Andrew Jackson

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ANDREW JACKSON

by WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN

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Title: ANDREW JACKSON Author: WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN Language: English Subject: Fiction, Literature 'LJLWDOPublisher: World Public Library Association

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Kifcrrsi&e Biographical

NUMBER

i.

ANDREW JACKSON BY

WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN

ANDREW JACKSON BY

WILLIAM GAKROTT BROWN

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Boston

:

4 Park Street

;

New York

Chicago: 378-388 (Cfce Rtoer.gtDe

:

11 East Seventeenth Street

Wabash Avenue

COPYRIGHT,

1900,

BY WILLIAM GARROTT

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

BROWN

CONTENTS PAGE

CHAP. I.

THE WAXHAWS AND THE WILDERNESS

H.

CONGBESS: THE BENCH: THE MILITIA

III.

IV.

V. VI.

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA

NEW

.

.

....

1

24

46 69

ORLEANS

THE SEMINOLES AND THE

POLITICIANS

THE WHITE HOUSE

227627

.

.

87 118

ANDREW JACKSON

THE WAXHAWS AND THE WILDERNESS IN

Lafayette

White House

Square,

which

Washington, there

at

the

fronts is

an

equestrian statue of a very thin, long-headed old man whose most striking physical charac teristics are the firm chin and lips and the bristling, upright

great

work

of

impression of

The

hair.

piece

not a

is

gives one a strong determination, if not of pug art,

but

it

Scidptors have not the means to represent the human eye, else this impres sion might have been made stronger ; for the nacity.

old gentleman whose warlike

aspect

is

here

He reproduced had a glance like a hawk s. had, moreover, a habit of gazing fixedly at any one who attracted

his attention.

When

JACKSON he was angry, as he was quite frequently, few men could meet his look with composure. When he was in good humor, however, as he usually was when he dealt with his friends, or with women or children, his eyes could be very kindly, and his grim lips could part in

a smile that was extremely attractive.

Not

Were his

far

away

is

the

the horseman alive,

head he could see

There

trees.

that

Treasury building.

when

is

this

by merely turning

outline through the a tradition in Washington

old

its

man

the

lived in

White a new

House, and Congress voted to erect Treasury building, the old one being burned,

some question of the exact spot The question was on which it should stand. put to him when he happened to be walk there was

ing near the

He

Avenue.

and said there is

in

it

western end of Pennsylvania struck his cane on the ground "

shortly,

stands.

true, it

is

it

here,

Whether

characteristic

keeping with

forGvhen

Put

the

sir,"

and

or not the story of the man and

history

of

Andrew Jackson was

his

times

;

President

most things were done at Washington just

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS as

he

them

ordered

be

to

declared that this was

friends

3

His

done.

so because in

most things his will stood for the will of the that they his enemies, American people ;

were done for no good reason whatever, but only because a despot to do them.

To

this

opinion.

day there

The

commanded

is

the

historians

him

and

same

still

his

slaves

division of

same

fight the

doings which hi former times was fought out by famous ora tors in Congress, by the whole people at the It is doubtful, indeed, if there ever polls.

battle

over

will be, until the

his

end of the Republic

itself,

an end of the dispute over the place which that slender

figure

with the

bristling

hair

have in American history. Had Andrew Jackson any good claim to statues

ought

to

and monuments, Republic,

to

the

first

popularity

such

to

place in the as no other

man had

enjoyed since Washington, to power such as Washington himself had never exer

Did he prove himself worthy of the To answer either place and power he held ? yes or no with assurance one must patiently cised?

ANDREW JACKSON

4

examine more books than Andrew Jackson ever glanced through in his whole life. This little book would hardly contain the full titles

of

them

all.

Yet

it

may

perhaps

large enough to let the reader see what ner of man he was concerning whom so

be

man many

have raged. Perhaps it serve to explain how a Scotch-Irish boy,

bitter controversies

may

born to the deepest obscurity and the wretchedest poverty, and blessed, apparently, with

no remarkable to

have

and

gifts

statues

counties

of

mind

carved in

and

cities

his

or body,

came

honor, towns

named

for

him,

long books written about him, a great party organized to do his bidding, the whole coun try time were for

and again divided into those who him and those who were against

him.

It is quite

important, as

most painstaking of

Mr. Parton, the

biographers, often observes, that this particular poor boy was of Scotch-Irish stock.

all his

That stock

is

again and

again conspicuous in American history, and Andrew Jackson was in many respects the

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS

5

most thoroughly representative Scotch-Irish man of all the notable Americans who can trace their descent

Indeed,

it

may be

to

the North of Ireland.

said that he narrowly es

caped being born in the North of Ireland, for his parents were living at Carrickfer-

They gus until two years before his birth. landed in America in 1765, and made their home in a Scotch-Irish settlement, the Waxhaws, on the boundary line between the two Andrew Jackson, the father, Carolinas.

and Elizabeth Hutchinson, the mother, were married and had two sons before they left They were poor, and doubt Carrickfergus. less

came

than to

to

no other reason

America for

better

their

fortunes.

early spring of few husband died.

still

very poor when, in the

the

year

days

1767,

later,

the

March

They were

A

15,

a

son

was

born

to

widowed Elizabeth, and she named him Andrew. He himself in after years said that his birthplace was to the south of the state line, and called South Carolina his but Mr. Parton s industrious native State researches make it seem more probable that

the

;

ANDREW JACKSON

6

log-house in which he was born north of the line, in Union County,

small

the

was

North Carolina.

The question

is

of

less

which there

importance than

no question, that he was born to the humblest circumstances in a new settlement of a new country, ana the

fact, of

that his childhood and of

among people hard

were

education,

boyhood were passed culture, whose lives

The boy got

and bare. and

never

was

a

little

To

scholar.

day of his death, he wrote the English

the

language with of

little

is

making many errors grammar and spelling, and spoke it with

many

difficulty,

of

peculiarities

other

languages

great

body of

he

pronunciation. knew nothing ; of literature,

science,

and

Of the

the

In fact, he he knew next to nothing. probably got less from books than any other arts

famous man in American Little years.

is

It

authentically is

mischievous,

got

into

clear,

in

known

of

however, that

high-spirited

trouble.

thoroughly

history.

At

keeping

least

boy,

his early

he was

and

often

one anecdote

with

his

a

career

is

in

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS Some

manhood.

playmates, so the loaded a gun to the muzzle

story goes, once

of

his

As they expected, him to fire. kicked him over, but they missed the fun

and gave it

7

it

He sprang to his feet they looked for. white with rage, and exclaimed, with an If one of you laughs, I 11 kill him path, "

"

!

The oath itself and no one laughed. not an unimportant part of the story, for

may

as well

be

said

at

once

that

is it

Andrew

Jackson, until near the end of his life, had He not only many such vices as swearing. he frequently quarrelled and swore, but

he was at one time given to bet he drank, and particularly on horses

fought ting,

;

;

he used

All of constantly. common in the society to

tobacco

habits were

these

which

he was born, and he did not escape them. But some things he did escape. He hated debt

most

all

his

life,

anything

and was willing

rather

than

incur

to

do

it.

al

He

had the greatest reverence for women, and bore himself towards them with

a courtesy

and tenderness, a knightly purity of thought and word and deed, which the finest gentle-

ANDREW JACKSON

8

man

most ancient society in the world could not have surpassed. of the

When

this

pleasing

turn

thoughts

fact

is

her

does

one

s

his widowed naturally to the most natural source of

mother, as to such an excellence in the son. of

stated,

indeed

indicate

All we that

know

her

in

on him was both strong and good but we know very little. She was a simple, fluence

:

uncultivated person, like most of her neigh bors, but her conduct during the harrowing scenes

think

was

in

than

it

war makes us

some respects extraordi The struggle was nowhere rougher

she

nary.

and

the revolutionary

of

fiercer

notorious

Waxhaws

was

in the Carolinas.

The

Colonel

Tarleton operated in the neighborhood, and many dreadful

and cruelty belong to that The Jackson family country and that time. had their full share of the fighting and the stories of suffering

suffering.

The two

older

boys,

Hugh and "

Robert, enlisted.

when he was musket.

were

barely

He and

released

Young in

"

his

Andy

himself,

teens, carried

a

Robert were captured, and

through

the

efforts

of

their

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS mother,

who brought about an exchange

prisoners.

9

of

Soon afterwards, she went on a

long and heroic journey to Charleston to nurse the sick Americans confined on the British prison ships there ill of the ship fever and

Robert both died in the

;

and there she died.

fell

Hugh and

service.

Andrew was

thus left an orphan, weakened in body by the smallpox, which he took while he was in prison. Moreover, he bore on his

head the mark of a blow from the sword of a British officer whose boots

No man

he had refused

who had a simpler human way of loving those who be friended him and of hating those who hurt him than Andrew Jackson and surely few men ever had better excuse than he for hat to

polish.

ever

lived

;

His feeling against ing the British uniform. the British was one of the things that colored his opinions on public questions; the su

preme hour

was the hour when, at New Orleans, he had his revenge full measure, heaped up, and running over for all that he had suffered in the Waxhaws.

of

his

life

Scholarly historians, passing rapidly

ANDREW JACKSON

10

over the events

of

his childhood, give

many

pages of learned criticism to the course he took on great public questions in later years,

and

deplore

gravely

been

terrible

passions

him when, no doubt, he should

that swayed

have

the

deliberate

as

and calm as they But stormy life.

are while they review his for those who would rather understand

judge him

than

surely cannot seem a small thing that he started out in life with such a heritage of bitter memories, such a schooling in

it

hatred, as

few children were ever cursed

Passion

with.

but

and

revenge

are

wrong, of

the

sandy-haired, pockmarked lad of the Waxhaws had better excuse than course,

most boys for It

is

the

failing

to

doubtful, indeed,

trouble

thing that

to

stuck

teach in his

if it

learn that

lesson.

any one ever took him.

One

mind probably hurt

worse than the sabre cut on his head. did not even

little

know where

his

mother

s

He grave

was.

not appear that during the next seven years, while he was growing to man It

does

hood, he

gave himself with

much

industry

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS either to study or to work.

For

six

11

months

he was employed in the shop of a saddler, but he seems to have learned more about saddles

than about

making them, for he became somewhat famous as a horseman filling

even

in a country

was

flesh

who were life

He

universal.

with some

their

where the love of horse

wealthy people

and

lived

from

with them a

which was beyond his means.

peace he

made a

debt, got

out of

sporting After the

Charleston, got into

visit to it

acquainted Charleston

the British evacuated

exiled until

city,

got

by winning a wager, and

grew somewhat graver in consequence of his There is even some reason to experience. believe that he went to work as a schoolmaster and doubtless some backwoods

u* *

;

rant

as

solved

that period

of

schools

Andrew Jackson.

to

1784-5

had masters as igno

study

law,

and

Finally^ne re in the whiter of

started out to find an office in

which

he might prepare himself for his profession. He found a place in the office of Mr. Spruce Carolina, an Salisbury, North old-fashioned Southern town, where he made

McCay,

of

\

ANDREW JACKSON

12-

Ms home

1788, when he was admitted

until

to the bar.

All that accords at the

what

with

at

such

in

swiftness and nerve

and of

he was

jokes;

never

the

were

frolic

sports

as

required

he was fond of practi not over fond of study,

any great knowledge

At

twenty, when he is described

finished,

his

as

studies

a

fellow, with a thin, fair

young

;

;

acquired

law.

slender

was ready for a

any hour of the day or night

excelled

cal

of his life at Salisbury is known of his life

He

Waxhaws.

or a fight

he

known

is

tall,

face

by no means handsome, but distinguished by considerable grace and an exquisite rider and dignity of manner of an extraordinarily pas a capital shot and deep blue

eyes,

;

;

sionate

when

temper,

his

yet

anger was

singularly

swift,

even

white heat, to seize to protect himself or

at

upon the right means discomfit an adversary

;

already

somewhat

a leader, not by any eminence of talent or knowledge, but because he had a gift of of

intensely minded year of his admission

leadership and was always to

have his way.

The

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS

13

to the bar, after a brief stay at Martinsville,

a small North Carolina town, he got himself appointed solicitor, or public prosecutor, of the western

of Tennessee,

district

set out for the

an

office

soon

West.

The appointment such

and

of

so

young a man

seems remarkable

until

to

one

knows what Tennessee was like at that time, and what duties a solicitor was expected to discharge.

misleading.

belonged to North Carolina, though inhabitants had but a little while before

went its

The term Tennessee is, in fact, The region to which Jackson

still

made an attempt to set up a separate State But of those under the name of Franklin. who made the attempt the great majority had lived western a

in

that

part

lands which

mountainous

is

of

North Carolina

s

now East Tennessee

region

of

which Jones-

or sixty of squatter town fifty Nashville, log-houses, was the metropolis. boro,

a

whither Jackson was bound, was nearly two hundred miles west of Jonesboro, and the Nashville ten years

settlement old.

It

was

as

yet

less

than

was founded in 1779 by

ANDREW JACKSON

14

Captain James Robertson with a little com The next year Colonel John pany of nine. cluding

a

with

Donelson,

women

much

and

larger

children,

came

from His

Virginia to join his friend Robertson. journey was one of the most striking dents in the peopling of the West, for

made

in

party,

inci it

was

down the Holston into the Tennessee, down the Ten nessee into the Ohio, up the Ohio into the Cumberland, and up the Cumberland to in

flatboats

Nashville.

It

which passed

took

four

months

cover

to

two thousand miles or more, and there were bloody fights with Indians, sickness, the

and death by the way. When, eight years later, after an overland journey through a wilderness

still

almost unbroken and

fested with Indians, Jackson

came

still

to

in

Nash

he found Mrs. Donelson a widow, for her husband had been murdered and he ville,

;

soon became an inmate of her home. It

try

was well for a widow in that wild coun

if

she

even

could

though she for a boarders

procure men "boarders," take might not need to "

"

living

;

for

every

house-

.

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS men

hold needed

to protect

it

15

from the In

Immigration was increasing con was still stantly, but the white population Within seven far too small to be safe. dians.

miles

of

the years

Nashville, during

1780-

1794, the Indians killed, on an average, one white person every ten days. Life in such a country was even rougher

and

barer

than

houses were

chiefly cabins

and the things which

logs, nities

make

were

almost

chandise to

the

in

the

time

ing,

and

it

shelter

frontier

all

chiefly

each

of

the

ship were treated did their part well, little

leisure

For

its

food, cloth

relied

mainly As own members.

family

population was brave women who took

regions,

The

male.

their share

miles,

reached them.

on the handiwork of in

attractive

usually and grew very dear by

from Philadelphia, the

houses

commu

Such mer wanting. offered to the settlers had

fetched hundreds of

be

in older

wholly

was

as

of

inside

The Waxhaws. made of unhewn

the

common work and hard with much respect, and

no doubt, but they had for those arts which brighten

ANDREW JACKSON

16

the

lives

and

the

refine

hus

characters of

bands and children.

Manners ers of the tleness,

suited conditions.

West had more

These build

strength than gen

more shrewdness than wisdom, more

courage than culture.

They were the rough

front which

American civilization presented to the wilderness and the brave, savage, hard-handed, themselves somewhat affected with the barbarism they came to displace, yet in all essentials of character true repre sentatives of their masterful race. They were

mainly of English or Scotch-Irish stock and no other breeds of white men have ever shown such capacity as these two for dealing ;

with inferior races and new countries. virtues were

courage,

Their

energy, alertness,

in

ventiveness, generosity, honesty, truth-speak ing ; their commonest faults were violence,

combativeness, lax ways perance, narrowness

of

in

business, intem

mind.

They hated

and Indians, and were ready to fight any one who behaved like an enemy or a critic they held in honor women, their Shut off from country, and brave men.

foreigners

;

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS the greater world

to

few pleasures

ing

17

and hav most Americans

the eastward,

such as

may now with

enjoy, they filled their leisure hours such sports as hunting, horse-racing,

drinking bouts, law,

indeed,

that

race

other

all

and

and

fights,

they held

in

The

lawsuits.

great

reverence

;

mark they had in common with societies made up of Englishmen But English descent. fonder of fighting than of

Americans

they were

of

even

the law, and the particular laws which were at once hardest to enforce and most in need

enforcement were those very simple laws which set forth the principle that private

of

wrongs must be righted

in the courts,

which

stand for the peace of the State, and not by wild justice of revenge. the "

"

The

difficult

and dangerous work

of

keep

and of enforcing business obliga tions fell largely to the solicitor and one need not wonder that there was no great ing order

"

"

;

scramble for the

man,

with

office,

so that a very

no experience

at

the

young bar and

knowledge of law, got the appointment. His duties were simple enough, but he had

little

ANDREW JACKSON

18

no reason to complain of being ness.

The

fights,

pistollings,

left in idle

court records of the period show a picturesque assortment of assaults, street-

Men who

and

gougings,

took such methods to

differences were

the

like.

adjust their

show any great respect to a prosecutor aged twenty-one. The majesty of the law had need of a vig not

to

apt

orous rather than

and

the

a learned representative ; representative had need of other

weapons than those supplied by the law books if he meant to make his authority re spected and yet keep a whole skin on his If he proved weak and timid, he body. was sure to be despised ; if determined and relentless,

he was

incautious get

sure to

make enemies

;

if

and unwary, he would probably

himself

shot.

It

is

doubtful, however,

any better man than young Jackson could have been found for the place, and that is

if

almost

same

the

thing

as

saying

that

no

better place could have been found for him. To the office and his new surroundings he

brought

manded,

the

qualities

they

a will that no

man

supremely

de

ever subdued,

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS

19

a desperate courage which not even the Tennesseans could match, and a swift, intuitive to act in emergencies. According to all accounts, he was success ful from the first in his trying work, and

perception of the

success

his

the

community.

quainted, for his He ling about.

On

brought him other work

that

lawyer and a rapid

as a in

in

way

his

to

rise

He

prominence became well ac

work required much learned

the country

he was

long journeys

lay

he

slept

alone

in

itself.

frequently in learned their

danger from the Indians, and ways and how to cope with them. times

travel

Some

the woods, or

even

night awake, his hand on his rifle. saved his readiness and nerve alone

all

Once

himself and a party of travellers from sur Whether he dealt with prise and massacre.

who

pathway through the wilderness, or white men who would not let the law take its course, it is not on record Indians

beset

his

he ever turned aside from his purpose. In ten years he was the possessor of a con that

siderable

estate,

chiefly

in

land.

