E 382 .W75 : ^^^^^^^^^^^^^H • ^^^^^^^^^^^^^H LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDDD5Dfl31Sl %*^^*'\^'^ ^<>,*"*'^^\'?,'^^ %.*^v^-'%o'^ "V'*"?^ H O. ,^^' .---^ ^. ^0 .*j.:nL'* *> %"• "^^ A^ *'^ o \<> \n '0-^ rAQf ^^°^ xP-7!, o ^ Cp. ^9'' .aV-^. 'o ..^ ^vP ANDREW JACKSON AN ADDRESS Delivered on the Plains of Chalmette, New Orleans, La., on January 8, 1915 AT THE Centennial Celebration OF THE Battle of New Orleans Held Under the Auspices of the Louisiana Historical Society -BY- SAMUEL M. WILSON OF Lexington, Kentucky COMPUIMENTS OF SAMUEL M. WILSON TRUST COMPANY BUILDING LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY. GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON Miniature Portrait on Ivory, by George Augustus Baker, N. A. ANDREW JACKSON AN ADDRESS Samuel M. Wilson Lexington, Kentucky PRESS Westerfield-Bonte Co. louisville. ky. Gift ANDREW JACKSON. Mr. Chairman, United Daughters and Sons of the Revo- lution and of the War of 1812, Veterans and Descend- ants of Veterans of all our Wars, Venerable Sur- vivors of the Washington Artillery, Members of the Louisiana Historical Society, Citizens of Neiv Or- leans and Guests of tJiis Occasion, Ladies and Gen- tlemen: From the time of the so-called Spanish Conspiracy, which had for its central object the maintenance of un- fettered intercourse between the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and their navigable water-ways, and which ro- mantic plot cast both a glamour and a gloom over the early history of Kentucky, down to this good day, the people of that proud commonwealth have ever gazed with wistful and longing eyes down the long-winding course of the Mississippi to this Imperial Gateway of the Republic, magnificent New Orleans, the zenith city of the Gulf. To a Kentucldan, no higher compliment, surely, could be paid than to be given an opportunity, on this memor- able anniversary, and on this historic field, within sight of the majestic Father of Waters, and under the shadow of this splendid monument, to speak in commemoration of the mighty commander and the valiant forces who so successfully contested this ground with their British foes a century ago. One and all, I hasten to thank you for tlie high privilege which is mine at this hour. In spite of the hasty and undeserved reflection, cast at the time npon a portion of the Kentucky troops, who took part in that decisive conflict, the world has come to know and acknowledge that the Kentucky Volunteers on this field were no less fearless, steadfast and heroic than their comrades from Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisi- ana, to say nothing of the hardy sea-faring soldiers of for- tune under Lafitte, the smuggler Sea-King of Barataria. No time, therefore, need be spent in vindicating the "Hunters of Kentucky" from the charge of ''inglorious flight," which, in the first flush of inflamed passion, with an incomplete knowledge of the facts and under a griev- ous misapprehension, was flung at them by tlie Command- iTXg General, in his first report of the battle. To the en- during credit of the lion-hearted and magnanimous chief- tain, be it said, that, in time, he himself was made to re- alize and openly confess the grave error and injustice which had been done. ''This," says Colonel Colyar, "is about the only thing General" Jackson ever took back. ' ' For this honorable amends, you will permit me, here and now, to record my unfeigned gratification. It is gratifying not to me alone but to all who prize the good name of my native State, and the reputation for grit and courage earned by her valiant sons on a thousand battlefields. Amends any less complete, whole-hearted and honorable than were finally made by General Jackson, could hardly have been pleasing to the compatriots of Clay, Shelby, Johnson and Adair. And yet, aware as I am of a certain trepidation in- spired by this large and distinguished audience, by the sacred soil on which we are gathered and the immortal memories which throng about ns, I can better understand and make allowances for the symptoms of panic, into which the raw recruits from Kentucky were betrayed, as they stood at bay, in a strange and almost defenseless position, on yonder side of the Great River, and grimly faced the onset, in awe-inspiring numbers, of seasoned British veterans, fresh from the ensanguined fields of war-torn Europe. It would ill become me, on this occasion and within the brief time-limit at my disposal, to attempt a full- length, life-size portrait of Andrew^ Jackson, or a chron- ological account of his career. The life and achievements of a man, whose life was so full of achievements, and so pervasive and potent in its influence, can not even super- ficially be compassed within the space of half an hour, and thankless, indeed, would be the task should I essay to perform it. Born in the Waxhaw District, on the border of the Carolinas, on the 15th day of March, 1767, and dying at his historic home, the ''Hermitage," near the city of Nashville, on the 8tli of June, 1845, there was comprehended within the seventy-eight years, which filled the gap between these dates, more of human endeavor, more of human interest and more of human accomplish- ment than is commonly vouchsafed to the lot of mortal man and more, by far, than could be condensed into a talk suited to this place and occasion. I may take time, however, to remind you that he was the first representative in Congress from Tennessee, upon its admission into the Union on June 1, 1796, and it was during liis short term of service in Congress, at this time, that he formed the acquaintance and friendship of Edward Livingston, one of the most accomplished men of his time, then a Congressman from New York, and afterwards a leading public citizen of your own State of Louisiana. This attachment was ardent and life-long, and remained unbroken for a period of fifty years. I take time to say further that, in my opinion, there was no man in America, who, during General Jackson's public career, exerted a more important or more beneficent in- fluence upon his mind and upon his public and private life, than did this distinguished statesman and adopted but devoted son of Louisiana. While high honors in the civil service of his State and of the Nation came to him with surprising frequency, often from unexpected sources and nearly always un- sought, he seems, in the early years of his maidiood, to have put comparatively little store by these honors. His predominant tastes and talents were unmistakably mili- tary, yet, until the outbreak of the War of 1S12, there was no real outlet for Jackson's military ardor, no real opportunity for his military genius to assert itself. So inconspicuous, apparently, had become his simj^le life, in the primitive wilds of Tennessee, that the statement must pass unchallenged that at the age of forty-five he had commenced no career. The outbreak of the second war with England, however, furnished the long-deferred op- portunity and offered him an arena upon which to make a brilliant and effective display of his superior gifts as a military officer. Hardly had the declaration of war been made, on the 18th of June, 1812, before Jackson volunteered his serv- ices to the National Government and offered to raise a force of 2,500 Tennesseeans, to be placed at the imme- diate disposal of the Department of War. His prompt and patriotic offer was eagerly accepted and he and his men were ordered to move toward New Orleans. No sooner said than done. But, on the arrival of Jackson and his hardy volunteers at Natchez, their appointed rendezvous on the Mississippi, the Government concluded that there would be little or no need of American troops for either defense or conquest, in this vicinity, and the order was recalled. One can better imagine than de- scribe the bitter disappointment suffered by J ackson and his followers, in consequence of this change of plan. Yet, despite the fact that he was forced to lead his men back to their Tennessee homes, his conduct upon this fruitless campaign was such as to win the lasting attachment and regard of every single one of his comrades-in-arms. Fortunately for his future, however, it was not long before the need of the South for XJi'otection, not only against the British red-coats, but also of stern, repres- sive measures against the dreaded "Bed Sticks" of Ala- bama, Georgia and the Mississippi Territory, became plainly apparent. The massacre at Fort Mims, at the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, in the late summer of 1813, when only five or six of the 553 per- sons in the Fort escaped slaughter, furnished the long- coveted occasion for an exhibition of Jackson's extra- ordinary capacity and vigor as a victorious commander 8 in the field. Rallying a large force, he swept through the country, infested by the hostile Creeks, with a vigor and velocity which defy description. This Creek cam- paign lasted