Battle of New Orleans: Its Real Meaning

by Reau E. Folk

In adducing evidence of the purpose of the English Government against Louisiana, Buell says: “The fleet carried more than an army, the narratives of the subaltern and Capt. Cooke, reputable British officers of 85th and 43rd Light Infantry, respectively, tell us there was on board the fleet ‘a complete civil government staff’ to be installed in place of the State Government of Louisiana at the moment of occupation. One of them, with a spice of humor, informs us that one member of this ‘civil government staff’ was ‘a worthy Colonial official whose confidence in the success of the Expedition led him to resign the comfortable position of Collector of Barbadoes to take the larger and more lucrative post for the (to-be) Crown Colony of Louisiana.”

As other members of the civil government staff Mr. Buell names Honorable Mr. Elwood, Lieut. Governor, transferred from Trinidad, and Mr. Dockstader, transferred from upper Canada; also an Attorney-General, an Admiralty Judge, and a Secretary of the Colony, sent from England direct.

Mr. Buell continues: “Besides his general orders at Plymouth, Pakenham brought with him a proclamation approved by the Home Government or Colonial office. This proclamation was to be published as soon as the British Army should occupy New Orleans. It promised protection to everybody, general amnesty to all previously engaged in hostilities, and proclaimed the sovereignty of England, in behalf of Spain, over all the territory fraudulently conveyed by Bonaparte to the United States. It denied the validity of the secret treaty by which Spain re-ceded Louisiana to France in 1800. It denied Bonaparte’s right to act for France in 1803. And finally it ‘denounced the pretentions of the United States to sovereignty under the alleged purchase from Bonaparte.’ This proclamation was in printed form at British headquarters the night before the battle, and its contents were well known to many British officers. The night after the battle it disappeared. Every copy of it was burned!

“All this evidence was obtained from British prisoners taken in the battle of January 8th. But it lacked one link to make the chain perfect. That was evidence of specific design and fixed policy on the part of the British Government. In the absence of such evidence the cabinet of St. James might, in emergency, declare that the scheme of a ‘crown colony’ and the proclamation itself were the acts of General Pakenham—to be approved if he succeeded or disavowed if he failed. The needed link was supplied long after.”

“The final link in the chain,” says Mr. Buell, “was furnished by General Jackson himself. In the fall of 1875, the author, then a staff correspondent of the Missouri Republican, visited former Governor William Allen, of Ohio, at his farm near Chillicothe. During the visit, which was of three days’ duration, the venerable statesman’s conversation—when not upon agricultural subjects—was mainly of reminiscences of his earlier public life. All was interesting; some of it historically valuable, particularly those parts relating to the British invasion of Louisiana. What Governor Allen said on this subject we reproduce here, exactly as it was printed in 1875.”

Governor Allen’s interview is here given in full:

“Near the end of General Jackson’s second administration and shortly after the admission of Arkansas to the Union, I, being Senator elect from Ohio, went to Washington to take the seat on March 4th.

“General Jackson,—he always preferred to be called General rather than Mr. President, and so we always addressed him by his military title—General Jackson invited me to lunch with him. No sooner were we seated than he said: ‘Mr. Allen, let us take a little drink to the new star in the flag—Arkansas.’ This ceremony being duly observed, the General said: ‘Allen, if there had been disaster instead of victory at New Orleans, there never would have been a state of Arkansas.’”

“This, of course, interested me, and I asked: ‘Why do you say that, General?’

“Then he said, that if Pakenham had taken New Orleans, the British would have claimed and held the whole Louisiana Purchase. But I said: ‘You know, General Jackson, that the treaty of Ghent, which had been signed fifteen days before the battle, provided for restoration of all territory, places and possessions taken by either nation from the other during the war, with certain unimportant exceptions.’