There was a moment of disturbance while the mourners were assembling, caused by an untimely outburst of blistering profanity from old Poll, the Hermitage parrot who had so long been a favorite pet of the General’s. The solemnity of the occasion was completely upset by the sudden torrent of objurgation from the old bird on her perch on the upper front gallery, but she was quickly banished to the servants’ quarters at the back of the house and Dr. Edgar stepped out on the stone-paved portico and began to read the burial service.
The General’s favorite hymns were sung; a prayer was said. The casket was taken from its place in the great hall and carried to the tomb awaiting him in the garden by Rachel’s side. A firing squad raised their muskets and a military salute shattered the hush of the warm summer morning. The smoke from the guns floated upward through the heavy foliage of the overhanging magnolias; the military company formed in ranks and briskly marched off; the crowd dispersed; the sorrowing family walked slowly back up the garden path to the house; a cloud of dust rose over the road as the carriages of the notable citizens of Nashville started back to town.
Andrew Jackson, after a tempestuous life of 77 years, was at rest by the side of her of whom he had said: “Heaven will be no heaven for me if she is not there.” No more would his vivid personality leave its impress on public affairs. No more would the parlors’ walls reëcho his shrill voice as he sang “Auld Lang Syne.” No more would a crowd of guests about the big table in the dining room listen attentively as he told of some incident of the wars. No more would the papers on his office desk rattle as he crashed down his fist and stormed “No! by the Eternal!” The spark of his existence, which made the Hermitage a beacon of democracy, was extinguished.
He has been gone now for nearly a century; his body still rests in the stone vault in the garden where loving hands placed it that hot June day in 1845. But, somehow, it is impossible to visit the Hermitage today, standing just as it was when he left it, without experiencing a mysterious feeling of his presence in the old house. Maintained though it is as a public shrine, the visitor when crossing the threshold has the sensation of entering into a living home; and it requires but little sense of the mystic to feel that he might look up and see the tall, angular form of the General come slowly down the sweeping circular stairway to greet the wayfaring guest.
Throughout the life of Andrew Jackson he was like a part of the old house which held so large a place in his heart; and today it is as though that part of him had never died. Indefinably it seems as though some elusive fragment of the spirit of Old Hickory is still there; and few of those who come there go away without experiencing that feeling of inspiration which arises from close contact with the deathless spirit of a great man.
APPENDIX A: CHRONOLOGY
| March | 15, 1767 | Born, Waxhaw Settlements, North-South Carolina. |
| September | 26, 1787 | Admitted to bar in North Carolina. |
| Spring, | 1788 | Appointed public prosecutor for Mero District. |
| August, | 1791 | Married Mrs. Rachel Donelson Robards, at Natchez. |
| January | 11, 1796 | Member of first constitutional convention, Tennessee. |
| October | 27, 1796 | Left Nashville for Washington to take seat in House of Representatives—first representative from Tennessee. |
| November | 22, 1797 | Appointed Senator from Tennessee, vice William Blount. |
| June, | 1798 | Resigned from Senate. |
| October, | 1798 | Elected member of state Superior Court. |
| February, | 1802 | Elected Major General of Tennessee Militia. |
| July | 6, 1804 | Sold Hunter’s Hill home and moved to log Hermitage. |
| July | 24, 1804 | Resigned from Superior Court. |
| May | 30, 1806 | Duel with Charles Dickinson. |
| January | 7, 1813 | Left Nashville for Natchez with Tennessee militia. |
| April | 22, 1813 | Returned to Nashville from Natchez expedition. |
| September | 4, 1813 | Wounded in fight with Thomas H. and Jesse Benton. |
| October | 11, 1813 | Left Nashville with militia for Creek War. |
| March | 27, 1814 | Battle of the Horseshoe. |
| April | 19, 1814 | Appointed Brigadier General, United States Army. |
| April | 28, 1814 | Returned to Hermitage from Creek War. |
| May | 1, 1814 | Appointed Major General, United States Army. |
| August | 10, 1814 | Treaty with Creeks signed. |
| September | 9, 1814 | Left Nashville for first Florida campaign. |
| December | 2, 1814 | Arrived at New Orleans for defense of city. |
| December | 23, 1814 | First battle in defense of New Orleans. |
| January | 1, 1815 | Second battle in defense of New Orleans. |
| January | 8, 1815 | Decisive defeat of Pakenham’s army. |
| May | 15, 1815 | Arrives at Hermitage from New Orleans. |
| October | 15, 1815 | Left Nashville for Washington. |
| March | 1, 1816 | Returned to Hermitage from Washington trip. |
| January | 22, 1818 | Left Hermitage for second Florida campaign. |
| June | 24, 1818 | Returned to Hermitage from Florida war. |
| January | 4, 1819 | Left Hermitage for visit to Eastern cities. |
| February, | 1819 | Returned to Nashville from Eastern trip. |
| Summer, | 1819 | Began building of Hermitage. |
| March | 3, 1821 | Appointed governor of Florida by President Monroe. |
| May | 31, 1821 | Resigned from Army. |
| July | 17, 1821 | Took possession of Florida for United States. |
| October, | 1821 | Resigned as governor of Florida and returned to Hermitage. |
| July | 20, 1822 | Nominated for President by Tennessee legislature. |
| October, | 1823 | Elected to United States Senate. |
| March | 4, 1824 | Nominated for President by Pennsylvania convention. |
| November, | 1824 | Received plurality of votes for President: Jackson, 99; Adams, 84; Clay, 37; Crawford, 41. |
| February | 9, 1825 | Adams elected President by House of Representatives. |
| October, | 1825 | Resigned from United States Senate. |
| October, | 1825 | Again nominated for President by Tennessee legislature. |
| November, | 1828 | Elected President. |
| December | 22, 1828 | Death of Mrs. Jackson. |
| January | 17, 1829 | Left Hermitage for Inauguration. |
| March | 4, 1829 | Inaugurated President. |
| November | 24, 1831 | Andrew Jackson, jr., married. |
| December, | 1831 | Hermitage remodeled and tomb in garden built. |
| November, | 1832 | Reëlected President. |
| October | 13, 1834 | Hermitage partially destroyed by fire. |
| March | 4, 1837 | Issued farewell address, retiring from Presidency. |
| June | 8, 1845 | Died at Hermitage. |
| June | 10, 1845 | Buried at Hermitage. |
APPENDIX B: ANDREW JACKSON’S WILL
Hermitage, June 7th, 1843
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN:—I, Andrew Jackson, Sr., being of sound mind, memory and understanding, and impressed with the great uncertainty of life and the certainty of death, and being desirous to dispose of my temporal affairs so that after my death no contention may arise relative to the same; and whereas, since executing my will of the 30th of September, 1833, my estate has become greatly involved by my liabilities for the debts of my well-beloved and adopted son, Andrew Jackson, Jr., which makes it necessary to alter the same: Therefore I, Andrew Jackson, Sr., of the County of Davidson and State of Tennessee do make, ordain, publish and declare this my last will and testament, revoking all other wills by me heretofore made.