"AS

ANDREW JACKSON.

SK nothing but what is right-submit to nothing wrong," was Andrew Jackson's great political maxim; and it was an abiding principle in his character from his earliest youth until the close of his life. That noble principle was the key to his great success in whatever he undertook, and is worthy of adoption by every young man when he sets out upon the perilous voyage of active life. Jackson's parents were from the north of Ireland, and were among the early Scotch-Irish settlers in the upper part of South Carolina, in the vicinity of Waxhaw Creek. Jackson's father lived north of the dividing line between North and South Carolina, in Mecklenburg county, and there Andrew was born on the 15th of March, 1767. His father died five days afterward, and a month later, his mother took up her abode in South Carolina, near the meeting-house of the Waxhaw settlement. He received a fair education, for his mother designed him for the Christian ministry. But his studies were interrupted by the tumults of the on-coming Revolution, and soon after the fall of Charleston, the Waxhaw settlement became a terrible scene of blood, in the massacre of Buford's regiment by the fiery Tarleton. Every element of the lion in young Jackson's nature was aroused by this event, and, boy as he was, not yet fourteen years of age, he joined the patriot army and went to the field. One of his brothers was killed at Stono, and himself and another brother were made captives, in 1781. The widow was soon bereaved of all her family, but Andrew; and after making a journey of mercy to Charleston, to relieve sick prisoners, she fell by the wayside, and 'the place of her sepulchre is not known unto this day.' Left alone at a critical period of life, with some property at his disposal, young Jackson commenced a career that promised certain destruction. He suddenly reformed, studied law, and was licensed to practice, in 1786. He was soon afterward appointed solicitor of the Western District of Tennessee, and journeying over the mountains, he commenced, in that then wilderness, that remarkable career as attorney, judge, legislator, and military commander, which on contemplation assumes the features of the wildest romance, viewed from any point of apprecia'tion. His lonely journeyings, his collisions with the Indians, his difficulties with gamblers and fraudulent creditors and land speculators, and his wonderful personal triumphs in hours of greatest danger, make the record of his life one of rare interest and instruction.

In 1790, Jackson made his residence at Nashville, and there he married an accomplished woman, who had been divorced from her husband. In 1795, he assisted in forming a State Constitution for Tennessee, and was elected the first representative, in Congress, of the new State. In the Autumn of 1797, he took a seat in the United States Senate, to which he had been chosen, and was a conspicuous supporter of the democratic party. He did not remain long at Washington. Soon after leaving the Senate, he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of his State. IIe resigned that office, in 1804, and retired to his beautiful estate near Nashville. There he was visited by Aaron Burr, in 1805, and entered warmly into his schemes for invading Mexico. When Burr's intentions were suspected, Jackson refused further intercourse with him until he should prove the purity of his intentions. For many years Jackson was chief military commander in his section; and when war against Great Britain was proclaimed,

1. Tarleton gave no quarter, and about one hundred and fifty men, ready to surrender to superior numbers, were killed or cruelly maimed. The wou ded and the dying were taken into the Waxhaw meeting-house, and there the mother of Jackson, and other women, attended them. Under the roof of that sacred edifice, young Jackson first saw the demon of war in its most horrid form, and all that misery and British power and oppression, were ever afterward associated in his mind.

Andrew. Jackson

in 1812, he longed for employment in the field. He was called to duty in 1813. Early the following year he was made a major-general, and from that time until his great victory at New Orleans, on the 8th of January, 1815, his name was identified with every military movement in the South, whether against the hostile Indians, Britons, or Spaniards. In 1818, he engaged successfully in a campaign against the Seminoles and other Southern Indians, and, at the same time, he taught the Spanish authorities in Florida some useful lessons, and hastened the cession of that territory to the United States.

In 1821, President Monroe appointed General Jackson governor of Florida; and, in 1823, he offered him the station of resident minister in Mexico. He declined the honor, but accepted a seat in the United States Senate, to which the legislature of Tennessee had elected him. He was one of the four candidates for President of the United States, in 1824, but was unsuccessful. He was elevated to that exalted station, in 1828, by a large majority, and was reëlected, in 1832. His administration of eight years was marked by great energy; and never were the affairs of the Republic, in its domestic and foreign relations, more prosperous than at the close of his term of office. In the Spring of 1837, he retired from public life forever, and sought repose after a long and laborious career, devoted to the service of his country. He lived quietly at his residence near Nashville, called The Hermitage, until on a calm Sunday, the 8th of June, 1845, his spirit went home. He was then a little more than seventy-eight years of

246

NATHANIEL BOWDITCH.

age. The memory of that great and good man is revered by his countrymen, next to that of Washington, and to him has been awarded the first equestrian statue in bronze ever erected in this country. It is colossal, and occupies a conspicuous place in President's Square, Washington city, where it was reared in 1852.

