f Michigan--Presidential
Election of 1844--The Electro-magnetic Telegraph--Professor Morse--His
Labors in Bringing the Invention to Perfection.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Andrew Jackson, seventh President, ranks among the greatest of those who
have been honored with the highest gift their countrymen can confer upon
them. He was born of Scotch-Irish parents, at Waxhaw Settlement, on the
line between North and South Carolina, March 15, 1767. His parents were
wretchedly poor and he received only a meagre education. His father died
just before the birth of his son, who enlisted in the patriot army when
but thirteen years old, and was captured at the battle of Hanging Rock.
When a British officer ordered the boy to clean his boots, he refused.
He was brutally beaten for his stubbornness; he told the officer that he
might kill him, but he could never make a servant of him.

Shortly afterward he was seized with smallpox and was abandoned to die,
but his mother secured his release and nursed him back to health. She
died soon afterward, and, while still a boy, Andrew was left without a
single near relative. At the close of the Revolution, he took up the
study of law, pursuing it in a desultory way, until his removal to
Nashville, at the age of twenty-one years. He threw his law books aside
when the Indians began their outrages, and we have told of his striking
services as a soldier and military leader, culminating with his great
victory at New Orleans, the anniversary of which is still widely
celebrated. Jackson became the idol of his countrymen, and he possessed
many admirable qualities. Never, under any circumstances, did he betray
personal fear. He was ready to attack one man, ten men, a hundred, or a
thousand, if he deemed it his duty to do so. He was honest to the core,
intensely patriotic, and he either loved or hated a man. He would stand
by a friend to the death, unless he became convinced of his
unworthiness, when he instantly became his unrelenting enemy.

[Illustration: ANDREW JACKSON.

(1767-1845.) Two terms, 1829-1837.]

He fought numerous duels, and stood up without a tremor in front of one
of the most famous of duelists. When his opponent's bullet tore a
dreadful wound in his breast, he resolutely repressed all evidence of
pain until he had killed his antagonist, in order that the latter should
not have the pleasure of knowing he had hurt Jackson.

While carrying one arm in a sling from this wound, he led a strong