Andrew Jackson, President

Notes:

A personal glimpse into Andrew Jackson, the man, rather than the president, as related through the historical accounts of the Green family.

"Colonel Cato West and General Thomas Hinds were his sons-in-law, and by intermarriages it constituted one of the largest connections in the district. Colonel Thomas Green was a man of indomitable resolution. He made the overland journey to Georgia, and was mainly instrumental in getting the Legislature to pass the act asserting the jurisdiction of Georgia over the Natchez district, and organizing it into a county named Bourbon, in 1785.

"His son, Thomas M. Green, was the second delegate to Congress. His son, Abner Green, married a daughter of
Colonel Hutchins.
"Thomas Marston Green (the son just mentioned) was
a warm friend of General Jackson's. It was to his house
General Jackson sent his future wife (Mrs. Robards)
while her divorce was being obtained, and she remained
there fifteen months, and was married to Jackson in his
house."

Bef 1791 Springfield Plantation, Fayette, Mississippi
In August of 1791, Andrew Jackson and Rachel were married at the Green Family Springfield Plantation. The marriage ceremony was performed by Thomas Green Sr., while Thomas Jr. served as a witness. Andrew and Rachel would later find out that Rachel's divorced was not finalized, at the time of the wedding

Andrew Jackson was married to Rachel Robards at the home of Thomas M. Green, near the mth of Cole's Creek, i 1791, by Col. Thomas Green, who, according to Sparks' Memories, acted as a justice of the peace by authority of the Georgia legislature. He may also have been an alcalde, as Georgia had replealed the Bourbon county act. "That there was anything disreputable attached to the lady's name is very improbable," says Sparks, "for she was more than fifteen months in the house of (Thomas M.) Green who was a man of wealth, and remarkable for his pride and fastidiousness in selecting his friends or acquaintances." Two of the Green brothers married nices of Mrs. Jackson who was a Donaldson. Sparks himself married the youngest daughter of Abner Green, territorial treasurer of Mississippi.

source: Mississippi History comprising sketches...
___
History of Port Gibson Mississippi

Among early things of interest is that Andrew Jackson was so delighted with the homes of Abner and Tom Green when he visited them at Gayosa's summer home and at Springfield in the 1780?s, that he acquired a tract of land where Bayou Pierre emptied into the Mississippi River and there built a cabin, trading post and race track. (This was a Spanish land Grant.) After he and Rachel were married at Tom Green's Springfield, they spent their honeymoon of two or three months here (1791)

Encyclopedia of Mississippi history:
During the time of the Spanish occupation of Ntchez, district, "Thomas M. Green and Abner Green were young men at the time, though both were men of family. To both of them Jackson, at different times, sold negroes, and the writer now has bills of sale for negroes sold to Abner Green, in the handwriting of Jackson, bearing his signature, written, as it always was, in large and bold characters, extending quite half across the sheet."

__
W.H. Sparks - Memories of 50 Years

The friends formed in this section of country by Jackson were devoted to him through life, and when in after life he sent (for it is not true that he brought) his future wife to Mississippi, it was to the house of Thomas M. Green, then residing near the mouth of Cowles Creek, and only a few miles from Bruinsburgh.

Whatever the circumstances of the separation, or the cause for it, between Mrs. Jackson and her first husband,
I am ignorant; I know that Jackson vas much censured in the neighborhood of his home. At the time of her coming to Green's, the civil authority was a disputed one; most of the people acknowledging the Spanish. A suit was instituted for a divorce, and awarded by a Spanish tribunal. There was probably little ceremony or strictness of legal proceeding in the matter, as all government and law was equivocal, and of but little force just at that time in the country. It was after this that Jackson came and married her, in the house of Thomas M. Green.

That there was anything disreputable attached to the lady's name is very improbable; for she was more than fifteen months in the house of Green, who was a man of wealth, and remarkable for his pride and fastidiousness in selecting his friends or acquaintances. He was the first Territorial representative of Mississippi in Congress?was at the head of society socially, and certainly would never have permitted a lady of equivocal character to the privileges of a guest in his house, or to the association of his daughters, then young. During the time she was awaiting this divorce, she was at times an inmate of the family of Abner
Green, of Second Creek, where she was always gladly received, and he and his family were even more particular as to the character and position of those they admitted to their intimacy, if possible, than Thomas B. Green. This intimacy was increased by the marriage of two of the Green brothers to nieces of Mrs. Jackson.


"W.H. Sparks, Memories of Fifty Years.
published in 1870
dedicated to "My brother and nephew,
the Honorable OVID Garten Sparks and
Col Thomas Hardeman of Macon Georgia.

In 1835, when Jackson was President, the writer, passing from Louisiana to New York with his family, spent some days at Washington. His lady was the youngest daughter of Abner Green; he was in company with a daughter of Henry Green and her husbnd; her mother was niece to Mrs. Jackson. We called to see the President, and when my lady was introduced to the General, he was informed she was the daughter of his old friend, Abner Green, of Second Creek. He did not speak, but held her hand for some moments, gazing intently into her face. His feelings overcame him, and clasping her to his bosom, he said, "I must kiss you, my child, for your sainted mother's sake;" then holding her from him, he looked again, "Oh! how like your mother you are she was the friend of my poor Rachel, when she so much needed a friend?I loved her, and I love her memory;" and then, as if ashamed of his emotion, he continued: "You see, my child, though I am President through the kindness or folly of the people, I am but a weak, silly old man."

We spent the evening with him, and when in his private sitting-room his pipe was lighted and brought to him,he said: "Now, my child, let us talk about Mississippi and the old people." I have never in all my life seen more tenderness of manner, or more deep emotion shown, than this stern old man continually evinced when speaking of his wife and her friends.

The character of General Jackson is yet greatly misunderstood. This has been caused by the fact that his words and actions, when in command, or when enraged, as a man, have been the main data upon which the estimate of his bearing and character has been predicated. He was irascible and quick in his temper, and when angered was violent in words and manner. It was at such moments that the stern inflexibility of his will was manifest; and his passion towered in proportion to provocation. But in private life and social intercourse he was bland, gentle, and conciliating. His manner was most polished and lofty in society, and in a lady's parlor, in urbanity and polish of manners, he never had a superior. This high polish was nature's spontaneous gift. He had never been taught it in courts, or from association with those who had. It was the emanation of his great soul, which stole out through his every word and movement in the presence of ladies, and which erupted as a volcano at insult or indignity from man.
That evening at the White House is marked in my memory with a white stone. The playful simplicity of his conversation and manner, and the particularity of his inquiries about matters and things so insignificant, but which were links in the chain of his memories, I well remember. "Is old papa Jack and Bellile living?" he asked, after a pause, of my wife, accompanied with a look of eager anxiety. These were two old Africans, faithful servants of her father; and then there was an anecdote of each of them?their remarks or their conduct upon some hunting or fishing excursion, in which he had participated forty years before.

I was an interested spectator in the presence of one of nature's wonderful creations?one who had made, and who was making, history for his country, and whose name was to descend to future times as one of her noblest sons and greatest historical characters. I watched every motion of his lips, every expression of his features, and every gleam of his great gray eyes, and I could but wonder at the child-like naturalness of everything about him. Is not this an attribute of greatness?to be natural? Yes; to be natural in all things belongs to truth, and a truthful exhibition of nature, without assumption or deceit, is greatness. Here was one who could, with natural simplicity, amuse a child; and the same one could command and successfully wield a great army, and, with equal success, direct the destinies of a great nation; whose genius was tempered with simplicity and tenderness, and when towering most in its grandeur, was most truthful to nature.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2397674/The-Memories-of-Fifty-YearsContaining-Brief-Biographical-Notices-of-Distinguished-Americans-and-Anecdotes-of-Remarkable-Men-Interspersed-with-Scenes

Andrew married Rachel Donelson on 15 May 1791. Rachel (daughter of John Donelson and Rachel Stockley) was born in Jun 1767 in Chatham, Virginia; died on 22 Dec 1828 in Washington, D.C.; was buried in The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]