And

he

had not accumulated property by neglecting

ANDREW JACKSON

20

his

duties

as

When

solicitor.

certain

in

truders on Indian lands were giving trouble, Governor Blount said Let the district "

:

attorney, will

be

Mr. Jackson, be certain

to

offenders will be

But the

his

duty,

He had

attorney did not escape of his firmness and cour "

so

many

country he

"

difficulties

has come down to us.

ludicrous

have been scuffles

:

a reputa Amass of anec

Some

early quarrels, of these affairs

undignified

in

that

soon got

tion for readiness to fight. dote and tradition about his

to

the

district

even in that

seem

and

He

punished."

the consequences age.

do

informed.

and rather

one of them Jackson

overcame a huge antagonist by poking him with the point or, as Jackson himself pro of a fence rail. nounced it, the pint "

"

Other quarrels

followed

cedure of the duello.

the

dignified

They were

all

pro

subject

which our gentler civil ization pronounces on violence as a means of ending disputes, but no doubt they helped

to the condemnation

young lawyer into the prominence he had won by the time Tennessee was ready to become a State.

the

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS The most important event period

was

It

of

Jackson

s

life

solemnized

first

of

was

this

21

early

his

marriage. early in 1791, and a

second time in January, 1794. The second ceremony was due to the painful discovery that at the time of the first his wife was not fully released

was

from a former marriage.

She

daughter of John Donelson, the pioneer, and when Jackson first came to Tennessee she was already married to one Rachel,

Lewis

Robards.

husband. wife

He

made

concerning

was

Robards

jealous his against

charges

several

a

men,

and

finallv

concerning Jackson, although the facts that have come down to us and the opinions of those to

who knew most about

show that Jackson acted

a distressed woman, and

protector of

committed

knowingly his

accuser

Donelson

the affair all go as a chivalrous

s

had

home. been

any offence Robards and

married

never

against

Rachel

in

Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, and Virginia had no law of divorce. In 1790 the Virginia leg acting on a petition of authorized the supreme court of

islature,

Robards,

Kentucky

ANDREW JACKSON

22

and grant him a divorce

to try the case

should find

if it

and Somehow, Jackson and

his charges against his wife

Jackson to be

true.

Mrs. Robards were persuaded that this act of the Virginia legislature was itself a divorce, In 1793, how and so they were married.

Robards brought suit before the Ken tucky court, and the court, finding on the ever,

facts as they then existed,

when the accused

couple were living together as man and wife, In order, therefore, to granted the decree.

make

sure of a

legal marriage,

Jackson had

ceremony repeated. It was a most unfortunate situation for an honest

man and an

honest

woman, and sad

dened a union which was otherwise pure and for to the day of her death Jack beautiful ;

son and derly.

ment by the

his wife loved

It

of

brought

bitterness

each other most ten

into

his

life

and passion.

slightest hint, referred

to

a new ele

Whoever, the irregu

marriage, became his mortal For such he kept his pistols always enemy. ready, and more than one incautious man found to his cost what it meant to breathe

larity

of

his

THE WAXHAWS: THE WILDERNESS

One

word on that forbidden subject. such man was no less a person than a

Sevier,

struck

"

Commonwealth

the

such

a

23

John

Builder,"

who

good blow for American

in

King s Moun tain in the revolutionary war, and who was Governor of Tennessee when the trouble dependence

at

the

battle

of

with Jackson occurred.

The

painful facts of his marriage, and the

criticism of

his wife,

had another

effect

on

Jackson which in time became important to the whole country. Through that experience his chivalrous

feeling for

women was

devel

oped into a quixotic readiness to be the cham pion of any woman whom }ie found distressed or slandered/ ?*

II

THE BENCH: THE MILITIA

CONGKESS:

IN 1796 Jackson took

mem

his seat as a

ber of the convention called to frame a con for

stitution

the

State

Tennessee.

of

He

thus entered on a brief career of vice,

in

the

course

of

which

public ser he held three

In the autumn of 1796 important offices. he was chosen to be Tennessee s first repre sentative in Congress.

appointed

A

United States

year later he was Senator, and held

he resigned in April, 1798. until 1804, he was a justice of

the office -until

From 1798 the

Supreme Court

These were a

high places

for so

man, and one naturally expects

grapher

to

course while

he

all

of Tennessee.

held

linger

for

many pages

he held them.

them

is

indeed

The

young

his

bio

over his fact

important,

that

for

it

shows how strongly he had established him But very little need be self in Tennessee.

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA said

what

of

he

while

did

he

held

25

them.

Indeed, it is amazing how little can be said. In the convention he served on the eommittee

to

draft the

constitution

and took a

somewhat prominent part in the debates, and there is also a tradition that he sug but no nota gested the name of the State ;

ble feature of

to

him.

to

the

the constitution

is

clearly

due

might, however, have been due presence in the convention of such It

adopted a rule of order which throws into comical prominence fiery spirits

as

he

that

the warlike character

Rule 8 declared

"

:

it

early Tennesseans. that digresseth from

of

He

the subject to fall on the person of any mem ber shall be suppressed by the Speaker." in

The

scant

the

House

Senate

is

of

record

of

Jackson

s

services

Representatives and in the little importance to us save in of

throws some light on his it political opinions at that period gives us a glimpse of him as he appeared against the

three respects.

It

;

background of the most elegant society then existing in America, for Congress was sit ting in Philadelphia, which had sixty-five

ANDREW JACKSON

26

and it led to one or which had an important

thousand inhabitants

two

friendships

?

bearing on his later career.

His opinions, however, were not expressed in speeches. He addressed the House but twice, both times on a resolution for paying troops whom General Sevier had led against the Indians without any order from the

The

national government.

resolution passed,

and added to Jackson s popularity at home. In the Senate it is not on record that he ever spoke

Thomas

at

Many

all.

years afterwards, was Vice-President

who

Jefferson,

in 1797-8, gave to Daniel Webster a rather curious explanation of the Tennessee Sena tor s

The accuracy

silence.

of

Webster

s

report of his famous interview with Jeffer son at Monticello in 1824 has been ques tioned, but

ferson

if

said of

terrible.

it

is

correct, this is

Jackson

When

I

what Jef

u His

:

was

passions are the president of

Senate, he was Senator, and he could never

speak

on

feelings.

peatedly,

account I

have

of

seen

the

rashness

him attempt

and as often choke with

of it

rage."

his

re

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA His

show

votes,

however,

and

a

few

27

letters

enough where he stood on the Parties were hardly questions of the day. yet formed under the Constitution, but in the

clearly

strife

between the

Hamil

followers of

who went for a strong national govern ment, and who became the Federalist party, ton,

on the

one

hand, and, on the

the followers of rights

of

national

Jefferson,

other hand,

who went

for the

States and distrusted a strong government, and who became the

the

Kepublican party, he sided with Jefferson. Indeed, he belonged to the extreme faction of the Republicans, to which the term Demo "

crats

He

"

was applied,

favored

the

at

first

French,

as

a

reproach.

who were

at

war

with England, and opposed the treaty with England which John Jay had just negotiated.

He

even went so

others,

against

far as to vote, with eleven

the

address

presented

to

President Washington after his final speech to Congress. The address was mainly given over to thanks

for

Washington s great ser vices to his country and to praise of his administration. The handful that opposed

ANDREW JACKSON

28 it

One of courage. Livingston, of New York,

showed at

Edward wards

least

after

defended himself

tinction

between

At

ministration. of

them,

France

by drawing a Washington and his that

time

were

dis

ad

the

partisans over the firm

very bitter course Washington took to keep the

coun

try out of the European contest, and over the treaty with England. the men with Livingston was one of

whom ing

Jackson

at

friendship.

gentleman,

a

this

He

time formed a

was

very able

last

an

accomplished lawyer, and an ad

vanced Kepublican. Another was William The Duane, Jefferson s friend, the editor of Aurora," a newspaper which helped to build "

A third was up the Republican party. Aaron Burr, who then stood very high among the Republican leaders, and who excelled all other public men in charm of manner.

Another leading Republican of the time, Albert recalled Jackson after Gallatin, wards as

"

a

lank, uncouth-looking per sonage, with long locks of hair hanging over tall,

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA and a cue down

his face, eel-skin

;

dress

his

his

29

back tied in an

singular,

manners

his

and deportment that of a rough backwoods man." Taking this with Jefferson s descrip tion of

him,

seems clear that he made no

it

strong impression at Philadelphia, and found himself out of place in the national legisla

would have dreamed that the accomplished Livingston should win his highest fame by preparing a state paper for

ture.

Who,

then,

this unlettered person s signature

;

that this

rough backwoodsman should alone of all Americans surpass the polished Burr in the

charm

of

his

manners

;

that

Duane

s

little

son should one day be called by his father s unpromising acquaintance to a place such as

even Jefferson

upon

Duane

friendship never conferred himself. Of all who knew s

Jackson in Washington, Burr seems to have

had the strongest hopes

for his future.

Scant as are the traces of his labors as a legislator,

his career

even

scanter

are

the

records

on the bench during the

The

of

six years

reports of the decisions of the Tennessee Supreme Court in this period

that followed.

ANDREW JACKSON

SO

are

extremely meagre preserved as Jackson told of of

the

the

decision

But

s.

Judge Jackson, solicitor,

one

not

;

like

the

the

general,

is

stories

stories told

the

president,

One must suffice. A gigantic blacksmith named Bean had committed a are

legion.

crime and the "

Summon

me,"

walked down criminal,

sheriff

and

dared not arrest him.

said the judge,

from

the

arrested

was judge that his Sevier, who was again came finally to a head. he

the

two men had been

and himself

bench, found the him. It was while

with

quarrel

governor

in

John 1803,

Two

years before, rivals for the office

major-general in the militia, and by a single vote Jackson had won, so that he was

of

and judge met in what

both general

governor prove a fatal

was

killed,

when

he and

seemed

likely

the to

combat.

However, neither and the quarrel was patched up.

In 1804 Judge Jackson resigned. He had not yet found his true place in the public service. militia,

But he kept his commission in the and those who like to magnify the

work of chance may argue that the

single

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA vote by which he

31

got that office determined

his career.

had years to live before it was made plain to him what his career should be and during those years, from 1804 to

But

he

;

given chiefly to energies were His affairs had be planting and business. come somewhat involved while he was a his

1813,

he entered judge, and to restore his fortunes In this and into trade and set up a store. other

named tween

Tennessean stalwart a enterprises John Coffee was his partner, and be the two there grew a bond of friend

which

ship

Jackson

lasted

had

until

broke

it.

shrewdness

in

death

considerable

paying his debts promptly was of great value, but he

trade,

and

his

reputation

had more success ing

for

in planting

and

stock-rais

than in any other money-making enter

His judgment of horses was excep From his famous stallion, tionally good.

prise.

Truxton, a great racer in his day, many Tennessee thoroughbreds of the present time are descended. Horse-racing was Jackson s favorite

sport,

and

was a source

of

profit

ANDREW JACKSON

30

are

extremely meagre preserved as Jackson told of of

the

the

decision

But

s.

Judge Jackson, solicitor,

one

not

;

like

the

the

general,

is

stories

stories told

the

president,

One must suffice. A gigantic blacksmith named Bean had committed a are

legion.

crime and the "

Summon

me,"

walked down criminal,

sheriff

and

dared not arrest him.

said the judge,

from

the

arrested

he

was judge that his Sevier, who was again came finally to a head. the

two men had been

and himself

bench, found the him. It was while

with

quarrel

governor

in

John 1803,

Two

years before, rivals for the office

major-general in the militia, and by a single vote Jackson had won, so that he was of

both general and judge governor met prove a fatal

was

killed,

in

what

when

he and

seemed

likely

the to

combat.

However, neither and the quarrel was patched up.

In 1804 Judge Jackson resigned. He had not yet found his true place in the public service. militia,

work

But he kept his commission in the and those who like to magnify the

of

chance

may argue

that

the

single

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA vote by which he

31

got that office determined

his career.

But he had years to live before it was made plain to him what his career should be and during those years, from 1804 to ;

energies were given chiefly to His affairs had be planting and business. come somewhat involved while he was a

1813,

his

judge, and to restore his fortunes he entered In this and into trade and set up a store.

other

enterprises

a

stalwart

Tennessean

Coffee was his partner, and be two there grew a bond of friend

named John tween the

which

ship

lasted

until

death

broke

it.

had considerable shrewdness in and his reputation for paying his trade, debts promptly was of great value, but he had more success in planting and stock-rais Jackson

ing

than in any other money-making enter

His judgment of horses was excep From his famous stallion, tionally good. prise.

Truxton, a great racer in his day, many Tennessee thoroughbreds of the present time are descended. Horse-racing was Jackson s favorite

sport,

and

was a source of

profit

ANDREW JACKSON

32

In 1805

also.

he

first

occupied the

which became so well known as where he built

mitage,"

three rooms in

pictures

a

"

estate

The Her

block-house

of

the mansion so often displayed was not built until 1819. In ;

the log-house, however, no less than in the mansion which was to follow, he offered to

high and low degree a hospitality which would have been extraordinary out guests of side of

the

Southern States.

Probably his on his manners,

had some effect and helped him to acquire that mingling of distinction which in those cordiality and planter

life

days gave a peculiar

men

charm

to

the

gentle

of the South.

Even

in

his

quarrels, violent, passionate,

and wilful as he was, he usually bore him self

the

make a deep impression on impressionable people among whom he in a

way

to

Unfortunately, his quarrels did not grow fewer as he grew older, for he never learned the difference between mere opposi lived.

tion

tious

to

his

and

himself.

which might be conscien honest, and personal enmity to will,

Like most men of that region and

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA he

33

his

personal feelings, his. likes and dislikes, into all the affairs of life. time,

carried

In 1803-4, when he wished to be governor Tennessee con of Orleans Territory, the urged President Jefferson to ap him, but he was represented to the

gressmen

point President

in

arbitrary

engaged

The worst

as

man

"a

his

of

all

and

disputes."

celebrated his

passions,

and frequently

disposition,

in broils

most

violent

of

and

quarrels

perhaps

was

that

the

with

Charles Dickinson, a young man of promi It nence, a duellist, and a marvellous shot.

was a long quarrel, beginning, apparently, over a projected race between Truxton and

Plow Bay, a horse

in

which

Dickinson was

Other

persons were involved before the quarrel ended. General Jackson interested.

publicly caned one Thomas Swann who had contrived to get himself mixed up in the affair.

had

a

Coffee, acting

duel

with

as

and

s

friend,

McNairy, and was Finally, for no sufficient

one

severely wounded. cause which the printed

Jackson

Jackson

Dickinson

accounts

met

in

discover,

Kentucky,

ANDREW JACKSON

34

each bent

on

his

killing

The word

man.

being given, Dickinson fired quickly, and with perfect aim ; a puff of dust flew up from the breast of his feet,

Jackson

drew

slowly raised ger.

The

cock.

He

his left

cocked

ately, fired,

arm

his pistol,

hammer it

But he kept

s coat.

across his breast,

and pulled the

stopped again,

and killed

his

at

the

trig half-

aimed deliber

man.

His own

he owed to the thinness of his body, for Dickinson had hit the spot where he thought

life

his adversary s heart

was beating.

Jackson

had purposely allowed the other to fire first, expecting to be hit, and fearing that if he, too,

fired

his aim.

hurriedly, the shock would spoil I should have hit him," he said

"

afterwards,

"had

he shot

me through

the

supposed that his hatred of Dickinson was really due, not to the con

brain."

It

is

fused dispute over the race, but to something Dickinson had said in his cups about Mrs.

Jackson.

Whatever

the

provocation,

the

story is revolting enough; but the picture of Jackson s grim, erect figure, his

bloody

hawklike eyes terrible with hatred, the ball

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA in

his

take

men

his

in

pistol

hand,

must

place alongside those other pictures statues of him which all Americans

its

and know, But was

breast, the

35

x

Jackson was a

if

also the

terrible

most faithful of

enemy, he

friends.

Many

and hated him many also loved him, and he himself would go as far feared

;

an enemy. One of his friends was a certain Patten Ander to help a friend as to crush

son,

into

who seems always trouble,

but

to

whom

have been getting the general never

Once Anderson got

deserted.

a fight

into

one end of a long table where a public dinner was being served, and was in great at

danger until Jackson, who sat at the other end,

noticed

he

Patten,"

the

the cried,

scuffle.

"

I

m

coining,

and promptly leaped on

and strode through dinner to the Anderson was killed at last, and

table

rescue.

Jackson slayer.

was a witness He was asked

at if

Anderson was not given "

quarrelling. friend,

enemy

Patten to

Sir,"

trial

the

unfortunate

in

said

Anderson,

scoundrels."

the

his

of

lifetime

his

to

Jackson, my was a natural "

ANDREW JACKSON

36

Aaron Burr came very near involving him in serious difficul In 1805, when Burr was on his first ties. His

friendship

visit to the

for

Southwest, he went to Nashville,

and was entertained most cordially at The He was there again on his Hermitage. return, and made with his host a contract and supplies to be used in that mysterious enterprise which has so puzzled Burr declared he had American historians.

for

boats

no

designs

i

hostile

to

the

United

States,

and Jackson believed him. When, a year later, the whole country was in a sort of panic over Burr s suspected treason, Jack son

offered

vices of

to

President

Jefferson

the militia under his

the

ser

command, and

promptly took measures to thwart any trea sonable movement that might be afoot in the

West

;

but he was soon convinced that Burr

was suspected unjustly, and never for a mo He went ment deserted him in his trouble. his and to Richmond to trial, testify at

made a

public speech full of bitterness against those who, as he thought, He himself were persecuting his friend.

while

there

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA was

at first strongly suspected of

Burr

in

s

project, but

there

his

life

country

looked

absolutely no

ever

an enemy of

upon than

otherwise

complicity

Andrew Jackson

reason to believe that in

is

37

as

his

own mortal

His faults were many, but he loved country simply, and with all his heart. foe.

seems

his

his

however, that Jackson, and in fact the whole Southwest, sympathized It

clear,

very strongly with in that quarter at tertain

;

Florida

United

which many thought Burr to^en-

the

design

first

the design, namely, of seizing or Texas, or perhaps both. States

were

at

that

time,

West The

as

they were before and after, very close to war with Spain. Spain still had possession of the Floridas, although the

that

West

Gulf

coast

"

Island

the

of

Florida,

from

New

Louisiana

little

when

the

interest

extending along the Perdido River to the

Orleans,"

Jackson

Eastern in

the

was included

To

purchase. of West

Spaniards out ardent desire of fore,

the

United States claimed

drive

Florida

was

in

the

an

Ten years be States had shown s.

development

of

the

ANDREW JACKSON

38

Southwest, and had seemed to prefer com mercial privileges with the Spanish colonies to

the

free

navigation

of

the

Mississippi,

which the Western country needed for its development, Spanish agents had endeav ored

to

stir

disaffection

up

in

the

South

that looking to the separation of At that time, many region from the Union. people in the East, knowing little of the

west,

Westerners, had suspected them of lending

That tempting whispers. was one reason why such a panic arose over an ear

to

Spain

s

Burr, for he had always been a champion of the Southwest, and the pioneers liked him.

