defence of Mobile was Fort Bowyer, on a point commanding Mobile Bay. On the 12th of September the fort was attacked by the British both by séa and land, but was gal lantly and successfully defended by Major Lawrence. Jackson sent a ship to its relief, but the captain, hearing a terrific explosion, came back and told Jackson that the fort had fallen. The explosion in reality was caused by the blowing up of a British ship which had been set on fire by the guns of the fort. After this success, Jackson marched upon Pensacola and seized it, considering that the Spaniards, by harbouring the British, had forfeited their rights as neutral. The British now proceeded to attack New Orleans. Some doubts seem to have been felt on each side how far the French-born Louisianians would be true to the American Union, of which they had lately become citizens. There seems to have been no ground for these suspicions, and the Louisianians were throughout loyal to their new Government. There was also the fear of a rising among the slaves. Moreover the American supply of arms was miserably insufficient; but the strong will and courage of Jackson overcame or lightened every difficulty. On the 24th of November the British fleet of fifty sail anchored off the mouth of the Mississippi. Two plans of attack were open to the British to ascend the river and attack New Orleans by water, or to land the troops and march on the city. To do the former it would have been necessary to destroy the forts which guarded the river, or at least to silence their guns. This was considered too difficult, and the British commanders decided to attack by land. Accordingly, on the 21st of December the British troops disembarked. were opposed by a fleet of small vessels, but the British gunboats beat these off, and the troops made good their landing. They were under the command of General Pakenham, a brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. He had shown They XXI.] DEFENCE OF NEW ORLEANS. 313 himself a brave soldier in the Peninsula, but had done nothing to prove his fitness for command where much skill and judgment were needed. He himself, with a considerable body of troops, did not arrive till some days after the landing of the first detachment. Till his coming the British troops, numbering about three thousand, were commanded by General Keane. At first the Americans were ignorant of the exact position of the enemy, but on the 23rd they learnt that the British army was within nine miles of the city. The news was brought by a young planter, whose house had been seized by the British troops. All the rest of the household had been captured, and but for his escape the city might have been surprised. Jackson then marched out, and an engagement followed. After a whole night's fighting, during which the British were much harassed by the fire of two vessels in the river, the Americans retired. Keane, it has been thought, ought then to have marched straight on the city. Few men however would have ventured on such a step in the absence of their superior officer. Moreover, Pakenham was expected to bring up large reinforcements, and Keane could not know that fresh troops were daily pouring into New Orleans and that Jackson's hopes were rising with every hour of delay. After this, Jackson stationed himself outside the city and threw up earthworks for its defence. Every man and horse that could be pressed into the service was employed. On the 25th Pakenham arrived, and three days later an unsuccessful attack was made on the American works. Here, as before, the two American ships in the river greatly annoyed the British troops, till one was sunk and the other driven off by the enemy's guns. On the 8th of January the British made their general attack. They numbered seven thousand three hundred, the Americans twelve thousand. Pakenham sent a detachment across the river to seize the iorts on that side, which would otherwise have annoyed his main body by a cross fire. This attempt was completely successful, but the main body was defeated with terrific loss, and Pakenham himself fell. Jackson did not attempt to follow up his victory, and, after a few skirmishes between the outposts, the British embarked and sailed off. Though the war was in reality over and peace signed when this battle was fought, yet the victory was of great "importance to the Americans. It saved New Orleans, a rich and populous city, from the horrors of a sack. Coming also immediately after the Indian war, and contrasted with the American defeat at Washington, it begot an enthusiastic admiration for Jackson which laid the foundation of his great political influence. 12. Treaty of Ghent.-While this carnage was going on before New Orleans, the two nations were no longer at war. Commissioners from Great Britain and the United States had met at Ghent in July to discuss the terms of peace. These were easily arranged. Great Britain at first insisted that her right of impressing sailors on the high seas should be acknowledged by the Americans; America insisted that it should be formally renounced. Each at length gave way on this point, and the matter was left as before. The British gave up their conquests on the Canadian frontier, so that the boundaries remained as they had been before the war. The Americans refused to admit the Indians who were allied with the British to a share in the treaty, but at length promised not to molest them. On the 24th of December peace was signed; the terms of it are the best proof of the trivial grounds on which war was declared. 13. The Cotton-gin and the Steam-boat.-Two mechanical inventions, made in America about this time, deserve special notice from the important effects which they at once produced. One was the cotton-gin, invented in 1793 by Eli XXI.] THE COTTON-GIN AND STEAM-BOAT. 315 Whitney of Massachusetts. This was a machine for separating the fibre of the cotton, the part used in manufacture, from the seeds. Hitherto this had been done by hand. Machinery had already been contrived in England for the making of cotton goods, but its full use was hindered by the cost of the raw material. Before Whitney's invention not a pound of cotton was exported from the United States. In 1794 a million and a half pounds were exported, and in the next year five and a quarter millions. The immediate effect of this in America was to call into life a new form of industry, cotton-planting. The warm swampy lands of the Southern States rose enormously in value, and at the same time the demand for slave labour was greatly increased. Soon after this, another invention was brought in, more wonderful than the cotton-gin, and far more remarkable in its effects on the whole world, though not perhaps on America. This was the steam-boat, which was introduced into America by Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania. The idea of the steam-boat had been thought of by others, but Fulton was the first who successfully carried it into practice. His first steam-boat was launched on the Hudson in 1807. The great immediate effect of this was to increase immensely the importance of the two main rivers of the United States, the Hudson and the Mississippi. The Mississippi became more than ever the great line of communication, binding together the Southern and Western States. Some twenty years earlier Franklin had put forth emphatically the value of the Mississippi to the United States, declaring that to ask them to part with it was like asking a man to sell his front door. The invention of the steam-boat gave double force to Franklin's words, CHAPTER XXII. SOUTH CAROLINA AND NULLIFICATION. Monroe president (1)—John Quincy Adams president (2)—the fiftieth anniversary of independence (3)-election of Jackson (4)—nullification (5)—the bank question (6)-growth of the Whig party (7) Van Buren president (8) — difficulties between America aml Great Britain (9)—the Ashburton treaty (10)—new States (11). 1. Monroe President.-About this time the differences between the North and South began to make themselves felt. But as those differences and the conflicts that rose out of them, at least so far as they concerned slavery, form one connected chain of events ending in the War of Secession, it will be better to consider them separately, and to pass them over for the present, except when they are inseparably mixed up with the events of the day. In 1817 Madison was succeeded as President by another Democrat, Monroe. He was a man of no special power, who had served creditably in various public offices. He is best known by his assertion of what was called the Monroe doctrine of "America for the Americans." A rumour was afloat that the European powers intended to interfere to restore the authority of Spain in her revolted colonies in South America. Thereupon Monroe declared that he should consider any attempt on the part of European powers "to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." 2. John Quincy Adams President.-In 1825, at the end of Monroe's second term of office, the Federals rallied sufficiently to carry their candidate, Adams, the son of the great Federal statesman. He was a highly-educated and thoughtful man, |