His mother nursed him back to life, and then started for Charleston to
see what could be done for the prisoners rotting in the British
prison-ships in the harbor, only herself to catch the prison-fever, and
to be buried in a grave which her son was never able to discover.
Young Jackson, sobered by this and other experiences, applied himself
with some diligence to his books, taught school for a time, studied law,
and at the age of twenty was admitted to the bar, for which the standard
was by no means high. To the west, the new state of Tennessee was in
process of organization--an unpeopled wilderness for the most part--and
early in the year 1788, Jackson secured the appointment as public
prosecutor in the new state. It is not probable he had much competition,
for the position was one calling for desperate courage, as well as for
endurance to withstand the privations of back-woods life, and the
pecuniary reward was small. In the fall of 1788, he proceeded to
Nashville with a wagon train which came within an ace of being
annihilated by Indians before it reached its destination.
Jackson found his new position exactly suited to his peculiar genius.
His personal recklessness made him the terror of criminals; he possessed
the precise qualifications for success before backwoods juries and for
personal popularity among the rough people who were his clients, with
whom usually might was right.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109