CHAPTER I.

Introductory Remarks-Birth of Mr. Jackson-His parentage-War of the Revolution-He engages in the war-Is taken prisoner-Resists the command of a British officer-Mrs. Jackson-Her virtuesHer death-Mr. Jackson an orphan-Studies lawAdmitted to the bar-Removes to the South West Territory-Appointed Attorney General-Member of the Tennessee Convention-A representative in Congress-A senator in Congress-Judge of the Supreme Court-Burr's conspiracy-Charges against him refuted.

WHENEVER an individual, by the force of his own peculiar talents and energy, has raised himself from obscurity to the highest attainable summit of earthly distinction, a curiosity, very natural in itself, is engendered, to learn something of his early history; to trace the first workings of a mind, whose conceptions have laid the foundation, and whose perseverance has raised before the admiring gaze of the world, a monument of undying fame. This indulgence often proves unsatisfactory, as instances are numerous of men whose maturity has developed powers that have commanded the admiration of the world, who, in early life, gave no indication of future greatness. The province of the biographer, however, in commencing the life of his subject, is always the same, whether the early years of his hero were rife with spirit-stirring indi

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cations of exalted intellect, or exhibited nothing above the ordinary endowments of men.

Andrew Jackson was born at Waxaw, district of Marion, in the state of South Carolina, on the 15th of March, 1767. His father was a native of Ireland, and emigrated to America with his family, a wife and two sons, in 1765. The object of his emigration was, to escape from the oppressions which were at that period heaped by the English government upon the middle and lower classes of that ill-fated country. He died about two years after his emigration, and thus escaped British tyranny; which, unsatiated with its victims in Europe, followed soon after, and planted its hideous front upon the American shores. He left three sons, of whom Andrew was the youngest, in a strange land, in the helplessness of infancy and childhood, to the care of their widowed mother, who executed the arduous task of nurturing her children, in a manner that reflected the highest credit upon her persevering fortitude, and exemplary devotedness to the exercise of the best impulses of the human heart. Her pecuniary resources were limited; yet, by judicious management, she was enabled to give her two eldest sons the rudiments of a common education. Andrew she designed for the ministry; and, with this view, he was admitted as a student in an academical institution, where the languages and the higher branches of literature were taught. Here he commenced the study of the classics; and he would probably have proceeded to effectuate the object designed, had he not been interrupted by a train of events, which constitute the brightest era in American history. We allude to the war of the Revolution. The history of the world furnishes no parallel, in which a contest has been maintained between high handed oppression, and a total disregard of

the rights of man on one part, and a determined and persevering resistance of the oppressed on the other, and which terminated so gloriously, as is exhibited in the revolutionary struggle of our fathers. No portion of the colonies suffered more from British invasion, than the southern states. A considerable portion of them was for a time completely overrun, and subjected to the cruelties and indignities of a merciless soldiery. The eldest brother of Andrew joined the army, and was killed at the battle of Stono. Andrew Jackson, with his only surviving brother, joined the American forces soon after, in defence of their country and their homes, the former being only fourteen years of age.

The southern colonies were, at this period, extremely defenceless. Lord Cornwallis, the commander of the British forces, found but little resistance in the commission of his depredations, from those whose lives and liberties he was trampling in the dust; consequently, he left the country, and proceeded to the north, in pursuit of a more extensive field for the exercise of his exterminating propensities, taking the precaution, however, of leaving behind him a band of his myrmidons, sufficiently numerous to awe the vanquished into subjection. On the departure of Cornwallis, the inhabitants of Waxaw, who had been dispersed by his troops, ventured again to return and repair the ruins of the place, and take measures for their defence. Camden was at this period in the possession of Lord Rawdon, whose vigilance, worthy of a better cause, was awakened by news that the inhabitants of Waxaw, whom he supposed to have been effectually exterminated, were again preparing for defensive operations. It is well known, that in this contest the Americans were considered as rebels, who had raised the standard of revolt, and set at defiance the su

premacy of their legitimate sovereign. That interchange of courtesies, usually practised by belligerent nations, was entirely dispensed with; consequently, the contest was maintained, on the part of Great Britain, with a spirit of barbarity and cold-blooded extermination. Actuated by these principles, Lord Rawdon availed himself of the assistance of the American Tories, whom he dispatched with a detachment of British dragoons, under the command of Major Coffin, to the destruction of Waxaw. The inhapitants were determined to defend themselves, though the prospect of ultimate success was nearly hopeless. They assembled, and were entrenching themselves in their church, when they were suddenly surprised by the British troops. Eleven of their number were taken prisoners, and the residue escaped. Among the latter were Andrew Jackson, and his brother. They were captured, however, on the ensuing day, and an incident then occurred, which developed the germings of a spirit, which has since prompted its possessor to the accomplishment of deeds of noble daring. Every species of indignity was practised upon the American prisoners, and, with other ill-treatment, young Jackson was ordered to clean the boots of a British officer. He indignantly refused to obey the debasing command, and demanded the treatment due to a prisoner of war. The officer, enraged at the boldness of the refusal, made a violent pass with his sword at the head of the youth, which he parried with his hand, and received a severe wound in consequence. This may, to many, seem a trifling incident; but when we reflect that he was only fourteen years of age, and the prisoner of men who butchered their opponents with a recklessness unknown in the annals of modern warfare, his manly firmness and exalted sense of honor cannot, it is believed, fail to elicit the meed of admiration.

The fate of his brother was more tragical. He was severely wounded upon the head, after being taken prisoner; and in this condition he was, with his brother Andrew, thrown into prison, and confined by the order of his captors in a separate cell. Here he remained neglected, his wounds undressed, shut out from the assistance and sympathy of a single individual who could have extended to him the hand of relief, till an exchange of prisoners took place, when he was returned to die under his mother's roof. The neglect of his wound while in prison, produced an inflammation of the brain, which terminated in death. We cannot here forbear paying a small tribute to the memory of the excellent mother of Mr. Jackson. She had remained in Europe, till British oppression threatened to overwhelm her family. She then, with her husband and children, sought an asylum on the American shores; but even here the same oppressors followed her. A lone widow, in a land of strangers, she succeeded in rearing her children to the dawn of manhood, only to see them fall by the hands of a merciless enemy. The last efforts of her life were spent in mitigating the sufferings, and extending relief to the prisoners who were captured in her neighborhood:-but when she saw ner children fall-those whom in the ardor of maternal affection she had so fondly nurtured-the ties which bound her to earth were broken, and the grave closed upon her as it had done upon her murdered offspring.

Mr. Jackson, at the age of fifteen, found himself alone in the world, a sad spectator of the desolations that had visited his family. Divorced from every living being with whom he could sympathize as a kinsman, he might speak in the emphatic language of the chieftain, the last of whose relatives had been slain in battle," that not a drop of his blood ran in the veins of any living creature." The sud