During the year 1814 the Americans again prepared for the invasion of Canada, but no ground was gained. Without going into minute details, we will content ourselves with giving the principal warlike events of the year, whether in the North or the South.
Early in the season, General Brown was detached from the army of General Wilkinson at Sackett’s Harbour, where he had been assiduously disciplining his army, to the Niagara frontier. At the beginning of July he crossed the Niagara, took Fort Erie, and advanced into Canada. When he reached the British lines of Chippawa, he found General Riall strongly entrenched there. A sanguinary conflict took place, the advantage remaining on the side of the Americans. Riall retreated to a better position at Fort Niagara, where he was reinforced by General Drummond, with part of Wellington’s veterans; for the pressure of the war having abated in Europe, the British army in America was reinforced by these able soldiers.
The Americans encamped near the Falls of Niagara, on the morning of the 25th of July, and towards four o’clock in the afternoon the British army appeared in sight. The two armies engaged in what was called Lundy’s Lane, at a short distance from the Falls, and here was fought one of the most obstinate battles that took place during the war. They fought till midnight, close to the great cataract, the roar and din of which was silenced by the firing of twenty-four pieces of ordnance and 8,000 muskets, and which was heard distinctly lifting up its eternal voice amid the momentary pauses of the battle. Wonderful bravery was displayed on both sides, and the loss of life was about equal. The Indians fled early in the battle. General Drummond was wounded on the British side; Generals Brown and Scott on the American, the command devolving now on General Ripley, who remained in quiet possession of the field, and who, after collecting his wounded, retired to Fort Erie, whither he was pursued by Drummond, at the head of 5,000 men, and who, having made an assault upon the fort, was repulsed with the loss of 1,000. Two days later, Brown having again resumed command, a successful sortie was made from the fort, and the besiegers were driven back with great loss. There was great loss of life on both sides, and though reinforced from Plattsburgh, Fort Erie was abandoned and destroyed; and the American army, recrossing the Niagara, went into winter-quarters.
No sooner had the detachment left Plattsburgh, than Sir George Prevost, now so well supplied with Wellington’s veterans, thought it a good opportunity to destroy the American flotilla on Lake Champlain and advance into New York. On the 6th of September he reached Plattsburgh, which is situated on Lake Champlain, on the northern bank of the little river Saranac. No movement of the British during the war had roused in an equal degree the American patriotism, and volunteers poured in from the northern parts of New York and the Green Mountains of Vermont. For four days the American troops opposed every attempt of the British to force the passage of the stream. About eight o’clock on the morning of the 11th, the British fleet, under Captain Downie, bore down and engaged that of Commodore Mac Donough, which lay at anchor prepared for battle, and the most desperate encounter ensued which had taken place on any of the lakes. During the conflict on water, the British on land began a heavy cannonade upon the American lines, and attempted again and again to cross the Saranac, but only to be driven back by the American militia. The utmost blame attaches to Sir George Prevost for his inefficient command and his many blunders on this occasion; nevertheless, great valour was shown by the British, but to little effect; and in the afternoon the British fleet was captured, Captain Downie having been killed soon after the contest began; and towards evening the British commenced a precipitate retreat, leaving behind them immense quantities of stores, ammunition, and provisions; about 200 were slain, and strange to say, 800 deserted to the American side.
