manes-let us take him for our example & live to be prepared for death, which we all know we have certainly to meet. I have had lately a very sudden and severe attack of sickness, I was near unto death, but providence has spared me for the present, and I am slowly recovering and able once more to wield the pen. And my dear friend-summons up all your fortitude, give up all your grief, for the bereavement of your honored father-he is happy whilst we are left in this wicked world amonghst all its temptations & evils; but if we take his example & precepts for our guide we will be sure to meet him in a happier clime where the wicked cease to trouble and the weary are at rest. Andrew & Sarah join me in sincere condolence & best wishes to you and your Lady & all your connections and believe me sincerely your friend, ANDREW JACKSON. Doctor W. M. Gwin. P. S.-I am able to move about, but may be said to be really a walking skeleton, but gathering strength slowly. A. J. Free, Andrew Jackson. Doctor William M. Gwin. Late Marshall, Vicksburgh, State of Mississippi. [The original of this was presented by Mrs. Gwin to Mrs. Stanford for the Museum of the Leland Stanford, Jr., University.] [Private.] HERMITAGE, January 16th, 1843. MY DEAR SIR, I have just received your promised letter of the 3rd instant and have duly noted its contents. I am happy to hear that all candidates of the Democratic party are determined to abide by the selection of the general convention fresh from the peoplethis is as it ought to be, and every Democrat, I hope in the Union, will rally in his support, be whom it may. You are mistaken as to the sorce that gave rise to the publication I alluded to. I have been told confidentially, and as such, I say to you it was a young Mr. Branch, with whom I never had any conversation on the subject of the candidate for the Presidency, that by letter, gave rise to the publication. With Mr. Tree I had no conversation on the subject. I never introduce such a conversation, altho I have been asked by hundreds, who I think will be the nominee of the National convention. It is for the people to select-as far as my agency, I will support in good faith that nominee, and therefore it is as to the selection I have no wish that my name should be introduced in this matter in the newspapers. As to Mr. Calhoun I am perfectly silent, and in reply to questions asked me, I allways have replied, that he possesses a high grade of talents & believe him to be a good republican. This is my position, and I wish to be permitted to remain in it, and not to be compelled, as in the case of Judge White, to be driven from it. I have just seen J. Q. Adams speech, he is the pioneer of Clay's and the Kentuckian on Martial law, was the agent to cast behind Clay his parthian darts-if it is the production of a judge he will get no fame as a jurist for this production, whatever favour he may acquire from Mr. Clay. Mr. Ingersol has really buried this Ky. Jurist on Martial Law-One thing I know, if the fine &c &c is not returned upon the principles of injustice & tyranny of the Judge, imposed without authority depriving me of my constitutional right of defence I will not receive it. I rejoice that Mr. Ingersol has taken the true ground at last, that the right of commanding Gen'l may be understood, in war, & whether the necessity with which he may be surrounded, when besieged by an invading foe will not justify him in declaring Martial law, to prevent treacherous Judges from taking his sentinels from their posts, and screen the mutineer & those who excite mutiny within his camp, from punishment. The case is now before Congress as I wish it, and I think Mr. Adams before it is done will be as tired of his situation as he was when he presented his petition to dissolve the Union. This poor disgraced old man cannot by all his low bred insults arous my feelings. My family join me in kind salutations & believe me yr friend, P. S. I never saw your letter to Major A. J. Donelson nor heard its contents. A. J. The Honble William M. Gwin, Dr. Wm. M. Gwin, Member in Congress. HERMITAGE, May 9th, 1845. MY DEAR SIR, Your kind letter dated at Washington April 28th is received & now before me and altho unable to wield my pen hasten to reply to it. It is the day of vituperation & slandor & you like all other public men must expect your share. I trust my character is too well known to believe that I would ever abandon a friend, who once had my confidence & esteem without positive proof that he had done some act sufficient to forfeit it. I have been your friend, I am still so, as I was your venerated deceased father's & brother's whose memories I cherish with the liveliest recollection. I have full confidence in your patriotism & democratic principles, and you possess too much honesty & moral worth, and those high, lofty & honorable feelings ever to permit you to do an act dishonorable or such as would tarnish that good moral character which you brought into life with you and have sustained to this present day. I am, as I have ever been, your friend; and my best wishes for your prosperity and happiness & that of your family will attend you thro' life; and if we should not meet again here below, I hope to meet you in a blissful immortality. My whole Household salute you & yours, your sincere friend, ANDREW JACKSON. Free, Andrew Jackson. Dr. William M. Gwin, Vicksburg, Mississippi. (The only one of his letters not directed by himself and probably the last letter he wrote with his own hand. The "free" and signature are, of course, autograph.) Died, 5th June, 1845.