Tar Heel History
By Billy Arthur
Dueling Andrew
The hot-headed Andrew Jackson always seemed to be
wrangling w ith someone during his eventful 78 years.
£ "W- should have hit him it lie had shot
I me through the brain." a blecd-
JLing and dauntless Andrewjackson
intrepidly declared after killing the man
who had maligned his wife.
It seemed as it Jackson, the seventh
president of the I 'nited States, was always
wrangling with someone. Historians
Archibald Henderson and Charlotte
Story Perkinson. among others, have
labeled him as “quarrelsome, deter¬
mined. rough, intractable, hot-headed,
belligerent" and have described him as
“cadaverous, red-haired with a thin
horse-like lace and eager, flashing blue
eyes."
In addition. Perkinson found him a
tender and kind husband “who shielded
his wife from gossijrcrs and loved (her)
bodi in youth and age with a devotion
not often to lie found and in a manner
which shows more plainly than the Battle
of New Orleans the real liber and chival¬
ry of the great" presumed North
Carolina native.
Historians are still uncertain whether
in 1707 Jackson was born in South
Carolina, where his mother had gone to
bury his father, or in what is now Union
County, where she lived after she
returned home. I lis otiicial birthplace is
listed ;ls Waxhaws (now Waxhaw). which
is now a l Jnion County town. However, at
the time of his birth, Waxhaws was a dis¬
trict that covered parts of North and
South Carolina. Both states now claim
him.
Orphaned at 14. he moved to Salisbury
three years later, studied law there and
was admitted to the Rowan County bar in
1787. The following year, at age 21. he
moved over the mountains to Jonesboro
in what is now Tennessee. In three years
there, he firmly established himself as a
fighter and a steadfast husband.
They were the days of the duel — for¬
4
(1
\
w
r
t '
¥
'9L a
t
Andmv Jackson
mal combat lietwccn two persons with
weapons and witnesses to settle dillei
ences, especially when honor was at stake.
Within font months after his arrival,
young lawyer Jackson challenged middle-
aged Colonel Waightslill Avery, a venera¬
ble (xitriot of the Revolutionary War era
who |M>mpously continued to wear knee
breeches, powdered wigs and the lull
dress ol that period.
Opposing Avery in a trial. Jackson
adopted a procedure which went against
him. and the court-wise Aveiy, using “lan¬
guage more sarcastically than called foi,"
then “exultantly ridiculed him."
“Must I cions forensic blades with a
child?" Aveiy asked. “Possibly ibis is not a
Court but a nursery.-
Angered. Jackson inferred that Avery
bad accepted illegal fees. Before he could
explain. Avery called Jackson a liar, and
the latter tore a fly leaf from
а 1юок.
wrote a challenging note, bowed ceremo¬
niously and strode out of court.
Strongly op|X*ed to the principle of
dueling. Avery accepted in ordci to
escape losing respectability by declining.
Jackson admitted to his second. Judge
John McXairv. that he had no intention
of killing Avery. He said, however, that
not to have issued a challenge would have
branded hint a coward. McNairy passed
the woid to Avery's second,
(км
iei.il John
Adair, and the two aides decided the duel
would l>e a bloodless allair. riierelore.
Aveiy and Jackson met at the ap|x>intcd
spot and time after sunset, took |M>sitions
and both lired straight up in the aii at the
signal. Then they walked toward each
other, shook hands and renewed friend¬
ship.
Not long after, on becoming the attor¬
ney and agent for the family, he met the
lovely Rachel Donelson. She had been
married to the insanely jealous ta-wis
Rohards. who had ordered her out ol his
house, but several times threatened bodi¬
ly barm if she did not return.
Го ем'Л|К‘
him she moved first to Kentucky, then to
Mississippi. Jackson was with the family
on both moves. At some point along the
line, he and Rac hel fell deeplv in love.
Meantime. Robards asked the
Tennessee legislature to dissolve his mar¬
riage. but it only' granted him the right of
dissolution. Believing herself to lx-
divorced. Rachel married Jackson in 171)1
at Natchez. Mississippi. Two yeais later,
the stunning misconception was discov¬
ered.
Regardless of the finding and a second
marriage in 1794. Jackson always felt his
lit st marriage was recogni/ed bv Cod.
Hie second ceremony was biiinili.it ing to
Rachel and is said to have disunited her
greatly and thereafter affected her health
and happiness. For that reason.
Perkinson writes that “her husband kept
bis pistols in order and slandereis in thcii
places for 33 years.”
One incident almost resulted in a duel
with Tennessee Coventor John Scviei in
Oc tober 1803, when Judge Jackson was
holding court at Knoxville, Tennessee,
(ac kson and Sevier were politic al rivals. It
will lx- remembered that Sevier had been
one of the heroes of the Battle of Kings
Mountain and an advocate of the sepa¬
rate state of Franklin in the mountains of
western North Carolina and east
Tennessee.
At an aftercourt patty attended by
Имев «1111
irn NT. DMixiii .Ailipn «nil Union
The Stale/June 1995
