COUNTY SEAT NAMING HAS UNUSUAL HISTORY

JACKSON -- Jackson, the county seat of Cape Girardeau County, received its name because of Gen. Andrew Jackson's popularity after the Battle of New Orleans 177 years ago today.

The story is almost unbelievable but very true. Missourians became very supportive of the white-haired general from Donaldson, Tenn., and instituted a Jackson Day of celebration.

Former Cape Girardeau residents, who had moved to the new county seat after Commandant Louis Lorimier's death, decided to name their new town in his honor in 1815, dropping the original name of "Byrdtown," which was chosen because members of the Byrd family of eastern Tennessee were some of the first and very important residents of the area.

After the Americans won the Revolution, the British had no claim to the Mississippi River. But the British did not relish being defeated and decided to make another attempt to regain the lost American colonies. They planned a conflict that would begin at the ocean port of New Orleans and work up the Mississippi to gain control of the lifeline of commerce used by the farmers to ship their products overseas. It would be easy then to work eastward and regain the lost colonies. The flaw in their plan was Gen. Jackson, who said he would not give one inch of America to the British.

American history books recount the story of what took place that particular Sunday morning when the fighting began on the Field of Chalmette, six miles southeast of New Orleans on Jan. 8, 1815. The brave "volunteers" stood steadfast and followed Gen. Jackson's orders implicitly, thereby defeating the larger British Army led by Gen. Edward Pakenham and Maj. Gen. Samuel Gibbs.

Gen. Jackson's troops critically wounded both Pakenham and Gibbs. The American troops killed over 2,000 British soldiers, wounded a score of others, and sent the rest retreating to their battleships in the Gulf. Americans lost six men and seven more were wounded. But the battle's aftermath was a different story for the Americans: many of the "volunteers" became ill from exposure and death from pneumonia was high for both sides.

The story of the battle and the coinciding observance of Cape Girardeau's bicentennial make it part of the city's history.

Battle details are too long to recount, but anyone interested in battle strategy will find research into this event exciting and highly interesting.

Not only were the residents of Southeast Missouri in full praise of this unusual general from Tennessee, but people throughout the state became infatuated with Jackson. His popularity heightened after the battle and in the following years, when he obtained Florida for the United States and became governor of the territory.

Gen. Jackson then won a U.S. Senate seat in 1824. He was pushed for the presidency but lost, only to become a candidate at the next election, which he won in 1828.

The sorrow in his success was the death of his beloved wife, Rachel Donelson, on Dec. 22, 1828, just after his election to the presidency. He canceled all plans Nashville had made to celebrate his election. Although Washington was the scene of gaiety when he arrived at the White House, President Jackson was far from being in a celebrating mood.

His administration is termed the first Democratic administration in Washington. John Adams' administration was a Federal one. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams were members of the Democratic-Republican Party.

One of the important things President Jackson did was to rid the country of debt. The debt was considered large for that time, left from the Revolution and starting the business of the new United States.

He cleared the debt by withdrawing government funds from money interests connected with the United States Bank. In spite of opposition, he had Congress withdraw the funds, and only Congress controlled it and paid the bills.

The government's bills were paid, and when President Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, left office on March 4, 1837, the country was debt free. The government money was in the sub-treasury where money interests in the country could not gain access to it.