Show fir M au ta he M 1 m IL A I 1 ay 11 of LD H I 1 k KO I 1 za 0 t ahl al at WWI N V S x T W drew J T x V X f S a un 9 statue by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 8 is a day for recalling one of the most picturesque figures in american history andrew jackson was his name but to his countrymen he is affectionately known as old hickory it is not a date for special observance because it is the anniversary of his birth as Is the case with other great americans rather we remember it because it is the anniversary niver sary of a battle which be fought and won mon on that date the battle of new orleans on january 8 1815 Is unique in military history it is the only maor majo r engagement on record which was fought after a treaty of peace between the two nations involved had bad been signed but its significance in american history is more than that curious fact the war of 1812 was a conflict fought by a nation divided against itself it was one in which americans of thi the time took little pride at least so go far as the record of its military forces was concerned disaster after disaster and reverse after reverse had caused the country to believe that the breed of successful generals such as it had known tn in the revolution was extinct then andrew jackson and his frontiersmen at new orleans faced the bast troops that great britain could muster they were Welling tons veterans who had broken the power of napoleon but jackson gave them odds of two to one and defeated them disastrously to a country that had almost completely complete y lost faith in itself to a country that had bad almost learned to cringe this news came like a reprieve to a man upon the gallows says gerald W johnson in andrew jackson an epic tn in homespun it was literally crazed with joy and in its delirium it flung the name of andrew jackson against the stars if jackson did not really save new orleans he saved something infinitely more important namely the self respect of the coun try in view of this it would seem that january 8 should be one of the red letter days on the amerlean american calendar the fact that it is not Is on only ly further proof that the old saying A republic forgets Is true for january 8 is not a general hollday holiday nor even a state holiday in that respect it cannot take rank with march 2 when texas recalls the battle of san jacinto and honors tile the memory nien tory of sam houston nor with april 19 when massachusetts honors the patriots who fought at concord and lexington nor with august 16 when vermont remembers how old jo john ha stark heat beat the hessians Ees at bennington Benu ington the only observance of the anniversary of the battle of new orleans as a holiday Is in new orleans which has good reaton reason to remember the name of andrew jackson in fact the only nationwide nation wide notice of this anniversary la Is a celebration which has only a me meager ager connection with the battle and even this occurs intermittently that is the jackson day dinner held in washington by the leaders of the demo cratic party on january 8 and there tribute is paid more to andrew jackson the president and the founder of jacksonian Jacks onlan democracy than to old hickory jackson the soldier and military victor even though america has not chosen to honor the he memory of andrey jackson by making a holiday of the date on which he won his great victory and started on the path which led eventually to the white house this does not mean that lie he Is forgotten or Is ever likely to be for as his biographer previously has pointed out he la Is the hero of the people not of the intelligentsia the 1 people still delight in the legends of his prowess of his lurid language of his imperious and dictatorial temper the tale of his usurpations does not appall them but delights them for americans have always loved a really masterful man it if jacksons Taci sons spiritual heir should appear now there Is every reason to believe america of the twentieth century wom would ild liall hall him as rapturously and follow him as blindly as it hailed balled and followed the hero of long ago another reason why he la Is not likely to hp b for x 4 va 1 s N 4 t c 5 tUf y ahston ahm ton D C washington and lincoln more monuments and markers have been erected to his memory than any other president fascinating as Is the story of jacksons career a story which Is familiar to most americans equally interesting Is the story of some of these memorials outstanding among them is the famous rocking horse statue in lafayette part park opposite the white house in washington ing ton perhaps it Is particularly appropriate that this memorial to a man whose life was turbulent from beginning to end should be the subject for frequent controversy and should furnish material tor for an almost endless debate among politicians sculptors and horsemen the statue which has hag the distinction of being the first equestrian statue in the united states Is the work of dark clark mills a new yorker born in 1815 who drifted to south carolina where he worked in a plaster and cement mill while doing 0 stucco work there he developed a method for taking a cast from a living face and although he had no art education he began working in marble nis his first effort a buat of john 0 calhoun was purchased by the city of charleston and he was given iven a gold got medal by the commonwealth of south carolina mills next went to washington to make busts of webster and crittenden on the way lie he stopped in richmond Ilich mond and there saw hou dons statue of washington ton the first real piece of sculpture he had ever seen arriving lit in washington he found plans were under way for the erection of an equestrian statue of jackson cave johnson then postmaster general and president of the jackson monument corn com invited him to submit it a dign I ign hut but mills never having seen an equestrian n statue felt obliged to refuse the offer however he was pre failed upon to make the attempt and having bought some land near Lari lanham birn sid md he set up a fici adry and a studio and went to for nine months lie he worked patiently on a small model on a new principle eliat of bringing the hind legs leg of a horse directly beneath I the center of its body thus producing perfect balance A race horse named olympus ans its his model for jacksons cli charger arger and he trained this horse to pose for the work finally his design was finished and accepted by the corn mission and mills set to work to make the bronze statue cannon captured by jackson at