By this collusion between the Tyrant of Europe and the President of the United States, the necessities of France were supplied, and the shipping interests of the United States largely promoted, at the expense of the commerce and shipping interests of England.

But the collusion, or conspiracy, between Napoleon and Madison were carried on to weaken the English navy by the desertion of its sailors, as well as to injure English commerce by connivance in behalf of American trading vessels. The seduction of deserters from the British navy, and even army, was carried on successfully on a large scale. The safety of England consisted chiefly in her navy, which she was increasing and strengthening by every possible means. Therefore every skilled sailor was of importance to England, while every practicable scheme was resorted to by her enemies to induce and facilitate the desertion of her seamen and soldiers—especially of her seamen, several thousands of whom were detected and seized on board of American vessels—constituting as they did the best sailors on board American merchant vessels, and the vital strength of the French privateers. To stop this depleting of her naval resources, England put in exercise her right of boarding vessels of neutral powers in search of deserters from her navy. The only neutral power in Europe was Sardinia; so that the United States was the only neutral power that had vessels upon the ocean; and the President of the United States was conniving against England with the usurper and oppressor of Europe.

The right of a belligerent power to search the vessels of neutral powers in search of deserters had never been denied, though the modification of its exercise had frequently been sought; but under the teachings of Napoleon, his American pupils now began to exclaim against it as an infringement of national dignity and rights. The English Government had directed the exercise of this right with the greatest caution and courtesy, and only in regard to vessels on board of which, from specific information, there was reason to believe there were English deserters. These deserters, on getting smuggled on board of American vessels, would forthwith take the oath of allegiance to the United States, and be recognized and claimed as American citizens.[180]

An event now occurred which enabled President Madison to excite his partizans throughout the United States to a flame of indignation against England. Information had been received that there were English deserters on board the American ship Chesapeake; the British warship Leopard sought their restoration, and on being refused fired into the Chesapeake, and recovered the four deserters claimed. The attendant circumstances being omitted, the simple fact announced by the President to Congress, that the English warship Leopard had fired into the American ship Chesapeake, and in American waters, killing several persons, and had seized and carried off four American citizens, produced the excitement he was anxious to create against England, preparatory to the war on which he was then determined—in the zenith of Napoleon's success and power, and in the extremity of England's struggle for her own existence and the liberties of mankind. The statement of the American President as to the affair of the ships Leopard and Chesapeake has been repeated to this day by American historians, and is used in American school books to illustrate England's arrogance and cruelty; whereas all the facts of the case prove directly the reverse. We give the account of the affair from one American writer, who, though partial, was too honest to omit essential facts, much less to pervert them; we refer to Dr. Holmes, author of American Annals, and quote at length his account of the affair. He says:

"The frigate Chesapeake, being ordered to cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, under the command of Commodore Barron, sailing from Hampton Roads, was come up with by the British ship-of-war Leopard, one of a squadron then at anchor within the limits of the United States. An officer was sent from the Leopard to the Chesapeake with a note from the captain respecting some deserters from his Britannic Majesty's ships, supposed to be serving as part of the crew of the Chesapeake and enclosing a copy of an order from Vice-Admiral Berkeley requiring and directing the commanders of ships and vessels under his command, in case of meeting with the American frigate at sea, and without the limits of the United States, to show the order to her captain, and to require to search his ship for the deserters from certain ships therein named, and to proceed and search for them; and if a similar demand should be made by the American, he was permitted to search for deserters from their service, according to the custom and usage of civilized nations on terms of amity with each other. Commodore Barron gave an answer that he knew of no such men as were described; that the recruiting officers for the Chesapeake had been particularly instructed by the Government, through him, not to enter any deserters from his Britannic Majesty's ships; that he knew of none such being in her; that he was instructed never to permit the crew of any ship under his command to be mustered by any officers but her own; that he was disposed to preserve harmony, and hoped his answer would prove satisfactory. The Leopard, shortly after this answer was received by her commander, ranged alongside of the Chesapeake, and commenced a heavy fire upon her. The Chesapeake, unprepared for action, made no resistance, but remained under the fire of the Leopard from twenty to thirty minutes; when, having suffered much damage, and lost three men killed and eighteen wounded, Commodore Barron ordered his colours to be struck, and sent a lieutenant on board the Leopard to inform her commander that he considered the Chesapeake her prize. The commander of the Leopard sent an officer on board, who took possession of the Chesapeake, mustered her crew, and, carrying off four of her men, abandoned the ship. Commodore Barron, after a communication, by writing, with the commander of the Leopard, finding that the Chesapeake was very much injured, returned, with the advice of his officers, to Hampton Roads." (American State Papers, 1806-08.)

"On receiving information of this outrage, the President, by proclamation, interdicted the harbours and waters of the United States to all armed British vessels, forbade all intercourse with them, and ordered a sufficient force for the protection of Norfolk, and such other preparations as the occasion appeared to require. An armed vessel of the United States was dispatched with instructions to the American Minister at London to call on the British Government for the satisfaction and security which the outrage required." (American State Papers, 1806-08, pp. 183, 184, 248-252.)[181]

Such is the American State Paper account of this affair, published some years afterwards; and from this it will be seen that what was asked by the captain of the Leopard was what had been granted by all neutral nations to belligerents—to seek for and take their own deserters on board of neutral vessels, in order to prevent neutrals from being, or suspected of being, in collusion with either belligerent party. The American Government being in sympathy with the French Government during the whole of its twenty years' war with England, sought to change and evade this hitherto undisputed usage of mutually friendly nations in regard to belligerents. The Chesapeake seems to have been selected to make up a cause of war with Great Britain, by the warlike proceedings of the President before communicating with the British Government on the subject. The American people had nothing but a complete perversion of the facts of the case until years afterwards.

It is plain from the true version of the affair that the captain of the Leopard acted courteously and fairly, though in excess of the authority granted by the British Government; that he offered the same facilities to the captain of the Chesapeake, in regard to examination for deserters, that he asked himself; that the commander of the Chesapeake stated what he knew to be untrue when he asserted that there were no deserters on board the Chesapeake, which he knew would be detected on examination of his crew.

In all the American accounts and discussions on the question, they ignore the usage or customary law of civilized nations as to neutral or mutually friendly nations in respect to belligerent powers, and are silent as to France and England being at war with each other, and that in encouraging desertions from the English ships, and then claiming them as American citizens, they were playing into the hands of Bonaparte against England.

It appears that President Madison, without awaiting or asking satisfaction or explanation on this affair of the Leopard and Chesapeake, forthwith prohibited the anchoring of British war ships in American waters, and then sent a special messenger and communication to the American Minister in London to demand satisfaction of the British Government for the alleged "outrage" upon the Chesapeake. But did the British Government show the passion and violence of the President of the United States? Let the American author above quoted be our witness again on this point. Dr. Holmes says:

"Reparation was made by the British for the attack on the Chesapeake. Augustus J. Foster, the British envoy, informed the Secretary of the United States that he was instructed to repeat to the American Government the prompt disavowal made by his Majesty, on being apprised of the unauthorized act of the officer in command of his naval forces on the coast of America, whose recall from a highly important and honourable command immediately ensued, as a mark of his Majesty's disapprobation; that he was authorized to offer, in addition to that disavowal on the part of his Majesty, to order the immediate restoration, as far as circumstances would admit, of the men who [though deserters], in consequence of Admiral Berkeley's orders, were forcibly taken out of the Chesapeake, to the vessel from which they were taken; or, if that ship were no longer in commission, to such seaport of the United States as the American Government may name for the purpose; and that he was authorized to offer to the American Government a suitable pecuniary provision for the sufferers in consequence of the attack on the Chesapeake, including the families of those seamen who fell in the action, and of the wounded survivors. The President acceded to these propositions; and the officer commanding the Chesapeake, then lying in the harbour of Boston, was instructed to receive the men, who were to be restored to that ship."—Ib., p. 443.

It might be supposed that such a spontaneous, courteous, and just proceeding on the part of England would have satisfied even the bellicose President Madison; but he was bent on joining the Tyrant of Europe in war against England; the American public were kept in ignorance of the instigating circumstances, and the just and generous conduct of the British Government in regard to the affair of the Leopard and the Chesapeake, and availed himself of every occurrence or incident to excite and increase the war feeling in the United States against England.

