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(iEiMKKAl. ANDREW JACKSON 
 
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General Andrew Jackson 
 
 HERO OF NEW ORLEANS 
 
 AND 
 
 SEVENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 BY 
 
 OLIVER DYER, 
 
 I) 
 
 Author of '' Great Senators of the United States y" " Character 
 
 Sketch of Henry IV. Grady," ''Life and Writ- 
 
 ings of George Bancroft,'^ etc. 
 
 
 WITH ILLUSTJ&itTTOim MUM. M. EATON, 
 
 7 1891 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ROBERT BONNER'S SONS, 
 
 1891. 
 

 Copyright, 1891, 
 BY KOBERT BONNER'S SONS. 
 
 {All rights reserved.) 
 
 tee 
 
 fUESO OP 
 
 THE NEW YORK LEDGER, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HEROES— CHILDHOOD OF A HERO. 
 
 NY boy or any man, 
 however poor and 
 humble, or however 
 rich and exalted, 
 wants to be a hero. 
 r' Every girl and 
 every woman, how- 
 ever lowly and ob- 
 scure, or however 
 fashionable and fortun- 
 ate, wants to be a hero- 
 ine and have a hero for 
 her lover and husband; 
 and the bride who mar- 
 ries for love thinks she 
 has him — at least, until 
 the honeymoon has 
 passed. Any boy or 
 man, any girl or wo- 
 man, who has this vol- 
 ume in hand and is 
 reading these words, feels the force of the truths' 
 they express, and longs to be a hero or heroine, 
 
8 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 aspires to do something grand and noble, and would 
 gladly win a place among the illustrious men or the 
 honored women of the world. 
 
 Because every human being thus wishes to become 
 great and good and noble, according to his or her 
 standard of greatness, goodness and nobleness, there 
 is not a boy or girl, not a man or a woman who does 
 not sympathize with the struggles and the triumphs 
 of heroes and heroines, and love to read the history 
 of their lives. And so I am encouraged in the hope 
 that everybody who sees it will enjoy the reading 
 of the life-story which I am about to tell them of 
 one of the greatest heroes who ever lived in this 
 world, and who is known to history and to fame as 
 Andrew Jackson, Judge Jackson, Senator Jackson, 
 General Jackson, President Jackson, Old Hickory 
 Jackson. 
 
 This celebrated hero was born in poverty and 
 obscurity. It is doubtful if there is a boy or a girl 
 who will read this story of Andrew Jackson's life 
 who is as poor as he was in his childhood, or who is 
 encountering as great obstacles as he encountered, 
 or suffering hardships and privations as bitter as 
 those which he suffered. But, fortunately, poverty, 
 obstacles, hardships and privations are not the worst 
 things which can befall a child of destiny. The}^ 
 are, in fact, more likely to be blessings than mis- 
 fortunes. 
 
 " Cast the bantling on the rocks. 
 Suckle him with the she wolf's teat ; 
 Wintered with the hawk and fox. 
 Power and speed be hands and feet." 
 
Heroes — CJiildhood of a Hero. 
 
 The old stories of Romulus and Remus suckled 
 by a wolf and Cyrus the Great by a goat, are sym- 
 bolic representations of the great truth that expo- 
 sure and hardship and danger are sometimes the best 
 things which can be provided for young immortals. 
 It was certainly so in the case of our poor boy, 
 Andrew Jackson ; and because he lived his life, and 
 fought his fight, and conquered fate, and blazed a 
 path from poverty and obscurity to greatness and 
 renown, this land for which he fought and which he 
 loved so well, has been a better land for poor boys 
 and poor girls, and is now a better land for every 
 struggling boy or girl, for every toiling man or 
 woman, than it would have been had Andrew Jack- 
 son not thus lived and fought and conquered. And 
 now let us read the story of this poor boy's life, and 
 see how it was that he became the idolized hero of 
 his native land. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was born near the Waxhaw 
 settlement, in what is now Union County, North 
 Carolina, on March 15, 1767, nine years before the 
 Declaration of Independence was given to the 
 world. His father died a few days before Andrew 
 was born. In obscurity had he lived, and in 
 obscurity was he buried. Mrs. Jackson, with her 
 fatherless little boys, rode to the graveyard in the 
 wagon that carried her husband's rude coffin. 
 
 The bereaved widow was left without a protector 
 and in absolute poverty. Obliged to abandon her 
 desolate and squalid home in the wilderness, she 
 took refuge, with her two little sons, Hugh and 
 
lO Gcnc7'al Andrciu Jackson, 
 
 Robert, in the house of a hospitable friend, and 
 there awaited the birth of her third child. 
 
 It was a pitiful case. Andrew's father (after 
 whom the new-born infant was named) had come 
 from Carrickfergus, in the north of Ireland, two 
 years before (1765), inspired by the hope that he 
 would be able to make a home for his family in the 
 American wilderness. Being too poor to buy land, 
 even at the low price at which it was then sold, he 
 built a cabin on land that was not his own, and set 
 at work to chop and plough out a farm for himself. 
 But dying prematurely and suddenly, he left his 
 little family without a home, and they were com- 
 pelled (as stated above) to seek refuge with friends 
 who had come from their native land with the 
 Jacksons. 
 
 A pitiful case it was, most certainly ; but our little 
 germ of a hero had got into the world ; and when 
 we think of it, there was much in that. Without 
 that, nothing would have been possible for him ; 
 with that, God willing, everything was possible. 
 Yet when we look back to those far-away days, 
 and in imagination gaze upon that little child born 
 in poverty so squalid and in obscurity so dense, it 
 seems well-nigh miraculous that such a poor little 
 creature should have come to fill so large a space in 
 tlie world's history — should, in fact, have become 
 the hinge on which his country's destiny was to 
 swing for many years. When the Mayfloiver was 
 launched she was as obscure as Andrew Jackson 
 was in his infancy. The Mayflower might have 
 sailed the seas for years, carrying merchandise, 
 without impressing her name upon the minds and 
 
Heroes — Childhood of a Hero, ii 
 
 the hearts of mankind. It was the freight she car- 
 ried and the use she pwformed on her memorable 
 voyage in 1620, which gave her immortality. She 
 was then freighted with the embodied principles of 
 religious and political liberty, and was the instru- 
 ment for transplanting them to a soil where they 
 could take root, and grow beyond the fondest 
 dreams of their advocates ; and for these reasons 
 her name became as imperishable as the incarnated 
 principles which she brought to the shores of the 
 Western World. As with ships, so -with babies; 
 whether they win an immortality of fame depends 
 on the freight of principle and character they carry 
 on the voyage of life, and the uses to which their 
 lives are devoted. Owing to his mother's religious 
 teaching and example and her ardent patriotism, 
 our Waxhaw boy, as we shall see, though as obscure 
 as the Mayflower was at her launching, was freighted 
 with the principles which that little vessel brought 
 across the ocean, and through the passionate devel- 
 opment of these principles in him and the heroic 
 deeds he performed in maintaining them, his name, 
 like that of the MayfloweVy became invested with 
 immortality. 
 
 The widow Jackson, like most women of Scotch- 
 Irish blood, was a strong, capable and thrifty 
 woman, an excellent housekeeper and a wise and 
 affectionate mother. Her maiden name was Eliza- 
 beth Hutchinson. Her father's family, in the old 
 North of Ireland home, was as poor as her hus- 
 band's. But she and her sisters were fairly edu- 
 cated, according: to the standard of education in 
 those primitive times, and were brought up by 
 
12 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 pious, God-fearing parents " in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord." *They were weavers of 
 linen. It is said that sometimes they worked all 
 night at their looms in order to earn enough to keep 
 the wolf from the door. It is not unfrequently the 
 fortune of such obscure, faithful, God-fearing women 
 to be the mothers of heroes. 
 
 When little Andrew was three weeks old, Mrs. 
 Jackson left her temporary home and took up her 
 abode with another family of friends and relatives, 
 where she lived as housekeeper for several years. 
 Her two elder boys worked on neighboring farms. 
 Andrew grew apace. He was the idol of his 
 mother's heart. Mrs. Jackson was a devout woman 
 and a habitual and prayerful reader of the Bible. 
 The incidents narrated in the sacred Word, of the 
 consecration of children, in their early infancy, to 
 the service of God, had matle a deep impression on 
 her mind. In her heart she consecrated her baby 
 boy to God's service, and resolved that. Providence 
 permitting, he should be a minister of the Gospel. 
 In her devout and simple faith, which believed all 
 things and hoped all things, she could say, with 
 Hannah of old : "■ For this child I prayed ; and the 
 Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of 
 Him : therefore, also have I lent him to the Lord ; 
 as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord." 
 
 Although Mrs. Jackson's fond hopes were not to 
 be realized, her indulgence of them was providential. 
 They elevated and hallowed her intense maternal 
 love, and filled it with a reverence which caused her 
 son's childhood to be enveloped in a spiritual atmos- 
 phere that carried airs from Heaven in its bosom. 
 
Heroes — Childhood of a Hero. 13 
 
 His nature was extraordinarily receptive of religious 
 influences, and he breathed them in from infancy. 
 He loved and reverenced his mother with passion- 
 ate devotion. Her religious habits ; her daily 
 reading of the Bible; her praying on her knees at 
 his bedside; her custom of having him read the 
 Bible, and pray at her knee with her hand resting 
 lovingly on his head — all these sacred influences 
 entered deeply into his soul and staid there forever. 
 Although in after years they sometimes seemed to 
 be buried deep under less benignant influences, they 
 nevertheless were there, doing their silent work ; 
 and as in childhood and youth and early manhood 
 they had a powerful influence in the development 
 and formation of his character, so in old age they 
 blossomed anew and shed a halo of genial glory 
 over the closing period of his life. 
 
 Many babies were born in the year 1767, some of 
 which were surrounded by influences that seemed 
 to predestine them to greatness ; but how few of 
 them can now be called by name, except by the 
 assiduous students of history! On July 11, 1767, 
 when Andrew Jackson was within four days of 
 being four months old, a boy baby was born in 
 Braintree, Massachusetts, that was to become closely 
 associated with some of the most important events of 
 his life. As those two babies were rocked, so 
 widely apart, in their North Carolina and Massa- 
 chusetts cradles, only the eye of Omniscience could 
 foresee the coalescences and the collisions that were 
 to occur between them. The Massachusetts baby, 
 afterward known as John Quincy Adams, was to 
 pass through comfort, high social position, institu- 
 
14 General Andrew Jacksori. 
 
 lions of learning, the cabinets of diplomacy and the 
 courts of Europe, to meet, at last, in the envenomed 
 contests for the Presidency of the United States in 
 1824 and 1828, that North Carolina baby who, mean- 
 time, had come up through partisan warfare in the 
 Revolution, through poverty and bitter struggles 
 for an education and a profession, through fighting 
 with wild beasts, Indians, Spaniards, British and 
 foes innumerable, to a commanding position in the 
 admiration and affection of his countrymen. As 
 this narrative goes on, it will be interesting to note 
 how the wide-swirling current of events slowly but 
 constantly brought these two babies, destined to 
 become such shining stars in the political firma- 
 ment, first into friendly contiguity and then into 
 resounding collision. 
 
 There was another baby born that same year 
 (1767) that was to have vastly more influence on 
 Andrew Jackson's life than the Massachusetts baby. 
 On what day, or in what place, this influential baby 
 was born, I do not know. It was a girl baby, and 
 was subsequently known as an intelligent, vivacious, 
 lovely brunette, named Rachel Donelson. Her 
 father, John Donelson, was a noted surveyor in 
 Virginia, and it is probable that Rachel was born in 
 that colony. How strangely the currents of human 
 lives are mingled ! A man, at that time yet unborn, 
 was to perish by Andrew Jackson's hand, for utter- 
 ing insulting words in the presence and hearing of 
 the lovely brunet.te, Rachel Donelson, of whom 
 much will be said as this story goes on. 
 
 As Andrew Jackson increased in years and sta- 
 ture, he learned to ride, to hunt, and to do a good 
 
Heroes — Child Jiood of a Hero, 15 
 
 deal of hard work of the kind that fell to the lot of 
 all the boys of that region. In the days when the 
 Persian Empire was at the height of its power and 
 glory, the sum of a Persian boy's education was to 
 ride on horseback, to shoot arrows, and to speak the 
 truth. Andrew Jackson's education was like that 
 of the Persian boy, except that he handled a rifle 
 instead of a bow, and shot bullets instead of arrows. 
 He could ride as well as any Persian, and he always 
 spoke the truth. During a few months of each year, 
 he was sent to school in a log school-house, where 
 he was taught by rough, poorly educated, itinerant 
 teachers. He took to his books kindly, and learned 
 to write a fine, clear hand. His only failure was in 
 his spelling ; to the end of his days he never mas- 
 tered the orthography of the English language ; nor, 
 in truth, did many of his contemporaries. It seemed 
 as though the only way in which the majority of 
 our Revolutionary worthies could escape being bad 
 spellers was never to spell at all. 
 
 Andrew was tall for his years, rather loose-jointed 
 and not robust. He had sandy hair and piercing 
 blue eyes. He was free in his manners, looked 
 people squarely in the face, had an air of dauntless 
 resolution, and became more and more the pride of 
 his mother's heart. 
 
 In 1848, I went to Washington as a reporter in the 
 
 United States Senate. James K. Polk, a disciple 
 
 and personal friend of Jackson's, was then President. 
 
 Old Hickory had left Washington, at the close of 
 his second term, in 1837, only eleven years before. 
 
 The city was full of people who knew him person- 
 ally, thousands of whom idolized him and hundreds 
 
 ! 
 
i6 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 of whom hated him. I had been intensely interested 
 in his life from childhood, and I eagerly listened to 
 everybody who would talk to me about him. I 
 ransacked their memories for facts, for stories, for 
 anecdotes, and made notes thereof, with the intention 
 of some day writing the old hero's life. 
 
 I heard enough about Andrew Jackson from his 
 personal friends and his personal enemies in Wash- 
 ine:ton to fill several volumes. Some of his friends 
 were old men from North Carolina whom he had 
 appointed to office while he was President, and who 
 professed to be related to him either on his father's 
 or his mother's side. Their pretensions may have 
 been founded on fact, for Andrew Jackson was not 
 a man to pass over an honest and capable relative or 
 friend to give office to a strangef, under the hypo- 
 critical assumption of a degree of public virtue 
 which was never possessed by any man so basely 
 mean as to forget in the day of triumph the friends 
 who stood by him in the battle and helped him to 
 win his victory. According to the testimony of 
 these old men, who were familiar with the legends 
 of Old Hickory's youth, the boy Andrew Jackson — 
 or Andy Jackson as he was called — was a sprightly, 
 fun-loving imp, whose propensity to boyish mischief 
 was irrestrainable. He was fond of all athletic 
 games, especially running, jumping and wrestling. 
 He was also fond of horseback riding and hunting. 
 As a wrestler, he depended on his grit more than on 
 his strength. No matter how often he was thrown 
 by more muscuLar boys, he would always demand 
 " one more trial, " until, by his tireless persistency, 
 he would obtain a victory over a boy larger and 
 
Heroes — ChildJiood of a Hero. 17 
 
 stronger than himself. Mr. Parton, whose extensive 
 and comprehensive '* Life of Andrew Jackson " is a 
 store-house of facts and anecdotes, gives the testi- 
 mony of an old school-mate of Andy Jackson's who 
 says : 
 
 ^* I could throw him three times out of four, but 
 he would never stay throwed. He was dead game, 
 even then, and never would g\YQ up. " 
 
 Andy's courage was so marked, it made a lasting 
 impression upon the minds and memories of the in- 
 habitants of the neighborhood. He was a leader of 
 the brave boys of the settlement, and was ever ready 
 to defend the weak and to defy the strong. He had 
 a terrible temper, but his wrath was easily appeased 
 as soon as opposition was overcome and victory had 
 perched upon his banner. In all these respects, the 
 old adage, " The boy is father of the man, " was 
 absolutely true in the case of Andrew Jackson. To 
 the end of his days he was a leader among the bravest 
 of the brave, a defender of the weak, a defter of the 
 wrong and strong. His courage and his fortitude 
 were, as we shall see by and by, so lofty and so un- 
 conquerable as to seem to be superhuman. In 1834, 
 William Cobbett, well known in his day as a brave 
 British soldier, a member of Parliament and a writer 
 of distinction, wrote a life of Andrew Jackson, in 
 which he calls, him '* the greatest and bravest man 
 now living in this world, or who has ever lived in 
 this world, as far as my knowledge extends. " 
 
 As years went on and Andrew's character devel- 
 oped, Mrs. Jackson's fond hope that her favorite 
 boy would become a preacher of the Gospel 
 increased in strength and deepened in intensity. 
 
1 8 Gcnei'al Aiidi^ew Jackson. 
 
 To see Andrew in a pulpit, expounding the Word 
 of God and warning sinners to flee from the wrath 
 to come, was the highest object of her ambition, the 
 consuming desire of her heart. She toiled, scrimped 
 and schemed for that end, managed to send Andrew 
 to some of the best schools then accessible, and 
 would probably have accomplished her purpose of 
 making him a clergyman had not over-ruling cir- 
 cumstances of a stern and terrible nature interfered 
 with her plans. But her efforts had been in the 
 direct lines of Providence, and, to a degree beyond 
 computation, had begun to prepare her boy for a 
 career which was to be altogether different from a 
 clergyman's. The gospel which Providence was to 
 call Andrew Jackson to preach was the gospel of 
 patriotism ; his church was to be the military camp ; 
 his pulpit was to be his war-horse, and his doctrine 
 was to be thundered from the mouths of cannon. 
 
 One cannot help considering what the result 
 would have been if the fond mother's wishes had 
 been realized, and the brave, passionate, indomitable, 
 uncompromising Andrew Jackson had become a 
 preacher of the ^Gospel. As far as one can judge, 
 he would have been a commanding pastor. His 
 flock could have taken no middle course — would not 
 even have been permitted to look at forbidden pas- 
 tures through the fence. Me would have sharply sep- 
 arated the goats from the sheep and driven the goats 
 to Hades and the sheep to Heaven " without mitiga- 
 tion or remorse." No neighboring clergyman, no 
 wandering preacher from afar would have been per- 
 mitted to poach on his parish. He would have 
 taken care of his own saints and provided for his 
 
The Boy Soldier, 19 
 
 own sinners. He would have given the devil no 
 peace. But, as has already been intimated, Provi- 
 dence was preparing quite another arena for 
 Andrew Jackson to display his powers in ; an arena 
 for which his nature pre-eminently fitted him. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE BOY SOLDIER.. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was nine years old in the )^ear 
 (1776) in which the Declaration of Independence 
 was adopted and published.' His brother Hugh was 
 fifteen, and his brother Robert was twelve years old. 
 The next year, 1777, a baby was born near 
 Richmond, Va., that was to thwart some of Andrew 
 Jackson's dearest hopes and to incur his bitter 
 enmity. That baby was afterward known and 
 passionately loved, and is still admired and loved, 
 as Henry Clay. 
 
 In 1779 a boy baby was born in Ireland that, by 
 the swirling current of events, was to be brought in 
 sharp and far-sounding collision with the Carolina 
 boy. That Irish baby boy was afterward known by 
 the honored and celebrated name of General Sir 
 Edward Pakenham. 
 
 In 1780, Charleston was captured by the British, 
 and Lord Cornwallis swept through the Carolinas, 
 marking his path with devastation. The country 
 was laid waste, and the inhabitants were driven to 
 
20 General A^idrew Jackson, 
 
 the woods and the swamps for refuge. The Waxhaw 
 settlement lay in the path of the British army. 
 Hugh Jackson was already a trooper in the regiment 
 of Colonel William R. Davie, who subsequently 
 became Andrew Jackson's ideal soldier. Hugh 
 Jacks(jn, though well grown for his age (nineteen), 
 could not stand the hardships of partisan warfare. 
 After fighting bravely at the battle of Stono Ferry, 
 he died of exhaustion. The brave boy had the true 
 Jackson grit, which never gave up so long as the 
 vital principle remained. 
 
 In that same year (1780), a baby boy was born 
 that was afterward known as Charles Dickinson. I 
 do not know the place of his birth. There are 
 legends that he was a marvelously beautiful babe ; 
 in after years he was certainly a marvelously hand- 
 some man. As his mother kissed his dimpled hand, 
 she had no premonition that it was to become the 
 most expert hand in the use of a pistol known to 
 that day and generation. How little a mother 
 knows, as she kisses her baby boy's hand, with what 
 it may in time be stained ! The hand now reddest 
 with a human brother's blood was once a baby's 
 innocent, dimpled hand. Fortunately for her peace, 
 Mrs. Dickinson could not foresee that her son's confi- 
 dence in his mastery of the pistol was to lead him to 
 insult the lovely brunette, Rachel Donelson, in 
 order to provoke the chivalric Andrew Jackson to 
 come within his weapon's deadly range. 
 
 In the spring of 1780, a camp of militia was formed 
 near the Waxhaw settlement, for the purpose of 
 protecting the patriots against the hostility of the 
 Tories who sided with the British. Militia have 
 
The Boy Soldier, 21 
 
 never been noted for taking precautions against sur- 
 prise, and the Waxhaw militia were not different in 
 this respect from other soldiers of their kind. In 
 May (1780), the dashing Colonel Tarleton, who 
 worked so much woe to the patriots of the Caro- 
 linas, surprised the camp and dispersed the militia, 
 who left over a hundred of their number dead and a 
 hundred and fifty wounded. Such terror did Tarle- 
 ton's name and conduct inspire, the inhabitants 
 fied to the forests for safety ; Mrs. Jackson fleeing 
 with them in company with her two sons, Robert 
 and Andrew. 
 
 Tarleton swept on his devastating way, not paus- 
 ing to note the ruin he had wrought, and after he 
 disappeared, the frightened inhabitants returned 
 to their desolated homes. An appalling scene met 
 their view. The bodies of the dead lay unburied, 
 the wounded were suffering without any minister- 
 ing hand to assuage their agonies. The work of 
 burying the dead and caring for the wounded was 
 at once begun by the returned fugitives. The old 
 Waxhaw Church was turned into a hospital. Mrs. 
 Jackson and her two boys became nurses of the 
 wounded, and were assiduous in their ministrations 
 to the helpless men, who died day after day despite 
 all that could be done for them. On Andrew Jack- 
 son, the sympathetic, fiery-hearted boy of thirteen, 
 the effect of all this ravage and destruction and 
 suffering and death was profound. It burnt into 
 his soul. As he tenderly ministered to the wants of 
 the wounded, and day after day saw the dead 
 buried in their rude graves, he hungered to avenge 
 their wrongs. His patriotic passion set his child's 
 
2 2 General Andrezv Jackson, 
 
 heart ailamc, and pulsated in every drop of his fiery 
 blood. It is related of him that while afterward 
 passing a few months in the family of a distant rela- 
 tive, he used to be sent to the blacksmith shop with 
 broken household utensils and farm implements 
 to have them repaired. He never came home with- 
 out some deadly weapon that he had rudely 
 fashioned at the shop, with which to smite the 
 British. Once he fastened a scythe to the end of a 
 long pole, and on reaching home he began with 
 great fury to cut down the weeds that grew about 
 the house, exclaiming, in his wrath : 
 
 " Oh, if I were a man, how I would sweep down 
 the British with my grass-blade !" 
 
 In the summer of 1780, Robert Jackson, aged fif- 
 teen, and Andrew, aged thirteen, became regular 
 partisan troopers, donned their hunting-shirts, slung 
 their guns across their shoulders, mounted their 
 horses and joined the Patriot forces. It is impossi- 
 ble not to think that a boy only thirteen years old 
 would be of but little service in such rough work as 
 the Patriot troopers were called upon to perform. 
 But Andrew Jackson was a phenomenal boy. In 
 describing General Sumter's successful attack on 
 the British at Hanging Rock, on July 30, 1780, 
 Bancroft says : 
 
 " Among the partisans who were present in this 
 
 fight was Andrew Jackson, an orphan boy of Scotch- 
 
 Irish descent, whom hatred of oppression and love 
 
 of country impelled to deeds beyond his years."* 
 
 In order to understand Andrew Jackson's seem- 
 
 * Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. v, 383. 
 
The Boy Soldier. 23 
 
 ingly incredible boyish achievements, we must 
 remember the training he had received in his 
 mother's home and at his mother's knee. Under the 
 influence of this training, he had come to believe in 
 God's superintending Providence with absolute 
 faith ; and by a superintending Providence he 
 understood a Providence that would superintend 
 Andrew Jackson. His predominant characteristics 
 were such as unwavering trust in God rapidly 
 develops in ardent young natures that are predis- 
 posed to faith in the Divine. It is well known that 
 elevated and ardent spiritual affection quickens and 
 strengthens and matures all the faculties of the 
 mind to a marvelous degree. Andrew Jackson's 
 mental faculties were thus quickened, strengthened 
 and matured. He was under the domination of 
 trust in God, love for his mother and his native land, 
 and hatred of his country's foes. This triple com- 
 bination of strenuous affections, kept in full play by 
 the circumstances which environed him, gave the 
 boy the courage, the fortitude, the endurance and 
 the sagacity of a man. All the legends of those 
 days testify to his zeal, his energy and his efficiency. 
 His chance had come to gratify the dearest wish of 
 his heart, to help " sweep down the British with his 
 grass-blade," and he was vigilant to make the most 
 of his opportunities. 
 
 Raid after raid upon the country near the Waxhaw 
 settlement kept the people in constant alarm, and 
 compelled them again and again to flee to the woods 
 and the swamps foi refuge. Colonel Davie and the 
 other partisan leaders could do but little to protect 
 them against the numerous detachments of British 
 
24 General Andreiu Jackso7i, 
 
 troops aided by the malignant Tories. The wrath 
 of the Patriots against the Tories burned at white 
 heat, and their hatred was rancorously reciprocated 
 by the allies of the British. The most cruel civil 
 war raged throughout the Carolinas. The passions 
 of the inhabitants became so inflamed that kind- 
 hearted Christian men enacted the part of fiends. 
 
 In August, 1780, General Gates was defeated at 
 Camden, S. C, by Lord Cornwallis. That was a 
 crushing blow to the Patriots. It filled the Tories 
 with exultation. They became still more active, 
 rancorous and brutal : and the Whigs (as the Patriots 
 were called) defended themselves with correspond- 
 ing animosity and ferocity. The effect of this hor- 
 rible contest on the malleable, the growing, the 
 forming nature of Andrew Jackson was powerful 
 and lasting. Patriotism became a religion with him, 
 and hatred of his country's foes a frenzy ; and we 
 shall see how, thirty-five years afterwards, when his 
 opportunity came, he poured forth all this, in one 
 terrific blast of doom, upon the finest British army 
 that ever stepped upon American soil. 
 
 Things finally came to such a pass in the Waxhaw 
 region that, whenever one of the American soldiers 
 wanted to spend a night at home, special arrange- 
 ments had to be made to defend his dwelling and 
 save him from capture or death. On a certain 
 occasion, Captain Sands, one of the Patriot ofBcers, 
 wishing to visit his family, a guard was sent to pro- 
 tect him. Andrew Jackson was one of the guard. 
 The men were so exhausted by long-continued 
 marching and watching, that they all fell asleep by 
 midnight ; but one of them, who was restless in his 
 
The Boy Soldier, 25 
 
 slumber, heard a noise, and, going out of doors, 
 saw a band of the enemy stealthily approaching the 
 house. Andrew Jackson was lying next the door. 
 The man who had discovered the approach of the 
 enemy, seized the sleeping boy by the hair, and 
 cried : *' The Tories are upon us !" Instantly, the 
 boy was wide awake. Springing through the door, 
 with the rest of the guard gathered in a group 
 behind him, he challenged the approaching foe. 
 No reply being given, he discharged his musket at 
 the enemy, who returned the fire, mortally wound- 
 ing the restless man who had given the alarm. 
 Fortunately, another band of Tories, unknown to 
 the first assailants, came up from an opposite direc- 
 tion and opened fire on the house. This caused the 
 first band to halt. Little Andrew, with the instinct 
 of a commander, took advantage of their confusion 
 to withdraw the guard into the house, from which 
 the Patriots kept up a brisk fire. At a critical 
 moment, a bugle call was heard, which indicated 
 that a company of Patriot troopers were advancing 
 to the rescue of the beleagued guard. This caused 
 both bands of Tories to hasten away, and the guard 
 passed the remainder of the night in peace. It was 
 afterward learned that the bugle call was sounded 
 by a neighbor who heard the firing, and, suspecting 
 that Captain Sands's house was attacked, took 
 that method of rendering him the only efficient aid 
 he could give. 
 
 Lord Rawdon, whom Cornwallis had left in com- 
 mand at Camden, hearing of the activity of the 
 Waxhaw Whigs, sent a detachment of troops to the 
 aid of the Tories in that region. Forty Whigs, 
 
Gc7icral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 among' whom were the two Jackson boys, assembled 
 to make preparations to repulse the British. They 
 were betrayed by their Tory neig-hbors, surprised ' 
 and put to flight. Eleven of the forty men were 
 taken prisoners. The rest were hotly pursued b}^ 
 the British. The Jackson boys rode different wa3'S. 
 Andrew galloped by the side of his cousin, Lieuten- 
 ant Thomas Crawford, one dragoon close behind 
 them, and others not far off. The fugitives plunged 
 into a swamp}^ field, which Andrew succeeded in 
 crossing, but Lieutenant Crawford was overtaken, 
 wounded and compelled to surrender. 
 
 Robert Jackson escaped unharmed. In the 
 course of the day, the brothers found one another. 
 They passed a sleepless night. In the morning, 
 being nearly famished, they quit their hiding place 
 and went in search of food. Leaving their horses 
 and arms behind them, safely hidden in the woods 
 as they thought, the boys crawled stealthily to the 
 nearest house, which was that of their wounded and 
 captured cousin, Lieutenant Crawford. They sup- 
 posed they were unobserved, but they were mis- 
 taken. A Tory of the neighborhood had discovered 
 their hiding-place, had found their horses and arms, 
 and procured the assistance of a party of dragoons. 
 Before the boys had a suspicion of danger, the sol- 
 diers had surrounded the house and cut off all 
 chance of escape. The brave lads were prisoners. 
 
 The soldiers rushed into the house with the 
 ferocity of demons. The rude dwelling was oc- 
 cupied only by a young wife, her infant children 
 and the two famishing boys, but the soldiers acted 
 as though they were carr3nng an armed fortress by 
 
The Boy Soldier. 27 
 
 storm. They broke to pieces the crockery, glass 
 and furniture; they emptied the beds, and tore all 
 the clothing to rags, not sparing garments belonging 
 to the baby carried in Mrs. Crawford's arms. While 
 the destruction was going on, the officer in com- 
 mand of the party ordered Andrew Jackson to 
 clean his high, muddy cavalry boots. Take notice 
 of the little fellow's dignified response to the officer's 
 bullying command. 
 
 '* Sir, " said the brave boy, ** I am a prisoner of 
 war, and claim to be treated as such. " 
 
 The officer, in a rage, drew his sword and aimed a 
 furious stroke at the child's head. Andrew threw 
 up his left hand, which broke the force of the blow 
 and probably saved his life ; but he received a deep 
 cut on his hand and another on his head. Both 
 wounds were severe, and he carried the marks of 
 both all the days of his long life. When one con- 
 templates the circumstances in which that captured, 
 unarmed American lad, only thirteen years old, 
 with slashed hand and cloven head, and his hunting 
 shirt stained with his dripping blood, unflinchingly 
 and defiantly stood his ground against his brutal 
 British assailant, the heart is stirred with inexpressi- 
 ble emotions, and one feels that there was a boy 
 for all the boys in the world to admire and for every 
 girl in the world to love. 
 
 Finding it impossible to make Andrew clean his 
 boots, the officer turned to the elder brother Robert 
 and ordered him to clean them. Animated by 
 Andrew's example and indignant at the officer's 
 brutality, Robert likewise refused to perform the 
 menial service ; whereupon the martial Briton felled 
 
« 
 
 28 General Andrezv Jackson. 
 
 Iiim to the earth by a blow of his sword upon the 
 head. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the influence which 
 such barbarities had upon the mind and the heart of 
 our high-spirited young hero. He not only saw 
 such brutalities with his own eyes and experienced 
 them in his own person, but he heard of worse ones 
 that were perpetrated in different parts of the 
 country — the murder, lor instance, of Colonel 
 William Ledyard, the gallant defender of Fort 
 Griswold, in Connecticut. On September 7, 1781, 
 Fort Griswold, defended by Colonel Ledyard with 
 only one hundred and fifty-seven militia, was at- 
 tacked by eight hundred British troops. The de- 
 fense was so gallant that two hundred of the enemy 
 were slain before the fort was captured. Major 
 Bromfield, the commander of the British force, on 
 entering the captured fortress, asked : 
 
 ** Who commanded this fort?" 
 
 " I did, sir, but you do now, " Colonel Ledyard 
 replied, at the same time handing the officer his 
 sword. 
 
 Major Bromfield seized the sword, plunged it to 
 the hilt in Colonel Ledyard's bosom, and the gallant 
 American fell dead at his British murderer's feet. 
 
 The patriotic people of the Carolinas were writh- 
 ing under the insolence of British armies in which 
 every soldier was licensed to plunder and every 
 officer outlawed peaceful citizens at will. 
 
 "Tarleton and his corp set fire to all the houses 
 and destroyed the corn from Camden down to 
 Nelson's ferry ; he beat the widow of a general 
 officer because she could not tell where Marion 
 
The Boy Soldier, 29 
 
 was encamped, burned her dwelling, laid waste 
 everything about it, and did not leave her a change 
 of raiment. The line of their march could be traced 
 by groups of houseless women and children, once 
 of ample fortune, sitting round fires in the open 
 air. * 
 
 The unspeakably revolting conduct of British 
 officers which Andrew Jackson witnessed and heard 
 of convinced him that of all brutes the British brute 
 is the most brutal. He had not yet learned, he had 
 had no opportunity to learn, that of all brave,' hon- 
 orable and noble men, the brave, honorable and 
 noble Briton stands high among the very bravest, 
 the most honorable and the noblest of mankind. Of 
 this truth Andrew Jackson was entirely ignorant. 
 He saw only the most odious traits of the British 
 character, and they excited in him nought but feel- 
 ings of indignation, wrath, hatred and vengeance. 
 As Hannibal, in his childhood, swore eternal enmity 
 to Rome on the altar of his country's gods, so Andrew 
 Jackson, in his childhood, swore eternal enmity to 
 England on the altar of his young heart. His own 
 personal wrongs were burnt into his soul and for- 
 ever remained vivid in his memory. Long years 
 afterward, even when he was President of the 
 United States, in recounting the outrage perpetrated 
 upon him by the British officer whose boots he 
 refused to clean, he sometimes took hold of the 
 finger of a sympathizing listener and laid it in the 
 deep wound made by his assailant's sword. 
 
 When the soldiers had satiated their rage for 
 
 * Bancroft v, 402. 
 
'> 
 
 o Ge7ieral Ajidrczu Jackson. 
 
 destruction upon the household effects of the help- 
 less and hapless Mrs. Crawford, Andrew Jackson 
 was ordered to mount his horse and guide some of 
 the dragoons to the house of a noted Whig of the 
 vicinity, named Thompson. Weak from starvation 
 and loss of blood, suffering from his wounds, and 
 threatened with instant death if he failed to guide 
 the soldiers aright, this dauntless boy nevertheless 
 resolved to save his friend Thompson. In order 
 that the reader may work himself up to something 
 like an adequate conception of this boy's character, 
 let him think of all the boys of thirteen that he 
 knows, or ever knew, and imagine any of them in 
 the strait in which this thirteen-year-old Carolina 
 boy now was, and then consider what the result 
 would have been. But, as I have said, Andrew 
 Jackson was a phenomenal boy ; and now observe 
 with what sagacity he planned, even in the terrible 
 and distracting circumstances in which he was 
 placed, to save his friend Thompson. 
 
 Andrew surmised that if Thompson were at home, 
 he would have some one on the lookout for danger, 
 and a horse ready for flight. In order that 
 Thompson might be put on his guard, the sagacious 
 boy, instead of leading the dragoons on the direct 
 road to his friend's abode, led them by a roundabout 
 route which brought them in sight of the house 
 while still half a mile distant. On coming in sight 
 of the dwelling, Andrew saw Thompson's horse, 
 saddled and bridled, standing by a rack in the yard. 
 The dragoons also saw the horse, and inferring 
 therefrom that Thompson was at home, they dashed 
 forward to seize their prey. Andrew's heart seemed 
 
The Boy Soldier. 31 
 
 to rise in his throat at the thought that his strata- 
 gem would not save his friend, after aU. But while 
 the dragoons were still several hundred yards from 
 the house, the boy's heart was made glad by Thomp- 
 son's bursting from his door, leaping upon his horse 
 and riding directly into a foaming creek, swollen 
 with recent rains, that rushed and roared along near 
 his dwelling. The dragoons did not dare attempt 
 to cross the raging creek. Thompson, seeing their 
 timidity, gave a shout of defiance and galloped into 
 
 the woods. 
 
 Mr. Parton, to whom the reader is indebted for the 
 anecdote just related, tells us that the elation caused 
 by the success of Andrew's stratagem was soon 
 swallowed ,up by misery. With their wounds 
 undressed, weak with hunger and the loss of blood, 
 the Jackson boys, with their cousin Crawford and 
 twenty other prisoners, were ordered to mount 
 and begin their weary march to the chief British 
 depot at Camden, in South Carolina, forty miles 
 distant. It was indeed a dreadful journey to them 
 all; but worst to these boys, sick and sore from 
 fresh wounds. Amos Kendall says in his '' Life of 
 Jackson " that not an atom of food, nor a drop of 
 water was allowed them on the way. Such was the 
 brutality of the soldiers that when the miserable 
 Jackson lads tried to scoop up a little water from 
 the streams which they forded, to appease their 
 raging thirst, they were ordered with threats to 
 
 desist. 
 
 At Camden, the prisoners were placed in a small 
 
 inclosure around the county jaiL There were two 
 
 hundred and fifty prisoners in all shut up in that 
 
32 Gefieral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 yard, without beds, medicine or attendance ; with- 
 out any means of dressing their wounds or assuag- 
 ing their pain. Their only nourishment was a small 
 daily ration of inferior bread. 
 
 ** They were robbed even of a part of their cloth- 
 ing, besides being subject to the taunts and threats 
 of every passing Tory, The three relatives, it is 
 said, were separated as soon as their re' itionship 
 was discovered. Miserable among the miserable ; 
 gaunt, yellow, hungry and sick ; robbed of his 
 jacket and shoes ; ignorant of his brother's fate, 
 chafing with suppressed fury, Andrew passed 
 now some of the most wretched days of his life." 
 
 The small-pox broke out among the prisoners, a 
 disease still terrible, but which in those days, when 
 no rational mode of treatment had been discov ered, 
 struck terror to all who were exposed to it, and 
 filled the hearts of its victims with despair. In the 
 prison pen at Camden, the ravages of the disease 
 were attended with every conceivable horror. The 
 sick were not separated from the well ; the festering 
 corpses of the dead were tardily removed from the 
 inclosure. The emaciation of the prisoners and the 
 wretched condition of their systems, invited the 
 fatal attacks to which their lack of vitality caused 
 them speedily to succumb. 
 
 " For some time Andrew escaped the contagion. 
 He was reclining one day in the sun near the 
 entrance of the prison, when the officer of the guard, 
 attracted, as it seemed, by the 3^outhfulness of his 
 appearance, entered into conversation with him. 
 The lad soon began to speak of that of which his 
 heart was full — the condition of the prisoners and 
 
The Boy Soldier, 'XX 
 
 the bad quality of their food. He remonstrated 
 against their treatment with such energy and 
 feeling that the officer seemed to be moved and 
 shocked, and what was far more important, he was 
 induced to ferret out the villainy of the contractors 
 who had been robbing the prisoners of their rations. 
 From the day of Andrew's remonstrance the 
 condition of the prisoners was ameliorated ; they 
 were supplied with meat and better bread, and were 
 otherwise better cared for."* 
 
 From an aperture in the fence surrounding their 
 inclosure, some of the prisoners witnessed the battle 
 of Hobkirk's Hill, between the armies of General 
 Greene and Lord Rawdon, on April 25, 1781. Gen- 
 eral Greene had superseded General Gates in the 
 command of the Revolutionary forces in the South, 
 and great things w^ere expected of him. He 
 advanced to drive Lord Rawdon out of Camden, 
 but having outstripped his artiller}^, he halted on 
 Hobkirk's Hill for it to come up. The suffering 
 prisoners hailed the appearance of the American 
 army with rapture. They had no doubt of Greene's 
 success, and to them his success meant liberty and 
 home ; and to some of the more sick and despairing 
 it meant life itself. Rawdon had only nine hundred 
 men to Greene's one thousand three hundred. Owing 
 to the superiority of his force, the American com- 
 mander had no idea that he would be attacked, and 
 failed to take proper precautions against a surprise. 
 But Lord Rawdon did not choose to wait in Camden 
 for Greene's artillerv to arrive. He sallied out on 
 
 * Parton I, 91. 
 
34 General Andreiv Jackson, 
 
 the morning of April 25th, took the Americans b}' 
 surprise, drove them from their advantageous posi- 
 tion, and put them to disastrous rout. Through a 
 knot-hole in the fence surrounding the prison, 
 Andrew Jackson saw this battle, or rather this rout, 
 and learned lessons of war from it which he never 
 forgot. He learned that danger lurks in every 
 relaxation of precaution or discipline, and that the 
 army which strikes the first blow in a battle has the 
 inspiring influence of attack on its side, and, if skill- 
 fully handled, gains an advantage which it is always 
 difficult and sometimes impossible even for a superior 
 opposing force to withstand. What splendid use he 
 made at New Orleans of these lessons in war which, 
 while a boy, he studied through his knot-hole at 
 Camden, Avill be seen further on. Just now the 
 brave boy had a battle close upon him more desper- 
 ate than that of New Orleans ; a battle, indeed, of 
 life and death. 
 
Andrew s Forlorn Condition. x 
 
 JD 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE LITTLE HERO'S STRUGGLE FOR LIFE — DEATH 
 OF HIS MOTHER — ANDREW'S FORLORN 
 
 CONDITION. 
 
 After General Greene's defeat, the Jackson boys, 
 still suffering from their wounds and despairing of 
 escape fron their imprisonment, began to show 
 symptoms of the small-pox. Before they were quite 
 prostrate, their mother, who had long been schem- 
 ing and striving for their exchange, reached Cam- 
 den with an order for their release. In exchange 
 for thirteen British soldiers, she received her two 
 boys, her nephew (Thomas Crawford) and four of 
 her Waxhaw neighbors. When this devoted mother 
 saw her sons, she scarcely knew them, so wasted 
 were they with wounds, starvation and disease. 
 Robert could not sit on horseback unsupported. 
 Andrew was reduced to a skeleton, but the fire of 
 his eyes was not dimmed, nor his dauntless spirit 
 subdued. 
 
 Determined, if possible, to get her boys home at 
 once, Mrs. Jackson procured two horses, one of 
 which she rode herself, and placed her son Robert 
 on the other. He was held in his seat by his com- 
 panions. Last of all walked Andrew, without shoes, 
 without a hat, wearing nothing but shirt and 
 trousers, both ragged. How this wounded, dis- 
 eased, emaciated lad of fourteen, with the small- 
 pox fever raging in his veins and about to prostrate 
 
^6 General Andreiv Jackson, 
 
 him, could have had the grit, the fortitude and the 
 endurance to make that weary journey of forty miles 
 on foot, is beyond human comprehension, unless we 
 ascribe the phenomenon to the sustaining power 
 of his trust in God. But he had the grit, the forti- 
 tude and the endurance to accomplish such a mar- 
 vel, even when a boy ; and he had the same charac- 
 teristics in a more marked degree when he became 
 a man, and he had the corresponding trust in God, 
 also. When these forlorn wayfarers were almost in 
 sight of their home, a cold and driving rain set in, 
 which chilled both of these fevered boys to their 
 marrow. They reached home well-nigh exhausted. 
 Two days alter Robert Jackson died, and Andrew 
 was raving in delirium. He had a narrow escape 
 from death. After a desperate struggle, his mother's 
 admirable nursing saved his life, but he did not 
 fully recover for many tedious months. 
 
 Long before his strength returned, harrowing 
 rumors spread through both Carolinas to the effect 
 that hundreds of American prisoners, among them 
 many of Mrs. Jackson's relatives and neigh- 
 bors, were perishing of hunger and disease in the 
 Charleston prison-ships, a hundred and sixty miles 
 distant. Inspired by her success in the exchange 
 of her sons, Mrs. Jackson set out for Charleston, 
 accompanied by two other women, with intent to 
 procure, if possible, the release of her friends and 
 relatives. It is known that those noble and devoted 
 women reached the prison-ships, carrying joy and 
 hope to despairing men. 
 
 Andrew Jackson never saw his mother again. At 
 the house of a relative near Charleston^ she was 
 
Andrezvs Forlorn Condition. 37 
 
 seized with the ship-fever, of which she died after a 
 short iUness. She was buried on the open plain 
 near by, in an unmarked grave — a grave which 
 Andrew Jackson could never find, though in after 
 years he sought for it with the energy and persis- 
 tency which his filial devotion inspired. 
 
 For this wise and resolute mother, Andrew Jack- 
 son cherished to his life's end an unparalleled ven- 
 eration. So far as the record of his life shows, he 
 was but little given to the shedding of tears ; but 
 once, on a memorable occasion, he shed them on his 
 mother's account. During his candidacy for the 
 Presidency in 1828, the floodgates of vituperation and 
 slander were opened upon him. So malignant was 
 party animosity, that not only himself, but his wife, 
 and even his mother were assailed with vindictive 
 falsehood. During the campaign, his wife once 
 found him in tears. In response to her looks of 
 surprise and sympathy, he pointed to a paragraph 
 reflecting on his mother, and said : 
 
 "• Myself I can defend ; you T can defend ; but 
 now they have assailed even the memory of my 
 mother !" 
 
 He loved to speak of his mother's firmness, of her 
 good sense, of her capacity and of her compassion- 
 ate heart. He loved to quote her maxims concern- 
 ing the conduct of life, especially one : " Never to 
 injure another, nor to accept from another an injury 
 unredressed." Often in the heat of argument, when 
 he was at the height of his renown, he would quote 
 some homely saying, with the remark : *' That I 
 learned from my good old mother." 
 
 How little that " good old mother " knew what 
 
38 General Aiidi^ezu Jackson. 
 
 the result of her maternal faithfulness was to be ! 
 How little she dreamed that, in her lowly sphere, 
 and in her humble, pious way, she was training for 
 a great career the hero of the age ! In truth, she 
 had imparted to her son what was of far more value 
 than the learning oi the schools, than the acquisi- 
 tions of commerce. From her he had learned to 
 believe in God, in the Bible, in virtue, in the sacred- 
 ness of woman's purity and love, in everything 
 which gives strength to character, nobility to human 
 nature, and honor and dignity to life. 
 
 " Happy he 
 With such a mother ! Faith in womankind 
 Beats in his blood, and trust in all things high 
 Comes easy to him." 
 
 To Andrew Jackson may be applied, in all their 
 fullness and power, the words that Carlyle puts in 
 the mouth of his favorite character : " My mother, 
 with a true woman's heart, and line though uncul- 
 tured sense, was in the strictest acceptation Reli- 
 gious. * * The highest whom I knew on earth I 
 here saw bowed down, with awe unspeakable, before 
 a Higher in Heaven ; such things, especially in 
 infancy, reach inwards to the very core of your 
 being; mysteriously does a Holy of Holies build 
 itself into visibility in the mysterious deeps, and 
 Reverence, the divinest in man, springs forth 
 undying from its envelopment of Fear." 
 
 When he heard the news of his mother's death, 
 Andrew Jackson was in the fifteenth year of his age. 
 He was surrounded by worn-out, suffering, disheart- 
 ened neighbors, who had begun to despair of their 
 
Andrew s Forlorn Condition. 39. 
 
 country's struggle for liberty ; he was an orphan ; he 
 was homeless ; he was destitute ; he was broken in 
 health and emaciated by disease ; his heart was deso- 
 late from the loss in quick succession of all the 
 members of his family. Was there ever a more 
 pitiful case ? So far as ordinary human observation 
 can see or foresee, there never was a more pitiful 
 case. But Providence knew what it was about, and 
 saw that this desolate orphan boy.'s situation was 
 full of glorious promise. Heroes are not brought up 
 in boudoirs, nor nourished with sugar-plums. 
 
 What a calamity it would have been if a com- 
 mittee of the supposed wisest men then in the 
 world had been apppointed to supersede Providence 
 in training Andrew Jackson for the career he was to 
 achieve. The committee would have done every- 
 thing for the boy ; Providence compelled him to do 
 everything for himself. He who does a little for 
 himself, gains more than he who has much done 
 for him. To overcome obstacles, to triumph over 
 difficulties gives one self-reliance, and strengthens 
 and ennobles his character; whereas, a habit of de- 
 pending on what others do for him, lessens one's 
 reliance and weakens and degrades his character. 
 In the light of these truths, it is possible for us to 
 see that what seemed the worst features in this 
 orphan boy's case, were, in fact, its best features. 
 Moreover, in this boy there were elements of char- 
 acter which, if properly developed, could triumph 
 over all misfortunes and surmount all obstacles. 
 
40 General A7idi'ezv Jackson. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SECRET OF ANDREW JACKSON'S CAREER AND 
 
 POWER. 
 
 Some of the incidents of Andrew Jackson's life 
 are so incredible, some of his exhibitions of mental, 
 moral and spiritual power so transcend belief, it is 
 necessary to give an exposition of his character in 
 order that the reader may be prepared to under- 
 stand how these seemingly impossible events could 
 come to pass. It is a familiar fact that, when 
 Andrew Jackson was President of the United States, 
 although he was frequently opposed by a great 
 preponderance of the intellect, scholarship, genius 
 and commercial power of the Union, he neverthe- 
 less came out of every contest victorious. It is 
 also a matter of history that during General 
 Jackson's military career, he repeatedly held in 
 check and reduced to subjection whole regiments of 
 mutinous troops, simply by the force of his will and 
 the overpowering majesty of his presence. And as 
 the story of his life goes on, it will be seen that he 
 did other things more wonderful still. 
 
 We already have a key to the character of the man 
 who could do such incredible things. We have 
 seen that the overruling attributes of Andrew 
 Jackson's nature were reverence and faith in God ; 
 he was also honest, truthful and chaste, and his 
 mother's teaching and influence developed and ex- 
 
Andrew Jackson s Career ajid Power. 41 
 
 alted those natural traits until they became spiritual- 
 ized and ennobled to a transcendent degree. 
 
 There are two pillars on which the edifice of civ- 
 ilized society mainly rests. One of these pillars is 
 integrity, the other is chastity. To man it is given 
 to uphold integrity ; to woman it is given to uphold 
 chastity ; and all that the ungodly world demands 
 is that each sex shall stand by and uphold its own 
 pillar. But here was a boy, a man, a hero, who, as 
 to both of these sustaining pillars of society, was 
 immaculate from his boyhood to his grave. There 
 is ample and convincing evidence of this. More 
 than forty years ago, in Washington, when talking 
 with a banker who knew General Jackson intimately, 
 1 asked him if the general was in fact as scrupulously 
 honest as he was said to have been. " Honest !" he 
 exclaimed, ''Why, sir, everybody that knew him 
 knew that he was honest. A promissory note, or 
 any piece of commercial paper, with Andrew Jack- 
 son's name on it, was legal tender, sir, wherever that 
 name was known !" Mr. Parton has collected a 
 mass of testimony on this point, among which is the 
 declaration of an old neighbor of the general's, who 
 said : " As for Jackson's own part, law or no law, he 
 would pay what he owed ; he would do what he said 
 he would." A gentleman living in Tennessee went 
 to Boston in 1838 to raise a large sum of money. 
 The Boston bankers declined to let him have it, 
 although his securities were backed by many of the 
 best commercial names in Tennessee. They told 
 him, however, that if he could get General Jack- 
 son's endorsement on his paper, they would let him 
 have all the money he wanted. " Why !" exclaimed 
 
42 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 the Teniiesseean, in surprise, " General Jackson isn't 
 worth a tenth as much as any one of the gentlemen 
 whose names I have." " No matter," was the reply ; 
 '^ General Jacksoji always protects his paper and we'll let 
 you Jiave tJie money on tlie strength of his name'' The 
 general's endorsement was procured, and so was 
 the money, '* on the strength of his name" — a name 
 that was never dishonored. 
 
 The evidence with regard to Andrew Jackson's 
 purity of character and his chivalric conduct toward 
 women is overwhelming. On this point, Judge 
 Overton, of Tennessee, who was intimate with him 
 from Jackson's early manhood, says, in an article on 
 the subject : " In his singularly delicate sense of 
 honor, and in what I thought his chivalrous concep- 
 tion of the sex, it occurred to me that he [Jackson] 
 was distinguishable from every other person with 
 whom I was acquainted."^ 
 
 Colonel Benton, in his '' Thirty Years in the U. S. 
 Senate," page 738, says of General Jackson : '* There 
 was an innate, unvarying, self-acting delicacy in his 
 intercourse with the female sex, including all 
 womankind." The Honorable Nicholas P. Trist, 
 for a time President Jackson's private secretary, 
 says : " There was in him a womanly modesty and 
 delicacy as respects the relation of the sexes. ^' "^ ■^' 
 This chaste tenderness toward the sex was con- 
 stantly manifesting itself, and in a manner so 
 unstudied, so perfectly spontaneous, as to show that 
 it was as natural to him as to breathe." f 
 
 During the reception given to President Jackson 
 
 * Parton's Life of Jackson, I, 151. f Ibid. Ill, 602. 
 
Andrew Jacksoiis Career and Power, 4 
 
 '^ 
 
 at Cambridge, after Harvard College had made him 
 a Doctor of Laws, some beautiful little girls came 
 up to salute him. Josiah Quincy, a political enemy 
 of Jackson's, who witnessed the scene, wrote of it 
 thus : " He took the hands of these little maidens, 
 and then lifted them up and kissed them. It was a 
 pleasant sight — one not to be omitted when the 
 events of the day were put upon paper. This rough 
 soldier [Jackson], exposed all his life to those temp- 
 tations which have conquered public men whom we 
 still call good, could kiss little childreii with lips as pure 
 as their owny'^ (The italics are mine.) On such 
 statements by Judge Overton, Colonel Benton, Mr. 
 Trist and Josiah Quincy, 1 am willing to rest the 
 case, without calling any more witnesses. 
 
 It has been said that " integrity, chastity and rev- 
 erence are the three traits of human character which 
 are most pleasing to God." I do not pretend to be 
 in the secret of God's preferences; but it is no 
 secret that integrity and chastity are the moral bed- 
 rocks on which human character rests ; and Andrew 
 Jackson's integrity and chastity were immaculate. 
 It is an accepted truth and fact that exalted rev- 
 erence—" the divinest in man," as Carlyle says- 
 quickens, deepens and strengthens all the other 
 qualities and faculties, and gives a man such confi- 
 dence in himself as nothing else can bestow. Andrew 
 Jackson's reverence exceeded that of any man of 
 his time, or of any time, so far as the observations 
 of phrenologists and the developments of his char- 
 acter can determine. 
 
 * Figures of the Past, page 367. 
 
44 General A^idrew Jacksoit. 
 
 A man of excessive reverence, if he is a Chris- 
 tian, has implicit faith in God ; if he is an infidel, 
 he has implicit trust in his star, his fate, his destiny ; 
 and whether Christian or Infidel, he has a Satisfying 
 and sustaining belief in himself. That is the kind 
 of man that Andrew Jackson was. Of all the men 
 of whom 1 have any knowledge he had the most 
 faith in God and in himself. Throughout all his 
 life he was sustained by a comforting assurance that 
 God and Andrew Jackson constituted a combina- 
 tion that could not be overcome by human power. 
 Consequently he never " lost his head ;" he never 
 quailed before any degree of danger ; no amount of 
 suffering and disaster, and of seemingly utter disso- 
 lution of opportunity could overcome his fortitude. 
 His favorite adjuration, " By the Eternal," was an 
 outcome of his reverence, being to him equivalent 
 to '' In the name of the Eternal." When, on hear- 
 ing, on the afternoon of December 23, 1814, that the 
 British army had come within eight miles of New 
 Orleans, he said, '* By the Eternal, they sha'n't sleep 
 on our soil !" the sentiment of his heart was that, 
 " In the name of the Eternal," he that very night 
 would deal the invaders a staggering blow ; and, 
 *' By the Eternal," he did it. 
 
 In addition to the elements of character already 
 specified, Andrew Jackson's combativeness, destruc- 
 tiveness, secretiveness, cautiousness and other ani- 
 mal organs were very large: so were his firmness, 
 hope, conscientiousness and self-esteem. It is not 
 difficult to understand that such a combination of 
 extraordinary mental, moral and spiritual qualities 
 endowed him with a character which, practically 
 
Andrczu Jacksoiis Cai'ecr and Pozvcr. 45 
 
 considered, was of that unconquerable kind, solid 
 and firm as Gibraltar, that Emerson defines as ''cen- 
 trality, tJie ij^ipossibility of being displaced or overset'^ 
 It was in vain, therefore, for men whose characters 
 Avere so defective they could be displaced and over- 
 set, to contend with Andrew Jackson. He might have 
 been destroyed, but while he lived he could not be 
 vanquished. Like Milton's ang-els, such character 
 as his, 
 
 " Vital in every part 
 
 Cannot, but by annihilating, die."* 
 
 There is another factor in the character and 
 career of Andrew Jackson which should be kept in 
 view, and that is, the race from which he sprang-. 
 He was of Scotch-Irish lineage. 
 
 Owing to some inscrutable dispensation of Provi- 
 dence, the Scotch-Irish combine nearly all the 
 opposing extremes of character. Of all the descend- 
 ants of Adam, they are among the most zealous 
 advocates of the Gospel of Peace and the most bel- 
 ligerent of the children of God ; among the most 
 ferocious and the most tender-hearted ; the most 
 courageous and the most cautious ; the most impetu- 
 ous and the most canny ; the- most dashing and the 
 most strategic ; the most exacting and the most 
 generous. They are noted for pugnacity, tenacity, 
 veracity — for fight, grip and truth. They excel in 
 bringing things to pass and in husbanding results. 
 They are thrifty, accumulative ; they get and they 
 keep — "keep the Ten Commandments and everj^- 
 thing else they can lay their hands on," as the Rev. 
 Dr. John S. Macintosh, a distinguished Scotch-Irish- 
 
46 Getter a I Andrew Jacksoti, 
 
 man, says of them. Politically, socially and reli- 
 giously — to borrow a phrase from another eminent 
 member of the race, the Hon. William Wirt Henry, 
 of Virginia — the Scotch-Irish are distinguished for 
 ** stern integrity, high sense of duty, hatred of 
 tyranny and devotion to God." 
 
 The names of eminent and prosperous members 
 of this race are thickly sown through American his- 
 tor}', among which are the names of Charles Carroll, 
 of Carrollton, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, 
 John Paul Jones, Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, 
 Thomas H. Benton, John Marshall, James Madison, 
 James K. Polk, Robert Fulton, Horace Greeley, 
 Robert Bonner, Abraham Lincoln, Ul3'sses S. 
 Grant, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The 
 list might be extended to thousands, but let these 
 names suffice. And when, in addition to the delinea- 
 tion of his character already given, it is understood 
 that of all the Scotch-Irishmen known to history, 
 Andrew Jackson possessed, in the most exuberant 
 fullness, the best characteristics of the race, and had 
 just the right field to display them on, it will be 
 easy to believe that incidents so extraordinary as to 
 seem incredible often occurred in his unparalleled 
 career, the nar*-ative of which will now be resumed. 
 
From Youth to Manhood. 
 
 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM YOUTH TO MANHOOD — FROM THE WAXHAWS 
 
 TO NASHVILLE. 
 
 On the 19th of October, 1781, Cornwallis surren- 
 dered at Yorktownto Washington and Rochambeau. 
 This virtually ended the war ; but the British held 
 possession of Charleston until December, 1782, when 
 they sailed away, to the great joy of the inhabitants 
 of the Carolinas. During that year (1782), several 
 babies were born that were to collide with Andrew 
 Jackson and more or less affect his career. On 
 January 18, 1782, Daniel Webster was born in Salis- 
 bur}^ (now Franklin), New Hampshire ; on March 
 14, Thomas H. Benton was born in Hillsborough, 
 N. C; on March 18, John C. Calhoun was born in 
 the Calhoun settlement, Abbeville District, S. C; 
 on October 9, Lewis Cass was born in Exeter, N. 
 H.; and on December 5, Martin Van Buren was 
 born in Kinderhook, N. Y. Seventeen hundred and 
 eighty-two was a great year for babies that were to 
 become famous. Andrew Jackson and his Massa- 
 chusetts contemporary (John Quincy Adams) were 
 now youths of fifteen, and Henry Clay was a boy 
 five years old. All these babies, and the boy of five, 
 and the youths of fifteen, who were born so far 
 apart and under such ^different circumstances, were 
 to have their threads of life woven together on the 
 loom of Providence in strange ways and after 
 strange patterns. The lovely brunette, Rachel 
 
48 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 ■ ■ " 
 
 Donelson, now fifteen years old, had gone with her 
 brave father through awful perils of flood and 
 forest, to the wilds of Western Tennessee. But the 
 remoteness and obscurity of her residence did not 
 save her from having the threads of her own life 
 fatefuUy woven into this many-patterned web. And 
 the handsome baby boy, Charles Dickinson, was to 
 find his way to far Western Tennessee, and to have 
 his life-threads woven into the same fabric ; and they 
 were to give it a crimson stripe not pleasant for 
 human eyes to look upon. 
 
 There is but little authentic information concern- 
 ing Andrew Jackson's life during the next three 
 years. Kendall says that a low fever hung about 
 him long after his recovery from the small-pox, and 
 kept him weak and dispirited. But weak as he was, 
 he had the spirit to resent a threat of chastisement 
 made by one Captain Galbraith. " Before you lift 
 your hand to strike me," said the brave lad, " you 
 had better prepare for eternity." The irate Gal- 
 braith did not lift his hand to strike the boy. 
 
 Andrew lived several months with a saddler, 
 named Joseph White, and during that time he 
 worked in the saddler's shop as regularly as his 
 health permitted. He became a school-teacher 
 before he was seventeen years old, and was success- 
 ful in his vocation ; especially in preserving order 
 among the half-civilized and vivacious youths of the 
 Waxhaw region. In 1785, at the age of eighteen, 
 he went to Salisbury, N. C, to study law in the 
 office of Spruce McCay, a noted lawyer of that day. 
 He was admitted to the bar in 1787, a few weeks 
 before he reached the age of twenty-one. That was 
 
From Youth to Manhood, 49 
 
 the year in which the National Constitutional Con- 
 vention was held. The Constitution of the United 
 States was adopted in 1788. What is now the State 
 of Tennessee was then Washington County, N. C. 
 This vast region was divided into three judicial dis- 
 tricts, the westernmost of which was called the 
 Western District, and had Nashville, then a small 
 village of log cabins, for its capital. 
 
 Andrew Jackson practised law in his native region 
 and contiguous localities, for several months with 
 fair success. About all that is remembered of this 
 part of his career is that he conducted a lawsuit in 
 a characteristic way ; that is, he made a personal 
 fight of it, and usually won by his grit and his 
 strategy rather than by means of his legal knowl- 
 edge. In 1788, John McNairy, a relative of the 
 Jacksons, was appointed Judge of the Western Dis- 
 trict of Washington County, N. C. (now Tennessee). 
 Andrew Jackson was appointed Solicitor and Public 
 Prosecutor, and a young friend of his — Thomas 
 Searcy — was appointed clerk of the court. These 
 were not very desirable appointments. The salaries 
 were small. Nashville was hundreds of miles dis- 
 tant, beyond the Alleghany Mountains, and the 
 route to it lay through an unbroken wilderness, 
 swarming with Indians who cherished a fiendish 
 hatred of the whites, and murdered them whenever 
 they could get an opportunity. 
 
 But the spirit of adventure was strong in the 
 lawyers of that day. Their characters had been 
 formed amid the strife by which the country had 
 been scarred for many years, and they welcomed 
 danger with stern joy. So the newly-appointed 
 
50 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 Judge, the Prosecuting Attorney and the clerk of 
 the court, prepared themselves to carry law and jus- 
 tice into the wilds of Western Tennessee. They 
 were accompanied by a score of neighbors, loaded 
 with household utensils and farm implements, and 
 with a plentiful supply of fire-arms and ammunition. 
 They rendezvoused at Morganton, in the western 
 part of North Carolina, then the starting-point for 
 *' the great West," and set out for Jonesboro, a hun- 
 dred miles distant. They made the journey in 
 five days. Jonesboro was then a " settlement " 
 containing about sixty log cabins, and a new 
 log court-house. Judge McNairy's party was 
 detained at Jonesboro many weeks, waiting for the 
 formation of a company and the organization of a 
 guard strong enough to brave the perils of the 
 wilderness. Meanwhile, the court was organized 
 and the trial of cases was begun in the new log 
 court-house. Andrew Jackson took part in these 
 trials, and soon distinguished himself in a character- 
 istic manner. 
 
 In the trial of a case which attracted a crowd to 
 the court-house, young Jackson (then twenty-one) 
 was opposed by a lawyer of much experience, 
 named Colonel Waightstill Avery. Colonel Avery, 
 who was at the head of the legal profession in the 
 backwoods, treated Jackson in such a contemptuous 
 way, that the young man's blood, never too placid, 
 glowed with fiery indignation. He wrote a note 
 of expostulation to Colonel Avery, but the next day 
 the offensive conduct was repeated. Andrew Jack- 
 son opened a law book which lay on the table before 
 him, and on one of the blank leaves wrote a chal- 
 
From YoictJi to ManJio^d. 51 
 
 Icnge to his insulting opponent, demanding speedy 
 satisfaction. Several years ago, one of Colonel 
 Avery's descendants sent that challenge, yellow 
 with the age of nearly a hundred years, to the New 
 York Ledger for publication. I then examined the 
 document with much interest. The hand-writing 
 was firm, clear and handsome — good enough for 
 anybody ; but the orthography and punctuation 
 were not in accordance with the present prevailing 
 standards. Here is the challenge : 
 
 " August 12, 1788. 
 
 " Sir When a mans feelings & charectorare injured he ought 
 to seek speedy redress: You rec'd a few lines from me yester- 
 day, & undoubtedly you understand me. My charector you 
 have injured ; and further you have Insulted me in the presence 
 of a court and a larg audiance I therefore call upon you as a 
 gentleman to give me satisfaction for the same ; and 1 further 
 call upon you to give me an answer immediately without Equiv- 
 ocation and I hope you can do without dinner until the business 
 is done ; for it is consistant with the charector 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. 
 
