The boasted "promptitude and decision" of the General's character, admirable qualities in their proper places and under proper regulation, carried him on, deeper and deeper, into the violation of the most sacred rights of a free citizen, and of the immunities of the officers of the law in the administration of the laws.
"Dick, the attorney of the United States, made application to Lewis, one of the district judges of the state, who was serving as a subaltern officer, in the Orleans rifle company, and whose conduct during the invasion, had received Jackson's particular commendation. Believing that his duty as a military man, did not diminish his obligation, as a judge, to protect his fellow-citizens from illegal arrest, Lewis, without hesitation, on the first call of Dick, laid down his rifle, and allowed the writ.
"Information of this having been carried to head quarters, Jackson immediately ordered the arrest of Lewis and Dick.
"Arbuckle, to whom Lewis's writ, in favour of Hall, was directed, refused to surrender his prisoner, on the ground he was committed by Jackson, under the authority of the United States.
"The orders for the arrest of Lewis and Dick were countermanded."
The effect of such proceedings, without parallel in a free government, and without apology any where, may be well imagined.
"The irritation of the public mind manifested itself, in the evening, by the destruction of a transparent painting, in honour of Jackson, which the proprietor of the Exchange coffee-house displayed, in the largest hall."
This brought the military in support of their General.
"A number of officers had compelled the proprietor of the Exchange coffee-house, to exhibit a new transparent painting, and to illuminate the hall in a more than usual manner. They attended in the evening, and stood near the painting, with the apparent intention of indicating a determination, to resist the attempt of taking down the painting. It was reported, a number of soldiers were in the neighbourhood, ready to march to the coffee-house, at the first call. This was not calculated to allay the excitement of the public mind. The prostration of the legitimate government; the imprisonment of the district judge of the United States, the only magistrate, whose interference could be successfully invoked, on an illegal arrest, under colour of the authority of the United States, the ascendency assumed by the military, appeared to have dissolved all the bands of social order in New-Orleans."
The good sense, we are told, of some of the most influential characters in the city, prevented the extremities to which these proceedings were fast approaching. The injured and the irritated were assured, "that Jackson's day of reckoning would arrive; that Hall, with the authority (though now without the power) of chastising the encroachments of the military, possessed the resolution, and would soon have the power to punish the violators of the law." The court martial, by whom Louallier was tried, acquitted him.