John Jackson

“ It is said that in more than one of those Indian raids Elizabeth Jackson aided in driving off the foe.
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Father of “Stonewall” Jackson.
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When the great Revolutionary war came on, John Jackson and several of his sons marched to the war; and at its close came back safe to their Virginia home. In these lovely and fertile valleys, John Jackson and his wife Elizabeth passed long and active lives. The husband lived to be eighty-six years old, while his wife lived to the great age of one hundred and five years. Her strength of body and mind fitted her to rear a race of mighty men. ”

“ His portrait was one of the most characteristic works of John Jackson (1778-1831) [q . v.] , and was engraved by T. A. Dean; it gives him an ascetic look, partly due to the emaciation of illness; the features are fine, and the forehead high. He married (1801) Mary Henshaw of Castle Donington, who survived him with a son Thomas and a daughter Mary, who married James Dixon [q. v.] ”

“ Jackson, I am a rebel! I am what is called a traitor to the United States Government. I am in favor of the whole country becoming one universal wreck before I would submit to go back into the Union. But, sir, I want you to remember, if you should ever think of Capt. Redingson in the future, that his mother was a Christian woman, and taught her son to have some of the instincts of humanity. No, sir; I am no murderer; no city burner; no poisoner! I have listened to all these things and remained partially silent. ”

“ Jack went to her quickly, put his hands on her quivering shoulders. “We’ll make you a queen, aunt Rachel. We’ll make you the grandest lady in the land!”
“And I’ll have to live in Washington—when I want to stay at home!” she protested. “I don’t want to be a queen. Jack, wash yourself and come and eat your dinner. Mr. Jackson, do serve the children! Hannah, pass the vegetables. All of you, eat your dinner—your Christmas dinner.”
Obediently, Andrew Jackson made wooden motions of slicing at the turkey. John Eaton took the knife from his hand. ”

“ General Jackson threw himself from horse, the pain of his wounded arm forgotten; and he stalked among the rebellious troops with bent brows and blazing eyes.
“Soldiers!” he cried. “You are all men of the border. You know its dangers. In the face of the rising savage tide you swore to serve your state; like brave men you moved forward to strike a blow at the murderers of your fellow settlers. But you have had a change of heart! Why is this? Has the wilderness frightened you? Have the savages, whom you have twice beaten, [173] broken your spirit? ”

“ As the typical popular hero of such a period, Andrew Jackson must always remain one of the most picturesque and interesting figures in American history. His ignorance of the principles of statesmanship, the crudeness of his methods, and the evils that have followed from some of his measures are obvious enough and have often been remarked upon. But in having a president of this type and at such a time we were fortunate in securing a man so sound in most of his impulses, of such absolute probity, truthfulness, and courage, and such unflinching loyalty to the Union. ”

“ Jack and Frank were seated just outside the flap of Jackson’s tent, when the commander spoke these words to his officers within. Jack nodded to his companions.
“I wouldn’t care to be an army contractor and have the general on my trail,” said he. “He wouldn’t stop at much.”
“Not he,” said a young Nashville lawyer, who was in the scouts. “Jackson is a man who accomplishes everything he sets out to do. He does not know what fear is, and has the most resolute will I’ve ever known.” ”

“ To her house came Andrew Jackson on his arrival at Nashville, and thither about the same time came Overton, also fresh from his law studies. These two young men were boarded in the house and lodged in a cabin hard by. At about the same time Robards became reconciled with his wife, and, having bought land in the neighborhood, came to dwell for a while at Mrs. Donelson's. Throughout life Jackson was noted alike for spotless purity and for a romantic and chivalrous respect for the female sex. In the presence of women his manner was always distinguished for grave and courtly politeness. ”

“ I have elsewhere stated my opinion that "all Jackson's emendations are bad." I should have added that some few are very plausible and specious, and worthy of consideration. I will mention one in King John, Act IV. Sc. 2. Pembroke says,—
"If, what in rest you have, in right you hold," &c.
Now, rest and right are no antithesis, nor are they allied in meaning. Jackson inserts a t' between in and rest—
"If, what int'rest you have in right you hold," &c.—
which he supports by admirable parallels from the same play. ”

