plain of the seizure of his cotton-bags, the general coolly put a musket into his hands, and pointing to the bales in the breastwork, replied—“There is your property. I know nobody that has any better right than you to defend it !"

At last the morning of the eighth of January dawns on the valley of the Mississippi. Nine thousand British troops, who for the last eight days have slept or watched upon the field within sight of our works, are seen advancing with admirable precision to attack, for the last time, that famous breastwork, behind which stand three thousand seven hundred brave, though undisciplined Americans, ready to fight and to die for country and for home, for glory and for freedom!

The front ranks of the British columns bring fascines to fill the ditch, and scaling-ladders to surmount the breastwork. Their national pride and personal courage are stimulated into full exercise : their cupidity and lust have been kindled into flame by that infamous watchword of “Beauty and booty;"> and already they revel in the anticipated license that is to follow their easy victory. They advance under cover of a storm of shot and shells and rockets. They are met by the thunder of our own artillery, and by that deadly volley of musketry, which rolled along our breastwork with one incessant peal that knew no pause in its portentous music. An invisible foe mows down their ranks, as if the very scythe of death were swinging from end to end of their columns. Their three leading generals are killed or mortally wounded, when, flying from this shower of death, that boastful soldiery find refuge beyond the range of our fire. Rallied and re-formed by their remaining general, they again advance; but again that incessant volley of musketry is heard, like the roll-call of fate, and again they fy!

The battle of New Orleans is ended! Thousands of British dead encumber the battle-field. The American loss, in killed and wounded, is but thirteen!

History records no victory like this. It was the last great act of the war. Its character impresses itself upon all minds and hearts beyond the power of words.

Twelve days after the battle the victorious general enters that grateful city, in the midst of a triumph as enthusiastic and sincere as ever greeted the approach of a conqueror.

“ These,” says the historian of America, “these were great deeds for the nation. For himself, he did a greater. Had not Jackson been renowned for the vehement impetuosity of his passions, for his defiance of others' authority, and the unbending vigour of his self-will ? Behold the saviour of Louisiana, all garlanded with victory, viewing around him the city he had preserved, the maidens and children whom his heroism had protected, stand in the presence of a petty judge, who gratifies his wounded vanity by an

abuse of his judicial power. Every breast in the crowded audi⚫ence heaves with indignation. He-the passionate the impetuous -he, whose power was to be humbled, whose honour questioned, whose laurels tarnished, alone stood sublimely serene: and when the craven judge trembled, and faltered, and dared not proceed,— himself, the arraigned one,-bade him take courage, and stood by the law, even in the moment when the law was made the instrument of insult and wrong on himself,-at the moment of his most perfect claim to the highest civic honours!"

The incident thus alluded to deserves a more minute recital, for it shows that though, in the hour of national peril, the man we mourn was ready, with heroic courage, to save his country by the boldest exercise of military power, he was equally prompt, on the return of peace, to sacrifice himself to maintain the ordinary workings of the ordinary laws and institutions of his country.

After New Orleans had been placed under martial law, Judge Hall, by a writ of habeas corpus, undertook to interfere with a military arrest. Jackson forthwith ordered the intermeddling judge beyond his camp. On the return of peace, the judge also returned, and resumed his judicial functions, summoning the general to appear and answer for this alleged contempt. Jackson appeared, and his counsel, when they would have argued his defence, were silenced by the judge, who proceeded to impose upon the general a fine of one thousand dollars. This act was most deeply resented by the people of New Orleans, who filled the court, and whose enthusiasm for the saviour of their city knew no bounds. But General Jackson restrained and rebuked their fervour, declaring his cheerful submission to the law, and giving them to understand that the same arm which had saved the city, should be raised, if needful, to protect the court. The citizens, indignant at this act of judicial revenge, were nevertheless withheld from violence. They offered to replace the thousand dollars which had thus been wrung from their general; but he refused their offer. He foresaw the day -too long delayed-but which came at last, when 20,000,000 freemen, speaking through the national Congress, should vindicate the rectitude of his conduct, and declare to mankind, that America does not willingly allow her valiant defenders to be fined and reproached for effecting their country's salvation.

Two years of peace and private life now intervened. The Seminole campaign of 1817, recalls General Jackson to military activity. He is once more ordered to suppress Indian hostility and Spanish perfidy, along the borders and in the very heart of Florida. Again, as three years before, and for similar reasons, he takes possession of Pensacola, and humbles the pride of the Spaniard. The Spanish minister complains of aggression, but our executive replies to his murmuring, and demonstrates to the world that our

censure.

conduct is just. Congress itself takes up the subject, and although party vehemence assails, the national will protects the character and conduct of Jackson.

Some of his political adversaries have complained that the force which he led against the Seminoles was so large that the Indians were overpowered almost without striking a blow in self-defence, and with little effusion of blood. We cannot join in any such

We are content to approve the wisdom of his policy, and to admire the energy of his action, the celerity of his movements, the brilliancy of his success.

Others of his political foes have loudly condemned him as a monster of cruelty, because, under his impartial direction, the laws of war made no discrimination between bloodthirsty savages and English outlaws, associated with them in their enterprises. The two Englishmen, who thus felt the severity they deserved, have awakened far more sympathy in the gentle bosoms of American partisans, than in the breasts of their own countrymen. Parliament, ever ready to assert the extremest right of British subjects, investigated the case of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and found in their execution no cause of complaint.

