Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches, Part 20

Author: Guild, Jo. C. (Josephus Conn), 1802-1883
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Nashville, Tavel, Eastman & Howell
Number of Pages: 1012


USA > Tennessee > Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches > Part 20


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"These slanders, it is thought, hastened the death of Mrs. Jackson, and they certainly roused all the devil in her husband's nature. He could and would forgive all else when the heat of passion had passed away, but this was an unpardonable sin, one which nothing but the blood of the transgressor could wipe out. Andrew Jackson killed Samuel Dickinson, and meant to kill him, and never repented of killing him, because Dickinson had, on more than one occasion, dared to belie her whom Jackson loved better than he did his own soul.


" But this was not the apparent cause of the duel, and the dis- agreement which led the way to the fatal meeting originated in a horse-race that was never run. In 1805 Jackson was the owner of the celebrated horse Truxton, and in the autumn of that year a match was made between the General's famous stallion and Capt. Joseph Ervin's Plow Boy. The stakes were $2,000, pay- able on the day of the race in notes, which notes were to be then due. The forfeit was fixed at $800. Before the appointed day the owner of Plow Boy concluded to withdraw from the contest, and did so, paying the stipulated forfeit; and here it was sup- posed the matter would end. But about this time Dickinson, the son-in-law of Capt. Ervin, and a young lawyer of consider- able prominence and popularity, was reported to have made some ungentlemanly remarks concerning Mrs. Jackson, which reached the ears of her husband. He immediately called upon Dickin- son and demanded an explanation. The latter stated that if he had ever been guilty of the charges imputed to him, it must have been when intoxicated; and this apology, together with other as- surances, seemed to entirely satisfy Jackson, who, with all his fiery temper, was never mean or malicious in his wrath. Soon


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after this, it is said that Dickinson repeated his previous language in the bar-room of a tavern in Nashville. Some busy tale-bearer conveyed the news to Jackson, who then went to Capt. Ervin and urged him to dissuade his son-in-law from the course he was pursuing, and by all means to induce him to abandon liquor, or guard his tongue after drinking it. 'I want no quarrel with him,' said Jackson; 'he is used by my enemies in Nashville, who are setting him on to pick a quarrel with me. Advise him to stop in time.' But Dickinson did not 'stop in time,' and the an- imosity between the two men grew stronger, and each waited im- patiently for an excuse to vent it in something more desperate than words. The excuse came through the medium of the ex- ploded horse-race. Some controversy had sprung up in relation to the notes turned over for the forfeit money; Jackson was ac- cused of having said that they were not the same as those agreed upon when the match was made. He denied the report with characteristic emphasis, and forthwith received a message from Mr. Thomas Swann, a friend of Capt. Ervin and Mr. Dickinson, requesting a recantation of the expressions used, and intimating that if this was not promptly given he must take the conse- quences. Jackson saw through what he believed to be the plot of the Dickinson clique, and in his reply to Swaun used the fol- lowing language :


"'There are certain traits that always accompany the gentle- man and man of truth. The moment he hears harsh expressions applied to a friend, he will immediately communicate it, that ex- planation may take place; when the base paltroon and cowardly tale-bearer will always act in the background. You can apply the latter to Mr. Dickinson, and see which best fits him. I write it for his eye, and the latter I emphatically intend for him.'


"Swan challenged Jackson, and the latter-as he had previ- ously announced his intention of doing-declined the challenge, and caned the challenger in the public room of a Nashville hotel. But the letter from which we have given an extract was, of course, shown to Dickinson, who responded promptly in a sharp epistle ending this:


"'As to the word coward, I think it is as applicable to your- self as to anybody I know, and I shall be very glad, when an opportunity serves, to know in what manner you give your "an-


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odines," and hope you will take in payment one of my most moderate cathartics.'


