Ghent before the battle took place, though a month and more passed before news of it was received.

This great victory made "Old Hickory" famous. Never had there been a more brilliant and decisive one, and till the day of his death General Andrew Jackson was one of the most popular men in the United States. He was still kept in command, and when the Seminole Indians of Florida made attacks on the frontier, he invaded that country, quelled the Indians, attacked a Spanish post, and hung two Englishmen whom he suspected of stirring up the savages. Jackson was sharply criticised for his arbitrary acts, and the affair nearly led to a war with Spain. But Congress and the President sustained the general, and soon afterwards the difficulty was settled by Spain ceding Florida to the United States.

From this time on, as may well be imagined, there was no place in the country too good for Andrew Jackson, the most admired hero of the war with England. He was made governor of Florida. Then Tennessee a second time elected him United States senator. In 1824 he was a candidate for President and received the largest electoral vote, though, not having a majority over all, he was not elected. In 1828 the people made sure that their favorite should be placed in the Presidential chair.

Jackson was made by nature for a general, not for a President. His obstinacy was unconquerable, and though he doubtless meant well he did things which were not to the advantage of the country. His temper often overruled his judgment. But when his native State of South Carolina took steps towards seceding from the Union, Jackson stood firmly by the Government and put a quick stop to the secession movement.

On the other hand, he ruined the Bank of the United States and brought a business panic upon the country. And he introduced a system of selecting office-holders on the basis of party activity, not of merit, which it took many years to get rid of.

But with all his faults as a statesman the people admired and loved Jackson. They elected him a second time in 1832, and in 1836 they put in the Presidential chair Martin Van Buren, the man of his choice.

In 1837 he retired to the Hermitage, his home near Nashville, still one of the most popular men in the country. But he had suffered a terrible loss eight years before in the death of his beloved wife, a shock from which he never recovered. Her death made him a changed man, subdued in spirit and seldom using his old profanity, except when roused to anger. He suffered from sickness severely in his later years, but bore his pains with manly fortitude, never complaining. He died June 8, 1845, and was buried by the side of his deeply-loved wife.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, THE HERO

OF TIPPECANOE

VIRGINIA has well been called "The Mother of Presidents," for seven of the occupants of the White House, more than one-fourth of the total number, were born in that State. Among these was William Henry Harrison, who, though he was elected from Ohio, was born on the banks of the James River, Virginia, on the 9th of February, 1773. The Harrison family is one that has played a leading part in American public life, having given two Presidents to the Republic, while one member of the family was in that noble band of patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence.

This was Benjamin Harrison, father of the man with whom we are now concerned. A burly, goodnatured fellow was Benjamin Harrison, and when his friend John Hancock, a very small and very modest man, was elected president of the Congress, Harrison picked him up bodily and carried him to the chairman's seat, saying as he set him down, "Gentlemen, we will show Mother Britain how much we care for her, by making our president a Massachusetts man whom she has refused to pardon by a public proclamation."

William Henry, the son of this jovial giant, received a good education, and after his father's death went to Philadelphia to study medicine. His studies there soon came to an end. Born with a love of adventure, and learning that an army was being raised by General St. Clair to fight the Indians of the North

west Territory, who were murdering the settlers, young Harrison left the medical college for the army, in which he was given the rank of ensign. His friends tried to dissuade him from this act, he being then slender and frail and apparently unfit for hardship, but his love of an active life prevailed and he marched away to the Indian war.

History tells us the fate of the St. Clair expedition, how it was ambushed by the Indians and almost totally destroyed. Ensign Harrison was one of the few who escaped from that field of blood. He was afterwards put in command of a pack-train, carrying supplies to the frontier posts, and did this in the face of constant danger from prowling bodies of savages. His courage and ability in this perilous work won him promotion to the rank of lieutenant.

When General Wayne succeeded St. Clair and marched against the savages, Lieutenant Harrison, then only twenty-one years of age, had his second experience in battle, taking a very active part in that bloody contest in which "Mad Anthony" utterly vanquished the savage foe. There was no braver man on the field than the young lieutenant, of whose courage Wayne spoke in the highest terms, and rewarded him for his fine conduct by making him a captain and putting him in command of one of the frontier posts.

The boy, for he was yet little more, was making his way. After the Indians had been quieted, a regular territorial organization was formed for the Northwest, a governor and secretary being appointed. Harrison, then twenty-four years of age, left the army to accept the post of secretary of the Territory. Three years later the great Territory was divided into

Of this

two, one of them being named Indiana. Harrison was made governor, and given unusual powers, as he had to deal with an unusual situation, the management of the Indians being a difficult problem. During the twelve years in which he held this position he made thirteen treaties with the Indians and acquired for the Government many millions of acres of land.

The great Louisiana Purchase of 1803 added very largely to his duties, for the immense district thus acquired was for the time being added to Indiana Territory, and Harrison became governor of a district larger than all the remainder of the United States, though it was mainly a wilderness, inhabited chiefly by wandering tribes of Indians.

The quelling of the savages by General Wayne was only temporary. About 1809 they became unquiet again, stirred up to hostile acts by two men of remarkable powers, the daring warrior named Tecumseh and his brother, the eloquent orator known as "the Prophet." These two men, indignant at the treatment of the natives by the whites and inspired by a wild dream of driving the pale-faces from the land, went among the tribes, doing their utmost to stir them up to revolt.

Governor Harrison, hearing of what these men were doing, invited them to a council, to be held on the 12th of August, 1809. The proud Tecumseh came, with four hundred armed Indian warriors at his back. Harrison met them with a score or more of soldiers and citizens. As the council went on the Indians grew haughty and hostile in demeanor and vowed. that they would give no more land to the whites and would drive the intruders from their territory.