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Show 222- LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. founded cause of complaint against the injured power, ~which should hold it until such time as, by bringing a 1814• sufficient force, she might be in a situation to support her neutrality, and enforce obedience to her laws. Upon either ground, he believed it might be sufficiently justified. There was one, however, on which it could be placed, where he well knew nothing could result, beyond his own injury ; and on this issue he was willing to trust it. If any complaint should be made, his government, having never extended to him an authority, might, with propriety, disavow the act; and, by exposing him to censure and punishment, it would be an atonement for the outrage, and Spain, in justice, could demand no more. The attack on Mo. bile point was a confirmation of his previous conjectures, as to the views of the enemy ; and, from that moment, he determined to advance against and reduce Pensacola, throw a sufficient force in tl1e Barrancas, hold them until the principles of right and neutrality were better respected, and rest ilie measure on his own responsibility. Believing this the only course that could assure ultimate security, he decided with firmness, and resolved to execute his intentions, so soon as general Coffee should arrive, with the volunteers, from Ten· nessee. It was now rumoured, and generally accredited, that a very considerable force, under the command of lord Hill, would shortly sail from England, destined to act against some part of the United States; where, none knew, or could tell; rumour, and public opinion, fix· ed upon New Orleans. The importance of this place was well known to our enemy ; it was the key to the LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. whole commerce of the western country. Had a de- CHAP. scent been made on it a few months before, it might VII. have been taken with all imaginable e-ase; but ilie ......,....._., British had confidently indulged the belief, that they 1814" could possess it, at any time, wiiliout much diffi-culty. England and France having ended their longpending controversy, it was iliought that the French people of Louisiana, sensibly alive to ilie great be-nefits ilie English had conferred upon ilieir native country,-benefits that have prostrated her liberty, and sunk her, perhaps, in eternal slavery, would, on their first appearance, hail their deliverers, and at once be-come their vassals. Independent of iliis, they sa:w, in the black population, the means of exciting insurrec-tion and massacre, and deluging the country in blood. Whether this kind of warfare, which involves the deep-est wretchedness, and equally exposes to ruin, the in-nocent as the guilty,-ilie female as the soldier, should be pursued by a nation professing a high sense of mo-ral feeling; or whether a nation that adopts such a system, can be entitled to the appellation of honour-able, are questions on which we should not fear even the decision of an Englishman, could he but divest himself of iliat animosity and hatred, which, from infan-cy, he entertains for the Americans. To tl1is, and many other acts, equally in violation of ilie rules that should govern honourable warfare, may be traced tl1e cause of those deep-rooted inveteracies, in tl1e breasts of our c~tizens, towards those of ~ngland, which time, and a d1fferent ~~urse of conduct, can alone remove. Why such hosbhty has been practised towards us, it is dif· . |