The fatigues and exposures of the Seminole campaign exhausted the physical energies of the commander, and his weeping soldiers carried him homeward through the swamps of Florida in an almost dying condition. But his wife now flies to his side, and her gentle arms rescue her husband from death, that he may still further serve and save his country.

There is not time for us to follow him through his subsequent career as governor of Florida, or as member, for the second time, of the Senate of the United States.

Higher dignities and a wider sphere of action await him. A grateful and admiring people, long familiar with his patriotism, his courage, and firmness, summon him to the highest honour in their gift. He is elected president of the United States, and enters upon his duties on the 4th of March, 1829.

It was my good fortune to witness his inauguration, and never can I forget the image of that great man as he then appeared—the snows of age scattered upon his reverend head, but with unbending form, and eye of youthful fire—the visible representative of the true American spirit!

He came to the presidency , an hour when his country most needed his aid.

In our relations with various foreign states, there existed perplexities and embarrassments, which no spirit less resolute, and no name less potent, than his, could well have resolved. It was his happy lot, carrying into vigorous action the just policy of “the Father of his Country," to remove every embarrassment, and main

tain undisturbed the honour of our government, and the blessings

of peace.

In our domestic condition and internal policy, there existed evils, and there impended perils far more alarming. The government of the country, its financial condition and commercial prosperity, were groaning under the almost despotic control of a vast and corrupt-an insolent and domineering-moneyed monopoly; that Bank of the United States, which now lies buried in an infamous grave, but which then stalked boldly into our national halls of legislation, and approached the conductors of the public press, offering its golden bribes as openly as if venality were a merit, and corruption were a virtue. There was no living man save Andrew Jackson, who could successfully encounter this

monstrous corporation-resist its encroachments—defy its power-expose its corruptions

and prostrate its pride. And it required all his unrivalled popularityall his wonderful power of inspiring the hearts of other men with his own opinions and feelings—all his amazing inflexibility of willand all his indomitable courage, both physical and moral—to commence, conduct, and conclude, that battle of the giants—the war betwixt the people and the bank. Let us thank God, that such a man was found to deliver his country from the curse of that corrupt institution! Let us thank God, that in stormiest and most perilous times, when the political heavens are darkened, and the earth is shaken, and the elements are thrown into wild uproar, and the hearts of most men fail them by reason of fear, He doth, in his Providence, raise up and send amongst us, those dauntless spirits, which can

Ride on the whirlwind, and direct the storm."

At the period of Jackson's election, the legislation of this country had broken over, and wandered wide from the true republican channels. A high protective tarif then inflicted intolerable burdens

many, for the exclusive benefit of a small and favoured class. In order to sustain this tariff by a seeming public necessity, the public liabilities were every year increased by some new scheme of expense, under the name of internal improvement; and thus millions of money were wasted, on land and on sea, that the revenues of the country, so needlessly and so unjustly levied, might find an outlet, and the burdens of indirect taxation be more and more firmly fastened on the reluctant shoulders of the people. This double political sin, it was Jackson's high mission to abolish. He paid off every dollar of the national debt. He put an end to that delusive system of extravagance which was thus eating out the substance of the citizens. He reduced the revenue of the country, by a reduction of the tariff to the exact standard of the public necessity. His first step was to impose the restraint of the executive veto upon every extravagant or unconstitutional appropriation, and thus, almost for the first time, gave a living force and virtue to that hitherto neglected part of our national constitution.

Most fortunately for our national Union, also, was such a president, at that peculiar crisis, intrusted with the supreme executive authority. Himself a friend to a moderate tariff, so framed as to give equal protection to every form of American industry, yet resolved that the revenues of the government should be graduated by its wants-himself an earnest defender of the rights of the several states-opposed to a wide and lax interpretation of the general constitution, yet devoted, heart and soul, to THE UNION_he, of all men, was the appropriate and fitly chosen agent of the people, at that great epoch, when his own native state, her patience exhausted by that legislation of the general government which she deemed destructive alike of her interests and of her rights, resolved to assert her individual sovereignty and cast off her allegiance to the Union.

Then came the darkest hour in the history of our governmentblack as midnight-to be followed, however, by as bright a dawn as that which ushered in the birthday of our national freedom.

Who has forgotten that eventful crisis? Who has forgotten that immortal proclamation? The declaration of our independence has consecrated the name of its author. The proclamation of President Jackson shall, in like manner, embalm his name in the affections of his countrymen! Its spirit-stirring appeals, its impassioned eloquence, its unanswerable logic, its words of solemn warning, smote upon the national heart as the rod of Moses upon the rock in the wilderness, and the deep fountains of universal feeling were broken up; and amidst the wide rushing tide of patriotism, the dreary waste of intestine discord and domestic war was swallowed up for ever.

The eight years of Jackson's administration, full of stirring events and strong political excitements, have not yet passed so far from our sight as to have allowed all the passions and prejudices of that period to subside and die away; but we rejoice in the conviction that all men, of all parties, are now found ready and willing to admit his patriotism, and to admire that heroic energy with which he dedicated himself and all his powers to what he believed the interests of our common country.

Let us now turn with him from the turbulent career of public action, and behold him once more established in the seclusion of the Hermitage.

Old age and years of hardship have written their rough history upon that bending form and furrowed countenance. He rejoices to lay down the burden of both office and honour. The cherished wife of his affections is no more ; and now his longest and most frequent pilgrimage is to her tomb, in which he hopes ere long to lie down by her side. An orphan himself, he has no