After the

failure

and disgrace

stage was

cleared

for another

southwestward likely to

take

role

as

Burr the

leader in

And

movement. the

of

the

who

patriotic

the so

and

warlike general of the Tennessee militia ? Jackson had a chance to play that role

way when Silas Dinsmore, the United States agent among the Choctaws,

in

a

small

whose lands lay in Mississippi Territory, re fused to

Choctaw

persons to pass through the country with negroes unless they

allow

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA showed

more had a law

the

for

passports

39

Dins-

negroes.

Congress behind him, but a treaty between the United States and the Choctaws provided for a road through the

Choc taw

of

country which

should

be

"a

highway for citizens of the United States and the Choctaws." Jackson, passing along the road with some slaves, dared the agent to

He

interfere.

also

exerted

himself

to

removal of Dinsmore, and, as his wont was, made a personal matter of the dispute. His feeling was so strong that bring about

years

ing to

the

when Dinsmore, happen meet him, made a courteous advance,

afterwards,

the general sternly repelled

The 1812.

it.

Dinsmore occurred in Andrew Jackson was then forty-five

quarrel

with

He was well known in Tennessee years old. as a successful planter, a breeder and racer of horses, a swearer of ful

and generous man to

man

faith

his friends, a

chiv

women, a hospitable man home, a desperate and relentless man

alrous his

mighty oaths, a

to

personal conflicts, a man who the thing he set himself to do.

always

But

at in

did

as yet

ANDREW JACKSON

40

he had never found anything to do that was important enough to bring him before the Outside of Tennessee, country at large. few men had ever heard his name. At

Washington he was probably distrusted, so far as he was known at all, because of his championship of Burr and his quarrel with Dinsmore, and because he had been for Monroe instead of Madison for President. He was ardently in favor of war with Great

because

Britain

of

the

impressment

American seamen and other grievances which the United States had borne for years, but there seemed to be little likeli hood of his getting a chance to play a part of

in the

war

declared

if

it

in

should come.

1812.

June,

The war was A member of

Congress, on his way home after voting for the declaration, had a talk with Aaron Burr,

who was now York.

word

"

is

I

living

know,"

not worth

you may

tell

said

much

New that my

retirement in

in

"

Burr, with Madison

him from me

that there

;

is

but

an

unknown man in the West, named Andrew Jackson, who will do credit to a commission in the

army."

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA

Jackson was twice

It is said, indeed, that

recommended commission

Benton told

found

in

a

Congress how a

for

a

mail

officer

one

H.

Thomas he

himself, in

young lawyer

militia

his

later,

years

1812

in

and

ville

in

Madison

regular army, and twice

the

in

Many-

rejected.

who was

President

to

41

under

Nash

Jackson,

morning an act

of

authorizing O the President to acIt was cept organized bodies of volunteers.

Congress O

a raw day in February, but young Benton at once drew up a plan for offering Jack son s militia command to the government,

The Hermitage to find the general, and came upon him," so Mr. Benton s

rode "

to

story goes, before the his knees.

the

"in

fire,

He

a

sitting

twilight,

lamb and a

started a

child

little,

alone

between

called a ser

vant to remove the two innocents to another room, and explained to me child had cried because the

how

it

was.

The

lamb was out

in

and begged him to bring it in which he had done to please the child, his That is a far pleasanter pic adopted son." the

cold,

ture than the other

we saw

just

now

of Jack-

ANDREW JACKSON

42

son the duellist, but this also is a character istic picture, and should go into the gallery ; for Jackson, like

another

many

man who

has

been denied children of his own, was singu It is certainly larly tender with little folk.

good to be able to think of him, fierce man that he was, as turning from fondling a child to enter

Mr. )

on his

Benton

soldier s career. s

account

of

matter

the

is

questioned, but it is certain that Jackson offered his services, with those of 2500 vol unteers,

of war.

but

left

after

immediately

the

declaration

The government accepted the offer, him in idleness until October, 1812,

when for eral

the governor of Tennessee was asked volunteers, ostensibly to reinforce Gen

Wilkinson at

New

The gov

Orleans.

ernor in turn called upon General Jackson, and he, setting to work with the utmost

enthusiasm, issued to the volunteers the first of those eminently Jacksonian addresses

wherewith he was wont to hearten his lowers. set

On

January

7,

forth, the infantry

1813, the

by

fol

command

river, the cavalry,

under John Coffee, by land.

By

the middle

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA

43

of February all were united at Natchez, Mis the expedition was halted sissippi, where to

await

Week

further orders.

after

week

passed by, and finally, late in March, to the general s rage and disgust, he heard from the Secretary of

War

that the causes of the

expedition had ceased to exist, and that he dismissed was to consider his command "

from

the

word

as

public to

men home Jackson

any

service

"

provision

and for

not

getting

one the

!

s

resolution

was

instantly taken refused to dis

He and firmly carried out. band the men at Natchez, and marched them home, pledging his own credit for the neces His course commanded the sary expenses. approval of the State and won him the de votion of the men. It was the first of many occasions on which, while acting as a military officer, he dared to do the thing he thought

be right, no matter how irregular it was. On the journey home, his soldierly behavior

to

in trying circumstances

nickname. "

tough as

won him

his

famous

The men spoke of him as being and so came to call him hickory,"

ANDREW JACKSON

44

and

with affection, Old Before he reached Nashville he

"

Hickory,"

Hickory."

again

offered

but

Canada,

dismissed

it,

"

finally,

his

command

for

no reply came. and it seemed as

service

In if

in

May, he

he were not

going to have any soldier s career at all. Benton, who had served in the expedition as an aid, went to Washington and with diffi

War

culty persuaded the the expenses of the

When find

he

that

returned in

his brother,

Department to pay march from Natchez.

to

Nashville,

a duel between

and one

acted as Carroll

s

it

was

Jesse Benton,

Carroll, the general

second.

A

to

had

bitter

quarrel between Jackson and the Bentons followed ;

before

Jackson

swore

by the Eternal he would horsewhip Thomas Benton on sight. They met at a Nashville hotel. Jesse Benton was there, and also John Coffee and Stokeley Hays, friends of Jack son s. There was a rough-and-tumble fight. Thomas Benton fell down a stairway Jesse Benton was stabbed Jackson was shot in the shoulder and severely wounded. He was put to bed in the old Nashville Inn, a it

ended,

"

"

;

;

CONGRESS: BENCH: MILITIA

43

famous hostelry of the time, and while he lay helpless from a wound so ignobly won, the call was on

summon him fittest.

way which should at last the work for which he was

its

to

He was

to pass

from an action such

no biographer can defend to deeds which none can fail to praise. Jackson the duel as

list

Yet

must give place all

change the

man

fighting of scene of

is

to

Jackson the

akin,

and

it

was but a

and

purpose that turned the tavern brawl into the man

The Horseshoe and New Orleans happened that there was nowhere

of

soldier.

;

for

in

it

the

Southwest, perhaps nowhere in the country,

any other man quite so sure to have his way, whether in a street fight or in a battle.

Ill

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA

THE

that

call

now came

Jackson was

to

due to a very picturesque character of the times the man who is said to have chiefly

:

been the only rival of Burr and Jackson in the impression he made upon all beholders

by

his

The

manner and bearing.

call

came,

indeed, from

the southward, but probably it would never have come but for the work of

Tecumseh (or Tecumthe), the famous Shawnee warrior and orator, whose home was in For years Tecumseh had the Northwest. been

striving

West and

to

unite

South

in

the

a

red

men

supreme

of

effort

the to

back the swelling tide of white immi In 1811 he made a pilgrimage to gration. roll

the

southern

tribes,

and

his

most

fervent

appeal was to that powerful body of Indians known as the Creek Confederacy, who lived in what is now the eastern part of Alabama

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA and

the

These

southwestern

proud

divided

47

and two

into

of part Georgia. Indians were warlike

branches.

The

Upper

Creeks had their homes along the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, and their villages extended

some distance down the Alabama, which is formed by the junction of those two streams.

The Lower Creek towns were on both sides of the Chattahoochee, which now separates southern

The

Georgia from

southern

Alabamao

Confederacy, a loose sort of alliance, claimed for a hunting ground the lands extending westward to the watershed so-called

between the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, But in which unite to form the Mobile.

and along the Mobile and the Tombigbee were growing The growth of settlements of white men. these settlements was watched with disfavor and suspicion by the Creeks. A strong party, the fork

f

the

Red

of

these two

rivers

Sticks, or hostiles, listened readily

Tecumseh s teaching. When he left for his home in the distant Northwest many were to

already Lakes."

dancing

the

"

war-dance

of

the

ANDREW JACKSON

48

The outbreak of the war with England came in good time for Tecnmseh s plans.

He

at once

put himself in alliance with the

and

British,

in

the

summer

1813

of

the

Creek Eed Sticks heard that they could get arms and ammunition at Pensacola, the cap ital of

with

Spain was at peace but Red Sticks States,

Spanish Florida.

the

United

were seen thronging to Pensacola and re The turning with arms and ammunition. whites

of

the

Mobile

country, then part of

organized for

and

Tombigbee

Mississippi

Territory, a party re

defence,

waylaid Pensacola, and were

turning from victorious, then

defeated,

Battle of Burnt Corn.

in

the

at

first

so-called

Thoroughly alarmed,

now took refuge in stockades and forts. The military authorities of the United States made ready to defend the

settlers

Mobile, but recently seized from the Span iards. At Fort Mims, near the point where the Alabama form the and Tombigbee five

hundred

and

men, women, and children were pent up in an illplanned inclosure, defended by a small force Mobile,

fifty-three

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA an

under officer

incompetent

named

though

On

Beasley.

49

courageous

the morning of

1813, Beasley was writing to General Claiborne, that he superior,

August his

30,

any number of the enemy. At that very moment a thousand warriors lay hidden in a ravine but a few hundred yards from the open gate of the could

hold

stockade.

the

against

Their principal leader was William

Weatherford,

much

fort

"

the

Red

a half-breed

Eagle,"

and dauntless courage. At noon, when the drums beat the garrison of

intelligence

to dinner, the

Indians rushed

At

the hot

the end of

mained of the

to the attack.

August day there

fort but a smouldering

ruins, ghastly with

human

bodies.

re

heap of

Only a

handful of the inmates escaped to spread the horrible

news among

runners

Swift

set

and northward over

the

whole

for

off

the

terrified

settlers.

westward, shudder ran

eastward,

A

help.

The

country.

Southwest

from the remoter events of the war in Canada to the disaster at home. The Creeks!" Weatherford "Fort Minis!" were the words on everybody s lips, while turned

"

"

"

!

ANDREW JACKSON

50

the

major-general of

still

lay helpless

From

Tennessee militia

the

from

Mississippi on the east,

his shameful

on

the

wound.

west,

from

and from Tennessee Georgia on the north, volunteer armies were soon on the march for the Creek country. Ten two different bodies of One came from East Tennessee, com

nessee, indeed, sent

men.

manded by General John Cocke the other came from West Tennessee, and at its head, pale and weak, his arm in a sling, his shoul ;

der too sore lette,

the

from his bed.

legislature,

an epau had issued

the weight of

was Andrew Jackson.

his orders

of

to bear

come

He When

to

a member

discuss

the

ex

him, expressed regret that he be able to lead it, the sick man

pedition with

would not

muttered, with would lead it.

the inevitable

oath, that

But from the beginning

he to

military service he was pay ing the penalty, not merely of the quarrel ing which had brought him wounds, but of

the end

of

his

intemperate eating and drinking, which had he was ruined his Sometimes digestion. tortured

for hours with pains

that could

be

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA relieved

only by

garment hung the back of a

body, like a downward, over

his

hanging dry, face

to

chair, or,

51

if

he were on the

march, over a sapling stripped and bent for the purpose. By the second

was

at

The

entire

Its

supplies

week

in

Huntsville, on the

October, Jackson

Tennessee

River.

command numbered about 2700. were to

come

by water from

Knoxville, in East Tennessee, but the upper part of the river was not navigable by reason of

the

dryness

stormed

at

drilling

his

with Coffee

the

of

the delay, but

men and s

cavalry.

season.

Jackson

used the time in

scouring the country Then he cut his way

over the mountains to a higher point on the find to the supplies. His river, hoping

energy was great, but without food he could not, as he desired, dash at once into the

He moved southward enemy s country. when he had food, halted when it gave out, and

finally

the

Coosa.

From

his

which he named Fort Strother, dispatched Coffee to strike a first blow

camp he

reached

there,

against

the

Creek

town of

Tallusahatchee.

ANDREW JACKSON

52

Coffee destroyed rior

for

escaped,

revengeful. living infant

A

town, and not a war the whites were bitterly

the

slain

was

mother

found

embracing a

Jackson himself took care of the it

child, sent

The Hermitage, and he and

to

reared

to

it

his

wife

manhood.

The next blow was struck miles

thirty

dead.

the

among

below Fort

at

Talladega,

Strother,

where a

friendly Indians were besieged by a larger body of Red Sticks. Relying on General White, who was in the neighbor

body

of

hood with a force of Cocke seans,

to

protect

marched

by

however,

a

night

Fort to

dispatch

s

East Tennes-

Strother,

Jackson

Talladega.

There,

reached

him

from

White, who announced that he must return to Cocke. So at sunrise Jackson threw himself on the enemy, routed him with great loss, relieved the friendly Indians, and then

marched back

and the

sick

to

camp, to find no provisions,

and wounded

as

hungry

From

as the

that time the struggle with ine was for weeks his principal business. rest.

as

he was, he and

his

officers

fam Ill

would have

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA nothing the

men

could not have.

A

53

soldier

coming to him to beg for food, he thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out some acorns, and courteously invited the man to share his dinner.

Jackson was

Cocke

for

the

disposed to blame General trouble about supplies, be

cause Cocke had plies it

undertaken to obtain sup but in Knoxville for both commands ;

seems clear now that

Cocke was not

to

Soon after the battle of Talladega Jackson s feeling against Cocke was strength blame.

ened.

The warriors

of

the

Hillabee towns,

a part of the Creek Confederacy, sent a mes He senger to Jackson to sue for peace.

gave them his terms, and the messenger was returning to the Hillabees when General

White, of Cocke s command, ignorant of what was going on, marched upon a Hilla bee town, killed many of the warriors, and captured the

women and

children.

Jackson,

grieved and enraged at a blunder which prob ably prolonged the war and certainly made it

fiercer,

was

persuaded that Cocke, was trying to win laurels

easily

his inferior officer,

ANDREW JACKSON

54

for himself,

and

in the

to do grave injustice

end

to

a

his anger led

man who

him

appears

been faithful and honorable.

to have

And now

for

ten weeks

the will

of

An

drew Jackson was tried to the uttermost. His starving troops were constantly on the The command was made verge of mutiny. the militia, called into up of two classes, service

against

the

Indians,

and the volun

who had first enlisted for down the Mississippi. The

teers,

the expedi

tion

militia, dis

heartened,

started

for Tennessee.

Jackson

drew

up the volunteers across their path Then way, and drove them back to camp. the

in

their

prepared to move northward, and he stopped them with The mounted men were per the militia. volunteers,

mitted

turn,

go to Huntsville to get food for their horses, and most of them went on to to

their homes.

The

infantry, sullen

and

dis

were kept in camp only by the pro mise that in two days supplies would come trustful,

from Nashville, whither Jackson was send ing letter after letter to stir up the authori At the end of two days nothing had ties.

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA come.

A

fend the

55

few brave men volunteered to de

camp while with the

rest the

gen

marched northward in search of food. The supplies soon came in sight, and the men were fed but now they refused to go eral

;

back to camp, and again turned northward. Jackson, with Coffee and a handful of others, threw himself

in

front

of

them,

and with

blazing eyes and dreadful oaths cowed them into obedience. Again they threatened mu tiny, and once more, alone, on horseback, a

hand, his disabled arm in its he faced them, and swore he would

musket in sling,

shoot the

his

first

man who

stirred.

They

hesi

tated, wavered, yielded.

Seeing,

done

with

nothing could be volunteers, Jackson finally

however, the

that

permitted them to go, keeping with him the The militia and a small body of Cocke s men.

term would expire the term of Cocke s men

militia claimed that their

January 4, 1814 would expire a week ;

ing reinforcements,

Anxiously await Jackson got, instead, a

later.

from Governor Blount advising him But he would not to give up the struggle.

letter

ANDREW JACKSON

56

up

give

;

magnificent spirit rose higher He wrote the governor blow.

his

with every a letter that taught him his duty. Through the governor, in fact, that letter roused the

and soon a new army was on the way from West Tennessee, while Cocke was marching another force southward from East Tennessee. With some five hundred raw recruits that reached him before Cocke s whole

first

State,

command

ther.

He

left,

Jackson held Fort Stro-

even ventured to make a raid into

enemy s country, aiming at the town of Emuckfau. The Indians attacked him. He repulsed them, but soon made up his mind to return. On his way back, he was again the

attacked

guard was panic and valor

of

crossing a creek, his rear driven in, and for a moment a

while

But the a few men saved the army, and he rout

was

imminent.

got safely back to Fort Strother. He did not move again until the middle

March, and then he had five thousand men. Cocke, for a speech addressed to his

of

troops when they threatened mutiny, was To stamp sent to Nashville under arrest.

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA insubordination

out

the

among

57

men from

West Tennessee, a youth named Woods, who had been found guilty of mutiny, was The thirtyshot before the whole army. ninth regiment of regulars was now a part command, and the general proposed

the

of

them, whenever occasion offered, to suppress insubordination among the volun use

to

But from

teers.

that

deal

to

with,

the

against

he had

and was free

who had

with the Creeks,

own

this time

so

Georgians

little

of

to

grapple far held their

and Mississip-

pians.