On the 15th of August, the very day on which the British general, Drummond, was repulsed from Fort Erie, ruin was approaching the city of Washington, the federal capital of the United States. The British, on the return of spring, had renewed their predatory inroads on the banks of the Chesapeake, in pursuance of governmental orders to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts of the coast as might be found assailable; and now, about the middle of August, Admiral Sir Alexander Cockburn, having on board the land troops of Major-General Ross, another Peninsula hero, entered the Potomac, on which river Washington stands, and which empties itself into the Chesapeake. The British general landed his forces, 5,000 in number, and commenced his march to Washington, distant twenty-seven miles; Admiral Cockburn proceeding at the same time up the river in a flotilla of launches and armed boats. Washington was not defenceless, although her defenders, neither by land nor water, appear to have been very efficient. On the 22nd, the expedition reached Pig Point, and descried the flag of the American flotilla. It was naturally supposed that it was the intention of Barney, the American commodore, to dispute the passage of the river; but, to the surprise of the British, the shipping was found to be on fire. Sixteen out of seventeen vessels were blown up to prevent their falling into the hands of the British. On the 20th, General Winder, who commanded the land forces, being joined by the marines of Commodore Barney, marched out to meet the advancing enemy, and encamped at Marlborough, where they were inspected by the president, by General Armstrong, secretary of war, and by various heads of other departments, who, appearing to despair at the first glance, at once dispersed. On the 24th, General Ross and his troops reached Bladensberg, a village five miles from the capital, where a stand was made, principally by seamen and marines, the commodore being wounded and taken prisoner. The example of President Madison had been followed; the American army retreated across the Potomac. Nothing was easier than the task which Ross had undertaken. At the head of 1,600 men, after a skirmish which did not last half an hour, he took possession of Washington. The work of destruction began immediately. The capitol, or senate-house, the president’s house and public offices, the arsenal, the navy yard, and the bridge over the Potomac, all were destroyed. On the following night a leisurely retreat was commenced, and the British troops, meeting with no resistence on their return, re-embarked on the 30th.
Little as had been the spirit shown in the defence of Washington, the ruthless destruction of its public buildings and records aroused a spirit of indignation which more than anything else during the war united the Republic in one general sentiment of hostility against the invaders.
In the meantime, another portion of the British fleet had ascended the Potomac, and on the 29th appeared before the town of Alexandria, which fearing pillage and destruction, surrendered all its merchandise and shipping. Elated with this success, the British admiral, on the 11th of September, made his appearance at the mouth of the Patapsco, fourteen miles from Baltimore, which was strongly fortified. On the 12th the British landed at North Point, and commenced their march towards the city, when they were met by a large force, who resisted them bravely. Although the Americans were obliged to retreat, this enterprise cost the life of General Ross and a great number of others. The day following, the British abandoned the attempt and retired to their shipping.
On the ocean the fortune of the combatants was about equal. The Essex, commanded by Captain Porter, struck to a British frigate and sloop-of-war. The American sloop Peacock captured the Epervier. The sloop Wasp, commanded by Captain Blakeley, captured the English brig Reindeer in St. George’s Channel, and afterwards, in the same cruise, sank the Avon. She made several other prizes, but never returned into port, and was supposed to have foundered at sea.
The last great land action of the American war was at the city of New Orleans. Not contented with ruining the trade of all the towns on the Mississippi, by blockading that river, the British commanders resolved upon attacking New Orleans. The operations of the British in Louisiana commenced by a small expedition, which, being aided by the Spaniards, took possession of Pensacola, in the middle of August. The British commander, Colonel Nicholls, brought with him a great quantity of arms, which were intended for the Indians, who were invited to flock to the British banner. But they refused the invitation, as did also Lafitte, the chief of the pirates of Barataria, though he received liberal offers to enlist in their cause. Lafitte and his followers had been outlawed by the American government; but such was the patriotism of these otherwise lawless men, that while they deluded the British commander with the hope of joining him, it was merely to gain a knowledge of his intended movements, which were communicated to Claiborne, governor of Louisiana, who in return pardoned the whole band, and invited them to come forward in defence of their country. They did so, and rendered essential service.
General Jackson, who after the peace with the Creeks had taken up his quarters at Mobile, the capital of the Alabama territory, as commander in the South, remonstrated with the Spanish governor of Pensacola on affording shelter to the enemies of the United States. But no regard being paid to his remonstrances, he marched against the place, stormed the town, and compelled the British to evacuate Florida. Returning to Mobile, he learnt that preparations were making for the invasion of Louisiana, and accordingly hastened to New Orleans, which he found in great alarm and confusion. By his exertions order and confidence were restored, the militia organised, and fortifications erected. His command was supreme, and his energy unabating. Every man who could carry a musket or wield a spade was set to work on the fortifications or drilled as a soldier.
