Posted on 06/08/2020 4:31:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
Today is the eighth, a nearly-forgotten holiday commemorating the 1815 victory of U.S. forces, under Andrew Jackson’s command, over the British in New Orleans. That victory catapulted Jackson to fame as a national hero and paved his way to the White House. Today also marks the date President Jackson died 175 years ago. He is remembered as a fierce patriot, but he was also a faithful Christian.
In a letter to Ellen M. Hanson, he wrote, “I was brought up a rigid Presbyterian, to which I have always adhered.” Jackson publicly professed his faith in 1838 in a little Presbyterian church near The Hermitage, his home in Nashville, TN.
Before he became the 17th President of the United States in 1828, stubborn, combative and faithful Jackson earned prestige for his military prowess in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. British forces outnumbered the Americans by more than 2,000. They possessed superior weapons and training and had more experience. Against all odds, Jackson’s troops defeated the British in about half an hour. Jackson believed his impossible victory to be a miracle: “It appears that the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the powers of balls, bombs, and rockets, when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death.”
Jackson understood the ultimate power of God to save and bless those that believe in Him. Twenty-two years later, Jackson reflected on the role of God in America as he delivered his Farewell Address. “Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race,” he said.
Freedom is a blessing. Jackson knew this then and Christians know it now.
The price of that freedom is reliance on God, as it is written in the Declaration of Independence: “With firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” We cannot be independent unless we remain joyfully dependent on God. As the Founding Fathers declared independence from foreign dominion, they surrendered, willfully and gracefully, to the Creator of the universe.
This is an essential example too many Americans have forgotten: we are a free nation, but we are not free from God. I believe our country has prospered because of its Christian underpinnings, yet now more than ever, we’re seeing the ramifications of an America turning away from God.
Jackson also knew that faith in God upholds liberty, because liberty itself — like life and happiness — is a gift from God. He said, “It is the province of the pulpits and the state tribunals to recommend the mode by which the people may best attest their reliance on the protecting arm of the Almighty in times of great distress."
But does the American people attest their reliance on the Almighty today? The reason America faces corruption and grave problems is because our lawmakers, courts and people have deliberately and systematically distanced themselves from the Founding Fathers’ declaration of dependence upon God in the Declaration of Independence.
Today, when our leaders publicly espouse faith in God, they are derided. Last week, when President Trump reminded the American people that churches are for praying and not protesting, nonbelievers and Christians alike cried out that Trump’s stance before St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., was merely a publicity stunt. Regardless of Trump’s intentions, his appearance at St. John’s holding a Bible has sparked a meaningful conversation about the role of the Bible in America.
Have our fellow citizens forgotten the source of liberty? The Bible Trump lifted overhead — albeit carried by an imperfect messenger (any human would be so) — reminds us that the highest power in our land, in any land, is the Almighty. Especially during this time of national anguish, we must remember to glorify God by reflecting His character in our lives. Like Jackson, we must understand that our liberty is a blessing of which we must strive to be worthy, and God’s Word illuminates the principles that form the moral center and enduring foundation of America. Whether or not Trump intended to reemphasize the Bible’s central role to our nation, we benefit from these necessary reminders of the Bible’s centrality. Jackson needed no such reminders.
We have come into an age of sophisticated idolatry, where people rely on and worship politicians and so-called journalists, rather than surrendering to God as Jackson did. On the 175th anniversary of Jackson’s death, let us honor his memory and imitate both his devotion to God and to our nation. While pointing to a Bible Jackson said, “That book, Sir, is the Rock upon which our republic rests.” We must never forget this lesson.
The essential message liberals reject.
Trumps’ Bible.
That portrait doesn’t look like Jackson.
I can’t find that portrait referenced as Jackson anywhere but Townhall.
I think it is someone else.
>
Today is June 8. The battle was January 8.
Why of all people choose a monster like Andrew Jackson to make this case?
