Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/544

 The First Court West of the Alleghanies. gered in turn, and wrote upon the fly-leaf of a law-book this challenge : — August 12, 1788.

SIR. — When a man's feeling and character are injured, he ought to seek a speedy redress; you rec'd a few lines from me yesterday & undoubtedly understand me. My character you have injured; and farther you have insulted me in the presence of a court and large audience. I therefore call upon you as a gentleman to give satisfaction for the same; and I further call upon you to give me an answer immediately without equivocation, and I hope you can do without dinner until the business is done; for it is consistent with the character of a gentleman when he injures a man to make speedy reparation, therefore I hope you will not fail in meeting me this day from Yr obt st

ANDREW JACKSON. To COLL. AVERY. P. S. this Evening after court adjourned. Avery accepted the challenge, and the duel was fought at dusk of Aug. 12, 1788, in a ravine near the court-house in Jonesborough. After the exchange of a few shots, Jackson declared himself satisfied, and the antago nists left the field to become and remain firm friends.

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After the lapse of a number of years the young public prosecutor was made Judge. It was while holding the court at Jonesborough that the incident of Bean's arrest by Jackson occurred. Judge Jackson, upon reprimanding the sheriff for his failure to take Bean into custody, and ordering the summoning of a posse, was himself sum moned from the bench to take the desperado. Bean, learning that his honor was in the exe cution of the summons, quailed and submitted to arrest. Andrew Jackson afterwards (1801-3) pre sided over the Superior Court of Tennessee, and sat at Jonesborough in conjunction with Judge Hugh Lawson White. The minutes show the signatures of these two eminent men, side by side, in boldest script. In after years the two associates became leaders of rival factions in Tennessee politics and warm antagonists. In 1836 Judge White became an anti-Jacksonian candidate for the Presi dency, against Van Buren, "the heir of Jackson." The campaign in Tennessee was most bitter. Judge White carried the State, but Van Buren was easily elected by the nation at large.