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had forfeited their right to God's grace, but he admired them as mighty

  warriors, worthy foes to his superior skill.

  There was another contradiction that puzzled James. For all Andrew's

  disregard for the rights of the Indians to their land, he was kind and

  generous to individuals.

  "They are children," he said. "ney need the strong, guiding hand of a

  father who knows what is best for them."

  Later, when the war that Andrew longed for came, when John Coffee's men

  had destroyed the village of Talluhatchee and killed two hundred braves,

  they brought Andrew a little Creek boy, whose parents were dead. The

  women would not look after him. Andrew took the boy to his heart, called

  him

  BLOODLINES 117

  Lincoyen, sent him to Rachel, his new mother, and made him part of the

  family. He had found another son.

  Andrew's real wrath was directed toward weak white men, especially those

  who tried to achieve by politics what they were afraid to achieve in

  honest battle. Most of all, he despised the increasing encroachment of

  government into the lives of the pioneers, the true sons of the soil.

  He loved Nashville and was bored by it. He found quarrels where he could,

  and defended his, and his wife's, honor against the merest slight. He

  ignored weak men, and challenged those strong men who were at variance

  with him.

  He longed to prove himself in war, and despised the tyranny of peace. His

  dearest ambition was to avenge his mother's death. Elizabeth Jackson had

  died of the plague, but Andrew blamed the British, and the intolerable

  circumstances brought about by the Revolutionary War.

  When his old friend Aaron Burr proposed a wild scheme to persuade the

  British to aid him in a rebellion that would free the Mississippi Valley,

  or Florida, or anywhere, from the govemance of, or alliance with, the

  United States, and to make himself ruler of that new country, Andrew was

  ready to listen.

  But he gave a cautious response. He encouraged Burr, but kept his options

  open. Perhaps he believed that if Burr succeeded, there would be war, and

  he would fight valiantly for his country against his old friend. Perhaps

  he believed in Burr's vision, but detested Burr's readiness to parlay

  with Britain. Perhaps he was simply humoring his old friend to explore

  the limits of himself.

  Burr failed. He was tried for treason and eventually acquitted, against

  the strong influence of Thomas Jefferson, but was forced into exile.

  Although Andrew was never directly implicated in Burr's plot, the taint

  of it stayed with him for some years, and turned many in Washington

  against him.

  Andrew languished in Nashville, gathered about him likeminded fellows,

  befriended James Jackson, and waited impatiently for his day, which he

  believed must come, for it was his destiny.

  15

  'There is to be war," James told Sally,

  Sally nodded.

  "I suppose it was inevitable," she said. "And will you fight?"

  James shook his head.

  "Andrew has other plans for me."

  Sally closed her eyes, and said a silent prayer of thanks. She had lost one

  husband already, and did not want to lose another. For the first time since

  she had known him, she blessed Andrew Jackson.

  Jefferson was gone. Madison, the last of the Founding Fathers, was

  president. The economies of the northern and eastern states were in tatters.

  As predicted by Andrew, Jefferson's foreign policies toward the British and

  the French had brought the country to its knees. The protracted negotiations

  with the British had produced nothing. Still the country expanded. The

  Spanish, and several Spanish colonies, had revolted against Napoleon, and

  Florida had declared itself independent. Madison, unsure and uncertain of

  himself in other matters, annexed the territory as part of the District of

  New Orleans, and admitted Louisiana to the Union. The New England states,

  already staring at bankruptcy, threatened to rebel. More slave states would

  reduce their influence, and would dilute the original Union and its

  constitution. At loggerheads with Madison, they wanted peace with Britain

  and the chance to restore their trade. Foolishly advised as to Britain's

  position, encouraged by the Spanish revolt against the French, and to

  placate New England, Madison lifted the embargo on trade with France.

