The Loyalists of America and Their Times Volume II Part 31

[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 a.s.sembled 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 fict.i.tious 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 pa.s.sed 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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 acc.u.mulations were but an index of the general enrichment of the nation, there were mult.i.tudes 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 n.o.ble 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 pa.s.sed 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 Ma.s.sachusetts; 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 pa.s.sed 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 const.i.tuents, 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 va.s.salage 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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 dest.i.tute 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 circ.u.mstances 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 p.r.o.nounce 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 circ.u.mstances 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 mult.i.tudinous 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 a.s.sume 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 a.s.sist in repelling any sudden attack made by a tumultuary invasion, and effectually to partic.i.p.ate in the defence of their country against a regular invasion at any future period.

The a.s.sembly, in answer, among other things a.s.sured the Governor that they would give attention to those acts recommended by him. The a.s.sembly pa.s.sed 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 subst.i.tutes were allowed, nor commissioned officers permitted to take any militiamen for their servants, under a penalty of 10 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.