When Andrew Jackson entered the family of Mrs. Donelson as a boarder, her daughter, Rachael, who had married a man by the name of Robards, in Kentucky, but had separated from him on account of his violent temper and vicious habits, resided with her. Judge Overton and himself occupied another cabin, a few steps distant from that in which Mrs. Donelson lived, but met with her family, at the same table. Mrs. Robards was as distinguished for her beauty, her sweetness of temper, and her winning deportment, as was her husband for the possession of the opposite qualities. Through the mediation of Judge Overton, Robards was at one time reconciled to his wife, rejoined her at Mrs. Donelson’s, and commenced preparations for erecting a cabin, on a tract of land that he had purchased, in which he intended to reside.

Jackson was then a young man, frank and engaging in his manners, and fond of female society. He undoubtedly paid Mrs. Robards many flattering attentions, which—neither thinking aught of evil, or cherishing an impure thought—were reciprocated as they deserved, with kindness and friendly esteem, but nothing more. So far from rendering her husband more morose and ill-tempered, this should only have led him to appreciate better her charms and social virtues, and encouraged him to become more pleasing and agreeable. But Iagos were not wanting to instil the doubts and suspicions of jealousy, had not his gloomy and distrustful temperament predisposed him to such impressions. She was, in consequence, rendered very unhappy. On being made acquainted with this fact, Jackson sought an interview with her husband, and remonstrated with him, in a manly and honorable way. This was of no avail, and he then left Mrs. Donelson’s, and took board at Mansker’s Station.

The excited jealousy of the husband could not be allayed, however; and, in a few months, he abandoned his wife a second time, and started for Kentucky,—declaring to a companion on the road, that he designed never to return. Mrs. Robards now determined that the separation should be final; and on being afterwards informed, that he intended to visit Tennessee and take her back with him to Kentucky, under the advice of her friends, she accompanied the family of Colonel Stark to Natchez, in the spring of 1791. Stark was an elderly man, and fearing that the Indians might attack him, he invited Jackson to make one of the party. The latter, perhaps unwisely,—though he certainly never regretted it,—accepted the invitation, and descended the rivers with them, to Natchez.

Robards had previously applied to the Legislature of Virginia for a divorce, and, soon after the return of Jackson to Nashville, the intelligence was received that his application had been granted. Desirous of testifying to the world, in the highest and most solemn manner, his confidence in her purity and innocence—pleased, alike, with the charms of her person, and the graces of her mind—and deeming her at perfect liberty to form a new connection—Jackson forthwith repaired to Natchez, and tendered his hand to Mrs. Robards. She at first hesitated, but finally accepted him. They were married in the fall, and she returned with him to the Cumberland, where she was greeted with the warm and affectionate congratulations of her relatives and friends.

Two years after his marriage,—in December, 1793,—Jackson was on his way to Jonesborough, with Judge Overton, when he learned, for the first time, equally to his chagrin and surprise, that the intelligence received in 1791, and upon which he had acted, was incorrect.—Robards had, in 1791, procured the passage of an act in the Virginia Legislature, authorizing a suit to be brought for a divorce in a court in Kentucky, which suit had just been determined in his favor,—no opposition, of course, being made to the proceedings. Communications between the Atlantic country and the interior were then very irregular, and the exact particulars of the affair were not known, or inquired into, as it was universally supposed in Tennessee, that the divorce had been actually granted. On his return home, in January, 1794, Jackson took out a license, and was now regularly married.

The circumstances of his acquaintance and marriage with Mrs. Robards, were long after seized upon by his opponents, when he became connected with the political controversies of the day, as a candidate for the presidency, and were made the foundation of unmerited and groundless calumnies. There were features in the case, which, unexplained, might appear suspicious; but the evidence of all who were personally acquainted with them, whose assertions are worthy of a moment’s consideration, acquit both parties of blame, and bear witness to the correct demeanor of Mrs. Robards, and the chivalric conduct of Andrew Jackson.—“While he would have sacrificed his life,” says his biographer, “to prevent Mrs. Robards’ falling unwillingly into the hands of her cruel tormentor, her husband though he was, he never cast a look upon her, or indulged a thought, unworthy of the purest knight in the days of honorable chivalry. But, when no longer restrained by law, honor or religion, pity, admiration, and a species of regret, though free from guilt, yet akin to remorse, kindled into love as pure and as holy as ever glowed in the heart of man. Nor was the object unworthy of this exalted passion. The united testimony of all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance, the happiness which during life she shed over the domestic circle, radiating into the cabins of her servants and the houses of her neighbors, and, above all, the sacred fervor with which the bosom on which she rested in youth, cherishes her memory, bear unequivocal testimony, that she was one of the best of those beings whom God has given as the companion and solace of man.”⁠[15]⁠