  The British blockaded the American ports, an American naval vessel opened

  fire on a British ship, and the southern war

  118

  BLOODLINES 119

  hawks in the government, led by Henry Clay and William Crawford, and many

  throughout the land, pressed Madison to declare war on Britain. The

  immediate and long-desired prize was the British territory of Canada, the

  other America, which many, like Andrew, believed was part of the God-given

  whole.

  Andrew was in a quandary. He despised Madison as a weak man, but approved

  of the war. Immediately, he volunteered himself and a militia division

  of two thousand five hundred men, vowing to take Quebec. His offer was

  noted and ignored.

  "it is because of my friendship with Aaron Burr," he told James bitterly.

  "They will make me pay for it."

  Andrew had other reasons for despising Madison. The president had

  recently rechartered the national bank of the United States, and Andrew

  was livid with rage. The bank was a monster, the tool of government,

  whose octopus tentacles spread throughout the land, discouraging

  competition and issuing the false god of paper.

  "Specie, cash money, is the one true cuffency," he roared. "All else is

  fraudulent paper."

  He had reasons for his bitterness. He had frequently been the victim of

  promissory notes whose issuers failed to deliver what the paper promised,

  and he had lost more than one fortune because of it. Moreover, he was a

  resolute champion of the sovereignty of the individual states and

  believed that a central bank, the lapdog of the federal government, would

  eventually destroy their financial independence, and make the states

  entirely reliant on Washington.

  Now, with the country at war, Andrew, like a champion stallion ready for

  the race, chafed at the bit. The Hermitage became his war room, and he

  called in all the young men he had trained and encouraged to be ready for

  this moment: Davy Crockett, the frontiersman, John Coffee, the loyal and

  fearless lieutenant, and young Sam Houston, an odd and eccentric youth who

  had abandoned his white family and lived tribally, with the Creek. Sam

  could speak three Indian languages fluently, knew all the ways and

  customs, was a frequent drunk, and was a daring, unconventional warrior.

  Andrew adored him.

  James was there too. They sat around the table for hours on

  120 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  end, debating the news, railing against the disastrous conduct of the war,

  drowning in liquor their fury at the loss of Detroit w
ithout a single

  shot, and venting in impotent anger their frustration that they were not

  part of it.

  Unknown to any of them, they had an unlikely ally to their cause, the

  Shawnee chief Tecumseh, which meant Crouching Panther.

  The American expeditions into Canada were abject failures. The New

  Englanders, who had never wanted war, were ready to sue for peace. The

  tiny American army and smaller navy were overextended, facing three

  battlefronts-the north, the south in Florida, and the Gulf Coast,

  centered on New Orleans, which was vulnerable to attack from the British

  possessions in the Caribbean.

  In the West, the charismatic Tecumseh was able to do what few other

  Indians had done, and gathered the tribes into a common cause against the

  white man. He had a vision of a great confederation of the Indian people

  which would extend from the northern lakes to the southern gulf, and

  would annihilate the whites. Encouraged by British agents to believe they

  would side with him against the Americans, Tecumseh and his devoted

  followers waged a war of attrition on the settlements of Ohio and the

  Mississippi.

  Faced with disaster on all sides, the War Office finally accepted

  Andrew's offer, if he, in turn, would accept a subordinate command under

  General Wilkinson, in New Orleans. Andrew ranted and raved, but any

  action was better than no action, so he agreed. Perhaps as a sop, he was

  given the rank of major general.

  Jubilation swept the Hermitage war room. Within two days they had raised

  the full complement of twenty-five hundred men, and made preparations to

  leave for New Orleans.

  "But what can I do?" James said, rather plaintively, because he was

  feeling left out. He had thought of offering to enlist, but considered

  it better he stay with Sally, who was pregnant.

  Andrew looked at him as if he had forgotten who he was, and then assumed

  his most benign and confidential manner.

  "You have a marvelously important job to do here," he told James. "You

  must look after Rachel, who will be bathed in tears at my departure."

