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Andrew Jackson, Tennessee 
 and the Union 
 
 A PAPER 
 
 By albert V. GOODPASTURE 
 
 >,.. ill- e.X 
 
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 Read before the Tennessee Historical Society 
 Tuesday, June ii, 1895 
 
 NASHVILLE, TENN. 
 BRANDON PRINTING COMPANY 
 
 1895 
 
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 3lJa'03 
 
 ^K:^^ 
 
ANDREW JACKSON, TENNESSEE 
 AND THE UNION. 
 
 I couple the name of Jacksou with the title of 
 this paper, because around him crystallized the 
 peculiar political tenets held by the Tennesseans 
 of his day. I do not hold that he moulded the 
 sentiment of Tennessee. On the contrary, I believe 
 the conditions that obtained in her settlement gave 
 a common direction to the political opinions of the 
 people of the State, and that Andrew Jackson, who 
 was a born leader of men, was the recognized expo- 
 nent only of those sentiments which were common 
 to his countrymen. 
 
 The first settlers of Tennessee were practicall}^ 
 cut off from communication with the older settle- 
 ments of the country. The great mountains lay 
 between them and the mother State, on the east: 
 the South was still in the possession of their savage 
 enemies ; the far West was but an unexplored 
 French province ; and the neighboring North was 
 3^et the "dark and bloody ground" where "death 
 was in almost every bush, and every thicket con- 
 cealed an ambuscade." 
 
 In this isolated condition, for nearly a quarter of 
 a century, her undaunted sons defended alone her 
 
4 ANDRKW JACKvSON, 
 
 scattered settlements against the assaults of a pow- 
 erful savage foe, aided and encouraged, as they 
 were, by the emissaries of both Spain and Great 
 Britain. 
 
 I venture the assertion that no other settlements, 
 however remote, within the territorial limits of any 
 State of the Union, were ever suffered to defend 
 alone so unequal a war — sometimes threatening 
 the very existence of the settlements, and a merci- 
 less extermination of their people — for so long a 
 period, without once receiving armed assistance 
 from their mother State. Not only did they defend 
 their own settlements, but in the most critical 
 period of the Revolution, they won for themselves 
 imperishable fame, in the service of the Union, 
 east of the mountains. Utterly impotent to grant 
 any relief to these settlements in the beginning, 
 North Carolina appears to have been criminally 
 indifferent to their necessities after the exigencies 
 of the revolution had passed and left her more able 
 to provide for their safety. 
 
 It can hardly be said that Tennessee fared better 
 in this respect, as a Territory of the United States, 
 from 1789 to 1796. 
 
 After North Carolina had freed herself of a 
 responsibility she had never met, by ceding her 
 western settlements to the United States, no federal 
 troops ever marched to its defense, even in its most 
 dire extremity. The battles of the Northwest 
 were fought by the national go\-ernment, and the 
 story of its settlement is linked with the names of 
 
TENNESSEE AND THE UNION. 5 
 
 the great commanders who were sent to defend it. 
 The only Territory of the United States that has 
 ever been denied the protection of federal arms was 
 this cast-away child of North Carolina. Not only 
 did its brave pioneers fight its battles alone, but 
 they were misunderstood and chided by the federal 
 government when they were forced, in their neces- 
 sary defense, to pursue the enemy into his own 
 country and administer to him the chastisement 
 his merciless cruelties so richh^ merited. 
 
 This absolute and complete self-reliance, while it 
 made the tragic story of her settlement more touch- 
 ing and more heroic than that of any other State 
 of the Union, produced in the first settlers of Ten- 
 nessee a singularly bold, hardy and patriotic people. 
 They were, in the main, either pioneers or soldiers ; 
 that indomitable race of men who planted civiliza- 
 tion in the wilderness — the heroes of the axe and 
 the rifle — or the patriotic officers and soldiers who 
 constituted the continental line of North Carolina 
 in the revolutionary war. 
 