" By the time this belligerent message had reached Jackson, the author was on his way down the river to New Orleans, and the story says that although Dickinson was then considered the best shot in Tennessee, he spent his leisure time during the long trip in practicing with the pistol. Meanwhile Jackson engaged in a long newspaper controversy with Mr. Swann, in the course of which he did not hesitate to reiterate his opinions concerning Dickinson. The latter was absent from Tennessee four months, and immediately upon his return prepared an article for the press in response to Jackson's reflections. Before this article appeared, Gen. Thomas Overton, a warm personal friend of Jackson, heard of it, and conveyed the information to the individual most inter- ested. Jackson requested Overton to go at once to the newspa- per office, read Dickinson's manifesto, and tell him the purport thereof. Overton did as desired, and reported as follows: 'It is a piece that can't be passed over. Gen. Jackson, you must chal- lenge him.' To which the other replied, 'General, this is an affair of life and death. I'll take the responsibility myself. I'll see the piece and form my own judgment of it.' Mounting his horse, he rode twelve miles to Nashville, saw the article, and made up his mind at once. Indeed, there was no alternative left but an ignominious retreat or a fight, for Dickinson had used the following very plain English :


"'Should Andrew Jackson have intended to apply these epi- thets to me, I declare him, notwithstanding he is Major-General of militia of Mero district, to be a worthless scoundrel, a pol- troon, and coward.'


" In an hour Jackson had written and sent by the hand of Gen. Overton a peremptory challenge, and before the day ended Dickinson's note of acceptance was received, and the seconds be- gan the necessary preliminaries; Gen. Overton acting for Jack- son, and Dr. Hanson Catlet for Dickinson. These preliminaries are worth reproduction, as a souvenir of the times when the code of honor was a recognized and respected feature of American society.


"' On Friday, May 30, 1806, we agree to meet at Harrison's Mills, on Red river, in Logan county, State of Kentucky; and


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it is understood that the hour of meeting is to be at seven o'clock in the morning. It is agreed that the distance shall be twenty- four feet, the parties to stand facing each other with their pistols down perpendicularly. When they are ready, the single word fire is to be given, at which they are to fire as soon as they please. Should either fire before the word is given, we pledge ourselves to shoot him down instantly. The person to give the word to be determined by lot ; also the choice of positions. We mutually agree that the above regulations shall be observed in the affair of honor depending between Gen. Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson, Esq.'


"The place of combat was a long day's ride from Nashville, and the duelists were, consequently, obliged to start twenty-four hours previous. Dickinson, besides his second, was accompa- nied on the fatal journey by a number of gay companions who went out to see the meeting, and appeared to have cherished the utmost confidence in the prowess of their friend. Tradition states that whenever the party stopped for refreshment, Dickin- son displayed his skill with his weapon by shooting at a mark, and so wonderfully accurate was his aim, that at the word of command he put four balls into a space covered by a dollar twenty- four feet distant. At the same distance he repeatedly cut a small string suspended from a bough, and then left it behind with in- structions to the tavern keeper to show it to Gen. Jackson if he came that way. It is also said that he bet five hundred dollars he would hit his enemy within a half-inch of a certain button on his coat. But whether these stories are true or false, we know that Jackson and Overton were employing themselves, as they rode along, much more sensibly. Both were conscious that it was indeed to be a life-and-death affair, and they studied the sit- uation accordingly. Their deliberations resulted in Jackson's determination to let Dickinson have the first fire, and take his chances for the second. He felt perfectly confident that Dickin- son would hit him, and equally confident that he would hit Dick- inson. 'I should have hit him,' said this iron man long after- ward, 'if he had shot me through the brain.' The two parties passed the night at different cabins on the bank of the river, and Jackson is reported to have eaten a hearty supper, smoked his usual pipe, and indulged in cheerful conversation previous to re-


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tiring. Next morning before breakfast Jackson and his friends were in the saddle, and, fording the shallow stream, proceeded to the appointed spot, a level piece of river bottom in the bosom of a forest of poplar trees. Dickinson was equally prompt, and after exchanging the usual salutations, business went forward at once. The ground was measured, pegs driven, the men placed, the pistols loaded, and all was ready but the word. The giving of this had been won by Overton, and he shouted it out with the strong, old country accent- FERD!' Dickinson raised his pis- tol quickly and fired on the instant. The dust flew from the breast of the loose fitting frock which Jackson wore, and he was seen to place his left arm with a tight grip across the chest; but he neither staggered nor turned pale. Dickinson, amazed at the sight of his foe still erect and apparently untouched, fell back from the peg a pace or two and. exclaimed, 'Great God! have I missed him ?' 'Back to the mark, sir!' said Overton, with his hand on his pistol. Dickinson resumed his place at once, and stood firmly waiting the result. Jackson raised his weapon, took deliberate aim, and pulled the trigger. It stopped at half cock. He cocked again, again aimed as deliberately as before, and this time the ringing crack followed, and Dickinson, reeling toward the ground, was caught by his friends and supported against a clump of underbrush. His lower garments reddened with blood, and a brief examination showed that the ball had passed directly through the body below the hips, and lodged under the skin on the opposite side from the point of entrance. Such a wound could have but one termination, and Dickinson, after suffering terribly all day, died at nine o'clock the same evening. As Jack- son and his companions walked away from the spot, the surgeon


