tice, he became involved in personal contests with the debtors. His courage, in these cases, and in occasional rencontres with the Indians, rendered him notorious and popular among men abler to appreciate physical than moral qualities. As a consequence, he became, in 1796, a representative in the State Convention, and in Congress; in 1797, a Senator of the United States; and in 1798, a Major General of Militia.

105. For the civil stations, whose honours he coveted, he proved incompetent; and after a short effort, confessing his incapacity, he renounced them. If we consider the temperament of the man, sensitive, fierce and aspiring, we may conceive the mortifications he endured in assemblies where the illiterate attorney was eclipsed by his better instructed fellows. Soon after resigning his seat in the Senate, he accepted one on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, which, for like reasons, he resigned. The military appointment, congenial to his taste, he retained until, in 1814, he entered the regular service of the United States.

106. Academic instruction does not always produce genius. But genius avails itself of every opportunity for instruction in its chosen pursuits or in such as pertain to its nature That the genius of Mr. Jackson was not a civil one is apparent from its inability to qualify itself for civil employment; that it was militant may be inferred, as well from events of his after life, as from some private wars of his youth and manhood, which we do not propose to narrate.

107. The war of 1812 opened an honorable field to his martial propensities. Under the Acts of Congress authorising the acceptance of volunteers, he, with 2500 men of his division, who had entered the service, was ordered to descend the Mississippi for the defence of the lower country.. But he had scarce reached Natchez, in January 1813, when he was directed by the War Department to dismiss his troops, and to deliver the public property in his charge to General Wilkinson. The egotism of his character now displayed itself. The troops he commanded were his troops, not the troops of the United States-brought out by his influence not by the call of their country-under his exclusive command, not that of the constituted authorities, whose orders he refused to obey, despite the recommendation of a council of his officers, and the remonstrance of General Wilkinson. By this dangerous example of insubordination he sought to create a partisan feeling, to substitute himself, instead of their country in the affections of his troops, and to make them dependent

upon him for protection against the Government which, he said, oppressively, disbanded them at a distance from their homes. This resolution was not accidental, but flowed from that insatiable self-love which has characterized every hero, who has trodden down the liberties of his country. The troops were marched back to Tennessee and there discharged. His flatterers ascribe high merit to this unsoldierly conduct. But such merit he would have rewarded, in a subordinate, by a court martial and ignominious death. The inexperience and the weakness of the government at the commencement of a war for which it was illy prepared, form the only apology for its omission to punish this unpardonable offence.

108. The Creek war, produced by the arts of Tecumseh and his prophets, drew upon an ignorant and superstitious race the vengeance of the United States. The massa cre at Fort Mimms roused the inhabitants of Georgia and Tennessee, and called forth General Jackson and his division, first into the service of the State and subsequently of the Union. This is a species of warfare in which few laurels are to be gathered. Indian hostility, dreadful in the midnight massacre of peaceful agriculturalists, has, comparatively, little horror in the field. There, the Indian is as unable to withstand the white man, as to turn the tide of population, which is sweeping him from the land of his fathers. In every pitched battle, from the victories of Wayne, the red men have been defeated; and their desperate courage and obstinacy have frequently turned the conflict into massacre. In the present war they had not the remotest chance of success; andgross infatuation, alone, induced them without foreign aid to commence it. The battles of Talledaga, Tallushatchee, Emuckfa, and Tohopeka, in which the white, was double the Indian, force, were slaughters as lamentable as inevitable.

109. The occasion called for little ability, but what it required the General possessed. In a campaign of about four months, he seems to have sustained privations with a fortitude which excelled that of some of his troops, and was not surpassed by any of his officers. He bore, without repining, occasional scarcity of food, and a couch less soft than he had left at home. But in the government of the army he was less happy. Mutiny after mutiny arose, and twice, at least, his troops were divided, and in deadly array against each other. Though anxious to appropriate to himself the affections of his army, the General was sadly deficient in the arts of conciliation. Force was the only mean he knew

to compose dissention, and the death of one militia man, by the sentence of a court martial, approved by him, savours more of rigour than of mercy.

110. But who would not, by greater sacrifices than the General made, in this campaign, if such were possible, have purchased praise like this-the rich and meet reward of his labours the balm for all wounds of the spirit-wounds of the flesh we believe he never received, except as the hero of the revolutionary war. "One General retired with his brigade; opposition after opposition, he met with from different officers, yet he proceeded on to assault the blood thirsty enemy, in spite of every impediment, though he had to imprison officers, to hang a militia soldier, and to do things which it appears almost to require credulity unbounded to believe to be true. Finally, however, he succeeded; he subdued the savage tribes; he reduced them to sue for pardon and for peace; he concluded a treaty with them; took them out of the hands of the more crafty and more powerful enemy of America, and cleared the way for a battle, single handed, with the British, on the gulph of Mexico; and finally at New Orleans.”*

