with its branches extending into every part of the Union. He believed it was mismanaging the funds of the nation-interfering with the freedom of elections-controlling the operations of government and dangerous to the liberties of the people. Good men and wise men have differed on the question how far this opinion was correct. But all sound judging men will admit that, so long as the president entertained that opinion, the duty of his station required that he should use all the efforts in his power to save the funds and liberties of the people from the threatened danger. Accordingly, he decided that its connexion with the government should be dissolved, and that, so far as depended upon him, its charter should not be renewed. The political warfare which followed, was as fearful as any he had ever encountered in arms. In the bitterness of the contest, the Senate of the United States pronounced its judgment against him for his measures, in removing the funds of the nation from the vaults of this corporation. But in this, as in every other contest for his country, he proved victorious. Under the influence of other counsels, and in accordance with the wishes of the people, expressed through their state legislatures, the illustrious body which had improvidently prejudged his case, without hearing him, and before he was presented for trial by the representatives of the people, receded from its sentence by a proceeding as decisive as it was remarkable. Whatever difference of opinion may exist in regard to these proceedings, all will perceive, in the course of Andrew Jackson, the self-sacrificing spirit -the fearless disregard of danger-and the indomitable energy which always mark the character of a great mind.

The war with Great Britain and the Indian tribes had involved the nation in many millions of debt, a large amount of which remained undischarged when General Jackson became president. But during his administration he had the satisfaction of causing it to be paid to the uttermost farthing. And when he carried to the Hermitage the abiding affections of the people, he left behind the bright spectacle of a great republican government, after an experiment of sixty years, free from a national debt!

This great patriot was a blessing to his country, in his youth-in his manhood-in his old age--and even in his death! His early participation in the revolutionary struggle for independence attached him to the principles of liberty-and the loneliness of his orphan desolation, which stripped him of every other object of love, concentrated his undivided affections upon his country; the hardships of his youth enabled him to sustain the storms which assailed his manhood. The storms of his manhood drew the attention of his countrymen to the nature of their free institutions, and made them familiar with the principles by which they were to be perpetuated. When we see the humble orphan boy become a

mighty ruler, we feel increased attachment to our form of government, which secures alike to high and low its blessings and its honours. In his old age, he taught the lesson that the man who had occupied the most exalted station in the whole world, was not too proud to become a follower of the "meek and lowly Jesus"-that the spirit which had never quailed to man could bow in meek submission to the will of God; and that while royalty was seeking his likeness to ornament its halls, and antiquity was surrendering its monuments to adorn his sepulchre, he preferred a simple burial by the side of his deceased companion, to the vain ambition of reposing in a sarcophagus, which had preserved the remains of a monarch of the Old World more than a thousand years. He was laid by the side of his wife! Their hearts were united on earth-their spirits shall mingle in heaven; and the flowers that bloom over their resting-place shall "blend their sweet perfume together."

Even in his death there is a blessing. He has taught the Christian how to die! In the beautiful language of our own chief magistrate, "he descended into the region of death, as a summer sun beneath the western horizon, silently, calmly, brightly, gloriously.”

The sun has indeed descended, but the sky is still bright! and like its rich reflections, the memory of his noble deeds shall long shed a halo around his illustrious name.

His death has opened the way to a just decision upon his life. The scythe of time is removing obstructions, and his hour-glass is rapidly measuring out the period when history shall do justice to the life and character of ANDREW JACKSON.

EULOGY

DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MASS, JULY 9, 1845,

BY THE

HON. PLINY MERRICK.

WE assemble, my fellow-citizens, to mark with impressive and solemn service the loss of the republic in the death of "its most illustrious citizen." The magistrate who served, the hero who defended, and the patriot who loved and honoured his country-an old man full of years and of honours, and ripe for the celestial harvest, is gathered to his fathers, and sleeps in the peaceful silence of the grave. The event of which advancing age, and tidings of lingering sickness and increasing infirmity had given warning, and which has long been anticipated as the close of an eventful, energetic, and glorious life, now assembles vast multitudes of the people in all parts of the country to unite in the testimonials of a common and universal bereavement. He who was the object of their pride and devoted affection-whom they had twice advanced to their most elevated office to be the administrator of their laws, and the defender of their liberty-whom they were accustomed to greet with the ardour of friendship, and to cheer with the acclamations of confiding freemen, has fulfilled his mission of earthly duty, and rests from the cares, the temptations, and triumphs of time. Yet this impressive change creates an occasion less fitted to excite emotions of sadness and grief, than to revive, in sober meditation, grateful remembrances of a life illustrated by inspiring examples of energy of action, purity of purpose, and distinguished achievements, identified for years with our national history. To such contemplations the hour of funeral solemnity may well be devoted. There is no higher tribute to the memory of a truly great man than a faithful record of the history of his life, and a presentment of a just delineation of his established character. Affection has no dearer theme, and wisdom no nobler counsels than the living actions of departed worth.