“ V We are not concerned with the Roger B. Taney who wrote the Dred Scott decision, but with that portion of his career, little known and appreciated, which convinced Jackson that he was worthy of wearing the mantle of John Marshall. And that is by far the most dramatic phase of his life—his battling years. Born and reared on a Maryland plantation, among horses and slaves, he grew up to be an independent, self-reliant youth. ”

“ With most men marriage is the most important event of their life; in Jackson's career his marriage was peculiarly important. Rachel Donelson was a native of North Carolina, daughter of Col. John Donelson, a Virginia surveyor in good circumstances, who in 1780 migrated to the neighborhood of Nashville in a very remarkable boat-journey of 2,000 miles down the Holston and Tennessee rivers and up the Cumberland. During an expedition to Kentucky some time afterward, the blooming Rachel was wooed and won by Capt. Lewis Robards. ”

“ Next day Jack and Frank, Running Elk having departed for a visit to the lodges of his people, took horse and rode to Nashville, and went at once to General Jackson’s house. They found him upon a sunny porch in the midst of a committee which had been appointed to offer him the command of the volunteers. He was a long thin man with large bones and a frame of great natural [111] strength. ”

“ In the preparation of his Message a futile effort had been made to persuade him to the employment of less emphatic language, but the Cabinet members thought to change slightly the phrasing without his knowledge. Forsyth, who was a master in diplomatic wording, made slight changes in a paragraph, and the Message was sent to the “Globe” to be put in type. When the proof reached the White House, John C. Rives [816] was with Jackson, and Donelson, a party to the plan to moderate, began to read as Jackson, with his pipe in his mouth, paced the floor. ”

“ Fortunately, his instincts were apt to be sound, and in many most important instances, his violent action was highly beneficial to his country; but a man of such temperament is liable to make serious mistakes.
On his way home, hearing that some Indians had sought refuge in Pensacola, Jackson captured the town, turned out the Spanish governor, and left a garrison of his own there. He had now virtually conquered Florida, but he had moved too fast for the government at Washington. ”

“ For both Paula and John Sheldon turned and looked—and saw what the old man saw. There in the strange, weird light in the west, clear against the sky, were a great pair of wings flashing like pure beaten gold, as a graceful, speeding body described a long, sweeping curve, seemed for a moment to be dropping below the mountain-tops, then rose, climbing higher and higher. ”

“ President Jackson, during his second term, carried out his “previously written and declared opinions and promises,” and “redeemed the sacred pledges which he voluntarily gave,” by crushing the United States Banks and freeing the people, commerce and trade from their domination, bringing shame and disgrace upon the conspirators and the hired traducers of this great man, whose name and fame will not perish until the departed spirit of American Independence shall shake hands with the ghost of Liberty across the grave of the greatest republic that has ever existed. ”

“ Jackson had killed the whole of the British army on the battle-field, except a few who were driven into the Mississippi river and drowned; that he had captured all of their arms and ships, and had taken his own army on board the vessels, and was then on the high seas on his way to take possession of England. At this point, which was the conclusion of the speech, an old man of sixty, standing near the speaker, threw his hat into the air, and jumping excitedly up and down, shouted: “Whoop-pee! hurrah for Andy Jackson, hell and thunder! ”

“ He was then sixty-six years old, but his horsemanship, acquired in part at the celebrated race in Greasy Cove, prevented on this occasion a serious accident to the President of the United States. It was said by those who witnessed the manner in which he sat upon and controlled the spirited and frightened charger which he rode, that the horse would have dashed any other man headlong from the saddle; but Jackson was as cool and calm as he was skillful, and soon brought the animal under perfect control—as he soon afterwards did Nicholas Biddle and the United States Bank. ”

