Part 15

A son of the notorious William G. (Parson) Brownlow, a rabid Whig and bitter anti-Jackson man, relates that on one occasion in 1845 a party of East Tennessee Whigs who had been attending a convention in Nashville and were on their way home decided to stop at the Hermitage and pay their respects to the ex-President. Parson Brownlow was one of the party, and when they reached the gate he expressed some doubt as to the propriety of his entering the home of the man whom he had so vigorously and consistently denounced, but he was prevailed upon to go along with his friends. He insisted, however, that when they got inside the house he would remain in the background so as to avoid the necessity of having his name called in the general introductions. But Jackson always knew what was going on about him, and he immediately noticed that there was one of the party who had not been introduced, whereupon Brownlow was presented. "I have heard of you before," the old General said with dry wit; but he shook his hand cordially and treated him with particular courtesy during the remainder of the call, never giving any sign that one of his guests was a man who had waged bitter warfare on him during his days of political activity.

Another similar example was afforded by the visit of Mr. Leslie Combs, a former member of Congress from Kentucky, who came to the Hermitage as a messenger from one of the sons of General Isaac Shelby, bearing a letter relating to a controversy that had sprung up between the Shelbys and Jackson. Mr. Combs arrived at the Hermitage just before dinner time, was received with the greatest courtesy, invited into the dining room to join the family at dinner, and urged to stay at the house as a guest. When he left Old Hickory himself put some apples in his saddle-bags--but, at the same time, he made an appointment with him to meet him at a certain hotel in Nashville, the next day, and when the appointment was kept General Jackson proceeded to denounce Mr. Combs for acting as his enemies' messenger, and wound up by indulging himself in his favorite pastime of denouncing Henry Clay. As long as Mr. Combs was a guest at the Hermitage, Old Hickory's code demanded that he be treated with punctilious politeness; but, on neutral ground, he wanted Mr. Combs to know exactly how he felt.

Stephen A. Douglas is now remembered in history principally on account of the series of political debates preceding his victorious contest with Abraham Lincoln for a seat in the United States Senate; but he also is recalled by Jacksonian students as the man who delivered the leading speech in the House of Representatives in 1834 on the resolution to refund the fine paid by General Jackson under the order of Judge Hall in New Orleans following his declaration of martial law there after his victory over Pakenham. Some time after the passage of this resolution there was a political convention in Nashville and the delegates visited the Hermitage to pay their respects to the venerable ex-President. When Judge Douglas was presented to Jackson, according to an account of the episode in _Harper's Weekly_ in 1857, the old General exclaimed:

"Are you the Mr. Douglas who delivered a speech in Congress showing that I did not violate the Constitution at New Orleans?"

"I did deliver a speech on that subject," modestly replied Mr. Douglas.

"Then sit down here beside me," said General Jackson with enthusiasm, "I desire to return you my thanks for that speech. You are the first man I know who has done me justice. You have relieved my mind from a weight that has lain upon it for thirty years. Let me thank you, sir."

The account concludes: "Senator Douglas's heart was too full to speak. He pressed the veteran's hand, and withdrew from the room to conceal his emotions."

In a diary kept by an old resident of Nashville, Mr. James M. Hamilton, there is displayed an evidence of the cordiality of the master of the Hermitage in receiving the kind of a visitor who generally is not a very welcome guest to the most hospitable of hosts.

Mr. Hamilton was a youth, working in a store in Nashville, and after General Jackson's return from Washington in 1837 he was sent out to the Hermitage to collect an account amounting to more than $3,000 which Andrew, junior, had run up while the General was President. Mr. Hamilton had been brought up a Clay Whig, and he was admittedly terrified at the prospect of bearding the fire-eating General Jackson in his den and trying to collect a bill. But he swallowed his fears, mounted his horse and rode out to the Hermitage, entered the General's office and proffered the bill to him. Colonel A. S. Colyar, in his _Life and Times of Andrew Jackson_ quotes from the Hamilton diary:

"'Let me see it, my son,' said the General; and he reached forth his long slender hand. As his eyes rested on item after item, I eagerly watched the expression of his countenance. No frown of displeasure was there, but simply attention. Folding the paper, he slowly said: 'This is a large bill. My son Andrew is a good man, but a very extravagant one. I see many things here he could have done without. But, my son, I will pay this bill on one condition. It is that your employers will correct mistakes, should there be any.' I assured him that they would certainly do so, and he requested me to write a check on the Planters' Bank, adding: 'My son, I came home from Washington with but 75 cents of my salary left, and had it not been for the kindness of my friend, Francis Blair, in lending me money, I would not be able to meet these obligations.' I had never written a check and had no form with me, but I did the best I could and he signed it. He then requested me to write a receipt. Again I was puzzled, but I did the best I could and he accepted it.

