310 ANDREW JACKSON 



one can hardly yield unqualified assent to such propo- 

 sitions. It is a source of legitimate pride that we live 

 in a country where a man may rise from the humblest 

 origins to the most exalted position in which his fel- 

 low-countrymen can place him. If it be true that mere 

 chance may bring about such a rise of fortune, it is at 

 least very seldom that such can be the case. Usually 

 it must require such rare qualities of mind and char- 

 acter, such richness of experience and such knowledge 

 of men, as to be more than equivalent to a great deal 

 that is conventionally classed as training and scholar- 

 ship. No man in his senses will for a moment 

 imagine that the scholarly Sumner could ever have 

 performed the herculean task allotted to Abraham 

 Lincoln. Now in the case of Andrew Jackson, while 

 he was not versed in the history and philosophy of 

 government, it is far from correct to say that there 

 was nothing of the statesman about him. On the 

 contrary, it may be maintained that in nearly all his 

 most important public acts, except those that dealt 

 with the civil service, Jackson was right. His theory 

 of the situation was not reached by scientific methods, 

 but it was sound, and it was much needed. Among 

 the ablest books on government that have ever been 

 written books that ought to be carefully read and 

 deeply pondered by every intelligent American man 

 and woman are the three works of Herbert Spencer, 

 entitled "Social Statics," "The Study of Sociology," 

 and " Man and the State." The theory of government 

 set forth in these books is that of the most clear- 

 headed and powerful thinker now living in the world, 

 a man who, moreover, is thinking the thoughts of 

 to-morrow as well as of to-day. In spirit it is most 



