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Van Santvoord, George
Eulogy of the life, character and services
of Andrev; Jackson ... delivered 1845.
Troy,N.Y.

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1921

EULOGY OF
ANDREW JACKSON

EULOGY

LIFE. CHARACTER AND SERVICES

ANDRENA/ JACKSON

DELIVERED AT LAFAYETTE. INDIANA
JUNE 28. 1845

BY
GEORGE VAN SANTVOORD

TROY TIMES

ART PRESS

TO MY ELDEST SON.
WHO WORTHILY BEARSTHENAMEOF HIS
SCHOLARLY GRANDFATHER

Everyone who reveres the memory of an honored
parent will understand with what genuine emotion I
recently discovered and read for the first time this fine
eulogy of Andrew Jackson delivered by my father
nearly seventy years ago. In the ancient raw-hide
trunk which I had been exploring were letters writ
ten by John Jay, Chief Justice Marshall, George Ban
croft, Martin Van Buren, Chief Justice Taney, Wash
ington Irving, Horatio Seymour, Samuel Nelson,
Rufus W. Peckham and others — many of them of
more than ordinary interest. But the faded yellow
sheets containing this youthful but elevated tribute to
"Old Hickory" — evidently thrown off upon the spur
of the moment, the ex-President scarcely yet cold in
his garden tomb at the Hermitage, and when the
author was at the very threshold of his short but bril
liant career (he was twenty- four years old and had
just been admitted to the bar) — constituted for me the
richest treasure which the old trunk gave up after its
half-century of garret seclusion. In these days when
it is coming about more and more that men refuse to
be satisfied as well with public servants who manifest
strength of character without personal integrity, as
with those who display personal integrity without
strength of character, this eloquent reminder of the
impression which the stern old fighter had made upon
the ingenuous youth of his generation seems to me
well worthy of publication.
SEYMOUR VAN SANTVOORD.
Troy, N. Y., January, 19 14.

ADDRESS

Fellow Citizens: — We meet to do public honor to
the memory of the dead. We bring the oblations of
national gratitude, to lay upon the tomb of the
departed patriot and hero. These solemn notes of
martial music that have just fallen upon our ears —
this concourse of American citizens — and the impos
ing spectacle the day has presented, all bear witness to
the interest which the melancholy event that brings
this assembly together has excited among the whole
American people. A public benefactor of his country,
one who has shed lustre upon the page of our Nation's
history, and whose name will live forever in the annals
of the world, has passed away from the living and is
numbered with the dead. You, citizen-soldiers, have
assembled to do the last military honors to an illustri
ous Chieftain, who had borne the eagles of America
through the shouts of victorious battle. That soldier
now sleeps in honor, and the beat of the mornine drum
will no more awaken him, nor will the rattle of artil
lery disturb him in his silent resting place. You,
members of an ancient and time-honored fraternity,
have met to honor the dead. The mystic emblems of
your order are here displayed, and the waxen taper
burns over the tomb of an illustrious and departed
brother. And you. citizens of America — ^^fellow

8 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
countrymen of Andrew Jackson — have come together
in obedience to a generous impulse, to embalm with
grateful affection his memory, who was all an Ameri
can citizen, and whose heart ever beat with love for
his native land.
The event, though a melancholy one, is not accom
panied with those feelings of painful regret which
follow the premature and untimely departure of the
worthy and the great. He whose virtues we have
met to honor had long since passed the meridian of
manhood. His mission had been fulfilled. His years
were protracted beyond the ordinary period of human
existence. The hand of disease had long passed
heavily upon him, and the snows of nearly four score
winters whitened his forehead. He has been gathered
to the tomb "like a shock of corn fully ripe in its
season," and the long expected announcement has at
length gone forth to the people of this Union, Andrew
Jackson is dead !
As a portion of the American people, we come
together to offer an honest and heartfelt tribute to the
virtues of our illustrious countryman, who has
achieved so much to advance the glory of the Ameri
can name ajt home and abroad, and to honor his mem
ory whose heart always throbbed with an ardent love
of country and a generous devotion to the cause of
human liberty.
It is proper and right to pay this tribute to departed
worth and greatness. It is fitting for a grateful people
to gather around the tomb of the soldier and states-

Eui^GGY OF Andrew Jackson 9
man, to pay their homage to his matchless virtues, and
to show the world that our country at least is not open
to the charge that Republics are ungrateful.
The occasion is a national one. The fame of General
Jackson belongs to his country. Indeed in no other
nation, and under no other form of government,
could such a character as his have been developed and
matured. In a national spirit then, it belongs to us
to pay the last tokens of respect to his virtues.
To him who is a stranger to the spirit of our social
and political institutions, such a scene as this might be
incomprehensible. He might fail to understand the
motive that prompts these funeral honors over the
grave of a plain Republican, possessing but the com
mon privileges, and the exact equality of political rights
with the humblest citizen. Under the aristocratic govern
ments of the old world, when the sovereign dies his sub
jects assemble to pay tribute to his memory. Here the
sovereigns themselves, the people, assemble to honor the
memory of a faithful public servant. When a crowned
head has paid the last debt of nature, he is laid in state
in his palace, and nodding plumes and the stars and
coronets of titled rank accompany him to his last rest
ing place. For him are opened the vaults of his kingly
ancestors, and upon the storied urn his epitaph is writ
ten, "not what he was, but what he should have been."
But to the Republican Statesman and Sage a higher
honor is paid. Without these "outward trappings,
and these signs of woe," he is followed to his humble
resting place with the reverence and unfeigned sorrow