111. The muse of history, when writing this page of our country's annals, will probably treat it thus: The Creek Indians, miserably ignorant and superstitious, excited by British promises of assistance, and the arts of an ambitious chief and his prophets, rashly made war upon the districts of the United States adjacent to their territory, with their accustomed barbarity. An overwhelming force from the States of Tennessee and Georgia was immediately brought into the field. A portion of the Tennessee troops, was under the command of Andrew Jackson, a militia Major General, who had never seen service, but who, from his promptness in private quarrel, was supposed to possess much personal courage, and great genius for war. With a force greatly exceeding two thousand men, this officer entered the enemy's country, and after much delay, and four lamentable massacres, supported by the Georgian troops, compelled the naked and famished savages to sue for peace. Had the General, to whom this service was intrusted, more experience or more foresight, he would, in a country abounding in provisions, and the means of transportation, have secured a seasonable and competent supply for his army, and thereby have, more speedily, terminated the campaign. The neglect of this essential duty,

* Cobbett's Life of Jackson.

and, it is said, the haughty and passionate deportment of the commander, offended his officers, and disgusted the troops, to such a degree as greatly to injure the service. The campaign, though successful, was unnecessarily prolonged, and inordinately expensive."

112. The first American essays in arms, during the late war, were so unfortunate, generally, that, every engagement, which did not to terminate in defeat, was deemed a victory; and success, even against an Indian adversary, entitled the commander to promotion. The commission of Brigadier, in the regular army, was sent to General Jackson, in May, 1814, upon the resignation of General Hampton; and the day after he received this, he also received the appointment of Major General of the seventh military district, vacated by the resignation of General Harrison.

113. Rumours at this time prevailed, of an intention, on the part of the British, to make a descent upon the southern coasts of the United States, and, New Orleans, it was apprehended, would be the principal point of attack. In furtherance of these views, it was supposed, Col. Nichols had arrived, with a small British squadron, at Pensacola, where he was not only suffered to land, by the Spanish commandant, but was permitted, from this spot, to assail fort Bowyer, within the American boundary, and to insult the country with gasconading proclamations. The Spanish commandant also gave refuge to the fugitive Creeks. General Jackson, who had drawn his forces, amounting to about three thousand men, in this direction, with a view to the protection of the coast, resolved to reduce this city, and expel the precursor of the British army, from this dangerous vicinity. We are not of those who would condemn this act, had it been done without the knowledge of, or without disobedience to, his GovernWe stay not to inquire, whether the attack was warranted by the law of nations. It is sufficient, that it was a case in which a high-minded man might, in the absence of orders, fairly risk himself. But he had communicated his design to the Government, and had been forbidden to execute it. The assault of the town was, therefore, a breach of duty, a disobedience of orders, for which he merited, at least, reprehension. It was a new trait of that self-sufficiency which had developed itself at Natches. It matters not, that the Government had devolved the attempt upon his discretion; the letter containing its views, though dated months before the fact, did not reach him for months afterwards. Pensacola

ment.

was taken, without the death of a single man; and two days subsequently, was re-delivered to the Spanish commandant, the British and Creeks having been expelled.

114. If the victory at New Orleans gained for the commanding General a high military character, his conduct at that post did not less firmly establish the evil dispositions which render it dangerous to civil institutions. We are not disposed to question the ability with which that campaign was directed-nor to inquire, how much of the merit is attributable to the advice, and other zealous services, of distinguished citizens and representatives of the city-nor to investigate the gross errors and presumption of the enemy which cast him, in masses of sixty and seventy deep, upon an impregnable intrenchment, defended by a competent force, supplied with cannon and other arms, not a shot from which, by the nature of the ground and the position of the invaders, could be delivered without effect. But we may be allowed to say, that this victory was one of the most providential upon record. The immediate cause of the defeat of the enemy is ascribable to that overweening confidence in themselves, and contempt of the foe, which, half a century before, had delivered another British General, with a gallant and distinguished army, to carnage, in America. The confidence and temerity of Packenham, were not less weak and criminal, than those of Braddock. It is tritely, but truly, remarked, that great effects proceed, frequently, from apparently feeble causes. The faithful report to the British officers, made by an American deserter, of the small numbers, and undisciplined state, of the American forces, induced the rash, the almost demented, resolution, to assail the American lines. The British General believed that his veteran troops trebled his militia opponents; and he believed rightly; but he believed, also, that the latter would not defend themselves, even behind an almost impassable rampart. This was the unwarrantable presumption for which, he so severely suffered. The error of the attempt was flagrant; and idiocy, alone, could have failed to profit by it. General Jackson did profit by it, effectually; though General Coffee claims a full share of the honours of the victory.

115. Still, be it remembered, that, the success of the American army, must not protect its commander from condemnation, for crimes against the State, nor blind the people to the danger of entrusting power to one prone to increase and abuse it.. Had that commander been all that he claimed to be, had,