sur-
vey in 1813, by which it was finally fixed.

Immediately after the complete separation of the
provinces of North Carolina and South Carolina by
royal authority in 1729 a dispute arose as to the boun-
dary line, which did not finally terminate until the final
ratification, by the General Assemblies of both States,
of a convention concluded at Greenville, South Caro-
lina, November 2, 181 5, between three commissioners
from each of the two States. The first dispute was as
to the southeastern portion of the line. After six or
seven years of bickering the line was fixed by surveys
made in 1735 and 1737. That part run in 1735 com-
menced at the mouth of Little River, on the seashore,
and extended in a northwest direction, sixty-four and
a half miles, to a point two miles northwest of one of
the branches of Pee Dee. In 1737 the line was ex-
tended in the same direction twenty-two miles to a
stake in a meadow, which was erroneously supposed
to be at the point of intersection with the thirty-fifth
degree of north latitude. This line was eighty-six miles
and one hundred and seventy-four poles long, and this
point was about eleven miles short of the thirty-fifth
degree of north latitude to which the surveyors had been
instructed to run. A mark was set up there by a deputy
surveyor, and although it temporarily robbed South
Carolina of a strip about eleven miles wide by sixty-two
miles long it was, nevertheless, officially agreed upon
in 1772, and an equivalent was given to South Caro-
lina farther north. In that strip lay the place upon
which the North Carolinians allege that Jackson was
born. So if it be admitted that the spot was east of the
boundary line agreed upon in 1772, he was nevertheless
born in what was then legally South Carolina territory.
But it is not admitted that that spot was east of the
line agreed upon in 1772. Jackson was born west of
the line fixed in 1764 and agreed upon in 1772 and that
has been the correct line ever since.

In 1763 the Catawba Indian reservation was laid off
425

APPENDIX

by South Carolina and its eastern boundary was fixed
as the boundary between the two provinces. This east-
ern line's southern extremity was fixed, and marked by
a gum, on Twelve Mile Creek. In 1764 surveyors were
instructed to take up the line at the stake in the meadow
fixed in 1737 and extend it westward along the thirty-
fifth degree to its intersection with the eastern boundary
line of the Catawba reservation, but when they had run
sixty-two miles they were unable to find that line.
They then calculated and found that they were about
eleven miles south of the thirty-fifth degree. They
here set up a " Stone Corner by 2 Black Oak" and
reported their trouble to Governor Bull, who directed
that an imaginary line connecting this point marked
by the stone with that marked by the gum should be
recognized as the line until the matter should be ad-
justed by the two provinces. The line was not staked
out and Mouzon's map, published in 1775, makes the
line and the public road coincide and both run north
in a winding line. As a matter of fact, the road does
not coincide with the boundary, as may be seen by ex-
amining Boykin's map.

In 1772 the line was taken up at the " Stone Cor-
ner" of 1764 and carried on. The line to the gum
was eight miles in length. Thus we see it took a
surveyor, or one perfectly familiar with the conditions,
to say whether points along this little eight-mile line
were in North Carolina or South Carolina. It is not
reasonable to suppose that these simple country people
living there knew upon which side of the line the little
cabin in which Jackson was born stood. They knew
the cabin and when the final surveys were made in 1813
and the years just following they, no doubt, pointed it
out, and our surveyors put it on their maps, and that is
better evidence than that given by any old person who
heard some other old person say that as a child she was
there, or that he or she had heard someone else say
that Jackson was born at George McKemey's in North
Carolina. I am told by a former citizen of Lancaster
that people living in the Waxhaws to-day consider the

426

APPENDIX

public road the line and have told him so, and the maker
of the statement accredited to "Thomas J. Cureton"
evidently thought so.

Thomas Faulkner testified to the same effect as John Lathan
regarding what Mrs. Lathan had said about Jackson's birth-
place, and he further testified that Mrs. Leslie had died about
fifty years before; that Mrs. Lathan, her daughter, had died
thirty-five years before and that he himself was at the time of
making his statement seventy years of age and had resided
since his birth "in Lancaster District, South Carolina, near
Craigsville postoffice, and about two miles from the old Wax-
haw Church."

His testimony would not be admissible in court and
should be excluded here on the ground that too much
time had elapsed between statements to warrant relia-
ble testimony, but, as it does not prove that Jackson's
birthplace was in North Carolina, let it pass.

Samuel McWhorter, Jane Wilson, and others testified to the
same effect. James D. Craig, formerly a resident of Wax-
haw, but at the time of making his contribution to Walkup's
evidence a resident of Mississippi, stated that he had once
heard old James Faulkner say that once while sleeping with
Andrew Jackson at the McKemey house, Jackson told him that
he was born in that house ; that he had heard Mrs. Cousar, an
old lady, long a near neighbor of McKemey, say that she
remembered perfectly the night of Jackson* s birth, as she had
been sent for to assist ; that he had heard Charles Findly,
deceased, say that he "assisted in hauling" the corpse of
Andrew Jackson from his house on Twelve Mile Creek to the
Waxhaw churchyard and in interring it there, and that, after
the funeral, he had conveyed Mrs. Jackson and her boys to the
house of George McKemey, where, soon after, Andrew was
born.

The witness does not say that Faulkner told him in
which State the house was located in which he and
Jackson had slept together and in which Jackson had
said he was born; he does not say that Faulkner told
him that the house was in North Carolina ; he does not
say that Mrs. Cousar said it was in North Carolina; he

427

APPENDIX

does not say that Findly said so either, nor does he say
anything of his own knowledge on the subject. The
fact is, he had a very vague idea about the whole matter
and knew nothing positively.

Partem remarks: "This testimony leaves no reasonable
doubt that the birth took place at die house of McKemey.
Nor is there the least difficulty in finding the precise spot where
that house stood. The spot is as well known to the people of
the neighborhood as the City Hall is to the inhabitants of New
York/'

There is a " reasonable doubt " as to the correctness
of the evidence to the effect that Jackson was born in
McKemey's house, but it has not been proven where
McKemey's house was located, and that makes it pos-
sibly true that Jackson was born in the house of George
McKemey. Such evidence uncorroborated would be
worthless in court and is still equally as worthless in
historical investigation. The memory of man is treach-
erous even for short periods, especially as to hearsay,
but when it comes to accepting a narrative of an event
that occurred in 1767 from someone not born until
thirty or forty years thereafter, who got it over thirty-
five years before from another who was but seven years
old when the event occurred, there is so much latitude
for slips of memory (and they are so very apt to
occur!) that a judicious and experienced truthseeker
simply cannot accept it unless it is properly corrobor-
ated. General Walkup would not have gone into a
court-house and rested a case on such evidence as he
gathered for Parton, for it would not have been admis-
sible in law, but he rests a question of history on it and
attempts therewith to detract from Jackson's knowl-
edge of his own history. And General Walkup's spell-
ing of the names of his witnesses is an evidence that
he was not so familiar with the people of the Waxhaw
vicinity as Parton would have it appear. He writes
" McCamie" when Parton himself says he found the
family spelling the name McKemey on tombstones, and
he writes " Lathen" for Lathan. There can be no doubt

428

APPENDIX

that " the people of the neighborhood " for many years
after Jackson's birth knew the spot as well as the New
Yorker knows the location of the City Hall, but that
was when the house was standing and Jackson was
alive and his name a household word to remind them,
and that was when Boykin surveyed over the coun-
try and carefully marked the houses and roads and
streams, and took particular pains to mark on his map
so historic a spot as the birthplace of a general of the
United States army who had so lately and repeatedly
distinguished himself, and the old neighbors of whom
were undoubtedly at that moment telling all they knew
about him.

But at the time, over thirty years later, that General
Walkup gathered his evidence, the house was gone, and
the spot upon which it had stood was forgotten, and in
the attempt to resurrect and recover the spot, General
Walkup and Biographer Parton failed to avail them-
selves of the early maps, and simply depended upon
the imperfect traditions of some of the people of the
neighborhood, and thereby failed to prove their propo-
sitions.

With so many of Jackson's older neighbors or con-
temporaries all around, with all of the old land plats of
the neighborhood at his service, with a thorough pro-
fessional knowledge of the whole country around and
with his scientific instruments to guide him, Boykin was
far more apt to know more about the location of Jack-
son's birthplace, or of McKemey's house, than men who
had thirty or forty years later to call back their mem-
ories thirty or forty years in order to recall what they
had heard. And when we take into consideration the
fact that Jackson and the Boykins were all better edu-
cated and better informed persons than any one of
those who gave evidence to controvert theirs it does
seem that theirs is the better evidence. Jackson knew
the house he was born in. James D. Craig says old
James Faulkner told him that Jackson told him, while
sleeping in McKemey's house, that he was born in that
house. If that is true, then Jackson knew that house

429

APPENDIX

was in South Carolina, or he would never have said he
was born in South Carolina. He did not leave South
Carolina until after he had been admitted to the bar,
and must have known the location of the line run out in
1772, which is still the line and has never changed a
particle. Parton tells us that, after the burial of her
husband, Mrs. Jackson " went from the church-yard
to the house, not far off," of George McKemey. If
George McKemey's house was anywhere near the
church necessarily it was in South Carolina, for the
church decidedly is in South Carolina. Again, Massey,
"an old resident of the vicinity," does not say that
McKemey's house was in North Carolina, because to
be in his " vicinity" would bring it in South Carolina.
All of the maps cited show Massey's house some dis-
tance to the west of the line. Massey says Mrs. Lathan
said that after Jackson's birth, his mother went to live
with James Crawford, " in South Carolina." The maps
show Jackson's birthplace near "John Crawford's," in
South Carolina. Whose house was that so marked?
Not the old Andrew Jackson house. Not John Craw-
ford's. James Faulkner says the Crawfords lived on
Waxhaw Creek. The maps show John Crawford's
there. Jackson's birthplace is located off the creek.
The map of the officially agreed upon boundary shows
Robert Crawford as the owner in 1813 of the house
named by Boykin in 1820 as Jackson's birthplace.
Crawford's house was in South Carolina and so was
McKemey's, if Jackson was born in it. We know that
Robert Crawford was granted the land where Boykin
and Reilly mark Jackson's birthplace, and he must have
owned the house in which McKemey lived at the time of
Jackson's birth, if it be true that Jackson was born at
McKemey's, and that house in my opinion (and Jack-
son's) stood right where Boykin, Reilly, and Kendall
put it.

Parton publishes an undated affidavit of Thomas Cureton to
prove that the McKemey house was in North Carolina, in which
Cureton said that he was "about seventy-five years of age,"

430

APPENDIX

that his father, James Cureton, had come to the Waxhaw set-
tlement "about seventy-three years" before, when deponent
was "about one year old;" that his elder brother, Jeremiah
Cureton, bought the George McKemey place "some time after
he came to this county" (Union County, North Carolina 7) about
1796, and settled in the same house where George McKemey
had lived ; that he "remained there a few years," and moved
to the place, "where William J. Cureton" was living at the
time of this deposition ; that he knew the George McKemey
place well and that it lay in North Carolina, "about a quarter
of a mile east of the public road, leading from Lancaster Court
House, South Carolina, to Charlotte, North Carolina, and to
the right of said road as you travel north," a little east of
south from Cureton* s Pond, on said public road, and a little
over a quarter of a mile from said pond; that his brother,
Jeremiah Cureton, always called that the McKemey house
and was of opinion, from information derived from old Mrs.
Molly Cousar, that Andrew Jackson was "born at the George
McCamie place;" that the "Leslie houses lay about half a
mile in a southern direction from the McCamie house, and
north of Waxhaw Creek, and east of the public road," and
that he himself had "lived for the last seventy-two or three
years within three or four miles of the McCamie place."

So the whole idea about Cureton's place being
Jackson's birthplace is based on a feeble old man's
recollection of his dead brother's "opinion from
information derived from old Mrs. Molly Cousar" ? The
witness does not say that Mrs. Cousar said Jackson was
born at McKemey's, nor does he say that Mrs. Cousar
said the place of birth was in North Carolina. That
was his brother's " opinion " from his conversation with
Mrs. Cousar, who was probably too old to give intelli-
gent testimony, and too much time had elapsed for
Thomas Cureton to have a clear recollection of what
his brother said she said. His memory was probably
much guided in the Walkup direction by suggestions.
He does not say that his elder brother, Jeremiah, who
did not come to the Waxhaws until over twenty-five
years after Jackson's birth, knew that his place in
North Carolina was the birthplace of Jackson. He
simply says his brother, Jeremiah, always "called"
that the McKemey house.

431

APPENDIX

Mr. Cureton's mind was either enfeebled by age when
he made that affidavit, or else he was not a careful man,
and, therefore, not a good witness. He did not know
his own exact age. He made "about seventy-three"
and " about one" years " about seventy-five." He
seemed very accurate as to places and locations, and
very inaccurate about figures and names, but bear in
mind that General Walkup, a North Carolinian, took his
deposition and that there was no one to cross-examine
him to test his memory or knowledge of side lights. His
testimony cannot possibly be as good as that of Jack-
son and the Boykins.

"Thomas J. Cureton,** son of Jeremiah Cureton, stated that
he was the then owner of the place that had formerly belonged
to McKemey and that he had received it from his father and
that it was in Union County, North Carolina (formerly a part
of Mecklenburg County) ; that it was "a little over a quarter
of a mile southeast of what is called Cureton* s Pond, and about
a quarter of a mile east of the State line, and the public road
leading from Lancaster Court House, South Carolina, to Char-
lotte, North Carolina, and about one and a half miles north of
Waxhaw Creek;" that he had "the old land papers* ' (chain
of title) for the tract, which was patented to John McCane,
1 76 1, upon a survey dated 8th September, 1757 ; conveyed by
McCane to Repentence Townsend, 10th April, 1761, and by
Townsend to George McCamie, 3d January, 1766, and by
George McCamie to Thomas Crawford, 1792 ; and by Crawford
and wife, Elizabeth, to Jeremiah Cureton, 23d July, 1796, and
by Jeremiah Cureton to said Thomas L. Cureton; that his
father, said Jeremiah Cureton, came from Virginia to Roanoke,
North Carolina, "and from there to Waxhaws, South Carolina,
and purchased the McCamie place, where he lived a few years,
and then removed to place where I now reside in Lancaster
district, South Carolina, where he remained until his death in
1847 ; being then eighty -four years of age.**

That Parton or Walkup was very careless is attested
by the fact that the Union records show that Jeremiah
Cureton sold this place to William J. Cureton, not
"Thomas L.," after 1842, and that the above state-
ment was made by William J. Cureton, not " Thomas
J. Cureton." The writer has a letter from Thomas J.

433

APPENDIX

Cureton denying that he ever made any statement to
Walkup or Parton.

It is admitted that this place did once belong to
George McKemey, and that it is in Union County,
North Carolina, but does that prove that McKemey,
was living on it when Andrew Jackson was born and
that Jackson was born there? Isn't it quite possible
that McKemey was living in a cabin in South Carolina
when Jackson was born and that Jackson was born in
that cabin ? That is much more likely than that Jackson
did not know where he was born and in what State he
was born and that Reilly and Boykin, with surveyors'
notes before them and the evidence of living witnesses
around them were wrong in locating a historic land-
mark, and that Thonaldson was wrong in presenting
his bust to South Carolina instead of North Carolina,
and that the committee appointed to pass upon the
matter— one of whom was from the same section and
familiar with the country and the people — would felici-
tate the House on the fact that Jackson was " acknowl-
edged as our own," unless they knew it to be so.

The fact is that General Walkup wanted to claim
Jackson as a North Carolinian, and Mr. Cureton wanted
to pose as the owner of Jackson's birthplace, and be-
tween them they managed to gather some flimsy testi-
mony, which was enough to persuade the unscientific
Parton that " it is as certain as any fact of the kind can
be" that Jackson " was mistaken" as to his own birth-
place. If they had produced a contemporary Bible or
church record, which definitely recorded that Jackson
was born on a certain date at the residence of George
McKemey in the Province of North Carolina (as we
frequently find done in sections of South Carolina)
we could accept it as conclusive, or if they had brought
a statement made and signed by old Mrs. Leslie or
Mrs. Cousar, or Mrs. Lathan, or by all of them during
the lifetime of either or all of them, it would have
been very strong, but what they have presented is
as bad as nothing, and the direct statement of Jack-
son that he was born in South Carolina would have

28 433

APPENDIX

been accepted in a court of law as evidence on the point,
while a statement by one person that he had heard some-
one else say thirty or forty years before that she had
been present at Jackson's birth and that he was born
in McKemey's house in North Carolina would not only
not receive the same weight but would be rejected alto-
gether.
Let us see what the law on that point is :

Greenleaf declares that birthplace is not provable by common
repute.

