The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-13
JACKSON AS A FIGHTER
THE STRONGEST POINTS IN THE
CHARACTER OF OLD HICKORY.
HIS Famous Duel with Dickinson, His
Advice tn Sam Houston, and the
Fright He Gave Calhoun.
Washington Post

and keen eyes OF a band or kenruSay anu
Tennessee bear hunters ar New Orleans.
1t was the sorest da;eat ever metei OFT to
English arms; sorsr still because Il fell
about many days after peace had been rati-
lied. Pakenham reached Jackson tesore the
news reached either. AMI It was all very sad
for Pakenham AMI the people who ac-
companied him. But for these. as we'll as
host of other go)c reasons, 1t IS wei a.
this crisis 10 thrash over stack Of I'D
straw, tell a thrice-:hld tale, percaarce
just to remind the present generation of
a few facts toucb'ng hero or the PAST
Jackson was born in tine Waxhaw settle
ments, n. c., IN 1857 His mothers name
before marriage was Hutchinson, ana botn
she and Jackson pere came from the North
of Ireland. They were Scotch-Irish. natives
of Carriskfergus, Presbyser;ans. and weav-
ers of linen. Andrews father dieG three
days before the coming Judge, General and
statesman was born The poverty of An
drew's mother during his whole youth was
of the sort called utter. He had two broth
ers. six and three years older than he.
named Hugh and Robert. They went TO
work as farm hands at an early age. and
are presumed to have finally farmed them
selves from youth to manhood manhood TO
old age, and old age to the grave. AT any
rate, no one ever caught them disturDirg
history.
gray-eyed, slight in form, ard sickly as 10
health. He was intensely nervous; honest,
impuisiye lnyeterate. lie nassa ana ana d me
His vibrant nature made it Impossible TO
do too much for a friend, too much 10 an
enemy. No one was Indifferent to, him.
He was foe or close to Jackson's heart.
His courage was absolute and ne always
told the truth. If a man always te;is me
truth he had better be god lighter III
he isn't hell get killed telling some particu-
lar truth some day. Well Jackson Was as
indomitable a fighter as eve" stripped Tor
contest. 1t was as well; He would o'ner.
wise have been ploug1ed Under in his first
Old Hickory was nine years old when the
cracked bell rang out liberty to- the world
| in Philadelphia. Before Washington got
| through with CORVALLIS at Yorktown seven
more years had elapsed and Jackson was
sixteen. The war Of the revolution made
weighty impression on young Andrew, the
more, perhaps, because he was held as q
| boy prisoner by some ambitious Britons for
| a season. and when they had time to waste
1 they were wont to cuff and kick and buffet
| the young rebel about, just to show him,
/ as the Milesian policeman did the colored
prisoner, that they had authority over him.
| The account opened with England on this
| revolutionary occasion the ardent Jackson
| succeeded in squaring thirty-three years
later at the battle of New Orleans. Paken-
| ham would have shown wisdom had he
| pleaded the statute of limitations
| The same year that Jackson was rocked
in his North Carolina cradle the cradle Of
| John Quincy Adams was being rocked up in
| New England. No one could then foresee
| the combats Of these two red-faced human
| bits. About midway between in Virginia
was baby Rachel Donaldson In her cradle
afterward to marry Jackson and be the in
| direct cause of a great deal OF history,
some of it blood red, too
| 1t is not the present purpose nor Is there
| space, to write history OF Jackson. His
| mother hoped to make a preacher Of him,
but her ambitions slipped. Jackson got a
sort OF an education, and was alleged to be
a lawyer. He had a keen, apprehensive in
telligence and a natural conception Of right
| and of justice unsurpassed. These last,
| rather than the books he read, were his
chief lights and safeguards as an advocate
and judge. But Jackson couldn't spell a
little bit. In a day when bad spelling ran
riot in the land Jackson was far and away
the worst speller in Tennessee. Jerry Simp-
son once exulted over the invention and in
PRODUCTION into human affairs OF the COM
mon stenographer of commerce.
"You say what you please. says simpson
without lodging a word, and you throw the
responsibility of the spelling on the stenog.
people when Tennessee was young, and
Jackson had to bear the brunt of his owr
awful photography, But he succeeded in
making himself understood as we'll as any
man of his own or any other day.
PLOT AGAINST HIS LIFE.
Our hero killed young man named Dick.
inson in a duel All of the conditions which
surrounded this killing served to make il
one of the most celebrated of single com
bats. This fight, as many allege and be.
lieve grew out of Jackson's marriage. Jack
sons wife, however. was merely an excuse
a pretext. The duel was the plain fruit Of
political plot to kill Jackson and get hin
! out of the way. He was too powerful. toe
popular, too much the idol of the people
Many there were who would have preferred
gether and out of its politics. So they SCI
up a dark game to kill Jackson, and pu
Dickinson forward to do it,. The pretex
was Mrs. Jackson-as amiable, as virtuous
and as loving wife as ever walked dowr
any aisle to any altar to the music of an,
wedding march.
wife of Louis Richards, a Kentuckian. Thes,
two lived in Tennessee with Rachel!
went to Tennessee he boarded at the widow
Donaldson's. Robards drunken, shift
less. low-browed brute. He ill-treated hi
wife and once deserted her. He chose I,
become jealous of jackson while the latte
boarded at the widow DonaldsoIs. Robard
tried with a sincerity truly Kentuckan t.
Shoot it out with MIN. Jackson restraine,
himself and declined to fight Robards. vast
ly to that drunkard's contempt and disgust
Robards was the only man who couldn'
get fight out Of Jackson.
But jackson, as an outcome, left The Don
aldson boarding house.. and Robards lief
| c.
and sued for divorce. Word came o.
happy wings TO say that he had succeeded
} The beautiful brunette was free. AMI sh
and Jackson We're wed.
But alas and alack. liz was all a mStak
"a marital mirage. Robards did finally Sc
a divorce, but not until several awful month
after Jackson and Mrs. Richards were mar
ried So he young couple had 10 be mar
ried all over nsain. This time ii was
success and they were very happy. Tt
: first mistake arose from the fault of III
mails rather than their morals, an. thei
consciences were clear.
1t does not appear that the public ger
orally discovered aught that was tortuou
or wrong in JackSon's marriage or the ira
| which led to IL. TX does not appear tina
any one arose to detract or cal1mniate.
does not appear that for thirty years Jacf
son kept a brace of beautiful dueiing pis
I tolls. hair triggers, and accurate as ra
| of light, to kill any one who spoke di.
D | respectfully OF his wife. So the potter
looking over the field, saw that the be:
I | way to force Jackson TO a place where L
I | could be killed with safety to themseiv.
D ! was to viify his wife, provoke q iuel, ar
Z see TO 1t that the hated hero OF the poop
: stood opposite to the coolest nerve. II
1 | quickest hand. and the most deadly shot
= the world. The outcome would then
4 | Jackson'S obSequieS. which were the mourn
D fal output they were after. IF the nj,
: had succeeded We might have had no one
D | hold the volatile John c. Calhoun level! ar
| then where would we have been?
{ But. TO return. The plotters looked abo,
: for the coolest nerve. the quickest hand III
= | most deadly shot in the world. They four
I him Charles Dickinson was twenty-.i,
o years old, thirteen years younger than Jacl
: son, and a practicing lawyer in NASHVILLE
s person of exceptional mental as well G
. | nhyscaI mowers and reputed "the hest MI