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Show tflttl til ? "H4 - i, f v 1 r? ft" 1 1 M! i ,- " K k irt $ S I ? V l; -v ,'"'fij a Tennessee hlstormn. "She is de- the name of The Hermitage. Soma , w V scribed as being a brunette, with olive time later he built a handsome two- - complexion and high coloring, black story brick house to care for the ln- '"4iE S 2- eyes that danced and sparkled; viva- creasing number of guests who were ' cious, kindly; lips that were true car- coming to visit this rising young fron- &vh "fc ' nelian; a rare wilderness beauty." tiersman. In 1706 he was elected to s i- 4 x Colonel Donelson was killed by the congress nnd the following year he .. Indians during the early years of the accepted an appointment to fill a seat " v settlement and his widow moved to In the United States senate, not so if 3 V Kentucky. There she rented a house much because he was ambitious hlm- i 4 from another frontier widow, a Mrs. self, but because he wanted to lift ' t t y Robards, whose son, Lewis, wooed and his beloved Rachel to a social position fV0v I ' ' J& won Rachel Donelson. But the mar- which would show his pride In her. crafiNvfe &J$ rlage was a failure from the begin- Within a year he resigned, served a !i-W rf1 ,s Tu ning. Robards was moody, tempera- short time as a Judge of the Supreme T.-- mental and Intensely Jealous of his court in Tennessee and then, happy SMCftEL tACKSOr wife. So Rachel eventually left him, In the thought that he wns through Vfttiiftilnor tn lioi- ninrhpr who hurl In with nnhfic life looked forward tO I By ELMO SCOTT WATSON I JANUARY 8 Is a day for re- dy calling a famous American 9 fight and a famous Amer-1 Amer-1 lean fighter. The fight was B the battle of New Orleans, . ' I which took place on January Jan-uary 8, 1815, and which is unique In history as being a battle fought after the treaty of peace ending end-ing the war had been signed. The fighter was Gen. Andrew Jackson, frontiersman, lawyer by profession, but a natural military leader, hailed during the war with the Creek Indians In-dians and the war with the British by his fellow-frontiersmen as "Old Hickory" in tribute to the toughness of his fiber as a man, and later triumphantly tri-umphantly elected by them to the Presidency as the first representative of the new American democracy to occupy the White House, after a long reign there by Virginia and Massachusetts Massachu-setts aristocrats. Andrew Jackson Is a symbol of something so Intensely American that, in the words of a recent biographer, "The people still delight In the legends leg-ends of his prowess, of his lurid language, lan-guage, of his imperious and dictatorial dictato-rial temper. . . . As a small boy he comes reeling into American history his-tory with a saber cut on his head and as the years gather upon him they gleam with steel and blood. It was a roaring career, resounding to the roars of cheering multitudes, of musketry, mus-ketry, of artillery. . . . He was a great duelist, a great soldier and a great lover. He wns fiery, quixotic, honest and loyal. He was curiously romantic. . . ." The picture of red-headed Andy Jackson, the boy, nnd "Old Hickory," the man, "cutting and slashing his way to power, a raucous fellow, nn explosive, ex-plosive, heavy-handed fellow, but withal with-al a man who had a code and lived up to it," is too familiar to Americans Ameri-cans to necessitate calling It up again on the anniversary of his great victory. vic-tory. In the light of these characteristics character-istics it is more interesting to call up that other picture of him, because of the vivid contrast which it presents the picture of "the great lover" who was so "curiously romantic." For the story of Andrew Jackson and his beloved be-loved Rachel, the woman he loved to the end of his days, is one of the most beautiful romances In American history. his-tory. The story of tills romance goes back to the year 1770 when Col. John Donelson, Don-elson, a well-to-do Virginia planter, led a party of 2o0 emigrants on a 2.0o0-mile trip by flatboat from old Fort Patrick Henry In East Tennessee (near the present city of Kingsport) to the Middle Basin of Tennessee. The trip was made down the uppor branch of the Ilolston to the Tennessee river, down its whole length to (he Ohio, up the Ohio to tiie Cumberland and thence up that stream to the bluffs where Col. James Robertson nnd an earlier party of settlors had established estab-lished a frontier outpost which was to become the city of Nashville. It bad taken Donelson's party four months to complete thoir journey and during that time they had known the horrors of Indian attack, bitter winter weather and the scourge of smailpox. Among the party was Donelson's twelve-yoar-old daughter, Kaihel. who, despite de-spite the hardships of frontier life or perhaps b.