“All this evidence was obtained from British prisoners taken in the battle of January 8th. But it lacked one link to make the chain perfect. That was evidence of specific design and fixed policy on the part of the British Government. In the absence of such evidence the cabinet of St. James might, in emergency, declare that the scheme of a ‘crown colony’ and the proclamation itself were the acts of General Pakenham—to be approved if he succeeded or disavowed if he failed. The needed link was supplied long after.” “The final link in the chain,” says Mr. Buell, “was furnished by General Jackson himself. In the fall of 1875, the author, then a staff correspondent of the _Missouri Republican_, visited former Governor William Allen, of Ohio, at his farm near Chillicothe. During the visit, which was of three days’ duration, the venerable statesman’s conversation—when not upon agricultural subjects—was mainly of reminiscences of his earlier public life. All was interesting; some of it historically valuable, particularly those parts relating to the British invasion of Louisiana. What Governor Allen said on this subject we reproduce here, exactly as it was printed in 1875.” Governor Allen’s interview is here given in full: “Near the end of General Jackson’s second administration and shortly after the admission of Arkansas to the Union, I, being Senator elect from Ohio, went to Washington to take the seat on March 4th. “General Jackson,—he always preferred to be called General rather than Mr. President, and so we always addressed him by his military title—General Jackson invited me to lunch with him. No sooner were we seated than he said: ‘Mr. Allen, let us take a little drink to the new star in the flag—Arkansas.’ This ceremony being duly observed, the General said: ‘Allen, if there had been disaster instead of victory at New Orleans, there never would have been a state of Arkansas.’” “This, of course, interested me, and I asked: ‘Why do you say that, General?’ “Then he said, that if Pakenham had taken New Orleans, the British would have claimed and held the whole Louisiana Purchase. But I said: ‘You know, General Jackson, that the treaty of Ghent, which had been signed fifteen days before the battle, provided for restoration of all territory, places and possessions taken by either nation from the other during the war, with certain unimportant exceptions.’ “‘Yes, of course,’ he replied, ‘But the minutes of the conference at Ghent as kept by Mr. Gallatin, represent the British commissioners as declaring in exact words: ‘We do not admit Bonaparte’s construction of the law of nations; and we cannot accept it in relation to any subject matter before us.’