" By the English authorities, hearsay evidence is admissible
to prove pedigree, but not the place of a child's birth." — Wil-
mington vs. Burlington, 4 Pick. Massachusetts, 174. (See also
Baintree vs. Hingham, 1 Pick. Massachusetts, 247; Adams vs.
Swansea, 116 Massachusetts, 596.)

"Hearsay evidence is admissible to prove pedigree, and the
declarations of a deceased parent have been admitted to prove
the time of a child's birth, but are rejected when offered to
prove the place." — Shearer vs. Clay, 1 Litt. Kentucky, 260.

Hearsay evidence, then, as to the declarations of
even deceased parents as to the place of a child's birth
will not be accepted in court. What would the court
say if someone should come forward to testify that he
had heard an old person say over thirty-five years be-
fore that as a child of seven she knew of the birthplace
of another child?

Of the sort of evidence that Parton gives us Lord
Langdale, M.R., says:

" In cases where the whole evidence is traditionary, when it
consists entirely of family reputation, or of statements of dec-
larations made by persons who died long ago, it must be taken
with such allowances, and also with such suspicions, as ought
reasonably to be attached to it."

Any one with experience in historical and genealogi-
cal research work, under the guidance of the well-
defined rules of the most scientific workers of the time,
will agree that Lord Langdale's opinion will apply in
history as well as in law.

In the article in The Lancaster Ledger we have ex-
434

APPENDIX

actly the sort of evidence that Partem has given us, only
it is better than Parton's. It is more specific, and it
harmonizes better with the acceptable evidence already
produced. It also shows us that it all depends upon the
viewpoint when any one goes out to gather evidence
from hearsay, common repute, and tradition. General
Walkup makes out, from conversations with the old
people, that Jackson's birthplace was in North Carolina ;
the writer in the Ledger, from similar conversations
had about the same time with the same old people or
other old people of the same community, is convinced
that Jackson's birthplace was in South Carolina. The
conclusion of the writer in the Ledger is no after-
thought, for his article was published before Parton's
book, and he discloses no knowledge of the fact that
General Walkup was working along the same line for a
different conclusion. And the fact that these two un-
scientific investigatbrs arrived at opposite conclusions
about the same time, with practically the same evidence
before them, is enough to convince one that the law is
correct in excluding such evidence and that Lord Lang-
dale made no mistake when he said such evidence " must
be taken with such allowances, and also with such sus-
picions, as ought reasonably to be attached to it."

Perhaps if General Walkup and the Ledger writer
could have gotten together with all their witnesses and
with Jackson's letter to Colonel Witherspoon, and Ken-
dall's map to submit to their scrutiny, they could have
brought out enough to settle the matter in the minds of
a competent jury. And with all of this evidence before
them I feel confident that any impartial jury would have
fixed the spot in South Carolina where the authentic
and admissible evidence fixes it.

Let us take the Ledger's evidence " with such allow-
ances" ... u as ought reasonably to be attached to it"
and also apply the same to Parton's evidence. The
Ledger says that after the death of the elder Jackson
Mrs. Jackson left the place where her husband had first
settled and at the time of the birth of her son, Andrew,
was " living on a place belonging to Major Crawford,

435

APPENDIX

and very near to his place of residence." The boun-
dary line map of 1813 fixes the same spot that Boykin
and Reilly mark for Jackson's birthplace as Robert
Crawford's property. The Ledger writer goes on to
say that after the birth of Andrew the Jacksons went
to live with Robert Crawford. Parton's account says
almost the same thing, using James instead of Robert,
showing, thereby, less accuracy. That makes the birth
take place at the house of George McKemey, near
Crawford's. Why could not George McKemey have
been living on this place of Crawford's? General
Walkup's witnesses had never taken the trouble to ques-
tion the old people who were witnesses to the birth of
Jackson as to the exact location of the house wherein
they said he was born. They only said it was near
Crawford's, and the North Carolina place that
McKemey owned was at least a mile from Crawford's,
if it was a quarter of a mile east of the boundary line,- as
the Curetons assert. The Ledger writer's informants
did not inquire of the old people who lived on Major
Crawford's place when Jackson was born there, and
whether the place was in North Carolina or South Car-
olina, so between the two sets of hearsay witnesses and
their poor examiners we have lost the best point which
we might have been able to take " with such allow-
ances" ..." as ought reasonably to be attached to it."
But the Ledger offers one witness who was a con-
temporary of Jackson's and was reared in the family
with him, and although an old negro woman of ninety
is a very poor witness at best, she is better able to locate
a spot which she had known of her personal knowledge
than one who has to testify as to an "opinion" gath-
ered by someone else, then dead, from a conversation
had many years before with an old lady who did not
make herself perfectly clear or who was not so drawn
out by questions as to leave no doubt in the mind of the
questioner. It is true Maum Phylis's evidence as to
the birthplace of Jackson would not be admissible, for
it was only hearsay after all, but her testimony as to
the location of the spot whereon stood the house in

436

APPENDIX

which her elders all said in her day that Jackson was
born was a matter of her own knowledge, and that of the
Parton witnesses lacks even that merit. Their testimony
as to the location of the reputed house was hearsay.

One of the latest biographies of Jackson is that by
Buell, who attempts a new explanation of the early un-
derstanding of how Jackson came to look upon South
Carolina as his native State. He says:

"Jackson was born in 1767. At that time the exact boundary-
line between the two colonial Carolinas was debatable ; at least,
it had never been subjected to scientific delineation. But the
spot where the McCamie cabin stood was, in 1767, under the
unquestionable— or, rather, the tacitly admitted — jurisdiction of
the colony of South Carolina. Therefore, Andrew Jackson was
born in that colony. But shortly after the adoption of the Fed-
eral Constitution in 1789 an amicable movement for definitive
location of the boundary was made. This brought about a sur-
vey during 1793-94 by John Floyd, the result of which was a
readjustment not only of the line between the two Carolinas,
but also of the south boundary of Tennessee. So far as con-
cerned the Carolinas but little change was made, the readjust-
ment nowhere amounting to more than a mile or two, and even
that was due to the mere straightening of old lines that had
been carelessly located or inaccurately marked in the colonial
surveys. At the particular point concerned in the narrative the
old and irregular line veered far enough from a true parallel
to throw the site of the McCamie cabin on the South Carolina
side. But Floyd's survey located the line on the parallel, which
cut through a small chord of a former erroneous arc and thereby
located the McCamie cabin about eighty rods north of the
line in what was then (1794) Mecklenburg County, but since
set off in what is now Union County, North Carolina."

Almost every single statement in that paragraph is
directly contrary to the records in the case. The land
grant to Robert Crawford of the tract of land upon
which Boykin, Reilly, and Kendall fix the birthplace
of Jackson undoubtedly is in the present territory of
South Carolina, yet the Governor of North Carolina
had granted it to Andrew Pickens about the time of
Jackson's birth under the impression that it was in
North Carolina. If McKemey's cabin was on that tract
and Jackson was born in that cabin, then he was most
unquestionably born in what is now South Carolina

437

APPENDIX

and what was then South Carolina, bat supposed by the
Governor of North Carolina to be in the latter prov-
ince. If Jackson was born in McKemey's cabin and
that cabin stood on the tract of land which McKemey
purchased of Repentance Townsend in 1766, then Jack-
son was undoubtedly born in North Carolina, for that
tract of land was then in North Carolina and never was
claimed as a part of South Carolina's territory. The
question is simply whether Jackson's testimony, cor-
roborated by many documents and publications of
contemporaries, as to the spot of his birth is to be
accepted, or rejected in favor of the vague hearsay
testimony of Parton's witnesses. There was no official
recognition by the State of South Carolina of any sur-
vey made by John Floyd and, therefore, if he made any
survey of that eight-mile line from the " Stone Corner"
to the gum it had no effect in law. But it is not true
that there were any kinks or crooks in that line. It was
defined by Governor Bull in 1764 to be a straight line
connecting the two points mentioned; it was run out
and platted and officially agreed upon in 1772 and it
was run perfectly straight; and, finally, when resur-
veyed in 1813 it was again run straight, and these two
surveys — those of 1772 and 1813 — were the only offi-
cially acknowledged surveys ever made, and they agree,
and they both followed the directions given by Gover-
nor Bull in 1764. It is a perfectly straight line run-
ning north two degrees twelve and a half minutes east,
as shown by the official survey made by the commis-
sioners and surveyors representing the two States.

With all of this evidence before me I can reach no
other conclusion than that Jackson was born in South
Carolina, as he has so often declared, and that he was
born on Robert Crawford's place, as shown by three
maps prepared during his lifetime, one of which was
published under his direction, and by the letter he wrote
to Colonel Witherspoon, referred to by The Lancaster
Ledger in 1858.

• A. S. Salley, Jr.

LUMBIA, S. C, AugUSt 25, I905.
438

Appendix B

SOUTH CAROLINA ORDINANCE OF NULLI-
FICATION

November 24, 1832.

AN ORDINANCE TO NULLIFY CERTAIN ACTS OF THE CON-
GRESS OF THE UNITED STATES PURPORTING TO BE LAWS
LAYING DUTIES AND IMPOSTS ON THE IMPORTATION
OF FOREIGN COMMODITIES.

Whereas the Congress of the United States, by vari-
ous acts, purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts
on foreign imports, but in reality intended for the pro-
tection of domestic manufactures, and the giving of
bounties to classes and individuals engaged in particular
employments, at the expense and to the injury and op-
pression of other classes and individuals, and by wholly
exempting from taxation certain foreign commodities,
such as are not produced or manufactured in the United
States, to afford a pretext for imposing higher and ex-
cessive duties on articles similar to those intended to be
protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the Con-
stitution, which confers on it no authority to afford such
protection, and hath violated the true meaning and intent
of the Constitution, which provides for equality in im-
posing the burthens of taxation upon the several States
and portions of the confederacy; And whereas the
said Congress, exceeding its just power to impose taxes
and collect revenue for the purpose of effecting and
accomplishing the specific objects and purposes which
the Constitution of the United States authorizes it to
effect and accomplish, hath raised and collected unnec-
essary revenue for objects unauthorized by the Consti-
tution :

439

APPENDIX

We, therefore, the people of the State of South Caro-
lina in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain,
and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the several
acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United
States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties
and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities,
and now having actual operation and effect within the
United States, and, more especially, an act entitled " An
Act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on
imports," approved on the nineteenth day of May, one
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and also an
act entitled " An Act to alter and amend the several acts
imposing duties on imports," approved on the fourteenth
day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty- four,
are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United
States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof,
and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this
State, its officers or citizens ; and all promises, contracts,
and obligations, made or entered into, or to be made or
entered into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed
by the said acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall
be hereafter had in affirmance thereof, are and shall
be held utterly null and void.

And it is further ordained, That it shall not be lawful
for any of the constituted authorities, whether of this
State or of the United States, to enforce the payment
of duties imposed by the said acts within the limits of
this State; but it shall be the duty of the Legislature to
adopt such measures and pass such acts as may be neces-
sary to give hA effect to this ordinance, and to prevent
the enforcement and arrest the operation of the said
acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United
States within the limits of this State, from and after
the first day of February next, and the duty of all other
constituted authorities, and of all persons residing or
being m ithin \he limits of this State, and they are hereby
required and enjoined, to obey and give effect to this
s, ami *nch acts and measures of the Legisla-
rvisscd or adopted in obedience thereto.
urther ordained, That in no case of law or
wo

APPENDIX

equity, decided in the courts of this State, wherein shall
be drawn in question the authority of this ordinance, or
the validity of such act or acts of the Legislature as may
be passed for the purpose of giving effect thereto, or the
validity of the aforesaid acts of Congress, imposing
duties, shall any appeal be taken or allowed to the
Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy
of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose ;
and if any such appeal shall be attempted to be taken,
the courts of this State shall proceed to execute and
enforce their judgments, according to the laws and
usages of the State, without reference to such attempted
appeal, and the person or persons attempting to take
such appeal may be dealt with as for a contempt of the
court.

And it is further ordained, That all persons bow
(now) holding any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil
or military, under this State (members of the Legisla-
ture excepted) shall, within such time, and in such man-
ner as the Legislature shall prescribe, take an oath well
and truly, to obey, execute, and enforce, this ordinance,
and such act or acts of the Legislature as may be passed
in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and
meaning of the same ; and on the neglect or omission of
any such person or persons so to do his or their office
or offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled
up as if such person or persons were dead or had re-
signed; and no person hereafter elected to any office
of honor, profit, or trust, civil or military, (members of
the Legislature excepted,) shall, until the Legislature
shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on the execu-
tion of his office, or be in any respect competent to dis-
charge the duties thereof, until he shall, in like manner,
have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be em-
pannelled in any of the courts of this State, in any
cause in which shall be in question this ordinance, or
any act of the Legislature passed in pursuance thereof,
unless he shall first, in addition to the usual oath, have
taken an oath that he will well and truly obey, execute,
and enforce this ordinance, and such act or acts of the

44i

APPENDIX

Legislature as may be passed to carry the same into
operation and effect, according to the true intent and
meaning thereof.

And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that
it may be fully understood by the Government of the
United States, and the people of the co-States, that we
are determined to maintain this, our ordinance and
declaration, at every hazard, do further declare, That we
will not submit to the application of force, on the part
of the Federal Government, to reduce this State to
obedience; but that we will consider the passage, by
Congress, of any act authorizing the employment of a
military or naval force against the State of South Caro-
lina, Her constitutional authorities or citizens; or any
act abolishing or closing the ports of this State, or
any of them, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress
and egress of vessels to and from said ports, or any
other act on the part of the Federal Government, to
coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass
her commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared
to be null and void, otherwise than through the civil
tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer
continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and that
the people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves
absolved from all further obligations to maintain or pre-
serve their political connection with the people of the
other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a
separate Government, and do all other acts and things
which sovereign and independent States may of
right do.

Done in Convention at Columbia, the twenty-fourth
day of November, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and
in the fifty-seventh year of the declaration of
the independence of the United States of
America.

443

Appendix C

THE NULLIFICATION PROCLAMATION

ANDREW JACKSON

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

December 10, 1832

Whereas a convention assembled in the state of
South Carolina have passed an Ordinance, by which
they declare " That the several acts and parts of acts of
the Congress of the United States, purporting to be
laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the im-
portation of foreign commodities, and now having act-
ual operation and effect within the United States, and
more especially" two acts, for the same purposes, passed
on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1832,
"are unauthorized by the constitution of the United
States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof,
and are null and void, and no law," nor binding on the
citizens of that state or its officers; and by the said
Ordinance it is further declared to be unlawful for any
of the constituted authorities of the state or of the
United States, to enforce the payment of the duties im-
posed by the said acts within the same state, and that it
is the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as may
be necessary to give full effect to the said Ordinance:

And whereas, by the said Ordinance, it is further or-
dained, that, in no case of law or equity, decided in the
courts of said state, wherein shall be drawn in question
the validity of the said Ordinance, or of the acts of the
legislature that may be passed to give it effect, or of
the said laws of the United States, appeal shall be al-
lowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor

443

APPENDIX

shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for
that purpose; and that any person attempting to take
such an appeal shall be punished as for a contempt of
court:

And, finally, the said Ordinance declares that the peo-
ple of South Carolina will maintain the said Ordinance
at every hazard; and that they will consider the pas-
sage of any act by Congress, abolishing or closing the
ports of the said state, or otherwise obstructing the free
ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports,
or any other act of the federal government to coerce
the state, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her com-
merce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through
the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with
the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union ;
and that the people of the said state will thenceforth
hold themselves absolved from all further obligation
to maintain or preserve their political connexion with
the people of the other states, and will forthwith pro-
ceed to organize a separate government, and do all other
acts and things which sovereign and independent states
may of right do :

And whereas the said Ordinance prescribes to the
people of South Carolina a course of conduct, in direct
violation of their duty as citizens of the United States,
contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its
constitution, and having for its object the destruction of
the Union — that Union, which, coevil with our political
existence, led our fathers, without any other ties to
unite them than those of patriotism and a common
cause, through a sanguinary struggle to a glorious in-
dependence— that sacred Union, hitherto inviolate,
which, perfected by our happy constitution, has brought
us, by the favour of Heaven, to a state of prosperity at
home, and high consideration abroad, rarely, if ever,
equalled in the history of nations: To preserve this
bond of our political existence from destruction, to
maintain inviolate this state of national honour and
prosperity, and to justify the confidence my fellow-citi-
zens have reposed in me, I, Andrew Jackson, Presi-

AA4

APPENDIX

dent of the United States, having thought proper to
issue this my proclamation, stating my views of the
constitution and laws applicable to the measures adopted
by the convention of South Carolina, and to the reasons
they have put forth to sustain them, declaring the
course which duty will require me to pursue, and, ap-
pealing to the understanding and patriotism of the peo-
ple, warn them of the consequences that must inevitably
result from an observance of the dictates of the con-
vention.

