a hero, even more than it would to have gained a victory over so many English soldiers. In May, 1814, General Jackson was major-general of the United States army in the southwest over six other generals who had claims to the position. The English were preparing for a grand attack on the southwest in July. General Jackson pushed forward to Mobile to hinder as much as possible their operations in that quarter. They had possession of Pensacola in Spanish territory, which they used as though it were their own. Jackson wrote for orders, but getting no answer moved against it with three thousand men and cleaned it of British war force and materials. He sent a force against the Florida Indians with equal success. He was soon back to Mobile in force; but finding he had swept that region clear of the enemy, he sent the mass of his army to New Orleans, and reached that place himself December 2, 1814. On December 14, a powerful British naval force came up the river and captured several gunboats and a schooner. The next day Jackson proclaimed martial law in New Orleans. On the morning of the twenty-third the advance of the British army came within nine miles of New Orleans. At two o'clock that afternoon, with a little over two thousand men, Jackson attacked the enemy. A severe battle ensued, aided by Lieutenant Henly in the schooner Carolina. This battle gave the British warning of the welcome they might expect when they went nearer the city. That night the British were heavily reinforced, and had an army of trained soldiers and marines of fourteen thousand effective men armed and supplied according to the best art of war at that time. This is the highest estimate. Their own writers have put their force as low as eight thousand. To oppose this force Jackson had a force of less than four thousand, composed of Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana militia, with a few regulars. He had two sloops of war in the river and one colored battalion. After the battle of the twenty-third of December, Jackson fell back to within four miles of the city, and began to throw up an embankment from the river back to the swamps, a distance of more than a mile. He employed every available force of men and boys, to complete his line of defense as soon as possible. He could dig only about three feet before coming to water. He filled his poorly equipped and raw soldiers, who were there for the defense of their homes and country, with the spirit and power of heroes. They were there a wall of defense to save the city and the country behind it. The caution of General Packenham, the British commander, kept him bringing up reinforcements and making preparations till the twenty-eighth. On that day he came on, confident and strong, with his battalions that believed themselves invincible. Steadily, solidly, with bands playing, banners flying, swords and bayonets glistening, they marched upon the line of the American defense. The artillery led, and opened the attack. The Americans waited till the British column was within easy gun shot, and then opened on it to give it no quarter till it was swept away as though it were of gossamer. Two hours of steady cannonade and musketry work sent the shattered British columns back in confusion, leaving the field strewn with the dead and dying. They retreated two miles and encamped. They began at once to repair their losses. From their ships they brought more cannon and marines. On the night of the thirty-first, which was very dark, they moved forward to within three hundred yards of the American line and under cover of a heavy cannonade, began to dig for protection against the American fire in the morning. The next morning was Sunday. A dense fog shut everything from sight, till about ten o'clock it lifted, revealing the pageantry of grim war covering all the plains. The batteries at once opened; the British columns moved forward and opened fire. The air was perfectly still, and soon dense with smoke; but Jackson's men knew the range and fired continuously into the fast falling ranks of their enemy. It was a short work. The British fled to their entrenchments and ceased firing. For this battle cotton bales had been brought for better protection, but they did not serve the purpose, and were abandoned. Three times now the enemy had been beaten back. What would he do next? He had immense resources, and England's best military talent and skill to use them. The people of the city and our army were in intense anxiety. human flesh and blood, with the mighty will of Andrew Jackson, was all that stood in the way of destruction. Every preparation to receive the next shock, which could be made, was adopted. Sunday morning, January 8,about half an hour before sunrise, the hostile line began to move again. Intrepid and firm stood Jackson and his men in their places. The battle array had now stretched across the river, and Jackson had to provide an additional force for that side. The enemy came on steady and resolute; now for the fourth. time, only to fall in almost whole regiments before the deadly fire of Jackson's men. Two hours of such work sent them flying back, with Packenham, their leader, dead on the field, General Gibbs mortally wounded, and General Keane severely wounded. They rallied again; but