An incident soon occurred answerable to President Madison's purpose. A renegade by the name of Henry, who had in youth emigrated from Ireland, and who had, by the interest of friends, got appointed captain of militia; but not succeeding in the United States to the extent of his ambition, emigrated to Montreal, where, by some talents and address, and professed love of British institutions, he ingratiated himself in the good graces of the principal persons at Montreal, and commenced his studies at law there, with a view of qualifying himself for a seat on the judicial bench of Upper Canada, to which he was vain and ambitious enough to aspire. He at length got access to the Governor-General, Sir James Craig, into whose confidence he so wormed himself as to obtain a letter of recognition and recommendation to visit Massachusetts and other eastern States to ascertain and report upon the state of feeling there in regard to the sympathy of those States with England in case of war with England; but neither the British Government nor even Sir James Craig's Canadian Executive Council had the slightest knowledge of this confidential epistolary intrigue between his Excellency and the renegade American militia captain, who professed to be familiar with the politics and parties of the New England States, where there was vehement opposition to the democratic and war government of President Madison, and supposed to cherish a strong leaning to England. While this unprincipled "Captain Henry" was sauntering in the public-houses and brothels of Boston, he wrote from time to time letters to Sir James Craig and other principal persons in Quebec; but the Governor and others who received his ostentatious and pretentious letters—though amused by them—derived no more information from his epistles than from the public newspapers of the day. Henry, however, estimated his own worthless services of the greatest importance; and failing to get from Sir James Craig the amount of his demands, he appealed for compensation to the Government in England. He addressed a memorial to the Earl of Liverpool, Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, stating his services, and suggesting that the appointment of Judge Advocate General of Lower Canada, with the salary of L500 per annum, or a consulate in the United States, sine cura, would be considered by him as a fair discharge of the obligation of the Government to him for his services. Lord Liverpool was not disposed to prostitute such favours upon a mercenary and intriguing vagrant, and referred him to the Government of Lower Canada, then in charge of Sir George Prevost, who had succeeded Sir James Craig. Henry knew the little estimate that was placed upon his services in Canada; he therefore betook himself back to the United States, and offered his traitorous letters to the American Government for $50,000, which he obtained, paid out of the United States Secret Service Fund.[182] President Madison, instead of laying the correspondence before the British Government for explanation and satisfaction, communicated it to Congress, as a discovery and illustration of a conspiracy by the British Government to subvert the Constitution and Government of the United States, and by his message inflamed the Congress to the highest pitch of excitement, in the climax of which he got a vote in favour of a declaration of war against Great Britain. The President, in his message to Congress, referring to the Henry documents said: "They prove that at a recent period, while the United States, notwithstanding the wrongs sustained by them, ceased not to observe the laws of neutrality towards Great Britain, and in the midst of amicable professions and negotiations on the part of the British Government through its public Minister here [Mr. Erskine], a secret agent of that Government was employed in certain States—more especially at the seat of government in Massachusetts—in fomenting disaffection to the constituted authorities of the nation, and in intrigues with the disaffected, for the purpose of bringing about resistance to the laws, and eventually, in concert with a British force, of destroying the Union, and forming the eastern part thereof into a political connection with England."

Two days before the transmission of President Madison's message of accusation against England, the British Minister at Washington declared in the public prints his entire ignorance of any transaction of the kind, and asked the United States Government to consider the character of the individual who had made these disclosures,[183] and to "suspend any further judgment on its merits until the circumstances shall have been made known to his Majesty's Government." But such fairness to England did not answer President Madison's purpose to get himself re-elected President, by exciting hostility and declaring war against England.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 176: "The war party in the United States was not very strong, numerically speaking, and it was not composed of the most respectable portions of the community; but what it lacked in these two requisites it made up in loud and demonstrative clamour, and the more serious-minded and important portions of the people were being forced, against their better judgment, into a position hostile to Great Britain, by the continued cry of a few demagogues, who were more anxious to give vent to their old feeling of spite against Great Britain than to consult the best interests of their country." (Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap. lxxii., p. 349.)]

[Footnote 177: This Decree is dated "Imperial Camp, Berlin, November 21st, 1806." Its principal Articles are as follow:

"Art. 1. The British islands are in a state of blockade.

"Art. 2. All commerce and correspondence with them is prohibited; consequently, all letters or packets written in England, or to an Englishman, written in the English language, shall not be dispatched from the post-offices, and shall be seized.

"Art. 3. Every individual, a subject of Great Britain, of whatever rank or condition, who is found in countries occupied by our troops or those of our allies, shall be made prisoner of war.

"Art. 4. Every warehouse, all merchandise or property whatsoever, belonging to an Englishman, are declared god-prize.

"Art. 6. No vessel coming directly from England or her colonies, or having been there since the publication of this Decree, shall be admitted into any port.

"Art. 7. Every vessel that by a false declaration contravenes the foregoing disposition, shall be seized, and the ship and cargo confiscated as English property.

"Art. 10. Our Ministers of Foreign Relations, etc., are charged with the execution of the present Decree."]

[Footnote 178: British Annual Register, 1807, Vol. XLII., Chap, xii., p. 227.]

[Footnote 179: Thompson's History of the War of 1812, between Great Britain and the United States, Chap. III., pp. 23, 24.]

[Footnote 180: The justice of the proceedings and demands of the British Government, the fairness of its proposals, and the injustice and unreasonableness of the conduct of the Madison U.S. Government, are forcibly presented in the following preamble to resolutions adopted by the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, as late as the 5th of February, 1813:

"Whereas the President, in his message to Congress, has made known to the people of the United States that the British Orders in Council have been repealed 'in such manner as to be capable of explanations meeting the views of the Government' of the United States; and therefore none of the alleged causes of war with Great Britain now remain except the claim of the right to take British subjects from the merchant ships of the United States:

"And whereas, during the administration of General Washington and President Adams, this claim of Great Britain was not considered a reasonable cause of war; and under the administration of President Jefferson, the Government of Great Britain did offer to make an arrangement with the United States, which in the opinion of Messrs. Montrose and Pinkey, their Ministers, placed this subject on a ground that was both honourable and advantageous to the United States, and highly favourable to their interests, and was, at the same time, a concession which had never before been made; and it is highly probable that the Government of Great Britain would still be willing to make an arrangement on this subject which should be alike honourable and advantageous to the United States:

"And whereas, under the administration of President Madison, when the arrangement of matters in controversy between the United States and Great Britain was made with his Britannic Majesty's Minister, David Montague Erskine, Esq., the impressment of seamen was not considered of sufficient importance to make it a condition of that arrangement:

"And whereas the European powers, as well as the United States, recognize the principle that their subjects have no right to expatriate themselves, and that the nation has a right to the services of all its citizens, especially in time of war; and none of those powers respect the neutralization laws of others so far as to admit their operation in contravention of that principle—and it is manifestly unjust for a neutral power to make war upon one nation in order to compel it to relinquish a principle which is maintained by the others, etc."]

[Footnote 181: Holmes' American Annals, Vol. II., pp. 434, 435.

The manner in which this affair was presented to the public by the President and American writers may be inferred from the following:

"This vessel (the Chesapeake) was suddenly attacked within our waters in the time of profound peace, compelled to surrender, and several seamen, alleged to be British, were then forcibly taken from her. The burst of indignation which followed was even more violent than that which was produced by the Orders in Council in 1793 [1807]. Party animosity was suspended; meetings were assembled in every village; the newspapers were filled with formal addresses; volunteer companies were everywhere set on foot; and, in the first frenzy of the moment, the universal cry was for immediate war. Although hostilities were not declared, the feelings of America were from that day at war with England." (Breckenridge's History of the War of 1812.)

This state of feeling was precisely what President Madison wished to create, preparatory to his meditated war with England, in connection with the French usurper.]

[Footnote 182: "Indignant at this neglectful treatment, Henry returned to Boston, and obtained a letter of introduction from Governor Gerry to Madison, to whom he offered to divulge the whole conspiracy, of which he had been the head and soul, for a certain sum of money. Madison gave him $50,000, and the swindler embarked for France. There is but little doubt that Henry made a fool of the Governor of Canada, and completely overreached the President. The publication of the correspondence, however, increased the hatred both against the Federalists and the English nation." [The object President Madison had in view.] (Headley's History of the War of 1812-1815 with England, p. 49.)]

[Footnote 183: "The Henry Plot (as it was denominated) was clamoured through America as a crime of the deepest dye on the part of Great Britain, tending to disorganize the Government, to dismember the Union, and to destroy the independence of the States. The fictitious and exaggerated importance which the American Government affected to attach to this trivial matter had, however, some influence in confirming the spirit of hostility towards Great Britain which at that time pervaded America, and shortly after broke out in open war. This self-sufficient miscreant having, as he fancied, taken ample vengeance upon the Government of his native country, could not, with any degree of decency, remain in the States, from whence he sailed for France in an American sloop-of-war, carrying with him the reward of his treason and the universal contempt of mankind." (Christie's History of the War of 1812, p. 55.)

Yet, at this very time, there were American and French emissaries in both the Canadas (as the proclamations of the Governors show), with a view of exciting disaffection to the British Canadian Government, in order to wrest the Canadas from England and subject them to France and the United States.

"The Americans had been declaring, for several years, that they would take the provinces. They had even boasted of the ease with which the intended conquest could be made by them whenever they pleased. They believed, or pretended to believe, that the majority of the people, owing to dissensions and a desire to be free from the mother country, would not take part against them in this contest with Great Britain." (Dr. Miles' History of Canada, Part III., Chap. iii., p. 201.)]



CHAPTER XLIX.

DECLARATION OF WAR BY THE UNITED STATES AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN, AND PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION OF CANADA.

The Bill for declaring war against Britain passed the Congress June 18th, 1812, after protracted discussions: by the House of Congress, by a majority of forty—seventy-nine to thirty-nine—by the Senate, by a majority of six.[184] The vote for the declaration of war was a purely party vote; the war itself was a purely partizan war—the carrying out of intrigue between the American Democratic President and the French despoiler of Europe—a war against the intelligence and patriotism of the American people, as well as against the independence and liberties of nations; a war in which the very selection of generals and officers were, as a general rule, partizan appointments.[185]

The war party consisted largely of the mob or refuse of the nation—of those who had nothing to lose and everything to gain by such a war—facts which will go far to account, with three or four exceptions, for the inferior character of the American generals and officers in the war; men appointed to offices for which they had no qualifications, and to situations in which they could, without stint, rob their country of its money, if not of its reputation.

