Posterity Gives Jackson an Honor Bestowed Upon No Other American If It Has Mar Marked cd Out an Epoch and Called It by the Name of One Man Says the Author of a New Now Biography of Old Hickory ory in Which Ho Is Portrayed as Ono One of tho the Greatest Presidents Who Has Ever Occupied the White Whito House In Washington C f western W stern m N Newspaper r Union NOTE NOTE January January a 1 l is II widely l e rele I it II Jackson Day In honor bonor of Andr Andrew w victory over the Brit British Ii In ID tn the batue of N New w Orleans which contributed d materially to h s selection election lo to the presidency later icier This article appropriate to 10 the observance of that day li Is bated based upon the new biography Andrew Jackson lor Jackson trail tun of a President nt written by Marquis James and d r recent tent tent- I ly b by the Dobbs Merrill company of Indianapolis through whose courtesy several leveral of the tb Illustration from the book are herewith reproduced d. d By Dy ELMO SCOTT WATSON 4 1837 I MARCH MARCIl Unlike many any another er Inauguration day in the city of Washington j this one was bright and balmy Down the steps of the ExI Executive Executive Ex Ex- I Mansion Mansion- Washing Mansion Washingtonians Washingtonians Washing Washing- had only recently beI began began be be- I gan calling it the White WhiteHouse i House came came two men One of them was slight in stature something of a dandy in dress and appearance Mar appearance Mar Martin I tin Van Buren of Kinderhook N N. Y the Little Magician the Red Fox who was about to become President of the United States The other was a more commanding commanding com corn manding figure somewhat bent with age and recent ill Ill- riess ness He leaned heavily on a cane but there still flashed from his eyes that indomitable indomitable Indomitable I table look which had caused men to hail him as Old Hickory They entered a carriage and rode up Pennsylvania avenue toward the Capitol A thunder of cheering rose from the thousands who lined that famous thoroughfare thorough thorough- fare then died down quickly and men removed their hats In reverential reverential rev rev- silence as the silver- silver I haired old man In the carriage I passed The same silence spread over the multitude that filled the east cast eastlawn eastlawn lawn of the Capitol as the two men appeared on the portico It I held while Chief Justice Taney administered the oath of office while Martin Van Buren was de delivering livering his inaugural address and even as Andrew Jackson started slowly down the broad steps Then suddenly as though unloosed unloosed unloosed un un- loosed by a signal a b mighty shout was raised Thomas Hart I PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON From a portrait made at the White Home arouse In 1835 IUS by Ashel Asbel D. D Durand now I owned by the New York Historical Society its preparation the author of the Pulitzer winning prize The Raven RavenA Ra Ra- Ra- Ra ven A urea A Biography of Sam Houston Hous lious- ton and of Andrew Jackson Jackson- The Border Captain has put years of research during which he examined no less than documents not to mention hundreds hundreds hundreds hun hun- of printed sources of rotor rotor- mation matlon And as one critic has observed the result result result-an an accurate accurate accurate rate and properly proportioned portrait of Andrew Jackson the President President-Is is a striking illustration tion of the truth of the observation observation observation I tion of Carlyle that a written well-written life is almost as rare as a II well- well spent one Why was it that the people loved him so soy asks Biographer James after atter describing the scene when Old Hickory stepped down from the Presidency In thronged Washington where men f I wt p 1 j- j i t tf M i f T f y i Y y I d Y I t Y J- J Jy y t I Y 1 ti 1 J 1 w wi wl I II i l s j TilE THE l FOURTH HERMITAGE Finished I. I la to steer alter its Iti pred predecessor bad had been ben destroyed by Ore ere save live for or portions pore poe I lions tlona of ot the exterior walls walla which were ere used In rebuilding I. I In the background right li is Tulip Grove the r residence o of Andr Andrew w Jackson DOD lIon Front From an aD engraving made In iD 1851 and own owned d b by the Ladles Ladles' Benton Denton of Missouri who was there that day afterwards said Ii It was a cry such as power never commanded nor man in power received It was affection gratitude and admiration the acclaim of posterity breaking from the bosoms of contemporaries ies I felt an on emotion which had never passed through me before be be- fore It lasted for only a moment Then Midway down the stone stairs General Jackson uncovered uncovered uncovered un un- covered and bowed A gentle wind stirred his silvery locks The tumult died And thus Old Hickory took leave of the Presidency of the United States and after eight years laid down his unsuspecting unsuspecting unsuspecting un un- un- un suspecting that on his times was an impress so characteristic and so deep that posterity would accord accord ac ac- cord to Andrew Jackson an honor as yet vouchsafed no other American Amer Amer- ican that scan that of marking out an epoch in our national history and calling it by the name of one man So writes Marquis James in his Andrew Jackson Portrait