Early one May
morning in 1806, a young man from Caroline County sighted down the barrel
of a flintlock duelling pistol and fired the shot that could have changed
the course of American history.
The young man's
name was Charles Dickenson and his target was Andrew Jackson, future victor
of the Battle Of New Orleans and seventh president of the United States.
In 1806, Andrew
Jackson, frontier soldier, lawyer and judge, had retired from public life
to farm his plantation and take up his chief hobby, horse-breeding. At
that time some of the finest horses in this country were bred and reared
by the landowners of the Eastern Shore, and Jackson found his way here
on several occasions in search of stock to improve his herd. It is said
that he was a guest at Daffin House, near Hillsboro, and he met Charles
Dickenson on one of these trips, or perhaps in Tennessee where Dickenson's
in-laws lived.
Charles Dickenson
was a large landowner and a man of some wealth, and like Jackson, he was
interested in good horseflesh. He was also a slave-trader, and was thought
to deal in kidnapped free Negroes as well. He might even have had some
commerce with the notorious Patty Cannon, although her heyday came years
after Dickenson was dead.
However, it
was that Jackson had met Dickenson, the meeting was an unlucky one. Both
men had a good deal in common; they were versed in the law, Dickenson having
read under John Marshall, and they were sporting men who dearly loved a
horse-race. Both were also short-tempered, arrogant and sensitive of their
good names.
Jackson had
a fine stallion named Truxton, generally thought to be one of the best
horses in Tennessee at the time. Many breeder's wanted Truxton's blood
in their foals, and Jackson received a considerable portion of his income
from stud fees. This bothered Jackson's neighbor, Capt. Joseph Erwin, Dickenson's
father-in-law, who was losing the breeding business of his stallion, Ploughboy,
to Jackson's famous beast.
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Backed by Dickenson,
Erwin ran Tanner, another of his horses, against Truxton in a race covered
by $5000, a vast sum in those days. Truxton beat Erwin's horse, so Erwin
decided to try Ploughboy against Truxton. The race was set for the fall
meeting of 1805 and both sides covered a $2000 bet. In case one horse didn't
make the race, a forfeit of $800 was arranged.
When race day
came, Erwin's horse was discovered to be lamed so badly he could not run.
The race was called off and Jackson collected his forfeit. Erwin and Dickenson
tried to pay Jackson off in unmatured personal notes, which on the frontier
were like post-dated checks. Jackson asked for at least half in notes instantly
collectable, and Dickenson paid them to him.
But the story
got around that Jackson had claimed that Erwin and Dickenson had tried
to trick him, which both denied. There was already hard feeling between
Jackson and Dickenson; Dickenson had made some nasty remarks about Mrs.
Jackson, a gentle lady with an interesting past, and Jackson was notoriously
sensitive to references to his wife's past and quick to attack anyone who
commented on it. Jackson was not satisfied with Dickenson's half-hearted
apologies or the excuse that he was drunk when he insulted Mrs. Jackson.
Dickenson wasn't especially eager to make peace; his losses to Jackson
at the track were considerable.
One of Dickenson's
young friends cast aspersions on Jackson's courage and honor in a letter,
but Jackson's reply to him was addressed to Dickenson. Dickenson replied
with a dare to challenge him to fight, then left for New Orleans on business.
Ignored, Dickenson's young friend swore he'd been insulted and challenged
Jackson to duel with him. Jackson laughed that off too, but took the first
chance he had to beat him with his cane, an insult of the worst kind to
anyone who thought of himself as a gentleman.
In those days,
there were no libel laws, and frontier newspapers were kind of a public
quarrelling ground, so Dickenson's and Jackson's supporters began calling
names in print. |
