Show s cuVe cu I l Ve Hero of l TO COMMAND aye isa I he t e n NN NL IN INq q a 1111 r 11 N NN 11 e e r c ed c r rI I S iCel I rw S St t t t 4 Y S 1 1 r j 0 2 y tl 1618 1111 r w M Nt r i r r J r d it J 1 I r Pi 4 ajA toJ j p jl I II I t r ewO 11 tj 1 f t DS G- G W I I i L J L i ki y I r Y X ti r 1 f r Z v N JACh Off Ar 2 IY 7 j AH II from V An JACKSON An p fade frlIc in pun b by Gerald AV i Johnson cour- cour 1 lInt JI and f 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON HE HEthe announcement of the purpose of I the Democratic party this ye year r to toS S THE II revive re the annual Jackson day day dinner dinner dinner din din- ner after a lapse of some some seven I years years has whatever Its political significance may be more than passing passIng passIng pass- pass Ing Interest for all Americans Forit Foro For o v it recalls once more an American hero of long ago whose name nam name has hasI I become associated not only with certain political t symbols but In a broader bronder sense with some something hing tu fundamental In do the government of this Republic I His ills name and fame ar ar- also recalled in n a i book Andrew An Jackson Ja Jackson An Epic In n Home pun Home pun by 4 erald Cerald W. W Johnson recently published by Minton Balch and company of New Kew York which reviewers are me including among the Ue outstanding biographies of the year t Jackson son day Is January 8 S the anniversary of the Battle of New Kew Orleans Not only is this engagement engagement engagement en en- unique In history In that it was was' was fought after peace had been declared between the two nations concerned in it but it is important In r American history for at least two reasons One of them as set forth by the new Jackson biographer declares that In winning this battle Old ld Hickory saved the self-respect self of the country He elaborates on that theme as fo follows lows After Arter three years ears of ot calamity and disgrace here herp at last was victory with honor An American force had met a larger British force and had b beaten aten It fairly and squarely Every nation has some bad generals who will lose It an army or a a. campaign now and lOd then But as us the War of 1812 dragged to 0 Its dismal end Americans were apparently faced I with the Intense Intensely humiliating necessity of having to admit that their generals were all bad Harrison Harrlson Har- Har rison indeed could beat a horde of naked savages savages savages sav sav- ages and even a mixed force of British h and In IndIans Indians ln- ln but he was the best we ve had to offer on t January 7 1815 It was not proved that there lived JIved a single American o officer who who could stand up against a British regular officer commanding regular regular regular reg reg- ular troops But January 8 proved that one man could stand up Andrew Jackson craved no favors Andrew Jackson could face the troops that broke Napoleon Napoleon more more on-more more he could give then them odds of two t to one and beat them To a country that had hud almost completely lost l faith in Itself to a country that had almost learned to cringe this news came like a reprieve to toa a man upon the gallows It was literally crazed razed with Joy and In Its delirium It flung the name S 11 of of Andrew Jackson against the stars More than that this same country did not forget forget for tor- J get t its hero liero a few years ears later w when a President r 1 was to be elected and so the second reason for forthe rf f the importance of the Battle of New Orleans Is la lathat t that It put Andrew Jackson Jaclson In the White House I The significance b of that is summed u up i in n a recent editorial In the New ew York World as follows I Andrew Jackson was a victorious general and nd anda a man of ot honor but his chief contributions to his country rest on neither of these tact fact He lie will be bt remembered partly because one of ot his first arst presidential acts was to free tree the country countr from the tyranny of ot bureaucracy and to establish d dt de I When he entered the White House he hI found th fh tea dominated by bya a a bureaucracy C of ot constantly Increasing numbers and expanding powers It was waR his task to sot things right Being Being Be Dp- ing a soldier and hard-boiled hard he showed succeeding succeed ing Ins generations of Americans the only of doln doing so lIe He fired Job holders He lIe may h he hc e been h harsh and und merciless but he satisfied a grei gre I. I need V When hen he was through the country was restored 11 to its original plan and the powerful all bureaucracy ws nn unpleasant memory memory But nut It if it Is difficult for us to realize the heights to which the hero worship of Jackson Jaclson rose n a a cen ceI century cen i tury fury ago or Of even cen It If we are not especially impressed im- im Impressed Im Im- pressed by Jacksons Jackson's connection with the origin of certain political traditions in this country we 