 But Tennessee received a curious compensation 
 from North Carolina for the painful neglect she 
 had suffered. It proved, indeed, a rich heritage. 
 With a bankrupted treasury and an impoverished 
 people, it was the policy of North Carolina to con- 
 stitute her western territory a fund to reward the 
 ^' signal bravery and persevering zeal " of her ofiicers 
 and soldiers in the revolutionary war. The Act of 
 Cession provided that the land laid off to the ofiicers 
 and soldiers of her continental line should still 
 
6 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 enure to their benefit ; and if it should prove insuffi- 
 cient to make good the several provisions for them, 
 the deficiency might be supplied out of any other 
 part of the Territory. And so liberally did she 
 compensate her war-worn veterans out of this 
 "fund," that more than 12,000,000 acres of the 
 choice lands of the State were consumed in their 
 pajanent. Not only was the military reservation 
 exhausted, but practicalU' all her other lands sup- 
 posed to be fit for cultivation that had not already 
 been taken up on the occupancy and pre-emption 
 claims of the hardy pioneers, whose rights were 
 equalh^ protected by the Act of Cession, were like- 
 wise consumed in satisfying warrants issued for 
 military services. The result was that the great 
 body of the land in Tennessee was originally 
 granted, either under the occupancy claim of the 
 pioneer settler, or upon the militar}' warrant of the 
 revolutionary soldier.'^' 
 
 Could there be a more favorable foundation for 
 the development of the high degree of martial 
 spirit and patriotic sentiment that has won for 
 Tennessee the proud appellation of "Volunteer 
 State"? 
 
 Tennessee was the first Territory of the United 
 States to be admitted into the Union as a State, and 
 so far as I know, is the onl}^ one to assume that 
 relation with any degree of reluctance. The vote 
 
 * The Memorial of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee 
 to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in 
 Congress assembled — Acts of i<S37-3S, p. 443 ei seq. 
 
TENNEvSSEE AND THE UNION. 7 
 
 of the Territory was, perhaps, two to one in favor 
 of admission, but the expression of those counties 
 bordering on the Cumberland river was nearly five 
 to one against it/" This grew out of the question 
 concerning the free navigation of the Mississippi 
 river. As it appeared to the Cumberland settle- 
 ments, their country was hardly worth the priva- 
 tions, toil and suffering it had cost to win it, if the 
 claim of the Spanish government to the exclusive 
 right to navigate the Mississippi river was to be 
 tolerated. And only less monstrous than the 
 Spanish claim itself was its proposed concession 
 for a period of twenty 3^ears, in the treaty negotiated 
 by Mr. Ja^^ The Mississippi river furnished the 
 only practicable means by which they could reach 
 the markets of the world ; and the possibility of 
 that way being closed, even for a limited time, pro- 
 duced the highest degree of political discontent. 
 Some idea of their sentiments on this subject may 
 be obtained from the constitution adopted in 1796, 
 after the Mississippi river had been opened by the 
 treaty of the preceding year. It declares, " That an 
 equal participation of the free navigation of the 
 Mississippi is one of the inherent rights of the citi- 
 zens of this State ; it can not, therefore, be conceded 
 to au}^ prince, potentate, power, person or persons, 
 whatever." 
 
 The sentiment of Kentucky on this question was 
 not different from that of Tennessee. Two of the 
 
 'See taliulaled vote in Ramsey's History of Tennessee, p. 64S. 
 