-causo of them grew up to a superb womanhood. "Those who knew Bachel Donelson never tired, in their day, telling of her beauty, her goodness, her swee' no.-.s and natural chanii,"' guys John Trotuood Moore, a Tennessee hlstormn. "She is described de-scribed as being a brunette, with olive complexion and high coloring, black eyes that danced and sparkled; vivacious, viva-cious, kindly ; lips that were true car-nelian; car-nelian; a rare wilderness beauty." Colonel Donelson was killed by the Indians during the early years of the settlement and his widow moved to Kentucky. There she rented a house from another frontier widow, a Mrs. Robards, whose son, Lewis, wooed and won Rachel Donelson. But the marriage mar-riage was a failure from the beginning. begin-ning. Robards was moody, temperamental tempera-mental and Intensely Jealous of his wife. So Rachel eventually left him, returning to her mother, who had In the meantime gone back to Nashville to live. Faced with the necessity of making her own living after her husband's hus-band's death, Mrs. Donelson had taken a few men boarders into her home. One of them was a young lawyer named John Overton, who brought about a reconciliation between Rachel and Robards, who then came to live with his wife and her mother. Another boarder at the Donelson home was a red-headed young Carolinian, Caro-linian, named Andrew Jackson, who had arrived In Nashville In 1788 and began the practice of law. Again Robards' jealousy flamed out and he accused Rachel of being In love with Jackson. The young lawyer's protest to the husband, when he heard the accusation, ac-cusation, only made matters worse and Robards returned to Kentucky, Through Overton's intercession Rachel went there to live with him again, but finding the situation Impossible, soon returned, resolved never again to live with Robards. Robards then applied to the legislature legisla-ture of Virginia (since Kentucky was still a part of that state) for a divorce, di-vorce, and on December 29, 1700, that body passed nn act permitting him to go into court to seek a divorce from his wife. Back to Tennessee came the report that the divorce had been granted' grant-ed' in the ss.Timer of 1791, while Rachel Ra-chel was visiting In Natchez, Miss. Jackson, who had fallen in love with her but had not spoken of his love while she was still Robards' wife, sought her out and they were married. mar-ried. The young couple soon returned to Tennessee and went to live at the home, Hunter's Hill, which Jackson, now United Slates attorney and al-ready al-ready marked ns a man who would become be-come famous, had established In Nashville. Nash-ville. Two years later Jackson and his wife learned that she was not legally divorced from Robards when the marriage mar-riage ceremony in Natchez had taken place. The scandal mongers and Jackson's Jack-son's political enemies beenme busy with the tale. Robards had waited three years, after filing his first application, appli-cation, before finally securing the final decree of divorce. Immediately afterwards, after-wards, on January 17, 1794, Jackson remarried ti is wife. Then be bought two dueling pistols and served notice upon his enemies that he would kill any man who assailed his wife's name or the purity of their motives when they were first married. For a time the tongues of his enemies ene-mies were silenced. Then, as the result re-sult of a dispute over a horse rare, a young man named Charles Dickinson, who seems (o have been made the tool of Jackson's political enemies, after a session of heavy drinking denounced de-nounced Jackson ns a coward and a poltroon nnd added the further insult of declaring that, "lie lived two years wifh his wife before he was married to her." The result was the now-famous I tir-kinson-.tiiekson duel In which Dickinson was killed. Dickinson fired first and seriously wounded Jackson. Jack-son. Later Jachson said fo his second, sec-ond, "If he hail missed me, I intended to shoot In the air, but when I felt his ball plow IhroHirh my ribs, I would have killed him if lie had shot me through the heart." The