Andrew Jackson's Hermitage

“The walls of the House being originally well built are not much damaged. The workmen Austin, Rife, etc say there will be no difficulty in rebuilding, etc. Some of the petition walls and arches over the windows, and some other repairing of the walls all of which Mr. Austin can furnish brick to do by deferring the building of some of Maj Donelson back buildings.... Andrew requested me to say to you that he would move to the Baldwin place, and will start 3 or 4 whip saws tomorrow, and will get ready to cover it immediately, which is entirely practicable....”

Col. Armstrong, after his promised visit, wrote: “The dineing room Wing is but Little injured and I view it this way that you have now the Stone and Brick-work of your House done, and one Wing Compleate, and that 2500$ will Compleate the main house and the other office Wing. The Kitchen and out Houses are all safe.”

Like most estimates, Col. Armstrong’s proved to be far lower than the final cost. The first estimate made by Joseph Rieff and William C. Hume amounted to $3,950. Added to this was $239 “for Extra work done upon change of Plan;” $186, “for work done on West wing and New Kitchen finding everything;” and $750 “for the full length two story Porch added finding every thing;” making a grand total of $5,125.

Among the interesting items included in the first estimate were: “1 Circular stair case 2 storys high, $260; first story of front poarch with 6 collums etc, $256; second story of ditto, $75; one back Portico, $40....” (Complete details of the rebuilding are found in Bassett’s Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. V.)

A new house called, of course, for new furnishings. Sarah York with the adored little Rachel, born November 1, 1832, and her infant brother, Andrew, went on to visit the General at the White House. On this visit Sarah went on to Philadelphia to visit her own kin and while there made selections for the paper and the furnishings of the Hermitage.

One of the hitherto unpublished letters of the Hermitage collection, written at Washington April 14, 1835, by General Jackson, shows his interest in the furnishings, as well as his tender solicitude for Sarah York and the children:

“My dear Sarah: When you get a little rested from your journey make enquiry about the bedsteads and let me know at what the eight can be procured, of good plain mahogany.... I shall be anxious to hear from you, how my dear little Rachel is, as well as yourself and Andrew—I have great solicitude about my dear little Rachel. Keep the dear little ones for me—present me kindly to Mr. & Mrs. Wetherall and accept a father’s prayers for your health and happiness. We all salute thee kindly. Andrew Jackson.”

Sarah busied herself with shopping and soon she had purchased a splendid new outfit for the Hermitage. The bill, dated January 2, 1836 (Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. V.) included:

6 Mahogany Bedsteads, including the packing at 40, $240; 24 Fancy Chairs cain seat rich blue and gold at 2.50, $60; 4 Curtins, Crimson Silk lined with white Silk and full mounted at 75, $300; box $1, $301; 7 pair Tongs and Shovel polished steel pairs at 4.50, $31.50; 1 pair Do large, $75.50; 1 pair Chamber Candlesticks plated, $6; 1 Brass Fender, best, $13, box $1, $14; 1 Wardrobe Black and ornamented $50; 2 Wash Stands marble tops at $18, $36; 2 Do small at $5; $10; 2 large size Bureaus at $30, $60; 2 Center Tables at $30, $60; 8 Packing Boxes, $16.50; 5 Wire Fenders with Knobs, at $4.50, $22.50; 1 Nurcery Fender, $6.50; Box, $1.75; 2 pair Brass Andirons at $6, $12; 1 pair Brass Andirons, $6.50; 2 pairs Brass Andirons at $7, $14; 3 Setts of fine paper hanging Views Telemechus at $40, $120; 150 yards Super Nankeen Matting at .50, $75; 20 Yards Brussels 4-4 Stair Carpeting Crimson Damask Center with net Border at $2.87½, $57.50; 1 mahogany Bedstead packed, $40; 1 Mahogany Bedstead packed very fine, $60; 1 Blind large Size, $10; 1 pair Blinds to match, $10; 1 doz. 40 inch Stair rods $6.50; Box, $1.75. The grand total, including insurance on the shipments made on the boats, Bonnaffe, Mile, and Jno Sergeant, amounted to $1,364.50.

There was trouble about the wall paper, and again General Jackson’s friend, Col. Armstrong, came to the rescue. He wrote, on May 27, 1836 (Bassett’s Correspondence, Vol. V.):

“Dear Genl. I send you inclosed a note addressed to me by the Mess. Yeateman after a conversation I had with them this morning. They have always been ready and willing to do all in their power to get back the paper from those who purchased it. When I call’d on Campbell I expected to get the paper, that night he cut it and put it on the Walls.