Andrew Jackson, late president of the United States, owes nothing of his success or celebrity to distinguished birth or adventitious circumstances. Originally endowed with a capacity susceptible of the most expansive developement, he fashioned for himself and controlled the destiny of his life. He was born in the state of South Carolina, on the 15th of March, 1767, of parents in respectable but humble condition of life, who two years before had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. Soon after his birth the death of his father left him in charge of a mother who brought from her native land sentiments of hatred to arbitrary oppression, and reverence for the rights of the great masses of mankind, which she instilled with the gentle but prevailing influence of her sex, into the expanding mind of her child. These maternal instructions were confirmed and strengthened by the prevalent opinion of the times, and during the progress of the war of independence.

They sunk deep into the mind of the orphan boy; gave direction to the current of his thoughts, and the aspiration of his ambition; and when, at the age of fourteen, the troops of the royal army under Lord Rawdon, ravaging the fields of Carolina, left to the inhabitants the alternative only of submission or resistance, he flew with youthful enthusiasm to the standard of liberty, and devoted himself, heart and life, to its defence in the military service of his country. Then, and then only, in the whole course of his career as a soldier-where he served and others commanded-he suffered the disadvantages and mortification of defeat. But misfortune could check only his career, not conquer the spirit that swelled in his bosom. As fearless in the camp of the enemy as under the folds of his country's banner, no terror could alarm, no force compel him to dishonourable service. He spurned alike the base dictation and the uplifted sword of the English officer by whom it was commanded, and bore to his grave the mark of the deep wound an unarmed boy received in this his first resistance to the attempted oppression and degradation of arbitrary power.

After his restoration from captivity, by an exchange of prisoners, he commenced his professional studies in the state of North Carolina, and was admitted to the bar as a counsellor at law in 1786, and immediately afterwards established himself at Nashville, then constituting a part of the back settlements in that state. He brought with him to this new scene of duties qualifications which insured ultimate success a clear, sagacious mind, entire devotedness to professional obligation, a sincere and almost passionate love of justice, accompanied by a personal firmness which nothing could divert from its pursuit. He entered with avidity and earnestness into his professional employments, and soon won the confidence and commanded the respect of the community.

Without the advantages of a liberal education, and with but

slight opportunities for acquisition at an academical institution, which was broken up and arrested in its course of instruction, and its master and pupils dispersed by the disturbances of the war, we may venture to presume that he who at so early an age commenced his professional practice, and pursued it immediately afterward with eminent ability and success, must not only have been endowed with strong and vigorous natural faculties, but must have toiled with diligent industry, and appropriated the circumscribed and limited means at his command with singular felicity. And it may excite a generous emulation to know that against all the disadvantages of the privation of books and learned instructors, it was in the secluded portion of his life that he obtained much of that exact and complete knowledge of the theory and principles of both national and municipal law, which at a later period, in the numerous exigencies-often perplexing, and sometimes momentous -which demanded their application, were so familiar to his thoughts as to enable him to come to the most prompt as well as most accurate determination.

So rapid was his progress, and eminent the professional power and capacity he immediately evinced, that two years after his settlement at Nashville, when Tennessee, by the cession of North Carolina, was erected into a territory, his reputation attracted the attention of President Washington, by whom he was appointed attorney for the United States for that district. And with this appointment commenced that extraordinary series of public services which Andrew Jackson so long, so faithfully, and with such brilliant results, devoted to his country. What singular coincidences ensued! and how felicitous and befitting that his merits should have been thus early discerned, and his public career instituted by him, the first chief magistrate under the constitution, whose principles he was destined afterwards to uphold, whose warnings to reiterate, and whose civil and military fame so much to resemble, and so closely to approach!

In 1796, the territory of Tennessee was erected into a state, and the people seized the earliest opportunity afforded them at a popular election, to manifest their confidence in Andrew Jackson, and to secure to themselves the benefit of his judgment and counsel. He was chosen a member of the convention, assembled to frame the republican constitution of the state, assumed the duties of the office, and entered upon its discharge with conscientious respect for its responsibilities, and a deep anxiety firmly to establish those fundamental principles which are embraced in the comprehensive expression of the "rights of man." The constitution which was established, asserts among its provisions two great and leading propositions, which he always defended as maxims, and followed as the guides of his political life--the inherent, indefeasible, and uncon