This humble commencement of his military career, was as unfortunate, as its subsequent course was splendid and successful. Having been captured together with his brother, by a party of British and tories, they were both of them severely wounded for refusing to obey the insolent commands of a British officer, and then thrown into jail, confined in separate cells and treated with inhuman severity. The effects of this treatment were fatal to Robert Jackson, and Andrew no doubt left the prison behind him, confirmed in his devotion to his country, and his hatred of its enemies. The death of his mother soon followed-his eldest brother had died some time before at the battle of Stono, and Andrew, left without one surviving relative, was stretched on a bed of sickness and brought to the verge of the grave. Little did he think at that dismal period, of the retribution he was destined to inflict upon the enemies of his country and the spoilers of his family, or the distinguished honors reserved for him, by a nation of which he was so humble a citizen.

After some little delay, he recommenced his studies, and after pursuing them as far as his limited means would permit, entered upon the study of law, under Judge Mc Cay at Salisbury, North Carolina, and finished it under Col. John Stokes of the same place. In 1786, he was licensed to practise law, and being satisfied after an experiment of a few months, that this State presented few inducements to a young attorney, he determined to try his fortune in some of the new settlements then springing up in the western wilds. Accordingly, in 1788, he accompanied Judge McNairy who was going out to hold the first court in the South-West territory, which now constitutes the State of Tennessee. After innumerable difficulties, they arrived at Nashville in October, where Jackson immediately opened an office, and soon gained by his industrious attention to the duties of his profession, an exten

sive and profitable practice. He was soon after appointed Attorney General of the district, an office which he held for several years.

In 1796, the South-West Territory having been admitted into the Union as a sovereign State by the name of Tennessee, Jackson was elected a member of the convention which framed its Constitution, and attracting the notice of his fellow citizens by his services in that body, in 1797, they elected him a member of Congress, and he soon after appeared in that body as the first Representative from the State of Tennessee.

In 1798, he was elected a member of the United States' Senate. This period has been aptly styled the "reign of terror," and the candid patriot of the present day, when he looks back upon the usurpations of the federal government, which distinguished it, cannot think it strange that the purest patriots of those times, should have trembled for the fate of their country. His course in the Senate at that juncture, was marked by a steady adherence to republican principles, and he had with nine others, the honor of voting for a repeal of the alien law. Disgusted however at the unconstitutional and extravagant measures which characterized the times, he soon resigned his So warmly were his political friends attached to him, and so entirely did they approve of his conduct in the different stations in which they had placed him, that he had no sooner resigned his seat in the Senate than he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court. This of fice he also resigned, after holding it a short time, and retired to his farm on the banks of the Cumberland.

seat.

Having distinguished himself in those conflicts which are incident to a new settlement, springing up in the midst of a wilderness filled with savages, Jackson had at an early period been appointed Major General of the only division of militia in Tennessee. This office he held

at the commencement of the last war with England, when he responded to a call of the President for volunteers, at the head of twenty-five hundred citizens of Tennessee, enlisted by his own exertions. Their services were accepted by the general government, they were organized and placed under his command, and he was immediately ordered to march in the direction of New-Orleans, and prepare for the defence of the lower country, which was then considered in danger. After a toilsome march of several hundred miles, performed in the most inclement season of the year, Jackson arrived at Natchez, where he had received orders to rendezvous, and where he was constantly engaged in disciplining his men, and training them for more active service. While thus employed, all cause for present apprehension having in a measure been removed, by a change in the enemy's movements, he received a laconic order from the Secretary of War, commanding him to disband his troops and deliver over all the public stores in his possession to General Wilkinson, who was then commander of that military district—an order which must have had its origin in entire ignorance of the circumstances, or utter recklessness of the public good. His men, obedient to the call of their country, had left their homes, and marched with him six hundred miles through the wilderness, in the midst of winter, in the confident expectation of being confronted with their country's enemies; and had he literally obeyed the order, he must have left them to the alternative, of enlisting in the regular army, or making their way to their homes, through almost impassible forests, filled with savages, without the means either of subsistence or defence. He therefore embodied his little army, and after delivering over such of the stores in his possession as could be spared consistently with the safety of his men, and raising five thousand dollars on his own personal credit, to provide still fur

ther for their comfort, he immediately commenced his march for Tennessee. Having arrived there after the greatest fatigues, during which he often "resigned his horse to assist in conveying the sick, and marched on foot with his soldiers," he disbanded his men.

He did not however long enjoy the pleasures of retirement. The massacre at fort Mimms, in which the Creek Indians, headed by the brutal Weatherford, murdered three hundred American citizens, without distinction of sex or age, followed as it was by a general attack on our frontiers, called for severe chastisement. General Jackson, though but recently confined to his room with a fractured arm, took the command of the Tennessee forces. In his address to them on the opening of the campaign, he detailed the repeated outrages of the savages, and entreated his troops to manifest that zeal for their country's safety, which the exigencies of the time demanded. "We are about," he said, "to furnish these savages a lesson of admonition; we are about to teach them that our long forbearance has not proceeded from an insensibility to wrongs, or an inability to redress them. They stand in need of such a warning. In proportion as we have borne with their insults, they have been multiplied in number and increased in atrocity. But the measure of their offences is at length filled. The blood of our women and children recently spilled at fort Mimms calls for our vengeance; it must not call in vain. Our borders must no longer be disturbed by the war whoop of these savages, or the cries of their suffering victims. The torch that has been lighted up, must be made to blaze in the heart of their own country."

Such was the inspiriting language with which General Jackson addressed his troops at the commencement of his first Indian campaign-a campaign which from its commencement to its close was one continued series of victo

ries. Placed some part of the time in the command of disaffected troops and continually embarrassed for the want of supplies-Jackson at once carried the war into the enemies' country, and at the end of six months had completely terminated the contest with his savage enemies, leaving the bones of a large portion of them to whiten on a dozen fields of battle, and compelling the scattered remnant to seek safety in negotiation.

In June 1814, Jackson was appointed a Brigadier General in the army of the United States, and was soon after authorized to conclude a treaty with the conquered Indians. A treaty was entered into, dictated upon just but severe terms; the Creeks surrendering a portion of their territory to the United States as an equivalent for the expences of the war, conceding to it the privilege of intersecting their country with roads and navigating its rivers, and binding themselves to abstain from all intercourse with the forts and garrisons of the British and Spanish nations.

This treaty did not however prove entirely effectual. A portion of the Creeks, disaffected with its terms, retired to the neighborhood of Pensacola, where with the countenance of the Spanish Governor, they awaited a favorable opportunity for committing new outrages. Even while the treaty was negotiating, Jackson received almost daily, some new evidence of the hostile disposition of Governor Manriquez. Indeed, that officer, though pretending to be strictly neutral in the contest between this country and Great Britain, seemed disposed, secretly to assist the latter government, in all its warlike operations against us.

Soon after the conclusion of the treaty, having taken up his quarters at fort Jackson, and seeing continued cause to regard the conduct of the Governor of Florida with suspicion, he frankly addressed him, requesting