FRONTIERSMAN AND SOLDIER 253 



with Mr. Crawford, the Secretary of War, who had 

 undertaken to modify some provisions in his treaty 

 with the Creeks. Jackson was also justly incensed by 

 the occasional issue of orders from the War Department 

 directly to his subordinate officers; such orders some- 

 times stupidly thwarted his plans. The usual course 

 for a commanding general thus annoyed would be to 

 make a private representation to the government. But 

 here, as ordinarily, while quite right in his position, 

 Jackson was violent and overbearing in his methods. 

 He published, April 22, 1817, an order forbidding 

 his subordinate officers to pay heed to- any order from 

 the War Department unless issued through him. Mr. 

 Calhoun, who in October succeeded Crawford as Sec- 

 retary of War, gracefully yielded the point, but the 

 public had meanwhile been somewhat scandalized by 

 the collision of authorities. In private conversation 

 General Scott had alluded to Jackson's conduct as 

 savouring of mutiny. This led to an angry corre- 

 spondence between the two generals, ending in a chal- 

 lenge from Jackson, which Scott declined on the 

 ground that duelling is a wicked and unchristian 

 custom. 



Affairs in Florida now demanded attention. That 

 country had become a nest of outlaws, and chaos 

 reigned supreme there. Many of the defeated Creeks 

 had found a refuge in Florida ; and runaway negroes 

 from the plantations of Georgia and South Carolina 

 were continually escaping thither. During the late 

 war British officers and adventurers, acting on their 

 own responsibility upon this neutral soil, committed 

 many acts which their government would never have 

 sanctioned. They stirred up Indians and negroes to 



