Part 2 (2/2)
”Waal, we're goin' ter make Andrew Jackson President anyhow, Major!” the Tennesseean drawled.
”I'm afraid they'll beat us,” the Major answered, with a shake of his head.
”How'll they beat us when we git ready ter make the fight?”
”Old Hickory says himself, he ain't fit--”
”I reckon we know more about that than he does,” persisted the man from Tennessee.
”The aristocrats don't think so--”
”What t'ell they got agin him? Ain't he the biggest man in this country to-day? Didn't he lick Spain and England both at Pensacola and didn't he finish the Red Coats at New Orleans--”
”They say his education's poor--”
”He knowed enough to make this country c.o.c.k o' the walk--what more do they want--d.a.m.n 'em!”
”They say he swears--”
The Tennesseean roared:
”Waal, if all the cussin' men vote fur him--he'll s...o...b.. elected!”
”The real trouble--” the Major said thoughtfully, ”is what the scandal-mongers keep saying about his wife--”
”He's killed one son-of-a-gun about that already, an' they better let him alone--”
”That's just it, my friend: he killed that skunk in a duel and it's not the only one he has fought either. Old Hickory's got the temper of the devil.”
”Waal, thar ain't nothin' in them lies about his wife--”
The Major lifted his hand and moved closer:
”There's just enough truth at the bottom of it all to give the liars the chance they need to talk forever--”
”I never knowed thar wuz ary grain er truth in hit, at all--”
”There is, though,” the Major interrupted, ”and that's where we're going to have a big fight on our hands when it comes to the rub. This Lewis Robards, her first husband, was a quarrelsome cuss. Every man that looked at his wife, he swore was after her, and if she lifted her eyes, he was sure she was guilty. There was no divorce law in Virginia and Robards pet.i.tioned the Legislature to pa.s.s an Act of Divorce in his favor. The dog swore in this pet.i.tion that his wife had deserted him and was living with Andrew Jackson. He _was_ boarding with her mother, the widow Donelson. The Legislature pa.s.sed the Act, but it only authorized the Courts of the Territory of Kentucky to try the case, and grant the divorce if the facts were proven.
”Robards never went to Court with it for over two years, and Jackson, under the impression that the Legislature had given the divorce, married Rachel Robards at Natchez in August, 1791.
”Two years later, the skunk slips into Court and gets his divorce!
”As quick as Old Hickory heard this, he married her over again. There was a mighty hullabaloo kicked up about it by the politicians. They tried to run Jackson out of the country--the little pups who were afraid of him. He challenged the leader of this pack of hounds, and shot him dead--”
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