His boastings, fortunately for him, })roved to be
totally unfounded, and he was acquitted by the
jury before whom he was taken, after a deten-
tion of several months in prison. But mean-
while the British government demanded his
release — adopting a very different tone with
Tyler and the Whigs from that which they had
been using towards Van Buren, who still could
conjure with Jackson's terrible name. The
United States agreed to release McLeod, but
New York refused to deliver him up ; and be-
fore the question was decided he was acquitted,
as said above. It was clearly wrong for a state
to interfere in a disagreement between the na-
tion and a foreign power ; and on the other
hand the federal authorities did not show as
much firmness in their dealings with England



y Google



272 THOMAS HART BENTON,

as they should have shown. Benton, true to
certain of his states-rights theories and in pur-
suance of his policy of antagonism to Great
Britain, warmly supported the attitude of New
York, alleging that the United States had no
right to interfere with her disposal of Mc-
Leod ; and asserting that while if the citizens
of one countiy committed an outrage upon an-
other it was necessary to apply to the sover-
eign for redress, yet that if the wrong-doers
came into the country which had been aggrieved
they might be seized and punished; and he
exultingly referred to Jackson's conduct at the
time of the first Seminole War, when he hung
off-hand two British subjects whom he accused
of inciting the Indians against us. Great Britain
not making any protest. The Caroline matter
was finally settled in the Ashburton treaty, the
British making a formal but very guarded apol-
ogy for her destruction, — an apology which did
not satisfy Benton in the least.
