performance, as to inspire confidence in others; and, in short, after being indefatigable to ascertain what was right, to feel no less bound to enforce it, and "dare do all which may become a MAN," whether for himself, his friends, or his country. A character thus formed, is of course subject to human frailties, and, in some respects, more so than one nurtured in early life amidst superior advantages from education and associates, who had also enjoyed and improved such advantages. I say this, because indiscriminate eulogy is not worth the breath that utters it. But, at the same time, a man, when reared like him, amidst the agitation and perils of a revolution, sooner learns to buffet well the tempests of life, and, like a tree blown upon by violent winds, strikes root deeper, and is better braced to encounter responsibility and danger of every kind, and his opinions are stronger, as well as adhered to with greater tenacity.

Another trait in his private character, not unusual in vigorous intellects, though apparently so opposite to the current of their ordinary feelings, was respect and attachment to female worth. This was doubtless increased in him, from early dependence on a widowed mother, and from endearing associations connected with her watchfulness and devotion to the improvement of his youth. This watchfulness is a most salutary restraint, often substituted by Providence in the place of a father's hardier power; and, when it is not always successful in preventing excesses or errors amidst the numerous temptations of early life, it often excites remorseful remembrances, and wins back to duty an erring child.

His wife, while dead as well as living, he regarded almost as a guardian angel. Her miniature was worn near his heart in health, and reposed with his Bible by his sick couch. Well do I remember, while walking with him once among the tombs of the distinguished dead in the congressional burying-ground, whither we had gone to pay the last obsequies to another of their number, he said: "One solemn request I now urge on you: should I die in this city, remove my ashes to Tennessee, and let them sleep beside my beloved wife."

Thank God! his fond wishes on this subject nave oeen realized: and they do sleep together under the shades of the Hermitage, as they hoped to rise together at the resurrection of the just.

His tenderness of sentiment extended to her relatives, and, being without children to absorb a portion of it, all his friends came in for a larger share. When once satisfied of their worth, he clung to them with an iron grasp; and it became almost a passion of his life to reward their attachment. If at times he was thus betrayed into kindness unmerited, the disposition on his part was always noble-not only seeking to repay obligations with his purse and

pen, but earnest, on any fit emergency, even to lay down his life for his friends.

In performing that, or any other supposed duty, it would be too feeble to say he was brave. He was the bravest of the brave. Whether in the horrors of Indian warfare, to which he was in some degree inured from childhood, or in conflict with the disciplined troops of Europe, or in personal jeopardy from the assassin's ball, or in scenes of civil strife, the same dauntless intrepidity marked his course, often accompanied by what is more rare on such occasions -coolness of judgment and great self-possession.

I stood once by his side when his life was assailed; and scarce a pulse would beat after the attack was perceived, before he rushed on his foe, alike regardless of danger, and mindful of the means best suited to punish the aggressor.

With whatever correctness he may, at times, have been charged with rashness, under the feverish impulses of youth, it is certain that his judgment seldom forsook the helm in advanced life, and under the highest provocation; in the very tempest of his passion, he was remarkably wary and watchful. And, however ardent, or even vehement, in what he deemed a good cause, his faculties were usually collected, and his bearing firm. Mingled with this true courage, he possessed, at the same moment, rare modesty and sensibility. Singular as the combination may seem, yet it is not new in history.

When existing, it shows, in a more elevated light, that strong conviction of duty which is able to impel men, even of retired habits and delicate feelings, to overcome them all, and hazard life itself in defence of what is considered right. One illustration occurs to me, which, at the time, astonished some of the less observing, as to the mysterious workings of our common nature. When Congress caused swords to be presented to several officers, who had signally distinguished themselves in the last war with England, some received them with coolness, and replied to the addresses made on the occasion without emotion. But the great captain, who had saved a city from being sacked. and its daughters from pollution, and who had never blenched nor trembled before an enemy, shook like an aspen leaf, though surrounded by friends, and could with difficulty give utterance to his gratitude. We all remember also, that in the heat and bitterness of party strife, reproaches were sometimes cast on him for a supposed want of proper sympathies for the rest of mankind. But, in truth, few men possessed more humane feelings. In the privations of war, he divided with the famishing soldier his last loaf; the decrepid beggar never left his roof hungry; his domestics shared his attention in sickness and health, weeping loudest around his bier; and he was always found a neighbour to the needy, and a succour to the oppressed.

The elements were all kindly mingled in his breast, and the scenes he most longed for, and enjoyed with the highest relish, were those of quiet and well-ordered industry among attached friends in rural employment, and amidst deeds of humble usefulness and unostentatious benevolence. How often, when surrounded by all the splendid honours of public life, have I heard him sigh for the Hermitage, and plan improvements and enjoyments to be carried out amidst its tranquil scenes!

I am aware, likewise, that both friends and foes have bestowed on him another characteristic-of being a man of iron will. When this is meant to imply hardness of heart, nothing could be further from the truth; since no child, at the sight of suffering, overflowed quicker with the milk of human kindness than the stern-visaged warrior. But when it means that his sense of duty was strong, and stronger even than his feelings, the term may not have been misapplied.

His iron will was mere firmness or inflexibility in the cause he deemed right. It was an indomitable resolution to carry out what conscience dictated. Judgment and the fruits of it, opinion and corresponding conduct, it seemed to him, ought to be inseparable. He knew of no compromise or tampering, or half-way measures, with what was wrong. This high moral tone-the very highest in the annals of reformers and martyrs the world over-though often imputed to him as a fault, was, in fact, the crowning glory of his character, whether as a man, or a warrior, or a politician. So far from its having proved inconsistent with seeking full advice, and weighing contradictory reasons, and adopting measures of conciliation, where justifiable and wise, it was generally preceded by the amplest inquiries and the most careful deliberation. But a conclusion having been once formed in this manner, the whole powers of his mind and heart were flung into its execution with almost resistless energy; and then, in fortitude to resist opposition, and in courage to brave all difficulties, and inflexible perseverance to carry out measures deemed right, he may well have been called a man of iron-a man of destiny, or the hero of the iron will. Nor did this habit, as some have imagined, make him implacable or unforgiving. For, though like others of a warm temperament, making good haters, as well as good lovers and friends, he often forgave his bitterest enemies, and reconciled differences by many deemed insuperable. His custom of assuming responsibility in doubtful cases, has been another topic of criticism, but was only a branch of this energetic trait of character. Blessed with clear perceptions, and careful habits of research, he came to more decisive conclusions, and in less time than most other men; and hence it became his duty, under these stronger convictions, to follow them out, and, with a manly daring in behalf of what seemed to him right, to act

for that right, and act with energy and without fear, whoever else might falter. This, instead of being culpable, seemed at times, amidst fainting and doubting hearts around him, heroic; and if evil was ever connected with it, such a result usually sprung from a defect in forming some opinion, and not in exhibiting the courage and want of hypocrisy to stand by it chivalrously to the last, when not conscious of error.

His whole walk in private life having been grounded upon principles and habits like these, it is not strange that, in obedience to his country's summons, entering on t action, he should carry with him wha for public usefulness. There, to many him, those principles and habits became t there, ere long, "the observed of all of low the further developement and application of them during the few moments that remain to dwell on his virtues and glories.

great theatre of public ad chiefly qualified him viously not familiar with t unfolded; and as he was rvers"-there let us fol

His first public duty in behalf of his country was as a youthful soldier-unknown to fame-to defend her liberties in the field. His last one was to lay down her highest honours, and withdraw to the shades of private life, with the blessings of millions for his toils and sacrifices. His earliest efforts took a military directionprobably more from the necessities and perils of the times, than from any taste for it, which then inspired him. Continuing after peace to live somewhat exposed in a frontier life to Indian hostilities, military habits were formed, and traits of character developed, in feats of arms which, in other conditions of society, might have appeared only in conquering professional difficulties, or a stubborn soil. The qualities of mind to insure success in either may be much the same; and yet accident or necessity may make one possessed of them merely a successful farmer, and another a military chieftain. But at no period of his life was General Jackson a soldier of fortune, or trained in the regular schools of war. Hence, in the busiest portions of his service in the field, he was still, at heart and in grain, the citizen, the planter, the lawyer, bred in courts rather than camps, fond of agriculture and politics, and never considered a life in arms either as a profession or a choice. Whatever gorgons, then, jealousy or rivalship may ever have conjured up, as to the danger of his becoming a military despot, and turning his sword, like Cæsar, or Cromwell, or Napoleon, against the liberties of his country, there was no foundation in his education or tastes for fears like these. The instruments which he had been accustomed to employ were also alike unfit to accomplish such perfidy. So far from being disciplined legions, whose trade was war, or mere pretorian bands, to sell the people to the highest bidder, they also were citizen soldiers. They were farmers and mechanics, with their sons, fresh from the plough and the work

shop-accustomed to the rifle chiefly as hunters, and taught to wield them to defend, not destroy, liberty; and, as an armed people, to punish, rather than encourage, usurpation. Another consequence, bordering almost on the marvellous, results from these circumstances. Considering his original pursuits to have been in civil life- -considering his want of scientific education in military affairs-considering he never made arms a profession, and that his troops consisted usually of militia, his skill and success as a soldier seem to have been much the more remarkable and more productive of the general admiration he excited. At the Horseshoe Bend, he forced breast works as intrepidly as Charles the Twelfth or Suwarow. In several other Indian campaigns, he surmounted obstacles, endured privations, and fed on acorns with his men, as patiently as Hannibal.

Afterwards, little as had been his experience with disciplined armies or the science of war, he defended New Orleans with skill beyond the ablest engineers, and in all his campaigns exhibited vigilance equal to his bravery; and was as tireless as vigilant, and never hesitated at what the public safety seemed to demand, on account of any risk or danger to himself, however great. His private fortune was more than once pledged to raise public supplies, and he faced both imprisonment and fines rather than leave any opening, in the absence of martial law, for an enemy still lingering on our shores, to succeed either by perfidy or surprise.

It was a most grateful solace in his declining years to receive back from the government of his country the penalty then extorted from him. And the more so, as, like a good citizen, he had paid it peacefully in compliance with judicial forms, though surrounded by a victorious army and thousands of munificent and faithful friends. But the danger being over, and the time past for the laws to be silent among arms-leges silent inter arma-instead of crossing the Rubicon against his country like Cæsar, or instead of driving out, like Cromwell and Napoleon, the members of the halls of legislation at the point of the bayonet, he soothed popular excitement, exhorted to obedience, and himself stood forward, foremost, to preserve the reign of order and law. The pencil and the canvass are yet to do justice to that great scene. If less brilliant than the victories which preceded it, nothing in his whole splendid career transcends it in true grandeur or salutary influence.

In a hurried allusion to some of his military excellencies, we ought not to overlook the rapidity and suddenness, no less than the boldness of his movements. I have often heard him say that the unexpected attack made on the 23d of December, contributed greatly to the triumph of the glorious 8th of January.

In the former, as in some of his forced marches on the Indians he fell among the enemy almost literally as the thunderbolt of