 Andw, Jackson. 
 
 " Coll. Avery. 
 
 " P. S. This Evening after court is adjourned." 
 
 This challenge, although it was dashed off on the 
 spur of the moment and in a spasm of rage, exhibits 
 the thoughtful, logical and canny traits of character 
 which were always paramount in Andrew Jackson's 
 conduct, no matter how great the fury to which his 
 temper was aggravated. The challenge shows that 
 he had good cause for his action ; that his character 
 had been injured ; that he had previously written a 
 note to the aggressor ; that notwithstanding his note 
 
52 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 he had been insulted before the court and a large 
 audience. The challenge demands "an answer 
 immediately, without equivocation, " and alluringly 
 suggests that the challenged party " can do without 
 dinner until the business is done, " because '' it is 
 consistent with the character of a gentleman, when 
 he injures a man to make a speedy reparation. " 
 How very polite, logical and reasonable. 
 
 In that age and in that region, a man who declined 
 a challenge to mortal combat could not hold up his 
 head in the community ; he was ostracized ; he was 
 despised ; he was sometimes shunned by his own 
 kindred as a coward who had brought disgrace upon 
 the family. Therefore Colonel Avery unhesitat- 
 ingly accepted the challenge of his young antagonist. 
 The belligerents met that same day, after sunset, in 
 a small hollow near Jonesboro, which is still pointed 
 out as the scene of the duel. Fortunately, neither 
 party was injured. After an exchange of shots, 
 Jackson, whose wrath was always easily appeased 
 after " the right thing had been done," expressed 
 himself satisfied and shook hands with Colonel 
 Avery. 
 
 After reading the account of this duel, it would 
 not be unnatural for a person of hasty judgment to 
 wonder where Andrew Jackson's enormous reverence 
 and intense religious nature were ^at this juncture. 
 But when said person of hasty judgment remembers 
 that in bygone times religious men used to fight 
 duels on slight provocation, and even burned other 
 Christians at the stake for a difference of opinion, 
 he will be able to understand that Andrew Jackson's 
 enormous reverence and intense religious nature 
 
From Youth to Manhood, 53 
 
 were not quiescent on that occasion, but strenuously 
 stood by him, and enabled him to look into the 
 muzzle of his antagonist's pistol without a tremor. 
 The religion of an era seldom rises above the social 
 and political standards of the era. When it was be- 
 lieved to be the duty of a Christian not to keep his 
 word with an infidel ; when it was believed to be 
 right to hang, drown or burn women accused of 
 witchcraft ; when personal combats were the fashion 
 among the chief supporters of the church ; when it 
 was believed to be right to burn people at the stake 
 for differences of opinion ; when slavery was pre- 
 dominant in the government and in the commerce 
 of the United States, the religion of the time was 
 readily adjusted to those low moral and political 
 conditions. Let us not be unreasonably severe in 
 our condemnation of the conduct of those who lived 
 in comparatively barbarous ages ; but let us rejoice 
 that the barbarous customs of those ages (except 
 within narrow limits) no longer oppress mankind. 
 
 The duel had a profound influence on the fortunes 
 of Andrew Jackson. His conduct excited the ad- 
 miration of the people among whom his lot was cast, 
 and won the respect of his professional brethren. 
 Thenceforth, no member of the bar ventured to 
 treat him with discourtesy, and he became the 
 admired leader of the younger portion of the com- 
 munity. A proof of his genius as a born leader of 
 men, and as one who instinctively knows just what 
 to do in the hour of danger, when others lose their 
 self-possession, was given while he was in Jonesboro, 
 several years afterward. The account of the 
 incident is from the pen of an eye-witness, Colonel 
 
54 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Isaac T. Avery, who was a son of the Colonel 
 Waightstill Avery with whom Jackson fought the 
 duel. He sa3's : 
 
 ** I was at Jonesboro court, at one time, when 
 every house in the town was crowded. About 
 twelve o'clock at night a fire broke out in the stables 
 of Rawlings, the principal hotel-keeper in the place. 
 There was a large quantity of hay in the stables, 
 which stood in dangerous proximity to the tavern, 
 court-house and business part of the town. The 
 alarm filled the streets with lawyers, judges, ladies 
 in their night-dresses and a concourse of strangers and 
 citizens. General Jackson no sooner entered the 
 street, than he assumed the command. It seemed 
 to be conceded to him. He shouted for buckets, 
 and formed two lines of men reaching from the fire 
 to a stream that ran through the town ; one line to 
 pass the empty buckets to the stream, and the other 
 to return them full to the fire. He ordered the 
 roofs of the tavern and of the houses most exposed 
 to the fire to be covered with wet blankets, and 
 stationed men on the roofs to keep them wet. 
 Amidst the shrieks of the women and the frightful 
 neighing of the burning horses, every order was 
 distinctly heard and obeyed. In the line up which 
 the full buckets were passed, the bank of the stream 
 soon became so slippery it was difficult to stand. 
 While General Jackson was strengthening that part 
 of the line, a drunken coppersmith named Boyd, 
 who said he had seen fires at Baltimore, began to 
 give orders and annoy persons in the line. 
 
 " ' Fall into line !' shouted the General. 
 
 " The man continued jabbering. Jackson seized 
 
From Youth to Manhood, 55 
 
 a bucket by the handle, knocked him down, and 
 walked along the line giving his orders as coolly as 
 before. He saved the town / " * 
 
 In the latter part of September, 1788, a large party 
 started from Jonesboro for Nashville. It is reported 
 that in a great degree they owed their escape from 
 the perils of the wilderness to the vigilance of young 
 Jackson. On one memorable occasion he saved the 
 party from massacre. They had marched a night 
 and two days without a longer halt than an hour, in 
 order to reach a place where it was supposed they 
 would be safe from the attacks of their Indian foes. 
 The entire party, worn out with their long march, 
 and supposing themselves to be beyond danger, fell 
 asleep soon after eating their suppers. Only one 
 man kept awake, and that man was Andrew Jack- 
 son. He sat leaning against a tree, smoking his 
 corn-cob pipe. After awhile his attention was 
 attracted to the hooting of owls in the surrounding 
 woods. It struck him that there were too many 
 owls, and that there was something queer in the 
 quality of their hoots. His keen and practiced ear 
 soon recognized, in the hooting of the owls, the 
 signals of savages who were surrounding the camp. 
 He cautiously awoke his friend Searcy, and called 
 his attention to the signals. Then he quietly aroused 
 some of the more experienced woodsmen who, on 
 hearing the hootings, agreed with him that they 
 were Indian signals. What is to be done ? was the 
 appalling question which at once arose. Fortu- 
 nately, there was a young man there who was always 
 
 * Parton's Life of Jackson, I, 162. 
 
56 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 inspired by the genius of courage and leadership 
 when that question arose in the hour of peril. He 
 at once took command. By his direction, every 
 sleeper was quietly awakened. Silently, and in per- 
 fect composure, he made every needful preparation, 
 and then the whole party stole away in the darkness. 
 They traveled all night, and escaped the toils in 
 which the savages would have environed them, had 
 it not been for Andrew Jackson's vigilance and his 
 ready resources in the hour of danger. A party of 
 hunters, who reached the abandoned camp an hour 
 after the fugitives had left it, and went to sleep by 
 the still burning camp-fire, were attacked by the 
 savages before morning, and all of them killed but 
 one man. 
 
 The emigrants (that was what those who went 
 west over the mountains in those days were called) 
 reached Nashville late in October, 1788. As the 
 long train approached the village, they were 
 received with enthusiasm by the isolated inhabi- 
 tants, to whom they brought letters from friends 
 and relatives, and among whom in fact were not a 
 few of their own kin. People of our times, who are 
 not exposed to the isolation and the dangers which 
 were the lot of frontier settlers in the last century, 
 cannot realize the joy and gladness which news 
 from relatives, and reunion with friends, brought to 
 their hungry hearts. The little group of inhabit- 
 ants in Nashville were in a hostile country, sur- 
 rounded with myriads of alert, revengeful and mer- 
 ciless savages. Men did not dare go to their work 
 in the fields without being armed and in readiness to 
 meet the stealthy attacks of their wily foes. When 
 
F^'oin Youth to Manhood. 57 
 
 men met on the highway and stopped to converse, 
 they stood back to back, with cocked rifles in hand. 
 No man dared stoop to drink from a spring unless 
 he had a comrade on guard. Girls never went 
 berrying without the attendance of armed men. 
 Think of that, ye young men and maidens who now 
 go berrying and picnicking without a thought of 
 fear ! Try to put yourselves in the place of those 
 Tennessee boys and girls who picked berries and 
 made love in the very shadow of death ! But such 
 a life had its compensations. Every girl's lover was 
 a hero, ready to meet death for her dear sake. And 
 she knew it ; and what could any girl of spirit accept 
 as a substitute for such heroic devotion ? And 
 those Tennessee girls were all girls of spirit. They 
 were heroines, worthy of the devotion of their 
 heroic lovers ; and in their descendants there still 
 abide the qualities which a hundred years ago made 
 Tennessee renowned for the bravery of its inhab- 
 itants. 
 
 To those brave inhabitants of the frontier settle- 
 ments, eternal vigilance was not only the price of 
 liberty, but of life itself. The least relaxation of 
 vigilance was sure to be followed by the death of 
 some of their number. Hence, in addition to other 
 pleasant considerations, the arrival in an isolated 
 settlement of a party of newcomers, comprising 
 many brave and well armed men, was like the 
 arrival of a relieving force to a weak and beleag- 
 uered fortress. So there was joy in Nashville, and 
 the newly arrived emigrants were welcomed with a 
 hospitality that was limited only by the meager 
 resources of the village. 
 
58 G 671 era I Aiidrezo Jackson. 
 
 Louf-cabins were at once '* raised '' for the accom- 
 modation of the newly arrived families. The 
 unmarried men were gladly welcomed to the cabins 
 of the settlers. The addition of a fighting member 
 to a household was a valuable acquisition under cir- 
 cumstances in which the safety of a family depended 
 on its fighting power. In such a community, a 
 young man like Andrew Jackson would be in great 
 request. He considered himself fortunate in finding 
 a home with the Widow Donelson. Her husband, 
 Colonel John Donelson, a sturdy and prosperous 
 pioneer, had built himself a block-house of unusual 
 size and strength, and furnished it with more than 
 ordinary frontier comfort ; but he was slain while 
 surveying a piece of woodland some distance from 
 the village. Mrs. Donelson's married daughter 
 Rachel, and her husband, Lewis Robards (a Ken- 
 tuckian), were living with her ; but she was glad to 
 have such a chivalric young man as the new Solici- 
 tor, whose appearance indicated that he could be 
 depended upon in the hour of danger, take up his 
 abode under her roof. 
 
 This choice of a boarding-place, which seemed to 
 be a trivial matter, was in truth and all unknown to 
 the parties concerned, one of the most important 
 steps which Andrew Jackson ever took. It brought 
 to him the greatest misery as well as the greatest 
 happiness of his life ; it embroiled him with many of 
 his fellow-citizens; it occasioned envenomed feuds ; 
 and in one conspicuous case it led to the death of 
 one of his foes under circumstances peculiarly tragic 
 and memorable. And it was the little hand of the 
 lovely brunette which unconsciously mixed this cup 
 
From Youth to Manhood. 59 
 
 of mingled bliss and woe for the young Solicitor 
 and Prosecuting Attorney from the Waxhaw settle- 
 ment in North Carolina. 
 
6o General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE. 
 
 In taking up his abode in Nashville, Andrew 
 Jackson planted himself in exactly the right spot 
 for the fullest and most beneficent development of 
 his natural capacities and aptitudes. A better place 
 for him could not have been found, nor could a better 
 man have been found for the place. At that time, 
 and for many subsequent years, Nashville furnished 
 fitting opportunities for him to make his natural quali- 
 ties of the greatest possible use to his fellow-citizens. 
 
 In the first place, as has already been said, the 
 settlement was perpetually beleaguered by Indians, 
 who never let an opportunity for wreaking ven- 
 geance on the whites pass unimproved. For many 
 years, a fortnight did not elapse in which at least 
 one white person was not killed in the neighbor- 
 hood of Nashville, by the Indians. But these red 
 savages were not more dangerous than the white 
 ones who infested the settlement. Even in our own 
 times, remote frontier settlements are cursed with 
 too many red-handed ruffians who have fled from 
 justice and the executioner. But the robbers and 
 murderers who nowadays figure on the fringe of 
 civilization are not to be compared in numbers 
 or ferocity with those who helped to render life 
 precarious and to make it a burden to honest peo- 
 ple in the frontier settlements seventy-live or a hun- 
 dred years ago. 
 
The Right Man in the Right Place, 6i 
 
 In these latter days scientists have discovered 
 that there is a universal tendency, as silent and as 
 sleepless as the law of gravitation, for every form 
 of life to revert back to its original low condition. 
 This tendency is called atavism. The moment that 
 educating, refining, elevating influences are with- 
 drawn from any creature, that forsaken creature 
 begins to deteriorate. For instance, if a herd of the 
 finest bred cattle were to wander off into some 
 region uninhabited by intelligent men, the cattle 
 would begin to retrograde ; and they would go on 
 deteriorating, generation after generation, until 
 they had sunk to the original condition in which 
 the first breeder found his lank, bony, uncouth stock 
 a century or more before. 
 
 Human beings are subject to this same tendency 
 to retrogression and degradation. Indeed, atavism, 
 where it has full play, affects man more than any 
 other creature. When civilizing, refining, elevating 
 and religious influences are withdrawn from men 
 for a long period of time, a large percentage of 
 them sink to a level with savages, sometimes to a 
 level with wild beasts, and become worse than wild 
 beasts ; become fiends — brutes with enough human 
 cunning left to make their brutality all the more 
 horrible and formidable. In the light which this 
 great law of nature sheds upon the subject, it is easy 
 to understand the conditions in which Andrew 
 Jackson was placed in Nashville a hundred years 
 ago. For twenty years, during Indian wars and 
 the war of the Revolution, fighting and killing had 
 been one of the industries and duties of the people 
 living on the confines of civilization. Lawlessness 
 
62 General Andrezv Jackson, 
 
 had become a habit with thousands of men who 
 under more propitious circumstances would have 
 been law-abiding" citizens. " As the husband so the 
 wife is," sings the poet ; and, it may be added, so 
 are the sons and daughters. Women and children 
 who live in the bonds of daily domesticity with ruf- 
 fians, themselves become ruffianized, and the entire 
 family circle sinks into a state of lawlessness and 
 brutalit}'. 
 
 One of the most annoying- of the minor phases of 
 the lawlessness of the times was the contempt which 
 a large portion of the community felt for the sacred- 
 ness of contracts. They never kept an agreement ; 
 they never paid a debt, never responded to any 
 obligation whatever, unless it suited their con- 
 venience to do so. To ask one of them to pay a 
 just debt was, in his opinion, to insult him ; or, as he 
 wou.d probably put it, it was a reflection upon his 
 honor. More than forty years ago 1 was told of an 
 amusing- incident which occurred in Eastern Tennes- 
 see, about 1805, which illustrates that phase of busi- 
 ness life in those days. A trader in Knoxville, who 
 dealt in all manner of goods and notions, including 
 books and stationery, sold a settler a Bible on credit. 
 The customer seemed a little ashamed of his pur> 
 chase, and explained his conduct by saying he 
 wanted the book for his ** old woman. *' Evidentlv 
 he did not read the Bible himself, and not being 
 imbued with its spirit, he failed to pay for it. After 
 along time, the bookseller sent him a dunning letter 
 which touched his *' honor, " and he wrote back to 
 his creditor, in substance, as follows : 
 
The Right Afan in the Right Place. 63 
 
 " Sir,— Your insulting letter has come to my hands. I can- 
 not allow such an insult to pass. Therefore I demand of you 
 such satisfaction as one gentleman is always entitled to from 
 another, under such circumstances. " 
 
 The bookseller being a plucky man, as any one 
 who survived in that region had to be in those times, 
 accepted the challenge and wounded his debtor, 
 who, after recovering from his wound, paid for the 
 Bible like a Christian. 
 
 Into this environment of bloodthirsty savages, of 
 sensitive, fighting debtors, of vagabonds and cut- 
 throats, Andrew Jackson, in October, 1788, came as a 
 Deus ex machina — a God who sets all things straight 
 and right. On his arrival at Nashville, there was but 
 one other lawyer in the Western District of Tennes- 
 see, and he was retained by the delinquent debtors 
 to help them avoid paying their debts. The young 
 solicitor let it be known that he was ready to take 
 the side of honesty and justice. He belonged on 
 that side by nature. As we have already learned, 
 he hated debt, and would pay whatever he owed, 
 no matter to what inconvenience the payment put 
 him. As soon as the traders, and others who had 
 claims due, learned that a lawyer had come to 
 Nashville who would undertake to collect their 
 claims, they flocked to his office. In the course of a 
 month he had issued seventy writs. At first, the 
 debtors treated his proceedings with indifference. 
 They had had everything their own way so long, 
 that they imagined themselves to be securely in- 
 trenched in their own dishonesty. They supposed 
 that the preponderance of public sentiment was on 
 their side. And so it had been, previous to Andrew 
 
64 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Jackson's advent ; but he changed the face of affairs. 
 It had also been supposed to be impossible for a 
 creditor to collect a debt which the debtor did not 
 choose to pay ; but Andrew Jackson ordered it 
 otherwise. 
 
 The law-defying debtors soon began to feel the 
 Solicitor's grip. As, one after another, they came 
 in contact with him, they discovered that he was 
 a man who could not be, who would not be trifled 
 with. There was something so lionlike in his pres- 
 ence, something so overmastering in his demeanor, 
 that, with his piercing eyes looking into theirs, they 
 found their lawless courage dying out of their 
 hearts — '* oozing out of their finger-ends." Still, 
 they were not inclined to surrender without striking 
 a blow for their liberty to defy the law and their 
 right to disregard their pecuniary obligations. 
 Something must be done to stem this torrent of 
 legal procedure, and show that frontier lawlessness 
 could maintain its '^ honor. " As all attempts to 
 intimidate the young lawyer came to naught, efforts 
 were made to wheedle him, but it was found that his 
 cunning was equal to his courage. Efforts were 
 made to evade him, but no one whom he proceeded 
 against could escape his clutch. It is even said 
 that plots were formed to silence him by assassina- 
 tion, but if such plots were formed they all mis- 
 carried. He marched straight on. The debtors 
 had to pay, or flee beyond his jurisdiction. The 
 greater part of them paid, and the remnant fled. 
 Jackson's proceedings purified the financial at- 
 mosphere of the settlement ; the moral tone of the 
 village was elevated and strengthened ; honest men 
 
The Right Man in the Right Place, 65 
 
 breathed more freely ; business men felt that they 
 could no longer be cheated or browbeaten out of 
 their just dues. The young Solicitor was hailed as a 
 public benefactor ; and as years went on he monopol- 
 ized a large part of the civil practice in the courts 
 of Western Tennessee. 
 
 Being Public Prosecutor (District Attorney), as 
 well as Solicitor, it became Andrew Jackson's duty 
 to suppress the lawlessness which was so general, 
 and to bring the offenders to justice. This part of 
 his practice was not only exciting, but dangerous. 
 Scores of desperate men were in the habit of openly 
 defying the courts and insulting the judges on the 
 bench. The moral tone of the community was so 
 low as to such matters, and the belligerent customs 
 of the people were so barbarous, that offences which 
 would now excite horror in Nashville, or in any 
 enlightened community, were then looked upon as 
 trivial. If men fought with deadly weapons, it was 
 expected that both parties would be wounded, and 
 one of them killed. What did men fight for, if not 
 to w^ound or to kill? The idea of fighting with 
 deadly weapons without adequate results, was 
 looked upon with contempt. When men fought 
 only with the weapons with which nature supplied 
 them, they used all their natural weapons — hands, 
 feet, claws and teeth. They pummeled each other ; 
 they kicked each other; they stamped on one 
 another; they gouged and bit one another. If a 
 man lost an eye, or an ear, or a part of his nose in a 
 rough-and-tumble fight, it was looked upon as a 
 natural consequence of the skirmish ; and the eye- 
 gouger, the ear-biter, the nose-mangier was not 
 
66 Geiieral A^idrew Jackson, 
 
 considered blameworthy by the lighting portion of 
 the community. Among these people, the biting 
 off of a part of a man's ear or nose, " in fair fight," 
 so far from being looked upon as a misdemeanor, 
 was not even thought to be a breach of etiquette. 
 
 It must not be supposed that all the inhabitants 
 of the settlement relished such barbarous customs. 
 On the contrary, a majority of the people disrelished 
 them exceedingly, and longed to have a stop put to 
 them. Andrew Jackson was the man to satisfy these 
 civilized longings. Regardless of his personal safety, 
 he assailed the violaters of the law with all the legal 
 weapons he possessed ; he brought them to the bar 
 for trial; he had them convicted, sentenced and 
 punished. On one occasion, a formidable gang of 
 ruffians who had long defied the law, having been 
 indicted at Jackson's procurement, came into court 
 in a blustering manner and insolently refused to be 
 tried. Quick as lightning, Jackson drew his pis- 
 tols from his saddle-bags, covered the ringleaders 
 with them, and called upon the law-abiding citizens 
 in the court-room to stand by him and have the law 
 respected and enforced. Brave men instantly 
 responded to his ringing call, and rallied to his side. 
 The ruffians, awed by his commanding attitude, 
 wilted before the consuming blaze of his eyes. 
 They surrendered, were tried, convicted and pun- 
 ished in accordance with their ill deserts. 
 
 On another occasion, a stalwart, raging bully and 
 ruffian, who was determined to thrash and maim 
 Jackson, began by trampling on his toes so as to 
 provoke him to offer resistance, and thereby give 
 the aggressor a seeming reason for putting his 
 
The Right Man tJt the Right Place. 67 
 
 detestable purpose in execution. It is needless to 
 say that his effort to provoke Andrew Jackson was 
 completely successful. He provoked him not only 
 to resistance but to unspeakable rage. Seizing- a 
 rail from the top of a fence close at hand, and using 
 it as a battering-ram, Jackson dealt the ruffian a blow 
 with the end of it in the pit of the stomach which 
 doubled him up and felled him to the earth. The 
 enraged young man trampled on the brute and then 
 permitted him to rise. He made a feint to attack 
 Jackson, but quailed before the power of his eye. 
 Physically, he was much larger than Jackson and 
 had twice his strength. But — 
 
 " Though so tall to reach the pole, 
 Or grasp the ocean with my span ; 
 I must be measured by my soul, 
 The mind's the standard of the man." 
 
 In bodily capacity the bully far outmeasured Jack- 
 son, but in the measurement of soul the young hero 
 towered above him like Chimborazo above an ant- 
 hill. And that towering soul was ablaze with just 
 indignation, and the bully's vulgar, brutal courage 
 shriveled when brought within the flame of a great 
 soul on fire. 
 
68 General Aftdrew Jackson, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 YOUNG JACKSON'S ADVENTURES— HIS MARRIAGE. 
 
 It did not take many years for the inhabitants of 
 Western Tennessee to learn that two things could 
 be always and absolutely depended upon, namely : 
 the integrity, and the courage of Andrew Jackson. 
 These being the qualities most useful to the inhab- 
 itants of that primitive region, their possessor, of 
 course, advanced to the front rank in the respect 
 and esteem of his fellow-citizens. He was'the pride 
 of the settlement; ''the man," to use a phrase of 
 that time, " on whom they bragged." The Western 
 Judicial District of Tennessee comprised an exten- 
 sive region^ which was an unbroken wilderness, 
 except within the immediate vicinity of sparse settle- 
 ments. The wilderness was intersected by rivers 
 and cut up by streams which a few hours' rain 
 would turn into impassable torrents. Through this 
 wilderness Andrew Jackson, in the discharge of his 
 duties, was obliged to travel with frequency, some- 
 times in company with his neighbors or with 
 strangers, and sometimes alone. Every furlong of 
 the wilderness path was beset with dangers. The 
 savages were so numerous, so alert, and so wily, it 
 required the greatest vigilance, sagacity and prompt- 
 ness of action to escape their snares, their arrows 
 and their tomahawks. But Andrew Jackson was a 
 born Indian fighter. He was more cunning and 
 
Yotin(^ Jackson s Adventure. 69 
 
 more wary, as well as more brave and more brainy 
 than any Indian that ever lay in ambush for a vic- 
 tim. The savages knew every ford by which the 
 rivers were crossed, and it was near these fords, or 
 on the paths leading to them, that they most fre- 
 quently sought to entrap and murder white travel- 
 ers. Many a party of whites fell into their snares, 
 and it was seldom that the ambushed parties escaped 
 either partial or total destruction. But they could 
 never entrap Andrew Jackson. Whoever traveled 
 with him got through safe ; and when he traveled 
 alone he foiled all the attempts of his savage foes to 
 ambush him or take him at a disadvantage. His 
 eye was so piercing and far-seeing, his ear was so 
 acute, that his eyes and his ears gave him all the 
 safeguard he needed. He sometimes passed days and 
 nights without daring to shoot game or light a fire 
 lest the crack of his rille or the sheen of the flames 
 should betray his presence to the savages. Mr. 
 Parton has collected a great number of anecdotes 
 and incidents which illustrate the remarkable cour- 
 age, sagacity and self-possession of young Jackson : 
 *' One lonely night passed in the woods was very 
 vividly remembered by Jackson. He came, soon 
 after dark, to a creek that had been swollen by the 
 rains into a roaring torrent. The night was as dark 
 as pitch, and the rain fell heavily. To have 
 attempted the ford would have been suicidal, nor 
 did he dare to light a fire, nor even let his horse 
 move about to browse. So he took off the saddle, 
 and placing it at the foot of a tree, sat upon it, 
 wrapped in his blanket, and holding his rifle in one 
 hand and his bridle in the other. All through the 
 
JO General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 night he sat motionless and silent, listening to the 
 noise of the flood and the pattering of the rain 
 drops upon the leaves. When the day dawned he 
 saddled his horse again, mounted, swam the creek, 
 and continued his journey. 
 
 '' On his way home from Jonesboro Court, with 
 only three companions, he reached the river Amory 
 one evening at the point where it gushes out of the 
 Cumberland mountains, and saw on the opposite 
 bank the small, smouldering fires of a party of hostile 
 Indians. Jackson, assuming the command, directed 
 his comrades to abandon the road at different points, 
 so as to leave no trace behind, and then led them 
 into the mountains along the banks of the stream. 
 x\ll night they traveled, guided only by the noise 
 of the waters, and, at dawn of day, came to the edge 
 of the river with the intention of crossing. The 
 March rains had made it a rushing flood ; and the 
 nearness of the enemy rendered the keeping of their 
 powder dry a matter of the utmost importance. So, 
 instead of plunging in, in the usual style of the back- 
 woods, they made a raft, upon which they placed 
 all their effects, except their horses, which were to 
 swim over afterward. Jackson and one of his com- 
 panions jumped upon the raft and pushed off, leaving 
 two others upon the bank with the horses. Rude 
 oars had been rigged to the sides of the raft, at 
 which the two men tugged away, with their backs 
 toward the head of the stream. The men on the 
 shore perceived that the raft was carried swiftly 
 down the stream, and cried out to Jackson to return. 
 He, not aware of his swift downward progress, did 
 not heed their outcries, but strove with all his might 
 
I 
 
Voting Jacksoris AdvenUires, Ji 
 
 to gain the opposite bank. At length, discovering 
 that the raft was nearing the edge of a fall, he 
 attempted to return. He strained every muscle and 
 nerve in his efforts to bring the soggy and lumber- 
 ing craft to the shore he had left, along which his 
 two friends were running to keep abreast of him. In 
 vain. The raft was already rushing toward the fall 
 with accelerated and accelerating swiftness, when 
 Jackson tore one of the long oars away from its 
 fastening, and bracing himself in the hinder part of 
 the raft, held out one end of the oar to the men on 
 shore. Luckily, they caught it, and were able to 
 draw them in to the bank. 
 
 " Then his comrades reproached him for not 
 returning when they had first called out. His reply 
 was very characteristic, and explains much in his 
 remarkable career : 
 
 " * A miss is as good as a mile. You see how near I 
 c mi graze danger. Come on, and I will save you yet.* 
 
 "He did so. They resumed their march up the 
 stream, spent a second night supperless in the woods, 
 found a ford the next morning, crossed, continued 
 their journey, and saw the Indians no more. 
 
 " Once, as he was about to cross the wilderness, 
 he reached the rendezvous too late, and found that 
 his party had started. It was evening, and he had 
 ridden hard, but there was no hope of catching up, 
 unless he started immediately and traveled all night. 
 With a single guide he took the road, and came up 
 to the camp-fires just before daylight ; but his friends 
 had already marched. Continuing his journey, he 
 was startled, when daylight came, to discover the 
 tracks of Indians in the road, who were evidently 
 
^2 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 following the travelers. Equally evident was it to 
 the practiced eyes of these men of the woods that 
 the Indians outnumbered the whites. They pressed 
 forward, and paused not till the tracks showed that 
 the enemy were but a few minutes in advance of 
 them. Then, the guide refusing to proceed, Jack- 
 son divided the stock of provisions equally with him, 
 saw him take his way homeward, and kept on him- 
 self toward the Indians, resolved at all hazards to 
 save or succor his friends. At length he came to a 
 place where the Indians had left the path and taken 
 to the woods, with the design, as Jackson thought, 
 of getting ahead of the white party and lying in 
 ambush for them. He pushed on with all speed, 
 and reached his friends before dark, just after they 
 had crossed a deep, half-frozen river, and were dry- 
 ing their clothes by their camp-fires. He told his 
 news. The march was instantly resumed. All 
 that night and the next day they kept on their 
 way, not daring to rest or halt, and reached 
 toward evening the cabins of a company of hunt- 
 ers, of whom they asked shelter for the night. 
 The boon was churlishly refused, and they marched 
 on in the teeth of a driving storm of wind and 
 snow. They ventured to encamp at length. Jack- 
 son, who had not closed his eyes for sixty hours, 
 wrapped himself in his blanket and slept soundly 
 till daylight, when he awoke to find himself buried 
 in snow to the depth of six inches. The party of 
 Indians meanwhile had pursued unrelentingly, 
 until reaching the huts of the inhospitable hunters, 
 they murdered every man of them, and, satisfied 
 
Young Jackson s Advenhtres, *J2i 
 
 with this exploit, left the travelers to complete 
 their journey unmolested."* 
 
 Jackson's bravery and self-possession carried him 
 through everything. He continually showed that 
 his character was of that kind heretofore defined as 
 '* centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or 
 overset." It is an old and time-honored adage that 
 '' Discretion is the better part of valor." A coward 
 does not distinguish between discretion and coward- 
 ice, and under the pretense of acting with discre- 
 tion, he yields to cowardice. It is doubtful if there 
 ever was a man Avho had more discretion than 
 Andrew Jackson had ; but it was the discretion of a 
 hero, not of a coward. It was the discretion which 
 does not flee from danger, but impetuously attacks 
 danger and overcomes it. He instinctively knew 
 that the best way to avoid danger in desperate 
 cases is not to flee from it, for the bullet enters the 
 coward's back as readily as it pierces the brave 
 man's breast. His discretion was of that peerless 
 kind which comes from the perfect balance and 
 complete control of all the faculties which enter into 
 the constitution of a hero's character. We must 
 remember, however, that what would be discretion 
 in him might be rashness in another. An eagle can 
 safely undertake what it would be folly for a gander 
 to attempt. 
 
 At the end of chapter fifth it was stated that the 
 seemingly trivial act of Andrew Jackson's going to 
 board with the widow Donelson was, in fact, one of 
 the most important steps he ever took; that it 
 
 * Parton's Life of Jackson, I ; 142-3-4. 
 
74 Gejieral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 brought him the greatest happiness and the greatest 
 misery of his life and led to tragic results. The 
 time has now come to narrate these indicated 
 events. 
 
 It will be remembered that Mrs. Donelson's mar- 
 ried daughter Rachel — the baby girl born in Andrew ■ 
 Jackson's natal year, and the beautiful brunette of 
 after years — with her husband, Lewis Robards, was 
 livins: with her mother when Andrew Jackson took 
 up his residence under the widow's roof. Robards 
 was a shiftless, cross-grained, shallow-brained man, 
 who had no affection for his lovely and amiable wife, 
 whom he had often ill-treated, and on one occasion 
 deserted. Ample and conclusive evidence has been 
 given that Jackson was always the most chivalric of 
 men in his behavior to women. It has also been 
 shown that the unparalleled reverence, tenderness 
 and chastity of his nature, combined with his affec- 
 tion and veneration for his mother, made all women 
 sacred to him. The contrast between his treatment 
 of Mrs. Donelson and her daughter, and the disre- 
 spectful way in which Robards behaved toward 
 them, was apparent even to the dull apprehension 
 of the ill-mannered husband and son-in-law. He 
 saw that he was at great disadvantage in compari- 
 son with the young stranger, and he resented his 
 sense of humiliation as a personal outrage upon him- 
 self. He tried to pick a quarrel with Jackson, but 
 in vain. I never read or heard of any other instance 
 in which it was impossible to pick a quarrel with 
 Andrew Jackson. It is surprising that the fiery 
 young man should have held himself under restraint 
 in this instance, nor could he have done so had not 
 
Andrczv Jackson s Marriage. 75 
 
 his chivalry been the master of his temper. It was 
 impossible for Andrew Jackson knowingly to do 
 anything which could possibly injure the reputation 
 of a woman or expose her name to calumny. He 
 knew that if, under the circumstances, he should 
 fight Robards, it would be injurious to Mrs. 
 Robards and also to Mrs. Donelson. So he mag- 
 nanimously refused to resent the impertinence ol 
 Robards, and went to board with another family. 
 
 Robards finally deserted his wife and returned to 
 Kentucky, where he sought to obtain a divorce. In 
 those days, Kentucky belonged to Virginia, and in 
 Virsrinia a divorce could not be obtained unless the 
 legislature first passed an act permitting the plaintiff 
 to bring his suit in the court having jurisdiction of 
 the case. Robards made the necessary application 
 to the legislature, his petition was granted, and it 
 was reported that he had obtained his divorce in 
 due form. After an investigation on the part of 
 Mrs. Robards' triends, the fact of divorce was 
 accepted beyond question. Eighteen months after- 
 wards, in 1 78 1, Mrs. Robards and Andrew Jackson 
 were married. Subsequently, it was discovered 
 that there had been a hitch and delay in the action 
 brought by Robards, and that he did not get his 
 divorce at the time he Avas supposed to have 
 obtained it : that in fact, he did not obtain it until 
 several months after the marriage of Mrs. Robards 
 with Jackson. 
 
 When this unpleasant information was verified, as 
 it soon was, the new-married pair found themselves 
 in a dilemma. In the eye of the law their marriage 
 was not legal, and it was necessary that the marriage 
 
76 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 ceremony should be re-performed. This was done, 
 and everybody seemed to be satisfied. It too often 
 happens that a marriage which the newly wedded 
 pair hail as a paradisiacal oasis in the desert of life, 
 turns out to be only a delusive and tantalizing mirage. 
 It was not so in this case. The marriage was looked 
 upon as a fortunate one for both the wife and the 
 husband. Mrs. Jackson was a favorite in society ; 
 handsome, vivacious, amiable ; she was a notable 
 housekeeper, possessed rare executive ability, and 
 idolized her husband. Jackson's commanding posi- 
 tion in the community is known to the reader, and 
 so is his admirable and dazzling character. That he 
 loved his wife with chivalric devotion was a matter 
 of course. He was pre-eminently that kind of a hus- 
 band. He gave her a place alongside his mother in 
 his affection and respect. Those two women, his 
 mother and his wife, were enthroned in the inner- 
 most sanctuary of his brave, loyal, loving heart. 
 But for his spouse, the beautiful and captivating 
 Rachel, he cherished that tenderness of love, that 
 overmastering and everlasting loyalty of devotion, 
 which can be given to a wife onl}' by a man who has 
 never profaned his affections, and to whom the 
 chosen of his heart is as sacred as his God. Let 
 these overruling and far-reaching truths be remem- 
 bered, that the reader may clearly understand and 
 justly appreciate the cause and the circumstances 
 of a terrible tragedy that was to follow. 
 
Jackson in Congress. yj 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 REPRESENTATIVE IX CONGRESS — UNITED STATES 
 
 SENATOR — BACKWOODS MERCHANT — JUDGE OF 
 
 THE SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 In January, 1796, a convention assembled at Knox- 
 ville to form a State constitution for Tennessee. 
 Jackson was one of the delegates, of which there 
 were iifty-five in all. When the convention had 
 been organized, a committee consisting of two 
 members from each county was appointed to draft 
 a State constitution. Jackson was one of the com- 
 mittee. He suggested Tennessee as the name of 
 the new State. The constitution which was adopted 
 would now be considered intolerably conservative, 
 but then it was looked upon as so radical that the 
 Federalists opposed the admission of Tennessee into 
 the Union. Rufus King, a fossil federalist, led the 
 opposition to its admission ; Aaron Burr, a rank and 
 leading democrat, was Tennessee's chief advocate. 
 
 The State was admitted into the Union in the fol- 
 lowing June. Its population entitled it to only one 
 Represenrative. In the ensuing fall election, 1796, 
 Andrew Jackson was elected Tennessee's first Repre- 
 sentative in the Congress of the United States. 
 
 The journey from Nashville to Philadelphia, then 
 the seat of the Federal Government, was made on 
 horseback, and it usually took six weeks to accom- 
 plish it. It would be interesting to know what were 
 the thoughts of the Honorable Andrew Jackson, as 
 
^8 General Andrezu Jackson. 
 
 — now a prosperous gentleman and the honored 
 Representative of the State of Tennessee in the 
 Federal Congress — he rode eastward, over the 
 mountains he had crossed westward only eight 
 years before, an almost penniless young man. He 
 was now twenty-nine years old. Up to this time 
 his life had been passed in what might be called an 
 environment of Christian barbarism. Man}^ of the 
 Waxhaw people and a large percentage of the inhab- 
 itants of Western Tennessee, though devoutly relig- 
 ious, were always ready, like the Boanerges, to call 
 down fire from Heaven to consume those who 
 crossed their path, or, like the Apostle Peter, to cut 
 off an offender's ear when the unsanctified portion of 
 their nature was aggravated. Andrew Jackson had 
 been a leader in this contentious and belligerent 
 society from his boyhood and was saturated with 
 its spirit. His arrival in Philadelphia early in 
 December, 1796, was his first emergence from the 
 wild civilization of the backwoods. He then, for 
 the first time, came in contact with the usages of 
 cultivated society. Then, for the first time, he took 
 part in legislation with men who were his superiors 
 in parliamentary experience, and the transaction of 
 public affairs. It would be gratifying to know 
 what Philadelphia society thought of him, and what 
 he thought of Philadelphia society : but the record 
 is blank as to such matters. The only glimpse we 
 get of him is given by Albert Gallatin ^ who years 
 afterwards recalled Jackson as '* a tall, lank, uncouth- 
 looking personage, with long locks of hair hanging 
 
 — * Hildreth's History, IV. 692. 
 
Jackson in Congress. 79 
 
 over his face, and a cue down his back tied in an 
 eel-skin ; his dress singular, his manners and deport- 
 ment that of a rough backwoodsman." 
 
 He took his seat in the House of Representatives 
 on December 5, 1796, in the second (or short) ses- 
 sion of the Fourth Congress. It was not an eventful 
 session. The most notable part of it was that it 
 was the last session of Congress to which Washing- 
 ton addressed his annual speech. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was already imbued with, in 
 fact was native to the political principles on which 
 the Republican party, under Thomas JefEerson, was 
 founded. These principles, after a long percolation 
 through the filter of events, came out, thirty-two 
 years afterward, as the foundation principles of the 
 Democratic party that was established on the first 
 election of Old Hickory to the presidency, in 1828. 
 Andrew Jackson hated a Federalist by instinct, and 
 the Federalists instinctively returned his hatred. 
 The poor boy of the Waxhaw settlement, who had 
 literally fought his way, on his own merits, from 
 poverty and obscurity to competence and fame, 
 loved every poor man who honestly tried to do his 
 duty manfully. It was impossible, therefore, for 
 him to sympathize with the Federal aristocrats who 
 were friendly to England, who had opposed the 
 admission of Tennessee into the Union, who dis- 
 trusted the people and looked coldly upon every- 
 body outside of their own perfumed party. On the 
 other hand, the only feelings with which the Feder- 
 alists could contemplate Andrew Jackson, were 
 akin to those which well-fed door-yard fowls experi- 
 ence when they see a magnificent young eagle 
 
8o General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 coming up the horizon. The fowls instinctively 
 know that there is not room or prerogative for both 
 them and the eagle in the same door-yard. 
 
 The honorable member from Tennessee did not set 
 his political light under a bushel ; he let it shine on 
 all within the House of Representatives. The com- 
 mittee on President Washington's annual address 
 to Congress prepared a report which embodied a 
 warm eulogium on both the President and his 
 administration. Jackson was opposed to some of 
 the sentiments enunciated in the report, and, w^heri 
 it came to a vote, he, with eleven others, voted 
 against it. It took a good deal of nerve to do such 
 a thing, as the action of the dissenting Representa- 
 tives was sure to be misrepresented and ascribed to 
 feelings of personal ill will against Washington. 
 But Andrew Jackson was never knoAvn to hesitate, 
 on account of probable ill consequences to himself, 
 in the discharge of what he believed to be his duty. 
 
 It is regrettable that Jackson did not take a 
 broader and more appreciative view of Washing- 
 ton's administration ; it is easy, however, to under- 
 stand why he did not. The course of events had 
 brought the Government of the United States into 
 seeming friendship with that of Great Britain, and 
 into hostility to France, the recent ally of the col- 
 onies in their struggle for independence. Those who 
 remember the spirit of everlasting hatred of England 
 that was engendered in Andrew Jackson's heart 
 during that struggle for independence, will not 
 wonder that it was impossible for him to look with 
 favor on an administration which, in the phrase of 
 
Jackson in Congress. 8i 
 
 that day, " was constantly drawing nearer to 
 England." 
 
 Jackson had come to Philadelphia mainly for the 
 purpose of procuring payment from the govern- 
 ment of the expenses incurred by Tennessee (then a 
 Territory) three years before, in an expedition against 
 the Indians. The danger to the whites was so 
 imminent, that the governor — General John Sevier— 
 could not wait two months for an authorization from 
 the government at Philadelphia. In order to save 
 the Tennessee settlements from destruction, he had to 
 move at once. The expedition was successful ; but 
 the government, not having authorized it, refused 
 to pay the expense of it. This was a great hardship 
 on the Tennesseeans who had served in the expedi- 
 tion, many of whom had been wounded and worn 
 down by toil and privation, and needed their pay 
 to meet pressing demands. When Jackson pre- 
 sented the claim, it was strongly opposed. It was 
 thought that granting money to pay the claim 
 would be a very disastrous precedent, and lead to 
 unauthorized expeditions against Indians in all the 
 Territories. There was a good deal of common 
 sense in this view of the matter, but Jackson was 
 able to bring forward still more common sense to 
 support his side of the question. He was opposed 
 by debaters of greater experience, and more elo- 
 quent than himself; but they lacked his earnestness 
 and pertinacity, his familiarity with the subject and 
 his overpowering personality. He believed that 
 the claim was just, and that it was his duty to press 
 it to a victorious issue. Animated by these convic- 
 tions, he stripped the question of all irrelevant con- 
 
82 General Andrezu Jackson. 
 
 siderations, sheared right down into the heart of the 
 matter, and there hitting the nail squarely on the 
 head, he drove it home and clinched it. He won 
 his case. The claim was allowed, and the sum of 
 $22,816 was voted to pay the Tennessee Indian 
 
 fighters. 
 
 When Congress adjourned on the 3rd of March, 
 1797 (John Adams being inaugurated President, 
 and Thomas Jefferson Vice President the next 
 day), Jackson went home. He was received 
 by his fellow-citizens with enthusiastic demonstra- 
 tions of affection and respect. They gratefully 
 recognized the benefit he had conferred on them 
 by securing from the government the payment of 
 their claims for service against the Indians. The 
 distribution among the needy families of the settle- 
 ments of nearly twenty-three thousand dollars in 
 cash gave comfort to thousands who otherwise 
 would have felt the stings of want for many months. 
 So highly were Jackson's services appreciated, and 
 so great was his popularity, that when a vacancy 
 occurred in Tennessee's representation in the United 
 States Senate, nobody but the Honorable Andrew 
 Jackson was thought of for the place. The gover- 
 nor appointed him to fill the vacancy, and in 
 December, 1797, having returned to Philadelphia, 
 he took his seat in the Fifth Congress as a Senator of 
 the United States. 
 
 When Andrew Jackson took his seat as a Senator 
 of the United States, he was but a few months past 
 the age (thirty years) at which one must have 
 arrived to render him eligible to the United States 
 Senate. There was so little business to transact- 
 
Jackson in Congress, 83 
 
 during the first part of the session that the situation 
 became intolerably irksome to the energetic Senator 
 from Tennessee. An embassy, consisting of John 
 Marshall, C. C. Pinckney and Elbridge Gerry, had 
 been sent to France by President Adams, to adjust 
 if possible the threatening difficulties between the 
 two countries, and Congress was not in a mood to 
 do anything until dispatches had been received from 
 the embassy. The dispatches did not come, and 
 Congress idly waited for them four months. When 
 the dispatches finally came, they were so alarming 
 that Congress prepared for war with France, and its 
 action was approved by a majority of the people. 
 While Congress was waiting. Senator Jackson, 
 aided by his colleague in the Senate and the Repre- 
 sentative from Tennessee, persuaded the Adminis- 
 tration to send a commission to the Cherokee 
 Indians in Tennessee, for the purpose of buying 
 from them all the land which that tribe would sell. 
 The commission made a successful negotiation with 
 the Cherokees, whereby Tennessee was relieved 
 for many years from further trouble with them. 
 
 Senator Jackson sympathized strongly with France 
 and with the French revolutionists, and with every- 
 thing which was republican and progressive. There 
 are traditions that he used to become furious at 
 the tardy transaction of the public business, and 
 with members of Congress who favored what he 
 thought to be anti-American measures and principles. 
 It is even said that sometimes his anger would be 
 so great that he could not articulate for several 
 moments at a time, and that to the aristocratic 
 Federalists, who were devotees of deportment, he 
 
84 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 was not a pleasant antagonist. He won the friend- 
 ship of Aaron Burr, Edward Livingston, and other 
 leading democrats ; and his relations with them had 
 an influence on his subsequent career. Becoming 
 utterly wearied out by the do-nothingness of the 
 Senate, in April, 1798, he obtained leave of absence 
 for the remainder of the session, went home, resigned 
 his office, and took his place as a private citizen for 
 the first time since his twenty-first year. 
 
 It was time he relinquished the public service 
 and attended to his private affairs, which had be- 
 come embarrassed on account of his long absences 
 from home. He owned so many large tracts of 
 wild land, on which he had to pay taxes, that he 
 was what is called " land poor. " While serving in 
 Congress, he had mingled a good deal in Philadelphia 
 society, and had made the acquaintance of some of 
 the merchants of that city. In this way he had 
 learned what large profits were made on merchan- 
 dise bought in Philadelphia and taken to the West 
 for sale, notwithstanding the enormous expense of 
 transporting the goods over the mountains and 
 through the wilderness. He sold several thousand 
 acres of his western land for nearly seven thousand 
 dollars, to David Allison, a prosperous merchant in 
 Philadelphia, of great reputation as a shrewd busi- 
 ness man and financier. Allison paid for the land 
 by giving three promissory notes on long time, the 
 last note not coming due for about six years. 
 Allison's credit was so good that Jackson, by 
 indorsing the notes, was able to buy merchandise 
 with them in Philadelphia. This merchandise he 
 sent to Pittsburg in wagons ; then by fiatboats 
 
Judge of the Stcpreme Court, 85 
 
 down the Ohio to a convenient point, and thence, 
 on pack-horses, through the wilderness, to Nash- 
 ville. 
 
 He opened a store in a block-house, near his res- 
 idence at Hunter's Hill, two miles from his subse- 
 quent abode which became so widely known as the 
 Hermitage. The Indians and many white men of 
 that day were such adroit and persistent thieves that 
 precautions had to be taken to prevent them from 
 purloining such articles as they could easily hide 
 about their persons and carry away undiscovered. 
 To meet this emergency, a small window was cut in 
 one end of the block-house, and Indians and notori- 
 ously light-fingered white men who wanted to trade 
 with the merchant were required to stand outside 
 and do their buying and bartering through that 
 aperture. 
 
 By the time his new business had got fairly under 
 way, the Legislature of Tennessee elected him 
 Judge of the Supreme Court, an office which was 
 considered next to the governorship in dignity and 
 importance. The governor's salary was $750 ; the 
 judge's $600. Jackson had not expected the office; 
 he did not want it ; he accepted it with reluctance, 
 and only in deference to the principle (of which he 
 was an advocate) that a citizen should neither seek 
 nor decline office. As he had to hold court in differ- 
 ent parts of the State, his duties took him from home 
 so much that his judgeship was disastrous to his 
 private interests. There are no authentic records 
 with regard to the manner in which he performed 
 the duties of his office, but there are many legends 
 and anecdotes concerning his adventures while he 
 
86 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 was a Judge of the Supreme Court. One of the five 
 noted babies born in 1782 — Thomas H. Benton — now 
 grown to be a youth of seventeen, gives this inter- 
 esting glimpse of the famous Judge, as he appeared 
 on the bench : 
 
 " The first time I saw General Jackson, was at 
 Nashville, in 1799; ^^ ^^^ ^^e bench, and I, a youth 
 of seventeen, back in the crowd. He was then a 
 remarkable man, and had his ascendant over all who 
 approached him ; not the effect of his high judicial 
 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 his per- 
 sonal qualities, cordial and graceful manners, hos- 
 pitable temper, elevation of mind, undaunted spirit, 
 generosity and perfect integrity." 
 
 The testimony is unanimous that General Jackson 
 was the most distinguished-looking man of his time 
 in America ; also that he was one of the most elegant 
 and graceful, whether on horseback at the head of 
 his troops, or in a drawing-room surrounded by 
 ladies ; moreover, that he was invincibly just, inflex- 
 ibly upright and chaste as ice. Such a man might 
 be a stern judge, but he could not fail to be a firm 
 and a just one. Mr. Benton says that General Jack- 
 son " was a remarkable man, and had his ascendant 
 over all who approached hiin^ This is as great a 
 power in a judge, as it is in a military chieftain. It 
 enables a judge of indifferent legal ability to do 
 what a weak man, however professionally accom- 
 plished he may be, cannot do on the bench, especially 
 when he has such fighting lawyers and litigants to 
 deal with as Judge Jackson had. It was seldom 
 
Jtidge of tJie Supreme Cou7^t. 87 
 
 that anybody ventured to dispute his decisions or to 
 cavil at his rulings. Besides, his invincible love of 
 justice, in combination with his fearlessness in the 
 performance of his duty, and his penetrating intel- 
 lect, gave him clear perceptions as to the vital issues 
 in the cases which came before him for trial. He 
 was quick to see the pivotal fact or principle on 
 which a case turned ; and this enabled him to keep 
 the lawyers to the point, to strip a case of all 
 irrelevant considerations and drive it rapidly to a 
 conclusion. For these reasons he could dispose of 
 more cases in a day than any other judge of whom 
 I have any knowledge, and the parties to the suits 
 always got substantial justice ; which, of course, 
 was an intolerable grievance to those who were in 
 the wrong. 
 
 Mr. Benton, in the article from which the above 
 extract is taken, refers to solecisms in style and 
 errors in grammar which were made by Judge 
 Jackson. It was customary, during the embittered 
 political contests in which General Jackson Avas 
 subsequently the central figure, for his enemies to 
 try to cast ridicule upon his " literary style." But 
 the pedants never could gain the sympathy of the 
 people for such attacks. The people then, as now, 
 looked at the real substance and heart of things. 
 They knew that Andrew Jackson's terrible experi- 
 ences during the tender years when boys are usually 
 laying the foundation for a literary style, had devel- 
 oped characteristics in him which were worth 
 more to his country than all the literary style which 
 the universities can confer. And as a matter of 
 fact, Jackson's style in writing, like his style in 
 
88 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 fighting, was just the style which fitted the time in 
 which he lived. It struck right^at the core of things. 
 It accomplished his purpose. If, now and then, a 
 sentence did not stand straight on its legs, it was 
 never broken-backed, it never sprawled, it did not 
 even wobble. He was at his best in his addresses 
 issued to his armies. In these, his burning thoughts 
 came forth in fit burning words, often with fiery 
 emphasis, and sometimes with a commanding clarion 
 blast as inspiring to his troops as his heroic de- 
 meanor in battle. 
 
Frontier Life. 89 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FRONTIER LIFE A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 One of the stories told of Judge Jackson illustrates 
 his coolness and his readiness of resource at a criti- 
 cal moment. As he was riding along an unfre- 
 quented country road in his gig, a ruffian, upon 
 whom a few years before he had inflicted a heavy 
 sentence, suddenly sprang out of a clump of bushes, 
 covered the judge with a loaded pistol and ordered 
 him to dismount from the vehicle. Seeing there 
 was no alternative, he dismounted. 
 
 " Now dance," said the ruffian, still covering him 
 with his pistol. 
 
 The judge had on heavy boots. Looking at them 
 he quietly said : 
 
 " I can't dance in these boots. I must get my 
 pumps; then I'll dance for you." 
 
 As he thus spoke, he stepped to his valise that was 
 strapped behind the gig and began to open it. 
 
 " All right," said the ruffian, with his pistol still 
 pointed at the judge's head. 
 
 He had no sooner spoken than Judge Jackson 
 whirled upon him with a cocked pistol in his hand, 
 and his eyes flashing lightning. The ruffian was 
 so taken aback that he lost his nerve, and also '* the 
 drop," which, up to that moment, he had kept on the 
 judge. Knowing that if he made the slightest 
 movement, the judge would put a bullet through 
 
go General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 his brain, he stood trembling before him, without 
 making" any defense. 
 
 "■ Throw down your pistol," said Judge Jackson. 
 
 The ruffian obeyed. 
 
 "Now dance," said the judge. 
 
 The ruffian danced. 
 
 *' Keep on dancing," said the judge, when the fel- 
 low began to slacken his efforts from fatigue. And 
 he kept the weary wretch dancing until he fell to 
 the ground with exhaustion. The judge then picked 
 up and discharged the man's pistol, threw it down 
 beside him, re-entered his gig and drove off, leaving 
 his assailant lying helpless by the roadside. 
 
 On another occasion two wagoners attempted to 
 make Judge Jackson dance in the road. In those 
 days wagoners were a numerous and influential 
 class. They were rough men, fond of rude fun, and 
 were not respecters of official personages. One of 
 their favorite pastimes was to make people whom they 
 met on the road dance for their amusement. Two of 
 them meeting the judge, ordered him to get out of 
 his gig and dance. He resorted to the same ruse 
 which he had practiced in the case of the ruffian. 
 Pretending to go for his slippers, he opened his 
 valise and suddenly confronted the wagoners with 
 a pistol in each hand. The playful wagoners were 
 dumbfounded. The judge compelled them to dance 
 until they were exhausted, and then gave them a 
 moral lecture which was probably far more tiresome 
 to them than the dancing, but which the contiguity 
 of the lecturer's pistols caused the auditors to listen 
 to with seeming: respect. 
 
 Jackson's unparalleled readiness of resource in 
 
Frontie7' Life, qi 
 
 emergencies, which would have been insurmounta- 
 ble by other men, was shown on a memorable occa- 
 sion. It was at Clover Bottom, on the day of the 
 annual horse races. It was customary, on that day, 
 for the landlord of the small tavern to set a long 
 table in the open air, at which hundreds of guests 
 could be accommodated. Several races had been 
 run, and an intermission was had for dinner. The 
 long table v/as filled, Jackson at the head of it, and 
 on each side Avas a vast and dense multitude. Sud- 
 denly, a disturbance arose at the lower end of the 
 table, and soon Jackson learned that an attempt to 
 kill a particular friend of his named Patten Ander- 
 son vv'as on foot. 
 
 " They'll finish Patten Anderson this time, I do 
 expect," said some one in the crowd. 
 
 Jackson sprang to his feet. He must get to the 
 side of his friend at once. But how could he do it ? 
 To force his way through the dense crowd was 
 impossible. Every second of time was of incalcul- 
 able importance. In such a case, Andrew Jackson's 
 will would find a way. It did find a way. Spring- 
 ing upon the table, he rushed down its whole length, 
 crying in his most clarion tones : " I'm coming, Pat- 
 ten !" 'As he neared his friend, he put his hand in 
 his coat pocket behind. In Tennessee, in those days, 
 when a man under such circumstances put his hand 
 in his coat pocket behind, it meant that he was 
 reaching for his pistol. Jackson had no pistol ; but 
 he had an old-fashioned steel tobacco-box with a 
 stiff spring, which he snapped as he approached. 
 The snap of the spring sounded like the click of a 
 pistol when it is cocked. 
 
92 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 " Don't fire !" cried one of the by-standers, as 
 Jackson came down the table like a cyclone. The 
 hostile crowd heard the cry, looked up, saw the 
 coming cyclone, and — vanished, leaving Anderson 
 unharmed. 
 
 People of this age, living in communities where 
 fighting is looked upon by all with disfavor and by 
 many with disgust, should not judge the inhabitants 
 of the extreme West in the days of Andrew Jackson, 
 by our standards. It is ungracious, it is ungrateful 
 for people who reap harvests from fields which they 
 now till without fear, to criticise with ungenerous 
 severity the lives and conduct of the men who, con- 
 stantly surrounded by danger and in the perpetual 
 presence of death, reclaimed those fields from the 
 wilderness. Let any man of spirit imagine how he 
 would have behaved if he had lived in that country 
 in those times, and been surrounded by Indians 
 thirsting for his blood, and had encountered ruffians 
 bent on biting off his ears or his nose, or on gouging 
 out his eyes, or determined to stab him to the heart 
 with a hunting-knife, or to put a bullet through his 
 head ! In such a community, where the law of the 
 survival of the fittest reigns supreme, a man must 
 fight, or he isn't fittest, and will not long survive. 
 In such a community, instead of its being a disgrace 
 to fight in defense of one's rights or life, it is an 
 honor, a distinction, a certificate of character. In 
 such a community, as the celebrated Colonel David 
 Crockett used to say : " A man's willin'ness to fight 
 is a proof of his innercence." 
 
 In those wild days even ministers of the Gospel had 
 to fight, in order to hold their own against the bullies 
 
 \ 
 
Frontier Life, g^; 
 
 and the ruffians who sometimes attempted to dis- 
 turb and break up religious meetings, especially 
 during revival seasons. The Reverend Peter Cart- 
 wright, the celebrated frontier preacher and revi- 
 valist, who was a giant in size and strength, gives 
 some thrilling accounts in his autobiography of the 
 physical encounters he had with aggressive ruffians. 
 On one occasion, when a gang of ruffians attempted 
 to break up a revival meeting, he put himself at the 
 head of a band of stalwart members of the church 
 militant for the purpose of defending the tents of 
 Zion. Here is the way the God-fearing, but not 
 man-fearing, old preacher concludes the story (the 
 italics being mine): 
 
 " I threw myself in front of the friends of order. 
 Just at this moment the ringleader of the mob and 
 I met ; he made three passes at me, intending to 
 knock me down. The last time he struck at me, by 
 the force of his own effort he threw the side of his 
 face toward me. It seemed at that moment I had not 
 power to resist temptation^ and I struck a sudden blow in 
 the burr of the ear and dropped him to the earths 
 
 Dear old Peter's inability to resist temptation at 
 that critical moment turned the scale in favor of the 
 Gospel. The rowdies were driven off, the revival 
 went on gloriously, and many precious souls, incar- 
 nated in the bodies of wild western converts wear- 
 ing hunting-knives and pistols, were garnered into 
 the fold of the church. 
 
 On another occasion, a certain Major L., taking 
 umbrage at Cartwright's plain preaching, assailed 
 him with profuse vituperation and challenged him 
 to a rough-and-tumble fight. To his great dismay, 
 
94 Gene7'al Andrew Jackson. 
 
 the Reverend Peter accepted his challenge. Chok- 
 ing with rage and profanity, the major yelled : 
 
 " If I thought I could whip you, I would smite 
 you in a moment." 
 
 " Yes, yes. Major L.," Peter quietly replied ; '' but, 
 thank God, you can't whip me ; but don't you 
 attempt to strike me, for if you do, and the devil 
 gets out of you into me, I shall give you the worst 
 whipping you ever got in your life." 
 
 Major L. did not attem.pt to strike the brave old 
 man, who " whipt him with his gaze," then turned on 
 his heel and leisurely walked away. 
 
 The oft-told Russell Bean adventure was one of 
 the most thrilling incidents in Andrew Jackson's 
 experience as a judge. Bean was one of the most 
 desperate ruffians in Tennessee. He seldom hesi- 
 tated to commit any act of brutality to which his 
 passions prompted him. He even cut off a babe's 
 ears, close to its head, for the purpose of avenging 
 himself on the infant's mother, who was his own 
 unfaithful wife. A warrant having been issued for 
 Bean's arrest for a breach of the law, he refused to 
 be arrested and defied the sheriff. As he was armed 
 with a pistol and a hunting-knife, the sheriff did not 
 dare to grapple with him. Judge Jackson was hold- 
 ing court. The sheriff reported the case to him, 
 saying that Bean was in front of the court-house 
 and threatened to shoot anybody who attempted to 
 arrest him. Authorities differ as to the details of 
 what then occurred ; but the majority agree that the 
 judge waxed wroth and volunteered to serve as one 
 of \\\Q, posse summoned to capture Bean. Cocking 
 his pistol, which was then and there a portion of the 
 
Frontier Life. 95 
 
 paraphernalia of justice, he led the way to the 
 court-yard, where Bean was blustering and threat- 
 ening to shoot anybody who came within ten feet of 
 him. Judge Jackson walked straight toward him, 
 pointing his pistol directly at the ruffian's head and 
 transfixing him with his eye. For an instant, Bean 
 attempted to rally. But his nerve was not equal to 
 the crisis, and stammering, " There's no use. Judge ; 
 I give in," he put up his weapons and suffered the 
 sheriff to lead him away. It is said that Bean's 
 explanation of his sudden collapse was that when he 
 caught Judge Jackson's eye, he *' saw shoot in it, 
 and that there wasn't shoot in nary other eye in the 
 crowd." 
 
 Amos Kendall, in his Life of Jackson, tells a char- 
 acteristic and thrilling anecdote, which Mr. Parton 
 quotes. In the fall of 1803, while Judge Jackson 
 was on his way from Nashville to Jonesboro' where 
 he was about to hold a court, a friend who met him 
 on the road informed him that a combination had 
 been formed against him, and that on his arrival at 
 Jonesboro he might expect to be mobbed. Jackson 
 was then sick with intermittent fever, which had so 
 weakened him that he was scarcely able to sit on his 
 horse. He spurred forward, however, and reached 
 the town, but so exhausted that he could not dis- 
 mount without help. Burning with fever, he retired 
 to his room in the tavern and lay down on a bed. A 
 friend soon came in and said that in front of the 
 tavern, were Colonel Harrison and a regiment of 
 men who had assembled for the purpose of tarring 
 and feathering him. His friend advised him to lock 
 his door. But that was not Andrew Jackson's way. 
 
 / 
 
96 
 
 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Enfeebled as he was, he rose suddenly, threw his 
 door wide open, and said, with that appalling empha- 
 sis which won him so many battles without fighing : 
 
 " Give my compliments to Col. Harrison, and tell 
 him my door is open to receive him and his regiment 
 whenever they choose to wait upon me, and 1 hope 
 the colonel's chivalry will induce him to lead his 
 men, not follow them." 
 
 Nothing more was heard of the colonel or of his 
 men. Judge Jackson recovered from his fever, and 
 held his court as usual, without molestation. 
 
 ,\ 
 
Financial Disaster's. 97 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FINANCIAL DISASTERS. 
 
 While Judge Jackson was so faithfully serving 
 the public on the bench, his private affairs, owing to 
 his frequent absences from home, were disastrously 
 neglected ; moreover, heavy financial burdens were 
 unexpectedly laid upon his shoulders. In 1798 and 
 1799 there came a great commercial crash, which 
 swept away hundreds of fortunes based on credit 
 and impoverished thousands of business men. 
 
 Among those who failed was David Allison, the 
 Philadelphia merchant, to whom Jackson sold his 
 wild land. It will be remembered that Allison paid 
 for the land with his notes on long time ; that Jack- 
 son indorsed the notes and bought merchandise with 
 them. The failure of Allison threw the payment of 
 the notes upon Jackson. It was a terrible blow. 
 He met it, as he always met danger or trouble, with- 
 out flinching, and with a resolute purpose to per- 
 form his duty at whatever cost to himself. The 
 notes had to be paid in Philadelphia, in hard cash ; 
 and paid they were, every one of them on the day 
 it became due. 
 
 The payment of these notes was only accom- 
 plished after a struggle which almost wrung tlie 
 life out of Jackson's resources, and left him in a 
 state of painful pecuniary embarrassment. Being 
 so constantly absent from home, he could not give 
 personal supervision to his store ; his partner and 
 
98 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 his assistants were inefficient, and the establishment 
 became an extra burden and expense to him. 1 will 
 dismiss this storekeeping business by stating that, 
 after several years of unsatisfactory experiment, 
 Jackson finally sold out his interest in the store to 
 his partner, General John Coffee, taking the gen- 
 eral's notes for the purchase price, which notes 
 were never paid. Thus ended Andrew Jackson's 
 career as a frontier merchant. It often happened ' 
 that his debtors failed to pay him ; and so long as a ; 
 man was honest and did his best, Andrew Jackson 
 had not the heart to distress him by enforcing pay- 
 ment. But, although many people failed to pay him, ■ 
 he paid everybody. In this respect he was 
 strongly contrasted with some of his illustrious con- \ 
 temporaries who lived in debt, were harrassed by 
 debt all their lives, and died in debt, leaving a 
 legacy of shame to their children. " Who has not 
 seen," exclaims Emerson, in his Essay on Prudence 
 — "who has not seen the traged}^ of imprudent 
 genius, struggling for years with paltry pecuniary 
 difficulties, at last sinking, chilled, exhausted and 
 fruitless, like a giant slaughtered by pins." 
 
