"A Being so gentle and yet so virtuous" -- The Hermitage, Hermitage TN - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

This sign of history stands at the foot of the tomb for General Jackson and his wife Rachel in the Jackson family cemetery. The sign reads as follows:

"A Being so gentle and yet so virtuous"
Rachel and Andrew's tomb

Rachel Jackson quietly suffered through Jackson's bid for the White House, as his enemies attacked the circumstances of their marriage. Although Jackson easily won the presidency Rachel dreaded the gossiping whispers of Washington social circles. Whether the stress contributed to her death on December 22, 1828 is not known, but Jackson believed that it did.

Jackson buried his Rachel and her beloved garden, erected a temporary shelter over her grave until a more suitable monument could be built. In 1831, Jackson commissioned architect David Morrison to design this Greek revival tomb. For Jackson's contemporaries, the architecture of ancient Greece symbolize not only political, but moral virtue. Consciously or not, Jackson's a selection of the style conveyed his belief in Rachel's virtue.

At the end of his presidency, Jackson returned to the Hermitage, where numerous accounts confirm that he visited Rachel's tomb daily. When he died on June 8, 1845, he was laid to rest next to Rachel. His tombstone simply reads, "General Andrew Jackson."

This moving inscription Jackson placed on Rachel's tomb highlights his sensitivity towards questions about her honor. It is shown here as it appears on the tomb.

"Here lie the remains of
MRS. RACHEL JACKSON
wife of PRESIDENT JACKSON,
who died the 20 second Dec 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 un-pretending methods: to the poor she was a benefactor; to the rich and example; to the wretched a comforter, to the prosperous and ornament, her piety went hand-in-hand with her benevolence, and she thanked her creator for being permitted to do good. Being so gentle, and yet so virtuous, slander might wound but could not dishonour; even death, when he tore her from the armes of her husband, could but transport her to the bosom of her God."

Andrew Jackson was a national hero in the nation mourned his death in 1845. Ceremonies and funeral parades in cities and towns across the nation, like the one pictured here in New York, honor Jackson's memory. Mourners often wore silk ribbons like this one and then kept them as mementos. Note that the engravers chose to call him Gen'l Jackson, not President Jackson.

Alfred's grave
to the right of Jackson's tomb, note the grave of Alfred Jackson, a former Hermitage enslaved worker. Alfred requested that the ladies Hermitage Association bury him next to Jackson's tomb. The marker reads, uncle Alfred because in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the terms 'uncle' and 'auntie' were considered a polite way of addressing elderly black people. No longer use today, these terms are now seen as derogatory.

I find myself a solitary mourner, deprived of all hope of happiness the site of the grave, and often wish myself at the Hermitage there to spend the remnant of my days, and daily drop a tear on the tomb of my beloved wife.
-- Andrew Jackson to Hardy Murphree Cryer, May 16, 1829"

Group that erected the marker: The Hermitage Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: The Hermitage Hermitage, TN URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   03/11/2019 Benchmark Blasterz visited it