Strict duty would require of me nothing more than
the exercise of those powers with which I am now, or
may hereafter be invested, for preserving the peace of
the Union, and for the execution of the laws. But the
imposing aspect which opposition has assumed in this
case, by clothing itself with state authority, and the
deep interest which the people of the United States
must all feel in preventing a resort to stronger meas-
ures, while there is a hope that anything will be yielded
to reasoning and remonstrance, perhaps demand, and
will certainly justify, a full exposition to South Caro-
lina and the nation of the views I entertain of this im-
portant question, as well as a distinct enunciation of
the course which my sense of duty will require me
to pursue.

The Ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible
right of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitu-
tional and too oppressive to be endured, but on the
strange position that any one state may not only de-
clare an act of Congress void, but prohibit its execu-
tion— that they may do this consistently with the con-
stitution— that the true construction of that instrument
permits a state to retain its place in the Union, and yet
be bound by no other of its laws than those it may
choose to consider as constitutional. It is true, they
add, that, to justify this abrogation of a law, it must
be palpably contrary to the constitution; but it is evi-
dent, that to give the right of resisting laws of that
description, coupled with the uncontrolled right to de-
cide what laws deserve that character, is to give the

445

APPENDIX

power of resisting all laws. For, as by the theory
there is no appeal, the reasons alleged by the state, good
or bad, must prevail. If it should be said that public
opinion is a sufficient check against the abuse of this
power, it may be asked why it is not deemed a sufficient
guard against the passage of an unconstitutional act
by Congress. There is, however, a restraint in this
last case, which makes the assumed power of a state
more indefensible, and which does not exist in the other.
There are two appeals from an unconstitutional act
passed by Congress — one to the judiciary, the other to
the people and the states. There is no appeal from the
state decision in theory; and the practical illustration
shows that the courts are closed against an application
to review it, both judges and jurors being sworn to
decide in its favour. But reasoning on this subject
is superfluous when our social compact in express terms
declares, that the laws of the United States, its consti-
tution, and treaties made under it, are the supreme
law of the land ; and, for greater caution, adds, " that
the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any-
thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the
contrary notwithstanding/' And it may be asserted,
without fear of refutation, that no federative govern-
ment could exist without a similar provision. Look for
a moment to the consequence. If South Carolina con-
siders the revenue laws unconstitutional, and has a
right to prevent their execution in the port of Charles-
ton, there would be a clear, constitutional objection to
their collection in every other port, and no revenue
could be collected anywhere; for all imposts must be
equal. It is no answer to repeat that an unconstitu-
tional law is no law, so long as the question of legality
is to be decided by the state itself ; for every law operat-
ing injuriously upon any local interest will be perhaps
thought, and certainly represented, as unconstitutional,
and, as has been shown, there is no appeal.

If this doctrine had been established at an earlier day,
the Union would have been dissolved in its infancy. The
excise law in Pennsylvania, the embargo and non-inter-

446

APPENDIX

course law in the eastern states, the carriage tax in Vir-
ginia, were all deemed unconstitutional, and were more
unequal in their operation than any of the laws now
complained of; but, fortunately, none of those states
discovered that they had the right now claimed by
South Carolina. The war into which we were forced,
to support the dignity of the nation and the rights of
our citizens, might have ended in defeat and disgrace,
instead of victory and honour, if the states who sup-
posed it a ruinous and unconstitutional measure, had
thought they possessed the right of nullifying the act
by which it was declared, and denying supplies for its
prosecution. Hardly and unequally as those measures
bore upon the several members of the Union, to the
legislatures of none did this efficient and peaceable rem-
edy, as it is called, suggest itself. The discovery of
this important feature in our constitution was reserved
to the present day. To the statesmen of South Caro-
lina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of that
state will unfortunately fall the evils of reducing it to
practice.

If the doctrine of a state veto upon the laws of the
Union carries with it internal evidence of its impracti-
cable absurdity, our constitutional history will also
afford abundant proof that it would have been repudi-
ated with indignation, had it been proposed to form a
feature in our government.

In our colonial state, although dependent on another
power, we very early considered ourselves as connected
by common interest with each other. Leagues were
formed for common defence, and before the declaration
of independence, we were known in our aggregate
character as the United Colonies of America. That
decisive and important step was taken jointly. We
declared ourselves a nation by a joint, not by several
acts; and when the terms of our confederation were
reduced to form, it was in that of a solemn league of
several states, by which they agreed that they would,
collectively, form one nation for the purpose of con-
ducting some certain domestic concerns, and all foreign

447

APPENDIX

relations. In the instrument forming that Union, is
found an article which declares that " every state shall
abide by the determinations of Congress on all ques-
tions which by that confederation should be submitted
to them."

Under the confederation, then, no state could legally
annul a decision of Congress, or refuse to submit to
its execution; but no provision was made to enforce
these decisions. Congress made requisitions, but they
were not complied with. The government could not
operate on individuals. They had no judiciary, no
means of collecting revenue.

But the defects of the confederation need not be
detailed. Under its operation, we could scarcely be
called a nation. We had neither prosperity at home
nor consideration abroad. This state of things could
not be endured, and our present happy constitution was
formed ; but formed in vain, if this fatal doctrine pre-
vails. It was formed for important objects that are
announced in the preamble made in the name and by
the authority of the people of the United States, whose
delegates framed, and whose conventions approved it.
The most important among these objects, that which
is placed first in rank, on which all the others rest, is
" to form a more perfect union." Now, is it possible
that, even if there were no express provision giving
supremacy to the constitution and laws of the United
States over those of the states, it can be conceived,
that an instrument made for the purpose of " forming
a more perfect union" than that of the confederation,
could be so constructed by the assembled wisdom of our
country, as to substitute for that confederation a form
of government dependent for its existence on the local
interest, the party spirit of a state, or of a prevailing
faction in a state ? Every man of plain unsophisticated
understanding, who hears the question, will give such
an answer as will preserve the Union. Metaphysical
subtlety, in pursuit of an impracticable theory, could
alone have devised one that is calculated to destroy it.

I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the
448

APPENDIX

United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with
the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by
the letter of the constitution, unauthorized by its spirit,
inconsistent with every principle on which it was
founded, and destructive of the great object for which
it was formed.

After this general view of the leading principle, we
must examine the particular application of it which is.,
made in the Ordinance.

The preamble rests its justification on these grounds:
It assumes as a fact, that the obnoxious laws, although
they purport to be laws for raising revenue, were, in
reality, intended for the protection of manufacturers,
which purpose it asserts to be unconstitutional — that the
operation of these laws is unequal — that the amount
raised by them is greater than is required by the wants
of the government — and, finally, that the proceeds are
to be applied to objects unauthorized by the constitu-
tion. These are the only causes alleged to justify an
open opposition to the laws of the country, and a threat
of seceding from the Union, if any attempt should be
made to enforce them. The first virtually acknowledges,
that the law in question was passed under a power
expressly given by the constitution, to lay and collect
imposts; but its constitutionality is drawn in question
from the motives of those who passed it. However ap-
parent this purpose may be in the present case, nothing
can be more dangerous than to admit the position, that
an unconstitutional purpose, entertained by the mem-
bers who assent to a law enacted under a constitutional
power, shall make that law void ; for how is that pur-
pose to be ascertained? Who is to make the scrutiny?
How often may bad purposes be falsely imputed? in
how many cases are they concealed by false profes-
sions? in how many is no declaration of motive made?
Admit this doctrine, and you give to the states an un-
controlled right to decide, and every law may be an-
nulled under this pretext. If, therefore, the absurd and
dangerous doctrine should be admitted that a state may

29 449

APPENDIX

annul an unconstitutional law, or one that it deems such,
it will not apply to the present case.

The next objection is, that the laws in question oper-
ate unequally. This objection may be made with truth,
to every law that has been or can be passed. The wis-
dom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation,
that would operate with perfect equality. If the un-
equal operation of a law makes it unconstitutional, and
if all laws of that description may be abrogated by
any state for that cause, then indeed is the federal con-
stitution unworthy of the slightest effort for its pres-
ervation. We have hitherto relied on it as the perpetual
bond of our Union. We have received it as the work
of the assembled wisdom of the nation. We have
trusted to it as to the sheet anchor of our safety, in
the stormy times of conflict with a foreign or domestic
foe. We have looked to it with sacred awe, as the pal-
ladium of our liberties, and, with all the solemnities
of religion, have pledged to each other our lives and
fortunes here, and our hopes of happiness hereafter, in
its defence and support. Were we mistaken, my coun-
trymen, in attaching this importance to the constitution
of our country? Was our devotion paid to the
wretched, inefficient, clumsy contrivance, which this
new doctrine would make it? Did we pledge ourselves
to the support of an airy nothing — a bubble that must
be blown away by the first breath of disaffection ? Was
this self-destroying, visionary theory, the work of the
profound statesman, the exalted patriots, to whom the
task of constitutional reform was intrusted? Did the
name of Washington sanction, did the states deliberately
ratify, such an anomaly in the history of fundamental
legislation? No. We were not mistaken! The letter
of this great instrument is free from this radical fault :
its language directly contradicts the imputation: its
spirit — its evident intent, contradicts it. No, we did
not err! Our constitution does not contain the ab-
surdity of giving power to make laws, and another
power to resist them. The sages, whose memory will
always be reverenced, have given us a practical and, as

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they hoped, a permanent constitutional compact. The
Father of his country did not affix his revered name to
so palpable an absurdity. Nor did the states, when they
severally ratified it, do so under the impression, that a
veto on the laws of the United States was reserved to
them, so that they could exercise it by implication.
Search the debates of all their conventions — examine
the speeches of the most zealous opposers of federal
authority — look at the amendments that were proposed.
They are all silent — not a syllable uttered, not a vote
given, not a motion made, to correct the explicit su-
premacy given to the laws of the Union, over those of
the state — or to show that implication, as is now con-
tended, could defeat it. No, we have not erred! The
constitution is still the object of our reverence, the bond
of our Union, our defence in danger, the source of our
prosperity and peace. It shall descend, as we have re-
ceived it, uncorrupted by sophistical construction, to our
posterity; and the sacrifices of local interests, of state
prejudices, of personal animosities, that were made to
bring it into existence, will again be patriotically offered
for its support.

The two remaining objections, made by the Ordinance
to these laws, are, that the sums intended to be raised
by them, are greater than are required, and that the pro-
ceeds will be unconstitutionally employed. The consti-
tution has given expressly to Congress, the right of
raising revenue, and of determining the sum the public
exigencies will require. The states have no control over
the exercise of this right, other than that which results
from the power of changing the representatives who
abuse it, and thus procure redress.

Congress may, undoubtedly, abuse this discretionary
power, but the same may be said of others with which
they are vested. Yet the discretion must exist some-
where. The constitution has given it to the representa-
tives of the people, checked by the . representatives of
the states, and by the executive power. The South Car-
olina construction gives it to the legislature or the con-
vention of a single state, where neither the people of the

4Si

APPENDIX

different states, nor the states in their separate capacity,
nor the chief magistrate, elected by the people, have any
representation. Which is the most discreet disposition
of the power? I do not ask you, fellow-citizens, which
is the constitutional disposition — that instrument speaks
a language not to be misunderstood. But if you were
assembled in general convention, which would you think
the safest depository of this discretionary power, in the
last resort? Would you add a clause, giving it to each
of the states ; or would you sanction the wise provisions
already made by your constitution? If this should be
the result of your deliberations, when providing for the
future, are you — can you be — ready to risk all that we
hold dear, to establish, for a temporary and a local pur-
pose, that which you must acknowledge to be destruc-
tive, and even absurd, as a general provision? Carry
out the consequences of this right vested in the different
states, and you must perceive that the crisis your con-
duct presents at this day, would recur whenever any
law of the United States displeased any of the states,
and that we should soon cease to be a nation.

The Ordinance, with the same knowledge of the fu-
ture that characterizes a former objection, tells you
that the proceeds of the tax will be unconstitutionally
applied. If this should be ascertained with certainty,
the objection would, with more propriety, be reserved
for the law so applying the proceeds, but surely cannot
be urged against the laws levying the duty.

These are the allegations contained in the Ordinance.
Examine them seriously, my fellow-citizens — judge for
yourselves. I appeal to you to determine whether they
are so clear, so convincing, as to leave no doubt of their
correctness: and even if you should come to this con-
clusion, how far they justify the reckless, destructive
course, which you are directed to pursue. Review these
objections, and the conclusions drawn from them once
more. What are they? Every law, then, for raising
revenue, according to the South Carolina Ordinance,
may be rightfully annulled, unless it be so framed as no
law ever will or can be framed. Congress have a right

452

APPENDIX

to pass laws for raising revenue, and each state has a
right to oppose their execution — two rights directly op-
posed to each other ; and yet is this absurdity supposed
to be contained in an instrument drawn for the express
purpose of avoiding collisions between the states and
the general government, by an assembly of the most en-
lightened statesmen and purest patriots ever imbodied
for a similar purpose.

In vain have these sages declared that Congress shall
have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
excise — in vain have they provided that they shall have
power to pass laws which shall be necessary and proper
to carry those powers into execution; that those laws
and that constitution shall be the "supreme law of
the land; and that the judges in every state shall be
bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of
any state to the contrary notwithstanding." In vain
have the people of the several states solemnly sanctioned
these provisions, made them their paramount law, and
individually sworn to support them whenever they were
called on to execute any office. Vain provisions! in-
effectual restriction! vile profanation of oaths! misera-
ble mockery of legislation! if a bare majority of the
voters in any one state, may, on a real or supposed
knowledge of the intent with which a law has been
passed, declare themselves free from its operation — say
here it gives too little, there too much, and operates
unequally — here it suffers articles to be free that ought
to be taxed, there it taxes those that ought to be free —
in this case the proceeds are intended to be applied to
purposes which we do not approve ; in that the amount
raised is more than is wanted. Congress, it is true, are
invested by the constitution, with the right of deciding
these questions according to their sound discretion.
Congress is composed of the representatives of all the
states ; and of all the people of all the states ; but we,
part of the people of one state, to whom the constitution
has given no power on the subject, from whom it has
expressly taken away — we, who have solemnly agreed
that this constitution shall be our law— we, most of

453

APPENDIX

whom have sworn to support it — we now abrogate this
law, and swear, and force others to swear, that it shall
not be obeyed — and we do this, not because Congress
have no right to pass such laws ; this we do not allege ;
but because they have passed them with improper views.
They are unconstitutional from the motives of those
who passed them, which we can never with certainty
know, from their unequal operation, although it is im-
possible from the nature of things that they should be
equal — and from the disposition which we presume may
be made of their proceeds, although that disposition has
not been declared. This is the plain meaning of the
Ordinance in relation to laws which it abrogates for
alleged unconstitutionality. But it does not stop there.
It repeals, in express terms, an important part of the
constitution itself, and of laws passed to give it effect,
which have never been alleged to be unconstitutional.
The constitution declares that the judicial powers of the
United States extend to cases arising under the laws
of the United States, and that such laws, the constitu-
tion, and treaties shall be paramount to the state consti-
tutions and laws. The judiciary act prescribes the mode
by which the case may be brought before a court of
the United States, by appeal, when a state tribunal shall
decide against this provision of the constitution. The
Ordinance declares there shall be no appeal ; makes the
state law paramount to the constitution and laws of the
United States; forces judges and jurors to swear that
they will disregard their provisions ; and even makes it
penal in a suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It further
declares that it shall not be lawful for the authorities
of the United States, or of that state, to enforce the pay-
ment of duties imposed by the revenue laws within its
limits.

Here is a law of the United States, not even pre-
tended to be unconstitutional, repealed by the authority
of a small majority of the voters of a single state. Here
is a provision of the constitution which is solemnly abro-
gated by the same authority.

On such expositions and reasonings, the Ordinance
454

APPENDIX*

grounds not only an assertion of the right to annul the
laws of which it complains, but to enforce it by a threat
of seceding from the Union, if any attempt is made to
execute them.

This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the
constitution, which, they say, is a compact between sov-
ereign states, who have preserved their whole sover-
eignty, and, therefore, are subject to no superior: that,
because they made the compact, they can break it when,
in their opinion, it has been departed from by the other
states. Fallacious as this course of reasoning is, it
enlists state pride, and finds advocates in the honest
prejudices of those who have not studied the nature of
our government sufficiently to see the radical error on
which it rests.

