Gass Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT (Breat Commanbera EDITED BY JAMES GRANT WILSON GENERAL JACKSON XTbe 6rcat (TommanDers Scvice. Edited by General James Grant Wilson. Admiral Farragut. By Captain A. T. Mahan, U. S. N. Zachary Taylor. By General O. O. Howard, U. S. A. General Jackson. By James Parton. /TV PREPARATION. General Washington. By General Bradley T. Johnson. General Greene. By Captain Francis V. Greene, U. S. A. General Sherman. By General Manning F. Force. General Grant. By General James Grant Wilson. General J. E. Johnston. By Robert M. Hughes, of Virginia. General Scott. By General Marcus J. Wright. Admiral Porter. By James R. Soley, Assist. Sec. of Navy, General Lee. By General Fitzhugh Lee. General Thomas. By Henry Coppee, LL. D. General Hancock. By General Francis A. Walker. General Sheridan. By General Henry E, Davies. New York : D. Appleton & Co., i, 3, & 5 Bond St. I •k-<^>^^ / GREAT COMMANDERS • • • • GENERAL JACKSON BY JAMES PARTON LfsyyH \ NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1893 Copyright, 1892, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. All rights reserved. Electrotvped and Printed AT THE ApPLETON PrESS, U. S. A. \ PREFACE. The military life of Andrew Jackson lasted nine years, of which about two years were passed in the field. He was in no proper sense of the word a professional soldier, and he resented the phrase " military chieftain " which Henry Clay, knowing its irritating power, so often applied to him. He was simply a Tennessee far- mer and militia-general who, when his country was in- vaded, led his neighbors and fellow-citizens to its de- fense. In doing this duty of a citizen he displayed military talents which friends and foes agreed in pro- nouncing extraordinary. His old comrade and friend, a near neighbor for half a lifetime, the late Major William B. Lewis, a gentleman competent to judge in such matters, used to say, as he talked of the Creek and New Orleans campaigns, that Andrew Jackson, in point of native military capacity, was the peer of the great generals of the world — Caesar, Cromwell, Frederick, Bonaparte, or Wellington — and in support of this opinion he would adduce many curious facts and traits that could be known only to an intimate and confidential companion. This was the judgment of a friend, though a friend not blind to the limitations of his old commander. I have before me the testimony of an enemy, one who had personally felt the force of the stroke which General Jackson's puissant arm could deal. As late as 1888 VI GENERAL JACKSON. there were two survivors of the British army that in- vaded Louisiana in 1814 and took part in the action of January 8, 1815. One of these was the late Earl of Albemarle; the other, Rev. George R. Gleig, who was for many years chaplain -general to the British forces, but served as a lieutenant of foot in the expe- dition against New Orleans. Mr. Gleig was the " sub- altern " whose excellent narrative of the expedition is occasionally quoted in this volume. A short time before his death he wrote thus to his American friend, General James Grant Wilson, the editor of this series of volumes : " When I look back upon the means which General Jackson adopted to cover New Orleans, and remember the materials of which his army was composed, I cannot but regard his management of that campaign as one of the most masterly of which history makes mention. His nigbt attack on our advanced guard was as bold a stroke as ever was struck. It really paralyzed all our future operations ; for, though unsuccessful, it taught us to hold our enemy in respect, and in all future movements to act with an excess of caution. The use, also, which he made of the river was admirable. Indeed, I am inclined to think that to him the generals who came after him were indebted for the perception of the great advantages to which the command of rivers may be turned. And do not let us forget that he had little else to oppose to Wellington's veterans, fresh from their triumphs in Spain and the south of France, except raw levies. Altogether I think of Jackson as, next to Washington, the greatest general America has produced." To the last of his days — and he lived to be past ninety-one — he retained these impressions unimpaired. General Wilson, in conversation, would call the old gentleman's attention to the brilliant achievements of PREFACE. vii Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and others, but could never convince him that either of them showed military ca- pacity superior to that of the general who had given him and his comrades such a world of trouble seventy years before. " No," he would say, " Jackson did everything that could be done to repel an attack that ought to have proved successful. His beating up our bivouac on the night of our landing was a master stroke, and, had his troops been such as yours became during your civil war, he would have destroyed us." This is the judgment of a soldier who saw and felt during some terrible weeks what it is in war to have a real general in command on the other side. No one can carefully examine the record without dis- covering that Andrew Jackson possessed the indispen- sable qualities of a commanding general : in all circum- stances imperturbably brave ; confident in himself, but open to suggestion and to argument ; bold when boldness was wise, but as wary as an Indian until he saw his way to victory clear ; vigilant, prompt, persistent, indefati- gable, and aware of the importance of little things. He had for his soldiers the paternal feeling which we ob- serve in all the great generals, as we do also in the great captains of industry ; yet he could be a stern and ruth- less disciplinarian. There is a passage in his farewell address to the army in 182 1 where he speaks of the bounty-jumpers of his day, who found it " a source of speculation to go from rendezvous to rendezvous, enlist- ing, receiving the bounty, and deserting, all the way from Boston to New Orleans." The passage, if it had , been acted upon during the late war, would have saved a vast amount of suffering and waste. Two of his favorite maxims denote the soldier : " In war, till everything is done, nothing is done " ; and this yjii GENERAL JACKSON. also, " When you have a thing to do, take all the time for thinking that the circumstances allow, but when the time has come for action, stop thinking." [Tfie last literary work of James Parton was the preparation of this brief biography of General Jackson. It was completed in August, 1891. Two months later, a long career of literary industry was closed by his death at the ripe age of seventy. An indefatigable worker, he produced many valuable American biog- raphies, of which his earliest — a Life of Horace Greeley — was perhaps the most popular. Although less am- bitious in scope than some of Mr. Parton's previous volumes, his last work, like his first, presents a fair esti- mate of its subject, and seems free from the natural tendency of biographers, which Macaulay sneeringly designates "the disease of admiration." Altogether the book appears to be a model miniature biography, possessing throughout all the interest of a romance. It would seem that this story of the career of the great American commander can not fail to add to Mr. Parton's literary reputation. Editor.] CONTENTS CHAPTER , PAGE I. — Parentage and Education i II. — During the Revolutionary War .... 7 III. — He studies Law, and becomes a Tennessee Lawyer 17 IV. — In Public Life, and as a Man of Business . . 25 V. — Duel with Charles Dickinson . . . -33 VI. — At Home . -43 VII. — In the Field 49 VIII. — The Massacre at Fort Mims 64 IX. — The Creek Country invaded 74 X. — The Finishing Blow 108 XI. — Mobile defended, and the Engkish driven from Pensacola 124 XII. — Jackson at New Orleans, and Approach of the British i44 XIII. — Night- Battle of December 230 .... 164 XIV. — Shovels and Wheelbarrows 176 XV. — Second Advance of the English .... 192 XVI.— The 8th of January 208 XVII. — End of the Campaign 231 XVIII.— Commander of the Southern Department . . 249 XIX. — A Candidate for the Presidency . . . . 273 XX. — Inauguration 281 XXI. — Terror among the Office-holders . . . 287 XXII.— The Second Term 297 XXIII.— In Retirement 3i5 Index 327 GENERAL JACKSON. CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. In 1765, Andrew Jackson, the father of the Andrew Jackson whose career we are about to relate, emigrated, with his wife and two sons, from Carrickfergus, in the north of Ireland, to South Carolina. His sons were named Hugh and Robert; Andrew was not yet born. In his native country he had cultivated a few hired acres, and his wife had been a weaver of linen. Like most of the inhabitants of the north of Ireland, he was of Scottish origin ; but his ancestors had lived for five generations in the neighborhood of Carrickfergus; lowly, honest people, tillers of the soil and weavers; radical Whigs in politics, Presbyterians in religion. He was accompanied to America by three of his neighbors, James, Robert, and Joseph Crawford, the first-named of whom was his brother-in-law. The peace between France and England, signed two years before, which ended the " old French War " — the war in which Brad- dock was defeated and Canada won — had restored to mankind their highway, the ocean, and given an impulse to emigration from the Old World to the New. From the north of Ireland large numbers sailed away to the land of promise. Five sisters of Mrs. Jackson had gone, or were soon going. Samuel Jackson, a brother of Andrew, 2 GENERAL JACKSON. afterward went, and established himself in Philadelphia, where he long lived, a respectable citizen. Mrs. Suffren, a daughter of another brother, followed in later years, and settled in the city of New York, where she has liv- ing descendants. The party of emigrants from Carrickfergus land- ed at Charleston, and proceeded without delay to the Waxhaw settlement, a hundred and sixty miles to the northwest of Charleston, where many of their kindred and countrymen were already established. This settle- ment was, or had been, the seat of the Waxhaw tribe of Indians. A proof of the poverty of Andrew Jackson is this : the Crawfords, who came with him from Ireland, bought lands near the center of the settlement, on the Waxhaw Creek itself — lands which still attest the wisdom of their choice ; but Jackson settled seven miles away, on new land, on the banks of Twelve Mile Creek, another branch of the Catawba. The place is now known as " Pleasant Grove Camp Ground," and the particular land once oc- cupied by the father of General Jackson is still pointed out by the old people of the neighborhood. For two years Andrew Jackson and his family toiled in the Carolina woods. He had built his log-house, cleared some fields, and raised a crop. Then, the father of the family, his work all incomplete, sickened and died : his two boys being still very young, and his wife far advanced in pregnancy. This was early in the spring of 1767. The bereaved family of the Jacksons never returned to their home on the banks of Twelve Mile Creek, but went from the churchyard to the house, not far off, of one of Mrs. Jackson's brothers-in-law, George McKemey by name, whose remains now repose in the same old burying-ground. A few nights after there was a swift PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 3 sending of messengers to the neighbors, and a hurrying across the fields of friendly women ; and before the sun rose a son was born, the son whose career and fortunes we have undertaken to reiate. It was in a small log- house, in the province of North Carolina, less than a quarter of a mile from the boundary-line between North and South Carolina, that the birth took place. Andrew Jackson, then, was born in Union County, North Caro- lina, on the 15th of March, 1767. General Jackson always supposed himself to be a native of South Carolina. " Fellow-citizens of my native State ! " he exclaims, at the close of his proclamation to the nullifiers of South Carolina; but it is as certain as any fact of the kind can be that he was mistaken. The clear and uniform tradition of the neighborhood, sup- ported by a great mass of indisputable testimony, points to a spot in North Carolina, but only a stone's-throw from the line that divides it from South Carolina, as the birthplace of Andrew Jackson. In the family of his Uncle Crawford, Andy Jackson (for by this familiar name he is still spoken of in the neighborhood) spent the first ten or twelve years of his life. Mr. Crawford was a man of considerable substance for a new country, and his family was large. He lived in South Carolina, just over the boundary-line, near the Waxhaw Creek, and six miles from the Catawba River. The land there lies well for farming; level, but not flat ; undulating, but without hills of inconvenient height. The soil is a stiff, red clay, the stiffest of the stiff and the reddest of the red ; the kind of soil which bears hard usage, and makes the very worst winter roads anywhere to be found on this planet. Except where there is an interval of fertile soil, the country round about is a boundless continuity of pine woods, wherein to this day wild turkeys and deer are shot, and the farmers take . GENERAL JACKSON. their cotton to market in immense wagons of antique pattern, a journey of half a week, and camp out every night. As evening closes in, the passing traveler sees the mules, the negro driver, the huge covered wagon, the farmer, and sometimes his wife with an infant, grouped in the most strikingly picturesque manner, in an opening of the forest, around a blazing fire of pine knots that light up the scene like an illumination. In such a country as this, with horses to ride, and cows to hunt, and journeys to make, and plenty of boys, black and white, to play with, our little friend spent his early years. In due time the boy was sent to an " old-field school," an institution not much unlike the roadside schools in Ireland of which we read. The Northern reader is per- haps not aware that an " old field " is not a field at all, but a pine forest. When crop after crop of cotton, with- out rotation, has exhausted the soil, the fences are taken away, the land lies waste, the young pines at once spring up and soon cover the whole field with a thick growth of wood. In one of these old fields the rudest possible shanty of a log house is erected, with a fireplace that extends from side to side and occupies a third of the interior. In winter the interstices of the log walls are filled up with clay, which the restless fingers of the boys make haste to remove in time to admit the first warm airs of spring. An itinerant schoolmas- ter presents himself in a neighborhood ; the responsi- ble farmers pledge him a certain number of pupils, and an old-field school is established for the season. Read- ing, writing, and arithmetic were all the branches taught in the early days. But Mrs. Jackson had more ambitious views for her youngest son. She aimed to give him a liberal education, m the hope that he would one day become a clergyman in PARENTAGE AND EDUCATION. 5 the Presbyterian Church. It is probable that her con- dition wa's not one of absolute dependence. The tradi- tion of the neighborhood is, that she was noted the coun- try round for her skill in spinning flax, and that she earned money by spinning to pay for Andrew's schooling. It is possible, too, that her relations in Ireland may have contributed something to her support. Andy was a wild, frolicsome, willful, mischievous, daring, reckless boy ; generous to a friend, but never content to submit to a stronger enemy. He was passion- ately fond of those sports which are mimic battles ; above all, wrestling. If our knowledge of the school-life of Jackson is scanty, we are at no loss to say what he learned and what he failed to learn at school. He learned to read, to write, to cast accounts — little more. If he began, as he may have done, to learn by heart, in the old-fashioned way, the Latin grammar, he never acquired enough of it to leave any traces of classical knowledge in his mind or his writings. In some of his later letters there may be found, it is true, an occasional Latin phrase of two or three words, but so quoted as to show igno- rance rather than knowledge. He was never a well-in- formed man. He never was addicted to books. He never learned to write the English language correctly, though he often wrote it eloquently and convincingly. He never learned to spell correctly, though he was a better speller than Frederick II, Marlborough, Napoleon, or Washington. Few men of his day, and no women, were correct spellers. He was nine years old when the Declaration of In- dependence was signed. By the time the war approached the Waxhaw settlement, bringing blood and terror with it, leaving desolation behind it, closing all schoolhouses, and putting a stop to the peaceful labors of the people, 6 GENERAL JACKSON. Andrew Jackson was little more than thirteen. His brother Hugh, a man in stature if not in years; had not waited for the war to come near his home, but had mounted his horse a year before and ridden southward to meet it. He was one of the troopers of that famous regiment to raise and equip which, its colonel, William Richardson Davie, spent the last guinea of his inherited estate. Under Colonel Davie, Hugh Jackson fought in the ranks of the battle of Stono, and died, after the ac- tion, of heat and fatigue. His brother Robert was a strapping lad, but too young for a soldier, and was still at home with his mother and Andrew when Tarleton and his dragoons thundered along the red roads of the Waxhaws, and dyed them a deeper red with the blood of the surprised militia. CHAPTER II. DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. It was on the 29th of May, 1780, that Tarleton, with three hundred horsemen, surprised a detachment of militia in the Waxhaw settlement and killed one hun- dred and thirteen of them, and wounded a hundred and fifty. The wounded, abandoned to the care of the set- tlers, were quartered in the houses of the vicinity ; the old log Waxhaw meeting-house itself being converted into a hospital for the most desperate cases. Mrs. Jackson was one of the kind women who ministered to the wounded soldiers in the church, and under that roof her boys first saw what war was. The men were dread- fully mangled. Some had received as many as thirteen wounds, and none less than three. For many days An- drew and his brother assisted their mother in waiting upon the sick men ; Andrew, more in rage than pity, burning to avenge their wounds and his brother's death. Tarleton's massacre at the Waxhaws kindled, the flames of war in all that region of the CaroHnas. Many notable actions were fought, and some striking though unimportant advantages were gained by the patriot forces. Andrew Jackson and his brother Robert were present at Sumter's gallant attack upon the British post of Hanging Rock, near Waxhaw, where the patriots half gained the day, and lost it by beginning too soon to drink the rum they captured from the enemy. The Jackson boys rode on this expedition with Colonel g GENERAL JACKSON. Davie, a most brave, self-sacrificing officer, who, as we have said, commanded the troop of which Hugh Jackson was a member when he died, after the battle of Stono. Neither of the boys was attached to Davie's company, nor is it likely that Andrew, a boy of thirteen, did more than witness the affair at Hanging Rock. This Colonel Davie, Hugh Jackson's old commander, was the man, above all others who led Carolina troops in the Revolution, that the Jackson boys admired. He was a man after Andrew's own heart — swift but wary, bold in planning enterprises but most cautious in exe- cution, sleeplessly vigilant, untiringly active — one of those cool, quick men who apply mother-wit to the art of war; who are good soldiers because they are earnest and clear-sighted men. So far as any man was General Jackson's model soldier, William Richardson Davie, of North Carolina, was the individual. The boys rejoined their mother at the Waxhaw settlement. On the i6th of August, 1780, occurred the great disaster of the war in the South, the defeat of General Gates. The victor, Cornwallis, moved three weeks after, with his whole army, toward the Waxhaws ; which induced Mrs. Jackson and her boys once more to abandon their home for a safer retreat north of the scene of war. In February, 1781, the country about the Waxhaws again being tranquil, because subdued, Mrs. Jackson, her sons, and many of her neighbors returned to their ravaged homes. Andrew soon after passed his four- teenth birthday, an overgrown youth, as tall as a man, but weakly from having grown too fast. Then ensued a spring and summer of small, fierce, intestine warfare — a war of Whig and Tory, neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, and even father against son. Without detaining the reader with a detail of the DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. g Revolutionary history of the Carolinas, I yet desire to show what a war-charged atmosphere it was that youno- Andrew breathed during this forming period of his hfe, especially toward the close of the war, after the great operations ceased. The people in the upper country of the Carolinas little expected that the war would ever reach settlements so remote, so obscure, so scattered as theirs; and it did not for some years. When at last the storm of war drew near their borders, it found them a divided people. The old sentiment of loyalty was still rooted in many minds. There were many who had taken a recent and special oath of allegiance to the king, which they con- sidered binding in all circumstances. They were High- landers, clannish and religiously loyal, who pointed to the text, " Fear God and honor the king," and over- looked the fact that the biblical narrative condemns the Jews for desiring a kingly government. There were Moravians and Quakers, who conscientiously opposed all war. There were Catholic Irish, many of whom sided with the king. There were Protestant Scotch- Irish, Whigs and agitators in the old country, Whigs and fervent patriots in the new. There were placeholders, who adhered to their official bread and dignity. There were trimmers, who espoused the side that chanced to be strongest. The approach and collision of hostile forces converted most of these factions into belligerents, who waged a most fierce and deadly war upon one an- other, renewing on this new thej^tre the border wars of another age and country. The time came when Andrew and his brother began to play men's parts in the drama. Without enlisting in any organized corps, they joined small parties that went out on single enterprises of retaliation, mounted on their own horses and carrying their own weapons. 10 GENERAL JACKSON. The activity and zeal of the Waxhaw Whigs coming to the ears of Lord Rawdon, whom Cornwallis had left in command, he dispatched a small body of dragoons to aid the Tories of that infected neighborhood. The Wax- haw people, hearing of the approach of this hostile force, resolved upon resisting it in open fight, and named the Waxhaw meeting-house as the rendezvous. Forty Whigs assembled on the appointed day, mounted and armed, and among them were Robert and Andrew Jackson. In the grove about the old church these forty were waiting for the arrival — hourly expected — of another company of Whigs from a neighboring settlement. The British officer in command of the dragoons, apprised of the ren- dezvous by a Tory of the neighborhood, determined to surprise the patriot party before the two companies had united. Before coming in sight of the church, he placed a body of Tories wearing the dress of the country far in advance of his soldiers, and so marched upon the de- voted band. The Waxhaw party saw a company of armed men approaching, but, concluding them to be their expected friends, made no preparations for defense. Too late the error was discovered. Eleven of the forty were taken prisoners, and the rest sought safety in flight, fiercely pursued by the dragoons. The brothers were separated. Andrew found himself galloping for life and liberty by the side of his cousin. Lieutenant Thomas Crawford, a dragoon close behind them, and others coming rapidly on. They tore along the road awhile, and then took to a swampy field, where they came soon to a wide slough of water and mire, into which they plunged their horses. Andrew floundered across, and on reaching dry land again looked round for his compan- ion, whose horse had sunk into the mire and fallen. He saw him entangled, and trying vainly to ward off the blows of his pursuers with his sword. Before Andrew DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. j i could turn to assist him the lieutenant received a severe wound in the head, which compelled him to give up the contest and surrender. The youth put spurs to his horse and succeeded in eluding pursuit. Robert, too, escaped unhurt, and in the course of the day the brothers were reunited, and took refuge in a thicket, in which they passed a hungry and anxious night. The next morning the pangs of hunger compelled them to leave their safe retreat and go in quest of food. The nearest house was that of Lieutenant Crawford. Leaving their horses and arms in the thicket, the lads crept toward the house, which they reached in safety. Meanwhile, a Tory traitor of the neighborhood had scented out their lurking-place, found their horses and weapons, and set a party of dragoons upon their track. Before the family had a suspicion of danger, the house was surrounded, the doors were secured, and the boys were prisoners. A scene ensued which left an impression upon the mind of one of the boys which time never effaced. Re- gardless of the fact that the house was occupied by the defenseless wife and young children of a wounded sol- dier, the dragoons, brutalized by this mean partisan warfare, began to destroy, with wild riot and noise, the contents of the house. Crockery, glass, and furniture were dashed to pieces, beds emptied, the clothing of the family torn to rags ; even the clothes of the infant that Mrs. Crawford carried in her arms were not spared. While this destruction was going on, the officer in com- mand of the party ordered Andrew to clean his high jack-boots, which were well splashed and crusted with mud. The boy replied, not angrily, though with a cer- tain firmness and decision, in something like these words : " Sir, I am a prisoner of war, and claim to be treated as such." 12 GENERAL JACKSON. The officer aimed a desperate blow at the boy's head with his sword. Andrew broke the force of the blow with his left hand, and thus received two wounds — one deep gash on his head and another on his hand, the marks of both of which he carried to his grave. The officer, after achieving this gallant feat, turned to Rob- ert Jackson and ordered him to clean the boots. Robert also refused. The valiant Briton struck the young man so violent a sword-blow upon the head, as to prostrate and disable him. Andrew was ordered to mount, and to guide some of the party to the house of a noted Whig of the vicinity named Thompson. Threatened with instant death if he failed to guide them aright, the youth submitted, and led the party in the right direction. A timely thought enabled him to be the deliverer of his neighbor instead of his captor. Instead of approaching the house by the usual road, he conducted the party by a circuitous route, which brought them in sight of the house half a mile before they reached it. Andrew well knew that, if Thompson was at home, he would be sure to have some one on the lookout, and a horse ready for the road. On coming in sight of the house he saw Thompson's horse, saddled and bridled, standing at a rack in the yard, which informed him both that the master was there and that he was prepared for flight. The dragoons dashed forward to seize their prey. While they were still some hundreds of yards from the house, Andrew had the de- light of seeing Thompson burst from his door, run to his horse, mount, and plunge into a foaming, swollen creek that rushed by his house. He gained the opposite shore, and, seeing that the dragoons dared not attempt the stream, gave a shout of defiance and galloped into the woods. The elation caused by the success of his stratagem DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 13 was soon swallowfed up in misery. Andrew and Robert Jackson, Lieutenant Thomas Crawford, and twenty other prisoners, all the victims of this raid of the dragoons into the Waxhaws, were placed on horses stolen in the same settlement and marched toward Camden, South Carolina, a great British depot at the time, forty miles distant. It was a long and agonizing journey, especially to the wounded, among whom were the Jacksons and their cousin. Not an atom of food nor a drop of water was allowed them on the way. Such was the brutality of the soldiers, that when these miserable lads tried to scoop up a little water from the streams which they forded, to appease their raging thirst, they were ordered to desist. At Camden their situation was one of utter wretch- edness. Two hundred and fifty prisoners in a contracted inclosure drawn around the jail ; no beds of any descrip- tion ; no medicine ; no medical attendance, nor means of dressing the wounds ; their only food a scanty supply of bad bread. They were robbed- even of part of their clothing, besides being subject to the taunts and threats of every passing Tory. The three relatives, it is said, were separated as soon as their relationship was discov- ered. Miserable among the miserable ; gaunt, yellow, hungry, and sick ; robbed of his jacket and shoes ; ig- norant of his brother's fate ; chafing with suppressed fury, Andrew passed now some of the most wretched days of his life. Ere long the smallpox — a disease un- speakably terrible at that day, more terrible than chol- era or plague has ever been — broke out among the prisoners, and raged unchecked by medicine and unal- leviated by any kind of attendance or nursing. The sick and the well, the dying and the dead, those shuddering at the first symptoms and those putrid with the disease, were mingled together; and all but the dead were equally miserable. J . GENERAL JACKSON. For some time Andrew escaped the contagion. He was reclining one day in the sun, near the entrance of the prison, when the officer of the guard, attracted, as it seemed, by the youthfulness of his appearance, entered into conversation with him. The lad soon began to speak of that of which his heart was full — the condition of the prisoners and the bad quality of their food. He remonstrated against their treatment with such energy and feeling that the officer seemed to be moved and shocked, and, what was far more important, he was in- duced to ferret out the villainy of the contractors who had been robbing the prisoners of their rations. From the day of Andrew's remonstrance the condition of the prisoners was ameliorated ; they were supplied with meat and better bread, and were otherwise better cared for. Andrew's spirits sank under this accumulation of miseries, and he began to sicken with the first symptoms of the smallpox. Robert was in a condition still worse. The wound in his head had never been dressed, and had not healed. He, too, reduced as he was, began to shiver and burn with the fever that announces the dread dis- ease. Another week of prison life would have probably consigned both these boys to the grave. But they had a friend outside the prison — their mother, who at this crisis of their fate strove with the might of love for their deliverance. Learning their forlorn condition, this heroic woman went to Camden, and succeeded, after a time, in effecting an exchange of prisoners between a Waxhaw captain and the British general. The Whig cap- tain gave up thirteen soldiers whom he had captured in the rear of the British army, and received in return the two sons of Mrs. Jackson and five of her neighbors. When the little family were reunited in the town of Camden, the mother could but gaze upon her boys with astonish- DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 15 ment and horror — so worn and wasted were they with hunger, wounds, and disease. Robert could not stand, or even sit on horseback, without support. The mother, however, had no choice but to get them home immediately. Two horses were procured. One she rode herself. Robert was placed upon the other, and held in his seat by the returning prisoners to whom Mrs. Jackson had just given liberty. Behind the sad procession poor Andrew dragged his weak and weary limbs, bareheaded, barefooted, without a jacket, his only two garments torn and dirty. The forty miles of lonely wilderness that lay between Camden and Waxhaw were nearly traversed, and the fevered lads were expect- ing in two hours more to enjoy the bliss of repose, when a chilly, drenching, merciless rain set in. When this oc- curred, the smallpox had reached that stage of develop- ment when, after having raged within the system, it was about to break out in those loathsome sores which give vent to the disease. The boys reached home and went to bed. In two days Robert Jackson was a corpse and his brother Andrew a raving maniac. A mother's nurs- ing, medical skill, and a constitution sound at the core, brought the youth out of this peril, and set him upon the way to slow recovery. He was an invalid for several months. In the summer of 1781 a great cry of anguish and despair came up to Waxhaw from the Charleston prison- ships, wherein, among many hundreds of other prisoners, were confined some of the sons of Mrs. Jackson's sisters, and other friends and neighbors of hers from the Wax- haw country. Mrs. Jackson had seen at Camden what prisoners of war may suffer. She had also seen what a little vigor and tact can effect in the deliverance of pris- oners. Andrew was no sooner quite out of danger than his brave mother resolved to go to Charleston (distant J 5 GENERAL JACKSON. one hundred and sixty miles) and do what she could for the comfort of the prisoners there. The tradition of the neighborhood now is that she performed the entire jour- ney on foot, in company with two other women of like mind and purpose. It is more probable, however, and so thought General Jackson, that these gallant women rode on horseback, carrying with them a precious store of gifts and rural luxuries and medicines for the solace of their imprisoned relatives, and bearing tender mes- sages and precious news from home. Protected by being unprotected, they reached Charleston in safety, gained admission to the ships, emptied their hearts and saddle-bags, and brought such joy to the haggard pris- oners as only prisoners know when women from home visit them. And there the history of this expedition ends. This only is further known of it, or will ever be: While stop- ping at the house of a relative, William Barton by name, who lived two miles and a half from Charleston, Mrs. Jackson was seized with the ship fever, and, after a short illness, died, and was buried on the open plain near by. And so Andrew, before reaching his fifteenth birth- day, was an orphan ; a sick and sorrowful orphan ; a homeless and dependent orphan. CHAPTER III. HE STUDIES LAW, AND BECOMES A TENNESSEE LAWYER. CoRNWALLis surrendered at Yorktown on the 19th of October, 1781. Savannah remained in the enemy's hands nine months, and Charleston fourteen months after that event ; but the war, in effect, terminated then, North and South. The Waxhaw people who survived returned to their homes, and resumed the vocations which the war had interrupted. With returning health returned the frolicsome spirit of the youth, which now began to seek gratification in modes less innocent than the sportive feats of his school- boy days. Several Charleston families of wealth and social eminence were living in the neighborhood, waiting for the evacuation of their city. With the young men of these families Jackson became acquainted, and led a life with them, in the summer and autumn of 1782, that was more merry than wise. He was betrayed by their example and his own pride into habits of expense, which wasted his small resources. That passion for horses, which never left him, began to show itself. He ran races and rode races, gambled a little, drank a little, fought cocks occasionally, and comported himself in the style usually affected by dissipated young men of that day. In December, 1782, to the joy and exultation of all the Southern country, Charleston was evacuated, and its scattered Whig families were free to return to their J 8 GENERAL JACKSON. homes. Andrew, finding the country dull after the de- parture of his gay companions, suddenly resolved to follow them to the city. He mounted his horse, a fine and valuable animal that he had contrived to possess, and rode to Charleston through the wilderness. There, it appears, he remained long enough to expend his slen- der stock of money and run up a long bill with his landlord. He was saved from total ruin by a curious incident, which is thus related by one who heard it from himself : " He had strolled one evening down the street and was carried into a place where some persons were amusing themselves at a game of dice, and much betting was in progress. He was challenged for a game by a person present, by whom a proposal was made to stake two hundred dollars against the fine horse on which Jackson had come to Charleston. After some delibera- tion he accepted the challenge. Fortune was oqfhis side ; the wager was won and paid. He forthwith departed, settled his bill next morning, and returned to his home. * My calculation,' said he, speaking of this incident, ' was that, if a loser in the game, I would give the landlord my saddle and bridle, as far as they would go toward the payment of his bill, ask a credit for the balance, and walk away from the city ; but being successful, I had eew spirits infused into me, left the table, and from that loment to the present time I have never thrown dice for a wager.' " Upon the return of the young man to the home of his childhood he evidently took hold of life more earnestly than he had done before. He made some at- tempts, it is said, to continue his studies. Three entirely credible informants testify that Andrew Jackson was a schoolmaster at this period of his life. Nothing is more certain than that part of the small cash capital upon which he started in his career was earned amid the hum HE STUDIES LAW. 19 and bustle of an old-field school. It is the more certain, as the uniform tradition of the Waxhaw country is that he was a very poor young man, who inherited nothing from his father, because his father had nothing to leave. The tradition at Charlotte is, that when young Andrew attended Queen's College he often passed down the street to school with his trousers too ragged to keep his shirt from flying in the wind. For a year certainly, and probably for two years, after Andrew's return from Charleston he remained in the Waxhaw country, employed either in teaching school or in some less worthy occupation. Peace was formally proclaimed in April, 1783. Some time between the proclamation of peace and the winter of i784-'85, Andrew Jackson resolved upon studying law. In that winter he gathered together his earnings and whatever property he may have possessed, mounted his horse again, and set his face northward in quest of a master in the law under whom to pursue his studies. He rode to Salis- bury, North Carolina, a distance of seventy-five miles from the Waxhaws. At Salisbury he entered the law office of Mr. Spruce McCay, an eminent lawyer at that time, and in later days a judge of high distinction, who is still remembered with honor in North Carolina. In one of the back streets of this old town, on the lawn in front of one of its largest and handsomest man- sions, close to the street and to the left of the gate, stood, in 1858, a little box of a house fifteen feet by six- teen, and one story high. It was built of shingles, several of which had decayed and fallen off. This little decaying house of shingles was the law office of Spruce McCay when Andrew Jackson studied law under him at Salisbury, in 1785 and 1786. The mansion behind it stands on the site of the house in which Mr. McCay 20 GENERAL JACKSON. lived at the time, and the property is still owned and occupied by a near connection of his, who has preserved the old office from regard to his memory. Our student completed his preparation for the bar in the office of Colonel John Stokes, a brave soldier of the Revolution, and afterward a lawyer of high repute, from whom Stokes County, North Carolina, took its name. Colonel Stokes was one of those who fell covered with wounds at the Waxhaw massacre in 1780, and may have been nursed in the old meeting-house by Mrs. Jackson and her sons. Before the spring of 1787, about two years after beginning the study of the law, Andrew Jackson was licensed to practice in the courts of North Carolina. He was twenty years of age when he com- pleted the preliminary part of his education at Salis- bury. He had grown to be a tall fellow. He stood six feet and an inch in his stockings. He was remark- ably slender for that robust age of the world, but he was also remarkably erect, so that his form had the effect of symmetry without being symmetrical. His movements and carriage were graceful and dignified. In the accomplishments of his day and sphere he ex- celled the young men of his own circle, and was re- garded by them as their chief and model. He was an exquisite horseman, as all will agree who ever saw him on horseback. Jefferson tells us that General Washing- ton was the best horseman of his time, but he could scarcely have been a more graceful or a more daring rider than Jackson. From early boyhood to extreme old age he was the master and friend of horses. He was far from handsome. His face was long, thin, and fair ; his forehead high and somewhat narrow ; his hair, reddish-sandy in color, was exceedingly abundant, and fell down low over his forehead. The bristling hair of the ordinary portraits belongs to the latter half of his HE STUDIES LAW. 21 life. There was but one feature of his face that was not commonplace — his eyes, which were of a deep blue, and capable of blazing with great expression when he was roused. The truth is, this young man was one of those who convey to strangers the impression that they are "some- body"; who naturally, and without thinking of it, take the lead ; who are invited or permitted to take it as a matter of course. Finding no opportunity to practice his profession in the old settlements, young Jackson resolved to join a large party of emigrants bound for that part of the Western country which is now the State of Tennessee, but which was then Washington County, North Caro- Hna. John McNairy, a friend of Jackson's, had been appointed judge of the Superior Court for that vast region, and Jackson was invested with the office of solicitor, or public prosecutor, for the same district. This office was not in request, nor desirable. It was, in fact, difficult to get a suitable person to accept an appointment of the kind, which was to be exercised in a wilderness five hundred miles distant from the pop- ulous parts of North Carolina, and where the office of prosecutor was sure to be unpopular, difficult, and dan- gerous. Thomas Searcy, another of Jackson's friends, received the appointment of clerk of the court. Three or four more of his young acquaintances, lawyers and others, resolved to go with him and seek their fortune in the new and vaunted country of the West. The party rendezvoused at Morganton in the spring or early sum- mer of 1788, mounted and equipped for a ride over the mountains to Jonesboro, then the chief settlement of East Tennessee, and the first halting-place of companies bound to the lands on the Cumberland River. The judge and his party remained several weeks at 22 GENERAL JACKSON. Jonesboro, waiting for the assembling of a sufficient number of emigrants, and for the arrival of a guard from Nashville to escort them. Nashville is one hundred and eighty-three miles from Jonesboro. The road ran through a gap in the Cumberland Mountains, and thence entered a wilderness more dangerously infested with hostile Indians than any other portion of the Western country, not even excepting the dark and bloody land of Kentucky. Before the end of October, 1788, the long train of emi- grants, among whom was Mr. Solicitor Jackson, reached Nashville, to the great joy of the settlers there, to whom the annual arrival of such a train was all that an arrival can be — a thrilling event, news from home, reunion with friends, increase of wealth, and additional protection against a foe powerful and resolute to destroy. The settlement grew apace, however. When Jack- son arrived, the stations along the Cumberland may have contained five thousand souls or more. But the place was still an outpost of civilization, and so exposed to Indian hostility that it was not safe to live five miles from the central stockade — a circumstance that influ- enced the whole career and life of our young friend the newly-arrived solicitor. When young Jackson reached the settlement he found the Widow Donelson living there in a blockhouse, somewhat more commodious than any other dwelling in the place ; for she was a notable housekeeper, as well as a woman of property. With her then lived her daughter Rachel and her Kentucky husband, Lewis Robards. The presence of the young lawyer at Nashville was most opportune. The only licensed lawyer in West Tennessee was engaged exclusively in the service of debtors, who, it seems, made common cause against the common enemy, their creditors. Jackson came not as a HE STUDIES LAW. 23 lawyer merely, but as the public prosecutor, and there was that in his bearing which gave assurance that he was the man to issue unpopular writs and give them effect. In the four terms of 1794 there were three hundred and ninety-seven cases before the same court, in two hundred and twenty-eight of which Jackson acted as counsel. And during these and later years he practiced at the courts of Jonesboro, and other towns in East Tennessee. In the year 1791 the prosperous young solicitor, after a courtship of an extraordinary character, was married to Mrs. Rachel Robards, the daughter of that brave old pioneer, John Donelson. As Tennessee prospered (and it prospered rapidly after the Indians were subdued, in 1794), the district attorney could not but prosper with it. The land records of 1794, 1795, 1796, and 1797 show that it was during those years that Jackson laid the foundation of the large estate which he subsequently acquired. Those were the days in which a lawyer's fee for conducting a suit of no great importance might be a square mile of land, or, in Western phrase, a "six-forty." Jackson appears fre- quently in the records of the years named as the pur- chaser and assignee of sections of land. He bought six hundred and fifty acres of the fine tract which afterward formed the Hermitage farm for eight hundred dollars — a high price for that day. By the time that Tennessee entered the Union, in 1796, Jackson was a very extensive landowner, and a man of fair estate for a frontiers- man. The office of public prosecutor, held by Andrew Jackson during the first seven or eight years of his resi- dence in Tennessee, was one that a man of only ordinary nerve and courage could not have filled. It set in array against him all the scoundrels in the Territory. Those 24 GENERAL JACKSON. were the times when a notorious criminal would defy the officers of justice, and keep them at bay for years at a time ; when a district attorney who made himself too officious was liable to a shot in the back as he rode to court ; when two men, not satisfied with the court's award, would come out of the court-house into the pub- lic square and fight it out in the presence of the whole population, judge and jury, perhaps, looking on; when the public prosecutor was apt to be regarded as the man whose office it was to spoil good sport and interfere be- tween gentlemen. CHAPTER IV. IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. In November, 1795, the Governor of the Territory announced, as the result of a census ordered by the Legis- lature, that Tennessee contained seventy-seven thousand two hundred and sixty-two inhabitants, of whom ten thousand six hundred and thirteen were slaves. He therefore called upon the people to elect delegates to a convention for making a Constitution, and named Jan- uary II, 1796, as the day for their assembling at Knox- ville. The convention met accordingly, fifty-five mem- bers in all, five from each of the eleven counties. The five members sent from Davidson County were John McNairy, Andrew Jackson, James Robertson, Thomas Hardeman, and Joel Lewis. The State was promptly organized. A Legislature was elected, and " Citizen John Sevier," we are officially informed, was chosen the first Governor. On the ist of ^ June, 1796, Tennessee became the sixteenth member 1 of the confederacy. Three presidential electors were chosen, who cast the vote of the State for Jefferson and Burr. As yet, Tennessee was entitled to but one mem- ber of the House of Representatives. Early in the fall of 1796 Andrew Jackson was elected by the people to serve them in that honorable capacity. Soon after — for the journey was a long one, and more difficult than long — he mounted his horse and set out for Philadelphia, distant nearly eight hundred miles. 