noticed the blood oozing from his shoes. 'My God, Gen. Jack- son, are you hit?' He exclaimed, 'Oh! I believe that he has pricked me a little. Let's look at it. But say nothing about it


there,' pointing to the house they were then approaching. Why he was so particular to conceal his wound from outsiders, is ex- plained by a friend, to whom Jackson afterward said, 'I did not want him (Dickinson) to have even the gratification of knowing that he had touched me.' Drinking a deep draught of butter- milk, he had his wound dressed, and was able to ride home with- out much difficulty; but three months elapsed before he could


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move about comfortably, and the indirect consequences filled his closing years with pain, and at last laid him in his grave. The dueling pistols used on the occasion Jackson never parted with ; and in his last days a friend calling upon him took up one of the pair which lay on the mantel. The old man remarked quietly, 'That is the pistol with which I killed Mr. Dickinson.' So Aaron Burr would now and then say with a smile, 'My friend Hamilton, whom I shot.'"


About two years ago a Kentucky correspondent of the Cincin- nati Commercial furnished that paper an account of this duel, which agrees substantially with that of the St. Louis Republican, but it contains some facts and points not brought out by the Re- publican, and for that reason I make the following extracts from the communication to the Commercial:


"The duel between Jackson and Dickinson took place on Fri- day, the 28th of May, 1806, on Red river, in Logan county, Ky. It grew out of a dispute concerning a horse-race which had been arranged between Gen. Jackson and Capt. Joseph Erwin, the father-in-law of Dickinson, who was also interested. All the parties resided in or about Nashville, Tenn. For some reason the race did not come off, and Erwin paid the forfeit. Shortly afterward Gen. Jackson heard that Dickinson had, on the day of the expected race, indulged in some disparaging allusions toward Mrs. Jackson. Parton, in his account of the duel in the 'Life of Jackson,' does not explain the nature of these allusions, but I have been informed by a relative of Mrs. Jackson, a gentleman of high character, still living, that she was present, in her car- riage, on the track, to witness the race, and when the forfeit was declared, she remarked, with an air of pardonable exultation, to some of her friends, that 'Truxton (the General's horse) would have left Plowboy (Capt. Erwin's horse) out of sight.' This was repeated to Dickinson, who, being somewhat excited by his losses, and probably under the influence of liquor, rejoined, 'Yes, about as far out of sight as Mrs. Jackson left her first husband when she ran away with the General.'


"It is here necessary to explain that Mrs. Jackson, nee Donel- son, had first married a Mr. Robards, of Mercer county, Ken- tucky. The marriage proved unhappy, and a separation ensued, Mrs. Robards returning to her parental home in Tennessee.


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After some time it was reported and generally believed that Ro- bards had applied to the Legislature of Virginia, of which Ken- tucdy was then a part, for a divorce, on the ground of his wife's abandonment, and that it had been granted. Feeling at liberty to form another alliance, Mrs. Robards married Jackson, then a rising young lawyer of Nashville. It subsequently transpired, however, that the divorce had not been granted, but the Virginia Legislature had merely passed a bill empowering the Kentucky courts, upon proper proof, to grant it. Robards delayed any fur- ther action for several years, and not until after the second mar- riage of Mrs. Robards, when he filed a petition in the Mercer County Court asking for a divorce on the ground of her 'living in adultery with one Andrew Jackson,' and upon this ground the divorce was allowed. 'And thus,' says the biographer of Jack- son, 'the most chaste of women and one of the few irreproach- able public men of his day, are recorded adulterers.'


