The Daily Madisonian

The Democratic Review for September.

This monthly is upon our table. It contains an excellent steel plate engraving of the Hon. C. C. Cambreleng. The article on the White Slavery of England is written with much care, and but for the age of some of the foreign extracts, would be particularly interesting.

We copy from the Review the following:

ANECDOTES OF GENERAL JACKSON.
BY AMOS KENDALL.*

Public men often suffer great wrong in reference as well to their private as their public character and conduct, from the misrepresentations of their political adversaries, frequently aggravated by personal animosities. Individuals of a party who mean to be honest, and would not in word or thought intentionally do injustice to a human being, often believe, with a too ready credulity, the assertions of party presses, political leaders and personal enemies, thereby becoming accomplices in the infliction of injuries at which their own consciences, if properly instructed, would revolt with horror.

The opinions imbibed by a large portion of mankind in reference to the temper and conduct of General Jackson in his personal relations, furnish a striking illustration of these truths. Multitudes there are, both in the United States and other countries, who, having received their impressions without due consideration, from presses and persons opposed to him, believe that distinguished man to be reckless of religious faith, if not of moral obligation, ferocious in temper, and in all the relations of life a tyrant. Such individuals will learn with astonishment, that this picture is all the reverse of truth; that the tone of Gen. Jackson's mind during his Presidency was decidedly devout; that no man could be more kind and indulgent in all his private relations; and that if he be censurable on this score, it is for too much forbearance. With what pain he found himself compelled to give up his favorable opinion of old friends, and with what tenacity he clung to them, in many cases, after every body else pronounced them venal and treacherous, was witnessed by those who were intimate with him during his administration. But without touching at present upon anything connected with his political course, I propose to give in the present and in some succeeding papers a few authentic anecdotes which will tend to correct the erroneous opinions entertained by many as to his religious impressions and imputed violence of temper.

Those who sat down with General Jackson at his private table to break bread, know with what fervor he uniformly invoked the blessings of Heaven upon the repast provided by its bounty. A stranger could not witness the scene without according to the venerable man before him, who thus bowed his grey head in humble supplication to the Giver of all good, a heart sincerely religious.

All will remember, that toward the close of his administration the General was attacked by a bleeding at the lungs which threatened to be fatal. Nor will it be forgotten, that some of the party presses attributed this attack to a violent fit of passion, in the paroxysms of which they said he had ruptured a blood-vessel. What a contrast the real scene presented, I had an opportunity to learn from the mouth of an eye-witness. "The cruel fabrication had reached the members of the President's family, and from the lips of Mrs. Jackson, the lady of the General's adopted son, rendered unusually eloquent by the indignation which lighted up her beautiful face, I heard the following narrative:—"

"Father," said she, "is in the habit, every night before he goes to bed, of calling me in to read to him a chapter in the Bible. On that night, having finished his business, he called me in to perform that service. I read to him as usual, and having finished the chapter, received from him an affectionate good-night and retired to my bed-chamber, which was in an adjoining room. He then called the servant who usually attended on him in his chamber, and was undressing. Suddenly he called me, and entering the room I found him bleeding at the mouth. What produced the attack I know not; but certain it is, that so far from indulging in any outbreaks of temper, his mind was calm and devotional, seeking to close the business of the day by communion with heaven."

The practice of reading or listening to a chapter of Holy Writ and sending up fervent aspirations to Heaven every night before he retired to rest, Gen. Jackson brought with him into the Presidency. No man had a deeper sense of dependence on the Giver of all good, or a more sincere and earnest desire to avail himself of the wisdom which comes from on high, in the discharge of his arduous duties. But it cannot be doubted, that in his devotional fervor there was mingled a holy and never dying affection for his departed wife, whose presence was, in his susceptible imagination, as necessary an incident of Heaven as that of the angels.

A portrait of this dearest object of his earthly affections hung in his chamber. "Is that a good likeness?" said a lady to him in my presence. "Pretty good," said he, "but not so good as this," taking a miniature from his bosom.

