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in council, he stipulated that the orders should cease to be in force at a certain epoch. The president accordingly suspended the non-intercourse. But tidings no sooner reached England of the act of Mr. Erskine, than he was disavowed. The orders in council were suspended only so far as not to endanger those vessels which had sailed from America on the faith of Mr. Erskine's declaration. The president, in consequence, declared the non-intercourse act still in force, and the silent war of prohibitory edicts continued on its old footing.

Mr. Erskine was recalled, and Mr. Jackson sent in his place. The latter was ill chosen, since there was some cause which rendered him particularly obnoxious to the Americans. He was coldly received, and made to wait even for his recognition for some time. His endeavours to renew the negotiation were met by the remark of the inutility of such an attempt, and by an allusion to the duplicity of the British government in the affair of Erskine. Jackson retorted with warmth, and insinuated that the American government were, at the time of his negotiation, aware that Erskine had exceeded his powers, and that his acts would not be sanctioned by his government. This charge being promptly denied and insultingly repeated, further communication with Jackson was declined, and his recall demanded of the minister in London.

France having been applied to by America at this time, the emperor replied, that his decrees were but retaliation; and that if England recalled her blockade and her orders in council, he would suffer his decrees to be considered null. Mr. Madison, availing himself of this fair offer of Napoleon, obtained from congress resolutions approving his high tone of policy towards England.

Preparations for war continued with activity; and the people already began to turn their attention and activity towards the domestic production of those manufactures which had been heretofore supplied by England; and the English began to seek elsewhere those commodities which the United States had furnished. She sought them in Canada chiefly. The alienation and mutual injury thus worked by commercial prohibitions were, perhaps, greater than could have come of actual war.

The non-intercourse act expiring in 1810, the Americans again summoned the two powers to remove their restrictions. This was asked with the manifest purpose of declaring war

AFFAIR OF THE LITTLE BELT.

301

if the restrictions were not removed. Napoleon replied by an amicable advance, intimating through his minister that his decrees should be suspended. It was understood by him, of course, that America should no longer submit to the orders in council if unrepealed.

To the English ministry an appeal was now made to follow the example of France. Unfortunately for them, they hesitated, chicaned as to the supposed insincerity of the French declaration, or the informality of its announcement, and persisted in enforcing the orders in council. Mr. Pinkney, the American envoy in London, disgusted at this shuffling behaviour of the British government, demanded his audience of leave.

In this doubtful state of connection between America and England, another accidental collision took place between vessels of the respective countries, tending much to inflame and widen the existing differences. An English sloop of war, the Little Belt, commanded by Captain Bingham, descried a ship off the American coast, and made sail to come up with it; but finding it a frigate, and dubious of its nation, he retired. The other, which proved to be American, the President, under Captain Rogers, pursued in turn. The American captain hailed, and, instead of an answer, received a shot in his mainmast. He returned the fire, and speedily silenced the guns of his adversary, disabling his ship and killing thirtytwo of his men.

In the spring of 1811, Mr. Foster was sent out plenipotentiary from England, to make another attempt at negotiation. But, as he had no power for stipulating the repeal of the orders in council, his mission was illusive; it was merely productive of argument and diplomatic pleading between him and Mr. Monroe; and he returned without having effected anything.

In November congress assembled, and the president addressed it fully respecting the points and consequences of the still widening difference. It was hoped, he said, at the close of the last session, that the confirmation of the extinction of the French decrees would have induced the government of Great Britain to repeal its orders in council: on the contrary, however, they had been put into more vigorous execution; and fresh outrages had been committed on the American

coasts.

Congress, convinced of the necessity of preparing in ear

302

BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.

nest for war, voted an increase of the regular army to 35,000 men; augmented the navy, and empowered the president to accept of the services of volunteers, call out the militia, as occasion might require, and borrow eleven millions of dollars.

In his message to congress, the president adverted to a new spirit of hostility displayed among the north-western Indians. This was attributed to the influence of the British. It was also stimulated by the exertions of an Indian prophet, a reformer, who preached to his red brethren, that all their disasters had been owing to their having forsaken the wise and simple habits of their ancestors; and that he had been prompted by the Great Spirit to warn them from mingling with the whites, from eating hogs and bullocks in lieu of the game that used to give them the warrior's and the hunter's spirit; and, above all, from the use of ardent spirits. This last wise injunction gave force and plausibility to all that the savage uttered. His fanatic advice, however salutary, in one respect, necessarily produced hatred towards the whites, and outrages upon them. Many affirmed that the hostile spirit thus excited was directed by the British against the Americans.