26 GENERAL JACKSON. The member from Tennessee reached Philadelphia at one of those periods of commercial depression to which the country has always been liable. The finan- cial reader is aware that the suspension of specie pay- ments by the Bank of England, which lasted twenty-two years, began in February, 1797, about two months after Jackson's arrival in Philadelphia. On the third day of the session, a quorum of the Senate having reached Philadelphia, and both Houses being assembled in the Representatives' chamber, Jack- son saw General Washington, an august and venerable form, enter the chamber and deliver his last speech to Congress ; heard him recommend the gradual creation of a navy for the protection of American commerce in the Mediterranean against the pirates of Algiers ; heard him modestly — almost timidly — suggest that American manufactures ought to be at least so far encouraged and aided by Government as to render the country inde- pendent of foreign nations in time of war ; heard him recommend the establishment of boards of agriculture, a national university, and a military academy ; heard him mildly object to the policy of paying low salaries to high officers, to the exclusion from high office of all but men of fortune ; and heard him denounce the spoliations of our commerce by cruisers sailing under the flag of the French Republic. At that day it was customary for each House to pre- pare, and in person deliver, a formal reply to the Presi- dent's opening speech. An address was drawn up which concluded with a series of paragraphs highly eulogistic not merely of the retiring President but of his adminis- tration. The more radical Democrats, of whom Jackson was one, objected, and, after two days' animated discus- sion, Edward Livingston brought the debate to an end by distinctly moving to strike out the words, " wise, IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 27 firm, and patriotic administration ", and to insert in their place, ** your firmness, wisdom, and patriotism." The question was taken on Mr. Livingston's amend- ment, and decided in the negative. The whole address was then read with the slight amendments previously ordered, and the question was about to be submitted as to its final acceptance, when Mr. Thomas Blount, of North Carolina, demanded the yeas and nays, in order that posterity might see that he did not consent to the address. The yeas and nays were then taken, with this result : For accepting the address, sixty-seven votes ; against its acceptance, twelve. The following gentle- men voted against it : Thomas Blount, Isaac Coles, Wil- liam B. Giles, Christopher Greenup, James Holland, Anr drew Jackson, Edward Livingston, Matthew Locke, William Lyman, Samuel Maclay, Nathaniel Macon, and Abraham Venable. Jackson's vote on this occasion merely shows that in 1796 he belonged to the most radical wing of the Jeff err sonian party, the '' Mountain " of the House of Repre-. sentatives. On Thursday, December 29, 1796, the member froni Tennessee first addressed the House. In 1793, while Tennessee was still a Territory under the Federal Gov- ernment, General Sevier, induced thereto by extreme provocation and the imminent peril of the settlements, led an expedition against the Indians without waiting for the authorization of the General Government. One of those who served on this expedition was a young student by the name of Hugh L. White, afterward judge, senator, and candidate for the presidency. Young White killed a great chief, the Kingfisher, in battle. After the return of the expedition it became a question whether the Government would pay the expenses of an expedition which it had not authorized. To test the 23 GENERAL JACKSON. question, Hugh L. White sent a petition to Congress asking compensation for his services. On the day named above the subject came before the Committee of the Whole House, when a report on Mr. White's petition, from the Secretary of War, was read. The report re- counted the facts, and added that it was for the House to decide whether the provocation and danger were such as to justify the calling out of the troops. Where- upon " Mr. A. Jackson," in a few energetic remarks, defended the claims of his fellow-citizens. The debate continued for a considerable time, Jackson occasionally interposing explanations, and replying to the objections of members. The result of his exertions was, that the subject was referred to a select committee of five, Mr. A. Jackson chairman ; who reported, of course, in favor of the petitioner, and recommended that the sum of twenty- two thousand eight hundred and sixteen dollars be ap- propriated for the payment of the troops, which was done. The member from Tennessee did not again address the House of Representatives. His name appears in the records thenceforth only in the lists of yeas and nays. Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, and An- drew Jackson took a final farewell of the House, for at the war session of the following summer he did not ap- pear. His conduct in the House of Representatives was keenly approved by Tennesseeans. A vacancy in the Senate of the United States occur- ring this year, Andrew Jackson received the appoint- ment, and returned to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1797, a Senator. In April, 1798, Senator Jackson asked and obtained leave of absence for the remainder of the session. He went home to Nashville, and immediately resigned his seat in the Senate. IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 29 Early in the year 1798, then, Andrew Jackson re- turned to his home on the banks of the Cumberland, a private citizen, and intending to remain such. But it seems he could not yet be spared from public life. Soon after his return to Tennessee he was elected by the Legis- lature to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State — a post which he said he accepted in obedience to his favorite maxim, that the citizen of a free com- monwealth should never seek and never decline public duty. The office assigned him was next in considera- tion, as in emolument, to that of Governor ; the Govern- or's salary being seven hundred and fifty dollars a year, and the judge's six hundred. He retained the judgeship for six years, holding courts in due succession at Jones- boro, Knoxville, Nashville, and at places of less im- portance, dispensing the best justice of which he was master. It was while Jackson was judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee that his feud with Governor Sevier came to an issue. First, there was a coolness between the two men ; then altercations ; then total estrangement ; then loud, recriminating talk on both sides, reported to both ; then various personal encounters, of which I heard in Tennessee so many different accounts that I was con- vinced no one knew anything about them. At last, in the year 1801, Jackson gained an advantage over Sevier which was peculiarly calculated to wound, disgust, and exasperate the impetuous old soldier, victor in so many battles. Sevier, was then out of office. The major-gen- eralship of militia was vacant, and the two belligerents were candidates for the post, which at that time was keenly coveted by the very first men in the State. Nor was it then merely an affair of title, regimentals, and showy gallopings on the days of general muster. There were then Indians to be kept in awe, as well as constant 20 GENERAL JACKSON. rumors and threatenings of war with France or England. The office of major-general was in the gift of the field officers, who were empowered by the Constitution to se- lect their chief. The canvassings and general agitation which preceded the election on this occasion may be im- agined. The day came. The election was held. There was a tie, an equal number of votes being cast for Jack- son and Sevier. In such a conjuncture the Governor of the State, being, from his office, commander-in-chief of the militia, had a casting vote. Governor Roane gave his vote for Jackson, who thus became the major-gen- eral, to the discomfiture of the other competitor. Jackson, as we have seen, accepted the judgeship of the Supreme Court, intending to carry on the business of a merchant, and to snatch time enough between his courts to make an occasional journey to Philadelphia for the purchase of a fresh supply of goods. For a while all went well with him ; but eventually came the crash and panic of 1798 and 1799. Notice was for- warded to Jackson to provide for the payment of the notes with which he had bought his stock of goods. This was a staggering blow, not only because the amount of the loss was large, but because the notes had to be paid in money — real money, money that was current in Philadelphia — which, of all commodities, was the one most scarce in the new States of the far West. To the honor of Andrew Jackson be it recorded, that each of these large notes was paid, principal and in- terest, on the day of its maturity. Andrew Jackson was a man singularly averse to any- thing complicated, and of all complications the one un- der which he was most restive was debt. So, about the year 1804, he resolved upon simplifying or "straighten- ing out " his affairs and commencing life anew. He re- signed his judgeship. He sold his house and improved IN PUBLIC LIFE, AND AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 31 farm on Hunter's Hill. He sold twenty-five thousand acres, more or less, of his wild lands in other parts of the State. He paid off all his debts. He removed with his negroes, to the place now known as the Hermitage, and lived once more in a house of logs. He went more extensively into mercantile business than ever. Jackson was now a man with many irons in the fire. First, there was his farm, cultivated by slaves, superin- tended by Mrs. Jackson in the absence of her lord. The large family of slaves, one hundred and fifty in number, of which he died possessed, were mostly descended from the few that he owned in his storekeeping days. He was a vigilant and successful farmer. To use the lan- guage of the South, " He made good crops." He was proud of a well-cultivated field. Every visitor was in- vited to go the rounds of his farm and see his cotton, corn, and wheat, his horses, cows, and mules. He had also a backwoodsman's skill in repairing and contriv- ing, and spent many a day in putting an old plow in order or finishing off a new cabin. On his plantation he had a cotton gin, a rarity at that day, upon which there was a special tax of twenty dollars a year. The tax-books of Davidson County show that in 1804 there were but twenty-four gins in the county, of which Andrew Jackson was the owner of one. This cotton gin served to clean his own cotton, the cot- ton of his neighbors, and that which he took in exchange for goods. General Jackson's fine horses were also a source of profit to him. At that period a good horse was among the pioneer's first necessities and most valued posses- sions; and to this day the horse is a creature of far more importance at the South, where every one rides and must ride on horseback, than at the North, where riding is the luxury of the few. 32 GENERAL JACKSON. Soon after Jackson left the bench he set off for a tour in Virginia, then universally renowned for her breed of horses, with the sole object of procuring the most perfect horse in the country. The far-famed Truxton was the result of this journey — Truxton, winner of many a well-contested race and progenitor of a line of Trux- tons highly prized in Tennessee to this hour. CHAPTER V. DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. The Revolutionary War introduced among the people of rustic America the practice of resorting to arms for the settlement of quarrels. Every man who had worn a sash or even shouldered a musket in that contest seems to have hugged the delusion that he was thenceforth subject to the code of honor. He retained the title and affected the tone of a soldier. I call it affectation, be- lieving that no man with Saxon blood dominant in his veins ever yet fought a duel without being distinctly conscious that he was doing a very silly thing. Yet there never existed a people so given to dueling and other domestic battling as the people of the South and West from 1790 to 1810. In Charleston, about the year 1800, we are told, there was a club of duelists, in which every man took precedence according to the number of times he had been " out " — so difficult was it for the duelists to support the reproaches of their own good sense. " I believe," says General William Henry Harri- son, " that there were more duels in the Northwestern army between the years 1791 and 1795 than ever took place in the same length of time, and among so small a body of men as composed the commissioned officers of the army, either in America or any other country." As late as 1834, Miss Martineau tells us there were more duels fought in the city of New Orleans than there are days in the year — *' fifteen on one Sunday morning " ; ^ . GENERAL JACKSON. "one hundred and two between the ist of January and the end of April." In the interior settlements, if dueling was rarer, fight- ing of a less formal and deadly character was so com- mon as to excite scarcely any notice or remark. It was taken for granted, apparently, that whenever a number of men were gathered together for any purpose what- ever there must be fighting. The meetings of the Legis- lature, the convening of courts, the assemblages out of doors for religious purposes, were all alike the occa- sion both of single combats and general fights. " The exercises of a market day," says the Rev. Mr. Milburn, " were usually varied by political speeches, a sheriff's sale, half a dozen free fights, and thrice as many horse- swaps." Let most of the old Jacksonian quarrels pass into oblivion. Some of them, however, were of such a na- ture, and are so notorious, that they can not be omitted in any fair account of his career. We have now arrived at one of these. The series of trivial and absurd events which led to the horrible tragedy of the Dickinson duel — events which, but for that tragic ending, would be noth- ing more than amusing illustrations of the manners of a past age — now claim our attention. For the autumn races of 1805, a great match was ar- ranged between General Jackson's Truxton and Captain Joseph Ervin's Plowboy. The stakes were two thousand dollars, payable on the day of the race in notes, which notes were to be then due; forfeit, eight hundred dollars. Six persons were interested in this race : on Truxton's side, General Jackson, Major W. P. Anderson, Major Ver- rell, and Captain Pryor; on the side of Plowboy, Captain Ervin and his son-in-law, Charles Dickinson. Before the day appointed for the race arrived Ervin and Dick- inson decided to pay the forfeit and withdraw their DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 35 horse, which was amicably done, and the affair was sup- posed to be at an end. About this time a report reached General Jackson's ears that Charles Dickinson had uttered disparaging words of Mrs. Jackson, which was with Jackson the sin not to be pardoned. Dickinson was a lawyer by profes- sion, but, like Jackson, speculated in produce, horses, and, it is said, in slaves. He was well connected, pos- sessed considerable property, and had a large circle of gay friends. He is represented as a somewhat wild, dis- sipated young man, yet not unamiable, nor disposed wantonly to wound the feelings of others. When excited by drink, or by any other cause, he was prone to talk loosely and swear violently, as drunken men will. He had the reputation of being the best shot in Tennessee. Upon hearing this report, General Jackson called on Dickinson and asked him if he had used the language attributed to him. Dickinson replied that if he had, it must have been when he was drunk. Further explana- tions and denials removed all ill feeling from General Jackson's mind, and they separated in a friendly manner. A second time, it is said, Dickinson uttered offensive words respecting Mrs. Jackson in a tavern at Nashville, which were duly conveyed by some meddling parasite to General Jackson. Jackson, I am told, then went to Captain Ervin and advised him to exert his influence over his son-in-law, and induce him to restrain his tongue and comport himself like a gentleman in his cups. "I wish no quarrel with him," said Jackson; "he is used by my enemies in Nashville, who are urging him on to pick a quarrel with me. Advise him to stop in time." It appears, however, that enmity grew between these two men. In January, 1806, when the events oc- curred that are now to be related, there was the worst possible feeling between them. 26 GENERAL JACKSON. Deadly enmity existing between Jackson and Dickin- son, a very trivial event was sufficient to bring them into collision. A young lawyer of Nashville, named Swann, misled by false information, circulated a report that -Jackson had accused the owners of Plowboyof pay- ing their forfeit in notes other than those which had been agreed upon — notes less valuable because not due at the date of settling. General Jackson, in one of his letters to Mr. Swann, went out of his way to assail Charles Dickinson by name, calling him " a base pol- troon and cowardly talebearer," requesting Swann to show Dickinson these offensive words, and offering to meet him in the field if he desired satisfaction for the same. Upon reading the letter, Dickinson published a card which contained these words : " I declare him, notwithstanding he is a major-gen- eral of the militia of Mero district, to be a worthless scoundrel, * a poltroon and a coward ' — a man who, by frivolous and evasive pretexts, avoided giving the satis- faction which was due to a gentleman whom he had in- jured. This has prevented me from calling on him in the manner I should otherwise have done, for I am well convinced that he is too great a coward to administer any of those anodynes he promised me in his letter to Mr. Swann." Jackson instantly challenged Dickinson. The chal- lenge was promptly accepted. Friday, May 30, 1806, was the day appointed for the meeting ; the weapons, pistols ; the place, a spot on the banks of the Red River, in Kentucky. The place appointed for the meeting was along day's ride from Nashville. Thursday morning, before the dawn of day, Dickinson stole from the side of his young and beautiful wife, and began silently to prepare for the journey. DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 37 He mounted his horse and repaired to the rendezvous where his second and half a dozen of the gay blades of Nashville were waiting to escort him on his journey. Away they rode, in the highest spirits, as though they were upon a party of pleasure. Indeed, they made a party of pleasure of it. When they stopped for rest or refreshment, Dickinson is said to have amused the com- pany by displaying his wonderful skill with the pistol. Once, at a distance of twenty-four feet, he fired four balls, each at the word of command, into a space that could be covered by a silver dollar. Several times he cut a string with his bullet from the same distance. It is said that he left a severed string hanging near a tav- ern, and said to the landlord, as he rode away, " If Gen- eral Jackson comes along this road, show him that! " Very different was the demeanor of General Jackson and the party that accompanied him. His second, Gen- eral Thomas Overton, an old Revolutionary soldier, versed in the science and familiar with the practice of dueling, had reflected deeply upon the conditions of the coming combat, with the view to conclude upon the tactics most likely to save his friend from Dickinson's unerring bullet. For this duel was not to be the amus- ing mockery that some modern duels have been. This duel was to be real. It was to be an affair in which each man was to strive with his utmost skill to effect the purpose of the occasion — disable his antagonist and save his own life. As the principal and the second rode apart from the rest, they discussed all the chances and probabilities with the single aim to decide upon a course which should result in the disabling of Dickinson and the saving of Jackson. The mode of fighting which had been agreed upon was somewhat peculiar. The pistols were to be held downward until the word was given to fire ; then each man was to fire as soon as he 4 ,8 GENERAL JACKSON. pleased. With such an arrangement it was scarcely pos- sible that both the pistols should be discharged at the same moment. There was a chance, even, that by ex- treme quickness of movement one man could bring down his antagonist without himself receiving a shot. The question anxiously discussed between Jackson and Overton was this : Shall we try to get the first shot, or shall we permit Dickinson to have it ? They agreed, at length, that it would be decidedly better to let Dickin- son fire first. Jackson ate heartily at supper that night, convers- ing in a lively, pleasant manner, and smoked his evening pipe as usual. Jacob Smith remembers being exceed- ingly well pleased with his guest, and, on learning the cause of his visit, heartily wishing him a safe deliverance. Before breakfast on the next morning The whole party mounted and rode down the road that wound close along the picturesque banks of the stream. The horsemen rode about a mile along the river, then turned down toward the river to a point on the bank where they had expected to find a ferryman. No ferry- man appearing, Jackson spurred his horse into the stream and dashed across, followed by all his party. They rode into the poplar forest two hundred yards or less, to a spot near the center of a level platform or river bottom, then covered with forest, now smiling with cultivated fields. The horsemen halted and dismount- ed just before reaching the appointed place. Jackson, Overton, and a surgeon who had come with them from home walked on together, and the rest lecj their horses a short distance in an opposite direction. " How do you feel about it now, general ? " asked^ one of the party, as Jackson turned to go. " Oh, all right," replied Jackson, gayly ; " I shall wing him, never fear." DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 30 Dickinson's second won the choice of position, and Jackson's the office of giving the word. The astute Overton considered this giving of the word a matter of great importance, and he had already determined how he would give it if the lot fell to him. The eight paces were measured off and the men placed. Both were perfectly collected. All the politenesses of such occa- sions were very strictly and elegantly performed. Jack- son was dressed in a loose frock-coat, buttoned carelessly over his chest and concealing in some degree the ex- treme slenderness of his figure. Dickinson was the younger and handsomer man of the two. But Jackson's tall, erect figure, and the intensity of his demeanor, it is said, gave him a most superior and commanding air, as he stood under the tall poplars on this bright May morning, silently awaiting the moment. *' Are you ready ?" said Overton. " I am ready," replied Dickinson. " I am ready," said Jackson. The words were no sooner pronounced than Overton, with a sudden shout, cried, using his old-country pro- nunciation : " Fere ! " Dickinson raised his pistol quickly and fired. Over- ton, who was looking with anxiety and dread at Jackson, saw a puff of dust fly from the breast of his coat, and saw him raise his left arm and place it tightly across his chest. He is surely hit, thought Overton, and in a bad place, too. But no ; he does not fall. He raised his pistol. Overton glanced at Dickinson. Amazed at the unwonted failure of his aim, and apparently appalled at the awful figure and face before him, Dickinson had un- consciously recoiled a pace or two. " Great God ! " he faltered, " have I missed him ? " .Q GENERAL JACKSON. " Back to the mark, sir! " shrieked Overton with his hand upon his pistol. Dickinson recovered his composure, stepped forward to the peg, and stood with his eyes averted from his an- tagonist. All this was the work of a moment, though it requires many words to tell it. General Jackson took deliberate aim and pulled the trigger. The pistol neither snapped nor went off. He looked at the trigger, and discovered that it had stopped at half-cock. He drew it back to its place and took aim a second time. He fired. Dickinson's face blanched ; he reeled ; his friends rushed toward him, caught him in their arms, and gently seated him on the ground, lean- ing against a bush. They stripped off his clothes. The blood was gushing from his side in a torrent. The ball had passed through the body, below the ribs. Such a wound could not but be fatal. Overton went forward and learned the condition of the wounded man. Rejoining his principal, he said, " He won't want anything more of you, general," and conducted him from the ground. They had gone a hun- dred yards, Overton walking on one side of Jackson, the surgeon on the other, and neither speaking a word, when the surgeon observed that one of Jackson's shoes was full of blood. " My God ! General Jackson, are you hit ? " he ex- claimed, pointing to the blood. "Oh! I believe," replied Jackson, "that he has pinked me a little. Let's look at it. But say nothing about it there," pointing to the house. He opened his coat. Dickinson's aim had been perfect. He had sent the ball precisely where he sup- posed Jackson's heart was beating. But the thinness of his body and the looseness of his coat combining to de- ceive Dickinson, the ball had only broken a rib or two DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 41 and raked the breast-bone. It was a somewhat painful, bad-looking wound, but neither severe nor dangerous, and he was able to ride to the tavern without much in- convenience. Upon approaching the house he went up to one of the negro women who was churning and asked her if the butter had come. She said it was just coming. He asked for some buttermilk. While she was getting it for him she observed him furtively open his coat and look within it. She saw that his shirt was soaked with blood, and she stood gazing in blank horror at the sight, dipper in hand. He caught her eye, and hastily but- toned his coat again. She dipped out a quart measure full of buttermilk and gave it to him. He drank it off at a draught ; then went in, took off his coat, and had his wound carefully examined and dressed. That done, he dispatched one of his retinue to Dr. Catlett, to in- quire respecting the condition of Dickinson, and to say that the surgeon attending himself would be glad to contribute his aid toward Mr. Dickinson's relief. Polite reply was returned that Mr. Dickinson's case was past surgery. In the course of the day General Jackson sent a bottle of wine to Dr. Catlett for the use of his patient. But there was one gratification which Jackson could not, even in such circumstances, grant him. A very old friend of General Jackson writes to me thus : " Although the general had been wounded, he did not desire it should be known until he had left the neighborhood, and had therefore concealed it at first from his own friends. His reason for this, as he once stated to me, was, that as Dickinson considered himself the best shot in the world, and was certain of killing him at the first fire, he did not want him to have the gratification even of knowing that he had touched him." Poor Dickinson bled to death. General Jackson's wound proved to be more severe 42 GENERAL JACKSON. and troublesome than was at first anticipated. It was nearly a month before he could move about without in- convenience, and when the wound healed it healed falsely ; that is, some of the viscera were slightly dis- placed, and so remained. Twenty years after, this for- gotten wound forced itself upon his remembrance, and kept itself there for many a year. It is not true, as has been alleged, that this duel did not affect General Jackson's popularity in Tennessee. It followed quick upon his feud with Governor Sevier, and both quarrels told against him in many quarters of the State. And though there were large numbers whom the nerve and courage which he had displayed in the duel blinded to all considerations of civilization and morality, yet it is certain that at no time between the years 1806 and 1812 could General Jackson have been elected to any office in Tennessee that required a majority of the voters of the whole State. Beyond the circle of his own friends, which was large, there existed a very general impression that he was a violent, overbearing, passionate man. CHAPTER VI. AT HOME. Between the fighting of this bloody duel and the beginning of the War of 1812 there is not much to re- late of General Jackson. A few incidents and anecdotes of his private life may detain us a moment from the stir- ring scenes of his military career. He removed, as we have before related, from Hunt- er's Hill, about the year 1804, to the adjoining estate, which he named the Hermitage. The spacious mansion now standing on that estate, in which he resided during the last twenty-five years of his life, was not built until about the year 1819. A square, two-story blockhouse was General Jackson's first dwelling-place on the Her- mitage farm. This house, like many others of its class, contained three rooms — one on the ground floor and two upstairs. To this house was soon added a smaller one, which stood about twenty feet from the principal structure, and was connected with it by a covered pas- sage. This was General Jackson's establishment from 1804 to 1819. In an establishment so restricted General Jackson and his good-hearted wife continued to dispense a most generous hospitality, A lady of Nashville told me that she has often been at the Hermitage in those simple old times, when there was in each of the four available rooms not a guest merely but a family; while the young men and solitary travelers who chanced to drop 44 GENERAL JACKSON. in disposed of themselves on the piazza, or any other half shelter about the house. " Put down in your book," said one of General Jackson's oldest neighbors, " that the general was the prince of hospitality; not because he entertained a great many people, but because the poor, belated peddler was as welcome as the President of the United States, and made so much at his ease that he felt as though he had got home." On May 29, 1805, Colonel Burr, then making his first tour of the Western country, visited the thriving frontier town of Nashville. Throughout the West Burr was re- ceived as the great man, and nowhere with such distinc- tion as at Nashville. People poured in from the adjacent country to see and welcome so renowned a personage. Flags, cannons, and martial music contributed to the Mat of his reception. An extemporized but superabun- dant dinner concluded the ceremonies, in the course of which Burr addressed the multitude with the serious grace that usually marked his demeanor in public. Could Jackson be absent from such an ovation — Jackson, who had been with the great man in Congress, and worked in concert with him for Tennessee ? On the morning of this bright day General Jackson mounted one of his finest horses and rode to Nashville, attended by a servant leading a milk-white mare. In the course of the dinner General Jackson gave a toast, " Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute ! " and when Colonel Burr retired from the apartment General Overton proposed his health to the company. General Jackson returned home at the close of the day, accompanied by Colonel Burr, who was to be his guest during his stay in that vicinity. Burr remained only five days at the Hermit- age, but promised to make a longer visit on his return. On August 6, 1805, Burr visited the Hermitage again on his return from New Orleans, as he had prom- AT HOME. 45 ised. Of this visit, which lasted eight days, we have no knowledge except that derived from Burr's diary: " Arrived at Nashville on the 6th August. For a week I have been lounging at the house of General Jackson, once a lawyer, after a judge, now a planter; a man of intelligence, and one of those prompt, frank, ardent souls whom I love to meet. The general has no chil- dren, but two lovely nieces made a visit of some days, contributed greatly to my amusement, and have cured me of all the evils of my wilderness jaunt. If I had time I would describe to you these two girls, for they deserve it. To-morrow I move on toward Lexington." There is no doubt as to the topic upon which Colonel Burr and General Jackson chiefly conversed on this oc- casion. There was but one topic then in the Western country — the threatened war with Spain. Colonel Burr returned to the East. Months passed, during which Jackson and Burr occasionally corre- sponded. In September, 1806, three months after the duel with Dickinson, Colonel Burr was again the guest of General Jackson. On this occasion he had brought to the West- ern country, and left on Blennerhassett Island, his daugh- ter Theodosia, intending never again to return to the Eastern States. He was in the full tide of preparation for descending to the lower country. The morning after his arrival at the Hermitage, General Jackson, on hospitable thoughts intent, wrote to a friend in Nash- ville the following note : "Colonel Burr is with me ; he arrived last night. I would be happy if you would call and see the colonel before you return. Say to General O. that I shall expect to see him here on to-morrow with you. Would it not be well for us to do something as a mark of attention to the colonel ? He has always been and is still a true and trusty friend to Tennessee. If Gen- .5 GENERAL JACKSON. eral Robertson is with you when you receive this, be good enough to say to him that Colonel Burr is in the country. I know that General Robertson will be happy in joining in anything that will tend to show a mark of respect to this worthy visitant." After a stay of a few days Colonel Burr left Ten- nessee to take up the threads of his enterprise in Ken- tucky and Ohio. October passed by. On the 3d of November, Gen- eral Jackson, in his character of business man, received from Burr some important orders : one for the building, on Stone's River, at Clover Bottom, of five large boats, such as were then used for descending the Western rivers, and another for the gradual purchase of a large quantity of provisions for transportation in those boats. A sum of money, in Kentucky bank-notes, amounting to three thousand five hundred dollars, accompanied the orders. General Jackson, nothing doubting, and never reluctant to do business, took Burr's letter of directions and the money to his partner, John Coffee, and requested him to contract at once for the boats and prepare for the pur- chase of the provisions. Coffee proceeded forthwith to transact the business. I notice, also, that Patton Ander- son, one of Jackson's special intimates, was all activity in raising a company of young men to accompany Burr down the river. I observe, too, that Anderson's ex- penses were paid out of the money sent by Burr to Jack- son ; at least, in the account rendered to Burr by Jackson and Coffee at th^final settlement there is an item of seven hundred dollars cash paid to Anderson. Anderson succeeded in getting seventy-five young men to enlist in his company. It was not until the loth of November, a week after the receipt of Burr's orders and money, that General Jackson, according to his own account, began to think AT HOME. 47 there might be some truth in the reports which attrib- uted to Burr unlawful designs — reports which he had previously regarded only as new evidences of the malice of Burr's political enemies and his own. But about the date mentioned, while General Jack- son and his partners were full of Burr's business, a friend of Jackson's visited the Hermitage, who succeeded in convincing him that some gigantic scheme of iniquity was on foot in the United States — a conspiracy for the dismemberment of the Union — and that it was possible, nay, almost probable, that Colonel Burr's extensive preparations of boats, provisions, and men had some connection with this nefarious plan. The President's proclamation, denouncing Burr, soon followed. It fell to the lot of General Jackson, as commanding officer of militia, to take the lead in the measures de- signed to procure the arrest of Burr and his confeder- ates. The general made great exertions to accomplish this object, but Burr had gone beyond pursuit. It was widely believed at the time that General Jackson was involved in the unlawful part of Burr's schemes, but there was not the slightest ground for such a belief, and nothing can be more complete than the chain of testi- mony that establishes his innocence. A few months later we find him at Richmond, whither he had been summoned as a witness in the trial of Burr. There he harangued the crowd in the Capitol Square, defending Burr, and angrily denouncing Jefferson as a persecutor. He made himself so conspicuous as Burr's champion at Richmond, that Mr. Madison, the Secretary of State, took offense at it, and remembered it to Jackson's dis- advantage five years later, when he was President of the United States, with a war on his hands. For the same reason, I presume, it was that Jackson was not called upon to give testimony upon the trial. Burr, it seems, ^8 GENERAL JACKSON. was equally satisfied with Jackson. Blennerhasset, in that part of his diary which records his prison interviews with Burr, says : " We passed to the topics of our late adventures on the Mississippi, in which Burr said little, but declared he did not know of any reason to blame General Jackson, of Tennessee, for anything he had done or omitted. But he declares he will not lose a day after the favorable issue at the Capitol (his acquittal) — of which he has no doubt — to direct his entire attention to setting up his projects (which have only been suspended) on a better model, ' in which work,' he says, ' he has even here made some progress.' " Jackson, on his part, went all lengths in defense of Burr ; nor was it possible for him to support any man in any other way. Toward Wilkinson, whom he regarded as the betrayer of Burr, his anger burned with such fury, that if the two men had met in a place convenient the meeting could hardly have had any other result than a — " difficulty." About the year 1809 it chanced that twins were born to one of Mrs. Jackson's brothers, Savern Donelson. The mother, not in perfect health, was scarcely able to sustain both these newcomers. Mrs. Jackson, partly to relieve her sister and partly with the wish to provide a son and heir for her husband, took one of the infants, when it was but a few days old, home to the Hermitage. The general soon became extremely fond of the boy, gave him his own name, adopted him, and treated him thenceforth, to the last hour of his life, not as a son merely but as an only son. This boy was the late Andrew Jackson, inheritor of the general's estate and name, master of the Hermitage until it became the property of the State of Tennessee. A few years later another little nephew of Mrs. Jackson's, the well-known Andrew Jackson Donelson, became an inmate of the Hermitage, and was educated by General Jackson. CHAPTER VII. IN THE FIELD. At the beginning of the War of 1812 there was not a militia general in the Western country less likely to re- ceive a commission from the General Government than Andrew Jackson. There were unpleasant traditions and recollections connected with his name in Mr. Madison's Cabinet, as we know. There were those, however, who were strongly con- vinced that General Jackson was the' very man, of all who lived in the valley of the Mississippi, to be intrusted with its defense. Aaron Burr thought so for one. He had just returned to New York, after his four years' exile, when the war began. " I know," said Colonel Burr, " that my word is not worth much with Madison ; but you may tell him from me that there is an unknown man in the West, named Andrew Jackson, who will do credit to a commission in the army if conferred on him." This remarkable prediction of what was soon verified, and proof of Burr's knowledge of the then obscure indi- vidual he recommended to notice, occurred before Gen- eral Jackson had probably ever heard a volley of mus- ket balls, or performed any part to indicate his future military distinction. It was General Jackson's promptitude in tendering his services and the services of his division, and that alone, which softened the repugnance of the President and his Cabinet. The war was declared on the 12th of CO GENERAL JACKSON. June. Such news is not carried, but flies, and so may- have reached Nashville by the 20th. On the 25th, Gen- eral Jackson offered to the President, through Governor Blount, his own services and those of twenty-five hun- dred volunteers of his division. A response to the dec- laration of war so timely and practical could not but have been extremely gratifying to an administration (never too confident in itself) that was then entering upon a contest to which a powerful minority was op- posed, and with a presidential election only four months distant. The reply of the Secretary of War, dated July nth, was as cordial as a communication of the kind could be. The President, he said, had received the ten- der of service by General Jackson and the volunteers under his command " with peculiar satisfaction." " In accepting their services," added the Secretary, " the President can not withhold an expression of his admira- tion of the zeal and ardor by which they are animated." Governor Blount was evidently more than satisfied with the result of the offer; he publicly thanked General Jackson and the volunteers for the honor they had done the State of Tennessee by making it. Thus we find General Jackson's services accepted by the President before hostilities could have seriously be- gun. The summer passed, however, and the autumn came, and still he was at home upon his farm. After Hull's failure in Canada, fears were entertained that the British would direct their released forces against the ports of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly New Or- leans, where General James Wilkinson still comm.anded. On October 21st the Governor of Tennessee was re- quested to dispatch fifteen hundred of the Tennessee troops to the re-enforcement of General Wilkinson. On November ist Governor Blount issued the requisite orders to General Jackson, who entered at once upon IN THE FIELD. 