5. A letter from T. Swann, Esq., to General Jackson, calculated to make the latter challenge him to mortal combat, the presumptuous, windy letter of a foolish boy.
6. A hot reply from General Jackson, an elegant letter and a model in the King’s English. This letter alone would refute any idea that Jackson’s intellect was not of the highest or his English half-baked. In it he says: “There are certain traits that always accompany the gentleman and man of truth. The moment he hears harsh expressions applied to a friend he will immediately communicate it, that explanations may take place; when the base poltroon and cowardly tale-bearer will always act in the background. You can apply the latter to Mr. Dickinson and see which fits him best. I write it for his eye, and the latter I emphatically intend for him. When the conversation dropped between Mr. Dickinson and myself I thought it was at an end. As he wishes to blow the coal, I am ready to light it to an end.”
All of which shows that Jackson had decided to strike over the head of T. Swann to the real power behind him—the man who had twice publicly abused Mrs. Jackson.
7. T. Swann cannot keep away from the General, but hunts him up as soon as he comes to town and demands an explanation. He meets abuse and threats of caning, in which the General says he would not want a better breakfast than to eat fifty such as T. Swann, Esq.
8. T. Swann challenges the General to mortal combat. Read the grandiloquent challenge:
“General Andrew Jackson: Think not that I am to be intimidated by your threats. No power terrestrial shall prevent the settled purpose of my soul. The statement I have made in respect to the notes is substantially correct. The torrent of abusive language with which you have assailed me is such as every gentleman should blush to hear. Your menaces I set at defiance, and now demand of you that reparation which one gentleman is entitled to receive of another. My friend, the bearer of this, is authorized to make complete arrangements in the field of honor.”
THOMAS SWANN.
“Nashville, Jany. 12th, 1806.”
9. Jackson comes to town, meets Mr. T. Swann and breaks a cane over his head. T. Swann is game, if he is a fool, and though the cane, to use his own language, becomes “a large bludgeon and a brace of pistols,” he challenges the General again and induces Mr. N. A. McNairy to act for him.
10. Charles Dickinson takes matters up, writes an offensive letter to Jackson, closing with: