272

A GREAT PERSONALITY.

simple in life and in death. Within these bare walls, on this very bed, the old warrior surrendered at last to a foe that was mightier than he.

With this description of our visit to the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, I leave it to my readers to form their judgment of a character so extraordinary. I have only to say that, whatever it may be, be it one of praise or of blame, of eulogy or condemnation, they will find abundant reasons to sustain it, for in him, as in all powerful natures, there was a mixture of good and evil that almost defies analysis and forbids classification. But with every drawback, no one can read the story of this life without confessing that Jackson was a great personality.

Among the treasures of the Hermitage is a chair that once belonged to the Father of his Country. To say that Jackson "filled" the chair of Washington, would be assuming too much. But with all his faults and they were many and marked-no man, not even Washington, loved his country more. Like him, Jackson had fought for it, and was ready to die for it, and in the hour of danger to that Union which the Fathers of the Republic labored so long to establish, no successor of Washingtonnot even Lincoln-stood more firmly to maintain the country's integrity and honor.

CHAPTER XVIII.

STONEWALL JACKSON.

A few weeks before I left New York for the South, I drove out to Riverside avenue to the grave of General Grant. It was a beautiful autumn day. The leaves were falling from the trees; the woods were almost stripped and bare; and all things wore the sombre, funereal look which is the token of the change that comes alike on nature and on man. The spot is one of great natural beauty-a swelling mound, perhaps a hundred feet above the Hudson; commanding a view of great extent up and down the river; across to the Palisades and beyond to the mountains; and far down the bay to where the sheen of the waters fades into the distant gleam of the ocean. What a place for a warrior to rest after his stormy life! though it be so calm and still, it is within the limits of the great city in which he spent his last years; and thus he is recalled to us if it be only by his grave. As the Laureate of England says of Wellington, who sleeps in the very heart of London, under the dome of St. Paul's, so may we say of our honored dead:

"Let the sound of those he wrought for,

And the feet of those he fought for,

Echo round his bones forevermore."

And yet,

274

THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA.

From the grave of our beloved soldier it is a natural transition to that of his great adversary, who sleeps far away among the hills of the old Commonwealth which he so much loved. The fact that he led the opposing armies, does not abate the interest with which we study his extraordinary career. The time has come when we can do justice to those who fought against us, and even claim their valor and self-devotion as a part of our national inheritance of glory. As I have somewhat of the instinct of an Old Mortality, I confess to a very great interest in visiting their homes and sepulchres. And so, as I returned from the South, I took my way across the mountairs, that I might spend a day in the retired and most beautiful spot where General Lee spent his last years; where he died and is buried; and where his "right arm called "Stonewall" Jackson) was buried before him.

(as he

I came an entire stranger, knowing no one; but as I stepped from the car, a gentleman called me by name, and "took me to his own home." It was Professor J. J. White of the College, who received me with as much kindness as if I had been an old friend. Perhaps it gives color to all my impressions both of the College and the town, that they are associated with such kindly hospitality.

Lexington is situated in that part of the Old Dominion, which, being between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, is known as the Great Valley of Virginia. This is at a considerable elevation above the sea- -it is, in fact, a genuine table-land, or plateau—but being walled in by ranges on both sides, it has the aspect of a broad and open valley, lying in the lap of its guardian mountains. The region is both picturesque and historical. Settled at an early day by a sturdy race from the North of Ireland, sons of the men who fought at the siege of "Derry," it has always had a remarkable population. A place of such