The

centre

of

their

resistance

was

the

Hickory Ground, near the fork of the Coosa and Tallapoosa; but the final blow was struck

between

was

a bend in the Tallapoosa midway The spot source and mouth. its

at

by the by the Indians Tohopeka Across the neck whites, The Horseshoe. of a small peninsula the hostiles had thrown

up

called

a

rough

;

line

of

breastworks.

On

banks of the river they had gathered a ber of

canoes.

force of

Ked

the

num

Within the defences was a Sticks estimated at nine hun-

ANDREW JACKSON

58

dred,

and several hundred women and

chil

dren.

Jackson moved down the Coosa nearly

even

with

Tohopeka,

to a point

established

a

new camp, and by the evening of March 28 he was in front of the enemy with about three thousand men, including a considerable body of friendly Indians. Resolving to make

thorough work of it, he dispatched Coffee, with the friendly Indians and the cavalry,

bend on the opposite bank. The next morning, with the artillery, he Coffee, opened fire on the breastworks. to surround the

meantime, threw a force across the river and attacked the enemy from the rear. The line

was carried by assault. The As usual, slaughter of Creeks was dreadful. Five hundred and they fought to the last. fifty-seven bodies were found in the bend, of breastworks

and many perished trying to escape across the river. Jackson s loss was about two hundred killed and wounded.

Tohopeka broke down the organized ance

few

of

days

the

Indians.

later,

turned

When

resist

Jackson, a southward, he was

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA able

to

march on

to

the

59

Hickory Ground

The Red without fighting another battle. Sticks for the most part fled to their kin dred, the Seminoles, in Florida; but some came

and submitted which had crushed them. in

to

the

iron

hand

Jackson had been

Hickory Ground but a short time when Weatherford himself came in and surren at the

Some

men, remembering Fort Mims, would have done violence to the fallen Soon Jackson protected him. chief, but dered.

of the

afterwards, General Pinckney, of the regular army, arrived at Fort Jackson, which had

been built in the river fork, and took com mand. When he ordered the Tennesseans to return to their

them,

and

his

gave him the

homes, Jackson went with

fellow

first

of

citizens

Nashville

many triumphal

recep work in the wilder

His eight months ness had made him easily the tions.

at

first

man

of

Georgia had had a better chance than Tennessee to crush the Indians, for the Tennessee.

distance and the natural obstacles were less

;

but Georgia had no such leader as Andrew Jackson. Another reward soon reached him.

ANDREW JACKSON

60

In May, General William Henry Harrison resigned his commission, and in his place Jackson was appointed major-general in the He was put army of the United States. in

command

of

including Mobile and

But on

his

southwestern

the

way

New

district,

Orleans.

to his post

he had to stop

again at Fort Jackson and complete his work among the Creeks. Acting under orders

from

the

chiefs

government,

there

he

assembled,

the

compelled

practically

all

of

whom had

been friendly to the United States during the war, to sign an "agreement and by which they ceded to the capitulation "

land which they had claimed to the west of the Coosa. He car

United States

the

all

matter through with a high hand, but the Creeks themselves admired him and ried

the

put into the agreement a cession of land to It was, of course, not permissible himself. such a gift from the other party. However, the land was part of the region claimed by the United States

for a negotiator to

and

surrendered

matter of

fact,

accept

by the Creeks,

and

as

a

Jackson never got possession

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA

61

was improperly called, was signed August 9, 1814, and then Jackson was free to take up his new duties of

it.

This

as

"

treaty,"

it

as the defender of the Southwest against the British.

Up the

to

time, except for the

this

Creeks

and

the

bloodless

war with

capture

of

Mobile, the Southwest had taken little part in the contest. On land, the war had been

North, where the Americans had been trying to wrest Canada

mainly an

affair

the

of

from the mother country, and of the North west, where the British and the Indians had

The death

taken the offensive. at

the

battle

of

Tecumseh

of

the Thames, in November,

1813, had made an end of that combination, and General William Henry Harrison had

won some honor by

his

management

of

the

But the several attempts at in vading Canada were neither successful nor campaign.

glorious.

of

the

On

the whole, the land campaigns

Americans had been

pointing.

The

indeed covered

little

utterly

navy had both on the

American

with glory, high seas and on the Great Lakes itself

disap

;

but from

ANDREW JACKSON

62

the seas, where

Great Britain

had

s

disappeared by the autumn Only a few privateers still preyed

practically

of 1814.

on

was vastly overmatched by immense naval resources, it

it

commerce.

British

And

by

the

Britain

was

now,

overthrow of Napoleon, Great

employ against America all those ships with which Nelson had won for her the empire of the sea, and those superb soldiers driven the who, under Wellington, had French out of Spain. Regiments of these left free to

veterans were sent to

Canada.

In August, an expedition under General Ross landed on the coast of Chesapeake Bay, defeated an

American force at Bladensburg, took Wash ington, and burned the capitol and the Presi dent

than

s

mansion.

ever,

and

The enemy was the

stronger

United States were

the point of exhaustion. Moreover, the ruling class

in

one

at

impor

rather country was inclined to weaken than to help the govern ment. The Federalist leaders in New Eng tant

section

of

the

land were against the French, against Presi dent Madison, against the war. They had

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA

63

been in opposition ever since President Jef ferson went into office in 1801. Distrusting

and opposing the expansion of the country in that direction, they had talked about a breaking up of the Union when Louisiana was purchased in 1803, and again when the State of Louisiana was admit ted in 1811-12. When the war began, the the Southwest,

governors of several New England States refused to turn their militia over to the

Union tures, lead,

the

In

1814, several legisla Massachusetts legislature in the

generals.

were arranging a convention to propose

far-reaching changes in the Constitution of the United States, and many feared that the

outcome

would

be

the

disruption

of

the

Union and a separate New England confed eration. True, New England men were fighting bravely by land and sea for their country, but the leading Federalists of New England were, as a rule, disaffected.

A

notable exception was John Quincy Adams, who, distrusting the leaders of his own party,

had gone over to the party of Jefferson. The time was now come for the South-

ANDREW JACKSON

64

west, the

whether

The

region or not

long distrusted, to show was loyal to the Union.

so it

British were aiming

that

at

quarter

a

Evi military and naval force. dently believing the stories of disaffection in the Southwest, they had sent ahead of their powerful

expedition

printed

invitations to the

South

western people to throw off the yoke of the Union. The Spaniards of the Gulf coast,

probably not ignorant of the American de signs on both the Floridas, and resenting the

seizure

of

Mobile, were

allies of

passive

no better than

who were

the British,

thus

enabled to use Pensacola as a base for their

campaign against Mobile,

New

Orleans, and

the great Mississippi Valley beyond.

When

Jackson reached

Mobile,

in

the

middle of August, he was already thoroughly angered with the Spaniards for harboring He refugee Creeks and giving them arms.

had

always

Floridas

;

been

which son

he had

favor

of

had been the

that

the expedition

in

seizing

real

the

object of

down

the Mississippi in 1813 commanded. The true rea

why he and

his

army were dismissed

at

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA Natchez was that the authorities at

65

Wash

ington had changed their mind about seiz In July, 1814, he wrote ing West Florida. to

Washington

sacola,

but

no

for permission to take reply came, for the

Pen-

War De

partment was occupied with General Eoss. The absurd conduct of a British officer, Colo nel

Nichols,

who was

at

Pensacola with

a

and Indians, occupying one of the two Spanish forts there, and issuing fiery proclamations, was enough to make Jackson act at once, even if he had hesi force of

British

He

tated before.

answered the colonel

s

pro But he

clamations with others equally fiery. had to wait for troops, which were to come

from the neighboring States of Tennessee, Mean Kentucky, Georgia, and Louisiana. time, in September, a British squadron

made

a determined attack on Fort Bowyer, at the entrance to Mobile Bay, and was repulsed,

with the loss of rence

and

a

its flagship,

small

achievement, which of

the

by Major

garrison,

a

Law

gallant

made a good beginning At the end of October,

campaign. Coffee, now a general

officer,

with

nearly

ANDREW JACKSON

66

thousand

Tennesseans, reached the With these, and neighborhood of Mobile. about a thousand of the regulars he had three

already, Jackson promptly marched on Pensacola. One of the forts, and the city it self,

he took

blown reach

the other fort, Barrancas, was by the British before he could

up

The

it.

week.

;

enterprise kept him but a all over before he received,

was

It

in reply to

own

his

letter

from the Secretary of

of

War

July, a

letter

forbidding

him

Once again he had taken the responsibility to do what he felt to

Pensacola.

attack

to be necessary.

By

this

ton was

time the government at Washing the

great danger of the Hurried orders were sent to the

alive

Southwest.

to

governors of the various States whose militia It must be the main reliance for defence. was suspected that New Orleans would be the first objective of the enemy, and a warn

ing came leader of British

to

a

had

the city from Jean Lafitte, the gang of smugglers, whom the tried

to

win

over.

But

the

warning was not properly heeded, and Jack-

TOHOPEKA AND PENSACOLA

67

was slow to make up his mind where the enemy would strike. He lingered son

at

himself

Mobile until November 22, and four days

later

Sir

Edward Pakenham, with a

army and a great

New

for

Orleans.

fleet, sailed

from Jamaica

was not

It

large

until

Decem

2 that a worn, thin man, tired and ill, whom nobody, failing to observe the look in ber

his eyes,

of

the

would have taken for the conqueror

Creeks,

city that

rode

into

the

curious

little

had been the French and then the

Spanish capital of Louisiana, and which was not yet half like an American town. The bulk of

population was still French Cre ole and African ; but among the Americans its

man who

knew something of Andrew Jackson, and who was to know a great deal more. The leader of there was at least one

the of

New all

Orleans

bar,

the citizens in

and the

already

most active

making ready

for the

enemy, was no other than that Edward Liv ingston, who, with Duane and Burr, had been friendly to the Tennessee Congressman

^e

eighteen years before at Philadelphia, invited the new commander to his house,

ANDREW JACKSON

68

where Mrs. the

town,

fighter

Livingston, a social leader in soon discovered that the Indian

knew

perfectly

well

himself in a drawing-room.

how

to

deport

IV

NEW OKLEANS

A

GLANCE

at the

map

will give the reader

some idea of the doubts that must have be set Jackson concerning the point at which

enemy would probably attack New Or The island on which the city stands leans. the

was

accessible

from the sea by

at least three

The British might approach general routes. by the Mississippi River, which flows by the

Lake Pontchar-

on the west, or over train, which stretches out city

over

Lake

Borgne,

to

from

the

the

north,

or

southeast.

inspected Fort St. Philip, sixty besides the fort, miles below, on the river there were, for river defences, the schooner

Jackson

first

;

His and the sloop Louisiana. next move was to Lake Pontchartrain, and in that quarter when news he was still Carolina

came that the enemy had chosen the third

ANDREW JACKSON

70

already on Lake Borgne. British found there six American gun

and

route

The

which were

boats,

after

was

a brief

but

all

gallant

was December 14, and yet

in

most

destroyed

New

or

struggle.

taken

That

Orleans was not

posture of defence. route from the lake to

any good natural

The the

immediate neighborhood of the city was up the Bayou Bienvenu, which led to the south ern

plain bounded on the the river and on the east by a dense

end of

west by

a level

At

cypress swamp. plain lay

but the

Orleans, and the distance was

seven miles; the plain was in Between places about a mile wide.

six

most

New

the northern end of the

or

head of

was not a

bayou and the city there or even a line of intrench-

the

fort

For this state of things Jackson has not escaped blame from military critics. But if illness or any other cause had robbed him of his usual energy, the news of the disaster on Lake Borgne was the signal for a change in him and in the situation. ments.

Coffee, with part of the Tennessee volunteers, hurried was up the river at Baton Rouge.

A

NEW ORLEANS

71

summons brought him

a hundred and twenty miles in two days, and on the 19th he was above the city with in camp a few miles

Two

days later came General Carroll and a brigade of Tennessee

eight

hundred men.

militia,

came sippi

two

thousand

them

a

or

six

;

the

hundred

city of

New

volunteers,

two incomplete

numbering rank and twenty-five

together

of

whom

regiments of about eight

regulars

hundred

A

Kentucky brigade of hundred men was on the way,

file.

but without arms.

Of

Carroll

one in ten had a musket. for these

Orleans

Jackson had

about a third were mulattoes. also

with

;

squadron of mounted Missis volunteers. Louisiana furnished a also

thousand militia five

strong

men, only To provide arms s

new

troops was a difficult matter, of the Kentuckians were still

and many unarmed when the final struggle came. The panic-stricken and disorderly, city became and Jackson promptly placed

it

under mar

tial law.

Such was the situation when, on the morn ing of December 23, the British advance

ANDREW JACKSON

72

numbering about seventeen hundred,

party,

in

conveyed

small

boats

Lake Borgne and up

over the

shallow

the Bienvenu, landed

below the city and seized the man sion of Major Villere, a Creole gentleman of

six miles

the neighborhood. Villere was captured, but escaped, and at half past one o clock Jack

son

knew

was

at hand.

in

New Orleans that the enemy By good luck, Major Latour,

a French engineer, and the best historian of the campaign, was among the first to view the invaders, and he gave the general a cor rect idea of their position and numbers. As in

other

all

taken

at

crises,

once.

"By

Jackson the

s

resolve

Eternal,"

was

he ex

they shall not sleep on our soil set his troops in motion for a night at

"

claimed,

He

"

!

tack.

Had

the

British

marched

on

to

New

Orleans without stopping, it seems probable that they would have taken it that evening.

But

upwards of two thousand Americans were between them and the city. Jackson was on the American right, near the at

river,

nightfall

with the

regulars

and the Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS with

Coffee, contingent. and the Mississippi

next

left,

New

guard

Teunesseans

his

was on the

horsemen,

Carroll s cypress swamp. the city militia were left to

the

and

brigade

73

on

Orleans

the

The

north.

had crept down the river opposite the enemy s position, and at half past seven Carolina

one of her guns gave the signal for attack.

What

is

followed, in the fog and darkness, The British were sur not clearly known.

prised

;

but British soldiers are proverbially

The hard to drive from their own position. Americans had the advantage of making the

attack;

but

they

nearly all raw confused and un

were

certain

Each side was of its own and the enemy

Coffee,

on the

troops.

left,

drove

the

s

position.

British

back

where

they were pro tected by an old levee, while the new levee on the bank shielded them from the Louisi

towards

ana

s

the

river,

On

fire.

were repulsed. British

"army

past

nine

lost

two

the

the

right,

Americans

the

Reinforcements reached the during attack

hundred

the

action.

ceased.

and

At

half

The enemy

sixty-seven

killed,

ANDREW JACKSON

74

wounded, and missing hundred and thirteen.

;

the Americans, two

The night

attack,

The however, strengthened the Americans. enemy, overrating Jackson s force, became too cautious to advance at once, but waited until the entire army should be landed. The

Americans gained time to build defenses. Jackson chose a line two miles above the battlefield,

marked

by a

shallow

ditch which crossed the est

point,

from

the

plain at swamp to

canal

its

or

narrow

the

river.

Behind the ditch he threw up a parapet. In some places cotton bales were used, for the soil was but three feet deep at that depth ;

one found water, as indeed one found water almost everywhere, in the foggy air, in the bayous, the river, the swamps, of that low land about

Jackson

s

New

Orleans.

arrangements

In a few days for defence were

Fifteen guns were disposed at in tervals along the line, some of them manned

completed.

by

Lafitte

force

and

his

buccaneers.

The whole

numbered about three thousand, and

the Kentuckians, though not all armed, were used as a reserve. On the river the Loui-

NEW ORLEANS

75

siana and the Carolina gave the

enemy much

trouble.

The

army, when completely dis seemed to justify the Duke of

British

embarked,

Wellington

confidence

s

that

could

it

any American army he ever heard thousand

trained

British

There

soldiers,

at

Villere

with from twenty-five

were

Seven

of.

seamen, thousand West Indian

and marines, and a blacks, were assembled tion,

rout

regiments

to

s

planta guns.

thirty

had

which

helped

Wellington to win Talavera, Salamanca, and Vitoria, and within a few short months some of

these

same regiments were

Waterloo in that thin red

and Napoleon

s

guard

to

line

could

stand

at

which Ney

never

break.

Their general, Pakenham, Wellington s bro ther-in-law, was a distinguished pupil of his illustrious

kinsman.

Could frontiersmen who

had never fought together before, who had never

seen the face of

a civilized foe, with

stand the conquerors of Napoleon branches of the same stubborn

?

But two race

were

The represented on that little watery plain. soldiers trained to serve the strongest will in

ANDREW JACKSON

76

World were

the Old

face

with the

face

to

and

rough

ready yeomanry embattled for by the one man of the New World

defence

whose

soul

had most

of iron in

Salamanca

against Tohopeka, individual alertness, the

against the little

Isle

against

wastes and wilds. difference.

the

It

it.

was

discipline

Briton

Briton

of

of

the

But there was one great

Wellington,

"the

Iron

Duke,"

was not there; "Old Hickory" was every where along the American lines. A grave and moderate fense

of

New

historian,

Orleans with the

Washington, finds unlike.

marks,

"

"

comparing the de

the

two

defence

situations

of

not

The

was

Pakenham

principal difference," he re that Jackson commanded."

concern was to get rid of the Carolina and the Louisiana. Heavy s

first

guns were with great labor hauled from the 27 the Carolina s fleet, and on December crew were forced to abandon her, and the Louisiana was with difficulty got out of but meanwhile Commodore Patter range son had mounted a battery across the river ;

which in a measure made up for the

ships.

NEW ORLEANS On

77

Pakenham advanced with

the 28th,

his

whole army, but retired, without making any assault, to await the result of an artillery This was fought on New Year s day, The British used at least twenty-

duel.

1815. four

and

some

throwing

guns,

hundred

the Americans, pounds of metal two hundred and guns, throwing

fifty

fifteen

three

;

On twenty-four pounds. defences were employed,

both sides cotton

novel

bales

by

the Americans, barrels of sugar by the Brit ish. The bales quickly caught fire, and from that tune were discarded as

as useless

if

but

made in Canada marksmen than American

The

they had been empty.

result of the action

surprising

the barrels proved

;

would have been utterly

for

the

discovery

already

that Americans were better British

regulars.

Three

every one damaged of the British batteries was silenced and abandoned. The American loss was thirtyfour killed and wounded the British, some

guns were

;

;

what heavier.

