PROFESSIONAL LIFE.

N the decease of his brother and mother, Andrew Jackson came into possession of his paternal estate, which, though far from rendering him wealthy, was sufficiently large to support him in a moderate style of living, and to enable him to pur

sue his studies. Unused, however, to economical management, he neglected the opportunity thus afforded for accomplishing his mother's design, and expended his patrimony without regard to the future. His diminished resources, however, soon warned him that his own exertions must be his reliance for support; and he continued and completed his classical education, superintended by Mr. M'Cullock, who taught a school near Hill's Iron Works. His enterprising disposition, and his ambition to raise himself above his original situation, led him to abandon the intention entertained by his mother, and turn his attention to the law. He commenced his legal studies near the close of his eighteenth year, at Salisbury, N. C.; in the office of Spruce McKay, Esq., who afterwards was promoted to the bench. They were completed under Colonel John Stokes; and in 1786, Jackson received his license, and commenced the practice of the law.

The legal business in the Carolinas was at this period engrossed by old practitioners; and many difficulties presented themselves to the young beginner, unless aided by the influence of relations and friends. Destitute of these, and seeing little prospect of advancement in his present situation, Jackson determined to proceed to the western country, which was then beginning to attract attention, and where the field was yet unoccupied. Judge M'Nairy being about to proceed to the western part of the states, to hold a session of the Supreme Court, he resolved to accompany him. They left North Carolina in the spring of 1788, and after having experienced considerable deention upon their journey, arrived at Nashville in

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October.

He found the community in a situation which rendered his arrival a most fortunate event. Many of the younger and more dissipated of the settlers had become deeply indebted to the merchants and tradesmen, who were unable to obtain legal redress, because the debtors had secured the only lawyer in the county to their interest. The defrauded creditors hailed Jackson as a deliverer. They immediately beset him with applications for his services; and on the next morning after his arrival, seventy writs were issued against defaulters. His professional career, thus auspiciously commenced, continued to be prosperous. The scoundrels who had so long gone unpunished, attempted to intimidate him, but to no purpose. Shortly after his emigration to the west, he was appointed by the governor of North Carolina, attorney-general for the western district. In this capacity, he continued the same course of practice which he had commenced. He executed the laws with so much faithfulness, that his life was more than once endangered; by his firmness and fearless conduct, however, he awed the cowardly ruffians who threatened to attack him, and brought them to justice. His duties as prosecuting attorney, obliged him frequently to cross the wilderness between Jonesborough and Nashville, a distance of more than two hundred miles, infested with hostile Indians. Twenty-two times did he perform this hazardous journey, with no other companion than his horse and rifle. His efforts were rewarded by a lucrative practice, and an almost unbounded popularity; which was evinced at every opportunity, by his elevation to offices of honourable trust.

In 1791, Jackson married the wife who absorbed his every affection while living, whose loss was the greatest sorrow of his life, and whose memory he ever cherished with undiminished devotion. Circumstances which attended this union have been misconstrued to his disadvantage; but a recital of the facts will convince every reasonable reader of the purity of his motives, the generosity of his nature, and the entire propriety of his conduct. The object of his choice was the daughter of Colonel John Donelson, who was a native of Virginia, whence he emigrated to Kentucky. During his residence in that state, Lewis Robards, whose family resided in the vicinity of Harrodsburg, visited his family, and succeeded in gaining the affections of his daughter Rachel. With the consent of her father, they were united, and lived at first in apparent happiness. Some time after their marriage, Colonel Donelson removed to Tennessee, and settled near Nashville, where he afterwards died. Here Jackson became acquainted with his widow, and there being no regular public-houses in the settlement, he and his intimate friend, Mr. Overtin, boarded with Mrs. Donelson. Meanwhile, Mrs. Robards, who had been celebrated for her personal, mental, and moral qualities, had unfortunately become the object of her husband's jealousy. The latter appears to have been of a totally different character and disposition, and unable to appreciate the inestimable treasure he possessed in his amiable consort. Her hospitable and convivial disposition ill accorded with his sullen and selfish temper. He was unwilling to permit his wife's virtues to benefit any but himself, and he was too much

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given to depraved pleasures to cherish them as he ought. The guilt which his conscience told him rested on his soul, his imagination ascribed to her; and all her exertions to dispel his unjust suspicions were vain. She endeavoured, but vainly, to persuade his poisoned mind of her purity and undiminished affection. He would not credit her repeated declarations, and refused to live with her. They had been residing with his mother, who was a widow, since the emigration of Colonel Donelson to Kentucky. The mother-in-law was convinced of the innocence of the injured wife; but Robards refused to believe, and Rachel was obliged to return to her parents. Parents!-alas-her father had ended his course in the humble log-cabin at Nashville, and to her widowed mother she brought her sorrowing heart, and that kindness which had smoothed her couch in infancy, was again exerted to heal the wound which had been so causelessly inflicted. At her mother's dwelling she first met Andrew Jackson. Her personal loveliness, intellectual accomplishments, and moral worth and above all, her unmerited sufferings, awakened in the bosom of our hero, sentiments of the purest admiration and respect: but his feelings proceeded not beyond the limit of the most scrupulous propriety. It is probable, indeed, the known gallantry of his nature forbids a doubt, that he used every means in his power to render less irksome her painful situation, and to banish from her mind the recollection of the past but it has never been said, on respectable authority, and it cannot be supposed that his attentions to Mrs. Robards partook of aught save the respect and consideration due to her merit. After Robards