The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-01-07
,JACKSON'S GREAT DAY.

JACKsON'S GREAT DAY.
Tomorrow, the 9Th of January, ninety
four years ago, was great day tor the
United States. The battle fought that day
on the banks of the Mississippi River be-
low New Orleans did vastly more than shed
new luster on American valor and mark
manship. In reality, the Battle OF New
Orleans confirmed our title to the Louisiana
Purchase and our undisputed possession OF
the entire Mississippi Valley.
TIE British Army, under the command
of Sir Edward ~Packenham, which num-
bered about twelve thousand, was greatly
superior to the American forces. Inc
Americans repulsed an attack of the British
on the 1st of January, 1915, and on the
9Th of that month the latter made general
assault on the American lines, but were
routed with "A terrible loss after battle
which lasted only hrenty.fre ms"u'es.
Two generals, Pakenham and Gibbs, and
seven hundred men were killed, fourteen
hundred were wounded and five hundred
prisoners taken. Eight Americans only
were killed, and thirteen wounded.
The War of 1872 is often, and justly,
called the Second War for American In
dependence. 1t is true that the treaty
which, m paper, ended the war had been
signed at Client on Christmas Eve two
weeks before Jackson's Tennessee and
Kentucky riflemen faced Packenham's
Peninsular veterans for the final struggle
on ChaImette Plain. But if Packenham
had won the battle, instead Of losing his
life, Great Britain would hardly have re-
stored New Orleans and the mouth of the
Mississippi into American hands without
further conditions. which would have been
made as exacting as possible.
Once in possession of a position of world
advantage Great Britain never surrenders
it until she has 10, and New Orleans would
have been worth vastly more to her than
Gibraltar or any other commercially
strategic position she now possesses. She
had long coveted the mouth of the Missis-
sippi, and once in possession would never
have given it up unless to superior force or
for important concessions on the Great
Lakes or the Gulf Coast.
The genius and energy of jackson, the
unflinching courage of American back
woodsmen and the unerring aim of Ken
lucky and Tennessee squirrel rifles saved
us all this trouble. 1t was a glorious bat
tie, from the hot reception which jackson
gave Packenham's men on the night of
December 23d within few hours after
they began to land, through the reconnois-
sance in force made by Packenham's army
on New Years Day., 1915, when the cotton
bales in Jackson's river battery were set
on fire and had to be thrown out. to the
moment aweek later when Packenham fell
a few feet from the old canal which marked
the American line of fire.
The Battle Of New Orleans made Andrew
jackson President of the United States
fourteen years later. Because of that
achievement and his subsequent correction
of the Indians and outlaws Of Florida, then
a possession of Spain, he was the popular
idol Of the Southeast as we'll as of the
Southwest.
But his first nomination for the Presi-
dency came from Pennsylvania, where, as
in other parts of the North, great popular
movement was stirring for betterment of
the conditions of all who bore the heat and
burden of civilization in that day.
Aspiring politicians were, of course,
jealous of his commanding influence with
the masses. If they had accepted him
with better good will many of the stormy
contests of his eight years in the Presi-
dency might have been avoided. If CAL
houn, as Secretary of War, had never put
into letter the suggestion that jackson
deserved court-martial for exceeding orders
in Florida, the Notification incident might
never have been. Jackson would, in any
event, have opposed the re-charter of the
Bank OF the Uuited States, but, if Nicholas
Biddle and his friends in the Senate had
recognized from the first that they were
dealing with great American, rather than
an uncouth backwoodsman, the struggle
might have been less bitter.
Jackson's invincible power lay in his
iron will and his unbreakable popularity.
Incorruptib!y honest and patriotic, he was
solicitous only for the good of the people,
as he saw it, and knowing that they were
behind him he would have his way, way
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