308 ANDREW JACKSON 



Jackson. Here Great Britain interposed with good 

 advice to France, which led to the payment of the 

 claim without further delay. The effect of Jackson's 

 attitude was not lost upon European governments, 

 while at home the hurrahs for " Old Hickory " were 

 louder than ever. The days when foreign powers 

 could safely insult us were evidently gone by. 



In the election of 1836 Jackson's wishes were ful- 

 filled in the victory of Van Buren, with 170 electoral 

 votes against 1 24 for all other candidates. The remain- 

 der of Jackson's life was spent in his Tennessee home, 

 known as the Hermitage. About the time of his 

 election to the presidency the ugly wound received in 

 the duel with Dickinson in 1806, which had never prop- 

 erly healed, broke out afresh and became more and 

 more troublesome, until his most intimate friends were 

 inclined to attribute to it his death, which occurred on 

 the 3d of June, 1845. Throughout his extraordinary 

 career he had been devoutly religious, and one cannot 

 fully comprehend him without taking into account the 

 element of the Puritan person thatwas so strong in him. 

 There probably never lived a man more strictly conscien- 

 tious, according to his own somewhat narrow lights, than 

 Andrew Jackson. Whether he ever felt moved to for- 

 give his enemies may be doubted, for it never occurred 

 to him that he was not in the right. A contrite spirit 

 he can hardly have had, but after all his warfare he 

 sank peacefully to rest. His remarkable influence 

 over the common people had not ceased with his 

 presidency, and it survived his death until it ended in 

 a kind of Barbarossa legend quite rare among such a 

 people as ours. To this day, we are told, there is 

 some happy valley in western Pennsylvania, the precise 