it was only the effort of an exhausted and beaten army. So was fought and won the great battle of New Orleans. Nothing more courageous and decisive had been done on this continent. With everything against him, and double the number of his own men at least, and trained soldiers against raw recruits, he held England's pride and power at bay for two weeks and then sent them away shattered and beaten. They remained ten days in their encampments, then stole away to their ships and departed. General Jackson now became the hero of the American people; he had settled with the Indians; had saved New Orleans; had won imperishable honors for American arms; had sent England's last army back in disgrace from our shores. His faults, vices and crimes were now forgotten. His savage temper, foul speech and barbaric will all grew virtuous in the white glory of this great victory. For the time being the common people were mad with delight, and were ready to canonize Jackson and hold him the paragon of all virtues. They have at last come to see him as a craggy mountain, rough, stormy, bold, with great defiles, dark recesses and jutting points, yet solid and grand in strength. General Jackson had his troubles at New Orleans with citizens. His enemies were severe on him for establishing martial law. He had one man arrested and imprisoned. The judge set him at liberty on a writ of habeas corpus; then Jackson banished the judge from the city. The news of the treaty of Ghent and peace came right on; then the judge returned and fined Jackson a thousand dollars. The people wanted to pay it, but he would not permit it. Years after, it, with interest, was refunded to him by Congress. But not to Jackson alone was due the victory over the Indians and British. The people of Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, and the whole southwest, were joined with him, and are to be accorded their full share in the struggle, patriotism and glory of the great consummation. General Jackson retired to the Hermitage, near Nashville, but to remain but a little while. Near the close of the next year (1817) the Seminole Indians in Florida were on the war path. General Jackson was ordered to take the field against them. He gathered a large force of regulars, Creek Indians and militia of Tennessee and Georgia. He went into Florida while it was yet a Spanish territory, took Fort St. Marks, where he captured a Scotchman named Arbuthnot, and at Suwanee captured one Ambrister. Both these were British subjects. He tried them by court martial, found them guilty of inciting the Indians against the United States, and had them executed. Two Indian chiefs were hanged by his order. He continued his march, and took Pensacola. The Spanish authorities complained. The country was divided on the subject of his invasion of Spanish territory; some condemning, some approving, his course. The secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, approved it. In 1821, when Spain ceded Florida to the United States, Jackson was appointed governor of the territory, but he held the office but a little while. President Monroe offered him the post of minister to Mexico, which he did not accept. In 1823 the Tennessee legislature elected him to the United States Senate, and nominated him for the presidency. This nomination was treated as a joke by many, so unfit did they regard him for that place. But in the ensuing presidential election, in 1824, he received ninety-nine electoral votes; but," as there was no choice by the electors, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams. He retired again to the Hermitage; but at the next presidential election the entire opposition to Adams united on Jackson, and he was elected. PRESIDENT JACKSON. The political and sectional contest which elected Jackson was a severe one. The opposition to Adams was chiefly a sectional one. He was a northern man; was personally opposed to slavery; his father was a federalist, and he was elected by a federalist district. Though non-partisan and a most just and wise president, he did not suit partisans or sectionalists. Both wanted more influence in the government than they could get under him. Jackson was a democrat of the radical type. The slave states were democratic in theory, though autocratic in practice toward Africans; Jackson was a democrat and a slave holder; so, as a democrat and a slave holder, he suited the southern section of the country. He was very bitterly opposed. All his strong peculiarities; his hot temper; his irresistible will; his quarrels and duels; his marrying another man's wife; his lack of an education; his ignorance as a civilian- all were used against him to make the contest personal, sharp and severe. There were no principles involved that it did the people good to consider and discuss. There were no measures before the people which related to good government and the improvement of the country. The whole contest was personal, partisan and sectional, educating the people only in things harmful and belittling. Before General Jackson was inaugurated president, his wife sickened and died. It was said at the time that the public recital of all her marriage troubles, hastened her death. It was a heavy blow to her most loyal and devoted husband. Few men |