484 THE STORY OF ANDREW JACKSON. "Andy" to polish his shoes. He refused and was given the scar-but he didn't black the shoes, and he made it lively for that officer despite the difference in their ages. Jackson's enemies in his later career got Dickinson, a young lawyer in Nashville, who had the reputation of being the "best pistol shot in the world," to speak slightingly of Mrs. Jackson. This news was told to the general. Jackson for thirty-seven years had kept a pair of pistols in readiness for use on any one who ever spoke disrespectfully of his wife. He oiled the pistols and then demanded an explanation from Dickinson, who claimed that if he said anything disrespectful he must have been drunk, as he had no recollection of any such remarks. But the enemies fanned the flame and the remarks were repeated, resulting this time in the duel, which ended in a slightly different way froin that originally intended by Dickinson, who was killed in the affair, though Jackson himself received a wound from which he suffered until his death. Jackson boarded when he first went to Tennessee with the Widow Donelson. Here he met the widow's daughter, Mrs. Rachel Robards. Mrs. Robards was taken with Jackson's gallantry. Jackson's Marriage. Mr. Robards became jealous and applied for a divorce. Jackson married Mrs. Robards at Natchez in 1791, although the divorce was not granted until 1793. Jackson was at fault in not taking more care to ascertain the non-existence of a divorce, but by forty years of honorable and devoted love he recompensed the blame which he had caused to be attached to her, and, from the day of her death in 1831 until his own spent some time each day in silent mourning and loyal reverence. They had no children. The War of 1812 found Jackson at the Hermitage. Since 1801 he had been commander-in-chief of the Tennessee militia, but there had been no previous occasion for him to take the field. Late in 1812, after the disasters in the Northwest, it was feared the English might make an attempt on New Orleans. Jackson was ordered to Natchez at the head of 2,000 men. + Armstrong, the new Secretary of War, stupidly instructed Jackson to disband his troops when it became evident that the British were not planning an expedition southward. Jackson got mad, marched his troops back en masse to Nashville, became an idol and won in this campaign the name "Old Hickory." The Creek war then followed, in which he showed such wonderful military capacity that he was made major-general in the regular army and was appointed to command the Department of the South. When at last the British did head toward the south Jackson started for the front. • THE STORY OF ANDREW JACKSON. 485 Intrepidity at New Orleans. On November 22, 1814, General Jackson left Mobile for New Orleans, where he arrived on December 1. It was known that a large British force was on its way to that city, and the importance of defending it could not be overrated. The troops that were to invade it were flushed with the victories of Bladensburg and Washington. Citizens who should have defended the city were strongly suspected of disaffection. While a hostile army of tried veterans, strong in numbers, exact in discipline, confident of success, were advancing in front, the ill-regulated levies of militia who were to oppose then were surrounded by the timid, the doubtful and the treacherous. When Jackson reached New Orleans few thought it capable of defence; in two days after, none thought it susceptible of being taken. But it was obvious to General Jackson that success depended on a prompt offensive movement, and an attack must be made on the invading army the moment they landed. "I am resolved," he wrote in answer to General Carroll, whose division had been delayed on its way to New Orleans, "feeble as my force is, to assail the enemy on his first landing and perish sooner than he shall reach the city." The execution of that determination is history. The British landed on the twenty-third, fifteen miles below New Orleans. The news reached Jackson at I o'clock in the afternoon. The same evening he hurled his whole available force at them, lost seven wounded during the twenty-five minutes of the subsequent engagement, while of the enemy 700 were killed, 1,400 were wounded and 500 made prisoners. The final and overwhelming defeat of the British took place in the battle of January 8, 1815. Jackson's men fought behind a breastwork of cotton bales. The British lost in twenty-five minutes 2,600 killed and wounded. Pakenham was among the slain. Jackson's loss was eight killed and thirteen How the British wounded. Peace had already been signed at Ghent, but the news, of course, had not yet arrived. A fact showing the confidence of the British is that when they invaded Mississippi they brought with them territorial and civil authorities prepared to take charge of the government. Once an old aristocrat called upon Jackson to exempt him from military service. "I am lame," he said in explanation. "Can't you run?" asked the General. "No; I can hardly walk," was the reply. "Well, I wish to God all my men were in the same fix," the General quickly replied, and, turning to the quartermaster, said: "Give him a gun." + 486 THE STORY OF ANDREW JACKSON. An assassin confronted him in the Capitol with a double-barrelled pistol as he was making his way out of a funeral gathering. After one barrel had been snapped within ten feet of his face and the other was pointed at him, Jackson advanced upon the madman with uplifted cane, and would have struck him but for the interference of friends. He was never taken by suprise; he never counted odds. "I doubt," says an old friend of his, "if ever a man lived of such immovable nerve, who was so unconscious of personal danger, so wholly forgetful of himself and his perils." An incident illustrative of this happened one afternoon during his presidency. An exasperated mob surrounded the President's house and threatened his life. The marshal offered him a score of constables; the military and naval officers volunteered to guard him; the members of his Cabinet