nd determined, was pleasant, affable, and
easily approached, and always set equal estimate upon the manhood of a
colored man; believing every thing of him, that he expressed in his
proclamation to the colored freemen of Louisiana. He did not pretend to
justify the holding of slaves, especially on the assumed unjust plea of
their incapacity for self-government--he always hooted at the idea;
never would become a member of the Colonization Society, always saying
"Let the colored people be--they were quiet now, in comparative
satisfaction--let them be." But he held them as a policy, by which to
make money--and would just as readily have held a white man, had it been
the policy of the country, as a black one in slavery. The General was
approached--the suggestion made--slaves set to work--the bales conveyed
down--the breast-works raised--the Americans protected, as the musketry
and artillery proved powerless against the elastic cushion-wall of
cotton bales; the battle fought--the British vanquished--the Americans
victorious, and Major General Andrew Jackson "all covered with glory,"
as the most distinguished and skillful captain of the age. It has always
been thought by colored men familiar with this circumstance, that the
reference of the General is directed to this, when he expresses himself
in his last proclamation to them: "_You have done more than I
expected_." Doubtless this was the case. Whatever valor and capacity to
endure hardships, the General knew colored men to possess, it _was_ more
than he expected of them, to bring skill to his aid, and assist in
counseling plans for the defence of the army.

On the _Eighth_ of January, 1851, the celebration of the Battle of New
Orleans, in that city one year ago, "Ninety of the colored veterans who
bore a conspicuous part in the dangers of the day," (the day of battle,)
held "a conspicuous place in the procession," in exaltation of their
country's glory. Nor was the NAVY without the representative of colored
interest in the liberty of the country. In speaking of the war of 1812,
a colored veteran of Philadelphia, the late James Forten, who had
himself enlisted and was imprisoned on board of a British man-of-war,
the "Old Jersey Prison Ship," affirms: "The vessels of war of that
period were all, to a greater or less extent, manned with colored men."
The father-in-law of the writer, has often related to him that he saw
the three hundred and sixty colored marines, in military pom