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Book_ 



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AN ADDRESS 



ON 






OP 



ANDREW JACKSON, 



DELIVERED, BY INVITATION, BEFORE 



THE GESERAl ASSEMBLY OF OHIO, 



JA.3SrXJ-A.E,^Sr 8, 1864, 



BY 



G. VOLNEY r>ORSEY. 



COLUMBUS, 0. 

GLENN, THRALL & HEIDE, STEAM JOB PRINTERS. 

186-t. 



'11 



II' 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Hon. G. Volnkt Dorset — 

Dear Sir : The undersigned, a Joint Select Committee of the General 
Assembly, have been instructed to wait upon you and request for publica- 
tion a copy of your speech delivered in the Hall of the House of Represen- 
tatives, January 8th, 1864, on the Life and Character of Andrew Jackson. 

JAMES LOUDON, 
D. J. MAURY, 

Senate. 
JOS. GUNSAULUS, 
JOHN M. COCHRAN, 
House of Representatives. 



I Treasury Department or Ohio, 1 

Columbus, Feb. 10, 1864. / 

Hon. James Loudok, Hon. J. Gcxsaulus, and others, Committee. 

Gentlemen — Your note, requesting a copy of my Address of the 8th of 

January, is received, and I herewith transmit it to you, to be used as you 

may deem proper. 

Very Respectfully, 

G. VOLNEY DORSEY. 



•0^' 



ADDKESS. 



In the history of the American people, as indeed of al- 
most every other nation, too many days of the year are 
marked as the anniversaries of great battles, to permit them 
to be held in hallowed remembrance for that cause alone. 

Before the great struggle through which we are now pass- 
ing shall be ended, how many days will be treasured up in the 
hearts of a proud and grateful people as rendered sacred by 
mighty contests and by glorious triumphs, and yet we can 
expect very few of them to live in the memory of the whole 
nation, how fondly soever they may be retained in the re- 
collections of those more immediately interested in the events 
by which they are marked. 

Great names connected with great events serve very often 
to impress their memory on the popular mind, and yet how 
frequently the particular days connected with both pass by 
unheeded and unmarked in the great stream of time. There 
is something exceedingly pleasing in the advice given to us 
by one of the most illustrious of the Roman historians, "that 
since the life which we enjoy is exceedingly brief, we should 
endeavor to make our memory endure as long as possible." 
How many noble aspirations of the human soul, how many 
great and glorious deeds recorded on the pages of the world's 
history, have grown out of such a determination, can only 
be known in that day when the history of every heart shall 
be read aloud, and the secret springs of all actions shall 
be revealed. But in order to render days illustrious in a 
nation's calendar, they must record events and be connected 
with names which take hold of the popular mind, and en- 



twine themselves around the national heart. Earth is full 
of memories — the history of the human race is dotted along 
on the stream of time by monuments which tell of races and 
of peoples ■which inhabited her territories and are gone for- 
ever. Every hill-top and every valley are marked by the 
vestiges of ages that have passed away and left only perish- 
ing records to tell of their existence, — nay, myriads of earth's 
inhabitants, the great, the small, the weak, the strong, the 
slave, the conqueror, the tyrant, the victim, the deceiver and 
the deceived, lie buried side by side in unlettered graves, 
mouldering into the dust from which they sprung, and sink- 
ing down into the same atoms from which they arose, until 
the dream of the poet becomes the veriest vehicle of historic 

truth — 

"There's not one atom of yon earth 
But once was living man, 
Nor the minutest drop of rain 
That hangeth in its thinnest cloud 
But flowed in human veins : 
And from the burning plains 
Where Lybian monsters yell, 
From the m^st gloomy glens 
Of Greenland's sunless clime, 
To where the golden fields 
Of fertile England, spread 
Their harvest to the day. 
Thou can'st not find one spot 
Whereon no city stood ! ' ' 

Such is life, such is fame, and yet how we cling to the one, 
how we long after the other ! How we toil and sacrifice and 
pant and sigh for these passing glories, and cast in our lot 
without halting or hesitation, with those who have gone 
down in the unknown, unremembered mass before us. But 
so let it be, these are among the evils of the world, but even 
out of the evil much good has arisen, and much will arise. 
That the names of great men should be held in veneration, 
\/i3 due too, to the same sentiment which makes us anxious to 
perpetuate our own memory. Wc accord to others that 



/ 



which we earnestly desire for ourselves, and heroes and 
demigods multiplied in the history of a people who have done 
more to perpetuate the memory of names and of events than 
any who have ever inhabited the earth. 

But we go a step further in this philosophy of the pecu- 
liarities of history. Athens marked the day when by the 
heroism of Ilarmodius and Aristogiton she was delivered 
from the dominion of her thirty tyrants; and Rome com- 
memorated in her " Carmen Seculare " the fame of him who 
on the banks of the Tiber " kept the bridge so well, in the 
brave days of old," and held at bay the hostile bands of her 
Tuscan assailants, far more carefully than they did scores of 
other heroic acts which had an equally important bearing on 
their national history — and why ? because in each event 
there was something in the act itself, and in the character of 
the principal actors, which fastening itself on the popular 
mind was carried on from generation to generation as long 
as the respective nations continued to exist. The laurel 
crown, the national festivals, the annual songs were only the 
pulsations of the great popular heart which continued to vi- 
brate so long as the vitality of the nation endured ; they 
were the out-croppings, so to speak, of the national senti- 
ment, which, heaved up from time to time by the deep burn- 
ing fires of popular reverence and admiration, came out to 
view above the superincumbent mass of daily duties and 
actions which the necessities of life were continually pilino- 
upon them. 

What after all is the world's history, but great events 
marking the lives of its great actors ? We cannot, if we 
would, separate events from men, actions from actors, or 
the history of the times from the lives of those who have 
caused these times to be marked in the annals of nations. 

Such is the indissoluble union of men and things, and it 
is not a little flattering to our self love and to our admira- 
tion of human nature, that men in all countries and in all 



ages have been disposed more especially to rememljer those 
names and events •which are most intimately connected -nith 
the advancement of the greatest and best interests of the race. 
Kor can it be stated in refutation of this declaration, that 
men are more prone to record and to remember great mili- 
tary than great civic triumphs, that the footsteps of the war- 
rior, though stained with blood, are regarded with deeper 
admiration than the march of him who pushes forward the 
cause of human rights by the acts of peace or the machinery 
of laws and legislation. Let me read to you here a brief but 
deeply important lesson from man's history. The triumphs 
of the human race have been its victories over wrongs ; the 
monument of right has been raised over the buried corpse of 
error; nay, more, the blood of the oppressor, no less than 
the tears of the oppressed, has watered the soil in which 
freedom's tree had to be planted ; and, more than all, the 
history of the world has read to us over and over again the 
terrible lesson that the blood of the tyrant is used to blot 
out the sentence of condemnation and cruel wrong against 
his victim, and has made man to know by bitter experience, 
that this truth is as plainly and indelibly written in the his- 
tory of his race as it is in the gospel of his salvation, that 
" Avithout the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." 

We have a few remarkable days connected with the histo- 
ry of our nation, which we should strive to imprint more and 
more with each returning year on the memory of the people^ 
for a nation's greatness is intimately interwoven with the 
history of its great men and its great events. 

These are like steps in the ascent of the pyramid, and as 
we rise from one to another, avc gain a broader and broader 
view of all that lies around us, and are more able to appre- 
ciate both that which we have passed over and the space 
which still lies before and above us. 

Tho Eighth day of January, 1815, that day whose recur- 
rence we have assembled this evening to commemorate, is 



J 6 



connected not only Avith the life of one of the most remark- 
able men which any age or any nation has produced, but it 
has become so interwoven with the political history of the 
American people, that it is by no means probable that it will 
ever be expunged from the national calendar. The man and 
the event have mingled too deeply with the vital interests of 
our people ever to be forgotten. 

