troying themselves, not me, and some of them will soon find
this out. Do you hold on to the office; I will make no more
nominations; but commission you _ad interim_ as soon as Congress
adjourns, which will be in a few weeks at farthest. Very soon my
friends will be in a majority in the Senate--until then, I will keep
you in the office, for I am determined you shall have it, spite of
Poindexter." The result was as he had promised.

This is but one of a thousand instances which might be enumerated to
attest the same fact. Such traits are always appreciated as they
deserve to be; they address themselves to the commonest understanding,
and are esteemed by all mankind. It is a mistake the world makes, that
Jackson's popularity was exclusively military. Those great qualities of
mind and soul which constituted him a great general, were not only
displayed in his military career, but in all his life; and to them he
was indebted for the friends of his whole life; they made him a man of
mark before he was twenty-five years of age. His courage, intrepidity,
frankness, honor, truth, and sincerity were all pre-eminent in his
conduct, and carried captive the admiration of all men. His devotion to
his wife, to his friends, to his duty, was always conspicuous; and
these are admired and honored, even by him who never had in his heart a
feeling in common with one of these. All these traits were so striking
in Jackson's character as to make them conspicuous. They were more
marked in his than in that of any other man of his day, because the
impulses of his temperament were more prompt and potent. They were
natural to him, and always naturally displayed. There was neither
assumption of feeling nor deceit in its manifestation; all he evinced,
bubbled up from his heart, naturally and purely as spring-water, and
went directly to the heart. These great and ennobling traits were not
unfrequently marred by passion, and acts which threw a cloud over their
brilliancy; but this, too, was natural: the same soul which was parent
to this violence and extravagance of passion, was, too, the source of
all his virtues, and all were equally in excess. The consequence of
this violence were sometimes terrible. They were evanescent, and, like
a thunder-storm, seemed only to clear the atmosphere for the display of
beautiful weather.

The triumphs of mind, unaided by education, sometimes are
astonishing,--in the case of General Jackson, perhaps, not more so than