" When Dickinson's remark on the race track was repeated to Jackson he immediately called upon him, and inquired if he had made it. Dickinson replied that he might have done so, but if he had he must have been drunk, and apologized. This removed all ill-feeling on the part of Jackson, and they separated in a friendly manner. Unfortunately, Dickinson was too much in the habit of getting drunk and losing the control of his tongue. Shortly afterwards, in a tevern in Nashville, he again spoke slight- ingly of Mrs. Jackson, and the circumstance was duly conveyed to her husband. There is the authority of the late General Hous- ton for saying that Jackson called upon Captain Erwin, and ad- vised him to exert his influence with his son-in-law, and induce him to restrain his speech and comport himself like a getleman in his cups. 'I wish no quarrel with him,' said he, 'but he is used by my enemies, who are urging him to pick a quarrel with me. Advise him to stop.' From this time forward there was no good will between the two men, and the sense of resentment in Jackson's bosom needed but a spark to kindle into a consuming blaze. He was at this period one of the most conspicuous char- acters of Tennessee. He had served in Congress, both as Repre- sentative and Senator ; had been a Supreme Judge of the State, and was then Major General of its militia. He was in his fortieth year. Dickinson was much younger, scarcely twenty-five, a law-


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yer by profession, of good family and connections, somewhat dissipated in his habits, and rather reckless when under the influ- ence of drink. He was reputed to be the best shot in Tennessee.


" There was at the time another young attorney in Nashville, an intimate friend of Dickinson, who had recently emigrated from Virginia, Thomas Swann by name. It happened that he was concerned in some way in the Jackson-Erwin horse race. He held a conversation with the former touching the settlement of the forfeit, which he undertook to relate to Dickinson. Jackson was asked for an explanation of something he was alleged to have stated to Swann. He did it very promptly by pronouncing Swann 'a d-d liar.' The latter demanded a retraction of the offensive epithet, with the intimation that a challenge would follow a refu- sal. Jackson declined to retract, and informed Swann that if he challenged him he would cane him. The challenge was sent to him at once. It has been preserved, and is unique in its way :


"'Gen. Andrew Jackson : Think not that I am to be intimi- dated by your threats. No power terrestrial shall prevent the settled purpose of my soul. The statement that I have made is substantially correct. The torrent of abusive language with which you have assailed me is such as every gentleman should blush to hear; your menaces I set at defiance, and now demand of you that reparation which one gentleman is entitled to receive of another. My friend, the bearer of this, is authorized to make complete arrangements for the field of honor.'


"Gen. Jackson kept his word, and on receipt of this message politely ' caned' Mr. Swann. From the beginning Jackson had suspected that Dickinson was at the bottom of his trouble with Swann, and he did not hesitate to say so. In the course of his correspondence with the latter he denounced a certain ' base pol- troon and cowardly tale-bearer who always acts in the dark,' and and added : ' You can apply the latter to Mr. Dickinson. * Mr. Dickinson has given you the information the subject of your letter. In return and in justice to him I request you to show him this. I set out in the morning for South West Point. Should anything herein contained give Mr. Dickinson the spleen, I will furnish him with an anodyne as soon as I return.'


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"'Dickinson's aim,' says Parton, 'had been perfect. He had sent the ball precisely where he supposed Jackson's heart was beating, but the thinness of his body and the looseness of his coat combining to deceive him, the ball had only broken a rib or two, and raked the breast-bone. It was a somewhat painful, bad- looking wound, but neither severe nor dangerous.'


" Dickinson died that night.


"In this duel it is plain to be seen, from a careful consideration of the circumstances above narrated, though the truth does not appear to have reached the apprehension of Gen. Jackson's biog- rapher, that Dickinson was outwitted by his older and more ex- perienced antagonist. Advantage was taken of the very fact of his being a ' dead shot,' and of his perfect confidence in his skill with the pistol. His avowed purpose was to shoot Jackson through the heart, and he felt absolutely sure of doing this. In what manner his object was defeated Mr. Parton unconsciously discloses. He aimed 'precisely where he supposed Jackson's. heart was beating, but the thinness of his body and the looseness. of his coat' combined ' to deceive' him. Admitting the morality of private combat as of public war, such strategy, under the cir- cumstances, can not be regarded as unjustifiable. The late Gen. Sam. Dale, who was intimate with Jackson, has been frequently heard to say that Dickinson's fatal mistake was in not aiming at Jackson's head instead of his heart. Parton is in error when he states that Jackson's wound was 'neither severe nor dangerous.' It confined him to his room for several weeks, and it healed falsely. Twenty years after it broke out afresh, and troubled him for the remainder of his life. The pulmonary affection which finally carried him to his grave is attributed to that wound.


