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Show 74 -"IFE OF GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. teers, who had so lately clamoured about bread, now, ur. when they were no longer hungry, began to clamour, ~with equal eamestness, about their term of service. Having lately made an effort to forsak_e the drudg~ of the field, and failed, they were d1sposed to ava1l themselves of apy pretexts, seemingly plausible, to obtain success. They insisted that the period, for Yolun- which they had undertaken to act, would end on the ;~·~ccldi;:\oth of December, that being the termination of a year chao·ged. from the day they had first entered into service ; and, that although they had been a greater part of the time disengaged, and unemployed, that recess was never· theless to be taken in the computation. Jackson replied, that the law of congress, under which they had been tendered and accepted, requiring one year's ser· vice out of two, could contemplate nothing les_s than an actual service of three hundred and sixty-five days; and, until that were performed, he could not, unless specially authorized, umlertake to discharge them, But as this was a question not likely to be settled by argument, and as the consequences were easily to be foreseen, if they should persist in their demands, the general began to think of providing other means for a continuance of the campaign, that, even in the worst extreme, he might not be unprepared to act. Ordering general Robe~ts to retum, and fill up the deficiencies in ueccm. 4. his brigade, he now despatched colonel Carroll and rna· jor Searcy, one of his aids-de-camp, into Tennessee, to r,1ise volunteers, for six months, or during the campaign; writing, at the same time, to many respectab~e characters, he exhorted them to contribute all theu· assistance to the accomplishment of this object. To a LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. letter, just received from the reverend Gideon :Black- CHAP. burn, assuring him that volunteers from Tennessee II l. would eagerly hasten to his relief, if they knew their~ services were wanted, he replied, "Reverend Sir,- y our letter has been just received: I thank vou for it· I thank you most sincerely. It an-ived at .a momen; when my spirits needed such a support. " I left Tennessee with an army, brave, I believe, as any general ever commanded. I have seen them in battle, and my opinion of their bravery is not changed. But their fortitude-on this too I relied-has been too severely ~est<:d· Perhaps I was wrong, in believing that notlung but death could conquer the spirits of brave men. I am sure I was ; for my men, I know, are brave; yet privations have rendered them discontented :-tl1at is enough. The expedition must nevertheless be prosecuted to a successful termination. New volunteers must be raised, to conclude what has been so auspiciously begun by the old ones. Gladly would I save these men from themselves, and insure them a harvest which they have sown; but if they will abandon it to others, it must be uo. " You are good enough to say, if I need your assistance, it w_ill be cheerfully afforded : I do need it greatly. The mflucnce you possess over the minds of men is _great and_ well-founded, and can never be better apphed, than m summoning volunteers to the defence of their country, their liberty, and their religion. 'While we fight the savage, who rnakes war only because he delights in blood, and who has gotten his booty, when he has scalped his victim, we are, through him contending against an enemy of more inveterate cha~cter ' |
