At the end of three or four years, he
practically monopolized the law business of the district; and he soon
became by far the most popular man in it, despite a hot-headed
disposition which made him many enemies, which involved him in
numberless quarrels, and which resulted in his fighting at least one
duel, in which he killed his opponent and was himself dangerously
wounded.
It was inevitable, of course, that he should enter politics, and equally
inevitable that he should be successful there. Eight years after his
arrival from Carolina, at the age of twenty-nine, he was elected to
represent his state in Congress, and covered the eight hundred miles to
Philadelphia on horseback. From the House, he was appointed to serve in
the Senate, resigned from it to accept an election as Judge of the
Supreme Court of Tennessee, was chosen major-general of the Tennessee
militia, and so began that military career which was to have a
remarkable culmination.
On the 25th of June, 1812, apprised of the outbreak of the second war
with England, Jackson offered to the President his own services and
those of the twenty-five hundred militia men of his district.
The offer was at once accepted, and Jackson, getting his troops
together, proceeded down the river to New Orleans. But jealousies at
headquarters intervened, he was informed that New Orleans was in no
present danger, his force was disbanded and left to get back home as
best it could.
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