"I arose to go. He invited me most cordially to remain to dinner. I was too much delighted, too happy, too much relieved to think of such a thing. I longed to get back to the store and show them my check and tell them of my success. I felt a wild, boyish admiration for the great man before me, and I wondered how anyone could be so wicked as to say aught disagreeable of him.

"'If you will not stay, then you must see something of the Hermitage,' he said, leading the way. I walked beside him about the grounds, the feeling of admiration and enthusiasm all the while in my heart for the great, tender-souled man whose guest I was. As we neared the tomb he raised his hand and, pointing, said: 'My son, there lies the best woman that ever lived.' A cloud of sadness spread over his face, and the expression was in keeping with the crepe on his hat--that crepe was worn the rest of his life.

"'George,' he called, 'show Mr. Hamilton around and I will await him here.' I was shown the old gray warhorse, well cared for in his stable--the steed hero of the battle of New Orleans--and also the carriage which was made from the timbers of the ship _Constitution_, and in which General Jackson rode at the side of Mr. Van Buren from the White House to the east wing of the Capitol on the occasion of the inauguration of the latter.

"Returning, I found the ex-President awaiting me at the door. As I took leave he warmly pressed my hand and invited me to visit him, saying that my short stay under his roof had given him a great deal of pleasure, that when he came to the city he would be very much gratified if I would seek him out and speak to him."

In Jackson's circumstances then a visitor seeking payment of a $3,000 account must have been about as unwelcome a guest as could well be imagined; but the affable manner in which he received that timid youth, shrinking from an unpleasant duty, showed the manner of man he was--and perhaps gives us a clue to the reason for the ardent admiration of his friends.

Long before the Hermitage was formally opened to the public as a national shrine, visitors to Nashville, despite the difficulties involved, were in the habit of making the pilgrimage to Jackson's old home to see the house where he had lived and to stand by his tomb.

An interesting bit of human interest material is to be found in the visit, on the last day of March in 1851, of none other than the celebrated Mr. Phineas T. Barnum, accompanied by his current protégé, Jenny Lind. This was while Mr. Barnum was conducting the Swedish Nightingale on her history-making tour through the United States, during the course of which two concerts were given in Nashville. While there the immortal songstress, accompanied by Mr. Barnum, and his daughter, engaged a carriage and drove out the dusty road to the Hermitage.

"On that occasion," relates Mr. Barnum in his reminiscences, "for the first time that season, we heard the wild mocking-bird singing in the trees. This gave Jenny Lind great delight, as she had never before heard them sing except in their wire-bound cages."

That is all that Mr. Barnum says in his book about this incident, pregnant with beauty and romance. The Nightingale's first encounter with her only rival, the Southern mocking-bird! What a subject there for a man with a poet's imagination! But Mr. Barnum hurries on in his book to tell in great detail of an elaborate series of practical jokes he staged the next day--April Fool's Day. But it is fascinating to let the mind play with the idea of the great Swedish singer standing there entranced that spring day beneath the hollies and cedars and magnolias of Old Hickory's lawn, listening to the sad, sweet music of the native songbird. What wouldn't history give for a motion picture, with sound effects, of that dramatic little episode on the Hermitage lawn touched on so briefly in his book by the voluble Mr. Barnum?

This, by the way, was not Barnum's first visit to the Hermitage. Early in 1838, while touring the South with a tented theatrical company, he relates that "We exhibited at Nashville (where I visited General Jackson at the Hermitage)." How tantalizingly economical with words is the old showman! How entertaining and enlightening it would be to know more about the visit of Barnum to Jackson! Barnum admitted that he was a master of humbuggery; some of Old Hickory's opponents charged that he was a skilled practitioner of the same art. Did they admire each other? Why didn't Barnum tell us more about his visits to the Hermitage?

On a hot July day in 1862 there clattered up the driveway of the Hermitage a distinguished and unexpected group of visitors--General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his men. This was before the guard of Federal troops was stationed at the old house; in fact, Nashville had only recently been surrendered by the Confederates and Forrest was making it his business to harass the city's outposts to such an extent that the army of occupation was not yet entirely sure that it could hold the city.

On this occasion Forrest had just made a foray into Lebanon and was moving with his men down the Lebanon Road towards Nashville with the idea of seeing how close he could get to the city before stirring up a nest of bluecoats. But the Hermitage could not be passed by by any native Tennesseean, even General Forrest, without a visit; and so the famous "Wizard of the Saddle" and his lusty young troopers turned aside from the dusty road for a brief respite from their business of making war and to pay a tribute to Tennessee's noblest warrior of all.

The day of Forrest's visit happened to be the first anniversary of the First Battle of Manassas, the famous defeat of the Federals known by them as the Battle of Bull Run; and the ladies of the Hermitage neighborhood had gathered there for a picnic and celebration. The sudden appearance of the idolized Forrest and his men added just what was needed to make the affair a stupendous success; and the Confederate calvarymen partook of the picnic dinner under the trees, walked the garden paths with the young ladies and wandered through the halls of Old Hickory's old home like typical sight-seers, temporarily oblivious of the fact that a detachment of Yankees was hot on their trail.