 There is no part of Andrew Jackson's life which 
 the young men of this country can contemplate with 
 more profit than that in which his struggles with 
 financial disasters are described. But few, probably 
 none of those who read this narrative, will be called 
 upon to fight their country's battles in the field, but' 
 it is highly probable that many of them will have 
 occasion to struggle more or less with pecuniary 
 embarrassments and financial misfortunes ; and in 
 
 A 
 
Fijiancial Disaster's. 99 
 
 such strugg-les they cannot find a better guide or 
 model than Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Clearly perceiving the magnitude of his em- 
 barrassments, and also perceiving clearly the only 
 way in which he could retrieve himself, in 1804 
 Jackson resigned his judgeship, took the manage- 
 ment of his affairs into his own hands, and set at 
 work with characteristic energy and sagacity to 
 rebuild his shattered fortunes. He sold his house 
 and farm at Hunter's Hill and twenty-five thousand 
 acres of wild land, paid all his debts with the 
 proceeds, opened a new farm and established a new 
 residence, the Hermitage. Under his personal 
 supervision his affairs at once began to be prosper- 
 ous. He devoted himself to agriculture and stock- 
 raising. From Virginia he brought a famous race 
 horse, Truxton, that was the progenitor of a long 
 line of highly valued descendants. According to 
 the testimony of his neighbors he was a skillful and 
 in many respects a model farmer. Nothing which 
 could conduce to the success of his farm was over- 
 looked or neglected. Everything was attended to 
 at the right time and in the right way. 
 
 In addition to his own superior qualifications, he 
 had a loving, competent, devoted helpmeet in his 
 wife. Mrs. Jackson was celebrated throughout 
 Western Tennessee as one of the most energetic and 
 skillful housewives of her day; and it was the very 
 life of her life to work with and for her idolized 
 husband. Her '* woman's sphere " is worthy of the 
 careful consideration of the women of this day, and 
 also of the men. She lived in what is called a 
 double log-house ; that is, two log-cabins placed end 
 
lOO General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 to end or side by side, witli communicating doors. 
 There was a log annex to this house for the accom- 
 modation of guests. Near by, and at various con- 
 venient localities on the farm, were cabins for the 
 accommodation of the negro servants and the slaves. 
 Over the '' home department " of this little kingdom 
 Mrs. Jackson reigned as queen. She attended to all 
 manner of duties— knitting, spinning, butter-making, 
 cooking, sewing. She made her own dresses, 
 superintended the preparation of clothing for the 
 slaves, and in her husband's absence she looked after 
 outdoor affairs ; was proud of her clear, ever-flowing 
 spring ; was a good judge of horses, cattle and sheep ; 
 in short, was competent and ready to oversee with 
 energy, tact, kindness, skill and judgment, every 
 variety of domestic functions, and bring them all to 
 successful issues. 
 
 It is probable that many a man, on reading this 
 description of Mrs. Jackson's domestic competency 
 and faithfulness, will say to himself: ''Would to 
 heaven that I had such a wife !" To that man per- 
 haps it would be advisable to say : " Would to 
 heaven that your wife had such a husband as Mrs. 
 Jackson had!" Remember what the poet says: 
 " As the husband, so the wife is. " Andrew Jackson 
 was a model husband. He loved his wife with 
 chivalric devotion. As Mr. Parton says, thirty- 
 seven years he kept pistols in perfect readiness for 
 any man who breathed a word against her name. 
 During all their married life he treated her with the 
 respect, the delicacy, the tenderness, the courtesy, 
 the adoring affection of an ardent lover. In his 
 imagination he idolized and glorified her, until, in 
 
Financial Disasters. loi 
 
 the words of Carlyle, '' to him she was indeed a 
 morning star ; her presence brought with it airs 
 from heaven. " And the man who thus loved and 
 cherished his wife was a hero, a king of men. What 
 wonder, then, that his wife loved and idolized him 
 in return, and found her chief joy in being his true 
 helpmeet. 
 
 It is a truism that the love of a poodle is not to 
 be despised ; and, in truth, poodles are thought 
 much of now in some quarters ; but the devoted 
 love of a grand old lion, and the consciousness that 
 his courage and strength are perpetually at our 
 service, would give such satisfaction and delight, 
 especially to woman, as the love of many poodles 
 could not bestow. And he or she who will look 
 intelligently at this matter may understand some- 
 thing of the felicitous domesticity of the Jackson 
 household, in that double log-cabin and on that 
 prosperous farm. When the minds, hearts and souls 
 of a married pair are conjoined in perfect conjugal 
 union, the masculine and feminine natures so sup- 
 plement and reinforce one another that each flows 
 out, in its own functional way, to the performance 
 of its duties as naturally and harmoniously as the 
 heart and lungs perform their respective and differ- 
 ent but equally necessary functions. 
 
 Since the disaster in the Garden of Eden, no 
 earthly paradise has been secure against the 
 machinations of the devil. The Jackson paradise 
 was not exempt from the common perils of paradises. 
 That handsome boy baby, whose hand was to 
 become so skillful with the pistol, now grown to 
 
I02 
 
 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 man 
 
 hood, was rapidly nearing the culmination of his 
 earthly destiny, and threatened to work irretrievable 
 woe to the happy husband and wife who dwelt at 
 the Hermitage. 
 
TJie Dickinson Duel. 103 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PLOTS TO GET RID OF JACKSON — THE DICKINSON 
 
 DUEL. 
 
 Before he resigned his judgeship, Andrew Jack- 
 son was elected a major-general of the Tennessee 
 militia, and was thenceforth known as General Jack- 
 son. He made this appellation so famous and so 
 dear to the hearts of his countrymen that only his 
 subsequently acquired nickname, '' Old Hickory," 
 could supersede it. Even after his election to the 
 . Presidency of the United States he was seldom 
 called President Jackson. He was General Jack- 
 son or Old Hickory to the end of his life. The Ten- 
 nessee major-generalship was one of the most cov- 
 eted offices in the State, and Jackson's election to it 
 was another proof of the high esteem in which he 
 v/as held by his fellow citizens. 
 
 General Jackson's successful and honorable career 
 in Tennessee had excited the jealousy of ambitious 
 rivals who coveted the honors so freely lavished on 
 him. It was not unnatural that his intolerable suc- 
 cess should have exasperated his defeated competi- 
 tors. One cannot entirely withhold his sympathy 
 from those who were so poignantly afflicted by the 
 general's rapid rise to distinction and his monopoly 
 of honors. Their jealousy and their hatred were 
 aggravated by the general's temper, which Colonel 
 Benton says " refused compromises and bargaining, 
 
I04 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 and went for a clean victory or a clean defeat in 
 every case. Hence," Colonel Benton adds, " every 
 step he took was a contest ; and, it may be added, 
 every contest was a victory." 
 
 Considering all the circumstances of the case — 
 including the sanguinary disposition of nearly everv 
 man who had achieved any degree of distinction in 
 that belligerent age and in that fighting community 
 — it is not surprising that there were hundreds of 
 men in Tennessee who would have been glad to 
 hear of General Jackson's death. When people very 
 much want a man to die, it is not impossible for 
 them to find plausible ways and means for helping 
 him to pass from this world of sorrow into another 
 and a better world. General Jackson's enemies, 
 knowing what a terrible man he was in a contest, . 
 and how ready his friends were to stand by him, 
 proceeded with caution and cunning. They knew 
 how he idolized his wife ; they had not forgotten 
 that, owing to misinformation, he had unwittingly 
 married her several months before Robards had 
 obtained his divorce, and therefore was obliged to 
 have the marriage ceremony re-performed. They 
 seized upon these facts as a means of annoying 
 General Jackson. They magnified the facts ; they 
 misrepresented them ; they tortured them into the 
 most vilifying calumnies. The general was pro- 
 foundly affected by these venomous attacks upon the 
 woman whom he respected as one of the purest of 
 mortals and adored as the paragon of her sex ; the 
 woman who was his wife, and therefore sacred to 
 him, and whom, according to his convictions, he 
 
The Dickinson Duel. 105 
 
 was bound by every human and divine considera- 
 tion to defend against her calumnious enemies. 
 
 Having brought things to this pass, General Jack- 
 son's enemies sought, and supposed they had found, 
 a way to expedite his departure from this world. 
 In the latter part of the year 1805, there was a 
 young lawyer in Nashville, twenty-five years old, 
 named Charles Dickinson, who had the reputation 
 of being " the best pistol shot in the world." Accord- 
 ing to all accounts, Dickinson deserved his reputa- 
 tion. At all events, he was the best pistol shot in 
 Western Tennessee. This young lawyer was " the 
 marvelously beautiful baby" born in 1780, now 
 grown to manhood. He was in sympathy with 
 some of General Jackson's most malignant enemies. 
 Inasmuch as he spoke disrespectfully of Mrs. Jack- 
 son, in a public bar-room, it is probable that he was 
 himself embittered against Jackson. The fact that 
 Dickinson had spoken disrespectfully of Mrs. Jack- 
 son was communicated to the general. Mr. Parton's 
 statement about pistols kept in readiness for thirty- 
 seven years by General Jackson for anybody who 
 spoke disrespectfully of his wife, will recur to the 
 reader's mind. No one will have any difficulty in 
 imagining the effect upon his fiery nature of the 
 report that Dickinson had publicly used insulting 
 language about Mrs. Jackson. He immediately 
 took Dickinson to task. Dickinson denied all recol- 
 lection of having said anything disrespectful about 
 Mrs. Jackson, and added that if he had in fact done 
 so, he did it while he was drunk and irresponsible. 
 This pacified the general for a time ; but rumors 
 were circulated that Dickinson had repeated his 
 
io6 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 sneering innuendoes ; and at last he made an insult- 
 ing remark about Mrs. Jackson in her own presence 
 and hearing. 
 
 This unfortunate occurrence, which was to have a 
 tragic and fatal issue, took place on the Nashville 
 race-course, where one of General Jackson's horses 
 was outrunning its competitors. Mrs. Jackson, see- 
 ing her husband's horse coming in far ahead of its 
 rivals, clapped her hands and exclaimed : 
 
 "■ O, he is running away from them !" 
 
 Dickinson, who was standing near Mrs. Jackson's 
 carriage, said to an acquaintance, in a tone of voice 
 loud enough to be heard by her : 
 
 " Yes, and a good deal as his owner ran away with 
 another man's wife." 
 
 Such a gratuitous and wanton insult to a lady was, 
 of course, unpardonable. Mrs. Jackson told her 
 husband of it. To the surprise of his friends, who 
 knew with what readiness General Jackson avenged 
 an insult to his wife, he behaved with exemplary 
 coolness and forbearance. The truth was, the gen- 
 eral's almost preternatural sagacity divined the 
 intentions of those who were plotting to destroy him ; 
 and while he had no intention of faltering in the dis- 
 charge of what he believed to be his duty, he was 
 resolved that he would make no false step. Besides, 
 he was held in check by his own celebrity and high 
 position. A man who has arrived at nearly forty 
 years of age, who has been a Representative in Con- 
 gress, a Senator of the United States, and Judge of ^ 
 the Supreme Court, and is a major-general of the ^ 
 military organization of his State, cannot speak and 
 act with the reckless freedom with which a young 
 
 I 
 
The Dickinson Dice I. 107 
 
 man may behave who is just starting out in the 
 world. 
 
 The truth of the deplorable events which followed 
 has never been, and probably never will be, com- 
 pletely revealed to mortal minds. In such matters 
 there is always much which is known only to the 
 hearts of the chief actors, and it is this unknown 
 quantity which usually determines and controls the 
 course of events. As to this affair, suffice it to say 
 that General Jackson verily believed there was a 
 conspiracy to kill him, and that Dickinson was the 
 instrument selected for that purpose. If he could 
 be provoked to challenge that renowned dead-shot, 
 his doom would be sealed. So far as known, no 
 human being could cope successfully with Dickin- 
 son on " the field of honor," if the weapons were pis- 
 tols. And if he were challenged he would have the 
 right to name the weapons, and would, of course, 
 choose pistols. He always fired instantly, with the 
 quickness of lightning, and he never missed his aim. 
 
 In spite of all exertions on the part of well-inten- 
 tioned friends to pacificate the differences between 
 Jackson and Dickinson, they grew worse and worse. 
 It being apparent that, if the foreshadowed duel 
 should be fought on the ground that General Jack- 
 son was fighting in defense of his wife and to punish 
 a man who had wantonly and personally insulted 
 her, he would have public sympathy on his side, 
 persistent and artful efforts were made to deprive 
 him of that rightful advantage. Other persons and 
 other matters became mixed up in the affair. It 
 seemed as though some secret, malign influence was 
 at work to render a reconciliation impossible. 
 
To8 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 When Paul, after his shipwreck on the Island of 
 Melita, laid a bundle of sticks on the fire, " there 
 came forth a viper out of the heat and fastened on 
 his hand." The fomenters of the strife between 
 Jackson and Dickinson constantly laid sticks on the 
 fire, knowing that out of its heat only vipers of 
 hatred and vengeance could come. And finally, in 
 May, 1806, General Jackson sent Dickinson a chal- 
 lenge. The challenge was immediately accepted, 
 but Dickinson demanded a delay of a week, in order 
 that he might procure a dueling pistol, which would 
 enable him to shoot General Jackson with a nicety 
 and precision which would gratify his fastidious 
 artistic taste in such a matter. He knew that the 
 duel would be a celebrated one ; and as he expected 
 to be the sole survivor, he wished to have his part in 
 the deadly business performed in a way which would 
 win the enduring admiration of his friends. 
 
 General Jackson protested against the delay 
 demanded by Dickinson, and offered him the choice 
 of his own pistols, in order that the alleged reason 
 for delay might be obviated. But Dickinson, being 
 the challenged party, had the right to dictate terms, 
 and he would not consent to an earlier meeting. 
 So it was arranged that the duel should be fought at 
 seven o'clock on the morning of May 30, 1806, at 
 Harrison's Mills, on Red River, in Logan county, 
 Kentucky— a long day's ride on horseback from 
 
 Nashville. 
 
 Rumors of the impending duel spread through the 
 country, but the time and place were kept secret. 
 The excitement was intense and universal. It is 
 probable that not an individual who heard of the 
 
The Dickinson Duel. 109 
 
 coming conflict had the least doubt as to the result. 
 General Jackson was looked upon as a doomed man 
 — as good as dead already. Neither Jackson nor 
 his second (General Thomas Overton, an old Revo- 
 lutionary soldier, who had had much experience 
 in dueling) had much if any doubt as to what the 
 result would be. That Dickinson would fire 
 quicker than General Jackson could, and that his 
 shot would be unerring, both Jackson and Overton 
 conceded. That being the undoubted truth, what 
 was to be done ? A serious question truly. The 
 two generals studied the problem long and 
 thoroughly. The conclusion which they finally 
 came to was that General Jackson should receive 
 Dickinson's fire, and take his chance of surviving 
 and of being able to return the shot. It is doubtful 
 if, under such circumstances, any man except Andrew 
 Jackson could have come to such a conclusion, and 
 abided by it, and awaited the crisis with cheerful- 
 ness. But that old chieftain, whose sympathetic 
 tenderness was so great that he could not hear a 
 lamb bleat on an inclement night without getting 
 out of his bed, and going forth into the storm and 
 bringing the suffering little creature into the house 
 and putting it in a warm place on the hearth, had 
 the resolution and fortitude of a god, 
 
 " And a heart for any fate." 
 
 Early on Thursday morning. May 29th, the 
 duelists, accompanied by their seconds and their 
 surgeons, set out for Harrison's Mills. Dickinson, 
 who was the first on the road, had several young 
 
I TO General Andreio Jackson. 
 
 friends in his party, who went along to see him shoot 
 General Jackson. They made a picnic of the trip. 
 Along the route, Dickinson gratified his friends by 
 giving them proofs of his skill with the pistol. He 
 shot four bullets into a space that could be covered 
 by a silver dollar; he severed strings by which 
 cucumbers were suspended in the sun to ripen ; 
 indeed, he performed wonders with his artistic pis- 
 tol, and amazed his friends by what seemed to them 
 the superhuman accuracy of his fire. All this was 
 not merely done for sport ; there was a purpose in 
 it. It was arranged that General Jackson's attention 
 should be called to some of these proofs of his 
 adversary's deadly skill, for the purpose of shaking 
 his nerves and breaking him up. It was supposed, 
 and not without reason, that a man riding all day 
 along a road sown with proofs of his coming doom, 
 would be disadvantageously affected thereby. It is 
 probable that anybody but Andrew Jackson would 
 have had his nerves shaken by such an experience,, 
 but his nerves were danger proof. 
 
 How strange, how unfathomably strange are the 
 workings of the human heart ! One reason — the 
 chief reason — why General Jackson rode so calmly 
 to the dueling-ground, was because he was sustained 
 by his trust in a superintending Providence. He 
 believed that he was performing a sacred duty in 
 defending his wife against her calumnious detrac- 
 tors, and was sure that Heaven would smile upon 
 his conjugal devotion. Nevertheless, he was 
 keenly alive to the danger to which he was going. 
 He was one of those thoughtful and prudent Chris- 
 tian soldiers who, while trusting in God, always 
 
The Dickinson Duel. 1 1 1 
 
 keep their powder dry. He spent the hours of his 
 ride to the dueling-ground in serious consultation 
 with his friend and second, General Overton. They 
 re-examined the whole ground, analyzed the situa- 
 tion thoroughly, and became as well prepared for 
 the approaching emergency as was possible under 
 the circumstances. The antagonists were to stand 
 twenty-four feet apart, facing each other, with their 
 pistols pointing downward. When the word was 
 given, they were to fire as quickly as they pleased. 
 As Jackson had come to the conclusion to receive 
 Dickinson's fire, Overton's only hope was that, by 
 some fortuitous circumstance, the general might be 
 able to stand upon his feet long enough to give 
 Dickinson a return shot. It seems, however, that 
 General Jackson himself had no doubt as to what 
 he should do, inasmuch as, years afterward, in con- 
 versation upon the subject, he said to a friend: 
 
 '' I should have hit him, if he had shot me through 
 the brain." 
 
 The parties arrived near the place of meeting, on 
 Thursday afternoon, and took up their respective 
 quarters at log taverns about a mile distant from 
 each other. In after years, Jackson's landlord used 
 to tell his guests that the general ate a hearty 
 supper, conversed pleasantly, and smoked his pipe 
 with a relish before he went to bed ; that he was in 
 equally good humor in the morning, and rode off 
 gayly to the dueling-ground. To one of his friends, 
 who asked him how he felt about the issue of the 
 duel, the general replied : 
 
 " Oh, I'm all right ; I shall wing him, never fear." 
 
 Both parties arrived punctually on the ground, 
 
J 12 General Andrew J ackso7i. 
 
 which was in the midst of a forest. The twenty- 
 four feet were measured off, and the principals took 
 their places. Dickinson was one of the handsomest 
 young- men of his day. His friends said he never 
 looked more handsome or more noble than when he 
 stood there, under the great forest trees, await- 
 ing the word to lire. According to the testi- 
 mony of all parties, and especially that of General 
 Overton, Jackson looked like a demi-god. His tall 
 form was erect, his countenance calm, stern, reso- 
 lute. The majesty of his presence was overwhelm- 
 ing ; as the appearance of a man, whose heart was 
 fearlessly braving the consciousness that in all prob- 
 ability his last few moments of life had come, well 
 might be. 
 
 General Jackson wore a loose frock coat buttoned 
 over his chest. It is reported that Dickinson told 
 his second on which button of that coat his bullet 
 would strike. It was a button, as he supposed, 
 directly over Jackson's heart. In a few moments 
 all the forms of the duello had been complied with. 
 The combatants had saluted each other with the 
 courtes}^ of the drawing-room ; both said they were 
 ready, and instantly General Overton, who had won 
 the right to give the word, gave it in a loud and 
 shouting tone. True to expectation, Dickinson 
 fired instantly, and hit the very button of Jackson's 
 coat that he had indicated. Overton saw the puff 
 oi dust which followed the stroke of the bullet, sup- 
 posed that General Jackson was fatally hit, and 
 looked to see him fall. But he did not fall. A grim- 
 mer expression spread over his countenance, but he 
 stood erect. He raised his pistol and took deliber- 
 
V" 
 
 ■■4 
 
 
 ui 
 
 '> 
 
 «£? 
 
 
 1 
 
The Dickinson Duel, 113 
 
 ate aim at his adversary. Dickinson was thunder- 
 struck, and exclaimed : " Great God ! have I 
 missed him ?" falling back from his position as he 
 spoke. " Back to your place !" yelled Overton, 
 placing his hand on his pistol. Dickinson stepped 
 back and stood erect, with his side toward Jackson, 
 and looking away from him. Jackson took aim, and 
 pulled the trigger with deliberation. No explosion 
 followed. The trigger had stopped at half-cock. 
 Re-cocking his pistol, Jackson again took aim and 
 fired. A ghastly pallor overspread Dickinson's 
 face ; he tottered ; he staggered ; he was about to 
 fall, when his friends caught him in their arms and 
 laid him on the ground. He was shot through the 
 lower part of his body. He was removed to his 
 quarters at the tavern. His wound was mortal. 
 He died at nine o'clock in the evening of that day. 
 
 General Jackson, his surgeon, and General Over- 
 ton at once left the ground. When they had gone 
 some way towards the place where they had tied 
 their horses, the surgeon, happening to look down, 
 saw that blood was running into Jackson's shoes, 
 and exclaimed : 
 
 " General Jackson, are you hit ?" 
 
 " Oh, I believe that he has//«/^^<^ me a little, but 
 say nothing about it there,'' pointing to the tavern. 
 
 On examination, the surgeon found that Dickin- 
 son's bullet had broken a couple of ribs and grazed 
 the breastbone. The bullet had gone to the very 
 spot at which Dickinson aimed ; but at that moment, 
 a puff of wind blew Jackson's loose frock-coat a lit- 
 tle to one side and saved him from probable instant 
 death. The wound, though not fatal, was a bad 
 
114 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 one ; hut it did not flurry him, and it was only by 
 accident that his surgeon discovered it. The gen- 
 eral mounted his horse with a little assistance, and 
 rode to his tavern. A negress was churning near 
 the door, and learning from her that " the butter 
 had come," he asked for a drink of buttermilk. She 
 gave him a quart mugful, which he drank at one 
 draft. His wound was then dressed. Immediately 
 after the surgeon got through dressing the wound, 
 General Jackson sent to inquire after his antago- 
 nist's condition, and offered any aid which he or his 
 surgeon could render him. He received word that 
 no aid could be rendered to the wounded man by 
 any one ; but he continued his polite attentions to 
 Mr. Dickinson's party until they were no longer 
 required. General Jackson sedulously concealed 
 the fact that he was wounded, giving as a reason 
 for his precautions that he did not wish Dickinson 
 to know of his wound, because, as he used frankly 
 to say : 
 
 '* Dickinson considered himself the best shot in 
 the world ; he was certain that he would kill me at 
 the first fire, and 1 didn't want him to have the 
 gratification of even knowing that he had touched 
 
 me. 
 
 The duel occasioned intense and wide-spread 
 excitement. General Jackson's enemies utilized it 
 to the utmost for the purpose of making headway 
 against his popularity, and, if possible, of depriving 
 him of the admiration and affection which the peo- 
 ple of Tennessee had so long felt for him. For a 
 time they made some progress. But it was vain to 
 fight against Andrew Jackson. No matter what 
 
The Dickinson Duel. i\c 
 
 faults he had, no matter what mistakes he made 
 
 ( and who has not faults, who does not make mis- 
 takes ?)— his magnificent qualities and his vast use- 
 fulness to his fellow-citizens always brought them 
 back to their allegiance to their favorite hero. 
 
ii6 Genei^al Andrew Jackson. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 burr's conspiracy. 
 
 In the midst of the excitement about the Dickin- 
 son duel, Aaron Burr arrived in Nashville, on his 
 secret expedition against Louisiana and the Spanish 
 possessions in Texas. 
 
 Burr began his treasonable plottings while he 
 was Vice-President of the United States, and when 
 his term expired, on March 4, 1805, he had already 
 woven a network of conspiracy which reached from 
 New York to New Orleans, from Philadelphia to 
 St. Louis. In this network were entangled many 
 influential persons, only a few of whom were let 
 into the secret of Burr's ulterior designs. Jona- 
 than Dayton, ex-United States Senator from New 
 Jersey, was one of his chief confederates. Senator 
 John Smith, of Ohio, was deep in his confidence, 
 and so was the British Minister at Washington, who 
 supposed it would be agreeable to his government 
 to have the Union dismembered, and held out to 
 Burr hopes of aid from Pitt, then PrimeMinister. The 
 majority of Burr's dupes supposed, in a vague sort of 
 way, that he was preparing for an expedition against 
 Mexico and other Spanish possessions in America. 
 At that time the Spanish possessions in America 
 were looked upon as lawful prey by the inhabitants 
 of the Western and Southern States, and the senti- 
 ments of Northern and Eastern people were not 
 so strongly tempered with a sense of national obli- 
 gations as to make them actively antagonistic to 
 
Burrs Co7tspzracy. 117 
 
 the schemes of filibusters. In every part of the 
 country, and especially in the West and Southwest, 
 there were numberless adventurers destitute of prop- 
 erty and of the means of earning a livelihood, dis- 
 contented with their lot, ambitious of distinction, 
 weary of the monotony of peaceful life, and eager 
 to engage in any enterprise which promised to give 
 them opportunities to gratify their lawless aspira- 
 tions and better their condition. Such men were 
 easily deluded into becoming the dupes and accom- 
 plices of Burr and his co-conspirators. 
 
 Nor were disunion sentiments then unknown ; it 
 is shown by evidence now accessible that they were 
 not uncommon. In truth, but very little love for 
 the Union had been developed, and the physical 
 conditions of the country were adverse to the 
 growth of a national spirit. The different sections 
 of the country were separated by vast ranges of 
 mountains, and by wildernesses stretching for hun- 
 dreds of miles and swarming with hostile savages. It 
 took weeks, and in some cases months, for the 
 inhabitants of widely separated regions to communi- 
 cate with one another. Steamboats, railroads, tele- 
 graphs were then unknown. A traveler can now 
 go from San Francisco to St. Petersburg or Con- 
 stantinople sooner than he could then go from Phil- 
 adelphia to New Orleans, and a message can now be 
 sent around the world in less time than it could 
 then be sent from Boston to Cambridge, from New 
 York to Harlem, or from Washington to George- 
 town. It is difficult, perhaps it is impossible, for 
 us of this generation to appreciate in all its force 
 the effect which such a state of things had upon 
 
ii8 Gene7'al Andj'ew Jackson. 
 
 ' * 
 
 the minds and the affections of the people into 
 whose keeping the destiny of the United States was 
 then given. New England and the Southwest, the 
 Seaboard States and the trans-x\lleghany States, in 
 many respects were foreign to one another. The 
 interests of one section were, or were supposed to be, 
 hostile to the welfare of other sections. For the 
 most part, the inhabitants were poor, burdened with 
 debt, and a prey to. discontent ; and it is a habit of 
 discontented people to charge their misfortunes 
 upon the government, and to imagine that their con- 
 dition would be bettered by a revolution, or by such 
 a reformation of the government as would lead to a 
 fundamental readjustment of their political rela- 
 tions. 
 
 It would be unjust for us of this da}^ to condemn 
 with too great severity any lack of patriotism or 
 laxity of principle exhibited by the American people 
 with respect to these matters a hundred years ago. 
 Despite all theories to the contrary, men are 
 governed in worldly affairs by what they believe to 
 be most conducive to their worldly interests. 
 Whatever is hostile to those interests they will 
 oppose; whatever is favorable to them, they will 
 support. A hundred years ago, the great need of 
 the inhabitants beyond the Alleghanies was an out- 
 let lor their commerce, whereby their products 
 could reach the marts of the world. That outlet — 
 and it was the only one — was the Mississippi river. 
 
 ** That outlet, " as General Jackson said in his 
 address to his troops in 1812 — "that outlet blocked 
 up, all the fruits of the Western man's industry rot 
 upon his hands; open, and he carries on a commerce 
 
Burrs Conspiracy. 1 1 9 
 
 with all the nations of the earth." The mouths of the 
 Mississippi were in the possession of Spain, whose 
 rulers interposed obstructions to Western commerce 
 which were intolerable to the inhabitants of Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee and the whole trans- Alleghany 
 country. The United States Government could not 
 or would not do anything to remove these obstruc- 
 tions, and the Western people naturally resolved to 
 take the redress of their grievances into their own 
 hands. Their plan for redressing their grievances 
 was a radical one — a plan of the true '* wild Western " 
 kind. They proposed to wrest the mouths of the 
 Mississippi from the Spaniards, take possession of 
 the whole country, unite the conquered territory 
 with their own, form a trans-Alleghany Union and 
 assume that independent station among the nations 
 of the earth to which nature and their own achieve- 
 ments would entitle them. 
 
 Fortunately, the spirit of disaffection, which for 
 years had been growing more and more ripe, was 
 allayed in 1795, when the Federal Government, by 
 a treaty with Spain, acquired the right of deposit 
 at New Orleans, for three years, which temporarily 
 relieved Western commerce of the intolerable im- 
 positions to which it had been subjected by the 
 Spaniards. Then, too, for the first time, the 
 Western people caught a glimpse of the national 
 dignity and material advantage which the Federal 
 Union conferred upon them. They clearly saw 
 that it was respect for the growing power of the 
 United States which caused Spain to grant the right 
 of deposit— a right which the court of Madrid would 
 never have accorded to a feeble trans-Alleghany 
 
I20 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 republic. From that time Union sentiments 
 rapidly increased in the West; but owing to con- 
 stant quarrels between Americans and Spaniards, 
 the deep seated hostility to Spain grew stronger 
 and stronger from year to year. Even, when by the 
 cession of Louisiana to France in 1800, and its pur- 
 chase by the United States in 1803, all restrictions 
 on Western commerce were removed, the desire of 
 the trans-AUeghany inhabitants to avenge themselves 
 on Spain survived in full vigor. Hence Burr's 
 alleged design to seize all the Spanish territory east 
 of the Rio Grande, and if possible to conquer 
 Mexico, excited no effective disapprobation west of 
 the Alleghanies. The desire to " extend the area " 
 of freedom " was as strenuous in the people of that 
 region, in 1806 and 1807 as it was in their descend- 
 ants forty years later, when, in 1846 and 1847, they 
 enthusiastically rushed to the contest for that same 
 territory under the lead of General Taylor and 
 General Scott. 
 
 In New Orleans the situation was favorable, not 
 only to Burr's schemes of conquest, but also to his 
 treasonable plans for disunion. The French and 
 Spanish inhabitants of that city, and indeed of 
 Louisiana, hated the Government of the United 
 States, and longed for the restoration of the 
 Territory either to France or Spain. Governor 
 Claiborne was odious to the people, and General 
 Wilkinson, the commander of the department, was 
 despised by them. Monsieur Laussat, who had 
 been the French prefect at New Orleans, and re- 
 mained there for a time to protect French interests, 
 
Burr s Conspiracy, 121 
 
 ia writing to his government, thus speaks of those 
 two men: 
 
 " It was hardly possible that the government of 
 the United States should have made a worse begin- 
 ning, and that it should have sent two men (Messrs. 
 Claiborne, Governor, and Wilkinson, General,) less 
 fit to attract affection. -5^ * ^ They have on all 
 occasions, and without delicacy, shocked the habits, 
 the prejudices, the character of the population. " 
 
 Wilkinson was in the pay of Spain and also one of 
 Burr's most trusted accomplices. Judge Prevost, 
 of the Superior Court at New Orleans, was Burr's 
 stepson. James Brown, Secretary of the Territory, 
 was one of Burr's henchmen. Many of the leading 
 citizens were leagued with Burr, and it was believed 
 that the inhabitants of the city and of the Territory 
 could be depended upon to abet any movement 
 which could relieve them from subjection to the 
 hated government of the United States. Daniel 
 Clark, the richest man in the Southwest and 
 Louisiana's first representative in Congress, was 
 supposed to be in favor of the movement ; but 
 becoming alarmed, he, for the purpose of shielding 
 himself, on September 7, 1805, w^rote Wilkinson a 
 letter indicating that he was not in the secret, and 
 expressing horror at the idea of a plot for dissolving 
 the union of which he professed to have recently 
 heard. "The tale," he wrote, "is a horrid one if 
 well told. Kentucky, Tennessee, the State of Ohio, 
 the four territories on the Mississippi and Ohio, with 
 part of Georgia and Carolina, are to be bribed, with 
 the plunder of the Spanish countries west of us, to 
 separate from the Union." 
 
122 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Burr had influential accomplices all through the 
 West. Harman Blennerhasset, a comparatively 
 wealthy Irishman, who had created a sort of frontier 
 paradise on an island in the Ohio river, a short dis- 
 tance below Parkersburg, became one of Burr's 
 most enthusiastic dupes, and his wife shared his 
 folly. Burr's daughter Theodosia, the wife of 
 ex-Governor Alston, of South Carolina, accom- 
 panied her father to the island in the Ohio, and cast 
 an irresistible spell over Mrs. Blennerhasset. The 
 enthusiastic Irish pair indulged in the wildest 
 dreams. Burr was to be Emperor of Mexico ; 
 Blennerhassett was to be one of his high officers 
 and stand near the throne of Aaron the First, and 
 Mrs. Blennerhassett was to be maid-of-honor to the 
 imperial Princess Theodosia. It was not long 
 before those deluded people were rudely awakened 
 from their romantic dream to find themselves the 
 laughing-stock of the public and bankrupted in 
 fortune. 
 
 Burr's visit to Nashville was made for the pur- 
 pose of furthering his designs. Thousands of Ten- 
 nesseeans were ready to engage in an expedition 
 against the Spanish possessions. Hardly any 
 American living west of the AUeghanies would have 
 withheld his sympathy from such an expedition. 
 Andrew Jackson certainly would not. The building 
 of flatboats was then an important industry in the 
 west. General Jackson and Colonel Coffee had 
 facilities for building them at Clover Bottom, on 
 Stone's river, an affluent of the Cumberland. Burr 
 had bargained with them to build five boats for him, 
 in which his Tennessee followers could float down 
 
Burrs Conspiracy. 123 
 
 the Cumberland and the Mississippi to their destin- 
 ation. His avowed object was the occupation and 
 peopling- of a vast tract of land on the Washita river, 
 the title to which he professed to have purchased 
 from the representatives of the original Spanish 
 grantees. He did not disguise the fact that the 
 enforcement of his rights would probably cause a 
 collision with the Spanish authorities ; that such a 
 collision would bring- on war, and that Burr would 
 improve the occasion to conquer Mexico, become 
 emperor of that country, and bring it into friendly 
 alliance with the United States. To further such a 
 scheme, General Jackson was willing to build boats 
 at a profit. He had not the slightest suspicion that 
 Burr was plotting treason. But in November, 1806, 
 while Burr was in Kentucky, Jackson was warned 
 that he was planning a dissolution of the Union. 
 This caused a violent and total change of feeling on 
 the general's part. He wrote a warning letter to 
 Governor Claiborne at New Orleans, and another 
 to President Jefferson, offering the services of his 
 division of militia, '' In the event of insult or 
 aggression made on our government or country 
 
 FROM ANY QUARTER."* 
 
 Burr returned to Nashville December 14, 1806, and 
 called at the Hermitage. General Jackson was not 
 at home. Mrs. Jackson received him coldly ; so did 
 Colonel Coffee. On December 19th it was rumored 
 that a proclamation by President Jefferson denounc- 
 ing Burr had been received in Nashville. On Decem- 
 ber 22nd Burr left Clover Bottom, in two unarmed 
 
 *Parton I, 319. 
 
J 24 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 boats carrying a few of his deluded followers. 
 Among his dupes was a young man named Stokel}- 
 D. Hays, a nephew of Mrs. Jackson's, about seven- 
 teen years old, by whom General Jackson sent a let- 
 ter to Governor Claiborne. The young man's father, 
 Colonel Hays, was an old friend of Burr's. Having 
 become reduced in his circumstances, he had 
 acceded to a proposition made by Burr to take his 
 son Stokely under his protection, provide for his 
 education and give him a start in life. In after- 
 wards narrating the circumstances which induced 
 him to accompany Burr, young Hays said :* 
 
 " In the winter of 1806-7 the Colonel [Burr] came 
 to Nashville, and sent for me when at school near 
 there, and on meeting him he claimed the promise 
 which had been made to him on his first visit — but 
 stated he was going by way of the Mississippi, and 
 that I must accompany him, and 'that he had seen 
 my father and obtained his consent ; that he received 
 me as a son, and I must consider him in the char- 
 acter of a father. I observed to him that 1 must 
 see and consult my friends before I gave my final 
 consent. On advising with them, some doubt of 
 Mr. Burr's object was suggested, but he having 
 pledged his word of honor that he had nothing in 
 view hostile to the best interests of the United States, 
 I determined to go with him. Mr. C. C. Claiborne 
 was at that time Governor of Louisiana, and an old 
 friend of my father's, and had requested him to per- 
 mit me to go to New Orleans as his private secre- 
 tary. To him General Jackson wrote a letter, and 
 
 *Parton I, 321. 
 
Burrs Conspiracy, 125 
 
 gave me to deliver, urging it on me, in the most 
 earnest manner, to leave Burr, if at any time I should 
 discover he had any views or intentions inimical to 
 the interests or integrity of the government." 
 
 It would take a very prejudiced mind to see in 
 this transaction any evidence of General Jackson's 
 sympathy with Burr's treason. But Mr. Henry 
 Adams, in his recently published history* presents 
 this incident in a way which he doubtless hopes will 
 turn it into evidence against Jackson's patriotism. 
 In fact, Mr. Adams, in his sketch of this conspiracy, 
 seems to have resolved to make it appear that Gen- 
 eral Jackson was cognizant of and in sympathy with 
 Burr's treasonable designs, and in order to carry 
 out his purpose he does not hesitate to indulge in 
 felonious innuendoes and repeated indirect falsifica- 
 tions of the historic record. As an example of his 
 method, his use of the young Hays incident will 
 now be given : 
 
 *' Without further hindrance," Mr. Adams says, 
 " Burr then floated down the Cumberland River, 
 taking with him a nephew of Mrs. Jackson, furnished 
 by his uncle [General Jackson] with a letter of in- 
 troduction to Governor Claiborne, — a confidence 
 the more singular because Governor Claiborne could 
 hardly fail, under the warnings of General Jackson's 
 previous secret letter, to seize and imprison Burr 
 and every one found in his company. Thus, by 
 connivance, Burr escaped from Nashville three 
 
 * History of the United States of America During the Sec- 
 ond Administration of Thomas Jefferson. Vol. I, 290. 
 
126 
 
 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 da3^s after the news of the President's proclamation 
 had arrived." 
 
 It will be observed that Mr. Adams has no author- 
 ity for saying that General Jackson gave young 
 Hays " a letter of introduction to Governor Clai- 
 borne." Hays does not authorize such a statement. 
 He says that Jackson wrote a letter to Claiborne J 
 and gave it to him [Hays] to deliver. That is not 
 the way one speaks of a letter of introduction given 
 to himself. Moreover, it is evident that young Hays 
 did not need '' a letter of introduction " to Claiborne. 
 The Governor was intimate with the young man's 
 family, and had requested his father to let him come 
 to New Orleans as his (the Governor's) private sec- 
 retary. The fair inference is that the letter which 
 General Jackson wrote was a letter of warning and 
 explanation to Claiborne. This inference is strongly 
 supported by the fact that when the General gave 
 the letter to Hays to deliver, be " urged it on " the 
 young man, '* in a most earnest manner, to leave 
 Burr if at any time he should discover " anything 
 treasonable in his conduct or his intentions. All of 
 this information Mr. Adams withholds from his 
 readers ; and over and over again he resorts to the 
 same method for the purpose of unfairly making 
 what he imagines to be a point against General 
 Jackson. 
 
 Mr. Adams had all the facts before him. They 
 are given in extenso, and with great fullness of detail, 
 in Mr. Parton's comprehensive ** Life of Jackson, to 
 which Mr. Adams repeatedly refers, and of whichj 
 he sometimes makes use. Many attempts werej 
 made by General Jackson's enemies, especially durJ 
 
Burros Conspiracy. 1 2 7 
 
 ing his campaigns for the Presidency, to make his 
 countrymen believe that he was privy to Burr's 
 treason. But although it was easy to show, what 
 the general never denied, that he was Burr's per- 
 sonal friend, and that after Burr's trial and acquit- 
 tal he disbelieved the charges of treason that had 
 been made against him, it was impossible to con- 
 vince the American people that General Jackson 
 ever sympathized with any attempt whatever to 
 dismember the Union, or that he would ever have 
 winked at any scheme involving treason to the flag 
 which from his childhood he was ever ready to 
 defend with his life. 
 
 To return to Burr, whom we left floating down 
 the Cumberland. He had been gone but a short 
 time when the President's proclamation was pub- 
 lished in Nashville, and caused a prodigious excite- 
 ment. Burr was burnt in effigy in the public 
 square ; General Jackson called out the militia ; 
 volunteers offered their services ; the people of 
 Western Tennessee were ablaze with patriotic 
 fervor and ready to turn out e7i masse in defence of 
 the Union. But the excitement soon died out. 
 Burr's chief accomplices deserted him. General 
 Wilkinson was eager to catch and shoot him, in 
 order to save himself from exposure and disgrace — 
 perhaps from death. Burr's nerve failed him, and 
 ignominiously deserting his dupes, he fled, disguised 
 in the coarse attire of a Mississippi boatman. His 
 arrest, his trial at Richmond, and his acquittal fol- 
 lowed in due course. Burr was a born traitor and 
 conspirator ; but he was so deficient in that grand 
 executive ability which is indispensable to him who 
 
128 
 
 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 would overthrow governments and carry out 
 schemes of conquest, and was so destitute of even 
 that low grade of honor and principle which some- 
 times binds thieves together, that his treasonable 
 projects lacked all power of cohesion and disinte- 
 grated at the first shock of exposure. 
 
The War q/ iSi2. 129 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE WAR OF 1 8 12 — GENERAL JaCKSON IN THE 
 FIELD AND IN HIS GLORY. 
 
 War was declared against Great Britain by the 
 Government of the United States on June 12, 18 12, 
 The declaration had been anticipated for many 
 months. As early as the preceding February, 
 Thomas H. Benton (one of the babies of 1782), then 
 a lawyer, thirty years of age, living in Nashville, 
 received intelligence from Washington which con- 
 vinced him that the declaration of war would be 
 made in a few months. Benton was on General 
 Jackson's military staff, was ambitious for military 
 glory, and was animated by intense and lofty senti- 
 ments of patriotism. The news from Washington 
 was accompanied by an act of Congress, authorizing 
 the President to accept organized bodies of volun- 
 teers to the number of fifty thousand, to serve for 
 one year, and to be called into service when an 
 emergency should require it. 
 
 This news and the act of Congress fired Benton's 
 brave and patriotic heart. He saw that here was a 
 probable opportunity to gratify his thirst for mili- 
 tary glory in the most legitimate way, by helping 
 to repel an arrogant and aggressive foe from the 
 shores of his native land. That very hour, he 
 mounted his horse and rode to the Hermitage^ 
 where he had long been a favored guest with both 
 the master and the mistress. Colonel Benton told 
 
130 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 the story of this ride and of its consequences, in the 
 House of Representatives, forty-three years after- 
 ward (1855), when General Jackson's sword was 
 presented to Congress. It was a cold, wet day, and 
 the ride was long and difficult, over the miry roads 
 of early spring. Benton reached his general's log 
 house about twilight, and found him sitting alone 
 before the fire, with a lamb and a child between his 
 knees. 
 
 ** He started a little," says Benton, " called a ser- 
 vant 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 impetuous Benton lost no time in communi- 
 cating the news and his project for action. He 
 knew very well that Jackson could raise volunteers 
 enough for a general's division, and urged him to 
 issue the call. Before leaving his office, Benton 
 had drawn up a plan for the organization of three 
 regiments, to be commanded by John Coffee, 
 William Hall and Thomas H. Benton. If these 
 three regiments should be in good condition for 
 service at the outbreak of war, the Administration, 
 in the urgent need that would then exist for troops 
 ready to take the field, would gladly accept their 
 services, although, as Benton knew, Jackson was 
 out of favor with the Administration. He had 
 come in collision with the Government at the time 
 of Burr's trial ; he had also had controversies with 
 agents of the Government (especially with one Silas 
 
The War 0/ iSi2, 131 
 
 Dinsmore, an Indian agent), which had caused a 
 good deal of trouble. So tar as Jackson was known 
 at Washington, he was known as a man who was 
 always ready to take the responsibility of carrying 
 out his own plans without regard for red tape. 
 For these reasons Benton was somewhat apprehen- 
 sive that the Administration would hesitate to con- 
 fer military power on General Jackson ; hence his 
 prudential proceedings. Benton laid his plan for 
 the organization of the three regiments on the table. 
 To use his own language, General Jackson "was 
 struck with it, adopted it, acted upon it." A call 
 was promptly issued ; companies were formed. In 
 a few weeks, more than three thousand men were 
 enrolled, and there was a general drilling of soldiers 
 and furbishing of arms throughout the western part 
 of Tennessee. 
 
 All turned out very nearly as Colonel Benton had 
 anticipated. The news that war with Great Britain 
 was declared on the twelfth of June, reached Nash- 
 ville in eight days. On the twenty-fifth of June, 
 which was about as soon as the business could be 
 accomplished, General Jackson offered to President 
 Madison, through the governor of Tennessee, the 
 services of his division of twenty-five hundred volun- 
 teers. The offer was most cordially accepted. The 
 Secretary of War wrote that the President received 
 the , tender of service by General Jackson and his 
 troops " with peculiar satisfaction," and ** in accept- 
 ing their services, the President cannot withhold an 
 expression of his admiration of the zeal and ardor 
 by which they are animated." 
 
 Everybody in Tennessee seemed to be delighted 
 
132 General' Andrew Jackson, 
 
 with the result of the movement. Governor Blount 
 publicly thanked General Jackson and his division 
 for the honor they had done the State of Tennessee 
 by coming forward so promptly to the service of 
 their country. 
 
 The War of 18 12 began with the bold and judi- 
 cious but ill-conducted attempt upon Canada, which 
 ended in shame and disaster. The surrender of 
 Detroit by General Hull and subsequent military 
 miscarriages covered our arms with disgrace. Be- 
 sides, the failure of the Canada expedition left the 
 British forces free to attempt the capture of New 
 Orleans, which, it had long been supposed, would be 
 among their first objects. General Wilkinson, a con- 
 spicuously incompetent officer, still commanded at 
 New Orleans, but the place was wholly unprepared 
 for defense. 
 
 In October, 18 12, a despatch came from Washing- 
 ton to the Governor of Tennessee, asking him to 
 detach fifteen hundred of the Tennessee troops to 
 re-enforce General Wilkinson at New Orleans. The 
 governor at once issued the requisite orders to Gen- 
 eral Jackson, who, in his turn, named the loth of 
 December, 18 12, for the troops to rendezvous at 
 Nashville, armed and equipped for winter service. 
 
 The address which General Jackson issued to the 
 troops was well calculated to kindle their enthusiasm. 
 He appealed to their patriotism, to their pride and 
 to their interest. He told them that Nature herself 
 had committed to the people of the Western country 
 the defense of the lower Mississippi, "the only out- 
 let" for their produce. 
 
 The Mississippi *' blocked up, all the fruits of the 
 
The War of \Z\2. 133 
 
 western man's industry rot upon his hands ; open, 
 and he carries on a commerce with all the nations of 
 the earth. At the approach of an enemy in that 
 quarter, the whole Western world should pour forth 
 its sons to meet the invader, and drive him back 
 into the sea." 
 
 The troops, however, needed no words of exhor- 
 tation to increase their zeal. When the day ap- 
 pointed for the rendezvous came, more than two 
 thousand men presented themselves for inspection, 
 bringing their own arms and ammunition, andwearing 
 every sort of costume, more or less resembling mili- 
 tary uniform. The majority were attired in hunting 
 shirts, with such other garments within their reach 
 as seemed best adapted to winter wear. It so 
 chanced that the day (December 10, 1812) appointed 
 for the assembling of the troops, was one of the 
 coldest ever known in Western Tennessee, and the 
 ground was covered deep with snow. The quarter- 
 master, the late Major William B. Lewis, in view of 
 a possible cold snap, had provided a thousand cords 
 of wood for the use of the troops, which he supposed 
 would last them until they had embarked on board 
 the fiat-boats on which they were to descend the 
 river to New Orleans. It zuas all burned the first 
 night. General Jackson and the quartermaster were 
 out all night, seeing that the men were sheltered 
 and warmed, that drunken men were brought near 
 a fire, and that sleeping sentinels should not freeze to 
 death on their posts. 
 
 About six o'clock in the morning, after having 
 thus tramped through the camp all night. General 
 Jackson entered a tavern in Nashville. It happened 
 
 r 
 
134 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 that one of those pestiferous creatures constituting 
 the class of chronic grumblers, who had passed the 
 night comfortably in bed, was finding fault with the 
 authorities for having assembled such a large body 
 of troops without suitable accommodations. He 
 was loud in his denunciation of the officers who, he 
 said, had the best accommodations in town, while 
 the men were exposed to the terrible inclemency of 
 
 the weather. 
 
 " You infernal scoundrel," roared the general, 
 " sowijig disaffection among the troops ! Why, the 
 quartermaster and I have been up all night making 
 the men comfortable. Let me hear no more such 
 talk, or I'll ram that red-hot andiron down your 
 
 throat !" 
 
 There was '' no more such talk." I have italicized 
 one of the general's wrathful sentences to call 
 attention to his unsleeping canniness, even w^hen he 
 was most enraged. '' Sowing disaffection among 
 the troops" was an offense of such a serious nature 
 that it might have justly been punished with a red- 
 hot andiron in the throat of the offender, even 
 though the disaffection was sown in the isolation 
 of a bar-room. 
 
 Fortunately, such cold periods in the latitude of 
 Tennessee are as brief as they are sometimes severe. 
 In a day or two the weather was warm enough, and 
 in a few days the little army was ready to begin the 
 descent of the Cumberland. On one of these days 
 of waiting, there was a grand review of the troops 
 by the governor, who complimented their general 
 highly upon their appearance and discipline. The 
 general wrote in response a letter which, glowing 
 
The War 0/1^12, 135 
 
 as it is, truly expressed his own feelings and those 
 of the volunteers, the flower of the young men in 
 the western counties. 
 
 " We have changed the garb of citizens for that of 
 soldiers," said he. " In doing this, we have none of 
 us changed our principles; for let it be recollected, 
 as an invariable rule, that good citizens make good 
 soldiers. The volunteers have drawn their swords 
 for no other purpose than that of defending their 
 country against the hostile attacks of their enemies, 
 the British, and their barbarous allies, the Indians. 
 
 * "^ We hope that your Excellency shall never 
 blush for the honor of Tennessee. Your Excellency 
 will not call it presumption when the volunteers 
 say that it is their full determination to return cov- 
 ered with laurels or die endeavoring to gather them 
 in the bloody field of Mars." 
 
 On the seventh of January, 18 13, the boats at 
 length were ready. The foot-soldiers went on 
 board, and the fleet began the descent of the 
 Cumberland River, while Colonel Coffee, with the 
 mounted regiment, set out on his march across the 
 country, with orders to join the infantry at Natchez. 
 
 The commander-in-chief was in the highest spirits. 
 From his early youth he had taken a peculiar 
 interest in military affairs and in military men. His 
 heart swelled with pride and confident expectation 
 as he saw the boats glide from the shore. One of 
 his last actions was to write to the Secretary of 
 War, informing him that he was in command of two 
 thousand and seventy volunteers, the choicest cit- 
 izens of Tennessee, who had " no constitutional 
 scruples " about executing the will of their govern- 
 
136 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 ment, and would rejoice to place the American 
 eagle " on the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola and 
 Fort St. Augustine," thus " effectually banishing 
 from the Southern coast all British influence." 
 
 It was in this spirit, and with his heart fired with 
 the memory of British brutalities perpetrated in the 
 Waxhaw settlement long years before, that Andrew 
 Jackson started on his first warlike expedition. 
 
 The flotilla descended the Cumberland to the 
 Ohio ; and then went down the Ohio to the Missis- 
 sippi, and thence continued on its way southward. 
 For thirty-nine days they floated upon those wind- 
 ing rivers, the whole heart of Western Tennessee 
 going with them. On the morning of February 15, 
 1 81 3, after traversing a distance of more than a 
 thousand miles, the fleet came to at the levee of 
 Natchez, where they were to meet the mounted men 
 of the command. It was cheering to learn that Col- 
 onel Coffee and his men were encamped near by. 
 
 At Natchez, General Jackson received a letter 
 from General Wilkinson, commanding at New 
 Orleans, informing him that no enemy had yet 
 appeared in the waters of the South. Wilkinson 
 further said that he had received no orders respect- 
 ing the Tennessee troops, and did not know the 
 purpose of the Administration in sending them south- 
 ward. At New Orleans he had neither barracks 
 nor provisions for such an increase of force, and he 
 therefore requested General Jackson to wait at 
 Natchez for further orders. 
 
 • Wilkinson seemed to be more anxious for himself 
 than for his country. He gratuitously informed 
 General Jackson that he should not think of yield- 
 
The War of 1S12, 137 
 
 ing up his command, " until regularly relieved by 
 superior authority." General Jackson assented to 
 the suggestion that his troops should remain at 
 Natchez, and added that his command should be 
 kept in instant readiness to move. 
 
 Accordingly, the troops disembarked at Natchez, 
 and went into camp five miles from the town, where 
 their officers kept them steadily drilling, and, in all 
 other ways known to them, preparing for efficient 
 service. At that season of the year the country 
 about Natchez is one of the most pleasant in the 
 Southwest, and as both officers and men felt the 
 need of further drill and preparation, all were con- 
 tent with the delay, which they hoped would be 
 but brief, and prepare the way for a glorious cam- 
 paign by and by. 
 
 Two weeks passed pleasantly away, the troops 
 daily improving in soldierly arts. But although the 
 men were happy under the novel restraints and 
 congenial labors of the camp, their general was 
 becoming impatient. Natchez was then a six weeks* 
 journey from Washington, even for a rapid mes- 
 senger. Nevertheless General Jackson wrote to 
 the Secretary of War on the ist of March to offer 
 the services of his command in a new sphere. The 
 defeats of the Northern troops weighed heavily upon 
 all patriotic minds, and so he wrote : 
 
 " Should the safety of the lower country admit it, and gov- 
 ernment so order, I would with pleasure march to the lines of 
 Canada and there offer my feeble aid to the army of our coun- 
 try, and endeavor to wipe off the stain on our military character 
 occasioned by the recent disasters." 
 
 This idea so fired General Jackson's mind that, 
 
138 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 when another week had passed without orders and 
 the hot Aveather Avas beginning to affect unfavorably 
 the health of the troops and no indications of an 
 enemy appeared in the South, he wrote again to the 
 Secretary of War, assuring him that, on his return 
 to Tennessee, he could raise three thousand men, 
 who would engage for a year if he could tell them 
 that their destination was Canada. 
 
 Two weeks more passed away and the month of 
 March was nearly at an end. The men had been 
 waiting and drilling for six weeks, subsisting chiefly 
 upon the provisions they had brought with them. 
 The sick list lengthened every day, and the troops 
 themselves now shared the impatience of their com- 
 mander. 
 
 At length, on a Sunday morning near the end of 
 March, came an express bringing a ten-line letter 
 from the Secretary of War, General John Arm- 
 strong. 
 
 It is doubtful if so much discouragement and dis- 
 may were ever before or since compressed into ten 
 lines of Avriting as the Secretary's letter contained. 
 It was written six weeks before, and should have 
 reached the troops before they had gone beyond 
 the boundaries of Tennessee. It read thus : 
 
 <( 
 
 Sir : The causes of embodying and marching to New 
 Orleans the corps under your command having ceased to exist* 
 you will, on receipt of this letter, consider it as dismissed from 
 public service, and take measures to have delivered over to 
 Major-General Wilkinson all the articles of public property 
 which may have been put into its possession, You will accept 
 for yourself and the corps the thanks of the President of the 
 United States. 
 
The War of j ^12. 139 
 
 No language can adequately express General 
 Jackson's amazement on reading this order to dis- 
 miss two thousand men at a point five hundred 
 miles from their homes — five hundred miles of 
 nearly unbroken wilderness — without pay, and 
 unprovided with any other means of performing 
 so difficult a journey. On the instant he made up 
 his mind that he would never dismiss his troops, 
 most of whom were young men specially confided 
 to his care by parents and friends, until he had con- 
 ducted them to the public square of Nashville, 
 where they had been enrolled into the service of 
 their country. He sent for Colonel Benton, who 
 still served as aid and secretary to the commander- 
 in-chief, though himself at the head of one of the 
 regiments. He showed Benton the order of the 
 Secretary of War, and at the same moment 
 announced his determination to disregard it. Col- 
 onel Benton is our authority as to what ensued. 
 General Jackson dashed upon paper the draught of 
 a letter he wanted written to the Secretary of War, 
 which he gave to Colonel Benton to copy and 
 arrange. " It was very severe," Benton records ; 
 " I tried hard to get some parts softer, but it was 
 impossible." The general then summoned what he 
 called a " council " of the field-officers. Their 
 advice he did not ask, but merely informed them of 
 his intention to march the troops back to Tennessee, 
 and issued the requisite orders. Every officer was 
 clear in the opinion of the absolute necessity of tak- 
 ing the troops home as an organized body, since it 
 was known that the savages had been greatly 
 
140 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 excited by the declaration of war, and the home- 
 ward path lay through the Indians' country. 
 
 There was not in the camp one dollar of public 
 money. There were a hundred and fifty men on 
 the sick-lists, fifty-six of whom were utterly helpless 
 and would have to be carried in wagons. Upon 
 inquiry, the commander found that the wagons 
 would each cost ten dollars a day coming and going, 
 and a considerable number of them would be 
 required. The men had received no pay since 
 leaving home. Their clothes, and particularly 
 their shoes, were worn out. Even the officers had 
 made no provision, either of money or goods, for 
 such an emergency. In these circumstances, Gen- 
 eral Jackson took the responsibility. To the team- 
 sters, the farmers and the merchants of Natchez he 
 pledged his whole estate for the goods they were 
 to furnish. He personally indorsed every draft, 
 although his property, at the time, was far from 
 being sufficient to cover the expenditure. 
 
 Five days were passed in preparation. On the 
 last day, a dispatch arrived from the Government 
 which ought to have accompanied the order to 
 dismiss the troops. Owing to some error never 
 explained, this second dispatch was started on its 
 way several days after the first. The nevv^ dispatch 
 directed General Jackson's troops to be paid off, 
 and to be allowed pay and rations for the home- 
 ward journey. About the same time came a letter 
 from Genaral Wilkinson urging General Jackson to 
 encourage his troops to enlist in the regular army. 
 In this effort to obtain recruits for the regular army, 
 occurring simultaneously with the dismissal of his 
 
 A 
 
The War of 1812. 141 
 
 own forces, General Jackson thought he had dis- 
 covered a clew to the outrageous treatment of his 
 troops. He distrusted and despised Wilkinson, and 
 ascribed to him the desire to get a rival general 
 shelved, and to have his own forces augmented by 
 the gobbling up of that rival's brave soldiers. In 
 his reply to Wilkinson, he said : 
 
 *' These brave men, at the call of their country, 
 voluntarily rallied round its insulted standard. They 
 followed me to the field. I shall carefully march 
 them back to their homes. It is for the agents of 
 the Government to account to the State of Tennes- 
 see and the whole world for their singular and unus- 
 ual conduct to this detachment." This letter gives 
 little indication of the wrath of General Jackson at 
 Wilkinson's suggestion. But when a recruiting offi- 
 cer was detected lurking about the camp, he was 
 made to understand how the general felt, by an 
 immediate notification that if he attempted to 
 seduce one of the volunteers into enlisting in the 
 regular army, he should be drummed out of the 
 camp in the presence of the whole corps. 
 
142 Ge7ieral Andrezv Jackson. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE MARCH HOME — GENERAL JACKSON WINS HIS 
 NICKNAME OF "OLD HICKORY." 
 
 The homeward march began, with the fifty-six 
 helpless men in eleven wagons. Those who could 
 sit a horse were mounted on the horses of the 
 officers. General Jackson had brought with him 
 three of his own excellent horses, but gave them all 
 up for the use of the sick men, himself performing 
 the whole distance on foot. A march of five hun- 
 dred miles, to save his sick comrades from suffering, 
 was nothing to the man who, as a wounded, diseased 
 and emaciated boy of fourteen, had made that terri- 
 ble march of forty-miles from Camden to his home, 
 while the small-pox fever was raging in his blood. 
 General Jackson seldom, perhaps never, appeared to 
 greater advantage than he did on this long and toil- 
 some journey ; for he was called upon at every 
 moment to exercise one of the strongest of his in- 
 stincts — to care for those who were dependent upon 
 him in critical emergencies — which never failed to 
 call forth all the fortitude and tenderness of his 
 nature. To see the commanding officer marching 
 gayly along, chatting with officers and men, and 
 encouraging the sick with his cheerful words, had a 
 magical influence on the whole corps. The sick men 
 improved every day, and even those who had seemed 
 marked for a wayside grave reached their homes in 
 good health. 
 
The March Home, 143 
 
 '* Where am I ?' asked one young trooper who had 
 been lifted insensible and apparently dying into a 
 wagon, on coming to consciousness. ** On your way 
 home, my brave boy," the general cheerfully and 
 affectionately answered. The young soldier began 
 to improve from that hour, and reached home in 
 good health. 
 
 It was on this journey from Natchez to Tennessee 
 that General Jackson acquired his nickname of " Old 
 Hickory." Mr. Parton says : " One of the officers 
 who marched with him informed me that it arose 
 out of the impression of toughness which the gen- 
 eral's pedestrian alertness made upon the men. 
 From *tough' he became 'as tough as hickory/ and 
 long before they reached home he was familiarly 
 called by the famous nickname, 'Old Hickory,* which 
 he retains to the present hour." 
 
 The day's march averaged eighteen miles, and 
 they accomplished the distance in something less 
 than a month. On the twenty-second of May, the 
 troops were drawn up in the public square of Nash- 
 ville, about to depart for their homes. A beautiful 
 stand of colors was presented to them by the ladies 
 of East Tennessee, made by their own skillful hands. 
 On the white satin, eighteen stars were embroidered 
 in orange, with two sprigs of laurel lying across 
 them. Besides a glowing inscription to the vol- 
 unteers, the ladies had wrought representations of 
 war-like objects, such as arms, cannon-balls, drums, 
 colors and axes, all so harmoniously arranged as to 
 excite universal admiration. The general in com- 
 mand was deeply touched, and v/rote to the ladies 
 an eloquent letter of acknowledgment. 
 
144 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 At this time, Andrew Jackson's popularity was at 
 the highest point it had yet reached. It was more 
 than popularit}^ for his treatment of the soldiers had 
 been truly paternal, and the affection which his sol- 
 diers bore him excited a similar feeling in the homes 
 of all the western counties. Only one thing marred 
 for a time the happiness of his triumph. The numer- 
 ous drafts that he had given for transportation 
 and supplies were returned protested, the Govern- 
 ment claiming that they were given without 
 authority of law. It happened, however, that Col- 
 onel Benton was going to Washington on business 
 of his own. He explained the whole transaction to 
 the Secretary of War, and told him that as those 
 volunteers represented every substantial family in 
 Tennessee, and the whole State stood by the com 
 manding general, Tennessee would be lost to the 
 Administration if he were left responsible for the 
 drafts. This touched the Government in a vulnera- 
 ble and sensitive spot. The Administration could 
 not afford to lose the support of Tennessee, and so 
 Colonel Benton's argument prevailed. The Gov- 
 ernment assumed the expenses, and thus saved Gen- 
 eral Jackson from ruin. 
 
 Soon after Colonel Benton had done this great 
 service for his esteemed commander, General Jack- 
 son, impelled by what to him was a stern sense of 
 duty, acted as the second of a dear young friend in 
 a duel with Jesse Benton, Colonel Benton's brother. 
 Jesse Benton naturally saw only his own side of the 
 question. He gave his brother an exaggerated 
 account of the affair, in which the conduct of Gen- 
 eral Jackson was described in a way which made 
 
The March Home, 14^ 
 
 Colonel Benton furious. Misunderstanding after 
 misunderstanding followed, and provocation after 
 provocation was given, until the feud culminated in 
 a street fight between General Jackson and his 
 friends and the Bentons and their friends. Gen- 
 eral Jackson was terribly wounded by Jesse Benton, 
 who fired a huge pistol, loaded like a blunderbuss, 
 at him as he was facing Colonel Benton. A large 
 slug shattered General Jackson's left shoulder, a ball 
 entered the upper part of his left arm and sunk to 
 the bone, while another ball splintered a board 
 partition at his side. He fell across the entry of a 
 tavern, where he lay bleeding and nearly insen- 
 sible until the fighting ceased. As soon as possible 
 he was carried to a room in the Nashville Inn, and 
 all the doctors in the town were gathered around 
 him. They succeeded, when life was nearly extinct, 
 in staunching the ilow of blood. The arm was so 
 badly injured that all the physicians present but 
 one recommended immediate amputation. 
 
 '' ril keep my arm," said Jackson. 
 
 No attempt was made to extract the ball from the 
 arm, and the horrid wounds in the shoulder were 
 dressed in the simple manner of the Western country, 
 with applications of slippery-elm and other native 
 products. Mrs. Jackson used to tell her friends 
 that, before the bleedmg could be stopped, two 
 mattresses were soaked through. General Jackson 
 lay for nearly three weeks, before he could sit up in 
 a chair while the bed was made. 
 
 Soon after the occurrence of this terrible affray, 
 Colonel Benton left Nashville and went to Franklin 
 in Tennessee. A short time afterward, he was 
 
146 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 appointed lieutenant-colonel in the regular army, in 
 which he served to the end of the war. He then 
 removed to Missouri, which, as is well known, he 
 represented for thirty years in the Senate of the 
 United States. In the first volume of his '' Thirty 
 Years in the United States Senate," at page 737, 
 Colonel Benton makes a final allusion to his unfor- 
 tunate collision with General Jackson, in these touch- 
 ing words : 
 
 "■ His [Jackson's] temper was placable, as well as 
 irascible, and his reconciliations were cordial and 
 sincere. Of that, my own case was a signal instance. 
 After a deadly feud, I became his confidential 
 adviser; was offered the highest marks of his 
 favor, and received from his dying bed a message of 
 friendship, dictated when life was departing, and 
 when he would have to pause for breath." 
 
 " To err is human ; to forgive, divine." 
 
