The Hermitage, Home of General Andrew Jackson

_This Portrait by Earl was presented in 1944 by Mrs. Charles W. Frear of Troy, N. Y., in memory of her husband, who owned it for many years._]

The Hermitage Home of General Andrew Jackson

_Registered National Historic Landmark Seventh President of United States_

P. O. HERMITAGE, TENN.

_Originally Compiled by_ Mrs. Mary C. Dorris

Revised June, 1963

Mrs. A. MacDowell Smith, _Regent_ Mrs. Horatio B. Buntin, _Secretary_ Mrs. Douglas M. Wright, _Research_

Historical Page 3 Original Log Hermitage Page 16 Museum Page 24 Mansion and Grounds Page 41 Tomb Page 54

_Advice to Andrew Jackson by His Mother_

In 1781 Andrew Jackson, then fourteen years of age, enlisted in the American Army; was captured and thrown into prison, where he had smallpox. His mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, through exchange, arranged for his release and nursed him back to health. Responding to an urgent appeal, she left him to go to Charleston to nurse some sick neighbors who were confined there on a British hospital ship. This errand of mercy cost her life. She caught yellow fever and died.

Almost her last words to her young son were:

_Andrew, if I should not see you again, I wish you to remember and treasure up some things I have already said to you. In this world you will have to make your own way. To do that, you must have friends. You can make friends by being honest, and you can keep them by being steadfast. You must keep in mind that friends worth having will in the long run expect as much from you as they give to you. To forget an obligation or to be ungrateful for a kindness is a base crime—not merely a fault or a sin, but an actual crime. Men guilty of it sooner or later must suffer the penalty. In personal conduct be always polite but never obsequious. None will respect you more than you respect yourself. Avoid quarrels as long as you can without yielding to imposition. But sustain your manhood always. Never bring a suit in law for assault and battery or for defamation. The law affords no remedy for such outrages that can satisfy the feelings of a true man. Never wound the feelings of others. Never brook wanton outrage upon your own feelings. If ever you have to vindicate your feelings or defend your honor, do it calmly. If angry at first, wait until your wrath cools before you proceed._

These words were repeated by General Jackson on his birthday, March 15, 1815, at New Orleans, to three members of his military family: Major John H. Eaton, Major William B. Lewis, and Captain W. O. Butler. “Gentlemen,” said General Jackson, “I wish she could have lived to see this day. There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and as brave as a lioness. Her last words have been the law of my life.”

_Copies of the above may be purchased at the Souvenir Shop at the Hermitage_

Andrew Jackson

_By_ Reau E. Folk

Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, gave the name “Hermitage” to his home. In his inspiring memory it is preserved.

_Youth_

Andrew Jackson was of Scotch-Irish lineage. His parents were of the rugged pioneer type that throughout America helped to lay the foundation of a great republic. He was born on March 15, 1767, in what was known as the Waxhaws Settlement, near the line between North and South Carolina. There has been some dispute as to which of the two States could claim him. Some authorities appear to have definitely settled that at the time of his nativity the Waxhaws Settlement constituted a part of South Carolina, but that now Jackson’s birth site is comprehended in Union County, North Carolina. Jackson always gave South Carolina as his birth state.

Andrew Jackson’s father, for whom he was named, died several days before he was born. His mother, Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, to whom tribute should be paid as a truly remarkable woman, heroically met the hard situation of rearing and educating her three small sons. Young Andrew was nourished in the Revolutionary sentiment, which was rife in the late sixties and early seventies, bursting into flame in 1775. He and his mother and brothers were patriots from the inception of the Revolutionary movement. These fires of patriotism in the Waxhaws were fanned by the fact that there was much Tory sentiment. When in August, 1776, a newspaper reached the Waxhaws carrying the Declaration of Independence young Andrew Jackson, then in his tenth year, was called upon to read it to an assemblage. In 1781, at the age of fourteen, he enlisted with the South Carolina forces and was later made prisoner and struck down by a sword in the hands of a British officer whose boots he refused to black. His two brothers also enlisted in the war and gave up their lives. His mother, as a result of a mission service to Charleston to nurse prisoners from the Waxhaws there on shipboard, contracted yellow fever and died. At the successful end of the struggle of the Colonies young Andrew Jackson, in his fifteenth year, emaciated from desperate prison illness, found himself alone in the world, an orphan of the Revolution.