“Williams is not at home. I saw Shelly who will do nothing in it, he is not disposed to restore it. Williams dare not, as his wife claims it, so I call’d on the Mess. Yeateman and stated the facts who willingly proposed to purchase another set....”

There has long been a tradition in Nashville that the old Campbell house, not far from town, on the Lebanon Pike, had paper like that in the Hermitage hall, but it was, evidently, destroyed when the walls were scraped and re-papered. Further details concerning the determined woman who kept the paper have not, at the present writing, come to light.

A bill dated May 30, 1836, shows that Jackson’s merchant and personal friend, Henry Toland, of Philadelphia, arranged for another shipment of paper. This bill includes the items: “3 Views of Telemachus at $29, $87; 7 ps Pannell Paper, at $2.50, $17.50; 7 ps. Bordering, at $3.00; $21; 4 ps. Plain Blue, at .75, $3.” A box cost fifty cents and five per cent was deducted because of the cash payment, making the final amount $122.60. The bill is marked “Received payment fr H Toland, October 25th 1836. Robert Golder, per Jas. Cameron Golder.”

Nancy McClelland, in her monumental work, Historic Wall-Papers, (Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1924) states that “the complete set consisted of 25 strips in colours, and the scenes are constructed on the account of the adventures of Telamachus.” It was manufactured in Paris by Dufour about 1825 and, though rare, was not an exclusive pattern. It is still found on the walls of certain historic homes and in a few private and public collections.

According to the late Mrs. Rachel Jackson Lawrence, daughter of Sarah York and Andrew Jackson, Jr., the Telemachus paper now on the walls of The Hermitage hallway is the third set of its kind purchased by General Jackson. The first, she declared, was put on the walls at the time of the remodelling in 1831 and was burned in the fire of 1834. The second was the one acquired by Mrs. Campbell and the third, which, like the others, is the work of Dufour, was placed on the walls some time after it was ordered in the late spring of 1836.

Sarah York selected papers for the Hermitage, but, as his letter of April 14, 1835, (Hermitage MSS. Collection) shows, President Jackson took a personal interest in the Telemachus paper.

“I rec’ a note from Mr. Toland,” he wrote, “after you left us, informing that Mr. South had forwarded the order to Paris for the Telamucus and the other would be detained until you arrived and made the selection for those rooms not selected for. As soon as you can attend to this and have the selection made and the paper shipped for New Orleans so that it may get up to Nashville before the Steam boats stop running. I have written Mr. Toland on this subject....”

Eighteen packages of furniture for the Hermitage were lost when the steamer John Randolph was burned at Nashville, May 16, 1836, but it is evident that they were replaced as quickly as possible. There was always, however, the delay of waiting for sufficiently high water, in addition to the long, tedious journey around the coast to New Orleans and up the Mississippi, Ohio and Cumberland to Nashville.

Another large bill of furnishings for the Hermitage was purchased of Barry and Krickbaum, of Philadelphia, in February, 1837. It included 1 Large Wardrobe, $75; 2 dressing Bureaus to match, $110; 2 Wardrobes, french pattern, $120; 1 Eliptic front Bureau, $5; 1 Secy and Bookcase complete, $50; 2 pier tables, marble tops, $120; 1 Work table Elegantly fitted up, $50; 1 Work Stand, marble tray top, $5; 2 Work Stands, marble tray top, $50; 1 Marble Slab, $10. Total $665.

About the same time a long list of smaller furnishings amounting to $481.93 was bought of Lewis Veron and Company, Philadelphia. There were fenders, and irons, screens and such, things. Among them were “2 Pair french And Irons $70; 1 Gallérie for fire place, $55; 1 Clock Shade and Stand, very large, $17; 1 Plated Egg Boiler, $19; and one Silver Mounted Butter Tub, $12.” (The list is given in full in Bassett’s Correspondence, Vol. V.)