Jackson Portrait of af a President the second and concluding concluding con con- eluding volume of a biography which critics are virtually unanimous unanimous unanimous in hailing balling as by all odds the best and most absorbing account account account ac ac- ac- ac count of the life ill of Old Hickory that has yet been written Into i. i d- d K r 1 o r r a aa arb a rb d slept in barbers barbers' chairs the question question question ques ques- tion was debated that night as it was destined to be debated a hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred years to come From all that discussion Mr James synthesizes this answer Jackson Jacklon was born and rear reared d In a frontier aristocracy unpretentious unpretentious it Is I. true tl but aU all that an aristocracy could attain to In the of that day and time Hacking his way upward In the Tennessee Tennesse wilderness he rose to the th h height of spokesman for or one frontier r class dall against another nabobs another nabobs r versus venus leath Climbing higher r. r Jackson Jacklon became a spokesman for the whole almost almost al most mOlt autonomous West est In the cont contests st st. arising from the opposed Int Interests r of the leUI settled d. d comm commercial seaboard aboard The things of the West Wel ev even n the nabob W West lt advocated ad ad- then le seemed med alluring to the landless land land- less lell and the pro of the tidewater t tee ter r cities clUn This f fermentation shaped Into a political movement nl durin during the th hard hardtimes hardtimes times of 1818 22 found the und underprivileged U ced and the of the Eat East one with the established currents current ot of w western thought Andr Andrew w Jackson Jacklon brought to the Prell Presidency dency fewer personal ambitions than any man excepting Washington The gradual graduel grad grad- ual uel alt alteration from a border conservative conserva live tive to 10 a liberal Is la noteworthy but other eminent nt men have spanned a gerater scale Itale of change John Adams Adam and Patrick Henry storm Into history not lIot as II liberals but as II r revolutionists revolutionists volu shouting for bayonets ta and bar Th They y rattle out ou not as II conservatives con mer merely but as aa cantankerous r- r ous OUI reactionaries Em Emerging as II a peoples people's man Jackson Jackson proffered no ordinary claims to that much much courted courted d distinction No m mere re arbiter between factions faction of followers he strode forth to 10 Inspire to lead to 10 govern lie Ha not only reigned but rul ruled d. d He U. saw laW for the people what th they y could not nol see ne for them selves The bank Issue was as II good ODd as a. dead after the pausing passing of 01 the tho twenties I Jackson revived it It lashed up an apat t. t ic k public lashed up apathetic lI lieu uI u. u I I tenants nants silenced the unwilling and drove on to victory All AU this rested on the philosophy of majority rule I When a majority was not at hand he endeavored to create It When this could not be done In time he went ahead anyhow He tie was the majority pro tem I em m. m Unfailingly at the n next el election the he people would return a vote of con con- making his m measures th their lr own This confidence was wu not mil misplaced placed Hnot If U not every day In the year yur providing a government nt of and by the people Andrew Andrew An An- drew Jackson did provide one for them lIe He lived by valor The p people ople like that hat because it 1 Is II exciting and because It t clothes them in the mantle of Fortuna with enormous pow power r over the destiny of a public servant Andr Andrew w Jackson Jacklon carried his hll political life in the hollow of Ills his hand r ready ady to risk It for the cause of the hour wh whether th r that tho t ca cause use w were re great r at or small email good or bad bad Time and again h heedlessly and end needlessly he exposed himself to destruction by the popular will wm That the people did not d destroy stroy him b bewildered d the opposition Jacksons Jackson Luck became a Whig by word Jacksons Jackson's luck was the kind that gains fains respect reaped for or the proverb that fortune for tune favors the brav brave Fortune also favors the competent nt The opposition to Jackson was not compos composed d of straw men No other r Pr President has confronted d a coalition of adversaries so 10 able or so 10 well furnished with the ordinary resources of political welfare lI Henry nry Clay Daniel Danl 1 Webster r. r John C C. C Calhoun Nicholas Diddle Old Hickory met those great reat captains and their legions a separately and in alliance He lie beat th them m to their heir knees es Nor were the peculiar gifts lifts Jackson brought to the Presidency successful alone In the management of the domestic domes domes- tic concerns of a democracy Ills His for policy raised railed the pr prestige of the young American nation to a h height not nol before attained among the pow powers rl of 01 the world G Genuine respect abroad for American rights dat dates s from Jackson Through It all h he had walked humbly Departing for home one summer lummer he directed di dl retted rested mall to be forwarded to him readdressed re- re addressed addrell d as follows H Hermitage n near ar arthe the Fountain of or Health Davidson