The Project Gutenberg ebook of a brief History of the United States

"freedom of the seas,"--the right of a neutral to trade with either

belligerent, provided the goods were not for use in actual war (as guns,

powder, and shot).

Britain. She claimed that in time of war she had a right to the services

of her sailors; that if they were on foreign ships, they must come home

and serve on her war vessels. She denied that a British subject could

become a naturalized American; once a British subject, always a British

subject, was her doctrine. She stopped our vessels at sea, examined the

crews, and seized or "impressed" any British subjects found among them--

and many American sailors as well. Against such "impressment" our

government set up the claim of "sailors' rights"--denying the right of

Great Britain to search our ships at sea or to seize sailors of any

nationality while on board an American vessel.
THE ATTACK ON THE CHESAPEAKE.--Before 1805 Great Britain confined

impressment to the high seas and to her own ports. After 1805 she carried

it on also off our coasts and in our ports. Finally, in 1807, a British

officer, hearing that some British sailors were among the crew of our

frigate _Chesapeake_ which was about to sail, only partly equipped,

from the Washington navy yard, ordered the _Leopard_ to follow the

_Chesapeake_ to sea and search her. This was done, and when Commodore

Barron refused to have his vessel searched, she was fired on by the

_Leopard_, boarded, searched, and one British and three American

sailors were taken from her deck. [3]

and Great Britain. We had either to fight for "free trade and sailors'

rights," or to abandon the sea and stop all attempts to trade with Europe

and Great Britain. Jefferson chose the latter course. Our retaliation

therefore consisted of
1. The Long Embargo (1807-9).

2. The Non-intercourse Act (1809).

3. Macon's Bill No. 2 (1810).

4. The Declaration of War (1812).

Congress laid an embargo and cut off all trade with foreign ports. [4] The

restriction was so sweeping and the damage to farmers, planters,

merchants, shipowners, and sailors so great, that the law was at once

evaded. More stringent laws were therefore enacted, till at last trade

along the coast from port to port was made all but impossible. Defiance to

the embargo laws became so general [5] that a Force Act (1809) was passed,

giving the President authority to use the army and navy in enforcing

obedience. This was too much, and such a storm of indignation arose in the

Eastern states that Congress repealed the embargo laws (1809) and

substituted
THE NON-INTERCOURSE ACT.--This forbade commerce with Great Britain and

France, but allowed it with such countries as were not under French or

British control. If either power would repeal its orders or decrees, the

President was to announce this fact and renew commerce with that power.

became President (March 4, 1809). [8]

offered, in the name of the king, to lift the orders in council if the

United States would renew trade with Great Britain. The offer was

accepted, and the renewal of trade proclaimed. But when the king heard of

it, he recalled Erskine and disavowed the agreement, and Madison was

forced to declare trade with Great Britain again suspended.

a new experiment, and by Macon's Bill No. 2 (so-called because it was the

second of two bills introduced by Mr. Macon) restored trade with France

and Great Britain. At the same time it provided that if either power would

withdraw its decrees or orders, trade should be cut off with the other

unless that power also would withdraw them.

refused to withdraw her orders in council, whereupon in 1811 trade was

again stopped with Great Britain.
THE DECLARATION OF WAR.--And now the end had come. We had either to submit

tamely or to fight. The people decided to fight, and in the elections of

1810 completely changed the character of the House of Representatives. A

large number of new members were elected, and the control of public

affairs passed from men of the Revolutionary period to a younger set with

very different views. Among them were two men who rose at once to

leadership and remained so for nearly forty years to come. One was Henry

Clay of Kentucky; [9] the other was John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.

Clay was made speaker of the House of Representatives, and under his lead

the House at once began preparations for war with Great Britain, which was

formally declared in June, 1812. The causes stated by Madison in the

proclamation were (1) impressing our sailors, (2) sending ships to cruise

off our ports and search our vessels, (3) interfering with our trade by

orders in council, and (4) urging the Indians to make war on the Western

settlers.
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.--That the British had been tampering with the

Indians was believed to be proved by the preparation of many of the Indian

tribes for war. From time to time some Indian of great ability had arisen

and attempted to unite the tribes in a general war upon the whites. King

Philip was such a leader, and so was Pontiac, and so at this time were the

twin brothers Tecumthe and the Prophet. The purpose of Tecumthe was to

unite all the tribes from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico in a

general war, to drive the whites from the Mississippi valley. After

uniting many of the Northern tribes he went south, leaving his brother,

the Prophet, in command. But the action of the Prophet so alarmed General

Harrison, [10] governor of Indiana territory, that he marched against the

Indians and beat them at the Tippecanoe (1811). [11]

Republicans nominated him for a second term of the presidency, with

Elbridge Gerry [12] for the vice presidency. The Federalists and those

opposed to war, the peace party, nominated DeWitt Clinton for President.

