can be aroused on any occasion, and, particularly, on the subject of the Presidency, for you, as well as all my friends know, that I am here, not by my own wishes, but the will and wishes of the people. The Hermitage is my choice. I am, however, at all times, prepared to defend my self or friends when unjustly assailed, and I assure you that you have done great injustice to my suite on that occasion in ascribing to them the acts and motives which you have. I have written in my usual frankness and hope that the facts developed will convince you of your error. I have not time to notice the other parts of your letter. I thank you for the assurance 'that your confidence is not in the least impaired in my unwavering patriotism or the final result of the public usefulness of my administration' and beg you to accept my best wishes for your health and happiness.

"Genl. R. G. Dunlap.

"ANDREW JACKSON.

"P. S. It seems strange that my friends in Tennessee should desire me to separate from Major Lewis while there are other States entertaining different feelings. "A. J."

ASTUR, SANDK

LDEN FOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER 34.

Andrew Jackson-Twelve Letters Illustrating Personal Views and CharacteristicsCol. Robert I. Chester.

The twelve letters in this chapter are from Andrew Jackson and upon a variety of subjects which range all the way from a discussion of the legal principles involved in secession to the advising of Rev. H. M. Cryer on the selection of a second wife. The Mr. Gwinn named in one of the letters became afterwards U. S. Senator from California, and Mr. Cryer, to whom eight are addressed, was a Methodist minister who lived in Sumner County, Tennessee.

Personal letters afford the most searching insight into the mind and character of those who write them; they reveal the real man or woman, and this is one of the reasons these letters are here reproduced. No one can read them without having a keener and deeper knowledge of the real Andrew Jackson.

The author

These letters are given for another reason. thinks that publishing original letters and documents in full, without change of phraseology or sentiment, is the most accurate way of depicting the past. We thus let our ancestors speak for themselves in their own words. The history of Tennessee has yet to be written-whether in the language and with the inferences, deductions and opinions of the historian, or, by introducing original sources of history-letters, documents, legislative acts, maps, surveys and any other sources which are derived first hand from those who made them. In a very large degree these original sources where preserved at all, have been locked up in private homes and little value attached to them, or, in public repositories which have not put them in shape accessible to the student or the public. The Tennessee Historical Society has done practically all that has ever been done in Tennessee in the direction of publicity of original historical sources, but that has been limited from want of means.

The author in publishing original sources hopes to make this edition of his work, in some degree at least, a source book which will help those who come after and write Tennessee history. Tennesseans do not know the history of their own State, and need to be educated into an appreciation of the boundless historical wealth which is theirs, but largely unknown to themselves and to the world. In courage, romance, daring, unequaled devotion to the task in hand and in every attribute of grand manhood, the annals of pioneer Tennessee are a delight and a wonder, and will repay a thousand fold him who delves into them deep enough to find out just what quality of men our ancestors were.

ANDREW JACKSON TO DR. A. G. GOODLETT.

The Nashville American of May 14, 1876, published the following letter from Andrew Jackson to Dr. A. G. Goodlett, and the introductory statement to the same by the American, and Frederick S. Heiskell gave them lodgment in one of his scrapbooks, from which they are here reproduced.

"Dr. A. G. Goodlett, was a prominent and successful physician of this city for more than thirty years, and an old personal friend of Gen. Jackson, having served under him as Surgeon of the Seventh Regiment of United States Infantry at the battle of New Orleans, and for some years previous and subsequent thereto. In view of the nomination of Henry Clay for the Presidency, in 1844, he concluded to write Gen. Jackson a letter, asking him to disavow his belief in the charge of bargain and intrigue made against Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams in the election of Mr. Adams to the Presidency in 1824. The Doctor was a great admirer and friend of Mr. Clay's, and desired to aid in his election; and as the General was now a devout member of the church, it was thought that with his great religious change, his feelings had become kinder to all his enemies.

"Upon this view, early in the spring of 1844, Dr. Goodlett wrote to the General, reminding him when he had now attained the summit of all his earthly ambition and retired to private life, with all of life's honors clustering around him; that his race was nearly run, and that, as a Christian forgiving his enemies, the time had come to do justice to two of his old enemies, and withdraw his charges against them. The Doctor's letter was written in great kindness, and with the best feeling towards the old hero, and was so received and appreciated by him, as is shown by his letter. But the man who never bowed his head before the storm could not be induced even by the kind interposition of an old friend to change his convictions. The letter of six closely written pages of letter paper from which the copy written