A Brief History of the United States Part 30

CONGRESS RETALIATES.--It was now high time for us to strike back at France 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).

THE LONG EMBARGO.--Late in December, 1807, at the request of Jefferson, 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 pa.s.sed, 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 This was too much, and such a storm of indignation arose in the Eastern states that Congress repealed the embargo laws (1809) and subst.i.tuted

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.

Just at this time the second term of Jefferson ended, [6] and Madison became President (March 4, 1809). [8]

THE ERSKINE AGREEMENT(1809).--And now the British minister, Mr. Erskine, 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.

MACON'S BILL NO. 2.--Non-intercourse having failed, Congress in 1810 tried 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.

Napoleon now (1810) pretended to recall his decrees, but Great Britain 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 pa.s.sed 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 Tec.u.mthe and the Prophet. The purpose of Tec.u.mthe 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]

[Ill.u.s.tration: VICINITY OF THE TIPPECANOE RIVER.]

MADISON REeLECTED.--As Madison was willing to be a war President the 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.

Scarcely had the fighting begun when news arrived that Great Britain had 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAR OF 1812.]

FIGHTING ON THE FRONTIER, 1812.--The hope of the leaders of the war party, "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.

But the plan failed; Hull was driven out of Canada, and surrendered at 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 ma.s.sacred the prisoners.

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

BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE.--Meantime a young naval officer, Oliver Hazard Perry, 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]

BATTLE OF THE THAMES.--This signal victory gave Perry command of Lake Erie 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.

FIGHTING ON THE FRONTIER, 1814.--Better officers were now put in command 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.

Further eastward the British gathered a fleet on Lake Champlain and sent 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.

It was during the bombardment of a fort near Baltimore that Francis Scott Key, temporarily a prisoner with the British, wrote _The Star-spangled Banner_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. From an old print.]

THE SEA FIGHTS.--The victories won by the army were indeed important, but 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NAVAL CANNON OF 1812.]

Before the end of 1812 the frigate _Const.i.tution,_ "Old Ironsides" as she is still popularly called, [19] beat the _Guerriere_ (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 _Const.i.tution_ made a wreck of the _Java_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CUTLa.s.s.]

In 1813 the _Hornet_, Commander James Lawrence, so riddled the British sloop _Peac.o.c.k_ 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.

THE CHESAPEAKE CAPTURED.--But we too met with defeats. When Lawrence 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.

The brig _Argus_, while destroying merchantmen off the English coast, was taken by the British brig _Pelican_. [22]

PEACE.--Quite early in the war Russia tendered her services as mediator 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 Const.i.tution, 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.

3. When France attacked British commerce by decrees, Great Britain replied with orders in council (1806-7). In these paper blockades we were the chief sufferers.