o Benton and Blair that he would keep
clear of politics. His interest in the fortunes of his party, however,
was not diminished by his retirement from public life. He corresponded
freely with Van Buren, whose policies he in most respects approved;
and as the campaign of 1840 approached the "old war-horse began once
more to sniff the battle from afar." Admitting to his friends that the
situation looked "a little dubious," he exerted himself powerfully to
bring about the reelection of the New Yorker. He wrote a letter
belittling the military qualities of the Whig candidate, thereby
probably doing the Democratic cause more harm than good; and finally,
to avert the humiliation of a Whig victory in Tennessee, he "took the
stump" and denounced the enemy up and down through all western
Tennessee and southern Kentucky. But "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was
too much for him; the Whig candidates carried both Tennessee and
Kentucky and won the nation-wide contest by 234 to 60 electoral votes.

The old warrior took the defeat--_his_ defeat, he always regarded
it--philosophically, and at once began to lay plans for a recovery of
Democratic supremacy in 1844. For another quadrennium his hand was on
the party throttle. When men speculated as to whether Van Buren,
General Cass, General Butler, or Senator Benton would be the standard
bearer in 1844, they always asked what Jackson's edict on the subject
would be; and the final selection of James K. Polk, while not fully
dictated by the ex-President, was the result of a compromise in which
his advice played a prominent part. Though past seventy-seven and
hardly able to sign his name, Jackson threw himself into the campaign
and undoubtedly contributed to the election of his fellow-Tenneseean.
His satisfaction with the outcome and with the annexation of Texas
which quickly followed found expression in a barbecue attended by all
the Democrats of the neighborhood and by some of note from a distance.
"We have restored the Government to sound principles," declared the
host in a brief, faltering speech from the Hermitage portico, "and
extended the area of our institutions to the Rio Grande. Now for
Oregon and Fifty-four-forty."

Oregon--although not to fifty-four forty--was soon to be duly made
American soil. But Jackson did not live to witness the event. Early in
1845 his health began to fail rapidly and on the very day of Polk's
inauguration he was at the point of death. Rallying, he struggled