only seven months and, considered merely as an Indian War, it was not of transcendent importance, but, nevertheless, it stamped Jackson as a pre-eminent soldier, it marked the beginning of his fame and popu- larity, and, from it, date his subsequent prestige and power. His crushing defeat of the Creeks at Tohopeka or the Horse Shoe Bend has been called a "tactical mas- ter-piece" and the outcome of this desperate battle was second in importance only to the overthrow of Paken- liam's army here at New Orleans. "A¥ithin a few days," he observed to his brave array of citizen soldiers, at the close of the war, "you have annihilated the power of a nation, that for twenty years has been the disturber of your peace." In the month of May, 1814, he was appointed a Major General in the army of the United States to succeed Wil- liam Henry Harrison, wdio had resigned, shortly after his decisive victory at the Thames, and w^as given command of the Seventh Military District, constituting the Depart- ment of the South. In August and September, 1814, he established his headquarters at Mobile, in what was then known as West Florida. He naturally wanted to attack the enemy wherever he might find him, and fiercely re- sented the fact that Spain, nominally a neutral, and at that time the sovereign of Florida, should allow Eng- land to use Florida, or any of its ports, as a base of opera- tions. Hence, in Jackson's view. Mobile must be held, 9 and Pensacola, captured or destroyed. To perceive how effectually this was done, one needs but turn to the thrill- ing story of Jackson's first Florida campaign. Still adhering to his aggressive programme, with sys- tematic and relentless perseverance, Jackson, on the 2d of December, reached New Orleans, where he instinctively expected the next blow to fall. Everything in New Or- leans was apparently in consternation and chaos. There were no arms or supplies, and no adequate preparations for defense had been begun, much less completed. His old friend, Edward Livingston, a leader of the New Orleans bar, whose allegiance had been transferred from his native State of New York to the new commonwealth of Louisiana, was, in this emergency, of invaluable aid to him. But these able and pa- triotic Americans were not the only ones who, under the pressure of the grave crisis, demonstrated their loyalty and zeal in the cause of America. Of the men able to bear arms in New^ Orleans in 1814 and 1815, says a recent historian of your State, there were only about three hun- dred of Anglo-Saxon race, out of a total population of about eighteen thousand souls. I should consider myself remiss if I let the oppor- tunity pass without paying tribute to the admirable and exemplary behavior of the Louisianians of French origin who, at this supreme crisis, rallied to the defense of the American colors. It is but simple justice to say that these men were every whit as patriotic and as loyal to the Union as were the men of Tennessee and Kentucky. 10 Jackson's able chief of engineers, Latonr, lias de- scribed for us, in vivid and impressive terms, his inex- haustible and resistless energy, and its wholesome effect upon all who came within the circle of his influence. The energy manifested by General Jackson, says Latour, '' spread, as it were, by contagion, and communicated it- self to the whole army. There v>"as nothing which those who composed it did not feel themselves capable of per- forming, if he ordered it to be done. It was enough if he expressed a wish or threw out the slightest intimation and immediately a crowd of volunteers offered them- selves to carry his views into execution. ' ' Such was the man, imperious, impetuous, masterful, and passionate, the very incarnation of the buoyant, aggressive and in- domitable spirit of the early West. The most important of the preliminary engagements, which foreshadowed the decisive action of the 8th of Jan- uary, was the battle of Villere's plantation, which oc- curred on the night of December 23d. Give me leave, in passing, to say that the Seventh United States Infantry, which took a leading part in this important battle, was composed almost exclusively of Kentuckians, and, with pleasure, I add, that their commander, in this decisive affair, was Major Peire, of Louisiana. General John Watts de Peyster, one of the ablest mili- tary critics our country has produced, has left upon record the opinion that General Jackson really saved New Orleans by his night attack of December 23d, be- cause this daring slap on the face made the British over- rate Jackson's strength. Instead of forcing the fighting, 11 tliey became overcautious afterwards, and thereby time was gained, which, to Jackson, short of men and without defenses, was of yjriceless vahie. Doctor Fortier, in his well-written history, has also said: "The battle of December 23d, was very impor- tant, and Jackson's impetuosity probably saved New Or- leans, which might not have resisted a sudden attack." "Never was there a bolder conception," declares Judge Alexander Walker, "never was there one which indicated greater courage and resolution. Here was a master-stroke of a native military genius." The same view is also expressed by George Eobert Gleig, author of "The Subaltern in America," and by Captain John Watts, both of the British army, and both participants in the New Orleans campaign. The truth is that Jackson, without knowing it, was enforcing the pregnant maxim of Napoleon, that an inferior force should never wait to be attacked, and, to his sturdy ad- versary, he fearlessly applied the principle that, in war- fare, he who dallies or hesitates is lost. On the 4th of January, 1815, the long-delayed Ken- tucky militia, twenty-two hundred and fifty strong, un- der the command of Brigadier-General John Adair (Gen- eral Thomas having been incapacitated by illness), reached New Orleans, but, through no fault of theirs, these men came only partially provided with arms and amnnmition. Out of this reinforcement, only about a thousand were found sufficiently equipped or could hastily be armed for service, and these were marched at once to the firing-line, on the plains of Chalmette. The 12 '1- Kentuckians whom Jackson denounced for tlieir inglori ous flight, and who, as Parton has it, by this one act of hasty injustice, were thenceforth immortalized, were posted across the river under General David B. Morgan, but, all told, did not exceed one hundred and seventy in number, and they were not placed in position across the river until early on the morning of January 8th, on the verv eve of the fateful battle. Opposed to General ]yl or- gan and his ill-assorted, undisciplined and untried militia, was a strong British force under Colonel Thornton, who, Brady and Buell both declare, was the ablest English soldier present. Out-numbered, out-manoeuvred, and overmatched, the Americans under Patterson and ^lor- gan were soon forced to abandon their ill-chosen and untenable position. At dawn on Sunday, January 8tli, the solid colmnns of the British army advanced toward the American line for a grand assault. Once well within range, the Amer- icans opened upon them with a deadly fire of cannon and musketrv, and the execution of the riflemen, conceded be- hind the breastworks, which extended almost straight across these plains from the river on the west to the swamps on the east, was so terrific, the havoc so frightful, as to compel the attacking columns to re- tire. Again, and yet again, did the veteran regi- ments of the British army return to the attack, but all in vain. In less than an hour, they were com- pletelv overwhelmed, and retired in disorder, leaving more than two thousand in dead, wounded, and prisoners on the field. The rattle of musketry and the booming of H X m CO > H H r O z o r > C/2 13 cannon across this hard-fought field had ceased by half- past eight in the morning, and naught denoting conflict was to be heard save the groans and outcries of the wounded and dying. The British fought with the great- est bravery, says Fortier, but had been met with equal bravery by men who were defending their country, and who displayed that wonderful skill in handling fire-arms, for which Americans, especially the pioneers and fron- tiersmen, have always been noted. The total loss of the British, on both sides of the river, was 2,036, or, in the final aggregate, possibly a thousand more, while that of the Americans, at the highest estimate, was only seventy- one! According to the British returns, the grand total of their killed and wounded was 3,326. Fourteen thou- sand British veterans had been repulsed by five thousand American volunteers; Jackson's "backwoods rabble" had beaten the best of Europe's regulars. Such another victor}^, so cheaply bought, is not recorded in the war- time annals of civilized man. The discomfiture and rout of the British, on this side of the river, were, to a degree, counter-balanced and jeopardized, however, by