CHAPTER II.

Mr. Jackson a Major-General-The war of 1812Causes which led to it-Indian hostilities-General Harrison checks them-The Southern tribes-Tecumseh appears among them--excites them to hostility-The Creeks-their hostile preparationsActs of Congress for raising volunteers-General Jackson addresses the militia of his division—His expedition to Natchez-Disobeys the order of the Secretary of War-Is justified-Creek war-Massacre of Fort Mimms-General Jackson marches against the Creeks-Battle of Tallushatches-Gen. Jackson's and General Coffee's report of it.

IN 1812, Mr. Jackson was still Major-General of the militia of the state of Tennessee; an appointment which he received at the time of the admission of that state into the Union. This period, so dark and ominous for the prosperity of our republic, must be vivid in the recollection of every American reader. Great Britain had been for a series of years in the habit of violating the dearest rights of our citizens, till roused, at length, they caught the spirit which prompted those

"Who fought and won at Bennington,

And bled at Bunker Hill;"

and stood forth in their might to assert and maintain those invaluable privileges, which had been planted and nurtured by their fathers' blood.

A brief sketch of the causes which led to the war in

which General Jackson took so distinguished a part, may not be inappropriate, in order to give the reader a clear idea of the motives which actuated him in the prosecution of the arduous and responsible duties of his station.

Unavailing had been the attempts of Great Britain to rivet the chains of bondage upon us by her odicus system of legislation; vain had been her efforts to awe us into subjection by her military prowess; and at last with the greatest reluctance, a reluctance which necessity alone was able to overcome, was she brought to acknowledge our independence. This mortified her extremely, and induced her, to vent her spleen, by tolerating her subjects in the practice of wanton aggressions upon the rights and immunities of the American people, from that period to our list contest with that nation. She saw that the confederation which held the states together, during a contest with an implacable enemy, would be relaxed and broken in a time of peace. She hoped that civil dissensions would divide and weaken us, and produce a train of circumstances which might serve to bring us again under her subjection. To use the language of one who has written forcibly upon this subject, "It was happy for America that she possessed, at this moment, a galaxy of sages and patriots, who held a powerful influence over the minds of their fellow-citizens. By their exertions, a spirit of compromise and accommodation was introduced, which terminated in our present glorious compact. By this event, Great Britain lost, for a time, the opportunity of tampering with the states, of fomenting jealousies, and of governing by division. Her policy was changed; it became a favorite idea, that our growth should be repressed, and so many impediments thrown in our way, as to convince us that we had gained nothing by becoming free. We soon experienced the effects of her disappointment. Contrary to express stipulation, she refused to surrender

the western parts, and, at the same time, secretly instigated the savages to murder the frontier settlers." Spain was, at this very moment, practising her intrigues, to draw off the western states from the confederacy, of which there is little doubt England would soon have availed herself.

"We also came in contact with Britain on the ocean; our commerce began to flourish; and on the breaking out of the French war, she found in us formidable rivals. In order to put a stop to this competition, she called into life the odious and almost obsolete rule of '56, which is a palpable violation of the law of nations. The spirit of this rule is to prevent the neutral from enjoying any commerce which would not, at the same time, be open to the belligerent; in other words, to permit no neutral. The orders in council which followed in 1793, were barely tolerable, compared with those of November sixth, which were secretly circulated among the British cruisers, authorizing them to capture all vessels laden with the produce of any of the colonies of France, or carrying provision or supplies to the said colony,' which swept, at once, the greater part of our commerce from the ocean. This produced great dissatisfaction among the American people. They were clamorous for war, which the firmness of Washington alone prevented. The orders in council were modified a little by those issued in 1795 and '98; but the same vexations and abuses continued. To these aggressions were added the violations of our commercial and maritime rights, by the impressment of our seamen, and hostile attacks upon our ships. The consequences that followed, are familiar to every American reader.

"While the public mind was in a state of ferment, from our disputes with England and France, our frontiers were threatened with an Indian war from the instigations

of the former. The United States have frequently been charged with cruel violence and injustice to the Indians. That we had encroached upon their hunting grounds, cannot be denied, but this was the necessary consequence of the increase in our population; but the great difference between us and other nations, in relation to Indian lands, is, that instead of taking them without ever acknowledging the right of the Indians, we have endeavored to obtain them by fair purchase. The United States were the first to respect the Indian territorial right, as they were the first to abolish the slave trade and domestic slavery; for, as a nation, we have forbidden it.

"There existed, at this period, a celebrated Indian warrior, who had been always remarkable for his enmity to the whites, and who, like Pontiac, had formed the design of uniting all the different tribes, in order to oppose an effectual barrier to the further extension of the settlements. Tecumseh was a formidable enemy; he resorted to every artifice to stir up the minds of the Indians against us. Of an active and restless character, he visited the most distant nations, and endeavored to rouse them by his powerful eloquence. He also assailed the superstitious minds of his countrymen, by means of his brother, a kind of conjuror, called the prophet.' He had received assurances from the British of such assistance as would enable him to carry his plans into execution. In the year 1811, a council was held by Governor Harrison, of Indiana, at Vincennes, and at which Tecun.seh attended, to remonstrate against a purchase lately made from the Kickapoos and some other tribes. In a strain of wonderful eloquence, the orator inveighed against the encroachments of the Americans, gave a faithful history of the progress of the settlements, from the first commencement on the Delaware, to the moment at which he spoke. When answered by Harrison, he grasped his

tomahawk, in a fit of phrenzy, and boldly charged the American governor with having uttered what was false; the warriors who attended him, twenty or thirty in number, followed his example; but Harrison had fortunately posted a guard of soldiers near, who put a stop to their fury.

"Towards the close of the year, the frontier settlers had become seriously alarmed; every thing on the part of the Indians appeared to indicate approaching hostilities. Gov. Harrison resolved to march towards the prophet's town, with a hody of Kentucky and Indiana militia, and the fourth United States regiment, under command of Colonel Boyd, to demand satisfaction of the Indians, and to put a stop to their hostile designs. In the month of November, having approached within a few miles of the prophet's town, the principal chiefs came out with offers of peace and suɔmission, and requested the governor to encamp for the night, as it was then too late to enter upon business It was not long before this was discovered to be a treacherous artifice. At four o'clock in the morning, the camp was furiously assailed, and after a bloody and doubtful contest, the Indians were finally repulsed, with the loss of one hundred and eighty killed and wounded on our part, and a still greater number on theirs. A number of valuable officers fell on this occasion. Harrison, after this, destroyed the prophet's town, and having established forts, returned to Vincennes."

Tecumseh fled to the southern tribes, upon the Alabama, early in 1812, to inspire the savages there to act in concert with their red brethren of the north. But, nothing had so powerful effect in exciting the hostilities of the Creek, Alabama, and Seminole Indians, against the bor derers of the South-West Territory, as the promises, bribery, and corrupting influence of British and Spanish emissaries. With their hereditary hatred against 'he