Andrew Jackson's Hermitage (cont.)

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Andrew Jackson's Hermitage (cont.)
A frontier home becomes a symbol of the New Republic.
Perhaps the house's most sentimental—and revealing—feature is just outside, where, in 1819, Jackson commissioned a garden for Rachel. With its formal geometric layout, the garden today contains plants typical for gardens of the time. Rachel brought flowers from the garden into the house every day and often gave gifts of cuttings to visitors. And as Rachel delighted in the garden, Jackson delighted in Rachel.

Angered by a 'corrupt bargain' he said gave Adams the presidency, Jackson ran for president again four years later and won.

It is in Rachel that we see a softer side of the General, as he liked to be called even while president. As a young woman, Rachel was vivacious and outgoing, a strong partner for an ambitious man. She's sometimes portrayed in popular stories as a pipesmoking, backwoodsy sort. "She was certainly from the frontier, but hardly a backwoods type," says Mullin. "She was educated and could read and write. And in those days, men and women both smoked pipes." Childless, the couple adopted a nephew of Rachel's and named him Andrew Jackson, Jr. General Jackson, himself orphaned as a boy, seemed quite happy to support a varied cast of Rachel's extended family.

By 1824, the General had returned to politics, this time on a national level. In the race for president, Jackson won a plurality of electoral votes but failed to take a majority. John Quincy Adams won the election in the House of Representatives, and Jackson returned to Tennessee a hero even in defeat, the first frontiersman to make a mark on national politics. Angered by a "corrupt bargain" he said gave Adams the presidency, Jackson ran for president again four years later and won. But his triumph was marked by tragedy, for Rachel died suddenly just after his election, in December 1828. She was buried in a corner of the garden she loved so well, and three years later Jackson built a Doric monument over her grave.

Though devastated by the loss of his wife of 37 years, Jackson, accompanied by Rachel's nephew, Andrew Jackson Donelson, and Donelson's wife, Emily, collected himself and moved forward to the presidency and into history. Donelson became the General's most trusted confidant. Emily, 21, acted as hostess at the White House. Their farm, Tulip Grove Plantation, is adjacent to the Hermitage, and the Donelsons' Greek Revival house, completed in 1836, is open to the public as part of the Hermitage tour.

Andrew Jackson served two terms as president, proving himself strong, decisive and, unsurprisingly, controversial. He led the drive to defeat the Bank of the United States, vetoed more legislation than all his predecessors combined and dealt decisively with secessionist agitation led by his first vice president, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.

Following the election of his hand-picked successor, Martin Van Buren, Jackson returned to the Hermitage in 1837. For the rest of his life he suffered from ill health. He died in his bed in June 1845 and was buried in the garden tomb next to Rachel. Ownership of the Hermitage fell to Andrew, Jr. In 1856, deeply in debt, Andrew, Jr., sold the property to the State of Tennessee. He moved his family to coastal Mississippi, only to return on the eve of the Civil War to manage the Hermitage as tenant of the state.

The property fared poorly during the war, becoming seedy and unkempt. One week after Lee's surrender, Andrew, Jr., accidentally shot himself in the hand while hunting on a far corner of the farm. He died days later in the throes of lockjaw. The state allowed his wife, Sarah, to live out her life at the Hermitage. After her death in 1887, the legislature transferred the title of the farm to the Ladies Hermitage Association, which manages and preserves it to this day.

The single most remarkable fact about the Hermitage is how little has changed since the General's death, from the French wallpaper in the foyer to the log cabin outbuildings. Unlike many grand houses where subsequent owners felt the need to update or remodel, the Hermitage had only one family in occupancy, and they made few changes.

In 1996 the association completed a $2.5 million restoration of the main house. The effort included some careful structural and architectural archeology and the restoration of the original wallpaper in the bedroom where the General died. Together with a modern museum and visitors center, these and other revealing features of the house make a trip to the Hermitage worthwhile.

Most of all, visitors to the Hermitage can get a sense of what life was like for this remarkable man who so changed the political history of America and changed with it. From orphan to president, adventurous, impatient, violent, ambitious, an upstart commoner aiming for civility, Andrew Jackson was a man whose life was mirror image and portrait of the New Republic.

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