the repulse suffered by the American troops on the west bank. For this misadven- ture, Jackson himself must bear part of the blame. ' ' Re- sponsibility for the disaster on the west bank," says Pro- fessor John Spencer Bassett, "rests on Morgan and Patterson, who adopted an impossible line of defense, and on Jackson, who was ignorant of the conditions there, and who failed to send troops enough to hold it." His failure strongly to fortify and hold that point under a com- 14 petent commander, says Brady, "is the one military mistake that he made." But through the prompt and judicious handling of the situation by Jackson, with his "swift, intuitive perception of the way to act in emergen- cies," the victory, which so narrowly escaped being turned into a defeat, or merely a drawn battle, barren of results, was made sure. In spite of the seeming misbehavior, under very try- ing and untoward circumstances, of the handful of Ken- tucky soldiers on the far bank of the Mississippi, which excited General Jackson's wrathful displeasure, in a special address to the men of General Morgan's com- mand, delivered shortly after this lost ground had been recovered, as well as in a General Order to the entire body of the American troops, issued two w^eeks after the battle, in praise of their valor, the commander-in-chief did not withhold full credit from those to whom credit was justly due and made full atonement for the unsparing severity of his earlier censure. To the troops defending the opposite bank of the Mis- sissippi, he said : "To what cause was the abandonment of your lines owing? To fear? No! You are the country- men, the friends, the brothers of those wdio have se- cured to themselves, by their courage, the gratitude of their country; who have been prodigal of their blood in its defense, and who are strangers to any other fear than disgrace. * * * How then could brave men, firm in the cause in vv^iich they are en- rolled, neglect their first duty, and abandon the post 15 committed to their care? The want of discipline, the want of order, a total disregard to obedience, and a spirit of insubordination, not less destructive than cowardice itself, are the causes that led to this dis- aster, and they must be eradicated, or I must cease to command. * * * ^he brave man, inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country than the coward wlio deserts her in the hour of danger." To the troops marshalled here and hereabouts, under his own immediate command, he said : "A rampart of high-minded men is a better de- fense than the most regular fortifications. General Adair, who brought up the Kentucky militia, has shown that troops will always be valiant when their leaders are so. No men ever displayed a more gal- lant spirit than these did under that most valuable officer. His country is under obligations to him. ' ' The disastrous outcome of the battle fought here one hundred years ago, was, perhaps, the greatest shock that the pride of Great Britain had ever received, and her mortification was not lessened by the rough chastisement which had been inflicted upon her warships and merchant- men alike by our small but gallant navy on the seas. William Cobbett, an English essayist, better known in America under his pen name of "Peter Porcupine," who, late in life, became a member of Parliament, and one of the numerous biographers of General Jackson, said of the bloody death-grapple on the Plains of Chalmette : 16 ''This battle of New Orleans broke the heart of European despotism. The man who won it, did, in that one act, more for the good and the honor of the human race than was ever done by any other man, ' ' Cyrus Townsend Brady has said: ''The popular idea is that the battle of New Or- leans, having been fought after peace was declared, was a perfectly useless slaughter of no value in de- termining the issue of the war. So far from being a useless slaughter, this battle was the most impor- tant and decisive fought on this continent between Yorktown and Gettysburg, Andrew Jackson contrib- uted to the future of his country in a degree only surpassed by Washington, who founded it, and by Lincoln, who preserved it. For to Andrew Jackson is due the vital fact that the western boundary of the United States is the Pacific, and not the Missis- sippi, ' ' Colonel Augustus C, Buell, in his unrivaled "History of Andrew Jackson," was the first to demonstrate this momentous fact. As he has conclusively shown, the staggering blow dealt the British here made the Treaty of Ghent a reality. It saved Louisiana and set the seal of permanence and inviolability upon Jefferson's pur- chase of that vast imperial domain. Throughout the Union, the victory of New Orleans was the cause of boundless delight, more especially be- cause the news of it reached the country at large at just about the same time as the news of peace, and there was 17 no fear for the future to mar the exultation inspired by this signal triumph. For his countrymen, the victor had won "something dearer than anything set forth in trea- ties." He had revived and invigorated the national self- respect. It is not hard, therefore, to understand how, forgetting its failures and its disappointments, Ameri- cans all dare speak of the War of 1812, with complacency and pride ; for, effacing every trace of previous disaster and blotting out the forlorn hopes and dark forebodings of that ominous January morning, when it seemed as if this "fair Creole city" was already in Pakenham's grasp, there rises resplendent before his admiring countrymen the thin tall figure of a grim-visaged horse- man, standing beside an embrasure of the Chalmette breastworks and peering out beneath the uplifted veil of mingled smoke and fog over the ghastly heaps of British dead- — a vision of defeat and of victory not to be sur- passed even by that of Wellington at Waterloo ! Jackson, from the beginning, had been the soul of the defense in the southwest, and to his energy, intrepidity and perseverance success was due. In the short space of fifteen months, between September, 1813, and January, 1815, he had passed, says Professor Sumner, "from the status of an obscure Tennessee planter to that of the most distinguished and popular man in the country. ' ' In spite of the heavy fine imposed upon him by Judge Hall, for his alleged contempt of the Federal Court of this District, to which oppressive penalty, with rare dig- nity and a most commendable law-abiding deference, 18 Jackson obediently submitted, New Orleans has shown itself neither ungrateful for Jackson's timely and ines- timable services, nor unmindful of his crowning success. You need not, of course, be told of the solemn service of thanksgiving and praise held in the ancient Saint Louis Cathedral, just two weeks after the battle, and the crown- ing there of the returning conqueror with a wreath of laurel, "the prize of victory, the symbol of immortality," as the venerable prelate. Abbe Dubourg, described it. In Jackson Square and in the magnificent equestrian statue, which adorns its central spaces, quite as much as in the hearts of the people of this mighty metropolis, have the sons of Louisiana recorded their profound ad- miration and their abiding love for the pre-eminent hero of our second War for Independence. Of a truth, may it be affirmed of him, in the language of a worthy divine of this wondrous city, whose greatness and glory will be forever associated with his name — "His epitaph is his country's history, his cenotaph, the hearts of his coun- trymen. ' ' "Jackson," says Mr. Eoosevelt, in his Naval War of 1812, "is certainly by all odds the most prominent figure that appears during this war, and he stands head and shoulders above any other commander, either American or British, that it produced. It will be difficult, in all history, to show a parallel to the feat that he performed. Moreover, it must be remem- bered that Jackson's success was in nowise due either to chance or to the errors of his adversary. Of course, Jackson owed much to the nature of the PLAN OF THE ATTACK AND DEFENCE OF THE AMERICAxN LINES Below New Orleans, on the 8th January, 1815. B) MAJOR A. lACAKlilEKE LATOl R, principal Knu-inwr III. Militar) Dislricl, U. S. Army. ISl.J. 19 ground on wliicli he fought, but the opportunity it afforded woukl have been useless in the hands of any General less ready, hardy and skillful than 'Old Hickory.' The American soldiers deserve great credit for doing so well, but greater credit still be- longs to Andrew Jackson, who, with his cool head and clear eye, his stout heart and strong hand, stands out in history as the ablest General the United States produced from the outbreak of the Revolution down to the beginning of the great rebellion." Jackson's Seminole Campaign, in 1817-1818, lasted only five months, but in that brief space of time he had broken the Indian power, established peace on the trou- bled border, and practically conquered Florida. This five months and the eighteen months of service from 1813 to 1815, is all the actual warfare ho ever saw. The Seminole War was, in itself, one of the least significant of our Indian campaigns, but in its relations and effects, it was, like the Creek War before it, one of the most im- portant and far-reaching events in our history. For Jackson, it made certain and permanent, the reputation and influence he had acquired by his successes against the British here at New Orleans. To Jackson, above all others, belongs the credit of bringing Spain to terms and to him we owe the ultimate acquisition of the Floridas. Abstract and argumentative claims of his government w^ere by him translated into action and he gained, in con- sequence, a high place among the heroes of American ex- pansion. 