ntury earlier. From all parts of the country came callers, singly
and in delegations, to pay their respects and to assure the outgoing
Chief of their goodwill and admiration. March 4,1837, was a raw,
disagreeable day. But Jackson, pale and racked by disease, rode with
his chosen successor to the place where he had himself assumed office
eight years before, and sat uncovered while the oath was administered
and the inaugural delivered. The suave, elegantly dressed Van Buren
was politely applauded as the new Chief to whom respect was due. But
it was the tall, haggard, white-haired soldier-politician who had put
Van Buren where he was who awoke the spontaneous enthusiasm of the
crowds.

Three days after the inauguration Jackson started for the Hermitage.
His trip became a series of ovations, and he was obliged several times
to pause for rest. At last he reached Nashville, where once again, as
in the old days of the Indian wars, he was received with an acclaim
deeply tinged by personal friendship and neighborly pride. A great
banquet in his honor was presided over by James K. Polk, now Speaker
of the national House of Representatives; and the orators vied one
with another in extolling his virtues and depicting his services to
the country. Then Jackson went on to the homestead whose seclusion he
coveted.

No one knew better than the ex-President himself that his course was
almost run. He was seventy years of age and seldom free from pain for
an hour. He considered himself, moreover, a poor man--mainly, it
appears, because he went back to Tennessee owing ten thousand dollars
and with only ninety dollars in his pockets. He was, however, only
"land poor," for his plantation of twenty-six hundred acres was rich
and valuable, and he had a hundred and forty slaves--"servants" he
always called them--besides large numbers of horses and cattle. A year
or two of thrifty supervision brought his lands and herds back to
liberal yields; his debts were soon paid off; and notwithstanding
heavy outlays for his adopted son, whose investments invariably turned
out badly, he was soon able to put aside all anxiety over pecuniary
matters.

Established again in his old home, surrounded by congenial relatives
and friends, respected by neighbors without regard to politics, and
visited from time to time by notable foreigners and Americans, Jackson
found much of satisfaction in his declining years. For a time he fully
lived up to the promise made t