1 cannot fall to be interested In the lit story story-of y of Ms Is t I 1 Az QU av career For an amazing career was that of this hero of what the new nety blo biographer happily calls an an epic In homespun n Doth Both th North Korth Carolina an and South Carolina claim him a as their own since the rude log cabin In which he was born stood near the line between two colonies and there has long been a n dispute as ns to whether It H stood on the North or South Carolina side of that boundary This dispute was revived only last November when news dispatches carried the story about the Ule finding In an nn old trunk In an attic In Craddock Va of a n letter sighed by Jackson In 1820 In which he declared definitely ely that he was born In South Sout 1 Carolina Tennessee see too calls him her own since It was she who tent him forth to the wars in which he won glory who gave him to the nation as Its President and who today preserves preserves preserves pre pre- serves serves his his home the Hermitage near Nashville as her dearest shrine Louisiana also has a claim claimon on him and the celebration of his greatest triumph triumph triumph tri tri- on Its anniversary anni which Is a legal holiday In that state state- Is on one one of her most cherished B But lt because Andrew Jackson was what he was was and did what he did he belongs to all Americans and for that reason January 8 Is Ismor ismore move more than a date to be observed by one state or orby orby orby by one political part party It should be a red letter date dat on the calendars of all nil citizens of the United United United Unit Unit- ed States Familiar as are most of us with the school book facts of Jacksons Jackson's career there is yet much for us to learn about Jackson the man roan In the light of new Interpretations of his bis career In the first chapter of Johnsons Johnson's biography which tells How Mr Ir Jackson C Contrary to All Known Rules Persists Persists Per Per- In Living such an un interpretation is offered in these words The rhe man Is a popular hero In the strictest sense of ot the word He Is the hero of ot the people not of the intelligentsia The people still delight Inthe in inthe inthe the legends of his prowess of ot his lurid language of ot his imperious and dictatorial temper The tale tale- of ot his usurpations does not appal them but de delights delights de- de lights them for Americans have always loved a leall really masterful man If It Jacksons Jackson's spiritual heir should appear now tiow there Is every reason to believe believe be be- lieve America of the Twentieth century would hall hail him as rapturously and follow him as blindly blindly blindly blind blind- ly as it hailed and f followed flowed lowed the hero of ot a hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred years n ago aco o. o Therefore he remains a significant figure HI His faults stand out with startling vividness His er errors errors errors er- er ar are plain to the the purblind His weaknesses eases are obvious his follies tollies patent his egregiousness Inescapable But the man will not collapse His fame is still 8 dear to the hearts of the the- people therefore the prudent man will search diligently for some residuum after the faults errors and follies tomes have been taken Into account For If It another another an an- other appears with such qualities even handicaps handicap as gigantic as those thole under w which Jackson la labored h. h bored borer can not prevent vent his sweep to power And the wise men trien of ot that that thai da will be those who recognize recognize rec- rec him early eary and align themselves es with him not against aln t him It is this that gives him a severely severely severe vert ly pra practical significance In In the century that haw has succeeded his own But Bul to the impractical Idealist to the dilettante to the curious seeker after the bizarre the quaint the colorful Jackson makes as power powerful tul an appeal as S to the student of at public affairs For he was wat above all else vivid He Ile was a great actor and on the national scene he staged the most gorgeous colorful antI and romantic show in American history When he first camp came to Washington car CT- taro tain senators were wele informed by alarmed friends that he had sworn to CUt cui off oft their cars ears He Ile He left lert the dt city pensively regretting his to either shoot Henry Clay or to hang John JohnC C C. C Calhoun Ye Yet durIn during his tenure of ot power he committed neither homicide nor mayhem m. m Americans have o never known how to resist n a. man who ho could talk like a n pirate and act tike a R. Presbyterian ana and could do both to a perfection not approached by an any of ot his successors until the days of ot Theodore ore Roosevelt And he had lied one great advantage e over ver Roost Roosevelt namely a record Before he came to the PUId Pies PU- Id ncy Jackson had both IJ and shot men and 5 all the while he was