1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in a town in New Orleans
We fired our guns and the British kep a-comin’
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they begin to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
We looked down a river
And we see’d the British come
And there must have been a hundred of’em
Beatin’ on the drums
They stepped so high
And they made their bugles ring
We stood by our cotton bales
And didn’t say a thing
We fired our guns and the British kep a-comin’
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they begin to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Old Hickory said we could take ‘em by surprise
If we didn’t fire our muskets
‘Till we looked ‘em in the eyes
We held our fire
‘Till we see’d their faces well
Then we opened up our squirrel guns
And really gave ‘em - well we
Fired our guns and the British kep a-comin’
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they begin to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Yeah, they ran through the briars
And they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes
Where the rabbit couldn’t go
They ran so fast
That the hounds couldn’t catch ‘em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
We fired our cannon ‘til the barrel melted down
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round
We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off the gator lost his mind
We fired our guns and the British kep a-comin’
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they begin to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Yeah, they ran through the briars
And they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes
Where the rabbit couldn’t go
They ran so fast
That the hounds couldn’t catch ‘em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
Not so sure about this hagiography. Father of Slave supporting Demoncrat party, betrayer of Indian treaties. Davy Crockett became an political adversary because of Jackson’s broken promises....
Dang...still remember the lyrics of Johnny Horton’s 1959 hit song. Where’d I put my glasses?
It captured the imagination of kids raised on Davy Crockett et al, especially the verse about the alligator.
;>)
I used to be very opposed to Jackson, until I learned the deeper meaning behind some of his actions. For example, the Trail of Tears internal deportation.
Early America in the time of the colonies, was dominated by two enormous tribal factions: the northern tribes and the southern tribes, both of which could field very large armies and who rapidly adapted to the European war fighting technology.
Even before the birth of the United States, there were two insanely brutal, no contest slaughters: The French and Indian war, where the Indians were so savage that even the professional French soldiers were somewhat horrified; and Pontiac’s Rebellion, again a ruthless campaign of violence and terror.
But between the two, the northern tribes ability to wage war was about wiped out. But the southern tribes were mostly unscathed.
Jackson actually knew, liked, and had fought beside some of the southern tribe Indians. But Jackson had a serious problem. An uncontrollable wave of (very tough) settlers was heading into the southern tribes territories with intent to make it their own.
He knew that unless he did something big, and in a hurry, there was likely going to be another murderous war. So using the Union Army, he ordered the “Trail of Tears”, deportation being preferable to annihilation. It should also be noted that the Union soldiers sent along with had proportionally just as much disease and death as did the Indians.
The army had to accompany them both to keep their movement in order and to protect them against Plains Indian tribe attacks. And yes, they would have been slaughtered otherwise, by some of the dozens of tribes that held territory on that route.
Jackson was one of the greatest, and most essential Presidents in United States history. He was a man of his times, and a providential man for his times. Among other things, he ended Spanish and British interest in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Britain wanted N.O. to control the Mississippi River and thence the American heartland. To insure Britain was kept out of the lands West of the Mississippi, he there resettled the “5 Civilized Tribes” from the East as a deterrent. They were a deterrent and formidable force to be reckoned with as evidenced by their actions during the Civil War. Research “Stand Waitie”.
Who is that a picture of, it isn’t Jackson!
Jackson totally rejected secession and was sound on destroying the central bank and putting the nation back on hard currency. He was the champion of the average man against the elites of his day.
Thanks, I should have recognized the picture. I guess it was put up to show the system of government that Jackson opposed, a huge central government, funded by a central bank. Jackson was the political heir to Jefferson.
It is an uncaptioned picture so, I assume it is posted with the article in error.
The article does not mention Jackson’s antipathy to big government or central banks so a doubt that Jackson’s animosity towards a central bank is the reason for the picture.
Just a posting error I am sure. Although I just checked and the picture is still posted with the article. I half expected that it would have been corrected by now. I would have expected some history buff would have alerted them to the error by now.
“A man of his times?” There were men of his times who weren’t hyper-partisan, cravenly power-hungry, genocidal, traitorous lunatics.
“To insure Britain was kept out of the lands West of the Mississippi, he there resettled the “5 Civilized Tribes” from the East as a deterrent.” Gosh, maybe the Cherokee would’ve made a better deterrent if so many hadn’t died.
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