the principles which I deem of vital importance in the domestic concerns of the country, I ought not to pass over without notice the important considerations which should govern your policy toward foreign powers. It is unquestionably our true interest to cultivate the most friendly understanding with every nation and to avoid by every honorable means the calamities of war, and we shall best attain this object by frankness and sincerity in our foreign intercourse, by the prompt and faithful execution of treaties, and by justice and impartiality in our conduct to all. But no nation, however desirous of peace, can hope to escape occasional collisions with other powers, and the soundest dictates of policy require that we should place ourselves in a condition to assert our rights if a resort to force should ever become necessary. Our local situation, our long line of seacoast, indented by numerous bays, with deep rivers opening into the interior, as well as our extended and still increasing commerce, point to the Navy as our natural means of defence. It will in the end be found to be the cheapest and most effectual, and now is the time, in a season of peace and with an overflowing revenue, that we can year after year add to its strength without increasing the burthens of the people. It is your true policy, for your Navy will not only protect your rich and flourishing commerce in distant seas, but will enable to reach and annoy the enemy and will give to defence its greatest efficiency by meeting danger at a distance from home. It is impossible by any line of fortifications to guard every point from attack against a hostile force advancing from the ocean and selecting its object, but they are indispensable to protect cities from bombardment, dockyards and naval arsenals from destruction, to give shelter to merchant vessels in time of war and to single ships or weaker squadrons when pressed by superior force. Fortifications of this description cannot be too soon completed and armed and placed in a condition of the most perfect preparation. The abundant means we now possess cannot be applied in any manner more useful to the country, and when this is done and our naval force sufficiently strengthened and our militia armed we need not fear that any nation will wantonly insult us or needlessly provoke hostilities. We shall more certainly preserve peace when it is well understood that we are prepared for war.

In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting counsels, I have brought before you the leading principles upon which I endeavored to administer the Government in the high office with which you twice honored me. Knowing that the path of freedom is continually beset by enemies who often assume the disguise of friends, I have devoted the last hours of my public life to warn you of the dangers. The progress of the United States under our free and happy institutions has surpassed the most sanguine hope of the founders of the Republic. Our growth has been rapid beyond all former example in numbers, in wealth, in knowledge, and all the useful arts which contribute to the comforts and convenience of man, and from the earliest ages of history to the present day there never have been thirteen millions of people associated in one political body who enjoyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of these United States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad; your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among yourselves from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power-that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in His hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed and enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge He has committed to your keeping.

My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing health warn me that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events and cease to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty and that He has given me a heart to love my country with the affection of a son. And filled with gratitude for your constant and unwavering kindness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell.

[1820-1898]

J. H. T. MCPHERSON

N 1772 a sturdy Devonshire lad of fifteen, moved by alluring reports from one of his father's friends who had won position and success in the New World, left his native village of Moreton, Hampstead, to find a home and a career in America. He settled in Savannah, studied law, and on the outbreak of the Revolution became an ardent patriot. This was James Jackson, one of the most striking figures of the early annals of Georgia. Active in affairs of war and peace, he won the rank of brigadier-general in the provincial army at the age of twenty-one, took part in the first Georgia Constitutional Convention, and represented his State in the first Federal Congress, later rising to the positions of Governor and Senator.

In 1790 he brought over from the Devonshire home a younger brother, Henry Jackson, then a boy twelve years of age, whom he adopted and cared for as a son. Henry was educated in Savannah, was graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania and in course of time became professor of physics and chemistry in the University of Georgia, a position which he held, with some intermissions, from 1811 to 1827. When William H. Crawford was Minister to France, Jackson was appointed his Secretary of Legation, and upon his return to accept a position in the Cabinet served for a year, 1815-1816, as chargé d'affaires. He married in 1819 Martha Jacqueline Rootes Cobb, the daughter of Thomas Reade Rootes of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who had come to Georgia six years before as the young bride of Captain Howell Cobb, and was now in the first year of her widowhood.

