He told his friends that he purposed washing his hands utterly of public life and political affairs; that he had now been to all intents and purposes a public servant from the age of thirteen to that of threescore and ten ... that he had lived his whole life in plain sight of the public and the people, hiding nothing, simulating nothing, confessing nothing, extenuating nothing and regretting nothing — except that he could never get a chance to shoot Clay or hang Calhoun.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "He told his friends that he purposed washing his hands utterly of public life and political affairs; that he had now been to all intents and purposes a public servant from the age of thirteen to that of threescore and ten ... that he had lived his whole life in plain sight of the public and the people, hiding nothing, simulating nothing, confessing nothing, extenuating nothing and regretting nothing — except that he could never get a chance to shoot Clay or hang Calhoun." in the context of "Augustus Ceaser Buell, who is considered a very unreliable historian, notorious for inventing quotes, in History of Andrew Jackson, pioneer, patriot, soldier, politician, president (1904), recounting comments by Jackson to William Allen, Thomas Benton, and Francis Blair at Blair's house, just days after leaving the presidency. What is probably a paraphrase derived from this as if it were a direct quote of Jackson has appeared, without sources: "My only two regrets in life are that I did not hang Calhoun and shoot Clay"." to mean that wisdom is timeless.