_Early Career_

After completing his schooling, Jackson began the study of law. In 1786 he was licensed at Salisbury, N. C., and in 1788 went to Jonesboro, now in Washington County, Tenn., then in North Carolina. After a brief career at Jonesboro he received an appointment as U. S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina with headquarters at Nashville. He reached Nashville in 1788. He took an active part in Public Affairs and was a member of the Convention that framed the Constitution of Tennessee. In 1796, when Tennessee was admitted to the Union, he was chosen as the first Representative of the new state to Congress. A year later he was appointed to the United States Senate, and after a short service he resigned and subsequently became a member of the Superior Court of Law and Equity, holding this position until 1804, when he resigned to devote himself to personal affairs.

_Military_

Andrew Jackson was Major-General of Tennessee Militia from 1802 to 1814. It was in the War of 1812 that Jackson became a national figure. This war was the inevitable sequence of the Revolutionary War. It was occasioned by the conduct of England in restricting our commerce, impressing into her service seamen from our ships, acts of contempt intolerable to a free people. It has been called in apt phraseology the War OF American Independence in contra-distinction to the Revolution, which was FOR American Independence. Andrew Jackson, as Major-General of Tennessee Militia, threw himself into the conflict. He inaugurated a campaign against the Creek Indians, who, allied with the British, had been stirred to deeds of atrocity, the most revolting of which was the massacre at Fort Mimms, Alabama, on August 30, 1813. After a series of smaller engagements, General Jackson, finally, on March 27, 1814, overwhelmingly defeated and crushed the Creek Indians at the Great Horseshoe Bend. Two months later, May 31, General Jackson was made Major-General of the United States Army, with command of the Southern and Western Divisions.

_New Orleans_

No sketch of Andrew Jackson, however brief, can fail of emphasis on the Battle of New Orleans, for it was his marvelous victory over the greatly outnumbering, confident, invading British Army on January 8, 1815, that first gave him national renown and made him a popular idol and hero. It came at a time when the national spirit was at its lowest ebb, as a result of a long series of land defeats, and sent a wave of exultant joy throughout the country. It was a complete and decisive victory. Historians agree that it was a brilliant victory, but many of them, and unfortunately school histories, present the view that the battle was fought after peace and was unnecessary. This has been exposed as an error. The State of Tennessee in 1927 appointed a commission to make research into the real value of the battle of New Orleans, and this commission submitted report to the Governor who transmitted it to the Legislature of 1935. This report has been published by the Ladies’ Hermitage Association and is kept on sale at the Hermitage. It shows by quotation from the document itself that the treaty of Ghent, signed by the commissioners of the contending countries December 24, 1814, specifically provided that it should be effective when ratified by both sides, and that it was not ratified by the United States until February 17, 1815, forty days after the battle at New Orleans. The report further shows by evidence of records that the battle saved the Louisiana Purchase, or another war with England. It shows also that the battle reestablished national integrity or peace from within. The importance of the battle can hardly be overestimated, viewed either from the immediate effects or the aftermath. The Ladies’ Hermitage Association in 1935 joined with the National Daughters of 1812 and other patriotic entities in calling for revision of school histories to accord with revealed facts.

The victory at New Orleans, one of the most decisive defensive victories of history, will always be celebrated as an illustrious feat of the American arms and of the military genius of Andrew Jackson. Jackson mobilized incongruous elements, every available resource, into defense against the enemy attack. The forces thus assembled, consisting of Tennessee militia, Kentucky militia, Louisiana militia, and small contingents of regulars, Baratarian privateers, free men of color, Mississippi Dragoons, and friendly Choctaw Indians, numbered in all a little over five thousand. The invading army con