General Andrew Jackson was born on the 15th of March, 1767, at the
Waxsaw settlement, in South Carolina. His parents emigrated to this
country, two years previously, from the north of Ireland. He lost his
father at a very early age; and the task of bringing him up devolved
exclusively upon his mother. Intending him, it is said, to become a
clergyman, she resolved, though restricted in her pecuniary
circumstances, to give him a liberal education. For this purpose, she
placed him at an academy, where he continued until his studies were
interrupted by the advance of the British troops into the
neighborhood, during the revolutionary war. Young as he was (scarcely
14 years of age), in company with an elder brother, he joined the
American army. Before long, however, they had the misfortune of being
made prisoners by the enemy, who maltreated them as rebels, and
inflicted upon them injuries of which the brother died after having
been exchanged. Andrew Jackson commenced the study of the law at
Salisbury, in North Carolina, in the winter of 1784, and was admitted
to the bar in 1786. In 1788, he removed to Nashville, then a new
settlement in the western district of North Carolina. This district
having been ceded to the United States, and organized into a territory
in 1790, he was appointed to the office of United States’ attorney;
and when the territory, in its turn, in 1796 became the state of
Tennessee, he was a member of the convention to frame a constitution
for it, and took a conspicuous part in the proceedings of this body.
He was immediately afterwards chosen a representative, and in the next
year a senator, in Congress. But his seat in the Senate he held only
for a single session, alleging, as a reason for resigning it, his
distaste for the intrigues of politics. On this, he was appointed by
the Legislature of Tennessee to be a judge of the Supreme Court of
that state; an office which he accepted with reluctance, and from
which he soon retired to his farm on the Cumberland river, near
Nashville. And there he continued to reside till the breaking out of
the war with Great Britain, in 1812. During the earlier part of his
residence in Tennessee, General Jackson had repeatedly distinguished
himself by his prowess, in the warfare carried on by the settlers with
their Indian neighbors, and had even earned from the latter, by his
exploits, the appellations of ‘Sharp Knife’ and ‘Pointed Arrow.’ That
after attaining to a prominent position in civil life, he should be
selected by his fellow-citizens to occupy a corresponding military
rank among them, was therefore almost a matter of course. The war of
1812, accordingly, found him a major-general of one of the divisions
of the Tennessee militia. In the month of November of that year, he
proceeded, by the direction of the government, at the head of a body
of between two and three thousand volunteers, who had assembled on his
invitation, down the Mississippi to Natchez, for the protection of the
country against an apprehended hostile movement on the part of the
Indians. The danger having passed away, he was ordered by the
secretary of war to disband his troops on the spot. This order he did
not hesitate to disobey, on account, as he stated, of many of his men
being sick, and unprovided with the means of paying their expenses on
their way home. They returned accordingly in a body with their
General, whose apology for the course which he pursued was accepted by
the government. In 1813 and 1814, General Jackson was employed against
the Creek and Muscogee Indians, who had invaded the frontier
settlements of Alabama and Georgia, and inflicted on the inhabitants
the usual horrors of savage warfare. After a succession of bloody
victories achieved by him over those tribes, they agreed, by a treaty
concluded in August, 1814, to lay down their arms. In the month of May
of this year, he was appointed a major-general in the service of the
United States; and having first seized upon the town of Pensacola, in
consequence of the admission into its harbor, by the Spanish governor,
of a British squadron to refit, he proceeded to take the command of
the forces intended for the defense of New Orleans against the
approaching attack of the enemy. On arriving there on the 1st of
December, he took his measures with the utmost decision and
promptness. Becoming convinced of the expediency of taking precautions
against the treachery of some disaffected individuals, he proposed to
the Legislature of Louisiana, then in session, to suspend the
privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus. Impatient, however, of the
time consumed in deliberating on his proposal, he proclaimed martial
law, thus at once superseding the civil authority by the introduction
of a rigid military police. Towards the enemy he acted with the same
determined energy. Scarcely had the British troops effected a landing,
when he marched against them, and by unexpectedly assailing them, in
the night of the 22d of December, gained some advantages; the most
important of which was that for which this movement of the General was
chiefly made, namely, the impression produced upon his followers of
their own ability to perform successfully the part assigned to them,
at least while commanded by him, as well as that communicated to the
invaders, of the formidable character of the opposition which they
were destined to encounter. The contest for the possession of New
Orleans was brought to a close by the memorable battle of the 8th of
January, 1815, which raised the reputation of the American commander
to the highest pitch among his countrymen, and served as a
satisfactory apology with many for the strong measures adopted by him
before the landing of the enemy, as well as for others which he
adopted immediately after the retreat of the latter. General Jackson’s
next public employment was the conduct of the war against the Seminole
Indians, in 1818. With a force composed of Tennessee volunteers and
Georgia militia, he penetrated into Florida to the retreats of the
savages and fugitive slaves who had joined them, and set fire to their
villages. He likewise took possession, without hesitation, of several
of the Spanish posts in that region, whence the Indians had been
supplied with arms and ammunition, and executed two Englishmen who had
been actively engaged in this trade. The posts were restored by the
orders of the government; but an attempt in the House of
Representatives in Congress to inflict a censure upon General Jackson,
for the irregularity of his proceedings, was defeated, after very
protracted debates, by a considerable majority. When Florida was
transferred by Spain to the United States, he was appointed the first
governor of the new territory (in 1821). He resigned this office, and
returned to his farm near Nashville, in the following year. In 1823,
he was once more chosen to represent the State of Tennessee in the
Senate of the United States, but resigned his seat in that body on
becoming a prominent candidate for the presidency. Of the electoral
votes which were given in the end of the year 1824, he received 99,
Mr. Adams 84, Mr. Crawford 41, and Mr. Clay 37. The election devolved,
by the provisions of the constitution, on the members of the House of
Representatives in Congress, voting by states, and Mr. Adams was
selected to be the president. In 1828, and again in 1832, General
Jackson was chosen to fill that high office; in the former instance,
by 178 of the electoral votes to 83 given in favor of Mr. Adams; and,
in the latter, by a majority of 170 electoral votes above his
opponent, Mr. Clay. He survived his presidency somewhat more than 8
years, dying at his residence, the ‘Hermitage,’ near Nashville, on the
8th of June, 1845. Though enfeebled in body, he retained his mental
faculties, apparently undiminished, till the day of his death. ‘The
violence of political strife,’ as is remarked by a writer in the
American Almanac for 1846, ‘will long confuse men’s judgment of his
character and abilities as a whole; but will accord to him the praise
of great firmness, energy, decision, and disinterestedness,――of
remarkable military skill, and ardent patriotism.’
[Illustration: GEN. SCOTT.]