LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON
In the year 1765 an Irish workman of Scotch blood, and of the name
of Jackson, made up his mind that the grind of poverty in his native
land was too great for endurance. So, with infinite labor, he scraped
together a little store of gold; and with his wife and two children
he took ship for the colonies of America of which he had heard such
glowing tales.
George III had been five years king of England, and the French war
which gave Canada to the British had just ended when the little family
of Jacksons landed at Charleston in South Carolina. Having no money
with which to purchase land, they set out with some others for the
interior. Here, one hundred and fifty miles from civilization, and in
the midst of a wilderness of dark pines, a little clearing was made
near Waxhaw Creek, a log cabin erected, and a home established in the
new land.
But the clearing bore only one small crop. Then the head of the house
sickened and died; the widow was left with fear in her heart as to the
future of herself and her two children. However, after the burial,
she drove across the border into North Carolina, where her sister had
established a home; and there in a log house, only a few days after her
arrival, was born Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the republic,
and one of its greatest soldiers.
This was on March 15, 1767. About a month afterward Mrs. Jackson
with her children set out for the home of her brother-in-law, named
Crawford, who lived some distance away. Her sister, Crawford’s wife,
was an invalid; and for ten years Mrs. Jackson lived with them as a
sort of housekeeper.
In this frontier home Andrew Jackson grew up into a rather ungainly,
rough, hot-tempered boy. Among his comrades he was something of a
bully. It has been long said of such boys that they are usually
cowards; but in Andrew’s case this was not true, for there was no
more resolute spirit on the border than his, even at that early day.
Andrew’s mother had some thought of making a minister of him; at any
rate he was sent to the little log schoolhouse, and was taught to read;
his handwriting was wretched and during the whole course of his life he
never learned to spell.
During the boyhood of Jackson great questions were on the verge of
settlement; the colonies revolted and England set about crushing them
under the weight of her trained regiments. During the boy’s ninth year
the Declaration of Independence was signed; and in a little while
Marion, known on the border as “the Swamp Fox,” Sumpter, known as
“the Game Cock,” and other heroes of the wilderness were up in arms
and stemming the tide of the red-coated aggression. Amidst the Tory
outrages, the assaults of the ferocious dragoons of Tarleton, Hugh
Jackson, Andrew’s elder brother, took up his rifle and joined the
defenders. He met his death in the fight at Stono.
The old log church was used as an hospital, and Mrs. Jackson was among
the women who nursed the wounded Americans. Not long afterward the
terrible Tarleton and his men made a rush at Waxhaw; at another time
the army under Cornwallis attacked the same place, and the settlers
fled from his fury. Six months later the Jacksons returned to the
ravaged section. Andrew was now fourteen, tall and thin and seething
with the desire to take part in the fighting going on all around him.
His first chance was when, as one of the guard of a place attacked by
the Tories, he helped to beat them off. Dragoons arrived in time to
save the Tories, and among the captured were Andrew and his brother.
It was while he was with the British that Jackson was slashed by a
sword in the hands of an officer whose boots he had refused to blacken.
Afterward, wan and wasted by neglect and disease, the two boys were
exchanged. From this experience the brother died; but the stronger
constitution of Andrew carried him through and he recovered. Mrs.
Jackson then heard that her nephews were suffering in the British
prison pens at Charleston; she hurried to their aid, but was attacked
by the fever and died.
Andrew Jackson was now alone in the world, and without a penny. After
the war he turned his little stock of learning to good account. He
became a backwoods schoolmaster. Then he studied law, worked in a
country store, and afterward opened a law office at Nashville in
Tennessee. During all of this period Jackson was acquiring a reputation
as the wildest and most daring spirit on the frontier; the hot temper
of his boyhood had cooled not a jot; he was always ready for any deed
of hardihood, and the rough spirits of the border learned to fear his
anger.
His marriage, from unusual circumstances attending its contraction,
was one which promised many sorrows; but as a matter of fact proved a
very happy one. Jackson was sent to Congress from Tennessee, and was
afterward made senator. Later he resigned and returned to Nashville.
Here at different times he practiced law, kept a store, and farmed. It
was at this period that he was made commander of the state militia, and
subdued the Creeks. Afterward he became head of the army of the United
States in the southwest, and drove back the British at New Orleans.
After defeating the Seminole Indians in Florida, and performing other
services of great value to the country, Jackson began a political
career full of tumult; he was the most loved and most hated man of
his time. He was elected President of the United States in the year
1828, and again four years later. Then he retired to the quiet of the
“Hermitage,” near Nashville, as his home was called, and spent the
remainder of his life in peace. He died June 8, 1845.
The Stories in this Series are:
IN KENTUCKY WITH DANIEL BOONE
IN THE ROCKIES WITH KIT CARSON
IN TEXAS WITH DAVY CROCKETT
ON THE BORDER WITH ANDREW JACKSON
JOHN T. McINTYRE
[Illustration]
Mr. McIntyre was born in Philadelphia. At six years of age he was sent
to St. Michael’s Parochial School in that city, and says he considered
his education finished when he left it four years later to begin the
earning of a living. He was employed as a boy at a great many things,
and admits he was very bad at all of them. One of his later jobs was
clerk in a secondhand bookstore, where he acquired an overwhelming love
for history and also became acquainted with all the masters of English
literature. His chief ambition as a boy was to read more than anyone he
knew, and he says, “I think I won this race by a million laps.”
He began to write when he was about twenty and he found the way to be
rougher than he imagined. Finally he began to get stories into the
newspapers, then into the magazines, and at last, in 1902, published
his first novel, “The Ragged Edge.” His first book for boys, “Fighting
King George,” was published in 1905, and since then thousands of boys
have learned to look for a new “McIntyre book” every year. His most
popular series, “The Young Continentals,” was begun in 1909. Mr.
McIntyre has also written a great many plays, a number of which have
been produced professionally, and some novels, including the well-known
“Ashton-Kirk” series. His books for boys are:
The Young Continentals at Lexington
The Young Continentals at Bunker Hill
The Young Continentals at Trenton
The Young Continentals at Monmouth
The Boy Tars of 1812
Fighting King George
The Street Singer
With John Paul Jones
In the Rockies with Kit Carson
In Kentucky with Daniel Boone
In Texas with Davy Crockett
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.