backwoodsman." And Jefferson testified: "When I
was President of the Senate he was a Senator, and he could never speak
on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen him attempt it
repeatedly and as often choke with rage." At last the frontier in the
person of its typical man had found a place in the Government. This
six-foot backwoodsman, with blue eyes that could blaze on occasion, this
choleric, impetuous, self-willed Scotch-Irish leader of men, this expert
duelist, and ready fighter, this embodiment of the tenacious, vehement,
personal West, was in politics to stay. The frontier democracy of that
time had the instincts of the clansman in the days of Scotch border
warfare. Vehement and tenacious as the democracy was, strenuously as
each man contended with his neighbor for the spoils of the new country
that opened before them, they all had respect for the man who best
expressed their aspirations and their ideas. Every community had its
hero. In the War of 1812 and the subsequent Indian fighting Jackson made
good his claim, not only to the loyalty of the people of Tennessee, but
of the whole West, and even of the nation. He had the essential traits
of the Kentucky and Tennessee frontier. It was a frontier free from the
influence of European ideas and institutions. The men of the "Western
World" turned their backs upon the Atlantic Ocean, and with a grim
energy and self-reliance began to build up a society free from the
dominance of ancient forms.

The Westerner defended himself and resented governmental restrictions.
The duel and the blood-feud found congenial soil in Kentucky and
Tennessee. The idea of the personality of law was often dominant over
the organized machinery of justice. That method was best which was most
direct and effective. The backwoodsman was intolerant of men who split
hairs, or scrupled over the method of reaching the right. In a word, the
unchecked development of the individual was the significant product of
this frontier democracy. It sought rather to express itself by choosing
a man of the people, than by the formation of elaborate governmental
institutions.

It was because Andrew Jackson personified these essential Western traits
that in his presidency he became the idol and the mouthpiece of the
popular will. In his assault upon the Bank as an engine of aristocracy,
and in his denunciation of nullification, he went directly to his object
with the ruthless energy of a frontiersman. F