FRONTIERSMAN AND SOLDIER 235 



stitution for Tennessee, and tradition has it that he 

 proposed the name of the great crooked river as the 

 name for the new state. Among the rules adopted by 

 the convention, one is quaintly significant: " He that 

 digresseth from the subject to fall on the person of 

 any member shall be suppressed by the Speaker." 

 The admission of Tennessee to the Union was effected 

 in June, 1796, in spite of vehement opposition from 

 the Federalists, and in the autumn Jackson was chosen 

 as the single representative in Congress. Thus at the 

 age of twenty-nine he received substantial proof of 

 the high esteem in which he was 'held by his fellow- 

 citizens. When the House had assembled, he heard 

 President Washington deliver in person his last mes- 

 sage to Congress. His first act as a representative 

 was characteristic and prophetic ; he was one of the 

 twelve extreme Republicans who voted against the 

 adoption of the address to Washington in approval of 

 his administration. Jackson's two great objections to 

 Washington's government were directed against Jay's. 

 treaty with Great Britain and Hamilton's national 

 bank. His feeling toward the Jay treaty was that of 

 a man who could not bear to see anything but blows 

 dealt to Great Britain, and it was entirely in harmony 

 with the fierce spirit of Americanism growing up 

 behind the Alleghanies, which was by and by to drive 

 the country into war. When one remembers the 

 insolence of the British government in those years, in 

 refusing to fulfil treaty obligations and surrender the 

 northwestern fortresses, in trying to cut off our trade 

 with the West Indies, in impressing our seamen, and 

 in neglecting to send a minister to the United States, 

 one thoroughly sympathizes with Jackson's feeling. 