  BLOODLINES 121

  It was a job that suited James exactly, but Andrew had something else for

  him. Generous to a fault, he was perpetually short of money. He asked for

  a loan from James, to equip and uniform his men, and feed them, until

  funds arrived from Washington.

  He needed five thousand dollars. James was only too happy to agree,

  thinking that he was making a magnificent contribution to the war effort,

  if only by proxy.

  Besides, all Andrew had to do was ask. All he ever had to do was ask, and

  James would have given him the moon.

  Andrew's division set off for New Orleans in the middle of the worst

  winter anyone could remember.

  General Wilkinson wanted Andrew's men, but not Andrew. He ordered them

  to make camp at Natchez, to await developments. This made sense to Andrew

  for it would position his unit to respond to any British invasion along

  the coast, not just at New Orleans. Then an order arrived from the War

  Office ordering Andrew to disband his men and return to Nashville.

  Andrew understood the ploy immediately. Without funds to feed his men,

  they would be easy recruits for Wilkinson. He wrote accepting the

  dismissal of his services, but insisted that he would return his men to

  their homes at his own expense.

  The bad weather got worse, but Andrew triumphed. He led his men on an

  impossible journey through the snow and bitter cold, cajoling, urging,

  encouraging, careless of his own comfort, and he became the stuff of

  legend. His soldiers revered him for it, called him tougher than hickory,

  and because he was their father, he became known to them, and to the

  country, as Old Hickory.

  On their return to Nashville, tattered and torn, cold and weary, reduced

  to eating horseflesh, never having fired a shot in anger, they were feted

  as heroes and showered with honors.

  James glowed with pride and patriotism. Under the circumstances he could

  not possibly ask for the return of his loan, for it was his money that

  had sustained the gallant soldiers through their arduous trek.

  Nor could he refuse Andrew another loan, for another expedition, this

  time against the Creek, in Alabama.

  122 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  Tecumseh-Crouching Panther-had inspired many of the younger braves

  throughout the country, and if many rejected his calls for violence,

  several listened. A half-breed, William Weatherford, whose father laid

  claim to being the principal Creek chief, organized a war party, and

  attacked and destroyed the settlement at Fort Mims in southern Alabama.

  Encouraged by this success, other Creek had joined him, and now much of

  Alabama was under threat.

  The news came to Andrew on his sickbed. He had been wounded by Thomas

  Benton and his brother Jesse, after a silly misunderstanding that had led

  to a duel between Jesse and Billy Carroll, Andrew's brigade inspector.

  Andrew had no part in it, and, wanting to keep his nose clean with

  Washington, had discouraged the antagonists, but to no avail. The duel

  was fought with Jesse winning the toss. He fired first but missed, and

  panicked, and turned his back on Billy Carroll, who promptly shot him in

  the rump.

  Tennessee thought Jesse's discomfort was a grand joke, but Tom Benton,

  who had been a favorite of Andrew's, took his brother's side. He accused

  Andrew of inciting the duel, and Andrew had threatened to horsewhip him.

  It all came to a head at the Nashville Inn when Thomas and Jesse, with

  some others, attacked Andrew. John Coffee, guns blazing, put them to

  flight, but Andrew was severely wounded, shot twice in the arm, and the

  doctors recommended amputation.

  "I will keep my arm," Andrew said.

  Rachel and Alfred nursed him, but none of their ministrations succeeded

  as well as the news that two hundred and fifty whites had been massacred

  at Fort Mims, and Weatherford was marching north, to other white

  settlements.

  "By the eternal, these people must be saved," he announced, and Tennessee

  agreed.

  Andrew got up from his bed and made ready for war. The governor of

  Tennessee commissioned a punitive expedition, and John Coffee formed the

  cavalry.

  The day had come. This was Andrew's time.

  He borrowed more money from James, against the promise of repayment as

  soon as he had Treasury funds, and again, James gave it willingly.