and other friends desired to watch with him in his house. He declined all these offers. Toward evening he collected two or three guns, and with only his nephew and a servant in the house went to sleep "as quietly," says one who witnessed the affair, "as an infant in his cradle." Louis Phillippe, during the war of the Revolution, contracted a debt with the United States. This obligation he had refused to meet and it was still uncanceled when Jackson entered the Presidential office. He sent over a Minister and got a note for the amount. When the note came due Louis allowed it to go to protest. Jackson got mad. The French Minister to Washington at that time was a little chap, who had married the daughter of Colonel William B. Lewis, a warm friend of Jackson. He went over to the President's house the day the note was protested and found him raging like one mad. A Specimen of "I will get one of the biggest ships we've got," Jackson said, "and go and see Louis Phillippe. He owes the United States money and I'll go and collect it myself," and he stormed worse than ever. The Frenchman was very much alarmed. He took his brother-in-law, Mr. Joseph Peyton, out of the room and asked with anxiety: "What is it zat ze President wants? Does he want ze Congress to make him one grand high sheriff to go across ze ocean and collect ze money from my master, ze king?" "That's it exactly," Colonel Peyton replied, "and he'll make the damnedest sheriff you ever saw. If he goes over there after that money you may bet he'll have it before he leaves." The Frenchman thoughtfully scratched his head and in a tone of amazement found voice to utter, "Ain't he one remarkable man?" In 1844 a very panicky neighbor of General Jackson visited the Hermitage one day about the time that the trouble with Mexico was brewing. 4 THE STORY OF ANDREW JACKSON. 487 "The Mexicans are the most stubborn race in the world," excitedly remarked the visitor, "and if we get into a war with them I am afraid it will last forty or fifty years." "Give yourself no uneasiness about that," calmly replied the General; "I can go to Sumner County, raise 2,000 volunteers and run every Mexican into the Pacific Ocean in six months." The panicky man's nervousness seemed to be almost entirely allayed by this expression of confidence. At Clover Bend a mob got after Patton Anderson, who was a warm friend of the general. They were determined on taking his life. Anderson had retreated and entered the yard, with the mob in close pursuit. Jackson intercepted the angry crowd, and with an explanation of warning threw his hand to his hip pocket, and withdrawing a spectacle case opened it with a snap which could be distinctly heard some distance. "By the eternal God," he shouted, "the first man that puts his foot on this step is a dead man!" This effectually checked the mob. "I had no pistol," said Jackson to an intimated friend afterward, "but the snap of the spectacle case deceived them." Jackson's Farewell Address. "The corporations and wealthy individuals who are engaged in manufacturing establishments desire a high tariff to increase their gains. Designing politicians will support it to conciliate their favor and to obtain the means for profuse expenditure for the purpose of purchasing influence in other quarters. Do not allow yourselves, my fellow-citizens, to be misled in this subject. It is a system of injustice, and, if persisted in, will lead to corruption and must end in ruin." and The counsel which Jackson gave in his farewell address exhibits his lofty patriotism no more than his wise statesmanship. Among other impressive observations he said: "In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting counsels, I have brought before you the leading principles upon which I have endeavored to administer the government in the high office with which you have twice honored me. Our growth has been rapid beyond all former example in numbers, in wealth, there have never been millions of people associated in one body who have enjoyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of the United States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad; your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among yourselves-from cupidity, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst of power-that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs that you have especially to guard yourselves. • 488 SERIOUS BATTLE WITH THE FILIPINOS. "My own race 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." OUR MOST SERIOUS BATTLES WITH THE FILIPINOS. T HAT our government entered upon a grave undertaking, which, though great in the beginning, has assumed a more serious aspect than could be foreseen, was clearly proved by events directly following conclusion of the peace treaty with Spain. The Filipinos quickly manifested their intention to form an independent government, and when Aguinaldo's request of the United States to make a declaration of purpose respecting the acknowledgment of a Filipino republic was refused, that ambitious leader took the offensive by preparing to continue the struggle for independence which the conclusion of our war with Spain had interrupted. In an earlier article to be found in this work, description is given of the battle precipitated by the Filipinos on the night of February 4, and of the capture of Iloilo and the engagements near Manila to February 10, resulting in a defeat of the insurgents at Caloocan and Malate. These conflicts were believed, for a while, to have so discouraged Aguinaldo that he was well disposed to treat for peace, and overtures to this end were actually made, but General Otis refused to consider any terms except such as provided for an unconditional surrender of all the insurgents, and their unqualified submission to the dictates of the United States government. Aguinaldo, as has been previously shown, is a man of unbounded ambition; who having risen to not only the position of leadership, but to the presidency of the newly organized Filipino republic, was Aguinaldo unwilling to descend from the high estate which he had 1 |