The new furnishings, with such as were left from the fire, were assembled in a harmonious whole toward the end of General Jackson’s second term as President. Sarah York, after her arrival at the Hermitage in 1832 had bought carpets, linens, and various necessities. General Jackson had written his son at this time:

“Sarah writes me about a Carpet for the dining room and some table linnen and common furniture for the Table. There were abundant supply. of table linnen, etc. etc. when we left the Hermitage, but I suppose it must have gone the same way as the sheets. I have said in my letter to Sarah inclosed that a carpet must be bought for the dining room. There is always a supply of the carpets made by the Shakers, to be had at Mr. Nichols, and she must buy such furniture as the House wants, having an eye to proper economy. This you will have done agreeable to her directions. I have named domestic carpet, as it will be cheaper and better than an oil cloth or matt....”

Again he wrote: “View those East India matts or carpeting and see whether these recommended by Mr. Toland will answer better for the passage than oil cloth, and whether Sarah would prefer these to common carpets for the bedrooms....”

After all the delays and the characteristic confusion of moving the furnishings—old and new—were at last arranged. A weary old man—ill and hemorrhaging heavily from the lungs—turned his face eagerly to the spot which, in all the world, he loved best. To Nicholas P. Trist he wrote on March 2, 1837, “Your letter ... found me confined to my room, indeed, I might say to my bed, and I have been only four times down stairs since the 15th of Novb. last, altho I have been obliged to labour incessantly.... Tomorrow ends my official carier forever, on the 4th I hope to be able to go to the capitol to witness the glorious scene of Mr. Van Buren, once rejected by the Senate, sworn into office....”

Late in December, 1936, he had written Andrew Jackson Donelson, a letter of condolence—the spirited Emily, whom he loved deeply, but whom he, in high dudgeon, had sent home because she refused to receive the much-discussed Peggy O’Neal Timberlake Eaton, had succumbed to a lung trouble similar to that from which he was suffering.

“I have this moment recd. the sad and melancholy intelligence that our Dear Emily is no more.... I have no language in which I can express my grief.... My health is slowly returning, and my strength improving slowly....”

The rest, sunlight, and pleasant atmosphere of the Hermitage were destined, however, to work a great improvement. His wiry, long-suffering body was to recover sufficiently for him to spend eight years in his new home before he was laid to rest in the garden beside the beloved Rachel. During these years his young men, under his wise guidance, had a tremendous influence in the nation—and in 1845, James K. Polk, who had openly conducted his campaign as “Young Hickory,” the legitimate political heir of the “sage of the Hermitage,” was inaugurated.

Andrew Jackson and his family, after Van Buren’s inauguration, made a triumphant progress southward and, on March 25, 1837, reached the Hermitage. To Martin Van Buren he wrote on March 30: “I reached home ... with a very bad cough, increased by a cold taken on board the Steam Boat.... I hope rest in due time may restore my health so as be enabled to amuse myself in riding over my farm and visiting my neighbors....”

But however interested he was in his farm and his neighbors he took time to write his successor and protégé several pages of very sound advice on state affairs:

“Fearlessly pursue your principles avowed, and the people will sustain you against all apostates, ambitious, and designing men ...” and take care of “the safety of the deposit Banks of the West, and south....”

From that time onward the Hermitage was prominent in the eyes of the nation. The younger statesmen paid visits to “the sage of the Hermitage” as the ancients consulted oracles—and the masses continued to worship the “Hero of New Orleans.”

His domestic life flowed easily and pleasantly under the skilled and tactful direction of his daughter, Sarah. The adored little Rachel dogged his footsteps, rode with him, and, with her bright prattle, enlivened his days. Mrs. Marion Adams, Sarah’s older sister, now widowed, made her home at the Hermitage, and Rachel’s relatives came from their neighboring estates to pay respects to their beloved kinsman. Never was a lonely old man surrounded with greater affection or more kindly care.

But what of the outward appearance of the Hermitage of this period? There is every indication that the cedars along the driveway were set out at this time. A drawing of the Hermitage dated 1856 indicates that the cedars were still quite young at that time, and a statement of Parton, based on his visit to Nashville prior to the publication of his Life of Andrew Jackson in 1859, further corroborates it and gives, as well, an interesting picture of the appearance which the Hermitage finally assumed after its series of changes. He wrote:

“Now we leave the turnpike and turn into a private road, straight, narrow, a quarter of a mile long, the land on both sides dead level. We come to a low iron gate in a white wooden frame, which admits us to an avenue of young cedars, ending in a grove, through which a guitar-shaped lawn is visible.... We alight, at length, on the stone steps of the piazza, and the Hermitage is before us.... A two-story brick house, with a double piazza both in front and in the rear; the piazza wooden and painted white supported by thick grooved pillars of the same material and color. The floors of the lower piazza are of stone, and each terminates in a wing of the house....”

A familiar and cherished picture to Tennesseans, and to many thousands of Americans who have journeyed the same road to pay tribute to the memory of Andrew Jackson. Parton, like the Frenchmen with Lafayette, was struck by the simplicity of the Hermitage, but he was much impressed with the fertility of the land and the natural beauty of the estate. Like the Frenchmen, he, too, was much concerned with the “sad spectacle” of slavery, but he was convinced that the Jackson slaves had an unusually happy lot.

The best-known authority on the laying out of the cedar drive is the narrative of Mrs. Rachel Jackson Lawrence (“little Rachel”) which appears in the second volume of the late S. G. Heiskell’s Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History. Mr. Heiskell was not only an eminent lawyer, but he was a careful and painstaking historian. He quotes Mrs. Lawrence as saying:

“Colonel Earle assisted in laying off the grounds, the front yard, at the Hermitage. My mother drew the plan, and Colonel Earle superintended the laying off, and the planting of all those cedars you can see there. He also laid off the center of the Hermitage garden. I think it was exposure to the sun, after being so closely confined in his studio, that resulted in his death. He came in, I remember, and sat down at the dinner table, and said he did not feel very well, thought he had something like a chill.... When supper time came, he was still feeling very badly.... About daylight he died with a congestive chill.”

Earl’s death was mentioned in General Jackson’s letters of September, 1838. “His death,” he wrote, “is a great bereavement to me ... he was my friend and constant companion....”

Mrs. Lawrence’s statement does not definitely place the laying out of the flower beds in the center of the garden. It is possible that, in those lonely days after his young wife’s death in 1819, he worked with Rachel Jackson in the garden of her new home. Frost, the English gardener may have worked with them. At any rate, the garden grew as the estate developed and, through the twenty years of his residence at the Hermitage, it must have delighted the beauty-loving soul of the artist.

But what suggested the guitar as a model for the drive? There is a tradition that General Jackson selected it because Rachel played the guitar—certainly, even at Hunter’s Hill, she played a harpsichord, and often accompanied the General when he played upon his flute. There is definite proof that Sarah York had a guitar, for General Jackson, in a letter written in Washington, April 12, 1832, said: “Your cousin Saml. J. Hays has agreed to take the Dog—will rest at Rockville with you tonight. He takes on Sarah’s Gator (guitar)—you must direct him where to leave it....”

Somewhere the connection between music and the cedars was seen by a mind poetic enough to look forward to a day when they would grow into a massive instrument upon which the pleasant winds might play. Perhaps “Old Hickory” himself conceived the idea—at any rate he approved it, or the drive would not have been planted. It is enough to know that in planting the trees he connected them with the music of at least one—perhaps two—mistresses of the Hermitage.

General Jackson was interested, too, in the willows which he had planted by Mrs. Jackson’s tomb and in the flowers she had loved. In a letter written to Andrew Jackson, Jr., on August 20, 1829, he expresses deep concern for the care of her grave in the garden:

“In your letter although you have informed me of your visit to your dear mother’s tomb, still you have not informed me of its situation, and whether the weeping that we planted around it are growing, or whether the flowers reared by her industrious and beloved hands, have been set around the grave as I requested. My D’r son, inform me on this subject, you know it is the one dearest to my heart, and her memory will remain fresh there as long as life lasts....”

“As long as life lasts....” Each evening at sunset a failing old man turned his footsteps toward the garden. The chattering little girl who held his hand paused at the gate and watched in silence while he made his way slowly down the garden paths to the white stone temple in the lower end of the garden.

“No one ever went to the tomb with him,” Mrs. Lawrence told Mr. Heiskell. “I always went to the gate, and saw him in, but I realized he was going to the tomb. He would stay there a half hour, I suppose, then return. He did this as long as he was able to walk.”

It was not long to wait. Louis Philippe sent the artist Healy to paint his portrait, and Sam Houston was hastening from Texas that his fast-failing friend might lay his hands on his young son’s head in blessing. The portrait was finished three days before the old General’s death, but Sam Houston reached the Hermitage just a few hours too late.

