Siglo XIX Americano I

Preface.

[v] The cause for which General Jackson fought and died, has been overthrown. But it is believed that this fact has not diminished. the affectionate reverence for his memory, and interest in his exploits, felt by those who labored with him in that cause. On the contrary, they regard the events which have occurred since his lamented death, as farther evidences of his genius and prowess. Although he who undertakes to write the history of an acknowledged failure usually has a hopeless and discouraging topic, yet the lustre of Jackson's exploits and character is too bright to be dimmed, even by disaster: and his is universally admitted, by his friends and foes; to be a name so spotless that it shines independent of the cause with which he was connected.

My chief motive for supplying this customary exordium to my book, is the wish to answer the natural question in the reader's mind, what right I suppose myself to have, to claim qualification for the task I have assumed. My answer is, that it has been entrusted to me by the widow and family of GeneralJackson, supported by the urgency of his successor in command, Lieutenant-General Ewell, of his venerable pastor, and of many other friends, in, and out of the army. One advantage for my work, I may claim, which brings far more of responsibility than of credit to me, in the possession of the fullest collection of materials. The correspondence of General Jackson with his family, his pastor, and his most prominent friends in public life, has been in my hands, together with copies of all the important official papers on file in the War Department of the late Confederate Government. I have had the advantage of the fullest illustrations of the battle-fields and the [vi] theatre of war where General Jackson acted, from the topographical department of the same government, and from careful personal inspection: It was also my privilege to enjoy his friendship, although not under his orders, during the campaign of Manassas, in 1861; and to serve next his person, as chief of his Staff, during the memorable campaigns of the Valleyand the Chickahominy, in 1862. So that I had personal knowledge of the events on which the structure of his military fame was first reared.

My prime object has been to portray and vindicate his Christian character, that his countrymen may possess it as a precious example, and may honor that God in it, whom he so delighted to honor. It is for this purpose that the attempt was made so carefully to explain and defend his action, as citizen and soldier, in recent events. Next, it was desired to unfold his military genius, as displayed in his campaigns. The prominent characteristic of General Jackson was his scrupulous truthfulness. This Life has been written under the profound impression, that no quality could be so appropriate as this, in the narrative which seeks to commemorate his noble character Hence, the most laborious pains have been taken to verify every fact, and to give the story in its sober accuracy, and with impartial justice to all. I am well aware that perfection is not the privilege of man, in any of his works; and hence I must be prepared to be convinced, by the criticisms of others, that I have not been wholly successful in this aim. But I trust I have been so far successful, as to receive credit for right intentions. And especially would I declare, that in relating the share borne by General Jackson's comrades and subordinates in his campaigns, I have been actuated by a cordial and friendly desire to do justice to all. If I shall seem to any to have done less than this, it will be my misfortune, and not my intention.

If my story presents the hero without any of those bizarre traits, which the popular fancy loves to find in its especial favorites, it is hoped that the picture will be, for this reason, more symmetrical, and if not so startling, more pleasing to every cultivated mind. The reader may at least have the satisfaction of knowing that it is the correct picture, save that no pencil can do justice to his [vii] devoted patriotism, his diligence, his courage, and the sanctity of his morals.

The reader will note a certain polemic tone in the discussions which attend the narrative; and while strict truthfulness has been studied, candid expression has been given to the feelings natural to a participant in the recent struggle. The explanation is, in part, this: that the whole work was written before the termination of the contest ; the first portion, containing all the controversial matter, was published inGreat Britain more than a year ago, and has been circulated in that country and this; and the remainder of the biography was in process of publication when the Confederate armies surrendered. The animus of my book will not appear strange to any one who remembers, that when it was published, my fellow-citizens were universally engaged in a strenuous war against the United States, and I was myself in the military commission of the Confederate States. The question may be asked, Does not the termination of that contest by the complete submission of the South, point out the propriety of modifying the tone of the work? After a careful consideration of this question, I have been constrained to believe, that it was best to leave my original work substantially untouched. As has been stated, the first eight chapters, containing all that is most controversial, had been irrevocably given to the public, many months before the end of the war. To attempt to recall and suppress it now, would appear rather a foolish scrupulosity than sound wisdom. Nor would this course be consistent with the interests of literature. It has been often said, that cotemporaries cannot write impartial histories of their own times, because of their too lively sympathy with the passions which agitate the actors; It is more certainly true, that if cotemporaries do not write, with such partiality or impartiality as they may, it will be impossible for any other historian in posterity, to write a truthful narrative. None but eye-witnesses and actors can contribute the facts, which are to be the materials of future history. And their facts are esteemed by the philosophic and judicial compiler of the subsequent age, as scarcely more important than their animus. He wishes to know, not only what men did, but how they felt,--how the events transpiring [viii] affected them,--from what impulses and views they acted. While he does not blindly adopt the passions of either party, it is these which enable him to reproduce the very complexion and color of the times he describes. Hence, it is for the interests of historic truth that those who describe cotemporary events, should give candid expression to the emotions of their times.

It may also be asked: Does not the duty of promoting mutual forbearance, and the restoration of good feeling between the sections lately at war, require the suppression of controverted opinions, and of accusations, which, however true, can now be urged with no good result? In answering this objection, I shall candidly acknowledge myself utterly sceptical, both by temperament and conviction, of that deceitful and glozing philosophy, by which it is dictated. There is no true and solid basis for public well-being, but rectitude. The truth, manfully spoken, can never be unwholesome. If the complaints of the conquered section are just, then they ought to be stated and discussed, until a stable foundation for peace, good government, good feeling, and prosperity, is laid in just and magnanimous treatment. If those complaints are unjust, still it is best that they be candidly stated, respectfully listened to, and calmly discussed, as long as they are sincerely entertained in the hearts of the sufferers: for only in this way can they be eradicated. It is to me simply incredible, that a people so shrewd and practical as those of theUnited States, should expect us to have discarded, through the logic of the sword merely, the convictions of a lifetime; or that they could be deceived by us, should we be base enough to assert it of ourselves. They know that the people of the South were conquered, and not convinced; and that the authority of the United States was accepted by us from necessity, and not from preference. Should they hear the Southern people now disclaiming and reprobating the principles which are unfolded in my book as the animating principles of General Jackson, they must inevitably remember, that this Southern people, three years ago, was unanimously applauding and inciting him in acting them out: so that it would be self-evident to our conquerors, that we were either traitorously false to our darling hero, then; or are equally false to them, [ix] now. The people of the United States have too much shrewdness ever to suppose, that the sons of the Revolutionary sires who, as their comrades, assisted in winning liberty from the British Lion, and who have recently given new proofs of their undegenerate manhood, are spaniels, to be made affectionate by stripes. The people of the South went to war, because they sincerely believed (what their political fathers had taught them, with one voice, for two generations) that the doctrine of State-sovereignty for which they fought, was absolutely essential as the bulwark of the liberties of the people. They have been convinced by main force, that they are unable to save that doctrine. The only way to make them truly loyal again to the government of the United States, is to convince them by just treatment, that they went to war under a misapprehension, and that their liberties may still be securely and fully enjoyed under a consolidated government. It would be only a useless and degrading concealment, for the people of the South to profess a suppression of the honest convictions upon which they have lately acted, either at the dictate of deceit on their part, or of persecution on the part of their conquerors. For these reasons, it has appeared to me every way most manly and beneficial, to leave this explication and defence of General Jackson's resistance to the Federal Government, as it was written during the progress of the conflict. Its suppression would conceal nothing, and deceive nobody: its publication will give to subsequent generations a lively picture of the temper of the times.

But I am ready to add, with equal candor, that when I thus declare boldly the principles upon which the Virginians of 1861 acted, I do not intend to be understood as retracting that acquiescence in the result of the arbitrament of the sword, and that submission promised by me in common with almost the wholeSouth. I have voluntarily sworn to obey the government of the United States, as at present established and expounded to us by force of arms. That oath it is my purpose to keep. The Federal agent who administered it to me taught me expressly that its obligation was of this extent, and no more: that it did not bind me to think or say the principles on which [x] I had acted were erroneous; but to abstain, in future, from the assertion of them by force of arms.

It only remains to add a few words in explanation of the illustrations which accompany the text. It is earnestly recommended to the attentive reader, that he shall connect his perusal of the descriptive parts of the narrative with a careful study of the map of Virginia. This is so accessible to all Americans, that it was thought superfluous to burden this work with the expense of its insertion. A simple diagram is inserted, to facilitate the comprehension of each of the more important battles. These plates have been carefully prepared, from actual inspections and surveys, made by Confederate engineers; but they are simplified by leaving out all except the most essential lines and features. The intelligent reader, even though not a military man, will readily apprehend, that the representation of the positions of brigades and divisions of troops in action, by lines upon a diagram, can only be approximately correct. The lines of ink are, of course, stationary; the lines of troops in action are never long so. The relative position assigned to two divisions on the diagram may be a correct representation of their relation on the field of actual strife, for a fleeting moment only; a minute more may have changed it. The diagram must, perforce, either contain both of two divisions at once, which in fact only occupied the field successively; or it must suggest a still graver error, by the total omission of one of them. But if these obvious considerations are borne in mind, and the illustrations are studied in connection with the narrative, they will convey no mistake, and will be found to represent, with general correctness, the positions and movements of the Confederate troops.

Robert L. Dabney. Union Theological Seminary, Va., April 1, 1866.

Chapter 1: parentage, and Early years.

The family from which General Jackson came, was founded in Western Virginia by John Jackson, an emigrant from London. His stock was Scotch-Irish; and it is most probable that John Jackson himself was removed by his parents from the north of Ireland to London, in his second year. Nearly fifty years after he left England, his son, Colonel George Jackson, while a member of the Congress of the United States, formed a friendship with the celebrated Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, afterwards the victor of New Orleans, and President; and the two traced their ancestry up to the same parish nearLondonderry. Although no more intimate relationship could be established between the families, such a tie is rendered probable by their marked resemblance in energy and courage, as illustrated not only in the career of the two great commanders who have made the name immortal, but of other members of their houses. John Jackson was brought up in London, and became a reputable and prosperous tradesman. He determined to transfer his. [2] rising fortunes to the British colonies in America, and crossed the seas in 1748, landing first in the plantations of Lord Baltimore. In Calvert County, Maryland, he married Elizabeth Cummins, a young woman also from London, of excellent character and respectable education. The young couple, after the common fashion of American emigrants, proceeded at once to seek for new and cheaper lands on which to establish their household gods, and made their first home on the south branch of the Potomac River, at the place now known as Moorefields, the county seat of Hardy County. But after residing for a time in this lovely valley, John Jackson, with his young family, crossed the main Alleghany ridge into Northwestern Virginia, where lands yet wider allured his enterprising spirit. He fixed his home on the Buchanan River, in what was first Randolph, but is now Upshur County, at a place long known as Jackson's Fort, now occupied by the little village ofBuchanan. Here he spent his active life, and reared his family.

He is said to have been a spare, diminutive man, of plain mind, quiet but determined character, sound judgment, and excellent morals. His wife was a woman of masculine stature; and her understanding and energies corresponded to the vigor of her bodily frame. When the young couple emigrated to theNorthwest, the Indians were still contesting the occupancy of its teeming valleys with the white men. The colonists were compelled to provide for their security by building stockadeforts, into which they retreated with their families and cattle at every alarm of a savage incursion. It is the tradition that, in more than one of these sieges, Elizabeth Cummins proved herself, though a woman, to have “the stomach and mettle of a man,” and rendered valuable service by aiding and inspiriting the resistance of the defenders. In her industry and enterprise was realized King Lemuel's description of the ways of the vir. [3] tuous woman: “She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.” Several patents are still in existence, conveying to her, in her own name, lands which were afterwards the valuable possessions of her posterity. They have usually claimed that the characteristics of their race were largely inherited from her; that it was her sterling integrity, vigorous intellect, and directness of purpose which gave them their type.

The picturesque country, which now became the home or tne Jacksons, descends gradually from the watershed of the Appalachian range to the Ohio river, but is filled with ridges parallel to the main crest, of which the nearest are also lofty mountains, while the more western subside into bold and fertile hills. The grander heights were covered with magnificent forests of spruce and fir, intermingled with tangled thickets of laurel: but as the traveller approached the Ohio, and the mountains sank into swelling highlands, he found the ridges fertile, almost beyond belief; the slopes, clothed to their tops with giant groves of oak and chestnut, poplar, linden, beech, and sugar-maple; the hills, separated by placid streams flowing through smooth valleys and meadows, and their sides everywhere filled with beds of the richest coal. The waters which refresh this goodly land flow northward, and compose the Monongahela, which contributes its streams at Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, to form the Ohio in union with those of theAlleghany. The mingled currents then turn southward, and form the western border of Northern Virginia, separating it from the territory of Ohio. As all highlands usually decline in elevation with the enlargement of their watercourses, the northern part of this district, embraced within the boundaries of Pennsylvania, is less rugged than the southern. Settlements, therefore, naturally proceeded from the smoother regions of Western Pennsylvania, into the [4] hills of Northwestern Virginia; and thus it came to pass that, in the latter district, the northern counties were at first the more cultivated, and the southern bore to them the relation of frontiers. The emigrants found that they had not descended very far from the loftier ranges of the Alleghany and Cheat mountains before they left behind them the rigors of their Alpine climate. Wherever the valleys were cleared of their woods, they clothed themselves with the richest sward, and teemed with corn, wheat, the vine, the peach, and all the products of Eastern Virginia. But this fertile region could only be reached from the east by a few rude highways, almost impracticable for carriages, which wound their way among and over the ridges of a wide labyrinth of mountains.

Hither the patriarch of the Jacksons removed before the war of the American Revolution. In that struggle, he and his elder sons bore their part as soldiers; and at its close, they returned to their rural pursuits. With the practical sagacity for which the Scotch-Irish emigrant is always noted, he and his wife bent their energies to founding fortunes for their children, by acquiring the most valuable lands of the country, while they were unoccupied and cheap. In this aim they were successful, and their numerous children were all endowed with farms, which now make their holders wealthy. After a long and active life, they removed to the house of Colonel George Jackson, their eldest son, at Clarksburg, the county seat of Harrison County, now a village of note on the southern branch of the great Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and about forty miles from the Pennsylvanian border. The death of the old man, in this quiet retreat, is thus recorded by one of the most distinguished of his descendants, John G. Jackson, ofClarksburg, Judge of the Court of the United States for the Western District of Virginia. He writes toMrs. Madison, whose sister he had married, in [5] 1801:--

Death, on the 25th of September, putt a period to the existence of my aged grandfather,John Jackson, in the eightysixth year of his age. The long life of this good man was spent in those noble and virtuous pursuits, which endear men to their acquaintance, and make their decease sincerely regretted by all the good and virtuous. He was a native of England, and migrated hither in the year 1748. He took an active part in the revolutionary war in favor of Independence, and, upon the establishment of it, returned to his farming, which he laboriously pursued until the marriage of his younger son, when he was prevailed upon by my father to come and reside near him; there he lived for several years with his wife, enjoying all his mental faculties, and great corporeal strength, until a few days before his death. I saw him breathe his last in the arms of my aged grandmother, and can truly add, that to live and die as he did would be the excess of happiness.

He left a valuable real-estate at the entire disposal of the widow, with the concurrence of all the natural heirs, as his liberality had been amply experienced by them all in his lifetime.

Elizabeth, his wife, survived him until 1825, beloved and respected by all who knew her, and reached the extreme age of one hundred and five years. Hers were stamina, both of the physical and moral constitution, fitting her to rear a race that were men indeed. The reader will be detained a moment, to note the names and characters of her children, in order that the springs of General Jackson's nature may be the better illustrated, and also that his widely scattered kindred may be enabled to ascertain their relationship to this world-famous hero. The eldest son was George Jackson, who lived at Clarksburg, the seat of justice for Harrison County, and was a prominent and influential man in the settlement ofNorthwestern Virginia. Having taken part with his father III the Revolutionary [6] War, he became a colonel in the forces which, at the close of the great struggle, expelled the Indians finally from his district. He was one of the first delegates from Harrison County in the General Assembly of Virginia, was a member for that county in the State Convention by which Virginia accepted the Federal Constitution, and was first delegate from his district to the first Congress of the United States which sat under it. After his father's death, he removed to Zanesville, Ohio, where his life was ended. The second son was Edward, the grandfather of General Jackson, who, after several removals, fixed his home on the west fork of the Monongahela, four miles north of Weston, the present chief town of Lewis County. He was a man of a spare and athletic frame, energetic character, and good understanding, beloved and respected by his acquaintances. Filling for a long time the place of surveyor for the great county ofRandolph, he acquired much valuable land, and left to each one of his fifteen children a respectable patrimony. He, with his father and elder brother, was actively engaged in the Revolutionary and Indian wars.

The third son was Samuel Jackson, who emigrated to Indiana, and left a numerous family near the town of Terre Haute. The fourth and fifth sons, John and Henry, lived near the place of their birth on Buchanan river; but of their many children, several found their way to the extreme West. Each of these five sons of John Jackson was twice married, and left a numerous progeny. There were also three daughters, who married residents of the country, and left descendants bearing the name of Davis, Brake, and Regar.

Talent and capacity were not limited to this second generation. The sons of George Jackson deserve especially to be noted among the men of the third generation. Of these, the eldest was John G. Jackson, a lawyer of great distinction at [7] Clarksburg. He succeeded his father in Congress, married first MissPayne, the sister of the accomplished lady who married Mr. Madison, President of the United States; and then, the only daughter of Mr. Meigs, Governor of Ohio, afterwards Postmaster-General; who was appointed first Federal Judge for the district of West Virginia. This office he filled with distinction until his death about the year 1825. He was a learned lawyer, a man of great energy and enterprise, and sought to develop the resources of his country by the building of iron furnaces and forges, mills, woollen factories, and salt-works. These endeavors absorbed large sums of money, and at his death left his princely estate heavily embarrassed. The other sons of this family'were Edward, a respectable physician; William L., a lawyer, and father of a relative and cotemporary of Genera] Jackson; Colonel William L.Jackson, late Lieutenant-Governor of the State, and then Judge of the Superior Court; and GeorgeWashington, long a citizen of Ohio, and now an honorable exile, by reason of political persecution, for his fidelity to his native land. It was his son, Colonel Alfred Jackson, who, after serving on the staff of the General, received a mortal wound in the battle of Cedar Run, and now lies near him, in the graveyard of Lexington.

The character which the founders impressed upon their house will now be understood. From their forethought and virtues, it became the most noted, wealthy, and influential in their country. They usually possessed the best lands and most numerous slaves, occupied the posts of influence and power which were in the gift of their fellow-citizens, and sent some member of their family to the General Assembly of their State, or the Congress at Washington. They were marked by strong and characteristic physiognomies, close family attachments, determination and industry in their undertakings, and a restless love of adven [8] ture. Their race is now scattered from Virginia to Oregon. More than one of them has been led, by his love of roving, to the most secluded recesses of the Rocky Mountains, as explorers and hunters. All of them were energetic and skilful to acquire wealth, but not all of them were able to retain it. Many of the second and third generations were noted for a passion for litigation — prompted not so much by avarice as by the love of intellectual excitement, and by a temper intolerant of supposed injustice; and almost the whole race were utterly incapable of resisting the fascination of machinery. Every Jackson owned a mill or factory of some sort-many of them more than one,where they delighted to exercise the ingenuity and resources of the self-taught mechanic. In a country like theirs, of sparse population, and more devoted to the rearing of cattle than of grain, it may easily be conceived that these toys ministered more to their possessors' pleasure than to their wealth. Colonel Edward Jackson, the grandfather of General Jackson, was, as has been said, the second son of his parents. His second marriage brought him nine sons and daughters. His first wife, by birth a Hadden, bore three sons, George, David and Jonathan, and three daughters, of whom one married a gentleman named White, and two, respectable farmers of German extraction, named Brake.

Jonathan Jackson, the father of the subject of this work, adopted the profession of law, having pursued his preparatory studies in the family, and under the guidance of his distinguished cousin, Judge Jacksonof Clarksburg. His patronage induced him to go to that place — the last seat of his forefather's residence — to prosecute his calling. About the same time he married Julia Neale, the daughter of an intelligent merchant in the village of Parkersburg, in Wood County, on the Ohio river. The fruits of this marriage were four children, of whom [9] the eldest was named Warren, the second Elizabeth, the thirdThomas Jonathan, and the fourth Laura. Thomas was born in Clarksburg, January 21, 1824. The early death of his parents and dispersion of the little family, obliterated the record of the exact date, so thatGeneral Jackson himself was unable to fix it with certainty. Of these children none now live save the youngest, who survives as a worthy matron in Randolph County.

Jonathan Jackson, the General's father, is said to have been, what was unusual in his race, a man of short stature; his face was ruddy, pleasing, and intelligent; his temper genial and affectionate, and susceptible of the warmest and most generous attachments. He was a man of strong, distinct understanding, and held a respectable rank as a lawyer. While he displayed little of the popular eloquence of the advocate, his knowledge and judgment made him a valued counsellor, and his chief distinction was as a Chancery lawyer. His patrimony was adequate to all reasonable wants; the lands which he inherited from his father are now so valuable as to confer independence on their present owners. But a temper too social and facile betrayed him into some of the prevalent dissipations of the country; incautious engagements embarrassed him with the debts of his friends; and high play assisted to swallow up his estate. He at length became dependent wholly upon his professional labors, which yielded his family only a moderate support, while he owned no real estate but the house in which he lived. Not very long after the birth of his fourth child, and when Thomas was three years old, his daughter Elizabeth was seized with a malignant fever. He watched her sick-bed until her death, with a tender assiduity which, combined with his grief at the bereavement, and perhaps with his business troubles, prostrated his strength; and within a fortnight after his daughter [10] he sunk, by the same disease, into a premature grave. This unexpected end was all that was needed to complete the ruin of his affairs. Out of their wreck absolutely nothing seems to have been saved for his widow and babes. The Masonic Order, of which Jonathan Jackson was an officer, gave to the widow a little cottage of a single room. In this dwelling she applied herself to the task of earning a living for herself and children, by her needle and the labors of a little school.

She is represented as a lady of graceful and commanding presence, spare, and above the ordinary height of females, of a comely and engaging countenance. Her mind was cultivated and intelligent; and it is probable that much of the talent of her children was inherited through her. Her constitution had pulmonary tendencies, which were evidently entailed on het distinguished son. Her mind was sprightly, and her temperament mercurial, at one time rising to gaiety under the stimulus of social enjoyment, and at another sinking to despondency under the pressure of her troubles. But her character was crowned with unaffected piety. While her parentage and education would have inclined her to the Presbyterianpersuasion, the difficulty of reaching their ministrations caused her to become a member of the Wesleyanor Methodist communion. General Jackson always spoke of her with tender affection, and traced his first sacred impressions to her lessons. When a daughter was born to him a few months before his own death, he caused her to be baptized with his mother's name, Julia Neale. In the year 1830, Mrs.Jackson, whose youth and beauty still fitted her to please, married Mr. Woodson, a lawyer ofCumberland County, Virginia, whom the rising importance of the Northwest had attracted, along with many other Eastern Virginians, to that country. He was a sort of decayed gentleman, much Mrs.Jackson's senior,--a widower, without property, [11] but of fair character, and of a popular, social turn. The marriage was distasteful to Mrs. Jackson's relatives. They threatened, as a sort of penalty for it, to take the maintenance and education of the children out of the widow's hands, and offered, as an inducement on the opposite side, liberal pecuniary aid if she would continue to bear her first husband's name. But love, as usual, was omnipotent. Upon her marriage to Mr. Woodson, his scanty resources compelled her to accept the protection of her former husband's kindred for her children, which she had at first declined as an infliction. The second husband's professional success was limited, and he very soon accepted from his friend, Judge Duncan, who had also intermarried with the Jackson family, the office of Clerk of the Court in the county of Fay. ette, which lies on the New River, west of Greenbrier. After one year of married life, Mrs. Woodson's constitution sank upon giving birth to a son; two months after, she died, on the 4th of December, 1831; and her remains await their resurrection not far from the famous Hawk's Nest of New River. Her husband announced her death to her friends in these words:--“No Christian on earth, no matter what evidence he might have had of a happy hereafter, could have died with more fortitude. Perfectly in her senses, calm and deliberate, she met her fate without a murmur or a struggle. Death for her had no sting; the grave could claim no victory. I have known few women of equal, none of superior merit.” The infant, thus early bereaved of her care, lived to man's estate, and died of pulmonary disease, doubtless inherited from his mother, in the State of Missouri. Thomas, then seven years old, with his brother and sister, had been sent for to visit his mother in her sickness, and he remained to witness her death. To his Christian friends he stated, long afterwards, that the wholesome impression of her dying instructions and prayers, and of her [12] triumph over the grave, had never been erased from his heart. In his manhood, he delighted to think of her as the impersonation of sweetness, grace, and beauty; and he could never relate, without tenderness, the events of his departure from his uncle's house, when she had him mounted behind the last of his father's slaves, “good old Uncle Robinson,” and recalled him so anxiously, to give the last touch to the arrangements for his comfort. She had no other legacy to leave him than her prayers; but these availed to shield him through all the untoward incidents of his orphanage and his eventful life; and they were answered by the most glorious endowments of grace and virtue which the heart of a dying parent could crave for a child,--a cheering instance of God's faithfulness to his people and their seed.

The orphans thus thrown upon the wide world, received shelter at first from their father's sisters, Mrs.White--for whom Thomas always cherished a tender gratitude--.and Mrs. Brake. His home was with the latter, about four miles from Clarksburg. He was then a pretty and engaging child, with rosy and almpst feminine cheeks, waving brown hair, and large pensive blue eyes. It was said of him that, in the waywardness and levity which are usually seen at his age, he never was a child. The little fellow had a manly innate courtesy, and strange, quiet thoughtfulness, united with a determination beyond his years, which drew wonder and love from his relatives. An incident, which is most fully authenticated, occurring when he was but eight years old, shows that nature made him, from the first, of another mould from that of common men. He appeared one day at the house of his father's cousin, Judge John G. Jackson, inClarksburg, and addressing Mrs. Jackson by the title of aunt, which he usually gave her, asked her to give him dinner. While he was eating it, he remarked, in a [13] very quiet tone, “Uncle Brake and I don't agree; I have quit him, and shall not go back any more.” His kind hostess remonstrated against this purpose as a childish whim. He listened most respectfully to all her reasoning, but returned to the same resolute declaration,--“No; Uncle Brake and I can't agree; I have quit, and shall not go back any more.” It would seem that the husband of his aunt, though an honest, was an exacting man, and had made the mistake of attempting to govern the orphan through force, instead of through his understanding and conscience. And the singular child, having concluded that his stay under his authority would never be congenial, had calmly determined, with the same inexorable will which he displayed in after years, to end the connexion at once. From Judge Jackson's he went to a favorite cousin's, lately married and living in her own house, and asked leave of her to spend the night. In the course of the evening he announced his purpose of leaving his home, and, after listening respectfully to her remonstrances likewise, returned resolutely to his old formula: “No; Uncle Brake and I don't agree; I have quit there; I shall not go back any more.” Accordingly, the next morning, he set out from Clarksburg alone, and travelled on foot to the former home of his grandfather, in Lewis County, about eighteen miles distant, then belonging toCummins Jackson, the half-brother of his father. There he was kindly received, and, in the affectionate protection of his uncle and of two maiden aunts, afterwards Mrs. Carpenter and Mrs. Hall, then residing with him, found the home he wanted. It was the more attractive to him that his elder brother, Warren, was now sharing the same refuge. This remarkable man deserves our notice, not only for his paternal kindness to the orphan, but for the influence which he exerted, and for that which, contrary to all human calculation, he failed to exert upon him. He was [14] then approaching middle life, a bachelor, of lofty stature and most athletic frame, and full of all the rugged energy of his race. The native powers of his mind, although not cultivated by a liberal education, were so strong, that some of his acquaintances have declared him to be, in their opinion, the ablest man they ever knew. His will was as strong as his understanding, and his passions were vehement and enduring. As a friend, he was steadfast, and generous, without stint; and, though forbearing and slow to take offence, as an enemy he was equally bitter and unforgiving. Such was his liberality, that his poorer neighbors and dependants adored him. He never had political aspirations for himself, but his unbounded influence usually gave the honors of his country to the person whom he favored. Yet his business morals, save when he was bound by his own voluntary promises, which he always sacredly fulfilled, were accounted unscrupulous; and he was so passionately fond of litigation, that his legal controversies consumed a large part of the income of a liberal estate and the earnings of his own giant industry. He owned a valuable farm and mills, and was one of the largest slaveholders in the county of Lewis. His occupations were agriculture, and the preparation of lumber and flour, diversified with the hardy sports of a forest country. In this plain but plentiful home, Thomas lived until he became a cadet of West Point, with one noted interval, which shall be related. He received all the privileges of a son of the family. The relation existing between him and his uncle was, from the first, remarkable. He treated the little boy more as a companion than as a child, soothing for him all the ruggedness of his nature, imparting to him his plans and thoughts as though to an equal and counsellor, making him his delighted pupil in all the rural arts in which he was himself an unrivalled adept, and always rather requesting than demanding [15] his compliance with the discipline of his household. The child was thus stimulated in the work of his own self-government from a very early period, and left to an independence of action more suited for a man. But he did not disappoint his uncle's confidence. His peculiar method with the boy may perhaps be accounted for in part by the singular temperament of the race — passionately attached to the idea of independence; in part by the relaxation of parental restraints, which usually prevails in new countries; and partly by the profound sagacity of the guardian, who saw at a glance the noble nature with which he had to deal. He showed his affection, also, by earnestly seeking for Thomas, as well as for his elder brother, the best education he could place within their reach. He required of them a regular attendance upon the country school of the neighborhood, which Thomas was prompt to render; but Warren chafed under its restraints. He was now a hardy lad of fourteen years old, and, Jackson-like, began to feel his self-reliance, and to find the bread of dependence irksome. His discontent was probably increased by the consciousness that his little brother was more the favorite than himself. He therefore demanded that he should be allowed to seek his own fortunes, and choose his own home. His uncle, characteristically, gave him leave to please himself; and he departed, after a few months' residence. But he also induced Thomas, partly by his affection for him, and partly by the assumption of the authority of a senior, to go with him. They resorted at first to the house of Mr. Neale, a maternal uncle, a most respectable man, living on the Ohio river, at that island which has been made famous by the name and misfortunes of Blennerhasset, and the eloquence of Mr. Wirt. This relative also received them with cordial kindness. But Warren found that his love dictated the same policy which the affection of Cummins Jackson had prompted, [16] requiring them to pursue their studies diligently at school. He soon wearied again of the restraint, and, taking his little brother, the next spring he went down the Ohio river, and disappeared from the knowledge of his friends for a time. In the fall of the year they returned, by the charity of some steamboat-master, travel-soiled, ragged, and emaciated by the ague. Their story was that they had floated down to the junction of the Ohio with the Father of Waters, seeking adventures and a livelihood, until at length they contracted to cut firewood for the furnaces of the steamers, on one of the lonely islands of the Mississippi, near the southwestern corner of Kentucky. Here the two children had spent the summer alone, living in a temporary cabin, earning their bread by this rough labor, amidst the dreary forests of cottonwood, and encircled by the turbid river; until their sufferings from the ague compelled them to seek a way homewards. How strange a world this for the fair and pensive child of nine summers! But such was the sturdiness of his nature, that he seemed scarcely to feel either its incongruity or its hardship. On their return to their native region, Thomas declared that he should go back permanently to the protection of his uncle Cummins Jackson, because he had experienced his kindness and loved his home. But Warrenseemed still to feel some repugnance, and preferred to seek a refuge with one of his father's sisters, living near the old home of the family, on Buchanan river, Mrs. Isaac Brake. Here he was kindly received. The comforts of Thomas's home soon repaired the ravages of the ague in his body; but inWarren the disease had taken so fatal a hold that it could not be exorcised; it passed into a phase of pulmonary decline, and after a few years of lingering sickness, which seemed to be sanctified to the production of thorough gentleness and piety, it carried him to his grave in his nineteenth year. None of the little family now remained save [17] Thomas, sheltered under the stalwart but kindly arms of his uncle, and the girl Laura, who received her nurture from her mother's relatives in Wood County. Although they henceforth never occupied the same home, and could not meet very often, he always cherished for this sister the warmest affection. The first pocket-money he ever earned for himself, he expended wholly in buying her a dress of silk. It has been stated that Thomas always received fromCummins Jackson the liberal treatment of a son. Thenceforward /his opportunities for education were just such as they would have been, had he been the heir of such a citizen. Classical academies were, unknown in the country; and the sons of the most respectable persons, with the exception of a few who were sent Eastward for an education, were content with the plain studies of a country school. But the practical success and usefulness of many of the sons of the soil, besides General Jackson, have given proof that book-learning is by no means the only instrument of an efficient education. He seems to have been at all times eager for self-improvement. A worthy man, Mr. Robert P. Ray, then taught an English school at Cummins Jackson's mills, where Thomas, in company with the sons of the surrounding landholders, received the usual plain education of the country. Out of that school came several others who have not only been respectable citizens of their district, but have risen to influence as legislators or professional men. Thomas showed no quickness of aptitude for any of his studies, except arithmetic; in this he always outstripped his schoolmates, seemingly without effort. In all other branches his acquisitions were only made by patient labor. If he professed to be prepared for a recitation, all might be certain that he was thoroughly prepared; from the first, the intense honesty of his nature, and the sober judgment, with which [18] he preferred the substance to the name of an acquisition, were singular. Nothing could induce him to leave a lesson behind him unmastered. If he had not been able to finish a previous one at the same time with his class-mates, he would continue to study it while they proceeded to the next, and when called on for his share of the succeeding recitation, he would flatly declare that he knew nothing about it, that he had not yet had time to begin it, and that all his time had been occupied upon the other. Thus he was, not seldom, nominally behind his class; but whatever he once gained was his forever; and his knowledge, though limited, was perfect as far as it went. His temperament at this time was cheerful, amiable, and generous; and his demeanor instinctively courteous. His truthfulness was at all times proverbial. To an intimate friend he once said, that so far as he remembered he had never violated the exact truth in his life, save once. This instance was one which many would justify, and most would palliate; but he himself condemned it. While lieutenant of artillery in the Mexican War, his company were ordered to proceed by a narrow path through a dense thicket of “chapparal,” which was believed to be infested with guerillas. Jackson himself saw the leaves of the shrubs riddled with fresh bullet-holes; and the men were so intimidated by the dread of the unseen foe, that when the head of the column approached the dangerous spot it recoiled, and in spite of the expostulations of the officers, refused to advance. At length the young lieutenant went alone, far before his men, and waving his sword shouted to them:

You see there is no danger; forward!

Yet, as he confessed, he knew at the moment that he was in extreme peril. At school he was also noted for a strong sense of justice, which made him as respectful towards the rights of others as tenacious of his own. As long as he was fairly treated by his playmates, [19] his temper was perfectly gentle and complying; but if be believed himself wronged, his resistance was inexorable. In his occasional combats with his fellows, while superiorstrength might sometimes overpower him, it could never force him to acknowledge defeat. The victor might cuff him until he desisted from sheer weariness, but Thomas was still unsubdued, and ready to renew the fight whenever his antagonist dared to assail him. He was withal never moping nor surly, but always ready for the merry romp or play. He was not peculiarly swift of foot, but he usually led his playmates in jumping and climbing. When the school was divided into two companies for a game of bat and ball, or prisoners'-base, he was always captain of one, and his side was sure to win.

In all Western Virginia, the owners of land and their sons were accustomed to labor on their farms with their own hands, more than any population of equal wealth and comfort in America. This was the consequence partly, of the industrious habits which the Presbyterian Scotch and Irish, the ruling caste in those regions, brought from their native lands; partly of the comparative scarcity of labor, both slave and hired; and partly, of the absence of the abundant means of literary and professional cultivation, which an older society offers to the wealthy. Even in the households of slaveholders, like Cummins Jackson, who in that country were few, the males, when not at school, were regularly occupied in rural labors, except in that large allowance of time reserved for country sports. The reader will thus understand that Thomas, although in no sense reduced by his orphanage to a condition beneath that of the youths around him, was occupied, like his uncle, in the works of the farm and mills. Here he was always resolute and efficient. One of his most frequent tasks seems to have been, to transport from the woods the huge stems of the poplars and [20] oaks, to be converted by the saw-mill into lumber. He became thus a famous driver of oxen. If any tree was to be moved from ground of unusual difficulty, or if it was more gigantic than the rest, the party of laborers was put under his command, and the work was sure to be effected. In this manner his life was passed from nine to sixteen years of age, between the labors of the school and of the farm. He was then, like his father, of short stature, but compact and muscular. He was capable of fatigue, and of indomitable physical endurance. His bearing was unpretending, but manly and courteous. But his constitution, even then, gave signs of infirmity. An obscure disease of the stomach and other organs of nutrition had seized upon him, harassing him with chronic irritations or prostrations of the nerves, sleepless nights, and lassitude. A year or two later, notwithstanding the means used to re-establish his constitution, these symptoms assumed the more ominous form of a slight paralysis. The latter, however, wore away after a time; and, about his second year at West Point his system seemed to escape a part of its burdens; he grew rapidly to a tall stature, and thus, instead of remaining short, like his father, he was conformed to the usual standard of his race. But the other affection clave to him, like a Nemesis, during his whole youth and the war with Mexico, and never relaxed its hold until after he came to Lexington as Professor in the Military Institute, when he subdued it by means of the waters of the alum springs of Rockbridge, in connection with his admirable temperance. His habits of uncomplaining endurance, and his modest reluctance to every display savoring of egotism, concealed the larger part of these sufferings. It should be remembered, in order that we may appreciate his capacity and energy, that his arduous studies at the military academy, and his brilliant [21] services in Mexico, were performed by him while hag-ridden from time to time by this wretched tormentor.