-not quite a month later. All of the above taken from "The Overland Monthly" for February, 1892, by the courtesy of the publishers. In 1826, Daniel Webster visited Jefferson at Monticello; and its sage thus discoursed concerning his most illustrious successor of his own political creed: Jefferson said to Webster: "I feel much alarm at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is one of the most unfit men I know of for such a place. constitutions and is, sions are terrible. He has very little respect for laws or in fact, an able military chief. His pasWhen I was President of the senate, he was a senator; and he could never speak on account of the rashness of his feelings. "I have seen him attempt it frequently, and as often choked with rage. * He is a dangerous man. And when Jackson was a senator from Tennessee his extremely uncouth appearance attracted attention; and a visitor asked who he was, and on being told, said: That wretched state is very fitly represented.'' James Buchanan relates this anecdote: an English lady of note, being in Washington in Jackson's time, requested Buchanan to escort her to the White House, which he did, and seeking the President, found him unshaven, and clad in an old russet-colored and faded dressing-gown, smoking a cobpipe. Buchanan stated the object of his visit, and suggested that the President ought, in justice to himself, to slick up a little. That roused the old hero's ire. Said he: "Buck-hannan, I once knew a feller what got rich a-mindin' his own business; tell the lady I'll be down in a few minutes." Buchanan was on nettles till the President entered the parlor a few minutes later, close shaven, and attired in a ruffled shirt and his conventional dress suit. The extremes of social and domestic life at the White House were experienced by the administration which commenced in 1841. The President died in just one month from inauguration day; on September 9th, 1842, the death angel visited the historic mansion and bore to happier realms the wife of Harrison's successor, and badges of mourning shrouded the mansion in gloom. Again on February 28th, 1844, the mutilated and ghastly bodies of the Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and Mr. Gardiner, a retired gentleman of wealth, lay in state in the east room: and finally, on June 26th, 1844, when the President, then so recently bereaved, brought what he termed a "sweet damsel" to the White House as a bride, and the funeral couch of a year before was transformed into a nuptial bed; and gay roses usurped the places of the drooping willow-the myrtle-and the cypress. John Quincy Adams thus celebrated the event: "Captain Tyler and his bride are the laughing-stock of the city. It seems as if he was racing for a prize banner to the nuptials of the mock-heroic, the sublime, and the ridiculous. He has assumed the war-power as a prerogative, the veto power as a caprice, the appointing and disbursing power as a fund for bribes; and now, under circumstances of revolting indecency, is performing with a young girl from New York, the old fable of January and May." And John Tyler, exceeding the example of President Monroe, was appointed road overseer in his district, and clad in a butternut suit and cow-hide boots, was wont, with shovel in hand, to earn his dollar a day, "bossing" a gang of poor whites and negroes in working the gullied roads of Charles City county, Virginia, after his retirement. The anxiety and "cankering cares" attendant upon the Mexican war broke Mr. Polk's constitution down prematurely, and he returned home only to die. There the bluff soldier of Buena Vista chafed, and fretted, and stormed; not infrequently he would tear up any document which might be presented to him for action. one time he tore to pieces a whole pile of official documents. His son-in-law and private secretary soon learned his humor, and hedged against it the best that could be done." Poor Pierce and his wife never recovered from the grief of the accidental death of their only son, upon a railway, during the winter preceding the inauguration. To Mr. Lincoln the stately mansion was a mere workshop for the performance of dreary, routine labor. There was no zest and exhilaration to him attendant upon his official duties. It was one melancholy, tedious, monotonous grind; and whereas, every other President had enjoyed seasons of visiting and recuperation, he possessed none. He was almost practically a prisoner of state; he made one trip to West Point to consult General Scott about a new commander for the army of the Potomac; one trip to the Sanitary Fair at |