“We have just returned from the Hermitage, ... The General called upon us in town on the evening of our arrival and he is one of the most hospitable men in the state. Mrs. Jackson is not a woman of cultivation, but has seen a great many people, has fine spirits, entertains well, and is benevolent. She is short in her person and quite fat. The General is lean and has been in ill health but is now invigorated and promises to live out his three-score and ten. He has built him a good brick house within the last two years and has finished it handsomely. Mary has taken three views of it in her sketch book. We looked at all the presents which have been made to the old warrior in honour of his military achievements and were gratified not a little.... The General has papers from most parts of the Union, and his study is loaded with piles of them. Considerable company was at his house every day, and our ladies danced every evening in the entry to the sound of the flute....” (“Mary” was Mary Austin Holley, author and cousin of Stephen Austin. Where are the sketches she made of The Hermitage?) Andrew Jackson was content, Mr. James says, and “the measure of his contentment was in proportion to the sincerity of his resolution to exchange a brilliant career for a quiet one.” His peace was to be short-lived. On December 5, 1823, he took his seat in the Senate of the United States, to which he had been appointed by the Tennessee legislature. For six weary months he remained in Washington and Rachel, with her usual efficiency, kept the Hermitage household going. She was busy, for the little church which the General was building for her and her pious friends near the Hermitage was being completed. His letter, written in Washington, January 29, 1824 (which has been presented to the Ladies’ Hermitage Association by the late Mr. Leland Hume, a descendant of the Rev. William Hume), states: “I am truly happy to hear that our church is about to be finished, and that pious good man Mr. Hume, is to dedicate it. If such a mans prayers cannot obtain a blessing upon the neighborhood, I would despair of the efficacy of prayer from any other....” The church was completed and the General returned home—this time with the avowed intention of carrying Rachel with him when he returned to Washington the following autumn. In the meantime the presidential campaign of 1824 was in full swing, and the Marquis de Lafayette arrived with his son and suite to be the “nation’s guest.” On October 18 the distinguished Frenchman wrote to Jackson: