ties, and contributing by his pleasing manner
greatly to his popularity. The manufactures of the country were in a low
state because of the cheapness of labor in Great Britain, which enabled
the manufacturers there to send and sell goods for less prices than the
cost of their manufacture in this country. Congress met the difficulty
by imposing a tax upon manufactured goods brought hither, and thereby
gave our people a chance to make and sell the same at a profit. The
controversy between the advocates of free trade and protection has been
one of the leading questions almost from the first, and there has never
been and probably never will be full accord upon it.

THE SEMINOLE WAR.

Perhaps the most important event in the early part of Monroe's
administration was the Seminole war. Those Indians occupied Florida, and
could hide themselves in the swampy everglades and defy pursuit. Many
runaway slaves found safe refuge there, intermarried with the Seminoles,
and made their homes among them. They were not always fairly treated by
the whites, and committed many outrages on the settlers in Georgia and
Alabama. When the Creeks, who insisted they had been cheated out of
their lands, joined them, General Gaines was sent to subdue the savages.
He failed, and was caught in such a dangerous situation that General
Jackson hastily raised a force and marched to his assistance.

Since Florida belonged to Spain, Jackson was instructed by our
government not to enter the country except in pursuit of the enemy. "Old
Hickory" was not the man to allow himself to be hampered by such orders,
and, entering Florida in March, 1818, he took possession the following
month of the Spanish post of St. Mark's, at the head of Appalachee Bay.
Several Seminoles were captured, and, proof being obtained that they
were the leaders in a massacre of some settlers a short time before,
Jackson hanged every one of them.

Advancing into the interior, he captured two British subjects, Robert C.
Ambrister, an Englishman, and Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotchman. There
seemed to be no doubt that the latter had been guilty of inciting the
Indians to commit their outrages, and both were tried by court-martial,
which sentenced Arbuthnot to be hanged and Ambrister to receive fifty
lashes and undergo a year's imprisonment. Jackson set aside the verdict,
and shot the Englishman and hanged the Scotchman. He then marched
against Pensacola, the capital of the province, drove o