1 was taken. In 1844, Congress refunded the amount of the fine with interest.2 In 1814, Jackson had been made a major-general in the United States army. In April, 1817, being still in command of the division of the south, he issued at Nashville an order "forbidding obedience to any order from the war department not issued through him as commanding-general." A private criticism of the order by General Scott, "as mutinous in its character and tendency" and disrespectful to the president, was communicated to Jackson, and led to a heated correspondence between the two. In the end, Jackson challenged his superior officer to a duel, which Scott declined. Calhoun, who became secretary of war in October, conceded Jackson's contention, and later wrote a private letter explaining his views. Ever since the outbreak of the War of 1812 there had been trouble on the Florida border, where the Indians, reinforced by refugee Creeks and negroes from Georgia, and guided during the war by English officers, were a perpetual menace. A fort on the Appalachicola, containing large supplies of arms and ammunition, seized by the negroes at the close of the war, was attacked and destroyed by a force under General Gaines, sent to maintain peace on the border, in July, 1816. In November the principal town of the Creeks was burned. Both of these posts were within Spanish territory, but Spain either could not or would not keep the Indians and negroes in check, while the latter replied by spreading their forays along the frontier, and attacking the boats ascending the Appalachicola. There was a strong feeling in the United States in favor of the annexation of Florida, but Spain as yet refused to treat. 'Parton, Jackson, II., 320. * United States Stats. at Large, V., 651. * On this controversy, Parton, Jackson, II., 373-376; Calhoun Corresp. (Jameson's ed.), 152-155. January 6, 1818, Jackson, who had just been ordered to command in Georgia, wrote to President Monroe, urging that not only must the Indians be chastised, if need be on Spanish territory, as authorized by Gaines's orders, but also "that the arms of the United States must be carried to any point within the limits of East Florida where an enemy is permitted and protected, or disgrace attends"; adding, "Let it be signified to me through any channel (say Mr. J. Rhea) that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished." 1 No reply was made to this letter, and Monroe did not read it for a year; but Jackson interpreted the silence as acquiescence, and read his orders from the secretary of war in the light of his own purposes. He reached the Florida border in March, burned a number of Indian villages near what is now Talla Parton, Jackson, II., 433; Benton, Thirty Years' View, I., 169. hassee, and took St. Mark's, the only Spanish fort in that part of Florida. If it occurred to Jackson to justify an invasion, without orders, of the territory of a nation with which the United States was at peace, he doubtless found excuse in the supposed aid given to the Indians by agents of England, and in the evident inability of the Spanish authorities to maintain order. Robert Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader, attempting to escape, was seized and confined; and two Creek chiefs, enticed on board an American vessel in the harbor, were summarily hanged. Jackson then pushed on to a Seminole village on the Suwanee, and burned it, but a letter of warning sent by Arbuthnot to his son enabled the Indians to remove most of their property. An Englishman, Robert Ambrister, found in the neighborhood, was made prisoner. Returning to St. Mark's, a court - martial was convened, and Arbuthnot and Ambrister put on trial. The charges against Arbuthnot were that he had stirred up the Creeks to make war upon the United States, and had further acted as a spy. On the latter charge he was acquitted, but on the former he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. Ambrister was convicted of inciting and aiding the enemy, and sentenced to death; but the sentence was modified to fifty lashes on the bare back and twelve months' confinement at hard labor. Jackson disapproved the finding of the court in the case of Ambrister, and restored the original sentence. On April 29, 1818, the two men were executed. There was not sufficient evidence to sustain any of the charges against either of them.1 In May, Jackson took Pensacola. A force of Georgia militia having attacked and destroyed a village of friendly Creeks, most of whose men were serving in Jackson's army, Jackson opened a heated correspondence with Governor Rabun, denied the right of the governor to engage in military operations when a federal force was in the field, and had Wright, the Georgia officer concerned, arrested. Wright was released on habeas corpus, placed on parole, and shortly fled the region. The legislature of Georgia approved the conduct of the governor, and the United States paid an indemnity to the Creeks.2 The news of Jackson's invasion of Florida called forth a prompt protest from Onis, the Spanish minister. Great Britain, on the other hand, contented itself with an investigation. Monroe and his cabinet, with the exception of John Quincy Adams, the secretary of state, were of the opinion that Jackson's acts should be disavowed and suitable reparation made; and Calhoun, the secretary of war, thought that Jackson should also be censured for On Arbuthnot and Ambrister, see Babcock, Rise of American Nationality (Am. Nation, XIII.), chap. xvii.; Parton, Jackson, II., 463-488; report of the trial, Niles' Register, XV., 270-281. On this controversy, Am. State Papers, Military, I., 774778; Hildreth, United States, III., 645. Rush, Court of London, 364-366, 473-489. insubordination-a contention from which were later to flow important consequences. Adams, however, awake to the diplomatic advantages which the incident afforded, was willing to attempt a justification of Jackson's course, while agreeing to the restoration of St. Mark's and Pensacola, a view in which the president and cabinet concurred.1 Calhoun communicated official congratulations to Jackson, and Monroe took the trouble to argue with him the propriety of restoring the captured forts, and later sought his opinion regarding the pending Florida treaty. The House of Representatives, by a vote of 54 to 90, refused to pass a resolution disapproving Jackson's course, and the adverse report of a Senate committee, February 24, 1819, led to no action. 3 But for the extraordinary prominence given to this affair in the political struggles of later years, the arbitrary and unwarranted conduct of Jackson might have taken its place with the innumerable similar violations of justice and humanity by other military commanders who possess political influence. The secret of the first opinion of the cabinet was well kept, and Jackson's course was officially approved. For more than ten years Jackson rested in the belief that Calhoun was his friend, and that his real enemies were Crawford, of Georgia, the sec 1 Gallatin, Writings, II., 117. Am. State Papers, Military, I., 735-743; ibid., Misc., II., 799-913. |