then entitled to only one member. Supported Thomas Jefferson in the
Presidential election of 1796. In 1797 became a Senator of the United
States for the State of Tennessee. Resigned his seat in the Senate in
1798; was a judge of the supreme court of Tennessee from 1798 till 1804.
After war had been declared against Great Britain, General Jackson (who
several years before had been appointed major-general of militia)
offered his services and those of 2,500 volunteers in June, 1812. He was
ordered to New Orleans, and led a body of 2,070 men in that direction;
but at Natchez he received an order, dated February 6, 1813, by which
his troops were dismissed from public service. In October, 1813, he took
the field against the Creek Indians, whom he defeated at Talladega in
November. By his services in this Creek war, which ended in 1814, he
acquired great popularity, and in May, 1814, was appointed a
major-general in the Regular Army; was soon afterwards ordered to the
Gulf of Mexico, to oppose an expected invasion of the British. In
November he seized Pensacola, which belonged to Spain, but was used by
the British as a base of operations. About the 1st of December he moved
his army to New Orleans, where he was successful in two engagements with
the British, and afterwards gained his famous victory on January 8,
1815. This was the last battle of the war, a treaty of peace having been
signed on December 24, 1814. In 1817-18 he waged a successful war
against the Seminoles in Florida, seized Pensacola, and executed
Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two British subjects, accused of inciting the
savages to hostile acts against the Americans. He was appointed governor
of Florida in 1821. In 1823 was elected a Senator of the United States,
and nominated as candidate for the Presidency by the legislature of
Tennessee. His competitors were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and
William H. Crawford. Jackson received 99 electoral votes, Adams 84,
Crawford 41, and Clay 37. As no candidate had a majority, the election
devolved on the House of Representatives, and it resulted in the choice