The end came quietly and peacefully on June 8, 1845, and two days later Andrew Jackson was laid to rest beside his beloved Rachel. Their mortal remains have rested peacefully in the earth they loved these many years, while the changing seasons have brought their fleeting beauty to the garden—but who shall say that their story has not become immortal?

ADDITIONAL NOTES

(Plans for this volume were made during Mrs. E. A. Lindsey’s term as regent of the Ladies’ Hermitage Association. They were brought to completion during the administration of her successor, Mrs. Reau E. Folk, with the full coöperation of Mrs. Lindsey and other members of the board of directors. Plans for the present edition were begun under the regency of Mrs. George F. Blackie and are being completed under the regency of Mrs. Robert F. Jackson. The purpose of this little book is to provide a small, easily readable volume on the Hermitage of Andrew Jackson’s day and to bring out certain interesting unpublished material relating to this period. These additional notes, given in the briefest possible space, represent material too voluminous to publish at the present time, but too important to pass without some mention.)

Preservation and Refurnishing of the Hermitage.—The reader is naturally interested in the period which intervened between the death of Andrew Jackson and the opening of his home as a patriotic shrine, the authenticity of the relics, the degree to which the garden and the grounds are faithful to their past, and other details of the preservation of the historic Hermitage estate.

The Hermitage and five hundred acres of adjoining land were purchased by the State of Tennessee from Andrew Jackson, Jr., in 1856. At this time Andrew Johnson, another Tennessean who was to ascend to the Presidency of the United States, was governor. The original purpose was to tender the property to the United States Government for the establishment of a military academy similar to West Point, and such an offer was made to Congress by the State of Tennessee. The plan was not consummated, however, for clouds which gave warning of the great storm of internal strife which was about to break, obscured all other interests. The Civil War soon followed and five young men from the Hermitage—sons of Sarah York and Andrew Jackson, Jr., and of Mrs. Jackson’s widowed sister, Mrs. Adams—went to join the Confederate Army. Only one, Colonel Andrew Jackson, III, returned.

Andrew Jackson, Jr., died in 1865, but his widow continued, at the invitation of the State of Tennessee, to live at the Hermitage until her death in 1888. In the following year, 1889, the Ladies’ Hermitage Association was organized, and on April 5, 1889, the mansion, tomb, and adjoining buildings were conveyed to the trustees of the Ladies’ Hermitage Association. After this first step the Association busied itself with the raising of funds for the purchase of furniture, relics, and valuable papers which belonged in the mansion and which Col. Andrew Jackson, III, had inherited from his mother. The major portion of the present collection was completed by 1900, and in that year Col. Jackson and his sister, Mrs. Rachel Jackson Lawrence, signed a statement which forever establishes the authenticity of the relics. Col. Jackson died in 1906, but Mrs. Lawrence lived until 1923 and under her guidance, as well as that of “Uncle Alfred,” the slave who was General Jackson’s body servant, the furniture was rearranged as it was when the old warrior lived in the Hermitage.

This work was not done without continuous, untiring, and devoted effort on the part of the leading spirits of the Ladies’ Hermitage Association. Their work received national recognition in 1907, when President Theodore Roosevelt, impressed by his visit to the Hermitage, sponsored an act of Congress which provided $5,000 for additional work in repairing and preserving the Hermitage as a national shrine.

Library, or Office.—Among the most interesting of the unpublished collections of Jackson material is that owned by The Ladies’ Hermitage Association. It has been the privilege of the writer to make a detailed study of this material. The library, or office, as it was generally called, contains over four hundred volumes. One of the most striking features of this collection is that such a large portion of it is the work of Jackson’s contemporaries—not only in military and political subjects, but in biography, fiction, and poetry.

There are a number of Sir Walter Scott’s works, including his Life of Napoleon, Tales of My Landlord, and others. There is Henry Fielding’s History of Tom Jones, some volumes of Addison’s Spectator, Dickens’ Oliver Twist, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Jane Porter’s Scottish Chiefs and Thaddeus of Warsaw, Milton, Shakespeare, and a score of others reflecting lively and varied taste.

The collection shows that it was acquired naturally and gradually, for the purpose of meeting the needs and the interests of the household. There are law books, religious writings, biography, technical books on military subjects, numbers of bound political pamphlets, current magazines, and a few newspapers, as well as the previously mentioned fiction and poetry. There are also various publications on agriculture, cook books, music books, hymnals, and, most delightful of all for the human touch it gives, a baby book published in 1805!