The post of Constable in the northern half of Lewis County became about this time vacant. His friends procured the appointment for him, for two reasons: one was, that the life on horseback, it was hoped, might remove his disease and give him a firm constitution; the other was, that the little salary of the place might enable him to realize his ardent desire for a liberal education. So general was the favor borne him, and the desire to forward his aspirations for advancement, that the Court winked at the irregularity of appointing a minor to this office, accepting the suretyship of his uncle as a sufficient guarantee. We now see the manly youth, with his account-book and bag of bills and executions, traversing on horseback the hills of Lewis, a county then so large that the major parts of five counties have since been carved out of it. To readers who are not Virginians, a word of explanation may be needed concerning the office of Constable in our State. The Justices of the Peace, besides the County Courts which they hold jointly, are authorized to decide singly, in their own neighborhood, upon controversies for property or money, where the sum in dispute does not exceed twenty dollars. Of this little court, the Constable is the executive officer, serving its warrants, summoning its witnesses, and carrying into effect its decisions. The Justice, as conservator of the peace, may also issue his warrant for the arrest and examination of any person suspected of crime, however grave; and in this preliminary stage of proceedings, theConstable is his agent. This officer is also charged with the regulating of certain misdemeanors, and with the enforcement on slaves and free negroes of the police regulations peculiar to their condition. He is, in a word, a sort of minor sheriff.

The countrymen of young Jackson testified that he filled this [22] office with industry and fidelity. In everything he was scrupulously exact; his engagements were uniformly kept; and the little claims intrusted to him for collection were always safe. While never cruel in the exercise of the powers of his place, he strictly enforced upon others a punctual compliance with their promises. In these duties his nerve was sometimes tried; but he always carried his point. One instance may be related, as illustrating his courage and resource. About two miles from the little village of Weston, the county seat of Lewis, there lived a man, who, under a garb of great religiousness, concealed an unscrupulous character.Jackson held an execution against his property for a little claim of ten dollars, which the creditor had more than once urged him to collect. After indulging the debtor for a time, and advising him rather to earn or borrow the sum than suffer the sale of some article of his property, he exacted from him a firm promise that, on a certain day, he would meet him in Weston, and, without further trouble, pay him the debt. He then told the creditor that, on the evening of that day, his money would be ready for him. At the appointed day, Jackson was in Weston, but no debtor appeared; and when the creditor came to receive his claim, he redeemed his punctuality by paying it out of his own purse. He then quietly remained in the village until the next morning, when, as he expected, the delinquent appeared in the street with a very good horse., It seems that there was, in their rude community, a sort of lex non script, established by usage, and more sacredly observed, perhaps, than many of the statutes of theCommonwealth, forbidding that any person should be taken by force, on any plea, from the back of his horse, and justifying the most extreme resistance to such a disgrace. Selecting a time, therefore, when his debtor was dismounted, Jackson went up and taxed him with his breach of promise, reminded him of his long [23] endurance of these deceptions, and was proceeding to seize the horse to satisfy his execution. The other party, who had no idea of ever paying his debts, resisted, and a furious fight began in the street. During the engagement, he availed himself of a momentary advantage, and remounted his horse. Here, now, was a dilemma for the young representative of the law. On the one hand, his adversary seemed safely enthroned in that position which the sacred custom of the vicinage pronounced unassailable. But, on the other hand, it was not in his nature to accept defeat where his conscience told him he was in the right. Clinging to the horse's bridle, he looked around, and perceived at some distance the low-browed door of a friend's stable standing open. To this he forced the horse, amidst a shower of unregarded cuffs from his enemy, who found himself, by these ludicrous tactics, placed between the alternatives of being struck off by the lintel of the door, or else sliding from the saddle and relinquishing the horse. He prudently adopted the latter, and Jackson secured the prize triumphantly in the stable, while yet he respected, at least in the letter, the common law of the neighborhood.

But these occupations proved more favorable to the health of his body than of his character. They necessarily separated him much from home influences, and brought him acquainted with the worst people of his vicinage. Nor could his home influences be considered very auspicious. His aunts, before this period, had married, and the establishment of his uncle was that of a bachelor. Cummins Jackson, though temperate and energetic, was himself utterly devoid of Christianity, of a violent and unscrupulous character, and much given to assume, in its ruder phase, the character of a sporting gentleman. He kept race-horses, made up country race-matches, and employed his nephew as his favorite rider, whenever he expected a close [24] contest. It was the gossip of all the country-side, that if a horse had any winning qualities in him, they would inevitably come out when young Tom Jackson rode him in the race. Moreover, the general morals of the community were loose, and irregularities too often found most countenance from those of highest station. The Christianity of the region was not influential; ministers were few, and deficient in intelligence and weight, being chiefly the most uncultivated members of theBaptist communion, or of the itinerant fraternity of the Methodists. If the citizens saw anything of Episcopacy or Presbyterianism, it was only from the transient visits and sermons of ministers from a distance. The state of religious opinion was just what the observing man would expect from such influences. The profession of Christianity was chiefly confined to the more ignorant classes; and among them Church discipline and Christian morals were relaxed. Men of the ruling houses, like the Jacksons, were too often found to be corrupted by the power and wealth, with which the teeming fertility of their new country was rewarding their talents. Minds such as theirs, self-educated by the activity and competition of their bustling times, were too vigorous to acknowledge the intellectual sway of a class of ministers who dispensed, for sermons, their crude notions of experimental piety, in barbarous English. There were few cultivated minds to represent the authority of the gospel. Consequently, most of the men of position were openly neglectful of Christianity, and some were infidels.

No one will wonder, then, that as young Jackson approached manhood, his conduct became somewhat irregular. He was, as he himself declared, an ardent frequenter of races, of “houseraisings,” and of country-dances. But still his industry remained; his truthfulness and honesty continued untarnished; and the substantial foundations of integrity were never undermined [25] in his nature. His irregularities were never more than temporary foibles, and they yielded to the wholesome influences of the first two years discipline at,the military academy, and to the encouragement of better prospects and gratified aspirations. During the first year's course, the “demerits” incurred show some remains of his wilder habits; but even then his comrades found in him nothing low or vile. And thenceforward he appeared at home, during vacations, perfectly exemplary in his demeanor, and at the school, regular, laborious, truthful, scorning everything base; modest, yet self-reliant; and although inexperienced in some of the forms of society, ever full of intrinsic dignity and courtesy.

It is manifest that his nature was intensely ambitious and aspiring. He thirsted eagerly for knowledge, and for wellearned distinction. He knew himself to be a depressed scion of a noble and influential stock; and while he felt no morbid shame at his poverty, he longed to reinstate himself in the foremost ranks of the kindred, from which orphanage and destitution had thrust him down. This was the ruling desire, the purpose of his early manhood, and it gives us the key to many of the singularities of his character; to his hunger for selfimprovement; to his punctilious observance, from a boy, of the essentials of a gentlemanly bearing, even where he was ignorant of its conventionalities; to the uniform assertion of his selfrespect. The wonder is, that the circumstances which surrounded him did not make him, simply, anotherCummins Jackson. The generous kindness of this uncle, the force of his example, the similarity of the two in the strength and ardor of their natures, and the impress of a will so energetic and commanding, would seem naturally to tend to that result. But the nephew appears to have imbibed all the good traits of the uncle, and to have escaped the bad. How shall the formation [26] of such a character, in such a state of society, be explained? Was it not due to that noble constitution of his nature, that reverence for the true and the right, that manly courage which the Creator impressed upon it, for his own ulterior ends, coupled with the purifying force of a Christian mother's teachings and prayers?

Of this uncle General Jackson always spoke with grateful affection; as he was evidently his favorite nephew. Cummins Jackson displayed his restless love of adventure by going, when he was forty-nine years old, to seek gold in California. He was also impelled in part by disgust at the persecutions of some of his neighbors, with whom his feuds had become perfectly inveterate. His ample farm and competency could not detain him; he crossed the plains with a well-equipped company of gold-hunters, of whom he was recognized as the chief, in 1849, and died the autumn of that year in the wilds of the mining region. Had he made a will, it is believed that General Jackson would have been a chief heir; but death disappointed such generous purposes if he had them; and his estate is destined to be divided among almost a hundred nephews and nieces.

It will be best here to anticipate so much as will be necessary, to complete the history of youngJackson's official life in Lewis. The law requires the county court to take bond and security of every constable to the amount of not less than two thousand dollars, for the faithful transaction of all the business committed to him. When a creditor places any claim in the hands of such an officer for collection, he usually exacts a receipt from him acknowledging the trust undertaken, and the amount and nature of the demand. The officer thus incurs a responsibility from which he must absolve himself, either by collecting and paying over to him the [27] amount of the claim, or by making every lawful effort to do so, and showing that it was impracticable, by reason either of the insolvency or evasion of the creditor. When the hope of an immediate appointment, as cadet of the Military Academy, was suggested, youngJackson's abiding desire for a liberal education forbade his hesitating for any smaller concerns. He instantly resigned his place. It chanced that this was a season of stringency in the currency of the region, and his uncle found himself unable at the time to raise ready money for his outfit. By his advice, Thomassold such claims for cash as could be thus disposed of, and transferred the remainder of his papers and business to him for adjustment. It would appear that even these prompt means failed to realize enough for his expenses. One can readily conceive that a boy of eighteen, with all his punctuality, would not be a thoroughly methodical accountant. So, when the settlements with suitors were made, in the absence of that personal recollection on which he largely relied, the more greedy succeeded in making him their seeming debtor for more than he had left in his uncle's hands. The consequence was, that a few suits were brought against the latter, as his security, for the payment of sums thus claimed. He, indeed, probably regarded this as rather good luck than ill, as it gave him additional occasion to exercisehis restless mind in his beloved work of litigation; and his generosity to Thomas made him cheerfully pay the deficit. On the return of Thomas from West Point, he looked thoroughly into these transactions, and demanded a more accurate settlement of his accounts. To one claimant, for whom he had collected a variety of small sums at different times, thus making a somewhat intricate series of transactions, he said that this party ought to be able to remetmber the receipt of various payments on account, for which the written evidence was now lost; and that when the recollection [28] was distinct and undeniable, he should insist on having credit. He required his antagonist to go over the whole account on this plan. When he sought to avoid allowing payments, which Jackson well knew had been made, by saying “he had no recollection of them,” the latter would reply, “Yea, but you must recollect them;” and, by his firm countenance and reference to attendant circumstances, would constrain his unwilling party to make the just admissions. In this way he forced him to allow in Court sundry abatements of his claim. Finally, all the sums for which, as constable, he was bound to any one, were fully paid either by him or his uncle.

Chapter 2: the cadet.

In 1841, the Hon. Samuel Hays was elected delegate, from the district to which Lewis Countybelonged, to the Congress of the United States. During his term, the place of cadet in the military academy at West Point became vacant. This famous school was founded and sustained by the Federal Government, and contained as many pupils as there were Congressional districts. These were treated as soldiers in garrison from the time they entered, and not only instructed and drilled, but fed, clothed, and paid by the public. The appointments were made by the Secretary of War, upon the nomination of the member of Congress, representing the district from which the application came. It may be easily comprehended that his recommendation was usually potential. As the scientific education given was thorough, and nearly the whole expense was borne by the Government, the place was much sought by the sons of the most prominent citizens. Mr. Hays, upon consultation with judicious friends, had given the nomination to a fatherless youth, of sprightly mind and good habits, whom his neighbors desired to help upward in the world. He had been appointed, had gone to West Point, and upon observing the condition of the cadets from without, had concluded that the restraints and military discipline of the place would be too irksome for his tastes. He therefore left the village with. [30] out reporting to the authorities of the school, and returned home to resign his appointment. This occurred in the summer of 1842. The self-indulgence of this youth, and the contrasted energy and hardihood of Jackson, bore fruits which may well be pondered by every young man. The former was consigned, by the rejection of the providential occasion for self-improvement, to a decent mediocrity, from which his name has never been sounded by the voice of fame. The latter, by his manly decision, made of the same opportunity “a tide, which, taken at the flood, led on to fortune.” There was then living in the village of Weston a German smith, one of those neighborly, ingenious, gossiping men, who are as busy in discussing their neighbors' affairs as in repairing their implements of labor. Just at the time when the young man who has been mentioned returned to the country, relinquishing his West Point nomination, it so chanced thatCummins Jackson had occasion to go to this smith, for the repair of some of the machinery of his mill. The good man said to him, informing him of the indiscretion of his young neighbor, “Here now is a chance for Tom Jackson, as he is so anxious for an education.” The uncle replied that, on his return home that evening, he would mention it to Thomas, and recommend him to seek the appointment. When he did so, the young man caught eagerly at it; and the result was that the next morning he went toWeston, and applied to his influential friends for their support in an application to the Honorable Mr.Hays, then in Washington. All had known his industry, his integrity, and his honorable aspirations. All sympathized warmly with him in the latter. Nearly every prominent person connected with the courts of the place concurred in his testimonial. To one gentleman, a lawyer of influence, and a connection of his family, he resorted for a more confidential letter. This person asked [31] him if he did not fear that his present education was too scanty to enable him to enter the military academy, or to sustain himself there. His countenance sank with mortification for a moment, then raising his head, he said, with a look of determination, “I know that I shall have the application necessary to succeed; I hope that I have the capacity; at least I am determined to try, and I wish you to help me to do this.” The letter was written, with a hearty commendation of his claims to Mr. Hays, and a full description of his courageous spirit. These letters were despatched to Washington; and, meantime, Thomas applied himself diligently to reviewing his studies for entrance into the academy, under the gratuitous teaching of a lawyer ofWeston, Mr. (afterwards Judge) Edmiston. In due time a reply came from Mr. Hays, promising to use his influence in his favor. Some one then suggested, that as the session at West Point had commenced, and as it was always safest to give personal attention to one's own interests, it might be best for him to go immediately to Washington, instead of waiting for the result of the application, and be ready to proceed at once, if successful, to his destination. Thomas declared his preference for this course, and departed without a day's delay. Borrowing a pair of saddle-horses and a servant from a friend, he hastened to Clarksburg, to meet the stage-coach which plied thence to Winchester and Washington. His garments were homespun, and his whole wardrobe was contained in a pair of leathern saddlebags. When he reached Clarksburg the stage had passed by, but he pursued it, and at its next stopping-place overtook it, and proceeded to Washington city. Presenting himself thus before the Honorable Mr. Hays, he was kindly received; and his patron proposed that he, should go at once, with the stains of his travel upon him, to the office of the War Minister to procure his appointment. He presented him to that minister [32] as a mountain youth, who, with a limited education, had an honorable desire of improvement. The Secretary was so much pleased with the directness and manliness of his replies, that he ordered his warrant to be made out on the spot. When Mr. Hays proposed to take him to his lodgings, for a few days, that he might see the sights of the metropolis, he declined, saying that as the studies of the academy were in progress, it was best for him to be in his place there, and that he should be content with a general view from the top of the dome of the Capitol. Having looked upon this panorama for a while he descended, and declared himself ready for West Point. Mr. Hays wrote to the authorities there, asking them, at the suggestion of some friend, to make the utmost allowance practicable in the preliminary examination for his defective scholarship, and in favor of his good character. And Jackson stated to his friends that this indulgence was very kindly extended to him, and that without it, he would scarcely have been able to stand the test. He entered West Point, July, 1842, being then eighteen years old. He had not attained his full stature, but was muscular ia his frame, and of a fresh, ruddy countenance. His demeanor was somewhat constrained, but, by reason of its native dignity, always pleasing. The fourth-class men at this school were called by their comrades plebes, were subjected in many respects to restraints peculiar to their rank, were made to perform the menial duties of sweeping the barrack-grounds, and such-like, under the inspection of their more advanced fellow-students, and were severely drilled in their military exercises. It was thus the authorities proposed to form a soldierly subordination and hardihood. The infliction of practical jokes upon new-comers has always been carried to extremity in this school. The professors themselves seemed to connive at it as a useful discipline of the temper; and, by a [33] fixed usage of the cadets, he who grew restive under the torment only subjected himself to tenfold sufferings. Resistance was vain. The third-class man, lately among the plebes, sought his revenge from the body of new-comers below him, and from victim became tormentor, with all the zest and ingenuity of a practitioner just graduated in the art of teasing. When they saw the country youth arrive, with his saddle-bags, in his homespun garments, they promised themselves rich sport with him; but they speedily learned their mistake. Such was his courage, his good temper, and the shrewdness and savoir-faire, acquired during his diversified life in the country, that they were quickly glad to leave him for more easy subjects.

It would be obviously unfair to judge his capacity by his earlier acquisitions at West Point. His literary preparation was defective. Although his rural occupations had given a valuable cultivation of his powers, he lacked the facility of taking in knowledge, which arises from practice; nor was his apprehension naturally quick. He once stated to a friend that he “studied very hard for what he got at West Point.” The acquisition of knowledge with him was slow, but what he once comprehended he never lost. Entering, with such preparation, a large and distinguished class, he held at first a low grade. GeneralsMcClellan, Foster, Reno, Stoneman, Couch, and Gibbon, of the Federal army; and Generals A. P. Hill,Pickett Maury, D. R. Jones, W. D. Smith, and Wilcox, of the Confederate army, were among his class-mates. From the first, he labored hard. The same thoroughness and honesty which had appeared in the schoolboy, were now more clearly manifested. If he could not master the portion of the text-book assigned for the day, he would not pass over it to the next lesson, but continued to work upon it until it was understood. Thus it happened that, not seldom, when called to the black-board, he [34] would reply that he had not yet reached the lesson of the day, but was employed upon the previous one. There was then no alternative but to mark him as unprepared. A distinguished student of the class next above him, now Major-General Whiting, rendered him valuable private aid, while all applauded his sturdy effort. But at the examinations which closed his first half-year's novitiate, the line which separated the incompetents, and condemned them to an immediate discharge, was drawn a very little below him. Nowise disheartened by this, but thankful that he had saved his distance, he redoubled his exertions. At the end of his first year, in a class of seventy-two, he stood 45th in mathematics, 70th in French, had 15 demerit marks for misconduct, and was fifty-first in general merit. In the next class, the studies were more extended and abstruse; but the examination at the end of his second year showed him 18th in mathematics, 52d in French, 68th in drawing, and 55th in engineering studies; while he had incurred 26 demerits, and ranked 30th in general merit.

In the second class, he proceeded from pure mathematics to chemistry and natural philosophy. His course was still more decidedly improved, and placed him at the end of the year in natural philosophy, 11th; in chemistry, 25th; in drawing. 59th; with no demerit for the year, and in general merit, 20th. In the studies of the final year, he was 12th in engineering, 5th in ethics, 11th in artillery, 21st in infantry-tactics, and 11th in mineralogy and geology. His demerit marks were seven, but, as he assured his friends, he might have wholly escaped these by laying the delinquencies charged to him upon comrades to whom they rightly belonged. He preferred to bear the undeserved blame, rather than break silence against them. His general standing as a graduate was 17th, notwithstanding the less successful years at the beginning, which were taken into [35] the account. An examination of these records will show a steady progress; and, if the deficient preparation of his beginning be considered, there is evidence of a scholastic ability and acquirement very little below the highest. But scholastic ability is not the real test of a great mind. It also appears that he was usually least successful in a study when it was novel. In the science of military engineering, for instance, his first year's study placed him only 55th, but his last year 12th. He seems never to have become an adept in drawing; indeed nature had not gifted him with much of that manual dexterity, which is here more essential than even taste and correctness of eye. His greatest success was in ethics, where his grade was 5th-a correct prognostic of that transcendent ability in statesmanship and moral reasoning, which every great commander must possess. His teachers and comrades judged his mind sound and strong, but not quick. It was a frequent remark among the latter, that if the course were two years longer than it was, Jackson would assuredly graduate at the head of his class.

His manners, when he appeared at West Point, have been already described. When He returned upon furlough to his friends, they noted a great and progressive change in his person. The second year he grew, as it were by a leap, to the height of six feet. His bearing, though still deficient in ease, was punctiliously courteous and dignified. He was scrupulously neat in all his appointments, and, in his handsome cadet uniform, made a most soldierly appearance. At the military academy he was not morose, but reserved almost to shyness; fond of animated conversation and of the collision of intellect, when alone with one or two of his few intimates, but in a larger circle, a silent interested listener. The society there was usually stratified very distinctly, [36] according to the classes. The fourth-class men, under the humble title of plebes, were the fags of all above them. At each stage of his advancement the cadet gained new privileges, which made him look down, like a superior mortal, on the younger. Hence the intimacies of the students were confined to their own classes, save where some more aspiring youth, by reason of distinguished scholarship or social advantages, sought the society of those above him. ButJackson, in selecting his few friends, disregarded all these bonds of caste, and most frequently chose them from the classes below him. His favorite recreation was walking; and almost every afternoon he might be seen, with a single companion, striding rapidly over the picturesque hills, or sitting upon one of the headlands which overhang the waters of the Hudson. In these confidential walks, his favorite topics were the graver subjects of moral reasoning, mental science, ethics, politics. He had enjoyed no collegiate training in these studies, the instruction in them at the military academy was limited, and his favorite associate in these discussions was a graduate of one of the Colleges which made this branch of science prominent. Yet, although his knowledge of the speculations of metaphysicians was limited, his friend found his notions always original, and usually correct, and his reasonings so ingenious and forcible, that he was never an easy antagonist to overcome. One of the most pleasing and noteworthy traits of his nature was his tenderness to the distressed. A case of sickness or bereavement, among the younger cadets especially, awakened all his sympathies; and he would devote himself to their help with a zeal so womanly, as to evoke the gibes of coarser natures. Perhaps, his profound impressions of the infirmity of his own frame quickened these sensibilities. He seemed to be under a habitual fear of some chronic and fatal disease, and began even then that rigid observance of such [37] laws of health as he apprehended to be suitable to him. One of these rules was, never to bend his body in studying, lest the compression of some of the important organs within should increase their tendency to disease. Hence he sat always bolt upright; his chair might as well have been without a back.

It does not appear that Jackson was under the influence of vital Christianity at West Point. Speculatively, he was a believer; outwardly, he was observant of the decencies of religion, and his morals were pure; but the sacred impression of his mother's piety and teachings was as yet dormant. The most authentic disclosure of his moral nature at that time is a code of behavior which he compiled for himself, and carefully engrossed in a blank book (in a large, correct, formal handwriting, that surprisingly contrasts with the indistinct, cursive style of later years) under the title of “Maxims.” These seem to have been in part selected from books of that character, and in part adopted from his own experience. They relate to morals, manners, dress, the choice of friends, and the aims of life. The standard of principle is simply that of a high secular virtue, with such reference to religious responsibilities as every thoughtful and reverent nature prompts. But they show already that devotion to the sentiment of duty which his after-life manifested so grandly; and they reveal the loftiest aims. It is plain that he habitually nourished the honorable ambition to make himself the very greatest of which his nature was capable; and that the limits which he assigned to this possibility were far removed. Beneath his modest reserve and silence, so contrasted with all the tricks of egotism, there burned the steady but intense purpose, to place his character and his name high upon the scale of true merit. Perhaps the most characteristic of [38] these maxims is the following, written in a conspicuous place:--

You may be whatever you resolve to be.

We shall see that this was, to him, a most practical dogma.

His temper was recognized at West Point to be inflexible, without being petulant or aggressive. The only personal difficulty which he ever had with a fellow-student illustrates this trait; and the contrasted destiny of the two antagonists may well impress on every young man, the dreadfulness of base and relaxed principles, and the value of integrity. The cadet who was Jackson's sole enemy, resembled him in capacity and the conditions of his career. He was an orphan, from the far West, of rural training, of sound mind, and energetic and forcible character, capable of strenuous exertion, poor, and eager to advance himself. His early education had been neglected. Like Jackson he incurred the sportive malice of the students, on his arrival at the Academy, by his appearance of rusticity and inexperience, and he defended himself with so much courage and good sense, and made such progress in his studies that all were at first inclined in his favor. There appeared no reason why he and Jackson might not run parallel courses of honor and usefulness. But, in his second year, he disclosed a laxity of principle, told less than the truth in order to evade “demerits,” and contracted degrading associations in the neighboring village.Jackson was one of the first to perceive his lack of principle. One day his musket, which was always scrupulously clean, was replaced by one in most slovenly order. He called the attention of his captain (himself a senior cadet) to this loss, and described to him his private mark by which he identified his gun. That evening at the inspection of arms, it was found in the hands of the student who has been described, and when taxed with purloining it, the latter endeavored to [39] shield himself by falsehood. Jacksonhad been indignant that he should commit such an act from mere indolence, but now his anger was unbounded. He declared that such a nuisance should not continue a member of the Academy, and demanded that he should be tried by a court-martial, upon his information, and expelled. It was only by means of the most persevering remonstrances of his comrades, and of the professors, that he could be induced to waive his right of pursuing the charge. The event proved that his estimate was more correct than that of his seniors. It was not long before his opponent was under arrest for disgraceful conduct, violated his parole, and was expelled on that account, a short time before he would have graduated. He resorted to the new State of Texas, and professed for a time to engage in the study of law. Not prospering in this, he embarked for California, endeavored to swindle the master of the ship out of his fare, and was summarily thrust ashore at Mazatlan, on the western coast of Mexico, without money or friends. There he wandered into the mountains, and attached himself to a roving tribe of the Tuscon Indians, among whom his skill in savage warfare, robbery, and murder, raised him to a sort of chieftainship, and the possession of half-a-dozen tawny wives. The last intelligence which reached the civilized world concerning him was, that he and his subjects had quarrelled concerning the murder of a poor pedlar, whom he had slain for his wares; and his miserable band, less savage than himself, had expelled him from their society. Jackson, meantime, has filled two hemispheres with his fame for every quality which is great and good.

The latter graduated at West Point, June 30th, 1846, being then twenty-two years old; and, according to custom, received the brevet rank of second lieutenant of artillery. The Mexican War was then in progress, and General Winfield Scott was [40] proceeding to take supreme command. The young lieutenant was ordered to report immediately for duty with the 1st Regiment of Artillery; and proceeded through Pennsylvania, down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, which was the rendezvous of the forces designed to reinforce the army in Mexico.

Chapter 3: in Mexico.

The war of the United States against Mexico, beginning with the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de laPalma in Western Texas, had rolled its waves, under General Zachary Taylor, up the Rio Grande, and into the province of New Leon. Monterey was occupied after a sanguinary victory, and the advanced forces had proceeded as far as Saltillo. But it was apparent, at the end of 1846, that successes on this line of operations would never bring peace, because it could only lead the arms of the United Statesaside from the heart of their enemy's strength. To reach the capital, a circuitous inland march would have been necessary; while the overpowering navy of the Union, if once Vera Cruz were occupied, would enable them to base upon the sea-coast a direct and short line of advance, by the great National Road.General Winfield Scott, who had been sent out as commander-in-chief of the whole forces, was therefore allowed to carry out his plan for organizing a powerful land and naval force against Vera Cruz, early in the year 1847. Most of the regular regiments were withdrawn from the command of GeneralTaylor, and concentrated, during the month of February, at the seaport of Tampico, about two hundred and thirty miles north of Vera Cruz, where General Scott was also assembling his reinforcements. Young Jackson's company of heavy artillery formed a part of the [42] latter. On the 24th of February, the commanding general commenced the assembling of his forces at Lobos Island, a convenient intermediate point, offering a roadstead for his numerous ships unmolested by his enemies, a little north of Vera Cruz. On the 9th of March, 13,500 land forces were disembarked in one day from the fleet, upon the open beach near the city, without a single casualty. Young Jackson often referred to this as a spectacle more grand and animating than man is often permittel to witness. The brilliant array proceeded to the land under a cloudless sky, and in perfect order, in the innumerable boats of the squadron, with colors displayed, martial music, and the enthusiastic shouts of the soldiers, and by sunset the whole force was paraded on shore, in order of battle. The garrison of about four thousand partially organized troops were in no condition to obstruct their advance. On March 13th, the city was formally invested, and on the 29th it capitulated, with all the garrison, after a heavy bombardment. In this service Jackson, who had on March 3d received the commission of second-lieutenant, bore his part, but no occasion for special distinction occurred. Meantime President Santa Anna, whose activity and genius deserved greater success than he was fated to achieve, assembled a force of about twenty thousand men in the province of San Luis Potosi, between the three points of Saltillo, Vera Cruz, and the capital, proposing from this central position to strike his assailants in succession. His first attack was upon General Taylor, who had been left at the first place of the three, with a little more than five thousand men, of whom nearly all were volunteers levied since the beginning of the war. The result was the battle of Buena Vista, in which, on the 23d of February, that small force inflicted a bloody repulse upon the Mexicans.

Santa Anna, having failed in this well-conceived attempt, [43] reorganized and recruited his forces, to resist the advance of the Americans (now masters of Vera Cruz) on the capital. General Scott having set out for the interior on April 12th, he prepared himself for battle on the strong position of Cerro Gordo, a few miles east of Jalapa, crowning a line of precipitous hills with barricades and field-works ranging along, and commanding the great highway. After a reconnoissance effected by Captain Robert E. Leeof the Engineers (in which Lieut.-Col. Joseph E. Johnston of the cavalry received a severe wound),General Scott determined to adopt a plan of assault suggested by the former officer. This was to threaten the whole front of the enemy, but to direct the main attack against a hill at the western extremity of his position; because this post, if once seized by the Americans, commanded the only line of retreat for the discomfited Mexicans, as completely as, they supposed, their position commanded the great road. This vital attack was confided to the veteran division of Twiggs, powerfully supported by artillery, the whole being brought in front of the place to be assailed by an exceedingly rough and circuitous route, planned by Lee. The attack was made April 18th, and was completely successful. The Mexicanarmy almost ceased to exist. It lost all its ordnance and several thousand prisoners; and the victory opened to Scott the town of Jalapa, the powerful fortress of Perote, and the city of La Puebla, within eighty-five miles of the capital.

It was in this assault that Captain John Bankhead Magruder, commanding a light field-battery, won brilliant distinction. But in such operations heavy artillery could only play a secondary part. The place of second-lieutenant in Magruder's battery was then to be filled, and most young officers shrank from it, because the commander was considered as an exacting disciplinarian, and the service of that arm was full of hardship and [44] exposure to danger. But the latter reason was the very one which commended it to Jackson. He applied for, and quickly obtained, a transfer to it; and this change marks the beginning of his career of distinction. The old artillery, cumbersome in moving and, slow in working, was usually posted at some permanent point, and must needs remain there for the day. If the tide of battle flowed towards it, it might render important service; if away from it, it was condemned to inactivity, and a partial disaster could compel its surrender. But the rapid manceuvring of the light artillery in action was then a new feature in American warfare. Its brilliant results at Palo Alto, at Resaca de la Palma, atBuena Vista, had delighted General Taylor, and electrified the country. Jackson foresaw that this arm of warfare was henceforth destined to be used in every battle, and to be always thrust forward to the post of danger and of honor. To a soul thirsting, like his, for distinction, this was motive enough for preferring it. And he said that, determined as he was to do his whole duty, and to consecrate himself wholly to his functions as a soldier, he had no fears of being unable to satisfy the rigidity of its captain. In this he was not disappointed; he speedily became one of his favorite officers.

General Scott, after remaining at La Puebla to rearrange and recruit his force, moved upon the city ofMexico with about eleven thousand men, August 7, 1847. President Santa Anna, meantime, had collected another powerful army, with abundant munitions of war, and had created every practicable obstacle to the approach of the city by the direct road. When the invader reached the mountain ridge of El Peixon, which assists to enclose the great basin in the centre of which the city stands, he found it so well fortified, that it was manifest the attempt to force his way through its defiles, would cost him a large part of his army. Here the ingenuity of his engineers again came to [45] his aid. They showed him that by turning to the left, a way might be opened, practicable for artillery, by virtue of toil and hardihood, across a country scored with rugged volcanic ravines, to the southwest side of the city. This rendered the laborious defences of the Mexicans useless. By August 19, this arduous march was effected, and the Headquarters of the army were advanced to the village of San Augustin, about eight miles to the southwest of the city. No serious opposition was encountered, because the Mexican generals had supposed that the impracticable ground would be a sufficient defence of their flank.

But Santa Anna hastened to repair his omission, and again placed himself between the Americans and his capital, in a line of defences, which, if less elaborate than those in its front, was still formidable. Before San Augustin was the village of San Antonio, which he entrenched and occupied; at a considerable distance to tie west of it he crowned an insulated hill at Contreras, with a strong detachment of infantry and artillery, and, in the rear of this post, he placed his heaviest force at the little village of Cherubusco, which he had also strengthened with field-works. A force at least three times as large as the American, with a hundred cannon, thus awaited their attack in position of their own selecting. But Santa Anna had committed the fatal blunder of choosing the two points which were the keys of his whole front, San Antonio and Contreras, so far apart, that they could not efficiently support each other. After heavy skirmishing on the 19th of August, General Scott turned the hill of Contreras by a night march, and at dawn, on the 20th, assailed it from the rear, either capturing or dispersing its five thousand defenders in a combat of a few minutes' duration, and seizing all their cannon. The Mexicanforce at San An tonio now found their communications violently threatened, and could only save themselves by a hasty retreat upon Chernbusco, [46] pressed by an active enemy. He advanced immediately to the attack of this last position; and as may be easily imagined, found its defenders assembled there in so confused a manner, as to be ill prepared for a firm resistance. After a sanguinary conflict of several hours, the village and entrenchments were carried, and the enemy retired nearer the city. To Magruder's battery was assigned an important post in front of the enemy's works, at the distance of nine hundred yards. Before long, his first lieutenant, Mr. Johnstone, was killed, and Jacksonthus became next in command to the captain, and took charge of a section, or half of the battery; which he so handled, as to win from Magruder, the following commendation in his report:--“In a few moments,Lieutenant Jackson, commanding the second section of the battery, who had opened fire upon the enemy's works from a position on the right, hearing our fire still further in front, advanced in handsome style, and being assigned by me to the post so gallantly filled by Lieutenant Johnstone, kept up the fire with great briskness and effect. His conduct was equally conspicuous during the whole day, and I cannot too highly commend him to the Major-General's favorable consideration.”

In reward for his gallantry this day, he was honored with the brevet rank of captain of artillery; and his actual rank in the company was henceforth that of first lieutenant. On the 8th of September, a fierce combat was fought at a point still nearer the city, called Molino del Rey, in which the Americans were again victorious. In this affair, Jackson had no other part than to protect the flank of the force engaged, from the insults of the Mexican cavalry, which he accomplished by a few welldirected shots.

One more obstacle remained between the victors and their prize; but this was the most formidable of all. The [47] Castle of Chapultepec, at first perhaps a monastery, was built upon an insulated and lofty hill overlooking the plain which extended up to the gates of the city, and commanding both the causeways by which the Americans aimed to approach them. The level country about the base of the mount was covered in part with corn, and in part with groves, and intersected with deep ditches, formed by the farmers for drainage and irrigation, impassable for artillery, and nearly so for infantry. As a previous examination of these was made impossible by swarms of sharpshooters, they only disclosed themselves to the advancing columns, when they arrived upon their brinks, shrouded as they were by the luxuriant grain, or by hedges of the thorny cactus. The castle was manned with a garrison, and around its base the remains of the Mexican army was posted in entrenchments, with batteries of cannon prepared to sweep every road which approached. The Americans, cut off at the time from their distant ships, found that the urgent want of supplies, which the city alone could furnish them by its surrender, compelled them to seek the reduction of this fort by some more speedy means than a regular siege. It was determined to storm it by several detachments, directed against its different sides, on the morning of September 13th.Major-General Pillow, to whom Magruder's battery was assigned, was directed to attack its west side, while Worth, the most skilful of Scott's lieutenants, was to march by a circuit beyond Pillow, and assail the north. Magruder was ordered by his general to divide his battery, and send one section forward, under Jackson, towards the northwest angle, while he assailed another part. Two regiments of infantry, under Colonel Tronsdale, accompanied the former section.. The columns of attack advanced to the charge; the artillery, at every practicable point, striving to aid their approach by pouring a storm of shot upon the Mexican batteries. When [48] the detachment, which Magruder supported with the section under his immediate command, had advanced so near the enemy that his fire was dangerous to his own friends, he proceeded to the front to join Jackson. The latter had been pushed forward by ColonelTronsdale, under whose immediate orders the plan of the battle placed him, until he found himself unexpectedly in the presence of a strong battery of the enemy, at so short a range, that, in a few moments, the larger portion of his horses was killed, and his men either struck down, or driven from their guns by a storm of grape-shot; while about seventy of the infantry were holding a precarious tenure of their ground in his rear. Worth was just completing his detour, and bringing his veterans into connection with this party, when perceiving the desperate position of Jackson's guns, he sent him word to retire. He replied that it was now more dangerous to withdraw his pieces than to hold his position; and that if they would send him fifty veterans, he would rather attempt the capture of the battery which had so crippled his. Magruder then dashed forward, losing his horse by a fatal shot as he approached him, and found that he had lifted a single gun across a deep ditch by hand to a position where it could be served with effect; and this he was rapidly loading and firing, with the sole assistance of a sergeant; while the remainder of his men were either killed, wounded, or crouching in the ditch. Another piece was speedily brought over, and in a few moments, the enemy was driven from his battery by the rapid and unerring fire of Jackson and Magruder.

