ut Jackson's actions in the
campaign brought on the bitterest controversies of his career. By his
order four men were put to death, and he captured Pensacola again,
claiming that some Indians had taken refuge there. Two of the four men
were Creek Red Sticks. The other two were white men and British
subjects. One was Alexander Arbuthnot, an old man of seventy, a trader
among the Indians, and, so far as is known, a man of good character. He
was taken prisoner, however, and it is supposed a letter he wrote to his
son, telling him to take their merchandise to a place of safety, warned
some Indians of Jackson's approach. The other British subject was an
Englishman named Robert Ambrister, who had been a lieutenant in the
British army. He was nephew to the governor of New Providence, one of
the British West Indies, and seems to have been in Florida rather in
search of adventure than for any clearly ascertainable purpose. A
court-martial found Arbuthnot guilty of inciting the Creek Indians to
rise against the United States, and of aiding the enemy. Ambrister was
found guilty of levying war against the United States. He was first
sentenced to be shot; then, on reconsideration, the court changed the
sentence to fifty stripes and hard labor for a year. Jackson firmly
believed that both were British emissaries, sent to Florida to stir up
the Indians. He disapproved the change of Ambrister's sentence, and
ordered him to be shot and Arbuthnot to be hanged.

Such fierce and energetic measures, whether justifiable or not, put an
end to the disorder on the border, and Jackson was again free to return
home a victor. The country was disposed to approve what he had done, but
the President and Cabinet saw that grave international questions would
be raised; for Jackson had invaded the soil of a country at peace with
the United States, taken possession of its forts, and put to death
citizens of another country also at peace with the United States. John
C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, the Secretary of War, was in favor of
censuring the general for his conduct; but John Quincy Adams, of
Massachusetts, the Secretary of State, thought his acts necessary under
the circumstances, and declared himself ready to defend them. In the end
he did defend them so well that neither Spain nor Great Britain made
serious trouble over them. The President and his Cabinet followed
Adams's advice instead of Calhoun's, and Calhoun himself, as Jackson's
superior, wrot