The people of the United States formed the consti-
tution, acting through the state legislatures in making
the compact, to meet and discuss its provisions, and act-
ing in separate conventions when they ratified those pro-
visions; but the terms used in its construction, show
it to be a government in which the people of all the
states collectively are represented. We are one people
in the choice of the president and vice-president. Here
the states have no other agency than to direct the mode
in which the votes shall be given. The candidates hav-
ing the majority of all the votes, are chosen. The elec-
tors of a majority of states may have given their votes
for one candidate, and yet another may be chosen. The
people then, and not the states, are represented in the
executive branch.

In the House of Representatives there is this differ-
ence, that the people of one state do not, as in the case
of president and vice-president, all vote for the same
officers. The people of all the states do not vote for
all the members, each state electing only its own repre-
sentatives. But this creates no material distinction.
When chosen, they are all representatives of the United
States, not representatives of the particular state from
which they come. They are paid by the United States,
not by the state ; nor are they accountable to it for any

455

APPENDIX

act done in the performance of their legislative func-
tions ; and, however, they may in practice, as it is their
duty to do, consult and prefer the interests of their par-
ticular constituents when they come in conflict with any
other partial or local mterest, yet it is their first and
highest duty, as representatives of the United States,
to promote the general good.

The constitution of the United States, then, forms a
government, not a league ; and whether it be formed by
compact between the states, or in any other manner, its
character is the same. It is a government in which all
the people are represented, which operates directly on
the people individually, not upon the states: they re-
tained all the power they did not grant. But each state
having expressly parted with so many powers as to con-
stitute jointly with the other states a single nation,
cannot, from that period, possess any right to secede,
because such secession does not break a league, but de-
stroys the unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity
is not only a breach which would result from the con-
travention of a compact, but it is an offence against the
whole Union. To say that any state may at pleasure
secede from the Union, is to say that the United States
are not a nation: because it would be a solecism to
contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its con-
nexion with the other parts, to their injury or ruin,
without committing any offence. Secession, like any
other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the
extremity of oppression ; but to call it a constitutional
right is confounding the meaning of terms; and can
only be done through gross error, or to deceive those
who are willing to assert a right, but would pause be-
fore they made a revolution, or incur the penalties con-
sequent on a failure.

Because the Union was formed by compact, it is
said the parties to that compact may, when they feel
themselves aggrieved, depart from it; but it is pre-
cisely because it is a compact that they cannot. A com-
pact is an agreement or binding obligation. It may, by
its terms, have a sanction or penalty for its breach,

456

APPENDIX

or it may not. If it contains no sanction, it may be
broken with no other consequence than moral guilt: if
it have a sanction, then the breach incurs the designated
or implied penalty. A league between independent na-
tions, generally, has no sanction other than a moral one ;
or, if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common
superior, it cannot be enforced. A government* on the
contrary, always has a sanction, express or implied;
and, in our case, it is both necessarily implied and ex-
pressly given. An attempt by force of arms to destroy a
government, is an offence, by whatever means the con-
stitutional compact may have been formed; and such
government has the right, by the law of self-defence, to
pass acts for punishing the offender, unless that right
is modified, restrained, or resumed, by the constitutional
act. In our system, although it is modified in the case
of treason, yet authority is expressly given to pass all
laws necessary to carry its powers into effect, and under
this grant provision has been made for punishing acts
which obstruct the due administration of the laws.

It would seem superfluous to add anything to show
the nature of that union which connects us ; but as er-
roneous opinions on this subject are the foundation of
doctrines the most destructive to our peace, I must give
some further developement to my views on this subject.
No one, fellow-citizens, has a higher reverence for the
reserved rights of the states, than the magistrate who
now addresses you. No one would make greater per-
sonal sacrifices, or official exertions, to defend them
from violation ; but equal care must be taken to prevent
on their part an improper interference with, or resump-
tion of, the rights they have vested in the nation. The
line has not been so distinctly drawn as to avoid doubts
in some cases of the exercise of power. Men of the
best intentions and soundest views may differ in their
construction of some parts of the constitution ; but there
are others on which dispassionate reflection can leave no
doubt. Of this nature appears to be the assumed right
of secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged
undivided sovereignty of the states, and on their hav-

457

APPENDIX

ing formed in this sovereign capacity a compact which
is. called the constitution, from which, because they made
it, they have a right to secede. Both of these positions
are erroneous, and some of the arguments to prove
them so have been anticipated.

The states severally have not retained their entire
sovereignty. It has been shown that in becoming parts
of a nation, not members of a league, they surrendered
many of their essential parts of sovereignty. The right
to make treaties — declare war — levy taxes — exercise ex-
clusive judicial and legislative powers — were all of them
functions of sovereign power. The states, then, for all
these important purposes, were no longer sovereign.
The allegiance of their citizens was transferred, in the
first instance, to the government of the United States
— they became American citizens, and owed obedience
to the constitution of the United States, and to laws
made in conformity with the powers it vested in Con-
gress. This last position has not been, and cannot be
denied. How then can that state be said to be sover-
eign and independent, whose citizens owe obedience to
laws not made by it, and whose magistrates are sworn
to disregard those laws, when they come in conflict with
those passed by another? What shows conclusively that
the states cannot be said to have reserved an undivided
sovereignty, is, that they expressly ceded the right to
punish treason — not treason against their separate
power — but treason against the United States. Treason
is an offence against sovereignty; and sovereignty must
reside with the power to punish it. But the reserved
rights of the states are not less sacred, because they have
for their common interest made the general government
the depository of these powers.

The unity of our political character (as has been
shown for another purpose) commenced with its very
existence. Under the royal government we had no sep-
arate character — our opposition to its oppressions began
as United Colonies. We were the United States
under the confederation, and the name was perpetuated,
and the Union rendered more perfect, by the federal

458

APPENDIX

constitution. Jn none of these stages did we consider
ourselves in any other light than as forming one nation.
Treaties and alliances were made in the name of all.
Troops were raised for the joint defence. How, then,
with all these proofs that, under all changes of our posi-
tion, we had, for designated purposes and with defined
powers, created national governments — how is it, that
the most perfect of those several modes of union should
now be considered as a mere league, that it may be dis-
solved at pleasure ? It is from an abuse of terms. Com-
pact is used as synonymous with league, although the
true term is not employed, because it would at once
show the fallacy of the reasoning. It would not do to
say that our constitution was only a league, but, it is
laboured to prove it a compact (which in one sense it
is) and then to argue that as a league is a compact,
every compact between nations must of course be a
league, and that from such an engagement every sov-
ereign power has a right to recede. But it has been
shown, that in this sense the states are not sovereign,
and that even if they were, and the national constitu-
tion had been formed by compact, there would be no
right in any one state to exonerate itself from its obli-
gations.

So obvious are the reasons which forbid this seces-
sion, that it is necessary only to allude to them. The
Union was formed for the benefit of all. It was pro-
duced by mutual sacrifices of interests and opinions.
Can those sacrifices be recalled? Can the states who
magnanimously surrendered their title to the territories
of the West, recall the grant? Will the inhabitants of
the inland states agree to pay the duties that may be
imposed without their assent by those on the Atlantic or
the Gulf, for their own benefit? Shall there be a free
port in one state, and onerous duties in another? No
one believes that any right exists in a single state to
involve all the others in these and countless other evils,
contrary to the engagements solemnly made. Every
one must see that the other states, in self-defence, must
oppose it at all hazards.

459

APPENDIX

These are the alternatives that are presented by the
convention : a repeal of all the acts for raising revenue,
leaving the government without the means of support,
or an acquiescence in the dissolution of the Union by
the secession of one of its members. When the first
was proposed, it was known that it could not be lis-
tened to for a moment. It was known, if force was
applied to oppose the execution of the laws, that it
must be repelled by force — that Congress could not,
without involving itself in disgrace, and the country in
ruin, accede to the proposition; and yet, if this is not
done in a given day, or if any attempt is made to exe-
cute the laws, the state is, by the Ordinance, declared to
be out of the Union. The majority of a convention as-
sembled for the purpose, have dictated these terms, or
rather this rejection of all terms, in the name of the
people of South Carolina. It is true, that the governor
of the state speaks of the submission of their grievances
to a convention of all the states; which, he says, they
"sincerely and anxiously seek and desire." Yet this
obvious and constitutional mode of obtaining the sense
of the other states, on the construction of the federal
compact, and amending it, if necessary, has never been
attempted by those who have urged the state on this
destructive measure. The state might have proposed
the call for a general convention, to the other states,
and Congress, if a sufficient number of them concurred,
must have called it. But the first magistrate of South
Carolina, when he expressed a hope that, " on a review
by Congress and the functionaries of the general gov-
ernment of the merits of the controversy," such a con-
vention will be accorded to them, must have known that
neither Congress nor any functionary of the general
government has authority to call such a convention, un-
less it be demanded by two-thirds of the states. This
suggestion, then, is another instance of the reckless in-
attention to the provisions of the constitution with which
this crisis has been madly hurried on; or of the at-
tempt to persuade the people that a constitutional rem-
edy has been sought and refused. If the legislature of

460

APPENDIX

South Carolina " anxiously desire" a general conven-
tion to consider their complaints, why have they not
made application for it in the way the constitution
points out? The assertion that they "earnestly seek"
it, is completely negatived by the omission.

This, then, is the position in which we stand. A
small majority of the citizens of one state in the Union
have elected delegates to a state convention: that con-
vention has ordained that all the revenue laws of the
United States must be repealed, or that they are no
longer a member of the Union. The governor of that
state has recommended to the legislature the raising
of an army to carry the secession into effect, and that
he may be empowered to give clearances to vessels in
the name of the state. No act of violent opposition to
the laws has yet been committed, but such a state of
things is hourly apprehended, and it is the intent of this
instrument to proclaim not only that the duty imposed
on me by the constitution " to take care that the laws be
faithfully executed," shall be performed to the extent
of the powers already vested in me by law, or of such
other as the wisdom of Congress shall devise and
intrust to me for that purpose, but to warn the citizens
of South Carolina, who have been deluded into an
opposition to the laws, of the danger they will incur
by obedience to the illegal and disorganizing Ordinance
of the convention, — to exhort those who have refused
to support it to persevere in their determination to up-
hold the constitution and laws of their country, and
to point out to all the perilous situation into which the
good people of that state have been led, — and that the
course they are urged to pursue is one of ruin and
disgrace to the very state whose rights they affect to
support.

Fellow-citizens of my native state ! — let me not only
admonish you, as the first magistrate of our common
country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use
the influence that a father would over his children
whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal
language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you,

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APPENDIX

my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are
either deceived themselves, or wish to deceive you.
Mark under what pretences you have been led on to
the brink of insurrection and treason, on which you
stand ! First, a diminution of the value of your staple
commodity, lowered by over production in other quar-
ters, and the consequent diminution in the value of your
lands, were the sole effect of the tariff laws. The effect
of those laws is confessedly injurious, but the evil was
greatly exaggerated by the unfounded theory you were
taught to believe, that its burdens were in proportion
to your exports, not to your consumption of imported
articles. Your pride was roused by the assertion that
a submission to those laws was a state of vassalage, and
that resistance to them was equal, in patriotic merit, to
the opposition our fathers offered to the oppressive laws
of Great Britain. You were told that this opposition
might be peaceably — might be constitutionally made —
that you might enjoy all the advantages of the Union
and bear none of its burdens.

Eloquent appeals to your passions, to your state pride,
to your native courage, to your sense of real injury,
were used to prepare you for the period when the mask
which concealed the hideous features of disunion should
be taken off. It fell, and you were made to look with
complacency on objects which, not long since, you would
have regarded with horror. Look back at the arts
which have brought you to this state — look forward to
the consequences to which it must inevitably lead. Look
back to what was first told you as an inducement to
enter into this dangerous course. The great political
truth was repeated to you, that you had the revolution-
ary right of resisting all laws that were palpably uncon-
stitutional, and intolerably oppressive — it was added
that the right to nullify a law rested on the same prin-
ciple, but that it was a peaceable remedy! This char-
acter which was given to it, made you receive with too
much confidence the assertions that were made of the
unconstitutionality of the law, and its oppressive effects.
Mark, my fellow-citizens, that, by the admission of your

462

APPENDIX

leaders, the unconstitutionality must be palpable, or it
will not justify either resistance or nullification ! What
is the meaning of the word palpable, in the sense in
which it is here used ? — that which is apparent to every
one; that which no man of ordinary intellect will fail
to perceive. Is the unconstitutionality of these laws of
that description? Let those among your leaders who
once approved and advocated the principle of protective
duties, answer the question; and let them choose
whether they will be considered as incapable, then, of
perceiving that which must have been apparent to every
man of common understanding, or as imposing upon
your confidence, and endeavouring to mislead you now.
In either case, they are unsafe guides in the perilous
path they urge you to tread. Ponder well on this cir-
cumstance, and you will know how to appreciate the
exaggerated language they address to you. They are
not champions of liberty, emulating the fame of our rev-
olutionary fathers; nor are you an oppressed people,
contending, as they repeat to you, against worse than
colonial vassalage. You are free members of a flour-
ishing and happy Union. There is no settled design to
oppress you. You have indeed felt the unequal opera-
tion of laws which may have been unwisely, not uncon-
stitutionally passed; but that inequality must neces-
sarily be removed. At the very moment when you were
madly urged on the unfortunate course you have begun,
a change in public opinion had commenced. The nearly
approaching payment of the public debt, and the conse-
quent necessity of a diminution of duties, had already
produced a considerable reduction, and that too, on
some articles of general consumption in your state. The
importance of this change was understood, and you were
authoritatively told, that no further alleviation of your
burdens was to be expected, at the very time when the
condition of the country imperiously demanded such a
modification of the duties as should reduce them to a
just and equitable scale. But, as if apprehensive of
the effect of this change in allaying your discontents,

4$3

APPENDIX

you were precipitated into the fearful state in which
you now find yourselves.

I have urged you to look back to the means that were
used to hurry you on to the position you have now
assumed, and forward to the consequences it will pro-
duce. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the
condition of that country of which you still form an
important part! — consider its government, uniting in
one bond of common interests and general protection
so many different states — giving to all their inhabitants
the proud title of American citizens — protecting their
commerce — securing their literature and their arts —
facilitating their intercommunication, defending their
frontiers — and making their name respected in the re-
motest parts of the earth! Consider the extent of its
territory, its increasing and happy population, its ad-
vance in arts which render life agreeable, and the sci-
ences which elevate the mind ! See education spreading
the lights of religion, humanity, and general informa-
tion into every cottage in this wide extent of our terri-
tories and states! Behold it as the asylum where the
wretched and the oppressed find a refuge and support!
Look on this picture of happiness and honour, and
say, we, too, are citizens of America; Carolina is one
of these proud states; her arms have defended — her
best blood has cemented this happy Union ! And then
add, if you can, without horror and remorse, this happy
Union we will dissolve — this picture of peace and pros-
perity we will deface — this free intercourse we will in-
terrupt—these fertile fields we will deluge with blood —
the protection of that glorious flag we renounce — the
very name of Americans we discard. And for what,
mistaken men ! for what do you throw away these ines-
timable blessings-^for what would you exchange your
share in the advantages and honour of the Union ? For
the dream of a separate independence, a dream inter-
rupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbors, and a
vile dependence on a foreign power. If your leaders
could succeed in establishing a separation, what would
be your situation? Are you united at home — are you

464

APPENDIX

free from the apprehension of civil discord, with all
its fearful consequences? Do our neighboring repub-
lics, every day suffering some new revolution or con-
tending with some new insurrection— do they excite
your envy ? But the dictates of a high duty oblige me
solemnly to announce that you cannot succeed. '"The
laws of the United States must be executed. I have no
discretionary power on the subject — my duty is em-
phatically pronounced in the constitution. Those who
told you that you might peaceably prevent their execu-
tion, deceived you — they could not have been deceived
themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could
alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know
that such opposition must be repelled. Their object
is disunion; but be not deceived by names: disunion,
by armed force, is treason. Are you really ready to
incur its guilt? If you are, on the heads of the instiga-
tors of the act be the dreadful consequences — on their
heads be the dishonour, but on yours may fall the pun-
ishment— on your unhappy state will inevitably fall all
the evils of the conflict you force upon the government
of your country. It cannot accede to the mad project
of disunion of which you would be the first victims — its
first magistrate cannot, if he would, avoid the perform-
ance of his duty — the consequence must be fearful foF
you, distressing to your fellow-citizens here, and to the
friends of good government throughout the world. Its
enemies have beheld our prosperity with a vexation
they could not conceal — it was a standing refutation of
their slavish doctrines, and they will point to our dis-
cord with the triumph of malignant joy. It is yet in
your power to disappoint them. There is yet time to
show that the descendants of the Pinckneys, the Sum-
ters, the Rutledges, and of the thousand other names
which adorn the pages of your Revolutionary history,
will not abandon that Union, to support which so many
of them fought and bled and died. I adjure you, as
you honour their memory — as you love the cause of
freedom, to which they dedicated their lives — as you
prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best
30 465

APPENDIX

citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps.
Snatch from the archives of your state the disorganiz-
ing edict of its convention — bid its members to reas-
semble and promulgate the decided expressions of your
will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you
to safety, prosperity, and honour — tell them that, com-
pared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that
brings with it an accumulation of all— declare that you
will never take the field unless the star-spangled ban-
ner of your country shall float over you — that you will
not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonoured and
scorned while you live, as the authors of the first at-
tack on the constitution of your country! — its destroy-
ers you cannot be. You may disturb its peace — you
may interrupt the course of its prosperity — you may
cloud its reputation for stability — but its tranquillity
will be restored, its prosperity will return ; and the stain
upon its national character will be transferred, and
remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who
caused the disorder.

