fired at one another, their nice sense of honor was soothed; the public were congratulated on the happy issue; Ingersoll dryly says, "the public would have preferred a battle in Canada."

Beside the ill success at Queenstown, and the abortive attempt of Smyth, there were here and there efforts made to do something. In September, a detachment of militia from Ogdensburg, attacked a party of the British, who were moving down the St. Lawrence, and defeated them. They were reinforced, and, in their turn, compelled the militia to retire. In retaliation, the British attempted the destruction of Ogdensburg, on the 2d of October; but they were repulsed by General Brown, the energetic commander at that station.

Colonel Pike, on the 19th of October, made an incursion into Canada, burned a blockhouse, and escaped without loss. On the 22d, Captain Lyon captured forty English at St. Regis, with baggage, dispatches, and a stand of colors; and the enemy, at Salmon River, on the 23d of November, captured two of our officers, with some forty men and four boats.

Thus far, certainly, there is little room for gratulation on account of our land operations. It is bad enough to have to record most of what we have just detailed; but the senile conduct of General Dearborn capped the climax of the military misdeeds of 1812. It was his misfortune, it must be acknowledged, "to have an army to form; an inexperienced, not over ardent executive, a secretary of war constrained to resign; a Senate 'rclined to distrust the

executive; Congress withholding taxes and supplies for near twelve months after war was declared; waiting 1812. upon a presidential election; disaffected states,-Dearborn's Own state, Massachusetts, at the head of disaffection; a country destitute of military means and men, unaccustomed to restraints, and impatient for exploit."* All this is true enough; but it will not excuse his allowing himself to be deluded into an armistice by Prevost, (p. 159) from which Hull was excluded; neither will it account for his idleness and inactivity, and neglect to avail himself of the plainest advantages within his reach.

Dearborn had the largest discretion in respect of the materiel of war, and had under him more than three thousand regular troops; two thousand Vermont, and one thousand New York militia on Lake Champlain. And opposed to him were, as General Armstrong insists, not three thousand men altogether, who had to protect nine hundred miles of frontier. After due council of war, Dearborn, on the 20th of November, dispatched General Bloomfield with a large force, to enter Canada, and achieve some deed of daring, in order to redeem the military character of the United States. The "Aurora" announced the fact, and predicted glori ous results.

By some means, the British commander, three days before, heard that the invasion was about to take place;

CH. VIII.]

and on the 20th, in the morning, one of the regiments sent forward to meet them, actually came upon Colonel Pike, leading the advance into Canada. "A confused and incomprehensible skirmish ensued," says Ingersoll, very sharply, "in which each party's object seemed to be to get away from the other, till the Americans, in the dark, mistaking themselves for enemies, began to fire on each other, killed four or five, and wounded as many, of themselves, and then returned; leaving their dead behind, which Indians never would have done. Where Generals Dearborn, Chandler, and Bloomfield were during this wretched foray, did not then appear, nor can be now told; and on no occasion did General Dearborn ever lead his troops into action." Following all this, it is perhaps only a fitting conclusion, that the six thousand men composing this army of the north, should be sent into winter-quarters, to repose after the fatigues of their invasion of Canada.

But, though we have spoken plainly, and even severely, candor compels us to confess, that it is not an easy task to form a just estimate of the campaign of 1812. Our country had been at peace with other nations for many years, and the generation which had grown up since the Revolution was

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wholly unacquainted with war as a science, and quite unaware of the supreme importance of discipline, steadiness, and prompt obedience. We had not remaining any officers of experience to conduct our armies, and not a single company that had seen actual service. In addition to this, the whole system for the recruiting, feeding, clothing, and maintaining an army, was, as it were, to be created. Many of the necessary munitions of war were to be provided. Platoon, staff, and many of the general officers, were to be selected from the body of the American people, upon conjecture merely as to their merits. It was therefore not unreasonable to expect, that many of them would be found incompetent, and undeserving. Certainly the campaign proved, that our generals needed experience, as much as our officers and soldiers needed discipline; and although it was disastrous, it was not without its consolations. The great body of the army was found to be brave to a fault; and many officers gave earnest of their fu ture glory. Miller, Scott, Christie, Wadsworth, and Wool, gained immortal honor for themselves and their country; and Maguaga and Queenstown will bear comparison with the brave deeds of the heroic age of our coun try's history.

CH. IX.]

