His Life and Times
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HW Brands
Notes
Wherever they settled, they gained a reputation for practical piety and aggressive independence. A saying among their neighbors held that the Scotch-Irish kept the Sabbath and anything else they could lay hands on.
“In this world you will have to make your own way. To do that you must have friends. You can make friends by being honest, and you can keep them by being steadfast. You must keep in mind that friends worth having will in the long run expect as much from you as they give to you. To forget an obligation or be ungrateful for a kindness is a base crime – not merely a fault or a sin, but an actual crime. Men guilty of it sooner or later must suffer the penalty. In personal conduct be polite, but never obsequious. No one will respect you more than you esteem yourself. Avoid quarrels as long as you can without yielding to imposition. But sustain your manhood always. Never bring a suit at law for assault and battery or for defamation. The law affords no remedy for such outrages that can satisfy the feelings of a true man. Never wound the feelings of others. Never brook wanton outrage upon your own feelings. If you ever have to vindicate your feelings or defend your honor, do it calmly. If angry at first, wait till your wrath cools before you proceed.“
Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson
The crux of the issue was whether his work in the Senate was worth doing. Jackson gravely doubted it. So far as he could tell, the members spent their sessions in windy debates about matters of small consequence, casting ayes and nays for obscure amendments to minor bills, preening for the galleries, and treating the public business with derision. Had the senators been serious men, they wouldn’t have limited themselves to “sticks and spittle” in their disputes but would have settled their differences in the honorable fashion, with pistols. Jackson took himself too seriously to waste his time on such inanities… He could make decisions far more easily than he could make compromises. He had much greater confidence in his own judgment that in that of others. Action came naturally, patience harder. He believed a single honest man more likely to find truth than any committee. He was a born leader who couldn’t make himself into a follower.
“The poor always make the best soldiers,” he said. The rich were unreliable. “In the day of danger the wealthy enjoy too much ease to court danger.” The poor knew hardship and danger from their daily lives. When the nation called they were the first to answer. A republic that relied on the poor would survive, a republic that depended on the rich perhaps not.
“In the hour of battle, you must be cool and collected. When your officer orders you to fire, you must execute the command with deliberateness and aim. Let every shot tell.”
Andrew Jackson
“Every person I knew esteemed Mr. Madison as one of the best men and a great civilian, but I always believed that the mind of a philosopher cannot dwell upon blood and carnage with any composure and is not well fitted for a stormy sea.”
Andrew Jackson
…the fear of being fired would affect many more persons than those actually dismissed. A little fear would have a sobering effect on the tipsy, a vivifying effect of the lazy, a straightening effect on the wayward.
…no challenge ever yielded to flight. The honest man, the brave man, stood his ground and fought for what he believed in. Houston instead took refuge in distance and drink, It was disgraceful and horribly disappointing.
…the concept of democracy, which history and reason informed (Tocqueville) was the intermediate stage between republicanism and either despotism or civil war…the same influences – self interest, demagoguery, ignorance – that had subverted popular government in his own country would tend to do so in America.
If popularity had reflected honest accomplishment in the realm of public affairs, it might not have been a terrible guide to the selection of public officials. But it rarely did. It rather reflected fortunes of war and the ability to fool ordinary people into thinking that what they wanted was what they needed. Democracy begot demagoguery, and both begot bad government. (J.Q. Adams perspective).