Fellow-citizens of the United States! The threat of
unhallowed disunion — the names of those, once re-
spected, by whom it is uttered — the array of military
force to support it — denote the approach of a crisis in
our affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled
prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps that of
all free governments, may depend. The conjuncture
demanded a free, a full, and explicit enunciation not
only of my intentions, but of my principles of action:
and as the claim was asserted of a right by a state to
annul the laws of the Union, and even to secede from
it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in rela-
tion to the origin and form of our government, and the
construction I give to the instrument by which it was
created, seemed to be proper. Having the fullest confi-
dence in the justness of the legal and constitutional
opinion of my duties which has been expressed, I rely
with equal confidence on your undivided support in my
determination to execute the laws — to preserve the
Union by all constitutional means — to arrest, if possible,

4«

APPENDIX

by moderate but firm measures, the necessity of a re-
course to force; and, if it be the will of Heaven that
the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shed-
ding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that
it be not called down by any offensive act on the part
of the United States.

Fellow-citizens ! The momentous case is before you.
On your undivided support of your government depends
the decision of the great question it involves, whether
your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessing
it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No
one can doubt the unanimity with which that decision
will be expressed, will be such as to inspire new confi-
dence in republican institutions, and that the prudence,
the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to
their defence, will transmit them unimpaired and in-
vigorated, to our children.

May the great Ruler of nations grant that the signal
blessings with which He has favoured ours, may not
by the madness of party or personal ambition be disre-
garded and lost: and may His wise Providence bring
those who have produced this crisis, to see the folly
before they feel the misery of civil strife: and inspire
a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may
dare to penetrate His designs, he has chosen as the only
means of attaining the high destinies to which we may
reasonably aspire.

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the
United States to be hereunto affixed, having signed the
same with my hand.

Done at the city of Washington, this ioth day of
December, A. D. 1832, and of the Independence of the
United States the fifty-seventh.

Andrew Jackson.
By the President:

Edw. Livingston,

Secretary of State.

467

*•'%

Appendix D

GENERAL JACKSON'S
FAREWELL ADDRESS
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES; fj

ON RETIRING FROM THE PRESIDENCY, :, )

March 4, 1837. '- •

Fellow^Citizens : — Being about to retire finally
from public life, I beg leave to offer you my grateful .
thanks for the many proofs of kindness and confidence
which I have received at your hands. It has been my
fortune, in the discharge of public duties, civil and mil-;
itary, frequently to have found myself in difficult and;
trying situations, where prompt decision and energetic*
action were necessary, and where the interest of the •
country required that high responsibilities should b$-:
fearlessly encountered : and it is with the deepest emo^ ^
tions of gratitude that I acknowledge the continued and;; ;
unbroken confidence with which you have sustained mc*
in every trial. My public life has been a long one, and
I cannot hope that it has, at all times, been free from er-r
rors. But I have the consolation of knowing that, if *;■
mistakes have been committed, they have not seriously ,
injured the country I so anxiously endeavoured to;
serve; and, at the moment when I surrender my last*
public trust, I leave this great people prosperous and
happy; in the full enjoyment of liberty and peace, aiu|L-
honoured and respected by every nation of the world. -

If my humble efforts have, in any degree, contributed
to preserve to you these blessings, I have been more
than rewarded by the honours you have heaped upon; j
me; and, above all, by the generous confidence with.1"*

468

APPENDIX

irhich you have continued to animate and cheer my
'path to the closing hour of my political life. The time
Lhas now come, when advanced age and a broken frame
Pwarn me to retire from public concerns ; but the recol-
lection of the many favours you have bestowed upon
Lme, is engraven upon my heart, and I have felt that I
[■could not part from your service without making this
jHiblic acknowledgment of the gratitude I owe you. And
if I use the occasion to offer you the counsels of age
id experience, you will, I trust, receive them with
|the same indulgent kindness which you have so often
tended to me, and will at least see in them an earnest
lesire to perpetuate in this favoured land the blessings
jfof liberty and equal laws.

We have now lived almost fifty years under the con-
stitution framed by the sages and patriots of the Revo-
lution. The conflicts in which the nations of Europe
■were engaged during a great part of this period; the
{spirit in which they waged war against each other, and
pur intimate commercial connexions with every part of
lie civilized world, rendered it a time of much diffi-
ilty for the government of the United States. We
ave had our seasons of peace and of war, with all the
rils which precede or follow a state of hostility with
pwerful nations. We encountered these trials with our
astitution yet in its infancy, and under the disad-
ntages which a new and untried government must
vays feel when it is called upon to put forth its whole
rength, without the lights of experience to guide it,
the weight of precedents to justify its measures. But
Ire have passed triumphantly through all these difficul-
ties. Our constitution is no longer a doubtful experi- \
nent ; and, at the end of nearly half a century, we find j
' at it has preserved unimpaired the liberties of the peo-
te, secured the rights of property, and that our coun-
has improved and is flourishing beyond any former
bxample in the history of nations.
In our domestic concerns, there is everything to en-
|fcourage us ; and if you are true to yourselves, nothing
an impede your march to the highest point of national

469

APPENDIX

prosperity. The states which had so long been retarded
in their improvement, by the Indian tribes residing in
the midst of them, are at length relieved from the evil,
and this unhappy race — the original dwellers in our
land — are now placed in a situation where we may well
hope that they will share in the blessings of civilization,
and be saved from that degradation and destruction to
which they were rapidly hastening while they remained
in the states ; and while the safety and comfort of our
own citizens have been greatly promoted by their re-
moval, the philanthropist will rejoice that the last rem-
nant of that ill-fated race has been at length placed be-
yond the reach of injury or oppression, and that the
paternal care of the general government will hereafter
watch over them and protect them.

If we turn to our relations with foreign powers, we
find our condition equally gratifying. Actuated by the
sincere desire to do justice to every nation, and to pre-
serve the blessings of peace, our intercourse with them
has been conducted on the part of this government in
the spirit of frankness, and I take pleasure in saying,
that it has generally been met in a corresponding tem-
per. Difficulties of old standing have been surmounted
by friendly discussion, and the mutual desire to be just ;
and the claims of our citizens, wEich have been long
withheld, have at length been acknowledged and ad-
justed, and satisfactory arrangements made for their
final payment; and with a limited, and I trust, a tem-
porary exception, our relations with every foreign
power are now of the most friendly character — our cdm-
merce continually expanding, and our flag respected in
every quarter of the globe.

These cheering and grateful prospects, and these mul-
tiplied favours, we owe, under Providence, to the adop-
tion of the federal constitution. It is no longer a ques-
tion whether this great country can remain happily
united, and flourish under our present form of govern-
ment. Experience, the unerring test of all human un-
derstanding, has shown the wisdom and foresight of
those who formed it ; and has proved, that in the union

470

APPENDIX

of these states there is a sure foundation for the bright-)
est hopes of freedom, and for the happiness of the peo-l
pie. At every hazard, and by every sacrifice, this Unionj
must be preserved. ^

The necessity of watching with jealous anxiety for
the preservation of the Union, was earnestly pressed
upon his fellow-citizens by the Father of his country, in
his farewell address. He has there told us, that " while
experience shall not have demonstrated its impractica-
bility, there will always be reason to distrust the pa-
triotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to
weaken its bonds;" and he has cautioned us in the
strongest terms against the formation of parties on geo-
graphical discriminations, as one of the means which .
might disturb our Union, and to which designing men
would be likely to resort.

The lessons contained in this invaluable legacy of
Washington to his countrymen, should be cherished in
the heart of every citizen to the latest generation ; and,
perhaps, at no period of time could they be more use-
fully remembered that at the present moment. For
when we look upon the scenes that are passing around
us, and dwell upon the pages of his parting address, his
paternal counsels would seem to be not merely the off-
spring of wisdom and foresight, but the voice of proph-
ecy foretelling events and warning us of the evil to
come. Forty years have passed since this imperishable
document was given to his countrymen. The federal
constitution was then regarded by him as an experiment,
— and he so speaks of it in his address, — but an experi-
ment upon the success of which the best hopes of his
country depended; and we all know that he was pre-
pared to lay down his life, if necessary, to secure to
it a full and fair trial. The trial has been made. It has
succeeded beyond the proudest hopes of those who /
framed it. Every quarter of this widely-extended na-
tion has felt its blessings, and shared in the general
prosperity produced by its adoption. But amid this gen-
eral prosperity and splendid success, the dangers of
which he warned us are becoming every day more evi-

47i

APPENDIX

dent, and the signs of evil are sufficiently apparent to
awaken the deepest anxiety in the bosom of the patriot.
We behold systematic efforts publicly made to sow the
seeds of discord between different parts of the United
States, and to place party divisions directly upon geo-
graphical distinctions; to excite the south against the
north, and the north against the south, and to force
into the controversy the most delicate and exciting
topics — topics upon which it is impossible that a large
portion of the Union can ever speak without strong
emotion. Appeals, too, are constantly made to sectional
interests, in order to influence the election of the chief
magistrate, as if it were desired, that he should favour
a particular quarter of the country, instead of fulfilling
-the duties of his station with impartial justice to all;
and the pQS£iblg__dissolution of the Union has at length
become an ordinary and familiar subject of discussion.
Has the warning voice of Washington been forgotten?
or have designs already been formed to sever the
Union ? Let it not be supposed, that I impute to all of
those who have taken an active part in these unwise
and unprofitable discussions, a want of patriotism or of
public virtue. The honourable feeling of state pride,
and local attachments, find a place in the bosoms of the
most enlightened and pure. But while such men are
conscious of their own integrity and honesty of pur-
pose, they ought never to forget, that the citizens of
other states are their political brethren ; and that, how-
ever mistaken they may be in their views, the great
body of them are equally honest and upright with them-
selves. Mutual suspicions and reproaches may, in time,
create mutual hostility; and artful and designing men
will always be found, who are ready to foment these
fatal divisions, and to inflame the natural jealousies of
different sections of the country. The history of the
world is full of such examples, and especially the his-
tory of republics.

What have you to gain by division and dissension?
Delude not yourselves with the belief, that a breach once
made may be afterwards repaired. If the Union is once

472

APPENDIX

severed, the line of separation will grow wider and
wider, and the controversies which are now debated and
settled in the halls of legislation, will then be tried in
fields of battle, and determined by the sword. Neither
should you deceive yourselves with the hope, that the
first line of separation would be the permanent one, and
that nothing but harmony and concord would be found
in the new associations formed upon the dissolution of
the Union. Local interests would still be found there,
and unchastened ambition. And if the recollection of
common dangers, in which the people of these United
States stood side by side against the common foe ; the
memory of victories won by their united valour; the
prosperity and happiness they have enjoyed under the
present constitution ; the proud name they bear as citi-
zens of this great republic : if all these recollections and
proofs of common interest are not strong enough to
bind us together as one people, what tie will hold united
the new divisions of empire, when these bonds have
been broken, and this Union dissevered?

The first line of separation would not last for a single
generation; new fragments would be torn off; new
leaders would spring up; and this great and glorious
republic would soon be broken into a multitude of petty
states, without commerce, without credit; jealous of
one another ; armed for mutual aggression ; loaded witft
taxes to pay armies and leaders; seeking aid against
each other from foreign powers ; insulted and trampled
upon by the nations of Europe, until, harassed with
conflicts, and humbled and debased in spirit, they would
be ready to submit to the absolute dominion of any mil-
itary adventurer, and to surrender their liberty for the
sake of repose. It is impossible to look on the conse-
quences that would inevitably follow the destruction of
this government, and not feel indignant when we hear
cold calculations about the value of the Union, and have
so constantly before us a line of conduct so well calcu-
lated to weaken its ties.

There is too much at stake to allow pride or pas-
sion to influence your decision. Never for a moment

473

«*"*

APPENDIX

/ f believe that the great body of the citizens of any state
' ' or states can deliberately intend to do wrong. They
may, under the influence of temporary excitement or
misguided opinions, commit mistakes ; they may be mis-
led for a time by the suggestions of self-interest; but
in a community so enlightened and patriotic as the peo-
ple of the United States, argument will soon make them
sensible of their errors, and when convinced they will
be ready to repair them. If they have no higher or bet-
; ter motives to govern them, they will at least perceive
[ that their own interest requires them to be just to others
1 as they hope to receive justice at their hands.

But in order to maintain the Union unimpaired, it is
absolutely necessary that the laws passed by the con-
stituted authorities should be faithfully executed in
every part of the country, and that every good citizen
should, at all times, stand ready to put down, with the
combined force of the nation, every attempt at unlaw-
ful resistance, under whatever pretext it may be made,
or whatever shape it may assume. Unconstitutional or
oppressive laws may no doubt be passed by Congress,
either from erroneous views or the want of due consid-
eration; if they are within the reach of judicial au-
thority the remedy is easy and peaceful; and if, from
the character of the law, it is an abuse of power not
within the control of the judiciary, then free discus-
sion and calm appeals to reason and to the justice of
the people will not fail to redress the wrong. But until
the law shall be declared void by the courts, or repealed
by Congress, no individual or combination of individuals
can be justified in forcibly resisting its execution. It
is impossible that any government can continue to exist
upon any other principles. It would cease to be a gov-
ernment and be unworthy of the name, if it had not the
power to enforce the execution of its own laws within
its own sphere of action.

It is true, that cases may be imagined, disclosing such
a settled purpose of usurpation and oppression on the
part of the government as would justify an appeal to
arms. These, however, are extreme cases, which we

474

APPENDIX

have no reason to apprehend in a government where the
power is in the hands of a patriotic people ; and no cit-
izen, who loves his country, would, in any case what-
ever, resort to forcible resistance, unless he clearly saw
that the time had come when a freeman should prefer
death to submission; for if such a struggle is once
begun, and the citizens of one section of the country
are arrayed in arms against those of another in doubtful
conflict, let the battle result as it may, there will be an
end of the Union, and with it an end of the hopes of
freedom. The victory of the injured would not secure
to them the blessings of liberty ; it would avenge their
wrongs, but they would themselves share in the com-
mon ruin.

But the constitution cannot be maintained, nor the
Union preserved, in opposition to public feeling, by the
mere exertion of the coercive powers confided to the
general government. The foundation*? must be laid in
the affections of the people ; in the security it gives to
life, liberty, character, and property, in every quarter
of the country, and in the fraternal attachment which the
citizens of the several states bear to one another as mem-
bers of one political family, mutually contributing to
promote the happiness of each other. Hence, the citi-
zens of every state should studiously avoid everything
calculated to wound the sensibility, or offend the just
pride of the people of other states; and they should
frown upon any proceedings within their own borders
likely to disturb the tranquillity of their political breth-
ren in other portions of the Union. In a country so ex-
tensive as the United States, and with pursuits so varied,
the internal regulations of the several states must fre-
quently differ from one another in important particu-
lars; and this difference is unavoidably increased by
the varying principles upon which the American colo-
nies were originally planted — principles which had taken
deep root in their social relations before the Revolution,
and, therefore, of necessity, influencing their policy
since they became free and independent states. But
each state has the unquestionable right to regulate its

475

APPENDIX

own internal concerns, according to its own pleasure;
and while it does not interfere with the rights of the
people of other states, or the rights of the Union, every
state must be the sole judge of the measures proper to
secure the safety of its citizens, and promote their hap-
piness; and all efforts on the part of the people of
other states to cast odium upon their institutions, and all
measures calculated to disturb their rights of property,
or to put in jeopardy their peace and internal tranquil-
lity, are in direct opposition to the spirit in which the
Union was formed, and must endanger its safety. Mo-
tives of philanthropy may be assigned for this unwar-
rantable interference, and weak men may persuade
themselves for a moment, that they are laboring in the
cause of humanity, and asserting the rights of the
human race; but every one, upon sober reflection, will
see that nothing but mischief can come from these im-
proper assaults upon the feelings and rights of others.
Rest assured, that the men found busy in this work of
discord are not worthy of your confidence, and deserve
your strongest reprobation.

