stances. He spoiled his military success by this unnecessary collision with the civil authority. He proved himself wrong-headed and persistent in a course in which every step would have warned him of his error, if he had been willing to learn. Being committed by his first passionate and hasty step, he was determined to push through on the course he had adopted. He knew with reasonable certainty from February 18, and to a moral certainty from the 6th of March, that the war was at an end. All these mischievous proceedings took place on and after the latter date. A very little concession and good-will at any time would have avoided the whole trouble, but Jackson acted as if he was determined to grind out of the opposing elements in the situation all the friction of which they were capable.

April 12th, Dallas, acting Secretary of War, wrote a dispatch to Jackson, asking for explanations of the proceedings, which were rehearsed in detail, and very accurately, according to reports which had reached Washington. "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 for your conduct, he abstains from any decision, or even the 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 patriotism.”

As the matter was all past and dead, and no one desired to mar the exultation of the public or the personal satisfaction of Jackson, it was allowed to drop.

In the autumn of 1815 Jackson was in Washington, conferring with the War Department about the peace footing of the army. In the spring of 1816 he was at New Orleans on business of his military department.

CHAPTER III

JACKSON IN FLORIDA

ANDREW JACKSON took no important part in the election of 1816. He had favored Monroe in 1808, and he preferred him to the other candidates in 1816. Crawford was, at this time, Jackson's pet dislike. The reason for this was that Crawford, as Secretary of War, had modified Jackson's treaty with the Creeks, about which the Cherokees, deeming the terms unjust to them, had appealed to the President. Jackson made a personal quarrel with a public man for not acting as he, Jackson, wanted him to act in the discharge of his duty. Jackson resumed the negotiation, and bought again the lands ceded before. As the people of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama were interested in the cession, Jackson, by re-obtaining it after it had been surrendered, greatly increased his popularity.1

November 12, 1816, a letter, signed by Jackson, was addressed to Monroe, immediately after his election to the presidency, urging the appointment of Wm. Drayton, of South Carolina, as Secretary of War. Wm. B. Lewis, Jackson's neighbor and confidential friend, husband of one of Mrs. Jack1 11 Niles, 143.

son's nieces, wrote this letter. As Parton says, one has no trouble in distinguishing those letters signed Jackson, but which have been copied and revised by Lewis, Lee, Livingston and others, from those which have not been through that process. A part of this letter was connected with a land speculation, but the political part of it seems gratuitous and impertinent. It is, in fact, introduced by an apology. It is difficult to see its significance and that of others which Jackson wrote during this winter (1816-17), unless he was being used to advance an intrigue on behalf of Drayton about which we have no other information. The ideas and suggestions are not at all such as would arise. ' in Jackson's mind. Drayton had been a federalist. He belonged to the South Carolina aristocracy. No ties of any kind are known to have existed between him and Jackson, either before or after this time. Jackson said in 1824 that he did not know Drayton in 1816.1 Drayton was not appointed.

These well-composed letters failed entirely of their immediate object; and they reposed in obscurity for seven years. Lewis was an astonishingly farsighted man. We shall see abundant proofs, hereafter, of his power to put down a stake where he foresaw that he would need to exert a strain a little later, but it does not seem credible that he can have foreseen and prepared for the ultimate purpose which these letters served. His own account, 1 26 Niles, 162.

endorsed on a MS. copy of this especial letter, and dated 1835, is :

"Gen. Jackson furnished the rough draft, from which the letter was prepared by the undersigned. The original letter will be found, if examined, to be in my hand-writing. The ideas are the General's and the language mine. It contained sentiments so patriotic and liberal I thought them worthy the Hero of New Orleans, and deserved to be handed down to posterity. So strongly was this opinion impressed upon my mind, at the time, that I took a copy, unknown to him, to be placed in the hands of his future biographer, should the original fail to find its way to the public. This precaution, however, turned out to be unnecessary, as it was unexpectedly brought to light, about eleven years ago, and has been frequently published since. It was called out by Gen. Jackson's political enemies, when he was first a candidate for the presidency. They, understanding such a letter had been written to Mr. Monroe, resolved on having it published, under the belief it would ruin him in the estimation of the republican party in Pennsylvania, with whom he was a great favorite, but in this they reckoned without their host. Instead of weakening, it evidently strengthened him, and was one of the principal causes of his receiving the highest electoral vote in 1824, and was probably the means of securing his election in 1828." 1

He engineered the "calling out" and the production of the letter, in 1824, himself.

In the course of his argument on behalf of Drayton, Jackson was led (in the letters) to discuss

1 Ford MSS.