Jackson

berland, England, of English and Scotch parent-
age. Left an orphan in early youth, he was
brought to South Carolina, where he grew up
under the guardianship of Owen Roberts. The
orthodox education of a gentleman's son and the
influence of Charleston society developed a per-
sonality which gained and held for him, through-
out life, the friendship of such diverse charac-
ters as Washington, Hamilton, John Laurens,
and Benjamin Lincoln. At the outbreak of the
Revolutionary War, Jackson obtained a subal-
tern's commission in Gadsden's regiment and in
1778 took part, as a lieutenant, in the abortive
expedition against St. Augustine, Fla. On the
arrival of Major-General Benjamin Lincoln to
take command of the Southern Department,
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney recommended
Jackson as an aide and a proper person to smooth
the contacts between the New Englander and
the southern military organizations. As Lin-
coln's aide, Jackson's staff rank became that of
major, the-title by which he was ever afterwards
known. He was under fire at Tullifiny Bridge,
at Stono Ferry, and at Savannah, and made the
last reckless sortie during the siege of Charles-
ton, with the force under Laurens and Hender-
son. He accompanied John Laurens to France,
as secretary, on the mission of 1781 and in the
resultant difficulties made hurried journeys from
France to Holland and to Spain which amounted
to a total of 2,300 miles in a few weeks. Jackson
was entrusted with the shipment of the supplies
for the Continental Army obtained by Laurens'
activities and in the accomplishment of this task
came into conflict with Commodore Alexander
Gillon and Benjamin Franklin [g#.#.], to the
second of whom he afterwards apologized. On
his return to the United States in February 1782,
he was taken into the War Department by Gen-
eral Lincoln, then secretary at war, and served
as assistant secretary for two years. During
that time he helped settle the mutinous outbreak
of the Pennsylvania troops in June 1783. He
resigned from the department in October of that
year to embark upon a mercantile venture to
Europe, the success of which brought a con-
gratulatory letter from Lincoln with a warning
against losing his profits through careless gen-
erosity. When the Constitutional Convention
met in Philadelphia in 1787, Jackson applied to
Washington for the position of secretary and
was nominated therefor by Alexander Hamilton;
his only competitor was William Temple Frank-
lin. At the close of the Convention the records
were burnt by its order, except the journal of
proceedings and the yea and nay votes. These,
in Jackson's handwriting, are the only official

Jackson

surviving papers and are both disappointing and
exasperating because of their paucity and de-
fects. The tradition that Jackson kept a daily
private record has not been substantiated as yet
by the discovery of such a document, and stu-
dents of the Constitutional Convention have been
severe in their strictures on the secretary's lax-
ity; but in the absence of knowledge of the
supplemental value of the records officially de-
stroyed, these strictures lose some force. Ad-
mitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1788, Jackson
in the following year was an unsuccessful candi-
date for the office of secretary of the United
States Senate against Samuel Allyne Otis.
Washington then appointed him one of his per-
sonal secretaries and, as such, Jackson in full
uniform attended the President when he de-
livered his first message to Congress. He ac-
companied Washington on tours through the
Eastern and Southern States and resigned his
secretaryship in December 1791. The Presi-
dent's letter, accepting the resignation, shows
high personal regard and liking for the Major,
to whom he offered, a year later, the position of
adjutant-general of the United States Army.
This was declined, and Jackson formed a busi-
ness partnership with William Bingham. He
married, Nov. II, 1795, Elizabeth Willing of
Philadelphia, daughter of Thomas Willing,
president of the Bank of North America. In
August of this year, when Secretary Dandridge
was unexpectedly called from Philadelphia,
Jackson volunteered his services to the Presi-
dent and one of Washington's last official acts
was to appoint the Major United States surveyor
of customs at Philadelphia, a post which he
held until he fell victim to Jefferson's sweep of
Federalists from the government service. Jack-
son then edited for a time the Political <&• Com-
mercial Register of Philadelphia. He was secre-
tary of the Society of the Cincinnati for a period
of twenty-eight years before his death, and
in 1818-19 he was delegated by the surviving
officers of the old Continental Army to obtain
for them an equitable adjustment of their prom-
ised half pay. This was the last of his public
activities. He died in 1828 and was buried in
Christ Church cemetery, Philadelphia.

Jackson published An Oration, to Commem-
orate the Independence of the United States
(1786), Eulogium on the Character of General
Washington (1800), and Documents Relative to
the Claim of Surviving Officers of the Revolu-
tionary Army of the United States, For an Equi-
table Settlement of the Half Pay for Life (1818),
all of which contain valuable historical material.

[The best account of Jackson's life is in the Pennsyl-

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