Massacre at Foi^t Minis, i^y 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS — THE CREEK WAR — GEN- 
 ERAL JACKSON TAKES COMMAND. 
 
 For many days after the affray with the Bentons, 
 General Jackson lay in his room at the Nashville 
 Inn seemingly at the point of death. At the end of 
 the second week he could scarcely lift his head from 
 the pillow, and the wounds in his shoulder were only 
 beginning to heal. No one supposed that he could 
 serve again in the field during the war. Indeed, it 
 was not thought there would be any particular 
 occasion for his services in that part of the country 
 but that proved to be a great mistake. 
 
 Through the eloquence and artifice of Tecumseh, 
 the most warlike of the tribes which then occupied 
 Florida, Georgia and Alabama, had ranged them- 
 selves on the side of the British, who directed their 
 movements from Pensacola, with the assistance and 
 cordial sympathy of the Spanish governor of 
 Florida. Let these facts be remembered ; and let it 
 not be forgotten that the horrible massacre at Fort 
 Mims, which began the Creek War, was the direct 
 result of British and Spanish efforts to strike terror 
 to the hearts of American settlers by means of 
 Indian atrocities. 
 
 Fort Mims, on Lake Tensaw, in Southern Ala. 
 bama, was merely a log stockade, an acre or two in 
 extent, which Samuel Mims, an old resident of the 
 Indian country, had hastily erected on the first vague 
 
148 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackso7i., 
 
 alarm of an Indian rising, i^ccording to frontier 
 custom, in time of danger, the inhabitants of the 
 country far and near poured into the stockade to the 
 number of more than five hundred, of whom one 
 hundred were women and children. Each famil}^ or 
 group of families, built its log-hut within the inclo- 
 sure, and all awaited the onset of the Indians. As 
 time passed and no Indians appeared, the people, as 
 usual in such cases, grew careless and incredulous of 
 danger. Major Beasley, the commander of the gar- 
 rison, did not believe the Indians had any intention 
 of attacking the fort, and all the officers shared his 
 incredulity. Discipline was relaxed; precautions 
 against surprise were disregarded ; the inmates of 
 the stockade gave themselves up to amusement and 
 jollity. 
 
 On August 29 (18 1 3), two negro slaves, who had 
 been stationed to watch cattle a few miles distant, 
 rushed, breathless, into the fort and said they had 
 seen a band of painted Indians lurking in the woods. 
 A party was sent out to reconnoiter, but found no 
 trace of Indians. The negroes were sentenced to 
 be whipped for giving a false alarm, and one of 
 them was punished. The owner of the other 
 believed his slave had told the truth and objected 
 to his being whipped ; whereupon the commandant 
 ordered him and his family to leave the fort, which 
 they fortunately did. This fatuous hallucination 
 was on the eve of being dispelled. On the very 
 next morning (August 30), a thousand Creek war- 
 riors, under the command of their most renowned 
 chief, the half-breed Weathersford, lay in ambush 
 within striking distance of Fort Mims, awaiting 
 
Massacre at Fort Minis. 149 
 
 their chieftain's signal to attack. Precisely at noon, 
 when the drums of the garrison beat for dinner, the 
 gates being wide open, and all the men unarmed 
 strolling to their several quarters for the mid-day 
 meal, Weathersford gave the signal, and the savages 
 rose from their ambush and rushed upon the inclo- 
 sure. Then arose the terrible cry, so often heard in 
 those days on the exposed frontiers, " Indians /" 
 " Lidians /" The thousand Creeks came on like a 
 tempest of destruction. Within the stockade there 
 was a rush of women and children to the log-huts 
 and of men to the gates and the port-holes. Major 
 Beasley, brave soldier that he was, was one of the 
 first to reach the main gate, but he was too late to 
 close it. The savages dashed forward, struck down 
 the commander, and ran over his body into the fort. 
 The situation was appalling ; but the garrison was 
 composed of brave men, and they behaved as brave 
 men should in circumstances so terrible. They made 
 a heroic defense of more than five hours, and would 
 have beaten off the foe, if the Indians had not suc- 
 ceeded in setting fire to the stockade and its cluster 
 of cabins. In a few minutes after the conflagration 
 burst out, further defense was impossible, and then 
 a hideous massacre began, which was too horrible 
 for detailed description. 
 
 When the sun set on that August evening, of the 
 five hundred and fifty-three persons who were living 
 in the stockade in the morning, all so incredulous of 
 danger from their savage foes, four hundred lay 
 dead upon the ground, scalped and mangled. Not 
 one white woman nor one white; child escaped. 
 Weathersford tried to save the women and children. 
 
150 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 but his warriors encircled him with uplifted toma- 
 hawks and he was forced to let them glut their ven- 
 geance to the full. The few white men who by des- 
 perate powers broke away, wandered for days in the 
 wilderness and reached places of refuge almost 
 starved. One faithful negro woman, who had 
 received a bullet in her breast, seized a canoe on 
 Lake Tensaw, in which she paddled fifteen miles, 
 and bore the first news of the massacre to Governor 
 Claiborne of Louisiana. 
 
 In this terrible way began the Creek War of 1813. 
 The massacre occurred at the time when it could do 
 the greatest amount of harm, when the magnificent 
 crops of that fertile land were nearly ready for the 
 harvest. Every plantation was abandoned in the 
 belt of country between Tennessee and the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and all the white inhabitants sought safety 
 in forts and stockades. 
 
 Fort Mims was about four hundred miles distant 
 from Nashville, and the dreadful tidings reached 
 the village in eighteen days. There could be no 
 question in Nashville as to what was to be done. 
 Every out-lying settlement in Tennessee was in 
 peril, and Nashville was never known to lose its 
 head in such a crisis. A public meeting was imme- 
 diately called. The man who should have taken the 
 lead in that meeting Avas lying half dead in his 
 room, within hearing of the speakers' voices. No 
 one supposed it would be possible for him to ent:r 
 the field against the Indians, and the universal con- 
 viction of his helplessness produced a sad and 
 depressing effect. A committee was appointed, of 
 which Colonel Coffee w^as a member, to confer with 
 
Massacre at Fort Minis . 151 
 
 Governor Blount and General Jackson ; after which 
 the meeting adjourned to reassemble on the follow- 
 ing day, which was Sunday. 
 
 The committee, to the great surprise and the still 
 greater joy of its members, found that General 
 Jackson by no means regarded himself as a non- 
 combatant. Shot almost to death as he had been, 
 with his wounds still festering, and so weak he 
 could hardly raise his hand to his head or his head 
 ' from his pillow, that unparalleled character of his 
 asserted itself — that character which Emerson 
 defines as " tJie impossibility of beiiig displaced or over- 
 sety The terrible news from Alabama did not dis- 
 may him. It gave him new life ; it brought healing 
 to his wounds; it augmented his strength ; and he 
 took it entirely as a matter of course that he should 
 have command of the troops and lead them against 
 the savage enemy who had disturbed or menaced the 
 peace of Tennessee for twenty years. 
 » The committee reported on Sunday morning that 
 the governor was in favor of calling out the entire 
 strength of the State against the Creeks. The 
 committee regretted what they called " the present 
 temporary indisposition of our brave and patriotic 
 General Jackson ; " but. added that there was no 
 doubt of his being able to command the freemen of 
 Tennessee by the time they could assemble at the 
 rendezvous. 
 
 The Legislature empowered the governor to put 
 four thousand men into the field, and besides guaran- 
 teeing their pay and subsistence, voted three 
 hundred thousand dollars for the first expenses. 
 Fayetteville, eighty miles south of Nashville, was 
 
152 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 appointed as the place of rendezvous, and October 
 4th as the day. The fourth of October would be 
 exactly a month from the day when General Jackson 
 received his wounds. Prostrate as he was, he was 
 superior, in such an emergency, to any dozen other 
 men in the State. He at once assumed control of 
 the campaign, and, as usual with him, he began by 
 issuing an address to the volunteers. 
 
 " 1 regret," said he, '' that indisposition, which 
 from present appearances is not likely to continue 
 long, may prevent me from leading the van ; but I 
 indulge the grateful hope of sharing with you the 
 dangers and glory of prostrating those hell-hounds 
 who are capable of such barbarities." 
 
 He did not precisely lead the van. Nine days 
 after the arrival of the news of the massacre, he 
 dispatched Colonel Coffee, with five hundred 
 mounted men, to Huntsville, in Alabama, to give 
 assurance to the frontier of coming protection. 
 Every village through which Colonel Coffee passed 
 increased his force, and on the fourth of October 
 he crossed the Alabama line with thirteen hundred 
 mounted men, every man riding his own horse and 
 carrying his own weapons. And still the men kept 
 coming in. ** Volunteers," as he wrote back to his 
 commanding officer, '* are flocking in every hour. " 
 
 The day soon came when the commanding general 
 himself had to move toward the rendezvous. He 
 could not yet mount a horse without powerful 
 assistance. His left arm was closely bound and in a 
 sling. He was unable, therefore, to put it in a coat- 
 sleeve, and during the whole period of his military 
 service, he could not carry an epaulet on his left 
 
Massacre at Fort Minis. 153 
 
 shoulder. In point of flesh, he was the merest 
 shadow of a man. His stomach would retain so 
 little food that he was in danger of dying- from 
 inanition. His wounds were so sensitive that the 
 least wrench or jar afiflicted him with agony. But 
 his dauntless spirit was unimpaired. He was sus- 
 tained during the agonizing journey of nearly 
 ninety miles by that invincible determination and 
 fortitude of his, in which he seems to have excelled 
 all men known to history. Several times during 
 his first two days' ride, members of his staff had to 
 take him aside and sponge him from head to foot 
 with whiskey. 
 
 Weak and wounded as he was, he was ahead of 
 most of his troops, for he reached Fayetteville on 
 the seventh of October, to discover that less than 
 half of the men ordered to gather there had arrived. 
 He received, however, favorable news from Colonel 
 Coffee, who was thirty miles nearer the seat of war. 
 
 It had been expected that the Indians, aided by 
 the British, would capture Mobile ; but the Spanish 
 governor of Florida, who claimed that Mobile 
 belonged to Spain, and who expected that it would 
 be restored to that power, did not wish to have the 
 place destroyed. For this reason Mobile was spared, 
 and the Indians were turned northward for the 
 purpose of devastating the country clear to the 
 Ohio. Hence, Colonel Coffee (who only knew what 
 was going on, without having the slightest idea of 
 the cause) was able to inform his commander that 
 the Indians, instead of attacking Mobile, as was ex- 
 pected, were making their way northward toward 
 the settlements of Tennessee. This was delightful 
 
154 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 news to the sick and grim Old Hickory. He replied 
 that he was glad to learn that the Creeks were go- 
 ing to save him the pain of traveling. " I must not 
 be outdone in politeness, " he added, " and will, 
 therefore, endeavor to meet them on the middle 
 ground. " 
 
 A week was passed at Fayetteville completing the 
 preparations for an advance, the general daily gain- 
 ing a little in health and strength. Then, at one 
 o'clock, on the eleventh of October, a dispatch was 
 received from Colonel Coffee, who was still posted 
 at Huntsville, saying that the Indians were approach- 
 ing him. The order was given instantly to prepare 
 to march. Before three o'clock the troops started, 
 and reached Huntsville at eight o'clock the same 
 evening — six miles an hour for five hours, incredible 
 as it may seem. But this is a positive statement of a 
 dispatch written in General Jackson's name ; and it 
 must be remembered that the troops were frontiers- 
 men and the very flower of the population. The 
 alarm proved to be a false one, but the march united 
 the army thirty-two miles nearer the scene of 
 action. 
 
 And now began the serious difficulty of this eight 
 months' struggle in the wilderness. When General 
 Jackson joined his forces to those of Colonel Coffee, 
 and pitched his camp on a bluff of the Tennessee 
 river, he was a hundred and fifty miles from any 
 adequate supply of provisions. He had with him 
 twenty-five hundred men and thirteen hundred 
 horses, a force that requires for a week's subsistence 
 two hundred barrels of flour, twenty tons of meat, 
 sixty tons of provender and many wagon-loads of 
 
Massacre at Fort Mints, 155 
 
 miscellaneous stores. Already Colonel Coffee, in 
 his eight days' advance movement, had swept the 
 surrounding- country of the supplies it could furnish. 
 On this bend of the Tennessee, the government 
 contractor had engaged to deliver a thousand bar- 
 rels of flour, a week before, with a proportionate 
 supply of meat, and he had done all that in him lay 
 to keep his word. But his flour and his meat were 
 on a bend of the Tennessee, three hundred miles 
 above, where the flat-boats, in the low tide of water 
 then prevailing, would not float. 
 
 It was in meeting such difficulties as these, even 
 more than in actual conflict, where he was unmatch- 
 able, that Andrew Jackson showed his extra- 
 ordinary powers — powers never surpassed and only 
 equaled by those of Csesar. With calmness and rapid- 
 ity he set to work to procure the indispensable provis- 
 ions. He sent his trusty quartermaster. Major W. 
 B. Lewis, to Nashville, to stay there and take charge 
 of the vital business of supplying his army. He 
 sent Colonel Coffee and seven hundred mounted 
 men on a foraging expedition, while he kept the 
 infantry drilling from morning to night. He wrote 
 Burning letters to men in East Tennessee, to the 
 Governor of Tennessee, to the Governor of Georgia, 
 to all the Indian agents among the friendly tribes, 
 to friendly Indian chiefs, to the general in com- 
 mand at New Orleans, to a great number of friends 
 in various parts of his own State, saying to all of them 
 in substance, that there was no obstacle in the way 
 of his annihilating the Creek power, except the lack 
 of a steady supply of provisions for about six weeks, 
 
156 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 He kept his secretary, Major John Reid, writing 
 and copying the whole week. 
 
 "■ There is an enemy," the general wrote, by his 
 secretary's hand, " whom I dread much more than 
 I do the hostile Creeks — I mean the meagre monster 
 Famine, I shall leave this encampment in the morn- 
 ing direct for the Ten Islands, and yet 1 have not 
 on hand two days' supply of bread-stuffs." 
 
 At the last moment his meagre store was increased, 
 by Colonel Coffee's raid, to a sufficiency for about 
 four days. He marched, therefore, at the time 
 appointed, having first delivered to the troops an 
 address as well calculated to inspire prudence as 
 courage. He called to their minds the Indian 
 mode of fighting, and urged them not to be deceived 
 by their arts, nor alarmed by their ill-sustained 
 attacks. He urged them to be vigilant, and yet not 
 to be terrified by shadows. '* Our soldiers," he said, 
 " will lie with their arms in their hands, and the 
 moment an alarm is given they will move to their 
 respective positions, without noise and without 
 confusion." The camp was then broken up, and he 
 directed his course toward the heart of the enemy's 
 country, relying upon raids and victory, and upon 
 them alone, for food enough to keep his men alive. 
 
 He was running a great risk, which he felt more 
 acutely than any man of his command. Rash and 
 impetuous as he sometimes seemed, he was in reality 
 a very prudent person. It was instinctive with him 
 to be sure of his ground before taking an irretriev- 
 able step. On this occasion he was not sure of his 
 ground, and he made a choice of evils. He instinc- 
 tively knew, as has already been said, what philoso- 
 
 i 
 
Massacre at Fort Mims, 157 
 
 phers have stated with much verbosity, that the 
 highest discretion does not consist so much in evad- 
 ing danger as in meeting it with skill and resolution. 
 In the present terrible exigency he thought that a 
 bold advance was better than a retreat, which mio-ht 
 have brought a fearful disaster upon the southern 
 counties of Tennessee. In two days, his corn being 
 nearly all gone, he halted for a day while a raid of 
 two hundred men went in quest of a supply, and 
 brought in a considerable amount, besides twenty- 
 nine Indian prisoners, the late owners of the corn. 
 
 Cheered by this success, he kept on his way for a 
 week, and reached the river Coosa. Here certain 
 news reached him of the presence of a large Indian 
 force at Tallushatches, thirteen miles distant. At 
 daybreak the next morning, with a thousand 
 mounted men and some friendly Indians, Colonel 
 Coffee was encircling that Indian camp and prepar- 
 ing for an assault upon it, the horses having been 
 left a safe distance in the rear. The Creeks were 
 completely surprised, but they rallied and fought as 
 long as one Indian remained alive ; or, to use the 
 language of Colonel Coffee, " they fought as long as 
 one existed. * * * Not one of the warriors 
 escaped to carry the news — a circumstance unknown 
 heretofore." 
 
 Two hundred Indians were killed, and eighty-four 
 women and children taken prisoners. Five white 
 men were killed, and forty-one wounded, none 
 mortally. The Indian captives were taken to the 
 settlements and treated kindly ; General Jackson 
 himself adopting one of the boys, whom he reared 
 
158 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 in his family and apprenticed to the trade of harness 
 maker. 
 
 If Indians had been all that General Jackson had 
 had to contend with, he would speedily have van- 
 quished them, but that foe that was more to be 
 dreaded than savages, was close upon him. 
 
 
Jackson s Fight Against Famine, 159 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON'S DESPERATE FIGHT AGAINST 
 
 . FAMINE — THE INDIANS CRUSHED — JACKSON 
 
 MADE A MAJOR-GENERAL IN THE 
 
 REGULAR ARMY. 
 
 Four days after Colonel Coffee's battle at Tallus- 
 hatches, during which time the troops had been 
 erecting a fortification or depot which was named 
 Fort Strother, it was General Jackson's turn to 
 encounter the Indians. News came that a camp of 
 a hundred and fifty friendly Creeks, thirty miles 
 down the Coosa, at a place called Talladega, had 
 been suddenly surrounded by a thousand hostile 
 Indians, cut off from their supply of water, and so 
 closely hemmed in that escape was impossible. One 
 wily Indian chief, dressed in the skin of a large hog, 
 made his way through the hostile lines, and came 
 into camp, twenty-four hours later, breathless and 
 exhausted, to tell his story to General Jackson. It 
 was a crucial moment for the general, for his army 
 was close to starvation, and he was again obliged to 
 choose one of two perilous and possibly fatal risks. 
 Again his courage and his instinctive genius for 
 the performance of heroic and desperate deeds were 
 equal to the terrible emergency, and again he 
 decided to advance. 
 
 Without any certainty of being able to subsist his 
 troops, and leaving his sick behind him with four 
 days' supply of food, he hastened forward with all 
 
i6o General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 his available force, and promptly arrived where his 
 men could hear the exultant Creeks howling around 
 their expected prey. Adopting the familiar Indian 
 tactics of surrounding the enemy, the Tennesseeans 
 closed upon them. After a short but most decisive 
 battle, the Indians fled, leaving two hundred of the 
 flower of their nation dead upon the field. Colonel 
 Coffee and his horsemen pursued them four miles, 
 " killing and wounding as they ran " two hundred 
 and ninety-nine in all. " Very few got clear without 
 a wound," adds Coffee. Jackson lost fifteen men 
 killed, and eighty-six wounded, most of them slightly 
 with arrows. 
 
 The joy of the rescued Creeks, who had been 
 expecting an assault that very day, was indescribable, 
 for they knew nothing of Jackson's approach until 
 the battle began. As soon as they had satisfied 
 their raging thirst, they gathered round the com- 
 manding general, testifying their gratitude by 
 expressive gestures and joyful cries. The little 
 corn which they had left, the general bought and 
 distributed among his hungry men and hungrier 
 horses, that had begun this march of thirty-two 
 miles with only one day's supply of food. 
 
 There was no time to be lost, if they meant to 
 escape starvation. The dead being decently buried 
 and the wounded placed in litters, the army marched 
 back to Fort Strother, Avhere the sick had been left. 
 General Jackson had fully expected, and with rea- 
 son, that an abundant supply of food would reach 
 the fort in his absence. Not an ounce had arrived, 
 and the little which he had left behind him was 
 nearly all consumed, even his own private stores, 
 
Jacksojis FigJa Against Famine. i6i 
 
 which he had told the surgeons to draw upon if 
 necessary for the comfort of the sick and wounded 
 men. All had been consumed except a few pounds 
 of biscuits, which he immediately caused to be dis- 
 tributed to the most needy applicants. Major Reid 
 reports that the general tried to make a jest of his 
 acute disappointment. He and his staff went to the 
 slaughtering-place and selected from the refuse a 
 quantity of tripe for their supper. A few starving 
 cattle were still left, upon which the men subsisted 
 for a few days, the general and his staff eating noth- 
 ing but tripe without seasoning of any kind. In 
 these distressing circumstances, General Jackson 
 did not omit to send a polite message to the ladies 
 of East Tennessee, that their colors had been borne 
 in the thickest of the fight, tied around the person 
 of Captain Deaderich. 
 
 " In return," he wrote, "■ I send you a stand of 
 colors (although not of such elegant stuff or mag- 
 nificent needlework) taken by one of the volunteers, 
 which I beg you to present to them as the only 
 mark ot gratitude the volunteers have it in their 
 power to make. With his own hand he slayed the 
 bearer." 
 
 And now began General Jackson's long contest 
 with Famine — an enemy, as he said, far more 
 formidable than the Creeks. He struggled with it 
 for ten terrible weeks, during which he could make 
 no effective movement against the foe, whom he 
 could have totally destroyed in ten days if he had 
 had an adequate supply of provisions. Sometimes 
 his army was reduced to extreme destitution, when 
 a trifling supply would alleviate the situation for a 
 
1 62 General Aridrew Jackson, 
 
 few days. It cannot be justly said that the scarcity 
 was due to the fault of any man, but wholly to 
 natural obstacles — the wilderness, the distance and 
 the wet season. More than once there was a formid- 
 able mutiny of the idle troops, which the general 
 met with a happy blending of persuasion, tact and 
 firmness. 
 
 His force consisted partly of militia and partly of 
 volunteers, between whom there was some degree 
 of rivalry and jealousy. The militia having resolved 
 to start for home at a certain set time, General 
 Jackson, learning their intention, stationed the vol- 
 unteers, early on the morning the militia were to 
 start, across the road along w^hich they would have 
 to march, and took his place at the head of the 
 force. The militia, finding the lion-like general, 
 backed by the volunteers, barring their way, quietly 
 retired to their quarters. Shortly afterward, the 
 volunteers resolved to abandon the camp and go 
 home. Then the general called on the militia to 
 help him block the game of the volunteers, which 
 they did with a relish. Finally both militia and 
 volunteers became incurably infected with the 
 spirit of discontent and mutiny, and terrible scenes 
 occurred. 
 
 On one occasion, when a large body of troops had 
 got ready to set out on their homeward march. Gen- 
 eral Jackson seized a musket, and placing himself in 
 their front, swore " by the Eternal" that the first 
 man who took a step in advance should die. It is 
 said that his countenance, on such an occasion, 
 appalled the most courageous man. There was in 
 it the majesty of a god, the ferocity of a tiger, the 
 
Jacksoiis FigJit Against Famine. 163 
 
 determination of fixed fate. Every lineament was 
 stamped with invincible power, and his eyes blazed 
 with a fire that no other eyes could look upon with- 
 out blenching. The mutinous soldiers, confronted 
 by such a terrible apparition, hesitated, wavered, 
 retired. It was afterward discovered that the 
 musket which the general had seized for the occa- 
 sion was so damaged it could not be fired. But it 
 was the man, not the musket, that the mutineers 
 feared. 
 
 Force was not the only means used by General 
 Jackson to keep the troops in the field. He 
 addressed to them the most passionate entreaties. 
 "Wagons are on the way," he once said to them; 
 " a large number of beeves are in the neighborhood 
 and detachments are out to bring them in. If 
 supplies do not arrive in two days, we will all march 
 back together." 
 
 If he had said three days he might have kept the 
 troops, but unfortunately he had miscalculated by 
 four-and-twenty hours. At the end of the second 
 day, when no provisions had arrived, he was obliged 
 to fulfill his promise. " If only two men will 
 remain with me," he passionately declared, " I will 
 never abandon the post." One hundred and nine 
 men were willing to remain. He left them in charge 
 of Fort Strother, and himself marched northward 
 with the rest of the troops, on the explicit under- 
 standing that, as soon as they had satisfied their 
 hunger and procured supplies, they would return 
 to Fort Strother and march upon the foe. They 
 met the provision train the next day and satisfied 
 their hunger; but the mania to return home was 
 
1 64 
 
 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 ^ 
 
 K 
 
 
 \ 
 
 not satisfied, nor could it be overcome. Terrible 
 scenes took place between the general and the 
 troops, who appeared to be held to their duty only 
 bv the force of his invincible will and the irresistible 
 domination of his courage and character. The 
 soldiers marched southward, but with discontented 
 minds, and there was still a long contest before Gen- 
 eral Jackson deemed it best to exchange these dis- 
 satisfied troops for new regiments from Tennessee. 
 And now still greater discouragements arose. 
 The men who returned home, in order to justify 
 their abandonment of their general, gave such dole- 
 ful accounts of the situation, and such harrowing 
 descriptions of the hardships of the service, as 
 appalled their fellow-citizens and effectually checked 
 volunteering. Even Governor Blount became dis- 
 couraged, and wrote to General Jackson, advising 
 him to give up the enterprise and return home. 
 
 And so it had come to this : the godlike courage 
 and fortitude of one man alone stood between the 
 Indian hordes of the South and the defenseless 
 settlements to the north of them. And that man 
 was physically a wreck. His wounds had not yet 
 healed. He could not get his left arm into his coat- 
 sleeve. For weeks he had not had sufficient food, 
 and the little he had had was unwholesome. He was 
 tortured by acute dyspepsia. He was afflicted with 
 a chronic diarrhoea, accompanied by pains so acute 
 that the only way he could obtain relief was to have 
 a sapling partially cut and bent down so he could 
 lean over it, with his abdomen pressing the wood 
 and the ends of his fingers resting upon the ground. 
 So emaciated and feeble was he, it is a wonder that 
 
Jackson s Fight Against Famine. 165 
 
 he was able to sit upon his horse or even to stand 
 upon his feet. But his indomitable soul triumphed 
 over his wasted body. The fire of his eve was not 
 dimmed, the majesty of his demeanor was not 
 impaired. His fortitude was as enduring as his 
 courage was unconquerable. That character of his 
 — *' the impossibility of being displaced or overset" 
 — now shone forth in all its incomparable and 
 quenchless luster. 
 
 General Jackson was not the only brave man in 
 the army. It is not probable that there was a 
 coward in the entire force. It was not courage but 
 fortitude that was lacking. Fortitude is persistent 
 courage — courage which is so sustained bv con. 
 science and a lofty sense of duty that it never gives 
 up. The troops who abandoned the enterprise 
 were brave men. If thev could have srot within 
 reach of their foes, there would have been no lack 
 of courage among them. Every man of them would 
 have fought like a hero. But fortitude they did not 
 possess in sufficient measure to stand the strain, and 
 so the greater part of them abandoned their gen- 
 eral, who at last permitted them to return to their 
 homes. But he stayed on. Under the terrible, the 
 seemingly hopeless circumstances in which he was 
 placed, any other man would have hailed the advice 
 of Governor Blount as a godsend, and under its 
 cover would have gladly gone home. But General 
 Jackson met it characteristicallv, bv writino- the 
 governor such an eloquent, circumstantial, logical 
 and convincing reply that Governor Blount's 
 enthusiasm was reawakened, the patriotism of the 
 people was stirred to its depths, their courage was 
 
1 66 Gene7^al Andrew Jackson. 
 
 reanimated, volunteers came forward, and when the 
 spring- opened amazing exertions were put forth to 
 collect and transport the requisite provisions. It 
 took many weeks for these movements to come to 
 such a head as to relieve General Jackson. Mean- 
 while, in January, 1814, although he had but nine 
 hundred undisciplined and disaffected troops, he 
 planned a raid upon the Indians which he executed 
 with characteristic daring and skill. On December 
 22nd and 24th he fought the battles of Emuckfau 
 and Enotachopco, inflicting heavy loss on the sav. 
 ages. At the beginning of the battle of Enotachopco 
 a panic occurred among the raw troops, which 
 threatened the destruction of the army. In this 
 terrible emergency General Jackson exhibited those 
 heroic qualities for which he was so renowned. 
 Major Eaton, in describing the general's conduct on 
 that occasion, says :* '' But for him everything 
 must have gone to ruin. On him all hopes were 
 rested. In that moment of confusion he was the 
 rallying point even for the spirits of the brave. 
 Firm and energetic, and at the same time perfectly 
 self-possessed, his example and his authority alike 
 contributed to arrest the flying and give confidence 
 to those who maintained their ground. Cowards 
 forgot their panic, and fronted danger, when they 
 heard his voice and beheld his manner; and the 
 brave would have formed round his body a ram- 
 part with their own. In the midst of showers of 
 balls, of which he seemed unmindful, he was seen 
 performing the duties of the subordinate officers, 
 
 * Parton I, 495. 
 
Jackso7is Fight Against Famine. 167 
 
 rallying the alarmed, halting them in their flight, 
 forming his columns, and inspiriting them by his 
 example." 
 
 This successful raid over, the troops whose time 
 was about to expire were sent home, and General 
 Jackson waited weary weeks for reinforcements 
 and provisions. At last, fresh troops began to 
 arrive, and among them, on the sixth of February, 
 came the Thirty-ninth regiment of United States 
 soldiers, six hundred strong, under command of 
 Colonel Williams. This was an important acquis- 
 ition. By the end of February, the general had 
 iive thousand troops, within two days' march of 
 Fort Strother, waiting till twenty days* rations could 
 be accumulated, to march on the foe and strike a 
 finishing blow. Prodigious exertions were made to 
 hasten the transport of provisions. Over the miry 
 forest roads of March, four barrels of flour made a 
 heavy load for four horses. Although the general 
 had five hundred men at work improving the last 
 thirty miles of the road to Fort Strother, it required 
 a whole week for a wagon train to perform one 
 journey of sixty-four miles ; and not one wagon 
 brought more than sixteen hundred pounds of food. 
 All the sick and disabled men were sent home, and 
 the teamsters were forbidden to convey anything 
 not strictly indispensable; not even whiskey, which 
 was then generally considered indispensable to men 
 in the field. There was such a weeding out of non- 
 combatants that there was only one man left in 
 camp who could beat the ordinary calls on the 
 drum, and this one drummer performed the whole 
 duty. 
 
1 68 General Afidreio Jackson. 
 
 The most inflexible discipline was enforced. On 
 March 14, 1814, John Wood was shot for insubordin- 
 ation and assault upon an officer. This severity had 
 a happy effect on the army, but years afterwards, dur- 
 ing his presidential campaigns, Jackson was fiercely 
 assailed for it. But as Professor Sumner* says, 
 " party newspapers during a presidential campaign 
 are not a fair court of appeal to review the acts 
 which a military commander in the field may think 
 necessary to maintain discipline. Jackson showed in 
 this case that he was not afraid to do his duty, and 
 that he would not sacrifice the public service to 
 curry popularity." 
 
 At length, about the middle of March, 18 14, after 
 six weeks of the most intense exertion, the supplies 
 were gathered at Fort Strother, and an advance 
 movement became possible. 
 
 Fifty-five miles to the southward, the Creeks had 
 assembled nearly the whole of the effective warriors 
 of their tribe, with their women and children. It 
 was on a bend of the Tallapoosa, called Tohopeka, 
 ** The Horse-shoe," from its shape. It contained 
 about a hundred acres of land, mostly covered with 
 the primeval woods. Across the neck of this bend 
 the Indians had built a log breast-work of great 
 strength, pierced with two rows of port-holes. The 
 construction of this breast-work showed that the 
 savages had had the aid of soldiers accustomed to 
 build such fortifications. At the bottom of the 
 peninsula, near the river, were their wigwams, and 
 the shore was fringed with a great number of canoes- 
 
 * Sumner's life of Jackson, 35. 
 
 i 
 
Battle of the Horse Shoe. 169 
 
 The Indians had had plenty of time to complete this 
 fortification, and with the aid of the British they 
 had made it strong. It was defended by something 
 less than a thousand warriors, and in the wigwam 
 village there were about three hundred women and 
 children. 
 
 It required eleven days of intense exertion for 
 Jackson's army of two thousand men to march the 
 fifty-five miles of pathless wilderness which lay 
 between Fort Strother and the Horse-shoe Bend. 
 But when he had reached the place, he perceived at 
 the first glance that the Indians had merely, as he said 
 in one of his letters, "• penned themselves in for des- 
 truction." He first sent General Coffee to cross the 
 river two miles away and take a position opposite 
 the line of canoes, to prevent the escape of the 
 Indians. This, Coffee promptly did, and sent his 
 swimmers over, who cut the canoes loose and 
 brought them across the river. Colonel Coffee used 
 them to send over a number of troops to attack the 
 savages in the rear. Thus the ferocious Creeks 
 were assailed in front by General Jackson and behind 
 by Coffee, and the men seconded their efforts with 
 the most splendid gallantry. 
 
 After the first heroic assault the battle resolved 
 itself into a long, slow massacre, which lasted from 
 two o'clock in the afternoon until dark. As in the 
 former battles so in this, not one Indian asked for 
 quarter, nor would accept his life, because they had 
 been assured by their prophets that if spared they 
 would be subjected to a death of torment. Upon 
 counting the dead, five hundred and fifty-seven 
 bodies of the red men were found within the penin- 
 
lyo General Andrezv Jackson. 
 
 sula , two hundred more, it was thought, lay at the 
 bottom of the river, and there were many in the 
 woods who had perished of their wounds while 
 attempting to escape. Jackson's loss was fifty-five 
 killed and one hundred and forty-six wounded, of 
 whom more than half were friendly Indians. Ensign 
 Houston, afterwards senator from Texas, lay within 
 the bend, after the battle, with two balls in his 
 shoulder and fearful wounds in his thigh. 
 
 In this battle the power of the Creeks was broken 
 forever. The leading chiefs all surrendered. 
 Weathersford himself, mounted on his matchless 
 gray horse, known far and near for its speed and 
 endurance, rode into General Jackson's camp and 
 gave himself up. He was tall, straight, fearless and 
 majestic, and was the greatest Indian warrior of his 
 time, as well as the most chivalric and romantic. In 
 truth, he was more like a knight of olden time than 
 a savage of his period. He commanded at the cap- 
 ture of Fort Mims, and although he sought, as has 
 been stated, to save the white women and children 
 from destruction, he got no credit for his humanity 
 and was held responsible for the whole horrible 
 massacre. Owing to the rancorous hatred of him 
 by the entire white population of the South, it was a 
 hundred chances to one that if he came into their 
 power he would be slain on sight. Yet, for the sake 
 of the suffering women and children of his tribe, 
 he boldly rode to the door of General Jackson's 
 tent and surrendered himself unconditionally. He 
 was immediately surrounded by officers and 
 soldiers who cried: ''Kill him! Kill him!" 
 General Jackson commanded silence, and, in his 
 
Jackson Appointed Major-General. 17.1 
 
 emphatic way, said: "Any man who would kill as 
 brave a man as this would rob the dead !" He then 
 invited the chief into his tent, and took him under 
 his protection. 
 
 Weathersford induced the remnant of the Creeks 
 to accept the terms of peace which General Jackson 
 proffered, although one of the conditions was that 
 half their lands should be ceded to the government 
 of the United States. 
 
 The victorious general and his troops enjoyed a 
 triumphal reception at Nashville, in which the entire 
 population took part; and soon after, on May 31, 
 1814, The National hitelligencer, oiW?is\\\ngton, con- 
 iMned the following announcement : 
 
 Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, is appointed Major- 
 General in the Army of the United States, vice 
 William Henry Harrison, resigned. " 
 
 Words cannot express the gratification which 
 this appointment gave to General Jackson. 
 
1/2 
 
 GejLcral A?id7'cic Jackson, 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE NEW ORLEANS CAMPAIGN — FORMIDABLENESS OF 
 THE BRITISH EXPEDITION AGAINST NEW 
 ORLEANS — THE DEFENSELESS CON- 
 DITION OF THE CITY. 
 
 As soon as General Jackson's acceptance of a 
 major-generalship in the United States army reached 
 Washington, he was assigned to the command of 
 " the Southern divison of the army, " as it was 
 called, although there were but three half-filled 
 regiments in the ** division. " He was ordered to 
 stop on his way to the Southern coast, at Fort 
 Jackson, long enough to conclude a treaty with the 
 Creeks. Altera rest of only three weeks, he started 
 on the enterprise which, after many trials, dis- 
 appointments and harrowing mortifications, was 
 to end in the almost incredible triumph at New 
 Orleans. 
 
 After concluding the treaty with the Creeks, on 
 the 9th day of August, 1814, General Jackson turned 
 his attention to the proceedings of the British at 
 Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida. Mobile 
 was in possession of the Americans ; Pensacola, of 
 the Spaniards. A British fleet had anchored in the 
 bay of Pensacola ; a British force had taken up its 
 residence in the town. From this vantage-ground 
 the British were able to send emissaries among the 
 Indians with gifts and promises, which induced 
 hundreds of the savages to join the invaders and 
 
TJie New Orleans Campaign. 173 
 
 threatened devastation to the southern countr^^ 
 and massacre to the inhabitants. General Jackson 
 requested authority from Washington to invade the 
 Spanish territory and drive the British from 
 Pensacola. The administration complied with his 
 request, and the Secretary of War sent him the 
 requisite order, but owing to some fatality, it did 
 not reach him for six months, when the war was 
 ended. 
 
 It is not surprising that General Jackson was left 
 without orders or aid from Washington. That city 
 was captured on August 24, 18 14, by the British 
 under General Ross; the President and his Cabinet 
 fled for safety beyond the reach of pursuit ; and the 
 Government was utterly demoralized. It was more 
 than a month before President Madison recovered 
 from the nervous shock which was occasioned by 
 the circumstances of his flight. 
 
 The non-receipt of orders from Washington left 
 General Jackson in a sore dilemma. Immediate 
 action, involving not only critical military operations 
 but still more critical diplomatic considerations, 
 was imperative. If he could not obtain orders from 
 the government, he must either content himself with 
 fatal delay or else take the responsibility of acting 
 without orders. He took the responsibility and 
 acted. Divining that the British were going to 
 attack Mobile, he hastened thither. The British did 
 attack Mobile, or rather Fort Bowyer, situated on 
 Mobile Point, thirty miles down the bay. As the 
 safety of the town depended upon the ability of the 
 garrison in Fort Bowyer to beat off the British fleet 
 and repel the attack of any land force that should 
 
1 74 General Andrew Jacksoii. 
 
 be sent against the fort, General Jackson did every- 
 thing in his power to meet the enemy successfully 
 at that point. The attack was made on the 15th 
 of September, 18 14, and was gallantly repulsed by 
 Major Lawrence, to whom the defense of the fort 
 had been intrusted. This defeat of the British 
 ruined their prestige with the Indians, who at once 
 began to desert them and sought to make peace 
 with the terrible Jackson. This victory also gave 
 the inhabitants of the Gulf States confidence in 
 General Jackson, and in their ability, under his in- 
 vincible leadership, to defend their homes against 
 their previously dreaded foes. 
 
 General Jackson was resolved, as he said, " to 
 rout the British out of Pensacola." After prodigious 
 exertions, on the first of November, Jackson had 
 assembled a force of about four thousand troops, 
 consisting of General Coffee's little army of twenty- 
 eight hundred Tennesseeans, the garrison of Mobile, 
 a body of mounted Mississippians, and a small 
 number of Creek Indians. With this force he made 
 an impetuous but wary dash upon Pensacola, 
 " routed out the British," brought the Spanish gov- 
 ernor to terms, and made him his steadfast and 
 admiring friend. He then hastened back to Mobile. 
 He supposed that the British forces routed out of 
 Pensacola, and the British fleet driven from Pensa- 
 cola Bay, would renew the attack on Mobile. He 
 waited ten days for them, and then learned that the 
 British land force and their Indian allies, under the 
 command of Colonel Nichols, had been landed by the 
 fleet at Appalachicola, where they were hard at 
 work fortifying their position. He at once sent ^ 
 
The New Orleans Campaign, 175 
 
 body of troops and friendly Creeks, under Major 
 Blue, against them. After some hard fighting, the 
 Indians were driven into the interior of Florida, and 
 Colonel Nichols was forced to abandon the penin- 
 sula. 
 
 Mr. Adams (see chapter 12, Vol. viii of his history) 
 seeks to undervalue and belittle this energetic and 
 successful campaign against the British and Indians 
 in Florida. He assumes, with rare military opacity, 
 that the campaign was all a mistake ; that General 
 Jackson should have left the British and Indians in 
 peace and gone directly to New Orleans. Such a 
 course would have been equivalent to Alexander's 
 leaving Egypt and Syria unconquered before he 
 entered upon his conquest of Asia. But Alexander 
 knew better than to commit such an act of folly, 
 and so did General Jackson. Professor Sumner 
 agrees with Alexander and Jackson. He says : * 
 
 " This energetic action against Pensacola, which 
 a timid commander would have hesitated to take, 
 although the propriety of it could not be seriously 
 questioned, was the second great step in the war in 
 the Southwest. If the Creeks had not been subdued, 
 Mobile could not have been defended. If Pensacola 
 had not been captured, New Orleans could not have 
 been defended three months later." 
 
 General Jackson, having pacificated Florida and 
 made everything secure in that quarter, was now 
 able to devote all his energies to the defense of New 
 Orleans. Leaving Mobile in command of General 
 Winchester of the regular army, and Fort Bowyer 
 
 * * Sumner's Life of Jackson, 38. 
 
176 General Andreiv Jackson, 
 
 in command of its defender, Major Lawrence, he 
 ordered General Coffee to move by easy marches 
 toward New Orleans, and on the 22d of November, 
 accompanied only by his staff, he himself started for 
 that city. The roads were in a frightful condition ; 
 the distance was one hundred and seventy miles. 
 The little party rode leisurely, averaging seventeen 
 miles a day ; and on the 2d of December, General 
 Jackson and his staff arrived within a few miles of 
 New Orleans, where they made a brief halt for 
 breakfast. 
 
 If General Jackson, on the second day of his 
 journey from Mobile to New Orleans (November 
 24, 1 8 14), had been aw^are of the magnificent naval 
 spectacle which was visible on that day in Negril 
 Bay, at the western end of the island of Jamaica, 
 twelve hundred miles distant from New Orleans, it 
 might have caused him to accelerate his pace. At 
 that time and place, the British expedition against 
 New Orleans, which was to sail the next dav 
 (November 25), had a grand final review. It seems 
 as though the magnitude of this expedition was 
 never realized by the American people. It was so 
 utterly defeated by General Jackson and his small 
 force of militia and volunteers, that the public mind 
 has never seemed able to grasp its magnitude and 
 its power. The fleet comprised forty-eight armed 
 vessels, many of them of the most formidable char- 
 acter. Some of the ships carried eighty guns ; 
 others carried seventy-four ; others carried fifty, 
 forty, thirty-eight guns. In addition to these men- 
 of-war, there were bomb vessels and transports in 
 great numbers. The naval officers in command 
 
The New Orleans Campaign. ijj 
 
 were veterans of great skill and experience, some of 
 whom had achieved renown. Admiral A. J. 
 Cochrane commanded the fleet. Among the cap- 
 tains was Sir Thomas Masterman Hardj — the gal- 
 lant Hardv, '* Nelson's Hardv," as he was called, 
 who commanded the J^ictory, Lord Nelson's flagship 
 at Trafalgar, and to whom the dying but victorious 
 hero said ; '' Kiss me, Hardy ; I am content." Ten 
 thousand troops were on board the vessels, and 
 about the same number of sailors and marines. 
 Among the troops were some of the most renowned 
 regiments in the British army ; all of them were 
 thoroughly brave and disciplined soldiers, and they 
 were commanded by officers equal to any in the 
 world. 
 
 On the 25th of November, 18 14, this vast and for- 
 midable expedition set sail for New Orleans. Not a 
 man in it had the slightest doubt of its success : offi- 
 cers and men were alike exhilarated as with the fore- 
 taste of assured victor}*, and the British government 
 shared their confidence. Favorites of the govern- 
 ment had been appointed to fill the civil offices in 
 Louisiana. The British collector of the port of New 
 Orleans and his five handsome daughters were on 
 board one of the vessels ; '' the collector," as a face- 
 tious writer of the dav said, " hungry for the honors 
 and the spoils of office, and the daughters eager for 
 Creole husbands. Thus happily were blended busi- 
 ness and romance, masculine avarice and feminine 
 tenderness, with military ardor and ambition for 
 fame, in this remarkable expedition, which longed 
 for the solace of the ' beauty and booty' it expected 
 to find, to seize, and to enjoy in New Orleans." 
 
I yS Geueral Andrew Jackso7i. ' 
 
 After taking possessi(jn of New Orleans, the 
 British forces, under the command of Sir Edward 
 Pakenham, the Duke of Wellington's brother-in-law, 
 and one of his most trusted subordinates, were to 
 ascend the Mississippi, reducing the country to Brit- 
 ish domination as they went, until they met a co-oper- 
 ating British force launched from Canada and com- 
 ing down the Mississippi, when the two armies were 
 to be united and hold the whole western portion of 
 the country, or as much of it as they might choose 
 to hold, in subjection to the British crown. 
 
 Of the approach of this powerful expedition the 
 government of the United States, the people of New 
 Orleans and General Jackson, were entirely ignor- 
 ant. But General Jackson was thoroughly con, 
 vinced that some British force was coming: from 
 somewhere to attack New Orleans. So was Edward 
 Livingston, and a few other American patriots. Of 
 the inhabitants of New Orleans, then numbering 
 about twenty thousand, the majority were of foreign 
 blood — French and Spanish. The Americans, about 
 eight thousand in number, were such people as are 
 usually found in remote frontier localities. Some of 
 them were thoroughly honorable men; others 
 were of that class who are honorable when honor 
 and honesty are the fashion ; and many belonged to 
 the class of adventurers and desperadoes who, being 
 beyond the pale of the law, are naturally hostile to the 
 government which enforces the law. 
 
 This heterogeneous population was at variance. 
 The French and the Spaniards were distrustful of one 
 another and of the Americans ; the Americans hated 
 and distrusted the people of foreign blood, and had 
 
The New Orleans Campaign, 179 
 
 •■ " ' ■■■■ ■■...-■^ 
 
 bitter feuds among themselves. The governor and 
 the legislature were at loggerheads, and whatever 
 one party proposed the other opposed. As the peo- 
 ple did not wish to be put to the trouble and 
 expense of defending the cit}^ they refused to believe 
 that the city was in danger. But their sense of secur- 
 ity received a severe shock by revelations made to 
 the governor by Jean Lafitte, a noted smuggler, who 
 was at the head of a colony of smugglers and pirates 
 on the bay of Barataria, formed by the island of 
 Grand Terre, forty miles south of New Orleans. 
 This was the Lafitte who has figured in countless sto- 
 ries and novels as " Lafitte, the Pirate," or ''Lafitte 
 the Pirate of the Gulf." As a matter of fact, he 
 was never at sea but twice in his life ; once when he 
 came from France, his native country, to Louisiana, 
 and again when he attempted to return, on which 
 occasion he was drowned. Lafitte was a loyal citi- 
 zen, though not a law abiding one ; and when the 
 British, under the mistaken notion that he was a 
 pirate of great resources and power, sought to bribe 
 him to enter their service and co-operate with an 
 approaching British expedition in the conquest of 
 Louisiana, he pretended to listen favorably to their 
 proposals, but at once sent their written offers to 
 Governor Claiborne, and also to a member of the 
 Louisiana Legislature. The governor immediately 
 laid the documents before a council of officers of the 
 army, navy and militia. The council refused to 
 beheve in the genuineness of the documents, and 
 came to the conclusion that Jean Lafitte was simply 
 intriguing to get his brother Dominique out of the 
 calaboose, where he was confined for certain serious 
 
i8o General Andrezu Jackson. 
 
 " irregularities." Governor Claiborne, General 
 Villere, of the militia, and Edward Livingston, the 
 leading spirits among the Americans, did not coin- 
 cide in the opinion of the council. They believed that 
 the documents were genuine, that Jean Lafitte told 
 the truth, and that New Orleans was menaced by 
 serious danger. Lafitte's letter to the governor and 
 the accompanying British documents \vere published 
 broadside in the New Orleans ncAvspapers, both 
 English and French, and occasioned a profound sen- 
 sation. A public meeting was called, fiery speeches 
 were made, committees were appointed, and the 
 entire population was aroused to action. 
 
 But bickering, jealousy and strife continued. 
 There was no one in whom the people could or 
 would trust sufficiently to accept him as their leader 
 and obey his orders. Owing to ^his deplorable state 
 of affairs, which grew w^orse and worse for many 
 weeks, the efforts to prepare the city for defense 
 were neutralized, and it looked as though the 
 approaching British would be justified in their 
 belief that New Orleans would fall an easy prey to 
 their powerful armament. And so it would, had not 
 the one man able to defend the city come to its rescue. 
 
General Jackson in New Oi^leans, i8i 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 EFFECT OF GENERAL JACKSON'S ARRIVAL AT NEW 
 ORLEANS — PROCLAMATION OF MARTIAL LAW. 
 
 Yes, the one man in all the world who, under the 
 circumstances, could defend New Orleans, was 
 close at hand. He came at the very nick of time; 
 at the moment when faction had done its worst, and 
 when the population was well nigh in a state of 
 disintegration. He came bearing the spell of the 
 national authority, and crowned with the prestige 
 of continuous victory over enemies savage and civ- 
 ilized. 
 
 On the morning of December 2, 18 14, as stated in 
 the previous chapter, General Jackson, with his 
 staff of six worn and travel-stained officers, was 
 within an hour's ride of New Orleans. One who 
 saw them on the road describes the chief of the 
 little party as tall, gaunt and yellow, but very erect 
 on his horse, with a countenance expressive of 
 energy and decision, and a presence which inspired 
 confidence and showed him to be a born leader of 
 men. 
 
 The toilsome ride of seventeen days was not 
 favorable to his malady, which required, above 
 all things, rest and genial food. The whole party 
 had almost worn out their clothes in hard service. 
 The general had on a small leather cap, a short 
 blue cloak, and high dragoon boots, all much dis- 
 colored and w^orn. Nevertheless, even the pass- 
 
1 82 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 ers-by on the lonely road, long expectant of his 
 arrival, did not need to be informed, when they saw 
 him, that General Jackson had come. 
 
 The party stopped for breakfast seven miles from 
 the city, at the villa of J. K. Smith, a merchant of 
 wealth and liberality. The table was covered with 
 Creole dainties, of which, however, it was observed 
 that the chief partook of nothing but a bowl of the 
 exquisite hominy of the region, as white as snow 
 and more delicate than rice. On diet similar to this, 
 taken frequently and in small quantities, he went 
 through the whole of this arduous and exciting cam- 
 paign. 
 
 General Jackson did not linger long at the table. 
 Looking at his watch, he reminded his companions 
 that the day was advancing and they must be get- 
 ting on. At this point they left their exhausted 
 horses and performed the rest of the journey in car- 
 riages, alighting at the abode of Daniel Clark, who 
 had been the first Representative of Louisiana in the 
 Congress of the United States. 
 
 In the large drawing-room of this spacious man- 
 sion General Jackson was received by Governor 
 Claiborne, Nicholas Girod, the Creole Mayor of 
 New Orleans, by the military and naval officers of 
 the vicinity, by the members of the legislature and 
 others. Among them was his old friend and com- 
 rade, Edward Livingston, then fifty years of age and 
 in the maturity of his powers. In a somewhat 
 ornate address the governor welcomed the general 
 and his staff and placed the entire resources and 
 manhood of Louisiana at his disposal, to enable him, 
 as he said, to become what the people of the city 
 
Proclamation of Martial Law. 183 
 
 o 
 
 were already beginning to call him the Savior of 
 New Orleans. 
 
 General Jackson made a brief reply, to the effect 
 that he had come to defend the city, and was fully 
 intent upon doing it. '* I will drive the enemy into 
 the sea," he quietly said, *' or perish in the attempt." 
 He called upon all the citizens to rally round him, 
 to lay aside all differences, all prejudices of race, 
 all party feeling, and unite as one man for one 
 object, to save the city of New Orleans from the 
 dishonor and spoliation of an insolent and ruthless 
 foe. 
 
 As most of the gentlemen present understood 
 little English, Edward Livingston, who was master 
 of both languages, translated the general's address 
 into French, and in doing so gave it the tone, the 
 elegance and the epigrammatic point which are so 
 captivating to French ears and minds. It produced 
 a truly electric effect. Every countenance expressed 
 relief and confidence, for there was something in the 
 calm and resolute demeanor of the general, despite 
 his gaunt ancf yellow countenance, his emaciated 
 form and his helpless left arm, that gave assurance 
 to them all that the man for the hour had come. 
 
 It is doubtful if there was ever a more striking 
 illustration of the truth of Emerson's aphorism, 
 '* The hero conquers by his presence ; because his 
 arrival changes the face of affairs,' than was given 
 by the result of General Jackson's arrival at New 
 Orleans. The influence of heroism, like that of 
 sunlight, is recognized by every one who comes 
 within its presence, without regard to condition or 
 nationality. Frenchman, Spaniard, American ; the 
 
184 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 honest citizen, the vagabond, the cut-throat— all 
 felt the spell of the hero's presence. As a spring 
 gushing from far up the mountain-side runs down 
 into and fills receptacles below it with its pure 
 waters, so General Jackson's brave, truthful, rever- 
 ent, patriotic, self-reliant nature ran down into the 
 minds and hearts of those below him in character, 
 filled them with his own heroic spirit, and, while 
 the spell of his influence lasted, made patriots and 
 heroes of them all. 
 
 The reception over. General Jackson and his 
 staff were conducted to the building, which had 
 been selected for his headquarters, 106 Royal 
 Street, one of the few brick houses of the city, which 
 was standing little changed at a recent date. The 
 flag of the United States was unfurled from a win- 
 dow in the third story, notifying the people that 
 General Jackson had assumed the command. From 
 that hour there was no more factious controversy, 
 no heated arguments for special plans, no distrust 
 and no divided allegiance. There was now but one 
 plan : to assist General Jackson in defending the 
 city ; and there was no strife, except a generous 
 emulation to give him the most prompt and efficient 
 aid. 
 
 Major A. L. Latour, in his spirited and graphic 
 history of the defence of New Orleans, in which he 
 took an honorable part, says : "■ The energy mani- 
 fested 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 capa- 
 ble of performing, if he ordered it to be done. It 
 
General Jackson in Nczu Orlea7is. 185 
 
 was enough that he expressed a wish, or threw out 
 the slightest intimation, and immediately a crowd 
 of volunteers offered themselves to carry his views 
 into execution." Truly " The hero conquers by 
 his presence." 
 
 As soon as General Jackson had taken possession 
 of his office, he appointed a new aide-de-camp, 
 Edward Livingston, who served in that capacity 
 to the end of the strife, and rendered invaluable 
 assistance of many kinds. 
 
 To horse again. The uniformed companies of 
 the city were drawn up on parade, awaiting review 
 by the commanding general. These companies 
 consisted of five or six hundred men of various 
 equipments and costumes, merchants, lawyers, 
 clerks and others. They made an excellent impres- 
 sion upon the general, who then for the first time 
 saw something of the picturesque aspect of military 
 life. He complimented them warmly upon their 
 appearance and drill, and made minute inquiries 
 as to the history and organization of the companies. 
 
 The new aide-de-camp, at the end of the review, 
 invited the general home to dinner, an invitation 
 which was promptly accepted. It chanced that 
 Mrs. Livingston had invited a few ladies to dinner 
 that day, and as Mr. Parton tells us, she received 
 the announcement of the honor intended her with a 
 good deal of alarm, for she knew little of General 
 Jackson except his recent fame as a great Indian 
 fighter. 
 
 " What shall we do with this wild general 
 from Tennessee ?" whispered the ladies to one 
 another, as they sat awaiting his entrance. But 
 
1 86 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 when he came in, perfectly composed, an erect, 
 bronzed figure, in uniform of coarse blue cloth and 
 yellow buck-skin, his high boots flapping loosely, he 
 seemed to the ladies the very ideal of the veteran 
 warrior. He gave them one of those magnificent 
 bows for which he was afterward noted, and behaved 
 with a mingled grace and dignity that astonished 
 the ladies as much as it delighted them. What 
 surprised them most was '' the society tone " of his 
 conversation. He begged the ladies, as he rose to 
 take his leave, not to give themselves the least con- 
 cern about the safety of the city. " I am confident," 
 said he, *' of being able to defend it." When he was 
 finally out of hearing, and the ladies found them- 
 selves alone, they gathered round the hostess, say- 
 ing : 
 
 '* Is this your backwoodsman ? Why, madam, he 
 is a prince !" ' 
 
 As soon as he returned to his quarters, General 
 Jackson had a long conference with the engineers 
 in the city, among whom was Major A. L. Latour 
 of the regular army, afterward the competent 
 historian of the defense. The whole Delta was 
 carefully gone over by the aid of maps and plans. 
 All the possible approaches were explained and 
 considered, and the readiest way of defending each 
 was determined upon. In the course of a few hours, 
 the work to be done was ascertained and assigned, 
 and measures were taken to enlist the co-operation 
 of the whole mass of slaves who could be spared 
 from household labor. The commanding general 
 also laid before the conference of engineers his 
 own simple plan of defense, which was to put every 
 
General Jackson in New Orleans. 187 
 
 possible obstruction in the way of the enemy's 
 approach, and to attack him instantly, wherever 
 and in whatsoever force he might effect a landing. 
 
 The next morning, the general set out in a barge, 
 with his staff and the engineers, to make a personal 
 inspection of the vulnerable points on the lines. 
 This tour lasted six days. Upon his return, he made 
 an extensive tour of inspection around the broad 
 bays, which are called Lake Pontchartrain and 
 Lake Borgne, by means of which vessels of light 
 draught can sail within nine miles of the city. 
 When he had completed these surveys, his confidence 
 in his ability to defend the city was considerably 
 increased, and he had little fear of a surprise. On 
 Lake Borgne, too shallow for large vessels, there 
 was a fleet of six gunboats, carrying twent3^-three 
 guns and one hundred and eighty-two men, under 
 the command of Lieutenant Ap Catesby Jones, and 
 upon these he relied chiefly for the first news of the 
 enemy's approach. 
 
 Let us now enumerate the troops upon which he 
 could rely for the defense of the city. On his 
 return from his second tour of inspection, December 
 14, he had under his command eight hundred regu- 
 lars, newly raised, but sufficiently armed ; the 
 volunteer companies of the city, about five hundred 
 in number; two regiments of State militia, about 
 half armed and little acquainted with military duty ; 
 a battalion of free colored men, about four hundred 
 in number, making a total little exceeding two 
 thousand troops actually in the city. Anchored in 
 the river were two vessels of war, a small schooner 
 named the Carolina, and a ship the Louisiana ^xi^\\h.^x. 
 
1 88 General Andrezu Jackson. 
 
 of them manned. Captain Patterson and a few other 
 naval officers were at hand, rendering zealous and 
 skillful service, and ready for any task the general 
 might assign them. This was the force actually 
 present in the city on the 14th of December, 1814. 
 
 General Coffee with his little army from Pensacola, 
 had been for three or four weeks struggling along 
 over roads nearly impassable, streams swollen be- 
 yond fording, and with forage so scarce that he 
 feared to lose all his horses by mere starvation. 
 Three hundred men, out of his three thousand, were 
 sick with fever, dysentery and exhaustion, but he 
 was moving slowly toward the Mississippi River, 
 and reached it finally at Baton Rouge, one hundred 
 and thirty miles above New Orleans. General 
 Carroll also was floating down the river from 
 Tennessee, with two thousand volunteers, and one 
 musket for every ten of them. Happily, on the way 
 he overtook a fiat-boat load of government muskets, 
 which enabled him to put a Aveapon in the hands 
 of every soldier, and to give them a kind of drill 
 every day, on the roofs of their fiat-boats. They 
 owed this good fortune to the intelligent and 
 patriotic zeal of a Natchez merchant, Mr. Thomas 
 L. Servoss, who had been to New York on business 
 and learned something of the formidable preparations 
 of the enemy against New Orleans. Full of a sense 
 of the danger, he urged the captain of the flat-boat 
 carrying the muskets to hasten along without stop- 
 ping to trade at the river towns, and thus the boat 
 reached the lower Mississippi in time to arm 
 General Carroll's regiments. 
 
 Two thousand Kentuckians were also descending 
 
proclamation of Martial Lazo. 189 
 
 the Mississippi, with a few rifles among them, but 
 pitifully destitute of blankets, tents and equipage. 
 General John Adair, indeed, informs us that all they 
 had in the way of equipage was '' a cooking kettle 
 to every eighty men." 
 
 Such, then, were the means at General Jackson's 
 disposal, on the 14th of December — twenty-five hun- 
 dred miscellaneous and inexperienced troops in the 
 city, four thousand more within ten days' march, 
 six gun-boats on Lake Borgne ; two armed, unmanned 
 vessels anchored in the river ; a small garrison of 
 regular troops at Fort St. Philip, at the well-known 
 bend of the Mississippi ; another small body at a for- 
 tified post between the two lakes. Most of the able 
 bodied men, black and white, in the Delta, were 
 laboring to obstruct the bayous. The citizens gen- 
 erally, being all vigorously employed, were full of 
 confidence and resolution. 
 
 On the i6th of December, public confidence was 
 still further strengthened by the proclamation of 
 martial law. This converted New Orleans into a 
 camp and all the citizens into soldiers. Rigorous 
 military discipline was enforced, and the entire pop- 
 ulation was brought under its iron rule. One over- 
 mastering mind now controlled everything and 
 everybody. Every one seemed to feel the grip of 
 the Jacksonian hand upon his shoulder. The effect 
 was electric and universal. All timidity vanished ; 
 all discord was harmonized ; all rivalry was effaced. 
 Public confidence rose to the highest pitch. Gen- 
 eral Jackson was believed to be absolutely invinci- 
 ble, and this universal belief was equal to a rein- 
 forcement of many thousand men. Verily, "■ The 
 
IQO Ge7ieral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 hero conquers by his presence ; because his arrival 
 changes the face of affairs." 
 
 Immeasurably fortunate it was that such confi- 
 dence was reposed in General Jackson, for dangers 
 were close at hand which nothing but such confi- 
 dence in the commanding general could enable the 
 defenders of New Orleans to face unflinchingly. 
 
Arrival of the British. 191 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF THE BRITISH — CAPTURE OF THE AMER- 
 ICAN GUN-BOATS ON LAKE BORGNE — PICKETS AND 
 SENTINELS CAPTURED. 
 
 Let us now see how it has fared with the 
 formidable expedition that was so confidently 
 advancing to the capture of New Orleans. 
 
 On December seventh, 18 14, after a prosperous 
 sail of fifteen days, the British fleet made Ship 
 Island, forty-five miles from General Jackson's head- 
 quarters, and cast anchor as near the entrance of 
 Lake Borgne as the pilots dared to venture. It had 
 not been intended to attempt the ascent of the 
 Mississippi River, which, indeed, without steamers, 
 would have been impossible. The plan was to get 
 the attacking army across Lake Borgne and Lake 
 Pontchartrain, spacious but shallow bays, supposed 
 by the English to be wholly undefended. 
 
 Here the agreeable part of this expedition ended. 
 It was a picnic no more. For all hands there was 
 nothing now but a deadly conflict with the difficul- 
 ties and perils either not foreseen at all, or foreseen 
 most imperfectly. 
 
 As the greater ships could go no farther, three 
 days were spent in transferring the troops from the 
 larger to the smaller vessels, with the supplies they 
 needed for immediate use ; an operation that tasked 
 severely the resources of the fleet and the endurance 
 of the men. At length, December thirteenth, these 
 
ig2 General Andrezv Jackson. 
 
 lighter vessels deeply laden, thirty in number, hoisted 
 anchor and entered Lake Borgne, all hands still 
 counting upon taking the city by surprise. 
 
 This delusion was soon dispelled. The lookouts 
 reported six ugly-looking gun-boats lying at anchor 
 in one of the lake passes, evidently prepared for 
 resistance. Admiral Cochrane gave the signal for 
 the large vessels to come to anchor and the smaller 
 ones to chase, which was done ; but Lieutenant 
 Jones, commanding the gun-boats, hoisted sail in a 
 leisurely way, and soon led the pursuers to a part 
 of the lake where, one after the other, they ran 
 aground. 
 
 It was now evident that nothing farther could be 
 done against New Orleans until the attacking party 
 had absolute control of Lake Borgne. Either the 
 American gun-boats must be taken, or the expedi- 
 tion must seek access by another pathway. Admiral 
 Cochrane did not hesitate a moment, but pro- 
 ceeded in the British method of taking the bull by 
 the horns. He collected fifty men-of-war's boats, 
 placed a small cannon in the bow of most of them, 
 and called for volunteers. At daybreak the next 
 morning, the fleet of boats, with twelve hundred 
 men on board of them, got under way and rowed 
 toward the gun-boats, which were then about ten 
 miles distant. It was a calm, breathless day. Owing 
 to the dead calm, it was impossible to make sail ; so 
 nothing remained for Lieutenant Jones but to anchor 
 his vessels in line and await the attack of this 
 formidable force. The gun-boats made all the 
 resistance possible for an hour and forty minutes. 
 Several of the English boats were sunk; others 
 
Arrival of the British. 193 
 
 were injured and obliged to abandon the fight. 
 After an hour's fierce exertion, a large number of 
 the English boats succeeded in reaching and 
 grappling the American vessels, and while the 
 British marines kept up a rapid fire of musketry, the 
 sailors, cutlass in hand, leaped upon the decks of the 
 American boats and overpowered their crews by 
 the weight of numbers. 
 
 The severest conflict was on board the vessel of 
 Lieutenant Jones, which was somewhat larger than 
 the rest of the American fleet. Captain Lockyer, 
 who commanded the British, observing that it bore 
 the pennant of the commodore, placed himself 
 alongside and sprang on board the vessel, followed 
 by his crew. A desperate fight ensued. The 
 Americans, though outnumbered, fought with the 
 traditional valor and prowess of American seamen ; 
 but the British were equally brave, and in much 
 greater force. Captain Lockyer received several 
 wounds ; but soon he was joined by sufficient 
 numbers to overpower Lieutenant Jones and his 
 resolute men. This was the last of the gunboats to 
 surrender. Captain Lockyer reported his loss to be 
 seventeen killed and seventy-seven wounded. On 
 the American side the loss in killed and wounded 
 was sixty, and among the wounded were all the 
 gun-boat commanders, except one. 
 
 The English were now masters of Lake Borgne. 
 Their victory over the gun-boats had been so com- 
 plete that not a man escaped to tell the tale. The 
 firing had been heard, however, by inhabitants of 
 the desolate shore, and the news had reached Gen- 
 eral Jackson in a few hours. 
 