When the occasion demanded it, the hospitality of the Hermitage could function on a wholesale, large scale basis. For instance, when a regiment of Texas volunteers paid a visit of respect to General Jackson just before his death they did not go away without entertainment or without refreshment. Only a day before their visit did Jackson learn of their impending descent on him and immediately all the plantation's facilities were directed to the preparations for the visitors. Sheep, beeves and chickens were killed in large quantities, and every fireplace on the plantation was filled to capacity with meats of every description. A wagon was sent to Nashville and brought back a wagonload of bread, for the Hermitage's ovens couldn't bake that much bread on such short notice; and when the 900 Texans marched up the driveway the next morning everything was ready for them. The officers were entertained in the dining room while the rank and file were fed, picnic fashion, on the lawn. This occasion was enlivened, during the course of the proceedings, by the chance discovery by Aunt Hannah of one of the camp followers of the regiment making off with two of the Hermitage's handsome silver pitchers. Cries of "Stop, thief! Stop, thief!" by the faithful old servant quickly attracted the attention of the soldier guests, the thief was promptly apprehended and the pitchers recovered. And while the soldiers were receiving Old Hickory's congratulations for recovering his highly prized pitchers the thief quietly walked off in the confusion and thus escaped punishment.

Was there ever such a house for hospitality? Peddlers and Presidents, rich men and poor men, famous men and obscure youths, individuals and regiments of soldiers--all looked alike to the Hermitage. Is it any wonder that it was famous, far and wide, as a place where everybody--friend or foe--was always welcome?

VIII: THE TENNESSEE FARMER

Andrew Jackson is known to fame as a statesman and as a military leader who triumphed over the savage Indians and the trained British troops of Pakenham; but primarily Andrew Jackson was a farmer, a man whose livelihood depended on the outcome of his crops and whose prosperity waxed and waned with the fluctuations of the New Orleans cotton market.

After all, it should be remembered, Jackson's active military career was concentrated in the eight years between 1813 and 1821, and his service as President extended only from 1829 to 1837; but he was a farmer and stock-breeder from the time he bought the Poplar Flat plantation in 1792 until he died at the Hermitage in 1845. Nothing ever gave him such pleasure as to walk about his farm with some visitor and show his growing crops, his stables and barns. The last day he was on his feet before his death he insisted, despite his enfeebled condition, on walking several hundred yards with a visiting friend to show him how well his cotton was doing.

During the eight years he was serving as a soldier he was away from home a large part of the time; but his wife was living then, and all authorities agree that she was thoroughly capable of managing the plantation and doing it well. Mrs. Jackson was not only a good housewife and a genial host, she was really a capable executive--and managing a big plantation in those days required genuine executive ability, for an establishment like the Hermitage was in reality an almost entirely self-contained little principality, capable of sustaining its owners and the slaves who supplied the labor. Not only did the plantation provide all the foodstuffs consumed, with the exception of sugar and coffee; but the slaves made practically everything used on the place. Wool gathered from the flock of 100 sheep was woven by the old slave women into bolts of cloth fifty yards in length, the weavers averaging about five yards a day. A tannery supplied leather for the shoes, there was a grist mill for grinding the wheat and corn into flour and meal, there was a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, a syrup mill, etc. The family, of course, bought clothing in Nashville, or in Philadelphia or Washington; but clothing and shoes for the slaves were made on the place by the slave seamstresses and cobblers and about the only article of wearing apparel that had to be bought for them was hats.

Managing an institution of this kind was no child's play; but Mrs. Jackson had come to the Cumberland country with the original settlers and she possessed the indomitable, self-reliant spirit of the pioneer. She, to be sure, had the assistance of an overseer; but overseers were for the most part a shifty and unreliable lot, and in those days while Jackson was away fighting the Indians and the redcoats the real managerial ability had to rest on her. It is not recorded anywhere that Mrs. Jackson felt it at all out of the ordinary that she should take charge of the plantation in the General's absence; and in none of her letters to him did she complain of the responsibilities resting on her shoulders. The General had written her quite candidly while at Fort Strother in January, 1814, in the midst of the campaign against the Creeks: "On the subject of my private and domestic concerns, you and Col. Hays and Mr. John Hutchings must regulate it. I have not time to spend many thoughts upon worldly pelf or gear. My station is arduous and my duty severe."