A great party, which for years had lost many of its dis- 
tinguishing peculiarities and which many of its devoted ad- 
herents and admirers feared might at length be swallowed 
up in the natural tendency of the human mind to forget the 
teachings of the mere political philosopher and statesman, 
such as was the great man to whom it owed its organization 
and its existence, was, by the rallying cry of " Jackson and 
New Orleans !" restored to life, to strength, to vigor, to in- 
fluence, such as has rarely been seen in any country, and 
which among us, has possessed a talismanic power which no 
other name can ever possess, and which no length of time is 
likely to obliterate. 

The Democratic party had its origin in the very founda- \ 
tion and constitution of the Republic ; it grew out of the 
system of government which in the wisdom of the best men 
of the nation was deemed most fit to ensure the progress 
and prosperity and happiness of the people of this country. . 
It has been sometimes led by bad men, and its power and 
its principles have been prostituted to evil purposes and de- 
signs. So too we have seen its ranks thinned and its bat- 
talions time and again trampled in the dust, yet review the 
history of the Republic, and you find that of the three quar- 
ters of a century which have passed since the Constitution 
was adopted and the Government inaugurated under it, about 
two thirds of these years have been passed under Democrat- 
ic rule, and under that rule the nation grew and prospered 
and flourished and struggled and fell ! yes, fell, for a time, 
into a fearful abyss, from which the power of the people will 



8 

again raise it, more prosperous and more powerful even than 
before. Men may change, but principles are eternal ; bad 
men may for a time turn the right into an evil channel, but 
sound doctrine can never be thoroughly corrupted, and hence 
this democracy, though for a time misguided, illy directed 
and fearfully perverted, will ultimately arise like the phoenix 
from its ashes, more potent and more vigorous for having 
passed through the baptism of fire. 

The fierce political contest which terminated in the elec- 
tion of Mr. Jefi'erson in 1800 was followed by years of com- 
parative calm. The doctrines inaugurated and taught by 
the great Virginia leader were considered fairly established 
in the management and direction of the government. The 
Democratic party had directed the government in peace, and 
had carried us successfully through a second war with the 
great power of England ; in a great financial struggle it had 
guided the ship of state with a master hand, and had brought 
it safely into a quiet and peaceful harbor. The power of 
the old Federal party was broken, many of its strong men 
had been driven from the field, many, seeking rather 
distinction and preferment than political consistency, had 
united themselves with the democracy. The administration 
of Mr. Monroe had been quiet, unostentatious aud accepta- 
ble to a large portion of the people. But at its close it 
seemed doubtful if any one man filled a sufficiently large 
space in the public mind to concentrate the suffrages of the 
various States. 

Adams, Clay, Crawford, Calhoun, were all men of mark, 
each had served the people acceptably in his own State and 
in the Federal administration ; either of them had as was be- 
lieved sufficient ability and sufiicient honesty and patriotism 
to grasp and direct the helm of affairs. But still the public 
demand was not satisfied. To many thousands of men scat- 
tered through all portions of the Union, it seemed that the 
right man had not yet appeared on the arena. 



c^J'T 



Great interests were rapidly growing up in the rising re- 
public, and all the afl'airs of the State were assuming a mag- 
nitude which those who founded the government could scarce 
have imagined or dreamed of. The mighty surging wave of 
popular confidence could not be made to settle down quietly 
on any of those men Avho were already named for the high- 
est position in the nation. 

The year 1822 wore away, and yet only the four candi- 
dates named appeared in the field. Occasionally a voice 
was heard for Clinton of New York, the father of the canal 
policy and internal improvement system of that State, but 
his was not yet the name to "conjure spirits from the vasty 
deep." But in the year 1823, popular movements took place 
in Pennsylvania, in Tennessee and in North Carolina in fa- 
vor of the Hero of New Orleans, and the flame spread like 
the blazing fire upon the great prairies of the West. The 
name of Andrew Jackson, which for years had been in the 
mouth of every inhabitant of the West familiar as a house- 
hold word, ran from county to county and from State to 
State, as the lightning's flash flies along the electric Avire. 
The world has produced few such men as Andrew Jackson ; 
with the single exception of George Washington, no man 
ever held such unbounded sway over the hearts and passions 
of the people. But if Jackson was adored by the people, it 
is no less true that the worship was reciprocal. No man 
ever rested with more unbounded, unAvavering confidence on 
the decisions of the popular voice. Denied, like Washing- 
ton, the precious heritage of children, but with a heart burst- 
ing Avith paternal afi'cction, he poured out all the overflowing 
love of a generous nature on the people whom he rejoiced 
to call his own. Springing from the ranks of the democra- 
cy in the broadest sense of the term, owing to himself, and 
to himself alone both his education and his fortune, upheld 
by no arm of patronage or poAver in all his long and ardu- 
ous career, having encountered nothing but obstac^s and 



10 

opposition in the path of life from early childhood to his ma- 
ture age, owing to the people alone his advancement at ev- 
ery step of his progress, and cherishing under all circum- 
stances a constant remembrance of their aid and suj)port, 
marching straight up to difficulty and danger in every form, 
and trampling them under foot by the mere power of his own 
unbending will ; never turning aside from the path of duty, 
because hedged in by discouragement and opposition ; little 
skilled in the more ordinary methods of securing favor and 
accomplishing his purposes which men of less stern mould 
are in the habit of employing; in all that regards science or 
letters having had leisure amid the toils and struggles of 
early life to study only the most purely elementary books, 
and hence taught in every emergency to rely with confidence 
on the resources of a mind that never failed to respond to 
any call made on its cxhaustless stores, Andrew Jackson 
stood before the people of the United States a model man, 
thoroughly furnished with all those appliances which com- 
mand and receive the willing homage of the masses in every 
nation. 

Had Jackson been simply a military man, had his whole 
title to admiration and support rested on his great victory 
at New Orleans, achieved under the most untoward circum- 
stances, over the best appointed army of modern times, his 
name would have gone down to posterity on the long list of 
great commanders, emblazoned indeed with a halo of glory, 
but without any of the more important and undying distinc- 
tiveness of fame which Avill cause it to be unforgotten, so 
long as the name of the American people is remembered. 
His claim to fame rested on a much broader and more stable 
basis. "We are not going now to discuss the old question 
which has been again and again so ably handled by the 
Roman philosophers, as well as by those of more modern 
date, whether military or civil services contribute most to 



11 

the well-being of tlio State. Jackson h:ul already achieved 
no small distinction in both these fields of action. His ser- 
vices iji the Indian and Spanish wars of the southern fron- 
tier, his rigid rule and perfect restoration of order in the 
disturbed district of Florida, his efforts to establish the 
rif'hts of the people on a stable basis in the Convention 
which framed the Constitution of Tennessee, and in several 
sessions of her State Legislature under this Constitution, his 
services on the bench and in both houses of Congress, had 
been amply sufficient to assure every man that in whatever 
position he might be placed, he would not fail so to acquit 
himself as to command the love and admiration of his friends 
and the respect of his opponents, or even of his enemies. 
And no man perhaps that ever lived had such friends or such 
enemies as Andrew Jackson. Perfectly unselfish in his own 
nature, with a heart that was ever open to the kindliest emo- 
tions, and willing to undergo any toil, privation or suffering 
for those he loved, his friends were men whose lives and for- 
tunes, time and talents were ever at lus command. On the 
other hand, fierce in his enmities, unbending in his preju- 
dices, unyielding in his obstinate determination to carry out 
his own plans and ideas without regard to the prejudices or 
convictions of others, his enemies were as relentless in their 
hate as they were unflinching in their opposition. 

Such was the man and such was his position before the 
American people, when in the great canvass of 1824 his name 
was brought prominently before the nation as a candidate 
for the Presidency. And we choose to depict the great 
presidential contest in which he was thus engaged, before Ave 
speak of him as a military leader in 1814-15, because we can 
thus obtain a much clearer insiglit into his character, and 
because here were developed more openly those peculiar 
traits which endeared him to his countrymen and have ren- 
dered his name a tower of strength in the political world such 



12 

as has never been reared over the name of any man who has 
ever lived in the Republic. 

And moreover it is rather as a political than as a military 
leader that I wish to place Jackson before you, and to ask 
you to look at him in that pure and clear light of history 
which remains when the fiercer fires of partizan warfare have 
died away forever. So I introduce to you this great chief- 
tain, who at last came prominently forward in the most in- 
teresting political era of the country, and acquired a fame 
and influence which have scarcely ever before or since been 
accorded to any living man. 

Scarcely regarded, by those in the field before him, in the 
earlier days of the contest, a single bound, like that of the 
powerful Roman gladiator when he burst into the arena, 
served to place him at once in the very front of the combat. 
The country had seen no such political strife since the days 
of 1800. The old military leaders'of the West and South- 
west sprang at once, with very few exceptions, to his side, 
but the hold of Henry Clay was too strong on the great body 
of the political leaders of the Democracy to admit of their 
being drawn away from his side. 

And here was one great peculiarity of the contest of 1824. 
That mighty Democratic party which triumphed in 1800, and 
had swayed the destinies of the country for almost a quarter 
of a century, was now really divided into four factions which 
regarded each other with small favor, and were ready at a 
moment's warning to break out into the most bitter and in- 
tense hostility. Still one circumstance was equally remark- 
able in this contest with the bitterness of the party leaders ; 
it was this, that while each of the four leaders who claimed 
affinity with the Democracy had their devoted partizans and 
laro-e numbers of followers among the masses of the people, 
yet the almost universal sentiment of these masses was that 
if they could not secure the election of their peculiar favor- 
ite, then their secoml choice was Aiulrew .Lickson. 



13 

Thus at the very first step had Jackson secured the first 
voice of a very large section of the great democratic party, 
and tlie second vote of almost every man. The groundwork 
was being laid for the great drama which was to follow. But 
we must not pass to this too soon. A wonderful act was yet 
to transpire which was to show the character of the man and 
bring him with tenfold more prominency before the country. 

After a long and heated canvass, the day of election came. 
Railroads and telegraph wires had not then encircled the 
country, prepared to bear the result rapidly to every city 
and town and village. Long weeks of impatient expecta- 
tion and anxious enquiry passed, and at last the tale was 
told. No President had been elected by the people. Mr. 
Calhoun having received no vote for the Presidency, was 
largely elected to the second office, while both Jackson and 
Clay had received votes not only for the first office, but also 
for the Vice Presidency. 

But the great interest clustered around the Presidential 
vote, here was the expression of the v6¥ce of the people. 
Jackson had been voted for in moye States than any other 
candidate. Out of 261 electoral votes he had received 99 ; 
Mr. Adams 84; Mr. Clay 37; Mr. Crawford 41. The pop- 
ulation of the United States at that day was about ten mil- 
lions ; that of the States voting for Mr. Clay was 1,212,337; 
of those which voted for Crawford, 1,497,029 ; of those vot-- 
ing for Adams 3,032,766 ; but of those voting for Jackson 
3,757,756. Thus it appeared that he had at once a larger 
number of States, a larger number of electoral votes and a 
larger number of the popular vote, than any other of the 
candidates. For many weeks it was supposed, especially in 
the West, that he was really elected ; and Jackson himself, 
then a Senator in Congress from Tennessee, is said to have 
left his home to take his place in the Senate under the im- 
pression that he was really elected to the Presidency. But 



14 

the election -went to the House of Representatives. The in- 
fluence of Mr. Clay and his friends was given to Mr. Adams, 
and he became the President of the United States for four 
years from the 4th day of March, 1825. 

No man is now justifiable in uncovering the fierce partizan 
scenes which raged among the people at that day. The 
great actors in the drama have passed from among us, and 
all, with perhaps one single exception, have left a memory 
dear to the people of the United States. This is as it should 
be, the "evil that men do" should not live after them, but 
should be interred in their graves, and the good should ever 
be connected with their names in the remembrance of their 
fellow men. 

But when the result of this contest was known among the 
people, a fierce hurricane of popular fury swept across the 
country ; perhaps the calmest man in the nation was An- 
drew Jackson ; he continued in his place as Senator, careful- 
ly performing his duty to his country and his constituents. 
The very evening after the election in the House, he met 
Mr. Adams at a large party, and saluted him with the cor- 
diality of an old friend ; and when, on the 4th of March, he 
was inaugurated and took his seat. Gen. Jackson was among 
the earliest to ofi"er his congratulations. That he as well as 
his friends was bitterly disappointed, could not be denied, 
but no word was uttered, unless indeed to his intimate friends, 
that could make that disappointment known. What pro- 
duced this calmness in this breastusually so stormy, so prone 
to be agitated by the fiercest passions of our nature ? Did 
hie afiect to despise the proud position which he had lost 
when it had been deemed almost certainly in his possession? 
No, he never pretended to any such stoicism; he seemed in- 
deed to value it more than ever before, as it receded for a 
time from his grasp. Acquiescing at once in the determi- 
nation of the whole people, who at once nominated him for 



J^% 



15 



the next candidacy, and returning to his plantation in Ten- 
nessee to await the course of events, there was one great 
and powerful principle which sustained him in all this fierce 
struggle which was opened afresh, and continued unabated 
for eight long years ! It was his unwavering, abiding confi- 
dence in the justice and honesty of the people. This never 
forsook him for a moment, it was with him no ephemeral 
sentiment, it had grown and strengthened with all his being. 
He had learned it in youth, he had believed it in manhood, 
he had cultivated it in camps, he had boldly declared it be- 
fore Senates and Legislatures. To this too was added an 
equally well grounded confidence in his own power, and a 
determination to succeed in every undertaking, which in a 
long and varied life never faltered for a single instant. 
Such was Andrew Jackson. 

It may be worth while to go back for a few years and 
trace this peculiar piinciple which we desire to point out in 
the life and character of this man, through some of the scenes 
which transpired in his earlier days. We will speak of but 
a single one — an event that shaped all the course and cur- 
rent of his succeeding years — his defense of New Orleans. 

The war of 1812 was drawing to a close ; all perhaps had 
not been accomplished which the nation desired, but in the 
West at least the war was popular, and our victories by land 
and by sea were treasured up with joy in every Western 
heart, and many a song not measured with the most exact 
poetic accuracy, and many a legend not told in the most 
classic language, recorded our triumphs over the foe. But 
to complete the ideal glory to the Western mind, we wanted 
a grand victory on our own soil. The great Mississippi val- 
ley, watered by a thousand rivers all pouring their tribute 
into the same great channel of the Father of Waters, is a 
nation of itself and has a national pride and a historic fame 
of its own, to sustain. At the outlet of this vast valley, 



