Chapter VIII: The Tennessee Farmer (1)

Andrew Jackson is known to fame as a statesman and as a military leader who triumphed over the savage Indians and the trained British troops of Pakenham; but primarily Andrew Jackson was a farmer, a man whose livelihood depended on the outcome of his crops and whose prosperity waxed and waned with the fluctuations of the New Orleans cotton market.

After all, it should be remembered, Jackson's active military career was concentrated in the eight years between 1813 and 1821, and his service as President extended only from 1829 to 1837; but he was a farmer and stock-breeder from the time he bought the Poplar Flat plantation in 1792 until he died at the Hermitage in 1845. Nothing ever gave him such pleasure as to walk about his farm with some visitor and show his growing crops, his stables and barns. The last day he was on his feet before his death he insisted, despite his enfeebled condition, on walking several hundred yards with a visiting friend to show him how well his cotton was doing.

During the eight years he was serving as a soldier he was away from home a large part of the time; but his wife was living then, and all authorities agree that she was thoroughly capable of managing the plantation and doing it well. Mrs. Jackson was not only a good housewife and a genial host, she was really a capable executive--and managing a big plantation in those days required genuine executive ability, for an establishment like the Hermitage was in reality an almost entirely self-contained little principality, capable of sustaining its owners and the slaves who supplied the labor. Not only did the plantation provide all the foodstuffs consumed, with the exception of sugar and coffee; but the slaves made practically everything used on the place. Wool gathered from the flock of 100 sheep was woven by the old slave women into bolts of cloth fifty yards in length, the weavers averaging about five yards a day. A tannery supplied leather for the shoes, there was a grist mill for grinding the wheat and corn into flour and meal, there was a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, a syrup mill, etc. The family, of course, bought clothing in Nashville, or in Philadelphia or Washington; but clothing and shoes for the slaves were made on the place by the slave seamstresses and cobblers and about the only article of wearing apparel that had to be bought for them was hats.

Managing an institution of this kind was no child's play; but Mrs. Jackson had come to the Cumberland country with the original settlers and she possessed the indomitable, self-reliant spirit of the pioneer. She, to be sure, had the assistance of an overseer; but overseers were for the most part a shifty and unreliable lot, and in those days while Jackson was away fighting the Indians and the redcoats the real managerial ability had to rest on her. It is not recorded anywhere that Mrs. Jackson felt it at all out of the ordinary that she should take charge of the plantation in the General's absence; and in none of her letters to him did she complain of the responsibilities resting on her shoulders. The General had written her quite candidly while at Fort Strother in January, 1814, in the midst of the campaign against the Creeks: "On the subject of my private and domestic concerns, you and Col. Hays and Mr. John Hutchings must regulate it. I have not time to spend many thoughts upon worldly pelf or gear. My station is arduous and my duty severe."

In spite of this frank admonition, however, even as he rested before New Orleans on the eve of the battle there that was to make him a figure of world-wide fame, General Jackson had obtruded on him there some of the vexing problems of plantation management--not, it should be noted, by the self-contained Rachel but by her sister's husband, Colonel Robert Hays, mentioned in Jackson's letter. Colonel Hays, probably with good intentions but certainly with an atrocious lack of good sense, sat down and wrote him a tediously detailed letter to tell him about all the trouble being experienced in getting a good overseer and the demoralization of the slaves growing out of the inefficient overseer's lack of capacity. "They did not tread out thirty bushels of oats in three days," wrote Mr. Hayes of the trifling slaves; and then went on to relate the harrowing experience of one of them who was sent to Nashville on an errand, was waylaid on his return and came home with "a large load of small shot in his back which is still in him."

Was there ever in the history of the world another General commanding his nation's troops on the eve of a decisive battle who had to drop his studies of tactical problems in order to consider the case of an overseer back home who "is a good honest man, but drinks too hard"?

Most of the time, however, General Jackson was at home to manage things for himself, and everybody agreed that when it came to running a farm and raising blooded stock he know what he was about. In 1824 the Hermitage was visited by Willie Blount, former governor of Tennessee, and in a letter written concerning this visit Governor Blount said:

"Although I have ever considered him to be among the most industrious men of my acquaintance, both in public and private life, I was really surprised to find his farm in such excellent order and so very productive, under all the circumstances relating to his great absence from home attending the public relations during the late war and since. His farming land is, as you know, very fertile, very beautiful, and eligibly situated for comfort. It is largely improved, handsomely arranged with gratifying appearance to the visitors at his most hospitable house, open to all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance and who travel through his neighborhood, none of whom pass that way without calling on him for social intercourse, viewing him to be the polite gentleman at home and abroad and the friend of man everywhere. His very arrangement for farming on an extensive scale delights the man of observation; his fields are extensive and nicely cultivated as a garden; his meadows and pastures are extensive and neatly kept; his stock of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs are of the best kind and all in excellent order; his domestics and hirelings are all contented and comfortably provided for, and their daily labor is a pleasure to them."