County T Tennessee nn The Fountain of lI Health alth was wal a healing spring of popular r resort sort and In the Generals General's estimation th the most widely ly known place In is the locality If proof of the accuracy of that estimate of Andrew Jackson is needed if additional evidence is desired to show why he was beloved beloved be be- loved by the people of his time and why his name is honored by Americans of today almost as much as are the names of Wash ington and Lincoln perhaps both can be found in the statements of some of his contemporaries A German nobleman visiting In this country during the reign of Jackson quoted an unnamed senator who assumed to speak without partisanship as follows General Jackson called himself himself himself him him- self the peoples people's friend and gave proofs of his sincerity He understood the people of the United United United Unit Unit- ed States better perhaps than any rny President before him and developed as much energy in his administration as any American statesman Whether all his measures were beneficial to the people is beside the point they were in unison with his political doctrines and carried through with an iron disregard of personal personal personal per per- consequence ing the enormous opposition that wealth and talent could put in the way of their execution I II And Daniel Webster one of of I those whom he met and beat to their knees once declared General Jackson is an honest hones and upright man lIe He does what he thinks is right and does i it with all his might lie He does what he thinks is right and does it with all aU his might many an American would like to think that such a statement is the essence of his own credo But realizing that tha he does not live up to that ideal there is some comfort for him hin in giving his loyal devotion to aman a aman aman man who does I It would be be pleasant to chronicle chronicle chron chron- Jackson Jackson Jackson Jack Jack- icle idle the fact that Andrew son after eight turbulent years House returned to in the White his beloved Hermitage near Nashville Tenn to spend his remaining remaining remaining re re- years in peace Unfortunately Unfortunately the opposite was true When he went to Washington in 1829 he carried with him When he returned to Tennessee in 1837 there was just 90 in his nis wallet And that fact is symbolic symbolic sym symbolic bolic of the career of Andrew Jackson ex President ex During his long absence in the service of the nation his personal fortunes for tunes had suffered and through the he remaining years of his life Hie he was to know little relief from financial difficulties Most of this was due to his adopted son Andrew Jackson Jr who seems to have had little of the strength of character or ability of his foster father For he became involved in a bottomless bog og of debts for which his father fath fath- er was in no way responsible but which he chose to assume because because because be be- cause of a to o personal honor and because of an affection for the boy which nothing had been able to de de- stroy Nor were these personal affairs the he only ones to trouble Andrew Jackson Although he had retired retired re- re tired Ired from public life that did not mean he was no longer concerned concerned concerned con con- with the welfare of his country Probably no other ex- ex President resident has ever had such a direct part in shaping the destinies destinies des- des inies of the nation after leaving the he White House as did Andrew Jackson fackson He lie had brought about the election election elec- elec tion ion of Martin Van Buren and he helped his successor guide the ship of state safely through the I shoals during the panic year of 1837 With hearing failing right eye nearly useless and memory I uncertain the white-haired white warrior warrior warrior war war- I was still a chieftain chieftain guid guid- guid ing ng inspiring strengthening faint hearts from his inexhaustible store of courage Even when Old Tippecanoe I Harrison larrison defeated Van Buren for or re-election re in 1841 1831 the old man was undaunted By the time I I I I I Ii i T I v ate y I II I JACKSON IN RETIREMENT From a print of a drawing from life lifey by y William II 11 II Brown Drown own owned d by Emil Edward of New York City another campaign came around the he annexation of Texas that Texas that republic republic republic re re- re- re public which Old Hickory's lieutenant lieutenant lieu- lieu tenant Sam Houston had helped was found lound was the most important question of the day Jackson wanted Texas in the Union But Martin Van Buren again a candidate candidate candidate can can- for the Democratic nomination nomInation nomination nom nom- feared to risk defeat atthe at atthe atthe the hands of slavery anti-slavery North North- Northern ern Democrats and straddled So James K Polk won the nomination nomination nom nom- and the election There was no doubt where Polk stood on the Texas question But disquieting rumors came to Jack Jack- son Sam Houston was flirting with England Texas England Texas might become become become be be- come a British province instead of coming into the Union There were several weeks of painful i doubt for the patriarch of the Hermitage while Sam Houston i was playing off oil England France Mexico and the United Unite d