Halifax station, addressed a letter to Mr. Monroe, on the 30th of September, proposing an immediate cessation of hostilities between the two countries. In case this were agreed to, he was authorized to arrange for the repeal of the laws and regulations against British commerce and the entrance of British ships of war into our harbors; but if his propositions were rejected, he informed the secretary of state, that the orders in council, repealed June 23d, would be again revived. Mr. Monroe, who had learned the ill success of Mr. Russell's efforts at London, replied to Admiral Warren on the 27th of October, and expressing the willingness of the American government to take any measures which might lead to peace on conditions honorable to both nations, he avowed his conviction, that, till the subject of impressment was disposed of, a durable peace was hardly to be expected. "The claim of the British government," he remarked in 1812. his letter, "is to take from the merchant vessels of other countries, British subjects. In the practice, the commanders of the British ships of war often take from the merchant vessels of the United States, American citizens. If the United States forbid the employment of British subjects in their service, and enforce the prohibition by suitable regulations and penalties, the motive for the practice is taken away. It is in this mode that the president is willing to accommodate this important controversy with the British government, and it cannot be conceived on what ground the arrangement can be refused. He is willing that Great Brit

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ain should be secured against the evils of which she complains; but he seeks, on the other hand, that the citizens of the United States should be protected against a practice, which, while it degrades the nation, deprives them of their rights as freemen, takes them by force from their families and country into a foreign service, to fight the battles of a foreign power, perhaps against their own kindred and country."

The British admiral not being authorized to enter upon this subject in his negotiation, the United States had no alternative but to continue the war, and to prosecute it with vigor. Sincerely desirous, however, of peace, when the emperor of Russia, early in 1813, offered his mediation, it was immedi ately and cordially accepted by our government; but England peremptorily rejected every thing of the kind.

The presidential contest, in the autumn of 1812, was animated to a high degree, especially in the eastern and middle states. Mr. Madison, having acceded to the views of the war party, (see p. 137,) was nominated for re-elec tion, Mr. Gerry being placed on the same ticket for vice-president. A portion of the democratic party, however, determined to support De Witt Clinton and Jared Ingersoll for president and vice-president; and the federalists, hoping to profit by divisions in the ranks of their opponents, mostly voted for Clinton and Ingersoll. The result of the election was, Mr. Madison received one hundred and twenty-eight votes for president, and Mr. Clinton received eighty-nine for the same high office. For Mr. Gerry, as vice-presi

dent, one hundred and thirty-one votes were given, and for Mr. Ingersoll, eightysix. The federalists, by a skilful use of their present opportunity, managed to elect a number of additional members of Congress to represent their views in the national legislature; so that, although the administration was decidedly in the majority, it was evident, that the minority possessed no little power and influence, and would watch the progress of affairs with unflagging zeal and interest.

Congress assembled again on the first Monday in November, and the next day the president sent in his annual message to both Houses. It is a long and carefully prepared document, calm but decided in tone, and strongly pat

riotic in its sentiments. "On

1812. our present meeting," he said, "it is my first duty to invite your attention to the Providential favors which our country has experienced in the unusual degree of health dispensed to its inhabitants, and to the rich abundance with which the earth has rewarded the labors bestowed on it. In the successful cultivation of other branches of industry, and in the progress of general improvement favorable to the national prosperity, there is just occasion, also, for our mutual congratulations and thankfulness. With these blessings are necessarily mingled the pressures and vicissitudes incident to the state of war into which the United States have been forced, by the perseverance of a foreign power in its system of injustice and aggression."

The president then enters upon a full account of the various important move

ments and occurrences of the year; relates Hull's operations and surrender; mentions the refusal of Massachusetts and Connecticut (see note, p. 155) to allow the militia to leave the state; recommends attention to a revision of the militia laws, an enlargement of the navy, the navigation laws, etc. The receipts into the treasury, he states, have been $16,500,000, sufficient to meet all the expenses of the government and to dis charge nearly $3,000,000 of the public debt. "We have the inestimable consolation," said Mr. Madison, in conclusion, "of knowing that the war in which we are actually engaged, is a war neither of ambition nor of vain glory; that it is waged, not in violation of the rights of others, but in the maintenance of our own; that it was preceded by a patience without example, under wrongs accumulating without end; and that it was finally not declared, until every hope of averting it was extinguished by the transfer of the British sceptre into new hands, clinging to former counsels, and until declarations were reiterated to the last hour, through the British envoy here, that the hostile edicts against our commercial rights and our maritime independence would not be revoked. It remains only, that,

faithful to ourselves, entangled in no connections with the views of other powers, and ever ready to accept peace from the hand of justice, we prosecute the war with united counsels, and with the ample faculties of the nation, until peace be so obtained, and as the only means, under the diyine blessing, of speedily obtaining it.”

The present session of Congress was