pensacola were to be melted down for the statue of the horse and art its rider and other glins captured front from tile the british at new orleans was to be used for the base hut but just when mills was really ready to bein begin the melting and recasting n R gale destroyed his studio before he be could rebuild it fire desti destroyed the foundry despite these handle handicaps nilis to which were added such misfortunes as the breaking of cranes the bursting of furnaces and ant six failures in making the body of the horse mills persisted until his work wis was completed just before the statue was dedicated mills as the head of f r corri company piny of militia lie had organized tried to ride 10 olympus lympus ut at the head of the parade tile the horse per perhaps balls feeling that occasion k e ir in el 1 packson rl equa square re neld OA orleans batis ing on its hind logs legs similar to the jackson statue whereupon its rider slid off hastily and continued on hla his way afoot I 1 the statue was unveiled on january 8 1853 and senator stephen A douglas of illinois was the orator for the occasion for all the ridicule that has been heaped upon i jackson ackson and his rocking horse the statue Is a remarkable one in many respects it Is mounted without pivots rivets or clamps of any kind among many people there Is an idea that the tall tail and hind legs of the horse were cast solid to balance the rest of the it figure gure but this idea Is erroneous the statue Is balanced perfectly on the hind legs lega of the horse and despite the fact it i has not shifted a traction fraction of an inch in the 73 75 years that it has haa stood on the same spot from the original model mills made a replica for new orleans and it stands today in jackson square originally called the place d armes but changed to honor the savior of the city after the historic battle in 1815 in that city another replica stands on the grounds of the statehouse in nashville tenn mills statue of jackson brought him fame and he he was commissioned to do others the first was wag the equestrian statue of washington which stands in the circle of that name in the national capital another was the statue of armed liberty which stands on the dome of the capitol in washington if jacksons life wap was a disputatious one it la Is appropriate also that it should have begun on disputed ground and that the dispute over the scene of his birth should continue mug long after his deat death at the time of his birth march 15 1767 the boundary line between the two provinces of north and south carolina was not clearly defined that boundary line ran north and south less than a qua quarter arter of a mile front from the to log cabin in which andrew jackson ja ackson fit arst t saw the 11 light lit of day rut but was the cabin east of the boundary line I 1 1 e in south carolina or wet of it hence to in north carolina that Is a point over which his biographers and other historians have never been able to agree and so the two states of north carolina and south carolina have had a part in another jackson controversy as to which one belongs tha th a honor of being his native state apparently south carolina has had the last word tn in tile the controversy for in november 1928 1028 there was erected a marker on the james crawford plantation on 10 miles from lancaster S C hearing bearing on the front these words birthplace of andrew jackson brave truculent noble able honest on the roar rear Is an inscription from a letter said to have been written by jackson to a lancaster citizen which reads 1 I was born bom in south carolina an I 1 have been told at the plantation whereon james crawford lived about crossing of tile the waxhaw creel creek and beneath that is this inscription this stone sione stands upon the plantation whereon james crawford awford Or lived near the site of the dwelling house according to the mills map of the year 1020 1920 saw the erection of another in mortal morial to andrew jackson that was on april IS 15 when the statue of jackson was unveiled in statuary hall in the capitol it was presented ted to tho tha federal government by the state of tennessee in honor of the centennial year of his inauguration as president and was accepted on behalf of the nation by president coolidge Con lidge the statue which shows show jackson in the full dress uniform of a major genera of the regular army of his fits time cocked hat tight fitting filling military iry dress cost coat and breeches long cloak and high hoots Is the work of belle kinney scholz fort formerly of nashville Nasli ville tenn on that occasion Pr president eIdent coolidge paid a tribute to jackson as one who exemplified the unlimited opportunities offered to men re regardless ird of seeming handicaps lie ile I 1 gave to the nationalistic spirit through loyalty loyally to the union a new astren strength tb which was decisive for many years president collide Co olide e said ilis his management of our foreign affairs was such as to secure a wholesome holesome respect for our and the rl rights of our citizens ile he left the treasury without obligations and with a surplus corning coining up front from the people he demonstrated that there Is sufficient substance in self government to solve important public questions arid and to rise superior to a perplexing crisis like a true pioneer lie broke through till all restraints ind impediments ments into will which lie he aus was burn born und and leaving behind the provincialisms and prejudices 0 of f hla I 1 day pushed out towards a larger freedom art and a sounder government the country with th him I 1 if at times he was high tempered and overhearing thore there Is no fairer story of chivalrous devotion and affection affectionate ite consideration than that which he lavished upon tipon his fits wife but it if one would see the memorial which best exemplifies the tender side of andrew jackson it Is necess necessary no to go to nashville tenn and there visit the hermitage chere he lived the happiest days of his life with his fits beloved R rachel where the most crushing blow in his whole career her death was dealt him and where at last lie he died with a miniature inure of her next nert to hill heart in that rine fine old mansion which has become a pat patriotic motle shrine of the sort that mount vernon and jeffersons monticello are preserved as it was in the days when in jackson cirson lived there one may come nearer understanding andrew jackson not andrew jackson the indian lighter or the general or the p politician or abla b I 1 |