20 By a not uncommon course of development, the Hero of New Orleans, passed, in a short while, from the field of war to the field of national politics. Given a plurality of both the popular and electoral vote for the Presidency, in 1824, but defeated, in the House of Representatives,' by John Quincy Adams, Jackson, in 1828, turned the tables and was elected President, defeating Adams by an unprecedented majority, and was re-elected for a second term in 1832, defeating Henry Clay by a like spectacular majority. But little can be said, in the time that remains, re- specting his political record. Public questions of the most vital importance were before the country during both his first and second administrations. On all of these questions Jackson's views were clearly defined and em- phatically expressed. He was not always right, but there is no doubt that he always believed himself right, in the views he entertained and, for the most part, carried into execution. Yet respecting the quality of his statesman- ship, no less a person than John Fiske has said : "While he was not versed in the history and phi- losophy of government, it is far from correct to say that there was nothing of the statesman about him. On the contrary, it may be maintained that in nearly all of his most important acts, except those that dealt with the civil service, Jackson was right." The outstanding events of his two terms were those involving the Tariff, Nullification and the Bank of the United States. Second in importance only to these were the reshaping of our Foreign Relations, Segregation of 21 tlie Indians, and devising constitutional ways and means for promoting Internal Improvements. Someone lias said that we might as well expect to free ourselves from the pressure of the atmosphere as to abolish the money power. Some kind of a National Bank- ing System is indispensable, and this fact was recognized and admitted by Jackson, but impartial investigation and later historical criticism have done much to produce the conviction that, in his attitude towards the Bank of the United States, and in his dealings with that institution, Jackson was essentially right. The National Bank of 1832 had unquestionably become a menace. The "Tariff of Abominations" of 1828 was displaced by the Compromise Tariff of 1832, which was a significant, though only partial, victory for the Democratic theory that tariffs should be framed primarily for revenue and only secondarily and incidentally, and always within rea- sonable limits, for protection. The country can never thank Jackson enough for the firm and effective manner in which he faced and quelled the rising spirit of disunion concealed in the Nullifica- tion proceedings of his native State of South Carolina.* Today, at the distance of a century from the Battle of New Orleans, and of a full half century from Lee's sur- render at Appomattox, we can all join with Jackson, in his memorable toast, given at a public dinner in the city of AVashington, in 1830 : "The Federal Union — it must and shall be pre- served ! ' ' *See Appendix. 22 This sentiment, thank God, is virtually unanimous to- day, but when Jackson first uttered it, it took more than ordinary independence, nerve and courage, for a South- ern man frankly to avow such a thought. With the lapse of time, we have come more and more to understand that the purpose of those who framed the Federal Constitution was to restrain and regulate, rather than to establish or extend, democracy. Whether, in its origin, it contemplated merely a loose league or con- federation or an indissoluble union of States, it was pre- eminently a system of checks and balances, guarding, on the one hand, against the perils of populistic predomi- nance quite as much as, on the other, against the evils of centralized power. While Jackson was always firm and unswerving in his fidelity to the Union, he was also a consistent advocate of individual liberty, and a stalwart champion of the reserved rights of the States. In the practical administration of affairs, he came as near to harmonizing Federal sovereignty with States' Eights, as it was possible to do, during the gen- eration in which he lived. Jackson was the living em- bodiment, the veritable incarnation and personification of the spirit of genuine democracy. With him, the rule of the people was not a mere abstract theory or specious dogma, with which to decoy the imagination or to amuse the voters at election time, but was a living, breathing, vital truth, to be carried into every-day practice; and, however misdirected at times, the end and aim of all his efforts was to confirm to his fellow-countrymen the es- sential democracy of the constitution. 23 With Chief Justice Marshall on the Supreme Bench, breathing the breath of life into the Constitution, and moulding and shaping the Federal system, organized thereunder, into a compact, coherent and self-sustaining whole, it was most fortunate that there should have been at the helm of the government, as Chief Executive of the Nation, a man of Jackson's calibre, with his centrifugal temperament and tendencies, for each thereby furnished an indispensable and salutary balance-wheel to the other. The divergence between the two men was in nothing more strikingly exhibited than in their discordant dealings with the memorable clash between the Cherokee Nation and the State of Georgia. For once the authority of the Supreme Court was flouted. "John Marshall," said Jackson, in a remark which one can scarcely regard as apocryphal, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" Yet how plainly were these giants of one mind in the portentous collision with South Caro- lina, that superlative crisis of the ante-helium South! Under no other administration has the country ever been favored with State papers of greater weiglit or im- portance, or more vigorously phrased, than during the administrations of this towering Titan of Tennessee. The fact is well known that the composition of these papers, was seldom, or never, directly traceable to the President, but while the language, or phraseology, may oftentimes have been that of another, the thoughts and principles and spirit were invariably and unmistakably those of Jackson himself. If time sufficed, it would give me in- finite pleasure to read from these public utterances of 24 General Jackson, to illustrate liis character as a states- man, his animating impulses as a man, his predominant traits as a typical exponent and exemplar of democracy, but that must be left for greater leisure than the pres- ent occasion affords. In common acceptation, Jefferson and Jackson are frequently joined as the leading representatives and ex- positors of democracy, but judged by the modern align- ment of political parties and the progressive spirit of democracy now prevalent, Jackson may fairly be re- garded as more nearly the arch-type and founder of pres- ent-day democracy and the party organized and domi- nant in the United States under that name, than his illus- trious forerunner, Thomas Jefferson. It is not, perhaps, too much to say that Jacksonian Democracy, as it came to be known, was a plant of enduring growth, and tliat it still survives and flourishes among us. And, saying it with all reverence, may we not voice the hope that the leaves of this century plant may yet prove to be "for the healing of the nations." If the dead are cognizant of Avhat concerns the living, it can not but gladden the soul of the mighty warrior, who triumphed on this field, to know that this Centennial of his great victory is cele- brated under a Democratic administration and that we have today as true a democrat as Jackson himself, on duty in the White House. This celebration of a notable victory by one branch of the Anglo-American race over another, is also the occa- sion for the commemoration of a century of peace which, ever since the noise of battle on this field died away, has 25 been maintained unbroken between the United States and the British Empire. Nearly a decade has passed since a profound student of American history declared — "If there be an American ideal of the relations of this coun- try with the outer world, it is that of peace, founded on mutual understanding and mutual respect." Jackson himself, in his First Annual Message to Congress, used these weighty words : "With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace and war, we may look forward to years of peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition. Everything in the condition and history of the two nations is cal- culated to inspire sentiments of mutual respect and to carry conviction to the minds of both that it is their policy to preserve the most cordial relations." When one speaks of the hundred years of peace be- tween the United States and the British Empire, he, of course, does not mean that this has been a century of un- clouded serenity or unruflfled brotherly love. It is not too much to say that more than once have the two countries been on the very verge of war, and there have been times not a few, as in the Oregon controversy and the Trent affair, when an open rupture of amicable relations was averted by little more than a hair's breadth. The Treaty of Ghent, which signalized the close of the War of 1812, is important as marking the commencement and, in a large sense, as constituting the foundation of the hundred years of peace which thenceforward ensued. 