NATHANIEL BOWDITCH.

THE practical man who, in any degree, lightens the burden of human labor, is

eminently a public benefactor. Such was Nathaniel Bowditch, who, by navigators, has been aptly termed The Great Pilot. He was the son of a poor ship-master, of Salem, where Nathaniel was born on the 26th of March, 1773. His education was acquired at a district school; and at the age of thirteen years he was apprenticed to a ship-chandler. He performed his duties faithfully until manhood, and during his whole apprenticeship he employed every leisure moment in reading and study. Mathematics was his favorite study, and it became the medium of his greatest public services.

At the age of twenty-two years young Bowditch went on a voyage to the East Indies, as captain's clerk, and his naturally strong mind was engaged chiefly on the subject of navigation, while at sea. The result of his reflections, observations, and calculations, was the publication, in 1802, of the well-known nautical work, entitled the New American Practical Navigator. For nine years he was himself a practical navigator, and during that time he rose gradually from captain's clerk to master. He left the sea, in 1804, and became president of a Marine Insurance Company, at Salem. That office he held for almost twenty years. Two years before, while his ship lay wind-bound in Boston Harbor, Captain Bowditch went to Cambridge to listen to the commencement exercises at Harvard College, and while standing in the crowded aisle, he heard his own name announced, by the president, as the recipient of the degree of Master of Arts. It was to him the proudest day of his life. He was then about twenty-nine years of age.

In 1806, Mr. Bowditch published an admirable chart of the harbors of Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, and Manchester. In 1816, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws, from Harvard College; and was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, in 1818. He contributed many valuable papers to scientific publications, but the great work of his life was the translation and annotation of Laplace's Mecanique Celeste. He published it at his own expense entirely, remarking that he would rather spend a thousand dollars a year, in that way, than to ride in his carriage. It was a task of great labor and expense, and consists of five large volumes. The first was published in 1829, the second in 1832, and the third in 1834. He read the last proof sheets of the fourth volume only a few days before his death. The revision of the fifth was left to other hands. Dr. Bowditch died on the 16th of March, 1838; and his last words were "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word." He was a man of great literary and scientific attainments, and was proficient in the

1. The origin of that work shows how comparatively insignificant events will result in great benefits. On the day previous to his sailing on his last voyage, he was called upon by Edumnd N. Blunt, then a noted publisher of charts and nautical books, at Newburyport, and requested to continue the corrections which he had previously commenced on Moore's book on navigation, then in common use. In performance of his promise to do so, he detected so many and important errors, that he resolved to prepare an entire new work. That work was his Practical Navigator.

Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German languages. Ho was not ambitious for public life, yet he twice occupied a seat in the executivo council of Governor Strong, of Massachusetts. His memory is sweet for his lifo was pure.

TO

MARINUS WILLETT.

No member of the associated Sons of Liberty, in New York, exceeded Marinus

Willett in devotion to republican principles, and in boldness of action when called to their support. He was born at Jamaica, Long Island, on the 10th of August, 1740. He was one of thirteen children, and lived to survive them all. The French and Indian war was burning fiercely in northern New York when he approached young manhood. His military passion was fired, and, before he was eighteen years of age, he entered the provincial army with a second lieutenant's commission, under the command of Colonel Oliver Delancy.' He shared in the misery of Abercrombie's defeat at Ticonderoga, in 1758; and immediately afterward he accompanied Colonel Bradstreet in his successful expedition against Fort Frontenac (now Kingston, Upper Canada), at the foot of Lake Ontario. Fatigue and exposure impaired his health, and he left the service soon afterward. When, a few years later, the Stamp Act spread a deep and ominous murmur over the land, Mr. Willett had chosen his banner, and from that time until the organization of an army of patriots to fight for liberty, he was one of the boldest supporters of his country's rights, by word and deed.