dealh of Dickinson silenced Jackson's enemies for awhile and be and bis wife enjoyed a period of hap-pines hap-pines at Hunter's Hill. Then he lost the major pnrt of bis esiute of sonic ."o.ikki acres through d"bt, but on the part which be retained be built a group of log bouses nnd one frame building. To the new estate he gave the name of The Hermitage. Soma time later he built a handsome two-story two-story brick house to care for the Increasing In-creasing number of guests who were coming to visit this rising young frontiersman. fron-tiersman. In 1796 he was elected to congress and the following year he accepted an appointment to fill a seat In the United States senate, not so much because he was ambitious himself, him-self, but because he wanted to lift his beloved Rachel to a social position which would show his pride In her. Within a year he resigned, served a short time as a Judge of the Supreme court in Tennessee and then, happy In the thought that he wns through with public life, looked forward to spending the remainder of hli yenrs as a gentleman planter at The Hermitage. Her-mitage. But the outbreak of the War of 1812 called him Into service again as the commander of Tennessee volunteers to fight the Creek Indians who had gone on the warpath. In January, 1814, he defeated the Creeks In two pitched battles and ended the war In March at the Great Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa river. As the result of his splendid campnlgn he was made major-general In the regular army. Then came word that the British were preparing to attack New Orleans nnd Jackson with his small army of 2,000 men there won one of the most astounding battles In history defeating defeat-ing Pnkenham's British veterans nnd Inflicting upon them n greater loss than Jackson's own force. This victory made him the hero of the old French city and In his triumph Rncliel Jackson shared. For he sent for her to come to New Orleans and there this daughter of the frontier won the hearts of the granddames o Louisiana with her naturalness and her lack of self-consciousness. They presented her with a set of topaz jewelry nnd gave a grand ball In her honor at which the "Victor of New Orleans" proudly led her out ns his first choice ns a dancing partner. By this time Jackson had become a nntlonnl figure with the promise of further public honors In store for him. His devoted Rachel hoped that ha would return to Tennessee and In the quiet of life nt the Hermitage recuperate recuper-ate his health which had been shattered shat-tered by his arduous campaigns. But she soon realized that her ambition wns not to be realized. As the Presidential Presi-dential campaign of 1H24 drew near Tennessee was clamoring for her favorite fa-vorite son to he a candidate. lie innde the race, won the largest popular vole, but In the electorlal college John Qulncy Adams, aided by Henry Clay, was the winner. Four years later another campaign was on and ngaln Jackson was a candidate. can-didate. The campaign of 1828 wns a bitter one and once more Jackson's enemies unearthed the charge of his Illegal ninrrlnge. Jackson withheld his wrath until the election wns over, but he desired more ardently than ever to win so that he could vindicate his wife by making her the First Lady of the Land. That would be her supreme triumph over lbo.se who spoke III of ber. The result of the election wns a victory for "Old Hickory." When the news came to the Hermitage, Hermit-age, Rachel Jackson, afler much persuasion, per-suasion, sol forth for Nashville lo obtain ob-tain a wardrobe In keeping with her new station. The honor of being (lie President's wife was not one which she had coveted, but ber husband's wish was her law and she planned to accompany him to Washington and share in his triumph. While sealed in the back parlor of a hold In Nashville Nash-ville she overheard herself discussed as the woman who was hampering a great man's rise to fame. For the first time there came to tier horrified ears the stories which bad been circulated about her and which her husband had succeeded in keeping from her knowledge. knowl-edge. Her sorvnnts said she returned to her home looking stunned. Within a few days she suffered a heart attack from which she failed to rally. She had lost the desire fo live. For 10 bonis a heart broken man sat at her bedside helpless fo aid ber. Then she died and wifh hr died nil happiness for Andrew Jackson. (tel. 1930 Weilorn Newspuyer Union.) |