satisfactory that may be, for in his subsequent and mature statement, published, as he avows, from a sense of duty; he says, "in riding from General Jackson's house to Nashville, near the Clover Bottom, he spoke to me in relation to a commission in Burr's army," and this was some time in the spring or fall of 1806. Here the offer and conversation is in reference to "Burr's army,”—what army, and for what objects? Beyond all question, the army spoken of by Burr, in his letter to General Jackson of March, 1806; the officers to be commissioned by the Secretary of War, and to be employed against Spain. We now dismiss Judge Williams.

We shall now briefly recapitulate the most material facts and circumstances, proved by the foregoing testimony. 1st. That General Jackson, only received and treated Colonel Burr, as a generous and hospitable gentleman would receive and treat a guest and acquaintance, who then, and long had, held a distinguished rank as a statesman and man of talents, in the estimation of the great republican party in the United States; who had recently held the second office in the government, and with whom the honorable and the good might associate without reproach, and as a man, in Mr. Jefferson's language, “heretofore distinguished by the favor of his country."

2. That General Jackson communicated to the government and its officers, fully and explicitly, so soon as he had information of any kind.

3. That Colonel Burr never did communicate to General Jackson, any designs treasonable or hostile to the go, vernment of the United States; but always avowed designs consistent with its interest, and averred by him, to be supported by its countenance and authority.

4. That the first public suspicions as to the legality of Colonel Burr's projects, were allayed, and to a great degree destroyed, by the investigations in Kentucky in the

beginning of December, 1806, by the finding of the grand' jury; which was evidently calculated to have this effect, and which effect is proved by Mr. Jefferson's message of January 22d, 1807, to have been produced, where he says, "In Kentucky the premature attempt to bring Burr to justice without sufficient evidence for his conviction, has produced a popular impression in his favor, and a general disbelief of his guilt."

5. That after suspicions had been excited against Colonel Burr, or after the letters to Governor Claiborne, General Smith, and Doctor Dickson, Colonel Burr never was invited to General Jackson's house; but that, when in the State of Tennessee, in the month of December, 1806, he remained, not at General Jackson's, but at a tavern, at the Clover Bottom, several miles distant, near which his boats were; and he was received with a marked change of manners and coldness by Jackson and others; and an interview was sought with Burr by Jackson, and had in the presence of several gentlemen, when Burr most solemnly avowed his innocence, and disavowed all objects hostile to the Union of government; and that the president's proclamation was not received at Nashville, until the 27th of December, 1806, five days after Colonel Burr's departure with only two boats.

6. That from the unhappy inaccuracy of Judge Williams' memory and recollections, no reliance can be placed on his statements; but that if any such reliance could be given, it is shown that the offer and conversation he speaks of, related above, was to the public, well known and legal objects held out and spoken of by Colonel Burr.

We do not feel perfectly sure, that in the course we have pursued, in the refutation of these charges, we shall not be considered by some, as manifesting a want of proper trust in the enlightened intelligence, and the noble and confiding natures of the American people; and whe

ther it might not be thought a more than sufficient answer to the base surmises, the unworthy suspicions, and the feebly labored arguments, which have been circulated with so much industry, to point with emphasis to a long life devoted to the service of his country: his boyhood given to the war of the revolution, and to the achievement of her independence; his mature manhood to the honest and faithful discharge of all the duties of her highest civil employments; and his late years, when age might claim an exemption from toil and danger, when his accusers were to be found in the courts and palaces of kings, or reposing in the lap of ease and luxury, he was only to be found in the wilderness and on the field of battle; only in the pursuit or in the face of the enemies of his country, exposed to every peril, to every privation, to every suffering, before which the coward or the traitor's heart would have quailed or been subdued. This might be relied on as a sufficient reply to the charge, that General Jackson was tainted with treason, that he was leagued and connected with traitors and enemies to his country. And how ill-timed and ungraciously, this charge comes at this late day! There was a time of all others, when if true, or if colored by the semblance of truth, it should have been urged and loudly trumpeted: in the dark and stormy period of 1813 and 1814, when treason was much spoken of and much feared; when a severance of the Union was not darkly hinted at, but boldly spoken of in the capitol; not about to be effected by two empty flat boats, and half a dozen unarmed men, but urged, countenanced, and supported, by the most powerful nation on the earth, then our foe, and hanging on all our coasts and frontiers, with her victorious and numerous fleets and armies :-then was the time when traitors should have been denounced, when Jackson, if suspected, should have been handled with infamy, and all power and confidence withheld from him:

then, when he was to take command of one division of the armies of the United States, to be invested with unlimited military power, should he have been held up as shrouded in suspicion, and unworthy to be trusted. But did a whisper, a murmur, then, of doubt or distrust break forth? All looked to him as a father and friend, with whom in that fearful hour, the safety of the nation and its highest powers, could be deposited with the utmost security.

But having proofs, we deemed it best to present them, which not only positively and directly disprove this charge, in all its forms, and expose the propagators of it to shame and confusion, but will shed additional lustre on the endowments both of the head and heart of this distinguished benefactor of his country; and prove the truth of that elevated and manly sentiment expressed to his friends, in reference to this subject, when loose scraps and notes written in haste many years ago, and long forgotten, were raked up and published: "I recollect them not, but this I do know, and avow, that never in all my life did I entertain even a thought that I would not cheerfully submit to the judgment of the American people, and stand or fall by their decision." (1)

(1) See Appendix.

CHAPTER II.

Mr. Jackson a Major-General-The war of 1812Causes which led to it-Indian hostilities—General Harrison checks them-The Southern tribes-Tecumseh appears among them-excites them to hostility-The Creeks-their hostile preparations— Acts of Congress for raising volunteers-General Jackson addresses the militia of his division-His expedition to Natchez-Disobeys the order of the Secretary of War-Is justified-Creek war-Massacre of Fort Mimms-General Jackson marches against the Creeks-Battle of Tallushatches-Gen. Jackson's and General Coffee's report of it.

IN 1812, Mr. Jackson was still Major-General of the militia of the state of Tennessee; an appointment which he received at the time of the admission of that state into the Union. This period, so dark and ominous for the prosperity of our republic, must be vivid in the recollection of every American reader. Great Britain had been for a series of years in the habit of violating the dearest rights of our citizens, till roused, at length, they caught the spirit which prompted those

"Who fought and won at Bennington,

And bled at Bunker Hill;"

and stood forth in their might to assert and maintain those invaluable privileges, which had been planted and nurtured by their fathers' blood.

A brief sketch of the causes which led to the war in