Madison and Gerry were elected. [13]
THE WAR OPENS.--The war which now followed, "Mr. Madison's War" as the

Federalists called it, was fought along the edges of our country and on

the sea. It may therefore be considered under four heads:--
1. War on land along the Canadian frontier.

2. War on land along the Atlantic seaboard.

3. War on land along the Gulf coast.

4. War on the sea.

recalled the hated orders in council, but she would not give up the right

of search and of impressment, so the war went on, as Madison believed that

cause enough still remained.

"War Hawks" as the Federalists called them, was to capture the British

provinces north of us and make peace at Halifax. Three armies were

therefore gathered along the Canadian frontier. One under General Hull was

to cross at Detroit and march eastward. A second under General Van

Rensselaer was to cross the Niagara River, join the forces under Hull,

capture York (now Toronto), and then go on to Montreal. The third under

General Dearborn was to enter Canada from northeastern New York, arid meet

the other troops near Montreal. The three armies were then to capture

Montreal and Quebec and conquer Canada.

Detroit. Van Rensselaer did not get a footing in Canada, and Dearborn went

no farther than the northern boundary line of New York.
FIGHTING ON THE FRONTIER, 1813.--The surrender of Hull filled the people

with indignation, and a new army under William Henry Harrison was sent

across the wilds of Ohio in the dead of winter to recapture Detroit. But

the British and Indians attacked and captured part of the army at

Frenchtown on the Raisin River, where the Indians massacred the prisoners.

They then attacked Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson, but were driven off.

was hastily building at Erie (Presque Isle) a little fleet to attack the

British, whose fleet on Lake Erie had been built just as hurriedly. The

fight took place near the west end of the lake and ended in the capture of

all the British ships. [14] It was then that Perry sent off to Harrison

those familiar words "We have met the enemy and they are ours." [15]

and enabled him to carry Harrison's army over to Canada, where, on the

Thames River, he beat the British and Indians and put them to flight. [16]

By these two victories of Perry and Harrison we regained all that we had

lost by the surrender of Hull. On the New York frontier neither side

accomplished anything decisive in 1813, though the public buildings at

York (now Toronto) were destroyed, and some villages on both sides of the

Niagara River were burned.

on the New York frontier, and during 1814 our troops under Jacob Brown and

Winfield Scott captured Fort Erie and won the battles of Chippewa and

Lundys Lane. But in the end the British drove our army out of Canada.

an army to attack Plattsburg, but Thomas Macdonough utterly destroyed the

fleet in Plattsburg Bay, and the army was repulsed.
FIGHTING ALONG THE SEABOARD.--During 1812 and 1813 the British did little

more than blockade our coast from Rhode Island to New Orleans, leaving all

the east coast of New England unmolested. [17] But in 1814 the entire

coast was blockaded, the eastern part of Maine was seized and occupied,

and Stonington in Connecticut was bombarded.
WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE ATTACKED.--A fleet entered Chesapeake Bay and

landed an army which marched to Washington, burned the Capitol, the

President's house, the Treasury Building, and other public buildings, [18]

and with the aid of the fleet made a vain attack on Baltimore.

