Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis

In the spring of 1798, Jackson resigns his Senate seat without explanation and heads home. He later admits the body's meager achievements are not worth the tedium and his time is too valuable. He has the temperament of an executive, a leader, not a follower. Jefferson, who presides in the Senate later recalls Jackson as a "prisoner of overpowering emotions." Jackson also misses his wife and knows she misses him, which brings on physical ailments. The ride to Philadelphia is too long to consider taking Rachel along.

In Nashville, Jackson resumes speculation, farming, and commerce, and accepts Sevier's offer of a superior court judgeship. Neither legal training nor his passionate personality qualifies Jackson, but few westerners disapprove of his preference for justice over law wherever they diverge. Riding a circuit he inspires stories that make Tennesseans believe he is a man to...