Pakenham Lambert

to

waited

a

week

for

come up with two of

General his

regi-

ANDREW JACKSON

78

and then made his supreme effort. His plan was to advance on both sides of

ments,

the river.

During the night of January 7, Colonel 1200 men, was Thornton, with thrown across to the left bank, where Gen eral David Morgan had 450 Louisiana mili tia,

reinforced

hundred

at

the

last

moment by

four

Both British divi sions were to attack before dawn. But the dawn came before Thornton was ready. He Kentuckians.

was, however, successful

programme.

Morgan

in

part of the was driven back, his his

guns taken, and the British on the west bank passed up the river a mile beyond Jackson s line.

Jackson never

forgave the

Kentuck

although military critics incline to think they did all that should have been expected. But on the east bank it was a different ians,

At

main body of the British rushed upon the American lines. story.

six

o clock

the

General Gibbs, with 2200, sought to pierce the defenses near the swamp. General

Keane

led

1200 along the

river bank.

Gen

Lambert, with the reserve, brought up the rear. The whole force engaged was over eral

NEW ORLEANS Gibbs

5000.

can

Gibbs

it.

wounded.

of

yards from the

his

himself

Pakenharn,

division fell,

dashing

melted

mortally

forward

to

was killed three hundred

rally the column,

left,

came under the Ameri

The head

fire.

before

first

79

Keane, on the British was wounded and carried from the field.

Nowhere did

lines.

the

enemy

pierce or break

the

A

brave major did indeed cross the ditch and lift his head above the line of defense.

but he lived only long enough to send back word that he died on the para In truth, Pakpet like an English soldier. breastworks;

enham

s

assault

was

a desperate

venture,

such as British commanders, relying on the valor of their men, have been too often led to

make.

from end

At to

eight o clock Jackson walked end of his works, and not a

British soldier was

anywhere to be seen in an attitude of offence. The smoke of the artillery, clearing, discovered

distant, in battlefield

wounded. than

five

the

enemy far full retreat to his camp, and the littered with piles of dead and I saw," said Jackson, more "

hundred

"

Britons

emerging from

ANDREW JACKSON

80

the

heaps of their dead comrades,

the plain, rising up, visible as the field

all

over

and still more distinctly became clearer, coming

forward and surrendering to our

Here was revenge, indeed,

soldiers."

for the suffer

ings of little Andy in the Waxhaws, for the sabre cut on his head, for his brothers, for his mother.

But

it

is

not

known

any low word of vengeance passed at the awful

dead

were

his

that lips

The British their wounded

sight before him.

seven

hundred,

twice as many, and five hundred were taken. In the American lines on that side of the river eight were killed

Such

a victory,

paralleled

in

and thirteen wounded.

cheaply bought, is not the warfare of civilized men. so

Lambert, succeeding Pakenham, recalled Thornton and gave up the important advan tage the British won on the western bank.

For ten days the armies lay as they were, and then the enemy withdrew as he had A few days later, Fort Bowyer, on come. Mobile Point, was taken, and then the fight ing ceased.

During the closing weeks of January, by

NEW ORLEANS

81

the slow methods of travel prevalent in those days, three messengers were hastening to

AVashington with tidings which the wearied President awaited with eagerness or fear according to the quarter from which they came. From Hartford, Conn., where the convention of New England malcontents had sat,

he was to learn what demands w ere made r

by Americans who chose a time of war to change and weaken, if not indeed to destroy, the constitution of their country.

From

the

American commissioners at Ghent he hoped To the against hope for news of a peace. Southwest he looked with dread, for few had dared to believe that New Orleans could be defended.

The three messages arrived

al

most together, and all three were to stick in men s minds for years to come, and to mould

men

s

thoughts about their

Ghent came

tidings of

From New

as

From

a peace, not, indeed, had gone to war to

we than we had a

glorious, or such

win, but better

country.

right to expect. of a victory so

Orleans, tidings splendid that it stirred the blood and bright ened the eyes of every true American, and

ANDREW JACKSON

82

made

it

hard to remember that the war had

The threaten

not been altogether glorious. ing

In

message from Hartford the

great

balance

of

lost

the

its terrors.

the

sections,

Northeast sank, the Southwest rose. When men recalled the war with shame, it was be

Hartford; when they spoke of with pride, as in time they came to do, cause

of

was because they saw, on the parapet of

it it

New

Orleans, looking out over heaps of British dead, the thin, tall figure of the horseman in

Lafayette Square.

True, the victory might the peace was made be

seem worthless, for fore the battle was fought; but the victor had won for his countrymen something dearer than anything set forth in treaties. He had won them back their good opinion of them selves.

to

In the prosperous years that were

follow,

Andrew Jackson,

the

man

of

the

Southwest, was to stand as no other man could for the American s faith in his country against the world. But the victorious

same Andrew

New

general was still the he did not leave Jackson ;

Orleans without exhibiting some of the

NEW ORLEANS characteristics

that

83

were so well known in

Relaxing none of his vigilance, he kept the city under martial law after the British had sailed, and even after the British Tennessee.

had sent him word of

admiral

Many New

the

peace.

people protested, and certain of them claimed exemption from the

work were out

Orleans

defense

of

on

the

All such he ordered

citizens of France.

the

of

city.

Mr.

ground that they

Louaillier, a

leading

published a protest, and Jackson Judge Hall, of the promptly arrested him. citizen,

United

States

District Court, issued

a writ

and Jack judge him

of habeas corpus for the prisoner,

son

promptly arrested the self, and did not release him until, early in March, official notice of the peace was re ceived. The judge fined the general a thou as

sand

dollars

for

contempt

of

court,

and

nearly thirty years afterwards the American Congress voted money enough to repay the

sum with the

interest.

Between the

news of peace, Jackson

order

whom

for

a

the

execution

court-martial

of

also six

battle

and

signed the militiamen

had found guilty of

ANDREW JACKSON

84

mutiny and desertion. stances which seemed

men was

to mercy,

and

There were circum

recommend

to

in after

years

these

the order

along with other things to prove that Jackson was a cruel and arbitrary com cited

mander.

However, the

War

Department gave him

only the mildest of reproofs for his treatment of

the civil authorities at

New

Orleans, and

when he returned to Tennessee it was to a welcome even more heartfelt and stirring than the one he got on his return from the In the autumn he was called Creek war. to

Washington

to consult with

his superiors

about putting the army on a peace footing, and on the journey and at the capital he was universally received

as the

The army was reduced

hero of the war.

thousand men, and distributed into a northern and a south to ten

ern department. The command of the north ern department was given to General Jacob

Brown

;

Jackson

got

the

southern

depart

ment. It

was

about

this

time

that

Governor

Alston, of South Carolina, got a letter from

NEW ORLEANS his father-in-law,

Aaron Burr,

85

of

New

York,

concerning the approaching presidential elec Burr thought Monroe, the leading tion.

and the man preferred by Presi dent Madison, too weak a man for the great office. He wanted a man of firmness and de candidate

and he added, that man is Andrew But as yet Jackson himself had Jackson." no such ambition. As late as 1821, in fact, he said, in reply to a suggestion that he "

cision,

I know what No, sir might be President I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way but I am not fit to be "

:

;

;

He

President."

in 1816,

Monroe wrote to him

cordially supported

and after

his election

and made a few suggestions about

One

ministration. to

appoint

Drayton,

a

these suggestions

Federalist,

Colonel

ad

was

William

War. Jackson de had he been in command in New

Secretary

clared that,

of

his

of

England, he would have hanged the leaders of the Hartford Convention but he was in ;

favor of recognizing the loyalty of such Fed eralists as had served the country faithfully

during the war.

That

letter to

Monroe was

ANDREW JACKSON

86

for

the

general by his neighbor and friend, William B. Lewis, as were hun dreds of others. The general himself was a "copied"

poor writer, and Major Lewis was a skilful man with a pen. He was also an exceedingly clever

politician,

and he showed

his clever

by keeping a second copy of the letter to Monroe for future use. In the course of the correspondence, Monroe let Jackson know ness

he himself might be Secretary of War he chose ; but Jackson was content with

that if

his

command.

V THE SEMINOLES AND THE POLITICIANS

FOR

years General Jackson was mainly occupied with the duties of a military officer in time of peace ; but he was also three

employed

dian tribes,

home open lands.

make treaties with several In and won another royal welcome

to

from to

the

Tennesseans

settlement

Even

in

large

peace,

by

areas

however,

throwing of Indian he

found

an opportunity to display his readiness to do the right thing in a way to make trou

Being several times annoyed by orders issued direct from the War Department to ble.

his

inferiors,

and

seeing

clearly

that

this

was not the proper procedure, he issued a general order forbidding his subordinates to obey any commands which did not reach

Calhotm, who became soon afterwards, conceded

them through him. Secretary of

War

ANDREW JACKSON

88

the justice of the general s position, but Jack son s course in the matter was certainly rather

General Winfield Scott

high-handed. cised

in private

it

conversation,

chief-maker brought

The

attention.

his

result

was

abusive

letters

a

which Scott, on

duel,

very properly

words

to Scott,

criti

and a mis to

some

Jackson fiery

and

and a challenge religious

s

to

grounds,

Jackson also car

declined.

on an angry correspondence with Gen

ried

Kentucky, who defended the Kentucky troops from the charge of cow eral Adair, of

ardice at

New

was

late

It

Orleans. in the year

1817 before Gen

Jackson was again called to active ser vice in the field. Once more the call was eral

from the southward, and

his old enemies, the

Red

Sticks, the English, and the Spaniards, were all in some measure responsible for it.

A

number

of

Red

Sticks had

taken refuge

with their kinsmen, the Seminoles, in Florida. Colonel Nichols and a small force of British

had

also

the war

nature

remained in Florida some time after

and had done things of a up the Indians there against

ended,

to stir

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS the

Americans

slaves,

the

across

89

border.

Negro escaping from American masters, had

fled to the

Spanish province in considerable numbers, and a bod}7 of them got possession of a fort on the Apalachicola River which

had been add

abandoned

to the

disorder of

the

To

British.

the

province, adventurers, some of

by

frequented

by

it

was

them

claiming to be there in order to lead a revo lution against Spain,

The Spanish authorities Pensacola were too weak to control such

mere at

some of them probably

freebooters.

a population, and Americans near the border were anxious to have their government inter

The negro

fere.

lessness,

down

was a centre of law and some American troops marched

the river,

shot blew

with

bombarded

up its hundred

three

the

Indian

fort

and by a lucky magazine and killed nearly negroes.

Troubles

arose

and Fowltown, an was taken and burned. A

Indians

village,

it,

also,

body of Indians took and Jackson was ordered

considerable

to

the

war-path,

to

the

scene.

Impatient

as ever with the Spaniards, he

.

ANDREW JACKSON

90

wrote to President Monroe nified to

J.

me

Ehea)

would

and

be

Let

be

it

sig

through any channel (say Mr.

that

the

desirable

in sixty days

Monroe was

"

:

it

at

ill

possession of Florida to the United States, will

the

be

accomplished."

time,

and for some

reason did not attend to the general s letter for a year. The President was trying to get Florida peaceably, by purchase, and not by

Jackson, however, got the idea conquest. that his suggestion was approved, and acted accordingly.

Eaising troops in Tennessee on his own authority, he marched rapidly to the scene of

and

Of

border into Florida, crushed the Seminoles.

trouble, crossed the

in

a few weeks

fighting, in

fact,

what there was

fell

there

was very

almost

entirely

little

to

;

the

and not a single American soldier was killed. But Jackson s actions in the campaign brought on the bitterest friendly Indians,

controversies

four

tured

of

his

men were put

career.

to

By

his

order

and he cap claiming that some

death,

Pensacola again, Indians had taken refuge

there.

Two

of

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS

91

men were Creek Red Sticks. The other two were white men and British sub One was Alexander Arbuthnot, an jects. old man of seventy, a trader among the In dians, and, so far as is known, a man of good character. He was taken prisoner, how the four

and

supposed a letter he wrote to his son, telling him to take their merchandise to a place of safety, warned some Indians of ever,

it

is

The other British sub ject was an Englishman named Robert Ama lieutenant in the brister, who had been Jackson

British

New

any

He

was nephew to the gov Providence, one of the British

and

Indies,

Florida for

approach.

army.

ernor of

AVest

s

rather clearly

in

seems

have

to

search of

been

in

adventure than

ascertainable

purpose.

A

court-martial found Arbuthnot guilty of in citing the Creek Indians to rise against the

United

States,

and of

Ambrister was found against

the

sentenced to

United be shot

tion, the court

stripes

aiding the enemy. guilty of levying war

States. ;

He was

then, on

first

reconsidera

changed the sentence to fifty and hard labor for a year. Jackson

y

ANDREW JACKSON

92

firmly believed that both were British emissa ries, sent to Florida to stir up the Indians.

He

disapproved the change of Ambrister s sentence, and ordered him to be shot and

Arbuthnot

to be hanged.

and energetic measures, whe ther justifiable or not, put an end to the disorder on the border, and Jackson was

Such

again

fierce

free

country

to

return

home a

victor.

The

disposed to approve what he but the President and Cabinet

was

had done, saw that grave international questions would be raised for Jackson had invaded the soil of a country at peace with the United States, taken possession of its forts, and put to ;

death

citizens

peace

with

another

of

United

the

country

States.

also

John

at

C.

Calhoun, of South Carolina, the Secretary of War, was in favor of censuring the general for

his

conduct

but John

;

Quincy Adams,

the

Secretary of State, thought his acts necessary under the circum stances, and declared himself ready to de of

Massachusetts,

fend them.

In the end he did defend them

so well that neither Spain nor

Great Britain

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS made

dent and

his Cabinet followed

vice instead of

about

the

reason

to

Presi

Adams

s

ad

and Calhoun him him superior, wrote to

Calhoun

Jackson

as

self,

The

serious trouble over them.

93

s

s,

in

a

friendly way. Jackson naturally thought that Calhoun had been his friend in the Cabinet, and had no

campaign

that

suspect

it

was Adams who

defended, and Calhoun who wished to cen He did not learn the truth for sure him.

many is

no

years. telling

tory of been.

the

Had how next

he known

it

different the

twenty years

For henceforth Jackson was

sooner, there political

might have to be a great

figure not in warfare but in politics. military career was practically ended.

kept

his

from

this

He

commission time

he

had not, as a

until

fought

soldier,

his

July,

1821,

no more

His

He but

battles.

given such evidence

military genius as to set his name along side those of the great captains of history, but he had shown himself a strong and suc

of

cessful leader of

irregular

men

;

in his masterful, often

and violent way, he had done

his

ANDREW JACKSON

9i

Were

service.

country good

history merely a soldier

s,

his

place

in

would be a safe

it

But his actions one, though not the highest. in the field soon gave him the leading part on a different

One day

stage.

in

January,

1819, he rode up to the house of his neigh bor, Major Lewis, who had just bought a

new

overcoat,

another

made he

to get himself

the general wanted the one already

;

wear on a long journey.

to

"

said,

to

ington

and asked him

there

ruin

is

a combination

me.

"

Major,"

in

Wash

I start to Washington

to-morrow."

The

chief of those who, as Jackson firmly

were combined

believed,

the

man who

him, was could with best reason be com to

ruin

pared to the hero of New Orleans for the place he had in the affections of the West ern people and

new

as

American

;

quarter

Britain.

If

Jackson was

the

war,

if it

Henry Clay was its was Jackson who sent from one

the

news

of

hero

orator

representative of the born of the second

spirit,

war with Great the

the

of

a

glorious

was Clay who, with Adams and

victory,

it

Gallatin,

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS had

secured

95

the

Leaving Ghent, peace. lingering in Paris when he heard

Clay was the news of

New

Orleans.

I can go to tification." But the

claimed,

"

"

Now,"

he ex

England without mor great orator was not

sympathy with Monroe s administration. His enemies declared he was in opposition

in

because he was not asked to be Secretary of State, and because he feared that Adams,

who had

become President four years later. However that may have been, it was Clay who led the attack on the

about

administration

Florida. "

the place, would

the

his

Protesting

illustrious

commanded

the

campaign in

deep

who

condemned

the

"

military

he

there,

yet

for

respect chieftain

hanging of the two Red Sticks, the execu tion of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, the tak ing of Pensacola.

From

the

moment

speech he was Clay

s

Jackson

read

that

enemy, and a warfare

began that lasted twenty-five years. Every man, in fact, who in the course of the long debate that followed condemned the acts of General

Jackson

in

Florida

was

written

ANDREW JACKSON

96

down an enemy on ory.

He

the

remained

in

tablets of

his

mem

Washington

until

House had voted down every resolution unfavorable to his course, and he had thus won his first victory over Clay. Then he set forth on a northern journey which showed him the immense popularity he had in places like New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and gave him an opportunity to the

increase

it

in public.

by the

He

fine

returned

appearance he made to

find that a

Sen

had reported unfavorably on his conduct, but the Senate never acted on the report, and on his journey homeward ate committee

the people gave him every reason to believe that the great majority of his countrymen As approved the votes of the lower house.

complete his called once more to

if

to

triumph, he was soon Florida ; and this time

he entered Pensacola, not as a soldier invad ing a foreign province, but as the chief magistrate

of

an

American

territory.

In

February, 1821, after so many years of ne gotiation, Florida was bought by the United President Monroe appointed JackStates. V,

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS

97

and commissioner to receive the province, and he, bidding farewell to the army, entered again upon the duties of son

a

governor

civil office.

Even

in

his farewell

to

his troops,

Jack

son took occasion to attack a policy recently favored by his superior, General Jacob

Brown,

and

who

any one

knew

Jackson

have guessed that the holding of a office would never keep him from vio

might civil

lent courses, particularly in

held

the

office

only

a few

He

Pensacola.

months,

he

for

who was with him, tells in one of her letters how pale and solemn he was when he rode into Pensacola for the third time, and how ill he was

in

was while he

was

October, but made another

before

The

His

wretched health.

there.

wife,

He

resigned

resigned he had dispute with Spain.

he

cause of

retiring Spanish governor, Callava,

accused of attempting

in

was

to

carry away papers which were necessary to establish the pro The perty rights of a quadroon family. correspondence on the subject led to a series of misunderstandings,

and General Jackson

ANDREW JACKSON

98

was

soon

that villainy was afoot. the dispute was that the

convinced

The upshot of American governor ernor

in

judge of

jail

the

Spanish gov and when the United States

;

West

put

Florida, a

named Fromentin,

curious

mend

tried to

character

the matter

with a writ of habeas corpus, he fared little better than Judge Hall of New Orleans had fared before him.