194 General A^idrew Jackson. 
 
 The British fleet again weighed anchor, hoping to 
 sail within easy reach of New Orleans without 
 further opposition. But before they had been 
 many hours on the voyage, the larger ships began 
 to run aground. One after another they stuck fast 
 in the mud and could go no further. The troops on 
 board of them were transferred to smaller vessels, 
 and as these stuck in their turn, the operation of trans- 
 ferring]the troops to still smaller vessels was repeated, 
 until, toward the close of the day, the lightest vessel 
 in the fleet had run aground, and New Orleans 
 was yet forty miles distant. A portion of the sol. 
 diers were then transferred to the small boats, and 
 the voj^age was continued by means of oars. The 
 situation now became distressing. Drenching rains 
 poured down during the day, and at night benumb- 
 ing frosts forbade sleep. Some of the negroes who 
 yielded to drowsiness after the troops landed on 
 ^Pine Island, froze to death in their sleep. After due 
 consideration of all the circumstances environing the 
 situation, it was determined to collect the whole 
 army on Pine Island, preparatory to crossing over 
 to the main land. 
 
 It would be difficult to imagine a more dismal 
 place than this low, swampy island, with only a few 
 acres of firm ground at one end of it. A British 
 officer, who accompanied the expedition and wrote 
 a history of its adventures, described Pine Island as 
 " the abode of wild ducks and apparently the winter 
 resort of torpid alligators." To this miserable 
 island the British army was gradually brought, in 
 the course of the next five days. The sufferings of 
 the troops from fatigue, cold, wet and hunger, were 
 
Arrival of the British. 195 
 
 well nigh unendurable, yet not a murmur or com- 
 plaint was heard. From General Keane, who was 
 then in command of the army, to the youngest 
 drummer, all indulged in the confident hope of 
 soon finding rest and luxury in the opulent city of 
 New Orleans. 
 
 It seems also that some renegades from the city 
 reached Pine Island, who assured the British officers 
 that New Orleans was practically defenseless. The 
 principal people, they said, had long ago abandoned 
 the city, and those who remained would welcome 
 the coming of the British troops. They expatiated 
 also upon the immense wealth gathered in the 
 town, which, in the course of a day or two, would 
 become the easy prey of the British army. 
 
 It required five days of heroic exertion and endur- 
 ance before the last of the troops reached Pine 
 Island. Another day was spent in organizing the 
 force into battalions and brigades, and in preparing 
 an advanced corps of sixteen hundred men. It was 
 not until the morning of December 22nd, that this 
 select band of pioneers embarked once more on 
 board the boats, now headed for a bayou leading 
 out of Lake Pontchartrain to a point about ten 
 miles below the city. This bayou, which was then 
 called the Bayou de Catiline, is now known by the 
 name of Bienvenue. The approach was exceedingly 
 well chosen — was, perhaps, the best which that 
 amphibious region then afforded. At midnight the 
 fleet of boats cast anchor near the entrance of the 
 bayou. There, a day or two before, two British 
 spies had discovered a picket of eight white men 
 and three mulattoes, posted by general Villere, of 
 
196 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackson. 
 
 the Louisiana militia, for the sole purpose of keep- 
 ing a lookout for the enemy's approach. In order 
 that the approach of the British might not be made 
 known to General Jackson, it was necessary to cap- 
 ture this picket without letting one man escape ; 
 and as every man on the post was sound asleep, the 
 operation was performed with the greatest ease. This 
 capture accomplished, the flotilla resumed its course, 
 and about nine o'clock landed safely, without discover- 
 ing one other sign of human life, at the head of the 
 bayou Bienvenue. 
 
 The ground now occupied by the advance corps 
 of sixteen hundred men, was little better than a vast 
 swamp, covered with tall reeds, and with a few trees 
 growing along the banks of the bayou ; but here it 
 was that the troops were expected to remain until 
 the boats could return to Pine Island and bring up 
 the remainder of the force. But now, as we are 
 told by the British narrators, the American rene- 
 gades, who were serving them as guides, repeated 
 their assurances that the city of New Orleans was 
 defenseless, and that the British soldiers had but to 
 show themselves to be joined by the great mass 
 of the population. Moreover, the situation was 
 extremely unpleasant, and the position incapable of 
 defense if attacked by an enemy familiar with the 
 region. The commanding officer, therefore, deter- 
 mined to advance and to work his way, with the 
 assistance of his native guides, across the marsh to 
 the narrow strip of cultivated land a mile wide 
 which borders the Mississippi River. 
 
 As soon as this resolution was formed, the boats 
 were dismissed and the advanced corps entered upon 
 
Arrival of the British. 197 
 
 a difficult march of several hours, sometimes wading, 
 sometimes leaping a wide ditch, sometimes obliged 
 to halt and throw across a deep place a rough 
 bridge. Gradually the marsh became firmer, 
 groves of orange trees presented themselves, and 
 finally two or three houses appeared in view. As 
 soon as they came in sight of a house, a rush was 
 made to surround it, capture the inmates, and so 
 prevent an alarm. They succeeded in this vital 
 object, except in a single instance. "" One man," 
 says a British officer, " contrived to effect his 
 escape." 
 
 This one man was no other than young 
 Major Gabriel Villere, the son of General Villere, 
 upon whose plantation the British came to a halt. 
 From that moment the troops became careless about 
 their prisoners, and the British officers endeavored 
 by covering as much ground as possible with their 
 small force, to give a magnified idea of their num- 
 ber. Quickening their pace, too, they soon struck 
 the main road leading directly to the city, only 
 eight miles distant. Protected now, as they thought, 
 by the Mississippi on one side, and on the other side 
 by the marsh from which they had just emerged, 
 they deemed it an excellent place to halt, dine and 
 encamp for the night. They had no thought of an 
 attack by the Americans. It had become an adage 
 in the British armies that *' The Americans never 
 attack." The events of the war thus far had inspired 
 the British with contempt for the American com- 
 manders. So General Keane resolved to refresh his 
 v/orn-out soldiers with food and rest, and capture 
 New Orleans at daylight the next morning... 
 
198 General Andreiv Jackson. 
 
 The invaders had a merry dinner, and the after- 
 noon was passed in repose ; nevertheless, every pre- 
 caution was taken against surprise, and things were 
 so ordered that the entire force could be at once 
 rallied to repel an attack. The evening meal was 
 still more merry. One of the British chaplains, 
 (the Rev. George Robert Gleig,) who wrote under 
 the name of '' The Subaltern," has placed on record 
 a pleasing account of the manner in which he and 
 his comrade passed the first hour of the evening. 
 
 "My friend and myself," he says, ** had been sup- 
 plied by our soldiers with a couple of fowls, taken 
 from a neighboring hen-roost, and a few bottles of 
 excellent claret borrowed from the cellar of one of 
 the houses near. We had built ourselves a kind of 
 a hut by piling together in a conical form a number 
 of large stakes and broad rails torn up from one of 
 the fences, and a bright wooden fire was blazing 
 at the door of it. In the wantonness of triumph, 
 too, we had lighted some six or eight wax candles, 
 a vast quantity of which had been found in the store- 
 rooms of the chateaux hard by, and having done 
 ample justice to our luxurious supper, we were sit- 
 ting in great splendor and in high spirits." 
 
 This was very pleasant indeed, and the whole 
 camp presented similar scenes of comfort and hilar- 
 ity. However, **one man contrived to effect his 
 escape," young Major Villcre, as before remarked. 
 He was confined in a room of his father's house. 
 He was in an agony of apprehension as to the fate 
 of New Orleans, unless news of the enemy's 
 approach could be carried to General Jackson. He 
 was a splendid young Creole — brave, patriotic and 
 
Arrival of the British. 199 
 
 a famous athlete. He was so surrounded by British 
 officers and soldiers that it seemed as though any 
 attempt to escape would certainly be fatal. Never- 
 theless, he resolved to make an effort to break from 
 his captors and carry the news of their proximity 
 to his commanding" general. Suddenly he leaped 
 through the window of the room in which he was 
 confined, ran across the yard full of red-coats, 
 cleared a picket fence at a bound, and made for the 
 woods. Colonel Thornton, comprehending the con- 
 sequences of his escape, shouted to the soldiers: 
 " Catch him, or kill him !" But they neither caught 
 nor killed him. He reached the woods, though 
 pursued by forty or fifty of the troops. Many were 
 his adventures during the next few hours, which in 
 after years he loved to relate to his friends on the 
 piazza of the very house in which he had been cap- 
 tured and from which he escaped. Of one of those 
 incidents the gallant major could never speak with- 
 out tears. Being closely pressed by his pursuers, 
 he was about to climb a large live oak for the purpose 
 of concealing himself in its branches, when his atten- 
 tion was attracted by a low whine at his feet. He 
 looked down and saw his favorite setter crouched 
 on the ground, and piteously and appealingly look- 
 ing up at him in a way which expressed the dog's 
 deathless devotion to his master. A great pang 
 smote his heart, for he at once saw that the affec- 
 tionate setter must be killed, or that he must be cap- 
 tured. Had it been only a question of his own 
 personal safety, he would have spared the dog and 
 accepted capture. But the fate of New Orleans 
 was at stake, and to secure the city's safety the set- 
 
200 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 ter must die. Seizing a club, he killed the faithful 
 dog, concealed the body, climbed the tree, and was 
 not discovered, although his pursuers swarmed 
 around him. They pressed on in pursuit of him, 
 and when their voices could no longer be heard, he 
 came down from his hiding place and continued his 
 flight. Luckily, he overtook a friend, who was also 
 hurrying toward the city with the news. Together 
 they obtained a boat, rowed across the river, pro- 
 cured swift little Creole ponies, and finally reached 
 General Jackson's headquarters at half-past one in 
 the afternoon, about half an hour after the British 
 troops had come to a halt eight miles below. 
 
Jackson s Terrific Night Attack. 20 1 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON LEARNS THAT THE BRITISH HAVE 
 ARRIVED — *'WE MUST FIGHT THEM 
 TO-NIGHT !" — HIS TERRIFIC 
 NIGHT ATTACK. 
 
 On arriving at General Jackson's headquarters, 
 Major Villere and his companions were at once 
 shown into the general's* presence. Major Viller6 
 told his story, and General Jackson learned that the 
 British were at the Viller6 plantation, only eight 
 miles from the spot where he stood, whereupon he 
 said, with prodigious emphasis : 
 
 " By the Eternal, they shall not sleep on our soil !" 
 
 He then pointed to the sideboard, in the polite 
 fashion of the time, took a sip of wine with them, and 
 then turning to his staff, uttered the well known 
 words : 
 
 " Gentlemen, the British are below. We must 
 fight them to-night." 
 
 There spoke the hero, the fittest man. The tri- 
 umph of the terrible New Orleans campaign was 
 there and then made sure. 
 
 General Jackson prepared and dispatched orders 
 to every corps in and near the city, directing them 
 to break up their camps and march to the positions 
 assigned them, all of which were just outside the 
 city on the road to the Viller6 plantation. He sent 
 for Commodore Patterson of the navy, and requested 
 him to get the little Carolina ready to weigh anchor 
 
202 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 and drop down the river. These preliminaries 
 arranged, he had an hour at his own disposal, for 
 some of the troops were three or four miles dis- 
 tant, This interval he improved by taking a 
 few tablespoonfuls of boiled rice and half a cup 
 of coffee, the only food he tasted that day. Having 
 finished this repast, he lay down on a sofa in the 
 office and dropped into a doze. What other man 
 could have slept on such an occasion ? The old hero 
 knew that a little sleep was necessary to enable him 
 to go through the coming ordeal, and " By the 
 Eternal," he took it, and* it was the last sleep he 
 had for seventy hours. 
 
 A little before three o'clock he mounted his 
 horse, rode to the lower part of the city, and took 
 his stand on the site of the present Branch Mint 
 building, then occupied by Fort St. Charles, one of 
 the primitive defenses of the city. Before the 
 gates of the fort he reined in his horse and 
 remained until every corps had passed by to its 
 appointed station, each halting a moment to receive 
 precise orders as to its position at the rendezvous. 
 Behind the general were his six aides-de-camp. The 
 troops that passed him were these : 66 marines ; 22 
 artillery men, wuth their two six-pounders; two 
 regiments of regular troops, 796 in number ; the 
 uniformed companies of the city, numbering 287 
 men ; a battalion of 210 colored troops ; 18 Choctaw 
 Indians ; General Coffee's Tennessee brigade of 
 mounted riflemen, 563 men ; a local mounted rifle 
 company, 62 in number ; and 107 mounted Missis- 
 sippians. Total, 2,131. 
 
 The old people of New Orleans, as long as they 
 
Jacksoiis Terrific Night Attack. 203 
 
 lived, loved to relate the events of that afternoon, 
 particularly the departure of the troops. The win- 
 dows were filled with ladies, who waved their hand- 
 kerchiefs as the men marched by, and they recog- 
 nized husbands, fathers and brothers. During- the 
 excitement of the departure, every face wore an 
 expression of cheerful confidence, but when at last 
 all had gone, and no uniformed men were seen in 
 the streets, no riding by of aids, no drill in the 
 public squares, no sound of bugle or drum, then the 
 women and children and old men left behind, real- 
 ized all the seriousness of the situation. A band of 
 ladies, who were sewing for the soldiers, sent a mes- 
 senger to General Jackson, asking what they were 
 to do in case the city was attacked. 
 
 " Say to the ladies," was his reply to the messen- 
 ger, " not to be uneasy. No British soldier shall 
 enter the city as an enemy, unless over my dead 
 body." 
 
 By four o'clock the last corps had passed by the 
 general, who, however, still lingered in front of the 
 old fort. He was apparently waiting for some- 
 thing. He occasionally cast a look toward the 
 Carolina^ still anchored in the stream. He attached 
 much importance to the part she was to play in the 
 coming event. It was not until he saw her at last 
 hoist her anchor and float down the rapid stream, 
 that the commander-in-chief, followed by his staff, 
 rode down along the levee road by which the 
 troops had gone. 
 
 Those who saw General Jackson as he thus rode 
 to battle, never forgot the spectacle. He was one of 
 the finest horsemen that ever sat in a saddle. His 
 
204 General And^^ew Jackson. 
 
 heart was on fire with patriotism, and his soul was 
 aglow with the joy of coming conflict. The long 
 awaited hour had come when, with an army under 
 his own command, he was to meet the foe that from 
 boyhood he had yearned to encounter. With his 
 patriotic mind thus inspired, with his resolute soul 
 thus animated, he rode to meet the invaders as the 
 conqueror rides, with the light of battle on his brow 
 and the assurance of victory in his dauntless heart. 
 As one of his contemporaries said : *' A great 
 silence enveloped him, and his companions looked 
 upon him with awe." 
 
 He arrived about half-past four at the Rodriguez 
 canal, which formerly cut the plain between the 
 Cypress swamp and the river. This line was two 
 miles from the British pickets, and the orders were 
 not to go beyond it, and to avoid everything which 
 could attract the enemy's attention. 
 
 At five o'clock, while there was still a little day- 
 light, Inspector-General Hayne, of South Carolina, 
 with a hundred horsemen as an escort, made a 
 rapid reconnoissance of the British position, and 
 then as rapidly returned. He estimated their 
 strength at two thousand. He had the pleasure of 
 reading a printed bill stuck upon many of the plan- 
 tation fences, which read as follows : 
 
 " Louisianians ! Remain quiet in your houses. Your slaves 
 shall be preserved to you, and your property respected. We 
 make war only against Americans. 
 
 " John Keane, General Commanding. 
 
 " A. J. Cochrane, Admiral." 
 
 A negro was overtaken by the horsemen with 
 
Jackson s Terrific Nig Jit Attack. 205 
 
 printed copies of this proclamation in his pocket, in 
 Spanish and in French. By the time the inspector- 
 general returned it was quite dark, and the British 
 watch-fires, blazing freely all over the narrow 
 plain, revealed their position to the American forces 
 as conveniently as if they themselves had ordered 
 the illumination. By six o'clock, General Jackson 
 had issued his final orders. Coffee, with his rifle- 
 men and the other mounted men, was to march 
 across the plain to the Cypress Swamp, turn down 
 toward the enemy, and keep them close ta the river. 
 When this movement was in a good state of for- 
 wardness, and the Carolina had come to anchor 
 opposite the British camp and close in shore, the 
 rest of the troops were to march directly and rapidly 
 upon the enemy. The signal of attack was to come 
 from the Carolina. Not a shot was to be fired, nor a 
 sound uttered, until the first gun of her broadside 
 was heard. 
 
 It required nearly an hour for the commodore to 
 get his little vessel anchored just where he wanted 
 her, and even that scarcely gave General Coffee 
 time enough to perform his five-mile march, dis- 
 mount his men and get near enough to respond to 
 the signal. 
 
 All this elaborate and long-continued preparation 
 was completed without in the least alarming the 
 British pickets. Their whole army had enjoyed an 
 ample and even a luxurious repast. Some of them, 
 as we have seen, were seated in their huts sipping 
 the claret taken from the neighboring houses, in the 
 light of half a dozen wax candles. Some of the men 
 were already asleep ; others were preparing for their 
 
2o6 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackson. 
 
 beds. To quote again the language of '' The Subal- 
 tern : 
 
 " We were sitting in great splendor and in high 
 spirits at the entrance to our hut, when the alarm of 
 an approaching schooner was communicated to us. 
 With the sagacity of a veteran, Grey instantly 
 guessed how matters stood. He was the first to hail 
 the suspicious stranger, and on receiving no answer 
 to his challenge, he was the first to fire a musket in 
 the direction of her anchorage. But he had scarcely 
 done so when she opened her broadside, causing the 
 instantaneous abandonment of fires, viands and mirth 
 throughout the bivouac." 
 
 Thus the attack was begun. The broadside of 
 grape and canister from the Carolina, laid prostrate 
 upon the plain, as some authorities give it, a hun- 
 dred British soldiers. She continued to fire into the 
 darkness with cannon and musketry, without know- 
 ing aught of the effect of her fire, and ceased only 
 when the flash and noise of the battle showed that 
 no enemy was within her reach. For the space of 
 ten minutes after she began the attack, General 
 Jackson withheld the word for the troops near him 
 to advance. Then he gave it, and each corps 
 marched down toward the foe ; while General 
 Coffee was still making his way across the plain, not 
 near enough yet to join in the strife. 
 
 No one can relate the events of this memorable 
 night. For two hours, there was a nearly continu- 
 ous, confused combat. All sorts of mistakes were 
 made. Men rushing forward to take prisoners found 
 themselves captured. At one time the horses 
 attached to the pieces of artillery, terrified and 
 
Jackson* s TeriHjic Night Attack. 207 
 
 wounded, overturned one of the cannon into a ditch 
 and created a scene of confusion that threatened 
 serious consequences. Major Eaton describes the 
 commander-in-chief as dashing into the midst of the 
 tumult, with the cry, '' Save the guns, my boys, at 
 every sacrifice !" The presence of the general calmed 
 the marines engaged, who, with the assistance of 
 another company, drew the guns out of danger. 
 Early in the fight. Coffee's hunting-shirted Tennes- 
 seeans reached the scene of conflict. Their skill in 
 such irregular combats and the deadly fire of their 
 long rifles enabled them to drive the British whg 
 were opposed to them from their position. But the 
 darkness was so dense that neither the Americans 
 nor the British knew what was going on, except in 
 each company's immediate neighborhood. Both 
 sides fought gallantly. During the engagement, 
 the second division of the English troops arrived 
 and re-enforced the advanced corps. Soon after, 
 the fog from the river became so dense as to compel 
 the suspension of aggressive movements. By ten 
 o'clock, all of the American troops who could be 
 found had been withdrawn from the field and were 
 spread over the plain a mile or two from the scene 
 of conflict. The British, too, had withdrawn some 
 distance below, leaving the actual field of battle in 
 possession of the dead. General Keane officially 
 reported his loss at 46 killed, 167 wounded, 64 pris- 
 oners and deserters ; total, 277. The American loss 
 was: killed, 24 ; wounded, 115; missing, 74; total 
 213. 
 
 When General Jackson gave the order to with- 
 draw the troops, his intention was to renew the 
 
2o8 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 battle at daylight, and to this end he sent a dispatch 
 to the city, ordering the men who remained in and 
 about New Orleans to join him instantly. But, 
 toward midnight, British deserters brought certain 
 information that General Keane had been strongly 
 re-enforced. 
 
 General Jackson was as cautious as he was brave, 
 and at critical times he was as prudent as he was 
 resolute. It did not take him long to see that it 
 would be rash to risk the campaign upon a fight in 
 the open field, between twenty-five hundred raw 
 troops without bayonets, and some thousands of 
 British veterans, well-armed and vigorously com- 
 manded. 
 
 It was ordered, therefore, at the conclusion of a 
 midnight council on the field, to march back at day- 
 break to the old rendezvous behind the Rodriguez 
 canal, there make the best line of defense possible, 
 and await the enemy's advance. 
 
 So far as its consequences can be estimated, Gen- 
 eral Jackson's speedy attack on the invaders was 
 enormously successful. It gave them an exagger- 
 ated idea of the number of his men and of his readi- 
 ness to repel any attack they could make on New 
 Orleans. It in fact paralyzed their movements for a 
 period which enabled him to construct the famous 
 line of breast-works that insured his triumph when 
 the decisive struggle came. 
 
 There was only a mile of firm ground between the 
 river and the swamp. The two men-of-war remaining 
 at their anchorage below the canal, could render the 
 enemy's advance certainly difficult, perhaps impos- 
 sible. If the worst came to the worst the levee 
 
Jackson s Terrific Night Attack, 209 
 
 could be pierced and the plain flooded. To mask 
 the contemplated movements, Colonel Hind's dra- 
 goons were to retain a position between the two 
 armies and do their utmost to veil the movements 
 designed. 
 
 While the general and his officers were settling 
 this plan, the troops were standing in the open field, 
 tired out with long marches and penetrated with the 
 chill of the foggy night. Permission was given to 
 light fires. In twenty minutes the whole plain was 
 lighted up by hundreds of watch fires, every squad 
 of men having their own, and thus conveying to the 
 foe an impression that the American army was far 
 more numerous than it really was. 
 
 The fires were welcome, indeed, to General 
 Coffee's men, few of whom came out of the battle 
 with a whole garment. Many of them were shiver- 
 ing in their shirt-sleeves, having thrown away their 
 hunting-shirts. 
 
 The Rodriguez canal, as it was called, was 
 nothing but an old mill-race, extending across the 
 plain where it was narrowest. It was now partly 
 filled up and grown over with grass. It had been 
 originally cut for the purpose of obtaining water- 
 power when the river was high, but there was now 
 no water in it. Soon after dawn, of December 24, 
 the main body of General Jackson's armv was in 
 position behind this canal, and, a little later, 
 wagon-loads of intrenching tools, besides carts and 
 wheel-barrows, began to arrive from the city. They 
 had been sent for soon after midnight. Now, 
 December 24, 18 14, began the formation of the 
 memorable '' Lines " of General Jackson on the 
 
1 
 
 2IO General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 
 Delta of the Mississippi, which defended the city 
 of New Orleans. The tools were distributed as 
 fast as they arrived. 
 
 " Here," said Jackson, as he looked down upon 
 the scene, '* here we will plant our stakes, and not 
 abandon them until we drive those red-coat rascals 
 into the river or the swamp !" 
 
Pakenham s Vigorous Measures. 211 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 GENERAL PAKENHAM ARRIVES IN THE BRITISH 
 CAMP WITH REINFORCEMENTS — HIS VIGOR- 
 OUS MEASURES. 
 
 Before dark, on December 24th, General Jack- 
 son's Lines were raised to an average height of four 
 or five feet, and were supposed to be thick enough 
 to resist a cannonade ; and so they were, except 
 where a few cotton bales had been used in their 
 construction. The two pieces of artillery, saved 
 the night before by General Jackson's intrepidity, 
 were placed in position to command the high road. 
 There was no sign of the enemy during the day. No 
 alarm interrupted the work for a moment ; because, 
 early in the morning, the Carolina from her anchor- 
 age opposite the British camp, and the Louisiana 
 from an excellent position a mile above, completely 
 paralyzed the foe. The vessels not only com- 
 manded the road along the levee, but also the entire 
 breadth of the plain. Not a regiment could be 
 formed within the range of their guns. The Brit- 
 ish troops were, in fact, besieged. They could do 
 nothing while the daylight lasted but crouch close 
 under the levee, or lie at the bottom of ditches, or 
 find shelter behind huts and houses, or retreat 
 beyond the range of a fire which they could not 
 endure and could not silence. 
 
 This was the day before Christmas. It was the 
 day on which, at noon, in the city of Ghent, the 
 
2 12 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 treaty of peace was signed between Great Britain 
 and the United States. It was precisely at noon 
 when one of the secretaries of the American com- 
 missioners announced to a group of invited guests 
 at their quarters that the peace had been signed. 
 Soon after, Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Clay and the other 
 commissioners entered and confirmed the joyful 
 news, which rapidly spread over Europe. A few 
 evenings after, when the news was announced in 
 the theatres of Paris, the people rose and cheered 
 the United States. If there had then been an 
 Atlantic cable, the men of these two contending 
 armies would at once have become friends. Gen- 
 eral Jackson and General Keane might have dined 
 together at the hospitable abode of Major Living- 
 ston. Indeed, Admiral Cochrane had said, before 
 leaving his ship, that he should eat his Christmas 
 dinner at New Orleans. *' If he does," said General 
 Jackson, on hearing of the remark, " I shall have the 
 honor of presiding at the meal." 
 
 Christmas dawned upon a scene of cheerful 
 activity in the American Lines below New Orleans. 
 The men were at work as soon as they could see, 
 and continued their labor with animated hope and 
 gay alacrity all day long ; and they were assisted by 
 the floating laborers from the city, by the sailors 
 and slaves ; the horses, also the mules, the oxen, and 
 whatever creatures could lift, draw or carry, were 
 all employed in strengthening the American posi- 
 tion against an attack, which might come at any 
 moment. General Jackson had established his head- 
 quarters in a roomy mansion-house two hundred 
 yards behind the Lines, from an upper window of 
 
Pake7t/ia7n's Vigor otcs Measures. 213 
 
 which, above the trees which surrounded it, he 
 surveyed the situation with the aid of an old tele- 
 scope lent him by an aged Frenchman. The men 
 had the feeling of working under their commander's 
 eye. 
 
 " May I go to town to-day, General ?" asked the 
 son, sixteen years of age, of Edward Livingston. 
 He had been complimented with the title of captain, 
 and had worked assiduously with the rest of the 
 young men of the city. 
 
 *' Of course, Captain Livingston," replied General 
 Jackson, " you may go. But ought you to go?" 
 
 The boy made no reply. He blushed, saluted, and 
 went back to his place in the works. 
 
 In the British camp, three or four miles away, 
 Christmas morning broke gloomily, indeed. There 
 was discouragement and discontent, for the position 
 of the army was felt to be erroneous, and many of 
 the officers thought it beyond rectification. But in 
 the course of the morning an event occurred that 
 completely restored their former confidence. This 
 was the arrival in camp, to take the supreme com- 
 mand, of Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham, and 
 with him, at the head of a numerous and capable 
 stafE, Major-General Samuel Gibbs. The troops 
 greeted General Pakenham's arrival with enthusias- 
 tic cheers, and began at once to cast about for the 
 means of enjoying a Christmas dinner. To some of 
 the officers who had lost comrades in the recent 
 action, the repast had little in it of hilarity or 
 festivity. 
 
 If for a few moments they could forget their 
 situation, a round shot from the little Carolina 
 
 b 
 
214 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 reminded them of their situation and of what they 
 had to do. She managed to elevate her single 
 twelve-pounder to such a degree, and to fire with 
 such accuracy, that a spent ball occasionally struck 
 the side of the barn in which these officers were 
 dining. Once they were alarmed by the piercing 
 shriek of a soldier without, who had been nearly cut 
 in halves by one of the Carolina s balls. 
 
 All day General Jackson sat at his upper window, 
 unable to see the enemy's position and marvelling at 
 their inactivity. It was so obvious to hifn that their 
 only chance was an immediate attack, that he began 
 to fear they might have some deeper scheme for 
 getting around his position than he, a soldier of the 
 backwoods, could divine. 
 
 General Pakenham was not idle. The moment he 
 reached the camp and had received the report of 
 the general in command, he proceeded to examine 
 the position. He determined, first of all, to destroy 
 the Carolina. By the evening of December 26, after 
 twenty-four hours of strenuous exertion, nine field- 
 pieces, two howitzers and a furnace for heating balls 
 were brought from the fleet and placed in position 
 on the levee opposite to where the Carolina was 
 immovably fixed. During the night everything 
 was made ready ; the guns were placed, the shot 
 were heated. 
 
 At dawn on the twenty-seventh of December, the 
 British opened fire on the Carolina. The second 
 shot, white hot, penetrated her side and lodged in 
 the main hold, where the fire could not be reached 
 nor quenched. The contest was fierce while it 
 lasted, but it was over in half an hour. The crew 
 
PakenhawHs Vigorous Measures. 215 
 
 of the Caroli7ta were forced to abandon her, and she 
 blew up with an explosion which shook the earth 
 for miles around and was heard in New Orleans. 
 The Louisiana escaped ; her crew, in boats propelled 
 by oars, towing her to a place of anchorage, close in 
 shore, opposite General Jackson's headquarters. 
 
 The American army lamented the loss of the little 
 vessel to which they owed so much, and experienced 
 a brief discouragement. The English were cor- 
 respondingly elated. They were now for the first 
 time able to form a battalion on the plain, or eat 
 their dinner, or sleep at night, without danger of 
 disturbance from the Carolina s aggravating balls. 
 This gave General Pakenham an opportunity to 
 test the fighting power of the Americans which he 
 was not slow to improve, and which General Jack- 
 son welcomed with the belligerent alacrity that he 
 always displayed when anticipating the festivity of 
 battle. 
 
2i6 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 GENERAL PAKENHAM TESTS THE FIGHTING POWER 
 OF THE AMERICANS — GETTING READY FOR THE 
 
 FINAL STRUGGLE. 
 
 General Pakenham's next operation he styled a 
 reconnaissance . He had not yet seen the American 
 position, and could not see it without the coopera- 
 tion of a large force. The whole of December 27 
 was employed by both armies in laborious prepara. 
 tion for a movement which had now become possible. 
 The crew of the Carolina were stationed in the Lines 
 to serve the heavy artillery. From daylight till 
 dark the whole American force labored at the 
 embankment and the canal, a work of peculiar and 
 always increasing difficulty from the scarcity of soil. 
 The British spent the day in bringing up stores and 
 heavy guns from the ships, as well as field-pieces, of 
 which, before night, they had ten at the front. 
 General Jackson gave them no peace, night or day. 
 As " The Subaltern " says : 
 
 "The Americans harassed our pickets, killed and 
 wounded a few of the sentinels, and prevented the 
 main body from obtaining any sound or refreshing 
 sleep. Scarcely had the troops lain down when 
 they were roused by a sharp firing at the outposts, 
 which lasted only till they were in order, and then 
 ceased ; but as soon as they had dispersed and had 
 once more addressed themselves to repose, the same 
 cause of alarm returned, and they were again called 
 
Ready for the Final Sti'uggle, 2 1 7 
 
 to their ranks. Thus was the entire night spent in 
 watching, or at best in broken and disturbed slum- 
 bers; than which nothing is more trying, both to 
 the health and spirits of an army." 
 
 Soon after dawn, on December 28, General Jack- 
 son was aware that the enemy were about to 
 approach his Lines. He was ready for them. His 
 forces had been greatly increased, his Lines strength- 
 ened. The Louisiana, saved the day before by the 
 skill of her commander, Lieutenant Thompson, was 
 only waiting for the word to let out her cable and 
 swing into position. 
 
 General Pakenham accomplished his purpose of 
 viewing the American position. His army marched 
 in two columns, and presented an appearance as 
 compact and orderly as if on parade, giving the raw 
 troops behind the American Lines, for the first time 
 in their lives, a spectacle of military pomp and cir- 
 cumstance. The muskets of the British troops 
 glittered in the morning sun, and their various 
 uniforms, red, tartan, grey and green, were 
 brilliantly displayed upon the brown stubble of the 
 Delta. The nature of the ground and the situation 
 of the plantation houses were such that the British 
 did not come in view of the American position 
 until they were fully exposed to the American fire. 
 Artillery and small arms began at once their deadly 
 work. The great guns were aimed by the same 
 men that had yesterday manned the Carolina, and 
 they were now assisted by the band of the Lafittes 
 from Barataria. The British officers record that 
 scarcely one cannon-ball passed over their heads or 
 fell much short of their line, but nearly every one 
 
2i8 Ge7ieral Andreiv Jackson. 
 
 struck into the midst of their ranks, causing terrible 
 havoc. Moreover, at the very crisis of the advance, 
 the plantation houses, which had veiled the Amer- 
 ican position, were set on fire, and blazed up as if 
 full of combustibles. This greatly added to the 
 embarrassment and peril of the English troops. 
 While the cannonade mowed down their ranks, the 
 fire of two large chateaux and their villages of out- 
 buildings scorched some of the troops and blinded 
 most of them with smoke. At the right moment, 
 too, the Louisiana had joined in the fray, and swept 
 the level field with heavy shot continuously from 
 nine o'clock till three. 
 
 This movement though styled a reconnoissance, was 
 not so regarded by the British officers who have 
 left a record of it. They expected to sleep in New 
 Orleans that night, but, as " The Subaltern " informs 
 us, before they had got near enough to General Jack- 
 son's canal to form a conjecture of its breadth or 
 depth, the order came for the men to halt and to 
 shelter themselves as best they could. " Long before 
 noon," he says, " all thought of attacking was for 
 this day abandoned, and it now only remained to 
 withdraw the troops from their present perilous 
 position with as little loss as possible." It took all 
 the rest of the day to accomplish this. During the 
 long afternoon, the Peninsula heroes lay low in wet 
 ditches, or crawled away behind fences, huts and 
 burning houses, the cannon-balls occasionally 
 ** knocking down the soldiers and tossing them into 
 the air like old bags." An officer explored one of 
 the elegant houses near their line of march, the hall 
 
Ready for the Final Struggle, 2 1 9 
 
 of which was floored with variegated marble and 
 adorned by two large globes and an orrery. 
 
 '' On entering a bedroom," he remarked, " lately 
 occupied by a female of the family, I found that our 
 advance had interrupted the fair one in her study 
 of natural history, as a volume of Buffon was lying 
 open on her pillow\" 
 
 He also observes that, *' in spite of our sanguine 
 expectation of sleeping that night in New Orleans, 
 evening found us occupying our negro hut at 
 Villere's ; nor was I sorry that the shades of night 
 concealed our mortification from the prisoners and 
 slaves." 
 
 Commodore Patterson reports that the Louisiana 
 was exposed to the enemy's cannonade that day 
 upward of seven hours, during which she fired eight 
 hundred shot, and yet had but one man slightly 
 wounded. His men, he says, were all picked up 
 from the streets of New Orleans, *' and yet I never 
 knew guns better served or a more animated fire." 
 
 The repulse of the British inspired General Jack- 
 son with new ardor in the defense of his post. 
 Besides planting more cannon where this action had 
 shown them to be necessary, and extending his 
 breastworks farther into the swamp, he began a 
 new line of defense two miles nearer the city, in case 
 he should be driven back. He requested Commo- 
 dore Patterson to plant cannon on the opposite bank 
 of the river, and there the indefatigable commodore, 
 aided by Major Latour, established a battery of 
 heavy guns. The streets of New Orleans were 
 searched again and again to man the new works, 
 and the general urged the ladies to examine once 
 
2 20 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 more their houses and to send to the front every 
 musket and pistol and even every flint and ramrod 
 that they could find. Men kept coming in from the 
 upper country without arms and almost without 
 clothes, and there were many already in the Lines 
 who had nothing resembling a weapon except the 
 pickaxe and the spade with which they worked. 
 
 Sir Edward Pakenham called a council of war 
 after the great repulse of the twenty-eighth. Its 
 conclusion was to regard General Jackson's Lines 
 in the light of a fortified place, to be taken by a reg- 
 ular approach. They resolved to construct a line of 
 works parallel to his, at a distance from it not exceed- 
 ing three hundred yards. During the next three 
 days, thirty pieces of heavy cannon were brought 
 up from the fleet with prodigious labor. On the 
 last night of the year 1814, as soon as it was quite 
 dark, one-half the British army marched forward to 
 a line about three hundred yards from that of the 
 Americans, and there they spent the night throwing 
 up a chain of batteries. The night was very dark, 
 and the soldiers were ordered to work in perfect sil- 
 ence. They soon experienced the same scarcity of soil 
 which had induced General Jackson to employ bales 
 of cotton. The English had no cotton within reach, 
 but every storehouse and barn about them was 
 filled with hogsheads of sugar, the crops of the last 
 two years. These were rolled into position in 
 immense numbers, and they gave at least a comfort- 
 ing appearance of strength to the British works. 
 
 New Year's Day dawned slowly upon this novel 
 scene, for a dense fog had overspread all the plain. 
 During the night, a suspicious sound of hammering 
 
Ready for the Final Struggle. 221 
 
 had been heard in the direction of the enemy's 
 camp by the American sentinels ; but after daylight 
 all was silent. As late as nine o'clock, no sound 
 was heard and no movement was perceived. Gen- 
 eral Jackson therefore allowed, for the first time, a 
 brief respite from the intense toil of the last eight 
 days. 
 
 The English, too, were inactive, waiting silent 
 within their works ; but waiting only for the lifting 
 of the fog to open a simultaneous fire from their six 
 new batteries. Suddenly, toward ten o'clock, the 
 fog dispersed, so as to reveal clearly the American 
 position, and even the sun shone forth, diffusing a 
 welcome warmth and brilliant light. 
 
 " We could perceive," wrote *' The Subaltern," 
 " all that was going forward in the American Lines, 
 with great exactness. The different regiments were 
 upon parade, and being dressed in holiday suits, pre- 
 sented really a fine appearance. Mounted officers 
 were riding backward and forward through the 
 ranks ; bands were playing and colors floating in 
 the air. In a word, all seemed jollity and gala." 
 
 He might have added, if he had known the fact, 
 that General Jackson's horse was standing saddled 
 near headquarters, and that the general himself, 
 with a portion of his staff, was about to mount and 
 ride out for a New Year's review of the troops. 
 
 At that moment the whole of the thirty pieces of 
 artillery in the British batteries opened fire upon 
 the regiments so gayly parading. The sky was 
 filled with hundreds of Congreve rockets. Such 
 was the violence of the fire that during the first ten 
 minutes one hundred balls struck General Jackson's 
 
222 
 
 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 headquarters, and it was marvelous that himself and 
 his staff escaped from the building without serious 
 injury to any one. His troops were about ten min- 
 utes in getting back to their guns and opening fire. 
 Then was seen the wisdom of the measures taken 
 during the last three days. Commodore Patterson's 
 battery, on the opposite bank, poured a fearful fire 
 into the very midst of the British position, while 
 the direct fire from Jackson's Lines was maintained 
 with a force and vigor far surpassing that of three 
 days before. Fifty pieces of artillery of large cali- 
 bre were concentrated upon the British position 
 for an hour and a half. The smoke was then so 
 dense that nothing whatever could be seen, and sev- 
 eral of the guns were so hot that it was no longer 
 safe to charge them. 
 
 About noon the order was given to the American 
 batteries to cease firing. Slowly the smoke rolled 
 away from the plain, and the result of the fire was 
 gradually disclosed. While no serious impression 
 had been made upon the American fortifications, the 
 six batteries of the British, which had presented such 
 a formidable appearance in the morning, were almost 
 level with the earth. The guns were all over- 
 thrown. The sailors who had manned them were 
 seen running to the rear, and all over the plain 
 were descried indications that the British troops 
 had again taken to the ditch, and were hiding behind 
 huts and heaps of stubble. 
 
 Those hogsheads of unsalable sugar were the 
 cause of this swift destruction of the British batter- 
 ies. The sugar had afforded no protection whatever 
 against the American fire. The balls went straight 
 
Ready for the Final Struggle, 223 
 
 through the hogsheads, not perceptibly impeded. 
 It had been better if the English artillerymen 
 had been exposed to view without this semblance of 
 defense. On this day, too, General Jackson discov- 
 ered the insufficiency of cotton-bales. They were 
 knocked about by the heavy cannon-balls in an 
 alarming manner, and some of them caught fire, 
 making an intolerable smoke. They were all 
 quickly removed, and their places supplied with the 
 black and spongy soil of the Delta. 
 
 The great superiority of the American artillery 
 fire astounded the British. The unusual skill of 
 American riflemen had long been conceded ; but 
 the English had believed that in an artillery contest 
 the Americans would be no match for them. The 
 discovery that their raw, uncouth foes could shoot 
 almost as accurately with cannons as they could 
 with rifles, had a depressing effect upon the British. 
 They were now, for the first time, seriously and 
 generally disheartened. The spirit of the rank and 
 file was broken. Twice they had marched toward 
 Jackson's Lines only to be frustrated with every 
 circumstance of painful discomfiture, and it was 
 hard to convince them that they were not fatally 
 overmatched. They had nothing to eat but the 
 salt provisions they had brought with them ; the 
 sharpshooters gave them no rest at night, and they 
 were now exposed to a fire of eighteen guns from 
 the opposite side of the river. It was not, as one of 
 the British officers remarked, that the men wished to 
 escape from a disagreeable situation. They were 
 like chained dogs, that see their enemy but cannot 
 reach him, and can only growl and gnash their teeth. 
 
2 24 Genei^al Andrew Jackson, 
 
 This second repulse took place on Sunday, January 
 first. Four days then passed away, with no move- 
 ment on the part of the British which General Jack- 
 son could discern or guess. He was strongly 
 inclined to believe that a soldier of such experience 
 and celebrity as General Pakenham would not make 
 a third attempt to accomplish the impossible. He 
 even wrote to the Secretary of War that, in his 
 opinion, the Lines he then held would not be again 
 attacked. Having reached this conclusion and 
 waited four days, he became intensely anxious with 
 regard to General Pakenham's next scheme. He 
 expected him to withdraw from his present false 
 position, and, perhaps, make his appearance sud- 
 denly in some other part of the Delta. 
 
 General Jackson had not forgotten the lessons of 
 war which, while a boy of fourteen, he had studied 
 through his knot-hole in the prison fence at Camden, 
 thirty-five years before. He remembered that a 
 few hours' relaxation of discipline and vigilance had 
 led to General Greene's disastrous defeat by an 
 inferior force of the enemy. He was determined 
 that no disaster should occur to his troops or to the 
 enterprise entrusted to him, through lack of pre- 
 caution on his part. He sent spies in every direc- 
 tion. He watched the enemy's position with 
 unslumbering vigilance. He had men floating 
 down past it in the night, and a few spies succeeded 
 every day in bringing a semblance of news from the 
 British camp. He passed many hours of acute 
 anxiety while appearing to be intent upon nothing 
 but strengthening his Lines, which he firmly believed 
 
Ready for the Final Struggle, 225 
 
 to be impregnable against the force arrayed against 
 him. 
 
 Toward the close of the week it became evident 
 to General Jackson that a more formidable advance 
 of the enemy than he had yet Avithstood was about 
 to be made upon his Lines, simultaneously with an 
 attack upon his new works on the other side of the 
 Mississippi. He believed that this movement would 
 bring on the closing struggle between the Ameri- 
 cans and the invaders, and he was ready for it. 
 
 Meanwhile, the electric news of his success in thus 
 far holding his ground against an expedition so for- 
 midable was spreading through the land, and gradu- 
 ally fixing all minds, in blended hope and apprehen- 
 sion, upon what he and his brave men were doing in 
 the Delta of the Mississippi. 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
226 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 PRELIMINARIES OF THE GREAT BATTLE— GENERAL 
 JACKSON READY FOR THE FIGHT. 
 
 At one o'clock on Sunday morning, January 8, 1815, 
 General Jackson was asleep at his headquarters, in 
 his old-fashioned and threadbare uniform of buff and 
 blue. Precisely at that hour, as the custom was, the 
 troops in the Lines, consisting of half the force, were 
 relieved by the other half, and for a few minutes 
 every man in the army was in motion. All was 
 done in silence. Not the flash of a lantern was per- 
 mitted, nor a sound that could be avoided ; and very 
 soon all was still again. Then a messenger from 
 Commodore Patterson arrived at headquarters. 
 The sleeping general was aroused and listened to 
 the messenger's report. It was to the effect that 
 Commodore Patterson and General Morgan, from 
 personal observations made by them during the 
 afternoon and night, were assured that, while a feint 
 would soon be made by the enemy on General Jacl|L-Y 
 son's Lines, their main attack would be deliverc'ftf 
 against the works on the other side of the riveiS': 
 wherefore. General Morgan requested that rein- 
 forcements should be sent to him immediately. 
 
 '* Hurry back," replied General Jackson, as he sat 
 upon the lounge on which he had been sleeping, 
 *'and tell General Morgan that he is mistaken. The 
 main attack will be on this side, and I have no men 
 
Ready fo7^ the Battle. 227 
 
 to spare. He must maintain liis position at all 
 hazards." 
 
 The messenger, who was B. D. Shepherd, a patri- 
 otic merchant, withdrew and returned with all speed 
 to the other side. General Jackson had patiently 
 considered this very danger, and felt acutely his 
 weakness on the other side of the river ; but, in 
 truth, he had not a man to spare, and if he had had 
 men, he had not weapons to place in their hands. 
 To hold his own Lines and batteries, extending a 
 mile across the plain, he had but about three thou- 
 sand two hundred men, and he expected at daybreak 
 an attack of twelve thousand veteran troops. This 
 [-was the prevailing estimate of the enemy's force at 
 headquarters. 
 
 There was no more sleep for General Jackson. 
 When Shepherd was gone, he looked at his watch, 
 and finding that it was past one, he said to his slum- 
 bering aids : 
 
 " Gentlemen, we have slept enough. Rise. The 
 enemy will be upon us in a few minutes. I must go 
 and see Coffee." 
 
 There was not much to be done in the way of 
 preparation, on the American side, for either officers 
 or men. By four o'clock, every company was at its 
 post in the Lines, very much as usual, for few of 
 the troops yet suspected that the final attack was 
 about to be made upon them. General Jackson 
 and his immediate circle were sure of it, but before 
 he had lain down upon his lounge the evening 
 before, he had performed every act which he could 
 think of to make his preparations for the contest 
 complete. One of his last measures proved to be 
 
2 28 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 of great value. The day before, after finishing his 
 final inspection of the Lines and batteries, he had 
 turned to his companion, General Adair, of Ken- 
 tucky, a recent arrival, and said : 
 
 " Well, what do you think of our situation? Can 
 we defend these works or not ?" 
 
 "• There is one way," replied General Adair, " and 
 but one way in which we can hope to defend them. 
 We must have a strong corps of reserves to meet 
 the enemy's main attack, wherever it may be. No 
 single part of the Lines is strong enough to resist 
 the united force of the enemy. But with a strong 
 column held in our rear, ready to advance upon any 
 threatened point, we can beat them off." 
 
 General Jackson accepted the suggestion, and 
 ordered Adair himself to act with his Kentuckians 
 as the reserve, giving him ample discretion as to the 
 selection of his post. And thus it was that General 
 Adair, at a quarter past four on the decisive morn- 
 ing, with a thousand Kentucky riflemen, marched 
 down to a point fifty yards behind the portion of 
 the works which a deserter, the day before, had 
 correctly informed General Pakenham was the 
 weakest part of the American position. Adair's 
 selection of the spot was one of the fortunate cir- 
 cumstances of the great day. In combination with 
 the deserter's report to the British commander, 
 it resulted in the leading of the main column of the 
 invading army into a trap, from which it escaped 
 only in defeat and with horrible slaughter. 
 
 General Pakenham, too, was up betimes. He 
 rose full of hope. He was supposed to be the ablest 
 commander of his age — thirty-seven — then living. 
 
Ready for the Battle. 229 
 
 He was a handsome, noble, chivalric gentleman, 
 animated by a lofty sense of duty, and as generous 
 as he was brave. He little thought, as he mounted 
 his horse that morning, that the shadow of death 
 was already beginning to envelope him. He was 
 in the saddle at two o'clock, and rode at once to 
 the bank of the river to see how it had fared with 
 the force of fourteen hundred men who were to 
 cross the Mississippi, and make a simultaneous 
 attack on the opposite shore. All had gone badly 
 with them. There was a low stage of water, and 
 eight hours had been lost in dragging boats through 
 a canal, dug by the troops from Lake Borgne to the 
 Mississippi, and launching ttiem into the river. 
 Instead of fourteen hundred men, scarcely five hun- 
 dred reached the other shore, and, instead of get- 
 ting there early in the evening of January seventh, 
 it was daybreak on January the eighth before they 
 stood upon the bank, and they had been carried by 
 the swift stream a mile and a half below the point 
 at which they were to have landed. 
 
 Pakenham heard the story of this mishap, but he 
 could not rectify it. Like General Jackson he 
 thought of the other side of the river with much 
 apprehension ; but he had done all that was possi- 
 ble for it, and he rode away toward the front. He 
 was afterward blamed for not awaiting the result 
 of the attack on the western bank of the river, 
 before beginning the assault on General Jackson's 
 Lines, inasmuch as the issue of the impending bat- 
 tle would perhaps wholly depend on the success or 
 failure of the attack on General Morgan's works. 
 
 At four o'clock in the morning, the main body of 
 
230 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 the British army was alread}^ drawn up in three 
 principal columns of attack. On the high road near 
 the river and parallel with the levee stood a column 
 of light troops, one thousand in number, under Colo- 
 nel Rennie, who were to attack the strong works 
 defending the road. Next to them, two hundred 
 yards distant, was the regiment of praying High- 
 landers, as they were called, under the command of 
 Colonel Dale, who were to go to the assistance of 
 Colonel Rennie if he should require assistance. All 
 these troops were subject to the orders of General 
 Keane, who commanded in that part of the field. 
 Four or five hundred yards beyond the Highlanders 
 was the main column, three thousand strong, under 
 General Gibbs, who were to assail the Lines where 
 they were supposed to be weakest. This column was 
 to be headed by an Irish regiment, the Forty-fourth, 
 carrying fascines to fill the ditch, and ladders upon 
 which to mount the breastwork. Beyond them and 
 close to the Cypress Swamp was a regiment of 
 colored troops from the West Indies. There were 
 various other corps and detachments, some of which 
 were lost in the dense darkness of that foggy morn- 
 ing and did not succeed in reaching their posts. A 
 mile in the rear was the reserve column, consisting 
 of two newly arrived regiments, under General 
 Lambert, who had accompanied them. Altogether, 
 there were about eight thousand British troops 
 under arms that morning in front of General Jack- 
 son's Lines which were defended by three thousand 
 two hundred men. 
 
 The British troops were not in good spirits. Being 
 veterans, they had discovered that the Americans 
 
Ready for the Battle. 231 
 
 were handled by a commander who thoroughly 
 understood his business. They had also learned 
 what deadly marksmen the Americans were, with 
 cannons as well as with rifles. In all their battles, 
 they had never before encountered such destructive 
 fire. So deep was the impression which their 
 encounters with the Americans had made upon them 
 that Colonel Mullens, of the "Forty -fourth regiment, 
 that had been detailed to carry the fascines and 
 scaling ladders at the head of Gibbs's column, said : 
 ** My regiment has been ordered to execution. 
 Their dead bodies are to be used as a bridge for the 
 rest of the army to march over." The lion-like 
 Colonel Dale, of the praying Highlanders, on being 
 asked " what he thought of it," when news of the 
 delay of the attack on the western bank of the river 
 was spoken of by the physician of the regiment, 
 simply handed the physician his watch and a letter 
 and said : " Give these to my wife ; I shall die at 
 the head of my regiment." But General Paken- 
 ham did not share these feelings. He and many of 
 his troops had assisted in driving the French out of 
 the Spanish Peninsula. They had never been 
 defeated. It was inconceivable to him that such 
 troops could be beaten by a horde of American 
 militia, commanded by a general whose name was 
 unknown to the military circles of Europe. He had 
 his lesson to learn, and it was written for him in the 
 blood of brave men, including his own. 
 
 The peculiar darkness of the morning hindered 
 every operation of the British troops and caused 
 some serious errors, delays and omissions. As late as 
 six o'clock. General Pakenham received intelligence 
 
232 General Aiidrczv Jackson. 
 
 that the fascines and ladders had not been taken to 
 the head of the main column. He sent an order to 
 rectify the error; but when the rocket pierced the 
 fog at six o'clock, which was the signal to begin the 
 assault, he was not absolutely certain that the regi- 
 ment assigned to this duty had reached its post. But 
 the signal had been giyen ; daylight was just begin- 
 ning to pervade the mist, and the British columns 
 were slowly advancing. 
 
 At length the heavy fog which had covered the 
 Delta began to yield to the influence of the rising 
 sun. It lifted a little here and there, then settled 
 down again as densely as before, then broke into 
 huge masses, betw^een which distant objects could 
 be discerned. Hundreds of the American troops 
 had been peering into the mist and straining their 
 ears to catch any unusual sound. General Jackson 
 had cast many a look beyond the Lines. Adair had 
 thrust his head above the parapet and gazed. Car- 
 roll and Coffee had taken their turn, but seen noth- 
 ing. About seven o'clock. Lieutenant Spotts of 
 Battery No. 6, nearest the Cypress Swamp, dis- 
 cerned through a rift in the fog, but only for a 
 moment, General Gibbs's massive column of red- 
 coats. They seemed far away and as near to the 
 Swamp as men could safely march. The thunder 
 of Lieutenant Spotts's great gun terminated the sus- 
 pense in every part of the scene of operations and on 
 both sides of the river. It informed every man in 
 both armies that the hour had come. 
 
 The mist closed again and the gun was silent. 
 General Jackson walked along the Lines toward the 
 point that seemed directly menaced, speaking to 
 
Ready for the Battle, 
 
 233 
 
 each corps as he passed: -Don't waste jour 
 ammunition. See that every shot tells. Let us 
 finish the business to-day." Not a word was spoken 
 in reply, for the order imposing absolute silence was 
 still in force. Soon the fog, as the way of the fog is 
 in that region, broke into dissolving masses and sud- 
 denly rolled away, disclosing to the view of the 
 Americans the whole plain, apparently covered 
 with advancing troops, and affording to the sharp- 
 shooters of the backwoods, for the third time, the 
 spectacle of a splendid military pageant moving 
 toward their position. At this moment the band 
 of the Battalion d'Orleans struck up '* Yankee 
 Doodle," changing in due course to other patriotic 
 airs, and never ceased to play until the main action 
 closed. 
 
 The heavy column of General Gibbs was march- 
 ing with perfect steadiness toward the Lines at a 
 distance of perhaps three-quarters of a mile. No 
 one who has seen a heavy column of British 
 troops advancing to an attack can forget the 
 majesty of its appearance or the impression it gave 
 him of seemingly irresistible power. Christopher 
 North spoke truly when he said that the spectacle 
 of a British army, in the full panoply of war, 
 advancing upon its foes, presented a symbol '* of the 
 right hand of the power of God." Let us ^\nq due 
 recognition to brave men. 
 
 As the magnificent column of General Gibbs 
 came steadily on, the Americans awaited it in 
 silence. They saw that it was composed of gallant 
 and determined men, but they did not fear its onset. 
 They keenly felt that the coming battle was to be 
 
 li 
 
234 
 
 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 decisive of the campaign. They had reasonable faith 
 in themselves ; they had absolute faith in their 
 commander, and they welcomed the imminent 
 deadly struggle with grim exultation. They knew 
 they would have terrible work to do. They did it. 
 
The Battle of New Orlemts. 235 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 When General Gibbs's column came within half 
 a mile of the American Lines, the three batteries 
 furthest from the river opened fire upon it — at first, 
 with little effect ; but, as the column came nearer, 
 throwing- balls into the very midst of it, and bring- 
 ing it more than once to a temporary halt. As it 
 came still nearer, the huge cannon balls, as an eye- 
 witness reported, cut great lanes in the column, 
 tossed men into the air and hurled them to the right 
 and left. But it still advanced with little pause and 
 no haste, until it came within range of the sharp- 
 shooters of Tennessee and Kentucky, massed at the 
 very spot toward which it was directing its march. 
 Including Adair's Kentuckians, there were four 
 lines of riflemen, one behind the other, most of them 
 men accustomed from boyhood to depend in part 
 for their subsistence and their safety upon the 
 accuracy of their aim and the rapidity of their fire. 
 At the right moment, when the enemy were within 
 two hundred yards, Carroll gave the word '' Fire !" 
 and at the same moment, as it chanced, Commodore 
 Patterson, from the other side of the river, opened 
 fire with a portion of his artillery. 
 
 The discharge of the small arms from this part of 
 the Lines was as steady, as continuous and as deadly 
 as it could have been from a row of accuratel}^ 
 pointed Gatling guns, and its effect upon the heavy 
 
236 General Aiid7'ew Jackson. 
 
 column of the British was most murderous. Never- 
 theless, it continued its steady, unflinching, even- 
 paced approach, with General Gibbs at its head, 
 until the mounted officers in advance caught sight 
 of the wide ditch in front of the American works. 
 The fascines and ladders were nowhere to be seen. 
 " Where are the Forty-fourth ?" cried an officer. 
 '' If we get to the ditch," he said to his general, " we 
 have no means of crossing !" At this moment Gen- 
 eral Gibbs shouted : "Here come the Forty-fourth !" 
 and a portion of that regiment really was struggling 
 along with ladders and fascines. Relieved by the 
 shout of their commanding general, the column still 
 pressed on, until the foremost rank was within one 
 hundred yards of the ditch. 
 
 But mortal men could do no more ! And there 
 really appeared no motive for going forward, for 
 there was no sign visible to the troops of an 
 adequate supply of the means of getting over the 
 ditch, and still less of scaling the Avorks behind it. 
 Every mounted officer of the advancing column 
 had fallen except the general commanding it. One- 
 half the troops were disabled, and the rest were 
 falling fast with every step they took. The front 
 ranks hesitated, halted, and thus threw the column 
 into disorder. General Gibbs ordered them with 
 passionate earnestness to re-form, but it was 
 manifestly impossible. To the American riflemen, 
 as one of them afterward said, the column 
 appeared to reel like a red ship in a stormy sea. 
 Soon it broke to pieces, and the men ran head- 
 long to the rear, many of them excusing themselves 
 
The Battle of New Orleans. 237 
 
 by saying" that not a ladder or fascine had been 
 brought to the front. 
 
 General Pakenham rode up and cried : " For 
 shame! Recollect that you are British soldiers! 
 This is the road you ought to take," pointing to the 
 American Lines. He soon came up to General 
 Gibbs, who said to him : '' 1 am sorry to have to 
 report to you that the troops will not obey me. 
 They will not follow me." 
 
 Upon hearing this, General Pakenham took off 
 his hat, rode to the front into the worst of the fire, 
 urging on the troops by orders, entreaties and 
 gesticulations. A ball shattered his right arm 
 while it was raised aloft, and it fell to his side. The 
 next moment his horse was killed. One of his 
 aids dismounted from his pony, upon which Paken- 
 ham, as if unconscious of his broken arm, mounted 
 again and followed the column, which was still in 
 retreat, beseeching them to halt and re-form. 
 While he was so doing, a handful of gallant Brit- 
 ish troops made their way to the ditch, plunged 
 across it, and fell as they were striving to climb the 
 slippery breastwork. 
 
 A second time the main column advanced, Gibbs 
 on its right, Pakenham on the left, seemingly 
 still unconscious of his broken arm. They 
 marched at a quicker step than before. As they 
 came within range, a thirty-two pounder, loaded 
 to the muzzle with balls and scraps of iron, 
 poured its contents into the very head of the 
 column, disabling, as it was afterward estimated, 
 two hundred men. .The American riflemen con- 
 tinued their fire with the same deadly effect as 
 
238 General A^idrezv Jackso7i. 
 
 before. Pakenham turned to one of his aids and 
 said : '' Order up the reserve !" then, catching sight 
 of the praying Highlanders, he cried out, waving 
 his hat with his left hand : '' Hurrah ! Brave High- 
 landers !" 
 
 He never spoke again. At that moment a dis- 
 charge of grape-shot struck the group of officers by 
 whom he was surrounded. One of the shots gave 
 him a bad wound in the thigh and killed his horse. 
 Captain McDougal caught his general in his arms, 
 drew him away from the dying animal, and was 
 supporting his head, as he lay upon the ground, 
 when he was wounded for the third time, and was 
 happily deprived of consciousness. They carried 
 him to the rear, placed him under an old live oak- 
 tree, which was standing a few years ago, and there 
 in a few minutes he breathed his last. A minute or 
 two after the fall of Pakenham, Gibbs was mortally 
 wounded, and, almost at the same time, General 
 Keane was wounded twice, although not mortally. 
 The great column of three thousand men, after 
 twice advancing to the charge, disappeared from 
 view, and the Highlanders, who had marched with 
 solid step to their relief, stood helpless in front of 
 the American Lines until five hundred and forty- 
 four of their number had fallen. No braver or bet- 
 ter men ever stepped upon a battlefield, or fell 
 before the fire of a foe. 
 
 The attack at other parts of the line fared no 
 better. Colonel Rennie, posted on the river road, 
 did indeed capture by the headlong rapidity of his 
 assault, the outlying redoubt, but held it only for a 
 moment. Three brave men, Colonel Rennie, 
 
^The Battle of New Or leans. 239 
 
 Captain Henry and Major King, reached the 
 summit of the rampart close to the river, and 
 Rennie cried: "Hurrah, boys, the day is ours!" 
 At that instant, the three heroes fell dead into the 
 ditch below. Their troops were instantly driven 
 from the redoubt, and the whole British army 
 sought safety, some in flight, and more by hiding 
 wherever there was a chance of shelter. 
 
 Of all that host of valiant men only one, Lieuten- 
 ant Lavack, got over the top of the American para- 
 pet unwounded, though with two bullet-holes in his 
 cap. Another officer of the main column, Major 
 Wilkinson, fell mortally wounded upon the summit. 
 The American troops, admiring his courage, carried 
 him tenderly to the rear, where Major Smiley, of 
 the Kentucky reserve, said to him : 
 
 " Bear up, my dear fellow ; you are too brave a 
 man to die." 
 
 "• From my heart I thank you," said the dying 
 hero. " It is all over with me. You can render me 
 a service ; it is to communicate to my commander 
 that I fell on your rampart, and died like a soldier 
 and a true Englishman." 
 
 Lieutenant Lavack was taken alive and unharmed. 
 When he found himself a prisoner, he looked behind 
 him, wondering the troops had not followed. " But," 
 as he used to say, in telling the story, " the two lead- 
 ing regiments had vanished as if the earth had 
 opened and swallowed them up." Lieutenant 
 Lavack was the hero of the hour, and the whole 
 army afterward vied with one another in doing him 
 honor. 
 
 An equally interesting and more touching event 
 
240 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 occurred at the other end of the Lines, near the 
 river. As Colonel Rennie's column advanced to the 
 attack, their bugler, a boy of fourteen or fifteen, 
 climbing a small tree within two hundred yards of ^| 
 the American lines, straddled a limb and continued f 
 to blow the charge with all his power. '* There he 
 remained," says Major Latour, in his history of the 
 campaign,* "during the whole action, whilst the^ 
 cannon-balls and bullets plowed the ground around 
 him, killed scores of men, and tore even the branches 
 of the tree in which he sat. Above the thunder of 
 the artillery, the rattling fire of the musketry, and 
 all the din and uproar of the strife, the shrill blast of 
 the little bugler could be heard, and even when his 
 companions had fallen back and retreated from the 
 field, he continued true to his duty, and blew the 
 charges with undiminished vigor. At last, when the 
 British had entirely abandoned the ground, an 
 American soldier, passing from the Lines, captured 
 the little bugler and brought him into camp, where 
 he was greatly astonished when some of the enthus- 
 iastic Creoles, who had observed his gallantry, 
 actually embraced him, and officers and men vied 
 with each other in acts of kindness to so gallant a 
 little soldier." 
 
 What a singular — what an incomprehensible 
 creature is man, in whose heart are intimately 
 mingled the most terrible passions for vengeance 
 and destruction with the manliest admiration of his 
 foemen's valor and the tenderest sympathy for those 
 whom he has slain in the rage of battle ! 
 
 * Jackson and New Orleans. 
 
1^ 
 
 The Battle of New Orleans, 241 
 
 The battle of New Orleans lasted twenty-five 
 minutes. One-half of the American army did not 
 fire a shot, for the battle was fought at the two ends 
 of the line. During that brief period seven hun- 
 dred British troops were killed, fourteen hundred 
 were wounded, and five hundred were taken prison- 
 ers, or were soon to be taken. On the American 
 side the loss was eight killed and thirteen wounded. 
 Two men were killed in repulsing the column of 
 General Gibbs ; two in the redoubt on the high- 
 road ; four in the swamps, pursuing the colored 
 troops. 
 
 When General Jackson looked over the Lines 
 after the smoke had cleared away, he saw the space 
 in front of Carroll's position, for the distance of two 
 hundred yards, apparently covered with fallen sol- 
 diers. The course by which the Gibbs column had 
 marched, resembled a broad red streak, so closely 
 did the red-coated slain lie together. In conversing 
 upon that glorious and terrible hour. General Jack- 
 son would say : 
 
 " 1 never had so grand and awful an idea of the 
 resurrection as on that day. After the smoke of the 
 battle had cleared off somewhat, 1 saw in the dis- 
 tance more than five hundred Britons emerging 
 from the heaps of their dead comrades, rising up all 
 over the plain, and still more distinctly visible as the 
 field became clearer, coming forward and surren- 
 dering as prisoners of war to our soldiers. They had 
 fallen at our first fire upon them, without having 
 received so much as a scratch, and lay prostrate as 
 if dead until the close of the action." 
 
 The scene had every element of horror that can 
 
242 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 be conceived. Notwithstanding the brillianc}^ and 
 importance of the victory, the prevailing sentiment 
 among the American troops, who were as generous 
 and sympathetic as they were patriotic and brave, 
 during that day and the next, had in it as much of 
 compassion as of exultation. 
 
 But the day was not yet won. By the time 
 General Jackson had walked along the line congrat- 
 ulating the troops upon their success, he began to 
 look across the river with some anxiety. He 
 mounted the breastwork near the levee, with 
 General Adair by his side, and soon discovered that 
 a British column on the opposite shore was advanc- 
 ing vigorously to the attack of General Morgan. 
 He called for three cheers for the American soldiers. 
 While his men were cheering, he saw Morgan's 
 troops abandon their works, and their retreat drew 
 after them the entire force on that side of the river. 
 In other circumstances this mishap might have been 
 fatal, but the strength of the British expedition was 
 broken. General Lambert, upon whom the com- 
 mand of the English had devolved, clearly perceived 
 that it would be impossible for him to hold the 
 western bank of the river, and on the following day 
 he withdrew the troops. Then General Jackson 
 felt a reasonable confidence that he had defended 
 New Orleans. He said to his staff: 
 
 " They may try it again, but my private opinion 
 is they will not ; and if they do, we shall be able to 
 give a good account of ourselves." 
 
