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Mr. President and Fellow
Scotch-Irishmen: At the request of the patriotic women of the Hermitage
Association, I bring to you a gavel made from wood grown on the grounds
where lived and died Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of these United
States.
Whatever doubts may be
entertained as to the ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, who is believed to have
been of Scotch-Irish ancestry, we know that the father of "Old Hickory"
emigrated from Carrickfergus, on the north coast of Ireland, in 1765. In
him we have the marked characteristics of our race; and to him both the
race and the nation owe a debt of gratitude, a true estimate of which will
grow with the years to come. The silence of the Scotch-Irish people has
done great injustice to Andrew Jackson as well as to others of their
distinguished sons. This is neither the time, nor do the circumstances
around us justify the effort, to enter into the work of historical
correction now; but as a delegate from an association of high-bred,
patriotic women', as a Tennesseean, and Scotch-Irishman—a moment is begged
to respond to an opinion which has been recently given on a great national
occasion by one too high in all the attributes of manliness and Christian
patriotism to intentionally wrong any man, yet an opinion which does both
our ancestors and Andrew Jackson great wrong. The charge is that of "
vulgarism" on the part of Jackson, mitigated by a representation of the
vulgarity of the people among whom he was reared. Andrew Jackson's mother,
Elizabeth Hutchinson, died before she had accomplished the training of her
boy; but the Christian patriotism which caused her death, nursing sick and
wounded revolutionary soldiers, fixed in the boy's mind two great roots
never to be eradicated: faith in God, and love for his country. Supported
in every emergency by both of these, therefrom came the life so fruitful
of blessing to our nation. They are not vulgar roots. The people, both in
North Carolina and in Tennessee, who in this early day have been so often
spoken of as wild, boorish, and uncivilized, were, in the main, men and
women who had been trained in the homes of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians,
preached to and taught by Presbyterian preachers, men of culture and deep
piety. Many wild and reckless men came from the East to the border. They
never typed or controlled the civilization of any community where
Scotch-Irishmen were predominant. The title-page of John Donelson's
account of his most remarkable and heroic journey with a colony of early
settlers of Nashville is a fair indication of the people who predominated
in this region at that early day. "Journal of a voyage, intended by God's
permission in the good boat 'Adventure,' from Port Patrick Henry on
Holston River to the French Salt Spring on Cumberland River, kept by John
Donelson." This was the father of the woman whom Andrew Jackson married
and who did more to influence his life than all other people beside.
Jackson as State's Attorney had much conflict with the ruder classes. But
in this position it is well to remember that when any disorder was
reported to Gov. Blount he was accustomed to say: ''Just inform Mr.
Jackson. He will be sure to do his duty, and the offenders will be
punished." If it be vulgar to put duty first, then was Andrew Jackson a
vulgarian.
If we turn from principle
to conduct, we have his latest biographer declaring: "Throughout life
Jackson was noted alike for spotless purity and for a romantic and
chivalrous respect for the female sex. In the presence of women his manner
was always distinguished for grave and courtly politeness." As yet Jackson
has had no worthy biographer. When Jackson visited New York and Boston,
the best women of those cities, who looked for a rude warrior from the
West, acknowledged the superior grace of his manners, and were profuse in
their eulogies. The best cultured classes of New Orleans, with their Old
World elegance, pronounced him the most courtly of men. While at his own
home in Tennessee, an aged and cultured woman present at the grand ball
given to Lafayette when he paid his last visit to America declared to me
that the women were so charmed with Jackson's courtliness that they were
near forgetting to observe the distinguished guest. Between Jackson and
his great antagonist, John Quincy Adams, there was only contrast in
manner. I yield to no one in sincere admiration for Mr. Adams. But Jackson
would never have gone to the theater the night he was expecting Mrs.
Jackson after months of separation, expecting her to arrive in his absence
at any moment. I would pluck no laurel from the brow of the typical
Puritan, the honored Adams, but I do him no wrong when by contrast I bring
out the single virtue in which the Scotch-Irishman surpasses the Puritan:
high courtesy to women. Your time must not be trespassed upon. We may not,
therefore, reply to the charges against him as given to fighting and
personal broils; we only say his temper was no fiercer than that of
Caesar, Bonaparte, or Frederick the Great; duelling was a curse of his
times, not in rude communities, but in the most refined. The same temper
that brought these personal encounters stood us in good stead when he
redeemed at New Orleans the shadow which had come over American arms; the
same that made Europe for the first time respect America, when he
threatened France with capture of her shipping if she did not keep her
promise to pay. It brought us more glorious fruit when at a public dinner
in commemoration of Jefferson's birthday, in the midst of the
nullification excitement, he rose to the voluntary toast: "Our Federal
Union: it must be preserved." Shall I, a minister of the gospel, defend
him against the crime of gambling? No! That was against his mother's
teachings, his wife's religion, and his country's good. But it took the
most manly form. It was the outcome, to a great extent, of his admiration
for the noblest of our friends, the high-bred horse. The Bishop of New
York drew a contrast between Washington and Jackson. Washington, I regret
to say, was perhaps as much a gambler as Jackson, and in less manly forms.