26 At the end of the century, the two facts next in impor- tance to the Treaty itself are, first, the fact that somehow or other the United States and Great Britain have man- aged to adjust their differences by negotiation, arbitra- tion and diplomacy instead of by resort to the arbitra- ment of war; and, secondly, the concrete, incontestable and crowning fact that two great nations of the world, two world-powers, if you please, touching each other at many points of contact and coming into close and con- stantly-increasing competition, have actually maintained peaceful relations with each other for a full hundred years. Concerning the more important celebration of this century of peace which, in common with all here assem- bled, I pray may be renewed with each recurring century, I take leave to remind you how its value and significance have been emphasized by leading public men of Great Britain. On this subject, The Right Honourable Viscount Bryce, (whom we are tempted still to call plain Mr. Bryce), has spoken both feelingly and to the point. In September last, he said: "To those who are saddened by the calamities which the year 1914 has brought upon Europe, it is a consoling thought that the century of peace which has raised the English-speaking peoples from forty millions to one hundred and sixty millions, has created among those peoples a sense of kindliness and good will which was never seen before, and which 27 is the surest pledge of their future prosperity and progress as well as of the maintenance of a perpetual friendship between them. ' ' ''One of the surest guaranties of peace," adds the distinguished author of the ''American Common- wealth," "has been the fact that neither of these great nations has ever questioned the sanctity of treaties, or denied that States are bound by the moral law. ' ' In recent years, another British statesman, Mr. Bal- four, giving implied approval to the Monroe Doctrino, has said : ' ' The time may come — nay, the time must come — when some statesman of authority, more fortunate even than President Monroe, will lay down the doc- trine that between English-speaking peoples war is impossible." A little more than a year ago, at the celebration at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, of tlie Centennial of Perry's superb vic- tory on Lake Erie, Doctor James A. Macdonald, of Toronto, a foremost representative of the intelligent thought and temper of our Canadian brothers on the North, used these impressive words : "In the light of the hundred years through which we of today read the story of that one battle and of that whole war, the lesson, the supreme and abiding lesson, for the United States and for Canada, is this : the utter futility and inconsequence of war as a 28 means for the just settlement of disputes between these two nations. That lesson we both have learned. That war was our last war. It will remain our last. Never again will the armed troops of the United States and Canada meet, except in friendly review, or, if the day ever comes, to stand side by side and shoulder to shoulder in the Armageddon of the na- tions. Witness these great lakes for nigh a hundred years swept clean of every battleship, and this trans- continental boundary line for four thousand miles un- defended save by the civilized instincts and tlie in- telligent good will of both nations. xVnd having learned that great lesson, having proved its worth through a hundred years, the United States and Can- ada, these two English-speaking peoples of America, have earned the right to stand up and teach the na- tions. International peace and good will is Amer- ica's message to all the world. "That message, spoken by two voices, one from the United States, the other from Canada, is one message. It is America's message that on this con- tinent, between two proud peoples, the barbarism of brute force has long yielded to civilized internation- alism. It is the assurance that Canada's national standing on this conlinent binds the British Empire and the American Republic in one world-spanning, English-speaking fraternity. On all continents and on all seas, the power of America is the combined power of the United States and Canada, plus the power of Britain and of the British dominions in the 29 South Atlantic and beyond the Pacific. These all are bound together, each with all the others, for the maintenance of that principle of nationhood — any people that desires to be free and is fit to be free ought to be free and must be free. That principle means peace and freedom in the English-speaking world. "At this place, and on this day, our deepest con- cern is not with the wars of the past, but with the peace of the future; not with the triumphs or the defeats of yesterday, but with the responsibilities and obligations of tomorrow; not with the glory that either Nation achieved a hundred years ago, but with the message which both nations, speaking in the name of our common North American civilization, shall give to the world through the hundred years to come." These pledges of the past are sure auguries for the future, and, rejoicing as we do today, that, under Divine Providence, the War of 1812, on the land as well as upon the sea, should have ended in a blaze of military glory for our beloved country, we may, none the less heartily, felicitate ourselves that the glories of that mighty con- flict marked the commencement of a millennium of un- broken peace among all English-speaking nations, and let us hope among all peoples and kindreds and tongues of the earth who, like the English and their American cousins, have learned the secret and mastered the prob- lem of self-government. 30 ''Sovereignty," said the mighty Bismarck, "can only be a unit and it must remain a unit — the sovereignty of law, ' ' Rightly interpreted, the sovereignty of the people means the sovereignty of the law. When the law is regnant, the people reign. It was not so much for mere selfish independence, but for this priceless boon, the right of local self-government, for popular sovereignty, under enlightened rules of law, that the War of the Rev- olution was fought; and toward this ultimate goal of progressive democracy and of Anglo-American civiliza- tion, every subsequent war of our history has inevitably tended. To that highest consummation, the establishment and perpetuation of government by discussion rather than of "government by convulsion," Andrew Jackson, a "man of blood and iron" excelling any German prince, con- tributed as much, or more, than any other American dur- ing the hundred years just ended. Whatever difference of opinion there may be as to his treatment of domestic affairs, no other President ever enforced a more vigor- ous foreign policy, and the key to it all, in Jackson's own words, was this — "It is my settled purpose to ask noth- ing that is not clearly right and to submit to nothing that is wrong." He it was who first inaugurated "shirt- sleeve" diplomacy, as distinguished from "dollar diplo- macy" or the diplomacy of deceit, and this downright, straightforw^ard, and outspoken mode of dealing with in- ternational relations, has, with but few lapses, served our country acceptably for well on to a century. Patriotism in its highest purity and perfection was, with Jackson, a na- tural endowment. From the day, in early boyhood, when he resented the insult of a domineering British soldier, nntil that day, at the Hermitage, three-score years later, when he affixed his signature to his last will, ''there is ab- solutely no reason to believe that Andrew Jackson ever looked upon an enemy of his country otherwise than as his own mortal foe." "I thank God," said the veteran soldier and statesman most truly and touchingly, in his Farewell Address, "that my life has been spent in a land of liberty and that He has given me a heart to love my country wit li the affection of a son. ' ' Greatness is primarily a matter of character but the world measures it usually by results. By both tests Gen- eral Jackson was undeniably one of the very greatest of our great men. Yet, in any just appraisement of his career and achievements, we may not overlook how deeply he was indebted to men like Coffee, Carroll, Claiborne, Crockett and Houston, his dauntless lieutenants on the field of battle, and to men like Livingston, Lewis, Eaton, Grundy, Barry, Blair and Benton, his inval- uable aides and loyal supporters in tlie legislative, diplomatic, and cabinet contests with which his path- way in politics was continually beset. Bearing in mind this outside aid and how far it went to insure success and to fortify his fame, I should be loath to close without attempting, through the medium of two or three impartial and discriminating tributes, to set be- fore you some luminous glimpses of his extraordinary character and the secret of his enduring renown. 