The Coolidge examiner., 1934-01-05

lhefl, so help me God"
Then followed his brilliant night attack of
December % which held the invaders in check
even though it did not smash them" That happy
result was destined TO take place two weeks
later-on January s, 1915, 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 II will smash them" And that
gives point to the title chosen by a recent biog-
rapher for his bOok-"Andrew Jackson the Bor-
der Captain" by Marquis James, published by the
BobbsMerril company. For the essence Of the
border spirit was indivdualism, supreme self
confidence on the part of the borderer Tor the
frontiersman, If you prefer that name) In his
ability TO do what he set out to do And only
the man who had that supreme self-conhdence,
that will TO win" could hope to be border
captain" a leader of borderers.
The extent to which Jackson had it is in
dicated by James, in telling of his preparations
for smashing the British before that historic
January s, as follows: 1.-The inexorable Jack
sOnian viii 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 kill
his adversary. This mood possessed him now.
His determination formed to fight below
New Orleans; If beaten there TO fight in New
Orleans; if beaten there, to fight above New
Oreans-to fight until no living thing could
withstand his ineradicable impulse to victory.
This was fury, but of the COOL calculating sort"
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this
new portrait of Jackson Is that it paints him
as an aristocrat Andrew Jackson an aristo-
crat? IMPOSSIBLE" !" you exclaim, because you be-
leve the school history tradition of him as the
typical exponent of the frontier democracy. But
the fact is that he was both frontersman and
an aristocrat He was born on 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 was one of the wealthest
men of that part of the country. A large num-
Der of slaves titled his fields and ran his grist-
mill and distillery. Even finer 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
home TO him, he was there so much. So he was
no mere backwoodsman. for he belonged to all
the aristocracy there was in the Back-Country
Given the best education obtainabe-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, his mother had planned for
him. had not the Revolution interviewed. Very
early he showed arstocratic 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 a gentlemanly way among the gentility
of that old Southern town, who accepted him as
one of them.
Then he studied law at Salisbury and became
q leading social light in that frontier settle
ment which had decidedly aristocratic leanings
Learning OF the opportunities there were for a