By this time the storming parties had pierced the castle on two sides, and the Mexicans were in full retreat upon the city. Orders had been given to the artillery that when this juncture arrived, they must pursue rapidly and scatter the disordered columns of the retreating foe. The horses of Jackson guns [49] were nearly all slaughtered; those of his caissons, being farther in the rear, had partially escaped. To disengage the dead animals from their harness and replace them with the others would have consumed many minutes. The eager spirit of Jackson suggested the attachment of his guns to the limbers of his ammunition-boxes instead of their own, and the leaving of the remaining caissons on the ground. Thus, in an instant, his section was thundering after the discomfited Mexicans towards the gates of the city. The next morning, September 14th, two of those gates on the southwestern side were forced, the Americanarmy entered, and after some partial combats with the riflemen in the houses and upon the roofs, quelled all opposition and took possession of the capital.

Jackson had displayed qualities which could not fail to draw the eyes of his commanders upon him. The outline which has been given of his share in the battles, is sustained by the following passages from the official reports of the Commander-in-Chief, Generals Pillow and Worth, and his own captain. The first says:--

“To the north, and at the base of the mound (Chapultepec), inaccessible on that side, the 11th Infantry, under Lieut.-Colonel Herbert, and the 14th under Colonel Tronsdale, and Captain Magruder's field-battery, 1st Artillery (one section advanced under Lieutenant Jackson), all of Pillow's division, had at the same time some spirited affairs against superior numbers, driving the enemy from a battery in the road, and capturing a gun. In these, the officers and corps named gained merited praise. Having turned the forest on the west, and arriving opposite to the north centre of Chapultepec, Worth came up with the troops in the road under Colonel Tronsdale, and aided, by a flank movement of a part of Garland's brigade, in taking the [50] one-gun breastwork, then under fire of Lieutenant Jackson's section ofMagruder's battery.”

General Pillow says:--

Colonel Tronsdale's command, consisting of the 11th and 14th Regiments of Infantry, and Magruder's field-battery, engaged a battery and large force in the road, immediately on the west of Chapultepec. The advanced section of the battery, under command of the braveLieutenant Jackson, was dreadfully cut up, and almost disabled. Though the command ofColonel Tronsdale sustained a severe loss, still he drove the enemy from his battery, and turned his guns upon his retreating forces. Captain Magruder's battery, one section of which was served with great gallantry by himself, and the other by his brave LieutenantJackson, in the face of a galling fire from the enemy's position, did invaluable service preparatory to the general assault.

General Worth, though commanding a different division of troops, gives the following tribute:--

After advancing some four hundred yards, we came to a battery which had been assailed by a portion of Magruder's field-guns, particularly the section under the gallant Jackson, who, although he had lost most of his horses and many of his men, continued chivalrously at his post, combating with noble courage.

And Magruder thus recommends him for promotion:--

I beg leave to call the attention of the Major-General commanding the division to the conduct of Lieutenant Jackson of the 1st Artillery. If devotion, industry, talent, and gallantry are the highest qualities of a soldier, then is he entitled to the distinction which their possession confers. I have been ably seconded in all the operations of the battery by him; and upon this occasion, when circumstances placed him in command fer a [51] short time of an independent section, he proved himself eminently worthy of it.

It is a singular coincidence, that this report of Captain Magruder was addressed immediately to one who has since had disastrous occasion to verify its correctness. It was received by Captain Joe Hooker, then acting as adjutant to General Pillow, afterwards a Major-General in the Federal army, and Commanderat Chancellorsville.

For his conduct in the battle of Chapultepec, Jackson received the brevet rank of Major. To this he had risen, purely by the force of his merit, within seven months, from the insignificant position of brevet second lieutenant. No other officer in the whole army in Mexico was promoted so often for meritorious conduct, or made so great a stride in rank. If the conduct which has been detailed be examined, it will be found to contain every evidence of bravery, thirst for distinction, coolness, and military talent. We see the young Lieutenant, the moment the fall of his immediate superior placed him in command of a detachment at Churubusco, awaiting no orders, but guided by the sound of his Captain's guns on his left, emulously pressing forward towards the enemy. At Chapultepec he is assigned to the post of honor and danger, and advances with alacrity. When Colonel Tronsdale, to whom he owed merely a momentary subordination, thrust him into a position almost desperate, and he was well-nigh deserted by his men, he refused to retire without orders. Comprehending all the advantages and perils of his situation at once, he proposed rather to exercise the further audacity of storming the battery before him, than to attempt a disastrous retreat exposed to its fire. And when the arrival of reinforcements relieved him of his danger, he displayed his ready resource in pursuing the defeated foe, where any other officer would have [52] felt fully justified, in busying himself only with carrying the shattered remains of his command to the rear.

Many years after, when his pupils were asking him the details of the scene, he modestly described it; and one of them exclaimed in astonishment, “Major, why did you not run, when your command was thus disabled?” He answered with a quiet smile, “I was not ordered to do so. If I had been ordered to run, I should have done so. But I was directed to hold my position, and I had no right to abandon it.” He confessed also to an intimate friend, that the order of Major-General Pillow, separating his section, for the day, from his Captain, had excited his abiding gratitude; so that, while the regular officers were rather inclined to depreciate that general as an unprofessional soldier, he loved him because he gave him an opportunity to win distinction. His friends asked him if he felt no trepidation when so many were falling around him. He replied, no; the only anxiety of which he was conscious in any of these engagements, was a fear, lest he should not meet danger enough to make his conduct under it as conspicuous as he desired; and as the fire grew hotter, he rejoiced in it as his coveted opportunity. He also declared to those who were surmising the effect of the dangers of battle upon their spirits, that to him it was always exalting, and that he was conscious of a more perfect command of all his faculties, and of their more clear and rapid action, when under fire than at any other time. This, it will be remembered, was a distinguishing feature in the character of Napoleon's celebrated lieutenant, MarshalNey. The Emperor was wont to say of him, that he was worth little as a general, saw nothing, and could do nothing, till ho was enveloped in fire and smoke. Then he was all energy, sagacity, genius.

After the quiet occupation of the city, Major Jackson became [53] a part of the garrison, and resided there, in a state of pleasant military leisure, until the diplomatists had matured a peace, and the Americanarmy was withdrawn. This season of rest continued several months. He was one of those who were quartered in the national palace, so that he used pleasantly to say, that no one had come nearer than himself to realizing the inflated predictions of the demagogues of the day in the United States, that “their soldiers should lodge in the halls of the Montezumas.” His duties were light, and easily despatched in the early forenoon; the climate was delicious; every object around him was full of grandeur or interest to his active mind; and the cultivated hospitality of the Castilians was alluring. It is well known how easily the luxurious society of a capital can forget national prejudices and humiliations, at the call of social enjoyment, and learn to consider the accomplished and courteous professional soldier as no longer an enemy. Many Mexicans, moreover, regarded the invading army rather in the light of deliverers from a disorderly and oppressive government, than of intruders and oppressors. Immediately after the occupation of the city, therefore, the places of amusement were re-opened, and frequented by a mingled crowd of Americans and Mexicans, the ladies walked the streets in crowds, and the young officers began to cultivate the acquaintance of the most distinguished families.

To qualify himself for enjoying this society more freely, Jackson, with a young comrade, addressed himself to the study of the Spanish language. His active mind was, besides, incapable of absolute repose, and he wished to improve his leisure by acquiring knowledge. He was ignorant of Latin, which is not taught at West Point, and the only grammar of Spanish he could find was written in that ancient tongue. Yet he bought it, and nothing daunted, set himself to learn [54] the paradigms of the language from it; and by the help of reading and constant conversation with the people, became in a few months a good Spanish scholar. It was an amusing trait of his character that he appeared afterwards proud of this accomplishment, and fond of exercising it, so far as his modest nature could be said to make any manifestation of pride. He ever took pleasure in testifying to the cultivation, hospitality, and flowing courtesy of the Spanish gentry in Mexico; and, like Napier, among their kindred in their mother-country, acknowledged the fascination of their accomplished manners, and their noble and sonorous tongue, and the indescribable grace and beauty of their women. Having formed the acquaintance of some educated ecclesiastics of the Romish Church (probably of the order of Canons), he went, by their invitation, to reside with them. He found their bachelor abode the perfection of luxurious comfort. Upon awaking in the morning, the servants brought him, before he arose from bed, a light repast, consisting of a few diminutive spiced cakes, and a single cup of that delicious chocolate which is found only in Spanish houses. He then dressed, went out, and attended to the drill of his company. Later in the morning, when the sun began to display his power, he returned to a breakfast of coffee, fruits, and game. The greater part of the day was then spent in study or visiting; and it closed with a dinner in which Parisian art vied with the tropical fruits native to the climate in conferring enjoyment. One family especially among his Spanish acquaintances extended to him a hospitality for which he was always grateful, and it possessed the attraction of several charming daughters. He confessed, years after, that he found it advisable to discontinue his visits there; and when asked the reason, said with a blush, that he found the fascination of some of the female charms which he met there was likely to become too strong for [55] his prudence, unless he escaped them in good time. He declared that if the people of the city had been equal to their beautiful climate, in integrity and character, Mexico would have been the most alluring home for him in the world. But while his taste felt the charms of the Spanish grace and lofty courtesy, his sturdy English sense and pure honor taught him the incompatibility of a hollow and corrupt state of morals, and a debasing religion, with all his radical principles; and so he firmly withdrew himself, before his self-respect was tarnished.

But we have now reached the most important era in Jackson's life; the beginning of a vital change in his religious character. All the information which can now be gathered, points to the devout Colonel FrankTaylor, commanding his regiment of artillery, as his first official spiritual guide. This good man was accustomed to labor as a father for the religious welfare of his young officers; and Jackson's manly nature seems to have awakened his especial interest. During the campaign of the summer, his instruction and prayers had produced so much effect as to awaken an abiding anxiety and spirit of inquiry inJackson's mind. He acknowledged his former practical neglect of this transcendent subject, and deplored the vagueness of his religious knowledge. It seems to have been almost a law of his nature even before it was sanctified, that, with him, to be convinced in his understanding of a duty was to set straightway about its performance. He resolved to make the Bible his study, and with a characteristic independence of mind, to take nothing, as to his own religious duties, from prejudice, or from the claims of the various denominations into which he saw the religious world divided. His attitude towards all creeds and sects was at this time singularly unbiassed. His parentage cannot be said to have belonged to any party in religion; his youth had been passed in a household where [56] Christianity was practically unknown; and his later education was obtained among a great company of young men, assembled from every church, under the slender instructions of an army chaplain. His own religious knowledge was at this time extremely scanty. Resolved to examine for himself and decide conscientiously, he concluded that there was now a rare opportunity to inform himself concerning one church at least, the Popish, from a high and authentic source. He was surrounded by educated Papists; and he determined to hear the very best they could say in commendation of their system. He therefore sought the acquaintance of theArchbishop of Mexico, introduced, probably, by his monastic friends, and had a number of interviews, in which that prelate entered at large into an explanation of the Romish system. Jackson always declared that he believed him a sincere and honest advocate of that Church, and that he found him not only affable, but able and learned. He also said that the system, as expounded by intelligent Romanists, was by no means so gross or so obnoxious to common sense as is represented by the mass of decided Protestants. The truth is (and herein is the subtlety of that form of error), the statements of doctrines are so artfully drawn up by the welltrained doctor of the Romish Church, that they may bear always two phases of meaning; the one more decided and gross, the other more akin to the evangelical truth. When, for instance, Rome requires her teachers to say that, in the sinner's justification, the “meritorious cause” is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, while the “formal cause” is the personal holiness inwrought by the grace of the gospel in the Christian's soul; the words in the hands of a Jansenist, may be made almost to mean that precious truth which every evangelical Christian, in every church, embraces in substance, that our acceptance before God is only in the merits of the Redeemer; while, in the hands of a [57] self-righteous Jesuit, they will teach essentially a Pharisaic dependence on our own observances. So the doctrine of peD ance and absolution, in the instruction of the former, will be made to mean little more than that the minister of God's church is commissioned to publish'therein His mercy to the truly penitent soul; while, in the teachings of the latter, it will encourage the ignorant to believe, with a gross literality, that the priest, and the priest alone, can forgive sins. Doubtless, in the case of Jackson, the skilful polemic saw that his mind was too clear and strong to be hoodwinked by the darker phase of these dogmas. But with all the casuist's plausibility, he failed to commend Popery to his' convictions. The inquirer departed unsatisfied, clearly convinced that the system of the Bible and that of Rome were irreconcilable, and that the true religion of Jesus Christ was to be sought by him elsewhere.

These studies seem to have left Jackson's mind for a long time in a singular state. His progress towards the full light was extremely gradual. He was henceforward conscientious, and more than ever punctilious about the purity of his life; he never remitted his interest in the great question of his own salvation; yet, for more than two years after, he still remained in suspense. He apparently had no clear persuasion of his own acceptance before God, and no settled conviction as to the branch of the Church which he should select as his own.

His residence in Mexico, however, was not long protracted. On March 5, 1848, an armistice was concluded for two months between General Scott and the Mexican authorities; and on May 26th, a treaty of peace was finally ratified. The military occupation of the city and territory was therefore terminated as speedily as possible; and on the 12th of June, the last of the United States' forces left the capital to return home. Major Jackson's command was sent to Fort Hamilton, a post situated [58] uponLong Island, seven miles below New York city, and commanding the approach to its harbor, known as the Narrows. Here we must follow his quiet career for a time through the monotonous life of a garrison, diversified by occasional resorts to the society of a great city. [59]

Chapter 4: life in Lexington.

The narrative of Major Jackson's introduction into the military academy of the commonwealth ofVirginia at Lexington, is naturally preceded by a relation of the few incidents of his residence at Fort Hamilton. His life here was uneventful, save in his spiritual progress. The duties of the garrison fell lightly upon him; his rank as an officer of artillery entitled him to keep a horse, and thus indulge his passion for equestrian exercise; and the society of the post, enlivened by the presence of the superior officers' families, was attractive. Best of all, his Christian friend and father, Colonel Taylor, was residing near him, and continued to extend to him his pious advice. To him he ever after looked up, as one of the chief instruments of God in bringing him to a saving knowledge of the truth. Another spiritual guide now presented himself, in the chaplain of the garrison, the Rev. Mr. Parks. This gifted man was also analumnus of the military academy at West Point, and a distinguished scholar. His religious zeal had led him to forsake the life of a soldier for that of a minister of the gospel in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In this communion he rose to distinction as a pulpit orator, and professor in their college, RandolphMacon, in Virginia. But his ecclesiastical views having undergone a change, he took orders in the Episcopal Church; and, as a clergyman of that communion, had, at one time, a post [60] at West Point, and, at another, at Fort Hamilton. His ardent nature found much that was congenial in Jackson's. Under his ministry, the latter arrived at a comfortable hope of salvation, insomuch that he felt it his duty and privilege to apply for baptism, which he had never received. His conscientious inquiries into the claims of the different denominations of Christians were still continued, without, however, bringing him to any final conclusion. Popery he had examined, and rejected as anti-scriptural. Episcopacy he admitted to be an evangelical system; but some of its features he was unwilling to accept as of scriptural authority. This state of mind he explicitly avowed in asking for baptism at her door, stating that he should consider himself, if he obtained that privilege, not a member of the Episcopal denomination, but of the catholic body of Christ; and that, if ever his conscience and judgment were satisfied as to the most scriptural form of the Church, he should feel himself perfectly free to join it, whether it should be that or some other. But as his separation from civil life, and the society of other Christians, deprived him of the means of comparing and judging at that time, he felt that it was his duty, meanwhile, to assume, in the appointed rite, the name and service of the Redeemer, who, he hoped, had saved him. On this understanding, the Rev. Mr. Parks baptized him, and admitted him to his first communion.

After a residence of about two years at Fort Hamilton, Major Jackson was transferred to Fort Meade, near Tampa Bay, on the west coast of Florida. It is probable that the feebleness of his health, by no means invigorated by the fatigues and exposures of Mexico, was one motive of this change of residence. His abode at this post seems to have been as uneventful as it was short, for he rarely made any allusion to it. On the 27th of March, 1851, he was elected Professor of Natural [61] and Experimental Philosophy and Artillery Tactics in the Military Academy of Virginia. This school, founded about twelve years before, upon the model of the one at West Point, had grown nearly to the distinction of its prototype, and was now attended by several hundred young men from Virginia and other Southern States. It is placed near the village of Lexington, in the county of Rockbridge, one of the most fertile and picturesque districts in the great valley of Virginia. Its castellated buildings, grandly situated on a commanding yet grassy eminence, overlook the country for many miles, and, on the east, confront theBlue Ridge Mountains, which form the boundary of the district on that side. The salubrity of the climate, and the intelligence of the society, graced also by the faculty of Washington College, have always madeLexington an attractive residence. The prosperity and growth of the Military Institute calling for another instructor in this department, the eyes of its governors were directed to Major Jackson, by his high character, scholarship, and brilliant career in Mexico. Other names were submitted by the Faculty ofWest Point, among which may be mentioned those of General George B. McClellan, General Reno, and General Rosecranz of the present Federal armies, and the distinguished General G. W. Smith of the Confederate army. But the high testimonials given to Major Jackson, and his birth as a Virginian, secured the preference of the visitors, who elected him by a unanimous vote. The fortunate issue of their selection illustrates the wisdom of that rule so often violated by the people of the South, to their own injury and reproach, to give the preference, in all appointments of trust, to citizens “to the manor born.” The salary offered him was the modest sum of twelve hundred dollars, with commutation for quarters.

Jackson was no lover of garrison life, and accepted this [62] place promptly. He afterwards explained to an intimate friend, that while campaigning was extremely congenial to his tastes, the life of a military post in times of peace was just as repulsive; that he perceived the officers of the army usually neglected self-improvement, and rusted, in trivial amusements, at these fortresses; and that, on the recurrence of a war, the man who had turned, with a good military reputation, into the pursuits of a semi-civilian, and who thus vigorously prosecuted his mental improvement, might expect even more promotion in the army than those who had remained in the dull tread-mill of the garrison. But he declared that he knew war to be his true vocation, that his constant aim in life would ever be the career of the soldier, that he only accepted a scholastic occupation during peace, and that he was mainly induced to this by the military character of the school, and by the opportunities which, as professor of the art of the artillerist, he would enjoy of continuing his practical acquaintance with his chosen calling. He therefore repaired to the Military Institute in July, 1851; and in this honorable retirement spent nearly ten yea's.

The department of instruction committed to him, embraced the theory and practice of gunnery, and the sciences of mechanics, optics, and astronomy. These were taught in part by experiment, and in part by the application of mathematical analysis. To determine the theories of light and of motion, and the doctrines of astronomy, he employed the most abstruse and refined applications of geometry, and of the calculus of fluxions. The cadet was introduced from the simpler studies of pure mathematics to this arduous course, and, consequently, it was generally feared and disliked by him. Indeed, it may well be questioned, whether the minds of most youths have sufficient maturity, at the age when they usually complete their second [63] year in the military school, to grapple with these discussions successfully. The major part of the classes were, probably, overcome by the demands made upon their powers of abstraction and logic, and floundered along, in the rear of their instructor, catching only occasional glimpses of the recondite truth. Major Jackson had never been a teacher, nor had the bustle of the life into which he plunged, at his first step from West Point, left him much opportunity to review these abstruse studies. When asked by a friend (after his success had long been assured) whether he had not been diffident of himself in undertaking so untried and arduous a course of instruction, he replied, “No; he expected to be able to study sufficiently in advance of his class; for one could always do what he willed to accomplish.”

His career as a professor was respectable, but never popular. None doubted the strength of his mind, nor his thorough scholarship, nor his conscientious industry, nor his justice and impartiality. But, while all his better students were accustomed to assert his thorough competency, discontent with his labors was not infrequent, both among his pupils and the alumni of the school. To all the better intellects of his class he communicated accurate scholarship, and the thoroughness of his mental drill was most useful. But the laggards lagged very far in the rear, and he was unsuccessful in bringing them up. This resulted, as has been already intimated, in part from the difficult nature of his department; but in part also from the constitution of Jackson's mind. He lacked some of the peculiar tact of the eminent teacher; and this was precisely because of the greatness of his endowments as a soldier and commander. The perceptions of his mind were so vigorous and distinct, and seized so exclusively on the main points of consideration, that all conclusions were with him perfectly defined. Hence [64] there was, to him, but one formula of words which gave an exact expression to his thought. If one complained that his comprehension was imperfect, and asked for another statement, Jackson had no answer to make save to repeat his first formula. Now, to the leader, whose function it is to give orders to be obeyed, this trait is invaluable. In the teacher, whose work is to assist the comprehension of weaker minds, it is a defect. The very force and clearness with which Jackson's mind moved along from its premises to its conclusions, made it improbable that it would travel any second path, less plain than the one first perceived by his strong intuition. Hence, he lacked versatility and powers of elucidation. His intolerance of laziness, also, concurred to make the youth of defective comprehension dissatisfied with his teachings. But in the art of examining, one most essential to the efficiency of the teacher, he was eminent. His questions were always fair, always well chosen to eviscerate the subject, and always put in words carefully selected-words absolutely perspicuous, and true to the thought he aimed to propound, without the use of one superfluous phrase. If the pupil said he did not comprehend the point of the inquiry, Jackson was sure to repeat precisely the same words, with yet more deliberation. He held that when the form of the question was already perspicuous, an inability to comprehend it was, in fact, evidence of an inability to answer it. It may easily be conceived that this method was not likely to be peculiarly pleasing to an indolent youth, who, coming half prepared to his recitation, desired to extract a hint to assist his own ignorance, in the shape of a “leading question” from the teacher.

Another cause which detracted from Jackson's success as a teacher of the natural sciences, was the lack of practical skill in performing physical experiments. As has been remarked, he [65] was not gifted with much of the minute manual dexterity which goes to the making of a skilful artisan or musician; nor had his mind that “mechanical turn” which Sir Walter Scott declared to be, in his opinion, the usual index of a little trumpery understanding. His experiments were not brilliant, and sometimes they resulted in ludicrous blunders, at which he laughed as heartily as any of the lads of his class.

One of the most painful consequences of his ill health was a weakness of the eyes, which rendered reading by any artificial light injurious, and threatened total blindness. This infirmity was not usually revealed by any visible inflammation, but rather affected the nerves of vision. He made it a conscientious duty, as well as found it a necessity, to forego all reading after nightfall, except the short portion of the Scriptures with which he invariably closed the day. But as the hours of daylight were necessarily much occupied with the duties of the class-room, the drill, and the Faculty, this deprivation of.the quiet hours of night, which most scholars find so precious, was a serious difficulty, and imposed on him a peculiar method of study. During that part of the day which remained after his morning recitation, he carefully read over the text of the subjects which he wished to study for the next day, fixing the outlines of the discussion in his retentive memory. After devoting the remainder of his afternoon to domestic or social duties, he took his frugal supper, and proceeded to complete the studies of the morning without lamp, book or diagram, either pacing the floor of his chamber, or quietly seated with his face to the wall. In this mental review, he passed over every link of the logic of the discussion, completed its method in his own mind, and assured his perfect recollection of it, so as to be prepared to teach it on the morrow. This study completed in one or two hours, he pleasantly wheeled his chair towards the fire, removed the [66] injunction which he laid, at beginning, against addressing conversation to him, and passed into whatever topic engaged the attention of his family. His instructions in the class-room were accordingly conducted without ever referring to books, although very closely conformed to them. Not only was his recollection of their contents perfect, but even of the place upon the page where each proposition might be found. Now, when his department of instruction is remembered, which involved the constant use of the most refined mathematical analysis, and discussion of figure, dimensions, motions, and relations of bodies in space, which most minds comprehend with difficulty, even by the aid of diagrams and models, the best scholar will best understand how astonishing was the exercise of memory, abstraction, imagination, and logical power in these studies. Some may notice with incredulity the word imagination, included in this enumeration, and may rejoin, that Jackson was notoriously unimaginative and prosaic. If the name of this noble faculty, the imagination, be degraded, as it is popularly, to express the habitude of employing many tropes, either invented, or recollected and borrowed, in the expression of the thoughts, then it is conceded that he was not imaginative. He was not prone to indulge his fancy; but, whether through incapacity, the reader will perhaps discover. If, however, imagination is used in its proper sense, to express the creative power of the mind, the ability to reproduce in the chambers of the soul, and without the aid of sensation, the elements of conception, and to combine them, with a vivid distinctness, in new relations, then Jackson had the faculty in great strength. And, hence, it becomes true, that there is no better cultivation of this faculty, than in the distinct comprehension of the subjects of the applied mathematics, in their higher branches, by this purely mental study. The great mathematician may not be accustomed [67] to bedizen his discourses with similes concerning purling brooks and silvery moonbeams; ¹ but he can map out in conception the great circles of the heavens, equinoctial and ecliptic, with the orbits of the planets, and grasp the related movements of the worlds in his thought, as they wheel ih intricate, yet orderly labyrinths; a task under which the feeble mind of the poetaster collapses in hopeless confusion. The former knows how to body forth, with the distinctness of actual vision, the combinations of all the elements of thought which the mind gathers, in her illimitable excursions beyond the regions explored by the senses. He can so produce, before his thought, things that are not seen, and things that shall be, with the palpable reality of things that are seen, and of things that are, as to awaken by them all the strong emotions of the soul, which in natures less noble wait upon the actual information of sensation. And this is most essentially that faculty of the intellect which raises man from the sensuous animal toward the all-knowing Spirit, in whose image he is made. This is the faculty which, in the great statesman and commander, groups the data for the inspection of the profound judgment, which enables him for the clear comprehension of vast and multiplex affairs, and which ministers to his soul the stimulus of grand resolves.

One can now comprehend how valuable was the training which Jackson's mind received, in these meditations without book upon abstract truths, for his work as a soldier. Command over his attention was formed into a habit which no tempest of confusion could disturb. His power of abstraction became unrivalled. His imagination was trained and invigorated, until it became competent for grouping the most extensive and complex considerations. The power of his mind to endure its own tension, [68] in the labors of reflection and volition, was drilled like the strength of the athlete. His self-concentration became unsurpassed. Having fixed upon his mind the positions of his forces and of the enemy's, and the relations of the routes, rivers, mountains and fortresses, by the inspection of a map; he could study all the possible combinations of movements as he rode, rapt in thought, at the head of his columns, with as much maturity as though alone in his chamber. Hence, in part, it resulted, that while no commander gave more scope to his own versatility and resource in the progress of events, there was never one whose foresight was more complete. Nothing emerged which had not been considered before in his mind; no possibility was overlooked; he was never surprised.

Jackson's life at the military school in Lexington was regular, and marked by few incidents. It was, however, the season when his personal character received its shape. It therefore appears a suitable place in this narrative, to proceed with its delineation, illustrating it by the few events of the period.

He was, without doubt, of a nature intensely ambitious and aspiring. The depression of his poverty and orphanage, in his youth, had only stimulated this passion in him. The evidences of its existence have been already given, in his zeal for military distinction during the Mexican War, and for scholarship at West Point, as well as in his ulterior purposes of life. To his intimate friend he once remarked, that the officer should always make the attainment of rank supreme, within honorable bounds, over every other consideration. Some sacrificed advancement to convenience, to secure service in a post where residence was pleasant, or to evade the authority of a harsh or unpopular superior; but his rule had been to secure promotion, if possible, at the cost of all such considerations; because, with the advancement in rank, the chances for distinction must usually [69] improve. But his love of truth and rectitude was too strong and instinctive to permit his thirsting for any other than deserved distinction. He drew broadly the mark between notoriety and true fame. His passion deserved, as nearly as any man's could, the poets description as--

The last infirmity of noble minds.

Yet it was, as he himself avowed, an infirmity; that is to say, it was unquestionably an unsanctified principle, and inconsistent with Christian holiness — as it is in the breasts of all natural men. His Christian character was then in its germ, and the spirit of the military profession in which he had long been immersed, far away from all churches and their influences, blinded him to the nature of his aspirations. Very soon, he listened to no other than a sanctified ambition. In June, 1854, the Visitors of the University of Virginia held an election for Professor of Mathematics, to succeed Mr. Courtenay, himself an alumnus of West Point, who had long filled that place usefully and respectably. This University was the first in America, in the thoroughness of its instructions, and the dignities and emoluments of its professors. Jackson presented himself as a candidate, and procured many testimonials in support of his claims from persons of distinction, in which they concurred in ascribing to him competent scholarship, while they dwelt on his energy, devotion to duty, and courage. Among these were many teachers of the West-Point Academy, and Lieut.-Col. Robert E. Lee, then its Superintendent. When Jackson mentioned his project to his friend, he said to him: “Have you not departed here from what you told me, upon coming to this military school, was the purpose of your life?” [He referred to the declaration that war was his proper vocation.] Jackson, who seemed never to forget his own most casual remarks, or to overlook the obligation [70] to maintain consistency with what he had once said, replied, “I avow that my views have changed.” He then proceeded to explain, that while he should ever retain the same conviction concerning his own adaptation to the soldier's life, his convictions concerning war as a pathway to distinction were greatly modified; and that he would now by no means accept a commission in any war which the United States might wage, irrespective of its morality. He had never, he said, while an ungodly man, been inclined to tempt Providence by going in advance of his duty; he had never seen the day when he would have been likely to volunteer for a forlorn hope, although indifferent to the danger of a service to which he was legitimately ordered. But now, that he was endeavoring to live the life of faith, he would engage in no task in which he did not believe he should enjoy the Divine approbation; because, with this, he should feel perfectly secure under the disposal of Divine Providence; without it, he would have no right to be courageous. If, then, his country were assailed in such a way as to justify an appeal to defensive war in God's sight, he should desire to return to military life; but unless this happened, he should continue a simple citizen. But as such he regarded it as every man's duty to seek the highest cultivation of his powers, and the widest sphere of activity within his reach; and therefore he desired to be transferred to the State University. In this desire, however, he was disappointed; another gentleman was elected, and he acquiesced with perfect cheerfulness.

In politics, Jackson was always a Democrat. This term, in Virginia, always had reference more to the principles of Federal polity, the assertion of the sovereignty and reserved rights of the States, and the strict limitation of those of the Central Government, with the advocacy of a simple and unambitious exercise of its delegated powers, which were inculcated by Mr. [71] Jefferson, than to a government for the individual States, strictly popular, and founded on universal suffrage. To the latter, the most of theVirginian statesmen of the States' Rights school were no friends; and the State-constitution of South Carolina, the most thoroughly democratic of all the States as to Federal politics, is the farthest removed from literal democracy. But it is probable that Jackson would have accepted the name of a Democrat in more of its literality than the statesmen we have described. In Federal politics he was certainly a strict constructionist of the straitest sect. He voted with his party uniformly. To political discussions, in conversation, he was not given; and, while exceedingly exact in maintaining candor, he would usually content himself, when assailed by a political opponent, with a firm and polite declaration that he could not concur in his opinions, relapsing then into a silence from which no pertinacity could tempt him. With one or two intimates he conversed on public measures freely and with animation. And they always found his thoughts original and profound. He read little of the political journals; had there been no other reason for his disregard of them, his conscientious belief that it was his duty to employ his feeble eyesight in more important things, would have prevented him. His political opinions were, therefore, very far from being the echo of other men's. He approached each subject from his own point of view, and this was usually found to be as conclusive as it was original.

Unaffected modesty was imprinted upon his countenance, and every trait of his manners. No man ever lived who was further removed from egotism. Even his most intimate friend never heard him mention his own brilliant military career, of his own accord; nor did he ever speak of his family or kindred, many of whom, by their talents and social position, might have afforded topics for a boastful man. Yet his self-reliance was strong; as was [72] proved by his favorite maxim. Mentioning to a friend, one day the omission in his academic education at West Point, which left him ignorant of Latin, he added: “But I think it probable that I shall some day repair this, and become as familiar with that language as with theSpanish.” His friend replied, that perhaps he might acquire a partial knowledge of it by great effort; but it was generally held, that one who had not imprinted the forms of the language on the plastic memory in childhood, could never repair that loss, so as to become a familiar master of the tongue. He answered, “No; if I attempt it, I shall become a master of the language; I can accomplish whatever I will to do.” When he was a candidate for the Chair of Mathematics in the University of Virginia, one of his few intimates suggested a fear that he had mistaken his own capacities, in seeking that place; because the method of teaching there was so largely by lecture; whereas his method was by the use of text-books; and he must be aware that he had little facility in extempore discourse. He acknowledged that he well knew that fact, and never dreamed of becoming eloquent; but, said he, “by effort I shall succeed as a lecturer, for I can accomplish anything I will to perform.” It may be added, that there is no instance known in which he failed of realizing his boast.

The strength of his will was shown in his unfailing punctuality, in the vigor of his self-discipline — both bodily and mental, and in the energy of his actions. Among other improvements of his powers, he determined that he would acquire the art of speaking in public. To this end he became a member of the “Franklin society,” a respectable literary association in Lexing ton endowed with a handsome hall and library — where the gentlemen of the town and of its scholastic institutions met for forensic debates, and other intellectual exercises. Here he was always a punctual attendant, and always spoke in his turn. His [73] first essays were as painful to his audience as they probably were to himself; confused, halting, and frequently ending in an abrupt silence, when the power of controlling his thoughts for the time deserted him. Thus arrested by his own embarrassment, he would sit down, nowise abashed; and so powerful was the impress of his modesty and manly purpose upon his fellowmembers, that none were ever seen to smile at these failures, although sometimes repeated a second and a third time, in the same evening. At a suitable moment he would rise again, and renew his effort, perhaps to end it with a similar painful halt. But before the close of the debate he would succeed in expressing the substance of what he had in his mind. By this dogged resolution, he gradually learned to control his diffidence, and became an effective speaker. His manner was rapid and emphatic, his thoughts marked by great directness, and his discourse began and ended with exceedingly little of exordium and peroration. So complete was his success, that he was said to have made, in a popular assemblage of his neighborhood, one of the most effective speeches ever heard. It was but ten minutes long; but it produced unanimity in an assembly before divided. He might have said, like the patriarch of Uz, “Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel: after my words, they spake not again.”

During nearly his whole life in Lexington, Jackson was a valetudinarian, and his regimen of body contributed no little to his character for singularity. He was ever scrupulously neat, and having, in one of his vacations, visited a hydropathic establishment in New England with supposed benefit, he became afterwards a still greater votary of cold water. He seems to have studied physiology and the laws of health in the same conscientious and business-like manner in which he performed all his tasks, and to have formed his own conclusions as to diet from [74] observing his own sensations. When these results were reached, he followed them out with an absolute self-denial, and without a particle of regard to their singularity. Yet, unlike most invalids, he was as catholic towards others as he was strict to himself; and, allowing each person to be a law unto himself, never denounced their indulgences as excesses, because they would have been such if committed by him. Some of his self-denying customs appeared very odd to those around him; but their defence may be found in the fact, that this temperance repaired an enfeebled constitution, and made it capable of great endurance. The most learned physiologists now admit, that the surd antipathies and appetencies of the corporeal tastes are often the most profoundly accurate indications of the wants of the system. Thus, when Jackson for a season refused the least trace of anything saccharine in his food, his conduct was probably wiser than that of the observers who called him whimsical. It is noteworthy that, at all times, he preferred the simplest food, and that he lived absolutely without any stimulant; using neither tea, coffee, tobacco, nor wine. This abstinence, however, was from principle, not from insensibility. Thus, reconnoitering the enemy's front on an occasion, in the winter of 1862, when prudence forbade the use of fire, he became so chilled, that his medical attendant, in real alarm for his safety, urged him to take some stimulant. There was nothing at hand except ardent spirits, and so he consented to take some. As he experienced a difficulty in swallowing it, and it seemed to produce the sensation of choking, his friend asked if it was very unpleasant. “No,” said he; “no, I like it; I always did; and that is the reason I never use it.” At another time he took a long and exhausting walk with a brother officer, who was also a temperate and God-fearing man. The walk terminating at his quarters, he proposed to General Jackson, in consequence of their fatigue, [75] to join him in a glass of brandy and water: “No,” said he; “I am much obliged, but I never use it; I am more afraid of it than of Federal bullets.” What a rebuke is here to that vain conceit and pride of character, which resents the friendly caution, and the call to watchfulness as disparaging to one's strength. This mighty man of God acknowledged that he was afraid of temptation. “When he was weak, then was I strong.” How many a young man would have escaped the drunkard's grave if he had acted on this manly philosophy! Jacksonalways professed his ability to exert an absolute control over his appetites; and declared that he could feel little sympathy with suffering in others, which was caused by selfindulgence. When the people about him complained of headaches, or other consequences of imprudence, he would say: “Do as I do; govern yourself absolutely, and you will not suffer. My head never aches; if a thing disagrees with me, I never eat it.”

