is received. I hasten to answer that
there was no man 'in the station of colonel, by the name of J. T.
Smith,' under my command, at the battle of New Orleans; and am,
respectfully,
"Yours, ANDREW JACKSON.
"OCT. 19th, 1833."
The old general, we suspect, has been insnared by a pardonable little
stratagem on the part of the autograph collector. The battle of New
Orleans would hardly have been won, without better aid than this
problematical Colonel J. T. Smith.
Intermixed with and appended to these historical autographs, there are a
few literary ones. Timothy Dwight--the "old Timotheus" who sang the
Conquest of Cancan, instead of choosing a more popular subject, in the
British Conquest of Canada--is of eldest date. Colonel Trumbull, whose
hand, at various epochs of his life, was familiar with sword, pen, and
pencil, contributes two letters, which lack the picturesqueness of
execution that should distinguish the chirography of an artist. The
value of Trumbull's pictures is of the same nature with that of
daguerreotypes, depending not upon the ideal but the actual. The
beautiful signature of Washington Irving appears as the indorsement of a
draft, dated in 1814, when, if we may take this document as evidence,
his individuality seems to have been merged into the firm of "P.
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