32 "General Jackson," says President Wilson, from whose History of the American People I take these short, deft strokes, "had been bred by the rongh pro- cesses of the frontier; had been his own schoolmaster and tutor; had made himself a lawyer by putting his untaught sagacity and sense of right to the test in the actual conduct of suits in court, as he had made himself a soldier by taking the field in command of frontier volunteers as unschooled as himself in dis- cipline and tactics. There was no touch of the char- latan or the demagogue about idm. The action of his mind was as direct, as sincere, as unsophisti- cated as the action of the mind of an ingenuous child, though it exhibited also the sustained inten- sity and the range of the mature man. * * * It had needed such a striking personality as this to bring parties to a head. They took form rapidly enough when he came upon the .field. The men of the masses had becom-e the stuff of politics. These men Jackson really represented, albeit witli a touch of the knight and chivalrous man of honor about him, which common men do not have; and the people knew it; felt that an aristocratic order was upset, and that they themselves had at last come to their own. It was a second democratization of the govern- ment. * * * With all the intensity of his nature. General Jackson wished for the welfare of the country, the advancement of the Union, the success and permanency of its government; with all the ter- rible force of his will he purposed to secure botli the one and the other. No doubt he had shown contempt for law, as Mr. Jefferson said, when he was upon the frontier, hampered by treaties and instructions ; but his ideals were not those of the law-breaker. They were those of the ardent patriot." "Autocrat as he was," says Parton, "Andrew Jackson loved the people, the common people, the sons and daughters of toil, as truly as they loved him, and believed in them as they believed in him. He was in accord with his generation. He had a clear perception tliat the toiling millions are not a class in the community, but are the community. He knew and felt that government should exist only for the benefit of the governed; that the strong are strong only as they may aid the weak; that the rich are rightfully rich only that they may so combine and direct the labor of the poor as to make labor more profitable to the L'lborer." Thomas Hart Benton, his life-time friend and unfail- ing champion, has said : "The character of his mind was that of judg- ment, with a rapid and almost intuitive perception, followed by an instant and decisive action, * * * It was the nature of Andrew Jackson to finish what- ever he undertook. He went for a clean victory or a clean defeat." "No man in private life," says George Bancroft, "so possessed the hearts of all around him; no pub- 34 lie man of tliis century ever returned to private life with such an abiding mastery over the affections of the people. No man with truer instinct received American ideas ; no man expressed them so com- pletely, or so boldly, or so sincerely. * * * jj^g. tory does not describe the man that equaled him in firmness of nerve. Not danger, not an army in bat- tle array, not wounds, not widespread clamor, not age, not the anguish of disease, could impair in the least degree the vigor of his steadfast mind. The heroes of antiquity would have contemplated with awe the unmatched hardihood of his character; and Napoleon, had he possessed his disinterested will, could never have been vanquished. ' ' From the pages of a painstaking and appreciative study by Professor William Garrott Brown, I have ex- tracted and leave with you this deliberate and final esti- mate : "The longest inquiry," says Professor Brown, "will not discover another American of his time who had in such ample measure the gifts of courage and will. Many had fewer faults, many superior talents, but none so great a spirit. He was the man wlio had his way. He was the American whose simple virtues his countrymen most clearly imderstood, whose tres- passes they most readily forgave ; and, until Amer- icans are altogether changed, many, like the Demo- crats of the 'twenties and 'thirties, will still vote for Jackson — for the poor boy who fought his way, step by step, to the highest station; for the soklier who always went to meet the enemy at the gate ; for the President who never shirked a responsibility; for the man who would not think evil of a woman, or speak harshly to a child. Education, and training in state- craft, would have saved him many errors; culture might have softened the fierceness of his nature. But untrained, uncultivated, imperfect as he was, not one of his great contemporaries had so good a right to stand for American character." ANDREW JACKSON Engraved from a Miniature Painted in New Orleans, Immediately after the Battle of New Orleans, by Jean Francois Valle, under Jackson's Orders. The Fac-simile of the Note that went with it to Edward Livingston, Explains Itself. ^€ /. .^ L> Y-*^, JL<.^t^ o-H^^ APPENDIX. BIRTHPLACE OF ANDREW JACKSON, In the New Orleans Times-Picayune, of Monday, January 11, 1915, there was published the following item: JACKSON BIRTHPLACE IN NORTH CAROLINA. Bennehan Cameron Corrects Gentleman From Kentucky on Important Point. At the international banquet Saturday night, Bennehan Cam- eron, scion of the distinguished Cameron family of North Carolina, who was sent by the Legislature to represent the Tar Heel State at the celebration of the centenaiy celebration of the battle of New Orleans, said he had been sent to bear the greetings of his native State and to thank the people of Louisiana for the honor they were doing to the memory of her distinguished son, the hero of New Orleans. He said when he attended the beautiful ceremonies at Chalmette he was chagrined to hear the eloquent orator from Kentucky ascribe the birthplace of Jackson to another State, and he added: "In spite of the mistake of the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky, we North Carolinians will still claim the great Jackson as one of her sons. He was born at Waxhaw in North Carolina, and was there nurtured through his youth till he be- came a practicing attorney at Salisbury. Later he migrated to the West, took a few law books, some thoroughbred horses and a pack of hounds. Some of his horses he placed with my grand- father to be raised on shares. They were by Sir Archie, the head of the horse family in America. This was the foundation of the Hermitage stud." At the Richmond peace conference last winter, said the speaker, it was agreed that each State should mark the centenary of peace by some memorial. It was at first thought that Jackson should be placed in bronze at the capitol at Raleigh, as he had made possi- ble the century of peace. But later it was considered that this would be invidious, when Great Britain was arranging to place -the statue of Washington in Westminster Abbey and was endow- ing Sulgrave Manor to be the Mecca of American visitors. So North Carolina selected "that brave soldier and sailor, that splen- did statesman and diplomat, that brilliant courtier and colonizer. Sir Walter Raleigh, whose colony at Roanoke Island was the first to set foot on the American continent, twenty-two years prior to the permanent settlement at Jamestown and thirty-six years be- fore Plymouth Rock." The speaker said he had seen at Fulham Palace in London the order in the handwriting of Queen Elizabeth ordering and directing the Bishop of London to assume jurisdic- tion of the church at Roanoke Island. 