When Lafayette visited the Hermitage his secretary, though frankly disappointed at the simplicity of the house itself, commented favorably on the appearance of the garden and farm. "We everywhere remarked the greatest order and most perfect neatness," he wrote in his journal, "and we might have believed ourselves on the property of one of the richest and most skilful of the German farmers if, at every step, our eyes had not been afflicted by the sad spectacle of slavery." To ameliorate his reference to the "peculiar institution," however, the visiting Frenchman was careful to add that "Everybody told us that General Jackson's slaves were treated with the greatest humanity."

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One of the greatest problems encountered by Jackson in the management of the Hermitage plantation, and one that he never solved to his entire satisfaction, was that of obtaining the services of a thoroughly competent and industrious overseer. His correspondence is studded with letters complaining of their manifold shortcomings; and there was a steadily changing stream of men occupying this important and trying post.

When the General returned from his brief residence in Florida, he took hold of things at once, and one of the first things he did was to look for a new overseer. Alex Barksdale was hired at the beginning of the year 1823, and some idea of the limited agricultural equipment of even a big farm in the early days may be had from the following memorandum receipt for tools, stock, etc., which Barksdale gave Jackson under date of January 8, 1823:

"1 dagon plough, 5 single ploughs, 2 double ploughs, 1 colter plough, 3 pair of stretchers, 1 half-inch augur, 1 two-inch augur, 1 five-quarter augur, 1 chissel, 1 crosscut saw, 3 scythe and cradle, 1 stone augur, 1 augur and wheel, 1 rammer, 3 clevises, 1 two-foot rule, 1 foot adze, 7 singletrees, 6 pair of hames, 10 axes, 2 mattocks, 9 hoes, 1 plough hoe, 5 pair of traces, 1 handsaw, 1 crow-bar, 1 sledge hammer, 1 hand hammer, 1 pair of wedges, 1 mortising axe, 1 drawing knife, 2 pair lock chains. Horned cattle: 39 head grown and four oxen, 23 calves; 63 head grown sheep; 115 head of hogs. Received January 8th from Andrew Jackson as his overseer, to be carefully kept and superintended as such, the within farming utensils and above stock and plantation tools. (signed) Alex Barksdale."

Barksdale came well recommended, but did not finish out the year, being succeeded by Benjamin B. Person. Person filled the job until the end of 1824, then he too passed on to make way for another new one.

All this constant change in overseers was bad enough as long as the General and Mrs. Jackson were able to give their personal supervision to what was going on; but when Jackson left the Hermitage early in 1829 to be inaugurated President, closely following Mrs. Jackson's death in December, 1828, it was necessary to engage a thoroughly reliable man in whose charge to place the whole establishment. Andrew Jackson Donelson, who owned the adjoining plantation, was going along with Jackson as his private secretary; and so the two of them entered into a formal, written contract with one Graves W. Steele. This is an interesting document, as showing the conditions under which such arrangements were made at that time:

This memorandum of agreement between Andrew Jackson and Andrew J.
Donelson of the one part and Graves Steele of the other part, both of
the county of Davidson and State of Tennessee, Witnesseth, that the
said Andrew Jackson and Andrew J. Donelson have employed the said
Steele to oversee their negroes and manage the affairs of their
plantations during the year 1829, and as such have placed him in
possession of the working tools, the horses and stock of every
description, and whatsoever else appertains to the land as necessary
to its cultivation and protection, with obligations to bestow upon
them the attention and care usually expected from the most faithful,
diligent and industrious overseers. And further the said Steele is
left in charge of their dwelling houses and the buildings attached to
them, and is obligated to devote to them the care necessary to their
preservation, and the furniture within them; and to do whatever else
the said Andrew Jackson and Andrew J. Donelson may point out relating
to the correct disposition and management of their interests on their
plantations. And in consideration of these services the said Andrew
Jackson and Andrew J. Donelson are obligated to pay to the said Graves
Steele at the end of the year the just and lawful sum of six hundred
dollars.

Within six months Jackson was writing to his adopted son expressing apprehension lest Steele was not giving the negroes proper attention; and before the year was out was again writing to the son at Nashville to investigate the cause for "the great loss of horses and oxen." Evidently conditions did not improve, for in November the General wrote a sharp letter to Steele in which he took him severely to task for "the great losses in stock and negroes I have lost since I left my plantation under your charge and management." In blunt terms he said: "I have been truly astonished to hear my bacon was nearly gone. This to me was unaccountable, because I stood by and saw a large supply as usual for my white and black family salted in my smoke house. In your statement I have asked you to forward I shall expect you to furnish me with an explanation of how this happened. I have been advised by some not to continue you, by others to try you another year. The latter I have concluded to do so, as I am aware the injury it would be to you to leave the business under present rumors. But when I say I have concluded to retain you another year, it is with the express condition that you treat my negroes with humanity and attention when sick and not work them too hard when well, that you feed and clothe them well, and that you carefully attend to my stock of all kinds. This I have a right to expect of you for the wages I give you. I have been offered here a first-rate overseer for $350 a year. I have been offered in Tennessee a well experienced and well recommended overseer for $400. I give you $500, which is equal to $1000 when cotton was at 14 cents a pound."