Why then should our bishop give us only admiration for the one and only
condemnation for the other?
Others speak of Jackson as vulgar in his want
of legal lore and statesmanship. They forget that before his fame as a
warrior he had been a lawyer with a large practice, with a shrewd
Scotch-Irish clientage; the first member of Congress from Tennessee, where
men of great ability were not scarce, first Judge of our Supreme Court in
the midst of many legal lights, and a member of the United States Senate.
His Presidency was the most eventful in the history of the nation, save
two; the constitutional period with Washington at the helm, and the period
of secession with Abraham Lincoln as the center. Yet eventful and
difficult as were the questions of statesmanship which came to Jackson, he
gave us a government which made no mistakes in dealing with foreign
powers, which opened up the way to diplomatic adjustments which time
proves to have been of the wisest. If he made a mistake in home government
it grew out of the common fault of strong characters, too great attachment
to his friends, who claimed reward of office at his hands. "Old Hickory's"
heart may have bent his will.
The Scotch-Irish who gave birth to Jackson and
trained him for his work are the same sturdy race whose fathers had
vanquished Ferguson at King's Mountain, and whose children, later, drove
Grant, at Shiloh, to the water's edge in retreat, and came so near ending
the career of this great soldier. This was the race that composed the
volunteer army of 6,000 at New Orleans which met 12,000 of Wellington's
finest
troops, trained in the war of the Spanish Peninsula, commanded by
Wellington's brother-in-law, the gallant Sir Edward Pakenham, and
vanquished them.
There has been no end to Scotch-Irish deeds of merit and gallantry, but we
are just awaking to the fact that we have neither written their history
nor preserved mementos. The ladies who bid me present this gavel from "Old
Hickory's" home ask that I say to this honorable gathering that after
years of delay and neglect they are seeking to make the " Hermitage" again
what it was when Jackson left -it. They have secured the home and
twenty-five acres of ground; the relics, historic and redolent with
patriotic memories, belong to parties who descended from the wife's side
of the house. They are now forced by the changes of fortune to part with
them. The Association which I represent has secured an option and are
struggling to make good the purchase. After heroic efforts they are almost
at a point of despair. The State of Tennessee has shown its patriotism and
liberality in the purchase of the home of Jackson. These ladies are
struggling to make this home and these haunts of a patriot and hero a
national Mecca. They turn now to you and offer to this Association, if not
in its organic form, then through individuals, the rescue of the historic
relics of Andrew Jackson, the great Scotch-Irish President of these United
States, from waste and oblivion. They are willing to be your servants and
use the money for you to make this home a gathering-point for patriots,
the pride of our race, a spot in the Sunny South to which we can invite
the people of every part of this nation to touch the pen with which
Jackson signed the celebrated veto message, the sword he held aloft at New
Orleans, the chair of Lafayette, the tomb where the hero sleeps side by
side with the gentle wife for whose honor he was ever ready to die, the
church where he reverently worshiped, and where he took his last earthly
communion. I have but said what I was bidden. Would they had trusted their
message to far more eloquent lips; but the ears and hearts to which I
speak belong to Scotch-Irishmen, who when they see a duty do it. Just now
these good women have placed in my hands this medallion, one of the
Jackson relics. [Here a medallion was exhibited to the audience.] From the
silence of the past it speaks volumes in reply to the false history which
would degrade Andrew Jackson to the level of a "drunken bully." On the
obverse side we have: "Important certificate! Being satisfied from
observation and experience, as well as from medical testimony, that ardent
spirits as a drink is not only needless and hurtful, but that the entire
disuse of it would tend to promote the health, the virtue, and the
happiness of the community, we hereby express our conviction that should
the citizens of the United States, and especially all young men,
discountenance entirely the use of it, they would not only promote their
own personal benefit, but the good of our country and the world.
"James Madison,
"Andrew Jackson,
"John Quincy Adams.
"October, 1834."
On the reverse side we have Intemperance, a crouching slave, chained hand
and foot; Temperance, erect, in manly pose, in the right hand a shield, in
the left a cornucopia with the scriptural motto: "Strong drink is bitter
to them that drink it." Isaiah xxiv. 9.
The signature of Andrew Jackson came from his
hand as President of the United States. What politician of the present day
seeking favor at the hands of the people would dare to give such a
certificate to the most advanced opposition to the drink habit? He was
ahead of his own times when he dared to speak thus as patriot and
philanthropist. He spoke from the President's chair, the highest peak
along the highest range of this world's life, merging self into the good
of humanity. This is the highest virtue without tinge of vulgarity.
At the conclusion of Dr. Kelley's address he
presented the gavel sent by the ladies of the Hermitage Association to
President Bonner, who said in reply:
On behalf of our Society I accept this
appropriate souvenir sent by the ladies of the Hermitage Association from
the home of the Scotch-Irish hero, Andrew Jackson. Please accept for
yourself, sir, and convey to the ladies who sent it, our heartiest thanks
for the valued gift. We would be unworthy our Scotch-Irish blood if we did
not honor our great men, and may my right hand wither if ever I cease to
revere the memory of Andrew Jackson! |