IO Eui^oGY OF Andrew Jackson
of a free people, and no truthless epitaph will be placed
upon his monument, when there shall be engraved
upon it, "Here lies the man who has filled the measure
of his country's glory."
When the remains of Napoleon were carried from
the place of his exile and death, his coffin was received
upon the shores of France with all the pomp and
parade of the most extravagant military and civic
honors, to be placed in the sepulchre of kings, and upon
the soil that contained the ashes of Charlemagne. A
greater than Napoleon has passed away — greater, not
in splendid and gigantic military enterprises; not in
towering ambition, or despotic power; but greater in
the severe simplicity of Republican character, and the
integrity of more than Roman virtue; and without
parade he is consigned to his tomb at the Hermitage.
Napoleon commenced his career a republican, became
the magnificent soldier and despot, and died an
Emperor in exile. Jackson commenced his career a
republican, held fast to his principles and his faith
through life, and died as he had lived, a republican citi
zen. That memorable reply of his to his friend who
had procured for him the costly Sarcophagus of the
Emperor Alexander Severus — so eminently character
istic as it was of the man — serves to illustrate the
stern principles that actuated his life. "It is not
proper nor becoming in me, a plain republican citizen,
that my mortal remains should rest in the coffin of a
Roman Emperor!" Nor was it necessary that it
should be so. Without the aid of storied urn, or

EuivOGY OF Andrew Jackson h
monumental bust, the fame and virtue of Andrew
Jackson will live through coming ages, for his is "one
of the few — the immortal names, that were not born
to die." What matters it to such a man whether he
sleeps in the sepuchre of kings, or beneath the sod of
his native valley, with no monument to point the
stranger to his grave? What matters it to his fame
whether his bones repose beneath the sculptured
marble, or whiten amid the corals of the ocean?
I have remarked that the occasion is a national one,
and the fame of Andrew Jackson belongs not to a
party, but to his country. Whatever feelings of a per
sonal or political character may have existed in the
bosom of any individual present in the time of his life,
they surely now can have no place here since the grave
has closed over his remains. Years since, he passed
from the stage of public duty, and now he has passed
from the stage of life. He has become an historical
reminiscence, and his character is to be judged, not by
the heated prejudices of party, but by impartial his
tory. It is not the province of even the most intoler
ant party spirit to stretch forth a sacriligious hand
within the sacred precincts of the tomb; and I am
proud to say that such is not the practice with the
thinking and sober-minded people of our country.
When one who has done the State service, and has a
claim upon the Nation's gratitude, is no more, party
animosities stop where they should, at the close of
his public career, and all, without distinction, can
unite to do respect to his name and his merory.

12 EutoGY OF Andrew Jackson
It is but a little more than four years since, upon
the steps of the Capitol, in the City of New York, I
witnessed the procession formed to do the last honors
to the memory of the Chief Magistrate of the United
States, the late General Harrison. All classes of men,
without difference of party or creed, united in the im
posing ceremonies of the day. In the front of the pro
cession, in an open carriage, rode the Ex-President of
the United States, the immediate predecessor in office
of the deceased. Six months before, the names of
these two men had been the watchwords of their
respective parties, and a contest had been waged
between them with all the rivalry and emulation of an
exciting political canvas. Now, the successful candi
date, even in the very hour of his elevation — while yet
the laurel was green upon his brow — ^was struck down
by the hand of the destroyer, and he with whom he had
been contending for civic honors was paying the last
tribute of respect to his memory. It was an instructive
lesson. It plainly told that political differences, of
whatsoever character and nature, were out of place at
such a time, and that the right feeling of the people
would always lead them to do honor to the memory
of one who had borne a distinguished part in the pub
lic service of his country, and who had held the high
est station in the gift of a free people.
The present occasion is a proper one on which to
manifest' a spirit like this. It will be the object of the
speaker in discharging the duty imposed upon him to
avoid as far as possible all subjects of a party nature.

Eui^oGY OF Andrew Jackson

13

and to speak of this distinguished man as of an Ameri
can citizen; and of his public career and services as
he would speak of those of the illustrious Washing
ton, or of the sage of Monticello, or of their co-
patriots of an age that is passed. It is true that we
who have been brought up and educated in reverence
and admiration of the name of Andrew Jackson, we,
whose first lesson of history was read from the bril
liant page of his military career, and whose earliest
political reminiscences are identified with his name as
a candidate for the highest office under the Constitu
tion, may both speak and feel too warmly upon a
theme that enlists every sympathy of early as well as
later years. Yet the error, if indeed it be one, will be
an error of the judgment only. Now that General
Jackson is no more, no man need hesitate, before an
assembly of American citizens, to speak his eulogy.
Andrew Jackson was one of the most remarkable
men of the age, or indeed of any age. Whether we
regard him as a soldier or a statesman, in his civil or
military character, as a public or a private citizen, his
is one of those characters that stand out in bold relief
upon the page of history — one of those men the
impress of whose minds is left upon the age in which
they live. Endowed by nature with strong and ardent
feelings, with an unconquerable energy and firmness
of purpose, an indomitable will, a sleepless vigilance,
and a far-reaching sagacity, which fitted him pre
eminently as a military commander, he was also
possessed of that strict devotion to principle, that high-

14 EuEOGY OF Andrew Jackson
souled patriotism, and ardent attachment to republican
institutions which made him as he was, a patriot
soldier, and not a military conqueror, a Cincinnatus,
and not a Caesar. As a statesman he was distinguished
for that same energy and firmness which in his whole
character was a prominent trait, and so eminently
marked the public acts of this great man; and it was
united with a vigorous intellect and a prudent fore
sight in the affairs of government, coupled with the
most unwearied labor in the minutest details of
official duty. Added to this was a feeling of reverence,
and almost of veneration, for the laws and constitution
of the country, and of earnest devotion to the interests
of the people. In practice, as in theory, he was repub
lican, adding to his natural frankness of character the
utmost simplicity of manners. The Nation looked
upon him as emphatically one of the people.
To say that he was faultless would be to say that
he was more than man. But whatever may have been
the failing of so frank and open a nature, and of a
temperament so warm and ardent, certain it is the
splendid endowments of his mind, and the noble
virtues of his heart will not fail to transmit his name
to posterity as one of our best as well as one of our
greatest men. His was a character eminently cal
culated to win the admiration of mankind, as it stands
forth in all its colossal greatness, with its prominent
and strongly marked traits and its open and undis
guised sincerity. His was a mind too that was cal
culated to wield a power and an influence over the

