ful on the part of France. It enabled her ruler to maintain a peace with the United States, and involve the other power in the calamity of war. Napoleon's minister having informed the American minister resident at Paris, that the decrees of Berlin and Milan were revoked, the non-intercourse, as regarded France, was, by a proclamation of the president, withdrawn. But Great Britain, suspecting the intentions of Napoleon, did not believe that the French decrees were at this period actually annulled. Indeed, when it is considered that nearly two years had elapsed, before a copy of the document, by which the emperor asserted they were repealed, was handed to the American minister; and that its date was seven months earlier than the period of its communication, an impartial observer cannot avoid declaring, that there was greater reason for suspicion than for belief.

1812. The formal publication of the repeal on the part of France was followed by a corresponding retraction on the part of England. But the measure was then too late. When intelligence of the repeal arrived in the United States, war had been commenced against Great Britain. The bill for this purpose was voted in the house of representatives by a majority of thirty members out of 128; in the senate, by a majority of six out of thirty-two; and was confirmed by the approbation of the president, on the 18th of June.

As the question of search and impressment was still unsettled, it was thought to be the interest of the nation that hostilities should be continued, until after a final adjustment of every dispute. Some months before the declaration of war, congress had been seriously engaged in preparing for the contest. The army and navy were considerably increased: the duties on goods imported were in general doubled: taxes were afterwards laid upon certain articles of domestic manufacture; upon lands, houses, and nearly every other description of property. In using these resources, however, great improvidence was shown. From a hope entertained of a favourable issue of the negotiation, or the dread existing in the minds of the legislators, lest they might lose their popularity, internal taxes were not laid on until long after the commencement of actual warfare. The consequence was severely felt: the credit of the government was impaired; and speculators seized the opportunity afforded by a sudden demand for money, and supplied the exhausted treasury by taking debentures at a rate very considerably under par.

The defeat of the Shawanese Indians by General Harrison, on the 7th of November 1811, at the Tippecanoe, was a happy prelude to the commencement of the war against their British allies, by whom they had been incited to assail the white settlers in the neighbourhood of the Wabash river; but the subsequent abortive invasion of Canada, and the surrender by General Hull of Detroit and its numerous garrison, together with the extensive territory of Michigan, on the 15th of August 1812, served alike to depress the rising spirit of the American people, and for a while to justify the opinion entertained by the British ministry, that VOL. XVIII.-PART I.

their disposition was calculated rather to suffer insult in a state of peace, than to avenge their wrongs by an energetic war. On another element, however, ample reparation was made to the injured honour of the country, by a series of gallant victories; and the very first of these achievements, which have served to elevate the character of the American navy to the highest pinnacle of glory, was gained four days after the disgraceful surrender of Detroit, by Captain Hull, a nephew of the general who had inflicted so deep disgrace upon his country's flag. On the 19th of August, the American frigate Constitution, under the command of that officer, captured the British frigate Guerriere, after a severe rencounter; an event which diffused over the country universal joy; and that achievement was followed by a series of actions on the ocean and on the lakes, which evinced not less skill than gallantry on the part of the American commanders. It would be unjust, did we omit recording in this brief epitome, the names of Decatur, Bainbridge and Biddle; Jones, Lawrence, Warrington and Stewart; as the most distinguished of the naval heroes on the ocean; and those of Perry_and M'Donough, as the respective conquerors of the British fleets on lakes Erie and Champlain.

No subject of military tactics, not even the long disputed question, which was the more efficient, the Macedonian phalanx, or the legion of the Roman army, ever created a more eager spirit of inquiry, than during this war did the extraordinary success of the American navy. The British assigned as the cause, the dimensions of their enemy's vessels: the Americans, the voluntary enlistment of their seamen. But neither of these reasons will bear the test of experience. The first is erroneous; because the superiority of a few guns could not produce a continuation of similar results: the second is equally untrue; being contradicted by historical evidence. During the revolutionary war, the British mercenary soldiers almost invariably overthrew the American militia; and in the English navy, no difference has been at any time recorded, between the exertions of the impressed seaman and the volunteer. The cause, however, with proper examination, may be discovered. It arose entirely from the superior accuracy of the American fire; and the point to which the shot was in every instance directed. The French direct their shot towards the rigging; thus hoping to escape from a disabled enemy; the English aim chiefly at the deck, with the design of destroying the crew; but the Americans pursue a system different from either, and combining the advantages of both. They point their guns at the hull of their antagonist, and having succeeded in piercing and shattering her sides, the sinking vessel is compelled to strike her colours.

