The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1934-01-04

them, 80 help me God"
Then followed his brilliant night attack of
December % which held the Invaders in check
even though 1t did not smash themr That happy
result was destined to take place two weeks
later-on January s, 1916, when this emphatic
military leader won one of the most astounding
victories In all history, victory which paved the
way TO the White House for him and put on the
calendar of the American people red letter day
which calls for remembering the name OF An
drew Jackson
That emphatic declaration quoted above has a
peculiar significance. Notice. II You please, that
"Old Hickory" did not say I'VE will smash
them He said Il will smash them" And that
gives point to the title chosen by recent biog-
rapher for his book-"Andrew Jackson. the Bor-
der Captain" BY Marquis James. published BY the
Bobbs-Merrill company. For the essence OF the
border spirit was indivldnalism supreme self
confidence on the part OF the borderer Tor the
frontiersman, II you prefer that name) In his
ability to do what he set out to do And only
the man who had that supreme self-confdence,
that will to win" could hope to be BORDER
captain" leader OF borderers
The extent to which Jackson hads~it is in
dictated by James, In telling OF his preparations
for smashing the British before that historic
January 5, As follows 1.-THE inexorable Jack
Eonian will was unleashed-an instrument by
which he believed he could accomplish anything
Had Charles Dickinson shot him through the
brain Andrew Jackson counted on the power of
sheer resolve to sustain him long enough to XIII
his adversary This mood possessed him now
His determination was formed to fight below
New Oreans; II beaten there. to light in New
Orleans; II beaten there, to fight above New
Orleans-to fight until no living thing could
withstand his incradlcable impulse to victory.
Try.f~
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this
"new portrait" of Jackson Is that 1t paints him
as an aristocrat Andrew Jackson An aristo-
crat7 Impossible |" you excam. because you be-
leye the school history tradition OF him as the
typical exponent of the frontier democracy. But
the fact is that he was both frontiersman and
an aristocrat. He was born the Carolina
frontier In the home OF his uncle James Craw-
ford whence his mother had gone after the death
of his father.
James Crawford OF the weathlest
of that part OF the country. large num-
Der of slaves titled his fields and ran his grist-
mill and dstiery. Even finer was the adjoining
plantation Of Robert Crawford, his brother who
was called Esquire because of his leadership In
local affairs The first IL years OF Jacksons
life were spent In the home of James Crawford
and that OF Robert Crawford was second
no mere backwoodsman, for he belonged to all
the arstocracy there was In the Back Country"
Given the best education ohtainahe-and that
was more than the majority of the typical from
tiersmen had-his interests were pointed toward
things classical and he might possibly have gone
into the ministry. as his mother had planned for
him, had not the Revolution interviewed Very
early he showed aristocratc tendencies He
loved good company and he loved good horses
He engaged In horse racing and cock fighting
two typical interests of the Colonial gentleman.
When he went down to Charleston to receive a
modest inheritance, he proceeded to get rid OF
1t In gentemanly way among the gentillty
OF that old Southern town. who accepted him as
one of them.
Then he studied law at Salisbury and became
a leading social light In that frontier settle
ment which had decidedly aristocratic leanings