8 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 most romantic characters who figured in the earlj- 
 history of Tennessee, whose names and whose fame 
 are inseparately linked together, were John Sevier 
 (i 745-1815) and Isaac Shelby (i 750-1826). Bound 
 together by the closest ties of friendship, they were 
 also united in the patriotic service of their country. 
 Together they had planned the campaign and shared 
 the glorious victory of Kings Mountain. Together, 
 and by name, they were called on b}^ the mother 
 State, to lead their brave followers again across the 
 mountain. And together they received the thanks 
 of North Carolina, for their services to the common 
 cause, at a time when less brave and resourceful 
 men, with even greater means, might well have 
 feared for the safety of their own firesides. Isaac 
 Shelby was appointed one of the commissioners to 
 lay off the land reserved by the State of North 
 Carolina, for the officers and soldiers of her conti- 
 nental line, in 1783, and the work of the commis- 
 sion having been completed, he moved to the State 
 of Kentucky, and was elected the first Governor of 
 that commonwealth . Even Governor Shelby refused 
 to interpose his authority, in 1794, to prevent an 
 armed expedition against New Orleans and the 
 Spanish possessions. 
 
 It may be that the large vote against the applica- 
 tion by the State of Tennessee for admission into 
 the Union, is to be accounted for on the same theory, 
 upon which, some years afterwards, Governor Shelb}' * 
 explained his position — that is, that it was intended 
 to hasten the action of the government in effecting 
 
TENNEvSSEE AND THE UNION. 9 
 
 a treaty for the navigation of the Mississippi river.'--^ 
 If so, their purpose was soon accomplished, as Spain 
 conceded the free navigation of the Mississippi 
 that very year. In the meantime, however, upon 
 this question, as well as upon the ever present 
 Indian problem, which meant their very existence 
 to the people of the Southwestern Territory, the 
 administration of the government under the Feder- 
 alist party, if not positively antagonistic, was cer- 
 tainly very unfavorable to their views. 
 
 But with the admission of the State into the 
 Union, the control of the federal government passed 
 into the hands of the Republican or Democratic 
 party, whose political principles were entirely in 
 accord with the sentiments of the people of Tennes- 
 see. They were prepared, therefore, to support Mr. 
 Madison in the second war with Great Britian ; and 
 at the first sound of the tocsin, Gen. Andrew Jack- 
 son, with 2500 Tennessee volunteers, offered their 
 services to the government. The martial spirit of 
 the heroic old pioneers and soldiers was on fire, and 
 Gen. Jackson but expressed their sentiments when 
 he offered to march, if necessary, "to the line of 
 Canada, and there offer his aid to the army of his 
 country, and endeavor to wipe off the stain to our 
 military character, occasioned by the recent disas- 
 ters." 
 
 The massacre of Fort Minis touched another 
 responsive chord in the hearts of the old pioneers 
 
 * Butler's History of Kentucky (Ed. 1834) page 228. 
 
lO ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 who had suffered so much at the savage hands of 
 their Indian foes. The feeling was expressed by 
 Gov. Sevier, then in Congress, when he wrote : " I 
 hope in God, that, as the rascals have begun, we 
 shall now have it in our power to pay them for the 
 old and for the new." At this juncture the State 
 of Tennessee, upon its own responsibility, made a 
 call for 3500 volunteers, in addition to the 1500 
 men alread}^ enlisted in the service of the United 
 States. 
 
 On the whole, the war of 181 2-15 was the most 
 agreeable event that could have happened to the 
 people of Tennessee. This is a condition worthy 
 of note, as it had an important influence on the 
 conduct of the State and the history of the Union. 
 The first effect was, that the disunion sentiments 
 of the Federalists of New England, that culminated 
 in the celebrated Hartford convention, became the 
 most unpopular and odious that the loyal people of 
 Tennessee could conceive. At this ver}^ time, 
 Willie Blount (1767-183 5) then governor of Ten- 
 nessee, predicted that "that Convention will never 
 act with open doors ; neither will they let the world 
 know any thing of their proceedings'"'' — a singu- 
 larly accurate conclusion. But whatever else it 
 may have done, it performed the funeral obsequies 
 of the old Federalist party. As soon as Gen. Jack- 
 son and his Tennessee volunteers had "wiped off 
 the stain to our militar}^ character" at New Orleans, 
 
 "'•'Manuscript letter in my possession. 
 
