Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America's Destiny

by Brian Kilmeade

The London Times stated in its pages the position that many Britons held: “Mr. Madison’s dirty swindling maneuvers in respect to Louisiana and the Floridas remain to be punished.”2 A few members of Parliament even called for New Orleans to be handed over to Great Britain. The dutiful Gallatin took notes of the chatter and wrote home, relaying it to Secretary of State James Monroe. “To use their own language,” he warned, “[the British] mean to inflict on America a chastisement that will teach her that war is not to be declared against Great Britain with impunity.”3 Gallatin added ominously that he had heard whispers that a force of between fifteen and twenty thousand men was on its way across the Atlantic Ocean. Their aim was clearly to deliver punishment, not peace, to the colonies they’d lost thirty-one years before.