51 the task of preparing for the descent of the river with his volunteers. The loth of December was the day appointed for the troops to rendezvous at Nashville. The climate of Tennessee, generally so pleasant, is liable to brief periods of severe cold. Twice within the memory of living per- sons the Cumberland has been frozen over at Nashville, and as often snow has fallen there to the depth of a foot. It so chanced that the day named for the assem- bling of the troops was the coldest that had been known at Nashville for many years, and there was deep snow on the ground. Such was the enthusiasm, however, of the volunteers, that more than two thousand presented themselves on the appointed day. The general was no less puzzled than pleased by this alacrity. Nashville was still little more than a large village, not capable of affording the merest shelter to such a concourse of sol- diers — who, in any weather not extraordinary, would have disdained a roof. There was no resource for the mass of the troops but to camp out. Fortunately, the quartermaster. Major William B. Lewis, had provided a thousand cords of wood for the use of the men — a quan- tity that was supposed to be sufficient to last till they embarked. Every stick of the wood was burned the first night in keeping the men from freezing. From dark until nearly daylight the general and the quarter- master were out among the troops, employed in provid- ing for this unexpected and perilous exigency — seeing that drunken men were brought within reach of the fire, and that no drowsy sentinel slept the sleep of death. The extreme cold soon passed away, however, and the organization of the troops proceeded. In a few days the little army was in readiness: one regiment of cav- alry, commanded by Colonel John Coffee, six hundred and seventy in number ; two regiments of infantry, four- -2 GENERAL JACKSON. teen hundred men in all, one regiment commanded by Colonel William Hall, the other by Colonel Thomas H. Benton. Major William B. Lewis, the general's neighbor and friend, was the quartermaster. William Carroll, a young man from Pennsylvania, a new favorite of the general's, was the brigade inspector. The general's aide and secretary was John Reid, long his companion in the field, afterward his biographer. The troops were of the very best material the State afforded — planters, business men, their sons and grandsons— a large proportion of them descended from Revolutionary soldiers who had settled in great numbers in the beautiful valley of the Cumberland. John Coffee was a host in himself— a plain, brave, modest, stalwart man, devoted to his chief, to Tennessee, and to the Union. He had been recently married to Polly Donelson, the daughter of Captain John Donelson, who had given them the farm on which they lived. On the 7th of January all was ready. The infantry embarked, and the flotilla dropped down the river. Colo- nel Coffee and the mounted men marched across the country, and were to rejoin the general at Natchez. " I have the pleasure to inform you," wrote Jackson to the Secretary of War just before leaving home, " that I am now at the head of 2,070 volunteers, the choicest of our citizens, who go at the call of their country to execute the will of the Government, who have no constitutional scruples, and, if the Government orders, will rejoice at the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort St. Augustine, effectually banishing from the Southern coasts all British influence." Down the Cumberland to the Ohio ; down the Ohio to the Mississippi ; down the Mississippi toward New Orleans ; stopping here and there for supplies ; delayed IN THE FIELD, 53 for days at a time by the ice in the swift Ohio ; ground- ing a boat now and then ; losing one altogether — the fleet pursued its course, crunching through the floating masses, but making fair progress, for the space of thirty- nine days. The weather was often very cold and tempestuous, and the frail boats afforded only an imperfect shelter ; but all the little army, from the general to the privates, were in the highest spirits, and burned with the desire to do their part in restoring the diminished prestige of the American arms ; to atone for the shocking failures of the North by making new conquests at the South. On the 15th of February, at dawn of day, they had left a thousand miles of winding stream behind them, and saw before them the little town of Natchez. The fleet came to. The men were rejoiced to hear that Colonel Coffee and his mounted regiment had already arrived in the vicinity. Here General Jackson received a dispatch from Gen- eral Wilkinson requesting him to halt at Natchez, as neither quarters nor provisions were ready for them at New Orleans, nor had an enemy yet made his appear- ance in the Southern waters. Wilkinson added, that he had received no orders respecting the Tennesseeans, knew not their destination, and should not think of yielding his command " until regularly relieved by su- perior authority." Jackson assented to the policy of re- maining at Natchez for further instructions; but with regard to General Wilkinson's uneasiness on the ques- tion of rank he said, in his reply, " I have marched with the true spirit of a soldier, to serve my country at any and every point where service can be rendered," and " the detachment under my command shall be kept in complete readiness to move to any point at which an enemy may appear, at the shortest notice." So, at 5 c . GENERAL JACKSON. Natchez, the troops disembarked, and, encamping in a pleasant and salubrious place a few miles from the town, passed their days in learning the duties of the soldier. The month of February passed away and still the army was in camp, employed in nothing more serious than the daily drill. No one knew when they were to move, where they were to go, nor what they were to do. The commanding general was not a little impatient, and even the more placid Colonel Coffee longed to be in action. At length, on a Sunday morning toward the end of March, an express from Washington reached the camp, and a letter from the War Department was placed in the general's hands. We can imagine the intensity of feel- ing with which he tore it open and gathered its purport, and the fever of excitement which the news of its arrival kindled throughout the camp. The communication was signed " J. Armstrong." Eustis, then, was out of office. Yes, he left the department February 4th, and this let- ter was written by the new Secretary two days after. But its contents ? Was it the perusal of this astounding letter that caused the general's hair to stand on end, and remain forever after erect and bristling, unlike the quills upon the fretful porcupine ? Fancy, if you can, the de- meanor, attitude, countenance, of this fiery and gener- ous soldier, as he read and re-read, with ever-growing wonder and wrath, the following epistle : " Sir : The causes of embodying and marching to New Orleans the corps under your command having ceased to exist, you will, on the receipt of this letter, consider it as dismissed from public service, and take measures to have delivered over to Major-General Wil- kinson all the articles of public property which may IN THE FIELD. 55 have been put into its possession. You will accept for yourself and the corps the thanks of the President of the United States." Dismissed without pay, without means of transport, without provision for the sick ? How could he dismiss men so far from home, to whom, on receiving them from their parents, he had promised to be a father, and either to restore them in honor to their arms, or give them a soldier's burial ? His resolution was taken on the instant never to dis- band his troops till he had led them back to the borders of their own State ! The very day on which the order arrived the general issued the requisite directions for the preparation of wagons, provisions, and ammunition. On the next day he dispatched letters, indignant and explanatory, to the Secretary of War, to Governor Blount, to the President, and to General Wilkinson. He attributed the strange conduct of the Government to every cause but the right one — its own inexperience, and the difficulty of directing operations at places so remote from the seat of Government. At the last moment came the orders of the Govern- ment (which ought to have accompanied the order to disband) directing the force under General Jackson to be paid off, and allowed pay and rations for the journey home. It was too late. The general was resolved, whatever might betide, to conduct the men back to their homes, in person, as an organized body. " I shall com- mence the line of march," he wrote to Wilkinson, " on Thursday, the 25th. Should the contractor not feel himself justified in sending on provisions for my in- fantry, or the quartermaster wagons for the transporta- tion of my sick, I shall dismount the cavalry, carry them on, and provide the means for their support out of my c5 GENERAL JACKSON. private funds. If that should fail, I thank my God we have plenty of horses to feed my troops to the Tennes- see, where I know my country will meet me with ample supplies. These brave men, at the call of their country, voluntarily rallied round its insulted standard. They followed me to the field. I shall carefully march them back to their homes. It is for the agents of the Govern- ment to account to the State of Tennessee and the whole world for their singular and unusual conduct to this de- tachment." This resolve of his to disobey his Government for their sakes, and the manner in which he executed that re- solve, raised his popularity to the highest point. When the little army set out from Natchez for a march of five hundred miles through the wilderness, there were a hun- dred and fifty men on the sick list, of whom fifty-six could not raise their heads from the pillow. There were but eleven wagons for the conveyance of these. The rest of the sick were mounted on the horses of the offi- cers. The general had three excellent horses, and gave them all up to the sick men, himself trudging along on foot with the brisk pace that was usual with him. Day after day he tramped gayly along the miry forest roads, never tired, and always ready with a cheery word for the others. They marched with extraordinary speed, averaging eighteen miles a day, and performing the whole journey in less than a month ; and yet the sick men rapidly recovered under the reviving influences of a homeward march. "Where am I ?" asked one young fellow who had been lifted to his place in a wagon when insensible and apparently dying. " On your way home ! " cried the general, merrily ; and the young soldier began to improve from that hour, and reached home in good health. On approaching the borders of the State the general IN THE FIELD. 57 again offered his services to the Government to aid in, or conduct, a new invasion of Canada. His force, he said, could be increased if necessary, and he had a few- standards wearing the American eagle that he should be happy to place upon the enemy's ramparts. But the de- sired response came not ; and so, on the 22d of May, the last of his army was drawn up on the public square of Nashville waiting only for the word of command to dis- perse to their homes. The troops were dismissed, exulting in their com- mander, and spreading wide the fame of his gallant and graceful conduct. " Long will their general live in the memory of the volunteers of West Tennessee," said the Nashville Whig, a day or two after the troops were dis- banded, " for his benevolent, humane, and fatherly treat- ment of his soldiers. If gratitude and love can reward him. General Jackson has them. It affords us pleasure to say that we believe there is not a man belonging to the detachment but what loves him. His fellow-citizens at home are not less pleased with his conduct. We fondly hope his merited worth will not be overlooked by the Government." These events were not regarded at Washington in the light they were at Nashville. The " Government " came very near making up its mind to let the general bear the responsibilities which he had incurred. Colonel Benton says : " We all returned ; were discharged ; dis- persed among our homes, and the fine chance on which we had so much counted was all gone. And now came a blow upon Jackson himself — the fruit of the moneyed responsibility which he had assumed. His transporta- tion drafts were all protested — returned upon him for payment, which was impossible, and directions to bring suit. This was the month of May. I was coming on to Washington on my own account, and cordially took c8 GENERAL JACKSON. charge of Jackson's case. Suits were delayed until the result of his application of relief could be heard. I ar- rived at this city. Congress was in session — the extra session of the spring and summer of 1813. I applied to the members of Congress from Tennessee ; they could do nothing. I applied to the Secretary of War ; he did nothing. " Weeks had passed away, and the time for delay was expiring at Nashville. Ruin seemed to be hovering over the head of Jackson, and I felt the necessity of some decisive movement. I was young then, and had some material in me — perhaps some boldness, and the occa- sion brought it out. I resolved to take a step, charac- terized in the letter which I wrote to the general as ^ an appeal from the justice to the fears of the Administration.* I remember the words, though I have never seen the let- ter since. I drew up a memoir, addressed to the Secretary of War, representing to him that these volunteers were drawn from the bosoms of almost every substantial family in Tennessee ; that the whole State stood by Jackson in bringing them home ; and that the State would be lost to the Administration if he was left to suffer. It was upon this last argument that I relied — all those founded on justice having failed. "It was on a Saturday morning, June 12th, that I carried this memoir to the War Office and delivered it. Monday morning I came back early to learn the result of my argument. The Secretary was not yet in. I spoke to the chief clerk (who was afterward Adjutant-General Parker), and inquired if the Secretary had left any an- swer for me before he left the office on Saturday. He said No, but that he had put the memoir in his side- pocket — the breast-pocket — and carried it home with him, saying he would take it for his Sunday's considera- tion. That encouraged me — gave a gleam of hope and IN THE FIELD. 59 a feeling of satisfaction. I thought it a good subject for his Sunday's meditation. Presently he arrived. I stepped in before anybody to his office. " He told me quickly and kindly that there was much reason in what I had said, but that there was no way for him to do it ; that Congress would have to give the relief. I answered him that I thought there was a way for him to do it : it was, to give an order to Gen- eral Wilkinson, Quartermaster-General in the Southern Department, to pay for so much transportation as Gen- eral Jackson's command would have been entitled to if it had returned under regular orders. Upon the instant he took up a pen, wrote down the very words I had spoken, directed a clerk to put them into form, and the work was done. The order went off immediately, and Jackson was relieved from imminent impending ruin and Tennessee remained firm to the Administration." Meanwhile, General Jackson was drawn, much against his will, into a "difficulty " with Jesse Benton, a broth- er of Colonel Thomas H. Benton, who had just ren- dered him so important a service. He had even served as second in a duel between Colonel Carroll and Jesse Benton, in which Benton had been wounded. It hap- pened, too, that Colonel Benton heard this strange news at the most unfortunate moment. He had completed his business at Washington, had sent on to Tennessee the news of his great success, and was about to return home, when he heard of this duel, and heard, too, that General Jackson had gone to the field not as his brother's friend but as the second of his brother's an- tagonist ! Soon came wild letters from Jesse,, 5,9 narrat- ing the affair as to place the conduct of General Jackson in the worst possible light. Officious friends of the Ben- tons, foes to Jackson and to Carroll, wrote to Colonel Benton in a similar strain, adding fuel to the fire of his 6o GENERAL JACKSON. indignation. Benton wrote to Jackson denouncing his conduct in offensive terms. Jackson replied, in effect, that before addressing him in that manner Colonel Ben- ton should have inquired of hitn what his conduct really had been — not listened to the tales of designing and in- terested parties. Benton wrote still more angrily. He said that General Jackson had conducted the duel in a " savage, unequal, unfair, and base manner." On his way home through Tennessee, especially at Knoxville, he inveighed bitterly and loudly, in public places, against General Jackson, using language such as angry men did use in the Western country fifty years ago. Jackson had liked Thomas Benton, and remembered with gratitude his parents, particularly his mother, who had been gracious and good to him when he was a " raw lad" iri North Carolina. Jackson was therefore sin- cerely unwilling to break with him, and manifested a degree of forbearance which it is a pity he could not have maintained to the end. He took fire at last, threw old friendship to the winds, and swore by the Eternal that he would horsewhip Tom Benton the first time he met him. On reaching Nashville Colonel Benton and his brother Jesse did not go to their accustomed inn, but stopped at the City Hotel, to avoid General Jackson, unless he chose to go out of his way to seek them. This was on the 3d of September. In the evening of the same day it came to pass that General Jackson and Colonel Coffee rode into town, and put up their horses as usual, at the Nashville Inn. The next morning, about nine, Colonel Coffee pro- posed to General Jackson that they should stroll over to the post-office. They started. The general carried with him, as he ordinarily did, his riding-whip. He also wore a smallsword, as all gentlemen once did, and as IN THE FIELD. 6l official persons were accustomed to do in Tennessee as late as the War of 1812. As they drew near they ob- served that Jesse Benton was standing before the hotel near his brother. On coming up to where Colonel Ben- ton stood, General Jackson turned suddenly toward him, with his whip in his right hand, and, stepping up to him, said : "Now, you d d rascal, I'm going to punish you. Defend yourself! " Benton put his hand into his breast-pocket and seemed to be fumbling for his pistol. As quick as light- ning Jackson drew a pistol from a pocket behind him, and presented it full at his antagonist, who recoiled a pace or two. Jackson advanced upon him. Benton continued to step slowly backward, Jackson close upon him, with a pistol at his heart, until they had reached the back door of the hotel and were in the act of turning down the back piazza. At that moment, just as Jackson was beginning to turn, Jesse Benton entered the passage behind the belligerents, and, seeing his brother's danger, raised his pistol and fired at Jackson. The pistol was loaded with two balls and a large slug. The slug took effect in Jackson's left shoulder, shattering it horribly. One of the balls struck the thick part of his left arm^ and buried itself near the bone. The other ball splin- tered the board partition at his side. The shock of the wounds was such that Jackson fell across the entry and remained prostrate, bleeding profusely. Coffee had remained just outside, meanwhile. Hear- ing the report of the pistol, he sprang into the entry, and, seeing his chief prostrate at the feet of Colonel Benton, concluded that it was his ball that had laid him low. He rushed upon Benton, drew his pistol, fired, and missed. Then he " clubbed " his pistol, and was about to strike, when Colonel Benton, in stepping backward, 52 GENERAL JACKSON. came to some stairs of which he was not aware and fell headlong to the bottom. Coffee, thinking him hors de combat, hastened to the assistance of his wounded gen- eral. Faint from the loss of blood, Jackson was conveyed to a room in the Nashville Inn, his wound still bleeding fearfully. Before the bleeding could be stopped, two mattresses, as Mrs. Jackson used to say, were soaked through, and the general was reduced almost to the last gasp. All the doctors in Nashville were soon in at- tendance, all but one of whom, and he a young man, recommended the amputation of the shattered arm. " I'll keep my arm," said the wounded man, and he kept it. No attempt was made to extract the ball, and it remained in the arm for twenty years. The ghastly wounds in the shoulder were dressed, in the simple manner of the Indians and pioneers, with poultices of slippery elm and other products of the woods. The patient was utterly prostrated with the loss of blood. It was two or three weeks before he could leave his bed. After the retirement of the general's friends the Bentons remained for an hour or more upon the scene of the affray, denouncing Jackson as an assassin, and a defeated assassin. They defied him to come forth and renew the strife. Colonel Benton made a parade of breaking Jackson's smallsword, which had been dropped in the struggle and left on the floor of the hotel. He broke it in the public square, and accompanied the act with words defiant and contemptuous, uttered in the loudest tones of his thundering voice. The general's friends, all anxiously engaged around the couch of their bleeding chief, disregarded these demonstrations at the time, and the brothers retired, victorious and exulting. Shortly after the affray Colonel Benton went to his home in Franklin, Tennessee, beyond the reach of IN THE FIELD. 63 " Jackson's puppies." He was appointed lieutenant- colonel in the regular army, left Tennessee, resigned his commission at the close of the war, emigrated to Mis- souri, and never again met General Jackson till 1823, when both were members of the Senate of the United States. Jesse Benton, I may add, never forgave General Jackson, nor could he ever excuse his brother for for- giving the general. Publications against Jackson by the angry Jesse, dated as late as 1828, may be seen in old collections of political trash. CHAPTER VIII. THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. August 30, 1813, was the date of this most terrible event. The place was a fort, or stockade-of-refuge, on the shores of Lake Tensaw, in the southern part of what is now the State of Alabama. One Samuel Mims, an old and wealthy inhabitant of the Indian country, had inclosed with upright logs an acre of land, in the middle of which stood his house, a spacious one-story building, with sheds adjoining. The inclosure, pierced with five hundred portholes three and a half feet from the ground, was entered by two heavy, rude gates, one on t^e eastern, and one on the western side. In a corner, on a slight elevation, a blockhouse was begun but never finished. When the country became thoroughly alarmed by the hostility of the Indians, the inhabitants along the Alabama River, few in number and without means of defense, had left their crops standing in the fields and their houses open to the plunderer, and had rushed to the blockhouses and stockades, of which there were twenty in a line of seventy miles. The neighbors of Mr. Mims resorted to his inclosure, each family hastening to construct within it a rough cabin for its own accommodation. As soon as the fort— for fort it was called— was suffi- ciently prepared for their reception, Governor Claiborne, of New Orleans, dispatched one hundred and seventy- five volunteers to assist in its defense, under the com- THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 65 mand of Major Daniel Beasley. Already, from the neigh- borhood, seventy militiamen had assembled at the fort, besides a mob of friendly Indians and one hundred and six negro slaves. Upon taking the command, Major Beasley, to accommodate the multitude which thronged to the fort, had enlarged it by making a new line of picketing sixty feet beyond the eastern end, but left the old line of stockades standing, thus forming two in- closures. On the morning of the fatal day, though Major Beasley had spared some of his armed men for the de- fense of neighboring stations. Fort Mims contained five hundred and fifty-three souls — a mass of human beings crowded together in a flat, swampy region, under the broiling sun of an Alabama August. Of these, more than one hundred were white women and children. Many days had passed — long, hot, tedious days — and no Indians were seen. The first terror abated. The higher officers, it seems, had scarcely believed at all in the hostile intentions of the Creeks, and were inclined to make light of the general consternation. At least, they were entirely confident in their ability to defend the fort against any force that the Indians could bring against it. The motley inmates gave themselves up to fun and frolic. A rumor would occasionally come in with alarming news of Indian movements, and for a few hours the old caution was resumed, and the men would languidly work on the defenses. But still the hourly scouts sent out by the commander could discover no traces of an enemy, and the hot days and nights still wore away without alarm. On August 29th, two slaves, who had been sent out to watch some cattle that grazed a few miles from the fort, came rushing breathless through the gate, reporting that they had seen twenty-four painted warriors. A general 55 GENERAL JACKSON. alarm ensued, and the garrison flew to their stations. A party of horse, guided by the negroes, galloped to the spot, but could neither find Indians nor discover any of the usual traces of their presence. Upon their return one of the negroes was tied up and severely flogged for alarming the garrison by what Major Beasley supposed to be a sheer fabrication. The other negro would also have been punished but for the interference of his mas- ter, who believed his tale ; at which interference the major was so much displeased that he ordered the gen- tleman, with his large family, to leave the fort on the following morning. Never did such a fatal infatuation possess the mind of a man intrusted with so many hu- man lives. The 30th of August arrived. At ten in the morning the commandant was sitting in his room writing to Governor Claiborne a letter (which still exists) to the effect that he need not concern himself in the least re- specting the safety of Fort Mims, as there was no doubt of its impregnability against any Indian force whatever. Both gates were wide open. Women were preparing dinner. Children were playing about the cabins. Sol- diers were sauntering, sleeping, playing cards. The owner of the frightened negro had now consented to his punishment rather than leave the fort, and the poor fel- low was tied up expecting soon to feel the lash. His companion, who had been whipped the day before, was tending cattle at the same place where again he saw, or thought he saw, painted warriors; and, fearing to be whipped again if he reported the news, he fled to the next station some miles distant. All this calm and quiet morning, from before day- light until noon, there lay, in a ravine only four hundred yards from the fort's eastern gate, one thousand Creek warriors, armed to the teeth, and hideous with war-paint THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 67 and feathers. Weathersford, the crafty and able chief- tain, had led them from Pensacola, where the British had supplied them with weapons and ammunition, to this well-chosen spot, where they crouched and waited through the long slow morning, with the devilish pa- tience with which savages and tigers can wait for their prey. So dead was the silence in the ravine that the birds fluttered and sang as usual in the branches above the dusky, breathing mass. Five prophets with black- ened faces, with medicine-bags and magic rods, lay among them, ready at the signal to begin their incanta- tions and stimulate the fury of the warriors. At noon a drum in the fort beat to dinner. Officers and men, their arms laid aside, all unsuspicious of dan- ger, were gathering to the meal in various parts of the stockade. That dinner-drum was the signal which Weathersford had cunningly chosen for the attack. At the first tap the silent ravine was alive with Indians, who leaped up and ran in a tumultuous mass toward the eastern gate of the devoted fort. The head of the 'throng had reached a field one hundred and fifty yards across that lay before the gate, had raised a hideous whoop, and were streaming across the field, before a sentinel saw or heard them. Then arose the terrible cry, ^''Indians! Indiafts ! " and there was a rush of women and children to the houses, and of men to the gates and portholes. Major Beasley was one of the first at the gate, and made a frantic attempt to close it; but sand had washed into the gateway, and ere the obstruction could be removed the savages poured in, felled the com- mander to the earth with clubs and tomahawks, and ran over his bleeding body into the fort. He crawled behind the gate, and in a few minutes died, exhorting his men with his last breath to make a resolute resist- ance. At once the whole of that part of the fort which 68 GENERAL JACKSON. had been lately added, and which was separated from the main inclosure by the old line of pickets, was filled with Indians, hooting, howling, dancing among the dead bodies of many of the best officers and men of the little garrison. The poor negro, tied up to be whipped for doing all he could to prevent this catastrophe, was killed as he stood waiting for his punishment. The situation was at once simple and horrible. Two inclosures adjoining, with a line of portholes through the log partition — one inclosure full of men, women, children, friendly Indians and negroes, the other filled with howling savages, mad with the lust of slaughter ; both compartments containing sheds, cabins, and other places for refuge and assault ; the large open field with- out the eastern gate covered with what seemed a count- less swarm of naked fiends hurrying to the fort ; all avenues of escape closed by Weathersford's foresight and vigilance ; no white station within three miles, and no adequate help within a day's march ; the comman- dant and some of his ablest officers trampled under the feet of the savage foe — such was the posture of affairs at Fort Mims a few minutes after noon on this dreadful day. The garrison, partly recovering their first panic, formed along the line of portholes and fired some effective volleys, killing with the first discharge the five prophets who were dancing, grimacing, and howl- ing among the assailants in the smaller inclosure. These men had given out that they were invulnerable. American bullets were to split upon their sacred per- sons and pass off harmless. Their fall so abated the ardor of the savages that their fire slackened, and some began to retreat from the fort. But new crowds kept coming up, and the attack was soon renewed in all its first fury. The garrison, with scarcely an exception, behaved as THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 69 men should do in circumstances so terrible and desper- ate. One Captain Bailey took the command after the death of Major Beasley, and infused the fire of his own indomitable spirit into the hearts of the whole com- pany, adding an example of cool valor to encouraging words. The garrison maintained a ceaseless and de- structive fire through the portholes and from the houses. It happened more than once that, at a si- multaneous discharge through a porthole, both the Indian without and the white man within were killed. Even the boys and some of the women assisted in the defense; and few of the women gave themselves up to terror while there remained any hope of preserving the fort. Some of the old men broke holes in the roof of the large house and did good execution upon the sav- ages outside of the stockade. The noise was terrific. All the Indians who could not get at the portholes to fight seemed to have passed the hours of this horrible day in dancing round the fort, screaming, hooting, and taunting the inmates with their coming fate. Amid scenes like these three hours passed, and still the larger part of the fort remained in the hands of the garrison, though many a gallant soldier had fallen, and the rooms of the large house were filled with wounded men and ministering women. The heroic Bailey still spoke cheerily. He said that Indians never fought long when they were bravely met ; they would certainly abandon the assault if the garrison continued to resist. He tried to induce a small party to make a sortie, fight their way to the next station, and bring a force to attack the enemy in the rear. Failing in this, he said he would go himself, and began to climb the picketing, but was pulled back by his friends, who saw the madness of the attempt. About three o'clock the Indians seemed to tire of the long contest. The fire slackened, the howl- ^Q GENERAL JACKSON. ings subsided, the savages began to carry off the plun- der from the cabins in the lesser inclosure, and hope revived in many a despairing heart. But Weathersford at this hour rode up on a large black horse, and, meet- ing a throng of the retreating plunderers, upbraided them in an animated speech, and induced them to return with him to the fort and complete its destruction. And now fire was added to the horrors of the scene! By burning arrows and other expedients the house of Mr. Mims was set on fire, and soon the whole structure, with its extensive outbuildings and sheds, was wrapped in flames; while the shrieks of the women and children were heard, for the first time, above the dreadful din and whoop of the battle. One after another the smaller buildings caughtj until the whole inclosure was a roar- ing sea of flame, except one poor corner, where some extra picketing formed a last refuge to the surviving victims. Into this inclosure hurried a crowd of women, children, negroeSj old men, wounded soldiers, trampling one another to death — all in the last agonies of mortal terror. The savages were soon upon them, and the work of slaughter — fierce, unrelenting slaughter — began. Children were seized by the feet and their brains dashed out against the pickets. Women were cut to pieces. Men were tomahawked and scalped. Some poor Span- iards, deserters from Pensacola, were kneeling along the pickets, and were tomahawked one after another as they knelt. Weathersford, who was not a savage, but a misguided hero and patriot, worthy of Tecumseh's friendship, did what Tecumseh would have done if he 'lad been there: he tried to stop this horrid carnage. But the Indians were delirious and frantic with the love of blood, and would not stay their murderous hands while one of that mass of human victims continued to live. At noon that day, as we have seen, five hundred and THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 71 fifty-three persons were inmates of Fort Mims. At sun- set, four hundred mangled, scalped and bloody corpses were heaped and strewed within its wooden walls. Not one white woman, not one white child, escaped. Twelve of the garrison, at the last moment, by cutting through two of the pickets, got out of the fort and fled to the swamp. A large number of the negroes were spared by the Indians and kept for slaves. A few half-breeds were made prisoners. Captain Bailey, severely wounded, ran to the swamp, and died by the side of a cypress stump. A negro woman, with a ball in her breast, reached a canoe on Lake Tensaw and paddled fifteen miles to Fort Stoddart, and bore the first news of the massacre to Governor Claiborne. Most of the men who fled from the slaughter wandered for days in the swamps and forests, and only reached places of safety, nearly starved, after many a hair-breadth escape from the In- dians. Some of them were living forty years ago, from whose lips Mr. A. J. Pickett, the historian of Alabama, gathered most of the particulars which have been briefly related here. The garrison sold their lives as dearly as they could. It is thought that four hundred of Weathersford's band were killed and wounded. That night the savages, ex- hausted with their bloody work, appear to have slept near the scene of the massacre. Next day they returned to bury their dead, but, fatigued with the number, gave it up and left many exposed. Ten days after. Major Kennedy reached the spot with a detachment of troops to bury the bodies of the whites, and found the air dark with buzzards, and hundreds of dogs gnawing the bodies. In two large pits the troops, shuddering now with horror and now fierce for revenge, succeeded at length in bury- ing the remains of their countrymen and countrywomen. Major Kennedy said in his report : " Indians, negroes. 72 GENERAL JACKSON. white men, women, and children, lay in one promiscuous ruin. All were scalped, and the females of every age were butchered in a manner which neither decency nor language will permit me to describe. The main build- ing was burned to ashes, which were filled with bones. The plains and woods around were covered with dead bodies. All the houses were consumed by fire except the blockhouse and a part of the pickets. The soldiers and officers with one voice called on Divine Providence to revenge the death of our murdered friends." Such was the massacre at Fort Mims. The news flew upon the wings of the wind. From Mobile to the borders of Tennessee, from the vicinity of New Orleans almost to the coast of Georgia, there was felt to be no safety for the white man except in fortified posts; nor certain safety even in them. In the country of the Ala- bama River and its branches, every white man, woman, and child, every friendly half-breed and Indian, hurried to the stockades or fled in wild terror toward Mobile. " Never in my life," wrote an eyewitness, " did I see a country given up before without a struggle. Here are the finest crops my eyes ever beheld made and almost fit to be housed, with immense herds of cattle, negroes, and property, abandoned by their owners almost on the first alarm." Within the stockades diseases raged, and hundreds of families, unable to get within those inclos- ures, lay around the walls, squalid, panic-stricken, sick, and miserable. Parties of Indians roved about the country rioting in plunder. After burning the houses and laying waste the plantations, they would drive the cattle together in herds, and either destroy them in a mass or drive them off for their future use. The horses were taken to facilitate their marauding, and their camps were filled with the luxuries of the planters' houses. Governor Qaiborne, a generous and feeling man, was THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 73 at his wits' end. From every quarter came the most urgent and pathetic demands for troops. Not a man could be spared, for no one knew where next the exult- ant savages would endeavor to repeat the catastrophe of Fort Mims; and in the best-defended forts there were five non-combatants to one soldier. For some weeks of the autumn of 1813 it really seemed as if the white settlers of Alabama, including those of Mobile itself, were on the point of being exterminated. The news of the massacre at Fort Mims was thirty- one days in reaching New York. It is a proof how oc- cupied were the minds of the people in the Northern States with great events, that the dread narrative ap- peared in the New York papers only as an item of war news of comparatively small importance. The last pro- digious acts in the drama of Napoleon's decline and fall were watched with absorbing interest. The news of Perry's victory on Lake Erie had just thrilled the nation with delight and pride, and all minds were still eager for every new particular. Harrison's victory on the Thames over Proctor and Tecumseh soon followed. The lamentable condition of the Southern country was there- fore little felt at the time beyond the States immediately concerned. Perry and Harrison were the heroes of the hour. Their return from the scene of their exploits was a continuous triumphal /^^^ swallowed them up, or was waiting to do so, and the brave Lavack was a prisoner. Lieuten- ant Lavack further declared that when he first looked down behind the American lines he saw the riflemen " flying in a disorderly mob," which all other witnesses deny. Doubtless there was some confusion there, as every man was fighting his own battle, and there was much struggling to get to the rampart to fire, and from the rampart to load. Moreover, if the lines had been THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 2IQ surmounted by the foe, a backward movement on the part of the defenders would have been in order and necessary. Thus, then, it fared with the attack on the weakest part of the American position. Let us see what success rewarded the enemy's efforts against the strongest. Colonel Rennie, when he saw the signal rocket as- cend, pressed on to the attack with such rapidity that the American outposts along the river had to run for it, Rennie's vanguard close upon their heels. Indeed, so mingled seemed pursuers and pursued that Captain Humphrey had to withhold his fire for a few minutes, for fear of sweeping down friend and foe. As the last of the Americans leaped down into the isolated redoubt British soldiers began to mount its sides. A brief hand- to-hand conflict ensued within the redoubt between the party defending it and the British advance. In a sur- prisingly short time the Americans, overpowered by numbers and astounded at the suddenness of the attack, fled across the plank and climbed over into safety be- hind the lines. Then was poured into the redoubt a deadly and incessant fire, which cleared it of the foe in less time than it had taken them to capture it; while Humphrey, with his great guns, mowed down the still advancing column, and Patterson, from the other side of the river, added the fire of his powerful batteries. Brief was the unequal contest. Colonel Rennie, Cap- tain Henry, Major King, three only of this column, reached the summit of the rampart near the river's edge. '' Hurrah, boys! " cried Rennie, already wounded, as the three officers gained the breastwork, '' hurrah, boys ! the day is ours." At that moment Beale's New Orleans sharpshooters, withdrawing a few paces for better aim, fired a volley, and the three noble soldiers fell headlong into the ditch. 