Here follows the military order, containing the second section, in these words:

"And be it further enacted, that in time of war, all persons not citizens of, or owing allegiance to the United States of America, who shall be found lurking as spies in or about the fortifications or encampments of the armies of the United States, or any of them, shall suffer death, according to the law and usage of nations, by sentence of a general Court Martial."

Now, having read the section, does the reader believe that the accused was acquitted, because proof that, an address published in a newspaper, had not been communicated to the cnemy? Does he not see, that, if the act charged amounted to the offence proscribed, which is impossible, that, the person charged was not amenable under it; and that, consequently, no Court Martial, not alike weak and wicked, could convict?

The section contemplates persons not citizens or persons not owing allegiance to the United States. This is a specific class of persons, which, only, could produce spies. A citizen, or one owing allegiance to the United States, who is not a soldier, is not amenable under the articles of war; or if he be, must be prosecuted for giving intelligence to the enemy, under the 57th article of the first section. And yet a Major General of the United States, dared to accuse and try a citizen, under a section of the law, so totally foreign to the matter, which he believed, or did not believe, to be applicable to the case. If he believed it, then, was there the most reprehensible ignorance of that which he was bound to know; if he did not believe it, he attempted to sustain illegal power by the perversion of the law.

118. When tidings of these proceedings were received at Washington, the conduct of the General was thus rebuked, by Alexander J. Dallas,* acting Secretary of War, by command of the President. "Representations have been recently made to the President, respecting certain acts of military opposition to the civil magistrate, that require immediate attention-not only in vindication of the just authority of the laws, but to rescue your own conduct from an unmerited reproach.

"There have been transmitted, to the President, copies of the letter of Mr. Reed, your Aid-de-Camp, to the Editor of

Mr. Dallas' letter, dated April 15, 1815:

the Louisiana Courier, dated the 21st of February-of your General Order, dated the 28th of February, commanding certain French subjects to retire from New Orleans-of a publication in the Louisiana Courier of the 3d of March, under the signature of a Citizen of Louisiana of French origin, animadverting upon the General Order-the order of the 5th of March, enforcing the order of the 28th of February-of your letter of the 16th of February, announcing the unofficial intelligence of peace, and of the third General Order of the 8th of March, suspending the execution of the Order of the 28th of February, except so far as relates to the Chevalier de Toussard.

"These documents have been accompanied with a statemert, that, on the 5th of March, the writer of the publication of the 3d of March, Mr. Louaillier, a member of the Legislature of the State, was arrested by your order, on account of the publication, and confined in the barracks; that, on the same day, Mr. Hall, the District Judge, issued a writ of Habeas Corpus in the case of Louaillier, but before the writ was served, the Judge himself was arrested by your order, for issuing it, and conducted under a strong guard to the barracks: that, on the 8th of March, Mr. Dick, the attorney of the United States, having obtained from Mr. Lewis, as State Judge, a writ of Habeas Corpus, in the case of Judge Hall, which was served upon you, he was arrested by your orders, and lodged in the barracks-that Judge Hall was released, on the 12th of March, but escorted to a place out of the City of New Orleans, with orders not to return until information of peace was officially received and officially announced; and that Mr. Dick was released, on the same day, and permitted to remain in town, but with orders to report himself, from day to day, until discharged.

"From these representations, it would appear, that, the judicial power of the United States has been resisted; the liberty of the Press has been suspended, and the Consul and subjects of a friendly Government have been exposed to great inconvenience by the exercise of military force and command. The President views the subject in its present aspect with surprise and solicitude; but in the absence of all information from yourself, relative to your conduct, and the motives of your conduct, he abstains from any decision or even expression of an opinion upon the case, in hopes that such explanations may be afforded, as will reconcile his sense of public duty with a continuance of the confidence,

which he reposes in your judgment, discretion and patriot

ism."

The President requests me to take this opportunity of requesting, that a conciliatory deportment may be observed towards the State authority and citizens of New Orleans. He is persuaded that Louisiana justly estimates the value of the talents and valor which have been displayed for her defence and safety, and that there will be no disposition in any part of the nation to review with severity the efforts of a commander acting in a crisis of unparalleled difficulty upon the impulse of the purest patriotism."

No terms of censure could be more explicit upon the conduct of the General, as known from the "representations," and those representations were true to the letter. From this censure of his Government General Jackson has never been relieved, although he may have expiated a portion of his sins at New Orleans, by submission to the sentence of the Court which was passed upon him for contempt of the writ of Habeas Corpus.

