1815, twelve thousand British troops came against that city. General Jackson was there with six thousand Americans, mostly militia, but the best marksmen in the land. He knew that the enemy were coming; so he prepared to receive them. He had a long breastwork made of cotton bales, heaped one upon another. Then he placed twelve cannon along the line, and the Americans got behind the breastwork. All things were now ready, and the British troops, led by General Packenham, began to advance over the level ground towards the American breastwork.

38. For a long time the Americans were still, and let the British come close upon them. Then suddenly the men put their lighted matches to the cannon; the balls were hurled amid the British ranks, and the soldiers fell by hundreds. Then, too, the Americans pointed their rifles over the breastwork, and sent their bullets in the faces of the enemy. A vivid sheet of fire continued to blaze along the American line, and the ground, far and near, was shaken with the thunder of the battle.

39. The British were brave men, and they were led by a brave general; but they could not withstand the deadly fire of the Americans. They were driven back, leaving the ground strewed with hundreds of the dead and dying. Twice, indeed, they rallied, and a few of them, as if seeking death, rushed close up to the breastwork. One daring officer, at the head of his men, ascended to the top of it, and shouted to his followers to come on. But ere the words had parted from his lips, he fell into the ditch below, pierced through and through by a dozen bullets.

40. In one hour after the battle began, it was all over. The British were totally defeated, and marched sullenly away. General Packenham was killed, seven hundred of his brave soldiers lay dead on the field, one thousand four

hundred were wounded, and five hundred were taken prisoners. Thus the British lost twenty-six hundred men, while the Americans had only seven killed and six wounded.

41. This was the last important event of the war on the land. On the 11th of February, while the Americans were yet rejoicing for the victory at New Orleans, a special messenger arrived from Europe, bringing the welcome tidings that a treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain had been concluded in the previous December. This treaty was immediately ratified by the President and Senate. The war vessels of the two nations were many of them at sea when the treaty of peace was proclaimed, and some fighting occurred among them about the time, and soon after, but closing there, as on the land, with victory to the "star-spangled banner."

42. Soon after the treaty of peace with England, the United States declared war against Algiers. That nation had violated the treaty of 1795, and committed depredations upon American merchant vessels. In May, a squadron under Commodore Decatur sailed from New York, and proceeding up the Mediterranean, captured the frigate of the Algerine admiral on the 17th of June. Two days later he took another frigate; and then he sailed for Algiers. A treaty was dictated to the Dey of Algiers, which he signed. It obliged him to release all the American prisoners in his possession, and to relinquish all future claims to tribute from the United States.

43. Commodore Decatur then went to Tunis and Tripoli, where he demanded and obtained payment of large sums of money for violating their treaties with the United States. In this war our government set a worthy example to the European powers, in chastising and humbling a lawless band of pirates.

44. In December, 1816, Indiana was admitted into the Union. It was first discovered by the French, and a few scattered settlements were made by the people of that nation, but in 1763 it was ceded to Great Britain. At the close of the Revolutionary war it belonged to the United States. In 1800 it was organized under the name of Indiana Territory. It then included Illinois, but in 1809 it was divided, and Illinois became a separate territory.

45. In 1816 the bank of the United States was incorporated by Congress, with a capital of thirty-five millions of dollars, and a charter to continue for twenty years. In the presidential election held in the autumn of 1816, James Monroe, of Virginia, was chosen president, and Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, vice president of the United States.

XIII.-MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.

1. MR. MONROE was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1817. The country was just beginning to recover from the effects of the late war. Every department of industry was active, particularly that of agriculture. Many, whose fortunes had been reduced by the war, sought to improve them by cultivating the soil. Thousands left the Atlantic States and moved westward, where lands were cheap and the soil productive; and so rapid was the increase of population in that section, that within ten years from the close of the war, six new states were added to the Union.

2. In 1817 Mississippi Territory was divided, and the western part admitted as the State of Mississippi. Ferdinand de Soto visited this territory in 1539. A Frenchman, named La Salle, came down the river in 1683, and

called the country Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV. of France. The Seminole and Creek Indians having commenced depredations on the frontiers of Georgia and Alabama, in 1817, General Jackson with a thousand volunteers from Tennessee, added to the forces already raised, marched into their territory and subdued them.

3. Illinois, in 1818, adopted a state constitution and was admitted into the Union. This part of the country was originally discovered and settled by the French, who were early competitors of the English in making discoveries and settlements in North America. While the English were establishing their colonies on the eastern coast, the French were ascending the St. Lawrence River, and forming settlements in Canada and along the shores of the great lakes. Here they learned from the Indian tribes that visited them, that far beyond the western plains there flowed a mighty river to the south, larger than any of the American rivers yet discovered.

4. In February, 1819, the Floridas and adjacent islands were ceded to the United States by Spain. This country was discovered in 1512, by the Spaniards. It happened on "Palm Sunday," or the Feast of Flowers, called in the Spanish language Pascua Florida; hence its name. St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards about the year 1565, and is the oldest town in North America.

5. In December, 1819, Alabama was admitted as an independent state of the Union. The territory of Alabama was a mere Indian hunting ground long after the settlement of other parts of our country. After the revolutionary war it was claimed by Georgia, and the United States bought the claim.

6. In March, 1820, the District of Maine, which had been connected with Massachusetts since 1652, was separated from that state, and admitted into the Union as an

independent state. As early as the year 1607, about one hundred English people came over and began a settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec River; but it was not of long duration. In 1623, on the Saco River, was begun the first permanent settlement; more white people went from Massachusetts, and settled in various parts of Maine.

7. Mr. Monroe was reëlected to the presidency by a nearly unanimous vote, and entered upon his second term on the 4th of March, 1821. Mr. Tompkins was again elected vice president.

8. In August, 1821, Missouri became the twenty-fourth state of the Union. Though the French were the first settlers, and for a long time the principal inhabitants of Missouri, yet a small portion of her present population is of that descent. A fort was built by that people as early as 1719, near the site of the present capital, called Fort Orleans, and its lead mines worked to some extent the next year. St. Genevieve, the oldest town in the state, was founded in 1755; and St. Louis in 1764. At the treaty of 1763, it was assigned, with all the territory west of the Mississippi, to Spain. It was ceded to France in 1801. In 1803, at the purchase of Louisiana, it came into the possession of the United States, and formed part of the Territory of Louisiana, till the formation of the state of that name in 1812, when the remainder of the territory was named Missouri, from which (after a stormy debate in Congress as to the admission of slavery) was separated the present State of Missouri in 1821.

9. In 1822 Commodore Porter was sent to the West Indies with a small naval force to suppress the piratical establishments in that region. He captured and destroyed upwards of twenty pirate vessels on the coast of Cuba; and in the following year, with a stronger force, he com pletely broke them up.