38 He said every school boy in North Carolina knew that State had given three Presidents to the American republic through her "lusty young daughter," Tennessee — Jackson, Polk and Johnson. Subsequent to the appearance of the foregoing item there was published, in one of the local papers of Raleigh, N. C, what purports to have been the response of Colonel Bennehan Cameron to the toast, "North Carolina — Happy the State that Gave Birth to Such a Man," on the programme of the Centennial Peace Banquet given at the Hotel Grunewald, in New Orleans, on the evening of January 9, 1915, under the auspices of the Louisiana Historical Society. This article in the Raleigh paper is an amplification of the interview given to the Times- Picayune and published, as above seated, in its issue of January 11, 1915. When the address on Andrew Jackson was delivered by the writer on the Chalmette Battlefield and casual allusion was made by him to Jackson's "native State of South Carolina," nothing could have been farther from his thoughts than the purpose of causing chagrin or of provoking a controversy with any one. Moreover, the fact that any one had suffered chagrin was unknown to him until the item in the Times-Picayune appeared. On account of the lateness of the hour, several of the later speeches on the banquet programme, including the response intended to be made by Mr. Cameron to the toast, "North Carolina," were canceled and, consequently, the statement attributed to Mr. Cameron in the New Orleans interview and the toast published at Raleigh were neither of them addressed openly to the assembled banqueters. Hence the first direct accusation of the alleged faux pas which reached the writer came through the medium of the newspapers mentioned. Having no disposition to give causeless offense and being anxious always to avoid mistakes in matters historical, the writer may be par- doned for uttering a word in his own defense. It will be observed that Mr. Camei^on disposes of the alleged "mis- take" by mere naked claim and bald assertion. Without citing the slightest proof or a single authority, he confidently asserts that the Hero of New Orleans was born in North Carolina, and, all proof to the contrary notwithstanding, will continue to be claimed by that great State as one of her sons. All who have given any study to the life or career of General Jackson know that, as is not unusual in the case of great men, the precise place of his bii-th is and has long been a matter of dispute. The champions respectively of North and South Carolina have waged a prolonged war of words over this much-mooted question. Conscious of these rival claims and of the sharp contradiction between them, the language used in the address delivered at Chalmette on the Centennial Anniversary was somewhat guarded. The words of that address were that Jackson was bom "in the Waxhaw District, on the border of the Carolinas," without saying on which side of the border. Later, how- 31) ever, in referring to the prompt and effectual quietus he put upon Nullification in South Carolina, it was spoken of as "his native State." Jackson himself so spoke of it in his celebrated Proclamation of De- cember 10, 1832. This is what he said: "Fellow-citizens of my native State, let me not only admonish you, as the First Magistrate of our common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, but vise the influence that a father would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin." This statement had the widest publicity, for the proclamation was read and discussed at the time from one end of the country to the other. After Jackson had become famous, the question concerning the location of his birthplace was a subject of animated debate. It is not known exactly how or upon what authority the North Carolina con- tention started, but the first mention of it seems to have appeared early in 1815 in the Richmond (Va.) Inquirer. As early as 1820, how- ever, the House of Representatives of South Carolina, in accepting a marble bust of General Jackson, presented to the State Library, de- clared, by a formal legislative act: "We, as Carolinians, have a still more happy reason for gratu- lation that he, whose nativity has been the cause of rivalry for contending States, is acknowledged as our own." So far as is known, the personal statement by Jackson himself as to the State of his nativity was never once contradicted or impeached during his lifetime. There is indisputable evidence that on, at least, seven different occasions he claimed, in writing, that South Cai'olina was his native State. In his last will, dated June 7, 1843, nearly a generation after the Battle of New Orleans was fought, and when the question of nativity would seem to have had ample time to solve itself, he distinctly avows, with all the solemnity attending a testamentaiy paper, that South Carolina was his native State. There is no denying that Jackson himself sincerely believed and repeatedly declared that he was born in South Carolina and, while he lived, little, if any, evidence of moment was developed to the contrary. His bii'thplace, to be sure, was very close to the boundary line between the two Cai'olinas and, when he became a world-figure and his fame was assured, it would seem to have been inevitable that some controversy and rivalry should grow up between these two States as to which was really entitled to claim the distinction of having within its confines the site of his birth. The earlier biographies of Jackson all apparently agree in ac- crediting his birthplace to South Carolina. Not until 1859, fourteen years after Jackson's death, when Parton's Life appeared, does any responsible author appear to have denied that South Carolina was the State of his nativity. Some of the later writers (such, for example, as Lossing) apparently accept at its face value and without investiga- tion the statement of Parton (based largely on the vaguest hearsay 40 and the flimsiest tradition) that Jackson was a native of North Caro- lina, and give to the "Old North State" the credit of his origin. But Cyrus Townsend Brady, one of the latest and most careful and pene- trating students of Jackson's life, particularly of his private and per- sonal history, has given unqualified assent to the fact that, by birth, Andrew Jackson, was a South Carolinian. Brady's book was published in 1906. In the first edition of his "Andrew Jackson," published in 1882, Professor William Graham Sumner does not commit himself on the point, and in the second edition of the same book, which appeared in 1899, this non-committal view is adhered to. Professor Sumner, in both editions, contents himself with this statement: "Parton fixes his birthplace in Union County, N. C; Kendall in South Carolina. In Jackson's Proclamation of 1832, in a letter of December 24, 1830, and in his will, he speaks of himself as a native of South Carolina." Hon. Z. F. Smith, in his "The Battle of New Orleans," Filson Club Publication Number Nineteen, which was published in 1904, and is the leading Kentucky authority on this battle, says: "Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw Settlement on the 15th of March, 1767, so near the border of North and South Carolina as to leave it a question of contention as to which State may claim the honor of his nativity." Colonel Augustus C. Buell, whose splendid "History of Andrew Jackson" was published in 1904, tries to reconcile the conflicting claims by saying that the particular spot where Jackson was born was at one time in South Carolina and at another in North Carolina, thus giving to each State good ground for claiming him as a native son. Colonel A. C. Colyar and Professor William Garrott Brown appar- ently accept Barton's conclusion without question. Hon. James D. Richardson, member of Congress from Tennessee, who edited the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, published in 1896, was, like Smith and Sumner, unwilling to commit himself on this subject and dodged the difficulty by stating that Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw Settlement "in North or South Carolina." Here is one representative Tennesseean who is willing, at least, to admit a doubt on the subject. More recently, in 1909, Francis Newton Thorpe, in his valuable compilation, "The Statesmanship of Andrew Jackson," has adopted Brady's view and the view of all of the earlier biographers, as well as of Jackson himself, and has given South Carolina as his birthplace. Professor John Spencer Bassett, himself a North Carolinian, who published, in 1911, "The Life of Andrew Jackson," one of the latest and best of Jackson biographies, gives careful consideration to the Fac-simile of Section of Copper-plate Map of Lancaster District, South Carolina, Surveyed by J. Boykin, 1820, and Improved for Mills' Atlas, 1825, Showing "Gen'l A. Jackson's Birthplace," One Mile West of North Carolina Line. (Scale Two Miles to the Inch.) 41 question of Jackson's birthplace and, after reviewing the conflicting claims, concludes: "To the writer the weight of evidence seems to favor the South Carolinians." In a