fled for their lives. General Jessup commanded in Florida. He made a treaty with the Indians, but Osceola trampled it under foot and refused to be bound by the most sacred promises. Hundreds of the troops perished in the swamps of fevers and of the bites of venomous serpents. At length Osceola came to General Jessup

October, 1837.

under a flag of truce, and was detained, sent to Charleston, and confined in Fort Moultrie. Jessup was severely censured for violating the sanctity of a flag of truce; but he explained that as this was the only way in which he could stop the career of this treacherous chief who violated every obligation, he felt justified in doing as he did. Osceola died of fever at Fort Moultrie in 1839. But the war went on, continuing in all about seven years, and costing the United States $30,000,000.

CHARACTER OF JACKSON

The student of history must search long to find a parallel to this remarkable man, who has been pronounced "the incarnate multitude," and whose will dominated the government of the United States for eight years. The period was noted for its great men, and yet Jackson stood alone as the transcendent figure of the times. Such leaders as Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were powerless while Jackson occupied the political stage. His popularity in his party was unbounded. The people came to believe that he could do no wrong, and that he stood like an angel with a flaming sword, guarding their interests against the designs of the politicians. It is difficult to rate Jackson as a statesman. He had little training in statecraft, but he was gifted with an intuition that proved remarkable for its accuracy. His insight into human nature was almost unerring.1

The most conspicuous element in Jackson's character was his will. This was as inflexible as steel. He usually reached his conclusion on a great subject without apparently considering the matter, and then, deciding on his course with equal suddenness, he bent every energy to attain his object and trampled every foe and every obstacle that came in his way. No expostulations of friends or threats of enemies could change his marvelous will. He had a Cabinet, it is true, but no real advisers. He called his Cabinet together, not to seek advice, but to inform them of his intentions, and

1 He could be imposed on, however, by artful politicians. But with the exception of Swartwout, who stole a million dollars as collector of the port of New York, and a few others, his appointments were generally commendable.

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to bid them what to do. Some of them had ten times his experience as statesmen, but they sat in his presence as children with their schoolmaster, and none that crossed his will or refused to humor his foibles or to bend to his purpose could remain long in his favor.1 Jackson held his party in a grasp of iron, and his discipline was that of a general commanding an army. He was not a partisan in the ordinary sense; he was simply master. Every contest with him was a battle, and every battle brought him victory. It is a remarkable fact that, except in the case of the Eatons, Jackson gained every important object on which he set his heart during his entire administration. His few apparent defeats were more than victories in the end. He nominated Van Buren minister to England. The Senate rejected his nominee, and Jackson made him Vice President and then President of the United States. He then named former Speaker Stevenson for the place. The Senate again refused its consent, and Jackson left the office vacant for two years, and again sent the same name to the Senate, and it was confirmed. His appointment of Taney to the treasury was also rejected, and he made Taney Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Senate at last seemed to gain a crowning victory over the President - by passing its resolutions of censure. This annoyed him exceedingly; but his friends, after laboring for three years, succeeded in expunging the hated censure -and Jackson was ahead again. Both Clay and Webster were so wearied at their successive defeats at the hands of this untutored President, that they determined to abandon public life, and would doubtless have done so, but for the retirement of their unconquerable enemy.

Andrew Jackson had faults—glaring faults. One was his lawlessness. He was a law unto himself, and was impatient of the restraints of civil law. This was shown in his Seminole campaign, as we have noticed. When President he refused to be bound by the Supreme Court, on the ground that he would sustain the Constitution as he understood it, and not as it was interpreted by others. For example, when Georgia had trouble with the Creeks, she condemned a half-breed named Tassells to be hanged. Tassells appealed to the Supreme Court, and the decision was reversed, and the state was cited on a writ of error. But Georgia was defiant, and refused to be bound by this decision. It was now Jackson's plain duty to enforce the decision of the Supreme Court, but he refused to do so. 1 Schouler, Vol. IV, p. 266. 2 Sargent, p. 344.

"John Marshall has made his decision," he is reported to have said, "now let him enforce it" and Tassells was hanged. Very similar was his action in the case of Georgia and the Cherokees, as noted on a preceding page.

one.

Jackson was a man of quarrels. He couldn't be happy without He loved his friends and hated his enemies. He was not able to distinguish between a personal and a political enemy, nor was he broad enough to give an opponent credit for honestly differing from him in opinion; but he never grew weary of showering favors on his devoted followers.

Now a hurried glance at the other side of his nature. It has been truly said that Andrew Jackson, with his vast power, could have done his country irreparable harm, had he been a bad man; but this he was not. He was a true child of nature, born with an unhappy temper, of which he never had the good fortune to become master; while the half-civilized society of the frontier had set its mark indelibly upon his life. But his heart was right. No trace in him of selfish ambition of the Aaron Burr type; no enemy, even, could accuse him of dishonesty, or couple his name with political corruption. His devotion to his country was equal to that of Washington. His unjust dealing with Mexico arose from his too great love of country his longing to see Texas a part of the Union. When he disobeyed orders while a commander in the field, it was because he thought he knew best. When he quarreled with enemies, he doubtless thought he was right and they were wrong, and compromise was a meaningless word with Jackson.

The story of Jackson's home life is scarcely credible to the reader who knows him only in the hurricane of battle, and in the caldron of political strife. In the domestic circle Jackson was the gentlest and most lovable of men. His servants, white and black, revered him as a father. His devotion to his wife while she lived, and to her memory after she was gone, was rarely beautiful. For years after her death he would place her picture in front of him on the table before retiring at night, and alternately look at it and read from the prayer book that she had given him, and late in life he fulfilled his promise to her that he would become a member of the Church. In morals he was as chaste as a child, and one of his striking characteristics was his courtesy and chivalry to women. In appearance he was tall and thin, with an erect military bearing, his iron-gray hair thrown back in ridges from his forehead, while in his eye was

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a "dangerous fixedness," and down his cheeks deep furrows ran. The prevailing expression of his face showed energy and will power. He would be singled out, even among extraordinary men, says an English writer, as a man of superior cast.

The most serious accusation brought against Jackson was that his want of respect for law would infuse a similar spirit into his followers; but it cannot be shown that any such result followed.

The political influence of Jackson upon the country, especially upon the northern Democrats, was very great. At the time of his power the murmurs of sectionalism and disunion were distinctly heard from the South; but Jackson, while a strong friend of state rights, was an unrelenting foe to sectionalism and disunion. He was national in the broadest and best sense, and this spirit he infused into the multitude. Above all men of his times Jackson was the idol, the oracle, the teacher of the great unformed democracy, the untutored masses, many of whom had but recently received the franchise. What they needed above all things was a lesson in nationality and they received it from Jackson. Through him vast numbers of men came to love the nation above the state, and it was largely through the memory and influence of Jackson that the northern Democrats came forward in 1861 to aid in saving the Union, which he, through their fathers, had taught them to love.1

While we cannot sympathize with the spoils system of Jackson, nor with his harsh treatment of the Seminoles, nor his double dealing with Mexico, nor his belligerent propensities in general, it cannot be denied that he was a true patriot and an honest man. In ability he was almost a Cæsar; and while it is perhaps well that the American people are inclined to place few Cæsars in the presidential chair, may it be hoped that whenever they do they will choose as honest

and unselfish a one as was Andrew Jackson.

MARTIN VAN BUREN

The administration of Van Buren properly belongs to the Jackson epoch; but the term "reign" can be used no longer, as the new President lacked the dictatorial power and the popularity of his predecessor. It was the intense desire of the outgoing President that his favorite from New York become his successor. His wishes were respected by the party, and Van Buren became President - but

1 This thought is brought out by A. D. Morse, in an able article in the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. I, p. 154 sq.

not without a contest. A new political party had been born. Henry Clay, who had served with the Democrats for twenty years, but who was now at variance with them at all points, determined after his

Whig party born.

defeat by Jackson in 1832 to break away entirely from the old party. And while casting about for a party name the old Revolutionary name Whig was decided on, and was first used in 1834. The Whig party absorbed the National Republican party, the name by which the opposition had been known for some years past. As the old Whig party in England and the colonies had opposed the high prerogative of the King, the new party now opposed the encroaching power of the Executive. The Whigs did not expect to win in 1836, nor was their party sufficiently united to concentrate on one man. Their aim was to throw the election into the House. Their votes in the electoral college were scattered among four men, William H. Harrison of Ohio, Judge White of Tennessee, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, and Willie P. Mangum of North Carolina. Their combined vote, however, reached but 124, while Van Buren received 167. The electoral college made no selection for Vice President, and Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky was chosen by the Senate.

As it was at the inauguration of 1797, so it was now -the eyes of the multitude were turned toward the setting rather than the rising sun. The quick-moving, smooth-shaven little man who read. his inaugural on that bleak March day in 1837, and promised to tread "in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor," won little applause from the vast crowd compared with that given the aged specter by his side. Now for the last time this old warrior, who had been dictator of American policy for eight years, leaning heavily upon his staff under his burden of three-score and ten and the ravages of long disease, came forth and received the homage of the masses. A few days later he departed for his southern home, and the troubles of the new President began.

Martin Van Buren, the son of an innkeeper and small farmer of New York, had been initiated into politics by Aaron Burr, and he was a prominent lawyer before the War of 1812. He was a man of greater individuality and ability than is generally put to his credit by historians. In 1821 he entered the United States Senate and was the leader in that body during the administration of Adams. On the death of De Witt Clinton in 1828 Van Buren was easily the foremost man in the Empire State. Resigning the governorship of that state