New Orleans stands upon the eastern bank of the Mississippi, at about 110 miles from the sea. It is built upon a narrow tract of land, confined on one side by the river, and on the other by almost impassable morasses. Even though unfortified, it presented the greatest obstacles to an invader. Below the town, however, were some strong forts which commanded the navigation of the river, so that the approach to the town either by land or water was equally difficult.
The British expedition ascended the river as high as possible, and then landed about eight miles below the city. This was on the 23rd of December, and on the following evening General Jackson made a sudden and furious attack on their camp; but though the loss of life was considerable, this was merely a check. On Christmas-day, Sir Edward Pakenham, the chief in command, took up a strong position about six miles from the city, between which and himself the American army was drawn up. Fighting went on day after day, the utmost bravery being shown by both parties, and the English advanced still nearer to the city, finding it necessary with every advance to assault and take the formidable field-works which the indefatigable republicans had thrown up, as though they had been regular fortifications. “At length,” says the writer of “Knight’s Pictorial History of England,” “on the night of the 31st of December, having procured the material, one-half of the English army was ordered out to throw up a chain of works; the men halted at about 300 yards from the enemy’s line, and here, the greater part of them laying down their muskets, applied themselves vigorously to their task, while the rest stood armed in case of an attack. The night was dark; the English maintained a profound silence, and the Americans kept a bad watch, for it was the last night of the year, and conviviality abounded in the republican camp. In this manner six batteries were completed before the dawn of New-year’s-day, and thirty pieces of heavy cannon mounted. There had not been much digging and trenching, for every storehouse and barn in the country was filled with hogsheads of sugar and molasses, and these being rolled to the front were placed upright to serve as parapets to the batteries. The morning of New-year’s-day, 1815, was very dark and foggy amid those swamps and bogs of New Orleans, and the day was considerably advanced before the Americans discovered how near the British had approached to them, or the novel use they had made of their molasses and sugar-hogsheads.”
The Americans made several vigorous but unsuccessful attacks, seeming to produce no other effect than to knock in pieces the hogsheads and scatter their contents. Several days went on, and both parties received strong reinforcements. Sir Edward Pakenham resolved now on a combined attack on both sides of the river, for which purpose he caused a canal to be dug across the entire neck of land, so as to convey his troops to the other side. It was a most arduous undertaking, and for two nights consecutively not a man in the British army closed an eye. On the 8th of January the great attack was to take place. The British forces amounted to upwards of 10,000, the attacking columns being provided with ladders and facines.
Behind their breastworks of cotton-bales, which no balls could penetrate, 6,000 Americans, mostly militia, all good marksmen, and principally from Tennessee and Kentucky, silently waited the attack. As the advancing columns came within reach of the batteries, they were met by an incessant and destructive cannonade; but closing their ranks as fast as they were opened, they continued steadily to advance, until within reach of the American musketry and rifles. The extended American line now presented one vivid stream of fire, throwing the enemy into confusion and covering the plain with the wounded and the dead. In an attempt to rally his troops, Sir Edward Pakenham was killed; General Gibbs, the second in command, was mortally wounded, and General Keane severely so. The British now fled in dismay from the certain death which seemed to await them; General Lambert, on whom the command had devolved, being unable to check their flight. Seven hundred dead were left on the field, and upwards of 1,000 wounded.[76] The loss of the Americans was seven killed and six wounded.
The Americans on the west side of the river did not, however, behave with much bravery; they fled on the first onset, and were closely pursued by the British, until the latter, receiving intelligence of the total discomfiture of the main army, re-crossed the river and returned to their intrenchments.