 For a time the daring general was all but resolved 
 to take the offensive, and '' drive the British into the 
 sea;" but on reflection he concluded "to let well 
 
The Battle of New Oi^- leans, 243 
 
 enough alone," and quietly but vigilantly awaited 
 developments. 
 
 Ten days later, General Jackson and his staff, 
 from the upper story of their headquarters, were 
 spying the English position three miles below. 
 Nothing seemed changed. But when the veteran 
 General Humbert was handed the spyglass and 
 asked his opinion, he looked at the British camp, 
 and said : *' TJieyre gone I'' ** How do you know ?" 
 asked General Jackson. Humbert pointed to a crow 
 that was flying so close to one of the supposed 
 sentinels as to show that it was only a dummy, and 
 not well enough made to deceive even a crow. And 
 so it proved. They were gone, leaving eighty 
 wounded men, who could not be moved, to ** the 
 humanity of the American commander." These 
 men were all most tenderly cared for, as well by 
 the American soldiers as by the families of New 
 Orleans. 
 
 Upon returning from a visit to the abandoned 
 British camp. General Jackson prepared to lead his 
 victorious army back in triumph to the city they 
 had defended. First of all, he asked Abbe Dubourg, 
 the head of the Roman Catholic clergy in Louisiana, 
 to celebrate a public thanksgiving in the cathedral, 
 '' in token of the great assistance we have received 
 from the Ruler of events, and of our humble sense 
 of it.'' He wrote numberless letters, addresses and 
 reports, in which the services of every corps, and 
 of every man who had distinguished himself, were 
 specially noticed. He concluded his address to the 
 army with these words : 
 
 " This splendid campaign will be considered as 
 
244 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 entitling every man who has served in it to the 
 salutation of his brother-in-arms." 
 
 On the morning of January 21, this glowing 
 address was read to the army, a competent reader 
 being designated for every regiment. Then the " 
 general led the troops back to the city, where the 
 entire population received them with heartfelt 
 acclamations. Two days later occurred the solemn 
 service of thanksgiving at the cathedral, with every 
 circumstance which could enhance the festal and 
 grateful joy of the occasion. In the evening the 
 city was illuminated. For once, discipline was 
 relaxed, while both soldiers and people gave them- 
 selves wholly up to conviviality. 
 
 Meanwhile the people of the United States were 
 wrought up to a high pitch of anxiety with regard 
 to the struggle at New Orleans. The slow mails of 
 that period carried the news of Jackson's night 
 attack of December 23 ; then of the repulse of the 
 British on January first, accompanied by the news 
 of the arrival of General Pakenham with greatly 
 overstated reinforcements. The hopeful ones 
 believed that Old Hickory would defend the city 
 and defeat the invaders ; the desponding ones felt 
 sure that the British force was irresistible, and that 
 it would not only drive Jackson from his defenses, 
 but conquer the whole western country. At last, 
 on February 5, 1815, twenty-eight days after the 
 battle which irretrievably shattered the power of 
 the British expedition, The National Intelligencer, of 
 Washington, gave the great and joy-giving news 
 under the heading, in its largest type : 
 
 
The Battle of Neiv Oideans, 245 
 
 "ALMOST INCREDIBLE VICTORY!" 
 
 Never before had an Administration been so 
 gloriously relieved from such an agony of suspense, 
 or the American people so deeply stirred with 
 gratitude and exultation. The name of Andrew 
 Jackson spontaneously became a beloved household 
 word to the remotest bounds of the Union, and the 
 people rejoiced all over the land with exceeding 
 great joy. When the great news crossed the Atlan- 
 tic, Americans in Europe rejoiced even more than 
 Americans at home. They could once more hold 
 up their heads with national pride. " Now," said 
 Henry Clay, when the news reached the negotiators 
 of peace at Ghent — '* now I can go to England with- 
 out mortification." 
 
 In his account of General Jackson's Southwestern 
 Campaign, Mr. Adams disparages the importance 
 of the victory at New Orleans, while in other por- 
 tions of his history he unconsciously gives ample evi- 
 dence of its immeasurable value to the country. He 
 informs us that a malignant and powerful movement 
 was on foot in the Eastern States to dissolve the 
 Union and form a New England Confederacy ; that 
 in the belief that the British had captured New 
 Orleans, the New England Commissioners were on 
 the way to Washington to impose their terms on^^^^^,..^ 
 the discredited and helpless Government. Under \ 
 date of January 23, 1815, Mr. Adams gives a letter I 
 to a co-conspirator from Timothy Pickering, a few ' 
 years before a Senator of the United States from 
 Massachusetts, and then one of the leaders of the 
 
246 Gene7^al Andreiv Jackson, 
 
 disunion party, in which Mr. Pickering exultingly 
 says : * 
 
 " If the British succeed in their expedition against New 
 Orleans — and if they have tolerable leaders, I see no reason to 
 doubt of their success— I shall consider the Union as severed. 
 This consequence I deem inevitable. I do not expect to see a 
 single Representative in the next Congress from the Western 
 States." 
 
 p Lord Castlereagh, in discussing American affairs 
 ' with the King of France several weeks before Mr. 
 
 Pickering wrote his letter, is reported to have 
 
 said : f 
 
 "Sire, I expect that at this time most of the large seaport towns 
 in America are laid in ashes — that we are in possession of New 
 Orleans, and have command of all the waters of the Mississippi 
 and the lakes ; so that the Americans are now little better than 
 j prisoners at large in their own country." 
 
 Pickering and Castlereagh, and a great deal more 
 in Mr. Adams's eighth volume, show what incom- 
 putable consequences were involved in the result 
 at New Orleans, so far as human prescience 
 could forecast them. Mr. Adams relates that as 
 the emissaries of disunion were on their way to 
 Washington, they were brought to a halt by the 
 news of General Jackson's success at New Orleans. 
 In truth, they instinctively knew that their schemes 
 were frustrated by this unexampled victory, 
 and concealing their nefarious intentions as well as 
 they could, they sneaked back home amid the 
 enthusiastic rejoicings of a victorious and united 
 people. 
 
 * Adams, VIII, 300. t Parton I, 566. 
 
 W 
 
The Battle of Nezv Orleans. 247 
 
 Mr. Adams repeatedly sneers at General Jack- 
 son's generalship, and indulges in much censure 
 and disparagement of his defense of New Orleans. 
 The most competent authorities differ with Mr. 
 Adams. 
 
 " The Subaltern," who wrote so graphically the 
 history of the British expedition against New 
 Orleans, and lived to be ninety-one years of age, in 
 1885 (three years before his death) wrote to his friend 
 General James Grant Wilson of New York, about 
 Jackson's New Orleans campaign, in these words: 
 
 When I look back upon the means which General 
 Jackson adopted to cover New Orleans, and remem- 
 ber the material of which his army was composed, 
 I cannot but regard his management of that cam- 
 paign as one of the most masterly of which history 
 makes mention. His night attack on our advanced 
 guard was as bold a stroke as ever was struck. It 
 really paralyzed all our future operations, for though 
 unsuccessful it taught us to hold our enemy in respect, 
 and in all future movements to act with an excess 
 of caution. The use also which he made of the 
 river was admirable. Indeed, I am inclined to think 
 that to him the generals who came after him were 
 indebted for the perception of the great advantages 
 to which the command of rivers may be turned. 
 And do not let us forget that he had little else to 
 oppose to Wellington's veterans fresh from their 
 triumphs in Spain and the south of France, except 
 raw levies. Altogether I think of Jackson as, next 
 to Washington, the greatest general America has 
 produced.' 
 
248 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 AFTER THE BATTLE — GENERAL JACKSON ARRESTS A 
 JUDGE — THE JUDGE FINES GENERAL JACKSON — 
 THE GENERAL PAYS THE FINE — UNPRE- 
 CEDENTED HONORS. 
 
 When the battle of New Orleans was fought on 
 January 8, 181 5, peace had been concluded at Ghent 
 between Great Britain and the United States, fifteen 
 days. The ship that bore the glad tidings was still 
 on the ocean. It did not seem probable that so 
 powerful an armament as the British expedition would 
 abandon the attempt against the Gulf coast after 
 one failure. In the mind of General Jackson the 
 question was where the next blow would fall ; and 
 as he wrote to the Secretary of War, he was " but 
 too sensible that the moment when the enemy is 
 opposing us is not the most proper to provide for 
 them." 
 
 Therefore, after the festivities at New Orleans on 
 January 21, military duty was resumed, and every- 
 thing went on as before the departure of the hostile 
 army. Martial law was maintained in all its incon- 
 venient rigor. The Lines were still manned by day 
 and by night. The wet and unhealthy camp behind 
 the Lines still consigned many men every day to 
 the hospital and some to the grave. The situation 
 was alleviated as far as possible, and the incredible 
 hardships were borne without complaint, as belong- 
 ing to warfare. 
 
After the Battle. 249 
 
 So passed twenty-nine days after the flight of the 
 enemy. Then Edward Livingston, who had been 
 arranging the exchange of prisoners, returned to the 
 city, bringing news, certain enough for most pur- 
 poses, but indirect and unofficial, that the treaty of 
 peace had been signed at Ghent, fifty-seven days 
 before. The homesick army and the people of the 
 city were thrown into an ecstasy of excitement. 
 Unhappily, the package which the British admiral 
 had received from Europe contained only a news- 
 paper announcement of the intelligence, which 
 neither commander could practically regard. Jack- 
 son at once published an address to the troops, 
 explaining the impossibility of his accepting or act- 
 ing upon a newspaper paragraph, and exhorting 
 them to a patient continuance in duty for a little 
 while longer. 
 
 The address did nothing to soothe the swelling 
 discontent, to which the press soon gave strong 
 expression. The business men detained in service 
 were in a fever of impatience to sell their cotton 
 and sugar and get them loaded on board the depart- 
 ing ships. The legislature sought in various ways 
 to interfere. The French consul, attempting to 
 shield and set free non-naturalized Frenchmen, Gen- 
 eral Jackson ordered him out of the city, not to 
 return until the news of peace was officially pub- 
 lished. He also ordered away all Frenchmen who 
 were not citizens of the United States. Against 
 this order Mr. Louis Louaillier, a distinguished and 
 wealthy member of the legislature, published an 
 able article in one of the newspapers. General 
 Jackson sent an officer and a file of soldiers to arrest 
 
250 General Afidrew Jackson. 
 
 and consign to prison the offending member. Mr. 
 Louaillier's counsel applied to Judge Dominick A. 
 Hall, of the United States District Court, for a 
 writ of habeas corpus in his behalf. The judge 
 granted the petition. General Jackson replied by 
 the loUowing order : 
 
 " New Orleans, March 5, 181 5. 
 Seven o'clock, p. m. 
 " To Colonel Arbuckle, Headquarters Seventh Military Dis' 
 trict : 
 " Having received proof that Dominick A. Hall has been aid- 
 ing 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 arrested. You will be vigilant; 
 the agents of our enemy are more numerous than was expected. 
 You will be guarded against escapes. 
 
 A, Jackson, 
 " Major-General Commanding. 
 " Dr. William E. Butler is ordered to accompany the detach- 
 ment and point out the man. 
 
 A. Jackson, 
 " Major-General Commanding." 
 
 An hour after the reception of this order, Colonel 
 Arbuckle obeyed it, and that very night Judge Hall 
 and Louis Louaillier were prisoners in the same room 
 at the barracks. Other persons of less importance 
 were also arrested for conduct tending to excite 
 insubordination. A few days after. General Jack- 
 son caused Judge Hall to be conducted by " a dis- 
 creet non-commissioned officer and four men " of a 
 cavalry troop, beyond the lines of General Carroll's 
 command and there '* set at libert}^" 
 
 The next day, March 13, sixty-four days after 
 the battle of the 8th of January, arrived from Wash- 
 
After the Battle. 251 
 
 ington a packet giving official information of the 
 treaty of peace and the cessation of hostilities. The 
 glorious news was instantly published by the general 
 officially^ and with it he proclaimed a full pardon and 
 immediate release of all persons who had offended 
 against martial law. The next day he dismissed the 
 volunteers of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and 
 Louisiana, with an eloquent address of Jacksonian 
 warmth and force. 
 
 Martial law having been abrogated, and the civil 
 law having resumed its prerogatives, Judge Hall 
 seized upon the occasion to give a signal proof of his 
 judicial power. He summoned General Jackson to 
 court to answer for his disregard of the writ of 
 habeas corpus. On the appointed day the general 
 appeared in court, attended by a numerous crowd, 
 who were strongly disposed to disturb the decorum 
 of the proceedings. He stood upon a bench and 
 reminded them of the duty and respect owed by 
 all citizens to a court of justice. He declined to 
 apologize to the court or to explain or defend his 
 conduct. He told the judge that in a paper pre- 
 sented the day before by his counsel he had given a 
 full explanation of the reasons for his rejection of the 
 writ and the arrest of the judge. The court had 
 refused to receive the paper, and he had no other 
 defense to present. 
 
 " Under the circumstances," said he, " I appear 
 before you to receive the sentence of the court, hav- 
 ing nothing further in my defense to offer." 
 
 Here was the typical American hero, statesman 
 and citizen. In war, a lion ; in policy, a sage ; in 
 peace, obedient to the law. It would be gratifying 
 
252 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 to be able to add that he was as tractable in disposi- 
 tion as Franklin, and as considerate as Washington 
 in dealing with his fellow-citizens. 
 
 By a very little forbearance and concession on 
 the part of General Jackson, the whole trouble 
 might have been avoided. It should be remem- 
 bered, however, that it is much easier for a person 
 in good health, writing of these affairs under com- 
 fortable circumstances, to exercise a spirit of for- 
 bearance and concession, than it was for a sick com- 
 mander-in-chief, racked with pain, harassed with 
 anxiety and irritated by numberless annoyances, to 
 subordinate his convictions of military duty to the 
 amenities of civil life. 
 
 The judgment of the court was that '* Major-Gen- 
 eral Andrew Jackson do pay a fine of one thousand 
 dollars to the United States." He was borne back 
 in triumph to his headquarters, the horses being 
 removed from the carriage. Upon reaching his 
 desk he sent back an aide-de-camp with a check 
 for the amount of his fine, and there the matter 
 ended for the time. President Madison, who was a 
 weak and irresolute man, did not approve General 
 Jackson's robust proceedings, and requested him to 
 " observe a conciliatory deportment " toward the 
 Legislature and people of Louisiana. The general 
 explained to the Administration his reasons both for 
 proclaiming and for maintaining martial law, to 
 which no formal reply was made, and the disagree- 
 able episode was soon forgotten in the indescribable 
 joy and exultation of the time. 
 
 Nothing now remained to be done but to settle 
 the pecuniary account of the defense. General 
 
After the Battle, 253 
 
 Jackson paid for the immortal cotton bales at six 
 cents a pound, net price of cotton on the day the 
 bales had been taken from the vessel and placed in 
 the Lines. Mrs. Jackson arrived with their little 
 adopted son, and the ladies of New Orleans made 
 much of both. 
 
 General Jackson had a triumphal welcome home 
 from almost every organized body in Western 
 Tennessee. A procession of students, soldiers and 
 citizens met him on his approach to Nashville, 
 where, in the public square and in the court-house, 
 he had an overwhelming reception, to which he 
 responded with his usual simplicity and tact. His 
 neighbors and friends met him near the Hermitage, 
 to which he now returned after an absence of 
 twenty-one months, during which he had broken 
 forever the power of the Creek Indians, prepared 
 the way for the acquisition of Florida, and defended 
 the Gulf coast against the most formidable military 
 and naval expedition which has ever approached 
 the shores of the United States with hostile intent. 
 
 All the world could appreciate the brilliancy of 
 the late campaign ; but to Tennessee General Jack- 
 son had rendered a service so peculiar that it could 
 be realized in all its extent only by her own 
 yeomen, who now, for the first time since the set- 
 tlement of the country, could sleep in absolute 
 security against the savages whom they had 
 displaced. Nothing could ever long disturb or 
 seriously diminish the affection they felt for their 
 heroic benefactor. It was simply true, as was often 
 said in Tennessee, that " the popularity of Andrew 
 Jackson could stand anything." This overwhelm- 
 
2 54 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 ing popularity spread from Tennessee throughout 
 the Union. AH the preceding failures of the war 
 seemed but to enhance the luster of its closing 
 achievement, which restored the Nation's mortified 
 self-respect and healed its wounded self-love. The 
 masses of the people never forgot Old Hickory's 
 transcendant services at New Orleans. Years after- 
 wards, when he was a candidate for the Presidency, 
 the thrilling shout " Hurrah for Jackson!" coming 
 hot from their hearts, attested their appreciation of 
 the work he did for his country in that memorable 
 campaign. 
 
 After four months' rest at the Hermitage, 
 General Jackson made a journey to Washington. 
 The army had now been reduced to ten thousand 
 men, commanded by two major-generals — Jacob 
 Brown, in the northern division, and Andrew Jack- 
 son, in the southern division — both of whom had 
 entered the army during the late war from the 
 militia service. Jackson's visit to Washington on 
 this occasion was in obedience to an order from the 
 Secretary of War, the ostensible object being to 
 arrange the distribution of the southern division of 
 the army, 
 
 Perhaps the real object was to afford the 
 victorious general a national triumph, and the 
 whole journey did indeed resemble a triumphal 
 progress. Escorts of mounted men went out to 
 meet him from every large town, and accompanied 
 him far beyond its borders. At Lynchburg in 
 Virginia there was a grand banquet of three 
 hundred persons, one of whom was the ex- President, 
 Thomas Jefferson, who toasted the Defenders of 
 
After the Battle. 255 
 
 New Orleans in these words: ** Honor and grat- 
 itude to those who have filled up the measure of 
 their country's honor." General Jackson volun- 
 teered a toast : " James Monroe, late Secretary of 
 War." It was a well-chosen sentiment for him to 
 offer, for Mr. Monroe had pledged his whole estate 
 in dispatching the two boat-loads of muskets, the 
 arrival of a portion of which had made it possible 
 to arm in time the volunteers from Tennessee. It 
 was signficant also, because James Monroe was the 
 Democratic candidate for the Presidency, and the 
 election was to take place in a few months. 
 
 At the city of Washington, General Jackson was 
 an unparalleled lion. He seems to have won all 
 hearts by the unexpected gentleness of his manners, 
 and the quiet dignity of his bearing. 
 
 Returning homeward early in 18 16, he made an 
 extensive tour among the Indian tribes, the Creeks, 
 Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws, holding 
 treaties here and there, quieting some claims by 
 money, others by negotiation. He had great suc- 
 cess in dealing with Indians, particularly at this 
 time, when the prestige of recent victory was added 
 to the authority of his rank. In this journey he 
 opened a vast extent of country to pioneers who 
 were anxiously waiting to enter it. Again the sa}^- 
 ing arose thoughout the State that General Jackson 
 never returned home without having done some 
 great thing for Tennessee. 
 
 To complete his felicity, he was now enabled by 
 his salary as major-general to pay off the last of his 
 debts and build a modest house of brick for the 
 gratification of his wife. For his own part, he had 
 
256 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 been well content with his double log-cabin, for as 
 yet he had known in his whole life no other kind of 
 home. About this time, too, his wife having 
 become a member of the Presbyterian church, he 
 built for her an exceedingly small brick church 
 on the Hermitage farm. The general never failed 
 in his attendance at this little church, and it was 
 at his house that the clergymen were usually enter- 
 tained. General Jackson always treated clergymen 
 with respect. His own reverent nature would incline 
 him to do so ; it gratified Mrs. Jackson to have him 
 extend the most generous hospitality to her favor- 
 ite guests ; and he never forgot his revered 
 mother's ardent desire that he himself should become 
 a minister of the Gospel. 
 
 Peter Cartwright, the noted pioneer preacher, 
 relates an anecdote that is characteristic both of him- 
 self and General Jackson. Cartwright was in the 
 habit of preaching very plainly, without regard to 
 the official or social dignity of any of his hearers. 
 His motto was : '' Hew to the line, let the chips fly 
 in whose face they will." On a certain occasion he 
 was to preach in a church in Nashville. The pastor 
 of the church was a time-serving sycophant, who 
 dreaded the Reverend Peter's homespun rhetoric 
 and plainness of Gospel inculcations. Just as 
 Cartwright was about to begin his sermon, he felt 
 some one pull his coat, and heard his fastidious and 
 nervous brother whisper : '* General Jackson has 
 come in !" The hiss of the whisper was admonitory, 
 and plainly said: " Now, Cartwright, be on your 
 good behavior !" Indignant at what he considered 
 an exhibition of unmanly sycophancy on the part of 
 
After the Battle. 257 
 
 ** An x\mbassador of Christ," the old pulpit hero 
 turned to the congregation and roared out : ** Who 
 is General Jackson ? If he don't get his soul con- 
 verted, God will damn him as quick as he would a 
 Guinea negro !" 
 
 The effect of this outburst was overwhelming, with 
 respect to everybody except General Jackson, who 
 stood leaning against a post, in plain view from the 
 pulpit, with a smile of amusement playing over his 
 grim countenance. When church was over, the 
 fastidious pastor predicted that '' General Jackson 
 would chastise the preacher for his insolence." On 
 the contrary, the next day in Nashville the general 
 advanced to meet Cartwright in the street, told him 
 that he was a man after his own heart, that he highly 
 approved his independence, and that " a minister of 
 Jesus Christ ought to love everybody and fear no 
 mortal man." The soldier of the United States and 
 the soldier of Christ had many traits in common, 
 and they became fast friends for life. 
 
 I- 
 
258 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 POLITICAL MANCEUVERING — INDIAN TROUBLES IN 
 FLORIDA — GENERAL JACKSON AGAIN IN 
 
 THE FIELD. 
 
 During the winter of 1816-17, General Jackson 
 had a very interesting and elevated correspondence 
 with James Monroe, who had triumphed in the 
 recent Presidential election. He gave the incoming 
 President much good advice ; urging him, among 
 other things, to rise superior to party feelings in the 
 administration of the government. Mr. Monroe 
 replied in the same lofty strain, and was able to live 
 up to it during his whole Administration. This 
 correspondence had a powerful influence on the 
 fortunes of General Jackson. 
 
 In March, 18 17, after Henry Clay had declined 
 the War Department, Mr. Monroe was about to 
 nominate Andrew Jackson for the same post, when 
 he received from the general a private request that 
 he would refrain from doing so. \ 
 
 As commander of the southern division of the 
 army. General Jackson was chiefly occupied with 
 Indian affairs. He had no very serious trouble with 
 the savages of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia^ 
 for they were clearly within his jurisdiction, and 
 also within his reach. As the year 1817 went on, 
 his attention, and that of the whole country, Avas 
 gradually drawn to the Spanish province of Florida^ 
 thinly inhabited, weakly governed, and furnishing 
 
Indian Troubles in Florida, 259 
 
 unequaled opportunities for irregular enterprise. 
 Its untrodden wilds and everglades became the 
 refuge of runaway slaves, discontented Seminoles 
 and hostile Creeks who had refused assent to the 
 treaty of Fort Jackson. The English Colonel Nich- 
 ols reappeared there and gave fallacious hopes to 
 his late defeated allies. Adventurers from other 
 lands resorted thither upon various pretexts, and the 
 Spanish governor was wholly unequal to the repres- 
 sion of disorder in a province which is to this day 
 the largest State east of the Mississippi River. 
 
 The negro runaways, who had no friends, either 
 white or Indian, English, Spanish or American, built 
 a fort on the Appalachicola, and occupied it with 
 three hundred and thirty-four inmates. A single 
 red-hot shot, heated with difficulty in the galley-fire 
 of a United States gunboat, blew the fort into the 
 air, killed two hundred and seventy negroes instantly 
 and mortally injured nearly all the rest. Only three 
 men escaped from the ruins unharmed. This event 
 destroyed the power of the negroes in Florida, and 
 gave a brief period of repose to the other inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 Strange to relate, the destruction of the negro fort 
 only inflamed the passions of the Seminoles, and 
 excited them to more active hostility. They read- 
 ily obtained supplies both of ammunition and weap- 
 ons from the neighboring Bahama Islands. Fili- 
 busters from abroad misled and excited them still 
 more. In November, 1817, there had been robbery 
 and murder both by whites and red men in the 
 border counties of Georgia and Florida, and a grow- 
 ing alarm had spread through all the region. Some 
 
26o General Andrezu Jackson. 
 
 Georgia militia were in the field. United States 
 troops, under the command of General Edmund P. 
 Gaines, occupied Fort Scott, near the junction of the 
 Chattahoochee and Flint rivers. In Georgia, near 
 Fort Scott, was an Indian village called Fowltown, 
 containing forty-five warriors, whose chief had set 
 up the red war-pole, around which the warriors 
 danced in the evening. General Gaines, on hearing 
 this intelligence, sent for the chief, who refused to 
 come. Then he dispatched a force of two hundred 
 and fifty troops, under the command of Colonel 
 Twiggs, with orders to bring to him these forty-five 
 warriors and their chief, peaceably if they could, 
 forcibly if they must. The detachment reached 
 Fowltow^n just before the dawn of day, November 
 21, i8i7. The warriors fired upon them. The 
 troops returned the fire, upon which the Indians 
 fled, leaving behind them two men and one woman 
 slain, besides several wounded. Colonel Twiggs, on 
 searching the town, found in the house of the chief a 
 red coat of the English uniform, a pair of golden 
 epaulets and a certificate in the handwriting of the 
 British Colonel Nichols that the chief of the Fowl- 
 town warriors had always been a true and faithful 
 friend of the British. Colonel Twiggs remained 
 near the town, which was burned on the following 
 day by the order of General Gaines himself. 
 
 On December i, 1817, an open barge, containing 
 forty United States soldiers, seven wives of soldiers 
 and four little children, was slowly ascending the 
 Appalachicola River, a few miles below Fort Scott, 
 in Georgia. Not an Indian had been seen by the 
 party. Suddenly, as the boat was warping close in 
 
Indian Trotibles in Florida. 261 
 
 shore, past a swamp covered thick with cane and 
 trees, a large party of Indians lying in ambush 
 poured a volley of musketry into the boat, killing or 
 wounding nearly every soldier at the first fire. The 
 savages rOvSe from their ambush, leaped into the boat 
 and completed the massacre, with all the aggrava- 
 tions known to savage warfare, even to the dashing 
 out of the brains of infants torn from their mothers' 
 arms. Only two men escaped unharmed. One 
 woman was spared, who was carried away captive. 
 
 Having tasted blood, the Seminoles raged about 
 the Georgia frontier, killing, destroying and plunder- 
 ing. All Georgia was in terror. Homes were laid 
 waste and hundreds of cattle driven off. Before 
 Christmas, Fort Scott, at the junction of the Chat- 
 tahoochee and Flint, was threatened, and the 
 garrison was short of provisions. 
 
 In Florida, as General Gaines computed, there 
 were but 2,700 warriors, but rumor exaggerated their 
 numbers tenfold, and their hostile proceedings 
 seemed to the people of the Gulf States almost as 
 formidable an outbreak as the one which had pre- 
 ceded the Creek War of 181 3-14. It had also its 
 peculiar difficulties, because these Indians came forth 
 from a Spanish province, a foreign land, and as soon 
 as the work of destruction was accomplished, sought 
 and found protection under the Spanish flag. 
 
 On January 11, 1818, six weeks after the massacre 
 of the barge party by the Seminoles, late in the 
 evening, a messenger from Mr. Calhoun, Secretary 
 of War, reached General Jackson's abode and placed 
 in his hands a dispatch ordering him to the frontier 
 to quell this alarming disturbance, and authorizing 
 
262 General Andrew Jackso7t. 
 
 him to call upon the governors of adjacent States 
 for all the men he needed. Before he slept that 
 night, the general had decided upon his plan of 
 operation, which was to call out his old and well- 
 tried volunteers of Tennessee and Kentucky, and 
 swoop down upon the savage foe, wherever they 
 might be, without regard to boundary lines. 
 
 So thought, so done. That was Andrew Jack- 
 son's Avay. It is doubtful if there ever was a 
 historical character who more instinctively realized 
 that " the flighty purpose never is overtook," or that 
 " the firstlings of his heart" should be '* the firstlings 
 of his hand." The governor of Tennessee, as it 
 chanced, was absent from Nashville and could not 
 be reached. General Jackson ''took the responsi- 
 bility," Eleven days after the receipt of Mr. 
 Calhoun's order he left Nashville with a guard of 
 two companies, amid the acclamations of the Avhole 
 population, and started for Fort Scott, four hundred 
 and fifty miles distant, leaving a thousand of his 
 comrades at the rendezvous nearly ready to follow 
 him. 
 
 Before leaving home. General Jackson wrote a 
 private letter to President Monroe on the delicate 
 matter of boundary lines and the Spanish flag. The 
 substance of it was : Why not seize the whole of 
 Florida and hold it as an indemnity for the out- 
 rages of Spain ? 
 
 " This," he added, " can be done without implicat- 
 ing the government. Let it be signified to me 
 through any channel (say Mr. J. Rhea) that the pos- 
 session of the Floridas would be desirable to the 
 United States, and in sixty days it will be accom- 
 
Indian Troubles in Florida. 263 
 
 plished." What confidence in his ability ! And the 
 results always showed that his confidence was not 
 misplaced. 
 
 Mr. Rhea was an aged member of Congress from 
 Tennessee, and much in the confidence of General 
 Jackson. Now it so chanced that at this very time 
 Mr. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, was 
 entering into negotiations with the Spanish minister 
 for the peaceable acquisition of Florida by purchase 
 or otherwise. To promote this negotiation General 
 Gaines had been ordered to treat the Spanish 
 governor and the Spanish flag with the most scrupu- 
 lous respect. He was not to cross the boundary 
 unless the occasion was irresistibly urgent, and on 
 no account whatever was he to pursue a hostile 
 party into a fortification over which waved the 
 Spanish flag. 
 
 Nevertheless, Mr. Monroe, from a sick-bed sent 
 for Mr. John Rhea, showed him General Jackson's 
 letter, and requested him to inform the general that 
 the President approved of his suggestions. 
 
 General Jackson received this vague reply when 
 he was within a day's march of Fort Scott, and he 
 accepted it as an unequivocal sanction of his pro- 
 posal to seize and hold as much of Florida as he 
 thought best. The Secretary of War had given him 
 large discretion, and this letter, as he always main- 
 tained to his dying day, authorized him to conduct 
 the war absolutely according to his own judgment. 
 This should be remembered in order that the reader 
 may understand the far-reaching consequences 
 which resulted from General Jackson's just and 
 rational interpretation of the authority given to him. 
 
264 General Andreiv Jackson. 
 
 It should also be remembered that he was not 
 informed of the negotiation with Spain for the pur- 
 chase of Florida. 
 
 Thus authorized, and thus imperfectly informed, 
 General Jackson paid not the slightest attention 
 to boundary lines. He attacked the Seminoles 
 wherever he could find them, and he pursued them 
 whithersoever they sought refuge. The rapidity of 
 his movements so forestalled the combinations of the 
 enemy, that no considerable body of Indians was 
 ever encountered. Many villages were burned. In 
 one of them the soldiers found the red pole of war 
 near the council-house, from which were suspended 
 fifty fresh scalps, some of women and infants. In a 
 house near by, there were old scalps of three hun- 
 dred men. A thousand head of Georgia cattle were 
 recaptured in the wilds ot Florida. 
 
 General Jackson pushed on to the Spanish fort of 
 St. Marks, at the mouth of the Appalachicola River. 
 Discovering incontrovertible evidence that hostile 
 Indians had found refuge within its wails, he wrote 
 very politely to the Spanish commandant, inform- 
 ing him that '' to prevent the recurrence of so gross 
 a violation of neutralit}^," he deemed it expedient 
 " to garrison that fortress with American troops 
 until the close of the preseut war." 
 
 Upon receiving from the Spanish commandant a 
 reply denying that Indians hostile to the United 
 States had found refuge within the fort, and refus- 
 ing to surrender. General Jackson instantly marched 
 into the fort, removed the Spanish flag, substituted 
 the stars and stripes, and garrisoned the fort with 
 his own troops. He continued to treat the Spanfsh 
 
Indian Troubles in Florida. 265 
 
 governor with politeness and consideration. He 
 informed him that he would furnish transports *' to 
 convey himself, his family and his command to 
 Pensacola,** The United States navy cooperating, 
 he assumed the control of the commerce of the port, 
 and in all other ways comported himself as became 
 a conquerer who had brought St. Marks into the 
 possession of the United States. 
 
 Other Indian villages were captured. In a few 
 days, so far as was known, there was not a hostile 
 body within the bounds of Florida. On his home- 
 ward march, he received from the governor of Pen- 
 sacola a " solemn protest " against these proceed- 
 ings, and a threat that, if he did not at once retire 
 from the province, he should be compelled to do so 
 by force. He replied to this document by march- 
 ing for Pensacola, then garrisoned by three hun- 
 dred Spanish troops. He opened fire upon the fort 
 with one nine-pounder and five howitzers, and was 
 about to order an assault, when the place was sur- 
 rendered. 
 
 In Fort St. Marks, under the protection of the 
 Spanish flag, General Jackson found a Scottish 
 trader named A. Arbuthnot, who, he had reason to 
 believe, had been intriguing with the Indians and 
 inciting them to hostility. Another British trader 
 was taken with one of the Indian parties in the 
 field. His name was R. C. Ambrister. He wore a 
 British uniform, and had done his utmost to arouse 
 the Indians to resist the Americans to extremity. 
 These two men were put into close confinement at 
 St. Marks. A court-martial was ordered to try 
 them for " exciting the Indians to war," '* acting as 
 
266 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 spies" and ''inciting the Indians to murder." 
 The court consisted of Major-General E. P. Gaines, 
 president, and thirteen commissioned officers. Both 
 men, after a two days* trial, were found guilty. 
 Arbuthnot was sentenced by the court to be hanged ; 
 Ambrister to receive fifty stripes and to be confined 
 with ball and chain for twelve months. General 
 Jackson approved the sentence dooming Arbuthnot 
 to die, but disapproved that of Ambrister. He 
 ordered Arbuthnot to be " suspended by the neck 
 with a rope until he is dead, and Robert C. Ambris- 
 ter to be shot to death." The sentences Avere exe- 
 cuted on the following morning, after General 
 Jackson had resumed his homeward march. 
 Attempts were unjustly made to cast odium on 
 General Jackson for the execution of these men ; 
 but he never wavered in his belief that they were 
 the immediate cause of all the massacre and woe 
 which had been caused by the Seminole outbreak. 
 '* They were spies, sir ; they were spies," he would 
 say. And what else could he say or think when 
 fourteen commissioned officers, after a thorough 
 trial of the case, had pronounced them guilty of the 
 offenses charged ? 
 
A World-Wide Commotion, 267 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON'S PROCEEDINGS IN FLORIDA CAUSE 
 
 A WORLD-WIDE COMMOTION — THE POLITICIANS 
 
 EAGER TO MAKE USE OF HIS POPULARITY. 
 
 General Jackson left Florida in possession of the 
 forces of the United States. There were garrisons 
 of American troops both at St. Marks and at Pensa- 
 cola, and no flag was seen at either place except the 
 stars and stripes. Nashville received him on his 
 arrival, as so often before and so often after, with 
 enthusiastic approval. A public dinner was given 
 him. One of the toasts was : 
 
 " Pensacola — Spanish perfidy and Indian barbarity 
 rendered its capture necessary. May our govern- 
 ment never surrender it from the fear of war !" 
 
 General Jackson volunteered the following toast : 
 
 " Our Country : Though forbearance is her 
 maxim, she should show to foreign nations that, 
 under a pretense of neutrality, her rights are not to 
 be outraged." 
 
 When the information of what General Jackson 
 had done in Florida reached Europe, it occasioned 
 a profound sensation. The Spanish ministry at 
 Madrid was amazed and confounded. In Great 
 Britain, the administration of Castlereagh was at its 
 wits* end between its reluctance to resume the 
 burdens of war, and the clamors of the people for 
 revenge upon the slayers of Arbuthnot and Ambris- 
 ter. Every cabinet in Europe discussed the dilemma. 
 
268 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 The vast preponderance of American opinion sus- 
 tained General Jackson. The negotiation with 
 Spain for the cession of Florida was, of course, dis- 
 rupted, seemingly never to be resumed. President 
 Monroe and his cabinet discussed the whole subject 
 almost daily during July and August, 1818. Mr. 
 Calhoun, the Secretary of War, gave it as his opinion 
 that General Jackson had exceeded his orders and 
 that his conduct ought to be formally investigated. 
 Mr. Crawford thought that, in taking the Spanish 
 forts. General Jackson believed and had reason to 
 believe he was doing what the President wished 
 done. The President himself, though he denied all 
 recollection of the Rhea letter, had no choice but 
 to agree with Mr. Crawford, 
 
 In these critical circumstances, John Quincy 
 Adams, the Massachusetts baby of Andrew Jackson's 
 natal year, now Secretary of State, came to the 
 rescue of the Administration, of the North Caro- 
 lina baby, now the famous and embroiling General 
 Jackson, and of the imperiled peace o the world. 
 He said, in substance : 
 
 The case is so complicated that, whatever course 
 Ave adopt, we shall do some wrong. We must stand 
 by General Jackson, while frankly admitting that he 
 has done some unauthorized acts. His taking of the 
 Spanish posts, although it was his own act, was just 
 and necessary under the circumstances. Mr. Adams 
 advised that both Pensacola and St. Marks .be 
 restored to Spain. With regard to the execution of 
 the British traders, he accepted the verdict of the 
 court-martial, as well as the presentation of the 
 evidence upon which the verdict was founded. His 
 
A World- Wide Commotion. 269 
 
 reply to Senor Pizarro, the Spanish minister, was a 
 document of torrent-like power and audacity. It 
 concluded with a threat to the effect that if ever 
 agai?t an officer of the United States should be com- 
 pelled to march into Florida and seize the Spanish 
 forts, the United States would hold them and the 
 province itself as a permanent possession. 
 
 Never had a diplomatic paper more immediate 
 and striking success than this. Besides quieting the 
 conscience of the American people, it more than half 
 convinced the Spanish government. It had its 
 effect on Lord Castlereagh, and essentially contri- 
 buted to the preservation of peace. It satisfied even 
 General Jackson, though he made an exceedingly 
 wry face at the surrender of the forts. 
 
 It remained for the Congress of the United States 
 to pronounce its judgment upon the disturbing 
 events in Florida. Upon that judgment, too, the 
 electric dispatch of Mr. Adams had its effect. 
 
 General Jackson, at the Hermitage, was watching 
 the course of events with an eagle eye. One even- 
 ing in January, 18 19, he dropped in upon his neigh- 
 bor. Major William B. Lewis. They had met 
 earlier in the day, when the major had shown his 
 general an overcoat fresh from the tailor's. General 
 Jackson had tried it on, and pronounced it a good 
 coat. On entering Major Lewis's library in the 
 evening, and seeing the overcoat still hanging over 
 a chair, he took it upon his arm, and said : 
 
 " Major, there's a combination in Congress to ruiu 
 me. I start for Washington to-morrow morning. 
 My overcoat is rusty ; I want you to get another 
 
270 General Andreza Jackson. 
 
 made for yourself and charge it to me, and let me 
 take this one with me." 
 
 The general gave further explanation of the sup- 
 posed combination and took his leave. The next 
 morning before the dawn he Avas on horseback 
 again for a twenty days' ride to Washington. At 
 the capital he refused all invitations until Congress 
 had pronounced its verdict. Day by day he was 
 closeted with the President, with members of the 
 Cabinet, with members of Congress, showing docu- 
 ments, making explanations, and in general conduct- 
 ing the campaign. The debate in the House of 
 Representatives lasted nearly a month. Henry 
 Clay was General Jackson's chief opponent in the 
 House, as Mr. Calhoun had been in the cabinet. 
 They all belonged to the same political party. 
 Clay and Calhoun were already strenuous aspirants 
 to the Presidency. As John Quincy Adams and 
 Colonel Benton informs us. Clay and Calhoun snuffed 
 danger to their own aspirations in General Jackson's 
 overwhelming popularity, and naturally wished to 
 deal him a blow that would so diminish his popu- 
 larity as to render him innocuous as a rival. Hence 
 their efforts to crush him on this seemingly favor- 
 able occasion. But they made a fatal mistake — a 
 mistake that was fatal to their own political aspira- 
 tions, and resulted in raising an impassable barrier 
 between them and the Presidential chair. February 
 8, 1819, the resolutions of censure came to the vote. 
 The execution of the two British traders was sanc- 
 tioned by a vote of 90 to 54 ; the seizure of the posts 
 was justified by 91 to 65. Congress sustained Gen- 
 eral Jackson. 
 
i 
 
 Gene7^al Jackson Triumphant. 271 
 
 He next took the verdict of the people. He left 
 Washington February 11, 1819, for a visit to the 
 northern cities. His four days' stay at Philadelphia 
 was a continuous round of festivities and receptions. 
 Whenever the public could catch a glimpse of him 
 he was greeted with the most enthusiastic cheers. 
 At New York, the Common Council conferred upon 
 him the freedom of the city. He dined with the 
 Mayor and a brilliant company of guests. Tammany 
 Hall gave him a public dinner. The newspapers 
 bestowed upon him almost unmingled eulogy. What 
 surprised the gentlemen who were nearest him was 
 the unvarying tact of his demeanor and his 
 responses, as well as the soldier-like dignity of his 
 bearing before the public. At Philadelphia he gave 
 as his toast '* The memory of Benjamin Franklin;" 
 at New York, '' Governor DeWitt Clinton." At 
 Baltimore and Washington, on his return, similar 
 attentions were paid him, and as he approached his 
 home, it appeared as if all Tennessee united to give 
 him an unequaled welcome. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mr. Adams continued his triumphant 
 diplomacy. While General Jackson was dancing at 
 the New York ball, Feb. 22, 18 19, the Spanish min- 
 ister bad signed the treaty which ceded Florida to 
 the United States. There were some delays in sur- 
 rendering the country, but on the same day in Feb- 
 ruary, 1 82 1, all difficulties being removed, the treaty 
 was finally ratified, and Spain announced her readi- 
 ness to surrender the province. 
 
 The army being now greatly reduced, General 
 Jackson resigned his commission. President Monroe 
 immediately appointed him Governor of Florida, 
 
272 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 and Commissioner to receive the Territory from 
 the Spanish officials. He held his office in Florida 
 but four months. He resigned in disgust, and early 
 in November, 182 1, he was at home again. He was 
 then fifty-four years of age, and hoped to spend the 
 evening of his life in cultivating his farm on the 
 banks of the Cumberland. The new Hermitage 
 was completed — a two-story brick house, with a 
 double piazza in front and behind. It was neither a 
 handsome nor a spacious edifice, but it was then the 
 finest house in the county. Behind it was a well 
 kept garden, and around it one of the best 
 cultivated farms in Western Tennessee. General 
 Jackson had no expectation whatever of reentering 
 public life. Civil office he never relished, and the 
 cession of Florida seemed to have removed all 
 danger of foreign war. 
 
 It was in vain, however, that General Jackson 
 dreamed of passing the remainder of his days in 
 rural quietude and in the felicities of domestic 
 life. Such an overshadowing reputation as his, 
 such unparalleled popularity as he enjoyed, were 
 possessions too valuable to his party and to 
 politicians to be permitted to go unused. As one 
 of his admirers said : *' Never since the days of 
 Washington has any man held such winning 
 Presidential cards as Old Hickory has in his hand." 
 That, of course, settled it. " The good of the 
 country " demanded that General Jackson should 
 give up his personal desires and permit his private 
 interests to be sacrificed in behalf of the public wel- 
 fare. 
 
 At first. General Jackson resisted all appeals 
 
w 
 a 
 
 
 K 
 
 
 -a 
 
General Jackso7is Popularity. 2"]^ 
 
 made to him to become a candidate for the Presi- 
 dency. But there has never been a popular citizen 
 of the United States who could elude the 
 machinations of astute party leaders who had 
 resolved that he should serve his country as a 
 Presidential candidate. General Jackson's scruples 
 were overcome. He consented to enter the field as 
 a candidate ; and, on entering the field, he took his 
 personal characteristics with him. The result was 
 interesting. As soon as the old hero got into the 
 fight, not only his opponents, but also his sup- 
 porters, were astounded at the ability he displayed 
 in this new field of warfare. I say new field of 
 ivarfare, because such it was. Whenever Andrew 
 Jackson went into a contest of any kind, warfare 
 accompanied him. 
 
2 74 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE ART OF PRESIDENT-MAKING — GENERAL JACKSON 
 
 A CANDIDATE — NO ELECTION BY THE PEOPLE — 
 
 HENRY CLAY DECIDES THE CONTEST IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 The early Presidents of this Republic were nomi- 
 nated in a very quiet, expeditious, inexpensive and 
 pleasant manner. In January or February of the 
 year of a Presidential election, a notice, of four or 
 five lines, was issued by each party, inviting its 
 members of Congress to meet in the Representatives' 
 chamber at the Capitol, at seven o'clock in the even- 
 ing, for the purpose of ** recommending candidates 
 to the people of the United States for the offices 
 of President and Vice-President." At the time 
 appointed, the caucus met, organized, balloted ; and, 
 behold, the great business done ! Usually it was 
 all over by nine o'clock in the evening, and the 
 nominations were accepted by the rank and file of 
 each party without audible demur. 
 
 In this simple way the man who had the strongest 
 claim to be considered the head of his party, was verv 
 likely to be placed at the head of the Presidential 
 ticket. But the Congressional caucus stood in the 
 way of all personal ambitions that were beyond the 
 recognition of the leaders of the two parties at 
 Washington assembled. In i824, there were five 
 statesmen, of national prominence and great talents, 
 who had some hope of being presented as candidates 
 
Presidential Election 0/182^. 275 
 
 for the Presidency to the rank and file of the domin- 
 ant party: William H. Crawford, of Georgia, Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury ; John Quincy Adams, Secre- 
 tary of State ; John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War ; 
 Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Representa- 
 tives, and De Witt Clinton of New York. 
 
 But there was a group of men in Tennessee who 
 had set their hearts upon the elevation of Andrew 
 Jackson to the Presidency. The most resolute and 
 zealous of these was Major William B. Lewis, who 
 had served under Jackson in the late war, and had 
 rendered him at critical times extremely important 
 service. Major Lewis was a wealthy Tennessee 
 planter of the old school, absolutely destitute of 
 political ambition, but most warmly attached to his 
 old commander, whom he believed to possess a mili- 
 tary capacity equal to that of Alexander, Julius Caesar 
 or Napoleon Bonaparte. He believed also that he 
 was capable of administering the government on the 
 principles avowed in his correspondence with Mr. 
 Monroe in 1816, of which the major possessed a copy. 
 His home was on the road which the general always 
 traveled on his way from his farm to Nashville, and 
 there had grown up between the two families a 
 familiar, confidential and affectionate friendship. 
 
 The general had returned from Florida in Novem- l 
 ber, 1 82 1, a private citizen for the first time in ten | 
 years. Then it was that Major Lewis entered upon 
 the task of placing him on the road to the Presidency. 
 Many other men cooperated in the work ; many 
 things were done in many States ; but the animating 
 spirit of the movement I'n its earlier and doubtful 
 stages was Major Lewis, who was probably the most 
 
276 General A7tdreiu Jackson. 
 
 adroit wire-puller and consummate political manager 
 of that time. 
 
 First, the Nashville Gazette^ in January, 1822, 
 placed the name of Andrew Jackson conspicuously 
 before its readers as a Presidential candidate, and the 
 movement was seconded by the press of the State 
 generally. In July, 1822, the Legislature of Tennes- 
 see adopted a series of resolutions formally nomi- 
 nating General Jackson as a candidate. In 1823 it 
 devolved upon the Legislature to elect a United 
 States Senator to succeed Colonel Williams, a highly 
 popular gentleman opposed to General Jackson's 
 election. Major Lewis now adopted a bold measure. 
 To use his own language : " As nobody else could 
 be found to beat Colonel Williams, it was proposed 
 to beat him with the general himself." Andrew 
 Jackson was accordingly elected a Senator of the 
 United States. A movement in favor of the general 
 was also started in Pennsylvania, where at every 
 assemblage of the people the name of Andrew Jack- 
 son proved to be irresistibly attractive. 
 
 King Caucus was dethroned. The Congressional 
 caucus met, indeed, in 1824, but only sixty-six mem- 
 bers attended, and the nomination by it of Mr. 
 Crawford carried but little weight. 
 
 General Jackson's conduct at Washington as a 
 member of the Senate, was everything which his 
 most prudent friends could have desired. He 
 buried the tomahawk extremely deep. He had had 
 a quarrel with Winfield Scott ; he now made friends 
 with him. He became reconciled to Henry Clay, 
 dined with him, invited him to dinner, and rode 
 with him in the same carriage. Strangest of all, he 
 
Presidential Election 0/ 1S24.. 277 
 
 and Colonel Benton became cordial friends, though 
 the general still had in his arm a relic of the Benton 
 affray in the shape of a bullet. His votes in the 
 Senate were such as commended him to conservative 
 business men, and some of them were well pleasing 
 to the Federalists. He wrote a letter favoring: a 
 moderate and "judicious" tariff. He voted for 
 several internal improvement bills. 
 
 A masterly movement of Major Lewis's was the 
 timely publication, in 1824, of the dignified and 
 patriotic correspondence which had taken place in 
 1816 and 1817, between General Jackson and Presi- 
 dent Monroe. The calm and elevated tone of this 
 correspondence had the best possible effect in win- 
 ning to the general's side the solid citizens, who care 
 nothing for party triumphs, except so far as they 
 promote the welfare of the country. 
 
 It is evident from the records of the time that 
 General Jackson was the most brilliant and capti- 
 vating personage in Washington. The season itself 
 was one of exceptional interest. The eighth of 
 January was celebrated all over the country with 
 unusual fervor. The general figured in many 
 attractive pageants and ceremonials. Mr. Custis, of 
 Arlington, presented him with General Washing- 
 ton's pocket telescope. Mr. Robinson, of Sudley, 
 Va., gave him the pair of pistols which General 
 Washington received from Lafayette during the 
 Revolutionary War. With Lafayette himself the 
 general had many pleasing interviews, for this was 
 the year of Lafayette's triumphal progress through 
 the United States. Here is a passage from one of 
 Mrs. Jackson's letters : 
 
27S General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 '* We are boarding in the same house with the 
 nation's guest, Lafayette. I am delighted with him. 
 When Ave 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. The emotion of revolutionary feeling 
 was aroused in them both. At?Charleston, General 
 Jackson saw him on the field of battle ; the one a 
 boy of twelve, the marquis twenty-three. He 
 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." 
 
 Incidents of this kind exhibited the candidate to 
 the country in a captivating light, and made him a 
 favorite theme of the newspapers. His demeanor 
 both in public and in private was all suavity and 
 grace. As Daniel Webster said, in one of his letters 
 to his brother Ezekiel, ** General Jackson's manners 
 are more Presidential than those of any of the can- 
 didates. He is grave, mild and reserved. My 
 wife is for him decidedly. . . The truth is, he is 
 the people's candidate in a great part of the South- 
 ern and Western country." Several observers of 
 the period report that, of all the candidates, he was 
 the ladies* favorite in Washington. 
 
 But these attractive qualifications did not suffice 
 on this occasion. The people failed to elect a 
 President in 1824, and it devolved upon the House 
 of Representatives to choose one of the three lead- 
 ing candidates, Crawford, Jackson and Adams. As 
 Jackson received the vote of more States and of 
 more people than any other candidate, it was 
 
Presidential Election <y 1824. 279 
 
 natural that his friends should look to the House to 
 gratify the desire of so commanding a plurality. 
 Henry Clay, then at the most effective and brilliant 
 period of his long career, forty-seven years of age, 
 had been for many years Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, and had acquired in it so great an 
 influence that he now held the gift of the Presidency 
 in his hand. He left his home in Kentucky fully 
 resolved not to vote for Andrew Jackson in any 
 circumstances whatever ; first, because, to use his 
 own language, Jackson was '* a military chieftain," 
 and, secondly, because, as a military chieftain, he 
 had shown an arbitrary cast of character — reasons, 
 it may be remarked, which would have prevented 
 Mr. Clay from voting for George Washington for 
 President. No doubt Mr. Clay had persuaded him- 
 self that these were the true reasons for his opposi- 
 tion to General Jackson ; but deep in his heart was 
 the actual reason, namely, an unconquerable personal 
 dislike of Andrew Jackson, generated by the clear 
 perception that of all men he was most to be dreaded 
 as a political rival. 
 
 Crawford, who had been prostrated with 
 paralysis, was equally out of the question ; and, 
 therefore, by a kind of 'self-imposed necessity, the 
 Speaker threw the whole weight of his name and 
 influence in favor of John Quincy Adams. A long 
 contest had been expected in the House, and the 
 hall was crowded with excited spectators. On the 
 very first ballot Mr. Adams received the votes of 
 thirteen States, then a majority, and Daniel Webster, 
 one of the tellers, announced to the astonished and 
 breathless multitude that John Quincy Adams had 
 
28o General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 been chosen President of the United States. The 
 announcement was received with faint applause and 
 some hisses. The galleries were cleared and the 
 House soon after adjourned. 
 
 The defeated candidates gave no outward signs 
 of disappointment, least of all General Jackson, who 
 could be, w^hen the occasion required it, a con- 
 summate histrionic artist. That very evening, four 
 or five hours after the vote in the House, he met his 
 successful rival face to face in the East Room, at 
 President Monroe's last levee. We have a graphic 
 account of the meeting of these North Carolina and 
 Massachusetts babies, now grown so great, from the 
 pen of S. G. Goodrich (Peter Parley) : 
 
 " 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 Gen- 
 eral 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.' 
 
 "AH 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." 
 
 A few days after this meeting, Mr. Adams offered 
 
"i ; 
 
Presideiitial Election <?y^ 1824. 281 
 
 the post of Secretary of State to Henry Clay. The 
 Kentuckian consulted his friends, thought the 
 matter over for a week, and accepted the offer. It 
 was an act which a skillful politician would not have 
 done. Mr. Clay did it, however, and did it appar- 
 ently without anticipating the interpretation which 
 would be put upon it by his antagonist. 
 
 General Jackson heard this news from Colonel R. 
 M. Johnson, of the Senate, and instantly attributed 
 the appointment to " bargain and corruption ;" or, 
 as he wrote to Major Lewis, " The Judas of the 
 West has closed the contract, and will receive the 
 thirty pieces of silver. His end will be the same. 
 Was there ever witnessed such a bare-faced cor- 
 ruption in any country before ?" The same idea, 
 though expressed more moderately and at greater 
 length, was spread over the country by means of a 
 letter from Jackson to Major Lewis, both of whom 
 lived and died implicitly believing in the truth of 
 the charge. 
 
 In another long letter to Samuel Swartwout, of 
 New York,- Jackson descanted with masterly force 
 and tact upon Henry Clay's objectionable phrase, 
 " military chieftain." A better letter for a political 
 purpose has never been written, and it had the addi- 
 tional merit of being substantially true. He sketched 
 briefly his career as a soldier, showing that it was 
 the peril of his country which alone had ever called 
 him into the field from civil pursuits ; to which he 
 had gladly returned when no foe menaced its 
 borders. 
 
 " Mr. Clay," he added, '* has never yet risked him- 
 
282 Gener^al Andrew Jackso7i, 
 
 self for his country. He has never sacrificed his 
 repose, nor made an efTort to repel an invading foe." 
 
 This long- and powerful letter, published in hun- 
 dreds of newspapers, was almost enough of itself to 
 elect the author of it to the Presidency at the next 
 opportunity. 
 
 The general's homeward journey to Tennessee 
 was a triumphal progress. If he had been the Presi- 
 dent-elect he could not have been more enthusias- 
 tically welcomed. 
 
 Soon after General Jackson's arrival at home, 
 occurred General Lafayette's memorable visit to 
 Nashville. There was a pageant of many days, dur- 
 ing which it was impossible to determine which was 
 the popular hero of the occasion ; the French or the 
 American general. At the Hermitage, General 
 Jackson had the pleasure of showing the French 
 gentlemen over his farm, where, as one of them 
 recorded, " we everywhere remarked the greatest 
 order and the most perfect neatness." 
 
Presidential Campaign of 1828. 283 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1 828 — GENERAL 
 JACKSON TRIUMPHANT — SUDDEN DEATH OF MRS. 
 JACKSON — ITS EFFECT ON THE GEN- 
 ERAL — THE INAUGURATION. 
 
 The Presidential campaign of 1828 began on the 
 day of Mr. Adams' election by the House of Repre- 
 sentatives in 1825. Four years of pageantry and 
 tumult followed. But it was not all tumult and fes- 
 tival. The ^' bargain and corruption " cry had its 
 effect. Henry Clay did not submit in silence to the 
 charge of bargain and corruption. He personally 
 met the charge, and gave as complete a refutation 
 of it as the case admitted. But, unfortunately, 
 although the charge was undoubtedly false, it was, 
 nevertheless, one of those charges which can only 
 be denied, not refuted, at least, so far as political 
 opponents are concerned; and it was used with 
 damaging effect. Mr. Clay's adherents carried the 
 war into Jackson's own county, even into his own 
 family. The whole life of Andrew Jackson was 
 ruthlessly raked over, and commented on with 
 partisan rancor and unscrupulousness. His duels, 
 his feuds, his personal affrays, his hanging of desert- 
 ers and his execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister 
 were made the most of. 
 
 The campaign was distinguished for the enven- 
 omed animosity displayed on both sides. Adams 
 was accused of numberless political crimes, and also 
 
284 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 of personal dishonesty. Every one of the accusa- 
 tions was doubtless untrue ; but Adams was so cold- 
 hearted, so regardless of the obligations of com- 
 radeship, so steeped in that odious bogus public 
 virtue which always strengthens the opposition and 
 from which a friend can never derive any benefit, that 
 the masses of the people loved to believe whatever 
 was said against him, and he had but few zealous per- 
 sonal defenders. Jackson, on the other hand, was so 
 chivalric and warm-hearted, and it was so well 
 known that he never turned a cold shoulder to a 
 friend, his supporters rushed to his defense with 
 that self-sacrificing devotion which seldom encoun- 
 ters defeat. 
 
 Of all the floods of vituperation and calumny that 
 were poured upon him, nothing moved General 
 Jackson except the attacks made upon his revered 
 mother, and the revival of the ancient scandals con- 
 cerning his marriage, which also keenly wounded 
 Mrs. Jackson. Major Lewis, besides organizing a 
 committee at Nashville to investigate and refute 
 false charges against the general, undertook per- 
 sonally the congenial task of defending Mrs. Jack- 
 son. He devoted six months to this object, traveled 
 thousands of miles in search of evidence, and per- 
 formed his duty so well that the vindication of Mrs. 
 Jackson was complete. Only the basest and most 
 malignant of mankind could thenceforth lend a hos- 
 pitable ear to the slanders against her. 
 
 An Irish refugee named Binns, who was in favor 
 of Adams, and edited a Philadelphia paper called 
 the Democratic Press^ brought out a number of 
 campaign hand-bills which attracted much atten- 
 
 ^1. 
 
Presidential Campaign of 1828. 285 
 
 tion. One of them, called the '' Coffin Hand-bill," 
 attained great notoriety. I have a copy of it before 
 me. It is adorned with six intensely black coffins, on 
 each of which is the name of a soldier who was hanged 
 for desertion, at New Orleans. A blood-curdling 
 account of the hangings is given, and it is intimated 
 that should Jackson be elected President of the 
 United States, some of his opponents would meet 
 with a like tragic fate. 
 
 There had never been so much talent, whether 
 political or literary, employed in a Presidential 
 campaign as in this one on behalf of General Jack- 
 son. Much of the writing was done with a high 
 degree of ability, and a number of the general's 
 friends gave themselves up, without reserve, to the 
 work of electing him. On the other hand, the 
 attacks upon him were often delivered clumsily, and 
 recoiled upon the accusers. There was a lumber- 
 ing pamphlet, for example, in which General Jack- 
 son's combats and duels were presented in the form 
 of a numbered catalogue, from one to thirty-six. 
 This labored work called forth the following para- 
 graph : 
 
 "Cool and Deliberate Murder. — Jackson coolly and 
 deliberately put to death upward of fifteen hundred British 
 troops on the eighth of January, 181 5, on the plains below New 
 Orleans, for no other offense than that they wished to sup in the 
 city that night." 
 
 So adroit a sentence as this, in the crisis of a 
 Presidential election, neutralizes the effect of many 
 pamphlets. For those who could not read there 
 was the hickory pole in thousands of villages and 
 
286 General Andrezv Jackson. 
 
 towns, the erection of each of which furnished an 
 opportunity for an interesting- procession and plenty 
 of campaign speaking. 
 
 Imagine, too, General Jackson's visit to New 
 Orleans to celebrate the eighth of January, 1828. A 
 magnificent procession of steamboats descended the 
 Mississippi and swept past the city on the morning 
 of the great day. General Jackson standing on the 
 upper deck of one of them, his head uncovered, vis- 
 ible to the countless multitude. Eighteen steam- 
 boats of the largest size steamed round the crescent 
 and descended as far as the battle-field, where impos- 
 ing ceremonies took place. This grand demonstration 
 was ridiculed by a portion of the opposition, while 
 others used it for the purpose of trying to make the 
 people believe that if Jackson were elected President 
 he would overthrow the liberties of the country and 
 establish a military despotism. 
 
 Everything seemed to work in favor of Jackson. 
 President Adams himself wrought for him by his 
 exasperating disregard of his obligations to his polit- 
 ical friends. Binns attempted to give him a few 
 hints on the subject, but was coldly informed that 
 the President would not make any removals of 
 office-holders lor political reasons. Binns bowed 
 respectfully, and remarked that the consequence 
 would be that the President himself would be 
 removed as soon as the term for which he had been 
 elected should expire. In reporting the incident 
 Binns said : '' This intimation [of his removal] gave 
 the President no concern, and assuredly did in no 
 wise affect his previous determination." 
 
 Election day came around at length. Andrew 
 
 rAk' 
 
Presidential Campaign ^1828. i^^j 
 
 Jackson was elected President of the United States, 
 and John C. Calhoun was reelected Vice-President. 
 Out of 261 electoral votes, Jackson received 178 and 
 Mr. Adams 83 — less than half the whole number. 
 All New England, except one district in Maine, voted 
 for Adams and Rush. New York gave them sixteen 
 electoral votes to twenty for Jackson and Calhoun. 
 New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland voted for 
 Adams and Rush. Every other State voted for 
 Jackson — Pennsylvania, Virginia, both Carolinas, 
 Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi, 
 Missouri and Illinois. As for Tennessee, in the 
 whole State Adams and Rush obtained less than 
 three thousand votes, and in many towns every vote 
 was cast for Jackson and Calhoun. A distinguished 
 gentleman of North Carolina told Mr. Parton that he 
 happened to ride into a Tennessee village on the even- 
 ing of the last day of election. He found all the men in 
 the place engaged in hunting down two of their fel- 
 low-citizens. He asked what the obnoxious men had 
 done. He was told that the village had set its heart 
 upon giving Andrew Jackson a unanimous vote, but 
 these two men had frustrated this desire by voting 
 for Adams and Rush. When the whiskey flowed 
 freely in the evening, the exhilarated majority pro- 
 posed to tar and feather the two independent voters, 
 who, however, fled to the woods and so escaped. 
 
 When the news reached the Hermitage, it created 
 no particular sensation, because the close calculators 
 had pretty clearly anticipated the result. Mrs. Jack- 
 son quietly remarked : 
 
 " Well, for Mr. Jackson's sake, I am glad. For 
 my own part, I never wished it." 
 
2 88 General Afidrew Jacksoii. 
 
 But the people of Nashville received the tidings 
 with the enthusiasm that was usually aroused among 
 them by any event which nearly concerned General 
 Jackson,and they resolved to celebrate the victory by 
 a banquet that should surpass anything known in the 
 annals of their city. Theday appointed for the dinner 
 was December 23, the anniversary of the first attack 
 upon the British below New Orleans. General Jack- 
 son had accepted an invitation to the banquet. While 
 the gentlemen of Nashville were making arrange- 
 ments for the festival, the ladies organized them- 
 selves into sewing-circles for the purpose of prepar- 
 ing a sumptuous wardrobe for Mrs. Jackson to wear 
 after she had taken up her abode in the Presidential 
 mansion. But alas! she was never to wear those 
 sumptuous garments ! The shroud was to take the 
 place of the White House robes. 
 
 The morning of December 23, 1828, the day 
 appointed for the grand banquet in honor of the 
 election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency, 
 broke auspiciously upon Nashville. Soon after sun- 
 rise the various committees were completing the 
 work of preparation. The setting of the long tables 
 and the decoration of the dining-room were nearly 
 finished. The officers and men of the troop who 
 were to escort the President-elect from the Hermit- 
 age to the city were dressing for their long ride. 
 Country wagons and wayfarers were beginning to 
 come in, and the roads far and near were filled with 
 people on their way to the capital. 
 
 In the midst of these festive preparations, a horse- 
 man arrived from the Hermitage with dreadful 
 news : Late in the evening before, Mrs. Jacksoi 
 
Death of M^^s. Jackson. 289 
 
 had died suddenly of heart-disease. She had been 
 ill for several days, but had recovered sufficiently 
 to be seemingly out of danger. These facts were 
 not known to the public, and the shock caused by 
 the news of her death was paralyzing. The grief of 
 the people was beyond portrayal. Every one felt, 
 and felt most poignantly, that the death of Mrs. 
 Jackson was a personal affliction and a national' 
 calamity. 
 
 All the festive preparations were immediately 
 abandoned. A handbill was printed countermand- 
 ing' the previous arrangements, and requesting the 
 people to observe the dayof the funeral by abstaining 
 from their ordinary business and causing the church- 
 bells to be tolled. 
 
 At the Hermitage, the blow had fallen with terri- 
 ble force, with crushing weight. For a long time 
 the bereaved husband clasped his wife in his arms, 
 refusing to believe that she was dead. He sat by 
 her side all through the hours of the night, incon- 
 solable, occasionally feeling her pulse and placing 
 his hand over her heart, still hoping that she might 
 revive. Major Lewis, who had been immediately 
 sent for, arrived just before daylight, and found him 
 still sitting there speechless, the image of despair 
 and woe. At the funeral he was supported to the 
 grave, at the bottom of the Hermitage garden, 
 between General Coffee and Major Rutledge, and 
 he needed their help at every step of the short dis- 
 tance. At the sight of this pitiful spectacle, the vast 
 concourse which had assembled from all the country 
 round manifested uncontrollable emotion. The 
 general seemed to have grown aged and helpless in 
 
290 General And7^ew Jackson, 
 
 a night, and when some old friend seized his hand 
 and uttered words of sympathy, he was unable to 
 make an audible response. He rallied somewhat in 
 a few days, but it was remarked by all his nearest 
 friends that he was never the same man again. 
 
