Tennessee and North Alabama 125 



warn. Here Jackson built an "old time" Southern 

 mansion (still standing) and "dispensed a princely hos- 

 pitality" until his death in 1840. 



"He was equal to most men we have known, in native 

 vigor and intellect," wrote the editor of The Florence 

 Gazette. " He possessed a clear, discriminating judgment, 

 and great firmness of purpose. He was a man of strong 

 passions, had a warm heart and a liberal hand. The 

 claims of suffering humanity were never presented to him 

 in vain. Those whom he believed to be his friends he 

 never deserted, if all others did. He was a liberal con- 

 tributor to objects of public benefit, and ever ready to 

 patronize what he was convinced would advance the 

 highest interests of his adopted country." 



"The eulogy which is paid him in this brief extract 

 speaks the unanimous opinion of his friends in Alabama 

 and Tennessee," wrote the editor of The TurJ Register, 

 "and it is grateful to our own feelings to be able from 

 personal acquaintance fully to confirm such encomiums 

 upon the deceased." 



"He was possessed of great energy, tact and judgment" 

 says Brewer's "Alabama," "which added to an open 

 and manly deportment, wealth and liberality, gave him ex- 

 tensive popularity and influence." He was first elected to 

 the General Assembly in 1822 and was President of the 

 Senate in 1830. The fact that he came to be a Whig was 

 due in part, if not entirely, to his estrangement from 

 Gen. Andrew Jackson, with whom he had been on terms 

 of intimate friendship. 1 



1 This estrangement is said to have been caused by Gen. Jack- 

 son's long delay in paying borrowed money. So bitter was the 

 Kirkman-Jackson hatred of "Old Hickory" that Mary Kirkman's 

 marriage to Gen. Richard K. Call, of Florida fame, was opposed on 

 the sole ground that Call was Gen. Jackson's friend. The mar- 