220 GENERAL JACKSON. That was the end of it. Flight, tumultuous flight — some running on the top of the ^evee, some under it, others down the road, while Patterson's guns played upon them still with terrible effect. The three slain officers were brought out of the canal behind the lines, when, we are told, a warm discussion arose among the Rifles for the honor of having "brought down the colonel." Mr. Withers, a merchant of New Orleans, and the crack shot of the company, settled the controversy by remarking: "If he isn't hit above the eyebrows, it wasn't my shot." Upon examining the lifeless form of Rennie it was found that the fatal wound was indeed in the forehead. To Withers, therefore, was assigned the duty of sending the watch and other valuables found upon the person of the fallen hero to his widow, who was in the fleet off Lake Borgne. Such acts as these made a lasting im- pression upon the officers of the British army. When Washington Irving was in Paris, in 1822, Colonel Thorn- ton, who led the attack on the western bank, referred to the sending back of personal property of this kind in terms of warm commendation. A story connected with the advance of Colonel Ren- nie's column is related by Judge Walker : " As the de- tachments along the road advanced, their bugler, a boy of fourteen or fifteen, climbing a small tree within two hundred yards of the American lines, straddled a limb and continued to blow the charge with all his power. There he remained during the whole action, while the cannon balls and bullets plowed t^e ground around him, killed scores of men, and tore even the branches of the tree in which he sat. Above the thunder of the artillery, the rattling of the musketry fire, and all the din and uproar of the strife, the shrill blast of the little bugler could be heard; and even when his companions had fallen THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 221 back and retreated from the field he continued true to his duty and blew the change with undiminished vigor. At last, when the British had entirely abandoned the ground, an American soldier passing from the lines cap- tured the little bugler and brought him into camp, where he was greatly astonished when some of the enthusiastic Creoles, who had observed his gallantry, actually em- braced him, and officers and men vied with each other in acts of kindness to so gallant a little soldier." The reserve, under General Lambert, was never or- dered up. Major Tylden obeyed the last order of his general, and General Lambert had directed the bugler to sound the advance. A chance shot struck the bugler's uplifted arm and the instrument fell to the ground. The charge was never sounded. General Lambert brought forward his division far enough to cover the retreat of the broken columns and to deter General Jackson from attempting a sortie. The chief command had fallen upon Lambert, and he was overwhelmed by the unex- pected and fearful issue of the battle. How long a time elapsed between the fire of the first American gun and the total rout of the attacking col- umns ? Twenty-five minutes ! Not that the American fire ceased or even slackened at the expiration of that period. The riflemen on the left and the troops on the right continued to discharge their weapons into the smoke that hung over the plain for two hours. But in the space of twenty-five minutes the discomfiture of the enemy in the open field was complete. The battery alone still made resistr.rce. It required two hours of a tremendous cannonade to silence its great guns and drive its defenders to the rear. The scene behind the American works during the fire can be easily imagined. One half of the army never fired a shot. The battle was fought at the two extremi- 222 GENERAL JACKSON. ties of the lines. The battalions of Planche, Dacquin, and Lacoste, the whole of the Fourty-fourth regiment, and one half of Coffee's Tennesseeans, had nothing to do but to stand still at their posts and chafe with vain impatience for a chance to join in the fight. The bat- teries alone at the center of the works contributed any- thing to the fortunes of the day. Yet that is not quite correct. " The moment the British came into view, and their signal rocket pierced the sky with its fiery train, the band of the Battalion d'Orleans struck up * Yankee Doodle,' and thenceforth throughout the action it did not cease to discourse all the national and military airs in which it had been instructed." When the action began, Jackson walked along the left of the lines, speaking a few words of good cheer to the men as he passed the several corps. " Stand to your guns. Don't waste your ammunition. See that every shot tells. Let us finish the business to- day." Such words as these escaped him now and then, the men not engaged cheering him as he went by. As the battle became general, he took a position on ground slightly elevated, near the center, which commanded a view of the scene. There, with mind intensely excited, he watched the progress of the strife. When it became evident that the enemy's columns were finally broken. Major Hinds, whose dragoons were drawn up in the rear, entreated the general for permission to dash out upon them in pursuit. It was a tempting offer to such a man as Jackson. But prudence prevailed, and the re- quest was refused. At eight o'clock, there being no signs of a renewed attack, and no enemy in sight, an order was sent along the lines to cease firing with the small arms. The gen- eral, surrounded by his staff, then walked from end to THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 223 end of the works, stopping at each battery and post and addressing a few words of congratulation and praise to their defenders. It was a proud, glad moment for these men when, panting from their labor, blackened with smoke and sweat, they listened to the general's burning words and saw the light of victory in his countenance. With particular warmth he thanked and commended Beale's little band of riflemen, the companies of the Seventh, and Humphrey's artillerymen, who had so gal- lantly beaten back the column of Colonel Rennie. Heartily, too, he extolled the wonderful firing of the divisions of General Carroll and General Adair, not for- getting Coffee, who had dashed out upon the black skirmishers in the swamp and driven them out of sight in ten minutes. This joyful ceremony over, the artillery, which had continued to play upon the British batteries, ceased their fire for the guns to cool and the dense smoke to roll off. The whole army crowded to the parapet and looked over into the field. What a scene was gradually dis- closed to them ! That gorgeous and imposing military array, the two columns of attack, the Highland phalanx, the distant reserve — all had vanished like an apparition. Far away down the plain the glass revealed a faint red line still receding. Nearer to the lines " we could see," says Nolte, "the British troops concealing themselves behind the shrubbery, or throwing themselves into the ditches and gullies. In some of the latter, indeed, they lay so thickly that they were only distinguishable in the distance by the white shoulder-belts, which formed a line along the top of their hiding-place." Still nearer, the plain was covered and heaped with dead and wounded, as well as with those who had fallen paralyzed by fear alone. " I never had," Jackson would say, " so grand and awful an idea of the resurrection as 224 GENERAL JACKSON. on that day. After the smoke of the battle had cleared off somewhat I saw in the distance more than five hundred Britons emerging from the heaps of their dead comrades all over the plain, rising up, and still more distinctly visible as the field became clearer, com- ing forward and surrendering as prisoners of war to our soldiers. They had fallen at our first fire upon them without having received so much as a scratch, and lay prostrate as if dead until the close of the action." The American army were appalled and silenced at the scene before them. The writhings of the wounded, their shrieks and groans, their convulsive and sudden tossing of limbs, were horrible to see and hear. Seven hundred killed, fourteen hundred wounded, five hundred prisoners, were the result of that twenty-five minutes' work. Jackson's loss was eight killed and thirteen wounded. Two men were killed at the left of the lines, two in the isolated redoubt, and four in the swamp pur- suing the skirmishers. General Jackson had no sooner finished his round of congratulations, and beheld the completeness of his vic- tory on the eastern bank, than he began to cast anxious glances across the river, wondering at the silence of Morgan's lines and Patterson's guns. They flashed and spoke at length. Jackson and Adair, mounting the breastwork, saw Thornton's column advancing to the attack, and saw Morgan's men open fire upon them vig- orously. All is well, thought Jackson. "Take off your hats and give them three cheers!" shouted the general, though Morgan's division was a mile and a half distant. The order was obeyed, and the whole army watched the action with intense interest, not doubting that the gallant Kentuckians and Louisianians on that side of the river would soon drive back the British column, as they THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 225 themselves had just driven back those of Gibbs and Rennie. These men had become used to seeing British columns recoil and vanish before their fire. Not a thought of disaster on the western bank crossed their elated minds. Yet Thornton carried the day on the western bank. Even while the men were in the act of cheering, General Jackson saw with mortification, never forgotten by him while he drew breath, the division under General Mor- gan abandon their position and run in headlong flight toward the city. Clouds of smoke soon obscured the scene, but the flashes of the musketry advanced up the river, disclosing to General Adair and his men the humiliating fact that their comrades had not rallied, but were still in swift retreat before the foe. In a moment the elation of General Jackson's troops was changed to anger and apprehension. Fearing the worst consequences, and fearing them with reason, the general leaped down from the breast- work and made instant preparations for sending over a powerful re-enforcement. At all hazards the western bank must be regained. All is lost if it be not. Let but the enemy have free course up the western bank, with a mortar and a twelve-pounder, and New Orleans will be at their mercy in two hours ! Nay, let Commodore Pat- terson but leave one of his guns unspiked, and Jackson's lines, raked by it from river to swamp, are untenable ! All this, which was immediately apparent to the mind of General Jackson, was understood also by all of his army who had reflected upon their position. Indeed, by ten o'clock in the morning the British were masters of the western bank, although, owing to the want of available artillery, their triumph for the moment was a fruitless one. On one of the guns captured in General Morgan's lines the victors read this inscription : " Taken at the 226 GENERAL JACKSON. surrender of Yorktown, 1781." In a tent behind the lines they found the ensign of one of the Louisiana regiments, which still hangs in Whitehall, London, bear- ing these words: ^' Taken at the battle of New Orleans, Jan. 8th, 1815." General Lambert, stunned by the events of the morn- ing, was morally incapable of improving this important success. And it was well for him and for his army that he was so. Soldiers there have been who would have seen in Thornton's triumph the means of turning the tide of disaster and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. But General Lambert found himself suddenly invested with the command of an army which, besides having lost a third of its effective force, was almost destitute of field officers. The mortality among the higher grade of officers had been frightful. Three ma- jor-generals, eight colonels and lieutenant-colonels, six majors, eighteen captains, and fifty-four subalterns, were among the killed and wounded. In such circumstances, Lambert, instead of hurrying over artillery and re-en- forcements, and marching on New Orleans, did a less spirited but a wiser thing: he sent over an officer to survey General Morgan's lines, and ascertain how many men would be required to hold them. In other words, he sent over an officer to bring him back a plausible ex- cuse for abandoning Colonel Thornton's conquest. And during the absence of the officer on this errand the Brit- ish general resolved upon a measure still more pacific. General Jackson, meanwhile, was intent upon dis- patching his re-enforcement. It never for one moment occurred to his warlike mind that the British general would relinquish so vital an advantage without a desper- ate struggle, and accordingly he prepared for a desper- ate struggle. Organizing promptly a strong body of troops, he placed it under the command of General THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 227 Humbert, a refugee officer of distinction who had led the French revolutionary expedition into Ireland in 1798, and was then serving in the lines as a volunteer. Humbert, besides being the only general officer that Jackson could spare from his own position, was a soldier of high repute and known courage, a martinet in disci- pline, and a man versed in the arts of European warfare. About eleven o'clock the re-enforcement left the camp, with orders to hasten across the river by the ferry at New Orleans and march down toward the enemy, and, after effecting a junction with General Morgan's troops, to attack him and drive him from the lines. Before noon Humbert was well on his way. Soon after midday, some American troops who were walking about the blood-stained field in front of Jack- son's position perceived a British party of novel aspect approaching. It consisted of an officer in full uniform, a trumpeter, and a soldier bearing a white flag. Halt- ing at the distance of three hundred yards from the breastwork, the trumpeter blew a blast upon his bugle, which brought the whole army to the edge of the para- pet, gazing with eager curiosity upon this unexpected but not unwelcome spectacle. Colonel Butler and two other officers were immediately dispatched by General Jackson to receive the message thus announced. After an exchange of courteous salutations, the British officer handed Colonel Butler a letter directed to the American commander-in-chief, which proved to be a proposal for an armistice of twenty-four hours, that the dead might be buried and the wounded removed from the field. The letter was signed " Lambert," a device, as was con^ jectured, to conceal from Jackson the death of the Brit- ish general in command. The sprinkling of Scottish blood that flowed in Jack- son's veins asserted itself on this occasion. Time was 228 GENERAL JACKSON. now an all-important object with him, since Humbert and his command could not yet have crossed the river, and Jackson's whole soul was bent on the regaining of the western bank. "Lambert?" thought the general. *'Who is Lam- bert ? " Major Butler was ordered to return to the flag of truce, and to say that Major-General Jackson would be happy to receive any communication from the com- mander-in-chief of the British army ; but as to the letter signed " Lambert," Major-General Jackson, not know- ing the rank and powers of that gentleman, must beg to decline corresponding with him. The flag departed, but returned in half an hour with the same proposal, signed " John Lambert, commander- in-chief of the British forces." Jackson's answer was prompt and ingenious. Humbert, by this time, he thought, if he had not crossed the river, must be near crossing, and might, in a diplomatic sense, be considered crossed. Jackson therefore consented to an armistice on the eastern bank, expressly stipulating that hostili- ties were not to be suspended on the western side of the river, and that neither party should send over re-en- forcements until the expiration of the armistice! When this reply reached General Lambert he had not yet received the report from the western bank, and was still in some degree undecided as to the course he should pursue there. With the next return of the flag, therefore, came a request from Lambert for time to consider General Jackson's reply. To-morrow morning, at ten o'clock, he would send a definite answer. The cannonade from the lines continued through the after- noon, and the troops stood at their posts, not certain that they would not again be attacked. Early in the afternoon the officer returned from his THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 229 inspection of the works on the western bank, and gave it as his opinion that they could not be held with less than two thousand men. General Lambert at once sent an order to Colonel Gubbins to abandon the works, and to recross the river with his whole command. The order was not obeyed without difficulty, for by this time the Louisianians, urged by a desire to retrieve the fortunes of the day and their own honor, began to approach the lost redoubts in considerable bodies. With what alacrity Commodore Patterson and Gen- eral Morgan then rushed to their redoubts and batteries ; with what assiduity the sailors bored out the spikes of the guns, toiling at the work all the next night; with what zeal the troops labored to strengthen the lines; with what joy Jackson heard the tidings, may be left to the reader to imagine. The dead in front of Jackson's lines, scattered and heaped upon the field, lay all night a spectacle of hor- ror to the American outposts stationed in their midst. Many of the wounded succeeded in crawling or tottering back to their camp. Many more were brought in behind the lines and conveyed to New Orleans, where they received every humane attention. But probably some hundreds of poor fellows, hidden in the wood or lying motionless in ditches, lingered in unrelieved agony all that day and night, until late in the following morning. As soon as it was dark, many uninjured soldiers, who had lain in the ditches and shrubbery, rejoined their comrades in the rear. The news of the great victory electrified the nation, and raised it from the lowest pitch of despondency. All the large cities were illuminated in the evening after the glad tidings reached them. Before the rejoicings were over came news still more joyful — that the commission- ers at Ghent had signed a treaty of peace. The war was 16 230 GENERAL JACKSON. at an end. A courier was promptly dispatched from Washington to New Orleans to convey to General Jack- son the news of peace. Furnished by the postmaster- general with a special order to his deputies on the route to facilitate the progress of the messenger by all the means in their power, he traveled with every advantage, and made great speed. He left Washington on the 15th of February, thirty-eight days after the battle. He has a fair month's journey before him, which he will perform in nineteen days. CHAPTER XVII. END OF THE CAMPAIGN. How pleasant it would be to dismiss now the con- queror home to his Hermitage, to enjoy the congratula- tions of his neighbors and the plaudits of a nation whose pride he had so keenly gratified ! His work was not done. The next three months of his life at New Orleans were crowded with events, many of which were delight- ful, many of which were painful in the extreme. The trials of the American army, so far as its pa- tience was concerned, began, not ended, with the vic- tory of the 8th of January. The rains descended and the floods came upon the soft delta of the Mississippi, converting both camps into quagmires. Relieved of care, relieved from toil, yet compelled to keep the field by night and day, the greater part of the American army had nothing to do but endure the inevitable miseries of the situation. Disease began its fell work among them — malignant influenza, fevers, and, worst of all, dysentery. Major Latour computes that during the few weeks that elapsed between the 8th of January and the end of the campaign, five hundred of Jackson's army died from these complaints — a far greater number than had fallen in action. While the enemy remained there was no repining. The sick men, yellow and gaunt, staggered into the hospitals when they could no longer stand to their posts, and lay down to die without a murmur. 232 GENERAL JACKSON. For ten days after the battle the English army re- mained in their encampment, deluged with rain and flood, and played upon at intervals by the American batteries on both sides of the river. They seemed to be totally inactive. They were not so. General Lam- bert, from the day of the great defeat, was resolved to retire to the shipping. But that had now become an affair of extreme difficulty, as an English officer ex- plains : "In spite of our losses," he says, "there were not throughout the armament a sufficient number of boats to transport above one half of the army at a time. If, however, we should separate, the chances were that both parties would be destroyed; for those embarked might be intercepted, and those left behind would be obliged to cope with the entire American force. Be- sides, even granting that the Americans might be re- pulsed, it would be impossible to take to our boats in their presence, and thus at least one division, if not both, must be sacrificed, " To obviate this difficulty, prudence required that the road which we had formed on landing should be contmued to the very margin of the lake, while appear- ances seemed to indicate the total impracticability of the scheme. From firm ground to the water's edge was here a distance of many miles, through the very center of a morass where human foot had never before trod- den. Yet it was desirable at least to make the attempt ; for if it failed we should only be reduced to our former alternative of gaining a battle or surrendering at dis- cretion. " Having determined to adopt this course, General Lambert immediately dispatched strong working par- ties, under the guidance of engineer officers, to lengthen the road, keeping as near as possible to the margin of END OF THE CAMPAIGN, 233 the creek. But the task assigned to them was burdened with difficulties. For the extent of several leagues no firm footing could be discovered on which to rest the foundation of a path, nor any trees to assist in forming hurdles. All that could be done, therefore, was to bind together large quantities of reeds and lay them across the quagmire, by which means at least the semblance of a road was produced, however wanting in firmness and solidity ; but where broad ditches came in the way, many of which intersected the morass, the workmen were necessarily obliged to apply more durable materials. For these, bridges composed in part of large branches, brought with immense labor from the woods, were con- structed, but they were, on the whole, little superior in point of strength to the rest of the path, for, though the edges were supported by timber, the middle was filled up only by reeds." It required nine days of incessant and arduous labor to complete the road. The wounded were then sent on board, except eighty who could not be removed. The abandoned guns were spiked and broken. In the even- ing of the i8th the main body of the army commenced its retreat. "Trimming the fires," continues the Brit- ish officer, "and arranging all things in the same order as if no change were to take place, regiment after regi- ment stole away, as soon as darkness concealed their motions ; leaving the pickets to follow as a rear guard, but with strict injunctions not to retire till daylight began to appear. As may be supposed, the most pro- found silence was maintained; not a man opening his mouth except to issue necessary orders, and even then speaking in a whisper. Not a cough or any other noise was to be heard from the head to the rear of the col- umn ; and even the steps of the soldiers were planted with care, to prevent the slightest stamping or echo." 234 GENERAL JACKSON. With an ignominious wallow in the mire (" the v/hole army," as another narrator remarks, " covered with mud from the top of the head to the sole of the foot ") the Wellington heroes ended their month's exertions in the delta of the Mississippi. They were in mortal terror of the alligators, it appears, whose domain they had in- truded upon. "Just before dark, on the night of the re- treat," says Captain Cooke, " I saw an alligator emerge from the water and penetrate the wilderness of reeds which encircled us on this muddy quagmire as far as the eye could reach. The very idea of the monster prowling about in the stagnant swamp took possession of my mind in a most forcible manner ; to look out for the enemy was a secondary consideration. The word was, * Look out for alligators ! ' Nearly the whole night I stood a few paces from the entrance of the hut, not daring to enter, under the apprehension that an alligator might push a broad snout through the reeds and gobble me up. The soldiers slept in a lump. At length, being quite worn out from want of sleep, I summoned up courage to enter the hut, but often started wildly out of my feverish slumbers, involuntarily laying hold of my naked sword, and conjuring up every rustling noise among the reeds to be one of those disgusting brutes, with a mouth large enough to swallow an elephant's The retreat was so well managed (General Lambert was knighted for it soon after) that the sun was high in the heavens on the following morning before the Amer- ican army had any suspicion of the departure of the enemy. And when it began to be suspected, some fur- ther time elapsed before the fact was ascertained. Their camp presented the same appearance as it had for many days previous. Sentinels seemed to be posted as before, and flags were flying. The American general and his END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 235 aides, from the high window at headquarters, surveyed the position through the glass, and were inclined to think that the enemy were only lying low, with a view to draw the troops out of the lines into the open plain. The veteran General Humbert, a Frenchman, surpassed the acuteness of the backwoodsmen on this occasion. Being called upon for his opinion, he took the glass and spied the deserted camp. "They are gone," said he, with the air of a man who is certain. " How do you know ? " inquired the general. The old soldier replied by directing attention to a crow that was flying close to what had been supposed to be one of the enemy's sentinels. The proximity of the crow showed that the sentinel was a " dummy," and so ill-made, too, that it was not even a good scarecrow. The game was now apparent, yet the general ordered out a party to reconnoiter. While it was forming, a British medical officer approached the lines, bearing a letter from General Lambert, which announced his de- parture, and recommended to the humanity of the Amer- ican commander the eighty wounded men who were necessarily left behind. There could now be little doubt of the retreat, but Jackson was still wary, and restrained the exultant impetuosity of the men, who were disposed at once to visit the abandoned camp. Sending Major Hinds's dragoons to harass the retreat of the army, if it had not already gone beyond reach, and dispatching his surgeon-general to the wounded soldiers left to his care, the general himself, with his staff, rode to the enemy's camp. He saw that they had indeed departed, and that his own triumph was complete and irreversible. Fourteen pieces of cannon were found deserted and spoiled, and much other property, public and private. For one item, three thousand cannon balls were picked 236 GENERAL JACKSON. up on the field and piled behind the American ramparts by the Kentuckian troops. The general visited the hospital and assured the wounded officers and soldiers of his protection and care — a promise which was promptly and ampjy fulfilled. " The circumstances of these wounded men," says Mr. Walker, "being made known in the city, a number of ladies rode down in their carriages with such articles as were deemed essential to the comfort of the unfortunates. One of these ladies was a belle of the city, famed for her charms of person and mind. Seeing her noble philanthropy and devotion to his countrymen, one of the British surgeons conceived a warm regard and admiration, which subse- quent acquaintance ripened into love. This surgeon settled in New Orleans after the war, espoused the Creole lady whose acquaintance he had made under such interesting circumstances, and became an esteemed citizen and the father of a large family." Dr. J. C. Kerr was the hero of this romantic story. He lived until within these few years. A son of his was that Victor Kerr who was executed at Havana with General Lopez and Colonel Crittenden in 185 1 — his last words, "I die like a Louisianian and a freeman ! " Two days later the main body of the American troops returned to New Orleans. " The arrival of the army," says Major Latour, who saw the spectacle, "was a tri- umph. The noncombatant part of the population of New Orleans — that is, the aged, the infirm, the matrons, daughters, and children — all went out to meet their de- liverers, to receive with felicitations the saviors of their country. Every countenance was expressive of grati- tude; joy sparkled in every feature on beholding fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, who had so recently saved the lives, fortunes, and honor of their families by repelling an enemy come to conquer and subjugate the country. END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 237 Nor were the sensations of the brave soldiers less lively on seeing themselves about to be compensated for all their sufferings by the enjoyment of domestic felicity. They once more embraced the objects of their tenderest affections, were hailed by them as their saviors and de- liverers, and felt conscious that they had deserved the honorable title. How light, how trifling, how inconsider- able did their past toils and dangers appear to them at this glorious moment ! All was forgotten, all painful recollections gave way to the most exquisite sensations of inexpressible joy." A few days after the return of the army the general went in state to the cathedral. "A temporary arch," continues Major Latour, " was erected in the middle of the grand square, opposite the principal entrance of the cathedral. The different uniformed companies of Planche's battalion lined both sides of the way, from the entrance of the square toward the river to the church. The balconies of the windows of the city hall, the parsonage house, and all the adjacent buildings, were filled with spectators. The whole square and the streets leading to it were thronged with people. The triumphal arch was supported by six columns. Among those on the right was a young lady representing Justice, and on the left another representing Liberty. Under the arch were two young children, each on a pedestal, holding a crown of laurel. From the arch in the middle of the square to the church, at proper intervals, were ranged young ladies representing the different States and Territories composing the American Union, all dressed in white, covered with transparent veils, and wearing a silver star on their foreheads. Each of these young ladies held in her right hand a flag inscribed with the name of the State she represented, and in her left a basket trimmed with blue ribbons and full of flowers. 238 GENERAL JACKSON. Behind each was a shield suspended on a lance stuck in the ground, inscribed with the name of a State or Terri- tory. The intervals had been so calculated that the shields, linked together with verdant festoons, occupied the distance from the triumphal arch to the church. " General Jackson, accompanied by the officers of his staff, arrived at the entrance of the square, where he was requested to proceed to the church by the walk pre- pared for him. As he passed under the arch he received the crowns of laurel from the two children, and was con- gratulated in an address spoken by Miss Kerr, who rep- resented the State of Louisiana. The general then proceeded to the church, amid the salutations of the young ladies representing the different States, who strewed his passage with flowers. At the entrance of the church he was received by the Abbe Dubourg, who addressed him in a speech suitable to the occasion, and conducted him to a seat prepared for him near the altar. A Te Deurn was chanted with impressive solemnity, and soon after a guard of honor attended the general to his quarters, and in the evening the town, with its suburbs, was splendidly illuminated." The day and night were given up to pleasure, both by the soldiers and the people. The next day discipline resumed its sway. The Tennessee troops were encamped on their old ground above the city. New troops kept coming by squads and companies, and the boat load of arms arrived for them. The general addressed himself to the task of rendering the country secure against a second surprise, in case the enemy should attempt a landing elsewhere. New works were ordered in exposed localities. New Orleans was saved, but the Southwest was still the country menaced, and it was not to be sup- posed that the British fleet and army, re-enforced by a thousand new troops, would retire from the coast with- I END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 239 out an attempt to retrieve the campaign. Not a thought, not the faintest presentiment of immediate peace, oc- curred to any one. The question was not whether the enemy would make a new attempt, but whether New Orleans or Mobile would be its object. For the first three weeks after the triumphal return of the army to New Orleans little occurred to disturb the public harmony. Martial law was rigorously main- tained, and all the troops were kept in service. The duty at the lines and below the lines was hard and dis- agreeable, but, whatever murmurs were uttered by the troops, the duty was punctually performed. The mor- tality at the hospitals continued to be very great. The business of the city was interrupted in some degree by the prevalence of martial law, and still more by the re- tention in service of business men. But so long as there was no whisper of peace in the city, the restraint was felt to be necessary, and was submitted to without audible complaining. During this interval some pleas- ant things occurred, which exhibit the general in a favor- able light. On February 4th, Edward Livingston, Mr. Shepherd, and Captain Maunsel White were sent to the British fleet to arrange for a further exchange of prisoners, and for the recovery of a large number of slaves, who, after aiding the English army on shore, had gone off with them to their ships. They were charged also with a less difficult errand. General Keane, when he received his wounds on the 8th of January, lost on the field a valuable sword, the gift of a friend. He stated the cir- cumstance to General Jackson, and requested him to restore the sword. It was an unusual request, thought the general, but he complied with it, adding polite wishes for General Keane's recovery. General Keane acknowl- edged the restoration of the sword in courteous terms. 240 GENERAL JACKSON. Mr. Livingston returned to New Orleans with the news of peace on the 19th of February. The city was thrown into joyful excitement, and the troops expected an immediate release from their arduous toils. But they were doomed to disappointment. The package which Admiral Malcolm had received contained only a newspaper announcement of peace. There was little doubt of its truth, but the statements of a newspaper are as nothing to the commanders of fleets and armies. To check the rising tide of feeling, Jackson, on the very day of Livingston's return, issued a proclamation, stat- ing the exact nature of the intelligence, and exhorting the troops to bear with patience the toils of the cam- paign a little longer. "We must not," said he, "be thrown into false security by hopes that may be de- lusive. It is by holding out such that an artful and in- sidious enemy too often seeks to accomplish what the utmost exertions of his strength will not enable him to effect. To place you off your guard and attack you by surprise is the natural expedient of one who, having ex- perienced the superiority of your arms, still hopes to overcome you by stratagem. Though young in the 'trade* of war, it is not by such artifices that he will deceive us." This proclamation seems rather to have inflamed than allayed the general discontent. Two days after the re- turn of Livingston a paragraph appeared in the Louisi- ana Gazette to the effect that "a flag had just arrived from Admiral Cochrane to General Jackson, officially announcing the conclusion of peace at Ghent between the United States and Great Britain, and virtually re- questing a suspension of arms." For this statement there was not the least foundation in truth, and its ef- fect at such a crisis was to inflame the prevailing ex- citement. Upon reading the paragraph Jackson caused END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 241 to be prepared an official contradiction, which he sent by an aide-de-camp to the offending editor, with a written order requiring its insertion in the next issue of the paper. This was regarded by the rebellious spirits as a new provocation. In this posture of affairs some of the French troops hit upon an expedient to escape the domination of the general. They claimed the protection of the French consul, M. Toussard. The consul, nothing loath, hoisted the French flag over the consulate, and dispensed certifi- cates of French citizenship to all applicants. Naturalized Frenchmen availed themselves of the same artifice, and for a few days Toussard had his hands full of pleasant and profitable occupation. Jackson met this new diffi- culty by ordering the consul and all Frenchmen who were not citizens of the United States to leave New Or- leans within three days, and not to return to within one hundred and twenty miles of the city until the news of the ratification of the treaty of peace was officially published ! The register of votes of the last election was resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining who were citizens and who were not. Every man who had voted was claimed by the general as his " fellow-citizen and soldier," and compelled to do duty as such. This bold stroke of authority aroused much indigna- tion among the anti-martial law party, which on the 3d of March found voice in the public press. A long arti- cle appeared anonymously in one of the newspapers, boldly but temperately and respectfully calling in ques- tion General Jackson's recent conduct, and especially the banishment of the French from the city. Here was open defiance. Jackson accepted the issue with a promptness all his own. He sent an order to the editor of the Louisiana Courier, in which the article appeared, 242 GENERAL JACKSON. commanding his immediate presence at headquarters. The name of the author of the communication was de- manded and given. It was Mr. Louaillier, a member of the Legislature, a gentleman who had distinguished him- self by his zeal in the public cause, and who had been particularly prominent in promoting subscriptions for the relief of the ill-clad soldiers. Upon his surrendering the name the editor was dismissed. At noon on Sunday, the 5th of March, two days after the publication of the article, Mr. Louaillier was walk- ing along the levee, opposite one of the most frequented coffee-houses in the city, when a Captain Amelung, com- manding a file of soldiers, tapped him on the shoulder and informed him that he was a prisoner. Louaillier, astonished and indignant, called the bystanders to wit- ness that he was conveyed away against his will by armed men. A lawyer, P. L. Morel by name, who wit- nessed the arrest from the steps of the coffee-house, ran to the spot, and was forthwith engaged by Louaillier to act as his legal adviser in this extremity. Louaillier was placed in confinement. Morel hastened to the residence of Judge Dominick A. Hall, of the District Court of the United States, to whom he presented, in his client's name, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The judge granted the petition, and the writ was immediately served upon the general. Jackson instantly sent a file of troops to arrest the judge, and, before night. Judge Hall and Mr. Louaillier were prisoners in the same apartment of the barracks. So far from obeying the writ of habeas corpus^ Gen- eral Jackson seized the writ from the officer who served it and retained it in his own possession, giving to the officer a certified copy of the same. Louaillier was at once placed on his trial before a court-martial upon the following charges, all based upon the article in the END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 24^ Louisiana Courier: Exciting to mutiny; general mis- conduct; being a spy; illegal and improper conduct; disobedience to orders; writing a willful and corrupt libel against the general; unsoldierly conduct; viola- tion of a general order. Nor were these the only arrests. A Mr. Hollander, partner in business of our friend Nolte, expressed him- self somewhat freely in conversation respecting Jack- son's proceedings, and suddenly found himself a pris- oner in consequence. On Monday, March 6th, the day after the arrest of Louaillier and Judge Hall, the courier arrived at New Orleans who had been dispatched from Washington nineteen days before to bear to General Jackson the news of peace. He had traveled fast by night and day, and most eagerly had his coming been looked for. His packet was opened at headquarters and found to con- tain no dispatches announcing the conclusion of peace, but an old letter, of no importance then, which had been written by the Secretary of War to General Jackson some months before. It appeared that in the hurry of his departure from Washington the courier had taken the wrong packet. The blank astonishment of the general, of his aides, and of the courier, can be imagined. The only proof the unlucky messenger could furnish of the genuineness of his mission and the truth of his intelli- gence was an order from the Postmaster-General requir- ing his deputies on the route to afford the courier bear- ing the news of peace all the facilities in their power for the rapid performance of his journey. In ordinary cir- cumstances this would have sufficed. But the events of yesterday had rendered the circumstances extraordinary. The general resolved still to hold the reins of military power firmly in his hands. New Orleans was still a camp, and Judge Hall a soldier. 