The boy who was to be our sev-enth Pres-i-dent did not lead the sort
of life, as boy or man, that the oth-er Pres-i-dents did. He was the son
of a poor I-rish-man who came here from Ire-land in 1765. He was born
on March 15th, 1767, in a small place in South Car-o-li-na, called the
Wax-haw Set-tle-ments. Poor and mean was the log house in which he first
saw the light, and when his fa-ther died, which was when An-drew was a
wee baby, the life of the lit-tle home was hard-er yet. His moth-er was
a brave, good wo-man, and so well did she do her hard part in life that
she was loved by all who knew her, and was known far and near as "Aunt
Bet-ty."
Andrew was a great care to her when a boy, for, full of life and fun, he
did not care for books, and was at the head in all sorts of wild sport.
He was ev-er read-y for a fight with boys who made him an-gry; the small
boys looked to him for help in any strife with boys big-ger than they;
and so strong was he, or read-y to knock a boy down for a real or a
fan-cied wrong, that they soon found it best to give him his own way,
and let him take his place as lead-er a-mong them; when he was at the
head all went well.
He was just nine years old when the Dec-la-ra-tion of In-de-pend-ence
was signed, and then came four years of war with Eng-land. In 1780 this
war was car-ried into the South, and on May 29th a number of Brit-ish
sol-diers un-der Colo-nel Tarle-ton killed and wounded over 200 of the
men and boys from the Wax-haw set-tle-ments. A-mong those who helped
to care for the hurt and dy-ing men were Mrs. Jack-son and her boys.
An-drew was on-ly four-teen when he fell in-to the hands of the
Brit-ish, and he, with o-ver one hun-dred sick and dy-ing men, was kept
for days in a dir-ty pen, with no beds, lit-tle to eat and on-ly stale
wa-ter to drink. To make things worse, small-pox broke out and An-drew
was one of those who had it. His brave moth-er was at last a-ble to free
him, and it was ow-ing to her lov-ing care that he did not die at this
aw-ful time.
[Illustration: ANDREW JACKSON.]
Af-ter he was well e-nough to be left, his moth-er, who was ver-y sor-ry
for the poor A-mer-ican sol-diers, went to Charles-ton to take care of
those who were sick and wound-ed here. Just as she had be-gun her no-ble
work she was ta-ken sick and died.
Soon af-ter her death came the good news of peace; and now young An-drew
be-gan to pay some heed to his books, with the hope of stud-y-ing law.
He al-so taught school for a while, though he could not have been a
ver-y good teach-er, for he nev-er learned how to spell ver-y well
him-self. Still, in 1787, we find he has learned e-nough to take up the
prac-tice of law, and he be-gan this work in Nash-ville, Ten-nes-see;
and now we see the boy who had been the lead-er in boy-ish sports, games
and fights, be-come at once a lead-er a-mong men. He was tall and quite
good look-ing, with bright blue eyes and red-dish hair, and he was
full of fun and life; he rode horse-back well, and knew how to shoot
straight; and a-bove all he was a brave man, a-fraid of noth-ing.
In 1788 he was giv-en a place in which he had to try for the State all
men who had done wrong and it need-ed, in those wild days and in that
new land, a brave man for such a work, for he would make ma-ny foes,
both a-mong the bad white men and the In-di-ans. His work took him from
Nash-ville to Jones-bor-ough, and here the In-di-ans were ver-y strong
and ver-y cru-el, kill-ing and rob-bing the white men and wo-men, and
e-ven the lit-tle ba-bies in their moth-ers' arms. Hear-ing and see-ing
day by day more and more of this sav-age war-fare, al-ways in dan-ger of
be-ing killed by night or day by some In-di-an hid-ing be-hind a tree or
house, Jack-son learned to know the In-di-ans and their hab-its bet-ter
than most men did, so was read-y to fight them in their own way in a
few years.