His hours were early and regular; and rare must be the social obligation which induced him to depart from them. For in all these regulations, imposed on himself for the preservation of his health, he was accustomed to argue, that having determined any rule to be necessary, he was under a moral obligation to observe it. In vain did any friend plead that the one instance of relaxation in his system could not possibly work an appreciable injury. His uniform answer was: “Perfectly true; but it would become a precedent for another, and thus my rule would be broken down, and health would be injured, which would be a sin.” Thus he carried out his self-denial in the use of his eyesight so rigidly, that even a letter received on Saturday night, if it was only one of compliment or friendship, was not read by him until Monday morning; for his Sabbaths were sacredly reserved from the smallest secular distractions. If his [76] friend exclaimed, “Surely, Major, your eyes would not be injured by the reading of one letter now;” his answer was, “I suppose they would not; but if I read this letter to-night, which it is not truly necessary to do, I shall be tempted to read something else that interests me to-morrow night, and the next, so that my rule will be broken down. Then my eye-sight will undoubtedly be injured. But if I thus incapacitate myself, by acts not really necessary, for my duties to my employers and my pupils in the institute, I shall commit sin.” And once, when his most intimate friend knew that he had received a letter of affection late on Saturday night, the question was asked, as they were walking to church on Sabbath morning, “Major, surely you have read your letter?” “Assuredly not,” said he. “Where is it?” asked his friend. “Here,” said he, tapping the pocket of his coat. “What obstinacy!” exclaimed his friend. “Do you not know that your curiosity to learn its contents will distract your attention from divine worship, far more than if you had done with reading it? Surely, in this case, to depart from your rule would be promotive of a true Sabbath observance, instead of injurious to it?” “No,” answered he, quietly, “I shall make the most faithful effort I can to govern my thoughts, and guard them from unnecessary distraction; and as I do this from a sense of duty, I expect the divine blessing on it.” Accordingly, he afterwards declared, that his soul was on that day unusually composed and devout, and his spiritual enjoyment of the public and private worship of the day peculiarly rich.

Under a similar sense of moral responsibility, he acquitted himself punctually of all social obligations. When a single man, he went into society as frequently as other young men of regular habits, saying that he was constrained to do so by a sense of justice and humanity; for when an acquaintance took the trouble to prepare an entertainment, and honored him with [77] an invitation, to attend, where no duty interposed, was the only equitable return due for the kindness. In such assemblages he was never entirely at ease; but it may be said with truth, that there, as everywhere, his courtesy was perfect. No attention due to the host and hostess was ever omitted; no salutation ever failed to meet the most polite return; the very slightest favor never went without thanks. No female ever came short of her fair share of the attentions of the other sex, that he did not at once relinquish his own preferences, and devote himself to her entertainment. But when his early hour of retirement came, no allurements could detain him; and sometimes the ingenious plans laid by fair enemies to keep him, which he was too courteous to break through, placed him for a moment in amusing embarrassment. One of his most rigid rules was, never to eat a morsel after his frugal supper. Hence, in the refreshments offered at a later hour, he refused to have any part, to the distress of his hostesses. Amidst the clatter of china and conversation, and the sparkle of wines and ices, the tall form of the Major stood firm; polite, yet constrained; in the gay throng, but not of it. When a friend urged him at least to avoid the awkwardness of the position for himself and the hostess, by seem ing to participate, his answer was that he did not consider it truthful to seem to do what he was not really doing. Indeed, his care not to transgress the strict truth seemed to others excessive. He never talked at random, even in the most unguarded moment, or on the most trivial subject. All his statements were well-considered. On rare occasions something might have escaped him which he regarded as an exception; and then, it mattered not how unessential the subject of it might be, and how impossible it might appear that any actual evil could emerge out of his mistake, he made it a part of the serious business of the next day to give a full explanation. [78]

His person was tall, erect, and muscular, with the large hands and feet characteristic of all his race. His bearing was peculiarly English; and therefore, in the somewhat free society of America, was regarded as constrained. Every movement was quick and decisive; his articulation was not rapid, but distinct and emphatic, and, accompanied by that laconic and perspicuous phrase to which it was so well adapted, it often made the impression of curtness. He practised a military exactness in all the courtesies of good society. Different opinions existed as to his comeliness, because it varied so much with the condition of his health and animal spirits. His brow was exceedingly fair and expansive; his eyes were blue, large, and expressive, reposing usually in placid calm, but able none the less to flash lightning. His nose wasRoman, and exceedingly well chiselled; his cheeks ruddy and sunburnt; his mouth firm and full of meaning; and his chin covered with a beard of comely brown. The remarkable characteristic of his face was the contrast between its sterner and its gentler moods. As he accosted a friend, or dispensed the hospitalities of his own house, his serious, constrained look gave place to a smile, so sweet and sunny in its graciousness, that he was another man. But hearty laughter, especially, was a complete metamorphosis. His blue eyes then danced, and his countenance rippled with a glee and abandonliterally infantile. This smile was indescribable to one who never saw it. Had there been a painter with genius subtile enough to fix upon his canvas, side by side, the spirit of the countenance with which he caught the sudden jest of a child romping on his knees, and that with which, in the crisis of battle, he gave his generals the sharp and strident command, “Sweep the field with the bayonet!” he would have accomplished a miracle of art, which the spectator could scarcely credit as true to nature. [79]

In walking, his step was long and rapid, and at once suggested the idea of the dismounted horseman. It has been said that he was an awkward rider, but incorrectly. A sufficient evidence of this is the fact that he was never thrown. It is true that on the march, when involved in thought, he was heedless of the grace of his posture; but in action, or as he rode with bare head along his column, acknowledging the shouts which rent tlh skies, no figure could be nobler than his. His judgment of horses was excellent, and it was very rare that he was not well mounted.

Such was the man as he left the quiet walks of the Military Academy, in the spring of 1861, to begin a career which was to fill the world with his fame. Most of those who were conversant with him were unconscious of his power. A few intimates, indeed, were well aware of his capacity, and predicted for him an exalted destiny (for which they were usually held to be as singular as Jackson himself); but, with the many, he passed for a sensible, odd man, of undoubted courage, energy, and goodness; competent to a respectable success in anything to which he might bend his determined will, but to nothing more. Yet the cadets of his school gloried in his military prowess, of discussing which they were never weary; and the universal feeling among them was, that if ever they were called into actual service, he was the man whom they would prefer for their leader. The incorrect estimate which the many formed of him can be readily explained. Major Jackson was a man whom it was no easy matter to know; not because he sought to hide himself from scrutiny, nor because he was in the slightest degree covert in what he said or did, but because there was a breadth and depth of character about him, that would never be suspected by the superficial and bigoted. He was pre-eminently modest, and inexpressibly opposed to self-display, and equally consider. [80] ate of the taste and character of those with whom he held intercourse. He moulded his share of that intercourse accordingly. His scrupulous and delicate politeness made it always his aim to render others easy and comfortable in his presence. His first thought on meeting with them seemed to be — what subjects of conversation would be most familiar to their thoughts, and most consonant to their feelings. He never introduced a subject merely because it was one with which he was most at home, or on which he could best exhibit his talents, or parade his information. With a clergyman or lady, he never introduced party politics or military science. Having led the conversation, with polite deference to that topic upon which his guest seemed best fitted to shine, he became usually an attentive but almost silent listener, and made no disclosure of his own stores of knowledge, or of profound and original reflections on the same subject; although they were often far more complete than those of the person whom he thus accepted as an instructor. And had not subsequent facts evinced his superiority, his acquaintance would have felt it almost incredible that one who was so well qualified to speak with confidence, should so entirely suppress the desire to speak. Thus many a minister of the gospel has been led by him to speak on ethical, ecclesiastical, or theological subjects, and has carried away the impression that the modest soldier, although almost ignorant of the alphabets of those sciences, had at least the merit of an earnest appetite for the knowledge of them, when in truth Jackson had read as much upon them as he had, and with more close attention, and posssessed more matured opinions concerning them. The young person of literary tastes would be led to talk of the British classics, or the great writers of romance, and would leave him with the belief that he was innocent of all classical reading, except the great masters of holy writ; for his honesty [81] was so strict, that if his knowledge of any author or literary fact were taken for granted, he would never rest in a tacit acquiescence, but would stop his interlocutor to undeceive him, by declaring his ignorance. Yet, while his feeble eye-sight and conscientious improvement of time had forbidden a promiscuous course of literary reading, he had studied the most important poets and historians with far more thorough judgment and taste than he permitted his young friends to divine.

In the sphere which of right belonged to him, he rarely if ever asked advice. No man knew his proper place better, or held it more tenaciously; and no man ever accorded this right to others more promptly or scrupulously. As a member and officer of the Church, he was eminently deferential to his pastor, as his superior officer. But, as a commander in camp, he would no more defer to the judgment of that pastor, than to that of the humblest of his own soldiers.

Americans being inordinately given to speech-making-an art which has acquired importance from their popular institutions — have set an overweening value upon eloquence as a test of ability; but Jacksonprofessed to be no talker. He had no peculiar gift for teaching; yet teaching was, at Lexington, his profession. In finding a solution of the erroneous estimate of Jackson to which we have referred, something is also to be attributed to the character of the little society in which he moved. It was cultivated, but limited in extent; and, accordingly, it had its own closely-defined standard, by comparison with which every man was tried. In a society more cosmopolitan, such characters as Jackson are less apt to be misapprehended, because it consists not of one, but of many coteries, and because contact with diversified forms of talent and cultivation, gives breadth and tolerance to the views. This is but saying, in substance, what the voice of Fame has since pronounced, that [82] the wider the arena on which he acted, the greater his capacity appeared.

But there were always a few, and they the most competent to understand a gifted nature, who declaredJackson to be a man of mark. To these chosen intimates he unbosomed himself, modestly, yet without reserve. His views of public affairs were broad, and elevated far above the scope of the party journals which assumed to dictate public opinion. His mind was one which would have made him a subtile and profound jurist. The few who attributed to him this type of intellect, had their estimate fully sustained, by the manner in which he discussed those numerous questions of a judicial nature which claim the attention of the leader of great armies. In the interpretation of orders and army regulations; in the settlement of rank between competing claimants; in the proceedings of courts-martial; in the discrimination between military and civil jurisdiction, which is often so difficult; his mind always approached the question from an original point of view, and rarely did it fail to be decisive to every attentive understanding. But it was especially in the discussion of military affairs that the mastery of his genius appeared. When these topics were introduced, his mind assumed its highest animation, he disclosed a knowledge which surprised his auditors, and his criticisms were profound. One instance may be noted among many. In the summer of 1856, he employed his long vacation in a European tour, in which he visited England, France, andSwitzerland. During this journey he carefully examined the field of Waterloo, and traced out upon it the positions of the contending armies. When he returned home, he said that although Napoleon was the greatest of commanders, he had committed an error in selecting the Chateau of Hougomont as the vital point of attack upon the British line, it should have been the village of Mont St. Jean. [83] This opinion has subsequently been corroborated by high authority in the military art.

But the most important feature of Jackson's character was the religious; and this is the most appropriate topic for illustration at this place, because it was mainly developed at Lexington. His peculiar posture towards Christianity upon coming there, has been described. He had been baptized, upon profession of his faith, by an Episcopal clergyman, but refused to be considered as committed to Episcopacy. In this state of opinion ho had been admitted, at least once, to the communion of the Lord's Supper. While his religious knowledge was defective, and his Christian character consequently failed at that time in symmetry, it was sincere and honest, and, from the purity of his morals and his devotional habits, it was consistent.

Upon removing to Lexington, where the Christian people were divided among the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Wesleyan Methodists, and Baptists, he at first attended the public worship of all their churches indiscriminately, listening with exemplary respect and attention. But after a time he discontinued this promiscuous worship. The pastor of the Presbyterians was the Rev. William S. White, D. D., a venerable man, who speedily became so intimately related to the religious life and tenderest affections of the great soldier, that an allusion to his devout eloquence, genial heart, and apostolic piety, is unavoidable in this narrative. Jackson sought an introduction to him in the autumn of 1851, and very soon paid him a confidential visit in his study, to lay before him his spiritual interests. He told him the steps he had taken, and declared his hope of his acceptance with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; but said that he had not then: been able to determine with what branch of the Church to connect himself. Popery he had examined under the most favorable auspices, and he had been constrained to reject it as [84] an apostasy from the system of Holy Writ. Of Episcopacy he had learned something from his friends Colonel Taylor and the Rev. Mr. Parks, whose religious principles and feelings he, to a great extent, approved and embraced; but with some of the features of that system he was not satisfied. He had given equal consideration to the claims and peculiarities of other branches of the Church. He now, for the first time, had a fair opportunity to observe the genius and working of Presbyterianism under its better auspices; and he found its worship congenial to his principles, and desired to know more of its character.

The result of his inquiries was, that on the 22d of November, 1851, he was received, by profession of his faith, as a member of that church. His accession in that mode was an avowal that he came in, not as one transferred from some other denomination in the visible church to the Presbyterian, but as a new recruit from the world without. He did not, however, take this step until he had thoroughly studied the catechisms and Confession of Faith, which constitute the doctrinal standards of that church. To some things embodied in these standards he strongly objected; and these objections he stated with the utmost clearness and frankness, not only to the pastor but to several intelligent laymen of the church. His chief difficulty was found in the great truth of God's absolute sovereignty, in His purposes regarding the calling and government of His church. His opinions, at that time, leaned strongly to the system known as Arminianism, nor were they immediately changed. Being informed, however, that the Presbyterian Church expected uniformity of belief on these points, of none but its officers, and only exacted of its private members a profession of those vital doctrines of redemption, in which all Christians agree, he preferred to adopt it as his own. Many months after, in conversation [85] with an intimate friend, he disclosed so serious a difficulty in his views concerning the doctrines of God's decree and sovereign providence, that the latter concluded with the half-jocular remark,--“Major, if you have these opinions, you had better become a Methodist.” This suggestion. the intense honesty of his nature made him take seriously; and he answered, “If you think so, then come with me, and let us see Dr. White about it.” They went to the pastor's study, and had a long interview, as candid as it was kind. At the end of it the latter remarked, “Well, Major, although your doctrinal theory is not in perfect accord with ours, yet in your practical life you are so good a Presbyterian, that I think you may safely remain where you are.” In this conclusion he acquiesced; and it was not very long before all his difficulties gave way before his honest, persistent, and prayerful inquiries. He became one of the firmest though least bigoted advocates of the Calvinistic as distinguished from the Arminian scheme.

In these proceedings, his candid and eclectic spirit was characteristic, and honorable to himself, as well as a valuable testimony to the denomination which he selected. It would be hard to find a man reared in a Christian country, more uncommitted than he was, by education and association, to any sectarian preference. His conscientiousness would not permit him to decide the matter as so many do, by the accidents of social relations, convenience, or taste. He made his church connection the subject of deliberate comparison, serious study, and prayer; and what Christian can justify himself for acting in any other way? It may be assumed, therefore, that Jackson's conclusion was dispassionate, and that he believed it to be the result of the force of truth. To make this remark in an aggressive party spirit against other denominations which Jackson passed over, in selecting the Presbyterian, would be most inconsistent with [86] his liberal and just temper towards them all; for he was as catholic in his heart as he was decided in his principle. But to demand the suppression of this fact in his life would be yet more invidious on the other hand. That would be an extravagant temper indeed which would impose, in narrating the truth, a reserve which left upon Jackson's memory the implication that he was either not hone'st, or not intelligent in his ecclesiastical opinions. It is hoped that Presbyterians will not be so foolish as to claim that all the good and great are of their communion, or to hold that its true honor depends upon man, however exalted he may be.

It may be safely declared, that, from the beginning, Jackson's religious character was strictly sincere, and conscientious, above that of most Christians. This was a trait to be expected from the operation of the Holy Spirit upon a nature so decided in temper and clear in judgment as his. But his opinions concerning Christian duties were not wholly free from defect. It would have been wonderful indeed if they had been perfectly correct, when he was reared with so little instruction, and when his manhood had been moulded under the very peculiar moral influences of the military caste. But his exactness in performing what he perceived to be his duty, was always the same; some things which he afterwards saw to be obligatory, he had at first failed to see in this light His aspirations for honorable fame were at first less chastened than became a saint. His deliberately expressed feelings concerning the resenting of injuries, were inconsistent with those inculcated by the law of love, as understood by the best Christians. While his conviction of the sacredness of the Sabbath was, from the beginning, unusually clear, his interpretation of the exceptions made for “works of necessity” differed somewhat from those current among evangelical Christians. But never was the healthy [87] and cleansing influence of a right conscience over the under standing, more clearly displayed than in him. The head could not long remain misguided, when presided over by so guileless a heart. He very soon attained the most firm and distinct perceptions of duty, which differed usually from those of the great body of God's best people, only in being more strict. One of the most marked traits of his religious character then, was conscientiousness. It ruled in every act and word; in things great, and things minute; in his social relations, and his most unrestrained remarks; in the regulation of his appetites; in his observance of the courtesies of life; in the disposition of his time and money. Duty was with him the eVer present and supreme sentiment. Such was his dread of its violation, that no sin appeared to him small; and the distinction between great and little obligations, which most Christians make the pretext for a certain remissness of conduct, seemed scarcely to have any place in his mind. To him, all duties were great, however trivial the affairs about which they were concerned, in human judgment. The prominent trait of his mind was the sentiment of reverence directed supremely to God, as the standard of perfection, the rightful source of all authority, and the embodiment of infinite greatness. It was this sentiment, in its lower aspects, which constituted his remarkable spirit of subordination. As God's nature and will were to him the standard of that which is right, and the fountain-head of obligation, so, whenever he found a fellow-creature clothed by the sanction of right, with legitimate authority over his conscience, he honored and obeyed him within his proper sphere, as a bearer of a delegated portion of the majesty of heaven; and his respect became a religious sentiment. Hence as a soldier no man was so prompt and exact in his military obedience; as a citizen none cherished so sacred a reverence for law, and for the offices of its magistrates [88] As a Christian layman, he honored and obeyed the pastor who had care of souls; and, while there was no man so little priestridden, there was none who so punctually paid to the ministers of religion, the captains in God's sacramental host, however humble in person and talents, deference for their work's sake.

Instances of his conscientiousness have already been given, but many others may be added. His convictions of the sin committed by the Government of the United States, in the unnecessary transmission of mails, and the consequent imposition of secular labor on the Sabbath day, upon a multitude of persons, were singularly strong. His position was, that if no one would avail himself of these Sunday mails, save in cases of true and unavoidable necessity, the letters carried would be so few that the sinful custom would speedily be arrested, and the guilt and mischief prevented. Hence, he argued, that as every man is bound to do whatever is practicable and lawful for him to do, to prevent the commission of sin, he who posted or received letters on the Sabbath day, or even sent a letter which would occupy that day in travelling, was responsible for a part of the guilt. It was of no avail to reply to him, that this self-denial on the part of one Christian would not close a single post-office, nor arrest a single mail-coach in the whole country. His answer was, that unless some Christians would begin singly to practise their exact duty, and thus set the proper example, the reform would never be begun; that his responsibility was to see to it that he, at least, was not particeps criminis; and that whether others would co-operate, was their concern, not his. Hence, not only did he persistently refuse to visit the post-office on the Sabbath day, to leave or receive a letter, but he would not post a letter on Saturday or Friday which, in regular course of transmission, must be travelling on Sunday, except in cases of high necessity. And believing, as he did, in the special [89] superintendence of Providence over all affairs, and His favorable oversight of the concerns of those who live in His fear, he delighted to recount the fact, that God had always protected him and his affairs in this particular, so that he had never suffered any loss or real inconvenience by these self-imposed delays. One instance he related with peculiar satisfaction. It was, that proceeding on the Sabbath day to Divine worship with a Christian associate, his friend proposed to apply at the post-office for his letters, on the plea that there was probably a letter from a dear relative, whose health was in a most critical state, and might, for aught he knew, demand his immediate aid. But he dissuaded him by the argument, that the necessity for departing in this from the Sabbath rest was not known, but only suspected. They went together to church, and enjoyed a peaceful day. On the morrow it was ascertained there was a letter to his friend, from his afflicted relative, announcing a most alarming state of disease; but there was also a later one, arrived that day, correcting all the grounds of distress, and stating that the health of the sufferer was restored. “Now,” said Jackson, “had my friend causelessly dishonored the Sabbath, he would have suffered a day of harrowing anxiety, which the next day's news would have shown utterly groundless; but God rewarded him for his obedience, by mercifully shielding him from this gratuitous suffering: He sent him the antidote along with the pain.”

He always acted on the principle that he was as really bound to report the condition of himself and his family to his pastor, as the latter was to minister to their spiritual wants. In passing through several seasons of domestic sorrow, he called for his instructions and sympathy with equal delicacy and promptitude. Again, he called one evening to say to Dr. White, that in the sermon preached the preceding Sabbath, he had not been able to discover whether the discussion of a certain duty, was to be [90] regarded in the light of mere advice, or as authoritative. If it was the former, he was not clear that he should regard the duty as obligatory on him; but if the latter, then whatever his personal preferences might be, he should feel bound to comply with it, inasmuch as he could not plead conscience against doing it. Thus his pastor was to him the spiritual officer, under whose “orders” he was, and whom he therefore felt bound to obey, in all his admissible commands, for the sake of the authority and discipline of the spiritual host.

He engaged one day, with a Christian friend, in a conversation on the Hebrews' system of religious oblations, and was much interested in the assertion that, while the tithe was no longer enjoined, by express precept, on God's people under the new dispensation, the usage of worshipping God with stated offerings of our substance was in no degree abrogated; and that the tenth was probably, in most cases, a suitable proportion to be self-imposed by Christians, for this voluntary thank-offering. After much inquiry and friendly discussion, Jackson closed the conversation. The next day, on meeting his friend, he said that he had convinced him of a duty, not hitherto as fully understood as it should have been; and, with his usual courtesy, thanked him for the benefit thus conferred. Thenceforward he scrupulously gave a tenth of his whole income to charitable uses (until he adopted a greatly enlarged ratio).

The Presbyterians and other evangelical churches in Virginia, have long had the usage of meeting about the middle of the week in a social assemblage, under the superintendence of the pastor, for the especial purposes of concerted prayer and praise. This custom has had the happiest effects, in promoting devotional habits, and fraternity and sympathy, among the Christian people. Jackson was, of course, from the beginning, the most punctual of attendants on these meetings. The prayers were [91] usually offered, under the pastor's direction, by the elders of the church, or other experienced Christians. Dr.White took occasion, in his Sabbath instructions, to enforce the advantages of these meetings, and said something of the duty of those who could appropriately lead the devotions of others, to render their aid in that way, overcoming, if necessary, false shame. In the course of the week, Jackson called to ask him if he thought him one of the persons to whom the latter exhortation was applicable. He proceeded to say that he was unused to all forms of continuous public speaking; that his embarrassment was extreme, especially upon so sacred a topic, in expressing himself before a crowd; and that he had therefore doubted whether it was for edification for him to attempt the leading of others at the throne of grace. Yet, he knew that, inasmuch as these concerts of prayer were of eminent utility, the general duty of participating in their exercises was indisputable, as to Christian heads of families, and other suitable persons. “You,” he said, “are my pastor, and the spiritual guide of the church; and if you think it my duty, then I shall waive my reluctance, and make the effort to lead in prayer, however painful.” He closed by authorizing him to call upon him for that service, if he thought proper. And his diffidence in all this was so clearly unaffected, that no mortal could have mistaken it. After a time, the pastor called upon him to pray. He obeyed, but with an embarrassment so great, that the service was almost as painful to his brethren as it obviously was to himself. The invitation was not repeated for a number of weeks, when, meeting Dr. White, he noted that fact, and indicated that he supposed the motive for sparing him was an unwillingness to inflict distress through his excessive diffidence. The good minister could not but admit that he had thought it best not to exact so painful a duty of him, lest his comfort in the meeting [92] should be seriously marred. “Yes,” said Jackson, “but my comfort or discomfort is not the question; if it is my duty to lead my brethren in prayer, then I must persevere in it, until I learn to do it aright; and I wish you to discard all consideration for my feelings in the matter.” He was again called on; he succeeded in curbing his agitation in a good degree; and, after a time, became as eminent for the gift, as he was for the grace of prayer.

Another instance of his courage in doing good was given soon after he connected himself with the Presbyterian Church. Visiting his native country during a vacation, he perceived that infidel opinions were prevalent among many, and had infected several of his friends and relatives. He was anxious to do something to remedy this evil, but knew not what was best. He held private conversations with some, and gave tracts to others, but this only increased his anxiety to attempt something on a larger scale. He accordingly determined to announce a brief course of public lectures on the evidences of Christianity, notwithstanding his diffidence and inexperience as a public speaker. They were delivered in a church in the village of Beverley, Randolph county, where his only sister resided; and as he declared, his success greatly exceeded his expectations. It may be supposed that curiosity to see the novel spectacle of the young soldier and professor discussing such a theme, attracted many. But his argument was declared to be excellent, and his manner far from bad, by the most competent hearers. Doubtless the impression of his evident modesty, sincerity, and courage, was more valuable than would have been the most learned discussion from a professed divine. The interest aroused in his mind concerning the evidences of Christianity led him, on his return to Lexington, to ask of Dr. White leave to collect a class of young men for the study of this subject in [93] connexion with the Sabbath school. This class he taught with his accustomed earnestness and fidelity, and several of them served under him as soldiers in the war.

He next proposed to gather the African slaves of the village in the afternoon of the Sabbath, and speedily he had a flourishing school of eighty or a hundred pupils, with twelve teachers; the latter of whom were recruited from among the educated ladies and gentlemen of the place. This he continued to teach successfully from 1855 until the spring of 1861; when he reluctantly left it to enter the army. And to the end of his life, he inquired of every visitor at the camp from his church at home, how his black Sabbath-school was progressing; and if the answer was favorable, he did not fail to express his gratitude. But no other person could sustain it as efficiently as he did. His health required him to spend most of his vacations in journeys; and, upon setting out, he was accustomed to leave his school in the charge of some member of the church, for the time. On his return, he usually found it dwindled from eighty to fifty scholars; but his efforts soon restored it to its wonted prosperity. His method was to make the sessions extremely short, continuing from three P. M. to a quarter to four P. M. At a quarter to three the bell was rung, and precisely at three o'clock he began. The exercises were first, singing and prayer, and then a brief, pointed, and perspicuous exposition of an assigned passage of the Scriptures, addressed by him to the whole school. The several teachers then took charge of their classes, and devoted the rest of the session to teaching them orally the Shorter Catechism, or some other suitable formula of truth. The exercises ended with the singing of a hymn, previously committed to memory, by the whole school, and a short prayer. Once a month he made a report of the punctuality and demeanor of each pupil, calling in person at the houses of their [94] masters for this purpose; and if any servant was frequently absent or inattentive, he was sure to inquire into the cause during the week.

The African character is ever dilatory. In his native jungle, the negro has no conception whatever of the value of time; and in his civilized state, he retains too much of this weakness. Hence, at all religious meetings which they frequent, they are usually found arriving at every moment, from the beginning to the very close. Jackson speedily began to experience the samo annoyance, and the lack of punctuality was unhappily countenanced by some of his teachers. He gave notice that the bell would ring the next Sabbath a quarter of an hour before the opening as usual, and that when the assigned moment arrived, he should lock the doors and proceed immediately to the duties of the school. Accordingly, the nextSunday, precisely at three o'clock, he locked the doors and commenced. Knocks were unheeded; and when, at the conclusion, the doors were opened, there was found a group in the street, consisting of a number of servants and a few mortified-looking ladies and gentlemen, whom he saluted as he passed on his way with his customary politeness. There was no more lack of punctuality.

While thus exacting in his discipline of the school, he was rendered extremely popular among all the more serious servants by these labors for their good. He was indeed the black man's friend. His prayers were so attractive to them, that a number of those living in his quarter of the town, petitioned to be admitted on Sabbath nights, along with his own servants, to his evening domestic worship. Before making them an answer, he called on Dr. White and stated their request to him, asking his sanction, and declaring that the assent of the masters of those servants must, of course, be also a necessary condition of his [95] gratifying them. The approbation of the pastor and the masters was gladly given.

To his own slaves, he was a methodical and exact, but conscientious master. Absolute obedience was the rule of his household; and if he found chastisement was necessary to secure this, it was faithfully administered. He required all his slaves to attend the domestic worship of his family morning and evening; and succeeded, where so many Christian masters have found entire success apparently impossible, in securing the presence of every one. After his household was scattered by his absence in the camp, he found time — to write to those to whom his servants were hired, inquiring into their spiritual state, urging their employers to see that they attended church regularly, and giving minute directions for their welfare. On hearing of the death of one of his female servants, he wrote expressing his gratitude for the attentions bestowed upon her in her illness and at her burial.

It may be accepted as a significant dispensation of Providence, that Jackson, the best type of theChristian. master in the South, should be made the hero of this war for Southern independence. The people of the Southern States will cheerfully consent that this holy man, with his strong convictions of the righteousness and beneficence of their form of society, may stand forth to the world as their exemplar. He had no pretensions to a righteousness more righteous than that of prophets, apostles, and JesusChrist. His understanding was too honest to profess belief in God's inspired Word, and yet hold that relation to be a sinful one, which Moses expressly allowed and legislated for; which the Bible saints sustained to their fellow-men; which the Redeemer left prominent and unrepealed amidst his churches, as well as in secular society; and which the apostles continued to sanction, by admitting those who held it, without any disclaimer, [96] or pledge of reformation or repentance, to church membership and church office. His conscience was too sensitive to tolerate known sin, at any prompting of conscience or interest. It will be a difficult problem for those who revile us, if they remember how gregarious vices are, and how surely even a sin of ignorance pollutes the soul and grieves the Holy Spirit, to explain how this most decided of slaveholders came to be so eminent for sanctity, and so richly crowned with the noblest graces and joys which God ever conferred on man. Especially, let the happy condition which the benevolence of such masters confers on their servants, be contrasted with that degradation and ruin to which our enemies intentionally consign them. Southern masters, with very few exceptions, provide generously for the welfare of their servants, at the prompting of affection, conscience, self-respect, and interest, while they exact only a moderate labor; and many of them, like Jackson, strive conscientiously for their spiritual good. Northern anti-slavery men, under the pretence to the negro of being his disinterested liberator, seduce him from his protector, and leave him, without provision for body or soul, either to perish in pestilential indolence, or to wear out his frame in the severest toils, in entrenchments or factories, under the compulsion not of stripes, but of a bayonet in the hands of a brutal foreign mercenary. Not seldom does this hypocrisy find its candid and exact expression, in the conduct of the more shameless of our invaders; when the same men, after wheedling the servants with fine promises, pretended sympathies, and the terms “brother, sister,” pass from their cabins to the master's dwelling, to insult him with the declaration that they despise the Africans as much as they hate him, and have no other purpose in seducing them from his service except to “humble his Virginian aristocracy.”

On the 26th of December, 1857, Major Jackson was unani. [97] mously elected a deacon of his church. The reader will bear in mind that the Presbyterians, following what they believe to be the primitive institute of the Apostles, assign the care of souls to the order of Presbyters alone, of whom some rule only, and some also labor in word and doctrine; while the Deacon's function is “to serve tables,” or, in other words, to collect and disburse the money and alms of the church, and to distribute to the destitute. This humble office Jackson promptly assumed at the call of his brethren, and fulfilled its duties with his accustomed fidelity. He was the best deacon the church had. The system of that congregation concerning almsgiving was unusually complete. Monthly, the deacons met for consultation, and the distribution of their labors. Every two months, a collection was solicited from all the people for some charitable or pious use; and for this purpose, to each deacon was allotted a district, in which he visited personally every adult worshipper, or at least every householder, at his own home, explained the object to be furthered, and received the gifts of the benevolent. At the monthly meetings, Jackson was always present. His idea of the duty was aptly expressed by his reply to a brother deacon, who excused his absence by saying that he had not time to attend. “I see not,” said he, “how, at that hour, we can possibly lack time for this meeting, or can have time for anything else, seeing it is set apart for this business.” His regularity in calling upon the pastor to relate the result of his diaconal labors, or, in his phrase, “to report,” was perfectly military. Indeed his conception of the matter was, that he came to him, as his superior, for his orders. At one collection the gifts were solicited for the American Bible Society, and Jackson sallied forth, armed with the list of names for his district, furnished him by the clerk of the congregation. When he came to the pastor to report, he had a number of additional names written in pencil-marks at the foot [98] of his list, with small sums opposite to them. “What are these?” asked the good Doctor. “Those at the top,” said Jackson, “are your regulars, and those below are my militia.” On examining the names, they were found to be those of the free blacks of the quarters, all of whom he had visited in their humble dwellings, and encouraged to give a pittance of their earnings to print Bibles. He argued that these small sums were better spent thus than in drink or tobacco; that the giving of them would elevate their self-respect, and enhance their own interest in the Holy Book; and that they being indebted to it as well as others, should be taught to help in diffusing it.

There was another trait of his religious character so conspicuous, that it demands here full illustration,--his constant recognition of a particular Providence. No man ever lived who seemed to have a more practical and living sense of this truth of Christianity. He earned, indeed, thereby, the title of superstitious, from some of the unthinking, and of fatalist from others. But he was neither: his belief in the control of Divine Providence was most rational and scriptural. The only difference between him and other enlightened Christians here was, that his faith was “the substance of things anticipated, and the evidence of things not seen;” while theirs is, so largely, an impractical theory. That doctrine is, that God's special providence is over all his creatures and all their actions, to uphold and govern them; and that it is over His children for their good only. By that omniscient and almighty control all events are ordered, permitted, limited, and overruled. There is no creature so great as to resist its power, none so minute as to evade its care. But yet, by a mode which is perhaps beyond the cognizance of the human reason, it secures the action designed by God's intelligent purpose, from each created agent, in strict conformity with its nature and powers. The Christian doctrine [99] of Providence does not reduce the universe into a pantheistic machine, with God for the sole power and only real cause of its every motion. It teaches that the property which creatures have of acting as second causes is real, that their powers are actual powers, inherent in them, and not merely seeming; conferred, indeed, by God, as Creator, and regulated in each specific action by his perpetual superintendence; yet, when conferred, intrinsic and efficient in the created agents, whenever the suitable relations or conjunctions for their action have place. And especially when those creature-agents are rational, voluntary spirits, does God by His providence order the rise of those free purposes in them, which his eternal plan includes, in strict conformity with their free agency.

The doctrine of Fate is, that all events, including the acts of free agents, are fixed by an immanent physical necessity in the series of causes and effects themselves; a necessity as blind and unreasoning as the tendency of the stone towards the earth, when unsupported from beneath; a necessity as much controlling the intelligence of God as of creatures; a necessity which admits of no modification of results through the agency of second causes, but renders them inoperative and passive as the mere stepping-stones in the inevitable progression. The doctrine of Providence teaches that the regular, natural agency of second causes is sustained, preserved, and regulated by the power and intelligence of God, and that, in and through that agency, every event is directed by His most wise and holy will, at once according to his plans and to the laws of nature which He has ordained. Fatalism tends to apathy, to absolute inaction; a belief in the Providence of the Scriptures, to intelligent and hopeful effort. It does not overthrow, but rather establishes the agency of second causes; for it teaches that God's method and rule of effectuating events only through them (save in the case [100] of miracles), is as steadfast as His purpose to carry out His decree. Hence this faith produces a combination of courageous serenity, with cheerful diligence in the use of means. Jackson was as laborious as he was trustful, and laborious precisely because he was trustful. Everything that preparation, care, forecast, and self-sacrificing toil could do to prepare and earn success he did. And therefore it was that God, without whom “the watchman waketh but in vain,” usually bestowed success. His belief in the superintendence of God was equal to his industry. In every blessing or calamity of private life, as well as in every order or despatch announcing a victory, he was prompt to ascribe the result to the Lord of Hosts; and these brief devout ascriptions were with him no unmeaning formalities. In the very flush of triumph he has been known to seize the juncture for the earnest inculcation of this truth upon the minds of his subordinates; and, in the anxieties of great and critical moments, his soul drew composure and assurance from it. Especially did he love to recognize the hand of God in the results of strategy and battles. While thd most pains-taking of commanders, he well knew that in these great operations many things must be done beyond the oversight of the commander, each of which by the manner of its performance may absolutely determine the event. Hence when the issue was according to his prayers, he recognized the presence of an Eye more comprehensive than that of any creature, and ascribed all wisdom, power, and glory to it.

His perpetual recurrence to this special providence was displayed in his prayers for the divine guidance of his own judgment. It was well known that he was accustomed to seek this guidance not only in general terms, but most directly and particularly on specific occasions. And the frequent answers which he seemed to receive to these prayers, suggested to the unreflecting the idea of his actual inspiration. [101]

He would have modestly given an explanation less superstitious, and more scriptural. Mind has its natural laws as well as matter, to be learned in the same way, by correct induction from our observations; and they are just as regular in their operation as those of the stars, the waters, or the vegetable world. For instance, conception follows conception in our thinking, by certain laws of suggestion, which we ascertain and know, at least to a good degree. By another law, the volition put forth upon a conception, in the act of spontaneous attention, tends to fix and brighten that conception before the mind, in preference to any other competing suggestion, just as regularly as sunlight promotes chemical action in matter. Now, the very doctrine of Providence is, that the God who conferred upon spiritual substances these laws and powers of causation, as their inherent properties, regulates their action in strict consistency with their nature, with a constant superintendence. The mode may be inscrutable to us, even as all His workings in providence are; but the fact is taught by the Scriptures and experience, and the consistency of it with our own reasonable and voluntary nature, as is assured to us by our consciousness. Now then, when God, in answer to prayer, leaving the mind to act strictly according to all its natural laws, yet gives such providential supervision to its functions, as to order that the judgment shall, of itself, come to a prosperous conclusion, why should men be more incredulous, or suppose a more supernatural interference, than when God answers the prayers of his people with “fruitful seasons, and rain from heaven,” through the regular course of those meteoric laws, which before brought drought and blight? No devout reader of the Scriptures can refuse the conviction that Satan, as a personal agent, has some mode consistent with the laws of mind, by which he often modifies the suggestions which arise, and thus the free determinations of the judgment and will. This [102] fact assists us to establish, and in part illustrates, the contrasted fact of God's providential concern in the thoughts and purposes of the children of men.