After his marriage, Jackson devoted himself with more assiduity than ever, to the practice of his profession. His firm and independent course in espousing the cause of the creditors, though it elevated him in the esteem of the better part of the community, rendered the debtors peculiarly inimical towards him. His daring and prowess were so well known, however, that those who were nominally his equals in standing, dared not assail him; but they stimulated others to do so, belonging to the very lowest class of bullies and desperadoes, so many of whom are always to be found in a new country, who had neither character nor self-respect to lose, but were not deficient in that brutal courage, which the philosopher of Ferney terms, “a fortunate quality, of which fools partake as well as great men.”

A flax-breaker, of great strength and courage, was the first person instigated to attack Jackson; but the latter soon tamed his spirit with his own winding-blades, the only weapon within reach. A noted bully next assaulted him, while he was conversing with a gentleman on business, at a court in Sumner County. Jackson seized a slab, and in a few seconds obliged the desperado to make his escape into the woods.—These encounters resulted so unfavorably to those who were induced to come in contact with him, that he was ever after exempt from annoyances of a similar character.

In the course of his practice as a lawyer, Jackson discovered that extensive frauds had been committed in the North Carolina Land-Office, which he deemed it his duty, as the former attorney of that State, to expose. Through his instrumentality, the perpetrators were indicted and punished. Some of the most prominent citizens of the western district were directly, or indirectly, concerned in these transactions, and had profited largely by them. Consequently, he incurred their hostility; and they sought by every means to injure him. In the state of society then existing, a man, like him, exposed to the hatred of powerful enemies, may be said to have constantly carried his life in his hand. Unawed by threats, he pursued his way steadily and unerringly—daily adding to the number of his friends, and gaining ground in the confidence and regard of the wise and good.

The necessary preliminary measures for the formation of a state government, were taken by the citizens of Tennessee, in 1795;⁠[16] and Andrew Jackson was chosen one of the delegates to the convention, without even offering himself as a candidate. The forest Solons and Numas composing that body, met at Knoxville, in the wilderness, on the eleventh of January, 1796, and adjourned on the sixth day of February following; having, in the short space of less than four weeks, framed and adopted a state constitution, which, for its republican simplicity, compared most favorably with those of other states.

On the first day of June, 1796, Tennessee was admitted into the Union as a State, and became entitled to one representative in Congress. Andrew Jackson was elected to the office, with great unanimity, and took his seat in the House of Representatives on the fifth of December, 1796. His reputation and popularity continuing to increase, he was chosen a senator in Congress the following year, when he had just reached the age prescribed by the Constitution. He appeared in the Senate of the United States on the twenty-second of November, 1797. At this session, the alien and sedition laws were passed. Jackson coïncided and voted with the republican members, and was therefore in the minority. During the session, he became so much dissatisfied with the course of the administration, to which he was opposed in sentiment, that he returned home in April, 1798, and shortly after resigned his seat. He was succeeded by his friend and neighbor, Daniel Smith.

Upon his resignation of the office of senator, Jackson was appointed, by the Legislature of Tennessee, Judge of the Supreme Court of Law and Equity. The office was conferred on him unsolicited, and was accepted with reluctance. As a lawyer, he had been distinguished for his fair and honorable dealing; for his abhorrence of low tricks and artifices; and for the ability with which he seized the strong points of a case, and presented them to a court or jury:—as a judge, he became equally well known, for his firmness and independence; for his integrity of purpose; and his plain, common sense adjudications.

His first court was held at Jonesborough, at which a man, by the name of Russell Bean, was indicted for cutting off the ears of his infant child, in a drunken frolic. The sheriff dared not arrest the offender, who was notorious for his strength and ferocity, though present in the courtyard, and returned to the court, that he would not be taken. Judge Jackson told the officer that such a return was an absurdity, and that the man must be taken, even though it became necessary to summon the posse comitatus. When the court adjourned for dinner, the sheriff summoned the judge and his colleagues, as part of the posse. Jackson saw that the officer desired to avoid performing his duty, and therefore accompanied him. Learning that Bean was armed, he provided himself with a loaded pistol. At sight of him, the former attempted to make his escape; but the judge directing him to stop and submit to the law, in a tone that showed he was not to be trifled with, his weapons were thrown down, and he quietly surrendered. This incident was not lost upon other turbulent spirits who had previously treated courts and officers with contempt, and nothing of the kind was afterwards attempted.