In spite of this frank admonition, however, even as he rested before New Orleans on the eve of the battle there that was to make him a figure of world-wide fame, General Jackson had obtruded on him there some of the vexing problems of plantation management--not, it should be noted, by the self-contained Rachel but by her sister's husband, Colonel Robert Hays, mentioned in Jackson's letter. Colonel Hays, probably with good intentions but certainly with an atrocious lack of good sense, sat down and wrote him a tediously detailed letter to tell him about all the trouble being experienced in getting a good overseer and the demoralization of the slaves growing out of the inefficient overseer's lack of capacity. "They did not tread out thirty bushels of oats in three days," wrote Mr. Hayes of the trifling slaves; and then went on to relate the harrowing experience of one of them who was sent to Nashville on an errand, was waylaid on his return and came home with "a large load of small shot in his back which is still in him."

Was there ever in the history of the world another General commanding his nation's troops on the eve of a decisive battle who had to drop his studies of tactical problems in order to consider the case of an overseer back home who "is a good honest man, but drinks too hard"?

Most of the time, however, General Jackson was at home to manage things for himself, and everybody agreed that when it came to running a farm and raising blooded stock he know what he was about. In 1824 the Hermitage was visited by Willie Blount, former governor of Tennessee, and in a letter written concerning this visit Governor Blount said:

"Although I have ever considered him to be among the most industrious men of my acquaintance, both in public and private life, I was really surprised to find his farm in such excellent order and so very productive, under all the circumstances relating to his great absence from home attending the public relations during the late war and since. His farming land is, as you know, very fertile, very beautiful, and eligibly situated for comfort. It is largely improved, handsomely arranged with gratifying appearance to the visitors at his most hospitable house, open to all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance and who travel through his neighborhood, none of whom pass that way without calling on him for social intercourse, viewing him to be the polite gentleman at home and abroad and the friend of man everywhere. His very arrangement for farming on an extensive scale delights the man of observation; his fields are extensive and nicely cultivated as a garden; his meadows and pastures are extensive and neatly kept; his stock of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs are of the best kind and all in excellent order; his domestics and hirelings are all contented and comfortably provided for, and their daily labor is a pleasure to them."

When Lafayette visited the Hermitage his secretary, though frankly disappointed at the simplicity of the house itself, commented favorably on the appearance of the garden and farm. "We everywhere remarked the greatest order and most perfect neatness," he wrote in his journal, "and we might have believed ourselves on the property of one of the richest and most skilful of the German farmers if, at every step, our eyes had not been afflicted by the sad spectacle of slavery." To ameliorate his reference to the "peculiar institution," however, the visiting Frenchman was careful to add that "Everybody told us that General Jackson's slaves were treated with the greatest humanity."

* * * *

One of the greatest problems encountered by Jackson in the management of the Hermitage plantation, and one that he never solved to his entire satisfaction, was that of obtaining the services of a thoroughly competent and industrious overseer. His correspondence is studded with letters complaining of their manifold shortcomings; and there was a steadily changing stream of men occupying this important and trying post.

When the General returned from his brief residence in Florida, he took hold of things at once, and one of the first things he did was to look for a new overseer. Alex Barksdale was hired at the beginning of the year 1823, and some idea of the limited agricultural equipment of even a big farm in the early days may be had from the following memorandum receipt for tools, stock, etc., which Barksdale gave Jackson under date of January 8, 1823:

"1 dagon plough, 5 single ploughs, 2 double ploughs, 1 colter plough, 3 pair of stretchers, 1 half-inch augur, 1 two-inch augur, 1 five-quarter augur, 1 chissel, 1 crosscut saw, 3 scythe and cradle, 1 stone augur, 1 augur and wheel, 1 rammer, 3 clevises, 1 two-foot rule, 1 foot adze, 7 singletrees, 6 pair of hames, 10 axes, 2 mattocks, 9 hoes, 1 plough hoe, 5 pair of traces, 1 handsaw, 1 crow-bar, 1 sledge hammer, 1 hand hammer, 1 pair of wedges, 1 mortising axe, 1 drawing knife, 2 pair lock chains. Horned cattle: 39 head grown and four oxen, 23 calves; 63 head grown sheep; 115 head of hogs. Received January 8th from Andrew Jackson as his overseer, to be carefully kept and superintended as such, the within farming utensils and above stock and plantation tools. (signed) Alex Barksdale."

Barksdale came well recommended, but did not finish out the year, being succeeded by Benjamin B. Person. Person filled the job until the end of 1824, then he too passed on to make way for another new one.

All this constant change in overseers was bad enough as long as the General and Mrs. Jackson were able to give their personal supervision to what was going on; but when Jackson left the Hermitage early in 1829 to be inaugurated President, closely following Mrs. Jackson's death in December, 1828, it was necessary to engage a thoroughly reliable man in whose charge to place the whole establishment. Andrew Jackson Donelson, who owned the adjoining plantation, was going along with Jackson as his private secretary; and so the two of them entered into a formal, written contract with one Graves W. Steele. This is an interesting document, as showing the conditions under which such arrangements were made at that time: