n time became important to the whole
country. Through that experience his chivalrous feeling for women was
developed into a quixotic readiness to be the champion of any woman whom
he found distressed or slandered.

II

CONGRESS: THE BENCH: THE MILITIA

In 1796 Jackson took his seat as a member of the convention called to
frame a constitution for the State of Tennessee. He thus entered on a
brief career of public service, in the course of which he held three
important offices. In the autumn of 1796 he was chosen to be Tennessee's
first representative in Congress. A year later he was appointed United
States Senator, and held the office until he resigned in April, 1798.
From 1798 until 1804, he was a justice of the Supreme Court of
Tennessee.

These were all high places for so young a man, and one naturally expects
his biographer to linger for many pages over his course while he held
them. The fact that he held them is indeed important, for it shows how
strongly he had established himself in Tennessee. But very little need
be said of what he did while he held them. Indeed, it is amazing how
little _can_ be said.

In the convention he served on the committee to draft the constitution
and took a somewhat prominent part in the debates, and there is also a
tradition that he suggested the name of the State; but no notable
feature of the constitution is clearly due to him. It might, however,
have been due to the presence in the convention of such fiery spirits as
he that it adopted a rule of order which throws into comical prominence
the warlike character of early Tennesseans. Rule 8 declared: "He that
digresseth from the subject to fall on the person of any member shall be
suppressed by the Speaker."

The scant record of Jackson's services in the House of Representatives
and in the Senate is of little importance to us save in three respects.
It throws some light on his political opinions at that period; it gives
us a glimpse of him as he appeared against the background of the most
elegant society then existing in America, for Congress was sitting in
Philadelphia, which had sixty-five thousand inhabitants; and it led to
one or two friendships which had an important bearing on his later
career.

His opinions, however, were not expressed in speeches. He addressed the
House but twice, both times on a resolution for paying troops whom
General Sevier had led against the Indians without any order from the
national go