When British troops in New York were ordered to Boston, after the skirmish at Lexington, they attempted to carry off a large quantity of spare arms, in addition to their own. Willett resolved to prevent it, and, though opposed by the mayor and other Whigs, he led a body of citizens, captured the baggage-wagons containing them, and took them back to the city. These arms were afterward used by the first regiment raised by the State of New York. Willett was appointed second captain of a company in Colonel M'Dougal's regiment, and accompanied Montgomery in his northern expedition. After the capture of St. John's, on the Sorel, he escorted prisoners taken at Chambly, to Ticonderoga, and then was placed in command of St. John's. He held that post until January, 1776. In November of that year he was appointed lieutenant-colonel; and, at the opening of the campaign of 1777, he was placed in command of Fort Constitution, on the Hudson, opposite West Point. In May he was ordered to Fort Stanwix, or Schuyler (now Rome), where he performed signal services. He was left in command of the fort, and remained there until the Summer of 1778, when he joined the army under Washington, and was at the battle of Monmouth. He accompanied Sullivan in his campaign against the Indians in 1779, and was actively engaged in the Mohawk Valley, in 1780, 1781, and 1782. At the close of the war he returned to civil pursuits. Washington highly esteemed him; and, in 1792, he was sent by the President to treat with the Creek Indians at the South. The same year he was appointed a brigadier-general in the army intended to act against the North-western Indians. He declined the appointment, for ho was opposed to the expedition. He was for some time sheriff of New York, and was elected mayor of the city, in 1807. He was chosen elector of president and

1. It may be interesting to the young to know the style of a military dress at that time. Willett thus describes his own uniform: A green coat trimmed with silver twist, white under-clothes, and black gaiters; also a cocked hat, with a large black cockade of silk ribbon, together with a silver button and

loop.

vice-president, in 1824, and was made president of the Electoral College. Colonel Willett died in the city of New York, on the 23d of August, 1830, in the ninety-first year of his age.

"BOYS!

JOHN STARK.

OYS! there's the enemy. They must be beat, or Molly Stark must sleep a widow this night! Forward, boys! March!" Such were the vigorous words of a hero of two wars, the gallant General Stark, as he led his corps of Green Mountain Boys to attack the Hessians and Tories, near Bennington. He was an unpolished soldier, who had learned the art of desultory warfare in service against the French and Indians in northern New York. He was the son of a Scotchman, and was born at Londonderry (now the city of Manchester), New Hampshire, on the 28th of August, 1728. His early childhood was spent in the midst of the wild scenery of his birth-place, and in youth he was remarkable for expertness in trapping the beaver and otter, and in hunting the bear and deer. Just before the breaking out of the French and Indian war, he penetrated the forests far northward, and was captured by some St. Francis Indians. He suffered dreadfully for a long time, and then was ransomed at a great price. This circumstance gave him good cause for leading a company of Rangers against these very Indians and their sometimes equally savage French allies, four years afterward. He became a captain, under Major Rogers, in 1756, and in that school he was taught those lessons which he practiced so usefully twenty years later. When intelligence reached the valleys of the North, that blood had been shed at Lexington, Stark led the train-bands of his district to Cambridge, and was commissioned a colonel, with eight hundred men under his banner. With these he fought bravely in the battle of Bunker's Hill. He went to New York after the British evacuated Boston, in the Spring of 1776. Then, at the head of a brigade in the northern department, under Gates, he performed essential service in the vicinity of Lake Champlain; and near the close of the year, he commanded the right wing of Sullivan's column in the battle at Trenton. He shared in the honors at Princeton; but, being overlooked by Congress when promotions were made, he resigned his commission and retired from the army. But when the invader approached from the North, his own State called him to the field, in command of its brave sons; and on the Walloomscoik, a few miles from Bennington, he won that decisive battle which gave him world-wide renown. Then it was that he made the rough but effective speech above quoted, that indicated the alternative of death or victory. Congress was no longer tardy in acknowl edging his services, for he had given that crippling blow to Burgoyne, which insured to Gates' army a comparatively easy victory. The national legislature gave him grateful thanks, and a brigadier's commission in the Continental army. He joined Gates at Saratoga, and shared in the honors of that great victory. In 1779, he was on duty on Rhode Island, and the following year he fought the British and Hessians at Springfield, in New Jersey. In the Autumn of 1780, he was one of the board of officers that tried and condemned the unfortunate Major Andrè; and until the last scenes of the war, he was in active service. When he sheathed his sword, he left the arena of public life forever, though he lived almost forty years afterward. General Stark died on the 8th of May, 1822, at the age of almost ninety-four years. Near his birth-place, on the east side of the Merrimac, is a granite shaft, bearing the simple inscription, MAJOR-GenERAL STARK. His eulogium is daily uttered by our free institutions-his epitaph is in the memory of his deeds.