 The acuteness and depth of his sorrow had impor- 
 tant consequences to the nation ; at least, so many 
 of his friends imagined. He believed that the 
 scandals of the late campaign had hastened the death 
 of his wife, if they had not caused it, and he knew 
 that they had embittered the last months of her life. 
 For some years Mrs. Jackson had been revered by 
 a large circle in Tennessee as an eminent saint, a 
 woman exalted more by her virtues, her boundless 
 benevolence and her religious devoutness, than by 
 her connection with the most popular man in the 
 nation. No doubt this circumstance sharpened to 
 her the bitterness of the attacks upon her good 
 name, and more hotly inflamed the just indignation 
 of her husband. In his own mind, he held the 
 leaders of the opposite party responsible for the 
 cruel charges and insinuations which their news- 
 papers had promulgated. He knew his own power 
 over his adherents, and he imagined that Mr. Adams 
 or Mr. Clay had but to express a wish to the editors 
 of their party organs to silence them on any topic. 
 So decided were his convictions on this subject, that 
 he never forgave Henry Clay, and when he went to 
 Washington to be inaugurated, he refused to call 
 on, or have any intercourse with, Mr. Adams, the 
 outgoing President. 
 
 One shrinks from probing the state of mind and 
 heart which the agony of his bereavement and his 
 
Death of Mrs, Jacks oru 291 
 
 conviction as to the cause of his wife's death engen- 
 dered in General Jackson ; but in order that we 
 may understand certain future events, it is necessary 
 for us to have a true conception of these facts ; for 
 the death of Mrs. Jackson had an influence upon the 
 political history of the United States, and effects of 
 national consequence issued from her grave. Unless 
 one gives his best consideration to the subject, it is 
 difficult, perhaps impossible, to measure the depth, 
 the poignancy of Andrew Jackson's bereavement, 
 which was in exact ratio to the extent and quality 
 of the love which he cherished for his wife. All the 
 unparalleled earnestness, intensity, chivalry, tender- 
 ness, devotion and reverence of his nature were 
 concentrated in his love for her. When he became 
 her husband he in no wise ceased to be her lover. 
 His love was of that dignity that it went hand in 
 hand even with the vow he made to her in marriage. 
 Instead of suffering the least eclipse, his gallantry, 
 his devotion, his respect, his admiration, his love 
 grew with his growing years. As I have already 
 said, the chosen of his heart was to him no less 
 sacred than his God, and in the words of Holy Writ, 
 he could truly say : '' *I have loved thee with an 
 everlasting affection ; therefore with loving kindness 
 have I drawn thee.* " 
 
 Nor did Andrew Jackson's love cease with his 
 wife's death. He mourned her to the last day of 
 his life, and was guided by what he supposed would 
 be her wishes in all matters in which he thought 
 she would have taken an interest had she been alive. 
 In the last year of his life, as he was sitting near 
 her grave, talking with Major Lewis about certain 
 
2Q2 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 provisions in his last will, the major suggested that 
 his entire estate should not be given to his adopted 
 son, but that a portion of it should be settled on the 
 son's wife and children. After a long pause, the 
 general said : '' No. 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 Honorable Nicholas P. Trist, President 
 Jackson's private secretary, relates an affecting 
 incident which occurred while the President was on 
 a visit to the Rip Raps in Virginia. Mr. Trist had 
 retired for the night and so had the President. At 
 the last moment, the secretary remembered certain 
 letters about which he wanted specific instructions. 
 " As the letters were to be sent off early the next 
 morning," Mr. Trist says, " I returned to his [Presi- 
 dent Jackson's] chamber-door ; and tapping gently, in 
 order not to awake him if he had got to sleep, my 
 tap was answered by ' Come in.' He was undressed, 
 but not yet in bed, as I supposed he must be by 
 that time. He was sitting at the little table, with 
 his wife's miniature— a very large one, then for the 
 first time seen by me — before him, propped up 
 against some books ; and between him and the pic- 
 ture lay an open book, which bore the marks of 
 long use. This book, as I afterward learned, was 
 her prayer-book. The miniature he always wore 
 next to his heart, suspended round his neck by a 
 strong black cord. The last thing he did every 
 night, before lying down to rest, was to read in that 
 book, with that picture under his eyes." 
 
 It is not to be expected that a man who loved his 
 wife, living and dead, with such loyalty of affection, 
 
MRS. ANDREW JACKSON.*— <S^ee Page 292. 
 
 * From a photograpla by Thuss, Nashville, Tenn. 
 
Death of Mrs, Jackson, 293 
 
 with such immutable devotion, and who believed 
 that her death had certainly been hastened and [prob- 
 ably caused by the calumnies of her detractors, 
 would permit the wrongs done to her to go unre- 
 dressed. Perhaps it would never have been possi- 
 ble for Andrew Jackson to ignore personal consider- 
 ations in the bestowal of office, so powerful in him 
 was the noble instinct of providing for honorable, 
 capable men to whom he felt himself to be indebted 
 for services done for him and for the country. To 
 this instinct, so natural to the natural chieftain and 
 the idolized leader of men, was now added an 
 equally natural and commendable desire for retribu- 
 tion upon those who, as he believed, had wantonly 
 violated the sanctity of his home and profaned the 
 name of the gentle and affectionate wife who had 
 made it home to him for so many happy years. 
 
 It was a month's journey then from Nashville to 
 Washington. On a Sunday afternoon, in the mid- 
 dle of January, 1829, General Jackson left Nashville, 
 accompanied by his nephew, A. J. Donelson, who 
 was to be his private secretary, and by Mrs. A. J. 
 Donelson, who was to preside in the White House. 
 Major Lewis also went with him, and a few other 
 friends, and the general carried in his pocket his 
 inaugural address, which had been written at the 
 mansion of Major Lewis. The party descended the 
 Cumberland in a steamboat to the Ohio, and 
 steamed up the Ohio to Pittsburg, a voyage of many 
 days, during which the boat scarcely passed one 
 log-cabin without receiving the best salutations its 
 inmates could offer. At the larger towns immense 
 
294 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 multitudes gathered to cheer the general on his 
 way. 
 
 On reaching Washington and settling at the 
 Indian Queen Tavern, the President-elect received 
 hundreds of visitors every day, and it was evident 
 that a large number of the people who were flock- 
 ing to Washington, had come with the expectation 
 of being appointed to office. As Daniel Webster 
 wrote, in his humorous way, Feb. 19, 1829: "A 
 great multitude, too many to be fed without a mira- 
 cle, are already in the city, hungry for office." 
 
 There was a strange excitement among the peo- 
 ple, many of whom, as Mr. Webster remarked, 
 *' really seem to think that the country is rescued 
 from some dreadful danger." 
 
 Never before had there been such a crowd at an 
 inauguration. At the moment when the multitude 
 caught sight of General Jackson's erect, imposing 
 form, as he issued from between the columns of the 
 well-known portico, every hat was removed and 
 ten thousand radiant human faces shone upon him. 
 " The peal of shouting," as a gentleman present has 
 written, ** rent the air, and seemed to shake the 
 very ground." During the stillness that followed, 
 though every ear was attentive, not a word could 
 be heard of the inaugural, except by the group 
 immediately around the speaker. There was a 
 tumultuous crowd at the White House afterward, 
 and in the evening a general illumination. It 
 seemed in the exhilaration of the hour as if all 
 parties and all men joined heartily in the cry, 
 " Hurrah for Jackson !" 
 
Jackson Looks Oict for his Friends. 295 
 
 Lc 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 PRESIDENT JACKSON LOOKS OUT FOR HIS FRIENDS 
 
 — THE MRS. EATON COMPLICATION — WASHINGTON 
 
 LADIES ON THE WAR-PATH — SINGULAR 
 
 RESULTS OF THE SCANDAL. 
 
 Great apprehensions had been inspired among 
 office-holders by General Jackson's elevation to the 
 Presidency. During the interval which elapsed 
 between his election and his inauguration, the 
 opposition newspapers had been industriously pre- 
 dicting that he would turn all his opponents out of 
 office to make room for his friends ; that, in fact, " a 
 clean sweep might be expected." Consequently, 
 every act of the new President was scanned with a 
 searching scrutiny, such as terror sometimes 
 inspires. 
 
 The announcement of the new Cabinet did not 
 disturb public tranquility nor add to the teiTor of 
 the office-holders. With the exception of Martin 
 Van Buren's nomination as Secretary of State, 
 every Cabinet appointment was interpreted as a 
 direct blow at Henry Clay, Samuel D. Ingham of 
 Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Treasury, had taken 
 the lead in spreading abroad in his State the 
 " bargain and corruption " calumn}^ Three other 
 members of the new Cabinet had voted in the 
 Senate against the confirmation of Henry Clay to 
 the office of Secretary of State, in 1825, namely: 
 Major J. H. Eaton of Tennessee, Secretary of War; 
 
296 General Andi^eiu Jackson. 
 
 John M. Berrien, of Georgia, Attorney-General, 
 and John Branch, of North Carolina, Secretary of 
 the Navy. Mr. Van Buren, who was in the Senate 
 in 1825, voted in favor of Mr. Clay's confirmation. 
 The new Postmaster-General, W. T. Barry, of 
 Kentucky, besides being a prominent herald of the 
 " bargain and corruption" cry, had taken the lead 
 in the movement which had turned Henry Clay's 
 own State against him in the late election. Other 
 appointments bore the same peculiarly anti-Clay 
 interpretation. 
 
 The significance of these appointments excited 
 little remark at the time, and Mr. Clay himself did 
 not publicly notice it. But before his departure 
 from Washington, a panic began to spread among 
 the office-holders in that city, many of whom had 
 been appointed or promoted through his recom- 
 mendation. The question was discussed among 
 them with bated breath. What did the President 
 mean, when he said in his inaugural address that 
 the people had called him to '' the task of reform," 
 " the correction of abuses," and " the counteraction 
 of those causes which have disturbed the rightful 
 course of appointment, and have placed or continued 
 power in unfaithful or incompetent hands?" They 
 were not long in discovering what these phrases 
 meant. They meant a clean sweep, or, as the new 
 President called it, " a complete renovation of the 
 public service." About as fast as the business 
 could be done, the incumbents of nearly all the 
 good places under the control of the President 
 were removed, to make room for men who had 
 combated the slanderers of his wife and conspicu- 
 
 m\ 
 
Jackson Looks Out for his Friends. 297 
 
 ously helped to bring his Administration into 
 power. Those who were removed had themselves 
 helped to swell the torrent of slander against Mrs. 
 Jackson, or else were the '* minions " of Henry 
 Clay or some other political leader, whom President 
 Jackson looked upon as an instigator of the attacks 
 upon the good name of his wife. 
 
 An office was half-forced upon Major William B. 
 Lewis much against his wishes. As soon as he had 
 witnessed the triumphant result of his six years* toil, 
 in the inauguration of his old commander and friend, 
 he announced his intention of going home to super- 
 intend the labors of the planting season. " Why, 
 Major," said the President, " you are not going to 
 leave me here alone^ after doing more than any other 
 man to get me here ?" Major Lewis could not resist 
 the plea, and it was finally agreed that he should 
 become one of the auditors of the Treasury, and 
 retain his abode in the White House. 
 
 A great outcry was raised by the ousted office- 
 holders and their friends, and by the entire opposi- 
 tion party, on account of President Jackson's " com- 
 plete renovation of the public service." He was 
 vehemently charged with *' corrupting the civil ser- 
 vice," and to this day many people believe that the 
 charge was true. But Professor Sumner, who, from 
 his point of view, very properly says as little as pos- 
 sible in favor of Jackson's proceedings, remarks :* 
 " It is a crude and incorrect notion that Andrew Jack- 
 son corrupted the civil service. The student who 
 seeks to penetrate the causes of the corruption of the 
 
 * Sumner, 147. 
 
298 General Andreiv Jackson, 
 
 civil service, must go back to study the play of human 
 nature under the dogmas and institutions of the 
 States named [New York and Pennsylvania.] He 
 cannot rest satisfied with the explanation that 
 * Andrew Jackson did it.* " 
 
 Andrew Jackson always believed in an honest and 
 capable man, no matter to what party he belonged, 
 and he opposed all schemes to plunder the Treasury 
 which came to his knowledge. In his day it was 
 customary, as in our day it is customary, for hordes 
 of politicians and interested speculators to combine to 
 further each other's interests at the public expense 
 by means of special legislation and otherwise. Of 
 all the Presidents, Jackson was the only one who had 
 the courage to face this almost omnipotent interest 
 and defy it. " Jackson affronted the whole interest. 
 He was not able to put an end to the abuse, but he 
 curtailed it. He used the exceptional strength of 
 his political position to do what no one else would 
 have dared to do in meeting a strong and growing 
 cause of corruption. He educated his party, for 
 that generation at least, up to a position of party 
 hostility to special legislation of ever)' kind."* 
 
 During the progress of his " complete renovation 
 of the public service," the President was personally 
 occupied with an affair which only confirmed him in 
 his already passionate conviction that '' the minions 
 of Mr. Clay " were men of such atrocious baseness 
 that no duty could be clearer than the expulsion of 
 them from the public offices. A few weeks before 
 the inauguration, Senator Eaton, of Tennessee, had 
 
 * Sumner, 194. .v^ 
 
 '4:' 
 
Jackso7i Looks Out for his Friends, 299 
 
 married Mrs. Timberlake, a pretty and vivacious 
 widow, with w^hose good name the gossips of Wash- 
 ington had been busy for many months. She was 
 the daughter of William O'Neal, the landlord of the 
 old Indian Queen Tavern in Washington. She had 
 grown to womanhood in that hostelry, and was 
 known to its frequenters as Peggy O'Neal, She 
 married Purser Timberlake, of the Navy, and 
 became the mother of two children. During her 
 husband's absence at sea calumnious gossip made 
 free with her name, and when, on board his ship in 
 the Mediterranean, Purser Timberlake cut his throat 
 after a drunken debauch, the Washington gossips 
 accepted the theory that he had taken his life on 
 hearing of his wife's misconduct at home. 
 
 When the news of Purser Timberlake's death 
 reached Washington, Major Eaton was, as he had 
 been for some years, an inmate of the Indian Queen 
 Tavern, and not indifferent to the agreeable qualities 
 of the landlord's daughter. He now wished to marry 
 her, but as he was about to become a member of 
 General Jackson's Cabinet he began by asking the 
 general's opinion of the project. The President- 
 elect had been acquainted with the O'Neal family 
 for thirty years, and the Indian Queen Tavern had 
 always been his home in Washington. Mrs. Jackson 
 had been there with him, and she became warmly 
 attached to the family, and particularly so to Mrs. 
 Timberlake and her sprightly children. So General 
 Jackson answered ; ** Why, yes. Major ; if you love 
 the woman, and she will have you, marry her by all 
 means." The Senator reminded his chief of the 
 scandals which had been afloat concerning the lady 
 
300 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 and himself. "Well," said the general, "your mar- 
 rying her will disprove these charges and restore 
 Peg's good name." 
 
 The marriage occurred in January, 1829. A 
 month later, when it was known that Senator Eaton 
 was about to be appointed Secretary of War, the 
 ladies who in that case would be expected to call 
 upon Mrs. Eaton (formerly the Widow Timberlake, 
 and, before that, Peggy O'Neal), and even concede 
 to her a certain precedence in society, were deeply 
 moved. 
 
 For some weeks, the scandal was confined to the 
 circle more immediately interested ; but at length it 
 was brought to the notice of President Jackson him- 
 self, through the agency of Rev. E. S. Ely, a distin- 
 guished Presbyterian clergyman of Philadelphia. 
 He was one of the oldest friends of the President, 
 and he could not endure the thought of his giving 
 any countenance to "a dissolute woman." Dr. Ely 
 had received his information from the Rev. J. N. 
 Campbell, pastor of the church in Washington 
 which Mrs. Jackson and her husband had attended. 
 He wrote a long letter to the President, informing 
 him that the ladies of Washington would not speak 
 to Mrs. Eaton and detailing a number of accusations 
 of the most atrocious character, which need not be 
 repeated. He solemnly called upon the President, 
 for his own sake, for the sake of his departed wife, 
 for the sake of his administration, for the honor of 
 the gorernment and of the country, not to visit, 
 receive or recognize " such a woman." 
 
 General Jackson speedily replied to Dr. Ely, 
 defending the lady with a fervor and adroitness not 
 
Jackson Looks OtU for his Friends, 301 
 
 often equalled. He related the history of his own 
 familiar acquaintance with the O'Neals, and showed 
 the absolute improbability of the shameful stories 
 about Mrs. Eaton. Mingled with his gallant and 
 admirable defense of his friend's daughter were 
 characteristic manifestations of his fervent antipathy 
 to Henry Clay. Among other things, he said : '' I 
 have not the least doubt but that every secret rumor 
 is circulated by the minions of Mr. Clay for the pur- 
 pose of injuring Mrs. Eaton, and through her Mr. 
 Eaton; but I assure you that such conduct will 
 never have my aid." 
 
 The President's defense of Mrs. Eaton did not con- 
 vince his old friend, Dr. Ely, nor his pastor, Mr. 
 Campbell, nor the ladies belonging to the families 
 of the other members of the Cabinet. Neither Mrs. 
 Calhoun, nor Mrs. Berrien, nor Mrs. Branch, nor 
 Mrs. Ingham would call upon Mrs. Eaton ; nor 
 would Mrs. Donelson, the mistress of the White 
 House, visit her, though obliged to receive her. 
 " Anything else, uncle," she said, " I will do for you, 
 but I cannot call upon Mrs. Eaton." The President 
 replied : ** Then go back to Tennessee, my dear." 
 She went back, and her husband, the private secre- 
 tary, went with her, and they remained away six 
 months. The wives of the foreign ministers were 
 equally prejudiced against Mrs. Eaton, and were 
 equally resolute in their refusal to associate with 
 her. They, of course, were beyond the reach of the 
 President's indignation, as he could not send their 
 husbands home for such a reason. 
 
 In 1848, I met scores of persons in Washington 
 who professed to know all about "■ the Mrs. Eaton 
 
302 Gejieral Andrezv Jackson, 
 
 Scandal." A majority of the ladies with whom 1 
 conversed on the subject believed that Mrs. Eaton 
 was " a good-for-nothing- creature," but the gentle- 
 men usually spoke in her favor. The person with 
 whom I talked most on the subject was the son 
 (then twenty-two years old) of one of the " Cabinet 
 ladies " who would not associate with Mrs. Eaton. 
 He had heard his parents and their friends discuss the 
 subject hundreds of times, and he said they were 
 still in the habit of talking about it. The impression 
 made on his mind by what he had thus heard was 
 that Mrs. Eaton was a bad woman ; at any rate, his 
 mother *' hated the very sound of her name." This 
 was not unnatural, as his mother's behavior toward 
 Mrs. Eaton had led to his father's removal from the 
 Cabinet. 
 
 It so chanced that Mr. Van Buren, the Secretary 
 of State, who was a widower without daughters, 
 having been detained by business connected with 
 the governorship of New York, which he had just 
 resigned, did not arrive in Washington until three 
 weeks after the inauguration of President Jackson. 
 Being thus free to act according to his own convic- 
 tions, and satisfied of Mrs. Eaton's innocence, he 
 called upon her as a matter of course, and treated 
 her with the particular, the marked, the emphasized 
 respect which he felt to be due to h^^r as a victim of 
 atrocious slander. 
 
 It also happened that Mr. Vaughn, the British 
 minister, a particular friend of Mr. Van Buren's, 
 and Baron Krudener, the Russian minister, were 
 both unmarried men. Each of these three gentle- 
 men made parties expressly for Mrs. Eaton, at Avhich 
 
Jackson Looks Ont for his Friends. 303 
 
 they exhibited for her every possible mark of 
 esteem. They did not succeed in overcoming in 
 the slightest degree the repugnance of the Wash- 
 ington ladies, but they did succeed in gratifying 
 General Jackson to the utmost degree. Mr. Van 
 Buren, in particular, completely captivated the 
 President, and did this, as all who knew him inti- 
 mately would readily believe, without being guilty 
 of the slightest insincerity. He thought his friend's 
 wife had been foully maligned, as doubtless she had 
 been, and he gladly seconded every effort of the 
 President to vindicate her good name. In doing 
 this, besides winning the President's warmest regard, 
 he pleased and won Major Eaton, the President's 
 special friend in the Cabinet ; also Mrs. Eaton and 
 her mother, both old friends of General Jackson's. 
 He also gave great satisfaction to Major Lewis, who 
 lived in the White House, the constant companion 
 of the President, and who was nearly connected 
 with Major Eaton by marriage. 
 
 The friendship of all these influential persons 
 drew with it all the more particular and intimate 
 adherents of the President — the inner Jacksonian 
 circle, notably Amos Kendall, of Kentucky, and Isaac 
 Hill, of New Hampshire. Daniel Webster's amus- 
 ing comment upon these events and signs of the 
 times Avas very far from being a jest : 
 
 "Mr. Van Buren," he wrote in January, 1830, 
 " has evidently quite the lead in influence and 
 importance. . . It is odd enough, but too evident 
 to be doubted, that the consequences of this dispute 
 in the social and fashionable world are producing 
 
304 
 
 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 great political effects, mid may determine who shall be 
 successor to the present Chief Magistrate y 
 
 Mr. Webster's prediction was far more prophetic 
 than even he supposed it was when he made it. 
 
 4 
 
War Upon the United States Bank. 305 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE WAR UPON THE UNITED STATES BANK— FORE- 
 SHADOWING OF NULLIFICATION — PRESIDENT 
 JACKSON READY FOR ANYTHING. 
 
 '' The United States Bank War," though a blood- 
 less contest, was one of the bitterest wars that ever 
 raged on the American continent. It convulsed 
 society, as well as business and politics, from one 
 end of the Union to the other. Millions of people 
 verily believed that it would be impossible for the 
 country to get along without a United States Bank. 
 " Destroy the Bank and you destroy the country," 
 was an adage of the time. 
 
 The first Bank of the United States was chartered 
 in 1791, and was to continue till March 4, i8ir. 
 There was much contention on the subject, and 
 Andrew Jackson became strongly prejudiced against 
 a United States Bank. An effort was made to 
 re-charter the old Bank in Febuary, 18 11, but the 
 bill was defeated in the Senate by the casting vote 
 of Vice-President Clinton. During the War of 1812, 
 the finances of the government and of the country 
 got into such a deplorable condition that a new 
 Bank of the United States was suggested as a 
 remedy. A bill chartering the second Bank of the 
 United States was passed by Congress in 18 16. The 
 Bank went into operation January 7, 18 17, and was 
 to continue till March 3, 1836. 
 
 In 1829, Avhen Andrew Jackson succeeded to the 
 
3o6 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Presidency, the United States Bank, situated in 
 Philadelphia, with twenty-five branches in other 
 important centers of business, was an important and 
 imposing institution. Its capital was thirty-five 
 million dollars. The government balance of public 
 money deposited in the Bank averaged nearly seven 
 millions ; the private deposits more than six millions. 
 Its bank-note circulation was twelve millions. It 
 discounted notes to the amount of forty millions a 
 year, upon which it made a profit of three millions. 
 At the parent Bank in Philadelphia there were a 
 hundred clerks, and each of the branches had its 
 president, cashier and board of directors, besides 
 employed persons in the twenty -five branches to the 
 number of four hundred, the greater part of whom 
 were men of standing and influence, enjoying com- 
 pensation which was liberal for that day. The notes 
 of the bank were current everywhere without dis- 
 count, and often commanded a small premium at 
 remote cities, such as Calcutta, Canton, St. Peters- 
 burg and Cairo. The stock of the Bank was con- 
 sidered an investment highly desirable and perfectly 
 safe. The Bank was governed by twenty-five 
 directors, five of whom were appointed by the 
 President of the United States. Besides the national 
 character thus imparted to it, the Bank received and 
 disbursed the whole revenue of the nation. Its 
 president was Nicholas Biddle, a man of highly 
 attractive personality, fluent with tongue and pen, 
 of honorable and generous sentiments, and 
 abundantly competent to manage the Bank in 
 ordinary times. 
 
 The ancient opposition to any United States Bank, 
 
War Upon the Uiiited States Baiik, 307 
 
 well-founded and sufficient as it was, appeared to 
 have exhausted itself in 1829, and Andrew Jackson 
 himself seemed to have outlived his former prej- 
 udice against it. It is absolutely certain that he 
 came to Washington with no thought or purpose 
 concerning the Bank in his mind. The charter had 
 still seven years to run. 
 
 The first dealings of the Administration with the 
 Bank were unusually cordial and satisfactory. The 
 Bank went out of its way to oblige the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, who thanked it for the accommodat- 
 ing spirit it had shown, and this he did with very 
 marked emphasis, and more than once. In a word, 
 despite theoretical objections and old prejudice, the 
 new Administration accepted the United States 
 Bank as part and parcel of the governmental system 
 of the United States, just as they did the post- 
 office and the consular service. 
 
 Nevertheless, during this first summer of the 
 Presidential term, a storm was brewing against 
 the Bank in far-off New Hampshire, unnoticed, 
 which proved to have in it the elements of a 
 cyclone of irresistible and destructive force. 
 
 Editor Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire, then 
 Second Comptroller of the Treasur}^ was a person 
 hio^h in the confidence of the President. He had a 
 rooted hostility against Jeremiah Mason, the presi- 
 dent of the Branch of the United States Bank at 
 Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The president of 
 every bank is compelled by his position to make 
 enemies, because he is continually obliged to dis- 
 criminate among business men and to say No to 
 persons whose prosperity and solvency may depend 
 
J 
 
 08 Ge7ie7^al Andrew Jackson. 
 
 upon his saying Yes. Isaac Hill and his party 
 friends charged and believed that Jeremiah Mason 
 had conducted his Branch Bank in a manner that 
 was "partial, harsh, novel, and injurious to the 
 interests of the Bank, destructive to the business of 
 Portsmouth and offensive to the whole com- 
 munit}'." 
 
 These and other accusations coming officially to 
 the knowledge of Nicholas Biddle, he went to 
 Portsmouth, spent six days in the investigation of 
 the charges, and satisfied himself that they were 
 groundless. He was also convinced that Mason 
 was in all respects a model bank president. Mr. 
 Biddle concluded a letter to the Secretary of the 
 Treasury on the results of his investigations at 
 Portsmouth with a foolish passage which the 
 Administration interpreted and accepted as a 
 defiance. The directors of the bank, he said, did 
 not " acknowledge the slightest responsibility of 
 any description whatsoever to the Secretary of the 
 Treasury touching the political opinions and con- 
 duct of their officers, that being a subject on which 
 they never consult and never desire to know the 
 views of any Administration." He further inti- 
 mated, with sufficient plainness, the intention of the 
 directors to manage the bank according to their 
 own judgment, and not to permit any ** interference 
 in the concerns of the institution confided to their 
 care." 
 
 How repeatedly have disastrous consequences 
 flowed from seemingly insignificant circumstances! 
 This foolish rhetorical flourish of Mr. Biddle's too 
 
War Upon the U7iited States Bank. 309 
 
 facile pen was the proximate cause of the destruction 
 of the United States Bank. 
 
 From the days of Alexander Hamilton, Andrew 
 Jackson had had a strong- antipathy to a United 
 States Bank, which had slumbered during- recent 
 years ; but on reading the voluminous correspond- 
 ence between Mr. Biddle and the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, his antipathy instantly awoke, never to 
 slumber again as long as the Bank existed. He 
 was surrounded, too, by men whose opposition to 
 the Bank was only less decided than his own. 
 
 In his next annual message to Congress, the 
 President began the war on the United States Bank 
 which did not cease until that overshadowing insti- 
 tution was destroyed. The contention led to many 
 important political changes ; among others, to the 
 election of Isaac Hill as United States Senator from 
 New Hampshire; to the deserting by the United 
 States Telegraph of the Administration, of which it 
 had been the organ, and to the founding of the 
 Washmgton Globe as the new organ of the Adminis- 
 tration, with Francis P. Blair as its editor. Mr. 
 Blair, one of the most powerful political writers of 
 that time, was brought on specially from Kentucky 
 to take charge of the new organ, which he con- 
 ducted with consummate ability. The Globe was 
 surprisingly successful from the issue of its first 
 number, and gave the Administration a skillful and 
 powerful support, which was of incalculable value. 
 
 As an offset to this important acquisition, Henry 
 Clay, in 1831, returned to the Senate. The brilliant 
 orator at once provided Mr. Blair with inexhausti- 
 ble editorial topics. It was Henry Clay who 
 
3IO Gene7^al Andrew Jackson. 
 
 induced the Bank to apply for the renewal of its 
 charter in 183 1, so that it should enter as an issue 
 into the Presidential election of 1832. The wisest 
 friends of the bank said : " No ; let us keep it out 
 of the Presidential contest ; let us wait until we 
 have a friend in the Presidential chair." The impet- 
 uous Clay, never a tractable nor a skillful politician, 
 thought otherwise. Pennsylvania, as he truly 
 remarked, had been and still was the stronghold of 
 the Jackson party, and the Bank was located in 
 Pennsylvania. Congress would certainly pass the 
 bill renewing the charter. If the President vetoed 
 it the great controlling State of Pennsylvania would 
 unquestionably abandon him. If he should sign it, 
 he would be fatally weakened in the South and 
 West. The mistake in this reasoning was in sup- 
 posing that Philadelphia and Pennsylvania were 
 politically synonymous ; whereas they had very lit- 
 tle in common, and there was even some political 
 antipathy on the part of the great body of Pennsyl- 
 vania farmers to the chief city of their common- 
 wealth. 
 
 The impregnable strength of Jackson rested on 
 his honesty and the soundness of his financial views. 
 Biddle's financial theories were unsound, and the 
 distressing exigencies of his situation led him to 
 deviate into unsound practises. He countenanced 
 enormous issues of drafts by the Branch Banks, 
 which were to be and were used as currency. They 
 were in fact the counterpart of bank-notes. They 
 were drawn on the parent Bank for even sums 
 ($5, $10, or $20,) by the cashier of any branch, to the 
 order of some officer of the Branch Bank, endorsed 
 
Foreshadowing of Nullification, 3 1 1 
 
 by the latter to bearer, and then circulated like bank- 
 notes. The amount of these drafts at one time 
 amounted to seven millions four hundred thousand 
 dollars. A high authority says : " Great conse- 
 quences hung on the strait into which the branch 
 drafts had pushed the Bank, and this measure of 
 
 relief to which Biddle had recourse. Biddle was 
 too plausible. In any emergency he was ready to 
 
 write a letter or report, to smooth things over and 
 present a good face in spite of facts. Any one who 
 has carefully studied the History of the Bank, and 
 Biddle's statements, will come to every statement of 
 his with a disagreeable sense of suspicion."* 
 
 Biddle asserted that the Bank stood between the 
 country and financial ruin. ** The whole policy of 
 the Bank for the last six months," he wrote in 1832, 
 " has been exclusively protective and conservative, 
 calculated to mitigate suffering and yet avert dan- 
 ger." As Professor Sumner says: " He sketches out 
 in broad and bold outlines the national and inter- 
 national relations of American industry and com- 
 merce and the financial relations of the Treasury, 
 with the Bank enthroned over all as the financial 
 providence of the country. . . However, it was all 
 humbug, and especially that part which represented 
 the Bank as watching over and caring for the pub- 
 lic. . . If the Bank had been strong, Biddle's 
 explanations would all have been meretricious ; as 
 it was, the Bank had been quite fully occupied in 
 1831-32 in taking care of itself, mitigating its own 
 sufferings and averting its own dangers."t 
 
 . • * Sumner's Life of Jackson, 269. t Ibid. 270, 271. 
 
''1 2 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 J 
 
 The bill rechartering the Bank of the United 
 States, after a debate of great ability and occasional 
 violence, and an excitement out of doors seldom 
 created by a financial measure, was passed by the 
 House of Representatives, July 3, 1832, by a vote of 
 109 to 'j6. It had previously passed the Senate by a 
 vote of 28 to 20. It was presented to the President for 
 his consideration on the Fourth of July. Six days 
 after he returned it to Congress, vetoed. He 
 accompanied the unsigned bill with one of the long- 
 est and one of the most ingenious messages ever sent 
 to Congress. Never did a public document have 
 such a strange fortune as this message, for it was 
 circulated by each party as a campaign bombshell 
 that would be fatal to the opposition. It was viewed 
 by some of the leading partisans of Mr. Clay with 
 the most sincere and complete contempt, as a vulgar 
 explosion of ignorance, prejudice and hate. Nicholas 
 Biddle, the president of the bank, appears to have 
 been as truly delighted with it as he said he was. In 
 reply to Henry Clay, who had asked him what he 
 thought the effect of the Veto Message would be, he 
 replied that it was working as well as the friends of 
 the Bank could desire. 
 
 " It has all the fury of a chained panther biting 
 the bars of his cage, and my hope is that it will con- 
 tribute to relieve the country from the dominion 
 of these miserable people. You are destined to be the 
 instrument of that deliverance, and at no period of 
 your life has the country ever had a deeper stake in 
 you." 
 
 On the other hand, the message was circulated 
 through the agency of the office holders in every part 
 
Foreshadowing of Ntdlification. 3 1 3 
 
 of the country, and everywhere it came with con- 
 vincing power to the farmer and the artisan. Every- 
 thing that was done by either party helped to make 
 the people lamiliar with the message, and the more 
 familiar with it they became, the more powerfully it 
 drew them to the support of President Jackson. 
 
 During this Presidential term, the great debate 
 took place between Mr. Webster and Colonel 
 Hayne, of South Carolina, on the nature of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States and the fundamental 
 character of our Government. It was in that debate 
 that the great parliamentary battle between Seces- 
 sion and Unionism was fought. Extraordinary 
 interest was imparted to the debate by the magni- 
 tude of the vital issues involved, and the unexampled 
 power and splendor of Webster's argument. No 
 President ever followed the proceedings of Con- 
 gress with keener interest than Andrew Jackson. 
 No matter how late the House sat, he would never 
 go to sleep until Major Lewis or his secretary had 
 returned from the Capitol, and given him the sub- 
 stance of the proceedings. He was deeply stirred 
 by this famous discussion. His personal sympathies 
 were with Colonel Hayne, the brother of the excel- 
 lent and valiant soldier who had served under 
 him in the Creek War and at New Orleans; nor 
 did the President yet believe that the nullifiers had 
 a serious purpose. As the debate went on he felt 
 more acutely the fallacy of some portions of Mr. 
 Hayne's argument. 
 
 " Well," said he one evening to Major Lewis^ 
 " and how is Webster getting on ?" 
 
 " He is delivering a most powerful speech," said 
 
'> 
 
 14 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Lewis. "" I am afraid he is demolishing our friend 
 Hayne." 
 
 ** I expected it," said the President. 
 
 And soon after, when the State-rights men had 
 their grand banquet, ostensibly in honor of Thomas 
 Jefferson's birthday, two remarkable and ever mem- 
 orable toasts were given ; one by the President of 
 the United States,, and the other by Vice-President 
 Calhoun. The President gave : 
 
 '' Our Federal Union : it must be preserved." 
 
 Mr. Calhoun offered the following : 
 
 "The Union: next to our liberty, the most dear; 
 may we all remember that it can only be preserved 
 by respecting the rights of the States, and distribut- 
 ing equally the benefit and burden of the Union." 
 
Jackso7is Choice of a Successor. 3 i 5 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 PRESIDENT JACKSON'S CHOICE OF A SUCCESSOR— RUP- 
 TURE WITH CALHOUN— PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 
 OF 1832— ANYTHING TO BEAT JACKSON— HIS 
 TRIUMPHANT RE-ELECTION. 
 
 Like other Presidents-elect, Andrew Jackson went 
 to Washington in 1S29 expecting and intending to 
 serve but one term. He was then sixty-two years 
 of age, a sick, infirm, bereaved and suffering man, 
 consoled and sustained chiefly by the presence of 
 his Tennessee relations and neighbors. 
 
 At that time there were two friends of his, of emi- 
 nent note and long public service, who might 
 rationally indulge the expectation of being preferred 
 by him as a successor. These were Mr. Calhoun 
 and Mr. Van Buren, two of the babies born in 1782, 
 and both now in the prime of their years. To both 
 of them it must have been apparent that the prefer- 
 ence of a President so intrenched in popularity as 
 Andrew Jackson would go far toward deciding who 
 should take his place in 1833. This was more 
 apparent when the offices throughout the whole 
 country had been filled with Jackson men. 
 
 Before any one had given much thought to the 
 matter the Eaton scandal had divided the new cabi- 
 net into two hostile parties, equal in number — three 
 to three. Van Buren, Eaton and Barry sustained 
 Mrs. Eaton ; Ingham, Berrien and Branch, all mar- 
 ried men, owing to the hostility of their wives to 
 
3i6 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Mrs. Eaton, could not avoid the appearance of siding 
 against her. Mrs. Calhoun, too, refused to call upon 
 the lady, which involved the Vice-President himself 
 in the affair ; and it happened that the three anti- 
 Eatonians, Ingraham, Berrien and Branch, were Mr. 
 Calhoun's political friends and allies. 
 
 At once, therefore, before the first few weeks 
 passed by, the President cooled toward Calhoun 
 and warmed toward Van Buren. As time went on 
 the coolness became hostility, and the warmth 
 kindled into a decided and ev*en passionate prefer- 
 ence. Van Buren was a singularly bland and good- 
 natured man, and understood perfectly the art of 
 " getting along with " a masterful and fiery spirit 
 like Jackson, who soon became perfectly at home 
 with him. He began to speak of him to his familiar 
 friends as *' Van," and was heard sometimes to 
 address him as '* Matty." He liked and relished 
 his company to an extraordinary degree. 
 
 Moreover, as an old-fashioned Democrat reared in 
 the school of Jefferson, the Secretary of State was 
 in perfect accord with the President on the Bank 
 question, and agreed with him in opposing all the 
 movements and doctrines that gave any semblance 
 of strength to the nuUifiers. Calhoun, on the con- 
 trary, was ominously silent on the Bank, and was 
 openly hostile to the protective tariff, which he had 
 so warmly supported in 1816. He would not hear 
 of any tariff compromise. When he was asked as to 
 the disposal of the surplus revenue, on the near 
 extinguishment of the public debt, his only reply 
 was that there should be no surplus. The tariff 
 
 ■ V. 
 
 -Sb 
 
Jackson^ s Choice of a Successor. 3 1 j 
 
 must be reduced until the surplus had disap- 
 peared. 
 
 During the whole of the year 1829, the excite- 
 ments of his new situation told severely upon the 
 long ago weakened health of the President. In 
 December, Major Lewis, his familiar and constant 
 associate, almost despaired of his life, and the Presi- 
 dent himself felt how slight a hold he had upon 
 existence. The two old neighbors conversed upon 
 this subject with the utmost freedom, not without 
 reference to the alarming prospect that, in case of 
 the President's death, he would be succeeded by a 
 Vice-President who was opposed to his policy on 
 every leading point. Major Lewis, too, took the 
 deepest interest in having Mr. Van Buren succeed 
 General Jackson, and he talked frankly upon this 
 subject also to the President. 
 
 " It occurred to me," he once wrote, " that Gen- 
 eral Jackson's name, though he might be dead, 
 would prove a powerful lever if judiciously used, in 
 raising Mr. Van Buren to the Presidency. I there- 
 fore determined to get the general, if possible, to 
 write a letter to vSome friend to be used at the next 
 succeeding Presidential election (in case of his death) 
 expressive of the confidence he reposed ih Mr. Van 
 Buren's abilities, patriotism and qualifications for 
 any station, even the highest within the gift of the 
 people." 
 
 The general consenting, such a letter was written 
 to Judge John Overton, of Tennessee (Jackson's 
 second in the Dickinson duel), who, however, lived 
 and died without knowing the purpose for which 
 this letter was written. It extolled Mr. Van Buren 
 
3i8 General Andrezv Jackson. 
 
 as the " dear friend " of the President ; a man, open, 
 candid and manly ; republican in his principles, and 
 a true friend of the people. The President wished 
 he could say as much for Mr. Calhoun, but he could 
 not, and he had a right to believe that " most of the 
 troubles, vexations and difficulties I have had to 
 encounter since my arrival in this city, have been 
 occasioned by his friends." Moreover, Mr. Calhoun 
 was factiously opposed to the special objects of the 
 Administration. This letter had all the appearance 
 of a private and casual communication, but carefully 
 attested copies were made of it and put away among 
 the private papers of Major Lewis. 
 
 The President rallied during the early months of 
 1830. His health was so greatly benefited by the 
 bracing winter of the capital that the Overton device 
 passed out of memory, as the question of the succes- 
 sion became more interesting. Upon one point the 
 President was now fully resolved, that neither Clay 
 nor Calhoun should ever occupy the Presidential 
 chair, if he could prevent it. There appears to have 
 been an unrecorded programme arranged, that 
 extended far beyond the next Presidential election. 
 It was an " understood thing " between the President 
 and his most confidential Iriends, that he should be 
 succeeded by Martin Van Buren, and Van Buren by 
 Colonel Benton, which it was thought would carry 
 the matter beyond the public life of Clay and Cal- 
 houn. 
 
 The first steps toward the execution of this pro- 
 gramme were taken as early as March, j^8\i. A 
 series of adroit political manoeuvres followed, by 
 which, in due time, Andrew Jackson was placed 
 
 I 
 
Presidential Election ^1832. 319 
 
 before the people as a candidate for re-election to 
 the Presidency in 1832. 
 
 A few weeks later occurred the momentous rup- 
 ture between the President and the Vice-President. 
 At a dinner-party in the White House, given in 
 honor of ex-President Monroe, Major Lewis chanced 
 to learn that, in 1819, it was Calhoun, not Crawford, 
 who had expressed the opinion in the Cabinet that 
 General Jackson's conduct in the Seminole War 
 ought to be submitted to a court of inquiry. A long 
 correspondence between the President and Vice- 
 President followed this discovery, in which Mr. 
 Calhoun vigorously but inaptly strove to avert the 
 serious blow to his ambitious hopes, with which he 
 saw himself menaced. The President, already 
 estranged from him, would not be appeased, and 
 ended the correspondence by announcing that their 
 friendly relations were at an end. 
 
 I]»'il&^, the Vice-President published the corres- 
 pondence in a voluminous pamphlet, accompanying 
 it with temperate explanatory remarks, in which he 
 appealed to the people of the United States as their 
 common judge, or court of last appeal. The Presi- 
 dent retorted by retiring to private life Mr. Cal- 
 houn's three political allies in the Cabinet ; a change 
 which he effected by a series of adroit and audacious 
 movements. First, Major Eaton resigned^ alleging 
 that he had accepted the office of Secretary of War 
 only in deference to the wishes of the President, 
 and but for a short time. As everything was now 
 going on so prosperously, he thought the time for 
 his withdrawal had come. The President accepted 
 his resignation with cordial expressions of gratitude 
 
^20 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackso7i, 
 
 and esteem, and appointed him Governor of Florida. 
 Five years later the Batons went abroad, Mr. Eaton 
 having been commissioned to represent the United 
 States at the court of Spain. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren resigned next, in an elaborate 
 letter, which was replied to by the President with 
 affectionate warmth. Mr. Van Buren went abroad 
 ere long as Minister to England. The President 
 then asked for the resignation of Messrs. Ingham, 
 Berrien and Branch, on the simple ground that he 
 deemed it best to " entirely renew " his Cabinet. 
 
 Edward Livingston, Senator from Louisiana, who 
 had been notified beforehand of these events, and 
 had agreed to accept the place of Secretary of State, 
 now received the appointment. Louis McLane, 
 Minister to England, was recalled and placed at the 
 head of the Treasury. Levi Woodbury was made 
 Secretary of the Navy, and Lewis Cass, so long 
 governor of Michigan Territory, was appointed 
 Secretary of War. Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, 
 a lawyer of great eminence, was appointed Attorney- 
 General. This change in the Cabinet, a thing 
 which had never before occurred in the midst of a 
 Presidential term, since the formation of the govern- 
 ment, created an excitement throughout the country 
 difficult for us now to imagine, and soon after the 
 long-smothered scandal concerning Mrs. Eaton 
 burst into publicity. 
 
 The acute disappointment of Mr. Calhoun pro- 
 duced peculiar and ominous excitement in South 
 Carolina. In the course of the summer of 1831, Mr. 
 Calhoun published an address of inordinate length, 
 avowing himself a believer in the doctrine of nuUi- 
 
Presidential Electio7t of 1832. 
 
 o 
 
 21 
 
 fication. Threatening paragraphs accompanied and 
 followed it, to the eflect that, unless the protective 
 tariff were promptly modified, South Carolina 
 would refuse to pay it on goods imported in her 
 harbors. 
 
 As had often happened before, the President's 
 action in changing his Cabinet gratified many of his 
 opponents, and somewhat alarmed his more timid 
 adherents. We find Mr. Clay writing of it in this 
 manner: 
 
 " Who could have imagined such a cleansing of 
 the Augean stables at Washington, a change almost 
 total of the Cabinet ? Our cause cannot fail to be 
 benefited by the measure. It is a broad confession 
 of the incompetency of the President's chosen 
 advisers, no matter from what cause, to carry on 
 the business of the government. I think we are 
 authorized to anticipate confidently General Jack- 
 son's defeat." Daniel Webster was not so confident, 
 and he proved to understand the situation better 
 than his popular colleague. 
 
 Early in the following session of the Senate, the 
 nominations of the new Cabinet officers came before 
 it for confirmation, and they were all confirmed 
 without serious opposition. But when it came to 
 that of Mr. Van Buren for Minister to England, 
 Clay, Webster and Calhoun united in a movement 
 to defeat it. Mr. Calhoun erroneously attributed to 
 Mr. Van Buren the intrigue which had resulted in 
 the President's hostility to himself. He believed, 
 also, that the dissolution of the Cabinet was wholly 
 Van Buren's contrivance. Clay and Webster were 
 of opinion that Van Buren was the author of the 
 
32 2 Ge7ieral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 alleged new policy which conferred the public 
 offices upon members of the dominant party. This, 
 also, was an error. At that time there was no man 
 living who had the Roman courage and virtue 
 requisite for the thorough enforcement of such a 
 system except Andrew Jackson. A pretext was 
 found for rejecting Mr. Van Buren in one of his 
 dispatches to the Secretary of State, and he was 
 rejected accordingly. 
 
 Fifty-one days, as Colonel Benton records, were 
 spent in the preliminary intrigue, but the debate 
 upon it lasted but two days. It was in this brief 
 discussion that Governor Marcy, of New York, 
 used an expression which has never since been for- 
 gotten, and is not likely to be. He was defending 
 Van Buren from the charge of having incited the 
 President to conduct the national government on 
 the principles long practiced in New York. 
 
 " The politicians of New York," said Marcy, 
 ** boldly preach what they practice. 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 
 success. They see nothing wrong in the rule that 
 to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy J' 
 
 Mr. Van Buren found many able and brilliant 
 defenders on this occasion, both within and without 
 the Senate chamber. When the vote rejecting his 
 nomination was announced. Colonel Benton turned 
 to a friend and said : " You have broken a minister 
 and elected a Vice-President." On the day that 
 the news reached London Mr. Van Buren was a 
 
 't\ 
 
Presidential Election ^1832. 323 
 
 guest of Prince Talleyrand, who then represented 
 the King of the French at the British court. Lord 
 Auckland, an experienced politician said to him : 
 " It is an advantage to a public man to be the sub- 
 ject of an outrage." Colonel Benton reports a 
 remark of Mr. Calhoun's on the event which shows 
 how imperfectly the great Nullifier comprehended 
 the political situation at the time. 
 
 *'I heard Mr. Calhoun say," records Benton, 'Uo 
 one of his doubting friends: * It will kill him, sir, 
 kill him dead ; he will never kick, sir; never kick.' 
 And the alacrity with which he gave the casting 
 votes on the two occasions, both vital, on which 
 they were put into his hands, attested the sincerity 
 of his belief and his readiness for the work." 
 
 Seldom has even an ambitious politician been 
 more mistaken than Mr. Calhoun was in this matter, 
 for this rejection by the Senate strengthened Mr. 
 Van Buren's position very greatly and in every 
 way. It became from that hour the President's 
 ruling object to secure his elevation, and the whole 
 Jackson party embraced his cause with renewed 
 earnestness. The consolatory letters which 
 reached him by every mail gave him opportunity 
 for highly effective replies, by which he contributed 
 almost as much to the triumph of his chief as to his 
 own. . 
 
 The question at once arose by what machinery of 
 politics Mr. Van Buren should be presented to the 
 people as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. The 
 device selected was that of a national convention, 
 which accordingly was held at Baltimore on May 
 2ist, 1832. Three hundred and twenty-six dele- 
 
324 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 gates were present at this convention, the great 
 majority of whom were office-holders, or friends 
 representing office-holders. Judge Overton, of 
 Tennessee, had been selected as the permanent pre- 
 siding officer, but he was prevented from attending 
 by his infirmities. The business of the convention 
 was done with the utmost ease and dispatch. On 
 the first ballot, Martin Van Buren received 260 
 votes ; P. P. Barbour, 40 ; R. M. Johnston, 26. 
 The convention then adjourned without publishing 
 any platform of principles, or issuing an address to 
 the people. The nomination was truly the act of 
 the President. Major Lewis personally informed 
 Mr. Parton, that, on learning by chance at the last 
 moment that one of the delegates (Major Eaton), 
 just arrived from abroad, intended to oppose the 
 nomination, he wrote to him " warning him of the 
 danger of such a course, unless he was prepared to 
 quarrel with the general^ Major Lewis adds that 
 this delegate fortunately received his letter "• in 
 time to save himself, and perhaps Van Buren, also." 
 
 Thus the Democratic candidates presented were 
 Jackson and Van Buren. Those of the Whigs, as 
 the opposition were beginning to be called, were 
 Henry Clay and John Sergeant. The anti-Mason 
 party nominated William Wirt, of Maryland, and 
 William Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania. It is a curious 
 instance of the blindness of political leaders that 
 Henry Clay felt more apprehension on account of 
 the supposed popularity of this new party than he 
 felt from the party which supported Jackson and 
 Van Buren. 
 
 Clay belonged to the school of statesmen who 
 
Presidential Election of i St, 2. 325 
 
 believe in '* paternal government," and think they 
 can do better for the people than the people can do 
 for themselves. That is to say, at bottom, instead of 
 wishing for '* a government of the people, by the 
 people, for the people," those paternal statesmen 
 want government of the people, by statesmen, for 
 statesmen. Clay's arrogance in this respect repeat- 
 edly gave offense to the masses, and the Jacksonians 
 took good care that it should do him as much 
 injury as possible. 
 
 The Presidential campaign of 1832, which was in 
 some respects the most important election of the 
 kind that had ever occurred, called forth an amount 
 and variety of effort probably never equaled in a 
 similar contest. The Jackson men again employed 
 the popular device of erecting hickory poles, which 
 called together vast concourses of enthusiastic 
 voters. The Whigs gave sumptuous banquets and 
 made eloquent speeches. The Anti-Masons sought 
 to congeal the blood of the people by their 
 portrayals of the alleged secret horrors of Free 
 Masonry. 
 
 The real issues of the struggle were by no means 
 overlooked. The United States Bank, the necessity 
 of modifying the tariff in order to reduce the 
 revenue, the threats of Nullification in South 
 Carolina, the removal of the Cherokees beyond the 
 Mississippi, and the President's vetoes of internal 
 improvement bills, were discussed with sufficient 
 coolness and ability to make it plain to the dis- 
 passionate voter, that, all things considered, it had 
 become a necessity of the time to sustain Andrew 
 Jackson, in order to secure the welfare of the 
 
326 General And7'ew Jackson, 
 
 country, and perhaps to save the Union from destruc- 
 tion. And Andrew Jackson was re-elected President 
 of the United States by a majority which exceeded 
 the anticipations of the most sanguine Democrats. 
 Out of 288 electoral votes (then the whole number) 
 he received 219, leaving only 69 for distribution 
 among the opposing candidates. 
 
 Having been thus overwhelmingly sustained by 
 the people, President Jackson entered upon his 
 second term more resolute than ever to settle firmly 
 and sternly all the issues between him and his oppo- 
 nents. The result was that his second term was the 
 most exciting and eventful Administration which the 
 United States had ever known. 
 
The Rise and Fall of Nullificalion. 327 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF NULLIFICATION. 
 
 The second term of Andrew Jackson's Presidency 
 was exciting and eventful. Public affairs had never 
 before absorbed so continuously the attention of the 
 people. It seemed as if all eyes were directed 
 toward the capital, where the antagonists of the 
 President gave him abundant opportunities of 
 exhibiting all his strongest and some of his most 
 attractive traits. There were times when he 
 appeared to have conquered all opposition and stood 
 forth in the eyes of the people as the manifest savior 
 of his country. 
 
 First of all, Calhoun and the nuUifiers of South 
 Carolina drew his fire. In 1832, the public debt 
 having been so nearly reduced as to make it certain 
 that during the next two years the last payment 
 would be made, the necessity of reducing the reve- 
 nue was obviously becoming imperative. The 
 moment the last year's payment was completed, the 
 public revenue would be more than twice as great 
 as the needs of the government, then about thirteen 
 millions per annum. There were three plans of 
 relief in 1832 before the country: i. Henry Clay's 
 bill to abolish the duties on raw material, while 
 preserving the protective system otherwise intact. 
 2. The President's plan, which was to do all that 
 Mr. Clay proposed and as much more as the case 
 required, or nearly as much, and to divide the sur- 
 
^28 Gene7^al Andrew Jackson. 
 
 o 
 
 plus revenue, if there should be any, among the 
 States. 3. The demand of John C. Calhoun, which 
 included the total abandonment of the protective 
 principle, as unconstitutional, oppressive and, in the 
 long run, injurious to business. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun's ground was one which a reasonable 
 statesman could stand upon if he supported it in the 
 republican method and spirit by argument alone. 
 But Calhoun accompanied his argument with 
 threats. He gave the country to understand that, 
 if the duties were not promptly reduced to the reve- 
 nue standard. South Carolina would nullify the acts 
 of Congress imposing them, refuse to pay the duties, 
 and import her merchandise from foreign countries 
 at her own ports free of all duty. 
 
 The State-rights theory, from which Mr. Calhoun 
 sophistically deduced " the constitutional right of 
 nullification, " has its origin in desires and aspira- 
 tions which are inherent in the nature of man. 
 Every human being wishes to be free, and to enjoy 
 his inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit 
 of happiness with the least possible interference by 
 society or the State. This trait of character, this 
 passion of the human heart has always been strong 
 in the British people — English, Scotch, Welsh, and 
 Irish — by whom the thirteen original States were 
 colonized. The descendants of the original colon- 
 ists inherited their love of personal and political 
 liberty, and cherished it with passionate devotion ; 
 they fought for it ; for it they risked their lives and 
 fortunes and staked their sacred honor. For a 
 hundred and fifty years they contended for it 
 against British kings, British parliaments and British 
 
The Rise and Fall of Nullification, 329 
 
 courts. They suffered much from kingly tyranny, 
 from parliamentary tyranny, from judicial tyranny, 
 and were therefore keenly jealous of executive power, 
 of legislative power, and of judicial power. So sen- 
 sitive had they become and so deep and unchange- 
 able were their convictions on this vital subject 
 that, although they thereby imperilled their success 
 in the Revolutionary struggle, they refused to give 
 the Continental Congress or the old Confederation 
 sufficient executive power to carry its own legisla- 
 tion into effect. It could recommend lines of action 
 to the States, but it could not enforce its recom- 
 mendations. 
 
 It may be expedient to remind readers whose 
 memories have become rusty as to these matters, 
 that after weary years of trial and experiment the 
 States [discovered that, under the Confederation, 
 they could not unify their independent powers and 
 bring them to bear with sufficient effect to command 
 the respect of foreign governments and protect their 
 commerce against foreign aggression; that they 
 could not satisfactorily adjust their internal commer- 
 cial relations or any inter-State interests which were 
 drawn into dispute ; that the people could not enjoy 
 life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on strictly 
 State-rights principles except within the boundariea 
 of their respective States, although it often hap. 
 pened that inhabitants of one State had to pursue 
 their happiness into another State, where, being 
 aliens, they had no State rights, and therefore could 
 not enforce their happiness. They discovered, in 
 short, that they were encumbered with an inadequate 
 government, under which they could not form a 
 
330 General A^idrew Jackson, 
 
 more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domes- 
 tic tranquility, provide for the common defense, 
 promote the general welfare, nor secure the bless- 
 ings of liberty to themselves and their posterity. 
 The pressure of this deplorable condition led to the 
 calling of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, for 
 the purpose of instituting, if possible, a Federal 
 Government which, without trenching on the rights 
 of the States, should have sufficient delegated power 
 to perform all those general governmental functions 
 which its creators (the several States) should assign 
 to it. But as soon as the Convention got under way 
 it was found that the formation of such a govern- 
 ment was seemingly impossible. The States were 
 so jealous and tenacious of their rights that rather 
 than part with enough of them to give supreme 
 power to the Federal Government which they were 
 trying to create, they preferred to go on as best they 
 could, as disunited States, without a Federal Gov- 
 ernment. Little by little, however, their jealousies 
 and prejudices and fears were overcome. With 
 what difficulty this result was attained can be learned 
 only by studying the proceedings of the Constitu- 
 tional Convention and the discussions which fol- 
 lowed the submission of the Constitution to the 
 people for adoption or rejection. 
 
 In considering this subject, it should be remem- 
 bered that every one of tue original thirteen States 
 was an independent sovereignty or nation, com- 
 pletely endowed with national rights and powers ; 
 whereas, the Federal Government which they 
 wished to create for certain specific and limited 
 purposes would have no powers whatever, and in 
 
The Rise and Fall of Ntdliji cation, 331 
 
 the nature of things could not have any powers 
 whatever, except such powers as its creators (the 
 sovereign States) should delegate to it. Those 
 delegated powers were to be exercised, not for the 
 benefit of the Federal Government and in accor- 
 dance with its own arbitrary will, but for the equal 
 benefit of the sovereign States which created it, and 
 in accordance with the terms of J:he Constitution 
 whereby and wherein those powers were delegated. 
 The powers delegated to the Federal Government 
 comprise such governmental functions as the States 
 themselves could not separately perform. For 
 example : It was essential that money should be 
 coined which would be legal tender in every State. 
 No State could coin such money, so the power to 
 coin it was delegated to the Federal Government. 
 It was necessary that navigation laws regulating 
 foreign commerce and also inter-State commerce 
 should be enacted. No State could enact such laws ; 
 therefore the power to enact them was delegated to 
 the Federal Government. It was necessary to 
 negotiate treaties with foreign nations which should 
 bind all the States and be of equal benefit to all ; it 
 was essential to form a more perfect Union, to pro- 
 vide for the common defense, to promote the general 
 welfare, and as no individual State could do any of 
 these essential things, power was delegated to the 
 Federal Government to do all of them. 
 
 Any State could supervise its own internal affairs, 
 relating to marriage, divorce, the collection of 
 debts, the punishment of violators of its State laws, 
 etc. The States needed no Federal Government to 
 attend to such matters for them, and they reserved 
 
2,^2 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 all power over such matters to themselves ; the 
 Federal Government having no power to meddle 
 with such State rights any more than the govern- 
 ment of Great Britain, France or Russia had. This 
 feature of our government was illustrated during 
 the discussion of the massacre of Italian assassins in 
 New Orleans (March, 1891.) The Italian Prime 
 Minister demanded that the Federal Government 
 should interfere and punish the persons who killed 
 the Italians ; whereupon, the American Secretary of 
 State instructed him that it was impossible for the 
 Government of the United States to take any action 
 on the case, inasmuch as it had no jurisdiction over 
 the police or criminal affairs of individual States. 
 
 In evolving and formulating the Constitution great 
 efforts were made to guard the indefeasible rights 
 which the States reserved to themselves against the 
 possibility of encroachment or interference on the 
 part of the Federal Government ; but when the Con- 
 stitution was complete and submitted to the people 
 of the States for adoption or rejection, it was fiercely 
 assailed on the ground that the reserved rights of 
 the States were not sufficiently protected. 
 
 After a prolonged, critical and exhaustive discus- 
 sion of the subject, a majority of the voters in the 
 several States Avere persuaded that the Federal 
 Government which was to be instituted under the 
 Constitution could not exercise any powers except 
 those which had been specifically granted to it ; and 
 this being the general understanding, and because it 
 was the general understanding, the Constitution 
 was adopted. But as soon as the Federal Govern- 
 ment went into operation, it began to exercise 
 
The Rise aiid Fall of NulliJi(fation, 'y^'^ 
 
 -y 
 
 " implied " and "■ derivative " powers, on the plea 
 that without the exercise of such powers no efficient 
 government was possible ; that as a matter of course 
 and as it was understood from the beginning the 
 Federal Government must and would exercise 
 whatever powers were necessary to carry into prac- 
 tical operation and effect all the powers which had 
 been specifically granted to it. Unless this were 
 done, it was argued, those specific powers had been 
 granted in vain, and in vain had the people of the 
 United States ordained and established their Con- 
 stitution. Webster subsequently demonstrated that 
 that was sound legal and constitutional doctrine ; 
 nevertheless, if the people had suspected that such 
 implied and derivative powers lay concealed in the 
 Constitution and could be logically and lawfully 
 evoked from the Constitution, they would not have 
 adopted it. Indeed, had the interpretation of the 
 Constitution and of the powers of the Federal 
 Government which Webster presented and estab- 
 lished beyond the possibility of logical contradiction 
 in his reply to Hayne in 1830, and to Calhoun in 
 1833, been made in 1788, it is doubtful if one State 
 would have voted for the adoption of the Constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 It should be remembered that at the time of the 
 formation and adoption of the Constitution, the love 
 and appreciation of the Union which exist to-day 
 were as impossible as the present physical condition 
 of the Union was then impossible. Then the differ- 
 ent sections were remote from one another in time 
 as well as in space, and a man could pass from one 
 section to another only at great inconvenience and 
 
334 General Andrezu Jacks 071. 
 
 often at the risk of his life. Now, the Union is 
 physically bound together by railroads along whose 
 iron arteries the currents of travel and traffic cease- 
 lessly flow, and is still more closely conjoined by 
 the electric telegraph which, like a vast nervous 
 system, brings every part of the country into imme- 
 diate touch and sympathy. Furthermore, since 
 Webster demonstrated the incomputable value of 
 the Union and the impossibility of perpetuating 
 American liberty without it, the appreciation of it 
 and the love for it have been constantly growing, 
 until now the preservation of the Union is both seen 
 and felt to be of more importance than any other 
 consideration which can be presented to a patriotic 
 mind. But in 1788, and for several years thereafter, 
 there was very little Union sentiment among the 
 people of the United States. They cared vastly 
 less for the Union than for their idolized State 
 rights. Such regard for the Union as they had 
 was of a practical, not a sentimental nature. '' What 
 is the Union doing for us? What is the Union 
 going to do for us ?" were the questions which the 
 people asked. Unless the Union should prove to 
 be practically useful to them, and useful in a way 
 which they could appreciate, they did not care for 
 it. Therefore, the assumption by the Federal Gov-" 
 ernment of implied and derivative powers aroused 
 the State-rights instinct and brought on the contest 
 which subsequently assumed nullifying and seces- 
 sion phases. Thomas Jefferson was the first nul- 
 lifier, was in fact, the father of nullification. In his 
 original draft of the famous Kentucky resolutions 
 
The Rise and Fall of Nullification. 335 
 
 of 1798, there occurred (in the 8th resolution) these 
 words : ** Where powers are assumed which have 
 not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the 
 right remedy." So far as I have been able to learn, 
 that was the first time the word nullification was 
 used in our political literature. Jefferson also took 
 the ground in another resolution that the States 
 should concur in declaring the Alien and Sedition 
 laws ''void and of no force," and that each State 
 should " take measures of its own for providing that 
 neither of these acts shall be exercised within their 
 respective territories." The Kentucky legislature 
 struck all this out ; but in 1799 it passed a resolution 
 suggesting that, " A nullification by these sovereign- 
 ties (the respective States) of all unauthorized acts 
 done under color of that instrument (the Constitu- 
 tion) is the rightful remedy." Thus the seed of 
 nullification planted by Jefferson germinated and 
 bore fruit in actual legislation, and in the course of 
 time grew into such a mighty tree that all the birds 
 of secession and disunion lodged in its branches — a 
 upas tree which was not rooted up until Lee sur- 
 rendered to Grant at Appomattox. And yet, who 
 ever connects Jefferson's name with nullification or 
 disunion? "Nothing" says Professor Sumner, " is 
 more astonishing in American political history than 
 the immunity enjoyed by some men, and the unfair 
 responsibility enforced against others. Every 
 school-boy is taught to execrate the Alien and Sedi- 
 tion laws and John Adams bears the odium of them, 
 but no responsibility worth speaking of for nullifica- 
 tion attaches to Jefferson. He was the father of 
 
2,^6 General Andrew Jackson,^ 
 
 it and the sponser for it, and the authority of his 
 name was what recommended it in 1827."* 
 
 From the day that Jefferson planted the seed of 
 nullification in his Kentucky resolutions there was 
 no lack of nullifiers and disunionists. Kentucky 
 and New England led off in these matters, but every 
 section of the country took its turn. Whenever a 
 law of Congress pressed sorely upon any particular 
 class or section, threats of nullification and disunion 
 were heard. The abolitionists and freesoilers were 
 violent disunionists just preceding the war. They 
 did all they could to nullify the fugitive slave law, 
 and were ready to dissolve the Union rather than be 
 made slave-catchers for the South. The truth is 
 that men are governed by a desire to promote their 
 own welfare and by the passions engendered in 
 defending their rights. There has seldom been a 
 community or a party, whether political or religious, 
 which would not violate any of its principles to pre- 
 serve its own existence, to secure what it believed 
 to be a vital advantage, or to avert unendurable 
 oppression. When a government persistently inflicts 
 upon a large portion of its citizens what they believe 
 to be and feel to be an intolerable wrong, those cit- 
 izens become willing to let the oppressive govern- 
 ment go and are ready to seek for a government 
 more considerate for what they believe to be their 
 rights. It is not at all strange, therefore, that the 
 Southern State-rights party took that course when 
 they were so sorely aggrieved by the tariff of 1828. 
 Their action was unquestionably unwise and unpa- 
 
 *Sumner, 215, 
 
The Rise and Fall of Ntdlijication, 337 
 
 triotic, but it was neither unnatural nor unprece- 
 dented. New England had set them the example 
 twenty odd years before when Jefferson's embargo 
 was destroying the commerce of the Eastern States 
 and reducing many of their once affluent citizens to 
 beggary ; but Massachusetts acted with less passion 
 and more discretion than South Carolina. " The 
 grievance of the South in 1828," says Professor 
 Sumner, was undeniable. . . . Their interests were 
 being sacrificed to pretended national interests, just 
 as, under the embargo, the interests of New England 
 were sacrificed to national interests. In each case 
 the party which considered its interests sacrificed, 
 came to regard the Union only as a cage, in which 
 all were kept in order that the stronger combination 
 might plunder the weaker. . . The more thoroughly 
 the economist and political philosopher recognizes 
 the grievance of the Southerners in 1828, the more 
 he must regret the unwisdom of their proceedings."* 
 The tariff of 1828 which spurred South Carolina 
 into nullification in 1832, was known as the " Tariff 
 of Abominations," and Avas probably as unjust a 
 tariff as could be imposed upon the country ; but 
 its unjust provisions were not due to its friends; 
 they were forced into the bill by its enemies for the 
 purpose of defeating it altogether. Against the 
 indignant protestations and the earnest efforts of its 
 friends the bill was so loaded down with odious 
 provisions that its defeat was believed to be assured. 
 But when it came to the final vote on the passage of 
 the bill, it was passed, to the utter consternation of 
 
 * Sumner, 210. 
 