“ He always had an unhappy knack of blurting out the truth in season and out of season. I did my best to get him a good living once—a first-rate living—in Sir John Marsh's gift; and I warned him before he went to lunch with Sir John to be careful what he said. 'Sir John,' I said, 'is one of the old school; he thinks the Squire is pope of the parish, and you will have to humour him a little. He will talk a great deal of nonsense in this strain, and be careful not to contradict him, for he can't bear it.' But Jackson did contradict him—flatly ”

“ Jackson cast ridicule upon the idea. “Do they suppose,” said he, “that I am such a d—d fool as to think myself fit for president of the United States? No, sir, I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be president.” Such is the anecdote told by H. M. Brackenridge, who was Jackson's secretary in Florida. In 1821 the general felt old and weak, and had made up his mind to spend his remaining days in peace on his farm. Of personal ambition, as ordinarily understood, Jackson had much less than many other men. ”

“ Andrew Jackson was a more courageous man, as well as a much greater man, than many of his most ardent admirers knew of. At the time of his duel with Avery, if the version which I believe to be true is correct, he was afraid of public opinion—that is, he believed that, if he made an explanation, somebody might think that he feared Avery, and so, rather than run the risk of being suspected of cowardice, he was willing to give Avery a chance to kill him. ”

“ People could not understand the evil until taught by hard experience. Jackson did not understand that he was laying the foundations of a gigantic system of corruption, which within a few years would develop into the most serious of the dangers threatening the continuance of American freedom. He was very ready to believe ill of political opponents, and to make generalizations from extremely inadequate data. Democratic newspapers, while the campaign frenzy was on them, were full of windy declamation about the wholesale corruption introduced into all parts of the government by Adams and Clay. ”

“ To mention the charge to Jackson, whose course in Florida had been severely censured by Clay, was enough to make him believe it; and he did so to his dying day.
It is not likely that the use made of this “grievance” had much to do with Jackson's victory in 1828. The causes at work lay far deeper. The population west of the Alleghanies was now beginning to count for much in politics. Jackson was our first western president, and his election marks the rise of that section of our country. The democratic tendency was moreover a growing one. ”

“ Redingson said to Jackson:
“'Did you see how loath Thomlinson was to put money in any other hands than his own?'
“'I saw some hesitancy,' said Jackson.
“'Well, sir, he proposes to spend only what is absolutely necessary. None of it will ever find its way into the Confederate Treasury. He loves money equal to any Yankee. But now, Mr. Jackson, what do you propose? Will you return to New York, or will you remain here for a time? ”

“ There were 219 electoral votes for Jackson, 49 for Clay, 11 for Floyd, and 7 for Wirt. Jackson interpreted this overwhelming victory as a popular condemnation of the bank and approval of all his actions as president. The enthusiastic applause from all quarters which now greeted his rebuke of the nullifiers served still further to strengthen his belief in himself as a "saviour of society" and champion of "the people." Men were getting into a state of mind in which questions of public policy were no longer argued upon their merits, but all discussion was drowned in cheers for Jackson. ”

“ It may, and it should, be interesting to those who love and revere the memory of Andrew Jackson to know something of the life, habits and characteristics of the people among whom he first settled at Jonesboro, as well as of those with whom he afterwards made his permanent home at Nashville; for whatever can be said to the credit and glory of either the early settlers on the Watauga or those upon the Cumberland can be truthfully said of the others. ”

“ Big were the forests, limitless, seeming as vast as infinity itself, resting heavy and still upon a man’s soul. The feeling of last night, the loneliness, the sort of unnamed dread came back upon John Sheldon. ”

“ Jackson in the sanguinary scenes at Fort Mimms, Tallapoosa, and Red Sticks in 1813-14. When he was a boy his people were allied with the Spaniards in Florida to resist the British encroachments upon their tribal empire in Georgia. When he was a War Chief, the British at Pensacola and Mobile had put muskets and ammunition into his hands for his men to resist the North Carolinians, Georgians, Tennesseeans and Kentuckians. In every decade he had fought and treated with the grandfathers and fathers of the same men who were trying to coerce him. ”