Wilmington Journal

Anecdote of Gen. Jackson.

In the year 1811, General Jackson had occasion to visit Natchez, in the territory of Mississippi, for the purpose of bringing up a number of blacks, a part of whom had become his property in consequence of having been security for a friend, and the remainder were hands which had been employed by a nephew in the neighborhood of that place. The road led through the country inhabited by the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, and the station of her agent for the Choctaws was upon it. On reaching the agency, he found seven or eight families of emigrants, and two members of the Mississippi legislative council, detained there, under the pretence that it was necessary for them to have passports from the Governor of Mississippi. One of their number had been sent forward to procure them. In the meantime, the emigrants were buying corn from the agent at an extravagant price, and splitting rails for him at a very moderate one. Indignant at the wrong inflicted on the emigrants, he reproached the members of the council for submitting to the detention, and asked the agent how he dared to demand a pass from a free American, travelling on a public road. The agent replied by asking, with much temper, whether he had a pass. "Yes sir," replied the General. "I always carry mine with me: I am a free-born American citizen, and that is a passport all over the world." He then directed the emigrants to gear up their wagons, and if any one attempted to obstruct him, to shoot them down, as a highway robber. Setting them the example, he continued his journey regardless of the threats of the agent.

After concluding his business, he was informed that the Agent had collected about fifty white men and one hundred Indians to stop him on his return, unless he produced a passport. Though advised by his friends to procure one, he refused to do so; stating that no American citizen should ever be subject to the insult and indignity of procuring a pass, to enable him to travel a public highway in his own country. Like all travellers among the Indians at that time, he was armed with a brace of pistols, and having added a rifle and another pistol, he commenced his return journey. When within a few miles of the agency, he was informed by a friend who had gone forward to reconnoitre, that the agent had his force in readiness to stop him. He directed his friend to advance again, and tell the agent that if he attempted to stop him, it would be at the peril of his life. He then put his blacks in order, and armed them with axes and clubs; at the same time telling them not to stop unless directed by him, and if any one offered to oppose them, to cut him down. Riding by their side, he approached the station, when the agent appeared, and asked him whether he meant to stop and show his passport. Jackson replied, "That depends upon circumstances. I am told that you meant to stop me by force; whoever attempts such a thing will not have long to live;" and with a look that was not to be mistaken, he grasped his bridle with a firmer grip. His determined manner had such an effect, that the agent declared he had no intention of stopping him, and he and his party were suffered to pass on without further molestation or interruption. He afterwards reported the conduct of the agent to the government, and he was dismissed from his agency.