A History of the American People

over from the War of Independence, to be absorbed by the United States in due course.
Henceforth the road to expansion for both the United States and Canada lay not in depredations
at each other's expense but in pushing simultaneously and in friendly rivalry towards the Pacific.
In return, Britain gave the Americans the green light to expand as they wished anywhere south of
the 49th parallel (a line adopted in 1818), at the expense of the Indians and the Spanish alike.
The significance of Jackson's victory was that it determined the way the Treaty of Ghent was
interpreted and applied. Britain, along with most other nations, had not recognized the Louisiana
Purchase, and acknowledged no American right to be in New Orleans, Mobile, or anywhere else
on the Gulf of Mexico. Britain would have been at liberty to hand any of these territories back to
Spain if it had been in possession of them, even under the terms of the Treaty of Ghent. And that,
Monroe told Madison, was exactly what it would have done, had not Jackson won the battle. The
effect of the victory was to legitimize the whole of the Louisiana Purchase in the eyes of the
international community. Equally, Britain might have kept Fort Bower and turned it into another
Gibraltar. As it was, Britain in effect renounced any such ambition provided America left Canada
alone. There were, to be sure, sound economic reasons why Britain wanted friendly relations
with the United States in the whole Caribbean area. The financial significance of the rich West
Indian sugar islands was fast declining relative to Britain's rapid industrial expansion, based on
finished cotton manufactures, for which the American South increasingly supplied the raw
material. For America to expand south, placing more square miles under cotton, was in the
interests of both countries. But it was the New Orleans victory which clinched Britain's switch of
policy.
Equally, the Battle of New Orleans sealed the fate of the Indians of the South. Under Article
IX of the Treaty of Ghent, America agreed to end the war against the Indians and forthwith to restore to such tribes ... all possessions ... which they have enjoyed ... in 1811 previous to such hostilities.' This clearly made the Fort Jackson Treaty invalid. This was Britain's view and Madison agreed with it. Jackson was told:The president ... is confident that you will ...
conciliate the Indians upon the principle of our agreement with Great Britain.' But Madison had
no grounds for such confidence. Jackson had no intention of giving the Indians back anything.
And, now that the British forces had left the area, there was no one to compel him. When he
simply ignored the Treaty of Ghent, Washington did nothing. Nor did the British. In fact the
American settler interest had now received carte blanche to pursue its destiny-right to the
Pacific. That, too, was the consequence of New Orleans. So Jackson was now the hero,
recognized by the South and West as their champion, and by all Americans, who badly needed a
successful martial figure to lift their national spirits, as the true successor to Washington. So the
Revolutionary Era finally ended and a new figure strode onto America's stage, who was to take
the nation into the era of democracy.