His health beginning to fail under the severe labor, both mental and physical, required of him in the performance of his official duties, Jackson determined to resign the judgeship; but, when his intentions became public, he was urged, in such flattering terms, to abandon his design, in a communication addressed to him by some of the most prominent citizens of the state, and a large number of the members of the Legislature, that he consented to remain in the office.

In 1801, an election was held by the brigadiers and field-officers of Major General Conway’s division, to fill the vacancy occasioned by his death. Andrew Jackson, and John Sevier, formerly governor of the state, were competitors for the office; and the vote was equally divided between them. The appointment then devolved upon Governor Roane, who wisely conferred it on Andrew Jackson.

Governor Sevier was connected, to some extent, with a combination of land jobbers at Nashville, associated together for the purpose of manufacturing fraudulent grants of land, which Jackson had aided in breaking up. This circumstance, and the preference of Governor Roane, rendered him a most implacable enemy and opponent. In 1803, he was a candidate for re-election as governor, and in the course of the canvass, his antipathy towards Judge Jackson, was imbibed by his party friends. This was particularly the case in East Tennessee. In the fall, the Judge proceeded to Jonesborough, to hold his court; and, having been taken seriously ill on the road, he retired to his room, immediately after his arrival, and lay down on the bed. In a few moments he was waited on by a friend, who begged him to lock his door—informing him that a large mob had collected, under a Colonel Harrison, and loudly threatened to tar and feather him. Jackson declined securing his door, but throwing it wide open, sent his friend to Colonel Harrison, with the message, that he was ready to receive him and his party, whenever they chose to wait on him, and that he hoped the colonel’s chivalry would induce him to lead his men, and not follow them.—This bold message operated like a charm; the mob dispersed; Colonel Harrison apologized for his conduct, and thereafter remained on good terms with Jackson.

The next court held by the latter, was at Knoxville, where the Legislature were then in session. They had just investigated the land frauds, of which mention has been made, and had found some evidence tending to implicate Governor Sevier. His excellency evinced a great deal of exasperation, and on leaving the courthouse, on the first day of the term, Judge Jackson found a large crowd gathered in front of the building, in the midst of which was Governor Sevier, with a sword in his hand, haranguing them in a violent manner. An altercation ensued between them, in which the governor was the aggressor, and the Judge sent him a challenge. This was accepted, but the governor failed to give the promised meeting, and Jackson at once published him in the usual form. A second meeting was then appointed to take place, though without any formal arrangement.

Jackson repaired to the designated spot, but the governor failed to meet him. After waiting two days, he set out to return to Knoxville, but had proceeded only a short distance, when he encountered Governor Sevier, escorted by about twenty men, and armed with a brace of pistols and a sword. His friend instantly bore a challenge to the governor, who refused to receive it. Jackson was provided with a brace of pistols and a cane. On the return of his friend, with the insulting message of the governor, he levelled his cane, as the knight, in olden times, couched his spear in the rest, and dashed furiously upon his opponent. The latter hastily dismounted, in order to avoid the shock, but, in so doing, trode on the scabbard of his sword, and was thus rendered incapable of resistance. In the governor’s escort there were mutual friends of both parties, who interfered to prevent any further collision, and Jackson accompanied them back to Knoxville.

Although Jackson was always prompt to defend himself from insult or injury, these altercations and disputes were by no means congenial to his spirit, and, anticipating their more frequent recurrence, for the reason that a number of cases, growing out of the fraudulent land sales, were about to be brought before him for decision, he concluded to retire from the bench; and his resignation was accepted by the Legislature, on the twenty-fourth of July, 1804, about six years after his original appointment.

Previous to his resignation of the judgeship, the services of General Jackson, in a military capacity, were invoked by the General Government, in consequence of the threatening aspect of its relations with Spain, who had taken umbrage at the purchase of Louisiana from France. Preparations were made to reïnforce General Wilkinson, then at Natchez, at the head of a small force, with fifteen hundred men from the upper country, including five hundred cavalry from Tennessee. In October, 1803, General Jackson was requested to procure, without delay, a sufficient number of boats to transport the troops to New Orleans, and to keep them in readiness. The request was complied with; the boats were procured; and the general tendered his services to the government if they should be needed.

