The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-03-23
WILLIAM F. Villas.
The next toast on the programme was

W " NAAO -eOA13 0O0 Va ocOL VA W. oss
the Hon. William F. Villas. He said the
selection of this anniversary for the first
festival was signal mark of the patriot
ism, wisdom, and political courage which
animated the organization, and prop
hesy of its usefulness. Andrew Jack
son! What food of glorious history
rose in that name. A generation ago
and more the old Democratic hero passed
behind the curtain of death. But only
in the flesh to die. The mortal change
was his apotheosis to the celestial COM
pany of the gods of our political religion.
Well worthy of his Immortality was that
heroic life! Riven by passion and SCARED
by the strokes of strife, yet it stood a
colossal figure among the heroes and
statesmen of mankind, preeminent for
single hearted honesty of purpose and
exalted bravery to do and bear. The ivy
Of affection and the laurels of renown.
rich with the growth of years, now hide
with their beauty the scars and seams of
human weakness that splendid tower of
Gods architecture in man. The features
of its majesty and strength alone were
left open to view.
This country ever loved, aud as ii
should be ever free, it ever must love, in
its true ideal, the Jackson Democracy.
False leadership and the turbulence of
war distrusted its counsels, obscured it's
distinctiveness, and scattered its follow
ers among various parties. 1t was not
great intellect which made Andrew Jack
son great leader of men. 1t was his
towering character. He had great in
tellect, and for war, genius. But high
above all, as mountain peaks ascend
above the lower lying hills, rose the lofty
eminence of his stupendous character.
Its prominent features were indomitable
will and daring. but intelligent courage.
No page of history told of one who
before him survived seventy-e eight years,
and so continually performed such and
so many actions of desperate audacity.
From early boyhood to whitened age he
was beset by perils and involved in strife,
sometimes crippled by wounds, and often
broken by disease. Others would have
yielded or have died, but not he. Through
every year of life, in every danger, in
difficulties unnumbered, the flame of
that matchless soul burned undimmed.
His personal hardihood was not more
remarkable than his moral courage. The
two went hand in hand. He as boldly
met the judgment OF men and angels, as
the efforts of an enemy. For he was
founded on absolute honesty of thought.
Not always right. he always thought he
was right. His acts were sometimes
wrong, but his purposes in them, to his
mind, never. 1t guided him in quarrel
with his enemies, and ennobled his inter-
course with friends. 1t governed his
individual transactions, and rose to exalt-
alton when he dealt for his country and
fellow men. There his example voiced
the teaching:
sThe man is a felon, who, in politics
cheats the people, and he a traitor who
betrays public trust" The generation
of to-day might we'll turn to the example
of this old hero. These were the quail
ties which made the leadership of jack
son great and successful. These magne-
tized and united the Jackson democracy
of fifty years ago.
Above all and first of all the Jackson
democrat, as Jackson did, loved his coun-
try with love which knows no higher
duty but to God. He loved the complex
frame Of government which, when young,
kings despised, and the world could not
comprehend; this mystic child of liberty,
heaven conceived of, one in many and
many in one; this fast-bound Union of
independent States; this system of the
stars, resting on the equipoise of con-
tending forces, safe as law and free as
space. He loved it without reasoning
and with reason. He loved it because it
sheltered wife and children, protected
labor, and stood up in the way of the
tyrants of the earth; and the experience
of his age sunk the roots of his affection
in wisdom and philanthropy.
- k.,> ~, int
bis character was passionate and true
1t was nursing of the bloody Tarle-
toms Waxhaw massacre, printed on mis-
boyish head by British butchers sword
stroke, nourished in captivity while yet
but IA. It sank deeper in his heart as
he helped to raise the frame of State in
the wilds of the primitive Tennessee, and
fought the savage in the southern glades
and forests. Recall the scenes of the
second war With Great Britain, when she
threatened to push her ships and arms in
triumph northward till her Gordon of en-
pire bound us from Canada to the Gnlf;
who compared her mighty preparation
with our feeble forces without fear? Who
but Andrew Jackson2 With the daring
patriotism of Leonidas, inteiI;gently and
skillful. as it was desperate, he so arreng-
ed his little band, and gave to England.
more by valor than by arms, her most
ignominious defeat, and, changing our
humiliation into Joy. finished the war in
glory by the splendid victory of New
Orleans.
When his hair was white With the tolls
and wars of more than three score years,
when care, disease, and grief had long
pressed hard upon his soul, from the
very people he had fought and labored
for, from his own Southern cline, dead
" blow was leyeled at his country. The
tros-nn of secession raised its horrid
a