Feats of naval prowess were not confined to the public ships of the United States. Privateers sailed from every port, and exhibited the same superiority that was displayed by the regular navy. Before the meeting of congress, in November, 250 vessels had been captured from the enemy; and more than 3000 prisoners taken; upwards of 50 of those vessels being armed, carrying nearly 600 guns. 3 K

The good effects of these splendid triumphs in promoting confidence, soon extended beyond the element on which they had been gained: a spirit was thereby roused on land, which produced a happy contrast to the previous languor of despond

ence.

In the western and in the southern states, volunteer corps were every where forming, and tendering their services to march to any quarter of the Union. Great alacrity was shown in the western sections of Pennsylvania and Virginia; but this patriotic zeal was the most conspicuously observable in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. It was expected that before October, every thing would be ready for a formidable invasion of Canada; but, from an extraordinary cause, there was experienced considerable disappointment. Unfriendly to the war, particularly to its being made offensive, the governors of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut, refused to allow the militia of these states to march under the requisition of the president. They declared, that they were themselves the proper judges, in accordance with the federal constitution, of the necessity which might require them in the field. Their refusal delayed for a short time the intended movements, but did not depress the spirits of the troops collected. Nearly 10,000 men were at length embodied on the northern lines, and skilful sea-officers were employed in forming a navy on lakes Erie, Ontario and Champlain. The indefatigable exertions of commodore Chauncey, in creating a fleet upon those inland seas, produced most beneficial results. During the revolutionary war, the operations on the northern lakes extended not. beyond the contests of a few temporary gunboats, or inconsiderable schooners; but preparations were now making, from which arose a sublimity of combat not less interesting than on the extended waves of the Atlantic ocean.

Thus far the navy had been invariably successful; and the army, though equally brave, had been in almost every action unfortunate. The one had been the early favourite of the party that now opposed the war; the other had been considered by the ministerial adherents, as the only means of national defence (except gun-boats), worthy of attention. When congress re-assembled in November, the glory of the seamen was contrasted with the disgraces of the army, as a fresh argument against the measures of the existing government. Party spirit rose to an alarming height; and as usual, the members of the several legislatures were not less under its influence in their public, than in their private relations. Mutual charges were made, of French control and improper submission to the outrages of Britain. Some degree of justice was apparent on the pacific side; yet the advocates of war were able to produce arguments equally meriting attention. A proposal for an armistice, made by the governor of Canada, had been thought inadmissible; and a similar offer, by a British admiral, was on the same principle rejected: but, on the other hand, the American minister at London had made a pacific overture, which proved abortive; and a mediation offered to the British government, by the emperor of Russia, was equally ineffectual.

A history, particularly devoted to the occurrences of this eventful war, must be referred to by the reader, for a regular detail of its numerous naval and military incidents. Though the result of the several expeditions under the American officers who had been bred in the school of the revolutionary war, proved, as had been already evinced in Europe, that the tactics of that period were of too formal and tardy a character to oppose with success the improvements which had arisen out of the French revolution; and though the repeated attempts to gain a firm footing in Canada, eventuated only in a useless expenditure of blood, as far as regarded territorial aggrandizement on the part of the United States; yet in one point of view, these rencounters were not without their benefit, as they afforded an opportunity for the young officers of the newly formed army to gain for themselves, and what is of more importance, for their country, a high degree of military honour. Without in this place making any comments upon their comparative merit, or attempting to introduce the names of the subaltern officers who fearlessly shed their blood on the northern frontiers, we think it our duty to introduce into these pages, as the most distinguished leaders of the American armies in that quarter, generals Harrison, Pike, Scott, Brown, Macomb, Miller, Porter, Ripley and Boyd; and also colonels Johnson, Croghan, Fenwick and Forsythe.

