“I have this moment recd. the sad and melancholy intelligence that our Dear Emily is no more.... I have no language in which I can express my grief.... My health is slowly returning, and my strength improving slowly....”
The Garden and the Tomb
Upon the tomb is carved General Jackson’s immortal tribute to his wife: “Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her temper amiable, her heart kind; she delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow creatures, and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unpretending methods; to the poor she was a benefactor; to the rich an example; to the wretched a comforter; to the prosperous an ornament; her piety went hand in hand with her benevolence, and she thanked her creator for being permitted to do good. A being so gentle and so virtuous slander might wound, but could not dishonor. Even Death, when he bore her from the arms of her husband, could but transport her to the bosom of her God.”
The rest, sunlight, and pleasant atmosphere of the Hermitage were destined, however, to work a great improvement. His wiry, long-suffering body was to recover sufficiently for him to spend eight years in his new home before he was laid to rest in the garden beside the beloved Rachel. During these years his young men, under his wise guidance, had a tremendous influence in the nation—and in 1845, James K. Polk, who had openly conducted his campaign as “Young Hickory,” the legitimate political heir of the “sage of the Hermitage,” was inaugurated.
Andrew Jackson and his family, after Van Buren’s inauguration, made a triumphant progress southward and, on March 25, 1837, reached the Hermitage. To Martin Van Buren he wrote on March 30: “I reached home ... with a very bad cough, increased by a cold taken on board the Steam Boat.... I hope rest in due time may restore my health so as be enabled to amuse myself in riding over my farm and visiting my neighbors....”
But however interested he was in his farm and his neighbors he took time to write his successor and protégé several pages of very sound advice on state affairs:
“Fearlessly pursue your principles avowed, and the people will sustain you against all apostates, ambitious, and designing men ...” and take care of “the safety of the deposit Banks of the West, and south....”
From that time onward the Hermitage was prominent in the eyes of the nation. The younger statesmen paid visits to “the sage of the Hermitage” as the ancients consulted oracles—and the masses continued to worship the “Hero of New Orleans.”
His domestic life flowed easily and pleasantly under the skilled and tactful direction of his daughter, Sarah. The adored little Rachel dogged his footsteps, rode with him, and, with her bright prattle, enlivened his days. Mrs. Marion Adams, Sarah’s older sister, now widowed, made her home at the Hermitage, and Rachel’s relatives came from their neighboring estates to pay respects to their beloved kinsman. Never was a lonely old man surrounded with greater affection or more kindly care.