weather ever known here for years past, and that, too, without a murmur,' but these hardships, as great as they may seem to be, are but inconsiderable, when compared to those which they are willing to endure, when required, for the benefit of the service.

"We have changed the garb of citizens for that of soldiers. In doing this, we hope none of us have changed our principles; for, let it be recollected, as an invariable rule, that good citizens make good soldiers. The volunteers have drawn their swords and shouldered their muskets for no other purpose than that of defending their country against the hostile attacks of their enemies, the British, and their barbarous allies, the Indians. May they never be returned to the scabbard until the enemies of America, of every denomination, be humbled in the dust and constrained to yield that which, in vain, has been so often and so long demanded by amicable negotiation, Justice! We flatter ourselves that your Excellency will do us the justice to believe that there is not an individual among the volunteers who would not prefer perishing in the field of battle, who would not cheerfully yield his life in the defense of his country, than return to the bosom of his family' and his friends, covered with shame, ignominy, and disgrace.

Perish our friends, perish our wives, perish our children (the dearest pledges of heaven), nay, perish all earthly considerations, but let the honor and fame of a volunteer soldier be untarnished and immaculate. We now enjoy liberties, political, civil, and religious, that no other nation on earth possesses. May we never survive them? No; rather let us perish in maintaining them. And if we must yield, where is the man that would not prefer being buried in the ruins of his country than live the ignominious slave of haughty lords and unfeeling tyrants? We hope that your Excellency shall never blush for the honor of Tennessee. Your Excellency will not call it presumption, when the volunteers say that it is their full determination to return covered with laurels, or die endeavoring to gather them in the bloody field of Mars! "Accept from the General, for himself and the volunteers, the homage of the highest confidence and respect.

"ANDREW JACKSON, Major General, "For himself, and in behalf of the volunteers under his command."

Jackson also wrote to Secretary Eustis that he was then starting with two thousand and seventy choice

citizen soldiers to execute the will of the Government, free from scruples as to where he planted the American standard. The mounted men crossed the country, five hundred miles to Natchez, under the command of John Coffee, a noble-hearted fellow, who made his will and left his wife, Polly Donelson, and her infant child, in a heroic deed, to his father-in-law, John Donelson, brother of "Aunt Rachel."

Although fruitless, it was a brave, chivalrous, and patriotic adventure on which they were going, and the heart of Tennessee was big with hope and fear. About fourteen hundred men, with General Jackson, made this trip down the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, and landed at Natchez, where the cavalry had arrived before them. General James Wilkinson, then in command at New Orleans, thought it well to stop this little army at Natchez. He saw no use to which it could be turned, and had not the means for subsisting it; and, besides, he was not anxious to come in contact with its fighting commander. The question of who should be first was foremost with him then, as it was mainly from the beginning to the end of his public career, from Burgoyne's surrender to his own. utter failure on the St. Lawrence thirty-five years later. Jackson's patriotism was of a different material. It carried him above this feeling. He yearned to relieve his country of her enemies. He was willing to obey just and wise commands for that purpose. But there was no man in the country, in public place at that time, whom Jackson so perfectly detested as he did General Wilkinson. It is said that he left Nashville on this expedition with his dueling-pistols in his pocket, under the impression that he would be unable to return

without an "affair of honor" with Wilkinson. But they did not meet.

On the 15th of February the command reached Natchez, and went into camp. The time was passed in drilling, and in a fruitless effort on the part of General Jackson to be sent into service with his men, in whom he had unbounded faith. He was anxious to go to Canada, to go anywhere for an opportunity to fight. But this was denied him, and late in March an order came from John Armstrong, then become Secretary of War, dismissing his command on the spot. This was not only a blast to the General's ambitious hopes, but also gave further opportunity for him to display his stubborn qualities to the Administration, and his good ones to the people of his State.

The soldiers under his command and care, for whom he was responsible to the people of the State, were, to all appearances, to be dismissed without pay, with a wilderness of five hundred miles between them and their homes, and without the means of transportation. He at once determined to disobey the order from the War Department, and keeping the men in a body, take them home at his own expense. He called a council of his officers, all ardent young men, like John Coffee, Thomas Hart Benton, and William B. Lewis, to consult, that is, to hear and warmly approve his determination. He set about preparing the means of transportation for the long overland journey, and when the order did at last arrive from Washington for the payment of the troops, he would not accept it, as no provision was made for their transportation to Tennessee.

On the 25th of April they were ready to begin

The sick were placed General Jackson had On these sick soldiers position on foot. He

their tedious march for Nashville. in the wagons and on the horses. three of his fine horses along. were placed, and he took his proved himself to be a tough and hardy walker, and by it walked into the affections of his men, and a respectable nickname, which lasted him all his life.

Before leaving Natchez he wrote to General Wilkinson, that if the contractor did not feel himself at liberty to provide for feeding and carrying his soldiers, the sick should be carried on the horses of the cavalry, and if necessary the horses should be used for food, that the men had followed him to the field, that he would see them safe home, and that the Government must account to Tennessee for the mean treatment.

On the 22d of May the little army received a flag from the "Ladies of East Tennessee," and was disbanded with great ceremony at Nashville.

So far as Tennessee was concerned, Jackson's reputation as a military leader was forever fixed. Although so tyrannical and severe in temper that people feared to come in contact with him, he had, to the men of his command, assumed much of the manner of his conduct in his own family. He had from the very outset taken the warmest interest in their welfare, in every thing belonging to them, even man by man, looking after their health and comfort. Their hardships and interests he had made his own, as he had done his clients', when practicing law. He placed himself in every breach for their defense, and finally, as the great test of his character and sincerity, had undertaken to carry them home at his own expense, denying himself to save them hardship on the long journey.

It was during this trip as the soldiers saw the General trudging along on foot that they said he was tough as hickory, and finally called him hickory, and old hickory, and "Old Hickory." Thus he received this admirable nickname from good circumstances. The term ultimately spread out to include his general characteristics and was forcibly applied to him especially as a kind of pet term by his admirers and partisans during life.

Mainly through the influence and perseverance of Thomas H. Benton, who happened to be in Washington City, the debt Jackson had incurred was assumed by the War Department, and all the benefits there were in the expedition went to the credit of "Old Hickory."

Jackson's patriotism and military ardor were little affected by the ill-treatment of the Administration, which, however, he interpreted in the worst possible sense, as it was afterwards known to be true that when the order for the dismissal of his troops was issued at Washington it was believed there that he had not yet left the State, or at most had not gone down the Ohio River. But before his troops were discharged one of his letters contained these words to the Secretary of War :

"Should Government have any orders to execute at Malden, or its vicinity, about the 30th proximo, I shall be happy to execute them, at the head of my detachment, provided I can be informed of their wishes about the 25th instant, or before I am discharged. My force can be augmented if necessary. I have a few standards wearing the American eagle, that I should be happy to place on the ramparts of Malden."

The ring of this new metal was not unlike that frequently heard in the East and on the Canadian