In New York, a Convention of delegates from several counties of the State was held at Albany, on the 17th and 18th days of September, 1812, in which the war was denounced as unjustifiable, unprincipled, and unpatriotic, and as subservient, simply subservient to the cause of the French Emperor against England.[186]

The address of the House of Representatives of the State of Massachusetts presented in a still stronger light and with unanswerable argument the causes of this unjust and cruel war, as wanton and unprovoked, and the climax of the various outrages committed against Great Britain.

Yet even the English Orders in Council—made the pretext for the war by President Madison and his partizans—impolitic as those Orders were on the part of England, being founded not on sound national policy, but dictated by revenge on Napoleon on account of his Berlin and Milan decrees for the destruction of British commerce—even these British Orders in Council were actually a source of profit to American merchants from the indulgent way in which they were administered by the British authorities. The American historian, Hildreth, says:

"The comparative indulgence of the British, their willingness to allow to Americans a certain margin of profitable employment, contrasted very favourably in the minds of ship-owners with the totally anti-commercial system of France. Forgetting their late pretensions to a neutral trade, perfectly unshackled, and the loud outcry they had raised against British invasions of it, they were now ready, with characteristic commercial prudence, to accept as much of the views of British Ministers and merchants still left within their reach. A trade still profitable, however shackled and curtailed, they regarded as decidedly preferable to no trade at all. In fact, by the calculations of eminent merchants, fully confirmed by subsequent experience, the trade still allowed under the British Orders, while far more profitable, was also quite as extensive as there could be any reasonable expectation of enjoying after the restoration of general peace.

"The merchants and ship-owners had, however, but a limited influence over public opinion. Their vast profits of late years had made them objects of envy. Though their accumulations were but an index of the general enrichment of the nation, there were multitudes who more or less openly rejoiced over their present distress [arising from the American embargo.] Unfortunately, too, they were divided among themselves. Some even of the wealthiest of their number were among those who applauded the embargo, of which conduct this not very charitable explanation was given: that it would enable those who were able to wait for the revival of trade to buy up at a great discount the ships and produce of their poorer neighbours."[188]

President Madison having declared a professedly defensive war against Great Britain for the purpose of defending maritime rights on the Atlantic Ocean, commenced by invading Canada in three "Grand Armies." The one was the Grand Army of the West, consisting of 5,000 men, under General Hull, and the base of whose operations was Detroit; the second was the Grand Army of the Centre, under the command of General Van Rensellaer, consisting of 5,000, which was to operate against Canada from Lewiston; and the third, but first in command, was the Grand Army of the North, under General Dearborn, consisting of 10,000 men, to operate from Lake Champlain against Montreal and the rest of Lower Canada.

Such, then, was the declaration of war against England by President Madison and his democratic faction; such were the false pretensions for the war; such was the confederacy between the democratic President of the United States and the Tyrant of Europe against the liberties of mankind, under pretence of war with England; such was the noble opposition of the States of New York and New England to that unholy coalition between the American President and the oppressor of Europe against human liberty—States which had been the head and the sinews and the backbone of American resistance to Great Britain during the struggle for American independence, and which, having achieved that independence, abhorred being buccaneers against the independence of Canada, and the acquisition of the Indian territories of the West and North of the United States.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 184: In the report of the Committee recommending the Bill for the declaration, it was, of course, attempted to make England the aggressive and the United States the injured party. "On presentation of this report," says Lossing, "the doors were closed, and a motion to open them was denied by a vote of seventy-seven against forty-nine. Mr. Calhoun [the democratic leader of the war party of the South] then presented a Bill, as part of the report, declaring war between Great Britain and her dependencies and the United States and its territories. Amendments were offered. Ten votes were given for a proposition by Mr. McKee, of Kentucky, to include France. Mr. Quincy (of Boston) endeavoured, by an addition to the Bill, to provide for the repeal of all restrictive laws bearing upon commerce; and John Randolph, of Virginia, moved to postpone the whole matter until the following October. All were rejected, and the Bill, as Mr. Calhoun presented it, was passed on the 4th day of June by a vote of seventy-nine for it and thirty-nine against it.

"When the Bill reached the Senate it was referred to a Committee already appointed to consider the President's message. It remained under discussion twelve days. Meanwhile the people throughout the country were fearfully excited by conflicting emotions. A memorial against the war went from the Legislature of Massachusetts; and another from the merchants of New York, led by John Jacob Astor. War-meetings were held in various places, and the whole country was in a tumult of excitement. Finally, on the 17th of June, the Bill, with some amendments, was passed in the Senate by a vote of nineteen against thirteen. It was sent back to the House on the morning of the 18th, when the amendments were concurred in. The Bill was engrossed on parchment, and at three o'clock in the afternoon of that day became law by the signature of the President [who next day declared war against Great Britain]. In the House, the members from Pennsylvania, and the States of the South and West, gave sixty-two votes for it to seventeen against it. In the Senate, the same States gave fourteen for it, to five against it, 'Thus,' says a late writer [Edwin Williams], 'the war may be said to have been a measure of the South and West to take care of the interests of the North, much against the will of the latter.'" (Lossing's Field Book of the War of 1812, Chap. xi., pp. 227, 228.)

The minority of the members of the House of Representatives who voted against the war, addressed a protest, signed by them all, to their constituents, exposing the impolicy and objects of the war, and indicating their own conduct. We quote two sentences of this able paper:

"As to the invasion and seizure of Canada, which was a part of the programme of the war party, they considered an attempt to carry out that measure as unjust and impolitic in itself, very uncertain in the issue, and unpromising as to any good results."—"It cannot be concealed that to engage in the present war against England is to place ourselves on the side of France, and expose us to the vassalage of States serving under the banner of the French Emperor."]

[Footnote 185: The distinguished Joseph Quincy, of Boston, leader of the Federalist party, said, in his place in Congress, "I have evidence satisfactory in my own mind, that the Secretary of War has made it a principle not to appoint any man to a command in that army who is not an open partizan of the existing Administration. If it be denied, appoint a Committee of Inquiry. If the intention had been to unite the nation as one man against a foreign enemy, is not this the last policy that any Administration ought ever to have adopted? Is not a partizan army the most dreadful and detestable of all engines, and most likely to awaken suspicions and to inspire discontent?" (Hildreth, Second Series, Vol. III., Chap. xxi., p. 123.)

"The place of the first major-general, with the command of the Northern Department, had been given to the petted favourite, Henry Dearborn, late Secretary of War, and, since Madison's accession, collector of the port of Boston—a lucrative post, kept in his family by his son's appointment to it."—"Wilkinson, the senior brigadier, just acquitted by court-martial of long-pending charges against him, had been sent to New Orleans [afterwards to Canada] to relieve Hampton [who was afterwards sent to Canada], whose command there had been a constant scene of collision and turmoil with his officers. Commissions as brigadiers, under the late Acts, had been given to Bloomfield, Governor of New Jersey; to James Winchester, of Tennessee; and to Hull, Governor of Michigan Territory. * * Hampton and Smythe had been civilians for more than thirty years, and were indebted for their present appointments rather to political than to military considerations. Of the inferiors of the old army, presently distinguished, Alexander MacNab, of the Engineers, was now a colonel, and Winfield Scott and Edmund Gaines lieutenant-colonels. A lieutenant-colonelcy in one of the new regiments had been given to Eleazar W. Ripley, a young Democrat from Maine, who had succeeded Storey, of the late Democratic Massachusetts House of Representatives. Ripley's subsequent conduct justified his appointment; but the colonel of that same regiment was afterwards cashiered for peculation; and as few of the new regimental officers had any military knowledge, so numbers of them were quite destitute of those qualities without which even that knowledge would have been of little avail." (Hildreth's History of the United States, Second Series, Vol. III., Chap, xxiv., pp. 308-310.)]

[Footnote 186: "The following are extracts from the resolutions of this famous Convention:

"Taking solely into consideration the time and circumstances of the declaration of the present war, the condition of the country, and state of the public mind, we are constrained to consider, and feel it our duty to pronounce it a most rash, unwise, and inexpedient measure, the adoption of which ought forever to deprive its authors of the esteem and confidence of an enlightened people; because, as the injuries we have received from France are at least equal in amount to those we have sustained from England, and have been attended with circumstances of still greater insult and aggravation, if war were necessary to vindicate the honour of the country, consistency and impartiality required that both nations should have been included in the declaration; because, if it were deemed expedient to exercise our right of selecting our adversary, prudence and common sense dictated the choice of an enemy from whose hostility we had nothing to dread. A war with France would equally have satisfied our insulted honour, and at the same time, instead of annihilating, would have revived and extended our commerce; and even the evils of such a contest would have been mitigated by the sublime consolation, that, by our efforts, we were contributing to arrest the progress of despotism in Europe, and essentially serving the great interests of freedom and humanity throughout the world;" * * "because, before the war was declared, it was perfectly well ascertained that a vast majority of the people in the Middle and Northern States, by whom the burden and expenses of the war must be borne almost exclusively, were strongly opposed to the measure." * *

"Whereas the late revocation of British Orders in Council has removed the great and ostensible cause of the present war, and prepared the way for an immediate accommodation of existing differences, inasmuch as, by the concession of the present Secretary of State, satisfactory and honourable arrangements might easily be made, by which abuses resulting from the impressment of our seamen might in future be effectually prevented. Therefore,

"Resolved,—That we shall be constrained to consider the determination on the part of our rulers to continue the present war, after official notice of revocation of the British Orders in Council, as affording conclusive evidence that the war has been undertaken from motives entirely distinct from those which have been hitherto avowed, and for the promotion of objects wholly unconnected with the interest and honour of America.