16 

■whose untold agricultural wealth could feed -with plenteous 
hand the nations of the world, stands that city towards 
which at that day tended all the wealth of this immense ter- 
ritory. Steam had not yet taught us to navigate our mighty 
rivers against their strong currents, and the lazy arks float- 
in o- with the tide bore the wealth of the great valley year by 
year down to the commercial emporium of the South-west. 
It had been whispered in the East that this far off city was 
threatened by the British arms. But so remote was it at 
that day, that the rumor scarcely created excitement in the 
Eastern seaboard, separated from it by vast mountains and 
forests and by thousands of miles of weary and tedious trav- 
el. But very different was the impression produced in the 
"West, when it was told that New Orleans was in danger. 
Kentucky and Tennessee were shaken to their center, and 
the hardy hunters of the West were ready to step forward 
almost en masse for its defence. But the whole West was 
gparsely populated, and that population, sparse as it was, 
had been largely drawn on for men to fill the armies of the 
West and North-west. Now" the southern frontier, and that 
far distant, was to be defended. As rapidly as possible the 
troops in the immediate vicinity were thrown into the city 
and some attempts were made to organize the population 
into a state of defence. But this population was incongru- 
ous ; gathered up from the various nations of Europe and 
from some of our Eastern States, many were found who had 
congregated here for trade and intermingled with more or 
less of the hardy sons of the South and West. There was 
little unity of feeling in the population, and unfortunately 
no man was found to take the leadership of this mass. The 
prospect was becoming day by day more gloomy and 
fearful, and already whispers were heard tliat the city was 
at the mercy of the invader. Nor was this all ; there were 
dark and vague rumors of treachery, one portion of the pop- 



J(>S 



17 



ulation was ready to accuse the other of being in secret 
league with the foe, and the different branches of the State 
government were widely at variance, while all distrusted the 
military force in their midst. But while all was thus doubt 
and uncertainty and terror, it was rumored that Jackson had 
been ordered to the command of the city — he was already on 
the way, travelling by day and night he was rapidly ap- 
proaching — now he was in the very neighborhood — now he 
was ready to enter. 

Worn down with fatigue, half prostrated by sickness, 
harassed by the toil of a long journey, Jackson arrived in 
New Orleans on the 2d day of December, 1814. The city was 
in an uproar of agitation : — discontent, distrust, dissension, 
division were every where present. All around was a pow- 
erful army of the best troops of Europe ; within was a beg- 
garly squad of about two thousand men, disorganized, dis- 
contented and unreliable. There was one peculiar feature 
however, of this little army that it may be worth while to re- 
member. Of this two thousand men, one whole battalion •t^__^ 
was composed of free blacks, the most reliable men, as Jack- 
son afterwards asserted that he found on his first entrance 
into the city. But when Jackson entered, a more than 
Caesar and his fortunes came within the limits of the trem- 
bling city, 

" Confusion heard his voice and wild uproar stood ruled." 

He came to command, and he bore in his bosom a 
soul for which command was as natural as the pulsation 
of the heart. The erect carriage of his gaunt, wiry frame, 
the fiery flash of his eyes as it gleamed from his sal- 
low and sunken countenance, the tone of confidence that 
breathed in every word and was plainly seen in every move- 
ment, soon communicated itself to the whole city. Disorder 
was quickly displaced by the most regular organization, ter- 
ror and dismay gave way to confidence and determination, 
and the city which twenty-four hours before, was ready to 



18 

fall into tlie very jaws of .the invader, -was ik>w ^deemed im- 
pregnable. Troops -were drilled, militia enrolled and mus- 
tered, the weak points strengthened bj proper defences, and 
everything around showed earnest vigor and lively determina- 
tion; the spii'it of the Leader had passed like the electric cur- 
rent into th« soul of every man. But this was not wonder- 
ful to those who saw it and who knew the power of the agen- 
cy by which it had been wrought ; that Jackson Jiad produced 
this wondrous change, was only what those who knew the 
man were prepared to expect. Thej had seen Ms power 
displayed over the wildest and most tumultuous assemblages 
of men for yeaxs, and thej knew that when Jackson willed 
the deed was more thaji half accomplished- 
There was just one other item connected with the defense 
of New Orleans that deserves to be noticed in these <lays of 
war and of vast military preparation. Jackson was expect- 
ing reinforcements — who were they ? whence were they com- 
ing ? Two thousand backwoods men under Generals Thomas 
and Adair from the wild hills of Kentucky were on the march 
;to the rescue of the beleaguered city. They had started fro/ia 
itheir hxsmes to travel fifteen hundred miles, to bring aid and 
.safety to the capital of a sister State. "Where was their 
.ba.se.of supplies ? In their knapsacks and on their shoulders. 
Where were tl^eir C£UCQp equipages ? They had neither tents, 
;blankets upr jbaggage, a^nd carried one camp kettle for every 
eighty men. Where ^^vei^e their ai'ms ? Many carried their 
faithful hunting rifles from their own rude homes, and the 
reinainder s\ipplied themselves from a cargo of United States 
piusk,et3 found ,on board a flat boat floating down the Missis- 
sippi, <?n its T\'ay from Pittsburg to Orleans. Whatprepaja- 
iion Ji*d tjbe.se wild hunters in the school of arms to fit them 
to me^t i\w ffwn vho less than one year before had marked 
with their bloGiJ (^ g^eajtest battle fields of the world, and 
had overthrown on ifc^ pj^ins of Waterloo the best army of 



19 

modern times! T^y had ten day^s drill on the decks of 
their fiat boats a& they floated down the curren-t of the Mis- 
sissippi on their way to figU the conquerors of Europe, 
These were the reJnfoi'cements for the army of two thousand 
men, black and white^ with which the stern Indian fighter of 
the West proposed to defend the city. 

The first engagement took place on the night of the 23d 
of December, and was amply sufficient to convince the foe 
that the spirit of the commanding general had been fully in- 
fused into his men. From.this time forward, daily and night- 
ly, on the land and on the water,, colli^ons were continually 
occurring, but these were only the preliminaries to the great 
contest which was approaching. 

Jackson had completied his defences about the most ex- 
posed part of the city^ and calmly and confidently awaited 
the attack. lu all that city there was- perhaps not one man 
in ^-hom he had not confidence, and who was not willing 
fullj to confide in him. None others could remain — they 
wer£ forced to leave, and only permitted to return when the 
.danger was past. He was acting on the great principle 
wbiek ruled his life, to inspire confidence,- and to rely with 
amplLeiic trust in that which, he had himself created, and 
which 2ae held in his own grasp. 

The morning of the Eighth of January approached; a damp 

;and ^hiiiling fog hung like a suspended pall all over the city 

;and the country around ; at a very short distance no objects 

were viEable ; the footsteps of the sentry fell noiselessly on 

rthe «ofe«oil, and his voice was scarcely heard through the 

murky .atmosphere. The ranks of the chilly troops, not very 

well iprerpared to resist the penetrating, dampness of the 

climane had sought a few Hours of uneasy rest during the 

niglrt and were looking anxiously for the coming dawn 

which was to bring on the expected encounter. At one 

to'clockJaiikion was moving, and called his staff to his side,. 



20 

at four o'clock every man was at his post ready for the ex- 
pected combat ; at six the firing commenced, and the long 
lines of the brightly uniformed British soldiers could be dim- 
ly seen through the closely Avreathing mist, moving forward 
to the attack of the American defences. The thirty-two 
pounders which had been placed on our fortifications loaded 
with bullets to the muzzle, ploughed furiously through their 
ranks, leveling whole platoons on the very ground where 
they stood ; but it was the terrible rifle in the hands of Car- 
roll's Tennesseans and Adair's Kentuckians, standing four 
deep as a mass of sharp-shooters, that at the distance of two 
hundred yards dealt out such slaughter as no living column 
of men could stand before, that completed the work of death 
and disaster. No man's life was worth a hair who came 
in range of these deadly marksmen. " If you don't find him 
hit above the eyebrow," said one, speaking of a British Col- 
onel who was seen to fall, "then my shot didn't touch him." 
When the battle was over and the dead body of the officer 
was brought in, the fatal mark of the bullet in the forehead, 
just above the brow, told the story of the deadly aim. 
What troops could stand before such men ? Why describe 
the battle that has been done an hundred times — why tell 
how here and there brave leaders fell, and hundreds of brave 
men who never turned their backs on a foe, laid down to rise 
no more. By eight o'clock the struggle was over, the vic- 
tory was gained. Orleans was saved, the plain before the 
American defences was heaped with the slain of the enemy, 
while on our part we had lost eight men ! 