"Jackson never exhibited the slightest compunction for the part he took in this bloody affair. He very rarely alluded to it, but when he did it was always with perfect complacency. It is told of him that a gentleman was once examining his dueling pistols. Taking up one of them the General quietly remarked, ' That is the pistol with which I killed Mr. Dickinson.' "


REMARKS.


Gen. W. G. Harding, of Belle Meade, near Nashville, in a let- ter to Col. J. Geo. Harris, states that in a conversation with Gen.


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Jackson not long before his death, the latter expressed his sincere regret that Charles Dickinson had many years before fallen by his hand in a duel. He declared that when he went upon the ground his mind was made up, and he had determined in his heart not to fire upon Dickinson ; that he was really frightened, for he expected to be killed, as Dickinson was known to be what was called a " dead shot," while he himself was not expert with the pistol; and that he had no doubt that Dickinson's fire would be quick, true, and fatal. He had, therefore, resolved to fire into the air; but under the impulse of the belief that he was mortally wounded by Dickinson's quick and true shot, he instantly but deliberately fired and his antagonist fell; and he said to Gen. Harding, " No event of my life, sir, have I regretted so much." Gen. Harding's letter provoked a good deal of newspaper com- ment in Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio, and an attempt was made by reference to Parton's Life of Jackson, to the acrimonious cor- respondence between the belligerents preceding the duel, and to what was publicly said and done at Nashville by them and their friends, to show that the delarations of Gen. Jackson to Gen. Harding could not be relied upon.


The true history of the duel between Jackson and Dickinson, the causes that led to it, and the intention of both parties in going upon the field, is given by the St. Louis Republican as they were then and subsequently for years understood and accepted. My own recollection of the sayings and opinions of Jackson's friends and neighbors at the time always impressed me with the belief that he went out with Dickinson intending to fire upon him. Such was certainly the popular belief here where the affair at- tracted the largest share of attention and comment. Still no earthly power could see into or know the inner purposes of his heart, and the matter may, perhaps, be reconciled and explained upon the basis of the conversation between Gen. Jackson and Gen. Harding. That Gen. Jackson sometimes spoke of the deed without any apparent contrition ; that he even said to a friend who was looking at his pistols in after years, that it was with one of them he had shot Dickinson; that the offense of Dickinson was a disrespectful allusion to. his wife, an offense that he always considered unpardonable ; that the published correspondence with Dickinson evinced great desire for mortal combat-all these con-


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siderations, in view of the necessities of the times requiring him to bear himself manfully through the quarrel, may not be accepted, under the circumstances, as conclusive proof that he had not de- termined to fire into the air. It should not be forgotten that at the time of this conversation with Gen. Harding, Gen. Jackson was not far from three score and ten ; that he had retired to the Hermitage to enjoy the peace and quiet of private life ; that he had become a devoted member of the Church, and had built a little meeting-house on his own grounds, where he met his neigh- bors and servants every Sabbath to worship; and that, when looking back over his eventful life, he would be very likely to remember the motives which had governed him in every impor- tant act of his life, and to freely express penitence for those acts which his heart in its renewed state disapproved. We may, therefore, accept his declarations to Gen. Harding as the true history of that sad affair, so far as it relates to his determination before going upon the ground, aud his great regret in after years over its fatal termination.


This was not the first duel in which Gen. Jackson was engaged. He learned a highly important lesson when he first came to the bar at Jonesboro, in this State, from old Col. Waightstill Avery, the first Attorney General for North Carolina after the formation of the Federal Union. Having completed his law studies with Spruce Mckay, Esq., at Salisbury, young Jackson determined that he would seek his fortune in the new settlements West of the mountains, in the territory now embraced in the State of Tennes- see. Leaving Salisbury, he came to Morganton, at the foot of the Blue Ridge, in Burke county, and there spent a week with the venerable Waightstill Avery, who had been the master spirit of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and was then regarded as the patriarch of the North Carolina bar. He was entertained in the most cordial and pleasant manner at Swan Ponds, Col. Avery's country seat, and while dispensing his hos- pitality to his guest, Col. Avery encouraged him in the deter- mination he had formed of crossing the mountains to Jonesboro, about sixty-five miles distant, where a court had just been estab- lished for the convenience of those citizens who had settled in the far western wilds of North Carolina. Setting out from Morgan- ton and following the devious pathways, the blazes on trees, and




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