The firmness, caution, and prudence, of Jefferson, rendered a resort to arms unnecessary; and in February, 1804, General Jackson sold the boats prepared for the expedition down the Mississippi. After resigning the office of judge, General Jackson retired to a plantation on the Cumberland, which he had purchased; to enjoy, what he had long coveted, the quiet scenes of domestic life, its gentleness and tranquillity, and the society of his devoted wife. His fortune was not large, but amply sufficient to satisfy his wants. He devoted most of his time to superintending the labor on his plantation, setting an example of methodical industry, and careful economy, worthy of general imitation, and often wielding the axe, or guiding the plough, with his own hands. Fond of society, and frank and generous by nature, he was distinguished far and wide for his hospitality; and it was remarked of him, that, “though he was a private citizen, he was the most public man in Tennessee.”

He was passionately fond of fine horses, and took every pains to improve his stock, by importations from the Atlantic States. Like other planters around him, he brought his favorite animals out upon the race-courses, and, though not a sportsman, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, made many a venture upon their relative speed. A circumstance of this kind gave rise to a most unfortunate affair:

A match race was agreed upon by him, and a Mr. Erwin and his son-in-law, Charles Dickinson, between their two horses, for a wager of two thousand dollars, with a forfeiture of eight hundred dollars, to be paid in cash notes. Erwin and Dickinson subsequently chose to pay the forfeit, and withdraw their horse. Some difficulty arose in regard to the character of the notes offered, but it was finally adjusted, to the apparent satisfaction of all parties. But the enemies of Jackson were anxious that he should fight a duel with Dickinson, who was reputed to be the best shot in the country. Through them, the dispute was revived. Several publications appeared in the newspapers, Dickinson grew more and more insulting, and at length made a direct imputation of cowardice. Jackson could endure his provocations no longer, and on the twenty-third of May, 1806, sent him a challenge. It was accepted by Dickinson, and the meeting was arranged to take place at Harrison’s Mills, Kentucky, on the thirtieth instant.

Dickinson spent the intervening time in practicing; frequently boasting how often he had hit his opponent chalked out on a tree, and offering to bet that he would kill him. This was reported to General Jackson, and the effect on his excitable temperament may be imagined. The parties met, as had been agreed on. At the word, Dickinson fired, and the dust was seen to fly from the clothes of his antagonist. Jackson fired the next instant, and the other fell mortally wounded.

The steadiness of nerve exhibited by General Jackson on this occasion has often been the subject of commendation, even with those who condemned the practice, then not only tolerated, but actually encouraged, by nearly all classes and parties, in the section of country in which he resided. It afterwards appeared, that he was himself severely wounded, at the time he fired; but his feelings had been so wrought upon, and the ardency of his temper was such, that he was insensible to physical suffering, and he declared to a friend, that he would have killed Dickinson, if he had been shot through the brain!

Several years later,—in the summer of 1813,—General Jackson was concerned in an affray with Colonel Thomas H. Benton, so well and widely known, for many successive years, as a Senator in Congress, from the State of Missouri. The former had acted as the second of Governor Carroll, in a duel with a brother of Colonel Benton, which, the latter thought, was inconsistent with the friendly relations existing between himself and the general. An angry correspondence passed; bitter recriminations were made on both sides; and they afterwards encountered each other, and interchanged shots, at a public house in Nashville. In the affray, General Jackson’s left arm was shattered by a pistol shot, and he was confined to his room for several weeks. The imbittered feelings engendered during the progress of this controversy, were cherished for many years after the encounter, but they were subsequently entirely allayed; and when General Jackson became President of the United States, he had no firmer supporter, or warmer friend, than Colonel Benton.

These personal controversies and altercations have been mentioned here, not because they afford valuable examples worthy, at this day, of imitation, but rather, for the reason, that they are not more illustrative of Jackson’s nice sense of honor, his stern will, and his indomitable courage, than of the rude state of society in which he lived. If, like General Wayne, he manifested “a constitutional attachment to the decision of the sword,” he, too, had a warm and generous heart; and, though like the aroused lion, when he felt himself the object of wrong or injustice, no man possessed more of the gentler and softer affections of our natures. As Sir Walter Scott said of the Covenanter: “His faults were those of his times and associates, his virtues were eminently his own.”