Jackson walked from place to place among his soldiers, 
taking many of them by the hand and expressing his satis- 
faction with their behaviour ; reciprocal confidence had done 
its work. Such men, with such a leader, conld conquer the 
world. 

Pass again over a few years. In 1828, the idol of the 
people was elected to the Presidency by an overwhelming vote. 



21 

The man who never douhted the people, is receiving, day 
by day, the most convincing tokens of their devotion. The 
great struggle with the Bank comes, and Jackson triumphs. 
Jackson always triumphs, because he always wills to succeed, 
and what can stand before the iron will of that man of re- 
lentless nerve, of untiring energy, of unfaltering destiny ? 

But a greater and far more desperate struggle awaits him. 
The great nullifier of the South is in the field, and the old 
hero of a score of desperate battles has met one who, on the 
political platform at least, never knew fear, nor ever ac- 
knowledged a defeat. Nothing can be more interestinp' to 
us at the present time, than a review of the rise and progress 
and final overthrow of this great heresy in our government 
which raising its head again in our day, has produced such 
fearful fruits. 

The doctrine of State Rights, which the Democratic fathers 
had maintained with so much fervor as the great conserva- 
tive principle of the Government, became, under the perni- 
cious teaching of the South Carolina leader and his associ- 
ates, the germ of nullification and all its attendant evils, as 
it has produced secession and civil war at the present day. 
There is something, too, exceedingly pleasing in reviewing 
the actions of the prominent party leaders of those days, in 
the struggle in which the Government found itself involved 
and it is most honorable to them, and causes us to look back 
with pride on those better days of the Republic, when we see 
that scarce one of them so forgot his duty and allegiance to 
his country, as to refuse to support the power of the Admin- 
istration against those who were endeavoring to sap the very 
foundations of the Republic. And this, too, although many 
of them had been most bitterly opposed to the elevation of 
Jackson to the Presidency ; and one, at least, had been an 
opposing candidate, with at one time no small hopes of suc- 
cess. What a lesson does this read to those who, at the pre- 



22 

sent time, cannot sufficiently overcome the prejudice and 
blindness of party to give a firm and unswerving support 
to the administration of that man who is laboring earnestly 
.and honestly to hold the Government and laws of the Fathers 
^.gainst rebels and traitors in arms. 

No men .stepped forward more boldly than did Clay and 
"Webster in this emergency, in support of the Administration 
which they had always heretofore opposed. The latter, more 
especially came to the rescue with all the power of his gi- 
gantic mind thoroughly aroused in defense of the Constitu- 
tion and the legitima<te powers of the Federal government 
.against the abuse of the doctrine of State rights which threat- 
ens to destroy at one blow all its efficiency, if not to blot out 
its very existence. Then it was, in this great contest, that 
he so Avell earned his proud title of the Expounder of the 
■Constitution, and a modern writer has well observed that a 
-result worth all the cost of the nullification contest of 1832 
was wrought by Daniel Webster in his four most exhaustive 
.and comprehensive propositions, in which he embodied the 
true doctrine of the actual relations subsisting between 
the Federal and the State governments. Had the doctrines 
t contained in these four propositions, which deserve to be 
printed in gold and hung in every Hall of Legislation in the 
whole length and breadth cf the United States, been duly 
impressed upon the minds of all in the North and in the 
South,, and had they been willing to be guided in their ac- 
tions by these great truths, it is fair to infer that we had 
never; been called to witness the fearful scenes of war and 
devastation through which we are now passing. 

Let me read them before you tto-night, and ask for them 
your careful attention. 

" 1. That the Constitution of the United States is not a 

league, confederacy or compact between the people of the 

.vseveral States -in ^. their ^sovereign caj)acities, but a govern- 



J^^C 



23 



ment pi'oper, founded in the adoption of the people and cre- 
ating distinct i-elations between itself and individuals." 

" 2. That no State authority has power to dissolve these 
relations, that nothing can dissolve them but revolution ; 
and that consequently there can be no such thing as- seces- 
sion without revolution." 

"3. That there is a Supreme law, consisting of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, acts of Congress passed in 
pursuance of it, and treaties ; and that in cases not capable 
of assuming the character of a suit in law or equity. Con- 
gress must judge of, and finally interpret this supreme law, 
so often as it has occasion to pass acts of legislation ; an-d 
in cases'" capable of assuming and actually assuming the char- 
acter of a suit, the Supreme Court of the United States is 
the final interpreter." 

" 4. That an attempt by a State to abrogate^ annul or 
nullify an act of Congress, or . to arrest its operation within 
its limits, on the ground that in her opinion such Law is un- 
constitutional, is a direct usurpation on the just powers of 
the General Government and on the equal rights of other 
States ; a plain violation of the Constitution and a proceed- 
ing essentially revolutionary in its character and tendency." 

Such were the sentiments laid down by the great Ex- 
pounder ; they were then deemed sound by both political 
parties, at least in the North ; and if they are held less so to- 
day than they were thirty years ago, it is because adroit and 
cunning leaders have managed to carry away the masses of a 
great party from the doctrines of Jackson to the revolution- 
ary platform of Calhoun and his associates. 

But we have to do with a yet deeper principle involved in 
the scheme of nullification. ]!t professed to be founded on 
differences and contentions growing out of what was called in 
the South the oppressive action of a tariff for the protection 
of northern manufacturers. But the clear-sighted mind of 



24 

Jackson read the scheme much more deeply and more thor- 
oughly ; he saw in it at once a plan for the dissolution of 
the Union and the huilding up of a Southern Confederacy, 
and he did not hesitate openly to denounce it as such. He 
knew too that while the tariff was used at that time as a pre- 
text to cover the real design, these men would be ready at 
another moment to use any other pretext they might deem 
better fitted to cover up and carry out their designs. And 
he knew full well, knew it long before it was declared by 
Calhoun in his speech at Abbeville, that there was no other 
question that could unite the whole South. — save that of 
slavery. 

Nor was Jackson alone in this opinion. Said Mr. Davis 
of Massachusetts, in a speech which Thos. H. Benton has 
characterized as one of the most sensible ever delivered in 
Congress, speaking of the action of South Carolina, " the 
root of her discontent lies deeper than the tariff, and will 
continue when that is forgotten." And Mr. Webster him- 
self in the same speech from which I have already quoted, 
said, " Sir, the world will scarcely believe that this whole 
controversy, and all the desperate measures which its sup- 
port requires, have no other foundation than a difference of 
opinion upon a provision of the Constitution between a ma- 
jority of the people of South Carolina on one side, and a vast 
majority of the whole people of the United States on the 
other." 

To show how completely the same causes are operative in 
producing the same results, we need only refer to the fact 
that the delegates lately sent by the seceded States to Eu- 
rope, proclaimed that slavery had nothing to do with their 
desire to separate from the North, that they had all the 
guarantees they desired for this institution, and that differ- 
ences growing up out of commerce and trade were at the 
foundation of their determination to establish an independ- 



J(^y 



25 



ent government. There is a feeling in the mind of every 
free man, that slavery is in itself indefensibley and every in- 
tellisiient man knows that it is indefensible in its results. 