244 GENERAL JACKSON. Jackson wrote, however, to General Lambert on the same day, stating precisely what had occurred, and in- closing a copy of the Postmaster-General's order, " that you may determine," said the general, "whether these occurrences will not justify you in agreeing, by a cessa^ tion of all hostilities, to anticipate a happy return of peace between our two nations, which the first direct in- telligence must bring to us in an official form." The week had nearly passed away. Judge Hall re- mained in confinement at the barracks. General Jackson resolved on Saturday, the i ith of March, to send the judge out of the city and set him at liberty, which was done. Brief was the exile of the banished judge. The very next day — Monday, March 13th — arrived from Washing- ton a courier with a dispatch from the Government an- nouncing the ratification of the treaty of peace, and inclosing a copy of the treaty and of the ratification. Before that day closed the joyful news was forwarded to the British general, hostilities were publicly declared to be at an end, martial law was abrogated, and com- merce released. **And in order," concluded the gen- eral's proclamation, "that the general joy attending this event may extend to all manner of persons, the com- manding general proclaims and orders a pardon for all military offenses heretofore committed in this district, and orders that all persons in confinement under such charges be immediately discharged." Louaillier was a prisoner no longer. Judge Hall re- turned to his home. On the day following, the impatient militia and volunteers^ of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missis- sippi, and Louisiana were dismissed with a glorious burst of grateful praise. I shall not dwell upon the subsequent proceedings of Judge Hall. March 22d, in the United States District Court, on motion of Attorney John Dick, it was ruled END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 245 and ordered by the court that " the said Major-General Andrew Jackson show cause on Friday next, the 24th of March, instant, at ten o'clock a. m., why an attachment should not be awarded against him for contempt of this court, in having disrespectfully wrested from the clerk aforesaid an original order of the honorable the judge of this court for the issuing of a writ of habeas corpus in the case of a certain Louis Louaillier, then imprisoned by the said Major-General Andrew Jackson, and for de- taining the same. Also, for disregarding the said writ of habeas corpus when issued and served, in having impris- oned the honorable the judge of this court, and for other contempts, as stated by the witnesses." General Jackson appeared in court attended by a concourse of excited people. He wore the dress of a private citizen. " Undiscovered amid the crowd," Ma- jor Eaton relates, " he had nearly reached the bar, when, being perceived, the room instantly rang with the shouts of a thousand voices. Raising himself on a bench and moving his hand to procure silence, a pause ensued. He then addressed himself to the crowd, told them of the duty due to the public authorities, for that any impro- priety of theirs would be imputed to him, and urged, if they had any regard for him, that they would on the present occasion forbear those feelings and expressions of opinion. Silence being restored, the judge rose from his seat, and remarking that it was impossible and un- safe to transact business at such a moment and under such threatening circumstances, directed the marshal to adjourn the court. The general immediately interfered, and requested that it might not be done. 'There is no danger here; there shall be none. The same arm that protected from outrage this city against the invaders of the country, will shield and protect this court or perish in the effort.' 17 246 GENERAL JACKSON. "Tranquillity was restored, and the court proceeded to business. The district attorney had prepared and now presented a file of nineteen questions to be answered by the prisoner. ' Did you not arrest Louaillier ?' 'Did you not arrest the judge of this court ? ' * Did you not seize the writ of habeas corpus ? ' * Did you not say a variety of disrespectful things of the judge?' These interrogatories the general utterly refused to answer, to listen to, or to receive. He told the court that in a paper previously presented by his counsel he had ex- plained fully the reasons that had influenced his con- duct. That paper had been rejected without a hearing. He could add nothing to that paper. * Under these cir- cumstances,' said he, ' I appear before you to receive the sentence of the court, having nothing further in my de- fense to offer.' " Whereupon Judge Hall pronounced the judgment of the court. It is recorded in the words following: "On this day appeared in person Major-General Andrew Jackson, and, being duly informed by the court that an attachment had issued against him for the purpose of bringing him into court, and the district attorney hav- ing filed interrogatories, the court informed General Jackson that they would be tendered to him for the pur- pose of answering thereto. The said General Jackson refused to receive them, or to make any answer to the said interrogatories. Whereupon the court proceeded to pronounce judgment; which was, 'That Major-General Andrew Jackson do pay a fine of one thousand dollars to the United States.' " The general was borne from the courtroom in tri- umph; or as Major Eaton has it, "he was seized and forcibly hurried from the hall to the streets, amid the re- iterated cries of ' Huzza for Jackson ! ' from the immense concourse that surrounded him. They presently met a END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 'A7 carriage in which a lady was riding, when, politely tak- ing her from it, the general was made, spite of entreaty, to occupy her place. The horses being removed, the car- riage was drawn on and halted at the coffee-house, into which he was carried, and thither the crowd followed, huzzaing for Jackson and menacing violently the judge. Having prevailed on them to hear him, he addressed them with great feeling and earnestness ; implored them to run into no excesses; that if they had the least grati- tude for his services, or regard for him personally, they could evince it in no way so satisfactorily as by assent- ing, as he most freely did, to the decision which had just been pronounced against him." Upon reaching his quarters he sent back an aide-de- camp to the courtroom with a check on one of the city banks for a thousand dollars. And thus the offended majesty of the law was supposed to be avenged. It is not to be inferred, from the conduct of the people in the courtroom, that the course of General Jackson in maintaining martial law so long after the conclusion of peace was morally certain, was generally approved by the people of New Orleans. It was not. It was approved by many, forgiven by most, resented by a few. An effort was made to raise the amount of the general's fine by a public subscription, to which no one was allowed to contribute more than one dollar. But Nolte tells us (how truly I know not) that, after raising with difficulty one hundred and sixty dollars, the scheme was quietly given up. He adds that the courtroom on the day of the general's appearance was occupied chiefly *by the special partisans of the general. On the 6th of April General Jackson and his family left New Orleans on their return to Tennessee. On ap- proaching Nashville the general was met by a procession of troops, students, and citizens, who deputed one of 248 GENERAL JACKSON. their number to welcome him in an address. At Nash- ville a vast concourse was assembled, among whom were many of the troops who had served under him at New Orleans. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed. Within the courthouse Mr. Felix Grundy received the general with an eloquent speech, recounting in glowing periods the leading events of the last campaigns. The students of Cumberland College also addressed the general. The replies of General Jackson to these various addresses were short, simple, and sufficient. And so we dismiss the hero home to his beloved Hermitage, there to recruit his impaired energies by a brief period of repose. He had been absent for the space of twenty-one months, with the exception of three weeks between the end of the Creek War and the begin- ning of the campaign of New Orleans. CHAPTER XVIII. COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. Four months' rest at the Hermitage. In the cool days of October we find the general on horseback once more, riding slowly through Tennessee, across Virginia, toward the city of Washington — the whole journey a tri- umphal progress. At Lynchburg, in Virginia, the peo- ple turned out en masse to greet the conqueror. A num- ber of gentlemen rode out of town to meet him, one of whom saluted the general with an address, to which he briefly replied. Escorted into the town on the yth of November, he was received by a prodigious assemblage of citizens and all the militia companies of the vicinity, who welcomed him with an enthusiasm that can be im- agined. In the afternoon a grand banquet, attended by three hundred persons, was served in honor of the gen- eral. Among the distinguished guests was Thomas Jef- ferson, then seventy-two years of age, the most revered of American citizens then living. His residence was only a long day's ride from Lynchburg, and he had come to join in the festivities of this occasion. The toast offered by the ex-President at the banquet at Lynchburg has been variously reported, but in the newspapers of the day it is uniformly given in these words: "Honor and gratitude to those who have filled the measure of their country's honor." General Jackson volunteered a toast which was at once graceful and significant: "James Monroe, late Secretary of War " — graceful, because Mr. 2^0 GENERAL JACKSON. Monroe was a Virginian, a friend of Mr. Jefferson, and had nobly co-operated with himself in the defense of New Orleans; significant, because Mr. Monroe was a very prominent candidate for the presidency, and the election was drawing near. To horse again the next morning. Nine days' riding brought the general to Washington, which he reached in the evening of November 17th. He called the next morning upon the President and the members of the Cabinet, by whom he was welcomed to the capital with every mark of cordiality and respect. His stay at Wash- ington, I need not say, was an almost ceaseless round of festivity. A great public dinner was given him, which was attended by all that Washington could boast of the eminent and the eloquent. He was lionized severely at private entertainments, where the stateliness of his bear- ing and the suavity of his manners pleased the gentle- men and won the ladies. And this was to be one of the conditions of his lot thenceforward to the end of his life. He was the darling of the nation. Nothing had yet oc- curred to dim the luster of his fame. His giant popu- larity was in the flush of its youth. He could go no- where without incurring an ovation, and every movement of his was affectionately chronicled in the newspapers. General Jackson was to remain m the army! Upon the conclusion of peace with Great Britain the army was reduced to ten thousand men, commanded by two major- generals, one of whom was to reside at the North and command the troops stationed there, and the other to bear military sway at the South. The generals selected for these commands were General Jacob Brown for the Northern division, and General Andrew Jackson for the Southern, both of whom had entered the service at the beginnmg of the late war as generals of militia. Gen- eral Jackson's visit to Washington on this occasion was COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 251 in obedience to an order, couched in the language of an invitation, received from the Secretary of War soon after his return from New Orleans; the object of his visit be- ing to arrange the posts and stations of the army. The feeling was general at the time that the disasters of the War of 1812 were chiefly due to the defenseless and un- prepared condition of the country, and that it was the first duty of the Government, on the return of peace, to see to it that the assailable points were fortified. *' Let us never be caught napping again " ; " In time of peace prepare for war," were popular sayings then. On these and all other subjects connected with the defense of the country the advice of General Jackson was asked and given. His own duty, it was evident, was first of all to pacify, and if possible satisfy, the restless and sorrowful Indians in the Southwest. The vanquished tribe, it was agreed, should be dealt with forbearingly and liberally. The general undertook to go in person into the Indian country and remove from their minds all discontent. He did so. It is not possible to overstate his popularity in his own State. He was its pride, boast, and glory. Tennes- seeans felt a personal interest in his honor and success. His old enemies either sought reconciliation with him or kept their enmity to themselves. His rank in the army, too, gave him unequaled social eminence; and, to add to the other felicities of his lot, his fortune now rapidly in- creased, as the entire income of his estate could be added to his capital, the pay of a major-general being suffi- cient for the support of his family. He was forty-nine years old in 1816. He had riches, rank, power, renown, and all in full measure. But in 1817 there was trouble again among the In- dians — the Indians of Florida, the allies of Great Britain during the War of 181 2, commonly known by the name 252 GENERAL JACKSON. of Seminoles. Composed in part of fugitive Creeks, who scouted the treaty of Fort Jackson, they had indulged the expectation that on the conclusion of peace they would be restored by their powerful ally to the lands wrested from the Creeks by Jackson's conquering army in 1814. This poor remnant of tribes once so numerous and powerful had not a thought, at first, of attempting to regain the lost lands by force of arms. The best testi- mony now procurable confirms their own solemnly reit-. crated assertions that they long desired and endeavored to live in peace with the white settlers of Georgia. All their "talks," petitions, remonstrances, letters, of which a large number are still accessible, breathe only the wish for peace and fair dealing. The Seminoles were drawn at last into a collision with the United States by a chain of circumstances with which they had little to do, and the responsibility of which belongs not to them. Fourteen miles east of Fort Scott, in Georgia, but near the Florida line, on lands claimed by the United States under the treaty of Fort Jackson, was a Seminole village called by the settlers Fowltown. " The chief of this village of forty-five warriors was supposed to be, and was, peculiarly embittered against the whites. The red war-pole had been erected by his warriors, around which they danced the war-dance. The Fowltown chief was resolved to hold his lands, and resist by force any further encroachments, and had said as much to Colonel Twiggs, the commandant of Fort Scott. " I warn you," he said to Colonel Twiggs, early in November, "not to cross, nor cut a stick of wood, on the east side of the Flint. That land is mine. I am directed by the powers above and the powers below to protect and defend it. I shall do so." A few days after. General Gaines arrived at Fort Scott with a re-enforcement of regular troops, when the talk of the Fowltown chief was reported to COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 253 him. General Gaines," to ascertain," as he said, " whether his hostile temper had abated," had previously sent a runner to the chief to request him to come to him at Fort Scott. The chief replied : " I have already said to the officer commanding at the fort all I have to say. I will not go." General Gaines immediately detached a force of two hundred and fifty men, under command of Colonel Twiggs, with orders '' to bring to me the chief and his warriors, and, in the event of resistance, to treat them as enemies." On the morning of November 21st, before the dawn of day, the detachment reached Fowltown. The war- riors fired upon the troops without waiting to learn their errand. It could not be expected to occur to the be- nighted Seminole mind that a large body of troops, arriving near their town in the darkness of a November 'morning, could have any but a hostile errand. The fire of the Indians, which was wholly without effect, was " briskly returned " by the troops, when the Indians took to flight, with the loss of two men and one woman killed, besides several wounded. Colonel Twiggs entered and searched the abandoned town. Among other articles found in the house of the chief were a scarlet coat of the British uniform, a pair of golden epaulets, and a certifi- cate in the handwriting of Colonel Nichols, declaring that the Fowltown chief had ever been a true and faith- ful friend of the British. Colonel Twiggs took post near the town, erected a temporary stockade, and waited for further orders. Shortly afterward the town was burned by General Gaines himself. The die was cast. The revenge of the Seminoles for this seizure of Fowltown and the slaughter of its war- riors and the woman was swift, bloody, and atrocious. Nine days after, a large open boat, containing forty United States troops, seven soldiers' wives, and four lit- 254 GENERAL JACKSON. tie children, under command of Lieutenant Scott, of the Seventh Infantry, was warping slowly up the Appalachi- cola River. They were within one mile of reaching the junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint, and not many miles from Fort Scott. To avoid the swift current, the soldiers kept the boat close to the shore. They were passing a swamp densely covered with trees and cane. Suddenly, at a moment when not a soul on board sus- pected danger, for not an Indian nor trace of an Indian had been seen, a heavy volley of musketry from the thickets within a few yards of the boat was fired full into the closely compacted party. Lieutenant Scott and nearly every man in the boat were killed or badly wounded at the first fire. Other volleys succeeded. The Indians soon rose from their ambush and rushed upon the boat with a fearful yell. Men, women, and children were involved in one horrible massacre, or spared for more horrible torture. The children were taken by the heels and their brains dashed out against the sides of the boat. The men and women were scalped, all but one woman, who was not wounded by the previous fire. Four men escaped by leaping overboard and swimming to the opposite shore, of whom two only reached Fort Scott uninjured. Laden with plunder, the savages re-en- tered the wilderness, taking with them the woman whom they had spared. In twenty minutes after the first volley was fired into the boat, every creature in it but five was killed and scalped, or bound and carried off. The Seminoles had tasted blood, and thirsted like tigers for more. Still haunting the banks of the river, they attacked, a few days later, a convoy of ascending boats, under Major Muhlenberg, killing two soldiers and wounding thirteen. For four or" five days and nights the boats lay in the middle of the stream, immovable, for not a man could show himself for an instant above the COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 255 bulwarks without being fired upon. With difficulty, and after great suffering on the part of the sick and wounded, the fleet was rescued from its horrible situation by a party from Fort Scott. Before the year closed Fort Scott itself was threat- ened. A desultory and ineffectual fire was kept up upon it for several days. The garrison, being short of provis- ions, and forming a most exaggerated estimate of the numbers of the enemy, feared to be obliged to abandon the post. This was war indeed. The Government at Washington was promptly informed of these terrible events by General Gaines, who advised the most vigor- ous measures of retaliation. It chanced that, just before these dispatches reached Washington, the Secretary of War, Mr. John C. Calhoun, not anticipating serious trouble from the Indians, had sent orders to General Games to proceed to Amelia Island. General Gaines was accordingly compelled to leave the frontiers at a time when his presence there was most needed. The Government, fearing the effect at such a moment of the absence of a general officer from the scene of hostilities, resolved upon ordering General Jackson to take com- mand in person of the troops upon the frontiers of Georgia. On the 22d of January, General Jackson and his "guard" left Nashville amid the cheers of the entire population. The distance from Nashville to Fort Scott is about four hundred and fifty miles. In the even- ing of March 9th, forty-six days after leaving Nashville, he reached Fort Scott with eleven hundred hungry men. No tidings yet of the Tennessee troops under Colonel Hayne ! There was no time to spend, however, in wait- ing or surmising. The general found himself at Fort Scott in command of two thousand men, and his whole stock of provisions one quart of corn and three rations 256 GENERAL JACKSON. of meat per man. There was no supply in his rear, for he had swept the country on his line of march of every bushel of corn and every animal fit for food. He had his choice of two courses only : to remain at Fort Scott and starve, or to go forward and find provisions. It is not necessary to say which of these alternatives Andrew Jackson selected. " Accordingly," he wrote, " having been advised by Colonel Gibson, quartermaster-general, that he would sail from New Orleans on the 12th of Feb- ruary with supplies, and being also advised that two sloops with provisions were in the bay, and an officer had been dispatched from Fort Scott in a large keel-boat to bring up a part of their loading, and deeming that the preservation of these supplies would be to preserve the army, and enable me to prosecute the campaign, I assumed the command on the morning of the loth, ordered the live stock to be slaughtered and issued to the troops, with one quart of corn to each man, and the line of march to be taken up at twelve meridian." It was necessary to cross the swollen river, an oper- ation which consumed all the afternoon, all the dark night succeeding, and a part of the next morning. Five days' march along the banks of the Appalachicola — past the scene of the massacre of Lieutenant Scott — brought the army to the site of the old Negro Fort on Prospect Bluff. On the way, however, the army, to its great joy, met the ascending boat-load of flour, when the men had their first full meal since leaving Fort Early, three weeks before. Upon the site of the Negro Fort, General Jackson ordered his aide. Lieutenant Gadsden, of the en- gineers, to construct a fortification, which was promptly done, and named by the general Fort Gadsden, in honor, as he said, of the " talents and indefatigable zeal " of the builder. No news yet of the great flotilla of provisions from New Orleans. " Consequently," wrote the general, COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 257 " I put the troops on half rations, and pushed the com- pletion of the fort for the protection of the provisions in the event of their arrival, intending to march forth- with to the heart of the enemy and endeavor to subsist upon him. In the meantime I dispatched Major Fan- ning of the corps, of artillery, to take another look into the bay, whose return on the morning of the 23d brought the information that Colonel Gibson, with one gunboat and three transports and others in sight, were in the bay. On the same night I received other information that no more had arrived. I am therefore apprehensive that some of the smaller vessels have been lost, as one gun- boat went to pieces, and another, when last spoken, had one foot of water in her." The Tennessee volunteers did not arrive, but had been heard from. " The idea of starvation," wrote Gen- eral Jackson, " has stalked abroad. A panic appears to have spread itself everywhere." Colonel Hayne had heard that the garrison of Fort Scott were starving, and had passed into Georgia for supplies, despite the willing- ness of the men " to risk the worst of consequences on what they had to join me." General Gaines, however, joined the army at Fort Gadsden, though in sorry plight. " In his passage down the Flint," explains Jackson, " he was shipwrecked, by which he lost his assistant adjutant- general. Major C. Wright, and two soldiers drowned. The general reached me six days after, nearly exhausted by hunger and cold, having lost his baggage and cloth- ing, and being compelled to wander in the woods four days and a half without anything to subsist on, or any clothing except a pair of pantaloons. I am happy to have it in my power to say that he is now with me, at the head of his brigade, in good health." Nine days passed, and still the general was at Fort Gadsden waiting for the great flotilla. It occurred to 258 GENERAL JACKSON. him that possibly the Governor of Pensacola might have opposed its ascent of the river or molested it in the bay. He wrote a very polite but very plain letter to the Gov- ernor on the 25th of March. " I wish it to be distinctly understood," he observed, " that any attempt to inter- rupt the passage of transports can not be viewed in any other light than as a hostile act on your part. I will not permit myself for a moment to believe that you would commit an act so contrary to the interests of the King your master. His Catholic Majesty, as well as the Gov- ernment of the United States, is alike interested in chastising a savage foe who have too long warred with impunity against his subjects as well as the citizens of this republic, and I feel persuaded that every aid which you can give to promote this object will be cheerfully tendered." The Governor in due time replied that he would per- mit the transports to pass this time, on condition of their paying the usual duties, but never again. " If extraordi- nary circumstances," he concluded, " should require any further temporary concessions, not explained in the treaty, I request your Excellency to have the goodness to apply in future, for the obtaining of them, to the proper authority, as I, for my part, possess no power whatever in relation thereto." Before the day closed on which the general wrote his plain letter to the Governor of Pensacola he had the pleasure of hearing that the provision flotilla had arrived, and of welcoming to Fort Gadsden its commanding offi- cers. Colonel Gibson of the army and Captain McKeever of the navy. He was writing a dispatch at the time to the Secretary of War, which he hastened to close with this most gratifying intelligence : " I shall move to-morrow," he said, " having made the necessary arrangements with Captain McKeever for his co-operation in transporting COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 259 my supplies around to the Bay of St. Marks, from which place I shall do myself the honor of communicating with you. Should our enemy attempt to escape with his sup- plies and booty to the small islands, and thence to carry on a predatory warfare, the assistance of the navy wul prevent his escape." General Jackson on the following day was in full march toward St. Marks. He left Fort Gadsden on the 26th of March, was joined by one regiment of Tennes- seeans on the ist of April, and on the same day had a brush with the enemy. A " number " of Indians, we are told in the official report, were discovered engaged in the peaceful employment of " herding cattle." An attack upon these dusky herdsmen was instantly ordered. One American killed and four wounded, fourteen Indians killed and four women prisoners, were the results of this affair. The army advanced upon the town to which the herdsmen belonged, and found it deserted. " On reach- ing the square, we discovered a red pole planted at the council house, on which was suspended about fifty fresh scalps, taken from the heads of extreme age down to the tender infant, of both sexes; and in an adjacent house those of nearly three hundred men, which bore the ap- pearance of being the barbarous trophies of settled hostility for three or four years past."* General Gaines continued the pursuit on the follow- ing day, and gathered a prodigious booty. " The red pole," says the adjutant's report, ''was again found planted in the square of Fowltown, barbarously deco- rated with human scalps of both sexes, taken within the last six months from the heads of our unfortunate citi- zens. General Mcintosh, who w^as with General Gaines * These scalps were doubtless the accumulation of many years and of previous wars. The Seminoles had not taken ten scalps since the War of 1812, exclusive of those of Lieutenant Scott's party, 26o GENERAL JACKSON. routed a small party of savages near Fowltown, killed one negro and took three prisoners, on one of whom was found the coat of James Champion, of Captain Cum- ming's company, Fourth Regiment of Infantry, who was killed by the Indians on board of one of our boats descending the river to the relief of Major Muhlenburg. The pocket-book of Mr. Leigh, who was murdered at Cedar Creek on the 21st of January last, was found, in Kinghajah's town, containing several letters ad- dressed to the deceased, and one to General Glascock. About one thousand head of cattle fell into our hands, many of which were recognized by the Georgia militia as having brands and marks of their citizens. Nearly three thousand bushels of corn were found, with other articles useful to the army. Upward of three hundred houses were consumed, leaving a tract of fertile country in ruin, where these wretches might have lived in plenty but for the vile machinations of foreign traders, if not agents." On the 6th of April the army reached St. Marks, and halted in the vicinity of the fort. The general sent in to the Governor his aide-de-camp. Lieutenant Gadsden, bearing a letter explanatory of his objects and purposes. He had come, he said, " to chastise a savage foe, who, combined with a lawless band of negro brigands, had been for some time past carrying on a cruel and unpro- voked war against the citizens of the United States." He had already met and put to flight parties of the hos- tile Indians. He had received information that those Indians had fled to St. Marks and found protection within its walls; that both Indians and negroes had pro- cured supplies of ammunition there; and that the Span- ish garrison, from the smallness of its numbers, was un- able to resist the demands of the savages. " To prevent the recurrence of so gross a violation of neutrality, and to exclude our savage enemies from so strong a hold as COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 261 St. Marks, I deem it expedient to garrison that fortress with American troops until the close of the present war. This measure is justifiable on the immutable principle of self-defense, and can not but be satisfactory, under exist- ing circumstances, to his Catholic Majesty the King of Spain." The Governor replied that he had been made to un- derstand General Jackson's letter only with the greatest difficulty, as there was no one within the fort who could properly translate it. He denied that the Indians and negroes had ever obtained supplies, succor, or encour- agement from Fort St. Marks. On the contrary, they had menaced the fort with assault because supplies had been refused them. With regard to delivering up the fort intrusted to his care, he had no authority to do so, and must write on the subject to his Government. Mean- while he prayed General Jackson to suspend his opera- tions. '' The sick your Excellency sent in," concluded the polite Governor, "are lodged in the Royal Hospital, and I have afforded them every aid which circumstances admit. I hope your Excellency will give me other oppor- tunities of evincing the desire I have to satisfy you. I trust your Excellency will pardon my not answering you as soon as requested, for reasons which have been given you by your aide-de-camp. I do not accompany this with an English translation, as your Excellency desires, because there is no one in the fort capable thereof, but the before-named William Hambly proposes to translate it to your Excellency in the best manner he can." This was delivered to General Jackson on the morn- ing of the 7th of April. He instantly replied to it by taking possession of the fort ! The Spanish flag was lowered, the Stars and Stripes floated from the flagstaff, and American troops took up their quarters within the fortress. The Governor made no resistance, and indeed 18 262 GENERAL JACKSON. could make none. When all was over, he sent to General Jackson a formal protest against his proceedings, to which the general briefly replied : " The occupancy of Fort St. Marks by my troops previous to your assenting to the measure became necessary from the difficulties thrown in the way of an amicable adjustment, notwith- standing my assurances that every arrangement should be made to your satisfaction, and expressing a wish that my movements against our common enemy should not be retarded by a tedious negotiation. I again repeat what has been reiterated to you through my aide-de- camp. Lieutenant Gadsden, that your personal rights and private property shall be respected, that your situa- tion shall be made as comfortable as practicable while compelled to remain in Fort St. Marks, and that trans- ports shall be furnished, as soon as they can be obtained to convey yourself, family, and command to Pensacola." Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader among the In- dians, was found within the fort, an inmate of the Gov- ernor's own quarters. It appears that on the arrival of General Jackson he was preparing to leave St. Marks. His horse, saddled and bridled, was standing at the gate. General Jackson had no sooner taken possession of St. Marks than Arbuthnot became a prisoner. " In Fort St. Marks," wrote General Jackson, " an inmate in the fam- ily of the Spanish commandant, an Englishman by the name of Arbuthnot was found. Unable satisfactorily to explain the object of his visiting this country, and there being a combination of circumstances to justify a sus- picion that his views were not honest, he was ordered into close confinement." For two days only the army remained at Fort St. Marks. Suwanee, the far-famed and dread Suwanee, the town of the great chief Boleck, or Bowlegs, the refuge of negroes, was General Jackson's next object. COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 263 It was one hundred and seven miles from St. Marks, and the route lay through a flat and swampy wilderness, little known and destitute of forage. On the 9th of April, leaving a strong garrison at the fort, and supply- ing the troops with rations for eight days, the general again plunged into the forest — the white troops in ad- vance, the Indians, under General Mcintosh, a few miles in the rear. The army made slow progress, wading through ex- tensive sheets of water ; the horses starving for want of forage, and giving out daily in large numbers. Late in the afternoon of the third day the troops reached a " remarkable pond," which the Indian guides said was only six miles from Suwanee town. " Here," says the general, " I should have halted for the night had not six mounted Indians (supposed to be spies), who were dis- covered, effected their escape. This determined me to attempt by a forced movement to prevent the removal of their effects, and, if possible, themselves from cross- ing the river, for, my rations being out, it was all-im- portant to secure their supplies for the subsistence of my troops." At sunset, accordingly, the lines were formed, and the whole army rushed forward. But the prey had been forewarned. A letter from Arbuthnot to his son had reached the place and had been explained to Bowlegs, who had been ever since employed in sending the women and children across the broad Suwanee into those inaccessible retreats which render Florida the best place in the world for such warfare as Indians wage. The troops reached the vicin- ity of the town, and in a few minutes drove out the enemy and captured the place. The pursuit was con- tinued on the following morning by General Gaines ; but the foe had vanished by a hundred paths, and were no more seen. 264 GENERAL JACKSON. In the evening of April 17th the whole army en- camped on the level banks of the Suwanee. In the dead of night an incident occurred which can here be related in the language of the same young Tennessee officer who has already narrated for us the capture of the chiefs and their execution. Fortunately for us, he kept a journal of the campaign. This journal, written at the time partly with a decoction of roots and partly with the blood of the journalist* — for ink was not attain- able — lay for forty years among his papers, and was copied at length by the obliging hand of his daughter for the readers of these pages. "About midnight of April i8th," wrote our journalist, *' the repose of the army, then bivouacked on the plains of the old town of Suwanee, was suddenly disturbed by the deep-toned report of a musket, instantly followed by the sharp crack of the American rifle. The signal to arms was given, and where but a moment before could only be heard the measured tread of the sentinels and the low moaning of the long-leafed pines, now stood five thou- sand men, armed, watchful, and ready for action. The cause of the alarm was soon made known. Four men, two whites and two negroes, had been captured while at- tempting to enter the camp. They were taken in charge by the guard, and the army again sank to such repose as war allows her votaries. When morning came it was ascertained that the prisoners were Robert C. Ambrister, a white attendant named Peter B. Cook, and two negro servants — Ambrister being a nephew of the English gov- ernor, Cameron, of the Island of New Providence, an ex- lieutenant of British marines, and suspected of being engaged in the business of counseling and furnishing munitions of war to the Indians in furtherance of their * Mr. J. B. Rodgers, of South Rock Island, Tennessee. COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 265 contest with the United States. Ignorant of the situa- tion of the American camp, he had blundered into it while endeavoring to reach Suwanee town to meet the Indians, being also unaware that the latter had been driven thence on the previous day by Jackson." Ambrister was conducted to St. Marks and placed in confinement, together with his companions. The fact that through Arbuthnot the Suwanee people had es- caped, thus rendering the last swift march comparatively fruitless, was calculated, it must be owned, to exasperate the mind of General Jackson. The Seminole War, so called, was over, for the time. On the 20th of April the Georgia troops marched home- ward to be disbanded. On the 24th, General Mcintosh and his brigade of Indians were dismissed. On the 25th, General Jackson, with his Tennesseeans and regulars, was again at Fort St. Marks. It was forty-six days since he had entered Florida, and thirteen weeks since he left Nashville. General Jackson, on his homeward march, halted at the fortress of St. Marks, to decide the fate of the prisoners Ambrister and Arbuthnot. He had deter- mined to accord them the indulgence of a trial, and now selected for that purpose a " special court " of fourteen officers, who were ordered to ** record all the documents and testimony in the several cases, and their opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the prisoners, and what pun- ishment, if any, should be inflicted." At noon on the 28th of April the court convened. The members were sworn, and Arbuthnot was arraigned. The charges brought against him were three in number. First charge : Exciting the Creek Indians to war against the United States. Second charge : Acting as a spy, aiding and comforting the enemy, and supplying them with the means of war. Third charge: Exciting the 266 GENERAL JACKSON. Indians to murder and destroy William Hambly and Edmund Doyle, and causing their arrest with a view to their condemnation to death and the seizure of their property, on account of their active and zealous exer- tions to maintain peace between Spain, the United States, and the Indians, they being citizens of the Spanish Government. The evidence adduced was of two kinds, documentary and personal. The letters and papers that were found on board the prisoner's schooner were all submitted to the court. They proved that the prisoner had sympa- thized with the Seminoles ; that he had considered them an injured people; that he had written many letters en- treating the interference in their behalf of English, Spanish, and American authorities ; that he had given them notice of the approach of General Jackson's army, and advised them to fly ; that he had on all occasions exerted whatever influence he possessed to induce the Indians to live in peace with one another and with their neighbors. Arbuthnot in his defense called the captain of his vessel, who testified that no arms had been brought to the province by the prisoner, and but small quantities of powder and lead; and that Ambrister had seized the prisoner's schooner and used it for purposes of his own. Arbuthnot's address to the court at the conclusion of the trial was respectful, calm, and able. He commented chiefly upon the hearsay character of the evidence. The "trial" over, the prisoner was removed, and the court deliberated. Two thirds of the court concurred in the following opinion and sentence : " The court, after ma- ture deliberation on the evidence adduced, find the prisoner, A. Arbuthnot, guilty of the first charge, and guilty of the second charge, leaving out the words * acting as a spy ' ; and, after mature reflection, sentence COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 267 him, A. Arbuthnot, to be suspended by the neck until he is dead." Ambrister was next arraigned. He was accused of aiding and comforting the enemy, and of " levying war against the United States," by assuming command of the Indians and ordering a party of them " to give battle to an army of the United States." It was proved against Ambrister that he had come to Florida to " see the negroes righted " ; that he had captured Arbuthnot's schooner, plundered his store, and distributed its con- tents among his negro and Indian followers; that he had written to New Providence asking that arms and ammunition might be sent to the Indians; and that he had sent a party to *' oppose " the American invasion. The last-named fact was proved by a sentence in one of his own letters to the Governor of New Providence. " I expect," wrote Ambrister, March 20, 1818, " that the Americans and Indians will attack us daily. I have sent a party of men to oppose them." The prisoner made no formal defense, but merely remarked that, *' inasmuch as the testimony which was introduced in this case was very explicit, and went to every point the prisoner could wish, he has nothing fur- ther to offer in his defense, but puts himself upon the mercy of the honorable court." The honorable court pronounced him guilty of the principal charge, and sentenced him to be shot. But we are told that, '' one of the members of the court request- ing a reconsideration of his vote on the sentence, the sense of the court was taken thereon and decided in the affirmative, when the vote was again taken, and the court sentenced the prisoner to receive fifty stripes on his bare back, and to be confined with a ball and chain to hard labor for twelve calendar months." The trials, which began at noon on the 26th, termi- 268 GENERAL JACKSON. nated late in the evening of the 28th, when the proceed- ings of the court were submitted to the commanding gen- eral. On the following morning, before the dawn of day, General Jackson and the main body of his army were in full march for Fort Gadsden. He left at St. Marks a garrison of American troops. The following order with regard to the court and the prisoners it had tried, issued just before his departure, was dated " Camp, four miles north of St. Marks, Ap^-il 2% 1818. " The commanding general approves the finding and sentence of the court in the case of A. Arbuthnot, and approves the finding and first sentence of the court in the case of Robert C. Ambrister, and disapproves the reconsideration of the sentence of the honorable court in this case. " It appears, from the evidence and pleading of the prisoner, that he did lead and command within the terri- tory of Spain (being a subject of Great Britain) the In- dians in war against the United States, those nations being at peace. It is an established principle of the laws of nations that any individual of a nation making war against the citizens of any other nation, they being at peace, forfeits his allegiance and becomes an outlaw and pirate. This is the case of Robert C. Ambrister, clearly shown by the evidence adduced. " The commanding general orders that brevet Major A. C. W. Fanning, o.f the corps of artillery, will have, between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock, A. m., A. Arbuth- not suspended by the neck with a rope until he is dead, and Robert C. Ambrister to be shot to death, agree- ably to the sentence of the court." The sentences of the general were immediately exe- cuted. It is difficult to characterize aright this deplor- able tragedy. Arbuthnot was put to ^eath for acts every COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 260 one of which was innocent, and some of which were emi- nently praiseworthy. Even Ambrister's fault was one which General Jackson himself would have been certain to commit in the same circumstances. He sent a party to '' oppose " the invasion of the province ; and even his seizure of Arbuthnot's schooner seems to have been done to provide his followers with the means of defense. Arbuthnot was convicted upon the evidence of men who had the strongest interest in his conviction. And who presided over the court ? Was it not General Gaines, whose treatment of the Fowltown warriors, first arrogant and then precipitate, was the direct cause of the war and ail its horrors ? Of all the men concerned in this tragedy, General Jackson was perhaps the least blameworthy. We caii survey the transaction in its completeness, but he could not. He carried out of the War of 181 2 the bitterest recollections of Nichols and Woodbine, who had given protection, succor, and honor to the fugitive Creeks. A train of circumstances led him to the conclusion that Arbuthnot and Ambrister were still doing the work in Florida that Nichols and Woodbine had begun in 1814. He expressly says, in one of his dispatches, that at the beginning of his operations he was " strongly impressed with the belief that this Indian war had been excited b}?