Mr.

Parton

comical

this

s

laborious

affair

son

s

chivalrous

him

enables

that the estate over which

was of no value

investigation

show

the trouble arose

whatever,

impulse

to

of

to

and that Jack defend a fam

wronged led him into a As very arbitrary and indefensible action. usual, his motives were good, but his tem ily

he

per

was not improved by

the

fact

thought

that

Callava,

his

illness

who seems

to

or

by

have

been a worthy gentleman, was a Spaniard, and had been governor of Florida. Jackson

had a rooted dislike of Spanish governors, and doubtless congratulated himself and the country that there would be no more of them in Florida, when, for the last time, he

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS Pensacola

from

northward

turned

The Hermitage and

the

to

which

rest

99

seek

his dis

eased body sorely needed.

The Hermitage was by place

to

in, for

rest

it

time a good grown to be a

this

had

Southern plantation home, quite unlike the bare homes which sheltered the first settlers of

that

neighborhood,

and

it

had

its

full

charm that belonged to that It was the seat of an old Southern life. The fame of its mas abundant hospitality. ter drew thither interesting men from a dis His benevolence, and the homely tance. share

of

the

wife, made charity of his many of the neighborhood

it

a

resort

for

whom

they two people fond of

had befriended, for young the simple amusements of those days, and of the Gospel, whom for ministers Mrs. Jackson, an extremely pious woman, liked For his wife s especially to have about her. sake, the

general

and

estate,

respect

the

built a tiny church

always religion

treated

with

which he

on the

profound

himself

had

not professed, but which he honored because

Mrs.

Jackson

was

a

Christian.

Indeed,

ANDREW JACKSON

100

there

nothing in the honorable than his is

more

man

whole

s

perfect

life

loyalty to

She was a simple, uncultivated, kindhearted frontier woman, no longer attrac tive in person, and a great contrast to the her.

courtly figure

by her

side

when

she and the

It is certainly general were in company. true that the two used to smoke their reed

pipes together before the fire after dinner, and that custom, to one ignorant of Ameri

would stamp them as persons of the lowest manners. Yet it is also true that Aunt Rachel," as Mrs. Jack can

in the Southwest,

life

"

son was commonly called by younger people of the neighborhood, was loved and honored

by

all

who knew

her.

The general had not

merely fine manners, but that which is finer far than the finest manners he had kindness :

for his slaves, hospitality for strangers, tleness

with

women and

children.

The Hermitage in noble nature was drawn to was

ette

way

at

quite

impossible

to

gen

Lafay 1825, and his Jackson in a

understand

if

he

was nothing more than the vindictive duel ist,

the headstrong

brawler, the crusher out

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS of Indians, the

and Span

Britons

of

which we know that he was.

iards,

found

ette

hater

at

The Hermitage

101

Lafay

the

pistols

which he himself had given to Washington and which, with many swords and other tokens of the public esteem, had come to the hero of New Orleans. The friend of Wash declared

ington

that

the

had

pistols

come

worthy hands, notwithstanding that his host was equally ready to display another That is the pistol weapon with the remark, with which I killed Mr. Dickinson." to

"

It

seems clear that Jackson honestly meant

spend the rest of his days at the Hermit His friend Eaton, a Senator from age. to

Tennessee, had already written his to

New

Orleans,

have

been

name

of

and

content,

probably

so

far

as

life

he

down would

his

public career was concerned, to let finis follow the his

greatest

victory.

But

Eaton

and Major Lewis, and other friends, and the vast public which his deeds had Within a stirred, would not let him alone.

himself,

year of his retirement, a group of his friends

were working shrewdly to make him Presi-

ANDREW JACKSON

102

dent of the United States.

Williams,

In 1823, John

who was an enemy

to

Jackson,

came before the Tennessee legislature election to the United States Senate. son

s

friends were determined

to

for re

beat

Jack him,

and found they could do it in only one way. In that, as They elected Jackson himself.

work that was done for him, Major Lewis was the leading man. Before the time came to choose a successor to President Monroe in 1824, Tennessee had declared for her foremost citizen, and in all the clever political

Pennsylvania, to the surprise of the country, soon followed the lead. The sceptre was pass from the Virginian line, and from all the great sections of the Union distinguished statesmen stepped forward to

about to

grasp

From Georgia came William H.

it.

Crawford, a practiced politician

;

from South

John C. Calhoun, the subtlest of from Kentucky, Henry Clay, the reasoners orator; from Massachusetts, John Quincy Carolina,

;

Adams, the

best drained of

public servants.

Only Tennessee offered a soldier. It was twenty-six years from the end

of

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS Jackson second

s

in

Congress

the

Senate.

service

first

appearance

in

103

to

his

Again

he showed himself unfit to shine as a legis lator, but in spite of that he was now clearly the most marked

None

figure in the

upper house. were Senators. Clay was

of his rivals

Adams, Craw Speaker of the House and Calhoun were in the Cabinet. ford, the

;

Jackson probably did not occupy more than ten minutes of the Senate s time during the whole session, but his fame and his can

made

didacy internal

votes

his

improvements

on

the

and

tariff

data

important

to

The

country was already en tered upon the second period of its history, in which there was to be no French party politicians.

and

no

should

English choose

party;

his

position on such

party

in

which

a

voter

on account of

questions

as

the

tariff,

its

in

improvements, and the bank, or on account of the general view of the Constitu ternal

But as yet no clear division into such parties had come about. The old Federalist party was no longer in the field, and no other had arisen to take its tion

which

it

favored.

ANDREW JACKSON

104

It

place.

was a time of personal

Who

The first question was, Monroe ? and the next

question,

succeed the successor of

Monroe

to

is

politics.

succeed

Who

is

to

?

Jackson found some firm friends awaiting him in Washington, and he soon added to

number

their

by

becoming

reconciled

to

some old enemies. Among the old friends was Livingston, now Congressman from Lou isiana. One of the old enemies was the Sen ator from Missouri, whose chair was next his

own

rising

;

for

man

Benton.

in

the

Senator from Missouri, a

Washington, was Thomas H.

According

Jackson made the

Ben ton

to

s

account,

and they were soon on friendly terms, though Benton continued to support Clay, whose niece he had married. General Winfield Scott made an overture, and Jackson cordially responded. first

advance,

Even with Henry Clay he was induced by mutual

friends

courteous

to

stand

on

a

footing of there never

though was any genuine friendship between them. Against Crawford, the Georgian candidate, and at first the leading candidate of all, he friendliness,

SEHItfOLES

AND POLITICIANS

105

Craw had a grudge that dated from 1815. ford was Secretary of War at that time, and, contrary to Jackson s advice, had restored the

to

Cherokees certain lands which Jack

son had got

from the Creeks by the treaty of Fort Jackson, but which the Cherokees

When

claimed. against

Monroe

Crawford in

1816,

offered

himself

Jackson was ar

and now, when it dently for the Virginian was apparent that the caucus of Republican ;

Senators and Representatives would probably

nominate Crawford, Jackson the friends

of

other

friends joined candidates in opposing s

the caucus altogether, so that in the end only sixty-six persons attended it, and its action

was deprived of the weight it had formerly Before the had in presidential contests. election, Crawford was stricken with paraly sis,

and

this greatly

weakened

his chances.

Both Calhoun and Adams were on friendly terms with Jackson.

Jackson

still

supposed

that Calhouu had defended the Florida

cam

His good feeling paign in the Cabinet. toward the South Carolinian was doubtless strengthened when Calhoun, who had relied

ANDREW JACKSON

106

on the support of Pennsylvania, gracefully yielded to Jackson s superior popularity in that quarter, and withdrew from the contest. It was then generally agreed that he should

be

and

Vice-President,

probably

General

Jackson, like many others, was willing that he should restore the old order of things according to which the Vice- President, in stead of the Secretary of State, stood in line of succession to the presidency. Adams was Secretary of State,

and

as such

he had rendered Jackson important services

by defending

his actions in Florida.

Adams,

in diplomacy, believed in standing up for his own country quite as resolutely as the fron tier general did in war. Nor were they far

apart

on

the

ments,

the

Adams

s

feeling

tariff

domestic

diary for

for

Mrs.

and

internal

questions

this

Jackson.

of

improve the

day.

period shows a good In honor of the gen

Adams gave

a great ball January 8, 1824, the anniversary of New Orleans. The election turned, as so many others

eral,

have turned, on the vote of New York, which Martin Van Buren, an astute politician, was

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS trying

Crawford.

to carry for

He

107

not

did

and there was no choice by the peo Jackson led with ninety-nine votes in electoral college Adams had eighty-

succeed, ple.

the

;

Crawford forty-one, Clay thirty-seven. In some States the electors were still chosen

four,

by the

Outside of those States

legislature.

Jackson had

fifty

thousand more votes than

Adams, and Adams s vote was nearly equal to Crawford s and Clay s combined. For Yice-President, Calhoun had a large ma jority.

Under

the

Constitution,

the

House

of

Representatives had now to choose a Presi dent from the three candidates. leading

Clay was

Speaker, and had great influence over the House, but his own name had to be

Beaten himself, he had the power make any one of his three rivals President

dropped. to

of the United States.

was a trying situation for him and for the three citizens whose fate he seemed to It

hold

in

his

hands.

that Clay could

Adams had

not

never

Crawford

was

so

seriously consider

liked

Clay, though

ill

him.

they

ANDREW JACKSON

108

generally agreed about public questions, and the ardent Kentuckian could never have

New England

found the cold manners of the

But from the

statesman attractive. preferred

mere

Adams

to

Jackson,

he

first

thinking

a

"

unfit military chieftain On the 9th of February,

for

"

fice.

the

of

Adams was

That evening he and Jackson met

elected.

at a presidential reception.

Of

the two, the

Westerner bore himself

defeated

more graciously than the successful candidate from

New

far

England.

Up

to

this

no

unseemly conduct could be charged against any one of the four time,

But the human nature

rivals.

of these

could not bear to the end the strain of

men such

a rivalry. For many years the jealousy and hatred and suspicion it gave birth to were to blacken American politics. Jackson was guilty

Adams

of ;

a

grave

injustice

and they, by a

to

Clay

political blunder,

livered themselves into his hands.

and de

Jackson

them with u bargain and corruption." Adams, by appointing Clay Secretary of State, and Clay, by accepting and

his friends charged

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS the

office,

gave

the

only evi had to offer of the truth of

their

dence they ever

enemies

109

Every other semblance of a proof was shown to be worthless, and the characters of the two men have convinced all candid historians that the charge was the

charge.

But there was no way to prove that the charge was false. Jackson believed it, and from this time he made war on Clay and Adams. He believed he had a wrong to false.

*

right,

to

a combination

overthrow,

purify

him

and

scoundrelly enemies

government to The election had shown

corrupted

save.

to be the

dates,

now

and

a

of

most popular of

his friends, of

all

the candi

whom Benton was

the foremost, contended that the

House

ought to have chosen him in obedience to the Until he should be elected, people s will. he and his followers seemed to

feel that the

people were hoodwinked by the politicians. Hitherto, since his second entrance into public life, he had borne himself as became a soldier whose battles were already fought. Webster had written of him General "

:

Jackson

s

manners

are

more

presidential

ANDREW JACKSON

110

than

those

He is any other candidate. and reserved." But now he

of

mild,

grave,

more the Jackson of the tavern Politics had brawl, of the Dickinson duel. come to be a fight, and his friends had no more need to urge him on. He resigned his place in the Senate, and was at once, for the second time, nominated for President by the was once

Tennessee

legislature.

With

untiring

in

dustry and great political shrewdness, Lewis,

Eaton, Benton, Livingston, and others of his

work to get him elected. The campaign of 1824 was no sooner ended than the campaign of 1828 was begun. It was an important campaign because it went far to divide the old Republican party, to which all the candidates of 1824 had be friends set to

longed, into battle

for

partly

but

it

was

the

next

division

was

supremacy throughout a

and

policies,

also a matter, of organization.

Adams principles and measures, disposed to revive those policies which

As was

a

two parties which were to

The century. matter of principles

of

quarter

the

to

the old Federalist party had adopted in the

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS

111

He had left that party power. in 1808, not because he had given up its early principles, but because he believed days of

its

that

leaders,

its

particularly

the to

to

the

where opposition to

point

passes into disloyalty the Republican party

party in power In the country.

he always acted with those

Henry

New Eng

opposition to Jefferson,

land, in their bitter

had gone

in

favored

men who,

like

a

strong government at Washington and looked with distrust on any attempt of a State to set up its own Clay,

powers of the United As President, he wished the gov States. ernment to take vigorous measures for de

powers

against

the

by internal protecting American in

fense, for developing the country

improvements, for dustries

by heavy duties on goods imported

He

.from other countries.

public lands prices they

should

be

thought

sold

at

the

that the

highest

would bring, and the money used

by the general government to promote the He had no doubt as to the public welfare. government s power to maintain a national bank, and thought that was the very best

way

to

manage the

finances.

ANDREW JACKSON

112

Jackson

himself

was

not

a

free-trader,

and had committed himself to a proper but during the tariff on protection lines "

"

;

campaign he a

man

tariff

made

was than

to

appear

less

He had

Adams.

of

also

and other internal improvements, but he had not com voted for

mitted

He

himself

roads

national

certain

sweepingly

to

that

policy.

doubted the

tional

bank.

constitutionality of a As to the public lands,

na he

favored

a liberal policy, with the object of developing the western country by attract ing settlers rather than raising money to be

On the general spent by the government. question of the powers of the government he stood for a stricter construction of stitution

of

the

Con

and greater respect for the rights

the States than

Adams

believed

in.

So,

notwithstanding Jackson s tariff views, the mass of the people held him a better repre sentative of Jeffersonian

Democracy than

his

rival.

But a party merely a one has

list

said,

an organization, and not It is, as some of principles. is

a

crowd,

and not

merely a

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS

113

managers so organized his in that supporters that they became a party sense much more clearly than in the sense Committees of holding the same views. Jackson

creed.

were formed

all

s

country somewhat committees of corre

over the the

on the order of

News spondence of Revolutionary times. papers were set up to attack the adminis tration and hold the Jackson men together. Everywhere Jackson was represented as the candidate

of

politicians.

the

In

plain

all

people

against

the

such work Major Lewis

and shrewd, and before the end of the campaign, from another quarter of the union, Jackson won a recruit who was

was

active

already a past master in

Martin Van

politics.

in

the

political

school

the lore of party Buren was a pupil all

of

Aaron Burr, and

was recognized as the cleverest a State in which the sort of is

concerned with

securing

politician of politics

that

elections rather

had grown into New York was then

than fighting for principles a

science

and an

art.

and the support of Van Buren was of the utmost value.

thought

a

doubtful

State,

ANDREW JACKSON

114

It is

probable that so far

as

Jackson differed on

and

policy, a

questions majority of the

But

with Jackson.

it

is

Adams and of

principle

people were also clear that the

campaign was fought out as a sort of per sonal contest between the Southwestern sol

and the two statesmen whom he accused of bargain and corruption. It was a cam dier

paign of bitter personal abuse on both

Adams, perhaps the most tious

cused

statesman

since

rigidly

sides.

conscien

Washington, was ac

of extravagance, of dishonesty, riches, of debt, of betraying his old friends, of

the Federalists, of trying to bring Federalists

back into power.

Against Jackson his ene

mies brought up his many fights and duels, his treatment of Judge Hall and Judge Fromentin, the execution of Woods and the six militiamen, of the two Indians, of Arbuthnot

and Ambrister.

Handbills were distributed, with a coffin bearing the

each

decorated

name

of one of his victims.

was attacked. was blazoned

The scandal

His private of

life

his marriage

newspapers and pamphlets. Even the unknown grave of his mother was

not spared.

in

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS

115

So it became largely a question of the two men. and which the people liked best. Adams, coldly virtuous, woidd not turn his finger to

make

himself better liked

even

;

if

he had

attempted the arts of popularity, he was, of all the eminent men of our history, the least endowed with charm of manner,

He

speech, and bearing.

or

him,

man

any

appoint

to

sternly refused to office for supporting

to

any man out of

turn

office

for

He

could not be winning or Ezekiel, the gracious on public occasions. shrewd old brother of Daniel Webster, wrote

opposing him.

to

him

after

that

the election

from a supported Adams duty, and not from any liking

England men cold sense of of

the

New

even in

man."

"

It took a

New England

science to hold a follower in line for the

England candidate. west

won many a he

made

consent.

bitter

than

New

of the South

vote where the voter

science did but half

went,

The man

con

s

con

Wherever he

enemies

or

devoted

and luke warm admirers. Adams was an honest Old man, but nobody had ever called him

friends,

rather

cold

critics

"

ANDREW JACKSON

116

Hickory."

could

had

He

was an ardent

to

many

point

to

written,

a

labor

but

;

state

papers

he

weights and cost him four years of

on

report

measures which had patient

wise

and

patriot,

he

could

like

not,

his

journey down the Mississippi and cele brate the anniversary of a great victory in rival,

the city he had saved. ably defend his course

but what was

on shouting,

Of

all

"

the

New England

it all

worth

Hurrah sections

if

the people kept

for Jackson

of

the

"

?

country only

Adams a solid support. West and South and car

gave

Jackson swept the ried

His followers might on public questions,

the great

States

of

and

Pennsylvania

New York.

In Tennessee, nineteen men out of twenty voted for him. There is a story of a traveller who reached a Tennessee town the next day and found the whole male popu lation pursuing with tar and feathers two reckless citizens general."

who had voted

In the electoral

"

against

college

the

he had

one hundred and seventy-eight votes to Ad ams s was Calhoun eighty-three. again chosen Vice-President.

SEMINOLES AND POLITICIANS

117

The poor boy had won his way to the White House, but it was a worn old man, bowed down with a heavy sorrow, who jour neyed across the mountains to take the great prize.

The

cruel

campaign

scandal

about

had aggravated a heart trouble She from which his wife had long suffered. died in December, and his grief was appal his marriage

ling to those who gathered at The Hermitage to do honor to Aunt Kachel." It was not "

in Jackson

have been forget,

in

helped to

s

nature, as indeed

in his

the nature grief,

cause

it.

the

of

it

would not

many men,

enemies

His old

age,

who like

to

had his

youth, was to be cursed with hatred and the thought of revenge.