Key, temporarily a prisoner with the British, wrote _The Star-spangled

Banner_.
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE CAPITOL AFTER THE FIRE.]
FIGHTING ALONG THE GULF COAST.--After the repulse at Baltimore the British

army was carried to the island of Jamaica to join a great expedition

fitting out for an attack on New Orleans. It was November before the fleet

bearing the army set sail, and December when the troops landed on the

southeast coast of Louisiana and started for the Mississippi. On the banks

of that river, a few miles below New Orleans, they met our forces under

General Andrew Jackson drawn up behind a line of rude intrenchments,

attacked them on the 8th of January, 1815, and were badly beaten.

those by the navy were more glorious still. In years before the war

British captains laughed at our little navy and called our ships "fir-

built things with a bit of striped bunting at their mastheads." These fir-

built things now inflicted on the British navy a series of defeats such as

it had never before suffered from any nation.

is still popularly called, [19] beat the _Guerrière_ (gar-e-ar') so badly

that she could not be brought to port; the little sloop _Wasp_ almost shot

to pieces the British sloop _Frolic_; [20] the frigate _United States_

brought the _Macedonian_ in triumph to Newport (R.I.); [21] and the

_Constitution_ made a wreck of the _Java_.

sloop _Peacock_ that after surrendering she went down carrying with her

nine of her own crew and three of the _Hornet's_. The brig _Enterprise_,

William Burrows in command, fought the British brig _Boxer_, Captain

Blythe, off Portland harbor, Maine. Both commanders were killed, but the

Boxer was taken and carried into Portland, where Burrows and Blythe,

wrapped in the flags they had so well defended, were buried in the Eastern

Cemetery which overlooks the bay.

returned home with the _Hornet_, he was given command of the _Chesapeake_,

then fitting out in Boston harbor, and while so engaged was challenged by

the commander of the British frigate _Shannon_ to come out and fight. He

went, was mortally wounded, and a second time the _Chesapeake_ struck to

the British. As Lawrence was carried below he cried out, "Don't give up

the ship--keep her guns going--fight her till she sinks"; but the British

carried her by boarding.

was taken by the British brig _Pelican_. [22]

and they were accepted by us. Great Britain declined, but offered to treat

directly if commissioners were sent to some neutral port. John Quincy

Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, James A. Bayard, and Jonathan Russell

were duly appointed, and late in December, 1814, signed a treaty of peace

at Ghent. Nothing was said in it about impressment, search, or orders in

council, nor indeed about any of the causes of the war.
Nevertheless the gain was great. Our naval victories made us respected

abroad and showed us to be the equal of any maritime power. At home, the

war aroused a national feeling, did much to consolidate the Union, and put

an end to our old colonial dependence on Europe. Thenceforth Americans

looked westward, not eastward.
THE HARTFORD CONVENTION.--News of the treaty signed in December, 1814, did

not reach our country till February, 1815. [23] Had there been ocean

steamships or cables in those days, two famous events in our history would

not have happened. The battle of New Orleans would not have been fought,

and the report of the Hartford Convention would not have been published.

The Hartford Convention was composed of Federalist delegates from the New

England states, [24] met in December, 1814, and held its sessions in

secret. But its report proposed some amendments to the United States

Constitution, state armies to defend New England, and the retention of a

part of the federal taxes to pay the cost. Congress was to be asked to

agree to this, arid if it declined, the state legislatures were to send

delegates to another convention to meet in June, 1815. [25] When the

commissioners to present these demands reached Washington, peace had been

declared, and they went home, followed by the jeers of the nation.

SUMMARY
1. The war with Tripoli (1801-5) ended in victory for our navy.
2. The renewal of war between France and Great Britain involved us in more

serious trouble.

with orders in council (1806-7). In these paper blockades we were the

chief sufferers.
4. Great Britain claimed a right to take her subjects off American ships,

and while impressing many British sailors into her navy, she impressed

many Americans also.
5. She sent vessels of war to our coast to search our ships, and in 1807

even seized sailors on board an American ship of war, the

_Chesapeake_.
6. Congress retaliated with several measures cutting off trade with France

and Great Britain; these failing, war on Great Britain was declared in

1812.
7. War on land was begun by attempts to invade Canada from Detroit,

Niagara, and northeastern New York. These attempts failed, and Detroit was

captured by the British.
8. In 1813 Perry won a great naval victory on Lake Erie; and the American

soldiers, after a reverse at Frenchtown, invaded Canada and won the battle

of the Thames.
9. In 1814 the Americans won the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane, but

were later driven from Canada. A British invasion of New York met disaster

at Plattsburg Bay.
10. Along the seaboard the British blockaded the entire coast, seized the

eastern part of Maine, took Washington and burned the public buildings,

and attacked Baltimore.
11. Later New Orleans was attacked, but in 1815 Jackson won a signal

victory and drove the British from Louisiana.

holding their Hartford Convention. The war resulted in strengthening the

Union and making it more respected.
[Illustration: FLINTLOCK MUSKET, SUCH AS WAS USED IN THE WAR OF 1812.]
[Illustration: MODERN MILITARY CARBINE.]