119. From all the circumstances, then, attending the violation of the law, and assumptions of authority, we have additional proof, of the tendency of General Jackson to appropriate power to himself, by fair means, or foul. Such, too, appears to have been the general opinion of his character. He was supposed, rough in his manners, and overbearing in his conduct; and he said of himself, "many conceive me to be a most ferocious animal, insensible to moral duty and regardless of the laws, both of God and Man." How far this opinion of the many, was consistent with truth, may, perhaps, be correctly apprehended from the next eventful epoch, in the life of the military chieftain.

120. The treaty made at Fort Jackson, with the Creeks, was a hard one. It exacted large sacrifices of territory, its phraseology was the most imperious and ungrateful which could be used towards a spirited people, and it was executed by only one-third of the nation. Is it, therefore, extraordinary that the usual effect of over rigour should result in this case, and that the suffering party should seek to escape from its burdens? Under the name of Seminoles, (a Creek tribe) many Indians, including the vanquished of the late war, congregated in Florida, with considerable numbers of fugitive negroes. Even the late tremendous exhibition of the power

*Eaton's Life of Jackson.

of the white men had not taught these deluded wretches the absolute impossibility of obtaining, even, justice by, force. Stimulated by their late defeats, by the arts of wicked emissaries, by the hopes of regaining their country, and, we fear, we must in justice add, by repeated injuries from the bordering whites, the Seminoles, in the summer of 1817, re-comnienced a barbarous war: for terminating which, the services of General Jackson were again commanded.

121. On the 26th of December, 1817, the War Department issued orders to him, then at Nashville, to repair to Fort Scott, and assume the command of the forces in that quarter of the Southern division; to call upon the Executives of the adjacent States, if, in his opinion, the troops of the United States were too few to beat the enemy; and to adopt the necessary measures to terminate the conflict. On the receipt of this order, General Jackson, instead of calling for the militia, summoned to his aid 1200 volunteers from Tennessee and Kentucky. This corps was organized, and officered, under his directions, and mustered into the service of the United States. About the same period, General Gaines, also, raised 1600 men, among the friendly Creeks. General Jackson entered upon the campaign with a force of about 3000: that, of the enemy, at the utmost, did not exceed one thousand; and, at no time did half that number present themselves to oppose his march. Of course, little resistance was made. The Indian towns were destroyed, and their inhabitants dispersed.*

122. In his progress, he captured, caused to be tried by court martial, and executed, Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two Englishmen, residents among, and averred to be instigators of the hostility of, the Seminoles; and he hung without trial, two Indian chiefs, who, by wiles, had been drawn into his power. He invaded the Spanish territory of Florida, reduced the forts of St. Mark and Barrancas, and the city of Pensacola, and commanded the reduction of St. Augustine; transported the Spanish officers, civil and military, to the Havana; abolished the revenue laws of Spain, instituted those of the United States; and, on his own mere authority, established civil and military officers.

123. The preceding sentence records, almost as many of

*In this campaign the troops of the United States suffered no loss, save in the death of six militia men, executed with the approbation of the General, for desertion:

fences as facts; and if it were separated from the context, the reader might readily suppose that he was perusing an account of the progress of an independent sovereign, or of a Roman Consul bearing the eagles of the "gowned nation" over new conquests. Whilst the events were fresh before the nation, the following charges were alleged, by our most eminent statesmen, against the General.

1. That, in substituting volunteers, raised upon his own authority, for the militia, he assumed a power which did not legally belong, either to him or to the administration of the Government; for, that, whilst the general law, provided for the use of the militia, no statute warranted the evocation of volunteers; and that, whatever the law provided, whether in form or substance, was obligatory upon its agents:

2. That, by the organization of the volunteer corps, the officers and privates were independent of the Government and dependent upon the General:

3. That, the invasion of Florida was unwarranted; that if warranted, it was only in pursuit or reduction of an enemy, who overpowered the neutral or was sustained by him; that, if such cause justified the capture of St. Marks, it did not extend to the seizure of Fort Barrancas nor the city of Pensacola; that, if it even extended to them, it did not give a right to conquer the country, expel the Governor, abolish the laws, and convert the territory into a colony of the United States; that, by these acts, the General had made war upon Spain, had changed the relations between us and that Government, and had, thus, assumed powers which could be exercised only by Congress:

4. That, although, it might be true, that, the cruelties practised in war by one belligerent, might, lawfully, be retaliated by the other, and that, white men associating themselves with savages were associated with their fate; yet, that, in the present case, the retaliation was unnecessary, the war being over, and was forbidden by the rule of mercy which a practice of three hundred years had established in North America; that, if the law of nations, in this respect, had not been thus abrogated, it had been executed without the knowledge or the sanction of the Government; and that, if the General had a right, without specific authority, to enforce this law, it was exercised with indecorous and cruel precipitation.

5. That, in the cases of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, he had alike, grossly, mistaken, the law, under which their offences