the dangerous middle country. As a highway had just been opened
between Jonesboro and Nashville, the travelers were able to cover the
distance in fifteen days. Jackson rode a fine stallion, while a pack
mare carried his worldly effects, consisting of spare clothes,
blankets, half a dozen law books, and small quantities of ammunition,
tea, tobacco, liquor, and salt. For defense he bore a rifle and three
pistols; and in his pocket he carried one hundred and eighty dollars
of the much valued hard money. On the second day of November the
emigrant train made its appearance in Nashville bringing news of much
interest--in particular, that the Federal Constitution had been
ratified by the ninth State, and that the various legislatures were
preparing to choose electors, who would undoubtedly make George
Washington the first President of the Republic.

Less than ten years old, Nashville had now a population of not over
two hundred. But it was the center of a somewhat settled district
extending up and down the Cumberland for a distance of eighty or
ninety miles, and the young visitor from the Waxhaws quickly found it
a promising field for his talents. There was only one lawyer in the
place, and creditors who had been outbid for his services by their
debtors were glad to put their cases in the hands of the newcomer. It
is said that before Jackson had been in the settlement a month he had
issued more than seventy writs to delinquent debtors. When, in 1789,
he was appointed "solicitor," or prosecutor, in Judge McNairy's
jurisdiction with a salary of forty pounds for each court he attended,
his fortune seemed made and he forthwith gave up all thought of
returning to his Carolina home. Instead he took lodgings under the
roof of the widow of John Donelson, and in 1791 he married a daughter
of that doughty frontiersman. Land was still cheap, and with the
proceeds of his fees and salary he purchased a large plantation called