"Resolved,—That we contemplate with abhorrence even the possibility of an alliance with the present Emperor of France, every action of whose life has demonstrated, that the attainment, by any means, of universal empire, and the consequent extinction of every vestige of freedom, are the sole objects of his incessant, unbounded, and remorseless ambition. His arms, with the spirit of freemen, we might openly and fearlessly encounter; but of his secret arts, his corrupting influences, we entertain a dread we can neither conquer nor conceal. It is therefore with the utmost distrust and alarm that we regard his late professions of attachment and love to the American people, fully recollecting that his invariable course has been, by perfidious offers of protection, by deceitful professions of friendship, to lull his intended victims into the fatal sleep of confidence and security, during which the chains of despotism are silently wound round and riveted on them.

(Signed) "JACOB MORRIS, President. "WILLIAM HENDERSON, Secretary."]

[Footnote 187: These Orders in Council were cancelled five days after President Madison's declaration of war—weeks before that declaration could have been known in England.]

[Footnote 188: Hildreth's History of the United States, Second Series, Vol. III., Chap. xxi., pp. 86, 87.]



CHAPTER L.

PREPARATIONS BY CANADA AGAINST THE AMERICAN INVASIONS.

1. LOWER CANADA.

It now becomes our duty to state the preparations made by the Canadians for their own defence against the American invasions. Though so few in number and modest in pretensions to their multitudinous and boasting invaders, they had the hearts of freemen and patriots, and trusted to the Divine blessing in the justness of their cause.[189] We shall notice first the preparations of Lower Canada, and then those of Upper Canada.

Sir George Prevost, in the autumn of 1811, succeeded Sir James H. Craig in the government of Lower Canada, and in the chief command of the North American provinces. He had been Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. The known mildness of his character, and the popularity of his administration in Nova Scotia, caused his arrival at Quebec to be heartily welcomed by the friends of just and liberal government. The narrow-mindedness and harshness of Sir James Craig's administration had caused serious agitation and differences in Lower Canada, which Sir George Prevost, by his impartiality and kindness, soon succeeded in allaying and reconciling. He called the first meeting of the Legislature on the 21st of February, 1812, and, in his opening speech, stated that he had hastened, in obedience to his orders, to assume the administration of Lower Canada; congratulated the Legislature on the brilliant achievements of the British arms in rescuing Portugal and Spain "from the tyranny of the Ruler of France;" and recommended an increased and unremitted care and vigilance in securing the country from either open invasion or insidious aggression, and hoped the Parliament would testify its loyalty by an early attention to those Acts which experience had proved essential for the preservation of his Majesty's government, as also by its readiness in supplying the Government with such aid as should be suitable to the exigence of the times, by enabling the loyal Canadian subjects to assist in repelling any sudden attack made by a tumultuary invasion, and effectually to participate in the defence of their country against a regular invasion at any future period.

The Assembly, in answer, among other things assured the Governor that they would give attention to those acts recommended by him. The Assembly passed a Militia Bill, by which the Governor was authorized to embody 2,000 unmarried men, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five years, for three months in the year; and in case of invasion or imminent danger, to retain them for one year, relieving one-half the number embodied, by fresh drafts at the expiration of that period. In the event of war, invasion, insurrection, or imminent danger thereof, he was empowered to embody the whole militia of the province, should it become necessary. No substitutes were allowed, nor commissioned officers permitted to take any militiamen for their servants, under a penalty of L10 for every offence of that nature. These provisions, from their harshness and inconsistency, were, however, winked at in practice. It was penal to enlist any militiamen into the regular forces, and such enlistments were declared null.

Twelve thousand pounds were granted by the Legislature, one moiety thereof for drilling and training the local militia, the other moiety for other purposes of the Militia Act. Twenty thousand pounds were granted to be employed for such services as the safety of the province and the exigence of the times might require. And a further sum of thirty thousand pounds currency, to be at the Governor's disposal in case of war between Great Britain and America.

These liberal supplies enabled the Government to meet the approaching crisis with confidence in the patriotism and support of the Provincial Legislature, and the whole mass of the Canadian population. In closing the session, the Governor thanked the House for the labour they had bestowed upon the improvement of the militia system, and for the increased means thereby afforded him for the defence of the province. He also expressed his best thanks for the proofs he had received of their confidence in his administration, by the liberal provision they had made for the exigencies of the public service.[190]

After the declaration of war by President Madison, June 19th, 1812, which was made known at Quebec the 28th of June, a notification was immediately made by the police that all Americans must leave Quebec by the 1st of July, and be out of the district by the 3rd of the same month. On the last day of June the period was extended by the Governor's proclamation; fourteen days were allowed to such Americans as were in the province, they being principally persons who had entered the same in good faith, and in prosecution of commercial pursuits.

"On the same day a proclamation issued imposing an embargo upon the shipping in port, and convoking the House of Assembly on the 16th of July."[191]

"At the opening of the session, the Governor, after informing the Legislature of the recent declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain, expressed his reliance upon the spirit of his Majesty's subjects in the province, their loyalty to their Sovereign, and their ardent love for the true interests of their country; and that he should depend implicitly, under Divine Providence, upon their best exertions, aided by the courage and loyalty of the militia, and by the valour, skill, and discipline of his Majesty's regular forces, for repelling every hostile attempt that might be made upon the colony. He observed with concern that the necessary establishment of the militia forces, together with the various services and operations of the approaching campaign, would be attended with considerable expense, but that he relied upon their wisdom and public spirit for such supplies as the exigencies of affairs might be found to require: he at the same time expressed his approbation of the embodied militia, and his confidence in their increased discipline, which encouraged an expectation that they would materially contribute to the defence of their country." * *

"A Bill to Facilitate the Circulation of Army Bills was introduced, and the liberality of the House of Assembly surpassed the hopes of the Executive. Fifteen thousand pounds were granted to pay the interest that might become due upon army bills, of which L250,000 were authorized to be put in circulation (large bills of twenty-five dollars and upwards bearing interest at the rate of fourpence per day for every hundred pounds). They were made current in the revenue, were to have the effect of a legal tender, and were redeemable at the Army Bill Office, either in cash or Government bills of exchange on London, at the option of the commander of the forces. Small bills of four dollars were at all times payable in cash at the Army Bill Office. On the 1st day of August, 1812, this Bill received the royal sanction, and the Governor prorogued the Parliament, with acknowledgments for the liberal aid they had granted him to meet the exigencies of the public service."[192]

Such were the provisions made spontaneously, and with wonderful unanimity, in Lower Canada for the defence of the province against the impending American invasion. These provisions were prior to corresponding provisions made in Upper Canada, and the statement of which has been made in so much detail that the English reading public might be reminded, or informed, of what has been too little known—the loyalty, liberality, and courage of the French as well as of the English inhabitants of Lower Canada, from the very beginning of the contest, and followed by deeds of heroism and fortitude (to be noticed hereafter), which successfully repelled successive American invasions, and prevented the American armies, ten times as numerous as the Voltigeurs and all other Canadian volunteers, from gaining a single foothold in Lower Canada.

2. UPPER CANADA.

Upper Canada was not second to Lower Canada. Sir Francis Gore left for England in 1811, and was succeeded by General Brock as President of Upper Canada, and commander of the forces, who called the Legislature together as early as possible after the declaration of war. Colonel John Clarke, Adjutant-General of Militia, in his manuscripts (with the use of which I have been favoured by the learned and excellent librarian of the Dominion at Ottawa, entitled "U.E. Papers"), says:

"Whilst the Americans were busily preparing for the campaign, we were not idle in Canada. On the 27th of July, 1812, General Brock proceeded to York and called a meeting of the Legislature, to which he delivered an animated and spirited address, concluding with the following remarkable words:

"'We are engaged in an awful and eventful contest.

"'By unanimity and dispatch in our councils, and by vigour in our operations, we may teach the enemy this lesson, that a country defended by FREE MEN, enthusiastically devoted to the cause of their King and Constitution, cannot be conquered.'"

The Legislature heartily responded to the noble appeal of General Brock at the opening of the session; passed the necessary Acts for the security of the country, for the organization and training of the militia, and for the expenses and support of the war, and concluding their work by an earnest and patriotic address to the people of Upper Canada. We will extract some passages of this "Address of the House of Assembly to the People of Upper Canada, on the Declaration of War." This powerful address, which occupies twelve pages, is signed "Allan MacLean, Speaker," and dated "Commons House of Assembly, August 5th, 1812"—just ten days before General Brock took Detroit:

"The House of Assembly having nearly completed the necessary business for which they were called together, beg leave, before they return home, to lift up their warning voice at this eventful crisis. The declaration of war issued against Great Britain by the United States, when first announced, appeared to be an act of such astonishing folly and desperation as to be altogether incredible, and not only excited the greatest surprise among the inhabitants of this province, but among the great majority of our enemies themselves. That that Government, professing to be the friend of man and the great supporter of his liberty and independence, should light up the torch of war against the only nation that stands between itself and destruction, exhibited a degree of infatuation or madness, altogether incomprehensible. But the men at present ruling the States, infatuated, or, as their more enlightened countrymen say, 'bribed by the Tyrant of France,' regardless of the best interests of their country, and the feelings and affections of a great majority of their own people, have commenced hostilities against our mother country whilst treating their vessels with hospitality, and instead of threatening their liberties, offering most equitable terms of accommodation.