Aaron Burr made his first appearance in the western country, prior to the completion of his arrangements for his mysterious expedition, in the spring of 1805, and, on two occasions, during the summer, spent several days in the family of General Jackson. The people of Tennessee, like all the residents in the valley of the Mississippi, were exceedingly hostile to the Spaniards; and so long as Burr was supposed to be concerned in making arrangements for the invasion of Mexico, in the event of a war with Spain, General Jackson, with most of the influential citizens of that section, warmly seconded his projects. In 1806, Burr returned to the west and began his preparations. In the fall, the suspicions of General Jackson were awakened, and the friendly intercourse between them entirely ceased. Whatever may have been the designs of Burr, he dared not reveal them to General Jackson, though he ever entertained a high opinion of him, and always mentioned him in terms of respect. His patriotism was much too earnest and sincere to be tempted; and, notwithstanding his previous intimacy with Burr, the special agent dispatched by the President to secure the arrest of the latter, was directed to call on him, with instructions to order out a military force, if necessary. General Jackson promptly ordered out twelve companies, but Burr had already left the mouth of the Cumberland, and was on his way down the Mississippi; and on ascertaining this fact, he dismissed his troops, and reported his proceedings to the government.

Not long after General Jackson retired to private life, he entered into partnership with a merchant in Nashville. For a time their business appeared to be prosperous; Jackson took no active part in its management, but trusted everything to his associate. Some slight circumstances at length aroused his fears, and, upon examination, he found that the firm was not only insolvent, but that their liabilities exceeded their assets, by many thousand dollars. But one course—that dictated by honor and right—could be pursued. He instantly closed the business, sold his fine plantation where he lived, paid off the debts of the firm, and removed to a log cabin on another plantation, to begin the world anew. By the exercise of strict economy and prudence, in a few years he once more gathered around him the fruits of prosperous industry.

In 1811, General Jackson had occasion to visit Natchez, to bring up a number of negroes, who had become his property as the surety of a friend, or belonged to a nephew; and, on reaching the station of the Choctaw agency, along which the road passed, he found seven or eight families of emigrants, and two members of the Mississippi Legislative Council, whom the agent had detained, upon the pretence that it was necessary to have passports from the governor of Mississippi Territory. Justly indignant at this outrage, Jackson demanded what right he had to stop American citizens who were travelling on a public road. The agent replied, in a sharp tone, by inquiring whether he had a pass? “Yes, sir,” said the general, warmly; “I always carry mine with me:—I am a free-born American citizen; and that, under the constitution and laws, is my passport to go wherever my business calls me!” He then told the emigrants to gear up their wagons, and if any one attempted to obstruct them, to shoot him down. He himself set the example, and proceeded on his journey, utterly regardless of the threats of the agent.

Upon his return from Natchez, he was informed that the agent had collected fifty white men, and one hundred Indians, and intended to stop him unless he produced a passport. On approaching the station, he armed his blacks with clubs and axes, and directed them to regard no order unless it emanated from him. The agent was at first inclined to stop him, but, being overawed by his firm and determined manner, made no attempt to oppose him. He afterwards reported the conduct of the officer to the President, and he was removed from the agency.

The period now arrived which Jackson had long anticipated.—War was declared against the enemy of his country and his race, on the eighteenth of June, 1812. It is easy to conceive the emotions which the intelligence must have awakened in his bosom. Recollections of the past came rushing and thronging into his mind. The cycles of Time rolled backward. Again he stood upon the threshold of his desolate home,—on “the forest-clad banks of the Catawba,”—orphaned by the cruelty of British officers and agents. Let him not be reproached, if motives of revenge quickened and sharpened his patriotism. His desire for vengeance was almost holy in its character—it was based on fraternal affection, on filial love!

When the tocsin of war was sounded, the glad, prolonged echoes, came up from every valley and hamlet; but in no quarter of the country was the response more enthusiastic, than in the valley of the Mississippi. General Jackson immediately issued a stirring address to his division, twenty-five hundred men of which volunteered to follow wheresoever he saw fit to lead them. A tender of their services was made to the President, through Governor Blount, on the twenty-fifth of June, which was accepted on the eleventh of July. No immediate duty being required of the patriotic volunteers belonging to his division, General Jackson became impatient to participate in the struggle, and solicited the appointment of brigadier general in the regular army, which was conferred on General Winchester. Could President Madison have foreseen the sad catastrophe that occurred on the banks of the Raisin, in the following January; or had he possessed any correct idea of the military qualifications of General Jackson, we may well suppose that the latter would have been his choice.

