was concluded) as by national vessels, omitting those recaptured, was reckoned at seventeen hundred and fifty. According to an official British return, there had been captured or destroyed by ships of the royal navy, forty-two American national vessels, including twenty-two gun-boats, two hundred and thirty-three privateers, and fourteen hundred and thirty-seven merchant vessels-sixteen hundred and eightythree in all, manned by upward of eighteen thousand seamen. The captures by British privateers were not numerous. Owing to the early disasters by land, the balance of prisoners had been all along against the Americans. Horrid, indeed, were the tales brought back, equal to those of the Jersey prison-ship, from Dartmoor and other British depots for prisoners, where war had been seen stripped of all its gilding, and felt in all its grim horrors. Much feeling was also occasioned by an unlucky disturbance which occurred at Dartmoor after the peace was known, the guard firing on the prisoners and killing several.

As to the maritime results of the war, the British remained very sore. A party, with the London Times at its head, bitterly complained that any peace should have been assented to before stripping the upstart and insolent Yankees of their naval laurels. Madison, on the other hand, exhibited his anxiety to avoid the impressment question for the future by recommending the passage of an act excluding foreign seamen from American ships.

The Algerine war which now broke out, although it contributed to the making of a naval hero of Decatur, being of minor importance, in comparison with the great events which we are commemorating, Hildreth disposes of very summarily.

Just as the late war with Great Britain had broken out, the Dey of Algiers, taking offense at not having received from America the precise articles in the way of tribute, demanded, had unceremoniously dismissed Lear, the consul, had declared war, and had since captured an American vessel, and reduced her crew to slavery. Immediately after the ratification of the treaty with England, this declaration of war had been reciprocated. Efforts had been at once made to fit out ships, new and old, including several small ones lately purchased for the proposed squadrons of Porter and Perry, and before many weeks Decatur sailed from New

York with the Guerriere, Macedonian, and Constellation frigates, the Ontario, new sloop-of-war, four brigs, and two schooners. Two days after passing Gibraltar, he fell in with and captured an Algerine frigate of forty-four guns, the largest ship in the Algerine navy, which struck to the Guerriere after a running fight of twenty-five minutes. A day or two after, an Algerine brig was chased into shoal water on the Spanish coast, and captured by the smaller vessels. Decatur having appeared off Algiers, the terrified Dey at once consented to a treaty, which he submitted to sign on Decatur's quarter-deck, surrendering all prisoners on hand, making certain pecuniary indemnities, renouncing all future claim to any American tribute or presents, and the practice, also, of reducing prisoners of war to slavery. Decatur then proceeded to Tunis and Tripoli, and obtained from both indemnity for American vessels captured under the guns of their forts by British cruisers during the late war. The Bey of Tripoli being short of cash, Decatur agreed to accept in part payment the restoration to liberty of eight Danes and two Neapolitans, held as slaves.

Later in the season, Bainbridge sailed from Boston with the Independence, seventy-four, the Erie sloop-of-war, and two smaller vessels. Being joined by the Congress frigate, which had carried Eustis to Holland, and by Decatur's squadron, and finding every thing settled, he had nothing to do but to display his force in the ports of the Mediterranean, where the eclat of the American naval victories over the British caused him to be received with marked respect. little incident which occurred at Malaga deserves notice, as showing how natural is the insolence of power, and how readily our navy officers could fall into the very practices of which we had complained so loudly in the British. A deserter from the Independence, being seized in the streets of Malaga by one of her officers, was discharged by the civil authority on the claim which he set up of being a Spanish citizen. Bainbridge, however, still demanded him, threatening, if he were not given up, to land and take him by force, and, if resistance were made, to fire upon the town-threats to which the authorities yielded.

The return of Bonaparte to France excited a momentary alarm, lest the unsettled questions of impressment and

neutral rights might again come up; but his speedy downfall destroyed these apprehensions, and with them the hopes, also, of a new harvest to be reaped by neutral commerce.

The posts of Prarie du Chien and Michilimackinac having been re-occupied, steps were taken for the complete pacification of all the northwestern tribes. At a council held at Detroit, at which were represented the Senecas, Delawares, Shawanese, Wyandots, Potawatomies of Lake Michigan, Ottawas, and Chippewas, with some bands, also, of the Winnebagoes and Sauks, and at which the famous Prophet, the brother of Tecumseh, was present, the hatchet was formally buried as between all these tribes and as between them and the United States. Other treaties soon followed, with the Potawatomies of Illinois, the Piankeshaws, Osages, Iowas, Kansas, Foxes, Kickapoos, and various bands of the great Sioux confederacy, with several of which formal relations were now first established.

CHAPTER XLII.

Causes of the War-Debates in Congress-Extracts from Mr. Clay's Speeches on the different phases of the War Question.

THE causes of this war of 1812, which was now brought to an almost immediate conclusion, by the treaty of Ghent, and which have been much debated, are best illustrated by the speeches of Mr. Clay, its great champion, as well as the universal champion of human rights and freedom everywhere. Mr. Clay, in his urgency for this war, won for himself the most enduring basis of that singular personal popularity, which has since marked his reputation, as the noblest of the sons of "Sam" since his first representative, Washington.

It is remarkable, that the two great nations of western Europe, Great Britain and France, while at war with each other, should have presumed, that they could do any amount of injury to the rights and commercial interests of the United States with impunity. The British blockade of 1806 was followed by the Berlin edicts, and the British orders in council by the edicts of Milan, and these belligerent powers made war on the commerce of a friend, the better to carry on war between themselves. The United States were made the victim of their rapacity. From February 28, to May 20, 1811, less than three months, twenty-seven American merchant-vessels were sent into British ports, prizes to British cruisers, for violation of the orders in council, and the British admiralty courts were constantly occupied in adjudicating on American property, thus brought under their jurisdiction, little of which escaped forfeiture for the crime of a neutral commerce, and for attempting to enter ports which had no

other blockade than parchment orders. At the same time that these outrages were committed on American commerce, swelling up to millions annually, British manufactures were allowed and encouraged to enter, in neutral bottoms, the very ports from which American vessels, laden with American produce, were excluded, and for having papers of that destination, were captured!

But Great Britain, having command of the seas, asserted another offensive power, in relation to the United States, to maintain her maritime ascendancy, by seizing American seamen, on board American merchantmen, and forcing them into the British navy, under the pretense of searching for British subjects, and claiming their services, while all parties knew the wrong that was done. The seizure of the property of a neutral power, as a belligerent right, and claiming it as forfeited, though sufficiently atrocious, was a much less exasperating offense, than that of forcing neutrals to fight the battles of a belligerent. France was wreng; Great Britain was more so. The former had some magnanimity, when it was convenient to exercise it; while the latter seemed bent on wrong for the love of it. It is true, that Great Britain pretended to be fighting for existence, and her own vindicators asserted the law of necessity: but that was neither consolation, nor relief, to those whose rights she violated.

The truth undoubtedly was, that the United States had fallen into contempt, and the time had arrived when it was necessary to vindicate their rights. The mission of John Henry, into New England, in 1809, acting under the instructions of Sir James Craig, governor of Canada, with designs against the Union, as proved by Mr. Madison's communications to Congress, March 9, 1812, is sufficient evidence, that something more than contempt actuated the British government in the repeated and aggravated insults and injuries done to the government and people of the United States, for a series of years, naught abated by time and remonstrance, but ever on the increase. The conclusion seemed to have been adopted in Europe, that, though the United States had fought once, and gained their independence, there was no great danger of their fighting again, though insulted and wronged; that they might be injured to any extent with impunity. What else could account for the treatment received from France and