foot-note he adds : "Later contention on the opposite side has added little to Parton." To citizens of New Orleans it may be of especial interest to be reminded that Judge Alexander Walker, in his excellent work, "Jackson and New Orleans," published in 1856, freely concedes the claim of South Carolina. George Bancroft, one of the ablest and most accurate of American historians, delivered, on June 27, 1845, in Washington City, a "Funeral Oration on the Death of General Andrew Jackson," in which he said: "South Carolina gave a birthplace to Andrew Jackson. On its remote frontier, far up on the forest-clad banks of the Catawba, in a region where the settlers were just beginning to cluster, his eyes first saw the light." As pointed out by Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., in the able paper pub- lished as an appendix to Brady's Life of Jackson, about 1820, one John Boykin surveyed Lancaster District, under a contract with the State of South Carolina, and in the same year prepared a map of the district from this survey. On that map Mr. Boykin, the surveyor, very distinctly locates "Gen'l. A. Jackson's Birth Place." This map was afterwards engraved for Mill's "Atlas of South Carolina," which was published about 1825. A section of this map of Lancaster District, S. C, showing Jackson's birthplace, is reproduced in fac simile here- with, upon the same scale as the original, i. e., two miles to the inch. Eugene Reilly, a surveyor and engineer of Charleston, S. C, in 1820, delineated a map of South Carolina, which, according to Mr. Sal- ley, very distinctly locates "Gen'l. Jackson's Birthplace" exactly where Boykin and Mills located it. Amos Kendall, of Kentucky, a close, personal and political friend of General Jackson, who was Postmaster- General during Jackson's second term and a member of the so-called "Kitchen Cabinet," published, in 1843, two years before Jackson's death, cei'tain contributions toward a biography of Jackson, which were accompanied by a map. Both the text and map fix the spot of Jackson's birthplace in South Carolina. Under date of July 8, 1827, General Jackson wrote a letter to Mr. Robert Mills, Columbia, S. C, which letter was published, with comments, in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, of Sunday, January 10, 1915. This letter affords cumulative and convincing evidence that the map-makers in ques- tion were correct in locating Jackson's birthplace in South Caro- lina. Robert Mills, the recipient of this letter:, was himself a South Carolinian and a civil or topographical engineer and a friend in youth of General Jackson. He did not die until March 3, 1855, nearly ten 42 years after Jackson himself had passed away. This article further shows (what can be learned from other sources) that "some time in the twenties of the past century, while doing civil engineering work in his native State, Mr. Mills drew a map of the territory in which Andrew Jackson was born and spent his youth. He sent a copy of this sketch to Gen. Jackson and received the following letter in reply." Now, note the contents of Jackson's letter. Among other things, he says: "I have received your favor of the 15th ult., accom- panied with a map of the district of Lancaster, within which I was born. * * * A view of the map, pointing to the spot that gave me birth, brings fresh to my memory many associations dear to my heart. * * * The crossing of Waxhaw Creek, within one tnile of which I was born, is still, however, I see, possessed by Mr. John Crawford, son of the owner (Robert), who lived there when I was growing up and at school. I lived there for many years, and from the accuracy ivith which this spot is marked on the map, I conclude the whole must be correct." Could anything be more explicit, positive and convincing than this? For himself, the writer does not pretend to affirm that it is infal- libly true that Andrew Jackson was born in South Carolina. If the fact, however, be not free from doubt or is not now susceptible of absolute demonstration, yet, as it seems to him, the least that can be said is that the decided preponderance of all the known evidence is in favor of South Carolina as the honored birthplace of the "Hero of New Orleans." Hence, being called upon to make choice in respect to a matter like that here in controversy, it is enough for him that General Jackson always thought, believed and many times declared that he was born in South Carolina, and that there is abundant evi- dence to show that he was right. Most of this evidence has been la- boriously collected by Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., Secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina, and, for those inclined to pursue the subject further, the results of his careful research will be found printed as an appendix to Brady's delightful book, "The True Andrew Jackson." In addition to this, the writer has private information that Mr. Salley has unearthed fresh corroborative evidence to the effect that Jackson was a sure-enough "borderer," born on or very near the State line, but south rather than north of it. These convincing proofs will, at least, relieve the writer from the imputation of having committed a grave and egregious blunder, and he trusts will serve to satisfy Mr. Cameron, and other North Caro- linians who may be like-minded, that in the address at Chalmette he did not speak unadvisedly or at random on this point, nor seek, either consciously oi- inadvertently, to deprive North Carolina of any of her rightful distinctions, much less to give offense to her patriotic and high-minded people, for whom he entertains naught but the highest and most cordial consideration. 43 To all whom the subject may concern, we submit, in conclusion, the timely suggestion offered by Honorable W. O. Hart, the very effi- cient Chairman of the Entertainment Committee of the New Orleans Celebration, "that the four States, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, and, perhaps, Louisiana and Mississippi, should get together and settle this matter once for all." HENRY WATTERSON ON JACKSON. In an editorial, entitled "Twin Perils to Good Government," pub- lished in the Louisville Courier-Journal of Tuesday, January 19, 1915, Honorable Henry Watterson, the Dean of American Journalism, had this to say: The Committee of Arrangements for the customary celebra- tion of the Eighth of January at New Orleans did me the honor to ask me to deliver a centenary address upon the battlefield com- memorative of that event. If anything could lure me away from a resolution not again to obtrude myself upon a popular audience, or to share in any public function, it would have been the oppor- tunity offered by this invitation to unburthen my mind and heart of certain apprehensions which lie heavy upon both. I regretted that I had to decline it. Old Hickory has ever been my hero of heroes. As a child I sat upon his knee and was dandled in his arms. I grew to man- hood within the shadow, or shall I say the radiance, of the Hermi- tage. The Jacksonian principles came to me as a kind of patri- mony. No American has fared so ill at the hands of the professional historians. They have for the most part reflected the partisan bias of the times in which he lived, quite forgetting not only to render justice to his military service, but seeming often to delight in the effort to disfigure his personal character. There is ample testi- mony that in society he was not an uncouth backwoodsman, but a very fine gentleman, and that, after he crossed the line of middle life, he was no longer profane, if he ever had been, but a sincere, consistent Christian, serious and decorous in all things. Thirty years before Lincoln, he held himself firmly ready to do what Lincoln did. He sprang like Lincoln from the lowly and the poor. He was born, indeed, to conditions by comparison with which Lincoln's humblest state might be called prosperous, and in his rise to eminence and power he met and overcame obstacles far greater than any encountered by Lincoln. This is nowise to underestimate Lincoln. Touching our Rep- resentative System of Government, albeit the one called himself a Democrat, the other a Whig, they were in close agreement, nor did either — though Hell stood at the door! — ever yield his convic- tions, or surrender his manhood, or show himself afraid to do his duty as he saw it. I stand reverend and uncovered before the shrine of each and wonder whether the spirit that inspired them, or the lesson of their lives, has made any decisive impression upon contemporary Americans, so many of whom are carried away by novel theories of experimental reform, ranging from the making of woman over into a bad imitation of a man to abolishing the Constitution in order to establish virtue by Act of Congress. 39 w '"^^.J" • • • .V' :vi«' A *' ^^'\ - ^o-n. ^4' 9^ • aV ^■^o-^'^' .*'\ ^^ ^0^ tlvi* A • • » ^W' .*^°" \^/ -M' %^^ :'A' %<>'' ii;:i;:;!Vi";C;: