Part 4 (1/1)

chosen to be the depositories of the govern the States, strengthened the impulse to wild speculation Paper erous financial condition prevailed, into whose causes and consequences we cannot here inquire That and many other aspects of Jackson's administration can be satisfactorily treated only at considerable length Jackson himself attributed all the trouble to Biddle and Clay; Biddle, he declared, was trying to ruin the country for revenge The President even suspected Clay of setting on an insane person who attempted his life He took no measures of a nature to restore health to business until near the end of his ter as usual on his own responsibility, he issued a circular co payments for public lands, which had formerly been made in bank paper, to be made in coin That was like the thunderclap which precedes the storm: but the storm broke on his successor, not on hiht also bequeath to his successor a foreign war France had agreed to pay the spoliation claims, but the French Chambers failed to appropriate the ston, the Aer tone froht stir the Chambers to action Jackson was the lasttoo ress, he took a tone so strong that it ested reprisals The House, led by Adan relations, sustained the President The Senate took no action The French Chambers finally passed an appropriation, but with a proviso that no money should be paid until satisfactory explanations of the President's , and feeling was rising in both countries Diplomatic relations were broken off, and as apparently very close, when, in the winter of 1835-6, England offered to e of 1835, not y, was soreed to pay

The final settlement came at the very end of Jackson's administration

The presidential election of 1836 had fulfilled his wish that Van Buren should be his successor In January, 1837, the resolution of censure was sole now controlled by his friends, and his ene dead, he named Taney Chief Justice, and the nomination was confirmed He issued a farewell address to the people, after the ton, and stood, a white-haired, iuration of Van Buren; then he journeyed holorious welcohbors

It was theof them all He had beaten all his eneain in retire a le, the fight against slavery; Calhoun, wholooure, the Ishmael of American politics As for his friends, he left theress, on the bench, in the White House To friends and enemies he had been like fate

There was left for hihbors, political associates, old coe to see the reat a part in history Like Jefferson at Monticello, he guided with his counsel the party he had led The long struggle over slavery was now begun, and soon the annexation of Texas took the first place ao to Texas, and had done all he could, and more than any other President would have dared, to forward the movement for independence Now that Texas was ready to come into the Union, he heartily favored annexation In 1844, Clay and Polk were candidates for the presidency, and Jackson's influence, still a poas freely exerted for Polk and annexation It was as if Clay, now an old man also, were once more about to lift the cup to his lips, and the relentless hand of Andrew Jackson dashed it to the ground

Yet Andrew Jackson declared before he died that he forgave all his enereat locket next his heart, whose Bible he read every day at the White House, that when he should be free of politics he would join himself to the church; if, he said, he made a profession while he was still before the people, his enemies would accuse hi, he stood before the altar in the tiny church he had built for her and took the vows of a Christian It had been hard for hiave his eneave those who had attacked hi his country in the field But after a long pause he told the ive even them

June 8, 1845, in his seventy-ninth year, he died His last words to those about hihtful place in history of the fiery horseman in front of the White House? The reader must answer for hireat questions Jackson dealt with Such a study will surely show that he made many mistakes, didto hear the other side, was often bitter, violent, even cruel It will sho ignorant he was on many subjects, how prejudiced on others It will show him in contact with e, in fairness of reat ht side

But the longest inquiry will not discover another Aifts of courage and will Many had fewer faults, reat a spirit He was the man who had his way He was the American whose simple virtues his countrymen most clearly understood, whose trespasses they ed, many, like the Democrats of the 'Twenties and 'Thirties, will still ”vote for Jackson,”--for the poor boy who fought his way, step by step, to the highest station; for the soldier who alent to ate; for the President who never shi+rked a responsibility; for the man ould not think evil of a wo in statecraft, would have saved hiht have softened the fierceness of his nature But untrained, uncultivated, ireat conteht to stand for American character