The vast difference in the growth and prosperity of the 
North and the Soutli was just as obvious in 1832 as it was in 
1860, and the same determination was manifested then as 
became apparent thirty years later, to dissolve a connection 
with a people whose growth in riches and unrivalled com- 
mercial and industrial prosperity were a standing reproach- 
ful commentary upon a system which weighed down every 
effort at progress, and rendered abortive every design of im- 
provement. More than this, the free speech and free press 
of the North was just precisely what could never be tolera- 
ted in a land of slaves ; it is useless to disguise the fact that 
slavery cannot live where freedom of speech is tolerated, the 
human soul under a white or under a black skin will rise in 
knowledge and will aspire to freedom when the godlike gift 
of speech and reason can be exercised. But all this was de- 
nied to the South ; the very system of Mr. Calhoun and the 
agitation growing out of it had forever banished this free- 
dom from his own land, the very mails were fettered, and 
could no longer bear the news and the literature of every 
land to the shores of the sunny South. Southern men saw 
the evil effects of this most baneful curSe, and yet hugged 
the monster more and more closely to their bosom; they 
witnessed its blighting effects, and yet refused to relieve 
themselves from the fatal cause ; nay, as if to prevent the 
continued invidious and hated comparison, they seemed de- 
termined to spread more broadly the baleful malady that 
others too might be blasted by its influence. 

Oh, how exactly has one who had seen the tyranny and 
slavery of Europe, but had never seen its fearful counter- 
part, negro slavery in America, how exactly has he described 
its baleful effects : 
4 



26 



"The land in which they lived, hj a fell ha-ne 

■\Va8 withered up. Tyrants dwelt side by side, 
And stabled in their homes, until the chain 

Stifled the captive's cry ; and to abide 
That blasting curse, men had no shame — all vied 

In evil, slave and despot: fear with lust, 
Strange fellowship, through mutual hate had tied 

Like two dark serpents tangled in the dust, 
AV hich on the paths of men their mingling poison thrust." 

Such was the curse of slavery, and secession was the cure 
proposed to be wrought out at the expense of the liberties 
of the human race. But in these days a Jackson stood in 
the path and the traitor was foiled. He understood full well 
that the people loved the government and laws of their coun- 
try far better than any system grounded on oppression and 
wrong. To the people he appealed. His proclamation to 
the people of South Carolina, and his appeal to them as citi- 
zens of his native State, is a paper full of noble sentiments 
and overflowing with patriotism, appealing at once to their 
sense of duty as men and as citizens, and calling out all that 
was truly excellent in their nature. As a state paper it has 
no equal, unless we place it side by side Avith the message 
and proclamation which has just emanated from the great 
man who now sits at the head of the nation. Both will be 
handed down to posterity as the efforts of great minds deep- 
ly imbued with a spirit of truth and of right, and anxious to 
preserve the greatest and best interests of mankind. 

The first day of February, 1832, was the day fixed by 
South Carolina for nullifying the laws of Congress, collect- 
ing revenue in the ports of the State. But the fatal day 
passed, and no hostile act occurred. The President had 
caused it to be fully understood that the hour that brought 
to Washington the report of any hostile act of the nullifiers, 
that self-same hour should see Mr. Calhoun a prisoner of 
State for high treason, and the Marshal of the District of 



JC^ 



27 



Columbia Avas ordered to have a care that the Senator did 
not leave the corporation of the Federal city, or at most the 
limits of the District. Calhoun is reported to have passed 
this 1st of February in a very uncomfortable condition. 
Still all remained quiet. On the 12th of February, Mr. Clay 
introduced his Compromise Bill for the modification of the 
tariff. He proposed a gradual reduction of duties. Mr. 
Yerplanck had already introduced a bill providing for a sud- 
den reduction — this was understood to be for the purpose of 
conciliatinfj the nullifiers. To this bill it was understood 
that the President was opposed, and he was determined that 
Calhoun and his associates should vote for Clay's bill. The 
21st of February was reached and still nothing was accom- 
plished; it was the short session and must terminate on the 
4th of March; whatever was done must be done quickly. 
Gen. Jackson, it is said, sent for certain southern gentlemen, 
friends of Mr, Calhoun, but not sympathising in his views of 
secession, these men had frequently interceded for* the great 
nullifier, and had assured Jackson that in time he would be- 
come more sensible. Being introduced into the President's 
room, they found him much excited ; he marched across the 
room with hasty strides, stopping occasionally to strike his 
cob-pipe violently on the table. " Gentlemen," said he, 
" for six weeks you have told me that this scheme of nullifi- 
cation would grow better. I have waited patiently, and I 
tell you, gentlemen, it is growing worse, and unless by Sat- 
urday night Mr. Calhoun votes for Mr. Clay's bill, by the 
Eternal, I will hang him, I will hang him, gentlemen !" So 
ended the consultation, for when the old hero swore by the 
Eternal it was useless to multiply words. " These South 
Carolinians," said John M. Clayton of Delaware to Mr. Clay, 
" are acting very badly, but they are fine fellows, and it is a 
pity to let Jackson hang them." At his suggestion, says 
Mr. Benton in his Thirty Years in the U. S. Senate, Mr. 



28 

Clay's bill was recommitted to a special committee ; Clay- 
ton was chairman of this committee, and, says Mr. Beuton, 
he introduced certain amendments to which he required both 
Calhoun and Clay to assent, and for which they must vote. 
Some of these were a bitter dose for Calhoun and his friends, 
and for a time they refused, but Clayton was inexorable in 
his demand, declaring that the vote of Calhoun and the oth- 
er nullifiers must be given so as to commit them fully to the 
principles of the bill, and give to the North an assurance of 
the perpetuity of the compact. Driven to the wall, cornered 
and forced to act, Mr. Calhoun voted for every amendment, 
and finally for the whole bill, thus evincing to the world his 
abandonment of the principles for which he contended, or 
rather showing plainly that the oppressive tariff of which he 
had complained was not at the foundation of the movements 
which he and his friends had inaugurated. 

Mr. Clay's Bill was well known not to meet in many re- 
spects the views of the President, but he was determined 
Calhoun should vote for it in order to expose to the world 
the hollowness of the pretexts on which this rebellious action 
was based. 

In all this great struggle Jackson never for a moment fal- 
tered, never hesitated, never doubted, deeply impressed with 
a conviction of right, he could not for an instant believe 
that the people would fail to sustain him, or that his indom- 
itable energy would fail to triumph. 

In the midst of the secession troubles he was visited by 
his old Mississippi friend. Gen. Sam. Dale, who had accom- 
panied him in some of his hardest campaigns. The Missis- 
sippian was brought into his presence while surrounded by 
many distinguished men of the nation, but as they gradually 
passed from the room, he made Dale remain, and ordering 
up some hot whisky punch, they talked over the the cam- 
paigns of former years, and finally came down to the trou- 



29 

bles of nullification. He took two or three turns across the 
room, says the General in writing an account of the inter- 
view to a friend, and then abruptly said : " Dale, they are 
trying me here, you will witness it, but by the God of Heav- 
en, I will uphold the laws." I understood him, says Dale, 
and expressed a hope that all things would go right. " They 
sliall go right, sir!" he exclaimed passionately, shivering his 
pipe upon the table before him ; " I tell you, sir, they sliall 
go right !" and they did go right. Jackson triumphed again. 
So ended secession in its first attempt, so it will end in its 
second attempt. " Things shall go right, sir, they shall go 
right!" Jackson willed it, and the people have willed it. 

This was the last great political struggle in which the old ' 
hero was engaged ; the United States Bank contest hung on 
somewhat longer, and the bitter feelings engendered in the 
earlier days of his administration still continued to produce 
more or less disturbance in the political sea even to the end. 
But the principles involved in this contest were so import- 
ant and have produced such important results in our day 
that they demand from us a still further consideration. 

