Memoirs of Andrew Jackson, Late Major-General and Commander in Chief of the Southern Division of the Army of the United States. Compiled by a Citizen of Massachusetts. Boston: Charles Ewer, 1828. (330-334)

In the person of General Jackson is perceived nothing of the robust or elegant. He is six feet and an inch high, remarkably straight and spare, and weighs not more than a hundred and forty-five pounds. His conformation appears to disqualify him for hardship; yet, accustomed to it from early life, few are capable of enduring fatigue to the same extent, or with less injury. His dark blue eyes, with brows arched and slightly projecting, possess a marked expression; but when, from any cause, excited, they sparkle with peculiar lustre and penetration. In his manners he is pleasing—in his address commanding; while his countenance, marked with firmness and decision, beams with a strength and intelligence that strikes at first sight. In his deportment there is nothing repulsive. Easy, affable, and familiar, he is accessible to all. Influenced by the belief, that merit should constitute the only difference in men, his attention is equally bestowed upon honest poverty as on titled consequence. No man, however inconsiderable his standing, ever approached him on business, that he did not patiently listen to his story, and afford him all the information in his power. His moral character is without reproach, and by those who know him most intimately he is most esteemed. Benevolence in him is a prominent virtue. He was never known to pass distress without seeking to assist and to relieve it.

It is imputed to him, that he derives from his birth a temper irritable and hasty, which has had the effect to create enemies, and involve him in disputes. In Jackson, however, these defects exist to an extent as limited with most men; and the world is in error in presuming him under a too high control of feeling and passion. A fixed devotion to those principles which honor sanctions, renders him scrupulously attentive to his promises and engagements of every description. Preserving system in his moneyed transactions, his fiscal arrangements are made to correspond with his resources, and hence his every engagement in relation to such subjects is met with marked punctuality, not for the reason that he is man of extraordinary wealth, but rather because he has method, and with a view to his resources, regulates properly his balance of trade...

General Jackson possesses ambition, but it rests on virtue; an ambition, which, regulated by a high sense of honourable feeling, leads him to desire "that applause which follows good actions—not that which is run after." No man is more ready to hear and to respect the opinions of others, and none, where much is at stake, and at conflict with his own, less disposed to under their influence. He has never been known to call a council of war, whose decisions, when made, were to shield him from responsibility or censure. His council of war, if doubting himself, was a few officers, in whom he full confided, whose advise was regarded, if their reasons were conclusive; but, these not being satisfactory, he at once adopted and pursued the course suggested by his own mind.

At the battle of Tohopeka, an infant was found pressed to the bosom of its lifeless mother. This circumstance being made known to General Jackson, he became interested for the child, directed it to be brought to him, and sought to prevail on some of the Indian women to take care of and rear it. They signified their unwillingness to do so, stating that, inasmuch as all its relations had fallen in battle, they thought it best it should be killed. The general, after this disclosure, determined he would not intrust it with them, but became himself the protector of the child. Bestowing on the infant the name of Lincoier, he adopted it into his family, and has ever since manifested the liveliest zeal towards it, prompted by benevolence, and because, perhaps, its fate bore a strong resemblance to his own, who, in early life, and from the ravages of war, was left in the world forlorn and wretched, without friends to assist, or near relations to direct him on his course.

Thus we have traced the private and public life of the man, who is rightly denominated the Hero of New Orleans.