ckname originally invented by the soldiers who followed
him in the frontier wars of Tennessee. They loved to tell the tale of
his victories, his duels, his romantic marriage, and to recall and
perhaps exaggerate his soldier's profanity of speech. But this aspect of
Jackson's personality has been too much stressed. It was stressed by his
friends to advertise his personality and by his enemies to disparage it.
It is not false, but it may lead us to read history falsely. Just as
Danton's loud voice, large gesture and occasional violence tend to
produce a portrait of him which ignores the lucidity of his mind and the
practicality of his instincts, making him a mere chaotic demagogue, so
the "Old Hickory" legend makes Jackson too much the peppery old soldier
and ignores his sagacity, which was in essential matters remarkable. His
strong prejudices and his hasty temper often led him wrong in his
estimate of individuals, but he was hardly ever at fault in his judgment
of masses of men--presenting therein an almost exact contrast to his
rival and enemy, Clay. With all his limitations, Jackson stands out for
history as one of the two or three genuine creative statesmen that
America has produced, and you cannot become a creative statesman merely
by swearing and fighting duels.

Jackson accepted the nomination for the Presidency. He held, in strict
accordance with his democratic creed, that no citizen should either seek
or refuse popular election. But there seems no reason to think that at
this time he cared much whether he were elected or no. He was not an
ambitious man, he made no special efforts to push his cause, and he
indignantly refused to be involved in any of the intrigues and bargains
with which Washington was buzzing, or to give any private assurances to
individuals as to the use which he would make of his power and patronage
if chosen. But when the votes were counted it was clear that he was the
popular favourite. He had by far the largest number of votes in the
electoral college, and these votes came from all parts of the Republic
except New England, while so far as can be ascertained the popular vote
showed a result even more decidedly in his favour. But in the College no
candidate had an absolute majority, and it therefore devolved, according
to the Constitution, upon the House of Representatives, voting by
States, to choose the President from among the three candidates whose
names stood highest on the list.

The H