In the legislation of Congress, also, and in every
measure of the general government, justice to every por-
tion of the United States should be faithfully observed.
No free government can stand without virtue in the
people, and a lofty spirit of patriotism ; and if the sor-
did feelings of mere selfishness shall usurp the place
which ought to be filled by public spirit, the legislation
of Congress will soon be converted into a scramble for
personal and sectional advantages. Under our free in-
stitutions, the citizens of every quarter of our country
are capable of attaining a high degree of prosperity and
happiness, without seeking to profit themselves at the
expense of others, and every such attempt must, in the
end, fail to succeed; for the people in every part of
the United States are too enlightened not to understand
their own rights and interests, and to detect and defeat
every effort to gain undue advantage over them; and
when such designs are discovered, it naturally provokes
resentments which cannot always be easily allayed. Jus-

476

APPENDIX

tice, full and ample justice to every portion of the
United States, should be the ruling principle of every
freeman, and should guide the deliberations of every
public body, whether it be state or national.

It is well known that there have always been those/
amongst us who wish to enlarge the powers of the gen-j
eral government; and experience would seem to indi-j
cate that there is a tendency on the part of this govern-j
ment to overstep the boundaries marked out for it by!
the constitution. Its legitimate authority is abundantly
sufficient for all the purposes for which it was created,;
and its powers being expressly enumerated, there can
be no justification for claiming anything beyond them.
Every attempt to exercise power beyond these limits
should be promptly and firmly opposed. For one evil
example will lead to other measures still more mischiev-
ous; and if the principle of constructive powers, or
supposed advantages, or temporary circumstances, shall
ever be permitted to justify the assumption of a power-
not given by the constitution, the general government
will before long absorb all the powers of legislation, and
you will have, in effect, but one consolidated govern-
ment. From the extent of our country, its diverisfied
interests, different pursuits, and different habits, it is I
too obvious for argument that a single consolidated gov- J
ernment would be wholly inadequate to watch over and :
protect its interests ; and every friend of our free in-
stitutions should be always prepared to maintain unim-
paired and in full vigour the rights and sovereignty of i
the states, and to confine the action of the general gov- ;
ernment strictly to the sphere of its appropriate duties. '

There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on
the federal government, so liable to abuse as the taxing
power. The most productive and convenient sources of
revenue were necessarily given to it, that it might be
able to perform the important duties imposed upon it;
and the taxes which it lays upon commerce being con-
cealed from the real payer in the price of the article,
they do not so readily attract the attention of the people
as smaller sums demanded from them directly by the

477

APPENDIX

tax-gatherer. But the tax imposed on goods, enhances
by so much the price of the commodity to the consumer ;
and as many of these duties are imposed on articles of
necessity which are daily used by the great body of
the people, the money raised by these imposts is drawn
from their pockets. Congress has no right under the
constitution to take money from the people, unless it is
required to execute some one of the specific powers in-
trusted to the government ; and if they raise more than
is necessary for such purposes, it is an abuse of the
power of taxation, and unjust and oppressive. It may
indeed happen that the revenue will sometimes exceed
the amount anticipated when the taxes were laid. When,
however, this is ascertained, it is easy to reduce them;
and in such a case it is unquestionably the duty of the
government to reduce them, for no circumstances can
justify it in assuming a power not given to it by the
constitution, nor in taking away the money of the people
when it is not needed for the legitimate wants of the
government.

Plain as these principles appear to be, you will yet find
that there is a constant effort to induce the general gov-
ernment to go beyond the limits of its taxing power,
and to impose unnecessary burdens upon the people.
Many powerful interests are continually at work to pro-
cure heavy duties on commerce, and to swell the revenue
beyond the real necessities of the public service; and
the country has already felt the injurious effects of their
combined influence. They succeeded in obtaining a
tariff of duties bearing most oppressively on the agri-
cultural and labouring classes of society, and producing
a revenue that could not be usefully employed within the
range of the powers conferred upon Congress ; and, in
order to fasten upon the people this unjust and unequal
system of taxation, extravagant schemes of internal im-
provement were got up, in various quarters, to squander
the money and to purchase support. Thus, one uncon-
stitutional measure was intended to be upheld by an-
other, and the abuse of the power of taxation was to be
maintained by usurping the power of expending the

478

APPENDIX

money in internal improvements. You cannot have for-
gotten the severe and doubtful struggle through which
we passed when the executive department of the gov-
ernment, by its veto, endeavoured to arrest this prodigal
scheme of injustice, and to bring back the legislation of
Congress to the boundaries prescribed by the constitu-
tion. The good sense and practical judgment of the
people, when the subject was brought before them, sus-
tained the course of the executive, and this plan of un-
constitutional expenditure for the purposes of corrupt
influence is, I trust, finally overthrown.

The result of this decision has been felt in the rapid
extinguishment of the public debt, and the large accu-
mulation of a surplus in the treasury, notwithstanding
the tariff was reduced, and is now far below the amount
originally contemplated by its advocates. But, rely upon
it, the design to collect an extravagant revenue, and to
burden you with taxes beyond the economical wants of
the government, is not yet abandoned. The various in-
terests which have combined together to impose a heavy
tariff, and to produce an overflowing treasury, are too
strong, and have too much at stake, to surrender the
contest. The corporations and wealthy individuals who
are engaged in large manufacturing establishments, de-
sire a high tariff to increase their gains. Designing pol-
iticians will support it to conciliate their favour, and to
obtain the means of profuse expenditure, for the pur-
pose of purchasing influence in other quarters; and
since the people have decided that the federal govern-
ment cannot be permitted to employ its income in in-
ternal improvements, efforts will be made to seduce and
mislead the citizens of the several states, by holding out
to them the deceitful prospect of benefits to be derived
from a surplus revenue collected by the general gov-
ernment, and annually divided among the states. And,
if encouraged by these fallacious hopes, the states should
disregard the principles of economy which ought to
characterize every republican government, and should
indulge in lavish expenditures exceeding their resources,
they will, before long, find themselves oppressed with

479

APPENDIX

debts which they are unable to pay, and the tempta-
tion will become irresistible to support a high tariff, in
order to obtain a surplus distribution. Do not allow
yourselves, my fellow-citizens, to be misled on this sub-
ject. The federal government cannot collect a surplus
for such purposes, without violating the principles of
the constitution, and assuming powers which have not
been granted. It is, moreover, a system of injustice,
and, if persisted in, will inevitably lead to corruption,
and must end in ruin. The surplus revenue will be
drawn from the pockets of the people, — from the farmer,
the mechanic, and the labouring classes of society ; but
who will receive it when distributed among the states,
where it is to be disposed of by leading state politicians
who have friends to favour, and political partisans to
gratify? It will certainly not be returned to those who
paid it, and who have most need of it, and are honestly
entitled to it. There is but one safe rule, and that is, to
confine the general government rigidly within the sphere
of its appropriate duties. It has no power to raise a
revenue, or impose taxes, except for the purposes enu-
merated in the constitution ; and if its income is found
to exceed these wants, it should be forthwith reduced,
and the burdens of the people so far lightened.

In reviewing the conflicts which have taken place be-
tween different interests in the United States, and the
policy pursued since the adoption of our present form of
government, we find nothing that has produced such
deep-seated evils as the course of legislation in relation
to the currency. The constitution of the United States
unquestionably intended to secure to the people a circu-
lating medium of gold and silver. But the establishment
of a national bank by Congress, with the privilege of
issuing paper money receivable in the payment of the
public dues, and the unfortunate course of legislation
in the several states upon the same subject, drove from
general circulation the constitutional currency, and sub-
stituted one of paper in its place.

It was not easy for men engaged in the ordinary pur-
suits of business, whose attention had not been particu-

480

APPENDIX

larly drawn to the subject, to foresee all the conse-
quences of a currency exclusively of paper, and we
ought not, on that account, to be surprised at the facil-
ity with which laws were obtained to carry into effect
the paper system. Honest, and even enlightened men,
are sometimes misled by the specious and plausible state-
ments of the designing. But experience has now proved
the mischiefs and dangers of a paper currency, and it
rests with you to determine whether the proper remedy
shall be applied.

The paper system being founded on public confidence,
and having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to
great and sudden fluctuations ; thereby rendering prop-
erty insecure, and the wages of labour unsteady and
uncertain. The corporations which create the paper
money, cannot be relied upon to keep the circulating me-
dium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, when
confidence is high, they are tempted by the prospect of
gain, or by the influence of those who hope to profit by
it, to extend their issues of paper beyond the bounds of
discretion and the reasonable demands of business. And
when these issues have been pushed on, from day to day,
until public confidence is at length shaken, then a reac-
tion takes place,' and they immediately withdraw the
credits they have given, suddenly curtail their issues, and
produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the
circulating medium, which is felt by the whole commu-
nity. The banks by this means save themselves, and
the mischievous consequences of their imprudence or
cupidity are visited upon the public. Nor does the evil
stop here. These ebbs and flows in the currency, and
these indiscreet extensions of credit, naturally engender
a spirit of speculation injurious to the habits and char-
acter of the people. We have already seen its effects in
the wild spirit of speculation in the public lands, and
various kinds of stock, which within the last year or
two, seized upon such a multitude of our citizens, and
threatened to pervade all classes of society and to with-
draw their attention from the sober pursuits of honest
industry. It is not by encouraging this spirit that we

3i 481

APPENDIX

shall best preserve public virtue and promote the true
interests of our country. But if your currency continues
as exclusively paper as it now is, it will foster this eager
desire to amass wealth without labour; it will multiply
the number of dependants on bank accommodations and
bank favours; the temptation to obtain money at any
sacrifice will become stronger and stronger, and inevita-
bly lead to corruption, which will find its way into your
councils, and destroy, at no distant day, the purity of
your government. Some of the evils which arise from
this system of paper, press with peculiar hardship upon
the class of society least able to bear it. A portion of this
currency frequently becomes depreciated or worthless,
and all of it is easily counterfeited in such a manner as
to require peculiar skill and much experience to distin-
guish the counterfeit from the genuine note. These
frauds are most generally perpetrated in the smaller
notes, which are used in the daily transactions of or-
dinary business, and the losses occasioned by them are
commonly thrown upon the labouring classes of society,
whose situation and pursuits put it out of their power to
guard themselves from these impositions, and whose
daily wages are necessary for their subsistence. It is
the duty of every government so to regulate its currency
as to protect this numerous class as far as practicable
from the imposition of avarice and fraud. It is more
especially the duty of the United States, where the gov-
ernment is emphatically the government of the people,
and where this respectable portion of our citizens are so
proudly distinguished from the labouring classes of all
other nations, by their independent spirit, their love of
liberty, their intelligence, their high tone of moral char-
acter. Their industry in peace is the source of our
wealth, and their bravery in war has covered us with
glory, and the government of the United States will but
ill discharge its duties if it leaves them a prey to such
dishonest impositions. Yet it is evident that their in-
terests cannot be effectually protected, unless silver and
gold are restored to circulation.
These views alone, of the paper currency, are suffi-
482

APPENDIX

cient to call for immediate reform ; but there is another
consideration which should still more strongly press it
upon your attention.

Recent events have proved that the paper money sys-
tem of this country may be used as an engine to under-
mine your free institutions, and that those who desire
to engross all power in the hands of the few, and to
govern by corruption or force, are aware of its power,
and prepared to employ it. Your banks now furnish
your only circulating medium, and money is plenty or
scarce, according to the quantity of notes issued by them.
While they have capitals not greatly disproportioned to
each other, they are competitors in business, and no one
of them can exercise dominion over the rest; and
although, in the present state of the currency, these
banks may and do operate injuriously upon the habits
of business, the pecuniary concerns, and the moral tone
of society, yet from their number and dispersed situa-
tion, they cannot combine for the purposes of political
influence ; and whatever may be the disposition of some
of them, their power of mischief must necessarily be
confined to a narrow space, and felt only in their own
immediate neighborhoods.

But when the charter for the Bank of the United
States was obtained from Congress, it perfected the
schemes of the paper system, and gave to its advocates
the position they have struggled to obtain from the
commencement of the federal government down to the
present hour. The immense capital and peculiar priv-
ileges bestowed upon it enabled it to exercise despotic
sway over the other banks in every part of the country.
From its superior strength, it could seriously injure,
if not destroy, the business of any one of them which
might incur its resentment; and it openly claimed for
itself the power of regulating the currency throughout
the United States. In other words, it asserted (and
undoubtedly possessed) the power to make money plenty
or scarce, at its pleasure, at any time, and in any quar-
ter of the Union, by controlling the issues of other
banks, and permitting an expansion, or compelling a

483

APPENDIX

f general contraction, of the circulating medium, accord-
ing to its own will. The other banking institutions were

I sensible of its strength, and they soon generally became
its obedient instruments, ready at all times to execute

I its mandates ; and with the banks necessarily went also
that numerous class of persons in our commercial cities
who depend altogether on bank credits for their sol-
vency and means of business ; and who are, therefore,
obliged, for their own safety, to propitiate the favour
of the money power by distinguished zeal and devotion
in its service. The result of the ill-advised legislation

^ which established this great monopoly was to concen-
trate the whole moneyed power of the Union, with its
boundless means of corruption, and its numerous de-

; pendants, under the direction and command of one
acknowledged head ; thus organizing this particular in-
terest as one body, and securing to it unity and concert

' of action throughout the United States, and enabling

• it to bring forward, upon any occasion, its entire and

' undivided strength to support or defeat any measure
of the government. In the hands of this formidable

C power, thus perfectly organized, was also placed un-
limited dominion over the amount of the circulating
medium, giving it the power to regulate the value of

f property and the fruits of labour in every quarter of

I the Union; and to bestow prosperity, or bring ruin
upon any city or section of the country, as might best
comport with its own interest or policy.
We are not left to conjecture how the moneyed

r power, thus organized, and with such a weapon in its
hands, would be likely to use it. The distress and alarm
which pervaded and agitated the whole country, when

f the Bank of the United States waged war upon the peo-
ple in order to compel them to submit to its demands,
' cannot yet be forgotten. The ruthless and unsparing
temper with which whole cities and communities were
oppressed, individuals impoverished and ruined, and a
scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly changed into one
of gloom and despondency, ought to be indelibly im-
pressed on the memory of the people of the United

484

APPENDIX

States. If such was its power in a time of peace, what
would it not have been in a season of war, with an
enemy at your doors? No nation but the freemen of
the United States could have come out victorious from
such a contest; yet, if you had not conquered, the gov-
ernment would have passed from the hands of the
many to the hands of the few ; and this organized money
power, from its secret conclave, would have dictated
the choice of your highest officers, and compelled you
to make peace or war, as best suited to their own wishes.
The forms of your government might for a time have
remained, but its living spirit would have departed
from it.

The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by
the bank are some of the fruits of that system of policy
which is continually striving to enlarge the authority of
the federal government beyond the limits fixed by the
constitution. The powers enumerated in that instru-
ment do not confer on Congress the right to establish
such a corporation as the Bank of the United States;
and the evil consequences which followed may warn us
of the danger of departing from the true rule of con-
struction, and of permitting temporary circumstances,
or the hope of better promoting the public welfare, to
influence in any degree our decisions upon the extent of
the authority of the general government. Let us abide
by the constitution as it is written, or amend it in the
constitutional mode if it is found to be defective.

The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be
sufficient to prevent Congress from again chartering
such a monopoly, even if the constitution did not pre-
sent an insuperable objection to it. But you must re-
member, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the
people is the price of liberty; and that you must pay
the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves
you, therefore, to be watchful in your states, as well as
in the federal government. The power which the mon-
eyed interest can exercise, when concentrated under a
single head, and with our present system of currency,
was sufficiently demonstrated in the struggle made by

485

(

APPENDIX

the Bank of the United States. Defeated in the general
government, the same class of intriguers and politicians
will now resort to the states, and endeavor to obtain
there the same organization, which they failed to per-
petuate in the Union; and with specious and deceitful
plans of public advantages, and state interests, and state
pride, they will endeavour to establish, in the different
states, one moneyed institution with overgrown capital,
and exclusive privileges sufficient to enable it to control
the operations of the other banks. Such an institution
will be pregnant with the same evils produced by the
Bank of the United States, although its sphere of action
is more confined ; and in the state in which it is char-
tered, the money power will be able to imbody its whole
strength, and to move together with undivided force,
to accomplish any object it may wish to attain. You
have already had abundant evidence of its power to inflict
injury upon the agricultural, mechanical, and labour-
ing classes of society; and over those whose engage-
ments in trade or speculation render them dependent
on bank facilities, the dominion of the state monop-
oly will be absolute, and their obedience unlimited.
With such a bank, and a paper currency, the money
power would in a few years govern the state and con-
trol its measures; and if a sufficient number of states
can be induced to create such establishments, the time
will soon come when it will again take field against the
United States, and succeed in perfecting and perpetuat-
ing its organization by a charter from Congress.

