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perceived, by the squareness of her yards and the symmetry of her build, | that she was a vessel of war; and the American frigate stood for her, with the intention to get within hail. At two, P. M., the President set her broad pennant and ensign. The stranger now made several signals, but finding they were not answered, he wore and stood to southward. Chase was given directly, and between seven and eight in the evening, the President, bringing up on the weather bow of the stranger, hailed, "What ship is that?" The English vessel, which had the appearance of a small frigate, did not answer, but hailed in return. After a short pause, a second hail was given, when the strange vessel fired a gun, which entered the main-mast of the President. Of course this led to firing in return, and the comparative strength of the two ships was speedily tested. The President's antagonist was crippled very soon, and then condescended to answer the hail which was renewed. "Satisfied that his late opponent was disabled, and having no desire to do more than was already accomplished, Commodore Rodgers gave the name of his own ship, wore round, and running a short distance to leeward, he hauled by the wind again, with a view to remain nigh the English vessel during the night. The president kept lights displayed, in order to let her late antagonist know her position, and wore several times to remain near her." At the dawn of day, the President sent a boat, with the first lieutenant, to offer services, if any were required. The stranger proved to be his Britannic

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majesty's ship, Little Belt, eighteen, Captain Bingham. She had suffered severely, thirty-one being killed and wounded; the President, on the other hand, had received no injury, and only one of the crew, a boy, was wounded. The Little Belt declining all assistance, the ships parted company, and returned to their respective harbors.

Mr. Cooper enlarges upon this occurrence, its merits, the feeling which was aroused, etc. The English asserted that the President was the aggressor; but it seems to us clearly established, that the Little Belt fired first, and persisted in the unequal contest. Captain Bingham's account was generally accredited in England, and it served to increase the ill-feeling that was already very strong. At home, Commodore Rodgers was sharply censured by a considerable party, and his reputation suffered, from this cause, no doubt, very serious injury.*

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Our naval historian relates another incident which is worth quoting here, as illustrating the state of feeling in the service at the time. "Not long after the meeting between the President and the Little Belt, the United States, forty-four, bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Decatur, fell in with the Eurydice and Atalanta, British ships, off New York; and while the commanders were hailing, one of the seamen of the former vessel, (United States,) in carelessly

* Cooper's "Naval History," vol. ii., pp. 26–35. Mr. C. discusses quite fully the "general principles" involved in the case of the President and the Little Belt. His remarks are well worthy examination.

handling the lanyard of his lock, fired a gun.* The reader will learn in this fact, the high state of preparation that then prevailed in an American man-ofwar; the lock having been cocked, and every thing in perfect readiness to commence an action at a moment's notice. Happily both parties were cool and discreet, and proper explanations having been made, the English commander was entirely satisfied that no insult or assault was intended."

Mr. Foster, the newly appointed British minister, arrived in the United States, in June, and speedily entered upon his duties. Long and important correspondence ensued, in which it was evident that Great Britain was not yet prepared to recede from the stand she had taken, and deal justly and rightly with America. Reparation was offered for the attack on the Chesapeake, by which the act was to be formally disavowed, the men taken from the ship were to be restored again, and pecuniary provision was to be made for the families of the killed or wounded. After some delay, the proposal was agreed to. But with respect to the vital questions which sprang out of the orders in council, and the claim to impressment, Mr. Foster was not at liberty, even if disposed, to afford satisfaction. These odious and insulting orders and claims continued to be enforced, and the nation was rapidly verg

* This, says Mr. Cooper, was the excuse of the man. Commodore Decatur believed that the gun was fired intentionally by its captain, with a view to bring on an engagement. So strong was the feeling of the seamen of the day, that such an occurrence is highly probable.

ing to the point of armed resistance against England. Dispatches from abroad showed, that not less than twenty-six vessels had been condemned in the court of admiralty, and that others were about to share the same fate. All the evils of war nearly, had already fallen upon the United States; while England was enjoying the advantages of war, without the cost. In fact, as it was estimated, her cruisers had captured nine hundred American vessels, since the year 1803. "She had, at this epoch," as Mr. Dallas forcibly states in his Exposition, "impressed from the crews of American merchant vessels, peaceably navigating the high seas, not less than six thousand mariners, who claimed to be citizens of the United States, and who were denied all opportunity to verify their claims. She had seized and confiscated the commercial property of American citizens to an incalculable amount. She had united in the enormities of France to declare a great proportion of the terraqueous globe in a state of blockade; chasing the American merchant flag effectually from the ocean. She had contemptuously disregarded the neutrality of the American territory, and the jurisdiction of the American laws, within the waters and harbors of the United States. She was enjoying the emoluments of a surreptitious trade, stained with every species of fraud and corruption, which gave to the belligerent powers the advantages of peace while the neutral powers were involved in the evils of war. She had, in short, usurped and exercised on the water, a tyranny similar to that which her great antagonist had usurped and

