sported from the fiery ordeals of
Corunna, Busaco, and Ciudad Rodrigo, says the same author. England never
sent forth from her borders a braver or better-disciplined body of
soldiers, as was proven in every trial of campaign and battle of the
invasion of Louisiana. No other troops in the world could have behaved
with more sturdy gallantry or fought with superior courage. Their defeat
was destiny. Providence and General Jackson did it!

GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON.

Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw settlement on the 15th of March,
1767, so near the border of North and South Carolina as to leave it a
question of contention as to which State may claim the honor of his
nativity. His father, Andrew Jackson, came over from Carrickfergus, on
the north coast of Ireland, in 1765. His mother was Elizabeth
Hutchinson. The father died before the birth of Andrew. His birthplace
was a rude log cabin of the border. His education was limited to the
elementary studies of the country schools of his day. At the age of
fourteen he entered the colonial army, and, young as he was, displayed
the same spirit of patriotic courage and indomitable will that made him
famous. Two elder brothers had entered the army before him, and both
gave their lives a sacrifice to the cause of liberty. The mother died
soon, of grief and the hardships of war. Young Andrew was taken
prisoner, and roughly treated by his captors. He was nearly starved in
prison at Camden. While thus confined, an English officer insolently
ordered him one day to black his boots. Jackson indignantly refused, for
which offense the brutal officer beat him over his head with his sword,
inflicting injuries which caused suffering in after life. This incident
is related to have greatly intensified Jackson's hatred of the English
throughout his life. An orphan, and alone in the world, when the War of
the Revolution was over he was apprenticed to learn the saddler's trade.
At eighteen he began the study of law, in the office of McCoy, in
Salisbury.

In 1788, Jackson was appointed public prosecutor for western North
Carolina, now Tennessee. He removed and located at Nashville, and very
soon was engaged in an active and remunerative practice. In 1796, he sat
as a delegate in the convention at Knoxville, to frame a constitution
for Tennessee, admitted into the Union as a State in that year. He was
the first representative in Congress of the new State. But one year
afterward, he was elected