It is one of the serious evils of our present system
of banking, that it enables one class of society — and
that by no means a numerous one — by its control over
the currency, to act injuriously upon the interests of all
the others, and to exercise more than its just propor-
tion of influence in political affairs. The agricultural,
the mechanical, and the labouring classes, have little
or no share in the direction of the great moneyed cor-
porations : and from their habits and the nature of their
pursuits, they are incapable of forming extensive com-
binations to act together with united force. Such con-

486

APPENDIX

cert of action may sometimes be produced in a single
city, or in a small district of country, by means of
personal communications with each other; but they
have no regular or active correspondence with those
who are engaged in similar pursuits in distant places;
they have but little patronage to give to the press, and
exercise but a small share of influence over it; they
have no crowd of dependents about them, who hope
to grow rich without labour, by their countenance and
favour, and who are, therefore, always ready to exe-
cute their wishes. The planter, the farmer, the me-
chanic, and the labourer, all know that their success
depends upon their own industry and economy, and
that they must not expect to become suddenly rich by
the fruits of their toil. Yet these classes of society
form the great body of the people of the United States ;
they are the bone and sinew of the country ; men who
love liberty, and desire nothing but equal rights and
equal laws, and who, moreover, hold the great mass of
our national wealth, although it is distributed in mod-
erate amounts among the millions of freemen who pos-
sess it. But with overwhelming numbers and wealth on
their side, they are in constant danger of losing their
fair influence in the government, and with difficulty
maintain their just rights against the incessant efforts
daily made to encroach upon them.

The mischief springs from the power which the mon-
eyed interest derives from a paper currency which they
are able to control, from the multitude of corporations
with exclusive privileges, which they have succeeded
in obtaining in the different states, and which are em-
ployed altogether for their benefit, and unless you be-
come more watchful in your states, and check this spirit
of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges, you will,
in the end, find that the most important powers of gov-
ernment have been given or bartered away, and the
control over your dearest interests has passed into the
hands of these corporations.

The paper money system, and its natural associates,
monopoly and exclusive privileges, have already struck

487

APPENDIX

their roots deep in the soil, and it will require all your
efforts to check their further growth, and to eradicate
the evil. The men who profit by the abuses, and desire
to perpetuate them, will continue to besiege the halls of
legislation in the general government as well as in the
states, and will seek, by'eyery artifice, to mislead and
deceive the public servants^ It is to yourselves that you
must look for safety, and the means of guarding and
perpetuating your free institutions. In your hands is
rightfully placed the sovereignty of the country, and
to you every one placed in authority is ultimately re-
sponsible. It is always in your power to see that the
wishes of the people are carried into faithful execution,
and their will, when once made known, must sooner
or later be obeyed.^And while the people remain, as
I trust they ever will, uncorrupted and incorruptible,
and continue watchful and jealous of their rights, the
government is safe, and the cause of freedom will con-
tinue to triumph over all its enemies.

But it will require steady and persevering exertions
on your part to rid yourselves of the iniquities and mis-
chiefs of the paper system, and to check the spirit of
monopoly and other abuses which have sprung up with
it, and of which it is the main support. So many in-
terests are united to resist all reform on this subject,
that you must not hope the conflict will be a short one,
nor success easy.

My humble efforts have not been spared during my
administration of the government^ to restore the con-
stitutional currency of gold and ^jilver, and something,
I trust, has been done towards the accomplishment of
this most desirable object. But enough yet remains to
require all your energy and perseverance. The power,
however, is in your hands, and the remedy must and
will be applied, if you determine upon it.

While I am thus endeavouring to press upon your at-
tention the principles which I deem of vital importance
in the domestic concerns of the country, I ought not to
pass over, without notice, the important considerations
which should govern your policy towards foreign pow-

488

APPENDIX

ers. It is unquestionably our true interest to cultivate
the most friendly understanding with every nation, and
to avoid, by every honourable means, the calamities of
war; and we shall best attain this object by frankness
and sincerity in our foreign intercourse, by the prompt
and faithful execution of treaties, and by justice and
impartiality in our conduct to all. But no nation, how-
ever desirous of peace, can hope to escape occasional
collisions with other powers; and the soundest dic-
tates of policy require that we should place ourselves in
a condition to assert our rights, if a resort to force
should ever become necessary. Our local situation, our
long line of sea-coast, indented by numerous bays, with
deep rivers opening into the interior, as well as our
extended and still increasing commerce, point to the
navy as our natural means of defence. It will, in the
end, be found to be the cheapest and most effectual;
and now is the time, in a season of peace, and with an
overflowing revenue, that we can, year after year, add
to its strength without increasing the burdens of the
people. It is your true policy; for your navy will not
only protect your rich and flourishing commerce in
distant seas, but will enable you to reach and annoy the
enemy, and will give to defence its greatest efficiency,
by meeting danger at a distance from home. It is im-
possible, by any line of fortifications, to guard every
point from attack against a hostile force advancing from
the ocean, and selecting its object; but they are indis-
pensable to protect cities from bombardment; dock-
yards and naval arsenals from destruction; to give
shelter to merchant vesels in time of war, and to single
ships of weaker squadrons when pressed by superior
force. Fortifications of this description cannot be too
soon completed and armed, and placed in a condition
of the most perfect preparation. The abundant means
we now possess cannot be applied in any manner more
useful to the country ; and when this is done, and our
naval force sufficiently strengthened, and our militia
armed, we need not fear that any nation will wantonly
insult us, or needlessly provoke hostilities. We shall

489

Appendix

ftiore certainly preserve peace, when it is well under-
stood that we are prepared for war.

In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these part-
ing counsels, I have brought before you the leading
principles upon which I endeavoured to administer the
government in the high office with which you have twice
honoured me. Knowing that the path of freedom is
continually beset by enemies, who often assume the dis-
guise of friends, I have devoted the last hours of my
public life to warn you of the dangers. The progress
of the United States under our free and happy institu-
tions, has surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the
founders of the republic. Our growth has been rapid
beyond all former example, in numbers, in wealth, in
knowledge, and all the useful arts which contribute to
the comforts and convenience of man; and from the
earliest ages of history to the present day, there never
have been thirteen millions of people associated to-
gether in one political body, who enjoyed so much
freedom and happiness as the people of these United
.States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger
from abroad; your strength and power are well known
throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and
gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among
yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from dis-
appointed ambition, and inordinate thirst for power,
that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It
is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors
may assume, that you have especially to guard your-
selves. You have the highest, of human trusts com-
mitted to your care. Providence has showered on this
favoured land blessings without number, and has chosen
you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the
benefit of the human race. May He, who holds in his
hands the destinies of nations, make you worthy of the
favours he has bestowed, and enable you, with pure
hearts, and pure hands, and sleepless vigilance, to guard
and defend, to the end of time, the great charge he has
committed to your keeping.

My own race is nearly run ; advanced age and failing
490

APPENDIX

health warn me that before long, I iiitist pass beyond
the reach of human events, and cease to feel the vicissi-
tudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has
been spent in a land of liberty, and that he has given me
a heart to love my country with the affection of a son.
And, filled with gratitude for your constant and unwav-
ering kindness, I now bid you a last and affectionate
farewell.

Andrew Jackson.

491

Appendix E

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

ANDREW JACKSON.

Hermitage, June 7th, 1843.

In the Name of God, Amen : — I, Andrew Jackson,
Sen'r., being of sound mind, memory, and understand-
ing, and impressed with the great uncertainty of life
and the certainty of death, and being desirous to dispose
of my temporal affairs so that after my death no con-
tention may arise relative to the same — And whereas,
since executing my will of the 30th of September, 1833,
my estate has become greatly involved by my liabilities
for the debts of my well-beloved and adopted son An-
drew Jackson, Jun., which makes it necessary to alter
the same: Therefore I, Andrew Jackson, Sen'r., of
the county of Davidson, and state of Tennessee, do
make, ordain, publish, and declare this my last will and
testament, revoking all other wills by me heretofore
made.

First, I bequeath my body to the dust whence it
comes, and my soul to God who gave it, hoping for a
happy immortality through the atoning merits of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. My de-
sire is, that my body be buried by the side of my dear
departed wife, in the garden at the Hermitage, in the
vault prepared in the garden, and all expenses paid by
my executor hereafter named.

Secondly, That all my just debts be paid out of my
personal and real estate by my executor; for which
purpose to meet the debt my good friends Gen'1. J. B.
Planchin & Co. of New Orleans, for the sum of six
thousand dollars, with the interest accruing thereon,

492

APPENDIX

loaned to me to meet the debt due by A. Jackson, Jun.,
for the purchase of the plantation from Hiram G. Run-
nels, lying on the east bank of the river Mississippi, in
the state of Mississippi. Also, a debt due by me of
ten thousand dollars, borrowed of my friends Blair and
Rives, of the city of Washington and District of Colum-
bia, with the interest accruing thereon; being applied
to the payment of the lands bought of Hiram G. Run-
nels as aforesaid, and for the faithful payment of the
aforesaid recited debts, I hereby bequeath all my real
and personal estate. After these debts are fully paid —

Thirdly, I give and bequeath to my adopted son, An-
drew Jackson, Junior, the tract of land whereon I now
live, known by the Hermitage tract, with its butts and
boundaries, with all its appendages of the three lots of
land bought of Samuel Donelson, Thomas J. Donelson,
and Alexander Donelson, sons and heirs of Sovern
Donelson, deceased, all adjoining the Hermitage tract,
agreeable to their butts and boundaries, with all the ap-
purtenances thereto belonging or in any wise appertain-
ing, with all my negroes that I may die possessed of,
with the exception hereafter named, with all their in-
crease after the before recited debts are fully paid, with
all the household furniture, farming tools, stock of all
kind, both on the Hermitage tract farms, as well as
those on the Mississippi plantation, to him and his heirs
for ever. — The true intent and meaning of this my last
will and testament is, that all my estate, real, personal,
and mixed, is hereby first pledged for the payment of
the above recited debts and interest ; and when they are
fully paid, the residue of all my estate, real, personal,
and mixed, is hereby bequeathed to my adopted son A.
Jackson, Jun., with the exceptions hereafter named, to
him and his heirs for ever. /

Fourth, Whereas I have heretofore by conveyance,
deposited with my beloved daughter Sarah Jackson,
wife of my adopted son A. Jackson, Jun., given to my
beloved granddaughter, Rachel Jackson, daughter of A.
Jackson, Jun. and Sarah his wife, several negroes
therein described, which I hereby confirm. — I give and

493

APPENDIX

bequeath to my beloved grandson Andrew Jackson, son
of A. Jackson, Jun. and Sarah his wife, a negro boy
named Ned, son of Blacksmith Aaron and Hannah
his wife, to him and his heirs for ever.

Fifth, I give and bequeath to my beloved little grand-
son, Samuel Jackson, son of A. Jackson, Jun. and his
much beloved wife Sarah, one negro boy named Davy
or George, son of Squire and his wife Giney, to him and
his heirs for ever.

Sixth, To my beloved and affectionate daughter,
Sarah Jackson, wife of my adopted and well beloved
son, A. Jackson, Jun., I hereby recognise, by this be-
quest, the gift I made her on her marriage, of the negro
girl Gracey, which I bought for her, and gave to my
daughter Sarah as her maid and seamstress, with her
increase, with my house-servant Hanna and her two
daughters, namely, Charlotte and Mary, to her and her
heirs for ever. This gift and bequest is made for my
great affection for her — as a memento of her uniform
attention to me and kindness on all occasions, and par-
ticularly when worn down with sickness, pain, and de-
bility—she has been more than a daughter to me, and
I hope she never will be disturbed in the enjoyment of
this gift and bequest by any one.

Seventh, I bequeath to my well beloved nephew, An-
drew J. Donelson, son of Samuel Donelspn, deceased,
the elegant sword presented to me by the state of Ten-
nessee, with this injunction, that he fail not to use it
when necessary in support and protection of our glor-
ious union, and for the protection of the constitutional
rights of our beloved country, should they be assailed by
foreign enemies or domestic traitors. This, from the
great change in my worldly affairs of late, is, with my
blessing, all I can bequeath him, doing justice to those
creditors to whom I am responsible. This bequest is
made as a memento of my high regard, affection, and
esteem I bear for him as a high-minded, honest, and
honourable man.

Eighth, To my grand-nephew Andrew Jackson Cof-
fee, I bequeath the elegant sword presented to me by

494

APPENDIX

the Rifle Company of New Orleans, commanded by
Capt. Beal, as a memento of my regard, and to bring
to his recollection the gallant services of his deceased
father Gen'l. John Coffee, in the late Indian and British
war, under my command, and his gallant conduct in
defence of New Orleans in 1814 and 181 5; with this
injunction, that he wield it in the protection of the
rights secured to the American citizen under our glor-
ious constitution, against all invaders, whether foreign
foes, or intestine traitors.

I bequeath to my beloved grandson Andrew Jackson,
son of A. Jackson, Jun. and Sarah his wife, the sword
presented to me by the citizens of Philadelphia, with
this injunction, that he will always use it in defence of
the constitution and our glorious union, and the per-
petuation of our republican system: remembering the
motto — " Draw me not without occasion, nor sheath
me without honour."

The pistols of Gen'l. Lafayette, which were presented
by him to Gen'l. George Washington, and by Col. Win,
Robertson presented to me, I bequeath to George Wash-
ington Lafayette, as a memento of the illustrious per-
sonages through whose hands they have passed — his
father, and the father of his country.

The gold box presented to me by the corporation of
the City of New York, the large silver vase presented
to me by the ladies of Charleston, South Carolina, my
native state, with the large picture representing the un-
furling of the American banner, presented to me by
the citizens of South Carolina when it was refused to
be accepted by the United States Senate, I leave in trust
to my son A. Jackson, Jun., with directions that should
our happy country not be blessed with peace, an event
not always to be expected, he will at the close of the
war or end of the conflict, present each of said articles
of inestimable value, to that patriot residing in the city
or state from which they were presented, who shall be
adjudged by his countrymen or the ladies to have been
the most valiant in defence of his country and our coun-
try's rights.

495

APPENDIX

The pocket spyglass which was used by Gen'l. Wash-
ington during the revolutionary war, and presented to
me by Mr. Custis, having been burned with my dwell-
ing-house, the Hermitage, with many other invaluable
relics, I can make no disposition of them. As a me-
mento of my high regard for Gen'l. Robert Armstrong
as a gentleman, patriot, and soldier, as well as for his
meritorious military services under my command dur-
ing the late British and Indian war, and remembering
the gallant bearing of him and his gallant little band at
Enotochopco creek, when, falling desperately wounded,
he called out — " My brave fellows, some may fall, but
save the cannon" — as a memento of all these things, I
give and bequeath to him my case of pistols and sword
worn by me throughout my military career, well satis-
fied that in his hands they will never be disgraced —
that they will never be used or drawn without occasion,
nor sheathed but with honour.

Lastly, I leave to my beloved son all my walking-
canes and other relics, to be distributed amongst my
young relatives — namesakes — first, to my much es-
teemed namesake, Andrew J. Donelson, son of my es-
teemed nephew A. J. Donelson, his first choice, and
then to be distributed as A. Jackson, Jun. may think
proper.

Lastly, I appoint my adopted son Andrew Jackson,
Jun., my whole and sole executor to this my last will
and testament, and direct that no security be required
of him for the faithful execution and discharge of the
trusts hereby reposed in him.

In testimony whereof I have this 7th day of June,
one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, hereunto
set my hand, and affixed my seal, hereby revoking all
wills heretofore made by me, and in the presence of

Marion Adams,

Elizabeth D. Love,

Thos. J. Donelson,

Richard Smith,
R. Armstrong.

Andrew Jackson. (Seal)
496

Index

Adair, General, 87, 96, 104, 176,

222.
Adams, Charles Francis, quo-
tation from, 95.
Adams, John Quincy, 116, 147,

173, 190, 251, 260, 268, 272,

290, 294, 295, 342.
Addresses, 250-278, 468-491.
Allen, Governor William, 106,

258.
Ambrister, hi, 113, 115, i°A

208.
American flag, 216, 256.
Anderson, Patten, 62, 214.
Anecdotes, 42, 44, 102, 122, 133,

167, 198, 212, 213.
Arbuckle, Colonel, 45.
Arbuthnot, hi, 113, 114, 190,

208.
Arthur, Chester A., 56.
Assassinate, attempt to, 248.
Avery, Colonel, 61, 220.
Baltimore, banquet in, 265.
Bancroft, George, oration by,

414.
Barry, Postmaster-General,

187, 189.
Barton, Mr., 160.
Beck, Doctor, 270.
Benton, Jesse, 232.
Benton, Thomas H., 51, 52, 73,

119, 162, 232, 244, 251, 269,

313, 317, 323, 341, 361, 365.

