CHAPTER XI
THE JACKSONIAN SUCCESSION
"Oh, hang General Jackson," exclaimed Fanny Kemble one day, after
dinner, in the cabin of the ship that brought her, in the summer of
1832, to the United States. Even before she set foot on our shores,
the brilliant English actress was tired of the din of politics and
bored by the incessant repetition of the President's name.
Subsequently she was presented at the White House and had an
opportunity to form her own opinion of the "monarch" whose name and
deeds were on everybody's lips; and the impression was by no means
unfavorable. "Very tall and thin he was," says her journal, "but erect
and dignified; a good specimen of a fine old, well-battered soldier;
his manners perfectly simple and quiet, and, therefore, very good."
Small wonder that the name of Jackson was heard wherever men and women
congregated in 1832! Something more than half of the people of the
country were at the moment trying to elect the General to a second
term as President, and something less than half were putting forth
their best efforts to prevent such a "calamity.
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