VI THE WHITE HOUSE

MARCH President

4,

1829,

United

the

of

Andrew Jackson became

crowd of strange-looking men

him

inaugurated.

"They

wrote

A

States.

went

really

that the Webster, has been rescued from some great think,"

Whoever certainly

was,

he

great to

seem

see to

"

country danger."

may have thought so, Jackson held that opinion. As his wont else

saw

the

danger

and

the

villainy

which he thought himself commissioned to and that destroy in the person of a man ;

man was Henry was

Clay.

Martin Van Buren

to succeed

Clay as Secretary of State in the new Cabinet, but he did not reach Wash

Jack ington until after the 4th of March. son accordingly sent his friend, Colonel Ham ilton, of

New

York, to the State Department,

ordering him to take charge there the instant

THE WHITE HOUSE

119

he should hear the gun which was to announce that the new President had taken the oath of office.

Jackson and Clay were, in fact, the lead ers of the two parties into which the old Republican party was now divided. rise

to

men and

public

come

meant that a new

leadership

to

the

new

a

front;

it

Their set

set of questions

of

had

meant a more thor

oughgoing experiment of democracy than had yet been tried in America. Adams s properly considered to have been the last of one series and Jackson s the administration

first

of

is

another.

Under

dents, national affairs

the

earlier

Presi

were committed mainly

few trained statesmen, the people simply approving or disapproving the men and the

to a

measures brought themselves

them, but not of putting forward candidates for

the

offices

any wise initiating The rule of the people was thus a

higher

policies.

before

or in

passive sort of rule, a rule with the wide prevalence frage, tions,

But by consent. of manhood suf

and the prominence of domestic ques of questions concerning the business

ANDREW JACKSON

120

and

and Republic, with the disappearance of the profound ques tions concerning the organization of the gov the

ernment

daily

the

of

life

and the nature

of

government in general, the people began to assert them selves. Under Jackson and his successors, they made themselves

more and more at their opinions and sentiments, Washington their likes and dislikes, their whims and felt

;

prejudices,

ernment.

were

into

their

gov Henceforth, public men were to

be powerful not

projected

so

much

in

proportion

to

knowledge of statecraft as in propor tion to their popularity. They must repre

their

sent

the

selves

popular

and

will,

commend them

or

their policies

to

popular favor.

public men of the old order, like Adams, might be wise and faithful, but they lacked

The

Clay

s

and

standing the two

of

Jackson the

new

s

sympathetic

common

leaders

people.

Jackson

had

under

And

of

by far the stronger hold on the popular mind and The people had sent him to Wash heart. ington because he was of them and like Both he them, and because they liked him.

THE WHITE HOUSE

121

and they felt that he was their President, and he held himself responsible to them only. It

seemed,

too,

that

with the new ques there was coming a

and the new men new sort of politics. Jackson meant tions

the

people

faithfully,

but he

to serve

entered

upon

the duties of his great office in the spirit of The sort of politics a victorious general.

most in accord with

his feeling

was the

sort

which prevailed in New York and I Jackson once declared, Pennsylvania.

of

politics

"

am

not

a politician, but

if

I were, I should

New York politician." leading New York politician, be a

Before long, a Senator Marcy,

expressed the sentiment of his fellows when he said, To the victors belong the spoils." That was a sentiment which a soldier Pre "

sident

could

understand.

In that

letter to

Monroe which Major Lewis wrote for him twelve years before, and which won him votes, he

had

urged

that

partisan

considerations

should not control appointments but before he had been President a year he removed ;

more men from

office

than

all

his

predeces-

ANDREW JACKSON

122

sors

had removed

government.

since the beginning of the

When

he

left

Washington, the

and appointing men for reasons was so firmly established

practice of removing political

that

work

the patient

of

reform has not to

this

That, to many histo day destroyed it. the gravest fault of Jackson s rians, was

^ administration.

It was,

York methods

applied

and

however, merely to

national

New

politics,

was a perfectly natural outcome of Jackson s conviction that the people had sent him there to drive out the men who had it

the government. fact, unless we understand

control of

In

President

Jackson himself, we cannot possibly under for President Jack stand his administration ;

though he was now somewhat subdued in manner, and was not By the Eternal quite so often on his lips, was still Jackson son,

"

"

of

the

sword

;

duelling

and Jackson of

pistol

and he was

whom Benton saw

also

child between his knees.

divided

for

him

into

The party opposed

to

the

Jackson

lamb

and the

still

with the All

friends

the

men were

still

and enemies.

him came soon

to call

THE WHITE HOUSE

123

Party, and later the Whig Party, while his own follow ers were called Democratic Republicans, or

National

the

itself

But

Democrats.

Republican

to

Jackson the

National

Republicans were the friends of Henry Clay, as the Democrats were his own friends. So, too,

of

the

In

with.

great

every

questions he had to deal case he was fighting not

merely a policy or an institution but a man. For a time, however, his arch-enemy, Clay, Until the au disappeared from the scene.

tumn

of 1831, he

Jackson

tucky.

and was

was

in retirement in

had

the

field

to

himself,

occupied with his rather than his enemies.

Van

at

Ken

first

friends

Buren, as Secretary of State, was the

The

head of the new Cabinet. bers were not

men

other

mem

of great distinction.

had, however, one thing in way or another, they had

common: all

They in

opposed

one

Mr.

Half On other points they differed. Clay. of them were friends of Calhoun, and wished to see

him President

after

Jackson.

were also divided into married widower, Mr.

Van Buren

They

men and

a

being the widower.

ANDREW JACKSON

124

That, as

turned out, was

things

a very im

portant division indeed. Jackson did not treat his Cabinet as other

had

Presidents v

idea

soldier s

think

it

treated

of

He had

theirs.

a

organization,

and

did

consult

the

Cabinet

to

necessary

not

members about all the measures he planned. He treated them somewhat as a general though with sev eral of them, especially Van Buren and Ea ton, his relations were very cordial and inti mate. When he wished advice, however, he treats his

inferior

was more apt

officers,

to seek

whom

it

of

his friend,

Major

he had

an

persuaded to accept appointment, and who lived with him at

the

White

Lewis,

had come

to

Adams men

or

House,

of

Isaac

New

who

fighting the Hampshire, or of Amos after

Washington in

Hill,

who had dared

Clay in Kentucky, or of General Duff Green, editor The Telegraph," the Jackson organ. of Kendall,

to

oppose

"

These men, dent,

net

"

;

came and

personal

friends

to be called at

least

shrewd enough to

the

three justify

"

of

of

the

Presi

Kitchen Cabi the

four were

any President in

THE WHITE HOUSE consulting

New England men by

both all

the industry

Lewis

Major was a

"

not

did

cleverness

political

little

birth,

and had

and sharpness of mind pro

characteristic

verbially

were

Kendall

and

Hill

them.

125

Yankees.

of

surpass

Even

Kendall in

and far-sightedness

whiffet

of

a

man,"

but

;

he

before

long the opposition learned to see his hand in every event of political importance any If a Democratic con where in the country. vention

in

Maine framed a

resolution, or

a

newspaper in New Orleans changed its policy, men were ready to declare that it was Ken

who

Historians are pulled the wire. fond of saying that it was such men as Ken dall

and Lewis who really ruled the country and it is true while Jackson was President dall

;

that

by

skilful

suggestions,

by playing upon

and dislikes, much could be done But it is equally true that when with him. he was once resolved on any course his friends could no more stop him than his enemies

his

likes

could.

won "

I

A

clerk

his favor

take

the

in

the

State

by a happy use responsibility,"

Department

the phrase, and from that of

ANDREW JACKSON

126

time was safe even against the displeasure of member of Con Secretary Van Buren.

A

gress began a successful intrigue for office by begging for his father the pipe which the President was smoking, ashes and all.

A

clerk in the

War

Department attracted

his

by challenging a man to a duel, started himself on a career that ended

attention

and

so

in the Senate.

Secretary

Van Buren

called

on Peggy Eaton and supplanted Calhoun as the heir apparent to the presidency. Jack son in good humor was the easiest of victims to an artful intriguer ; but, unlike the weak

whom

scheming ministers have shaped to their purposes, he could not be stopped kings

when once he was

started.

was Peggy Eaton who made a division between the married men and the widower It

She was the wife of Sena tor Eaton, who was now Secretary of War, and the widow of a naval officer named Timberlake. Her father was a tavernof the Cabinet.

keeper

named

and Eaton they were

had

O

Neill,

lived

Senators,

and

at

both

his

and Mrs.

Jackson

tavern

O

when

Neill

had

THE WHITE HOUSE place

in

O

The

been kind to Mrs. Jackson.

had no

127

Washington

Neills

and

society,

there were ugly stories about the conduct of Mrs. Timberlake with Senator Eaton before

the death of Timberlake, at sea.

Washington President

stories.

lieve them,

pion.

who

killed himself

society believed

Jackson

refused

zeal

in

her

cause

to

be

cham knew no

and became Mrs. Eaton

His

these

s

bounds, and he wished his secretaries and their wives to help him. But the Cabinet ladies woidd not visit or receive Mrs. Eaton,

and

husbands

their

refused

to

interfere.

Calhoun, the Vice-President, also declined to take up Mrs. Eaton s cause. Mr. Van

Buren, a widower, showed

the

lady marked

attention.

For once defeated.

coats

he

Andrew Jackson was Creeks and Spaniards and Red in his

life,

could

Washington

conquer, but the ladies of never surrendered, and Peggy

Eaton, though her affairs became a national question, never got into Washington society. Jackson, however, did not forget who had been his friends in a little matter any more

ANDREW JACKSON

128

than

if

it

had

been the greatest

affair

of

state.

was already a question whether Calhoun or Van Buren should lead the Jackson party at the end of the one term which It

had

Jackson

declared

to

be

the

limit

of

Calhoun s stay in the White House. in the Cabinet, and General Duff friends

his

Green, of

"

The

Telegraph,"

were active in

Van

Buren, however, was con stantly growing in favor with the President. When at last Jackson discovered that Cal-

his interest.

houn, as a member of Monroe s Cabinet, had wished to censure him for his conduct in Florida,

he and the Vice-President broke

Meantime, a great public question had arisen on which the two men stood out forever.

as representatives of

the Union.

Peggy tween

The estrangement begun over

Eaton

tween a

State

the

two opposite theories of

widened

into

a

and the United

nullifier

of

the

breach

be

States, be

laws

and

the

defender of the Union.

For the pendulum had swung, and

it

no longer the Federalist merchants of

was

New

THE WHITE HOUSE

129

England, but the planters of the South, and particularly of South Carolina, who were with

discontent

the

New England had

ment.

the

of

policy

govern

turned to

manu

some of the energy she had formerly given to commerce and seafaring, and was

factures

now

in

ster,

favor

of a protective

her foremost

voted against

man

the

at

tariff

Web

tariff.

Washington, had of 1816, but had

mind and supported a higher tariff in 1824, and a still higher in 1828. The planters of the South had not found it

changed

easy

to

slave

his

develop

manufactures

They had

labor.

little

therefore, to protect against

European exported

countries.

much

of

On

their

with

their

or

nothing, the products of

the contrary, they cotton to England,

and imported from England and other coun tries

many

of

the

things

were, as system of tariff taxation, and

Accordingly, they to

the

whole

they consumed. a rule, opposed

desired free trade.

Many

of

them

also

op

posed the system of internal improvements, both on constitutional grounds and because they

felt

that the tariff

made them pay more

ANDREW JACKSON

130

than their share of the

expense of such un

dertakings. On the question of internal improvements

Jackson

soon took a stand entirely pleasing to the opponents of the system. In his first

message to Congress he declared against it, and when Congress passed a bill subscribing

money

to

the

stock

of

Lexington road, one improvements enterprise

specially it.

it

and

Maysville

the

chief

internal

undertaken, and favored by Clay,

far

so

promptly vetoed he vetoed unless

of

the

an he

Other such measures

was

that

clear

a two-

majority in each House would pass He preferred that the them over his veto. money received from the sale, of public lands

thirds

should

be distributed among the States, be

lieving

that

they,

instead

of

the

general

government, should undertake the improve

ments necessary to the development of the country.

Jackson had, indeed, great respect for the rights of the States under the Constitution,

and warned Congress not

to

go beyond the

powers which were clearly given

to the

gen-

THE WHITE HOUSE

131 |

eral government.

been

long

The State

of Georgia

because

discontent

the

had

Indians

I

1

were not removed from her borders, and the President sympathized strongly with her

As

feeling.

soon

he

as

was

elected,

the

Georgia legislature passed an act dividing up the Cherokee country into counties, and extending over them the civil laws of the

The

was plainly contrary to trea between the Indians and the Federal

State. ties

act

government, but the President refused to in terfere. On the contrary, he withdrew all

United States troops from the Indian coun try, and left the State to deal with the In dians

as

it

chose.

Later on, the Supreme

Court of the United States decided that the Georgia law was unconstitutional because it took away the treaty rights of the Cherokees.

"

cision," it."

John Marshall

said Jackson,

"now

The

favor of

President, in fact, was heartily in removing the Indians, and before

he went out of

office

had given up one in the West.

tribes

made his de let him enforce

has

the last of the Southern its

old

home

for a

new

1 I

ANDREW JACKSON

132

Jackson

collision

s

Marshall over reaching

what neglected of

quences

No

much

as

the

Justice

question

in their

course

his

statesman,

Chief

had very farwhich historians have some

this

effects,

with

no

President,

great

the conse

study of on other

Chief

questions.

had

Justice

done to

so

make

general government strong and to re strain the States. Jackson, disagreeing with some of Marshall s views, never lost an op

the

portunity to put on the bench a

man

of

his

The result was that own way of thinking. many years later, when, in a great crisis, the supporters of the national government and the leaders of States about to break away

from

the

Court

to

Union decide

looked

to

between

the

them,

Supreme the

voice

came from the august tribunal spoke words which Marshall and Story would never

that

have uttered, but which the champions the States heard with delight.

On

these important questions, then, Presi

dent Jackson

acted

like

an extreme

Jeffer-

But the South Carolin soon found that if he was ready to keep

sonian ians

of

Democrat.

THE WHITE HOUSE

133

the general government from interfering with any right that could reasonably be claimed

a State, he was equally ready to stand up for the Union when he thought a State for

was going too far. He had nothing 1828.

In his

to

do with the

tariff

of

message he suggested that some modifications of it were desirable, and first

pointed out that the public debt would soon be paid, and it would be advisable to reduce too

mild a word to

The

nians.

clamor of

gressmen

bad

the

protection as

possible,

might in the end be defeated. passed, the South Carolina legisla

hoping that it

to

of

and Con

interests,

as

it

South Caroli

outcome

altogether

make

to

the

selfish

opposed

the

suit

was

law

many

had helped

AVhen

But modification was

the duties.

certain of

it

ture vigorously protested, and began at once to debate about the best plan of resistance.

The plan to

finally preferred

declare

therefore States

to

the

null join

law

and in

unconstitutional,

void,

the

was for the State

and

call

declaration.

and

on other If

the

national government tried to enforce the law

ANDREW JACKSON

134

South

in

and

citizens,

she

Carolina, as

the

would

protect her resort withdraw

final

The plan was first placed American people in an Exposi

from the Union. before the

and

tion

"

"

Protest

by the South 1828 and the real

adopted

Carolina legislature in ; author of that famous document, though the fact was not then known, was the Vice-Presi-

The

Calhoun.

dent,

associate

of

Clay in

had made a beginning of improvements and of protection,

those acts which internal

long a statesman of the strong-government school, Calhoun had been led by the distress

and discontent the

Constitution

said

afterwards,

The

people to examine

"

again, "

and character and had now come ture

own

of his

in

order,"

to ascertain

as

fully the

he

na

our political system," to a change of views. of

nullification

doctrine

came

before

Congress in the whiter of 1829-30, and was debated in the most famous of American debates. his tariff

Clay was not there to speak for system, but a greater orator than

Clay took up the challenge. of all

In the greatest

American orations since Patrick Henry

THE WHITE HOUSE

135

spoke for liberty, Webster

and get

spoke for union Americans will never for

and words until

liberty,

his

alike destroyed.

liberty

and union are

Jackson was the

in the country to miss their force.

himself, he

yet

knew how

to give

man

last

No

orator

words the

power of a promised or a threatened deed. Not long after the debate, there was a public States -Rights men in Wash to celebrate Jefferson s birthday. ington Jackson did not attend, but he sent a toast,

dinner of the

and probably the seven words of his toast were more confounding to the nullifiers than all the stately paragraphs of Webster s ora tion. It was Our Federal Union it must The be preserved." Calhoun s toast was next to our liberties the most Union, "

:

:

"

:

and Jackson, who was just learning that he had been mistaken about Calhoun in dear,"

1818, began now to see clearly that the great South Carolinian was in sympathy with the nullifiers.

ever,

were

Many South still

hoping

Carolinians,

that

the

how

President

would not take any active measures to defeat their plan. Some of them went on hoping

ANDREW JACKSON

136

until the

Fourth of July, 1831, when there

was read, at a public dinner of Union men at Charleston, a letter from Jackson which left

no doubt of what he meant

to

do

if

they He was going to enforce the laws kept on. and preserve the Union.

Having by

this

broken utterly with

time

Calhoun, he desired to rid himself of those cabinet members who were Calhoun s friends,

and

to that

end took the bold and unexam

pled step of changing his cabinet entirely, only Barry, the postmaster-general, being

kept in the

Van Buren

office.

up

plan, gave

once appointed

his

readily into

fell

portfolio,

minister

to

and was

Great

at

Britain.

A

Edward

took his Livingston place. change in the "Kitchen Cabinet" followed. General Duff Green would not desert Cal houn, and so the organ of Francis

P.

The Telegraph

"

the

"

ceased to be

administration.

Instead,

Kentucky, who, like Amos Kendall, had been first the friend and then the enemy of Clay, was called to Wash ington,

became

and

Blair,

set

up a power

of

"

The

for

Globe,"

Jackson.

which soon

Nor were

THE WHITE HOUSE the

these

only Calhoun.

with

of

consequences

Jackson

and

137

the his

break closest

were by this time bent on making Van Buren, instead of Calhoun, President after Jackson, but were doubtful of their

friends

ability to accomplish it at the next

The

election.

was therefore persuaded to run again. The Democrats in the legisla ture of Pennsylvania, acting on a hint from Lewis, sent him an address urging him to President

stand.

