has tore through
this little place without stopping. He came and went in a cloud of
dust, his horse's tail and his own long hair streaming alike in the
wind as they flew by. But as he passed the tavern stand where some
were gathered he swung his leather wallet by its straps above his head
and shouted--'Here's the Stuff! Wake up! _War! War with England!!
War!!!'_ Then he disappeared in a cloud of dust down the Salisbury
Road like a streak of Greased Lightnin'." Nine days brought the
indefatigable courier past Hillsboro, Salisbury, Morganton, Jonesboro,
and Knoxville to Nashville--a daily average of ninety-five miles over
mountains and through uncleared country. In eleven days more the
President's dispatches were in the hands of Governor Claiborne at New
Orleans.

The joy of the West was unbounded. The frontiersman was always ready
for a fight, and just now he especially wanted a fight with England.
He resented the insults that his country had suffered at the hands of
the English authorities and had little patience with the vacillating
policy so long pursued by Congress and the Madison Administration.
Other grievances came closer home. For two years the West had been
disturbed by Indian wars and intrigues for which the English officers
and agents in Canada were held largely responsible. In 1811 Governor
Harrison of Indiana Territory defeated the Indians at Tippecanoe. But
Tecumseh was even then working among the Creeks, Cherokees, and other
southern tribes with a view to a confederation which should be
powerful enough to put a stop to the sale of land to the advancing
white population. A renewal of the disorders was therefore momentarily
expected. Furthermore, the people of the Southwest were as usual on
bad terms with their Spanish neighbors in Florida and Texas; they
coveted an opportunity for vengeance for wrongs which they had
suffered; and some longed for the conquest of Spanish territory. At
all events, war with England was the more welcome because Spain, as an
ally of that power, was likely to be involved.

Nowhere was the news received with greater enthusiasm than at
Nashville; and by no one with more satisfaction than by Andrew
Jackson. As major general of militia Jackson had for ten years awaited
just such a chance for action. In 1811 he wrote fervently to Harrison
offering to come to his assistance in the Wabash expedition with five
hundred West Tennesseeans, but his services were not needed. At the
close of