Queen (20 page)

    given a horse and a pistol, and conducted himself with complete disregard

    for his own safety. After an unsuccessful foray against British dragoons,

    Andrew and some others took refuge in a house, but were found by the

    enemy. Andrew resisted his arrest and received a blow to his head from

    an officer's sword, a bloody gash that cut to the bone, and he carried

    the scar of it for the rest of his days.

    The death of his mother when he was fifteen devastated Andrew, but

    impelled him to live up to the remarkable standards of masculine behavior

    that she had set. At the end of the war he received a small inheritance

    from an uncle in Ireland, and he promptly squandered the money in a year

    of high living in Charleston, gambling, wenching, and cockfighting. He

    was broke and alone in the world, his only talents his quick mind, his

    gift of oratory, and an expert knowledge of horses. Relatives took him

    in and sent him to school, where he studied law. At the age of twenty he

    was made an attorney, attached to a traveling court. He found his way to

    Tennessee, and the reckless frontier living suited his temperament

    exactly. He settled in Nashville, practiced law, involved himself in

    politics, fought Indian marauders, and fell in love with Rachel Robards.

    He also made the first of several fortunes. He accepted land, valued at

    ten cents an acre, in payment of fees, and with the

116 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

rush of settlers to the district, within three years the price of that

same land had risen to five dollars an acre.

    The frontier adored him, a rollicking, roistering, gambling, dueling,

    mischievous fellow, who argued successfully for Tennessee's admission to

    the Union, and became, by popular vote, the state's first member of the

    House of Representatives. In Philadelphia, which was then the capital,

    he criticized George Washington, was the bane of the financial

    committees, and became fast friends with Aaron Burr. At the end of his

    term he was elected to the Senate, but he was a man of action, not

    negotiation, and he quit the upper house to return to Nashville and his

    beloved Rachel. His grateful state appointed him to the Superior Court.

    He was a tough and respected judge, dedicated to rights of the individual

    against the state. He despised bureaucracy, he despised the banks who

    could hold an honest man in bondage, and he believed implicitly in the

    manifest destiny of the white man to inherit the land of America, for it

    was divinely ordained. His attitude toward the original inhabitants of

    the country was disparaging.

    "They are fickle, and will claim any and everything," he told James. "The

    treachery in their character justifies our never having faith in them.

    A few gifts, a few bribes, to the chiefs and to the interpreters, will

    gain anything that should be ours. "

    Yet he was ambivalent about them. He saw them as the sons of Cain, who

    had forfeited their right to God's grace, but he admired them as mighty

    warriors, worthy foes to his superior skill.

    There was another contradiction that puzzled James. For all Andrew's

    disregard for the rights of the Indians to their land, he was kind and

    generous to individuals.

    "They are children," he said. "ney need the strong, guiding hand of a

    father who knows what is best for them."

    Later, when the war that Andrew longed for came, when John Coffee's men

    had destroyed the village of Talluhatchee and killed two hundred braves,

    they brought Andrew a little Creek boy, whose parents were dead. The

    women would not look after him. Andrew took the boy to his heart, called

    him

    BLOODLINES 117

Lincoyen, sent him to Rachel, his new mother, and made him part of the

family. He had found another son.

    Andrew's real wrath was directed toward weak white men, especially those

    who tried to achieve by politics what they were afraid to achieve in

    honest battle. Most of all, he despised the increasing encroachment of

    government into the lives of the pioneers, the true sons of the soil.

    He loved Nashville and was bored by it. He found quarrels where he could,

    and defended his, and his wife's, honor against the merest slight. He

    ignored weak men, and challenged those strong men who were at variance

    with him.

    He longed to prove himself in war, and despised the tyranny of peace. His

    dearest ambition was to avenge his mother's death. Elizabeth Jackson had

    died of the plague, but Andrew blamed the British, and the intolerable

    circumstances brought about by the Revolutionary War.

    When his old friend Aaron Burr proposed a wild scheme to persuade the

    British to aid him in a rebellion that would free the Mississippi Valley,

    or Florida, or anywhere, from the govemance of, or alliance with, the

    United States, and to make himself ruler of that new country, Andrew was

    ready to listen.

    But he gave a cautious response. He encouraged Burr, but kept his options

    open. Perhaps he believed that if Burr succeeded, there would be war, and

    he would fight valiantly for his country against his old friend. Perhaps

    he believed in Burr's vision, but detested Burr's readiness to parlay

    with Britain. Perhaps he was simply humoring his old friend to explore

    the limits of himself.

    Burr failed. He was tried for treason and eventually acquitted, against

    the strong influence of Thomas Jefferson, but was forced into exile.

    Although Andrew was never directly implicated in Burr's plot, the taint

    of it stayed with him for some years, and turned many in Washington

    against him.

    Andrew languished in Nashville, gathered about him likeminded fellows,

    befriended James Jackson, and waited impatiently for his day, which he

    believed must come, for it was his destiny.

    15

'There is to be war," James told Sally,

Sally nodded.

"I suppose it was inevitable," she said. "And will you fight?"

James shook his head.

"Andrew has other plans for me."

Sally closed her eyes, and said a silent prayer of thanks. She had lost one

husband already, and did not want to lose another. For the first time since

she had known him, she blessed Andrew Jackson.

Jefferson was gone. Madison, the last of the Founding Fathers, was

president. The economies of the northern and eastern states were in tatters.

As predicted by Andrew, Jefferson's foreign policies toward the British and

the French had brought the country to its knees. The protracted negotiations

with the British had produced nothing. Still the country expanded. The

Spanish, and several Spanish colonies, had revolted against Napoleon, and

Florida had declared itself independent. Madison, unsure and uncertain of

himself in other matters, annexed the territory as part of the District of

New Orleans, and admitted Louisiana to the Union. The New England states,

already staring at bankruptcy, threatened to rebel. More slave states would

reduce their influence, and would dilute the original Union and its

constitution. At loggerheads with Madison, they wanted peace with Britain

and the chance to restore their trade. Foolishly advised as to Britain's

position, encouraged by the Spanish revolt against the French, and to

placate New England, Madison lifted the embargo on trade with France.

The British blockaded the American ports, an American naval vessel opened

fire on a British ship, and the southern war

    118

    BLOODLINES 119

hawks in the government, led by Henry Clay and William Crawford, and many

throughout the land, pressed Madison to declare war on Britain. The

immediate and long-desired prize was the British territory of Canada, the

other America, which many, like Andrew, believed was part of the God-given

whole.

    Andrew was in a quandary. He despised Madison as a weak man, but approved

    of the war. Immediately, he volunteered himself and a militia division

    of two thousand five hundred men, vowing to take Quebec. His offer was

    noted and ignored.

    "it is because of my friendship with Aaron Burr," he told James bitterly.

    "They will make me pay for it."

    Andrew had other reasons for despising Madison. The president had

    recently rechartered the national bank of the United States, and Andrew

    was livid with rage. The bank was a monster, the tool of government,

    whose octopus tentacles spread throughout the land, discouraging

    competition and issuing the false god of paper.

    "Specie, cash money, is the one true cuffency," he roared. "All else is

    fraudulent paper."

    He had reasons for his bitterness. He had frequently been the victim of

    promissory notes whose issuers failed to deliver what the paper promised,

    and he had lost more than one fortune because of it. Moreover, he was a

    resolute champion of the sovereignty of the individual states and

    believed that a central bank, the lapdog of the federal government, would

    eventually destroy their financial independence, and make the states

    entirely reliant on Washington.

Now, with the country at war, Andrew, like a champion stallion ready for

the race, chafed at the bit. The Hermitage became his war room, and he

called in all the young men he had trained and encouraged to be ready for

this moment: Davy Crockett, the frontiersman, John Coffee, the loyal and

fearless lieutenant, and young Sam Houston, an odd and eccentric youth who

had abandoned his white family and lived tribally, with the Creek. Sam

could speak three Indian languages fluently, knew all the ways and

customs, was a frequent drunk, and was a daring, unconventional warrior.

Andrew adored him.

James was there too. They sat around the table for hours on

120 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

end, debating the news, railing against the disastrous conduct of the war,

drowning in liquor their fury at the loss of Detroit without a single

shot, and venting in impotent anger their frustration that they were not

part of it.

    Unknown to any of them, they had an unlikely ally to their cause, the

    Shawnee chief Tecumseh, which meant Crouching Panther.

    The American expeditions into Canada were abject failures. The New

    Englanders, who had never wanted war, were ready to sue for peace. The

    tiny American army and smaller navy were overextended, facing three

    battlefronts-the north, the south in Florida, and the Gulf Coast,

    centered on New Orleans, which was vulnerable to attack from the British

    possessions in the Caribbean.

    In the West, the charismatic Tecumseh was able to do what few other

    Indians had done, and gathered the tribes into a common cause against the

    white man. He had a vision of a great confederation of the Indian people

    which would extend from the northern lakes to the southern gulf, and

    would annihilate the whites. Encouraged by British agents to believe they

    would side with him against the Americans, Tecumseh and his devoted

    followers waged a war of attrition on the settlements of Ohio and the

    Mississippi.

    Faced with disaster on all sides, the War Office finally accepted

    Andrew's offer, if he, in turn, would accept a subordinate command under

    General Wilkinson, in New Orleans. Andrew ranted and raved, but any

    action was better than no action, so he agreed. Perhaps as a sop, he was

    given the rank of major general.

    Jubilation swept the Hermitage war room. Within two days they had raised

    the full complement of twenty-five hundred men, and made preparations to

    leave for New Orleans.

    "But what can I do?" James said, rather plaintively, because he was

    feeling left out. He had thought of offering to enlist, but considered

    it better he stay with Sally, who was pregnant.

    Andrew looked at him as if he had forgotten who he was, and then assumed

    his most benign and confidential manner.

    "You have a marvelously important job to do here," he told James. "You

    must look after Rachel, who will be bathed in tears at my departure."

    BLOODLINES 121

    It was a job that suited James exactly, but Andrew had something else for

    him. Generous to a fault, he was perpetually short of money. He asked for

    a loan from James, to equip and uniform his men, and feed them, until

    funds arrived from Washington.

    He needed five thousand dollars. James was only too happy to agree,

    thinking that he was making a magnificent contribution to the war effort,

    if only by proxy.

    Besides, all Andrew had to do was ask. All he ever had to do was ask, and

    James would have given him the moon.