12 
Land & Water 
August 2 2, 19 1 & 
\'01d Hickory" : By Cecil Chesterton 
-The Foundations of Anglo-American Friendship 
Wi 
ITH Great Britain alii\e distinguished in 
peace land war, we may look forward to 
years of peaceful, honourable, and elevated 
competition- Everything in the condition 
and history of the two nations is calculated 
to inspire sentiments, of mutual respect and to carry con- 
viction to the minds of both that it is their policy to 
preserve the most cordial relation " 
Tliese words, used by an American statesman to-day, 
would not perhaps surprise us ; but their use in 1830 was 
something of a land-mark, if not a portent. The war of 
1812 was not yet a score of years old, and some of the incidents 
of that war had bitterly affected the mind of America. Even 
to-day they are remembered there, though all but forgotten 
here. The burning of Washington in particular — one of 
those idiotic "strong" acts which cost nations so dear — had 
bitten deep into the American soul. I can testify personally 
that less than four years ago it was not forgotten, and an 
Englishman was apt to be reminded of it when he spoke of 
the brutalities and outrages of Prussia. To praise 'England 
in America at such a time required some courage ; but 
courage was not wanting to the man whose words I have 
quoted. America had good cause to know this. So had 
England. For it so happens that the first American states- 
man to advocate a friendship with this country was also the 
last American captain to hear the sword against her. 
>K 4( * !f: 3|c * 
The opening months of 1780 cover a dark hour in the 
history of the American Revolution. In the north, Arnold 
had betrayed the cause. On the south, Cornwallis had 
descended, and, backed by the local "Tories," under their 
able and ruthless leader Tarleton, had laid waste the Garolinas. 
Refugees from the ravaged land had swarmed into the narrow 
strip of mountain country to the northward, which alone 
afforded them shelter. From amongst this semnant the two 
great captains of horse Sumter and Davis managed to raise 
an irregular force of troopers which unexpectedly took the 
field, and on August ist, 1780, fell upon and utterly defeated 
their oppressors at the Battle of Hanging Rock. 
Among these improvised soldiers were two brothers, 
the younger of whom was barely thirteen. It was his first 
apprenticeship to arms ; his name was Andrew Jackson. 
Thirty-four years had passed, and again peril over- 
shadowed the young republic. The war with Great Britain, 
undertaken light-heartedly enough two years earlier, had 
not prospered. Its first naval glories had gro\*n dim, and 
were overcast by later disaster. The invasion of Canada 
had failed, and American territory was in its turn invaded. 
Once more there was defeat and once more there was treason. 
A British army camped among the ruins of the capital, 
while a Convention of the New England States summoned 
at Hartford was threatening secession and a separate peace. 
To crown all, the powerful native tribe of the Creek Indians, 
egged on by the fanaticism of native prophets and by British 
promises of support, descended upon the scattered settle- 
ments of the West, sweeping whole States with fire and steel. 
A British fleet had appeared in the Gulf of Mexico, preparing, 
as was believed, to land a well-trained army which would 
join hands with the Indian braves. 
Andrew Jackson was in command of the militia of Tennessee. 
It was fortunate for the States that the hour found such a 
man in such a place. He had a thorough grasp of the 
conditions of Indian warfare, a complete insensibility to 
fear, and tl;ie devotion of his soldiers who worshippjd him 
much as the Old Guard worshipped Napoleon. A series of 
bold and rapid strokes broke for ever the power of the Creeks, 
drove them into their fastnesses, and finally annihilated them 
in the famous "Hickory Patch," the holy place of their race 
and rehgion. When the British landed at Pensacola, in 
Spanish territory, they found the allies whom they had come 
to succour already destroyed. 
But the final trial of strength was still to come. Expelled 
by Jackson from Pensacola, the British next menaced the 
great city of New Orleans. Jackson hurried to its defence, 
and the last great battle of the war began. A powerful 
British army landed near the mouth of the Mississippi with 
the intention of forcing the lines which Jackson had skilfully 
constructed for the defence of the city. The attack 
was made on both sides of the river, made and many times 
renewed. For one moment on the west bank it broke- 
through, but the energy of Jackson just repaired the disaster. 
Both sides stood heavy losses with magnificent valour, the 
conduct of the raw western militia, proving itself — not a httle 
to the surprise of all parties — not inferior to that of the excel- 
lent professional army trained in the great battles of the 
Peninsular. The Englishmen themselves acknowledged that 
Jackson's soldiers seemed of another kind from the other 
Americans whom they had encountered. Victory remained 
with the defenders. The British Army withdrew to its 
ships, and New Orleans was saved. 
Thi/ was the last battle ever fought between the two 
great Enghsh'-speaking nations. By a tragic irony, all the 
heroism displayed on cither side was, in fact, ineffective. 
News travelled slowly in those days, and, long before the 
first shot was fired in Louisiana, peace had been signed 
at Ghent. 
***** Vc 
Yet another fifteen years, and the defender of New Orleans 
was President of the American Republic. The story of his 
election is as picturesque as is almost every aspect of the 
career of this extraordinary man. Nominated in the first 
instance by his own State of^ Tennessee, his nomination was 
at first the jest and later the terror of the politicians. They 
regarded him as an impossible person, a rude frontiersman, 
shaky in his spelling, given to a military habit of profanity, 
famous for his card-playing, his^duelling, and his romantic 
and somewhat irregular marriage : but they soon discovered 
that he was the favourite of the people, and the people, 
despite the checks which the framers of the Constitution 
had endeavoured to impose, had already the election of the 
Chief Magistrate virtually in their own hands. The first 
attempt to elect him, indeed, failed, for the House of Repre- 
sentatives, into whose hands the choice passed, rejected him 
for the politician Adams. But the people were not to be 
baulked. The ill-starred administration of Adams and Clay 
lived only long enough to give the popular enthusiasm for 
"Old Hickory" — to give him the name which the whole 
nation had picked up from his own soldiers- — to gather 
strength. In 1828 an overwhelming majority placed him 
in the seat of Washington. 
The Presidency of Andrew Jackson is one'of the principal 
land-marks of American history. From it dates the full 
recognition of. the right of the people to choose their own 
ruler. From it also dates the-' enormously enhanced power 
of that ruler, the vigorous and popular^ Elective Monarchy 
which we see acting so energeticallyj to-day. Jackson will 
always be remembered as the first President to assert unre- 
servedly the National Idea as against the particularist and 
separatist tendencies then[rife in the| States, and in his defiant 
toast "Our Union, it must be preserved !" to give the watch- 
word which was to be the inspiration of_^i86i. He will be 
remembered as the first Presideht to'set all the politicians 
at defiance and to vindicate in their despite the cause of the 
poor and of clean government against the'sinister "influence" 
of the United States Bank. But by us English he may also 
be remembered as one of the first friends that we found in 
the great republic since she slashed h erself adrift. 
At the beginning of this article I have quoted the words 
of his message to Congress. It may be well also to quote 
the tribute of an Englishman almost asjnational as himself. 
The strong sense of Palmerston soon perceived that^ in dealing 
with Jackson he was dealing with a man of his own kind, 
very patriotic, very firm in the maintenance of national 
interests, but strictly faithful to his engagements, and able to 
be a valuable friend as well as a dangerous enemy. "He 
said," writes Van Buren to Jackson, after a conversation 
with Palmerston, "that a very strong impression had been 
made here of the dangers which this country had to appre- * 
hend from your elevation, but that they had experienced 
better treatment at your hands than they had done from 
any of your predecessors." 
*<■'«» « * •» 
It is more than a hundred years since Englishmen and 
Americans exchanged shots. To-day they are fighting side 
by side in defence of their common civilisation and of all 
that nationality means to each. In this hour I think it 
not unfitting that an Englishman should pay his tribute to 
that great American who was the last to fight England and 
the first to forgive her. 