Eulogy of Andrew Jackson 15
minds of other men. He was the friend of humanity —
the people's champion — the advocate of the rights of
man — and his life was devoted to the advancement of
human liberty. Such is the man who for half a cen
tury has devoted the best portion of his years to the
service of his country, and such the man whose loss
the American people are called upon to mourn.
General Jackson was a native of South Carolina.
His parents were from Ireland, that land of enthus
iasm and valor and eloquence, the land of Curran and
Burke, the land of Emmett, who fell a martyr to
liberty in the old world, and of Montgomery, who
died for freedom in the new world, leaving his bones
to bleach upon the walls of Quebec. It was from his
parents — natives of such a land — that he inherited the
feeling of hatted to British intolerance and oppression,
which led him at the early age of fourteen to the camp
of the American army of the revolution. Here com
mences the first service of General Jackson in the cause
of his country. His name stands recorded upon the
muster roll of the revolutionary army. Thirteen
feeble Colonies were maintaining a doubtful struggle
for independence against the most powerful nation on
the Globe. In the army of the confederacy a stripling
of fourteen years of age enlisted as a private soldier.
Who would have ventured to predict in that day of
darkness and doubt that less than half a century should
roll by before those feeble colonies should become a
mighty and prosperous nation, whose ships should
cleave the billows of every sea, and the sails of whose

1 6 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
commerce should catch the breath of every clime, and
that the stripling soldier should become the Chief
Executive officer of the Nation, commanding the
respect and extorting the admiration of the civilized
world ?
General Jackson was admitted to practice at the bar
in North Carolina in 1786. Two years later he
removed into the western part of Tennessee, to pursue
the practice of his profession; subsequently he was
appointed Attorney General of the district, and after
wards assisted in establishing the Constitution of the
State. In 1796 he was elected a representative in
Congress; and the following year, when just thirty
years of age, he was chosen a Senator of the United
States. He resigned his seat in that body after serv
ing one session, immediately after which he was
appointed one of the Supreme Judges of the State of
Tennessee. The rapidity of his elevation to offices of
public honor and trust, shows the high estimate in
which at that early day his talents, his influence and
his worth were held by the people.
The war of 1812 commenced, and found General
Jackson, who was destined to become in that contest
a distinguished actor, a private citizen on his farm
near Nashville. Great Britain by repeated acts of
aggression and outrage had roused the spirit of the
nation to resistance. The pretensions put forth by the
self-styled mistress of the seas, the claim of right to
search our ships, and to impress free born American

Eulogy op Andrew Jackson 17
citizens into the service of a foreign power, were
promptly met and resisted by this government, and a
declaration of war followed.
The distinguished and glorious career of General
Jackson and the prominent part he bore in the events
of the last war are matters of history. To attempt an
enumeration, or even a sketch of them, would be to
give a part of the history of the country. His move
ments as a general, his energetic and decisive enter
prises, and his brilliant successes, even before the vic
tory of New Orleans, have woven for him an imper
ishable chaplet of renown and mark him as one of the
ablest military commanders that the country or the
age has produced. The battles of Talledega, of
Emuchfaw, of Tohopeka, and the movements against
Pensacola, in the Floridas, rank high among the many
glorious and successful achievements of our arms.
But the crowning event of his military career, and the
one of all others which has served to immortalize his
name, was that decisive battle which has given to him
the well-earned epithet of "the hero of New Orleans".
Let us for a moment recur to the scenes of that event
ful period in the history of our Republic.
On the 1st of December, 1814, General Jackson,
then a Major General in the United States Army, took
command at New Orleans. A formidable expedition
of the flower of the British army, under the command
of the most able and skillful generals, had been fitted
out for the capture of the city. The place was com
paratively defenceless, and troops, arms and ammuni-

i8 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
tion had yet to be collected to oppose the invaders.
Added to this he found a disaffected or indifferent
people, and a timid and hesitating legislature. Diffi
culties and obstacles that to another man would have
seemed insurmountable beset him on every side. But
it was then, in the hour of peril, that the mind of Jack
son was best fitted to exhibit its exalted qualities. His
was a head to conceive and a hand to execute when
the storm rose highest, and in the hour that required
the most prompt and decisive action. He was em
phatically the man for the occasion. His letter to
Gov. Claiborne on taking command of the post,
exhibits the fearless and determined energy of his
character. "Remember," says he, "our watchword is
victory or death. Our country must and shall be
defended. We will enjoy our liberty, or perish in the
last ditch."
The most prompt and decided measures were neces
sary; the danger was pressing and imminent; but it
was precisely the danger that he was fitted to encounter
and surmount. With that indomitable energy and per
severance, which peculiarly belonged to him ; with that
inflexible sternness of purpose which, his course once
laid out, scorned to be turned aside by any obstacle,
he planned and completed for the city a system of
defences, which even in this age of military improve
ment has been regarded as one of the most masterly
and skillful defences of modern warfare. And he was
not left alone to contend against the invader. His
distinguished military reputation soon called to his

Eulogy of Andrew Jackson 19
standard the gallant soldiery of the west — the hardy
pioneers of this valley of the Mississippi, in whose
hearts the name of Andrew Jackson has always kindled
a noble enthusiasm. At the approach of the enemy
he was prepared to meet them. Apart from the vast
importance of the successful defence of New Orleans,
in a national point of view, and the consequences that
must have attended the capture of the city by the
enemy, niany considerations of national pride and
honor were involved in the issue. The result of the
contest thus far upon the ocean had been most honor
able to our country, and the victories of Hull, Decatur
and Bainbridge had advanced the glory of the Ameri
can name. But these successes had been dimmed by
the base surrender of General Hull at Detroit, and the
refusal of the militia under Van Rensselaer to cross
over to Queenstown, in sight of an open field of vic
tory. And notwithstanding the brilliant engagements
at Fort Erie and Lundy's Lane, the efficiency of our
militia was underrated and more than questioned by
the invaders, and they advanced upon New Orleans
with absolute confidence of victory. The Capital of
the country, too, had been taken and pillaged in the
war, and the public buildings destroyed by the torch
of the invaders — an act worthy of Goths and the Huns
under the lead of an Alaric or an Attila, but of doubt
ful honor to a civilized soldiery, fighting under the
usages of civilized warfare.
A worse fate than that of Washington seemed
impending over New Orleans, as its heroic defender

20 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
well knew, from an enemy that advanced under the
watchword of "beauty and booty". The feeling, too,
that the defence by militia of New Orleans must fail,
was not confined to the British camp, but had extended
to the city. Before the memorable 8th of January,
the Legislature of the State, it was understood, was
devising plans to insure the safety and protect the
property of the city, by proposing terms of surrender
to the enemy. A man of weaker nerves, of less moral
courage and firmness, might have faltered. But the
resolution of Jackson did not waver. The safety of
the city was at stake ; martial law had been proclaimed,
and Governor Claiborne immediately received orders
to watch the legislature, and if the project for sur
rendering the city should be disclosed, to place an
armed force at the door, and confine the members to
the chamber. The Governor in his zeal executed the
order beyond the letter, and the members were pre
vented from assembling by a guard of soldiers at the
door of the capital.
The reply that the General had previously made to
a committee of the Legislature — wishing to know
what would be his course if driven from his position —
is worthy to be repeated, and is every word character
istic of the man. "If," he replied, "I thought the hair
of my head could divine what I should do, I _would
cut it off. Go back with this answer, and say to your
honorable body, that if disaster overtakes me, and the
fate of war drives me from my line to the city, they
may expect to have a very warm session."

Eulogy of Andrew Jackson 21
The result of the defence of New Orleans is
familiar to the nation and the world. The 8th of
January, 1815, is a day that will not soon be for
gotten in our country's annals. It witnessed the com
plete and signal triumph of America. It proclaimed
safety to the city of New Orleans, and demonstrated
the wisdom, the valor, and the exalted military talents
of its illustrious defender. It triumphantly vindicated
the bravery of the militia of the west, and closed the
war in glory upon the American arms.
The battle of New Orleans has always been regarded
at home and abroad as one of the brightest achieve
ments of the American arms. It was by far the most
important and decisive action of the war, and con
sidered as a well-planned and skillful military enter
prise throughout, it is without a parallel in American
history, if we except, perhaps, the masterly movement
of Washington across the Delaware, and his surprise
of the Bitish and Hessians at Trenton and Princeton,
an achievement which extorted from Frederic the
Great, one of the most skillful captains of the age, the
tribute, "America has a general at the head of her
armies, who will maintain the independence those dar
ing statesman have declared."
The victory at New Orleans, while it reflected lustre
upon our arms, gave to the name of Andrew Jackson
imperishable renown. It displayed in his character
those great and shining qualities of consummate
generalship which, had they been called into action on
fields as vast as those of Marengo and Austerlitz would

22 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
have given the world to admire in his person another
example of gigantic achievements and military renown.*
On his return into the city the hero was received
with the joyful acclamations of the people. The
moment of his triumph had arrived. He stood a vic
torious general in the city he had defended and among
the people he had preserved. But scarcely had the
notes of alarm and the din of war sunk to rest, or the
last glimmer of the British bayonet disappeared from
our shores, ere the victorious general was summoned
before the civil magistrate to answer for a contempt
and a breach of the law. The circumstance is worthy
to be noticed, as it forcibly illustrates the character of
this remarkable man.
Martial law had been proclaimed at New Orleans,
and the whole city thrown into an encampment. The
victory of the 8th of January had not yet removed
entirely all apprehensions of danger. A member of
the legislature had been arrested for violating a gen
eral order of the commander-in-chief, and a judge of
the United States Court, for the purpose, it is said, of
testing whether the military could be raised above the
civil power, issued a writ of habeas corpus to bring up
Louallier, the person arrested. General Jackson, with
his own characteristic promptness and decision, im
mediately arrested the Judge and placed him without
the line of his encampment.
Whether or not the proceeding against Judge Hall
was strictly legal, or justified by the peculiar state of
things existing at the time in the city, is a question

Eulogy of Andrew Jackson 23
perhaps on which men may differ, and is not necessary
now to be discussed. General Jackson had been placed
in command at New Orleans, and was determined at
every hazard to defend the city. The danger had been
imminent. Martial law had been declared, which all,
it is believed, must agree was rendered necessary by
the exigencies of the case. The discipline of the camp
was strict; the orders peremptory. That discipline
had been violated, and General Jackson "took the
responsibility." But it was a responsibility for which,
like every other, he was prepared, and ready and will
ing, at the proper time in his own person to answer.
The danger had now passed, and the Judge was
re-instated in his authority. Before the notes of
acclamation which had greeted him as the protector
and preserver of the city of New Oleans had died
away, he prepares to answer a summons for violating
the law. The sword and epaulette, and all the insignia
of military rank are laid aside, and he appears at the
bar in the plain dress of a republican citizen to offer
his defence. Martial law has ceased with the exigency
that demanded it, and he whose will had been supreme
for the time is now a simple citizen of the State, pre
paring to acknowledge by his own personal submis
sion the complete ascendency of the civil power.
The spectacle is an instructive one. It could have
occurred only under a form of government like ours.
As he enters the court house the shouts of a crowded
and excited audience greet him as the deliverer of the
city, and the Judge upon the bench falters as he per-

24 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
ceives that the deep sympathies and feelings of the
people are with their champion. They are but await
ing the signal to bear him in triumph from the tribunal
of justice and place him beyond the reach of the law,
the supremacy of which has but just been established
through the means of his own valor and patriotism.
He has but to speak, and he sets at defiance the Judge,
the tribunal, and the law. It is a test of character. Is
General Jackson the military tyrant, who, in the exer
cise of his own will does not hesitate to ride over the
Constitution and the laws of his country? Is he the
imperious despot who seeks to crush beneath the iron
heel of military power the civil authority of the State ?
Nay more, does he seek to shield himself from what
he regards as an unjust sentence by taking advantage
of the rash though generous zeal of his warm-hearted
friends ? No, far from it. His purpose is as fixed and
inflexible to submit to the civil authorities, now that
he stands before them as a private citizen, as it was to
do his public duty when engaged in military command ;
and he addresses the crowd and urges them to for
bear any expression of opinion, as it was the duty of
every good citizen to submit to the public authorities.
When the Judge, fearful to encounter the storm of
public indignation that he saw arising, was about to
adjourn the court. General Jackson arose and requested
that the matter proceed, adding with an emphasis that
evinced the sincerity of the feeling, "There is no
danger here; there shall be none. The same arm that
protected this city from outrage will shield this court
or perish in the effort."