TENNESSEE AND THE UNION. n 
 
 which was almost simultaneous with the treaty of 
 peace with Great Britain, the Federalist party was 
 dead. 
 
 The army that enlisted under General Jackson in 
 this war contained the very flower of Tennessee 
 chivalry, and was, beyond doubt, the grandest body 
 of volunteers that ever took the field in America. 
 Their commander became President of the United 
 States, and three'-' others of them were afterwards 
 prominent and worthy aspirants for that distin- 
 guished honor. Of governors and senators and 
 congressmen, the number is absolutely astounding. 
 These men, with many of their neighbors, became 
 scattered over most of the southern and southwest- 
 ern States, where, in the main, they propagated 
 the ideas and sentiments the}^ had imbibed in Ten- 
 nessee, multiplying many fold the influence of that 
 State. The first two Senators from Missouri were 
 Tennesseans. The first Governor, the first two 
 Senators, and the first Congressman from Arkansas ; 
 the liberator of Texas, who was the first President 
 of the Republic, and one of her first United States 
 Senators after she was admitted into the Union ; 
 the first Governor of Louisiana, and the first 
 Governor"!" and one of the first Senators from Cali- 
 fornia, were all Tennesseans. 
 
 Thomas H. Benton (i 782-1858) began the prac- 
 tice of the law at Franklin, Tennessee, and was a 
 
 ■' Hugh L. White, Thomas H. Benton and Sam Houston, 
 t Peter H. Burnett. 
 
12 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 member of the Senate of that State in 1809. He 
 was one of the earliest friends and supporters of 
 General Jackson, having been aide-de-camp on his 
 staff, and also the Colonel of a regiment of Ten- 
 nessee volunteers in the war of 181 2. In 181 5 he 
 moved to the Territory of Missouri, and became one 
 of her first United States Senators when she was 
 admitted into the Union in 1820. His associate in 
 the Senate was David Barton (1785-1S37) who was 
 also a Tennessean. 
 
 In 1828 there was still but one political party in 
 the United States, Jackson, Clay, Crawford and 
 Adams all adhering, nominally, to the Republican 
 or Democratic party. In this situation Mr. Ben- 
 ton, whose wife was a niece of Mrs. Clay, supported 
 Mr. Clay for the presidency. But when the elec- 
 tion was thrown into the House of Representatives 
 he became the ardent supporter of General Jack- 
 son, in which he never wavered or faltered after- 
 wards until the day of his death. Even as late as 
 1856 he supported James Buchanan for the presi- 
 dency against his own son-in-law, John C. Fremont, 
 on the ground of his confidence that if Mr. 
 Buchanan were elected he would restore the prin- 
 ciples of the Jackson administration. 
 
 Sam Houston (i 793-1 863) grew to manhood in 
 Blount County, Tennessee, and in 181 3 enlisted as 
 a volunteer in the service of the United States, was 
 promoted to be an ensign, and distinguished him- 
 self in the battle of Horseshoe Bend, under General 
 Jackson. He began the study of law at Nashville 
 
TENNKSSEE AND THE ITNION. i 3 
 
 in 1818, was elected District Attorney in i8i9,was 
 a Representative in Congress in 1823 and 1825 (^^"^ 
 which position he had the honor of appointing 
 Mathew F. Maury (i 806-1 873), one of his constit- 
 uents, to a cadetship in the National Naval Acad- 
 emy), and was Governor of the State in 1827. ^^^ 
 1829 ^^^ resigned the office of Governor and retired 
 to the great West in the most dramatic manner. 
 In the West he became the great liberator of Texas, 
 the hero of San Jacinto, the first President of the 
 Lone Star Republic, and when she was admitted 
 into the Union in 1847, was one of her first United 
 States Senators. He was always a devoted personal 
 and political friend of General Jackson, whom he 
 saw laid to rest at the Hermitage. He was elected 
 Governor of Texas in 1859, but had his office 
 declared vacant when the State seceded from the 
 Union in 1861. 
 