Henry Rootes Jackson, born at Athens on June 24, 1820, was the son of this marriage. He received his early education in Athens, attended the University of Georgia, and later the College of New Jersey and Yale, whence he was graduated in 1839. The following year he was admitted to the Georgia Bar, and began practice in Savannah. In 1843 President Tyler appointed him United States. District Attorney for Georgia. He early displayed qualities of leadership, and on the declaration of war with Mexico was made captain of the "Irish Jasper Greens" and led them from Savannah, later becoming colonel of the only regiment that went to the war from Georgia. A number of his poems were written in camp during this

campaign. After the war he edited a paper, the Georgian, in Savannah, for a time, and from 1850 to 1853 served as judge of the Superior Court of the Eastern circuit.

In 1853 he received appointment as chargé d'affaires at Vienna and the following year was made Resident Minister to Austria, a post which he ably filled until July, 1858. On his return to America he was retained by the Federal Government to assist the District Attorney in the prosecution of certain violators of the laws forbidding the African slave trade, particularly those connected with the operations of the notorious slave yacht, the Wanderer. This task, in which he displayed great energy for several years, winning a reputation for high forensic ability, involved in those days no small degree of public odium, and proved a test of the courage and keen sense of duty which form the keynote of his character. His connection with these trials made him unpopular for a time, and greatly diminished his law practice; but in the end it redounded to his credit. During this period he was offered the chancellorship of the University of Georgia, on the resignation of Dr. Alonzo Church. He submitted a scheme of education, the main idea of which was to make the University a State military institution, whose graduates should be commissioned as second lieutenants of Georgia volunteers, to be called into service when emergency required. The plan was not approved, and he declined the appointment.

On the eve of the war between the States he threw himself vigorously into the political agitation as a champion of Southern principles, and made many forcible speeches and addresses. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention which met at Charleston April 23 and at Richmond June 21, 1860. On the withdrawal of Georgia from the Union he was appointed by Governor Brown major-general of the State forces, and later served as a judge of the Confederate courts. He joined the Confederate Army in 1861, served against McClellan in West Virginia, and on July thirteenth succeeded to the command of General R. S. Garnett, who was killed at Carrick's Ford on that date. This brilliant beginning was soon clouded. Governor Brown offered him command of a division of Georgia troops, and, anxious to serve with the men of his native State, he applied for leave of absence from the regular army. This was refused, and to attain his end he resigned his commission, a step by which he incurred the disfavor of the Administration. Jackson had scarcely brought his division into perfect shape when the Conscript Law went into effect, and Governor Brown, in order not to waste the efforts spent on the organization, turned over the command intact to the Confederate authorities. General Jackson resigned, as a formal step of the transfer, but ex

pected reappointment by President Davis. The recommendation of the Governor was coldly received by the Administration, nor did repeated attempts of the Georgia delegation at Richmond to secure another command for Jackson meet with better results. For three years he was kept out of honorable military employment. In 1864, however, he served under Hood in the Atlanta campaign, and commanded a brigade of the Army of Tennessee in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. At Nashville he was taken prisoner, with his whole division, and was detained, first at Johnston's Island and then at Fort Warren, until the end of the war.

Returning to Savannah, he resumed the practice of the law and built up a highly successful and lucrative practice, acquiring wealth and fame and rising to foremost distinction in the State. His professional renown was rivaled by his reputation for high principle, dauntless courage, warm emotions, social charm, and interest in art and letters. In 1885 President Cleveland appointed him Minister to Mexico, where he acquired new laurels, which were not lessened by the disagreement with Bayard over the Cutting affair and his consequent resignation. He held many offices of trust; among others he was trustee of the University of Georgia, from which he received the honorary degrees of A.M. and LL.D.; trustee of the Peabody Fund, president of the Georgia Historical Society, president of the Telfair Art Academy, and director of the Central Railroad Company.

He was twice married, in 1843 to Miss Cornelia Augusta Davenport of Savannah, who died in 1853, and in 1866 to Miss Florence King of St. Simon's Island. There were four children by the first marriage, of whom two, a son and a daughter, survive him. He died of paralysis in Savannah, on May 23, 1898.

Jurist, statesman, soldier, diplomatist, General Jackson in his later years esteemed but lightly the little volume of verse published in 1850, entitled 'Tallulah and Other Poems.' Indeed, he is said to have made strenuous and fairly successful efforts to buy up and destroy the edition. Yet many of the verses possess decided charm and literary merit; and one in particular-"The Red Old Hills of Georgia"-went to the heart of the people of his State in a way that will cause it to be remembered long after his substantial services are forgotten.