No further attempt was made; and on the 18th, Lambert, with his wounded and stores, was on his way to the fleet. Nothing was abandoned but ten pieces of artillery. The success of General Jackson, afterwards president of the United States, caused him to be regarded with great honour by his countrymen, and won for him the appellation of “the conqueror of the conquerors of Napoleon;” whence probably comes the Yankee boast, “the Britishers licked all the world, and we licked the Britishers.”
From New Orleans General Lambert sailed to Mobile, and on the 7th of February invested that place, which surrendered to him on the 11th.
On the 17th of February, whilst New Orleans was yet rejoicing over her victory, a special messenger arrived from Europe, bringing a treaty of peace, which had been signed at Ghent, in the month of December, before the terrible battle was fought at New Orleans. This treaty, which was immediately ratified by the president and the Senate, stipulated for the restoration of all places taken during the war, and for the revision of the boundary of the American and British dominions; it engaged that each nation should put an end to all subsisting hostilities between them and the Indian tribes, and both parties likewise covenanted to continue their efforts for the total abolition of the slave-trade. The whole northern and eastern states, to whom the war had been very unsatisfactory, and who were continually and violently opposed to all measures of the administration regarding it, rejoiced extremely in this peace. The Englishman who took out the ratification of the treaty was carried by the citizens and people through the streets of New York in triumph and jubilee.[77]
America, however, had not even yet quite done with war. From the treaty of 1795 peace had been preserved with Algiers by the annual payment of a tribute. In July of 1812, the Dey, believing America, then engaged in war with England, would not be able to defend her shipping, extorted a large sum of money from the American consul at Algiers, to purchase the freedom of himself and other citizens of the United States, and commenced a piratical warfare against every American vessel that came in the way of his cruisers, and many American citizens were in this manner condemned to slavery.
Two squadrons were therefore fitted out, under Commodores Decatur and Bainbridge. The former sailed from New York in May, 1815, and proceeding up the Mediterranean, captured, in June, two Algerine brigs; after which, sailing to Algiers, the Dey was so much alarmed, that he cheerfully signed a treaty very advantageous to the Americans. Proceeding then to Tunis and Tripoli, Decatur also obtained satisfaction for various aggressions, after which he joined Bainbridge at Gibraltar, and resigning to him the command, the latter visited the three piratical cities, whose submission was complete.
In order to secure the tranquillity of the western and north-western frontiers, measures were taken to form treaties of peace with all the various tribes which had lately been in hostility with the United States. A congress of chiefs met for this purpose at Detroit, in the month of September, when alliances of friendship were made, by means of which extensive portions of territory were ceded, and the tribes acknowledged to be under the protection of the republic.
The charter of the former National Bank having expired since 1811, a second National Bank, called the Bank of the United States, was incorporated by charter for twenty-four years, with a capital of 35,000,000 dollars.
In December, the territory of Indiana was admitted into the Union as a state, and the territory of Mississippi divided, and the western portion admitted into the Union as the State of Mississippi, while the eastern portion became the territory of Alabama. During the same month two piratical establishments—the refuge also of runaway negroes, the one on Amelia Island, on the coast of Florida, the other at Galveston, on the coast of Texas—were broken up.
The time for the election of president being now come, James Monroe was chosen, and Daniel D. Tomkins vice-president.
About the year 1790, establishments for the home manufacture of coarse cotton fabrics were commenced in the state of Rhode Island. The embarrassments to which commerce was subjected increased the demand for these goods, and large capitals were invested in manufacturing establishments. At the close of the war, however, when British goods were again imported, it was found that, owing to the great improvements in machinery, merchants were able to afford their goods at a much lower price than the American manufacturer. In order, therefore, to enable the manufacturer to withstand this formidable competition, a new tariff was formed in 1816, by which the double imposts which had been laid during the war were removed, and an increased duty imposed on various manufactured goods. The return of peace, however, though it embarrassed the mercantile interests, gave a stimulus to agriculture, and thousands of citizens who found themselves impoverished, removed westward, where lands were cheaper and more fertile than in the eastern states. Emigration from England also set in like a spring-tide, and so great was the increase of an active and valuable population, that within two years of the establishment of peace, six new states had sprung up in the recent wilderness.[78]
The African Colonisation Society for Free Blacks originated in this year, not under the auspices of government, but that of private individuals. It is questionable, however, whether this scheme is one of pure benevolence, although much is said of Africa being civilised and christianised by this means; and the slave born in America, perhaps of the second or third generation, is expatriated when shipped over to Africa. Is not the true benevolence and the true Christianity rather to gradually, wisely and justly abolish slavery—to prepare the black man to be a good and useful citizen of a great and free country, and more productive to his master as a servant than as a slave?
Madison’s second term of office expiring, he declined, as his predecessors had done, a third re-election; and on March 4th, 1817, James Monroe was elected president, and Daniel D. Tomkins re-elected vice-president.
Peace and prosperity go hand-in-hand, and with prosperity a wise nation seeks to promote by every possible means the improvement and comfort of the people. Hence great public works were now undertaken by the American States governments; roads and canals were constructed in every part of the Union, the wealthy and enterprising state of New York, at the head of which was De Witt Clinton, taking the lead. The great western canal, connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson, and the northern canal, connecting that river with the waters of Lake Champlain, were completed. A great road was also constructed by order of congress, which, passing through the seat of government, connected the eastern with the western states. Military posts were established for the security of the frontiers at the mouth of St. Peter’s on the Mississippi, and at the mouth of the Yellow Stone River on the Missouri, above 1,800 miles above its junction with the Mississippi. Thus was the influence of civilisation radiating like light into the far wilderness.
Towards the close of 1817, the Seminole Indians and the remnant of the Creeks commenced depredations on the frontiers of Georgia and Alabama. The hostile spirit of the Indians was further incited by another Indian prophet and two English traders, Arbuthnot and Ambrister, who had taken up their residence among the Indians. General Gaines was sent against them, but his force being insufficient for the purpose, General Jackson was ordered to take the field and to demand aid from the governors of the adjacent states. Jackson knew where he was most likely to find the aid he needed; and inviting volunteers from Western Tennessee, soon saw himself at the head of 1,000 men. With these he marched into the Indian territory, which he presently overran, meeting with no opposition from the Seminoles, who had fled into Florida. Once in Florida, Jackson seemed to think it as well, in the words of a homely proverb, to kill two birds with one stone; accordingly he attacked and took possession of St. Mark’s, a feeble Spanish post, and removed, in a very summary manner, the Spanish authorities to Pensacola; where meeting with Arbuthnot and Ambrister, had them tried by court-martial and executed, after which he took possession of Pensacola and shipped off the authorities to Havanna.
There was a bold energy in this unprincipled proceeding which won for it public approbation, although it called down much animadversion, and congress discussed it for two years, endeavouring to pass a vote of censure, which the majority would not allow. In February, 1819, however, a treaty was negotiated at Washington, by which Spain ceded to the United States Florida and the adjacent islands. The king of Spain was dissatisfied with the treaty, and endeavoured to set it aside, but the United States, like General Jackson, had their way, and in 1820 the treaty was ratified.
In 1819 the southern portion of Missouri territory was formed into a territorial government, under the name of Arkansas, and in December of the same year, Alabama was admitted as a state into the Union. Early in 1820 also the province of Maine, which since 1652 had been attached to Massachusetts, was separated from it and became an independent state.
A violent controversy arose in congress on the subject of slavery, when Missouri first applied for authority to form a State government, which arrayed the South against the North, the slaveholding against the non-slaveholding states. Missouri, having been considered a portion of Louisiana, had derived from her connexion with the French and the Spaniards the custom of holding slaves, which she considered as her right. It was proposed, however, that in “admitting the territory to the privileges of a state, slavery, or involuntary servitude, should be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes of which the party should have been duly convicted; and that all children born within the said state after its admission into the Union should be free at the age of twenty-five.” This clause divided congress into two parties: the non-slaveholding states demanded the restriction; the southern and slave states rejected it. The contest of opinion was violent in the extreme. Two principles seemed involved in this question; not only resistance to slavery, but resistance to the interference of congress in the internal government of individual states; and hence many advocates of sound liberty and friends to the emancipation and elevation of the slave opposed the restrictive clause.
After much violent discussion, the Missouri question was settled by a compromise, which, while it allowed slavery in Missouri, prohibited it in all the territory of the United States north and west of the northern limits of Arkansas; and in August, 1821, Missouri became the twenty-fourth state in the Union.
In 1821 Monroe entered upon his second presidential term, having been re-elected, as was also Daniel Tomkins as vice-president.
The fourth census, taken in the year 1820, showed the population of the United States to be 9,625,734; about a million and a half of whom were slaves.
On the 7th of March in this year, General Jackson was appointed governor of Florida and Elijeus Fromentin chief-justice. The Spanish officers, very unwilling to give up their posts, threw many impediments in the way of the new government, and refused to give up the archives which had been stipulated for; and even when they were obtained, certain documents were kept back by Don Cavalla, the Spanish governor. But Jackson, who very well understood how to exercise authority, sent an armed force to bring Cavalla before him; and as he still refused, had him carried from his bed to prison, when he took possession of the papers, after which he was discharged. Again these summary measures were severely commented upon; but they were only according to Jackson’s mode of action—prompt, overbearing, and successful. Florida was divided into two counties, St. John’s, on the east of the Suwaney river, and Escambia on the west. Jackson’s term of office expired with the rising of congress, and he declined a re-appointment.
In 1822 a convention of navigation and commerce was concluded on terms of reciprocal and equal advantage between France and the United States. In the same year the ports of the West India Islands were opened to the American Republic by act of the British parliament.
The American commerce having for many years suffered greatly from the depredations of pirates in the West Indies, a small naval force was sent against them, which recaptured five American vessels in the vicinity of Matanzas in Cuba, and destroyed upwards of twenty piratical vessels. But depredations still continuing, a larger force was sent out the following year, under Commodore Porter, which broke up their retreats in these seas, and sent them to other hiding-places, whence they reappeared after a time.
In 1823 congress recognised the independence of the South American republics, and ministers were sent to Mexico, Buenos Ayres, and Chili. The same year, articles of convention for the suppression of the African slave-trade were signed in London by agents sent for that purpose from the United States, and officers were commissioned by each nation to capture and condemn such ships as should be concerned in this illicit traffic.
During the summer of 1824 the venerable La Fayette, now seventy years of age, visited America, by express invitation from congress, after the lapse of nearly half a century. He was received at New York with every demonstration of respect, and made a tour through all the states of the Union, upwards of 5,000 miles, which was in fact a triumphal progress, state vying with state as to which should show him most affection and honour. Finally he sailed from Washington, in September, in an American frigate prepared for his accommodation, and called the Brandywine, from the battle in which he was wounded.
In the year 1825, John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as president, and J. C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, vice-president. The administration of the ex-president had been marked by singular prosperity. Sixty millions of dollars of the national debt had been paid off, and party-feeling had so much abated that this period is signalised as “the era of good-feeling.” The new president, taking a review of the past in his inaugural speech, remarked: “The year of jubilee since the first formation of our Union is past, that of our Declaration of Independence is at hand. Since that period a population of 4,000,000 has multiplied to 12,000,000. A territory bounded by the Mississippi had been extended from sea to sea. New states have been admitted to the Union in numbers almost equal to those of the first confederation. Treaties of peace, amity, and commerce have been concluded with the principal dominions of the earth. The people of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired not by conquest but by compact, have been united to us in the participation of our rights and duties, our burdens and our blessings.”
On the 4th of July, 1825—that jubilee of the Declaration of Independence of which the president had just spoken, and which was celebrated throughout the Union as a great national festival—died two venerable ex-presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both members of the early colonial congresses; the former of whom nominated Washington as commander-in-chief of the army, the latter drew up the celebrated Declaration of Independence.