The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-15

Except from the Sewspapers-"P Par
ton Doubted Whether He Ever Knew
That the Earth Was Rouud--But lie
Was Tnvincebie as Leader.
CONTINUED from last sunday
WASHINGTON, Sept. ~. 1895.
The military career of General Jack
son is better known to the masses of
men than the events of his political his
tory. Even those who cannot, or have
not read of them, can tell of the battle
Of the Horse Shoe Bend, and OF the
great victory over the British army at
New Orleans. Such events address
themselves to the passions, the magma
ton, and the patriotic sympathies of old
and young, and are transmitted from
fathers to sons, from generation to gene
ration, with little aid from books. [
will pass them over, therefore, and
hasten to reco d the chief events in the
political career of General Jackson.
Undoubtedly Jackson owed his great
popularity to his military achievements.
It was not his statesmanlike qualities
that made him the idol of the people.
He may be said to have been an ig
norant man. Not many books did he ever
read; and it may be questioned whether
ne ever read one weighIy volume from
beginning to end. His life was contem
porary with the history of his country;
and he was familiar with that as an &C
tive participant in much of it, and from
reading the newspapers, and converse
ton as to the rest. He is said to have
been a great newspaper reader. He pro
fessed to study law, but was indebted
chiefly to his practical participation in
legal proceedings, and to his strong,
clear understanding, for his knowledge
of the subject. 1t was this quality of
his mind, coupled with an imperious
and unconquerable will, that gave him
the ascendency over men of far superior
attachments, whether in councils of war
or in Cabinets and legislative assemblies.
AS to his attachments and general
knowledge, his albeit biographer and
admirer, Parton, who has done so much
for his vindication, expresses a doubt
whether General Jackson did not, to the
day of his death, believe the earth to be
fat
If it should seem hard to reconcile this
state of the facts with General Jackson's
great career, the reader must be remind
that many of the great men of Europe
great warriors and rulers-during the
middle ages. were unable to read, or at
any rate, to write The use of seals is
said to have originated in this ignorance
of kings and mobiles, of the art of wri-
ting, which they held in contempt, as
the appropriate work of clerks, aud cler
gymen. And in this country, our great
est rulers, who have had strongest hold
upon the hearts of the people, have not
been scholars. Washington's education
was confined to a knowledge of the Eng
lish language to reading, writing,
arithmetic and surveying. Yet. with
superior natural endowments, he learned
to write out his thoughts in clear, strong
English. Lincoln never went to school,
and doubtless he never acquired knowl
edge of any language other than his
mother tongue; which, however, by the
force of native genius, be learned to
write and o speak, with surprising
beauty and strength. The God made
men must take precedence before the col
lege bred men.
General Jackson was brought out for
the presidency in 1924 by his friends.
There were four candidates in the field,
John Quincy Adams, William FL. Craw-
ford, of Georgia, and Henry Clay, of
Kentucky. with Jackson. They were ali
Republicans. Federalism was dead and
buried. Jackson received SO electoral
votes, Adams S4, Crawford Al, and Clay
81. No candidate having a majority,
there was no election OF the 26I votes,
it was necessary that some one caIdi-
date should receive 131 votes Jackson's
friends claimed that he should have
been chosen by the House of Represen-
tatiyes, in virtue OF his largest electoral
vote. But the Constitution requires that
majority of the States, voting by the
House, each deleg alton casting one vote,
shall determine the contest. Adams re-
ceiyed the majority of the congressional
vote after long contest. Adams friends
oontended that he received more of the
popular vote than Jackson.
Clay and Crawford both made mistakes
in being candidates They ought to have
seen that there was no chance for them.
SGdWIOEN > HSdaLu Was DIDhTl, 1HQ IL
elected, he probably would have died be
fore the end Of the term. Mr., Clay,
though old enougq, and not inferior in
talents and qualifications to any man in
the field, should have waited His time
had not come
At the next election, there were but
two candidates, Adams, the President.
and Jackson The latter was chosen by
more than two votes to the one Of Ad-
ans The latter received SO electoral votes,
Jackson, 17S This was in 1928. He
was inaugurated March 4, 1929
General Jackson's struggle with the
United States Bank did not begin i'm
niediately. In his first annual message,
dated December s, 1929, he called atten-
ton to the fact that the charter of the
existing bank would expire in 1885; and
stated that in justice to all the parties
concernedh he felt it to be his duty to pre-
sent it to the deliberate consideration of
Congress. Both the constitutionality of
the law creating the bank, he said, were
well questioned by large portion of the
people; and that it had failed to estab-
lish uniform and sound currency must
be admitted by ALL Under these cir
cumstances," he added, eff such an in
stitution is deemed essential to the fiscal
operation of the government, submit
TO the wisdom Of the legislature whether
national one, founded upon the credit
of the government and its revenues.
rntUnf NOT he devised which yuof7Id avro;,f