captivity, at Camden, where their sufferings were great from their wounds, and the small-pox, then prevalent among the prisoners. Being finally released, by exchange, the Jacksons, accompanied by their mother, returned home to the Waxhaw settlement, where Robert died in two days afterward. By kind nursing and the care of a physician, Andrew finally recovered from a dangerous sickness. His mother died soon after this, from the effects of a fever taken on board the prison-ship at Charleston, whither she went on an adventure of kindness and mercy, for the relief of some of her relatives and friends confined on board of that vessel. Thus every member of the Jackson family which came from Ireland to America to escape British oppression, perished through the effects of the same. oppression in America. The only remnant of the family was an American-born son, who, through many perils, lived to be the avenger of his race. At the close of the war of the revolution, Andrew Jackson was left alone in the world, his own master, with some little property, but without the benefit of parental counsel or restraint. At first associating with idle young men, he imbibed loose and extravagant habits, which he suddenly determined to reform. Changing his course of life, he commenced the study of law, at Salisbury, North Carolina, with Spruce M'Cay, Esq., then an eminent counsellor, and subsequently a judge of distinction. This was in the winter of 1784, when he was in his eighteenth year. He finished his studies under Colonel Stokes, and in a little more than two years he was licensed to practise law. Soon after this, without solicitation on his part, he received from the governor of North Carolina the appointment of solicitor for the western district of that state, embracing the present state of Tennessee. At the age of twenty-one, in 1788, Andrew Jackson, accompanied by Judge McNairy, crossed the mountains to take up his abode in Tennessee, then the western district of North Carolina. For several months he resided at Jonesborough, then the principal seat of justice in that district. In 1789, he first visited the infant settlements on the Cumberland river, near the present site of Nashville. The settlers had at this time many difficulties with the Indians, who were then numerous and hostile to the whites. During this perilous period, Jackson performed twenty-two journeys across the wilderness of two hundred miles, then intervening between Jonesborough and the Cumberland settlements. He was frequently under arms, with other settlers, to protect parties of emigrants from the attacks of the Indians. He was also engaged in several expeditions against the Indians, in one of which, in 1794, the native town of Nickajack, near the Tennessee river, was destroyed. By his gallantry in these affairs, Jackson became well known to the Indians, who gave him the names of Sharp Knife" and "Pointed Arrow." He gained equally their respect and that of his companions, the hardy settlers of Tennessee. Having determined to make the neighborhood of Nashville his permanent home, Jackson, with his friend Judge Overton, became boarders in the family of Mrs. Donelson, the widow of Colonel John Donelson, an emigrant from Virginia. Mrs. Rachel Robards, her daughter, who afterward became the wife of Jackson, was then living with her mother. This lady was celebrated for her beauty, affability, and other attractions. Her husband, Captain Robards, was a man of dissolute habits and jealous disposition. A separation took place, and Robards applied to the legislature of Virginia for a divorce; soon after, intelligence was received that his petition had been granted. Mrs. Robards was then at Natchez, on the Mississippi, and Jackson, considering that she was free to form a new connexion, in the summer of 1791 went down to Natchez, paid her his addresses, and was accepted. In the fall they were married, and returned to the Cumberland, where they were cordially received by their mutual friends. In December, 1793, Jackson learned, for the first time, that the act of the Virginia legislature did not grant a divorce, but only authorized a suit for divorce in a Kentucky court, which had just been brought to a successful issue. Surprised and mortified at this information, on his return to Nashville, in January, 1794, he took out a license, and was again regularly married. The conduct of Jackson in this affair was considered, by those familiar with the circumstances, correct and honorable, and perfectly consistent with true morality. His friend and confidential associate remarks: "In his singularly delicate sense of honor, and in what I thought his chivalrous conception of the female sex, it occurred to me that he was distinguished from every other person with whom I was acquainted." Jackson, after his marriage, applied himself with renewed diligence to his profession in the practice of the law. Circumstances connected with his professional business required the exercise of his firmness of character and courage, in no ordinary degree. There had been a combination of debtors against him, as he was employed by creditors for the collection of claims, which he succeeded in breaking down, but not without making bitter enemies. Bullies were stimulated to attack and insult him, and thus brought him into several personal contests, which generally ended in a severe punishment of the aggressors, by the bold and fearless Jackson. In 1795, the people of Tennessee elected delegates to a convention for the formation of a state constitution, preparatory to admission into the Union. Of that convention Jackson was chosen a member by his neighbors, and took an active part in the formation of the constitution. The convention sat at Knoxville from the 11th of January to the 6th of Febru ary, 1796, and Tennessee was admitted into the Union as a state, by act of Congress, on the 1st of June, the same year. Jackson was chosen the first representative from the new state in Congress, and took his seat in the house on the 5th of December, 1796. His term expired on the 3d of March following, and he was prevented from continuing longer in that body, being elected by the legislature of Tennessee to the senate of the United States, where he took his seat on the 22d of November, 1797, being then only a few months over thirty years of age. He appears not to have been ambitious or anxious for political distinction at that time, for, after serving one session, he resigned his seat in the senate. During his short career in Congress, it is believed that he made no speeches; but in his votes he acted with the democratic party, opposing the administration of Washington at its close, and subsequently that of John Adams. While a member of the house, he was one of a minority of twelve democrats, among whom were Edward Livingston, Nathaniel Macon, and William B. Giles, who voted against an answer to Washington's last speech to Congress; because that answer expressly approved of the measures of Washington's administration, some of which were condemned by the democratic party. The state gave her first vote for president to Mr. Jefferson in 1796, which vote she repeated in 1800. In the political revolution which elevated Mr. Jefferson to the presidency, Jackson participated, and acted with the friends of Mr. Jefferson; but little effort was required, however, to secure the vote for the democratic candidates, in a state so uniformly devoted to that party as Tennessee. At this period, the popularity of Jackson in Tennessce was equal, if it did not exceed that of any other citizen of the state. Soon after his resignation as senator, the legislature again honored him by conferring upon him the appointment of judge of the supreme court of the state. This office he accepted, and for a time performed the duties of the station; but, owing to ill health, he determined to resign and retire to private life. This intention he was induced to defer for the present, in consequence of remonstrances from members of the legislature and others, who entreated him to remain upon the bench. The circumstances in which Jackson was placed, and his course in several public affairs, occasioned a misunderstanding between him and other leading men in Tennessee. Among those who became his enemies, were Judge McNairy and Governor Sevier. A personal quarrel with the latter occasioned a challenge from Judge Jackson, which was accepted by the governor, and the parties, without any formal arrangement, met on horseback, each armed with a brace of pistols, the governor having also a sword, while Jackson had a cane, which he carried as a spear. Putting spurs to his horse, he charged upon his antagonist in a bold and unexpected manner, and the governor dismounted to avoid the shock. The interference of the governor's attendants prevented any serious mischief, and by the intercession of mutual friends further hostile intentions were abandoned. The affair, however, occasioned sundry angry publications by the friends of the respective parties, which show the peculiar state of society |