An opportunity, however, was soon presented to Jackson, for taking the field. On the first of November, Governor Blount issued an order, in conformity with a requisition from the War Department, directing him to organize and equip fifteen hundred infantry and riflemen, with whom he was instructed to descend the river to New Orleans, and reïnforce General Wilkinson, then commanding that department. The necessary proclamation was issued, and, on the tenth of December, upwards of two thousand men rendezvoused at Nashville, many of whom had come miles upon miles, through cold, and sleet, and snow, undaunted by the rigors of the climate, and intent only on obeying the call of their country. On the thirteenth instant, the organization of the command, which consisted of one regiment of cavalry, not embraced in the requisition, but enrolled with the consent of Governor Blount, under Colonel Coffee, and two regiments of infantry, under Colonels Hall and T. H. Benton, was fully completed.

Numerous difficulties were yet to be encountered before the troops could be put in motion. Arms had been sparingly furnished by the government, and funds for the payment of the men had not been provided. Discontents naturally arose, and a mutiny was threatened. The firmness and determination of General Jackson prevented any outbreak, and his energy and perseverance ultimately overcame every obstacle. On the thirty-first of December, Colonel Coffee commenced his march with the mounted men, six hundred and seventy strong, by the overland route, to Natchez. On the seventh and eighth of January, 1813, General Jackson embarked on the Cumberland, in flat boats, with the two infantry regiments, numbering about fourteen hundred. Descending the rivers slowly,—his progress being constantly impeded by large masses of floating ice,—he reached Natchez on the fifteenth of February, near which he found the cavalry under Colonel Coffee.

At this point, General Jackson was met by a request from General Wilkinson, whose headquarters were at New Orleans, to halt his command, and report to him his force and instructions. Wilkinson held the rank of brigadier general in the regular army, with the brevet of major general; and it is not unlikely, that he suspected it was the intention of the government, that Jackson should supersede him. His request, doubtless, was prompted by this apprehension. As there was no indication of an attack on New Orleans, Jackson cheerfully complied with it. Natchez was a much more salubrious position for his troops, and having disembarked them, he marched to Washington, a few miles distant, where a cantonment had been previously established by a corps of regulars. The troops were placed in comfortable quarters, and a strong guard was detailed to protect the boats at Natchez.

Camp regulations were now adopted, and strict orders issued by the commanding general, to proceed with the discipline and instruction of the troops. Becoming impatient for active duty, he wrote to the Secretary of War on the first of March, suggesting the employment of his force on the northern frontier, if there was no prospect of invasion in the south, or if Congress did not authorize the taking possession of Florida. This suggestion was repeated in a second letter written on the seventh of March. Before these letters reached Washington, an order had been issued from the War Department, directing him, on the receipt thereof, to consider his force dismissed from the service, and to take measures for the delivery of all articles of public property in his possession, to General Wilkinson. This unfeeling mandate concluded with a cold tender of thanks to himself and the corps under his command.

Jackson was fairly astounded at the blow. His whole command, officers and men, joined in denouncing, in unmeasured terms, the Secretary of War, General Armstrong, by whom the order was issued. He was still more indignant, when he discovered the probable key to the movement, in a letter from General Wilkinson, who suggested his encouraging the regular recruiting service from the troops he commanded, “in an appropriate general order.” Jackson did no such thing;—but, when a recruiting officer made his appearance, informed him that if he attempted to seduce a single volunteer from the corps, he would drum him out of the camp.

The patriotic volunteers who had accompanied General Jackson to Natchez were mostly young men—the flower of West Tennessee—the sons and brothers of his dearest friends and neighbors. The order he had received, required him to abandon these men, who looked up to him as a parent, in a strange land, five hundred miles from their homes; to deprive them of their arms, their tents and provisions; and to leave the sick uncared for, and unattended. This he could not, and did not do. He immediately wrote to the Secretary of War, denouncing his order, in no very honied words, and to the President, complaining of its barbarity, and giving his reasons for partially disregarding it. The necessary orders were then given to provide wagons and supplies; the men were directed to retain their arms; he borrowed five thousand dollars of a merchant in Natchez, on his own responsibility, to make up deficiencies; and, as soon as everything could be got in readiness, set out on his return march with his whole command,—declaring that not a single man should be left behind, “who had any life in him.”

Two hundred miles of the route lay through the Choctaw and Chickasaw country, and the only essential service rendered by the expedition was this homeward march, which overawed the Indians, and deterred them from joining the hostile Creeks and Cherokees.—Jackson paid every attention to the comfort of his soldiers, up to the last moment, strictly fulfilling his solemn pledge not to abandon one of them. Frequently he gave up his own horse to the sick, or exhausted soldier, and trudged along on foot, cheering all by his example, and ever ready with a kind word, to encourage those who faltered.

