ected of inciting the Indians. Continuing his march, Jackson
surprised and captured Suwanee, another rendezvous of Indians and
runaway negroes. Here he found Robert Ambrister, another British
subject, who was also regarded as a suspicious character. Returning to
St. Mark's, Jackson handed these two suspects over to a court martial,
which found both guilty of giving aid and comfort to the enemy and of
inciting or waging war against the United States. Arbuthnot was hanged
from the yardarm of his own schooner; Ambrister was shot. The fall of
Pensacola finished the campaign. By the end of May, 1818, Florida was in
the possession of the troops of the United States and Jackson was on his
way to Tennessee, the idol of his men and a national hero in the
estimation of the people of the Southwest.

The outcome of these exploits might easily have been war with both Spain
and Great Britain. Don Luis de Onis, the Spanish Minister at Washington,
immediately suspended the negotiations then in progress respecting the
Floridas and made a spirited protest "against these acts of hostility
and invasion." He demanded the immediate restitution of the places which
had been seized, indemnity for all damage to property, and the
punishment of General Jackson. As for Great Britain, Lord Castlereagh
afterward said that, such was the temper of Parliament and the country,
war might have been produced by holding up a finger and an address to
the Crown carried by an almost unanimous vote.

The Cabinet of President Monroe was divided over the course to be
pursued. Calhoun insisted that Jackson had virtually committed an act of
war, which should be promptly disavowed. But Adams held--and the
President was inclined to side with him--that in reality Spain had been
the aggressor, and that Jackson had not violated the spirit of his
orders. In order to terminate the war, Jackson had been obliged to cross
the Spanish line. He had not done so with the purpose of waging war upon
Spain.

[Map: Treaty with Spain 1819]

Following a memorandum made by the President, Adams replied to Don Onis
in this spirit. Later, in a masterly state paper, he set forth the
intolerable conditions which obtained on the Florida frontier. The lax
conduct of the Spanish authorities was held to justify the aggressive
measures of Jackson. The United States was prepared to restore Pensacola
and St. Mark's whenever Spain should give guaranties for the observance
of treaty obligations.