No man was more thoroughly imbued with the Jeflfersonian 
sentiments of Democracy than was Andrew Jackson. No man 
carried his ideas of Democracy as opposed to Federalism or 
Centralism farther than he did, and never were any men 
more thoroughly surprised than were the people of South 
Carolina when they found that Jackson endorsed the same 
doctrines with regard to the powers of the General Govern- 
ment, and the relation which it held to the several States, as 
did Mr. Webster. 

The key to the whole matter was that both were the un- 
wavering friends of Constitutional liberty and both were de- 
voted to the preservation of the Union. No man since the 
days of Washington had given so much prominence as did 
Jackson to the sentiment of the great necessity of watching 



30 

every movement -which tends to weaken the cohesive power 
of the States. The great error in Mr. Jefferson's political 
creed was an undue fear of the centralization of power. His 
favorite motto was, " Power is ever creeping from the many 
to the few." We must speak plainly of the errors of great 
men now, for while these errors were harmless when held hy 
men of pure and unsullied patriotism, evil and designing men 
at the present day have not hesitated to lay hold of them 
and to use the prestige and power of great names for the 
purpose of leading astray the minds of the people. 

Jackson had embraced the Jeffersonian creed with all the 
ardor of his deep and impassioned feelings ; its influence was 
plainly seen in his opposition to that great central moneyd 
monopoly which he really feared could in time swallow up 
the liberties of the people. Whether he was in the right or 
in the wrong in this fear which he certainly did entertain, 
we need not stop now to enquire ; he infused the same dread 
into the popular mind, the result is a matter of history, and 
few men are living at the present day who could wish any 
other termination. 

But when his clear sighted perception discovered that by 
following too closely the radical doctrines of the great Demo- 
cratic Virginian, others Avere being led into the fatal delu- 
sions of secession and nullification, his patriotism and devo- 
tion to the maintenance of the Union and the Constitution, 
took the alarm, and caused him at once to prefer the preser- 
vation of the country and the integrity of the Government 
to the support of any political dogma or the triumph of any 
political party. In such a contest his strongest opponents, 
if they were willing now to unite their efforts to Ms, became 
his best friends, and the ties which had formerly united him 
to men snapped asunder like brittle threads when he discov- 
ered in those men the enemies of the country. 

The proclamation issued to the people on this occasion, 
and familiarly known as the nullification proclamation repu- 



31 

diated all the fine spun theories of the Kentucky and Vir- 
ginia resolutions of '98, and hence while many leading south- 
ern statesmen endorsed the course pursued by the Adminis- 
tration in crushing nullification as an act, they refused to 
endorse the doctrines of the proclamation, which repudiated 
and demolished nullification as a principle. In other words 
while they denounced the act of secession as threatened by 
South Carolina, they admitted the idea of secession which 
Jackson by his proclamation was determined to pluck up by 
the roots. As a woodsman who enters a dense forest with 
the axe in his hand, so Jackson marched among the heresies 
of secession and nullification and state rights and dealt his 
lusty blows to the right and to the left until not a single 
trunk of the whole rank growth could maintain an erect 
position. Listen to the ring of the metal, as he thunders 
forth the broad sentiments on which hang the very existence 
of the people and the very life of the nation ; " To say that 
any State has a right at pleasure to secede from the Union, 
is to say that the United States is not a nation." 

" The right of the people of a single state to absolve them- 
selves at will and without the consent of the other states 
from the most solemn obligations, and thus hazard the liber- 
ty and happiness of the millions composing this Union, can 
never be acknowledged." 

"I consider the power to annul the law of the United 
States assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence 
of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the 
Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with 
every principle on which it was founded, and destructive 
of the great object for which it was formed." " How can that 
State be said to be sovereign or independent whose citizens 
owe obedience to laws not made by it, and whose magistrates 
are sworn to disregard these laws, when they come in con- 
flict with those passed by another ?" 



32 

The Tennessee soldier and the Massachusetts la^vyer, here 
speak the same language. The unyielding leader of the ex- 
treme democracy, born and reared in the South, and the 
stern champion of the opposition, nurtured in the North, and 
regarded as the peculiar exponent of Northern principles, 
stand upon common ground. Why is this ? It is because 
they both speak the language and sentiment of that Consti- 
tution which was framed " in order to form a more perfect 
Union." The plain, straight-forward sense of Jackson re- 
volted from the Jesuitical casuistry of the logic of Calhoun. 
The two men were formed by the circumstances of birth, 
position, political association, and party tendencies, to move 
in the same direction, and to occupy the same platform. 
The reason why they failed to do so, arose from the fact that 
one was a man of sentiment and feeling, the other of cold 
and heartless calculation ; the one cast forth his eagle glance 
and took in the wants and welfare of the whole republic, the 
other contracted his views to the demands of a single State, 
or at most of a particular section. The one never breathed an 
aspiration which did not comprehend every citizen of the re- 
public from the highest to the lowest ; the whole political 
philosophy of the other was grounded on a dogma of caste, 
by which one class, and that not marked by birth or by color, 
was to be forever subservient and bowed beneath the yoke 
of a higher and more lordly one. The one was a firm be- 
liever in the doctrine laid down by Jefferson in his first mes- 
sage to Congress, " that an unequivocal submission to the 
will of the majority is a vital principle in all republican gov- 
ernments ;" the other declared in his great nullification 
speech in the Senate, that " to suppose that all the interests 
of this widely extended country can be safely committed to 
the will of an unchecked majority, is the extreme of mad- 
ness and folly." The one was the representative of demo- 
cracy, not in its party, but in its national sense ; and the 



Jy/ 



33 

other the great prop and pillar of the landed aristocracy and 
of the system of oligarchy which of necessity springs from 
it. With this deep grounded antagonism in the theory atid 
in the practice of these two leaders, a separation was of 
course inevitable. Here arose the earliest schism between 
the Northern and Southern democracy. They had never 
been linked together by community of sentiment, but simply 
because the one section w^as necessary to the other; a union 
of action was imperatively demanded for success. But the 
division under these leaders became marked and final, and 
has been producing its effects on the progress and destiny 
of the nation from its very commencement more than thirty 
years ago, up to the present hour. Aristocracies are ever 
insolent and exacting, an aristocracy with slavery the most 
exacting of all others. It is because the institution of hu- 
man bondage fosters the worst passions of the heart, and the 
despot in the social circle can never become a liberal and a 
republican, when introduced into the political arena. 

Unfortunately for the best interests of the nation, men 
were found who were willing to bow subserviently to the de- 
mands of this aristocracy of slavery for the sole purpose of 
securing the political aid which such compliance would pro- 
cure. Then it was that the interests of slavery from being 
simply connected with the domestic institution of particular 
States, grew suddenly to be a mighty political engine, wield- 
ing an enormous power and capable by the very influence 
which it exerted, of directing the destinies of the nation. It 
soon became evident that if this influence was to be exerted 
simply by those in the States where the institution existed, 
that all its efforts for supremacy would prove nugatory, and 
hence the absolute necessity of so veiling its pretensions as 
to secure aid abroad in other portions of the Union. Some 
other rallying point than that of slavery must be found, about 
which to gather the political leaders who were to carry on 

5 



34 

the joint crusade. The pernicious doctrine of State rights, 
■which had taken such deep root in Southern soil as to over- 
shadow every other political interest, was to be revived and 
preached throughout the North, and the minds of men were 
to be gradually weaned off from their allegiance to the great 
National Union and made to own the controlling title of a 
single State, Instead of being the citizens of a Great Re- 
public of States, bound together by ties as indissoluble as 
those which bind the planets in their course, and guide them 
in their circuit around the great centre of the system, we 
were to be divided and separated members of a large com- 
munity of States, to some particular one of which, every 
man owed an obedience superior to that which he owed to 
them all in their united capacity. In a word, the dreams 
and abstractions of John Taylor of Caroline were to be sub- 
stituted for the precious legacy of instruction which Georfre 
Washington left to his people in his last address. 