Steele evidently did not accept this rebuke in very good spirit, for in January Colonel Love wrote Jackson that "Steele said he wrote you as he could not please you you had better look out for some other person." Colonel Love volunteered the view, however, that "He in my opinion has not the least intention of going away. I am confident your last letter will make him the more particular and attentive to your orders." Colonel Love proved to be a good prophet, for Steele held on to his job through 1832; but at the beginning of 1833 he was succeeded by Burnard W. Holtzclaw. Holtzclaw was only a fairly satisfactory overseer, and gave frequent cause for complaint from his absentee employer; but the Jackson letter files reveal some communications from him which stamp him as one of the earliest converts to the cause of simplified spelling. On March 6, 1833, he wrote the General:

D'r Sir, I Recived you letter March 2d. I now inform you that your
famley ar well at presenes and we ar doing well but Samson is ded,
your mares and colts all looks well but the colte wich Andrew bought
of Mr. Robson is ded. The caze I can not Tel. he live 9 days after he
came Home. I Cut hym open and on his side I fond a not or a lompe and
by looking I found Two of his Ribes Broke but wase well and on this
not was a corde, went from his Harte to this corde as bige as his win
pipe colte was solde to save his life. I Git alongue with you Negrows
Verer will indeede. I hav not woold to giv all a sute. March 2d we had
a snow and verry cold. I hav a bout one 100 and 50 acres of land plowg
for corn and cotton. last year you made 36 Bales of Cotton but ship 41
Bales.

His brief and unadorned announcement of the death of Samson, one of the slaves, and his careful recital of all the gory details of his post-mortem dissection of the colt afford a very good index of Mr. Holtzclaw's character and capacity for the position he held. Another example of his Chaucerian English is found in his letter of October 21, when he wrote to the General as follows:

I recived your Letter on the 20 of October. I am glade to Say we are
all well at Presant. your Family are all in good Halth at this time
and are gitting alongue as well as I can. you wish to know abought
your crope of Cotton how moch I have Out. I will Tell you. I have One
Hundred Thoson and I Think we have out in the field yet 60 or 70
Thosan or 90. I was plaged a gratele abought Our gin, I jist beginning
to gin. dont be unesy I will do the best I Can.

Deare Sir your Mares and Colts and work Horses and Mules and cows and
Ox and Hogs and Sheeps and Caffs and Stud all are well and fate. I
have 86 hogs to kill only. I have 7 Beffes to kill. we have now wete
and cold wether. This day we Hale and Snow cole. I have all of my
Shoes and Socks and Stockings made and Nit and making up the Winter
Close. Andrew has not rich the Hermitage yet but I have all Things
Redy to Recive him and are Looking for him daly and also will be glade
to see him at Home.

Sur I have cut a new Rode on the Line betwin you and Warde and want to
Turn the Rode arown on the Line and fence in all the woods. Next to
woods I will feed my Hogs In hole and think I git water in this woods
late. water Stands after a Rain for 2 weeks. by feding all winter on
the Place can git water to Stand 6 or 8 month in the yeare. cut out
all the under groth.

Mr. Holtzclaw's performance as an overseer may have left something to be desired; but there must have been a spark of genius in one who could stumble upon "gratele" as the right way to spell "great deal."

Holtzclaw was also shrewd enough to meet the complaints against the quality of his services with the suggestion of increased remuneration when his contract expired at the end of 1833; but General Jackson sternly wrote Andrew (his adopted son), then married and residing at the Hermitage, that he had written the ambitious overseer that he could not expect to receive more money--"that no farm in Davidson will justify it; that better to abandon farming than to keep it up for the benefit of an overseer, bringing me in debt, as it has for two years past." Jackson, however, in line with his policy of encouraging Andrew to assume a man's responsibility, told him that he could use his own judgment about reëngaging Holtzclaw.

The upshot of this matter was that Holtzclaw passed on and a new overseer, Williams, was engaged; but he lasted only one year. The General, writing to Andrew in November, 1834, said: "I knew, the moment I saw the cultivation of the farm, that Mr. Williams was of no account; that you would have been better off without him; that he was only a screen to the negroes; know nothing about cultivation and was beholden to the negroes for instruction what to do. I am happy you will soon be clear of him." Further in his letter he grumbled about "the worthlessness of our overseers for the last three years" and urged that in engaging a successor to Mr. Williams there be set down in writing an understanding of what the overseer should do. "Let him fully understand what he is to do, viz, to attend not only to the farm but to the spinning and weaving, to the feeding of the hands, to weighing out the meat, and to having them clothed in due season and the clothing well made by our own seamstresses; to attend to all the stock, and particularly to see that our blooded stock is taken good care of when you are absent. These things should all be enumerated in your agreement, or he may saye hereafter that nothing but what was enumerated was he bound to take the superintendence of. Remember the old adage: 'Deal with all men as though they were rogues'; if honest you are safe, but if not then your written agreement speaks for itself."

