CHAPTER I.
ANDREW JACKSON, ATTORNEY AT LAW.
Most English-reading people, as well as many of those who read history written in other languages, are familiar with the life and deeds of General and President Andrew Jackson; and very many people in the United States know of Senator and Judge Andrew Jackson. Few, however, are acquainted with young Andrew Jackson, Esq., attorney at law, of Jonesboro, then (1788-9) the county-seat of Washington county. North Carolina. They are all one and the same personage; and it can truthfully be said that there is a still smaller number who know anything whatever about the leading and dominating characteristics of the people among whom young Andrew Jackson really began life, at Jonesboro, in what is now Washington county, Tennessee.
Most of Jackson’s biographers, and nearly all of those who have written and spoken about him, make him begin his business and professional life at Nashville, in the fall of the year 1788. John Reid, in his “Life of Andrew Jackson” (published in 1817), says that Jackson, on reaching the settlement on the Holston river, near Jonesboro, remained there until October, 1788, when he left and went to Nashville, arriving at the latter place during the same month. Jenkins, in his “Life of General Jackson” (published in 1850), says that Jackson reached Nashville in October, 1788. Parton, in his “Life of Jackson” (published in 1860), says: “Upon the settlement of the difficulties between North Carolina and her western counties (1788), John McNairy, a friend of Jackson’s, was appointed judge of the Superior Court for the Western District, and Jackson was invested with the office of solicitor or prosecutor for the same district.... Thomas Searcy, another of Jackson’s friends, received the appointment of clerk of the court.... Before the end of October, 1788, the long train of immigrants, among whom was Mr. Solicitor Jackson, reached Nashville, to the great joy of the settlers there.”
The distinguished historians are all in error in all of these statements. There was no Superior Court at Nashville at this date. The act of the general assembly of North Carolina, providing for or establishing a Superior Court of Law and Equity for the counties of Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee, was not passed until November, 1788. The act passed at Fayetteville, in that month, “erected the counties of Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee into a district for the holding of Superior Courts of Law and Equity therein, by the name of Mero.” The first volume of the original record of the minutes of the Superior Court of Law and Equity for the district of Washington—then the “Western District”—at Jonesboro, shows that David Campbell alone held that court from the February term, 1788 (which was the first term), until the February term, 1789, at which latter term the record shows that Judge McNairy appeared and sat with Judge Campbell. The same volume shows that, at the February term, 1788, and on the first day of the term, Francis Alexander Ramsey was appointed and qualified as clerk of the court, and that “Archibald Roan was appointed Attorney to prosecute on behalf of the State,” on the first day of the term, but that he resigned on the following day; “whereupon, William Sharp, Esq. is appointed in his room.” Sharp continued to act as prosecuting attorney until February, 1790, when, as the record shows, he was succeeded by William Cocke. The same volume has this entry: “August Term 1788. John McNairy Esq. produced a License to practice as an Attorney in the several Courts within this State with a certificate from the Clerk of the Court for the District of Salisbury that he has taken the oaths necessary for his qualification as an attorney whereupon he is admitted to Practice in this Court.”
The Superior Court of Law and Equity for the Mero District was not formally organized and opened until late in the year 1789, when John McNairy was appointed judge of that court.
Under the territorial form of government provided by Congress, in May, 1790, for “the territory of the United States of America south of the river Ohio,” the President appointed three attorneys for the territory—one for Washington District, one for Hamilton District and one for the “Mero District.” Andrew Jackson was appointed in and for the “District of Mero,” and I have not been able to find any evidence whatever that he held any office whatever prior to this appointment. It is doubtful whether he ever received any compensation from the government of the United States for the services rendered as attorney of the “Mero District;” for, at the first session of the third general assembly of Tennessee, an act was passed, October 26, 1799, the second section of which is as follows: “Be it enacted, that the sum of four hundred dollars shall be and the same is hereby appropriated for the payment of the sum due Andrew Jackson, as a full compensation for his services as Attorney General for the District of Mero under the territorial government.” Andrew Jackson never accepted payment twice for the same service.
Section 1 of the same act appropriates two hundred dollars “to Archibald Roane, as full compensation for services as Attorney General for the District of Hamilton under the territorial government.”
Jackson did not arrive at Nashville until the fall of the year 1789 or the spring of 1790—most probably the latter. He “settled” in Jonesboro, in what was then Washington county, North Carolina, and is now Washington county, Tennessee, in the early part of the spring of 1788. He probably came from Morganton, North Carolina, across the range of mountains to Jonesboro, as early in the spring as the melting snow and ice made such a trip over the Appalachians possible. From Morganton to Jonesboro, by the trail or route then travelled, was more than one hundred miles, two-thirds of which, at that time, was without a single human habitation along its course. As emigration from east of the mountains to “the new world west of the Alleghanies” was considerable about this period, it is quite possible that Judge McNairy and others came at the same time; but who they all were, and the exact date of their arrival in Jonesboro, is not known.