He made his home in Nash-ville and built up a good law prac-tice. He
grew in pow-er so fast that in 1797 he was sent as the first man from
Ten-nes-see to Con-gress. He went all the way from his home to
Phil-a-del-phi-a, a dis-tance of 800 miles, on horse-back. In 1798 we
see him a-gain at home as Judge of the Su-preme Court, and here he
stayed un-til 1804. Then came four-teen years of peace for the land, and
a hap-py home life for him. A-mong oth-er things which Jack-son did at
this time was to build a large log store in which he kept all sorts of
things which both the white men and the In-di-ans want-ed. His home,
which was called "The Her-mit-age," was a fine house for those days, and
in later years it grew as well known as Mt. Ver-non and Mon-ti-cel-lo.
Jack-son was all through his life a man who would stand up for his own
way, if it led to strife with his best friend, and more than once he
fought du-els to the death. In Con-gress he would, when he rose to
speak, some-times choke with blind rage if he could not make his point
and force men to yield to him.
Af-ter years of peace came the War of 1812, and from that hour
Jack-son's name was first in the minds of men. He showed great skill in
his fights with the red men, and won much fame in a fierce fight with
the Creeks, a bad tribe of In-di-ans in Al-a-ba-ma.
He could force men to do as he said; the young men of that day looked
up-on him with awe and fear, but rushed to fill his ranks and serve
un-der him.
In 1815 he won the day at New Or-le-ans, and put the Brit-ish troops to
flight with great loss of life. At the end of the war, back home went
Jack-son for the rest of which he stood in sore need; but, in 1818,
strife with the Sem-i-nole In-di-ans in Flor-i-da came up, and Jack-son
was sent there.
At this time Spain owned Flor-i-da, and it was both Span-ish troops and
In-di-an foes that Jack-son had to meet, but he won his way, and at last
made Spain yield her rights in Flor-i-da and sign a peace. In 1823 she
sold Flor-i-da to us for $5,000,000; not such a great sum when we think
what a rich and great place this "Land of Flow-ers" is. Jack-son was
now put at the head of things in Flor-i-da, and the hard-est part of his
work was to keep peace in the bad tribe of Sem-i-nole In-di-ans. With
their chief Os-ce-o-la at their head they would creep out from the woods
and swamps of Flor-i-da, rush on the homes of the white men, and burn
them to the ground, and then dash back to the woods, where they could
safe-ly hide. At the end of four years Jack-son was glad to go home to
the Her-mit-age; here he and his wife led a qui-et life and kept up
ma-ny of the ways of their young days, though now they were quite rich.
Af-ter din-ner, they would sit, one on each side of the great big wood
fire, in the large hall, and smoke their old pipes, with the long
stems, just as they had in their log cab-in of long a-go. But the great
gen-er-al could not live this qui-et life long; in 1823 he was sent
to Con-gress; and here he met with high hon-or. On New Year's Day,
1824, the great men of the day gave him the pock-et tel-e-scope that
Wash-ing-ton had owned; a year from the day on which the Bat-tle of New
Or-le-ans was fought, John Quin-cy Ad-ams gave him a great feast, at
which were men, who held high rank here and in oth-er lands; and on the
day that he was fif-ty-sev-en years old, Pres-i-dent Mon-roe gave him a
gold badge for his brave acts in his fights for his coun-try. In 1828
this rough, but brave and kind, old man, was made pres-i-dent; and now
he stood up for his own way, just as he had in the wars of his land, and
when he was but a boy. His first act was to stop some states in the
South from leav-ing the Un-ion. John C. Cal-houn was at the head of a
band of men, who felt that the North had more rights than the South; had
more than its share of wealth and land; so rose the wish to set up a
rule just for the South. "But," said Jack-son, "if one state goes out
oth-ers will; and our great land will be a ru-in." So he stopped this
plan, just in time.
All the years that Jack-son was pres-i-dent, our great land gained in
strength; new rail-roads were built; and new steam-boats; the land grew
rich year by year.
In 1824 the slaves in Mex-i-co were set free, and Tex-as came in-to the
Un-ion.
On the whole, Jack-son's term was a good one for the land; and so well
did the peo-ple like him, that he is the on-ly pres-i-dent of whom it
has been said that he was bet-ter liked when he went out of of-fice
than when he went in.
The last years of his life were spent at "The Her-mit-age," where he
died on June 8th, 1845.