There was at least one influence which Jackson's faith and habits of prayer in this matter exercised upon his judgment, which may be made intelligible to every virtuous mind. It was the cause of an intense sincerity of motive. He who goes before the Searcher of hearts with petitions for His light and guidance, can scarcely cherish there those corrupt and double purposes which he knows must be equally clear to His intelligence and hateful to His holiness. There is then, an obvious natural influence which makes the very act of prayer as “the euphrasy and rue” to purge the mental vision. But faith teaches us that there is, moreover, a divine answer to prayer; and in what form is the Christian's heart more familiar with this gracious power from above than in the purifying and chastening of its affections? Jackson was made by God's Spirit the most disinterested of men, in all his efforts to judge and act aright in His service. No collisions of guilty desire with conscience, no side-views of selfish ambition, no itchings of avarice, no sensuality, no cravings for notoriety, no weakness of moral cowardice remained to disturb or jostle the steady adjustments of his judgment. The functions of his understanding were actuated by one supreme emotion, the sentiment of duty; a motive-power as pure as forcible, and hence they were almost perfectly correct and true, and at the same time full of intense vigor. His “eye was single, and his whole body was full of light.” This is the best explanation which can be given of that almost infallible judgment in practical affairs, which he never failed to display, whenever he felt it his duty to examine and decide. And this refers his greatness primarily to his Christianity; a solution which Jackson [103] would have been himself most prompt to offer, if his modesty had permitted him to recognize greatness in himself.

Prayer implies a Providence. For if God hath not a present means of influencing the course of natural events, it is a waste of breath to petition for His intervention. Hence it will be anticipated, that he who was so clear in his recognition of Providence was also eminently a man of prayer. This was one of the most striking traits of Jackson's religious character. He prayed much, he had great faith in prayer, and took much delight in it. While his religion was the least obtrusive of all men's, no one could know him and fail to be impressed with the regularity of his habits of private devotion. Morning and night he bent before God in secret prayer, and rare must be the exigency which could deprive him of this valued privilege. There was in him an unusual combination of courage and modesty in this duty. If the presence of others was unavoidable, it had no effect whatever, be they who they might, however great or profane, to cause him to neglect his secret orisons. Yet, it is presumed, no one ever had the idea of ostentation suggested who witnessed one of the sacred scenes. He was accustomed, during the active campaigns, to live in a common tent, like those of the soldiers. Those who passed it at early dawn and at bed-time were likely to see the shadow of his kneeling form cast upon the canvas by the light of his candle; and the most careless soldier then trod lightly and held his breath with reverent awe. Those who were sceptical of the sincerity of other men's prayers, seemed to feel that, when Jackson knelt, the heavens came down indeed into communion with earth.

This spirit of prayer was manifested by the change which it wrought in his whole manner. Everywhere else his speech was decided and curt; at the throne of grace all was different; his enunciation was soft and deliberate, and his tones mellow and [104] supplicatory. His prayers were marked at once by profound reverence and filial confidence, and abounded much in ascriptions of praise and thanks, and the breathings of devout affections towards God. Besides his punctual observance of his private and domestic devotions, and of the weekly meetings for social prayer, he was accustomed to select from time to time some one Christian, with whom he held stated seasons of devotion, in order to avail himself of the promise, “that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” And his partners in these fellowships were selected, not so much for their social as for their spiritual attractions. This narrative would be unjust to the truth, and to the memory of one of God's most honored servants, if it omitted the mention of the chief instrument for cultivating in him this spirit of prayer. When Major Jackson became a member of the congregation inLexington, there was among its presbyters a man of God, whose memory yet smells sweet and blossoms in the dust, John B. Lyle. He was a bachelor, of middle age, well connected, but of limited fortune, who devoted nearly the whole of his leisure to the spiritual interests of his charge. He was constantly the friend of the afflicted, the restorer of the wayward, the counsellor of the doubting, a true shepherd of the sheep; and his inner Christian life was as elevated, as his outward was active. To himJackson early learned to resort for counsel; for his spiritual state was not, at first, marked by that established comfort and assurance which shed such a sunshine over his latter years. He confessed toMr. Lyle great spiritual anxieties, and seasons of darkness. The good man taught him that connexion between hearty obedience and access to the throne of grace, which is declared by the Psalmist when he says: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” It was largely due to [105] his guidance, that Jackson attained to that thoroughness which marked all his subsequent Christian life. Henceforward, like Joshua and Caleb, “he had another spirit with him, and followed the Lord fully.” His pious counsellor taught him by his example, by his instructions, and by suitable reading which he placed in his hands, to cherish a high value of prayer, and to expect, according to the scriptural warrant, a certain answer to it.

This prayerfulness was a profound inward spirit yet more than it was an outward manifestation. How he compelled his own diffidence to pray with others, under a sense of duty, has been described. But he was never forward to assume the lead of others at the throne of grace, where his station did not obviously make it proper. It has been said of him, that he was as often found leading his men in the prayer-meeting as in the field of battle; and those who knew not whereof they affirmed, have loved to represent him as a sort of Puritan Independent, of the school of Cromwell, Harrison, and Pride, assuming the functions of a preacher among his troops' No. Christian could possibly be further from all such intrusions, both in principle and in temper. When called on by proper authority to lead his brethren in social prayer, he always obeyed. But he loved best to mingle with his rough and hardy soldiers, in the worship of God, as a simple lay-worshipper; with them to sit in the seat of the learner, with them to sing, with them to kneel, and with them to gather around the Lord's table. He would not pronounce the blessing over the plain food of his own mess-table, if a clergyman, or even an older Christian than himself, were present to do it. His whole nature and convictions were penetrated by a reverence for all constituted authority, and for right order in Church and State; the license of Independency was at least as opposed to his tastes as the restrictions of Prelacy.

It was in the secret communings of his heart that this spirit of [106] prayer was most prevalent. Devotion was the very breath of his soul. Once only was he led to make a revelation of these constant aspirations, to a Christian associate peculiarly near to him; and his description of his intercourse with God was too beautiful and characteristic to be suppressed. This friend expressed to him some embarrassment in comprehending literally the precept to “pray always,” and to “pray without ceasing,” and asked his help in construing it. He replied that obedience ought not to be impracticable for the child of God. “But how,” said the other, “can one be always praying?” He answered, that if it might be permitted to him, without suspicion of religious display, he would explain by describing his own habits. He then proceeded, with several parentheses, deprecating earnestly the charge of egotism, to say that, besides the stated daily seasons of secret and social prayer, he had long cultivated the habit of connecting the most trivial and customary acts of life with a silent prayer. “When we take our meals,” said he, “there is the grace. When I take a draught of water, I always pause, as my palate receives the refreshment, to lift up my heart to God in thanks and prayer for the water of life. Whenever I drop a letter into the box at the post-office, I send a petition along with it, for God's blessing upon its mission and upon the person to whom it is sent. When I break the seal of a letter just received, I stop to pray to God that He may prepare me for its contents, and make it a messenger of good. When I go to my class-room, and await the arrangement of the cadets in their places, that is my time to intercede with God for them. And so of every other familiar act of the day.” “But,” said his friend, “do you not often forget these seasons, coming so frequently?” “No,” said he, “I have made the practice habitual to me; and I can no more forget it, than forget to drink when I [107] am thirsty.” He added that the usage had become as delightful to him as it was regular.

He had a higher and more unaffected sense of the value of the prayers of other Christians than of his own. To one who did not know how abhorrent all cant and pretence were to the sincerity and truthfulness of his nature, the frequent assertions of this feeling in his letters would almost appear as unmeaning verbiage. He never seemed to let slip an opportunity to urge Christians to prayer, for theChurch and for their country. Here are examples, which only express his habitual language and spirit. Writing to a near Christian connexion, he says:--

My dear sister,--Do not forget to remember me in prayer. To the prayers of God's people I look with more interest than to our military strength. In answer to them, God has greatly blessed us thus far, and we may sanguinely expect him to continue to do so, if we and all His people but continue to do our duty.

He usually concluded his letters to his pastor during his campaigns, thus:--

And now, present me affectionately to all my friends and brethren, and say to them, the greatest kindness they can show me is to pray for me.

When he had completed the series of brilliant victories in the Valley of Virginia, having utterly routed five Federal generals in quick succession, he entered upon a forced march of more than a hundred miles, to join the armies below Richmond. When about half of this march was completed, he stopped to rest his army during the Sabbath; and one use which he made of the respite was to write to his pastor upon two subjects. One was the supply of chaplains for the army; and the other may be stated in his own words:--

I am afraid that our people are looking to the wrong source [108] for help, and ascribing our successes to those to whom they are not due. If we fail to trust in God, and to give Him all the glory, our cause is ruined. Give to our friends at home due warning on this subject.

To another friend he wrote, Dec. 5, 1862 (eight days before the great battle of Fredericksburg):--

Whilst we were near Winchester, it pleased our ever-merciful Heavenly Father to visit my command with the rich outpouring of His Spirit. There were probably more than one hundred inquiring the way of life in my old brigade. It appears to me that we may look for growing piety and many conversions in the army; for it is the subject of prayer. If so many prayers were offered for the blessing of God upon any other organization, would we not expect the Answerer of prayer to hear the petitions, and send a blessing?

And again, January 1, 1863:--

My dear friend,--Your last letter came safe to hand, and I am much gratified to see that your prayer-meeting for the army is still continued. Dr. White writes that in Lexington they continue to meet every Wednesday afternoon for the same purpose. I have more confidence in such organizations than in military ones as the means of an early peace, though both are necessary.

In the autumn of 1861, after the first battle of Manassas, his pastor, with another venerable minister, visited his brigade at his invitation, to preach to his soldiers, and to lodge in his quarters. They arrived at nightfall, and found the Commander-in-Chief on the spot, communicating in person some important orders. General Jackson merely paused to give them the most hurried salutation consistent with respect, and without a moment's dallying passed on to execute his duties. After a length of time he returned, all the work of the evening completed, and [109] renewed his welcome with a beaming face, and warmabandon of manner, heaping upon them affectionate attentions, and inquiring after all their households.Dr. White spent five days and nights with him, preaching daily. In the General's quarters, he found his morning and evening worship as regularly held as it had been at home. Jackson modestly proposed to his pastor to lead in this worship, which he did until the last evening of his stay; when, to the usual request for prayers, he answered, “General, you have often prayed with and for me at, home, be so kind as to do so to-night.” Without a word of objection, Jackson took the sacred volume, and read and prayed. “And never while life lasts,” said the pastor, “can I forget that prayer. He thanked God for sending me to visit the army, and prayed that He would own and bless my ministrations, both to officers and privates, so that many souls might be saved. He gave thanks for what it had pleased God to do for the church in Lexington, ‘to which both of us belong,’ especially for the revivals He had mercifully granted to that church, and for the many preachers of the gospel sent forth from its membership. He then prayed for the pastor, and every member of his family, for the ruling elders, the deacons, and the private members of the church, such as were at home, and especially such as then belonged to the army. He then pleaded with such tenderness and fervor, that God would baptize the whole army with His Holy Spirit, that my own hard heart was melted into penitence, gratitude, and praise. When we had risen from our knees, he stood before his camp fire, with that calm dignity of mien and tender expression of countenance for which he was so remarkable, and said, ‘ Doctor, I would be glad to learn more fully than I have yet done, what your views are of the prayer of faith.’ A conversation then commenced, which was continued long after the hour of midnight, in which, it [110] is candidly confessed, the pastor received more instruction than he imparted.”

But perhaps the most impressive exhibition of his prayerful spirit was that which was sometimes witnessed on the field of battle. More than once, as one of his favorite brigades was passing into action, he had been noticed sitting motionless upon his horse, with his right hand uplifted, while the war-worn column swept, instern silence, close by his side, into the storm of shot. For a time, it seemed doubtful whether it was mere abstraction of thought, or a posture to relieve his fatigue. But at length those who looked more narrowly were convinced by his closed eyes and moving lips, that he was wrestling in silent prayer for them! His fervent soul doubtless swelled with the solemn thoughts of his own responsibility and his country's crisis, of the precious blood he was compelled to put in jeopardy, and the souls passing, perhaps unprepared, to their everlasting doom; and of the orphanage and widowhood which was about to ensue. Recognizing the sovereignty of the Lord of Hosts, he interceded for his veterans, that “the Almighty would cover them with his feathers, and that his truth might be their shield and buckler.” The moral grandeur of this scene was akin to that when Moses, upon the Mount of God, lifted up his hands while Israel prevailed against Amalek.

The Christian reader will easily comprehend that one so conscientious, and believing, and devout, was a happy man. He had, while in Lexington, his domestic bereavements, and he felt them as every man of sensibility must; but the consolations of the gospel abounded in him at those seasons. His habitual frame was a calm sunshine. He was never desponding, and never frivolous. It is manifest, that in all the later years of his religious life, his soul dwelt continually in the blessed assurance of his acceptance through the Redeemer; and this steady spiritual [111] joy purified and elevated all his earthly affections. It is the testimony of his pastor, that he was the happiest man he ever knew. The assurance that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” was, to him, a living reality. It robbed suffering of all its bitterness, and transmuted trials into blessings. To his most intimate Christian associate, he was one day expressing his surprise that this class of promises did not yield to other Christians a more solid peace. The suggestion arose in the mind of his friend hereupon to try the extent of his own faith, with the question, whether the trust in God's love, and purposes of mercy to his own soul, would be sufficient to confer on him abiding happiness under the privation of all earthly good. He answered, “Yes; he was confident that he was reconciled and adopted through the work of Christ; and that therefore, inasmuch as every event was disposed by omniscience guided.by redeeming love for him, seeming evils must be real blessings; and that it was not in the power of any earthly calamity to overthrow his happiness.” His friend knew his anxious care of his health, and asked, “Suppose, Major, that you should lose your health irreparably, do you think you could be happy then?” He answered, “Yes; I should be happy still.” His almost morbid fear of blindness was remembered, and the question was asked: “But suppose, in addition to chronic illness, you should incur the total loss of your eyesight; would not that be too much for you?” He answered firmly, “No.” His dislike of dependence was excessive; he was therefore asked once more: “Suppose that, in addition to ruined health, and total blindness, you should lose all your property, and be left thus, incapable of any useful occupation, a wreck, to linger on a sick-bed, dependent on the charities of those who had no tie to you, would not this be too much for your faith?” He pondered a moment, and then answered in a [112] reverent tone: “If it were the will of God to place me there, He would enable me to lie there peacefully a hundred years.”

Such was the man, as he appeared to those who knew him best. The attempt has been made to enable the reader to see his Christian character just as it manifested itself, without concealing, abating, or exaggerating any traits. Some of these will be pronounced by many to be singular, and some, perhaps, little worthy of applause or imitation; for, among those who observed it for themselves, there were not a few who regarded his conscience about little things as over-scrupulous, if not morbid. And some affected to regard him as a sincere, odd, weak man, to be admired for his honesty, but for little else. Whether his particularity concerning what have been called “the minor morals,” was unreasonable, or whether it was but the rectitude which the Saviour inculcates, when He says, “He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much,” may be left to each Christian to decide for himself, with the remark, that this strictness in little duties was attended with most noble fruits in the graver concerns of his life, and that God crowned this religious character, such as it was, with peculiar honor. In view of these facts, it is hoped there will be many to join in the prayer, that, if Jackson's was a morbid conscience, all Christians may be infected with the same disease.

He has been often compared to Cromwell and to Havelock, but without justice in either case. The latter he certainly resembled in energy, in directness, in bravery, and in the vigor of his faith; but his spiritual character was far more symmetrical, mellow, and noble. His ambition was more thoroughly chastened. He had risen to a calm and holy superiority to all the glitter of military glory, to which Havelock never attained. Had Jackson reared sons to succeed to his name, he would never, like him, have directed them to the bustling pursuits of arms in preference [113] to the sacred office of the gospel ministry. He would have said that, if his sons were clearly called by the providence of God to fight, and even to die, for the necessary defence of their country, then he should desire to see them brave soldiers; but that otherwise, his warmest wish for them would be, that they might share the honor of winning souls, the calling which he most coveted for himself. Nor had he, either in manners or character, any of that abnormal vivacity which made Havelock as peculiar as he was great. The field on which his military genius was displayed, and the armies he wielded, were so large compared with those of the Britishcaptain, that a comparison on this point would be equally difficult and unfair.

To liken Jackson to Cromwell is far more incorrect. With all the genius, both military and civic, and all the iron will of the Lord Protector, he had a moral and spiritual character so much more noble that they cannot be named together. In place of harboring Cromwell's selfish ambition, which, under the veil of a religiousness that perhaps concealed it from himself, grew to the end, and fixed the foulest stain upon his memory, Jackson crucified the not ignoble thirst for glory which animated his youth, until his abnegation of self became as pure and magnanimous as that of Washington. Cromwell's religion was essentially fanatical; and, until it was chilled by an influence as malign as fanaticism itself — the lust of power, it was disorganizing. Every fibre of Jackson's being, as formed by nature and grace alike, was antagonistic to fanaticism and radicalism. He believed indeed in the glorious doctrines of providence and redemption, with an appropriating faith; he believed in his own spiritual life and communion with God through His grace, and lived upon the Scripture promises; but he would never have mistaken the heated impulses of excitement for the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, to be asserted even beyond [114] and against his own revealed word; nor would he have ever presumed on such a profane interpretation of His secret will, as to conclude that the victory of Dunbar was sufficient proof, without the teachings of scriptural principles of duty, of the righteousness of the invasion of Scotland. There was never, in Jackson's piety, a particle of that false heat which could prompt a wish to intrude into clerical functions. Every instinct of his soul approved the beauty of a regular and righteous order. His religion was of the type of Hampden, rather than of the Independent. Especially was his character unlike Cromwell's, in its freedom from cant; his correct taste abhorred it. Sincerity was his grand characteristic. With him profession always came short of the reality; he was incapable of affecting what he did not feel; and it would have been for him an impossibility to use speech with the diplomatic art of concealing, instead of expressing, his true intent. His action, like Cromwell's, was always vigorous, and at the call of justice could be rigid. But his career could never have been marked by a massacre like that of Drogheda, or an execution like that of theKing. The immeasurable superiority of his spiritual life over that of Cromwell, may be justly illustrated by the contrast between their last days. The approach of death found Cromwell's religion corrupted by power and riches, his faith tottering, his communion with God interrupted, his comfort overclouded; and at last he faced the final struggle with no better support for his soul than a miserable perversion of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, by which he claimed the comfort of a former assurance, long since forfeited by backslidings. But the piety of Jackson continually repaired its benignant beams at the fountain of divine light and purity, becoming brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. His nature grew more unselfish, his aims more noble, his spirit more heavenly; while his eager [115] feet ran with ever hastening speed and joy in the way of godliness to its close. And his end, sustained by the peaceful triumphs of faith, was rather a translation than a death.

This portraiture of Jackson's character will be concluded with some notice of his domestic life inLexington. Thus the foliage will be added to the crown of the column, lest the reader should err by assigning to it a Doric severity. After two years residence at the Military Academy, he was married toEleanor Junkin, the daughter of the president of the adjoining college, on August 4th, 1853. The memorials of his short connexion with this accomplished lady are scanty; but enough is known to show that he was a tender husband. After fourteen months of married life he lost her by death; and the bereavement was peculiarly harrowing, because it came without warning, and just as he hoped the circle of his domestic joys was to be completed instead of ruptured. It is related that his grief was so pungent, as not only to distress, but seriously to alarm his friends. Yet even then he was most anxious not to sin by questioning in his heart the wisdom and rectitude of God's dealings with him. His endeavors after self-control were strenuous, and he never for a moment lost the dignity of the Christian in his grief. But for a long time his taste for secular occupations and pleasures was lost, and his only aspirations pointed to the other world. During this season of discipline his health suffered seriously, and his friends induced him, in the summer of 1856, to make a European tour, in the hope that the spell might be broken which bound him in sadness. He visited England, Belgium, France, and Switzerland, spending about four months among the venerable architectural remains, and mountain scenery of those countries. This journey was the source of high enjoyment to him. But the opposition of his nature to all egotism was as strikingly shown here as elsewhere; he was no more [116] inclined to speak of his travels than of his exploits. It was only at rare times, when with some intimate friend who could appreciate his sentiments, that he launched out, and related with enthusiasm his delight in the grandeur of the medieval temples and the Alps; of York Minster and Mont Blanc. He returned from this holiday with animal spirits and health completely renovated. Although he resorted no more to society, he resumed his scientific occupations with zest, and his religious life again became as sunny and cheerful as was his wont. A little incident attending his arrival at home illustrates the temper of the man. The full session of the military school had begun, at which time he had promised to return. His classes were awaiting him; week after week passed, and everybody wondered that the exact Major Jackson had not returned to his post. At length he reached Lexington unexpectedly; and his first act was to visit the family of his deceased wife. After the first joyful greetings and explanations of his delay, a sister exclaimed: “But, Major, have you not been miserable, have you not been perfectly wretched since the beginning of the month?” “Why, no!” said he, with amazement; “why should I be?” “You know,” she replied, “that you are so dreadfully punctual, and as the session had begun, and the time you promised to return had passed, we just supposed you were beside yourself with impatience.” “By no means,” he replied; “I had set out to return at the proper time; I had done my duty; the steamer was delayed by the act of Providence; and I was perfectly satisfied.”

He was married again, on July 15th, 1857, to Mary Anna Morrison, the daughter of Dr. R. H.Morrison, an eminent Presbyterian divine of North Carolina, and niece of the Honorable William Graham. This lady, with one living daughter, born in November 1862, survives him. Another infant, born in the early years of this marriage, was cut off at the age of a month. [117]

In no man were the domestic affections ever more tender and noble. He who only saw the stern self-denying soldier in his quarters, amidst the details of the commander's duties, or on the field of battle, could scarcely comprehend the gentle sweetness of his home life. There the cloud which, to his enemies, was only night and tempest, displayed nothing but the “silver lining” of the sunlight upon its reverse; and that light came chiefly from the Sun of righteousness. He was intensely fond of his home, where all his happiness and every recreation centred. As his foot crossed its threshold, care lifted itself from his brow, his presence brought cheerfulness, and, by his example of childlike gaiety, he allured its inmates to every innocent enjoyment. His tongue, elsewhere so guarded in its speech, seemed to luxuriate in a playful variety of terms of endearment borrowed often from the Spanish, which he always said was richer and more expressive in these phrases than the English; and in these he loved to address, and be addressed by the members of his family. In his household, the law of love reigned; his own happy pattern was the chief stimulus to duty; and his sternest rebuke, when he beheld any recession from gentleness or propriety, was to say, half tenderly, half sadly: “All, that is not the way to be happy!”

It was in his own house, also, that the social aspects of his character shone forth most pleasingly to his acquaintances. Although the most unostentatious of men in his mode of living, he was generous and hospitable. Nowhere else was he so unconstrained and easy, as with the guests at his own table. A short time after his second marriage, he wrote thus to a near friend:--

“We are still at the hotel, but expect, on the 1st of January, to remove to Mr.----‘s house as boarders. I hope that in the course of time we shall be able to call some house our home; where we may have the pleasure of receiving a long visit from you ... I shall never be content until I am at the head of an [118] establishment in which my friends can feel at home in Lexington. I have taken the first important step by securing a wife capable of making a happy home. And the next thing is to give her an opportunity.”

Before very long these purposes were realized; he was settled in his own house, where he delighted to entertain his select friends with unpretending but substantial comfort. An instance of his considerate kindness will show his character better than many words. One of his friends, having occasion to take his little daughter of four years upon a considerable journey without the attendance of its mother, called on the way to spend the night with Major Jackson. At bed-time, he proposed that Mrs. Jackson should take charge of the little one for the night; but the father replied that she would not be contented with a comparative stranger, and would give least trouble if he kept her in his own bosom. At a dead hour of the night, he was awakened by a gentle step in the room, and a hand upon his bed. It was Jackson, tenderly adjusting the bed-clothes around the infant's face; and when the father spoke, he replied that, knowing she was accustomed to a mother's watchfulness, he had lain awake thinking of the danger of her becoming uncovered and catching a cold; and had thought it best to come to his chamber and see that all was safe. This was also the mighty hand which guided the thunders of war at Sharpsburg andChancellorsville!

Upon becoming the proprietor of a house with a garden, and soon afterwards of a farm of a few acres, his rural tastes revived in full force. He devoted his hours of recreation to gardening with his own hands, and was, from the first, very successful. Indeed, the ability of his mind displayed itself, as in Washington, by the practical skill with which he handled everything which claimed his attention. His vegetables were the earliest and finest of the neighborhood. His stable and dairy were stocked [119] well and cared for in the best possible manner. His little farm of rocky hill-land was soon perfectly enclosed and tilled, and became a fruitful field. He used to say that the bread grown there, by the labor of himself and his slaves, tasted sweeter than that which was bought. Although he seemed to be absolutely indifferent to wealth, and gave from his modest means with an ungrudging hand, yet they grew under his energy and practical sense, as it were in spite of his generous profusion. The chief cause which he would have assigned for this prosperity, was the blessing of Him who declares that “the liberal soul shall be made fat.” The secondary causes, which his neighbors assigned, were the moderation of his own habits, and the soundness of his judgment, which never admitted a mistake or a useless waste.

His life here was so methodical, that its picture may be taken from that of one day. He always rose at dawn; and his first occupation was secret prayer, followed, if the weather permitted, by a solitary walk. His family prayers were held at seven o'clock, summer and winter, and all his domestics were rigidly required to be present. But the absence of no one was allowed to delay the service. Breakfast then followed, and he went to his class-room at eight o'clock. Here he was usually engaged in instruction until eleven o'clock, when he returned to his study. The first book which engaged his attention was the Bible, which was not merely read, but studied as a daily lesson. The time until dinner was then devoted to his text-books. Between that meal and supper, the interval was occupied by his garden, his farm, or the duties of the church. The evening was devoted first to the mental review of the studies of the day, made without book, and then to literary reading or conversation, until ten o'clock, P. M., when he retired. He never chose works of fiction, but the classic historians and poets of the [120] English tongue; but this avoidance of works of mere fancy was from principle, not from indifference. If he was once entrapped into an interest in their narrative, he betrayed all the keenness of the veteran novel-reader; and only restrained it from a sense of the duty of husbanding his time. As the weakness of his eyes forbade the use of them at night, these readings for recreation were usually by some member of the family, while he sat an interested listener and critic. And such was the tenacity of his memory, that what was thus acquired was never parted with.

But the best conception of his domestic character will be gained from his own words; and, to enable the reader to form this, a few extracts will be given from his correspondence with his wife, so selected as to disclose his interior life, but not to violate the proprieties of a sacred relationship.

April 18th, 1857, upon hearing of the painful death of the son of a friend, greatly lamented by his parents, he says:--

I wrote to Mr. and Mrs.--a few days since; and my prayer is that this heavy affliction may be sanctified to them. I was not surprised that little M. was taken away, as I have long regarded his father's attachment to him as too strong; that is, so strong that he would be unwilling to give him up, though God should call for His own. I am not one of those who believe that an attachment ever is, or can be absolutely too strong for any object of our affections; but our love for God may not be strong enough. We may not love Him so intensely as to have no will but His.

April 25th, 1857.-It is a great comfort to me to know, that though I am not with you, yet you are in the hands of One who will not permit any evil to come nigh to you. What a consoling thought it is, to know that we may, with perfect confidence, commit all our friends in Jesus to the care of our [121] Heavenly Father, with an assurance that all shall be well with them.

I have been sorely disappointed at not hearing from you this morning; but these disappointments are all designed for our good. In my daily walks I think much of you. I love to stroll abroad after the labors of the day are over, and indulge feelings of gratitude to God for all the sources of natural beauty with which He has adorned the earth. Some time since my morning walks were rendered very delightful by the singing of the birds. The morning carolling of the birds, and their notes in the evening, awaken in me devotional feelings of praise and gratitude, though very different in their nature. In the morning, all animated nature (man excepted) appears to join in active expressions of gratitude to God; in the evening, all is hushing into silent slumber, and thus disposes the mind to meditation. And as my mind dwells on you, I love to give it a devotional turn, by thinking of you as a gift from our Heavenly Father. How delightful it is, thus to associate every pleasure and enjoyment with God the Giver! Thus will he bless us, and make us grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Him, whom to know aright is life eternal.

May 7th, 1857.-I wish I could be with you to-morrow at your communion [the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper]. Though absent in body, yet in spirit I shall be present, and my prayer will be for your growth in every Christian grace.

I take special pleasure in the part of my prayers, in which I beg that every temporal and spiritual blessing may be yours, and that the glory of God may be the controlling and absorbing thought of our lives in our new relation. It is to me a great satisfaction, to feel that God has so manifestly ordered our union. I believe, and am persuaded, that if we but walk in His commandments, acknowledging Him in all our ways, He [122] will shower His blessings upon us. How delightful it is, to feel that we have such a Friend, who changes not! I love to see and contemplate Him in everything. The Christian's recognition of God in all His works, greatly enhances his enjoyment.

May 16th, 1857.-There is something very pleasant in the thought of your mailing me a letter every Monday, and such manifestation of regard for the Sabbath must be “well-pleasing in the sight of God.” O that all our people would manifest such a regard for His holy day! If we would all strictly observe all His holy laws, what would not our country be?

When in prayer for you last Sabbath, the tears came to my eyes, and I realized an unusual degree of emotional tenderness. I have not yet fully analyzed my feelings to my satisfaction, so as to arrive at the cause of such emotions, but I am disposed to think that it consisted in the idea of the intimate relation existing between you, as the object of my tender affection, and God, to whom I looked up as my Heavenly Father. I felt that day as though it were a communion-day for myself.

June 20th, 1857.-I never remember to have felt so touchingly as last Sabbath, the pleasure springing from the thought of ascending prayers for my welfare, from one tenderly beloved. There is something very delightful in such spiritual communion.

Mrs. Jackson being absent upon a distant visit, he wrote, April 131h, 1859.:--

Is there not comfort in prayer, which is not elsewhere to be found?

Home, April 20th, 1859.-- Our potatoes are coming up. .... We have had very unusually dry weather for nearly a fortnight, and your garden had been thirsting for rain till last evening, when the weather commenced changing, and to-day we aave had some rain.Through grace given me from above, I felt [123] that rain would come at the right time, and I don't recollect having ever felt so grateful for a rain as for the present one.

Last evening I sowed turnips between our pease.

I was mistaken about your large garden-fruit being peaches; it turns out to be apricots; and I enclose you one which I found on the ground to-day. And just think my little-- has a tree full of them. You must come home before they get ripe.

He playfully applied the pronoun your to all the common possessions of his family when addressing his wife. It was “your house,” “your garden,” “your horse,” “your husband,” or, more generally, “your hombre,” and even “your salary.”

May 1lth, 1859.-I wrote you this morning that you must not be discouraged. “All things work together for good” to God's children. I think it would have done you good to hear Dr.- on this last Sabbath: “No affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby.” See if you cannot spend a short time each evening after dark in looking out of your window into space, and meditating upon Heaven with all its joys unspeakable and full of glory; and think what the Saviour relinquished in glory when he came to earth, and of His'sufferings for us; and seek to realize with the Apostle, that the afflictions of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Try to look up and be cheerful, and not desponding, Trust our kind heavenly Father, and by the eye of faith see that all tlings with you are right, and for your best interest ..... The clouds come, pass over us, and are followed by bright sunshine; so, in God's moral dealings with us, He permits us to have trouble awhile, but let us, even in the most trying dispensations of His providence, be cheered by the brightness which is a little ahead. [124]

Try to live near to Jesus, and secure that peace which flows like a river.

Home, May 12th, 1859.-I have had only one letter this week, but “ hope springs immortal in the human breast.” So you see that I am becoming quite poetical, since listening to a lecture on that subject last night by--, which was one grand failure. I should not have gone; but as I was on my way to see Capt.-- at Major--‘s, I fell in with them going to the lecture, and I could not avoid joining them. After the lecture, I returned with them and made my visit, and, before committing myself to the arms of Morpheus, your clock, though behind time, struck 12 A. M., so I retired this morning instead of last evening. I send you a flower from your garden, and could send one in full bloom, but I thought that this one, which is just opening, would be in a better state of preservation when you get it.

October 5th, 1859.-I am glad and thankful that you received the draft and letters in time. How kind is God to His children especially!, I feel so thankful to Him that He has blessed me with so much faith, though I well know that I have not that faith which it is my privilege to have. But I have been taught never to despair, but to wait, expecting the blessing at the last moment. ...... Such occurrences should strengthen our faith in Him who never slumbers.

Such was the peaceful and pure life in which the days of Jackson glided by at Lexington. But the time was short. Events were ripening which called him into scenes more stirring, and to deeds that have brought his name before the world, and shed an imperishable lustre on his memory. [125]

1

“Purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter

Assuitur pannus.

”

Hor. Ad Pisones.

Chapter 5: secession.

The type of Major Jackson's political opinions has been already described, as that of a States'-Rights' Democrat of “the most straitest sect.” This name did not denote the attachment of those who bore it to the dogmas of universal suffrage and radical democracy, as concerned the State Governments; but their advocacy of republican rights for these Governments, and a limited construction of the powers conferred by them on the Federal Government. Their view of those powers was founded on the following historical facts, which no well-informed American hazards his credit by disputing:--That the former colonies of Great Britain emerged from the Revolutionary War distinct and sovereign political communities or commonwealths, in a word, separate nations, though allied together, and as such were recognized by all the European powers: That, after some years' existence as such, they voluntarily formed a covenant, called the Constitution of the United States, which created a species of government resting upon this compact for its existence and rights; a government which was the creature of the sovereign States, acting as independent nations in forming it: That this compact conferred certain defined powers and duties upon the Central Government, for purposes common to all the States alike, and expressly reserved and prohibited the exercise of all other powers, leaving to the States the management of their own [126] affairs. They, therefore, did not sacrifice their nature as sovereignties, by acceding to the Federal Union; but, by compact, they conceded some of the functions of an independent nation, particularly defined, to the Central Government, retaining all the rest as before. These facts and this inference were uniformly held by the Commonwealth of Virginia at all times, being solemnly asserted when she joined the copartnership, and frequently reaffirmed by her Government down to the present day. They were, in substance, embodied in the Constitution of the United States itself, by a formal amendment, immediately after it went into effect. Since the era of the elder Adams, when the centralizing doctrine was utterly overwhelmed by the election of Mr. Jefferson, they have been professed in theory, though often violated in act, by every Administration of whatever party it might be, and by nearly every State.

The party of the States'-Rights usually taught, from these principles, that the Federal Government ought to continue what it was in the purer days of Washington and Jefferson, unambitious in its claims of jurisdiction, simple and modest in its bearing, restricted in its wealth and patronage, and economical of expenditures, save in the common defence against external enemies. They held that all acts of legislation which interfered with those functions appropriate to the States as Commonwealths, and all those acts which turned aside from the general interests common to the States alike, to promote particular or local interests, were partial, usurping, and in virtual violation of the spirit of the Constitution. Among these, they classed all bounty laws designed to favor the inhabitants of a section, all protective tariffs, the chartering of a vast Banking Corporation in one of the States, and all meddling with the institution of domestic slavery in the States. They also held that the very Government, being the creation of commonwealths which acted as independent [127] nations in forming it, and originating in a covenant which they voluntarily formed as such, derived its whole authority from its conformity to the terms of that covenant: that, if the covenant were destroyed, the Government was destroyed, and its rightful title to allegiance from any person was annihilated — that being gone which was the sole basis of it; and that, in the dernier ressort upon any vital instance of usurpation, the States themselves must be the judges whether the covenant was destroyed, and judges too of the necessity and nature of their redress. This right, to be. exercised, indeed, under those moral obligations which should govern all international intercourse, they held to be inherent in the States as originally sovereign; while to. suppose their federal compact divested them of it was preposterous, and what was, in the nature of the case, impossible. It would represent their voluntary act in acceding to the covenant as a political suicide. And it would have been equally preposterous for the Federal Constitution formally to confer it; it would have been the absurdity of the offspring's attempting to confer on its own parent the rights of paternity. Hence the absolute silence of the Federal Constitution concerning this inalienable right of the States was logically consistent, and is as incapable of implying anything against, as for, its just exercise. How natural and fair this construction is, may be shown by the argument of the great English moralist, Paley, against the theory which founds the government of States over individuals upon the fiction of a social compact. He reasons unanswerably, that if this were so, the violation of the original compact by the government of a commonwealth, in any one point, would destroy the binding force of that covenant on the other party, the citizen, and so annihilate all right to allegiance. Whence we should reach the ruinous and absurd proposition, that any one unconstitutional act in the ruler would release every citizen, in the future, from all rightful [128] obligation to obey any law he enjoined, just or unjust. The argument is perfectly sound against the theory of a social contract between individuals, because the government of a State over them is not founded on any such contract, but on the ordinance of God. But in the case of the United Statesthe fact was precisely opposite, for the whole Central Government actually did originate avowedly in “a social contract,” to which the parties were States instead of persons. So that Paley's deduction is, in this case, perfectly true. But its results are, here, in no wise absurd or disorganizing; because the creation of the Federal Government did not originate a social order or civic life for the States, and its destruction, therefore, would not destroy nor even relax it. The jurisdiction of the States themselves — older and more sovereign societies, indestructible save by the hand of political murder from without-preserved and regulated the whole social order; and the few functions which had been by them lent to the Federal Government, upon the fall of the latter, would not perish, but naturally revert to the States which had granted them. In the integrity of their powers, therefore, was the civic life of the American people.

The conception which the fathers of the Federal Constitution formed of their confederation, was that of a Common Agent for the equal benefit of the parties confederated, exercising no powers except those derived from their consent, and. neither possessing nor needing any guarantee for those powers as against the parties, the States, save the obvious beneficence towards them of all its action. The Union was not a prison owned by some despot, within which the unwilling inhabitants were to be kept by force, making residence there the infliction, and escape the privilege; it was to be the home, created for their common happiness by a family of freemen, where residence would be the privilege, and exclusion the penalty; where each member of the [129] brotherhood abode only because he chose to do so; and yet there was no danger that the membership would be prematurely dissolved, because the advantages of its just and beneficent rules would insure on the part of each member the desire to continue in it; and the threat of exclusion would be the sufficient discipline to reduce a capricious party to reason. And such was the Federal Union during the life of its founders; a government more deeply seated in the love of its people, and therefore stronger than any in Christendom; more productive of public wealth and happiness in its action; weak for aggression against the rights of its citizens, yet powerful for their defence against external enemies. In this point was intended to be the essential wisdom of its structure; that, being forbidden to enforce, by the strong hand, even its legitimate will (much more its illegal) upon the parties to it, the States, it was compelled to foster the motive for compliance by making its authority a minister of good only, and not of evil. Thus did our patriotic fathers attempt to solve the problem, hitherto unsolved, of securing the freedom of the parts, and yet giving sufficient unity to the whole, for protection against unprincipled power from without. Had all the parts possessed public virtue enough to understand and keep their obligations, the American Union would Have continued a great, because a benign government. But with this great balance-wheel of free consent struck from its fabric, it became at once the most mischievous, cruel, and impracticable of all institutes, a centralized democracy, owning no law save the caprice of the numerical majority.

The States' Rights party could prove that their conception of the government was the true one, not only by the closest deduction of reasoning, but by notorious facts. One of these was, that the framers of theConstitution themselves left the Federal Government unclothed with any powers of coercion over the [130] States, not from oversight, but of set purpose. The proposal to give this power was made by one, and was rejected by the rest. Il this, the men who were afterwards claimed as the leaders of the party of centralization, such as Alexander Hamilton, agreed precisely with the men who thenceforward asserted the rights of the States, represented by Mr. Madison.¹ All agreed in declaring, that to give such a power over States, was inconsistent with the nature of the government designed, would infallibly corrupt it, and would make it justly odious to the States, and impracticable to be maintained, save by the utter banishment of republican freedom out of the land. What more complete proof is needed of this truth, than the fact displayed in 1861, that in the very attempt to coerce States, the Constitution immediately perished? The Constitution was therefore, of purpose, left silent as to any such power; and on the completion of the document, the lack of it was expressly avowed in the words: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Another fact was, that when the State of Virginia, then the leading one in fame, power, and the ability of her statesmen, gave her reluctant and chary adhesion to the Federal Union, she coupled it, in the very act accepting the Constitution, with this condition: that she should be for ever free to retract her adhesion, whenever she found the Union inconvenient, of which juncture she was to be sole judge; and to resume her separate independence, unmolested. Her reception upon these declared [131] terms, the only ones upon which she would have entered, was virtually a promise that her condition should be granted. Nor was she the only State which made the same reservation. New York and Rhode Island, the latter the smallest, and the former the most powerful State, next to Virginia, both ncv among the covenant-breakers, which are persecuting the Old Dominion with a malignant treachery, for claiming her covenanted right, accepted the Union on the same condition. Their admission on such terms not only seals their right to retire at their option, but also demonstrates that all the other States understood the compact as, of course, implying such a right. The attempt has been made to break the force of this fact, by the miserable subterfuge: That Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island, only stipulated for this right to retire if they found the Union inconvenient, because they feared it might prove a failure; and that since its splendid success, that condition had become antiquated, and expired. It would be enough to expose this unprincipled sophism, to ask, how long a time might not be required to demonstrate that the Union had been successful? Do not the events which are now transpiring, keep that question yet in suspense: leading the most experienced minds in Europe to doubt whether such a scheme of government is not impracticable? But the very point of the stipulation made by Virginia was, that she was to judge for herself, when, and how far, the Union proved inadequate to confer those benefits she sought under it. And, if anything further is needed to explode the wretched pretext, it is found in the fact, that Virginiahas always taken express care that this condition in her covenant should not grow antiquated, by re-affirming it from time to time, to this day, in the most formal manner.

It is thus abundantly proved that the right of the States to retire from the Federal Union, when the compact was broken, was inherent in them; and that the Constitution could neither [132] give nor take away this privilege. The same thing appears equally from the manner in which the Colonies first acquired their independence. Their revolution was a secession from the British Empire. They declared themselves to be the only rightful judges of its necessity. So that every shadow of claim which they have to their present position is derived from the doctrine that the people of a commonwealth are entitled to change their form of government whenever they judge it necessary for their welfare. Nothing, therefore, can be more monstrous than the attempt of the States of the North to obstruct the exercise of this right by an inhuman war; when it is only by its exercise that they themselves exist.

Once more; the formation of the United States under their present Constitution, was an act of secession from the confederation previously existing. It was made all the more glaring by the fact, that the articles of Confederation had very recently been perfected, and had been accepted by all the States, with the express injunction-“And the Union shall be perpetual.” That confederation did not dissolve itself: it did not grant its members leave to desert it, and form a new combination; on the contrary, it claimed an immortal existence. Yet one, and another, and another State deserted it to enter the new Union, when it saw fit; and one, Rhode Island, did not transfer itself from the old compact to the new, for three years. Yet neither the new nor the old confederation dreamed of assailing the other: both recognized the sovereign rights of the States, to secede or to accede. Accession to the new could only take place, by means of secession from the old Union; which had precisely the same claims to the adhesion of its members. So that, when Washington and his illustrious associates of the Convention of 1787, proposed a new Constitution to the States they were proposing secession. [133]

It is plain, then, that to speak of a State committing treason against the Government of the United States, is just as absurd as to describe a parent as being guilty of insubordination to his son. There might be injustice or violence; there could be no treason. To speak of resistance organized by the sovereign States against the Federal Government as rebellion, is preposterous. It was just as easy for Great Britainto rebel against Austria, while they were members of the great coalition against Napoleon. He who pretends to liken the secession of Virginia from the Union, to a rebellion of the county of York or Kentagainst the British throne, a simile advanced by the chief magistrate of the United States himself, is either uttering stupid nonsense or profligate falsehood; for the relations in the two cases have no ground in common, on which the pretended analogy can rest. What English county possessed sovereignty or independence, or in the exercise of such powers entered into any union or confederation?

It is objected again, that the admission of the right to retire from the Union renders its authority a rope of sand, and its character as a government a mere simulacrum, which dissolves at the first touch of resistance. The triumphant reply of Virginians is, that our State has always had this right as a condition of her membership in the Union; and yet this Government was to her, for eighty years, anything else than a “rope of sand.” It was a bond which held her for that period in firm affection and loyalty, which nothing but the most ruthless despotism could relax, which retained its strength even when it was binding theState to her incipient dishonor and destruction. It is a strange and disgraceful proposition to be asserted by Republicans, that no force is a real force except that which is sustained by an inexorable physical power. It would seem that, with its assertors, honor, covenants, oaths, affections, enlightened [134] self-interest, are only a rope of sand. The truth is, that the physical power of even the most iron despotisms reposes on moral forces, and if these are withdrawn from beneath, the most rigid tyranny becomes but a simulacrum, which dissolves at the touch of resistance. How much more, then, must all free governments be founded on the affections, the common interests, and the consent of the governed? While the Government of the United States conciliated these, it was strong and efficient for good; when they were gone, it became impotent for good, and existed only for evil This was all the strength which its founders ever meant to assign it, or which its nature permitted; if this species of strength failed it, then that fact was the evidence that it had ceased to fulfil the purposes of its creation, and ought to perish.

It has been urged, that if the right be denied to the United States to coerce a seceding State, it is equivalent to the absurd proposition, that the Union never had any other title to the allegiance of any State than its own caprice chose to yield it; that unless the right forcibly to resist secession is granted to the former, the right to withdraw for any cause, or for no cause, is asserted for the latter. This dilemmawas charged upon Mr. Buchanan, the last President of the United States, when he ventured to reaffirm the established doctrine of the Constitution, that it gave Congress no power to coerce a State. Such pretended reasoners can never have heard of the well-known class of imperfect rights in ethics; they cannot conceive that a suffering Christian may have a claim in morals upon the alms of his fellow-Christian, and yet not have a moral right to take relief by force of arms. The right of the United States to the adhesion of the States, while the compact with them was faithfully kept, was precisely one of these imperfect rights. Their inherent right to withdraw for just cause, and to judge for themselves [135] when that cause exists, does not imply a right to withdraw for no cause, or for a trivial cause, any more than the fact that the Christian must be left free in giving alms to the distressed, implies that he has a right to withhold alms from every person, however distressed. It is asked what guarantee the Union would then have against the secession of its members for trivial causes, or mere caprice? The answer is: It would have as guarantee the force of public opinion, habits, and affections; and above all, the fact that in every capricious secession the larger share of the inconveniences would fall upon the seceding member. If theFederal Government were equitable and beneficent, this safeguard would be always omnipotent.

Akin to this is the objection, that if the Union may not forcibly prevent the secession of a State, then it has no rightful mode of self-protection against any wrongful acts which the departing member may commit in her exit, such as appropriating the common property, or against any detrimental or even destructive use which she may make of her independence afterwards. But is not this State, the moment she resumes her separate independence, bound by the comity of nations to her former partners, as any other nation is? Just as any other independent neighbor may be required so to exercise its sovereignty as not to infringe the sovereignty of others, in the same way may she be, even by force of arms. But then the coercion must be applied only to compel her to act as a just equal and neighbor; not to enforce by violence a union which, in its very nature, can only be voluntary.

The clamor concerning the inconvenience and loss which the remaining United States experience by the just secession of a part, in the diminution of territory, departure from natural boundaries, severance of rivers and mountain chains, and interruptions of advantageous commerce, admits of an easy [136] answer to any honest mind. In all this, the North is but paying the righteous penalty of the wrongs which justify the secession of the South. If the former does not like the loss, why did it commit the crime? Do the territories, the boundaries, the mountains, the rivers of Virginia belong to her, or do they belong to a parcel of States without her, which never claimed to be more than her co-ordinates?

An excellent proof of the justice of all these reasonings may be seen in the fact, that the most of those politicians at the North who now deny them, were the violent assertors of them, when they considered themselves aggrieved. So obvious were they, that the most did not dare to deny their application to theSouthern States, in case they demanded the right of withdrawal. The general opinion was, that in that case the Constitution would require them to allow us to go in peace. But after the thirst for plunder and revenge was awakened, and frantic passions had seized on the minds of the North, all this was changed, and sophistical pretexts were sought for war.

Such were the doctrines which the party of the States' rights had always maintained, and to whichMajor Jackson was committed by the firmest convictions. If they appear to the reader to present the conception of a government very singular, very far removed from all European ideas, or even very impracticable, still, if he has a particle of fairness of mind, he will see, at a glance, that his estimate of the government has nothing whatever to do with the righteousness or propriety of the action taken by the advocates of States' rights. This species of federation, be it wise or foolish, good or bad, was the one to which they were actually bound in covenant. This, and no other form of government, was what they had pledged themselves to obey. In this way they had uniformly explained the obligations which they considered themselves as assuming. This explanation had [137] been at first accepted by all parties;Virginia, declaring it in the sovereign act by which she made herself a member of the Federal Union, and repeating it in her famous resolutions of 1798-99, had never ceased to reiterate her claims; and in this she had been followed by the other Southern States, her sisters and daughters.

Secession, then, was no dishonest after-thought, suggested by a growing sectional ambition, but the ancient, righteous remedy, to which the Southern States were reluctantly driven, by a long course of treachery and oppression. Ever since 1820, they had seen with grief that the true balance of theConstitution was overthrown, the Government centralized, and the rights of the States engrossed by the Federal Congress. It was equally clear that the practical advantages of these usurpations were all inuring to the North against the South. A bounty on fisheries was granted from the first, which was as plainly for the partial advantage of New England, as though the tax-gatherer had, with his own hand, plucked the money out of the pockets of the rest of the citizens, to place it in theirs. This bounty, varying from one to two millions annually, and continued for eighty years, will account for the transfer of many hundreds of millions to New England from the other States. The Northern were maritime States; the Southern were, by population, climate, habits, and geographical position, inclined to agricultural pursuits. A code of navigation laws was immediately passed, which operated as a perpetual tax on Southern industry, for the bribing of Northern adventure upon the seas. Under the first President, the Constitution was violated by the assumption of a power in Congress to create an overshadowing Banking corporation,--with special privileges, within the territory of a State; and this bank being, moreover, immediately employed as the agent for funding and paying the Federal debt contracted for [138] the War of Independence, at once, and irrevocably, removed the financial centre from the Southern States, the richer portion, and paying the larger share of the taxes, to the poorer North, which paid less. A system of partial taxation by tariffs was also commenced, for a motive glaringly unconstitutional, namely, to foster local enterprises for home manufactures, seated almost exclusively in the Northern and Middle States. These tariffs were constantly pressed to a more exorbitant height, throwing millions of unequal burden annually upon theSouth; and never for one moment were they removed, although sometimes they received a momentary and deceitful relaxation, when the South seemed about to awake to a stern demand for justice.

But the chief sectional outrage was that aimed against the property of the Southern States in the labor of the African race, held to servitude within them. As soon as the Confederation began to acquire new territory, the Northern States disclosed a fixed purpose of sectional aggrandizement therein, by means of the general and ignorant prejudice against the African race, and the institution of slavery. FindingAfrican labor unsuited to their climate, they had extinguished slavery among themselves from motives purely pecuniary, not generally by the emancipation of their slaves, but by selling them to the South. And the tendency of the landless population of Europe to flow to the Western Continent, showed them an indefinite supply of labor, population, and wealth; while a relative expansion of the Southern States was absolutely forbidden by the extinction of the slave-trade; a measure in which the South heartily concurred, against their obvious sectional interests, because of their conviction of the immorality of the traffic. The plan of the North was to engross the whole of the new territories for their population, by the exclusion of African labor; and the contest, which began from the very first, was never relaxed. But theSouth 1.38 [139] was then too powerful to be oppressed with entire success. After a threatening contest in 1820, concerning the admission of Missouri as a slave State, she was received as such; but the South unwisely permitted her entrance to be coupled with an enactment, that thenceforward all territory to the north of the Southern boundary of that State, latitude 36° 30‘, must be settled by white labor, while the remnant to the south of it might be settled by slave-labor. But in 1849, upon the acquisition of new territory from Mexico, the State of California was immediately closed against theSouth, though lying in part south of that line; and the intention was boldly declared thenceforward to engross the whole territory for the North. So flagrant a wrong, coupled with the perpetual agitation of abolition in the States, and the perpetual, unrestrained theft of slaves by Northern interlopers, naturally inflamed the resistance of the South to an alarming height. After many discussions, a delusive pacification was made, chiefly through the influence of the veteran politician, Henry Clay, and Senator Douglas ofIllinois. The sum of the measures adopted, under their advocacy at different times, was, that, on the one hand, the South should acquiesce in engrossments of territory already committed, and that, on the other, laws should be passed, in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, to prevent negro-stealing. As to the territory yet lying unappropriated, the Missouri Compromise (of 1820) was declared to be, as it was indeed, unconstitutional and null; and the apparently fair principle was adopted, of leaving the common territory open to immigration from all sections alike, and allowing the people settled there to decide for themselves, whether the State which grew up should exclude African labor or not. The latter subject was apparently disposed of in the Kansas-Nebraska law, the favorite project ofSenator Douglas.

But no sooner was this law passed, than the South found that, [140] while it “kept the word of promise to the ear,” it was designed “to break it to the sense.” The whole free-soil party, a majority of the wholeNorth, openly proclaimed that they disdained to obey it; just as the whole Abolition party, now nearly a majority, defied the law against negro-stealing. (Here was an instance of insubordination, sufficient of itself to justify the secession of the South.) But more: under the Kansas-Nebraska law, the practical question immediately emerged: How, and when, the people settling upon a common territory should exercise the discretion of determining whether African labor should have place in the State there growing? The one party, aptly called that of squatter-sovereignty, said that they should wield this power as soon as they began to assemble there. This assured the victory in every case to the North, because landless free labor will, of course, ever anticipate capital and slave labor in mobility. The other party, including all the South, said, with obvious truth, that the people of the new State could only exercise the power of deciding for or against the African labor, when they became a State, a true populus, a full formed political society. To claim the opposite, was to make the rights of American citizens-rights recognized by both State and Federal Constitutions — dependent on the caprice of any rabble of paupers, foreigners, and free negroes, the majority of whom would probably not be citizens at all, assembled by sufferance upon the common domain. These territories, they argued, were the joint property of the United States; and, therefore, while held as such, should be administered (as usual in the case of territories) by Congress, for the impartial benefit of all the owners. No man becomes a citizen of the United States, save as he is the citizen of some State. To the citizens of all the States, therefore, those territories should belong; and whenever any of these chose to exercise his right of emigrating to a new [141] part of the common domain, it was the duty of Congress to follow his person and all his lawful possessions, with the impartial shield of legal protection. The same equal measure should be meted out to the clock-factory of the Connecticut man, and the African labor of the Carolinian, when transported to the common domain. And this would not be intrusion into the sovereignty of a new State, as to its admitting or excluding African labor; because the moment it becomes a State, Congress withdraws, and leaves it, if it sees fit, to expel every African from its borders. The South saw clearly enough, that if this just view prevailed, they would still win no practical gain but merely preserving their honor. The emigration of white labor is mobile, quick, adventurous; that of the slave-owner is cautious, sensitive, and slow. The North, by virtue of its actual numerical superiority, and its Europeanimmigration, stood ready to pour in thousands, where the South could only furnish hundreds, for the new lands. The South had disinterestedly cut off its corresponding means of increase, by assenting to, and even demanding the extinction of the African slave-trade. Hence, it well knew, that, in claiming the constitutional construction of the Kansas-Nebraska law, it was making a demand which could save it nothing but its rights; and that, practically, every territory, fertile enough to be worth seeking, would henceforward be occupied by exclusive white labor, and belong to the North. They could justly inquire of the latter, “Why enforce a useless aggression, to win what is already virtually yours, where the only actual result is to fix a stigma of subjection upon us, your constitutional equals? Is it to teach us significantly that henceforth we are to be your slaves?” But the odious construction was generally adopted by the North; and at length, even the author of the law, Senator Douglas, deserted his own ground, and accepted it, becoming thus the leader of the larger number of Northern Democrats. [142]

The long course of usurpation and aggression has now been traced near to its culminating point. The lawless events in Kansas helped to illustrate these differences, and to embitter the passions; but their description need not detain us. Meantime, the children of the South may say with pride and truth, that, on their side, the covenant of the Confederation was always observed. There have been at the Southmany corrupt, and some factious persons. Individuals have often asserted Southern rights in an intemperate, and sometimes in a wicked mode. But it will ever remain the glory of the South, that in no instance did any Southern State, or prevalent political party of the South, ever commit itself to any usurpation of power, through the Federal Government, to any sectional ends, or to any unconstitutional breach of the compact with the other sections, save perhaps in the instance of nullification — a defensive one. Our detractors are defied to produce from history one exception to this illustrious record. Moreover, although the South knew that the Federal institutions were all working partially, and against them, they constantly sustained the honor and common interests of the Confederation, with a loyalty unknown at the North; pouring out their blood in every war, and perpetually contributing, from their scantier resources, the major part of the support of the Government. They were conservative by temper, and determined to be faithful to their engagements to the end.

The reader will now be prepared to understand the political conclusions adopted by Major Jackson, in common with the most of his fellow-citizens. Secession has been so often charged upon us as a grave crime, that the defence of his memory demands these explanations. The chief lesson of his life would be neglected, were not the solution of the fact given,--that the purest and holiest of men became the hero of the war for [143] Southern independence. The statement has been insinuated that Jackson was seduced by factitious influences into the advocacy of a cause condemned by his own conscience; but the assertion that he was capable of this is a slander equally against his head and his heart. His political opinions were maturely formed, and were exceedingly fixed. Few who witnessed the deferential silence with which he listened to the talk of more dogmatical acquaintances, were aware how distinct and firm his conclusions were. He was pre-eminently given to forming his own resolves, especially upon every question of duty; and, even where he listened to advice, it was weighed with a sturdy independence equal to his politeness. In 1856, the question of free-soil had assumed somewhat of its angry importance, and the defection of the professed supporters of the rights of the States at the North had begun, under the pretext of squattersovereignty. To the few friends to whom Jackson spoke of his own opinions, he then declared that the South ought to take its stand upon the outer verge of its just rights, and there resist aggression, if necessary, by the sword; that, while it should do nothing beyond the limits of strict righteousness to provoke bloodshed, yet any surrender of principle whatever, to such adversaries as ours, would be mischievous.

In the Fall of 1859, the first angry drops of the deluge of blood which was approaching, fell upon the soil of Virginia. The event known as the John Brown Raid occurred at Harper's Ferry, in which that Border assassin endeavored to excite a servile insurrection and civil war, from that point. He and all his accomplices, save one, were either slain, or expiated their crime upon the scaffold. As his rescue was loudly threatened, a military force was mustered at Charleston, the seat of justice for Jefferson county, to protect the officers of the law in the exercise of their functions. Virginia then had scarcely [144] any regular force, except the cadets of her military school. They with their officers were accordingly ordered to this place; and Major Jackson went with them, leading his battery of light pieces. His command, while there, was conspicuous for its perfect drill and subordination; and he diligently improved their time, in manoeuvring them upon the roughest ground to be selected in that beautiful region. He was a spectator of the stoical death of Brown, and gave his friends a graphic account of the scene.

This mad attempt of a handful of vulgar cut-throats, and its condign punishment, would have been a very trivial affair to the Southern people, but for the manner in which it was regarded by the people of theNorth. Their presses, pulpits, public meetings and conversations, disclosed such a hatred to the Southand its institutions, as to lead them to justify the crime, involving though it did the most aggravated robbery, treason, and murder; to deny the right of Virginia to punish it; to vilify the State in consequence with torrents of abuse perfectly demoniacal; to threaten loudly the assassination of her magistrates for the performance of their duty; and to exalt the blood-thirsty fanatic who led the party, to a public apotheosis. The pretext for this astounding outrage upon public opinion was, that it was the right of masters to property in the labor of their slaves, which John Brown sought to assail through this career of rapine and blood; a right, nevertheless, recognized by the laws of nearly every State in the Union, when at least as virtuous and Christian as now; by the laws of Virginia, and by the Federal Constitution itself, to which all alike avowed a common allegiance. And while this insult was eagerly given by every professed Abolitionist, they were seconded by so many of the free-soil party, that it was doubtful if the secret sympathizers did not constitute a majority of the Northern people. When the people of the [145] South witnessed these things, it caused a shock of grief and indignation. The most sober men saw in the event, insignificant in itself, a symptom of momentous importance, and recognized the truth that the grand collision was near at hand. Loyalty to the Union was, however, still unbroken; and the purpose was universal, to act only on the defensive, and to fulfil to the end every obligation of the Constitution.

Major Jackson spent the summer vacation of 1860 in New England, in the pursuit of health. On his return, he said he had seen and heard quite enough in the North, to justify the division which had just occurred in the Democratic party, and which resulted in the defeat of Douglas and the election ofLincoln; a division, he predicted, which would render the dissolution of the Union inevitable. This great schism among the Democrats was perfected in the spring of 1860, when they met in the city ofCharleston, South Carolina, in grand caucus, to select a candidate for the office of President, to be presented for the votes of their party. The two sections then pressed their rival interpretations of theKansas-Nebraska law, which had been left ambiguous by the similar caucus in Cincinnati, four years before. The Democrats of the South demanded that the party should propose no candidate, unless he held their view, that the people of a territory should not interfere with slavery in the public domains until they became a sovereign State; and that, meantime, African labor and white labor should enjoy common and equal privileges. The Democrats of the North, with a few exceptions, boldly avowed the doctrine of. squatter-sovereignty. Various attempts were made at conciliation, but the utmost which the Northernparty would concede was, a promise to abide by the decision which might be made upon that question afterwards, by the Supreme Court of the United States. This was rejected as nugatory, because that [146] Court had already decided, in the famous Dred-Scott case, as in others, that the legislature of the settlers in a territory had no right to impair the property of citizens of the United States in their slaves, residing among them; and that it was the duty of the Federal Government, in all its departments, to protect these rights of its citizens. If those partisans had ever intended to be governed by the authority of that pure and exalted tribunal, these questions would have been already settled for them; and the hope which they harbored was manifest, so to change the membership of that Court, in time, as to exact of it an ex parte decision which would strip the South of all legal defences. After a stormy discussion and an adjournment to Baltimore, the caucus was severed into two fragments, of which the Southern, with a few Northern Democrats, nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, then the vice-President; and the other, Senator Douglas. To the former of these, called Breckinridge Democrats, Major Jacksonadhered with his usual quiet decision, speaking little concerning his political opinions, save to a few intimates, but voting in every case for men of this shade of opinion.

Meantime the party of the free soil, or as they called themselves Republicans (impudently assuming the name of the party founded by Jefferson, whose every principle in Federal politics they outraged!) nominated a purely sectional ticket, headed by Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. Their opponents called them Black Republicans; aptly expressing at once their negrophilism, and the monstrous nature of their pretensions. Their platform of principles embodied, on the old issues of politics, the most oppressive Federal usurpations; and on the question of the rights of the South in the common domain (the territory out of which future States should be formed), roundly declared that the North should henceforward engross absolutely the whole. It is [147] true that they proposed to appease the alarm of the South, by declaring that the Federal Government had no power to interfere directly with slavery in the States. But how little solace any reasonable mind would discover in this deceptive pledge could be seen in the fact, that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, who, though not the candidate, was the coryphaeus of the party, had declared that these United States could not exist part free and part slave; that there was an irrepressible conflict between the two systems; and that slavery in the States must therefore be put under a process of extinction. He was simply a fool who could not see what all this meant in the mouths of the advocates of a pretended “higher law;” which these men interpreted into a license to violate their own official oaths, and to disobey the precepts of a constitution they had sworn to support, where they were adverse to their prejudices; while they swallowed its emoluments, and enforced the parts advantageous to themselves against their fellow-citizens with unrelenting rigor; and all under pretence of conscience for God's revealed law. This doctrine Mr. Seward had openly proclaimed from his place as a Senator; and it had been generally accepted as the ethics of the party. The whole amount of the guarantee which theLincoln platform gave the South was, that the Black Republicans, if victors, would refrain from issuing an immediate edict of abolition, in glaring violation of the Constitution. But, after depressing and weakening the South for a few years, by other usurpations and exactions, and plying against slaveholders all the artillery of Federal power, it was expected that she would become too weak to resist an amendment of that Constitution, laying all her rights at the feet of the tyrant section. Indeed, this plan was everywhere proclaimed by the populace, more candid than their demagogues. Another significant fact was that the open Abolitionists, who had previously run their own [148] candidate forPresident, giving him at each quadrennial period a small, but increasing vote, now went over in a body to the support of Lincoln.

The result of the election, held in November, 1860, was that Lincoln became President by a vote of the States strictly sectional (i. e., not a single State in the South voted for him), and in the North he failed to carry New Jersey. Of the popular vote he received about 1,800,000, while Douglas received about 1,276,000, and Mr. Breckinridge 812,000. The Whig party, retaining their old organization, cast about 735,000 votes for Senator Bell of Tennessee. Thus the popular vote for Lincoln included less than half of all the citizens; and that for Douglas, if joined to that for Mr. Breckinridge, would have been larger than the vote for Lincoln. But this fact brought no consolation to the South. The party of squatter-sovereignty in the North had also become manifestly a free-soil party. It was true they used the delusive catch-word of non-intervention with slavery; and adduced the specious plea of “popular sovereignty” to cloak the odious pretension, that an accidental rabble of adventurers, who might probably not be citizens at all, should overstep the sacred authority of Constitution, Congress, Supreme Court, and sovereign States, to trample upon a right of recognized citizens. Their cry of “no intervention either way,” was explained by them to mean, that Congress should become derelict to its positive duty of protecting everywhere the equal rights of all the citizens, in order that a mob might be free to intervene, most fatally, against a part. They openly argued at home that their scheme was the more politics because it effectually deprived the South of every inch of the common domain, while it was better concealed against constitutional objections. The South perceived it to be, in the strong phrase of one of her [149] statesmen, “but a short cut to all the ends of the Black Republicans.”

During the canvass, many patriotic voices were raised at the South, and a few at the North, in solemn remonstrance. Our enemies were reminded that Washington, Jefferson, and the other fathers of theGovernment, had predicted, that the triumph of a sectional party in the Confederation would be the knell of its existence; and that their own best statesmen had declared the South neither would nor could remain in the Union, under a domination so utterly subversive of the objects of the Union. But such was the temper of the Northern people, that warnings only inflamed their arrogance. And when they ascertained that they had elected their candidate, they burst forth, in belief of their irresistible power, into declarations of purposes of usurpation and tyranny so monstrous, that many just men at the North wrote eagerly to their Southern friends, to hasten and seek their only safety in a separate independence. In theSouth, at a distance from these scenes, few indeed comprehended their full danger, but all were painfully aroused, and many prepared for immediate defence. At the head of the latter was the State of South Carolina. Immediately after Lincoln's election was known, her Legislature called a sovereign convention of the people, which, on the 20th of December, 1860, formally retracted the connexion of the State with the Union, and resumed its independence. This action was had without discussion, and with perfect unanimity; the people of that State were convinced that the season for discussion had passed, and the season for action had arrived. But, in all the other Southern States, while there was no respectable party anywhere which wavered in the purpose of vigorous resistance, there was a division of opinion concerning the time and mode of commencing it, denoted by the terms, Separate [150] Secession, and Co-operative Secession. The advocates of the former prevailed at first in the planting States, bordering upon the Gulf of Mexico; of the latter, in the States lying next to the Free States, and in Virginia. With these Major Jackson sympathized. Although this class of patriots embraced many shades of opinion, their distinctive views were these:--That while the sectional action, and especially the temper of theNorthern people, would justify before God and man an immediate separation, yet it was not politic to make it upon this provocation, because the South was so unprepared for that tremendous war which would probably follow. It was further contended that it would give her enemies the pretext — unfair, indeed, yet plausible — to rob her of a part of her moral strength, by charging her with a factious appeal from the polls to violence, prompted only by the loss of the powers and emoluments of office: That, inasmuch as this iniquitous election was yet made under the forms of the Constitution, it would be better to await the first aggression which plainly violated it, in form as well as in fact, and make that the signal of resistance: That the power of our enemies dictated the necessity of acting only in concert, so that theSouthern cause might possess the full strength arising from the union of all these States: And that, since the collision of one with the Federal Government would inevitably decide the question of peace or war for all, and no State would stand idly, and see her Southern sisters crushed in detail by the common enemy, however erring by a generous precipitation, both courtesy and justice required that they should only act in concert. The advocates of immediate separate secession replied, that this act was, in its nature, that of a State acting sovereignly, and therefore singly: That, although the South was unprepared, yet it was best to act at once, because the time consumed in consulting and preparing, would be so improved by our enemies in the [151] work of corrupting, intimidating, and encroaching, with all the potent enginery of the Federal Government in their hands, that the South would soon be disabled for any resistance: That, if action were postponed until full concert were secured, it would be postponed indefinitely; the partial apathy of the people under so many wrongs, having shown that nothing would effectually rouse them except the precipitating of the issue: And that the South had nothing to fear, because the unwarlike character of the North would deter them from attacking a chivalrous and determined people, and the preciousness of the Southern commerce would speedily procure from abroad potent mediation. It is plain, also, that some of the Carolinians were not unwilling to seize that accidental power, of committing their neighbors to a forcible resistance without asking their assent, which has been explained above; and therein they gave serious offence to many of their friends inVirginia.

It is not important that the historian should decide whether the advocates of immediate or of co-operative secession were right. The purpose to coerce South Carolina illegally was, at once, indicated by the retention of the strongest work commanding her chief city and harbor, Fort Sumter; and the manner in which this threatening act was accompanied, aggravated the indignation of the people. On the 9th of January, 1861, Mississippi left the Union; Alabama and Florida followed on the 11th; Georgia on the 20th; Louisiana on the 26th; and Texas on the 1st of February. On the 9th of February, a Provisional Government of the six seceding States was instituted at Montgomery, in Alabama, withJefferson Davis for President, and Alexander H. Stephens for Vice-President.

Meantime the border Slave States, headed by Virginia, while declaring that they would not remain passive spectators of an attempt to chastise the seceding States for thus exercising their [152] unquestionable right, continued in the Union, and made strenuous efforts at conciliation. The General Assembly of Virginia proposed a conference of the Free and Slave States by their ambassadors, to devise some terms of mutual concession. This body met in Washington, February 4th, and the members of Congress from the Border States continued their anxious exertions to mediate in the Federal Legislature. But every attempt was utterly vain. No sooner had the Peace Conference, as it was called, assembled, than it was found that the Commissioners from the North, instead of coming with the moderate and dispassionate wisdom of statesmen, to heal the wounds of their country, were as full of the virus of party as the demagogues who had led the popular elections. Nothing was done, save to devise a deceptive compromise to be recommended to the Congress,--a compromise so worthless, that the larger number of the Southern Commissioners refused to accept it. But even this the Congress, now under the domination of a Black Republican majority, disdained to grant, and almost to notice. The Legislature of Virginia had also called together a Convention of the people, containing delegates from every city and county. So far was it from the purpose of the people to precipitate themselves rashly into violent measures, that when this Convention met, only about twenty-five of its members advocated immediate secession. The remainder (with the exception of a few, who afterwards disclosed their original slavish intentions by their treason) were, on the one hand, unwilling to sacrifice the last hope of peace, until driven to self-defence by intolerable usurpations, but, on the other, resolved to maintain the rights of the South intact, and to resist every attempt of the United States to coerce the seceders by unconstitutional violence. Their expectation of being able to remain in the Union was slight, but they were resolved that the guilt of extinguishing this spark of hope, and compelling a [153] separation, should rest upon their assailants. To this number adhered Major Jackson, with the larger part of theChristian people of the State, of all political parties. They had hailed the assembling of the Peace Conference with a gleam of hope, but when its consultations ended so abortively, nearly all accepted the stern conclusion, that nothing remained except that alternative between base submission or resistance, in which no honest man ever hesitates.

Still, they were reluctant to despair of the Union. They appreciated the infamy which would attach to the Christianity of America, if, after all its boasts of numbers, power, influence, and spirituality, it were found impotent to save the country from fratricidal war. Their cry was, “Christians to the rescue” They asked: Should there not be enough of the power of love in these millions of the professed servants of the Princeof Peace, to renew the bonds of friendship; to say to the tempests of passion, “Peace, be still;” to keep down the hands which sought their brothers' throats, and rather to receive the sword into their own bosoms than allow their common country to be slain? They said, as long as there was a spark of life, yea, even though it were uncertain whether this spark was but an illusion, it would be better to wait till it was extinguished by necessity, than incur all the miseries of the extreme remedy, when it was possible that they might afterwards be haunted by the remorseful discovery, that it was invoked without sufficient cause. They determined that the mountainous aggregate of crime and woe which impended-of a ruined Constitution, of cities sacked, of reeking battle-fields, of scattered churches, of widowed wives and orphaned children, of souls plunged, unprepared, into hellshould not be chargeable to them. None strove more earnestly to deprecate the crime than Major Jackson. A month before the catastrophe, he called upon his pastor, and spoke substantially [154] as follows:--“If the general Government should persist in the measures now threatened, there must be war. It is painful to discover with what unconcern they speak of war, and threaten it. They seem not to know what its horrors are. I have had an opportunity of knowing enough on the subject, to make me fear war as the sum of all evils. Should the step be taken which is now threatened, we shall have no other alternative; we must fight. But do you not think that all the Christian people of the land could be induced to unite in a concert of prayer, to avert so great an evil? It seems to me, that if they would unite thus in prayer, war might be prevented, and peace preserved.” To this his pastor promptly assented, and promised to do what he could to bring about the concert of prayer he proposed. “Meantime,” said he, “let us agree thus to pray.” And henceforward, whenever he was called on to lead the devotions of others, one petition prominently presented and fervently pressed, was, that God would preserve the whole land from the evils of war.