WiS In the White House it was wa thrillingly uncertain when he might carry out some of ot his threats literally He was a canny man and it is possible that there never was a moment when he actually would have hanged Calhoun Calhoun Calhoun Cal Cal- houn but there were several moments when the country believed that If It Ithe the he President could but lay hands on the vice president the latter's day days daysS S would be numbered Yet the tha rejoicing galleries had more serious It If perhaps no better reasons for their plaudits than n simply the entertainment purveyed to them by Andrew Jackson He did throw down the bars bus that thit hedged them from effective participation In the conduct of ot their own government He did destroy a a sinister alliance between politics and finance that t was swiftly reducing them to economic serfdom He did shatter the Nullification movement thereby thereby there there- by postponing for tor twenty years ears the day when half halfa a million of ot them had to die for the preservation pres preservation tion of the Union All AlJ these works were Impermanent Impermanent nent no doubt but they were effective for the th time and the place He richly earned the loyalty that common men gave him Jackson as a small boy comes reeling Into IntI American history with a sabre cut on his head and andas andas andas as the years gather upon him they gleam with steel and blood It was a roaring career resounding to the roars of ot cheering multitudes of ot musketry of ot artillery It was a theatrical career In the style of ot Gallic GaUle romance astonishingly Ilk like tl th career that Rostand imagined for fir r Cyrano Crano de Bergerac c. He was a great duelist a great nt soldier and a great lover He was fiery quixotic honest and loyal He was curiously ly romantic and Incessantly In Incessantly In- In dramatized himself and tn his hi surroundings 8 often to the exquisite embarrassment of more prosaIc prosaic prosaic pro pro- menSo men So we see Andrew Jackson in th the perspective of a hundred years cars cutting and slashing plashing his way to power a n raucous fellow an explosive heavy heavy- VY- VY handed fellow but withal a man who had a n code and lived up to it He Ile hated and loved and swore with a magnificence beyond all ll American ence But he did not cringe he did 1111 not lint fawn h he l did not carry water on both shoulder When he I lost lost and and he lost heavily and nth nth-he he he paid without whimpering He loved a woman and lost her and of all his Innumerable w wounds that hurt worst and lon longest cst Against admiration respect and pity on one mu must t pile up mountains of or crime if It t they ley are to no affection Affection for tor Andrew Jackson I is I im impossible impossible im- im possible to avoid if It one knows his story for let t lethis lethis his enemies say what they will here her was me one American who carried himself with air all an unlettered unlettered un un- un lettered uncouth unskilled in the graces of polite society but none the less a chevalier Ho lie Is 18 almost the only man who has figured In American n public public public pub pub- lic life of ot whom It is that h he might have hae quit the earthly stage with the grace of Cyrano's closing lines lines' When I enter Gods God's house my salutation shall sweep the thc blue threshold with something free tree from creases free from stains which I shall carry arry In spite of all of ot you you you-my my Although this biographer writes of events ent and personages of a hundred years ears ago in lu the light of present political and economic conditions In Inthe Inthe inthe the nation the career of Andrew Andrw Jackson us itS he suggests has a severely practical significance to today a If If we believe belle that history repeats Itself and that great events occur In hr c cycles cles as some one believe they the do then It 01 may a. a b be no idle prophecy that If Jacksons Jackson's spiritual heir hell should appear now there Is every reason to believe bellve America Amelica of the Twentieth century would hail him as rapturously rapturously rap rap- and follow him ns as' blindly as rs It hailed and followed the hero of a n hundred years ears n ago o. o Is there somewhere ill hl time the Unit United d' d States still in obscurity perhaps perhaps hut but no greater obscurity than that which once veiled Andrew Jackson Jackson n a hero of the people not of the lie intelligentsia whom the United States will send to the WhiteHouse White While WhiteHouse House because Americans have ha always 8 loved a a really masterful man Who knows but ll that the United States in this year ear 1128 1025 is on the eve of a- a great a change as It was in 1828 when the frontlet frontier democracy put one oue of its own kind lInd In the White WhiteHouse House urd that another type of democracy mill mar arise to give gh-e us a new newS conception of a n n for tor the people by the people and of tho the p people |