They were new men in national politics, and the most active and able of them came from the West and the South.1 Angry at Great Britain for her conduct toward us, they were determined to have another war with her, to obtain what they called our sailors' rights." The "war hawks," as they were dubbed, thought that it was only necessary to capture Canada, which lay at our door apparently almost unprotected by soldiers or navy. With Canada once in our hands, declared one optimistic orator, we could "dictate peace at Quebec or Halifax."

The following summer, President Madison, acting under instructions of Congress, issued a proclamation declaring war against Great Britain, charging her with four serious offenses against this nation:

(a) Impressing American sailors. This was the offense that chiefly angered the people.

(b) Patrolling our Atlantic Coast with armed vessels, which tried to "bottle up our ports and prevent our trading with other nations.

(c) Capturing our merchant vessels on the high seas. (d) Encouraging the Indians to attack, rob, and murder our settlers west of the Allegheny Mountains.

239. The British desire peace. Great Britain did not want to go to war with us. She still had on her hands a giant struggle against Napoleon and his European allies, which was all the fighting she felt able to do. Before Madison's declaration had reached London, for then there was no Atlantic cable, and the fastest ships took several weeks to cross the ocean, she had ordered her navy to cease annoying American shipping. But Congress was under the firm control of the "war hawks," and insisted on fighting.

In the seaports of New England, however, the war spirit 1 Two of the new members of the House of Representatives were Henry Clay, of Kentucky (who had been a senator), and John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. They were orators and statesmen of great power, who long continued to be leaders in the House. Clay was Speaker of that body, and at the head of the party that favored war. By this time the statesmen who had carried on the Revolution were most of them grown old, and were not now in control of the Government.

of the West and the South found' few friends. The people of that section feared that the English navy might utterly destroy our ocean commerce, and this would ruin thousands of New Englanders.1

240. The Americans unprepared. Congress had entered upon this war with entire confidence in our ability soon to whip the enemy. But as a matter of fact, we were not at all prepared for such a task. It was necessary to raise heavy special taxes and borrow money to equip, feed, and pay our forces; for at that time the Federal revenue was barely enough to support the Government in time of peace. Our regular army contained less than seven thousand men, who knew almost nothing about fighting. Most of the Revolutionary veterans were now too old for service, so that the large and well-trained British army must be fought almost entirely by our volunteers and militia. At the beginning of the struggle we had, besides six small ships, but ten naval vessels that were capable of going out to sea, and seven of these were poorly armed. The British, however, had nearly a thousand men-of-war, many of them much larger than the best of ours. This last fact seemed most discouraging; but, when a number of splendid new frigates were added to our navy, those which met the British proved quite the equal of the enemy in seamanship and fighting qualities. This is saying a great deal, for the British navy had for over two centuries, since it defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, been the most effective in the world. 241. The Americans fail to capture Canada. Congress having thought it quite easy for us to capture Canada, and then to annex it, our army officers at once prepared to send against that colony three land expeditions. All of these were failures:

1 This feeling grew stronger and stronger as the war went on. In December, 1814, delegates from the New England States held a convention at Hartford, Connecticut. The meeting virtually threatened that those States would secede from the Union unless they were permitted to retain for their own protection during the war, the Federal customs duties collected within their borders. Fortunately the end of the war came before their address could be presented to Congress.

(a) General William Hull went from Ohio with 2000 men, to keep Detroit from falling into British hands. He chopped out a road through two hundred miles of dense forest; but on arriving at Detroit he found himself outnumbered by Canadians and Indians, and surrendered to them.1 This gave the enemy control of a large region bordering upon the upper Great Lakes.

(b) General Stephen Van Rensselaer entered Canada by way of the Niagara River. He intended to seize the British

fort at York, now Toronto, and join Hull, who had expected to march eastward from Detroit; it had been planned that these two generals should then march against Montreal. But Hull had met defeat, and now Van Rensselaer was also beaten with heavy losses at Queenstown, a few miles north of Niagara Falls.

(c) General Henry Dearborn went northward by way of the old Hudson-Champlain route. His purpose was to join

1 This was on August 16, 1812. The day before, the Indians in the neighborhood of Fort Dearborn, on the site of Chicago, had massacred its garrison. In July Mackinac had been taken by the British.

Hull and Van Rensselaer in the proposed attack on Montreal. After that the three generals were to storm Quebec. But as the other two had been defeated, Dearborn alone could do nothing.

242. Old Ironsides. Thus the year was one of continuous disaster on land. But meanwhile, American seamen

won a brilliant victory; indeed, the entire three years' contest was chiefly a naval war. The

Scotia,

Courtesy, New England Mutual Life Insurance Company when on August

19, 1812, she met

THE GUERRIÈRE

the British frig

The Constitution was of 2200 tons displacement, and 204 feet in length.
Cost, $302,719. Crew, 400 officers and men. Compare with the New
York, page 458

ate Guerrière. At

the end of a half

hour's sharp fight, the Guerrière was badly shattered and beginning to sink, so her captain surrendered. The Constitution, however, was so skillfully managed that she was not much hurt. After her victory, which aroused great enthusiasm throughout the country, she was fondly called "Old Ironsides." 1

Several American naval victories quickly followed this affair. During October, five hundred miles east of Chesapeake Bay, the British brig Frolic was beaten by the Ameri

1 Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a patriotic poem on this famous vessel, at a time when, too old to be longer serviceable, it was proposed to destroy her. She was, however, preserved and restored to her original appearance, and can still be seen at the navy yard in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

can sloop Wasp, and the frigate United States captured the frigate Macedonian, off the North African Coast. In December the Constitution destroyed the frigate Java, northeast of Rio Janeiro. In February, 1813, the Hornet sank the British Peacock, near the northeast coast of South America. These exploits greatly encouraged our small navy, and dismayed the British, who were not used to defeat.

1

243. "Don't give up the ship." The British navy had been diligent in blockading our harbors and "bottling up" several of our new ships. However, a few were able to elude the enemy on foggy days or on dark nights, and slip out to sea. Among these was the frigate Chesapeake, under Captain James Lawrence. On the first day of June, 1813, this vessel fought valiantly with the British warship Shannon. Lawrence fell mortally wounded while shouting to his men, "Don't give up the ship!" The enemy. at last compelled the crew of the Chesapeake to surrender, but Lawrence's dying words have ever since been the warcry of the American navy.

244. Perry's victory on Lake Erie. Our land forces had, up to this time, failed either to capture Canada or to keep the region of the upper Great Lakes from falling into the hands of the enemy. And now there seemed to be great danger that the British might get possession of all the Great Lakes, and possibly send troops across Lake Erie to occupy our soil. But the plucky navy came to the rescue, and American control in our Northwest was regained through the enterprise and courage of Captain Oliver H. Perry. That gallant commander collected for this purpose a fleet of nine armed vessels, five of which were built from green timber which his men cut on the banks of the lake. On September 10, 1813, he was attacked off Put-in-Bay by a British fleet of only six ships, but carrying larger crews and many more guns than his own. A fierce battle followed, in which the

1 When a harbor or a coast is blockaded by an enemy, his ships are so placed that no other vessels may either leave it, or approach it from outside, without danger of being attacked.