Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/336

278 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS On very insufficient evidence Arbuthnot was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. Appearances were somewhat more strongly against Ambrister. He did not make it clear what his business was in Florida, and threw himself upon the mercy of the court, which at first condemned him to be shot, but on further consideration commuted the sen tence to fifty lashes and a year s imprisonment. Jackson arbitrarily revived the first sentence, and Ambrister was accordingly shot. A few minutes afterward Arbuthnot was hanged from the yard- arm of his own ship, declaring with his last breath that his country would avenge him. In this lamentable affair Jackson doubtless acted from a sense of duty; as he himself said, "My God would not have smiled on me, had I punished only the poor ignorant savages, and spared the white men who set them on." Here, as elsewhere, however, when under the influence of strong feeling, he showed himself utterly incapable of estimating evi dence. The case against both the victims was so weak that a fair-minded and prudent commander would surely have pardoned them; while the inter ference with the final sentence of the court, in Ambrister s case, was an act that can hardly be justified. Throughout life Jackson was perpet ually acting with violent energy upon the strength of opinions hastily formed and based upon inade quate data. Fortunately, his instincts were apt to