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382 567 Buhr

Hale's Steam Press-W. L. Lewis's Print.
Boston: No. 14 Devonshire Street.

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PREFACE.

Defend me from my friends,' says the Castilian proverb, and I will defend myself from my enemies.' The adage is trite, but the force with which it applies to the subject of the following memoir must be our apology for its use. Never had man more reason to feel its truth than president Jackson. We doubt not that his wisest friends would desire that most of the acts of his life should be buried in oblivion, as the only means of saving his reputation, and that of the nation which tolerated them. This desirable consummation has been prevented by the reckless folly of some of his adherents, who, not content that his errors should be forgotten or forgiven, demand that they should be applauded. The learned late secretary at war did his worst to his friend and patron in writing his life, or more properly his eulogium; but the president, mistaking an injury for a benefit, rewarded his ill-advised labors in kind; that is, he conferred on him notoriety and contempt, for in this case the terms are synonymous. Then came Mr. Waldo, and gibbeted Mr. Jackson in a work worse, if possible, than the other. He found his hero a convenient peg on which to hang his wares for sale, though any other equally prominent would have answered his purpose as well. Two or three abstracts of these books have since been published, and a biography, which purports to give the other side of the question, has also issued from the Philadelphia press. As all our efforts to procure a copy of this last have failed, we presume it has not had a very wide circulation. The others are all very imperfect; they omit more than half of the steps of Mr. Jackson's career, and bring his history no farther than the battle of New-Orleans. However, they contain official documents and other data, of which we have availed ourselves, and to these they are indebted for this notice. Were they to be regarded as specimens of American literature, or had their publication been delayed till now, we should dismiss them from our consideration, and even from our contempt, at once. But they have occasioned irreparable injury; their contents have been proclaimed in all quarters of the Union, in a voice louder than a trumpet-call. They have aided to produce a delusion that has raised

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Andrew Jackson to the highest place in the state, and which even now has not wholly passed away.

We have heard Mr. Jackson's advocates advance, that whatever his character may be, we are bound to think and speak of him, as president of the United States, with respect. We subscribe to this doctrine in part, but to admit it in its fullest extent, would be equivalent to a surrender of the liberty of thought, word and deed. We will yield our chief magistrate all due respect, and speak of his actions with as much charity as a paramount "duty to our country will permit. We will render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's; but when his deeds are wrong, our approbation does not belong to him. In such cases we will exert the right of censure.

We hold the sanctuary of private life sacred and inviolable; but when a man oversteps its threshold, and pretends to public confidence and trust, it is our right, nay, our duty, to lay it open, as far as may be necessary to discover his fitness or unfitness for the elevation to which he aspires. It is incumbent on every good citizen to throw all the light he may on matters of national concern. These reasons induce us to analyze the much-boasted claims of Mr. Jackson to the esteem and gratitude of the American people. We shall proceed in a spirit of candor to weigh him in the moral balance, and if he be found wanting, his must be the blame, not ours. The facts we intend to connect in their proper order are on record and cannot be disputed, and if the reader should not like our inferences, let him make his own.

Some things there are connected with the life of Mr. Jackson, which affect the characters of others as well as his own. We cannot leave them out, in justice to our readers, but that none may have reason to complain, we shall relate the simple facts, without note or comment.

We have no personal interest in the result of the approaching political contest. We have no office to lose, or any expectation of getting one. We do not write for any electioneering purpose, having no more depending on the vicissitudes of politics than the most obscure of our fellow citizens has. Such being the case, we hope to perform our task with strict impartiality. If, however, we should have occasion to record violations of law, morals and gospel, we shall speak of them in such terms as they deserve.

CHAPTER I.

Birth and parentage of Andrew Jackson. He joins the American army, and is made prisoner. Is wounded. His education. Emigrates to Tennessee. His courtship and marriage. His appointment to distinguished stations.

Though in this country the extraction of any individual is a matter of little importance, as every man is here the child of his own works, it may gratify some persons to learn who was the father of one whose name is so widely known as that of the subject of this memoir. Andrew Jackson, the father of the American president, was an Irishman, but we are unable to say to what part of Ireland he belonged. He landed at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1765, and settled at Waxaw, about forty-five miles above Camden. He brought with him to this country two sons, and the third, now president Jackson, was born (according to Eaton) in May, 1767. Shortly after Andrew Jackson senior died, leaving his widow the task of educating her children. She appears to have been an amiable and exemplary woman. She had not the means to give all her children a liberal education; but Andrew, whom she intended for the ministry, was sent to school, and continued there till the war of the Revolution broke out and interrupted his studies. The interruption is much to be regretted,

as to it are, perhaps, owing many opinions and productions that have been deplored by Mr. Jackson's friends, and have furnished a theme for the exultation of his foes.

His ardent temperament seems to have shown itself early in life, for at the age of fourteen years, we find him carrying a musket in the service of his country. In this he was encouraged by the example of his brothers, the elder of whom fell a victim to the fatigues of his first campaign. For a while, however, young Jackson had no opportunity of displaying his juvenile courage; the American force broke up on the approach of lord Cornwallis, and each individual returned to his home. The British commander sent a major Coffin to Waxaw, with a considerable body of troops, to destroy the place and make the inhabitants prisoners. The Americans, to the number of forty men, were assembled to concert their measures, when the British troops fell suddenly upon them and captured eleven of their number. The rest escaped, and among them the young Jacksons, who were, however, taken the next day.

The British troops, in the early part of the Revolution, appear to have considered the colonists as rebels, by no means entitled to the usual courtesies of war. The Jacksons, the evening after their. mischance, were reminded of this by an order to clean the boots of one of the officers. Andrew, very properly, refused to obey, and indignantly demanded the treatment due to a prisoner of war. The officer, enraged at his contumacy, struck at him with his sword, and in parrying the blow, the youth received a cut on his left hand. His brother also received a wound on the head, which,

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