History and Genealogy of the Robards Family
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Jackson's Wife.

The true story of the great statesman's matrimonial venture. A bit of history that has been generally suppressed or destroyed. The wrong light in which Mrs. Jackson's first husband has been put by biographers of General Jackson. What the court records of Virginia show with regard to the Robards divorce and Jackson's marriage and great love for his wife.

Jackson's whole public life, like his private life, as marked by a strong purpose to follow his own bent, regardless of the consequences, and he carried his points by the sheer force of his character. It was in the same spirit that he invaded another man's home and carried away his wife, paying no heed then to how the world might look upon it. He fell in love with her. He wanted her for himself. She reciprocated and he took her boldly away.

This, however, was a blunder and left upon him a moral stain which all of the sophistry and juggling with facts by his friends can never efface or conceal. His marriage to Rachael Donaldson, like Napoleon's repudiation of Josephine, was the fatal error of his life, and left a scar that can never be healed. It is the sensitiveness of this sore, no doubt, which compels his admirers at every recurring interval to tear away the bandages and probe it and make fresh efforts to cure it by denials, and explanations, and extenuations of the circumstances which can never be denied or explained away so long as the records of thc courts stand.

General Butler, in his speech before the Butler Club, of Boston, January 8, 1890, recalled this circumstance in Jackson's life, explaining it away in such terms as challenged the criticism of all students of history, and which were calculated to leave the impression, which Jackson's defenders have always sought to make, that "Mrs. Jackson was the injured wife of an unworthy spouse," from which a divorce was a matter of necessity. In his address General Butler said: "He went into the White House with an unsullied character, in every relation of life, with him family and society; his name and fame were untarnished," and again: "Against his private life nothing was ever breathed. The worst things the Whig party could ever say against him was that he married a woman who had been legally divorced by the Legislature of Virginia." Since the Jackson presidential campaign the true history of this affair has never been published; it was hushed up on the election of Jackson to fill the chief office of the nation, but now that more than a century has passed and the affair can be talked of dispassionately, there seems to be no reason why the true facts of the case can not be published, and justice done to the man who was wronged.

Sojourning, a good many years ago, for a time in Central Kentucky, I was located in the oldest town in the State, where I soon found much to interest me in the village gossip of noted people about generations dead and gone. I was surprised to find that in the old clerk's office was recorded the papers concerning the Jackson-Donaldson scandal, and that the old Robards homestead had stood within easy distance of the town, though only a pile of stones and a huge square chimney then remained to mark the spot where dwelt the Widow Robards, from whose fireside Andrew Jackson stole her son's wife away. Recognizing the fact that I had stumbled upon a bit of important history, I proceeded at once to the task of gathering up the threads of the tangled skein, not difficult then, for I found many people still alive who were perfectly familiar with the facts, which had been impressed upon their memories by the bitter crimination and recrimination of the Jackson campaign. There are living at the present day five generations of the Robards family, the oldest of whom remember the events as detailed to them by their parents sixty or seventy years ago. And there are the records of the courts which prove all the essential points of the case. The story, as heard direct from these people, is given to the readers of this book with full details concerning the family of Capt. Lewis Robards, husband of Rachael Donaldson, whom history has been kind enough to hand down by that name, though, as will be seen, she was the legal wife of Capt. Lewis Robards for two years after eloping with Jackson.

By the women of a family its social status may be determined. A man may sink below or rise above the level set by the world That the Robards women were distinguished more than most other of that early day for their beauty and culture may be inferred from the brilliant marriages made by them and the marked traits of their descendents. A detailed history of the Robards family is given here for two reasons, first to prove the credibility of the narrative, and, secondly, by way of refutation of the assertion often made in palliation of her fault that Rachael Donaldson after her marriage found herself so superior to her surroundings, and her lawful husband and his family so unappreciative of her worth, that she was more readily captivated by attentions shown her from such a man as Jackson.    [more >> ]

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