Deeply chagrined though he was, at the result of the expedition to Natchez, General Jackson was still anxious to take part in the active scenes of the war. The disasters on the northern frontier in 1812, and the failure of the projected winter campaign under Harrison, in consequence of the incautious advance of General Winchester to Frenchtown, had produced a deep impression on his mind. His proud spirit smarted under the discredit of defeat; and, on the eighth of April, when on his way home, he wrote to the Secretary of War, informing him that he should be glad to execute any orders of the government in Canada, with his detachment, which could be augmented, if necessary. “I have a few standards,” said he, “wearing the American eagle, that I should be happy to place upon the ramparts of Malden.”

About the middle of May, the Tennessee volunteers reached home and were discharged. The Secretary of War informed General Jackson that the order to dismiss his force was designed to reach him at Fort Massac, near the mouth of the Cumberland; it being supposed that he had not yet moved down the river. Though this explanation appeared inconsistent with the orders at the same time issued to General Wilkinson, its sincerity was not questioned by General Jackson. It was sufficient for him that his conduct was sanctioned by the government, and that he was relieved from the pecuniary responsibilities he had incurred.

Within a few months after his return from Natchez, General Jackson was again called from his retirement, to lead a large body of troops into the Indian country on the southern borders of Tennessee.

By the treaty of San Ildefonso, concluded on the first day of October, 1800, Louisiana was ceded by the Spanish government to the French republic. The territorial rights thereby acquired, were transferred to the United States, by a treaty concluded at Paris, on the thirtieth of April, 1803. Spain was highly incensed at the assignment of the territory, and threw every possible obstacle in the way of its occupation by the authorities of the United States. For a long time she refused absolutely, to yield up a large tract of country lying between the Perdido and Mississippi rivers, upon the pretence that it belonged to Florida.

During the war on the European continent, a community of feeling and interest was established between Spain and England; and it was only by the assistance and coöperation of British fleets and armies, that Ferdinand VII was able finally to preserve his throne. When hostilities commenced between the United States and Great Britain,—though solemnly bound by the provisions of a treaty concluded with the former, in 1795, to restrain the Indians on the frontiers of Florida, by force, from attacking American citizens,—Spain, through her officers, permitted British agents sent from Canada, to establish themselves at the posts belonging to, or occupied by her, and countenanced, or connived at, their efforts to stir up the savages to begin an exterminating warfare.

The principal Indian nations in the southern part of the Union were the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. The two last mentioned tribes, together about thirty-five thousand strong, resided on the Yazoo, Pearl, and Pascagoula rivers, in the Territory of Mississippi; and after the occupation of Louisiana, and the march of General Jackson through their country, with his large army, on his return from Natchez, they could not be induced to take up arms against the Americans. The Cherokees, also, who occupied the mountainous country, where the two Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama,—the last a part of Mississippi Territory at the time of which I am speaking,—adjoin, or approach each other, with the exception of a very small portion of the younger members of the tribe, remained on friendly terms with their white neighbors. The Creeks, numbering near twenty-five thousand, inhabited the fertile and beautiful Aulochewan country; their settlements extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Tennessee river, and from the Chatahoochee to the Tombigbee, in the centre of which was the famous Hickory Ground, a rich tract of land lying in the forks of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, which its aboriginal occupants, from time immemorial, held peculiarly sacred. Besides these tribes, there was the Seminole band, an off-shoot of the Creeks, who had their homes in the swamps and hummocks on the borders of Georgia and Florida.

The Creeks and Seminoles, from their situation, in the vicinity of St. Augustine, St. Marks, Pensacola, and Fort Condé, were rendered particularly liable to be influenced by the British agents at those posts. In the winter of 1811–12, Tecumseh visited the Creeks, and exhorted them earnestly to dig up the hatchet. After his departure, prophets arose among them, who practiced the same rites and incantations with the brother of the Shawano Chief, and, like him, professed to have received important revelations from the Great Spirit.⁠[17] The older and wiser warriors were exceedingly averse to war, but, through the influence and machinations of British and Spanish officers who attended their councils, they were overruled by the younger and more ambitious spirits of the tribe.