Berrien, John McPherson, 189.
Biddle, Nicholas, 251, 309, 351,

353.
Blair, Francis P., 29, 68, 88,

157, 275, 367.
Blount, Governor, 41, 86, 118.
Bonaparte, Mrs. Jerome, 268.
Books, 67, 68, 377.
Boston bankers, 57.
Bowen, Francis, 269.
Boykin, J., 416, 429.
Branch, John, 189.

, letter from, 195.

, letter to, 194.

Breckinridge, Judge, 288.
Brooks, Francis, 291.
Brown, Jacob, 68.
Brown, Dr. John, 27.
Buchanan, James, 268, 33J&.
Buford, Lt. Col. Abraham, 34.
Burchard, Dr., 300.
Burr, Aaron, 56, 316, 367.

, ball in honor of, 145.

, dinner to, 257.

, expedition, 216.

, trial of, 255.

Butler, Benjamin F., 116.

, W. O., 104, 123, 143, 245.

Cabinet, the, 182, 188, 189, 190,

192, 196, 208, 215, 254.
Calhoun, John G, 190, 244,

251, 309, 321, 337t 341.
Call, General, 180.

497

INDEX

Callava, Governor, 49.
Cambridge, trip to, 269.
Campbell, George W., 62.
Campbell, Rev. Dr., 185, 187.
Carrickfergus, 27.
Carroll, General, 87, 89, 90,

104, 130, 176, 245, 264.
Cartwright, Peter, 368-370.
Catlett, Dr., 23a
Charitable Irish Society of

Boston, jo.
Charleston Harbor, 333.
Chesapeake, attack on, 255.
Chovtard, Mile., 143.
City Hotel, 233, 234, 235.
Civil War, 334.
Claiborne, Governor, 216.
Clay, Henry, 105, 115, 219, 243,

244, 251, 291, 293, 294, 295,

309, 347, 358, 362.
, dinner party to daughter

of, 205.
Clinton, De Witt, 236.
Cobbett, William, 413.
Cochrane, Admiral, 91.
Coffee, General, 57, 58, 70, 82,

83, 87, 89, 118, 130, 176, 233,

264.
Colden, Major, 266.
Cole, General, 171.
Concord, at, 274.
Congress, 282, 305, 334, 342.

, message to, 280.

Constitution, amendment to,

303.
Craighead, Parson, 370.
Crawford, James, 424.
, Major Robert, 420, 430,

436.

Crawford, Martin P., 420.
, William H., 26, 191, 251,

294.
Crawfords, the, 26, 137, 160,

421,424.
Creek War, 64, 67, 69, 7A 75,

81, 82, 118, 130, 260.

, treaty which closed, 80.

Crockett, R. M., 130, 131, 415.
Cureton, Thomas, 430-433.
Dale, General Samuel, 328.
Davie, William Richardson, 26,

34,35.
Daviess, Jo., 258.
Davis, Charles A., 271.
Declaration of Independence,

260.
Democracy, 343.
Democrat, 338.
Democratic Party, 259, 301,

326, 352.

Dickinson, Charles, 59, 162,
164, 225-231, 256, 368.

Donelson, Andrew Jackson,
201.

, Captain, 289.

, Major, 82, 327.

, Mrs., 162, 188.

, Mrs. Emily, 372.

, Rachel, see Jackson.

Douglass, Stephen, 338.

Downing, Jack, see Davis.

Duane, Secretary of Treas-
ury, 353.

Dubourg, Abbe, 262.

Duels, 220-249.

Durbin, Professor, 371.

Eaton, John H., 85, 102, 118,
158, 181, 182, 189, 193.

498

INDEX

Eaton, Mrs. Margaret, 179-

199.

Edgar, Dr., 314, 374, 388.

Edwards, Jonathan, 222.

Elliott, Jesse D., correspond-
ence with, 275-278.

Ely, Rev. Dr., 182, 185, 187.

Esselman, Dr., 384, 385.

Farewell Address, 468-491.

Farragut, David G., 333.

Faulkner, James, 424, 427.

Federal Party, 260, 301.

Federal Union, 321, 327.

Financial crisis, 363.

Florida campaigns, 85, in,
190, 266.

Floyd, General, 70.

Force bill, 334.

Fromentin, Judge Elijius, 49.

Gadsden, James, 411.

Gallatin, 107, 34i, 345-

Ghent, Treaty of, 107.

Girod, Nicholas, 126.

Gordon, Captain Kennedy, 77.

Grundy, Felix, 263.

Guild, Judge, 42.

Hall, Judge Dominick, 45.

Hamilton, Alexander, 337, 340.

353.

, Colonel James A., 295.

Hammond, Governor, 409.
Harrison, William Henry, 43,

68, 85, 109,
Hawkins, Benjamin, 71.
Hayne, Colonel, 125, 251, 337.
Hays, Stokely, 237.
Hearst, William Randolph,

quotation from, 259.
Henderson, Wm., 208.

Hermitage, the, 53, 54, 67, 124,
158, 166, 167, 170, 204, 217,
265, 303, 354, 369, 374, 409,
413.

Hibernian Society of Phila-
delphia, 28.

Hill, Isaac, 273, 358.

Hutchinson, Elizabeth, 26.

, father of, 29.

Indian Territory, 281.

Ingham, Samuel D., 189, 353.

Irish president, 28.

Jackson, Andrew, Alexandria,
at, 247

, ancestry of, 29, no, 419,

421.

, anecdotes of, 42, 44, 102,

122, 133, 167, 198, 212, 213.

, armies of, 73, 76, 77-

, attempt to assassinate,

248.

attitude towards Con-
gress, 305.

, attorney, 252.

, "backwoods soldier," 113,

132.

, bank hater, 58.

, battle tactics of, 82.

, benevolent, 54.

, bills of exchange, 120.

, birthday dinner, 149.

, birthplace of, 25, 407-438.

, Boston, visit to, 149, 328.

, bust of, 416. .

, captain, considered as, 69.

, character of, 58, 300.

, , misconceived in, 141.

, Charleston, visit to, 60.

138.

499

INDEX

Jackson, Andrew, chief jus-
tice, 66.

, combination against, 43.

, commercial reputation of,

57.

, Congressman, 40.

, daughter of, 376, 377, 387.

, daughter-in-law of, 385.

, dauntless courage, 40.

, dealer in slaves, 53.

, decision of character, 58.

, declined mission to

Mexico, 50.
, delicate sense of honor,

135.

, democrat, was a, 133.

, description of, 142.

, difficulties, propensity for,

SO.

, dignity of, 51.

, disliked the English, 34,

36, 109, 217.

, Doctor of Laws, 33, 269.

, domestic in habits, 63.

, duels of, 220-249.

, education of, 31, 32.

, election of, 301.

, electoral vote for, 285.

, episodes of, 104, 130, 246.

, father of, 29, 157, 158,

421.

, favorite servant of, 137.

, feminine view of, 146.

, financier, 33.

, first biography of, 410.

, first term as President,

303.
, followed own instincts,

119.

Jackson, Andrew, fond of
books, 58.

, funeral of, 388, 389.

, Gallatin's view of, 150.

, grandchildren of, 386.

, grandfather of, 27, 160.

, great-grandfather of, 28.

, Governor of Florida, 48.

, had North Ireland

brogue, 137.

, hospitality of, 54, 55.

, illness of, 43, 72, 119, 165,

172, 337-

, incidents of, 60.

, inclination, 53.

, indomitable will, 72.

, innately polite, 134.

, integrity personified, 308.

, intensity of purpose, 165.

, Irish president, 28.

, Jefferson's view of, 150.

, Jonesboro, practised at,

42.

, judge, 43, 252.

, last days of, 365.

, last will of, 378, 492-496.

, liberality of, 57.

, liked to be called "Gen-
eral," 107.

, loved by soldiers, 81.

, manners, 56, 141-150.

, man of affairs, 33.

, marriage of, 161.

, merchant, 53.

, military career, 53, 66,

118.

, miniature of, 145.

, misconceived in char-
acter, 141.

500

INDEX

Jackson, Andrew, mother of,
29, 30, 39, 157, 159, 161.

, Nashville, at, 41, 53, 61,

73, 263.

, Natchez, at, 120, 121.

, nephew of, 124.

, note of thanks to, 42.

, of and for the people,

134.

, " Old Hickory," 100, 121.

, old waiter's view of, 55.

, opposition to nomination

of, 62.

, orders issued by, 78.

, patriotism of, 57, 207, 215,

219, 270.
, personal appearance of,

55, 56, 133-139, 140.

, personal qualities, 51.

, place in history, 390-406.

, planter, 53.

, pledged personal prop-
erty, 57.

, policy of, 162.

, politician and President,

279-319.
, President, as, 56, 131, 246,

279, 296, 319, 321, 336, 353.

, profession in life, 40.

, prudent, 210.

, pugnacity of, 207-219.

, purest of men, 157.

, quarrels of, 220-249.

, received in the church,

337.

, recreations of, 58, 60, 63.

, reelection of, 353.

, refused to disband volun-
teers, 120.

Jackson, Andrew, relations

with children, 200-206.
, relations with mother,

156-177.
, relations with wife, 156-

177.

, religion, 366-389.

, reminiscence of, by Mrs.

Johnston, 153.
, resigned from • Senate,

303.
, respect for women, 157,

160.
, richest man in Tennessee,

53.

, Salisbury, at, 59, 221.

, second campaign for

presidency, 172, 297.

, second term as Presi-
dent, 311.

, Senator, 40.

, soldier, 64-132.

, sound common sense, 40.

, sound judgment, 58.

, speeches of, 250-278.

, sportsman, 59.

, statesman, 33.

, storekeeper, 56.

, studied law, 32, 33.

, subjects of interest to,

33.

, taught school, 32.

, vote that elected, 65.

, vs. Louaillier, 44-48.

, wars fought in, 67.

, Webster's description of,

147.

, withdrew from mercan-
tile business, 57.

501

INDEX

Jackson, Andrew, Jr., 378.

, — -, Sr., 26, 27, 29, 30.

, family, 27, 28, 34. 419-

, Hugh, 26, 30, 34*

, Rachel, 386.

, Rachel Donelson Rob-

ards, 161, 167, 169, 170, 171,

173, 174, 177.

, Robert, 26, 30, 35, 37.

, Waldo, 122.

Jacksonian epoch, 252.

" Jacksonian vulgarity/' 56,

I5I-IS3.
Jefferson, Thomas, 50, 256,

267, 304, 3i6.

, dinner in honor of, 321.

" Jeffersonian simplicity," 56.
Jones, Bartlett, 315.

, Paul, 274.

Keane, Major-General, 95, 129.
Kendall, Amos, 353.
"Kitchen Cabinet," 304, 306,

413.
Lafayette, Marquis de, 171,

217.
Lambert, General, 95, 130.
Lathen, Sarah, 424.
Latour, Major, 118.
Lee, Mrs. Elizabeth, 158, 332.
Lewis, Major Wm. B., 175,

193, 288, 290, 353, 379, 385.
Lincoln, Abraham, 64* 267,

279, 329, 339.

LlNCOYER, 200.

Livingston, Cora, 203.
—r-, Edward, 105, 280, 331.

, family, 142.

— — , Louis, 127.
Louaillier, Louis, 44-48.

Lyon, Captain, 138.
McCay, Judge, 136.
McIlwain, James D., 418.
McKay, Spruce, 33.
McKemey, George, 25, 26, 422,

428, 430, 433.
McNairy, Judge, 63.
Madison, Mrs., 182.
Marcy, Governor, 315.
Marshall, John, 282.
Martineau, Miss Harriet, 248.
Miller, Davis, 226.

, General, 313.

, Stephen D., 27.

Mills, Senator, 292.
Monroe, 50, 190, 273, 302.
Montgomery, John, 415.
Mqore, General, 131.

, Dr. John D., 243.

Morgan, General, 68, 98.

Mutiny, 76, 80.

Nashville Inn, 55, 170, 234, 237.

, return to, 263.

, Union, 296.

National Guard, 66.

, journal, 172.

New Hampshire, 273.

New Orleans, Battle of, 64,

262.
, campaign, 69, 72, 80, 86,

89-99, 101, no.
New York, 117, 266, 273.

Evening Post, 326.

Nichols, Colonel, 70.
N lies' Register, 117, 217.
Nolte, Vincent, 127, 169.
Nullification, 27ft 284, 320-339,

409.
, ordinance, 439-442.

5(W

&.-•■

INDEX

Nullification proclamation, 443-

467.
"Old Hickory," 100, 121.
O'Neal, Peggy, see Eaton.

, Wm, 180.

Overton, Colonel, 89, 165, 227.
Pakenham, Sir Edward, 94,

100, note, 107.
Patterson, Daniel T., 89, 98.
Pickens, Andrew, 35, 423.
Planche, Major, 126.
Poinsett, Joel R., 409.
Polk, James K, 268.

, Mrs. James, 210.

, Robert, 103.

Proctor, General, 109.
Quarrels, 220-249.
Quarter Sessions Court, 41.
Randolph, John, 246, 251, 332.
Reid, John, 411.
P.eilly, Eugene, 417.
Rennie, Colonel, 95.
Republican party, 196, 326.
Resolution of censure, 196,

245, 358, 359, 362.
Revolution, the, 109, 218, 221.
Roane, Governor, 65.
Robards, Lewis, 162.
Robertson, Dr. Felix, 58.
Robinson, Dr., 384.
Rodgers, J. B., 112.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 118, 329.
Rush, Richard, 115.
Rutherford, Mrs. Anna, P36.
Scott, General Winfield, 67,

68, 309, 333.

, Lieut. R. W., 112.

Scott's Bible, 377.
Secession movement, 320.

Seminole War, 67, 191.
Senate, U. S., 242, 244, 305, 357-
Sevier, John, 223, 224.
Shaw, Bernard, 55.

, Dr., 367.

Shreve, Captain, 129.
Sims, J. Marion, 27.
Slavery question, 338.
Smart, Mrs. Susan, 135.
Smith, General Daniel, 212.

, Jacob, 226.

, William, 27.

South Carolina, 320, 329, 330,

332, 338.
Southern Confederacy, 338.
Speeches, 250-278.
Spoils system, 174, 279, 313.
Stark, John, 273.

, Molly, 273.

State banks, 344, 346, 362.
Steuben, Baron von, 68.
Stokes, family, 170.
, Judge John, 33.

SUMMERFIELD, Mr., 1 72.

Sumner, Charles, 63, 338, 380.

, Prof. W. G., 99 note.

Supreme Court defied by

Georgia, 282.
Swann, Thomas, 225.
Tammany Hall, 326.
Taney, Roger Brooke, 318,

353, 354.
Tariff bill, 334.

, the, 282, 338.

Tarleton, Colonel, 34.
Tecumseh, 109.
Texas, recognition of, 283.
Thornton, Colonel, 94.
Thornwell, James H., 27.
503

INDEX

Tohopeka, battle of, 83.
Towson, Colonel, 182, 184.
Treasury, the, 363.
Twelve-Mile Creek, 27, 421,

4*4-
Tyack. William, Diary of, 38a
United States Bank, 196, 198,

JL45* *79> a8|, 30& 308, 318,

Telegraph, 326.

Universal suffrage, 300.

Vax Burex, Martin, 187, 189,

.*$i% d&4. 316, 319, 326, 364,

S* .
Vax Pelt, Rev. Dr., 116, 178.
Yidal. 49.
Waddell, Dr., 255.
Walkup, General, 428, 432,

433,435.
Walters, Dr., 384.
War of 1812, 62, 64, 67, 73,

196.

Washington, George, 64, 68,

329,393.
Waxhaws, 25, 26, 157, 416, 423,

426.
Webster, Daniel, 218, 219, 244,

251, 324, 335.
Weems, Mason L., 420.
Wells, Jonathan, 274.
White House, 149, 150-152,

158, 168, 188, 204, 249, 273.
White, Joseph, 39.
Wilkinson, General James,

86, 25a
Wilson, Colonel, 289.
Wilson, Henry, 288.
Winchester, General, 90.
Wirt, William, 258.
WrrHERSPOON, Colonel James

H., 420, 435.

, Dr., 277

Wood, John, execution of, 79.
Woodbury, Levi, 270.

504

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