This book, A Treatise on the Diseases of Children, with Directions for the Management of Children from Birth, was published in 1805 in London. It was written by Michael Underwood, M.D., of the Royal College of Physicians, Physician to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.

It was, most likely, the most important book at the Hermitage in 1809, when Rachel and Andrew took into their hearts the infant nephew who became their adopted son and heir.

Slaves.—No history of the Hermitage is complete without at least a reference to the slaves who toiled in its fields, attended the thoroughbreds in its stables, or performed duties at “the big house” with well-bred courtesy and ease. Some few live by name, but most of them, like shadows in a brilliantly colored picture, have passed into a hazy, undefined background. Alfred sleeps in a marked grave in the garden, only a few feet from his beloved master. Across the fence, a few feet from the family burying ground, are other unidentified graves—among them, it is said, is that of Gracie, Alfred’s wife.

Andrew Jackson, during the bitter campaign of 1828, was accused of being a negro trader. Nothing could be more absurd to people who understand the conditions under which he lived. He bought slaves and, occasionally, sold them—but slave dealing implies constant trade in negroes for profit and the records do not indicate, at any period of his life, that he deserves the opprobrious term of negro trader.

Among the slaves of the early period of the Jackson household were more than likely George and Moll, who were given to Rachel in 1791, as a part of the property which she inherited in the settlement of her father’s estate. Davidson County court records show that in the same year Andrew Jackson bought a man named Peter and a six-year-old boy, named Aron. In 1793 he bought a negro girl named Peg, about twenty-six years old; a little later a negro girl named Rock, aged about twelve years; and on July 8, 1794, “A negro wench by the name of Hannah and her child called Bett,” for 80 pounds Virginia currency. Hannah rose to an important position in the household. She was, in more ways than one, to be Mrs. Jackson’s right hand—she supervised the poultry, the household, and seemed to be, in addition to these duties, personal maid to her mistress. It was she who nursed Rachel in her last illness.

Hannah passed to Sarah York Jackson, by gift of General Jackson, along with Alfred, Gracie, George Washington, Mary, Augustus, Sarah, and others. (Slave deed—original at Tennessee State Library—dated August 16, 1854—A. Jackson, Jr.)

When the Hermitage was transferred to the custody of the Ladies’ Hermitage Association “Uncle Alfred,” by legislative request, went with it.

Senate Joint Resolution, No. 14, adopted April 3, 1889, reads:

“Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That —— Jackson, colored, an old manservant of General Andrew Jackson, who now lives in a small cabin within one hundred yards of the tomb of General Jackson, that in transferring the Hermitage to the Confederate Home Association and the Ladies’ Association, by recent legislation, that we request the Trustees of the Confederate Home Association and the Ladies’ Association, not to disturb this old and good negro, but allow him to live in his cabin until he is called to meet his master on the other side of the river, and rest with him under the shade of the trees.

“Benj. J. Lea, Speaker of the Senate; W. L. Clapp, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Approved April 6, 1889. Robert L. Taylor, Governor.”

“Uncle” Alfred, who was born in 1803, died September 4, 1901. In fulfilment of his dearest wish he was buried near the tomb of his master, where he does, indeed, in the words of the dying Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson, “rest under the shade of the trees.”

Sword Presented to Andrew Jackson by Citizens of Philadelphia.—(Niles Register—Vol. 47—p. 402. Issue of February 7, 1835.)

Philadelphia, January 1st, 1835.

To gen. Andrew Jackson, president of the United States.

Sir: The undersigned citizens of Philadelphia, beg leave, on the anniversary of the glorious battle of New Orleans, to offer, by the attention of their friend, Col. A. L. Rumfort, the accompanying sword, from the manufacture of their fellow citizen, Mr. F. W. Widmann, as a testimonial of their love and gratitude towards the benefactor of their country.

The artist has endeavored, in the ornamental work, to depict that conflict, which resulted in the most decisive and glorious victory known to our American annals. Art may indeed be inadequate to do justice to such a subject, but its details will be indelibly engraved on the minds and memories of the present and of each succeeding generation of Americans, worthy of the name. In an equal degree must their grateful hearts be impressed with the image of the devoted patriot chief, who, battling for THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS, is ever invincible, by foreign or domestic foes, by force or fraud, unconquered and unconquerable.

With sentiments of the highest esteem, we remain your friends and fellow citizens.

(Here follow the names of between 60 and 70 gentlemen.)

