posted by Writer on Feb 23
“But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.” Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson is my favorite president. O, how we need a man like him in the White House tonight! He was a great president and fearless soldier, loved and respected by those who fought side by side with him.
Do you remember early on in the Primary season when Jeb Bush and John Kasich complained about “the tone” being used by some running for president?
I’ll tell you what Jackson thought of “tone” when political rivals attacked his family, in this case his wife Rachel, who was a strong Christian woman.
He settled the matter with a pistol. Yeah, an old-fashioned duel – that’s how they did things in those days. Jackson killed the man who besmirched his wife’s character, and carried the bullet lodged in his chest with him for the rest of his life. By the way, this wasn’t Jackson’s first contest.
Jackson, called Old Hickory, earned the admiration of “grass-roots” because he was “a leader so strong that no individual or group or section could manipulate him and so selfless that he would put the founding vision for America above all else.” (1)
In his Farewell Address Jackson said; “You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you, as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May he who holds in his hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors he has bestowed, and enable you, with pure hearts, and pure hands, and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge he has committed to your keeping.”
(1). From Sea to Shining Sea – God’s Plan for America Unfolds, by Peter Marshall and David Manuel, p. 273.
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