In the autumn of 1811, General Harrison was sent into the country of these hostile Indians, to treat or fight with them, as occasion might require. On the 6th of November, being arrived at Tippecanoe, their chief settlement, he was met by a deputation from the chiefs, who stipulated that no attack should be made before the next day, when they would be ready for a friendly conference.

In the night the American camp was suddenly and furiously assaulted by the Indians; but the Americans, having suspected treachery and slept on their arms, made a gallant resistance, defeated and dispersed the enemy, and burnt their town, not, however, without a severe loss in killed and wounded.

In the month of February, 1812, Captain John Henry, formerly of the United States army, and afterwards resident in Canada, gave information to the president, that in 1809 he had been employed by Sir James Craig, the governor of Canada, upon a secret mission to the New England states, for the purpose of gaining information of the state of parties, and inducing those who were opposed to the restrictions of the American government on commerce, to effect a separation of the northern states from the Union, and form a poli

tical connection between those states and Great Britain. For this information Henry was paid 50,000 dollars, from the contingent fund for foreign intercourse. He furnished ample documentary evidence of the truth of his disclosures, which was afterwards fully corroborated by developements made in the British parliament. But his mission had entirely failed, and it did not appear that he had succeeded in bringing any individual in this country to adopt his views. His motive for disclosure was the failure of his employers to compensate him for his services. This affair proved the hostile disposition of the government of Great Britain towards the United States, and served to increase the irritation already created in this country, by the injuries inflicted on our commerce, and the impressment of our seamen.

Preparations for war were still actively continued by congress until the 20th of May, 1812, when the arrival of the Hornet from London, bringing information that no reasonable prospect existed of a change in the measures of the British government, served to bring matters to a crisis. On the 1st of June the president transmitted to congress a message enumerating the injuries received from Great Britain, and submitting the question, whether they should be longer endured, or immediate recourse had to the ultimate resort of injured nations, a declaration of war.

After deliberating on this measure with closed doors, an act was passed by congress, on the 18th, declaring war against Great Britain. The immediate effect of this measure was a violent exasperation of parties, the friends of government applauding the act, as spirited and patriotic, and the opposition condemning it as unnecessary, unjustifiable, and impolitic. In the New England states particularly, where the revolutionary war found its most active supporters, the most decisive opposition was manifested, and every effort. was used on the part of the political leaders to render the war unpopular, and to embarrass the government in its prosecution.

Some of those who opposed the war, held that it was both unjustifiable and inexpedient; while others allowed that abundant provocation had been given, but denied that the nation was sufficiently prepared for the conflict. The minority of congress, the legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and several of the commercial cities, protested against the war in public addresses. But a majority

of the people of the United States was undoubtedly in favour of the measure. In some places the act declaring it was received with illuminations and rejoicings, and the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, passed resolutions approving of the conduct of government, and pledging themselves to support it.

The popular voice was so strongly in favour of war, in the city of Baltimore, that an editor who had ventured to indulge in some severe strictures on the conduct of the government, had his press and printing-office destroyed by the populace; and when he persisted in publishing the paper, printing it in a neighbouring town, he and a party of his friends, who had volunteered in forcibly defending his house, were very severely handled. Several lives were lost in this affair, and among the rest that of General Lingan, a veteran officer, who had served with dstinction in the revolution.

The distress occasioned among the people of New England by the suspension of their commerce and the cutting off of their usual supply of provisions from the south, served still further to heighten the exasperation felt in that portion of the country. A large proportion of the commercial interest in other parts of the Union participated in this feeling, so that, although a numerical majority of the people of the United States was in favour of the measure, it by no means united the various classes of society so strongly in support of the government as the attack on their liberties had done at the opening of the revolutionary contest. Whatever disagreement there might be, however, among the political parties of that period, time has afforded ample evidence that the war was not declared too soon for the national honour or welfare.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

CAMPAIGN OF 1812.

WHEN the war of independence commenced, the United States contained less than four millions of inhabitants, and had neither an army, a treasury, nor a national existence. But it possessed a people united in purpose, and firmly resolved to vindicate their rights. At the opening of the war