American life in
the Southwest, would stamp them as persons of the lowest manners. Yet it
is also true that "Aunt Rachel," as Mrs. Jackson was commonly called by
younger people of the neighborhood, was loved and honored by all who
knew her. The general had not merely fine manners, but that which is
finer far than the finest manners: he had kindness for his slaves,
hospitality for strangers, gentleness with women and children. Lafayette
was at The Hermitage in 1825, and his noble nature was drawn to Jackson
in a way quite impossible to understand if he was nothing more than the
vindictive duelist, the headstrong brawler, the crusher out of Indians,
the hater of Britons and Spaniards, which we know that he was. Lafayette
found at The Hermitage the pistols which he himself had given to
Washington and which, with many swords and other tokens of the public
esteem, had come to the hero of New Orleans. The friend of Washington
declared that the pistols had come to worthy hands, notwithstanding that
his host was equally ready to display another weapon with the remark,
"That is the pistol with which I killed Mr. Dickinson."

It seems clear that Jackson honestly meant to spend the rest of his days
at the Hermitage. His friend Eaton, a Senator from Tennessee, had
already written his life down to New Orleans, and probably he would have
been content, so far as his public career was concerned, to let _finis_
follow the name of his greatest victory. But Eaton himself, and Major
Lewis, and other friends, and the vast public which his deeds had
stirred, would not let him alone. Within a year of his retirement, a
group of his friends were working shrewdly to make him President of the
United States. In 1823, John Williams, who was an enemy to Jackson, came
before the Tennessee legislature for reelection to the United States
Senate. Jackson's friends were determined to beat him, and found they
could do it in only one way. They elected Jackson himself. In that, as
in all the clever political work that was done for him, Major Lewis was
the leading man. Before the time came to choose a successor to President
Monroe in 1824, Tennessee had declared for her foremost citizen, and
Pennsylvania, to the surprise of the country, soon followed the lead.
The sceptre was about to pass from the Virginian line, and from all the
great sections of the Union distinguished statesmen stepped forward to
grasp it. From Georgia came William H. Crawford, a practice