Soon after war was declared, the Seminoles commenced their depredations; but in the following winter, a body of Georgia militia, with two hundred volunteers from East Tennessee, followed them into Florida, burned several of their towns, and returned home again in the spring of 1813. Matters were not yet ripe for a general outbreak, although it was confidently anticipated, as English vessels were known to be sent from the Bahamas to Florida, laden with arms, clothing, and ammunition, for the hostile Indians. In January, 1813, President Madison requested authority from Congress, to take possession of the territory claimed by Spain, lying west of the Perdido. After some delay, an act was passed, and on the fifteenth of April, General Wilkinson appeared before Fort Condé, near Mobile, and demanded its surrender. The Spanish commandant made no resistance, and the American standard was for the first time planted in the disputed territory. Other prominent points in the vicinity of Mobile were also occupied by the American troops.

Occasional outrages were committed during the summer of 1813, and the white settlers residing in the neighborhood of the Creeks and Seminoles lived in a state of constant alarm and agitation. On the fifteenth of August, Governor Blount, of Tennessee, was directed to detail fifteen hundred of the militia of that state, and hold them in readiness for immediate service. These troops were not called out, however; and as time wore on without the occurrence of any serious calamity, the border inhabitants began to fancy themselves almost secure from attack. They were soon aroused from their lethargy, by the glare of burning villages, and the rattling war-cry of the Indian warrior.

On the thirtieth day of August, 1813, Fort Mims, about forty miles from Mobile, on the left bank of the Alabama river, and a short distance above its junction with the Tombigbee, was surprised by a party of Creeks, seven hundred strong, under their chief, Weatherford; the garrison, consisting of one hundred and fifty of the 1st Mississippi volunteers, under Major Beasely, and twenty white families who had taken refuge in the fort, with their negroes, in all about three hundred and fifty persons, were cruelly massacred. But seventeen of the whites made their escape. The perpetration of this horrid tragedy excited the utmost consternation at the forts and stations on the Tombigbee, of which there were nearly twenty within a distance of seventy miles above Fort Stoddart. Most of the forts were abandoned, and the affrighted fugitives fled down the river to Mobile, which was itself extremely insecure.

General Claiborne, and Governor Holmes of the Mississippi Territory, immediately called out a small militia force,—all that it was in their power to bring into the field,—for the protection of the Mobile country. In Tennessee, the alarm was universal, and the whole population were aroused. But little aid could be expected from the General Government, all whose means and energies were employed in the prosecution of the northern campaign, and the defence of the Atlantic coast from the ravages of the more civilized, but not less brutal enemy. A public meeting of the citizens of Nashville was held on the eighteenth of September, at which resolutions were passed, urgently recommending the adoption, by the State Legislature, of prompt measures for the invasion of the Creek country. In accordance therewith, an act was passed on the twenty-fifth instant, authorizing the governor to call out thirty-five hundred men, in addition to the fifteen hundred already required by the General Government, who were to be immediately put in service, and pledging the faith of the state to pay them, if Congress should refuse. A resolution was also adopted on the twenty-seventh instant, directing the governor to tender the services of the Tennessee troops to the United States.

The public sentiment, with one accord, fixed upon Andrew Jackson as the leader of this force. He was still confined to his room, on account of the arm fractured in the affray with Colonel Benton, which has been mentioned; but when his country called him to the field, he was ready to obey her behest. On the twenty-fourth of September, Governor Blount directed him to call out, without delay, two thousand men of his division, to rendezvous at Fayetteville,—and to order Colonel Coffee into immediate service, with five hundred cavalry previously raised. The necessary instructions were issued, on the same day, to Colonel Coffee, who was further instructed, to incorporate with his regiment any companies of volunteer riflemen that might present themselves. He also ordered into service the volunteers who had accompanied him to Natchez, together with one thousand militia from his division.

On the twenty-fifth of September, General Jackson directed a part of the cavalry to repair to Huntsville, by forced marches. On the twenty-sixth, Colonel Coffee was ordered to move upon the same point and wait further orders, and on the twenty-eighth, he was instructed to proceed to Fort St. Stephen’s which was said to be threatened by the enemy. The state of his health did not permit the general to appear at Fayetteville on the fourth of October, the day appointed for the rendezvous; but he was represented on that occasion, by his aid, Major Reid, through whom he delivered to the assembled troops a most eloquent and spirited address. On the seventh instant he reached the place of rendezvous, with his arm in a sling, where he found a dispatch from Colonel Coffee, who had marched a short distance beyond Huntsville, with near thirteen hundred men, informing him that the Creeks had divided their forces,—one portion moving towards the Georgia line, and the other advancing upon the frontiers of Tennessee,—and that, in consequence of this, he had not proceeded to Fort St. Stephen’s.