afterward
became a planter in Tennessee, fought duels, subdued Tecumseh and the
Creek Indians, winning finally the great opportunity of his life by
being made a Major-General in the United States army on May 31, 1814. He
now had his old captors, the British, with whom to deal, and entered
into the work with a relish. By way of preliminary he took Pensacola,
without any definite authority, from the Spaniards, to whom it belonged,
and the English whom they harbored; and then turned, without orders,
without support, and without supplies, to undertake the defence of New
Orleans.

Important as was this city, and plain as it was that the British
threatened it, the national authorities had done nothing to defend it.
The impression prevailed at Washington that it must already have been
taken, but that the President would not let it be known. The _Washington
Republican_ of January 17, 1815, said, "That Mr. Madison will find it
convenient and will finally determine to abandon the State of Louisiana
we have not a doubt." A New York newspaper of January 30th, quoted in
Mr. Andrew Stevenson's eulogy on Jackson, said, "It is a general opinion
here that the city of New Orleans must fall." Apparently but one thing
averted its fall--the energy and will of Andrew Jackson. On his own
responsibility he declared martial law, impressed soldiers, seized
powder and supplies, built fortifications of cotton bales, if nothing
else came to hand. When the news of the battle of New Orleans came to
the seat of government it was almost too bewildering for belief. The
British veterans of the Peninsular War, whose march wherever they had
landed had heretofore seemed a holiday parade, were repulsed in a
manner so astounding that their loss was more than two thousand, while
that of the Americans was but thirteen. By a single stroke the national
self-respect was restored; and Henry Clay, at Paris, said "Now I can go
to England without mortification."

All these things must be taken into account in estimating what Dr. Von
Holst calls "the reign of Andrew Jackson." After this climax of military
success he was for a time employed on frontier service, again went to
Florida to fight Englishmen and Spaniards, practically conquering that
region in a few months, but this time with an overwhelming force.
Already his impetuosity had proved to have a troublesome side to it; he
had violated neutral territory, had hung two Indians without
justification, and had put t