Show A rev mr v 0 awe 77 IM s casz fw soy by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 8 is a day tor for recalling a famous american fight und and a famous american fighter the fight was the battle of n new orleans which took place on jan 1815 and which I 1 ig unique in history as being a battle fought after the treaty of peace ending tile the war had been signed the fighter was gen andrew jackson frontiersman lawyer by profession but a natural military lender leader balled during tp the war with th e creek in deans a and ud the war with the P british by ills his fellow frontiersmen as old hickory in tribute to the toughness of his fiber as a man and later triumphantly antly elected hy by them to the presidency as the first representative of the new american deiv to occupy the white house after a long reign there by virginia and massachusetts 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 of his prowess of his lurid language an of ills his imperious and dictatorial raa temper As a small boy lie he cottes comes reeling into american history 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 of artillery ile he was a great i duelist a great soldier and a great lover ile he was flery fiery quixotic honest and loyal lie ile was curiously romantic the picture of redheaded red headed andy jackson the boy and old hickory the man cutting and slashing his bis way to power a raucous fellow an explosive heavy handed fellow but withal a man who had a code and lived up to it Is too familiar to americans to necessitate calling it up again on the anniversary of jils his great victory in the light of these character astles it Is more ingre interesting to call up that other picture 0 o of him because of the vivid contrast which it presents ali alie picture of bf the great lover who was so curiously romantic for the story etory of audrew andrew jaclson and his beloved rachel the theroman woman lie he lovato the end of ills his days is as one of the most beautiful romanced roman romances cei la in american history the story of this romance goes back bach to the year 1779 17 when col john donelson a well to do virginia planter led a party of em emigrants I grants on a 2000 11 mile trip by fint hont from old fort patrick henry ln in east tennessee near the tbt present city of to the middle basin of tennessee the trip was made down don the upper allper branch odthe of the Hol holston to the tennessee river down KB its whole length to the ohio up the ohio to the cumberland and thence up that stream bluffs where col james jamea robertson arid and an earlier party of settlers had estate 14 ll sheda a frontier outpost which was to become the city of nashville it had taken Don elsons party four months to poni complete their journey and during that time they had known the horrors of indian attack bitter winter weather and the scourge of smallpox among ali party was Donel Don elsons sona twelve yearb acar ald ld daughter tachel I who dl de spite the hardships of frontier life or perhaps ps because of bf them up to a superb womanhood those who know k nw donelson never tired in their thear day telling of her beauty her goodness tier her sweetness and natural charm taya says john 71 T otwood amoore boore a tennessee hla hi abie Is described as being a brunette with olive complexion and high coloring black eyes that danced and sparkled vivacious kindly lips that were true car beljan a rare wilderness beauty colonel donelson nelson was killed by the indians during the early years of the settlement and ills his widow moved to kentucky there she rented a house from another antler front fi ler widow a mrs robards whose son lewis wooed and won rachel donelson but the marriage was a failure from the beginning robards was moody temperamental and intensely jealous of his wife so rachel eventually left him returning to her mother who had bad in the meantime gone back to nashville to live faced with the necessity of making her own living after her husbands death mrs donelson had taken a few men boarders into anio her home one of them was a young lawyer named john averton who brought about a reconciliation between rachel and robards who then came to live with his wife and tier lier mother A nother another boarder at the donelson home was a redheaded red headed young caro care finlan named admed andrew jackson who had arrived in nashville in 1783 and began the practice of law again robards jealousy flamed out and ile he accused rachel of being la in love with jackson the young lawyers protest to the husband when he heard the accusation cusa cus tion atlon only made matters worse and robards returned to kentucky through overtones Ov ertons intercession rachel went there to live with him again but finding the situation impossible soon returned resolved never again tolve to live with robards robards then applied to the legiel legislature a of virginia since kentucky waa stul still a part of that state for a divorce arid on deamber 29 1790 that body passed an aft act permitting him blin to go into court to seek a divorce from hla his wife back to tennessee Tennesse 6 came the report that the divorce had been granted in the summer of 1791 1701 awhile while rachel chel was visiting in natchez bliss jackson who lad fallen in love with tier her hut but had not spoken ot of his love while elie was still Rob robards aids wife sought her out and they w were ere married the young coup lesoon lesoon returned to tennessee and went to jive at af the home hunters hill which jackson now united states attorney and already marked as a man who would become famous had established in nashville two years later jackson and his wife learned that she was not legally legally divorced from robards when the marriage ceremony in natchez had taken the scandal mongers bongers andrack and tack sons political enemies became busy with the tale robards had waited three years after filing his first cation before finally securing the final decree of divorce immediately afterwards on january 17 1794 1704 jackson remarried tits his wife then he bought two dueling pistols and served notice upon ills his enemies that he would kill any man who assailed his cifes name or the purity of their motives when they were first married for a time the tongues of his enemies were silenced then as the result of a dispute over a horse race a young man named charles Chi Arles Dicki fiso i n who seems to have been made the tool 1601 of jacksons political enemies ene mies after a session of heavy drinking denounced jackson as a coward and it a poltroon and add added edthe the further insult of declaring declark rig that two years with his wife before he was married to her the result was the now fa inous dickinson jackson duel in wh which ach dickinson was killed dickinson fired first and seriously wounded jackson later Jak sori said to his second it if lie he had missed roe me I 1 intended to shoot in the air but when I 1 felt his ball plow through gl my ribs j bould would have killed hilled him if hie he had shot sha me through the heart I 1 tile donth of dickinson silenced jacksons jackson a enemies for awhile and lie and andels his wife enjoyed a period of hop at a t hunters hill 1111 then he lost to oi e major part of hia esa estate of some acres through debt but on the part which alch lie retained he bulli built a group of log houses and one frame building to the new estate he gave the name of the hermitage somo some time later he built a handsome two story brick house to io care for the increasing number of guests who were coming to visit this rising hat 13 g young frontiersman in 1700 lie 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 lie he was ambitious himself but because he wanted to lift his beloved rachel to a social position pos which would show his pride in her within a year lie he resigned served a short time as a judge of the supreme court la in tennessee and then happy in the thought that he was through with public life looked forward to spending the remainder of his years as a gentleman planter at the hermitage but the outbreak of the war of 1812 called him into service again as the commander of tenne tennessee see volunteers to fight the creek indians who had gone on the warpath karpath war path in january 1814 lie 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 campaign lie he was made major general in the regular army then cama word that the british were preparing to attack new orleans and jackson with his small army of 2000 men there won one of tle the most astounding battles in history lil story defeating hams hains british veterans and inflicting Indic ting upon them a greater loss than jacksons own force this victory made him tile the liero hero of the old french city and in his triumph rachel jackson shared for he sent tor for her to come to new orleans and there this daughter of the frontier woo won the hearts of the grand dames of lo 10 louisiana ul S lana with her naturalness natura luesa and her lack of self consciousness they presented tier her with a set of topaz jewelry and gave a grand bull in her honor at which the victor of new orleans proudly led her out as his first choice as a dancing partner by this time jackson had become a national figure with the promise of further public honors in store tor for him his devoted rachel kachel hoped that he would return to tennessee and lu III tile tha quiet of life at the hermitage recuperate hw his health which had been that by his arduous campaigns but she soon realized tier her ambition was not to be realized real hed As the presidential dent lill campaign or of 1824 drew near tennessee was clamoring for her fa son to be a candidate ile he made the race won tile the largest popular vote ote but in the elector lal college john quincy adams aided by henry clay was the winner P four years later another was on and again jackson as was a mrs an didace the campaign of 1828 1823 was a bitter one and once more jack jacksons on enemies unearthed the charge A f 1114 illegal marriage jackson ills his wrath until the election elc cllon was ove eye but bui he desired more ardently vint alini ever to win so that he could vind vindicate leato his wife by making tier her the firs lady of the land that that would be hei supreme triumph over thoe who spoke III of her the result of the election was a victory tor for old hickory when the news came hermit age rachel jackson after much persuasion set gk forth tov for nashville to ot tain a wardrobe waid rohe in keeping with liei hei new station the honor of being the presidents wife was not one which she had coveted but liar her husband wish was tier lier law lawand and she planned to tc accompany him to washington and hare bhare in hla triumph while seated tn in the back parlor of a hotel in nashville she overheard herself discussed dis cued its as the worn woman an who afis hampering a preat mans rise to fame for the firs ara time there came to her horrified ears the stories which had be been en circulated about her and which her husband had 9 succeeded in keeping from tier her know edge hen ller servants said she returned to her home stunned within a few days daa she suffered a heart attack from which she foiled failed to rally she had lost the lie desire to live for 10 hours a heartbroken heart broken man mais sai EM at tier her bedside helpless to aid tier lir then she died and with her died all happ happiness iresa for andrew Jac jackson luson oa loss diio western Neo Ctr |