governments." "If, contrary to my hopes," responded the Spanish
dignitary, "Your Excellency should persist in your intention to occupy
this fortress, which I am resolved to defend to the last extremity, I
shall repel force by force; and he who resists aggression can never be
considered an aggressor. God preserve Your Excellency many years." To
which Jackson replied that "resistance would be a wanton sacrifice of
blood," and that he could not but remark on the Governor's
inconsistency in presuming himself capable of repelling an army which
had conquered Indian tribes admittedly too powerful for the Spaniards
to control.

When the Americans approached the fort in which Callava had taken
refuge, they were received with a volley which they answered, as
Jackson tells us, with "a nine-pound piece and five eight-inch
howitzers." The Spaniards, whose only purpose was to make a decent
show of defending the place, then ran up the white flag and were
allowed to march out with the honors of war. The victor sent the
Governor and soldiery off to Havana, installed a United States
collector of customs, stationed a United States garrison in the fort,
and on the following day set out on his way to Tennessee.

In a five months' campaign Jackson had established peace on the
border, had broken the power of the hostile Indians, and had
substantially conquered Florida. Not a white man in his army had been
killed in battle, and not even the most extravagant eulogist could
aver that the war had been a great military triumph. None the less,
the people--especially in the West and South--were intensely pleased.
Life in the frontier regions would now be safer; and the acquisition
of the coveted Florida country was brought appreciably nearer. The
popular sentiment on the latter subject found characteristic