"This war, on the part of the United States, includes an alliance with the French usurper, whose dreadful policy has destroyed all that is great and good, memorable and holy, on the continent of Europe. The government of this bloody tyrant penetrates into everything; it crushes individuals as well as nations; fetters thoughts as well as motives; and delights in destroying forever all that is fair and just in opinion and sentiment. It is evidently this tyrant who now directs the rulers of America, and they show themselves worthy disciples of such a master." * *

"We turn with joy to you, many of whom have already risked your lives for the unity of the empire. We are confident that the same spirit still animates your breasts and those of your children—that you still retain the same love of your excellent King, the same veneration for a free and happy Constitution, that you exhibited during the American war. * * When we picture to ourselves the sublime prospect the world would have exhibited this day, had the population of the neighbouring States preserved, like you, their filial love, we should not now behold the continent of Europe groaning under the yoke of a sanguinary tyrant, nor his satellites in America studiously imitating his example.

"It is therefore from former experience that we look to you for the same patriotic principles—principles which enabled you to face death in its most dreadful attire—principles which exalt human nature, and which have been warmly cherished by the most virtuous and renowned of every age: and surely when we are attacked by the same enemies who once, aided by the mistaken lenity of the mother country and the misconduct of her commanders, were able to drive us from our native homes and possessions to this province—a people whose lands are manured with the blood of our friends and kinsmen, who drove our wives and children from their homes in the woods, or threw them into dungeons, and who now envy us the habitations which, through the blessing of Providence, the beneficence of our parent state, and our own industry, we have gained from the wilderness, we are confident that you will display the same energy, and certainly with better hopes of success. Great Britain will not now consider such Americans as perverse children who may be reclaimed, but as her most malignant foes. Her commanders will not, as formerly, temporize and raise hosts of enemies by their misconduct and delays, but they will hasten to punish them with all the rigour of war.

"Already have we the joy to remark, that the spirit of loyalty has burst forth in all its ancient splendour. The militia in all parts of the province have volunteered their services with acclamation, and displayed a degree of energy worthy of the British name. * * When men are called upon to defend everything they call precious—their wives and children, their friends and possessions—they ought to be inspired with the noblest resolutions, and they will not be easily frightened by menaces, or conquered by force. And beholding, as we do, the flame of patriotism burning from one end of the Canadas to the other, we cannot but entertain the most pleasing anticipations.

"Our enemies have indeed said that they could subdue this country by Proclamation; but it is our part to prove to them that they are sadly mistaken—that the population is determinedly hostile to them, and that the few who might be otherwise inclined will find it their safety to be faithful. * *

"Innumerable attempts will be made by falsehood to detach you from your allegiance; for our enemies, in imitation of their European master, trust more to treachery than to force; and they will, no doubt, make use of many of those lies, which, unfortunately for the virtuous part of these States, and the peace and happiness of the world, had too much success during the American rebellion: they will tell you that they are come to give you freedom—yes, the base slaves of the most contemptible faction that ever distracted the affairs of any nation—the minions of the very sycophants who lick the dust from the feet of Bonaparte will tell you that they are come to communicate the blessing of liberty to this province; but you have only to look at your own situation to put such hypocrites to confusion. * *

"Trusting more to treachery than to open hostility, our enemies have already spread their emissaries through the country, to seduce our fellow-subjects from their allegiance, by promises as false as the principles on which they are founded. A law has been enacted for the speedy detection of such emissaries, and for their condign punishment on conviction."[193]

"Remember, when you go forth to the combat, that you fight not for yourselves alone, but for the whole world. You are defeating the most formidable conspiracy against the civilization of man that was ever contrived; a conspiracy threatening greater barbarism and misery than followed the downfall of the Roman Empire—that now you have an opportunity of proving your attachment to the parent state, which contends for the relief of oppressed nations—the last pillar of true liberty, and the last refuge of oppressed humanity.

(Signed) "ALLAN MACLEAN, "Speaker, Commons House of Assembly, August 5th, 1812."

The effect of this manly and animated address to the people of Upper Canada was most beneficial, and contributed greatly to unite and encourage the people to face the struggle impending over them. There was no inflated boasting—no undervaluing of danger and sacrifice, but a plain statement of facts, and a heartfelt appeal to loyalty, patriotism, and manly courage.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 189: "A war with Great Britain had been long contemplated by the rulers in America, and a seasonable moment only was sought for, to grasp the provinces which they had fallaciously been induced to believe were ripe for revolt, and would therefore fall a willing conquest to America. The Peninsular war had engrossed the attention and resources of the mother country, and the Canadas were necessarily the less provided with means to encounter the struggle in which they were likely soon to be engaged. The coffers were exhausted, nor were hopes entertained of their being speedily replenished from home; the regular forces were too thin to preserve an extensive frontier of some hundred miles against the pressure of an enemy which, if united, must become irresistible; and the Canadians, though naturally brave and hardy, and attached to their Constitution, might from recent occurrences be fairly presumed to have been so far disgusted as to leave doubt of their hearty co-operation and zeal in the cause." (Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. iii., p. 48.)]

[Footnote 190: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap, iii., pp. 49-53.

"The Governor, by a General Order of the 28th of May, 1812, organized four battalions of embodied militia, in virtue of the late Act. The first battalion rendezvoused at Point-aux-Trembles, near Quebec, under the command of Colonel De Salaberry; the second at Laprairie, near Montreal, commanded by Colonel De Rouville; the third at Berthier, in the district of Montreal, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Cuthbert; and the fourth at St. Thomas, near Quebec, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Taschereau. The alacrity with which they were filled, and the cheerfulness with which the young men submitted to the restraints of discipline, reflected credit upon the military character of the Canadians. This proof of the zeal and the loyalty of the people inspired Government with hopes of successful resistance against the approaching war, and a reciprocal confidence between the Governor and the people seems to have resulted, as much from the danger of the moment as from any studied policy on the part of the present Administration. They who had incurred the displeasure of the late Government were treated with confidence, and gradually appointed to situations of trust.

"A regiment of Canadian Voltigeurs was recruited, and placed under the command of Major De Salaberry, of the 60th Regiment of Foot, which in the course of the war became eminent for discipline and its steadiness in action, as well as for the fatiguing duties on which it was unremittingly employed."—Ib., pp. 55, 56.]

[Footnote 191: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. iii., pp. 36, 37.]

[Footnote 192: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. iii., pp. 57-60.]

[Footnote 193: Colonel Clarke remarks that "the moderation of the different Acts which were then passed, for the preservation and defence of the province, is an additional proof that internal treachery was not one of the causes which were found."]



CHAPTER LI.

FIRST AMERICAN INVASION OF UPPER CANADA BY GENERAL HULL, FROM DETROIT, WHOSE PROCLAMATION "TO THE INHABITANTS OF CANADA" IS GIVEN ENTIRE, AND GENERAL BROCK'S NOBLE ANSWER TO IT, IN AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF UPPER CANADA.

In the meantime Canada, in its western extremity, had been invaded. The American Government had been for several months collecting an army of some 3,000 or 4,000 regular troops and militia, around and west of Detroit, in order to strike a blow upon Canada the moment war should be declared. General Hull was the Governor of the territory of Michigan, and Commander-in-Chief of the "Grand Army of the West." On the 12th of July he crossed the River Detroit with a force of 2,500 of the above troops, and a strong park of artillery, and planted the American standard on the shores of Canada, at Sandwich. He forthwith issued a pretentious, inflated, cajoling, patronising, threatening proclamation to the inhabitants of Canada, and pronouncing instant death to any one who should be fighting in company with the Indians, while at the same time the Americans were employing in their army all the Indians they could induce to join them. The American democratic party which ruled at Washington had persecuted and driven the fathers of Canada from their homes in the United States, and had always been the enemies of their peace and prosperity in Canada; yet they were under the strange delusion that the people of Canada must be still as much in love with them as they were with themselves, and that the magnetism of their star-spangled banner planted in Canada would draw all Canadians to it; that an address from their commanding general would supply the place of armies, and that taking Canada would be but a holiday march, in which, as their language of the time was, they would "breakfast at Sandwich, take dinner at York (Toronto), and sup at Montreal." It was in this spirit of vanity and delusion that General Hull issued his famous proclamation, on his landing at Sandwich, and which I give entire in a note.[194]

In a noble address to the people of Upper Canada, General Brock answered the proclamation of General Hull, repelling and exposing with overwhelming power his misstatements, and answering with withering sarcasm General Hull's attack upon the Indians, and the "barbarous and savage policy of Great Britain" in recognizing the Indians as allies and fellow-subjects, and their right to defend their homes and liberties against American invasion and rapine. We present the reader with the following extracts of this masterly address, transcribed from the manuscripts of the Dominion Library at Ottawa.

In the course of his Address to the People of Canada, General Brock says:

"The unprovoked declaration of war by the United States of America against Great Britain and Ireland and its dependencies, has been followed by the actual invasion of this Province, in a remote frontier of the Western District, by a detachment of the armed force of the United States.

"The officer commanding that detachment [General Hull] has thought proper to invite his Majesty's subjects not merely to a quiet and unresisting submission, but insults them by offering with a call to seek the protection of his Government.

"Without condescending to notice the epithets bestowed, in this appeal of the American commander to the people of Upper Canada, on the administration of his Majesty, every inhabitant of the Province is desired to seek the confutation of such indecent slander in the review of his own particular circumstances.

"Where is the Canadian subject who can truly affirm to himself that he has been injured by the Government in his person, his property, or his liberty?

"Where is to be found in any part of the world a growth so rapid in prosperity and wealth as this colony exhibits? Settled not thirty years, by a band of veterans exiled from their former possessions on account of their loyalty, not a descendant of these brave people is to be found who has not, under the fostering care of their Sovereign, acquired a property and means of enjoyment superior to what were possessed by their ancestors.

"This unequalled prosperity would not have been attained by the utmost liberality of the Government or the persevering industry of the people, had not the maritime power of the mother country secured to the colonists a safe access to every market where the produce of their labour was in request. * *

"The restitution of Canada to the empire of France was the stipulated reward for the aid afforded to the revolted colonies, now the United States. The debt is still due; and there can be no doubt but that the pledge has been renewed as a consideration for commercial advantages, or rather for an expected relaxation in the tyranny of France over the commercial world.

"Are you prepared, inhabitants of Canada, to become willing subjects, or slaves, to the Despot who rules the nations of continental Europe with a rod of iron?

"If not, arise in a body; exert your energies; co-operate cordially with the King's regular forces to repel the invader, and do not give cause to your children, when groaning under the oppression of a Foreign Master, to reproach you with having so easily parted with the richest inheritance of this earth—a participation in the name, character, and freedom of Britons. * *

"Be not dismayed at the unjustifiable threat of the commander of the enemy's forces, to refuse quarter should an Indian appear in the ranks.

"The brave bands of aborigines which inhabit this colony were, like his Majesty's other subjects, punished for their zeal and fidelity by the loss of their possessions in the late colonies, and rewarded by his Majesty with lands of superior value in this Province.

"The faith of the British Government has never been violated. The Indians feel that the soil they inherit is to them and their posterity protected from the base arts so frequently devised to overreach their simplicity.

"By what principle are they to be prohibited from defending their property? If their warfare, from being different to that of other people, be more terrific to the enemy, let him retrace his steps; they seek him not—and cannot expect to find women and children in an invading army.

"But they are men, and have equal rights with all other men to defend themselves and their property when invaded, more especially when they find in the enemy's camp a ferocious and mortal enemy, using the same warfare which the American commander affects to reprobate.

"This inconsistent and unjustifiable threat of refusing quarter, for such a cause as being found in arms with a brother sufferer, in defence of invaded rights, must be exercised with the certain assurance of retaliation, not only in the limited operations of war in this part of the King's dominions, but in every quarter of the globe; for the national character of Britain is not less distinguished for humanity than strict retributive justice, which will consider the execution of this inhuman threat as deliberate murder, for which every subject of the offending power must make expiation.

(Signed) "ISAAC BROCK, "Major-General and President.

"HEADQUARTERS, "Fort George, July 22nd, 1812." "By order of his Honour the President, (Signed) "J.B. GLEGG, A.D.C., General."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 194: The following is General Hull's Proclamation:

"PROCLAMATION.

"Headquarters, Sandwich, 12th July, 1812.

"Inhabitants of Canada,—

"After thirty years of peace and prosperity, the United States have been driven to arms. The injuries and aggressions, the insults and indignities of Great Britain have once more left them no alternative but manly resistance or unconditional submission. The army under my command has invaded your country. The standard of the Union now waves over the territory of Canada. To the peaceable, unoffending inhabitants it brings neither danger nor difficulty. I come to find enemies, not to make them; I come to protect, not to injure you.

"Separated by an immense ocean and an extensive wilderness from Great Britain, you have no participation in her councils, nor interest in her conduct. You have felt her tyranny; you have seen her injustice; but I do not ask you to avenge the one, or to redress the other. The United States are sufficiently powerful to afford every security consistent with their and your expectations. I tender you the invaluable blessings of civil, religious, and political liberty, and their necessary result—individual and general prosperity; that liberty which gave decision to our councils and energy to our conduct, in a struggle for independence—which conducted us safely and triumphantly through the stormy period of the revolution—the liberty which has raised us to our elevated rank among the nations of the world, and which afforded us a greater measure of peace and security, of wealth and improvement, than ever fell to the lot of any people.

"In the name of my country and the authority of Government, I promise you protection to your persons, property, and rights. Remain at your homes; pursue your peaceful and customary avocations; raise not your hands against your brethren. Many of your fathers fought for the freedom and independence we now enjoy. Being children, therefore, of the same family with us, and heirs of the same heritage, the arrival of an army of friends must be hailed by you with a cordial welcome. You will be emancipated from tyranny and oppression, and restored to the dignified status of freemen.

"Had I any doubt of eventual success, I might ask your assistance; but I do not. I come prepared for every contingency—I have a force which will break down all opposition, and that force is but the vanguard of a much greater. If, contrary to your own interest, and the just expectations of my country, you should take part in the approaching contest, you will be considered and treated as enemies, and the horrors and calamities of war will stalk before you.

"If the barbarous and savage policy of Great Britain be pursued, and the savages are let loose to murder our citizens, and butcher our women and children, this war will be a war of extermination. The first stroke of the tomahawk, the first attempt with the scalping knife, will be the signal of one indiscriminate scene of desolation. No white man found fighting by the side of an Indian will be taken prisoner—instant death will be his lot. If the dictates of reason, duty, justice, and humanity, cannot prevent the employment of a force which respects no rights, and knows no wrongs, it will be prevented by a severe and relentless system of retaliation.

"I doubt not your courage and firmness. I will not doubt your attachment to liberty. If you tender your services voluntarily, they will be accepted readily. The United States offer you peace, liberty, and security. Your chance lies between these and war, slavery, and destruction. Choose, then, but choose wisely; and may He who knows the justice of our cause, and who holds in His hands the fate of nations, guide you to a result the most compatible with your rights and interests, your peace and happiness.

"By the General, A.P. HULL."

Note.—It is a curious commentary on the above proclamation, that within six weeks of its being so pompously put forth, General Hull himself, with all his army, was a prisoner in the hands of the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, to whom was surrendered nearly 3,000 prisoners, Fort Detroit, an immense quantity of arms and munitions of war, together with the whole territory of Michigan, and the secured alliance of the numerous Indian tribes to the west and north.]



CHAPTER LII.

GENERAL BROCK PREPARES FOR AN ATTACK ON DETROIT, AND WITH A SMALL FORCE TAKES GENERAL HULL AND HIS ARMY PRISONERS, AND ACQUIRES POSSESSION OF DETROIT AND THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN—INCIDENTS PRECEDING AND ATTENDING THE TAKING OF DETROIT—GENERAL BROCK'S PROCLAMATION TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE MICHIGAN TERRITORY—HIS COUNCIL WITH THE INDIANS, AND CONVERSATION WITH THE GREAT CHIEF TECUMSEH, AND ESTIMATE OF HIM—GENERAL BROCK RETURNS TO YORK (TORONTO)—WHAT HE DID IN NINETEEN DAYS.

General Brock did not content himself in replying to General Hull on paper, in defence of the British Government and the people of Canada; he answered him in a more substantial way on the battle-field. General Brock lost no time in collecting the few soldiers in Upper Canada, and the militia volunteers, and proceeding by boats, vessels, and by land, from Niagara to Detroit, to meet face to face the boasting commander of the Grand Army of the West, and, in less than four weeks of his manly reply to Hull's inflated proclamation, he made Hull and all his army prisoners of war, with the surrender of the whole Michigan territory. It was an achievement worthy of perpetual remembrance, that General Brock, with forces hastily collected, "consisting of thirty of the Royal Artillery with three six-pounders, under the command of Lieutenant Troughton, two hundred and fifty of the 41st Regiment, fifty of the Newfoundland Fencibles, and four hundred Canadian militia—in all amounting to seven hundred and thirty, to whom six hundred Indians attached themselves—making an aggregate of one thousand three hundred and thirty;" we say, it is an achievement worthy of all remembrance and honour, that General Brock should, with such motley and slender forces, cross the Detroit river, and, by the skilful arrangement of his handful of soldiers, take, without shedding a drop of blood, a fort strongly protected by—iron ordnance, nine twenty-four-pounders, eight twelve-pounders, five nine-pounders, three six-pounders; brass ordnance, three six-pounders, two four-pounders, one three-pounder, one eight-inch howitzer, one five and a-half inch howitzer—in all thirty-three pieces of ordnance; and defended by upwards of 2,500 regular soldiers and militia.

But there was this essential difference between the two armies: the little Canadian army had homes, families, and liberties to defend, connection with the mother country to maintain, and the consciousness of right; the great American army, with its fortifications, had the consciousness of long-continued and wide-spread wrongs in depredations against their western Indian neighbours, bloated avarice for conquest, and inveterate hatred of Great Britain.

There are several incidents connected with this remarkable military achievement. Mr. Thompson, in his History of the War of 1812, says: "General Brock having made such arrangements, in the government of the province, as were necessary during his absence from York, proceeded thence to Fort George, and thence to Long Point, on Lake Erie, where he was joined by two hundred and sixty of the militia, who had, in a few days, and in the very height of their harvest, gallantly volunteered their services to share the dangers of the field in defence of their country, together with the detachment of the 41st Regiment, who had been previously sent to that quarter." (Thompson's History of the War of 1812, p. 106.)

Among the 260 volunteers from the county of Norfolk—Long Point, Lake Erie—were the elder brother and brother-in-law of the writer of these pages (he being then ten years of age); the one of them was lieutenant and the other captain, who, with a great number of their neighbours, proceeded in a vessel from Port Ryerse to Amherstburg—making the passage in forty-eight hours—General Brock marching by land. The vessel with the militia volunteers reached Amherstburg some five days before General Brock, and, under the command of Colonel Proctor and the direction of a skilful engineer, commenced erecting a battery at Windsor, opposite to Detroit, behind a tuft of trees which skirted the river shore. Sentries were stationed at convenient distances along the north shore of the river, to prevent any intercourse with the American side; while the militia, officers and men, worked each night with the utmost quietness, in the erection of the battery, retiring at the approach of day. In four nights the battery was erected and mounted with cannon, when General Brock arrived, approved of what had been done, called a Council of the Indian allies, as well as of his officers, and determined forthwith to cross the river and attack Fort Detroit. The Indians were to cross in the night, which they did some three or four miles below Detroit, and spread themselves in the woods that surrounded the town, which then contained from 6,000 to 8,000 inhabitants. The night-erected battery was unmasked by felling the trees and underwood in front of it, when, to the astonishment and terror of the Americans, they saw a battery fully equipped, and already firing effectually upon their town and fort. Early in the morning of the 15th of August, General Brock, with his little army of 730 men (the militia being accoutred as regular soldiers), crossed the river unopposed about three miles below the fort (which was in the centre of the town), and marched in order of battle, under cover of corn fields, to within half a mile of the fort, from which, not cannon balls, but a flag of truce was sent out, proposing the surrender to the British commander of the fort, army, town, and territory.[195]

The terrific war-whoop of the dreaded Indians, who seemed to swarm in the woods around the town, filled the people and General Hull with irresistible terror; and at the very moment that General Hull was holding a council of war with his officers in a room within the fort, a shell, thrown from the British battery at Windsor, fell into the council room, killed some officers, and wounded several more. This catastrophe, with the terrible yells of the surrounding Indians, seemed to have decided General Hull and his advisers that surrender "was the better part of valour."

A second incident connected with the surrender of Detroit and the Michigan territory is the council which General Brock held with the Indians the day before the attack upon and surrender of Detroit, and his interview with them the day after, for the account of which I am indebted to Colonel John Clarke's manuscripts in the Dominion Library at Ottawa:

"On General Brock's arrival at Sandwich, a council of war was assembled on the following morning. Along with others were 1,000 Indians, whose equipment generally might be considered very imposing.

"The council was opened by General Brock, who informed the Indians that he was ordered by their great Father, the King, to come to their assistance, and with them to drive the enemy from Fort Detroit. His speech was highly applauded, and Tecumseh was unanimously called upon to speak in reply. He commenced with expressing his joy that their great Father beyond the Salt Lake (meaning the King of England) had at length awoke from his long sleep, and sent his warriors to the assistance of his red children, who had roused themselves in their honour, and were now ready to shed the last drop of their blood in their great Father's service.

"Previously to passing over to Detroit, General Brock inquired of Tecumseh what kind of country he should have to pass through, in the event of his proceeding further. Tecumseh, taking a roll of elm bark, and extending it on the ground, drew forth his scalping knife, and presently etched upon the bark a plan of the country; which, if not so neat, was as fully intelligible as if a surveyor had prepared it. Pleased with this talent in Tecumseh, and with his characteristic boldness, General Brock induced the Indians to cross the river for the attack on Detroit, prior to the embarkation of the white troops.

"Soon after Detroit was surrendered, General Brock took off his sash, and publicly placed it around the body of the chief Tecumseh, who received the honour conferred on him with evident gratification; but was seen the next day without his sash. The British general, fearing that something had displeased the Indian chief, sent his interpreter for an explanation. Tecumseh told him that he did not wish to wear the sash as a mark of distinction, when an older warrior than himself was present; he had transferred the sash to the Wyandot chief, Roundhead.

"In his correspondence, General Brock states that 'of many Indians whom he met at Amherstburg, he who most attracted his notice was the Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, brother of the Prophet—a more gallant or sagacious warrior does not, I believe, exist; he was the admiration of every one, and was as humane as he was brave.'

"General Brock, in General Orders of the 16th of August, 1812, after the capture of Detroit, states that two fortifications had been already captured, Michilimackinac and Detroit, without a drop of blood being shed by the hands of the Indians; the moment the enemy surrendered, his life became sacred.

"On congratulating General Brock, after the capture of Detroit, Tecumseh said to the General, 'We observed you from a distance standing the whole time in an erect position, and when the boats reached the shore, you were the first man on the land; your bold and sudden movements frightened the enemy, and so compelled them to surrender to half their number.'

"General Brock engaged the Indians to throw away the scalping knife—implanting in their hearts the virtue of clemency, and teaching them to feel pleasure and pride in compassion extended to a vanquished enemy. In return, they revered him as their common Father, and whilst under his control, were guilty of no excesses; and thereby the noble Tecumseh was humane as well as brave."[196]

Such was the character and results of the first American invasion of Canada.

It may be worth while to notice some events which preceded the taking of Detroit, and which doubtless disappointed and disheartened General Hull. In the island of St. Joseph, in Lake Huron, there was a fort or block-house, under the command of Captain Roberts, with thirty regulars. General Brock, in communicating to Captain Roberts the American declaration of war against Great Britain, instructed him to take every precaution for the protection of St. Joseph, and, if possible, to get possession of Michilimackinac, now called Mackinac, and pronounced Mackinaw, an island about nine miles in circumference, commanding the entrance from Lake Huron into Lake Michigan, on which the Americans had a fort with a captain in command, and a garrison of seventy-five men. Captain Roberts was aided by Mr. Pothier, a gentlemen of the South-west Fur Company, who volunteered his own services, attended by about 160 Canadian voyageurs, and placed the contents of the stores at the disposal of Captain Roberts, who, with his little armament, consisting of thirty regulars, two artillerymen and a sergeant, 160 Canadians, and two iron field-pieces, set out on the 16th of July with his flotilla of boats and canoes, convoyed by the Caledonia brig, belonging to the North-West Company, loaded with stores and provisions. On the ensuing morning he reached Mackinac, a distance of about forty miles, landed without opposition, and immediately summoned the garrison to surrender, which was complied with in a few minutes. Thus was this key of the West taken without the effusion of a drop of blood.

The Americans had carried on a brisk trade in schooners and sailing vessels from Detroit, through Lake Huron, to the head of Lake Michigan, now Chicago. The capture of Mackinac—which was a surprise to the commander, who had not heard of the declaration of war—interrupted this trade, and gave confidence to the Canadian voyageurs and Indians in the British interests employed in the fur trade in these distant countries.

"This achievement, effected by the promptitude and judicious arrangements of Captain Roberts, not only inspired the people with confidence, and gave a turn to the present campaign fatal to the views of the United States, by enabling us to maintain our influence among the Indians of the West, which otherwise must have been lost, but it essentially contributed to the successful struggle afterwards maintained against the American arms in Upper Canada. General Hull, after the capture of his army and the fall of Detroit, in his official despatch relative to these events, attributes his disasters to the fall of Mackinac; after the surrender of which, almost every tribe and nation of Indians, except a part of the Miamis and Delawares, north from beyond Lake Superior, west from beyond the Mississippi, south from Ohio and the Wabash, and east from every part of Upper Canada, and from all the intermediate country, joined in open hostility against the army he commanded."[197]

"General Hull remained some time inactive, under pretext of making preparation to prosecute the campaign with vigour; but it was the fallacious hope of an early insurrection in his favour that lulled him into a supineness fatal to the safety of his army. Amherstburg lay about eighteen miles below him, and the mud and picketed fortifications of that post was not in a condition to make resistance against a regular siege. The Americans, confident of an easy conquest, had not as yet a single cannon or mortar mounted, and to endeavour to take it at the point of the bayonet he thought inexpedient. During this delay his situation became more and more precarious; three detachments from his army were, on three successive days, beaten back by a handful of the 41st Regiment and a few Indians, from a bridge over the River Canard, three miles from Amherstburg, which they endeavoured to seize, in order to open the route to that port. Another detachment, in attempting to ford the river (Canard) higher up, was put to flight by a small party of eighteen or twenty Indians who lay concealed in the grass. The enemy, panic-struck at their sudden and hideous yell, fled with precipitancy, leaving their arms, accoutrements, and haversacks. The British sloop of war Queen Charlotte, carrying eighteen twenty-four pounders, lay in the Detroit river, opposite the mouth of the River Canard, so that it was impossible for the Americans to convey by water to Amherstburg any artillery, of which, after much labour, they had at last mounted two twenty-four-pounders. Lieutenant Rolette, commanding the armed brig Hunter, had on the 3rd of July, at about ten o'clock in the forenoon, by a bold attempt in his barge, with only six men, succeeded in capturing the Cayahaga packet, bound from Miami river to Detroit with troops, and loaded with baggage, and the hospital stores of the American army, the loss of which was now severely felt. Mackinac, in his rear, had been taken since the commencement of the invasion, while the Indians from that quarter were flocking to the British standard. Our naval force being superior on the lake, Colonel Proctor pushed over to Brownstown, a village nearly opposite to Amherstburg, twenty miles below Detroit, with a small detachment of the 41st Regiment, under the command of Captain Tallon, with a few Indians, who on the 5th of August surprised and routed a party of 200 Americans under Major Vanhorne, on their way from Detroit to River Raisin, to meet a detachment of volunteers from Ohio, under Captain Brush, with a convoy of provisions for the army. In this affair a quantity of booty, and General Hull's despatches to the Secretary at War, fell into the hands of the victors, whereby the deplorable state of the American army was disclosed." * *