1814. To a large majority, however, of the people of the United States, the operations on the Atlantic frontier were of yet more immediate importance. The damage sustained by the proprietors of plantations in the Chesapeake, and on the islands situated in front of the coast of Georgia, was great. The disastrous result of the battle of Bladensburg, on the 24th of August, in which General Winder displayed a signal deficiency of military foresight and resource; and the consequent destruction of the capitol and other public buildings at Washington, by the British under the command of General Ross, were subjects of deep national regret; and the alarm felt, and not without sufficient reason, by the inhabitants of Baltimore, lest their city might be entered, and perhaps plundered and destroyed, by a British fleet and army, could have been allayed only by the gallantry with which, in the month of September, the enemy's troops were met on the water's edge, at North Point, in which engagement General Ross received a mortal wound, and the firmness displayed by the defenders of Fort M'Henry, under Major Armistead, who successfully withstood a furious bombardment by the British fleet during twenty-five hours, and finally compelled the assailants to withdraw.

In the beginning of the year, a British flag of truce had arrived at Annapolis, with despatches for the American government; announcing the expulsion of Napoleon's armies from Spain, his signal defeat about the same period at Leipsic, and that, notwithstanding the rejection of the Russian mediation, the prince-regent of England was willing to enter upon direct negotiations of peace. The president having frankly acceded to the proposal,

it was agreed that commissioners should assemble at Ghent. Henry Clay and Jonathan Russel were appointed on the part of the United States, to proceed to Europe, and with John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, and Albert Gallatin-diplomatists already there-to commence the pleasing business of conciliation. It required the brilliant victory on lake Champlain, and the equally splendid defence of Plattsburg, on the 11th of September, to remove the unfavourable impression made on those negotiations by the unfortunate surrender of the cap ital to the British army. But it might reasonably have been supposed that the war would before this period have ceased. Sufficient evidence had been offered to the enemy that no serious impression could be made upon the United States: the pacification of Europe had withdrawn the immediate causes of dispute, and the American commissioners had been instructed to allow the subject of impressment to remain unsettled. But the English government, not equally desirous of peace, proposed as a sine qua non, a most insulting relinquishment of this ground of controversy, -a surrender of a large portion of the American territory, and the total abandonment of the coast along the lakes.

Early in September it became known that the enemy were preparing to make a formidable invasion of Louisiana. The majority of the planters there, at least, of French extraction, had felt little interest in the war: the militia, therefore, were scarcely organized, instead of being disciplined and armed. But the chief safety of the inhabitants was in the nature of their country. It was exceedingly difficult of access by sea. In front was a shallow coast, and the principal entrance was a river; which, after crossing the bar, is narrow, deep and rapid, and of a course so winding as to render it easily susceptible of being fortified. On the west are impassable swamps; and on the east the low, marshy coast can be approached only through a shallow lake. Gun-boats, the most appropriate means of annoyance, had, notwithstanding, been neglected. As regarded men, arms, and military works, Louisiana was in a most defenceless situation. Happily for New Orleans, the commander of the district, General Jackson, arrived there on the 2d of December, from Mobile; to which place he had returned, after performing an important military service at Pensacola, and at an earlier period of the war rendering himself conspicuous by the almost total annihilation of the Creek Indians. His presence was instantly felt in the confidence which it inspired, and in the unanimity with which the people seconded his prompt arrangements.

Three days had not elapsed after the arrival of General Jackson, when intelligence was received that the British fleet, consisting of at least sixty sail, was off the coast. Guided by some traitors, the van of the invading army, on the 22d of December, was enabled to penetrate the country through a-secret passage, called the Bayou Bienvenu, and for a moment surprise the American guard; but the assailants were quickly repulsed, and General Jackson lost no time in fortifying his post for the protection of the city. This was effected by a simple breast-work, from the Mississippi to the

swamp, with a wet ditch in front; cotton bales of a square form being used as the cheeks of the cmbrasures. Meanwhile the British commander in chief having landed the main body of his army, on the 28th of December, made an unsuccessful attempt to drive the American general from his entrenchments.

