ry citizen is esteemed according to his intrinsic value: under absolute governments the people are emphatically but a swinish multitude.

MAJOR-GENERAL

ANDREW JACKSON.

His

THIS gentleman is of Irish ancestry. grandfather partook of the fatigues and dangers of the army of King William, at the siege of Carrickfergus, an eventful period in English and Irish history. His youngest son Andrew, with his wife and their two sons emigrated to South Carolina, in the year 1765, and purchased a farm forty-five miles from Cambden, in the then Waxsaw settlement, where Major-General Andrew Jackson was born on the 15th of March, 1767. In early infancy he lost his father, in consequence of which his elder brothers received merely a common school education, because of the small patrimony: the youngest, Andrew, was placed at an academy at the Waxsaw meeting-house, under the care of a Mr. Humphries, where he received the rudiments of a liberal education, his mother designing him for the ministerial office. The revolution which ended in the emancipation of his country from British thraldom having begun, his studies were interrupted by the ravages of a ruthless enemy, who made an incursion into that quarter of his native state. Consequently, with his brother Ro bert, by his mother's permission, he joined the American army at fourteen years of age. His eldest brother had previously pursued the same course, and died of heat and fatigue at the battle of Stono.

The superiority of the British, in numbers and discipline, caused the Americans to retire into North Carolina, from which they returned to South Carolina in small parties, after they had learned of the crossing the Yadkin by the British, under Cornwallis. Lord Rawdon was then in possession of Cambden, and had desolated the surrounding country.

In the attack upon the Waxsaw settlers after their return, a party of the British under a Major Coffin captured the two young Jacksons by a russe-de-guerre. While prisoners, both were wounded severely with swords by two British officers, for refusing to perform menial services required of them. The wound of Andrew was in his left hand, that of his brother on his head, which terminated his existence shortly after their exchange, which took place a few days before the memorable battle of Cambden. Worn down with grief and affliction, his mother expired shortly after, near Charleston, leaving Andrew an unprotected orphan then confined to a bed of sickness, which had nearly closed his sorrows and his

woes.

After his recovery he did not again join the army, but spent without restraint a part of his patrimony before reflection had warned him of the consequences. Finding however that his exertions alone were to waft him through the tumultuous sea of life, he returned to his studies at New Acquisition, near Hill's iron works, under a Mr. Mc. Culloch. Here he completed his academic course as far as the place in which he lived and his limited means would permit. Having relinquished all thoughts of the clerical profession, in 1784, at the age of eighteen, he repaired to Salisbury, North Carolina, and studied law under

Spruce Mc. Kay, Esq. and afterwards under Colonel John Stokes. In the winter of 1786, he was licensed to plead at the bar, and remained at Salisbury until 1788, when he accompanied Judge Mc. Nairy, to the state of Tennessee. Although it was his intention to have returned, he was so well pleased with the place, that he determined to make Nashville his future residence. Here the road to preferment was open and plain, and his industry and application to business, soon paved the way for his future elevation. He was several years attorney for the district wherein he resided. The frontiers of Tennessee were much indebted to his energy and patriotism for defence against the remorseless depredations of the savages. When that section of the United States, was about to be admitted a separate member of the federative body, in 1796, he was chosen a member of the Convention for the formation of the State Constitution. The same year he was elected one of the Representatives in Congress from Tennessee, and in the following year, the Legislature of that state appointed him one of their Senators in the Senate of the United States. This situation he resigned in 1799. He succeeded Major-General Conway in the command of the militia of that state which formed but one division. He retained his commission of MajorGeneral of militia, until May, 1814, when he was appointed to the same rank in the army of the United States. Immediately after he resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States, he was appointed to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the state of Tennessee. This he likewise held but a short time, and retired to an elegant farm about ten miles from Nashville, on Cumberland river.