ce and five eight-inch
howitzers." The Spaniards, whose only purpose was to make a decent
show of defending the place, then ran up the white flag and were
allowed to march out with the honors of war. The victor sent the
Governor and soldiery off to Havana, installed a United States
collector of customs, stationed a United States garrison in the fort,
and on the following day set out on his way to Tennessee.

In a five months' campaign Jackson had established peace on the
border, had broken the power of the hostile Indians, and had
substantially conquered Florida. Not a white man in his army had been
killed in battle, and not even the most extravagant eulogist could
aver that the war had been a great military triumph. None the less,
the people--especially in the West and South--were intensely pleased.
Life in the frontier regions would now be safer; and the acquisition
of the coveted Florida country was brought appreciably nearer. The
popular sentiment on the latter subject found characteristic
expression in a toast at a banquet given at Nashville in honor of the
returning conqueror: "Pensacola--Spanish perfidy and Indian barbarity
rendered its capture necessary. May our Government never surrender it
from the fear of war!"

It was easy enough for Jackson to "take" Florida and for the people to
rejoice in the exploit. To defend or explain away the irregular
features of the act was, however, quite a different matter; and that
was the task which fell to the authorities at Washington. "The
territory of a friendly power had been invaded, its officers deposed,
its towns and fortresses taken possession of; two citizens of another
friendly and powerful nation had been executed in scandalously summary
fashion, upon suspicion rather than evidence." The Spanish Minister,
Onis, wrathfully protested to the Secretary of State and demanded that
Jackson be punished; while from London Rush quoted Castlereagh as
saying that English feeling was so wrought up that war could be
produced by the raising of a finger.

Monroe and his Cabinet were therefore given many anxious days and
sleepless nights. They wanted to buy Florida, not conquer it. They had
entertained no thought of authorizing the things that Jackson had
done. They recognized that the Tennesseean's crude notions of
international law could not be upheld in dealings with proud European
States. Yet it was borne in upon them from every side that the nation
approved what had been do