"The letter concluded by requesting a precise and speedy answer to the preceding inquiries, and an assurance that, if certain of the governor's support, the judge should forthwith punish, as the law directs, the contempt offered to his court: on the other hand, should the governor not think it practicable or proper to afford his aid, the court and its officers would no longer remain exposed to the contempt or insults of a man, whom they were unable to punish or resist.
"The legislature met on the twelfth of January. Two days after, General Adair arrived in the city, from Tennessee, and reported he had left Burr at Nashville, on the twenty-second of December, with two flat boats, destined for New-Orleans. In the afternoon of the day of Adair's arrival, the hotel at which he had stopped was invested by one hundred and twenty men, under Lieutenant Colonel Kingsbury, accompanied by one of Wilkinson's aids. Adair was dragged from the dining table, and conducted to head quarters, where he was put in confinement. They beat to arms through the streets; the battalion of the volunteers of Orleans, and a part of the regular troops, paraded through the city, and Workman, Kerr, and Bradford, were arrested and confined. Wilkinson ordered the latter to be released, and the two former were liberated on the following day, on a writ of habeas corpus, issued by the district judge of the United States. Adair was secreted until an opportunity offered to ship him away."
We approach a very interesting portion of our history, in which certain transactions are detailed, with great precision, for some of which General Jackson has obtained, and deserved, a brilliant crown of military glory, and for others has been visited with deep and indignant reproaches; whether justly or not, the reader will decide by the facts of the case.
On the 2d of December 1814, General Jackson reached New-Orleans; and on the next day commenced his operations to put the city in a state of defence against the attack expected to be made upon it. A large naval force of the enemy was off the port of Pensacola; and it was understood that New-Orleans was their object. The force in New-Orleans consisted of seven hundred men of the United States regiments; one thousand state militia, and some sailors and marines. Reinforcements from Tennessee and Kentucky were looked for. It is not to our purpose, and must be unnecessary, to recapitulate all the interesting occurrences which took place at this alarming crisis; all evincing the gallantry and patriotism of our countrymen. In this early stage of the contest, our author, with great warmth and strong testimony, asserts the unshaken fidelity and active efficient attachment of the people of New-Orleans to the government of the United States, and repels with an honest indignation the charges of disaffection and treason which were on various occasions made upon them, to justify the tyrannical violence of certain proceedings against them. He says, "although the population of New-Orleans was composed of individuals of different nations, it was as patriotic as that of any city in the Union." We believe him most sincerely; and who does not? Can any just and candid man doubt it after a sober perusal of his details, having a particular relation to this question? To suppose that they had any sympathies with the invading foe; any treasonable correspondence with them; any desire for their success; is to calumniate a people as deeply and dearly interested in our independence, as devotedly attached to our institutions, as any portion of the republic. We therefore not only excuse, but applaud, the feelings of resentment with which Judge Martin, himself one of the people of Louisiana, and honoured by her confidence, meets every assertion and insinuation of treachery or disaffection cast upon her. He assures us, that "Claiborne (the governor) was sincerely attached to the government of his country, and the legislature was prepared to call forth and place at Jackson's disposal, all the resources of the state." Again he says, "If some, in the beginning, doubted whether General Jackson's military experience had been of a kind to fit him for this service, his conduct very soon dispelled the doubt."
"The want of an able military chief was sensibly felt, and notwithstanding any division of sentiment on any other subject, the inclination was universal to support Jackson, and he had been hailed on his arrival by all. There were some, indeed, who conceived that the crisis demanded a general of some experience in ordinary warfare; that one whose military career had begun with the current year, and who had never met with any but an Indian force, was ill calculated to meet the warlike enemy who threatened; but all were willing to make a virtue of necessity, and to take their wishes for their opinions, and manifested an unbounded confidence in him. All united in demonstrations of respect and reliance, and every one was ready to give him his support. His immediate and incessant attention to the defence of the country, the care he took to visit every vulnerable point, his unremitted vigilance, and the strict discipline enforced, soon convinced all that he was the man the occasion demanded."
The general had, however, imbibed strong prejudices against the inhabitants of the city, infused into him by bad advisers who surrounded him.
"Unfortunately he had been surrounded, from the moment of his arrival, by persons from the ranks of the opposition to Claiborne, Hall, and the state government, and it was soon discovered that he had become impressed with the idea, that a great part of the population of Louisiana was disaffected, and the city full of traitors and spies. It appears such were his sentiments as early as the 8th of September; for in a letter of Claiborne, which he since published, the governor joins in the opinion, and writes to him, 'I think with you, that our country is full of spies and traitors.'"
The interest we feel to vindicate the people of Louisiana from the suspicions that were long entertained of their loyalty, and may not be yet wholly eradicated, induces us to trouble our readers with further extracts on this subject.
"The legislature was in session, since the beginning of the preceding month. We have seen that Claiborne, at the opening of the session, had offered them his congratulations on the alacrity with which the call of the United States for a body of militia had been met, which, with the detail of the proceedings of that body, is the best refutation of the charges which have been urged against them. It will show, that in attachment to the Union, in zeal for the defence of the country, in liberality in furnishing the means of it, and in ministering to the wants of their brave fellow-citizens who came down to assist them in repelling the foe, the general assembly of Louisiana does not suffer by a comparison of its conduct with that of any legislative body in the United States. The assertion, that any member of it entertained the silly opinion, that a capitulation, if any became necessary, was to be brought about or effected by the agency of the houses, any more than by that of a court of justice, or the city council of New-Orleans, is absolutely groundless."
A proposition was made by the governor to the legislature, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, in order that men might be pressed for the service, particularly naval, of the United States: the legislature knew it to be a dangerous measure, and thought it unnecessary.