  BLOODLINES 123

  All Andrew had to do was ask.

  James didn't tell anyone but Sally about the loan, because when he told

  her, she was angry. Andrew had often borrowed small sums from James and

  never repaid them. He still owed five thousand from the Natchez

  adventure. Now there was more.

  It was the first sustained argument of their marriage, for James could

  not make her see h
is position, nor could he tell her with any truth what

  his position was. The loans made him feel part of the war, part of the

  adventure, but obviated any risk, except the financial one which he could

  well afford. Until this time, he had shared all his money dealings with

  Sally, but now he began to close this part of his life to her, and kept

  his business to himself.

  The Creek War, as it came to be called, was a triumph for Andrew, and all

  who served him loyally. Sam Houston used his formidable knowledge of the

  Creek and their customs to send spies to the Indians, and encouraged those

  who had not fought to join with Old Hickory, who was undefeatable. Cher-

  okee and Chickasaw, Choctaw and some Creek joined with Andrew. The spies

  reported Weatherford's numbers and intentions. Davy Crockett led a small

  band of men in forays of lightning speed and ferocity, aided by the shock

  of surprise, which all reinforced the concept of Andrew's invincibility.

  It was winter again, and the Creek were poorly supplied. Armed only with

  bows and arrows, a few muskets, and a desperate faith in their cause, they

  soon fell to the greater numbers and artillery of the army that they

  faced.

  Andrew's obstacles were not all of Indian invention, but all added to his

  reputation. Four times, his poorly fed, poorly uniformed, and poorly

  supplied troops rebelled, and each time Andrew suppressed the mutiny by

  the sheer force of his personality and his iron determination. Still weak

  from loss of blood, wracked with dysentery, and living on acorns and

  horseflesh, he would not ask men to endure anything he would not suffer

  himself.

  He thought of the men as his children, and called them such. In the case

  of Private John Woods, he sacrificed one of his children. Woods was

  condemned to death for refusing to obey

  124 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  a disciplinary order. Andrew believed he was part of a previous mutiny, but

  Woods, who was seventeen, had only recently taken his brother's place in the

  ranks. Militiamen, irregular volunteers, were seldom put to death, no matter

  how grave their offense, and Andrew had the power to reduce the sentence,

  but, like Abraham sacrificing Isaac, he chose not to do so, and no divine

  power stayed his hand.

  Woods was duly executed by firing squad.

  There was little talk of mutiny after that, and his men came to respect

  Andrew as never before.

  Still he stared at disaster. After Andrew had won two small victories, some

  Creek sued for peace, and Governor Blount of Tennessee was prepared to

  parlay. The increasing disaster that was the war against the British had

  soured him on military conquest, but Andrew would not accept his orders to

  abandon his base and return to Nashville. In a passionate letter to Blount

  he insisted that the frontier would never be peaceful until this

  insurrection was put down, and demanded more men. His obstinacy, and the

  War Office, which was desperate for any success, no matter how small,

  persuaded Blount, and Andrew marched on with five thousand extra troops.

  After several minor battles he surrounded the Creek stronghold at Horseshoe

  Bend. Believing that the Great Spirit had promised them victory, the Creek

  fought almost to the last man, and by the end of the day the battlefield

  was a scene of carnage. Weatherford himself had not been at Horseshoe Bend,

  and Andrew went in search of him. At Fort Toulouse, which was renamed Fort

  Jackson, Weatherford surrendered.

  The Creek war was over, and the victorious troops and their general went

  home.

  To glory.

  To a population utterly depressed by a failed war with Britain, Andrew was

  the hero they needed. His fame spread throughout the land, and cheering

  crowds lined the streets on his approach to Nashville. A state dinner was

  organized, and a victory parade.

  All the buildings were draped in flags and bunting, and people came from

  all over Tennessee to see the triumph. Andrew sat on the official stand

  with Rachel, and because all his lieutenants and men were marching, James