 Clement C. Clay ( 1 789-1866) grew up in Grainger 
 County, Tennessee, was educated at the old Blount 
 College (University of Tennessee) at Knoxville, 
 studied law under the distinguished statesman and 
 jurist, Hugh L- White, and was admitted to the bar 
 in 1809. In 181 1 he removed to Alabama, and was 
 Chief Justice of the State at the age of thirt}^ years. 
 From 1829 to 1836 he was a Representative in 
 Congress, and was a conspicuous defender of the 
 leading measures of General Jackson's administra- 
 tion. In 1835, "^vben the Democratic party split on 
 the election of Jackson's successor, Clay was elected 
 Governor on the Van Buren ticket, in opposition to 
 
14 ANDREW J ACKvSON, 
 
 the ticket headed by his old friend, Judge White. 
 His opponent was another distinguished Tennes- 
 seean, Enoch Parsons (1776-1846), who, as a mem- 
 ber of the Tennessee Legislature, had drawn and 
 introduced the bill calling for 3500 volunteers for 
 the relief of the Mississippi Territor}-, on the mas- 
 sacre of Fort Minis, in 1S13, and who with others, 
 had endorsed Governor Blount's note for $20,000 to 
 equip them. In 1839 ^^- Clay was elected to the 
 United States Senate, and served to the close of the 
 extra session of 1841, when he resigned on account 
 of ill health. 
 
 What Mr. Hallum calls the reigning famil}' in 
 i\rkansas was composed almost wholly of Tennes- 
 seans. The Conway and Sevier families were 
 among the early pioneers of Tennessee. Thomas 
 Conway was Speaker of the Senate, while John 
 Sevier was Governor of the short lived State of 
 Franklin, while his brother, George Conwa}^, was 
 the first Major General of the Tennessee State 
 Militia, and was the immediate predecessor in that 
 position and intimate personal friend of General 
 Andrew Jackson. 
 
 James Sevier Conwav (i 798-1855), a son of 
 Thomas Conway, went to Arkansas about 1820, 
 and upon the admission of the State into the Union, 
 became her first Governor. 
 
 Ambrose H. Sevier (i 801-1848) was the son of 
 John Sevier and Susan Conway. His father was 
 the only son who survived the distinguished old 
 hero of Point Pleasant and Kings Mountain, Val- 
 
TENNEvSSEE AND THE UNION. 15 
 
 entitle Sevier, whose career closed in so much sad- 
 ness and pathos. He went to Arkansas Math his 
 cousins, the Conways, where he was first clerk and 
 then a member and speaker of Territorial House 
 of Representatives. 
 
 His cousin, Henry W. Conway (1793-1827), a 
 native Tennessean and protege of General Jack- 
 son, who, as a mere boy, had served under him in 
 the war of 181 2, after having been elected in 1823 
 Territorial Delegate from Arkansas to Congress, 
 and re-elected in 1825 and 1827, was killed in a 
 duel with Robert Crittenden, and Mr. Sevier was 
 elected as his successor, a position he continued to 
 hold until the admission of the State into the Union 
 in 1836. 
 
 In that year he was elected one of the first United 
 States Senators from Arkansas, and continued in 
 that office until 1848, when he resigned his seat, 
 and under appointment of President Polk, nego- 
 tiated, in connection with Judge Clifford, the treaty 
 of Gaudaloupe Hidalgo, b}^ which we acquired our 
 vast possessions from Mexico. 
 
 The other Senator elected by the State of Arkan- 
 sas in 1836 was William S. Fulton (i 795-1844). 
 In 181 6, Gov. Fulton went into the law office of 
 the celebrated Tennessee advocate and statesman, 
 Felix Grund}^, and the following year began the 
 practice of his profession in Gallatin. In 181 8 he 
 was appointed Secretary to General Jackson, and 
 served in that capacity during the Seminole war. 
 By appointment of President Jackson, he was Gov- 
 
1 6 ANDREW JACKvSON, 
 
 ernor of the Territory of Arkansas, and upon her 
 admission into the Union was elected one of her 
 first Senators, and held the position until his death 
 in 1844. 
 
 Archibald Yell (i 797-1847) was the first member 
 of Congress from Arkansas. He was a typical 
 Tennessean. As a boy he was a Captain under 
 General Jackson in the Creek war, where he bore 
 himself so gallantly as to attract the attention of 
 his great commander. He also served through the 
 Seminole war. 
 
 He was practicing law in Fa3^etteville, Tennes- 
 see, when, in 1832, President Jackson appointed 
 him a Territorial Judge in Arkansas. He cher- 
 ished an ambition to be the first Governor of the 
 State, but was shut out by a provision of the Con- 
 stitution requiring a four 3^ears' residence to make 
 him eligible. But he was elected her first Repre- 
 sentative in Congress. He declined a re-election 
 to Congress, and was elected Governor in 1840. At 
 the request of the State Democratic Convention in 
 1844, he resigned the ofBce of Governor to enter 
 the contest against Judge Walker for Congress. 
 He was elected, but in 1846 he resigned his seat in 
 Congress to take command of the Arkansas troops 
 in the Mexican war, and fell gallantl}^ leading his 
 men at Buena Vista, closing his career, as he had 
 begun it, in the military service of his country. 
 
 But I can not give even a brief account of all 
 the distinguished statesmen sent out from Tennes- 
 see. Among the Senators I will mention Wni. C. C. 
 
TENNEvSSEE AND THE UNION. 17 
 
 Claiborne (1775-1S17), an old pioneer of Tennes- 
 see, who served with Andrew Jackson in the con- 
 vention that framed the Constitution of the State, 
 and succeeded him as a Representative in Congress 
 when the latter was elected to the Senate. He was 
 the first Governor of the Mississippi Territory, and 
 was elected Governor of Louisiana when that State 
 was admitted into the Union in 181 2, and was one 
 of her United States Senators elect when he died 
 in 181 7. 
 
 Alexander Porter (i 786-1844), a member of the 
 Senate from Louisiana, was a member of the Nash- 
 ville bar, who moved to Louisiana at the urgent 
 solicitation of Andrew Jackson. Alexander Barrow 
 ( 1 801-1846) was a native Tennessean who began 
 the practice of law in Nashville, and afterwards 
 moved to Louisiana, where he was elected to the 
 United States Senate. Robert H. Adams (1792- 
 1830) was one of the most gifted men this country 
 has produced. He was a native of East Tennessee, 
 who moved to Nashville, and thence to Mississippi, 
 where, after attaining the highest eminence in his 
 profession, he was elected to the United States Sen- 
 ate, but died the same year. Stephen Adams 
 (1804-1857) came to Tennessee with his parents 
 when he was three years old, and was a member of 
 the Senate of that State in 1830, and moved to Mis- 
 sissippi in 1834, where, after being a Circuit Judge 
 and member of Congress from the State at large, in 
 1852, he defeated Jefferson Davis for a seat in the 
 United States Senate, made vacant by the resigna- 
 
1 8 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 tion of Henry S. Foote, who was elected Governor 
 that \^ear. He now sleeps in Elmwood Cemetery 
 at Memphis. William McKendree Gwin (1805- 
 1S85) was a native of Sumner Count}', Tennessee, 
 moved to Mississippi, where he was appointed 
 United States Marshal by President Jackson; was 
 elected to Congress ; was appointed to superintend 
 the erection of the Custom House at New Orleans 
 b}^ President Polk; went to California, was a mem- 
 ber of her Constitutional Convention, and when she 
 was admitted to the Union, was one of her first 
 Senators, which position he continued to hold up 
 to the war. 
 