The next man to take up the overseer's duties was Edward Hobbs, recommended by Colonel Love as "a first-rate man." Jackson, however, was not entirely reassured by his recommendation for in April, 1935, he wrote his son: "I fear from the weather we experience here that Mr. Hobbs has run a great risque by planting his cotton so early, as he writes me he has planted the church field in cotton and on the 13th would begin to plant the balance." But it was not long before the General was writing: "The progress Mr. Hobbs has made shows him to be a man of judgment; that he has reduced the hands to good subordination and in doing this he has gained their confidence and attachment. Say to him that I am thus far delighted with his course and proceedings."

Overseer Hobbs seemed to have a very good grasp of conditions on the plantation, as evidenced by an intelligent, straight-forward letter he wrote to Andrew, junior, in August while the latter was spending the summer vacation with the General at the Rip Raps. This letter, reflecting the manifold and variegated duties of an overseer of that time, reads:

Yours and your father's of the 6th and 7th was duly received last
Sunday and your directions concerning the purchase of some mares shall
be attended to. I will of course get them on as good terms as
possible, and I will not purchase at all without I can get suitable
ones. I will also use my best exertions in selling your riding horses.
I could of sold your grey horse long since had it not of been for his
eye, as also the bay colt.

As respects the tap for the screw (of the gin), I have written you on
the subject long since. I had the pattern made at home by Ned, with
the assistance of Sharp 3 or 4 days to instruct him, and it is now at
the furnace. Col. Armstrong and Col. Love were both here last Saturday
and they informed me the casting would be ready in a few days. I have
the timbers all ready, and so soon as I can get the casting I will put
the press up again. I have the shingles nearly ready for the covering
of the gin house. I shall put them on the side next the cotton
scaffold this week, and should be detained by other jobs with the
other side of the covering it will not interfere with the sunning of
the cotton. We have a great many jobs to do, I fear more than we can
possibly get through with, such as fixing our corn houses so they can
be locked up, repairing lot fences, and one or two of the negro houses
wants new shingles. Ned lost two or three weeks piddling at the
pattern, which put us back at our jobs very much.

We have all our winter cloth for the negroes done but two pieces to
weave. We will soon be done with that job. Our shoes I have not yet
began. I have been trying my best to get the leather for three weeks
and have not yet got it; however, I suppose it will be ready this week
and I will then soon have them made.

I shall finish gathering of fodder this week and I think when I come
to stack I shall have a fine chance. I hope you will not have to buy
fodder, corn and oats next year.

Our neighbors are becoming a little alarmed about our cotton crops on
account of the very cold rainy weather. All of our neighbors planted
their cotton 3 foot and 3½ foot distance and it is now very thick,
locked up very close. If this weather holds it is impossible it can
make a crop. Most of our cotton is planted 4½ foot, and that is also
locked but not so much. I do not think I have ever seen as cool
weather in August as the past week. Two blankets was hardly sufficient
to sleep under. However, I am glad to see it turning warm again.

I was at Mr. Pool's a few days since and saw the colts gallop. They
appear to be doing finely. Pool makes some considerable calculations
on the black colt and Major Donelson's horse Mombrino. He feels very
confident of taking the four-mile day with him this fall. He has made
a little brush with him and a horse of Squire Robertson's that was
trained with Anville last season and his heels is nothing to Mombrino.
Robertson's horse was faster a little ways than Anville's.

As respects health, the people generally are sickly. Some sickness
amongst us, but nothing serious I believe. Aaron the blacksmith and
Tom Franklin was both taken sick yesterday; very hot fever all night.
I gave them a large dose of calomel and jalap this morning and they
are much better to-night.

I have nothing pleasing to write you about the house. Nothing much
adoing. Two hands at work. I believe the brickwork to the wings not
quite finished. The principal building is covered, and that is all I
can say. Col. Armstrong and Col. Love is both doing their best with
the firm I believe. I think Rieff needs an overseer.

Hobbs's gloomy forebodings about the cotton crop were discounted by Colonel Armstrong in a letter to Jackson in which he said: "I expect that you have not had so large and so good a crop for several years"; but within a few weeks an unseasonably early frost had destroyed these sanguine expectations and in November Colonel Armstrong was writing sadly: "Some plantations will make half a crop, some a third. I am sorry to say that yours is very near a loss."

This crop failure, coming right in the midst of the heavy expense occasioned by the burning of the Hermitage and most of its furniture, filled Jackson with misgivings, and he promptly wrote to Andrew urging him to exercise economy in the management of the farm and suggesting that one or two of the three-year-old stud colts might be bartered for work mares in order to avoid the necessity for a cash outlay for the mares.

At the end of the year Mr. Hobbs was reëngaged to serve during 1836, but it was not long before the reports received from the farm convinced the General that proper attention was not being given the livestock. His keen insight into what was going on a thousand miles away from him is strikingly shown in a letter he wrote Andrew in March:

My son: I inclose you a letter received to-day from Mr. Hobbs from
which I infer he pays but little attention to the stock.

