romance.

such as finding out the exact terms of the act of the Legislature of Virginia. He clung to this lady until her death, with rare single-mindedness and devotion, although she was not at all fitted to share the destiny which befell him. He cherished her memory until his own death in a fashion of high An imputation upon her, or a reflection upon the regularity of his marriage, always incensed him more than any other personal attack. Having put her in a false position, against which, as man and lawyer, he should have protected her, he was afterward led, by his education and the current ways of thinking in the society about him, to try to heal the defects in his marriage certificate by shooting any man who dared to state the truth; that said certificate was irregular.

Jackson was a member of the convention which met at Knoxville, January 11, 1796, and framed a Constitution for the State of Tennessee. There is a tradition that he proposed the name of the river as the name of the State.1 This Constitution established a freehold qualification for voting and holding the chief offices, and declared that the people of Tennessee had an inalienable right to navigate the Mississippi river to its mouth. The federalists in Congress opposed the admission of Tennessee, because it was a raw frontier community; but it was admitted June 1, 1796. In the autumn Jackson was elected the first federal representative. A year later, Blount, one of the senators from Ten1 Ramsey, 655.

nessee, having been expelled, Jackson was appointed senator in his place. He held this position only until April, 1798, when he resigned.

He

In December, 1796, therefore, at the age of thirty, Jackson first came in contact with a society as cultivated as that of Philadelphia then was. Except for the brief visit to Charleston in 1783, above referred to, he had seen no society but that of western North Carolina and Tennessee. came to Philadelphia just as the presidential election of 1796 was being decided. Tennessee voted for Jefferson, and we may believe that whatever political notions Jackson had were Jeffersonian. He identified himself with the opposition to Washington's administration in the most factious and malicious act which it perpetrated, namely, the vote against the address to Washington at the close of his administration. He and Edward Livingston were two out of twelve in the House who refused to vote for the address. It is not known what Jackson's reasons were. Some refused to vote that Washington's administration had been wise. Others objected to the hope that Washington's example would guide his successors. grounds of objection to the administration were Jay's treaty and Hamilton's financial measures. In the light of history the "irreconcilable" minority which opposed these measures to the bitter end must stand condemned.

The

1 In 1830 Livingston attempted an elaborate defence of his vote. He tried to distinguish between Washington and his ad ministration. Hunt's Livingston, 340.

In the Senate, Jackson voted, with only two others, against a bill to authorize the President to buy or lease cannon foundries, in view of possible war with France. He voted against a bill to authorize the arming of merchant ships; in favor of an embargo; against a proviso that the United States should not be bound to cancel the Indian title to land on behalf of any State.1

We know nothing of any activity or interest shown by Jackson in any measure save a claim of Hugh L. White, and an act to reimburse Tennessee for expenses incurred in an Indian war. Tennessee thought that the federal government was slow and negligent about defending her against the Indians. The federal government thought that Tennessee was hasty and aggressive towards the Indians. It had inherited the burden against which North Carolina had revolted.2 Jackson secured payment of this claim of Tennessee while he was in the House, to the great advantage of his popularity at home.

We must infer from his conduct that he did not enjoy political life and did not care for it. He certainly did not become engaged in it at all, and he formed no ties which he found it hard to break at a moment's warning. He does not appear to have made much impression upon anybody at Philadelphia. In the "History of the United States in 1796" (p. 244) he is quoted for an account of the Nickajack expedition, against the Indian strong

1 Annals of Congress; 5th Congress, I. 485-532.

2 See p. 11, n. 1.

hold, in 1794. Gallatin recalled him years afterwards as "a tall, lank, uncouth-looking personage, with long locks of hair hanging over his face, and a cue down his back tied in an eel-skin; his dress singular, his manners and deportment that of a rough backwoodsman." 1 Jefferson said of him, in 1824: "When I was President of the Senate he was a senator, and he could never speak on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage.' There is, however, ample testimony that Jackson, later in life, was distinguished and elegant in his bearing, when he did not affect roughness and inelegance, and that he was able to command encomiums upon his manners from the best bred ladies in the country.

"2

Jackson was a "Judge of the Superior Courts " of Tennessee from 1798 to June 1804. Overton's Reports (1 Tennessee) cover this period, but the reports are meagre and undated (beginning in 1791), and those which appear to belong to Jackson's time deal with only petty and unimportant cases. It is stated here that he resigned, "having been previously appointed a general of the militia.'

The

While Jackson was on the bench, he and ex-Governor Sevier were in feud with each other. origin of the quarrel is obscure, and not worth picking out from the contradictory backwoods gossip in which it probably originated. It is enough to notice that the two men were too much alike in 14 Hildreth, 692. 2 Webster's Corr. 371.

temper to be pleased with each other. Sevier was fifty-seven years old in 1801, and had been a leading man in the country for twenty years. Jackson was only thirty-four in that year, and a rising man, whose success interfered with Sevier's plans for himself. In 1802 the field officers of the militia tried to elect a major-general. Sevier and Jackson were the candidates. The election resulted in a tie. The governor, Archibald Roane, who had the casting vote, threw it for Jackson. Jackson had not taken part in the Nickajack expedition, or otherwise done military service, so far as is known, except as a private in an Indian fight in 1789. On that occasion one of his comrades described him as "bold, dashing, fearless, and mad upon his enemies."1 In 1803 Sevier was elected governor, and he and the judge-major-general drew their weapons on each other when they met. Each had his faction of adherents, and it was only by the strenuous efforts of these persons that they were prevented from doing violence to each other. Kendall says that Jackson's popularity was increased by his quarrel with Sevier. 2 Parton gives letters of Jackson from this period which are astonishingly illiterate for a man in his position, even when all the circumstances are taken into consideration. Jackson was made a trustee of the Nashville Academy in 1793.3

He wanted to be made governor of the Territory of Orleans after the purchase, and the Tennessee 1 Putnam, 318. 2 Kendall's Jackson, 108. 3 Putnam, 410.