AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY SEVENTY YEARS AGO 309 



locality of which is not too strictly indicated, where 

 old men every fourth year, in the month of November, 

 still hobble to the polls and drop into the ballot-box 

 their loyal vote for Andrew Jackson ! 



The period of Jackson's presidency was one of 

 the most remarkable in the history of the world, 

 and nowhere more remarkable than in the United 

 States. It was signalized by the introduction and 

 rapid development of railroads, of ocean navigation, of 

 agricultural machines, anthracite coal, and friction 

 matches, of the modern type of daily newspaper, of 

 the beginnings of such cities as Chicago, of the steady 

 immigration from Europe, of the rise of the Abolition- 

 ists and other reformers, and of the blooming of 

 American literature, when, to the names of Bryant, 

 Cooper, and Irving, were added those of Longfellow, 

 Whittier, Prescott, Holmes, and Hawthorne. The 

 rapid expansion of the country, and the extensive 

 changes in ideas and modes of living, brought to the 

 surface much crudeness of thought and action. As 

 the typical popular hero of such a period, Andrew 

 Jackson must always remain one of the most pictu- 

 resque and interesting figures in American history. 

 The crudeness of some of his methods, and the evils 

 that have followed from some of his measures, are 

 obvious enough, and have often been remarked upon. 

 But when it is said that he was utterly ignorant of the 

 true principles of statesmanship, and conducted him- 

 self in his presidency like a bull in a china shop; 

 when it is urged that his election to the presidency 

 was a thing to be lamented, and that we ought never 

 to have had any kind of man for chief magistrate 

 except the kind represented by our first six Presidents, 



