pride and boast of his admirers, that the great events of Andrew Jacksor's life are widely, almost universally known; and in reverting to some of them to-day, I should be more properly regarded as one of you, sharing in your reflections, and thinking aloud, than, as a public speaker, aiming to instruct or enlighten.

The most striking feature of Gen. Andrew Jackson's character was an irresistible energy. No man could be associated, or even acquainted with him, without feeling its influence. It pervaded even his personal appearance, and made itself felt by his simple presence. Above the ordinary height, and spare in person, his frame seemed incapable of enduring even slight fatigue; but his erect carriage, firm stride, deep and brilliant eye, emphatic gesture, and nervous, sententious mode of speech, denoted a spirit within, that no obstacle could repress, no danger appal.' His health was ever feeble; and it may safely be said that, from the commencement of his public services, in 1812, till the day of his death, was never twenty-four hours free from pain. But no suffering of his body could depress, or even embarrass, the spirit that inhabited it. His campaign in 1813–14, against the Creek Indians, furnishes a happy illustration of his character. The order that summoned him to the Creek war, found him on a bed of sickness. It was received on the 24th of September, 1813. The next day he ordered his troops to rendezvous at Fayetteville on the 4th of October.

On the 7th, he took command in person, and on the 3d of November opened the campaign with the fatal blow struck at Taluskahatchee, where 186 Creeks were left dead upon the field. On the 7th of November, he met and vanquished over 1,000 Creek warriors at Talladega, leaving them to mourn the loss of 300 slain.

It was then, and ever after, the firm and well-founded belief of Gen. Jackson, that he would have gloriously terminated the war in one month, if he had been sustained with men, and supplied as he had every reason to expect; but, abandoned by a portion of his men, and reinforcements failing, the campaign was protracted. The brilliant resistance at Emuckfaw—the gallant and bloody passage at Enotochopco—took place in the month of January, and the campaign was closed in a blaze of glory, on the 27th of March, by the total rout at Tohopeka, or the Horseshoe, where an entrenched camp, defended by 1,000 chosen warriors, was carried by storm, 550 chiefs stretched upon the earth, and 300 prisoners taken. The Indians then sued for peace; and, on the 10th of July, an advantageous treaty was concluded with them, by the brave chieftain who had carried terror and destruction through their borders.

This campaign against the Creeks illustrates most forcibly the native vigour of his character, and the fertility of his resources. It was undertaken with most limited means- -the greater portion of the time his troops had not five days' rations at command. It was

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prosecuted in a distant and savage country, with raw levies of militia, against the most warlike of the Indian tribes, in the face of mutiny, want, desertion, and panic, by a major-general of militia, who had never served in a subordinate rank, and never before commanded in battle. If anything were wanting to exhibit in bold relief the splendour of this achievement, it is abundantly furnished by the history of subsequent Indian wars. In this history may be found many contrasts, but no parallel.

I shall allude to but one other event in his military career. His gallant and successful conduct drew towards him universal attention; and President Madison but conformed to the general expectation, by tendering to him, as he did, on the resignation of General Hampton, the post of brigadier-general in the army. The resignation of General Harrison, shortly after, enabled the president to offer him the post of major-general; and the two commissions were received simultaneously, and the latter accepted.

On the 22d November, 1814, General Jackson left Mobile for New Orleans, where he arrived on the 1st December. It was known that a large British force was on its way to New Orleans. The importance of defending that city could not be overrated. The troops that were to invade it were flushed with the victories of Bladensburg and Washington. Citizens who should have defended it were strongly suspected of disaffection. Whilst a hostile army of tried veterans, strong in numbers, exact in discipline, confident of success, were advancing in front, the ill-regulated levies of militia who were to oppose them were surrounded by the timid, the doubtful, and the treacherous. No commander was ever environed with greater difficulties-none ever met them with greater spirit and success. His wonderful power of inspiring confidence in those around him, and the vigour and skill of his movements for the defence of the city, soon changed the aspect of affairs. When he reached New Orleans, few thought it capable of being defended; in two days after, none thought it susceptible of being taken.

But it was obvious to General Jackson that success depended on a prompt defensive movement-an attack must be made on the invading army the instant they landed. In answer to an express from General Carroll, whose division had been delayed on its way to New Orleans, he said, “I am resolved, feeble as my force is, to assail the enemy on his first landing, and perish sooner than he shall reach the city.” The determination, thus nobly expressed, was promptly executed. The British landed on the 23d, fifteen miles below New Orleans. The intelligence was communicated to Jackson at one o'clock in the afternoon, and the same evening he attacked them with his whole disposable force.

For a most interesting account of this desperate and bloody engagement, I refer you to the narration of an English officer who

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was engaged in it, in a work entitled “Campaigns in America, by a Subaltern." I well remember his description of the confusion, dismay, and death of that eventful night. Commodore Patterson commanded a schooner which dropped down the Mississippi, abreast of the British line, and anchored. When hailed by their sentinels a third time, he said, "Give them this, boys! for the honour of America,” accompanied by a shower of grape and canister.

This battle saved New Orleans. It checked the treacherous, confirmed the wavering, inspired the true. It was, too, in the judgment of the military men, a masterly movement. The enemy till then had been unmolested; they had reason to expect a friendly reception; the next day they would have advanced on New Orleans. The night assault on the 23d checked and drove them back -it taught them respect for the American arms, and led them to over-estimate the number of our forces. It came upon them at night, in a strange land, unexpected, and when but a part of their forces were landed. It carried confusion and panic into their ranks, and dispelled the terror of their invincibility; and although the brilliant victory of the 1st of January, and the total and memorable rout of the 8th, finally expelled the invaders, they but completed and perfected what the master-stroke of the 23d had so well begun. The forces of the British vastly exceeded those of the attacking party; and this fact strongly illustrates the natural and intuitive skill of General Jackson in the art of war. It was the maxim of Napoleon, the great master of this science, that an inferior force should never wait to be attacked; for, by advancing, they either fall with all their strength on a single point when they are not expected, or meet the opposing columns on the advance, when bravery gives the victory-or, in his own nervous language, “ C'est une affaire de têtes de colonnes où la bravoure seule décide tout."

There were many points of resemblance between Napoleon and Jackson. Both were remarkable for impetuosity; both acted on the offensive; both, in emergencies, hazarded much, if not all, on the celerity and success of their assaults; both carried a war into the heart of an enemy's country; both were celebrated for rapidity and exactness of combination; both startled their adversaries by sudden and unlooked-for attacks. There was a similarity even in the impassioned, sententious, and sanguine appeals of both to their respective armies; and both attained signal and brilliant success. But, fortunately for our country, and for him whose fame we cherish, the points of difference are equally striking. Napoleon aimed at the conquest of a world, and would have established a sole monarchy, if not despotism; his restless ambition knew no goal short of universal dominion; and, after overrunning, with his successful armies, a great part of the globe, he was driven from his

kingdom and his throne, confined in a solitary and remote island, and his uncontrollable spirit fretted itself out against the bars of the prison. Jackson drew his sword only at his country's call; it was never wielded but in defence of her soil, her rights, and liberties; he sheathed it but to return to the bosom of his family and the pleasure of domestic life; he was attended always by the grateful plaudits of a people whose liberties he had defended, and, after receiving the highest honours of the republic, his last days were cheered with the sight of a country's prosperity, to whose service his life had been devoted, and he is followed to the grave by a nation of mourners.

Fellow-citizens: I have thus far spoken exclusively of the martial conduct of the illustrious deceased. A few of the marked events of his life have been referred to as illustrating it. He had other traits of character, which drew to him a large share of the public attention and regard; and, in referring to them, I may inci

Ι dentally advert, in some degree, to portions of his public and private life, which have been the subject of angry discussion. I do so in no spirit of party. I shall even seek to forget that his great name was ever connected with party divisions. If a sense of ordinary propriety did not induce me to this course, the scene now around me, and the circumstances which have led to it, admonish me to abstain. Here, in the city of Albany, where party conflicts run highest and hottest, where the annual assemblage of the legislature freshens and renews political divisions—here, in our streets which have resounded for ten years with the slogan of Jackson's name, and on the very spot from which his praise and his censures have been so freely spoken-our citizens, under the lead of the common council, without distinction of party, are assembled to do honour to the memory of a great democratic leader, forgetting in his

grave all but his patriotism and his valour. I shall endeavour to imitate this honourable magnanimity, by wholly omitting a specific reference to those acts of his civil life which, in my sincere and humble judgment, would constitute the brightest flower in his chaplet of fame.

But it will be no departure from this rule to claim for this illustrious man the meed of true patriotism. A life devoted to the service of his country, a frame enfeebled in its defence, and an ardent, generous popular attachment, are witnesses not to be resisted. His earliest strength was given to our defence—his latest prayers were for our prosperity. And there were two occasions in his presidential career, when the spirit of party was hushed, and the country, with almost one accord, rallied to his support. The first was the bold and manly stand that he took with our ancient ally, France; and the second, the vigorous enforcement of the laws in his native

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state of South Carolina. His earnest sincerity and stern resolution on both these occasions were crowned with emphatic success.

Popular liberty, in its largest sense, had no more thorough devotee than Andrew Jackson. Inheriting from his father a hatred of Great Britain; taken prisoner in childhood by the British forces in the Revolution, and exposed to cruel indignities; a mother and brothers sinking into the grave under British barbarity ; engaged for a large portion of his military life in desperate conflicts with savages incited by British emissaries, and sickening at the atrocities they committed ; and, finally, a leader in those great victories over the British troops which have immortalized his name, —every sentiment of his nature, and every aspiration of his heart, was imbued with jealousy of British influence, aversion to the British form of government, and horror of British tyranny. This predominant idea coloured every action of his public life. It was earliest in his mind, most present with him through life, and one of the last to leave him in death. Whenever invasion or encroachment was threatened from that quarter, all his sensibilities were awakened, all his indignation aroused. Whenever he thought he saw a disposition to warp our simple, free, and equal government into an aristocratic direction, he opposed a stern but honest, uncalculating but always successful resistance. In some instances, he may have misjudged; but his impulses were always honest, and sustained by public approbation. And it is a singular tribute to inflexible honesty, as well as splendid genius, that, although such were his feelings and his conduct towards Great Britain, no American stood higher in the estimation of the British public, as I have had frequent personal opportunities of knowing; and although his mode of presenting our claims on France interrupted, for a time, the diplomatic relations of the two countries, and involved, in some degree, a personal issue with its king, the last portrait of his venerable form was taken for, and at the solicitation of, Louis Philippe.

His personal attachments were strong and immoveable-he never forsook a friend. Open, frank, and ingenuous in his nature, he heeded no misrepresentations of those he loved, and cherished no suspicion; and this trusting, truthful attachment, was fully returned by his friends; his popularity was unbounded the personal devotion to him almost romantic.

His habits in life were simple in the extreme. Frugal in his diet, the luxuries of the presidential mansion passed by him untouched; modest and unostentatious, quiet and unpretending, no man seemed less to covet the notoriety which for the last thirty years of his life it was impossible to avoid ; distinguished for the natural ease and elegance of his manners, with a brilliant reputation and sufficient fortune, he would have received unwonted honours in any foreign land. Yet he never left the United States :