"In the interim, the American general received a despatch from General Hull, on the Niagara frontier, intimating that he could not expect co-operation in that quarter, which would have created a diversion in his favour. Such was the hopeless state of things when the American general began to be sensible of his danger. His army hemmed in on every side, cut off from its resources, and hourly wasting away with defeat, death, sickness, and fatigue, unsupported by an expected insurrection of Canadians in his favour, and unaided by any co-operating army, and, above all, dismayed at the report of General Brock's resolution to advance against him; his schemes of conquest vanquished, and in the sinking state of his affairs, he saw no other alternative than to retreat back to Detroit, under pretence of concentrating his main army, and after re-opening his communications with the Rivers Raisin and Miami, through which he received his whole supplies, to resume offensive operations against Upper Canada. Accordingly, on the evening of the 7th and the morning of the 8th of August, the whole of his army, except a garrison of 250 men and a few artillery left in charge of a small fortress they had thrown up on the British side, a little below Detroit, recrossed the river.

"General Hull now detached a body of 600 men, under Lieutenant-Colonel Miller, to dislodge the British from Brownstown, and open the communication with the Rivers Raisin and Miami, upon which the existence of the army depended. On the 9th, this detachment was met by the British and Indians under Major Muir at Magnogo, between Brownstown and Detroit, which, after a desperate battle, in which the Americans lost seventy-five men, was obliged to retreat with inconsiderable loss compared with that of the Americans.

"On the 7th, Lieutenant Rolette, with the boats of the Queen Charlotte and Hunter, under cover of the guns of the latter, attacked and captured a convoy of eleven batteaux and boats, having on board fifty-six of their wounded, and two English prisoners, on their way from Magnogo to Detroit, escorted by 250 American troops on shore.

"Amidst these reverses of fortune, the American general was startled at the summons to surrender the fort of Detroit, by General Brock, who, after having closed the public business at York, and prorogued Parliament, and collecting a few regulars and militia with incredible exertion, had reached Amherstburg by the 13th of August. So resolute a demand struck the American commander with dismay, who, at the most, had never contemplated a pursuit into his own territory by the British. He still, however, maintained sufficient presence of mind to return a prompt and positive refusal, upon receipt of which, the British, who now occupied the ground so lately in possession of the enemy, in front of Detroit, where they had thrown up a battery (erected by night) under the direction of Captain Dixon, of the Royal Engineers, commenced, on the afternoon of the 15th, a brisk cannonade on Detroit, from two five-and-a-half-inch mortars, and two twelve-pounders, under the management of Captain Hall, of the Provincial Navy, with a party of sailors, which was continued for upwards of an hour with great effect. Early in the morning of the 16th the cannonade recommenced, while General Brock, with about 700 regulars and militia, and 600 Indians, crossed the river without opposition at the Spring Wells, three miles below Detroit, under cover of the Queen Charlotte and Hunter. This small but resolute force, after forming upon the beach, advanced in column, flanked on the left by the Indians, with the river of Detroit on their right, and took (at the distance of a mile) position in line, in front of the American fort, into which the enemy had retired. Here every preparation was making for an immediate assault, when, to the surprise of both armies, a white flag was seen flying upon the walls of the fort, and a messenger advancing with proposals from the American general to capitulate. Lieutenant-Colonel McDowell, of the Militia, and Major Glegg, of the 49th Regiment, aide-de-camp to General Brock, immediately proceeded by his orders to the tent of the American general, where, in a few minutes, they dictated the terms of capitulation. By this the whole American army, including a detachment of 350 men, under Colonels McArthur and Cass, dispatched on the 14th for River Raisin to escort the provisions in charge of Captain Brush from thence to Detroit, became prisoners of war; and Detroit, with the Michigan territory, were surrendered to the British arms, without the effusion of a single drop of British blood.

"The American statements of their own strength nearly coincide with British reports, which make it 2,500 men, regulars and militia. The militia were paroled, and permitted to return home, on condition of not serving during the present war. The regulars were sent down to Quebec.

"The British force, including Indians, is acknowledged by the enemy to have consisted of only 1,030 men or thereabout. Our own, and perhaps more correct reports, state it to have consisted of 350 regular troops, 400 militia, and 600 Indians, who, upon the present occasion, are said not to have sullied the glory of the day by any wanton acts of savage barbarity incident to the Indian mode of warfare. Twenty-five pieces of iron and eight pieces of brass ordnance, with an immense quantity of stores of every description, and one armed brig, called the John Adams (afterwards named Detroit), fell into the hands of the British" [besides nearly 3,000 stand of small arms, much ammunition, and three weeks' provisions for the whole army]. (Thompson's History of the War of 1812, pp. 67-72.)

"Thus ended this (first) rash and imbecile attempt at the conquest of Canada. The loss of Mackinac and Detroit, with the flower of their army, at the outset of the war, was a disgrace that filled the American Government with consternation and alarm, as their plans of aggrandisement were not only totally defeated, but their whole western frontier was laid open to the inroads of the hostile Indians, and at the mercy of a people still warm with indignation at the late invasion."—Ib., pp. 72, 73.

General Brock, the day after taking Detroit, addressed to the inhabitants of the Michigan territory the following Proclamation:

"Whereas the territory of Michigan was this day, by capitulation, ceded to the arms of his Britannic Majesty, without any other condition than the protection of private property; and wishing to give an early proof of the moderation and justice of his Majesty's government, I do hereby announce to all the inhabitants of the said territory, that the laws heretofore in existence shall continue in force until his Majesty's pleasure be known, and so long as the peace and safety of the said territory will admit thereof; and I do hereby also declare and make known to the said inhabitants, that they shall be protected in the full exercise and enjoyment of their religion—of which all persons, both civil and military, will take notice, and govern themselves accordingly.

"All persons having in their possession, or having knowledge of any public property, shall forthwith deliver in the same, or give notice thereof to the officer commanding, or to Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholl, who are duly authorized to receive and give the proper receipts for the same.

"Officers of militia will be held responsible that all arms in possession of the militiamen be immediately delivered up; and all individuals whatever who have in possession arms of any kind, will deliver them up without delay.

"Given under my hand, at Detroit, this 16th day of August, 1812, and in the 52nd year of his Majesty's reign. God save the King.

(Signed) "ISAAC BROCK, "Major-General."

The purport and spirit of this proclamation was very different from those issued by successful American commanders in former years, when they required the conquered to take a new oath of allegiance, to enrol themselves in a new army under pain of confiscation of property, imprisonment, and even death. The true genius of English government is justice, law, and liberty; the genius of democratic government is the domination of party, and the spoils to the victors. In the conquest of a vast territory by General Brock, there was no plunder or sacrifice of life, by Indian or soldier, much less plunder for the benefit of the general. It was not so with the promising, threatening, ostentatious, grasping General Hull, who, according to the Patriotic Society of Upper Canada (of which hereafter), is thus reported:

"In 1812, General Hull invaded the British province of Upper Canada, and took possession of the town of Sandwich. He threatened (by proclamation) to exterminate the inhabitants if they made any resistance. He plundered those with whom he had been on habits of intimacy years before the war. Their plate and linen were found in his possession after his surrender to General Brock. He marked out the loyal subjects of the King as objects of his peculiar resentment, and consigned their property to pillage and conflagration."

General Brock left Colonel Proctor in command of Detroit, and returned to York (Toronto), where he arrived the 27th of August, amidst the heartfelt acclamations of a grateful people.

"In the short space of nineteen days he had, with the assistance of the Provincial Parliament, settled the public business of the province, under the most trying circumstances that a commander could encounter, and having united and prepared his little army, had effected a long and fatiguing march of several hundred miles; and with means incredibly limited, had repelled an invading enemy of double his force, pursued him into his own territory, and finally compelled him to surrender his whole army and jurisdiction; thus extending the British dominions, without bloodshed, over an extent of territory almost equal to Upper Canada."—"Our little navy on Lake Erie, and on Lake Ontario, though the enemy were making the most active exertions, still maintained a decided ascendency, and upon it depended the safety of Upper Canada and the future fate of the British provinces. General Brock intended to have followed up his first success by an attempt on Niagara, a fort nearly opposite to Fort George; which, in all probability, as well as Oswego and Sackett's Harbour, the nursery of the enemy's fleet and forces, would have yielded to the terror of his name and the tide of success that attended his arms; but, controlled by his instructions, he was prevented from adopting measures which probably might have for ever blasted the hopes of the United States in Upper Canada." (Christie.)