This seed which flourished so readily among the social 
and political institutions of the South, was of slow and doubt- 
ful growth in the North, and could never have attained to 
any considerable power had it not assumed for itself to be 
the groundwork of the principles of the great democratic 
party. It is very remarkable that from the very year in 
which nullification and State rights were crushed by Gen. 
Jackson in the person of Calhoun and his adherents, men 
were found all through the North forcing into democratic 
conventions and into democratic platforms the very doctrines 
repudiated by the great leader, and sedulously inculcating 
the idea that they were to be considered as fundamentally 
connected with the very existence of the party. This insid- 
ious claim, instead of being at once rejected, as it should 
have been, by the adherents of Jackson, who could easily 
trace it to its parent germ, the nullification of Calhoun and 
his partizans, was unfortunately permitted to remain so long 



c^7 7^ 
35 

that at length, especially in the minds of many of the young 
and ardent, it seemed entitled to hold the first place among 
the doctrines which were to be regarded as the corner stone 
of the democratic faith. Mr. Jefferson has said that " a fre- 
quent recurrence to first principles is absolutely necessary 
to preserve the purity of our institutions;" and this is pre- 
cisely what would seem necessary in the present case. If 
we recur to those principles of Jackson on which, more than 
on those of any other man, the democratic party since his 
day has been grounded and established, we find this doc- 
trine of State rights as opposed to the rights of the Federal 
Government, most solemnly repudiated, and hence the only 
safety for those who wish still to preserve the democratic 
name and the democratic faith, in all their integrity, is to 
study carefully, and to adhere most firmly and religiously, to 
the doctrines laid down by this great man, and which direct- 
ed so steadily the course of his administration and his life. 
If we do this, then indeed the influence of Jackson will still 
continue to be exerted for the welfare of the country which 
he loved so well and served so faithfully. Then as one 
great and united people we shall stand together to uphold 
the integrity of the Republic, and no man will be our enemy 
save him who lifts his parricidal hand to destroy the gov- 
ernment which protects and supports him. Then the same 
firm reliance on the people which marked the whole career 
of Jackson, will mark that of these men who profess to be his 
followers ; but in order to bring about such a state of feeling, 
this great party must be devoted to the interests of the whole 
Union, and not to the interests of any particular section or 
any institution of any particular section. 

No man can deny that slavery as a political institution, 
and the interests of slavery have brought about the present 
cruel and fratricidal war. That system which sets up the 
traffic in human flesh, as the great element in civilization and 



36 

progress, had but this one farther step to take to entitle it 
to the abhorrence of all just-minded men. Already Christi- 
anity, and civilization founded on the just principles of Chris- 
tianity, had repudiated the system and sought by all proper 
and justifiable means to put an end to its dominion; already 
the moral sense of all good men not directly inlluenced by 
interest or by prejudice, had abandoned and denounced a 
system which presents to society what Macaulay has justly 
pronounced " the most frightful of all spectacles, the strength 
of civilization Avithout its mercy." Already the fiat of a 
free people had gone forth, declaring to the world that this 
most abominable of all the social institutions which a semi- 
barbarous age had handed down to a moral and religious 
people, should not be allowed to spread its corrupting influ- 
ences over any territory not already blighted' by its presence, 
when in an agony of desperation its blinded worshippers re- 
solved to take up arms for its defense, and for the overthrow 
of this best of all human governments, whose only shadoAV 
on its clear escutcheon was that it tolerated this vile and in- 
human system of bondage. It pleased God to decree that 
the very concessions and sacrifices which had been made to 
this Moloch should become the instruments of its destruc- 
tion, that the men grown bold and bad, and reckless in striv- 
ing for its defense, should at last dare to lift the sword to 
procure that triumph which justice and humanity denied. 
Then came the war, then came the fierce arming of the 
South, then came the slow, confident, steady and reliant up- 
rising of the North ; no sudden flash of angry feeling to 
burn and brighten for a moment and then die out in dark- 
ness and in night ; it was the upheaving of the mind of a 
vast people, who knew the value of what they were to de- 
fend, and threw life and treasure and honor into the contest. 
Never for one moment has any true-minded man in the North 
doubted the result; defeat, disaster, delay, the long agony of 
hope deferred, could not weary out the patient determina- 



37S 

37 

tion of those who knew that they were waging a conflict for 
their own rights and the liberties of the human race. To 
this holy cause the father and the loving mother gave their 
latest born as freely as they sent forth the first, for they felt 
that if God permitted the struggle to be prolono-ed, lie 
would bring forth precious fruit from the tree that had been 
watered with a nation's blood. And then when the great 
Proclamation of Freedom came, how the nation's heart leaped 
forth to testify its response to the god-like call, then not 
only through our own land, but over the whole world, fast as 
the steam and the lightning could bear abroad the glad tidiness, 
came the answer of all people, even those who had stood 
aloof from us from the very beginning of our troubles, and 
the sympathy of all nations was ours, as it became manifest 
that this great sin against humanity was about to be blotted 
out by our glorious contest. Then, too, as if that God who 
rules the destinies of nations, looked with a more favoring 
eye upon our endeavors to uphold the government, then vic- 
tory after victory came crowding fast to crown our arms, and 
East and "West and South the glad shouts of triumph arose 
with the thanksgiving of millions of freemen who to-day are 
rejoicing 

"That God hath crushed the tyrant, our 

God hath raised the slave, 
And mocked the counsel of the wise, the valor 

Of the brave." 

And though the end is not yet, and though we must yet 
doubtless see many a hard fought field, and hear from day to 
day that hundreds of noble men have laid down their lives in 
the lengthened contest ; yet so surely as God reigns and so 
surely as freedom is the heritage of man, so sure is it that 
the right shall triumph, so true is it the Union shall be pre- 
served, and the land of Washington and Jefi'erson and Jack- 
son shall be a land where every man shall be free, where 
God's bright sun in his daily course through the heavens 
shall not rise upon a master nor set upon a slave. 



38 

The Union so loved and cherished by him whom we com- 
memorate to-night, shall be a union of freemen; the good 
old ship which has borne us safely through many a storm, 
and which traitors seek so eagerly to engulf beneath the 
waves, shall ride the storm triumphantly; and year by year, 
and century by century, supported and guided by more 
numerous hands and more loving hearts shall sail proudly 
onward, the boast and glory and admiration of all good men. 

If in the regions of the blessed, those who enjoy the re- 
wards of a well-spent life can look down and behold the toils 
and struggles of those who still inhabit the lower sphere, 
then doubtless the spirit of the good old man, in whose mem- 
ory I have pronounced these few words, who died full of 
years and full of honors, " having filled the measure of his 
country's glory," looks down often to behold the great con- 
test which is waged here for liberty and the rights of man, 
looks down often to behold the struggling ranks of those 
brave men who may be said in a much higher sense than that 
in which it was pronounced by the great Roman conspirator, 

" Decus, gloriam, preterea, libertatem atque patriam in deitris portare ;" 

and if aught can add joy to that felicity which belongs to 
the heavenly habitations, it 'should be to see that a whole 
great and virtuous people are rising almost as one man in 
defence of those principles for which he was willing to sacri- 
fice ease, rest, comfort, or even life itself. 

And when the great struggle is closed, when the last rebel 
in arms has bowed in submission to the benign sway of the 
Government, and the last traitor has " gone to his own place," 
then let the memory and the names of the two great men 
who struck down the first and the second rebellion raised 
against the Union and for the establishment of secession and 
slavery, the names of Jackson and Lincoln be engraved up- 
on the same column, and embalmed together in the hearts of 
a loyal people. 



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