The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1914-03-20
OLD MASTERS
ANDREW JACKSON
By C. C. G.

The stormiest soul that ever in
America won high places and filled
them all with honor, was Andrew
Jackson.
The histories give his birthplace to
a little settlement in North Carolina
1t is more natural to believe, as long
reported, that his birth was in little
storm-tried brig in mid-ocean ON its
way to our shores.
| The restless sea, with frequen.
storms, was more in accord with his
| impetuous and imperious nature than
is the dull shore. He grew up on
the frontier, fought it's battles and
bore it's lack of comforts; was at
home at horse-race or a frolic or
a fight; never asking odds, always
a leader, making the frontier code
his rule of action; tenacious of his
honor under that code; pitiless in ex-
ecuting it's DEGREES, and still set aside
for high honors because of his rude
but lofty integrity, and patriotism
rs broad as the boundries of his
country.
There is no other just such man
in our history. Had he been with
Alaric and his Goths he would have
| been perfectly at home
He fought the savages and Spani
ards to finish in Florida, and when
with his little army he went to the
defense of New Orleans, he had no
definite idea of what he was called
upon to accomplish, except that an
enemy was there which must be beat
en-. When before the final test came
he found that the city was filled with
men who were ready to exult over
his failure, he established martial law
| and dealt with them in " way to Sc
cure himself from attack in the rear
while he was facing an enemy in
| front
Some of his acts were most arbit-
rary, but the event proved that they
were necessary. The signal triumph
which came to him silenced his enc
mics and he was hailed as a hero
everywhere. The honors won there
caused the wave that bore him into
the presidency of the republic.
There were many forebodings of
what he would do. He began by
announcing boldly, what Jefferson
had practiced secretly, that to the
yictors belong the spoils, and fired
more men out of office to make places
for his party friends than had been
done in the previous forty-four years
of the life of the republic. But the
test of his strength and courage and
patriotism came when notification
was sounded in South Carolina. Had
he been Buchanan, the civil war
would have been precipitated then.
But he swore by the Eternal that the
Union was to be preserved, and at
once took the necessary steps to make
good his words.
But he was never satisfied with the
results; he wanted to hang few of
the chiefs, and ever after distrusted
them. He said: "They are not cured.
1t was the tariff this time; it will be
slavery or something else next time"
He refused to sign the charter
which was to renew the charter under
which the old central national bank
was organized. His party had but
just thrown off the prejurice which
governed him then. What he did
was natural, for he knew nothing of
the philosophy of money; he had no
comprehension of the needs which a
great nation would have for vast
reserves of money, and his narrow
prejudices bound him round.
Such a man in or out of office
would be bound to have many enc
mics. He, certainly had them, and
it was his joy to fight them. And he
was as ready to fight in the white
house as he was on a race track in
Tennessee.
But the enmities are all extin-
guished now. His heroic soul, his
high integrity, his all-encompassing
patriotism are what are remembered
now, and his grave has become a
shrine.
(GOOdWin'S Weaklv)