 Among the Congressmen she furnished to her 
 sister States may be mentioned the distinguished 
 soldier, Wm. Barksdale (1821-1863), a native of 
 Rutherford Count}^ ; Judge H. S. Bennett (1807-), 
 who was born in Williamson County; the great 
 criminal law3'er, Reuben Davis (181 3- 1873) ; W. S. 
 Featherstone (182 1-); Wm. M. Gwin, afterwards 
 United States Senator from California; Benj. D. 
 Nabers, and Daniel B. Wright, all of the State of 
 Mississippi. From Alabama there was Geo. S. 
 Houston (1811-1879), a native of Williamson 
 Count}', who was eighteen years a member of the 
 Federal House of Representatives, and chairman, 
 successively, of the Ways and Means and Judi- 
 ciary Committees of that body; Gen. Geo. W. 
 Crabb (-1847), ^ brother of Judge Henry Crabb, 
 of the Supreme Court of Tennessee; Felix G. 
 McConnell (-1846); Sydenham Moore and 
 
TENNESSEK AND THE UNION. 
 
 19 
 
 Alexander White. But I will not pursue the list 
 further."^' 
 
 The old Federalist party having died, as I have 
 said, in 18 15, James Monroe was elected and re- 
 elected President, practically without opposition. 
 In the meantime Jackson began to be spoken of 
 for his successor. But he was not then at the head 
 of any political part}^ All the candidates were 
 professed Republicans or Democrats. Jackson 
 received a plurality of the popular and electoral 
 votes, but was not elected. The House of Repre- 
 sentatives chose John Quincy Adams, and Henrj^ 
 Clay was appointed his Secretary of State. 
 
 At the very beginning of his administration, in 
 his inaugural address, and in his first message to 
 Congress, President Adams manifested his predilec- 
 tions for the old Federalist doctrines. Clay's for- 
 tunes were cast with his. Crawford was an invalid. 
 Andrew Jackson, from that time, became the 
 acknowledged leader of the Democratic party. 
 Thenceforth the old Tennesseans, wherever found, 
 with few exceptions, rallied to his support. There 
 was never a division in Tennessee until 1S36, when 
 the Democratic part}- split on President Jackson's 
 successor. Jackson favored Van Buren, and Hugh 
 L. White, one of the grandest men, take him all in 
 
 * See "Parton's Jackson," "Roosevelt's Bentou," "Bruce's Hous- 
 ton," "Foote's Bench and Bar of the Southwest." "Garrett's Public 
 Men of Alabama," "Lanmau's Dictionary of Congress," ".Sparks' 
 Memories of Fifty Years," "Elmwood Cemetery," and "Halhim's 
 Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas." 
 
20 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 all, this State has ever produced, ran in opposition, 
 and carried the State. The breach was permanent. 
 The State was never again carried by the National 
 Democracy until she developed, in Andrew John- 
 son, another great Democratic leader, second onl}^ 
 to iVndrew Jackson, who utterl}' routed the Whigs 
 in 1854, and opened the way for the victor}^ of 
 Buchanan in 1856. 
 
 In 1829 Jackson was elected President b}-^ an 
 overwhelming majorit}^, and commenced the most 
 important administration this country has ever 
 witnessed, to onl\' one event in which it is ni}" pur- 
 pose to allude. 
 
 I have alread\^ contrasted the lo^^alty of Tennes- 
 see with the disunion sentiments of the Eastern 
 States in 1815. At the threshold of his adminis- 
 tration President Jackson was confronted with sim- 
 ilar conditions in the South. I refer to the doctrine 
 of nullification, of which John C. Calhoun was the 
 great exponent. Calhoun had not broken with the 
 President at this time, and Robert Y. Hayne was 
 one of his most intimate friends and partisan sup- 
 porters. 
 