Washington, January 8, 1835.

Sir: I receive, with emotions of the deepest gratitude, the sword you are pleased to present me as a testimonial of the regard which a portion of my friends, in Philadelphia, entertain of my services at New Orleans, this day twenty years ago. In memory of the troops that coöperated with me on that occasion, and to whose patriotism and courage more than to the skill of their commanding general, the country is indebted for the signal repulse of the enemy on the 8th of January, I accept it with a pleasure which I cannot express.

I pray to you, sir, to convey to the gentlemen who have united with you in the presentation of this sword, my sincere thanks for the honor due me personally, and the assurances that it shall be preserved as a memento, valuable as a specimen of manufacture, and useful to those who will come after us, as a proof that the public service of the soldier will always find in the approbation of a free people the fullest reward.

Allow me, sir, to tender to you personally my acknowledgments for the eloquent and complimentary terms you have employed in the execution of the trust assigned to you on this occasion. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ANDREW JACKSON.

Col. A. L. Rumfort.

The Artist, Ralph E. W. Earl, “Court Painter.”—Most of the portraits in the Hermitage collection are the work of Ralph Eleazar Whitesides Earl, who was born in New York City about 1788. He was a son of the eminent American artist, Ralph Earl, and his second wife, Anne Whitesides. Little is known of his early life, but information supplied the author in 1936 by Ralph E. W. Prime, Jr., of Yonkers and New York City, New York, indicates that he went abroad prior to the War of 1812, painted numerous portraits in England and France, and returned to the United States some time between the summer of 1815 and the early part of 1817. His long residence in the Hermitage household and his numerous portraits of General Jackson’s kinsmen and friends caused him to be dubbed “The Court Painter.” The correct spelling of the branch of the family to which he belongs is “Earl,” although historians frequently add a final “e” to his name.

The Garden.—It seems appropriate to add to that which has already been written about the garden an important letter written to the late Miss Louise Grundy Lindsley, charter member, former regent, and member of the board of directors, of the Ladies’ Hermitage Association, by Mrs. Rachel Jackson Lawrence, about a year before the latter’s death. The letter states:

“As you enter the garden gate, you find the fringe tree planted by Grand-pa. Passing down the walk, you find the crepe myrtle on either side. Along the border farther down, are lilac and syringa. At the far side of the middle plot, there is a smoke tree, and following the path down, you find lilac, crepe myrtle, mock orange, and along the back fence of the garden these same shrubs.

“As you enter the gate on the left-hand side, is the calicanthus or Sweet Betsy. There are the fig bushes, the flowering almond, and many other shrubs. Around the tomb are the magnolias.

“In the garden, the flowers were the June lily, lily-of-the-valley, single white and blue hyacinth, the red, the white and the pink peonies, blooming in succession as named.

“The center beds were filled with the old fashioned sweet-williams, petunias, periwinkles, blue-bells, pinks, and other garden flowers. There were iris and jonquils, and, as we called them, golden candle-sticks. There was the coral honeysuckle, which hung in great clusters, on the right side of the formal plot. Among the roses, there was the old-fashioned little yellow rose, the hundred leaf pink rose, the moss rose, and the large white cabbage rose. There was the Japanese magnolia planted near the center, the rare cucumber magnolia, the very rare tree peony. Like all old gardens, in the corners were violets and blue bottles. Box trees marked the corners of the walks. There were several evergreens around the tomb and a bunch of hickory trees planted by Grand-pa. Now this is all that I can remember. Signed—Rachel Jackson Lawrence.”

Sarah York Jackson, who spoke often of the Hermitage garden in letters to her sons, wrote Andrew Jackson, III, in the spring of 1852:

“... all our early flowers are destroyed, also all the first plants of vegetables. You would be grieved to see our garden. We are making some few improvements in it this season, bricking around the beds, and have had a supply of fine roses. We have now about fifty varieties of roses, some very fine....”

To this gracious, devoted woman was given the privilege of guarding Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage and its cherished garden through long, weary years of war, sorrow, poverty and neglect, until the hands of other women reached out to carry the responsibilities which Death alone caused her to relinquish.

FOOTNOTES

Natural Color Photography by Frank Shannon
Color-King Natural Color Card, W. M. Clint Co., Chattanooga, Tennessee

Transcriber’s Notes

• Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.
• Corrected a few palpable typos.
• In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.