Rachel Jackson

Rachel Jackson
Born	June 15, 1767(1767-06-15) Halifax County, Virginia
Died	December 22, 1828(1828-12-22) (aged 61)
Spouse	Lewis Robards (separated in 1790, divorced in 1794) Andrew Jackson (1791-1794, invalid; 1794-1828, dissolved by her death)
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Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson, born Rachel Donelson, (June 15, 1767 – December 22, 1828) was the wife of the 7th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson.

Rachel Donelson Robards is said to be among one of the first settlers of Tennessee. She was considered rather beautiful in her younger years and was quite vivacious. She had been in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards, a man subject to irrational fits of jealous rage, and the two separated in 1790. Jackson, who had first arrived in Nashville in 1788 and lived as a boarder with Rachel Stockley Donelson, mother of Rachel Donelson Robards, married Rachel after believing that Robards had obtained a divorce. However, the divorce had never been completed, making Rachel's marriage to Jackson technically bigamous and therefore invalid. After the divorce (the first in Kentucky history) was officially completed, Rachel and Jackson remarried in 1794. During the Election of 1828, she was accused of being a bigamist, among other things, by supporters of John Quincy Adams. Despite the accusations, Jackson won by a comparative landslide, probably due to his military record and offers of patronage. Rachel Jackson died right before the electoral ball for the new President. Jackson blamed his opposition for her death. Today, the 1828 election is considered by some historians to be one of the meanest in American history.

Jackson and his wife enjoyed a genuine love match. In 1813, she wrote, "Do not my Beloved Husband let the love of Country, fame and honor let you forget you have me without you I would think them all empty shadows You will say this is not the Language of a Patriot but it is the language of a Faithfull wife..." When she died, he was inconsolable. He refused to believe she was actually dead and insisted that blankets be laid on her body in case she woke up and needed warmth. He built a tomb for her in her flower garden (one visitor to the Hermitage stated, "I have never seen anyone as enthusiastically fond of flowers as the General's Lady"). According to his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson Lawrence, Jackson visited Rachel's grave every night at sunset. He hung her portrait at the foot of his bed so she would be the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw at night, and he once said, "Heaven will be no heaven for me if she is not there."

Jackson wrote his wife's epitaph, which reads as follows: "Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of President Jackson, who died December 22nd 1828, aged 61. Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her temper amiable, and her heart kind. She delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow-creatures,and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unpretending methods. To the poor she was a benefactress; to the rich she was an example; to the wretched a comforter; to the prosperous an ornament. Her pity went hand in hand with her benevolence; and she thanked her Creator for being able to do good. A being so gentle and so virtuous, slander might wound but could not dishonor. Even death, when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could but transplant her to the bosom of her God."

See also

Biography portal

• First Lady of the United States

References

• White House biography
• Brands, H.W. (2005). Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50738-0. 
• Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey. 12th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
• Rachel and Andrew Jackson's Love Story http://www.wnpt.org/productions/rachel/
• John Fiske (1914). "John Quincy Adams". In James Grant Wilson. The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.  In Wikisource.

External links

• Rachel Jackson at Find a Grave
• The Jackson Marriage