1815. January 1st, another unsuccessful attempt was made upon the American lines. On the 4th, General Jackson received an increase of 2500 militia from Kentucky, under generals Thomas and Adair; and on the 6th, the British were reinforced by the arrival of General Lambert. Their whole number was now 14,000. General Jackson commanded about 6000. The lines on the right bank were intrusted to General Morgan, with the Louisiana and detachments of New Orleans and Kentucky militia. The works on the left bank, covering the main body, were occupied by General Jackson himself, with the Tennessee forces, under generals Coffee and Carroll; also a part of the Kentucky and New Orleans militia; the 7th and 44th regiments of United States infantry, with corps of active sailors and marines.

Early in the morning of the 8th of January, the British columns moved forward simultaneously against the right and left of the American batteries. The American artillery opened a tremendous fire at the distance of 900 yards, and mowed them down with terrible slaughter: at length they came in reach of the American small arms, when there was exhibited on the side of the assailants rather an extensive scene of carnage, than a battle in which one party was enabled to return with something like an equivalent effect the shot poured against them by the other. All the efforts of the British officers succeeded only in leading their veteran soldiers to destruction: the men shrunk from a contest in which they saw nothing but immediate slaughter; the columns at length broke, and retreated in confusion. The loss of the British army on this memorable day was 700 killed, 1400 wounded, and 500 captured. That of the Americans on the left bank of the Mississippi, was no more than six killed and nine wounded: on both banks it was thirteen killed, thirty-nine wounded and nineteen missing. The invaders had to regret the death of many experienced and gallant officers. General Packenham fell early in the engagement; and general Keane received a mortal wound.

This is the last military subject, in what may be termed the Three Years War, material to be noticed. The defeat of the British before Plattsburg having given a new turn to the negotiation, a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, on the 24th of December 1814, ratified by the prince regent of England, on the 28th, and by the president of the United States, with the approbation of the senate, on the last day of February 1815. Both governments agreed to restore their respective conquests, to appoint commissioners for settling disputed boundaries, and pledged themselves to use their utmost endeavours towards accomplishing the entire abolition of the slave trade; but no allusion was made to the causes of the war. This contest, at the same time that it elevated the military and naval charac

ter of the American nation, increased the public debt one hundred millions of dollars, and made the whole arrears about one hundred and fifty millions.

Peace having been now restored with England, the establishment of the regular army was fixed at ten thousand men. The naval power, as regarded the larger vessels, was not diminished; but on the contrary, was allowed gradually to be increased. On the Atlantic frontier, there were now afloat one ship of 74 guns, seven frigates, nine sloops of war, and fourteen schooners: on the lakes were twentynine vessels, carrying 360 guns; making the whole naval force, including gun-boats, 274 vessels, with 1500 guns.

March 3d, war was declared against Algiers. On the 30th of June, a treaty of peace and amity was signed in the city of Algiers; the negotiators on the part of the United States being commodore Decatur and William Shaler; and on the part of Algiers, the dey Omar Pacha. This treaty was ratified by the United States government, on the 26th of December.

1816. April 10th, the second bank of the United States was established by Congress, to continue twenty-one years from the first of July; the capital to be thirty-five millions of dollars.

September 4th, a treaty of commerce between the United States and Sweden was signed at Stockholm. December 11th, Indiana was admitted into the Union as a state.

1817. One of the most important subjects that in this year occupied the attention of congress was a revision of the duties on goods imported. In forming the new tariff, a judicious attention was given to protect domestic manufactures, without, at the same time, injuring the national revenue by the consequent decrease of the quantity imported, or lessening, by over-indulgence, the industry and economy requisite to their full success. The double war imposts were with few exceptions reduced; but a large increase was made to the duties upon some fabrics, particularly cotton cloths of a coarse description, especially when imported from the East Indies; where these articles are manufactured by persons contented with daily wages not exceeding a few cents, and from a material not grown in the United States.

March 4th, James Madison, having filled the office of president for a second term of four years, was succeeded by James Monroe; and the newly elected vice-president was Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York.

December 10th, Mississippi admitted into the Union as a state.

1818. October 20th, convention of London between the United States and Great Britain, respecting fisheries and boundaries; negotiators on the part of the United States, Albert Gallatin and Richard Rush, and on the part of Great Britain, Frederick J. Robinson and Henry Goulbourn. The ratifications were exchanged at Washington on the 30th of June 1819. By the provisions of this convention, the differences under the first article of the treaty of Ghent, are referred to a power friendly to the contracting parties.

December 4th, Illinois admitted as a state.

1819. A negotiation, commenced with Spain for the remainder of that portion of her territory named Florida, which had been interrupted by the temporary overthrow of the old Spanish dynasty by Napoleon, was, on the return of Ferdinand VII. to Madrid, renewed. That region was at length assigned to the United States. A treaty was concluded at Washington, on the 22d of February, which, after many vexatious delays on the part of Spain, was ratified by Ferdinand on the 24th of October, in the succeeding year, approved by the senate of the United States on the 19th, and by the president on the 22d of February 1821. Five millions of dollars were named as the price of Florida. This sum was not, however, to be paid to Spain. It was afterwards apportioned amongst those American citizens whose property was illegally seized in Spanish ports, when under the uncontrollable influence of France. Florida is particularly desirable, from its placing the southern boundary of the United States on the gulf of Mexico; and consequently removing the disagreeable jealousies which had frequently irritated the feelings of the two nations, caused by the occupation of Amelia Island and other places by disorderly troops, under commissions from the South American republics; as well as by the inroads of the Seminole and other nations, when stimulated either by their own chiefs, or foreign white people who had visited them for trade: and the treaty designates the boundary on the side of Mexico (as delineated in the map of the United States by Melish), which had been undefined in the cession of Florida. The negotiator on the part of the United States, was John Quincy Adams; on the part of Spain, Don Louis de Onis.

December 14th, Alabama admitted as a state. 1820. March 3d, act of congress passed by which Maine was admitted into the Union as a state on the 15th of that month.

March 6th, congress passed an act authorising the people of Missouri to form a constitution and state government;-by the 8th section of this act, slavery is forever prohibited in all the territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36° 30' north latitude, not included in the contemplated state.

1821. March 2d, congress passed a resolution for the admission of Missouri as a state so soon as the legislature thereof should declare its assent to certain conditions therein expressed, which having been complied with, the president of the United States announced the fact by proclamation on the 10th of August, when Missouri was admitted as the 24th state of the federal Union.

July 7th, Florida was delivered to the United States.

1822. Soon after the accession of Mr. Monroe to the presidential chair, in 1817, he commissioned Messrs Bayard, Graham, and Forbes, with instructions to visit the southern republics, and express to them the kind feelings of their brethren of the north; and also to obtain information respecting their military force, their strength and resources, their moral and political condition, and the proba

bility of their ultimate success. These commissioners were cordially received, and assisted in their researches. Their report placed the question of their final emancipation beyond a doubt: but the view given by the commissioners of their state of society, was not so favourable, and rendered the question of their capacity for self-government, on the principles of republican freedom, extremely doubtful. At what period they were to be admitted into the family of nations as independent states; and when this could be done, without departing from a neutral course with regard to Spain; were very delicate questions. On this subject, the feelings of the people and of congress, were much in advance of the executive. In January 1818, a motion was ineffectually made in the house of representatives, to introduce into an appropriation bill, a sum for the support of a minister at Buenos Ayres, as soon as the president should deem it expedient to appoint one. A few years afterwards the subject was resumed, under circumstances more favourable to the recognition of the infant republics. On the 30th of January 1822, the house of representatives passed a resolution, requesting the president to communicate to them such information as he possessed in relation to the political state of South America; and that officer having complied with the requisition, and recommended that their independence should be acknowledged, the independence of Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, was accordingly recognized, on the 19th of March, with only one dissenting voice, and an appropriation made to establish with them a diplomatic intercourse.

June 24th, a convention of navigation and commerce was signed at Washington, between France and the United States; the negotiator on the part of France being Hyde de Neuville, and on that of the United States, John Quincy Adams. It was ratified on the 12th of February 1823.

July 12th, convention of St. Petersburg, between the United States and Great Britain: negotiators on the part of Russia as mediator, Count Nesselrode and Capo d'Istrias; on the part of the United States, Henry Middleton; and on the part of Great Britain, Charles Bagot. The provisions of this treaty regarded the just meaning of the first article of the treaty of Ghent, in relation to an indemnification for slaves taken from the United States during the last war with Great Britain. Ratifications were exchanged on the 10th of January 1823.

1823. January 27th, ministers plenipotentiary are appointed by the United States to the new republics of South America.

A system of piracy not less atrocious than alarming, arose out of the war between Spain and the South American republics. In the early stage of the contest, those provinces having little shipping of their own, granted commissions for privateering against the commerce of Spain, to any foreigner that applied. A large number of vessels were fitted out in the ports of the United States and in other places; commissions were taken from the republics of the south; and a predatory war was carried on against the ships of Spain. Privateering soon degenerated into piracy. Those who had plundered

the vessels of Spain, under a Buenos Ayrean commission, readily engaged in the same enterprise against the vessels of all nations, without any commission. Desperate gangs of this description, of various nations and of all colours, infested the American seas, from the year 1818 to 1823, to so great an extent, as to render the navigation extremely perilous; their robberies being often acpanied with the most cold-blooded and barbarous murder. Their principal haunts were on the northern coast of Cuba, from one hundred to two hundred miles distant from Havana. There they found a region uninhabited, beyond the operations of the Spanish authorities, indented with numerous narrow inlets, affording secure places of retreat for their small vessels, and inaccessible to ships of any considerable size. The pirates had their agents at Havana and Matanzas, to give them notice of the sailing of merchant vessels from those ports; and any that ventured to sail without convoy, almost invariably became their prey. To protect their commerce in these seas, the measure first pursued by the United States was to station there the Congress frigate and eight small vessels. This force in one year captured and destroyed more than twenty piratical vessels on the coast of Cuba; but it did not fully effectuate the purpose, not being provided with the means of following them into their recesses and breaking up their haunts. The proper species of vessels was, however, at length supplied; and an additional force, consisting of the Peacock sloop of war, a steam galliot, and ten small vessels, carrying three or four guns each, was despatched to the West India seas, and with the fleet then on that station, placed under the command of Commodore Porter. Seldom was there undertaken a more harassing service: yet it was performed with such remarkable zeal and success, that at the end of sixty days from the commencement of his operations, the commodore, in his official despatches to the secretary of the navy, was enabled to say, that in the region of Matanzas, the scene of their greatest depredations, there was not a pirate afloat larger than an open boat; and that not a single piratical act had been committed on the coast of Cuba, since he had organized and arranged his forces.

1824. February 25th, a treaty was signed between the United States and Tunis.

April 17th, a convention between the United States and Russia was signed at St. Petersburg; negotiators on the part of the United States, Henry Middleton, and on that of Russia, Count Nesselrode and Pierre de Poletica.

October 3d, a treaty of navigation and commerce was signed at Bogota, in New Granada, between the United States and Colombia; negotiator on the part of the United States, Richard Clough Anderson, and on the part of Colombia, Pedro Gual. It was ratified May 31, 1825.

August 15th, General La Fayette, accompanied by his son, Mr. George Washington La Fayette, arrived in the harbour of New York, on a visit to the United States. His tour eastward as far as Portsmouth; southward, as far as New Orleans; and westward, to St. Louis, in the state of Missouri;