admitted to practice when but twenty years old. At that time he was very commanding in appearance, being six feet one inch in height, and dis. tinguished for courage and activity.

In 1791, Jackson married, at Nashville, where he had built up a lucrative practice, Mrs. Rachel Robards, the divorced wife, as both he and the lady herself supposed, of Mr. Lewis Robards. They had lived together two years, when it was discovered that Mrs. Robards was not fully divorced at the time of her second marriage. As, however, the divorce had subsequently been perfected, the marriage ceremony was performed anew, in 1794. In after years, this unfortunate mistake was made the basis of many calumnious charges against Jackson by his partisan enemies.

Tennessee having been made a State in 1796, Jackson was successively its Representative and Senator in Congress, and a Judge of its Supreme Court. Resigning his judgeship in 1804, he entered into and carried on for a number of years an extensive trading business. He was also elected at this period major-general in the militia. In 1806 he was severely wounded in a duel with Charles Dickenson, who had been making dis paraging remarks against his wife, something which Jackson could neither forget nor forgive. Dickenson fell mortally wounded, and, after sufsering intense agony for a short time, died. This sad affair, in which Jackson displayed much vin dictiveness, made him for awhile very unpopular.

When, in 1812, war was declared against England, Jackson promptly offered his services to the General Government. During the summer of 1813 he had another of those personal rencontres into which his fiery temper was continually leading him. In an affray with Thomas H. Benton, he received a pistol-shot in the shoulder at the hands of Benton's brother, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He was still suffering from the immediate consequences of this wound, when tidings were received at Nashville of the massacre at Fort Mimms by Creek Indians. Jackson, regardless of his wounds, at once took the field. An energetic campaign, in which, winning victory after victory, he established his reputation as one of our best military chieftains, ended the Creek War, and broke forever the power of the Indian races in North America.

In May, 1814, Jackson was made a major-general in the regular army and became the acknowledged military leader in the Southwest. New Orleans being threatened by the British, he hastened to defend it. There, on the 8th of January, 1815, with less than five thousand men, mostly untrained militia, he repulsed the attack of a wellappointed army of nearly fourteen thousand veteran troops, under some of the most distinguished officers in the English service. Generals Pakenham and Gibbs, of the British forces, were killed, together with seven hundred of their men, fourteen hundred more being wounded and five hundred taken prisoners. Jackson lost but eight killed and fourteen wounded. Ten days later the enemy withdrew, leaving many of their guns behind them. The full glory of Jackson's triumph at New Orleans partisan rancor subsequently sought to dim. But high military authorities, even in England, have sustained the popular judgment that it was a brilliant victory, achieved by rare foresight, wise conduct, and undoubted warlike genius.

Jackson's success at New Orleans gave him immense popularity. He received a vote of thanks from Congress, was made Commander-inchief of the southern division of the army, and even began to be talked of as a candidate for the Presidency. President Monroe offered him the post of Secretary of War. In the Seminole War, which commenced about the close of 1817, he took the field in person. He was successful, with but little fighting. His execution of Arbuthnot and Armbruster, two British subjects, found guilty by a military court of inciting the Indians to hostilities, caused an angry discussion between England and the United States which at one time threatened to end in open rupture. In Congress, also, it excited a warm debate; but resolutions censuring the General were rejected by the

conclusion in the

House, and came to no
Senate.

When Spain ceded Florida to the Union, Jackson was appointed Governor of the Territory. In 1823 he was elected to the United States Senate by the Legislature of Tennessee, which, at the same time, nominated him for the Presidency. This nomination, though ridiculed on account of Jackson's alleged unfitness for the office, nevertheless resulted, at the ensuing election, in his receiving more votes than any other single candidate; but the choice devolving on the House of Representatives, Adams, as we have seen, was elected. For Henry Clay's part in this success of Adams, Jackson became his bitter enemy, stigmatizing him as the "Judas of the West." In the next campaign, however, Jackson achieved a decided triumph, having a majority of eighty-three out of two hundred and sixty-one electoral votes.

In retaliation for the bitter personal attacks he had received during the campaign, Jackson commenced a wholesale political proscription of his partisan opponents. Adopting the war-cry of his Secretary of State, Marcy, of New York, that "to the victors belong the spoils," he initiated that system, ever since so prevalent, of turning out of office every man not on the side of the winning party. His veto of the bill re-chartering the United States Bank, which for a time caused quite a panic in commercial circles, and his determined stand against the "nullifiers," under the lead of Calhoun, who, with threats of armed resistance, demanded a reduction of the tariff, excited a warm opposition to the President. But, in spite of every effort, the election of 1828 brought him again into the Presidential chair with an overwhelming majority, he receiving two hundred and nineteen electoral votes out of two hundred and eighty-eight, which was then the total number.

On the 10th of December, 1832, Jackson was compelled by the conduct of South Carolina to issue a proclamation threatening to use the army in case of resistance to the execution of the tariff laws; but, fortunately, Mr. Clay succeeded in bringing about a compromise, by which, the tariff being modified, the South Carolinians were enabled to recede from their position with becoming dignity.

Jackson's removal of the deposits, in 1833, caused an intense excitement throughout the country. In Congress, his course was censured by the Senate, but approved by the House. A panic existed for some time in business circles; but before the close of his second term the great mass of the people were content with the President's course.

Jackson's foreign diplomacy had been very successful. Useful commercial treaties were made with several countries and renewed with others. Indemnities for spoliations on American