Eulogy op Andrew Jackson 25
He was fined a thousand dollars, and was carried
back from the tribunal of the law, amid the shouts
and huzzas of the people.
There is no incident during the long life of this
great man more happily illustrative of his lofty char
acter and his republican virtue; there is none which
serves to show in fairer view the high and manly sense
he entertained of his duty as a private citizen and the
respect and reverence due to the civil authorities of
the land. To use his own language in addressing the
people on that memorable occasion, he felt "that the
civil authority was the supreme law of the land. He
had never pretended anything else, nor advocated a
different doctrine. He had departed from its rules
because they were too feeble for the state of the time.
By a resort to martial law he had succeeded in defend
ing and protecting a country which, without it, must
have been lost, and yet he freely assented to the deci
sion which had been pronounced against him." The
case is nearly without parallel. Search the history of
the world and see if the records of nations will exhibit
a nobler instance of magnanimity and disinterested
patriotism. What would have been the conduct of a
Cromwell or a Caesar, if fresh from a field of victory
he had been thus arraigned before a tribunal to answer
for the legality of an act, by means of which that vic
tory had been won ? Nay more, how would the severer
virtue of a Brutus, or a Cato, have withstood the direct
appeal of the people to a course contrary to the stem
dictates of individual duty?

26 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
It is but proper to say that the amount of the fine
was promptly subscribed and placed at the disposal of
General Jackson without his knowledge; but with a
delicacy which reflects the highest honor on his char
acter he declined receiving it, and directed it to be
distributed among the wives and children of those who
were killed in the battle. His country, however, has
paid the debt. The amount of the fine, with interest,
was refunded before the eyes of the old man of the
Hermitage had closed upon the world, and coming,
as it did, with a nation's acknowledgment, there could
exist no motives of delicacv to prompt to its refusal.
The triumph of New Orleans closed the military
career of General Jackson. Like Cincinnatus, he had
been called from his plough to gird on the sword in
defence of his country, and like him, when the rude
alarms of war had subsided, he laid aside his weapon
and retired to the shades of private life. The din of
battle was heard no more. The country resumed its
march to prosperity and greatness; and he, its faithful
public servant, awaited but the time when that country
should again demand his service.
In 1 82 1 General Jackson was appointed by Pres-
dent Monroe, Governor of the Floridas, which had
then just been ceded by Spain, and in that capacity he
received the surrender to this Government of the
country which had been the scene of his patriotism
and valor. Within thirty days after his resignation as
Governor of Florida he was, without his knowledge,
appointed Minister to Mexico, which mission in a

Eulogy op Andrew Jackson 27
respectful manner he declined. It was done, not from
an unwillingness to serve his country in any capacity,
but from those elevated and lofty principles of republi
canism which were a part of his nature, and which
have made the name of Jackson glorious and renowned.
"The appearance of an American envoy," he said, "to
the tyrant who has usurped the Government of Mex
ico, might serve to add to his strength, and rivet the
chains of despotism to a people who ought to be free."
He could not reconcile it to his republican feelings to
become, even though innocent on his part, an instru
ment of tyranny.
The same year he was again called from his
retirement by the people of Tennessee to represent the
State as a Senator in Congress. A few weeks after
the close of his first session, however, he again
resigned his seat, influenced doubtless by the consid
eration that he was then named as a candidate for the
highest office under the Constitution. From that
period to the present, the political history of Andrew
Jackson is familiar to the people. He has occupied
during all that time a distinguished and prominent
place before the country ; indeed the most distinguished
and prominent of any public man of the age. He has
been emphatically the man whom the people have
delighted to honor, and he has never betrayed the high
trusts reposed in him by the people. His name has
never failed to awaken the voice of enthusiasm, and
the reverence and love of a republican nation have
been the deserved reward of their republican chieftain

28 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
and statesman from his entry upon public life down
to the very hour when in the calm retreat of the
Hermitage he closed his eyes upon the world, in peace
with all mankind.
It will be remembered that Andrew Jackson was a
candidate for President in 1824, and though he
received the highest number of electoral votes, yet,
there not being a Constitutional majority, the election
devolved upon the House of Representatives, and Mr.
Adams was chosen.
In 1828 he was again before the people a candidate
for its highest honors. This time the popular feeling
was not to be defeated. He was elected, and on the
4th day of March, 1829, upon the steps of the Capitol
solemnly swore, in the presence of Heaven and his
assembled countymen, as the Executive of the Nation
to discharge to the best of his ability the high duties
of his exalted place and to support the Constitution of
his country.
Here opened before this remarkable man a new and
untried career. Heretofore his renown, illustrious as
it had become, was derived principally from his mili
tary character, and although he had occupied varied
and responsible stations of civil authority, yet a large
number of his countrymen doubted, to say the least,
the complete fitness of the military chieftan, as he was
called, for the civil magistracy of a great nation. He
was now as a statesman about to mature the honors
he had won as a soldier. He stood before the world
the presiding officer of a nation that in the brief space

Eulogy op Andrew Jackson 29
of half a century had sprung into existence and arisen
to a front rank among the powers of the earth. The
stripling recruit of the revolutionary army had become
the representative of American sovereignty, and his
fame was spread through the civilized world, and his
virtues spoken wherever the American name was
known —
"Raised by the voice of freeman to a height,
Sublimer far than Kings by birth may claim."
It would be vain to attempt a delineation of the pub
lic life or political history of General Jackson during
the eight years of his Chief Magistracy, in the brief
space allotted to these remarks. It would comprise
the whole history of the country, at home and abroad,
civil and military, financial, legislative, and diplo
matic. He entered upon and performed the responsible
duties of his station with the same far-reaching
sagacity and the same iron energy and determination
of purpose that had hitherto distinguished his char
acter. The military virtues he had displayed were
found to constitute but a part of his great endow
ments, and the new sphere in which he was placed
called into action those other attributes which have
placed his name high upon the roll of American
statesmen. Nor did he forget, in the eminent posi
tion in which he was placed, the duties of a private
citizen. Other men upon being raised from the
bosom of the people to exalted rank, and clothed with
power, have forgotten, in the day of their greatness,
the proper duties of their station. But it was not so

3° Eulogy op Andrew Jackson
with him. The President of the Republic was still the
plain republican citizen, equally accessible to all, the
high and the low, the rich and the poor. For him,
ambition presented no Circean cup to intoxicate, or to
impair the manly dignity and republican simplicity of
his nature. While no man ever entertained a more
just sense of the responsibility and dignity of his sta
tion, none certainly ever less required the fawning
suppliance of the sycophant, or the empty homage of
him who "crooks the supple hinges of the knee," at
the shrine of greatness. The secret of his popularity
is here; General Jackson was in life and practice, as
in profession, a republican.
The administration of Jackson encountered the
most energetic and determined opposition. The his
tory of these political struggles are yet fresh in the
minds of the people, and they are of too recent occur
rence and too intimately connected with the political
questions of the day to be properly discussed on an
occasion like the present. The day, however, will
come when they will be passed upon in impartial
review by the historian; and when the judgments of
men shall have become sobered by time and their views
shall have ceased to be influenced by party prejudice,
his political career and public policy will not fail to be
rightly estimated. That he was a man of ardent feel
ings in his opposition to particular measures, or even
men, as well as of sincere and devoted friendships, is
not to be denied. It was a part of his character. It
i« a part of the character of every man of a frank am!

Eulogy of Andrew Jackson 31
open nature, and of strong impulses. Sincere in his
antipathies and sincere in his friendships, and equally
open and frank and manly in both, no one has ever
yet accused Andrew Jackson of duplicity. He was not
the man to receive with a friendly smile and a cordial
clasp of the hand him againsit whom a feeling of
enmity was rankling in his heart. What he thought
he spoke; what he felt he acted, promptly and fear
lessly; the thought and the deed were his own, and
with him lay the responsibility.
During the latter part of his first term an event
occurred in the affairs of the nation to which it is
proper to allude, as it was an event which served to
exhibit the great qualities of this illustrious man. The
State of South Carolina, dissatisfied with the existing
revenue laws, and carrying out the doctrine of State
rights to an extent far beyond what had ever before
been held under a strict construction of the Constitu
tion, advanced the doctrine that it was competent for
a State, in its sovereign capacity, to judge for itself
of the constitutionality of a law of the General Gov
ernment, and to nullify or resist it. South Carolina
had not only acted upon the doctrine but was prepar
ing to carry it out into open resistance. Nullification
was fast ripening into rebellion. The Constitution
was threatened. The Union was endangered. The
patriots and statesmen of our own country were turn
ing an anxious eye toward the threatening cloud that
was gathering over the political horizon, and the gov
ernments of the old world were looking on in quiet

32 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
anticipation, to see their ill-omened prophecies ful
filled by the dissolution of the American Union and
the destuction of republican institutions beneath its
ruins. It was precisely the crisis that demanded the
energy and Roman firmness of the man who was at
the head of Government. The people turned their
eyes to him, and they were not mistaken in the man.
The resolution of General Jackson was taken. Nullifi
cation and state resistance were rebellion. He had
sworn to support the Constitution and uphold the laws
of his country, and the Constitution and the laws had
given him the power to suppress resistance and rebel
lion. The supremacy of the federal laws should be
maintained even at the point of the bayonet and by
the troops of the general government. And those
energetic and decisive measures were taken which
mark the character of that lion-hearted and fearless
man. Then came, too, that magnificent State paper,
The Proclamation to the citizens of this Union, a
single expression of which may be quoted as char
acteristic of the inflexible mind that sent it forth to the
people. "The laws of the United States must be
executed — I have no discretion in the matter — my
duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution."
It was a proclcunation that carried with it a feeling
of safety to all parts of the Union. It was hailed with
delight by all classes of people, and it even awoke the
echoes in Old Faneuil Hall, and brought out from men
who were little accustomed to sing paeans to the praise
of Andew Jackson, the voice of approval and acclama-

Eulogy op Andrew Jackson 33
tion. Nullification was crushed in the bud, when, if
nurtured by a temporizing policy, it would have sprung
up into the full bloom and the flower.
General Jackson was re-elected President of the
United States in the fall of 1832. When his name
was a second time submitted to the people as a candi
date for their highest honors, an unprecedented major
ity attested the popularity of his administration, and
the confidence of his country reposed in his virtues and
patriotism. There was something in the name of
Andrew Jackson that was calculated to awaken the
enthusiasm and touch the sympathies of the people.
His name was found on the roll of the revolutionary
army, and his blood had been shed in revolutionary
days. He had borne the fatigues and hardships of
savage warfare. The morning reveille of his army
had sounded in the wilderness, and at night, in his
soldier's cloak, he had slept by the camp fires. His
laurels won at New Orleans were yet green upon his
brow, and his name was associated with the glory of
the American arms. Added to all this were those
marked traits of character and noble personal quali
ties — wisdom in council, and firmness in action — a
high sense of public duty, with the utmost simplicity
of manners, and devoted attachment to republican
institutions, which could not fail to captivate the
minds and win the hearts of his countrymen. No
wonder then that the name of Andrew Jackson should
touch the chords of feeling in the bosom of the Ameri
can people. No wonder that such a name as his.

34 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
wherever mentioned, should awaken those shouts of
enthusiasm which can arise only from a nation's grati
tude. During the second term of Jackson's administration
another event of magnitude and moment occurred,
which at the time attracted the attention of the civil
ized world, and has now become a matter of history.
It was another crisis in the affairs of this Govern
ment — another one of those critical periods upon
which the fate of nations sometimes turns and when
everything depends upon the wisdom, the talents, the
firmness of the Nation's head.
The question of French spoliation upon our com
merce had long been a subject of discussion between
the two governments. France, with the professions of
a willingness to do justice to the claims of our citi
zens, seemed determined to put far off the evil day,
or to evade the responsibility then entirely through the
means of endless negotiation. Legislative action was
fruitless; and diplomacy had long drawn out its
interminable thread. The sagacious mind of the
Executive saw plainly that these claims should at
once be abandoned, or the most prompt and decisive
measures taken to enforce the acknowledged demand.
He was not the man, by a timid and wavering policy,
to suffer the honor of his country to be drawn in
question, or the just claims of her citizens to be disre
garded. With the motto, "We demand nothing but
what is right, and will submit to nothing that is
wrong," he applied himself to the task ; and, in all the

Eulogy op Andrew Jackson 35
firmness of conscious right, he assumed that determined
attitude before the world, which brought the legis
lators of France to their senses and extorted, as a
matter of right, that justice which an appeal to
national pride had failed to obtain. The nations
looked on in surprise, for it was an unaccustomed
spectacle, a young republic, that fifty years before
had scarcely been acknowledged as an independent
nation, thus braving one of the proudest monarchies
of the old world, whose greatness and whose power
were the growth of centuries, and he, the representa
tive of the sovereignty of that republic, hurling defi
ance at him who sat on the throne of the Bourbons !
What legislative resolutions, or diplomacy, with its
never-ending negotiations, failed to attain, executive
wisdom and firmness accomplished. General Jackson
in this, as in every other emergency, proved himself
equal to the crisis and the just expectations of his
country. An artist has lately been employed by the King of
the French to take the portraits of distinguished
Ariierican citizens, to be hung in his celebrated gallery
of historical paintings at the palace of the Tuilleries.
Among the first taken was that of the venerable Hero
of the Hermitage. But a few days before his death
the artist was engaged in transferring to the canvass
those living features on which the seal of the destroyer
was already set. And thfey are to be hung in the palace
of royalty. By the side of the immortal Washing
ton those calm, immovable features will be placed in

36 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
that magnificent gallery of art. And the eyes of a
monarch will rest upon them, while the original shall
lie traceless in the tomb. In the history of this
world's greatness the animated painting and the
marble statue are often necessary to preserve the
memory of the once renowned; but to the fame of
that man of matchless deeds and of fearless heart,
even the pencil of an Appelles could add nothing of
immortality. The miniature emblem of the republi
can chieftan will fade away, and even those halls of
royalty be crumbled, ere his name shall be struck from
the records of human greatness. It needs no sculp
tor's chisel and no painter's canvas to preserve for
Louis Philippe the memory of Andrew Jackson.
The 4th day of March, 1837, witnessed the close of
the public career of this truly great man. His mis
sion had been accomplished. Three score and ten
years had rolled over him, and the thread of his event
ful life was nearly spun. The gray-haired veteran is
preparing to quit forever the theatre of active life.
He turns from the Capitol, and leaving his blessing
with his country, in the quiet seclusion of his home,
is about to pass the brief remnant of his days.
Though the public career of this eminent citizen
was now closed, yet he did not cease to be an object of
intense interest, and he still filled a large place in the
public view. The eyes of the people were often
directed to the Hermitage, the chosen retirement of
him who had now become the nation's sage. Thither
the footsteps of the stranger were turned. It was a

Eulogy op Andrew Jackson 37
proper place for him to repair who would desire to
become familiar with the spirit of our government.
It was a beautiful commentary upon the simplicity of
republican institutions to witness the first man of the
age — the brilliant military chieftain; the great states
man ; the once potent head of a powerful nation — now
a private citizen, with an equality of rights that was
shared with the humblest voter, opening the door of
hospitality alike to all classes of his countrymen, and
with that quenchless love of country still burning
brighter and brighter to the last, cherishing now the
only ambition to be a worthy citizen of a free Republic.
Years rolled on, and every succeeding year left a
deeper furrow on his brow ; every year added another
to the weight that was already bowing his venerable
form; the hand of disease, too, was pressing heavily
upon him, and yet the vigor and firmness of that
inflexible mind remained unimpaired, and the light of
that powerful intellect unquenched. With the meek
ness of a Christian's resignation, he bore up under the
afflictions of Providence without a murmur, and with
the calmness of a Christian's faith he looked to the
period of his final change, and beyond to an immor
tality. On the evening of the 8th of the present month,
General Jackson expired. To the last, it is said, his
intellect remained unclouded. He took an affectionate
leave of his friends, and met the last struggle, not like
Socrates, as a philosopher, but as a Christian hero,
and with a Christian's hope. He departed.

38 Eulogy op Andrew Jackson
"Like one who warps the drapery of his couch
Around him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.",
and without parade or funeral pomp he was buried,
by the side of his wife, in the tomb he had prepared
at the Hermitage.
The career of this eminent American citizen is now
closed. Full of years and full of honors, he has gone
out from among us. His memory has now become
associated with another generation, and with an age
that is past. The last of the revolutionary presidents,
his name will stand out on our country's annals as one
of the fathers of the Republic. Washington, Jeffer
son, Jackson! Glorious names in American history!
Names that shall live and be reverenced while that
liberty for which they toiled shall endure, or that
Constitution which they established and defended
shall bind these states together. He, the father of his
country — pre-eminently the greatest and the best of
men; he, too, the sage of Monticello — the immortal
author of the declaration ; and he, the hero and states
man of Roman firmness, and of more than Roman
virtue,' may well be associated together in story; their
fame belongs to their country, and that country is
proud of her sons. Hereafter even the places of their
last repose will be looked upon as consecrated ground.
Mount Vernon, Monticello, the Hermitage, are names
already rendered classic in American history. How
many cherished associations cluster around them. The
foot of the stranger will be turned to visit them. He
will catch the inspiration of the place, and it will need

Eulogy of Andrew Jackson 39
no monumental pile, nor idle epitaph to recall to his
memory the noble achievements and matchless virtues
of these illustrious men.
Green be the sod upon the patriot's grave;
There let the myrtle bloom, the cypress wave;
Strew fairest lilies o'er the silent bed.
Where rest the ashes of the honored dead.
The long life of General Jackson was a sitriking
and an eventful one. As he stood toward the close
of his existence, an old man, on the verge of the grave,
and turned his eye back upon the scenes of other years,
what a vast and striking panorama must have arisen
to his view, and what a world of reminiscences must
have crowded upon his memory ! The advance of his
country to power and greatness had been beyond
example; its history was as eventful as his own; and
he had been an actor and borne a share in all. He
had seen a people of two millions increased ten fold
in number. He had seen his country, once without an
independent existence, or a place upon the map of
nations, now acknowledged as one of the first powers
of the globe. He had seen it without a navy, and
with an infant commerce, now boasting a commerce
second only in extent to that of England, carrying the
American flag to every corner of the globe, and with a
gallant navy contending for the empire of the ocean.
He had seen state after state added to this Union, and
the thirteen feeble colonies become a constellation of
twenty-six confederate republics, just ready to expand
into twenty-nine. The young Republic on our south-