When I was at home, when I was engaged both in building, clearing and
farming, I always kept my oxen in good order although I had them in
their yokes daily; but this was done by always attending and seeing
them regularly fed and watered. When I found the driver had neglected
feeding regularly, I ordered him upon small allowance as well as
chastising him for it, and thus with attention Mr. Parsons kept his 12
oxen as fat as his horses; but when I see Mr. Hobbs say in his letters
that the young colts look badly notwithstanding that they have enough
of corn, oats and fodder and a dry stable to go into, I want no better
proof of the want of regularity in feeding. They are overfed one day
and starved the next. The hand that attends to them filled their
troughs one morning and perhaps does not see them again in two. It is
the overseer's business to see all the stock daily in the winter
season, sometimes in the morning and again sometimes in the evening;
and when he finds the stock neglected at once punish the hand charged
with their keeping. We lost a great many last year, and when I hear of
their bad condition this, and a plenty to give them, why there must be
sheer neglect of them. For this neglect the overseer is answerable,
and I wish to enquire and tell him frankly that he will be held
responsible. That oxen, where there is plenty of food, at this season
of the year are poor and broke down shows that carelessness in an
overseer for which he ought to be dismissed. We have lost more in
stock than two such crops would pay for--this is truly pulling out the
bung and driving in the spigot. If I live to get home I will shew you
and all overseers how easy it is to keep oxen fat and doing more
business than when neglected and broken down. We must make better
crops and preserve our stock better or we will be soon in a state of
want and poverty.

If there was any unforgivable sin with General Jackson it was neglecting his live stock. Mr. Hobb's doom was sealed. A Mr. Holliday was engaged for the year 1837--and that was the year when Andrew Jackson stepped down from the President's chair and came back to the Hermitage to live the rest of his days. Early in January, looking forward to his return home, he wrote Mr. Holliday instructing him to be sure and plant a good vegetable garden; and, he added, "I want to have my stock so that I can do something with them when I reach home." And immediately following the inauguration of President Van Buren he set out for home and on March 25th he was back at the Hermitage he loved so well.

This plan illustrates the spacious simplicity characteristic of
Southern plantation house plans. The later additions of wings seem
so simple and naturally disposed that one would suspect that they
were preconceived by a trained architect rather than having been
worked out by the owner and itinerant carpenters.]

During the latter months of his administration at Washington his health had been particularly bad, so bad in fact that when he started back to Nashville in March, President Van Buren insisted on sending his own personal physician, Dr. Lawson, to accompany him on the trip home. Back at the Hermitage he wrote his political protege and successor to thank him for this attention, and in the course of his letter he said: "I hope rest in due time may restore my health so as to be able to ride over my farm, and to visit my good neighbors. This will be a source of amusement and much pleasure to me."

Gradually his health improved sufficiently for him to assume active charge of the operation of the farm; and this was a time when the ablest management was needed to make any enterprise successful. The country was in the throes of a financial panic, prices of farm products were depressed, and, as Jackson wrote in one of his letters early in 1837, negroes that had cost from $1,000 to $1,800 were being sold at sheriff's sales for $300 for women and $500 for men.

"The rest of my life is retirement and ease" he wrote to a friend when he laid down his Presidential cares and went back to the Hermitage; but, unfortunately for his peace of mind, things did not work out that way. There was but little ease for the old General during his remaining eight years at home. The very first year he was there an unseasonably late spring delayed the germination of the cotton seed, and during the ensuing summer he was consumed with apprehension concerning the outcome of the crop.

* * * *

It is interesting to observe that in Jackson's time the principal "money crop" of the Hermitage, as well as of the neighboring plantations, was cotton. Nashville at that time was a cotton market of major importance, and the number of gins in the county then shows that there was a large quantity of cotton grown every year in this vicinity. Today there is not a stalk of cotton grown in the county; and the nearest gin to Nashville is a small one located fifteen miles south of the city in an adjoining county where some of the agricultural die-hards still cultivate the old crop. The growing season between frosts is really too short in Davidson County to encourage cotton planting; but the first settlers got started to growing it, and since farmers are traditionally opposed to change in their habits they continued to plant it even after experience demonstrated that it was not a profitable year-after-year crop. As early as 1838 Jackson sensed this fact and wrote to one of his friends: "I will soon have to quit making cotton here"--but he never did quit.

In spite of the difficulty of raising cotton in a climate not entirely suited to it, it is noticeable that the Hermitage plantation had the reputation of making good crops of high-grade staple. In 1832 there was an article in _Niles' Register_ commenting on the fact that fifty-four bales of the Hermitage cotton had sold in New Orleans at 11½ cents a pound, which was called "an extraordinary price;" and the article stated further that it was the best cotton that had come to New Orleans from Tennessee. In 1826 Jackson's New Orleans factor, Maunsel White, wrote to him that he had sold the Hermitage cotton at "the very top of the market," the net proceeds for the crop that year being $3,477.51.

Checking over the references to the sales of the cotton crops in the Jackson papers it is to be seen that there was a great fluctuation in the price obtained. The 1844 crop, for instance, brought only 4½ cents a pound, the price ranging from that low mark up to 15 cents for the crop of 1825 and even higher than that during the boom in cotton following the end of the War of 1812.

In Maunsel White, General Jackson had at New Orleans a factor who stood high in the cotton trade and who could be depended on to protect the Tennessee planter in marketing his crops to the best advantage. Captain White was not only Jackson's factor but his friend and a former comrade at arms in the New Orleans campaign, and he took great pride in getting the highest possible price for the Hermitage crops.

In January, 1831, White wrote to Jackson, then in the White House, that the flatboats had arrived from the Hermitage with their cargo of fifty-nine bales and that the overseer was to be congratulated on its quality and condition as it was "without blemish." The best offer he had got at that time, he wrote, was 9 cents; but he expressed a determination to hold for 10 cents "which it is fully worth" he added, "unless we receive worse news from the unsettled state of politics." He mentioned the popular belief that a general war in Europe was perhaps impending, and slyly added: "On this subject, however, you must be better advised than anyone else in these states; and if it were not asking too much, or what were improper for me to ask, I would ask your opinion on that subject." An inside tip from the President on an impending war would be worth a fortune to a New Orleans cotton broker; but there is no evidence that Jackson gave Captain White any information on the subject. This was before the day of White House "leaks."

The following year White wrote Jackson that he had sold part of his crop for 11½ cents in New Orleans and shipped part of it to Liverpool where it commanded 8½d sterling, stating that "your cotton this year has brought the highest price both at home and abroad."

It was the custom of the Hermitage household, when shipping the cotton crop to Captain White each year, to send along a list of groceries needed for the year. When sending this year's supply of groceries back to the Hermitage it was Captain White's custom to send along some kind of a present to General Jackson--a barrel of oranges, or sugar or molasses. It was Captain White's custom to say jokingly that the present was sent to sweeten General Jackson's tooth; so in 1842 when the General had his sole remaining molar extracted he notified his New Orleans friend that it would no longer be necessary to sweeten his tooth as his last tooth was gone.

The passing of the Jacksonian teeth, by the way, had an amusing aftermath. Learning of his toothless condition, a celebrated dentist asked the privilege of making him a set of false teeth, seeing in it an opportunity to gain some publicity for himself. The General consented and the teeth were produced after careful measurements had been made. False teeth of that day were still of rather crude design, the upper and lower plates being hinged together at the back and the opening and closing facilitated by means of a spring. General Jackson gave his new teeth their first try-out on the occasion of a public dinner in Nashville; but while partaking of the first course he had the misfortune to have the spring get stuck in such a way that he could not close his mouth. He managed to remove the offending apparatus behind the cover of his napkin, but he was much embarrassed by the episode and returned the teeth to the dentist who made them with the suggestion that they might be generously presented to some "poor widow woman in need of the like."

Andrew Jackson was a progressive farmer and was prompt to adopt new methods and devices. The cotton gin was first introduced into Tennessee in 1803; and the state of Tennessee purchased from the inventor, Eli Whitney, the patent rights for the state, enacting legislation which placed a tax on all gins. There being some dispute about the legal title to the machine, the arrangement was not perfected until late in 1806, at which time a model gin was set up in Knoxville and one in Nashville, these models to serve as patterns for the citizens who wanted to build gins. Jackson was among the first to install a gin in his part of the state, and the minutes of the Davidson County court show that he made bond of $5,000 and subscribed to the following oath: "I, Andrew Jackson, do solemnly swear that I will well and truly inspect or cause to be inspected all bales of cotton that shall pass through my press, marking the bales according to the goodness thereof, agreeable to the directions of the act of the Assembly in such cases made and provided; so help me God."

General Jackson had recurring bad luck with his cotton crop from time to time up to the very year of his death. On February 10th, 1845, just four months before he died, in a letter to A. J. Donelson, then United States Minister to the Republic of Texas, he mentioned that his current crop of cotton, amounting to 37,000 pounds, had been "forced into the market" (for what reason is not revealed) and that it netted only $1,312. This, he said, after paying the overseer and drafts on the cotton "left us only $36 to pay our debts here." To add to his discomfiture at this time, his overseer in Mississippi misappropriated the proceeds of that plantation's crop and left the General in a temporary financial stringency. But Jackson immediately put hands to work cutting wood on the Mississippi plantation (wood was the fuel for the Mississippi River steamboats then), and stated that if this did not relieve him from debt he was determined to sell the lower plantation and enough of its slaves to put him square with the world again.

* * * *

Although cotton was looked upon as the principal and most important crop of the Hermitage farm, the General really derived the greatest personal pleasure (and a substantial part of his income) from the horses that were raised on the farm.