If for a time he hesitated, he ceased

when

became

Clay was

apparent that going to be the candidate of the

National

Republicans.

to

hesitate

it

Clay,

yielding

to

the appeals of his party friends, reappeared in the Senate at the opening of Congress in

December, 1831, and now the duel between the two great party leaders grew fiercer than ever.

Clay returned to the

Senate to find his

policy attacked by the nullifiers, his internal improvements policy blocked by the

tariff

President

s

vetoes,

which he and

and

still

a third policy

his party firmly supported vig

orously attacked

by the

terrible

man

in the

ANDREW JACKSON

138

White House.

The National Bank was

in

Its charter expired in 1836, and danger. the President in both his annual messages

had gravely questioned the wisdom

He

ing another. ality of

he

setting

questioned

Bank

as

it

of grant

questioned the constitution up such an institution, and

the

and safety of the December 12, 1831, the

value

existed.

National

Republicans, assembled in their first national convention at Baltimore, nomi nated Clay for President, and called 011 the

people to defeat Andrew Jackson in order to save the Bank. Jackson dauntlessly ac

cepted the issue and gave the country to understand that either he or the Bank must

go to the wall.

and

the

among

For the time, even Calhoun

nullifiers

the

first

place his enemies to Clay, Biddle, and the

yielded

Bank. Biddle was president of the Bank, a hand some, accomplished man, a graceful writer,

and a cier.

clever,

though not always a safe finan

brought him into Isaac Hill and Levi Woodbury,

His ready pen

disfavor.

the Democratic

first

Senators from

New Hamp-

THE WHITE HOUSE

139

made complaints of Jeremiah Mason, an old Federalist, who was president of the Their charges Branch Bank at Portsmouth. sliire,

were various, but they and others gave Jack son the idea that

the

Branch Bank

in

New

Hampshire had used its power to oppose his Biddle friends and to help the Adams men. He did so, and was called on to investigate. defended Mason against

the charges.

all

A

long correspondence ensued, and Biddle went

from Philadelphia, where the head Bank was, His letters and made a visit to Portsmouth. to the Secretary of the Treasury were cour teous, well written, but also defiant.

the

Jackson men, he

said,

who were

It

was

trying

draw the Bank into politics, and the Bank had constantly refused to go into politics in to

any way. indeed, lasted

He made

but the the

out

a very good case

the

correspondence grew Jackson s convic

longer

stronger tion that the Bank was in politics, that fighting him, that it was corrupt, that

it it

was

was

dangerous to the liberties of the plain people who had sent him to the White House.

Congress took up the matter, and committees

ANDREW JACKSON

140

Houses reported in favor of the Bank. The Supreme Court had already decided that of both

the act establishing

it

was

constitutional.

Clay boldly determined to force the fight ing both on the tariff and on the Bank.

The great measures of the Congress of 1831-2 were a new tariff law and a new Bank charter. The public debt was now extinguished, and it was clearly ad visable to reduce the revenue ; but Clay and

nearly

made

his followers tirely

on

articles

the reductions almost en

not

produced in America,

and

so, in

new

tariff as protective as the old.

defiance of the nullifiers,

made

the

Jackson

had gradually given up most of his protec tion ideas, and so the tariff did not please him.

Clay,

"American

in

fact,

system,"

declared as

he

that

called

for it,

his "he

would defy the South, the President, and the Devil." Jackson was further defied by the Senate when nation of Britain.

whole

it

refused to confirm the nomi

Van Buren The

session.

the President

;

to be minister to

struggle

Benton

Great

through the defended sturdily

raged

Clay, Webster, and Calhoun

THE WHITE HOUSE

141

or another, against him. It was a great session for the orators, and so,

were

all,

in one

way

far as Congress was concerned Clay

had

his

But Lewis and Kendall were not idle they were working not on Congress but on In May, the Democrats nomi the people. nated Jackson for President and Van Bureii way.

;

for Vice-President.

ished

its

In July, Congress

work with the Bank

charter,

fin

and

Jackson promptly answered with a veto, and so the two parties went to the country. Jackson went into the campaign with an advantage drawn from his successful conduct His adminis of two foreign negotiations.

had secured from England an agree ment by which the trade with the West Indies, closed to Americans ever since the Revolution, was opened again, and from

tration

France a spoliations

pay large claims for American commerce which

promise

on

to

He had been presented many times before. was also undoubtedly supported by the great majority of the people in the stand he took nullifiers. What the people against the would decide about the tariff was doubtful ;

ANDREW JACKSON

142

but as between a system, even though it were called the American system, and an old hero,

Democrats were not afraid of the peo The great fight was over the ple s choice. Bank, and on that question Jackson was sup the

poor, who thought of the Bank merely as a rich men s institution, by the fears of the ignorant, who

ported

by the prejudices

believed the

monstrous

Bank

to

be

of

the

a mysterious

and

and by the instinct of lib many others, who, though they did affair,

erty in not believe the

against Biddle, did danger in so powerful a

charges

feel that

there was

financial

agency so closely

connected

with

the government. Moreover, the opposition was divided.

A

party bitterly opposed to Free Masonry had sprung into existence, and Jackson was a

But the

Mason.

supporting date.

Anti-Masons, instead of nominated a third candi

Clay, South Carolina threw her votes

on a fourth. Jackson got 219 Clay, 11 date,

and

electoral votes to

away

49

for

Floyd, the nullification candi seven for Wirt, the Anti-Mason

for

THE WHITE HOUSE

143

His popular vote was more than twice Clay s, and he actually carried the New England States of Maine and New Hamp

candidate.

shire.

cised

tered

his

during

If,

first

term,

he

exer

he en great office like a general, upon the second with even a firmer

his

belief

that

have

he ought to

his

way

in all

The people had given an answer to Clay and Biddle and Calhoun and Marshall

things.

;

to the corrupters of the

enemies of the of

the

law

He

Eaton.

President;

and

the

s

to

the

nullifiers

of

slanderers

understood

victory as the people all

government and the

Peggy

his

overwhelming warrant to go on with

he had begun.

But

neither

the

nullifiers

nor

the

Bank

In November, 1832, were willing to give up. a South Carolina convention passed an ordi nance, to

go into

effect

February 1, 1833, nullifying the tariff law, and took measures Jackson action to defend its by force. promptly sent Winfield Scott to South Caro lina to

make ready

for

employed a

fighting,

confidential agent to organize the in the State,

Union men

and called on Edward Living-

ANDREW JACKSON

144

him with an address to his mis The pen of Livingston guided countrymen. and the spirit of Jackson, working together, made the Nullification Proclamation a great ston to help

state

paper. to the second

was a high-minded appeal thought and the better nature It

of the Carolinians

;

an able statement of the

national character of the government ; a firm defiance to all enemies of the Union. It

was the most popular act of the administra tion, and brought to its support men who had never supported it before. Benton and Webster joined hands even Clay, who, like ;

Jackson, heart,

his

supported

alone of

out

loved

all his

against

country with

the

President.

his

whole

Calhoun,

famous contemporaries, stood

him.

He

left

the

Vice-Presi

came down upon the floor as a Senator, and defended nullification against all the famous orators who crowded to assail dent

s

seat,

it.

The President called on Congress to pro vide the means to enforce the law, and a socalled force bill was introduced. The Caro linians

were

defiant,

and the country seemed

THE WHITE HOUSE

145

on the verge of civil war but Clay, by the second of his famous compromises, avoided ;

the

struggle.

A

new

tariff

law,

providing

for a gradual reduction of duties, was passed The Carolinians along with the force bill.

chose the olive branch instead of the

The

nullifiers

first

postponed and then re

pealed their ordinance. Jackson was a national

made a

hero

as

he

had

In the summer of 1833,

never been before. he

sword.

journey to the

Northeast,

and

New England

made him welcome. made him a Doctor of

even

Harvard College As he rode through the streets of Laws. Boston, a merchant of Federalist traditions, who had closed his windows to show his prin Jackson s bear ciples, peeped through, and ing so touched him that he sent a child to

wave

gentleman a handkerchief. of the Waxhaws was at the summit the

Andy of

his

rival

old

career.

him

No

American could no other American

other

in popularity

;

had ever had such power over men since Washington frowned per that he might be a king.

his country

at the whis

U

ANDREW JACKSON

146

But the great man was only a man, after all. He was in wretched health throughout his first term,

and

at

times

did not seem

it

that he could possibly live through it. His old wounds troubled him, and one day he laid bare his shoulder, gripped his cane with

and a surgeon cut out the ball from Jesse Benton s pistol. He was too ill his free hand,

to

finish

New England

his

tour,

and

has

tened back to Washington.

But

his

opponents

rejoice in his

had

little

reason

to

The summer was not he had made up his mind to do illness.

spent before the most daring act of his public life. He had vetoed the Bank s new charter, but the

Bank

itself

funds were

The

was not destroyed. still

in its keeping

;

its

public

power in

the business world was as great as ever. He believed, moreover, that Biddle was using money freely to fight him, and would sooner or later get what he wanted from Congress. He prepared, therefore, to crush the Bank by

withdrawing the deposits of

and giving them banks

throughout

into

the

public money the keeping of other country.

Blair,

in

THE WHITE HOUSE "

The

147

work to convince the the Bank was not sound, and

Globe,"

set

to

people that that the public funds were unsafe.

was sent about the country

to

Kendall

examine other

Congress voted against removing the deposits, but the old charter authorized banks.

the Secretary of the Treasury to do it, and the Secretary of the Treasury was now Wil liam Duane, of Philadelphia, a son of Jack

There had early friend. changes in the cabinet after son

s

been the

some second

inauguration, Livingston had been appointed minister to France, the Secretary of the

Treasury transferred

to

the

State

Depart

ment, and Duane called to the Treasury. But Duane would not fall in with the President

s

plan. were in

He

did not

believe

the

danger, and refused to Jackson argued, sign an order for removal. then grew angry, and finally dismissed him. deposits

Duane defended

his course ably.

Lewis

also

Benton favored it, advised against removal. but in this he was almost alone among the Jackson, however, was leading public men. started, and he could not be stopped. Roger

ANDREW JACKSON

148

B.

of

Taney,

was

Maryland, the Attorney-Gen

made Secretary

the Treasury, and on September 26, 1833, three days after Duane s dismissal, the order was signed and eral,

of

a series of changes began that did not end until the whole financial system of the coun

was changed.

try

When

considered,

legislature

ever

in

tion

was

lower

In

there.

were

still

against

men

brilliant

the

be,

the

a new genera

of

House,

and Adams

Senate, the

President.

The

also

three

great

now

and were

supreme,

the

to

proved

probably the ablest assembled in America.

everything

There were

it

met,

Congress

united

debates

were

A

long and furious.

panic throughout the country added to the excitement. Clay led

the attack, Calhoun and it

;

Benton

bore

the

House, the Jackson

Webster supported

brunt

of

it.

In the

men had

a majority ; in the The Senate Senate, the opposition. refused to confirm the nomination of Taney to

be

that

Secretary of the Treasury, and voted the President had taken upon himself

powers not given by the Constitution.

The

THE WHITE HOUSE

149

President sent in a fiery remonstrance, and Benton the Senate voted not to receive it. at once

moved

that the resolution of censure

be expunged from the record, and declared he would keep that motion before the Senate until the people,

by choosing a Jackson ma

jority of Senators, should force

The

it

through.

nothing done for the Bank, and nothing ever was done for it.

When

session closed with

its

charter expired in 1836,

got an

it

other from Pennsylvania, and kept going for some years. But Jackson had given it a

deathblow. cial

It

into

fell

finan

dangerous

practices, failed, started

again, failed a

second time, staggered to its feet once more, and then went down in utter ruin and dis grace. Its

ruin

was

not

disturbance

great

The country had

to

accomplished financial

been

lation

conditions.

prosperous

Money had been

time.

without

a

Specu

plentiful.

had been the order

of

long

the day.

The

pet banks," chosen to be the depositories of the government money, were badly managed. "

The

surplus, distributed

among

the

States,

ANDREW JACKSON

150

the

strengthened

Paper money was too

tion.

wild

to

impulse

specula

plentiful.

A

dangerous financial condition prevailed, into whose causes and consequences we cannot

That and many other aspects

here inquire.

of Jackson s administration can

be

satisfac

only at considerable length. himself attributed all the trouble

torily treated

Jackson

and

Biddle

to

was trying

The

he

declared,

ruin the country for revenge.

to

He

life.

took

no

measures

of

a

na

to restore health to business until near

ture

the

Biddle,

President even suspected Clay of set on an insane person who attempted

ting his

Clay;

end

usual

on

of

his

his

own

term.

acting as he issued

Then,

responsibility,

a circular commonly called the

"

Specie Cir

cular,"

requiring payments for public lands,

which

had

formerly

made

bank That was like

been

in

paper, to be made in coin. the thunderclap which precedes the storm but the storm broke on his successor, not :

on him.

For a time bequeath

to

it

seemed as

his

if

successor

he might also a foreign war.

THE WHITE HOUSE had

France

pay the claims, but the French Chambers agreed

to

151

spoliation failed

to

Louis Philippe, the

appropriate the money.

Livingston, the Ameri can Minister, that a stronger tone from the king,

to

suggested

United States

might Jackson was

action.

stir

Chambers

the

the

last

man

in

to

the

world

to

hurt a cause by taking too mild a

tone.

In

his

message of

he took a tone

so

strong

1834 that

French Chambers too angry

to Congress, it

made

to pay.

the

There

The House, suggested reprisals. led by Adams, who never fell behind Jack son on a question of foreign relations, sus upon, he

tained action.

The Senate took no The French Chambers finally passed

the President.

an appropriation, but with a proviso that no money should be paid until satisfactory ex planations

of the

President

s

message were

Jackson had no notion of apolo gizing, and feeling was rising in both coun tries. Diplomatic relations were broken off, received.

and war was apparently very close, when, in the winter of 1835-6, England offered to An expression in Jackson s mesmediate.

ANDREW JACKSON

152

1835, not meant as an apology, was somehow construed as such by the French sage of

and France agreed The final settlement came

ministry,

of

Jackson

tial

s

election

that

administration. of

Van Buren

1836 had

to pay. at the very

end

The presiden

fulfilled

his

should be his successor.

wish

In

January, 1837, the resolution of censure was solemnly expunged from the records of

the

That body being now controlled by his friends, and his enemy, John Marshall, being dead, he named Taney Chief Jus Senate.

tice,

and the nomination was confirmed.

He

issued a farewell address to the people, after the manner of Washington, and stood, a white-haired, impressive figure, to watch the inauguration- of Van Buren; then he jour

neyed home to The Hermitage to receive his last glorious welcome from his neighbors.

was the most triumphant home-coming of them all. He had beaten all his enemies. It

Clay, wearied out with politics, was again in retirement ; Adams, whom he found a Presi dent, tives

was leading a minority of representa in a new sectional struggle, the fight

THE WHITE HOUSE against

slavery

one

but

Calhoun,

;

from

step

whom

153

he

found

presidency, was a figure, the Ishmael of

the

gloomy and tragical American politics. As for his friends, he left them in power everywhere, in con

on the bench, in the White House. friends and enemies he had been like

gress,

To

fate.

There was

and

a calm

bors,

and

associates,

political

mous

him a peaceful happy deathbed.

left for

The

foreigners, visited

see the

old

old age,

Neigh fa

comrades,

Hermitage

to

man who had

played so great a part Like Jefferson at Monticello, he

in history.

guided with

The

counsel

his

party he over slavery

the

had

was struggle now begun, and soon the annexation of Texas took the first place among public questions. led.

The

old

long

man had encouraged Houston

to

go

Texas, and had done all he could, and more than any other President would have to

dared,

to

forward

pendence.

Now

come

the

into

annexation.

the

that

Union,

movement

for

inde

Texas was he

ready to heartily favored

In 1844, Clay and Polk were

ANDREW JACKSON

154

candidates for the presidency, and Jackson s influence, still a power, was freely exerted for

Polk and annexation.

now an to

lift

hand

old

man

also,

It

was as

if

Clay,

were once more about

the cup to his lips, and the relentless of Andrew Jackson dashed it to the

ground.

Yet Andrew Jackson declared before he died

that

he forgave

all

his

enemies.

He

had promised his wife, whose picture he wore in a great locket next his heart, whose Bible he read every day at the White House, that when he should be free of politics he would join himself to the church if, he said, ;

he made a profession while he was still be fore the people, his enemies would accuse

him

of hypocrisy.

He

kept his word.

Trem

bling and weeping, he stood before the altar in the tiny church he had built for her and the vows of a Christian.

took

It

had been

hard for him to say that he forgave his ene mies hardest of all, to say that he forgave those who had attacked him while he was ;

But after serving his country in the field. a long pause he told the minister he thought he could forgive even them.

THE WHITE HOUSE June

1845, in his seventy-ninth year, His last words to those about him

8,

he died.

bade them meet him

What the

155

is

the rightful

horseman

fiery

in heaven.

in

place in history of front of the White

House ? The reader must answer for himself when he has studied for himself all the great Such a study questions Jackson dealt with. will surely show that he made many mis

much

takes,

did

many

causes

other

side,

many

without

was

It will

cruel.

injustice

subjects,

to

men, espoused

waiting

often

bitter,

to

hear

violent,

the

even

show how ignorant he was on how prejudiced on others. It

show him in contact with men who sur passed him in wisdom, in knowledge, in fair ness of mind. It will deny him a place will

among see

those

both

calm,

sides

just great

and yet

strive

men who can ardently

for

the right side. But the longest inquiry will not discover another American of his times who had in

such ample measure the gifts of courage and will. Many had fewer faults, many superior

ANDREW JACKSON

156

talents,

but none so great a

man who had

the

his

He was

spirit.

He

way.

was

the

American whose simple virtues his country men most clearly understood, whose tres and until passes they most readily forgave ;

Americans like

altogether changed, many, Twenties and Democrats of the

the

will

Thirties,

for the

by

are

poor

still

boy who fought

step, to the

dier

for

"vote

highest

who always went

station

-

Jackson,"

his ;

way, step

for the sol

meet the

to

enemy

gate; for the President who never shirked a responsibility for the man who at

the

;

would not think

evil

a

of

woman

or speak

Education, and training would have saved him many

harshly to a child. in

statecraft,

errors

;

culture

fierceness

of

uncultivated,

his

might

have

nature.

imperfect

as

softened

But

the

untrained,

he was, not one

contemporaries had so good right to stand for American character.

of

his great

a

The End.

World Public Library Association