40 Eulogy op Andrew Jackson
west he looked upon as the lost Pleiad about to take
its place in the constellation. Florida had been the
scene of his military enterprises and his glory, and
he hailed its admission into the Union, with its youth
ful sister Iowa, which even in his day had been a
wilderness, whose soil the foot of civilized man had
not yet pressed. And he had seen new states spring
ing up in the bosom of that great valley of the west,
which he had himself defended, and which his name
has ennobled. He had seen the advancing column of
civilization crossing the Mississippi, that with its bun
ded arms embraces a territory the most fertile on the
habitable globe; and without a prophet's eye, or the
aid of a vivid fancy, he could look a few years into
futurity, and behold new states and future republics
springing up in that vast and now unbroken wilderness
through which the Missouri rolls its majestic waters.
Nay, more, he might behold the light of republican
institutions gleaming from beyond the Rocky Moun
tains, and the shores of the Pacific white with the sails
of American commerce.
America is proud of her country; she is proud of
her statesmen ; and she has reason to be proud of both,
for such statesmen are worthy of such a country.
Within the short space of her national existence she
has produced a galaxy of illustrious men that would
do honor to any nation and any age of the world. Men
of true nobility of soul and of exalted moral great
ness, who, with a theatre less conspicuous to act their
parts upon than that which has given immortality to

Eulogy op Andrew Jackson 41
the brilliant despots who have overturned dynasties
and subjugated nations, have notwithstanding exhib
ited those noble traits of character that spring from a
devoted patriotism and an ardent love of liberty which
may challenge comparison with the highest examples
of Grecian or Roman story. They are not the men
who have left ruin and desolation behind them, or have
marched over the liberties of their country to power
and renown, or who have been drawn in triumphal
cars from fields of blood by a servile people. But
they are the men whose lives have been devoted to
the cause of down-trodden and oppressed humanity —
who have contributed to carry out the great doctrines
of political and civil liberty which the American
revolution developed, and who by their example are
yet contributing to spread the truths of political
knowledge through the world, and to carry on the
revolution that has been commenced in the science of
government. Among this distinguished band of patriots is now to
be placed the name of Andrew Jackson. While yet
among us we looked upon him as one of the connect
ing links that bound the present to the age that has
just gone by. Now that he is no more he belongs to
the past and to history; and the history of that past
will enroll him among the number of the illustrious
dead who have ennobled humanity, and posterity will
look upon his name written in letters of light upon
the scroll of fame.

42 Eulogy op Andrew Jackson
Fellow citizens, these tributes of respect that are
now being offered throughout this nation are justly
due to the memory of your departed chieftain. A
nation's mourning is the richest tribute that can be
paid to sterling worth and incorruptible patriotism.
And that tribute is now called forth and is now being
paid all over this country. The solemn notes of mar
tial music, the shrouded colors, and the muffled bell,
are but the outward emblems of a nation's sorrow;
but they are here no idle and empty honors, for they
are accompanied by the sincere and heartfelt sorrow
of a people who revere the name of their patriot hero.
Let him who has been brought up at the footstool
of power, and who has paid allegiance to a govern
ment under which the subject has not yet been per
mitted to learn that men are capable of governing
themselves, look on and read an instructive lesson.
What has called forth this universal demonstration of
a Nation's feeling? Was he to whom these honors are
paid the leader of a conquering army, with a nation
at his feet? Was he of royal lineage, or of titled
rank ? Or was he clothed with power, and did he con
trol with his single arm the destines of the State?
None, none of these. His sword he had laid aside
when his country no longer demanded its service. His
nobility consisted alone in the nobility of nature; it
was what his republicanism made him. The political
power he enjoyed was a single vote at the ballot box.
General Jackson's greatness consisted in his own char
acter. The homage is not paid to the rank, the

Eulogy of Andrew Jackson 43
power of the man, but to his virtues and his
public services. He is honored because he was beloved
by the people. They looked upon him as one they
could trust, and their trust was never betrayed. He
had loved his country with all the ardor of his nature,
and when she demanded his services, he had never
been found absent from his post, whether in the field
or the council hall. As the head of the nation he had
risen above the temptations of place and power, and
had preserved the purity of his republican character.
He had declared to the people that "The blessings of
Government, like the dews of Heaven, should descend
equally upon all — the high and the low, the rich and
the poor." His whole life had served to illustrate the
spirit of our institutions, and he embodied in his own
person the ideas that lie at the foundation of republi
can government. It is for these things that he is held
in grateful remembrance, and is almost venerated by
the people ; for these things that honors are paid to his
memory, greater far, because more sincere, than those
which are paid to a nation's sovereign or a nation's
conqueror. As no other government or people could
have produced a character like that of Andrew Jack
son, so no other people than ours could pay that sin
cere tribute of respect and those fitting honors to the
memory of such a man.
And now we have looked for our last time upon his
living features, and the memory of his virtues is all
that is left of him to his country. America mourns her-
departed son. While yet his honors were fadeless on

44 Eulogy of Andrew Jackson
his brow, his eyes have grown dim, the shadows of
night have gathered around, and the mantle of immor
tality has fallen upon him. Our task is done. His
eulogy has been spoken — faint, feeble and imperfect;
for while we speak we feel that words of eulogy can
add not one green leaf to the chaplet of his renown;
and the voice of the speaker is unheard, and his accents
fall powerless by the side of that deeper eloquence
which speaks his eulogy, in these emblems of mourn
ing, which are displayed everywhere all over this land,
and in that general outburst of sorrow which springs
from the full heart of a bereaved people.
We have indeed looked our last upon him, and we
of this age may never hope to look upon his like again.
May his glorious example live forever to animate the
future patriot and statesman, at least to imitate, if
they cannot rival, his greatness ; and may the influence
of his virtues and the memory of his matchless patriot
ism serve to build broader and firmer the arch of this
Union, and to advance the cause of human liberty
throughout the world.

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