Jackson

the Clay-Adams opposition to form the Whig
party. The new organization adopted Clay's na-
tionalist policy. Jackson on the other hand, had
disappointed the West in regard to internal im-
provements, and the commercial interests, in-
cluding a large proportion of the planters of the
South, on the bank question. Thus he left his
party with a strict-constructionist heritage. He
had entered politics as a member of a school
which looked upon public office as a fit subject
for personal exploitation; he had always con-
sidered himself a strict constructionist, but he
had grown up in the spirit of Western national-
ism and had represented that school as late as
1824. Under the influence of Van Buren he
veered toward the opposite stand. The partisan
alignment established in his day persisted for
many years, and the Democratic party retains
until the present time some of the principles
which he adopted.

The nation and the executive office grew
stronger because of Jackson, and his adminis-
tration ranks as one of the most'important in
American history. With his practical mind and
aggressive spirit, he was never a theorist. He
met issues as they arose, sometimes acting on his
own initiative and sometimes on the suggestions
of others. He was doubtless unconscious of his
inconsistency, and his advisers must share with
him the credit for his extraordinary political
success. He had little understanding of the dem-
ocratic movement which bears his name and he
came to support it primarily because it sup-
ported him. Yet the common man believed im-
plicitly in him and remained his faithful fol-
lower. While he yet lived a tradition grew up
around his name which has made him one of the
greatest of American heroes, and the glamor of
his colorful personality will never fade from the
pages of American history.

After seeing Van Buren elected and inaugu-
rated he retired once more to "The Hermitage,"
where his strength gradually failed and in 1845
he died. He was buried in the garden by his be-
loved Rachel, who by seventeen years had pre-
ceded him.

[The principal biographies are: J. S. Bassett, The
Life of Andrew Jackson (1911); Jas. Parton, Life of
Andrew Jackson (3 vols., 1860);-and W. G. Stunner,
Andrew Jackson (1882). From the Jackson MSS. in
the Lib. Cong., 5 vols. of the Correspondence of Andrew
Jackson (1926-31), edited by the late J. S. Bassett have
been published. For state papers see J. D. Richardson,
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presi-
dents, II (1896). Several collections of Jackson letters
have been published in Am. Hist. Mag. (Nashville,
Tena.), Apr. 1899, pp. 99-104; July 1899, PP- 229-46;
Apr. 1900, pp. 132-44; Jan. 1904, pp. 83-104, Among
works dealing with the Jackson period may be cited:
Wm, McDonald, Jacksonian Democracy (1906) ; F. A.
Ogg, The Reign of Andrew Jackson (1919); C. G.

Jackson

Bowers, The Party Battles of the Jackson Period
(1922); S. G. Heiskell, Andrew Jackson and Early
Tenn. Hist. (2, ed., 2 vols., 1920) ; T. P. Abernethy
From Frontier to Plantation in Tenn. (1932). Among
articles on Jackson as distinguished from Jacksonism
are: J. S. Bassett, "Maj. Lewis on the Nomination of
Andrew Jackson," Procs. Am. Antiquarian Soc
XXXIII (1924), PP. 12-33; and T. P. Abernethy^
"Andrew Jackson and the Rise of Southwestern De-
mocracy," Am. Hist. Rev.t Oct. 1927, pp. 64-77. For
his military activities, see H. S. Halbert and T. H. Ball
The Creek War (1895) ; G. R. Gleig, Narrative of the
Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and
New Orleans (1821) ; G. C. Moore Smith, The Autobi-
ography of Lieut.-Gen. Sir Harry Smith (1901), vol. I;
A. L. Latour, Hist. Memoir of the War in W. Fla.
(1816). Information on Jackson's early career is to be
found in the letters of Gen. Jas. Robertson in the li-
brary of George Peabody College for Teachers; on his
later career in the papers of Jas. K. Polk in Lib. Cong.;
and the John Overton Papers in the library of Tenn.
Hist. Soc.] T p^ ^

JACKSON, CHARLES (May 31, 1775-Dec.
*3» J^SS), lawyer, was born in Newburyport,
Mass., the son of Jonathan Jackson by his sec-
ond wife, Hannah Tracy, and the brother of
James, 1777-1867, and Patrick Tracy Jackson
[gg.z/.]. The father was a Harvard graduate,
active in commerce and in the committee of
correspondence, a Federalist who was continu-
ously in public office. He held that "freedom
of discussion ought not to be restrained," and
deprecated "all vulgar prejudices, and undue at-
tachments to the opinions of a sect" (Thoughts
upon the Political Situation, n.d., pp. 139, 176).
After preparing at the Boston Latin School and
Dummer Academy, Charles Jackson entered
Harvard in 1789, graduating in 1793 at the head
of his class. He read law with Theophilus Par-
sons, that "giant of the law" who had already
prepared Rufus King and John Quincy Adams.
In 1796 Jackson opened an office in Newbury-
port, removing thence to Boston in 1803. Such
was his diligence in his early legal study that
he is said not to have read a newspaper for three
years; "the American Blackstone," was Parsons'
prophecy (Monthly Law Reporter, March 1856,
p. 607). In 1813 he left "as great a business as
one man could have" (Parsons, post, p. 175) to
accept appointment to the supreme judicial court
of Massachusetts.

During his tenure of office he spoke for the
court in about eighty cases, and filed one dis-
sent. (In those days opinions were usually by
the chief justice, or merely per curiam. Dissents
were very rare.) His opinions were character-
ized by clarity and erudition. Judicial duties
were exacting when the court was continually
making its circuit through the state; by 1823
Judge Jackson's health proved unequal to the
task, and he resigned and went abroad. In Lon-
don he was well received and sat in court with
Lord Stowell. While on the bench he began the

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