FOOTNOTES

in the harbor of Tripoli, and was captured by the Tripolitans. The

Americans then determined to destroy her. Stephen Decatur sailed into the

harbor with a volunteer crew in a little vessel disguised as a fishing

boat. The Tripolitans allowed the Americans to come close, whereupon they

boarded the _Philadelphia_, drove off the pirate crew, set the vessel

on fire, and escaped unharmed.
[2] The French decrees and British orders in council were as follows: (1)

Napoleon began (1806) by issuing a decree closing the ports of Hamburg and

Bremen (which he had lately captured) and so cutting off British trade

with Germany. (2) Great Britain retaliated with an order in council (May,

1806), blockading the coast of Europe from Brest to the mouth of the river

Elbe. (3) Napoleon retaliated (November, 1806) with the Berlin Decree,

declaring the British Isles in a state of blockade, and forbidding English

trade with any country under French control. (4) Great Britain issued

another order in council (November, 1807), commanding her naval officers

to seize any neutral vessel going to any closed port in Europe unless it

first touched at a British port, paid duty, and bought a license to trade.

(5) Napoleon thereupon (December, 1807) issued his Milan Decree,

authorizing the seizure of any neutral vessel that had touched at any

British port and taken out a license. Read Adams's _History of the U. S._,

Vol. III, Chap. 16; Vol. IV, Chaps. 4, 5, 6; McMaster's _History of the

People of the U. S._, Vol. III, pp. 219-223, 249-250, 272-274.

returned till 1812. Read Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Vol. I, pp. 305-

308.
[4] The Federalists ridiculed the embargo as the "terrapin-policy"; that

is, the United States, like a terrapin when struck, had pulled its head

and feet within its shell instead of fighting. They reversed the letters

so that they read "o-grab-me," and wrote the syllables backward so as to

spell "go-bar-'em."
[5] Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. III,

pp. 279-338.

legislatures of eight states invited him to be a candidate for reflection.

In declining he said, "If some termination to the services of the Chief

Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his

office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life; and history

shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance." The examples of

Washington and Jefferson established an unwritten law against a third term

for any President.

Princeton. In 1776 he was a delegate to the Virginia convention to frame a

state constitution, was a member of the first legislature under it, went

to Congress in 1780-83, and then returned to the state legislature, 1784-

87. He was one of the most important members of the convention that framed

the United States Constitution. After the adoption of the Constitution, he

led the Republican party in Congress (1789-97). He wrote the Virginia

Resolutions of 1798, and in 1801-9 was Secretary of State under Jefferson.

As the Republican candidate for President in 1808, he received 122

electoral votes against 47 for the Federalist candidate Charles C.

Pinckney. He died in 1836.
[9] Henry Clay, the son of a Baptist minister, was born in Virginia in

1777 in a neighborhood called "the Slashes." One of his boyhood duties was

to ride to the mill with a bag of wheat or corn. Thus he earned the name

of "the Mill Boy of the Slashes," which in his campaigns for the

presidency was used to get votes. His education was received in a log-

cabin schoolhouse. At fourteen he was behind the counter in a store at

Richmond; but finally began to read law, and in 1797 moved to Kentucky to

"grow up with the country." There he prospered greatly, and in 1803 was

elected to the state legislature, in 1806 and again in 1809-10 served as a

United States senator to fill an unexpired term, and in 1811 entered the

House of Representatives. From then till his death, June 29, 1852, he was

one of the most important men in public life; he was ten years speaker of

the House, four years Secretary of State, twenty years a senator, and

three times a candidate for President. He was a great leader and an

eloquent speaker. He was called "the Great Pacificator" and "the Great

Compromiser," and one of his sayings, "I had rather be right than be

President," has become famous.
[10] William Henry Harrison was a son of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of

the Declaration of Independence. He was born in Virginia in 1773, served

in the Indian campaigns under St. Clair and Wayne, commanded Fort

Washington on the site of Cincinnati, was secretary of the Northwest

Territory, and then delegate to Congress, and did much to secure the law