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View Full Version : Hawthorne quote about Andrew Jackson, where from?


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07-07-2011, 06:26 PM
I remember a quote that stood out to me years ago when I was reading some old book in a library, maybe it was a biography of Andrew Jackson, or maybe it was mentioning the early Tennessee political history, but it gave a quote about Andrew Jackson, supposedly by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and it went something like this:

Such was his native strength, that every man who came in under his influence became his tool; the more cunning the man, the more cunning the tool.

Is this quote from Hawthorne? What is the exact quote? What book was I reading?

Sampiro
07-07-2011, 07:29 PM
Not the source of the quote, but it's mentioned in this book (http://www.archive.org/stream/rooseveltthelion010892mbp/rooseveltthelion010892mbp_djvu.txt)about FDR, though slightly different:

Roosevelt knew how to use these men for his own purposes; he
resembled Hawthorne's picture of Andrew Jackson as one who com-
pelled every man who came within his reach to be his tool, and the
more cunning the man, the sharper the tool.