Between the leading Christians of the North and those of Virginia, several pacific communications passed, to some of which Jackson's name was appended, although with but faint hope of good results. On the Northern side, the actors were either impotent to carry out the fraternal feelings which they professed, against the prevalent fury, or else their overtures were only like the deceitful caresses with which the driver soothes a restless horse, while the harness is fastened on his neck. It was clearly perceived, that while these smooth-sounding missives were sent, invoking the Christian forbearance of the South, it was expected that all the forbearance should be on that side; and not one of the pacificators had the honesty or courage to propose that the simple expedient should be tried, for healing the unholy strife, of yielding to the South her just rights. While pretended [155] meetings of sympathy were held for Southern wrongs, no practical measure was taken, and Black Republican majorities increased at every election. But the Christian people of Virginia strove to avert the storm with a generous sincerity, more glorious than their subsequent heroism in breasting it. Their influence was felt in the magnanimous efforts of the old Commonwealth to stand in the breach between the angry elements. They entreated her to endure wrongs, until endurance became almost a vice, to hold out the olive-branch after it had been spurned, to study modes of compromise and conciliation, until the verge of dishonor was touched, to refuse to despair of the Republic when hope had departed from all others, and to decline even acts of self-defence, which might provoke collision, until the cloud had risen over her very head. So reluctant was Virginia to behold the ruin of the Union she had so loyally adorned, that many of her sons and her allies were driven almost to fury by the nearness of the danger, and the taunts of her enemies.

But these were madly hurrying to take upon their own heads all the guilt of the giant crime, and thus to unite Virginia as one man, and render her justification as clear as the sunlight. The State of South Carolina had been soliciting, first of Mr. Buchanan and then of Lincoln, an equitable settlement of all questions in dispute between her as an independent power, and the Federal Government. Especially had she demanded that Fort Sumter, the only post in her territory held by that Government, should be restored to her on the obviously just ground, that being designed only for her local protection against foreign aggression, when she relieved the central administration of that function, it had no longer any concern in her fortresses. The attempt was made, first, to amuse and deceive her ambassadors, by declarations which cannot be correctly named by any [156] term short of this — that they were a series of reiterated falsities, uttered by the Secretary of State; and this attempt at official treachery was rendered more loathsome by his ingeniously prostituting the sanctity of the ermine of the Supreme Court, to give credit to his assurances. But, on the 8th of April, a powerful armament being ready to reinforce the intrusive garrison of Fort Sumter, the mask was removed, and the Governor of South Carolina was bluntly informed that it should be done, “peaceably if they could, forcibly if they must.” The Confederate authorities had not been hoodwinked; and they proceeded, on the 12th and 13th of April, to reduce the post by their forces under General Beauregard. Thus the Federal Government assumed the guilt of the first military aggression.

But they did not stop here: on April 14th, Lincoln made a proclamation, without the authority of a shadow of law from Congress, declaring war against South Carolina and the Confederate Government, and calling upon the States for seventyfive thousand soldiers to invade them. The Governors of all theSouthern States, except Maryland, refused compliance. In Virginia all remains of hesitation were instantly extinguished; the Convention, which was in session, on the 17th of April, passed an ordinance resuming the separate independence of the State; and the Governor immediately began to prepare for war. On the fourth Thursday of May, at an election held with perfect respect for the freedom of opinion, the people of Virginia ratified this separation almost unanimously, except in a part of the north-western counties, where the intrusion of a foreign element had corrupted the public sentiment.

Virginia was recognized on all hands as the leader of the border Slave States. Her enemies evidently mistook her magnanimous forbearance and struggles for peace, as signs of conscious weakness. They said, the old “Mother of States and [157] statesmen” was decrepit, that her genius was turned to dotage, that her breasts were dry of that milk which suckled her Henrys and Washingtons. They thought her little more than a cowering beldame, whom a timely threat would reduce to utter submissiveness. And thus they dared to stretch over her head the minatory rod. But when the tyrant tried the perilous experiment, he was startled by a result as unexpected as that which followed the touch of Ithuriel's spear. She, whom he thought a patient, hesitating, helpless paralytic, flamed up at the insolent touch, like a pyramid of fire, and Virginia stood forth again in her immortal youth, the unterrified Commonwealth of 1776, a Minerva radiant with the terrible glories of policy and war, wielding that sword which ever flashed before the eyes of her aggressors, the “Sic semper Tyrannis.”² The point of farthest endurance was at length passed; her demands for constitutional redress were all refused; her too generous concessions of right, met by a requisition for the unconditional surrender of honor and dignity; her forbearance abused to collect armaments and equip fortresses on her borders, and on her own soil, for her intimidation; the alternative forced upon her, either to brave the oppressor's rod, or to aid him in the destruction of her sisters and children, for no other cause than that they contended nobly, if too rashly, for rights common to them and her; and to crown all, the Constitution of the United States was rent in fragments by the assumption of the President to levy new forces, to wage war, without authority of any law of Congress, and to coerce sovereign States into adhesion, in the utter absence of all intentions and powers to that effect, in the Federal compact. Hence, except in the breast of a few traitors, there was now but one mind and one heart in Virginia. In one week, the whole State was converted into a camp, and the [158] gauntlet of deathless resistance was flung back with high disdain.

The world has learned to consider Jackson as the hero of the Virginia of 1861. The Commonwealth is proud to accept him as her representative man, and the attitude which he held was the true type of hers; as he stood conscientious, cautious, but fearless, pure and unselfish in motive, elevated in principle, with an eye raised in religious faith to the righteous heavens, awaiting the signal from the Divine approval for his resistance, profoundly sad for the mournful necessity, yet as sternly resolved to defend the right. In all classic and sacred story, there is no spectacle more affecting and sublime than that presented by this Christian man, and his Christian people, in this emergency. They did not share the delusion, cherished by many of the immediate Secessionists, that the North would be restrained from striking; but they knew the history of passion and fanaticism enough to expect a fearful war. They saw the mighty beast gathering his forces for the bound upon his prey, yet they calmly stepped before his jaws. How grandly does the action of Virginia contrast with that of Maryland and Kentucky, which, professing attachment to the right, subsided into a pitiful “neutrality,” that was, in fact, slavish co-operation with their enemies; the one, on the plea that the military highway to the tyrants' capital lay through her heart; and the other, on the ground that one-third of her border was only separated by a great river from the assailants! The defection of Kentucky left Virginia exposed on three sides to her invaders, and one of these the sea, vexed with the countless keels of the enemy; while his mercenaries had stolen, and now held her greatest place of arms, Fortress Monroe, which commanded the approach to the wharves of her chief sea-port and her capital city. Her border lay under the muzzles of the cannon which [159] frowned from the ramparts of Washington, and it was plain. to friend and foe, thai her smiling fields must be the chief arena for trampling armies. But these men did not quail on account of this; having taken counsel only of God and the right, Virginia stepped into “the imminent deadly breach,” baring her own fair bosom to the fiercest strokes of the swords lifted against her sisters.

History will some day place the position of these Confederate States, in this high argument, in the clearest light of her glory. The cause they undertook to defend was that of regulated, constitutional liberty, and of fidelity to law and covenants, against the licentious violence of physical power. The assumptions they resisted were precisely those of that radical democracy, which deluged Europe with blood at the close of the eighteenth century, and which shook its thrones again in the convulsions of 1848; the agrarianism which, under the name of equality, would subject all the rights of individuals to the will of the many, and acknowledge no law nor ethics, save the lust of that mob which happens to be the larger. This power, which the old States of Europe expended such rivers of treasure and blood to curb, at the beginning of the century, had transferred its immediate designs across the Atlantic, was consolidating itself anew in the Northern States of America, with a wealth, an organization, an audacity, an extent, to which it never aspired in the lands of its birth, and was preparing to make the United States, after crushing all law there under its brute will, the fulcrum whence they should extend their lever to upheave every legitimate throne in the Old World. Hither, by emigration, flowed the radicalism, discontent, crime, and poverty of Europe, until the people of the Northern States became, like the rabble of Imperial Rome, the colluvies gentium. The miseries and vices of their early homes had alike taught them to mistake license for liberty, and they were incapable of [160] comprehending, much more of loving, the enlightened structure of English or Virginian freedom. The first step in their vast designs was to overwhelm the Conservative States of the South. This done, they boasted that they would proceed, first, to engross the whole of the American continent, and then to emancipate Ireland, to turnGreat Britain into a democracy, to enthrone Red Republicanism in France, and to give the crowns ofGermany to the Pantheistic humanitarians of that race, who deify self as the supreme end, and selfish desire, as the authoritative expression of the Divine Will. This, in truth, was the monster whose terrific pathway among the nations, the Confederate States undertook to obstruct, in behalf not only of their own children, but of all the children of men.

To fight this battle, eleven millions, of whom four millions were the poor Africans, lately feeble savages, prepared to meet twenty millions. The gigantic adversary was not impeded by distance, but lay everywhere alongside his proposed victim, ready to grasp him with his long arms. He held prepared, a veteran army of twenty thousand men, a navy, and vast arsenals and armories; while the Confederate States had everything to create. He had the administration of all the departments of a government; he had revenues, a treasury recruited perpetually with the gold of the modern Ophir, and huge accumulations of financial wealth: they had none. In his favor was a great commercial marine, second to none in the world, and manufactories teeming with productive labor fostered by the previous oppression and taxation of the South; while she had agricultural communities, possessing only the rudiments of commerce and of the arts. And to sustain these elements of Northern power, there was the well-known pertinacity of the Yankee character, infuriated now by a sectional hatred all the more incredible because unprovoked, and by a fanaticism set on fire of hell. [161]

But had this been all the odds which the Confederate States had to meet, their prowess would, before this, have ended the contest. The ships of the Federals, availing themselves of the avarice and injustice of Europe, made all the workshops, shipyards, and factories of the Old World tributary to their malice. The radicals, the proletaires, the robbers, the outlaws, of all other lands, flocked to their standards, taught by their ready instincts that their cause was the same. One-half of the prisoners of war, registered by the victorious armies of the South, have been foreign mercenaries. Mr. Smith O'Brien, warning his race against the unhallowed enterprise, declares that the Moloch of Federal ambition has already sacrificed two hundred thousand Irishmen to it. And still, as the flaming sword of the South mows down these hireling invaders, fresh hordes throng the shores. Last, our country has to wage this strife, only on these cruel terms, that the blood of her chivalrous sons shall be matched against the sordid streams of this cloaca populorum. In the words of Lord Lindsay, at Flodden Field, we must play our “Rose Nobles of gold, against crooked sixpences.”

So that the Confederate States, while, in truth, fighting for the cause of the world, have the whole world to fight against. But how has their heroism been regarded from without? It must be declared (and this fact completes the grandeur of their attitude), that while thus bleeding for the common behoof of mankind, they have received aid from none, even idle sympathy from few, and only neglect and injustice from the governments of Europe. Men have seen fit to adopt the slanders of our known enemies as the only description of our institutions, and have refused us the poor privilege which even the criminal has, of being heard before he is condemned. The word slave-owner has been the talisman to evoke everywhere an ignorant prejudice, [162] too conceited to learn correction; and men have been willing to accept the rendering which it suits the malice of our enemies to give, falsely, as they know — that we are contending, not to preserve our own freedom, but to perpetuate the bondage of our fellow-men, unjustly enslaved. It is by this device our enemies have sought to hide the enormity of their attacks, and to rob us of even the sympathy of mankind. The Confederate States have, indeed, never complained of the refusal of aid to fight their battles, for they have never asked it. But they have a right to complain, that the interested slanders of their enemies should be echoed abroad without even examination; that the moral support of a recognition should be withheld, when it is a historical fact that the independence of several of those same States was recognized by all Europe eighty years ago, and, as is known to all the world, has never since been forfeited; that the maritime law, so recently and solemnly established for all nations, should be compelled to receive a new and deceitful interpretation for the benefit of our enemies, the moment it began to apply in our favor; and that a pretended neutrality should be so observed, as to make every advantage accrue to them. The people of the South well know, that, if they are overwhelmed, the greedy democracy, whose threats have exacted from the European governments these shabby compliances, will make them in due time rue their short-sighted injustice; but this is the concern of their people; ours is to endure, and to strive to the death.

The great career of Jackson is identified with the cause of Southern independence. To this he committed himself with solemn prayers and searchings of heart, ready, if he should die in this quarrel, to present his soul confidently before the judgment-bar, and ask the Divine approval. In it he wrought all his world-famous exploits. In it he died, professing in the last struggle the same confidence in the righteousness of the war. [163] If then the secession of Virginia was a crime, Jackson was the most amazing of self-deceivers, or the most profound of hypocrites. Therefore, his character cannot be appreciated, nor its fame receive its just estimate from history, without a full understanding of the merits of the case. This is the reason that the reader's attention has been so largely occupied with an exposition of it, and for this reason he is besought to weigh these concluding arguments.

First, The most determined anti-slavery man, if he have fairness of mind, will grant, when he understands the case, that African slavery is not the cause, but only the occasion, of the Southernresistance. The cause for which this people contend is constitutional right. It is but a circumstance that the right to the labor of their slaves happened to be the particular in which the sacred authority of law was assailed; and it may be asked, How can it appear that the object of the South was to perpetuate the bondage of the African, unless it appear that the object of Northern aggression was to end that bondage? But the Black Republican party expressly declared, that they proposed no interference with slavery in the States. Their defenders can only rescue them from this logical dilemma, by imputing to them deliberate falsehood on this point. They only proposed to limit the African population to its present home, so that their policy would not have made one slave less in all America, unless by so enhancing the miseries of their condition as to exterminate a part. Nor would the demand of the South, that the African race should be allowed to labor in the new domain, if granted, have made one slave more in allAmerica, unless it had done it by ameliorating their condition, so as to save some alive who otherwise would have perished. Clearly, then, the policy of free-soil was not friendship to the black man, but only enmity to his white protector, and desire to rule over him. [164]

But further, Black Republicanism is a system of intense hostility to the African race. Its inconsistency can only be equalled by its inhumanity. It persists in saying, contrary to the Constitution of the United States, that the African is a citizen of the Union; but it forbids these black fellow-citizens to enjoy the common territory in any form. It says they must not come as slaves, in the mode best adapted to their present welfare (as the most of the Black Republicans admitted). It says also, that they must not come as free negroes; for every Black Republican State, formed out of the national territory, with perhaps a single exception, has legislated sternly and absolutely against the immigration of this unfortunate class; and, of course, new States to be formed under the same creed, may be expected to do the same. In a word, Black Republicanism always means, that the African shall not exist at all on American soil. The uniformshibboleth of the party was the assertion, that this continent must belong exclusively to the white race. The proposal universally made by its demagogues to the agrarian hordes whom they deceived, was not: “Let us overthrow the institutions of the South, in order that you may share its industry with free negro competitors;” but, “Let us overthrow the institutions of the South, in order that you may exclude the negro from its industry, and take his place.” If they were pointed to the wretched and waning caste of free blacks in the North, as proof that this race cannot thrive in competition with the whites, without the protection of domestic slavery, and asked what was to be the destiny of the millions of Africans, when their policy of freesoil was everywhere established; the usual answer was a sardonic shrug, and the sneering declaration, that this was no concern of theirs. Others, more candid, pointed for answer, to the fate of the Indian tribes, who have wasted to nothing before the greater energies and crimes of the white race; and coolly [165] said, that the Africans, deprived of the fostering shield of that southern slavery, under which they were now thriving so happily, must tend to extinction, under the pressure of their own miseries and degradation; and then the whole Union would be free, prosperous, and glorious, (?) belonging to the white man alone. Such was the hideous meaning of Black Republicanism, to oppress and enslave the humane master, in order to exterminate the contented and comfortable servant!

Any honest man, who has been so unlucky as to imbibe the false dogma, that the relation of master and slave is essentially unrighteous, will therefore admit, if he knows the truth, that the citizen of theConfederate States is not contending, in this quarrel, to perpetuate an unjust oppression. He will say: “Be the relation wrong as it may, it was not instituted by the Confederates, nor at their option, but by the greed of the Federal and British slave-traders, and the tyranny of Great Britain, thrusting the Africans upon the unwilling colonies. These citizens found it existing, recognized by the laws, guaranteed by theConstitution which the people of the North were pledged to observe, and which alone gave them any right to legislate for the South. It was, therefore, natural, yea right, that they should resist these usurpations; and the more, as they saw that the motive was, not to exalt the slave, but to oppress the master; to trample upon the liberties of the latter, in order to visit upon the former, a fate a thousandfold worse than slavery — lingering extermination.”

But every citizen of the Confederate States, in the second place, like General Jackson, would disdain to argue this cause from the premiss, that the relation of the master to his slave is unrighteous in itself. They assume the high position that this relation is, for their circumstances, as innocent and lawful in itself as any other relation of government, and recognized as [166] such by God and sound ethics, as well as by all the laws of their country. When pointed to the almost universal condemnation of this proposition by the rest of Christendom, they boldly declare, that this results from an exclusion of the Southern people from a hearing in their own defence, and a perverse and indolent reception from their enemies, of the most monstrous tissue of slanders and falsehoods, which ever confounded a human mind. The world has been told a myriad times until the world believes it, that Virginian slavery makes a human being a chattel, a piece of property, thus violating the first intuitions of justice. Yet, all this is absolutely false; every slave-law of Virginia treats the slave as a person, a responsible, reasonable being, and not a thing; the only property which the laws recognize in him, is the property in his involuntary labor. And if the involuntary labor of a human being cannot be property, then every parent, husband, and master of an apprentice, in the civilized world, is made a transgressor. It is uniformly asserted that slavery proceeds upon the assumption that it is the master's privilege to expend and exhaust the labor, welfare, and very being of his fellow-man, for his own selfish behoof, without equivalent; and that hence, it is a flagrant violation of that great law of love and equity, the golden rule. All this is alsolutely false: this form of servitude is defended only on the ground, demonstrated so fully by experience, that it secures for the servant the greatest practicable amount of well-being. The laws all make the duties and benefits of the relation reciprocal, and oblige the master to render to his servant a liberal return for his labor, in the form of a life-long maintenance of himself and his family, secured against every contingency of decrepitude and sickness; just as much as they oblige the servant to render his labor to his master. That this is, in the general, a better recompense than the [167] African could win as a free negro, is the justification always pleaded.

It has been charged that Virginian slavery makes the master the irresponsible possessor of the chastity of the female slave. This is again an absolute falsehood; the law fences around the chastity of the servant, even against the violence of her own master, by the same sanctions which protect that of the white lady. It has been charged that the laws of Virginia forbid the slave to lift his hand for the defence of life or limb, in obedience to the instincts of self-preservation, against any white man. This is absolutely false; while the laws require the servant to accept the chastisement of his master, they recognize in him the same discretion of self-defence, even against his owner, when assailed in life and limb, which is granted to the white freeman. It has been said that we prohibit the slave all access to letters, and do not permit him to learn to read even the book of life. This, again, is unmingled falsehood; there is no law inVirginia, forbidding a master to teach his slaves literature; and as many of them can read, and do read God's Word, as of the agricultural peasantry of boasted England. It has been said that Virginian slavery forbids the marital and parental relations among slaves, consigning them to a brutal concubinage, like that of animals. In the sense charged, this is absolutely false; conjugal and parental bliss is as much recognized, and as little interrupted among them, as among any people of the same civilization. It has been said that their discipline and treatment are inhuman. This is transcendently false. No peasantry on earth is treated with as much humanity, and bears tasks so light. There are instances of barbarity, even of murder; but they are punished by the laws and public opinion, at least as regularly as any crimes against free persons in this country. Are there no cases of wifemurder, and child-murder, in New and Old England? It is [168] asserted, in ten thousand forms, that slavery has degraded the African; but this is also false: it has civilized and elevated him, more rapidly than any other philanthropy has raised any pagan race in the world.

This introduces the affirmative truth, that the relation of servitude is a righteous, because a beneficent one, for the African among white men. Let the tree be known by its fruits. It has conferred a higher physical well-being than is enjoyed by any other laboring population, as is proved by their increase of numbers, cheerfulness, and immunity from bodily infirmities. The Virginian servant is lifted in the scale of manhood so high above his fellows of the African wilds, that, when by rare chance he meets them, he is ashamed and indignant at the assertion of a community of race. American servitude has made nearly half a million out of four millions (one in eight) members of Christian churches, from being, three generations ago, besotted Pagans. All the Christian philanthropy of the rest of the world has not done as much for heathendom. Our system has created an affectionate union between the two races, elsewhere so hostile, which has astounded our enemies and the world, with their quietude in these times of convulsion.

And when we look into the ethics of the relation, we find that it was never suspected of immorality by any of the great masters of moral science, classic or scholastic, nor by any of the luminaries of theChurch, patristic or reformed, until the dogma of modern abolition was born of atheistic parentage, amidst the radical disorganizers of France, in the Reign of Terror. In the Word of God, the only infallible standard of morality, that doctrine finds no support. Moses legalized domestic slavery for God's chosen people, in the very act of setting them aside to holiness. Christ, the great Reformer, lived and moved amidst it, teaching, healing, applauding slaveholders; [169] and while He assailed every abuse, uttered no word against this lawful relation. His apostles admit slaveholders to the church, exacting no repentance nor renunciation. They leave, by inspiration, general precepts for the manner in which the duties of the relation are to be maintained. They command Christian slaves to obey and honor Christian masters. They remand the runaway to his injured owner, and recognize his property in his labor as a right which they had no power to infringe. If slavery is in itself a sinful thing, then the Bible is a sinful book.

Strong in the truth of God and history, the people of the Confederate States therefore calmly breast the adverse opinion of the world. They fortify their position by the fact that their right to the labor of their slaves is not only protected by the laws they inherited from their fathers, but by the laws of God, and by eternal rectitude. Had they been unable to assert the latter truth, their resistance to anti-slavery aggressions would have been proper; because the Constitution, which alone united the States, recognized and protected it. But now their attitude is in every respect impregnable; for God protects it as well as the Constitution. To infringe the rights of slaveholders under the laws, was therefore a usurpation, and a violation of the primary compact. But a covenant broken by one party is broken for the other. The Southern States therefore had the clearest right to select their own redress. And especially is their secession justified, when the malignant intentions of the aggressors, and the ruinous nature of the wrongs they sought to inflict, are considered. Their purposes were evidently ruthless; they intended nothing less than our destruction. He who has observed the silent, yet potent influence of opinion on the conduct of political bodies, well knows how absurd would be the expectation, that theSouthern people could consent to lie under [170] the stigma of a social crime, and of a standing moral delinquency and yet expect to receive of their supercilious accusers, equal and fair treatment in a political partnership. The sentiment of contempt and superiority will inevitably express itself in attempted domination. Had the dogma, which asserted the immorality of our institutions, professed itself the most unpractical abstraction, the South would have been wise and righteous in saying to the North: “It is time to part; we cannot live peaceably together.”

But that sentiment was intensely practical. It proposed no less than to uproot our whole society, to plunder our citizens, at one stroke, of more than a thousand millions of their property, and thus to impoverish the whole land; to hurl back the prosperous and happy African race to barbarism, crime, and misery; to turn our plantations into one vast jungle, and our cities into deserted ruins; and to people this blighted region with a dispirited and disorderly medley of bankrupt whites, and degraded black savages. The people of the South know the African character. They have seen the bitter fruits of a general emancipation; and they well know that this picture of the results of Yankee usurpation would be verified in every lineament. If, then, self-preservation can ever justify resistance, in this instance it was a righteous, a sacred duty. Now the form of resistance adopted by the Southern people was the most moderate and equitable that could be conceived. A covenant repudiated by one party is annulled for the other. It was the Constitution of the United States alone, which constituted the Union, and gave any right to the Northern States to legislate for the South. When the former declared, as the North in substance did, that their conscience forbade their fulfilling the obligations of that covenant for the protection of slavery, the only conclusion to which honesty could have led them was this: Let the parties [171] then separate, and restore to each other their mutual independence. And this was the very least which the most Christian forbearance on the part of the South could ask. But this was precisely what the Southdemanded, in claiming the right of peaceable withdrawal. Technical justice would have authorized her to say to the North: “You have bargained; you have appropriated the advantages of the bargain, and you shall be compelled to stand to its terms, whether you like them or not.” It would have sustained her in demanding reparation for the heavy wrongs already sustained. It would have sanctioned her claim to the properties of the Union, which the North had really deserted, and not the South. But she asked none of these things; she made only the modest request to have her pledges restored, since they were so irksome to her partner, and to be let alone. But this the North refused; their claim was that they should be free to violate the mutual compact whenever its conditions were irksome to their interests, or passions or caprice, and absolutely vital to the rights of the South, while we, their equals, should yet be held to it at the point of the sword, and under the threat of the most atrocious outrages ever visited by barbarians on their victims! Was ever the ear of a just God vexed with wickedness more monstrous than this? “It is rank, and smells to heaven.”

But, it is objected, the sectional party which had seized the general government, disclaimed the purpose of forcible emancipation in the States; and the South, in resisting, took counsel of their own angry suspicions alone. The crushing refutation of this plea is given by the developments of the BlackRepublican party since. In three years, they have attempted to consummate every outrage which the statesmen of the South imputed to their ulterior intentions; yea, they have left no tyranny or usurpation untried, which the wildest suspicion could have imagined. Thus [172] have they themselves justified the resistance of the South to God and man, and made it clearer than the sun, that it was not one whit too early or too strenuous.

The great charge made against the South by the Northern Democrats was, that she had sought defence by leaving the Union, instead of remaining in it, and trusting to their great conservative party for the protection of their rights. Said they: “We guarantee you, in the Union, every privilege which theConstitution gives you; but if you attempt to leave it, we become your enemies.” On this pretext that party have, with a baseness beyond that of the Black Republicans, betrayed every principle of their own creed, to join them in their persecution of us. Our answer is in the question: Have they been able to protect their own rights in that Union? And, is this the extent of our offence, that we were not willing to commit our precious liberties to the sole guardianship of those who have surrendered every right of their own, without one blow in their defence, with a folly and poltroonery unexampled in the history of reptiles, not to say of men, at the first demand of a despicable and upstart despotism? Never was there a rejoinder so biting or so righteous as that which the cowardice of the Northern Democracy puts into our mouths, against this, their favorite accusation. For, which of the privileges of freemen is it which we have not seen them betray in their own case; freedom from illegal arrest, the benefit of the writ ofhabeas corpus, liberty of speech, liberty of printing, free and untrammelled suffrage, liberty of conscience in the worship of God, rights of property, or freedom of their own persons from military rule?

It has been clamorously asserted that the insolence of the South in taking the aggressive by the first acts of violence, and firing upon the national flag, left the Government no option, consistent with self-respect, save to resist. The statement is false. [173] The violation of the Federal compact by the. North, restored to the South its inherent right to a peaceable withdrawal; and they who attempted to obstruct it were the first aggressors. The first act of war was committed by the Government at Washington against South Carolina, when fortresses intended lawfully only for her protection, were armed for her subjugation. That act of war was repeated, when armed preparations were twice made to reinforce these means of her oppression. And, at last, when she was imperiously warned that these forcible aggressions would be consummated, after a forbearance far greater than the Confederate Government was bound to exercise, it proceeded to what was an act of strict self-defence, the reduction of Fort Sumter.³ [174]

But, it is replied, the Seceding States made themselves robbers, by seizing Federal ships, posts, arms, and money, by violence It may be asked in rejoinder: Had the South no share in these appliances, provided with her money, and, when in her borders, having no other legitimate use than her defence? But she did not secede in order to commit a robbery. The proof is, that her ambassadors haunted the gates of the Federal Capitol for. months, entreating to be permitted to make an equitable settlement of all these properties, until they were spurned away. And why were they forcibly seized, except that she was well assured the purpose was entertained to employ them for her ruin? Our neighbor and partner attempts to obstruct us in the prosecution of our unquestionable rights, by [175] brandishing a dagger before our eyes, purchased partly with our money. When we wrench it from his hand to save our own lives, shall he accuse us of stealing his dirk? Yet such was the insulting nonsense which was everywhere vented to make the South an offender for acts of self-defence, which the wicked designs of the tyranny at Washington justified more and more every day.

All the pretexts of coercion have thus been reviewed and exposed. The crime of the North stands forth without excuse, and black with every trait of guilt. Its motive, impiously cloaked under the sacred profession of sustaining the law, was to replace, by the more speedy means of the armed hand, that legislative and commercial plunder which had been so long practised, and to indulge a festering hatred. Its perpetrators were the people who claimed the largest share of the light and religiousness of the nineteenth century. Its victims were not aliens, but countrymen, brethren, and fellow-citizens. Its conduct [176] has embodied every barbarity which could be practised by Hun, or Vandal, or Scythian. It has already shed more human blood, and crushed more hearts, than any war of modern ages. Reciting all these aggravations, the people of the Confederate States believe that no blacker national crime has challenged the lightning of heaven's wrath; therefore it is, that among this people, the best men are most resolved to resist it. If there are any of the children of the soil who excuse it, they are either the cowards, or the stupidly ignorant, or the mercenary, whose souls are bartered for filthy lucre. Every pure and noble man, like Jackson, every most devout soldier, the generous Southern women, the virtuous and cultivated citizens, the incorruptible judges of the law, the venerable and holy ministers of religion, these have committed their lives, and fortunes, and sacred honor to the defence of the Confederate States, as one man. [177]

1 In the Convention on the 31st May, 1787, Madison declared that “the use of force against a State would be more like a declaration of war, than an infliction of punishment, and would probably be considered by the party attacked, as a dissolution of all previous compacts: a Union of States containing such an ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction.” In one of the debates on the New York State Convention, Hamilton said, “To coerce a State would be one of the maddest projects ever devised.” We have lived to see an attempt to coerce not one State but eleven.

2 See the Seal of the Commonwealth.

3 Fort Sumter has become so celebrated, both by its being the scene of the first hostilities between the contending parties, and by the splendid and successful defence which it has since made in the hands of the Confederates, against the fleet and armies of the North, that the whole story connected with its original capture deserves to be better known than it is, generally, in Europe. It was on December 20, 1860, that the State of South Carolina, by the unanimous vote of a Convention, called by her Legislature, formally seceded from the Union. At this time Major R. Anderson was commandant of theFederal forces at Charleston. His Headquarters were at Fort Moultrie on the mainland; Fort Sumter, the strongest of all the defences, and placed in the middle of the bay, not being occupied. A grand banquet was given in honor of the Ordinance of Secession, on the evening of the day (Dec. 20), on which it passed. At midnight, Anderson, who must have received secret orders how to act, having spiked the guns, abandoned Moultrie, and conveyed all his men and stores to Sumter. Next morning, to the amazement of the South Carolinians, they saw the Union flag floating over it, and found Anderson in possession. As was to be expected, this act of treachery greatly incensed them; for the authorities ofSouth Carolina had received a pledge from President Buchanan that the existing military status should undergo no change in their State, during the expiring term of his administration. That pledge was violated by this seizure and military occupation of Sumter; and, notwithstanding all remonstrances, Buchanan, probably under the pressure of Northern clamor, refused to order Anderson back again to Moultrie. The Secretary of War, J. B. Floyd, who had been a party to the promise, felt his honor so compromised by this gross breach of faith, that he instantly and indignantly resigned. Immediately afterMr. Lincoln had entered on his office as President, in March 1861, Commissioners from the Southproceeded to Washington, to urge a peaceable separation, and to negotiate for the transfer of Government property, and, in particular, for the removal of the Federal garrison from Forts Pickens andSumter. But under the pretext that to treat with them avowedly and officially might embarrass the administration of Mr. Lincoln, they were assured through an intermediate party, that all would yet be well, that the military status of the South would be undisturbed, and that Sumter would be evacuated. These assurances were given by Secretary Seward himself, verbally and in writing, through JudgeCampbell of the Supreme Court; but they were only meant to deceive. There never was any intention to keep faith, or to evacuate Sumter. It was a dishonest manoeuvre to gain time for collecting armaments, and preparing coercive measures. The military reinforcement of Sumter was pronounced by GeneralScott, and other advisers of Lincoln, to be impracticable, except by artifice or surprise. Hence the deceit practised, to throw the Confederates off their guard. Meanwhile unusual activity was perceptible in the Northern dockyards and depots. Even down to the 7th of April, it was pretended that the evacuation would take place.

On that very day, Judge Campbell, uneasy as to Mr. Seward's good faith, wrote to him on the subject, and received the emphatic reply:--“Faith as to Sumter fully kept-wait and see.” The very next day (April 8th) the expedition started to convey provisions to a starving garrison; but it consisted of eleven vessels, with an aggregate force of 285 guns, and 2400 men. It arrived in time to witness the bombardment and fall of Sumter on April 13th; lying at anchor, in the distance, during the action, and never firing a gun. The people of Charleston had put the intended surprise out of the question; but theLincoln Administration, nevertheless, accomplished one great object for which they had been scheming. They had procured the battle of Sumter; they had got the South to take the initiatory step of resistance. Henceforth the Federal Government, while in reality commencing a war which they had fully resolved upon, could make it appear that they were involved in it by the force of circumstances, rather than of their own choice, and that the South having fired the first shot was responsible for all the consequences. Such was the impression produced, and intended to be produced, in Europe; while the attack on the national flag, it was foreseen, could not fail to stir public sentiment to its lowest depth, and create a united war party in the North. Hence it was enough that the Federal forces in Sumter should make a mere show of resistance. Anderson accordingly just held the place as long as the rules of military honor required, and then surrendered it unconditionally, without having lost a man; whilst the fleet looked on, at a distance, and never attempted to come to his aid. We are entitled therefore to repudiate the charge of having commenced the war, by making the first appeal to arms. Granted that the first shot was fired by the South, the first. military aggression was on the side of the North. The Federal Government are responsible for all.

Chapter 6: first campaign in the Valley.

The reduction of Fort Sumter aroused at the North a general paroxysm of fury and revenge. Wherever there was enough of the spirit of moderation and justice to dissent, violent mobs were collected, which intimidated not only the press, but the pulpit, and exacted a pretended approval of the war-frenzy. The cry was, that the flag of the Union had been insulted, the Government assailed by treason, and the very life of tie nation threatened. But even then, the enormity of the purposed crime of subduing free and equal States by violence, was so palpably felt, that the public mind, passionate as it was, acknowledged the necessity for a pretext. This was found in the false assertion that the Confederate States had inaugurated war, and thus justified a resort to force,--a misrepresentation which has already been refuted. It was claimed for the North, that its temper was just and pacific; and the contrast between the seeming calmness of her people before, and their tumultuous excitement after the first conflict, was pointed to as proof that they meditated no violence, and were only driven to a forcible defence of theGovernment, by the wickedness of the South. But the true explanation of the tempest is, that the Northhad just awakened to the fact, of which it was incredulous before, that the South was in earnest in the assertion of its rights. The difficulty of believing this arose in part from the many concessions of right [178] which the long-suffering South had made, from her long-continued, but futile expostulations, together with the ill-judged and passionate threats which her wrongs had often provoked from some of her politicians, and, in part, from the unspeakable vanity of the North, and its overweening conceit of its own power. The whole preparation of the Confederate States for self-defence, and the solemn warnings uttered by Virginia and the other Border States, were mocked at as only a new phase of political manceuvre. Often they affected a sort of good-natured forbearance, and spoke of not “whipping the spoiled children back into the Union,” until they were obliged to do it. In the political slang which degraded the deliberations of the Capitol, it was currently asserted that those States “could not be kicked out of the Union.” But, now, the North awoke out of this insane dream of delusion, to find that the South meant, and always had meant, what it said. Two purposes had long since grown up, and become fixed in the Northern mind: One was, not to surrender the legislative plunder which they had long gathered from the South, and which would be lost to them by its independence; the other was, not to make it contented in the Union, by a just concession of its rights. So long as the South could be kept quiet by mock compromises which secured it nothing, and by wheedling words, the North was very willing to expend these cheap means for that end; but so soon as it learned that the South was at last in earnest in asserting its rights, it became thoroughly in earnest also. The ruthless purpose of domination was at once revealed. Not only did the fragment of the Federal Government diligently prepare for a great war, but the people and the States began to provide munitions and raise troops, on a vast scale.

The prognostications indulged by speakers and newspapers, were as vainglorious, as their purposes were revengeful. The common language breathed threatening and slaughter, and [179] demanded the sack, ruin, and extermination of the Southern people. To effect this, they thought the mighty North had only to lift up its little finger. The South was disdainfully described as poor, semi-barbarian, cowardly, unfurnished for war, and sunk in effeminacy; and the common expectation was, that nothing more was needed to wrap the whole country in the flames of a servile insurrection, than the signal of a Yankee invasion. In this spirit, equally fool-hardy and fiendish, the North rushed to the tremendous conflict.

Before Virginia seceded, the sword had been definitively drawn; indeed, it was this crime, which decided her to assert her independence. The legislative act was therefore accompanied, and immediately followed, by prompt preparations for defence.

