“No one ever heard either address to the other a disrespectful, an irritating or unsympathizing word. They were not as familiar as is now the fashion. He remained ‘Mr. Jackson’ to her always never ‘General,’ still less ‘Andrew.’ And he never called her ‘Rachel,’ but ‘Mrs. Jackson,’ or ‘wife.’ The reader shall become better acquainted with their domestic life by and by. Meanwhile, let it be understood that our hero has now a Home where lives a Friend, true and fond, to welcome his return from ‘wilderness courts,’ to cheer his stay, to lament his departure, yet give him a motive for going forth; a home wherein—whatever manner of man he might be elsewhere—he was always gentle, kind and patient. “He was most prompt to defend his wife’s good name. The peculiar circumstances attending his marriage made him touchy on this point. His temper, with regard to other causes of offense, was tinder; with respect to this it was gunpowder. His worst quarrels arose from this cause or were greatly aggravated by it. He became sore on the subject, so that at last I think he could scarcely hate anyone very heartily without fancying that the obnoxious person had said something or caused something to be said which reflected on the character of Mrs. Jackson. For the man who dared breathe her name except in honor he kept pistols in perfect condition for thirty-seven years.” There is a fool and a meddler in every tragedy between men. For a fool is naturally a meddler. “T. Swann, Esq., lately of Virginia,” filled the role above mentioned and brought on the duel between Jackson and Charles Dickinson. T. Swann, Esq., was a young lawyer who came from Virginia to the Western settlement. He was a quarter horse with wheels in his head who entered himself with the Four-milers. He strutted and would be a man. He wore fine clothes and volunteered to loan money he never possessed. He used strange oaths and professed knowledge of horses. He posed as a fighting gentleman and carried tales. He butted in and backed out, of course. In the fall of 1805 General Jackson matched his horse, Truxton, against Captain Joseph Ervin’s Plowboy, for $2,000, payable in notes on the day of the race, the notes to be then due. If either party failed to race he was to pay a forfeit of $800. Six persons were interested in the race for Truxton: General Jackson, Maj. W. P. Anderson, Major Verrell and Captain Pryor. For Plowboy: Captain W. P. Ervin and Charles Dickinson, his son-in-law. Before the day of the race arrived Dickinson and Ervin found that Plowboy was not fit, withdrew him and paid forfeit. It was done to the satisfaction of all, amicably done and settled. [Illustration: The famous Clover Bottom race track, the scene of early horse racing in Tennessee, and where Jackson’s horses ran so many races. Scene of the triumph of Haynie’s Maria and her great rider, “Monkey Simon,” a pair which Jackson could never defeat. (Photo March, 1906, by E. E. Sweetland.)]