CH. VI.] exercised upon the land. And amidst all these proofs of ambition and avarice, she demanded that the victims of her usurpations and her violence should revere her as the sole defender of the rights and liberties of mankind."*

It may well be believed, that in such a state of affairs, the exasperated people looked with anxious concern to the approaching session of Congress, and the clamor for war was increased in every part of the Union, with the exception perhaps of the larger part of New England. Mr. Madison

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was indisposed to extreme measures, and his cabinet were somewhat at variance with each other. Mr. Smith and Mr. Gallatin did not harmonize, and the president preferred to part with the former, who resigned, and James Monroe took the post of secretary of state, in November. William Pinkney also, soon after, succeeded Rodney as attorney-general.

In addition to the causes already pointed out as leading to difficulties with Great Britain, there were others which tended to the same result. The British government, from the position of Canada, and the facilities which it enjoyed in consequence, paid much attention to the enlisting the Indian tribes in favor of the quarrel which it was urging forward with the United States; and there is every reason to conclude, that British emissaries were actively engaged in fomenting dissen

* Dallas's “Exposition of the Causes and Character of the Late War with Great Britain," pp. 47, 48. This ably written tract is now rarely to be met with: it was printed at Philadelphia, in April, 1815; 8vo., pp. 82.

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sions and complaints which existed among the Indians in the north-west. The rapid progress of the white men's settlements, the narrowing of the hunting-grounds, the introduction of the white men's spirituous liquors, and the like, had led to serious troubles on various occasions, and the tribes in the north-west had frequently been concerned in robbing and murdering the settlers in the vicinity.

General Harrison, governor of the Territory of Indiana, had made, in 1809, a purchase of valuable land from the Miami Indians on the Wabash River. The sale of this tract gave great offence to Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, whose ambition led him to aspire to the leadership of the western tribes, and whose superior abilities fitted him for that task which the noted Pontiac (vol. i., p. 250) had striven, fifty years previously, to accomplish; we mean, a confederacy and organized union of the Indians to repel the further advances of the white men. In August, 1810, Tecumseh and his warriors met General Harrison in council at Vincennes, which resulted in nothing but increased excitement and a determination on the part of Tecumseh and his twin-brother, the prophet, a crafty impostor, to proceed to extremities.

In the spring of 1811, the frontier inhabitants became seriously alarmed. at the prospect of Indian outrages,

which seemed to be on the in- 1811.

crease; and at their solicitation, General Harrison resolved to move towards the prophet's town, at the junction of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers, with a body of Kentucky and

CH. VII.]

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administration, and the democratic party felt itself strong enough to venture upon more energetic measures than had as yet been deemed prudent. Henry Clay, who now made his first appearance in the House, and was an ardent supporter of the republican views, was elected speaker by a large vote over Mr. Bibb, whom the more moderate men of the party desired to have placed in the chair.

On the following day, the president sent in his third annual message, in which he entered quite at large into the important questions at that time agitating the nation. He expressed himself disappointed at the course pursued by the British government, who, not crediting the revocation of Napoleon's decrees, had refused to rescind the orders in council, and had pressed with additional severity the enforcement of these odious regulations. He further spoke of "the unfriendly spirit" evinced by the British authorities, who had threatened "measures of retaliation" for the continuance of the nonimportation act, and declared, that "indemnity and redress for other wrongs have continued to be withheld, and our coasts and the mouths of our harbors have again witnessed scenes not less derogatory to the dearest of our na tional rights than vexatious to the regular course of our trade." The affair of the President and the Little Belt appropriately followed this statement.

With respect to France, the president said: "The justice and fairness which had been evinced on the part of the United States towards France, both before and since the revocation of her

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decrees, authorized an expectation that her government would have followed up that measure by all such others as were due to our reasonable claims, as well as dictated by its amicable professions. No proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs done to the United States; and particularly to restore the great amount of American property seized and condemned under edicts, which, though not affecting our neutral relations, and therefore not entering into questions between the United States and other belligerents, were nevertheless founded in such unjust principles, that the reparation ought to have been prompt and ample. In addition to this and other demands of strict right, on that nation, the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the rigorous and unexpected restrictions, to which their trade with the French dominions has been subjected; and which, if not discontinued, will require at least corresponding restrictions on importations from France into the United States."

With the other powers of Europe, the relations of the United States continued on a friendly footing.

In speaking of the "ominous indications" which required the executive to take measures for providing for the general security, the president informed Congress of the progress of the coast defences, and the putting of part of the gunboats, the navy, the regulars, and the militia, into active use; the latter in Indiana chiefly, on account of the menacing combination of the Indians there under Tecumseh and the prophet.