 But President Jackson was equal to the emer- 
 gency. As earl}' as the 13th of April, 1830, at 
 the Jefferson banquet, he electrified the country 
 with this toast: " Our Federal Union: it must be 
 preserved." And this was the feeling of all his 
 old Tennessee friends who had expressed with 
 him their horror of the disloyalty of the East in 
 1815. 
 
TENNESSEE AND THE UNION. 21 
 
 I do not care to go into the question of nullifica- 
 tion, as it arose in 1832. But we owe it to Jackson 
 and the Tennessee influence that disunion senti- 
 ments, although springing up this time among a 
 class of his own supporters, was again silenced, and 
 the doctrine of nullification forever put to rest. 
 
 I believe I quote the venerable President of our 
 State Historical Society correctly, in substance, in 
 the statement that it was Andrew Jackson who made 
 possible the preservation of the Union in 1861-65. 
 And why may it not be so ? Were not his most 
 devoted followers the warmest friends of the Union ? 
 Where was Thomas H. Benton when the dark 
 clouds began to appear above the political horizon ? 
 After an honorable service of thirty years he lost 
 his seat in the United States Senate ; and when 
 elected to Congress from his own district he was 
 defeated for a re-election, as he was likewise, in 
 1856, defeated for Governor of Missouri on account 
 of his bold, outspoken union sentiments. And he 
 died still proclaiming the same devotion to the 
 Union he was wont to applaud in Andrew 
 Jackson. 
 
 Then, there was Sam Houston, the idol of the 
 State of Texas, who, even at her behest, refused his 
 assent to her separation from the Union. He had 
 been elected Governor in 1859, and when his State 
 seceded he was deposed from his office because he 
 still adhered to the Union. 
 
 When the war came on but two Southern mem- 
 bers kept their seats in the United States Senate. 
 
2 2 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 Tliej^ were both Tennesseans. Wm. K. Sebastian 
 (i8i 2-1864) was born in Hickman Count}^, Ten- 
 nessee, and was educated at Columbia College. He 
 went to Arkansas in 1835, ^'^^^ ^^'^^ elected District 
 Attorne}^, Circuit Judge, Supreme Judge, and in 
 1848 was appointed, and subsequently three times 
 elected, to the United States Senate. He was 
 expelled in 1861, but the act of expulsion was 
 rescinded in 1878. The other was Andrew Johnson 
 (1808-1876), of Tennessee, the disciple of Andrew 
 Jackson, who, in February, 1861, said from his 
 place in the Senate : "I believe that if Andrew 
 Jackson were President of the United States this 
 glorious Union of ours would still be intact. Per- 
 haps it might be jarred a little in some places, but 
 not sufficiently to disturb the harmony and general 
 concord of the whole. That is ni}^ opinion. I do 
 not sa}^ it to disparage others, but I believe that 
 this would have been the case if he had been Pres- 
 ident, pursuing the policy which I feel certain he 
 would have pursued in such an emergenc}^" He 
 was more fortunate than Sebastian, in that his sin- 
 cerit}^ and honesty of purpose were never ques- 
 tioned. He not onl}^ served out his term, but was 
 elected Vice President of the United States while 
 his State was still out of the Union. 
 
 Tennessee herself went out of the Union in 1861, 
 as she went into it in 1796, wath great reluctance. 
 Her leading public men, those who had grown up 
 under the influence that surrounded Andrew Jack- 
 son, such men as Cave Johnson, John Bell and 
 
TENNESvSEE AND THE UNION. 
 
 23 
 
 Andrew Ewing, earnestly opposed secession in 
 i860, and an overwhelming majority of her people 
 voted for the Union when the qnestion was first 
 snbmitted to them in Febrnar}-, 1861, but it was 
 only when war became flagrant, when blood had 
 been shed, when armies were in the field, when 
 there was no other alternative left bnt to fight, 
 either for their own section against the Union, or 
 for the Union against their own section, that they 
 chose the former conrse. 
 
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