The only standing army which the State possessed, was a single company of soldiers, who guarded the public property of the Commonwealth. at the Capitol. Her old militia system, which only required three exceedingly perfunctory drills a year, had, for some time, fallen into desuetude, and was just revived. The Stabt had no men, who possessed any tincture of military training, except a few volunteer companies in her cities, and a few hundred alumni of the military academies at West Point andLexington. Very few of these companies were armed. The armory of the State was in decay, its machinery rusting, and its arsenal only furnished with a few thousand muskets of antiquated make. The enterprise of private citizens, and the spirit of the country, more advanced than that of their rulers, had indeed led to the arming of a number of volunteer companies, after the attack of John Brown; and for these, a few thousand rifles had been purchased by the parties themselves. But the authorities of theState now set themselves, in earnest, to repair these omissions. The Convention, having passed the Ordinance [180] of Secession the 17th of April, proceeded to appoint a Council of Three, to assist theGovernor of the Commonwealth in his military duties. Orders were issued to the volunteer companies, which were springing into existence in every part of the State, to assemble in camps of instruction. The manufacture of cannon, projectiles, and muskets was resumed. Colonel Robert E. Lee, having resigned his commission from the Federal Government, had been invited to Richmond, immediately after the withdrawal of Virginia, and offered his services to his native State. His high character, patriotism, professional knowledge, and executive ability, were, fortunately, appreciated, and he was at once appointed Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of all the forces of the Commonwealth, by land and sea. Under his vigorous and sagacious management, order instantly began to arise out of chaos, and the excited masses of patriotic citizens assumed the proportions of an army. The most important of the camps of instruction was that named after him, Camp Lee, a mile beyond the western suburbs ofRichmond. Here, several thousands of volunteers were assembled; and, to provide for their instruction, it was resolved to bring the more advanced Cadets of the Military School from Lexington, to perform the duties of drill-serjeants. The senior teachers of the school were already in Richmond, and this circumstance devolved the duty of conducting the cadets thither upon Major Jackson.

The bursting of the storm, which he had so long foreseen, found him calm, but resolved. About this time, a Christian friend, in whose society he greatly delighted, passed a night with him, and, as they discussed the startling news which every day brought with it, they were impelled to the conclusion that the madness of the Federal Government had made a great and disastrous war inevitable. The guest retired to his bed depressed by this thought, and, in the morning, arose harassed and [181] melancholy. But, to his surprise, Jackson met him at the morning worship, as calm and cheerful as ever, and when he expressed his anxieties, replied, “Why should the peace of a true Christian be disturbed by anything which man can do unto him? Has not God promised to make all things work together for good to them that love him?”

The county of Rockbridge, like the rest of the State, was in a blaze of excitement, and its volunteers were arming and hurrying to the scene of action. Now it was that the hold which, notwithstanding his reputation for singularity, Major Jackson had upon the confidence of his countrymen, revealed itself. To his practical wisdom and energy they looked, in every difficulty of their organization and equipment. These calls, with the care of the Military Academy, occupied all his time. On Wednesday, April 17th, the presbytery of Lexington met in his church to hold its semi-annual session. These meetings, with their frequent opportunities for public worship and preaching, and their delightful hospitalities, have ever been, in Virginia, religious festivals. Major Jackson had been anticipating this reunion with great pleasure, and was preparing to entertain some of its members in his house. But the absorbing occupations of the week deprived him of every opportunity to attend either their meetings, or their worship. As he retired to rest on Saturday night, he remarked that he hoped for a quiet Sabbath-day, in which it would be his privilege to worship undisturbed, and to participate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which was to be dispensed in the church; and he requested that politics and the troubles of the country might be banished from their conversation, that he might enjoy communion with God and his people undisturbed. But at day-break, on Sabbath morning, April 21st, an order arrived from theGovernor of the State, to march the Cadets that day for Richmond. [182] Having given his wife some directions touching his own preparations for the journey, he immediately hurried to the Institute, and busied himself in the arrangements for his pupils' departure. One of these was to call upon his pastor, and request him to attend at twelve o'clock A. M., to give them some Christian counsels and a parting prayer. At eleven o'clock A. M., he returned to his house, took a hurried breakfast, and retired with his wife to their chamber, where he read the 5th chapter of 2d Corinthians, commencing with the sublime and consoling words: “For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” He then knelt, and poured out a fervent prayer for themselves and for the country, imploring God, in accents choked with tears, if it was compatible with His holy will, that the storm might yet be calmed, and war averted. He thus departed; and this happy home he never saw again. Although he left his affairs thus unsettled, he never asked nor received one day of furlough. From that time, he never lodged one night outside the lines of his command. His next return to Lexington was as a corpse, bedewed by a nation's tears. After a few days, his family removed, by his advice, to the house of a friend, his furniture was packed, his dwellinghouse closed, and his servants placed out for the war.

Having mustered the Cadets, and made everything ready for their departure, at twelve o'clock, he invited Dr. White to begin the religious service which he had requested, remarking significantly, “Doctor, we march at one o'clock precisely.” This hint against an undue prolongation of the worship was so well observed, that the services were concluded fifteen minutes before that hour. One of his officers, after a few moments' pause, approaching him, said: “Major, everything is now ready, may we not set out?” To this he made no reply, save to point to the [183] dial-plate of the great clock; and when it was upon the stroke of one, he gave the word: “Forward! March!” The corps of Cadets was conducted to Staunton, and thence, by railroad, to Richmond, and turned over to the commandant of Camp Lee. During a momentary pause in their journey, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge, he wrote to his wife: “Here, as well as at other points of the line, the war-spirit is intense. The cars had scarcely stopped here before a request was made that I would leave a Cadet to drill a company.”

From Richmond he wrote, April 23d: “Colonel Lee of the army is here, and has been made Major-General. His (services) I regard as of more value to us than General Scott could render as commander.” (This was an allusion to a report, by which the people had just been excited, that General WinfieldScott, the conqueror of Mexico, and a son of Virginia, was about to return, to espouse the cause of his native State.) “It is understood that General Lee is to be Commander-ih-Chief. I regard him as a better officer than General Scott.”

“The Cadets are encamped at the Fair Grounds, which are about one and a half miles from the city. We have excellent quarters. So far as we can hear, God is crowning our cause with success; but I do not wish to send rumors to you. I will try to give facts as they become known; though I may not have time to write more than a line or so. The governor, and others holding responsible offices, have not enough time for their duties; they are so enormous at this date.”

The Camp of Instruction near Richmond being in charge of another officer, Major Jackson had no responsible duties to perform there during his short stay. He was exceedingly anxious for active employment; and, it must be added, distrustful of his prospects of obtaining it. For, his acute, though silent perspicacity taught him plainly enough, that the estimate formed of [184] his powers by the major part of the people and the authorities, was depreciatory. But he disdained to agitate, or solicit for promotion; and busied himself quietly in assisting, at the camp, informally, in the drill and discipline of the mass of new soldiers there collected. One day he was accosted by one of these, an entire stranger, who told him that he had just been assigned as corporal of the guard for the day, that he was absolutely ignorant of the details of his duties, that the officer who had given him his orders, as ignorant, perhaps, as himself; had left him without instructions; and that seeing, by his uniform, he was an officer of rank, he wished to beg him for some aid. Major Jackson at once assented. He went with the soldier around the whole circuit of sentry-posts, taught him practically all the salutes, the challenges, and the instructions to be observed, and displayed such thorough knowledge and goodness at once, that he declared from that hour Jackson had won not only his respect but his love. It was these, not arts of popularity, but actual virtues, which bound — the hearts of his men to him.

When the State had such urgent need of practical talent, it was impossible that an officer of MajorJackson's reputation should be wholly overlooked. A few days after he reached Camp Lee, it was determined by the Executive War Council to employ him in the engineer department, with the rank ofMajor. This arrangement his advocates justly regarded as unfriendly to him, for it gave him no actual promotion, while the State was showering titles and rank on scores of men who had never seen service; and it assigned him a branch of duty for which he always professed least taste and qualification. For placing a battery, an earthwork, or a line of battle, indeed, his judgment was almost infallible; but he was no draughtsman, and to set him to the drudgery of compiling maps, was a sacrifice of his [185] reputation and of his high capacities for command. But as soon as this purpose was made known, and before it was reported to the Convention for their approval, influential friends from Jackson's native district, by whom his powers were better esteemed, remonstrated with the Council, and showed them that he was the very man for a post of primary importance for which they were then seeking a commander. By their advice, seconded by that of Governor Letcher, this appointment was revoked, and he was commissioned, Colonel of the Virginia forces, and ordered to take command at Harper's Ferry. The next day this appointment was sent to the Convention for their sanction, when some one asked, “Who is this Major Jackson, that we are asked to commit to him so responsible a post?” “He is one,” replied the member from Rockbridge, “who, if you order him to hold a post, will never leave it alive to be occupied by the enemy.” The Governor accordingly handed him his commission as Colonel, on Saturday, April 27th, and he departed at once for his command. On the way. he wrote thus to his wife:--

Winchester, April 29th.-I expect to leave here about halfpast two P. M. to-day, forHarper's Ferry. I am thankful to say that an ever-kind Providence, who causes “all things to work together for good to them that love him,” has given me the post which I prefer above all others, and has given me an independent command. To His name be all the praise.

You must not expect to hear from me very often, as I expect to have more work than I have ever had, in the same length of time, before; but don't be concerned about me, as an ever-kind Heavenly Father will give me all needful aid.

This letter is a truthful revelation of his character; on the one hand, full of that self-reliance and consciousness of power, which made him long for a conspicuous position and an independent command; and on the other, recognizing the gratification of [186] this wish as a mark of God's favor, and resting upon His aid, with an eminent faith, for all his success and fame.

On the 19th of April, two notable events had occurred in Virginia, of which one was the evacuation of the great naval depot in Norfolk Harbor by the Federal authorities, after its partial destruction; and the other was, the desertion of Harper's Ferry.

This little village, which events have rendered so famous, is situated on the tongue of land between the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. The former of these is the boundary between Virginiaand Maryland. The latter, collecting its tributaries southwest of Harper's Ferry, in the great valley ofVirginia, flows northeastward along the western base of the Blue Ridge, until it meets the Potomacwhere that river forces its passage through this mountain range, to find its way towards the sea. The abundant water-power, the interior position, and its proximity to a plentiful country, had led to its selection by the Federal Government, for the manufacture and storing of fire-arms. The banks of the two streams were lined with factories, where muskets and rifles of the most approved patterns were made in large numbers; and in the village were the arsenals, where many thousands were stored. The space between the two rivers is also filled by a mountain of secondary elevation, called Bolivar Heights, and on the lower declivities of this ridge, as it descends to the junction of the two streams, the town is built in a rambling fashion. East of the Shenandoah the Blue Ridge rises immediately from the waters, overlooking the village, and the sides of Bolivar Heights. Here the mountain, lying in the county ofLoudoun, is called Loudoun Heights. North of it, and across the Potomac, the twin mountain, bearing the name of Maryland Heights, rises to an equal altitude, and commands the whole valley of the Potomac above. From this [187] description, it is manifest that Harper's Ferry is worthless as a defensive military post, when assailed by a large force, unless it were also garrisoned by a great army, and supplied with a vast artillery, sufficient to crown all the triangle of mountains which surround it, and to connect those crests effectually with each other. It had never been designed for a fortress, and there was nothing whatever of the character of fortifications around it. But as a preliminary point, it was of prime importance to hold it, both to protect Virginia against incursions, and to restrict the convenience of her enemy. Through the gorge opened in the Blue Ridge by the Potomac, passes also theChesapeake and Ohio Canal, the great turnpike road from the regions of the Upper Potomac to the cities of Washington and Baltimore, and the railroad, which constitutes the grand connexion of those cities with the coal-fields whence they draw their fuel, and with the great West. Besides this, the railroad leading southward to Winchester, diverges from Harper's Ferry, and ascends the valley of the Shenandoah. Hence, the occupation of this point, as a focus, was regarded by the government ofVirginia, as of radical importance, and it was obviously the advanced post of all her defences.

As soon as war became imminent, the minds of the people were turned to the value of the arms stored at Harper's Ferry, because they were precisely what Virginia lacked. Almost without prompting from the authorities, the militia was assembling in the neighborhood to capture the place; when the officer in command of the Federal guard attempted to destroy the factories and arsenals, and fled to Carlisle, in Pennsylvania. His designs against the former were abortive, and a quantity of machinery and materials, which proved of priceless value to the Commonwealth, was rescued; but when the militia entered the village, the storehouses, which had contained thousands of valuable [188] arms, were wrapped in flames. It was indeed ascertained, that the larger part of the muskets were not consumed with the buildings, but were stolen and secreted by the inhabitants of the place. Of these, a few thousands were discovered, hidden in every conceivable place of concealment, and gathered for the State by the officers of the militia, while many of the privates armed themselves, by traffic with the venal populace. Meantime, other companies of volunteers flocked from the valley of Virginia to the place, until the materials of a little army were assembled there. But they were “without form and void.”

It was at this juncture that Colonel Jackson took command. He was ordered by Major-General Lee to organize the companies of volunteers, assembled at Harper's Ferry, into regiments, and to instruct them diligently in military drill and discipline, to retain control of the great thoroughfares leading towardsWashington city, and prevent their use by the Federal authorities for offensive purposes, even by their partial destruction, if necessary; to urge on the completion of fire-arms out of the materials already partially prepared at the factories, until such time as the machinery could be removed to the interior; and to defend the soil of Virginia from the invasion threatened from that quarter. About this time, there were assembled at Harper's Ferry, 2100 Virginian troops, with 400 Kentuckians, consisting of Imboden's,Rogers', Alburti's, and Graves'. batteries of field artillery, with fifteen guns of the lightest calibre; eight companies of cavalry without drill or battalion organization, and nearly without arms; and a number of companies of infantry, of which three regiments, the 2d, 5th, and 10th, were partially arranged, while the rest had no organization. The Convention had just passed a very necessary law, revoking the commissions of all the militia officers in command of volunteer forces; for their appointments, made long before, when the military system of the State was only a name. [189] on every conceivable ground of political or local popularity, were no evidence whatever of fitness for actual command. These decapitated generals and colonels were, naturally, disaffected to the new order in military affairs. Of discipline there was almost none, and the force was apparently about to disintegrate and separate as rapidly as it had been gathered. Everybody wanted a furlough, for they had come as to a frolic. There was no general staff, no hospital, nor ordnance department, and scarcely six rounds of ammunition to the man.

To this confused mass Colonel Jackson came a stranger having not a single acquaintance in the whole command. He brought two of his colleagues in the military school, Major Preston and Colonel Massie, who virtually composed his staff, and two young men whom he employed as drill-masters. With their aid, his energy, impartiality, fairness and courtesy, speedily reduced the crude rabble to order and consistency. The little army, like the generous young courser, recognized a master in the first touch of the reins; and speedily the restive temper, which had been provoked by the incompetent hands that essayed to guide it, gave place to joy and docility. The reputation of Colonel Jackson as a stark fighter in the Mexican War, laid the foundation for his influence; for, among new soldiers, it clothed his person and authority with a fascination which charmed and stimulated their fancy. His justice engaged the approbation of every man's conscience; his unaffected goodness allured their love, and, if insubordination was attempted, his sternness awed them into submission. Once or twice only some wilful young officer made experiment of resisting his authority; and then the snowy brow began to congeal with stony rigor, the calm blue eye to kindle with that blaze, steady at once and intense, before which every other eye quailed; and his penalties were so prompt and inexorable, that no one desired to adventure another [190] act of disobedience. His force was ultimately increased by the accession of volunteers from Virginia, and of a few Southern troops, to forty-five hundred men. Ammunition was forwarded to him, additional cannon of heavy calibre were procured, and the Pendleton battery, from his own village, afterwards famous on many a hard-fought field, was added to his command.

Several questions of peculiar delicacy were to be handled by him. One was the control of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. From the western boundary of Maryland to the Ohio river, this great thoroughfare passed through the territory of Virginia by two branches. It had opened up to the inhabitants valuable access to the eastern cities, which many of them prized more than liberties, or the claims of either theUnion or Virginia. If commercial intercourse along this road were hindered, it was feared that the vacillating allegiance of the Northwest to the State would be utterly overthrown. Colonel Jacksontherefore resolved to leave the road uninterrupted for all peaceful travel and traffic for the present.

The Maryland Heights overlooked the village from the north, and, if they were occupied by the enemy with artillery, his position there would be rendered untenable. But Maryland then professed to be neutral; it was hoped that she would, before long, espouse the cause of the South; and the authorities ofVirginia wished to respect her territory, and all her rights, so long as she did not become one of our enemies. One expedient proposed by General Lee was, to induce Marylanders to enlist in the war, in sufficient numbers to hold the crest of the mountain, and commit its guardianship to them. But the people of that region were too timid and undecided to concur in such a plan. Another was, to postpone the occupancy of the mountain until the near approach of the enemy rendered it a military necessity; when this would constitute the justification [191] of the act. But against this the obvious objection lay, that the enemy's advance might be too sudden to permit those preparations which were necessary to make the post tenable. Colonel Jackson therefore decided the matter for himself, and seized the Maryland Heights; constructing upon them a few block houses, and quartering there a few companies of troops.

He was his own engineer, and reconnoitred all the ground for himself. He constructed very few entrenchments; and, to the end of his career, it was characteristic that he made almost no use of the spade and pick. On the 8th of May he wrote as follows to his wife:--

“I am living at present in an elegant mansion, with Major Preston in my room. Mr. Massie is on my staff, but left this morning for Richmond, as bearer of despatches, and is to return in a few days. I am strengthening my position, and, if attacked, shall, with the blessing of the kind providence of that God who has always been with me, and who, I firmly believe, will never forsake me, repel the enemy. I am in good health, considering the great labor which devolves on me, and the loss of sleep to which I am subjected.”

In the despatches which he sent to the Government, he announced his conviction that his post should be so defended, as to make it a Thermopylae. His command was the advanced-guard of all the Southernforces; a collision was. expected first at Harper's Ferry, which was threatened by a large force underMajor-General Patterson; and, through that pass, it was supposed the invaders would attempt to pour into the State. Such a resistance, Colonel Jackson declared, should be made to this first assault, as would convince our enemies of the desperate determination of the people of the South, and would set, to our soldiers, an example of heroism in all future combats. As Leonidas and his three hundred judged that the moral effect of [192] their sacrifice would be worth more to Greece, in teaching her citizens how to die for their country, than any subsequent services which they could hope to render, so Jacksondetermined, if necessary, to die at his post at Harper's Ferry, in order to elevate the spirit of Southern resistance.

From the beginning, he manifested that reticence and secrecy as to all military affairs, for which he was afterwards so remarkable. It was his maxim, that, in war, mystery was the key to success. He argued, that no human shrewdness could foretell what item of information might not give some advantage to an astute adversary, and that, therefore, it was the part of wisdom to conceal everything, even those things of which it did not appear how the enemy could make use. And since the channels by which intelligence may pass, are so numerous and unforeseen, those things which he did not wish divulged to the enemy he divulged to no one, except where necessity compelled him. Not long after he took command atHarper's Ferry, a dignified and friendly Committee of the Legislature of Maryland visited him to learn his plans. It was deemed important to receive them with all courtesy, for the co-operation of their State was earnestly desired, and every one was watching to see how Colonel Jackson would reconcile his secrecy, and his extreme dislike to be questioned upon military affairs, with the demands of politeness. Among other questions, they asked him the number of his troops. He replied promptly, “I should be glad if Lincoln thought I had fifteen thousand.”

The character of his thinking was illustrated by the declaration which he made upon assuming this command, that it was the true policy of the South to take no prisoners in this war. He affirmed that this would be in the end truest humanity, because it would shorten the contest, and prove economical of the blood of both parties; and that it was a measure urgently dictated [193] by the interests of our cause, and clearly sustained by justice. This startling opinion he calmly sustained in conversation, many months after, by the following considerations, which he prefaced with the remark, that, inasmuch as the authorities of the Confederate States had seen fit to pursue the other policy, he had cheerfully acquiesced, and was as careful as other commanders to enjoin on his soldiers the giving of quarter and humane treatment to disarmed enemies. But he affirmed this war was, in its intent and inception, different from all civilized wars, and therefore should not be brought under their rules. It was not, like them, a strife for a point of honor, a diplomatic quarrel, a commercial advantage, a boundary, or a province; but an attempt on the part of the North against the very existence of the Southern States. It was founded in a denial to their people of the right of self-government, in virtue of which, solely, the Northern Statesthemselves existed. Its intention was a wholesale murder and piracy, the extermination of a whole people's national life. It was, in fact, but the “John Brown Raid” resumed and extended, with new accessories of horror, and, as the Commonwealth of Virginia had righteously put to death every one of those cut-throats upon the gallows, why were their comrades in the same crime to claim now a more. honorable treatment? Such a war was an offence against humanity so monstrous, that it outlawed those who shared its guilt beyond the pale of forbearance. But as justice authorized their destruction, so wisdom and prudence demanded it, for it is always. wisest to act upon principle, in preference to expediency. He argued further, that this enormous intent of the war, together with the infuriated temper of the Northern people, and the circumstances of the contest, would inevitably lead them, before its close, even if they observed some measure at first, to barbarities and violations of belligerent rights, which would [194] compel our authorities, by every, consideration of righteous retribution and duty to their own injured citizens, to a bloody retaliation. But this would probably be then retorted, and the internecine policy would only assume a wider extent. The arrogance of the Federal Government would be sure to add political persecution of our citizens to the other rigors of war, under the pretext of punishing rebellion. The Administration at Washington was indebted to Abolitionism for its rpel strength, and would find itself impelled, whether it willed it or not, to conduct the war in accordance with the demands of that. fell fanaticism. It would be seen, before this contest was over, inciting slave insurrections in the South, arming the servile class against their masters, and setting them on to perpetrate all the horrors of savage warfare. The Confederate States ought not to submit to these enormities, and could not; but the measures of retribution which the protection of their outraged citizens would require, should be directed rather against the instigators than the ignorant tools. By the time, however, this stern necessity had manifested itself, the Federal Government might have many of our soldiers, and much of our territory, in their clutches, so that retaliation would be encumbered with additional difficulties. It would be better, therefore, to begin upon a plan of warfare which would place none of our citizens in their power alive. And lastly, if quarter was neither given nor asked, our soldiers would be only the more determined, vigilant, and unconquerable, for they were fighting under an inevitable necessity for liberties, homes, and existence; while the soldiers of our enemies would be intimidated, and enlistments would be prevented, because they contend only for pique, revenge, and lust of gain. Indeed, it was in every way for the advantage of the Confederate States, that the war should be made to unmask its murderous nature, most practically, to the [195] apprehensions of our citizens, for then they would be more likely to rise to the exercise of those radical and primary instincts of the human soul, which are commensurate in intensity with the magnitude of the stake at issue. This war was, in its true nature, internecine; It were better that it should be understood as such. Its real meaning was destruction to the South; better have each citizen and soldier understand this for himself, in the most personal sense. Then, instead of seeing a people waging so dire a contest for. the primary objects of existence, with divided zeal, and with only the secondary motives of their nature, the most powerful moral forces of the soul would be evoked to sustain the struggle.

Such, in substance, were the reasons which he rendered for his conclusion. They were given with an unpretending simplicity, which no other can reproduce; for it was a characteristic of his mind, that the most profound considerations were seen by him so clearly and simply, that they were expressed without logical parade or pomp, as though they had been easy, and obvious to every understanding. Those who have watched the subsequent course of the war can decide, how accurately all his predictions have been verified. And every thoughtful man now anticipates nothing else, than to see mutual acts of retaliation precipitate the parties into an unsparing slaughter; a result which has only been postponed thus far, by the unexampled forbearance of the people and government of the Confederate States.

Meantime, on the 2d of May, Virginia had adopted the Constitution of the Confederate States, appointed Commissioners to their Congress, and thus united her fortunes with theirs. The secession ofVirginia gave a second impulse to the revolution, by which the States of North Carolina, Tennessee,Arkansas, and Missouri, and afterwards, in name, Kentucky, were [196] added to the Confederation. On the 20th of May, the Confederate Congress adjourned from Columbia to Richmond, which they had selected as their future capital, and on the 29th of the same month, Mr. Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, was received in Richmond with unbounded enthusiasm. By a treaty between Virginiaand the Confederate Government, the State transferred all her troops and armaments to that power; which engaged, in return, to defend her, and to pay and govern the forces. One of the earliest acts of the Confederate Government was to appoint a Commander of higher rank and greater experience toHarper's Ferry, which they justly regarded as a post of prime importance. General Joseph E. Johnstonwas selected by them for this office, May 23d, and proceeded thither immediately, to take command. The Virginian authorities afterwards assured Colonel Jackson, that they were fully satisfied with his administration there, and would have been well pleased to increase his rank until it was adequate to the extent and responsibility of the command; but they properly acquiesced in the appointment made by the Confederate Government. When General Johnston, however, arrived at Harper's Ferry, and claimed to relieve Colonel Jackson of his command, the latter had received no directions from the State Government to surrender his trust. And here arose a momentary collision between the two authorities, which displayed the inflexibility of Jackson's character. He replied that he had been intrusted by Major-General Lee, at the command of the State of Virginia, with this charge; and could only relinquish it by his orders. In this position, he was, while respectful, immovable; and as the Confederate commander was equally firm, a mischievous strife was anxiously feared. But very soon, the mails brought an application from some person pertaining to Colonel Jackson's command, upon which was endorsed, in the handwriting of [197] Major-General Lee, a reference to the authority of General Joseph E. Johnston, as commanding at Harper's Ferry. This furnished Colonel Jackson all the evidence which he desired, to justify his surrender of his trust; and he hastened, with cordial pleasure, to transfer his whole powers toGeneral Johnston. The purity of his motives, and the absence of ambition, were appreciated by the latter, in a way equally honorable to both; Colonel Jackson became at once a trusted subordinate, and zealous supporter. The Virginia regiments, at the different posts, were now separated and organized into a brigade, of which he was made commander. Thus began his connexion with the Stonewall Brigade. It was composed of the 2d Virginia regiment, commanded by Colonel Allen, who fell at Gaines' Mill; the 4th, commanded by Colonel Preston; the 5th, commanded by Colonel Harper; the 27th, commanded by Colonel Gordon; and, a little after, the 33d, commanded by Colonel Cummings. The battery of light field-guns, from his own village of Lexington, manned chiefly by the gentlemen of the college and town, and commanded by the Rev. Mr. Pendleton, Rector of the Episcopal congregation of that place, formerly a graduate of the West Point Academy, was attached to this brigade, and was usually underJackson's orders. His brigade staff was composed of Major Frank Jones (who also fell as Major in the 2d regiment, at Gaines' Mill), Adjutant; Lieutenant-Colonel James W. Massie, Aide-de-camp; Dr. Hunter McGuire, Medical Director; Major William Hawkes, Chief Commissary; Major John Harman,Chief Quartermaster; and Lieutenant Alexander S. Pendleton, Ordnance Officer. It is due to the credit of Jackson's wisdom in the selection of his instruments, and to the gallant and devoted men who composed this staff, to add, that all of them who survived, rose with their illustrious leader to corresponding posts of usefulness and [198] distinction. It may be added, that every brigadier who hascom.. manded this famous brigade, except its present gallant leader, has fallen in battle, either at its head or in some other command. General Jackson was succeeded as its commander, by General RichardGarnett, who, having been appointed to another brigade, fell at the head of his command, at Gettysburg. The next General of the Stonewall Brigade was the chivalrous C. S. Winder, who was killed at its head, at Cedar Run. He was succeeded by the lamented General Baylor, who speedily, in the second battle of Manassas, paid, with his life, the price of the perilous eminence; and he, again, by the neighbor and friend of Jackson, General E. F. Paxton, who died on the second of the bloody days of Chancellorsville, thus preceding his commander by a week. This fatality may show the reader what kind of fighting that brigade was taught, by its first leader, to do for its country.

General Johnston, having speedily learned the untenable nature of his position at Harper's Ferry, and having accomplished the temporary purposes of its occupation, by the removal of the valuable machinery and materials for the manufacture of fire-arms, determined to desert the place. The Federal commander, General Patterson, had now approached the Potomac northwest of Harper's Ferry, by the way of the great valley of Pennsylvania, so that against him the tenure of that post had become no defence. His purpose to effect a junction at Winchester with the forces of General McClellan, advancing from northwestern Virginia, was suspected. That town, situated in the midst of the champaign of the great valley, about thirty miles southwest of Harper's Ferry, is the focus of a number of great highways, from every quarter. Of these, one leads north, through Martinsburg across the Potomac at the little village of Williamsport, the position then occupied by General Patterson. Another, known as the northwestern turnpike, passes by [199] Romney, across the Alleghany Mountains, throughoutnorthwestern Virginia to the Ohio River. And others, leading eastward, southward, and southwestward into the interior of the State, Winchester, was therefore the true strategic point for the defence of the upper regions of Virginia, and thither General Johnston determined to remove his army. Having destroyed the great railroad bridge at Harper's Ferry, and the factories of the Government, and removed all his heavy guns and stores, he left that place on Sunday, June 16. About this time, the advance of the Federal army from the northwest was reported to be at Romney, forty miles west ofWinchester; and General Patterson was crossing the Potomac at Williamsport, nearly the same distance to the north, with 18,000 men. General Johnston having marched to Charlestown, eight miles upon the road to Winchester, turned westward to meet Patterson, and chose a strong defensive position atBunker Hill, a wooded range of uplands between Winchester and Martinsburg. Upon hearing of this movement, Patterson precipitately withdrew his forces to the north bank of the Potomac. ColonelJackson thus described these movements in his letter to his wife:--

“Tuesday, June 18.--On Sunday, by order of General Johnston, the entire force left Harper's Ferry, marched towards Winchester, passed through Charlestown, and halted for the night about two miles this side. The next morning we moved towards the enemy, who were between Martinsburg andWilliamsport, Ma., and encamped for the night at Bunker Hill. The next morning we were to have marched at sunrise, and I hoped that in the evening, or this morning, we would have engaged the enemy; but, instead of doing so, General Johnston made some disposition for receiving the enemy, if they should attack us, and thus we were kept until about twelve A. M., when he gave the order to return towardsWinchester. At about sunset, we reached [200] this place, which is about three miles north ofWinchester, on the turnpike leading thence to Martinsburg. When our troops on Sunday were marching on the enemy, they were so inspirited as apparently to forget the fatigue of the march, and though some of them were suffering from hunger, this and all other privations appeared to be forgotten, and the march continued at the rate of about three miles per hour. But when they were ordered to retire, their reluctance was manifested by their snaillike pace. I hope the General will do something soon. Since we have left Harper's Ferry, something of an active movement towards repelling the enemy is, of course, expected. I trust that, through the blessing of God, we will soon be given an opportunity of driving the invaders from this region.”

From this tithe Colonel Jackson's brigade formed the advanced body of the infantry of the army of theValley, and was continually near the enemy. He thus speaks of the command:--

“The troops have been divided into brigades, and the Virginia forces under General Johnston constitute the first brigade, of which I am in command. I am very thankful to our kind heavenly Father, for having given me such a fine brigade. He does bless me beyond my expectations, and infinitely beyond my deserts. I ought to be a devoted follower of the Redeemer.”

About this time, Colonel A. P. Hill, afterwards Lieut.-General, was sent towards Romney with a detachment of Confederate troops. The Federalists there retired before him, and having occupied that village, he proceeded along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, eighteen miles west of the town ofCumberland, assailed a detachment which guarded an important bridge, dispersed them, capturing two cannon and their colors, and destroyed the bridge. On the 19th of June, Colonel Jackson was sent with his brigade north of Martinsburg, to observe the enemy, who were again crossing the Potomac. They retired [201] before him, evidently afraid to hazard a collision. On this expedition Colonel Jackson was ordered by General Johnston to destroy the locomotives and cars of the Baltimore Railroad atMartinsburg. At this village there were vast workshops and depots for the construction and repair of these cars; and more than forty of the finest locomotives, with three hundred burdencars, were now destroyed. Concerning this he writes:--“It was a sad work; but I had my orders, and my duty was to obey. If the cost of the property could only have been expended in disseminating the gospel of thePrince of peace, how much good might have been expected”

That this invaluable property should have been withdrawn to Winchester by the way of Harper's Ferry, before this point was evacuated, is too plain to be argued. Whose was the blunder cannot now be ascertained; that it was not Colonel Jackson's appears from the extract of his letter just inserted. The bridges across the streams, between Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, were by this time burned. So desirable did it afterwards appear that the railroads of the Confederate States should be recruited with the remaining stock at Martinsburg, that a number of locomotives and burden-cars were drawn along the turnpike roads by long teams of horses to Winchester, and thence to the Central Virginia Railroad.

Colonel Jackson remained with his brigade a little north of Martinsburg, with Colonel J. E. B. Stuart in his front, then commanding a regiment of cavalry, until July 2d. On that day, he first fleshed his sword in actual combat with the Federal army. Patterson had, at last, ventured to cross the Potomac again in force, and to advance towards Jackson's camp. The latter immediately struck his tents, and ordered his command under arms. The instructions given him by his commander were to observe the enemy, and, if he advanced in full force, to [202] retire until he found a supporting body of his friends. He therefore advanced to meet the Federalists with the 5th Virginia Regiment, a few companies of cavalry, and one light field-piece of Captain Pendleton's battery, leaving orders to the remainder of his command to be ready to march either way, and to commence sending their baggage to the rear. Near Falling Water Church, a rural house of worship half-way between Martinsburg and the Potomac, he met the advance of the enemy, assailed and, repelled them. Receiving reinforcements, they again advanced, and were again repulsed. Perceiving by this time the smallness of the force which was holding them in check, the enemy displayed a large body of infantry, which extended its wings, and then advanced them, with the design of enveloping Jackson in their folds. But he had posted his infantry behind the buildings and enclosures of a farm-house and barn, which occupied both sides of the highway, and thence poured a galling fire upon the enemy, until they were about to surround him. Bringing up his field-piece to cover the retreat of his men, he then withdrew them. The first fire of his gun cleared the highway of the advancing column of Federals, and he retired, skirmishing with them until, four miles south ofMartinsburg, he met the army advancing to his support. In this combat, known as that of Haines' Farm,Colonel Jackson employed only 380 men (for the whole of the 5th Regiment was not engaged), with one piece of artillery. The enemy brought into action the whole of Cadwallader's Brigade, containing 3000 men and a battery of artillery. Yet it occupied them from nine o'clock A. M. until mid-day to dislodge this little force, and it cost them a loss of forty-five prisoners, captured by Colonel Stuart in a dash of his cavalry, and a large number of killed and wounded. Jackson's loss was two men killed and ten wounded. He was probably the only man in the detachment [203] of infantry who had ever been under fire; but he declared that “both officers and men behaved beautifullyy” On the other hand, his coolness, skill, care for the lives of his men, and happy audacity, filled them with enthusiasm. Henceforward, his influence over them was established. General Patterson reported to his Government that he had repulsed 10,000 rebels, with the loss of one man killed. The numerous covered wagons of the Dutch farmers, which went to the rear, with the blood dripping through the seams of the boards, told a different story of his loss. The dead of the Federal army were carefully concealed from their comrades, lest the sight should intimidate the unwarlike rabble.

General Patterson occupied Martinsburg while General Johnston remained at the little hamlet ofDarkesville, four miles distant, and offered him battle daily. This challenge the Federal general prudently declined. The Confederate commander, on the other hand, refused to gratify the eagerness of his men by attacking him in Martinsburg; for the massive dwellings and warehouses of that town, with the numerous stone-walled enclosures, rendered it a fortified place, of no little strength against an irregular approach. At the end of four days, General Johnston retired to Winchester. On the 15th of July GeneralPatterson advanced to Bunker Hill, but, when his adversary again offered battle, he paused there, and began to extend his left eastward towards the little village of Smithfield. To the uninformed, the meaning of this movement seemed to be, to surround General Johnston by his larger forces. But the superior sagacity of the latter discerned the true intention, viz., to prepare for co-operation with the army ofGeneral McDowell, the Federal commander, who was about to assail the Confederate forces underGeneral Beauregard at Manassa's Junction, and at [204] the same time, to prevent the army of theValley from extending that aid which would be so much needed by him.

Upon his return to Winchester, Colonel Jackson received the following note:--

Richmond, 3d July, 1861.

My dear General,--I have the pleasure of sending you a commission of Brigadier-General in the Provisional army; and to feel that you merit it. May your advancement increase your usefulness to theState.--Very truly,

R. E. Lee.

General Johnston had recommended him for this promotion, immediately after the affair of Haines' Farm; but it had been already determined upon by the Confederate Government, and the letter of appointment was dated as early as June 17th. General Jackson was exceedingly gratified by this tribute to his merit, and by his permanent assignment to his Brigade. Ignorant of the generous intentions of theGovernment, he had been led by his modesty to fear, that his possession of that command would only be temporary. Other colonels in command of Brigades had just been relieved by officers of higher rank; and he anticipated the same event for himself. He had, indeed, written, just before, to an influential member of the State Government, earnestly requesting him to procure for him such promotion as would prevent this fate. His advancement, therefore, brought him all the pleasure of an agreeable surprise. To the constant sharer of his joys, he wrote:--

I have been officially informed of my promotion to be a Brigadier-General of the Provisional Army of the Southern Confederacy. My promotion is beyond what I anticipated, as I only expected it to be in the volunteer forces of the State. One of the greatest [grounds of] desires for advancement is the [205] gratification it will give you, and serving my country more efficiently.

“ Through the blessing of God I now have all that I ought to desire in the line of promotion. I would be very ungrateful if I were not contented, and exceedingly thankful to our kind heavenly Father. May his blessing ever rest on you, is my fervent prayer!”

The reader will see here, the same remarkable union of honorable professional aspirations, with faith and dependence on God, which distinguished his whole course. [206]