rought by the undue zeal of its servants into a
quandary more perplexing than that into which the reckless military
hero brought the Administration of President Monroe. Turned loose (p. 159)
in the regions of Florida, checked only by an uncertain and disputed
boundary line running through half-explored forests, confronted by a
hated foe whose strength he could well afford to despise, General
Jackson, in a war properly waged only against Indians, ran a wild and
lawless, but very vigorous and effective, career in Spanish
possessions. He hung a couple of British subjects with as scant trial
and meagre shrift as if he had been a mediaeval free-lance; he marched
upon Spanish towns and peremptorily forced the blue-blooded commanders
to capitulate in the most humiliating manner; afterwards, when the
Spanish territory had become American, in his civil capacity as
Governor, he flung the Spanish Commissioner into jail. He treated
instructions, laws, and established usages as teasing cobwebs which
any spirited public servant was in duty bound to break; then he
quietly stated his willingness to let the country take the benefit of
his irregular proceedings and make him the scapegoat or martyr if such
should be needed. How to treat this too successful chieftain was no
simple problem. He had done what he ought not to have done, yet
everybody in the country was heartily glad that he had done it. He
ought not to have hung Arbuthnot and Ambrister, nor to have seized (p. 160)
Pensacola, nor later on to have imprisoned Callava; yet the general
efficiency of his procedure fully accorded with the secret disposition
of the country. It was, however, not easy to establish the propriety
of his trenchant doings upon any acknowledged principles of law, and
during the long period through which these disturbing feats extended,
Jackson was left in painful solitude by those who felt obliged to
judge his actions by rule rather than by sympathy. The President was
concerned lest his Administration should be brought into indefensible
embarrassment; Calhoun was personally displeased because the
instructions issued from his department had been exceeded; Crawford
eagerly sought to make the most of such admirable opportunities for
destroying the prestige of one who might grow into a dangerous rival;
Clay, who hated a military hero, indulged in a series of fierce
denunciations in the House of Representatives; Mr. Adams alone stood
gallantly by the man who had