33^ General Aiidrew Jackson, 
 
 its opponents. The protectionists accepted the bill, 
 outrageous as it was, rather than have no tariff at 
 all, and so caught the freetraders in their own 
 net. The dilemma of the Southern opponents of 
 the tariff was deplorable, and the means they took 
 to remedy it made it still worse. If they had 
 patriotically obeyed the law, yet lawfully sought 
 to have it repealed or modified, they would have 
 won the sympathy of the country and gained 
 their end. But when they changed the issue from 
 the upholding of a tariff to the upholding of the 
 Union, and challenged the supremacy of the 
 Supreme law of the land, they threw away their 
 advantage and invited defeat. Their first over- 
 throw occurred in the Senate, in January, 1830, 
 when Webster, in his reply to Hayne, established 
 forever the legal and constitutional supremacy of 
 the Union, and demonstrated that the alleged con- 
 stitutional right of nullification or secession is a 
 chimera of an illogical mind. The parliamentary 
 overthrow of secession was enthusiastically wel- 
 comed by the people, but it did not arrest the pro- 
 ceedings of the nuUifiers. Their threats grew 
 louder and more defiant from 1830 to 1832, and at 
 last Mr. Calhoun gave notice, as has been related, 
 that unless the tariff was so modified as to reduce 
 the duties to the revenue standard, South Carolina 
 would nullify the acts of Congress imposing them, 
 take her commerce with foreign countries into her 
 own keeping, and regulate it to suit herself. 
 
 Calhoun's demand that the tariff should be re- 
 duced to a revenue standard was made in accordance 
 with the intepretation of the Constitution by the 
 
The Rise and Fall of Ntillificatiou. 339 
 
 State-rights party, which contended that the Federal 
 Government *' had no power to lay a tariff except 
 for revenue only." It was admitted that in laying a 
 tariff for revenue, the Government might adjust the 
 duties so as incidentally to protect American manu- 
 factures ; that is to say, the object of laying a tariff 
 should be to raise revenue, and protection should be 
 only an incident. That was the prevalent doctrine 
 prior to the war of 18 12. During that war, Ameri- 
 can manufactures expanded to such an extent that 
 they became nearly equal in importance to agricul- 
 ture or commerce. As a matter of course, when the 
 war closed, the vast manufacturing interest sought 
 to protect itself by securing tariff legislation in its 
 favor. It succeeded so well that the result, as Benton 
 says, "■ reversed the old course of legislation — made 
 protection the object instead of the incident, and 
 revenue the incident instead of the object ; and was 
 another instance of constitutional construction being 
 made dependent, not upon its own words but upon 
 extrinsic, accidental and transient circumstances. 
 It introduced a new and a large question of consti- 
 tutional law, and of national expediency, fraught with 
 many and great consequences."* 
 
 One of the many and great consequences gener- 
 ated by this constitutional contention as to the 
 powers of the Federal Government to impose a 
 tariff for the specific purpose of protection, now con- 
 fronted the country in the guise of nullification. 
 Congress made great efforts to avert the threatened 
 disturbance. Mr. Clay's bill was passed as a pacifi- 
 
 * Benton, 1,3. 
 
340 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 catory measure in June, 1832, by which the revenue 
 was reduced three millions, and the President signed 
 it, as being a step toward the right system. The 
 nullifiers in South Carolina derided this effort to 
 appease their indignation, and proceeded to execute 
 Mr. Calhoun's threats. A Convention of the people, 
 authorized by the Legislature, met at Columbia, in 
 November, 1832, a few days after the Presidential 
 election, and adopted, without one dissentient voice, 
 the Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the tariff 
 law '* null, void and no law, nor binding upon this 
 State, its officers or citizens." It further decreed 
 that no duties enjoined by it should be paid or per- 
 mitted to be paid after February i, 1833. 
 
 According to the provisions of this tyrannical 
 " Ordinance," no appeal to the Supreme Court was 
 to be allowed, and even an attempt to appeal should 
 be held as criminal. If the government of the United 
 States should try by force to collect the duties, '• the 
 people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves 
 absolved from all further obligation to maintain or 
 preserve 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." 
 
 The governor and legislature, with the utmost 
 possible emphasis, adopted and commended this 
 Ordinance, and the governor was authorized to 
 accept the services of volunteers, organized like the 
 Minute Men of the Revolution. There was open 
 preparation for war throughout the State. Men, 
 women and children wore the blue cockade, with a 
 
The Rise and Fall of Ntillification. 341 
 
 palmetto button in the middle of it. Medals were 
 struck bearing inscriptions hostile to the Union. In 
 December, 1832, Mr. Calhoun resigned his office of 
 Vice-President. A vacancy was created in the Sen- 
 ate for him, to which he was at once elected. When 
 he left his home to take his seat in the Senate, the 
 State of South Carolina was in a universal ferment. 
 
 During all this year, 1832, whether he was at 
 Washington or at the Hermitage, the President of 
 the United States watched the proceedings of South 
 Carolina and her ruling spirit with a keenly atten- 
 tive eye. He viewed them merely as the treason- 
 able devices of a morbidly ambitious and acutely dis- 
 appointed man. His contempt for the movement 
 was unbounded. He said to General Sam Dale, an 
 old Indian fighter, who had served under him in the 
 West : " If this thing goes on our country will be 
 like a bag of meal with both ends open. Pick it up 
 in the middle or endwise and it will run out. I 
 must tie the bag and save the country. They are 
 trying me here ; you will witness it ; but, by the 
 God of Heaven, I will uphold the law !" Upon 
 hearing these words, the old soldier expressed a 
 hope that, after all, things would go right. ** They 
 shall go right, sir !" the President exclaimed, with 
 sudden vehemence, dashing his pipe down upon tue 
 table and breaking it to pieces. 
 
 He had a few devoted friends and adherents in 
 South Carolina, of whom Joel R. Poinsett was the 
 most active and the most competent. Poinsett kept 
 the President promptly advised of every movement, 
 and he on his part quietly took all possible precau- 
 tions. He stationed General Winfield Scott at 
 
342 
 
 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Charleston, and placed some regiments and parts of 
 regiments of regular troops where they could be of 
 immediate use in an emergency. The naval force in 
 Charleston was increased, and five thousand new mus- 
 kets were deposited in Castle Pinckney. He sent 
 a confidential messenger to Charleston to play the 
 part of an intelligent traveler, and carefully inspect 
 the forts, islands, revenue cutters and defensible 
 points. He came to an understanding with the 
 governors of adjacent States, and made it a sure 
 thing that, in case of an overt act of treason, he 
 could place fifty thousand men in South Carolina 
 within forty days, to be followed in another forty 
 days by fifty thousand more. In these days of peace, 
 it is appalling to think with what a tempest of war 
 he would have overwhelmed the Nullifiers if they 
 had had the courage to push their movement into 
 treasonable collision with the government. 
 
 Recently, we have had published the secret cor- 
 respondence of those months between the President 
 and Mr. Poinsett, in which Andrew Jackson shows, 
 as on many other occasions he exhibited, the heart 
 and mind of a natural master of men. His first and 
 strongest desire was to turn South Carolina loyalty 
 against South Carolina treason, and so confine the 
 turmoil to the limits of that rebellious State. Fail- 
 ing in this, he waited only for the perpetration of an 
 overt act of treason to arrest Calhoun with his prin- 
 cipal adherents and put them on trial for that capi- 
 tal crime. In his letters to Poinsett, he applied to 
 the case in hand the precise interpretation of the law 
 of treason, which in 1807 he heard luminously laid 
 down by Chief Justice Marshall at the trial of Aaron 
 
The Rise and Fall of Nullification. 34 
 
 1 
 
 Burr. He dwelt particularly on these two points : 
 I. There is no treason until an overt act is com- 
 mitted ; 2. When an overt act is committed, all 
 aiders and abettors are equally involved in the crime. 
 '* The first act of treason committed," he wrote in 
 January, 1833, ''unites to it all those who have aided 
 and abetted in the execution of the crime." 
 
 While thus quietly preparing for emergencies, the 
 President was taking measures to arouse the 
 patrotic feeling of the country. As soon as the 
 Ordinance of Nullification reached him, he began to 
 compose a proclamation by way of reply to it, in 
 which he refuted the doctrines of the Ordinance with 
 a rare blending of logic, tact and fire. He repro- 
 duced, in Jacksonian language, the unanswerable 
 argument made by Webster in his reply to Hayne. 
 It is said that his favorite pen was a steel implement 
 of such vast size that his friends were wont to say 
 that when it needed mending he sent it to a black- 
 smith to have it repaired. This pen shed ink pro- 
 fusely. In writing the proclamation against the 
 nuUifiers, the President dashed off page after page 
 with such rapidity that a friend who came into the 
 office found fifteen or twenty pages scattered over 
 the large table to hasten the drying of the ink. 
 
 In response to the nullifiers' assumption that 
 when, in the judgment of any State, the General 
 Government transcends the powers granted to it by 
 the several States, it breaks the "constitutional 
 compact," and justifies an aggrieved State in nulli- 
 fying the offensive law, and in seceding from the 
 Union and resuming the independent position it 
 enjoyed before the Union was formed, the President 
 
344 General Andrezu Jackson. 
 
 said : " 1 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, unauthor- 
 ized by its spirit, inconsistent with ever}'- principle 
 on which it was founded, and destructive of the 
 great object for which it was formed." 
 
 Had this expression of opinion been uttered b}^ 
 Webster in the Senate, the nullifiers would have 
 disregarded it ; but coming from the President of 
 the United States who, it was well known, would 
 back itup with the whole power of the Government, 
 it compelled the respect of some of the most radical 
 South Carolina statesmen sufficiently to make them 
 pause in their reckless career. 
 
 The response of the people to the proclamation 
 was electric and overwhelming. Enormous meet- 
 ings were held in the open air in New York, Boston, 
 Philadelphia, as well as in every State outside of 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Congress meanwhile was once more engaged with 
 the chronic difficulty of the tariff, trying to reconcile 
 irreconcilable interests, w^ith the inevitable result of 
 disappointing many and satisfying none. The 
 Verplanck bill, favored by the President, was the 
 most radical, since it proposed a large and sudden 
 reduction of the tariff. Mr. Clay's compromise was 
 less displeasing to the manufacturers, since it 
 reduced duties gradually — ten per cent, per annum 
 until all should be reduced below 'twenty per cent. ; 
 his object being to accomplish the unavoidable 
 reduction with the least possible shock to business, 
 
The Rise a7td Fall of Ntillification. 345 
 
 while saving as much as possible of the protective 
 policy. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun supported and voted for the bill of 
 Henry Clay, rather than for that of Mr. Verplanck 
 which was more in accord with his own position. 
 No doubt, there was a compromise all around, in 
 effecting which the unrecorded action of the lobby 
 was mightier than the legislation of Congress. 
 There were concessions on every side, to avoid civil 
 war, to avert from an erring sister the ruinous con- 
 sequence of her own rashness, and to save the neck 
 of John C. Calhoun. 
 
 As soon as Congress adjourned, the chief Nulli- 
 fier travelled southward night and day, and reached 
 Columbia in time to prevent South Carolina from 
 committing or permitting an act of treason. To 
 quote the authorized biography of Mr. Calhoun b}- 
 his friend Jenkins : 
 
 " Some of the more fiery and ardent members of 
 the Convention were disposed to complain of the 
 Compromise Act as being only a half-way, tempor- 
 izing measure; but, when Mr. Calhoun's explana- 
 tions were made, all felt satisfied, and the Convention 
 cordially approved of his course. The Nullification 
 Ordinance was repealed, and the two parties in the 
 State abandoned their organizations and agreed to 
 forget all their past differences." 
 
 Strange to relate, all the promoters of this com- 
 promise appeared to be gainers by it. Mr. Clay, 
 who visited New York and New England in the 
 course of the summer, was hailed with enthusiasm 
 in the manufacturing centers, and not less in the 
 great cities along the coast. Daniel Webster, too. 
 
34^ General Andi^ew Jackson, 
 
 reached the highest point in his career as the man 
 who had refuted the fallacies of nullification with 
 such brilliancy and power as to render his argument 
 a permanent national possession. General Jackson 
 was warmly attracted toward Mr. Webster, paid 
 him marked attention, sending his own carriage to 
 convey him to the Capitol when an important 
 debate was expected. Even Mr. Van Buren, sitting 
 tranquilly in the chair of the Senate, acquired 
 additional strength in his character of candidate 
 for the succession. 
 
Jackson s Second Ad7ninistratio7t, 347 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE president's NORTHERN TOUR — RECEPTION AT 
 HARVARD COLLEGE — SERIOUS DIFFICULTY WITH 
 FRANCE — PRESIDENT JACKSON'S LAST MES- 
 SAGE — HIS EXTRARODINARY POPULARITY 
 — HE GOES HOME — HIS FINANCIAL 
 AFFLICTIONS. 
 
 The man who gained most by the contest with 
 the nullifiers, and by the compromise which 
 enabled them to retreat from their false position, 
 was President Jackson himself. His visit to the 
 North and East during the summer of 1833 
 occasioned such an outpouring of popular 
 enthusiasm as the cities of New York and New 
 England had never before witnessed. His most 
 inveterate opponents were captivated by his 
 elegant manners, his majestic bearing and his genial 
 courtesy. In his "' Figures of the Past," Josiah 
 Quincy, who had been detailed by the Governor of 
 Massachusetts to accompany President Jackson 
 through that State, tells an amusing incident which 
 occurred at Attleboro, where the Presidential party 
 stopped for breakfast after leaving Rhode Island. 
 After breakfast they visited the manufactories of 
 jewelry lor which Attleboro was famous even at 
 that early day. As they were going through one 
 of the factories the superintendent of the establish- 
 ment said : *' You have been interfering with our 
 business, Mr. President, and should feel bound in 
 
348 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 honor to take these buttons off our hands," at the 
 same time exhibiting many cards of buttons stamped 
 with the palmetto tree. These, he said, had been 
 ordered by the Southern nullifiers as distinguish- 
 ing badges ; but they had been rendered worth- 
 less by the President's proclamation. Mr. Quincy 
 says that the President ** seemed greatly amused 
 at the discovery that treason in South Carolina 
 had its commercial value in Massachusetts." 
 
 President Jackson frequently said, in speaking of 
 nullification, that the tariff had been a mere pre- 
 text of the nullifiers ; that they wanted to break up 
 the Union, and that their next pretext would be the 
 slavery question — a prediction that proved prophetic. 
 
 The President's reception at Harvard Coll:)ge 
 was unexpectedly cordial and enthusiastic. Mr. 
 Quincy's father was then president of that institu- 
 tion, and was delighted to find their distinguished 
 guest to be such a high-toned gentleman. The 
 College Federalists had taken pleasure in thinking 
 and speaking of General Jackson as a backwoods 
 ruffian, full of fight, destitute of brains, and utterly 
 wanting in manners befitting cultivated society. In 
 the teeth of this prejudice, as Mr. Quincy says, 
 " his appearance before that Cambridge audience 
 instantly produced a toleration which quickly 
 merged into something like admiration and 
 respect. The name of Andrew Jackson was indeed 
 one to frighten naughty children with; but the 
 person who went by it wrought a mysterious charm 
 upon old and young." 
 
 Singularly enough, John Quincy Adams was bit- 
 terly opposed to Harvard's conferring the degree 
 
Jackson s Second Admtntsfrafiou. 349 
 
 of LL.D. on President Jackson. The Massachu- 
 setts baby evidently began to be jealous of the 
 matchless success of the North Carolina baby. But 
 the degree was conferred nevertheless; and Mr. 
 Adams unbosomed himself to his diary by record- 
 ing that "time-serving and sycophancy are the 
 qualities of all learned and scientific institutions." 
 
 While the government was grappling with 
 nullification, a serious difference arose with France, 
 the ancient ally and benefactor of the United 
 States. During the Bonaparte wars many vessels 
 of the United States had been unlawfully detained, 
 fined and confiscated by the French government, for 
 which the United States had been ever since vainly 
 demanding compensation. In 1830, Louis Philippe 
 came to the French throne. He was a cordial 
 friend of the United States. He remembered with 
 peculiar pleasure his travels in Tennessee when 
 Andrew Jackson was a pioneer lawyer there, and 
 cherished for him a particular esteem. Lafayette, 
 too, again gave to the American negotiator the 
 powerful aid of his popularity and of his interest 
 with the king. The negotiation proceeded so pros- 
 perously that, on the Fourth of July, 1831, the king 
 of the French signed a treaty agreeing to pay the 
 United States five millions of dollars in six annual 
 installments, the first to be paid February 2, 1833. 
 
 Mr. Rives, who represented the United States 
 in the negotiation, came home in triumph, and the 
 affair was supposed to be happily settled. Quite 
 as a matter of course, Congress passed a law pro- 
 viding for the appointment of three commissioners 
 to divide the money among the claimants, and, as 
 
350 G enteral Andrew Jackson, 
 
 the treaty bound the United States to reduce the 
 duties upon French wines, a law to that effect was 
 passed. So certain was the Secretary of the 
 Treasury of receiving the money on the day 
 appointed, that a draft for the amount was sold to 
 the Bank of the United States, and its proceeds 
 placed to the credit of the government. The bank 
 sold the draft to bankers in England, who presented 
 the same at the French treasury for payment. 
 Imagine the surprise and the embarrassment of all 
 parties concerned, when the French minister of 
 finance notified the bearers of the draft that, as,.the 
 French Deputies had not appropriated any money 
 for the purpose, it could not be paid. The Depu- 
 ties had simply neglected to make the appropria- 
 tion, as the bill was introduced late in the session, 
 and was not made what was then called " a minis- 
 terial measure." 
 
 President Jackson was so disconcerted and in so 
 many ways offended by this failure, that he accepted 
 the resignation of Edward Livingston as Secretary 
 of State, and sent him as minister to France in a 
 national vessel to see what was the matter. He was 
 accompanied by his son-in-law, Thomas F. Barton, 
 the husband of his beautiful daughter Cora, who 
 had played about General Jackson's knees and 
 brought him his rice at New Orleans in 1815. But 
 neither Mr. Livingston nor the French ministry nor 
 King Louis Philippe could succeed in inducing the 
 French Assembly to vote the money. The king 
 gave Mr. Livingston a confidential hint on the sub- 
 ject. Let the President of the United States, said 
 he, insert a few lines in his next message to show 
 
Jackso7is Seco7id Administration. 351 
 
 our dilatory Deputies that he is in earnest in the 
 matter, and means to insist upon payment. 
 
 General Jackson acted on this suggestion ; but his 
 idea of a friendly hint diftered somewhat from that 
 which prevailed in the diplomatic circles of Europe. 
 In his message of 1834 he recommended that, in case 
 the money should not be voted at the next session of 
 the French Chambers, a law should be passed 
 ^'authorizing reprisals upon French property'' On 
 reading the message, as Mr. Barton used to relate, 
 the king of the French was much surprised, but more 
 amused. Upon the whole, he was well pleased with 
 the message, because he thought it would actually 
 induce the Deputies to vote the money. But as 
 soon as the words of the message were printed in 
 the French newspapers, with extracts from Mr. Liv- 
 ingston's confidential correspondence, showing that 
 the king himself had suggested the warlike tone of 
 the message, the entire French people seemed to be 
 thrown into a paroxysm of excitement and indigna- 
 tion. The French minister resident at Washington 
 was at once recalled, and Mr. Livingston was 
 informed that his passports were ready. The Cham- 
 bers were appeased for the moment by a notification 
 from the king that diplomatic intercourse between 
 France and the United States had been suspended. 
 
 Mr. Livingston's conduct on this occasion was 
 eminently diplomatic and wise. Instead of at once 
 applying for his passports, he determined to wait 
 until he could hear from home. Being a master of 
 the French tongue, he addressed to the ministry a 
 frank and eloquent explanation of the misunder- 
 standing, in which he showed that the President's 
 
352 General A7idrew Jackson, 
 
 message was designed to avoid hostile measures and 
 was written wholly in the interests of peace. Dis- 
 patches, however, soon arrived from Washington 
 which compelled him to take his departure, and 
 finally Mr. Barton, the Secretary of Legation, who 
 had been left in charge of the American mission, was 
 ordered home. 
 
 On Mr. Barton's arrival in the winter of 1836, he 
 found the President so inflamed with indignation 
 against the French that it was with great difficulty 
 he told his story, and he was obliged at length to 
 say to the President that he could not explain the 
 situation in France truly unless he were allowed to 
 speak without interruption. " Right, sir," said the 
 President ; " go on, sir." He then explained that all 
 France was in a frenzy on the matter. The king, 
 the ministry and all persons capable of reflection 
 lamented this, and earnestly desired a restoration of 
 all the old friendship with the United States. Mr. 
 Barton's clear explanation allayed the President's 
 excitement. Nevertheless, he said to Congress that, 
 as the French were evidently preparing for war, it 
 would be only prudent on the part of the United 
 States to make similar preparations, such as the 
 increase of the navy and the completion of the coast 
 defenses. 
 
 By this time the American people were roused 
 almost to the degree of excitement prevailing in 
 France. Even John Quincy Adams in the House of 
 Representatives supported the action of the Presi- 
 dent in a speech so spirited and powerful that the 
 tradition of its effect remains until this day. As Mr. 
 
Jacksojt's Second Administration. 35 
 
 '> 
 
 Seward records, " the very walls of the Capitol shook 
 with the thundering applause it called forth." 
 
 At this alarming" crisis the government of Great 
 Britain offered to mediate between the two estranged 
 nations. The offer being promptly accepted, the 
 President had the pleasure, on the tenth of May, 
 1836, to inform Congress that " the four installments, 
 due under our treaty with France, had been paid to 
 the agent of the United States, and that no proper 
 exertions of his should be wanting to restore the 
 ancient cordial relations between the two coun- 
 tries." 
 
 The excitement subsided, and all parties, particu- 
 larly Louis Philippe himself, united in applauding 
 the vigor and firmness of President Jackson. The 
 happy news came a month after the payment of the 
 last installment of the public debt, an event which 
 was celebrated by a banquet in Washington, at 
 which Senator Benton presided, and a hundred 
 patriotic toasts were offered. 
 
 One more conflict remained to be fought out by 
 this most combative and victorious of men, one that 
 he had been waging with unabated zeal from the 
 early months of his first term — that with the United 
 States Bank. He destroyed the Bank at last, and 
 thereby did his country an inestimable service ; but 
 it was unfortunate that a safe and sufficient substitute 
 for the Bank was not provided before that danger- 
 ous institution was overthrown. 
 
 On the 30th of January, 1835, an attempt was made 
 to assassinate President Jackson. He, with members 
 of his Cabinet, had attended the funeral, in the hall 
 of the House of Representatives, of Hon. Warren 
 
354 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 R. Davis, of South Carolina. The procession had 
 moved out with the casket containing the corpse. 
 The President (with Levi Woodbury, Secretary of 
 State, aud Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of the 
 Navy) was issuing from the door of the rotunda, 
 that opens on the portico, when a man stepped for- 
 ward into a little open space about eight feet in front 
 of General Jackson, leveled a pistol at his breast, and 
 pulled the trigger. The cap exploded with such a 
 loud report that it was supposed the pistol had fired. 
 Colonel Benton said he heard it at the foot of the 
 steps, some distance away, and with a great crowd 
 intervening. But the pistol did not go off. The 
 man dropped it instantly, and leveled another pistol, 
 which he had held ready cocked in his left hand, and 
 pulled the trigger again. The cap exploded without 
 firing the pistol. The President instantly rushed 
 upon the man with his uplifted cane; he shrank 
 back ; Secretary Woodbury aimed a blow at him : 
 Lieutenant Gedney, of the Navy, knocked him 
 down ; he was secured by the bystanders, and 
 handed over to the officers of justice. His name was 
 Richard Lawrence. He was an Englishman. It 
 was found, on examination, that he was of unsound 
 mind, and had conceived it to be his divine mission 
 to shoot the President, so as to relieve the country 
 from the business depression under which it was 
 alleged to be suffering. 
 
 The pistols were examined and found to be well 
 loaded. On being recapped, "■ they were fired with- 
 out fail, carrying their bullets true, and driving them 
 through inch boards at thirty feet distance ; nor could 
 any reason be found for the two failures at the door 
 
Jackson s Second A dmmistration. 
 
 OD^ 
 
 of the rotunda. . . . The circumstance made a 
 deep impression upon the public feeling, and irre- 
 sistibly carried many minds to the belief in a 
 superintending Providence, manifested in the extra- 
 ordinary case of two pistols in succession — so well 
 loaded, so coolly handled, and which afterwards 
 fired with such readiness, force, and precision — miss- 
 ing fire, each in its turn, when leveled eight feet at 
 the President's heart."* 
 
 The last message of President Jackson contained 
 a warning note as to the growing surplus. He took 
 the ground that there should be no surplus and no 
 taxation beyond the legitimate needs of the govern- 
 ment. To the last hour of his second term he 
 retained his popularity in full measure. Gifts and 
 congratulations rained upon him, and when he 
 appeared, an infirm old man, at the inauguration of 
 Mr. Van Buren to the Presidency, he was the central 
 figure, the commanding personage of the occasion. 
 For once, in the history of governments, the setting 
 outshone the rising sun. For once, the people, who 
 are usually rated as fickle and ungrateful, turned on 
 their god when he set the same look that they turned 
 when he rose. As the vast concourse looked their 
 last upon the feeble but still majestic old man who 
 from his boyhood had served his country with such 
 heroism and devotion, many of them shed tears, and 
 their final *' Hurrah for Jackson " came fervid 
 from grateful hearts. 
 
 The admiration of the people of that generation 
 for General Jackson and their unparalleled devotion 
 
 * Benton, i. 521. 
 
o^) 
 
 ^6 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 to him, have been looked upon by his enemies as 
 among the worst evils that ever befell the United 
 States. In their opinion, Andrew Jackson's elevation 
 to the Presidency was a national misfortune. They 
 cannot deny that he accomplished much that was of 
 advantage to the nation ; but they maintain that for 
 whatever good came out of his administration the 
 country was indebted to an overruling Providence. 
 It is useless to argue against convictions which are 
 founded on prejudice and hatred ; and the more 
 honest and sincere the holders of such opinions are, 
 the less possible it is to modify them. It is conceded 
 that the foreign diplomacy of President Jackson was 
 very successful. The most amicable relations were 
 sustained with great Britain ; useful commercial 
 treaties were made with several countries, and expir- 
 ing treaties were renewed with others ; indemnities 
 for spoliations on American commerce were obtained 
 from France, Naples, Spain and Portugal, and the 
 United States for the first time took its equal sta- 
 tion among the nations of the earth. President 
 Jackson's domestic administration was correspond- 
 ingly successful. The Creeks were removed from 
 Florida and the Cherokees from Georgia ; the public 
 lands were thrown open to the people at nominal 
 prices ; the United States Bank was overthrown ; 
 the gold currency was largely increased ; the 
 national debt was extinguished ; nullification was 
 crushed, and Union sentiments were made para- 
 mount throughout the land. The people appre- 
 ciated these national benefits ; they believed in 
 President Jackson's honesty and patriotism ; they 
 admired his courage and his purity of life and char- 
 
Jackson's Second Administration. 357 
 
 acter, and they spontaneously condoned his faults 
 of temper and his summary mode of dealing with 
 obstacles. 
 
 Moreover, it was understood and felt in all parts 
 of the country that General Jackson's sympathies 
 were with the people — with poor and struggling 
 men ; that he wished for a sound currency with 
 which the wages of the workman should be paid, so 
 that when the laborer received a dollar for his day's 
 work it should be a dollar, and buy a full dollar's 
 worth anywhere. When the favorite hero of a free 
 and enlightened people exhibits qualities so popular 
 and valuable as these the devotion he evokes may 
 sometimes seem to be fanatical, but it is none the 
 less genuine. 
 
 The ex-President's homeward journey was a con- 
 tinual triumph. No President going to Washington 
 to assume governmental power was ever so honored 
 as was this old man who had taken leave of public 
 life for ever. He was seventy years of age, his hair 
 as white as snow. The infirmities of age, greatly 
 emphasized by his continual ill-health from boyhood, 
 subdued the rugged energy of his manner and soft- 
 ened the leonine expression of his countenance into 
 an engaging gentleness of aspect and deportment 
 which gave an additional attractiveness to the 
 habitual majesty of his demeanor. The inhabitants 
 of Nashville gave him an enthusiastic welcome home. 
 Among the vast assemblage was a large company 
 of boys. The Hon, Andrew Ewing, then a very 
 young man and the spokesman for the boys, thus 
 describes the scene : " The day of his [General 
 Jackson's] return was to me one of the most memor- 
 
35^ General Aiidrezv Jackson, 
 
 able of my existence. We met him in the cedars 
 near Lebanon. The old men were ranged in front, 
 the boys in the rear. He got out of his carriage. 
 * * * He then drew near us. I stepped forward, 
 spoke a few words of kindness, and wound up by 
 saying ' That the children of his old soldiers and 
 friends welcomed him home, and were ready to 
 serve under his banner.' His frame shook, he 
 bowed down his head, and whilst the tears rolled 
 down his aged cheeks, he replied : * I could have 
 stood all but this ; it is too much, too much !' The 
 crowd gathered around, and for a few moments 
 there was a general outburst of sympathy and tears. 
 I may live a hundred years, but no future can erase 
 that scdne from my memory."* 
 
 Soon after his arrival at the Hermitage, he wrote 
 to a friend : " I returned home 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." 
 
 It was necessary, therefore, for him to resume at 
 once his labors as a planter, and by the sale of a 
 piece of land, to raise money for a working capital. 
 
 *ParLon's Life of Jackson, IH: 630, 
 
Afidrew Jacksoiis Last Years, 359 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON'S LAST YEARS — HIS CONVERSION 
 —HE JOINS THE CHURCH — HIS CLOSING 
 HOURS — HIS DEATH. 
 
 On his extensive farm the ex-President found 
 abundant and congenial occupation during the last 
 years of his life. At this time he possessed about a 
 hundred and fifty slaves, to whom he was an indul- 
 gent and considerate master, as well as a steadfast 
 friend in time of trouble. He loved to look upon a 
 well-cultivated field of cotton or grain, and he still 
 had the keenest enjoyment in the finer breeds of 
 sheep, cattle and horses. 
 
 Chaplain Milburn, the Blind Preacher, then a keen- 
 sighted boy upon his father's Western farm, remem- 
 bers the general's viewing some superior animals 
 just imported from England. He remembers, too, 
 how the old man's face glowed with pleasure as he 
 gazed upon them, and eagerly pointed out the 
 blending of beauty and strength in their forms. 
 
 "Never," said the preacher, "shall I forget the 
 impressive appearance, the tall, spare figure, the 
 glittering eye and the commanding presence of the 
 erect old man." He showed as a farmer the same 
 qualities that gave him success elsewhere ; vigi- 
 lant watchfulness, forethought, careful calculation, 
 unslumbering attention to the duties in hand. 
 
 He was still a busy politician. The mail-box at 
 his garden-gate was a large receptacle, but often it 
 
360 General Andreiv Jackso7t. 
 
 a 
 
 was not large enough to hold what the mail brought 
 him. As long as he had strength to sit at his desk, 
 he answered with his own hand every letter that 
 required an answer. He wrote often to President 
 Van Buren, and gave cordial support and applause 
 to his calm and sagacious dealing with the financial 
 embarrassments of his term. 
 
 As usual, his house was well filled with visitors, 
 some of whom recorded their conversations with 
 him. He was a man much given to maxims, some 
 of which were his own, such as: ''Take all the 
 time for thinking the circumstances allow ; but 
 when the time for action has come, stop thinking." 
 Alluding to his early history, he would quote 
 Shakespeare's " tide in the affairs of men," add- 
 ing, " That's true, sir, I've proved it during my 
 whole life." 
 
 One great grief and disappointment afflicted him 
 during the last years of his life. His adopted son, 
 named by him Andrew Jackson, was not successful 
 as a man of business. His misfortunes so reduced 
 General Jackson's available resources, that in 1842 
 he was obliged to borrow ten thousand dollars, and 
 asked Mr. Blair of the Globe to lend him the money. 
 Blair and Rives, now enriched by the public print- 
 ing and the prosperity of the Globe y desired to make 
 this loan on General Jackson's personal securit}^ 
 alone, meaning thereby to make it, if possible, a gift. 
 The old man saw through their generous scheme ; 
 it affected him to tears ; still he would not permit 
 them to carry it out, but secured the loan by a 
 mortgage on his estate. Soon after, the fine 
 imposed upon him at. New Orleans in 1815 was 
 
Andrew Jacksoiis Last Years. 361 
 
 refunded, principal and interest, by act of Congress, 
 Mr. Calhoun voting for it. This gave him twenty- 
 seven hundred dollars additional, and it came at a 
 very good time. 
 
 In 1842, when he was seventy-five years of age, he 
 fulfilled, at length, the promise he had made to his 
 wife many years before, that when he had done 
 with politics he would follow her example and join 
 the church. A protracted meeting was held in the 
 little church on the Hermitage farm, all the services 
 of which were attended by the family. General 
 Jackson himself being always in his accustomed 
 seat. At the last of the meetings, on Saturday 
 afternoon, the Reverend Doctor Edgar of Nash- 
 ville, who personally told the story to Mr. Parton, 
 was the preacher ; his subject, " Providential Inter- 
 position." He observed, as he proceeded with his 
 sermon, that his distinguished auditor was singu- 
 larly attentive, and on the spur of the moment he 
 gave the discourse a personal bearing. He sketched 
 the career of a pioneer "who had escaped the perils 
 of the wilderness, the wiles of the Indian, the 
 dangers of wgj:*, the conflicts of politics and the 
 attempts of the assassin. " How can such a man," 
 exclaimed the preacher, '* pass through such scenes 
 as these unharmed, and not see in it an Omnipotent 
 Hand ?" 
 
 At the close of the service General Jackson asked 
 Doctor Edgar to visit him ; which, however, the 
 clergyman could not do until Sunday morning. 
 The aged warrior found it a hard matter to come 
 into the kingdom, and he spent the greater part of 
 the night in reading the Bible, in prayer and in con- 
 
362 General Andrew Jackson, 
 
 versing with his daughter-in-law, who intended to 
 join the church the very next day. As the Sunday 
 morning was dawning, he obtained relief, and met 
 Doctor Edgar with joy and triumph in his counte- 
 nance. He announced his desire to join the church 
 that morning, with his daughter. The clergyman, 
 after asking the usual questions and getting satisfac- 
 tory replies, spoke as follows : 
 
 "■ General, there is one more question which it is 
 my duty to ask you. Can you forgive all your 
 enemies ?" 
 
 He was silent for a good while. At length he 
 
 said : 
 
 " My political enemies I can freely forgive ; but 
 as for those who abused me when I was serving my 
 country in the field, and those who attacked me 
 for serving my country — doctor, that is a different 
 
 case." 
 
 Doctor Edgar, however, insisted that the forgive- 
 ness must be entire and embrace the whole family 
 of man. After a considerable pause, the candidate 
 got so far as to say that he thought he could forgive 
 even the men who had made his defense of his native 
 land a pretext for assailing him. 
 
 The scene in the little church that morning was 
 never forgotten by any who witnessed it. Besides 
 being crowded to the very uttermost, the windows 
 were darkened by as many black faces as could get 
 near enough. At length the general and his 
 daughter stood up to make the usual public profes- 
 sion. He leaned heavily upon his walking-stick 
 with both hands, and his face was wet with tears. 
 When finally he was pronounced a member of the 
 
Andrew Jackson s Last Years. "y^^"^ 
 
 church, the feelings of the congregation, which had 
 been restrained during the ceremonial, burst forth 
 in sobs and cries, and the clergyman himself was 
 unable to speak. Some one started a familiar hymn, 
 and in singing this the feelings of the excited com- 
 pany at last found both expression and relief. 
 
 What an encouragement in faithful well-doing it 
 should be to all pious mothers thus to learn that 
 Andrew Jackson's early religious instruction, given 
 in his humble home in the old Waxhaw settlement, 
 at last bore its legitimate fruit and in spirit brought 
 him back, after all those years, a childlike old man, 
 to his mother's knee and his mother's prayers. The 
 memory and the influence of his mother's teaching, 
 of her example and her prayers, had never entirely 
 left him. Like soft-whispering angels, they had 
 perpetually and lovingly hovered over him and 
 around him even in his most wayward steps, and in 
 later years the powerful influence of his wife's 
 religious character and pious wishes, had been 
 added to them. To a friend who spoke to him in 
 1839 about the calumnies as to his skepticism with 
 which he had been assailed during his Presidential 
 canvasses, General Jackson responded with great 
 
 emphasis : 
 
 '*Yes, sir! For thirty-five years before my 
 election to the Presidency, 1 read at least three 
 chapters of the Bible every day, which is far more 
 than any of my detractors could say with truth, in 
 
 this respect." 
 
 From the day he joined the church he spent most 
 of his leisure hours in reading the Bible, and in 
 studying Scott's Commentaries. He read prayers 
 
364 GencTal Andrew Jackson. 
 
 every evening in the presence of all his family and 
 servants. A few weeks after they wished to make 
 him a ruling elder of the little church, but he said : 
 " No ; 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 
 received." 
 
 During the last two years of General Jackson's 
 life, after he had been an invalid for thirty years, 
 his malady took the form of consumption, which 
 was much aggravated by dropsy, a constantly 
 recurring diarrhoea, and other painful symptoms. 
 Few old men have more acutely or more continu- 
 ously suffered, and no one could ever have borne 
 such sufferings with more fortitude or more patience. 
 That unparalleled character of his — ''the impossibility 
 of being displaced or overset" — which had borne 
 him so triumphantly through all manner of trials 
 and impediments, now stood him in stead during 
 his protracted and agonizing illness. Mr. Trist, 
 who has already been quoted as to General Jack- 
 son's character, says : " There was more of the 
 woman in his nature than in that of any man I ever 
 knew — more of Avoman's tenderness towards children 
 and sympathy with them. Often has he been known, 
 though he never had a child of his own, to walk up 
 and down by the hour with an infant in his arms, 
 because by so doing he relieved it from the cause 
 of its crying ; more, also, of woman's patience and 
 uncomplaining, unnoticing submissiveness to trivial 
 causes of irritation. "^ * ^ As regards patience 
 I have often seen his temper tried to a degree that 
 
Andrew Jacksoft^s Last Years, 365 
 
 it irritated mine to think of, by those neglects in 
 small things that go so hard with an invalid — as he 
 always was at the period when I knew him — and 
 which are so apt to test one's temper. But things 
 of this kind passed off without so much as a shade 
 coming over his countenance." 
 
 Mr. Blair, of the Washington Glolfe, who visited 
 General Jackson toward the close of his life, wit- 
 nessed an exhibition of his patience and tenderness, 
 when one of his little nephews, a vigorous boy six 
 years of age, ran against him as he sat in his chair 
 silently enduring one of his agonizing headaches. 
 The suffering old man turned deadly pale and fell 
 back in his chair breathless. When he had recov- 
 ered a little, he spoke to the boy in the tenderest 
 way, and as though caring more for the feelings of 
 the alarmed child than for his own suffering : " Oh, 
 my dear boy, you don't know how much pain you 
 have given your uncle !" Indeed, it seemed as 
 though over this long perturbed, fiery, untamable 
 spirit the Lord had thrown a mantle of peace, the 
 spiritual garment of the soul, woven out of regen- 
 erated integrity, purity and courage, through 
 patriotic deeds unselfishly performed, and unwaver- 
 ing trust in divine mercy and redeeming grace. 
 " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind 
 is stayed on Thee." 
 
 During every interval of reHef, the general still 
 loved to converse on his old topics. About six 
 weeks before his death. Dr. Edgar asked him what 
 he would have done with Calhoun and the nullifiers 
 if they had persisted. To this question he replied, 
 with remarkable energy : 
 
3^6 Ge7iei^al Andrezv Jackson. 
 
 " Hanged them, sir, as high as Haman. They 
 should have been a terror to traitors to all time." 
 
 To the last days of his life he was pestered by 
 office-seekers, who besought him to sign their recom- 
 mendations. They invaded and pervaded his door- 
 yard, his piazza, and sometimes his sick-chamber. 
 What is there in the way of obtrusiveness, intrusive- 
 ness, invasiveness, pervasiveness, meddlesomeness or 
 crookedness of etiquette to which the office-seeker 
 will not with alacrity resort ? And yet this pestifer- 
 ous creature has one Christian virtue ; if you smite 
 him on one cheek, he will meekly turn the other to 
 you, also — if he has not already obtained your signa- 
 ture. The human race is divided into men, women 
 and office-seekers. It was so in the beginning. In 
 the Garden of Eden, as Milton informs us, there was 
 a man, a woman and an office-seeker who had been 
 kicked out of heaven for offensive office-seekino". 
 That original office-seeker pla)-ed the devil in Para- 
 dise, and made life an everlasting burden to the 
 descendants of that unfortunate pair who were so 
 foolish as to sign his recommendations. And, worse 
 still, he had descendants — has always had them — has 
 them now. They were more troublesome to the sick 
 and dying old hero of the Hermitage than all his 
 Indian and foreign foes had been. He could slay 
 his Indian and foreign foes, but, unfortunatel}^ there 
 were obstacles in the way of his meting out justice 
 to the office-seekers who so ruthlessly annoyed him. 
 " I am dying," the worn-out old man said one day — 
 " I am dying as fast as I can, but they will keep 
 swarming upon me in crowds, seeking for office — 
 intriguing for office." 
 
Andrew Jackson s Last Hours. 367 
 
 The last national subject which occupied his 
 attention was the annexation of Texas, or " the 
 recovery of Texas by the United States," as he put it. 
 He was greatly rejoiced when the work was 
 accomplished. 
 
 The venerable ex-President suffered on through 
 weeks and months; but finally the time drew near 
 when that indomitable character which no earthly 
 power had ever been able to displace or overset was 
 to be subdued by the power of death. His last day 
 on earth was June 8, 1845. It was Sunday — a warm, 
 pleasant day. He was seventy-eight years old. It 
 was known that his end was near, and all day long 
 crowds of his servants and slaves thronged about 
 the house, filled the piazza, and looked in at the 
 doors and windows, sobbing and wringing their 
 hands. They all loved him, for he had always been 
 a kind and just master, and also their faithful friend. 
 He spoke to them affectionately at intervals. 
 
 "I go a short time before you," he said, " and 
 want to meet you all, white and black, in Heaven." 
 He repeated, Avith emphasis, " white and black'' 
 
 The very last words he spoke were addressed to 
 his sobbing slaves : "■ What is the matter with my 
 dear children ?" he tenderly asked. " Have I 
 alarmed you? Oh, don't cry! Be good children, 
 and we will all meet in Heaven." 
 
 He died at six o'clock in the evening. His last 
 look was affectionately fixed upon a portrait of his 
 wife that hung opposite to his bed. His old com- 
 rade, Major Lewis, closed his eyes. The funeral, 
 which took place on June loth, was attended by 
 thousands of people from Nashville and all the 
 
368 General Andrew Jackson. 
 
 country round. He was buried in the Hermitage 
 garden, by the side of his wife, of whom he had 
 spoken with characteristic loyalty of affection not 
 long before he died, saying: " Heaven will be no 
 / Heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there." 
 
 The tablet which covers his remains bears this 
 inscription : 
 
 GENERAL 
 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 BORN ON THE I5TH OF MARCH, 1 767, 
 
 Died on the Zth of June, 1845,' 
 
 '^i 
 
THE TOMB OF ANDREW JACKSON,— /%e Page 368. 
 

INDEX. 
 
 ADAIR, GENERAL JOHN— In the battle of New Orleans, 
 228 ; helps to repulse Gen. Gibbs, 235-38. 
 
 ADAMS, HENRY — Misrepresentations of Jackson, 125-26; dis- 
 parages the Florida campaign of 1814, 175; also the New 
 Orleans campaign, 245. 
 
 ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY— Rival baby 13, 14; defends General 
 Jackson's course in Florida, 268-69 ; his triumphant Spanish 
 diplomacy, 271 ; is elected President by the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, 279-80 ; opposes the conferring of the degree of 
 Doctor of Laws upon Jackson, 348 ; eloquent speech in sup- 
 port of Jackson's attitude towards France, 352. 
 
 AMBRISTER, R. C— British spy shot in Florida, 266. 
 
 ARBUTHNOT, A.— British spy hanged in Florida, 266. 
 
 ARMSTRONG, JOHN— Secretary of War, 138. 
 
 AVERY, WAIGHTSTILL— Is challenged by Jackson, 50. 
 
 BANCROFT, GEORGE— Quotations from, 22, 28. 
 
 BANK OF THE UNITED STATES— Its origin, 305 ; its organi- 
 zation and character, 306-7 ; war upon it, 307, 313. 
 
 BARRY, W. T.— Postmaster-General, 296. 
 
 BARTON, THOMAS F.— Goes to France, 350; explains to 
 President Jackson, 352. 
 
 BERRIEN, JOHN McP.— Attorney-General, 296. 
 
 BIDDLE, NICHOLAS— President of the U. S. Bank, 306; his 
 mistake, 308 ; his weakness, 310-11. 
 
3 JO Index. 
 
 BENTON, THOMAS H.— His birth, 47; quotations from, 42 
 86; with Jackson in the war of 181 2, 1 29-1 31; street fight 
 with Jackson, 144-46 ; his account of the attempt to assassi- 
 nate President Jackson, 353. 
 
 BLAIR, FRANCIS P.— Editor of the Washington Globe. Power- 
 ful supporter of Jackson, 309; lends Jackson ten thousand 
 dollars, 360 ; affecting incident at the Hermitage, 363. 
 
 BLENNERHASSETT, HARMON— One of Burr's dupes, 122. 
 
 BURR, AARON — Advocates the admission of Tennessee into 
 the Union, "JT \ his conspiracy, 1 16-128. 
 
 BRANCH, JOHN— Secretary of the Navy, 296. 
 
 CALHOUN, JOHN C— His birth, 47 ; Secretary of War, 261 ; 
 orders General Jackson to Florida, 262 ; says that Jackson 
 exceeded his orders, 268; aspires to the Presidency, 275 ; 
 elected Vice-President in 1824; re-elected in 1828, 287; his 
 toast at the Jefferson dinner, 314 ; rupture with Jackson, 319 ; 
 avows his belief in nullification, 320; attempts nullification 
 and secession, 340-41 ; resigns the Vice-Presidency and is 
 sent to the Senate, 341 ; his strenuous efforts to head off 
 action by the nuUifiers, 345, 
 
 CAMPBELL. REV, J. N.— Instigates the Mrs. Eaton Scandal, 
 300. 
 
 CARLYLE, THOMAS— Quotation from, 38. 
 
 CARROLL, GENERAL WILLIAM— On his way to New 
 Orleans, 188; repulses the enemy's main attack, 235-38. 
 
 CARTWRIGHT, REV. PETER— Anecdotes of, 93, 94, 256. 
 
 CASS, LEWIS— Secretary of War, 320. 
 
 CASTLEREAGH, LORD— His remark to the King of France 
 about the situation in America, 246. 
 
 CLAY, HENRY — His birth, 19; assails General Jackson for his 
 action in Florida, 270 ; gives the Presidency to Adams in the 
 House of Representatives, 279-80; Secretary of State, 281 ; 
 " Bargain and Corruption," 281 ; candidate for the Presidency, 
 and defeated in 1832, 324-25; forces his tariff of conciliation 
 through Congress, 339-40; also his compromise tariff of 1833, 
 
 345. 
 
Index. 37^ 
 
 CLARK, DANIEL— Letter to Gen. Wilkinson, 121 ; entertains 
 
 Jackson, 182. 
 CLAIBORNE, C. C— Governor of Lousiana, 121, 124, 179, 182. 
 CLINTON, De WITT— Aspires to the Presidency, 275. 
 COCHRANE, ADMIRAL A. J.— Commander of the British 
 
 naval expedition against New Orleans, 177,204, 212. 
 COFFEE, GENERAL JOHN— Buys Jackson's £,tore, 98 ; with 
 
 Jackson in the war of 1812,1 30-35 ; in the Creek war, 1 50-59 ; 
 
 160-69; participates in Jackson's night attack on the British 
 
 202, 206, 207. 
 COFFIN HANDBILL— Got out by Binns in 1828, 285. 
 CORNWALLIS, LORD— Operations in South Carolina 19. 20, 
 
 surrenders at Yorktown, 47. 
 CRAWFORD, THOMAS— Captured, etc., 26. 
 CRAWFORD, WILLIAM H.— Candidate for the Presidency in 
 
 1824, 276; the friend of Jackson in 1819, 319. 
 
 DALE— Colonel of the Praying Highlanders, 231. 
 
 DALE, COLONEL SAM— His interesting interview with Jack- 
 son, 341. 
 
 DAVIE, COLONEL WM. R.— An American partisan officer, 20. 
 
 DAYTON, JONATHAN— An accomplice of Burr's, 116. 
 
 DICKINSON, CHARLES— Birth, 20 ; insults Mrs. Jackson, 
 106; duel and death, 103, 113. 
 
 DONELSON, COLONEL JOHN— Surveyor, 14; is slain, 58. 
 
 DONELSON, MRS,— Widow of Col. John, 58. 
 
 DONELSON, RACHEL— Lovely brunette, etc., 14; goes to 
 Tennessee, 47 ; becomes Mrs. Robards, 58 ; marries Andrew 
 Jackson, 75. 
 
 DUELS AND DUELLING— 50-53. 
 
 EATON, MAJOR JOHN H.— Marries Mrs. Timberlake, 299. 
 appointed Secretary of War, 295 ; resigns, is |made Governor 
 of Florida, and then Minister to Spain, 319, 320. 
 
 EATON, MRS.— Wife of Major Eaton. Her origin, 299 ; the 
 Mrs. Eaton Scandal, 299-304. 
 
 ELY, REV. E. S.— Starts the Mrs. Eaton Scandal, 300. 
 
372 Index. 
 
 GAINES, EDMUND P.— American general in Florida, 260-66. 
 
 GIBBS, MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL— Arrives at New 
 Orleans, 213; leads the main column of attack, 233 ; his brav- 
 ery in battle 236-7 ; is mortally wounded, 238. 
 
 GREENE, MAJOR-GENERAL NATHANIEL— Is defeated at 
 Hobkirk's Hill, 33. 
 
 HALL, JUDGE DOMINICK A.— Is arrested by General Jack- 
 son, 250; he fines the general, 251-52. 
 
 HARDY, SIR THOMAS— Captain in British fleet, 177. 
 
 HAYNE, COLONEL ARTHUR P.— Inspector-general at New 
 Orleans, 204. 
 
 HAYNE, ROBERT Y.— Senator from South [Carolina. His 
 debate with Webster, 313. 
 
 HAYS, COLONEL — Burr's friend. Jackson gives his son a let- 
 ter to Gov. Claiborne, 124. 
 
 HEROES— 7. 
 
 HILL, ISAAC — opposed to U. S. Bank, 307. 
 
 HINDS, COLONEL THOMAS— Commands dragoons at New 
 Orleans, 209. 
 
 INGHAM, SAMUEL D.— Secretar>' of the Treasur>% 295. 
 
 JACKSON, ANDREW, Senior— 9, 10. 
 
 JACKSON, ANDREW— Birth and early training, 9-15 ; his grit, 
 16, 17; hatred of the British, 21, 22, 24; defends Captain 
 Sands's house, 25 ; taken prisoner, 26 ; refuses to cleanjofficer's 
 boots and is struck on the head, 27 ; saves his friend Thomp- 
 son, 30 ; in the prison pen at Camden, 31-34 ; death of his 
 mother, 37 ; his reverence and love for her, 37, 38 ; his deso- 
 lation, 39; secret of his character and career, 40,41 ; his 
 honesty, 41 ; his chastity, 42, 43 ; his reverence and firmness, 
 44, 45 ; his Scotch-Irish lineage, 45 ; incidents of his boyhood, 
 48 ; is admitted to the bar, appointed Solicitor and Public 
 Prosecutor, and starts for Tennessee, 48-50 ; his first duel, 
 50-52; his capacity for leadership, 53, 54; saves his party 
 from massacre by Indians, 55,56; arrival in Nashville and 
 eventful choice of a boarding place, 56-58 ; his early career 
 
Index, 373 
 
 in Nashville, 60-66 ; humorous and thrilling adventures, 66-73 ; 
 marries Mrs. Robards, 74, 75 ; Representative in Congress, 
 77-81 ; U. S. Senator, 82 ; resigns his Senatorship and becomes 
 a backwoods merchant, 84 ; Judge of the Supreme Court of 
 Tennessee, 85 ; Anecdotes, 89-91 ; 94, 95 ; financial disas- 
 ters, 97 ; his skill in farming, 99; his love for his wife, 100; 
 the Dickinson duel, 103-115; Burr's conspiracy, 123-125; 
 Jackson in the beginning of the war of 1812, 129-141 ; wins 
 his nickname of Old Hickory, 142-143 ; terrible affray with the 
 Bentons, 144-146; Jackson in the Creek war, 147-17 1 ; his 
 disabled condition, 152-53; battle of Tallushatches, 157; 
 Talladega, 159; Jackson's fight against famine, 161-65; 
 Emuckfau and Enotachopco, 166 ; Tohopeka, 169-70 ; Jack- 
 son appointed Major-General in the U. S. Army, 171 ; takes 
 command of the Southern division of the army, 172 ; treaty of 
 Fort Jackson, 172 ; defends Mobile and routs the British out of 
 Pensacola, 173-75 ; effect of his arrival in New Orleans, 181- 
 190; what the ladies thought of him, 185-86; getting ready 
 for the enemy, proclamation of martial law, 186-89 ; arrival of 
 the British, 191-200 ; Jackson's terrific night attack, 201-208 ; 
 he plants his stakes, 210; repulses Pakenham's first attack. 
 217-18 ; also his second attack, 221-22; preliminaries of the 
 final struggle, 226-234: the Battle of New Orleans, 235-241 ; 
 after the battle, 248-252 ; his collision with Judge Hall, 250- 
 52; his welcome home, 253-54; triumphal journey to Wash- 
 ington, 254-55 ; out of debt, and builds a new house, 255-56 ; 
 correspondence with James Monroe. 258 ; Indian troubles in 
 Florida, 258-262 ; the barge massacre, 260; General Jack- 
 son ordered to Florida, 261 ; the Rhea letter, 262 ; the 
 Floridian embroilment; Arbuthnot and Ambrister hanged, 
 265-270; charges against General Jackson and his victory- 
 over his accusers, 267-271 ; he travels North, 271 ; resigns his 
 commission and is appointed Governor of Florida, 271 ; resigns 
 his governorship and retires to private life, 272 ; politicians 
 determined to utilize his overwhelming popularity, 272-73 ; 
 he consents to enter the field, 273; the Presidential election 
 of 1824; no election by the people; Adams elected by the 
 House of Representatives, 279-280; Jackson's meeting with 
 Adams the ensuing evening, 280 ; Jakson's tactics in the 
 

 374 
 
 Index, 
 
 Presidential campaign of 1828; his election, 287 ; death of 
 Mrs. Jackson, 289 ; his terrible grief, 289 ; his love for his 
 wife, 291-92; effect of her death upon his public life, 291-93 ; 
 Jackson's first inauguration, 294; fright of the officeholders, 
 295 ; the President " renovates the public service," 296-98 ; the 
 Mrs. Eaton scandal, 298-304 ; war upon the United States Bank, 
 305-313; vetoes the Bank bill, 312 ; his toast at the Jefferson 
 dinner, 314; he chooses a successor, 317 ; rupture with Cal- 
 houn, 319; reorganizes his Cabinet, 319-20; re-nominated and 
 re-elected in 1832,324-26; contest with the nuUifiers, 327- 
 344 , his overwhelming preparations, 342 ; his Northern tour, 
 347-49; difficulty. with France, 349-53; destroys the U. S. 
 Bank, 353; attempt to assassinate him, 353; his last message, 
 355 ; his unparalleled popularity and the reason for it, 355-57 ; 
 his return home and his poverty, 357-58 ; he is converted 
 and joins the church, 361-62; last days; his terrible 
 sufferings, his patience and fortitude, 364-65 ; annoyed by 
 office-seekers, 366 ; his last words, 367 ; his death, 367 ; 
 the inscription upon his tomb, 368. 
 
 JACKSON, MRS. ELIZABETH— Mother of Andrew. Lineage 
 and character, 9-13; wants Andrew to be a minister, 12, 13, 
 18 ; rescues her sons, 35-36 ; her death, 37. 
 
 JACKSON, HUGH— Dies from exhaustion, 20. 
 
 JACKSON, RACHEL— Wife of Andrew. Her admirable quali- 
 ties as woman and wife, 99-102. 
 
 JACKSON, ROBERT — Becomes a trooper, 22 ; taken prisoner 
 26 ; dies of small pox, 36. 
 
 lEFFERSON, THOMAS— Toast at Gen. Jackson's reception at 
 -Lynchburg, 254-55; the original nullifier and the father of 
 nullification, 334-35. 
 
 JONES, AP CATESBY— Commands gun boats on Lake Borgne, 
 187 ; his gallant defence and his capture, 192-93. 
 
 KEANE, JOHN — British general at New Orleans, 195, 204, 238. 
 
 KENDALL, AMOS — His influence with Jackson; friendly to 
 Van Buren, 303. 
 
 KING, RUFUS — U. S, Senator. Opposes the admission of Ten- 
 nessee into the Union, 77. 
 
Index. 375 
 
 LAFAYETTE, MARQUIS DE— Mrs. Jackson's description of 
 
 him, 277-78 ; visits tiie Hermitage, 282. 
 LAFITTE, JEAN— Famous smuggler and supposed pirate, 179. 
 LAMBERT, JOHN— British general at New Orleans, 230, 242. 
 LATOUR, MAJOR A. L.— Quotation from, 184; the little bugler, 
 
 240. 
 LAUSSAT, PIERRE CLEMENTS— French prefect at New 
 Orleans. His opinion of Gov. Claiborne and Gen. Wilkinson, 
 
 120-21. 
 LAVACK— British officer. The only Briton that got over the 
 
 American lines, 239. 
 LAWRENCE, MAJOR WILLIAM— Defends Fort Bowyer, 174. 
 LEDYARD, COLONEL WILLIAM— Murdered at Fort Gris- 
 
 wold, 28. 
 
 LEWIS, MAJOR WM. B.— Jackson's quartermaster. 133, 155; 
 resolves to make General Jackson President, 275 ; his skill as 
 a wire-puller, 276 ; is made an auditor of the Treasury, and 
 lives in the White House, 297 ; his plot in favor of Van 
 Buren as Jackson's successor, 317 ; closes the eyes of his old 
 friend after Jackson's death, 367. 
 
 LIVINGSTON, EDWARD— General Jackson's aid at New 
 Orleans, 178, 183. 185 I Secretary of State, 320; minister to 
 
 France, 350. 
 LOCKYER, CAPTAIN NICOLAS— British Naval officer. Com- 
 
 mander'of the attack on the American gun-boats, 193. 
 LOUAILLIER, LOUIS— Arrested by order of Gen. Jackson, 
 
 LOUIES* PHILIPPE— King of the French. His friendship for 
 the United States, 349 J his friendly suggestion to President 
 Jackson, 350. 
 
 MADISON; JAMES— President of the United States, 173. 
 MCLANE, LOUIS-Minister to England; Secretary of the 
 
 i Treasury, 320. 
 
 McNAIRY, JOHN— Appointed Judge, 49- . 
 
 MARCY, WILLIAM L.-His notorious political sentiment, 322. 
 MASON, JEREMIAH-President of U. S. Branch Bank at 
 Portsmouth, N. H., 307. 
 
376 Index. 
 
 MORGAN, GENERAL DAVID— Commanded on the West 
 side of the Mississippi, at the Battle of New Orleans, 232, 
 247. 
 
 MULLINS, COLONEL— Commanded the British 44th, at the 
 Battle of New Orleans, 231. 
 
 NICHOLS, MAJOR EDWARD— Commands British troops at 
 
 Appalachicola, 174. 
 NULLIFICATION— Its rise and fall, 327. 
 
 O'NEAL, PEGGY— See Eaton, Mrs. 
 
 O'NEAL, WILLIAM.— Landlord of the Indian Queen Tavern, 
 
 and father of Peggy O'Neal, successively Mrs. Timberlake 
 
 and Mrs. Eaton, 299. 
 OVERTON, THOMAS— His testimony as to Jackson's chastity, 
 
 42 ; Jackson's second in the Dickinson duel, 109. 
 
 PAKENHAM, GENERAL SIR EDWARD— Birth, 19 ; arrives 
 at New Orleans, 213; his vigorous measures, 214 ; makes an 
 unsuccessful demonstration on Jackson's Lines, 217-19; lays 
 siege to Jackson's Lines and is defeated, 220-22 ; dishearten- 
 ment of the British troops, 223 ; his preparations on the morn- 
 ing of the battle of New Orleans, 228-29; his over confidence 
 231 ; his gallantry in the battle, 237 ; his death, 238. 
 
 PATTERSON, CAPTAIN DANIEL TOD— Commanded the 
 Carolina, at New Orleans, 187, 206. 
 
 PICKERING, TIMOTHY— His disunion sentiments, 245-46. 
 
 POINSETT, JOEL R.— Jackson's confidential friend and corres- 
 pondent in South Carolina, 341. 
 
 PRESIDENT MAKING— The art of it, 274. 
 
 QUINCY, JOSIAH— Incident at Harvard College, and his opin- 
 ion of Jackson, 42-43 ; amusing anecdote, 347 ; Jackson's 
 reception at Harvard, 348. 
 
 RAWDON, LORD— Defeats Gen. Greene at Hobkirk's Hill, 33. 
 RENNIE, COLONEL— British officer, 230; his gallantry and 
 death, 238-39. 
 
Index, 377 
 
 RHEA, JOHN — Member of Congress and Jackson's intimate 
 
 friend, 262-63. 
 RIVES, WILLIAM C— Minister to France, 349. 
 
 SCOTCH-IRISH, The— 45-46. 
 
 SERVOSS, THOMAS L.— Hastens a boat load of muskets down 
 the Mississippi, 188. 
 
 SMITH, H. K. — Entertains Jackson on his approach to New 
 Orleans, 182. 
 
 SMITH, JOHN— Senator from Ohio. Burr's accomplice, 116. 
 
 STATE RIGHTS— The origin of the doctrine, 328. 
 
 "SUBALTERN, THE."— Quotations from, 194-98; 218-19; 
 221 ; his opinion of General Jackson, 247. 
 
 SUMNER, PROF. WM. G.— Approves Jackson's Florida cam- 
 paign in 1814, 175 ; his opinion of Jackson's dealing with the 
 i civil service, 297-298 ; nullification, tariff, etc., 335-37. 
 
 TANEY, ROGER B.— Appointed Attorney-General, 320. 
 
 "TARIFF OF ABOMINATIONS,"— 337. 
 
 TARLETON, COLONEL BANNASTRE— Raids the Waxhaw 
 
 settlement, 21 ; his ravages, 28. 
 THORNTON, WILLIAM— British Colonel at New Orleans, 
 
 198, 230. 
 TIMBERLAKE— A. purser in the U. S. Navy. Marries Peggy 
 
 O'Neal ; cuts his throat, 299, 
 TIMBERLAKE, PEGGY— See Eaton, Mrs. 
 TRIST, NICHOLAS P.— Testimony as to 'ackson's character, 
 
 42, 292, 364. 
 
 UNION— The American, 328-339. 
 
 VAN BUREN, MARTIN— Secretary of State, 295 ; resigns and 
 is sent as Minister to England, 320 ; his nomination as 
 minister rejected by the Senate. 321 ; elected vice-president, 
 324-26; his inauguration as President, 355. 
 
 VILLERE, MAJOR GABRIEL— He escapes from the British, 
 197 ; his thrilling adventures, 198-201. 
 
*> 
 
 y^ Index. 
 
 WASHINGTON, GEORGE— His last annual speech to Con- 
 gress, 79 ; Jackson's action on it, 80. 
 
 WE ATHERSFORD— Indian chief. Captures Fort Mims, 149: 
 his gallantry, 170; surrenders to Jackson 170. 
 
 WEBSTER, DANIEL — Comments on General Jackson's popu- 
 larity, 278 ; on the hungry aspect of the office-seekers, 294 ; 
 on the effect of the Mrs. Eaton scandal, 303 ; debate with 
 Hayne, 313. 
 
 WILKINSON, GENERAL JAMES— In the pay of Spain, and 
 an accomplice of Aaron Burr, 121 ; his behavior towards 
 Jackson, 136-37 ; 140-41. 
 
 WINCHESTER, JAMES— Brigadier-General in the U. S. Army, 
 
 175. 
 WIRT, WILLiAM — Presidential candidate in 1832, 324. 
 
 WOODBURY. LEVI— Secretary of the Navy, 320. 
 
An Insignificant Woman. 
 
 21 ^torjj of 2lrtist l\k. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. Heimburg. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM TJIE GERMAN 
 
 By MARY STUART SMITH. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WARMI^N £. DAVIS. 
 
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THE IMPROVISATORE; 
 
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A NEW NOVEL 
 
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