GREAT MEN'S BODIES
"Though his mother had been the tenderest of women, his father had strength to match her tenderness. Tradition current in the country where he lived; gathered by Mr. Randall, whose extensive and sympathetic work must remain the great reservoir of information respecting Jefferson, reports Peter Jefferson a wonder of physical force and stature. He had the strength of three strong men. Two hogsheads of tobacco, each weighing a thousand pounds, he could raise at once from their sides, and stand them upright. When surveying in the wilderness he could tire out his assistants; and tire out his mules; then eat his mules, and still press on; sleeping alone by night in a hollow tree to the howling of the wolves till his task was done."—Parton's Jefferson.
Good timber that to come from; and the son was evidently a chip of the old block.
ANDREW JACKSON (1767–1845)
"One desperate man is a majority."
A Scotchman's son; born in North Carolina; intended for the Church; enlisted at thirteen; fought till the end of the war; at seventeen studied law; at twenty Solicitor for what is now Tennessee; in 1796 elected Representative and Senator, and Judge of the Supreme Court; and Major-General of militia; in 1813 with 3000 men defeated the Creek Indians; in 1814, Major-General of United States Army, he defeated the British at New Orleans; after Spain ceded Florida to the United States, was appointed its Governor; then chosen United States Senator from Tennessee; elected President of the United States in 1828; and again in 1832, by large majorities; vetoed a bill rechartering the United States Bank, worked for a specie currency and independent treasury; and remained popular till his death.
Not much doubt about his body. "When first elected
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