On another occasion, calling upon him on some urgent business, I was invited into his bed-chamber. I found him too ill to sit up. The curtains in front of his bed were open, and he lay with his head somewhat elevated on a full pillow. Opposite the foot of his bed, nearly touching the post, stood a little table, and on it was the miniature of Mrs. Jackson leaning against a small Bible and a Prayer Book which had been hers. It was evidently so placed that he might, as he lay, gaze upon the shadow of those loved features which had enraptured his youthful heart, and contemplate those virtues which, in old age, and even death, rendered them dear to the bosom of the hero and statesman beyond any other earthly object.

I was not then so thoroughly acquainted with Gen. Jackson as I afterward became; but on witnessing this scene, I said to myself, this must be a good man.—None other could entertain so deep, so abiding an affection for a departed companion, however cherished while living. Love like this is all good, all heavenly, all divine, as nearly as anything on earth possibly can be; it cannot dwell in a bad heart; it cannot assimilate with a perverted mind.

I had never seen Mrs. Jackson; but from that moment I pronounced her a superior woman. None but a woman of surpassing virtues could so fix the affections of such a man. None other could maintain such a hold on such a mind, amidst the enjoyment of glory, the gratification of ambition, the cares of state, and never-ceasing excitements sufficient to overpower and swallow up the kindly affections of ordinary men. None other could occupy, in life and in death, so broad a space in the remembrance and affections of one who in devotion to his country never had a superior. And I could not but regret, that she had not lived, not so much to enjoy a signal triumph over her own and her husband's traducers, as to comfort, advise, and sustain her devoted companion in the midst of never-ceasing toils and vexations, the heartlessness of false friends, and the assaults of unrelenting enemies.

Who that visited the President's House during General Jackson's administration does not remember Jemmy O'Neal, the Irish doorkeeper? Jemmy was kind-hearted, but blunt in his manner; so much so on some occasions as to appear rude if not insulting. Often one might ring the bell time after time, and no Jemmy make his appearance. There was a particular cause for Jemmy's apparent rudeness and occasional absence.

Calling one day, upon business, I rang the bell repeatedly, but no doorkeeper appeared. As I had done before under like circumstances, I opened the door and walked up stairs to the President's office.—There I found the General and Major Donelson.—Presently the bell rang again, again, and again.—"Where can Jemmy be!" said the General. "Drunk, most likely," replied Major Donelson. I then stated that I had not been able to raise him, though I had rung until I was tired, and that this was not the first occasion. Major Donelson then observed, that this difficulty was now of almost daily recurrence; that he had, on several occasions, found Jemmy in his room wholly unable to get to the door; that when not so disabled, his conduct towards visitors was often, from his peculiar situation, anything but polite or respectful; and he expressed the opinion in very decided terms, that a more suitable person should be entrusted with that duty. "Well, well," said the General, "we cannot bear it any longer; tell Jemmy he must find a home elsewhere."

Again and again I called, and Jemmy still presented his rubicund face at the door, often in a plight not befitting his station. "How is this," said I one day to Major Donelson, "I heard the General tell you that Jemmy must be discharged." "Yes," said the Major, "and that was the third time I had received such an order; but on each occasion Jemmy waited on the General in person, was exceedingly sorry for his fault, shed tears of repentance in abundance, promised to behave better in future if he could be forgiven this once, and never desisted until he obtained a promise that he should be tried a while longer."

And whoever was familiar at the White House, will remember Jemmy's red face and bluff voice at the door down to the end of General Jackson's administration, ever and anon repeating his fault, and as often by unfeigned repentance and distress extorting forgiveness from his kind-hearted master.

Can such traits of character belong to a tyrant or a bad man? All that is good in human nature answers, no.

It is generally known to the friends of Gen. Jackson, that he has committed all his papers, &c., to the hands of Mr. Kendall, from whose able hand a Biography worthy of the subject may be expected at no very distant day. In the mean time, the readers of the Democratic Review will have the benefit of some portions of these authentic materials, for the illustration of some of the most interesting passages in the life of the good and great old man.
Ep. D. R.