The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-04-24
OLD HICKoRY,s WIFE.
Gen. JacksOn's COurtship-His Devotion
as a Husband-Details of the Dick
insOn Duel.
From the st. Louis Republican.


insOn Duel.
From the St. Louis Republican.
The following from the New York
Post:
"In our remarks day or two ago
upon the forthcoming history of the
United States by Mr.. Bryant, we spoke
and picture which the subject would af-
sons visit to New York, about the time
of his first Inauguration, and just after
his wife's death, we were greatly struck
He rode the length of Broadway on
horseback, with long weeper, at that
time in fashion in Tennessee, tied
around his white hat and hanging the
| length of his back. We have here Just
one of those pictures so very vivid and
important of which American history
in full. There is q chapter of history
contained in the photograph. That he
should have ridden on horseback in
stead of in a carriage indicates a pecu-
liarity at the time. The long weeper
tied around the white hat-a thing IA
miliar enough in Tennessee, and yet
strange in New York-recalls the fact
that the various parts of the country
were not then so HON geneous as they
are at present Jackson's truculent
and defiant grief, even had he been con-
scious that his weeper was too long for
the fashion in these parts, would have
vindicated itself anywhere and before
anybody. The weeper recalls the Incl
dents of his wife's early life and his af-
fection for her, both of which exerted
profound influence upon his life. It re-
calls the old duel with Dickinson, an
| encounter which, seems it to US, is one of
the most terrible on record"
General Jackson's "weeper" was not
the idle ensign of a mimic woe, but the
emblem of grief all too deep for
words-a grief which, from the moment
of it's birth, went with him day and
night, following him down to the grave,
which he gladly entered, because he
believed that through its gloomy por-
tails he would gain admission to the
presence of the woman whom he loved
better than his life. "Heaven would
be no heaven to me-" he used to say,
Z" if did not think should meet my
wife there"
There is not to be found in the pages
of history or of romance an instance of
more chivalrous affection and constant,
self-sacrifcing devotion than was illus
trated in Andrew Jackson's uniform
conduct toward Rachael Donelson. He
married her under peculiar circumstan-
ces. Her first husband was, from all ac-
counts, man of violent temper and
unbounded caprice, with whom it was
utterly impossible for anybody, howev-
er we'll disposed, to live in peace. At
ter one or two reparations and reunions,
they finally parted permanently, and it
was soon after this event that Jackson
then poor and unknown lawyer in
the backwoods village of Nashville
asked her to share his rather unpromis-
ing fortunes. A divorce was procured
through what was thought to be the
proper channel, and they were united.
The first months of their welded life
were spent in Natchez, and not until
their return to Tennessee was it known
that the court which granted the divorce
had no authority to execute such an in
strument-which we believe, as the law
then stood, could only issue from the
legislature of Virginia. But be this as
it may, the legal forms were at last full
ly complied with, and to put an end
as it was hoped-to all possible miscon-
struction, the marriage ceremony was
again performed. Had jackson remain |
ed an obscure man, the matter never |
would have been revived, but as soon |
as he took the first steps in the career
which was to land him in the presiden-
tial chair, jealousy unloosed the hands
of calumny, and enemies who could
find no nobler plan to attack, struck at
him through the bosom of his wife.
This was sin which he never could and
never would forgive and whoever had
breathed a word against the fair fame
of that idolized object, made an eternal
and inexorable foe of one who came
fairly up to the Johnsonian standard of
" good hater." The duel with Dick
inson, alluded to in the above extract,
had its real origin here.
Dickinson was a promising young
man, belonging to highly respectable
family in Nashville, and the junior of
Jackson by several years. Attached to
a different and hostile faction, he i'm
agined a rival where none really ex-
listed, and, being in the habit of drink
ing too freely, occasionally made re-
marks which would not bear repetition.
OF course they were repeated, and to
the one of all others most deeply in
terested. When the first offense of this
sort transpired, Jackson went to Dick
inson's father-in-law, told what he had
heard, and begged him to guard, if pos
sible, against a similar occurrence in
the future. The warning was of no
avail, for when the wine was again in
the ascendant, Dickinson threw out the
same slurs, and this time they cost him
his hearts blood. The duel ostensibly
originated in a horse-race, which, by
the way, was never run but the ami
mus of it, so far as Jackson was con-
,erned, lay in the fact that Dickinson
1ad spoken i'll of Mrs. Jackson. It is
to repeat all the details of
5he meeting, which was indeed, as the
Post says, zone of the most terrible on
record" Dickinson was dead shot
could hit half-dollar at ten PAGES, kill
birds on the wing, and perform other
feats with the pistol. He
vas as brave and cool as he was skillful,
and never entertained doubt as to the ]
result of the combat. The arrangement
was that when the word was given they
could fire as soon as they please. Jack
son, knowing Dickinson's superior
1uickness with his weapon, resolved not
20 attempt to get the first fire, but to
axe the chances for a second. The in
slant the signal was shouted, Dickinson !
fred. The dust flew from the breast of ,
;he loose fitting black frock coat which
Jackson wore, but.he stood there like a
pillar of adamant, apparently I'M
harmed. Dickinson started back in !
lorror and amazement, exclaiming,
My God have missed him?" His
TEN and uhrelenting antagonist took
deliberate aim and pulled the trigger. !
The pistol did not respond. He looked '
md found it was only at half-cock. A
econd time he took aim, and, as the |
harp crack rang out among the silent
woods where the deadly scene was laid,
Dickinson tottered and fell into the e
rms of his friend. He died the same
light Jackson was able to mount his t
lorse and ride home next daY-barely
BILE, for the bullet, which seemed to a
Mss him, had really passed through
he feshy part of his breast and Il
ut the breast-bone. His shoes
7ere full of blood when he walked a
rom the fatal field, but he COLI
ealed the fact, as he said, "because s
10 did not want Dickinson to have n
he satisfaction of knowing that he had
~ him OF oil - Tn oDoxvaF RI the nuna-