When he resigned from the Superior Court of Tennessee in 1804 and concentrated all his ability and energy on the rehabilitation of his private affairs, he wisely decided to go into stock-breeding on an ambitious scale. He was admirably suited to the business of breeding fine horses. In the first place, he admired and loved a fine piece of horseflesh. From his earliest youth he had been interested in racing, gaining his first taste of "the sport of kings" at the Charleston meets in his youthful days when he was living with the Crawfords. When he came to Tennessee he came riding one blooded horse and leading another, and he was always to be found among the foremost spectators or participants if there were a horse-race anywhere in his neighborhood. He loved horses and, in the words of one of his biographers, "he knew all about the noble animal from pedigree to pathology." That is no idle use of words, either, for Andrew Jackson studied horses, their records and their breeding; and, in an emergency, he showed that he was skilled in the art of the veterinary surgeon. A goodly share of the books in his library are on the subject of horses and the turf.

It was characteristic of Jackson's vision and good business sense that when he decided to go into the breeding of horses as a money-making venture he purchased to head his establishment the horse that was then recognized as the very finest in the whole country. This horse, Truxton by name, was owned by a Virginia horseman, Major John Verrell. At just about the time that Jackson was casting about looking for a stallion worthy to head the thoroughbred nursery he was planning, Truxton was matched for a race at Hartsville, near Nashville, with a Tennessee horse called Greyhound, belonging to Lazarus Colton. Greyhound won the race, but Major Verrell, insisted that such an outcome of the contest could have been possible only because of Truxton's being out of proper condition or improperly handled; and, to show the sincerity of his belief, he came to Nashville from Virginia for the purpose of arranging a return match between Greyhound and Truxton when the latter could have been given the personal attention of his proud owner.

Major Verrell must have had an eloquent and persuasive tongue, or else Truxton must have possessed the qualities of a top-notch thoroughbred that shone undimmed through defeat. At any rate, General Jackson became convinced that Truxton was really a better horse than Greyhound; and the General, who was the major domo of sport in Tennessee in those days, made arrangements for another race at Hartsville between Truxton and Greyhound for a purse of $5,000.

This race was a Titanic affair in turf history, and attracted tremendous interest. Mr. Douglas Anderson, in his _Making the American Thoroughbred_, says: "No contest on the soil of Tennessee has ever been so exciting or caused so much betting, considering the means of the people, as this race. Hundreds of horses and numerous 640-acre tracts of land were staked on the result. The old pioneers bet on Greyhound with the utmost confidence." Imagine the consternation of the old pioneers, therefore, when Major Verrell's stallion very handily defeated the Tennessee horse in straight heats. Many a Tennessee farmer walked home from that race carrying his saddle. General Jackson, in addition to his share of the purse in cash, stated that he won "$1,500 in wearing apparel," although unfortunately he left behind him no details of this interesting side bet. Foremost among the backers of Truxton was General Jackson's racing crony, Patton Anderson, who was not content with betting his own horse and all his money but also with reckless daring wagered 15 other horses that did not actually belong to him. It must have been a relief to the super-confident Mr. Anderson when the race was over; and it is easy to understand the enthusiasm that led him, after the race, to "set 'em up" to a barrel of cider and a basketful of ginger snaps.

As a result of the showing Truxton made in this race, General Jackson bought the horse from Major Verrell; and the publicity given this great turf upset placed the racing spotlight on the Hermitage stud and made it an immediate success.

Writing about his famous horse in the _American Farmer_, as quoted in the Turf Register of December, 1833, General Jackson said: "Truxton is a beautiful bay, full of bone and muscle; was got by the imported old Diomed and came out of the thoroughbred mare, Nancy Coleman. His performances on the turf have surpassed those of any horse of his age that has ever been run in the western country; and indeed it might be said with confidence that he is equal if not superior to Mr. Ball's Florizel who now stands unrivaled in Virginia as a race horse. Truxton by old sportsmen and judges is admitted to be amongst the best distance horses they ever run or ever had to train." And the General concludes, with a touch of sardonic humor: "His speed is certainly known to all of those who have run against him."

A historian of the turf records that while Truxton was alive and serviceable he "made more money for Andrew Jackson than any other single piece of property he ever owned." This has the earmarks of exaggeration, but Truxton was really a remarkable animal. Not only did he hold the unusual record of never having been beaten in a two-mile heat while he was in his prime; but he was the sire of more than 400 colts whose victorious records on every track made turf history. During the relatively few years that Truxton lived his colts literally overshadowed all other horses on the tracks of the then Southwest, and Tennessee became the recognized headquarters of horse-breeding. Other breeders came to the Hermitage farm for young brood mares and stallions of the Truxton stock; and there is little doubt that the publicity that came to Andrew Jackson through these activities contributed very largely to the widespread friendships which were so valuable to him politically in the years ahead.

Jackson truly loved all his horses, and was especially fond of Truxton; and, so tradition goes, Truxton returned his affection. Not a night went by that the General did not go himself to the stables before retiring for the night to see that Truxton was all right; and when Truxton grew old and unruly, there was never a time when Jackson could not control him, no matter how ugly his mood.

And, tragically enough, it was Truxton who was the indirect cause of placing the General in one of the most unfortunate crises of his life; for it was the race between Truxton and Ploughboy in 1805 which was the ostensible cause of the fatal duel in which Jackson killed young Charles Dickinson.

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In the Presidential campaign of 1828 General Jackson was referred to by the friendly press as "The Farmer of Tennessee;" but this phrase was not used in a spirit of praise by all the newspapers of the day. For instance, a typically partisan editorial in the _New York American_ said:

Let us see what is the Farmer of Tennessee? Possessing a fine and
extensive domain with a vast mansion, not a farm-house but The
Hermitage, surrounded by a host of slaves--this farmer of Tennessee
eats the bread of idleness and luxury. The whip of the overseer
quickens the servile labors whereby he--one of those priviliged beings
born to consume the fruits of the earth--is sustained; and men,
immortal as himself, are daily "driven a-field" like oxen and their
strength taxed to the uttermost, perhaps, that he, their master, may
add another race-horse to his stud or stake an additional bet upon a
favorite game-cock. Of personal labor the hands of this "farmer" are
innocent; for, where slavery exists, labor is held to degrade the
white man.

Andrew Jackson had his faults, and he was open to criticism from many angles; but to hold him up as an example of the cruel and heartless type of Southern slaveholder was to confess an utter ignorance of his attitude towards his slaves. The records tell of a slave named Sam at the Hermitage whom Jackson freed in 1816 but who refused to leave the place.

Nowhere in his public writings or in his private correspondence does Jackson give any evidence of ever questioning the legitimacy of the institution of slavery; but throughout all his letters there are innumerable indications of his inflexible determination to see that his slaves were treated humanely and fairly. Upon learning of the death of one of them in 1829, for instance, he immediately wrote to Andrew instructing him "to examine minutely into this matter, and if the death was produced by the cruelty of Mr. Steel have him forthwith discharged." Going on, he says: "When I employed Mr. Steel I charged him upon this subject and had expressed in our agreement that he was to treat them with great humanity, feed and clothe them well and work them in moderation. If he has deviated from this rule he must be discharged." Later, following Andrew's report of his investigation, the General wrote expressing great gratification that the death had not resulted from the overseer's cruelty.

In 1833, while he was still in Washington, two more slaves died, and William Donelson wrote the General expressing the opinion that the deaths had grown out of lack of proper medical attention. Immediately Jackson was on the warpath again. He wrote Andrew strongly urging him to investigate the charges of neglect; and, to make doubly sure of getting the facts, he wrote to his old and trusted friend Major William B. Lewis, asking him to look into the matter and let him know what was going on. Major Lewis made a typically thorough and painstaking investigation and his letter, reporting conditions as he found them, gives such a clear and interesting detailed account of life on a Tennessee plantation of a century ago that it is worth preserving in its entirety:

I have this moment returned from a visit to the Hermitage. I left home
after an early breakfast and got up there between ten and eleven
o'clock, where I remained until after breakfast this morning.

It is with pleasure I inform you that I found every individual, big
and little, well, except Hannah, Sally's eldest child, and she, I was
told by the overseer and her mother, was getting better. I had her
brought to the house so that I might see her myself and ascertain, if
I could, the nature of her complaint. I was apprehensive from what Mr.
Holtzclaw told me that she was afflicted with the hip complaint, such
as Major Barry's son had; but on interrogating her and her mother as
to the origin of the disease I am inclined to think it is something
else. Mr. Holtzclaw and some of the black people think it is the white
swelling. Her mother told me when she first complained of a pain in
the hip she examined her and found a large lump in her groin having
the appearance of what is called a waxen kernel. She also told me she
complained not only of pain in the hip but also in the thick or
muscular part of the thigh, and particularly the knee. As I do not
know how those who have the hip complaint are affected, I can not say
whether these are synptoms of that disease or not. When she was first
taken, Sally tells me, she could not walk at all and suffered much
pain. She can now walk a little, and her pains are not so distressing.
Indeed she told me she suffered little or no pain except of nights. I
thought this was owing probably to her taking too much exercise in the
day, and I told her she must walk very little on her leg until it got
better. I also charged her mother to keep her from exercising too
much. She is a very pretty little girl, and as she will no doubt make
a valuable servant if she lives and gets well I have some thought of
getting Dr. Hogg to ride up and see her, for I am apprehensive Dr.
McCorkle does not understand the nature of her complaint. If she
should require any personal attention afterwards she might be brought
down (to Nashville) and left with her grandmother who lives on
Parson's lot, College Hill, and would take good care of her. The old
woman (old Aunt Nanny, you know) was up to see her not long since, the
overseer informed me, and was very anxious to take her down with her,
but that he did not feel authorized to let her go. When next you write
to me let me know your wishes with regard to this matter and Hannah
will be treated in all respects as you may direct.