MILITARY PRESIDENTS.

MILITARY glory has ever been the idol of mankind; the subject on which poetry, tradition, and history have most delighted to dwell. Like beauty in women, it hides a multitude of faults, and attracts by an irresistible fascination. Nor is it without reason that successful warriors are objects of such general admiration; for the man who has shown himself capable of defending or vindicating the rights and honor of his country in time of danger, possesses the highest claim to its confidence and gratitude. Success in war, though it may sometimes be the result of accident or good fortune in a single instance, yet if uniform, and long continued, furnishes decided evidence of courage and capacity, at least in military affairs; and when earned in a righteous cause, merits the highest distinction among men.

But it does not follow that a man who has gained a victory, or a succession of victories, is for that reason qualified to govern the country he has defended. The duties of a civil magistrate are widely different from those of a military commander, and require different qualifications. Military laws and regulations are in direct contrast to the civil rights of free citizens; and that principle of complete subordination which lies at the root of the one, is totally incompatible with that freedom of action and political equality which constitute the basis of the other. The President of the United States, although the nominal Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, is not expected to take the field, or go on a cruise to the distant regions of the earth; for he cannot do so without deserting his most important duties as a civil magistrate, and virtually abdicating his authority at home for the purpose of exercising it abroad. It is not, therefore, his military skill, or capacity for leading armies, but his civil courage, his qualifications as a statesman, and his experience in political affairs, that are brought into requisition when placed in a position to give tone and character to the government. Military talent is not what we want in a President. We require a man versed in the foreign and internal policy of the country, and the character, the rights, and the interests of the peo

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ple; who comes into office not to learn, but to teach; not to be governed, but to govern. We want a leader, not a tool; we want a unit, not a cipher.

**

Washington was a military man, but not exclusively so. Those who have read his letters to the old Revolutionary Congress, Governors of States, and distinguished cotemporaries, during the progress of the great struggle for liberty, will at once perceive that he was a statesman as well as a soldier; that his counsel and suggestions influenced almost every act and measure of Congress, and that his wisdom in the cabinet was equal to his valor and conduct in the field. Through a period of eight years of intestine war, he was at school, learning the art of government; and almost his first action after laying down the sword, was as President of the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. Here, surrounded by statesmen, sages, and philosophers, he listened to discussions involving the great fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, the rights of states, and of citizens, and the entire circle of political science. He came therefore into the Presidency deeply inbued with a thorough comprehension of its duties, and a clear perception of the great landmarks which were to direct him in the exercise of his high functions as chief executive officer of the United States. He had the chart before him, and steered the ship accordingly; with what success, it is unnecessary to state. The history of the country is his best eulogium, and the admiration of the world his everlasting monument.

General Jackson is also principally known to the world as a military man. But he, too, like Washington, had been schooled in civil life, before he undertook to direct the affairs of his country. He had sat on the bench; in Congress; and at two different periods, once in his youth, and next in mature age, in the Senate of the United States. He was a judge and a legislator, as well as a soldier, and did not spring at one bound from the camp to the cabinet. But even had not this been the case, Andrew Jackson was an extraordinary man; such a man as we see but once in an age, and sometimes in many ages. We never saw Washington, and it has always been a subject of deep regret that we could not embody from memory, the form and features of one of the noblest beings that ever trod the earth. But we knew Andrew Jackson, from having been domesticated with him at Washington, during the winter immediately succeeding the war of 1814; and especially from sharing his hospitality for some weeks, at the Hermitage, about two years before he became immortal in both worlds.

He was indeed an extraordinary man; the only man we ever saw that excited our admiration to the pitch of wonder. At the period in which we visited him at the Hermitage he was in a state of great physical debility; but his intellect was as clear and bright as ever. He was but the shadow of a man, and it seemed that the only principle of vitality by which he was supported, was the vigor of his mind. Tall, straight as an arrow, without flesh, and with a profusion of snow-white hair, his appearance was sublime; and his manner, more kind, graceful and benevo

*Se most especially his circular to the governors of each of the states, dated Newburgh, June 18th, 1783, &c., &c.

Patrick Henry pronounced Washington the wisest, and Rutledge the most eloquent member of the Convention.

lent than that of any man who has ever fallen under our observation. It was not the studied politeness of conventional habits, but the courtesy of the heart; and his deportment towards his family, his guests, and his slaves, was that of a patriarch of old, presiding over his flocks, his herds, and his dependents. At this period he might be almost said to live without food, for he ate less than an infant. His long table was almost every day crowded by visitors from different quarters, who came from far and near to see him; and though he sat down with them, and shared in the gay freedom of the hospitable board, he never tasted anything but a little rice and milk.

We cannot better indicate the character of his intellect, than by saying he was a man to whom knowledge seemed entirely unnecessary. He saw intuitively into everything, and though he seemed never to take aim deliberately, was always sure to hit the mark. He had a short cut, by which he reached a conclusion while others were beating the bush for their game. His reasoning was impulse, and his impulses inspiration. His genius and his courage were his guides. One pointed out the path; the other prompted him in the pursuit. He never sought an object that he did not succeed in attaining; and never fought a battle that he did not win. His political opponents ascribed his success to good fortune; but Fortune, though she often does us a single good turn, soon becomes tired of tagging at the heels of imbecility and folly. To always win is the best proof of skill in the player.

He began his public career in Tennessee, where the men are all brave, and the women handsome; and was one of the early settlers at a period when, as an old lady, who came up with the first party to Nashville, once told us— "there was neither law or gospel." In such a state of things, personal qualities give the law, and courage assumes its proper rank as the first, because it is the great conservative of all the other virtues, which never are to be depended upon in any man who may be frightened out of them. Here he soon gained that ascendency over the wild spirits he had to cope with, which he ever after maintained in his intercourse with his fellow men. Many anecdotes are told in Nashville of his quick decision, his indomitable courage, and inflexible determination, but we forbear to give them in this brief sketch. It is sufficient to say that he became the master spirit among men who had no other master. There was nothing on earth he despised so much as cowardice, and his highest eulogium on his favorite, General Coffee, whose fine portrait hung up in the sitting-room, was, Sir, he was as brave a man as ever lived." When he returned home from the battle of New Orleans, it was to inhabit a log-house, which was still standing at the time of our visit, and occupied by two or three superannuated slaves, one of whom had been Mrs. Jackson's nurse. As might be expected, the administration of such a man was brilliant and successful. He seized the helm at once. He did not shrink from the high functions delegated to him by the Constitution, and which no man has a right to shuffle off on others, but took the responsibility of his own acts on his own shoulders. He wrestled with, and overcame the most potent engine of corruption that ever existed in the United States. He scattered to the winds its pensioned tools in and out of Congress, for he rested for support on his own integrity, and that of an uncorrupted people, who sustained him manfully, as they always have done and always will, an honest and courageous ruler, who does not shrink from that terror to weak and dishonest minds-"RESPONSIBILITY."