- some unprincipled foreign agents," and that the Semi- noles were too weak in numbers to have undertaken the war unless they had received assurances of foreign support. Woodbine had actually been in Florida the summer before, brought thither by Arbuthnot. To the '* machinations " of these men General Jackson attrib- uted the massacre of Lieutenant Scott, and considered them equally guilty. They were at length in his power, and he then selected fourteen of his officers to examine the evidence against them. After three days' investiga- 2/0 GENERAL JACKSON. tion those officers brought in a verdict that accorded ex- actly with his own previous convictions, as well as with the representations of men who surrounded his person and had an interest in confirming his impressions. This is not a justification, for it is not permitted to any man to make mistakes of the kind that costs human lives. The execution of Ambrister had some slight shadow of justice, but that of poor Arbuthnot had none, and the violent death of that worthy old man must re- main a blot upon the memory of Andrew Jackson. The executions created in England such general and extreme indignation that nothing but the prudence of the minis- try prevented a war between the two countries. At home these sad events were little understood, and after a de- bate of a whole month upon them in Congress the con- duct of the general was approved. In 182 1, when Florida, after some years of negotia- tion, was ceded to the United States, General Jackson was appointed Governor of that Territory by President Monroe. He accepted the appointment, resigned his commission in the army, and set out on his journey. Delays vexatious but unavoidable occurred in the de- livery of the province, and even after he had taken pos- session the Governor was in the worst possible humor. Mrs. Jackson, who accompanied her fiery lord on this occasion, wrote home in August : " There never was a man more disappointed than the general has been. In the first place, he has not the power to appoint one of his friends; which, I thought, was in part the reason of his coming. But far has it exceeded every calculation ; it has almost taken his life. Captain Call says it is equal to the Seminole campaign. Well, I knew it would be a ruining concern. I shall not pretend to describe the toils, fatigue, and trouble. Those Spaniards had as lieve die as give up their country. He has had terrible scenes. COMMANDER OF THE SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT. 271 The Governor has been put in the calaboose, which is a terrible thing, really." Yes, the Spanish Governor, Colo- nel Callava, who of all the governors of Pensacola was by far the most agreeable and the most respectable character, had indeed been put into the calaboose. He was a Castilian, of a race akin to the Saxon, of light complexion, a handsome, well-grown man, of dignified presence and refined manners. If an angel from heaven had appeared to General Jackson in the guise of a Span- ish governor he would not have liked him, so rooted was his prejudice against Spanish governors. And that Spanish governor from heaven would have found it diffi- cult to so far forget or overlook what General Jackson had formerly done in Florida as to regard the general with an entirely friendly eye. The presence, therefore, of Colonel Callava in Pensacola — particularly after what had occurred previous to the surrender — furnished the material for a grand explosion, provided the Governor and the ex-Governor should by any accident come into collision. We need not dwell upon the details of this affair, which was more ludicrous than tragic. In a few months General Jackson resigned his office and resumed the life of a planter on the fertile shores of the Cumberland River. He reached the Hermitage November 3, 1821, unspeakably disgusted with his brief exercise of civil authority. He was then fifty-four years of age. Already he had lived, as it were, two lives. He had first assisted to subdue the Western wilderness, and then taken the lead in defending it. He had first broken the power of the Southern Indians, and then, by a series of treaties, regulated the terms upon which they were to live in neighborhood with the conquering race. He had first won by his diligence and skill a fair private estate, and then acquired, by his valor and conduct in war, national 272 GENERAL JACKSON. renown and intense popularity. He might well think that he had done his part, had borne his share of private and public burdens, and might now, with impaired health and strength, sit down under his own vine and fig-tree and rest. That such was his sincere desire and real in- tention there are sufficient reasons to believe. Civil service he appears always to have accepted unwillingly, and resigned gladly. Nothing but a summons to the field ever completely overcame his reluctance to leave his happy home ; and now that the aspect of the world was such as to promise a lasting peace to his country, he had, doubtless, no thought but to pass his remaining days in the pleasant labors of his farm and the tranquil enjoyment of liis home. CHAPTER XIX. A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. The presidential campaign of 1824 was the least in- structive one that ever occurred, because it was the most exclusively personal. But it was far from being the least exciting. The long lull in the political firma- ment had given every one a desire for a renewal of the old excitements, and there was everywhere an eager buzz of preparation. During the last three years of Mr. Monroe's second term the great topic of conversation throughout the country was, Who shall be our next President ? Five candidates were frequently mentioned, each of whom had devoted partisans : William H. Craw- ford, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury ; John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State; John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War ; Henty Clay, Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives ; De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York — all strong, able, and popular men. But the name of Jackson had no sooner been presented to the nation by the Legislature of Tennessee, than it was discovered that his popularity was about to render him a most formida- ble competitor. To promote his presidential prospects his friends caused him to be elected to the Senate of the United States. Pennsylvania soon seconded his nomi- nation, and most of the Southern States showed a strong inclination to support him. Mr. Calhoun withdrew his own name in favor of the victor of New Orleans, and consented to stand for the vice-presidency. The pros- 2^4 GENERAL JACKSON. pects of General Jackson were further improved by Mr. Crawford being stricken with paralysis, which totally prostrated him, and, in effect, narrowed the contest to Adams and Jackson. John C. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by a great majority. He received 182 electoral votes out of 261. All New England voted for him except Connecti- cut and one electoral district of New Hampshire. Gen- eral Jackson received thirteen electoral votes for the vice-presidency, and was the choice of two entire states for that office — Connecticut and Missouri. Now for the presidency. Mr. Adams was the choice of seven States, General Jackson of eleven States, Mr. Clay of three States, Mr. Crawford of three States. Still no majority. The population of the United States in 1820 was about nine and a half millions. The popula- tion of the three States which gave a majority for Mr. Clay was 1,212,337. The population of the three States which preferred Mr. Crawford was 1,497,029. The popu- lation of the seven States which gave a majority for Mr, Adams was 3,032,766. The population of the eleven States which voted for General Jackson was 3,757,756. It thus appears that General Jackson received more electoral votes, the vote of more States, and the votes of more people, than any other candidate. Add to these facts that General Jackson was ■ the second choice of Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia, and it must be ad- mitted that he came nearer being elected by the people than any other candidate. He was, moreover, a gaining candidate ; every month added to his strength. The result was not known in all its details when the time came for Senator Jackson to begin his journey to Washington in the fall of 1824. That he was confident, however, of being the successful candidate, was indicated by Mrs. Jackson's accompanying him to the seat of gov- A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 275 ernment. They traveled in their own coach-and-four, I believe, on this occasion. The opposition papers, at least, said so, and descanted upon the fact as an evidence of aristocratic pretensions; considering it antidemocratic to employ four horses to draw a load that four horses sometimes could not tug a mile an hour, and were a month in getting to Washington. The people having failed to elect a President, it de- volved upon the House of Representatives, voting by States, each State having one vote to elect one from the three candidates who had received the highest number of electoral votes. A majority of States being necessary to an election, some one candidate had to secure the vote of thirteen States. The great question was to be decided on the 9th of February, 1825. The result, when announced by the tellers, surprised almost every one — surprised many of the best-informed politicians who heard it. Upon the first ballot, Mr. Adams received the vote of thirteen States, which was a majority. Maryland and Illinois, which had given popular majorities for Jackson, voted for Adams. Ken- tucky, Ohio, and Missouri, which had given popular ma- jorities for Clay, voted for Adams. Crawford received the vote of four States — Delaware, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. General Jackson, for whom eleven States had given an electoral majority, received the vote of but seven States in the House. Was General Jackson, indeed, so heartily acquiescent in his defeat as he seemed to be ? He was disappointed and indignant, believing that he had been defrauded of the presidency by a corrupt bargain between Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay. In this belief General Jackson lived and died. His partisans took up the cry, and made it the chief ground of opposition to Mr. Adams's adminis- tration. 2^6 GENERAL JACKSON. General Jackson was renominated for the presidency by the Legislature of Tennessee before Mr. Adams had served one year. The general resigned his seat in the Senate, and entered heartily into the schemes of his friends. His popularity, great as it was before, seemed vastly increased by his late defeat, and by the belief, in- dustriously promulgated, that he had been cheated of the office to which the people desired to elevate him. The campaign of 1828 opened with a stunning flour- ish of trumpets. Louisiana, like New York, was a doubtful and troublesome State. In 1827 the Legis- lature of Louisiana, which had refused to recognize General Jackson's services in 1815, invited him to re- visit New Orleans, and unite with it in the celebration of the 8th of January, 1828, on the scene of his great victory. The reception of General Jackson at New Orleans on this occasion was, I presume, the most stupendous thing of the kind that had ever occurred in the United States. Delegations from States as distant as New York were sent to New Orleans to swell the eclat oi the demon- stration. " The morning of the auspicious day," wrote an eyewitness, " dawned upon New Orleans. A thick mist covered the water and the land, and at ten o'clock began to rise into clouds; and when the sun at last appeared, it served only to show the darkness of the horizon threatening a storm in the north. It was at that moment the city became visible, with its steeples, and the forest of masts rising from the waters. At that instant, too, a fleet of steamboats was seen advancing toward the Pocahontas, which had now got under way, with twenty-four flags waving over her lofty decks. Two stupendous boats, lashed together, led the van. The whole fleet kept up a constant fire of artillery, which was answered from several ships in the harbor and from I A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 277 the shore. General Jackson stood on the back gallery of the Pocahontas, his head uncovered, conspicuous to the whole multitude, which literally covered the steam- boats, the shipping, and the surrounding shores. The van which bore the Revolutionary soldiers and the rem- nant of the old Orleans Battalion passed the Pocahontas, and, rounding to, fell down the stream, while acclama- tions of thousands of spectators rang from the river to the woods and back to the river. " In this order the fleet, consisting of eighteen steam- boats of the first class, passed close to the city, direct- ing their course toward the field of battle. When it was first descried, some horsemen only, the marshals of the day, had reached the ground ; but in a few minutes it seemed alive with a vast multitude, brought thither on horseback and in carriages, and poured forth from the steamboats. A line was formed by Generals Planch^ and Labaltat, and the committee repaired on board the Pocahontas, in order to invite the general to land and meet his brother-soldiers and fellow-citizens. I have no words to describe the scene which ensued." The festivities continued four days, at the expiration of which the general and his friends re-embarked on board the Pocahontas and returned homeward. The campaign now set in with its usual severity. Gen- eral Jackson was accused of every crime, offense, and im- propriety that man was ever known to be guilty of. His whole life was subject to the severest scrutiny. Every one of his duels, lights, and quarrels was narrated at length. His connection with Aaron Burr was, of course, a favorite theme. The milHary executions which he had ordered were all recounted.* John Binns, of Phila- * On February 2i, 1815, in an open place near the (then) village of Mobile, the execution occurred of six militiamen, officers and privates, 19 2j% GENERAL JACKSON. delphia, issued a series of handbills, each bearing the outline of a coffin-lid, upon which was printed an in- scription recording the death of one of these victims. Campaign papers were first started this year. One, en- titled We the People, and another, called The Anti-Jack- son Expositor, were particularly prominent. The con- duct of General Jackson in Florida during his governor- ship of that Territory was detailed. The number of electoral votes in 1828 was two hun- dred and sixty-one. One hundred and thirty-one was a majority. General Jackson received one hundred and seventy-eight ; Mr. Adams, eighty-three. In all Tennessee, Adams and Rush obtained less than three thousand votes. In many towns every vote was cast for Jackson and Calhoun. A distinguished member of the North Carolina Legislature told me that he happened to enter a Tennessee village in the evening of the last day of the presidential election of 1828. He found the whole male population out hunting, the object of the chase being two of their fellow-citizens. He in- quired by what crime these men had rendered them- selves so obnoxious to their neighbors, and was in- formed that they had voted against General Jackson ! The village, it appeared, had set its heart upon sending up a unanimous vote for the general, and these two voters had frustrated its desire. As the day wore on, the whisky flowed more and more freely, and the result was a universal chase after the two voters, with a view convicted by a court-martial of " mutiny." A body of troops number- ing fifteen hundred were drawn up to witness the scene ; the men were blindfolded, and each man knelt upon his coffin. Thirty-six soldiers were detailed for the purpose, six to fire at each. The sentence was duly carried out, and for several years the country was excited over the event, and much adverse criticism of General Jackson found expression in the newspapers.^ — Editor. A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 270 to tarring and feathering them. They fled to the woods, however, and were not taken. The news of General Jackson's election to the presi- dency, I was informed by Major Lewis, created no great sensation at the Hermitage, so certain beforehand were its inmates of a result in accordance with their desires. Mrs. Jackson quietly said : " Well, for Mr. Jackson's sake, I am glad ; for my own part, I never wished it." The people of Nashville, greatly elated by the suc- cess of their general, resolved to celebrate it in the way in which they had long been accustomed to cele- brate every important event in his career. A banquet unparalleled should be given in honor of his last tri- umph. The day appointed for this affair was the 23d of December, the anniversary of the night battle below New Orleans. General Jackson accepted the invitation to be present. Certain ladies of Nashville, meanwhile, were secretly preparing for Mrs. Jackson a magnificent wardrobe, suitable, as they thought, for the adornment of her person when, as mistress of the White House, she would be deemed the first lady in the nation. She was destined never to wear those splendid garments. For four or five years the health of Mrs. Jackson had been precarious. She had complained occasionally of an uneasy feeling about the region of the heart ; and, during the late excitements, she had been subject to sharper pains and palpitation. She died December 22d, late in the evening. Her husband was shocked and grieved beyond expression. It was long, as I was as- sured by her favorite servant Plannah, before he would believe that she had really breathed her last. The sad news reached Nashville early on the morn- ing of the 23d, when already the committee of arrange- ments were busied with the preparations for the gen- 28o GENERAL JACKSON. eral's reception. " The table was well-nigh spread," said one of the papers, " at which all was expected to be hilarity and joy, and our citizens had sallied forth on the morning with spirits light and buoyant, and counte- nances glowing with animation and hope, when suddenly the scene is changed : congratulations are turned into expressions of condolence, tears are substituted for smiles, and sincere and general mourning pervades the community." General Jackson never recovered from the shock of his wife's death. He was never quite the same man afterward. It subdued his spirit and corrected his speech. Except on occasions of extreme excitement, few and far between, he never again used what is com- monly called " profane language," not even the familiar phrase, " By the Eternal." There were times, of course, when his fiery passions asserted themselves; when he uttered wrathful words; when he wished even to throw off the robes of office, as he once said, that he might call his enemies to a dear account. But these were rare occurrences. He mourned deeply and ceaselessly the loss of his truest friend, and was often guided in his do- mestic affairs by what he supposed would have been her will if she had been there to make it known. CHAPTER XX. INAUGURATION. Haggard with grief and watching, "twenty years older in a night," as one of his friends remarked, the President-elect was compelled to enter without delay upon the labor of preparing for his journey to Washing- ton. His inaugural address was written at the house of Major Lewis, near Nashville. But one slight alteration was made in this document after the general reached the seat of government. Before leaving home, the general drew up a series of rules for the guidance of his administration, one of which was that no member of his Cabinet should be his successor. The party left Nash- ville on a Sunday afternoon about the middle of January. The journey to Washington — every one knows what it must have been. The complete, the instantaneous ac- quiescence of the people of the United States in the decision of a constitutional majority was well illustrated on this occasion. The steamboat that conveyed the general and his party down the Cumberland to the Ohio and up the Ohio to Pittsburg — a voyage of several days — was saluted or cheered as often as it passed a human habitation. At Cincinnati it seemed as if all Ohio, and at Pittsburg as if all Pennsylvania, had rushed forth to shout a welcome to the President-elect. Indeed, the whole country appeared to more than acquiesce in the result of the election. The day of the inauguration was one of the brightest 282 GENERAL JACKSON. and balmiest of the spring. Mr. Webster, in his comic manner, remarks : " I never saw such a crowd here before. Persons have come five hundred miles to see General Jackson, and they really seem to think that the country is rescued from some dreadful danger ! " The ceremony over, the President drove from the Capitol to the White House, followed soon by a great part of the crowd who had witnessed the inauguration. Judge Story, a strenuous Adams man, did not enjoy the scene which the apartments of the "palace," as he styles it, presented on this occasion. "After the ceremony was over," he wrote, " the President went to the palace to receive company, and there he was visited by immense crowds of all sorts of people, from the highest and most polished down to the most vulgar and gross in the nation. I never saw such a mixture. The reign of King Mob seemed triumphant. I was glad to escape from the scene as soon as possible." Soon after General Jackson arrived at the seat of government he informed Edward Livingston, of Louisi- ana, that Mr. Van Buren was the foreordained Secretary of State of the incoming Administration, and offered him the choice of the seats remaining. Mr. Livingston, just then elected to the Senate, preferred his senatorship to any office in the Government except the one already appropriated. In distributing the six great offices. Gen- eral Jackson assigned two to the North, two to the West, and two to the South. Mr, Van Buren accepted the first place without hesi- tation, resigned the governorship of New York after holding it seventy days, and entered upon his duties at Washington three weeks after the inauguration. Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, was appointed to the second place in the Cabinet — that of Secretary of the Treasury. John H. Eaton, Senator from Tennessee, was appointed INAUGURATION. 283 Secretary of War. General Jackson was, from the first determined to have in his Cabinet one of his own Ten- nessee circle of friends, and Mr. Eaton was the one selected. The Navy Department was assigned to John Branch, for many years a Senator from North Carolma. John Macpherson Berrien, of Georgia, was apponited Attorney-General. William T. Barry, of Kentucky, was appointed Postmaster-General. Such was the first Cab- inet of the new President. With the exception of Mr. Van Buren, its members had no great influence over the measures of their chief, and play no important part in the general history of the times. No sooner had General Jackson announced the names of the gentlemen who were to compose his Cabinet, than an opposition to one of them manifested itself of a peculiar and most virulent character. Mr. Eaton, the President's friend and neighbor, was the object of this opposition, the grounds of which must be particularly stated, for it led to important results. A certain Wil- liam O'Neal kept at Washington for many years a large, old-fashioned tavern, where members of Congress in considerable numbers boarded during the sessions of the national Legislature. William O'Neal had a daughter, sprightly and beautiful, who aided him and Jiis wife in entertaining his boarders. Peg O'Neal, as she was called, was so lively in her deportment, so free in her conversa- tion, that, had she been born twenty years later, she would have been called one of the " fast '* girls of Wash- ington. When Major Eaton first came to Washington as a Senator of the United States, in the year 1818, he took board at Mr. O'Neal's tavern, and continued to reside there every winter for ten years. He became acquainted, of course, with the family, including the vivacious and attractive Peg. When General Jackson came to the city 284 GENERAL JACKSON. as Senator in 1823, he also went to live with the O'Neals, whom he had known in Washington before it had become the seat of government. For Mrs. O'Neal, who was a remarkably efficient woman, he had a particular respect. Even during his presidency, when he was supposed to visit no one, it was one of his favorite relaxations, when worn out with business, to stroll with Major Lewis across the " old fields " near Washington to the cottage where Mrs. O'Neal lived in retirement, and enjoy an hour's chat with the old lady. Mrs. Jackson, also, during her residence in Washington in 1825, became attached to Mrs. O'Neal and to her daughter. In the course of time Miss O'Neal became the wife of Purser Timberlake, of the United States Navy, and the mother of two children. In 1828 came the news that Mr. Timberlake, then on duty in the Mediterranean, had cut his throat in a fit of melancholy, induced, it was said, by previous intoxication. On hearing this intelli- gence. Major Eaton, then a widower, felt an inclination to marry Mrs. Timberlake, for whom he had entertained an attachment quite as tender as a man could lawfully indulge for the wife of a friend and brother-mason. He took the precaution to consult General Jackson on the subject. "Why, yes, major," said the general, "if you love the woman, and she will have you, marry her, by all means." Major Eaton mentioned, what the general well knew, that Mrs. Timberlake's reputation in Washington had not escaped reproach, and that Major Eaton him- self was supposed to have been too intimate with her. " Well," sai4 the general, " your marrying her will dis- prove these charges, and restore Peg's good name." And so, perhaps, it might, if Major Eaton had not been taken into the Cabinet. Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake were married in January, 1829, a few weeks before General Jackson arrived at the INAUGURATION. 285 seat of government. As soon as it was whispered about Washington that Major Eaton was to be a member of the new Cabinet, it occurred with great force to the minds of certain ladies, who supposed themselves to be at the head of society at the capital, that in that case Peg O'Neal would be the wife of a Cabinet minister, and, as such, entitled to admission into their own sacred circle. From the moment the scandal reached his ears the new President made Mr. Eaton's cause his own. He sent a confidential agent to New York to investigate one of the stories. He wrote so many letters and statements in relation to this business that Major Lewis, who lived in the White House, was worn out with the nightly toil of copying. The entire mass of the secret and confi- dential writings relating to Mrs. Eaton, all dated in the summer and autumn of 1829, and most of them originally in General Jackson's hand, would fill about one hundred and sixty of these pages. And besides these, there was a large number of papers and documents not deemed important enough for preservation. General Jackson, indeed, brought to the defense of Mrs. Eaton all the fire and resolution with which, forty years before, he had silenced every whisper against Mrs. Jackson. He con- sidered the cases of the two ladies parallel. His zeal in behalf of Mrs. Eaton was a manifestation or conse- quence of his wrath against the calumniators of his wife. At length the President of the United States brought this matter before his Cabinet. The members of the Cabinet having assembled one day in the usual place, the accusers were brought before them, when the Presi- dent endeavored to demonstrate that Mrs. Eaton was <' as chaste as snow." Whether the efforts of the Presi- dent had or had not the effect of convincing the ladies of Washington that Mrs. Eaton was worthy of admission 286 GENERAL JACKSON. into their circle, shall in due time be related. Upon a point of that nature ladies are not convinced easily. Meanwhile, the suitors for presidential favor are advised to make themselves visible at the lady's receptions. A card in Mrs. Eaton's card-basket is not unlikely to be a winning card. CHAPTER XXI. TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. It is delightful to observe with what a scrupulous conscientiousness the early Presidents of this republic disposed of the places in their gift. Washington de- manded to be satisfied on three points with regard to an applicant for office : Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Has he the confidence of his fellow-citizens ? Not till these questions were satisfactorily answered did he deign to inquire respecting the political opinions of a candidate. Private friendship between the President and an appli- cant was absolutely an obstacle to his appointment, so fearful was the President of being swayed by private motives. " My friend," he says, in one of his letters, " I receive with cordial welcome. He is welcome to my house and welcome to my heart ; but, with all his good qualities, he is not a man of business. His opponent, with all his politics so hostile to me, is a man of busi- ness. My private feelings have nothing to do in the case. I am not George Washington, but President of the United States. As George Washington, I would do this man any kindness in my power ; as President of the United States, I can do nothing." The example of General Washington was followed by his successors. Up to the hour of the delivery of General Jackson's inaugural address it was supposed that the new Presi- dent would act upon the principles of his predecessors. In his former letters he had taken strong ground against 288 GENERAL JACKSON. partisan appointments, and when he resigned his seat in the Senate he had advocated two amendments to the Constitution, designed to limit and purify the exercise of the appointing power. One of these proposed amend- ments forbade the re-election of a President, and the other the appointment of members of Congress to any office not judicial. The sun had not gone down upon the day of his inauguration before it was known in all official circles in Washington that the "reform " alluded to in the in- augural address meant a removal from office of all who had conspicuously opposed, and an appointment to office of those who had conspicuously aided, the election of the new President. The work was promptly begun. Colonel Benton will not be suspected of overstating the facts respecting the removals, but he admits that their number, during this year (1829) was six hundred and ninety. His estimate of six hundred and ninety does not include the little army of clerks and others who were at the disposal of some of the six hundred and ninety. The estimate of two thousand includes all who lost their places in consequence of General Jackson's accession to power ; and, though the exact number can not be ascertained, I presume it was not less than two thousand. Colonel Benton says that of the eight thou- sand postmasters, only four hundred and ninety-one were removed ; but he does not add, as he might have added, that the four hundred and ninety-one vacated places comprised nearly all in the department that were worth having. Nor does he mention that the removal of the postmasters of half a dozen great cities was equivalent to the removal of many hundreds of clerks, bookkeepers, and carriers. In the eagerness of his desire to "stand by his friends," the President was brought into collision with the TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 289 Bank of the United States, a truly imposing and powerful institution in 1829. Its capital was thirty-five millions. The public money deposited in its vaults averaged six or seven millions ; its private deposits, six millions more ; its circulation, twelve millions; its discounts, more than forty millions a year ; its annual profits, more than three millions. Besides the parent bank at Philadelphia with its marble palace and hundred clerks, there were twenty- five branches in the towns and cities of the Union, each of which had its president, cashier, and board of direct- ors. The employees of the bank were more than five hundred in number, all men of standing and influence, all liberally salaried. In every county of the Union, in every nation on the globe, were stockholders of the Bank of the United States. One fifth of its stock was owned by foreigners. One fourth of its stock was held by women, orphans, and the trustees of charity funds — so high, so unquestioned was its credit. Its bank notes were as good as gold in every part of the country. From Maine to Georgia, from Georgia to Astoria, a man could travel and pass these notes at every point with- out discount. Nay, in London, Paris, Rome, Cairo, Cal- cutta, or St. Petersburg, the notes of the Bank of the United States were worth a fraction more or a fraction less than their value at home, according to the current rate of exchange. They could usually be sold at a premium at the remotest commercial centers. It was not uncommon for the stock of the bank to be sold at a premium of forty per cent. The directors of this bank were twenty-five in number, of whom five were appoint- ed by the President of the United States. The bank and its branches received and disbursed the entire rev- enue of the nation. At the head of this great establish- ment was the once renowned Nicholas Biddle. General Jackson had no thought of the bank until 2^0 GENERAL JACKSON. he had been President two months. He came to Wash- ington anticipating but a single term, during which the question of rechartering the bank was not expected to come up. The bank was chartered in 1816 for twenty- years, which would not expire until 1836, three years after General Jackson hoped to be at the Hermitage once more, never to leave it. The first intercourse, too, between the bank and the new Administration was in the highest degree courteous and agreeable. A large payment was to be made of the public debt early in the summer, and the manner in which the bank managed that affair, at some loss and much inconvenience to itself, but greatly to the advantage of the public and to the credit of the Government, won from the Secretary of the Treasury a warm eulogium. But while this affair was going on so pleasantly, trouble was brewing in another quarter. Isaac Hill, from New Hampshire, then Second Comptroller of the treasury, was a great man at the White House. He had a grievance. Jeremiah Mason, one of the three great lawyers of New England, a Federalist, a friend of Daniel Webster and of Mr. Adams, had been appointed to the presidency of the branch of the United States Bank at Portsmouth, New Hampshire — much to the disgust of Isaac Hill and other Jackson men of that State. Isaac Hill desired the removal of Mr. Mason, and the appoint- ment in his place of a gentleman who was a friend of the new Administration. Mr. Hill caused petitions to be addressed to the directors of the bank, in which Mr. Mason was accused of partiality, haughtiness, mismanagement, and his re- moval demanded. Mr. Biddle went himself to Ports- mouth, where he spent six days in investigating the charges, and satisfied himself that they were groundless. He informed the Secretary of the Treasury, who had TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 29 1 addressed him on the subject, that the directors would not remove a faithful servant for political reasons. So the Bank of the United States triumphed over Isaac Hill and the Administration. It was a dear victory. Near the close of the new President's first message was the famous passage which sounded the first note of war against the United States Bank : " The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its stockholders will most probably apply for a renewal of their privileges. In order to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy in a measure involving such impor- tant principles and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I can not, in justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the deliberate consideration of the Legislature and the people. Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are well questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citi- zens; and it must be admitted by all that it has failed in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound currency," The Senate retorted by rejecting the nomination of Isaac Hill to the second comptrollership of the Treas- ury, which the President amended by causing Mr. Hill to be elected Senator from New Hampshire. Many other nominations were rejected, and the great bank in many ways frustrated and defied the President. After years of loud and vehement strife, the rechartering of the United States Bank was prevented by him, and it ceased to exist as a national institution. Congress met on the 7th of December, 1829. Such was the strength of the Administration in ihe House of Representatives, that Andrew Stephenson was re-elected to the speakership by one hundred and fifty-two votes out of one hundred and ninety-one. This Congress, however, came in with the Administration, and had been 292 GENERAL JACKSON. elected when General Jackson was elected. This was the session signalized by the great debate between Mr. Hayne and Mr. Webster, the first of many debates upon nullification. It had been a custom in Washington, for twenty years, to celebrate the birthday (April 13th) of Thomas Jefferson, the apostle of democracy. As General Jack- son was regarded by his party as the great restorer and exemplifier of Jeffersonian principles, it was natural that they should desire to celebrate the festival, this year, with more than usual eclai. It was so resolved. A banquet was the mode selected ; to which the President, the Vice-President, the Cabinet, many leading members of Congress, and other distinguished persons, were in- vited. When the regular toasts were over, the President was called upon for a volunteer, and gave it : " Our Fed- eral Union: It must be preserved." Mr. Calhoun gave the next toast : *' The Union ; Next to our liberty the most dear : may we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and aistributing equally the benefit and bur- den of the Union." It was supposed, at the time, that the toast offered by the President was an impromptu. On the contrary, the toast was prepared with singular deliberation, and was designed to produce the precise effect it did pro- duce. Major Lewis favors the reader with the following interesting reminiscence : " This celebrated toast, ' The Federal Union : It must be preserved,' was a cool, de- liberate act. The United States Telegraph, General Duff Green's paper, published a programme of the pro- ceedings for the celebration the day before, to which the general's attention had been drawn by a friend, with the suggestion that he had better read it. This he did in the course of the evening, and came to the conclusion TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 293 that the celebration was to be a nullification affair alto- gether. With this impression on his mind, he prepared early the next morning (the day of the celebration) three toasts, which he brought with him when he came into his office, where he found Major Donelson and myself read- ing the morning papers. After taking his seat he handed them to me and asked me to read them, and tell him which I preferred. I ran my eye over them and then handed him the one I liked best. He handed them to Major Donelson also, with the same request, who, on reading them, agreed with me. He said he preferred that one himself, for the reason that it was shorter and more expressive. He then put that one into his pocket, and threw the others into the fire. That is the true his- tory of the toast the general gave on the Jefferson birth- day celebration in 1830, which fell among the nullifiers like an exploded bomb ! " The year 1829 had not closed before General Jackson was resolved to do all that in him lay to secure the elec- tion of Mr. Van Buren as his successor to the presidency. Nor did that year come to an end before he began to act in furtherance of the project. '^'All through the summer and fall of 1829," writes Major Lewis, "Gen- eral Jackson was in very feeble health, and in December of the same year his friends became seriously alarmed for his safety. It occurred to me that General Jackson's name, though he might be dead, would prove a powerful lever, if judiciously used, in raising Mr. Van Buren to the pre'sidency. I therefore determined to get the gen- eral, if possible, to write a letter to some friend, to be used at the next succeeding presidential election (in case of his death), expressive of the confidence he reposed in Mr. Van Buren's abilities, patriotism, and qualifica- tions for any station, even the highest within the gift of the people. He accordingly wrote a letter to his old 20 294 GENERAL JACKSON. friend Judge Overton, and handed il to me to copy, with authority to make such alterations as I might think proper. After copying it (having made only a few ver- bal alterations) I requested him to read it, and, if satis- fied with it, to sign it. He read it, and said it would do, and then put his name to it, remarking as he returned It to me : " ' If I die, you have my permission to make such use of it as you may think most desirable.' " The letter to Judge Overton contained these words: " Permit me here to say of Mr. Van Buren, that I have found him everything that I could desire him to be, and believe him not only deserving my confidence but the confidence of the nation. Instead of his being selfish and intriguing, as has been represented by some of his opponents, I have ever found him frank, open, candid, and manly. As a counselor, he is able and prudent; re- publican in his principles, and one of the most pleasant men to do business with I ever saw. He, my dear friend, is well qualified to fill the highest office in the gift of the people, who in him will find a true friend and safe de- pository of their rights and liberty." Judge Overton, I believe, never knew the purpose for which this letter was written. The copy retained was signed by General Jackson and placed among the secret papers of Major Lewis, where it reposed until copied for the readers of these pages, A new man was summoned to the councils of the President — Lewis Cass, Governor of the Territory of Michigan, who was installed as head of the Department of War in July. The vacant attorney-generalship was conferred upon Mr. Roger B. Taney, then Attorney- General of Maryland, afterward the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Taney was a lawyer of the first distinction in his native State. He TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 295 was one of the Federalists who had given a zealous sup- port to General Jackson in 1828. At the next session of Congress the Senate confirmed the nominations of Edward Livingston, Louis McLane, Levi Woodbury, Lewis Cass, and Roger B. Taney, to their respective places in the Cabinet. Not so the nomi- nation of Mr. Van Buren to the post of British minister. Mr. Calhoun, at that time, in common with most of the opposition, attributed to the machinations of Mr. Van Buren his rupture with the President and the dissolution of the Cabinet. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were of the opinion that it was Mr. Van Buren who had induced the President to adopt the New York system of party re- movals. The leaders of the Senate resolved upon the rejection of Mr. Van Buren. The rejection secured Mr. Van Buren's political for- tune. His elevation to the presidency, long before de- sired and intended by General Jackson, became from that hour one of his darling objects. The "party," also, took him up with a unanimity and enthusiasm that left the wire-pullers of the White House little to do. Letters of remonstrance and approbation, signed by in- fluential members of the party, were sent over the sea to Mr. Van Buren, who soon found that his rejection was one of the most fortunate events of his public life. The last important act of President Jackson's first term was his veto of the bill to recharter the United States Bank, which he accompanied by a message of singular effectiveness. Concerning the financial and legal principles laid down in this important document financiers and lawyers differ in opinion. The office of the present chronicler is to state that the bank-veto message of President Jackson came with convincing power upon a majority of the people of the United States. It settled the question. It was the singular 296 GENERAL JACKSON. fortune of the bank-veto message to delight equally the friends and foes of the bank. The opposition circulated it as a campaign document ! Duff Green published it in his extra Telegraph, calling upon all the opponents of the Administration to give it the widest publicity, since it would damn the Administration wherever it was read. The New York American characterized it thus: "It is indeed and verily beneath contempt. It is an appeal of ignorance to ignorance, of prejudice to prejudice, of the most unblushing partisan hostility to the obsequiousness of partisan servility. No man in the Cabinet proper will be willing to share the ignominy of preparing or ap- proving such a paper." Nicholas Biddle himself was enchanted with it, for he thought it had saved the bank by destroying the bank's great enemy. " You ask," he wrote to Henry Clay, " what is the effect of the veto ? My impression is, that it is working as well as the friends of the bank and of the country could desire." The result of the election astonished everybody. Not the wildest Jackson man in his wildest moment had anticipated a victory quite so overwhelming. Two hun- dred and eighty-eight was the whole number of electoral votes in 1832, General Jackson received two hundred and nineteen — seventy-four more than a majority. Mr. Van Buren, for the vice-presidency, received one hun- dred, and eighty-nine electoral votes — forty-four more than a majority. CHAPTER XXII. THE SECOND TERM. The triumphant re-election of General Jackson in 1832 was a sore disappointment to Mr. Calhoun, and to his friends the "nullifiers " of South Carolina. The War of 1812 left the country burdened with a debt of one hundred and thirty millions of dollars, and blessed with a great number of small manufactories. The debt and the manufactories were both results of the war. By cutting off the supply of foreign manufactured articles, the war had produced upon the home manufacturing in- terests the effect of a prohibitory tariff. To pay the in- terest of this great debt, and occasional installments of the principal, it was necessary for the ^Government to raise a far larger revenue than had ever before been col- lected in the United States. The new manufacturing in- terests asked that the duties should be so regulated as to afford some part of that complete protection which the war had given it. The peace, that had been wel- comed with such wild delight in 1815, had prostrated entire branches of manufacture to which the war had given a sudden development. Among those who advocated the claims of the manu- facturers in the session of i8i5-'i6, and strove to have the protective principle permanently incorporated into the revenue legislation of Congress, the most active, the most zealous, was John C. Calhoun, member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina. He 298 GENERAL JACKSON. Spoke often on the subject and he spoke unequivocally. Mr. Clay, who was then the friend, ally, and messmate of Mr. Calhoun, admitted that the Carolmian had sur- passed himself in the earnestness with which he labored in the cause of protection. One of his arguments was drawn from the condition of Poland at the time. " The country in Europe " said he, " having the most skillful workmen, is broken up. It is to us, if wisely used, more valuable than the repeal of the Edict of Nantes was to England. She had the prudence to profit by it ; let us not discover less political sagacity. Afford to inge- nuity and industry immediate and ample protection, and they will not fail to give a preference to this free and happy country." The protectionists, led by Messrs. Clay and Calhoun, triumphed in 1816. In the tariff bill of 1820 the princi- ple was carried further, and still further in those of 1824 and 1828. But about the year 1824 it began to be thought that the advantages of the system were enjoyed chiefly by the Northern States, and the South hastened to the conclusion that the protective system was the cause of its lagging behind. There was, accordingly, a considerable Southern opposition to the tariff of 1824, and a general Southern opposition to that of 1828. In the latter year, however, the South elected to the presi- dency General Jackson, whose votes and whose writings had committed him to the principle of protection. South- ern politicians felt that the general, as a Southern man, was more likely to further their views than Messrs. Adams and Clay, both of whom were peculiarly devoted to protection. As the first years of General Jackson's administration wore away without affording to the South the " relief " which they had hoped from it, the discontent of the Southern people increased. Circumstances gave them a THE SECOND TERM. 2QQ new and telling argument. In 1831 the public debt had been so far diminished as to render it certain that m three years the last dollar of it would be paid. The Government had been collecting about twice as much revenue as its annual expenditures required. In three years, therefore, there would be an annual surplus of twelve or thirteen millions of dollars. The South de- manded with almost a united voice, that the duties should be reduced so as to make the revenue equal to the. expenditure, and that, in making this reduction, the principle of protection should be, in effect, abandoned. Protection should thenceforth be " incidental " merely. The session of i83i-'32 was the one during which South- ern gentlemen hoped to effect this great change in the policy of the country. The President's message, as we have seen, also announced that, in view of the speedy extinction of the public debt, it was high time that Con- gress should prepare for the threatened surplus. The case was one of real difficulty. It was a case for a statesman. To reduce the revenue thirteen mil- lions, at one indiscriminate swoop, might close half the workshops in the country. At the same time, for -the United States to go on raising thirteen millions a year more than was necessary for carrying on the govern- ment would have been an intolerable absurdity. Mr. Clay, after an absence from the halls of Congress of six years, returned to the Senate in December, 183 1 — an illustrious figure, the leader of the opposition, its caixiidate for the presidency, his old renown enhanced by his long exile from the scene of his well-remembered triumphs. The galleries filled when he was expected to speak. He was in the vigor of his prime. He never spoke so well as then, nor as often, nor so long, nor with so much applause. But he either could not or dared not undertake the choking of the surplus. What 300 GENERAL JACKSON. wise, complete, far-reaching measure can a candidate for the presidency link his fortunes to ? He wounded, with- out killing it ; and he was compelled, at a later day, to do what it had been glorious voluntarily to attempt in 1832. He proposed merely that "the duties upon arti- cles imported from foreign countries, and not coming into competition with similar articles made or produced within the United States, be forthwith abolished, except the duties upon wines and silks, and that those be re- duced." After a debate of months' duration, a bilj in accordance with this proposition passed both Houses, and was signed by the President. It preserved the pro- tective principle intact ; it reduced the income of the Government about three millions of dollars; and it m- flamed the discontent of the South to such a degree that one State, under the influence of a man of force, be- came capable of — nullification. The President signed the bill, as he told his friends, because he deemed it an approach to the measure re- quired. His influence, during the session, had been secretly exerted in favor of compromise. The President thought that the just course lay between the two ex- tremes of abandoning the protective principle and of reducing the duties in total disregard of it. Here was the opportunity of the nullifiers. A con- vention of the people of South Carolina met at Colum- bia, November 19, 1832, which passed an "ordinance" declaring that the tariff law of 1828, and the amendment to the same of 1832, were "null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers or citizens," and that no duties enjoined by that law or its amendment * shall be paid, or permitted to be paid, in the State of South Carolina, after the first day of February, 1833." The message of the new Governor indorsed the acts of the convention in the strongest language possible. I THE SECOND TERM. 301 "I recognize," said Governor Hayne, "no allegiance as paramount to that which the citizens of South Carolina owe to the State of their birth or their adoption," He said more: "If the sacred soil of Carolina should be polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained with the blood of her citizens, shed in her defense, I trust in Almighty God that no son of hers, native or adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or been cherished by her bounty, will be found raising a parri- cidal arm against our common mother." The Legislature instantly responded to the message by passing the acts requisite for carrying the ordinance into practical effect. The Governor was authorized to accept the services of volunteers, who were to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment's warn- ing. The State resounded with the noise of warlike preparation. Blue cockades with a palmetto button in the center appeared upon thousands of hats, bonnets, and bosoms. Medals were struck ere long, bearing this inscription : " John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy." The Legislature proceeded soon to fill the vacancy created in the Senate of the United States by the election of Mr. Hayne to the gov- ernorship. John C. Calhoun, Vice-President of the United States, was the individual selected, and Mr. Cal- houn accepted his seat. He resigned the vice-presi- dency, and began his journey to Washington in Decem- ber, leaving his State in the wildest ferment. The President baffled and brought to naught the mis- guided men who originated and sustained this alarming complication. General Winfield Scott was quietly or- dered to Charleston, for the purpose, as the President confidentially informed the collector, "of superintend- ing the safety of the ports of the United States in that vicinity." Other changes were made in the disposition 302 GENERAL JACKSON, of naval and military forces, designed to enable the President to act with swift efficiency if there should be occasion to act. If ever a man was resolved to accom- plish a purpose, General Jackson was resolved on this occasion to preserve intact the authority with which he had been intrusted. Nor can any language do justice to the fury of his contemptuous wrath against the author and fomenter of all this trouble. Congress met on the 3d of December, 1832. Mr. Calhoun had not reached Washington, and his intention to resign the vice-presidency was not known there. The message reveals few traces of the loud and threatening contentions amid which it was produced. The troubles in South Carolina were dismissed in a single paragraph, which expressed a hope of a speedy adjustment of the difficulty. While Congress was listening to this calm and sug- gestive message, the President was absorbed in the prep- aration of another document, and one of a very different description. A pamphlet containing the proceedings of the South Carolina Convention reached him on one of the last days of November. It moved him profoundly ; for this fiery spirit loved his country as few men have loved it. Though he regarded those proceedings as the fruit of John C. Calhoun's ambition and resentment, he rose on this occasion above personal considerations, and con- ducted himself with that union of daring and prudence which had given him such signal success in war. He went to his office alone, and began to dash off page after page of the memorable proclamation which was soon to electrify the country. He wrote with that great steel pen of his, and with such rapidity, that he was obliged to scatter The written pages all over the table to let them dry. A gentleman who came in when the President had written fifteen or twenty pages, observed that three of THE SECOND TERM. ^03 them were glistening with wet ink at the same moment. The warmth, the glow, the passion, the eloquence of that proclamation were produced then and there by the President's own hand. To these pages were added many more of notes and memoranda which had been accumulating in the Presi- dential hat for some weeks, and the whole collection was then placed in the hands of Mr. Livingston, the Secre- tary of State, who was requested to draw up the proc- lamation in proper form. Major Lewis writes to me: " Mr. Livingston took the papers to his office, and in the course of three or four days brought the proclama- tion to the general, and left it for his examination. After reading it, he came into my room and remarked that Mr. Livingston had not correctly understood his notes; there were portions of the draft, he added, which were not in accordance with his views, and must be altered. He then sent his messenger for Mr. Livingston, and pointed out to him the passages which did not represent his views, and requested him to take it back with him and make the alterations he had suggested. This was done, and, the second draft being satisfactory, he ordered it to be published. I will add that, before the proclamation was sent to press to be published, I took the liberty of sug- gesting to the general whether it would not be best to leave out that portion to which, I was sure, the State- rights party would particularly object. He refused. '' ' Those are my views,' said he with great decision of manner, 'and I will not change them nor strike them out.'" This celebrated paper was dated December 11, 1832. The word proclamation does not describe it. It reads more like the last appeal of a sorrowing but resolute father to wayward, misguided sons. Argument, warn- ing, and entreaty were blended in its composition. It 304 GENERAL JACKSON. began by calmly refuting, one by one, the leading posi- tions of the nullifiers. The right to annul and the right to secede^ as claimed by them, were shown to be incom- patible with the fundamental idea and main object of the Constitution, which was " to form a more perfect Union." That the tariff act complained of did operate unequally was granted, but so did every revenue law that had ever been or could ever be passed. The right of a State to secede was strongly denied. " To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to say that the United States are not a nation." The in- dividual States are not completely sovereign, for they voluntarily resigned part of their sovereignty. " How can that State be said to be sovereign and independent whose citizens owe obedience to laws not made by it, and whose magistrates are sworn to disregard those laws, when they come in conflict with those passed by an- other ? " Finally, the people of South Carolina were distinctly given to understand that, in case any forcible resistance to the laws were attempted by them, the attempt would be resisted by the combined power and resources of the other States. For one word, however, of this kind, there were a hundred of entreaty. " Fellow-citizens of my native State," exclaimed the President, "let me not only admonish you, as the First Magistrate of our common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In that paternal lan- guage, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are either deceived themselves or wish to deceive you.'' Such were the tone and manner of this celebrated proclamation. It was clear in statement, forcible in argument, vigorous in style, and glowing with the fire of THE SECOND TERM. ^qc a genuine and enlightened patriotism. The proclama- tion was received at the North with an enthusiasm that seemed unanimous, and was nearly so. The opposition press bestowed the warmest encomiums upon it. Three days after its appearance in the newspapers of New York, an immense meeting was held in the Park for the purpose of stamping it with metropolitan approval. Faneuil Hall, in Boston, was quick in responding to it, and there were Union meetings in every large town of the Northern States. In Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, Louisiana, and Kentucky the proclamation was generally approved as an act, though its extreme Federal positions found many opponents. In South Carolina, however, it did but inflame the prevailing excitement. The Legislature of that State, being still in session, immediately passed the following resolution : " Whereas, The President of the United States has issued his proclamation, denouncing the proceedings of this State, calling upon the citizens thereof to renounce their primary allegiance, and threatening them with mili- tary coercion, unw^arranted by the Constitution and utterly inconsistent with the existence of a free State : Be it, therefore, ''Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be re- quested forthwith to issue his proclamation, warning the good people of this State against the attempt of the President of the United States to seduce them from their allegiance, exhorting them to disregard his vain menaces, and to be prepared to sustain the dignity and protect the liberty of the State against the arbitrary measures proposed by the President." Governor Hayne issued his proclamation according- ly, and a most pugnacious document it was. When the 3o6 GENERAL JACKSON. proclamation reached Washington, the President forth- with replied to it by asking Congress for an increase of powers adequate to the impending collision. The mes- sage in which he made this request, dated January i6, 1833, gave a brief history of events in South Carolina and of the measures hitherto adopted by the Admin- istration ; repeated the arguments of the recent procla- mation and added others ; stated the legal points involved, and asked of Congress such an increase of executive powers as would enable the Government, if necessary, to close ports of entry, remove threatened custom-houses, detain vessels, and protect from State prosecution such citizens of South Carolina as should choose or be compelled to pay the obnoxious duties. Mr. Calhoun was in his place in the Senate-chamber when this message was read. He had arrived two weeks before, after a journey which one of his biographers compares to that of Luther to the Diet of Worms. He met averted faces and estranged friends everywhere on his route, we are told ; and only now and then some daring man found courage to whisper in his ear, "If you are sincere, and are sure of your cause, go on, in God's name, and fear nothing." Washington was curious to know, we are further assured, what the arch-nullifier would do when the oath to support the Constitution of the United States was proposed to him. " The floor of the Senate-chamber and the galleries were thronged with spectators. They saw him take the oath with a solem- nity and dignity appropriate to the occasion, and then calmly seat himself on the right of the chair, among his old political friends, nearly all of whom were now ar- rayed against him." After the President's message had been read, Mr. Cal- houn rose to vindicate himself and his State, .which he did with that singular blending of subtlety and force, THE SECOND TERM. ^07 truth and sophistry, which characterized his later efforts. He declared himself still devoted to the Union, and said that, if the Government were restored to the principles of 1798, he would be the last man in the country to ques- tion its authority. A bill conceding to the President the additional powers requested in his message of January i6th was promptly reported and finally passed, It was nicknamed, at the time, the "Force Bill," and was debated with the heat and acrimony which might have been expected. As other measures of Congress rendered this bill unneces- sary, and it had no practical effect whatever, we need not dwell upon its provisions nor review the debates upon it. It passed, by majorities unusually large, late in February. The ist of February, the dreaded day which was to be the first of a fratricidal war, had gone by, and yet no hostile and no nullifying act had been done in South Carolina. How was this ? Did those warlike words mean nothing? Was South Carolina repentant? It is asserted by the old Jacksonians that one citizen of South Carolina was exceedingly frightened as the ist of February drew near, namely — John C. Calhoun. The President was resolved, and avowed his resolve, that the hour which brought the news of one act of violence on the part of the nullifiers, should find Mr. Calhoun a pris- oner of state upon a charge of high treason. And not Calhoun only, but every member of Congress from South Carolina who had taken part in the proceedings which had caused the conflict between South Carolina and the General Government. Whether this intention of the President had any effect upon the course of events, we can not know. It came to pass, however, that, a few days before the ist of February, a meeting of the lead- ingr nullifiers was held in Charleston, who passed resolu- 3o8 GENERAL JACKSON. tions to this effect : That, inasmuch as measures were then pending in Congress which contemplated the re- duction of duties demanded by South Carolina, the nullification of the existing revenue laws should be post- poned until after the adjournment of Congress; when the convention would reassemble, and take into con- sideration whatever revenue measures may have been passed by Congress. The session of 1833 being the " short " session, ending necessarily on the 4th of March, the Union was respited thirty days by the Charleston meeting. Which of these two bills was most in accordance with Mr. Calhoun's new opinions ? Which of them could he most consistently have supported ? Not Mr. Clay's. Yet it was Mr. Clay's bill that he did support and vote for; and Mr. Clay's bill was carried by the aid of his support and vote. Mr. Calhoun left Washington, and journeyed home- ward post-haste, after Congress adjourned. Traveling night and day by the most rapid public conveyances, he succeeded in reaching Columbia in time to meet the convention before they had taken any additional steps. Some of the more fiery and ardent members were dis- posed to complain of the Compromise Act, as being only a halfway, temporizing measure ; but when his explana- tions were made, all felt satisfied, and the convention cordially approved of his course. The nullification or- dinance was repealed, and the two parties in the State abandoned their organizations and agreed to forget all their past differences. So the storm blew over. One remarkable result of the pacification was that it strengthened the position of the leading men of both parties. The course was cleared for Mr. Van Buren. The popularity of the President reached its highest point. Mr. Calhoun was rescued from peril, and a de- THE SECOND TERM. ^Oq gree of his former prestige was restored to him. The collectors of political pamphlets will discover that, as late as 1843, he still had hopes of reaching the presi- dency by uniting the South in his support and adding to the united South Pennsylvania. With too much truth he claimed, in subsequent debates, that it was the hostile attitude of South Carolina which alone had enabled Mr. Clay to carry his compromise. Mr. Clay, as some readers may remember, won great glory at the North by his course during the session of 1833. He was received in New York and New England, this year, with that enthusiasm which his presence in the manufacturing States ever after inspired. The warmth of his reception consoled him for his late defeat at the polls, and gave new hopes to his friends. But the Colos- sus of the session was Daniel Webster, well named then, the expounder of the Constitution. In supporting the Administration in all its anti-nullification measures, he displayed his peculiar powers to the greatest advantage. The subject of debate was the one of all others the most congenial to him, and he rendered services then to his country to which his country in i860 recurred with grati- tude. " Nullification kept me out of the Supreme Court all last winter," he says in one of his letters in 1833. He mentions, also, that the President sent his own car- riage to convey him to the Capitol on one important oc- casion. After the adjournment he visited the great W^est, where he was welcomed with equal warmth by the friends and the opponents of the Administration. When all was over. General Jackson wrote that letter to the Rev. A. J. Crawford, of Georgia, which later events rendered the most celebrated of all his wTitings. May I, 1833, is the date of this famous production: "I have had," wrote the President, "a laborious task here, but nullification is dead, and its actors and courtiers 21 3IO GENERAL JACKSON. will only be remembered by the people to be execrated for their wicked designs to sever and destroy the only good Government on the globe, and that prosperity and happiness we enjoy over every other portion of the world. Haman's gallows ought to be the fate of all such ambitious men who would involve the country in a civil war, and all the evils in its train, that they might reign and ride on its whirlwinds and direct the storm. The free people of the United States have spoken, and consigned these wicked demagogues to their proper doom. Take care of your nullifiers you have among you. Let them meet the indignant frowns of every man who loves his country. The tariff, it is now well known, was a mere pretext. Its burdens were on your coarse woolens; by the law of July, 1832, coarse woolens was reduced to five per cent for the benefit of the South. Mr. Clay's bill takes it up, and closes it with woolens at fifty per cent, reduces it gradually down to twenty per cent, and there it is to remain, and Mr. Calhoun and all the nullifiers agree to the principle. The cash duty and home valuation will be equal to fifteen per cent more, and after the year 1842 you will pay on coarse woolens thirty-five per cent. If this is not protection, I can not understand it. Therefore, the tariff was only the pre- text, and disunion and a Southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro or the slavery question^ Not content to let the Bank of the United States peacefully die upon the expiration of its charter in 1836, the President resolved in 1833 to remove from it the public money, and thus sever its connection with the Government. The sub-Treasury had not yet been thought of, or only thought of. The complete divorce which that simple expedient effected between bank and State came too late to save the country from four years THE SECOND TERM. ^U of most disastrous "experiment." The plan proposed in 1833 was, instead of depositing the public money in the Bank of the United States and its twenty-five branches, to deposit it in a similar number of State banks. We can not wonder that every member of the Cabinet ex- cept two, besides some important members of the kitchen cabinet and a large majority of the President's best friends, opposed it from the beginning to the end. The measure occurred to the President while he was conversing, one day early in the year 1833, with Mr. Blair, of the Globe, who hated the bank only less than the President himself did. " Biddle," said Mr. Blair, *'is actually using the people's money to frustrate the people's will. He is using the money of the Government for the purpose of breaking down the Government. If he had not the public money he could not do it." The President said, in his most vehement manner: " He sha'n't have the public money ! I'll remove the de- posits! Blair, talk with our friends about this, and let me know what they think of it." The deposits were removed accordingly, and the pub- lic money was placed in the State banks all over the country. These State banks, as a Senator remarked, " soon began to feel their oats." The expression is homely, but not inapt. The extraordinary increase in the public revenue during the next two years added im- mense sums to the available capital of those banks, and gave a new and undue importance to the business of banking. Banks sprang into existence like mushrooms in a night. The pet banks seemed compelled to extend their business, or lose the advantage of their connec- tion with the Government. The great bank felt itself obliged to expand, or be submerged in the general infla- tion. It expanded twelve millions during the next two years. All the other banks expanded, and all men ex- 312 GENERAL JACKSON. panded, and all things expanded. Many causes con- spired to produce the unexampled, the disastrous, the demoralizing inflation of 1835 and 1836; but I do not see any escape from the conclusion that the inciting cause was the vast amounts of public treasure that, dur- ing those years, were '* lying about loose " in the deposit banks. General Jackson desired a currency of gold and silver. Never were such floods of paper money emitted as during the continuance of his own fiscal system. He wished to reduce the number and the importance of banks, bankers, brokers, and speculators. The years succeeding the transfer of the deposits were the golden biennium of just those classes. In a word, his system, as far as my acquaintance with such matters enables me to judge, worked ill at every moment of its operation, and upon every interest of business and morality. To it, more than to all other causes combined, we owe the inflation of 1835 and 1836, the universal ruin of 1837, and the dreary and hopeless depression of the five years following. In November, 1836, General Jackson beheld the con- summation of his most cherished hopes in the election of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency. Signs of coming revulsion in the world Qf business were so numerous and so palpable during this year that it is wonderful so few observed them. The short crops of 1836 and the paper inflation had raised the price of the necessaries of life to a point they had never reached before, and have never reached since. Flour was sold in lots, at fifteen dollars a barrel ; in single barrels, at sixteen ; in smaller quantities, at eighteen. The grow- ing scarcity of money had already compelled manufac- turers to dismiss many of their workmen ; and thus, at a moment when financiers cherished the delusion that the country was prosperous beyond all previous example, THE SECOND TERM. 313 large numbers of worthy mechanics and seamstresses were suffering from want. To the last day of his residence in the presidential mansion General Jackson continued to receive proofs that he was still the idol of the people. The eloquence of the opposition had not availed to lessen his general popularity in the least degree. We read of one enthu- siastic Jacksonian conveying to Washington, from New York, with banners and bands of music, a prodigious cheese as a present to the retiring chief. The cheese was four feet in diameter, two feet thick, and weighed fourteen hundred pounds — twice as large, said the Globe, as the great cheese given to Mr. Jefferson on a similar occasion. The President, after giving away large masses of his cheese to his friends, found that he had still more cheese than he could consume. At his last public recep- tion he caused a piece of the' cheese to be presented to all who chose to receive it — an operation that filled the White House with an odor that is pleasant only when there is not too much of it. Another ardent lover of the President gave him a light wagon composed entirely of hickory sticks with the bark upon them. Another pre- sented an elegant phaeton made of the wood of the old frigate Constitution. The hickory wagon the general left in Washington, as a memento to his successor. The Constitutional phaeton he took with him to the Hermit- age, where I saw it, faded and dilapidated, in 1858. The farewell address of the -retiring President was little more than a resume of the doctrines of his eight annual messages. The priceless value of the Union ; the danger to it of sectional agitation; the evils of a splendid and powerful government ; the safety and ad- vantages of plain and inexpensive institutions ; the perils of a surplus revenue; the injustice of a high tariff ; the unconstitutionality of that system of internal 214 GENERAL JACKSON. improvements which the Maysville veto had checked ; the curse of paper money ; the extreme desirableness of a currency of gold and silver — were the leading topics upon which the President descanted. " My own race," said he, " is nearly run ; advanced age and failing health warn me that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events, and cease to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty, and that he has given me a heart to love my country with the affection of a son. And, filled with gratitude for your constant and unwavering kind- ness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell." CHAPTER XXIII. IN RETIREMENT. General Jackson was seventy years of age when he retired from the presidency. He was a very infirm old man, seldom free from pain for an hour, never for a day. Possessed of a most beautiful and productive farm and a hundred and fifty negroes, he yet felt himself to be a poor man on his return to the Hermitage. " I re- turned home," he writes to Mr. Trist, "with just ninety dollars in money, having expended all my salary, and most of the proceeds of my cotton crop ; found every- thing out of repair ; corn, and everything else for the use of my farm, to buy; having"but one tract of land besides^y homestead, which I have sold, and which has enabled me to begin the new year (1838) clear of debt, relying on our industry and economy to yield us a sup- port, trusting to a kind Providence for good seasons and a prosperous crop." During the next few years he lived the life of a planter, carefully directing the operations of his farm, enjoying the society of his adopted son and his amiable and estimable wife. They and their children were the solace of his old age. The commercial disasters of 1837 and the depression that succeeded had not seriously inconvenienced General Jackson, with his magnificent farm and his hundred and fifty negroes. He repeatedly expressed the opinion that no one failed in that great revulsion who ought not to 3i6 GENERAL JACKSON, have failed. Not the faintest suspicion that any measure of his own had anything to do with it ever found lodg- ment in his mind. He laid all the blame upon Biddle, paper money, and speculation. In 1842, when business men began once more to hope for prosperous seasons, and the country awoke from its long lethargy, General Jackson became an anxious and embarrassed man through the misfortunes of his son. Money was not to be bor- rowed in the Western country even then, except at an exorbitant interest. He applied, in these circumstances, to his fast friend, Mr. Blair, of the Globe, who was then a man of fortune. Ten thousand dollars was the sum which the general deemed sufficient for his relief. Mr. Blair not only resolved on the instant to lend the money, but to lend it on the general's personal security, and to make the loan as closely resemble a gift as the general's delicacy would permit it to be. Mr, Rives desired to share the pleasure of accommodating General Jackson, and the loan was therefore made in the name of Blair and Rives. Upon reading Mr. Blair's reply to his appli- cation, the old man burst into tears. He handed the letter to his daughter, and she, too, was melted by the delicate generosity which it revealed. General Jackson, however, would accept the money only on conditions which secured his friends against the possibility of loss. Not long after these interesting events, further relief was afforded General Jackson by the refunding of the fine which he had paid at New Orleans, in 1815, for the arrest of Judge Hall, and for refusing to obey the writ of habeas corpus issued by him. The fine was originally one thousand dollars, but the accumulated interest swelled the amount to twenty-seven hundred. Senator Linn, of Missouri, introduced the bill for refunding the money, and gave it an earnest and persevering support. In the House the measure was strenuously supported by IN RETIREMENT. ^I^ Mr. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, and Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, to both of whom General Jackson expressed his gratitude in the warmest terms. The bill was passed in the Senate by a party vote of twenty-eight to twenty — Mr. Calhoun votmg with the friends of the ex-President; in the House, by one hun- dred and fifty-eight to twenty-eight. The religious tendencies of General Jackson were strengthened by the example of his wife, and much more by her affecting death at the moment when he needed her most. He gave her his solemn promise to join the church as soon as he had done with politics, and the letters which he wrote during his presidency to members of his own family abound in religious expressions. The promise which he made to his wife he remembered, but did not strictly keep. In August, 1838, he wrote to one who had addressed him on the subject: "I would long since have made this solemn public dedication to Al- mighty God, but knowing the wickedness of this world, and how prone men are to evil, that the scoffer of re- ligion would have cried out, * Hypocrisy ! he has joined the church for political effect,' I thought it best to post- pone this public act until my retirement to the shades of private life, when no false imputation could be made that might be injurious to religion." He passed two or three years, however, "in the shades of private life" before he performed the act referred to in this letter. In 1842 he fulfilled the promise he had made to his wife, and joined the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. Edgar, of Nashville, performing the ceremony at the little brick edifice on the Hermitage farm. Dr. Edgar informed me that the usual questions respecting doc- trine and experience were satisfactorily answered by the candidate. Then there was a pause in the conversation. The clergyman said, at length : 3i8 GENERAL JACKSON. " General, there is one more question which it is my duty to ask you. Can you forgive all your enemies ?" The question was evidently unexpected, and the candidate was silent for a while. " My political enemies," said he, " I can freely for- give ; but as for those who abused me when I was serv- ing my country in the field, and those who attacked me for serving my country — doctor, that is a different case." The doctor assured him that it was not. Christianity, he said, forbade the indulgence of enmity absolutely and in all cases. No man could be received into a Christian church who did not cast out of his heart every feeling of that nature. It was a condition that was fundamental and indispensable. After a considerable pause the candidate said that he thought he could for- give all who had injured him, even those who had as- sailed him for what he had done for his country in the field. From this time to the end of his life General Jack- son spent most of his leisure hours in reading the- Bible, biblical commentaries, and the hymn-book, which last he always pronounced in the old-fashioned way, hi?7ie- book. The work known as "Scott's Bible" was his chief delight ; he read it through twice before his death. Nightly he read prayers in the presence of his family and household servants. Great was the joy of General Jackson at the election of Mr. James K. Polk in 1844. In a field adjoining the Hermitage he entertained two hundred guests at dinner, in honor of the event. His anxiety, however, on the subject of the annexation of Texas appeared to increase rather than diminish after the election. On the first day of the last year of his life he wrote a long letter to his friend Blair, urging him to use all his influence IN RETIREMENT. ^IQ to induce Congress to act with promptitude in the matter. The well-known correspondence between Commo- dore Elliot and General Jackson, with regard to the sarcophagus of the Roman emperor, occurred in the spring of the last year of the general's life. *' Last night," wrote the blunt sailor [March i8, 1845], "I made something of a speech at the National Institute (Washington, D. C), and have offered for their accept- ance the sarcophagus which I obtained in Palestine, brought home in the Constitution, and believed to con- tain the remains of the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, with the suggestion that it might be ten- dered you for your final resting-place. I pray you, general, to live on in the fear of the Lord ; dying the death of a Roman soldier ; an emperor's coffin awaits you." The general replied : ''With the warmest sensations that can inspire a grateful heart, I must decline accept- ing the honor intended to be bestowed. I can not con- sent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an emperor or a king. My republican feel- ings and principles forbid it; the simplicity of our sys- tem of government forbids it; every monument erected to perpetuate the memory of our heroes and statesmen ought to bear evidence of the economy and simplicity of our republican institutions, and the plainness of our republican citizens, who are the sovereigns of our glorious Union, and whose virtue is to perpetuate it. True virtue can not exist where pomp and parade are the governing passions; it can only dwell with the people — the great laboring and producing classes that form the bone and sinew of our confederacy. I have prepared an humble depository for my mortal body beside that wherein lies my beloved wife, where, with- 320 GENERAL JACKSON. out any pomp or parade, I have requested, when my God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid." During the first six years after his retirement from the presidency, General Jackson's health was not much worse than it had usually been in Washington. Every attack of bleeding at the lungs, however, left him a little weaker than he had ever been before, and his re- covery was slower and less complete. During the last two years of his life he could never be said to have rallied from these attacks, but remained always very weak, and knew few intervals, and those very short, of relief from pain. A cough tormented him day and night. He had all the symptoms of consumption. One lung was consumed entirely, and the other was dis- eased. Six months before his death, certain dropsical symptoms, which had threatened him for years, were painfully developed. The patience which he displayed during those years of dissolution sometimes approached the sublime. No anguish, however severe, however pro- tracted, ever wrung from this most irascible of men a fretful or a complaining word. He saw the light of Sunday morning — June 8th — a still, brilliant, hot day. He had been worse the day before, and Dr. Esselman had remained all night at the Hermitage. " On Sunday morning,"" writes Dr. Essel- man, "on entering his room, I found him sitting in his armchair, with his two faithful servants, George and Dick, by his side, who had just removed him from his bed. I immediately perceived that the hand of death was upon him. I informed his son that he could survive but a few hours, and he immediately dispatched a serv- ant for Major William B. Lewis, the general's devoted friend. Mr. Jackson informed me that it was the gen- eral's request that, in case he grew worse, or was thought to be near his death, Major Lewis should be sent for, as IN RETIREMENT. ^21 he wished him to be near him in his last moments. He was instantly removed to his bed, but before he could be placed there he had swooned away. His family and ser- vants, believing him to be dead, were very much alarmed and manifested the most intense grief ; however, in a few seconds reaction took place, and he became con- scious, and raised his eyes, and said : ' My dear children, do not grieve for me; it is true, I am going to leave you; I am well aware of my situation; I have suffered much bodily pain, but my sufferings are but as nothing compared with that which our blessed Saviour endured upon that accursed cross, that we might all be saved who put our trust in him.' He first addressed Mrs. Jackson (his daughter-in-law), and took leave of her, re- minding her of her tender kindness manifested toward him at all times, and especially during his protracted ill- ness. He next took leave of Mrs. Adams (a widowed sister of Mrs. Jackson, who had been a member of the general's family for several years), in the most kind and affectionate manner, speaking also of her tender devo- tion toward him during his illness. In conclusion, he said, ' My dear children, and friends, and servants, I hope and trust to meet you all in heaven, both white and black.' The last sentence he repeated—' both white and black,' looking at them with the tenderest solicitude. With these words he ceased to speak, but fixed his eyes on his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson (who bears the name of his own beloved wife), for several seconds." Major Lewis arrived about noon. " Major," said the dying man, in a feeble voice, but quite audibly, " I am glad to see you. You had like to have been too late." The crowd of servants on the piazza, who were all day looking in through the windows, sobbed, cried out, and wrung their hands. The general spoke again : "What is the matter with my dear children ? Have I alarmed 322 GENERAL JACKSON. you ? Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we will all meet in heaven." These were his last words. He lay for half an hour with closed eyes, breathing softly and easily. Major Lewis stood close to his head. The family were about the bed, silently waiting and weeping. George and the faithful Hannah were present. Hannah could not be induced to leave the room. " I was born and raised on the place," said she, "and my place is here." At six o'clock the general's head suddenly fell forward and was caught by Major Lewis. The major applied his ear to the mouth of his friend, and found that he had ceased to breathe. He had died without a struggle or a pang. Major Lewis removed the pillows, drew down the body upon the bed, and closed the eyes. Upon looking again at the face, he observed that the expression of pain which it had worn so long had passed away. Death had restored it to naturalness and serenity. The aged warrior slept. Two days after, he was laid in the grave by the side of his wife, of whom he had said, not long before he died, " Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there." All Nashville and the country round about seemed to be present at the funeral. Three thou- sand persons were thought to be assembled on the lawn in front of the house, when Dr. Edgar stepped out upon the portico to begin the services. The preacher related, with impressive effect, the history of the late religious life of the deceased, and pronounced upon his character an eloquent but a discriminating eulogium. A hymn which the general had loved concluded the ceremonies. The body was then borne to the garden and placed in the tomb long ago prepared for its reception. " I never witnessed a funeral of half the solemnity," wrote a spec- tator at the time. The tablet which covers the remains bears this inscription : IN RETIREMENT. ^23 GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON, Born on the 15TH of March, 1767, Died on the 8th of June, 1845. When the news of the death of General Jackson reached Washington, the President of the United States ordered the departments to be closed for one day; and Mr. Bancroft, the Secretary of the Navy and Acting Sec- retary of War, directed public honors to be paid to the memory of the ex-President at all the military and naval stations. In every large town in the country there were public ceremonies in honor of the deceased, consisting usually of an oration and a procession. In the city of New York the entire body of the uniformed militia, all the civic functionaries, the trades and societies, joined in the parade. The record of the solemnities performed in the city of New York, in honor of Andrew Jackson, forms an octavo volume of three hundred and three pages. Twenty-five of the orations delivered on this occasion, in various towns and cities, were published in a volume entitled " Monument to the Memory of Gen- eral Andrew Jackson." Thus lived and died Andrew Jackson, the idol of his party, often the pride and favorite of his country. His best friends could not deny that he had deplorable faults, nor his worst enemies that he possessed rare and dazzling merits. He rendered his country signal services, and brought upon the government of that country an evil which it will be extremely difficult to remedy. No man will ever be quite able to comprehend Andrew Jackson who has not personally known a Scotch-Irishman. More than he was anything else, he was a north-of-Irelander 324 GENERAL JACKSON. — a tenacious, pugnacious race; honest, yet capable of' dissimulation; often angry, but most prudent when most furious; endowed by nature with the gift of extracting from every affair and every relation all the strife it can be made to yield; at home and among dependents, all tenderness and generosity ; to opponents, violent, un- generous, prone to believe the worst of them; a race that means to tell the truth, but, when excited by anger or warped by prejudice, incapable of either telling, or remembering, or knowing the truth; not taking kindly to culture, but able to achieve wonderful things without it : a strange blending of the best and the worst qualities of two races. Jackson had these traits in an exagger- ated degree : as Irish as though he were not Scotch ; as Scotch as though he were not Irish. It was curious that England and America should both, and nearly at the same time, have elevated their favorite generals to the highest civil station. Welling- ton became Prime Minister in 1827; Jackson, President in 1829. Wellington was tried three years, and found wanting, and driven from power, execrated by the peo- ple. His carriage, his house, and his statue, were pelted by the mob. Jackson reigned eight years, and retired with his popularity undii:ninished. Wellington was not in accord with his generation, and was surrounded by men who were, if possible, less so ; while Jackson, be- sides being in sympathy with the people, had the great good fortune to be influenced by men who had learned the rudiments of statesmanship in the school of Jefferson. Autocrat as he was, Andrew Jackson loved the peo- ple, the common people, the sons and daughters of toil, as truly as they loved him, and believed in them as they believed in him. He had a perception that the toiling millions are not a class in the community, but are the community. He felt that government should exist only IN RETIREMENT. ^2r for the benefits of the governed; that the strong are strong only that they may aid the weak ; that the rich are rightfully rich only that they may so combine and direct the labors of the poor as to make labor more profitable to the laborer. He did not comprehend these truths as they are demonstrated by philosophers, but he had an intuitive and instinctive perception of them. And in his most autocratic moments he really thought that he was fight- ing the battle of the people, and doing their will while baffling the purposes of their representatives. If he had been a man of knowledge as well as force, he would have taken the part of the people more effectually, and left to his successors an increased power of doing good, in- stead of better facilities for doing harm. The domestic life of this singular man was blameless. He was a chaste man at every period of his life. His letters, of which many hundreds still exist, contain not a sentence, not a phrase, not a word, that a girl may not properly read. A husband more considerately and laboriously kind never lived. As a father he was only too indulgent ; his generosity to his adopted children was inexhaustible. To his slaves he was master, father, physician, counselor, all in one; and though his over- seers complained that he was too lenient, yet his steady prosperity for so many years, and the uniform abundance of his crops, seem to prove that his servants were not negligent of their master's interest. He had a virtuous abhorrence of debt, and his word was as good as his bond. In all his private transactions, from youth to hoary age, he was punctiliously honest. Most of our history for the last hundred years will not be remembered for many centuries; but perhaps among the few things oblivion will spare may be some outline of the story of Andrew Jackson — the poor Irish immigrant's orphan son ; who defended his country at 22 326 GENERAL JACKSON. New Orleans, and, being elected President therefor, kept that country in an uproar for eight years; and, after being more hated and more loved than any man of his day, died peacefully at his home in Tennessee, and was borne to his grave followed by the benedictions of a large majority of his fellow-citizens. INDEX. Ambrister, Robert C, Indian trader, captured by Jackson, 264 ; trial and execution of, 266-268. Arbuthnot, Alexander, Scotch trader at Fort St. Marks, ar- rested by Jackson, 262 ; accused of treachery, 263 ; trial and ex- ecution of, 266-268. Bailey, Captain, succeeds Major Beasley in command of Fort Mims, 69 ; death of, 71. Beasiey, Major Daniel, commander ot Fort Mims, 65-68. Benton, Colonel Thomas H., his statement of Jackson's first mili- tary service under the United States, 57-59 ; is involved in a " difficulty " vi^ith Jackson, 60- 62; appointed lieutenant-colonel. United States Army, 62 ; re- signs at close of War of 18 12, 63. Benton, Jesse, has a " difficulty " with Jackson, 59. Burr, Aaron, visits Jackson at the Hermitage, 44-46 ; his opinion of Jackson, 48 ; arranges with Jackson for supplies and trans- portation, 46 ; his unlawful de- signs made public, 47 ; Jackson issues order for arrest of, 47 ; defended by Jackson, 47. Calhoun, John C, Vice-President United States, tariff reformer, 298 ; advocate of nullification, 300 ; counsels moderation, 308. Coffee, Colonel John, business partner of, and cavalry com- mander under Jackson, 51-55 ; present at affray between Jack- son and the Bentons, 61-63 '. commanding brigade in Creek campaign (1813), 78-86; chastises enemy at Talluschatches, 84 ; attacks the Creeks at the Horse- shoe, 112-116 ; arrival at Mobile of, 136 ; marches to New Or- leans, 142 ; commands in night attack on British, 170. Cooke, Captain John N., British army, account of night affair at New Orleans, 171 ; describes British retreat after battle of New Orleans, 234. Crockett, David, serves under Jackson as scout, 79. Dale, Colonel, commanding British regiment, his presentiment at the battle of New Orleans, 212. 328 GENERAL JACKSON. Davie, Colonel William Richard- son, 6 ; Jackson boys serve under, 8. Dickinson, Charles, duel with Jackson, 33-42. Donelson, Andrew Jackson, nephew educated by Jackson, 48. Eaton, Major John H., Secretary of War, 283 ; involved in social complications, 282. Eaton, Mrs., 283-285. Gadsden, Fort, erected by Lieu- tenant James Gadsden, of Jack- son's staff, 256 ; Jackson awaits supplies at, 257. Gaines, General Edmund P., Unit- ed States Army, punishes the Seminoles, 259. Ghent, the Treaty of, 179. Gibbs, General Samuel, commands British troops at New Orleans, 180, 214; death of, 217. Gleig, Rev. George R., comments on Jackson's management of the New Orleans camj>aign, vi ; de- scribes the appearance of Jack- son's forces before battle of New Orleans, 188; describes opening of the battle, 194. Harrison, William H., resigns his commission as major-general, 119. Hayne, Isaac, Governor of South Carolina, announces his views on State rights, 301. Henly, Captain, commands United States steamship Louisiana at New Orleans, 183 ; his report to Commodore Patterson, 183. Houston, Sam, private soldier under Jackson, 108 ; stoicism when wounded, 113. Humbert, General, commanding troops under Jackson at New Orleans, 227. Humphrey, Captain, commanding American artillery at New Orleans, 196. Jackson, Andrew, nephew and heir of General Jackson, 48. Jackson, Hugh, brother of Andrew Jackson, 6. Jackson, General Andrew, mili- tary capacity, v-vii ; tribute of a British officer, vi, vii ; his favor- ite maxims ; parentage, i ; his father's poverty, 2 ; birthplace, 3 ; education, 4-7 ; an " old- field school," 4 ; boyish charac- teristics, 5 ; not a well-informed man, 5 ; takes part in the Rev- olutionary War, 7-16 ; a broth- er killed at Hanging Rock, 7 ; rides with Davie's regiment as a volunteer, 8 ; his Carolina neigh- bors, 9 ; he joins a partisan band of " Whigs," 10 ; his first en- counter with the British, 10 ; a prisoner of war, 1 1 ; resents an insult, II ; wounded, 12 ; out- wits his captors, 12 ; sufferings in captivity, 13-15 ; attacked by small-pox, 15 ; is exchanged and returns home, 15; an orphan, 16 ; curious turn of fortune, 18 ; becomes a schoolmaster, 18; stud- ies law, 17-20; office in which INDEX. 329 he studied law, 19 ; licensed to practice law, 20 ; personal appearance at twenty, 20 ; a Tennessee lawyer, 22 ; moves to Nashville, 22 ; public prosecutor, 23 ; marriage, 23 ; acquire^ real estate, 23 ; delegate to Constitu- tional Convention, 25 ; elected to Congress from Tennessee, 25; horseback ride of eight hundred miles to take his seat, 25 ; Wash- ington's last address to Congress opposed by, 27 ; addresses the House, 28 ; appointed Senator in 1797, and resigns in 1798, 28 ; elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, 29 ; the Jackson-Sevier feud, 29 ; major- general of militia, 30 ; a man of business, 30 ; failure and re- habilitation, 31 ; the Hermitage, 31, 40 ; "a man with many irons in the fire," 31 ; " Trux- ton," 32 ; " the code " in the South, 1 790-1 8 10, 33 ; duel with Dickinson, 33-42 ; effect on his popularity, 42 ; his generous hospitality, 44 ; meets Aaron Burr, 44 ; his opinion of Burr, 45 ; agrees to furnish supplies and transportation to Burr, 46 ; arrests Burr, 47 ; defends Burr, 47 ; adopts a nephew, 48 ; ten- ders services of his division to the General Government, 49 ; accepted by President Madison, 50 ; ordered to re-enforce Gen- eral Wilkinson, 50 ; rendezvous of his troops at Nashville, 51 ; intense cold and exposure of his command, 51 ; composition of his staff, 52 ; reports progress to War Department, 52 ; asked to halt at Natchez by Wilkinson, 53 ; command relieved from further duty by Secretary of War, 54 ; his action in an em- barrassing position, 56 ; decides to march command back to Tennessee, 56 ; commendation from the press, 57 ; Colonel Benton's statement, 58 ; has a " difficulty " with Jesse Benton, 59 ; bitter correspondence with Thomas H. Benton, 60 ; severely wounded, 61 ; massacre at Fort Mims, 64 ; militia of Tennessee called out to protect fronlier, 74 ; insists upon taking the command, 76 ; he surmounts great difficul- ties in mobilizing his troops, 77- 80 ; adopts Indian infant found on battle-field, 84 ; Indian scout's disguise, 85 ; attacks Indians near Fort Strother, 87 ; they sue for peace, 89 ; his response, 89 ; privations of the troops, 91 ; symptoms of revolt, 92 ; address to his soldiers, 93 ; quells a mutiny, loi ; he strikes a finish- ing blow at the Creeks, 108-117 ; appointed major-general in the army, 119 ; his sudden good fortune, 120 ; impaired health, 121 ; negotiates treaty with the Creeks, 123 ; defends Mobile, 124 ; drives the British from Florida, 125 ; his ultimatum to the Spanish Governor, 139 ; re- port of operations, 140 ; capture of Fort Barrancas, 141 ; marches upon New Orleans, 143 ; prep- 330 GENERAL JACKSON. aralions to defend the city against the British, 145 ; organi- zation of local forces by, 150 ; composition of his forces to meet the British, 151 ; strength of forces opposed to, 152; meets the enemy half-way, 161 ; night battle, December 23d, 165 ; the British proclamation to " Louisi- anians," 165; shovels and wheel- barrows, 176 ; he reconnoitres British position, 181 ; advance of the British, 187 ; second ad- vance of Pakenham's troops, 192 ; arrival of Kentuckian re- enforcements for, 199 ; forlorn condition of those troops, 200 ; generosity of citizens of New Orleans, 204 ; the 8th of Janu- ary, 208 ; end of the campaign, 231 ; enters city of New Or- leans in triumph, 238 ; issues proclamation to his army, 240 ; orders French consul and others to leave the city, 241 ; conflict with the civil authorities of Louisiana, 242 ; arrival of Gov- ernment courier with news of peace, 243 ; notifies British com- mander, 244 ; appears in court under habeas corpus, 245 ; sen- tenced to pay a fine, 246 ; re- turns to Nashville, 248 ; pro- ceeds to Washington, 249 ; vis- ited by Jefferson, 249 ; is re- tained as major-general in re- organization of the army, 250 ; popularity of, 251 ; ordered to take the field against the Semi- noles, 255 ; occupies the Span- ish fort St. Marks, 261 ; ar- rests Arbuthnot as a suspicious character, 262 ; captures Am- brister, tries and executes these men, 266-268 ; resigns from the army and becomes Governor of Florida, 270 ; imprisons Span- ish Governor of Pensacola, 271 ; resigns office, 271 ; candidate for President, 273 ; visits Washing- ton, 274 ; defeated by Adams, 275 ; revisits New Orleans, 276 ; magnificent reception, 276 ; bit- ter political campaign of 1828, 277 ; elected President, 279 ; death of his wife, 279 ; inaugu- ration of, 282 ; announces his Cabinet, 282 ; Eaton-O'Neal af- fair, 285 ; wholesale removals from office, 288 ; incident of United States Bank, 289 ; his toast at Jefferson's dinner, 292 ; indorses Van Buren, 294 ; ve- toes United States Bank Bill, 595 ; re-election to presidency, 297 ; sends General Scott to Charleston to thwart nullifiers, 302 ; issues proclamation, 303 ; letter to a friend on the crisis, 309 ; advocates new financial policy, 311 ; extraordinary popu- larity of, 313 ; farewell address of, 314 ; in retirement, 315 ; Congress refunds fine imposed by New Orleans court upon, 317 ; joins Presbyterian Church, 318 ; corresponds with Com- modore Elliott, 319 ; last hours of, 320 ; public demonstration at death of, 323. Jackson, Mrs. Elizabeth, the moth- er of Jackson, 4 ; her devotion INDEX. 331 to her sons and efforts to re- lease them, 14-16 ; her patriot- ism, 16 ; her death, 16. Jones, Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby, U. S. Navy, placed in charge of gunboat off New Or- leans, 148 ; surrenders to Brit- ish, 153. Keane, General John, command- ing British advance at New Or- leans, 153-156 ; description of the march, 156-158. Kennedy, Major, reports the ap- pearance of Fort Mims after massacre, 71. Lambert, General John, succeeds to command of British forces af- ter battle of New Orleans, 226 ; falls back on his ships, 232, Latour, Major A. Lacarriere, de- scribes return of the American troops to New Orleans after the battle, 236. Lawrence, Major William, Second U. S. Infantry, gallant defense of Fort Morgan by, 129. Lewis, Major William B., his opinion of Jackson's military characteristics, v ; quartermas- ter of Jackson's Tennessee mili- tia (1812), 52. McCay, Spruce, with whom Jack- son began the study of law, 19. Mims, Fort, scene of Indian mas- sacre, 1813, 64; news of massa- cre at, 72 ; action of Tennessee Legislature, 75. Mims, Samuel, owner of the build- ing called " Fort Mims," 64. Mullens, Colonel, commands For- ty-fourth Regiment (British) at New Orleans, 211, New Orleans, operations of Jack- son prior to battle of, 150 ; land- ing of the British, 154 ; ladies visit field-hospitals after battle of, 236 ; the American army re- turns to, 237. Overton, General Thomas, sec- onds Jackson in Dickinson duel, 37-40- Pakenham, General Sir Edward, takes command of British forces before New Orleans, 180 ; forms new plan of campaign, 201 ; his operations on the 8th of Janu- ary, 212 ; death of, 216. Parsons, Enoch, Senator, describes effect of Fort Mims massacre in Nashville, 74. Patterson, Commodore, U.S. Navy, commands fleet in vicinity of New Orleans, 148 ; co-operates with troops in night attack, 166 ; reports operations, 204. Reid, John, aide-de-camp, secre- tary and biographer of Jack- son, 52. Robards, Mrs. Rachel, marries Andrew Jackson, 23. Scott, Lieutenant, Seventh U. S. Infantry, attacked by Seminoles, 254- 332 GENERAL JACKSON. Shelocta, Indian scout during Jackson's (1813) Creek cam- paign, 8t. Stokes, Colonel John, with whom Jackson completed his prepara- tion for the bar, 20. Thornton, Colonel W., command- ing British detachment at New Orleans, 206. Villere, Major Gabriel, notifies Jackson of the enemy's approach to New Orleans, 159. Weatherford, chief of the Creek Indians, 67 ; leads attack on Fort Mims, 70. Wilkinson, General James, U. S. Army, instructs Jackson to halt militia at Natchez, 53, Wilson, General James Grant, cor- respondence and conversations with Chaplain-General Gleig, vi, vii. Note on the author, viiu THE END. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. /JFPLETONS' CYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN •*^ BIOGRAPHY. Complete in six volumes, royal 8vo, contain- ing about 800 pages each. With sixty-one fine steel portraits and some two thousand smaller vignette portraits and views of birthplaces, residences, statues, etc. Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by Gen- eral James Grant Wilson, President of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and Professor John Fiske, formerly of Harvard Uni- versity, assisted by over two hundred special contributors, contains a biographical sketch of every person eminent in American civil and military history, in law and politics, in divinity, in hterature and art, in science and in invention. Its plan embraces all the countries of North and South America, and includes distinguished persons born abroad, but related to American history. As events are always connected with persons, it affords a complete compendium of American history in every branch of human achievement. An exhaustive topical and analytical Index enables the reader to follow the history of any subject with gjeat readiness. 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Cloth (blue or brown), uncut, "with gilt top, $15.00; sheep, marble edge, $21.00 ; half morocco, uncut, gilt top, $27.00 ; half grained morocco, gilt top, $27.00 ; half calf, marble edge, $27.00. Vol. VI contains the History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States, and a Portrait of Mr. Bancroft. In this edition of his great work the author has made extensive changes in the text, condensing in places, enlarging in others, and care- fully revising. It is practically a new work embodying the results of the latest researches, and enjoying the advantage of the author's long and mature experience. " On comparing this work with the corresponding volume of the ' Centena. ry' edition of 1876, one is surprised to see how extensive changes the author ha8 foimd desirable, even after so short an interval. The first thing that strikes one is the increased number of chapters, resulting from subdivision. The first volume contains two volumes of the original, and is divided into thirty-eight chapters instead of eighteen. This is in itself an improvement. But the new arrangement is not the result merely of subdivision ; the matter is rearranged in such a manner aa vastly to increase the lucidity and continuousness of treat- ment. In the present edition Mr. Bancroft returns to the principle of division into periods, abandoned in the ' Centenary ' edition. His division is, however, a new one. As the permanent shape taken by a great historical work, this new arrangement is certainly an improvement." — The Nation {New York). " The work as a whole is in better shape, and is of course more authoritative than ever before. This last revision will be without doubt, both from its desir- able form and accurate text, the standard one." — Boston Traveller. " It has not been granted to many historians to devote half a century to the history of a single people, and to live long enough, and, let us add, to be willing and wise enough, to revise and rewrite in an honored old age the work of a whole lifetime."— iVei^ York Mail and Express. " The extent and thoroughness of this revision would hardly be guessed with- out comparing the editions side by side. The condensation of the text amounts to something over one third of the previous edition. There has also been very considerable recasting of the text. On the whole, our examination of the first volume leads us to believe that the thought of the historian loses nothinix by the abbreviation of the text. A closer and later approximation to the best results of scholarship and criticism is reached. The public gains by its more compact brevity and in amount of matter, and in economy of time and money." — The In- dependent {New York). " There is nothing to be said at this day of the value of ' Bancroft.' Its au- thority is no longer in dispute, and as a piece of vivid and realistic historical writing it stands among the best works of its class. It may be taken for granted that this new edition will greatly extend its usefulness."— PMacZe/p^ia North American. New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. D. APPLETON d CO/S PUBUOATIONS. HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, from the Revolution to the Civil War. By John Bach McMastku. To be completed in five volumes. Vols. I, II, and III now ready. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, $2.50 each. ScoPB OF THB Work.— /n the course of this narrative much is written of wars, conspiracies, and rebellions; of Presidents, of Congresses, of embassies, qf treaties, of the ambition of political leaders, and of the rise of great parties in the nation. Yet the history of the people is the chief theme. At eveiy stage of the splendid progress which separates the America of WaaJiington and Adams from the Amer- ica in which we live, it has been the author's purpose to describe the dress, the occupations, the amusements, the literary canons of the times ; to note the changes of manners and morals ; to trace the growth of that humane spirit which abol- ished punishment for debt, and reformed the discipline of prisons and of jails; to recount the manifold improvements which, in a thousand ways, have multiplied the co7i,veniences qf life and ministered to the happiness of our race; to describe the rise and progress of that long series of mechanical inventions and discoveries which is now the admiration of the world, and our just pride and boast ; to tell how, under the benign influence of liberty and peace, there sprang up, in the course qf a single century, a prosperity unparalleled in the annals of human affairs. "The pledge aiiven by Mr. McMaster, that ' the history of the people shall be the chief theme,' is punctiliously and Batisfactorily lulfilled. He carries out his promise in a complete, vivid, and delii^htful way. We should add that the liter- ary execution of the work is worthy of the indefatigable industry and unceaeing viifilance with which the stores of historical material have been accumulatedj weighed, and sifted. The cardinal qualities of style, lucidity, animation, aim energy, are everywhere present. Seldom, indeed, has a book, in which matter of substantial value has been so happily united to attractiveness of form, been offered by an American author to his fellow-citizens."— iV'eii; York Sun. " To recount the marvelous progress of the American people, to describe their life, their literature, their occupations, their amusements, is Mr. McMa&ter's object. His theme is an important one, and we congratulate him on his success. It has rarely been our province to notice a book with so many excellences and BO few defects." — New York Herald. " Mr. McMaster at once shows his grasp of the various themes and his special capacity as a historian of the people. His aim is high, but he hits the mark."— Hew York Journal of Cmnmerce. "I have had to read a good deal of history in my day, but I find so much freshness in the way Professor McMaster has treated his subject that it is quite like a new siorj.'"— Philadelphia Press. "Mr. McMaster's success as a writer seems to us distinct and decisive. In the first place bo has written a remarkably readable history. His sivlc is clear and vigorous, if not always condensed. He has the faculty of felicitous com- parison and contrast in a marked degree. Mr McMaster has produced one ol the most spirited of histories, a book which will be -widely read, and the enter- taining quality of which is conspicuous beyond that of any work of its kind. — Boston Gazette. New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. SUMMER READING. OUTINGS A T ODD TIMES. By Charles C. Abbott. i6mo. Cloth, gilt top, $1.25. " Dr. Abbott's love and enthusiasm for Nature, and the things and creatures of Nat- ure, knows no limit. The story they have to tell him is always new, always charm- ing ; and he interprets it with an enthusiasm and eloquence that carry conviction to his readers. " — Providence yournal. "A number of short studies of Nature in her outdoor aspects by one who has es- tablished a reputation as a close and sympathetic student and naturalist. He finds somewhat of interest and beauty in each season, and reveals to less observant eyes many of the curiosities and wonders of the living world about us." — Hartford Courant. " Short essays on outdoor life set in charming sha^Q." -^Philadelphia Times. 7 HE WHITE MOUNTAINS. A Guide to their Interpretation, With a Map of the Mountains and Ten Illustra- tions. By Rev. Julius H. Ward. i2mo. Cloth, gilt top, $1.25 Mr. Ward has spent his summer vacations in the White Mountains for several years, and has entered deeply into their life and meaning. This book is both a guide to a better knowledge of the White Hills and a souvenir of what one finds in them. "Nature," says the author, "in these retreats is very coy, and her secrets are only communicated to those who seek them. The ability to enjoy natural scenery is partly a gift, but it may be immensely increased by habits of observation," " The author is thoroughly in love with his subject, and not less thoroughly ac- quainted with it. Though he disclaims intention to write a guide-book, the visitor to the White Mountains can hardly fail to profit by his picturesque descriptions, hints about paths and points of view, and abundant suggestions as to times and seasons." — New York Tribune. y^HE GARDENS STOR V; or. Pleasures and Trials ■*■ of an Amateur Gardener. By George H. Ellwanger. With Head and Tail Pieces by Rhead. i2mo. Cloth, extra, $1.50. A literary ramble amid the flowers of the garden, with practical hints upon the cul- tivation of plants, and gossipy comments upon the characteristics of favorite flowers. *' Mr. Ellwanger's instinct rarely errs in matters of taste. He writes out of the full- ness of experimental knowledge, but his knowledge differs from that of many a trained cultivator in that his skill in garden practice is guided by a refined aesthetic sensibility, and his appreciation of what is beautiful in nature is healthy, hearty, and catholic. His record of the garden year as we have said, begins with the earliest violet, and it follows the season through until the witch-hazel is blossoming on the border of the wintry woods. . . . This little book can not fail to give pleasure to all who take a genuine in- terest in rural life." — Neiv York Tribune. New York : D. APFLETON & CO., i, 3, & 5 Bond Street. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. GREAT COMMANDERS SERIES. yJDMIRAL FARRAGUT. By Captain A. T. -^^ Mahan, U. S. N., author of " The Gulf and Inland Waters," etc. With Portrait and Maps. i2mo. Cloth, gilt top, $1.25. " The name of this hero is very dear to the American people, and the tribute of Captain Mahan, full of instruction as well as interest, will be welcomed by «dl classes of readers." — New York Journal of Coyntnerce. "A careful and conscientious biography of one of the most distinguished as well as picturesque figures of the late war." — Detroit Free Press. " We can not say too much in praise of the manner in which Captain Mahan has brought home to us the finer traits of Farragut." — New York Times. r^ENERAL TAYLOR. By Major-General O. O. ^<-^ Howard, U. S. A. With Portrait and Maps. i2mo. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50. " No one is better qualified for writing a biography of the hero of Buena Vista than General Howard. His work can not disappoint his friends. The chapters relating to the Mexican War are especially good, and the sadly brief story of Taylor's presidency is told with soldierly simplicity and feeling." — Philadelphia Bulletin. "The author has evidently been inspired with a genuine admiration for his subject, and devoted a great deal of painstaking care to the collection of materials and their presentation in an attractive form." — Detroit Free Press. *' The career of ' Old Rough and Ready ' is extremely interesting. General Howard takes equal pride and pleasure in offering his salute of honor to the hero of Monterey and Buena Vista. This is good reading for American youth," — Philadelphia Ledger. THE above are the first volumes of the " Great Commanders Series," edited by General James Grant Wilson. It is the aim of this series to supply brief biographies, of the highest order of excellence, of the most illustrious American commanders from Washington to Sheridan. The lives of the ad- mirals are by naval men, and the others of the series are by approved soldiers who served under the Great Captains whom they commemorate. The following are in press or in preparation : General JACKSON, by James Parton ; General WASHINGTON, by General Bradley T. Johnson ; General GREENE, by Captain Francis V. Greene ; Gen- eral SHERMAN, by General Manning F. Force ; General GRANT, by General James Grant Wilson ; General SCOTT, by General Marcus J. Wright; Admiral PORTER, by James Russell Soley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy ; General LEE, by General Fitzhugh Lee ; Gen- eral JOHNSTON, by Robert M. Hughes, of Virginia; General GEORGE H. THOMAS, by Dr. Henry Coppee, late U. S. A. ; General HANCOCK, by General Francis H. Walker; General SHERIDAN, by General Henry E. Davies. It is believed that these biographies will form a notable addition to every American library, and furnish a valuable and impartial source of reference to the student of our military and naval history. New York : D. APPLETON & CO., i, 3, & 5 Bond Street. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. " This work marks an epoch in the history-writing of this country." — S^. Louis Post-Dispatch. ^ n^HE HOUSEHOLD HIS- J- TORY OF THE UNITED STA TES AND ITS PEOPLE. For Young Americans. By Ed- ward Eggleston. Richly illus- trated with 350 Drawings, 75 Maps, COLONIAL COURT-HOUSE. ctc. Squarc 8vo. Cloth, $2.50. PHILADELPHIA, 1707. FROM THE PREFACE. ' The present work is meant, in the first instance, for the young— not alone for boys and girls, but f5r young men and women who have yet to make themselves familiar with the more important features of their country's history. By a book for the young is meant one in which the author studies to make his statements clear and expHcit, in which curious and picturesque de- tails are inserted, and in which the writer does not neglect such anecdotes as lend the charm of a human and personal interest to the broader facts of the nation's story. That history is often tiresome to the young is not so much the fault of history as of a false method of writing by which one contrives to relate events without sympathy or imagination, without narrative connec- tion or animation. The attempt to master vague and general records of kiln-dried facts is certain to beget in the ordinary reader a repulsion from the study of history— one of the very most important of all studies for its widening influence on general culture. "Fills a decided gap which has existed for the past twenty years in American historical literature. The work is admirably planned and executed, and will at once take its place as a standard record of the life, growth, and de- velopment of the nation. It is profusely and beautifully illustrated." — Boston Transcript. *' The book in its new dress makes a much finer appearance than before, and will be wel- comed by older readers as gladly as its predeces- Indian's trap. sor was greeted by girls and boys. The lavish use the publishers have made of colored plates, woodcuts, and photographic reproductions, gives an un- wonted piquancy to the printed page, catching the eye as surely as the text engages the mind." — New York Critic. \i " The author writes history as a story. It can "never be less than that. The book will enlist the interest of young people, enlighten their understanding, and by the glow of its statements fix the great events of the country firmly in the GENERAL PUTNAM. mind."— i'aw Francisco Bulletin. New York: D. APPLETON & CO., i, 3, & S Bond Street. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. A BOOK FOR THE QUADRI-CENTENNIAL YEAR. ^HE STORY OF COLUMBUS, By Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, ed- ited by Dr. Edward Eggleston. With loo Illustrations by Allegra Eggleston. i2mo. Cloth, $1.75. This book is the result of most extensive investigations, which have been carefully veri- fied by the eminent historian and novelist, Dr. Eggleston. It is not too much to say that the whole world has been drawn upon for ma- terial by the author and the artist. The fi-uits of these investigations are presented in a popular, readable, always entertain- ing form. While the book contains all the results of modem inquiry offered in the bulkiest biographies, the story is here condensed and the material selected with a view to an always interesting narrative. To a considerable extent the plan of both text and illus- trations is like that of Eggleston's *' Household His- tory of the United States." It is hardly necessary to say more regarding the fitness of this volume for a place in every American private, public, and school Lbrary. . "A brief, popular, interesting, and yet " critical volume, just such as we should wish to place in the hands of a young reader. The authors of this volume have done their best to keep it on a high plane of accuracy and conscientious work without losing sight of their readers." — New York Independent. " In some respects altogether the best book that the Columbus year has brought out." — Rochester Post-Express. "A simple story told in a natural fashion, and will be found far more interesting than many of the more ambitious works on a similar theme." — New York Journal of Covivierce. "This is no ordinary work. It is pre-eminently a work of the present time and of the future as well." — Boston Traveller. " Mrs. Seelye's book is pleasing in its general effect, and re- veals the results of painstaking and conscientious study." — New York Tribune. "A very just account is given of Columbus, his failings being neither concealed nor magnified, but his real greatness being made r. plain." — Ne-w York Exaininer. " The illustrations are particularly well chosen and neatly executed, and they add to the general excellence of the volume." image fol'ND at — New York Times. ■ — - — • santo DOiMiNGO. New York : D. APPLETON & CO., i, 3, & 5 Bond St. CATAPULT. D. APPLETON & CO/S PUBLICATIONS. EVOLUTION SERIES, NOS. i TO 17. Popular Lectures and Discussions before the Brooklyn Ethical A ssociaUon. E VOLUTION IN SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART. With 3 Portraits. Large i2mo. Cloth, $2.00. CONTENTS. ByWiL- By L. A. By Edward D. Thaddeus B. By Francis E. A If red Russel Wallace. Cope, Ph. D. Ernst Haeckel. By Wakeman. The Scientific Method. Abbott, Ph. D. Herbert Spettcer's Synthetic Philosophy. By Benjamin F. Underwood. Evolution 0/ Chemistry. By Robert G. EccLES, M. D. _ Evolution of Electric and Magnetic Physics. By Arthur E. Ken- Evolution of Botany. By Fred J. Wulling, Ph. G. Zoology as related to Evolution. By Rev. John C. Kimball. Form and Color in Nature. LiAM Potts. Optics as related to Evolution. W. Alleman, M. D. Evolution of A rt. By John A. Taylor. Evolution of A rchitecture. By Rev. John W. Chadwick. Evohition of Sctdpttire. By Prof. Thomas Davidson. Evolution of Painting. By Forrest P. Rundell. Evolution of Music. By Z. Sidney Sampson. Life as a Fine Art. By Lewis G. Janes, M. D. \ The Doctrine of Eiwlidion : its Scope antf. Injluence. By Prof. John Fiske. 'i. "The addresses include some of the most important presentations and epitomes pubj** lished in America. They are all upon important subjects, are prepared with great car#, and are delivered for the most part by highly eminent authorities." — Public Opinion! EVOLUTION SERIES, NOS. 18 TO 34. AN AND THE STATE. Studies in Applied Sociology. With Index. Large i2mo. Cloth, $2,00. CONTENTS. The Duty of a Public Spirit. By_E. M Benjamin Andrews, D. D., LL. D The Study of Applied Sociology. By Robert G. Eccles, M. D. Representative Government. By Edwin D. Mead. Suffrage and the Ballot. By Daniel S. Remsen. The Land Probletn. By Prof. Otis T. Mason. The Problem of City Government. By Dr. Lewis G. Janes. Taxation and Reveniie ; The Free- Trade View. By Thomas G. Shearman. Taxation and Revenue : The Protec- tionist View. By Prof. George Gunton. The Monetary Problem. By William Potts. The Imtnigration Problem. By Z. Sid- ney Sampson. Evobdion of the A fric- American. By Rev. Samuel J. Barrows. The Race P7-oblem in the South. By Prof. Joseph Le Conte. Education and Citizenship. By Rev. John W. Chadwick. The Democratic Party. By Edward M. Shepard. The Republican Party. By Hon. Ros- WELL G. HORR. The Independent in Politics. By Johk A. Taylor. Moral Questions in Politics. By Rev. John C. Kimball. "These studies in applied sociology are exceptionally interesting in their field." — Cincinnati Times-Star. "Will command the attention of the progressive student of politics." — Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph. Separate LectW^es from, either volume, 10 cents each. -^ New York : D. APPLETON & CO., i, 3, & 5 Bond Street. / V O