CHAPTER VI.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER.

"I was born among the hardy sons of the ocean, and I cannot so doubt their courage or their skill. If Great Britain ever obtains possession of our present little navy, it will be at the expense of the best blood of the country, and after a struggle which will call for more of her strength than she has ever found necessary for a European enemy.”- STORY.

WAR is a great evil, a crime, indeed, when it assumes the form of aggression upon the rights or safety of a nation; but force in defence of the right against force in the wrong is an absolute necessity and a high moral right. In watching the progress of a country, it is therefore indispensable to mark the development of its power to defend itself and enforce its just demands. The war of 1812 sufficiently tested this question.

It was to be expected that the wars of Napoleon with England and nearly the whole of Europe would, in some way, involve the United States. Our commercial relations were extensive; and the "orders in council" of Great Britain, and the famous Berlin, Milan, and Bayonne decrees by Napoleon, mutually retaliatory, and designed to cripple each other, had the effect of despotic assaults upon the international rights of neutrals, and were exceedingly disastrous to the commerce of the United States. The embargo, the non-intercourse and non-importation acts of Congress, were intended for self-defence; but the tendency of the whole was to compel the Republic to choose between the two great belligerents, or to come into collision with both.

The Republicans, under the lead of Jefferson, were exceedingly hostile to England, but inclined to favor France. The

Federalists were opposed to war, especially with England. The election of Madison to the high office of President was a triumph of the Republican, or new Democratic party, and a precursor of war. The judgment of Mr. Madison was against it; but influenced, it was alleged, by the hope of a second term, he was carried foward by the current, and became gravely responsible for the final decision.

SELF-RESPECT OF THE NATION.

No sovereign power can with safety allow the violation. of its flag. The redress may not be in open hostilities; prudence may require delays: but remonstrance and energetic protests at least should show that the government understands its rights, and will protect its citizens.

Our merchantmen, denied the freedom of the ocean, forbidden on the one hand to carry English goods to any European port, and, on the other, to carry goods of any description which had not been examined in England, were sure to be victimized by the French or the English. The British insisted on the right of forcible search for articles contraband of war; which was, of course, a high indignity to free Americans upon the seas. Under pretence of some violation of "orders in council," which orders America held to be in violation of international law, and therefore not binding, our merchantmen were seized, and the rights of property sacrificed.

The true remedy was, no doubt, a very difficult question. The United States could not venture, unprepared, to declare war; and the contest between parties rendered any decision doubtful in policy at home and in effect abroad. The expedient of an embargo on foreign vessels seemed to be natural, but it was destructive to our own trade; and, as it aided Napoleon in his attempts to destroy the commerce of Great Britain, it was tolerated by France, and regarded as virtually hostile to England. The purposes of the embargo were, to a

large extent, impracticable, as our navy was not capable of enforcing it, and the administration shrank from the responsibilities of war. But the self-respect of the nation rose with the increase of dangers; and more stringent enforcement acts were passed, which made our own merchants cry out in distress, but which indicated the purpose of the government to compel England at least to respect our flag. It seemed a severe deprivation to the American people; but Congress passed the non-intercourse and non-importation acts, which, so far as it was possible to enforce them, would deny to those who refused our rights on the seas and in foreign ports the benefits of American markets, and, distressing as it was, began a new era in the development of home resources and the protection of home industry.

There was another grievous wrong in the pretensions of England. She denied to her citizens the right of expatriation. She claimed the right of impressing into the British service all English-born subjects, wherever found. To enforce this claim, also, she assumed the right of search; and for this purpose, our ships, dominated by British guns, were arrested on the high seas; and, with no careful discrimination as to the real citizenship of the men, they were taken violently from under our flag, and consigned to an odious warservice or to loathsome prisons. That so gross an outrage would be long endured by a people of courage and spirit could not be reasonably expected, and great efforts at some accommodation were made by England. She was by no means anxious for an additional war.

A large number of impressed sailors in the British navy claimed to be American citizens, and the right of England to coerce them was assumed; while they must prove that they were American citizens, or suffer the penalties due to deserters from his Majesty's service. When the war commenced, twenty-five hundred of these men affirmed their American rights, and, refusing to fight against their country, "were committed to Dartmoor and other prisons." The

British Government alleged as an excuse for this enormous wrong, that, if they did not compel the services of these men, half their naval force might set up the claim to be American citizens. This, while it is a fallacy that would excuse any acts of aggression and injustice whatsoever against other nations, was, to say the least, a poor compliment to British patriotism. The Americans expressed no fears of this kind with regard to their citizen soldiers or sailors.

There was, obviously, but one alternative,- England must repeal her "orders in council," and desist from her insults to the flag of the United States by her forcible search for goods contraband of war and the impressment of seamen, or she must accept war. The former she declined to do; the latter she dreaded she would therefore negotiate.

Lord Erskine was well disposed toward America. He agreed with our representative here upon a treaty which would have averted the war; but, when it was sent home for confirmation, Canning rejected it. This was matter of severe mortification to the president, and the greatest annoyance to the people: for the administration had relaxed the stringency of retaliatory measures; and the people, for a brief time, rejoiced in the opening prospects of commerce, and relief from the perils of war. There seemed, however, now no way to avoid the dreaded conflict; and war was

declared by Congress on the 18th of June, 1812.

With an army numbering on paper 36,700, but an actual force of only 10,000 men, half of whom were raw recruits, we were now at war with a powerful nation. On the water, "we had three first-class frigates, 'The President,' 'The Consti tution,' and 'The United States;' 'The Congress' and 'Essex,' frigates of the second class; 'The John Adams,' which was soon laid up as unfit to cruise; "The Wasp' and 'The Hornet,' sloops-of-war; 'The Argus,' 'Siren,' Nautilus,' 'Enterprise,' and 'Vixen,' brigs. Three second-class frigates, The Chesapeake,' 'Constellation,' and 'John Adams,' were undergoing

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repairs. These, with a hundred and seventy gunboats, and three old frigates too rotten to be repaired, constituted the entire American navy."

Our population, however, had largely increased. The third census (1810) showed that the United States numbered 5,862,093 free whites; 1,191,364 slaves; all others, 186,446; making a population of 7,239,903 souls. We had, in effect, therefore, more than twice the strength of the nation in our Revolutionary struggle with Great Britain; and our antagonist, worried by her death-struggles with Napoleon, was still fighting for supremacy on the Continent, and the suppression of what she deemed a colossal and destructive revolutionary power.

SANDWICH AND QUEENSTOWN.

Henry Dearborn was appointed first major-general, with command of the Northern Department. Hull, Governor of Michigan Territory, was made a brigadier-general, and with some eighteen hundred men, the militia of his own Territory included, undertook the conquest of Canada, a territory then including, in the Upper and Lower Provinces, some four hundred thousand people. It was very discouraging that his vessel of supplies was overhauled and captured at Fort Amherstburg. He, however, moved on as far as Sandwich. In the absence of McArthur's detachment, he now numbered some eight hundred men. He was about to be attacked by Brock with seven hundred and thirty regulars and militia, and six hundred Indians under the renowned Tecumseh. "Though he at first refused," he at length responded to a challenge to surrender, thus saving "the effusion of blood;" and as a matter of prudence, if not necessity, included McArthur's command among the prisoners of war handed over to the British. This, it must be confessed, was not a very encouraging commencement of the war.

About the 9th of October, Commodore Elliot, taking com

* Hildreth, 2d Series, iii. 364, 365.