FRONTIERSMAN AND SOLDIER 263 



went up in the evening and the capitulation entered into, which 

 you have seen. It is true I had my ladders ready to go over the 

 wall which I believe the garrison discovered and was afraid of 

 a night attack and surrendered. When the flag was hoisted the [y] 

 had three hundred effectives in the garrison this number of 

 Americans would have kept it from combined Urope [Europe]. 

 There was one Indian wounded in the garrison and the others 

 were sent out in the night across the bay before I got possession. 

 Thus Sir I have given you a concise statement of the facts and all 

 I regret is that I had not stormed the works, captured the gov- 

 ernor, put him on his trial for the murder of Stokes and his family, 

 and hung him for the deed. I could adopt no other way to " put 

 an end to the war " but by possessing myself of the stronghold 

 that was an asylum to the enemy and afforded them the means of 

 offence. The officers of Spain having by their acts identified 

 themselves with our enemy, became such, and by the law of na- 

 tions subjected themselves to be treated as such. Self defence 

 justified me in every act I did. I will stand justified before God 

 and all Urope, and I regret that our government has extended 

 the courtesy to Spain of withdrawing the troops from Pensacola 

 before Spain gave a guarantee for the fulfilment of the treaty and 

 the safety of our frontier. It was an act of courtesy that nothing 

 but the insignificance and weakness of Spain can excuse, but it is 

 not my province to find fault with the acts of the government, but 

 it may have. reason to repent of her clemency. 



Make a tender to your lady of my sincere respects and best wishes 

 for her happiness and receive Sir for yourself an expression of my 

 unfeigned f rendship and esteem and [I] remain respectfully 



Yr. mo. ob. serv. 



ANDREW JACKSON. 



P. S. My eyes are weak and my 

 hand trembles I am still weak and 

 much debilitated Nothing but the 

 hope of being serviceable to the 

 wishes of my government and inter- 

 est of the state of Tennessee could 

 have induced me to have undertaken 

 the journey. A. J. 



The Honble 



G. W. Campbell 



Minister at Russia 



